The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-14


trade placed ON something like civilized
Ddsls there was rapid increase IN ea-
ports ana imports, amounting TO lis per
cent IN year, but there it stopped. IN
1884 there were internal troubles, and in
1856 fearful scourge of cholera put an
end TO trade for some time. The very latest
from our consul saws that CheInulpo, where
foreign trade was first allowed in 1883, has
grown from mere group ef wattled huts
to fairly wei! built town OF about ], 900
people, of whom some 600 are japanese,
$50 Chinese, 40 Europeans and AmCri-
cans and the rest of all eastern nations.
There are three hotels, three consGlates,
two banks and $50 good dwelling houses.
The total exports and imports of Korea
have not yet reached 81, 600, 600, though
they have twice approached 1t. The best
cash export is ginseng, which nearly all
goes to China. The people buy scissors,
knives and some other cutlery, manufac-
tured silks and a few general articles, bat
make nearly everything for themselves.
There are few native manufactures,
chiefly of cotton goods, mating, matches
and very coarse and clumsy handmade
wooden implements.
The government has recently had !, 000,-
600 mulberry trees planted and has en-
plOyed Chinese and other experts to look
after them and induce the people to i'm
prove in the production and management
of silk. But, adds the con- i, the Koreans
are wretchediy INDECENT and contented to
a discouraging degree. Three dollars per
month IS the largest income one OF them
desires, and having secured that he has
no further ambition. The country is hilly,
and the roads are so bad that transpCrta-
ton doubles or trebles the value even of
the smallest article in the passage from
one province TO another. To all this was
added a fuctuating currency, Mexican
dollars and the native money varying as
much as SO per cent between different
places or even in the same place at differ
ent times. At length Mexican dollars were
counterfeited so extensively that the mer
chants refused them altogether, and the
japanese yen has become the standard
money. The general summary of the con-
sular reports for the last few years makes
rather melancholy reading What with
smuggling on the northwest coast, Tartar
robbers on the north, bad roads, indolent
people, cholera and fluctuating currency
there would seem TO be more variety than
profit in a Korean existence.
Food and Medicine.
The missionaries also tell rather COM
plicated tale of their experiences. 1t ap-
pears that no intelligent observer has
travelled extensively in the interior, but it
is known that most of the country is COM
pletely denuGed Of timber, and the hill
sides are cleared afresh every year by the
people who are hard put to it for fuel.
They cut down every bush and even the
large weeds and grass and twist them
together for their fires in the same way
that the Mennonites Of Dakota and Mani
toba manufacture fuel by twisting the
prairie grass. Their houses are hUts of
mud and stone built over a sort of furnace,
the top of which is the floor of the dwell
ing. In winter time they keep this fur
mace so hot with their light and chatfy
fuel (fOr some one is kept on watch to feed
the fire night and day. that the average
missionary is almost sutfOcated in one OF
their dwellings, and on returning TO the
open air is liable to contract deadly cold.
Apparently it does not affect a native.
They have abundance of food, consisting
chiefly of rice and millet, but it is cooked
with enormous quantities of garlic and
pepper and thickened with "a kind of
Clipped meat which the missionary is as
sured is fish or mutton, but which he often
suspects to be dog 1t is impossible, the
preachers add, to induce their most Jealous
converts to use western convenience in
making or repairing their clothes, and
the practice of medicine is of a nature to
make one shudder merSt y in reading about
it.
To cure any local swelling or irritation,
hot Il Il int w
medicine and then thrust into the flesh re-
gardless of the locality of the trouble. For
fevers the head is shaved and the top
thereof burned with hot iron. When
things get to the worst brother or sis
ter of the patient sometimes consents to
have a finger cut of, which is burned 10
a crisp and'powdered for the sick man to
swallow. Various reptiles are prepared in
this way for medicine. The missionary
who sends this information and great
deal more that is much more disgusting
adds rs a kind Of saving clause that in the
mountains of Korea, especially in the
north, there is wonderful variety Of
game, much Of it of great value for fur
and all of it for sport in hunting. Even
in the lOwlands tigers, leopards, bears,
wolves, foxes and deer are occasionally
seen, while pheasants, geese, ducks and
teal are very numerous. He thinks the
greatest wealth of the country will even
tually be found in the fish along the north
east coast, where all the edible species are
very abundant. SO far as can be learned,
the people were originally idolaters, but
have by slow degrees adopted Buddhism
and 10 a slight extent Confucianism, but
there is no very strong religious instinct,
and he thinks that the Roman Catholics
were prosecuted simply because they were
foreigners and their native converts for
assOciatiug with foreigners.
China's Claim.
In conclusion the committee on foreign
affairs SAYS that our treaty with Korea,
concluded May -, 1ss2, contains merely
the usual and formal agreement that in
case Of trouble with any third nation
each nation shall employ its good Offices in
behalf Of the other, and We stand ready
20 do that If called upon II Is believed
however, that the claim Of China To sue
rainty has so little support that 1t viii
not be insisted upon, and that japan VIII
be allowed 10 pursue her policy IN Korea
without danger Of breaking the now uni
versal peace Of the world. II Is Of some
incidental interest that Korea has estab-
Ishcd a somewhat elaborate tariff, all the
duties being ad valorcm, the highest only
20 per cent and very few over 10. In our
treaty with her it Is specially stipulated
that no merchants trading there shall
serve as consuls. Taking it all in all, our
statesmen are Of opinion that there Is not
much 70 concern ourselves about IN that
part OF the world beyond the general in
te1est which intelligent men take IN queer
and out Of the way people
= ,. PARKE