The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-10-18
PACK HORSES OF JAPAN.
Ia Praise of the Coo,y-Their Powers of
Endurance.

In Praise Of the Coo,y-Thefr Powers of
Endurance.
It is pretty well known by this time
hat the cavalry of the japanese army
Is BY far its weakest division. This,
of course. is not uncommon, in the
armies of many countries, simply for
the reason that economists cut off the
horses in time of peace, and trust to
make up the deficiency in time of war.
The problem is not quite the same in
Japan. Comparatively, if not abso-
lutely, there are no horses in Japan,
iust as there are no sheep. In the
north one comes across few biting,
bucking quadrupeds that are as much
like sheep as horses; but, taking the
country as whole, there is scarcely
decent animal that will take saddle.
What horses, or rather ponies, are to
be found come from China, which pro-
duce very good breed of freight car
riers though they have much to be de-
sired in point of speed. Horse racing
exists in Japan-fokohama and Toxic
have their courses-as it exists wher-
ever two or three Englishmen are
gathered together. but it is species
of racing quite unlike anything to be
found elsewhere.
The ponies are imported from Hong
Kong or Shanghai by a syndicate, lots
are drawn and after certain interval
for training, the races take place.
But to return to the army. One can
conceive a campaign, and especially
such one as the Japanese have been
doing, being carried on from first to
last without cavalry at all, or at any
rate, with the merest skeleton of
mounted force. This, of course, as far
as fighting or scouting goes There re-
main the all-important questions of
artillery and transport.
In neither of these departments are
horses absolutely necessary, provided
you have an adequate supply of human
labor, and it is just here that Japan
scores.
Very little has been published with
regard to the transport arrangements
of the force that marched so steadily
through Corea to the gates of China,
but it is not difficult to guess what
they are. Four years ago there were
thirty-three thousand jinrickshaw
coolies in Toxic alone. Taking the
moderate estimate that there were
just double this number in the whole
empire, it is safe to say that there are
quite eighty thousand now, for the
kurumays class Ginrickshaw) is a
rapidly increasing one, owing to the
simple fact that man who can phil
kuruma is able to earn three times as
much as he could at any other manual
labor. In fact, the kuruma question is
rapidly becoming a very vital one in
the japanese industrial problem, but
the trade is SO overcrowded that the
problem will soon solve itself accord
ing to the inexorable laws of supply
and demand. The existence of such a
class-and it is quite a recent origin
for the kuruma was only invented
quarter of century ago-was a god
send to Japan in her late struggle.
To Judge from what one hears pri-
vately from japan, jinrickshaw coolies
are now at a premium in the capital,
and Osaka and Kioto tell me the same
tale. The kurumaya have been IAN
nexed" by the imperial government
much in the same way as the entire
fleet of the Nippon Yusen Karsha has
been acquired for transport purposes
BY sea. Having no horses. or at any
rate, insufficient horses, the empire has
fallen back upon the abundant supply
Of human horses which has grown up