The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-11-22
KOREA Is AWAKENING.
COLONEL cocKERlLus FIRST IMPRESS
SlONS OF THE HERMIT KINGDOM.

Evidences of Reform-The Korean Pipe
stem Shortened by a Wise Royal Decree.
Views Of Home Life In ''The Land of the
Morning Calm"
In the e%uphemistic style of tho east, poor
Korea Is known as "The Land OF the
Morning Calm" 1 should say from the
brief glimpse that / have had OF It that a
deep sense of calm rests upon the country
both morning and evening. We're 1t not
for the pounding OF clothes at night by
the washcrwomen a state of repose would
seem To mark each hour Of the "a. But an
awakening Is coming soon for this nation,
no longer "The Hermit Kingdom, Z" and
no who secs it now will sec 1t in It's ancient
and sorrowful guise. A decree has been
issued in Korea which permits the natives
TO wear all oolors OF clothing, and soon
white as the universal garb Of the lower
orders will disappear. The saving In wash
Ing and pounding will DO something enor-
nous when this comes TO pass.
AS an evidence of the reform spirit
which Is o~yertaking Korea IL may DO men,
toned that the Korean pipestem has been
shortened by recent royal decree, inspired,
1t Is lid, by that intelligent japanese
statesman, Count Inouye. Everybody
smokes and rests in Kores, and from time
immeInorial the pipcstem has measured
3 and 4 feet IN length. OF course nobody
could perform manual labor with q pipe
stem of this exaggerated character in his
mouth, and 1t never occurred to any Ko-
rean TO stop smoking for any considerable
period in order to perform a little labor.
Count Inouye saw that the elongated pipe
stem was the incubus of Korea, and SO he
induced the king TO demand its abbrevia-
ton. 1t Is expected hat the productive
capacity OF Korea will now be increased
something like 25 per cent. The cody now
thrusts his shortened pipe into the knot of
his hair on the top Of his bead-if he be a
married man-between smokes and goes
groaning under his load. Such Is wise
craftsmanship.
My first view OF Kcrea's bald, colorless
and forbidding headlands was obtained
from the deck Of the steamer Chou Chou
Foo, and my first contact with Korean life
was received at Fusan. AS we approached
the shore the lazy natives, clad In white,
stalking about on the sillsides, resembled
nothing SO much as exaggerated types OF
penguins. Fusan, as a port, Is purely
japanese. IL Is n mile or more distant
from the wretched collection of novels
which constitutes the Korean village Of
Fusan. 1t Is said that since Hideyosha's
destructive invasion, more than ESQ years
ago, the japanese have kept q foothold at
Fusan, and today not less than 1000 Japa-
nese OF a rather indifferent class nave per-
manent homes there. A small body OF
japanese troops are garrisoned there.
A stroll along the road In the direction
OF the Korean town gave me an opportu-
nifty to study the character of the natives.
! saw the stately keaesH-i In white Dress
his head ~surmounted by the black, comical
head covering so familiar in tho pictures,
porched on an altitudisous saddle upon a
diminutive donkey, his white robed attend
ant in ponderous straw hat, whipping and
cackling behind. i saw groups Of natives
%squattipg like goose along the roadside
women who hid their faces in their white
gowns or took 10 their heels as I ap-
preached, droves of dirty, unkempt chill
dren, some of them entirely naked-and I
poepcd into the wreiched huts of the low
ly, SO intolerably mean and filthy as TO
defy description.
The Korean sleeping apartment pro-
foundly interested me. 1t is 80 more nor
less than u large stone ard mud built
oven. 1t has n stono floor and is destitute
of ventilation save as to tho pGltry hole
through which the interior is reached. A
trench passes beneath the structure, which
Is connected with a straw mud chimney
at the farther end, and in this a fire is
built which warns the floor, and in this q
dozen or more miserable creatures crawl
at night and sleep and stew. In the
Initiated air Of one OF these sleeping ovens
white people would asphyxiate and perish
In about an hour, but the Koreans seem
TO thrive. Physically they are robust and
strong. / never saw coolies who can carry
such burdens us those / have encountered
In Korea. A Korean hut Is usually thatch-
cd with straw. A few chickens and some
black pigs bury themselves in the litter,
and long haired children roll in the dust.
The poverty of the people and tho gen.
eral wretchedness are something appalling.
Robbed and ground down by the most
pernicious and scoundrelly government
ever known in the world, having no in
centivo TO labor or accumulate, the agri-
cultural Korean simply lives to exist.
Lazarus in his worst estate must nave
been n sort of Palestine plutocrat when
compared with the average Korean. And
yet those. people. under proper rule and
auspices, would bo an Industrious, saving
race.
The captain Of the Chou Chou Foo, who
had a dozen koreans in his crew, told me
that he found them better sailors than
either the japanese or Chinese-always
quiet, docile, aSnenable TO discipline and
industrious to "a degree. All tho tcsti-
mony that l have thus far taken convirces
me that tho Koreans are not wholly do
generate. All that they require Is stable,
honest, enlightened government.-John
A. Cocserill in New York Herald.