Arizona republican., 1903-12-26
SCHOOL GIRL IN JAPAN
Cosmopolitan Attainments of Little
 Lady of Nippon.

 of the new Japan is the school girl. She shuffies gracefully to her academy Tn the clogs and kimona of old Nippon, to study with docile facility a Euro pean college curriculum, and at least one foreign language, as the pioneer of the new education. There are thorns in her path, too, undreamed of by the Occidental student. The foreign lan- guage begins at the wrong end of the hook. and reads from left to right in- stead of up and down she finds diff culty in concentrating her attention when raised on a chair and imprisoned by a desk: her wadded kimona, com fortable in her fireless, paper walled home, is far too warm for the stove heated class room. and she is always liable to be married in the midst of her studies.
 In spite of these handicaps she read lily acquires even the higher education, and is almost painfully anxious to ex- eel, often overtaXing her frail little body and bright eyes in studying by the foggy flare of the andon long after her elders are asleep. Her own Ian guage by itself presents a fair field for her industry. for in ordinary reading and writing at least 1000 characters are used. and scholars. owing to the ad- mixture of Chinese. must master twice as many
 In addition to the new western learn ing so far, at least. she has retained that of the Land of the Rising Sun. where the proverbial "tuppence" must always have been paid. She studies, as her ancestors. the Daimyo and the Samural, studied, the art of opening
 frnur If teacups. gracious reception of presents, and so on: in fact. so careful and elab- crate are her etiquette lessons that no possibility of unpreparedness for emer- gencies is left to the Japanese maiden, who gains an entire self possession through a thorough knowledge of how 10 act on all occasions. important or trivial-together with hab!tual polite ness and charm.
 In the department class she masters the difficulties of walking in clogs and handals, ot sitting on and rising from the floor, and of lowing with grace in her tight kimona-her bows are often literally to the ground. remember.
 The arrangement of flowers is a de- iightful lesson. and important, consld- ering that a flower vase is often the sole furniture in room. Much time is spent in demonstration of how they should not be grouped, our old bou- auets being the earliest object lesson.
 Ceremonial tea infusing-quite diff ferent thing from ordinary tea making -is a very serious study. The number and depth of the salutations. the order of serving-everythi in fact, from the heating of the water to the wash ing of the tiny bowls prescribed by a rigid and elaborate etiquette, mis- take in which would be fatal to well bred girls reputation.
 The reduced gentlewoman instructs In these dainty arts. but her lessons are growing unpopular and girls too engrossed in sterner studies to pay hearty attention to the minute exact ments of old Japanese formaliues. Boys schools have already discarded her counsels of perfection, and prob ably in a few generations middle class girls will make their salutations and their tea minus the exquisite polite ness of the Honorable Madame Eti- quette.
 Music is always taught by women or hlind persons. AIistocratic maidens learn the biwa Oyre) or kOto (harp). and middle class girls the samisen. or E Irent much esteemed by the highly born students-it is a profession. not a .pleasure-but painting is a very inn portant one. and taught with true Jap anese conventionality The master ar rlves. squats on the talaine (mats). and begins to draw either from a model or his inner consciousness. His pupils. squatting around him. watch intently his firm. dashing strokes. When his sketch is complete they endeavoT to copy his production, and not until a like effect in the same number or strokes has been obtained, and can be reproduced from memory, may they proceed to another subject. In this the charming conventionality of Japan is easily traced. although its results are not invariably happy, as when Hosku- sal painted that fabulOusly impossible s;ocalled horse which all Japanese ar lists reverently copy today. not be- cause Hokusai was considered such q good painter of horses, On holidays. which are as common. luckily. in the Japanese calendar as saints days In our. the students march in gay pro- sessions. carrying branches of blossoms and banners to the parks, there to play games and drink tea, and sometimes even to have peep at a strolling the atre. though, strictly speaking, this joy is forbidden the fair sex till after 40!- New York News.