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Show Tho Japanese Former's Wife. If the lot of a Japanese farmer be hard, that of his wife Is Infinitely harder. She not only does an equal amount of labor In the field but the care of the household and the responsibility of the children also rest upon her shoulders. shoul-ders. From earliest Infancy, a Japanese girl Is taught to be obedient to her parents and when she Is about to be married her mother gives her thirteen rules by which to steer her bark on the rugged sea of Jnpanese married life. Among them are tho following: "Be always kind to your mother-in-law and sisters-in-law." "Get up early, stay up late at night and do not take a nap In the daytime," day-time," "Be n good housekeeper, be economical in everything." It is well for the happiness of the girl who Is about to become a farmer's wife that the lost two commandments have been so instilled that she Is prepared to regulable regu-lable her life by them. The first to rise, she i9 sure to be the last to retire and when the male members mem-bers of the family may be seen ptretched on the lloor taking their siesta tho patient housewife may be seen mending some garment or else laboring in the field. It is scarcely necessary, llOWevcr. In trnln linr tn Vin nnnnmlil for that is compulsbry. Before the farmer has awakened from his heavy sleep his little wife creeps from under the mosquito net, and performing per-forming a hasty toilet, prepares the morning meal. When the other members mem-bers of the family arise, the beds, which are heavy quilts placed on the floor, are -arefully rolled up by the busy housewife house-wife and placed In the closet there to remain re-main until again required. As there is sp little furniture 'used in a Japanese house and especially in that of a peasant, one would naturally think that the domestic duties would be very light. Such, however. Is not the case. When the bedding has been removed, the meal is then served In tho same room. All the imembers of the family squat on the lloor. The millet or rice which Is the principal and oftentimes only article of diet Is brought In in a wooden bucket and the- wife ladles It out, serves her husband first and oftentimes often-times walls until the whole family has finished before she partakes of the food herself. When the husband has gone to the field, the wife removes the dishes and washes them, together with any pots that may have been used, at the neighboring neigh-boring well or .in the stream that flows Just outside her cottage door. These canals or streams are n great labor-saving labor-saving Institution In Japan and are used for many and varied purposes. The farmer, tired and dirly after his day's" work, refreshes and cleanses himself by a plunge Into the running water. As one travels through the country at pne point one may see a woman doing the family washing in the stream. Further down the road the tired, travel-stained pilgrim may be seen refreshing his weary feet by laving them in the same water. At other points travelers slack their thirst, dusky urchins disport themselves them-selves and the overworked wife cleanses her dishes In It! Ada L. A. Murcutt in the Pilgrim. |