Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 April 1905 — The Toyland of the World. [ARTICLE]

The Toyland of the World.

A Tokio correspondent of an American weekly has much of interest to say of Japanese toys. “Japan is the original toyland. I really think that Santa Claus must have a branch establishment in Tokio. There are mechanical toys that go about us if they were alive—tin turtles walking around on the earthen floor, mice scampering under counters and around on the shelves, huge gorgeously-colored paper butterflies aud dragon-flies buzzing around la the air. There are no toycarriages in Japan, because in Japan there are no real carriages. Hut there are toy jinrikishas, which arc little two-wheeled carts pulled by little brown men Under great big mushroomshaped hats instead of by horses. And there are toy cages, which are the oddest kind of grown-up cradles, that two men carry, suspended from long bamboo poles, upon their shoulders, and In which grown-up folks have to sit, curled up Turk-fashion, until their fe.et go to sleep and they are forced to demand the privilege of getting down and walkjng. These are the ‘carriages' of Japan and, as toys, would probably puzzle the average little boy or girl at home.”