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Almost immediately after the beginning of hostilities, thousands of “war pictures”—­mostly cheap lithographs—­were published.  The drawing and coloring were better than those of the prints issued at the time of the war with China; but the details were to a great extent imaginary,—­altogether imaginary as to the appearance of Russian troops.  Pictures of the engagements with the Russian fleet were effective, despite some lurid exaggeration.  The most startling things were pictures of Russian defeats in Korea, published before a single military engagement had taken place;—­the artist had “flushed to anticipate the scene.”  In these prints the Russians were depicted as fleeing in utter rout, leaving their officers—­very fine-looking officers—­dead upon the field; while the Japanese infantry, with dreadfully determined faces, were coming up at a double.  The propriety and the wisdom of thus pictorially predicting victory, and easy victory to boot, may be questioned.  But I am told that the custom of so doing is an old one; and it is thought that to realize the common hope thus imaginatively is lucky.  At all events, there is no attempt at deception in these pictorial undertakings;—­they help to keep up the public courage, and they ought to be pleasing to the gods.

Some of the earlier pictures have now been realized in grim fact.  The victories in China had been similarly foreshadowed:  they amply justified the faith of the artist....  To-day the war pictures continue to multiply; but they have changed character.  The inexorable truth of the photograph, and the sketches of the war correspondent, now bring all the vividness and violence of fact to help the artist’s imagination.  There was something na[:i]ve and theatrical in the drawings of anticipation; but the pictures of the hour represent the most tragic reality,—­always becoming more terrible.  At this writing, Japan has yet lost no single battle; but not a few of her victories have been dearly won.

To enumerate even a tenth of the various articles ornamented with designs inspired by the war—­articles such as combs, clasps, fans, brooches, card-cases, purses—­would require a volume.  Even cakes and confectionery are stamped with naval or military designs; and the glass or paper windows of shops—­not to mention the signboards—­have pictures of Japanese victories painted upon them.  At night the shop lanterns proclaim the pride of the nation in its fleets and armies; and a whole chapter might easily be written about the new designs in transparencies and toy lanterns.  A new revolving lantern—­turned by the air-current which its own flame creates—­has become very popular.  It represents a charge of Japanese infantry upon Russian defenses; and holes pierced in the colored paper, so as to produce a continuous vivid flashing while the transparency revolves, suggest the exploding of shells and the volleying of machine guns.