The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1904-02-23

that she has not been allowed her wish
for there rs really no reason why she
should have been brought into the no
tice of a world which was to her so
antipathetic. A people more untitled
to take part in the life of the twentieth
century it would perhaps be impossible
to find. Korea is a crystalized bit of
the past, for so long unchanged and
Interchangeable as to prove an anachro-
nism in the world today. 1t is a survi-
val from a previous state Of things
which can continue to exist only If
the peculiar environment in which it
finds itself be left undisturbed, and
which, thrown into the stress and tur-
MOL of modern times, must surely be
swept away. Nor is this all. Inter-
esting as it is from this fossil-like point
of view, there is little in Korea today
to attract a modern man, whether that
man be aesthetic, on the one hand, or
mercantile, on the other. If one may
say so; Korea is both plain and poor.
Something more abstract and less
hattering is really at the bottom of the
putting of Korea into the position
which she now occupies, and this is tile
lust for land. Partly from necessity,
partly from imitativeness, the various
nations of ...e world are now seeking to
enlarge what lney call their spheres Of
influence. This means that they are
each doing their utmost to acquire
territory at the last expense of res
possibility attached to the taking of
it. Frank y, to make war as in Olden
times had two drawbacks, the one that
it provoked lie maximum of resistance
among the conquered, the other the
maximum of opposition among the
lOokers-on. N-odern man finds diplo-
macy less costly, and establishes what
is euphemis tically known as a protec-
torate, a term definable as an ardent
desire to protect what needs protection
only against the protector 1t seems
incredible that this can take in any
body, and yet 1t does. 1t works to
charm in all cases; few nations, like
few individuals being apparently able
to forsee the end from the beginning.
Russia is the foremost exponent of
this pleasing duplicity. She is past
master in the art of promising and
then of keeping, not her promises but
others land, because she Is less ham,
pered than any other power with an
inConvenient sense of honesty. To
more civilized nations there is a Grip
ping regard for ones word, but Rus
STA has no such conscientious scruples,
which l take to be merely result of
her still semi-civilized condition.
Japan, on the other hand, has for so
long played the protagonist in the Far
Eastern drama of which Korea furnish
ed the stage setting, that she has come
to look upon it as her right to take this
part. So far as it lies between Japan
and Russia, Japan is clearly in the
right. She is only obliging Russia to
keep her word. Ana it is rather pitt
able than otherwise that the rest Of
( the world has not the astuteness TO
! foresee that to back her up is not
only the ethic but the wise thing to
: do.
Korea Is thus at present of interest
| extrinsically simply as real estate; in
trinsically the real interest in her lies
in her past. 1t rs what she was at
the time Europeans first set their de-
mOlishing hands upon the fast crum
bling relic of monuments which can
never be rebuilt that centers the re-
! gard of anyone who thinks beyond the
/ passing ruin of today.
1t was my good fortune, as 1 look
back upon it now, to have been vouch-
safed through a curious chain of cir
! cumstances, a glimpse of this I'M
changed relic from far past, before
modern methods had affected it at all.
1t is twenty years since 1 spent the
winter in Seoul, and lived for those
months in what seemed to me then,
and seems to me even more now, like
unedited pages of the Arabian Nights.
! have not been back since, nor do I
think I should care to go. Rumor
and the public prints have informed
me from time to time of the progress
sive changes that have there taken
place l prefer not to see them with
my own eyes, for the old picture was
far too quaint and ds already growing
too dim with the lapse of years to have
any new impressions not blur it's fad
ing forms.
1t has seemed to me better, therefore,
asked to describe Korea, to recall for
the reader what l may of the atmos-
phere of the status ante than to set forth
in detail the present political status quo
And this decision is enforced by the
fact that Korea at present really plays
no part in the great drama which is
being enacted, her portion being simply
that of furnishing the stage. On the
other hand, their stage setting makes
most modern plays; and what is found
so taking from beyond the footlights
may possibly prove something the same
from across the ocean where the day
begins.
Upon a certain morning in December,
twenty years ago, a procession of pal
anquins was passing through the squa-
lid suburbs and approaching the inn
posing south portal of the capital of
the Hermit Land. Snow lay upon the
frozen ground and white obedN figures
gave the muddy thoroughfare a scarce
ly less snowy look. The palanquin
bearers warned the curious by cries to
get out Of the way and pushed such of
them as were too slow in moving I'M
tremendously to one side. Then, set
thing doggedly to their work. they
topped the rise leading to the gate and
at summons from within deposited
the chief chair. at the portals en-
trance. A man got out of the uncOm-
Portable box, stepped to the centre of
the gateway and looked down, among
the first white men so to do, upon the