The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-09-12
special corrsspondsnee Of he Post.

-f---os ~ = fflfA-aIt OF lie Et5t
Copyright. 1923. by Hsury ". Fischer
lkaO. Japan. August l. 1889
This is Japan's Newport from the sta Id
| point OF fasnlcn; as TO Clothes, It's the
Garden Of Eden. An Adamless Eden, at
present, thank goodness. for the men
don't come until September. If it were
otherwise, We American girls would have
to run.
There are two of US, Miss Mitchell. who
represents the unsophisticated West, and
myself, a citIzcness of the socially-sffete
Empire State, and when an unofficial at
taChe Of the American Legation in Toxic
told US two weeks ago that a pair of san
dals was all the toilet required at Ikao,
We thought him extremely impairment
and half vowed to denource him in the
papers.
Yet here We have been in the midst of
the four hundred for more than ten days
and haven't seen a kimono on anybody's
back save our own. And the attention
our state of dressedness attracts, Ii I
went into stage box at the Metropolitan
on first night attired in overalls and a
pot rat the gallery-gods couldn't be more
astonished than Mesdames Chrysantheme.
/ Tulipe, and Prune are, whom We see all
day with nothing on but an occasional
coat Of oily soap.
People go 20 Ikao for its hot springs.
and battle TOUR times day When they
are not in the water. they take sun baths
and clothes would be as ill-suited to tbs
one as to the other. So argues the Eu-
rCTean old settlers whom we met at the
hotel, and VINO understand the Japs thor
oughly. AS for the latter, they don't ar
que at all Not knowing what it is to
be ashamed % the body, they look upon
Clothes as q mere matter of utility or
as articles of decoration. They have their
uses, certainly, but when they are the
least bit in the way, loft with the con-
founded tOggery,'' as Napoleon said.
dropping his coronation robes right and
left.
What place for husbands this country
is TO be sure. While at home and in Eu-
rope men grunt ana swear at their wives
and daughters dressmaker and millinery
bills, hotels bills, and amusement ac-
counts, the amiable Japs cut their
| expenses down to a minimum, and
madame is only the happier for
it. As for hotel expenses, we foreigners
pay q cents day, including the free use
of the bath. The natives are probably
charged less than fifteen cents, and this
included three meals a day and tea
meat is not furnished, except to order,
but one can have fish in abundance.
will your ladyships condescend to go
into the honorable water?" asked our
ccolie, after serving as a horse for our
jinrikisha on the afternoon of our ar
rival. We did, and he ran off TO inform
| the hotel-keeper, who, with a thousand
excuses, begged us to wait awhile. We
saw him step into the bath-house and
yank out the ticket-taker-a man. When
Adam had been replaced by Eve Tin Ewes
costume) the foreign ladies could ask no
more.
In Ikao the hot springs are so numerous
that each dwelling is connected with one
by pipes, which carry the ste9ming water
into q reservoir of more or less circum-
| ference. The reservoir at cur hotel is as
big as the swimming pool of the average
Turkish bath in the United States, and
| It is situated at distance of some fifteen
| from the highway, at the end of natural
| arcade formed by flowers and greens.
Made the Geisha Laugh.
The little Geisha who received US there
was beside herself with merriment on
seeing us disrobe, for, according to her,
| the clothes each of use wore would suffice
! for japanese family of twelve in the
| midst of winter. l asked where the lock-
ers were.
"Ah, this not Tokyo, where the people
| come dressed to the BATH she answered,
coyly, but your honorable garments are
| safe nevertheless-wilI take care of that"
! As bath wraps and towels were not
! forthcoming l called for these necessaries,
| Baedecker in hand, whereupon the Geisha
| INDUCED in another fit Of laughter. We
| had TO be content with a few paper nap
kins and a ditto sunshade.
There were about hundred women and
| children in and about the bath. all in a
! state of ABSOLUTE nudity and all seemingly
| unconscious of the fact. Matrous, your :
mothers, girls, and boys disported them
| selves with the most perfect mOdesty.
| however. and though all came to greet us
/ in the winsome Eastern fashion, not one
| of the many gave US a single curious look.
| When l mentioned this to a European
/ who has long lived in Japan he told me
/ that il is considered the height Of i'll
| breeding TO gaze with inquisitiye eyes at
what The bathhouse reveals, and the Jap
woC:l her be dead than rude.
| Our impTomptu reception ill., over,
( we took occasion e lo3E bout u no
| discover more horrors. TL= oath w-s q
| the open, fianked on one side by the hotel
| wall with it's numerous windows. and OH
/ The two other sides by what Mark Twain
would call "a rather open-hearted wooden
| fence" five or six feet high.
! Just then most Of the fair bathers and
! the ugly ones, too. were taking sun baths
on mats placed alongside the fences, and
| at the same time gave receptions To
| friends, male or female, who happened
| 10 pass by. At first | was so shocked al
| this that ! started to run away but Miss
J Mitchell who is as curious as a night
| ingale fred at me so many pAilosophisms
| about the veil that makes the sanctum''
and about the righteousness Of clothes
that / promised to stay T. out.
| And il needed but closer acquaintance
| with these truly Oriental customs 10 IN
| derstand them and recognize their utter
| inonensiveness. II the bicycling craze
| continues with US at home | warrant none
| but fools Will turn around to gaze al q
| girls calves after awhile. Remember
then. that the Children Of the sun are rs
much used 10 the altogether as we are 10
pantaloons, and there is the end 10 both
| conjecture and criticism
No Place for The Gibson Girl
| The Gibson girl devotee might not find
a single model in this crowd Of beauties
| unadorned, but there is enchanting mate
rial for an artist of the graceful and
! petite Dresden schOoI-trim little figures
| delicately tinted; faces fun Of gracious
| sweetness. laughing eyes. and beautifully
| modelled hands and feet There Is no
| end TO their merry chatter, but their live
| illness never trangresses the howery path
Of innocence and geatlensss.
I Ny first dip in the honorable hot
| water struck me as the nearest approach
| TO parbOiling / care to undergo. We were
| told that the temperature was below a
hundred degrees, but ii came nearer a
| hundred and twenty, ] am sure. We re-
| manned only a minute, yet our bodies
were scarlet when We came out II had
been holding an egg In each hand they
| would have been well cooked during the
I If