The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1902-09-14
LOTOFJAPANESE WOMEN
CONDITIONS THAT SEEM ODD TO
WESTERN EYES.

Japan is the antipodcs as much as
Australia. II Australia has It's Christ
mas ut midsummer and its cherries
with stones outside the truit, Japan
has its oranges without pips and does
mort things upSIde-down from our
point Of view.
The women carry their babies on
their backs instead Of on their arms
and blacken their tcath Instead OF try
ing to keep them white. They also
try as hard as they can TO look old.
and the lower they ara in class the
mere consideration they receive from
their husbands.
There is generally. ii must be con-
fessed. method in JapancSc madness.
but it does not look very mad to the
unreasoning glolte trotter Take. for
instance. the matter of woman's
carrying babies when so worry young
that it 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 Il
baby woman can work 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. il il is n girl and
weaued, carries It. Little Japanese
girls are weaned unconscionably late
and begin their duties as women al
most Us soon rs they are wcaned.
The first duty OF woman, in the Jap
aneSe proyerb. is obedience; the frs,
duty of a Japanese woman in practice
is. when she looks about four years
old, to carry the next baby in an haori
SHAWL on her back.
The baby is fastened so securely that
its little mothering sister can play ball
or shutllecOck in spite of the pick-a-
back. The baby does not cry or laugh
Japanese babies are very sOlemn-but
mods its head and runs at the nose
Ii there is no younger sister TO carry
succeeding babies as the years adj
vance. the girl will do her counting
ana her homework with the pick-a-
back encumbrance.
The japanese woman does not
Dlackcn her teeth under any mistaken
idea that it makes her attractive; she
does it to make herself unattractivc.
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 Il divorced woman in Japan nearly
always marrles 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 the upper class sisters
is that they are capable of earning
their own livings, which japanese
ladies are not SO thoroughly is this
recognized that a lower class woman
divorces her husband il she is not
satisfied, a thing which never happens
in more select circles, unless the
woman is an heirees, when the hus-
band is OF as little consideration as a
lady. ~ ss4.sTsfSssEgsje
1t is only when she has no brothers
that japanese woman may expect
money from her parents. If they have
only a daughter to leave their money
TO. the son-in-law has 10 take her name
and the consequences.
In households which are interrupted
by foreign influences, a woman. of
whatever class. is only a servant, UNI
less her husband chooses otherwise.
She is expected to wait on him, brush
and mend his clothes, speak only when
she is spoken to, ana always give place
aux hOmmes.
II is she who pushes back the shutter
for him to pass through, and she is
expected to walk Il pace or two behind
him. even when there is plenty Of
room for them to 90 side by side II
makes no difference if she is Ouch
ess nothing makes any difference, un.
hess her husband is an Anglo-maniac.
except for clothes. IL a Japanese buys
foreign clothing for his wife, he may
treat her like foreign lady, walk with
her beside him, let her pass before him
even hand her things.
A kimono is more adapted TO the
European lady's figure IL it is worn
backside foremost, and the Partisan
costume suits the japanese figure bet
ter backsidc foremost. II the dress
comes from Germany. it does not sig
Nifty so much, because the. Germans
are broad-mindcd in their notions of 1T.
A well-dressed japanese woman is
tied in at the knees so that she may
NOT seem 10 walk too freely. Japanese
women DO not wear gloves, which is
a great saving TO their families seeing
that every glove In Japan which is not
sealed up in a pickle bottle or a biscuit
tin, gets the spotty mould in the first
few hours of the rainy season.
When her hands are cold she pulls
them up into her sleeves. which are
long and hanging, as they were when
King Arthm's court began. ana he
had three ancient serying-mcn. and all
OF them were thieves" Doubtless
those ancient serying-mcn. Ike the
modern japanese woman, had their
sleeves half hemmed up for pockets.