Jasper County Democrat, Volume 7, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1904 — FOR THE CHILDREN [ARTICLE]

FOR THE CHILDREN

Japanese Tojra and Game*. The passion for toys and games of •U kinds is remarkably developed among Japanese children, and they are encouraged to play games In much the same way that children of other countries are urged to learn. One of the most curious features about Japanese child life Is that each eeaaon of the year has Its own particular games. In fact, the games are distributed, as It were, and apportioned to different months—battledoor and shuttlecock being played at certain seasons of the year, ball at another, and so on. As for the dolls, they have a special fete day devoted to them, and In Japan dolls are as much a boy’s playthings as a girl’s. The dolls of the Japanese boys are generally dressed to represent historical heroes; others are attired as the emperor and empress or as heroic or legendary figures. Japanese children, too, on the “feast of dolls” give their dolls presents and put them on shelves or seats in the best room In the house. They also play at funny little cards, but these, instead of being like English cards, bear quotations representing the gems of Japanese poetical literature. The game consists of drawing a card with one-half of the quotation and finding the other which bears Its context “There is also the “game of scents.” This consists In burning various perfumes and guessing the scent in question by the smell of the smoke it creates—sometimes a very difficult matter, it is said. The Enchanted Water. Here is a curious trick. Take a dinner plate and pour water In it pretty close up to the brim. Then take a small empty bottle and say to your friends: “Look at this bottle and note that it has a perfectly solid bottom. Now, will you believe that lam wizard enough to pour water through this solid bottom?” “Of course,” everybody will sarcas tically answer. “Oh, yes; of course.” But you will soon make them believe it in dead earnest or else be quite mystified. This is the way for you to do the trick: Take a long stick and put one end Into the bottle and by means of it hold the bottle close to a flame until It is very hot. Then seize it with a cloth and stick it at once, mouth downward, into the dinner plate that is full of water. Now, a teaspoonful at a time, not too rapidly, pour water over the bottom of the bottle. Now, the queer thing is that the bottle actually will begin to fill up with water, and, so far as your friends can see, you have succeeded in pouring water in through the bottom. What is the explanation? Why, this: That as the bottle cools off the air within It contracts and causes the water In the plate to rise.