CHINAMEN DRESS-MAKERS IN JAPAN.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXI, Issue 10258, 29 January 1894, Page 3

CHINAMEN DRESS-MAKERS IN JAPAN.

(Pall Mall Gazette.)

« You wan tee good d'less maker ? Me W o Sing. Lady number five pend for d'less maker; me welly good; you makee t’ly (try.) You allee same lady P ” I had not heard him eater my room in hia noiseless padded slippers, as I was luxuriating in a lounge chair on the balcony, hut I wna quickly transported from ray Western dream to the realism of my Eastern surroundings. Yes; my gowns were all worn out with the hard wear of a prolonged tour over the « Canadian Rockies/' and I certainly had asked tbo English landlord if he knew of a good lady's tailor, but that was scarcely half an hour ago. What hopes the future held out if one’s slightest wishes were anticipated in this way. I wondered it this most luxurious hotel kept a tailor on the pronnsßS# “ You makee stay allee same hotel ?” I asked. In answer he untied the four corners of the silk cloth which contained his stock in trade and solemnly handed me hia card s—- • WO SING, Ladies’ Tailor and Outfitter, Dealer in Chinese silk of all kinds, Pith, hats, bamboo blinds, &c.. Water street, Yokohama. I then proceeded to business as far as my curiosity would permit, for I could not but admire Wo Sing. Ha was distinctly good looking for a Chinaman, and was exquisitely clean, not too fat and much taller than the average Chinaman. Those who go down to the West End tailors in broughams and know nothing of the Far East miss much that is picturesque. I suppose he was accustomed to the odd manners of the English, for he stood the inspection without a single expression of any kind passing over his mask like face. I felt that my wildest flight in the way of a gown would be mean by comparison with his costume ; at the same time I reflected that probably hia great grandfather had worn hia, and that mine would only be a thing of seasons, not of generations. I chose a soft fawn coloured silk, and after showing him how I wished it made, I asked him “ how muohee,” meaning the dress complete. “Me no eaveo (know), lady, me makee weigh.” Here was another surprise, buyitig a dress by the weight. Out of his marvellous buadle of necessaries he drew his scales, a long ivory stick like a strong crochet needle with infinitesimally small figures marked on it. On one end he put a email brass pan hung by three fine green silk threads. Into this diminutive affair my choice of silk was laid. He was very anxious for me to have one a few ounces heavier, and was distressed at my ignoranoe in the matter when I assured him it was not the few extra dollars I minded, it was the texture of the other I preferred. I wanted some lace, and asked him if he had any patterns. “Can do, can do. Me eavee, me go oachee two piecee laoo, you makee choose, chop, chop.” Chop, chop (quick, quick), in his opinion, was next morning. When I was drinking my early cup of coffee in bed ha appeared in answer to my “ Yoroshi, yoroshi” (good), when I thought his gentle knock must be my bath boy’s usual summons.

