THE CENTRE DEMOCRAT. BELLEFONTE, PA, NOVEMBER 6,
PAGE 7.
SERVANTS IN J APAN|
A LAND WHERE DOMESTIC SERVICE |
IS CONSIIERED AN HONOR.
TT TT She Needed Plates.
Superstition and the bellef in the
fncantations of witches are not en-
tirely dead, as the following tale will
prove:
One day a gypsy stopped at a house,
| and, pointing to a child, sald, “He is
fThe “Boys” That Wait on Table In
Hotels and How They Work.
Household Servants That Are Equal
; In Birth to Their Masters,
They have some curious notions
nbout servants in Japan, Instead of
its being considered a disgrace to go
into domestic service in that country
it is an honor, writes Mr. Douglas Sla.
dene
Jinrikisha boys and grooms may not
bave the honor of being servants at
all, but are tradesmen, which Is the
fowest thing of all in Japan short of
peing an eta, or member of the class
of outcasts. Grooms are excluded as |
h betting, gambling, cheating lot (the
Uapanese think it impossible for a
|groom to be honest) and the rickshaw
boys as rough people without any maun- |
mers. |
There are two classes of servants,
personal and kitchen. Kitchen serv. |
ants need have no knowledge of etl- |
quette. They are sometimes rough |
creatures from the country, no better |
than rickshaw boys. They are dull
contented drudges, but Cook San (Mr.
Cook) is held In a very different est
mation. In a small household he does
the catering and keeps the accounts as
well as superintends the ridiculous lit
tle bird's nest of charcoal ash which
cooks the meals In Japan,
The personal servants show a bu-
mility to thelr employers which would
paralyze an Englishman with any
sense of humor, and their masters as
sume an etiquette alr of command
But from every one else these
ants expect a considerable amount of
politeness,
Hotel servants are male and female,
Hotels for Europeans generally have
anen housemaids as well as men walt.
ers and call them all “boys.”
To go to a Japanese hotel for the
first time is like going to a farce. It is
impossible to keep serious. In the din
ing room you are surrounded by panto
mime imps dressed in Indigo cotton
doublets and hose, who run about
shoeless and are called “boys” and
look like boys until the day they die.
Half of them know no English except
the numbers. Each has a number to
himself, and each dish on the menu
has a number, even down to the pota-
toes.
“No. 5,” you say If you are new to it,
“I'll have some 2, and I'll take some 7
and 9 with it, please” He eatches
some numbers and brings them, but
you would aye a far better chance of
Ketting what you want if you simply
sald 2, 7,90
You can hardly bear yourself speak
for the scruff, scruff across the floor
You think it Is lucky they don't
boots. At very grand hotels they wear
blue serge suits like ship's stewards
and bad imitations of foreign shoes,
and they don't run, and then they
don't wait so well, because it Is ne
natural for a Japanese “boy” not
fun.
A Japanese “boy” has one good qual.
dty. Though he cannot understand Eng
lish, before you have been In the house
three days be will know your tastes,
and If you like the breast of a chicken
better than the leg you will get'it, and
you will have your steak to look purple
or burned under when it Is cut, as you
prefer.
If be saw you using a teaspoon after
your wife, he would very likely Lring
Fou a used teaspoon with your pext
morning's tea. His motto is that there
is no accounting for the waduess of
foreigners and the forms it will take.
But your bedroom boy is a very dif- ,
ferent person. He has intelligence and
often a fair command of English.
There is nothing that a Japanese
room boy cannot deo. | would trust him |
to mend my watch | have tried Lim
= such varied problems as luring a |
ghtened canary back to its cage,
fishing up a small coin that had fallen
through a crack in the floor and wend.
ing the lock of a portmanteau. Une of
them even sald that be could take ln a
felt hat which | gave Lim so large for
him that his ears did not stop It
The Japanese like their bats to rest
upon their ears. They can mend your
clothes or put a button on and are
dhandier than sallors. They expect you
to show them all your purchases and
always tell you how much more or how
auch less you ought to have pald.
