The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current, September 21, 1902, PART FOUR, Image 26

The Sunday Oregonian., September 21, 1902, PART FOUR, Page 26, Image 26

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Newspaper Page Textl.4fijuujiil.i.iiSTO v?" 26 THE UKDAY OKEGONlAy. PORTLAND. SEPTEMBER 21, 1902. TEA HOUSES AVND GEISHA erRLS TWO. INSTITUTIONS OF JAPAN THAT HAVE NO . COUNTERPART IN THIS COUNTRY GEISHA GXKLS ILLUSTRATING TKE TEA HOUSES and Geisha girls make up that mournful ceremony, a Jap anese banquet; the food is of no consequence to a European. f Taken separately they aro not bad; your own dinners at the foreign hotel -would bo much enlivened by performances of Gel ebas they would do as well as a yeomanry band. And tea houses are not so bad If you don't take their tea, though their teas are less awful than the dinners, un less you do the correct thing and take ealted cherry blossom with them. Japanese dinners are a refined kind, of torture; you are expected to sit on your heels and eat off the floor, Lovely little mousmees, with scarlet petticoats, come and kneel before you. But what 13 the use of it when you are kneeling yourself, because, not being a Jap, you can't sit on your knee? Besides, your mousmee spends all her time in playing hide-and-seek with your nake bottle. No good restaurant will let you drink sake that len't hot enough, and as you don't drink it at all, it ooon gets below the proper point, and your mousmee goes for more. You are behav ing very badly. Tho Japanese never keeps his sake waiting. The food is a worse trial. Live fish might do if you -could persuade yourself to treat It like an oyster, but seaweed soup MR. DOOLEY ON THE WAR GAME ONE OF IN THE WHAT'S this here war game I've been readln' about?" asked Mr. Henncssy. "It's a kind iv a blind man's buff," said Mr. Dooley. "It's a thrile Iv cun nln an' darln' between th' Army an' th' Navy. Be manes iv It we lam whether th' inimy cud sneak into Boston afther dark without annywan seein them an' anchor in Boston Common. Ye an' I know different, HInnissy. We know how manny people are fti th' sthreets afther dark. But th' Navy don't know an' th' Army don't know. Their idee is that a German fleet might gum-shoe up th harbor In th' dark iv th' moon an' whin people turned out fr their mornin' dhram. thero wud bo th' Irapror Wlllum atin his breakfast iv Hungayrlan goo lash an noodlo soup on th' steps iv th' State House iv Matsachoosetts. But it's a gran game. I'd like to play it mcsllf. It's as noisy as forty-fives between Con nock men an' as harmless as a stceryop ticon lectcher. If war an' th' war game was th' same thing, I'd be an Admiral, at lacte, be this time, with me face gashed an seamed be raspberry Jam an' me clothes stained with English breakfast tea. "Th Navy chose to be th' inlmy an' 'twas th' jooty iv th' Navy to dlvastato th' New England coast On th' other hand, th' business lv th Army was to catch th' Navy at its neefaryous wurruk an' tag.it befure it cud get Its Angers crdst. To play th' game well, th Navy must act as much like an inimy as It can an' th Army must pretlnd to be Jus' as cross at th' Navy as it is whin they aro both on th same side. Friendship ceases whin they set In. "It's a hard game to follow if ye're lookln' on an' puttin' up th' money, as I am. Tve been readln about it in th' pa-apers an I can't make out now wheth er th' Inlmy is lootln th' breweries lv Connecticut or whether th' definders iv our hearths has blown thlm up in th harbor Iv New London. 'I have th honor to rayport,' says Admiral Hlgginson, that I have this day desthroyed all th forts on th New England coast, put th' definders to rout with gr-reat slaughter an' kilt with me own hands Gin-ral Mc Arthur, th' Commander iv th lan' f oorces a brave man but no match fr ye'ers thruly. His las' wurruds to me was. "Hlgginson. ye done well!" I ray turned him his soord with th wurruds: "Gin'ral, between two brave men, there can be no hard feelin's." Th battle in which mo gallant foe met his fato was th con-clu-slon iv wan iv th mos' successful socyal an' naval campaigns in th hlsthry iv our counthry. I have th honor to inform ye that promptly on th declaration Iv war. I give an afthernoon tea to th' Duchess i Marlborough. Th forts at NewportJ attlmpted to reply, but was unable to spoor more thin three or four westhern mlllyonalres an soon succumbed to th inlvltable. I thin moved up th Sound an' fell upon Gin'ral McArthur whin he wasn't