[46] _Harakiri_ (_seppuku_ is the polite word) still happens. Just before writing this note I read of the captain of the first company of the Japanese garrison in a Korean town having committed _seppuku_ because of a sense of responsibility for the irregularities of subordinates. But of 7,239 suicides of men in 1916 only 308 were by cold steel. Of 4,558 cases of women suicides 140 were by steel. CHAPTER VII OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGI The consciousness of a common purpose in mankind, or even the acknowledgment that such a common purpose is possible, would alter the face of world politics at once.--GRAHAM WALLAS There was a bad landlord who was nicknamed "Devil-gon." He was shot. There was another bad landlord who, as he was crossing a narrow bridge over a brook, was "pistolled through the sleeve and tumbled into the water." Although the murderer was well known, his name was never revealed to the police, and the family of the dead man was glad to leave the district. The villagers celebrated their freedom by eating the "red rice" which is prepared on occasions of festivity. In another village, the _gunchō_ who spoke to me of these things said, there were several usurious landlords. "The village headman got angry. He called the landlords to him. He said to them that if they continued to lend at high interest the people would set fire to their houses and he would not proceed against them. So the landlords became affrighted and amended their lives." The rural people of Japan have always three weapons against usury, it was explained to me. First, there may be tried injuring the offending person's house--rural dwellings are mainly bamboo work and mud--by bumping into it with the heavy palanquin which is carried about the roadway at the time of the annual festival. If such a hint should prove ineffective, recourse may be had to arson. Finally, there is the pistol. I remember someone's remark, "A man does not lose a common mind and heart by becoming a landowner."