ese ladies on board with their husbands and they seem to enjoy
it. With their faces white with rice powder and their purple color in
their haoris they are pretty, and especially here where they do not feel
the necessity of covering the obi with haori so they look less
humpbacked than in fashionable Tokyo. Their footwear I love, only, of
course, it holds them still more to the conventional position as it
leaves the legs bare above the ankle, and they must walk so as not to
show that as well as not to disturb the lap of the kimona down the
front. But the tabi feel like bare feet on account of the division of
the big toe from the other toes, and as soon as you put them on you feel
as if the toes were really made to use, and the foot clings as you walk.
I am taking a set of cotton kimonas to China so as to have them to wear
in my room with the tabi on hot days. Without the obi the dress becomes
quite cool if made of thin material. The thin silk, which is practically
transparent, is one of the most beautiful things in Japanese weaving, as
it is still firm enough to keep its shape and wear for years.

The dress of the geisha is very like the ceremonial dress of the lady,
especially when black with decorations at the bottom. The little girls
are very touching, many of them are not over eight or nine, and they
wear the elaborate dress and coiffure which is theirs for the part. In
cherry season it is bright peacock blue. In Osaka the decorations were
butterflies in colors and gold. The samisen players are older and they
dress more plainly in black or plain blue, the drum players are young
and gay colored. The teeth of the little girls are so bad that I asked
if they blackened them. The dances are lovely poetical things with
themes of the most delicate subjects. There is never anything coarse
either in the thought or the execution. They say the geisha is the most
unselfish person in the world. Perhaps that might be said for all the
women. They do their hard work and keep themselves out of sight to a
degree that shows the pain there must be in it. When I was asked what I
thought of them I answered that I thought Japanese women were not
appreciated for what they did. They said, "No, that is not so, we do not
show it but we appreciate them in our hearts."

SHANGHAI, May 1.

We have slept one night in China, but we haven't any first impressions,
because China hasn't revealed itself to our eyes as yet. We compared
Shanghai t