im.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
Cainphell, and May Goklie. please send me word wherlier 
tbcy liave received their prizes? 
Tlianks for letters, pnzzKis, etc., to T. Mills Clark, 
Erich. Bessie Jone«, F. W. C, Sally Ratus. Mary A. 
E., Effie, G. "W. S., John W. Wlieatlcy, and C. W. U, 
-The Double Acrostic is a very pretty style of puzzle, 
and may be made interesting and instructive. I can 
Fcarcely believe that any of my readers need any teaciiin;^ 
in ihe matter of their construction, but should there be 
gnme who would like vo be enli^'hiened, they can read 
the following,' remarks. Select two words having: the 
same nnmber of letters in each; e.g., bird-ca;;e, book- 
case, Jnpiter-Neptiine. Cliarles-Dickens, etc. "We will 
talcu the latter for onr use at this time. 
Write tlic letfeis forming the Christian name inaper- 
ix'iitliciihir row (iinniberthcm), and the letters formin;:^ the 
'Mirnanie in another perpendicular row exactly opposite. 
Thii3 1 C D 
2 H I 
3 A C 
4 n K 
5 L E 
6 E N 
7 S S 
Now find words be;,'innin<,'' with c, and eiidinj,' with d, 
with wiiich to fill the first line; — cold, card, child, cod, 
etc., and select the one which you prefer to define. We 
can fit llie above seven lines with cod. Hayti, almanac, 
rock, love, Ellen, synopsis. Now define them. 1. A fish. 
2. All island. 3. A calendar. 4. A miueial. 5. A pas- 
sion. (!. A ijirl's name. 7. A compendium. 
State that the initials g:ive the Christian name, and 
the finals the surname of a celebrated author, and your 
double acrostic is ready to be worked out. 
Now I will ffive yon one to find out. You will see that 
It has oijxht letters in each column. Ton may be able to 
find the first item at once ; if not, put a cross down upon 
your slate or paper in place of the letter you need. The 
object of flilinu the space with a cross, is to keep before 
yon the number of letters needed and to show what items 
yo;] lack. You can scarcely hope to get item No. 2 — 
"The Ciipital of a European country "—without the aid 
of tlie otlier items, as there are so many countries; so 
skip that (after putting down another cross, below the 
first, instead of the letter), and try the third item, which is 
more definite, and will give you aclew to the poets' names, 
for which yon will now have to search: — two names, 
eacli_coniaining eight letters, the third letter of the first 
name l)eing the same as the initial letter of the group of 
islands, and the second poet's name having for its third 
lett"--r Ilie last letter of the group of islands. Having 
found two names answering the rcquirenunts. write them 
down (as i:iven in the sample — "■ Charles Dickens "). and 
fill in the items, which will now be comparatively easy 
(if you have found the right poets), as you have the flrat 
and last letter of each item. Here it is : 
DOUBLE ACROSTIC. 
The initial and final letters give the names of two 
popnl:ii- poets. 
1. An island in the English Channel. 
2. The capital of a European country. 
3. A group of islands west of Greece, 
4. A city in Ohio. 
5. A country in Europe. 
(i. One of the United States. 
7. A river in Spain. 
8. A city in tlie north of France. D. M. W. 
_NSWEK3 TO PUZZLES IN THE JUNE NUMBER. 
Positives and Comparatives.— 1. Right, writer. 2. 
Prop, proiH-r. 3. Mast, master. 4. George. Georgia. 5. 
Kat'-. f';if'T. fi. Scamp, scamper. 
il 
mmmm 
Send coiimiuuicaf ions intfnd^d for Avnt Sue. to Box 111, 
P, 0.. Brooklyn^ X. Y., and not t'oi'4.") Broadway. 
^^"Correspondents will save time, if they will ad- 
dress their letters to me. until the first of November (not 
afterwards), lo "Rowayton. Fairfield Co., Conn." 
The I>ootor*s Xalks— How Things 
iWG l>oiie im Ollioi* 4\>im tries — 
N<»inoiliiiB«^ siliout ilio •lapa.itosc. 
