Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-10-24
SERVANTS IN JAPAN
A LAND WHERE DOMESTIC SERVICE
IS CONSIDERED AN HONOR.

The "Boys' That Wait ON Table In
Hotels and How They Work..
Household Servants That Arc Equal
In Birth to Their Masters.
They have some curious notions
about servants in Japan. Instead OF
its being considered a disgrace to go
into domestic service in that country
it is an honor. writes Mr.. Douglas Sla-
den.
J~inrikisha boys and grooms may not
have the honor Of being servants at
all, but are tradesmen, which is the
lowest thing Of all in Japan short of
being an eta, or member of the class
of o~utcasts. Grooms are excluded as
a betting, gambling, cheating lot (the
Japanese think it impossible for a
groom to be honesty and the rickshaw
boys as rough people without any man
ners.
There are two classes Of servants.
personal and kitchen. Kitchen serv-
ants need have no knowledge of eti-
quette. They are sometimes rough
creatures from the country, no better
than rickshaw boys. They are dull.
contented drudges, but Cook San (Mr.
Cook is held in a very different esti-
nation. In a small household he does
the catering and keeps the accounts as
well as superintends the ridiculous lit
tie birds nest of charcoal ash which
cooks the meals in Japan.
The personal servants show a hui
mility to their employers which would
paralyze an Englishman with any
ense of humor, and their masters as
sumo an etiquette air of command.
But from every one else these serv-
ants expect a considerable amount of
politeness.
Hotel servants are male and female.
Hotels for Europeans generally have
men housemaids as we'll as men wait
ers and call them all 'boys." "a:
To go to a, Japanese hotel for the
first time is like going to a farce. It is
impossible to keep serious. In the din
ing room you are surrounded by panto-
mime imps dressed in indigo cotton
doublets and hose, who run about
shoeless and are called boys" and
look like boys until the day they die.
Half Of them know no English except
the numbers. Each has a number to
himself. and each dish on the menu
has a number, even down to the pota-
toes. ,
mo. s." you say If you are new to it,
"IIl have some 2, and I'll take some z
and 9 with it, please" He catches
some numbers and brings them, but
you would have a far better chance of
getting what you want if you simply
said 2, Z, g.
You can hardly hear yourself speak
for the scruf, scruf across the floor.
You think it is lucky they don't wear
boots. At very grand hotels they wear
blue serge suits like ships stewards
and bad limitations Of foreign shoes
and they don't run. and then they
don't wait 81 we'll. because it is moi
natural for a japanese hoy" not tt
run. T..
A japanese boy has one good quail
ity. Though he cannot understand Eng
lish, before you have been in the house
three days he will know your tastes
and If you like the breast of q chicken
better than the leg you will get it, and
you will have your steak to look purple
or burned under when it is cut, as vol
prefer.
If he saw you using a teaspoon aftel
your wife, he would very likely bring
you a used teaspoon with your mex
mornings tea. His motto is that Their
is no accounting for the madness O
foreigners and the forms it will take.
But your bedroom boy is a very diff
ferent person. He has intelligence an,
often a fair command of English.
There is nothing that a Japanes
room boy cannot do. / would trust hin
to mend my watch. i have tried hi1
on such varied problems as Turing
frightened canary back to its Gag
fishing up a small coin that had falle
through a crack in the floor and memo
ing the lock of a portmanteau. One Q
them ven said that he could take in
felt hat which l gave him sc large fc
him that his ri did not stop it.
The Japanese like their hats to re-
upon their ears. They can mend you
clothes or put a button on and al
handler than sailors. They expect 70
to show them all your purchases an
always tell you how much more Or ho'
much less you ought to have paid.
In the transient life of a hotel 70
see the farcical side of japanese ser
ants. The pristine and sentimental sic
you only get in a private family, whel
the servants, like the pages of the mil
die ages, may be equal in birth to the
masters, but willing to do service ]
his household because he is a famo1
poet or noble or man Of science, SO 8
to gather the crumbs Of educatiC
which fall from bis table.-Exchange
3a Economy. -.
Fudge-Yes. Spinks has a splend
system of economy.