Show B ry JAPANESE ARMY SUTLERS I ra Canteen Follows Closely in tlu Wake of the Sieving Troops One who was with the Japanesa army In Manchuria for six months says Old foreign campaigners remarked re-marked In the field that no army probably prob-ably ever had so many canteens In 1U wake When tho army was not marching there was always a canteen or two not far to the rear of every division When It settled down to recuperate after a battle canteens wero quickly established In Manchu houses These carried cigarettes writing paper postcards beer Imitation Imita-tion brandy Imitation whisky Imitation Imita-tion port Imitation sherry sake and sometimes Manila cigars Japanese are keen traders Not 200 feet back of tho Nnnshnn battery one day In the sevenday battle of the Shako there was a Japanese peddler selling cigarettes Chinese swcetcakes rico and beer to the reserves During tho same battle the canteens wero never more than three miles back of the front line of trenches As the Japanese soldiers pay ib only 1136 a month and the army saving sav-ing banks had considering that phenomenal deposits there was not much spending money in the army A bottle of beer cost ten cents and n packet of cigarettes about three cents Whenever there was a trllng battle bat-tle tho commanderlnchlef would order or-der sake distributed as a ration On tho mikados birthday a year ago ono extra double packet of cigarettes was distributed to each man in tho field This cost the emperor more than 15 000 Otherwise when the distribution was possible ten cigarettes a day went with tho regular ration One day in an American periodical received at camp there was n solemn poem celebrating the abstinence of tho Japanese from drink This caused concern among tho Japanese officers who disliked tho emphasis laid upon the difference between be-tween their army and a European army and the commissary general told tho foreign observers Our soldiers like drink as well any s any other soldiers Sometimes they need It when they cannot get It and we send It to them In tho trenches As a matter of fact though the peasant peas-ant at homo has a hard enough time to supply himself with food ho Is not more averse than other people to strong liquor once he learns the tasto of it Many a man will go homo from the campaign with tastes ho never had before The manufacture of bees I bee-s still a young industry In Japan but from the time the process was Imported Import-ed it has grown to enormous proportions propor-tions Headquarters even battaJlVon headquarters In underground bombproof bomb-proof trenches were always supplied with beer or sweet wine Marshal Oyama liked sweet champagne Tho strategist of the war Gen Kodema drank claret with every meal |