Evening star., 1894-03-31
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| chlef OF the Foreign
mail service Of our Post Office Department.
for some time obtaining information for his
government about the postal system OF the
United States.
He is expecting to receive from his
| government almost any day an order to
have a set Of official stamps printed. Corea
| has no engravers. and the only printing
establishment in the country is a primitive
concern under control of the government at
| the capital, Seoul. There are no newspa pers
| in Corea. no railroads and no gas. The cleo
| trio light will be seen there before q very
| long time, perhaps; for an American en-
gineer Is now busy putting up electric
light plant at Seoul. Possibly the electric
car will follow.
Bright and Intelligent People.
If the Coreans are to be judged by the
representatives they have sent to Washing
ton. they are q bright intelligent people
and 1t is amazing that their development
along the lines Of modern civilization should
have been SO long delayed. But until a few
years ago Corea was a dependency Of China
and paid tribute to the Chinese emperor.
When the Corean government sent it's first
| minister to the United States, four years
ago, the Chinese government was very much
incensed. But our State Department rec
OsHiZeu tne SOreanS, anu We now nave
legation at Seoul, to which the newly ap-
pointed American minister is on his way.
The secretary in charge of the American
legation during the minister's absence is DR..
H. N. Allen. VINO was for long time secre-
tary Of the Corean legation here Dr. Allen
lived among the Coreans for about four
years before he was sent to this country as
secretary and interpreter of the Corean le-
cation. He went to Corea from China. and
had the good fortune, not long after his ar
rival. to save the life of a Corean prince
who had been wounded in battle. The gov
ernment. in gratitude, gave him a hospital
and made him royal physician. 1t is alto
gether likely that Dr. Allen is responsible
for the proposed post Office department In
Corea,
Communication by Runners.
1t is singular fact that in this country
CT twenty million people the chief means of
communication between the 800 towns and
villages is by runners But it is not so very
singular when you consider that he Core
= IS seldom have any need Of communication
, tn distant points. because each little COM
-Lunity supplies the wants Of its people
without any outside assistance As for the
importation from other countries of food or
clothing, 1t is virtually unknown. The Core
ans have cultivated the home market TO the
limit of exclusion. There are some horses in
Corea, but very few. The post office depart
ment therefore will have to use runners That
Is the means of mail transportation in rrimi-
tive India. 1t Is 4 slow means of commu-
nication. but it is better than none. There
I Is today actually no means OF rea ching the
/ interior OF Corea with letter or a packet
except through the courtesy OF the Ameri-
can legation at Seoul There would be no
means OF reaching Seoul II the Corean gov
ernment had not made provision, some years
ago, for runner to carry the mail from
Jinsen, the port of Corea, to Seoul, the Cap
ital. II you are visiting Corea. you will
hny n hax .nh
care OF the American legation. for there is
no such thing postal delivery at jim
sen or Seoul. All mail for Americans in
Corea goes by way of Yokohama to Jinsen
and is then carried by the government run
ner to Seoul. 1t takes several days for this
runner to reach the capital 1t takes sx-
teen days for letter to reach Corea
from Japan. The average time of a letter
from Washington to Seoul is more than a
month.
Starts With Foreign Residents.
Usually, the movement in Asiatic ccun-
tries for the establishment of modern facili-
ties for communication has started with the
foreign residents In China Americans have
pushed the Introduction of the railroad and
the telegraph, while the British, impatient
of delay, have established postal system,
of their own at Hong Kong. The British
colony of Hong Kong maintains post Offices
at Hoihow, Canton. Swatow, Annoy Foo
Chow, Ningpo. Shanghai and IIankow The
letters of the representatives of the United
States at any OF these places come to this
country bearing British stamp. There
are two reasons why no effort has been
made by foreign coonists to improve the
means Of communication between POINTS in
Corea. In the first place. there are less
than one hundred foreigners in Corea ex-
| elusive of the Japanese. In the second
place. the government of Corea will not Ier-
nit a foreign resident to enter the interior
OF Corea without permit, and will not per-
mi I'm IN hnr
The second reason, perhaps. in part explains
the first. The foreign residents are grouped
In foreign colony not far from .Jinsen
But what explains the absence of the for
eign element more fully is the absence Of
any disposition to purchase foreign goods
and the lack Of anything in native produc-
ton to exchange for them. Corea made an
exhibit at the worlds fair and offered some
things for sale there. but they were chiefly
bits Of Gorean dress. tables. cabinets and
other things whose chief value lay in their
oddity. They were curios that is all.
The Legation Here.
All Of these facts, and many more were
told to me in a chopped up conversation
which had with the Interpreter of the
Corean legation at Washington There is
no minister here now. The minister who
was sent here four years ago had some
| sickness" as the interpreter smilingly ex-
plained to me. Possibly it was in large part
home sickness. Anyway. he and his secre-
tary of legation. Ye Cha Yum. and Mr. Ye
Wan Wung. the special attache with Mrs
Ye Cha Yum and Mrs. Ye Wan Wung, went
back to Corea. leaving Mr.. Ye Sung 500, the
counselor. and Mr.. Jarng Bong Whan the
second secretary, in charge. The minister
and his suite took lively interest in all
things American while they were here: and
especially was this of the little Corean
women. The Chinese legation at Washing
ton learned a lesson from the Coreans Be
fore the Corean women came to Washing
ton there was no woman to do the honors
of the Chinese legation. Washington So
| ciety took very kindly to the Corean women,
| and probably as a consequence of their ex-
perfencc the present Chinese minister has
not only brought his wife and children to
America, but he gives them all the social
latitude which is granted to American wo-
men.
The COreans Learning.
There have been some very frisky Chinese
connected with the legation at Washington.
Dr. Vow was familiar figure on the hunt