Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

JAF Japanese Thrive on *W tion Wages : Frederick J. Haekii One of; the first things to sttraot the attention of the foreigner in Japan is the dreadful waste of human energy. On every j hand he sees thc greatest expenditure of labor for the least re turn. This labor is as poorly paid as it is unproductive in results. Tho earning capaoity of the masses of any country ?B what regulates its pur chasing power, and gives it com merciD1 rank among tho nations. In the outset it may be well to state, by way of comparison, that the annual exports of the United States, when divided ber. ween the population, amounts to about $20 for each man, woman and child; while the purchases of Japan, applied to its population in the same way, is a trifle less that $3 per capita. This would seem to in dicate that the earning oapaoity of the American is equal to that of seven Japanese. After following my inves tigations on this subject the reader may form his own conclusions. Across the street from where I am living a new house is in course of con* struotion. The excavation was ac complished by laborers who received 15 cents a day-ten hours. They carried the dirt to the street in bas kets, then dumped it into carts, which another crowd of men pulled away with muoh noise and labor. This process was so slow that the work proved expensive in tho end. Before that excavation was completed the dirt taken from it was almost worth its weight in gold, as oompared to what it would have cost in an Ameri can city'. The various kinds of workmen on the new structure arrive before 7 o'clock, but ?hey dc not go to work promptly. They build a little fire and gather around it to talk and thaw ont. By 8 o'clock the most of them are at work. They ali wear blue cotton suits with characters upon them to indicate their guild, as well as thc ?rm or individual for whom they aro working. This is their win ter garb-in summer they wesr noth ing but a cloth around their loins, and a band about their foreheads to keep the sweat from running down their face. The carpenter's wages, range from 30 to 45 cents per day (all quotations in this article are in American money) according to their grade. They use the orndest kind of tools, not even having the olaw hammer, whioh our workmen oonsider so indispensable. I saw one of them starting an American pire nail in * board. He put it in the wrong place, but did not discover his mistake until he had < taken one whaok at it with his awkward ham mer. The nail was half way in and he bad no means of getting ii out. He stood regarding it with a puzzled look on his face, and I felt like sug gesting that he pull it out with his teeth. It was finally removed with laborious effort by using a pair of tongs. All the workmen waste muoh time in. the contemplation of.unim portant detail. They constantly mis apply their strength, loiter to talk and smoke, and when Wo or more are working together at any task they insist on chanting a droning song at every stroke. It requites little inves tigation to conclude that this labor ia oheep, mainly because its productive power is so small, Ono peculiarity of a Japanese house ia thc 'laot that its dimensions are governed by the ; size of the mats whioh are tb go aron; the?, flo ors when lt is compUted. Vliese mats aro al? ways made in multiples of three, and the floors ara constructed to corre spond with them. Japanese lumber, ? made to conform to this arrangement sod there is no waBte in it at all. Tho { native carpenters are completely baffled when they get hold of Ameri can lamber with its odd sizes, espec ially if they are required to conetrsct wnething with dimensions other than multiplies of three.. My neighbor St hartog the gesae ?nt from hi? ?avs. Kc? mon are 'waling around' on their knees using Altos, Be pays a email'som for the Uta of ?MU indivisa*), bat they *?**s slrearly been on tho job three ?*y?, and, ?4* the end, it wit), prove ?jpsBfcive. At tho wharf I noticed J?e manner of, driping piling. A cozen brawny follows were'togging jyey at the job, makio* the hardest J ?ad of work of it. A crude 'snlley sirangeaent waa suspended on poles, .?d a ropa extended from the "driver** *J e??h man. AS they began' to lift, {**X eli joined in a song. At a gjen point in the chant, ali hands ?ft 80, and th? weight dropped unto ?. Pile. This was repeated until thc Job waa finished. " It looked like the ^tractor waa getting a lot of crude Sio for his money, but little labor. ] < tt b6 a laboring man io Japan, aji Jlow baa to know a lot octanes, ? etoo has to wen posted' ia his 'AN. 7"hat Would be Starva in -America. a, in Sunny South. ones or , he is liable to let go at the wrong time and mix things up gener ally. < Doubtless, yon would like to know how these people live, earning as they do only a few cents a day. The average family among the laboring classes will probably consist of five persons. In most oases, both the man and the woman work and their combined inoome will not exceed $6 or $8 per month. First, they rent a house, 12 by 15 feet square, for 75 oenls or $1 per month, acoording to the location. Their food consists of rice, tfsh and vegetables-if