minutes’ appearance, her receipts therefrom come to a respectable amount.
The geisha’s expenses consist mostly of dresses and ornaments, among the latter being combs, hair-pins, rings, purses, and tobacco-pouches; but there are occasions when she is compelled to contribute to a general subscription, such as the presentation of a curtain by the whole geisha quarter to a theatre or to a favourite actor, for it is a great honour for an actor to have a curtain hung in his name at the theatre where he is engaged. If, without being actually a favourite, he has relatives or connections among the geisha-houses or tea-houses of the locality, the presentation is sometimes made as a mark of friendship. Many geisha also take an active part in the annual festivals of the local deity, when in gay dresses they precede the procession-cars that are drawn through the streets of the district under the god’s protection. It is a great advertisement for them, though the dresses are very expensive. The geisha’s profession naturally leads her to extravagance; and very few succeed in making both ends meet. Most geisha are acquainted with usurers, while almost as many put their dresses, when out of season, in mine uncle’s charge.
![THE BOX CARRIERS’ OFFICE.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Sketches_of_Tokyo_Life_-_Page_62.png/300px-Sketches_of_Tokyo_Life_-_Page_62.png)
THE BOX CARRIERS’ OFFICE.
The geisha is always accompanied to a tea-house by the box-carrier, whose duty it is to take charge of her samisen-case, and dresses which she often changes, especially in summer. The carrier is sometimes a woman, but more generally of the other sex. There are three kinds of such carriers. In some quarters, every geisha has her own