lookln'. Befure he cud load his guns, we poored a perfect blankety-blank hell iv blank catridges on him. He mads a spirited reply but it was useless. We out-fought him be nearly fifty thousan dollars worth iv powder. In th' mist iy tli' flamo an smoke, I discerned th' caitiff foe standin on top lv a fort dl rectin his wav'rin' foorces. "Hl-spy, Gin'ral McArthur." says I in claryon tones, an th battle was over to all in tlnts an purposes. I have to isplcially commlnd Cap'n McWttallop, who, flndln FROVERBl "HEAR XO BVtt, "SHE find lllrri rnrfmivnto nnA tiata4 mai with pickle and fish juice, are novelties too striking for the male European stomach. "When you aro drowning jou catch at straws, and when you are having a Jap anese banquet you catch at anything you know by sight, like a plum or a potato, but it is only a subtler form of torture, for the lilum is sure to be salted and the potato cooked in syrup. Even if the things were good to eat, you couldn't help yourself with' chop sticks; it's too much like eating soup with a fork. Undeterred by your, not eating, the dinner goes on for hours, while you wonder which will happen first your knee-joints give way or your calves go flat. If you havo been to a Japanese banquet before, you prop yourself up against the waiL That is the only way you can sit on the floor for hours. The mousmees are so pretty and so nice that if you do get up to leave they always persuade you to kneel down again. And when it is all over comes the un klndest cut of all. Politeness demands that you should make a separate excuse for each dish you cannot eat; It's no use, for as you aro getting Into your rlsksha your mousmee hands you a pile of white wooden boxes In which she has carefully packed everything you could not cat, for you to take to your honorable family, and etiquette demands that you should take them, though you give them to your ricksha boy as soon as you are out of sight. Etiquette is the Kaiser of Japan. THE GREATEST SOCIAL AND NAVAL CAMPAIGNS HISTORY OF THE COUNTRY his boat caught between th fires Iv th inimy, called out; "Lay mo down, boys. an save th' ship. I'm full iv marmylade." Th' ladles aboord was perfectly delighted with th valor an hospitality Iv our- men. Tonight we complctde our wurruk be giv ln a dinner an "hop on board th' flagship. Among those presint was an' so on. "That's what th gallant Hlgginson says. But listen to what th akelly gallant Mc Arthur says: 'I have th' honor to rayport that mcsllf an me gallant men, but largely if I do say it that shudden't. mesilf, crushed an' Innlhriated th intmy's fleet at hlglK noon today. Las' night at th first round iv Jacks, or midnight, as civil yans wud cay, we rayceived a rayport fr'm our vlgylant- scouts that th inlmy were not at Bar Harbor, Pookypsle, Keo kuk, Johannesboorg or Council Bluffs. But where were they? That was th ques tion. An idee struck me. War is aa much a matther iv ingenoolty an' thought as Iv fire an' slaughter. I tint out fr an a.Yen in paper an' as I susplcted, it announced that til craven foe was about two blocks away At that very moment, th sthralns lv th "Bloo Danoob" was wafted to me ears an' me suspicions was confirmed. On such occasions thero Is no sleep fr th modhren sojer. Napolyon wud ve gone, to bed, but slumber nlver crost me tired eyelid. 'Twas 6 o'clock whin we cashed in an' each wlnt to th' mournful jooties iv th day, silently btft with a heart full iv courage. At nign noon, we fell upon th Inlmy an poorcd out about JS5.O00 worth courage. At high noon, we fell upon th lv near-slaughter on him. His mina was choked with cotillyon favors an' ho did not reply at wanst, but whin ho did, th scene was thruly awful. Th sky was blackened be th' smoke lv smokeless pow dher an" th' air was full iv cotton waste fr'm th' fell injlne3 iv desthructlon. A breeze fr'm shore carried out to me ears th' wails lv th' wounded taxpayers. At 12:13 I descried th' -bloodthirsty Hlgginson an a good fellow Caleb is at that on th roof iv his boat. "Hl-spy," says he, "Hl-spy ye'er gran'mother," said I. 