hey are good.

The men on parade at Tokio belonged either to the 4th or the 9th, and
turned out with their cowskin valises strapped, but I think not packed.
Under full kit, such as I saw on the sentry at Osaka Castle, they ought
to be much too heavily burdened. Their officers were as miserable a set
of men as Japan could furnish--spectacled, undersized even for Japan,
hollow-backed and hump-shouldered. They squeaked their words of command
and had to trot by the side of their men to keep up with them. The Jap
soldier has the long stride of the Gurkha, and he doubles with the easy
lope of the 'rickshaw coolie. Throughout the three hours that I watched
them they never changed formation but once, when they doubled in pairs
across the plain, their rifles at the carry. Their step and intervals
were as good as those of our native regiments, but they wheeled rather
promiscuously, and were not checked for this by their officers. So far
as my limited experience goes, their formation was not Ours, but
continental. The words of command were as beautifully unintelligible as
anything our parade-grounds produce; and between them the officers of
each half-company vehemently harangued their men, and shook their swords
at 'em in distinctly unmilitary style. The precision of their movements
was beyond praise. They enjoyed three hours of steady drill, and in the
rare intervals when they stood easy to draw breath I looked for
slackness all down the ranks, inasmuch as "standing easy" is the crucial
test of men after the first smartness of the morning has worn off. They
stood "easy," neither more nor less, but never a hand went to a shoe or
stock or button while they were so standing. When they knelt, still in
this queer column of company, I understood the mystery of the
long-sword bayonet which has puzzled me sorely. I had expected to see
the little fellows lifted into the air as the bayonet-sheath took
ground; but they were not. They kicked it sideways as they dropped. All
the same, the authorities tie men to the bayonets instead of bayonets to
the men. When at the double there was no grabbing at the cartridge pouch
with one hand or steadying the bayonet with the other, as may be seen
any day at running-firing on Indian ranges. They ran cleanly--as our
Gurkhas run.

It was an unchristian thought, but I would have given a good deal to see
that company being blooded on an equal number of Our native
infantry--just to know how they would work.