The Japanese in England.
--A London correspondent gives the following amusing particulars of these queer strangers in their late phase:
They prefer
London to
Paris, as they have not been made so much fuse about, and are allowed to see things more in their own way, and at their own convenience.
Paris was done for them by official programme.
The draught man is really a clever fellow in his art, and perfectly indefatigable as a sketcher.
He carries the breast — fold of his robe filled with note-books, in which he works with great rapidity, and in outline.
His drawings of animals at the
Zoological Gardens are described to me by a friend who has seen them — for I have not yet had that privilege — as singularly faithful and spirited, and as showing a full knowledge of perspective.--The monkeys and the bears were his favorite subjects, as affording most scope for the fun which evidently enters very largely into their way of viewing things.
They are not all carried away by the
English ladies.
On the contrary, they do not scruple to say that they think us Westerns, of both sexes, a singularly ugly race.
It is very wholesome to be reminded of the difference of lasts in this way, for of all the ugly specimens of humanity, in Western eyes, this Japanese Embassy, by universal admission here, includes the flower.
The same writer adds, that they were immensely tickled by the apron and gaiters of a bishop, the other day, at Grosvenor House.
In one of their recent visits to the Foreign Office, they asked the permanent Under secretary,
Mr. Hammand, to favor them with a sketch of the British Constitution, a demand that must have puzzled the official to comply with on the instant.
Their hotel charges, it seems, are to be paid by the
Government, and one remarkable fact has transpired respecting them, namely, that they do not a double sword — in other words, that they are not of noble birth.
The nobles of
Japan, it seems, are not permitted to leave the country.
One of the Ambassadors has a tolerable knowledge of our language, but the others know very little about it; but they have all acquired the use of that very pert idiomatic expression, which they use very frequently, ‘"Mind your own business !"’
