- A shop in Tokyo
There are no streets in Tokyo which are known as fashionable afternoon resorts, because the shops are so constructed that one cannot stop before them without being accosted by the squatting salesmen. Only in a few main streets are there regular rows of shops with show-windows against which one could press one’s nose to look at the wares exhibited or peer beyond at the shop-girls at the counter; but then business is not done in Japan over the counter, nor do shop-girls hide their charms behind a window, for the shops are open to the street and the show-girls, or “signboard-girls” as we call them, squat at the edge visible to all passers-by and are as distinctive a feature of the shop as the signboard itself. The goods are exhibited on the floor in glass cases or in piles, a custom which is not commendable when pastry or confectionery is on sale, for standing as it does on the south-eastern end of the great plain of Musashino, Tokyo is a very windy city, and the thick clouds of fine dust raised by the wind on fair days cover every article exposed and penetrate through the joints of glass cases, so that in Tokyo a man who is fond of confectionery must expect to eat his pound of dirt not within a lifetime, but often in a few weeks. If one stops for a moment to look at the wares, he is bidden at once to sit on the floor and examine other articles which would be brought out for his inspection, whereupon he has either to accept the invitation or move on. One seldom cares therefore to loiter in the street. The only shops that are often crowded by loiterers are the booksellers’ and cheap-picture dealers’. - A six-matted room and verandah
A Japanese room is measured, not by feet and inches, but by the number of mats it contains. A mat consists of a straw mattress, about an inch and a half thick, with a covering of fine matting which is sewn on at the edges of the mattress either by itself or with a border, usually dark-blue and an inch wide, of coarse hempen cloth. It is six feet long by three wide; this measure is not always exact, but may vary by an inch or more in either direction. When a house is newly built, the mat-maker comes to make mats to fit the rooms in it. But in spite of the variation, the size of a room is always given in the number of mats it holds, so that we never know the exact dimensions of a room. The smallest room has two mats, that is, is about six feet square; the next smallest is three-matted, or three yards by two. Four-matted rooms are sometimes to be found; but such rooms are unshapely, being four yards long by two wide. A room with four and a half mats is three yards square and has the half mat, which is a yard square, in the centre. The next size is six-matted, or four yards by three and is followed by the eight-matted, or four yards square. - J C Coleman
J C Coleman - Door Fastenings
here is, however, still another element of insecurity in wooden houses. House-breaking is by no means difficult in Tokyo. In the daytime the front entrance is generally closed with sliding-doors which can, however, be gently opened and entered without attracting notice unless some one happens to be in an adjoining room. The kitchen door is usually kept open, and it is quite easy to sneak into the kitchen and make away with food or utensils. Tradesmen, rag-merchants, and hawkers come into the kitchen to ask for orders, to buy waste-paper or broken crockery, or to sell their wares, so that there is nothing unusual in finding strange men on the premises. Sometimes these hawkers are really burglars in disguise come to reconnoitre the house with a view to paying it a nocturnal visit. At night, of course, the house is shut and the doors are bolted or fastened with a ring and staple, but very seldom locked or chained. - The Porch - Open and Latticed
The smallest houses are those in the slums which have only three yards’ frontage and a depth of four yards. The entrance, the space for kitchen utensils and the sink, and perhaps a closet or cupboard would leave room for little more than three mats, on which the whole family live; but as children spend all their playtime outside and come in only for meals, it is at night that the house is crowded, and even then as they sleep higgledy-piggledy, a couple or so of children do not inconvenience their parents to any appreciable extent. A two-roomed house is common enough and is not confined to the slums. A childless old couple, when the wife has to do the household work, find such a house large enough for them. Artisans also live in them. Three-roomed houses, too, are very common. Houses built in blocks are oftenest of this size. They are made up of the porch, the sitting-room, and the parlour or drawing-room. These three rooms are the essential portions of a house; and larger houses merely add to them. A visitor calls at the porch, the paper sliding-door is opened, he is invited to come in, he leaves his hat and greatcoat in the porch, and enters the parlour. - A Visitor
