Jappy
Rhymes with Happy, page 3
(note: most of the links on this page are to the MOA)
"Japs" in 19th-century popular usage
The term Jap is not recorded earlier than "c1880 (Remembered in colloquial use in London)" in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, the Web now allows us to go swiftly beyond the remarkable resources of that work, and find many instances in print from 1860-90.
An invaluable resource for researching popular writing in 19th-century America is the Making of America project, hosted at the libraries at University of Michigan and at Cornell Univesity. This project makes freely available on the web over a million pages of books and periodicals, both as scanned images (which can be scaled for comfort of reading or economy of printing) and as seachable text files. Many thanks to Barry Malpas for pointing me to this amazing resource!
Unfortunately the search function is not too helpful for the word "Jap" by itself. The text which is being searched has been produced through Optical Character Recognition, which is not always accurate (e.g. the word "Jappy" produces several examples, all of which turn out to be, in the original text, "Happy"). Also, the words Japan or Japanese are commonly hyphenated after the Jap- syllable, and the OCR reads this as an example of the word Jap.
I have done some searches on japs and little jap, little japs, japanese doll, and turned up the following interesting quotations.
The word Japs came into use in American print in 1860 to designate the members of the diplomatic mission of samurai and servants sent by the Shogun (a.k.a. the Tycoon, also at that time called the Emperor by Americans) to respond to the treaty negotiators sent by the U.S. to Japan. They caused quite a stir and raised some interesting questions: were they indeed "civilized"? what color were they (thus we see a New York Irishman referring to them as "naygers" while a Washington belle accepts the idea that they are the same color as a "Mammy")? how did their embassy affect the supremacy of the white race and the rights of the US in the East? They also caused some anger in New York City by leaving without paying their hotel bills (presumably assuming they were guests of the city).
In later texts, the authors/editors in one case follow the word by a period to indicate it is an abbreviation, and in other cases use quotation marks to indicate a lapse of tone. "The Japs" refers most often to the Japanese people as a whole, as a political/cultural entity. It can however refer to the Japanese as opposed to the foreign residents of Japan, or to a specific group of Japanese (artisans, performers, Japanese-Americans); in one case a California farmer's "Japs" are his workers, and in another the term refers to the young ladies of a Sunday-School class dressed up in Kimono and serving tea. A "little Jap" is in usually these texts a (male) child or else a notably short male adult; in one case, though, "the little Japs" are like microbes, presumably because they are many and physically small, but also because they are dangerous and aggressive.
1. References to the Japanese embassy to the United States (all 1860 except as noted, and mostly from two periodicals):
Southern Literary Messenger; Volume 31, Issue 1, Jul 18602. The "Japs" as a people, as artisans, as young ladies in a play, as butterflies....Life and Literature in Japan p. 27:
It was the misfortune of the writer of this article to pass the "Japs," as the people of Washington call hem familiarly, on their way up the Potomac.
The "Mount Vernon" coming down at full speed passed the "Philadelphia" also at full speed, flags flying and drums beating. There was a simultaneous hurrah from both boats, a fleeting glimpse of some yellow faces, and all was over.
We afterwards had a better view of them at Willard's, inspected their dresses and their visages, listened to their broken English, wondered at the odd method of dressing their long coal-black hair, admired their dark, intelligent eyes, and even went so far as to follow them up the Avenue until our curiosity, like that of the good people of Washington, was thoroughly satisfied.p. 29: The "Japs" are great tea-drinkers...
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Southern Literary Messenger; Volume 31, Issue 3, Sept. 1860
Editor's Table, p. 232 (one of a series of jokes and puns, this one referring to the unpaid bills)The people of New York City have had a kind of yellow fever called the "Japs." It lasted with great violence for fourteen days. Costs $105,000 to get cured of it.
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Vanity Fair, vol. 1 (June 2, 1860), p. 358SLOW TORTURES FOR THE JAPS.
THE accomplished Japanners at Washington we hope will not forget, if they have ever heard it, the consoling remark, made by HORACE one day, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. We know how hard it must seem to travel eight or nine thousand miles only to undergo a series of refined tortures, invented, patented and applied by unrefined American officials. The bare thought must sicken these spotless Niphonese souls.: But, brave fellows! so far they have not shrunk from the inflictions got up expressly for the occasion. Let them screw up their courage still higher, let them reflect upon their duty to the old Tycoon at home, let them abide their remaining fate with becoming resigniation and, in short, grin and bear-'it.' .... [In New York, where you can expect to be bored to death] No, no! dear Japanners, don't hope to leave the Empire City in any vehicle other than a hearse. ...we would not, nor would any New Yorker, be at all surprised to see Councilman This, or Alderman That, flaunting through Baster and Mulberry streets, dressed out "to kill" in the latest Jeddo style, with two or three swords swinging at his side, and a few priceless rings, arid other bijouterie flashing on his hands, and watch-guard [stolen from the Japanese]. To the natural question, "Arrah, Terry, where did yez get all yer illigant silk dress?" Alderman This, or Councilman That, would tip his well-known wink, and reply, "Whist ye spalpeens! 'Twas wan of thim Japanase chaps I tuk dinner wid last nights as made me take the half av his trunk, or he'd hev run me trough and trough with two swords as quick as luk. Divil a lie!"[Note: Vanity Fair had a couple of other items in this volume, a satirical verse called "Gentle Japanner" and a satire of Japanese speech, using the word "Japanner." This was a term used for a Japanese person in 17th and 18th century English, but in 19th-c American it referred to a craftsman who gives a lacquer-like finish to tin or to furniture, or perhaps to a tradesman who sells such articles.]
