Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-10-26
KOREA AND ITS PEOPLE
The Hermit Kingdom as It
 Appears to Travellers
LAND WITH AN INERT POPULATION

E ". H. Lawson Says Koreans Never
 Ran Unless Driven by the Lash.
 They Hardly Walk "A Japanese
 Statesman Describes the Govern
 ment as Corrupt--A Pen Picture of
 seoul, the Capital.
 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 ar mics and by rebels, robbed by a reck- lessly dishonest government, all spirit and self respect taken from the people by vicious caste system, mentally inn potent and physically degenerate! Here is Mrs. Bishops description of it's prin- cipal city and capital, says the Boston Transcript:
 1T shrink from describing intramural Seoul I thought it the foulest city on earth till saw Picking and it's smells the most odious till encountered those of Shoashing. For great city and a capital its meanness is indescribable. Etiquette forbids the erection of two story houses, consequently an .estimat- ed quarter of million people are liv- ing on the ground chiefly in laby- rinthine alleys, many of them not wide enough for two loaded bullocks to pass; indeed, barely wide enough for man to pass loaded bull, and further narrowed by a series of vile holes or green, slimy ditches, 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, mangy, blear eyed does, which wallow in the slime or blink in the sun.'
 As to the people, here is MT. w. H. Lawson's account of their spiritless lethargy: 1.-The Koreans have resigned themselves to their fate. A Korean never runs unless he is 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 constantly rode in rickshaws drawn by Japanese COO lies. These boys took a positive delight in cannoning the natives in their walks abroad and would run a shaft into any back that presented itself. In one alley of the city, close to the British lega- tion 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 tranway, running out three miles to the late empress tomb in ex- Actly the same Iistless 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 work men digging up the ground is lesson as to how things should be done. An enormous spade is sunk into the soil by two or three coolies, with an inn mense. expenditure of groans, and then two or three gradually pull it up with ropes, at which they heaye like crew of sailors heaving up an anchor 1t naturally follows that each spadeful of earth takes as long to extract as if it were load of gold reef"
 As for the government, Japanese statesman who has spent years in 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 wants money 1t draws upon the various dis tricts for the required amount The local authorities collect the money in any way that pleases them. Crops are seized and divided, householders are smprisoned if they fail to deliver on demand, everybody is squeezed and op- pressed, and the draft of the Seoul peo- pie is honored. The surplus-and it is always large-goes into the pockets of the local agents. Under this system there is no incentive to the farmer to labor and no hope for the artisan if he achieves anything. If man accumu- lates little wealth he lives ill hoyel lest he should be suspected and de- spoiled. As result there are every where lamentabIe ignorance, destitu- ton and crying discontent. As for cor ra1ptiQn. that is boundless and appall- tns The poor people item GrA res,