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Show JAPANESE TRAILS. . The railway traveler In Japan buys a first, second or third-class ticket; or If he wishes to go cheaper still he can get . a ticket entitling; him simply to stand on the platform! Many of the cars can be entered either from the side or t)ie end. - The principal difference between the first and second-class coaches Is the color of the upholstery. None of the cars are very clean. Many of the third-class third-class coaches could serve, without much alteration, as ordinary pigsties. This Is all the more remarkable when the Incomparable cleanliness of the Japanese home H'e, even of the humblest, hum-blest, Is taken Into consideration. An explanation' of this may be that the Japanese have little regard for the cleanliness of any place where they keep their shoes, or clogs, on. The European .room, for example, which has been established In a few Japanese Japan-ese homes. Is the only apartment In the whole house that is not kept scrupulously scrupu-lously swept, dusted, oiled and bur-jHshed. bur-jHshed. So, too, with the Japanese Inns. Those that are maintained in rative style are sweet and clean; those ' that have become uropeanlsed are usually littered with cigarette stumps, fruit peelings and cores and other debris.' de-bris.' An American Pullman, with Its crowded and unavoidable Intimacies, Is , a decent and polite hermitage compared com-pared with a packed coach- In Japan. All sorts of unexpected things happen. Daring ablutions are performed and complete change of raiment is frequently fre-quently effected, the constantly recurring recur-ring tunnels serving to screen the astonishing as-tonishing character of these programmes. pro-grammes. x The floor of third-class coaches Is an unswept riot of the flotsam and jetsam x that usually follow In the wake of certain cer-tain kinds of human craft the world over. A Bowery picnic crowd, abandoned aban-doned to peanuts, popcorn and bananas, never marked a more conspicuous trail than -a lot of Japanese' peasants en route. Only with the Japanese. It Is all a very solemn affair. Travel seems to afford fitting opportunity to discard all kinds of personal wreckage. All forms of abandoned odds and ends of things begin to identify the itinerary from the very start. Of course, the foreign traveler who wades through this car-strewn car-strewn waste does so to gain -experience. It Is not a pursuit-of-happiness. Booklovers Magazine. |