The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-12
QUEER SHOTS OF coREA.

[From the New York Press.l
 The Coreans are the queerest busi'
 ness men of the world. They keeT
 their horsehair hats on when in theiI
 stores, and instead of standing up be-
 hind the couaters. they squat cross
 legged on the floor and smoke Iong
 pipes while they talk to you about trade
 and offer you goods. The stores of
 Seoul are on the three main business
 streets of the city. These are dirt
 roads about as wide as Canal street, in
 New York. They are lined with mud
 huts matched with straw, to the front
 of which there is often framework of l booth-like awning, which juts out over
 the street and in which, on boards. are
 spread out the goods they have for sale. Here and there little tents have been l built up in the streets, and there are
 hundreds of big halted white gowned
 squatters, who have planked them- | selves down on the road, with their | goods spread out before them, and who i soberly smoke as they wait for their | customers.
 l Seoul, the chief city of Corea, is | about as large as Newark, N. J., and it l covers about three square miles Right in the center of the city there is point where the three business streets come \ together, and at this point there is a | temple about as big as a good sized | cowshed which holds the great bell, or town clock, of the capital. This bell rings the opening and closing of the Corean day. It is rung just at dusk,
 and at this time the great gates of the city are closed. The stores are sup posed to shut, and the men to go into
 their houses and give the women a chance to take moonlight walks unmo- tested
 If you would take a piano packing
 box and line it with shelves and run a
 board along in front of it about two feet
 from the ground you would have Co.,
 rean store. The chief business is in cloth as the Coreans probably spend
 more on clothes in proportion to their
 income than any other people in the
 world, and the cotton trade is big one.
 The common people all wear cotton, and was told that they like the Amer ican goods much better than the Eng fish, for the reason that they are better made and that they are of finer materi- aI The Corean silk Is fairly good, and they use a good deal of Chinese silk. I remember one fur store I visited. It was not more than five feet square, but it was full of costly fur garments, which the richer of these people wear in the winter. Among the curious arti- cles for sale were frameworks of wick er which these people wear during the summer inside their garments to keep them away from their persons and al- low a thorough circulation of the air. There were wicker shirts and wicker cuffs and wicker frames which fit out over the stomach, all so light that the weight of them would be imperceptible and as fine in their workmanship as Panama hat.
 All offices are supposed to be award ed by civil service examinations, and at certain times of the year the students, by the thousand, come from all parts of the country, each carrying two or three of these sheets of paper They are ad- mitted into one part of the palace grounds, and there squat down under umbrellas which they bring with them and write essays in poetry. They have to wear a certain kind of a cap, known as a scholars cap, at this time. Each poem covers a huge sheet of paper. It must have just so many verses and just SO many lines to each verse, and the students don't know what they are go- ing to write about until they get inside the ground. The subject is hoisted up on a pole just outside of a pen in which l the king and judges sit. After the wri- ting is through, each student folds up his essay in a peculiar way and throws it over the fence of the pen. 1t is car ried up to the king and is spread out on | top of pile of papers which grows to | large proportions before the examina- | tion is through.
 Only a few pass at these examina- | tions and the rejected papers are all | sold by the king or by his officials. | There are hundreds of houses in Seoul which are carpeted with these old eX- animation papers. wore rain-coat | made of oiled paper which had been used by Corean student for one of these essays, and trotted about through the streets with a lot of Corfu elan doggerel on my back. The paper stores are found in different parts of the capital, and they do big business. This paper takes the place of glass, and It forms the window coverings of Corea.
 One of the largest of the guild halls about the great bell is devoted to the selling of shoes. These are of many va- rieties and some are quite expensive. Those for the ladies are made of pink, blue and red leather, while the men usually wear black slippers with soles of white wood about an inch thick. The common people wear straw shoes, and these are made by the bushel, and Ire carried by porters all over the coun- ny. They cost about one cent per pair md are the cheapest article of clothing n Corea, Most things are extrava- gantly dear. General Pax showed me lats which cost fifteen dollars a piece, md he bought a. new gown in order that le might go about with me in style which cost him ten dollars.
 Think of free lunch counters in Co., ca! Well, they have them in all parts # the country, and there is many a lirty little den in Seoul outside of which a clay oven is continually cook ng free soup, and where you can get a it of dried fish or raw turnip with ut charge between drinks. The Co.,