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Jack London, covering the Russo-Japanese War for the Hearst Syndicate, is stuck behind the lines, and not happy about it: “…I’ll never go to a war between Orientals again. The vexation and delay are too great. Here I am, still penned up on Seoul…and eating my heart out with inactivity…” He does, however, try to keep busy, “Just now I’m riding all kinds of Chinese ponies, with all kinds of saddles, in all kinds of places, (and some of the ponies are vicious brutes. I was out yesterday, without stirrups, and loped all over the shop(?) with another fellow, down crowded streets, narrow streets, crooked streets, over sprawling babies (a thousand shaves), and live to tell the tale.” He signs “Mate” to maintain some anonymity during this period when he was still married to Bessie.