The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1904-02-26
The LOYALTY OF JAPAN
Through 1t She Will Win, Says
Sir Edwin Arnold.
MIGHTIEsT OF ALL HER FORCES.

MIGHTIEsT OF ALL HER FORCES.
It VIII Bring Her. He Says I'm Honor
and Triumph Out Of All Dangers.
neu Of soldiery Of Japan
Graphically Observation-Disclosures
Nerve Of A-rtilleryman With a
Crushed Foot.
Although no value could possibly at
tach to any opinion of mine Upon tech
meal military problems, at the present
.1uncture / venture to recall the incident
and pictures of a memorable day which
1 passed in the company of his impe-
rial majesty the emperor of Japan. with
his military staff and some $4,000
tsoops detailed for the annual maneu-
veGs, says Sir Edwin Arnold in the
Chicago Tribune. Several years have
gone by since then. but the impressions
left are vivid in my mind and may per-
chance have points of novelty and even
information. l had received the honor
Of a personal invitation to witness
these maneuvers, and my acquaint-
apces among the military officers. like
true Japanese gentlemen, spared moth
ing for the comfort and pleasure of
even their least important guest. New
er can l forget the glory of that early
dawn, along the ridge of the southern
hills, which sweep through all the
length of coast from Kamakura and
lovely Enoshima, over the foot of splen-
did and stately Fujiyama to Gotemba,
DISC and Nara itself. We were advanc-
ing up the steep paths, many thousand
strOng-horse, foot and artillery. but
chiefly foot-to hold the long ridge
against some detested enemy %deploying
in the vast flats to the eastward and
southwark. Alas. it is not good that
war should ever look so fair! The
morning air seemed almost to intoXi-
cate the neat, bright, sturdy young
soldiers tramping with laughter or low
singing through the gay thickets or ~
ing as close as a clutch Of brown par
tridges behind the stems of matsu and
bamboo tussocks. Boys out Of school
could not have taken more pleasure in
the implements of their play field than
did these young brown faced peasants
in the feldpieces which they made to
dance and rattle behind the rope traces,
in their clean, shining weapons and So
Der equipments.
But, first of all facts, there, right
ahead of us, in the center Of the posi-
ton, not far away, was a breakfast
table roughly %improvised out of four
ammunition boxes and owe these
thrown a richly embroidered tablecloth
of silk purple in color, with golden
kiku-the imperial chrysanthemum-
worked by hand upon it, the only
touch of anything like luxury visible
throughout the vast martial display.
Though the sun was yet hardly high
enough to touch the snow upon Full
yama with saffron and rose, his impe-
rial majesty was there drinking tea
from a small silver cup.
The young sovereign was held, as
one might easily see, in supreme rev
erence by all around, but a reverence
which had in it passionate and un-
changing affection as well as custom
In Japan national loyalty has not as
, vet divided itself from the actual wor
ship given to the dynasty whose origin
loses itself, in the thoughts OF forty
five millions of homogeneous people
amid the mysteries of the invisible
, Time was, of course-and only a few
: years ago-when such a proximity al
, ours to that divinely descended per
, sonage would have been impossible
, incredible. madly presumptuous. Three
-, o, n f<Ov,1,o ,rl avon 7 vnvSnIf had fh<
privilege of respectfully Watchln:
, from near at hand the dark, serious
unchanging, retrospective countenanc'
of him upon whom is focused the abso
lutte devotion Of the Japanese peopl
in a manner not only unparalleled else
. where, but hardly even comprehended
r It is this traditional sentiment of tn,
q wonderful nation which is the might
: est of all her forces and which vii
bring her in honor and triumph out o
all dangers.
I shall not attempt to dwell upo1
what 1 have seen and heard PERSONAL
Of his imperial majesty. Other pen
may dare to make him into para
graphs. Whenever I saw that silen
potentate l was set thinking of tn
ancient legends and Of the sun goo
dess and of Avalokiteswara. Now tha
I can only %recollect, it Is still wit
something like awe as we'll as wit
profound respect and sympathy ths
I recall the steadfast brows and til
stern, sad lips of his imperial majest
Mutsuhito, whose order of the R1s1n
|. Sun l have the honor to bear and {
v whom l am the humble servant an
well wisher. believing, as ! do, that
his august hands Providence has pla
J. ed the duty and the glory of hnkin