Evening star., 1902-08-16


it is ordinary for the ma:dservants to troop
in and squat in the corner and do their
sewing. and no breach of etiquette for them
to enter into the family conversation, for
all the air of exaggerated humility which
exists between them and their employers.
But japanese servants have hardly any
rights at ALL and are not expected to eX-
ercise what they have.
All Women Are Servants.
There is no servant caste in Japan Half
the population are born servants, unless
women are less numerous in Japan than
elsewhere. All women are the servants of
their relatives, unless they are servants Of
somebody else. The mistress of the house
hold is in theory only the chief servant and
she never allows any one to perform any
domestic service for her husband or her
children except those which she lacks the
time strength to perform herself. There
are certain menial duties which the great
est duchess will not hand over to a servant
unless she is corrupted by European civ
iliZation.
AS there is enough red tape for war
Office in Japanese households. the number
Of servants is proportionately large and
the pay proportionately small. They only
get few dollars a month, and have to
board themselves. This is because in Japan
servant does what he likes with his bed
room. and houses his wife and his children
and his parents. If he has any. custom
too firmly rooted to be disputed. There are
two classes of servants-personal and kitch-
en-. Kitchen servants need have no knowl-
edge of etiquette. They are sometimes
rough creatures from the country. no bet
ter than riksha boys: they are dull con-
tented drudges; but Cook San--Mr Cook
is held in very different estimation. In
small household he does the catering and
keeps the accounts, as well as Superntends
the ridiculous Little birds nests of charcoal
ash which cook the meals in Japan.
The personal servants show humility TO
their employers which would paralyZe an
EngliShman with any sense of humor. and
their masters assume an "etiQuette' air of
command. But from every one else these
servants expect a considerable amount of
politeness. You call Japanese servant Mr..
in addressing him If you are not his mas
ter-Tara San. Mr.. Goldfish. Taro San.
Mr.. Eldest Son, whatever his honorable
name is. A Japanese servant may be quite
a well-born person.
"Samurai' Sometimes Servants.
The fact of all women being in reality
servants prevents domestic service being
confined to a particular class, and raises
the estimation in which it is held. Some
times servants, even in hotels, are "samu-
rai," or gentlemen entitled to wear two
swords, if it were not against the law to
wear swords at all. When 1 was a bov
Japan was full of feudal princes called
"daimio,'' whose income was reckoned in
bushels of rice, and who kept armies of
these two-sworded gentlemen, as many as
they could afford. 1t was infra dig for
gentleman to do anything except fight and
write poetry. But domestic service from a
samurai to a noble was an honor, and still
in Japan it is an honor to be the domestic
servant of a great noble.
When the feudal armies were abolished
there were 100000 samurai out of a job,
and there were very few Jobs that they
We're fit for except printers and policemen,
and domestic servants. This is not a para
hlIt faP a1 nrir1 terc
because they were literary. This would not
follow in England, but in Japan, where
they have no letters. but 10000 words in
ordinary use, each with a separate picture
or telegraph to represent it, it was some
thing for the printer to know his alphabet.
They make admirable policemen, because
the populace have such wholesome recol-
lection of the times when Sumarl could
cut your head off if you looked at him, and
because they are acquainted with 'juditsu,"
the noble art of seIf-defense, as practiced in
Japan and by prize hghters everywhere. The
policeman is as insignificant in statue as he
is aristocratic in birth but when he knows
'juditsu,'' he knows all the springs in the
human body. and can send giant flying
over his head IL he can catch his wrist or
foot AS Japan does not yet require 2.00o,-
900 printers or policemen or high govern
ment officials, and as the necessity for
servants we always have with US, 1t is
natural that some Samurai drift into what
we call service, to distinguish 1t from the
services
A Cultivated Servant.
We had one for bed room boy in the
hotel at Kloto He wore a mask of i'm
penetrable stupidity. He might have been
servant in a pantomime But one day IT
lighted up I had seen charming little
book about the size of a birthday book,
with delicate hand-paintings on some of the
leaves and good many blank leaves,
which l thought would do for kodaks.