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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..13efa2c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #56218 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56218) diff --git a/old/56218-0.txt b/old/56218-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d89930f..0000000 --- a/old/56218-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4041 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Following the Sun-Flag, by John Fox - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Following the Sun-Flag - A Vain Pursuit Through Manchuria - -Author: John Fox - -Release Date: December 21, 2017 [EBook #56218] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG *** - - - - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG - - - - - FOLLOWING - THE SUN-FLAG - - A VAIN PURSUIT - THROUGH MANCHURIA - - BY - - JOHN FOX, JR. - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - 1905 - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY - CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS - - Published April, 1905 - - - TROW DIRECTORY - PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY - NEW YORK - - - - - To - - "THE MEN OF MANY WARS" - - WITH CONGRATULATIONS TO - THOSE ON WHOM FELL - THROUGH CHANCE OR PERSONAL EFFORT - A BETTER FORTUNE THAN WAS MINE - - - - - CONTENTS - - - PAGE - - I. THE TRAIL OF THE SAXON 1 - - II. HARDSHIPS OF THE CAMPAIGN 18 - - III. LINGERING IN TOKIO 50 - - IV. MAKING FOR MANCHURIA 74 - - V. ON THE WAR-DRAGON'S TRAIL 102 - - VI. THE WHITE SLAVES OF HAICHENG 128 - - VII. THE BACKWARD TRAIL OF THE SAXON 160 - - - - - INTRODUCTION - - -After a long still-hunt in Tokio, and a long pursuit through Manchuria, -following that Sun-Flag of Japan, I gave up the chase at Liao-Yang. - -Not being a military expert, my purpose was simply to see under that -flag the brown little "gun-man"--as he calls himself in his own -tongue--in camp and on the march, in trench and in open field, in -assault and in retreat; to tell tales of his heroism, chivalry, -devotion, sacrifice, incomparable patriotism; to see him fighting, -wounded--and, since such things in war must be--dying, dead. After seven -months my spoils of war were post-mortem battle-fields, wounded -convalescents in hospitals, deserted trenches, a few graves, and one -Russian prisoner in a red shirt. - -Upon that unimportant personal disaster I can look back now with no -little amusement; and were I to re-write these articles, I should -doubtless temper both word and spirit here and there; but as my feeling -at the time was sincere, natural, and justified, as there is, I believe, -no over-statement of the facts that caused it, and as the articles were -written without malice or the least desire to "get even"--I let them go, -as written, into book form now. - -No more enthusiastic pro-Japanese than I ever touched foot on the shores -of the little island, and no Japanese, however much he might, if only -for that reason, value my good opinion, can regret more than I any -change that took place within me when I came face to face with a land -and a people I had longed since childhood to see. - -I am very sorry to have sounded the personal note so relentlessly in -this little book. That, too, was unavoidable, and will, I hope, be -pardoned. - - JOHN FOX, JR. - BIG STONE GAP, VIRGINIA. - - - - - FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG - - - - - FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG - - - I - - THE TRAIL OF THE SAXON - - -An amphitheatre of feathery clouds ran half around the horizon and close -to the water's edge; midway and toward Russia rose a great dark shadow -through which the sun shone faintly. Such was the celestial setting for -the entrance of a certain ship some ten days since at sunset into the -harbor of Yokohama and the Land of the Rising Sun; but no man was to -guess from the strange pictures, strange people, and jumbled mass of new -ideas and impressions waiting to make his brain dizzy on shore, that the -big cloud aloft was the symbol of actual war. No sign was to come, by -night or by day, from the tiled roofs, latticed windows, paper houses, -the foreign architectural monstrosities of wood and stone; the lights, -lanterns, shops--tiny and brilliantly lit; the innumerable rickshas, the -swift play under them of muscular bare brown legs which bore -thin-chested men who run open-mouthed and smoke cigarettes while waiting -a fare; the musical chorus of getas clicking on stone, mounted by men -bareheaded or in billycock hats; little women in kimonos; ponies with -big bellies, apex rumps, bushy forelocks and mean eyes; rows of painted -dolls caged behind barred windows and under the glare of electric -lights--expectant, waiting, patient--hour by hour, night after night, no -suggestion save perhaps in their idle patience; coolies with push carts, -staggering under heavy loads, "cargadores" in straw hats and rain coats -of rushes, looking for all the world like walking little haycocks--no -sign except in flags, the red sunbursts of Japan, along now and then -with the Stars and Stripes--flags which, for all else one could know, -might have been hung out for a holiday. - -For more than a month I had been on the trail of the Saxon, the westward -trail on which he set his feet more than a hundred years ago, when he -cut the apron-strings of Mother England, turned his back on her, and, -without knowing it, started back toward her the other way round the -world, to clasp hands, perhaps, again across the Far East. Where he -started, I started, too, from the top of the Cumberland over which he -first saw the Star of Empire beckoning westward only. I went through a -black tunnel straight under the trail his moccasined feet wore over -Cumberland Gap, and stopped, for a moment, in a sleeper on the spot -where he pitched his sunset camp for the night; and the blood of his -footprints still was there. - -"This is a hell of a town," said the conductor cheerfully. - -I waited for an explanation. It came. - -"Why, I went to a nigger-minstrel show here the other night. A -mountaineer in the gallery shot a nigger and a white man dead in the -aisle, but the band struck up 'Dixie,' and the show never stopped. But -one man left the house and that was Bones. They found him at the hotel, -but he refused to go back. 'I can't be funny in that place,' he said." - -Now the curious thing is that each one of those three, the slayer and -the slain--the Saxon through the arrogance of race, the African through -the imitative faculty that has given him something of that same -arrogance toward the people of other lands--felt himself the superior of -any Oriental with a yellow skin. And now when I think of the exquisite -courtesy and ceremony and gentle politeness in this land, I smile; then -I think of the bearing of the man toward the woman of this land, and the -bearing of the man--even the mountaineer--toward the woman in our own -land, and the place the woman holds in each--and the smile passes. - -Along that old wilderness trail I went across the Ohio, through prairie -lands, across the rich fields of Iowa, the plains of Nebraska, over the -Rockies, and down into the great deserts that stretch to the Sierras. -Along went others who were concerned in that trail: three Japanese -students hurrying home from England, France, and Germany, bits of that -network of eager investigation that Japan has spread over the -globe--quiet, unobtrusive little fellows who rushed for papers at every -station to see news of the war; three Americans on the way to the -Philippines for the Government; an English Major of Infantry and an -English Captain of Cavalry and a pretty English girl; and two who in -that trail had no interest--two newspaper men from France. I have been -told that the only two seven-masted vessels in the world collided one -night in mid-ocean. Well, these sons of France--the only ones on their -mission, perhaps, in broad America--collided not only on the same train, -the same sleeper, and the same section, I was told, but both were -gazetted for the same lower berth. Each asserted his claim with a -politeness that became gesticulatory and vociferous. Conductor, -brakeman, and porter came to the scene of action. Nobody could settle -the dispute, so the correspondents exchanged cards, claimed Gallic -satisfaction mutually, and requested the conductor to stop the train and -let them get off and fight. The conductor explained that, much as he -personally would like to see the scrap, the law of the land and the -speed of the Overland Limited made tarrying impossible. Without rapiers -I have often wondered how those two gentlemen of France would have drawn -each other's blood. Each still refused to take the upper berth, but next -day they were friends, and came over sea practically arm and arm on -shipboard, and arm and arm they practically are in Japan to-day. - -Through the stamping grounds of Wister's "Virginian" and other men of -fact and fiction in the West, the trail led--through barren wastes with -nothing alive in sight except an occasional flock of gray, starved sheep -with a lonely herder and his sheep-dog watching us pass, while a -blue-eyed frontiersman gave me more reasons for race arrogance with his -tales of Western ethics in the old days: How men trusted each other and -were not deceived in friendship and in trade; how they sacrificed -themselves for each other without regret, and no wish for reward, and -honored and protected women always. - -Then forty miles of snowsheds over the Sierras, and the trail dropped -sheer into the dewy green of flowers, gardens, and fruit-tree blossoms, -where the grass was lush, cattle and sheep were fat, and the fields -looked like rich orchards--to end in the last camp of the Saxon, San -Francisco--where the heathen Chinee walks the streets, where Robert -Louis Stevenson's bronze galley has motionless sails set to the winds -that blow through a little park, where Bret Harte's memory is soon to be -honored in a similar way, and where a man claimed that the civilization -of the trail had leaped in one bound from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. -And I wondered what the intermediate Saxons, over whose heads that leap -was made, would have to say in answer. - -He had sailed one wide ocean--this Saxon--the other and wider one was by -comparison a child's play on a mill-pond with a boat of his own making, -and over it I followed him on. - -On the dock two days later I saw my first crowd of Japanese, in Saxon -clothes, waving flags, and giving Saxon yells to their countrymen who -were going home to fight. After that, but for an occasional march of -those same countrymen on the steerage deck to the measure of a war-song, -no more tidings, or rumors or suggestions of war. - -Seven days later, long, slowly rising slopes of mountains veiled in mist -came in view, and we saw waves of many colors washing the feet of newest -America, where the Saxon has pitched his latest but not his most -Eastern--as I must say now--camp; and where he is patching a human crazy -quilt of skins from China, Japan, Portugal, America, England, Africa. -The patching of it goes swiftly, but there will be one hole in the quilt -that will never be filled again on this earth, for the Hawaiian is -going--as he himself says, he is "pau," which in English means finished, -done for, doomed. Now girls who are three-quarters Saxon dance the -hula-hula for tourists, and but for a movement of their feet, it is the -dance of the East wretchedly and vulgarly done, and the spectator would -wipe away, if he could, every memory but the wailing song of the woman -with the guitar--a song which to my ear had no more connection with the -dance than a cradle song could have with a bacchanalian orgy. - -At a big white hotel that night hundreds of people sat in a brilliantly -lighted open-air garden with a stone floor and stone balustrade, and -heard an Hawaiian band of many nationalities play the tunes of all -nations, and two women give vent to that adaptation of the Methodist -hymn that passes for an Hawaiian song. - -Every possible human mixture of blood I had seen that day, I fancied, -but of the morals that caused the mixture I will not speak, for the -looseness of them is climatic and easily explained. I am told that after -five or six years the molecules even in the granite of the New England -character begin to get restless. Still there seems to be hope on the -horizon. - -At midnight a bibulous gentleman descended from a hack in front of the -hotel. - -"Roderick Random," he said to his Portuguese driver, "this is a bum-m -town," spelling the word out thickly. Roderick smiled with polite -acquiescence. The bibulous gentleman spoke likewise to the watchman at -the door. - -"Quite right, sir," said the watchman. - -The elevator got the same blighting criticism from the visitor, whose -good-night to the clerk at the desk still was: - -"This is a bum-m town." - -The clerk, too, agreed, and the man turned away in disgust. - -"I can't get an argument out of anybody on that point," he said--all of -which would seem to cast some doubt on the public late-at-night -flaunting of vice in Honolulu. - -Two pictures only I carried away of the many I hoped to see--the -Hawaiian swimmers, bronzed and perfect as statues, who floated out to -meet us and dive for coins, and a crowd of little yellow fellows, each -on the swaying branch of the monkey-pod tree, black hair shaking in the -wind, white teeth flashing, faces merry, and mouths stretched wide with -song. - -Thence eleven long, long days to that sunset entrance into the Land of -the Rising Sun--where Perry came to throw open to the world the -long-shut sea portals of Japan. - -The Japanese way of revealing heart-beats is not the way of the -Occidental world, and seeing no signs of war, this correspondent, at -least, straightway forgot the mission on which he had come, and -straightway was turned into an eager student of a people and a land -which since childhood he had yearned to see. - -On a certain bluff sits a certain tea-house--you can see it from the -deck of the ship. It is the tea-house of One Hundred and One Steps, and -the mistress of it is O-kin-san, daughter of the man who was mayor when -Perry opened the sea portals at the mouth of the cannon, whose guest -Perry was, and whose friend. - -O-kin-san's people lost their money once, and she opened the tea-house, -as the American girl under similar circumstances would have taken to the -typewriter and the stenographer's pen. The house has a year of life for -almost every one of the steps that mount to it, which is ancient life -for Japan, where fires make an infant life of three years for the -average Japanese home. The tea-girls are O-kin-san's own kin. Everything -under her roof is blameless, and the women of any home in any land can -be taken there fearlessly. - -An American enthusiast--a voluntary exile, whom I met later--told me -that O-kin-san's Japanese was as good as could be found in the empire; -that her husband was one of the best-educated men he had ever known, and -had been a great help and inspiration to Lafcadio Hearn. There were all -the pretty courtesies, the pretty ceremonies, and the gentle kindness of -which the world has read. - -After tea and sake and little Japanese cakes and peanuts, thence -straightway to Tokio, whence the soldiers went to the front and the -unknown correspondent was going, at that time, to an unknown destination -in an unknown time. It is an hour between little patches of half-drowned -rice bulbs, cottages thatched with rice straw, with green things growing -on the roof, and little gardens laid out with an art minute and -exquisite, blossoming trees of wild cherry, that beloved symbol of -Japanese bravery because it dares to spread its petals under falling -snow, dashed here and there with the red camellia that is unlucky -because it drops its blossom whole and suggests the time when the -Japanese head might fall for a slight offence; between little hills -overspread with pine trees, and little leafless saplings that help so -much to give the delicate, airy quality that characterizes the landscape -of Japan. At every station was a hurrying throng of men, women, and -children who clicked the stone pavements on xylophones with a music that -some writer with the tympanum of a blacksmith characterized as a -clatter. These getas are often selected, I am told, to suit the -individual ear. - -At Tokio outward evidences of war were as meagre as ever. But to that -lack, the answer is, "It is not the Japanese custom." I am told that the -night war was declared the Japanese went to bed, but about every -bulletin board there is now always an eager crowd of watchers. The shout -of "Nippon banzai!" from the foreigner, which means "Good luck to -Japan," always gets a grateful response from the child in the street, -the coolie with his ricksha, policeman on his beat, or the Japanese -gentleman in his carriage. - -And then the stories I heard of the devotion and sacrifice of the people -who are left at home! The women let their hair go undressed once a month -that they may contribute each month the price of the dressing--five sen. -A gentleman discovered that every servant in his household, from butler -down, was contributing a certain amount of his wages each month, and in -consequence offered to raise wages just the amount each servant was -giving away. The answer was: - -"Sir, we cannot allow that; it is an honor for us to give, and it would -be you who would be doing our duty for us to Japan." - -A Japanese lady apologized profusely for being late at dinner. She had -been to the station to see her son off for the front, where already were -three of her sons. - -Said another straightway: - -"How fortunate to be able to give four sons to Japan!" - -In a tea-house I saw an old woman with blackened teeth, a servant, who -bore herself proudly, and who, too, was honored because she had sent -four sons to the Yalu. Hundreds and thousands of families are denying -themselves one meal a day that they may give more to their country. And -one rich merchant, who has already given 100,000 yen, has himself cut -off one meal, and declares that he will if necessary live on one the -rest of his life for the sake of Japan. - -There is a war play on the boards of one theatre. The heroine, a wife, -says that her unborn child in a crisis like this must be a man-child, -and that he shall be reared a soldier. To provide means, she will -herself, if necessary, go to the yoshiwara. - -On every gateway is posted a red slab where a man has gone to the war, -marked "Gone to the front"--to be supplanted with a black one--"Bravery -forever"--should he be brought home dead. And when he is brought home -dead his body is received at the station by his kin with proud faces and -no tears. The Roman mother has come back to earth again, and it is the -Japanese mother who makes Japan the high priestess of patriotism among -the nations of the world. In that patriotism are the passionate fealty -of the subject to his king, the love of a republic for its flag, and -straightway the stranger feels that were the Mikado no more and Japan a -republic to-morrow, this war would go on just as it would had the -Japanese only this Mikado and no land that he could call his own. The -soldier at the front or on the seas will give no better account of -himself than the man, woman, or child who is left at home, and a -national spirit like this is too beautiful to be lost. - -Here forks the trail of the Saxon. One branch goes straight to the -Philippines. The other splits here into a thousand tiny paths--where -railway coach has supplanted the palanquin, battle-ship the war-junk, -electricity the pictured lantern; where factory chimneys smoke and the -Japanese seems prouder of his commerce than of his art and his exquisite -manners; where the boycott has started, and even the word -strike--"strikey, strikey" it sounds--has become the refrain of a song. -How shallow, after all, the tiny paths are, no man may know; for who can -penetrate the mystery of Japanese life and character--a mystery that has -been deepening for a thousand years. Here is the chief lodge of the -Order of Sealed Lips the world over, and every man, woman, and child in -the empire seems born a life-member. It may be Japan who will clasp the -hands of the Saxon across this Far East. And yet who knows? Were Mother -Nature to found a national museum of the curiosities in plant and tree -that humanity has wrested from her, she would give the star-chamber to -Japan. This is due, maybe, to the Japanese love of plant and tree and -the limitations of space that forbid to both full height. Give the -little island room, and the dwarf pine and fruit-tree may become in -time, perhaps, as great a curiosity here as elsewhere in the world. What -will she do--when she gets the room? The Saxon hands may never meet. -Japan Saxonized may, in turn, Saxonize China and throw the tide that has -moved east and west, some day, west and east again. - - - - - II - - HARDSHIPS OF THE CAMPAIGN - - -I have taken to the big hills in some despair and to rest from the -hardships of this campaign. Truly the life of the war correspondent is -hard in Japan. - - * * * * * - -The Happy Exile left America three years ago with a Puck-purpose of -girdling the world. He got no farther than Japan, and here most likely -he will rest. He is a big man and a gentle one, and I have seen his -six-feet-two frame quiver with joy like jelly as we rickshawed through -the streets, he pointing out to me meanwhile little bits of color and -life on either side. I have heard him when the dusk rushes seaward -muttering half-unconsciously to himself: - -"I'm so glad I am here. I'm _so_ glad I am here." - -It is the "lust of the eye" he says, and the lust is as fierce now as on -the day he landed--which is rare; for the man who has been here before -has genuine envy of the eye that sees Japan for the first time. I have -watched the man who has seen, showing around the man who has not, with a -look of benevolent sympathy and reflected joy such as one may catch on -the face of a middle-aged gentleman in the theatre who is watching the -keen delight of some youth to whom he is showing the sights of a great -city. The Happy Exile was a painter once, but he came, saw Japanese art, -and was conquered. - -"I have never touched brush to canvas again. What's the use? Why, I -can't even draw their characters. Other nations draw this way"; he -worked his hands and fingers from the wrist and elbow. "The Japanese -learn, drawing their characters in childhood, to use the whole arm. -Imagine the breadth and sweep of movement!" The Happy Exile threw up -both hands. "It's of no use, at least not for me. I have given it up." -So he studies life and Myth in Japan, collects curios, silks, and -satsuma, writes a little, dreams a good deal, and gives up his whole -heart to his eye. The Happy Exile has a friend, a Japanese friend, who -is one of the new types that one finds now in New Japan. His name is -Amenemori. He is the husband of O-kin-san, mistress of the tea-house of -One Hundred and One Steps, who herself can talk with her guests from all -parts of the world in five languages and is an authority on -tea-ceremonies and a poetess of some distinction. Amenemori is not only -a linguist, but a scholar. He has English, French, German, Italian and -Russian at his command, and more. Not long ago a wandering Indian priest -came to Yokohama and could talk with nobody. Amenemori tried him in -Japanese, Korean, and Chinese without success, and the two finally found -communication in Sanscrit. One of Lafcadio Hearn's books is dedicated to -him, and through him that author acquired the widest acquaintance with -old Japanese poetry yet attained by any foreigner. Illustrating the -change that has taken place in an ancient Japanese word to its modern -form, he quotes Chaucer and the modern equivalent for the Chaucerian -phrase! - -But the lust of the eye! Well, the eye is all the stranger has. The work -his brain does has little value. No matter what he may learn one day, -that thing next day he may have to unlearn. The eye alone gives -pleasure--to the color-loving, picture-loving brain--delight -unmeasurable: but the eye does not understand. The ear hears strange new -calls and sounds--unmusical except in the xylophonic click of wooden -getas, the plaintive cry of the blind masseur, and in the national -anthem, which is moving beyond words; and the ear, too, does not -understand. But the nose--"that despised poet of the senses"--his -faculty holds firm the world over. In Tokio he puts on sable trappings -at sunset that would gloom the dark hour before dawn. You will get used -to it, you are told, and that frightens you, for you don't want to get -used to it. You should go to China, is the comfort you get, and in that -suggestion is no comfort. Straightway you swear, and boldly: - - No call of the East for me, - Till the stink of the East be dead. - -That is why a man who comes from a land where he can fill both lungs -fearlessly and stoop to drink from any stream that his feet may cross -must go down now and then to the sea or turn his face firmly to the -hills. - -From Yokohama the little coaches start slowly for the country--so slowly -that, like Artemus Ward, you wonder if it wouldn't be wise sometimes to -put the cow-catcher on behind. There is the charm of thatched cottage, -green squares of wind-shaken barley, long waving grass and little hills, -pine-crowned; but by and by your heart gets wrung with sympathy for -Mother Nature. Every blade of grass, every rush, every little tree seems -to have been let grow only through human sufferance. It is as though a -solemn court-martial had been held on the life of everything that grew -not to make feed for man and man alone, for nowhere are there sheep, -cattle, horses, and rarely even a dog. Here and there the little hills -have been cut down sheer, that the rice squares might burrow under them. -The face of the earth looked terribly man-handled, but the effect was -still lovely. The little rows of pines on the hills seemed to have been -so left that no rearrangement would have been necessary to transfer them -to canvas, and even the crown of a pine sloping from a group of its -fellows seemed to have been spared for no other reason than picturesque -effect. Perhaps for that reason Nature herself seemed to enter no -protest. It was as though she said: - -"I know your needs, my children, you do only what you must; you know -just what you do, and I forgive you, for you rob me with loving hands. A -little farther on is my refuge." - -And a little farther on was her refuge in the big volcanic hills, -guarded by great white solemn Fuji, where birds sing and torrents lash -with swirling foam and a great roar through deep gorges or drop down in -white cataracts through masses of trembling green. But you have an hour -first in an electric car, with a bell ringing always to keep -multitudinous children from the track, along the old road that the -Daimios took in their semi-annual trip from their up-country estates to -Tokio and back again--the Daimios--gorgeously arrayed, in palanquins, -with their retinues following, while the people kept their foreheads to -the earth and dared not raise their eyes--honors which they no longer -pay even to the great Mikado. It seemed a sacrilege. Then an hour in a -rickshaw--two pushers behind, up a deep winding gorge from which comes -the wild call of free rushing water, and you are in the untainted air of -the primeval Cumberland. - -It is pleasant to be welcomed by a host and a host of servants bent at -right angles with courtesy--a courtesy that follows you everywhere. Ten -minutes later, as I stepped from behind the screen--the ever-present -screen--in my room, the Maid of Miyanoshita--another new type in New -Japan--stood bowing at my door, and I am afraid I gave her scant -greeting. I had read of feminine service, and Saxon-like I was fearsome; -but how could I know that she was the daughter of mine host--a man more -well-to-do than most of his guests, who include the princes and -princesses at times of the royal household--and that she had come merely -to welcome me? And how could I know that she was a lady, as I understand -the word, for how can a stranger know who is gentlewoman or gentleman in -a land where gentle manners are universal, when he has not learned the -distinctions of dress and when face and voice give no unerring guidance -in any land? Later I was sorry and tried to make good, but here lack of -breeding is condoned in a barbarian. Straightway one little maid came in -to build a fire, while another swiftly unpacked my bag, laid out evening -clothes, and played the part of a blind automatic valet. Embarrassment, -even consciousness, fled like a flash, as it must flee with any man who -is not blackguard or fool, and I am thinking now how foreigners have -lied about the women of Japan. - -I want no better dinner than the one that came later, and I went to -sleep with mountain air coming like balm through the windows, the music -of hushed falling water somewhere, and a cherry tree full-blown shining -like a great white, low star at the foot of a mountain that rose darkly -toward the stars. This life of the war correspondent in Japan--truly -'tis hard! - -Next morning I heard the scampering of many feet and much laughter in -the hallways, and I thought there were children out there playing games. -It was those brown little chambermaids hard at work. I wonder whence -comes the perpetual sunny cheer of these little people; whether it be -simple temperament or ages of philosophy--or both. - -"You have your troubles," they say, "therefore I must not burden you -with mine." And a man will tell you, with a smile, of some misfortune -that is almost breaking his heart. - -The little maid who had unpacked my bag brought breakfast to me, and I -could see that I was invested with some interest which was not at all -apparent the night before. Presently it came out: - -"You are going to Korea?" - -"Yes, I am going to Korea." - -"I want to go to Korea, but they won't let girls go." - -"Why do you want to go to Korea?" - -For the first time I saw Japanese eyes flash, and her answer came like -the crack of a whip: - -"To fight!" - -Among the thousands of applications, many of them written in blood, -which the war office has received from men who are anxious to go to the -front, is one from just such a girl. In her letter she said that she was -the last of an old Samurai family. Her father was killed in the war with -China; her only brother died during the Boxer troubles. She begged to be -allowed to take the place in the ranks which had always belonged to her -family. She could shoot, she said, and ride; and it would be a lasting -disgrace if her family name should be missing from the rolls, where it -has had an honored place for centuries, now that her country and her -Emperor are in such sore need. - -After breakfast I climbed the mountain that I could see from my -window--it ran not so high by day--and up there great Fuji was gracious -enough for one fleeting moment to throw back the gray mantle of a cloud -and bare for me for the first time his sacred white head. Coming down, I -found a pretty story of American Chivalry and the Maid of Miyanoshita. -There was a man here whose nationality will not be mentioned, and a big -young American who hasn't lost the traditions of his race and country. -With the lack of understanding that is not uncommon with foreigners -during their first days in Japan, this particular foreigner said -something to the little lady that he would not have said under similar -circumstances at home. Now, just behind the hotel are two foaming -cascades which drop into a clear pool of water wherein sport many fishes -big and little--green, silver, gold, or mottled with white and -scarlet--which it is the pleasure of the guests to feed. A few minutes -later there was a commotion on the margin of the pond, and those fishes, -gathering as usual for biscuit and sugar, got a surprise. The American -had invited the other foreigner out there, and the two were having a -mighty mill. After a nice solar-plexus landing, the American caught up -his opponent and threw him bodily into the fish-pond. The man -disappeared next morning by the first train. Wallah, but it was grateful -to the soul--striking a Saxon trail like that! - -After tiffin I was struggling with Japanese idioms in a guide-book. "I -will be glad to help you," said the Maid of Miyanoshita. - -She had gone to school in a convent in Tokio. Only Japanese girls and a -few Eurasians, girls whose fathers are foreigners, were students, and -they were allowed to speak only French. There she was taught to read and -write English. To speak it, she had learned only from guests at the -hotel. - -"Well," I said, "if the Japanese in this book is as bad as the English, -I don't think I want to learn it." She looked at the book. - -"It iss bad," she said; "there are words here you must not use." (It is -impossible to give dialectic form to her quaint variations from normal -pronunciation.) By and by we found an example. - -"Yes," she said, "sukimas means 'I like.' I like flowers, birds, and so -on, but you must not use that--" with one pointed finger on a word that -I proceeded straightway to damn forever. - -"What is the proper word for _that_ word?" - -"Ai suru," she said. - -"And what does that mean?" - -A vertical line of mental effort broke the smoothness of her forehead. - -"It iss _deeper_ than 'like.'" - -"Oh," I said. She continued her mental search for an English equivalent. -I tried to help. - -"Love?" I ventured. - -With straight eyes she met purely impersonal inquiry with response even -more impersonal. - -"Yess," she said. - - * * * * * - -That afternoon I walked farther up the gorge, past curio shops, with the -river roaring far beneath and water tumbling from far above, and I -turned in for a moment where the word "Archery" curved in big letters -over a doorway, to see an old chap put eight arrows out of ten in a -small target a hundred feet away, and triumphantly shout: - -"Russian!" - -And then on past tea-houses and workshops and rice-mills with undershot -water-wheels such as I had left in the Cumberland Mountains. In a rice -square below and beyond me three little girls were playing. When they -saw me they ran toward the road, stooping now and then to pick up -something as they ran. The littlest one held up to me a bunch of blue -flowers. I was thrilled; here I thought is where I get the courtesy of -the land even from the peasant class and untainted by the rude manners -of the Saxon and his Caucasian kind. I took off my hat. - -"Arigato," I said, which means "Thank you." Out came the mite's chubby -hand. - -"Shinga!" she said, "mucha shinga!" - -Now I have not been able to find anyone who knows what "shinga" means -except the little highway robbers who held me up in the road and made it -plain by signs. I went down into my pocket for a coin. Up stepped number -two of the little hold-ups, with number three in close support; but I -was too disappointed and sore, and I declined. Those three little ones -followed me half a mile and up many score of steep steps to a temple in -a grove, still proffering flowers and saying, - -"Shinga." It was sad. - -Going back I met another mite of a girl in a many-colored kimono. She -said something. I am afraid I glowered, but she said it again, with a -bow and a smile, and it was-- - -"Konnichi-wa!" which means "Good-day." Then wasn't I sorry! This was the -real thing. I took off my hat, and then and there this little maid and I -exchanged elaborate Oriental ceremonies in the middle of the road, -concluding with three right-angle bows of farewell, each saying three -times that very beautiful Japanese good-by, - -"Sayonara." - -I went on cheered and thinking. This was Old and New Japan, the -lingering beauty of one, the trail of the tourist over the other, and -this was Japan in general. When you are looking for a thing you get -something else; when you look for something else you get what you were -looking for. The trouble was that in neither case should I have been -surprised, for the Japanese even say, - -"It is not surprising if the surprising does not surprise," which must -be thought about for a while. And then again, What's the odds, no matter -what happens. - -"Shikata ga nai," says the Japanese; "It can't be helped"--a fatalistic -bit of philosophy that may play an important part on many future -battle-fields. - - * * * * * - -The Little Maid of Miyanoshita and I were tossing bits of cracker to the -gold-fishes in the pond, and each bit made a breaking, flashing rainbow -as they rushed for it in a writhing heap. She had never been to America -nor to England. - -"Wouldn't you like to go?" - -"Verry much," she said. - -"Well, aren't you going some day?" - -"I hope so, but--" she paused; "if I wore these clothes the people would -follow me about the streets. If I wore European clothes, I would look -like--what you say--a fright." - -"Never!" Again she shook her head. - -"Yess, yess I would." And the pity of it is I am afraid she was right. - -The Little Maid did not walk the hills much. - -"Japanese men do not like for women to go about much," she said. "My -uncle does not like that I go about alone, but my father he does not -care. He has been in America." - -"It is perfectly safe?" - -"Yes, perrfectly safe. Is it not so in America?" - -"Well, no, not always; at least not in the South, where I come from." - -She did not ask why, though I should not have been surprised to learn -that she knew, and I did not explain. - -She was very fond of Schiller, she said, and she had read many American -and English novels. She liked "The Crisis" very much--she did not -mention others--though she liked better the novels that were written by -women. - -"Because you understand them better?" - -"Not only that," she said slowly, "but I think that men who write novels -try to make the women happy, and the women who write novels do not do -that so much; and I think the women must be nearer the truth." - -She turned suddenly on me: - -"_You_ have written a book." - -"Guilty," I said. - -"And what does that mean?" - -"It means that I have," I said lamely. We talked international -differences. - -"American women use very many pins, is it not true?" - -"I think it is true," I said. - -"We do not," she said; "we use what you call"--with her fingers on a -little cord at the breast of her kimono--"strings. But," she added -suddenly, "an American says to me that I must not speak of such things." - -"Tut!" - -"Well," she said, "I do not see anything wrong." - -In America, I explained, we put the woman in a high place and looked up -at her. - -"Is it not so in Japan?" I said. - -"No," she said simply, "it is not so in Japan." She thought a while. -"That must be very nice for the woman in America," she said. - -"I think it is," I said. - -"But then," she said, to explain the mystery, "they are so well -ed-u-ca-ted." - -"Well, I don't think it is because they are so well educated," I said. - -"Then they are worthy," said the Little Maid. - - * * * * * - -I have been to Big Hell--a climb of some three thousand feet past rice -squares and barley fields and little forests of bamboo trees, where on a -God-forsaken mountain top sulphurous smoke belches into the clouds that -drift about it. Now smoke suggests human habitation, human food, and -human comfort, and that smoke swirling up there gave the spot a -loneliness unspeakable. Under you the gray earth was hot, here and there -were springs of boiling water, and the ashy crust crackled under your -feet. Around the crest we went, and down through a forest of big trees -left standing because the place was a royal preserve. The absence of -animals, tame or wild, has constantly depressed me ever since I have -been in Japan. Even up there in the hills I had seen nothing hopping, -crawling, or climbing by the roadside or in the woods, and I could see -nothing now. - -"Is there nothing wild up here?" I said. - -"Oh, yes," said the guide, "there are deer and monkeys." If he had said -there were dodos I could have been no more surprised; but to this day I -have seen nothing in freedom except a few birds in the air. - -By and by a thatched roof came in view. The path led sharply around one -corner of the house and I was brought up with a gasp. I had read and -heard much about bathing customs in Japan. The government has tried, I -believe, to legislate into the people Occidental ideas of modesty. One -regulation provided that the sexes should be separated. They were -separated--by a bamboo rod floating on the water. Another time it was -announced that bathing trunks must be worn at a certain place by the -sea. One old chap issued leisurely from his house on the hill-side and -stalked down without clothes, swinging his trunks in his hand. After he -got into the water he put the trunks on, and as soon as he came out he -took them off again and stalked home swinging them as before. - -Well, there they were, old and young and of both sexes, and it was -apparent that the regulations of the bamboo rod and the bathing trunks -had not reached that high. It was a natural Turkish bath-house, and it -seems that the farmers around Big Hell furnish a certain amount of -produce each year to the proprietor for the privilege of hot baths, and -when work is slack they go up there--husbands and wives, sons and -daughters--and stay for days. Apparently work was slack just then. The -bath, some ten feet square, and sunk in the floor, was screened from the -gaze of the passing pedestrian and the coldness of the outer air merely -by slender bamboo rods, some eighteen inches apart. It was full to the -brim. - -That night an Englishman seemed greatly taken with Big Hell. - -"Most extraordinary!" he said. "Do you know, they never minded us at -all--not at all. A chap had a camera, and one dear old lady actually -stood upright when he was taking a picture. They asked me to come in, -and I really think I would, but--gad, you know, there wasn't any room." - -The key-note of this symphony of ills will not be sounded here. - - * * * * * - -She could play the koto (the harp), and the piano a little--could the -Maid of Miyanoshita. She would play neither for me, but that afternoon -she would take me, she said, to hear a friend play the koto--an elderly -friend, whom she called, she said, her aunt. Later, she said she had -asked another gentleman also. Now when I spoke once of the musical click -of the getas, the Happy Exile had told me that the wearers often chose -them, taking only such pairs as pleased the individual ear. The -statement has since been much laughed at, so I asked the Maid of -Miyanoshita for confirmation. She at least did not choose her getas for -their sound. - -"But," she said, "the Japanese say the getas go-- - - "'Kara-ko, kara-ko, kara-ko!'" - -The notes she gave were the notes I had heard on the stone platforms of -every station between Tokio and Yokohama, and going straightway to the -piano I found those notes to be F and D in the scale of F Minor. Let the -laugh proceed. The Happy Exile possibly might say that those notes were -the prominent ones in some old national song, and that the geta-makers -had been unconsciously reproducing them ever since. - - * * * * * - -It was raining. Alack and alas! the Little Maid carried an American -umbrella--impious trail of the Saxon! while the Other Man and I bore -picturesque Japanese ones that would have given the crowning touch to -her, but looked simply ridiculous over us. Thus we went to meet the -exquisite courtesy and genuine kindness of a real Japanese home. - -Two kotos were played for us, while the players sang "Wind Among the -Pines," and the tale of the fairies who fell in love with the fisherman. - -"Do you like Japanese music?" said the Little Maid to the Other Man. - -"Yes," he said promptly, lying like a gentleman. - -"Don't you think it is rather monotonous?" she asked. - -"Well--um--um. Don't you like Japanese music?" he said, taking refuge. - -"Well," she said, "I like your music better, I think. It is more lively -and has more variety." - -Then we had tea, and after tea of the kind usually served in Japan, the -husband, a fierce Samurai in the pictures he showed us, but now a -genial, broad-smiling doctor of the old Japanese school, insisted that -we should take bowls of powdered tea which he prepared with his own -hands. In the drinking of this the Little Maid instructed us. We were to -take the bowl, the left hand underneath, the fingers of the right hand -clasped about it, lift it to the forehead, a movement of unspoken -thanks, and very gently, so as not to suggest that the tea needed to be -dissolved, were to roll the tea around in the bowl three times and then -take one drink--making much noise, meanwhile, with the lips to show how -much we enjoyed it. - -"That is very vulgar in your country," interrupted the Little Maid, "is -it not so?" - -"Well," I said, "lots of people do it, but not for the reason of -courtesy." - -We were to roll it around three times more, and then drink again; three -times more, and a third drink, leaving this time but a little, which, -without being rolled around again, was to be drunk at a swallow--three -drinks and one swallow to the bowl. O-kin-san says that this last -swallow should be only the foam, which must be drunk to show that the -tea is so good that the guest must have even the foam; and that not -until then does the noise of appreciation come, and then only because -the foam cannot be drunk without noise. It was well. We exchanged -autographs and cards. With the kind permission of the Little Maid's aunt -we took pictures of the interior, and then with much bowing and many -"sayonaras" we passed out under the cherry trees. - -"We say 'Good-morning,'" said the Little Maid, explaining the courtesies -of Japanese greeting and good-by, "and we bow; and we say 'It is a long -while since I have seen you,' or 'It is a fine day,' and we bow again. -At the end of each sentence you must bow, and it is the same when you -say good-by." - - * * * * * - -Before I learned that the Mikado had sent a general edict through the -land that all foreigners in Japan were to be treated with particular -consideration while this war is going on--thus making it safer for the -tourist now in this country than it ever has been or will be, perhaps, -for a long time--I had been greatly impressed by the absence of all -signs of disorder, street quarrels, loud talking, and by the fact that -in Tokio, one of the largest cities in the world, one could go about day -or night in perfect safety. I told this to the Maid of Miyanoshita. - -"So desuka," she said without surprise, and that means "Indeed." And -when she said later that there were many Japanese novelists, but they -did not write love stories, I was reminded further that I had seen no -man in Japan turn his head to look at a woman who had passed him--no -exchange of glances, no street gallantry at all. - -"The song of the 'Goo-goo Eyes,'" I said, "would never have been written -in Japan." - -"What iss 'Goo-goo Eyes'?" said the Little Maid, mystified. - -Then had I trouble--but I must have made it clear at last. - -"Perhaps the Japanese girl does not want to be seen--looking." - -"Oh, you mean that she may look, but the foreigner doesn't see it?" - -"Well, we are all human. That is very frank, is it not?" - -It was frank--very frank--and of an innocence not to be misunderstood -save by a fool. Then I got a degree. - -"But I am always frank with you, for if you are what you say 'guilty,' I -think you must understand. I call you to myself a Doctor of Humanity." - -Wallah, but the life is hard! - - * * * * * - -By and by this remarkable Little Maid went on: - -"The Japanese may be what you call in love, but they must not tell -it--must not even show it." - -"Not even the men?" - -"No, not even the men. Is it not so in your country?" - -I laughed. - -"No, it is not so in my country." I found myself suddenly imitating her -own slow speech. "That's the first thing the man in my country does. -Sometimes he tells it, even when he can't ask the girl to marry him, and -sometimes they even tell it over there when they don't mean it." - -"So desuka!" - -"They call that 'flirting.'" - -"Yes, I know 'flirting,'" said the Little Maid. - -"It is not a very nice word," I said. "There is no flirting in Japan?" - -"There is no chance. Parents and friends make marriage in Japan." - -"They don't marry for love?" - -"It is as in France--not for love. And in America?" - -"Well, we don't think it nice for people to marry unless they are in -love." - -"So desuka," she said, which still means "Indeed." And then she went on: - -"Japanese girls obey their parents." And then she added, rather sadly, I -thought, "and sometimes they are very unhappy." - -"And what then?" - -"Oh, deevorces--are very common among the lower classes, but among the -middle and upper classes it is verry difficult." - -"So desuka!" I said, for I was surprised. - -"So desu," said the Little Maid, which is the proper answer. - - * * * * * - -The Maid of Miyanoshita loves flowers, and at sunset this afternoon I -saw her coming down from her garden, where she had been at work. She had -a great round straw hat on her black hair. I got her to draw it about -her face with both hands, and with a camera she was caught as she -laughed. We went down the steps and stopped above the cascade which -shook the water where the goldfishes were playing. - -Now I have been a month in Japan; I have seen the opening of the Diet, -heard the Emperor chant the fact that he was at peace with all the world -save Russia, and observed that he must show origin from the gods in -other ways than in his stride. I have dined with the gracious -representative of the Stars and Stripes and his staff, who seem to have -taken on an Oriental suavity that bodes well for our interests in this -Far East, and have seen an Imperial Highness play the delicate and -difficult double rôle of hand-shaking Democrat to Americans and God-head -to his own people--while both looked on. I have eaten a Japanese dinner -at the Maple Club, while Geishas and dancing-girls held fast the -wondering Occidental eye; have heard, there, American college songs sung -by Japanese statesmen, and have joined hands with them in a swaying -performance of "Auld Lang Syne." I have seen wrestling matches that -looked at first sight like two fat ladies trying to push each other out -of a ring--but which was much more. I have been to the theatre, to find -the laugh checked at my lips and to sit thereafter in silence, -mystification, and wonder. I have tossed pennies to children--the -"babies" who here "are kings"--while wandering through blossoming parks -and among people whom I cannot yet realize as real. I have visited -shrines, temples; have heard the wail of kite and the croak of raven -over the tombs of the Shoguns, and have seen a Holy Father beating a -drum and praying a day-long prayer with a cigarette-stub behind one ear. -I have learned that this is the land of the seductive "chit" and the -deceptive yen which doubles your gold when you arrive and makes you -think that when you have spent fifty cents you still have a dollar of it -left. Moreover, I have seen the glory of cherry-blossoms. But of all -these trifles and more--more, perhaps, anon. I pulled a little red -guide-book out of my pocket. - -"That word," I asked, pointing to the proper one, "would you use that -word to your--well, your mother?" - -"No," she said very slowly, and with straight eyes, again -answering impersonal inquiry with response even more impersonal, -"I--don'--don't--think--you--would--use--that word--to your--mother." - -The sunlight lay only on the great white crest of Fuji. Everywhere else -the swift dusk of Japan was falling. In it the cherry-tree was fast -taking on the light of a great white star. In the grove above us a -nightingale sang. - -Truly 'tis hard. - - - - - III - - LINGERING IN TOKIO - - -I might as well confess, I suppose, that these "Hardships of the -Campaign," pleasant as they are, ecstatic as they might be to an -untroubled mind, constitute a bluff pure and simple. Here goes another, -but it shall be my last, and I shall write no more until the needle of -my compass points to Manchuria. A month ago the first column got away -when the land was lit with the glory of cherry-blossoms. We have been -leaving every week since--next week we leave again. One man among us now -calls himself a cherry-blossom correspondent. He was lucky to say it -first. Clear across the Pacific we can hear the chuckle at home over our -plight even from the dear ones who sent us to Japan. If it were not such -a tragedy it would be very funny indeed. - - * * * * * - -The stars float high in the sky of Japan, so that