The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-11
PACK HORSES OF JAPAN.
Lacking the Four-Footed beas1s
They Impress Coolies nnte the Ar'ns.

z.c.xfng the EoUr.FO0ted Beasts
They Impress Coolies nnto ID ARMY
If is pretty well known by this time
| that the cavalry of the japanese army
is nv far it's weakest division. This, OF
| course is not uncommon in the armies
of many countries, simply for the rea-
son that economists cut off the horses
in time Of neace and trust to Providence
and subsidized carriers to make up the
deficiency of war. The problem is not
ouite the same in Japan. Comparative
ly, if not absolutely, there are no ho.ses
in Japan, just as there are no sheep.
In the North one comes across a rev
biting, bucking q~uadrupeds that are as
much like sheep as horses; but, taxing
the country as a whole, there IS scarcelS
a decent animal that will take a saodle.
What horses, or rather ponies. are 60
be found come from china wnlch pho-
duces a fairly good breed OF Wels1t,
carriers. though they leave nuch i nc
Horse racing exists in JapanmYokos
hama and Togi I'VE their courses.as
it exists wherever two or thre ent Eng # is a
species OF racing quite unilke anythdas
to be found elsewhere. The ponies are
imported from Hong Kong or onanghai
after a certain interval for training the
races take place. But to return 70 the
army. OHe all GOiiOCiN q
and especially such a one as the Japan5
csc are now engaged IN, beng carney
IN from first to last without cavalry at
all, or at any rate, with thenlerest
skeleton Of a mounted force.
This, of course; as far as fightlng or
scouting goes; There remain remain the and a frans-
bort. In neither of these departments
are horses absolutely, necessary, pro-
human labor, and it is just here that
lana n scores. Very little has been pub
lished with regard to the transport r.
ed so steadily through Corea to the
gates of China, but It is not difilcuh 70
guess what they are -Four years oanlas a9 n
Toxic alone. Taking the moderate esli-
mate thai there were just douple Infs
number in the whole empire on ~ ood Is n SG1e
for the class Ginrick5haW IS
| Chinese is a rapidly increasing one, oW-
ing to the simple fact that a man VINO
| times as much as he could at any otner
manual labor. In fact, the kuruna queso
ton is rapidly becoming q very vital one
in the Japanese industrial problem; put
the trade is SO overcroWded that !he
problem will soon solve itself according
to the memorable laws Of supply ana ue-
| mand. The existence of SUCH a class
and it is of quite recent origin. Ter tfls
! kuruma was only invented a quarter OF d
century ago-is a godsend 10 Japan III
her present struggle.
, TO Judge from what one hears privately
from Japan, JlnrlcKSn2W coLlSS ore NO"
| at a premium in the capital; and osaka
and Kioto tell the same tale. The kuru-
( maya have been annexed, by the m
perial Government much in the same
way as the entire feet of the Nippon 1u-
sen Karsha has been acquired for trans
| port rpo by sea. Having no horses,
or at any rate insufficient horses, the EN-
pire has fallen back upon, the ahundant
| supply of human horses which has grown
up OF recent years. And for al pur-
are certainly superior to the four-footed
variety. Where would you find horses
to do thirty and forty miles q day, and
day after day, with a load of 200 or 800
sounds? Yet that is a feat which a
.Jananese kurumaya thinks little of. The
powers of endurance of these men-one
likes to think of them as men and not
merely animals-are marvellous.
The present writer has been drawn
thirty-miles in less than seven hours
over q bad road, and remembers the
holiday spent in which a couple OF Osa-
kei coolies contracted to draw 400 pounds
of baggage thirty miles a day for an N
definite period. Such men, hardy, IN
perfect training, able to do their work
upon little food and that of the simplest,
| must be invaluable in a campaign such
as Japan has embarked upon.
How many of them will survive the
rigors of a Eorean winter-for kurumaya
are not a flong-lived class-is another
( matter; but if Japan Is able to plant her
flag in Pekin, no small measure Of the
credit of such an achievement will be
de to the harmless, necessary jinriek-
shaw coolie.-Pal Mall Budget.