"Copyright, 1902. hv Pouclna .Sladen.l
-E. houses and geisha girls make
I I up that mournful ceremony of a
Japanese banquet; the food Is of
no -consequence to a Euro
pean.
Japanese Tea Houses and the Geisha Girls
lUHt'll w I ill in f I v T n f v n To nnr (inn vi.nr
oe much enlivened by performances of
geishas they would do as well as a
yeomanry hand. And tea houses are not
so had tf you don't take their tea, though
their tens are less awful than the 1ln-
Jners unless you do the correct thing and
alted cherrv blossoms with them
Japanese oinners are a refined kind of
torture; you are expected to sit on your
heels and eat oft the floor. Lovely little
mousmees, with scarlet petticoats, come
and kneel before you. Hut what Is the
use of It, when you are kneeling yourself,
because, not being a Jap, you can't sit on
-our knees? Besides your mousmee spends
ill her time in playing hide-and-seek with
'our sake, bottle. No eood restaurant will
let you drink sake that Isn't hot enough,
ma as you don't drink It at all. It soon
nets below the Droner nnlnt nnrl vnnr
iinoiisTiv;e goes for more. You are behav
ing very badly. The Japanese never keeps
Mis sake waiting.
The food is a worse trial. Live fish
'night do if you could persuade yourself
lo tr"at It like an ovster. but Ren woivl
soup .nd lard sweetmeats and custard
man- 'It n pickle and fish Juice are nov
Itie.o, too striking for the male Plirnnnnn
n,ieh. When you are drowning you
in i Miu ana wnrn you are having
Jf ; nese banquet you catch nt nnv-
Ihing -ou know by sight, like a nlum or
i poin'o, but It Is only a subtler form of
ortLT-, for the plum is sure to be salted
nd Mip potato cooked in syrup.
Fvea If the things were good to cat, ycu
'uldu't help yourself with chopsticks; It's
o phi 1i like eating soud with a fork. iTn.
ietem.1 by ycur not eating, the dinner goes
ii lor nours, while you wonder which will
appen nrst your knee Joints give way or
nir i-lves go flat. If you have been to a
ipanese banquet before, vou nrnn vnnr..if
P a.;r.inst the wall. That is the only wav
u iin hit on the floor for h
ousm.es are so pretty and so nice that if
iu V- get up to leave thev awav n .r.
Iiade you to sit down again.
Ami when it Is all over cornea the unkind
t cm, of all. Politeness demands that
u hould make a separate ex?uso for
W'-sh you cannot eat; it's no use, for
Ttare getting into your 'riksha vour
lOU.TTce hands you a nlle nf
exes in which she ha carefully packed
wrjunng you cculd not eat, for you to
ike to your honorable family, and etiquette
mantis that you should take them th -,,k
ou give them to your "riksha boy as soon
you are out or sight. Etiquette is th"
Vix r or japan.
Sjs no good looking at the geisha while
-re going through these tenures; you
A not in a state of health n mobo i
wances for their voices or their music, and
ielr Wit Is lost unon von -ahl.i t .,..
iips. Just as well. The pplshu ,v i
le kind of ballets you get at the iini.
ilub, does not suit Europeans. She dances
itnout her feet and sines without
lie does not, as the unco' guld assert, b-
ng to tne oldest profession In the 'ni-
it necessarily. Her real function Is to
nsole the dissipated Japanese for the ab-
n3 rr actresses In his country. Mme.
da Yacco is a Japanese w.:man, but a
stern Idea.
Japanese ladies have actors to fall in
love with, but the Japanese man has to
fall ba.k on the geisha. The ancient
Greeks did not have actresses eilher.
Perhaps their plays were as dull (on the
stage) as Japan. sc plays, which run their
banquets d.,Ke. The am -it nt Ore. k was as
wise as the modern Jap; he did not want
to be separated by the footlights and the
cat-gut tortures of the. orchestra from his
godJess. The wisest of the ancients, like
the Japanese, did not hang about stage
doors, or send Jewelry on the olT chance
to actresses whom they did not know.