when the moon rises, a -vaster dome is lit up than I have ever seen anywhere else in the world. -The first moon I saw in Japan was rising over the Bluff where the -foreigners live in Yokohama, and climbing slowly toward those distant -stars. The Happy Exile and I had climbed a narrow, winding, -bush-bordered alley, broken here and there with short flights of stone -steps, and we sat on mats in his Japanese home. Somewhere outside a -nightingale was singing and the fine needle-point of the first cicada -was jabbing vibrations into the night air. To the left of the Happy -Exile was a beautiful box of lacquer, and he reached out a caressing -hand for it. That was his _netsuke_ box, and he pulled out little -lacquer trays in which lay his diminutive treasures. - -"I have only about forty here," he said, "but they are all good. The -dealers can't fool me now, and if ever a new _netsuke_ is brought in -from any part of Japan, the owner directly or indirectly lets me know it -is here. Sometimes I will strike one in some far interior town, but I -know it has been sent on there ahead of me, that I may think I have -stumbled on a treasure. My big collection is at home--and do you know -that a man in Boston has perhaps the best set in the world? They have -risen in value enormously, and are rising all the time. There are not so -many imitations as people suppose, for the reason that the carvers can't -afford to spend the time that is necessary to make even a good -deception. You see, in the old days each daimio had his carvers who did -nothing but make _netsukes_, and all time was theirs." - -Then he began taking them out. Each one represented a myth, a tradition, -or a proverb. - -"I love these things not only for their exquisite carving and their -color and age, but because they are so significant in reflecting -Japanese life and character. You have no idea how much you can learn -about Japan from studying these curios." - -Whiskey and soda were brought in. We watched the moon, listened to the -nightingale, and the Happy Exile's talk drifted to old Japanese -poetry--to the little seventeen-syllable form in which the Japanese has -caught a picture, a mood, one swift impression, or a sorrow. Here are -three that he gave me--but inaccurately he said: "A mother is sitting on -a mat, perhaps alone. The wind rattles the fragile wall and she turns: - - "The east wind blowing; - Oh, the little finger-holes - Through the shogis!" - -Now, _shogis_ are the little squares of latticed paper that make the -fragile wall, and mischievous children delight in thrusting their -fingers through them. Those little finger-holes were made by the -vanished hand of a dead child. - -This is a picture in three strokes: - - Moonlight; - Across the mat - The shadow of a pine. - -Think of that for a while. - -And here is another mother-cry for a dead child. There are summer days -in which every Japanese child that can toddle is chasing dragon-flies, -and the children who die must pass through a hundred worlds. So this -mother's thought runs thus: - - Oh, little catcher of dragon-flies, - I wonder how far - You've gone. - -But I like best the first: - - The east wind blowing; - Oh, the little finger-holes - Through the shogis! - -We drifted out into the night air. Every house was dark and quiet. The -Happy Exile stopped once to pat a yellow cur on the head. - -"All these people know me," he said, "and I can step into any house -without a word and sleep the night." But we followed that narrow alley -up long flights of narrow, winding steps, under thick bushes that arched -above us and shattered the moonbeams about our feet. There was not a -cloud in the sky when we reached the top of the bluff, and I felt for -the first time what the magic of this land was to the Happy Exile. The -moon was soaring on toward those stars--the stars that float high in -this sky of Japan. - - * * * * * - -Once I took refuge in a wrestling-match. I found a great pagoda-like, -circus-like tent made of bamboo with matting for a roof. Outside long -streamers of various colors floated from the tops of long poles. High -above and on a little platform supported by four bamboos a man was -beating a drum. He had started beating that drum at daybreak. About the -entrance and around the big, fragile structure was the same crowd of men -and boys that you would find at an American circus. To get in I paid two -yen. Had my skin been yellow and my eyes slant I would have dropped but -one. The arena inside was amphitheatrical in shape with three broad -tiers of benches on which squatted the spectators. In the centre and -under a bamboo roof was a hummock of dirt about two feet high. Four -pillars swathed with red and blue supported this roof, and from each -pillar was stretched a streamer from which dangled little banners -covered with Chinese ideographs. A ring some twelve feet in diameter was -dug into the dirt hummock and in the centre of this ring were two huge -fat men, stark naked except for a breech-clout. As I came in, they rose -and took hold. To the Saxon it looked at first glance like two fat -ladies simply trying to push each other out of the ring, and I came near -laughing aloud. Before I had approached ten steps one of the two fat men -touched one foot outside of the ring. He had lost and the bout was over. -Now two more came walking in with great dignity. They mounted the arena -and turned their backs upon each other. Then each stretched out his -right leg with his right hand on the knee, raised it high in the air and -brought it down on the earth with a mighty stamp. The same performance -with the left leg, and then they strained downward until their buttocks -almost touched the earth. Turning, they squatted on their heels opposite -each other at the edge of the ring, and each man slapped his hands -together gently, stretched them out at full length and turned the palms -over. This was a salute--the Japanese equivalent of the Saxon pugilist's -handshake. Each walked then to one of the posts from which hung a little -box of salt, and his second handed him there water in a _sake_ cup. He -rinsed his mouth, spurted the water out, took a pinch of salt and threw -it into the ring. One of them stooped and plucked a few blades of grass -from the sod and threw them also into the ring. Both these acts were -meant to drive the spirits of evil away, and it was all so serious that -I was aroused at once. Four times they squatted like two huge -game-cocks, and four times they got up slowly, strolled leisurely to the -salt-box and the _sake_ cup. At last they got together, and there was a -mighty tussle, and to my astonishment, one of those giants threw the -other over his head and landed him some eight feet outside the ring. -Apparently there was more in it than was evident to the casual eye, and -it was very serious business indeed. The fact is, wrestling is an -ancient and honorable calling in Japan, and goes back to the sun -goddess. She had a brother once who used to annoy her by killing wild -animals and tossing them into her backyard. One day she got angry and -ran away to a cave, leaving the earth in total darkness. Her retainers, -and the brother and his retainers tried to get her out, but she refused -to come out--having blocked the cave with a great stone. So they -performed antics and made strange cries until, tempted by curiosity, she -pushed the stone slightly away and looked out, and thereupon one Taji -Karac, stamping the earth, rushed forward and tore the bowlder away, and -that is why the wrestlers stamp the earth to-day. This is myth--what -follows is historical. - -"Once upon a time," said an American correspondent, as he leaned over -the bar that night at the Imperial Hotel, "a chesty noble got gay, and -remarked that he was about the best on earth. The emperor heard of this, -and sent a challenge broadcast. A big chap took it up, kicked in the -chesty noble's ribs, and brake his bones so that he died. This was -twenty-four years before celestial peace was proclaimed on earth. About -nine hundred years later, two brothers claimed the throne and they -agreed to wrassle for it. They did it by proxy, though, and one -Korishito got the throne through his champion. In the same century there -was a wrestling-match at the autumn festival of the Five Grains. The -harvest was good that year, and the emperor argued thereupon that the -coincident wrestling must be good, and so wrestling became a permanent -national custom. When the champion Kiobashi became referee the emperor -gave him a fan which proclaimed that he was the Prince of Lions. The -wrestlers were divided into east and west, and that's why they come into -the arena from the east and west to-day. Hollyhock is the flower of the -east, the gourd-flower is symbol of the west, and the path to the stage -is called the flower-path to-day. The pillars indicate the points of the -compass. The next champion the emperor called the Driving Wind, and the -family of the Driving Wind alone can hold the symbol of the referee -to-day." - -These wrestlers are exempt from military service, and they constitute, I -understand, a very close corporation. When an unusually large child is -born in Japan, the father and mother say: "He shall be a wrestler." - -The wrestlers are enormous men, and average over six feet in height. -Some of them are magnificent in shape, but as weight counts in the -science, they encourage fat. The present champion weighs over three -hundred pounds. Certainly, as a class, the wrestlers show what Japan can -do in the way of producing big men. Constantly I have been surprised not -only at the thick-set sturdiness, but at the average height of the -Japanese soldier as I see him in Tokio on his way to the front. -Moreover, I am told that the height of Japanese school-children has -increased three inches within the last ten years in the schools where -the students sit in chairs instead of squatting on the floor. And, among -the new types one sees in Tokio to-day, the dapper men in European -clothes about the clubs and hotels, the statesmen in high hats and -frock-suits, the half-modernized class, who wear derby hats and -mackintoshes with fur collars and show their legs naked to the knee when -they step from a rickshaw--the most interesting and significant is the -Tokio University student you see lilting on his getas through the public -gardens. He has an intelligent face, looks you straight in the eye, is -agile as a panther, and as tall, I believe, as the average college -student. I suppose the emperor issued an edict that his people should -grow taller and if he did--they will. But these students--one can't help -wondering what, when they grow up, they will do for Japan and to the -rest of the East. - - * * * * * - -With bird-like cries the rickshaw men turn under an arched gateway into -a little court-yard paved with stones. The wheels rattle as in a hollow -vault and come to a sudden halt. Straightway there is an answering -bustle and the shuffling of many little feet along the polished floors -to the entrance of the tea-house, and many little brown maidens kneel -there and smile and gurgle a welcome. There the shoes of the visitor -come off, and if any man has forgotten the first instruction Kipling -gave, that the visitor to Japan should take with him at least one -beautiful pair of socks, there is considerable embarrassment for him. -You are led up a narrow stairway, each step of polished wood, and into a -big chamber covered with mats--the wall toward the interior made of -beautiful screens, the other wall opening on the outer air to a balcony. -At the other end of the room from the entrance a single beautiful vase -stands on a little platform, and in that vase is one single beautiful -flower. In front of that vase is the seat of honor, and the guests are -arranged in front of it seated on thin cushions on the floor. -Straightway little nesan--serving-girls--carry in little trays, a box -filled with ashes in which glow tiny bars of charcoal, a little -ash-receiver of bamboo, a bottle of _sake_, and dainty little bowls -without handles for drinking-cups. Now one by one the brilliant little -stars of the drama appear. A geisha girl glides in at the entrance, -another and another, and in a row sink to their knees and bow their -foreheads to the mat. Rising, they approach ten steps and kneel again. -Once more they approach shuffling along the floor in their socks of -spotless white (the big toe in a separate pocket) walking modestly -pigeon-toed that the flaps of their brilliant kimonos may part not at -all, and then they are bowing in front of the little trays where they -sit smiling and ready to serve you with food and drink. - -There for the first time we saw Kamura--Kamura-san you must say, if you -would be polite. She was pretty, and dainty, and graceful, and her years -were only fourteen, which by our computation, would be thirteen only, -since the Japanese child is supposed to be a year old when born. She -spoke English very well, for she had lived in Shanghai once where she -had played with American children. She was an Eurasian--that is a -half-caste--but that was a secret which she told a few in confidence, -for you could not tell it from her face, and the fact would be no little -obstacle to the success of her career as a geisha girl. Straightway -little Kamura-san was the favorite of the dinner party, with the women -as well as with the men, and she acted as interpreter and said many -quaint, shrewd, unexpected things. The women petted and caressed her, -and the men doubtless would have liked to do the same, but that is not a -Japanese custom. She turned to one man of the party, and she spoke -slowly and with no shading of intonation whatever: - -"Who was the very young gentleman with red cheeks who was here with you -the other night?" - -The man told her. - -"Why?" he asked. - -"He came back to see me alone. He wanted to see me here alone, and he -wanted the nesan to leave the room, but I would not let the nesan leave -the room, and I did not understand." - -That innocence aroused considerable interest in everybody and, later, -the young gentleman's cheeks got redder still, when the incident was -told him. Three days later I went to the tea-house again. Kamura-san, -baby that she was, was to be sold soon to a Japanese. - - * * * * * - -She already spoke such excellent English and was so very intelligent -that I wondered straightway if it might not be feasible to buy little -Kamura-san myself and send her to school. Her mother, I was told, wanted -her to go to school, and Kamura-san said that was what she wanted to -do--how sincerely I was soon to learn. That mother had sold her several -years before to the master of the tea-house and to get his money back -the master of the tea-house must sell her again. So the price of the -child, body and soul, was 750 yen or $375 in gold. For $50 a year she -could be sent to school in Tokio, and I doubtless could find people to -take care of her, though Kamura-san said that she would live with her -mother and go to school, which was better still. So I set about -negotiations, which were many and intricate. I had to see her own -mother, her house-mother, with whom she and other geisha girls lived in -Tokio, and who made engagements for her and them to dance at various -tea-houses (she would be a female manager of chorus-girls in this -country), and I would have to see the master of the tea-house. I saw -them all, and not one of them believed that my purpose was what I said -it was, though all of them, except Kamura-san herself, politely -pretended to believe. As Kamura-san had played with American children -and knew English well, I told her about America, and strove to explain. -She sat with her little face downcast, her eyes dreamy and apparently -taking in every word I uttered. When I got through she said simply: - -"Yess, you will buy me out; you will give me a house; I will be your -Japanese wife and wear European clothes." With her next breath she would -be saying how much she wanted to go to school. - - * * * * * - -The mother of Kamura-san lives in Yokohama. Soon there was an amateur -theatrical performance there and I got the mistress of the tea-house to -let Kamura-san and a friend go down to see it. In the afternoon I went -to see the mother, who was young, pretty, and very lady-like. The little -girl acted as interpreter, and from her mother's lips told this story: - -Kamura-san's father was an Austrian, and therefore she was a half-caste. -That, however, was told me in confidence, and the fact I must not -repeat, since it would interfere with her future. The mother had been -his Japanese wife, and she had loved him very much. After a time the -Austrian had been obliged to go home. He left the mother well provided -for--gave her a house and a good deal of money. But she was, she said, -young and foolish and extravagant, made bad investments, and lost it -all. It was then that she sold Kamura-san to the tea-house. She would be -very glad to have the little girl live with her at home, and wanted her -to go to school. Her father, her mother said, would be humiliated and -chagrined if he knew that Kamura-san was a geisha, and she wanted her -daughter to give the life up. Before the interview was over I could see -very plainly that the mother was still expecting the daughter to follow -in her own footsteps. - -The three went to the amateur theatrical performance that night, and -from another part of the house I could see the little girl explaining it -to her friend and to her mother, and the next night at the tea-house she -rehearsed several features of it to her fellow-geishas, and her -imitation of a barytone soloist, the way he stood, lifted his shoulders, -opened his mouth and puffed out the volume of sound, was very funny, and -made her companions squeak with laughter. - -Now, there was a young American officer who was going around with me on -these expeditions, who was having considerable fun over my -philanthropical purpose, and was scornfully sceptical of any success. He -was on hand that night and suddenly Kamura-san said: - -"My mother says I must not love young and handsome gentleman." - -"Why?" I asked. - -"Because young and handsome gentleman changes his heart." - -"Well, I suppose I fill the bill." - -"Yess," she said, "you are a little handsome and a little old." - -"But you aren't going to love anybody, you are going to school." - -"Yess," said Kamura-san obediently. - -Once more that night I tried to explain that we did not rob cradles in -America, and again she looked dreamy and seemed to understand, but when -I started to go, she beckoned me behind a screen: - -"Did you bring the 750 yen?" - - * * * * * - -It was the interpreter of the tea-house that made me permanently -hopeless. The interpreter was soft-voiced, gentle, and spoke excellent -English. She had lived several years with an American missionary--a -woman whom she had loved, she said, very tenderly. The interpreter had -been a widow for several years, and had a little girl. She would never -marry again, she said, because she would have to give up her child. So -she spoke English in the tea-house and taught the children of the master -for a pitiful salary. I cannot recall ever having met such frankness in -Japan, and this is what she said: - -"If you have 750 yen to spare, give it to the poor families of Tokio -whose sons have gone to war. You buy Kamura-san from the tea-house and -you go away to Manchuria; you will not know whether she goes to school. -Most likely her house-mother will sell her again. Anyhow it is useless. -She really does not want to go to school. She likes the tea-house, the -music, the lights and gossip, and the coming and going of strangers. You -cannot change her, and it is no use. Give your money to poor people in -Tokio." - - * * * * * - -After this Kamura-san's instincts told her that something was wrong, and -she began to take perceptibly more notice of the young officer. Once, as -I was told, she said to him: - -"I always liked you best--you are so pretty." - -I charged her with this statement. - -"Who told you that?" - -"Never mind." - -"He is a liar," said Kamura-san calmly. - -And once I caught her making eyes at him behind my back--something that -she had never done with me. With this, too, I charged her. - -"No," she said in denial, "he is your brother. He will be my best -friend. He will be godfather to our child." - -I staggered half-way across the room--that infant talking of a child! - -"In heaven's good name," I said, "what do you want with a child?" - -"That I may not be lonely when I old," said little Kamura-san. - - * * * * * - -Still, out of curiosity now, I went to see the house-mother of -Kamura-san. Her head was poised on her shoulders like a snake's, and her -eyes were the eyes of a snake--black, beady, and glittering. A face more -hard, cunning, cruel, and smilingly crafty I never saw, and it took her -but a little while to discover that I was an unsatisfactory customer, -and I couldn't help wondering what that Austrian father would have -thought and felt had he seen that snake-like hag trying to barter with -me for his own flesh and blood. I left the young officer there and -naturally the house-mother tried to sell the child to him. - -Kamura-san I never saw again. When I came back from Manchuria I heard -that she was gone--whither I don't know, but I'm hoping that the -Austrian father by some chance may some day see these lines. - - * * * * * - -But no more now of temples, blossoms, pictures, _netsuke_, tea-houses, -wrestling-matches, theatres, and the what-not that everybody with a pen -has so wearisomely done to death. News of the battle of Nanshan has come -in. Next week we leave again. - -An explanation has occurred to me. You know the Japanese does nearly -everything but his fighting--backward. Of course he reads and writes -backward. At the theatre you find the dressing-room in the lobby. Keys -turn from left to right, boring-tools and screws, I understand, turn -from right to left, and a Japanese carpenter draws his plane toward him -instead of pushing it away. Sometimes even the Japanese thinks and talks -backward. For instance, suppose he says: - -"I think I will go wash my hands." That, in Japanese, is: - -"Te-wo aratte kimasho." Now, what he really has said is literally: - -"Hands having washed I think I will _come back_." - -Perhaps then our trouble is that the Japanese tells the truth backward -and we can't understand. He might even be fighting that way--say, for an -alliance with Russia--and we still should not understand--at least, not -yet. - - - - - IV - - MAKING FOR MANCHURIA - - -It came at last--that order for the front. On the 18th day of July, the -Empress of China swung out of Yokohama Harbor, with eighteen men on -board, who had been waiting four months for that order, almost to the -very day. During those four months there was hardly a day that some one -of those men was not led to believe by the authorities in Tokio that in -the next ten days the order would come, and never would the authorities -say that during any ten days the order would not come; so that they had -perforce to stay waiting in Tokio from the freezing rains of March until -the sweltering days of midsummer. Many of those men had been in Japan -for five months and more, and yet knew absolutely nothing of the land -save of Tokio and Yokohama, which, tourists tell me, are not Japan at -all. - -The matter has been passing strange. We did not come over here at the -invitation of the Japanese Government, but in simple kindness the -authorities might have said, with justice: - -"This is the business of Japan and of Russia alone. Over here we do not -recognize the Occidental God-given right of the newspapers to divulge -the private purposes of anybody. We believe that War Correspondents are -harmful to the proper conduct of a war. Frankly, we don't want you, and -to the front you can never go." - -No just complaint could have been made to this. We should have seen -beautiful Japan and, our occupation gone for this war, at least, we -could have struck the backward trail of the Saxon--the correspondent for -some trade of peace, the artist to "drawing fruits and flowers at home." -And all would have been well. - -Or: - -"You gentlemen came over here at your own risk. You create a new and -serious problem for us and we don't know how we are going to solve it. -If you wish to stay on at your own risk until we have made up our -minds--you are quite welcome." - -For some this would have made an early homeward flight easy. Or again: - -"Yes, we do mean to let you go to the front, but when we cannot say. -While you are here, however, we shall be glad to have you see our -country. Just now we are quite sure that you will not go for at least -ten days: so you can travel around and come back. If we are sure that -you can't go for another ten days, you may go away again and come -back--and so on until you do leave." - -Even this they might have said: - -"You English are our allies. We are in trouble, and we may draw you as -allies into it. We, therefore, grant your right to know how we behave on -the battle-field, where we may possibly have to fight, shoulder to -shoulder. Therefore, you English correspondents, you English attachés, -can go to the front, the rest of you cannot." - -Nothing in all this could have given offence. All or any of it would -have had at least the combined merits of frankness, consideration, -honesty, and it is very hard for this Saxon to understand how any or all -could possibly have any bearing on anybody's advantage or disadvantage, -as far as this war is concerned. - -The Japanese gave no open hint of unwillingness to have us go--no hint -that we were not to go very soon. We were urged to get passes for -ourselves, interpreters and servants at once. Most of the men obeyed at -once, bought horses, outfits, provisions and wrote farewell -letters--wrote them many times. This was the middle of March. Ever since -we have stayed at the Imperial Tomb in Tokio--the Imperial Hotel is the -name it calls itself--under heavy expense to ourselves here and to the -dear ones at home who sent us here; unable to go away; told every ten -days that in the next ten days we would most likely go, and told on no -day that within the next ten we should not go. Now it was soon--"very -soon"--in English, and then it was "tadaima"--in Japanese. - -Tadaima! That, too, meant "soon," when I first put stumbling feet on the -tortuous path of Japanese thought and speech. The unwary stranger will -be told to-day that it does mean "soon," and as such in dictionaries he -shall find it. But I have tracked "tadaima" to its lair and dragged it, -naked and ashamed, into the white light of truth. And I know "tadaima" -at any time refers only to the season next to come. Early in March, for -instance, it means literally--"next summer about two o'clock." - -All this was something of a strain in the way of expectation, -disappointment, worry, wasted energy--idleness. And so with a worried -conscience over the expense to the above-mentioned dear ones at home, -and the hope that some return might yet be made to them; through a good -deal of weakness and a good deal of reluctance to go home and get -"guyed," we stayed on and on. In May came the battle of Nanshan and the -advance on Port Arthur. In June followed Tehlitzu. Both battles any man -would have gladly risked his life to see, and I really think it would -have been well for the Japanese, granting their accounts of the two -battles as accurate--Russian atrocities in one, undoubted Japanese -gallantry in both--if impartial observers had been there to confirm. As -it stands, the Japanese say "you did"--the Russians say "we didn't"--and -there the matter will end. - -But we swung out of Yokohama Harbor at last--the Tokio slate for the -time wiped clean and all forgiven. We were going to the front and that -was balm to any wound. O-kin-san of the Tea House of the Hundred -Steps--bless her!--had me turn my back while she struck sparks with -flint and steel behind me and made prayers for my safety, and from her -kind hand I carried away a little ideographed block of wood in a wicker -case which would preserve me from all bodily harm. Whither we were bound -we knew not for sure, since by the same token you know nothing in this -land for sure. But there were three men among us who had been -guaranteed, they said, by the word of a Major-General's mouth, that they -should see the fall of Port Arthur. So sure were they that they had made -less important representatives of their papers stay behind in Tokio to -await the going of the third column. Two others had got the same -assurance indirectly, but from high authority, and the rest of us knew -that where they went, there went we. - -That day and that night and next day we had quiet seas and sunlight. -The second night we were dining in Kobbe at a hotel to which Kipling -once sang a just pæan of praise--Kobbe, which he knew at once, he -said, was Portland, Maine, though his feet had not then touched -American soil. He was quite right. Kobbe might be any town anywhere. -The next daybreak was of shattered silver, and it found us sailing -through a still sea of silver from which volcanic islands leaped -everywhere toward a silver sky. We were in the Inland Sea. To the eye, -it was an opal dream--that Inland Sea--and the memory of it now is the -memory of a dream--a dream of magic waters, silvery light and forlorn -islands--bleak and many-peaked above, and slashed with gloomy ravines -that race each other down to goblin-haunted water-caves, where the voice -of the sea is never still. This sea narrowed by and by into the -Shimonoseki Straits, which turn and twist through rocks, islands, and -high green hills. Through them we went into the open ocean once more. In -the middle of the next afternoon we passed for a while through other -mountain-bordered straits, and by and by there sat before the uplifted -eye Nagasaki, with its sleepy green terraces, rising from water-level to -low mountain-top--where the Madame Chrysanthème of Loti's fiction is a -living fact to-day. Who was it that said, after reading that book, he or -she would like to read Pierre Loti by Madame Chrysanthème? It must have -been a woman--and justly a woman--sure. There is an English colony at -Nagasaki and an American or two who cling together and talk about going -home some day--all exiles, all most hospitable to the stranger, and all -unconsciously touched with the pathos of the exile wherever on earth you -find him. - -Between four and five o'clock these exiles take launches for a beach -five miles away, since the Japanese regulations now forbid bathing at -any nearer point. They carry out cakes and tea and other things to drink -and I took one trip with them through one beautifully radiant late -afternoon, but even in that way there was no evading the Japanese. Two -of them, whether fishermen, sailors, officers, or what not, calmly fixed -their boat-hooks to the launch and there they hung. The fact that the -ladies of the launch were undressing and dressing in one end did not -seem to disturb them at all, and to this day I am wondering what -possible harm a man or a woman in a bathing-dress among waves can do in -time of war in a place that is impregnable and five hundred miles from -the firing-line. I found the Japanese as different in Nagasaki as is -their speech. There they say "Nagasaki" with a hard g. In Tokio, where -the classics are supreme, they pronounce it "Nangasaki," almost--just as -the rickshaw men in the one place lose something of the samurai -haughtiness that characterizes them in the other. It is the difference -between the flat and the broad "a" in our own land, and between the -people who use the one and the people who use the other. Everybody left -next morning, but I clung to Nagasaki as long as I could, and in -consequence took an all-night ride on a wooden seat. Early next morning -I was crossing the Shimonoseki Straits from Moji in a sampan. It was -before sunrise. The mist on the sea was still asleep, but on the -mountains it was starting its upward flight. Through it fishing-boats -were slipping like ghosts, and here and there the dim shape of a -transport or a little torpedo-boat was visible. The flush in the East -was hardly as deep as a pale rose before I was noiselessly oared to the -stone quay of the little village whence we were to take transport at -last for the front. The foreign hotel was full. Richard Harding Davis -had gone to a Japanese hotel and had left word for me to follow. So in a -rickety rickshaw I rattled after him through the empty street. I found -him in a Japanese room as big as the dining-room of an American hotel, -covered with eighty mats, full of magic woodwork, and looking out where -there were no walls (the walls in a Japanese house are taken out by day) -for full fifty feet on mountain and sea and passing transports and -sampans. Davis was unpacking. Hanging over the balcony was a yellow moth -of a girl some fourteen years old, who smiled me welcome. On another -balcony at the other end of the hotel, three other sister moths were -lighted, and among them I saw a correspondent beating a typewriter -vigorously--they watching him with amazement and brushing him with their -wing-like sleeves as they hovered about. Others still were fluttering -fairy-like anywhere, everywhere. The latest occupant of our room had -been the Marquis Ito--we found it quite big enough for two of us. Li -Hung Chang had the same room when he came over to make peace terms after -the Japanese-Chinese War. We could see the corner of the street near by -where a Japanese tried then to assassinate that eminent Chinaman, and in -that very room the great Shimonoseki treaty was signed. We had it two -nights and a day, and we learned, when we went away, that we were not -told the history of that room for nothing. First, our interpreters -hinted that great men like Ito and Li Hung Chang and Our Honorable -Selves were always expected to make a present to the hotel. It was the -custom. We followed the custom to the extent of ten yen each, and an old -lady came in and prostrated herself before each of us in turn. Now, when -you are clothed only in pajamas, are seated in a chair, and have your -bare feet on a balcony in order to miss no vagrant wind, it is somewhat -embarrassing to have a woman steal in without warning, smite her -forehead to the mat several times, and make many signs and much speech -of gratitude. You won't smite yours in turn; you can't bow as you sit, -and if you rise, it looks as though you were going to put foot on the -neck of a slave. We looked very red and felt very foolish, but we did -not exchange confidences. If there was any slumbering supposition in our -minds that this was a polite Oriental method of dealing with guests who -have doubtful luggage, or a slumbering hope that the "present" might -have a dwindling effect on our bill, there needn't have been. We had to -pay in addition for that room and those eighty mats and that Fuji -landscape of delicate woodwork; we had to pay for all the brilliant -moths that fluttered incessantly about, for the chamber-maids and the -smiling bronze scullery-girl who looked in on us from the hallway; for -the bath-boy and the cook or cooks. Every junk and sampan that passed -had apparently sent a toll for collection to that hotel. The gold of the -one sunset and the silver of the one dawn were included in the -turkey-tracked, serpent-long bill that was unrolled before our wondering -eyes. In fact, if Marquis Ito's breakfast and the biggest dinner that Li -Hung Chang had there nine years before were not put down therein, it was -a strange oversight on the part of the all-seeing eye that had swept the -horizon of all creation during the itemization of that bill. That was -business--that bill. The present had been custom. I cheerfully recommend -the method to highway robbers that captain other palaces of extortion in -other parts of the world. Get the present first--it's a pretty -custom--and the rest is just as easy as it would have been anyway. - -Next day we went back again to Moji, where a polite and dapper little -officer examined us and our passes and asked us many questions. Why he -did I know not, since he seemed to know about us in advance, and every -now and then he would look up from a pass and say: "Oh, you are -so-and-so"--whereat "so-and-so" would look a bit uneasy. At two o'clock -that day we set sail--correspondents, interpreters, servants, horses, a -few soldiers, and much ammunition--on the transport Heijo Maru. Every -ship has that "Maru" after its name, and I have never been able to find -out just what it means--except that literally it is "round in shape." We -steamed slowly past a long, bleak, hump-backed little island that had -been the funeral pyre for the Japanese dead in the war with China. For -ordinarily the Japanese, after taking a lock of hair, a finger-nail, or -the _inkobo_ (a bone in the throat), which they send back to relatives, -burn their dead. But this funeral pyre was for those who died in the -hospital, and the wounded and sick therein could see by the flames at -night where next day their own ashes might lie. Thence we turned -northward toward the goal of five months' hope on the part of those -hitherto unhappy but now most cheerful eighteen men. - -Fuji was on board. Fuji is my horse, and he had come down by rail. He is -Japanese and a stallion--as most Japanese horses are. He has a bushy, -wayward mane, by the strands of which you can box the compass with great -accuracy, and a bushy forelock that is just as wayward. His head, -physiognomy, and general traits will come in better when later they get -an opportunity for display. All I knew then of Fuji was that he had -nearly pulled the arms out of the sockets of several men, and had broken -one man's leg back in Tokio. I was soon to learn that this was very -little to know about Fuji. - -Takeuchi also was aboard. Takeuchi is my interpreter and servant. He is -tall and slender, and has a narrow, intelligent face and general -proportions that an American girl characterized as Greek. I call him the -ever-faithful or the ever-faithless--just as his mood for the day -happens to be. He keeps me guessing all the time. When I make up my mind -that I am going to say harsh things next day, I find Takeuchi tucking a -blanket around me at three o'clock in the morning. He knows they are -coming, and when I do say them Takeuchi answers, "I beg you my pardon," -in a way that leads me to doubt which of us is the real offender after -all. Sometimes my watch and money disappear, but Takeuchi turns up with -them the next morning, shaking his head and with one wave of his hand -toward the table. - -"Not safe," he says, smiting his waistband, where both were concealed. -"I keep him." He has both now all the time. His first account overran, -to be sure, the exact amount of his salary for one month and for that -amount I had him sign a receipt. Two hours later he said, in perplexity: - -"I do not understand the receipt I give you." - -I pointed out my willingness to be proven wrong. He worked for an hour -on the account and sighed: - -"You are right," he said. "I mistake. I beg you my pardon." - -He had overlooked among other things one item--the funeral expenses of -some relative, which he had charged to me. I made it clear that such an -item was hardly legitimate and since then we have had less trouble. -However, when he wishes anything, he says: - -"I want you, etc., etc., etc.," and at the end of the sentence he will -say "please," with great humility; but until that "please" comes I am -not always sure which is servant and which is master. From Takeuchi I -have learned much about Japanese character, especially about the -Buschido spirit--the fealty of Samurai to Daimio, of retainer to -Samurai, of servant to master. It is useless to be harsh with or to -scold a Japanese servant. Just make your appeal to that traditional -spirit of loyalty and all will be better--if not well. He may rob you -himself in the way of traditional commissions, but you can be sure that -he will allow the same privilege to nobody else. But of Takeuchi--as of -Fuji--more anon. - -We sailed along at slow speed until we came to the Elliott Group of -Islands. We paid a yen apiece for each meal, and the captain and the -purser--a nice little fellow who got autographs from all who could write -and pictures from all who could draw--were the only officers with whom -we came in contact. We had poker o' nights, and sometimes o' days, and -now and then we "played the horses." Thus we reached the Elliott Group -of Islands. - -There we had company, transports coming in until there was a fleet of -ten; other transports going back to Japan, and an occasional gun-boat -hovering on the horizon. There we stayed three wearing days--told each -day that we should start on the next at daybreak. But there came one -matchless sunset as a comfort--a sunset that hung for a while over a low -jagged coast--a seething mass of flaming gold and vivid, quivering -green; that smote the sea into sympathy, lent its colors to the mists -that rose therefrom, and sank slowly to one luminous band of yellow, -above which one motionless cloud of silver was, by some miracle, the -last to deepen into ashes and darkness. And as it darkened in the West, -some white clouds in the East pushed tumbling crests of foam over -another range of hills, and above them the full moon soared. Thus, all -my life I had waited to see at last, on a heathen coast, Turner doing -the sunset, while Whistler was arranging colors in the place where the -next dawn was to come. - -Here we saw Chinamen for the first time on native heath. They came out -to us in sampans, always with one or two children in the bow, to get -scraps to eat at the port-holes aft, or empty bottles, which they much -prized; or drifted past us on the swift tide, watching like birds of -prey for anything that might be thrown overboard. And we saw the -attitude of Japanese toward Chinamen for the first time, as well, and -all the time one memory, incongruous and unjust though it was, hung in -my mind--the memory of a town-bred mulatto in a high hat with his thumbs -in the arm-holes of a white waistcoat, and loftily talking to a country -brother of deeper shade in the market-place of a certain Southern town. -One day a sampan, with a very old man and a young one aboard, made fast -to the gangway. They had fish to sell, and during the haggling that -followed, a Japanese sprang aboard, dropped a coin or two, picked up the -fish, and tried to cast the sampan away--the Chinamen sputtering voluble -but feeble protests meanwhile. In the confusion, the stern of the sampan -struck a ship's boat that was swinging on a long hawser from the same -gangway, the bow of it struck the ship's side, and the racing tide did -the rest. The boat was overturned, old man and young one disappeared and -all under water shot away. We thought they were gone, but there were two -lean, yellow arms fastened by yellow talons to the keel, and in a moment -the young man was dragging the old man to safety on the bottom of the -boat. The ship's boat was cast away, the Japanese who had caused the -trouble sprang aboard with the crew, gave chase to the bobbing wreck, -caught it several hundred yards away, righted it, and later we saw the -young Chinaman working it, half submerged, toward the distant shore, and -the shivering, bedraggled old one being brought back to the ship. We -were all indignant, for the officers of the ship, far from interfering, -laughed during the whole affair, and, laughing, watched the old man and -the young one sweep away. But no sooner was the old man aboard than the -servants and interpreters gave him rice, saki, empty bottles, and -clothes, and took up a subscription for him; and when the young one got -to the ship an hour later the old man climbed into the sampan, mellow -and happy. It seemed a heartless piece of cruelty at first, but it was -perhaps, after all, only the cruelty of children, for which they were at -once sorry and at once tried to make amends. To me, its significance was -in the loftily superior, contemptuously patronizing attitude of the -Japanese toward the yellow brother from whom he got civilization, art, -classical models, and a written speech. Later, I found the same bearing -raised to the ninth degree in Manchuria. Knowing the grotesque results -in the efforts of one imitative race to adopt another civilization in my -own country, the parallelism has struck me forcibly over here in dress, -Occidental manners, the love of interpreters for ponderous phraseology -and quotations, rigid insistence on form and red tape and the letter -thereof. Give a Japanese a rule and he knows no exception on his part, -understands no variation therefrom on yours. For instance, every -afternoon we went into the sea from that gangway, and Guy Scull diving -from the railing of the upper deck and Richard Harding Davis diving for -coins thrown from the same deck into the water (and getting them, too) -created no little diversion for everybody on board. On the third -afternoon, Davis, in his kimono and nothing else, was halted by the -first officer at the gangway. The captain had found a transport rule to -the effect that nobody should be allowed to go in bathing--the good -reason being, of course, that some of several hundred soldiers in -bathing might drown. Therefore, we eighteen men, though we were in a way -the guests of the captain's Government--in spite of the fact that we -were paying for our own meals--and though for this reason a distinction -might have been made, the rule was there, and, like Japanese soldiers, -we had to obey. It looked a trifle ominous. - -We were only ten hours' sail now from Port Arthur, and one morning we -did get away just before sunrise. The start was mysterious, almost -majestic at that hour. For three days those transports had lain around -us--filled, I was told, with soldiers, and yet not one soldier had I -seen. Blacker and more mysterious than ever they looked in that dark -hour before dawn--only the first flush in the east showing sign of -something human in the column of black smoke that was drifting from the -funnel of each. It showed, too, a gray mass lying low on the water, and -near a big black rock that jutted from the sea. That gray mass gave -forth one unearthly shriek and that was all. Instantly thereafterward it -floated slowly around that jutting rock; one by one the silent black -ships moved ghostlike after it, and when the red sunburst came, that -gave birth, I suppose, to the flag of Japan, all in single file were -moving in a great circle out to sea--the prow of each ship turning -toward one red star that looked down with impartial eyes where the brown -children of the sun were in a death-struggle with the cubs of the Great -White Bear. By noon there was great cheer. The Japanese word was good at -last--we were bound for Port Arthur. The rocky shore of Manchuria was -close at hand. A Japanese torpedo-boat slipped by, its nose plunging -through every wave and playful as a dolphin, tossing green water and -white foam back over its whole black length. A signal-station became -visible on one gray peak, and then there was a thrill that took the -soreness of five months from the hearts of eighteen men. The sullen -thunder of a big gun moaned its way to us from Port Arthur. There was -not a man who had not long dreamed of that grim easternmost symbol of -Russian aggression, and each man knew that no matter what might happen -on land, Port Arthur held place and would hold place for dramatic -interest in the eyes of the world. Port Arthur we should see--stubborn -siege and fierce assaults--and gather stories by the handful when it -fell. Dalny was to our left, and it was rather curious that we did not -turn toward Dalny. But no matter--we were going into Talienwan Bay, -which was only a few miles farther away, and we could hear big guns: so -we were happy. Talienwan--a thin curve of low gray stone buildings, -hugging the sweep of the bay, spread the welcome that the officer of -that port came to speak in English--and we landed among carts, Chinese -coolies, Japanese soldiers, Chinese wagons, mules, donkeys, horses, -ponies, squealing stallions, ammunition, a medley of human cries. The -bustle was terrific. A man must look out for himself in that apparent -confusion. As it was an ever-faithful day for Takeuchi that day, I was -serene and trustful. Davis was not, and beckoned to a coolie with a -cart. The man came and Davis's baggage was piled on the cart. Along came -a Japanese officer who, without a word, threw the baggage to the -ground--including a camera and other things as fragile and hardly less -precious. Davis turned to the Post Officer: - -"Can I have one of these carts?" - -"Certainly," he said. - -Davis got another, but while his interpreter was loading his things -again, the same officer came by and tossed them again to the ground. The -interpreter protested and tried to explain that he had permission to use -the carts, but he hadn't time. That officer turned on him. Now I had -been told that there are no oaths and vile epithets in the Japanese -tongue, but I know no English vile enough to report what the man said, -and if I did I couldn't use it without blistering my tongue and -blackening my soul more black than the hair of the blackguard who used -it. But let me do the Colonel in command justice to say that when the -outraged interpreter, taken to him by us afterward, repeated the insult, -the courteous old gentleman looked shocked and deeply hurt, and said he -would deal harshly with the man. I hope he did. - -This was ominous, but we were still cheerful. Yokoyama appeared and -Yokoyama was ominous. He was to handle our canteen and charge us twice -the prices that we had known at the Imperial Hotel, on the ground that -he would transport our baggage for us. That meant that he was to charge -us for the transport service that the Government was to give us--not to -him--and furnish us chiefly with canned stuff that each man could have -bought for himself for a dollar per day. We did not know this just then, -but wily Yokoyama had gathered in 500 yen from each of us in Tokio, and -he was ominous before we left Japan. I am putting this in because -Yokoyama, too, is woven into the network that fate was casting about us -that day. Still we were cheerful. Cannon were making the music we had -waited five months to hear. Port Arthur would fall, doubtless, within -ten days, and then--Home! The dream was shattered before we went to -sleep. No officer came to tell us where we were bound--to explain the -shattered word of a Major-General of his own army. It was Yokoyama who -dealt the blow--Yokoyama who, in another land, would have been branded -as a traitor by his own people and could have been put behind the bars -in ours. The truth was that we were not to go to Port Arthur at all. -Next day we travelled--whither God only knew--with every boom of a big -gun at the Russian fortress behind us sounding the knell of a hope in -the heart of each and every man. But we were on the trail of Oku's army -into the heart of Manchuria, though nobody knew it for sure, and there -was yet before us another tragedy--Liao-Yang. - - - - - V - - ON THE WAR-DRAGON'S TRAIL - - -There was the dean of the corps, one Melton Prior, who, in spite of his -years--may they be many more--is still the first war artist in the -world. He was mounted on a white horse, seventeen hands high and with a -weak back that has a history. Prior sold him in the end to a canny -Englishman, who sold him to the Japanese--giving Prior the price asked. -"Why, didn't you know that he wasn't sound?" said a man of another race, -who wondered, perhaps, that in a horse-trade blood should so speak to -blood even in a strange land. - -"Yes," said the Englishman, "but the Japanese won't know it." They -didn't. There was Richard Harding Davis, who, for two reasons--the power -to pick from any given incident the most details that will interest the -most people, and the good luck or good judgment to be always just where -the most interesting thing is taking place (with one natural exception, -that shall be told)--is also supreme. Mounted on another big horse was -he--one Devery by name--with a mule in the rear, of a name that must -equally appeal. Quite early, after purchase, Davis had laid whispering -lip to flapping ear. - -"I'll call you Williams or I'll call you Walker, just as you choose," he -said. - -There was no response. - -"Then I'll call you both," said Davis, and that wayward animal was -Williams and Walker through the campaign. A double name was never more -appropriate, for a flagrant double life was his. There was Bill the -Brill of the gentle heart, on a nice chestnut; Burleigh, the veteran, on -a wretched beast that was equally dangerous at either end; Lionel James -with