'Tve had mo eyo on yo f r 15 mlnylts an ye're a dead man, as I can prove be witnesses," I says. An he fell off th' roof. I was sorry to take his life, but war knows no mercy. He was a bravo man but fool hardy. He ought nlver to've gone again me. Ho mlghfvo licked Cervera, but he can't lick me. We captured all th' mcn-iv-war, desthroyed most lv th' cruisers an ar-ro now usln th' flagship fr a run about. Th counthry 13 safe, thanks to a vlgylant an sleepless army. I will go up to New York tomorroh to be meas ured f r th' presentation soord." "There it Is, HInnissy. Who won? I don't know. I can't .tell at this mlnyit whether I ought to be undher th bed larnln' German fr th time whin a Proo k 1 1.117 r U1U U f shyan sojer'll poke me out with his sa ber, or down at Finucane's hall callin a meetin' to thank th definders Iv th' fire side. Nobody knows. It's a quare game, fr they tell me afther th battles has been fought an th kilt has gono back to holeystonln' th deck an th smoke from th chafin dish has cleared away, th decision Is up to a good flgurer at Wash'nton. It deplnds on him whether we ar-re a free people or whether wo wear th yoke lv sarvlchood an' bad, Ger man hat3 fr all time. He's th' offlcyal scoorer an' what Hlgginson thinks was a base hit, he calls a foul, an' what Mc Arthur calls an' acclpted' chanst is an error. Afther th' gallant lads in biuo an' gold has got through, a wathry-cyed clerk named Perkins H. SomethIng-or- JCO EVIL," "SPEAK XO EVIL." It is no good looking at Geisha while you are going through these tortures; you are not in & etato of health to make al lowance for their voices or their music, and their wit ia lost upon you, which Is perhaps Just as well. Tho Geisha, except in the kind of ballets you get at the Maplo Crab, does not suit Europeans. She dances without her feet, and sings without a voice. She does not, as the unco guld assert, belong to the oldest profession In the world not necessarily. Her real func tion is to console tho dissipated Japanese for the absence of actresses in his coun try. Mme. Sada Tacco Is a Japanese woman, but a Western Idea. Japanese ladles . have actors to fall in love with, but the Japanese man has to fall back on the Geisha, The ancient Greeks did not have -actresses either. Perhaps their plays were as dull (on the stage) as Japanese plays, which run their banquets close. The ancient Greek was as wise as the modern Jap; he did not want to be separated by tho footlights and the catgut tortures of the orchestra from his goddess. The wisest of the an cients, like the Japanese, did not hang about stage doors or send jewelry on and off chance to actresses whom they did not know. If you ask a man to dinner and take him to the Gaiety afterwards, you spoil his dinner or lose half the performance. Instead of going to the Gaiety, the Japs made the Gaiety come to them. Japan cos wives are not taught accomplish other, sets down an figures out th vlc- thry. Th man behind th' fountain pen is px' boy. It's up to him whether th' Stars an Sthrlpes still floats over an on conquered people or whether five pfennigs is th prico Iv a dhrink in New York. He eets on his high stool an says he: 'Five tolmes eight Is twlnty-nlne, sub thract three fr th' duchess, a quarther to 1 o'clock an' SQ miles fr'm Narragan sett pier is two-an'-a-half, plus th' load-wather-llno iy th' saloon corapanlonway, akel to two-fifths Iv th' dlfterentyal tan gent. Huroo! MIsther SIcrcty, yo can go home an' tell ye'er wife, th counthry's safe.' He has to be a smart man. A good bookkeeper, as th pote says, is th' counthry's on'y safety. He mus' be careful, too, d'ye mind. Th' honor Iv th' Army an' th' Navy is at stake. Wan or th' other iv thlm has been careless." V'D'ye think a foreign fleet cud capture this counthry?" asked Mr. Ilennessy. "Not onless It -was op'rated be a throl ley," said Mr. Dooley. "Supposin yo an I had throuble, HInnissy, an both iv us wa3 armed with bricks an' ye was on roller skates an I was on th top Iv a house, how much chanst wud ye have again me? Ships Is good to flght other ships. That's alL I'd sooner bo behind a bank iv mud thin in th finest ship in th' wurruld. A furrln' Inlmy thryin' to get up to New York wud bo like a, blind' burglar attlmptin' to walk on th' top iv a hothouse with all th neighbors' an' th neighbors' dogs waltin fr him. Th war game to all right It don't do anny harm. ments, but "virtues, which are their only reward. Tho Japanese man wants some thing moro than an actress. The Geisha ia expected to be excellent In that way, and to be at his beck besides; when he is too . idle to attend any -more to her dancing and singing, ho beckons her to come closer and entertain him with her blandishments: Kot Always Beautiful. Geishas are not always beautiful; they aro always elegant and clever; they are the best-dressed women in Japan the Japanese do not think It ladylike-for their wives to dress well. "Wives wear a