The suburban citizen., 1902-08-30
LOTOFJAPANESE WOMEN
CONDITIONS THAT SEEM ODD TO
WESTERN EYES.

the Woman is Treated--Also, the Pret
tier She Is-She Has No Jewelry e
Speak or.
Japan is the antipodes as much NJ
Australia. If Australia has its Christ
mas at midsummer and its cherries
with stones outside the fruit. japan
has its oranges without plps and Goe,
most things upsidedown from oul
point of view.
The women carry their babies or
their backs instead of on their arms
and blacken their teeth instead of try
ing 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 con.
fessed, method in japanese madness
but 1t does not look very mad to the
unreasoning globe trotter. Take. for
instance, the matter Of a wOman's
carrying babies when so very young
that 1t becomes second nature not TO
remember the baby at all, but to go
on doing whatever one is doing with
out regarding the baby; in other words.
by the new patent way of carrying a
baby woman can work as well as
mind the child-whlch she does not
mind.
In fact, unless 1t is her first the
mother does not generally carry the
baby; the last baby, if it is a girl and
weaned, carries it. Little Japanese
girls are weaned unconsclonably 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 frs.
duty Of japanese woman in practice
is, when she looks about four years
old, to carry the next baby IL an haori
(shawD on her back.
The baby is fastened so securely that
its little mothering sister can play bail
or shuttlecock in spite OF the plck-a-
back. The baby does not cry or laugh
japanese babies are very solemn-but
mods its head and runs at the nose.
III there Is no younger sister to carry
succeeding babies as the years ad-
vance, the girl will do her courting
and her housework with the plck-a-
back encumbrance.
The Japanese woman does not
blacken her teeth under any mistaken
idea that it makes her attractive: she
does 1t to make herself unattractivc.
Her husband is supposed to know her
value; if 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
always marries again. She brings moth
ing but 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 the upper class sisters
is that they are capable OF earning
their own llyings, which Japanese
ladies are not. SO thoroughly is this
recognized that lower class woman
divorces her husband if she is lot
satisfied, a thing which never happens
in more select circles, unless The !
woman is an heireSs, when the hus.
band is Of as little consideration as a |
lady.
1t 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 son-in-law has to take her name
land the consequences.
In households which are uncorrupted
by foreign Influences. a woman. of
whatever class, is only a servant un-
less her husband chooses otherwise.
She Is expected to wait on him, brush
md mend his clothes, speak only when
she is spoken to- and always give place
lux hommes.
1t is she who pushes back the shutter
'or him to pass through, and She is
to walk pace or two behind
lim. even when there is plenty Of
'oom for them to go side by side. II
makes no difference if she is a Ouch.
'ss, nothing makes any difference. un.
ess her husband is an Anglo-maniac,
Except for clothes. If japanese buys
'oreign clothing for his wife. he NAV
reat her like foreign lady, walk with
Ter beside him, let her pass before him
-eyen hand her things.
A kimono is more adapted to the
european lady's figure if 1t is worn
'ackside foremost, and the Partisan
costume suits the Japanese figure bet
er backside foremost. If the dress
omes from Germany. it does not sig
lify so much, because the Germans
re broad-minded in their notions OF tit.
A well-dressed japanese woman is
led in Mt the knees so that she may
lot seem to walk too freely. Japanese
yemen do not wear gloves, which is
great saving to their families, seeing
nat every glove in Japan which is not
called up in a pickle bottle or a biscuit
in, gets the spotty mould in the first
ew hours Of the rainy season.
When her hands are cold she pills
hem up into her sleeves, which are
1ng and hanging, as they were when
ling Arthur's court began, and "hc