he came out he found that his wife was in poverty and
that his eldest son had been summoned to serve in the army. Now his
wife had become ill and he was on his way to a distant relative to ask
him to take charge of a small child and to help him with a little
money to start some petty business. My companion gave him a yen and
deplored the fact that poor people should fail to take advantage of
the law releasing from service a son required for the support of a
parent. They failed occasionally to find friends to represent their
case to the authorities.

[Illustration: A WAYSIDE MONUMENT. p. 39]

[Illustration: THE GIANT RADISH OR "DAIKON," WHICH IS USED AS A
PICKLE. p. 309]

While waiting at the station we talked with another old man. He had
come to see his daughter whose husband had been called up for two
years' service. She was living of course with her parents-in-law. He
said that his daughter would have no difficulty in keeping the farm
going during the young man's absence, but his being away was "a great
loss."

The old man, who squatted at our feet as he spoke, went on to tell us
about a young man of his village who had served his term in the navy
but thought of remaining for another term. "Gran'fer" thought it a
good opening for him; he would not only get his living and clothes
but--and this is characteristic--"see the world and send back
interesting letters." The ancient was specially interested in the
sailor, he said, because his wife had "given milk" to the adventurer
when an infant.

It is difficult to enter a village which has not its pillar or its
slab to the memory of a youth or youths who perished in the Russian or
Chinese wars.[212] But in the severe struggle with Russia the villages
did more than give their sons and build memorials to them when they
were killed. They tried, in the words of an official circular of that
time, "to preserve the spirit of independence in the hearts of the
relieved and to avoid the abuses of giving out ready money." There was
the secret ploughing society of the young men of a village in Gumma
prefecture. "Either at night or when nobody knew these young men went
out and ploughed for those who were at the front." In one prefecture
the school children helped in working soldiers' farms. In villages in
Osaka and Hyogo prefectures there was given to soldiers' families the
monopoly of selling _tofu_, matches and other articles. Some of the
societies which laboured in war time wer