Arizona republican., 1901-08-26
MOKlSHI IYEMUSAI

I
 Our landlord had delightful home
 dutiful son and a snap. The snai
 was we. We were in the capital cit.
 of Etchiu. on the west coast of Da
 Nippon, looking out over the North sea
 as they call 1t there toward the froxei
 Siberian coast We were just from col
 lege. and knew fully as much as tn
 average college man about the world a
 large and about business in partlcula, Our landlord, Kintaro Okashi. was {
 samurai of the old school. He wal brought up under the feudal system
 and knew how to fight, as all gentle
 men should in those days. If he knew
 anything else he concealed 1t during thu
 year we lived with him. of course
 though, he knew how to make merry
 and could handle artistically a brusf
 dipped in red paint. He could make hli evening environment look as though Il had been iacquered with the hues of the setting sun; but such Knowledge
 was not remarkable. Every one ir
 Japan can do that.
 He was quite regardless of expense in
 this employment, for he was of gentle
 birth, and, besides, he had no money
 The government had psnsioned him
 when 1t abolished the fcudal system and caste. and there were legally no more samura; but that pension was mortgaged. Kintaro Okashi had spent forty years of it in advance. Conse- quently. when we. Gardner and I, went to him with proposal to be our land lord. he welcomed us and bowed so low that he broke the floor. He said he loved Americans. and confided in a friend, as we learned afterward, that he considered young ones were better than a pension. If is only fair to say that he was brave whenever there was occa- sion and exceedingly generous when ever he had anything to give. Often he put himself to great personal inconven- fence to do friend favor In those days, thanks to what was known as "the most favored nation clause" in Japan's treaty with the chief countries of the world and to general bungling in the department of foreign relations. outsiders could not own nor rent prop Cits III tHVI oWii IldIuSs thtCDt stricted districts of some half dozen cities, such as Tokio. Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki. Nligata. and Hako- date. AS we wished to study Japanese life, we did not care to live in any of the foreign concessions. where one never Is quite in touch with real Japan
 We went to the west coast, to a prov ince where no foreigners had lived be- fore: and. as we could not be our own landlord. we proceeded to hire one A friend recommended Okashi San, and we took him. According to our agree ment. we hired him to hire us as in- structors in an English school that off, fered wonderful facilities for teaching the American language as spoken in New York.
 Okashi rented two buildings, one Tor the school and one for our living house. He lived with his family in the school. and for the first month his wife cooked for us, and both of them did our mar keting. At the end of the month we called for the bills. Okashi San would not hear of 1t. "Iye, iye!"--"No, hor' -he would repeat. August pardon deign, but the school is q resplendent success, and I and my stupid wife are overwhelmed with honor. It is we who owe you"
 This went on for three days, until we began to believe Okashi meant 1t. and proceeded to put our money to other uses. When 1t had thus been put he appeared before us one warm afternoon with roll of thin brown paper exactly nineteen feet six inches in length. eve measured 1t along the edge of the tataml) It was bill. Okashi San made bow for every foot in the strip and then began to read it to us.
 Many of the items were in fractions of cent. One for pepper was 50 O153, or as the Japanese read it. ''kosho Is sen go rin sammo." Gardner said the was unnecessary extravagance, as we could have gotten quite enough for an even 'is sen go rin. Three decI- mals was quite deep enough to go into kosho."
 Okashi bowed eight times and said, "sayo de gozaimasu. u.'--"Honorable truth so augustly deisns to be-" Which we interpreted gratefully to imply that next month there would be economy in .a
 When the reading was over we learned the total was $2l or a little over s1 a foot. We had expected noth- Ing less than $l60, estimating by the length of time 1t took to read from the beginning to the end. AS we did not have S2l, Gardner wired friend ip Tokio. and received s3O the next morn Ing. Thirty dollars is the telegraph limit. We paid Okashi San the s2f. and he returned In half an hour with red seal and a stamp at the end of his scroll. showing that the bill had been duly paid.
 We asked him if he was sure every thing had been settled for, as we were charmed with his having brought in a oill after so many protestations. and we wished to clean our state entirely While we were about 1t.
 Indeed that is all" said our land. lord. Tt is everything. even the rent"
 Upon this we devised how we should 1isburse the $s remaining out of the so0. We decided to study the famous No" 1ancing. and our money evaporated pleasantly.
 The next day. as we sat on the tata- mi' wondering if we should ever learn what to do with our legs, the karakami sid apart and Okashi Okusama ap- peared, bowling multitudinously. She 1ad roll of thin brown pa ner in Mar