The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1902-07-27
| WOMAN OF UPPER CAST
| TAE e% d
| PPlhC ESS FUSNIMI

~ mer and it's cherries with
stones outside the fruit, Japan
has its oranges without pips and it's
screws which work the reverse way.
and does most other things upside
down from our point of view. The
women carry their babies on their
backs, instead of in their arms, and
blacken their teeth instead of trying
TO keep them white. They also try
as hard as they can to look old, and
the lower they are in class, the more
consideration they receive from their
husbands. There is generally, it must
be confessed, method in Japanese mad
ness, but it does look very mad to the
unreasoning globe trotter
Take, for instance, the matter of a
woman carrying her baby behind, in
stead Of in front-that is because girls
begin carrying babies so very young
In Japan that it becomes second nature
not to remember the baby at all, but
to go on doing whatever one is doing
without regarding the baby; in other
words, by this new patent way of car
rying baby woman can werk as well
as mind the child-which she does not
mind In fact, unless it is her first,
the mother does not generally carry
the baby; the last baby, If IL is a girl
and weaned, carries it. Little Japanese
girls are weaned Internationally late,
and begin their duties as women al
most as soon as they are weaned.
The first duty of woman, in the Jap
anese proverb, is obedience; the first
duty of a Japanese woman in practice
is, when she looks about four years
old, to carry the next baby in a haori
(shawD on her back. The baby is
fastened so securely that it's little
mothering sister can play ball or shut
uecock in spite of the pick-a-back.
The baby does not cry or Iaugh-Jap-
anese babies are very solemn-but mods
its head and runs at the nose. If there
is no younger sister to carry succeed
Ing babies as the years advance, the
girl will do her counting and her house,
work with the pick-a-back encum-
brance
Why They BIacken Their Teeth.
The Japanese woman does not black
en- her teeth under any mistaken idea
that it makes her attractive; she does
1t to make herself unattractive. Her
husband is supposed to know her value:
II he doesn't, he divorces her. He
makes no provision for her and she
has no dowry from her family, but a
divorced woman in Japan nearly all
ways marries again. She brings moth
ing but a gentle and obedient slave,
and takes nothing away with her but
the same valuable commodity.
The reason why lower class women
receive more consideration from their
husbands than their upper class sis
tiers is that they are capable or earn
ing their own living, which Japanese
ladies are not. So thoroughly is this
recognized that a lower class woman
divorces her husband if she is not sat-
isfted, thing which never happens in
more select circles, unless the woman
is an heiress, when the husband is of
as little consideration as a lady. It is
only when she has no brothers that a.
japanese woman may expect money
from her parents. If they have only a.
daughter to leave their money to. the
the consequences.
In households which are uncorrunt
ed by foreign influences, a woman. of
whatever class, is only servant, I'M
less her husband chooses otherwise
She is expected to wait on him, brush
and mend his clothes, only speak when
she is spoken to, and always give place
aux hommes. 1t is she who pushes
back the shutter for him to pass
through, and she is expected to walk
a pace or two behind him, even when
there is plenty of room for them to
go side by side. 1t makes no differ
ence If she is duchess, nothing makes
any difference, unless her husband is
an Anglomaniac, except her clothes.
If a Japanese buys foreign clothes for
his wife, he may treat her like for
eign lady'-walls with her beside him,
let her pass before him-even hand
her things. IN.
The same results if he is an Anglo
maniac, that ISL he likes intercourse
with English and Americans. In Japan,
Americans are. Regarded as Europeans,
and all Europeans are regarded as
English unless they are professors,
when they are Germans The Dutch
and Portuguese hardly rank as Euro