Evening star., 1902-03-08
Hermit Land to Be Covered
With Railroads.
AMERICAN ENTERPRISE
ASIA'S BIGGEST ELECTRIC PLANT
RUN BY YANKEES.
What the People Want and How This
Country Can Supply
Them.
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
Copyright, 1902. by Frank G. Carpenter,

Copyright, 1902, by Frank G. Carpenter.)
NAGASAKI, Japan.
The little country Of Corea Is having an
Industrial and mining boom. Its gold
regions are opening up. its coal deposits
are being prospected and railroads are
Planned to cover every part OF the penin-
sula. At Shanghai l met Leigh Hunt Of
Seattle. who. In connection with J. Sloat
Fassett of New York, has one of the most
valuable mining concessions of this part
of the world He has the absolute right to
a country about as big as Rhode Island.
some distance from the Corean capital,
which is rich IN gold.
This territory has been worked for ages,
but In the crudest manner The Coreans had
no machinery They washed off the top of
the placer mines. but We're not able to reach
the bed rock They did little quartz min
ing by chipping out the ore with their soft
iron tools. They would make holes in the
rock and fill them with fuel. This being
ignitcd made the rock red hot when they
would pour in water and thus crack the
surface. that they could chip it off. The
ore thus obtained they crushed by rolling
huge stones over ii.
They had no pumps and could not go deep
on account of the water. The shafts We're
cmptied by bailing them out with gourds,
which were passed from man to man to
the surface. Wherever a stream or perma-
rent water was struck the shaft was aban-
doued
Fassett and Hunt have introduced the
best Of modern mining machinery. They
are now operating three mills. or in all
about eighty stamps and they will soon
have another mill, which will give them
altogether 120 stamps. They expect to put
in an electric plant Of sufficient capacity to
operate all their mining machinery, and for
this water viii furnish the power.
| understand that the property is being
worked very cheaply and at great profit.
ropean experts among the employees. and
about 1000 Coreans The CoreanS receive
- cents day, and do not kick on long
hours. The concession gives the company
the standing trees on the land at 80 cents
gold per cord: this is said to be sufficient
TO timber the mines Until lately all the
hauling has been done with the bullock
carts of the country. but American wagons
are now used and other kinds Of our ma
chinery Will be imported.
A Land of Gold.
Corea promises to be a second California.
When ! first visited 1t fourteen years ago
I was shown .quills filled with gold dust
and pn-head nuggets. The coolies brought
them in and traded them to the merchants.
At that time the country was producing
about s3OOOOOo worth of gold a year
from its placer mines The Weld was even
greater when l visited Corea in 1894 just
before the war between China and Japan.
although no modern machinery had yet
been used
General Greathouse Of California was
then adviser to the king. He told me the
mountains We're full of gold and Thomas
W. Power, the young American electrician
who put the lights into the kings palace,
described to me how the kings ministers
once brought him a box filled with gold
dust and nuggets in payment Of a bill
against the king for electrical machinery.
Mr. Power said that one OF the nuggets
was as big as the palm Of his hand and
about an inch thick. His bill was for $47,-
600 and the gold realized more than that
amount when he sold It at the mint in
Osaka, Japan.
SO far the Americans are doing the only
mining of much Importance. Other con-
cessons have been granted to the Pritch-
ard-Morgan syndicate, an English COM
pany. and to f. Meyer & Co. representing
German capitalists. The German conces-
sion is small. and it adjoins that held by
Hunt and Fassett. The English concession
Is about half the size of the American and
It is situated to the south of the latter.
Both English and Germans are doing some
work The success of the American com
pany is known throughout the Far East. It
has brought numerous miners and capital
lists. to Corea. who have SO annoyed the
government that for the time no further
concessions are being granted.
Japan's New Corean Trunk Line.
The work on the railroads, however is
still going The Japanese have sur
veyed a railroad from the capital. Seoul
to Fusan, the southernmost port Of Corea
Fusan has an excellent harbor, only
short distance from Nagasaki. and this
road will probably form the end Of CO.
rean connection with the Trans Siberian
road. so that one take the in any
part of the European continent, and go to
Japan with only a nights ride SO by
water. The distance from Seoul to Fusan
IS about three hundred miles. 1t Is esti-
mated that the road will cost . 900 900