Walter Simmons, Tribune Correspondent in Tokyo, sends this column a brochure entitled "Sumo-Japanese Wrestling," which is No. 34 in a pre-war tourist library, officially published for the Instruction of English-speaking travelers. "This is the only item in the series that I have been able to find," he writes. "These books have become scarce and are now much sought after," We have been collecting these informative pamphlets for pilgrims and now have eight titles.
     The book tells us everything about Japanese wrestling except what we wanted to know: How a race of shorties produces such enormous athletes. The typical professional in this sport looks as if he weighed 250 pounds or more and is as beefy as a prize winner in a live stock show. His belly, moreover, is like an alderman's in a cartoon. (“Their bellies are shrunken now," writes Mr. Simmons, "and they have lost face with the public. The sport isn't what it used to be.")
    It is our notion that the primitive Japanese were bigger than the modern race; that faulty habits of nutrition caused the population, as a whole, to lose stature as the cycles of evolution rolled along; and that in remote uncrowded provinces where the food supply was ample the older type has persisted. It may have been fixed, moreover, by breeding among families of professionals. Anyway, the pictures of wrestlers in this book resemble Samoan chieftains.
    Concerning the size of these prodigious heavers and grunters, the author of “Sumo" says only this:
    “The first and foremost qualification (of an apprentice in wrestling), if he is under 20 years of age, is that he must at least measure 5 feet 6 inches in stature and weigh 152 pounds. If he is older he must stand at least 5 feet 7 inches and weigh 168 pounds."
    The Japanese wrestling ring is 15 feet in diameter. A match is won by forcing an opponent out of the ring or by causing any part of his body except the soles of his feet to touch the floor.