43
New England. This chain of islands extend from northeast to southwest, through so many degrees of latitude as to give every variety of climate from that of Canada to Florida. The houses are never built with chimneys, the whole group being subject to earthquakes, and are rarely more than one story in height. “Air-tight” stoves and “base-burners” are unknown, the only means of heating rooms being brasiers of charcoal, around which on a damp and chilly day, in every shop one can see a group of natives squatted on their heels, warming their hands, smoking pipes with bowls half as large as a thimble, and sipping from tiny porcelain cups hot tea, or a rice wine called saki. The family of the shop-keeper lives in the rear, separated from the salesroom by light sliding screens covered with thin oiled paper. Window glass is never used except in the foreign houses, although the Japanese are quite skillful in the manufacture of glass into ornamental articles. These paper windows are very cheap, easily repaired, and said to be as effectual in keeping out the cold as thin sheets of glass. The Japanese depend in cold weather more upon thickly wadded clothing than artificial heat for comfort. The floors of the shops are raised about a foot above the ground, and are covered with nice straw matting. The customer always slips off his clogs or sandals, which he leaves outside and in front of the shop. There are sometimes a dozen pair, which to me all look alike, and suggest the very natural mistake of stepping into and walking off with another man’s shoes. Of course foreigners are exceptions, and are permitted to tread with muddy boots on the clean mats of the shops; but if invited to visit the house of a Japanese gentleman, I would take a pair of slippers along in my pocket.
The places most visited by strangers in Japan are the curio shops. The outsides of these stores are by no means imposing. No high marble or granite structures, no plate glass windows, no army of elegantly dressed. salesmen are to be seen, but a room perhaps fifteen feet square, open to the street, the shelves crowdad with lacquer-ware, bronzes, fancy goods of every imaginable description, jewelry, straw-covered boxes, and hundreds of articles that are made nowhere else in the world. If you are a “Buckeye,” the proprietor salutes you with the name of your state, which you return with equal po-
