JAPANESE CUSTOMS

Mr. Guy Murchio, of New York, aged 22.years and just out of college, worked his passage (or passages) round the world in various craft. He has, written .a book of his experiences, called "Men on the Horizon," and in it "he tells of the politeness of the Japanese. He went to a hotel and "booked," and immediately six laughing Japanese girls took him in hand:—

\ "The girls looked to- me like rosylittle .babies about-four years old, and, as I couldn't understand their language, or make out what they were uj) to, I anxiously waited to see what' would happen. Presently they product ed some soap and a scrub brush, and took me into a tinyplace which seemed to bo a sort of bathroom. I thought that they would now leave, but no the six of them insisted on taking off my clothes and giving me a thorough bath, during which they scrubbed my: back with their little brush and chattered gleefully the while. It was ap-; parently a Japanese custom, so I submitted,' though slightly disconcerted at -first." ■'.■■-.

The tram conductors of ,'Tokio were equally polite. In his journal, Mr. Murchie wrote:—"Yesterday, 'in a tramcar, I paid seven sen fo- fare, as I had seen someone else do so, -and had no other way to: find out what was. due.' To-day on • the same car line I paid but one sen—^which seemed equally satisfactory to the conductor. Later on a third conductor,'who got off the car and pointed out my way to me, refused to take any fare at all. . . . Conductors of the trolley cars leave it to the passengers to pay their.fares— and the fares are invariably paid." •