472 STRAW SHOES 



liably in a snaffle-bridle, bitted with so severe a curb that 

 he was worried out of any sense he had ; and to offset 

 the awkward way in which he would act, the driver 

 would have a footman run beside him all the way, help 

 him turn corners, and hold back the carriage down the 

 least incline. You and I would have driven him any- 

 where single-handed ; but his Japanese owners made the 

 poor colt twitchy and nervous by their own nervousness. 

 The same quality appears in their putting nose -rings on 

 cows. And yet the Jap is a courageous fellow ; it is only 

 enterprise he lacks. 



The straw shoes, with which the horse and bull and man 

 are alike shod, are peculiar to the Japanese. They last 

 barely a day or two, but they cost nothing, and any one 

 can make them. They give a curiously clumsy look to 

 the feet of the animals, but they prevent the horse from 

 interfering. If a horse is shod our way, and happens to 

 lose a shoe, on goes a straw substitute, and the odd shoe 

 gives him a peculiarly one-sided look. 



It is not over -polite, perhaps, to say of the Japanese 

 that he lacks good looks as much as his horse ; but the 

 fact remains that he is not a handsome mortal. For all 

 that, the old adage, " Handsome is as handsome does," 

 distinctly applies to him, for no man is more patient, more 

 amiable, more helpful, more loyal than the Japanese. The 

 men are strongly Mongolian in face, and have almost uni- 

 formly ugly mouths. I have generally observed that ar- 

 tistic races acquire sensitive mouths ; but to the Japanese 

 this rule does not apply. The women are far less pro- 

 nounced in type, and average better looking ; really pretty 

 women are no rarity ; but in figure they are too short- 

 legged to come within the Attic standard. Moreover, 

 the constant use of clogs gives them an extremely un- 

 graceful gait ; and when they walk in their stocking-feet, 



