arnessed to heavy push carts, are seen straining to
haul loads that are enough for a horse. The few horses in the cities are
used for heavy trucks, in common with bulls, for the Japanese bull is a
beast of burden and not one of the lords of creation as in our own
country.

The bull is harnessed with a short neckyoke and a saddle on his back,
which bears a close resemblance to the riding saddle of the Cossack.
Some rope traces are hitched to crude, home-made whiffletrees. The bull,
as well as the horse, is guided by a rope line. The carts are remarkably
heavy, with wheels of great weight, yet many of these carts are pulled
by two men.

In the big cities may be seen a few victorias, or other carriages, and
an occasional motor car, but both these means of conveyance can be used
with safety only on the broadest avenues. In the narrow streets of the
native quarter, which seldom exceed ten feet in width and which have no
sidewalks, the jinrikisha is the only carriage. This is a light,
two-wheeled gig, drawn by one man and frequently on the steep grades
pushed from the back by a second man. The rickshaw man has a bell gong
on one shaft, which he rings when approaching a sharp turn in the street
or when he sees several trucks or other rickshaws approaching. The bell
also serves to warn old people or children who may be careless, for the
rickshaw has the right of way and the pedestrian must turn to either
side to give it the road. Americans, who are far more considerate of the
feelings of the Japanese than other foreigners, frequently may be seen
walking up the steep grades in such hilly cities as Nikko, Nara and
Kobe, but long residence in Japan is said to make everyone callous of
the straining and the sweating of the rickshaw man.

Purposely my itinerary included a number of little towns, which
practically have been uninfluenced by foreign customs. In these places
may be seen the primitive Japanese life, unchanged for hundreds of
years. Yet everywhere one cannot fail to be impressed by the tireless
industry of the people, and by their general good nature and courtesy.

In any other country in the world, a party of Americans with their
foreign dress would have provoked some insulting remarks, some gestures
that could not be mistaken; but here in rural Japan was seen the same
perfect courtesy shown in the Europeanized sections of the big cities.
The people, to be sure, made no change in their way of life. Mothers
suckled the