they are very poor they ct n not afford rice. Fish and vegetables are exceedingly cheap. The furnishings of their house are so count that the family never hires a dray when moving day comes-they can easily carry every thing on their backs. This is illus trated whenever there ia an alarm of fire. The fragile, inflammable houses are easily consumed, and the first indication of danger from this source will cause the immediate exodus of a whole community, household effects and all. The expense of dress is insignifi cant. The coBt of a man's winter outfit will not exoeed a dollar and a half. In summer he goes naked. The woman can purchase a kimona at al most any price. Foreigners wonder why the natives do not discard their wooden clogs and wear shoes. If these wondering strangers will fur nish something equally as serviceable as the native sandals, for a niokle a pair, they will doubtless be able to occur o some customers. Tho Jap is always in for anything new if he has the price, but he can never be much of a customer for anybody until he can be trained to utilize his foroe to produce greater wealth. The low scale of wages is not con fined to common workmen. The highest priced laborers in Japan are the stone-masons and shoe-makers, the best of whom receive a dollar a day. ' The soale for printers and leather workers is fifty ?eats a day, while a painter will command sixty cents. The foreman of the eleotrio light plant in Yokohoma-remember that this is a city forty-five cents a day for his skilled services. Ho io an educa ted electrician but his salary is lower than that of any ordinary American office boy. The soale of wages is higher in Yokohama than ia other parts of the Empire because the for eign firms here will pay more for com petent help than the native oonoerns. If there is a bright yoong man in the post?ffioe, or some other department of the government service, it is not long until aome foreigner gets him out by offering an advanoe. The government has thus been gradually forced to raise its scale in order to keep the most desirable em ployees in its service. The polioemen are furnished with uniforms and paid thirty cents a day. The clothes they wear on duty are the best they have ever worn, or will ever wear if they quit their jobs. Bookkeepers and ac countants for private native firms are paid about thirty cents a day, with room rec?, board and sometimes with even, tobaooo thrown in. Seeing that the employerf are so generous , in pro* riding perquisites, I suppose the boys are willing to furnisb . their own matches. The average pay of the 8,000 clerks in tho employ of tho government io varions parts of japan is fifty cents a day. Thia io quita s contrast to the fat jobs our politi cians hand ' around among their friends. The railroad employees are as poor* ly paid as those of the government arid private oonoerns. Tho station master in Yokohama who has several hundred people under hiu, receive a but $30 a month. Of conreo he has a family and has to pay re?t and em ploy a staff of liytants ont of this ss?!! sak?y. T'dO engineers, cou doctors, trato.' station employees ind others ..?.are under him aver age; etan* $15 pas month. As may be immised, tba railway service ia noth ing to brag about, ???a 18 salle* from Yokohama to Tokio and it takes an houp to raako the trip-longer than ii requires to go. from Washington to Baltimore, a distanoe of 40 miles. Tho tariff is 3 cents a mUe.asd ?be es Mmmodetiona are not nearly so good BB on our street ears. The wages for skilled labor in man? nf to tures does not vary from tba gen sra! cheapness prevailing in other branch?e of industry. A china deco rator is paid but 30 oeats for ten boors work. Daring this time he ?its >n hts legs in the tailor fashion and ira wa the most delicate designs. Ha. s on artidt and can execute his own patterns, yet one of our street urchin a aritb-a A?rftblo pair of leg? and good lung power can earn more in an hour selling papers. In a brewery I aaw a score of girls pasting labels on bottles. They performed their task with amazing dexterity and dispatch, but th?ir pay was only ? cents for ten hours-not enough to keep one of our faotory girls in ohewing gum. There are thousands of girls in Japan work ing for three or four cents a diy. The men who rely upon individual effort to make a living, such as mer chants, peddlers and vendors, have to get along on a scant margin of profit. The average store is about 12 feet square. The proprietor has suoh a limited stook that his customer can point to any article in the place. As a rule, the merchant's family live in the rear, and the store is utilised as a sleeping room when the blindB are put up at night. Showcases and counters are used in some places, but as a gen eral thing the customer sits on a small elevation in the front part of tho shop and boys bring the gooda forward for exhibition while the proprietor extols their merits. Many dealers cannot afford to pay even the smallest rent and move about the atreets with their atooks on their backs. The fish mar ket halts regularly at the kitchen door and the green goods grooer knows no suoh item of expense ss rent snd clerk hire. Dealers in