# The passing of Korea/Chapter 34

CHAPTER XXXIV,
MODERN IMPROVEMENTS
Japanese energy and capital have transformed Fusan from an insignificant fishing village into a thriving city with water works, electric lights, commodious hotels, banks, museums and imposing municipal structures. The same may be said in lesser degree of Wonsan, Mokpo and Kunsan. Chemulpo is the most important port of entry as yet. Her proximity to the capital has won her this distinction, but the trunk railway terminus at Fusan must eventually push her ahead, especially when she becomes a port of call for the great trans-Pacific steamship lines. Chemulpo is, however, still a distinctly live place. Real estate in the foreign or Japanese quarters brings from twenty to thirty yen per square metre, which gives us a glimpse of the genuine life of the place. Not only has the Japanese population passed the ten thousand line, but the Koreans have flocked in until they aggregate some thirty thousand. The foreign town is fairly well built, though as yet there are few public buildings of note. The splendid sea-view from the steep side-hill on which most of the foreigners' houses are built makes it a very attractive place to live. A mile-long bund affords facilities for handling the ​commerce of the place, but as yet large quantities of freight have to lie out on the bund exposed to the weather, except so far as it can be protected by tarpaulins. There is no better indication of the life of this port than the fact that trade is always in advance of the facilities for handling and storing it.
As for Seoul, the changes have been equally great, though its superior size makes it more difficult for us to get a bird'seye view of them, as we can do at Chemulpo or Fusan. The first important innovation was the abrogation of the rule that the gates of the city should be locked every night before nine o'clock and not opened without special orders from the King until morning. The city wall, especially on the south side, has become a nuisance, since it blocks traffic; and it is only a matter of time when the picturesque old battlements, which look down from their half-millennial height upon the impertinence of galvanised iron roofs, will be levelled. Already it has become necessary to plan for the enlargement of the South Gate, which is only eighteen feet wide, and through which flows a very large fraction of the entire trade of the capital. Here, too, the price of real estate has increased tenfold during the past ten years and has doubled during the past year.
In spite of all that has been said about the filth of Seoul, it is a fairly clean, place as Far Eastern cities go. Those who come direct from Peking or other inland cities of China exclaim in admiration over the broad, level and comparatively clean streets of the Korean capital. Seoul has not made notable advance in the line of public buildings. The beautiful and classic, though severe, lines of the Roman Catholic cathedral dominate the town from the architectural standpoint. The French, English and Russian legation buildings are imposing enough, but they are not conspicuous. Almost all the Korean government buildings are still in the pure Korean style. Some little use has been made of brick and corrugated iron, but the effect is not pleasing. The two styles do not harmonise. The ​crude, cheap foreign buildings of the Chinese merchants are incongruous with the general tone of Korean buildings, above which they tower in all the blankness of brick and mortar. The Japanese have everywhere preserved the tinder-box character of their architecture. Some of them are beginning to use brick and stone, and the general tendency seems to be in the direction of more solid and enduring forms of architecture.
Foreign residence is gravitating toward the hills between the city wall and the river, three miles away. The time is approaching when we shall have here a quarter corresponding to the "Bluff" in Yokohama or the "Hill" in Kobe. These hills form an ideal place for foreign residence. They are high, well wooded and conveniently situated, and soon a second line of electric tramway between Seoul and the river will make these suburban places easily accessible at all times.
The problems of proper water-supply and sewerage are still to be solved. An American syndicate are arranging to put in a good system of water-works, and until that is done little can be accomplished in the way of sewerage.
As for passenger transportation, Seoul has made more advance than the average port in the Far East. The AmericanKorean Electric Company operates about nine miles of surface road on the trolley system. It is a distinct success. The Koreans are good patrons of the road, and the numbers carried have increased steadily from the very start. The employees are largely Koreans, both in the power house and on the line everywhere. It is the unanimous opinion of the Americans who operate the road, that the Koreans make competent hands in every department of the work. They have almost displaced Japanese both as mechanicians and overseers. This is a striking testimonial, and one that should have weight in settling the question whether, as so many foreigners seem to think, the Korean is incapable of attaining proficiency in the field of applied science.
RESIDENCE OF THE AMERICAN CONSUL-GENERAL
Korean high officials still cling to their four-man chairs, but the middle-class officials have taken kindly to the jinrikisha, a vehicle which has come into use only during the last five or six years.
I have mentioned the railroads as being the greatest material improvement yet instituted in Korea, opening, as they do, great tracts of farming land which were formerly almost closed to the world, because of the difficulties of transportation; but another important step has been taken in the erection of a large number of lighthouses along the dangerous coast of the peninsula. This has been undertaken by the Imperial Customs, and is being pushed vigorously. Its importance can hardly be overestimated. The dangerous nature of the coast is well shown by the fact that it has been deemed necessary to build over thirty lighthouses. Many more than half of these are on the shorter western coast.
Late years have developed a fairly efficient postal system, and Korea is a member of the International Postal Union. The system has proved an unmixed blessing to the Koreans, although it has always shown a large deficit at the end of the year. The Japanese have now taken over all postal and telegraph offices, and it may be that their efficiency will be largely increased.
One encouraging feature of all these changes is that the Koreans accept them gladly and make free use of them. They are quick to see the advantage of quick communication.
But with all the beginnings that have already been made toward a higher economic life, it must be confessed that as yet they are only beginnings. The commercial centres are as yet objects of wonder to the countryman, and the new life has hardly taken hold of the masses. Nor will it do so until education has laid its beneficent hand upon them and the standard of civic morals has been greatly elevated. These things are of greater immediate importance than economic progress, for upon them ​depend the ultimate benefits of such progress. Until justice is again blindfolded, and a man can secure redress for wrongs and be secure in the enjoyment of the results of his own labour, railroads, telegraphs and postal facilities can be only added instruments of oppression.
Special emphasis should be laid upon the forward movement of missions along eleemosynary lines. The well-equipped Severance Memorial Hospital has been lately completed and is doing a work of untold value. The munificence of friends in America has also resulted in the erection and equipment of excellent foreign hospitals in Fusan and Pyeng-Yang. The Young Men's Christian Association is erecting, by the munificence of Mr. John Wanamaker, a handsome and commodious building in Seoul, where the association has made surprising advances and bids fair to prove an elevating instrument of enormous potency. Rapid advancement is being made along the line of publication, and the present plan of cooperation between the different Protestant missions promises large returns in every field of moral, intellectual and social activity.