Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-09-11

MabiIe in the time of Napoleon III. did
not write word about it, at the Orpheum
in Berlin was dumb, and at the high jinks
in the Esler at St. Petersburg was silent,
but the romance and love and grace of the
Japanese Geisha girls must be described
A Lieutenant Wakes Poetic.
Lieutenant F. M. Bostwick, after seeing
the Japanese girls dance in Kobe. wrote
this for me about Kohana San, the sweetest
of the Geishaa 1t can be sung to the air of
the Irish "Balyhooly."
The Nautch girls have seen,
And Kiralfy's fairy queen;
I've seen the Hula girls in Honolulu,
Circassian dancers, too.
Zamacuecas in Peru,
The Kaffir dance, the Hottentot and Zulu.
All qualities and shades
OF pretty dancing maids,
I've seen in Europe, Africa and Asia;
But she who takes the bun
From each and every one,
Is Kohana san, the little Kobe Geisha-
CHORUS.
The "Hera, hera he,'
She dances every day
In an elegant kimono and an obi;
If you go out To Japan,
You must see Kohana San,
She's the prettiest little Geisha girl in Kobe.
Three hundred thousand fair girls in
Japan are divided into three classes-the
Mako, Geisha and the demi monde. The
Mako girls are very young-never over 16.
They are the understudy of the Geisha, and
and at the age of Is or 16 they become
Geishas.
Know How to Powder and Paint.
They dress superbly in embroidered
kimonos, powder their pretty faces and
paint their lips cherry red. Their hair is
oiled, perfumed and put up in Chinese in
describable fashion and pinned full of Jewels
and flowers They do the dancing and
posing and do it in their stockings, their
sandals being left with the guests outside.
They dance and pose with their hands, eyes,
body and legs.
The Geishas are older girls Their bust
ness is to entertain guests, firt and play on
musical instruments like the samisen
Japanese mandolin), the gekkin (banjo)
and the kolo (harp). They appear at all
big dinners and parties. They dress in
picturesque costumes and pour tea and saki
Japanese wine) and firt and talk and sing
divinely.
The conduct of the Geisha and Mako
girls in tea houses, private houses and clubs
is always very proper. In public they SIM
ply look pretty and smile and say sweet
nothinga To the guests, as they help them
to food and drink, they say:
A Dinner With the Dancing Girls.
'eYour honorable arrival is most welcome.
Please take your honorable seat Now will
you have some honorable live fsh?"
And then, described POLITICALLY:
The Samisens begin,
And then a horrid din
OF drums and songs that's really most
alarming;
While Kohana San cames out
And softly glides about,
Her movements have grace that's simply
She twirIs her little fan
As Geishas only can,
Which means, of course, she does It to per
fection;
She then assumesa pose
To show her pretty clothes,
Likewise her dainty figure and complexion.
In tho days of old Japan
And the Tokugawa clan.
Her relatives had titles by the dozens;
Her uncles, 1 am told,
Were Samurai bold,
and the "Forty-seven Ronfus, were her
cousins.
Her father. don't you know,
Used to be q Daimio
Some time before the advent Of the for
But he fought the "Mik-ka-doo,"
So they run him through and through,
Which made OF him o subject for the i
coroner.
She's powdered front and back,
Her eyebrows painted black,
style considered highly ornamental;
Her tiny under lip
Is redeemed at the tip,
fashion that is strictly Oriental
Her hair is stiffiy oiled,
And wonderfully coiled
III manner that would drive q barber
crazy,
Her form divinely shaped,
Is magnif1cently draped-
o, my! Kohana Sans daisyt
A Remarkable Institution OF Japan.
What becomes Of the Geisha girlsP Some
marry well and make good wives Others
go to the great public Yoshiwara and be-
come disciples Of Aphrodte. Every Japan
ese city has its Yoshiwara, but perhaps
Toxic, the capital, with its million people,
gives up the most space to it. Here the
Yoshivara occupies about q mile square,
set off by ITSELF
''Do the tourists go there?" can imagine
the reader saying.
Yes, You can rest assured they do. Books
on Japan have made % many vague allu-