Women in Japan.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 994, 20 March 1891, Page 9

Women in Japan.

In Japan the women of the people and of the lower middle classes participate in almost all the labours of the men. They understand business and bargaining, they cultivate the earth, they sell, they work in the factories, and they even serve as carriers. In early youth, if they are pretty, they often leave the parental roof to enter, as laughing and attractive little maids, the inns and teahouses. There, for a while, they increase the number of those innumerable mousmis, whose business it is to serve and gladden the passing stranger in all places where he may seek repose, drink, or amusement. They are adorable as mothers and grandmothers; it is pleasant to see the tender and touching care they give to their little ones, even amongst the lower classes, the loving intelligence with which they know how _to amuse them and invent astonishing toys. And with what perfect art, with what comprehension of childish drollery, with what profound knowledge of what becomes very young faces, do they deck them out in deliciously absurd little dresses, tie iip their hair in inimitable knots, give them an air of exquisite commicality.