cart and coolies of his own, and the Italian on a handsome -iron-gray. There were the two Frenchmen--Reggie, the young, the -gigantic, the self-controlled and never complaining--so beloved, that -his very appearance always brought the Marseillaise from us all--and -Laguerié, the courteous, ever-vivacious, irascible--so typical that he -might have stepped into Manchuria from the stage. There was Whiting, -artist, on the littlest beast with the biggest ambition that I ever saw -vaulting on legs; lanky Wallace, whose legs, like Lincoln's, were long -enough to reach the ground--even when he was mounted--and there were the -two Smiths--English and American--and Lewis, gifted with many tongues -and a beautiful barytone, who, his much-boasted milky steed being lame, -struck Oku's trail on foot. On Pit-a-Pat, a pony that used to win and -lose money for us at the Yokohama races, was little Clarkin the -stubborn, the argumentative, who, at a glance, was plainly sponsor for -the highest ideals of the paper that, in somebody's words, made virtue a -thing to be shunned; and, finally and leastly, there were Fuji and his -unhappy attachment, who chronicles this. - -These were the men who thought they were going to Port Arthur and who, -with the sound of the big guns at that fortress growing fainter behind -them, struck Oku's trail, up through a rolling valley that was bordered -by two blue volcanic mountain chains. The sky was cloudless and the sun -was hot. The roads were as bad as roads would likely be after 4,000 -years of travel and 4,000 years of neglect, but the wonder was that, -after the Russian army had tramped them twice and the Japanese army had -tramped them once, they were not worse. - -The tail of the War-Dragon, whose jaws were snapping at flying Russian -heels far on ahead, had been drawn on at dawn, and through dust and mire -and sand we followed its squirming wake. On the top of every little hill -we could see it painfully crawling ahead--length interminable, its -vertebræ carts, coolies, Chinese wagons, its body columns of soldiers, -its scales the flashes of sword-scabbard and wagon-tire--and whipping -the dust heavenward in clouds. The button on that tail was Lynch the -Irishman on a bicycle, and that button was rolling itself -headward--leading us all. Behind, Lewis was eating the road up with a -swinging English stride, and, drinking the dust of the world, we -followed. Fuji had side-stepped from barrack-yard into that road, sawing -on his bit, pawing the earth, and squealing challenges or boisterous -love-calls to anything and everything that walked. Sex, species, biped, -or quadruped--never knew I such indiscriminate buoyancy--all were one to -Fuji. With malediction on tongue and murder in heart, I sawed his -gutta-percha mouth until my fingers were blistered and my very jaws -ached, but I could hold him back only a while. We overtook the Italian, -a handsome boy with a wild intensity of eye--one puttee unwound and -flying after him. The iron-gray was giving trouble and he, too, was -unhappy. We passed Reggie--his great body stretched on a lumpy heap of -baggage--with a pipe in his mouth, that was halved with his perennial -smile of unshakable good-humor, and the other Frenchman squatting -between two humps of baggage on a jolting cart. - -"Ah!" he cried with extended hands, "you see--you see--" his head was -tossed to one side just then, he clutched wildly first one way and then -the other and with palms upward again--"you see how com_fort_able I am. -It ees gr-reat--gr-reat!" From laughter I let Fuji go then and he -went--through coil after coil of that war-dragon's length, past the -creaking, straining vertebræ, taking a whack with teeth or heels at -something now and then and something now and then taking a similar whack -at him. The etiquette of the road Fuji either knew not, or cared nothing -for--nor cared he for distinctions of rank in his own world or mine. By -rights the led cavalry horses should have had precedence. But nay, Fuji -passed two regiments without so much as "by your leave"; but I was doing -that for him vigorously and, whenever he broke through the line, I said -two things, and I kept saying them that I might not be cut off with a -sword: - -"Warui desu!" I said, which means "He's bad!" and "Gomen nasai," which -is Japanese for "Beg pardon." These two phrases never failed to bring a -smile instead of the curse that I might have got in any other army in -the world. We passed even an officer who seemed and was, no doubt, in a -great and just hurry, but even his eyes had to take the dust thrown from -Fuji's heels. I pulled the beast in at last on top of a little hill -whence I could see the battle-hills of Nanshan. But I cared no more for -that field than did Fuji, both of us being too much interested in life -to care much for post-mortem battle-fields, and when the rest came up, -we rode by Nanshan without turning up its green slopes and on to where -the first walled Chinese city I had ever seen lifted its gate-towers and -high notched walls in glaring sunlight and a mist of strangling dust. We -passed in through the city gates and stopped where I know not. It was -some bad-smelling spot under a hot sun, and being off Fuji and in that -sun, I cared not. I have vague memories of white men coming by and -telling me to come out of the sun and of not coming out of the sun; of -horses kicking and stamping near by and an occasional neigh from Fuji -hitched in the shade of the city wall and guarded by a Chinaman; of a -yellow man asleep on a cart, his unguarded face stark to that sun and a -hundred flies crawling about his open mouth; and of an altercation going -on between two white men. One said: - -"Your horse has kicked mine--remove him!" - -"Move your own," said another, and his tone was that of some Lord Cyril -in a melodrama. "Mine was there first." - -The other took off his coat: - -"I'm sorry, but I've got to fight you." - -"Very well, then," said Lord Cyril, stripping, too, and then the voice -of a peace-maker that I knew well broke in and in a moment all was -still. Takeuchi rode in on a mule. No hitting the dust for the proud -feet of Takeuchi then, as I learned, nor afterward, when there were any -other four feet that could be made to travel for hire. - -"I want a 'betto,'" he said--which is Japanese for hostler--"for Fuji." - -"Whatever need there be for Fuji, the accursed," said I, lapsing into -such Oriental phraseology as I had read in books, "buy, and buy -quickly--my money is in thy belt." He bought then and kept on buying -afterward. - -Straightway I fell again into sun-dreams with the yellow man near by -whose mouth was wide, for it was my first experience with the God of -Fire in his hell-hot Eastern home, and I strayed in them until I was -shaken into consciousness by a white man with a beer-bottle in his hand. -I remember a garden and trees next, a Chinese room with mats, a Chinese -woman--the first I had seen--with a sad, pretty face, who rose, when I -came to the door, and stalked into a house as though she were walking on -deer-hoofs (every step she took on her tiny, misshapen feet made me -shudder), and then the sound of Davis's guitar and Lewis's voice on the -soft night air and under a Manchurian moon soaring starward above the -Eastern city-wall. - -... It is noon of the second day now and we sit in the shade of -willow-trees. We left that first Chinese town of Kinchau and its dirty -natives this morning at eight. The dragon's tail again had been drawn -ahead through a narrow valley, rich in fields of millet and corn, from -which on either side a bleak, hilly, treeless desert ran desolately to a -blue mountain chain. Now, still on its trail, we sit in a green oasis, -on real grass and under sheltering willows. A lot of little Chinese boys -are around us, all naked except for a little embroidered varicolored -stomacher which hangs by a cord from the neck of each--for what purpose -I know not--and their elders are bringing water for us and sheaves of -millet-blades for the menagerie of beasts we ride. They seem a -good-natured race--these Manchurian farmers--genuine, submissive, -kindly, but genuine and human in contrast, if I must say it, with the -Japanese. Who was it that said the Chinese were the Saxons of the East -and the Japanese the Gauls? I know now what he meant. - -Lewis, in a big white helmet, has just ridden in on a diminutive white -jackass. I envy the peace and content of both of them, for Fuji was -particularly bad this morning. Again he passed everything on the road, -and as we swept the length of a cavalry column, I saw a soldier leading -a puny stallion a hundred yards ahead. When he heard us, he shouted a -warning: - -"Warui desu!" - -At the same time the beast he was leading turned, with ears laid back -and teeth showing, and made for us, dragging the soldier along. I was -greatly pleased. - -"Here, Fuji," I said, "is where my revenge comes in. You are going to -get it now and, if I mistake not, literally in the neck." - -But the brute attacked me instead--_me_. He got my right forearm between -his teeth and held on until I shifted a stick from right hand to left -and beat him off--the soldier spouting Japanese with French vivacity -meanwhile and tugging ineffectively. I got away only after the vicious -brute had pasted Fuji with both heels first on one side of my right leg -and then similarly on the other, missing me about three inches each -time. Fuji now shows blood but I am little hurt. Somehow in the -scrimmage O-kin-san's charm--the little block of wood--was broken in its -wicker case and whether the heels reached it that high I don't know. But -it was a good omen--that it should be broken and its owner still come -out unhurt--and it means that I am to be safe in this campaign. The puny -brute had not strength enough to break an Anglo-Saxon arm--and it is his -kind that make impossible for the Japanese certain big guns that the -Russians use. - -... It is 6 P.M. of the third day now and we are at Wa-fang-tien. We -left Pa-lien-tan this morning and made thirty-two miles. We took lunch -in a stinking Chinese village, and the chicken--well, it was a question -which was the more disturbing conjecture--how long it had lived or how -long it had been dead. Oh, Yokoyama! Fuji has not improved. He kicked -the Italian on the leg today and I've just helped to bandage it. Again -to-day I had to let him go. I tried to tire him out by riding him -through mud-holes and see-sawing him across deep wagon-ruts. But it was -no use. If a horse, bullock, man, woman, child, cat, or dog is visible -500 yards away, Fuji with a squeal makes for it. When the object is -overtaken, Fuji pays no attention to it, but looks for something else -toward which he can start his squealing way. For brutal, insensate -curiosity give me Fuji, or rather give him to anybody but me. 'Tis an -Eveless land for Fuji, but hope springs eternal for him. Dinner is just -over--tinned soup, half-cooked tinned sausages, prunes and rice from -Yokoyama's larder--which we are stocking at 12 yen per day. Hundreds of -coolies are squatting along the railroad track. In front of us a group -of Japanese soldiers has stood for five minutes staring at us with the -frank curiosity of children. They began to move away when I pulled this -note-book. Leaning against the tallest telegraph-pole, with hands bound -behind him, his pigtail tied to a thick wire twice twisted, stands a -miserable Chinese coolie. An hour ago I saw him on his knees across the -track, held down by four men, while the littlest Japanese soldier in the -group beat him heavily with a stick much thicker than the thumb. Then -they led him praying, howling, and limping to the telegraph-pole, where -he stands as an awful example to his fellows. He had stolen some coal -and it was his second offence. It was all right, of course, but it was -strange to see the apparent joy with which the Japanese did it and -stranger still to see the other coolies grinning, chatting, and making -fun of the culprit. I wonder whether they were crooking the pregnant -hinges of the knee or what on earth it did mean. We were hung up here at -3 P.M., and allowed to go no farther. There is no order for us to -remain--only a "strong desire" that we should--which is the Japanese -way. Davis and I had a great bath to-day in a pool which somebody had -dammed up--for what purpose I know not. What I do know is that it was -not meant for us. - -... Sitting on the sand, we are this August 5th under birch saplings and -by the side of a running stream. Davis and Lewis are asleep in the sand. -Fifteen miles only is our _métier_ to-day and Brill is anxious to go on. -The roads are bad farther on, say the Japanese, and transportation -difficult: the only satisfactory reason yet given for this hideous -delay, and this, I'm afraid, not the true one. They simply don't trust -us--that's all. The body of the dragon is naturally getting bigger and -his vertebræ are distinctly more lumpy. For instance, he gathered in a -train of thirty freight-cars this morning and he had six hundred coolies -pulling it for him. The button of him dropped back to-day toward the tip -o' tail that is his anatomical place. Brill passed him on the road. His -bicycle-tire was punctured and he was trying to mend it, Brill says, -with 25-cent postage-stamps. He evidently succeeded, for he has just -arrived. He seems to have had a high old time on the way. At the last -Chinese village he halted long enough to offer a prize--what I don't -know--to the Chinese child that could display the prettiest embroidered -stomacher. He had them lined up in a shy, smiling row, and was about to -deliver the prize when the winner was suddenly thrust forward with a -wonderful piece on his chubby tum-tum. The wild Irishman gave him the -prize, hoisted him on the bicycle and circled the compound swiftly to -the delight of the village. I asked him how he communicated with these -isolated heathens and he said he talked Irish to them. I'm quite sure he -does and he seems to make himself understood. - -It's sunset now at North Wa-fang-tien and all of us are out in a -hard-packed, sand-floor yard under little birch trees. It was a hot ride -to-day--the last mile being over a glaring white road and through -glaring white sand. That glare of a fierce sun made the head ache and -the very eyeballs burn. I almost reeled from Fuji, who for that mile -was, for the first time, almost docile. - -We had a shock and a thrill to-day--Brill, Lewis, Davis, and I. It was -noon, and while we sat on a low stone wall in a grassy grove, a few -carts filled with wounded Japanese passed slowly by. In one cart sat a -man in a red shirt, with a white handkerchief tied over his head and -under his chin. Facing him was a bearded Japanese with a musket between -his knees. The man in the red shirt wearily turned his face. It was -young, smooth-shaven, and _white_. The thrill was that the man was the -first Russian prisoner we had seen--the shock that among those yellow -faces was a captive with a skin like ours. I couldn't help feeling pity -and shame--pity for him and a shame for myself that I needn't explain. I -wondered how I should have felt had I been in his place and suddenly -found four white men staring at me. It's no use. Blood is thicker than -water--or anything else--in the end. - -This is distinctly a human country--a country of cornfields, beans and -potatoes, horses, cattle, sheep, dogs, goats, and no freaks in -tree-trunk, branch, or foliage. But I can't get over seeing a Chinaman -in a cornfield. It is always a shock. He doesn't seem to have any right -there--somehow nobody does except a white man or a darky. There are -tumble-bugs in the dusty road and gray, flying grasshopper-like things -that rise from the dust, flutter a few feet from the earth and drop back -again, just as they do at home. And the dragon-flies--why, they are -nothing in the world but the "snake-doctors" that I used to throw stones -at when I was a boy in the Bluegrass. The mountains are treeless and -volcanic, but it's a human country and I don't feel as far from home as -I did in Japan. Brill says it all looks like a lot of Montana hills -around Ohio cornfields: only the corn is millet that grows twelve feet -high. The people eat the top, they feed the blades to live-stock, and -the stalk serves almost every purpose of bamboo and for firewood as -well. You can ride for hours between two solid walls of it, and you -wonder how there can be people enough in the scattering villages to -plant and till, or even to cut it. A richer land I never saw. It looks -as though it would feed both armies, and yet there was no sign--no -burned house or robbed field or even a cast-off bit of the soldier's -equipment to show that an army had ever passed that way. One fact only -spoke significantly of war. No woman--except a child or a crone--was -ever visible. This struck me--when I recalled the trail of the -Massachusetts volunteers from Siboney to Santiago and the thousands of -women refugees straggling into Caney--as very remarkable. I suppose both -Japanese and Russians are trying to keep the good-will of the Chinaman -as well as of the rest of the world. I don't wonder that the Russians -are fighting for that land, nor shall I wonder should the Japanese, if -they win, try to keep it. But how it should belong to anybody but the -Chinaman who has tilled it in peace and with no harm to anybody for -thousands of years--I can't for the life of me see. - -Next morning there was a sign of war. At daybreak some red flecks from -the dragon's jaws drifted back from the mist and dust through which he -was writhing forward. It looked, some man said, like the procession of -the damned who filed past Dante in hell. Each man had a red roll around -him. They uttered no sound--they looked not at one another, but stared -vacantly and mildly at us as they shuffled silently from the mist and -shuffled silently on. The expression of each was so like the expression -of the rest that they looked like brothers. A more creepy, ghost-like -thing I never saw. I knew not what they were, but they fascinated me and -made me shudder, and I found myself drawing toward them, step by step, -hardly conscious that I was moving. I do not recall that any one of us -uttered a word. Yet they were only sick men coming back from the -front--soldiers sick with the _kakke_, the "beriberi," the sleeping -sickness. It was hard to believe that the face of any one of them had -ever belonged to a soldier---hard to believe that sickness could make a -soldier's face so gentle. That man in the red shirt and those gray -ghosts that shuffled so silently out of one mist and so silently into -another are the high lights in the two most vivid pictures I've seen -thus far. - -The beriberi comes from a diet of too much fish and rice, I understand. -It numbs the extremities and has a paralyzing effect on body and mind. -Summer is its time and snow checks its course. A man may have it a dozen -times and sometimes he dies. The young and able-bodied are its favorite -victims, old men its rare ones, and women and foreigners it wholly -spares. It made great havoc among Japanese soldiers in Korea, but the -Japanese now conquer beriberi as though it were a Russian metamorphosis. - -Shung-yo-hing is the place now and the time is 2 P.M. The heat was awful -and the dust from thousands of carts, coolies, and beasts of burden -choked the very lungs. I have the bulge on Fuji now. I knot the reins -and draw them over the pommel of a McClellan saddle, thus holding his -muzzle close to his chest. It seemed to puzzle Fuji a good deal. - -"He can't even neigh," I said to Brill in triumph, and Brill cackled -scorn. Fuji neighed five times in the next ten yards. I should say that -his record in six hours to-day was about this: stumbling with right -forefoot--300 times; stumbling with left hind-foot--200 times; -neighs--1,000. - -There are about twenty miles more to Kaiping. Haicheng has been taken by -the Japanese. Somebody has just come in with cheering news--we can get -back to Yokohama by water. Gently we all said: - -"Hooray!" The parting from Fuji will not be sad. - -... This morning I found in one pocket some strange pieces of paper with -strange ideographs thereon in Japanese. - -"What are these, Takeuchi?" - -Takeuchi looked really embarrassed. - -"Prayers," he said. "I got them at a temple. If you carry them, you will -get back safe." Well, that made Takeuchi immune for days. - -At Kaiping we are now and we go to Haicheng to-morrow. At least we think -we do. We got here last night: Fuji being lame, I left him for Takeuchi -to lead (he rode him, of course); went on afoot and later climbed aboard -a freight-train drawn by 600 coolies. I told the Japanese in my -smattering best of their language that my horse had gone lame, and they -were very polite. The train went slowly along the dragon's length and I -had a chance to observe minutely those vertebræ--heavy Chinese wagons, -the wheels with two thick huge spokes cross-barred, the hoops of wood -and studded with big, shining rivets, and the axles turning with the -wheels; between the shafts, a horse, bullock, or a mule; in front, three -leaders, usually donkeys, mules (the best I've seen out of America), or -bullocks, in all possible combinations of donkey, mule, or bullock. -Sometimes an ass colt trotted alongside. The drivers were Chinese -coolies, each with a long whip--the butt of bamboo, the shaft spliced -with four cane reeds, the lash of leather and the cracker as it is all -over the rural world. The two or three leaders of the four- or -five-in-hand, pulled by ropes attached to the cart at either side of the -cart to one side of each shaft. The hames were two flat pieces of wood, -lashed to a straw collar that was sometimes canvas-covered. The cries of -the drivers, strange as they sounded to the foreigner near by, were at a -distance strangely like the cries of drivers everywhere: - -"Atta! Atta! Atta-atta-atta!" - -"Usui! Usui!--u-u-u-su-u-i!" - -"Whoa-a-ah!" - -At noon, Lionel James and little Clarkin rode by and shouted that the -Japanese Commandant there had a lunch ready near by. We found half a -dozen tables set in the walled yard of a Chinese farmhouse. All of us -were expected, but the others (except the Japanese correspondents who -were on hand) had gone on. There was a nice sergeant there and a grave -major with medals, and there were soldiers with fans to keep off the -flies, while we sat in an arbor, under white Malaga-like clusters of -grapes, and had tea and beer and tinned Kobbe beef and army crackers. -The rain started when we started on--and when it rains in Manchuria, it -really seems to rain. I was on foot in a light flannel shirt, and had no -coat or poncho. In ten minutes the road had a slippery coating of mud, I -was wet to the skin and, as my boots had very low heels, I was slipping -right, left, and backward with every step. Clarkin and James overtook me -and we took turns walking. In an hour the road was a very swift river, -belly-deep and with big waves--dangerous to cross. Miles and miles we -went through muddy cornfields for four hours, until we could see, across -a yellow river, the high, thick walls of Kaiping through the drizzling -mist. I waded the river, waist-high, and on the other side an -interpreter gave me a white mule, which I took in order not to get my -boots muddy again. We wound into a city gate, were stopped by a sentry -and sent on again around the city walls and three or four miles across a -muddy, slushy flat, full of deep wagon-ruts and holes. After much -floundering through mud, and the fording of many streams, we found the -Commandant with his shoes under his chair and his naked feet on the -rungs. James clicked his heels and saluted. We all took off our hats, -but as he neither rose nor moved naked foot toward yawning shoe, we put -them back on again. We must go to Kaiping, he said, and he was very -indifferent and smiled blandly when we told him that we had just waded -and swum from Kaiping. Just the same we had to wade and swim back--by -the same floundering way and through gathering darkness. We missed the -way, of course, rode entirely around the city walls, rode through -Kaiping and back again, and finally struck an interpreter who piloted us -to this Chinese temple where I write. I was cold, muddy, hungry, and -tired to the bone. But the button on the dragon's tail was there, and -Brill the gentle; and, mother of mercies! they had things to eat and to -drink. An hour later, Davis came in half-dead--leading Prior on Williams -and Walker. He had struck the same gentleman of the naked foot and -yawning shoe, had been sent on, and had gone into a stream over his head -and crawled on hands and knees most of the way through pitch dark. He -didn't mind himself, but Prior was elderly and was ill. Davis wanted the -Commandant to take him in, but he refused and Davis was indignant: - -"I wouldn't turn a water-snake out of doors on a night like this." - -But those two same Samaritans saved him straightway, and we sit now in -Chinese clothes in front of a temple and under a great spreading, -full-leafed tree, with two horses champing millet before the altar and -thousands of buzzing flies around. To-morrow we go on! - - - - - VI - - THE WHITE SLAVES OF HAICHENG - - -Haicheng at last! The Russians are only five miles away and they can -drop shells on us, but they don't. The attachés were taken out on a -reconnaissance yesterday, and we, too, if we are very good, will be -allowed to see a Japanese soldier in a real ante-mortem trench. - -We left Yoka-tong this morning at seven and in three hours reached -dirty, fly-ridden Ta-shi-kao. The valley has broadened as we have come -north. The Chinese houses are better and the millet-fields (kow-liang) -stretch away like a sea on each side of the road. Soldiers were bathing -in the river that we crossed to get to the gate of Haicheng, and the -stretch of sand was dotted with naked men. Every grove was, in color, -mingled black, brown, and dirty white from the carts, horses, and -soldiers packed under the trees. We found the courteous Captain of -Gendarmes, by accident, straightway, and we had to take tea hot, tea -cold, and tea with condensed milk before he would lead us to our -quarters in this mud compound. Lewis, Reggie, and Scull greeted us with -a shout and produced beer and Tansan and a bottle of champagne cider. -Heavens, what nectar each was! The rest are coming, but the button on -the dragon's tail--the Irishman on the bicycle--has come off. Nobody -knows where it dropped. Reggie the big Frenchman is newly mounted on a -savage yellow beast that can be approached, like a cow, only on the -right side--and Lewis told the story of the two. Davis answered with the -story of our tribulations--his, Brill's and mine. He told it so well -that Brill and I wished we had been there.... - -We slept in our riding-clothes for the third time last night and to-day -we know our fate. We are to play a week's engagement here in a drama of -still life--the title of which heads these lines. With a sleeve-badge of -identification on--the Red Badge of Shame we call it--we can wander more -or less freely within the city walls. We can even climb on them and walk -around the town--about two miles--but we cannot go outside without a -written application from the entire company, and then only under a -guard. We are to have three guards, by the way, and our letters--even -private ones--are to go to the censor and not come back to us. Thus no -man will know what has gone, and what hasn't, or whether what went was -worth sending. Later this restriction was removed. - -Our Three Guardsmen came to us last night and told these things. One was -thick-set, bearded, and a son of Chicago University; one was -smooth-shaven, thin-faced--and an authority on international law--both, -of course, speaking English. The third carried a small mustache and -talked very good French--so said Reggie. After the usual apologies, the -bearded one said in partial excuse for shackling us: - -"Some of our common soldiers, never having seen a foreigner before, are -not able to distinguish between you and Russians. We wish to provide -against accidents." And he laughed. - -An incident on the way here, yesterday afternoon, made this sound -plausible. I was riding alone, and hearing a noise behind me I turned in -my saddle, to see a Japanese slipping upon me with his bayonet -half-drawn from his scabbard. I stopped Fuji and said: "Nan desuka?" -(What is it?) and he, too, stopped, and turned back. Whether this was a -case in point or whether he was drunk and showing off before his -companions, or whether my Tokio accent paralyzed him, I don't know, but -later, the men who broke away from our guards and got among the -soldiers, testified that they received nothing but courtesy, kindness, -and childlike curiosity from the Japanese Tommy always. - -"You saw Nanshan?" asked the bearded one. - -"No," I said. "We want to see fighting, not battle-fields." He laughed -again. - -"You have had a very hard time, but I think the fight at Liao-Yang will -recompense you." - -"Have you heard anything from Port Arthur?" - -"Nothing." - -"We heard the guns as we came by and it was very exasperating." He -laughed again. - -"We do not think much about Port Arthur. That is only a question of -time. Liao-Yang will be decisive. The sooner the Russians give up at -Port Arthur, the better it will be for them." - -"But they not only lose their own ships, but free the Japanese fleet for -operations elsewhere." - -"That's true." - -"And they free the investing army for operations up here." - -"That's true." He shook his head. "But Liao-Yang will be decisive." - -They got up to go then and the bearded one simply bowed. The other two -shook hands all around, and when they were through, the third said: -"Well, I will shake hands, too," and he went the round. - -Lewis has just come in--his face luminous with joyful news. General Oku -has sent us over: - - 1 doz. bottles of champagne. - 4 doz. bottles of beer. - 1 package of fly-paper. - 1 live sheep. - -Liao-Yang is only about twenty-nine miles away, and the Three Guardsmen -say we are not to be here very long. If the Russians can drop a shell on -us here, I wish they would--just one, anyhow. Even one would save the -faces of us a little. - -... That poor Manchuria lamb of General Oku's died voluntarily this -morning before the canteen-man could kill it--but the champagne, the -beer, and the fly-paper are all the heart could desire. This day has -been interesting. The Three Guardsmen rounded us up this afternoon and -took us to see General Oku. - -We burnished up riding-gear and riding-clothes and at three o'clock the -compound was filled with squealing stallions and braying jackasses. It -took three men to saddle Reggie's savage Mongolian. The Irishman, as -usual, was not to be found--he and Scull had gone afoot, to the worry of -the Three Guardsmen; but we rode out finally, single-file, a brave but -strangely assorted company--Brill on his chestnut, Lewis on a milk-white -charger, the Italian on an iron-gray, Davis on Devery, Laguerié on a -little white donkey, Prior on his seventeen-hand, weak-backed white -horse, and big Burleigh on a tiny savage pony that pasted Prior's horse, -as we marched, with both heels. - -"Why don't you go to the rear, Burleigh?" said Prior. "That beast of -yours kicks." - -"No, he doesn't," said Burleigh indignantly. "He only bites." - -These two veterans and Davis wore ribbons on the left breast. Dean -Prior, indeed, seemed to have his color-box there. I had a volunteer -policeman's badge that came from the mountains of old Virginia. I was -proud of it, and it meant campaigns, too, but I couldn't pull it amidst -the glory of those three. Lieutenant Satake, the authority on -international law, led. The bearded one guarded our centre and the third -watched our rear. At the city gate a sergeant sprang to his feet: - -"Hoo--!" he said, and I thought he was going to give us a whole cheer, -but it was only a half. Still all the sentries sprang to attention and -the soldiers at the gate stood rigid as their muskets. Over the stretch -of white sand, across the yellow river, and up a sandy road we went, -past staring sentries, and then into a little Chinese village, where we -dismounted. No servants were allowed, so soldiers came forward to hold -our horses. Fuji was curvetting no little. - -"Warui desu!" I said, which still means, "He's bad," and the soldier -smiled and led Fuji far to one side. - -We followed Satake into a court-yard. He seemed rather nervous and -presently motioned us to halt. Presently he came back, called the roll, -and each man, after answering his name, stepped to one side and stood in -line where there were two tables under grape arbors and covered with -cigars and cigarettes. Satake looked relieved--not one of us had -escaped; even the Irishman was there. Several officers stood expectantly -about, and, after a long pause, a tired-looking, slender man appeared, -accompanied by a rather stout, sleek-looking young one, and followed by -an officer with a beard and a rather big nose that in color bespoke -considerable cheer. When they got near, a sad-faced interpreter stepped -forward and in a sad, uneasy voice said: - -"I have the honor to present you to His Imperial Highness, Prince -Nashimoto." - -The sleek young man bowed and thrust out his hand. We all advanced, -spoke each his own name, and shook. Prior said, "Melton Prior." - -Burleigh, bending low, said, almost confidentially: - -"Burleigh." Davis came last---- - -"Mr. Davis." Then the tired-looking man, General Oku, and his aide with -the nose of good cheer, shook hands: only it was they who went around -the circle this time. The Prince retired behind one of the tables and -General Oku stepped forward with his back to the Prince, and through the -sad interpreter said things: - -We had come thousands of miles and had endured many hardships getting to -the front, and he welcomed us. He was sorry that on the battle-field he -could give us so few comforts, but he was glad to see us and would do -all he could for us, etc., etc. - -Such solemnity as there was! Aide stood behind General--staff behind the -aide. Most of them kept their faces bent till chin touched breast, and -never looked up at all. If a high priest had been making a prayer for -the soul of a dead monarch while other priests listened, the scene could -not have been more solemn. Straight through, it was stiff, formal, -uneasy--due, of course, to the absence of a common tongue and the -uneasiness on the part of the Japanese in receiving us after the -Occidental way; and I wondered if the scene would not have been the same -had Occidentals been receiving the Japanese after the way of Japan. But -I think not--American humor and adaptability would have lightened the -gloom a little. I watched Oku keenly. Though I had seen him coming for -twenty yards, I recalled suddenly that I saw nothing but his face until -he got quite near. It was sad with something of Lincoln's sadness. In -profile, it was kindly, especially when he smiled; full-faced there were -proofs that he could be iron and relentless. But his eyes! Big, black, -glittering, fanatical, ever-moving they were, and you caught them never -but for a moment, but when you did, they made you think of lightning and -thunder-storms. He was dressed simply in olive-green serge, with one -star on his cap and three stars and three stripes on his sleeve. His -boots were good. His sword hung in his left hand--unclinched. His other -hand looked nerveless. Not once did he shift his weight from his right -foot--only the sole of his left ever touching the stone flagging. He is -the most remarkable looking man I've seen thus far among the Japanese, -and I think we shall hear from him. - -Then the aide with the cheerful nose spoke the same welcome and hoped we -would obey the regulations. Dean Prior answered, thanking the General -for the champagne, the beer, the fly-paper, and the lamb, whose untoward -demise he gracefully skipped, and said he had always been trusted by -generals in the field and hoped he would be trusted now. Then we smoked -and the Irishman spoke halting French with the Prince, who (he looked -it) had been educated in Paris. General Oku asked questions and we asked -questions. - -"How long have you been in Japan?" - -"More than five months." He laughed and his teeth were not good. - -"You must know Tokio well." - -"I know every stone in Tokio," somebody said. - -The General did not smile this time. - -"Have you been to Nikko?" This was a malicious chance. - -"We were afraid to leave Tokio for fear of not getting to the front." - -"Shall we see much fighting?" - -"I think so--from a high place. You cannot see in the valleys--the -kow-liang is too high to see over even on horseback. Yes, you will see -the fight." - -Then we shook hands again, saluted the staff and departed. - -The Japanese soldier had Fuji behind a tree--and he was smiling. - -"Warui desu!" he said, and he looked at me with approval that I dared -ride him; for Fuji was Japanese and bad, and Japanese are not good -horsemen. At any rate, he followed me to the gate and held Fuji twice -more before we finally got away. On the way back to captivity Laguerié -turned a somersault over his white donkey's head. He rose, spluttering, -between the donkey's forelegs. It looked for a moment as though the -donkey were riding Laguerié. - - * * * * * - -At sunset, next day, the Irishman said: - -"Come with me," and I followed unquestioning, because questioning was -useless. Out the compound we went, through narrow streets and up a rocky -little hill in the centre of the village, where we could look over the -low tiled roofs--here and there a tree was growing up through them--over -the mud-enclosures, the high-notched city walls, the stretch of white -sand beyond, a broader stretch of green still farther on, slit with the -one flashing cimeter-like sweep of the river--and then over the low -misty hills to the tender after-glow, above which wisp-like, darkening -clouds hung motionless. - -"Greatest people in the world," said the Irishman with an -all-encompassing sweep of his right arm. "All happy--all peaceful. The -soldier lowest here in the social scale--in Japan, the highest. Home the -unit. Tilled the same soil for countless generations--always plenty to -eat. We forced opium on 'em with war in '52. To think they've got to be -cursed with our blasted, blasting materialism." - -I had been through all that with the Irishman many times before, so we -went on. From a gateway a cur barked viciously at us. An old man came -out to call him in and the Irishman took the Chinaman by the arm and -pointed to a walled enclosure on the extreme summit. - -"I want to get in there." How, on sight, he wins the confidence of these -people--men, women, and children--how he makes himself understood, not -knowing a word of Chinese, I don't know. Straightway the old fellow went -with us, the Irishman clinging to his arm, pounded on the heavy door and -left us. - -"What is it?" - -"A monastery," said the Irishman. - -An ancient opened the portal, by and by, and we went in--through an -alley-way to a court-yard, stone-flagged--and I almost gasped. Temples -age-worn, old gardens tangled and unkempt and trees unpruned, dropped in -terraces below us; and with them in terraces dropped, too, the notched -gray walls that shut in the hushed silence of the spot from the noise of -the outside world. Black-and-white magpies flew noiselessly about among -the trees. Somewhere pigeons cooed and butterflies were fluttering -everywhere. It was a deserted Confucian monastery--gone to wreck and -ruin with only one priest to guard it, but untouched by the hand of -Russian or Japanese. Both use temples only when they must, and it seems -that Occidentals have much to learn from Tartar and heathen in reverence -for the things that concern the universal soul. To escape that compound, -we should have pitched our tents there, I suppose, had we been allowed. -But it was a place of peaceful refuge open to us all. An Irishman had -found it, and sharing the discovery we sat there and dreamed in silence -until the after-glow was gone. - -... It is pretty mournful this morning--rainy, muddy, dreary, dark. We -have established a policing system--each man taking turn; but the mud in -the court-yard deepens and the smells fade not at all. We have flies, -mosquitoes, night-bugs that are homelike in species and scorpions that -are not. Every man shakes his shoes in the morning for a hiding -scorpion. A soldier brought in a dead one to-day, that yesterday had -bitten him on the hand. He was bandaged to the shoulder, and but for -quick treatment might have lost his arm. It can't be healthy in here, -but only Dean Prior and two others have been ill. What a game Dean it -is, by the way! He laughs at his sickness, laughs when that big white -horse with the weak back goes down in a river or mud-hole with him, and -never complains at all. I have never seen such forbearance and patience -and good-humor among any set of men. If a man wakes up cross and in an -ill-humor--that day is his. He may kick somebody's water-pail over the -wall, storm at his servant, curse out the food, and be a general -irritable nuisance; but the rest forbear, look down at their plates, and -nobody says a word, for each knows that the next day may be his. This -forbearance is one benefit anyhow that we are getting out of this -campaign, which is a sad, sad waste thus far. But Reggie appears at the -door. As he marches past us we rise and sing the Marseillaise; when he -marches back, we sing it again, and that smile of his is reward enough. -There is good news--_we_ are to go out on a reconnaissance to-morrow, -ourselves. - - * * * * * - -Holy Moses! but that reconnaissance was a terrifying experience. We went -out past the station where the last fight was, along a dusty road and up -a little hill, left our horses under its protecting bulk, sneaked over -the top, and boldly stood upright on the slant of the other side. Below -us was a big rude cross over a Russian grave. Things were pointed out to -us. - -"You see that big camel-backed mountain there," said one of the Three -Guardsmen. We levelled glasses. "Well, that's where the main body of the -Russians are." - -"How far away is that camel-back?" somebody asked innocently. The -Guardsman had turned and was beckoning violently to the Italian (who was -on top of the little hill, some thirty feet above us) to come down. Then -he said: - -"About ten miles." - -"So desuka!" (truly) said the same voice, lapsing with awe into -Japanese. - -"So desu!"--which is "truly" in response,--said the Guardsman with -satisfaction, and we had a thrill. The Italian now had blithely drawn -near. He seemed unafraid, but perhaps he had been unaware of his peril -on the skyline only ten miles from a Russian gun. - -Then we cautiously advanced along the road for another half a mile to an -empty trench in a little camp near which there must have been all of -twenty Japanese soldiers. One correspondent stepped across the trench -and was gesticulated back with some warmth. Davis sat down on the trench -and was politely asked to get up and move back--not that he would hurt -the trench, but because he was sitting on the half of it that was next -the ten-mile-away enemy--and apparently the Guardsman had orders that we -must not cross a carefully marked line. Davis got up like a shot and -hurriedly went away back to sit down. - -The major of the post there gave us tea and beer at his quarters near -by. He was a big fellow and was most kind and courteous. He had been a -professor in a war-college and had asked the privilege of death at the -front. He got it, poor fellow, and later I saw a picture of his body -being burned after the fight at Liao-Yang. - -We are getting pretty restless now. The Irishman and I were denied -admittance at the monastery yesterday by the order of the Imperial -Highness whom we met the other day. However, he relaxed it in our favor. -Dean Prior started to go up on the city wall to-day to sketch, and was -stopped by a sentry, who put a naked bayonet within two feet of his -breast. He came back raging, and wrote a scathing letter which I don't -think he will send. - - * * * * * - -This morning _Wong_ came. - -At ten o'clock the Irishman appeared at the entrance of the compound, -leading by the hand a little Chinese boy some eight or ten years old. He -was the dirtiest little wretch I ever saw, but he smiled--and never saw -I such teeth or such a winsome smile. The Irishman said simply and -gravely: - -"This is Wong," and no more. He led the boy behind the paling that -enclosed our bathing-quarters, plucking, as he walked, a sponge and a -cake of soap, which happened to be mine. Then I heard: - -"Take it off!" And again: "Take it off, I say!" - -Apparently he was obeyed. Then: - -"Take that off, too; yes, that, too!" Evidently the boy had but two -garments on, for considerable splashing took the place of peremptory -commands. By and by they came out together and, still hand in hand, -passed out of the compound. In half an hour the Irishman came back. - -"I've just taken Wong down to Poole's," he said, still gravely, "to get -him a new suit of clothes." - -"The trousers were too long, and Wong objected. Poole told him that -trousers were worn long this season, and Wong compromised by rolling -them up. He'll be here by and by." - -By and by Wong came back resplendent in new blouse, new trousers, new -shoes and socks. On his breast was sewed a big white piece of cotton in -the shape of a shamrock, and on the shamrock was printed this: - - WONG - _Cup-bearer and Page in Waiting_ - to - ---- ----, _Esquire_. - -Straightway was Wong an habitué of the compound and straightway his -education began. Wong was quick to learn. - -"Attention, Wong!" the Irishman would say, and Wong would spring to his -feet and dash for a bottle of--Tansan. - -"Make ready!" Wong would poise the bottle. "Aim--fire!" Wong would fire, -and then would come the command, "When!" which meant "cease firing!" and -Wong, perfect little soldier that he was, would cease, though his genial -hospitality and genuine concern for the happiness of everybody made -ceasing very hard. If his master ordered a bottle of wine at the table, -Wong would pass it to every man. He was equally hospitable in the matter -of cigarettes--anybody's; for he could never see that what belonged to -one man did not belong to all. Essentially, in that crowd, he was right. -But it was rather expensive for the Irishman, until one day he told Wong -always to take the chits to "that fat man"--who was not Reggie--and -thereafter the fat man got them. - -Wong had caught the military salute from the Japanese soldiers, and -every morning, when he came in, he would go around to each of us in -turn, clicking his heels, hand at his forehead, and always with that -radiant smile flashing from his gentle eyes and his beautiful teeth. The -Irishman always slept late. One morning he was awakened by an insistent -little voice outside his mosquito-net, saying, over and over: - -"Hello, George; wake up! Hello, George; wake up!" Somebody had taught -him that; but he saw straightway that it was not respectful, and we -could never get him to do it again. - -After his second bath he went around pulling his shirt open to show how -clean his yellow little body was. Indeed, he got such a passion for -cleanliness that one morning he näively held out his exquisite hands to -Lewis to be manicured--Lewis did it. Again, when Tansan spouted into his -face, he reached out, pulled a silk handkerchief from a man's pocket and -mopped his face. All of us got to love that boy, and when we went away -there was a consultation. We would make up a fund and educate him. His -father was called in and an interpreter explained our design. Wong burst -into tears and wept bitterly. There were answering drops in the -Irishman's eyes. - -"I tell you, all the blood shed in this miserable war is not worth those -few precious tears. Greatest people on earth! Why should he want to -leave them?" - -Lovable little Wong! The first word the Irishman said when he came back -through that town on our way home was spoken to a group of boys on the -street. - -"Wong!" he said simply, and they raised a shout of comprehension and -dashed away, the Irishman after them. Half an hour later he joined me in -a restaurant. Wong was not in town, he said gravely; he had bought a -place outside of town with the money we had given him, and had taken his -family into the country for the hot season. Anyhow, we saw Wong the -gentle, Wong the winning, no more. - - * * * * * - -A major came this morning to give us a lecture on the battle of -Tehlitzu--to while away the tedium, said one of the Guardsmen. The Major -is smooth-shaven and very broad between the cheek-bones. His hair is -clipped short, his eyes are large, and his face is strong. He must have -been a professor in a war-college, for he stood up and drew mountains, -hills, valleys, positions, trenches, trees, and made figures--all with -wonderful rapidity and skill--backward. That is, he made them for us -standing in front of him to look at. A certain division, he said, of a -certain regiment, at a certain time had done a certain thing. It was a -perfect lecture except that all the really essential facts were -skilfully suppressed. - -The Major had been present only as an observer--a student--but at one -hot place on which he put his finger, he had "lost many friends there," -he said impassively. - -At that place a young Russian officer led a charge, and his men refused -to follow him. The officer drew a dagger and smilingly killed himself. - -"We all speak much of that man," said the Major. - -At another place the ammunition gave out on both sides, and Japanese and -Russians fought with stones--men on both sides being severely wounded. -While this was going on some Russian officers advanced, sword in hand, -from another point, but they had no followers. One of them started -forward and gave challenge. A Japanese officer sprang to meet him, and a -duel was fought while soldiers of both armies looked on. "The Japanese -was fortunate enough to despatch the Russian," said the Major modestly -and dispassionately, "and we buried him with much ceremony and put a -barrier over him. It was an interesting study--this battle--as to -whether it is better to fight a defensive or an offensive enemy." - -"Well, I'd rather have seen that rock-fight," said a correspondent, "and -that duel than the whole battle." - -The Major looked puzzled and shocked, and went on to tell how they had -captured a fat Russian colonel--whose horse was wounded and whose coat -was gone. - -"He said our artillery fire was--" the Major paused, used a Russian -word, and turned to the interpreter helplessly--and the interpreter -said: - -"Ungodly." - -"Yes," said the Major, and he smiled. "The first thing the Russian asked -for was a bottle of soda-water, which made us laugh. We do not carry -such things in the fields. I gave him ten cigarettes." - -"How many men did the Japanese have in that fight?" asked a -correspondent. - -"Just as many as they have now," was the illuminating answer. - -I wonder if anybody but the Japanese knows how many men they have really -had in any fight, and whether in consequence their victories have been -due to astonishing skill or overwhelming numbers. There is rumor of one -lost Japanese division, the whereabouts of which nobody--but the -Japanese--knows. It could have been in every fight thus far and -nobody--but the Japanese--could know. - -We are getting mighty tired now. Several of us concluded up at the -monastery to-day that we would go home pretty soon unless there was a -change. There we took pictures of temples, monoliths, stone-turtles. The -Irishman appeared suddenly--coming down the long steps above us, leading -a Chinese child by the hand and carrying a younger one in his arms. How -or where he gathers in children the way he does, is a mystery to all of -us. Then we took more pictures and four officers came in. We -communicated in a Babel of French, German, English, Chinese, and -Japanese. They got tea for us from the priest, and were very polite. -Later two more came in. Davis and I were writing, and they stood around -and looked at us for a while. One approached. - -"What are you doing there?" - -"Writing," I said. - -"Drawing?" he asked suspiciously. - -"Yes, drawing," said Davis. "Why do you want to know what we are doing?" -I don't think the officer understood--but he understood that something -was wrong, and he stood a moment in some awkwardness. - -"Good-a-by!" he said. - -"Sayonara," we answered. - -"I don't think it is anything but curiosity," I said. - -"A good deal of it is--because they don't know that they oughtn't to -show it. He put us at once in the attitude of being spies. I