police, should be free to every jinrikisha-man, a new comer practically finds he must ingratiate himself with those already in occupation of the stand, by making them a small present of money or treating them at an eating-house to celebrate his entrance into their company. Stands in busy streets are always fully occupied, and new men cannot take up their position there except in case of a vacancy, when the vacating man sells his place at the stand to the highest bidder. At Uyeno and Shimbashi, the two great terminal stations of Tokyo, where the jinrikisha-stands are in the railway enclosures, the men are even more exclusive. There are at Shimbashi 250 men, whose trade is so profitable that a place at the stands finds ready bidders at twelve yen and a half, while at Uyeno, the twenty sen share every man paid when the stands were fixed is now worth three yen. Outside the railway enclosure at Shimbashi are to be seen men who solicit passengers, and when they find fares, undersell them to jinrikisha-men, the difference between the customer’s price and the jinrikisha-man’s being their clear profit. Such men are called “extras,” and having no jinrikisha of their own, are nothing but middlemen. They often make more money than the bona-fide jinrikisha-men, and that too without the least physical exertion.
There are said to be no fewer than four thousand jinrikisha-men who regularly ply their trade at night, resting all day. They take their station at the most frequented places and lie in wait for belated passengers or strayed revellers. As Japanese generally keep early hours, these night workers are all on the look-out by ten o’clock. Some are out immediately upon night-fall and turn home at one o’clock, while others make their working hours last from nine in the evening until day-break. Experienced men disdain to take fares for short distances, and let others carry wayfarers when shops close and streets begin to be deserted, for they only look for passengers at or after midnight when they are naturally well-paid; but while they make a fair profit when they
