Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-01-21
Korea, the Cockpit of the East.

years cast lor Ihe part or bone. And
such 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 vicious caste system.
mentally impotent and physically de-
generate. Here is Mrs. Bishops de-
seription of its principal city and cap
ital:
i shrink from describing intra-
mural Seoul. l thought it the fculest
city on earth till | saw Picking. and
its smells the most odious till | en-
countered those of Shoa-shing. For
great city and a capital its mean
ness is indescribable. Etiquette for
bids the erection of two-story houses.
consequently an estimated quarter of
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 a man to pass
a loaded bull, and further narrowed by
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, be-
grlmed 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
themselves to their fate. A Korean
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 1
constantly rode in rickshaws drawn 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
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 Ito the late empress tomb) in
exactly the same listless fashion. The
conductor rings his bell loud and otter
but ONLY at the last moment does he
slowly walk pace or two to enc side
or the other. To see the Korean
I 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
heaying up an anchor 1t naturally
follows that each spadeful of earth
takes as long to extract as if it were
a load of gold reef"
4
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 it 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 imprisoned if they fail to deliver
on demand; everybody is squeezed
and oppressed, and the draft on the
Seoul people is honored The surplus
and it is always large-goes into
the pockets of the local agents. I'm
Ader this system there is no incentive
% the farmer to labor and no hope
r. the artisan if he achieves any
pg If man accumulates little
eth he lives in a howell lest he
|uld be suspected and despoiled AS
Fesult, there is everywhere lament
lie ignorance, restitution and crying
Icontent AS for corruption, that
boundless and appalling. The poor
kp1e themselves, though filled with
ery. have, like the cells, become SO
ustomed to being skinned that
neither know nor care to be re-
There can be no conception
hopeless ignorance and wretch
fof Korea. There is no way of
N Seoul what the receipts and
Slres or resources of the gov
re- No account is kept.
no governmental statistics
When the royal house
es money, it sends to the
ities and demands it, and
IS raised by pillage and
ntioned. 1t is expended
ID. The accounts of the
nment are simply like
american landlord who
book at the end of each
lid in and all paid out
n "a