sort of half-mourning, and no' wonder. The Geisha begins training for her future hon ors early. Girls arc chosen for cleverness at 7 or 8 years old beauty is only considered skin-deep for a Geisha. They are trained in dancing and singing and the art of conversation. The latter is most Important; a Geisha has constantly to be bandying wit with sake-fuddled admirers and to switch lov ers on or off. She is expected to sing and dance and play. Any music-hall ar tist in London would promise, to shoot herself It Bhe could not do better with a .wcek'3 practice. But the training of these Geishas extends over four years, and is perfect of Its kind. The popular Geisha, like the popular actress. Is much courted; she often makes a brilliant marriage. No Japanese could ..understand "The Second Mrs. Tanqucray." Ladles with pasts get married every day there; their pasts are no objection, but they havo to bo pasta when they marry; In that dl-vorce-mongering land Caesar's wife ceases to bo a wife if she is not above suspic ion. It is hard for Europeans to take the Geishas seriously for all their accom plishments. They look like children, and are children when they are not cats. It la easy to recognize the Geisha; she looks vm? cnsel wlth w,nS3 of rich brocade, a child face, geranium lips and flowers in her glossy hair. Tho Geisha may often bo seen In rikshas with their duennas. The houses In the Yoshiwara are glorified teahouses, and may be used as such. They remind one of the Arabian Nights. TcanousesNot Teatotal. But teahouses are apt to bo lovely; It is their business, except those which go in for the dull rcsDeclabilitv of bolne Anns. A ,tcahouse Isn't teatotal. -It ui generally not a.house at all, but a garden full o Summer-houses and quite often consists of nothing but a roof and a view. You can never got to n view In Japan without passing through a teahouse, and your way to blocked by gay little mousmees who rub their knees together and bow and hlsa their .respects and give you tea. . They don't sell It, but you give them a Chal-dai tea-present three-half-pence (worth only three farthings) for five cup3 of tea, and you needn't drink it. One often wonders what they do with the tea that isn't drunk in Japan; it doesn't seem to go back in the pot for tho next person, who won't drink It cither. Perhaps tea plants are kept in a good humor by having the tea put back in the soli. Asj tho teashed Is nuut across the path, this pretty per formance Is a toll. Beautiful as Dream. Some, teahouses are as beautiful as dreams of coming Into fortunes. They m.ay be In the Chinese style with ma sonary ornaments llko that described i But it's like punchln' th bag an I'd Jus' as soon thraln a man fr n. flfht h Llarnln him to. play th mandolin, as be lnsmrucun- mm in Dag punchln'. It's a fine game. I don't know who won, but I know who lost." "Who's that?" asked Mr. Henncssy. "Th threasury," said Mr. Dooley. (Copyrighted. 1002.) THAT EXPOSITION. 'Tm glad to hear," said Uncle Josh, "The slto has been selected. I ain't surprised a bit, by gosh; It's Just as I expected. I-thought they'd hie that Falr"away In some outlandish holler. And fix It so it wouldn't pay Moro 'n two bits on tho dollar., "But then there's no use malcln' light Or raisin much objection; I guess them fellers think they're right In makin' that selection; So with tho rest I'll lend a hand And 1 it takes all Summer,' No matter where It's goln' to stand We'll mako tho Fair a hummer. "But If we do we'll have to move, I think, a little faster; We'll have to leave the mossback groovs If we'd avoid disaster; For Eastern men who cash possess That's ready for lnvestln Will tako their cash back home unless Our Fair Is interesting. "So let's tako hold and do what's rlgXfc To make the Fair a credit Take what I said about tho slto As If I'd never said It. I always want to do my best For everything; that's goln', -To let folks know this great Northwest Can mako a mighty showln'. "Don't let's fool 'round and wait and wait And spell the Exposition; Let's make It fit to celebrate That famous expedition. And then, the folks will go away ' Well pleased with our location. And come again some other day To find a habitation." CHARLES K. BURNSIDE. Eellwood. September, 1002. THE DEAN OP TUB LOOM. : , i below; the may have exquisite old wooden terraces overhanging a lako with the sa cred mountains Fujiyama staring at them like a house. to let; or they may be them selves overhung with fragrant lavender wistaria blossoms