If they have pluck, and
there is not much in their past record to show that they have not, they
ought to be first-class enemies. Under British officers instead of the
little anatomies at present provided, and with a better rifle, they
should be as good as any troops recruited east of Suez. I speak here
only for the handy little men I saw. The worst of conscription is that
it sweeps in such a mass of fourth and fifth-rate citizens who, though
they may carry a gun, are likely, by their own excusable ineptitude, to
do harm to the morale and set-up of a regiment. In their walks abroad
the soldiery never dream of keeping step. They tie things to their
side-arms, they carry bundles, they slouch, and dirty their uniforms.

And so much for a raw opinion on Japanese infantry. The cavalry were
having a picnic on the other side of the parade-ground--circling right
and left by sections, trying to do something with a troop, and so forth.
I would fain believe that the gentlemen I saw were recruits. But they
wore all their arms, and their officers were just as clever as
themselves. Half of them were in white fatigue-dress and flat cap,--and
wore half-boots of brown leather with short hunting-spurs and black
straps; no chains. They carried carbine and sword--the sword fixed to
the man, and the carbine slung over the back. No martingales, but
breastplates and crupper, a huge, heavy saddle, with single hide-girth,
over two _numdahs_, completed the equipment which a thirteen-hand pony,
all mane and tail, was trying to get rid of. When you thrust a two-pound
bit and bridoon into a small pony's mouth, you hurt his feelings. When
the riders wear, as did my friends, white worsted gloves, they cannot
take a proper hold of the reins. When they ride with both hands, sitting
well on the mount's neck, knuckles level with its ears and the stirrup
leathers as short as they can be, the chances of the pony getting rid of
the rider are manifestly increased. Never have I seen such a wild dream
of equitation as the Tokio parade-ground showed. Do you remember the
picture in _Alice in Wonderland_, just before Alice found the Lion and
the Unicorn; when she met the armed men coming through the woods? I
thought of that, and I thought of the White Knight in the same classic,
and I laughed aloud. Here were a set of very fair ponies, sure-footed as
goats, mostly entires, and full of go. Under Japanese weights they would
have made very thorough mounted infantry.