tion to any one who conjures up the charm- name is Mrs. Hatoyama. Mrs. Hatoyama is ing picture of a pair of long butterfly sleeves familiar, happy, witty, even chatty on a pubflirting with tea cups under the scented can- lic platform. She speaks very rapidly, and is opy of cherries in bloom, in connection with famous as one of the Dreaded Trio of stenothe woman of Japan. Every morning, on the graphic reporters, with Mr. Shimada and average, no less than eighty patients come to see her at her office. Dr. Yoshioka is married to a physician, who is widely known asthe husband of Dr. Yoshioka. That, too, in Japan, mind you! He is one of the instructors of her own medical school and perfectly happy.

Dr. Mayeda Sono is another of the prominent woman physicians of Tokyo. She has had wide and practical experiences both in Japan and in the government hospital in Korea. She is a widow and shoulders the support of her family and her father with comfort and distinction.

WOMEN AS SCHOOL TEACHERS

Professor Tsuboi. She thinks clearly, her sentences are limpid as a mountain rill, and rush down the theme with a silver melody of her own. She is not at all emotional; she does not let her personality dominate her speeches, as does Shimoda Uta-ko. She goes to the heart of the subject with the incisiveness and clarity of "one splitting a bamboo." She has small patience with oratorical tricks of any type-she just talks; talks from her heart to her hearers' hearts, through the heart of the things she is talking on. Because of her ease and sparkling wit on a platform, she is spoken of as another Count Okuma among the women orators of the country.

WOMAN WRITERS OF THE NEW NIPPON

There are in Tokyo to-day about 2900 school teachers. Of this number, 1100 are There is something wrong with the woman women; not quite have women dethroned writers of the New Nippon to-day. Throughmen in this kindly field of human endeavor, out the Empire, there is no lack of clever aunor yet have they halved the empire-but thors, and a number of young women are actuvery nearly so. It is very certain that no ally invading the editorial offices of newsname of the more conceited gender could be papers and magazines. But when one looks written much higher than that of Shimoda for a shining name of sufficient magnitude to Uta-ko. Her record at the Peeresses' School outshine such male stars as Bimyo, Rohan, in Tokyo is already a classic tradition. She Koyo, Futabatei, or any one of a dozen has maintained a rather un-Japanese life- others in the same exalted company, he condition of single blessedness,-minus boast- stares into a void,-save for one brief and ing and with the ever-ready admission of re- bright meteor. Her name was Higuchi grets. Having no children of her own, she Natsu-ko. She wrote under the brush name has tried and succeeded in a marvelous measure to mother the girl students who came to her. In the classroom, hers was the "mother-and-child" attitude throughout. Even while she was not feeling in good health she never thought of missing her classes, unless she was actually down in bed. For the reason that her girls would have been so disappointed to miss her. With her, teaching is a passion. She loves schoolroom lecturing as she dislikes public platforms.

JAPANESE WOMEN AS ORATORS

of Ichiyo. Born in Tokyo, in 1872, she died at the age of twenty-five. The gods must have loved her exceedingly. She began her writing career in 1892 and death closed it in 1896 and in that brief period she achieved "Muddy Stream," "Passing Clouds," "Parting Ways" and about twenty other stories. "There is nothing of that philosophic pose of Rohan about her," wrote perhaps the most gifted literary critic of those days, Takayama Chogyu, "neither are there the world-wise airs of Koyo. Yet-yet, there is magic in her observation; in her letters, divinity dwells. Her heaven-talent towers aloft!"

BUSINESS WOMEN OF JAPAN

And yet Miss Shimoda ranks very high as a public speaker. She has been spoken of as another Ito-meaning the late Prince Ito, who was very fond of hearing the music of But a man who looks for the most pichis own voice in his day and, what is more to turesque romances in the actual life of Nipthe point, had a large number of friends who pon of to-day should certainly go among the felt the same way. In fact, there is only an- business women of the country; among those other lady who can even pretend to stand on women whose brilliant business talents are

whom the newspapers are ever delighted to advertise under the militant title of "Lady Generals."

