The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-09
QUEER THINGS IN JAPAN.
Our Ways-RaiIways Lined With
Cherry Trees.
From the New York World.

Cherry Trees.
From the New York World.
Yokohama. Japan.-The quaint and nov
ell scenes in Japan grow upon one as he
prolongs his stay.
The higher class of men have adopted,
to large extent, our method Of dress.
But, with few exceptions, the women
continue the native dress, which is de-
cidedly more becoming. Those that wear
our style of dress are apparently uncom-
Portable, and wear it only when receiv-
ing foreigners. Even the men wear west
ern suits only when appearing in public.
The higher class usually have two
separate though connected houses-one
furnished in foreign style with chairs
and tables, the other with no furniture
The former they use but little except when
receiving and entertaining foreigners.
Even those educated abroad seem to pre-
fer in home life the old Japanese ways.
The middle classes of men are gradual
ly adopting western dress. Some costumes
are ludicrous in the extreme. You often
see a coat over a kimOra or an odd
shaped hat, a coat and bare legs.
The climate being warm in summer,
the working classes wear only a breech-
cloth, and in the interior one sees labor
ers without a garment of any kind. The
women are no more modest than the men.
Coming down from the interior last
week. l passed a pool where a score of
men, women and children were bathing
together, and to the surprise of our
little party. particularly the ladies' the
entire lot scurried out to the roadside
to see our line of jinrikishas pass. To
them it was apparently but natural to be
clad only as nature had provided.
In the winter the Japanese will not wear
half as much clothing as a foreigner. But
then the natural japanese do everything
by contrares, viewed through an Ameri-
cans eyes. For instance, the roof is the
first part of the house thew built That is
constructed on the ground and then the
house is built under 1t, the roof being
raised as the construction of houses with
seVeral stories as well as those with one.
The Japanese saw the plane back ward.
All their doors slide instead of opening.
Their tailors make the lining of a suit first:
their books are printed backward, and you
read from the rear, flower gardens are in
the rear of the house; keys turn to the lcft
instead of the right; vehicles and rikishas
pass TO the left; trains run on the left hand
track, and everything else is contrary to
our system, except their modern innova-
tions, patterned upon western ideas and in
ventions.
Japan is rapidly undergoing a social and
industrial revolution.
She has a military system founded upon
the best experience of France and Ger
many; a navy modelled upon the best
French and English teachings; and mill
tary and naval schools patterned after
those at West Point and Annapolis She has
made herself dockyards and built ana
bought steamers for foreign trade She
has constructed railroads throughout her
| che na IfGn
compartment cars and as yet has no sleep
ing cars, though they are badly needed.
With American aid she has established
cheap and efficient telegraph and postal
| service and a telephone service in her
chief cities. Street cars are used in sever
al cities, and in Toxic an electric street
railroad is to be constructed. The chief c-
ties are lighted with electricity, and, in
deed Japan is becoming a thorough west
! ern country.
The government is liberal and progress
! sive and what private corporations will
not undertake it does. While it owns the
| telegraph lines and many of the railroads,
all of which are profitable, private corpo-
rations own half of the railroads, the tele-
| phones electric light plants and street
railroads. Railroads and street car lines
pay very handsomely They are operated
! cheaply, and the average Japanese is so
| daft upon the subject of riding that he
will spend his last cent TO travel to a dis
| tant town and walk back
The beds of the railroads are sodded and
beautiful. One railroad has 200 GOO cherry
| trees planted along the Sides
There are something like 10000 public
schools in Japan. The buildings are COM
! Portable and education is compulsory.
In ivory and wood carving Japan is
ahead of the rest of the world in lacquer
work and in pottery and vases she has no
rival The work of the Japanese artists
in painting flowers and birds is not equal
{ ed. Yet no Japanese artist can paint a
/ horse or the portrait of a foreigner They
/ can't paint a horse because they have no
horses that we would call horses. They
are runty, rough-looking, knotty brutes.