Things Japanese/Globe-trotters
Globe-trotters have been described, once for all, by Mr. Netto in a passage of his Papierschmetterlinge aus Japan, of which the following is a faithful translation:—
"Globe-trotter is the technical designation of a genus which, like the phylloxera and the Colorado beetle, had scarcely received any notice till recent times, but whose importance justifies us in devoting a few lines to it. It may be subdivided, for the most part, into the following species:—
"1. Globe-trotter communis. Sun-helmet, blue glasses, scant luggage, celluloid collars. His object is a maximum of travelling combined with a minimum of expense. He presents himself to you with some suspicious introduction or other, accepts with ill-dissembled glee your lukewarm invitation to him to stay, generally appears too late at meals, makes daily enquiries concerning jinrikisha fares, frequently invokes your help as interpreter to smooth over money difficulties between himself and the jinrikishamen, offers honest curio-dealers who have the entrée to your house one-tenth of the price they ask, and loves to occupy your time, not indeed by gaining information from you about Japan (all that sort of thing he knows already much more thoroughly than you do), but by giving you information about India, China, and America,—places with which you are possibly as familiar as he. When the time of his departure approaches, you must provide him with introductions even for places which he has no present intention of visiting, but which he might visit. You will be kind enough, too, to have his purchases here packed up,—but, mind, very carefully. You will also see after freight and insurance, and despatch the boxes to the address in Europe which he leaves with you. Furthermore, you will no doubt not mind purchasing and seeing to the packing of a few sundries which he himself has not had time to look after.
"2. Globe-trotter scientificus. Spectacles, microscope, a few dozen note-books, alcohol, arsenical acid, seines, butterfly-nets, other nets. He travels for special scientific purposes, mostly natural-historical (if zoological, then woe betide you!). You have to escort him on all sorts of visits to Japanese officials, in order to procure admittance for him to collections, museums, and libraries. You have to invite him to meet Japanese savants of various degrees, and to serve as interpreter on each such occasion. You have to institute researches concerning ancient Chinese books, to discover and engage the services of translators, draughtsmen, flayers and staffers of specimens. Your spare room gradually develops into a museum of natural history, a fact which you can smell at the very threshold. In this case, too, the packing, passing through the custom-house, and despatching of the collections falls to your lot; and happy are you if the object arrive at home in a good state of preservation, and you have not to learn later on that such and such an oversight in packing has caused irreparable losses. Certain it is that, for years after, you will be reminded from time to time of your inquisitive guest by letters wherein he requests you to give him the details of some scientific speciality whose domain is disagree ably distant from your own, or to procure for him some creature or other which is said to have been observed in Japan at some former period.
"3. Globe-trotter elegans. Is provided with good introductions from his government, generally stops at a legation, is interested in shooting, and allows the various charms of the country to induce him to prolong his stay.
"4. Globe-trotter independens. Travels in a steam-yacht, generally accompanied by his family. Chief goal of his journey: an audience of the Mikado.
"5. Globe-trotter princeps. Princes or other dignitaries recognis able by their numerous suite, and who undertake the round journey (mostly on a man-of-war) either for political reasons or for purposes of self-instruction. This species is useful to the foreign residents, in so far as the receptions and fetes given in their honour create an agreeable diversion …
"We might complete our collection by the description of a few other species, e.g., the Globe-trotter desperatus, who expends his uttermost farthing on a ticket to Japan with the hope of making a fortune there, but who, finding no situation, has at last to be carted home by some cheap opportunity at the expense of his fellow-countrymen. Furthermore might be noticed the Globe-trotter dolosus, who travels under some high-sounding name and with a doubtful banking account, merely in order to put as great a distance as possible betwixt himself and the home police. Likewise the Globe-trotter locustus, the species that travels in swarms, perpetually dragged around the universe by Cook and the likes of Cook … Last, but not least, just a word for the Globe-trotter amabilis, a species which is fortunately not wanting and which is always welcome. I mean the old friends and the new, whose memory lives fresh in the minds of our small community, connected as it is with the recollection of happy hours spent together. Their own hearts will tell them that not they, but others, are pointed at in the foregoing—perhaps partly too harsh—description."