Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-03-05
UNCLE SAM IN KOREA
What the Three Hundred
Yankees Are Doing,
POPULAR AT COURT
FOR THE MOST PART THEY ARE
MINERS OR MISSIONARIES.
How America First Got Foothold
in the Hermit King
dom.

Copyright, 1904, by John Elfreth watkins.l
Written for The Evening Star.
AS soon as it was realized that Korea
must become the principal theater of the
struggle between the island empire and
the land of the big white car, our eyes
turned toward the 800 Americans engaged
in various enterprises in the hermit king
DOM
DIR. Horace Allen, the 4ex-medical-nis-
sionary who serves as envoy extraordi-
nary and minister plenipotentiary to his
imperial majesty Lii Hsi, has become the
American of the hour. so far as the far
eastern situation is concerned, and finds
himself in much the same lfflelight glimmer
as beat upon Minister Conger during the
Boxer trouble of several years ago.
OF these 800 American citizens in Korea,
200 We're living in Seoul, the capital, when
active warfare opened on the peninsula.
One hundred of these were employed by
the Oriental Consolidated Mining Company,
a Yankee concern, at Un-san in the very
theater of hostilities Their camp was
heavily armed with rifles and rapid-fire
machine guns but their women and chill
dren were in a perilous position. The other
hundred Americans outside Seoul scattered
about the northern part of the peninsula,
are mostly missionaries who have their
women and children with them 1t has
been DIR. Aliens task in the past week to
convey these defenseless ones to Ping
Yang, which city lies midway on the high
way running from Seoul north to WIFI, and
at the point where that road is crossed
by another running east and west and con-
meeting Chinampo on the Yellow sea with
WonSan, on the Sea of Japan. Ping-Yang
has been thus made the concentration point,
and thither American women with their lit
tie ones have been brought into Seoul as
expeditiously as possible. The hundred
hin, fhn lie, s,P
been cautioned to keep their women and
children off the streets, armed escorts be-
ing provided by our minister for those who
have to expose themselves in public places.
Moreover, as precautionary measure a
tocsn was arranged by DR.. Allen, this to be
sounded in case of imminent danger
Americans in Office
Five of our fellow-citizens in Seoul are
in the service of the emperor. One of these,
Gen. Clarence Greathouse. our former con-
sui general to Yokohama, is foreign adviser
to the king; two Others, Gen. VIM. Nee.
Dye and Col. F. ]. H. Nienstead, are con-
nected with the Korean army.
AT the American legation, when war COM
menced. We're DR.. and Mrs. Allen, Gordon
Paddock, our consul general and secretary
of legation; Capt. Andre w. Brewster, our
military attache, and Kwon Yu Sup, min
lister Aliens interpreter. Mrs. Allen is a
motherly woman, who has done much to
uplift her Korean sisters. She was Miss
Frances A. Messenger of Ohio, and, like
her husband, is a graduate of Ohio Wes-
leyan University.
The other Americans in Seoul are officers
Or employees of the Seoul Electric Car Com
pany, the Seoul Electric Light Company,
the Seoul Fresh Spring Water Company and
the National Bank of Korea. All of these
concerns have been created by American
enterprise. The concession for the Seoul
Chemulpo railway. which connects the west
gate of the capital with Chemulpo its sea-
port, twentyseven miles distant was Sc
cured by the American Trading Company,
but was subsequently, sold to a Japanese
concern. This was the first railroad. built
in Korea, the contract for its construction
having been awarded to the American and
Oriental Construction Company, formed
with Denver and Chattanooga capital.
These contractors threw an eght-span
bridge across the great river Han, three
miles south of Seoul. This bridge is 2,450
feet long, the iron pieces having been car
ried across the Pacific in u three-masted
schooner.
Trouble With Superstitious Natives.
Minister Allen has had to be on the look