Morris tribune., 1904-06-04
JAPAN's SPY SYSTEM.
Facts About Officers Who Work
as Chinese Coolies. II
THEIR TASK THE MOST DANGEROUS
Hundreds I'm Manchuria Are Drawing
Maps and Destroying Bridges by
Mover of Their Colossal Tasks.
Volunteers Greatly Exceed Demand.

Night-Love of Country the Prime
Mover of Their Colossal Tasks.
Volunteers Greatly Exceed Demand.
NJ
Japan has military institution which
is unique, so far as am able toalearn,
says Will Lexington Comfort staff
correspondent Of the Pittsburg7 Dis
patch, writing from Hiroshima, Japan.
This institution is known as the school
for spies.
no small part of the credit will fall
upon her secret agents, and, strangely
enough, if she fails the balancing re-
sponsibility will rest upon the Japanese
traitor who baffied and brutaized his
nation for St. Petersburg gold. But the
story of the treacherous lieutenant
colonel has already been written.
1t will be remembered that nine Sc
cret agents Of Japan forfeited their
lives to positively prove the existence
Of Benedict Arnold in Tokyo. The
nine were sent to different points along
the Yalu and the Transsiberian railway.
They were utterly disguised. They not
only had the shoulder strength Of Chi
nese coolies, but the dullness of eye,
the opium pallor, the intonation Of
voice, the immunity to suffering. They
thought in Chinesew Hundreds Of
coolies were about them. The nine
were picked out by the Russians with
ease and executed without trial. Some
one in Tokyo had furnished st. Peters
burg, by messenger probably to Chefu,
and from there by the private Russian
wire, the descriptive lists of the nine
Japanese spies and the points to which
they were assigned. The fact that the
emperor, the elder statesmen and the
general stan alone knew Of the sending
of the nine spies simplified the appre-
hension of the culprit.
The Japanese spy does the hardest,
work of the army. He draws no more
pay than other officers of his rank.
His stupendous tasks, his granite cour-
age are unknown by the people Single
handed he may delay for ten days a
hundred thousand of the enemy, and
though his achievement may be ap-
plauded in the palace, the world never
knows. He is denied all the tender
things of life-all the amenities! He
has not even a cOmrade Of his rank or
people to share his yearning or stay
his ehbing zeal in the wreck Of bitter
things. He can neither write nor re-
ceive letters. He cannot hope, because
hopes make dreams and dreams cause
mutterings in the sleep. He cannot
sigh, yet he has to think!
He carries the greasy impediments
of private Of the enemy by day and
draws maps by the light Of the moon.
More often than not he is forced to eat
his work, lest it be discovered by some
stealthily approaching officer of the
day. All day long he may lug ties and
set rails under the blows and verbal
orders of Russian corporal-and de-
stroy his work and that of thousand
others under the cover Of darkness.
He is a brigade in himself, and his
weapon is dynamite. He is the germ
that finds the vital tissue of the foe
and bores there, and as he bores he
breeds black death.
He wages an uphill fight, not one
against ten, but one against an army.
He carries powder where other men
carry rice. If the grains leak, the
price Of the. accident is his life. II
other men ask why he does not eat, he
groans that he is i'll and cannot. If
there comes a crucial moment when
the enemy must be stopped by shat
tered right Of way or a broken bridge
for the good Of his own army, and
there is no opportunity for working In
secret, he cuts the fuse very short,
covers the flying sparks with his own
oody and smears the triumphant de-
oris with fragments of his own flesh.
Common coolies die in harness. If
le comes unto death, he must mark
hat his dying be silent, for word Of
meaning dropped from ungripped lips
would kindle the increased vigilance Of
and hamper the work of his
elbow spies in other fields.
And what does he do these things
or? Neither for wealth nor woman.
lven if he survives. his achievement
must be kept secret because of wars
o come. 1t cannot be fame, then, be-
ause fame is antipodal to secrecy. If
ou will believe it. a thing called "love
f country is the prime mover of his
olossal tasks and his quick, unhal-
owed death. Love of country!"
In other wars one hero, or two per-
APPS, stand out like Kohinoors against
he serried face of history, their careers
inspired by "love of country" unmiti-
ated by self In Manchuria at this
there are hundreds. each
andle flame yf1aring in tempest.
/ believe that the department Of spies
4 the Japanese army is the most as
)unding structure of our time. Their
odies are mortars in which various
orts cf violent death are compounded,
nd yet the applicants exceed the de-
land threefold, and like number of
hn OFF fo hnttla I'm