The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-08-21
ELI PERKINS In JAPAN.
BIS DESCRIPTION OF a JAPANESE
WATERING PLACE.
Japanese Girls Learning to Dance and

u
Japanese Girls Learning to Dance and
Flirt-Miyanoshita in the Clouds
Polite Nakedness-Bathing With the
Girls-The Corset and Kid Slipper
Take the Place OF Kimono and San
dies - Sir Edwin Arnold's New
Drama.
From the Neto York sun.
MIYANosHITA, JAPAN, August 1892
"lf you Americans want TO see nature and
fun and love and sentiment" said Sir Ed
win Arnold as he sat on the veranda Of the
Grand hotol at Yokohama, go up to
! Miyanoshita. the Saratoga Of Japan"
where is it," 1 asked.
"Four hours from here on the mountain
two by tram, an hour with horses, an hour
in kagos and jinrikishas. aud there you
can sit in that great bird cage, the Fuilya
hotel, and fiirt with pretty girls in four
languages.
Pretty girls in four languages" settled it
and we were off for the Japanese Saratoga.
The road lay through rice fields, or through
rural villages where they were pounding
rice or weaving cloth for tae Japanese XII
mono. In many cases the women were de-
collete to their waists, children as naked as
angels and men protected only by strip
around the loins. But there was no con-
scious immodesty. A man with the snews
of Hercules would meet powerful woman
and then would come siege of Japanese
politeness.
tits & great honor to meet your honora-
BILE self, " says the woman, smiling and bow
ing double.
MO YOU confer an honor upon me, and
(bowing almost TO the ground l am aston
ished that one SO honorable should speak to
pgmy like myself"
Your politeness Blowing still lower over
comes me-"
"And your gracious condescendlng bow
ing almost TO the ground fills me with hap
piness."
And so these naked Chesteraelds 90 on
with dozen more kind sayings and polite
bows for five minutes.
All the houses we passed were as open as
sheds, and their whole interiors could De
taken in at glance. There were no chairs,
no tables, no beds, no stoves, but always
screen, a flower vase, and bath tub.
Sometimes the bath tub, which is half
barrel, was in the back room and sometimes
in front. 1t is warmed once a day
by little sheet-iron stove in the side Of
the tub, the pipe of which runs through
the half barrel. A handful of char
COal WaELu bu0 HdIST lOl u Wiluib AhLllily OF
a hotel. They do not battle, but simply sit
there and soak. Otter the members of
several families will be seen bathing to-
gether, Carter Harrison, who wrote a
most interesting book on Japan, says he was
once bathing with his two boys when
japanese lady and gentleman got into the
same bath. ''Sseing we were foreigners,
| however" said Mr.. Harrison. "they
politely bowed themselves out" If
there had not been q law passed
obliging all Japanese to wear b-eech cloths,
rural Japan would 20 naked to-day, and
the people would do it in utter innocence
These naked people are as knightly a bare
legged Spartan king. In three months in
Japan have not seen drunken or an
angry man. Neither have l seen saloon,
and rarely a meat market. Tobacco is
seldom used, and opium never. The diet OF
the people is as innocent as their costume.
After sitting an hour In tram car, rid
ing along rics fields where women wer Q
hoeing rice with their hands as they walked
knee deep in the water, we struck the Kago
carriers, who carried US up the mountains
to Miyauoshita. Now came test of man
hood. Our party OF three had very stupidity
brought 200-pound Saratoga trunk in-
stead of repacking our things into Japanese
| baskets. Our Kago carriers looked at the
great trunk and then looked at the Fujiya
hotel, four miles away on the top of the
mountain. Then they laughiugly tied a
rope around the trunk, put pole through
it, and started on fox trot with the huge
| weight.
Here, stop!" (Oi choito) said. Leave
it. 1t will kill you"
Can dol" they laughed, and on they
| went, and when the first jinriklsha reached
| the hotel there stood my two coolies, with
the trunk l could not lift one end Of this
Saratoga. The strongest hotel porter would
have asked so cents to carry 1t up one pair
Of stairs in America, and these athletes
| had carried it on a run four miles up
mountain, and when paid them 20 cents
apiece, the regular price, they thanked us
over again and bowed three times to the
ground.
For shamel" said my tender-hearted
| wife, with tears in her eyes. "Give them
more, double IL, such brave, grand men"
"All right / said, pattinQ tho men on
| their sinewy backs, take more" and they
laughed and cried with joy as they took it.
The watering place hotels here are like
great bird cages and pretty japanese waiter
| girls, dressed in kimonos and brilliant obs
(sashes), flock through halls and dining
rooms like birds Always laughing like the
three little maids from school and always
| innocenty modest they are, too. Some
times l see the young gentlemen guests ad-
miring the hands and necks of the girls as
| they pat their red cheeks. When | asked
Koko and Meto what wsges they got they
| said In broken English:
I'VE get 50 a month and our clothes"
but the presents you get?'
1--WE give those to master, and at the end
| OF the year he makes US present."
The price at the Fuiiya, like all japanese
| hotels, is 50 day. The hotels are away up
| in the mountains above the clouds and look
out on Fuiiyama. This is favorite resort
OF Sir Edwin Arnold. This poet finished
| writing to-day a japanese drama, the story
OF Adzuma, for London manager to be
put on the stage in japanese costumes.
20, yes" he said, he read a romantic
section of the play. II have put in lot Of
coloring and plenty OF singing and dancing
girls. In fact, / am an old hand at the
drama, and 1 shall put in what Tennyson
left out. l have an offer Of IS, 900 for the
play"
The guests of this japanese Saratoga are
cosmopolite. There are golden-haired yam
kee girls from Boston and Chicago, the
solemn English girl, and the phlegmatic
German girl who drinks beer at the Weis-
baden. The American girl abroad is always
to the front. She dances prettier, firts
harder and climbs higher than any of the
rest She gets an autograph from Sir Ed
win while the English girl is asleep, and has
the English girls lover at her feet while she
plays the samisen, the japanese banjo.
In the evening it was amusing to see the
Japanese guests try to dance the round
dances The ,JaDaneSa are bound m hacorna