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same issue, short jokes and comments, with illustration, p. 366We Wonder: The Herald's Washington correspondent, describing an interview he had with the gentle Japs, reported the Head of the Nation [James Buchanan] to have said of the Embassadors, " They can't understand me at all." Could the Covode Committee [a committee investigating government corruption] have helped them a little?
_____________Vanity Fair, vol. 1, June 9, 1860, more short jokes and notes, p. 382
A Something Settled Madness: The Physicians attached to the Embassy tell us there are no Idiots in Japan. By way of a change, if the Japs are desirous of any, we can recommend Mr. Thaddeus Hyatt, at present of Washington Jail.
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Vanity Fair, vol. 2
some references in a July 21, 1860 article to New York City's festivities, including an "ovation to the Japs" "a fête champetre [given for] the Japs" by the Herald publisher.
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Vanity Fair vol. 2, Sept. 1, 1860, p. 114The Last of the Japanese: Ever since the Times pricked itself into a state of howling virtue about TATEISH ONJERO ("Tommy") and the love-letters of that risky young person, it has borne a grudge against the gentle Japs. ["Tommy" was a teenaged apprentice interpreter who was much lionized by American ladies.]
Whent he subjects of the Tycoon [Shogun] quitted these shores, the Times was so impolite as to come out with an editorial and say that it was glad to get rid of them. Last week we heard from the Cape Verde Islands, of the Japs on their homeward voyage. The Times at once nipped the opportunity to display some more of its malevolence, and expressed the hope that we might never see our queer Oriental friends again. These are the Times's own fiendish words: "We trust they will not come again until we have an honest Common Council."
Could anything, we ask, be more utterly inhospitable than that?
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Vanity Fair Vol. 2, Sept. 1860PADDY'S ODE TO THE PRINCE.
(WRITTEN IN NEW YORK.)0 Mighty Prince! it's no offince,
Your worship, that I mane ye,
While I confiss, 'twas as ra-al bliss,
A moment to have sane ye!
...Thim haythen chaps, the nayger Japs,
Wid all their grate expinses,
Just tuk their fill, and left a bill
At which the paple winces.
...[The Vanity Fair publication of "Paddy's Ode" is anonymous, with an illustration. The poem was also published in 1860 as part of an appendix of 4 poems to an account of the the visit of the Prince of Wales (which followed closely the visit of the Japanese Ambassadors), by Kinahan Cornwallis, Royalty in the New world; or, The Prince of Wales in America. Kinahan Cornwallis was a British-born writer and traveller (who had been to Japan already himself) writing in 1860 for the New York Herald. However, "Paddy's Ode" was reprinted in 1866 in The masquerade & other poems, by John Godfrey Saxe, presumably the actual author of the verses.]
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Vanity Fair vol 3, Feb. 23 1861We all of us know we're the smartest of chaps
Which nobody can deny,
We extensively pitied the innocent Japs,
Which nobody can deny,
So we gave 'em good dinners, we gave 'em champagne,
We got 'em immensively high on a train,
And explained to 'em how to go in should it rain,
Which nobody can deny.The bills will amount to a million or two,
Which nobody can deny,
And the Kamis have certainly fooled us a few,
Which nobody can deny.
The princes they sent were excessively small,
Our hopes of a trade are nailed fast to the wall,
And TOMMY a mis'rable Nothing at All,
Which nobody can deny.So here's to the health of both Yankees and Jap,
Which nobody can deny,
And here's to the genius which caught us a-snap,
Which nobody can deny.
And let no one hereafter in confidence own
That he comes from Down East or was Easterly grown,
For the Japs are the Downiest Easterns yet known,
Which nobody can deny.[Kamis= Japanese deities; "Tommy"= Tateishi Onojiro, the popular young interpreter, who of course had no social standing in Japan itself and therefore was a "nobody"; "Downiest"= slickest, teflon-coated.]
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Vanity Fair vol. 5, June 26, 1862Manners of the Japs: The London papers mention with disgust that the Japaniese Ambassadors use as substitutes for pocket-handkerchiefs bits of rag, which they carry in their bosoms. Why does not Punch give the dirty wretches a Wipe. It is also stated that the Japs suck their fingers after dinner-a proof that although they eschew opium they are fond of digit-ails.
