The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1904-10-16
Passage of Immense Jap Force
Has Left Few Wounds ON
Face of Fertile Manchuria.
IS FOUND USEFUL
Cars Hauled by Coolies Along
Line. While Mules and Ponies
Draw Myriads of Carts
Along the Roads.
BY WILMoTT H. LEWIS.
Special Correspondent of The Re
public With the Japanese Army.

BY WILMoTT H. LEWIS.
Special Correspondent Of h Re
public With the ~Japanese Army.
In Camp at Hat-Chens. Aug. ~. 1905
War. as II glows in the perfervid imagin-
inEs OF those who sit at ease. takes many
and gallant shapes.
1t is 4 s~wift-moving panorama Of reck-
less charges, wild riders. Rrin-visaged in
fantry. seen against a background of roll
ing smoke; q chorus of brave cheers heard
when the awful din slackens and stops for
an instant.
All of which is only true IN ~part-and
such a small part, There are those who
will tell you-end their words are to Re
needed. for they have seen-that war
means to them heat n cold. rain and
mud. snow and slush. and. through all
the changes OF roads and seasons. the
endless forward plodding Of weary men
and the long. dust-cIouded line of carts
that strains behind them. They will say
that 1t is not alone or always the soldier
who wins battles. but the draft horse,
the pack mule and the patient bullock-or.
in these days. the swift. uncaring railway.
II you add TO this list the Chinese cooIie
you will have a finger on each of the keys
that in this war make the chord Of Japan's
successful movement.
LAND SHOWS FEW WOUNDS.
For many days We rode up the line Of
main advance, n wondered that the pas
sage OF a great army should not have left
more wounds upon the face of the land.
Everywhere the roads are slashed with
wheel ruts. bug when in dirty. disrupted
China was this not SO? The uneven tracks
run by fresh. untrodden fields, between
walls Of tall kowliang (the ~long-stalked
corn grass that will hide q troop Of raw
AIRY and over plains of a fertility moth
ing less than Astonishing.
Thousands of men have gone that way.
and the slog-sog Of innumerab,e boots has
lett no more mark than does the hand an
II swings in the circle of the clock face.
The strong soil has heaved beneath the
footprint and thrown up a harvest, Behind
the boots come the wheels, heavy nail
nddsd wheels Of bullock waRons. lighter
fron-tired wheels of horse-davn COM
misarfat carts. n those others. smaller
suil. which circle forward as the sweat
ing men haul between the shafts. Thus
moves the food, lacking which an army
becomes q mob-thus, but also. to be ex-
act. by the railway.
mink OF the japanese occupation Of tbs
Peninsula as something quick End SEN
tent. and the mind leaps 10 the knowl-
edge that this railway track running
directly north and south is a rrest vein the
pulsing Of which means life and strength.
On either hand the faint tracinrs. an of
eaphiier1es, run where the carts move
through the fields. touching the little
hamists where Chinese have crowded aside
70 MAKE room for the scattered troops.
RUssIA'S LINE HELPS JAPAN.
Think also for . moment how in the
matter Of this railway Russia has helped
Japan. From Dslny to Ha3cheng the line
Is intact Here and there you will nnd a
bridge vrested from its supports. saxsing
In drunken fashion from the line, while to
the side Of 1t q temporary structure carries
the rails past the break to the track again.
Dynamite, you will think. and 90 thir king
err. Months back. before the war. there ,
came great foods to this land, doing DAM
age of which the most permanent was the
unsettlins Of these same bridges. As the
waters left them they remain, and the
temporary supports of heavy wood over
which ran tina diverted rails are Russian
made.
Russia hss left to her enemy thl. work
of her hands without 60 much as lifting
q finger to spoii its usefulness. Her men
ned, taking with them al, the
locomotives. It is true. and much Of the
frei~ght-bearing stock-but of this last not
all. Day by day behind US we have heard
the rumble Of trains. and nave turned to
see q great line Of ~rice-heaped cars-I have !
counted as man as twenty-.wo-slcwly
hauled along the line by cooIie power. |
Great boz cars. with the queer topsy-turvy
letters marking their class. and
the staring white number by which they !
are known in the shops. running end to
end. with long. lean. open trucks, the rank |
and file of a railway army.
CARS HAULED BY COOLIES.
Behind no urgent puff of steam they !
move. but slowly. bound about with the |
harness Of the line CT dwadtns |
COLES who pull them over the nat and up
the gentle grades. to leap Gathering on
board when the downward slope of the
line gives them rest. You may see twenty
i've ar thirty men to a big ca-. n six
teen or eighteen to its smaller neighbor, |
tohluB lofWAIU- WNio q J6pdheSSs at ease
o n the heaped load. vilihes the loiterers
in the little Of their language he has
or. more rarely. belabors q pair
Of lazy shoulders with q long grass stalk. |
Enthroned upon the rice piled truck. you |
may sec and hear to, right ana left of the |
line the SLOW. thudding passage Of the
ssrts, hitting the high places of the trail. |
Between the shafts a great bullock or a |
.turdy. big-headed Chinese pony. on either |
Hank Of which goes = mule. Here let It
said that the mules OF this country are
less than splendid. and the better |
n class the further north you %. They
the loads they pull give way to army
transport. harnessed to which ara the
weedy horses which know Japan for home.
At hrst We were inclined to eneer at them, |
not knowing that, despite spindle legs.
chests and veal quarters, thee
,ouid yet drag great weights over the LONG
niles OF many weary days and hEht
lmonG themselves With vicious Joy at the
md OF the journey. And last, the men
.hree to each Of the hand carts that bear
water bottles, rce pans cook
lnR utensils and the Ike. Some In boots.
in the straw sandals Tor warjD
which are the foetgear OF the lower
:iasses In japan, others bound in cloths
rom the knee down. they sweat under the
and ding themssIves DOWN In any
Ihade yhe0 tie word 70 regt u given.