Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-04-21
JAPANESE PATRIOTISM.
Gimpses Of Troops of the Mkado Pre-
pairing for Battle.

pairing for Battle.
New York, April 2O.-Landing in Il
midday mist and a searching. damp.
cold and two days late, the mystery of
the East did not strike your cores
pendent in the way Joseph Conrad and
i<iplinS had given occasion to export,
says the Evening Post. Here was YO-
kohama, the first port the steamer
touched. 1t had Il brand new brcakWa-
ter of lies ana cut stone; it had wa
ter front settled with buildings that
might have lined the quays at Seattle.
1t looked as Salem in Massachusetts
would look if it had been born yester-
lay.
Except taht Their We're lantecn-sailed
putiandish sampans alongside, as nu-
nerOuS as excursion boats at Il cup
race, and except that every hilly slope
md all the numerous islands of the bay
were fortified, as if old times We're back
ma the car had never suggested a
Hague conference, one would have
guessed that the city of Charleston or
Norfolk. There were no black men, but
here We're brown men of the Malay
type seeking employment for their
noats--bare from the knees down. while
We We're shivering in New York Febru-
Try clothing. That was the first time
was borne in upOn us that perhaps
inches are not everything in fighters.
At the pier which was solder and
'leancr than any in Manhattan, We
OOk 'rickshas. looking to one another
ike oVergrOWn infants in enlarged pc
'ambulatOrS. The town was dead: not
| person moving in the streets, though
t was only 6 o'clock in the evening
Where We're the teeming millions for
whom Japan needed COrea?
at looks as if all the banks had Just
allied" Suggested the entertainment
member of the party. No porter greeted
Is at the hotel door, and when We
spoke in the lobby it was as if we were
making Il noise in q vault. "Alone in
Iapan," We thought. At dinner. how
'vcr, we found this not to be So
Houses are built for summer not for
winter. and the spaces that are COM
forting adapted to one season are not
perfectly adapted to the other Neither
We later learned. sleeping in private
native houses. are the tissue paper
partitions which technically separate
iWcllerS therein from the Wntry outer
lir. Deciding that the frozen borders Of
Siberia could be no worse, we hasten
I'd next morning to Toxic for army
credentials.
AS we left the hotel for the station.
We made, each person and each piece
Of luggage in 4 'ricksha, quite cav;il-
ade
Not only that" said the Entertain-
ing One; they are heading us with a
banG and n procession What it
meant we could not tell
The street broke out with flags.
square white flags with great Grim
son ball in the center. Skating in the
park today" was what the red ball
meant to us, but here the meaning was
leep. The ensigns were everywhere,
lOdding and waving from slender bam-
boos, and carried above the ranks of
the mar"hers. These appeared to be re-
fruits, and, when we came to the rail
way station we We're i'm the midst of n
new detachment Of reserves, departing
for the front.
The macadam plaza below the entrance
was covered with men and women under
| forest of swapping red. white and pur-
pie banners, some with the symbol of the
Using sun, some with idoographs in black
n white paint. Orange banded caps and
.r1mson-striped trousers: sturdy bare
legged coolies in dun blue tunics en-
roIdtred in white with angular designs
with circular one in the middle of the
Jack (curiouSly suggesting laurel-crown-
ID Romans with their tight tied head
olndS); women in gay kimonoS stopping
lndcr the doll-like children of their backs
IN pounches: Little boys and little girls
ran under foot, excited by the martial
tray. RickSha men in black hats like an
inverted basin; three or four fair English
girls from Il touring party. several Amer
cans and EngliShmen in derbeS and belt
ID overcoats-it made an animated scene
There was no music: but there were
cracking of fireworks and the dine of
continuous "banzaiS." Round each stand
Of colorS as attachments would leave the
aSS"mblagc to entrain. there would be n
few words by an officer, then a lifting of
caps, Il loud profession of loyalty and Il
rouSng serioS of huZZaS:
Ten thousand years. Great Japan for
10000 years."
The spirit was marvelously cheerful.
We saw only two women in tears These
brushed them away quickly as if asham-
ed: JapanS heart is gay, even in SORROW
tional sign is a smile. do not see how
one can escape making that observation
on the briofeSt acquaintance.
ON the long platform beyond the gates
there was throng one could scarcely
pass through. standing on baggage
trucks, standing on one another's shoul-
ders-shouting cheers to the troops in the
cars. 1t rose to tumut as the train
started. Small paper flags waved, and IA
thousand threats kept repeating fare
wells
The train drew out of the station. and
all along the road for five miles there was
a continuous line of appraised hands and
hoarSe SalutationS. Girls of six, carrying
baby brothers and sisters on their little
backs, boys scarcely two feet high. stood
close, and spreading forth their arms
gave us ''banZalS" al the top of their
voices. Laborcrs in the fields dropped
their implements and from isolated houses
whole families rushed to make over the
speeding train the same sign-which was
a solemn sign of bcnediction.