Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-24

~ HE stood on the Ldndf In front of the Chilli
M pepper bush, making me her three little bows.
From the top coil of her satiny hair to the
49, thong of her two-inch-high lacquered sandals,
she might have stepped off the Tokyo fan in
my drawing-room cabinet
There are Japanese women galore in Hawaii;
but the blight of Western civilization is upon of
them They dirty blue cotton Mother Hub
bards" and shapeess straw hats they 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 absurd little horsehar pillow behind; with
her two-toed stockings ending at the ankle and hook
ing up the sides; with her skin like old ivory her
pouted red lips and frnged eyes, Tia was Japan
the Orient. The 1utter of cherry blossoms, the
breath of almond boughs, came with her.
what shall l do?" I demanded of the household.
"She has just arrived in the Islands She doesn't
know word of English. She has never seen cook
ing stove, a knife and fork, spring bed"
Keep her!" chorused the household with deep bass
emphasis from the masculine portion.
"Maso!" l called, opening the dinng-room door
with trcpidation. Maso was our japanese chef and
factotum force always to be reckoned with and
under no circumstances to be disturbed A 1ean
grabbed bachelor of forty Maso, with superior
views of his Importance and lofty disdain of
petticoats Western and, presumably Japanese He
spoke the precise English wore long tailed coats
and brown Fedora, and of the pillars of the
local church I held my breath as he sauntered in
blue-checked dish towel flung over his shoulder and
gazed beneath his ha1fc1osed lids at the vision under
the Chili-pepper bush
Human nature is the same from the DAYS of Helen!
One eye-fash-and Maso, conquered, was leading her
ktchenwards his Japanese amenities mingling with her
gurgng laugh.
1t worth Tias wages just to hear that laugh
From the time she battered in with her gay "Ohayo
in the morning to the last "SGyonara flung over her
shoulders at night, life and work were one long Jest
her. She pervaded the place like a butterfly 1t
Tia in the drawing room with a feather duster
half big herself Tia in the kitchen swinging her
heels from tall wooden chair and eating radshes and
ShoyH; Tia among the ginger blossoms reaching high
above her head to pluck the creamy stalk and Tia at
the gate, making three bows to OTsnkSdn the white
in the sky It cannot be said that training her
into high-cass waitress and chambermaid did not
have its drawbacks. There were times when the
japanese dictionary, Dumb Crambo and Delsarte COM
bined failed to convey the slightest impression I can
not truthfully say understood each other in
those first days but often OWNED each other and
when divination failed sat down and laughed which
is sometimes better for the soul than much compre-
hension.
And to see her arranging flowers, with her glossy
head side-ted like BIRDS her red under ip sucked
in and her tiny hands posing over the blossoms till
they caught that inefable blend of Art and Nature
which is the mystery of Japan; see her todd1ing
about the dining table with her funny short steps, her
long sleeves thrown her shoulder and ginger
bloom in her hair, were compensations
AS to the masculine portion of the household it
succumbed to her to man, and if she triumphed in
the parlor she tyrannized ir the kitchen! Maso the
naughty, Maso the taciturn, who smiled pityingy over
suggestions of desserts and scorned preferences in
potatoes, became Maso the suppliant
He hung out Tias washing for her, he emptied her
tubs for her. he washed the dinner dishes (Which was
obviously her duty) Her impudent little sandals
Cluttered up his neat Kitchen her combs and hair
pins Uttered his bachelor bedroom-for where else could
OJ0-SaT Tia smooth her satiny locks ?-and for re-
turn she laughed at him and teased him all day long,
called him "old man" and "good-for nothing" and
treated him generally the dust beneath her feet
There were also others: Yamashito the painter who
took three days to do days work. flirting with Tia
at my expense and carpenters and butcher boys and
nerant tnrnip sellers O-jo-san Tia laughed at them
all
Then came Ishiwara the barber. 1t might be said
that Ishiwara in the air from the beginning but
IT was some time before he materialized
If Tia was Japan feminine, Ishwara was Japan mas
cune-a srappng lad, with square shoulders and lean
TANKS that would have done credit to West Pointer
His blackng-brush hair, cropped close behind, grew
longer on top and fell pcturesquey almost to his eye
brows, and he wore always bue-an white kimono
girt with white silk obi. He had been soldier $50
he told us), and his swagger was worth crossing half
the Pacific to see MaSo, with his illftting American
clothes and STOPPING shoulders undistngushable
from the herd, but 1shiwara might have been
Mikado incognto. One always expected him to
stride into the garden with two swords thrust through
his girde, and retinue of princes!
Twilight by twilight he to sit on his heels under
the banana trees and tell Tia tales of his prowess-
magnificent tales inerspersed with many cigarettes
CHS fingers mahogany colored with nicotine) and
acted out with all the superb apomb of the Oriental
Now he ground G-chi nuts beneath his heel like Chi
nese skulls; he reconnotred among the papai trees;
now he crouched in ambush behind royal palm and
now he charged upon platoons of tipants and swept
them from the face of the earth!