The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-10-28

LQlS ne p6lu his QUuS6 Ecub dUQ kept
himself and family.
1t is human muscle that cultivates
Japan. Cattle and horses are no part
of Japanese country scenes, and an
American pillow which saw in Toxic
store, wos poln,"C >,ut as q curiosity
If IL is used at t will PROBABLY be
pulled ov men AS II is, the land is
made fallow with a sort of mattock,
which is very heavy, and which has a
blade about six inches wide and two
feet long. The rice fields of Japan are
living monuments of human labor, and
every gram of rice you eat represents a
certain amount OF human muscle. The
fields mu u be foo Led again and again
With wafer, and the plants are trans
planted from their first growth into
rows. l have seen men and women by
scores bending their backs and hoeiDg
this rice. and am told that their wages
run from 10 to % cents day.
Human muscle carries Dearly all the
burdens of Japan. Brown skinned,
slant-eyed men and women with baskets
containing several bushels eacn upon
their backs, pass by my window as
write, and others follow with great loads
balanced across their shoulders on long
poles. Six-yesr- old boys carry two
four gallon buckets of water in this
way, aud loads of heavy merchandise
are pushed along the roads in carts.
Two or three men are harnessed up In
front. Several push behind with both
head an hands. Their mu Giles stand
out like thick cords as they work. The
sweat rolls down their brown skin In
streams. and their faces look out from
straw hats as big around as a womanss
parasol, and their feet are soled with
straw sandals. The few horse carts one
sees upon the stree S are always led
rather than driven by the men, and
Japan seems to do everything IN the
hardest way.
1t is curious thing that nearly all
the horses in Toxic and Yokohama are
stations. They are black, thick-necked
ponies, and they are used, as rule, for
driving or riding. The best class of
horse flesh makes a fine show in Toxic,
crat is wor b nothing. He has usually
a betto or outIunner who goes ahead
to clear the way. and his coachman is
stiff and pompous. Speaking of the
stations, some years ago, | am told, it
was ordered by the government that
the stations be kept in certain districts
and the mares in others. How this
may be know not, save that at Nikko,
in the interior, found all mares. The
Nikko horses were beasts of burden
chiefly, and they carried great loads in
pack saddle on their backs. The cart
horses here are very curious. There
comes one along the narrow business
street of Toxic now. He is lead by q
rope halter il the hands of brown
skinned OLD man who has fat piece of
closely biai led straw as big around as
good sized parasol on his head. His
feet and those of his horse are shod with
straw, and the straw shoes are in both
cases tied around the ankles with straw
rope and are made of ordinary rice
straw braided so that they form q sole
for the foot about half an inch thick
These shoes cost about cent pair,
and when they are worn OFT, they are
thrown away. Every cart has stock
of fresh new shoes tied to the horse or
to the front part of the cart, and in the
country here, it was formerly the Gus
tom to measure distance largely by the
number of horse shoes it took to make
the distance. So many horse shoes
made days journey, and the average
shoe lasted, il my memory serves me,
for about eight miles of travel. 1t is
the same with the coolies. They throw
away their shoes when they are worn
out, and last night, when l was riding
in one OF these man-poWer baby car
riages, my ostrich-Iike steed stopped,
threw away his straw shoes, and went
bare-footed. AS he did so, watched
the roadway. and counted eight pair OF
worn out straw shoes in a single
block.
The harness of the work horses is as
queer as their shoes. The saddle is as
big as a lady's side saddle, and it is
fully eight inches high. The crupper
is bound with cloth, and it is as big
around as your wrist, and it raises the
horses tail up as though he had q
chestnut bur under ii. The carts are as
rude as the ha ness, and IN hot weather
there is sort of straw mating cover
stretched over the horse by means of
two long poles extending out from the
front of the cart to protect the horse
from the rays of the sun. The same is
done with the oxen, who here work, as
a rule, single, or in single file, and the
oxen are shod like the horses, with
straw. Animals, however are very few,
and man power runs the country.
They run it very well, too, and Japan
is land which shows what man can do
without any beasts of burden, to speak
of. Here are fine bridges, big temples,
great meats and good roads, all made
BY human labor. Here is q country
which blooms like the rose in California,
and which does not look less fertile. 1t
is country with a history running
back from tens of centuries, having
literature, history, theatre and a
roetry of its own. 1t is land which
has made such a stride in certain
branches of art that its curious COM
mand ready sale all over the world,
and its silk worms spin their cocoons
and its maidens weave their product
into silks for the nations. Still, until
within a very few years past, it was as
bare of outside help as Robinson Crusoe
on his desert island. and steam did not
tighten its labors, Ior did the four
footed beast furnish it either muscle,
food or fertilizer.