k, disabled, or confined in Port Arthur.

There is another card game in which the battleships, cruisers, and
torpedo craft of both Japan and Russia are represented. The winner in
this game destroys his "captures" by tearing the cards taken. But the
shops keep packages of each class of warship cards in stock; and when
all the destroyers or cruisers of one country have been put _hors
de combat_, the defeated party can purchase new vessels abroad. One
torpedo boat costs about one farthing; but five torpedo boats can be
bought for a penny.

The toy-shops are crammed with models of battleships,--in wood, clay,
porcelain, lead, and tin,--of many sizes and prices. Some of the
larger ones, moved by clockwork, are named after Japanese battleships:
Shikishima, Fuji, Mikasa. One mechanical toy represents the sinking of
a Russian vessel by a Japanese torpedo boat. Among cheaper things of
this class is a box of colored sand, for the representation of naval
engagements. Children arrange the sand so as to resemble waves; and
with each box of sand are sold two fleets of tiny leaden vessels. The
Japanese ships are white, and the Russian black; and explosions of
torpedoes are to be figured by small cuttings of vermilion paper,
planted in the sand.

* * * * *

The children of the poorest classes make their own war toys; and I
have been wondering whether those ancient feudal laws (translated
by Professor Wigmore), which fixed the cost and quality of toys to
be given to children, did not help to develop that ingenuity which
the little folk display. Recently I saw a group of children in
our neighborhood playing at the siege of Port Arthur, with fleets
improvised out of scraps of wood and some rusty nails. A tub of water
represented Port Arthur. Battleships were figured by bits of plank,
into which chop-sticks had been fixed to represent masts, and rolls of
paper to represent funnels. Little flags, appropriately colored, were
fastened to the masts with rice paste. Torpedo boats were imaged by
splinters, into each of which a short thick nail had been planted to
indicate a smokestack. Stationary submarine mines were represented
by small squares of wood, each having one long nail driven into it;
and these little things, when dropped into water with the nail-head
downwards, would keep up a curious bobbing motion for a long time.
Other squares of wood, having clusters of short nails driven into
them, represented