. Under the care of the Japanese war office . e duly thankful, for they enabledus to walk with a certain amount of comfort,otherwise we should have sunk in up toour knees. In this quagmire I first becameacquainted with what must always remainin my mind a vivid picture of marvellousendurance, cheerfulness, and herculean strength—that of the Japanese hand-transport, forhundreds of heavily-laden little carts werebeing drawn towards Fang-hwang-cheng bymen taken principally from the coolie class,who could draw their burdens at least fifteento twenty miles a day. To each cart wereroped two men, whil
. Under the care of the Japanese war office . e duly thankful, for they enabledus to walk with a certain amount of comfort,otherwise we should have sunk in up toour knees. In this quagmire I first becameacquainted with what must always remainin my mind a vivid picture of marvellousendurance, cheerfulness, and herculean strength—that of the Japanese hand-transport, forhundreds of heavily-laden little carts werebeing drawn towards Fang-hwang-cheng bymen taken principally from the coolie class,who could draw their burdens at least fifteento twenty miles a day. To each cart wereroped two men, whilst two more were freeto push from behind. The carts, which couldbe drawn either by hand, mules, or oxen,were about the size of a costermongersbarrow, and of a light build, mounted ontwo very strong wheels, on which the heaped-up sacks of barley and rice were so arrangedand roped as to make them easily balanced ;not that barley and rice were the only rationsprovided, for thousands of wooden cases,containing tinned meat, prepared vegetables,. JAPANESE WAR OFFICE. 117 and dried fish, were being forwarded to thetroops through this means. The task whichlay before these sturdy httle men was stupend-ous, owing to the direful condition of thecountry through which they had to pass ;but the energy, cheerfulness, and good-humourdisplayed by them, as cart after cart bumpedand jerked over the half hidden boulders whilstwinding their way on their perilous journeythrough miles of this slimy mire, showed aspirit of patient endurance which almostamounted to heroism. Their trousers wererolled up high above the knee, and all hadbare feet. We stood watching them froma raised piece of ground for some time, untilwe found we had collected such a crowd offilthy Chinese and Koreans around us that wewere obliged to move on. In spite of disgust,one could not help feeling a pity for a peoplewho could live in such deplorable now I did not know it was possible toexist in such squal
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