The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-02-28
JAPANESE HOMES.

A Good Deal of Artiaciality at the Ex- pense of Happiness.
 | In most civilized countries to-day the
 wishes of the husband are the main
 spring of the wife's action, but in Japan
 it is the husbands will. Woman Is a
 fool" said a Japanese gentleman once in my hearing, and proved myself no
 exception to the generalization, for I i listened to him., But" he continued, Eff she will obey her husband people won't laugh at her. Japanese women
 are much better than European women, ! though. The western women rule eve
 rything; they think they are great gods. Their hubsands are very unwise and cowardly to let them behave in such proud style. The European wife, in- stead of waiting on her husband, makes
 him get everything for her!" The whole was uttered in & tone that inl-
 piled Disgusting and preposterous!" l have quoted this statement because
 1t was one which might have been made
 by any score of husbands and fathers
 In Tokyo. Now and then one finds
 man of far more liberal opinions, but
 we must take the average when we
 speak of nationality. The average
 mans opinion ow woman is that she is
 greatly his inferior. On this corner
 stone he rears the institution of the
 family. The little son, long before he
 has learned to tell the truth and to
 curb his temper, knows his mothers
 place, for, strange as it may seem, each mother is careful that the grand old doctrine of man shall be faithfully preserved. In its obliviousness to tht power of well-developed woraanhood Japan is far behind the other Christian nations and far behind her own ideals.
 It is not that the Japanese married woman has to toll and moil necessarily for the household. She Is provided with one servant always, unless the family be poor one, and often with many. Her business, as in our own homes in that respect, is that of over- seer. She has leisure, in which she oc- cupies herself much as any woman in our own land might if she had only 8 moderate education and rather narrow interests. The Japanese wife has more actual freedom than any other wife in the east. The Turkish women are cap- tives in comparison. The Japanese are proud to admit this, but they jeaIously guard the conservatism they deem me- cessary.
 The husband in Japan admires his wife when she is obedient above all things. He has complete authority over her, which he often abuses by alternate fits of cruelty and indulgence.
 Said student to me once, speaking of gentleman who had married a gei- sha: "Mr. Otsuka loves his wife all the time It is curious thing"
 Why was it a curious thing? Be- cause love is the highest expression of the individuality and the Japanese strive unceasingly to suppress individ- uality. By this they may gain certain benefits not so we'll known to the west ern worlu, but it is undeniable that strong family affection based on a sound respect for the individual is and must be wanting to a large degree. It is right here that the west and the east cannot and do not care to understand each other.
 A guest in Japanese home is made to feel that all creation exists for his benefit, and if he be in a receptive mood he finds it decidedly agreeable. No member of the family mars the il- fusion by trying to impress upon him his peculiar tastes or doings. It is as if all had infinite leisure to minister solely to his pleasure. If the Japanese could only realize how one hines for significant, some. expression which we do not afterwards discover to be strictly classical, some petulent de- fiance even of their everlasting prece- dent!
 Guests come and go, but the ceremo- nious performance of the sacrifice of | humble individuality ever goes on, and