The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-04-16

to the old fashioned Japanese way. A
crude pulley arrangement is suspended
on poles, and rope extended frola the
| driver to each man-usually a dozen
or more. AS they begin to lift they
all join in a song At a certain point
in the chant all hands let go, and the
weight drops onto the pile The con-
! tractor is furnished with a lot of crude
music while his men perform their
work. The laboring man in Japan has
to know a lot of tunes. He also has
to be well posted in his cues, or he
may let go at the wrong time and mix
things up generally.
| The average family among the labor
| ing classes probably will consist of five
persons. In most cases both the man
and the woman work, and their COM
| bined income will not exceed six or
eight dollars a month. They live in a
house twelve by fifteen feet in size
which costs from seventy-f1ve cents to
! a dollar month rent. Their food con-
/ Sists of rice, fish and vegetables-tne
vegetables are extremely cheap. The
furnishings of the house are so seant
| that there is no need for hiring a dray
when moving day eomes-they can cas-
| lily carry everything on their backs.
/ This is Illustrated whenever there is
an alarm of fire. The fragile, infiam-
mable houses are easily consumed and
the first indication of danger from this
source will cause the immediate exodus
of whole community, household
effects and all.
The expense for dress is Insignificant.
The cost of a mans winter outfit will
not exceed $3.50, and in summer he
wears M cIot hinor oyaavt cloth
his loins. The woman can purchase a
kimono at almost any price. Foreign
ers wonder why the natives do not dis
card their wooden clogs and wear
leather shoes. If these wondering
strangers can furnish something equal
~ as serViceable as the native sandal
for five cents pair, they will doubt
less be able to secure many customers.
On account of the low scale of wages,
merchants, peddlers and vendors have
TO get along on scant margin of
profit. The average store is about
twelve feet square. The proprietor has
such a limited stock that his custom
ers can usually point to, any article in
the place. As a rule the merchants
family lives in the rear and the store !
is utilized as a sleeping room when |
the blinds are put up for the night |
Show cases and counters are used in |
some places, but as a general thing the |
customer sits on a small elevation in |
the front part of the shop while boys |
bring the goods forward for exhibition. |
Many dealers cannot afford to pay even |
the smallest rent, and they move about
the streets with their stocks on their
backs. The fish market halts regularly
at the kitchen door, and the green
grocer knows no such item of expense
as rent and clerk hire. Dealers in
lamps, flowers, baskets. brooms, dishes
and SO forth, go about looking for trade
rather than wait for customers to come
to them.
The extremely low standard of wages
and of cost of living in Japan explains
Why the people are determined to emf
crate, and it also accounts for their
being unwelcome in countries where
higher standards prevail. A Japanese
aborer can go to the United States ana
Increase his income tenfold live in
style which he considers luxurious, save
money to send home, and at the same
line sell his services to employers for
ess than white man can live upon.
Naturally when the Japanese man, Who
an earn but fifteen or twenty cents
day at home, reads of the great wages
n the lands across the sea, it wfets
lis ambition to try for share in the
milk and honey of Canaan.