Newspaper Page Text
JVNE 24, 1905.
THE SUNNY SOUTH
nri'H TAGE
Japanese Thrive on
Starvation Wag'es
What Would
in America
Be
until some for-
offering an ad-
tailors’ union here has no rule about over
time and the fact that they had to work !
ail night was not taken Into account
at ail. i
WHY THE JAPS ARE SO POOR. 1
The explanation of Japan's low wage
scale, as well as the poor standard of !
its labor, lies in the temperament of its ‘
They still reflect the effect of
wear if they quit their i centuries of serfdom. Ambition is the
•pers and aeconntantts for | motive power that moves a mnn to ac-
The government has thus been grad
ually forced to raise its scale lu order
to keep tie- most desirable employees
in its service. The policeman are fur
nished with uniforms and paid tuirtv
cents a day Tile clothes they wear on
duty are the best they have ever worn, j people
or will ever
jobs. Bookk
Interior of Silk Store.
By FSDERIC J. HASKIN.
IVs.-t for C-Oe Sunny Sout h
human
dll
gives jeommer
ttons. n the c
state v wav
oiling s'
little i
sk they |
at ever\ [
itigation
i cheap'
■ working togeth
•ist on chanting a
roke. It require:
conclude that this
iinly because Its prod
tall.
HOUSES MUST FIT MATS.
Jne peculiarity of a Japanese hou
to*, fact that 'its dimensions a
verind by the size of the mats whi<
pair.
private native firms arc paid about | eomplishment.
thirty rents a day, with room rent, I
board and soinetlmee with even tobacco ■
thrown In. Seeing that the employers I
I are so generous In providing perquisites, 1
| i suppose the boys are willing to furnish
I their own mntehes. The average pay
of the 8.000 clerks in the employ of the
(government in various parts of Japan is
| fifty cents a day. This i*s quite a eon- ;
! trust to the fat jobs our politicians )
i hand around among their friends.
RAILROAD SERVICE IS POOR.
The railroad employees are as poorly i
I paid as those of the government and nri- j
i vate concerns. The station master m j
Yokohama, who has several hundred peo
ple under him, receives hut $30 a month, j
; Of course he has a family and has to pay i
rent and employ a staff of servants out'
of this small salary. The engineers, con- j
ductors, trainmen, station employees ami
others who are under him average about!
$15 per month. As may be surmised, the
railway service is nothing to brag about,
it is 18 miles from Yokohama to Tokio,
and it takes an hour to make the trip— ;
longer than it requires t 1 ’ g'~> from Wash
ington to Baitimore, a distance of 40
miles. The tariff is 3 cents a mile and i
j the accommodations are not nearly so j
| good as on our street cars.
Tile wages for skilled labor in manu- i
factures does not vary from the general |
cheapness prevailing in other branches of'
(industry. A china decorator is paid hiu ‘
30 cents for ten hours work. During this I
time he sits on his legs in tailor fashion ;
land draws the most delicate designs. Ho
j is an artist and
1 patterns, vet one
. wit I*, a
mpleted. These mats are alwavs
ide in multiples of three, and the
iirs ire onsTil'Tied to correspond
them. Japanese lumber is made
to conform to t Ills arrangement, and
there is no waste to it at all. The na
tive earn enters are completely baffled
when they get hold of American lum-
bei with i s odd sizes, especially if they
are required to construct something with
r!.mension> other than multiples of
native sandals
will doubtless ho
some customers. The
i for anything new if
. but he can never lie
inter for anybody until
i to utilize liis force to
e greater wealth.
ALL LABOR IS CHEAP.
low ale of wages is not mil-
o common workmen. The high- ; power
est priced laborers in Japan are the I paper
stonemasons and shoe-makers, the best ( girls pasting labels on bottle
,f whom receive a dollar a day. j formed their task with amazing dexterity
The scale for printers and
and the average Jap of
ttie lower classes can hardly hope to bet
ter (be condition in which he was bom.
His life means a mere struggle for exist
ence. The customs of the country are
such that It is difficult for a man to
save any of his Income no matter how
much it may he.
Heads of families retire early and
throw tlie burden of support on their
older sons, who in turn soon shift the re
sponsibility if they can. It Is an unwrit
ten law that a man of means must sup
port his poor kin, and when a young man
begins to succeed the majority of bis rel
atives make it a point to get poor in or
der to secure part of his salary.
An example of this was afforded recent
ly at the American consulate in Yoko
hama. A bright young Jap who had
been educated iti the United States was
earning a hundred dollars per month as
an assistant to Consul General Bellows.
