The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

ABOLITION OF THE SAMURAI. 219
tavern or tea-honse with a crowd of tlieir followei's, and, after eating and
drinliing what they wished, walk coolly away. If the landlord asked for
payment, he ^¥as not very likely to get it; and if he repeated the recjuest,
he not infrequently had his head slashed off by the sword of one of the
offended gentlemen. The head of a landlord was not of mnch conse-
cpience ; but he was generally quite unwilling to lose it, as, when once
taken off, it was difheult to restore it to its place.
" If the Samurai had been on the most friendly terms with each other,
thej would have rendered Japan too
hot for anybody else to live in. But,
fortunately for the rest of the popula-
tion, there were many feuds among the
different clans, and there was rarely an
occasion when one clan was not in
open warfare with some other. In
this way they devoted their energies
to cutting each other's throats, to the
great delight of the merchants and
tradesmen. Where two clans were in
hostility to each other, and two oppos-
ing groups met in the streets, they
used to fall to fighting without ceremony
and furnish occupation for the
coroner before the interview was over.
They were a terror to all the rest of
the populace ; and it is safe to say that
there was general rejoicing among the
other classes when the Samurai ceased
to exist."
SAMDKAI IN WINTER DRESS.
Fred asked if the government took away the pensions of these men
and gave them nothing in return.
"Not by any means," the Doctor answered. "The government gave
to each man a money allowance, or gift, to take the place of his pension,
and let him do with it whatever he pleased. Some of them spent it in
dissipation, and found themselves eventually without a pennj^ and with
no means of obtaining anything. They were then obliged to go to work
like other people, and some of them had a very hard time to exist. I was
told in Yokohama that some of the former Samurai were working as
coolies in various ways, not only in that city, but all through the empire.
A good many of them have found enqDloj'uient among the foreign mer-