Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-01
EVERY DAY LIFE IN JAPAN
Curious Comedies Of the Street in the
Empire Of the Rising Sun.
WHERE STUDENTS AND POOR FOLK DWELL
Enormous Loads Carried on the Backs
of COOIies-Language Of Flowers
Matched by the Lam
RuaEe OF the Fan.
Copyright. 1909, BY Douglas sladen.

peOpAe uuueT uNe Ieet nlRn, VINO appear 10
exist on manners sent from heaven.
Most Of the people in Toxic sell some
thing which fetches next to nothing. and
on New Years eve. when all debts must be
paid and they sell everything they have,
they go to each others sales, like the peo-
pie OF Porto Santo, who live by doing each
others washing now that there is no money
In the island for pickpoekets.
Not that the Japanese are given TO steal
ing. They are honest enough, except the
tr~adesmen, who in japan form the lowest
class except the beggars. Even they steal
with their tongues and not their fingers. l
don't see how the people in Toxic live.
They don't seem to manufacture anything
except university graduates, and, though
it's a port, there's hardly enough water for
a Junk. University students are the curse
Of the country; they grow into soshi-the
socialists Of Japan.
The Socialists Of Japan.
"what are soshi?" l asked the British
consul.
People who have too much education and
too little to eat"
Students swarm in the streets and In the
temples, which are the loafng places in
Japan. You know them because they wear
Japanese kimonos and German caps and i'm
itation German shoes and spectacles-per-
haps they think them, too. part Of the ma
tional tradition for upslde-downnessi 1t is
they who expel the master. not the master
who expels them.
The whole life Of the poor in Japan is a
comedy to those who do not have to live 1t.
Its scene is laid In the street. The poor
japanese simply live in the street, they sit
outside their houses when they have done
aA.t- 1.a.t, III. GgoIgona. 1Af that alf0ln0
outside makes any difference, because they
take the front of Of their houses whenever
It Is fine enough.
They are only apologies for houses, any
way. l have seen houses which had not
cost a sovereign and a man not Ave feet
high with a hand bucket putting out a
blaze which was coming through his roof.
The Japanese has his own notions about
roofs. When he is building his house he
builds the roof first; town roofs are made
OF heavy ~channelled tiles and weigh more
tina all the rest Of the house. They stand
typhoons better and experience has taught
him that In typhoon 1t is not your own
roof which falls on you. There is moth
ing private in his house, because there is
nothing in IL but a IRE box when It's beds
are rolled up and it's owner inside.
Horses Scarce In Japan.
: The FIRST thing you notice in a Japanese
street after the clatter of clogs 10 the alb
sence Of horses. They have a few, but a
child would not know that they were
horses. They are more like bears. They
ought to be labelled, like the articles in
shop windows. The japanese tailor puts
up a notice. These are trousers"
The beasts OF burden in Japan arc
human. l have seen e stone street roller
drawn by n hundred coolies, and a man
drawing a hay cart, and a man carrying a
CARLOAD Of hay upon his back. They do
not use wagons, but hand carts drawn by
3 one or two men. II the object is very
heavy. like a piano. It is carried. -Four
little Japs can carry a piano with ease
slung on bamboos like the shoulder pieces
used by London milkmen before they went
into partnership with the water com.
panies.
The human horse is more used for cabI
than carts. There is always a rlksha bowl
ing past or crawling for hire. or leaning OF
it's haft, ara at night the bobbing Of tn,
riksha\ lanterns is one Of the features o.
Japan. No one uses a four-legged hors,
without a man to run In front Of II WHIT
SlUws & child's horn and acts as a human
eowcatcher. He is wanted, for there is n,
country. not even Italy, nor even horselesI
Venice, where people make a house Of tn,
street as they do in Japan.
Children in the streets.
The middle OF the road is devoted to chill,
dren, little girls playing at skipping rop,
with babies on their backs, little boys play
ing battledore and shuttlecock past you,
nose, and peg-tops past your toes. Ant
you run the risk OF being hanged by oil
people flying kites from roofs on a leve
with your neck, Sidewalks in a popula
street are taken up with stalls. The pipe
mender cleans pipes at ten a penny ant
carries q box like a shos-black; the amey
makes toys out OF dough. blowing theu
like glass, mostly cocks and Cupids with
out noses, and the children's cooking-stall
q fascinating copper stove.
As the children who play at Il are abou
4, II is not an ideal toy, but 1t is OF oours
popular, because children have elementa
tastes; they like playing with IRE even bet
ter than with water. The piccaninny. While
looks as II It had been bought at Liberty
With Its speekled scarlet dress, Its bead
eyes, its waxy face and Its shAven hea
with top and side knots, puts down 'ts nas
and cooks. Its cash is petty cash. a col
with q hole In It, OF which you can bu
about a thousand on a straw string 70
hihSpVhVVs TUT hAo ~ mas not only IN
right OF burning its fingers, but receives
patch Of dough to cook. These stalls ar
always surrounded by children who loo
wonderfully wise, only you would know tina
they weren't dolls II they didn't run at tn
nose.
Little HOmes of Little People.
Real japanese streets are unlike anythin
European; you can almost see over II
houses. In the treaty ports there are a fe
streets, like the Gina at Toxic, quit
English, having houses with doors and VIII
dows, and shops with counters. The ord
nary streets are rather m~onotonous, beeauI
they have no public buildings except poll
stations. Tit theAters are packed In oil
street, government buildings are In con
pounds and temples In parks, The hous
OF the gentry are in suburbs,
The most important feature In a Japanei
street Is the radish-hawker. The radishJ
are about two feet long and are as thi,
a. lean vegetable marrows. Next come Il
police. who are dressed like ships stewar,
with army ehaplains' caps and cavali
sabeS. The japanese policeman is aiwa.
taking notes. Perhaps he Is beaten II
, goes home at night without having filled b
notebook. His general victim Is a riksl
hov uvha hoNaa hfs hat an froaf ~ htu, .,