10 



H02IE AND FLOWERS 



or reflected on the shining mirror of a 

 hike, a scene which never fails to call forth 

 poetical effusions from the admirers of 

 nature. 



This constitutes the home life of the 

 average Japanese woman. Quiet, simple, 

 placid, and uneventful it may seem. And 

 jet she is verv, verv happy, very contented. 

 Deeply rooted in her mind, nurtured and 

 developed in the soil of feudalism, is the 

 Japanese hahit of '"taking things easily." 

 She is not, however, insensible to the hard 

 grind of facts in this earthly life, but her 

 mode of living has been so free from rush 

 and nervous strain that she is jorone to go 

 through life seeking the sunshine and 

 shunning the shadows. 



Every month in the year has its fete 

 day devoted to some traditional enjoy- 

 ments, chiefly flower festivals, and the 

 Japanese woman's life is a-ripple with the 

 gentle excitement of these monthly events. 

 So passionate is her love for nature and 

 the flowers that every month she will make 



regular visits to different flower resorts of 

 the metropolis, and all the rest of the 

 month the sweet, refining influence of the 

 flower festival is upon her and her house- 

 hold. 



Once in a rare while events of national 

 importance mar her life of innocent pleas- 

 ures; as, for example, when a war cloud 

 hangs over her beloved nation. Then it is 

 seen that she has a spirit less fragile than 

 her body, and deeds of surpassing heroism 

 have been attributed to her in such emer- 

 gencies. She will give up bravely and 

 with a passionate gladness the ones in 

 whom she has labored so lovingly to instil 

 those instincts that to the Japanese mind 

 are almost a holy passion. Sometimes, 

 too, but rarely, the little woman's life is 

 marred by a vicious and cruel husband. 

 But divorces are the exception and not the 

 rule. If her life is narrow she is never- 

 theless happy within its limits. She de- 

 sires no more strenuous life beyond her 

 own home. 



A JAPANESE MOTHER PUTTING BABY TO SLEEP 

 From a Japanese engraving. 