Such a salary In Japan is something
enormous. It is actually more than, is
paid to the governor of the province, yet
this youn gfellow couldn’t save a cent.
As fast as his wages increased his poor
relations multiplied. It really is enough
to take the ginger out of a fellow when
lie stops to realize that no matter now
hard lie works and no matter how much
he earns, that he will not be permitted
to profit by it. lie might just as well
be a coolie singing at his work to get his
mind off tlie fact that he is holding down
a horse's job. The indifference of tne
lower Jap to his pinched condition, and
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OSsf-’SSSSSS
depths, gem-rally on the shores of small
lakes thn.t abound there.
The only way the tear ’’an be hunted
successfully in the big thicket, plentiful
as the game is. is with dogs trained to
the ehas-. The dogs can make their
unty, kill
have bee
They per-
v-ny through th.
hickrt with mot
remain at such a low ebb. When | bering bear van
of personal ambition begins to bruin to bay
burn within him, to keep pace with the
military zeal he is manifesting, then will
the darkness of his lot begin to be
lumined by fairer prospects.
an execute his own j the complacency with which lie accepts
,f our street urchins { his poor portion, is the reason why his
nimble pair of legs and good lung fortunes
-an earn more in an hour selling I the tire
In a brewery 1 saw a score of
facility than
i nd t liev so
1 m
lighted pin.- knot
aling upon him at ]
et, Clark supposing
mid frighten the b
dug
If annualxport? of :!
' dividedTct ween |
1 to aba $20 for each
1 child; hile the plire!)
,1 plied tits population
1 Is a tile less than £3 pe
9 Would em to iimdi ati-
B eapaci of one America
I that o seven Japanese,
lay instigations on li
I readerivaY form his own
As i
the at
belt ..
piling,
and v
nearly in tv
a long Urn
hing furiously away at
rew his knife fr..ni his
siiug beneath his arm.
ade into the cat’s vitals
tight. It hr .k.- up n
■eaderfiay for*
Acr J'- ”
i nettrinuse is
in courst
I mu >fi;„ Jcavation w
borfr^ who rei«-l
tea '..prs. They
'• W. S'rev-1tji baskets, then lump! c! it into
II carfs, hioli another crowd of men pulled
Sn ith much rids. and labor. This
p-oces»vas so slow that the work proved
3j exper.si- in the end. Befor. that ex-
|W cavatio, was completed the dirt taken
KB from it was almost worth its weight in
, gold, asiompaicd to wh.rt it would have
■I cost in n American city.
Till ORIENTAL CARPENTER,
jl The vrious kinds of workmen on the
, | new sticture arrive before 7 o’clock.
Lf be the do not go to work promptly.
PI They bud a little Are and gather around
su tt to ’a: and thaw out. By 8 o’clock
r tt.e mosof them are at work. Tliey all
W.-ar blc cotton suiis with characters
l Bpon "thin to indicate tln-ir guild, as well
LI as the fm or individual for whom ihcy
i are woring. This is tlieii winter garb i
My neiglibor is having the grass cut
fix m liis lawn. Four m.-n are erdwi-
ing around on their knees using shears.
II. pays i small sum for tho labor of
each individual, but .they have already
bt.cn on the job three days, and, in
liit . ad, it wil prove expensive. At
the wharf I noticed Jtlie manner of
driving piling. A dozen brawny fel-
lows wen- tugging away at the job.
making the hardest kind of work of it.
A crude pulley arrangement was sus-
{.i ruled on poles, and a rope extended
fioni .he ‘driver’’ :o each men. As
they began to lift, they all joined in
a’song. At a given point in the chant,
all hands let go, and tile weight drop
ped onto tile pile. This was repeated
until the job was finished. ft looked
lk. He contractor was getting a lot of
crude music for his money, but little
labor. To be a laboring man In Japan,
a fellow lias to know a lot of tunes.
NEIGHBOR’S STRATAGEM.
ow wonderfully well your daugh-
getting on with her music, Mrs.
said the crafty .-id Brown, over
garden wall, according to an ex-
tliink
ly. ’’H
think
THE C^OST OF LIVING.
Doubtless, you would like to
’.ow these people live, earning a
<!• only .i f*• v,' * * nts a <>ty. Thu
uge family among the laboring
will probably consist of five p
ir most cases, both tho man ai
woman work ,,nd their combined i
|| In aurnrir they wear nothing but a cloth 1 first,
H around heir loins, nnd a buinl about sonar
El t^ieir fotheads to ];<••* p th** it from
II running own .heir faces. coiiHi.-
|l The espenter's wtitfos rangt* from 30 ’ it n,
|l to 45 c€ts r day (nil quotations in afford
El this arti<o are in Amerieiin :non* \ *. **xi
H cording thoir grade. They use the t i»«?Ir
|l crudest Ind of tools, not even having n« v**r
]| the claw hammer ,wh:cii our w.n kincn
U consider so indispensable. 1 -av l on<
| >f them larting an Ameri an wire i .
