Omaha daily bee., 1902-10-05

copyright, 1902, by Douglas .Sladen.)
lCT1EA houses and geisha girls make
up that mournful ceremony of a
e japanese banquet; the food is of
SSpV no .consequence-to a Euro
Taken separately they are not bad; your
Town dinners at the foreign hotel would
be much enlivened by performances of
1 geishas-they would do as we'll as a
yeomanry band. And tea houses are not
so bad if you don't take their tea, though
their teas are less awful than the din
lneTs unless you do the correct thing and
ta~ salted cherry blossoms with them.
japanese dinners are a refined kline Of
torture; you are expected to sit on your
heels and eat off the floor. Lovely little
m~ousmees, with scarlet petticoats, come
and kneel before you. But what is the
use of it, when you are kneeling yourself,
because, not being a Jap, you can't sit on
your knees? Besides your mousmee spends
all her time in playing hide-and-seek with
your sake bottle. No good restaurant will
lRt you drink sake that isn't hot enough,
sand as you don't drink it at all, it soon
gets below the proper point and your
mousmee goes for more. You are behav-
ing very badly. The Japanese never keeps
|his sake waiting.
The food is a worse trial. Live fish
might do if you could persuade yourself
to treat it like an oyster, but seawerd
soup and lard sweetmeats and custard
|mado with pickle and fish Juice are nov
elites too striking for the male European
mach. When you are drowning YOU
th III sJraWs and when you are having
Jsr-nese banquet you catch at any
hing you know by sight, like a plum or
potato, but it is only a subtler form of
~ortL"@, for the plum is sure to be sailed
nd The potato cooked in syrup.
Even if the. things were good to eat. ycu
ouldh help yourself with chopsticks; it's
20 pu h like eating soup with a fork. I'm
eterred by your not eating, the dinner goes
n for hours, while you wonder which will
appen first-your knee joints give way or
our calves go fiat. If you have been to a
japanese banquet before, you prop Yourself
p against the wall. That is the only way
ou can sit on the floor for hours. The
lousmees are so pretty and so nice that if
gu 60 get up to leave they always per-
lade you to sit down again.
AND when 1t is all over comes the unkind-
st cut of all. Politeness demands hat
lou should make a separate excuse for
NAS-sh you cannot eat; it's no use, for
are getting into your 'riksha your
louS..-ee hands you a pile OF white wooden
oNes in which she has carefully packed
Verythlng you could not eat, for you to
axe TO your honorable family, and etiquette
emands that you should take them. Though
GU give them to your 'riksha boy as soon
s you are out of sight. Etiquette is the
kaisCr Of Japan.
S no good looking at the geisha while
Dre going through these tortures; YOU
Re not in a state of health to make al
wances for their voices or their music, and
heir wit is lost upon you, which is, per-
laps, Just as well. The geisha, except in
ne kind of ballets you get at the Mamie
ub, does not suit Europeans. She dances
ithout her feet and sings without a voice.
he does not, as the unco' guild assert. he
ing to the Oldest profession in the world
pit necessarily. Her real function is to
%nsole the dissipated Japanese for the all
nse CT actresses in his country. Nine.
ida 4acco is a japanese woman, but a
Restern idea.