Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-26
The Topsy- Turvy Lives They
Nearly All Lead.
CHARMING MANNERS
LOWER THE CLASS, THE BETTER
THE WEAKER SEX PRosPERs.
Upper Class Men Divorce Their Wives
but It is the Other Way With
the Poor.
Copyright, 1902, by Douglas Sladen.)
.ritten for The Evening Stir

copyright, taO2, by Douglas Sladen)
Written for The Evening Star.
Japan is the antipodes as much as Aus
tralia. If Australia has it's Christmas at
midsummer and its cherries with stones
outside the fruit, Japan has its oranges
without pips and its screws which work
the reverse way, and does most other things
upside down from our point of view. The
women carry their babies on their backs,
instead of in their arms, and blacken their
teeth, instead of trying 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
confessed method in japanese madness.
but it does look very mad to the unreason-
ing globe trotter.
Take for instance, the matter of a wo-
man carrying her baby behind, instead of
in front-that Is because girls begin carry
ing babies very young in Japan that it
becomes second nature not to remember
the baby at all, but to go on doing whatever
one is doing without regarding the baby;
in other words, by this new patent way of
carrying baby woman can work as well
as mind the chld-which she does not mind
In fact, unless it is her first, the mother
does not generally carry the baby; the last
baby, if it is girl and weaned, carries it.
Little Japanese girls are Weaned uncon-
Sc1onably late, and begin their duties as
women almost as soon they are weaned.
The first duty of woman, in the japanese
proverb, is obedience; the first duty OF
Japanese woman in practice is, when she
looks about four years old, to carry the
next baby in haori (shawD on her back.
The baby Is fastened securely that it's
little mothering sister can play ball or shut
uecock in spite Of the pick-a-back. The
baby does not cry or laugh-Japanese ba-
bieS are very soemn-but mods it's head
and runs at the nose. If there is no younger
sister to carry succeeding babies as the
years advance, the girl will do her counting
and her housework with the pick-a-back
encumbrance.
Why They Blacken Their Teeth.
The japanese woman does not blacke
her teeth under any mistaken idea that it
makes her attractive; she does it to make
herself unattractive. Her husband is sup
posed 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 al
ways marries again. She brings nothing
but gentle and obedient slave. and takes
nothing away with her but the same Valua-
BILE commodity.
The reason why lower class women re-
ceive more consideration from their hus-
bands than their upper class sisters is that
they are capable of earning their own liy-
thoroughly is this recognized that a lower
class woman divorces her husband if she is
not satisfied, a thing which never happens
in more select circles, unless the woman is
an heiress. when the husband is of as little
consideration as a lady. 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 to take her
name-and the consequences.
In households which are uncorrupted by
foreign influences a woman. of whatever
class, is only a servant, unless her husband
chooses otherwise. She is expected to wait
on him, brush and mend his clothes only
speak when she is spoken to, and ALWAYS
give place aux hommes. 1t is she who
pushes back the shutter for him to pass
through and she is expected to walk
pace or two behind him, even when there
is plenty of room for them to go side by
side. 1t makes no difference if she is a
duchesse, nothing makes any difference
unless her husband is an Anglo-manfac
except her clothes. If a Japanese buys for
eign clothes for his wife he may treat her
like a foreign lady, walk with her beside
him, let her pass before him-even hand
her things.
The same results If he is an Anglo
maniac; that is, if he likes intercourse with
English and Americans. In Japan Amer