I{ a board. He* put it in th* wrong place.
II bur did r»t discover his mistake until he
| bad takei one whack at It with Is iwk
I w?rd hanmer. The nail was half way In
I find he lid no means of Retting it out
li He stood egarding it with a puzzled look
[! on his fre. and f felt like s igRestin^
[[ that he jiil it «#jt with his teeth I
[• was finall removed w:tli laborious «*fforl
H by using pair of tongs. All the work-
!| men wast much time in the contempli-
; tion of nimp»»rtant detail. They con
If.n'ly rts apply their strength, loitei
tr* talk ail* smoke, and when two or more
io<*a;
fish
Uir
thait
know
thev
a ver-
persons.
ind the
income
month.
15 feel
i*-r month,
. • • food
f»K*»tnl>1c>—
can not
tabl-s are
isinngs ol
tlie family
o v i n g < i h \
fire. Ti
houses are easi
first indication
rce will cause ti
i whole eommuni'
pense of dress is insignificant
«*f a mans winter outfit will
•ed a dollar and a half. In s
he goes naked. The w irnan 1 •
kimona ai aln *st any .
'oivigners w-.rd^r why the na- t j
not discard their wooden clot:- | \
|;»nd wear shoos. It thestr wondering v
strangers will furnish something equally j«
workers is fifty cents a day, while a
p:iiut*r will omni.iml sixty cents. The
foreman of the electric light plant in
Yokohama remember that this is a city
fiv« rents a day for his skilled
s. He is an educated clrctri ■inn
iL< salary ;s l*»w< r than that of
tdinary American office boy The
of wages is higher In Yokohama.
in other parts of the Kmpire be-
the foreign firms here will pay
for competent help than tne na-
•oneerns. If there is a ‘bright
man in the post office, or some
department of the government
Street Vendor in Yokohama.
. c.-nts for ton hours—not enough to keep ]•••
| .in. of our factory girl* in chewing gum. t ;
'1’iierc are thousands of girts in Jap.1.1 ?
; working for three or four .-.-nts a day. |
MERCHANTS HAVE SMALL STOCKS ®
Th>- men who rely upon individual effort £
! to make a living, su.-li as merohams. •
j peddlers and vendors, have to get along, *
on a scant margin of profit. The average i
store is about 12 feet square. The pro I
prietor lias such a limited stock that hi? I
customer . an iioint to any article in the
place. As a rule, the merchant’s family
live in the rear, and the store is utilized I
as a sleeping room when the blinds are
... • •... • • ••• • ••• • • ••• • ••• • ’•
One of South’s
Greatest Game Preserses •
Found in Texas "•
. s • .»*
i put up at night. Showcases and count-
.-rs are used in some places, but as a
general thing tlie customer sits on a
small elevation in the front part of the
shop and boys tiring the goods fnrwa.d
for exhibtion while the proprietor extols
their merits. Many dealers can not af
ford to pay even tlie smallest rent and
move about the streets with their stocks
.■a their backs. The fish market halts
regularly at tlie kitchen door and the
green goods grocer knows no such item
of expense as rent and clerk hire. Deal
ers ia lamps. ITowers. baskets, brooms,
porcelain dishes, etc., go about looking
for trade rather than wait for customers
to come to them.
Doubtless the most persistent canvasser
for business is the tailor—generally a
Chinaman. These'"tradesmen are t’ni.-!*» , -r
than mosquitoes. They are after the
tourist at the hotel before he has his
trunk impacted. They always have th. .r ;
samples with them and will deliver gar- [
ments almost before the American tailor
would have the cloth for It. A gtiest in j
the hotel where 1 am stopping, received !
'1 he hunters kn
of the barking of tlieir
situation is come. They
their way to the spot wlv
made his stand, somethin
against a tree, sometimes ir
against the tree it is inor
the hunters will fln-d a dog r two !
dead among the briers, \ a-tlms of
bear’s ratge. A rifle bullet usually •
the hunt.
MUCH OF IT UNEXPLORED.
Upon miles and miles of the big ti;
et’s area no man has ever set foot,
f* ■ t in from either edge of the ; nit
n person is as completely lost t" \
as if the earth had opened and
him.
