Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 4.djvu/246

 fices as appearances suggested. The inner life of the people remained unchanged. Perhaps the abandonment of the queue was the only irrevocable concession to the new fashion. Men were laughed out of that appendage by a clever rhymester, who sang that taps on a tonsured pate produced the sound of a cheap gourd, whereas from a full-haired head they elicited notes of progress and enlightenment! However ardently a statesman advocated the new regimen, he showed his affection for the old by leading a dual existence. During hours of duty he wore a fine uniform shaped and decorated in foreign style. But so soon as he stepped out of office or off parade, he reverted to his own comfortable and picturesque costume. Handsome houses were built and furnished according to Western models; but each had an annex where alcoves, verandahs, matted floors, and paper sliding-doors continued to do traditional duty. Beef-steaks, beer, "grape-wine," knives and forks came into use on occasion; but rice-bowls and chopsticks held their every-day place as of old. In a word, though the Japanese adopted every convenient and serviceable attribute of foreign civilisation, such as railways, steamships, telegraphs, post-offices, banks, and machinery of all kinds; though they accepted Occidental sciences and, to a large extent, Occidental philosophies; though they recognised the superiority of European jurisprudence and set themselves to bring their laws into accord with it,—they nevertheless preserved the