Take the career of the mistress of the Seiuntei, the Blue Clouds Restaurant.

yen-which is half as many American dollars. That in itself was a big fortune in Nagano, especially for a little woman who started with practically no capital and in the modest trade of a restaurant-keeper. It was then Fujimori Ume-ko,-for that is her name, that her young husband-who, by the bye, was the youngest of eight children and lost had very little to do with the building up of her father when she was five. At the age of business and fortune-lost his head. He twelve, she was sent out into the world to made a plunge. He made a number of deepwork for food and raiment and, more, to help water plunges into all sorts of enterprises of as best she could toward the support of her which he had not the slightest knowledge; mother. She was different from the very he "put out his hand" at this and that and start, they say. She worked in such a whole- the other things and became an expert in hearted, altogether cheerful way that her forgetting to tell his wife about his ventures. mistress fell in love with her. At twenty-one, she joined one of her elder sisters in the profession of the geisha. Her remarkable personal charms counted for much there; and her ever-cheerful temperament was more than gold or precious stones in paving her way to

success.

Her protests had too many points in them to be comfortable for him. When he awoke off and on, and found himself deeper in the mire than ever, as he was bound to find himself in the natural and most logical course of things, he went deeper still in his frantic efforts to make good his losses. After expending the major portion of the fortune made by his wife, he died with the indebtedness-the indebtedness of which he found it so convenient to forget telling his wife-of over one hundred thousand yen!

Unlike so many of her sister artists, she worked, smiled, and saved money. One fine morning, she took a good steady look in the face of the future, smiled at it with her usual optimism and quit the profession of professional entertainer. She did something be- What did the mistress of the Blue Clouds do sides; she married a young fellow with whom under the circumstances? She did not waste she started a little restaurant in the City of a single tear. She took a good long fresh Nagano, in the heart of deep mountains of look into the future; saw it smiling at her as Shinano. She christened the restaurant, usual; she smiled back at it and went Seiun-tei, the House of Blue Clouds. Blue ahead. She paid back her husband's debts; clouds have always stood for winged ambition among the classic poets of China and Japan. Political fever was high in Shinano, then; and the City of Nagano was the political capital of the prefecture. It was there the people gathered to elect the representatives to the Imperial Diet at Tokyo.

and she had to take many a day off her business in hunting up the creditors, for the creditors (although this sounds utterly incredible) out of admiration for the courage and ability of the woman, and, moreover, being in no wise worried about the debt being paid by her, sometime, did not wish to harThe mistress of the Blue Clouds with ad- ass her in the hour of her trials. And tomirable enterprise rose to the height where day? The mistress of the Blue Clouds, they Opportunity beckoned her. Her pleasant say, is richer than ever before. Had Fujipersonality told even more than the good mori Ume-ko staged her activities in Tokyo cooking of the Blue Clouds. In no time instead of in the mountain-screened city of she amassed a modest fortune. In those days, Nagano City had not a restaurant big enough to accommodate three, four hundred guests at a public banquet. That was another challenge from the gods. She answered it to the "eternal open mouths" of the city by purchasing a large tract of land and building an imposing structure upon it. The The story of Mrs. Yamazaki Kesa-ko is Blue Clouds sign-board took a high jump. not a whit less romantic than that of the misIt was beyond the imagination of the good tress of the Blue Clouds. Mrs. Yamazaki people of Nagano City that a mere restau- at the age of twelve used to peddle charcoal rant should have the temerity to house itself in through the village streets of Ueda in Shinsuch an imposing structure. Fujimori Ume- ano. To-day, she handles hundreds of thouko was rewarded for her daring and fore- sands of yen as the business head of perhaps

Nagano, her "blue cloud dreams" would have winged higher. Such at least is the consensus of competent criticisms so high indeed that the famous "lady generals" in the capital city, such as the mistresses of the Fuki-ro and of the Hisago-ya, can hardly "reach up to her finger tips."

