The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-05-06

Copyright 1904, by Golfers Weekly.l
TOXIC. March 29.-Each time the War
Office here announces that the advance Of
the army has been again postponed, those
terrible dogs of wac, the war correspond
ents, cry havoc" and try TO slip their
chains. And the answer of the japanese
officials to their demand that they instant
ly be shown battle, murder and sudden
death" is to invite them to a garden party.
This is supposed TO soothe the correspond
ents. and to satisfy the proprietors of their
papers at home, who are sending them
rich drafts and singing sadly, Its All
Going Out, and There's Nothing Com
ing In
A few nights since the members of Par
lament gave a dinner to the military at
taohes and the correspondents, at
which they asked US to be patient. AS a
sop. diplomaticall administered. and in
tended to reconcile us TO being bottled up
In Toxic, il did not altogether carry it's
purpose, but as effort of hospitality.
as dinner of ceremony and. in so far as
it illustrated the courtesy and thoughtful
ness of the Japanese, it was a charming
success. 1t also is interesting, when one
compares it entertainment with one
that would be given to strangers in Wash
lnston by our own members of Congress.
We went to the dinner in jinrikishas,
each with an accordion plated paper Ian
tern bobbing Enthusiastically in the night like
a giant FREELY, and stopped at house that
glowed among the surrounding trees, not
from any windows, as it had no windows,
but through its walls 1t glowed most
brilliantly through a square low doorway
in which stood many little girls in gray
kimonos with glistening black hair, worn
la Pompadour, and who bowed and rub
bed their knees with their open palms,
continually shifting from one stockinged
| foot to the other, and bowling and bowling
| again. They took away our shoes and gave
us big wooden slippers. and then led us
down corridors and along outer galleries
| into a room which ran the length of the
tea house. 1t was covered with mats. Not
with what We call mats. but with what is
more like mattress with piece of fine
mating sewn on it's top. These mattresses
were sunk between broad grooves of beau
! tfElly polished wood. and with the wooden
beams formed the floor which we
walked. the floor on which we sat, the floor
| from which we ate. When strangers 10
| Japan object to removing their shoes. and
Walk WIN BOOTS upon a Japanese mattress,
they shock their host just as thoroughly
as IL would shock an American hostess to
see her visitor stamp with his boots upon
| the lid of her piano or on her damask table
! cloth.
The room of the tea house was bare of all
furniture, and even of ornaments, save the
decorated screens that formed the walls
| and the decorated beams that supported
the decorated ceiling The room was its
own ornament. The panels the walls
were of native woods of great beauty
| and on some in bas-relief were carved
flowers. dragons and landscapes. 1t was
| like feasting in enlarged glove-box
| From time TO time one of the nesans, as
they call the little girls who serve the
! dinner, would push back a paper screen
with its squares of glistening 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 a long row that
stretched around the room.
| When We had last seen our hosts wher
the Mikado addressed them in their House
| OF Parliament they were in our evening
| dress. Now they wore their national cos
| tune; the skirts of cloth. silk or brocade
| and, folded over the chest like an abbre-