The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-13

every hour. Some churches toll the quarter hours and others ton every i've minutes. Most of the churches In hours.
 [. The profession of beil-ringing Is looked upon by the lower classes as being honorable and distinguished. ana adjunct to the clergy. The bel-ring- CTS themselves are usually very proud of their vocation. In many cases this position In a church is handed down from father to son through generation after generation.
 The towers of the large cathedrals arc spacious, and are frequently fitted with rooms. which are occupied by the bell-rlngers and their families Here, far above the noise of the tratIlc of the streets below, the faithful toll- CTS of the bells live a peaceful lire. seemingly unmindful of the crashing noise which constantly resounds about their very heads. They are away from the other noises of the city but are in the midst of the bell clangings, which go on all through the days and nights.
 The birds. seeming to get as much fun out of the game as quail dogs Tn the hunt, sail about, piping harshly and diving for the darting fish. AS soon as one of the flock reappears' gulping vainly at the fish 1t holds In It's bill but cannot swallow, the fish erman singles out that ones leash from the sheaf in his hand and tows 1t In to the boat, where the bird Is made to disgorge. Then out the fishing, bird goes again.
 Occasionally the master of the cor morants releases the fishing fowls from their bamboo collars long enough to allow them to swallow one fish as reward of merit and incentive to fur ther effort.
 The excitement comes when two or three birds rise with fish simultan- eously and the fisherman must needs pull them in quickly. before in their saimless ailing about they blunder into other birds and stampede the whole flock Again, when an untratned bird flaps aimles1y over the leash of am other and snarls the lines or when two become entangled beneath the surface and fight for release the mas ter of the cormorants finds enough ex- citement, on his hands to call perhaps for a searching. of the meagre Jap anese vocabulary of expietive expres- sions.
 Fishing the flock at night by the light of flares is an exciteing variation of the sport. The lantern painters of Biwa delight to picture on their filny creations the beauties of such night fishing scenes.
 One way the Japanese have of fish ing. If indeed 1t can be called fishing. does not appeal strongly to the hu- mane sense of foreign spectators. The angling for carp in public amusement stalls such as one may see in any show place or amusement park In the large cities appears to base it's bid for popu larity more on the qualification of cruel instincts than sport.
 In Asakusa Park, which is the Coney Island of Tokio; the foreign wanderer will have his attention directed to an open booth or pavilion which is always crowded. Within the flaps of figured cotton print he finds a large circular tank built up from the floor to about the level of a man's waist. The tank Is shallow, containing eight inches or a foot of water. and 1t is filled with fifty or more heavy brown carp.
 The spectators see men, women and boys enter the pavilion and for copper sen purchase a slender, brittle reed about a foot in length, from the end of which depends six inches of cotton line supporting a barbless hook, shaped like a bent pin. Thus prepared the seekers after fun begin their piscatoriaf sport.
 This consists of picking out fish and, hy dropping the bent pin hook in front of its mouth making an attempt to hook it by a quick upward jerk of the line. Once fish Is hooked the problem is to lift it over the side of the tank without breaking tn 6 slender reed pole.
 If this can be done the successful fisher receives back the copper sen he paid for the pole and may continue