lamps, flowers, baskets, brooms, porcelain dishes, etc., go about looking for trade rather than wait for customers to come to them. Doubtless, the most persistent can vasser for business is the tailor-gen erally a Chinaman. These tradesmen are thiok?r than mosquitoes. They ara after tho tourist at the hotel be fore he baa bia trunk unpacked. They always have their aamples with them and will deliver garments almost before the American tailor would have the cloth for it. A guest in the ho tel where I am stopping received an invitation to attend an afternoon par ty and his oard stated that gentle men would be expeoted to wear frock suits and high hats. He did not have such a suit and had lesa than twenty four hours in which to get one, but a tailor took his order, gave him one "try-on" and had the clothes ready for him several honra before it was time to dress for the function. Nor waB it a shoddy job. The same thing would have cost $125 in New York, but the charge here was only 70 yen about $35 in American money. When asked how it was possible for him to turn out work BO rapidly, the foreman amiled and said tailora were oheap and plentiful. The coat took the most time, BO he put five men to work on it. They sat on the floor in a circle with the garment between them. One worked on eaoh sleeve, one on eaoh tail and one on the collar and body. The taiior'o union here bas no rule about overtime and the faot that they bad to work all night waa not taken into account at all. The explanation of Japan's low wage soale, aa well aa the poor stand ard of ita labor, lies in the tempera ment of ita people. They still reflect the effect of centuries of serfdom. Ambition ia the motive power that moves a man to accomplishment, and the average Jap of the lower olasses can hardly hope to better the condi tion in wbioh be waa born. * His, life means a mere atrnggle for existence. The CUB toms of the country are suoh that it is difficult for a man to save any of bis inoome no matter bow mnob it may be. Heads of families retire early and throw the borden of support on their elder sons, who in turn soon shift the responsibility if they ean. It is an unwritten law that a man of meana must support bis poor kin, and when a yoong usn begins to suooeed the majority of his relatives make it a point to get poor in order to segure part of Me salary. An example of this waa afforded recently at tfee American consul at o in Yokohama. A bright young Jap who had been educated in the United States was earning a hundred doliera per month aa an aaaiatant to Consul General Bellows. Suoh a salary in Japan ia tometbing enormous. It is actually more than is paid to the gov ernor of the province, yet this young fellow couldn't save a bent. As fast aa hts wages inoreaied his poor rela tions multiplied. It really is enough to take. the ginger ont of a fellow ?shssue ?opa to realize that np mat ter how hard he works end no matter how much be earoo, that he will not bo permitted to profit by it. Ho might josi as well bo a coolie staging st his work to get his mind off the feet that he is holding down a horse's joh. The indifference of the lower Jap to his pinched condition, and tho compla cency with wbioh hs aeoepts hie poor portion, is the reason why his fortuno remains aisarh a low ebb, When the Ire of persona! ambition begins to burn within him, to keep paee with the military seal he is manifesting, then will the darkness of bia lot begin Oz**/illumined by fairer proa poets. , ^ ^ . . ..; Bwn^s -^?1* Kiri Yoi Haw Afcqrs fofl* ? i . -~?j-.?OMI ' III - Ii a woman is afraid Of a man it a sign abe ion't married to bira. Man Improved by Marriage. "Did you ever notice how it Im proves ? man tobe married?" This query was propounded by a young Southern woman here. "You oan al ways depend upon it that it is a mar ried man who shows you the small courtesies in au elevator; it is a mar ried man who stands up for you in thc street oar, and it is a married man who does all the chores at a picnic. The most thoughtless, irresponsible kind of a single man often becomes a veritable model of amiability after he gets him a wife. I suppose his wife has BO drummed good manners into him that he has to keep practicing all the time to keep in trim. I believe business men have moro respect for a married mao, too. They succeed bet ter in everything they do. Why, only the other day there was a baseball game between the married men and the Bingle men. Who won? The married men, of course. And you oan't tell me their wives did not Lave something to do with it.