o present
it gracefully; while the dainty handing of a cup to a guest is of the
greatest importance imaginable. A gentleman can always tell the
character of a girl and the class to which she belongs by the way she
offers him a cup of Sake. And then the children are taught that they
must always control their feelings--if they are sad, never to cry; if
they are happy, to laugh quietly, never in a boisterous manner, for that
would be considered vulgar in the extreme.

Modesty and reserve are insisted upon in the youth of Japan. A girl is
taught that she must talk very little, but listen sympathetically to the
conversation of her superiors. If she has a brother, she must look up to
him as her master, even although he be younger than herself. She must
give way to him in every detail. The baby boy places his tiny foot upon
his sister's neck, and she is thenceforth his slave. If he is sad, her
one care must be to make him happy. Her ambition is to imitate as nearly
as possible the behaviour of her mother towards her own lord and master.

Many attempts have been made by enterprising Westerners to "broaden" the
minds of the Japanese girls, and to make them more independent, by
establishing schools for them, where they can be educated on purely
Western principles; but these attempts have always failed. The women
turned out from such establishments are always unhappy, and continue to
suffer for the rest of their lives, because they are disliked and
resented by all their people, and no man will marry any of them. The
beautiful side of life seems to have been taken from them; imagination
is crushed and spoilt; they are unfitted for the life that every
Japanese woman must lead. Naturally they are hated by the men, for the
womanly qualities that are most valuable in a Japanese girl are
destroyed by this Western "broadening" of their minds: they wear
high-heeled shoes, put nosegays on the table, and are altogether
demoralised. Sad to say, Western influence is keenly felt within the
schools which belong to all classes and conditions of Japanese children,
and one trembles lest gradually the simplicity and quaint formality of
their bringing-up should become hardened and roughened into the system
which has done so much to spoil the child-life of the West. Their own
artistic training is perfect; and although Japan is the land of
ceremony, and the children are brought up with a certain strictness of
propriety unknown in the less ceremonious