n America. The wives exist solely for their
husbands, nor must the wife object if the husband maintains other
favorites, or even brings these favorites into the home with her. And
although a man is with his wife a much greater part of his time than
is the case in America, he may have little or no voice in selecting
her; in fact, he may see her only once before marrying.

After having seen probably half a million or more Japanese, Sundays
and week-days, I have not noticed a single young Japanese couple
walking together, and in the one case where I saw a husband and a wife
walking thus side by side I discovered on investigation that the man
was blind!

"For a young couple to select each other as in America," said a young
Japanese gentleman to me, "would be considered immoral, and as for a
young man calling on a young woman, that never happens except
clandestinely." And when I asked if it was true that when husband and
wife go together the woman must follow the man instead of walking
beside him as his equal, he answered: "But it is very, very seldom
that the two go out together."

My Japanese friend also told me that the young man often has
considerable influence in selecting his life-partner (in case it is
for life: there is one divorce to every three to five marriages), but
the young woman has no more voice in the matter than the commodity in
any other bargain-and-sale. When a young man or young woman gets of
marriageable age, which is rather early, the parents decide on some
satisfactory prospective partner, and a "middleman" interviews the
parents of the prospective partner aforesaid, and if they are willing,
and {7} financial and other considerations are satisfactory, it
doesn't matter what the girl thinks, nor does it matter much whether
young Barkis himself is "willin'." The Sir Anthony Absolutes in Japan
indeed brook no opposition. All of which, while not wholly commendable
(my young Japanese friend himself dislikes the plan, at least in his
own prospective case), has at least the advantage of leaving but
remarkably few bachelors and old maids in Japan. Here every man's
house may not be his castle, but it is certainly his nursery. Usually,
too, in the towns at least, his home is his shop; the front part full
of wares, with no hard and fast dividing line between merchandise
rooms and the living rooms, children being equally conspicuous and
numerous in both compartments.

Japan is still governed largely on patri