Just as the war had.its "war babies'' to whom, were given such nonsensical names as Mons, Ypres, Gallipoli, ete., so has the recent earthquake been responsible for "earthquake babies'? born, in a large number of cases, prematurely owing to the shocks experienced by expectant mothers. Near-
that managed to survive those everyone of these little infants terrible days is being christened to-day with a name that includes the word "shin"—the second syllable of the Japanese word Si- shin," which means "earthquake," so that, in times to come, these children will be easily recognized as those who were born during the dread days of September, 1923. Other parents of children born during this period, however, prefer to forget the calamity when naming their children and give them names signifying "resurrection," "restoration" "reconstruction" and similar words.
LEGEND OF A TEMPLE, While some of the finest shrines and temples of Tokio and Yokohama have been completely blotted out, one temple dedicated to Kannon Sama, the Japanese god of mercy, still remains standing, rearing its height with solitary grandeur in the midst of ashes and ruins on every hand.
he temple was regarded as miraculous for generations past and to-day is believed to be doubly more so. The history of Tokio has been one of colan caused by quake, flood or fi but during the past 250-odd years, although the city was wholly or partially destroyed several times, "this temple has miraculously escaped. In the recent con-flag rations that swept Tokio, the flames came to the very precinets of the temple, but halted just outside the ancient compound. The image in the temple, it is said, was discovered by some fishermen who brought it up in their net, though more erudite scholars declare that it came originally from India. Always held in the greatest reverence by
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.