The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-26
JAPAN STRONG IN
ITS SIMPLICITY
So Says T. P. o'connor In De-
scribing Native Customs.
NO NATION HAS so FEW WANTS

Essential Source of Military
Strength and Enables Armies to
March Preternnturally Light-Tini-
ness and Impermanence of Japa-
nese Houses and of Other Things
Considered a Part Of the National
Bulvark.
Japan is a topsy turvy country. Its
population small in stature. it's houses
that seem mostly made up Of paper,
its whole view of life, has in it some
thing that constantly gives n the
idea that you are dwelling among q
nation of scarcely grownup children.
They are formidable children, these
cred, but all the same there is some
thing in their whole being that strikes
the w%esterner as not grown up, says Il.
p. O'Connor, NJ. p, in the Chicago
Tribune.
A few weeks ago / read a book by
Lafcadio Hearn, in which he laid par
ticular stress on what he happily called
the "impermanence Of Japan" This
is also the keynote of many Of the
chapters in d book by Mr.. Douglas
Sladen. The impermanence begins at
the beginning-that is to say, at the
house and the home. "a Japanese
house," writes Mr.. Sladen, lis the sim
plest thing in the world. 1t consists
Of a post at each corner and a roof.
The roof may or may not be covered
with enormous purple tiles. Cross
beams are added, not to support the,
roof, but the walls, which are made of
paper, and slide down between the
beams and the platform, raised a foot
above the ground, which does duty for
a floor. A Japanese house is generally
all on one floor, and in the daytime it
is all n o if it is a small house.
The number Of rooms in it depends or
the number of bedrooms the owner re-
Quires. They are divided for the night
by paper shutters fixed in grooves, like
the divisions of an old fashioned work
box. There are no doors or passages.
Your bedroom acts as a passage, and
when you want a door you slide back
the nearest panel. There are plenty of
Japanese houses which, when secured
for the night, would hardly stand a
drunken man leaning against them.
Some go as far as having windows
made of glass, too, which is un-Japa-
nese. The ordinary native is quite sat
isfied with the light that filters through
paper. The Japanese love air. Unless
it is too cold or too wet the poor Jap
takes down the whole front of his
house in the daytime. If it is too sun
ny, he hangs a big blue or brown cur
tain in front of it, like the sheet for a
magic lantern, with a huge white ide.
ogram taking the place of the picture.
An ideogram is a Chinese monogram"
Let us not laugh at or even scorn
this simplicity of the Japanese house.
It is Of course the natural consequence
Of a climate where the earthquake and
the typhoOn are not unknown Or ever
infrequent phenomena. Furthermore,
this tininess and i~mpermanence of the
Japanese house and of other things
Japanese are a part of the strength Of
the nation. No mar has so few wants.
They have no bread, no beds, no fires,
no boots and shoes, no trousers for the
men, no petticoats for the women.
Both sexes wear instead several dress
ing gowns, II over the other. In their
houses they have no windows, no
doors, no walls, no ceilings, no chests
Of drawers, not even q washing stand,
and the wardrobe is only a lot of boxes
piled II on top Of another. In the
kitchen they have no range, no pots,
no pans, no flour bins, no kitchen ta-
bles. But. then, they have no tables or
chairs in the drawing room, and in the
real native house the drawing room it.
self is only a lot Of bedrooms with
their walls taken down. There is no
reason why you should find anything
in a Japanese house except mats and a
charcoal stove for warming your fin
gers and the teapot and committing
suicide. These and a cushion or two
and a quilt to sleep on. with an elabo-
rate conventional %politeness, constitute
the furniture of a Japanese house ex-
cept the guest chamber. And the arti-
cles in the guest chamber consist of a
screen, q kakemone and a flower vase.
The Japanese have no forks or spoons
or ~tablecloths. They have no sheets, no
wine glasses, no tumblers.
And see one of the results of this
magnificent want of wants, If 1 may
use the phrase. It is an essential
source of military strength to Eng
lands ally. It enables his armies to
march preternaturally light, and in a
case of blockade or a national disaster
It would be almost impossible to starve
him into surrender.
In Japan, with all the inbred polite
ness and good feeling, woman still
A~la--- l.