The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-05
RICKSHA BOY IS
 HARD TO ESCAPE
When Employed By Week Cannot Be Discharged
 In Japan

When I told the manager of my hotel that intended making prolonged stay in Kioto and should like to engage jinrikisha with a reliable boy by the week, I had no idea that was entan- gling myself in the meshes of finger ing feudalism, says a News Bulletin of the Japan Society. The manager gave me no intimation of the complexi- ties that were to ensue. He merely bowed profoundly-being as yet un- westernized-and said that No. IS would. have the honor of serving me.
 No. IS was 1.-the and active, but he looked very young. While I hestiated, doubting his strength, he shook out the rug, re-arranged it deftly on the seat, and then turned to me with such frank and friendly smile that l could only smile in return and yield myself to whatever he might have of strength and endurance.
 We started off briskly and all went well so long as we were on the level, but Kioto is city of hills, and so it happened that the rest of the party had often to. wait while Eighteen and I tackled labriously upward. I told the manager that night that while I re- gretted to lose so pleasant and obliging a boy l should have to ask for one who was stronger. The manager smiled and bowed, but the next morning eighteen was writing for me as cheerfuly as though I had insisted upon having him and no other.
 Eighteen Was There
 We spent second day together, and oud adventures convinced me that not only did need a stronger boy, but that 1t would add materially to my comfort if one could be found who could under stand little English. asked the man. ager when he came to help me divest myself of the rugs and wraps, which the March winds had made necessary, whether any of his boys could speak my language, and when he answered Several of them" told him to be sure and keep one of them for me the next day. He smiled and bowed, but it was Eighteen who greeted me in the morning and announced by pantomime that he was ready for whatever the day might bring forth.
 That night l went to the jinrikisha boys in their shelter by the courtyard gate and saked for one who could speak English. A sturdy, young fellow stepped froward, and, taking favorable note of his muscles, I told him I should want him the next morning and every morn- ing for an indefinite time. He smiled and bowed, and I went to dinner with q cheerful heart. The next morning I rose early to plan the days trip with my new boy, but Eighteen answered my call, his friendly face .proclaiming his readiness to take me wherever I should point the way.
 For several days I tried all my re- get the boy I had chosen, or any boy who could understand little English and be equal to the Kioto hills. The would bow, but produce Eight l cen. The jinrikisha boys at the shell ter would bow, but all would stand | aside for Eighteen whenever I ap- peared.
 Why He Couldn't Change
 At last I gave up the struggle, but | happening to meet a Japanese ac- quaintance one day I stopped, and told | him of my troubles. I asked him if | there were any good reason why had | to keep boy who, while pleasant and | did not suit me, and if there i were any reason, good or bad, why the | manager should consistently ignore my request for boy who could under stand English.
 My acquaintance was deeply con cerned. He lamented that I should be but, yes, there was a reason; in fact, by saying simply that I wanted boy by the week had in- volved myself in the intricacies of the 1 Japanese feudal system. Not, he has tened to add, that there was any longer q feudal system it had been abolished years ago by imperial decree. But old customs are hard to break, and the real truth of the matter was that Eighteen belonged to me and belonged to Eighteen so long as I should stay in Kioto.
 Only an American, brought up in the extreme of individualism, accus- toned to discharge his employees, or be left by them, on the slightest pretext or no pretext at all, can fully ap- preciate the charm of feudal tie, and as soon as I understood the nature of the bond between Eighteen and my self I would not have exchanged him for the strongest runner nor the most accomplished linguist among all the jinrikisha boys in Japan. My new and unexpected viewpoint emphasized his many good qualities His slim body might lag on hillside, but his spirit was never weary. Morning. noon and night he was ready, and his smiling face never clonded, no matter how long the journey. He kept his jinrikisha spotless. The white canvas slippers to cover my defiling feet should l desire to visit q temple were never forgotten, and on the occasional sharp and windy days that came to Kioto in March a hot water bottle nestled under the rug that covered my pampered western feet. day is long past when the United States could live by taking in it's own washing. It's prosperity is indissolubly interwined with that of the whole world and particularly, snce the war, with the Brtsh empre.
 The fanatcs who hate the British empire and strive unceasingly for it's destruction hate the United States still more virulently, for the United States ith its hundred million-odd of happy, prosperous people is the despair of the professional revolutionary. The world preponderance of the hitherto politically sane English speaking race is the great obstacle to world revolution.
 The United States is for the mo- ment unassailable. Britain? weakened by the great war, exasperated and ex-