In the transient life of a hotel you
sce the farcical side of Japanese serv:
ants. The pristine and sentimental side
grou only get in a private family, whers
—— on vA AR, AE LUE DHREN OF La ane
die sges, may be equal in birth to their
masters, but willing to do service In
his household because be Is a famous |
poet or noble or man of science, so as
to gather the crumbs of edoeation
which fall from his table. ~Esehange.
Serv.
wear
to
Feonomy,
Fudge-Yes, Spinks bas a splendid
system of economy.
Judge~How so?
“He goes to work and lays aside
money for something he doesn’t need.”
“No economy in that”
“isn't there? Well by the time be
has the money saved he always finis
out he doesn't want the thing-—aud
then the money Is saved.” Baltimore
Herald,
\ An Annoying Issineasion.
“1 don't suppose he meant anything
unkind,” sald the young woman, “but
& was a very startling coincidence.”
“What do you mean?"
“Just before Harold and | got mar
sick.”
“Yes, he's suffering from
tism," sald the woman,
“Yes, and 1 can cure him, lady, If
you will let me have six fancy plates,
but you must be sure they are nice.”
“Oh, anything to get him well,” said
the woman. “I'm willing to do any-
thing,” and she fetched a half doaen
rheuma-
| fine china plates that had been her
pride.
The gypsy set them out in a row, one
after the other, placed her bands on
the four center ones, mumbled some
words over them and sald:
“Now, If you will let me take these
plates away with me to destroy them
your boy will be cured of rheumatism,
No more aches and pains for him, lady;
nothing but good health, lady. Let me
take them, lady, and cure him.”
And the curious part of it is the wo-
man did give the gypsy those plates.
The Love of Mothers.
Among the lower animals the moth-
er's love for her offspring lasts only
until the offspring is able to shift
for itself. The hen will fret and
fight for her downy chicks, but when
they become feathered and commence
to do thelr own foraging the mother
hen becomes Indifferent to them and
thinks only of hatching another brood.
The mare loves her foal and the cow
her calf only during the suckling pe
riod. Canine dams cease to show af
fection to thelr progeny after the pup-
py age, says the San Francisco Bulle
tin. So through the en animal
kingdom below the human species the
maternal instinct endures only while
the young ones are helpless and ceases
when they have grown up
How different is the love of a human
mother love
never dies and seems to grow ni
children bex
less The black
sheep is often the best beloved,
ire
for her children! That
we in
tense according as the ome
and less worthy of it
A Voracious Spider,
It is a curious study to watch the
little white, ders
which hover plants seeking
what they may It sees al
most incredible that they will conquer
and carry off to their dens
twice thelr size, but this is just what
they do, capturing flies of the largest
kind. They will hide under the petals
of the flowers, and when Mr, Fly comes
buzzing slong they will spring out at
him, and the next thing be knuws he is
being dragged off to be served up at a
spider luncheon. They grip the fiy by
the neck, he has a neck, and dart
down the leaves skip to the grass and
ines taking fying leaps of
brown specked spi
among
devour
insects
away, somet
a foot and a half, then disappearing no
It's the old story of
the spider and the the spider
doesn’t stop to coax, but boldly carries
off his booty without saying, “By your
leave.”
one knows where
fly, only
Caught Napping.
Uncle—Dear me, Carl, what a poor
memory you have!
Nephew-—A poor memory, you say?
Why, I can repeat four pages of the
pames in the directory after reading
them through only once!
Uncle—1'll bet you a bamper of cham
pague that you can't do it
The nephew sends for a directory,
attentively peruses four pages and
shuts up the book.
Uncle— Well?
Nephew Muller, Muller, Muller, etc.
ad infinitum.
All the four pages of the directory
being taken up with this familiar pa
tronymie, our student won his bet in
fine style. From the German.
The Penalty of Progress,
Is it anybody's business to keep count
of the number of persons who are
killed by accidents from day to day in
this country? The number must be
enormous, and most of the victims die
of modern improvements of one kind
and another, says Life. Fatal trolley
car accidents are more common and
comprehensive this year than ever be-
fore; railroads kill and malm about as
usual, automobiles do thelr share, and
mines, factories, fires, drowning accl-
dents, gas accidents, explosions and the
lke contribute with extraordinary
| steadiness to our mortuary statistics.
