The Helena independent., 1893-09-04
LIVE HALF WAY AROUND.
Queer Habits Of the Japanese, as
Seen by a Close OBJ
server.
He Thinks Thoy Are Our Oppo-
sites, Both Mentally and
Physically.
Nation Undergoing Mighty Changes
Aarch of Progress In tho Orlent--
Women and Children,
Especial Correspondence.l

Especial Correspondencc.l
TOXIC, Aug. 14.-Whoever visits Japan
1t the present time will find himself in the
presence Of two contending systems of civ
ilization--onc that has come down from the
middle ages and is surrounded by all the
relics of feudalism; the other new, progress
i've and aiming at all the attachments of
modern life.
1t may be said of the Japanese that in 90
years they have achieved more in the way
of genuine progress than has been accom-
plished by any nation on the globe in half
that number of centuries. When Commo-
dore Perry arrived here in 1854 as the rep
resentative of the United States, he met
with Japans stubborn refusal to recog
nize in any way the outside world Since
that time treaties with the other nations
of Christendom have followed, old things
have given place to new. and the country is
in process of regeneration on western lines
in all of her institutions, aims and ideas.
Many things precious to the lover of art
and antiquity have perished by reason of
this forcible opening of the oyster, but
there are still pearls without price to be
found that will always be attractive to the
tourist.
Japan is study-a revelation. From the
moment you enter your hotel, which, by the
way, is European in it's methods-for the
Japanese cuisine is rarely satisfactory to
the stranger-you are brought in contact
with the thoroughly businesslikc charac-
teristics of the people. You have scarcely
written your name in the register before a
score of merchants with their attractive
bric-a-brac, embroidery, silks, porcelain
and other pottery have tapped on your
chamber door, and card in hand are solicit
ing trade.
Going out on the street. low browed and
looking very much out at it's elbows, for
the little houses are almost all inconse-
quential from our western point of view,
you are impressed with the deferental po-
liteness that is bestowed upon you, and es-
pecially by the pretty manners of the jap
anesc women, with their gentle voices. So
quiet are they in demcanor that the Or
dinary gesticulations of European fill
them with amazement if not contempt, fidg-
citing of every kind being foreign to their
nature. Even the little children are dainty
in their ways and old fashioned in appear
ance, so well hammered indeed that some
one has written, They are so good as to
make Japan a paradise for adults" Moth
ing makes the streets more picturesque
than the quaint custom which obtains
among the lower classes of strapping the
babies to the backs of their older brothers
and sisters, and the complacency with
which the infants enjoy their shaking up
while the Juveniles are at play.
But another popularity strikes the
stranger. Almost everything here is done
'hind side before or upside down. The
people seem to ''go round and round by the
rule of contraries" A Toxic lady asked
the writer why foreigners did so many
things topsy turvy instead of doing them
naturally, after the manner of her own peo-
pie. AT that very moment she was reading
. book the end of which was where we put
the title page When they write a news
paper paragraph, the full stop is placed at
the beginning of the sentence. They take
their wine and have their jollfication be-
fore, not after dinner. Their keys turn in
instead of out. The carpenters run their
planes and saws toward and not away from
them. The Japanese mounts his horse on
the right side, and when the animal is
brought home his head is placed where his
tail ought to be, and he is fed from a tub
at the stable door. The best rooms of a
house are at the back, and in the building
of house the roof is constructed first. In
his politeness the japanese removes his foot
gear before he does his hat and in making
up accounts he writes down his figures first.
The husband always precedes the wife.
In matters of dress the picturesque, aris
tocratic native garb is gradually giving
way to that of the European, a change for
which the government is mainly responsi. /
BILE, but notwithstanding the taste inherent
IN the people in their endeavor to copy
ajry, fnS t1n,,
in endeavoring to replace the exquisite
robes that make the japanese man and
woman appear SO graceful on promenade.
Japanese women are woynanly kind
gentle and pretty, yet their lot may be
summed up in what are termed the three
Observation-Disclosures, while yet unmar.
ried, to father; obedience, when married,
to q husband and that husbands parents,
anu, hnally, obedience, VIXEN widowed tC
son. japanese women, however, are in
fair way to be emancipated from their con.
dition OF subjection, western influences and
the literature of their own country hayins
already cXerted strong influence in this
direction.
In their quiet, undemonstrative way the
Japanese are thoroughly hospitable. 1t is
the custom to set food before a guest at
whatever time of day he may call, but MS
rule their dishes fail to satisfy European
cravings. Although clean, free from grease
and pretty to look at, you can't live on thel
pabulum as permanency.
Speaking of Europeans, there are man,
foreign employees in this country, and hav.
ing been here since the country was opened
in 1S54-their influence has been more O,
less potent. In fact, it may be said that the
foreign employee is the creator of new
Japan. One has taken the navy in hand and
transformed the junk into the modern man.
of-war; another has established mints and
produced uniform coinage equal to anyiu
the world; the reform in the educational
system is the work of il handful of An.,ri, |
cans; Frenchman codified the japanese
law; Germans have directed the medica!
instruction of the country; the posts. tele
graphs, railways, the army, mining meth
ods, chemical laboratories, waterworks
harborworks, cotton and paper mills-al
these are the creation of the foreign cm
ployees of the japanese government. Yet
the native pupils have been apt, and the
time is not far distant when they NAV riva
their teachers, as they now outdo the rest
OF the world i'll the production of works of
art which the European never has been able
to initiate.
You cannot go very far in any of these
japanese capital cities without being i'm
pressed that you are among thoroughly