Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-12-07
TOYS FROM THE FAR EAST.
Queer Playth;ngs for Children Brought
From Distant Japan.


The japanese are fun-loving people. At
least one day ont of every three with them is a
holiday. In summer they go on picnics for
weeks at time, Disgusting such iarks under
the name of religious pilgrimages. For the
rest of the year at least three days out of every
week are occasions of some special festivity.
Surely the children of Japan must have a far
better time than any others in the world. since
the grown people III that PARKWAY land are
such pleasure lovers, and the very toys the
boys and girls have to play with are such in
genlous inventions. In no respect has the
originality OF continuance SO characteristic Of
the japanese exhibited itself more markedly
than in their playthings. No European would
ever have imagined, however remotely, the
least absurd of them. The Japanese kite
represents In itself in its endless notifications
the solution of aerial problems unguessed at by
Ben Franklin. Curiously enough no Anglo
Saxon boy can fly such kite; to accomplish
the feat requires an instinct essentially Japan
ese, or Chinese if You will. A youthful oriental
without specific instruction, thinks nothing OF
setting OH out OF the nursery window half
dozen paper birds of varied plumage, with
strings attached to them. some of them so con-
trlved, maybe, as to give voice to chirps like
those OF chicken cocks and other fowls before
the breeze. OF course the kite itself is q
Chinese invention and probably the same is
true OF the top. Anyway it was a gentleman
OF Japan who first conceived the notion Of
nest of tops that should all fly ont and spin
when the papa top was set agoIng and SINH
larry 1t has been with all sorts of other nipple
ments for adolescent entertainment.
JAPANESE NoAHs ARKs.
Funnlly enough, In Japan. grown people are
fond of toys also. Puzzles in that country OF
variety innumerable, are an inexhaustible de-
light; and so it is with all sorts of playthinps.
Each year the toymakers over there invent
lot OF new absurdities; you can see the latest of
them, II you care to, by wandering around as a
STAR reporter did among the japanese shops
of Washington. Some are very queer indeed
For instance, there are modified Noah's arks-
merely little rectangular boxes-each contain
ing one dozen of the most surprisingly artistic
animals, made OF raw cotton wrapped around
wires. The beasts of real Noah's arks are
nothing to them in point of geological accuracy
These creatures really look like the animals
they are intended to represent; the workmen
who make them must be really artists in a high
sense. 1t seems likely, however. that they are
all done by one man--their poses are SO life
like and the details of execution SO true to ma
ture. A stag stands on the alert as if shutting
danger in the breeze; a fox is evidently palls-
ing IL its flight from the hounds to take breath:
a kangaroo is standing up on its hind legs; a
camel leopard is crouching on the ground and
extending its head upward, presumably to crop
some follaSe overhead; q watch dog is barking
Its muscles tense if straining at a chain;
pussy cat is shrinking back, evidently at the
dog approach, with tail erect and bristling:
a rabbit with ears of pink silk is leaping mer-
rily, while monkey rubs its chest as if 1t had a
pain. All these things are made with nothing
more than cotton wound around bits of wire
with little paint added on the outside. II
must take days to manufacture a box full,
which sells for only twenty cents. Who would
be an art laborer III Japan?
MORE FUNNY THINGS.
Also done in cotton, in somewhat the same
way, are apes, a dozen in a box, representing
the soldiers of Japan. One, the general, rides
horse, two others blow trumpets. still another
hammers drum, while the rest carry guns and
knapsacks Besides, there is color bearer
who carries red flag with gold disc in the
middle, the imperial sign of Japan.
Then there are a lot of little people about an
inch high who stand on little skirts of bristles,
30 that when You put them on a table or on a
geography cover say, and tap the board with
your finger, they all dance around in the most
curious way imaginable, as if they were actually
endowed with life. Judging from the elegance
of their dress they are evidently personages of
the court, the large golden ball upheld by one
and the big umbrella sustained by another
seemingly indicating rank and authority. The
way they dance, too, is exceedingly dignified
Frogs and crabs there are of the most lifelike
thorny species unfamiliar to the fishermen of
the Potomac. Also an owl, whose eyes are
turned inside out, with an accompanying
squeak from the birds chest and a snap of its
beak in manner calculated to almost brighten
an infant out of its wits. Monstrosities of other
kinds, too, are plentiful-wonderfully cheap
considering their marvellous ugliness
Among other queer holiday things exhibited
by the Japanese shops are tiny candle sticks
in box with little sticks OF cinnamon wood
sawdust compressed. This wood when burned
gives forth a most delightful perfume, and one
of the little sticks put into the holder and
lighted will make a whole house fragrant.
Absurd little boxes filed with rice powder for
the toilet, such Pitt Sing uses, are also Sold
as well Ms other boxes containing bundles of
very small straws, for tooth picks. Besides,
there are match boxes made to represent
heather gods, toads and fishes, books of colored
photographs of real Japanese girls. boxes of
paper figures that expand marvelously into
beautiful things when put in water, ivory back
scratchers with long horn handles, and no end
OF other nonsenscal articles such as could not
possibly come from any other country save
Japan.