can't -imagine what he thought we were drawing." - -"We didn't have our badges on. He might have arrested us." - -"That would have been some diversion." - -The day has been warm, brilliant--the sky crystalline, deep, and flecked -with streamers of wool. At sunset now the rain is sweeping the west like -a giant broom, the rush of wind and river is indistinguishable, the -silent magpies are flying about, but there is still a mighty peace -within these walls. Back now to mud, flies, and fleas. - -It's 1 A.M. The fleas won't sleep, and for that reason I can't. Even the -drone of school-children chanting Chinese classics--as our little -mountaineers chant the alphabet in a "blab-school"--and the barking of -dogs have ceased. Somewhere out in the darkness picket-fires are shining -where the Sun-children and the White Cubs are soon to lock in a fierce -embrace. I like this Manchurian land and I like the Chinaman. Both are -human and the country is homelike--with its cornfields, horses, mules, -cattle, and sheep and dogs. The striking difference is here, you see no -women except very old ones or little girls. Here is the absence of that -insistent plague--human manure--that disgusts the sensitive nose in -Japan. The "fragrant summer-time" would have been a satire if it had -been written in Japan. But there is no charm here as there is everywhere -in Nature and Man in Japan. Besides the Chinese, here at least, are -filthy in person and in their homes--the smell of the Chinaman is -positively acrid--while the Japanese are beyond doubt the very -cleanliest people in the world. I wish I could see for myself what they -really are in battle. As far as I can make out at long distance, the -Japanese army and the individual Japanese soldier seem the best in the -world: the soldier for the reason that he cares no more for death than -the average Occidental for an afternoon nap--the army for the reason -that the Buschido spirit--feudal fealty--having been transferred from -Daimio and Samurai to Colonel and General--gives it a discipline that -seems perfect. Imagine an army without stragglers or camp-followers, in -which one man is as good as another and all boast of but one thing--a -willingness to die. It looks as though for the first time in history the -fanatical spirit of the Mussulman who believed that he would step, at -death, from the battle-field into Paradise, was directed by an acute and -world-trained intelligence. As to the soldier, the pivotal point of -effectiveness seems to be this: an Occidental and a Japanese quarrel, -and they step outside to settle matters. The Occidental thinks not only -of killing the Japanese, but of getting out alive. His energies are -divided, his concentration of purpose suffers. The Japanese has no such -division--he is concerned only with killing his opponent, and he doesn't -seem to care whether or not he comes out alive or dead. I'm wondering, -though, whether he would fight this way for England--whether he will -ever fight again this way for himself. - -It has been cold the last two days. The flies have almost disappeared -and the fleas are less active--in numbers, anyhow. Two officers came to -see us last night and it's the first time we have been honored in this -way. One had a long sword 400 years old--the other a short one 500 years -old, and both were wonderful blades. Now, the sword of a Samurai was his -soul, and the man who even stepped over it did it at the peril of his -life. I was rather surprised that they let us handle them so freely. - -"We are to leave here very soon," they said. - -To-morrow we do leave--toward Liao-Yang. - - - - - VII - - THE BACKWARD TRAIL OF THE SAXON - - -Out at the gate of the compound, last night, a barytone voice lifted a -pæan of praise to the very stars. We were to leave that wretched -enclosure next day, the Three Guardsmen said, and that night the White -Slaves listened to the barking of dogs, the droning chorus of -school-children chanting Chinese classics and the medley of small noises -in streets and compound, and sank to sleep for the last time in -Haicheng. As usual, the raucous cries of Dean Prior and Burleigh ushered -in the dawn, and the usual awakening and bustle of servants and masters -followed. For the last time Little Wong, Cup-bearer and Page-in-Waiting, -with his hand at his forehead, clicked his heels before each of us in -turn, stirred his master, the Irishman, from slumber deep, and, with a -radiant smile and flashing teeth, fired volleys of Tansan right and -left. Within half an hour we were gathered under Yokoyama's tent for our -last breakfast. For the last time Big Reggie, the Frenchman, marched -past us, and for the last time we made him keep step to a ringing -Marseillaise. Half an hour later, the compound was full of squealing -horses, and soon carts, coolies, the White Slaves of Haicheng, and the -Three Guardsmen wound out of the gate, through the narrow streets and -under the city wall--on the way to see a battle at last. Two hours we -marched, climbed then a little hill, left our horses on the hither side, -crawled over the top to where that battle was raging--some ten miles -away. Up in the mountains somebody was evidently letting loose giant -puffs of cigarette-smoke high in the air. No sound was perceptible, but -they were shells, a Guardsman said. - -"Whose shells?" - -"I don't know," said the Guardsman. As a matter of fact, those shells -were so far away that we could not tell whether they were Russian or -Japanese, whether they were coming toward us or going away. But we could -count them, and, of course, that was great profit and fun. So, while -that battle raged, we fearlessly strolled around the hill-side or sat in -groups and told stories, and one daredevil of a correspondent, made -reckless by the perils we had passed, deliberately turned his back to -the fight and calmly read a newspaper. - -The Three Guardsmen were justly pained by such a neglect of such an -opportunity to study strategy and tactics in a great war, and they did -not look happy. Thus for two hours did we not see the battle of -Anshantien. - -Toward noon the shell-smoke waned and we moved on to another compound, -where we were to spend the night. At dusk a Guardsman came in radiant -and filled our hearts with fatuous cheer. We were to see another fierce -engagement next morning. But we must rise early and travel fast or we -should be too late, as the attack would be made before dawn. The Three -Guardsmen would come themselves to awaken us at three o'clock so that -there could be no mistake. He was so earnest and so sure that we went to -bed greatly excited, and nobody slept except the Irishman, who lifted -his head from sound slumber, however, when one vagrant beer-bottle was -popped to decide a wager, at midnight. - -"Don't you think I don't hear you," he said. - -"I win the bet," said Brill. - -Three hours later, the Guardsmen found us awake. We arose and stumbled -in the mud and darkness for a cup of coffee, and started single file -through raining blackness toward that ever-vanishing front. Nobody said -a word, and the silence and mystery of the march was oppressive as we -waded streams and ploughed through mud between walls of dripping corn. -Every now and then the Authority on International Law, who led us, would -halt the column and get off his horse to look for the trail that had -been left for us the day before. At least he did the looking, but it was -always Captain James, the Englishman, who found the trail; a more -stealing, mysterious, conspirator-like expedition I have never known. It -was hard to believe that we were not creeping up to make an attack on -something ourselves, or that the Russians might not burst from the corn -on either side at any minute. - -On we went until another hill loomed before us, and at the foot of this -hill we waited for the dawn. By and by another cavalcade approached, the -military attachés, equally impressive, equally mysterious, equally -solemn and expectant. And on that little hill we waited, in the cold -wind and drifting sleet and rain, the correspondents huddled on top, the -cloaked attachés stalking along on a little terrace some thirty feet -below, everybody straining his eyes through the darkness to see the -first flash of a gun. Morning came and we were still straining--big -Reggie nibbling a hard-boiled egg on the very summit of the hill, a -Lieutenant-General of the English Army patrolling the terrace like some -"knight-at-arms alone and palely loitering," because no shells sang, and -the rest of us dotting the muddy mound with miserable, shivering shapes, -while wind, rain, and cold made merry over the plight of all. The Three -Guardsmen moved restlessly about, speaking words of good cheer; but -something was happening to that battle and we got tired of straining and -began to walk recklessly around that hill and borrow chocolate and -tobacco and bread from one another for breakfast. Even the Guardsmen got -uneasy--hopeless--and once I found myself on the other side of the hill, -where one of them lay huddled in his army coat. For a little while we -talked inter-continental differences. - -"We do not understand, we Occidentals, why the Japanese prefers to -commit hara-kiri rather than be captured, and we argue this way: If I -allow myself to be captured, I may be exchanged or escape, and thus have -a chance to fight another day; if not, my enemy has to take care of me -and feed me, so that I reduce his force and resources just that much. If -I kill myself I make a gap in my own ranks that I can't fill again. If I -accept capture, I am worrying and exhausting you all the time. The only -good I can see in hara-kiri is the effect that it might have on the -fighting capacity of the men who are left. Is there any economic -consideration of that sort under the Japanese idea?" - -The Guardsman shook his head. "No," he said, "it is instinct with us; -but," he added presently, "I think we are coming around to your point of -view, and I think we will come around to it more and more. You see, we -have transferred the Buschido spirit of feudalism into the army. The -loyalty of Samurai to Daimio has been transferred to soldier and -officer, and this instinct for hara-kiri is so great an element in the -Buschido spirit that I think our officers are a little fearful about -trying to change it too rapidly." But a Japanese will not talk long -about such matters with a foreigner. - -The Guardsman pulled a little brass check covered with Chinese -characters from his pocket. - -"This is how we identify our dead," he said. "Every soldier carries one -of these, and every officer." - -"That's a good idea," I said, but I couldn't help thinking how little -use he could ever have for that check as long as he was guarding us. It -is said that just about this time the wife of a correspondent back in -Tokio went trembling to the War-Office. "I have heard nothing from my -husband," she said. "Tell me if he has been killed." The official was -startled. - -"Impossible!" he said. - -I climbed the hill again to see how that battle was going on. The first -line of "The Burial of Sir John Moore" will do for that battle. It -wasn't going on, so one of the Guardsmen galloped ahead to learn what -the trouble was with the Schedule, and for two long, chilly hours we -huddled on that windy mole-hill, with no flash of gun in the distance, -no puff of smoke high in the air. The Guardsman came back then. -Kuropatkin had quietly sneaked away while we were sneaking for that -hill, and the Japanese were after him. Thus passed the second day of the -battle of Anshantien. - -At noon we were hitting the muddy trail again for another Chinese -compound. Evidently we were getting nearer the front; the flies and -fleas were thicker here, a dead pig protruded from a puddle of water in -the centre of the compound, and there were odors about of man and horse, -that suggested a recent occupation by troops. We policed the filthy -enclosure that afternoon, and quite late the thunder of big guns began -far away, while a yellow flame darted from the unseen sun, spread two -mighty saffron wings through the heavens, fitted them together from -earth and sky, and left them poised motionless, while from them stole -slowly out the rich green-and-gold radiance that comes only after -rain--drenching wet earth and still trees and quiet seas of corn. By and -by crickets chirped, quiet stars shone out above the yellow, and the -dusk came with a great calm--but it was the calm that presaged the storm -of Liao-Yang. - -We had a serious consultation that night. The artists couldn't very well -draw what they couldn't see. Some of us, not being military experts, and -therefore dependent on mental pictures and incident for material, were -equally helpless. Thus far the spoils of war had been battle-fields, -empty trenches, a few wounded Japanese soldiers, and one Russian -prisoner in a red shirt. So, hearing that General Oku feared for our -safety, we sent him a round-robin relieving him of any responsibility on -our account, and praying that we should be allowed to go closer to the -fighting, or our occupation would be gone. Then we went to sleep. - -The straw that broke the camel's back was added to the burden of the -beast next morning. The final word came from General Oku, through a -Guardsman, that the Russians were in flight, that there would probably -be no decisive battle for some time and that if there should be, we were -to be allowed no closer than four miles from the firing-line. Well, you -cannot see, that far away, how men behave when they fight, are wounded, -and die--and as all battles look alike at a long distance, there was -nothing for some of us to do but go home. So, on a bright sunny morning, -Richard Harding Davis, Melton Prior, the wild Irishman, and I sat alone -in the last dirty compound, with the opening guns of Liao-Yang booming -in the distance. I had sold Fuji to Guy Scull, and I wondered at the -nerve of the man, for the price, though small, was big for Fuji. I -pulled that vicious stallion's wayward forelock with malicious affection -several times, and watched Scull curvet out on him to a more dangerous -fate than any danger that war could hang over him. Away we went, then, -Davis, Prior, and the Irishman on horseback--what became of his bicycle, -I don't know to this day--on the backward trail of the war-dragon--for -home. We went back through Haicheng, and spent a few hours in the same -deserted compound that we had left only a few days before. Its silence -was eloquent of the clash and clatter and storm of our ten days' -imprisonment there. There we went to see General Fukushima, who with -great alacrity gave us a pass back to Japan. He could not understand why -all of us would have preferred to be at Port Arthur. It mystified him a -good deal. - -"General," said Dean Prior, "you promised me that I should go to Port -Arthur." The General laughed. - -"I tried to get you to stay for the third column," he said, and Prior -was silent, whether from conviction or disgust, I don't know. - -He wanted us to take a roundabout way to Newchwang, so that we would be -always under Japanese protection. There were Chinese bandits, he said, -along the short cut that we wanted to take, and there had been many -murders and robberies along that road. Just the same, we took that road. -So away we went, with carts, coolies, interpreters, and servants--they -in the road and I stepping the ties of the Siberian Railway. One hundred -yards ahead I saw two Japanese soldiers coming toward me on the track. -When they saw me--they mistook me for a Russian, I suppose--they jumped -from the track and ran back along the edge of a cornfield--disappearing -every now and then. I was a little nervous, for I thought they might -take a pot shot at me from a covert somewhere, but they were only -dashing back to announce my coming to a squad of soldiers, and as I -passed them on the track the major in command grinned slightly when he -answered my salute. - -We had a terrible pull that day through the mud, and we reached a -Chinese village at dusk. The Irishman, with the subtle divination that -is his only, found by instinct the best house in the town for us to -stay. It had around it a garden full of flowers, clean mats and antique -chairs within, and there was plenty of good cold water and nice fresh -eggs. My last memory that night, as I lay on a cot under a mosquito-net, -was of the Irishman and our aged host promenading up and down the -garden-path. The Chinaman had never heard a word of English before in -his life, but the Irishman was talking to him with perfect gravity and -fluency about the war and about us, giving our histories, what we had -done and what we had failed to do, and all the time the old Chinaman was -bowing with equal gravity, and smiling as though not one word escaped -his full comprehension. How the Irishman kept it up for so long, and why -he kept it up for so long, I do not know, but they were strolling up and -down when I went to sleep. - -The next day we had another long pull through deeper mud. For hours and -hours we went through solid walls of ten-foot corn; sometimes we were in -mud and water above the knees. Once we got lost--anybody who followed -that Irishman always got lost--and an old Chinaman led him and Davis and -me for miles through marshy cornfields. Sometimes we would meet Chinamen -bringing their wives and children back home--now that both armies had -gone on ahead--the women in carts, their faces always averted, and the -children dangling in baskets swung to either end of a bamboo pole, and -carried by father or brother over one shoulder. By noon the kind old -Chinaman connected us with our caravansary in another Chinese town. -There the Irishman got eggs by laying a pebble and cackling like a hen, -and the entire village gathered around us to watch us eat our lunch. -They were all children from octogenarian down--simple, kindly, humorous, -and with a spirit of accommodation and regard for the stranger that I -have never seen outside of our Southern mountains. After lunch we took -photographs of them, and of ourselves in turn with them, and the village -policeman--he did not carry even a stick--was a wag and actor, and made -beautiful poses while the village laughed _in toto_. This would not have -been possible in a Japanese town. Nearly all of them followed us out of -the village, and they seemed sorry to have us go. - -Soon I tried a Chinese cart for a while, and in spite of its jolting I -almost went to sleep. As I drowsed I heard a voice say: - -"You'd better tell him to keep awake." Another voice answered: - -"I will take care of him," and I lifted my hat, to see the ever-faithful -Takeuchi stalking along through the deep mud by me, with a big stick in -his hand. But we saw no bandits. It was the middle of the afternoon now, -and we began to meet column after column of Japanese troops moving -toward the front from the new point of disembarkation--Newchwang. -Somehow, on the wind, a rumor was borne to us that there was a foreign -hotel in Newchwang which had bath-tubs and beer and tansan; even a -wilder rumor came that the Russians had left champagne there. We held a -consultation. If all those things were there, it were just as well that -some one of us should engage them for the four as quickly as possible. -The happy lot fell to me, and I mounted Dean Prior's great white horse -and went ahead at a gallop. That horse was all right loping in a -straight line, but if there was a curve to be turned or a slippery bank -to descend, his weak back drew mortality for the rider very near. Then -he had an ungovernable passion for lying down in mud-holes and streams, -which held distinct possibilities for discomfort. Twice he went down -with me on the road, though he walked over a stream on a stone arch that -was not two feet wide in perfect safety. In one river, too, he went -down, and we rolled together for a little while in the yellow mud and -water; but I ploughed a way through columns of troops, and, led by a -Chinese guide, reached Newchwang at sunset. I went to the Japanese -headquarters, but could learn nothing about that hotel. I asked -directions of everybody, and when, going down the street, I saw coming -toward me through the dust a boy with a tennis-racquet over his shoulder -and a real white girl in a white dress, with black hair hanging down her -back, I asked directions again, merely that I might look a little longer -upon that girl's face. It seemed a thousand years since I had seen a -woman who looked like her. I found the hotel, and I got rooms for -ourselves and quarters for our servants and horses. Looking for a stable -in the dark, I turned a corner, to see a Japanese naked bayonet thrust -within a foot of my breast. Naturally, I stopped, but as it came no -nearer, I went on, and not a word was said by the sentinel nor by me. -None of my companions came in, and I ate dinner in lonely magnificence, -put beer, champagne, and tansan on ice, gave orders that the servants -should wait until midnight, and sent guides out to wait for Davis and -Prior and the Irishman at the city gates. Then I went to bed. About two -o'clock there was a pounding on my door, and a little Japanese officer -with a two-handed sword some five feet long came in and arrested me as a -Russian spy. He said I would have to leave Newchwang by the earliest -train the next morning. Now, if I had had wings I should have been -cleaving the Manchurian darkness at that very minute for home, and with -a little more self-control I should have hung out the window and laughed -when he made that direful threat. But I had ridden into that town on the -biggest white horse I ever saw, and I looked like an English -field-marshal without his blouse. I had gone to the Japanese -headquarters. I had registered my name and the names of my three friends -on the hotel-book. I had filled out the blank that is usual for the -passing stranger in time of war. I had added information that was not -asked for on that blank. I had engaged four rooms, had ordered dinner -for four people, and had things to eat and things to drink awaiting for -the other three whenever they should come. I had my war-pass in my -pocket, which I displayed, and yet this Japanese officer, the second in -command at Newchwang and a graduate of Yale, as I learned afterward, -woke me up at two o'clock in the morning, and in excellent English put -me under arrest as a Russian spy. I was robed only in a blue flannel -shirt and a pair of "Bonnie Maginns," but I sprang shamelessly from out -that mosquito-netting, and I said things that I am not yet sorry for. -Over that scene I will draw the curtain quickly--but just the same, a -Japanese soldier sat at my door all through the night. The next morning -I heard a great noise, and I saw our entire train in the street below. I -called my sentinel to the window and pointed out to him four carts, -twelve horses and mules, eight coolies, and eight interpreters and -servants, and I asked him if Russian spies were accustomed to travel -that way--if they did business with a circus procession and a brass -band? He grinned slightly. - -Half an hour later Davis and I went down to see the Yale graduate, and -he apologized. He said graciously that he would remove the guard from my -door, and I did not tell him that that intelligent soldier had -voluntarily removed himself an hour before. We told him we were very -anxious to get back to Yokohama to catch a steamer for home. He said -that we probably would not be allowed to go home on a transport, and -that even if we had permission we could not, for the reason that no -transports were going. - -"There is none going to-day?" - -"No." - -"Nor to-morrow?" - -"No." - -"Nor the day after?" - -"No." - -We said good-by. Just outside the door we met another Japanese -officer who had been sent into Manchuria with a special message from -the Emperor, and had been told incidentally to look in on the -correspondents. He had looked in on us above Haicheng, and he was -apparently trying to do all he could for us. He was quite sure if we saw -the Major in Command there, that we should be allowed to go. "Is there a -transport going to-day?" I asked. - -"Yes," he said, "I am taking it myself." I kept my face grave. - -"And to-morrow?" - -"Yes." - -"And the next day?" - -"Yes." - -Three of them--all useless--nailed within five minutes from the lips of -a brother-officer and within ten steps of the Yale graduate's door! It -was to laugh. - -I took a Chinese sampan, and with sail and oar beat up that yellow river -for an hour to find the Major in Command. When I got to his office, he -had gone to tiffin. Where did he tiffin? The answer was a shake of the -head. Nobody could disturb the gallant major while he was tiffining, no -matter how urgent the caller's business was. When would he return? -Within one hour and a half. Well, we would have just a little more than -another hour in which to catch that transport, even if we got permission -to take it. And somehow cooling heels in the ante-chamber of the Major -while he tiffined had no particular charm for me just then, so I decided -very quickly to start back by Chefoo and Shanghai, even if it did take -five extra days and perhaps cause us to lose the steamer for home. - -So we gathered our things together and took passage on a British steamer -for China. A Chinese sampan took the ever-faithful Takeuchi and me with -our luggage to the ship. I handed Takeuchi two purple fifty-sen bills -that the army issues in Manchuria as scrip--to give to the Chinaman--and -started up the gangway toward the Captain's cabin. Takeuchi thought I -had gone, but I looked around just in time to see him thrust one of the -bills in his own pocket, give the Chinaman the other, put his right foot -against the Chinaman's breast, and joyously kick him down the gangway -into the sampan. Selah! - -The joy of being on a British ship with the Union Jack over you and no -Japanese to say you nay! Never shall I forget that England liberated the -slave. She freed some of the White Slaves of Haicheng. - -To avoid floating mines we anchored that night outside the bar, but next -morning we struck the wide, free, blue seas, with an English captain, -whose tales made Gulliver's Travels sound like the story of a Summer in -a Garden. Without flies, fleas, mosquitoes, or scorpions, we slept when -and where we pleased and as long as we pleased. Once more we wore the -white man's clothes and ate his food and drank his drink, and were -happy. In the afternoon we passed for miles through the scattered -cargoes of Chinese junks that had been destroyed by the Japanese while -on their way to supply the Russians at Port Arthur, and that night we -saw the flash of big guns as once more we swept near the fortress we had -hoped to see. A sunny, still day once again and we were at Chefoo, where -in the harbor we saw--glory of glories!--an American Man-of-War. Ashore -Chefoo was distinctly shorn of the activities that lately had made the -town hum. There were only a Russian or two there from a destroyed -torpedo-boat, a few missionaries in rickshaws and dressed like Chinese, -a few queer-looking foreign women in the streets, and a lonely, -smooth-shaven young man from Chicago, who ran a roulette-wheel and took -in more kinds of Oriental currency than I knew to exist. - -"I am sorry the Russians have gone," he said; "they were great -gamblers." - -There we learned that fighting was going on at Liao-Yang--real, -continuous fighting; and a melancholy of which no man spoke set in -strong with all of us. But there was that American Man-of-War out in the -harbor, and Davis and I went out to her and climbed aboard. We saw nice, -clean American boys again, and pictures of their sisters and -sweethearts, and we had dinner and wine, and we made that good ship -shake from stem to stern with song. - -Two days later we were threading a way through a wilderness of ships of -all the nations of the earth into Shanghai. Shanghai--that "Paris of the -East"--with its stone buildings and hotels and floating flags; its -beautiful Bund bordered with trees and parks and paths, its streets -thronged with a medley of races and full of modern equipages, rattling -cabs, rattling rickshaws, and ancient Chinese wheelbarrows each with one -big wooden wheel, pushed by a single Chinaman with a strap over his -shoulder, and weighted, sometimes, with six Chinese factory-girls, their -tiny feet dangling down--and all this confusion handled and guarded by -giant, red-turbaned Sikh policemen--each bearing himself with the -dignity of a god. There was gay life in Shanghai--good and bad; town -clubs and country clubs, with tennis, cricket, and golf. There were -beautiful roads, filled with handsome carriages and smart men and women -on smart horses, and there were road-houses with men and women who were -not so smart seated around little tables all over the verandas, with -much music coming from within. Along that Bund at night were house-boats -anchored, on the decks of which people dined among red candles to the -music of a brass band in a park near by--brilliantly lit. And there was -a Chinese quarter not far away, thronged with strange faces, with -narrow, twisting streets, some murky and some gay with lanterns that -hung from restaurants, theatres, opium dens, singing and gambling halls, -while through those streets coolies bore high on their shoulders gayly -dressed Chinese singing-girls from one hall to another. - -On the ship for Nagasaki were many young Chinese boys and girls going to -other lands to be educated, and I was given two significant bits of -information: "Ten years ago," said a man, "a foreign education was a -complete bar to political preferment over here. Things have so changed -and a foreign education is now such an advantage that rich Chinamen who -have political aspirations for their sons purposely send them abroad to -be educated." - -"On this ship," said another, "and the two ships that follow her, many -hundred young Chinamen are going over to Japan to get a military -training. And yet, according to some observers, there is nothing doing -in China--even on the part of Japan." - -We landed at Nagasaki and had a three nights' ride to Yokohama in a -crowded car in which it was possible to sleep only when sitting upright. -On the third day the long train came to a stop at daybreak and every -Japanese soul in it--man, woman, and child--poured out, each with a -towel, scrubbed vigorously at a water-trough and came back, each sawing -on his teeth with a wooden tooth-brush. Such a scene could be paralleled -nowhere else. I suppose the Japanese are the cleanliest people in the -world. - -Tokio at last--and a request from the Japanese: Would we consider going -back to Port Arthur? We would not. - -"Please consider the question." We considered. - -"Yes," we said, "we will go." - -"You can't," said the Japanese. - -Right gladly then we struck the backward trail of the Saxon. The Happy -Exile went aboard with me, and so did Takeuchi, who brought his pretty -young wife along to say, "How d'ye do?" and "Good-by." Takeuchi brought -a present, too--a little gold mask of a fox, which he thought most -humorously fitting--a scarf-pin for Inari-sama, which is the honorific -deistical form of my honorable name in Japanese. Later, in this country, -I got Takeuchi's photograph and this card: "I wish you please send me -your recommondation which is necessary to have in my business." He shall -have it. - -All my life Japan had been one of the two countries on earth I most -wanted to see. No more enthusiastic pro-Japanese ever put foot on the -shore of that little island than I was when I swung into Yokohama Harbor -nearly seven months before. I had lost much--but I was carrying away in -heart and mind the nameless charm of the land and of the people--for the -charm of neither has much succumbed to the horrors imported from us; -Fujiyama, whose gray head lies close under the Hand of Benediction; -among the foot-hills below the Maid of Miyanoshita--may Fuji keep her -ever safe from harm; O-kin-san the kind, who helps the poor and welcomes -the stranger--her little home at the head of the House of the Hundred -Steps I could see from the deck of the ship; the great Daibutsu at -Kamakura, whose majestic calm stills all the world while you look upon -his face and--the babies, in streets and doorways--the babies that rule -the land as kings. I did have, too, for a memory, Shin--my rickshaw -man--but Shin failed me at the last minute on the dock. Yes, even at -that last minute on the dock, Shin tried to fool me. But I forgive him. - -Of this war in detail I knew no more than I should have known had I -stayed at home--and it had taken me seven months to learn that it was -meant that I should not know more. There can be no quarrel with what was -done--only with the way it was done--which was not pretty. Somehow, as -Japan sank closer to the horizon, I found myself wondering whether the -Goddess of Truth couldn't travel the breadth of that land incog.--even -if she played the leading part in a melodrama with a star in her -forehead and her own name emblazoned in Japanese ideographs around her -breast. I think so. I wondered, too, if in shedding the wrinkled skin -of Orientalism, Japan might not have found it even better than winning -a battle--to shed with it polite duplicity and bring in the blunt -telling of the truth; for if the arch on which a civilization -rests be character, the key-stone of that arch, I suppose, must be -honesty--simple honesty. - -Right gladly we struck the backward Trail of the Saxon. - - - - - Transcriber Notes: - -Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. - -Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. - -Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the -speakers. Those words were retained as-is. - -Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected -unless otherwise noted. - -On page ix, "Liaoyang" was replaced with "Liao-Yang". - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Following the Sun-Flag, by John Fox - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG *** - -***** This file should be named 56218-0.txt or 56218-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/2/1/56218/ - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Following the Sun-Flag - A Vain Pursuit Through Manchuria - -Author: John Fox - -Release Date: December 21, 2017 [EBook #56218] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG *** - - - - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 509px"> -<img class="border" src="images/cover.jpg" width="509px" height="800px" alt="" /> -</div> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h1>FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG</h1> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<div class="image-center" style="max-width: 453px"> -<img class="border" src="images/titlepage.png" width="453px" height="800px" -alt="FOLLOWING -THE SUN-FLAG - -A VAIN PURSUIT -THROUGH MANCHURIA - -BY - -JOHN FOX, Jr. - -NEW YORK -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS -1905" -title="FOLLOWING -THE SUN-FLAG - -A VAIN PURSUIT -THROUGH MANCHURIA - -BY - -JOHN FOX, Jr. - -NEW YORK -CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS -1905"/> -</div> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p class="cnobmargin"><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1905, by</span></p> -<p class="cnotmargin">CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS</p> - -<p class="cmargins">Published April, 1905</p> - - -<p class="cnobmargin">TROW DIRECTORY</p> -<p class="cnomargins">PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY</p> -<p class="cnotmargin">NEW YORK</p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p class="cmargins">To</p> - -<p class="cmargins">"THE MEN OF MANY WARS"</p> - -<p class="cnobmargin">WITH CONGRATULATIONS TO</p> -<p class="cnomargins">THOSE ON WHOM FELL</p> -<p class="cnomargins">THROUGH CHANCE OR PERSONAL EFFORT</p> -<p class="cnotmargin">A BETTER FORTUNE THAN WAS MINE</p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - -<ul class="TOCRSC"> - -<li>The Trail of the Saxon <span class="ralign"><a href="#page1">1</a></span></li> - -<li>Hardships of the Campaign <span class="ralign"><a href="#page18">18</a></span></li> - -<li>Lingering in Tokio <span class="ralign"><a href="#page50">50</a></span></li> - -<li>Making for Manchuria <span class="ralign"><a href="#page74">74</a></span></li> - -<li>On the War-Dragon's Trail <span class="ralign"><a href="#page102">102</a></span></li> - -<li>The White Slaves of Haicheng <span class="ralign"><a href="#page128">128</a></span></li> - -<li>The Backward Trail of the Saxon <span class="ralign"><a href="#page160">160</a></span></li> -</ul> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="pageix" id="pageix"></a>[pg ix]</span></p> - -<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2> - -<p class="indent">After a long still-hunt in Tokio, and a -long pursuit through Manchuria, following -that Sun-Flag of Japan, I gave up the chase -at Liao-Yang.</p> - -<p class="indent">Not being a military expert, my purpose was -simply to see under that flag the brown little -"gun-man"—as he calls himself in his own -tongue—in camp and on the march, in trench -and in open field, in assault and in retreat; -to tell tales of his heroism, chivalry, devotion, -sacrifice, incomparable patriotism; to see -him fighting, wounded—and, since such things -in war must be—dying, dead. After seven -months my spoils of war were post-mortem -battle-fields, wounded convalescents in hospitals, -deserted trenches, a few graves, and one -Russian prisoner in a red shirt.</p> - -<p class="indent">Upon that unimportant personal disaster I -<span class="pagenum"><a name="pagex" id="pagex"></a>[pg x]</span> -can look back now with no little amusement; -and were I to re-write these articles, I should -doubtless temper both word and spirit here -and there; but as my feeling at the time was -sincere, natural, and justified, as there is, I -believe, no over-statement of the facts that -caused it, and as the articles were written without -malice or the least desire to "get even"—I -let them go, as written, into book form now.</p> - -<p class="indent">No more enthusiastic pro-Japanese than I -ever touched foot on the shores of the little -island, and no Japanese, however much he -might, if only for that reason, value my good -opinion, can regret more than I any change -that took place within me when I came face to -face with a land and a people I had longed -since childhood to see.</p> - -<p class="indent">I am very sorry to have sounded the personal -note so relentlessly in this little book. -That, too, was unavoidable, and will, I hope, -be pardoned.</p> - -<p class="author"><span class="smcap">John Fox, Jr.</span></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">Big Stone Gap, Virginia.</span></p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h1>FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG</h1> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"> <a name="page1" id="page1"></a>[pg 1]</span></p> - -<p class="h1">FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG</p> - -<p class="h2">I</p> - -<p class="h2">THE TRAIL OF THE SAXON</p> - -<p class="indent">An amphitheatre of feathery clouds ran half -around the horizon and close to the water's -edge; midway and toward Russia rose a great -dark shadow through which the sun shone -faintly. Such was the celestial setting for the -entrance of a certain ship some ten days since -at sunset into the harbor of Yokohama and the -Land of the Rising Sun; but no man was to -guess from the strange pictures, strange people, -and jumbled mass of new ideas and impressions -waiting to make his brain dizzy on shore, -that the big cloud aloft was the symbol of actual -war. No sign was to come, by night or by -day, from the tiled roofs, latticed windows, -paper houses, the foreign architectural monstrosities -of wood and stone; the lights, lanterns, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page2" id="page2"></a>[pg 2]</span> -shops—tiny and brilliantly lit; the innumerable -rickshas, the swift play under them -of muscular bare brown legs which bore thin-chested -men who run open-mouthed and smoke -cigarettes while waiting a fare; the musical -chorus of getas clicking on stone, mounted by -men bareheaded or in billycock hats; little -women in kimonos; ponies with big bellies, -apex rumps, bushy forelocks and mean eyes; -rows of painted dolls caged behind barred windows -and under the glare of electric lights—expectant, -waiting, patient—hour by hour, -night after night, no suggestion save perhaps -in their idle patience; coolies with push carts, -staggering under heavy loads, "cargadores" in -straw hats and rain coats of rushes, looking for -all the world like walking little haycocks—no -sign except in flags, the red sunbursts of Japan, -along now and then with the Stars and Stripes—flags -which, for all else one could know, -might have been hung out for a holiday.</p> - -<p class="indent">For more than a month I had been on the -trail of the Saxon, the westward trail on which -he set his feet more than a hundred years ago, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page3" id="page3"></a>[pg 3]</span> -when he cut the apron-strings of Mother England, -turned his back on her, and, without -knowing it, started back toward her the other -way round the world, to clasp hands, perhaps, -again across the Far East. Where he started, -I started, too, from the top of the Cumberland -over which he first saw the Star of Empire -beckoning westward only. I went through a -black tunnel straight under the trail his moccasined -feet wore over Cumberland Gap, and -stopped, for a moment, in a sleeper on the spot -where he pitched his sunset camp for the night; -and the blood of his footprints still was there.</p> - -<p class="indent">"This is a hell of a town," said the conductor -cheerfully.</p> - -<p class="indent">I waited for an explanation. It came.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Why, I went to a nigger-minstrel show -here the other night. A mountaineer in the -gallery shot a nigger and a white man dead -in the aisle, but the band struck up 'Dixie,' -and the show never stopped. But one man left -the house and that was Bones. They found -him at the hotel, but he refused to go back. -'I can't be funny in that place,' he said."</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page4" id="page4"></a>[pg 4]</span> -Now the curious thing is that each one of -those three, the slayer and the slain—the -Saxon through the arrogance of race, the African -through the imitative faculty that has -given him something of that same arrogance -toward the people of other lands—felt himself -the superior of any Oriental with a yellow -skin. And now when I think of the exquisite -courtesy and ceremony and gentle politeness -in this land, I smile; then I think of the bearing -of the man toward the woman of this land, -and the bearing of the man—even the mountaineer—toward -the woman in our own land, -and the place the woman holds in each—and -the smile passes.</p> - -<p class="indent">Along that old wilderness trail I went across -the Ohio, through prairie lands, across the rich -fields of Iowa, the plains of Nebraska, over -the Rockies, and down into the great deserts -that stretch to the Sierras. Along went others -who were concerned in that trail: three Japanese -students hurrying home from England, -France, and Germany, bits of that network of -eager investigation that Japan has spread over -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page5" id="page5"></a>[pg 5]</span> -the globe—quiet, unobtrusive little fellows -who rushed for papers at every station to see -news of the war; three Americans on the way -to the Philippines for the Government; an -English Major of Infantry and an English -Captain of Cavalry and a pretty English girl; -and two who in that trail had no interest—two -newspaper men from France. I have been told -that the only two seven-masted vessels in the -world collided one night in mid-ocean. Well, -these sons of France—the only ones on their -mission, perhaps, in broad America—collided -not only on the same train, the same sleeper, and -the same section, I was told, but both were gazetted -for the same lower berth. Each asserted -his claim with a politeness that became gesticulatory -and vociferous. Conductor, brakeman, -and porter came to the scene of action. Nobody -could settle the dispute, so the correspondents -exchanged cards, claimed Gallic satisfaction -mutually, and requested the conductor to -stop the train and let them get off and fight. -The conductor explained that, much as he personally -would like to see the scrap, the law of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page6" id="page6"></a>[pg 6]</span> -the land and the speed of the Overland Limited -made tarrying impossible. Without rapiers -I have often wondered how those two -gentlemen of France would have drawn each -other's blood. Each still refused to take the -upper berth, but next day they were friends, -and came over sea practically arm and arm on -shipboard, and arm and arm they practically -are in Japan to-day.</p> - -<p class="indent">Through the stamping grounds of Wister's -"Virginian" and other men of fact and fiction -in the West, the trail led—through barren -wastes with nothing alive in sight except an -occasional flock of gray, starved sheep with a -lonely herder and his sheep-dog watching us -pass, while a blue-eyed frontiersman gave me -more reasons for race arrogance with his tales -of Western ethics in the old days: How men -trusted each other and were not deceived in -friendship and in trade; how they sacrificed -themselves for each other without regret, and -no wish for reward, and honored and protected -women always.</p> - -<p class="indent">Then forty miles of snowsheds over the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page7" id="page7"></a>[pg 7]</span> -Sierras, and the trail dropped sheer into the -dewy green of flowers, gardens, and fruit-tree -blossoms, where the grass was lush, cattle and -sheep were fat, and the fields looked like rich -orchards—to end in the last camp of the Saxon, -San Francisco—where the heathen Chinee -walks the streets, where Robert Louis Stevenson's -bronze galley has motionless sails set to -the winds that blow through a little park, -where Bret Harte's memory is soon to be honored -in a similar way, and where a man claimed -that the civilization of the trail had leaped in -one bound from Chicago to the Pacific Coast. -And I wondered what the intermediate Saxons, -over whose heads that leap was made, would -have to say in answer.</p> - -<p class="indent">He had sailed one wide ocean—this Saxon—the -other and wider one was by comparison -a child's play on a mill-pond with a boat of his -own making, and over it I followed him on.</p> - -<p class="indent">On the dock two days later I saw my first -crowd of Japanese, in Saxon clothes, waving -flags, and giving Saxon yells to their countrymen -who were going home to fight. After that, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page8" id="page8"></a>[pg 8]</span> -but for an occasional march of those same countrymen -on the steerage deck to the measure of -a war-song, no more tidings, or rumors or suggestions -of war.</p> - -<p class="indent">Seven days later, long, slowly rising slopes -of mountains veiled in mist came in view, and -we saw waves of many colors washing the feet -of newest America, where the Saxon has -pitched his latest but not his most Eastern—as -I must say now—camp; and where he is -patching a human crazy quilt of skins from -China, Japan, Portugal, America, England, -Africa. The patching of it goes swiftly, but -there will be one hole in the quilt that will -never be filled again on this earth, for the Hawaiian -is going—as he himself says, he is -"pau," which in English means finished, done -for, doomed. Now girls who are three-quarters -Saxon dance the hula-hula for tourists, and -but for a movement of their feet, it is the -dance of the East wretchedly and vulgarly -done, and the spectator would wipe away, if -he could, every memory but the wailing song -of the woman with the guitar—a song which -to my ear had no more connection with the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page9" id="page9"></a>[pg 9]</span> -dance than a cradle song could have with a -bacchanalian orgy.</p> - -<p class="indent">At a big white hotel that night hundreds of -people sat in a brilliantly lighted open-air garden -with a stone floor and stone balustrade, and -heard an Hawaiian band of many nationalities -play the tunes of all nations, and two -women give vent to that adaptation of the -Methodist hymn that passes for an Hawaiian -song.</p> - -<p class="indent">Every possible human mixture of blood I -had seen that day, I fancied, but of the morals -that caused the mixture I will not speak, for -the looseness of them is climatic and easily explained. -I am told that after five or six years -the molecules even in the granite of the New -England character begin to get restless. Still -there seems to be hope on the horizon.</p> - -<p class="indent">At midnight a bibulous gentleman descended -from a hack in front of the hotel.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Roderick Random," he said to his Portuguese -driver, "this is a bum-m town," spelling -the word out thickly. Roderick smiled with -polite acquiescence. The bibulous gentleman -spoke likewise to the watchman at the door.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page10" id="page10"></a>[pg 10]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"Quite right, sir," said the watchman.</p> - -<p class="indent">The elevator got the same blighting criticism -from the visitor, whose good-night to the -clerk at the desk still was:</p> - -<p class="indent">"This is a bum-m town."</p> - -<p class="indent">The clerk, too, agreed, and the man turned -away in disgust.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I can't get an argument out of anybody on -that point," he said—all of which would seem -to cast some doubt on the public late-at-night -flaunting of vice in Honolulu.</p> - -<p class="indent">Two pictures only I carried away of the -many I hoped to see—the Hawaiian swimmers, -bronzed and perfect as statues, who floated out -to meet us and dive for coins, and a crowd of -little yellow fellows, each on the swaying -branch of the monkey-pod tree, black hair -shaking in the wind, white teeth flashing, faces -merry, and mouths stretched wide with song.</p> - -<p class="indent">Thence eleven long, long days to that sunset -entrance into the Land of the Rising Sun—where -Perry came to throw open to the world -the long-shut sea portals of Japan.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Japanese way of revealing heart-beats -is not the way of the Occidental world, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page11" id="page11"></a>[pg 11]</span> -seeing no signs of war, this correspondent, at -least, straightway forgot the mission on which -he had come, and straightway was turned into -an eager student of a people and a land which -since childhood he had yearned to see.</p> - -<p class="indent">On a certain bluff sits a certain tea-house—you -can see it from the deck of the ship. It is -the tea-house of One Hundred and One Steps, -and the mistress of it is O-kin-san, daughter of -the man who was mayor when Perry opened -the sea portals at the mouth of the cannon, -whose guest Perry was, and whose friend.</p> - -<p class="indent">O-kin-san's people lost their money once, -and she opened the tea-house, as the American -girl under similar circumstances would have -taken to the typewriter and the stenographer's -pen. The house has a year of life for almost -every one of the steps that mount to it, which is -ancient life for Japan, where fires make an infant -life of three years for the average Japanese -home. The tea-girls are O-kin-san's own -kin. Everything under her roof is blameless, -and the women of any home in any land can -be taken there fearlessly.</p> - -<p class="indent">An American enthusiast—a voluntary exile, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page12" id="page12"></a>[pg 12]</span> -whom I met later—told me that O-kin-san's -Japanese was as good as could be found in the -empire; that her husband was one of the best-educated -men he had ever known, and had been -a great help and inspiration to Lafcadio Hearn. -There were all the pretty courtesies, the pretty -ceremonies, and the gentle kindness of which -the world has read.