The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-10

i kinds, schools for the deaf, dumb and l blind and also a girls university and in
 dustrial schools where girls are taught.
 A Land of Books and Newspapers.
 At the same time a great publishing industry has grown up. About all the books used in the schools are made in Japan, and an enormous quantity of all kinds is imported Last year something
 like 2S,000 books were published and the
 periodicals numbered 1,S00. Japan has more than 100 public libraries The Impe-
 rial library, at Tokio, has now almost 900 volumes and is visited daily by 400
 people There is a big library in Kioto and two in Osaka. One of the largest
 bookstores in the world Is situated in this
 city. It claims to be able to supply any
 book of importance now published, and it
 is far superior in it's equipment to any
 book store in Washington. It's chief cus-
 toners are Japanese and it's books are
 largely in French German and English.
 In the line of newspapers there are 16
 dailies published in Tokio alone and about
 300 in all Japan. Some of the chief daily
 journals are those of Osaka, several there
 having as much as 100000 circulation each.
 Japan's Smokeless Coal.
 The Japanese have often been called a
 nation of imtators and copyists They
 understand how to pick out the best things of our civilization, and they are taking the cream of them l find that
 they are now waking up along the lines of
 invention, and that this is especially so as to war matters Their troops are equipped with a special rifle invented by a Japanese and they use field guns in- vented by one of their generals named Arisaka These guns are manufactured by Krupp, but the designs were sent from here to Germany.
 Among the surprises of the Russian war was Japanese smokeless powder of great explosive power invented here, and they are now making a smokeless coal, which
 will enable their naval vessels to move
 about without a sign of fire or smoke. 1 This coal was first proved during the Chi no-Japanese war and was again used in l the war with Russia. It is made from coal dust which comes from mines near ! Nagasak The dust is first washed with
 water to remove the mud and sand in it | and is then manufactured into bricks, . which are said to have a greater heating ; power than the coal of Cardiff, England, 1 or any coal from the United States. The i brick factory is at Nagasaki and it is now i turning out 50.000 tons of these bricks 1 every year, all of which are purchased ! by the navy department.
 The brick coal is of two shapes, round and square. The square bricks are used l in fhe battleShIpS ana cruisers ana they are crushed before they are thrown into
 the fire. The round coal is for the de- 1 stroyers and the torpedo boats. This coal | is now bringing over s9 a ton and the gov ernment pays more than s500,000 a year | for it.
 1 The mines from which the coal comes l are small. The vein now used is only
 three feet deep, but it is said that an- l other mine has been discovered in the l Hokkaido where the vein is larger and | the quality of the coal is better. It would 1 pay the United States to investigate these 1 deposits and find whether we have not 1 coal which can be made to burn without 1 smoke. Such fuel would be of enormous ] benefit toward the leanliness of our 1 cities.
 large part of Japans coal is coming l from the Hokkaido, the island at the I north, which we know as Yezo. It is one of the least developed parts of the | empire, and it may add considerably to !. it's mineral wealth. Mines were opened 1 there about 24 years ago and they are | now producing million or more tons year. The empire altogether yields 12,- 000,000 or 12,000,000 tons and practically sup l plies the coal for all the ports on this ] side of the Asiatic continent. It will prob | ably have q great increase of it's coal sup | ply through it's new possessions in Corea | and Formosa. The Corean mines are said
 to be especially valuable. and sooner or
 later they will be the property of the | Japanese
 l Analyzing Tear Drops.
 It is surprising how fast Japan is ad-