ilies that trace their descent from Jimmu Tenno, the whole
manner of obtaining the bride was different from anything that Japan had
before known. The Prince asked the father of the young lady to give her
to him just as a common man might have done, and everything in the
preliminary arrangements was carried out with the idea that by the
marriage she was to be raised to his rank and position. Reference has
already been made to the religious ceremony that was devised for the
occasion, an act that in itself altered the meaning of marriage for the
whole nation.

Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the world outside of the
palace gates, of the kindness and consideration with which the young
wife is treated by her husband. To the scandal of some of the more
old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants, the heir to the throne insists
on observing toward his wife, in private as well as in public, all the
minutiae of Western etiquette. She enters the carriage ahead of him when
they drive together, they habitually take their meals together, and he
finds in her a cheerful companion and friend, and not simply a devoted
and humble servant. In this way, by the highest example that can be set
to them, the Japanese people are learning a new lesson.

All these things have a deep significance in showing that the sacredness
of the marriage tie is gradually being recognized.

_Page 137._

Something, indeed, may be said on the other side in regard to this
system, which I seem to have painted as ideal. If in America we find the
burden of expensive grown-up sons and daughters sometimes too heavy upon
parents whose powers are on the wane, we must remember that in Japan a
young man is often seriously handicapped at the beginning of his active
life by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting labor,
and that the young wife entering the home of her parents-in-law often
finds a happy married life rendered impossible by the fact that she must
please an elderly couple thoroughly fixed in their ways,--the rulers of
the household and with little to do but rule. With this custom, as with
all human customs, everything in the long run depends upon how it is
used, and without deep affection between parents and children there
seems to be as much danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents in Japan, as there is in
America of the wearing out of the older people's lives and strength in