Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-07

| only wide enough so that one can sit OF
kneel which requires less water, and there
fore less Coal.
! So far all seems well; but there are two
| things about Japanese baths which are apt
| to stagger foreign visitors, the use OF the
same water by number of persons, and the
| absolute Indifference to nudity. When the
| family bath is ready, the father, mother,
| children and servants all enter in the order
| here given. This may not seem so very
| dreadful, but it is otherwise in crowded
| inn, where a score or two of guests,
| entire strangers to each other, are expected
| to use the same water Ito economic fuell.
This may seem better than no bath at all,
| and as the natives wash themselves all over
before entering the tub, the objections may
seem largely imaginary; but we cannot
overcome our predictions for a fresh tub
| for each individual, and communism in
| bathing does not seem an inviting form OF
of aqueous communism at Baden-Baden,
| the hot baths in Switzerland, and the first
tank in our Turkish baths; but there at
least, the water flows necessarily, while in
japanese inns, found sometimes that the
! lazy servant mad even retained the previous
days water, filed with hairs and shreds
of skin. Fortunately the fastidiousness of
| they are usually invited to the bath first.
INDIFFERENCE TO NUDITY.
In 1872 a law was passed against nudity
in cities, and strict police regulations have
since that time done good deal to reduce
the number of exposures, but tendency
still remains to revert to former habits as
soon as the policeman's back is turned; and
in the villages and country districts, where
police supervision is less strict, the old
order of things still prevails. Boys and
girls up to the age of ten and twelve run
about stark-naked, and in remote villages
draw Up in lines in the streets through
which a foreigner is seen passing in his
iurikisha. Many men in the fields, and
especially the fishermen, seem to find even
the customary loin cloth an encumbrance;
and girls and women are almost invariably
clothed only below the waist. As regards
the family bath, it is no longer customary
to place the tub in front of the house in the
street, but in this matter the letter, rather
Than the spirit Of the law, has been COM
Piled with, for the tub is now placed in the
back yard, and as the sliding screen walls
of the houses are all removed during the
daytime, it is almost as much exposed to
view as when il was placed in the street.
In the inns, as | have already remarked,
hardly have you been shown to your room
when a girl appears to conduct you to the
bath. There, unless told to leave she waits
TO receive your coat and other garments on
her arm, till there is nothing more to re-
ceive. Then she deposits them carefully in
a corner and departs, unless she should
hear you fall on the slippery inside room,
when she Will run in to help you up with
many apologies for the state of the floor.
At the sulphur baths in Hakodate, and
everywhere, these girls come III at any time
without knocking or warning to see If the
water is cold enough, or if you need a towel;
uC fhpv pptnIs tho he'd -pnOm in the p.ll,lU
morning to remove the mosquito netting
and let in the fresh air.
Japan being volcanic country is full Of
hot mineral springs, at MANY of which the
habits Of the olden times are preserved in
all their former simplicity. Yumoto, a few
miles beyond Nikko is one of these places.
Half the village consists of bathing houses,
lining both sides of the streets. Their
doors are wide open, and inside are two
large tanks without any partition between
them. one filed with men and the other
containing dozen or more girls and women
in the original costume of Eve, and as I'M
conscious of any notion of improperly as so
many babes. Each one has a small blue
towel. and some of those who live near the
bathhouse 90 not go to the trouble of taking
their clothes with them. Along the sea
coast YOU will see hundreds of natives,
men, women and children, frolicking about
in the water. which is so warm that no
suit, not even bathing tights, seem 10 be
considered necessary.
In and near Toxic, such scenes are no
longer tolerated, for although the bathing
rooms are no longer fully exposed to the
street. they are only closed below, and any
one who chooses can look in through the
latticcd bars above: nor do the batherS OBJ
ject 10 such proceeding. There is always
a separate tank for women and one for men,
but the partition between them is only i
few feet in height. and what is stranger
still, "A man may be seen waiting on a score
or more women on their side, while on the
mems side, a girl stands to receive the adj
mission fee.
Ii must be understood that these people
are perfectly respectable, and that order
and proprietv prevail Invariably. 1t would
seem inexplicabie that nation so civilized
as the japanese, who in general aesthetic
culture and in refinement of manners are
superior to all other nations, should be in
this respect on q level with Fiji islanders
and South American Indians, were it not
for our knowledge that the most advanced
people of antiquity, the Greeks, showed
an equal Indifference to nudity. And 10
tell the truth nudity is almost necessity
in Japan in summer, especially for the
working people. In climate where even
those who remain idly in the shade are
covered day and night with profuse per-
SEPARATION which never evaporates clothing
of any sort is 4 torture to those who have
TO toll ten hours or more u day. After
spending a summer in Japan should not
be surprised TO hear at any
time that the population. had
risen in wrath and expelled the cruel, pru-
dish foreigners, who are responsible for
the odious law compelling them to wear
clothes in summer. HENRY L. F'INCK.