RUNNING AMUCK
If Japan had been a revelation to the tourists, China was a still greater
one. For Japan, however much she clung to the dreamy life of former times,
had at last awakened and was fast adapting herself to modern, civilized
conditions.
If Japan was still half dreaming, China was sound asleep. This, of course,
was not true of the foreign quarter, where the great English government
buildings and commercial houses might have been those of Paris or London.
But just behind this lay the real China, looking probably the same as
three hundred thousand years ago. The little streets, so narrow in places
that the houses almost touched and a carriage could not pass! That strange
medley of sounds and smells and noises! Here a tinker mending his pans on
the sidewalk! There a dentist, pulling a tooth in the open street,
jugglers performing their tricks, snake charmers exhibiting their slimy
pets.
There was a bewildering jumble of trades, occupations and amusements, so
utterly different from what the tourists had ever before seen that it held
their curiosity unabated and their interest stimulated to its highest
pitch during the period of their stay.
"Everything is so topsy turvy!" exclaimed Mabel, as she threaded the
noisome streets, clinging close to Joe's arm. "I feel like Alice in
Wonderland."
"It's not surprising that things should be upside down when we're in the
Antipodes," laughed Joe.
"If we saw men walking on their heads it would seem natural out here,"
said Jim. "All that a Chinaman wants to know is what other people do, then
he does something different."
"Sure thing," said Joe. "See those fellows across the street. They're
evidently old friends and each one is shaking hands with himself."
"You can't dope out anything here," said Jim. "When an American's puzzled
he scratches his head--the Chinaman scratches his foot. We wear black for
mourning, they wear white. We pay the doctor when we're sick----"
"If the doctor's lucky," interrupted Joe.
"They pay him only while they're well. They figure that it's to his
interest then to keep them well. We think what few brains we have are in
our head. The Chinaman thinks they're in the stomach. Whenever he gets off
what he thinks is a good thing he pats his stomach in approval. We put a
guest of honor on our right, the Chinaman puts him on his left."
"Anything else?" asked Clara laughingly.
"Lots of things," replied Joe. "And we'll probably find them out before we
go away."
As they passed a corner they saw a man standing there, rigged out in a
queer fashion. About him was what seemed to be a tree box, from which only
his head protruded.
"Why is he going around that way?" asked Mabel, curiously.
"You wouldn't care to know that," said Joe, hurrying her along, but Mabel
was not to be disposed of in so cavalier a fashion.
"But I do want to know," she persisted.
"Might as well tell her," said Jim, "and let her suffer."
"Well," said Joe, reluctantly, "that fellow's being executed."
"What do you mean?" exclaimed Mabel, in horror.
"Just that," replied Joe. "That thing that looked like a tree box is what
they call a cangue. They put him in there so that he's standing on thin
slabs of wood that just enable him to keep his head above that narrow
opening around his neck. Every little while they take one of the slabs of
wood from underneath him; then he has to stand on tiptoe. By and by his
feet can't touch the slabs at all, and then he chokes to death."
The girls shuddered and Mabel regretted her ill-timed curiosity.
"What a hideous thing!" exclaimed Clara.
"And what cruel people!" added Mabel.
"One of the most cruel on God's earth," replied Jim. "You see in all this
crowd there is nobody looking at that fellow with pity. They don't seem to
have the slightest tincture of it."
"Let's go back to our hotel," pleaded Mabel. "I've seen all I want to for
to-day."
The games at Hong Kong were interesting and largely attended. There was
one rattling contest between the major leaguers that after an
eleventh-inning fight was won by the Giants.
A few days later a second game was played in which a picked team from the
visitors opposed a nine of husky "Jackies" selected from the United States
battleships that lay in the harbor.
To make the game more even, the Giants loaned them a catcher and second
baseman, and a contest ensued that was full of fun and excitement.
Of course, the Jackies were full of naval slang, and sometimes their talk
was utterly unintelligible to the landsmen. At the end of the third
inning the Giants had three runs to their credit, while the boys from the
navy had nothing.
"Say there, Longneck, we've got to get some runs," howled one Jackie to
his mate. "Give 'em a shot from a twelve-inch gun!"
"Aye! aye! Give it 'em."
In the next inning the Jackies took a brace, and, as a consequence, got
two runs. Immediately they and their friends began to cheer wildly.
"Down with the pirates!"
"Let's feed 'em to the sharks!"
"A double portion of plum duff for every man on our side who makes a run!"
cried one enthusiastic sailor boy.
Several of the Jackies were quite good when it came to batting the ball,
but hardly any of them could do any efficient running, for the reason that
they got but scant practice while on shipboard. The way that some of them
wabbled around the bases was truly amusing, and set the crowd to laughing
loudly.
"Our men don't like this running," declared one sailor, who sat watching
the contest. "If, instead of running around those bases, you fellows had
to climb a mast, you'd see who would come out ahead."
The Jackies managed to get two more runs, due almost entirely to the lax
playing of the Giants. This, however, was as far as they were able to go,
and, when the game came to an end, the score stood 12 to 5 in favor of the
Giants.
A visit to Shanghai followed, where only one game was played, and this by
a rally in the last inning went to the All-Americans, thus keeping the
total score of won and lost even between the rival teams.
They spent a few more days in sightseeing, and then set sail for the
Philippines, glad at the prospect of soon being once more under the flag
of their own country.
"Look at those queer little boats!" exclaimed Mabel, as they stood at the
rail while the ship was weighing anchor and looked at the native sampans
with their bright colors and lateen sails as they darted to and fro like
so many gaudy butterflies.
"What are those things they have on each side of the bow?" asked Clara.
"They look like eyes."
"That's what they are," replied Jim, seriously.
Clara looked at him to see if he were joking.
"Honest to goodness, cross my heart, hope to die," returned Jim.
"But why do they put eyes there?" asked Clara, mystified.
"So that the boat can see where it's going," replied Jim.
"Well," said Mabel, with a gasp, "whatever else I take away from this
country, I'll have a choice collection of nightmares."
The steamer made splendid weather of the trip to the Philippines, and in a
few days they were steaming into Manila bay. Their hearts swelled with
pride as they recalled the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey, when,
with his battle fleet, scorning mines and torpedoes, like Farragut at
Mobile, he had signaled for "full speed ahead."
"That fellow was the real stuff," remarked Jim.
"As good as they make them," agreed Joe. "And foxy, too. Remember how he
kept that cable cut because he didn't want the folks at Washington to
queer his game. He had his work cut out and he wasn't going to be
interfered with."
"Something like Nelson, when his chief ran up the signal to withdraw,"
suggested Denton. "He looked at it with that blind eye of his and said he
couldn't see it."
"Dewey was a good deal like Nelson," said Joe. "Do you remember how he
trod on the corns of that German admiral who tried to butt in?"
"Do I?" said Jim. "You bet I do."
The party met with a warm welcome when they went ashore at Manila.
American officers and men from the garrison thronged the dock to meet the
veterans of the diamond, whose coming had been widely heralded.
Many of them knew the players personally and all knew them by reputation.
The baseball teams went to their hotel and after they were comfortably
settled in their new quarters, the two chums accompanied by the girls went
out for a stroll. But they had not gone far before they were startled by
excited shouts a little way ahead of them and saw groups of people
scattering right and left in wild panic and confusion.
Down the street came a savage figure, running with the speed of a hare,
and holding in either hand a knife with which he slashed savagely right
and left at all that stood in his way.
His eyes were flaming with demoniacal fury, foam stood out upon his lips,
and from those lips issued a wailing cry that ended in a shriek:
"Amuck! Amuck!"