When I began to talk about the doinirs in other coun- 
t'ies, I did not expect todo so every month, but I had no 
idea, until I looked, that It was three months since the 
last *' Talk.'" ITow the time runs by I The space is small, 
and the thini,'s 1 write about are many, and I wish to 
L'i't in as great a variety as possilile. A L'ontleman who 
passes a g<)n(l deal oT time in Japan, sends to his friends 
here various little ailieh-s from that country, but there is 
nothing among the presents that please me so much aa 
the photographs he has sent, especially those of the dif- 
ferent classes of people and their ways. There is sorac- 
thingabout photographs thatmakes them mora satisfac- 
toi'y than any drawings or other pictures; perhaps it is 
because we feel that they represent things jnst as they 
are, and the imagination of an artist has had nothing to 
do with the picture. In Japan the classes are very dis- 
tinct, and tlie work-people, the farmers, and others, dress 
very differently, and live differently from the nobles and 
higher classes. We have had within a few years so many 
Japanese in this country, that we Lave become quite fa- 
miliar witii their faces ; but these are from the educated, 
if not the wealthier classes, they dress as we do, and give 
us no idea of the Japanese in general. It is wonderful 
that a country, which has, until 25 years ago, kept by it- 
self, and slmt out all foreigners, sliould now be so quick 
to adopt foreign ways, and to introduce' all kinds of use- 
ful articles and customs from other countries. The peo- 
ple are changing so rapidly, that in 25 years more, all that 
we shall knowof many of their customs, will be preserved 
iu photographs and other pictures. 
In .ill cities of the East, the stranger is surprised by 
the amount of Imsiness carried on out of doors; not only 
do i)eoi)le work at iheir trade with no other shops but the 
streets, but a vast number of articles are sold by mer- 
chants who carry their whole stock upon their shoulders, 
and have Ihe open air for their stores. In the cities of 
Japan this is carried on to a great extent; not only do 
the stores and shops travel about, but even the libmries 
— for the people are great readers — go round on tiie 
shoulders of men, to their patrons. Figure 1 shows how 
the markets are managed, and being from u photograph, 
ie very accurate. These men have liie usmd pule, 
made of bamboo, as that is both light ancl strong; this 
goes across the shoulders, and from its ends are hung 
the baskets, boxes, or whatever is to he carried. Tliey 
are selling, if we except rice, the chief articles of food — 
fish, vegetables, and finit. Fish are very abundant in the 
Japanese waters, and form the sole animal food of the 
their goods from fire. This they do by building fire-proof 
ware-houses, and very droll houses they are. A frame- 
work of bamboo and timber is first built, and then plas- 
tered up with mud, to make a mud-shell at least n foot 
thick. The dooi-s and shutters of the building are made 
of the same thickness, and also of sticks and mud. 
When a fire breaks out near b}*, the merchant puts all his 
valuables inside, shuts up every door and other opening ; 
a paste of mud is quickly made, and this is plastered over 
every crack and cranny. The light buildings all around 
are burned, but tliese mud fire-proofs stand unharmed 
amid the ruins^ and answer for the Japanese mcrcliants 
quite as good a purpose as nerrin;;'s and other fire- 
l>roof safes do in our city fires. 
The only other picture from these photographs, that I 
can make room for, is fig. 3 (see next page"). After seeing 
such a strange-looking fii-cman, I think you will bepuz- 
zled to guess what may be the occupation of this gentle- 
man. Well, be is — of all things in the world— a, firmer I 
lie is not now in his working dress, for that is peculiar 
in being nearly no dress at all; indeed, laborers of all 
kinds, evtn those who work in the streets (»f cities, go 
nearly naked. But this farmer has on his storm rig, and 
is prepnred for bad weather. At work the farmer would 
probably have nothing on his head, but now he has on a 
sort of umbrclla-Iike hat, to shed the rain, and the back 
of his head is also protected. But: the funniest part of 
his out-fit is his cloak, his storm cloak, or water-proof. 
