The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1904-04-08
JACK LONDON ADMIRES JAPS
THEY CARRY EVERYTHING ON
THEIR BACKS.

ter Is Scarce-Japanese Rifle is
0-Calibre-Korean Kick Because
Soldiers Take but Do Not Pay.
Pingyang. Korea.-The Japanese SOL
diers and equipment seem to command
universal admiration. Not one dis
senting voice is to be heard among
the European and American residents
in Korea On the contrary, favorable
comparison is made with our own
troops and the troops of Europe.
In the first place, food, luggage and
everything which must be carried with
an army are done up in packages that
can easily be handled by individuals
unaided, and which, if needs be, can
be carried on the backs of the men.
So there are no army wagons or army
mules. Packhorses and coolies do the
work, and, though many Korean bull
lock carts have been put into service,
there is no necessity for them.
The rice. which is the staple food, is
done up in 60 pound packages. One
coolie can carry a sack all day over
the most rugged country. Two sacks
go to make the load of a Korean pony
and from three to four sacks the load
Of a Japanese pony. Meat is put up
in one-half pound tins, so of which
tins are incased in a box. One horse
under three of these boxes carries one
meat ration for a company. Four
horses carry a meat ration for a bat
talon.
A sheet iron cylinder carried in Sec
tons constitutes a camp stove. This
stove is 81 inches high and 80 inches
in diameter. In this the fire is built,
and into it is fitted a sheet iron ket-
tie. Into this in turn is fitted a per-
forated kettle in which the rice is
cooked and cooked without scOrching.
One kettle will cook rice for 100 men.
Eight or nine kettles will suffice for
a battalion.
Sodium sulphate is part of the sol
diers outfit 1t is to be doubled, in a
country so fearfully unsanitary as Ko-
rea, if a drop of healthy drinking wa
ter can be found. So the sodium sui
phate in little flannel sacks is placed
in boiling water to precipitate the i'm
purities. and the little brown man is
thus given a larger opportunity of
dying on the battlefield and killing
Russians ere he dies. Certainly, so far
as Japan is concerned, it is more econ
omical for its soldiers to be filled with
lead than with fever germs.
Emergency Rations.
4 In small cotton bags, weighing little
t and occupying less space, are emer-
4 gency rations. This ration is made Of
1 rice, boiled and then dried in the sun
till each grain has shrunk to the size
of a pin head. Each soldier carries
I six of these rations in his knapsack.
; On pinch they would suffice him for
4 days; and always it must be remem-
bered that rice is to the Japanese what
= bread is to us, and butter and meat to
o boot.
o Rifles and Ammunition.
The Japanese army rife is a triae
less than 80 calibre One thousand
l four hundred and forty rounds of am
l munition weigh 100 pounds, and in
. such quantities are packed into ammu-
milton boxes. Two of these boxes com
pose a load for a pack pony.
Chains at each end of the box looI
n on corresponding hooks on the pack
# saddle, so the loading and unloading
q of the ponies is simple and expedite
o Gus. These ponies supply the firing
n line when the soldiers are fighting
q. Eighteen ponies will give each man OF
v a battlion 20 additional rounds.
Koreans Are Kicking.
e The praise for the conduct Of the
Japanese soldiers is not quite univer
sal. The Koreans are beginning tC
. grumble-that is. the peOple-and they
,r have reason to grumble, though it il
through no fault of the Japanese.
SO The Koreans complain that goods
n are taken from them by the soldiers
- for which they receive no pay.
~ Banch Walsh at Spokane.