-Philadelphia Mccord._ Saved By Mother's Kiss. A supposed dead yellow fever victim was Emil Lopes, a young man. In opito of every effort Lopez gradually sank and was at length deolared dead by a reputable physician. Amid the wallinga of the bereft fam ily the body waa laid out in a coffin ready for burial. A few boura before the burial time Mra. Lopez went in to take a last look at ber boy. She stooped and kissed bim, aad as hia lips touched hers she was terrified to find that his face was warm and his lips moist. She sum moned the members of the burial party and deolared she believed her son was not dead. She kissed him a second time and cried out: "He's alive! My boy's alive!" and then swooned. A call was made for the physician who pronounced Lopez dead, but could not be found. Another dootor suc ceeded in bringing the youth baok to life. He was unconscious for an hour or two but he gradually regained his senses and ?B now almost reoovered. New Orleans Telegram tc Boston Ad vertiser. Boys Bury Companion. "He's dead now. We've buried him," exclaimed three-year-old Ray mond Woodard and Howard Staub, aged four, who with six-year-old Gor man StimeuD, aon of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Stimens, bad been playing in the sand. The men addressed looked aoross the road and saw nothing wrong. Just then Raymond's mother oame out of the house and the little boys told her that they bad buried Corman. The man came aorose the street as Mrs. Woodward approached and found Gor man had been buried in the sand) They saw a part of one foot stioking out of the sand pile that had become hie grave. The men got the child out and a physician summoned but Gor mon lived only abont ten minutes. The children explained that they dug a deep hole in the sand, and the Stimen's boy fell or jumped in head long. They piled more sand on him, for they had been playing "bury." When he did not orawl out they be came aoared.-Mansfield, G., Dis patch to the Nsw York American. Man Took'wtfe's Advice. Chicago, Aug. 12.-Joseph Garon returned home intoxicated today and hia wife told him to jump into the lake and drown himself. "All right/' said Garon, "I'll just do that." He did and though he waa alive when taken from the lake he died in tho hospital two hours later. In the pocket of bia boat the coronar 'lousd thia note: "Thia ia to osrtify that my wife, Maggie Garon, told me to leave the house and go to the lake and drocrn myself. Goodbye and God for gi vt. her." ? Mra. Garon beoomo hysterical when informed of. her husband's act and harried to the hospital ?mt she ar rived only a few min?tes after bia death. "I was only joking," abo said, aa she* knelt at the aid? of the bed where lay the body of her husband. "I nevar thought he would take my words .eriously/ 111?, IM O ?ci ig-?. -Some people} take a lot of satis faction out of never being aatified with anything -- Half the eajoyment of being mar ried ia thinking what a lot of enjoyment you had before yon were? - If you ask a girl if ?bo had to learn to like olives, right away abe thinks yon are trying to get engaged to her. - If the ministers preaohed how wrong it was to go to church on Sun day there would be minions of men who would insist on going. - Raising a family ia 99 per oant condition and 1 per cent theory, with i the parents firm believers that tho 6g ? urea ara the other way round. MEDICINE IN PERSIA. A Cur? That Pleased the Doctor More Then the Patient. Of the progress of medical science the Persian people know little. They divide diseases into two classes, hot and cold. A cold remedy is applied to a "hot" disease and a hot rera<*ly ,to a "cold" one. In "With the Pil grims to Mecca" the author tells his experience with one of their physi cians : The evening before I left Mecca for Jidda li I was suffering from a rack ing headache, and my friends advis ed me to consult a certain Arab phy sician. In the east they never break the ico of silence with a remark on the weather. Thc customary opening is to inquire if you are in health. I told the doctor in answer to his question that I had a bad headache and had come to him to be cured. He asked me on which side the head ached. I touched the bpot, where upon he fell to rubbing it vigorously with the palm of his right band, calling out the while to the urchin to fetch the necessary apparatus for tho forthcoming operation. The boy disappeared. In a few minutes he came back, bearing in both hands a round, hollow plate of clay in which were a few lumps of burning charcoal. The next thing he brought in were a couple of iron rods about twice the length of an ordinary pencil, togeth er with a cup filled with a black liquid composed, if I mistake not, of starch and the soot of an oil lamp. The doctor thrust the rods in the glowing charcoal. The fear of be ing branded bathed my brow in sweat. The doctor assured me I had no cause to be afraid. The tips of the rods by this time were red hot. Having dipped them in the cup of ink, he closed his eyes and then raised his voice in an in cantation that lasted several min utes. Not a single word could I un derstand. When it was over he opened his eyes and, saying the word "Bismillah," proceeded to draw with one of the rbds, now cool, on my right temple five perpendicu lar lines crossed by five horizontal ones, thus forming sixteen tiny squares. Several magic hieroglyph ics besides were inscribed in the same manner behind my ears and on the nape of my neck. After every operation the good doctor would pause to ask me, "Is the pain gone JIOW ?" Four times did I tell the truth. Then, fearing further tattooing, I assured the per severing little man that I thought I was better. His joy knew no bounds. He said the secret was left to him, as an in heritance irom his father and that on no account must I wash off the signs until the next day or the pain would return. Chinese Foesils. Chinese paleontology is not an uninteresting subject. The Chinese have for long been interested in fossils in a practical if not in a very scientific way. Thus slabs of lime stone with fossil trilobites are a common article of commerce. They are known as "petrified swallows, and the tailpiece, or pygidium, of one of these trilobites bears a strik ing resemblance to a swallow with widely outspread wings. The cele brated "pagoda stones," used to make ornamental panels and screens, are slabs of stone with sections of the fossil sh ill ort hoccrns, and these latter, along with rhynconella and other fossil shells, are to be found in the Chinese pharmacopoeia. Pound ed up and swallowed, they are tho orthodox remedy for various dis uses.