Omaha daily bee., 1892-08-21
THE SARATOGA OF JAPAN
Flirting With Pretty N,tivo Girls in -Four
Languages,
SUMNER COSTUMES SOMEWHAT DEcoLLET
Learning Foreign Manners and styles
The Corset ana Kid slipper Take the
Place of the Kimono ana the sandal
Miyanoshita IN the Clouds.

sentiment" said Sir Edwln Arnold as he
sat on the verandah Of the Grand hotel at
Yokohama, go up to Miyauoshita, the Sar-
atoga of Japan"
Where Is itIn | asked.
-Four hours from here, on the mountain
two by tram, au hour with horses, an hour
In Kagos and jinrikishas, aud there you can
sit in that great bird cage, the Fujiya hotel
and tlirt with pretty girls III four languages"
pretty girls in four languages" settled it,
and we were If for the Japanese Saratoga.
Tue road lay through rice fields or rural viii
lagos where they were pounding rice or
weaving cloth for the Japanese kimono. In
many cases the women were decollete to
their waists, children naked as angels and
men protected only by a strip around the
loins. But there was no conscious lmmod
esty. a man with the snews of a Hercules
would meet n powerful woman and then
would come siege of japanese -politeness:
at is a great honor to meet your honorable
self" says the woman, smiling and bowling
double.
mo, you confer an honor upon me, and
(bowing almost to the ground) am aston
ished that one so honorable should speak to
pigmy like myself -
Your politesss (oowing still lower) over
comes me.n
hHu NUuE ETuClOuS COuupSCeuSlOu NDUW-
ing almost to the ground) fills me with hap
piness.n
Aud so these naked Chesterields go on
with dozen more kind sayings and polite
bows for five minutes.
All the houses we passed were as open
sheds, and their whole interiors could be
taken In at glance There were no chars
no tables, no beds no stoves, but always
screen, a Hover vase and bathtub, Some.
times the bathtub which is a half barrel, was
md nn1F lt1nc in, frfnt 4
is warmed once day by a little sheet-iron
stove in the side OF the tub the pipe OF which
runs through the half barrel A handful
OF charcoal warns the water for whole
family or hotel They do not bathe, but
simply slJthere and soak. Often the members
OF several families will be seen bathing to-
gether. Carter Harrison, who wrote
most interesting book on Japan, says he was
once bathing with his two sons when a Japa-
nesc lady and gentleman got into the same
bath. "Seeing we were foreigners, how
ever" said Mr. Harrison, they politely
bowed themselves out" If there had not
been a law passed obliging all japanese to
wear breeCh cloths rural Japan would go
naked today, and the people would do it in
utter innocence These naked people
lInightly as a bare-legged Spartan king. In
three months in Japan | have not seen
drunken nor an angry man. Neither have |
seen saloon, and rarely meatmarket.
Tobacco is seldom used, and opium mover.
The diet of the people is as innocent as their
costume.
After sitting an hour in tram car, riding
along rice fields where women were hoelng
rice with their hands as they walked knee
deep in the water, we struck the Kago car
riers who carried us up the mountain to Mi
yanoshita Now came a test OF manhood
Our party of three had very stupidity brought
IA POO pound Saratoga trunk instead OF re-
packing our things into Japanese baskets.
Our Kagu carriers looked at the great trunk
and then looked at the Fujiya hotel four
miles away on the top of the mountain. Then
they laughingly tied rope around the trunk
put pole through it and started on fox
trot with the huge weight
"here stop" (Oi choito) l SAID. Leave
it. 1t will kill you"
Can dol" they laughed and on they went
and when the first jinrikisha reached the
hotel. there stood my two coolies with the
trunk! | could not lift one end OF this Sara
toga. The strongest hotel porter would have
asked 80 cents to carry it up one pair of
stairs in America, and these athletes had car
ried il on a run four miles up a mountain and
when | paid them 20 cents apiece, the regu
lar price, they thanked us over again, and
bowed three times to the ground.
For shamev' SAID my tender-hearted wife
with tears in her eyes. Give them more
double it, such brave, grand menr'
"Al right" said pattlng the 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 obis
(sashes) flock through halls ana dining
rooms like birds. Always laughing like the
three little maids from school anu always in
nocently modest they are too. Sometimes |
see the young gentlemen guests aumirng
the pretty hands and necks of the girls as
they pat their red checks. When | asked
Koko and Meto what wages they received
they said in broken English
I'VE get 81 month and our pretty
Clothes"
"But the presents you get ~
1--WE give those to master and at the end
of the year he makes us present"
The prices at the Fuiiya like all Japanese
hotels is S3 day. The hotels are always IN
in the mountains above the clouds and look
out on Fuiiyma. This is favorIte resort of
Sir Edwin Arnold The poet finished
writing today Japanese drama for a Lon
don manager, to be put on the stage in Japa-
nese costumes.
80, yes" he said as he read a romantic
section Of the play, ~ have put in a lot of
coloring and plenty of singing and dancing
girls. In fact am an old hand at tho
drama, and shalt put in what Tennyson
LETT out am offered $4,000 for the play
The guests OF this Japanese Saratoga are
cosnopolte. There are golden-ha
Yankee girls from Boston and Chicago, the
solemn English girl and the phlegmatic Ger
man girl who drinks beer at Wesb baden.
The American girl abroad Is always to the
front. She dances prettier, hirts harder
ana climbs higher than any of The rest. She
gets an autograph from Sir Edwin while tho
English girl is asleep, and has the English
girls lover at ner feet while she plays the
Samlsen, the Japanese banjo
In the evening II was amusing 10 see the
japanese guests try to dance the round
dances. The Japanese are bound to become
European. The emperor and empress dress
in European costumes, walk on English car
pets and eat French dishes. The swell young
japanese has his Tuxedo ana the girls are
struggling into kid gloves aud corsets. Their |
little feet, always accustomed to sandals,
ache in kid slippers, but the empress has
said Chinese methods must go and the swell |
girls and boys are bound TO give up sandals
and kimonos, quit chop sticks and tho geisha |
dancing ana whlrl in the german.
After the dance was over peeped through |
a latticework and saw peYy OF laughing
Japanese beauties taking rest. They had
thrown Off kid slippers ana corsets and put |
their bare feet into sandals and were squatted
crosslegged on the tioor-restng Dear cor |
setless children OF nature, how they enjoyed
sweet and picturesque liberty after an hours
debauche in civilized fashion and flirting
Some OF the naughty old damios, the |
proud fellows who lost their swords when |
the milfado squeched the tycoon In 1868,
Will not be EdropeaniLed. II is not uncom-
mon 10 see them leave their sandals at the |
door of the Imperial hotel diningroom in
Toxic and march rs proud as Cnsars, but |
with bare feet over the Japanese floors. |
Sometimes he checks his sandals. hut walks |