</p> - -<p class="indent">After tea and sake and little Japanese cakes -and peanuts, thence straightway to Tokio, -whence the soldiers went to the front and the -unknown correspondent was going, at that -time, to an unknown destination in an unknown -time. It is an hour between little -patches of half-drowned rice bulbs, cottages -thatched with rice straw, with green things -growing on the roof, and little gardens laid -out with an art minute and exquisite, blossoming -trees of wild cherry, that beloved symbol -of Japanese bravery because it dares to spread -its petals under falling snow, dashed here and -there with the red camellia that is unlucky because -it drops its blossom whole and suggests -the time when the Japanese head might fall -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page13" id="page13"></a>[pg 13]</span> -for a slight offence; between little hills overspread -with pine trees, and little leafless saplings -that help so much to give the delicate, -airy quality that characterizes the landscape of -Japan. At every station was a hurrying throng -of men, women, and children who clicked the -stone pavements on xylophones with a music -that some writer with the tympanum of a -blacksmith characterized as a clatter. These -getas are often selected, I am told, to suit the -individual ear.</p> - -<p class="indent">At Tokio outward evidences of war were as -meagre as ever. But to that lack, the answer -is, "It is not the Japanese custom." I am told -that the night war was declared the Japanese -went to bed, but about every bulletin board -there is now always an eager crowd of watchers. -The shout of "Nippon banzai!" from -the foreigner, which means "Good luck to -Japan," always gets a grateful response from -the child in the street, the coolie with his ricksha, -policeman on his beat, or the Japanese -gentleman in his carriage.</p> - -<p class="indent">And then the stories I heard of the devotion -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page14" id="page14"></a>[pg 14]</span> -and sacrifice of the people who are left at -home! The women let their hair go undressed -once a month that they may contribute each -month the price of the dressing—five sen. A -gentleman discovered that every servant in his -household, from butler down, was contributing -a certain amount of his wages each month, -and in consequence offered to raise wages just -the amount each servant was giving away. -The answer was:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Sir, we cannot allow that; it is an honor -for us to give, and it would be you who would -be doing our duty for us to Japan."</p> - -<p class="indent">A Japanese lady apologized profusely for -being late at dinner. She had been to the station -to see her son off for the front, where -already were three of her sons.</p> - -<p class="indent">Said another straightway:</p> - -<p class="indent">"How fortunate to be able to give four sons -to Japan!"</p> - -<p class="indent">In a tea-house I saw an old woman with -blackened teeth, a servant, who bore herself -proudly, and who, too, was honored because -she had sent four sons to the Yalu. Hundreds -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page15" id="page15"></a>[pg 15]</span> -and thousands of families are denying themselves -one meal a day that they may give more -to their country. And one rich merchant, who -has already given 100,000 yen, has himself cut -off one meal, and declares that he will if necessary -live on one the rest of his life for the sake -of Japan.</p> - -<p class="indent">There is a war play on the boards of one -theatre. The heroine, a wife, says that her unborn -child in a crisis like this must be a man-child, -and that he shall be reared a soldier. -To provide means, she will herself, if necessary, -go to the yoshiwara.</p> - -<p class="indent">On every gateway is posted a red slab where -a man has gone to the war, marked "Gone to -the front"—to be supplanted with a black one—"Bravery -forever"—should he be brought -home dead. And when he is brought home -dead his body is received at the station by his -kin with proud faces and no tears. The Roman -mother has come back to earth again, and it is -the Japanese mother who makes Japan the high -priestess of patriotism among the nations of the -world. In that patriotism are the passionate -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page16" id="page16"></a>[pg 16]</span> -fealty of the subject to his king, the love of a -republic for its flag, and straightway the -stranger feels that were the Mikado no more -and Japan a republic to-morrow, this war -would go on just as it would had the Japanese -only this Mikado and no land that he -could call his own. The soldier at the front -or on the seas will give no better account of -himself than the man, woman, or child who is -left at home, and a national spirit like this is -too beautiful to be lost.</p> - -<p class="indent">Here forks the trail of the Saxon. One -branch goes straight to the Philippines. The -other splits here into a thousand tiny paths—where -railway coach has supplanted the palanquin, -battle-ship the war-junk, electricity the -pictured lantern; where factory chimneys -smoke and the Japanese seems prouder of his -commerce than of his art and his exquisite -manners; where the boycott has started, and -even the word strike—"strikey, strikey" it -sounds—has become the refrain of a song. -How shallow, after all, the tiny paths are, no -man may know; for who can penetrate the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page17" id="page17"></a>[pg 17]</span> -mystery of Japanese life and character—a -mystery that has been deepening for a thousand -years. Here is the chief lodge of the -Order of Sealed Lips the world over, and every -man, woman, and child in the empire seems -born a life-member. It may be Japan who -will clasp the hands of the Saxon across this -Far East. And yet who knows? Were -Mother Nature to found a national museum -of the curiosities in plant and tree that humanity -has wrested from her, she would give the -star-chamber to Japan. This is due, maybe, -to the Japanese love of plant and tree and the -limitations of space that forbid to both full -height. Give the little island room, and the -dwarf pine and fruit-tree may become in time, -perhaps, as great a curiosity here as elsewhere in -the world. What will she do—when she gets -the room? The Saxon hands may never meet. -Japan Saxonized may, in turn, Saxonize China -and throw the tide that has moved east and -west, some day, west and east again.</p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page18" id="page18"></a>[pg 18]</span></p> - -<h2>II</h2> - -<p class="h2">HARDSHIPS OF THE CAMPAIGN</p> - -<p class="indent">I have taken to the big hills in some despair -and to rest from the hardships of this campaign. -Truly the life of the war correspondent -is hard in Japan.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">The Happy Exile left America three years -ago with a Puck-purpose of girdling the world. -He got no farther than Japan, and here most -likely he will rest. He is a big man and a -gentle one, and I have seen his six-feet-two -frame quiver with joy like jelly as we rickshawed -through the streets, he pointing out to -me meanwhile little bits of color and life on -either side. I have heard him when the dusk -rushes seaward muttering half-unconsciously to -himself:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I'm so glad I am here. I'm <i>so</i> glad I am -here."</p> - -<p class="indent">It is the "lust of the eye" he says, and the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page19" id="page19"></a>[pg 19]</span> -lust is as fierce now as on the day he landed—which -is rare; for the man who has been here -before has genuine envy of the eye that sees -Japan for the first time. I have watched the -man who has seen, showing around the man -who has not, with a look of benevolent sympathy -and reflected joy such as one may catch -on the face of a middle-aged gentleman in the -theatre who is watching the keen delight of -some youth to whom he is showing the sights -of a great city. The Happy Exile was a -painter once, but he came, saw Japanese art, -and was conquered.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I have never touched brush to canvas -again. What's the use? Why, I can't even -draw their characters. Other nations draw this -way"; he worked his hands and fingers from -the wrist and elbow. "The Japanese learn, -drawing their characters in childhood, to use -the whole arm. Imagine the breadth and -sweep of movement!" The Happy Exile -threw up both hands. "It's of no use, at least -not for me. I have given it up." So he studies -life and Myth in Japan, collects curios, silks, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page20" id="page20"></a>[pg 20]</span> -and satsuma, writes a little, dreams a good -deal, and gives up his whole heart to his eye. -The Happy Exile has a friend, a Japanese -friend, who is one of the new types that one -finds now in New Japan. His name is Amenemori. -He is the husband of O-kin-san, mistress -of the tea-house of One Hundred and One -Steps, who herself can talk with her guests -from all parts of the world in five languages -and is an authority on tea-ceremonies and a -poetess of some distinction. Amenemori is not -only a linguist, but a scholar. He has English, -French, German, Italian and Russian at his -command, and more. Not long ago a wandering -Indian priest came to Yokohama and could -talk with nobody. Amenemori tried him in -Japanese, Korean, and Chinese without success, -and the two finally found communication in -Sanscrit. One of Lafcadio Hearn's books is -dedicated to him, and through him that author -acquired the widest acquaintance with old Japanese -poetry yet attained by any foreigner. -Illustrating the change that has taken place in -an ancient Japanese word to its modern form, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page21" id="page21"></a>[pg 21]</span> -he quotes Chaucer and the modern equivalent -for the Chaucerian phrase!</p> - -<p class="indent">But the lust of the eye! Well, the eye is -all the stranger has. The work his brain does -has little value. No matter what he may learn -one day, that thing next day he may have to -unlearn. The eye alone gives pleasure—to the -color-loving, picture-loving brain—delight unmeasurable: -but the eye does not understand. -The ear hears strange new calls and sounds—unmusical -except in the xylophonic click of -wooden getas, the plaintive cry of the blind -masseur, and in the national anthem, which is -moving beyond words; and the ear, too, does -not understand. But the nose—"that despised -poet of the senses"—his faculty holds firm the -world over. In Tokio he puts on sable trappings -at sunset that would gloom the dark hour -before dawn. You will get used to it, you are -told, and that frightens you, for you don't want -to get used to it. You should go to China, -is the comfort you get, and in that suggestion -is no comfort. Straightway you swear, and -boldly:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page22" id="page22"></a>[pg 22]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">No call of the East for me,</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Till the stink of the East be dead.</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">That is why a man who comes from a land -where he can fill both lungs fearlessly and -stoop to drink from any stream that his feet -may cross must go down now and then to the -sea or turn his face firmly to the hills.</p> - -<p class="indent">From Yokohama the little coaches start -slowly for the country—so slowly that, like -Artemus Ward, you wonder if it wouldn't be -wise sometimes to put the cow-catcher on behind. -There is the charm of thatched cottage, -green squares of wind-shaken barley, long -waving grass and little hills, pine-crowned; -but by and by your heart gets wrung with -sympathy for Mother Nature. Every blade of -grass, every rush, every little tree seems to have -been let grow only through human sufferance. -It is as though a solemn court-martial had been -held on the life of everything that grew not -to make feed for man and man alone, for nowhere -are there sheep, cattle, horses, and rarely -even a dog. Here and there the little hills -have been cut down sheer, that the rice squares -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page23" id="page23"></a>[pg 23]</span> -might burrow under them. The face of the -earth looked terribly man-handled, but the effect -was still lovely. The little rows of pines -on the hills seemed to have been so left that -no rearrangement would have been necessary -to transfer them to canvas, and even the crown -of a pine sloping from a group of its fellows -seemed to have been spared for no other reason -than picturesque effect. Perhaps for that reason -Nature herself seemed to enter no protest. -It was as though she said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I know your needs, my children, you do -only what you must; you know just what you -do, and I forgive you, for you rob me with -loving hands. A little farther on is my refuge."</p> - -<p class="indent">And a little farther on was her refuge in -the big volcanic hills, guarded by great white -solemn Fuji, where birds sing and torrents lash -with swirling foam and a great roar through -deep gorges or drop down in white cataracts -through masses of trembling green. But you -have an hour first in an electric car, with a bell -ringing always to keep multitudinous children -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page24" id="page24"></a>[pg 24]</span> -from the track, along the old road that the -Daimios took in their semi-annual trip from -their up-country estates to Tokio and back again—the -Daimios—gorgeously arrayed, in palanquins, -with their retinues following, while the -people kept their foreheads to the earth and -dared not raise their eyes—honors which they -no longer pay even to the great Mikado. It -seemed a sacrilege. Then an hour in a rickshaw—two -pushers behind, up a deep winding -gorge from which comes the wild call of free -rushing water, and you are in the untainted air -of the primeval Cumberland.</p> - -<p class="indent">It is pleasant to be welcomed by a host and -a host of servants bent at right angles with -courtesy—a courtesy that follows you everywhere. -Ten minutes later, as I stepped from -behind the screen—the ever-present screen—in -my room, the Maid of Miyanoshita—another -new type in New Japan—stood bowing at my -door, and I am afraid I gave her scant greeting. -I had read of feminine service, and Saxon-like -I was fearsome; but how could I know that she -was the daughter of mine host—a man more -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page25" id="page25"></a>[pg 25]</span> -well-to-do than most of his guests, who include -the princes and princesses at times of the royal -household—and that she had come merely to -welcome me? And how could I know that she -was a lady, as I understand the word, for how -can a stranger know who is gentlewoman or -gentleman in a land where gentle manners are -universal, when he has not learned the distinctions -of dress and when face and voice give no -unerring guidance in any land? Later I was -sorry and tried to make good, but here lack of -breeding is condoned in a barbarian. Straightway -one little maid came in to build a fire, -while another swiftly unpacked my bag, laid -out evening clothes, and played the part of a -blind automatic valet. Embarrassment, even -consciousness, fled like a flash, as it must flee -with any man who is not blackguard or fool, -and I am thinking now how foreigners have -lied about the women of Japan.</p> - -<p class="indent">I want no better dinner than the one that -came later, and I went to sleep with mountain -air coming like balm through the windows, the -music of hushed falling water somewhere, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page26" id="page26"></a>[pg 26]</span> -a cherry tree full-blown shining like a great -white, low star at the foot of a mountain -that rose darkly toward the stars. This life -of the war correspondent in Japan—truly 'tis -hard!</p> - -<p class="indent">Next morning I heard the scampering of -many feet and much laughter in the hallways, -and I thought there were children out there -playing games. It was those brown little -chambermaids hard at work. I wonder whence -comes the perpetual sunny cheer of these little -people; whether it be simple temperament or -ages of philosophy—or both.</p> - -<p class="indent">"You have your troubles," they say, "therefore -I must not burden you with mine." And -a man will tell you, with a smile, of some -misfortune that is almost breaking his heart.</p> - -<p class="indent">The little maid who had unpacked my bag -brought breakfast to me, and I could see that -I was invested with some interest which was -not at all apparent the night before. Presently -it came out:</p> - -<p class="indent">"You are going to Korea?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes, I am going to Korea."</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page27" id="page27"></a>[pg 27]</span> -"I want to go to Korea, but they won't -let girls go."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Why do you want to go to Korea?"</p> - -<p class="indent">For the first time I saw Japanese eyes flash, -and her answer came like the crack of a whip:</p> - -<p class="indent">"To fight!"</p> - -<p class="indent">Among the thousands of applications, many -of them written in blood, which the war office -has received from men who are anxious to go -to the front, is one from just such a girl. In -her letter she said that she was the last of an -old Samurai family. Her father was killed in -the war with China; her only brother died during -the Boxer troubles. She begged to be allowed -to take the place in the ranks which had -always belonged to her family. She could -shoot, she said, and ride; and it would be a -lasting disgrace if her family name should be -missing from the rolls, where it has had an -honored place for centuries, now that her country -and her Emperor are in such sore need.</p> - -<p class="indent">After breakfast I climbed the mountain that -I could see from my window—it ran not so -high by day—and up there great Fuji was gracious -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page28" id="page28"></a>[pg 28]</span> -enough for one fleeting moment to throw -back the gray mantle of a cloud and bare for -me for the first time his sacred white head. -Coming down, I found a pretty story of American -Chivalry and the Maid of Miyanoshita. -There was a man here whose nationality will -not be mentioned, and a big young American -who hasn't lost the traditions of his race and -country. With the lack of understanding that -is not uncommon with foreigners during their -first days in Japan, this particular foreigner -said something to the little lady that he would -not have said under similar circumstances at -home. Now, just behind the hotel are two -foaming cascades which drop into a clear pool -of water wherein sport many fishes big and -little—green, silver, gold, or mottled with -white and scarlet—which it is the pleasure of -the guests to feed. A few minutes later there -was a commotion on the margin of the pond, -and those fishes, gathering as usual for biscuit -and sugar, got a surprise. The American had -invited the other foreigner out there, and the -two were having a mighty mill. After a nice -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page29" id="page29"></a>[pg 29]</span> -solar-plexus landing, the American caught up -his opponent and threw him bodily into the -fish-pond. The man disappeared next morning -by the first train. Wallah, but it was grateful -to the soul—striking a Saxon trail like that!</p> - -<p class="indent">After tiffin I was struggling with Japanese -idioms in a guide-book. "I will be glad to -help you," said the Maid of Miyanoshita.</p> - -<p class="indent">She had gone to school in a convent in Tokio. -Only Japanese girls and a few Eurasians, -girls whose fathers are foreigners, were students, -and they were allowed to speak only -French. There she was taught to read and -write English. To speak it, she had learned -only from guests at the hotel.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well," I said, "if the Japanese in this -book is as bad as the English, I don't think I -want to learn it." She looked at the book.</p> - -<p class="indent">"It iss bad," she said; "there are words here -you must not use." (It is impossible to give -dialectic form to her quaint variations from -normal pronunciation.) By and by we found -an example.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," she said, "sukimas means 'I like.' -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page30" id="page30"></a>[pg 30]</span> -I like flowers, birds, and so on, but you must -not use that—" with one pointed finger on a -word that I proceeded straightway to damn -forever.</p> - -<p class="indent">"What is the proper word for <i>that</i> word?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Ai suru," she said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"And what does that mean?"</p> - -<p class="indent">A vertical line of mental effort broke the -smoothness of her forehead.</p> - -<p class="indent">"It iss <i>deeper</i> than 'like.'"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Oh," I said. She continued her mental -search for an English equivalent. I tried to -help.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Love?" I ventured.</p> - -<p class="indent">With straight eyes she met purely impersonal -inquiry with response even more impersonal.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yess," she said.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">That afternoon I walked farther up the -gorge, past curio shops, with the river roaring -far beneath and water tumbling from far -above, and I turned in for a moment where -the word "Archery" curved in big letters over -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page31" id="page31"></a>[pg 31]</span> -a doorway, to see an old chap put eight arrows -out of ten in a small target a hundred feet -away, and triumphantly shout:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Russian!"</p> - -<p class="indent">And then on past tea-houses and workshops -and rice-mills with undershot water-wheels -such as I had left in the Cumberland Mountains. -In a rice square below and beyond me -three little girls were playing. When they saw -me they ran toward the road, stooping now and -then to pick up something as they ran. The -littlest one held up to me a bunch of blue flowers. -I was thrilled; here I thought is where I -get the courtesy of the land even from the peasant -class and untainted by the rude manners of -the Saxon and his Caucasian kind. I took off -my hat.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Arigato," I said, which means "Thank -you." Out came the mite's chubby hand.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Shinga!" she said, "mucha shinga!"</p> - -<p class="indent">Now I have not been able to find anyone -who knows what "shinga" means except the -little highway robbers who held me up in the -road and made it plain by signs. I went down -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page32" id="page32"></a>[pg 32]</span> -into my pocket for a coin. Up stepped number -two of the little hold-ups, with number -three in close support; but I was too disappointed -and sore, and I declined. Those three -little ones followed me half a mile and up -many score of steep steps to a temple in a grove, -still proffering flowers and saying,</p> - -<p class="indent">"Shinga." It was sad.</p> - -<p class="indent">Going back I met another mite of a girl in -a many-colored kimono. She said something. -I am afraid I glowered, but she said it again, -with a bow and a smile, and it was—</p> - -<p class="indent">"Konnichi-wa!" which means "Good-day." -Then wasn't I sorry! This was the -real thing. I took off my hat, and then and -there this little maid and I exchanged elaborate -Oriental ceremonies in the middle of the -road, concluding with three right-angle bows of -farewell, each saying three times that very -beautiful Japanese good-by,</p> - -<p class="indent">"Sayonara."</p> - -<p class="indent">I went on cheered and thinking. This was -Old and New Japan, the lingering beauty of -one, the trail of the tourist over the other, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page33" id="page33"></a>[pg 33]</span> -this was Japan in general. When you are -looking for a thing you get something else; -when you look for something else you get what -you were looking for. The trouble was that -in neither case should I have been surprised, -for the Japanese even say,</p> - -<p class="indent">"It is not surprising if the surprising does -not surprise," which must be thought about for -a while. And then again, What's the odds, -no matter what happens.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Shikata ga nai," says the Japanese; "It -can't be helped"—a fatalistic bit of philosophy -that may play an important part on many -future battle-fields.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">The Little Maid of Miyanoshita and I were -tossing bits of cracker to the gold-fishes in the -pond, and each bit made a breaking, flashing -rainbow as they rushed for it in a writhing -heap. She had never been to America nor to -England.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Wouldn't you like to go?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Verry much," she said.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page34" id="page34"></a>[pg 34]</span> -"Well, aren't you going some day?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"I hope so, but—" she paused; "if I wore -these clothes the people would follow me about -the streets. If I wore European clothes, I -would look like—what you say—a fright."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Never!" Again she shook her head.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yess, yess I would." And the pity of it -is I am afraid she was right.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Little Maid did not walk the hills -much.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Japanese men do not like for women to go -about much," she said. "My uncle does not -like that I go about alone, but my father he -does not care. He has been in America."</p> - -<p class="indent">"It is perfectly safe?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes, perrfectly safe. Is it not so in America?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well, no, not always; at least not in the -South, where I come from."</p> - -<p class="indent">She did not ask why, though I should not -have been surprised to learn that she knew, -and I did not explain.</p> - -<p class="indent">She was very fond of Schiller, she said, and -she had read many American and English novels. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page35" id="page35"></a>[pg 35]</span> -She liked "The Crisis" very much—she -did not mention others—though she liked better -the novels that were written by women.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Because you understand them better?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Not only that," she said slowly, "but I -think that men who write novels try to make -the women happy, and the women who write -novels do not do that so much; and I think the -women must be nearer the truth."</p> - -<p class="indent">She turned suddenly on me:</p> - -<p class="indent">"<i>You</i> have written a book."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Guilty," I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"And what does that mean?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"It means that I have," I said lamely. We -talked international differences.</p> - -<p class="indent">"American women use very many pins, is it -not true?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"I think it is true," I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We do not," she said; "we use what you -call"—with her fingers on a little cord at the -breast of her kimono—"strings. But," she -added suddenly, "an American says to me that -I must not speak of such things."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Tut!"</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page36" id="page36"></a>[pg 36]</span> -"Well," she said, "I do not see anything -wrong."</p> - -<p class="indent">In America, I explained, we put the woman -in a high place and looked up at her.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Is it not so in Japan?" I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"No," she said simply, "it is not so in Japan." -She thought a while. "That must be -very nice for the woman in America," she said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I think it is," I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"But then," she said, to explain the mystery, -they are so well ed-u-ca-ted."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well, I don't think it is because they are -so well educated," I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Then they are worthy," said the Little -Maid.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">I have been to Big Hell—a climb of some -three thousand feet past rice squares and barley -fields and little forests of bamboo trees, where -on a God-forsaken mountain top sulphurous -smoke belches into the clouds that drift about -it. Now smoke suggests human habitation, -human food, and human comfort, and that -smoke swirling up there gave the spot a loneliness -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page37" id="page37"></a>[pg 37]</span> -unspeakable. Under you the gray earth -was hot, here and there were springs of boiling -water, and the ashy crust crackled under your -feet. Around the crest we went, and down -through a forest of big trees left standing because -the place was a royal preserve. The absence -of animals, tame or wild, has constantly -depressed me ever since I have been in Japan. -Even up there in the hills I had seen nothing -hopping, crawling, or climbing by the roadside -or in the woods, and I could see nothing now.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Is there nothing wild up here?" I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Oh, yes," said the guide, "there are deer -and monkeys." If he had said there were dodos -I could have been no more surprised; but -to this day I have seen nothing in freedom -except a few birds in the air.</p> - -<p class="indent">By and by a thatched roof came in view. -The path led sharply around one corner of the -house and I was brought up with a gasp. I -had read and heard much about bathing customs -in Japan. The government has tried, I -believe, to legislate into the people Occidental -ideas of modesty. One regulation provided -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page38" id="page38"></a>[pg 38]</span> -that the sexes should be separated. They were -separated—by a bamboo rod floating on the -water. Another time it was announced that -bathing trunks must be worn at a certain place -by the sea. One old chap issued leisurely from -his house on the hill-side and stalked down -without clothes, swinging his trunks in his -hand. After he got into the water he put the -trunks on, and as soon as he came out he took -them off again and stalked home swinging -them as before.</p> - -<p class="indent">Well, there they were, old and young and -of both sexes, and it was apparent that the -regulations of the bamboo rod and the bathing -trunks had not reached that high. It was a -natural Turkish bath-house, and it seems that -the farmers around Big Hell furnish a certain -amount of produce each year to the proprietor -for the privilege of hot baths, and when work -is slack they go up there—husbands and wives, -sons and daughters—and stay for days. Apparently -work was slack just then. The bath, -some ten feet square, and sunk in the floor, was -screened from the gaze of the passing pedestrian -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page39" id="page39"></a>[pg 39]</span> -and the coldness of the outer air merely -by slender bamboo rods, some eighteen inches -apart. It was full to the brim.</p> - -<p class="indent">That night an Englishman seemed greatly -taken with Big Hell.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Most extraordinary!" he said. "Do you -know, they never minded us at all—not at -all. A chap had a camera, and one dear old -lady actually stood upright when he was taking -a picture. They asked me to come in, and -I really think I would, but—gad, you know, -there wasn't any room."</p> - -<p class="indent">The key-note of this symphony of ills will -not be sounded here.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">She could play the koto (the harp), and the -piano a little—could the Maid of Miyanoshita. -She would play neither for me, but that afternoon -she would take me, she said, to hear a -friend play the koto—an elderly friend, whom -she called, she said, her aunt. Later, she said -she had asked another gentleman also. Now -when I spoke once of the musical click of the -getas, the Happy Exile had told me that the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page40" id="page40"></a>[pg 40]</span> -wearers often chose them, taking only such -pairs as pleased the individual ear. The statement -has since been much laughed at, so I asked -the Maid of Miyanoshita for confirmation. -She at least did not choose her getas for their -sound.</p> - -<p class="indent">"But," she said, "the Japanese say the -getas go—</p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"'Kara-ko, kara-ko, kara-ko!'"</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">The notes she gave were the notes I had -heard on the stone platforms of every station -between Tokio and Yokohama, and going -straightway to the piano I found those notes -to be F and D in the scale of F Minor. Let -the laugh proceed. The Happy Exile possibly -might say that those notes were the prominent -ones in some old national song, and that the -geta-makers had been unconsciously reproducing -them ever since.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">It was raining. Alack and alas! the Little -Maid carried an American umbrella—impious -trail of the Saxon! while the Other Man and -I bore picturesque Japanese ones that would -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page41" id="page41"></a>[pg 41]</span> -have given the crowning touch to her, but -looked simply ridiculous over us. Thus we -went to meet the exquisite courtesy and genuine -kindness of a real Japanese home.</p> - -<p class="indent">Two kotos were played for us, while the -players sang "Wind Among the Pines," and -the tale of the fairies who fell in love with -the fisherman.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Do you like Japanese music?" said the -Little Maid to the Other Man.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," he said promptly, lying like a gentleman.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Don't you think it is rather monotonous?" -she asked.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well—um—um. Don't you like Japanese -music?" he said, taking refuge.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well," she said, "I like your music better, -I think. It is more lively and has more variety."</p> - -<p class="indent">Then we had tea, and after tea of the kind -usually served in Japan, the husband, a fierce -Samurai in the pictures he showed us, but now -a genial, broad-smiling doctor of the old Japanese -school, insisted that we should take bowls -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page42" id="page42"></a>[pg 42]</span> -of powdered tea which he prepared with his -own hands. In the drinking of this the Little -Maid instructed us. We were to take the bowl, -the left hand underneath, the fingers of the -right hand clasped about it, lift it to the forehead, -a movement of unspoken thanks, and -very gently, so as not to suggest that the tea -needed to be dissolved, were to roll the tea -around in the bowl three times and then take -one drink—making much noise, meanwhile, -with the lips to show how much we enjoyed it.</p> - -<p class="indent">"That is very vulgar in your country," interrupted -the Little Maid, "is it not so?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well," I said, "lots of people do it, but -not for the reason of courtesy."</p> - -<p class="indent">We were to roll it around three times more, -and then drink again; three times more, and a -third drink, leaving this time but a little, -which, without being rolled around again, was -to be drunk at a swallow—three drinks and -one swallow to the bowl. O-kin-san says that -this last swallow should be only the foam, -which must be drunk to show that the tea is -so good that the guest must have even the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page43" id="page43"></a>[pg 43]</span> -foam; and that not until then does the noise -of appreciation come, and then only because -the foam cannot be drunk without noise. It -was well. We exchanged autographs and -cards. With the kind permission of the Little -Maid's aunt we took pictures of the interior, -and then with much bowing and many "sayonaras" -we passed out under the cherry trees.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We say 'Good-morning,'" said the Little -Maid, explaining the courtesies of Japanese -greeting and good-by, "and we bow; and we -say 'It is a long while since I have seen you,' -or 'It is a fine day,' and we bow again. At the -end of each sentence you must bow, and it is -the same when you say good-by."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">Before I learned that the Mikado had sent -a general edict through the land that all foreigners -in Japan were to be treated with particular -consideration while this war is going on—thus -making it safer for the tourist now in -this country than it ever has been or will be, -perhaps, for a long time—I had been greatly -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page44" id="page44"></a>[pg 44]</span> -impressed by the absence of all signs of disorder, -street quarrels, loud talking, and by the -fact that in Tokio, one of the largest cities in -the world, one could go about day or night in -perfect safety. I told this to the Maid of -Miyanoshita.</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desuka," she said without surprise, and -that means "Indeed." And when she said -later that there were many Japanese novelists, -but they did not write love stories, I was reminded -further that I had seen no man in Japan -turn his head to look at a woman who had -passed him—no exchange of glances, no street -gallantry at all.</p> - -<p class="indent">"The song of the 'Goo-goo Eyes,'" I said, -"would never have been written in Japan."</p> - -<p class="indent">"What iss 'Goo-goo Eyes'?" said the Little -Maid, mystified.</p> - -<p class="indent">Then had I trouble—but I must have made -it clear at last.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Perhaps the Japanese girl does not want -to be seen—looking."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Oh, you mean that she may look, but the -foreigner doesn't see it?"</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page45" id="page45"></a>[pg 45]</span> -"Well, we are all human. That is very -frank, is it not?"</p> - -<p class="indent">It was frank—very frank—and of an innocence -not to be misunderstood save by a fool. -Then I got a degree.</p> - -<p class="indent">"But I am always frank with you, for if -you are what you say 'guilty,' I think you -must understand. I call you to myself a Doctor -of Humanity."</p> - -<p class="indent">Wallah, but the life is hard!</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">By and by this remarkable Little Maid went -on:</p> - -<p class="indent">"The Japanese may be what you call in -love, but they must not tell it—must not even -show it."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Not even the men?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"No, not even the men. Is it not so in your -country?"</p> - -<p class="indent">I laughed.</p> - -<p class="indent">"No, it is not so in my country." I found -myself suddenly imitating her own slow speech. -"That's the first thing the man in my country -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page46" id="page46"></a>[pg 46]</span> -does. Sometimes he tells it, even when he -can't ask the girl to marry him, and sometimes -they even tell it over there when they don't -mean it."</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desuka!"</p> - -<p class="indent">"They call that 'flirting.'"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes, I know 'flirting,'" said the Little -Maid.</p> - -<p class="indent">"It is not a very nice word," I said. "There -is no flirting in Japan?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"There is no chance. Parents and friends -make marriage in Japan."</p> - -<p class="indent">"They don't marry for love?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"It is as in France—not for love. And in -America?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well, we don't think it nice for people -to marry unless they are in love."</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desuka," she said, which still means -"Indeed." And then she went on:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Japanese girls obey their parents." And -then she added, rather sadly, I thought, "and -sometimes they are very unhappy."</p> - -<p class="indent">"And what then?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Oh, deevorces—are very common among -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page47" id="page47"></a>[pg 47]</span> -the lower classes, but among the middle and -upper classes it is verry difficult."</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desuka!" I said, for I was surprised.</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desu," said the Little Maid, which is -the proper answer.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">The Maid of Miyanoshita loves flowers, and -at sunset this afternoon I saw her coming down -from her garden, where she had been at work. -She had a great round straw hat on her black -hair. I got her to draw it about her face with -both hands, and with a camera she was caught -as she laughed. We went down the steps and -stopped above the cascade which shook the -water where the goldfishes were playing.</p> - -<p class="indent">Now I have been a month in Japan; I have -seen the opening of the Diet, heard the Emperor -chant the fact that he was at peace with -all the world save Russia, and observed that -he must show origin from the gods in other -ways than in his stride. I have dined with the -gracious representative of the Stars and Stripes -and his staff, who seem to have taken on an -Oriental suavity that bodes well for our interests -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page48" id="page48"></a>[pg 48]</span> -in this Far East, and have seen an Imperial -Highness play the delicate and difficult -double rôle of hand-shaking Democrat to -Americans and God-head to his own people—while -both looked on. I have eaten a Japanese -dinner at the Maple Club, while Geishas and -dancing-girls held fast the wondering Occidental -eye; have heard, there, American college -songs sung by Japanese statesmen, and have -joined hands with them in a swaying performance -of "Auld Lang Syne." I have seen -wrestling matches that looked at first sight like -two fat ladies trying to push each other out -of a ring—but which was much more. I have -been to the theatre, to find the laugh checked -at my lips and to sit thereafter in silence, mystification, -and wonder. I have tossed pennies -to children—the "babies" who here "are -kings"—while wandering through blossoming -parks and among people whom I cannot yet -realize as real. I have visited shrines, temples; -have heard the wail of kite and the croak of -raven over the tombs of the Shoguns, and have -seen a Holy Father beating a drum and praying -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page49" id="page49"></a>[pg 49]</span> -a day-long prayer with a cigarette-stub behind -one ear. I have learned that this is the -land of the seductive "chit" and the deceptive -yen which doubles your gold when you arrive -and makes you think that when you have spent -fifty cents you still have a dollar of it left. -Moreover, I have seen the glory of cherry-blossoms. -But of all these trifles and more—more, -perhaps, anon. I pulled a little red -guide-book out of my pocket.</p> - -<p class="indent">"That word," I asked, pointing to the -proper one, "would you use that word to your—well, -your mother?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"No," she said very slowly, and with -straight eyes, again answering impersonal inquiry -with response even more impersonal, -"I—don'—don't—think—you—would—use—that -word—to your—mother."</p> - -<p class="indent">The sunlight lay only on the great white -crest of Fuji. Everywhere else the swift dusk -of Japan was falling. In it the cherry-tree -was fast taking on the light of a great white -star. In the grove above us a nightingale sang.</p> - -<p class="indent">Truly 'tis hard.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page50" id="page50"></a>[pg 50]</span></p> - - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h2>III</h2> - -<p class="h2">LINGERING IN TOKIO</p> - -<p class="indent">I might as well confess, I suppose, that these -"Hardships of the Campaign," pleasant as they -are, ecstatic as they might be to an untroubled -mind, constitute a bluff pure and simple. -Here goes another, but it shall be my last, and -I shall write no more until the needle of my -compass points to Manchuria. A month ago -the first column got away when the land was -lit with the glory of cherry-blossoms. We -have been leaving every week since—next week -we leave again. One man among us now calls -himself a cherry-blossom correspondent. He -was lucky to say it first. Clear across the -Pacific we can hear the chuckle at home over -our plight even from the dear ones who sent us -to Japan. If it were not such a tragedy it -would be very funny indeed.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">The stars float high in the sky of Japan, so -that when the moon rises, a vaster dome is lit -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page51" id="page51"></a>[pg 51]</span> -up than I have ever seen anywhere else in the -world. The first moon I saw in Japan was -rising over the Bluff where the foreigners live -in Yokohama, and climbing slowly toward -those distant stars. The Happy Exile and I -had climbed a narrow, winding, bush-bordered -alley, broken here and there with short flights -of stone steps, and we sat on mats in his Japanese -home. Somewhere outside a nightingale -was singing and the fine needle-point of the -first cicada was jabbing vibrations into the -night air. To the left of the Happy Exile -was a beautiful box of lacquer, and he reached -out a caressing hand for it. That was his <i>netsuke</i> -box, and he pulled out little lacquer trays -in which lay his diminutive treasures.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I have only about forty here," he said, -"but they are all good. The dealers can't fool -me now, and if ever a new <i>netsuke</i> is brought -in from any part of Japan, the owner directly -or indirectly lets me know it is here. Sometimes -I will strike one in some far interior -town, but I know it has been sent on there -ahead of me, that I may think I have stumbled -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page52" id="page52"></a>[pg 52]</span> -on a treasure. My big collection is at home—and -do you know that a man in Boston has -perhaps the best set in the world? They have -risen in value enormously, and are rising all -the time. There are not so many imitations -as people suppose, for the reason that the carvers -can't afford to spend the time that is necessary -to make even a good deception. You see, in -the old days each daimio had his carvers who -did nothing but make <i>netsukes</i>, and all time -was theirs."</p> - -<p class="indent">Then he began taking them out. Each one -represented a myth, a tradition, or a proverb.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I love these things not only for their exquisite -carving and their color and age, but -because they are so significant in reflecting Japanese -life and character. You have no idea -how much you can learn about Japan from -studying these curios."</p> - -<p class="indent">Whiskey and soda were brought in. We -watched the moon, listened to the nightingale, -and the Happy Exile's talk drifted to old Japanese -poetry—to the little seventeen-syllable -form in which the Japanese has caught a picture, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page53" id="page53"></a>[pg 53]</span> -a mood, one swift impression, or a sorrow. -Here are three that he gave me—but inaccurately -he said: "A mother is sitting on a mat, -perhaps alone. The wind rattles the fragile -wall and she turns:</p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">"The east wind blowing;</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Oh, the little finger-holes</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Through the shogis!"</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">Now, <i>shogis</i> are the little squares of latticed -paper that make the fragile wall, and mischievous -children delight in thrusting their fingers -through them. Those little finger-holes were -made by the vanished hand of a dead child.</p> - -<p class="indent">This is a picture in three strokes:</p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Moonlight;</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Across the mat</span><br /> -<span class="i0">The shadow of a pine.</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">Think of that for a while.</p> - -<p class="indent">And here is another mother-cry for a dead -child. There are summer days in which every -Japanese child that can toddle is chasing -dragon-flies, and the children who die must pass -through a hundred worlds. So this mother's -thought runs thus:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page54" id="page54"></a>[pg 54]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">Oh, little catcher of dragon-flies,</span><br /> -<span class="i0">I wonder how far</span><br /> -<span class="i0">You've gone.</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">But I like best the first:</p> - -<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">The east wind blowing;</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Oh, the little finger-holes</span><br /> -<span class="i0">Through the shogis!</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">We drifted out into the night air. Every -house was dark and quiet. The Happy Exile -stopped once to pat a yellow cur on the head.</p> - -<p class="indent">"All these people know me," he said, "and -I can step into any house without a word and -sleep the night." But we followed that narrow -alley up long flights of narrow, winding -steps, under thick bushes that arched above us -and shattered the moonbeams about our feet. -There was not a cloud in the sky when we -reached the top of the bluff, and I felt for the -first time what the magic of this land was to -the Happy Exile. The moon was soaring on -toward those stars—the stars that float high -in this sky of Japan.