Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1893-08-24

An Afternoon In the Jnvanese VIII
lnEe.
ern world. The Japanese are. IN truth,
as they have been named in compli-
ment, the Yankees of the East The
Javanese, equally polite and witty, are
the gay and indolent children of the
tropics.
And yet they are happy-at least in
Chicago. The men go about their little
tasks with a pleasing dizziness and
alacrity, while the women, despite the
fact that their theology allows them
no souls, are cheerful and clipper, and
there is something in the shy way one
Of them offers the visitor a cigarette
just finished by her delicate fingers
and something in the soft word and ro-
guish smile which 60 with it that is
mighty fetching"
They are very childlike in their love
Of sweets, and their rapid changes
from grave to gay. They weep pro-
fusely in sorrow, then dry their eyes
and may soon be laughing heartily.
For candy no big school girl is more
greedy. In that way goes most of the
small change they get in gratuities.
In short, they are childlikc in every
thing but one-perhaps. They are not
bit afraid Of soap and water. They
naturally love to be clean, and the men
are much the same.
Their religion may have created the
habit in the first place, but it has be-
come second nature. Courtesy, too,
has by long habit become organic. So
has the forgetting habit. The guards
and other Americans about the village
say the Javancse of both sexes can
forget instructions more easily and
with less embarrassment than any
other people on the grounds. When
told Il thing for the seventeenth time
and reminded Of the previous times.
they give short, pleasant laugh and
chatter something which seems to
mean ooh, yes; that's so. How care
less Of me to forget it,
The JaTancse theater is quite a Gu
riosity, all the more because the
dancers are loaned for this occasion
only by the only sultan who retains
any considerable power in Java. Inc
Dutch control most OF the island. AS
the old heather ceremonies which sur
yiyed into Christian times in Europe
were regarded as the incantatlonS Of
vitchcraft for centuries. then became
the mere sports of children and finally
list all meaning. so the old Buddhist
ceremonies in Java were degraded into
am,lSementS for the cOnQuerlnS race,
and in time none but the sultan and
his guests were even allowed to see
them. The common people never see
dancing women, and those in this
Jayanese village have seen it here for
the first time. All the people, however,
can see the dancing of puppets or ma
ri0nettcs, and very complicated set
&C. onnrotod here on the same stage
with the women dancers.
The remnants of the old religion
which are shown in these dances are
reojlv Hindoo, as the Buddhist religion
came into Java from lndla. Inc
women are remarkably agile. and by
comical division Of labor an tile
or tho hack of the stage behind
o and varies his voice with sur
om;s;na success. From deep base to
screaming falsetto, through az no+r ,nI
manifestations of love anu III hi. .,,',,
ioy, hope and despair, ne h1er' ;iS,o u is
the whole show. Inc Whole in nI,,,ot TO-
rs near as is possible III TINS cnllia,e'
an exact reproduction of the home ar T.
tcle and as each village aa il in tI 5sVa ane IS
1 indeed. it is section of Java trans ms
nlanted. the Mohammedan cnuicii 'nA
the theater being exact copleSn o,z ,1o-
As the Javanese may DC caiit tIin .
lays nnd Monaghan Mtsn so the japanese may ~
h ha styled Monaghan with mixture