The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-03-22

Observation-Disclosures
two feet wide, that run around the
whole house, upstairs and down, a
rather massive and very beautiful
tiled roof, a fence outside to shut
the house off from the street, and
at the back or in the center, a gar
den.
The furniture of the house is so
simple that it almost reaches the
point of elimination. There are
neither rugs nor chairs, tables nor
desks, nor beds. People sit on
cushions on the floor, eat their
meals from little individual lac
quer trays, sleep on the floor in
beds that are rolled up and put out
of sight in the daytime. No pic
lures adorn the walls, except per-
haps a hanging painting or print in
the recess of ones mat space that
is part of every japanese room
some old gorgeous warrior of the
GenrOku period, or lady clad in
the delicate elaboration of Toku-
gawa costume, or a landscape of
impossible waterfalls jutting over
still more impossible cliffs. In this
recess, too, a flower arrangement
may stand, or bit of priceless
porcelain on an ebony hold. Even
this recess, however, is never clut-
tered up. There is always an at
mosphere of simplicity throughout
a Japaness house.
The first effort of the foreigner
is to make the house habitable, for
however attractive from the as-
thetic point of view, japanese
house is not comfortable. Not
even centuries of tradition could
make desirable the lite sausage
shaped bean pillow used by the
men, or the lacquered wood head
rests recently substituted for the
blue and white pocelain pillows of
the women. Foreign furniture,
usually of an exceedingly hetero-
geneous, early Victorian character,
is to be had at the various second
hand shops; more probably you
become the object of donations in
the way of green spider web chairs,
an ugly kitchen table. or broken
down couch, from some friend who
is sailing for home. Any furni-
ture with legs, however, has to be
braced with laths 80 as to dis
tribute the weight evenly over the
soft mats of the floor.
1t is not until you are fairly es-
tablished that you begin to under
stand the possibilities of house.
keeping in Japan. There are an
infinite number of graceful GUS
toms and beautiful objects. which,
with little ingenuity in the way
of adaptation, can be made effective,
even in foreign way of living.
But these you will never see unless
you keep your eyes open, and
bring to your problem of house
keeping a willingness to learn.
The cleanliness of the japanese
people is constantly referred to by
those who have visited the ORIENT,
especially in contrast with the
Chinese, whose houses of mud
floors, and everything else, are in
keeping. The japanese people,
down through the servant class,
boil themselves in a daily bath.
4uC COO 10 d Cluu1Sy WOOOCu SUI uC-
ture, round, and so high, that
when you sit down in it the sides
come almost above your head. A
charcoal stove in one end, parti-
toned off with a board, serves to
heat the water, which has to be
carried to the tub in pals; there is
no arrangement of running water
outside the kitchen. The tub is
sunk at one side of the room, and
the water drains off outdoors
through a bung-hole. The diff
Guilty of heating the water-it takes
three or four hours to attain a
comfortable temperature for US.
and longer for the Japanese, who
like it at 120 degrees Fahrenheit
has brought about a method of
bathing which at first sight is
rather revolving.
Continued next week.