A RIDE IN JAPAN
Allen, George Hoyt
A Ride in Japan By GEORGE HOYT ALLEN (Copyright 1910, The Robert M. La Follette Co. SPEAKING of the horse—"he is a vain thing for safety" and "we put bits in his mouth" to steer him. The Psalmist...
...Except when the horse takes fright at some trivial thing and runs away and breaks your neck, or escaping death, (you get around on crutches in a month) you run the risk of losing your immortal soul ("the horse is a vain thing for safety") by passing him off onto some other fellow as "kind and gentle, sound so far as you know, and never did a mean trick in his life...
...got in, gathered up the lines—after you've done all that (you had washed and oiled the buggy and cleaned the harness the night, before), all you get out of it is a ride...
...SOME years ago, through the courtesy of an Englishman, here in Kobe, a little 45-ton steamer was placed at my disposal for a week's cruise...
...They might have said,—'Hi...
...Fujiyami.'" faces back to his work, both hands now upon the shafts and bends to his task...
...I am thrilled...
...A five minute's stop and we are off again...
...The Human Horse NOW the Japanese horse—the rickshaw boy—is different...
...We have a point to make, he has agreed to make it al a certain hour and we have lost a little time at the temple...
...run the buggy out of the barn, led the horse out of it, backed him in between the shafts, (carefully, best to say "whoa" and pull the buggy up to him,—no danger or cracking a shaft that way), started a thill on one side, ducked around and started the other one, pulled up the buggy or backed him down, hooked on one trace, wound the breeching strap (twice around and in the second hole), whipped around and hooked on the other trace, wound the breeching strap on that side and buckled it, ("was it twice or three times around...
...The Psalmist didn't mean the Japanese horse—the rickshaw boy—when he wrote the phrases quoted up top tide...
...A Thriller...
...No bothersome lines to get under the tail...
...No flies to make him kick...
...Allen, nor insulted on your trip...
...Not at all," I replied...
...Yer wheel is goin' around,' and punctuated the information with a period in the shape of a chunk of dried mud, placed on the stranger's anatomy wherever it chanced to hit...
...After you have fed him, and cleaned him, and watered him, backed him out of the stable, put on the breast plate, thrown on the back pad, got the crupper under his tail (in safety—I'm speaking of a gentle horse), buckled up the belly band, taken off his halter, put on his bridle ("open up there, won't ye...
...There are no flies ©n the rickshaw boy...
...MY cooley, my horse, holds one shaft of the rickshaw with his left hand and with not a shade of let up to his rapid pace turns sidewise, points his right hand towards the peak and says "Fujiyami...
...I have been stoned in Central park in New York City by hoodlums because of my foreign dress and odd appearance...
...stand still, won't you...
...I was not compelled to stand but I preferred it to sitting down...
...Not a fraction of a second has my horse lost as he turns to make sure that I have caught the sudden splendor of his sacred mountain, bursting through the clouds...
...My horse looks back at me and asks, "Will stop...
...I steered my craft for unknown parts—to me—away from the beaten paths—away, away, under azure skies in and out amongst beautiful islands, and when I gave command my ship would drop anchor and my crew would lower a boat and pull me ashore to investigate a town where a foreigner was such a curiosity that the streets would be packed with natives to note his walk and clothes and color...
...He is a noble beast, but a lot of bother...
...I have seen both methods of salutation by boys just out of school...
...No," he said, "You were not molested nor insulted nor would you be, go where you might in Japan...
...We come to a temple...
...All the above named details he dees to himself and his buggy...
...Indeed there are many instances on record of this Japanese horse looking up his master, leading him into his rickshaw and taking him home and putting him to bed...
...Quickly they range along the narrow road and as I pass their bodies bend in unison in a profound bow of greeting...
...All you have to do is to step in...
...A nod of assent is all that's needed, and my horse and I go through the temple, and he goes through the form of worship, and shows me how the bell, hanging at the entrance is rung to attract Buddha's attention to the worshiper...
...No, not so much as by the act of my humble cooley, doing a horse's work, losing not a second's time in the hard run he has engaged to do, but anxious that the splendor of the scene shall not escape the notice of the load he hauls for hire (whom he has never seen until that day...
...I find myself in a rickshaw, behind a rickshaw boy, bowling along a country road, just out of Shidzuoka...
...No bits in his mouth to steer him by—just a word at starting, naming destination, and he will turn a hundred corners without a thought or care on your part...
...ducked around to the other side to see—"it was two"—unbuckle it and take off a cap and buckle it up again), buckled down the thills, snapped the reins on to the bit, taken down the lines (careful not to cross 'em), cranked the buggy ("whoa...
...The farmers are working in their rice-paddies, everything is fresh and green and beautiful...
...I sail for Shanghai, westward ho, today...
...Most courteously treated wherever I went, but received with great curiosity in some places...
...By Fujiyami...
...Mister...
...Swiftly I roll along—they break their rank and scamper on their way, a jostling, happy, laughing crowd...
...The clouds obscure the tops of the mountains of the range lying at our right...
...And when they saw the harmless instrument they would sheepishly come back and gather round me...
...My horse travels at a rapid trot...
...I coaled and stocked her with provisions, hired a navigator, crew, cook and interpreter and went sailing whither I would, through the beautiful Inland Sea of Japan...
...Indeed I confess with shame that (many, many years ago) I took part in one of the last named kind, and ate my meals standing for a day or two after, just because I got "told on...
...A crowd of schoolboys, just out of school are coming towards us—an exuberant lot of noisy boys...
...The clouds obscuring the mountain top break in places and suddenly Fujiyami's peak bursts into view—at that particular moment, sunlight, clouds and snow-capped mountain all combining to make a scene of wondrous grandeur and beauty...
...In relating the experience to a Japanese gentlemen both of us en route to New York on our return from Japan, he said: "You were not molested, Mr...
...They see the foreigner approaching...
...Far be it from me to slander the horse...
...My chest swelled with pride at this last command...
...Failing to hitch him when you make a stop you don't have to go looking him up when you want him again...
...They would follow closely on my heels and when I would suddenly wheel to get a snap shot at them with my camera they would turn and run as if I'd trained a gatling gun on them...
...To tell it sounds most tame but to experience it without a thrill!—the man who could would possess a peanut's soul indeed —with apologies to the peanut...
...Up to that time the only ship I had ever commanded, and that but poorly, was a two-oared skiff, (one soul aboard...
...I was Captain Allen on the bridge, and, with the stars and stripes gaily flying, sailed out of Kobe harbor...
...Captain Allen...
Vol. 2 • September 1910 • No. 36