You will wonder what this cloak can be made of, and 
when I tell you that it is made of straw, you will wonder 
still more. But you must recollect that very generally in 
■ some European countries, and sometimes in Ihiscountiy, 
the roofs of barns and sheds, and even of the dwelling- 
houses, are covered with straw, are thatched, as it is 
called, and that such roofs, when properly in:.de, arc both 
tight and warm. The Japanese farmer's cloak is some- 
thing like a thatched roof ; it is made of a piLCc of cotton 
cloth, to which the straw is sewed, layer by layer, odo 
Fig. 1. — A STEEET-SCENE IN JAPAN.— VENDEES OF FISH, VEGETABLES, AND FRUIT. 
lower classes. Their veget^iblcs are much the same kind 
that we have, but are said lo be L'enerally of inferior 
quality ; one of their favorite vegetables. is an enormous 
radish, the diakon. which is 2^ feet long, and 4 inches 
thick, and eaten I'aw or pickled; among the things 
which we do not have, arc lily bulbs, and the young and 
tender sprouts of the bamboo. They have apples, pears, 
peaches, and other fruits such as we have, besides some 
which we can not grow. But the strangest thing about 
their fruits is, that tliey eat them, peaches, apples, grapes, 
and all, while they are yet green, hard, anrl sour. In this 
matter llie whole nation is like some boys who will eat 
green apples, especially if they can get them on the sly. 
But the boys have not the excuse for eating green fruit 
that the Japanese have, or think they have. I have al- 
ready stJited that their principal food is rice, which 
answers them in the place of bread of all kinds, and they 
have a notion that the acid of the green fruit prevents 
any ill effects from so much rice. 
One jncture (fig. 2 on next page) sliowsa Japanese fire- 
man. The buildings in Japan are not often more than 
one story high, but as they are built of very liL-bt materi- 
als, they burn very readily, and when a fire breaks out in 
a large city, it often burns over a great share of it, before 
it is stopped. The firemen have very small engines, not 
larger than we sometime!' see used for watering gardens, 
and their hose-pipes are made of bamboo. They have 
hooks and ladders too. but instead of carrying them on a 
(ruck drawn by horses, a man takes them on his shoul- 
ders. You would hardly guess him to be a fireman ; lie 
certainly looks very little like one of onr '" fire-l;»ddies." 
who has more " go " in him than a whole regiment of 
such quiet-looking citizens as this. No wonder that in a 
city in which every building is a rei:nlar tinder-box, 
where tlie fire-engines are mere squirl-i:nn-. and the fire- 
men look more like scholars than like hoys who "run 
with the machine," the merchants should try to preserve 
layer overlapping that below it, in such a manner as to 
shed the rain, and though such a cloak can hardly be 
called handsome, it keeps the wearer both dry and warm 
—and that is all that the most cosily garment can do. 
Yon will perhaps wonder what the farmer carries at his 
left side, and perhaps think it may be his style of scythe, 
or some other farming implement— not at all.it is only 
his sword. Formerly it was the custom for all men to 
carry swords, even the common people, wlieu dressed up, 
carried one, while the nobility were distinguished by 
carrying two swords, one above the other, on the same 
side of the body. I say these were worn, because in iho 
cities, where forei;.iners are numerous, these old customs 
arc passing away, and the better classes generally dress 
in oiirstyle. Still, far back in the country, the old ways 
are followed up, and when the farmer is in full dress, ho 
still carries bis sword. There is one more thing about 
this farmer's wet-weather out-fit to be noticed — bis foot- 
wear for wet weather. lie has no rubber shoes, or even 
a pair of well greased cow-hide boots, to keep the mud 
and water from his feet, so he does the next best thing, 
which is to lift his feet above the wot soil, by putting on 
a pair of wooden clogs I Take the farmer as he is pic- 
tured, and he looks very little like our farmors. But thoir 
style of farming is as unlike ours as the dress of the farm- 
ers is different. We look upon 50 acres as a small farm, 
while in Japan. 10 acres is a largo one : with us we do 
everything with horse-power and machinory that can be 
done wilJi the help of these, but there all the work— from 
breaking up the soil to harvesting— is done by band- 
power and hard work. I don't think that the great num- 
bers of our boys and fr'rls who live upon farms all over Iho 
country, would consider, as many do, their lot an un- 
pleasant or a liarfl one. if they c<»nM know how much 
better off they are than farmers, not only in Japan, bat 
in other part.-* of the world that regard themselves as 
more highly civilized. The Dootob. 
