Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-01-14

rhey Are Becoming . Prominent Factss
In Domestic Life.

they Are Becoming . Prominent Factss
In Domestic Life.
The Japanese ore slowly but surely
coming to be factor in New York life.
A short time since they were only to
be found associated with q few impor'
tant houses, or identified with such
business as dealt exclusively with jap
anese goods-callings that brought
them in no very close contact with the
people; now they are entering our
homes as domestics, acquiring scholar
ships in our colleges, finding positions
as clerks in our great mercantile houses,
and otherwise coming in touch with the
essentials of everyday life. There are
nearly 400 of these warm-skinned
islanders in New York and Brooklyn.
Few if any of them have been in this
country over ten years. They come
IL small numbers, but they come often.
In group adventuring together from
japan, the larger portions lay over in
San Francisco or some adjacent town,
but the movement in this direction con-
tinues, and the newcomers speak OF
the growing interest which their coun-
trymen feel for America and American
institutions.
Sanguine people see in this filtering
emigration a way out of the complex
ities of the servant problem. At the
Japanese club, in Brooklyn, at tho
Japanese mission room, at certain UNI
advertised headquarters in New York,
are to be seen young Japanese men
rcoding diligently. They are only
awaiting a call to enlist as buffers,
cooks, Wallets or men of all work In
well-to-do families. In their own coun-
try their services would only give them
the equivalent of $40 month. Here
they are paid from Sc5 to $40, and have
good and comfortable home besides.
Some of these candidates look forward
to higher vocations in future, and ac-
cept the mental position only to gain
money for pursuing their studies, for
many of them regard good place in
| an American household as distinct adj
vantage over anything they could do
at home, and these may be looked upon
as permanent retainers. 1t is said OF
them that they do not like to change
employers often, and that invariably
they give entire satisfaction.
AS regards Japanese women, there
are very few in this country, compared
with the number of men. Some pros
porous japanese importers and public
officials, who have established their
families in New York, have brought
along a serving maid or two to further
the comfort of the household. A few
trading houses number among the
other employees one or two women, in
sack-shape kinomos and quaint head
dresses. Certain Japanese strays and
waits, left over from the Japanese viii
lage and exhibition at the Chicago fair,
have entered household service here as
the only alternative to the dancing and
singing that no one cares to hear. These
have places in third or fourth-rate
boarding houses, where their chances
for advancement are slim, and their
gifts as tea-makers little apt to be APP
preciated. Others, nursemaids and
housemaids, are domiciled in the house
holds of people who knew them in
japan, or Of people who got their jap
anese-American friends to send them
over. In days when distance is 30 an
initiated, and people pass a year or
half year in first one cline and then
another, the American housewife be-
comes acquainted with the excellence
of all lands and gratis on her establish
ment such treasures as suit her best.
OF these the Japanese maid is an ex-
ample.
"The Japanese woman-child draws
III obedience with her earliest breath"
| says one of these returned nomads.
"She is taught it at home, taught it in
the school, taught it even in the plays
that she sees in the theaters when she
grows up. She is her husbands upper
servant, and the servant of her mother
and father. Trained from her birth to
sink her own identity in the interest OF
those around her, she is by nature a
marvelously comfortable serving wom-
ar. My japanese maid is methodical
and painstaking, intelligent and indus
trious. She never obtrudes herself,
and, having few acquaintances, never
wants day off."-N. Y. Cor. Pittsburgh
Dispatch.