The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1902-11-14
SERVANTS IN JAPAN
A LAND WHERE DOMESTIC SERVICE
is CONSIDERED AN HONOR.

/ hoteIs anu HOW They Work.
Household Servants That Are Equal
In Birth to Their Masters.
They have some curious notions
about servants in Japan. Instead of
its being considered disgrace to go
into domestic service in that country
/, it is an honor. writes Mr.. Douglas Sla-
i den
Jinrikisha 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 Outcasts. Grooms are excluded as
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 Ell
| 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 very different esti-
| nation. In 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 hui
i mil1ty to their employers which would
| paralyze an Englishman with any
sense Of humor, and their masters as
sumo an etiquette air of command
| But from every one else these serv-
ants expect 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"
| To go to a Japanese hotel for the
| first time is like going to farce. 1t 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. 81 you say if you are new to it,
'I'll have some 2. and I'll take some
| and 8 with it, please" He catches
some numbers and brings them. but
you would have far better chance of
| getting what you want if you simply
said 2. 9.
You can hardly hear yourself speak
for the scruff. scruff 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 so we'll. because it is not
natural for a japanese "boy" not to
run.
A japanese hoy" has one good quail
ity. Though he cannot understand Eng
fish. before you have been in the house
three days he will know your tastes,
and if you like the breast of 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 you
prefer.
IT he saw you using teaspoon after
your wife. he would very likely bring
you a used teaspoon with your next
mornings tea. His motto is that there
| is no accounting for the madness of
foreigners and the forms it will take.
p11f ic
| ferent person. He has intelligence and
| often fair command Of English.
There is nothing that a Japanese
room boy cannot do. | would trust him
| to mend my watch. have tried him
| on such varied problems as Turing a
| frightened canary back to its cage.
| fishing up small coin that had fallen
| through a crack in the floor and mend
| ing the lock Of portmanteau. One Of
| them even said that he could take in
| felt hat which | gave him so large for
| him that his ears did not stop it,
| The Japanese like their hats to rest
| upon their ears. They can mend your
| clothes or put q button on and are
| handler than sailors. They expect you
to show them all your purchases and
| always tell you how much more or how
| much less you ought to have paid.
! In the transient life of hotel you
| see the farcical side of japanese serv-
| ants. The pristine and sentimental side
| you only get in private family. where
| the servants, like the pages of the mid
die ages. may be equal in birth to their
masters. but willing to do service in
| his household because he is famous
| poet or noble or man of science, so as
| to gather the crumbs OF education
| which fall from his table.-Exchange