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">Once I took refuge in a wrestling-match. -I found a great pagoda-like, circus-like tent -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page55" id="page55"></a>[pg 55]</span> -made of bamboo with matting for a roof. Outside -long streamers of various colors floated -from the tops of long poles. High above and -on a little platform supported by four bamboos -a man was beating a drum. He had started -beating that drum at daybreak. About the entrance -and around the big, fragile structure was -the same crowd of men and boys that you -would find at an American circus. To get in -I paid two yen. Had my skin been yellow and -my eyes slant I would have dropped but one. -The arena inside was amphitheatrical in shape -with three broad tiers of benches on which -squatted the spectators. In the centre and -under a bamboo roof was a hummock of dirt -about two feet high. Four pillars swathed -with red and blue supported this roof, and from -each pillar was stretched a streamer from which -dangled little banners covered with Chinese -ideographs. A ring some twelve feet in diameter -was dug into the dirt hummock and in the -centre of this ring were two huge fat men, stark -naked except for a breech-clout. As I came -in, they rose and took hold. To the Saxon it -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page56" id="page56"></a>[pg 56]</span> -looked at first glance like two fat ladies simply -trying to push each other out of the ring, and -I came near laughing aloud. Before I had approached -ten steps one of the two fat men -touched one foot outside of the ring. He had -lost and the bout was over. Now two more -came walking in with great dignity. They -mounted the arena and turned their backs upon -each other. Then each stretched out his right -leg with his right hand on the knee, raised it -high in the air and brought it down on the earth -with a mighty stamp. The same performance -with the left leg, and then they strained downward -until their buttocks almost touched the -earth. Turning, they squatted on their heels -opposite each other at the edge of the ring, and -each man slapped his hands together gently, -stretched them out at full length and turned -the palms over. This was a salute—the Japanese -equivalent of the Saxon pugilist's handshake. -Each walked then to one of the posts -from which hung a little box of salt, and his -second handed him there water in a <i>sake</i> cup. -He rinsed his mouth, spurted the water out, took -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page57" id="page57"></a>[pg 57]</span> -a pinch of salt and threw it into the ring. One -of them stooped and plucked a few blades of -grass from the sod and threw them also into the -ring. Both these acts were meant to drive the -spirits of evil away, and it was all so serious that -I was aroused at once. Four times they squatted -like two huge game-cocks, and four times they -got up slowly, strolled leisurely to the salt-box -and the <i>sake</i> cup. At last they got together, -and there was a mighty tussle, and to my astonishment, -one of those giants threw the other -over his head and landed him some eight feet -outside the ring. Apparently there was more -in it than was evident to the casual eye, and it -was very serious business indeed. The fact is, -wrestling is an ancient and honorable calling -in Japan, and goes back to the sun goddess. -She had a brother once who used to annoy her -by killing wild animals and tossing them into -her backyard. One day she got angry and ran -away to a cave, leaving the earth in total darkness. -Her retainers, and the brother and his -retainers tried to get her out, but she refused -to come out—having blocked the cave with a -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page58" id="page58"></a>[pg 58]</span> -great stone. So they performed antics and -made strange cries until, tempted by curiosity, -she pushed the stone slightly away and looked -out, and thereupon one Taji Karac, stamping -the earth, rushed forward and tore the bowlder -away, and that is why the wrestlers stamp the -earth to-day. This is myth—what follows is -historical.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Once upon a time," said an American correspondent, -as he leaned over the bar that night -at the Imperial Hotel, "a chesty noble got gay, -and remarked that he was about the best on -earth. The emperor heard of this, and sent a -challenge broadcast. A big chap took it up, -kicked in the chesty noble's ribs, and brake his -bones so that he died. This was twenty-four -years before celestial peace was proclaimed on -earth. About nine hundred years later, two -brothers claimed the throne and they agreed -to wrassle for it. They did it by proxy, -though, and one Korishito got the throne -through his champion. In the same century -there was a wrestling-match at the autumn festival -of the Five Grains. The harvest was -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page59" id="page59"></a>[pg 59]</span> -good that year, and the emperor argued thereupon -that the coincident wrestling must be -good, and so wrestling became a permanent -national custom. When the champion Kiobashi -became referee the emperor gave him a -fan which proclaimed that he was the Prince -of Lions. The wrestlers were divided into east -and west, and that's why they come into the -arena from the east and west to-day. Hollyhock -is the flower of the east, the gourd-flower is -symbol of the west, and the path to the stage is -called the flower-path to-day. The pillars indicate -the points of the compass. The next champion -the emperor called the Driving Wind, -and the family of the Driving Wind alone -can hold the symbol of the referee to-day."</p> - -<p class="indent">These wrestlers are exempt from military -service, and they constitute, I understand, a -very close corporation. When an unusually -large child is born in Japan, the father and -mother say: "He shall be a wrestler."</p> - -<p class="indent">The wrestlers are enormous men, and average -over six feet in height. Some of them are -magnificent in shape, but as weight counts in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page60" id="page60"></a>[pg 60]</span> -science, they encourage fat. The present champion -weighs over three hundred pounds. Certainly, -as a class, the wrestlers show what Japan -can do in the way of producing big men. Constantly -I have been surprised not only at the -thick-set sturdiness, but at the average height -of the Japanese soldier as I see him in Tokio -on his way to the front. Moreover, I am told -that the height of Japanese school-children has -increased three inches within the last ten years -in the schools where the students sit in chairs -instead of squatting on the floor. And, among -the new types one sees in Tokio to-day, the dapper -men in European clothes about the clubs -and hotels, the statesmen in high hats and frock-suits, -the half-modernized class, who wear derby -hats and mackintoshes with fur collars and -show their legs naked to the knee when they -step from a rickshaw—the most interesting and -significant is the Tokio University student you -see lilting on his getas through the public gardens. -He has an intelligent face, looks you -straight in the eye, is agile as a panther, and as -tall, I believe, as the average college student. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page61" id="page61"></a>[pg 61]</span> -I suppose the emperor issued an edict that his -people should grow taller and if he did—they -will. But these students—one can't help wondering -what, when they grow up, they will do -for Japan and to the rest of the East.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">With bird-like cries the rickshaw men turn -under an arched gateway into a little court-yard -paved with stones. The wheels rattle as in a -hollow vault and come to a sudden halt. -Straightway there is an answering bustle and -the shuffling of many little feet along the polished -floors to the entrance of the tea-house, and -many little brown maidens kneel there and -smile and gurgle a welcome. There the shoes -of the visitor come off, and if any man has forgotten -the first instruction Kipling gave, that -the visitor to Japan should take with him at -least one beautiful pair of socks, there is considerable -embarrassment for him. You are led -up a narrow stairway, each step of polished -wood, and into a big chamber covered with mats—the -wall toward the interior made of beautiful -screens, the other wall opening on the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page62" id="page62"></a>[pg 62]</span> -outer air to a balcony. At the other end of the -room from the entrance a single beautiful vase -stands on a little platform, and in that vase is -one single beautiful flower. In front of that -vase is the seat of honor, and the guests are arranged -in front of it seated on thin cushions on -the floor. Straightway little nesan—serving-girls—carry -in little trays, a box filled with -ashes in which glow tiny bars of charcoal, a little -ash-receiver of bamboo, a bottle of <i>sake</i>, and -dainty little bowls without handles for drinking-cups. -Now one by one the brilliant little -stars of the drama appear. A geisha girl -glides in at the entrance, another and another, -and in a row sink to their knees and bow their -foreheads to the mat. Rising, they approach -ten steps and kneel again. Once more they approach -shuffling along the floor in their socks of -spotless white (the big toe in a separate pocket) -walking modestly pigeon-toed that the flaps of -their brilliant kimonos may part not at all, and -then they are bowing in front of the little trays -where they sit smiling and ready to serve you -with food and drink.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page63" id="page63"></a>[pg 63]</span> -There for the first time we saw Kamura—Kamura-san -you must say, if you would be -polite. She was pretty, and dainty, and graceful, -and her years were only fourteen, which by -our computation, would be thirteen only, since -the Japanese child is supposed to be a year old -when born. She spoke English very well, for -she had lived in Shanghai once where she had -played with American children. She was an -Eurasian—that is a half-caste—but that was a -secret which she told a few in confidence, for -you could not tell it from her face, and the fact -would be no little obstacle to the success of -her career as a geisha girl. Straightway little -Kamura-san was the favorite of the dinner party, -with the women as well as with the -men, and she acted as interpreter and said -many quaint, shrewd, unexpected things. The -women petted and caressed her, and the men -doubtless would have liked to do the same, but -that is not a Japanese custom. She turned to -one man of the party, and she spoke slowly and -with no shading of intonation whatever:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Who was the very young gentleman with -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page64" id="page64"></a>[pg 64]</span> -red cheeks who was here with you the other -night?"</p> - -<p class="indent">The man told her.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Why?" he asked.</p> - -<p class="indent">"He came back to see me alone. He wanted -to see me here alone, and he wanted the nesan -to leave the room, but I would not let the nesan -leave the room, and I did not understand."</p> - -<p class="indent">That innocence aroused considerable interest -in everybody and, later, the young gentleman's -cheeks got redder still, when the incident was -told him. Three days later I went to the tea-house -again. Kamura-san, baby that she was, -was to be sold soon to a Japanese.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">She already spoke such excellent English and -was so very intelligent that I wondered straightway -if it might not be feasible to buy little -Kamura-san myself and send her to school. -Her mother, I was told, wanted her to go to -school, and Kamura-san said that was what she -wanted to do—how sincerely I was soon to -learn. That mother had sold her several years -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page65" id="page65"></a>[pg 65]</span> -before to the master of the tea-house and to -get his money back the master of the tea-house -must sell her again. So the price of the child, -body and soul, was 750 yen or $375 in gold. -For $50 a year she could be sent to school in -Tokio, and I doubtless could find people to take -care of her, though Kamura-san said that she -would live with her mother and go to school, -which was better still. So I set about negotiations, -which were many and intricate. I had -to see her own mother, her house-mother, with -whom she and other geisha girls lived in Tokio, -and who made engagements for her and them -to dance at various tea-houses (she would be a -female manager of chorus-girls in this country), -and I would have to see the master of the tea-house. -I saw them all, and not one of them believed -that my purpose was what I said it was, -though all of them, except Kamura-san herself, -politely pretended to believe. As Kamura-san -had played with American children and knew -English well, I told her about America, and -strove to explain. She sat with her little face -downcast, her eyes dreamy and apparently taking -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page66" id="page66"></a>[pg 66]</span> -in every word I uttered. When I got -through she said simply:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yess, you will buy me out; you will give -me a house; I will be your Japanese wife -and wear European clothes." With her next -breath she would be saying how much she -wanted to go to school.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">The mother of Kamura-san lives in Yokohama. -Soon there was an amateur theatrical -performance there and I got the mistress of the -tea-house to let Kamura-san and a friend go -down to see it. In the afternoon I went to see -the mother, who was young, pretty, and very -lady-like. The little girl acted as interpreter, -and from her mother's lips told this story:</p> - -<p class="indent">Kamura-san's father was an Austrian, and -therefore she was a half-caste. That, however, -was told me in confidence, and the fact I -must not repeat, since it would interfere with -her future. The mother had been his Japanese -wife, and she had loved him very much. -After a time the Austrian had been obliged to -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page67" id="page67"></a>[pg 67]</span> -go home. He left the mother well provided -for—gave her a house and a good deal of -money. But she was, she said, young and foolish -and extravagant, made bad investments, -and lost it all. It was then that she sold -Kamura-san to the tea-house. She would be -very glad to have the little girl live with her -at home, and wanted her to go to school. Her -father, her mother said, would be humiliated -and chagrined if he knew that Kamura-san -was a geisha, and she wanted her daughter to -give the life up. Before the interview was over -I could see very plainly that the mother was -still expecting the daughter to follow in her -own footsteps.</p> - -<p class="indent">The three went to the amateur theatrical -performance that night, and from another part -of the house I could see the little girl explaining -it to her friend and to her mother, and -the next night at the tea-house she rehearsed -several features of it to her fellow-geishas, and -her imitation of a barytone soloist, the way he -stood, lifted his shoulders, opened his mouth -and puffed out the volume of sound, was very -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page68" id="page68"></a>[pg 68]</span> -funny, and made her companions squeak with -laughter.</p> - -<p class="indent">Now, there was a young American officer who -was going around with me on these expeditions, -who was having considerable fun over my philanthropical -purpose, and was scornfully sceptical -of any success. He was on hand that -night and suddenly Kamura-san said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"My mother says I must not love young and -handsome gentleman."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Why?" I asked.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Because young and handsome gentleman -changes his heart."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well, I suppose I fill the bill."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yess," she said, "you are a little handsome -and a little old."</p> - -<p class="indent">"But you aren't going to love anybody, you -are going to school."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yess," said Kamura-san obediently.</p> - -<p class="indent">Once more that night I tried to explain that -we did not rob cradles in America, and again -she looked dreamy and seemed to understand, -but when I started to go, she beckoned me behind -a screen:</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page69" id="page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> -"Did you bring the 750 yen?"</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">It was the interpreter of the tea-house that -made me permanently hopeless. The interpreter -was soft-voiced, gentle, and spoke excellent -English. She had lived several years with an -American missionary—a woman whom she had -loved, she said, very tenderly. The interpreter -had been a widow for several years, and had a -little girl. She would never marry again, she -said, because she would have to give up her -child. So she spoke English in the tea-house -and taught the children of the master for a -pitiful salary. I cannot recall ever having met -such frankness in Japan, and this is what she -said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"If you have 750 yen to spare, give it to the -poor families of Tokio whose sons have gone -to war. You buy Kamura-san from the tea-house -and you go away to Manchuria; you will -not know whether she goes to school. Most -likely her house-mother will sell her again. -Anyhow it is useless. She really does not want -to go to school. She likes the tea-house, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page70" id="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> -music, the lights and gossip, and the coming and -going of strangers. You cannot change her, -and it is no use. Give your money to poor -people in Tokio."</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">After this Kamura-san's instincts told her -that something was wrong, and she began to -take perceptibly more notice of the young officer. -Once, as I was told, she said to him:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I always liked you best—you are so pretty."</p> - -<p class="indent">I charged her with this statement.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Who told you that?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Never mind."</p> - -<p class="indent">"He is a liar," said Kamura-san calmly.</p> - -<p class="indent">And once I caught her making eyes at him -behind my back—something that she had never -done with me. With this, too, I charged her.</p> - -<p class="indent">"No," she said in denial, "he is your -brother. He will be my best friend. He will -be godfather to our child."</p> - -<p class="indent">I staggered half-way across the room—that -infant talking of a child!</p> - -<p class="indent">"In heaven's good name," I said, "what do -you want with a child?"</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page71" id="page71"></a>[pg 71]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"That I may not be lonely when I old," -said little Kamura-san.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">Still, out of curiosity now, I went to see the -house-mother of Kamura-san. Her head was -poised on her shoulders like a snake's, and her -eyes were the eyes of a snake—black, beady, and -glittering. A face more hard, cunning, cruel, -and smilingly crafty I never saw, and it took -her but a little while to discover that I was an -unsatisfactory customer, and I couldn't help -wondering what that Austrian father would -have thought and felt had he seen that snake-like -hag trying to barter with me for his own -flesh and blood. I left the young officer there -and naturally the house-mother tried to sell the -child to him.</p> - -<p class="indent">Kamura-san I never saw again. When I -came back from Manchuria I heard that she -was gone—whither I don't know, but I'm hoping -that the Austrian father by some chance -may some day see these lines.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page72" id="page72"></a>[pg 72]</span> -But no more now of temples, blossoms, pictures, -<i>netsuke</i>, tea-houses, wrestling-matches, -theatres, and the what-not that everybody with -a pen has so wearisomely done to death. News -of the battle of Nanshan has come in. Next -week we leave again.</p> - -<p class="indent">An explanation has occurred to me. You -know the Japanese does nearly everything but -his fighting—backward. Of course he reads -and writes backward. At the theatre you find -the dressing-room in the lobby. Keys turn -from left to right, boring-tools and screws, I -understand, turn from right to left, and a Japanese -carpenter draws his plane toward him -instead of pushing it away. Sometimes even -the Japanese thinks and talks backward. For -instance, suppose he says:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I think I will go wash my hands." That, -in Japanese, is:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Te-wo aratte kimasho." Now, what he -really has said is literally:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Hands having washed I think I will <i>come -back</i>."</p> - -<p class="indent">Perhaps then our trouble is that the Japanese -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page73" id="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> -tells the truth backward and we can't understand. -He might even be fighting that way—say, -for an alliance with Russia—and we still -should not understand—at least, not yet.</p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page74" id="page74"></a>[pg 74]</span></p> - - -<h2>IV</h2> - -<p class="h2">MAKING FOR MANCHURIA</p> - -<p class="indent">It came at last—that order for the front. -On the 18th day of July, the Empress of China -swung out of Yokohama Harbor, with eighteen -men on board, who had been waiting four -months for that order, almost to the very day. -During those four months there was hardly a -day that some one of those men was not led -to believe by the authorities in Tokio that in -the next ten days the order would come, and -never would the authorities say that during any -ten days the order would not come; so that -they had perforce to stay waiting in Tokio -from the freezing rains of March until the -sweltering days of midsummer. Many of -those men had been in Japan for five months -and more, and yet knew absolutely nothing -of the land save of Tokio and Yokohama, -which, tourists tell me, are not Japan at all.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page75" id="page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> -The matter has been passing strange. We -did not come over here at the invitation of the -Japanese Government, but in simple kindness -the authorities might have said, with justice:</p> - -<p class="indent">"This is the business of Japan and of Russia -alone. Over here we do not recognize the -Occidental God-given right of the newspapers -to divulge the private purposes of anybody. -We believe that War Correspondents are -harmful to the proper conduct of a war. -Frankly, we don't want you, and to the front -you can never go."</p> - -<p class="indent">No just complaint could have been made to -this. We should have seen beautiful Japan -and, our occupation gone for this war, at least, -we could have struck the backward trail of the -Saxon—the correspondent for some trade of -peace, the artist to "drawing fruits and flowers -at home." And all would have been well.</p> - -<p class="indent">Or:</p> - -<p class="indent">"You gentlemen came over here at your own -risk. You create a new and serious problem -for us and we don't know how we are going to -solve it. If you wish to stay on at your own -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page76" id="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> -risk until we have made up our minds—you -are quite welcome."</p> - -<p class="indent">For some this would have made an early -homeward flight easy. Or again:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes, we do mean to let you go to the front, -but when we cannot say. While you are here, -however, we shall be glad to have you see our -country. Just now we are quite sure that you -will not go for at least ten days: so you can -travel around and come back. If we are sure -that you can't go for another ten days, you -may go away again and come back—and so on -until you do leave."</p> - -<p class="indent">Even this they might have said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"You English are our allies. We are in -trouble, and we may draw you as allies into it. -We, therefore, grant your right to know how -we behave on the battle-field, where we may -possibly have to fight, shoulder to shoulder. -Therefore, you English correspondents, you -English attachés, can go to the front, the rest -of you cannot."</p> - -<p class="indent">Nothing in all this could have given offence. -All or any of it would have had at least the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page77" id="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> -combined merits of frankness, consideration, -honesty, and it is very hard for this Saxon to -understand how any or all could possibly have -any bearing on anybody's advantage or disadvantage, -as far as this war is concerned.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Japanese gave no open hint of unwillingness -to have us go—no hint that we were -not to go very soon. We were urged to get -passes for ourselves, interpreters and servants -at once. Most of the men obeyed at once, -bought horses, outfits, provisions and wrote -farewell letters—wrote them many times. This -was the middle of March. Ever since we have -stayed at the Imperial Tomb in Tokio—the -Imperial Hotel is the name it calls itself—under -heavy expense to ourselves here and to the -dear ones at home who sent us here; unable -to go away; told every ten days that in the -next ten days we would most likely go, and -told on no day that within the next ten we -should not go. Now it was soon—"very -soon"—in English, and then it was "tadaima"—in -Japanese.</p> - -<p class="indent">Tadaima! That, too, meant "soon," when -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page78" id="page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> -I first put stumbling feet on the tortuous path -of Japanese thought and speech. The unwary -stranger will be told to-day that it does mean -"soon," and as such in dictionaries he shall -find it. But I have tracked "tadaima" to its -lair and dragged it, naked and ashamed, into -the white light of truth. And I know "tadaima" -at any time refers only to the season -next to come. Early in March, for instance, -it means literally—"next summer about two -o'clock."</p> - -<p class="indent">All this was something of a strain in the -way of expectation, disappointment, worry, -wasted energy—idleness. And so with a worried -conscience over the expense to the above-mentioned -dear ones at home, and the hope -that some return might yet be made to them; -through a good deal of weakness and a good -deal of reluctance to go home and get "guyed," -we stayed on and on. In May came the battle -of Nanshan and the advance on Port Arthur. -In June followed Tehlitzu. Both battles any -man would have gladly risked his life to see, -and I really think it would have been well for -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page79" id="page79"></a>[pg 79]</span> -the Japanese, granting their accounts of the -two battles as accurate—Russian atrocities in -one, undoubted Japanese gallantry in both—if -impartial observers had been there to confirm. -As it stands, the Japanese say "you -did"—the Russians say "we didn't"—and -there the matter will end.</p> - -<p class="indent">But we swung out of Yokohama Harbor at -last—the Tokio slate for the time wiped clean -and all forgiven. We were going to the front -and that was balm to any wound. O-kin-san -of the Tea House of the Hundred Steps—bless -her!—had me turn my back while she struck -sparks with flint and steel behind me and made -prayers for my safety, and from her kind hand -I carried away a little ideographed block of -wood in a wicker case which would preserve -me from all bodily harm. Whither we were -bound we knew not for sure, since by the same -token you know nothing in this land for sure. -But there were three men among us who had -been guaranteed, they said, by the word of a -Major-General's mouth, that they should see -the fall of Port Arthur. So sure were they -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page80" id="page80"></a>[pg 80]</span> -that they had made less important representatives -of their papers stay behind in Tokio to -await the going of the third column. Two -others had got the same assurance indirectly, -but from high authority, and the rest of us -knew that where they went, there went we.</p> - -<p class="indent">That day and that night and next day we -had quiet seas and sunlight. The second night -we were dining in Kobbe at a hotel to which -Kipling once sang a just pæan of praise—Kobbe, -which he knew at once, he said, was -Portland, Maine, though his feet had not then -touched American soil. He was quite right. -Kobbe might be any town anywhere. The -next daybreak was of shattered silver, and it -found us sailing through a still sea of silver -from which volcanic islands leaped everywhere -toward a silver sky. We were in the Inland -Sea. To the eye, it was an opal dream—that -Inland Sea—and the memory of it now is the -memory of a dream—a dream of magic waters, -silvery light and forlorn islands—bleak and -many-peaked above, and slashed with gloomy -ravines that race each other down to goblin-haunted -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page81" id="page81"></a>[pg 81]</span> -water-caves, where the voice of the -sea is never still. This sea narrowed by and -by into the Shimonoseki Straits, which turn -and twist through rocks, islands, and high green -hills. Through them we went into the open -ocean once more. In the middle of the next -afternoon we passed for a while through other -mountain-bordered straits, and by and by there -sat before the uplifted eye Nagasaki, with its -sleepy green terraces, rising from water-level -to low mountain-top—where the Madame -Chrysanthème of Loti's fiction is a living fact -to-day. Who was it that said, after reading -that book, he or she would like to read Pierre -Loti by Madame Chrysanthème? It must have -been a woman—and justly a woman—sure. -There is an English colony at Nagasaki and an -American or two who cling together and talk -about going home some day—all exiles, all -most hospitable to the stranger, and all unconsciously -touched with the pathos of the exile -wherever on earth you find him.</p> - -<p class="indent">Between four and five o'clock these exiles -take launches for a beach five miles away, since -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page82" id="page82"></a>[pg 82]</span> -the Japanese regulations now forbid bathing at -any nearer point. They carry out cakes and tea -and other things to drink and I took one trip -with them through one beautifully radiant late -afternoon, but even in that way there was no -evading the Japanese. Two of them, whether -fishermen, sailors, officers, or what not, calmly -fixed their boat-hooks to the launch and there -they hung. The fact that the ladies of the -launch were undressing and dressing in one end -did not seem to disturb them at all, and to this -day I am wondering what possible harm a man -or a woman in a bathing-dress among waves -can do in time of war in a place that is impregnable -and five hundred miles from the -firing-line. I found the Japanese as different -in Nagasaki as is their speech. There they say -"Nagasaki" with a hard g. In Tokio, where -the classics are supreme, they pronounce it -"Nangasaki," almost—just as the rickshaw -men in the one place lose something of the -samurai haughtiness that characterizes them in -the other. It is the difference between the flat -and the broad "a" in our own land, and between -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page83" id="page83"></a>[pg 83]</span> -the people who use the one and the people -who use the other. Everybody left next -morning, but I clung to Nagasaki as long as -I could, and in consequence took an all-night -ride on a wooden seat. Early next morning -I was crossing the Shimonoseki Straits from -Moji in a sampan. It was before sunrise. The -mist on the sea was still asleep, but on the -mountains it was starting its upward flight. -Through it fishing-boats were slipping like -ghosts, and here and there the dim shape of a -transport or a little torpedo-boat was visible. -The flush in the East was hardly as deep as a -pale rose before I was noiselessly oared to the -stone quay of the little village whence we were -to take transport at last for the front. The -foreign hotel was full. Richard Harding -Davis had gone to a Japanese hotel and had -left word for me to follow. So in a rickety -rickshaw I rattled after him through the empty -street. I found him in a Japanese room as -big as the dining-room of an American hotel, -covered with eighty mats, full of magic woodwork, -and looking out where there were no -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page84" id="page84"></a>[pg 84]</span> -walls (the walls in a Japanese house are taken -out by day) for full fifty feet on mountain -and sea and passing transports and sampans. -Davis was unpacking. Hanging over the balcony -was a yellow moth of a girl some fourteen -years old, who smiled me welcome. On -another balcony at the other end of the hotel, -three other sister moths were lighted, and -among them I saw a correspondent beating -a typewriter vigorously—they watching him -with amazement and brushing him with their -wing-like sleeves as they hovered about. -Others still were fluttering fairy-like anywhere, -everywhere. The latest occupant of our room -had been the Marquis Ito—we found it quite -big enough for two of us. Li Hung Chang -had the same room when he came over to make -peace terms after the Japanese-Chinese War. -We could see the corner of the street near by -where a Japanese tried then to assassinate that -eminent Chinaman, and in that very room the -great Shimonoseki treaty was signed. We had -it two nights and a day, and we learned, when -we went away, that we were not told the history -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page85" id="page85"></a>[pg 85]</span> -of that room for nothing. First, our interpreters -hinted that great men like Ito and -Li Hung Chang and Our Honorable Selves -were always expected to make a present to the -hotel. It was the custom. We followed the -custom to the extent of ten yen each, and an -old lady came in and prostrated herself before -each of us in turn. Now, when you are clothed -only in pajamas, are seated in a chair, and have -your bare feet on a balcony in order to miss -no vagrant wind, it is somewhat embarrassing -to have a woman steal in without warning, -smite her forehead to the mat several times, -and make many signs and much speech of gratitude. -You won't smite yours in turn; you -can't bow as you sit, and if you rise, it looks -as though you were going to put foot on the -neck of a slave. We looked very red and felt -very foolish, but we did not exchange confidences. -If there was any slumbering supposition -in our minds that this was a polite Oriental -method of dealing with guests who have -doubtful luggage, or a slumbering hope that the -"present" might have a dwindling effect on -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page86" id="page86"></a>[pg 86]</span> -our bill, there needn't have been. We had to -pay in addition for that room and those eighty -mats and that Fuji landscape of delicate woodwork; -we had to pay for all the brilliant moths -that fluttered incessantly about, for the chamber-maids -and the smiling bronze scullery-girl -who looked in on us from the hallway; for the -bath-boy and the cook or cooks. Every junk -and sampan that passed had apparently sent a -toll for collection to that hotel. The gold of -the one sunset and the silver of the one dawn -were included in the turkey-tracked, serpent-long -bill that was unrolled before our wondering -eyes. In fact, if Marquis Ito's breakfast -and the biggest dinner that Li Hung Chang -had there nine years before were not put down -therein, it was a strange oversight on the part -of the all-seeing eye that had swept the horizon -of all creation during the itemization of that -bill. That was business—that bill. The present -had been custom. I cheerfully recommend -the method to highway robbers that captain -other palaces of extortion in other parts of the -world. Get the present first—it's a pretty custom—and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page87" id="page87"></a>[pg 87]</span> -the rest is just as easy as it would -have been anyway.</p> - -<p class="indent">Next day we went back again to Moji, where -a polite and dapper little officer examined us -and our passes and asked us many questions. -Why he did I know not, since he seemed to -know about us in advance, and every now and -then he would look up from a pass and say: -"Oh, you are so-and-so"—whereat "so-and-so" -would look a bit uneasy. At two o'clock -that day we set sail—correspondents, interpreters, -servants, horses, a few soldiers, and much -ammunition—on the transport Heijo Maru. -Every ship has that "Maru" after its name, -and I have never been able to find out just -what it means—except that literally it is -"round in shape." We steamed slowly past -a long, bleak, hump-backed little island that -had been the funeral pyre for the Japanese -dead in the war with China. For ordinarily -the Japanese, after taking a lock of hair, a -finger-nail, or the <i>inkobo</i> (a bone in the throat), -which they send back to relatives, burn their -dead. But this funeral pyre was for those who -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page88" id="page88"></a>[pg 88]</span> -died in the hospital, and the wounded and sick -therein could see by the flames at night where -next day their own ashes might lie. Thence -we turned northward toward the goal of five -months' hope on the part of those hitherto unhappy -but now most cheerful eighteen men.</p> - -<p class="indent">Fuji was on board. Fuji is my horse, and -he had come down by rail. He is Japanese -and a stallion—as most Japanese horses are. -He has a bushy, wayward mane, by the strands -of which you can box the compass with great -accuracy, and a bushy forelock that is just as -wayward. His head, physiognomy, and general -traits will come in better when later they get -an opportunity for display. All I knew then -of Fuji was that he had nearly pulled the arms -out of the sockets of several men, and had -broken one man's leg back in Tokio. I was -soon to learn that this was very little to know -about Fuji.</p> - -<p class="indent">Takeuchi also was aboard. Takeuchi is my -interpreter and servant. He is tall and slender, -and has a narrow, intelligent face and general -proportions that an American girl characterized -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page89" id="page89"></a>[pg 89]</span> -as Greek. I call him the ever-faithful or -the ever-faithless—just as his mood for the day -happens to be. He keeps me guessing all the -time. When I make up my mind that I am -going to say harsh things next day, I find Takeuchi -tucking a blanket around me at three -o'clock in the morning. He knows they are -coming, and when I do say them Takeuchi -answers, "I beg you my pardon," in a way -that leads me to doubt which of us is the real -offender after all. Sometimes my watch and -money disappear, but Takeuchi turns up with -them the next morning, shaking his head and -with one wave of his hand toward the table.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Not safe," he says, smiting his waistband, -where both were concealed. "I keep him." -He has both now all the time. His first account -overran, to be sure, the exact amount -of his salary for one month and for that amount -I had him sign a receipt. Two hours later he -said, in perplexity:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I do not understand the receipt I give -you."</p> - -<p class="indent">I pointed out my willingness to be proven -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page90" id="page90"></a>[pg 90]</span> -wrong. He worked for an hour on the account -and sighed:</p> - -<p class="indent">"You are right," he said. "I mistake. I -beg you my pardon."</p> - -<p class="indent">He had overlooked among other things one -item—the funeral expenses of some relative, -which he had charged to me. I made it clear -that such an item was hardly legitimate and -since then we have had less trouble. However, -when he wishes anything, he says:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I want you, etc., etc., etc.," and at the end -of the sentence he will say "please," with great -humility; but until that "please" comes I am -not always sure which is servant and which is -master. From Takeuchi I have learned much -about Japanese character, especially about the -Buschido spirit—the fealty of Samurai to Daimio, -of retainer to Samurai, of servant to master. -It is useless to be harsh with or to scold -a Japanese servant. Just make your appeal -to that traditional spirit of loyalty and all will -be better—if not well. He may rob you himself -in the way of traditional commissions, but -you can be sure that he will allow the same -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page91" id="page91"></a>[pg 91]</span> -privilege to nobody else. But of Takeuchi—as -of Fuji—more anon.</p> - -<p class="indent">We sailed along at slow speed until we came -to the Elliott Group of Islands. We paid a -yen apiece for each meal, and the captain and -the purser—a nice little fellow who got autographs -from all who could write and pictures -from all who could draw—were the only officers -with whom we came in contact. We had -poker o' nights, and sometimes o' days, and -now and then we "played the horses." Thus -we reached the Elliott Group of Islands.</p> - -<p class="indent">There we had company, transports coming -in until there was a fleet of ten; other transports -going back to Japan, and an occasional -gun-boat hovering on the horizon. There we -stayed three wearing days—told each day that -we should start on the next at daybreak. But -there came one matchless sunset as a comfort—a -sunset that hung for a while over a low -jagged coast—a seething mass of flaming gold -and vivid, quivering green; that smote the sea -into sympathy, lent its colors to the mists that -rose therefrom, and sank slowly to one luminous -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page92" id="page92"></a>[pg 92]</span> -band of yellow, above which one motionless -cloud of silver was, by some miracle, the -last to deepen into ashes and darkness. And -as it darkened in the West, some white clouds -in the East pushed tumbling crests of foam -over another range of hills, and above them the -full moon soared. Thus, all my life I had -waited to see at last, on a heathen coast, Turner -doing the sunset, while Whistler was arranging -colors in the place where the next dawn -was to come.</p> - -<p class="indent">Here we saw Chinamen for the first time on -native heath. They came out to us in sampans, -always with one or two children in the -bow, to get scraps to eat at the port-holes aft, -or empty bottles, which they much prized; or -drifted past us on the swift tide, watching like -birds of prey for anything that might be thrown -overboard. And we saw the attitude of Japanese -toward Chinamen for the first time, as -well, and all the time one memory, incongruous -and unjust though it was, hung in my -mind—the memory of a town-bred mulatto in -a high hat with his thumbs in the arm-holes of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page93" id="page93"></a>[pg 93]</span> -a white waistcoat, and loftily talking to a country -brother of deeper shade in the market-place -of a certain Southern town. One day a sampan, -with a very old man and a young one aboard, -made fast to the gangway. They had fish to -sell, and during the haggling that followed, a -Japanese sprang aboard, dropped a coin or two, -picked up the fish, and tried to cast the sampan -away—the Chinamen sputtering voluble but -feeble protests meanwhile. In the confusion, -the stern of the sampan struck a ship's boat that -was swinging on a long hawser from the same -gangway, the bow of it struck the ship's side, -and the racing tide did the rest. The boat was -overturned, old man and young one disappeared -and all under water shot away. We -thought they were gone, but there were two -lean, yellow arms fastened by yellow talons to -the keel, and in a moment the young man was -dragging the old man to safety on the bottom -of the boat. The ship's boat was cast away, -the Japanese who had caused the trouble -sprang aboard with the crew, gave chase to -the bobbing wreck, caught it several hundred -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page94" id="page94"></a>[pg 94]</span> -yards away, righted it, and later we saw the -young Chinaman working it, half submerged, -toward the distant shore, and the shivering, bedraggled -old one being brought back to the -ship. We were all indignant, for the officers -of the ship, far from interfering, laughed during -the whole affair, and, laughing, watched the -old man and the young one sweep away. But -no sooner was the old man aboard than the -servants and interpreters gave him rice, saki, -empty bottles, and clothes, and took up a subscription -for him; and when the young one got -to the ship an hour later the old man climbed -into the sampan, mellow and happy. It seemed -a heartless piece of cruelty at first, but it was -perhaps, after all, only the cruelty of children, -for which they were at once sorry and at once -tried to make amends. To me, its significance -was in the loftily superior, contemptuously patronizing -attitude of the Japanese toward the -yellow brother from whom he got civilization, -art, classical models, and a written speech. -Later, I found the same bearing raised to the -ninth degree in Manchuria. Knowing the grotesque -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page95" id="page95"></a>[pg 95]</span> -results in the efforts of one imitative -race to adopt another civilization in my own -country, the parallelism has struck me forcibly -over here in dress, Occidental manners, the love -of interpreters for ponderous phraseology and -quotations, rigid insistence on form and red -tape and the letter thereof. Give a Japanese -a rule and he knows no exception on his part, -understands no variation therefrom on yours. -For instance, every afternoon we went into the -sea from that gangway, and Guy Scull diving -from the railing of the upper deck and Richard -Harding Davis diving for coins thrown from -the same deck into the water (and getting them, -too) created no little diversion for everybody -on board. On the third afternoon, Davis, in -his kimono and nothing else, was halted by the -first officer at the gangway. The captain had -found a transport rule to the effect that nobody -should be allowed to go in bathing—the -good reason being, of course, that some of several -hundred soldiers in bathing might drown. -Therefore, we eighteen men, though we were -in a way the guests of the captain's Government—in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page96" id="page96"></a>[pg 96]</span> -spite of the fact that we were paying -for our own meals—and though for this reason -a distinction might have been made, the rule -was there, and, like Japanese soldiers, we had -to obey. It looked a trifle ominous.</p> - -<p class="indent">We were only ten hours' sail now from Port -Arthur, and one morning we did get away just -before sunrise. The start was mysterious, almost -majestic at that hour. For three days -those transports had lain around us—filled, I -was told, with soldiers, and yet not one soldier -had I seen. Blacker and more mysterious than -ever they looked in that dark hour before dawn—only -the first flush in the east showing sign -of something human in the column of black -smoke that was drifting from the funnel of -each. It showed, too, a gray mass lying low -on the water, and near a big black rock that -jutted from the sea. That gray mass gave -forth one unearthly shriek and that was all. -Instantly thereafterward it floated slowly -around that jutting rock; one by one the silent -black ships moved ghostlike after it, and when -the red sunburst came, that gave birth, I suppose, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page97" id="page97"></a>[pg 97]</span> -to the flag of Japan, all in single file were -moving in a great circle out to sea—the prow -of each ship turning toward one red star that -looked down with impartial eyes where the -brown children of the sun were in a death-struggle -with the cubs of the Great White -Bear. By noon there was great cheer. The -Japanese word was good at last—we were -bound for Port Arthur. The rocky shore of -Manchuria was close at hand. A Japanese torpedo-boat -slipped by, its nose plunging through -every wave and playful as a dolphin, tossing -green water and white foam back over its whole -black length. A signal-station became visible -on one gray peak, and then there was a thrill -that took the soreness of five months from the -hearts of eighteen men. The sullen thunder of -a big gun moaned its way to us from Port Arthur. -There was not a man who had not long -dreamed of that grim easternmost symbol of -Russian aggression, and each man knew that -no matter what might happen on land, Port -Arthur held place and would hold place for -dramatic interest in the eyes of the world. Port -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page98" id="page98"></a>[pg 98]</span> -Arthur we should see—stubborn siege and -fierce assaults—and gather stories by the handful -when it fell. Dalny was to our left, and -it was rather curious that we did not turn -toward Dalny. But no matter—we were going -into Talienwan Bay, which was only a few -miles farther away, and we could hear big -guns: so we were happy. Talienwan—a thin -curve of low gray stone buildings, hugging the -sweep of the bay, spread the welcome that the -officer of that port came to speak in English—and -we landed among carts, Chinese coolies, -Japanese soldiers, Chinese wagons, mules, donkeys, -horses, ponies, squealing stallions, ammunition, -a medley of human cries. The bustle -was terrific. A man must look out for himself -in that apparent confusion. As it was an -ever-faithful day for Takeuchi that day, I was -serene and trustful. Davis was not, and beckoned -to a coolie with a cart. The man came -and Davis's baggage was piled on the cart. -Along came a Japanese officer who, without a -word, threw the baggage to the ground—including -a camera and other things as fragile -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page99" id="page99"></a>[pg 99]</span> -and hardly less precious. Davis turned to the -Post Officer:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Can I have one of these carts?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Certainly," he said.</p> - -<p class="indent">Davis got another, but while his interpreter -was loading his things again, the same officer -came by and tossed them again to the ground. -The interpreter protested and tried to explain -that he had permission to use the carts, but he -hadn't time. That officer turned on him. Now -I had been told that there are no oaths and vile -epithets in the Japanese tongue, but I know no -English vile enough to report what the man -said, and if I did I couldn't use it without -blistering my tongue and blackening my soul -more black than the hair of the blackguard who -used it. But let me do the Colonel in command -justice to say that when the outraged -interpreter, taken to him by us afterward, repeated -the insult, the courteous old gentleman -looked shocked and deeply hurt, and said he -would deal harshly with the man. I hope he -did.</p> - -<p class="indent">This was ominous, but we were still cheerful. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page100" id="page100"></a>[pg 100]</span> -Yokoyama appeared and Yokoyama was ominous. -He was to handle our canteen and charge -us twice the prices that we had known at the -Imperial Hotel, on the ground that he would -transport our baggage for us. That meant that -he was to charge us for the transport service -that the Government was to give us—not to -him—and furnish us chiefly with canned stuff -that each man could have bought for himself -for a dollar per day. We did not know this -just then, but wily Yokoyama had gathered -in 500 yen from each of us in Tokio, and -he was ominous before we left Japan. I am -putting this in because Yokoyama, too, is -woven into the network that fate was casting -about us that day. Still we were cheerful. -Cannon were making the music we had waited -five months to hear. Port Arthur would fall, -doubtless, within ten days, and then—Home! -The dream was shattered before we went to -sleep. No officer came to tell us where we were -bound—to explain the shattered word of a -Major-General of his own army. It was Yokoyama -who dealt the blow—Yokoyama who, in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page101" id="page101"></a>[pg 101]</span> -another land, would have been branded as a -traitor by his own people and could have been -put behind the bars in ours. The truth was -that we were not to go to Port Arthur at all. -Next day we travelled—whither God only -knew—with every boom of a big gun at the -Russian fortress behind us sounding the knell -of a hope in the heart of each and every man. -But we were on the trail of Oku's army into the -heart of Manchuria, though nobody knew it for -sure, and there was yet before us another tragedy—Liao-Yang.