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Poetical works of Charles G. Halpine (Miles O'Reilly) 127-28
1869CHANT OF THE NO-KAMI.
TO BE LEARNED BY ALL ADMIRERS OF THE JAPANEESE PRINCES.To pronounce the name of a Japanese,
Give a cough and hiccough, a grunt and sneeze,
Then finish the whole with a whistle, and, blame me!
If that ain't the name of some grand No-Kami.
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For this they carry the second sword;
And whene'er they're in debt, or default, or bored,
Or get a toothache, or make a slip,
They open their bowels, and let things rip.So honor the Japanese night and day,
With congenial blacking-pots strew their way.
And if to admire them you fail, don't blame me,
For this is the song of a Jap No-Kami.
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The Gilded Age; A Tale of To-day, by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) and Charles Dudley Warner, 1874"NATIONAL AFFAIRS INTELLIGENTLY DISCUSSED" p. 343
The conversation was now finely under way. Washington launched out an observation of his own.
" Did you see those Japs, Miss Leavitt?"
" Oh, yes, aren't they queer. But so high-bred, so picturesque. Do you think that color makes any difference, Mr. Hawkins? I used to be so prejudiced against color."
"Did you? I never was. I used to think my old mammy was handsome."
" How interesting your life must have been! I should like to hear about it."
Scientific American. / New Series, Volume 17, Issue 20 Nov 16, 18673. References to or comparisons to a Japanese doll:Japanese Mechanics---How They Work. p. 308
A correspondent of the New York Times gives the following interesting account of the Japanese artisans in San Francisco:--
"The steamship Colorado brought over a company of Japanese performers, calling themselves the Ha-ya-ta-kee troupe. During the past week they have been fitting up the Metropolitan Theatre in the similitude of a Japanese temple, for the exhibition of their feats of strength. It is said that the entire company, even the workmen who are engaged in putting up the stage, belong to one family. It is a curious sight to see these Japanese carpenters at work. .... The Japs. have iron squares, not unlike American squares, marked with degrees. Their measures are brass, very light and fluted. On one side the inch, or what stands for the inch with us, is 1 3-16 inches, and divided into ten parts. On the other side is a different scale, measuring 1 13-16 inches, and divided into twelve parts. Some of their tools appear to be mere children's toys; for instance, they have a smoothing plane two and one-half inches long, one inch broad and half an inch thick. Their chisels are light and small. The cutting parts of some are the size and shape of a section of half a dollar—the square side being the cutting edge, and a round metal shaft connecting the convex side with a wooden handle. The most ingenious article in their tool-chest is a chalkline...."[In an 1869 article on the physics of velocity and an 1877 Scientific American article on the Gyroscope the "tricks" of the "Japanese jugglers" are cited as exploiting important principles. This implies that they were well-known. A Harper's Magazineshort story from 1893 implies that by that time the jugglers were travelling alone and posing as "princes" in vaudeville. See below for more on the "Ha-ya-ta-kee" troupe.]
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Putnam's monthly magazine of American literature, science and art. / Volume 11, Issue 5 May 1868Familiar Letters from Japan, by J. Bishop Putnam: pp. 634-635
A splendid breakwater, in the shape of a C, has been built by the Japs, as a protection to their small boats. We passed in and landed at a splendid pair of stone steps, some thirty feet in length. Ascending these, we found ourselves in the custom house enclosure, or, as it is called here, “compound.” Expecting to find an apology for a custom house, you can imagine my surprise in beholding a fine large building of a light green marble, flanked on either side by a long shed of corrugated iron; the whole surrounded by a well-paved court, marvellously clean and neat. I could not help saying, “If this is birbarism, save me from cvilization.” Entering the anteroom of the custom house, I was accosted by an official who was perfectly overwhelmingly polite, examined my baggage in a manner that any nation on the face of the earth would do well to imitate, and allowed us to pass on after another excruciating bow....
The first day on shore, while I was walking in Curio Street, a two-sworded Jap walked up and saluted me with a “Good morning.” Having been put on my guard against Jaconins [yakunins], I immediately looked very sanguinary, and laid my hand on my pistol, when I discovered, to my surprise, that it was a fellow-passenger on the “Republic,” with whom I had frequently played chess, but so much was he changed by Japanese clothes, that I did not recognize him...
The valleys back of the town are entirely devoted to barley, which the Japs sow in rows, and cultivate in the most careful manner; and the long rich rows of green are beautiful...
The town of Yokohama is situated on an artificial island, the Japs having dug a canal entirely around the “ foreign concession".... They thought in this way to keep foreigners within bounds, but they have discovered that it will take more than a ditch to keep out
white folks; and now the country is opened ten miles around....
The Japs’ New Year is just at hand, and they are busy settling up all accounts, and will not listen to any new business. This is compulsory. All accounts have to be closed at the end of the year, and the books burned, thus literally turning over a new leaf.
