The Women Of Japan

During mj' recent visit tü Japan, eays Henry ï. Flndk, aeveral girls told me how glad they wonM be if they liad the appwtunity and means to go to Amerte-a. They liad probably heard of the United States as being the paradise oí women, and feit ihat .Japan was not exactly an earthly Eden for tliem. Ame.rlca.ns cali pretty glrls angels and adore them as goddesses. The Japeneee, on the contrnry, compare men wlth heaven and women with earth. Probably no "foreigner'' knows the Japanese as thoj'oughly as Basll Hall ChanUx'Tlain, who has been professor of Philology at the University of Tokio. "ilost Japanese men," he says, "even in the vtM-y year of graee, 18U0,make no isecret of their disdain for The feinalc tex. Tile way in Which they are treated 'by the men has hitherto been Mieh as miglu canse a pang lo any generons European heart." Thls comtempt women is shown in the minutest details of life, as, for example, i mourning etiquette which prescribes that animal íood shall be absiained trom aud mourning garmeaits wom for 150 days in case of a paternal grandfather but only J0 days in case of a maternal grandfatflier;9iO ifays for the paternal nncle, but only ".') days fo.r the one 0:1 he maternal K.!. ele. Acctirding to the "Greater IearnIng Women" there are five feminine vices which foor women of every live posi?ess - disobedienee, malice, s'ander, jraldiisy and stupidity- whence ariees their inferiority to man. Kven woman's fonr possible virtues are such as chiefly benefit man- gentleness, obedienee, mercy and quietness. A Japanese Budhist text says that "a woman's exterior is that of a saint, but Qier heart Is that of a demon,." Every tourist who has visited Japan will agree as to the mallclous falsemess of these ungallant remaiks on the gentle, coiurteous, sweet and irrieoful little womrn of the islíind pire.-