The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-09-21
JAPAN'S CONTRARIENES
THINGS DONE BACKWARD AND
UPSIDE DOWN.


The childish belief that on the 9th
er side Of our globe all things are of
necessity upside down Is strangely
brought back to person when he
trst sets foot on Japanese soil. II
his first glance does not disclose the
natives in the everyday feat of stand
ing calmly on their heads, It does at
least reveal them looking at the world
as If from the standpoint of that &c.
centric posture, for they seem to him
to see and do everything topsy-turvy,
and II the inversion be not precisely
Of the kind he expected, Il is none the
less striking and impressibly more
real. To speak backwards, write
backwards and read backwards, is
but the b of their country. The
inversion extends deeper than mere
modes of expression down into the
very matter of thought. Ideas of ours
which fancied innate find in them no
home, while methods which strike us
as preposterously unnatural appear to
be their inheritance. From the stand
ing of wet umbrella on its handle
instead of its head to drip, to the
striking of a match away in place of
toward one. there seems to be no ac-
ton of our daily lives but finds with
them its appropriate reaction. In a
land where, on entering a house. one
begins, not taking off his hat, but by
removing his boots, he gets at the
very threshold hint that humanity
is to be approached the wrong end
to.
A Japanese baby is ushered into
this world in sadly impersonal man.
ner for he is not even accorded the
distinction Of birthday. From the
moment he makes his appearance he
Is spoken of as a year old, and this
same age he continues to be consider
ed, with utter disregard for reality,
until the beginning of the next cal
endar year. When New Years day
comes he is credited with another
year, but so is everybody else. and he
finds he Is only one OF many. Upon
the disadvantages of being consider
ed from ones birth up at lea.t one
year older than one really is, IL
lies beyond the purpose Of this article
| to enlarge, but 1t is quite evident
that woman has had no voice In in
stituting such reckoning.
If the baby chances to be a boy
everybody is immensely pleased; If
girl there is considerably less ef-
fusion shown. In the latter case the
| more impulsive relatives are unmis-
takably sorry, while the more philos-
ophic evidently hope for better luck
oext time.
From the privacy of the domestic
| circle, the infants entrance into pub
lie life is performed pick-a-back.
Strapped securely to the shoulders of
slightly older sister. out he goes,
consigned to the tender mercies of
a being scarcely more than a baby
herself. The diminutiveness of the
nurse perbulators is the most surpris-
ing part of the performance. That II
should be possible to entrust the safe
ty of one infant to another proves
the preconsciousness of the children,
but this surprising maturity of the
young implies the law of consequent
immaturity OF the race. That which
| has less to grow up to naturally
grows up its limit sooner.
At a school student has a monot-
onous time. He is given the "Trimet-
rical Classic" to start on, that he may
learn the characters by heart, and in
cidentally pick up few ideas. This
Is followed by the Century of Sur
Names" which is a catalogue of the
family of clan names. Next comes
the Thousand Character Classic" a
wonderful epic as feat of skill, for of
the thousand characters which it con-
tains not one is repeated. How those
children must hate to go to school!
Three more books succeed these
first volumes. differing from one an
other in form, but in substance singul-
arly alike, being highly moral and
pious.
Marriage to the far Oriental is the
most important mercantile transaction
on his whole life; it is therefore too
weighty a matter to be intrusted to
his youthful indiscretion, for although
the person chosen is of lamentably lit.
tie account in the bargain, the charac-
ter of her worldly circumstances is
most material to it. 1t is certainly
easier, If less fitting. to get a wife as
some people do their clothes, not to
their own order, but ready made, and
all the more reason for it when the
bargain is for ones son, not ones self
So Japan looks at the arrangement
from a strictly paternal standpoint
and ignores such trifies as personal
preference; love, as we understand it,
being an unknown quantity.
Japanese civilization is in a sense
not unequal to our own. Some one
has said that 1T is not in the polish
the real difference lies; 1t is in the
substance polished" In delicate tact
and good taste they have as people
no peers. Art has been their mistress
though science has never been theiI
master. Perhaps for this reason the
result has been the more widespread
|