The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-02
The First Officer of the Government Is
One Of the Greatest Political
Strikers in the World.
ALL THE PEOPLE OPPRESSED
Terrible Outrages Perpetrated in
Order to Extort Money.
Punishment Extends to Relatives of
the Chief victims-Land of Bar
barians-American Colony.

Copyrighted, 1894. by Frank G. Carpenter.)
The man who has had more to do with
the oppression of the Corean people, and
VINO was to a large extent the cause of
the rebellion. is going about Seoul to-day
with hundreds Of followers. He rides in a
chair, seated on a leopard skin, and he
has a house containing scores of rooms.
He is said to be a millionaire. A few years
ago he was worth practically nothing. He
has made his immense fortune by squeezing
the people, and by his relationship to the
Queen. His name is Min Yung Jun. He is
now about forty years old, but ne is one
of the greatest political strikers of the
world, and he Is an adept in the selling OF
offices and in getting money out of the
people. A part of his receipts have gone TO
the King, but a large amount has stuck to
his own clothes. He first showed his eff
cheney In this line as governor of Ping
Yang. a city Of perhaps $50, 900 inhabitants,
which lies within a hundred miles of Seoul.
Here he was nicknamed by the people as
Stove Min" because he burned up every
thing he touched, and he is now called
Buddha Min, probably for his supreme
cheek of absorbing everything about him
into his own nirvana 1 have secured a
photograph of him, with a lot Of his dane
ing girls behind him and his son at his
side. His feet rest upon a leopard skin,
and he is by no means a bad-looking Co
rean. He has evidently great organizing
powers, and he has brought office broker
age down to a system.
Corea, like China, is a land of squeezers.
Officials who are paid something like $500
a year are expected to squeeze about 5000
annually from the people. There is no Sc
curity Of property in Corea. and hence no
incentive for the people to accumulate. If
a man lays up money and the magistrates
find 1T out. they have one of their under
%strappers accuse him of some crime. False
witnesses are plenty, and they can whip
the man or torture him until he pays
something to be let go. Sometimes poor
men are arrested on such charges. When
tortured they say they have nothing and
can give nothing. The reply often is. you
have a rich uncle, or a rich cousin, and he
must pay this amount for you." AS to the
officials, they must get their money out
of the people, and if they pay high prices
for their offices they have got to Cypress
their subjects. Until within the last year
or so the magistrates were allowed to have
terms Of from two to three years. The
prices of the Offices were high. By judi
cially apportioning their expressions over
this time they could squeeze enough to
make a profit and still let the people live.
The wants of the court and of the officials.
however, have Increased within late years.
The debt to China has eaten up a great
part of the revenue. and Min Yung Jun
has supplied the deficit by cutting down
the terms for which the magistrates are
appointed. At the same time he has not
decreased the price of their offices, and
they have had to squeeze all the money
they could possibly get out of the people
in order to come out even at the end of
nine months instead of three years. The
result is that in some parts Of Corea star
walton practically stares the people in the
face, and this was the cause of the REBEL
ion.
The rebellion was not against the King,
but against his officials, and had the King
not foolishly sent his troops against the
rebels he might have escaped his present
troubles and the wal between China and
Japan deferred.
THEY "SQUEEZE' STRANGERS.
This squeezing. which exists among the
magistrates, runs. in fact, through the
whole of Corean society. You remember
the doggerel which runs something like
this:
Inc Digest npaS nave smaller meas
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And those small f1eas have other heas,
And so ad infnitum.
Well, the Corean capita flea is Of al
sizes, from this great Prime Minister, Mir
Yung Jun, down to the kesos who trot
along beside your chair when you &c
through the city of Seoul. / had four chair
bearers to carry me, and part of the time
there was a soldier on each side of us. Ii
L addition fhara waC sGanaralb Dali ond
doubt not that every one of them got hi.
percentage out Of every thing / bought.
had to have the money paid over in m,
presence to be sure that it would be PAID
at all, and when PAX bought a cigar fol
me 1 venture he always received a cigar
cite as his commission on the purchase
The Chinaman who kept house for MI
Power, the electrician to the King, witt
whori 1 stopped, got his percentage OF
the price of every mouthful of food w,
ate ard of everything We bought. / coult
not hire q horse that the man who raj
behind it and acted as my groom did no
get his percentage of the hire. Such thing
are perfectly legitimate in Seoul. The maj
who keeps the gate of your house is givel
10 per cent. of the amount of all purchase
made. This. of course. comes out of tn
landlord, who is charged an additions
price. If the percentage is not paid tn
seller Will get no more business, and h
will be boycotted by all the gatemen O
the town.
The Legitimate squeezing is awful. Yo
nave to watch all the time for fear som
one else is being cheated or oppresse
through you. The servant Of foreigner
are not subject to the ordinary Corea
laws, and our legation to Corea found no
long ago that the kesos connected with tn
establishment had been selling certificate
to men about Seoul, stating that they wer
employed by the legation, and they had re
ceived from one thousand to twenty thou
sand cash apiece for these. Each OF tn
foreign legations has a number of thes
keso soldiers, which are detailed to
from the service of the King. and my so
d.ers were of this character. An outrageou
instance Of squeezing occurred not long az
In connection with the Russian Legation
and II was carried on a long time befor
the Russian minister found it out. Thes
kesos vent out into the country and foun
men who were in debt to people in Seou
They told them that the Russian minists
had bought the claims against them, an
that they must be paid with high interes
They put them in chains and brought the
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