after the first flush of success her husband was taken down with a serious illness and lay abed for nearly two years. The wife rose. level with the need. She took the road her

her competitors and laid the foundation of the supremacy that the Teikoku-do enjoys to-day throughout the Empire and through Korea and Manchuria.

koku-do) and its many branch shops. She by day with a three-year-old child clinging looks after more than fifty clerks and servants to her sleeve or in her arms; and by night and keeps them busy; she attends to the sat far beyond midnight with the sewing funds, books, and management of the shop; which she took in to help out. Immediately attends to domestic as well as export orders and their shipments and to office correspondence besides. Her husband is the president of the Nippon Drug Stock Company and the head of the Tokyo Drug Export self, fought against the shrewd campaign of Merchants' Association, and is identified with a number of other organizations. To-day he leaves the practical administration of the drug store almost entirely in the care of his wife. The diplomatic end of the business is These are individual and altogether strikabout the only thing he attends personally. ing cases. These women are exceptional in And what he is to-day is largely due to the their ability and successes. But no peak efforts of Madame Yamazaki. When the hangs in mid-air. Even as there is a mass of young couple started in life, they had not a American women back of Miss Jane Addams, cent; they worked together. They borrowed with similar ideals, endeavors, achievements fifty yen ($25) to start a little drug shop in differing only in magnitude, so there is a a back street, in Kanda Ward, Tokyo. Mr. great number of women in every nook and Yamazaki is more of a chemist than a busi- corner of the Empire of Japan who are ness man; and the little shop lingered in the traveling, with more or less success, along shadow of failure for many a dark moon. It similar paths and toward the same heights was then that the young wife took to the beaconed by these remarkable women whose peddling of toilet articles and perfumery stories I have tried to tell.

WOMAN'S PART IN INDIA'S SOCIAL ADVANCE BY BASANTA KOOMAR ROY

EA

ARLY marriage is one of the greatest evils of Hindu society. The girls are generally married and become mothers, in many cases, at an age when they should be in school. The girl mothers often die in childbirth or their health is shattered for the rest of their lives. The boy husbands are hampered in many instances in their future careers by the responsibility of supporting a family, and quite often are obliged to subject themselves to drudgery which, but for their marriage, they could have escaped. Early marriage stands in the way of education, especially of the girls.

The custom of early marriage is changing fast. Now the Hindu boys refuse to marry until they have finished their education and made a start in life, although such a refusal is thought very improper. Consequently, the girls have to wait until the boys are ready to marry. So marriages are getting late nowadays. Among some of the reform societies, such as the Brahmo-Somaj and the AryaSomaj, you will find maids of twenty, twenty

very few and far between, however. But, on the whole, the age of marriage has been considerably raised. The girls of these societies are going in for education with a vengeance. There are scores of graduates of universities among them. On account of deferred marriage, the women of India are beginning to have a wider view of life and civic duties.

Caste rules prohibit marriage between members of different castes and subcastes. This leads to marriage relationships within very narrow circles, which result in physical degeneracy. The social reformer knows that this is a source of social and national weakness. So he has been agitating marriage between different castes, at least between the subcastes of the same principal castes. The reform societies of the Brahmo-Somaj and the Arya-Somaj are doing yeoman's service in this as in other social reform measures. termarriages are going on, under their auspices, between different original castes, subcastes, and even between different provinces. Though the orthodox do not relish the idea at

In

Women at Mysore)

present national movement, married Mr. R. Dutt Chowdhury of the Punjab. This gave a great impetus to such marriages. Whenever there is a dispute about inter-provincial marriages, the young men quote their Sarala Devi.

In the higher castes of the Hindus a widow is not allowed to marry. Once a widow always a widow. But a widower can marry as many times as he wishes to, and there is no law to prevent him from marrying. This social custom is not only an injustice done to women, but a poor social economy as well. The great majority of Indian widows are Hindu widows. There were, in 1901, 19,487 widows below the age of five; 95,798 between five and ten; 275,862 between ten and fifteen; 522,867 between fifteen and twenty; 938,725 between twenty and twentyfive; 1,432,608 between twenty-five and thirty; 2,267,361 between thirty and thirty-five; 2,068,491 between thirty-five and forty; 3,770,495 between forty and forty-five; 2,264,038 between. forty-five and fifty; 4,112,876 between fifty and fiftybetween fifty-five and sixty

the result of organized propaganda for the five; 1,521,210
expansion of the idea and practice of inter- and 6,596,939 of sixty and over.
marriage. The opposition is only strengthen-
ing the movement.