When a visitor calls, even the cushion is brought from the anteroom for him to sit on, and then a small cup of tea set before him and a brazier if it is cold and if warm, a tabako-bon. The cushion is round or square; that for summer is made of matting, hide, or a thin wadding of cotton in a cover of hempen cloth, while for winter use the wadding is much thicker and the cover is silk or cotton. It is about sixteen inches at the side if square. The brazier is of various shapes and makes. It may be a wooden box with an earthenware case inside or with a false bottom of copper, or it may be a glazed earthenware case alone; the wooden box may be plain with two holes for handles, or it may be elaborately latticed; and sometimes a brazier is made of the trunk of a tree cut with the outside rough-hewn or only barked and highly polished. The tabako-bon, or “tobacco-tray,” is a small open square or oblong box of sandal-wood or other hard wood, which holds a small china or metal pan, three-quarters full of ashes, with a few tiny pieces of live charcoal in the middle to light a pipe with, and beside it a small bamboo tube with a knot at the bottom for receiving tobacco-ashes. - A garden
Convention also makes itself felt in the laying out of a Japanese garden, though a greater latitude is allowed to the gardener’s ingenuity. Still the principles remain unchanged. In a large garden we usually find a pond, dry if no water is available, and surrounded with rocks of various shapes, and a knoll or two behind the pond with pines, maples, and other trees, and stone lanterns here and there. A few flowering shrubs are in sight, but these are planted for a season; thus, peonies, morning-glories, and chrysanthemums are removed as soon as they fade, while corchoruses and hydrangeas are cut down leaving only the roots behind. The chief features of the garden are the evergreens like the pine, trees whose leaves crimson in autumn like the maple, and above all, the flowering trees like the plum, the cherry, and the peach. A landscape garden presents, when the trees are not in blossom, a somewhat severe or solemn aspect; we do not expect from it the gaiety which beds of flowers impart. Indeed, many European flowering plants have of late been introduced, such as anemones, cosmoses, geraniums, nasturtiums, tulips, crocuses, and begonias; but they still look out of place in a Japanese garden. Roses are sometimes planted, but they are almost scentless. The humidity of the climate appears to militate against the perfume of flowers. - A House and a Gate
Though many private houses in the business quarters have no gates, those of any pretensions in the residential districts where land is naturally cheaper, are mostly provided with them. It is not usual for professionals in humbler walks of life and for artisans to live within a gate; but officials and others of some social standing prefer to have one to their houses. Sometimes there is a single gate to a large compound with a number of small houses in it; in such a case the gate-post is studded with name-plates. Gates, too, vary in size and form. The most modest are no more than low wicker-gates which can be jumped over and offer no bar to intrusion. - 1916 Woman
- Aren’t there a couple of young men in there with Clara
“Aren’t there a couple of young men in there with Clara?” “No, only one. There isn’t a sound.” - Esquimaux carving
The first of these illustrations is perhaps the best, as it is certainly the most delicate and graceful of all the fragments yet discovered. It represents the profile of the head and shoulder of an ibex, carved in low relief upon a piece of the palm of a reindeer’s antler. So exact and well characterised is the sculpture, that naturalists have no hesitation in deciding the animal to be an ibex of the Alps, and not of the Pyrenees. - Are you going to volunteer
She: Are you going to volunteer? He: If yes, no. If no, yes. - Another case of trying to keep neutral
Couple sitting on a park bench not really communicating - Studies in Expression
