The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-05-06
JAPS ENTERTAIN
TO CURB WRITERS.
War Correspondents Invited to
Native Dinners to Head OFF
Complaints.
BY Richard Harding Davis
Golfers Special War Correspondent in Japan.
Published in advance by arrangement with
Golfers Weekly. Copyright, 1905

by NlcHaTu aaTulHg UaVlS
Golfers Special War Correspondent in Japan.
Published in advance by arrangement with
Golfers Weekly. Copyright, 1908.
Toxic, March 29.-Each time the
advance Of the army has been again
postponed, those terrible dogs of war.
the war correspondents, cry havoc"
and try to slip their chains.
And the answer of the Japanese
officials to their demand that they in
stantly be shown battle, murder and
sudden DEATH" is to invite them to a
garden party.
A few nights since the members of
parliament gave a dinner to the mill
tary attaches and the war correspon-
dents, at which they asked us to be
patient.
We went to the dinner in jinrikishas,
and stopped at a house that glowed I
among the surrounding trees, not from
any windows, as it had no windows,
but thru it's walls. On a square, low
doorway stood many little girls in gray
kimonos with glistening black hair,
worn a la Pompadour and who bowed
and rubbed their knees with their
open palms, continually shifting from
one stockinged foot to the other, and
UOWlHS anu DOWlHS dSdlIl. . sa.
| They took away our shoes and gave
us big wooden slippers, and then led
us down corridors and along outer gall
leries into room which ran the |
length of the teahouse.
! 1t was covered with mats. Not with
what we call mats, but with what is
more like a mattress with a piece of
! fine mating sewn on it's top.
Eat from the Floor.
These mattresses were sunk between
broad grooves Of beautifully polished
wood, and with the wooden beams
| formed the floor on which we walked,
from which we ate.
! The room of the teahouse was bare
Of all furniture, and even Of orna-
ments, save the decorated screens that
formed the walls and the decorated
beams that supported the decorated
ceilings '-- p
The panels on the walls were of
native woods of great beauty, and on
some in bas-relief were carved flow
ers, dragons and landscapes. 1t was
like feasting in an enlarged glove box.
From, time to time one Of the, ne
sans as they call the little girls who
serve the dinner, would push back a.
paper screen with it's squares of glis-
tening black lacquer, and we could
see outside swinging from the balcony
cherry-red lanterns, and beyond them
the chill spring moonlight and the
black pines Of Shiba park; We sat
on fiat cushions of crimson silk, each
with his back to the wall, in long
row that stretched around the room.
When we had last seen our hosts,
when the mikadO addressed them in
their house of parliament, they were
: in our evening dress. Now they wore
their national costume; the skirts of
cloth, silk, or brocade, and, folded
, over the chest like an abbreviated
bath robe, the kimono.
In somber Costume. =
There was no brilliant color in any
of the costumes. They all were gray,
! brown, black. The room was heated
I by braziers of brass set in wooden
4 boxes and filled with hot ashes over
which the Japanese passed their hands
continually, as tho performing an in
q cantation. y
4 A Japanese dinner begins at the
q end, with the sweets, and then starts
4 over again with soup. A nesan placed
4 in front Of each guest a box filled
q with cakes, candy and sugared fruit.
The guest is not supposed to eat
q this, but to save it until the dinner
! is over, when he packs whatever parts
. Of the dinner he has not eaten in the
box and carries the box home.
= After the little girl had explained
with much shaking of head that we
must not eat the sweets, she brought
us a tiny lacquer table that stood
about six inches from the floor, a blue
and white bottle filled with saki
(Which tastes like warm sherry, a
saucer Of salt and mustard, a saki
cup, bowl in which to rinse the saki
cup before we offer it to any one with
| whom we wish to drink q toast, and
pair Of chopsticks.
4 Soup followed in a lacquered bowl,
then hot fish, and, on a gridiron OF
glass rods, raw fish. The soup and
\ the hot fish were as deliciously cooked
as at the Oldest and best of Paris res
taurants but the raw fish was nov
city which even the bravest military
attache and the politest correspond
ent dared not attempt.
Food in Rich PROPULSION.
A After that the dishes no longer
\ came in courses, but were placed at
4 the same time in rich profusion upon
the tiny tables. .srFSxs Sc.
Many with which we were familiar
4 were so served that we failed to rec
ognize them, and other dishes we
thought were those we knew at home
a we ate in blissful Ignorance that they
Of course, the chopsticks were BAT
u fling, and Of how many other breaches
Il of etiquette we were guilty one blush.
IA es to guess.
"A But no one of the Japanese mem.
a bers Of parliament made any sign thai
q we were not eating with perfect pro.
n priety, tho we must surely have
81 shocked them.
u Many Of the Americans and English
81 could not understand that the little
IA girls who knelt in front of them were
n not to be admired and complimented
"a but were there simply as witnesses. .
d Of course; it is very hard for tn,
q visitor to take the little nesans as seri
a ously as they take themselves Th,
n whole situation is unfamiliar $
n We do not often sit cross-legged
IM while nl1aintlY dressed hand maiden