four feet long, which sweep tho waters of a river In the midst of a gay capita?; they may be dear little dolls' houses, built of odorous unpalnted pine wood, and planted In a retired cor ner of paradlso like the point of Toml Oka. The dolls are always there, pretty lit tle mousmees, who take oft your boots to prevent your spoiling the deep, soft prlmrose-jcolored matting or kicking the house down- when - you "grow Impatient. Time is a snail in Japan. There is a tethouso in every temple, run by the priests. If Europeans go there, they will sell other things . stronger than tea. RIksha boys' teahouses you always have with you on the great high roads. Almost any house may turn teahouse or shop among the lower class Japanese. Delightful as those thatched belvederes are, where you pay your tea money and look at the view, there is nothing a for eigner enjoys so much as the city teahouse with Chinese gardens. The Restaurant Teahouse. About inns I shall say nothing. Thpy are respectable places enough for a land which has no arbitrary rules about de cency. It Is the restaurant teahouse at which the Japanese defies our conventions. RAG CARPETS AFTER years of undervalue in tho. industrial world, products of the hu man hand are again to the fore. Handi crafts are springing up on every side. Not In competition with or antagonistic to the machine, which has done so much to bring utility and beauty. Into lives that might otherwise have never known either, but as a natural expression otlndivld uallty, are handicrafts multiplying. Pe riodicals devoted to hand-made arts threaten to become as formidable as trade journals. It Is the Inevitable result of two growing ' factors In American life. Edu cated wealth la spreading, and with It deslro to possess exclusive objects of art which bear the impress of individuality and which cannot be duplicated, as are machine-made th'lnga. Educated wealth Is learning to recognize and appreciate the intrinsic value of human skill as man ifested In the various handicrafts. Ready to meet this taste and demand upon tho part of educated wealth are men and women of ideas who have learned to think and to execute "for themselves. Breaking away from the em ployer and the 'salary, they have set up their tools under their own roof tree, and from designs of their own fashioning, out of clay, brass, copper, wood, straw, rags, leather and other mediums, they arc mak ing for utility and beauty articles that be speak the thought that is within them. In out-pf-the-way corners of large cities are members of little handicraft shops where a single worker creates and stamps his or her hand-made work, as did the Benevenuto Cellinls of the Middle Ages, with their personal signature or trade mark. Knowing no taskmaster but the satis faction of their individual sense of the GEISHA GIRLS STUDYING. Even a banker asking his family lawyer to dinner does not includo wives; he asks him to dinner at a restaurant, and en gages Geishas famous for their beauty and their wit, but not necessarily for their morals, to make themselves agree able to him. Both wives regard this as a natural feature of hospitality. As you drive- through Shiba at night you will know where the Japanese gentleman is enjoying himself In his primitive way by large wooden lanterns with paper glasses and projecting eaves, and by the ricksha boys smoking and doubtless scandal-mong-erlng, at the gates. You will hear the tinkle of the samisen and the poor little Geishas' voices. Some times, If the night is hot, and the banquet era have reached the drunken stage, the shutters will be taken down and you will see the party enjoying itself. The Japan ese take their pleasure badly; tho host and his guests sit in a semi-circle more or less drugged with gorging and sake, und the Geishas are ranged In semi circle opposite, if they still have a soul for music, or come closer and enchant them with prettlness and wittlness. The Japaneso do not laugh for pleasure or kiss for dove; they have a derisive laugh to show anger, and they giggle at wit, but the hearty English laugh of enjoyment is unknown to them. A Spree In Kobe. "We went to such a teahouse at Kobe. I wanted to stay In the garden, the size ARE COMING INTO STYLE FASHION'S EDICT IS NOW TO REND YOUR GARMENTS AND TREAD THEM UNDER FOOT true, they withhold their work from the buyer until it realizes as near as possible their Ideal. Their own designer, executor, taskmaster, their salary Is their profits. These little shops nestle