Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1894-12-22
Jspsnsse ODDITIES.

| JdPhup Which, uhSooy hoo 80
emancipatcd women, it's politicians,
it's demagogues, and even its anar-
chists, has, says n writer In Revue
des Revues, nevertheless kept in
tact host of oddities which, In a
certain respect, are stranger than
those of the Celestial Empire. The
following are some of them:
While we write from the left to
the right, the Japanese write from
right to left. In writing. we form
horizontal lines, while the Japanese
make perpendicular ones. A Jap
anese book begins where ours ends,
and, consequently, when we read
book we turn the leaves from right
to left; but the Japanese are forced
to turn them from left to right. We
make our references at the bottom
of the page; the Japanese place
them at the top.
The Japanese women are odder
than the books. European women
show In Fir necks and arms, while
Japanese woman carefully covers
the upper part of her body and
shows only her feet A Japanese
female is richly clothed up to the
age of sixteen or seventeen, but
French female does not begin to
dress in style until after reaching
this age.
A Japanese belle is small, very
slender woman lost in u large piece
of fabric,which permits of a glimpse
of nothing but pair OF wild eyes
i'm deep orbits and vague, in.
dcscribable smile. a fair complex
ion is repugnaut TO her, and plump
ness frightens her. A Japanese
Venus would provoke smile from
an Aryan, while European Venus
would doubtless be considered in
japan as type of vulgar woman.
Among us ii is the chaste women
who usually shine by their intclii.
gencc, but in Japan intelligence ap.
pears to be the appanage of women
who lead a more or less frivolous
life.
We wear black as sign of mourn
ing, while the Japanese wear white
clothing under the same circu:n-
stances.
AT our receptions, women always |
play the first role; they are served
first and the best places assigned to
them. In Japan, things are entirely |
otherwise. The women remain
standing while the men are eating.
This ceremonial does not apply at
soirees, for the simple reason that
women in this case are conspicuous
by their absence. Woman is the
inevitable ornament at our fetes,
but in Japan she is treated as an
obstacle that works injury to the
splendor of the occasion. So woman
is dispensed with, to the satisfac-
ton of all present.
We eat around tables of some size,
but the Japanese served at small
tables placed near the wall, and
which afford hospitality 10 but one
person. Our servants hand the
dishes TO us from behind; in Japan
they are presented from the front.
We always put the prenomen be-
fore the family name, while the
Japanese do just the contrary.
We carry children in the arms;
Japanese women carry them on the
back.
In meeting person we turn to
the right; but the Japanese turn to
the left.
With us, women of different social
classes are somewhat distinguish
ed by their toilet; but in japan
every woman, beginning with the
wife OF the Mikado and ending with
the simple workwoman. wears the
same style of dress, which differs
only in the quality of the material.
A European woman may paint
her lips, use beauty spots. pencil
her eyebrows, powder her face. or
employ rouge; but il she does she
will carefully try to conceal the
fact. A Japanese woman does all
this, aud perhaps little more, but
she shows herself very proud of it
and endeavors TO make il appear
that her beauty is the product of
her art! And yet such art is not
her own.
With us. II is usually the duty of
the maid to embellish her mistress;
but in Japan this task is relegated
to the hair dresser, and while the
massagists of women must always
be blind, the hair dresser must have
his eyes wide open in order to
worthily respond to his title of
painter of the living" to use the
Japanese expression.
And there is another difference,
too, and one that does honor to the
pretty Japanese women. Womenin
all European countries exhibit a
special prediction for some for
eign language. French women
speak English and English women
speak French, Russian, etc. A jap
anese woman speaks nothing but
Japanese. II is to her, moreover,
that the Japanese language owes
all the progress it has made in the
last century. She was of old for
hidden 10 study the Chinese Ian
guage, which was considered as the
exclusive monopoly of men. The
Japanese women took hold of their
native tongue, aud are at present at
the head of the literary movement
in their country. Madam Muraski
is not the only one who has con-
tributed TO the development of this
flexible tongue and exotic literature
for, in addition to her, there are Mt
least thirty writers and philosophers
in petticoats who are laboring for
the greatest glory of the Japanese