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page102" id="page102"></a>[pg 102]</span></p> - - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h2>V</h2> - -<p class="h2">ON THE WAR-DRAGON'S TRAIL</p> - -<p class="indent">There was the dean of the corps, one Melton -Prior, who, in spite of his years—may they -be many more—is still the first war artist in -the world. He was mounted on a white horse, -seventeen hands high and with a weak back -that has a history. Prior sold him in the end -to a canny Englishman, who sold him to -the Japanese—giving Prior the price asked. -"Why, didn't you know that he wasn't -sound?" said a man of another race, who -wondered, perhaps, that in a horse-trade blood -should so speak to blood even in a strange -land.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," said the Englishman, "but the Japanese -won't know it." They didn't. There -was Richard Harding Davis, who, for two reasons—the -power to pick from any given incident -the most details that will interest the most -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page103" id="page103"></a>[pg 103]</span> -people, and the good luck or good judgment to -be always just where the most interesting thing -is taking place (with one natural exception, -that shall be told)—is also supreme. Mounted -on another big horse was he—one Devery by -name—with a mule in the rear, of a name that -must equally appeal. Quite early, after purchase, -Davis had laid whispering lip to flapping -ear.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I'll call you Williams or I'll call you -Walker, just as you choose," he said.</p> - -<p class="indent">There was no response.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Then I'll call you both," said Davis, and -that wayward animal was Williams and Walker -through the campaign. A double name was -never more appropriate, for a flagrant double -life was his. There was Bill the Brill of the -gentle heart, on a nice chestnut; Burleigh, the -veteran, on a wretched beast that was equally -dangerous at either end; Lionel James with cart -and coolies of his own, and the Italian on a -handsome iron-gray. There were the two -Frenchmen—Reggie, the young, the gigantic, -the self-controlled and never complaining—so -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page104" id="page104"></a>[pg 104]</span> -beloved, that his very appearance always -brought the Marseillaise from us all—and -Laguerié, the courteous, ever-vivacious, irascible—so -typical that he might have stepped into -Manchuria from the stage. There was Whiting, -artist, on the littlest beast with the biggest -ambition that I ever saw vaulting on legs; -lanky Wallace, whose legs, like Lincoln's, were -long enough to reach the ground—even when -he was mounted—and there were the two -Smiths—English and American—and Lewis, -gifted with many tongues and a beautiful barytone, -who, his much-boasted milky steed being -lame, struck Oku's trail on foot. On Pit-a-Pat, -a pony that used to win and lose money -for us at the Yokohama races, was little -Clarkin the stubborn, the argumentative, who, -at a glance, was plainly sponsor for the highest -ideals of the paper that, in somebody's words, -made virtue a thing to be shunned; and, finally -and leastly, there were Fuji and his unhappy -attachment, who chronicles this.</p> - -<p class="indent">These were the men who thought they were -going to Port Arthur and who, with the sound -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page105" id="page105"></a>[pg 105]</span> -of the big guns at that fortress growing fainter -behind them, struck Oku's trail, up through a -rolling valley that was bordered by two blue -volcanic mountain chains. The sky was cloudless -and the sun was hot. The roads were as -bad as roads would likely be after 4,000 years -of travel and 4,000 years of neglect, but the -wonder was that, after the Russian army had -tramped them twice and the Japanese army had -tramped them once, they were not worse.</p> - -<p class="indent">The tail of the War-Dragon, whose jaws -were snapping at flying Russian heels far on -ahead, had been drawn on at dawn, and -through dust and mire and sand we followed -its squirming wake. On the top of every little -hill we could see it painfully crawling ahead—length -interminable, its vertebræ carts, coolies, -Chinese wagons, its body columns of soldiers, -its scales the flashes of sword-scabbard -and wagon-tire—and whipping the dust heavenward -in clouds. The button on that tail -was Lynch the Irishman on a bicycle, and that -button was rolling itself headward—leading -us all. Behind, Lewis was eating the road up -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page106" id="page106"></a>[pg 106]</span> -with a swinging English stride, and, drinking -the dust of the world, we followed. Fuji had -side-stepped from barrack-yard into that road, -sawing on his bit, pawing the earth, and squealing -challenges or boisterous love-calls to anything -and everything that walked. Sex, species, -biped, or quadruped—never knew I such -indiscriminate buoyancy—all were one to Fuji. -With malediction on tongue and murder in -heart, I sawed his gutta-percha mouth until -my fingers were blistered and my very jaws -ached, but I could hold him back only a while. -We overtook the Italian, a handsome boy with -a wild intensity of eye—one puttee unwound -and flying after him. The iron-gray was giving -trouble and he, too, was unhappy. We -passed Reggie—his great body stretched on a -lumpy heap of baggage—with a pipe in his -mouth, that was halved with his perennial -smile of unshakable good-humor, and the other -Frenchman squatting between two humps of -baggage on a jolting cart.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Ah!" he cried with extended hands, "you -see—you see—" his head was tossed to one -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page107" id="page107"></a>[pg 107]</span> -side just then, he clutched wildly first one way -and then the other and with palms upward -again—"you see how com<i>fort</i>able I am. It -ees gr-reat—gr-reat!" From laughter I let -Fuji go then and he went—through coil after -coil of that war-dragon's length, past the creaking, -straining vertebræ, taking a whack with -teeth or heels at something now and then and -something now and then taking a similar whack -at him. The etiquette of the road Fuji either -knew not, or cared nothing for—nor cared he -for distinctions of rank in his own world or -mine. By rights the led cavalry horses should -have had precedence. But nay, Fuji passed -two regiments without so much as "by your -leave"; but I was doing that for him vigorously -and, whenever he broke through the line, -I said two things, and I kept saying them that -I might not be cut off with a sword:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Warui desu!" I said, which means "He's -bad!" and "Gomen nasai," which is Japanese -for "Beg pardon." These two phrases never -failed to bring a smile instead of the curse that -I might have got in any other army in the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page108" id="page108"></a>[pg 108]</span> -world. We passed even an officer who seemed -and was, no doubt, in a great and just hurry, -but even his eyes had to take the dust thrown -from Fuji's heels. I pulled the beast in at last -on top of a little hill whence I could see the battle-hills -of Nanshan. But I cared no more for -that field than did Fuji, both of us being too -much interested in life to care much for post-mortem -battle-fields, and when the rest came up, -we rode by Nanshan without turning up its -green slopes and on to where the first walled -Chinese city I had ever seen lifted its gate-towers -and high notched walls in glaring sunlight -and a mist of strangling dust. We passed -in through the city gates and stopped where -I know not. It was some bad-smelling spot -under a hot sun, and being off Fuji and in that -sun, I cared not. I have vague memories of -white men coming by and telling me to come -out of the sun and of not coming out of the sun; -of horses kicking and stamping near by and an -occasional neigh from Fuji hitched in the shade -of the city wall and guarded by a Chinaman; of -a yellow man asleep on a cart, his unguarded -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page109" id="page109"></a>[pg 109]</span> -face stark to that sun and a hundred flies crawling -about his open mouth; and of an altercation -going on between two white men. One -said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Your horse has kicked mine—remove -him!"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Move your own," said another, and his -tone was that of some Lord Cyril in a melodrama. -"Mine was there first."</p> - -<p class="indent">The other took off his coat:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I'm sorry, but I've got to fight you."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Very well, then," said Lord Cyril, stripping, -too, and then the voice of a peace-maker -that I knew well broke in and in a moment all -was still. Takeuchi rode in on a mule. No -hitting the dust for the proud feet of Takeuchi -then, as I learned, nor afterward, when there -were any other four feet that could be made -to travel for hire.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I want a 'betto,'" he said—which is Japanese -for hostler—"for Fuji."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Whatever need there be for Fuji, the accursed," -said I, lapsing into such Oriental -phraseology as I had read in books, "buy, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page110" id="page110"></a>[pg 110]</span> -buy quickly—my money is in thy belt." He -bought then and kept on buying afterward.</p> - -<p class="indent">Straightway I fell again into sun-dreams -with the yellow man near by whose mouth was -wide, for it was my first experience with the -God of Fire in his hell-hot Eastern home, and -I strayed in them until I was shaken into consciousness -by a white man with a beer-bottle -in his hand. I remember a garden and trees -next, a Chinese room with mats, a Chinese -woman—the first I had seen—with a sad, -pretty face, who rose, when I came to the door, -and stalked into a house as though she were -walking on deer-hoofs (every step she took on -her tiny, misshapen feet made me shudder), -and then the sound of Davis's guitar and -Lewis's voice on the soft night air and under -a Manchurian moon soaring starward above -the Eastern city-wall.</p> - -<p class="indent">... It is noon of the second day now -and we sit in the shade of willow-trees. We -left that first Chinese town of Kinchau and -its dirty natives this morning at eight. The -dragon's tail again had been drawn ahead -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page111" id="page111"></a>[pg 111]</span> -through a narrow valley, rich in fields of millet -and corn, from which on either side a bleak, -hilly, treeless desert ran desolately to a blue -mountain chain. Now, still on its trail, we sit -in a green oasis, on real grass and under sheltering -willows. A lot of little Chinese boys -are around us, all naked except for a little embroidered -varicolored stomacher which hangs -by a cord from the neck of each—for what purpose -I know not—and their elders are bringing -water for us and sheaves of millet-blades for -the menagerie of beasts we ride. They seem -a good-natured race—these Manchurian farmers—genuine, -submissive, kindly, but genuine -and human in contrast, if I must say it, with -the Japanese. Who was it that said the Chinese -were the Saxons of the East and the Japanese -the Gauls? I know now what he meant.</p> - -<p class="indent">Lewis, in a big white helmet, has just ridden -in on a diminutive white jackass. I envy the -peace and content of both of them, for Fuji -was particularly bad this morning. Again he -passed everything on the road, and as we swept -the length of a cavalry column, I saw a soldier -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page112" id="page112"></a>[pg 112]</span> -leading a puny stallion a hundred yards ahead. -When he heard us, he shouted a warning:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Warui desu!"</p> - -<p class="indent">At the same time the beast he was leading -turned, with ears laid back and teeth showing, -and made for us, dragging the soldier -along. I was greatly pleased.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Here, Fuji," I said, "is where my revenge -comes in. You are going to get it now and, if -I mistake not, literally in the neck."</p> - -<p class="indent">But the brute attacked me instead—<i>me</i>. He -got my right forearm between his teeth and -held on until I shifted a stick from right hand -to left and beat him off—the soldier spouting -Japanese with French vivacity meanwhile and -tugging ineffectively. I got away only after -the vicious brute had pasted Fuji with both -heels first on one side of my right leg and then -similarly on the other, missing me about three -inches each time. Fuji now shows blood but -I am little hurt. Somehow in the scrimmage -O-kin-san's charm—the little block of wood—was -broken in its wicker case and whether the -heels reached it that high I don't know. But -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page113" id="page113"></a>[pg 113]</span> -it was a good omen—that it should be broken -and its owner still come out unhurt—and it -means that I am to be safe in this campaign. -The puny brute had not strength enough to -break an Anglo-Saxon arm—and it is his kind -that make impossible for the Japanese certain -big guns that the Russians use.</p> - -<p class="indent">T... It is 6 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> of the third day now -and we are at Wa-fang-tien. We left Pa-lien-tan -this morning and made thirty-two -miles. We took lunch in a stinking Chinese -village, and the chicken—well, it was a question -which was the more disturbing conjecture—how -long it had lived or how long it had -been dead. Oh, Yokoyama! Fuji has not improved. -He kicked the Italian on the leg today -and I've just helped to bandage it. Again -to-day I had to let him go. I tried to tire him -out by riding him through mud-holes and see-sawing -him across deep wagon-ruts. But it -was no use. If a horse, bullock, man, woman, -child, cat, or dog is visible 500 yards away, Fuji -with a squeal makes for it. When the object -is overtaken, Fuji pays no attention to it, but -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page114" id="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> -looks for something else toward which he can -start his squealing way. For brutal, insensate -curiosity give me Fuji, or rather give him to -anybody but me. 'Tis an Eveless land for -Fuji, but hope springs eternal for him. Dinner -is just over—tinned soup, half-cooked -tinned sausages, prunes and rice from Yokoyama's -larder—which we are stocking at 12 -yen per day. Hundreds of coolies are squatting -along the railroad track. In front of us -a group of Japanese soldiers has stood for -five minutes staring at us with the frank curiosity -of children. They began to move away -when I pulled this note-book. Leaning against -the tallest telegraph-pole, with hands bound -behind him, his pigtail tied to a thick wire -twice twisted, stands a miserable Chinese coolie. -An hour ago I saw him on his knees across the -track, held down by four men, while the littlest -Japanese soldier in the group beat him heavily -with a stick much thicker than the thumb. -Then they led him praying, howling, and limping -to the telegraph-pole, where he stands as -an awful example to his fellows. He had -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page115" id="page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> -stolen some coal and it was his second offence. -It was all right, of course, but it was strange -to see the apparent joy with which the Japanese -did it and stranger still to see the other -coolies grinning, chatting, and making fun of -the culprit. I wonder whether they were -crooking the pregnant hinges of the knee or -what on earth it did mean. We were hung up -here at 3 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span>, and allowed to go no farther. -There is no order for us to remain—only a -"strong desire" that we should—which is the -Japanese way. Davis and I had a great -bath to-day in a pool which somebody had -dammed up—for what purpose I know not. -What I do know is that it was not meant -for us.</p> - -<p class="indent">... Sitting on the sand, we are this August -5th under birch saplings and by the side -of a running stream. Davis and Lewis are -asleep in the sand. Fifteen miles only is our -<i>métier</i> to-day and Brill is anxious to go on. -The roads are bad farther on, say the Japanese, -and transportation difficult: the only satisfactory -reason yet given for this hideous delay, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page116" id="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> -and this, I'm afraid, not the true one. They -simply don't trust us—that's all. The body -of the dragon is naturally getting bigger and -his vertebræ are distinctly more lumpy. For instance, -he gathered in a train of thirty freight-cars -this morning and he had six hundred -coolies pulling it for him. The button of him -dropped back to-day toward the tip o' tail that -is his anatomical place. Brill passed him on -the road. His bicycle-tire was punctured and -he was trying to mend it, Brill says, with 25-cent -postage-stamps. He evidently succeeded, -for he has just arrived. He seems to have had -a high old time on the way. At the last Chinese -village he halted long enough to offer a -prize—what I don't know—to the Chinese -child that could display the prettiest embroidered -stomacher. He had them lined up in a -shy, smiling row, and was about to deliver the -prize when the winner was suddenly thrust forward -with a wonderful piece on his chubby -tum-tum. The wild Irishman gave him the -prize, hoisted him on the bicycle and circled -the compound swiftly to the delight of the village. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page117" id="page117"></a>[pg 117]</span> -I asked him how he communicated with -these isolated heathens and he said he talked -Irish to them. I'm quite sure he does and he -seems to make himself understood.</p> - -<p class="indent">It's sunset now at North Wa-fang-tien and -all of us are out in a hard-packed, sand-floor -yard under little birch trees. It was a hot ride -to-day—the last mile being over a glaring -white road and through glaring white sand. -That glare of a fierce sun made the head ache -and the very eyeballs burn. I almost reeled -from Fuji, who for that mile was, for the first -time, almost docile.</p> - -<p class="indent">We had a shock and a thrill to-day—Brill, -Lewis, Davis, and I. It was noon, and while -we sat on a low stone wall in a grassy grove, a -few carts filled with wounded Japanese passed -slowly by. In one cart sat a man in a red -shirt, with a white handkerchief tied over his -head and under his chin. Facing him was a -bearded Japanese with a musket between his -knees. The man in the red shirt wearily turned -his face. It was young, smooth-shaven, and -<i>white</i>. The thrill was that the man was the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page118" id="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> -first Russian prisoner we had seen—the shock -that among those yellow faces was a captive -with a skin like ours. I couldn't help feeling -pity and shame—pity for him and a shame for -myself that I needn't explain. I wondered how -I should have felt had I been in his place and -suddenly found four white men staring at me. -It's no use. Blood is thicker than water—or -anything else—in the end.</p> - -<p class="indent">This is distinctly a human country—a country -of cornfields, beans and potatoes, horses, -cattle, sheep, dogs, goats, and no freaks in tree-trunk, -branch, or foliage. But I can't get over -seeing a Chinaman in a cornfield. It is always -a shock. He doesn't seem to have any right -there—somehow nobody does except a white -man or a darky. There are tumble-bugs in -the dusty road and gray, flying grasshopper-like -things that rise from the dust, flutter a few -feet from the earth and drop back again, just -as they do at home. And the dragon-flies—why, -they are nothing in the world but the -"snake-doctors" that I used to throw stones -at when I was a boy in the Bluegrass. The -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page119" id="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> -mountains are treeless and volcanic, but it's a -human country and I don't feel as far from -home as I did in Japan. Brill says it all looks -like a lot of Montana hills around Ohio cornfields: -only the corn is millet that grows twelve -feet high. The people eat the top, they feed -the blades to live-stock, and the stalk serves -almost every purpose of bamboo and for firewood -as well. You can ride for hours between -two solid walls of it, and you wonder how -there can be people enough in the scattering -villages to plant and till, or even to cut it. A -richer land I never saw. It looks as though it -would feed both armies, and yet there was no -sign—no burned house or robbed field or even -a cast-off bit of the soldier's equipment to show -that an army had ever passed that way. One -fact only spoke significantly of war. No woman—except -a child or a crone—was ever visible. -This struck me—when I recalled the trail -of the Massachusetts volunteers from Siboney -to Santiago and the thousands of women refugees -straggling into Caney—as very remarkable. -I suppose both Japanese and Russians -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page120" id="page120"></a>[pg 120]</span> -are trying to keep the good-will of the Chinaman -as well as of the rest of the world. I -don't wonder that the Russians are fighting for -that land, nor shall I wonder should the Japanese, -if they win, try to keep it. But how it -should belong to anybody but the Chinaman -who has tilled it in peace and with no harm to -anybody for thousands of years—I can't for -the life of me see.</p> - -<p class="indent">Next morning there was a sign of war. At -daybreak some red flecks from the dragon's -jaws drifted back from the mist and dust -through which he was writhing forward. It -looked, some man said, like the procession of -the damned who filed past Dante in hell. -Each man had a red roll around him. They -uttered no sound—they looked not at one another, -but stared vacantly and mildly at us as -they shuffled silently from the mist and shuffled -silently on. The expression of each was so like -the expression of the rest that they looked like -brothers. A more creepy, ghost-like thing I -never saw. I knew not what they were, but -they fascinated me and made me shudder, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page121" id="page121"></a>[pg 121]</span> -I found myself drawing toward them, step by -step, hardly conscious that I was moving. I -do not recall that any one of us uttered a word. -Yet they were only sick men coming back from -the front—soldiers sick with the <i>kakke</i>, the -"beriberi," the sleeping sickness. It was hard -to believe that the face of any one of them -had ever belonged to a soldier—-hard to believe -that sickness could make a soldier's face -so gentle. That man in the red shirt and those -gray ghosts that shuffled so silently out of one -mist and so silently into another are the high -lights in the two most vivid pictures I've seen -thus far.</p> - -<p class="indent">The beriberi comes from a diet of too much -fish and rice, I understand. It numbs the extremities -and has a paralyzing effect on body -and mind. Summer is its time and snow -checks its course. A man may have it a dozen -times and sometimes he dies. The young and -able-bodied are its favorite victims, old men -its rare ones, and women and foreigners it -wholly spares. It made great havoc among -Japanese soldiers in Korea, but the Japanese -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page122" id="page122"></a>[pg 122]</span> -now conquer beriberi as though it were a Russian -metamorphosis.</p> - -<p class="indent">Shung-yo-hing is the place now and the time -is 2 <span class="smcap">P.M.</span> The heat was awful and the dust -from thousands of carts, coolies, and beasts -of burden choked the very lungs. I have the -bulge on Fuji now. I knot the reins and draw -them over the pommel of a McClellan saddle, -thus holding his muzzle close to his chest. It -seemed to puzzle Fuji a good deal.</p> - -<p class="indent">"He can't even neigh," I said to Brill in -triumph, and Brill cackled scorn. Fuji neighed -five times in the next ten yards. I should say -that his record in six hours to-day was about -this: stumbling with right forefoot—300 -times; stumbling with left hind-foot—200 -times; neighs—1,000.</p> - -<p class="indent">There are about twenty miles more to Kaiping. -Haicheng has been taken by the Japanese. -Somebody has just come in with cheering -news—we can get back to Yokohama by water. -Gently we all said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Hooray!" The parting from Fuji will -not be sad.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page123" id="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> -... This morning I found in one pocket -some strange pieces of paper with strange ideographs -thereon in Japanese.</p> - -<p class="indent">"What are these, Takeuchi?"</p> - -<p class="indent">Takeuchi looked really embarrassed.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Prayers," he said. "I got them at a temple. -If you carry them, you will get back -safe." Well, that made Takeuchi immune for -days.</p> - -<p class="indent">At Kaiping we are now and we go to Haicheng -to-morrow. At least we think we do. -We got here last night: Fuji being lame, I left -him for Takeuchi to lead (he rode him, of -course); went on afoot and later climbed -aboard a freight-train drawn by 600 coolies. -I told the Japanese in my smattering best of -their language that my horse had gone lame, -and they were very polite. The train went -slowly along the dragon's length and I had a -chance to observe minutely those vertebræ—heavy -Chinese wagons, the wheels with two -thick huge spokes cross-barred, the hoops of -wood and studded with big, shining rivets, and -the axles turning with the wheels; between the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page124" id="page124"></a>[pg 124]</span> -shafts, a horse, bullock, or a mule; in front, -three leaders, usually donkeys, mules (the best -I've seen out of America), or bullocks, in -all possible combinations of donkey, mule, or -bullock. Sometimes an ass colt trotted alongside. -The drivers were Chinese coolies, each -with a long whip—the butt of bamboo, the -shaft spliced with four cane reeds, the lash of -leather and the cracker as it is all over the -rural world. The two or three leaders of the -four- or five-in-hand, pulled by ropes attached -to the cart at either side of the cart to one side -of each shaft. The hames were two flat pieces -of wood, lashed to a straw collar that was -sometimes canvas-covered. The cries of the -drivers, strange as they sounded to the foreigner -near by, were at a distance strangely -like the cries of drivers everywhere:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Atta! Atta! Atta-atta-atta!"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Usui! Usui!—u-u-u-su-u-i!"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Whoa-a-ah!"</p> - -<p class="indent">At noon, Lionel James and little Clarkin -rode by and shouted that the Japanese Commandant -there had a lunch ready near by. We -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page125" id="page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> -found half a dozen tables set in the walled -yard of a Chinese farmhouse. All of us were -expected, but the others (except the Japanese -correspondents who were on hand) had gone -on. There was a nice sergeant there and a -grave major with medals, and there were soldiers -with fans to keep off the flies, while we -sat in an arbor, under white Malaga-like clusters -of grapes, and had tea and beer and tinned -Kobbe beef and army crackers. The rain started -when we started on—and when it rains in -Manchuria, it really seems to rain. I was on -foot in a light flannel shirt, and had no coat or -poncho. In ten minutes the road had a slippery -coating of mud, I was wet to the skin and, -as my boots had very low heels, I was slipping -right, left, and backward with every step. -Clarkin and James overtook me and we took -turns walking. In an hour the road was a very -swift river, belly-deep and with big waves—dangerous -to cross. Miles and miles we went -through muddy cornfields for four hours, until -we could see, across a yellow river, the high, -thick walls of Kaiping through the drizzling -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page126" id="page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> -mist. I waded the river, waist-high, and on -the other side an interpreter gave me a white -mule, which I took in order not to get my boots -muddy again. We wound into a city gate, -were stopped by a sentry and sent on again -around the city walls and three or four miles -across a muddy, slushy flat, full of deep wagon-ruts -and holes. After much floundering through -mud, and the fording of many streams, we -found the Commandant with his shoes under -his chair and his naked feet on the rungs. -James clicked his heels and saluted. We all -took off our hats, but as he neither rose nor -moved naked foot toward yawning shoe, we -put them back on again. We must go to Kaiping, -he said, and he was very indifferent and -smiled blandly when we told him that we had -just waded and swum from Kaiping. Just the -same we had to wade and swim back—by the -same floundering way and through gathering -darkness. We missed the way, of course, rode -entirely around the city walls, rode through -Kaiping and back again, and finally struck an -interpreter who piloted us to this Chinese temple -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page127" id="page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> -where I write. I was cold, muddy, hungry, -and tired to the bone. But the button on the -dragon's tail was there, and Brill the gentle; -and, mother of mercies! they had things to eat -and to drink. An hour later, Davis came in -half-dead—leading Prior on Williams and -Walker. He had struck the same gentleman -of the naked foot and yawning shoe, had been -sent on, and had gone into a stream over his -head and crawled on hands and knees most of -the way through pitch dark. He didn't mind -himself, but Prior was elderly and was ill. -Davis wanted the Commandant to take him in, -but he refused and Davis was indignant:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I wouldn't turn a water-snake out of doors -on a night like this."</p> - -<p class="indent">But those two same Samaritans saved him -straightway, and we sit now in Chinese clothes -in front of a temple and under a great spreading, -full-leafed tree, with two horses champing -millet before the altar and thousands of buzzing -flies around. To-morrow we go on!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page128" id="page128"></a>[pg 128]</span></p> - - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h2>VI</h2> - -<p class="h2">THE WHITE SLAVES OF HAICHENG</p> - -<p class="indent">Haicheng at last! The Russians are only -five miles away and they can drop shells on -us, but they don't. The attachés were taken -out on a reconnaissance yesterday, and we, too, -if we are very good, will be allowed to see a -Japanese soldier in a real ante-mortem trench.</p> - -<p class="indent">We left Yoka-tong this morning at seven -and in three hours reached dirty, fly-ridden -Ta-shi-kao. The valley has broadened as we -have come north. The Chinese houses are better -and the millet-fields (kow-liang) stretch -away like a sea on each side of the road. Soldiers -were bathing in the river that we crossed -to get to the gate of Haicheng, and the stretch -of sand was dotted with naked men. Every -grove was, in color, mingled black, brown, and -dirty white from the carts, horses, and soldiers -packed under the trees. We found the courteous -Captain of Gendarmes, by accident, straightway, -and we had to take tea hot, tea cold, and -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page129" id="page129"></a>[pg 129]</span> -tea with condensed milk before he would lead us -to our quarters in this mud compound. Lewis, -Reggie, and Scull greeted us with a shout and -produced beer and Tansan and a bottle of -champagne cider. Heavens, what nectar each -was! The rest are coming, but the button on -the dragon's tail—the Irishman on the bicycle—has -come off. Nobody knows where it -dropped. Reggie the big Frenchman is newly -mounted on a savage yellow beast that can be -approached, like a cow, only on the right side—and -Lewis told the story of the two. Davis -answered with the story of our tribulations—his, -Brill's and mine. He told it so well that -Brill and I wished we had been there....</p> - -<p class="indent">We slept in our riding-clothes for the third -time last night and to-day we know our fate. -We are to play a week's engagement here in a -drama of still life—the title of which heads -these lines. With a sleeve-badge of identification -on—the Red Badge of Shame we call it—we -can wander more or less freely within the -city walls. We can even climb on them and -walk around the town—about two miles—but -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page130" id="page130"></a>[pg 130]</span> -we cannot go outside without a written application -from the entire company, and then only -under a guard. We are to have three guards, -by the way, and our letters—even private ones—are -to go to the censor and not come back to -us. Thus no man will know what has gone, -and what hasn't, or whether what went was -worth sending. Later this restriction was removed.</p> - -<p class="indent">Our Three Guardsmen came to us last night -and told these things. One was thick-set, -bearded, and a son of Chicago University; one -was smooth-shaven, thin-faced—and an authority -on international law—both, of course, -speaking English. The third carried a small -mustache and talked very good French—so said -Reggie. After the usual apologies, the bearded -one said in partial excuse for shackling us:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Some of our common soldiers, never having -seen a foreigner before, are not able to -distinguish between you and Russians. We -wish to provide against accidents." And he -laughed.</p> - -<p class="indent">An incident on the way here, yesterday afternoon, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page131" id="page131"></a>[pg 131]</span> -made this sound plausible. I was riding -alone, and hearing a noise behind me I turned -in my saddle, to see a Japanese slipping upon -me with his bayonet half-drawn from his scabbard. -I stopped Fuji and said: "Nan desuka?" -(What is it?) and he, too, stopped, and -turned back. Whether this was a case in point -or whether he was drunk and showing off before -his companions, or whether my Tokio accent -paralyzed him, I don't know, but later, -the men who broke away from our guards and -got among the soldiers, testified that they received -nothing but courtesy, kindness, and -childlike curiosity from the Japanese Tommy -always.</p> - -<p class="indent">"You saw Nanshan?" asked the bearded -one.</p> - -<p class="indent">"No," I said. "We want to see fighting, -not battle-fields." He laughed again.</p> - -<p class="indent">"You have had a very hard time, but I -think the fight at Liao-Yang will recompense -you."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Have you heard anything from Port Arthur?"</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page132" id="page132"></a>[pg 132]</span> -"Nothing."</p> - -<p class="indent">"We heard the guns as we came by and it -was very exasperating." He laughed again.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We do not think much about Port Arthur. -That is only a question of time. Liao-Yang -will be decisive. The sooner the Russians give -up at Port Arthur, the better it will be for -them."</p> - -<p class="indent">"But they not only lose their own ships, -but free the Japanese fleet for operations elsewhere."</p> - -<p class="indent">"That's true."</p> - -<p class="indent">"And they free the investing army for operations -up here."</p> - -<p class="indent">"That's true." He shook his head. "But -Liao-Yang will be decisive."</p> - -<p class="indent">They got up to go then and the bearded one -simply bowed. The other two shook hands -all around, and when they were through, the -third said: "Well, I will shake hands, too," -and he went the round.</p> - -<p class="indent">Lewis has just come in—his face luminous -with joyful news. General Oku has sent us -over:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page133" id="page133"></a>[pg 133]</span></p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i0">1 doz. bottles of champagne.</span><br /> -<span class="i0">4 doz. bottles of beer.</span><br /> -<span class="i0">1 package of fly-paper.</span><br /> -<span class="i0">1 live sheep.</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent">Liao-Yang is only about twenty-nine miles -away, and the Three Guardsmen say we are -not to be here very long. If the Russians can -drop a shell on us here, I wish they would—just -one, anyhow. Even one would save the -faces of us a little.</p> - -<p class="indent">... That poor Manchuria lamb of General -Oku's died voluntarily this morning before -the canteen-man could kill it—but the champagne, -the beer, and the fly-paper are all the -heart could desire. This day has been interesting. -The Three Guardsmen rounded us up -this afternoon and took us to see General Oku.</p> - -<p class="indent">We burnished up riding-gear and riding-clothes -and at three o'clock the compound was -filled with squealing stallions and braying -jackasses. It took three men to saddle Reggie's -savage Mongolian. The Irishman, as usual, -was not to be found—he and Scull had gone -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page134" id="page134"></a>[pg 134]</span> -afoot, to the worry of the Three Guardsmen; -but we rode out finally, single-file, a brave but -strangely assorted company—Brill on his chestnut, -Lewis on a milk-white charger, the Italian -on an iron-gray, Davis on Devery, Laguerié on -a little white donkey, Prior on his seventeen-hand, -weak-backed white horse, and big Burleigh -on a tiny savage pony that pasted Prior's -horse, as we marched, with both heels.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Why don't you go to the rear, Burleigh?" -said Prior. "That beast of yours kicks."</p> - -<p class="indent">"No, he doesn't," said Burleigh indignantly. -"He only bites."</p> - -<p class="indent">These two veterans and Davis wore ribbons -on the left breast. Dean Prior, indeed, seemed -to have his color-box there. I had a volunteer -policeman's badge that came from the mountains -of old Virginia. I was proud of it, and -it meant campaigns, too, but I couldn't pull -it amidst the glory of those three. Lieutenant -Satake, the authority on international law, -led. The bearded one guarded our centre and -the third watched our rear. At the city gate a -sergeant sprang to his feet:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page135" id="page135"></a>[pg 135]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"Hoo—!" he said, and I thought he was -going to give us a whole cheer, but it was only -a half. Still all the sentries sprang to attention -and the soldiers at the gate stood rigid as -their muskets. Over the stretch of white sand, -across the yellow river, and up a sandy road we -went, past staring sentries, and then into a little -Chinese village, where we dismounted. No -servants were allowed, so soldiers came forward -to hold our horses. Fuji was curvetting -no little.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Warui desu!" I said, which still means, -"He's bad," and the soldier smiled and led -Fuji far to one side.</p> - -<p class="indent">We followed Satake into a court-yard. He -seemed rather nervous and presently motioned -us to halt. Presently he came back, called the -roll, and each man, after answering his name, -stepped to one side and stood in line where -there were two tables under grape arbors and -covered with cigars and cigarettes. Satake -looked relieved—not one of us had escaped; -even the Irishman was there. Several officers -stood expectantly about, and, after a long -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page136" id="page136"></a>[pg 136]</span> -pause, a tired-looking, slender man appeared, -accompanied by a rather stout, sleek-looking -young one, and followed by an officer with a -beard and a rather big nose that in color bespoke -considerable cheer. When they got near, -a sad-faced interpreter stepped forward and in -a sad, uneasy voice said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I have the honor to present you to His -Imperial Highness, Prince Nashimoto."</p> - -<p class="indent">The sleek young man bowed and thrust out -his hand. We all advanced, spoke each his -own name, and shook. Prior said, "Melton -Prior."</p> - -<p class="indent">Burleigh, bending low, said, almost confidentially:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Burleigh." Davis came last——</p> - -<p class="indent">"Mr. Davis." Then the tired-looking man, -General Oku, and his aide with the nose of -good cheer, shook hands: only it was they who -went around the circle this time. The Prince -retired behind one of the tables and General -Oku stepped forward with his back to the -Prince, and through the sad interpreter said -things:</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page137" id="page137"></a>[pg 137]</span> -We had come thousands of miles and had -endured many hardships getting to the front, -and he welcomed us. He was sorry that on -the battle-field he could give us so few comforts, -but he was glad to see us and would do -all he could for us, etc., etc.</p> - -<p class="indent">Such solemnity as there was! Aide stood -behind General—staff behind the aide. Most -of them kept their faces bent till chin touched -breast, and never looked up at all. If a high -priest had been making a prayer for the soul -of a dead monarch while other priests listened, -the scene could not have been more solemn. -Straight through, it was stiff, formal, uneasy—due, -of course, to the absence of a common -tongue and the uneasiness on the part of the -Japanese in receiving us after the Occidental -way; and I wondered if the scene would not -have been the same had Occidentals been receiving -the Japanese after the way of Japan. -But I think not—American humor and adaptability -would have lightened the gloom a little. -I watched Oku keenly. Though I had seen -him coming for twenty yards, I recalled suddenly -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page138" id="page138"></a>[pg 138]</span> -that I saw nothing but his face until he -got quite near. It was sad with something of -Lincoln's sadness. In profile, it was kindly, -especially when he smiled; full-faced there -were proofs that he could be iron and relentless. -But his eyes! Big, black, glittering, -fanatical, ever-moving they were, and you -caught them never but for a moment, but when -you did, they made you think of lightning and -thunder-storms. He was dressed simply in -olive-green serge, with one star on his cap and -three stars and three stripes on his sleeve. His -boots were good. His sword hung in his left -hand—unclinched. His other hand looked -nerveless. Not once did he shift his weight -from his right foot—only the sole of his left -ever touching the stone flagging. He is the -most remarkable looking man I've seen thus far -among the Japanese, and I think we shall hear -from him.</p> - -<p class="indent">Then the aide with the cheerful nose spoke -the same welcome and hoped we would obey -the regulations. Dean Prior answered, thanking -the General for the champagne, the beer, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page139" id="page139"></a>[pg 139]</span> -the fly-paper, and the lamb, whose untoward -demise he gracefully skipped, and said he had -always been trusted by generals in the field and -hoped he would be trusted now. Then we -smoked and the Irishman spoke halting French -with the Prince, who (he looked it) had been -educated in Paris. General Oku asked questions -and we asked questions.</p> - -<p class="indent">"How long have you been in Japan?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"More than five months." He laughed and -his teeth were not good.</p> - -<p class="indent">"You must know Tokio well."</p> - -<p class="indent">"I know every stone in Tokio," somebody -said.</p> - -<p class="indent">The General did not smile this time.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Have you been to Nikko?" This was a -malicious chance.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We were afraid to leave Tokio for fear -of not getting to the front."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Shall we see much fighting?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"I think so—from a high place. You cannot -see in the valleys—the kow-liang is too -high to see over even on horseback. Yes, you -will see the fight."</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page140" id="page140"></a>[pg 140]</span> -Then we shook hands again, saluted the staff -and departed.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Japanese soldier had Fuji behind a tree—and -he was smiling.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Warui desu!" he said, and he looked at -me with approval that I dared ride him; for -Fuji was Japanese and bad, and Japanese are -not good horsemen. At any rate, he followed -me to the gate and held Fuji twice more before -we finally got away. On the way back -to captivity Laguerié turned a somersault over -his white donkey's head. He rose, spluttering, -between the donkey's forelegs. It looked for -a moment as though the donkey were riding -Laguerié.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">At sunset, next day, the Irishman said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Come with me," and I followed unquestioning, -because questioning was useless. Out -the compound we went, through narrow streets -and up a rocky little hill in the centre of the -village, where we could look over the low tiled -roofs—here and there a tree was growing up -through them—over the mud-enclosures, the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page141" id="page141"></a>[pg 141]</span> -high-notched city walls, the stretch of white -sand beyond, a broader stretch of green still -farther on, slit with the one flashing cimeter-like -sweep of the river—and then over the low -misty hills to the tender after-glow, above -which wisp-like, darkening clouds hung motionless.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Greatest people in the world," said the -Irishman with an all-encompassing sweep of -his right arm. "All happy—all peaceful. -The soldier lowest here in the social scale—in -Japan, the highest. Home the unit. Tilled -the same soil for countless generations—always -plenty to eat. We forced opium on 'em with -war in '52. To think they've got to be cursed -with our blasted, blasting materialism."</p> - -<p class="indent">I had been through all that with the Irishman -many times before, so we went on. From -a gateway a cur barked viciously at us. An -old man came out to call him in and the Irishman -took the Chinaman by the arm and pointed -to a walled enclosure on the extreme summit.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I want to get in there." How, on sight, -he wins the confidence of these people—men, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page142" id="page142"></a>[pg 142]</span> -women, and children—how he makes himself -understood, not knowing a word of Chinese, -I don't know. Straightway the old fellow -went with us, the Irishman clinging to his arm, -pounded on the heavy door and left us.</p> - -<p class="indent">"What is it?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"A monastery," said the Irishman.</p> - -<p class="indent">An ancient opened the portal, by and by, -and we went in—through an alley-way to a -court-yard, stone-flagged—and I almost gasped. -Temples age-worn, old gardens tangled and -unkempt and trees unpruned, dropped in terraces -below us; and with them in terraces -dropped, too, the notched gray walls that shut -in the hushed silence of the spot from the -noise of the outside world. Black-and-white -magpies flew noiselessly about among the trees. -Somewhere pigeons cooed and butterflies were -fluttering everywhere. It was a deserted Confucian -monastery—gone to wreck and ruin with -only one priest to guard it, but untouched by -the hand of Russian or Japanese. Both use -temples only when they must, and it seems that -Occidentals have much to learn from Tartar -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page143" id="page143"></a>[pg 143]</span> -and heathen in reverence for the things that -concern the universal soul. To escape that -compound, we should have pitched our tents -there, I suppose, had we been allowed. But -it was a place of peaceful refuge open to us -all. An Irishman had found it, and sharing -the discovery we sat there and dreamed in silence -until the after-glow was gone.</p> - -<p class="indent">... It is pretty mournful this morning—rainy, -muddy, dreary, dark. We have established -a policing system—each man taking -turn; but the mud in the court-yard deepens -and the smells fade not at all. We have flies, -mosquitoes, night-bugs that are homelike in -species and scorpions that are not. Every man -shakes his shoes in the morning for a hiding -scorpion. A soldier brought in a dead one to-day, -that yesterday had bitten him on the hand. -He was bandaged to the shoulder, and but for -quick treatment might have lost his arm. It -can't be healthy in here, but only Dean Prior -and two others have been ill. What a game -Dean it is, by the way! He laughs at his sickness, -laughs when that big white horse with the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page144" id="page144"></a>[pg 144]</span> -weak back goes down in a river or mud-hole -with him, and never complains at all. I have -never seen such forbearance and patience and -good-humor among any set of men. If a man -wakes up cross and in an ill-humor—that day -is his. He may kick somebody's water-pail -over the wall, storm at his servant, curse out -the food, and be a general irritable nuisance; -but the rest forbear, look down at their plates, -and nobody says a word, for each knows that -the next day may be his. This forbearance is -one benefit anyhow that we are getting out of -this campaign, which is a sad, sad waste thus -far. But Reggie appears at the door. As he -marches past us we rise and sing the Marseillaise; -when he marches back, we sing it again, -and that smile of his is reward enough. There -is good news—<i>we</i> are to go out on a reconnaissance -to-morrow, ourselves.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">Holy Moses! but that reconnaissance was a -terrifying experience. We went out past the -station where the last fight was, along a dusty -road and up a little hill, left our horses under -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page145" id="page145"></a>[pg 145]</span> -its protecting bulk, sneaked over the top, and -boldly stood upright on the slant of the other -side. Below us was a big rude cross over a -Russian grave. Things were pointed out to us.</p> - -<p class="indent">"You see that big camel-backed mountain -there," said one of the Three Guardsmen. We -levelled glasses. "Well, that's where the main -body of the Russians are."</p> - -<p class="indent">"How far away is that camel-back?" somebody -asked innocently. The Guardsman had -turned and was beckoning violently to the Italian -(who was on top of the little hill, some -thirty feet above us) to come down. Then -he said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"About ten miles."