Show 0 daal Ha chickos long vigil at the place placa of the rendezvous N THE harbor at yokohama IN midst the hustle and bustle 0 of debarkation I 1 first caught the phrase meet me at the monument ashore at the customs where travelers babble principally in english a tourist remarked to a frI friend driendl endl 1 I will watch atch for you at the statue which statue here again ambiguity an hour later in tokyo I 1 received i a third lint when an american silk merchant revisiting japan agreed to meet an acquaintance the next day at pedestal the following afternoon having arranged an appointment to meet up with a friend at station a suburb of tokyo I 1 was told to show myself at the dog monument by this time fed up with the mystery I 1 agreed to ome come provided he would inform me c concerning 0 the widespread popularity of that particular point for the contacting of friends and countrymen when you get there said lie he ill explain nil all be interested dont don t fall memorial to faithful dog De training I 1 passed through the station toward a short night flight of steps that led to the street where filere I 1 came rather suddenly upon the statue ot of a a curly haired dog seated on his haunches ches and mounted on a pedestal of stone the whole construction approximately seen feet in height and highly ornamental in the japanese style standing around were ere a number of people apparently walling waiting for others to turn up among them was the friend who lad had dated me up at the log dog monument ue ile approached with inith all the manners of a first class tourist guide As you dont re read ad japanese lie he said it Is my pleasure to translate the legend on the pedestal in some particulars this Is the most interesting piece of sculpture in the kingdom symbolizing as it does the virtues of patience and fidelity without resorting to mythology tills this dog who in life answered to the name of Ilac lilko was the friend and companion of professor department part ment of agriculture imperial university ver sity tokyo both liae haie st since nee died immortalized in a sense because of the story that su rIves them with for escort it was the professors dally daily habit babit to leave ills his home in the morning and to walk the few blocks be between teen ills his residence and the station where with a short speech and a pat on the head lie di dismissed ills his dog boarded them the train and went about his professional duties at the university knowing what was expected of him ambled back to ills his kennel alone there to awalt await the 0 5 p in train when he would again turn up at tile the station and greet his master at the foot of the short staircase down which the professor always came ailta the lie regularity of clockwork death takes the professor one afternoon about eight years ago in conformity with his weekday week day custom Il achIko trotted up to the listening post and squatted upon his llau haunches the 5 p m train rolled in and discharged its passengers tile the usual hurry and scurry common among returning suburbanites ensued each receiving swift sift inspection from the eye of Il achiko seeking only for the familiar figure with which he had appointment in singles and pairs and groups the hurrying throng flowed along the lie platforms and down into the street but for sume some unknown reason the beloved was not that afternoon among them the professor had died that afternoon at his post in the un hersity no messenger brought the ill III news to his waiting friend who for eight long on anxious but perhaps who knows hopeful years of the hungry heart took up ills place to be on hand against the day when the 5 p in train brought the missing comrade home from some somewhere here out there in the distant unknown vigil of hopeless memory rain or shine the dumb beast spurning all human sympathy kept this vigil never watering in the belief that the absentee would reappear the efforts of a kindly man believing that lie he could win the he dog away from the hopeless memory by giving him a new home came to naught tor for each day at the appointed hour hachiro turned up at the station taking ills his place at the foot foet of the empty stairs there to watch until nightfall when he went home thinking only of the familiar figure that bad vanished from view all of tokyo knew the truth that never penetrated to the consciousness of the one who suffered most A k little more than a year ago this shaggy dog faithful to the last broken spirited sad eyed and mystified passed out of this life the story of Ha chikos steadfast affection brought sharply to the public mind by lils his death swept japan like a warm z arousing a sentiment that expressed itself in the be erection through public subscription comprising all classes including the school children of a statue unveiled ith public ceremonies appropriate to the occasion Q C western newspaper New union |