Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1893-09-01
AT THE ANTIPODES.
THE JAPANESE AS SEEN BY A CLOSE
OBSERVER.
Their Quaint Habits Our Mental and
Physical Orposites-A Nation Undergo
ing a Mighty Change-March Of Progress
ISpccial Correspondence.7

A"6 AA6ASy I 1TOkEC6
In the Orient-Women and Children.
Especial Correspondence
TOXIC, Aug. 14.-Whoever visits japan
1t the present time will find himself in the
presence of two contending systems of civ
iliZation-one 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-
dorc Perry arrived here in 1854 as the rep
resentative of the United States, he met
with Japan's 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 persisted 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 a 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 businessIike charac-
t~eristics 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 its elbows, for
The little houses are almost all inconse-
luential from u western point of view,
you are impressed with the deferential 20
iiteness that is bestowed upon you, and es-
pecially by the pretty manners of the Jap
anese women with their gentle voices. So
quiet are they in demeanor that the Or
binary gesticulations of a European fill
them with amazement if not contempt, idg-
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 we'll hammered indeed that some
one has written, ''They are so good as to
make Japan Il 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 ann of her own peo-
pie. At that very moment she was reading
a 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 Notification be.
fore, not after dinner. Their keys turn in
instead of out. The carpenters run their
planes and avs 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 hia
tail ought to be, and he is fed from a tub
at the stable door. The best rooms of q
house are at the back, and in the building
of a house the roof is constructed first. In
his politeness the japanese removes his foot
gear before he does his hat, and in making
up ccounts he writes down his figures first.
The husband always precedes the wife.
In matters of dress the picturesque, arts
tocratic native garb is gradually giving
way to that of the European, a change for
which the government is mainly RESPONSE
BILE, but Notwithstanding the taste inherent
in the people in their endeavor to copy
foreign fashions they make a sorry failure
in ~endeavoring to replace the exquisite
robes that make the Japanese man and
woman appear so graceful on promenade.
Japanese women are womanly, kind,
gentle and pretty, yet their lot may be
summed up in what are termed the three
Observation-Disclosures, while yet unmar-
ried, to Il father; obedience, when married,
to a husband and that husbands parents,
and, finally, obedience, VIXEN widowed, to
q son. Japanese women, however, are in a
fair way to be emancipated from their con-
dition of subsection, western influences and
the literature Of their own country having
already exerted a strong influence in this
| direction.
In their quiet, undemonstrative way the
Japanese are CuOrOukn1y lOSpltaOle. IL Is
the custom to set food before a guest at
whatever time of day he may call, but as d
rule their dishes fail to satisfy European
cravings. Although clean, free from grease
and pretty to look at, you can't live on their
pabulum as u permanency.
Speaking of Europeans, there are many
foreign employees in this country, and hav-
ing been here since the country was opened
in lS54-their influence has been more or
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 minis and
produced a uniform coinage equal to any in
the world; the reform in the educational
system is the work of a handful of Ameri-
cans; a Frenchman codified the japanese
law; Germans have directed the medical
instruction of the country; the posts, tele.
graphs. railways, the army, mining meth
DDS, chemical laboratories, waterworks,
h~arborworks, cotton and paper mills-all
these are the creation of the foreign EN-
ployees of the Japanese government. Yet
] the native. pupils have been ant. aud the