The San Francisco call., 1904-04-10

~
these obnoxious persons, DRIVING ,ne
ont of the army on pain OF ue"en
soon as their services were over 80 80
The war II was pretty generally agreeo
that no similar nuisance snouio Oe
Grated in another campaign
D,,rtrg the advance to the rel1er OF
+be besieged legations at PekinS th7
Iaa.nesa comrnissary was, by common
agreement of the foreign officers pet
ter than that of any Of the European
troops: and the Japanese soiolers
S0OWeQ SSliluS AOA
commodating their appet1tes 10 'ne AOS1
available in the conutry
Instead of using heavy wagons haoio
IN he begged or to tire out the norses,
the Japanese had a great NUMBER Oh
light hand carts-much like the push
carts OF the Italians in New YORK anu
otber American cities. These carts are
drawn by coolies or by the soiuie,S
themselves, and they were so HsnIy
laden that they interfered little II at
all. with the mobility Of the force Inc
horse and mule carts were or the snnaii-
est type and lightly built. spare AMI
mails were made to carry their own
fodder. and that of the other animdls
as we'll.
These measures were rendered neces-
sary by the smallness and weakness Oh
the Japanese horses. which are ABOUT
tba scrawniest animals of their kind
The Russians. on the contrary, are Wen
supplied with large, strong, Wel-Oreo
horses. Horse breeding on an Immense
scale was brought to a high pitch OF
success i'm Russia by the late Count
OrIoff. and the type Of horse useo IN
the Russian army to-day Is mainly
that which is known as the OrlOA
horse"
The newly broken horses OF the
steppes are also used to considerable
extent, especially by the CossacKs anu
the Turkestan contingents
In the Turcoman campaigns In Cen
trail Asia camels were employed, put
they are hardly ever used to-day Dy
Russian troops. Thousands of dogs are
pressed into service, however, mainly
for transporting soldiers and suppHeS
II oh
In the present campaign the Mikados
fighting man is carrying a great deal
more food with him than his Russian
adversary. Against the latter's two
days' rations, he carries two cooked
rations of rice in addition to six emer-
gency rations These are contained IN
an aluminium mess pan, and as the rice
has been boiled and dried in the sun
the entire weight is trifiing.
1t is commonly supposed that the
Japanese soldier lives entirely on rice
and dried fish, but such is not the
fact. He can live. and fight well, on
that spare. diet if necessary, but he
is given meat and other sustaining
foods whenever practicable, as well as
beer or sake" Several years ago
military commission was appointed by
the Mikado to inquire why the ply
siuue of the Japanese troops was IN
ferior to that of the British, German
and other armies. The commission
came to the conclusion that beef and
beer helped TO build uD the stalwart
frames of Occidental fighting men,
and since then beef and beer have
been included in the diet scale of the
Japanese army.
1t would appear from recent re-
ports that the food arrangements of
the Japanese forces now in the field
are excellent. According to one state
ment each infantry unit has a cylin-
drical stove and detachable kettle cap
able of cooking enough rice to furnish
one meal for 100 men. Nine such
stoves and kettles are used for cook
ing for a battalion. Boxes containing
half-pound cans of meat are carried
by four horses for each battalion. The
question of water supply has been
carefully considered, doubtless owing
to the fact that the sickness among
the Japanese troops in the Peking ex-
pedition consisted almost entirely Of
typhoid fever. Each unit carries a.
quantity of sodium sulphate to purify
the drinking water.
Copyright, 1904. by T. c. Mcclure. y