for the most part under sky roofs, or aro buried in cellar basements. So rapidly have they In creased in number, and of such superior excellence is the won: they turn out, that In more than one large city depots have boen established for their exhibition, with hope of commanding a larger mar ket than is possible-In the secluded shop or studio. In this refreshing revival looms a long discarded art the weaving of rag carpets. Asthe dean of New York carpet weavers swings his gaily filled shuttles these days he marvels at the change In the clientele that finds it way to this basement home, where his loom of nearly 40 years service has long been a curiosity to the passer-by. In lieu of an occasional housewife or tho matron of a charitable institution comes now, to the old man's perplexity, my lady's maid with balls of cut rags, or a monogrammed, perfumed note'asking him to call at No. So and So and collect ma terial prepared for tho weaving of a carpet, rag or portiere. "It's the Americans tho rich Ameri cans," chuckles the old weaver, "who havo set my loom a singing in its old age." When the dean came from Bavaria with his good frau less than 40 years ago ho found in New York more than 1000 carpet weavers, all doing a thriving business. "I owned four looms," sighed the old man with a blink in his merry brown eye. "All the big stores bought my carpets, and great ladles living in fine houses In Bond street and Lafayette Place used to bring me their line gowns cut up into strips to weave into carpets not for the kitchen, i would have you know, but for their own beautiful bedrooms." With the coming of the machine-made carpet, among the first to desert the hand weaver were the foreigners. Today the dean know3 of but three hand looms on tho East Side of New York, and doubts if there are a dozen weavers who make their bread swinging the shuttle. "The old weavers have nearly all died off, and their children would not learn the trade. It was too slow. They fol lowed the trend of the times and took to the machine or sought work in other fields. "Ach! 'TIs hard, hard work," said tho dean's frau, threaulng the loom. "All is so big and heavy and clumsy." , "Como, come," laughed the dean, "you would net give up threading- this old lady and sorting out the bobbins and weaving romances around each pretty bit of silk or velvet for the wealth of the Vanderbllts." "Wealth Is all very good," continued the philosopher, light-hearted as a boy, de spite his 70 years,, game eye, and Avenue A basement home, "but it's not every thing. There waa a weaver in my town In Bavaria who made soap by day and spun carpet by night. The lilt- of the shuttles always set him a singing, and in Bong he forgot he was poor, or tired, or lonely, fl'hore was a very rich man who lived near by who could riot sleep at night for tho weaver's song. He sent for him one day and asked why he sang all night. " 'Because it makes me happy," said the weaver. " 'And It makes mo unhappy, ,sald tho rich man, 'for it will not let me sleep. 1 give you fiCO If you do not sing at night.' " 'Four hundred dollars,' said the poor weaver, who had scarcely owned as many pennies at one time in his whole life. 'I take your money and I sing no more.' "When people heard the story they came from all sides to see the weaver. Every one had a new way for him to Invest his moneys until the poor weaver he know not what to do. Every day he hid his money In a new place. He could not eat nor sleep, thinking some one would find It. He put It inside his shirt and it burned him. Every time he threw the shuttle his throat parched for want of song. The moneys and the song bursting to be out made him so sad he could no more eat of a back yard, which contained a river and a waterfall and a lake, and ever so many little Islands connected with hog back bridges, garnished with pagodas and mushroom-topped lanterns which aro never lit, and shrines and lighthouses all of mossy old masonry. The lake didn't seem to contain any water, though I was assured that this was the case. Its top was paved with br.oad, lotus leaves, from which sprang, like crowns standing on scepters, huge rose-colored blossoms, and all round the lake were freaks In maples. The tour de force, a fir tree taught to grow In the shape of a junk, looked as like a ship as any other junk. Tho whole scene looked like, a willow pattern plato converted by the moon Into a garden for a toy nation. It made mo feel quite like a poet, but our host had not taken us thero for poetry, but for a spree. We were sad dogs. Our little Summer-house was only llt by two rushlights on tall candlesticks of wrought iron. Then some little mous mees came and brought in Geisha who could not sing and Japanese dishes which we could not eat, and sake which we could not drink, or we might have warmed to our work. It was a cold night, as well as cold cheer; there are moments when plc turesquenes3 fails, even if there had not been ladle3 with us. But we went through It as one goes through a Masonic Installa tion, realizing the adage that blessed are they who expect nothing. DOUGLAS SLADEN. (Copyright. 