The Savannah morning news., 1902-11-02
13 and ~ Rrou@htOn Street. West.

rikshaboy 715d. (worth only 3%d. in
debased dollars) an hour. OF course,
If you understand the soroban-the
abacus of moving beads on which he
does his counting you have him at your
mercy.
He always calculates what a thing
cost him on his soroban, and If you
watch that you know where his bed
rock comes in--he thinks that for
eigner is too big fool to understand
IT, I was too big a fool but Mr.. Lam
dor, the Thibetan traveller, understood
it. / had a better plan not to ask the
price. 1 computed the sum at which
an article would be a gift, took it up,
and made my offer. If the proprietor
said mo" contemptuously l put 1T down
and told the rikshaboy to drive on to
the next secondhand shop.
returned by the same route as 1
went out on these shopping expedl-
lions and on the drive back was sa-
luted the whole way by little boys
running from their masters to say
"Yoroshii!" (GoodD' which is the Jap
anese way of saying yes. They have
no proper words for Yes and mo"
ii is not polite to be too definite, and
the Oriental never knows when he
may regret promise. II the proprie-
tor showed a willingness to do business
by only raising me little. l made one
fresh offer, supposing | really wanted
the thing.
Before I had been living in Tokyo a
month all the shops in my favorite
haunts knew me for a man of my
word and also knew, with Oriental
intuition, If / really wanted a thing or
would only take it as bargain. In
this way purchases were made like
lightning. If my price paid them,
they jumped at It; If it didn't they told
me their lowest price and shook their
ed. This shopping from a riksha was
fresh air and poker combined.
Those were the most exhilarating
days / ever spent. / adorned my sit
ting-rooms at Tokyo while was living
there with my trophies. and when / left
Japan sent them all to England. in five
cases large enough for me to stand in.
They are all in my Japanese room.
Whether you are a lady or gentle
man, If you live long in Japan you
have yourself refitted by a Chinese
tailor on the model of your own or
your most recently arrived friends gar
rnents. But I must not discuss the
humors of dealing with Cock Eye &
Co, who keep their word and excellent
materials: nor those Of the camphor-
wood-box and basket-chair makers. If
a foreigner has only one day in Yoko-
hama and goes to only one shop it will
be to the silk handkerchief shop of one
Shobbey, who was so impressed by the
Importance which the English attach
to well-known brands, that he used to
label his boxes Of handkerchiefs with
the name of a well-known British firm.
He sells excellent handkerchiefs at
fairly moderate fixed prices, also silks
by the piece; but foreigners in the
know do not buy silk by the piece, or
in a shop which has a door and coun-
ter; they buy 1t by weight from a
Chinaman If they want white or nat
ural-colored silk, or from Nozawaya
II they want the gay light Japanese
silk.
Nozawaya, who lives in the street Of
the Japanese Venus, has most Of his
shop taken up with the staircase Of
which he is so proud, and uses his floor
for his counter: so you take Off your
boots instead Of your hat when you go
into his shop.
Next TO silk shops. transient