The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-07-23
THE GEISHA GIRLS.
Long Years of Discipline Prepare for
Hard Life in Slavery.

The Geisha girls Of Japan are bought
| by their masters when they are little
children and their training begins
| straight way. They must learn to dance,
to sing, and play, to be apt in converse
| ton and to have bewitching manners.
The training is very rigid Sometimes
| on bitterly cold nights the little girls
are sent upon the housetops to sing I'M
i til it is no longer possible to make a
| sound, for the long period of hoarseness
/ which follows imparts a desired timbre
4 to their voices.
| The hours of their practice are long
and their lessons hard. They must know
! many, many dances and games and the
I greater the number of their accomplish
ments, of course, the brighter is their
| futur& When they have learned to play
| sufficiently well on a musical instru-
| n1ent they are sent out to feasts with
| the older seisha, and as they take some
| little part in the music which accom-
par1ies the dance, they observe for future
use the manner of the geisha toward the
| guests.
The money they receive is given over
| to their master. He it is who provides
them with their garments, often of in
describable beauty. Only geisha, by
virtue of their profession, may wear
such elaborate garments, and they
| heighten the effect by many little tricks
| of dress not permissible by other wo
men.
Imagine yourself seated on the floor
| before TIM table at Japanese ban
| quet. Before the dancers enter other
| geisha more soberly dressed, take
| their places upon the floor and play
| upon stringed Instruments and little
drums, making sounds that seem weird
and unmusical, yet undeniably fascinat-
ing. Are the radiant creatures who follow,
in their soft, trailing silks and brilliant
obi with costumes an abandon of rich
ness, girls or are they women? You do
not know, and you cannot know for the
little girls, under their smiling, child
like faces, conceal the experience OF
women, and the women are in many
ways but little children. They are puz-
zling and bewildering and beautiful
that is all you know.
Their dance, a series of poses, ex-
presses an idea, or a poem, as our music.
The charm of the motion is in the little
feet~in. spotless white tabi, in the obed-
lent motion of their silken draperies
upon the floor the futterfng of the long
sleeves, the position of the head and
the opening and closing and undulating
of a fan, that speaks and lives only as
a fan can live and speak in the hands of
a japanese dancing girl.
During the dance the geisha do not
smile; afterward, they fill your cup
and viands before you. they laugh and
chatter gaily. The conversation is full
of little personal compliments and So
;icitude for your comfort. If you are an
American woman in evening dress they
pretend to fear greatly lest you are
cold.se
With deep concern they look up at
you, touch your gown very lightly and
say that it is very beautiful; they wish
they might wear. gowns like it (yOu
know the while that in their secret souls
they think it atrociously uglO, but they
are afraid YOU are cold; how delightful
it must be-to wear ones hair dressed SO.
they scentin in Japanese, but with