In ihe industrial world especially the
pacrifice of human life seems prodi-
| glous. Human life is cheap, but, cheap
as it is, American civilization seems
| unduly lavish in expending It
An Attentive Danghter,
He (after marriage)—1 don't see why
you are not as considerate of my com:
| fort as you used to be of your father's.
She-—Why, my dear, I am,
He—How do you make that out?
When I come Into the house, I bave
to hunt around for my slippers and ev-
erything else 1 happen to want, but
when I used to court you and your fa
ther would come In from town you
would rush about gathering up his
things, wheel his easy chair up to the
fire, warm his slippers and get him
both a head rest and a foot rest, so
that all he had to do was to drop right
down and be comfortable,
She—~Oh, that was only so he'd go to
sleep mooner,
The Darisg Little Hamm
Feng visage Aames,
“The Btreet of the Roasted Corn” 1s
one of the curlous names of streets In
Peking and suggests the singular and
often confusing names given to Chi
nese villages. Here are a few village
names taken from an area of a few
miles square: “Horse Words Village,”
from a tradition of a speaking animal;
“Sun Family Bull Village,” “Wang
Family Great Melon Village,” “Tiger
Catching Village,” “Horse Without a
Hoof Village,” “Village of the Loving
and Benevolent Magistrate” and the
“Village of the Makers of Fine Tooth-
ed Combs.”
Arthur H. Smith in his book on “Vil
lage Life In China” says that a market
tcwn on the highway, the well of
which afforded only brackish water,
was called “Bitter Water Shop,” but
as this name was not pleasing to the
ear It was changed on the tax lists to
“Sweet Water Bhop.” If any one asked
how It was that the same fountain
could thus send forth at the same time
waters both bitter and sweet, he was
answered, “Sweet Water Shop is the
same as Bitter Water Shop.”
Speak Kindly Words Now.
In the course of our lives there must |
be many times when thoughtless
words are spoken by us which wound
the hearts of others, and there are nlso
many little occasions when the word
of cheer is needed from us and we are
silent.
There are lives of wearisome monot-
ony which a word of kindness can re
leve. There is suffering which words
of sympathy can make more endura-
ble, and to the midst of
wealth and luxury there are those who
listen and long in valn for some expres
sglon of disinterested kindness
Bpeak to those while they can bear
often even
and be helped by you, for the day may
come when all our expressions of love
Im
g their
Think of the things
of th
they were yet living
nd appreciation may be unbeard
beside
agine yourself standin
last resting place
you could bave
them
go and tell them
em and to
Then
said
)
wl o
Bow Exchange
Painless Deaths,
f 2
the least painful in
m
Probably death
by means of an overdose of chlorofor
You begin th a pleasant ms
and end in obl
instantaneously
of anticipat
deaths are quite painless, as they give
no time for feeling pain. Sud
ing blown to pleces by
a shell. Drowning Is said to be a lux-
ury, and recommended
opening & vein In a bot bath. Lauda.
pum and other narcotics would run
chloroform and for first
place.
nation
jon avoided, some vio!
bh are be
dynamite or by
experts bave
ether hard
———————
Morse and the Telegraph Operator,
Immediately after the esaful
of the frst transatiantic
the consequent celebrations
Ww
minent part, Professor Morse
31
compietion
Cyr
of course Wi
a small his home Ir
New York. He wrote out his message,
presented it to the operator, who map
idly checked it off with his pend il and
curtly demanded a dollar
“But,” sald the venerable inventor,
“1 nover pay for messages,” and, see
ing an inquiring look in the operator's
eyes, added, “1 am, in fact, the father
of the telegraph.”
“Then.” sald the operator, firmly con-
vinced that he was being imposed up-
on. “why don't you sign your ewn
name, Cyrus W. Fleld? ;
Professor Morse when telling the
story used to say that be was too bu-
wiliated to answer
At Fen on Land.
A clergyman who had neglected all
knowledge of nautical affaks was
asked to deliver an address before an
andience of sallora
He was discoursing on the stormy
passages of life, Thinking be could
make his remarks more pertinent to his
hearers by metaphorically using sea
expressions, he sald:
“Now, friends, you know that when
you are at sea in a storm the thing you
do is anchor.”
