Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-02-23
A GIRL SEES JAPAN
AND TELLS WHAT SHE THINKS
ABOUT IT.
Etiquette 10 an important Part Of a
Japanese Maiden's Education, and
a Deal Of Care Is Given to the Ar
rangement Of the ordle.

Japanese MaidenS Eoucatlon, ana
a Deal Of Care Is Given to the Ar
rangement of the clrdle.
Miss Ethel Maud Soper, a student
at the WOman's College, was born in
japan and lived there a long time.
She is the daughter of the Rev. julius
! Soper, of the Methodist Church, who
has been a missionary in Japan. Miss
Soper speaks as follows of the differ
ence between a Japanese girl and an
American girl,
"The first remark made after an in
PRODUCTION is, And what might be
+ your honorable age?' And you may
be sure that II the answerer be Jap
anese she will give her full age-and
even be tempted to add year OF two,
! This is the Indispensable question in
polite society. There is even a special
costume which only women over so
may wear. The long, dull-colored gar
ment cannot be altered but the lining
of the sleeves and neckpiece are made
of the most brilliant scarlet. The
sandals are laced with scarlet thongs,
and a close skullcap of the same color
/ ing completes the dress.
"The dress of a Japanese girl is
made of straight pieces sewed to-
/ gether. Japanese sewing is very diff
| ferent from ours. There are no rufiies,
no gathers, no bias folds, the fashions
never change, and a girl may wear
her mothers or grandmothers frock
without a thought of fit or fashion.
/ There are however, prescribed dresses
for different classes of society. A
! Japanese can tell at a glance, but q
European will get hopelessly bewil-
dered at the class distinctions indi-
Gated by a tiny thread of color in the
sleeve or slight variation in the way
of wearing the hair.
The upper class Japanese girl usu-
/ ally has a loose garment of some dull
color lined with brighter tint. Our
fashion of putting bright silk Innings
in our coats came from Japan. A ball
| dress might be of a dove-colored
crepe with a pink lining; the skirt
showing beneath this might be hand
painted most elaborately. The neck
piece showing above the loose outer
garment is often of variegated silks,
/ beautifully ornamented.
But the most interesting article of
a Japanese girls toilet to herself is
| her belt. First width of crepe is
/ dress in right position over this
comes the belt proper 1t is often at
least 16 inches wide; made of any
substance, but always lined with some
heavy material like canton flannel
| Some of these brocade belts, with
/ laces, which come from the shoulder
! to the feet, cost as much as 5000 OF
/ $500. It takes a good deal of skill to
! get the belts on just right and a
| large part of a Japanese girls educa
| tion consists in learning exactly how
/ to do II"
81 taught a princess once who was
very close to the throne. She would
come to my house with several attend
ants, and in the most costly robes
| but If the weather was warm she
would be barefooted
"The hair is dressed very elaborate
| ly and always by a hairdresser. The
fashion of putting the hair over cush
ions, or rats" as schoolgirls call
them, is a Japanese importation. The
| past fashion, too, of wearing bangs
/ comes from another japanese. way oi
wearing the hair They fix their hail
once, or at most twice a week, for II
stays fixed until the hairdresser calls
/ again. For fear the structure will gel
! tumbled when she is asleep, the Jap
anese girl dispenses with pillows ant
sleep with a wooden rest under the
/ back of the neck and the head quite
unsupported.
"Very comfortable It must be, but
a Japanese girl, like an American girl
will do a great deal for the sale Of
appearing we'll.
Etiquette is an important part o.
a Japanese girls education. There
are professors of etiquette in Japan
csc schools, just as there are profes
sors in languages, and a girl mus
know how to enter q room, how Il
introduce and all the numberless rules
of precedence. All men. of course
take precedence of all women, unless
they have been Christianized, ther
they assume our ways with woman
kind
zone specimen of this exaggerated
politeness is in their salutation
Where we would say, L am glad Il
see YOU they would say, 1 hang upoI
you honorable eyelids.'
"The Japanese girl is apt to be in
dolent. Knitting was a great oceu
patton with them, and now that thu
Europeans have taught them othe
kinds of work they go wild with de
light over crochet stitches and differ
ent kinds of embroidery. Almost thu
only game that the girls play is bat
tlodore and shuttlecock. They dt
this a great deal, looking pretty ant
picturesque when they play, just as |
they had stepped off a Jananese fan
1T was always very hard for tn
missionaries to get hold of the won
] Of fl. 90 4aN1 n,
only the men and the children. woul'
appear, and when the wife was askeI
for, o, she is just a stupid thing tn
loving husband would protest.
"A woman has little control owe
her life She marries at the viii o
her father or elder brother, oftel
without seeing her future HUSBAND
till she is led to the altar. The man
too, is governed by his father, VIII
selects the bride. But human heart
are the same everywhere, and ther
are some genuine love matches, eve
In Japan.
There is no furniture in a JapaI
ese house, only cushions. A table 70
meals is so small that 1t looks lik
a tray. The difference between th
house of a poor man and the residene
of millionaire consists in the timbe
of which the house is built. You car
not find a knot in the wood of a beaI
tifully-built house. Then the mattin
on the floor will be OF the finest an
the sliding doors, perhaps, beautiful
hand-painted. The kitchens. too, hav
no furniture except the stove; ther
is not even a table; all the work
done on the floor. AS you can imagine
1t is beautifully clean. There is jus
one peculiarity in this housecleanin
the kitchen floor must be washe
with cold water only, II is never e.
actly washed however, but rubbe
over with cloths wrung from col