The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1903-06-11

toward the goal of European civiliZa-
ton which Japan has made since tire
opening of the then isolated country by
Commodore Perry, and especially the
showing of the Japanese armies in the
war with China and the more recent
invasion of the Flowery Kingdom by
the allied powers, have changed the
worlds opinion, and if war with Rus
STA does come the betting will not be
all upon the soldiers of the car.
No race in the history of the world
has made such progress in such a short
time as has the japanese. The popu-
larity of foreign innovations has been
SO great, in fact, that there has been
danger of reaction. Many travellers
have lamented that with this modern
izatien Of Japan the country is losing
its unique beauty and the people its
individuality. Still, with all the up
to dateness of the court and the up
per classes. the commona1ty has re-
tanned most of the customs of its an
cestors. Many of the great families.
too, cling to the old regime, and the
searcher after the picturesque will find
no lack of it here.
Tokyo contains million and half
of persons, who are SO courteous that a
punster has declared they must live on
manners sent from heaven" and most
of them are to be found in the streets
at all hours of the day. They sit out
side their houses when their work is
done. and, weather permitting, they
usually have the fronts of their houses
off, letting the street come in. The
houses are only apologies for houses
anyway. Some of them cost no more
than SIS. In building his house the
japanese follows out the national ira
dition of doing everything upside
down He builds the roof first.
The foreigner at once notices the abb
sence of horses in the streets. They
have few here, but they look more
like bears than horses. The beasts of
burden of Japan are men. One may
see stone street roller drawn by a
hundred coolies, and on the hand carts
which take the place of wagons are
carried all sorts of things from hay to
pianos.
There is always a rickshaw bobbing
around with a man running ahead of
the human horse with a horn to warn
pedestrians to get out of the way.
The middle of the road is devoted to
children playing battledoor and shut
tlecock and skipping ropes. They look
like animated dolls. Little girls while
they play carry on their backs their
small brothers or sisters and hardly
seem to notice the membranes. On
the housetops are older people flying
kites. on the strings of which the I'M
wary passer is likely to get hanged, as
the housetops are about as high as
ones neck.
The sides of the streets are lined
with stalls of pipe members and sellers
OF articles of little cost. The japanese
popular. as is also the children's cook
ing stall. For piece of copper with a
hole in the center the japanese infant
obtains the privilege of cooking piece
Of dough at this stall and of burning
its fingers to its hearts content.
The front of a temple is easily rec
ognized by the row of shoes and san
dals outside. A Jap takes off his foot
wear instead of his hat when he en-
tiers holy place, probably for the rea-
son that he seldom wears hat. When
hat is necessary the poor Japanese
matches himself with straw. The men
CT the higher classes wear magnificent
umbrellas in lieu of headgear. and the
cody ties a towel around his forehead.
Some of the Anglomaniacs wear dirty
gray derbies.
Laundry work. writing letters and al
most anything except blowing his nose
the Jap does on the street. That be
must do in the privacy of his domicile.
In the public lighthouses both sexes
battle near each other, separated only
by bamboo float.
The New Years festival is the time
to see the streets at their best. Then
they are filed with gay decorations,
geishas in their finest clothes dancing
dragon dances. fremen doing acrobatic
stunts" and the overpowering smell Of
incense. ROBERT MINISTER.