The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1894-10-23

In the artistic development of the
banquet John Chinaman has passed
all rivals, ancient and modern, by the
creation of the sing-song girl. This
is wonderful combination of waiter,
valet, vocalist, instrumentalist, recon-
teur, steward, pipe bearer, cigarette
holder, firt, and, above all, thing of
beauty and joy forever. There is
nothing like unto her in the heavens,
the earth, or the waters under the
earth. She came into being about a
thousand years ago-a century or so
after the sages and philosophers of the
Flowery Kingdom had established
the system of keeping the sexes as far
apart as law, custom, and the police
can separate them.
In the good old days women and
men met together at the banqueting
board. The new system shut them
out altogether. They were forbidden
to attend public functions; then to
dine with any man save their own
immediate relatives by blood or mar
riage; and lastly, to eat at the same
table with these unless especially in
vited. So it has remained ever since.
At the great dinners of high officials
no woman is ever present. At the
parties given by merchants, manda-
rims, bankers, and rich property
owners, the wives and daughters are
absent, or, at the furthest, are looking
at the guests through Venetian blinds,
loopholes in the walls, or the narrow
slit between the door and doorway.
But no matter how much you legiS
late and make foolish customs to the
contrary, men cannot get along with
out women. So by degrees the sing
song girl came into existence. Who
first invented her is a matter on which
history preserves q discreet silence.
In the beginning there is no doubt that
she was a person of not the highest
type morally. Then it occurred to
some sapient person that there would
be more satisfaction, even if there
were less fun, in a moral and decent
dinner. The experiment was so sue
cessful that it was tried by everybody
and became popular. The respectable
sing-song girl and the unobjectionable
feast are now the universal rule.
TO meet a sing-song girl in all her
glory you must go to dinner, where
the guests are cODgenial and of about
the same rank. Where the host is a
great banker, and his friends small
merchants, or where he is a powerful
mandarin and they inferior officials,
there are always certain condescen-
sion on the part of the former and a
nervous uneasfness ON the part of the
latter, which play havoc with good
fellowship. A birthday party and a
banquet in honor of the birth of a son
are about the best events in which to
participate.
You arrive at the house, and, amid
the barking of house dogs and ours,
you are ushered into the reception
room, which adjoins the banqueting
hall. Here you are met and welcomed
by the host. The apartment is large
and high. Handsome chairs and
tables range the walls. On two sides
are hunks of Chinese bedsteads, large
enough for eight people to lie upon,
on which are handsome opium lay
outs, scissors, cleaners, sponges, match
es and decorations. On a center table
is tea caddy, filled with oolong and
souchong, cups and bowls. On sec
ond table, for those who have acquired
European tastes, are champagne,
sherry, whisky, brandy and bottled
sode.
In corner of the room are the sing
song girls. They range in number
from three upward. At very luXur-
ious dinner there may be two to each
guest. This, however, is rare. The
cost is very great, and when there is
such multitude they interfere with
one another. One to guest is the
most convenient number, and seems to
be preferred by regular diners out.
One to every two guests is also COM
mon. The artists are young women
whose ages are anywhere e from sixteen
to twenty-eight. They are very pretty
from Mongolian standard, and at
tractive even from our own. Their
lips and cheeks are delicately tinted,
and their brows and necks lightly
powdered with pOuolre de rj1. Their
hair is marvellous work of art,
brushed, oiled, stiffeneu, perfumed,
and set full of wonderful lIns. Dia-
mOnd or jade earrings hang from eX-
quisite ears II necklace encircles the
threat; bracelets, bangles, and jade
rings half conceal fair arms, and
score of rings load down slender and
graceful fingers. AS for the COS fumes,
their splendor BATTLES description.
Each suit consists of coat and pair of
trousers of the finest silk, satin or bro
cade.
The coat is cut very much like a
French workingman's blouse, but it
is far more neat and shapely. The