If you ask a man to dinner an 1 take him
to the Gaiety afterward, you spoil his din
ner or lose half the performance. Instead
of going to the Gaiety, the Japs made the
Gaiety come to them. Japanese wives are
not taught accomplishments, but virtues,
which are their only reward. The
Japanese man wants something more than
.hi acir.ss. The g.ishi Is expected to be
x-ellent In that way, and to be at his beck
besides; when he Is too Idle to attend any
more to her dancing and singing, he beck
ons her to come closer and entertain him
with her blandishments.
Geishas are not always beautiful; they
are always elegant and clever; they are
the Vst dressed wemen in Japan the Jap
anese do net think it ladylike for their
wives to dress well. Wives wear a sort
of half-mourning and no wonder. The
geisha begins training for her future hon
ors early. Girls are chosen for cleverness
at 7 or 8 years old beauty Is only consid
ered skin deep for n geisha. They ar?
trained In dancing and singing and the art
of conversation.
The latter Is most important; a geisha
has constantly to be bandying wit with
sake-fuddled admirers and to switch lovers
on or off. She is expected to sing and dince
and play. Any music hall artist In London
would promise to shoot herself if she
could not do better with a week's practice.
Hut the training of these geishas extends
over four years, and Is perfect of its kind.
The popular geisha, like the popular
actress, is much court, d; she often makes
a brilliant marriage.
No Japanese could understand "The Sec
end Mrs. Tanqueray." Women with pasts
get married every day there; their pasts
are no objection, but they have to be pasts
when they marry; In that divoree-monger-Ing
jand Caesar's wife ceases to be a wife
If s!ie is not above suspicion.
It is hard for Europeans to take the
geishas seriously, for all their accomplish
ments. They look like children, and are
children when they are not cats. It Is
oasy to reccgnize the geisha; she looks like
an angel with wings of rich brocade a
(halk face, geranium lips and flowers in
her glossy hair. The geishas may often
lie seen In 'rlkshas with their duennas. The
-uses in the Ycshiwara are glorified tea
n- usrs. and may be usi d as such. They
remind one of the Arabian Nights.
Hut tea nous, s are apt to be lovely; it is
their business, except those which go In
for the dull respectability of being Inns
A tea house Isn't tea-total. It is gener
ally not a house at all, but a garden full
of summer houses and quite often cr.ns'sts
or nothing but a roof and a view. You
can never get to a view in Japan without
passing through a tea bouse, and your way
Is blocked by gay little mousmees, who
rub their knees together and bow and kisc
their respects and give you tea
They don't sell it, but you give them a
Chai-dal tea present-three half-pence
1
(worth only three farthings) for five cups
of tea, and you needn't drink It. One
often wonders what they do with the tea
that Isn't drunk in Japan; it doesn't seem
to go back in the pot fur the next person,
who won't drink it either. Perhaps tea
plants are kept in a good humor by hav
ing the tea put back in the soil. As the
tea shed is built across the path, this
pretty performance Is a toll.
Some tea houses are as beautiful as
dreams of coming into fortunes. They may
be in the Chin, so style with masonry orna
ments like that described below; they have
exquisite old wooden terraces overhanging
a lake with the sacred fountain of Fuji
yama staring nt them like n house to let;
or they may be themselves overhung wlili
fragrant lavender wistaria blossoms four
feet long, which sweep the waters of a
river in the midst of a gay capital; they
may be dear little dolls' houses, built of
' dorous unpaintid pine wood, and planted
in a retired corner of paradise like the
point of Tom! Oka.
The dolls are always there, pretty little
mousmees, who take off your hoots to
prevent your spoiling the deep, soft, primrose-colored
matting or kicking the house
down whui you grow impatient. Time Is
a snail in Japan. There Is a tea house In
every temple, run by the priests. If
Eurcpeans go there, they sell other thingB
stronger than tea. 'Itikshaboys' tea houses
you always have with you on the great
high roads. Almost any house may turn
tea house or shop among the lower class
Japanese.
