The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-28
YOUNG JAPANESE
By FRANK G. CARPENTER.

Each fish represents son of the family and not a few have six or more. Some of these fish may be 50 feet long, and they look like great whales as they swim in the air. They represent the carp, which is noted for its strength and daring. Ev- cry one wants his son to become a strong man, and this fish means strength.
 Kite Fights.
 The Japanese boys are great kite flyers. I have counted 100 kites in the air at one time oyer a Japanese village. The kites are of all sizes, but they are usually square or oblong instead of the shapes known in America. They are often made like birds with wings, and sometimes like fish A favorite amusement is fighting kites. In this sport the strings are first soaked in glue and then dusted with pow dered glass. This Is done for long dis tance from the kite, and it makes that part of the string a sort of flexible file. When two boys fight their kites they try to make their strings cross as the kites are flying and by saving cut one string in two. The kite which breaks away first then becomes the property of the owner of the one which is still flying. The fav- orite time for kite flying is in the winter, and it is at it's height about New Year. There are kite stores in the Japanese cities, whose sign Is a cuttlefish perched on the top of a high pole. The words for kite and cuttlefish sound the same as Jap anese, and for this reason the signs.
 In the Toy Stores.
 The toys of Japan are an evidence of the love which these people have for their children. Every family spends money in amusing it's little ones and a great indus try is carried on in toy making. There are toy stores everywhere. Every village that is large enough to hold a shop has one or more. They are to be found in the poorest parts of the cities, especially near the temples, where the streets are lined with them. Some of the favorite toys are made of dough, and there are peddling cooks who go around selling them. There are men who carry toy stoves through the streets and rent them out to the children at so much per hour. They furnish cakes and other things for the little ones to cook, so that for or 3 cents a party of girls can have stove for an hour and cook a whole meal for themselves.
 Some of the toys are made of lacquer and many of paper. One can buy very nice gun for $2 and a tin sword for 10 cents.
 Instructive Games.
 Many of the toys and games are used in teaching the children. They are playing cards with classical poetry on them, used much like our game of authors. Another pack of cards teaches the old Japanese
  forms of animals. The Japanese are ex- perts in top spinning. They have whistling tops and can keep a half dozen going at one time. They play battledore and shuttlecock, especially at New Year, and at that time the stores are filled with bats and balls. Many toys are used in the kindergartens and there are games which teach history and geography <and also cleanliness, unselishness and morality.
 The Japanese have fairy tales of all kinds. They have stories like Goody-Two- Shoes and Hop-o-myT Thumb. The Hop o-my-Thumb of Japan is priest one inch long, who does all sorts of curious things. Another popular fairy tale is known as the Lucky Teakettle, another the Battle of the Monkey and the Crab, and a third, the Old Man Who Made the Dead Trees to Blossom. The Story of Urishima, a sort of a Japanese Rip Van Wrinkle. is exceedingly popular as are also many fables about the badger, which might be called the Bre'r Rabbit of Japanese child hood.
 In a Japanese Home.
 But suppose we call upon some of our little Japanese friends. Their house Is sit- uated in beautiful garden. Its roof Is covered with black tiles and it has double walls of wood The outer walls of each side are showed back during the day time into little cupboards at the corners, and the fine inner walls of sash filled with paper panes may then be seen. There Is a space between the two walls and in this we sit while awaiting our friends. They soon appear. They get down on their knees and bump their heads on the floor in lowing to us, and then ask us in We take off our shoes and leave them outside. This is the custom of all Japanese. The houses are exceedingly clean, and tine floors are covered with thick mats of woven white straw which would be hurt by the nails in our shoes. The mats are so soft that our feet sink into them, ana we feel like lying down and rolling over and over.
 In the meantime our little Japanese friends have laid cushions on the mats and beg us to sit. These people do not use chairs or sofas. They have tables for eating which are not more than foot high, and they sit and sleep on the floor The mats are soft and when they have taken out and spread on them some well padded comforters they have very soft bed. In the daytime these comforters are rolled up in bundle and put away in a cupboard or hole in the wall which by sliding door Is so covered that you would not suppose 1t was there. By this means the bed room is turned into par Tor and when a table ie brought in it is a dining room as well.
 As we sit on the mats our little friends tell us about their homes, explaining some customs which are different from ours. They say that the mats are cleaner than our carpets and that they are very con- venient in furnishing house, as they are always of the same size. They show us that each mat is three feet wide and six feet long and say that the size of house or room is known by the number of mats 1t takes to cover the floor. The room we are in has eight mats. Larger rooms have 20 or 30 mats, and when a carpenter starts to build a house he asks the owner how many mats he wants, and thus fixes the size and price. All land in Japan is meas ured by the unit of the mat, a tsubo being six feet square or two mats in size Land here is measured by tsubos, not acres. It takes more than a thousand tsubos to make one acre of land
 How the Children Bathe.
 By and by we go out to look at the bath room. The Japanese children are very cleanly and they take redhot bath every day. The bath tub is about as high as our shoulders. It has stove pipe run ming through it with board resting against the pipe to protect ones body from it when he gets in The pipe Is filled with charcoal and lighted It soon heats the water to boiling, and when 1t begins to steam the Japanese jump in. Even little babies are put into this hot water It turns their skins red, and when they come out they are the color of beets. We try such bathing ourselves. It is so hot that we jump quickly out and cannot be induced to attempt it again
 The Japanese have many public bath houses. There are hundreds in Kyoto, where one can get a good hot plunge for 8 or cents.