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Putnam's monthly magazine of American literature, science and art. / Volume 11, Issue 6 June 1868A New Yorker in Japan, by J. Bishop Putnam: p. 759
Strange though it may seem, the Japs have made considerable progress in photography, and really manage to turn out some very fair pictures.
...
On this street are a number of the celebrated bath-houses, where men and women and children, old and young, rich and poor, meet on the common ground of cleanliness, and the bright and contented faces of the Japs as they come from these establishments make one fully believe that "cleanliness is next to godliness."
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Putnam's monthly magazine of American literature, science and art. / Volume 12, Issue 7 July 1868"A VISIT TO YEDO. BY A YOUNG NEW-YORKER" (J. B. Putnam) p. 103
YOKOHAMA, Feb. 15, 1868.
The [fire] engine [belonging to Yokohama itself] was soon on the ground, and all hands wcnt to work with a will. The native machines [fire engines] soon began to arrive, and the place in a few moments was completely blocked up by a crowd of yelling, jabbering Japs, each of whom carried a bright-colored lantern, which article they never venture out at night without.
...The following morning I witnessed the proceedings of a Japanese Court of Justice.
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Putnam's monthly magazine of American literature, science and art. / Volume 12, Issue 8 Aug 1868Now that our relations with China and Japan are growing closer, and it is becoming common to meet with their beautiful, and it may be added, in the case of Japan, with their really useful, manufactures, we recall with pleasure that before the more material trade in merchandise set in, the friendly Japs and Chinamen had sent us several pleasant gifts of shrubs and flowers which are rapidly becoming domesticated in our gardens.
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Putnam's monthly magazine of American literature, science and art. / Volume 16, Issue 35 : November 1870"American Language," by W. W. Crane, p. 522
One of the most commonly-used words in America is "hunkey," and it also can claim a lineal descent from the Batavi. It may be traced to the Dutch word honk, meaning place, post, or home. The incipient manhood of New Amsterdam used this word in its plays, saying of one who had reached "base" that he was honk. Their American successors adopted it, as they did a number of other words of similar character. But the particular puerism ["hunky-dory"] now under consideration was destined to rise higher in the world of words. It found its way into the slang dialect, and through the medium of the daily papers was widely disseminated. With the anomalous affix dory (probably coined by some euphoniously-inspired member of the genus "Mose "), it now holds a high position in the public favor; so much so, that the unfortunate little "Jap," whose acrobatic martyrdoms were lately inflicted upon us, selected it (if he himself had any thing to do with the matter) in conjunction with the lucid expression "olrite," to display his general knowledge of the American language.
[See above, Scientific American, and the next item for more information on this child, who in fact was known as, not "olrite," but All-Right.]
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The Mimic World, and Public Exhibitions. by Olive Logan. (1871)Page heading: The Japs (p. 327)
Everybody remembers the furore which was created in this country by the first troupe of Japanese acrobats and jugglers which came here. The history of this troupe, of which little "All Right" was the bright particular star, was a rather doleful one....[For more on All-Right and his troupe, see Some Japanese Melodies by Clara Louise Kellog, Scribners monthly, 14. 4 (August 1877). The little acrobat's fall seems to have inspired incidents in "The Emperor's Eye" by Ausburn Towner Putnam's 13.17 (May 1869) and also in a children's book, Bertie Linton or Lost in Japan, by Percy Ainslie (1891), in which a family touring Japan attends an acrobatic performance in which a child falls to his death.]
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Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 44, Issue 264: May , 1872P. 931 ("Editor's Easy Chair"):
The appeal to the United States is not a chance, but the result of mature reflection. Mr. Arinori Mon, the Japanese minister in this country, has felt that here rather than in England, where he has also lived, is the spirit which can best reani- mate his country. He is a young man, and earnestly at work in thoroughly acquainting himself with all that is most characteristic in American principles and methods. It is even his hope to introduce the English language into Japan as the language of education, supplanting the Chinese, which is now the tongue of the schools. The young Japs are set to study what are called the classics, or the philosophical books of Confucius and the moralists, and always in the Chinese—a language in which they recite by rote, and in which, when they come to understand it, they have acquired only a body of moral precepts. To teach useful knowledge in a language which, when learned, is the key to the scientific information which in the judgment of its wisest men Japan most needs, is an effort worthy her most patriotic sons.
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Overland monthly and Out West Volume 12, Issue 1, Jan 1874,William E. Griffis, A Japanese Merchant at Home", p. 35 (or a 4-page article)
A mosquito-net is next put up, which is nearly the size of the entire room, and properly called "mosquito-house." How such a small pest ever received such a long name as mosquito passes the comprehension of the Japs, who call it ka.
[Note: Griffis, a missionary/teacher who lived in Japan and was the author of The Mikado's Empire, was a very influential authority on the country in the U.S.)
