a European brothel than to a _cafe chantant_; the young
Chinaman comes here for music, for tea, for agreeable
conversation with the flower-maidens, who are by no means
necessarily called upon to minister to the lust of their
visitors.

In Japan, the prostitute's lot is not so degraded as in China.
The greater refinement of Japanese civilization allows the
prostitute to retain a higher degree of self-respect. She is
sometimes regarded with pity, but less often with contempt. She
may associate openly with men, ultimately be married, even to men
of good social class, and rank as a respectable woman. "In riding
from Tokio to Yokohama, the past winter," Coltman observes (_op.
cit._, p. 113), "I saw a party of four young men and three quite
pretty and gaily-painted prostitutes, in the same car, who were
having a glorious time. They had two or three bottles of various
liquors, oranges, and fancy cakes, and they ate, drank and sang,
besides playing jokes on each other and frolicking like so many
kittens. You may travel the whole length of the Chinese Empire
and never witness such a scene." Yet the history of Japanese
prostitutes (which has been written in an interesting and
well-informed book, _The Nightless City_, by an English student
of sociology who remains anonymous) shows that prostitution in
Japan has not only been severely regulated, but very widely
looked down upon, and that Japanese prostitutes have often had to
suffer greatly; they were at one time practically slaves and
often treated with much hardship. They are free now, and any
condition approaching slavery is strictly prohibited and guarded
against. It would seem, however, that the palmiest days of
Japanese prostitution lay some centuries back. Up to the middle
of the eighteenth century Japanese prostitutes were highly
accomplished in singing, dancing, music, etc. Towards this
period, however, they seem to have declined in social
consideration and to have ceased to be well educated. Yet even
to-day, says Matignon ("La Prostitution au Japon," _Archives
d'Anthropologie Criminelle_, October, 1906), less infamy attaches
to prostitution in Japan than in Europe, while at the same time
there is less immorality in Japan than in Europe. Though
prostitution is organized like the postal or telegraph service,
there is also