The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-09-01

and if she wasn't there in person, at
least all the other women on the block
would be in the near vicinity, able to
supervise his movements.
Living is reduced almost to its sim
plest elements here, where q single
garment will do for o covering, and
that, if necessary, for years; where q
few cents worth of rice, picked vege-
tables and dried fish make IN appetiz-
ing and satisfying meal, and where a
single bare room for dining, for guests
and for sleeping is practically all that
is required by even ambitious house
holders.
In Japan the poorest people are not
without their comforts and convent
ences. Cooked foods, so cheaply pre-
pared in public kitchens, have been
mentioned. Milkmen and other pur-
veyors are in almost every block, with
their goods in smallest packages if de-
sired, for the fractional copper cur
rency. The housekeeping is the
easiest, and at the same time the dain-
test, in all the world. No dust and
dirt ever are brought in to tarnish the
fair white floors. The low-ceilinged,
empty rooms and narrow verandas are
readily brushed and washed each day.
The mats on which the poor man sleeps
are as soft as those of the rich.
Bathhouses in the neighborhood,
too, are frequent, where the tired
mother and oil her fretful progeny,
wearied by the heat and the hours of
work, at the close of the day enjoy
their regular evening hot and cold
water plunge and splash.
The improvidence of these people
probably is in no danger of being ex-
aggerated in the telling. 1t is doubt
less quite true that the impoverished
'ricksha puller or factory operator
pawns his bed daily to buy his break
fast, and after earning enough to re-
deem the futons before night, reckless
ly expends in riotous living in the ten
sen eating houses the whole balance
of his capital. He looks as if he does
all that he is accused of in the way of
ever patching his blue kimono instead
of buying o new one, in living in one
yen-a-month houses, and of handing
down to his descendants only the same
pots and kettles, without single ad-
dition thereto, which he in his day in
herited from his parents. But that he
is to any extent unhappy, miserable
and wretched over it I very much
doubt. I have watched him singing
land lingering) at his work, and going
home at night in droves, still cheer
fully sociable, solaced with his tiny
pipe and fairly hilarious over the
least morsel and drop Of rice. and
cheap saki. I have gone with him
to his matsuri, or festivals, and I
know how often they recur and
how light-hearted they find him.
have stood with him to laugh
at the fun-makers and dancers at the
frequent street celebrations and local
fetes, and I don't believe there is much
rancor and bitterness to his poverty.
Besides, his wages are going up.
Guilds he has had always, and he is
learning about strikes. Dock laborers
get eighty cents a day now, where
formerly they received nearer to eight.
Considering their labor capacity and
the cheapness of their living, the former
is not bad wage. 'Ricksha charges,
those for laundry work, and of vari-
GUS craftsmen las all the dyers in
Osaka, who have just procured them
selves q neutrality-suspicious.. raise),
the wages of house servants and the
salaries of policemen and other officials,