ad
consumed 1,700 houses and caused the deaths of nine persons. The
destruction of so many dwellings is wrought by bits of paper or
thatch, or the light pieces of wood from the _shoji_, which are
carried aflame by the wind, setting fire to several houses
simultaneously.

Beside street gutters I came across little stone _jizo_, the
cheerful-looking guardian deities of the children playing near; but
they looked as incongruous in the position they occupied as did a
small shrine which was standing in the shadow of a gasometer.

I heard of contracts under which girls served as nurse girls in
private families. A poor farmer may enter into a contract when his
girl is five for her to go into service at eight. He receives cash in
anticipation of the fulfilment of the contract.

I was assured by a man competent to speak on the matter that a
certain small town was notorious for receiving boys who had been
stolen as small children from their homes in the hills. Up to 30 yen
might be given for a boy. There might be a dozen of such unfortunates
in the place. Happily many of the children obtained by this "slave
system," as my informant called it, ran away as soon as they were old
enough to realise how they had been treated.

I visited a well-known rural reformer in the village which he and his
father had improved under the precepts of Ninomiya. The hillside had
been covered with tea, orange trees and mulberry; the community had
not only got out of debt but had come to own land beyond its
boundaries; gambling, drunkenness and immorality, it was averred, had
"disappeared"; there were larger and better crops; and "the habit of
enjoying nature" had increased. The amusements of the village were
wrestling, fencing, _jujitstu_, and the festivals.

I heard here a story of how a bridge which was often injured by stores
was as often mysteriously repaired. On a watch being kept it was found
that the good work was done by a villager who had been scrupulous to
keep secret his labours for the public welfare. Another tale was of a
poor man who bought an elaborate shrine and brought it to his humble
dwelling. On his neighbours suggesting that a finer house were a
fitter resting-place for such a shrine, the man replied: "I do not
think so. My shrine is the place of my parents and ancestors, and may
be fine. But the place in which the shrine stands is my place; it need
not be fine."

In travelling the roads notices are often seen on official-lo