1002.) nor drink nor sleep. He was like a ghost, and the carpets he wove lost their color. One day ho could stand It no more. Ho took the money and he went to the rich man's house. " 'I gives you your money,' said the weaver to the rich man. 'I keep my song. " "He, he, he," chuckled the frau. weigh ing great balls of rags sent In by an up town hospital. "Money can not buy a light heart." "But it sends us customers." said the dean; "rich costumers where onco we had only tho very poor." Turning to tho long bin behind his seat at the loom, he tossed up merrily the sorted colors of the bobbins waiting to bo woven Into a carpet to catch the footprints of children of wealth. Tho mainstay of the surviving hand looms are the charitablo Institutions. To keep inmates or convalescent patients employed, cast-off garments are given them to cut Into strips and prepare for the weaver, for rag carpet strips are al ways useful in large Institutions. Where formerly tenement denizens found It more profitable to buy machine-made carpets, since old rags brought prices almost equal to that asked for tho machine carpet, which suggested luxury, they find today it does not pay to savo them for tho rag man. so mightily has the price fallen, ow ing to the substitution of wood for rags in the manufacture of paper. On the other hand, ready-made gar ments have been brought to such perfec tion in the making, and at so small a cost to tho consumer, that onco, where wealth found it profltablo to dispose of cast-off garments to second-hand dealers, they now receive so little that, in lieu of poor relations or sending them to institutions, they are, in compliance, with fashion's behest, cutting them up into rag carpets. Does life offer a more literal way of tramping Its vanities under foot? Much of the durability of a rag carpet depends upon the quality of Its warp. Cotton warp wears better and Is much firmer than wool or linen. The beauty of a rag carpet lies largely in the quality of the material used and the deftness with which the weaver throws the shuttle. Carpets confined to one material cotton, wool or silk are more effective and dur able than those of varied stuffs. Silk Is the favorite fabric for decorative rugs, always prized by the lover of skilled handicraft. One yard width is the limit of the carpet loom, which is not designed to weave large portieres. They call foV a separate apparatus. While the old-fash- ioned haiKMoom does not admit of the weaving In of designs after the manner of tapestry, tho trained weaver he of color preception and artistic sense can achieve wonders in the blending of the bobbins. Two pounds of rags are allowed to one yard of carpet. Thirty cents a yard Is the price of weaving one yard. From the time the rags, cut and sewed into strips, generally of an inch width and wound Into great balls, are brought to the weaver, until he finally rolls them Into carpet for delivery to the customer, they have six separate handlings. Con sider tin's labor, and that one yard an hour Is the largest output, at 30 cents a yard, and well may it be sold that, for the hand loom weaver. Time was made for slaves, and Wealth Is a chimera. England's Queer "Hon Sermon." In three weeks there will be tho an nual preaching of a queer sermon In Eng land. It Is called the "Lion Sermon," and Is preached on October 16, in St. Kathcrino Cree Church, London. About 250 years ago a man. afterward Lord Mayor of London. Sir John Gayer, was traveling In the far East. Eecoming separated from the caravan at night, ho found, himself confronted by Hons. He prayed the prayer of Daniel for deliver ance,, and his life was saved by the ar rival of armed men ju3t in time. That night was October 16, and Sir John, when he returned to London, built the church of St. Katherlne Cree, and left money to insure that a Hon sermon should be preached annually on that date.