Omaha daily bee., 1888-11-03

the fact Is s%olemnly stated, and when II Is con-
sidered that the dynasty OF Ye, the present
one, has been in power for 40S years, the
thing seems still more incredible. No coup
ry'can be happier than one where the ruler
is abreast Of the times and ahead OF his peo-
pie, and, consequently, Corea is happy. Abe
mobiles regard their monarch with venera-
ton, but the common people almost worship
him. This is because they sec him so sell
dom. When he Is about to appear in the
streets of the capital, the city Is swept clean,
and fresh yellow sand spread over the CHI ief
t~horoughfares. All business is suspended,
and the entire population turns out. The
men line the streets and the women the fiat
house.tops. When the procession arrives, all
the previous chattering aud animation sub
sides, and a complete silence reigns until the
great litter bearing the king and his son has
passed out of sight On these rare oc-
casions foreigners see something which be-.
longs TO Japan, but has completely passed
away; that is, samurai in the ancient armor
composed partly of metal plates, partly Of
lacquered paper. Their weapons, also, are
the same, the katana or long sword meant to
be welded with both hands, and the short
sword, which is about as long as a bowie
knife. Besides these swords many have
spears which, in reality, are not spears, but
partizans like the old English bill. Besides
the samurai there are modern equipped SOL
diers Snd armies of banners.
No one who feels divine compassion in his
soul for suffering can think of unhappy
France without a thrill of sympathy. The
country is so horribly burdened with debts
and taxes that 1t has become necessary to
tax all foreigners living in the country. The
wheat harvest has failed, and the people are
clamoring for bread; the wine harvest has
failed, and the exporting merchants of Bor-
deaux, Cette and Marseilles have been
obliged to import wine from California for
home consumption. Owing to the hard times
there are absolute armies of men without
employment. And in the face of all these
things the war minister demanded 1888 ,6OO,-
900. 1t is like drawing the last drop of blood
from the veins of a dying man. But the n a.
ton insists upon the army being maintained
on a war footing, and revenge for Sedan is
the cry from one end Of the country to the
other. French Chauvinists are insulting
Italy at every opportunity, and Germany
whenever it seems safe to do so. Recently
the escutcheon on the wall of the German
consulate at Havre was torn down secretly
and thrown into the gutter. The German
government nobly refused to take any notice
of the incident. The world owes so much to
France in all the arts and sciences, in litera-
ture, and in the knowledge Of the details that
make daily life pleasant, that its decadence
must be viewed with extreme sorrow. Would
/ bldJ WIG udllOu CUulu Dc poISudutu " ucaOu
the sword, and to inaugurate an era of re.
trenchment in every branch! But If it had
been possible it would have been done. 1t
cannot be apparently, and we must regard
France as dragged breathless, bleeding,
wild-eyed by its inexorable destinies like
ancient Rome.
Hayti and San Domingo are two names for
the same island, but are used colloquially to
designate the Haytien republic of French
negroes on the west and the Dominican re-
public of Spanish negroes on the east. Men
regard these two places through a halo Of
romance, but those who have visited them
are not so enthusiastic. Each republic re-
minds one irreslstibly of a hermit crab that
has taken up its quarters in the empty shell
of some gigantic ammonite. The colored
men are simply squatting in the palaces
reared by the millionaire planters of sugar
cane and coffee trees a hundred years ago.
They still make some sugar, but almost all
the syrup is converted into rum. They still
export some coffee, but they lave planted nc
new trees, and their harvest is gained by
gathering the drupes from the wild self
planted trees. If they have sugar also, it is
because the canes go on reproducing them
selves year after year. Hayti, however,
might have redeemed itself if the recently
deposed president, Louis Etienne Felicite
Solomon, had lived. He was an iron disciple
marian. He threw some of his opponents into
dungeons and he marched others into public
squares and shot them. The one thought
l that possessed his whole soul was TO lift up
his country and make Hayti prosperous and
peaceful. He knew that outside Of q re.
stricted circle near Port au Prince Hayti
was slipping back into African savagery. He
knew that cannibalism and the fearful rites
> Of Kabiric worship were being practised in
the secluded haunts of the interior, and he
felt that IN dealing with such circumstance
and such a people the only methods available
were those of a savage. Yet he was person
ally of a gentle disposition, loving refinement
, and culture for their own sake. Had he sue
ceeded in arrestlng the constant whirling OF
, factions at the capital he perhaps would have
succeeded in the dreams he nourished. But
+ IL was his fate to be an Augustus Caesar in
. soul under circumstances that made neces,
l sary a man like Toussaint rOuverture
= Could he have found a lieutenant of such g
=, stamp, success would have been certain. He
, failed because he was one man-not two.
$ ~.
5 Slavery has been abolished everywhere In
, Europe and America, save in the Spanish
: islands of the gulf, and as the importation o
! fresh slaves into Cuba and Porto Rico is nov
a thing of the past, its total extinction il
. only a matter of ten years. The problem
that now confronts humanity is the slave
trade in central Africa, and it is conceded
that the efforts made to stop it have not only
" ~ s'S SNAS> "'SeS
Q trously for civilization. 1t is impossible no
S to regard the appearance Of an Arab re
p ligious enthusiast in the Soudan as a contri
U vance of the Arab slave traders for combat
q ting the obvious designs of Europeans il
central Africa by arousing the fanaticism o
. the Islamite. The fact that complete sue
cess attended the apparition of the mahd
S settles all attempts to abolish the slave trad
a through commercial settlement or mission
u AIRY effort. Cardinal Lavigerie proposes the
r arbitrament Of the sword. "Begin," h,
cries, "a new crusade and roll back the it'd
of Arab raiding and wrong-doing By fore,
y and clash of arms.' Hum! What were thu
: precise results of the old crusadel Wells
christianity achieved nothing, by force O.
arms, but the christian nations of the ives
became civilized by contact with the Saracen
Q and Tartars of the east, If there should bt
- a new crusade it would end in the Arabs ant
" Soudanese acquiring the arts and civilization
r of European nations, and that would be all
1t must not be forgotten that the Arab has
behind him in Africa the fighting negro, wht
is certainly not of the same race as the pa
cific negro. The slaves come entirely from
" .L,