Glimpses of Japan and Formosa

A few weeks' stay among them is, of course, not sufficient time to judge any people. But there are some things which make themselves as apparent in days as in years. Perhaps what impressed itself most strongly upon us were the mistakes we commonly make about the Japanese, false impressions, which have come to be accepted among us almost as truisms. Because they have shown themselves clever-"cribber," one of my Japanese acquaintances pronounced it, and there seemed something amusingly significant in this form of the word; because they have shown more than a Yankee cuteness in copying the point of view and the institutions, the articles and the trade-marks, of other civilizations-many of us have hastily concluded that they are a very intelligent people. Because we hear with wondering interest that they never enter their houses with their shoes on, that they are always bathing, we think of them as a very cleanly people. Therefore it was something akin to a shock to us to find that in the mass the Japanese seem stupid, and that they are by no means as clean as we fancied.

To give the less important precedence, even their famous mat floors, untouched by shod feet, are often so dirty that to walk across them means to carry off a black sole. Frequent bathing is all very well, but when dozens habitually do so in the same water, Western notions may suggest quite another descriptive adjective. No wonder a Japanese doctor startled the medical world a few years ago by the assertion that bathing is unhealthful! Having in mind the skin-diseases alone that are passed along in Japanese bath-rooms, he was easily within the bounds of reason. Not even to mention the unspeakable Oriental manner in which they fertilize their fields, the "cleanly little Japanese" are more indecent in public customs than even the Spanish, even more frank about certain natural functions. But perhaps it is all in the point of view. These same public bathers consider our hand-shaking a dirty habit, especially prone to spread disease; they are shocked at the custom of blowing the nose and carrying the soiled handkerchief along-though not at the intolerable noses of nearly all small Japanese youngsters, even of the higher classes.