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The Atlantic monthly. / Volume 33, Issue 198 April 1874"Art" p. 504 [the collection of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Finally, the museum may plume itself not a little on its Japanese collection, which will be most admired by those who have seen most and know most of the art of fairy land, now dying out under the rolling wheels of the car of socalled civilization. The value of the articles in this museum Is even now very great; in time it must become vastly bleater, since it includes many perfect specimens of a skill that never existed anywhere else in the world in such perfection as among the Japs.
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Scribners monthly, an illustrated magazine for the people. / Volume 11, Issue 6, April 1876"Beds and Tables, Stools and Candlesticks," by Clarence Cook, p. 818
(interior decoration)
There is hardly anything with which we can produce prettier effect in rooms where we want to break
up the wall, and yet have nothing particularly good, as engraving or picture, to hang upon it, than these
Japanese paintings of birds and flowers, and native men and women which come painted on gauze, and
with which the Japs themselves ornament their screens.______________________________________
The Galaxy. / Volume 22, Issue 4 October 1876Household Art at the Centennial, by Charles Wyllys Elliott, p. 493
Of lacquer the Japanese make a large and most exquisite show. So much fine work has never before been seen here. It is not easy to know why these things are so satisfactory, unless that it is simply “perfect work.” The soul at once finds a rest for its foot
here, and asks no more.... We know but little of the making of this good work, and therefore were glad to be told by one of the most intelligent of the Japs that the wood used is hinoke, a sort of pine which is close and not liable to crack...
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The Galaxy. / Volume 22, Issue 6 December 1876Drift-Wood, by Philip Quilibet: pp. 843-847, at 846 [on the Centennial Exhibition]
Some people asked us to have "a Jap" pointed out to them; and we were interested to observe a woman questioning a young Chinaman, who made no answer, even though she talked in broken English to aid him; whereupon she grabbed his queue and began to examine that. The Celestial drew back in alarm, but she pursued, and again seized the braided pigtail, so that he forcibly pulled it away, and tucking it into his pocket, scuttled off. "I can't make nothing out of these chaps," said the dame placidly, turning in a confidential mood to me; "they don't seem to understand English."
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The Galaxy. / Volume 23, Issue 4 April 1877Hard Times, by Charles Wyllys Elliott, pp. 481-82
If China could thus [by gunboat diplomacy] be persuaded to trade by the English, poor little Japan might be persuaded to trade by the United States. We could but try. We did, and Perry sailed away, with his ships and his cannons, to try. The Japs were benighted, foolish, and weak. They declined, and said, “No, we don’t want any of your trade. We make all we want, and don’t care either for your religion, your opium, your whiskey, or your stovepipe hats.” “But,” said the gallant Perry, “that is a wicked sentiment. The brotherhood of nations is the cornerstone of modern civilization. Trade is divine, and stovepipe hats mark the intellectual races. We are your brothers. God has made of one blood all the nations of the earth. If you will not be our brothers, and trade, we shall be obliged to shoot. Don’t want to, but must. One — two—three. Bang!”
Well, the Japs also yielded to these arguments, and thenceforth have been happy. Trade has prevailed. Rice has gone up, and a good many Japs have gone to the ethereal spaces, overcome with hunger....
We did it! We opened their ports! We extended the blessing of trade I We have made the Japs into Yankees! They are learning the benefits of cheap and nasty!
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Scribners / Volume 14, Issue 6 October 1877Togas and Toggery, by Clarence Cook: pp. 783-808, at 786
To our mind, it argues a people unfit ever to add anything substantial to the intellectual or spiritual riches of the world, this eagerness of the Japanese to give up at a blow everything that distinguishes them from the outside world. Their form of government went first, but their dress followed hard upon, and some of their foremost men would gladly give up their religion, and their language, with all the manners and customs they could contrive to get rid of. When they have done this, the Japanese will find that they have nothing left but the one power to make money, and that they have sold their birthright for a mess of sour pottage. A nation that can ever entertain the wish to give up its language must be far gone in dry-rot. But, the dress was the easier to get rid of; and I cannot help thinking that a Jap, in what he takes for European dress, is a type of vulgarity that for its completeness ought to be a subject for some pride.
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Overland monthly and Out West Ser. 2, Vol. 2, Issue 11, Nov 1883" A Day's Ramble in Japan" by Joseph J. Taylor, p. 533
The bay [Yokohama] was dotted over far and near with men-of-war and merchant ships of every kind and nationality-from the huge modern iron-clad, the very leviathan of the seas, down to the frail-looking little coasting-junk of the Japs. Among them were constantly passing to and fro the lighters and junks of the natives....
In another instant we were completely surrounded by a noisy, gesticulating crowd of Japs; but at the same time they were perfectly respectful; our own obtrusive ribes of hack and cab drivers could imitate them in this respect to advantage. Each had his own conveyance, or jinrickisha, and sought our patronage.
