Now, however, modes of travel have changed greatly, and are changing year by year. There are still many pedestrians; the _kago_ is yet to be seen; boats are propelled by stern-end oar or laboriously pushed along with poles; and pack-horses and oxen—even in the streets of Tōkyō—are in frequent use. But there are many other means of communication and transportation. There have come into use the horse-car, the stage, the _jinrikisha_, the railroad, with the telegraph and the telephone; the modern row-boat, the steamboat; the bicycle, the automobile, and the electric railway, with the electric light to show the road by night. An excellent postal system and various other modern contrivances for facilitating the means of communication have been adopted. The most common mode of conveyance at present, in all possible localities, is the _jin-riki-sha_ (man-power-carriage), or “Pull-man car,” as it has been wittily called. This is a two-wheeled “small gig,” or large baby-carriage, pulled by one or more men. A ride in a _jinrikisha_, after one has become accustomed to human labor in that capacity, is really comfortable and delightful. The coolies who pull these vehicles develop swiftness and endurance, but are comparatively short-lived. There is also a two-wheeled freight cart manipulated in the same fashion. It has been estimated that in the Empire there are almost 1,350,000 hand-carts, about 185,000 _jinrikishas_, about 28,000 ox-carts, more than 66,000 other freight carts, and almost 100,000 carriages and wagons. The business of transportation thus furnishes occupation to thousands of people, but gives to each engaged therein only a scanty remuneration, which is often insufficient for the support of life, after the tax has been paid. The fee for a _jinrikisha_ ride averages about 12 or 15 _sen_ per ri (2-1/2 miles), or varies from 20 to 30 _sen_ per hour. If a coolie makes 50 _sen_ in one day, he is fortunate, and is lucky to average 25 or 30 _sen_ per day; for some days he may be wearily waiting and watching from dawn to the dead of night without receiving scarcely a copper. Hard, indeed, is their lot; and their death rate is rather high.[30]