Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1889 — In The House of a Rich Japanese. [ARTICLE]

In The House of a Rich Japanese.

The wealthy Japanese make no display either In the architecture of their houses or in the way of furnishing, their pride is in the delicacy of their mats and the richness .of the satin Cushions. The chief room in the house of a rich Japanese is thus described: ‘The salon was 25 feet long by 15 wide. At one end, in the corner, was a small raised platform in a little niche and on on it a fine Imari vase three fOet high, holding flowering branches of the cherry tree. Behind, upon the wall hung a very valuable but very ugly kakamo of a god. Twelve blue satin teutons lay in two rows upon the floor and three standing lamps stood tn a line between. A folding screen was placed to protect us from draught —and that was the entire furniture of the millionaire’s drawing room. The ‘mats’ upon the floor were of whitest and finest straw. The screen was a gorgeous one, with a battle scene painted upon a gold background.” The Japanese keep their bric-a-brac in fireproof buildings, to be taken one at a time and admired, and then replaced by another