-London Globe. A Surprised Conductor. A conductor on one of the Kansas City cars received a surprise recent ly, according to the Times of that city. He helped a woman on at a downtown corner and was about to signal to go ahead when she called: "Wait a minute; please, conduc tor!" The man in the uniform hesitat ed. The woman was in front of ono of the mirrors in the sides of the car "fixing" her hair. Just as he was about to reach for tbs bell cord again she came toward tbs back platform. "Let me off, please," she said. "1 just wanted to put my hair up a lit tle better." Then she stepped from the car, smiling sweetly. Softening of the Brain. According to a London physician softening of the brain is a very com I mon occurrence in the country, one third of the laborers in rural dis tricts of Engl and dying from it. The cause of the disease, according to this authority, is the lack of brain exercise. "The intellect of a rural laborer rusts rather than wea? ont, and when he attains the age of six ty-five or seventy-five he usually dies in an apoplectic fit or something ojH the kind. Judges and others whose j thinking -capacity is continuously employed live to a far greater age than the average rural laborer." - No, Cordelia, marriage and hap* pinela are not necessarily synony mous. - A soft-headed nail and a hard headed mao are both diffioult to drive. - Some politicians are self-made, bat moat of the candidates are ma otioe-made. - A man's laziness has certainly leached the limit when be feels that it is too much trimble to try to avoid I . cable. e's Toni o new, scientific remedy for the Blood and Nerves It purities tho blood by eliminating the ? asto matU-r ?nd other impurities and by defttroylng the germs or microbe? that infest the blood, lt buildB up Hie blood by restoring and multiply ing the red corpuscles, making tho blood rich aud red. It reston? and stimulate* the nerves, causing a full free flow of nerve force through out the entire nene system. It speedily cures unstrung nerves, nervousness, nervous pros tration, and all diseases of tho nervous system. a rejxl cure for Malaria* RYDALE'S TONIC Is a specific for all (<xmO \ of Malaria. It act? on a new principle. It kflB8 the microbes thut produce Malaria. The cm*? being removed, tho dlseoso quickly disappear | RYDALE'S TONIC ia guaranteed to cure the in-wt obstinate cases of Malarial Fever, CMfa and Fever, Ague, etc. We authorize all deafen, handling our remedies to refund the pureba* price for every bottle of RY?ALKU TOHBF that does not give sallsf action. RADICAL REMEDY COMPANY. HICKORY. Nc C. FOE SALE BY EVANS PHARMACY. IP YOU ARE GOING TO BUY A Buggy Or Harness, We want a chance to sell you. If yon OWE US you don't know4how we would appreci? te a payment theBelpinchingltimes. VAKD1VER BROS. & MAJOR. Now cornea the "Good Old Summer Time" when you want one of our. Up-to-Date VEHICLES for Pleasure? Carriages, Surreys, Fhotons, Buggies, Run-a-Bouts, Buckboard, Traps, And in fact anything you need in the Vehicle line you will find at our ELe positories. A fine line of HARNESS, SADDLES, UMBRELLAS, CAN OPY SHADES, DUSTERS, &c. Call and examine for yourself, and if we cannot suit you it will be'oac fault. Very truly, FRETWELL-HANKS GO., Anderson, 8. 0, Ul THE SOUTH'S GREATEST SYSTEM! Unexcelled Dining Car Service. Through Pullman Sleeping Cars on aU??tains. ConvenientlSchedules on all Local miss. WINTER TOURIST RATES are now Inj tffec?to al? FloridalPoiofia For full information as to rates, route?, etc.,?| consulter ?oiett Southon Railway Ticket Agent, or R. W. HUNT, Division PasaengerJAgent, Charleston, 8?C ONE CAB OF HOG FEED. Have just received one Car Load of HOG FEED (Shorts) at vety close prices. Come before they ace all gone. Now ia the time for throwing-* Around your premises to prevent a case of fever or some other disease, that will cost you very much mow than the price of A barrel of Lime ($1.00.) We hans "^TT a fresh shipment in stock, and will be glad to tend yo? some, If yon contemplate building a barn or any other building, see ns before buying your-^ CEMENT and LIME, As we sell the very best qualities only. Ok D. ANDERSON. WE have moved our Shop and office below Peoples' Bank, in] front af Mr. J. J. Fretwell's Stables. We respectfully ask all our friends that mai any Roc fin g done, or any kind of Repair work, Engine Stacks, Evaponiftm, or any kind of Tin or Gravel Roofing to call on us, aa we are preptredjtodto