OCR Text |
Show Must Be Well Shod All military men nro agreed thnt tho feet of soldiers must be In good condition con-dition In order thnt they can fulfill their duties Hllclently. No troops tho lect of whose members generally nro not sound are able to carry on a long campnlgn successfully. Napoleon, Wellington nnd tnnny other celebrated genornls linvo insisted upon tho necessity neces-sity of soldiers being suitably shod. Indeed, good food nnd good feet nro two most essential points in determining deter-mining the issue of n war. Tho Japanese, according to all reports, re-ports, Is lu almost every respect nn Ideal soldier. Ho Is brainy, enduring, strong, nnd, moreover, Is nhlo to thrive on a diet which would menu almost starvation to fanaticism, nnd, ns Is well known, fanatics havo over been most redoubtable fighters. Hut ho has a weakness, and, In the opinion ot Dr. Mnrtlguon, Into resident physician phy-sician to the French embassy In 1'ck-' In, n fatal weakness his feet nro defective. de-fective. His body Is of Iron, but his foot nro of clay. The llrltish Medical Journal, May 14, referring to this matter, gives an apropos quotation fiom Ilmlynrd Kipling. Kip-ling. That writer, lu "My Lord tho nicphant," put Into tho mouth of ono of his characters, Mnlvaney. tho witty Irishman, these words, "I had a boot- gall, but I was nil for keepln up wld the rltr'nieiit nnd Mich like foolishness, so I finished up wld n hole' In my heel that you cud ha' dhrew a tent-prg Into. Fallli, how often havo I preached that to recruits since, for n warning to them to look after their feet. Our dochtor, who knew our business us well n" his ofn, ho so? to me In tho middle of tho TnnRl Pass It was "flint's sheer dimmed, carelessness,' sez ho; "how often have 1 told you that a march in' man is no stronger than his ft-et his feet his lect!' sez ho." The feet of tho Jnpaneso nre not naturally weaker or wurso than tho feet of other Orlentnls probably betterbut bet-terbut tho authorities, lu their zcnl to copy nccurnloly tho equipment of Kurnpean Infantry, havo shod their soldiers in thick" heavy boots, nnd hnve In tills respect overshot the mark. The Japanese have been nc-customed nc-customed for generations to wear sandals, san-dals, paper shoes, or those mudo of it soft material, or to go barefooted. Thus to put persons not used to having hav-ing their feet restrained Into heavy leather hoots was nn experiment not nltngpther lu accord with tho high Intelligence In-telligence displayed by tho Jnpaneso authorities In nil other matters relating relat-ing to war. Medical Record. |