The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-03

Aasz~ me her three little bows FROM
tF,e TOP coil OF her satiny hair TO the
thong OF her two-inch-high lacquered
sandals, she might have stepped off the
Tokyo ian in my drawingroom cabinet.
There are japanese women galore in
Hawaii: but the blight of Western
civilization is upon most OF them. They
wear dirty blue cotton Mother Hub
bards" and shapeless straw hats; they
are unclassihed and hideous.
But Tia. in her silver-gray kimono,
with her gold and blue obi folded about
her tiny waist and looped over an abb
surd little horseaair pillow behind; with
her two-toed stockings ending at the
ankle and hooking up the sides; with her
skin like old IVORY, her pouted red lips
and long fringed eyes; Tia was Japan
the Orient. The hutter of cherry bios
SONS, the breath of almond bougns,
came with her.
what shall I do?" l demanded of the
household she has just arrived in the
Islands. She doesn't know a word of
English She has never seen a cooking
stove, or a knife and fork, or a spring
I'D
= Keep herr clorused the household,
with deep bass emphasis from the mas
culine portion.
-Masow called, opening the din
ing room door with trepidation Maso
was our japanese chef and factotum, a
force always TO be reckoned with and
under no circumstances to be disturbed.
Al lean, grabbed bachelor of forty was
Aaso, with superior views of his own
Importance, and lofty disdain of pet
ticoats, Western and presumably. Japa-
nese He spoke the most precise Eng
lish. wore long-faIled coats and brown
Fedora, and was one of the pillars of the
local church. l held my breath as he
sauntered IN, a blue-checked dish towel
flung over his shoulder, and gazed be-
meath his half-closed lids at the vision
under the Chiii-peppeT bush.
Human nature is the same from the
days of Heleni One eye-hash-and
iAfaso, conquered. was leading her kitch-
onward, his japanese amenities nningling
with her gurgling laugh.
Il was worth Tia's wages just to hear
that laugh From the time she patter-
ed in with her CAV s.Chayo" in the
morning to the last Sayonaral" flung
ever her shoulder at night, life and
work were one long jest to her. She
pervaded the place like butterfly 1t
was Tia in the drawingroom with
feather buster half as big as herself; Tia
IN the kitchen swinging her heels from
a tall wooden chair and eating radishes
and shoyns Tia among the ginger bios
SONS reaching high above her head to
pluck the creamy stalk; and Tia at the
gate, making three bows TO O-Tsuki-San,
the white moon in the sky 1t cannot
be said that training her into high
class waitress and chamberrnaid did not
have its drawbacks. There were times
when the japanese dictionary, Dumb
Cransbo and Delsarte combined failed
to convey the slightest impression.
cannot truthfully say we ever under
stood each other in those first days, but
we often OWNED each other; and when
divination failed, we sat down and laugh
ed, which is sometimes better for the
soul than much comprehension.
Ard to see her arranging flowers, with
her glossy head side-tilted like birds,
her red under lip sucked in and her tiny
hands posing over the blossoms till they
Saupht that ineffable blend of Art and
Nature which is the mystery of Japan;
10 see her toddling about the dining
table with her funny short steps, her
long sleeves thrown over her shoulder
and a ginger bloom in her hair, were
eompensatIons.
AS to the masculine portion of the
household, it succurnbed to her to a
man. and if she triunphed in the parlor,
She tyrannized in the kitcheni Maso
the naughty, Maso the taciturn, who
smiled pityingiy over suggestions of des-
4
toes, became Maso the suppliant
He hung out Tia's washing for her,
he erhptied her tubs for her, he washed
the dinner dishes (Which was obviously
her duty1 Her impudent little sandals
cluttered up his neat kitchen; her combs
and l1airpins Uttered his bachelor bed
roon--for where else could O-jo-san
Tia smooth her satiny locks ?-and for
return she laughed at him and teased
him all day long; called him "old man
and good-for-nothing.' and treated him
generally as the dust beneath her feet
There were also others: Yanashito,
the painter, who took three days to do
one days work. flirting with Tia at my
expense; and carpenters and butcher
boys and itinerant turnip sellers O-Jo-
san Tia laughed at them all.
Then came Ishiwara, the barber 1t
might Ee SAID that 1SniWaFa was III the
air from the beginning. but it was some
time before he materialized.
If Tia was Japan feminine, 1shiwara
was Japan n1asculine-a strapping lad,
with square shoulders and lean TANKS
that would have done credit to West
Pointer His backing brush hair, crop
ped close behind grew longer on top and
fell picturesquely almost to his eyebrows,
and he wore always blue-and-white
.dmono. girt with a white silk obi He
had been soldier $50 he told us). and
MS swagger was worth crossing half the
Pacific TO see. Maso, with his ill-htting
american clothes and STOPPING Shout
Tiers. was undistinguisf1able from the COM
rnon herd. but Islliwara might have been
a Mikado incog1lito One always ex-
p>cted him to stride into the garden
With two swords thrust through his