government has
announced that while they are not encouraged they will not be any
longer forbidden.

But I must get back to the story. Another friend had asked us to go to
the theater with him, the Imperial Theater, which has European seats
and is a fine and large building, as fine as in any capital and not
overdecorated like a New York one. The theater began at four, and,
with about half an hour intermission for dinner, continued till ten at
night; the regular Japanese theaters begin at eleven in the morning
and continue till ten at night and you have your food brought to you;
also they have no seats and you sit on your legs. None of the plays
was strictly of the old historic type, but the most interesting one by
far was adapted from a classic--it centers to some extent about a
faithful horse, and the people are country farmers of several
centuries ago. The least interesting was a kind of problem
play--mostly philosophical discourse of the modern type--the right to
expression of self and an artistic career, aphorisms having no
dramatic appeal to even the Japanese audience. These people certainly
have an alert intelligence--almost as specialized as the Parisian, for
the audience was distinctly of the people, and no American audience
could be got to pay the close attention it gave to performances where
the merits, so far as they are not strictly artistic, in the technique
of acting which is very highly developed, depend upon catching the
play of moral emotions rather than upon anything very theatrical.
However, the classic drama which is based upon old stories and
traditions is more dramatic and melodramatic. The Japanese also say
the old theater has much better actors than the semi-Europeanized one
which is, I suppose, supported by the government. In the Imperial, the
orchestra seats are one dollar and a half; they are more--on the floor
at that--in the all-day theaters. Even in this one they have not
introduced applause, though there was slight handclapping once or
twice when the curtain went down. The Japanese have always had the
revolving theater as a means of scene shifting; it works like a
railway turntable apparently. Well, that ended the day yesterday.
Except we had invited two gentlemen to dinner, and when we told our
friends about it, they said, "Oh, just telephone them to come some
other day," which appears to be good Japanese etiquette, as it is also
to make calls at any time of the day, so we did. But unfor