The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1894-12-07
The Japanese Home.

anesc parlor he would not fail to he sur
prised ut the display of marvellous and
exquisite taste. Yet l have often heard
the saying of foreigners that 1.-THE Jap
anese house has no furniture. and is alb
SOlutey cheerless and empty" This is
quite wrong. l must say that they have
no taste of the Japanese art: for the men
of taste are agreed in saying that the art
of decoration in Japan is excellent If
anyone has some taste i'll this art he will
perceive that the hanging pictures on the
toxic wall. elaborate arrangement of flow
ers. pictures on the framed partitions.
and all decoration, however trfiing reveal
infinite taste. The tastes of the Western
people differ $" much from ours that the
decoration in their chambers seems al
most childish to the Japanese eyes The
gorgeous display of colors in their rooms
would please our children to look at.
Drawing rooms piled up from corner to
corner with toys. shells. stones. dishes
sp.oifs~ and different novel things always
of flowers il stuck in Il vase without form
and without order! The pictures in the
rooms hang perpetually. though the face
of nature and feeling of man change from
time to time! All these sights which we
are accustomed to see in the European
house excite in us nothing but wonder
Yet this is the taste of the Western peo-
IL.
In Japan the family never gathers
around one table as the European or 9th
er Asiatic peoples do. but each person has
his or her own separate small table II foot
square and foot high. and always high
ly decorated. When they take their meals
they kncel upon the mat. each taking his
table before him. The little lacguere,l
bowl. heuped up with delicio,sl y-cooked
rice. and several lacquered wooden bowls
containing soup or meat, and numbers of
little porcelain plates with fish. radishes
and the like. The way of cooking. of
course is entirely different from the
European: Two pretty chopsticks. made
of lacquered bamboo or wood. silver or
and spoon. and I'LL people use them with
great skill. All foods are prepared in the
Kitchen, 80 as to avoid any trouble to use
knife and fork. Soup is to he drank from
the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by
hand, in the same way as people drink
tea or coffee. Table etiquette has elab-
crate rules. which high-bred ladies' and
servant always waits. knepling at short
distance, before il clean pan of boiip,!
rice, with lacquered tray. OH which she
receives and delivers the bowls for re-
plenishing them. Fragrant green tea is
always used. at the end Of the meal. hut
sugar anu cream neFcr.-11lr1Pf baZIr.
Too Good to BE Used.
Never save anything for best The
gown you lay away i'll tissue paper soon
loses its modern touch. The bonnet you
put aside flor best becomes antiquated
silks wear out in the creases and all saving
of wearing apparel for the future is folly
wide the mark.
How painfully often one finds the woman
whose wedding gifts include cut-glass and
silver and dainty napery using coarse ia
blecloths- oilcloths. often enough. if
there are babies-cheap glass and plated
ware, not because she does not love fine
things. but because she does and is say
ing them. She means boarding them for
the cheap qualification of exhibiting them
to admiring friends in all the SpOtlessness
and shine of diSuse. or the deserved NOR
tification of having the children gaze OPEN
eyed and making embarrassing remarks
arropos of the unaccustomed splendOr
when it is brought out for company. The
things are ''tOO good to he used. she i'll
slSts, and there are carpets too good for
the sunlight, and silk quilts carefully fold
ell away because patchwork is quite good
enough for the family, and books which
are too good to he handled by the chill
dren. whose literature it seems. must BE-
chosen by the outside rather than the in
side.
The wisest motto that can he adopted by
the woman with the love of this particular
sort of saving is the couplet from the old
grivestonc:
What I saved I lost;
What l spent had.