The Savannah morning news., 1904-11-22

guns. inasmuch as they allow of
greater mobility on the field.
You have heard of the Jap's cool
ness. 1t is superb. He has all the
elan of the French; yet he is not car
rled away with emotion when display
ing his greatest valor. He knows what
he is about all the time, and he gives
his life. when necessary, from pure
patriotism. He takes care of his life.
even in the moments of greatest
emergency, though, but not because he
is afraid to lose II 1t is that he may
fight for the Emperor and Japan that
he tries to save it.
0yama During n Battle.
AT Lao Yang one day I wished to
see a Japanese lieutenant while the
big fight there was going on. He was
stationed at Gen. Oyama's headauar-
tiers. which We're established in the
midst of a beautiful Chinese garden.
Stepping to the open door l saw man.
clad in an immaculate white suit, sit
ting quietly at a table, reading a Jap
anese newspaper which completely hid
his face. When l spoke he put the
newspaper down and then / saw that
| was before Oyama himself. In the
house and in the garden outside all
was as peaceful as If the world had
never known of war. You could al
most hear the shadows of the moving
clouds rustling over the grass.
"Oyama was courteous; he asked me
in and offered whisky and soda and
good cigar. for both of which l was
duly grateful--I had not had a drink
In three days-and waved me to an
inner room where Kodama and other
officers were sitting. The talk was
jolly and cheerful, almost flippant.
asked about some detail of the fight
ing. Kodama laughed. You know
too much now he said. with a smile
and a gesture which said as plainly as
words could say: Drink your whis-
ky and soda, smoke your cigar and
be comfortable. We will attend to the
fighting. Your dispatches can watt
And, even while the two generals
were joking and laughing with me,
they were attending to the fighting.
At intervals orderlies, sometimes COW
cred with the Crime of the battle,
would come in, salute, and deliver ver-
bal messages, brief and terse. from
some officer in the field. Oyama would
suspend his talk. listen, give his d.
rections and then return with anma-
ton to the perfectly commonplace
topic under discussion, precisely as
if nothing special were afoot.
HE received many telephone and
telegraph messages, too, in the same
matter-of fact way, and dictated his
replies to his secretary. never losing
the fire in his cigar and contentedly
slipping his whisky and soda all the
while.
In Touch with the Fighting.
THE pretty, peaceful Chinese gar
den in which Oyama's headquarters
was hidden away was in the center of
a veritable spiderweb of wires through
which the COMMUNICATIVE hief could
get instant communication with any
part of his forces. The Japs lead the
world in field biography. Unlike
Western warriors. they string the
wires on the ground, and not on posts,
thus saving time and money. They
have the art of securing insulation
worked out to perfection, though they
cannot always prevent the Chinese
from meddling with the wires.
Il saw one Chinaman cut off a piece
of Japanese telephone wire to make
a necklace of it. In three minutes he
had been beheaded in full sight of
dozens of his countrymen. no lighter
punishment being thought sufficiently
terrifying to teach them the lesson
they so plainly needed"