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After the Japanese were beaten in the war they were not allowed to have a big army nor to build war machineslike battle-ships, tanks, and guns.
One of the first things the Japanese copied was a baby carriage to carry grown-up people. In Japan they havevery few horses, because horses eat too much. So an American sailor, living in Japan, made for his wife a large baby carriage that could be pulled by a man, for in Japan a man was cheaper than a horse. The Japanese called it a Jinrikisha, which means a "man pull car," or a Pullman car. It seems strange that the parlor carson our trains are also called Pullman cars. This "rickshaw," as it is called for short, seemed such a goodidea that the Japanese made thousands of them, and they are now used instead of taxis or private cars, not only in Japan but in China and other countries of the East. The men who pull them are called coolies, and a coolie will dog-trot almost all day long, pulling a rickshaw behind him, without getting tired. As you see a rickshaw going away from you down the street, the coolie is hidden all but his legs, so that it looks as if the rickshaw itself were trotting along with a pair of legs of its own.
In the cities many of the men wear clothes like ours, but most of the people, both men and women, still wearkimonos like those our mothers and sisters often wear in their own homes.
There are two important holidays for Japanese boys and girls. The one for girls comes on the third day of the third month, that is March third. It is called Doll Day and the girls get out all their dolls, arrange them nicely, and play with them.