</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desuka!" (truly) said the same voice, -lapsing with awe into Japanese.</p> - -<p class="indent">"So desu!"—which is "truly" in response,—said -the Guardsman with satisfaction, and -we had a thrill. The Italian now had blithely -drawn near. He seemed unafraid, but perhaps -he had been unaware of his peril on the skyline -only ten miles from a Russian gun.</p> - -<p class="indent">Then we cautiously advanced along the road -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page146" id="page146"></a>[pg 146]</span> -for another half a mile to an empty trench in -a little camp near which there must have been -all of twenty Japanese soldiers. One correspondent -stepped across the trench and was -gesticulated back with some warmth. Davis -sat down on the trench and was politely asked -to get up and move back—not that he would -hurt the trench, but because he was sitting on -the half of it that was next the ten-mile-away -enemy—and apparently the Guardsman had -orders that we must not cross a carefully -marked line. Davis got up like a shot and -hurriedly went away back to sit down.</p> - -<p class="indent">The major of the post there gave us tea and -beer at his quarters near by. He was a big fellow -and was most kind and courteous. He -had been a professor in a war-college and had -asked the privilege of death at the front. He -got it, poor fellow, and later I saw a picture -of his body being burned after the fight at -Liao-Yang.</p> - -<p class="indent">We are getting pretty restless now. The -Irishman and I were denied admittance at the -monastery yesterday by the order of the Imperial -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page147" id="page147"></a>[pg 147]</span> -Highness whom we met the other day. -However, he relaxed it in our favor. Dean -Prior started to go up on the city wall to-day -to sketch, and was stopped by a sentry, who put -a naked bayonet within two feet of his breast. -He came back raging, and wrote a scathing -letter which I don't think he will send.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">This morning <i>Wong</i> came.</p> - -<p class="indent">At ten o'clock the Irishman appeared at the -entrance of the compound, leading by the hand -a little Chinese boy some eight or ten years old. -He was the dirtiest little wretch I ever saw, but -he smiled—and never saw I such teeth or such -a winsome smile. The Irishman said simply -and gravely:</p> - -<p class="indent">"This is Wong," and no more. He led the -boy behind the paling that enclosed our bathing-quarters, -plucking, as he walked, a sponge -and a cake of soap, which happened to be mine. -Then I heard:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Take it off!" And again: "Take it off, -I say!"</p> - -<p class="indent">Apparently he was obeyed. Then:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page148" id="page148"></a>[pg 148]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"Take that off, too; yes, that, too!" Evidently -the boy had but two garments on, for -considerable splashing took the place of peremptory -commands. By and by they came out -together and, still hand in hand, passed out of -the compound. In half an hour the Irishman -came back.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I've just taken Wong down to Poole's," -he said, still gravely, "to get him a new suit -of clothes."</p> - -<p class="indent">"The trousers were too long, and Wong objected. -Poole told him that trousers were worn -long this season, and Wong compromised by -rolling them up. He'll be here by and by."</p> - -<p class="indent">By and by Wong came back resplendent in -new blouse, new trousers, new shoes and socks. -On his breast was sewed a big white piece of -cotton in the shape of a shamrock, and on the -shamrock was printed this:</p> - -<div class="poem"> -<div class="stanza"> -<span class="i4">WONG</span><br /> -<span class="i0"><i>Cup-bearer and Page in Waiting</i></span><br /> -<span class="i4">to</span><br /> -<span class="i2">—— ——, <i>Esquire</i>.</span><br /> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page149" id="page149"></a>[pg 149]</span> -Straightway was Wong an habitué of the -compound and straightway his education began. -Wong was quick to learn.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Attention, Wong!" the Irishman would -say, and Wong would spring to his feet and -dash for a bottle of—Tansan.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Make ready!" Wong would poise the -bottle. "Aim—fire!" Wong would fire, and -then would come the command, "When!" -which meant "cease firing!" and Wong, perfect -little soldier that he was, would cease, -though his genial hospitality and genuine concern -for the happiness of everybody made ceasing -very hard. If his master ordered a bottle -of wine at the table, Wong would pass it to -every man. He was equally hospitable in the -matter of cigarettes—anybody's; for he could -never see that what belonged to one man did -not belong to all. Essentially, in that crowd, -he was right. But it was rather expensive for -the Irishman, until one day he told Wong always -to take the chits to "that fat man"—who -was not Reggie—and thereafter the fat -man got them.</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page150" id="page150"></a>[pg 150]</span> -Wong had caught the military salute from -the Japanese soldiers, and every morning, when -he came in, he would go around to each of us -in turn, clicking his heels, hand at his forehead, -and always with that radiant smile flashing -from his gentle eyes and his beautiful teeth. -The Irishman always slept late. One morning -he was awakened by an insistent little voice outside -his mosquito-net, saying, over and over:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Hello, George; wake up! Hello, George; -wake up!" Somebody had taught him that; -but he saw straightway that it was not respectful, -and we could never get him to do -it again.</p> - -<p class="indent">After his second bath he went around pulling -his shirt open to show how clean his yellow -little body was. Indeed, he got such a passion -for cleanliness that one morning he näively held -out his exquisite hands to Lewis to be manicured—Lewis -did it. Again, when Tansan -spouted into his face, he reached out, pulled -a silk handkerchief from a man's pocket and -mopped his face. All of us got to love that -boy, and when we went away there was a consultation. -We would make up a fund and educate -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page151" id="page151"></a>[pg 151]</span> -him. His father was called in and an interpreter -explained our design. Wong burst -into tears and wept bitterly. There were answering -drops in the Irishman's eyes.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I tell you, all the blood shed in this miserable -war is not worth those few precious -tears. Greatest people on earth! Why should -he want to leave them?"</p> - -<p class="indent">Lovable little Wong! The first word the -Irishman said when he came back through that -town on our way home was spoken to a group -of boys on the street.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Wong!" he said simply, and they raised -a shout of comprehension and dashed away, -the Irishman after them. Half an hour later -he joined me in a restaurant. Wong was not -in town, he said gravely; he had bought a place -outside of town with the money we had given -him, and had taken his family into the country -for the hot season. Anyhow, we saw Wong -the gentle, Wong the winning, no more.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p class="indent">A major came this morning to give us a lecture -on the battle of Tehlitzu—to while away -the tedium, said one of the Guardsmen. The -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page152" id="page152"></a>[pg 152]</span> -Major is smooth-shaven and very broad between -the cheek-bones. His hair is clipped -short, his eyes are large, and his face is strong. -He must have been a professor in a war-college, -for he stood up and drew mountains, hills, valleys, -positions, trenches, trees, and made figures—all -with wonderful rapidity and skill—backward. -That is, he made them for us standing -in front of him to look at. A certain division, -he said, of a certain regiment, at a certain time -had done a certain thing. It was a perfect -lecture except that all the really essential facts -were skilfully suppressed.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Major had been present only as an observer—a -student—but at one hot place on -which he put his finger, he had "lost many -friends there," he said impassively.</p> - -<p class="indent">At that place a young Russian officer led a -charge, and his men refused to follow him. -The officer drew a dagger and smilingly killed -himself.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We all speak much of that man," said the -Major.</p> - -<p class="indent">At another place the ammunition gave out -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page153" id="page153"></a>[pg 153]</span> -on both sides, and Japanese and Russians -fought with stones—men on both sides being -severely wounded. While this was going on -some Russian officers advanced, sword in hand, -from another point, but they had no followers. -One of them started forward and gave challenge. -A Japanese officer sprang to meet him, -and a duel was fought while soldiers of both -armies looked on. "The Japanese was fortunate -enough to despatch the Russian," said the -Major modestly and dispassionately, "and we -buried him with much ceremony and put a barrier -over him. It was an interesting study—this -battle—as to whether it is better to fight a -defensive or an offensive enemy."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Well, I'd rather have seen that rock-fight," -said a correspondent, "and that duel -than the whole battle."</p> - -<p class="indent">The Major looked puzzled and shocked, and -went on to tell how they had captured a fat -Russian colonel—whose horse was wounded -and whose coat was gone.</p> - -<p class="indent">"He said our artillery fire was—" the Major -paused, used a Russian word, and turned -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page154" id="page154"></a>[pg 154]</span> -to the interpreter helplessly—and the interpreter -said:</p> - -<p class="indent">"Ungodly."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," said the Major, and he smiled. -"The first thing the Russian asked for was a -bottle of soda-water, which made us laugh. -We do not carry such things in the fields. I -gave him ten cigarettes."</p> - -<p class="indent">"How many men did the Japanese have in -that fight?" asked a correspondent.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Just as many as they have now," was the -illuminating answer.</p> - -<p class="indent">I wonder if anybody but the Japanese knows -how many men they have really had in any -fight, and whether in consequence their victories -have been due to astonishing skill or overwhelming -numbers. There is rumor of one lost -Japanese division, the whereabouts of which -nobody—but the Japanese—knows. It could -have been in every fight thus far and nobody—but -the Japanese—could know.</p> - -<p class="indent">We are getting mighty tired now. Several -of us concluded up at the monastery to-day -that we would go home pretty soon unless there -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page155" id="page155"></a>[pg 155]</span> -was a change. There we took pictures of temples, -monoliths, stone-turtles. The Irishman -appeared suddenly—coming down the long -steps above us, leading a Chinese child by the -hand and carrying a younger one in his arms. -How or where he gathers in children the way -he does, is a mystery to all of us. Then we -took more pictures and four officers came in. -We communicated in a Babel of French, German, -English, Chinese, and Japanese. They -got tea for us from the priest, and were very -polite. Later two more came in. Davis and -I were writing, and they stood around and -looked at us for a while. One approached.</p> - -<p class="indent">"What are you doing there?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Writing," I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Drawing?" he asked suspiciously.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes, drawing," said Davis. "Why do -you want to know what we are doing?" I -don't think the officer understood—but he understood -that something was wrong, and he -stood a moment in some awkwardness.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Good-a-by!" he said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Sayonara," we answered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page156" id="page156"></a>[pg 156]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"I don't think it is anything but curiosity," -I said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"A good deal of it is—because they don't -know that they oughtn't to show it. He put -us at once in the attitude of being spies. I -can't imagine what he thought we were drawing."</p> - -<p class="indent">"We didn't have our badges on. He might -have arrested us."</p> - -<p class="indent">"That would have been some diversion."</p> - -<p class="indent">The day has been warm, brilliant—the sky -crystalline, deep, and flecked with streamers of -wool. At sunset now the rain is sweeping the -west like a giant broom, the rush of wind and -river is indistinguishable, the silent magpies are -flying about, but there is still a mighty peace -within these walls. Back now to mud, flies, -and fleas.</p> - -<p class="indent">It's 1 <span class="smcap">A.M.</span> The fleas won't sleep, and for -that reason I can't. Even the drone of school-children -chanting Chinese classics—as our little -mountaineers chant the alphabet in a "blab-school"—and -the barking of dogs have ceased. -Somewhere out in the darkness picket-fires are -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page157" id="page157"></a>[pg 157]</span> -shining where the Sun-children and the White -Cubs are soon to lock in a fierce embrace. I -like this Manchurian land and I like the Chinaman. -Both are human and the country is -homelike—with its cornfields, horses, mules, -cattle, and sheep and dogs. The striking difference -is here, you see no women except very -old ones or little girls. Here is the absence -of that insistent plague—human manure—that -disgusts the sensitive nose in Japan. -The "fragrant summer-time" would have been -a satire if it had been written in Japan. -But there is no charm here as there is everywhere -in Nature and Man in Japan. Besides -the Chinese, here at least, are filthy in -person and in their homes—the smell of the -Chinaman is positively acrid—while the Japanese -are beyond doubt the very cleanliest people -in the world. I wish I could see for myself -what they really are in battle. As far as I can -make out at long distance, the Japanese army -and the individual Japanese soldier seem the -best in the world: the soldier for the reason -that he cares no more for death than the average -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page158" id="page158"></a>[pg 158]</span> -Occidental for an afternoon nap—the army -for the reason that the Buschido spirit—feudal -fealty—having been transferred from Daimio -and Samurai to Colonel and General—gives it -a discipline that seems perfect. Imagine an -army without stragglers or camp-followers, in -which one man is as good as another and all -boast of but one thing—a willingness to die. -It looks as though for the first time in history -the fanatical spirit of the Mussulman who believed -that he would step, at death, from the -battle-field into Paradise, was directed by an -acute and world-trained intelligence. As to -the soldier, the pivotal point of effectiveness -seems to be this: an Occidental and a Japanese -quarrel, and they step outside to settle matters. -The Occidental thinks not only of killing the -Japanese, but of getting out alive. His energies -are divided, his concentration of purpose -suffers. The Japanese has no such division—he -is concerned only with killing his opponent, -and he doesn't seem to care whether or not he -comes out alive or dead. I'm wondering, -though, whether he would fight this way for -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page159" id="page159"></a>[pg 159]</span> -England—whether he will ever fight again this -way for himself.</p> - -<p class="indent">It has been cold the last two days. The flies -have almost disappeared and the fleas are less -active—in numbers, anyhow. Two officers -came to see us last night and it's the first time -we have been honored in this way. One had -a long sword 400 years old—the other a short -one 500 years old, and both were wonderful -blades. Now, the sword of a Samurai was his -soul, and the man who even stepped over it -did it at the peril of his life. I was rather surprised -that they let us handle them so freely.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We are to leave here very soon," they said.</p> - -<p class="indent">To-morrow we do leave—toward Liao-Yang.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page160" id="page160"></a>[pg 160]</span></p> - - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<h2>VII</h2> - -<p class="h2">THE BACKWARD TRAIL OF THE -SAXON</p> - - -<p class="indent">Out at the gate of the compound, last night, -a barytone voice lifted a pæan of praise to the -very stars. We were to leave that wretched -enclosure next day, the Three Guardsmen said, -and that night the White Slaves listened to -the barking of dogs, the droning chorus of -school-children chanting Chinese classics and -the medley of small noises in streets and compound, -and sank to sleep for the last time in -Haicheng. As usual, the raucous cries of Dean -Prior and Burleigh ushered in the dawn, and -the usual awakening and bustle of servants and -masters followed. For the last time Little -Wong, Cup-bearer and Page-in-Waiting, with -his hand at his forehead, clicked his heels before -each of us in turn, stirred his master, the -Irishman, from slumber deep, and, with a radiant -smile and flashing teeth, fired volleys of -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page161" id="page161"></a>[pg 161]</span> -Tansan right and left. Within half an hour -we were gathered under Yokoyama's tent for -our last breakfast. For the last time Big Reggie, -the Frenchman, marched past us, and for -the last time we made him keep step to a ringing -Marseillaise. Half an hour later, the compound -was full of squealing horses, and soon -carts, coolies, the White Slaves of Haicheng, -and the Three Guardsmen wound out of the -gate, through the narrow streets and under the -city wall—on the way to see a battle at last. -Two hours we marched, climbed then a little -hill, left our horses on the hither side, crawled -over the top to where that battle was raging—some -ten miles away. Up in the mountains -somebody was evidently letting loose giant -puffs of cigarette-smoke high in the air. No -sound was perceptible, but they were shells, a -Guardsman said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Whose shells?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"I don't know," said the Guardsman. As -a matter of fact, those shells were so far away -that we could not tell whether they were Russian -or Japanese, whether they were coming -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page162" id="page162"></a>[pg 162]</span> -toward us or going away. But we could count -them, and, of course, that was great profit and -fun. So, while that battle raged, we fearlessly -strolled around the hill-side or sat in groups -and told stories, and one daredevil of a correspondent, -made reckless by the perils we had -passed, deliberately turned his back to the fight -and calmly read a newspaper.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Three Guardsmen were justly pained by -such a neglect of such an opportunity to study -strategy and tactics in a great war, and they -did not look happy. Thus for two hours did -we not see the battle of Anshantien.</p> - -<p class="indent">Toward noon the shell-smoke waned and we -moved on to another compound, where we were -to spend the night. At dusk a Guardsman -came in radiant and filled our hearts with -fatuous cheer. We were to see another fierce -engagement next morning. But we must rise -early and travel fast or we should be too late, -as the attack would be made before dawn. The -Three Guardsmen would come themselves to -awaken us at three o'clock so that there could -be no mistake. He was so earnest and so sure -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page163" id="page163"></a>[pg 163]</span> -that we went to bed greatly excited, and nobody -slept except the Irishman, who lifted his -head from sound slumber, however, when one -vagrant beer-bottle was popped to decide a -wager, at midnight.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Don't you think I don't hear you," he -said.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I win the bet," said Brill.</p> - -<p class="indent">Three hours later, the Guardsmen found us -awake. We arose and stumbled in the mud -and darkness for a cup of coffee, and started -single file through raining blackness toward -that ever-vanishing front. Nobody said a -word, and the silence and mystery of the march -was oppressive as we waded streams and -ploughed through mud between walls of dripping -corn. Every now and then the Authority -on International Law, who led us, would -halt the column and get off his horse to look -for the trail that had been left for us the day -before. At least he did the looking, but it was -always Captain James, the Englishman, who -found the trail; a more stealing, mysterious, -conspirator-like expedition I have never known. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page164" id="page164"></a>[pg 164]</span> -It was hard to believe that we were not -creeping up to make an attack on something -ourselves, or that the Russians might not -burst from the corn on either side at any -minute.</p> - -<p class="indent">On we went until another hill loomed before -us, and at the foot of this hill we waited -for the dawn. By and by another cavalcade -approached, the military attachés, equally impressive, -equally mysterious, equally solemn -and expectant. And on that little hill we -waited, in the cold wind and drifting sleet and -rain, the correspondents huddled on top, the -cloaked attachés stalking along on a little terrace -some thirty feet below, everybody straining -his eyes through the darkness to see the first -flash of a gun. Morning came and we were -still straining—big Reggie nibbling a hard-boiled -egg on the very summit of the hill, a -Lieutenant-General of the English Army patrolling -the terrace like some "knight-at-arms -alone and palely loitering," because no shells -sang, and the rest of us dotting the muddy -mound with miserable, shivering shapes, while -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page165" id="page165"></a>[pg 165]</span> -wind, rain, and cold made merry over the plight -of all. The Three Guardsmen moved restlessly -about, speaking words of good cheer; but -something was happening to that battle and we -got tired of straining and began to walk recklessly -around that hill and borrow chocolate -and tobacco and bread from one another for -breakfast. Even the Guardsmen got uneasy—hopeless—and -once I found myself on the -other side of the hill, where one of them lay -huddled in his army coat. For a little while -we talked inter-continental differences.</p> - -<p class="indent">"We do not understand, we Occidentals, -why the Japanese prefers to commit hara-kiri -rather than be captured, and we argue this way: -If I allow myself to be captured, I may be exchanged -or escape, and thus have a chance to -fight another day; if not, my enemy has to take -care of me and feed me, so that I reduce his -force and resources just that much. If I kill -myself I make a gap in my own ranks that I -can't fill again. If I accept capture, I am worrying -and exhausting you all the time. The -only good I can see in hara-kiri is the effect -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page166" id="page166"></a>[pg 166]</span> -that it might have on the fighting capacity of -the men who are left. Is there any economic -consideration of that sort under the Japanese -idea?"</p> - -<p class="indent">The Guardsman shook his head. "No," he -said, "it is instinct with us; but," he added -presently, "I think we are coming around to -your point of view, and I think we will come -around to it more and more. You see, we have -transferred the Buschido spirit of feudalism -into the army. The loyalty of Samurai to Daimio -has been transferred to soldier and officer, -and this instinct for hara-kiri is so great an -element in the Buschido spirit that I think our -officers are a little fearful about trying to -change it too rapidly." But a Japanese will -not talk long about such matters with a foreigner.</p> - -<p class="indent">The Guardsman pulled a little brass check -covered with Chinese characters from his -pocket.</p> - -<p class="indent">"This is how we identify our dead," he said. -"Every soldier carries one of these, and every -officer."</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page167" id="page167"></a>[pg 167]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"That's a good idea," I said, but I couldn't -help thinking how little use he could ever have -for that check as long as he was guarding us. -It is said that just about this time the wife of -a correspondent back in Tokio went trembling -to the War-Office. "I have heard nothing -from my husband," she said. "Tell me if he -has been killed." The official was startled.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Impossible!" he said.</p> - -<p class="indent">I climbed the hill again to see how that battle -was going on. The first line of "The Burial -of Sir John Moore" will do for that battle. -It wasn't going on, so one of the Guardsmen -galloped ahead to learn what the trouble was -with the Schedule, and for two long, chilly -hours we huddled on that windy mole-hill, with -no flash of gun in the distance, no puff of smoke -high in the air. The Guardsman came back -then. Kuropatkin had quietly sneaked away -while we were sneaking for that hill, and the -Japanese were after him. Thus passed the second -day of the battle of Anshantien.</p> - -<p class="indent">At noon we were hitting the muddy trail -again for another Chinese compound. Evidently -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page168" id="page168"></a>[pg 168]</span> -we were getting nearer the front; the -flies and fleas were thicker here, a dead pig protruded -from a puddle of water in the centre -of the compound, and there were odors about -of man and horse, that suggested a recent occupation -by troops. We policed the filthy enclosure -that afternoon, and quite late the thunder -of big guns began far away, while a yellow -flame darted from the unseen sun, spread two -mighty saffron wings through the heavens, -fitted them together from earth and sky, and -left them poised motionless, while from them -stole slowly out the rich green-and-gold radiance -that comes only after rain—drenching wet -earth and still trees and quiet seas of corn. By -and by crickets chirped, quiet stars shone out -above the yellow, and the dusk came with a -great calm—but it was the calm that presaged -the storm of Liao-Yang.</p> - -<p class="indent">We had a serious consultation that night. -The artists couldn't very well draw what they -couldn't see. Some of us, not being military -experts, and therefore dependent on mental pictures -and incident for material, were equally -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page169" id="page169"></a>[pg 169]</span> -helpless. Thus far the spoils of war had been -battle-fields, empty trenches, a few wounded -Japanese soldiers, and one Russian prisoner -in a red shirt. So, hearing that General Oku -feared for our safety, we sent him a round-robin -relieving him of any responsibility on -our account, and praying that we should be -allowed to go closer to the fighting, or our -occupation would be gone. Then we went to -sleep.</p> - -<p class="indent">The straw that broke the camel's back was -added to the burden of the beast next morning. -The final word came from General Oku, -through a Guardsman, that the Russians were -in flight, that there would probably be no decisive -battle for some time and that if there -should be, we were to be allowed no closer -than four miles from the firing-line. Well, -you cannot see, that far away, how men -behave when they fight, are wounded, and -die—and as all battles look alike at a long -distance, there was nothing for some of us to -do but go home. So, on a bright sunny morning, -Richard Harding Davis, Melton Prior, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page170" id="page170"></a>[pg 170]</span> -the wild Irishman, and I sat alone in the last -dirty compound, with the opening guns of Liao-Yang -booming in the distance. I had sold -Fuji to Guy Scull, and I wondered at the nerve -of the man, for the price, though small, was -big for Fuji. I pulled that vicious stallion's -wayward forelock with malicious affection several -times, and watched Scull curvet out on -him to a more dangerous fate than any danger -that war could hang over him. Away we went, -then, Davis, Prior, and the Irishman on horseback—what -became of his bicycle, I don't -know to this day—on the backward trail of the -war-dragon—for home. We went back -through Haicheng, and spent a few hours in -the same deserted compound that we had left -only a few days before. Its silence was eloquent -of the clash and clatter and storm of our -ten days' imprisonment there. There we went -to see General Fukushima, who with great -alacrity gave us a pass back to Japan. He -could not understand why all of us would have -preferred to be at Port Arthur. It mystified -him a good deal.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="page171" id="page171"></a>[pg 171]</span></p> - -<p class="indent">"General," said Dean Prior, "you promised -me that I should go to Port Arthur." The -General laughed.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I tried to get you to stay for the third -column," he said, and Prior was silent, whether -from conviction or disgust, I don't know.</p> - -<p class="indent">He wanted us to take a roundabout way to -Newchwang, so that we would be always under -Japanese protection. There were Chinese -bandits, he said, along the short cut that we -wanted to take, and there had been many murders -and robberies along that road. Just the -same, we took that road. So away we went, -with carts, coolies, interpreters, and servants—they -in the road and I stepping the ties of -the Siberian Railway. One hundred yards -ahead I saw two Japanese soldiers coming -toward me on the track. When they saw me—they -mistook me for a Russian, I suppose—they -jumped from the track and ran back along -the edge of a cornfield—disappearing every -now and then. I was a little nervous, for I -thought they might take a pot shot at me from -a covert somewhere, but they were only dashing -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page172" id="page172"></a>[pg 172]</span> -back to announce my coming to a squad of soldiers, -and as I passed them on the track the -major in command grinned slightly when he -answered my salute.</p> - -<p class="indent">We had a terrible pull that day through -the mud, and we reached a Chinese village at -dusk. The Irishman, with the subtle divination -that is his only, found by instinct the best -house in the town for us to stay. It had around -it a garden full of flowers, clean mats and antique -chairs within, and there was plenty of -good cold water and nice fresh eggs. My last -memory that night, as I lay on a cot under a -mosquito-net, was of the Irishman and our aged -host promenading up and down the garden-path. -The Chinaman had never heard a word -of English before in his life, but the Irishman -was talking to him with perfect gravity and -fluency about the war and about us, giving our -histories, what we had done and what we had -failed to do, and all the time the old Chinaman -was bowing with equal gravity, and smiling as -though not one word escaped his full comprehension. -How the Irishman kept it up for so -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page173" id="page173"></a>[pg 173]</span> -long, and why he kept it up for so long, I do -not know, but they were strolling up and down -when I went to sleep.</p> - -<p class="indent">The next day we had another long pull -through deeper mud. For hours and hours we -went through solid walls of ten-foot corn; -sometimes we were in mud and water above -the knees. Once we got lost—anybody who -followed that Irishman always got lost—and -an old Chinaman led him and Davis and me -for miles through marshy cornfields. Sometimes -we would meet Chinamen bringing their -wives and children back home—now that both -armies had gone on ahead—the women in -carts, their faces always averted, and the children -dangling in baskets swung to either end -of a bamboo pole, and carried by father or -brother over one shoulder. By noon the kind -old Chinaman connected us with our caravansary -in another Chinese town. There the Irishman -got eggs by laying a pebble and cackling -like a hen, and the entire village gathered -around us to watch us eat our lunch. They -were all children from octogenarian down—simple, -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page174" id="page174"></a>[pg 174]</span> -kindly, humorous, and with a spirit -of accommodation and regard for the stranger -that I have never seen outside of our Southern -mountains. After lunch we took photographs -of them, and of ourselves in turn with them, -and the village policeman—he did not carry -even a stick—was a wag and actor, and made -beautiful poses while the village laughed <i>in -toto</i>. This would not have been possible in a -Japanese town. Nearly all of them followed -us out of the village, and they seemed sorry -to have us go.</p> - -<p class="indent">Soon I tried a Chinese cart for a while, and -in spite of its jolting I almost went to sleep. -As I drowsed I heard a voice say:</p> - -<p class="indent">"You'd better tell him to keep awake." Another -voice answered:</p> - -<p class="indent">"I will take care of him," and I lifted my -hat, to see the ever-faithful Takeuchi stalking -along through the deep mud by me, with a big -stick in his hand. But we saw no bandits. It -was the middle of the afternoon now, and we -began to meet column after column of Japanese -troops moving toward the front from the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page175" id="page175"></a>[pg 175]</span> -new point of disembarkation—Newchwang. -Somehow, on the wind, a rumor was borne to -us that there was a foreign hotel in Newchwang -which had bath-tubs and beer and tansan; even -a wilder rumor came that the Russians had -left champagne there. We held a consultation. -If all those things were there, it were -just as well that some one of us should engage -them for the four as quickly as possible. The -happy lot fell to me, and I mounted Dean -Prior's great white horse and went ahead at -a gallop. That horse was all right loping in -a straight line, but if there was a curve to be -turned or a slippery bank to descend, his weak -back drew mortality for the rider very near. -Then he had an ungovernable passion for lying -down in mud-holes and streams, which held -distinct possibilities for discomfort. Twice he -went down with me on the road, though he -walked over a stream on a stone arch that was -not two feet wide in perfect safety. In one -river, too, he went down, and we rolled together -for a little while in the yellow mud and -water; but I ploughed a way through columns -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page176" id="page176"></a>[pg 176]</span> -of troops, and, led by a Chinese guide, reached -Newchwang at sunset. I went to the Japanese -headquarters, but could learn nothing about -that hotel. I asked directions of everybody, -and when, going down the street, I saw coming -toward me through the dust a boy with a tennis-racquet -over his shoulder and a real white girl -in a white dress, with black hair hanging down -her back, I asked directions again, merely that -I might look a little longer upon that girl's -face. It seemed a thousand years since I had -seen a woman who looked like her. I found -the hotel, and I got rooms for ourselves and -quarters for our servants and horses. Looking -for a stable in the dark, I turned a corner, to -see a Japanese naked bayonet thrust within -a foot of my breast. Naturally, I stopped, but -as it came no nearer, I went on, and not a word -was said by the sentinel nor by me. None of -my companions came in, and I ate dinner in -lonely magnificence, put beer, champagne, and -tansan on ice, gave orders that the servants -should wait until midnight, and sent guides -out to wait for Davis and Prior and the Irishman -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page177" id="page177"></a>[pg 177]</span> -at the city gates. Then I went to bed. -About two o'clock there was a pounding on my -door, and a little Japanese officer with a two-handed -sword some five feet long came in and -arrested me as a Russian spy. He said I would -have to leave Newchwang by the earliest train -the next morning. Now, if I had had wings -I should have been cleaving the Manchurian -darkness at that very minute for home, and -with a little more self-control I should have -hung out the window and laughed when he -made that direful threat. But I had ridden -into that town on the biggest white horse I -ever saw, and I looked like an English field-marshal -without his blouse. I had gone to the -Japanese headquarters. I had registered my -name and the names of my three friends on the -hotel-book. I had filled out the blank that is -usual for the passing stranger in time of war. -I had added information that was not asked -for on that blank. I had engaged four rooms, -had ordered dinner for four people, and had -things to eat and things to drink awaiting for -the other three whenever they should come. I -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page178" id="page178"></a>[pg 178]</span> -had my war-pass in my pocket, which I displayed, -and yet this Japanese officer, the second -in command at Newchwang and a graduate of -Yale, as I learned afterward, woke me up at -two o'clock in the morning, and in excellent -English put me under arrest as a Russian spy. -I was robed only in a blue flannel shirt and a -pair of "Bonnie Maginns," but I sprang shamelessly -from out that mosquito-netting, and I -said things that I am not yet sorry for. Over -that scene I will draw the curtain quickly—but -just the same, a Japanese soldier sat at my door -all through the night. The next morning I -heard a great noise, and I saw our entire train -in the street below. I called my sentinel to -the window and pointed out to him four carts, -twelve horses and mules, eight coolies, and -eight interpreters and servants, and I asked -him if Russian spies were accustomed to travel -that way—if they did business with a circus -procession and a brass band? He grinned -slightly.</p> - -<p class="indent">Half an hour later Davis and I went down -to see the Yale graduate, and he apologized. -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page179" id="page179"></a>[pg 179]</span> -He said graciously that he would remove the -guard from my door, and I did not tell him -that that intelligent soldier had voluntarily removed -himself an hour before. We told him -we were very anxious to get back to Yokohama -to catch a steamer for home. He said -that we probably would not be allowed to go -home on a transport, and that even if we had -permission we could not, for the reason that -no transports were going.</p> - -<p class="indent">"There is none going to-day?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"No."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Nor to-morrow?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"No."</p> - -<p class="indent">"Nor the day after?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"No."</p> - -<p class="indent">We said good-by. Just outside the door we -met another Japanese officer who had been sent -into Manchuria with a special message from -the Emperor, and had been told incidentally -to look in on the correspondents. He had -looked in on us above Haicheng, and he was -apparently trying to do all he could for us. -He was quite sure if we saw the Major in -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page180" id="page180"></a>[pg 180]</span> -Command there, that we should be allowed to -go. "Is there a transport going to-day?" I -asked.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," he said, "I am taking it myself." -I kept my face grave.</p> - -<p class="indent">"And to-morrow?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes."</p> - -<p class="indent">"And the next day?"</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes."</p> - -<p class="indent">Three of them—all useless—nailed within -five minutes from the lips of a brother-officer -and within ten steps of the Yale graduate's -door! It was to laugh.</p> - -<p class="indent">I took a Chinese sampan, and with sail and -oar beat up that yellow river for an hour to -find the Major in Command. When I got to -his office, he had gone to tiffin. Where did -he tiffin? The answer was a shake of the head. -Nobody could disturb the gallant major while -he was tiffining, no matter how urgent the caller's -business was. When would he return? -Within one hour and a half. Well, we would -have just a little more than another hour in -which to catch that transport, even if we got -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page181" id="page181"></a>[pg 181]</span> -permission to take it. And somehow cooling -heels in the ante-chamber of the Major while -he tiffined had no particular charm for me just -then, so I decided very quickly to start back -by Chefoo and Shanghai, even if it did take -five extra days and perhaps cause us to lose -the steamer for home.</p> - -<p class="indent">So we gathered our things together and took -passage on a British steamer for China. A Chinese -sampan took the ever-faithful Takeuchi -and me with our luggage to the ship. I handed -Takeuchi two purple fifty-sen bills that the -army issues in Manchuria as scrip—to give to -the Chinaman—and started up the gangway -toward the Captain's cabin. Takeuchi thought -I had gone, but I looked around just in time -to see him thrust one of the bills in his own -pocket, give the Chinaman the other, put his -right foot against the Chinaman's breast, and -joyously kick him down the gangway into the -sampan. Selah!</p> - -<p class="indent">The joy of being on a British ship with the -Union Jack over you and no Japanese to say -you nay! Never shall I forget that England -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page182" id="page182"></a>[pg 182]</span> -liberated the slave. She freed some of the -White Slaves of Haicheng.</p> - -<p class="indent">To avoid floating mines we anchored that -night outside the bar, but next morning we -struck the wide, free, blue seas, with an English -captain, whose tales made Gulliver's Travels -sound like the story of a Summer in a Garden. -Without flies, fleas, mosquitoes, or scorpions, -we slept when and where we pleased and -as long as we pleased. Once more we wore the -white man's clothes and ate his food and drank -his drink, and were happy. In the afternoon -we passed for miles through the scattered cargoes -of Chinese junks that had been destroyed -by the Japanese while on their way to supply -the Russians at Port Arthur, and that night -we saw the flash of big guns as once more we -swept near the fortress we had hoped to see. -A sunny, still day once again and we were at -Chefoo, where in the harbor we saw—glory of -glories!—an American Man-of-War. Ashore -Chefoo was distinctly shorn of the activities -that lately had made the town hum. There -were only a Russian or two there from a destroyed -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page183" id="page183"></a>[pg 183]</span> -torpedo-boat, a few missionaries in rickshaws -and dressed like Chinese, a few queer-looking -foreign women in the streets, and a -lonely, smooth-shaven young man from Chicago, -who ran a roulette-wheel and took in -more kinds of Oriental currency than I knew -to exist.</p> - -<p class="indent">"I am sorry the Russians have gone," he -said; "they were great gamblers."</p> - -<p class="indent">There we learned that fighting was going on -at Liao-Yang—real, continuous fighting; and -a melancholy of which no man spoke set in -strong with all of us. But there was that -American Man-of-War out in the harbor, and -Davis and I went out to her and climbed -aboard. We saw nice, clean American boys -again, and pictures of their sisters and sweethearts, -and we had dinner and wine, and we -made that good ship shake from stem to stern -with song.</p> - -<p class="indent">Two days later we were threading a way -through a wilderness of ships of all the nations -of the earth into Shanghai. Shanghai—that -"Paris of the East"—with its stone buildings -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page184" id="page184"></a>[pg 184]</span> -and hotels and floating flags; its beautiful -Bund bordered with trees and parks and paths, -its streets thronged with a medley of races and -full of modern equipages, rattling cabs, rattling -rickshaws, and ancient Chinese wheelbarrows -each with one big wooden wheel, pushed by a -single Chinaman with a strap over his shoulder, -and weighted, sometimes, with six Chinese factory-girls, -their tiny feet dangling down—and -all this confusion handled and guarded by -giant, red-turbaned Sikh policemen—each bearing -himself with the dignity of a god. There -was gay life in Shanghai—good and bad; town -clubs and country clubs, with tennis, cricket, -and golf. There were beautiful roads, filled -with handsome carriages and smart men and -women on smart horses, and there were road-houses -with men and women who were not so -smart seated around little tables all over the -verandas, with much music coming from within. -Along that Bund at night were house-boats -anchored, on the decks of which people dined -among red candles to the music of a brass band -in a park near by—brilliantly lit. And there -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page185" id="page185"></a>[pg 185]</span> -was a Chinese quarter not far away, thronged -with strange faces, with narrow, twisting -streets, some murky and some gay with lanterns -that hung from restaurants, theatres, opium -dens, singing and gambling halls, while -through those streets coolies bore high on their -shoulders gayly dressed Chinese singing-girls -from one hall to another.</p> - -<p class="indent">On the ship for Nagasaki were many young -Chinese boys and girls going to other lands to -be educated, and I was given two significant -bits of information: "Ten years ago," said a -man, "a foreign education was a complete bar -to political preferment over here. Things have -so changed and a foreign education is now such -an advantage that rich Chinamen who have -political aspirations for their sons purposely -send them abroad to be educated."</p> - -<p class="indent">"On this ship," said another, "and the two -ships that follow her, many hundred young -Chinamen are going over to Japan to get a -military training. And yet, according to some -observers, there is nothing doing in China—even -on the part of Japan."</p> - -<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum"><a name="page186" id="page186"></a>[pg 186]</span> -We landed at Nagasaki and had a three -nights' ride to Yokohama in a crowded car in -which it was possible to sleep only when sitting -upright. On the third day the long train came -to a stop at daybreak and every Japanese soul -in it—man, woman, and child—poured out, -each with a towel, scrubbed vigorously at a -water-trough and came back, each sawing on -his teeth with a wooden tooth-brush. Such a -scene could be paralleled nowhere else. I suppose -the Japanese are the cleanliest people in -the world.</p> - -<p class="indent">Tokio at last—and a request from the Japanese: -Would we consider going back to Port -Arthur? We would not.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Please consider the question." We considered.</p> - -<p class="indent">"Yes," we said, "we will go."</p> - -<p class="indent">"You can't," said the Japanese.</p> - -<p class="indent">Right gladly then we struck the backward -trail of the Saxon. The Happy Exile went -aboard with me, and so did Takeuchi, who -brought his pretty young wife along to say, -"How d'ye do?" and "Good-by." Takeuchi -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page187" id="page187"></a>[pg 187]</span> -brought a present, too—a little gold mask of -a fox, which he thought most humorously fitting—a -scarf-pin for Inari-sama, which is the -honorific deistical form of my honorable name -in Japanese. Later, in this country, I got Takeuchi's -photograph and this card: "I wish you -please send me your recommondation which is -necessary to have in my business." He shall -have it.</p> - -<p class="indent">All my life Japan had been one of the two -countries on earth I most wanted to see. No -more enthusiastic pro-Japanese ever put foot -on the shore of that little island than I was -when I swung into Yokohama Harbor nearly -seven months before. I had lost much—but I -was carrying away in heart and mind the nameless -charm of the land and of the people—for -the charm of neither has much succumbed to the -horrors imported from us; Fujiyama, whose -gray head lies close under the Hand of Benediction; -among the foot-hills below the Maid of -Miyanoshita—may Fuji keep her ever safe from -harm; O-kin-san the kind, who helps the poor -and welcomes the stranger—her little home at -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page188" id="page188"></a>[pg 188]</span> -the head of the House of the Hundred Steps -I could see from the deck of the ship; the great -Daibutsu at Kamakura, whose majestic calm -stills all the world while you look upon his face -and—the babies, in streets and doorways—the -babies that rule the land as kings. I did have, -too, for a memory, Shin—my rickshaw man—but -Shin failed me at the last minute on the -dock. Yes, even at that last minute on the -dock, Shin tried to fool me. But I forgive him.</p> - -<p class="indent">Of this war in detail I knew no more than -I should have known had I stayed at home—and -it had taken me seven months to learn that -it was meant that I should not know more. -There can be no quarrel with what was done—only -with the way it was done—which was not -pretty. Somehow, as Japan sank closer to the -horizon, I found myself wondering whether the -Goddess of Truth couldn't travel the breadth -of that land incog.—even if she played the -leading part in a melodrama with a star in her -forehead and her own name emblazoned in -Japanese ideographs around her breast. I -think so. I wondered, too, if in shedding the -<span class="pagenum"><a name="page189" id="page189"></a>[pg 189]</span> -wrinkled skin of Orientalism, Japan might not -have found it even better than winning a battle—to -shed with it polite duplicity and bring in -the blunt telling of the truth; for if the arch -on which a civilization rests be character, the -key-stone of that arch, I suppose, must be honesty—simple -honesty.</p> - -<p class="indent">Right gladly we struck the backward Trail -of the Saxon.</p> - -<hr class="hr2" /> - -<div class="tnote"> - -<h2>Transcriber Notes:</h2> - -<p class="indent">Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of -the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.</p> - -<p class="indent">Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected -unless otherwise noted.</p> - -<p class="indent">On page ix, "Liaoyang" was replaced with "Liao-Yang".</p> - -</div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Following the Sun-Flag, by John Fox - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLLOWING THE SUN-FLAG *** - -***** This file should be named 56218-h.htm or 56218-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/6/2/1/56218/ - -Produced by Ernest Schaal and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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