SMELLS 469 



cares little whether he changes his linen or not. We do 

 the reverse — bathe less often but change every day or 

 two. Which is the better habit ? i^ow, while the Japan- 

 ese homes are all as clean as a lady's boudoir, is their idea 

 of sanitation ours, and the smells in Japan often recall 

 Coleridge's impromptu rhyme anent Cologne of old : 



"In Kola, a town of monks and bones, 

 And pavements fanged with murderous stones, 

 And rags and hags and hideous wenches, 

 I counted two and seventy stenches — 

 AH well defined and several stinks ! 

 Ye Nymphs, who rule o'er sewers and sinks, 

 The River Rhine, it is well known, 

 Doth wash the City of Cologne. 

 But tell me, Nymphs, what power divine 

 Shall henceforth wash the River Rhine ?" 



Truly, their ways (as they were) are not as our ways. 

 But they are fast getting " civilized." Even that horror 

 of modern entertainments, the swallow-tailed waiter (why 

 will he not migrate with the other swallows ?), threatens 

 to make Japan an abiding-place. Not so very long ago, 

 a Japanese gentleman would invite his friends to a tea- 

 house (male friends, of course; no lady was ever invited to 

 dinner) and give them a charming repast, enlivened by 

 the songs and dances of the most attractive geishas — who, 

 as a class, are the most accomplished women in Japan. 

 Nowadays he asks them to a European table, after-din- 

 ner speeches and all. Is this a gain ? 



By-the-way, this after-dinner speaking reminds me of 

 one of the very best things I ever heard said on such 

 an occasion — but not in Japan. It was at a Papyrus din- 

 ner in Boston, when the guest of the evening was a gen- 

 tleman who is now one of our leading young college 

 presidents. I cannot quote his felicitous words, but the 



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