During the civil war the big t aiek.-t
was the refuge of many deserters fro a:
| the confederate army. Tie se w. re usual-
j ly men who dwelt in the vicinity of tin
: thicket. To capture them in th-dr ;-
I treat was impossible. > x ept !>> follow.ng
j those who carried food to them.
There were instances of deserters re-
( maining hidden thus in the big thick.-t
until the end of tin’ war and many feuds
resulted from the resentment deserters
1 felt toward provost marshals or their
assistants for tln-ir persistent efforts to
| hunt tltf-m down. Sunt, of tin-s.- unim t
ities were kept up for years .tftei tin-
war and families of both the men who
• were hunted and the men who hunted
I them lost more than one fnnoc.
her before vengeance seemed to
fled.
One instance is cited of a
was a conspicuous citizen of th
: where he lived, but who elms.
; himself up in the fastness of
; thicket rather than answer 111
his government and undergo tin
! and hardships of the camp and
( was two years in hiding.
COMES OUT AND MEETS HIS FATE.
The provost marshal of the di-’ri. was
persistent in his efforts t.. capture :hi-
particular deserter and bring him t-.
punishment, but without sue.-ess. Th.
- war was no sooner over than this de
; serter came from his retreat in tne
thicket and at once set out to hunt down
; the man who had so long sought to do
■ the same thing to him. lie found his
| man. with the result that after - s- aping
all tlie dangers of a soldier’s life and
1 enduring for years the hardships and
anxieties of a fugitive in tlie depths >>r
the big thicket, h>- was shot de ,i a few
hours after lie was free to come ind go
as he pleased.
I There are many small bodies of water
in the innermost depths of the big thiek-
| et, where that curious bird, the w ter
| turkey, otherwise known as tin- snake
I bird, which swims and dives like a duck,
| althougir not web footed, and lias a long,
sinuous neck which, when it is swimming -
i gives it tlie appearance of a snake, 1 EX-GOY Er-NOR LONG S FEET.
( abounds and rears its young. i " nl ' e g'"tig koine tr..m nis Rost a
j At the eastern extremity of the thl.-k.-t ! Office on. day, re Mug very tired, fx
one of these lakes has connection with Go\orr..>r I.ong boarded an elec.lie -li
the Sabine river in time nf bi.-i, v I After he had been seated about five ran;
Mr.
dnd
ion lity
•o shut
the big
.'all Of
dangers
field He
!
afternoon t pa
I say? I'm exp.
j s’o much like
I “Oh. I'm si
P ictua
j piano at the
| sounds which
was pounding
( clubs, and. by
j Brown and hi
j seated just on
i viding wall,
j “There:" ex,
curious
mdlord
And
t frightful row
• I. -a ed for ft '
landlord symf
ed. smiling);
ng a little till
mtil half past
.1 and I shoul
>roud mother
afternoon the
began to emit
that seme one
pair of Indian
coincidence, old
i.appened to be
former, “now
What do you
candidly, my
ft to knock at
If I've got to
■ow all day I
GREAT
ADVANTAGE.
with the yellow satchel
abin of an old colored
Chicago N'-ws.
ti .n alarm .i..ck," be-
“Automatie, double-
inepiece. ’’
d his corncob.
HE big thicket of Texas,
which, according to the
original plans, was to
•have been the scene of
President Roosevelt’s
bear hunt, is the queerest
streak of country in tne
way of thicket to be found
anywhere in tho union.
Although it lies in one of
the most thickly
parts of the state
no population save bears,
wildcats, wolves and other | ono fort -'
j . I the soft bottom,
wild fioasts and odd win’grd nnd crotpinpf i
™" * li* STRANDED SEVENTY FIVE YEARS.
cm.iiUmx. Just when those schooners were moor-
1 he hiir thicket from 5 to 15 mues .
” . . , ed in that lake is not known, and their
It extends from . , , , , „
mission there can only he surmised T |’y
were there seventy-five years ago. then in
a state of good preservation.
i rooster. D n
n’ early yo’ k!n
alarm clock f->r
automatic alarm
of high water I
and many ears ago this connection must I
have been a navigable channel, for in
settled j that lake the rotting hulks of two
it has 1 schooners, one of which must have been
boat of seventy-five tons and the other
tons, lie half-imbedded
wide and 70 miles long
, tlie Sabine river, tlie boundary between
1 Texas and Louisiana, 12 miles north of
l Orange, to the Trinity river region, al-
1 most due west. It lies between the last
i long-leaf pine belt of Texas and the lob-
! lolly or short-leaf pine region.
