The Savannah morning news., 1902-09-07
Copyright, 1902. by Douglas sladen.


Heaven.
Most of the people in Tokyo sell |
something which fetches next to |
nothing, and on New Years Eve, when !
all debts must be paid and they sell /
everything they have, they go to each !
others sales, like the people of Porto /;
Santo, who live by doing each others !;
washing now that there is no money !
in the island for pickpockets.
Not that the Japanese are given to !
stealing They are honest enough, ex- |
cept the tradesmen, who in Japan |
form the lowest class except the beg
ears. Even they steal with their
tongues, and not their fingers. I don't |
see how the people in Tokyo live. They |
don't seem to manufacture anything
except university graduates, and,
thought it's a port, there's hardly
enough water for junk. University |
students are the curse of the country;
they grew into soshi-the socialists of
Japan. -
what are soshi?"I asked the Brit
ish consul.
People who have too much educa-
ton and too little to eat"
Students swarm in the streets and
in the temples, which are the loaf1ing
places in Japan. You know them be-
cause they wear japanese kimonos and
German caps and imitation German
shoes and neutrality-suspicious. they
think them, too, part of the German
uniform They maintain the national
tradition for upside-downness; it is
they who expel the master, not the
master who expels them.
The whole life of the poor in Japan
is a comedy to those who do not have
to live it. Its scene is laid in the
street. The poor Japanese simply live
in the street, they sit outside their
houses when they have done their
work. like Sicilians; not that sitting
outside makes any difference, because
they take the front off of their houses
whenever it is fine enough.
They are only apologies for houses
anyway. 1 have seen houses which
had not cost a sovereign, and a man
not five feet high with hand bucket |
putting out a blaze which was COM
Ing through his roof The Japanese
has his own notions about roofs. When !
he is building his house he builds the !
roof first; town roofs are made of |
heavy channelled tiles and weigh more
than all the rest of the house. They
stand typhoons better, and experience
has taught him that in typhoon it is
not your own roof which falls on you.
There is nothing private in his house,
because there is nothing in it but a
fire box, when its beds are rolled up
and its owners inside.
The first thing you notice in a
Japanese street after the clatter of
clogs is the absence of horses. They
have few. but a child would not
know that they were horses. They
are more like bears. They ought 20
be labelled like the articles in shop
windows. The Japanese tailor puts up
a notice, '"These are trousers"
The beasts of burden in Japan are
human. l have seen a stone street.
roller drawn by a hundred coolies, and
man drawing a hay-cart, and a man
carrying a carload of hay upon his
back. They do not use wagons, but
handcarts. drawn by one or two men.
If the object is very heavy, like a
piano, it is carried. Four little Japs
can carry a piano with ease, slung on
bamboos like the shoulder pieces used
by London milkmen before they went
into partnership with the water COM
panies.
The human horse is more used for
cabs than carts. There is always a
hire or leaning on its haft, and at
night the bobbling of the riksha lam
terms is one of the features of Japan.
NO one uses a four-legged horse with
out a man to run in front of it who
blows a child's horn and acts as HUI
man cow-catcher. He is wanted, for
there is no country, not even Italy, nor
even horseless Venice, where people
make house of the street as they do
IN Japan.
Children in the Streets.
The middle of the road is devoted
to children, little girls playing at skip
ping rope with babies on their backs,
little Boys playing battledore and shut
tlecock past your nose, and peg-tops
past your tees. And you run the risk
OF being hanged by old people flying
Kites from roofs on a level with your
neck. Sidewalks in a popular street
are taken up with stalls. The pipe
mender cleans pipes at ten a penny,
and carries box like a shoe-black;
the ameya makes toys out of dough,
flowing them like glass, mostly cocks
anu CupidS without noses, and the
children's ccolling-stall, a fascinating
copper stove.
AS the children who play at it are |
about four, it is not an ideal toy, but |
IT is Of course popular, because chill
dren have elemental tastes; they like |
playing with fire even better than with |
water The piccaninny, which looks as
II 1t had been bought at Liberty's with |
us speckled scarlet dress, its beady |
eyes. its waxy face and it's shaver |
head with top and side knots, puts |
GOWN ito cash end cooks. It's cash is |
petty cash, a coin with a hole in it, of |
which you can buy about a thousand |
On straw string for ninepence. For |
this 1T has not only the right of burn |
ing its fingers, but receives a patch of |
dough to cook. These stalls are al |
ways surrounded by children look won
derfully wise, only you would know |
that they weren't dolls if they didn't |
tun at the nose.
Little Home of Little People.
Real Japanese streets are unlike |
anything European; you can almost |
see over the houses. In the Treaty |
ports there are a few Streets like the 1
GiuZa at Tokyo. quite English, having /
houses with occrs and windows, and |
shops with counters. The ordinary |
streets are rather mopotonous, because |
they have no public buildings except /
police stations. The theaters are pack /
90 In one street. government buildings |
are in compounds, and temples I'm |
parks. The house of the gentry are in |
suburbs.
The most important feature in a /
japanese street IL the radish-hawl5er.
Il ne radishes are about TWO feet long, 1
ID III 80