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The Century; a popular quarterly. / Volume 25, Issue 5 Mar 1883A Woman's Reason, by William Dean Howells: pp. 753-769, at 754 [serial fiction]
[Her fiancé, Mr. Ray] was not quite so tall as Marian, and he was much slighter; she generously prided herself upon being unable to wear his gloves, which [her sister] could just get on. ... . He talked a good deal to [Marian's friend Helen], and told her he had spent most of the summer on the water, "which accounts," she mused, "for his brown little hands, not much bigger than a Jap law student's, and for that perfect mass of freckles."
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Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 71, Issue 422 July 1885"The City Of Buffalo," by Jane Meade Welch: p. 216
Buffalo has become one of the cosmopolitan cities of the country. Germans, French, English, Italians, Swedes, Poles, Japs, Turks, and Arabs jostle each other in the crowded thoroughfares, and buy and sell in the markets.
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The North American review. / Volume 147, Issue 385 December 1888Review of Thomas Stevens, Around the World on a Bicycle, vol. 2: From Teheran to Yokohama
The worst part of his experiences befell him in China, where he came very near being mobbed, and where he found very little indeed to awaken admiration or tempt him to loiter. Japan proved to be a perfect contrast to the Celestial Empire, and his journey through that interesting country was a pleasure excursion from beginning to end. indeed, he almost doubts whether the Japs can be made happier or better by European civilization. “Happy people! happy country! Are the Japs acting wisely or are they acting foolishly in permitting European notions of life to creep in and revolutionize (their country)? Who can tell: Time alone will prove. They will get richer, more powerful, and more enterprising . .. but wealth and power and the buzz and rattle of machinery and
commerce do not always mean happiness.”
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The Living age ... / Volume 180, Issue 2331 March 2, 1889
repr. from All the Year Round
"Shanghai, from a Bedroom Window" p.. 561There are many other classes of pedestrians that come under my eye. Englishmen, Frenchmen, Germans, and Americans from the foreign consul down to the junior clerk ; from the epauletted navy captain to the free-and-easy blue-jacket. Native hawkers; occasional Japs, undersized and dark, but prepossessing from the mere fact of not wearing a pigtail; native merchants; coolies; servants; shopkeepers; porters; loafers; and other street-throngers, whose business or occupation can only be a matter of conjecture-- all these crowd the footpaths and roadway, and pass and repass in never-ending streams.
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The Atlantic monthly. / Volume 63, Issue 378 April 1889A Dissolving View of Carrick Meagher, by George H. Jessop: pp. 467-478 at 476
[short story, an adventure of an Irishman in San Francisco's Chinatown]Then he went straight to the Pacific Mail Company's offices and purchased a ticket for Hong Kong.
"What do you want that for?" ...
"Well, several rasons. I 've been longer in 'Frisco than I 've any business to stay in any wan town; then I 've been over a good share of the wurruld, an' niver yet seen a Jap or a Chinaman on his native heath..."
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The Living age ... / Volume 190, Issue 2455 July 18, 1891Social Aspects of American Life, p. 153
The First M. E. Church was crowded last night with a throng curious to see what pleasant surprise was in store for them. The entertainment was given by George E. Campbell's Sunday-school class (No. 6), composed of young ladies, and was the most novel and entertaining social given this winter. The young ladies appeared dressed in Japanese costumes, and the Japanese programme they presented was loudly applauded. After the literary and musical part of the evening the "Japs" invited the company to partake of the Japanese tea which they had prepared. The following is the programme : THE "JAPS" ENTERTAINMENT.
Music "Shizu." _______________________________________________
Chorus . . "Shing, Fring, Ming."JAPANESE LADIES.
"Me be Like a Melican Man."
Recitation: Japanese Love Story.0INA SAN.
Music . "Wang Ta Ning."
Recitation: Selected.TANSAGANEMA SAN.
Vocal Solo . . . . "Waiting."YONE SANTO.
Recitation "Christmas Night at the Quarters."THESIN SAN.
Music... "Shiroyama."The Japs entertain.
Harper's new monthly magazine. / Volume 83, Issue 497 October, 1891"Common-Sense in Surgery" by Helen H. Gardener, p. 777
I remember one case. It was a Japanese boy. He was as solid as a little ox, but he told' Dr. G that he'd been taking a homceo- pathic prescription for a cold. That was enough for Dr. G . A red rag in the van of a bovine animal is nothing to the word 'homnopathy' to Dr. G . Hy-dropathy gives him fits, and eclecticism almost lays him out. Not long ago he sat on a jury which sent a man to prison who had failed in a case of 'mind-cure.' That gave deep delight to his 'regular' soul. Well, Dr. G questioned the little Jap, who could not speak good English, and had the national inclination to agree with whatever you say. Ever been in Japan? No? Well, they are a droll lot. Always strive to agree with all you say or suggest.
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The Century; a popular quarterly. / Volume 43, Issue 6 Apr 1892"Fishing for Pearls in Australia" by Hubert Phelps Whitmarsh, p. 909
My largest day's work was three hundred and ten pairs of shells; this is rather over a quarter of a ton. The greatest number on record collected in one day is one thousand and five. These were picked up by "Japanese Charley," a little Jap about five feet high, who was always tended by his wife, and whose boat was the prettiest model and the smartest sailer in the fleet.
