The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-08-03

Mr.. Pom Kwang Sab is martyr to the cause
, of civilization. He has been exile from his
native land for over six years, but in neatly
furnished room on Eleventh street, surrounded
by many little luxuries, and with wardrobe of
some extent and considerable elegance, he
seems to be making the best OF his martyrdom.
Mr.. Sab is Corean, scion Of a noble family In
that kingdom, and has enjoyed the trials and
triumphs generally furnished by even brief
residence on this mundane sphere, where he
has been for thirty years. He has been in
America the last six years. He is not going
back to Corea right off, as he was exiled in
1854, with the promise of execution when he
should return. He talks with much intelligence
on general topics, and grows almost patheti-
cally eloquent when he tells of the reluctance
of the mass of Coreans to adopt the customs of
civilized nations. In speaking of Corea, Mr..
Sab said:
"Corea's population is 2S,OO0,00O and it's area
10000 square miles 1t has three very good
ports Jernvolpo, Busan, and Wonsan Its
capital is Seoul. Its products are varied. With
the exception of sugar and tea almost every
other product for general consumption is raised.
Its government is an absolute monarchy. The
King has supreme power The other officers are
three Prime Ministers, eight Cabinet officers,
and Chief Justice. These are the officers in
whose hands the general government Of the
country is placed. The country is divided into
eight districts or states, each with its governor
These states subdivded into countless $50 in
all. There have been eight dynasties during the
four thousand years we can trace our history
and the present dynasty has existed for five hun
dred years. In politics we have three parties,
the Conservatives, the Chinese, and the Inde
pendent or Progressive to the last of which |
belonged. The Conservative party, as the name
implies, is fond of old customs and wishes to
shut Corea off entirely from the rest of the
pr1l Chino ronssih1Xr tal ic fha
strongest party at present. The Chinese party
is one that favors close alliance and connection
with China as opposed to Russia. This party is
also somewhat conservative in nature, but not
to the extent of the former. The third, which
is at present rather weak, is the Independent or
Progressive party We believe in the establish
ment of modern ideas and institutions in
country. We wish to be perfectly Independent
of all foreign influence whether Russian or
Chinese.
"In 1888, Immediately after / returned from
the United States, where | had been some few
months with our embassy, found our party
rapidly growing i'll strength. We introduced
modern ideas-the telegraph, printing press,
modern firearms, and many other innovations.
The more progressive of the people took kindly
to these ideas, and We thought that much good
had been accomplished. On December 5, how
ever, there revolution. The Conserva-
tive and Chinese parties had gathered their
forces, and, with the addition of about four
thousand Cinnamon, fell upon the Independents.
In order to interest Japan in the matter of our
independence and reform made use of about
two hundred soldiers from that country. After
three days hard fighting in the streets of Seoul
we were vanquished. Soon after twenty of us
who had taken the most active part for reform
and progress were eXiled. Some went to Japan,
while Others came to this country, and number
are located in this city at the present time.
'The time must come, and it must come soon,
when Corea will be open to the world. At
present, owing to treaties which our party dur
ing its short period of power made with the
stnJS Sfnta 1n,,l ~
other nations, our ports are open to them, but
the people show little disposition to adopt mod
ern ideas and customs. The printing presses
which we started have stopped, the telegraph has
fallen into disuse and the country has already
fallen back to what it was before we began the
work of reform. The government is exceed
ingly poor At present | suppose there is not
million dollars in the treasury. No one even
knows what the annual expenses will be or have
been The former has to pay the great bulk of
the taxes, the land tax being the one chiefly in
vogue. We still have our custom-houses and
some slight revenue is derived from duties.
"Of religions we have two, Buddhism and
Confuciansm. The latter is not the generally
accepted one, and really has little or nothing to
recommend it. Personally consider Confucius
nothing more than man of little above the
ordinary intelligence. His religion could never
be generally accepted, as it is contrary to all
ideas of religion in having no God He had GER
tain ideas of morality, and these form the strong
points of his religion. Beyond that it is moth
ing. One of the prime objects of our party was
to establish the Christian religion in our coun-
try, and it was probably that more than our
views on temporal matters that served to over
throw u.s.
''Our social customs are set by the mobiles of
the nation There are probably not more than
ten thousand of these in the kingdom, but the
rest of the twenty-eight million Coreans are only
too anxious to bow down to them and follow
them in all their basest and most ignoble Gus
toms Almost all of the evil customs that exist
among our people arise from the MOBILES They
marry early, at seventeen or eighteen. They set
the fashions, and the worse these are the more
eagerly the Others fall into them. Among the
mobiles the custom exists to rigidly separate the
sexes, men and women, boys and girls being
kept apart as much as possible. The other
classes likewise adopt this custom to some ex-
tent Children are promised in marriage by
their parents from babyhood, and if a noble
doesn't like his wife when he gets her he calmly
sends her back to her people. There is little
opportunity for loye-making, but the lower class
sometimes finds an opportunity forit, and among
them it is done the same as in America. In this
class marriages are not consummated so early as
they are in the first.
"With regard 10 our general enlightenment
l might say we have not very great deal We
have puilic school system under the patron
age of the government. There are, as | said
before, 800 districts, or counties, in the country
In each of these is located one public school
Reading, writing, drawing, and poetry are
taught principally here. Our universities, one