CHAPTER XXI
RUNNING AMUCK
If Japan had been a revelation to the tourists, China was a still greaterone. For Japan, however much she clung to the dreamy life of former times,had at last awakened and was fast adapting herself to modern, civilizedconditions.
If Japan was still half dreaming, China was sound asleep. This, of course,was not true of the foreign quarter, where the great English governmentbuildings and commercial houses might have been those of Paris or London.
But just behind this lay the real China, looking probably the same asthree hundred thousand years ago. The little streets, so narrow in placesthat the houses almost touched and a carriage could not pass! That strangemedley of sounds and smells and noises! Here a tinker mending his pans onthe sidewalk! There a dentist, pulling a tooth in the open street,jugglers performing their tricks, snake charmers exhibiting their slimypets.
There was a bewildering jumble of trades, occupations and amusements, soutterly different from what the tourists had ever before seen that it heldtheir curiosity unabated and their interest stimulated to its highestpitch during the period of their stay.
"Everything is so topsy turvy!" exclaimed Mabel, as she threaded thenoisome streets, clinging close to Joe's arm. "I feel like Alice inWonderland."
"It's not surprising that things should be upside down when we're in theAntipodes," 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, thenhe does something different."
"Sure thing," said Joe. "See those fellows across the street. They'reevidently old friends and each one is shaking hands with himself."
"You can't dope out anything here," said Jim. "When an American's puzzledhe scratches his head--the Chinaman scratches his foot. We wear black formourning, 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 hisinterest then to keep them well. We think what few brains we have are inour head. The Chinaman thinks they're in the stomach. Whenever he gets offwhat he thinks is a good thing he pats his stomach in approval. We put aguest 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 wego away."
As they passed a corner they saw a man standing there, rigged out in aqueer fashion. About him was what seemed to be a tree box, from which onlyhis 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 Mabelwas 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 whatthey call a cangue. They put him in there so that he's standing on thinslabs of wood that just enable him to keep his head above that narrowopening around his neck. Every little while they take one of the slabs ofwood from underneath him; then he has to stand on tiptoe. By and by hisfeet 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 thiscrowd there is nobody looking at that fellow with pity. They don't seem tohave the slightest tincture of it."
"Let's go back to our hotel," pleaded Mabel. "I've seen all I want to forto-day."
The games at Hong Kong were interesting and largely attended. There wasone rattling contest between the major leaguers that after aneleventh-inning fight was won by the Giants.
A few days later a second game was played in which a picked team from thevisitors opposed a nine of husky "Jackies" selected from the United Statesbattleships that lay in the harbor.
To make the game more even, the Giants loaned them a catcher and secondbaseman, and a contest ensued that was full of fun and excitement.
Of course, the Jackies were full of naval slang, and sometimes their talkwas utterly unintelligible to the landsmen. At the end of the thirdinning the Giants had three runs to their credit, while the boys from thenavy had nothing.
"Say there, Longneck, we've got to get some runs," howled one Jackie tohis 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, gottwo 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 thatthey got but scant practice while on shipboard. The way that some of themwabbled around the bases was truly amusing, and set the crowd to laughingloudly.
"Our men don't like this running," declared one sailor, who sat watchingthe contest. "If, instead of running around those bases, you fellows hadto climb a mast, you'd see who would come out ahead."
The Jackies managed to get two more runs, due almost entirely to the laxplaying 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 theGiants.
A visit to Shanghai followed, where only one game was played, and this bya rally in the last inning went to the All-Americans, thus keeping thetotal score of won and lost even between the rival teams.
They spent a few more days in sightseeing, and then set sail for thePhilippines, glad at the prospect of soon being once more under the flagof their own country.
"Look at those queer little boats!" exclaimed Mabel, as they stood at therail while the ship was weighing anchor and looked at the native sampanswith their bright colors and lateen sails as they darted to and fro likeso 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 thiscountry, I'll have a choice collection of nightmares."
The steamer made splendid weather of the trip to the Philippines, and in afew days they were steaming into Manila bay. Their hearts swelled withpride as they recalled the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey, when,with his battle fleet, scorning mines and torpedoes, like Farragut atMobile, 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 hekept that cable cut because he didn't want the folks at Washington toqueer his game. He had his work cut out and he wasn't going to beinterfered 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 hecouldn't see it."
"Dewey was a good deal like Nelson," said Joe. "Do you remember how hetrod 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 d
ock to meet theveterans 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 comfortablysettled in their new quarters, the two chums accompanied by the girls wentout for a stroll. But they had not gone far before they were startled byexcited shouts a little way ahead of them and saw groups of peoplescattering 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 rightand 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!"
Baseball Joe Around the World; or, Pitching on a Grand Tour Page 21
