Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1898-05-13
i JAPANESE STORY,

Ihe lA'"fita 'alu OK JAPAN the tale
which every japanese child knows as i'm
| cyi,ably AS an English boy knows his
"Kubinson Crusoe.' is the story of 1.-THE
Faithful itonins.''
| Robinson Crusoe' IS tale Of wander
Ing and adventure, and that is because
the English are ~ wandering rnce. Until
| short time ago the japanese never tray
! eltd. They were even forbidden to build
| JunkS above certain size, lest they might
be tempted to go too far in them. Now
| nday> there are fine Japanese steamers
| but at the time when the good stories
grew their theme in Japan was almost
always courage and devotion.
| In The year .ul the head Of the Ronin
family. or cl.n-for this tale like Rob
inso;i Crusoe," is founded on fact-was
insu'ted by "a superior officer and attacked
| hlIn with IL sword. For this crime the
chief Ronin was condemned to Stay him
| sell that being the usual punishment in
IaIani ALSO it was decided that his castle
and property should be taken away and
his people driven OF. Accordingly the
! chief Konin killed himself
The new head of the Konins was named
kurar"s,lkc He is the national popular
hero of Japan, much like Ethan Allen or
Francis Marion in this country 1t was
hu'hr'suke's duty to avepge his masters
death in some way. So he called the clan
! together to defend the castle against tho
soldiers who We're to take it, This was
| quite proper, according to Japanese ideas
When they were ali gathered together
| kurarosuIc said: eve have not met to
defend the castle, for thnt would be use
less We should only In the end be taken
| and slain. Let us all shay ourselves after
the old japanese manner, and thus die
| with our beloved master"
| 10 this 63 Of the Ronns agreed, but thu.
rest went away shaking their hcnds
The cunning kurarosuke. however, had
no notion of killing himself When the
h3 We're all together. he WAS sure they at
least would not reveal his secret, and he
! said 10 them: Eve shall neither defend
the castle, which would be useless nor
Kill ourselves, which would be no better
But we shall hc patient, and wait, whit,
wait. until we can Kill tn. man whose in
suit caused our masters uc.th' Then hi,
explained his plan and AZ of the SO agreed
to it.
According tn japanese idras, what they
endured was worse even than suicide. For
they did nothing. Instead Of trying to
t.NcnRe the Insult. they wandered about
and tcca1ne mere vagnbonds. II looked
rs II they We're going To make no effort to
nvrnEe their master, nnd this made every
one drspiso them. Even the children
w"uld eau out after one of them, as he
staggered past Hey there goes IL Ronin
Drunkard! Coward. lTrnid cat! 'Fraid
cat!' or something Japanese to the same.
effect.
The Japanese children are usually very
pnlitc-hccnusc they cat no meat, some
saS--hEt nobody thouEht it worth whilc
to tie polite to IL coward. OF course all
this WAS terribly hard for the Runins to
bear. They knew they were not towards,
but they could only wait Some day.
thouGh-nnd some day came ut last, When
everybody had come To the conclusion that
the Ronins had no pluck ut all, these 81
vashbonus came together one night and
carried the castle of their enemy by as
sanlt. Then they put him to denth and
quietly awaited their own fate They
were taken, of course, and condemned to
Kill themselves rs their master had done
AS they were lr.! away in three parties
servant o: the house called First Com
mnlon, man of too little consequence
to take part in tho fighting, stood to see
them pass, that he might carry homo the
news. One Of the Ronins was a real
drunknrd vagnhond and without need of
making believe. His name was cred
Hedge, " and he was a pretty low down
fellow, so that First Companion feared
that Red hedge" might have been drunk
the night before and have been left out OF
the attack.
But no. AT the head of the third diyi-
sion of the captured Ronins marched Red
Hedge, F" very proud in his armor. Seeing
the servant kneeliny in the snow, Red
hedge gave him messages and threw
him tho pcnnon of his lance for Il 1nc1nento
Then First Companion" turned to the
lockers on and cried: Look at him! Gen
tlencn, that is Sir Red Hedge. the brother