ing it done at home, and the chances are about one in a
hundred that her servant will carry out her instructions. In the
ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish the desired result, but by
means totally different from those to which the American housekeeper is
accustomed. If the housewife is one of the worrying kind, who cares as
much about the way in which the thing is done as about the accomplished
result, the chances are that she will wear herself out in a fruitless
endeavor to make her servants do things in her own way, and will, when
she returns to America, assure you that Japanese servants are the most
idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot that it was ever her bad
fortune to have to do with. But on the other hand, if the lady of the
house is one who is willing to give general orders, and then sit down
and wait until the work is done before criticising it, she will find
that by some means or other the work will be accomplished and her desire
will be carried out, provided only that her servants see a reason for
getting the thing done. And as she finds that her domestics will take
responsibility upon themselves, and will work, not only with their
hands, but with the will and intellect in her service, she soon yields
to their protecting and thoughtful care for herself and her interests,
and, when she returns to America, is loud in her praises of the
competence and devotion of her Japanese servants. Even in the treaty
ports, where contact with foreigners has given to the Japanese
attendants the silent and repressed air that we regard as the standard
manner for a servant, they have not resigned their right of private
judgment, but, if faithful and honest, seek the best good of their
employer, even if his best good involves disobedience of his orders.
This characteristic of the Japanese servant is aggravated when he is in
the employment of foreigners, for the simple reason that he is apt to
regard the foreigner as a species of imbecile, who must be cared for
tenderly because he is quite incompetent to care for himself, but whose
fancies must not be too much regarded. Of the relations of foreign
employers and Japanese servants much might be said, but our business is
with the position of the servants in a Japanese household.

Under the old feudal system, the servants of every family were its
hereditary retainers, and from generation to generation desired no
higher lot than personal service in the family to which the