TYPICAL JAPS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2647, 7 December 1904, Page 42

TYPICAL JAPS.

Miss Helen Hyde sends from Nikko, Japan, the (following sketches from life to the ban Francisco Argonaut : — , Some days ago the sihoji of my study °Pe n « d e%er so little, and a rosebush covered with

— Armstrong, photo.

tight little green buds appeared. The shoji were pushed back further, and Shui, our soldier, followed his gift. From his four sen a day he had bought it, and it is quite useless to protest. It is the Japanese way, and especially this Shiu's way. They are too proud a people to allow benefits to be quite one-sided, and one

v {Photos by Reid, Wishaw.)

must be resigned to having a portion at least of one's gifts returned in some .pretty way. The rosebush being in green bud was also Japanese, for not for the world would whey deprive you of the pleasure of seeing the buds show streaks of red, and gradually bloom into perfect flowers. We hadn't seen Shiu for many

days, but in answer to various things sent into the barracks little letters had come out, invariably containing " I am very strong and well, and always busy ; please be augustly tree from anxiety about me." And all the time, for 50 days, the boy had been in the hospital ill. "Why didn't you let me know?

" I thought you might be troubled," he answered, simply. He said they might soon be off now. He was anxious to make " Russian soldiers taste Japanese guns." I hoped he was a good shot, and without any braggadacio he said he was a

very good shot. He told of the gratitude of the soldiers and the delight ot the coming c/f an American corps of nurses, and that if they •were wounded they all wanted to be nursed by them. , , „ '"We soldiers all feel much stronger for the sympathy of America and England and all

Americans are fine people," he announced in a burst of genuine enthusiasm THE OLD SPIRIT. Just outside the door his sword-belt and his little sword were lying. He never comes armed into my presence, which mu9t be a bit

of the old Samurai in him. They always left their sworda in the vestibule of a friendly bouse; but the officers of to-day do not remove theirs when entering a room. They are too foreign to be interesting to me. For the o'd customs ove looks to the common people, bless them! Tht little sword made me think of un-

Ueasant things, and as the Japanese just here was a little beyond me, I asked the help of I voun- Japanese girl friend She listened, shook her head doubtfully. " But it is the Japanese spirit," she said Nevertheless, she told Shiu that I wanted him to promise me that whatever came he would not kill himself,

What was he thinking of? Fi up, and said, seriously : ' I J kill." . „ iTchiyama. coming in .iftei scov.ted the idea. 'Not kill oi course he will kill himself, can't be taken prisoner. Wt

even if taken prisoner; that the soldiers had ' officers'^cooks toojc with ttg been drawn from the best of the Empire; and pans and o^crs .P^ that their Emperor had none too many to re- reives, x, ■ serve like them, and that their lives were too ewe of aid haa precious to the country to be recklessly taken. cook £°"'£J haps . Motionless and silent as a Buddha sat Shia £?e? c ™° and W e could no for a long time, looking straight before him. *ad come,

ipanese just here sked the help of d. She listened, " But it is the Nevertheless, she n to promise me not kill himself,

What was he thinking of? Finally he looked up, and said, seriously: "I myself will not kill." iJchiyama, coming in after he had gone, scouted the idea. ''Not kill himself? Why, uf course he will kill himself. He must. He can't be taken prisoner. Why, even all the

the soldiers had ' officers' cooks took with their kettles and pots of the Empire; and pans and overs a special knife for themtoo many to re- selves. I, too. if I had not had you to take •ir lives were too ' caie of and had gone with that general as recklessly taken. ' ccok, would have taken such a knife Then, 3uddha sat Shiu > if we had been 20, perhaps, and 150 Russians ii»ht before him. had come, and we could not kill them all, or

escape, I wou'd do so" — and he drew an imaginary knife across his abdomen. Argument and expostulations --vere in vain. " You don't know those Russians. We do. We watch them in Peking. They are crual, cruel to their prisoners."

Alii FOR THE EMPEUOR. "Not gone yet?" I asked the son of the house of Shashiii when I went to see about some photographs. " Not yet. I wai for the red paper. "When it comes I go. It may not come." " I don't understand," I said.

" No." he answered " They wanted 200 men from Ginza Kyobashi. They drew 300. The holders of the first 200 went. The third 100 wait. My number is 272. When in that company 72 die, then I go out in my turn to die — perhaps." And th« brown eyes looked unfalteringly, even smilingly, into mine. We who are

privileged to be in japan at this time may never again be so close to the great realities of life. What goes on day after day near us, arcund us, on every side, is so remarkable, so unparalleled, that we wonder if we live in a r*>al world, or if it is a 1 an unimaginable dream. There is a strange excitement and

exaltation in it. One can almost feel the Yamato Damashii enter into one's soul — can almost imagine one's self saying, as the Japanese women have said and are saying every day to their men off for the front : " Go, give your lives for your Emperor as I give you — gladly I do not expect to see you again!"

— Courting in Spain is conducted on curious principles. The Spanish girl is almost always attended by a young man who is known as her novio, and who squires her on her walks, although the courtship seldom ends in marriage. The young lady

is always accompanied by her mother or a maid, as well as by the novio. —In most of the United States the legal age at which a person may make a will is the usual one of 21 years, but in Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Oaegon, Rhode

Island 1 , Virginia, West Virginia, and NewYork, the limit is 18 year 9. In Colorado it is 17, in Louisiana anyone over 16 can make a will, while in Georgia the legal limit reaches the low level of 14 years.