A half concealed snicker spread over
the room, and the clergyman koew
that he had made a mistake
Afterthe services one of his listeners
came to him and sald, “Mr, —, have
you ever been at sea ”
The minister replied
“No. unless it was while 1 was delly.
ering that address.” New York Times
Lightning's Affinity For Onk.
Electricity in the clouds, like its com-
panion lower down, loves to peek the
earth. the great reservoir of all elec
tricity, and it finds the most available
way to do so, choosing always the best
conductor, conspicuous: among which
are the much maligned lightning rod,
the high trees or the elevated steeple. It
has its cholee of trees as well as other
things and will leap over half an acre
of trees to find an oak, for which It ap-
pears to have a special attraction, and
it will pass a high point to find a bulld-
ing that has metal about It.
Oldest Tree In the World,
The Rev. W. Tuckwell In “Tougunes
and Trees and Sermons In Stones”
gays: “The oldest living tree In the
world Is sald to be the Bema cypress of
It was a tree forty years
Mon Jardin” says of the baobab (Adan.
sonia digitata), “It Is asserted that,
some exist In Benegal that are 5,000
years old.” Notes and Queries, ‘
No Longer Nebensary,
“Do you still rely on your burglar:
po - a hei WW. | sim
MEN WHO DELIVER MAIL.
Heart Tragedies That Line the Route
of Letter Carriers.
“Tell you a story? Why, yes, I might
tell a good many stories If that was in
my line.” The letter carrier blew a
pearly wreath of smoke upward and
flecked the dead ash from his cigar,
pays the Denver News. “Let me see.
There's an old lady on my route down
in Alabama who sits knitting the live
long day by the front room window.
Every morning and afternoon when 1
whistle at the door of her next door
neighbor she lays down her knitting
| and peers with a tired, eager face out
of that window until 1 go by. She's
got a boy somewhere out west. He
doesn’t write to her twice a year, yet
twice each day the whole year through
ghe sits there, with that anxious look,
wafting, waiting, waiting. 1 feel a
twitch at my own heart every time I
pass by and see the look of expectancy
fade into disappointment. Bometimes
I'd give $50 to be able to stop and give
her five lines from that good for noth-
ing boy of hers for whom she's eating
out her heart.”
“That reminds me” sald a younger
man who heard the letter carrier's sto-
ry, “of a pretty baby on my route in a
Louisiana city. She's a dainty tot
about four or maybe five years old
Ehe has blue gray eyes like a wood vie
let that look a fellow straight to the
heart. Some little girls can do that
after they are older. This tot's mam-
ma died six months ago, and for a
month afterward she used to come
tripping down the walk to meet me
with a little white note in her hand
and, looking me to the heart out of
those big trusting eyes, she would say,
‘Mr. Postman, won't you please take
this lettor to my mamma in heaven?
1 used to take the dainty missive from
the wee pink hand. 1 couldn't tell her
how far away her mamma was One
day she came without a letter, and
there was pain In the great, sweet eyes,
‘Mr. Postman, baby wants a letter
om mamma. Please, Mr. Postman,
tell my mamn » wants some letters
too.’ 1, boys, every day for a week
1 had to pass that baby with the pain
in the
the angels did not
how to make her baby
stand”
A
1
gray blue eyes, and 1 wondered
find some way some
beart under
“Address as Above”
There is one
wyer it Brookls
Il never again make use
ceived a reply
that be answered
to “John
Lae
had
addressed It Ut
Supra, N. Y."
She Will Keep Her Werd,
When Grandmother Pettingill makes
up ber mind, she is as firm as a rock
Nothing can move her. Perhaps it was
on this account that when she returned
from the celebration of the one bun
dredth anniversary of the settlement
of Shrubville and made such a deter.
mined declaration nobody attempted
to influence her
“I've been there, and It's over with”
ghe said, “and now I'm home safe aft.
er all the noise and bands and scared
horses and crying children and men
naking speeches, 1 want to tell you
one thing. | shan't ever go to another
centennial In Shrubville. no matter
what the circumstances are and no
matter who asks me. You children
may as well bear that in mind.”
Langdon,
Maldens Sold by Awmction.