With the exception of scattered dwarf-
| ed pines, red oaks, gums and other vari-
| eties of trees which have succeeded in
! getting root room in the density of the
| some of which have come
fictent for a bear to climb, there is no
timber In the big thicket. The black
haw is found in its depths, and the wild
ich and the wild plum are among Ihc
utes a
i as tlie-i
to han,
; man wi
h tpper.
four oi
fired oi
and
mi
nting man boarded the car. and.
w> re not vacant seats, he hacf
"on to the straps. The young
; rafcher uncertain on his feet and
■red to step on the Governor’s t ">es
or rive times. The governor go:
of pulling his feel out of the way.
remarked: 'Young man, I know
■ t were made to walk on, but that
ge belongs to me.”
an invitation to attend an afternoon par- • .
, ..... _ ■ growths that provide sustenance to the
and his card stated that gentlemen
would be expected to wear frock suiis
and high lints. lie did not have such j
a suit and had less than twenty-four j
hours in which to get one. but a tailor!
took his ^ order, gave him one “try-on"
and had tlie clothes ready for him sev
eral hours before it was time to dress .
for the function. Xor was it a shoddy'
job. The same thing would have cost {
$125 ill New York, but the charge here f
was only 70 yen—about $35 in American '
money. T.'hon asked how it was possible (
for him to turn out work so rapidly, the I
foreman smiled and said tailors were
cheap and plentiful. The coat took the
most time, so he put live men to work
on It. They sat on the floor in a circle
with tlie garment between tiiem. One!
| sw ets-lovlng bear.
DENSE SCRUB OAK THICKET.
The growth that -gives distinctive char-
! acter to tlie aig thicket and aided by
j wild grape vines, the rattan vine, the
scrambling briers and other growths
I n.ak. s tlie fastness almost inaooesslbl-
to man. is a variety of oak that stands
as thick almost as cane in a brake and
grows but little larger. Matted and
woven among the close-standing ranks o!
the SP ba.mboo-like oaks are the vines
.r.d briers. Tlie bottom of the thicket
It Is supposed the came up the Sabine
river from the gulf of Mexico with car
goes of negroes obtained from some -la\"
ship on the gulf or somewhere along the
Atlantic coast. Texas was then part of
Mexico, and the supposition is that the
negroes were taken over into Louisiana
and sold there into slavery, tho Sabine
to a size suf I river being a safe channel for the carry- !
ing on of that traffic. Why the schoon- i
ers were abandoned at their moorings in j
the lake Is, of course, part of flic mys
tery.
From the skeleton of one of them hangs
a portion of a chain almost eaten up by i
rust. On the shore near by some other
rusty links lie against the trunk of a
tree. They are a continuation of the I
chain that moored the schooner to tli
tree when it was abandoned, the part of ,
it that went around the tree now being i
a foot or more beneath the surface of i
the trunk, the growth of many years j
having long ago covered it from sight, j
Tlie bears of tlie Big Thicket are said !
to be large and of a disposition c.ilcu- i
luted to stand little trifling. Jim Simp- j
STRICT ORDERS.
(From Tlie Albany Journal.)
'I lie following notice w as observed nest
ed in tin engine dispatcher's office it
the round hou.-e i" a neigliboring town
on one "f the railroad lines running .vat
of Albany: "Trainmen on passenger
trains must not go through the coa-he*
with overalls, without first taking :h°m
off. F. B. L."
DIDN'T CARE TO SI'I DOWN.
(From The Philadelphia Ledger.)
"Thank you, young gentleman." she
said to the boy who permitted her t.)
take the seat in the trolley ear that had
just been vacated, ''but, perhaps, you
bad better take it You look weary."
“I guess you'd look weary, too, lady,
if you’d been fisliin’ an' got ke.tched at
it by yer dad."
is soft and in the rainy season is covered j son - an Grange county bear hunter, kill-
in many places deep with water.
ed ten bears in one count;
part of the i
Hunters or others who venture into th< i thicket during the last yenr-
thicket far enough to be beyond the hear- ! WILD CATS GROW LARGE HERE.
in;c of companions on the outside do so The wild cats that hold forth in the
at 'the risk of being lost. Native guides
Japanese Carpenter at Work.
worked on each sleeve, one on each tall familiar with the intrScfries of the great
and one on the collar and body. The | swamp build camps frequently far in the
great waste are bigger than those in the
open woods or prairie, according to na
tive authority, and are inclined to bo
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extracts (three different varie
ties if desired), which make a
full year’s supply. This libe
ral offer is made to introduce
our perfumes. Agents wanted..
Address rR.lM’O-.IMKRI-
«\V\ PKRmiRRY CO.,
3.x2 Te|nple Court, N.Y. City, j