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Overland monthly and Out West Ser. 2, vol. 22.126, 1893"Butterflies that Come to Town" by Mary E. Bamford , p. 643
[This article is about the names California children have for butterflies; they are mostly variants of "Jap" (Mountain Jap, etc.); one of the children claims this is because the Japanese eat them, but no other explanation is offered.]
Another youngster in answer to the question thought that the hardest to catch are the "Yellow Japs" with "bull's eyes" in the ends of the wings. The distinguished name "Jap" is, according to the testimony of some boys, to be applied only to the larger members of the butterflyfolks, the smaller ones being "just common butterflies."
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Overland monthly and Out West. / Ser. 2, vol. 23, Issue 136, Apr 1894, pp.414-420Going with the Swim by Phil Weaver, Jr. [1894 Midwinter Fair in San Francisco}
In the Japanese Village, a Jap with a long bamboo pole was busy poking the visible hands of industrious "Brownies" [boys trying to get in free] burrowing in the sand under his fence.
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Overland monthly and Out West Ser. 2, vol. 24, 1894"A Study in Ochre," Edwin Y. Atkinson [A short story whose main character is a Chinese, Suey Ah Duck], p .47
After a few days the steamer reached Yokohama, where many packages of silk, tea, and other goods, as well as a number of Japanese passengers, some of them girls, young and comely, were taken aboard. Suey looked at them, but said nothing.
He disliked Japs. He could not have told you why. Perhaps because they were not Chinamen; because the Japs disliked him; or for the same reason dogs dislike cats.
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The Living age ... / Volume 204, Issue 2647 March 30, 1895The discovery of Argon, repr. from The Speaker. p. 819
The nimble microbe is as potent a factor among the agencies of science as the little Japs seem likely to become among the peo- ples of the world.
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The Living age ... / Volume 207, Issue 2686 December 28, 1895"Dandy Jackson", repr. from Gentlemen's Magazine [an adventure story set in Japan in 1870]
"If we get out of this," said I, "we may thank our stars. These fellows are going to haul us before the yakunin. They'll have their tale to tell; ours won't be understood. We've split open the head of an official. That's quite enough to get us a year or two in chokee--and Jap chokee is no joke, by the Lord Harry!"
"Civis Britannicus sum," remarked Haydecombe, ... [i.e., as a British citizen I cannot be tried by Japanese courts.]
"Civis Fiddlesticks!" I remarked. "Not much good being anything but Civis Japonicus just now. "
...
"But for a common shindy in the street to shut two foreigners up all night, and trot them out to have their heads taken off in the morning in cold blood, is making the Japs out to be worse than they really are."
"Well," I said, "I hope so. At any rate, you've never seen into a Jap prison, and I have, and I'm not at all sure that I wouldn't rather take that morning walk you speak of than be shut up in a Jap prison. Now let's have a look round."
...
"I owe that Japper," I said, "a good turn, which I fear I never can repay...."
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The Living age ... / Volume 208, Issue 2687 Jan 4, 1896"1920," repr. from The Contemporary Review, p. 8
The only item in the above programme of future untoward contingencies wherein our statesmen at present would appear to have any voice or any locus standi for action is the question of the awakening of China. We should apparently do nothing to favor it, although we cannot reasonably interfere to prevent it. If the Japs endeavor, as per treaty, to open up new Chinese ports and to start manufactures there, they will have to face a vast amount of obstruction and difficulty from influential and conservative Chinese officials. We should not, as I think, do anything to help them.
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The Living age ... / Volume 210, Issue 2717, August 1, 1896"Lady Travellers" repr. from Blackwood's p. 290
[A discussion of Isabella Bird's Untrodden Tracks in Japan]The inhabitants of Yezo are not Japanese, but the remains of an earlier race whom the Japs dispossessed of the island of Nippon, the chief part of the country. They are a primitive and attractive people, retaining some interesting customs from a remote antiquity, and some simple virtues.
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Overland monthly and Out West ser. 2, vol. 29.169 (Jan 1897)"An Elastic Currency" (p. 105)
"The notes were issued to men who had grapes to sell. We wanted to buy grapes but we had no money, so we issued due bills which were just as good to the men as cash, for the reason that they were redeemable in groceries at any time, and the men of course had to eat. All grape men paid their Japs for picking by means of these due bills and the Japs in turn paid their grocery bills by means of these due bills, so that they really became a sort of a circulating medium." [quoted from a discussion of the financing of a vineyard.]
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The Trail of the Goldseekers; a record of travel in prose and verse, by Hamlin Garland (1899)At last the steamer came, but it was not the one on which I had secured passage, and as it took almost my last dollar to pay for deck passage thereon, I lived on some small cakes of my own baking, which I carried in a bag. I was now in a sad predicament unless I should connect at Lake Bennett with some one who would carry my outfit back to Skagway on credit. I ate my stale cakes and drank lake water, and thus fooled the little Jap steward out of two dollars. It was a sad business, but unavoidable.
