St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-14
ROMANCE WITH BLOOD IN 1T.
Behind the Scenes in the Workings
of Corean Tragedies.

Behind the Scenes in the Workings
of Corean Tragedies.
NEW YORK, Jan. 13.-A dispatch to
the Herald from Shanghai says: A ro-
nance equaling anything which Rider
Haggard ever wrote comes from Seoul
the capital Of Corea relating to the
conspiracy which broke out there last
November. The facts are known onlv
to few persons, one being the king.
and all have the strongest motives
for concealment. 1t will be remem-
bered that on Ney Is an unsuccessful
plot eliminated IN jan attack on the
palace by a number of Coreans belong
Ing to the queens party. M. Waeber,
the Russian charge d'affaires, Drs AL
len and Underwood and other Ameri-
cans were accused, on apparently good
grounds. of being privy to the plot.
They were, in fact, said to have been
on the spot simultaneously with the
abortlve attempt. They, however, de-
MED all completely. The king and the
japanese, being warned beforehand,
posted extra guards and foiIed the
conspiracy. Your correspondents in
formation now shows that M. Waeber
and the English consul shared the Sc
cret, the object being to seize the min
listers, expel the Japanese, free the
king from the latter's influence and re-
store the queen, who was reputed to be
dead, but who was in reality alive. The
Russian secretary of legation was the
leading spirit in the conspiracy. and
was deputed to conduct the queen from
her place Of hiding to the palace. The
fa1Iure of the attempt necessitated the
keeping Of the secret of the queen
being In existence, which is now for
the first time divulged. When, in Oc-
tober, the Coreans and Japanese broke
into the palace, the queen, scenting
danger, hid hastily, without speaking
to her women, in an obscure clubhouse
saw the bodies of her ladies-in-w waiting
dragged to the pyre prepared for them
outside, and watched the completion of
the tragedy from her hiding place.
The queen was concealed for an hour
and half, every moment expecting
discovery. She fled at last through
a secret passage to the old palace, and
thence, after changing her dress, made
her escape outside the walls of the
city, where she reached a place of
safety. When the Japanese and Co.
reans examined the charred bodies of
the women who had been burned. the
king and some others shrewdly feigned
that they had discovered the identity
of the queen in one of the victims. lest
search should reveal her Whereabouts
and lead to her murder. The japanese
accepted the account of the queens
death as true. M, Waeber and Hilber.
the latter being the German consul
must have been privy to the secret
which was well kept. Three Coreans
were strangled last week as the queens
murderers, while the trial of Viscount
Muru and other japanese officials is
proceeding at Hiroshima for the mur-
der Of woman who still lives. Ii
Han Shin, the leader of the last abor-
tive plot, is in hiding here.
An American friend, who came here
on the Russian cruiser Otvejuy, says
that Russia is using the supposed mur-
der Of the queen as a weapon against
japanese, although we'll knowing it's
falsity. The queen has been killed by
rumor twice before.