A singular custom obtains to this day
in some of the towns on the lower
Rutne—namely, that of “selling” mald-
ens at public auction. For nearly four
centuries Easter Mounday-—auction
day-—the crier or clerk of St
Goar has called all the young people
together and to the highest bidder sold
the privilege of dancing with the cho
sen girl, and ber only, during the entire
year. The fees are put into the public
poor box,
town
A Serious Matter,
“So he's trying to live on other peo
ples braing” sald the publisher indig-
nantly
“What's the trouble? Has some one
Jeen stealing the ideas from four
books 7
“1 suppose so. But that's a minor
matter. They're trying to conx away
the man who writes my advertise
ments.” Washington Star.
His Conscience,
First Bohemian (to second dittop-I
ean't for the life of me think why yon
wasted all that time haggling with
at tallor chap and beating him down
when you know, old chap, you won't
be able to pay him st all.
Second Bohemian—Ah, that's it! 1
have a conscience. 1 want the poor
FIGHT SICKNESS.
Fear Will Harm and Courage Help
You When Disease Comes,
Iiness Is most like a cowardly cur
which gives chase if you flee from it,
but goes on about its business, that of
seeking the fearful ones, If you pass
on unnoticing, but courageous, The
reasons for the ability of brave men to
go unharmed tarough pest hospitals,
as did Napoleon and as physicians do
every day, are not ouly psychological,
but physiological.
The quality of mere courage seems
to have a sort of pickling and barden-
ing effect upon the tissues of the body,
lke the plunge In brine, steeling them
against infection, while fear, by “un-
stringing” the nerves, weakens the
whole resisting power of the body, In-
viting the very evil feared most.
The scientific health journals have
been discussing this potent fact in hy-
glenle laws to a great extent and urg-
ing its recognition by the masses,
“Fear weakens the heart's action”
says Health (n an article on this sub-
ject, “induc 8 congestion, Invites Indi
gestion, produces poison through de
composing foods and is thus the moth.
er of autopoisoning, which either di-
rectly causes or greatly aids in the pro
duction of quite 90 per cent of all our
diseases.”
In recognizing this law, however, It
Is just as well to in a small
pocket of one’s memory the old adage,
“Discretion is the better part of valor,”
and to avold running
But it is a well known fact that small-
pox and will attack
first those who are bling for fear
of It, unscathed the
brave ones wi
tending
plague strickes
With
qaant
one sia
from the
microbes. -
carry
needless dangers.
i ] "ne ¥
like coniagions
trem
often leavin
nursing,
an armor
nds a good
attacking
New York Her
The Least of the Lot,
Mother— And nd Clara is
be married?
#0 your frie
soon to
Daughter (Just return
Yes, Does:
1 hadn't heard a
I called to
showed 1
} .
ADs] ‘
house she is to live
furniture she has selected
and the horses and carriages she is to
have She everything ex
cept the parry. 1
suppose she forgot about him.~London
Answers
showed me
man she is going to
Lake Colors,
Some lakes are distinctly blue, others
present various shades
that in some
guishal from
ered banks, and a
black The
hued, the Lake o ‘onstance
Lake of Lucerne
color of the Mq«
indigo Ihe
)
cases they are distin
le thelr level, grass cos
few are almost
va Is azure
and the
and the
has been
Brienz Is
bor, Lake
Spectator.
Lake of Gene
diterranean
Lake of
and its neigl
called
greenish yellow
Thun,
is blue. London
Alternative of Education.
“Bducation,” sald the impassioned
orator, “begins at home.”
“That's where you're off,” said
calm spectator. “It begins in the Kin-
dergarten, is coutinued in the boarding
school, football Seid, Paris, London
and Wall street and ends In either
Sing Sing of Newport.” Life
*
Lae
At the Herse Show,
McBrier—-Did yez ever see & horse
jump folve feet cver a fince?
McSwatt—OQf've seen ‘em jump four
feet over. | didn’t know that a horse
bad foive feet!—Indianpapolis News,
A message travels over an ocean C8
ble at about 700 miles a second
Alwars Tired.
Tired Tatters—Here's a plece in dis
paper wot's a insult to de profesh.
Weary Walker—~Wot's it say?