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The Living age ... / Volume 223, Issue 2887 November 4, 1899"The White Man's Burden in China," by "Senex" ["a wise man"] p. 277
[N]ow that the Chinese have been hopelessly beaten by the Japs, the tendency everywhere is to pour contempt upon their fighting value, present or future, without making any fair allowance for the special conditions of that struggle, which simply never gave their rank and file--or the coolies dressed up in uniform who figured largely in it--any fair chance at all.
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The Living age ... / Volume 226, Issue 2927-8
"Old and New Japan" by André BellesortAugust 11, 1900, p. 341
In Japan I longed to take my seat on the school- benches and learn beside the little Japs that history with which the teachers themselves are, as yet, but imperfectly acquainted—but so 'that at least I might have impressed upon my own mind the image, whether real or illusory, which is present in theirs.August 18, 1900, p. 417
Some even gave proof of a terrific precocity. The little Jap, of whom the following anecdote is related, can hardly have been more than seven years old. Assassins had been ordered 'to dispatch his father, and, misled by a strong likeness, they had brought back to their master a head which no one could positively identify. The magnate sent for the child and showed the head to him; and the boy, perceiving the mistake, and that the assassins must be upheld in it, pulled out of his belt the poniard, which the sons of the samurai wore even at that tender age, and gave his unspoken lie the indisputable authority of despair by plunging it into his own entrails and falling dead before the ghastly countenance.
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Overland monthly and Out West magazine. / ser. 2, vol. 35, Issue 206, Feb 1900,A Naval Evolution in Love-Making: A Hawaiian Romance by Jesse Kaufman pp.140-148, at 141
[Short story; three men have been admitted to a house by a "Japanese boy" and then been startled by a young woman who came into the room and then left.]
"Poor girl!" exclaimed Mr. Lockwood, jumping up. "That must be her room down there, opening off the lower end of the veranda. The Jap told her we were in the parlor and the coast was clear. Come on, Ralsie, and give her a chance." He entered the parlor as he spoke.
"Imagine a Jap saying,'The coast is clear!" quoth Mr. Ralston, following him leisurely. "However, your diagnosis of the case does you credit; so we'll let that go about the Jap, although really, Curley, a Jap-"
"0, shut up about that Jap!" said Mr.Lockwood, and he proceeded to tell the others of the episode in subdued but graphic language.
The Century. / Volume 43, Issue 2 : Dec 1891Wulfy: A Waif. A Christmas Sketch, by Vida D. Scudder, p. 276, 278
Wulfy, the shortest of the three, his large and rickety head with its wide mouth, giving him something the effect of a Japanese doll.
...
Wulfys whole face brightened with an inward radiance that at times changed him from a Japanese doll to a child-angel. "I'm goin' to see Milly after Christmas."
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The New England magazine. / Volume 14, Issue 5 July 1893The Common and Human in Literature, by Walter Blackburn Harte, p. 644
...art is only art through its power of suggestion, of awakening certain emotions and instincts, and so it must find it's source in nature. A Madonna with a Japanese doll in her arms is incongruous, and leaves untouched the sentiment of reverence for womanhood and the love of motherhood, however beautiful the Madonna or perfect the doll. This is a violent parallel perhaps, but caricature is sometimes the only medium which properly reveals caricature.
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The Century; a popular quarterly. / Volume 52, Issue 4 Aug 1896"The Cruel Thousand Years" by Chester Bailey Fernald, p. 529
(a short story set in Chinatown, with Chinese and American characters).Miss Oo had gone to sleep. The Infant saw her head rising and falling a tiny distance on her chubby chest; but lovely as she was, he wished she would go home. He could not run to the house and leave her, for the Monstrous Rat might come. It was wretchedly uncomfortable, for his father would surely be seeking him. There she sat, with her hands hanging at her sides like a Japanese doll's. He wished the Lady of Cakes and Tea would appear....
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The New England magazine. / Volume 20, Issue 6 Aug 1896"A Tale of To-Day" by Blanche L. Clay (short story) p 671
Miss Redfield's pursuits were well represented in the furnishings of her room. Both the music-stand and the open piano behind her were laden with piles of well-worn music, while several pieces were scattered upon the floor close by. In the easy chair near Miss Redfield lay a banjo, half hidden beneath a litter of drawing-paper covered with sketches and of selections for stringed instruments. The pillow-covered divan in the opposite corner was strewn with French and German text-books, tablets and partly finished exercises. On an ottoman close to the bay-window, with her arm resting upon the piano stool, with an open portfolio laden with drawings upon her knee and with a pencil in the carelessly arranged dark hair, sat the mistress of this small establishment, twirling a Japanese doll by a string attached to the top of its queer head.