The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-11-13

these man-carriagcs. This stream OF
travel has given rise to an immense
hotel business along the road.
In some little villages thirty and
forty hotels can be counted, and some
modating from five hundred 10 six
hundred each. We crossed two large
rivers, the Sumida-gawa and Toxic
gawa, both navigable to the foot of
the mountains, and filed with boats
and junks engaged in carrying tho
produce of the country. For forty
miles there is Il succession vi villages
that occupy nearly, if not quite, one
half the distance. On either side were
fields, stretching on the one side to the
shore line of the bay. and on the other
to the mountain range and far up its
sides. The cultivation was done by
the spade or mattock, and was the per-
lection of gardening. We met long
lines of pack-horses loaded with all the
products of the fields, or with wood or
coal, going down to the head of navi-
CATION on tho bay. On their return
these farmers carry loads of decom-
posed seaweed or non-edible fish. or
lime made from s~eashells, rich in phos-
pilates, to be used as fertilizers for the
soil.
We crossed one road that leads from
q rich district. OF which we were told
that the average number of l. 400 head
of pack-hOrses daily travelled. Not a
wheeled vehicle is used for carrying
freight. In that part of the empire
everything is carried to the sea, river,
or canal on the backs of horses and
men. Crowds of residents and pill
grims lined the road to see the high Of
ticials and the foreigner. Arriving at
the pasture we were quartered in the
large house of Il gentleman whose an
cestors had been officials at this estab-
lishment for hundreds of years.
The day of our arrival was the first
day of the annual gathering. Early in
the morning all the roads and paths
leading to the division, where the driv-
ing in was to commence, were filled
with people from the surrounding
country. This yearly roundup is Il
great occasion, and people go a hun
dred miles to sec it. Men, women,
and children cover the embankments
in their gay holiday attire. A swarm
| of foOtmen is hired to drive the half
wild horses out OF the timber and
brush. When that is done a hundred
or two of horsemcn rush them along
the ever narrowing field into the cor
raj. 1t is an exciting scene as the hun
dreds of horses run away in terror, fol-
lowed by the crowds of mounted men.
In places the ground is rough and full
of wolf, fox, and badger holes. Many
were the poor fellows that got a fall,
while others. in heading the band of
from the timber, found themselves
landed high and dry in the scraggy
oaks. The writer was mounted on Il
sure-footed, tractable half-bred Arab,
and escaped all accidents.
Arriving at the corral we found an
army of people campcd around it.
There was an improvised city of bam-
boo houses, covered with mats. There
were eating-houses, lodging-houses,
theaters, shops for the sale of every
conceivable article, troupes of acrobats,
| jugglers, fortune-tellers, dancing and
singing girls, and crowds of country
people in the gayest of dresses. On
the corral entertainments were seats for
the officials under the wide-spreading
branches of gigantic oaks that had
been planted there hundreds of years
before.
After refreshments, which consisted
of wine made from rice, fish, eggs,
chicken, and vegetables, the catching,
classifying, and branding commenced.
The horses are all caught with Il lasso.
which is not thrown, as with us, but
is attached TO the end of a long bam-
boo pole, 1t is handled very skillfully.
Many were the tumhlcs which the
horse-catchcrs got in their struggles
with the thoroughly frightened ami
of laughter from the crowds on the en-
bankmcnt. All the mares are branded
aud turned back into the pasture. The
best horses are selected for the cavalry,
and the others are sold at auction, on
long time, to the farmers. who come
from all parts of the country to buy.
The forenOons were devoted to driv-
ing in, catching, aud branding, and
the afternoon To horsc-racing. These
latter are kept up till night and are
full OF excitement. The tracks arc
straight ones, and the distances are
from four hundred yards to Il mile and
q half. Most races arc catch-wcights,
but il O they are scale-weights, re-
CARELESS of age. A f~ourtecn-hand
horse will carry about $50 pounds.
| Each corral division will back its fav-
orite, and the betting is sometimes
very spirited. The riding of that time
was not OF u high order, being more
like that among our wild Indian tribes,
as seen some years since by the writer.