REMARRIAGE OF WIDOWS

But the greatest difficulty in the way of inter-provincial marriages lies in the lan- These figures speak for themselves. The guage problem. The people of different social lecturers in India make a good deal of provinces of India speak different languages the figures and urge remarriage of Hindu and do not understand one another; and it is widows. The higher castes are moving in the easy to believe that love-making, or house- matter. A few examples have been set even keeping, is well-nigh impossible without a in the otherwise orthodox families of high common language. So the work must start social standing. The most striking example from narrower circles of subcastes and gradu- of this is to be found in the remarriage of the ally expand to wider and wider circles. daughter, a girl widow of ten or twleve, of There is no denying the fact that the work Justice Ashntosh Mukrju of the Calcutta has begun in right earnest and is making High Court. Though he belonged to orthosteady progress. Men like Sir Chandra dox Hinduism, still when it came to the reMadhub Ghose and Justice Saradacharun marriage of his little widowed daughter, he Mittra are rendering great service along this line. A few years ago Miss Sarala Devi Ghosal, B.A., of Bengal, a woman of great

did not scruple to marry her again, though he was vehemently opposed by some of his own caste people and relatives. Following the

the same. Widow marriage seems to be quite a fashionable.thing nowadays.

A few years ago Rani Mrinalini of Calcutta, a young widow, married a young man in private life and left her queenly title and kingdom. Parents advertise in the papers: "A young widow of a different caste is wanted for a boy of such and such caste." They want to kill two birds with one stone,-intermarriage and the remarriage of widows combined in the same marriage. "Widow remarriage bureaus" have been started to facilitate widow marriage. Newspapers have opened a new column under the heading of "Widow Marriage," and they fill quite a little space with news bearing on the subject.

Even the illiterate masses are permeated with this idea of social reform. The other day in the little farming village of Orakandi, Bengal, with but a few hundred inhabitants, the women called a meeting, at which many men were present, and passed resolutions condemning early marriage and advocating remarriage of Hindu widows. Though 99 per cent. of the people were illiterate, still they could not help feeling the pulsations of the national heart that had been beating with tremendous rapidity.

POPULAR DEMAND FOR EDUCATION

On the average, out of 141 women in India, one only can read and write. This state of illiteracy left the women to a very narrow sphere of activity. The nation builders of India realize that woman is the greatest asset of any nation. She is the mother; she molds the character of the rising generation; she's the wife; the family is under her control. So the education and general enlightenment of women are more necessary than the education of men. So different avenues are being opened for female education, and patriotic men and women of India are doing everything in their power to spread education among women, and thus to raise their status and with it the status of men.

Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, one of the women leaders of Indian thought, thus spoke before the last Social Conference in Calcutta:

Even the beggar of India has changed the burden of his songs. In exchange for alms he received, he used to entertain the people with religious songs, entreating them to be good and kind, and also to project their thoughts to the hereafter. But since he has Does one man dare to deprive another of his birth- been won over by the nationalist, he has laid right to God's pure air which nourishes his body? aside his religious songs and sings the naHow then shall a man dare to deprive a human soul tional songs instead. He sings to urge men of its immemorial inheritance of liberty and life? And yet, my friends, man has so dared in the case of to patriotism, he sings recalling the better Indian women. That is why you men of India days of India gone by, and above all he sings are to-day what you are, because your fathers, in to awaken the Indian woman. Here is a depriving your mothers of that immemorial birthright, have robbed you, their sons, of your just inheritance. Therefore, I charge you, restore to

sample:

Awake, arise, O daughters of India; unless you