Making it a jack pot. - Robert Burns
- J. M. Synge
Edmund John Millington Synge - Advice to the mentally feeble
Keep the mouth closed. - Dr. Martin Luther
Dr. Martin Luther - Miss Sara Allgood
- Tragic Moments
The first stormy night in the cottage you have rented for the summer. - Mounted Crossbowman, with Cranequin crossbow, and a quarrel in his hat
Doubtless on the coasts of Scandinavia and North Germany, the chief home of these composite crossbows after the time of the Crusades, whalebone was easily obtainable, whilst in other parts of the Continent, the pieces which formed the heart of the bow, were made from the straightened horn of an animal. This ancient form of crossbow with a composite bow, survived in an improved form in Scandinavia and in the north of Europe, as a weapon of sport and war, till about 1460, or for nearly a hundred years after the far superior crossbow with a thick steel bow and a windlass had been in use in France, Spain and Italy. Some of these later weapons were made so strong in the fifteenth century, that after the invention of the powerful cranequin for bending steel bows, this apparatus was also employed for bending the composite bow - A juggler, after a miniature
- The Temptation of Jesus
Matthew 4:10, 11 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him. - The Rhesus and Entellus. (1 Kings 10. 22)
- Acorn Divider
- The Sky as a cow
The Sky as a cow, supported by Shu and other gods. Across her body are the stars, and the barks of the sun. (Tomb of Seti I) - M249 5.56 mm Machine Gun
- M249 Machine Gun
- Who is that tramping around overhead
He: Who is that tramping around overhead? She: Oh, that’s only papa. He always gets restless towards morning. - A domed church
- We have had a terrible scrap
He: We have had a terrible scrap. “And I came out ahead.” “No. I did. You accepted my apology.” - Can you come to the jeweler’s with me to-morrow, dearest
“Can you come to the jeweler’s with me to-morrow, dearest? I’d like you to choose the ring yourself.” “In that case perhaps you’d better save up a little longer, darling.” - Three hundred dollars for that gown
“Three hundred dollars for that gown! Didn’t you get anything off?” “All I dared.” - M249 Machine Gun exploded view
A - Barrel Assembly B - Rear Sight Assembly C - Cover and Feed mechanism Assembly D - Feed Pawl Assembly E - Cocking Hand Assembly F - Butt stock and Shoulder Assembly G - Piston Assembly H - Bolt Assembly I - Slide Assembly J - Operating Rod Assembly K - Receiver Assembly L - Trigger Mechanism Assembly M - Hand Guard Assembly N - Bipod Machine Gun O - Gas Cylinder Assembly - Why aren’t you ready, Isabel
“Why aren’t you ready, Isabel? You know very well the opera begins at eight-fifteen.” “Oh! Gracious! I forgot all about it. I’ve been so busy writing this article on preparedness.” - Saint Louis transporting the relics of the Passion to the Sainte-Chapelle
- Suger, after a stained glass window from Saint-Denis
- When they get their rights
“It’s only fair to warn you that my son has never had a father’s care and doesn’t know the first thing about housekeeping.” - Tragic Moments 9
The one night a week that he dines at home. - Leap Year
He: You never compliment me any more on my appearance. She: Oh, charming! Charming! Charming! - Studies in Expression
Reading the play. - Tragic Moments
Which shall be her sphere? - Interior facade of the old St. Peter's Church in the Vatican
- Do women propose
Mr. Wooden always wanted a tall, serious wife, while his friend Chubb intended to marry a cheery little woman. - Crossbowmen killing Deer and Wild Boars
From MS. Gaston Phosbus. Fourteenth century - The Cavalry man making point to the right
- It’s perfectly awful the way you continue to flirt with your old sweethearts
He: It’s perfectly awful the way you continue to flirt with your old sweethearts. I don’t believe you love me any more. And yet, before we were married, you told me I was a man of a thousand. She: So you were, my dear, so you were. But I can’t entirely forget the other nine hundred and ninety-nine. - The Saint-Martin church, in Canterbury, founded by Saint Augustin
- Allonge
- 40
- I don’t think married life is ever happy, anyway
“I don’t think married life is ever happy, anyway.” “Then, why don’t you divorce your husband?” “I’d rather quarrel with him than with strangers.” - Front View of the Guards
- Positions for the use of the sword
- 50
- The Bayonet Exercise
- 33
- Among those not invited
- 48
- On guard
- Near Side protect and Giving Point