“ Piecee kca me catohee yesterday, lady, □o oil belong p’loper; tbia mollning I bling welly good piecee.’* He wanted me to “ makee choose ” on the bod there and then, bub my feminine curiosity refrained until 1 had dressed and had early tiffin. He was decidedly success* ful over my day gown, which he copied to a stitch from a dilapidated but well cut one of ** Fisher’s” I had brought out from England with me. The Chinese are exquia'.ts workers, and can copy with an exactness which almost amounts to a fault j which gave rise to the chestnut that a tailor once copied a suit of clothes so precisely for a most particular Englishman that be also copied the beautifully patched hole of a cigar burn. The little fawn coloured jacket faced and lined with white silk, and the cunning little waistcoat with its dainty white pearl buttons and faultlessly hung skirt would have done credit to any West End tailor; and for the making and all tho “ findings,” as the American dressmakers call them—that is, linings, &o.—he onlychargad tho modest sum of 4dol SOcents, about 13s fid, at the rate of change. My evening gown, however, was not such a success. I had none to give him aa a copy, and ho w often my dainty white crepe was carried off in that bundle of his, for he could not grasp tho idea of the loose drapery I wanted on the bodice. I was vexed that I had let him try, as I had been warned that he could do nothing successfully without a copy, but hie distress v - 6’.s much greater than mine, and hia searching Asiatic eye could easily detect that I was not satisfied. So with many apologies it was taken away from me again, with always the same remark, “You think it no all belong p’loper. Me savee. Me come ailed. came time to-molla inclining,” I wished he would not, for it was far from a pleasant feeling and distinctly creepy, having hia long, highly polished, aristocratic nails wandering over my neck and arms; his finger tips I never felt, for his hird-like talons were at least an inch long. In this respect he was also my superior, for it showed that Mr Wo Sing never did anything menial, as the young persons say when they are in search of employment. All I wanted in the way of linings, tapes, cottons, bones and even the materials for stuff gowns, I let Wo Sing buy for me; even after he had had his “ squeeze ” (business profits) out of it, it coat me less than buying them for myself out of the native Japanese shops. Wo Sing, like moat Chinamen, had a great contempt for tho dishonest of the Japanese tradesmen. “Me no likee lie Europeans,” as he called them collectively. Though the Chinaman is such a good man of bußineea, and manages to get. hie squeeze, or profit, out of the smallest business transactions, however low a price he charges for a thing, he is always true to

his bargain, and scrupulously honest in all his money dealings. The large foreign business firms in Japan almost Invariably employ a Chinaman to act as middleman in dealing with the Japanese. I suppose the sharpest Western mind cannot meet on common ground with these wily Asiatics. I had a just respect for Wo Sing in his cars over little things. He evidently “ took care of the cents and let the dollars take cara of themselves,” for this gorgeouslyattired Celestial was always grateful; for the smallest “kumshaw” (present ‘tip) I gave him. A needleful of silk left on a spool he hod used for my gowns, and tha buttons and bones on some old pattern bodice, odd pieces of tapes, and hooks and eyes, which he never failed to return, ha accepted with his beautiful dignified Asiatic politeness. Wo Sing had quite enough “ save®’ 1 to know a good thing when he saw it, and wisely kept a pattern of my bodice, made by Fisher, which be had copied. I was curious to know if .the Chinawomen were contented to leave the trade entirely in the hands of the men, ao I inquired.

“Wo Sing, you single pieoearnan, yon wife no have got i” ' . ’ V_;. " Ye, ye jme makee mallfed." . . > “Allee same, you wife make dress very good.” “ No, no; my wife she no can do, she Be savee muchee.”

They are almost as good boot makers U they are tailors, and after the New York prices Chinese seemed absurd. When an Asiatic begins to think, and ceases to be A human machine, he is useless. I have often told my “bedroom boy” (lady’s maid) that I would give him notice if he- “ thought.” During the transition period in Japan the Japs have some fanny thoughts about dress. Their tout entsmble when dressed often proves that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, even in fashions. I have seen a proud Jap. is “ trousers made in Germany,” a white starched shirt with a high Gladstone collar, and a native kimono in place of ft coat, with a white billycock hat three sizes too large, slipping over his earsj another in a j*ray frock ooet, ft flannel shirt with no collar, and large checked knickerbockers, wearing no hat at all, and with his hair flying in its native disorder. Ahd I once saw a party of Jap ladies going upstairs in an hotel where they had been dining dressed in what “ they thought” the latest Parisian novelties in the way of deeolUii dresses and pearl embroidered slippers * but as they picked up their-shirts and 1 walked upstairs sideways (native fashion, and a habit not easily shaken off,) : ther* was a pleasing display of brown' ankle, for the little women had forgotten their stockings, which are, of course, unknown commodities in a Japanese wardrobe. 6ft it was safer after all to entrust the making of one’s gowns to “ Wo Sing.” until ‘at least two generations of the ambitious “ liftEuropeans ” have worn unadulterated Western outfits.