The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-10-19

When two dogs fight over a bone,
1t is somewhat distressing for the
bone. Poor, long-suffering Korea
seems for the second time in ten
years cast for the part of bone. And
such a bone! Scraped and gnawed by
invading armies and by rebels, robbed
by recklessly dishonest government,
all spirit and self-respect taken from
the people by a vicious caste system,
mentally impotent and physically de-
scription of it's principal city and cap
ital:
st shrink from describing intra-
mural Seoul. I thought it the foulest
city on earth till I saw Picking, and
it's smells the most odious till T en-
a great city and a capital it's mean
ness is indescribable. Etiquette for
bids the erection of two-story houses,
consequently an estimated quarter of
a million people are living on the
ground chiefly in labyrinthine alleys,
many of them not wide enough for
two loaded bullocks to pass, indeed
barely wide enough for man to
pass a loaded bull, and further mar
rowed by a series of vile holes or
green, Shiny bitches. which receive
the solid and liquid refuse Of the
houses, their foul and fetid margins
being the favorite resort Of half
naked children, begrimed with dirt,
and of big, NANCY, blear-eyed dogs,
which wallow in the slime or blink in
the sum-"
AS to the people, here is W. H.
Lawson's account Of their spiritless
lethargy: "The Koreans have resigned
never runs unless he be driven by the
lash; he hardly walks; he crawls
along the streets of his city or the
paths of his village circuit. If he be
struck he falls down and lies there
waiting to be picked up. In Seoul I
by Japanese coolies. These boys took
a positive delight in cannoning the
natives in their walks abroad, and
would run shaft into any back that
presented itself. In one alley of the
city, close to the British legation
there, several times did the coolies
knock over an old Korean gentleman
slowly vending his way to the main
street. Every time he got in the way
every time he was knocked down. He
said nothing and did nothing; but he
was always in the same place and al
ways met with the same treatment. A
Korean will saunter along before an
electric car (for Seoul now boasts an
electric tramway, running out three
miles to the late empress tomb) in
exactly the same listless fashion. The
conductor rings his bell loud and often
but only at the last moment does he
slowly walk pace or two to one side
or the other. TO see the Korean
workmen digging up the ground is a
lesson as to how things should be
done. An enormous spade is sunk
into the soil by two or three coolies,
with an immense expenditure OF
groans, and then two or three grad
ually pull it up with ropes, at which
they heave like a crew Of sailors
heaving up an anchor. It naturally
follows that each spadeful Of earth
takes as long to extract as If it were
a load of gold reef"
AS for the government, a Japanese
statesman who has spent years ir
the country describes it thus:
There are no tax laws. There are
eight districts in Korea presided over
by appointed governors. When the
central government in Seoul want:
money it draws upon the various dis
tricts for the required amount. The
local authorities collect the money II
any way that pleases them. Crops
are seized and divided, householder.
are imprisoned if they fail to deliver
on demand; everybody is squeezed
and oppressed, and the draft on thu
Seoul people is honored. The surplu: