Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1891 — AWKWARD. BUT PRETTY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

AWKWARD. BUT PRETTY.

The Japanese Women Ungraceful Became* of Queer Footgear. Henry T. Finck, in an article on Japanese women in the Cosmopolitan, after speaking of the native grace and beauty of the ladies of Japan, asserts that they are the most awkward walkers in the world. He says: Fashion has brought about the hideous awkwardness of the Japanese gait by making it a striot law of etiquette, carefully taught all girls, thaf in walkiog the toes must be turned in; the knees kept far apart, and the sole*

remain parallel to the floor and hardly leave it. The result is a slovenly shuf- 1 fling; aggravated in the house by loose slippers always on the point of dropping off, and out of doors by horrible wooden dogs. The clogs are fastened to the mittened foot by a simple cord or thong passing between the big toe and the other toes. Every time the foot is raised the clogs leave the sole and at every step come down on the ground with a ridiculous clatter. The current notion that the Chinese custom of mutilating the feet by compression prevails in Japan is entirely incorrect. On the contrary Japanese women go to the opposite extieme of never wearing any confining shoes, in consequence of which their feet seem to us relatively broad and flat. The ungracefulness of the Japanese woman’s gait is further aggravated by the absurd tightness of the skirts. The kimono, or tea gown, as worn by the men in and out of the house, is tight enough to hamper them seriously in active movements, wherefore pilgrims and other mountain climbers and tourists discard it, covering their limbs only with cotton drawers. But

the kimono as worn by the women is more inconverient sti l, for aronnd it a piece of dressing material is wound several times, so tightly that it is impossible for them to take any but the very short and shuffling steps which are prescribed by fashion. This makes them almost as awkward and helpless as if they were Chinese women with crippled feet. In physiognomic mobility, and variety and definiteness of expiession, Japanese women are doubtless, as a rule, inferior to otir women; but by way of atonement they have a fixed facial expression of amiability and girlish sweetness that is extremely fascinating. This charming expression, which is a result of the habits of obedience, kindly disposition, and desire to please, inbred and cultivated from their childhood, is common to all classes, from the humblest to the highest. In conrteousness, aesthetic taste, good manners and personal cleanliness the lowly and ignorant women of Japan are far superior to the corresponding grade in America or Europe, and, indeed, to many who make pretenses to a higher sphere. Besides the expression o ( amiability, there is another one of contentment and absence of worry that attracts one in these women. This is found even in the servant maids, who are always at beck and call; even in the laborers in the muddy, malodorous rice fields, in a hot sun: even in 'the poor women and girls who for one cent an hour spend ten hours a day stirring tea with their bare hands in a hot kettle. As regards sparkling, laughing eyes, it would be difficult to find anything.to match the dark orbs of the Japanese maidens when you chaff them in English, which sonnds so fanny to them, or in (your) Japanese, which sounds more funny still. Thev are the merriest girls in the world, always ready to laugh ou the slightest provocation, and their laugh is as musical as their language. Women are not cruel to dumb animals. No woman will willfully step on a mouse.

JAPANESE LADY IN STREET COSTUME,

A JAPANESE BELLE.