Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-25

copyright. 1909, by Frank @. Carpenter.)
- EoUL, 1909.-(Special Corre-
spondence Of The Bee)-when
I first visited Korea 1t took
- me seven days by steamer to
kfsSY come from Yokohama to Che
- mulpo and a day more by
chair to make my way overland from
the seaport to the capital. have
just arrived in Seoul. having COW
cred the same distance in less than two
days. Japan has a railroad line which
practically reaches from her capital to
the capital OF Korea. Her imperial rail-
roads now take one in a day, from Toxic
to Shimoneseki. where there is a ferry
across the Strait of Korea to Fusan.
There the new Korean railroad begins and
in about ten hours one IL carried in COM
Portable cars northward to Seoul. Tho
whole railroad distance is Just about as
far as from New York to Chicago. and 1t
Is now covered by fast express trains.
.
Korea New Railroads.
In this letter l write of the new rail-
ways of japan and Korea. The trunk
lines of both countries are now under the
control of the rnikado. They have Japa-
nese officials, conductors and trainmon,
and are practically Japanese. All the
railroads of Korea belong to the Japanese.
The one first built was under a conces-
sion granted by the former emperor to
an American syndicate headed by James
r. Morse, but before 1t was completed II
was turned over to the Japanese, and
they have owned IL for the last ten years.
This is the short line from Seoul to Che
mulpo.
The road from Fusan to Seoul was
hnIf h "a pfNsnN, - - -
guaranteed its bonds and con-
trolls 1t, During the war with Russia this
line was extended 800 miles northward
to the Yalu river, and It now has a branch
which connects that terminus with Muk-
den and the Trans-Siberian system.
Another road has been begun from Seoul
TO Gensan on the eastern side of the
peninsula. This will 20 right across
Korea. connecting the west and east
coasts. The construction was started
some timo ago at each end of the line.
About three miles have been built out
from Seoul, and also a short strip west
from Genssn, Just now. on account OF
the hard times, this work has temporarily
stopped, but as the commercial prospects
brighten II will bo taken up again and
pushed to its completion. II is expected
that the other roads Will be relaid with
new ties and rails, and that the whole
system as far as Mukden will be made
first-ciass in every respect. As II is now,
the section north Of the Yalu is a dinky
narrow gauge with cars little better than
~omnibuses, The track is so poor that the
trains do not go at night, and it is cur
rently reported that the trains stop two
hours at noon to allow the employees and
passengers time for a siesta,
-
Railway Building In Korea.
Railroad building in Korea is far diff
ferent from the same class of engineer
ing in the United States, In the first
place the rlghts-of-way offer strange COM
plications. All the way from Fusan to
Seoul we passed grave mounds. and the
road here and there went through grave
yards. The road from Chemulpo to the
capital necessitated the removal of more
than 1900 graves, and the city lots of the
dead cost more than our city lots of the
living. The average grave did not cover
more than a square yard, but the railroad
company had to pay from 81 10 So each
for the cost Of removal, and got at the
same time the III will Of the families of
the deceased. The Koreans nave a queer
way of planting their graves anywhere.
They have few fixed cemeteries, and they
select such spots on the sides of the hills
as the tell them are lucky
and there lay away their loved ones.
Many families take care OF their graves
from generation to generation, and they
deeply resent any injury TO them, 1t is
the same In China, which is without many
railroads today largely because of this
sentiment.