Delightful ns those thatched belvederes
are, where you pay your tea money and
look at the view, there Is nothing a for
eigner enjoys so much as the city tea
house with Chinese gardens
About Inns I shall say nothing. They
are respectable places enough for a land
which has no arbitrary rules about de
cency. It Is the restaurant tea house at
which the Japanese defies our conventions.
Even a banker asking his family lawyer
to dinner does not Include wives; he asks
him to dinner at a restaurant and engage
geishas, famous for their beauty and their
wit, but not necessarily for their morals,
to make themselves agreeable to him.
Both wives regard this as a natural fea
ture of hospitality. As you drive through
Shiba at night you will know where the
Japanese gentleman Is enjoying himself In
his primitive way, by large wooden lan
terns with paper glasses and projecting
eaves and by the 'likshahoys smoking, and,
doubtless, scandal -mongering. at the gates.
You will hear the tinkle of the samiscn
nnd the poor little geishas' voices. Some
times, if the night is hot and the ban
queters have reach d the drunken stage,
the shutters will be taken down and you
will see the party enjoying itself. The
Japanese take their pleasures badly; the
host and his guests sit in a seml-clrcle
more or less drugged with gorging and
sake and the ge!sh.as are ranged in semi
circle opposite if they si ill have a soul f. r
music,- or come closer and enchant them
with prettiness and wittlness. The Japan
ese do not laugh for pleasure or kiss for
love; they have a derisive laugh to show
anger and they giggle at wit, but the
hearty English laugh of enjoyment is
unknown to them.
We went to such a tea house at Kobe.
I wanted to stay in the garden, the size of a
back yard, which contained a river and a
waterfall and a lake, and ever so many
little Islands, connected with hog back
bridges, garnished with pagodas and the
mushroom-topped lanterns, which are never
lit. and shrnes and lighthouses, all of
mossy old maonry. The lake didn't seem
to contain any water, though I was assured
that this was the case. lis top was paved
with broad lotm leaves, from which sprang
Ike crowns standing on scepters, huge
rose-colored blossoms, ami nil round llio
lake were freaks in maples.
The lour de force, n fir tree taught to
grow In I he shape of a Junk, looked like a
ship as any other Junk. The whole
scene looked like n willow pattern plate,
converted by the moon Into a garden for a
toy nation. It made me feel quite like a
poet, but our host bad not taken us there
for poetry, but for a spree. We were Bad
dogs. Our little summer houses were
only lit by two rush lights on tall cindlo
sllcks of wrought Iron. Then some little
mousmees came and brought In geisha, who
could not sing, and Japanese dishes, which
we cculd not eat, and sake, which we could
not drink, or we might have warmed to our
work.
Public Improvement
Star: "You sav
In Crimson Gulch ?'
that the
' said the
at all," answered
public improve
Washington
taxes are liht
stranger.
"Practically m i bin'
Tli ree-KI tiger Sam.
Hut whit do you ilii for
incuts?"
"Karo Hill tends to 'cm. lie did hint
that the boys ouchl to chip In ami buy a
new roulette wheel, but they stood firm i n
the proposition Hint If Hill wanted any pub
lic ImproveiiKiits he'd have to make 'em
himself."
V lav n if
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P1pt-P hanmSe this
THE WEST. v" l,us"" . i-auku s EVER SHOWN IN
j ; i
fV V.-- ' VJ ;:' y kg :
uiii k v . b ml m J i m . f
hile The Bee artist v ot,..ui..
nd the carnival grouids looking for
! thine eoort fnr Tha ti t Hn
i" 'i.ynoicu uee ne
attracted by the booth occupied by
& Demlng, the progressive, un-to-
state managers of th? Security .Life
vi u go luHurunce comDanv -Jra
'ie, la.
This company has grown to be one of
the giant old line compauits and the Ne
braska managers are pushing It in tb"
front ranks of life Insurance in this state.
They are hustlers after business and can
give first-class contracts to good, energetic
men. Met. Lobeck & Demlng have a
suite of offices at 622-23-24, New York
Life building.
7-
j.
: - ?4 ;v ! ?s.
' J
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V.
CARNIVAL WEEK. "3 ERE ADMIREIJ HY HUNDREDS OF VISITORS DI KING