Tired Tatters—It sez dat a feller
ortn't ter eat nuttin’ when he's tired,
Weary Walker—~Well, wot's de mat.
ter wid dat item?
Tired Tatters—Wot's de matter wid
ft? Say, do youse want er feller ter
starve ter death? Exchange.
A Pussled Youngster,
Harry is the youngest of the family,
the only boy among several girls, and
sometimes the superior advantages of
girls seem to weigh heavily on his
youthful mind. The other day we
beard him say thoughtfully to himself:
“Wothen always first. | wonder why
God didn't make ‘em first, but he
didn't. He wade Adam first.”
Life and Death,
Life, after all, Is a masquerade, says
A writer in the Pittsburg Press. We
fear to show our tenderness and our
love. We habitually hide our best feel.
ings lest we be judged weak and emo
tional. Sometimes it peeds death to
show us ourselves and to teach our
says they are like men who etand
their heads-they see all things t
FH
:
A —————
Death and the Philosopher,
| A certain philosopher was in the
habit of saying whenever he heard that
an old friend had passed away: “Ab,
well, death cowes to us all, It is no new
thing. It is what we must expect
Pass me the butter, my dear. Yes,
death comes to all, and wy friend's
time had come,"
Now, Death overheard these philo-
sophblical remarks at different times,
and one day he showed himself to the
philosopher.
“I am Death” sald he simply.
“Go away,” said the man, in a panie.
“l am not ready for you"
“Yea, but it is one of your favorite
truisins that Death comes to all, and X
sm but proving your words.”
“Go away! You are dreadful!”
“No more dreadful than 1 always
am. But why bave you changed so?
You have never feared the death that
has come to your friends. 1 never
heard you sigh when I carried off your
vid companions. You have always said,
‘It is the way of all flesh. Shall k
make an exception in favor of your
flesh 7"
“Yen, for 1 am not ready.”
“But I am. Your time has come. Do
not repine. Your friends will go on
buttering thelr toast. They will take
it as philosophically as you have taken
every other death.”
And the philosopher and Death de-
parted on a long journey together.
Charles Battell jrandur
Magazine.
y
in
Loomi
An English Sanctuary,
Beverley minster, 150 miles north of
London, is the of St. John of
Beverley,
In
pave
slirine
who die
Athe
several
aos
Before the
ry he must
mself in a
» “frid stool™
1 ] ] many
: 10 18 piace
s from all parts of the
Looking Up.
pleaded with the crowd
gioned tones he
de man
my
too much
up, and
r knew a
Is there
» who can say
always looks up?
Ep Qown,
at he
A seed)
row to say “l can say that | always
took up. 1 have steadily looked up
for thirty years, better off
for it. Looking up is my business.”
“What do you do for a
good man?’
“I'm a eelling decorator.”
The uprearious applause that greeted
this sally broke up the meeting. —New
Yak Press
stranger arose in the back
i am DO
i: Bi 3
wy
Prima Donna and Her Volee.
Once upon a time there was a fa-
mous prima donna who made a con-
tract with a noted Impresario to sing
in concerts for him at a price which
made each of ber notes of about the
value of $1.
All went well until tae prima donna
found a dressing room assigned to ber
that did not meet with ber approval
Then she complained that she was en-
tirely too hoarse to sing, and the im-
presario bad to make polite remarks to
his audience and dismiss it after re-
funding the money paid for admission.
The remarks that be made out of the
hearing of the audience were not so
polite
Moral. —Impresarios wish that they
might have hoarseless prima donnag—
New York Herald
Languages In India.
Twenty-eight languages are spoken
in India and none of these is spoken
by fewer than 400,000 persons, while
the most genera! is the mother tongue
of 85,500,000, Besides these there are
in the remotest parts of the country
dialects spoken by no more than HOO
persons, which none other than them
selves can interpret. India has nine
great creeds, numbering their followers
from the 208,000,000 Hindoos down te
the 0.250.000 Animistics and the in
pumerable sects included in the 43,000
| == Falldog Kinder Than Chil.
An Incident related by George Eliot
proves that kindness and devotion are
characteristic of the bulldog breed.
The distiaguished author was ob a vis
it to the house of a friend where &
bulldog and a child, each of the age of
were among the household posses
He
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