ements, the riots and inflammatory speeches and writings, that
characterized the long period of disquiet following the Restoration,
came from men of this class, who saw their support taken from them,
leaving them unable to dig and ashamed to beg. But the greater part of
them went sturdily to work, in government positions if they could get
them, in the army, on the police force, on the farm, in the shop, at
trades, at service,--even to the humble work of wheeling a
_jinrikisha_, if other honest occupation could not be found; and the
women shared patiently and bravely the changed fortunes of the men,
doing whatever they could toward bettering them. The samurai women
to-day are eagerly working into the positions of teachers, interpreters,
trained nurses, and whatever other places there are which may be
honorably occupied by women. The girls' schools, both government and
private, find many of their pupils among the samurai class; and their
deference and obedience to their teachers and superiors, their ambition
and keen sense of honor in the school-room, show the influence of the
samurai feeling over new Japan. To the samurai women belongs the
task--and they have already begun to perform it--of establishing upon a
broader and surer foundation the position of women in their own country.
They, as the most intelligent, will be the first to perceive the remedy
for present evils, and will, if I mistake not, move heaven and earth, at
some time in the near future, to have that remedy applied to their own
case. Most of them read the literature of the day, some of them in at
least one language beside their own; a few have had the benefit of
travel abroad, and have seen what the home and the family are in
Christian lands. There is as much of the unconquerable spirit of the
samurai to-day in the women as in the men; and it will not be very long
before that spirit will begin to show itself in working for the
establishment of their homes and families upon some stronger basis than
the will of the husband and father.

CHAPTER IX.

PEASANT WOMEN.

The great heimin class includes not only the peasants of Japan, but also
the artisans and merchants; artisans ranking below farmers, and
merchants below artisans, in the social structure. It includes the whole
of the common people, except such as were in former times altogether
below the level of respectability, the _eta_ and _hinin_,[39]--outcasts
who lived by begging, slaughtering ani