Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-09-07
COREA A LAND OF CONTRASTS
Reverses Ideas and Customs of
Other Lands.
Hogs nre Carried, Instead of Driven
Ladies' Keep Saloons and Make shoes
for Their Interiors in Rsnk--Don-
key the Mount of Fashion.

The ragged, Jagged coast of Corea.
which has been terror to mariners for
centuries and whose wolftoothed rocks
have bitten through the cockleshell hulls
OF Chinese Junks, the stout timbers Of full
rlgsed sailing ships from European ports
and the sheet metal Of modern steamers |
with equal ease and strewed an unlight- |
ed and desolatc shore line with wreckage, !
Will blaze at night with warning lamps
to save shippers from catastrophe and
display by day floating buoys to mark
the channels and the danger points where
the wrong course means disaster.
Roads will belt the hinterand and Jap
anese schools, from whose history course
all mention OF the American Revolution
and other successful wars of independ-
ence will be eliminated lest the Corean
schoolboys should develop patriotism In
stead OF learning submission, will dot the
| country. A modern system OF credit and
currency. says Tom Wallace in the Louis
Vile Courier-Journal, will facilitate tho
transaction OF business where the copper
cash" that was formerly used was so
| bulky that n shipload Of 1t was required
when the japanese government paid for
| a timber tract in north Corea before the
| annexation.
Mines in which are stored great riches
| will be worked by modern machinery
with japanese, Americans and English
men as Operators and Japanese and
| Coreans as the men behind the picks.
| Railroads broad gauged and rock bal
| lasted like American trunk lines, over
which will be driven American made
locomotives drawing American made
| coaches, will increase their mileage be-
| tween the ancient walled city Of Corea
through sections in which the tiger. the
leopard and the elephant are now hunt
ed. Urban and eventually !nterurban
electric lines will become an important
factor in transportation
| Water works. modern hospitals and
sanitary sewers will improve the public
health where until recently plaques OF
cholera scoursed a country whose super
stitious people believed Illness to be
caused by evil spirits and often put tho
stricken individual out in n field with n
bowl OF food and n bottle of water. to
die or recover without nursing or medi-
cal aid.
Corea will be reformed" just az the
Japanese have insisted ii will. When
the reformation Is complete 1t will no
longer be Corea but a province of Japan
used as an outlet for congested popu-
lation and as buffer State on the
Asian mainland. and as the site OF a
naval base that will command the Yellow
Sea ana threaten China.
| Corean women OF the classes that so
unattended and unveiled wear a green,
white trimmed wrap called Il "changot'
thrown over their heads with the sleeves
hanging down over their shoulders. The
, changer Is held about the face in such
a manner that only the eyes OF the wom-
an are seen, and they are visible only
when you are IN front Of her 1t prevents
the wearer from seeing anything thai
approaches from behind.
When tho japanese rickshaw boy had
engaged upon arriving In Seoul ran over
Corean woman and did not offer &c
stop and apologize till a Corean mot
, flied the street and blocked the way
. realized tho attitude OF the conqueror.
discharged the boy, busted the weep!nf
l woman's garments. mopped the blood
$ from her face with handkerchief
apolorized to the mob in dumb show
hired Corean boy and directed MIN I,
= a little hotel kept by a Frenchm1n ai.C
Il his japanese wife near the gate Of on'
E Of the old royal palaces. 1t was n thH
: palace. then occupied by the Corean EN-
peror and 1900 retainers, including sootn
" savers. sorcercrs, dancing women, con
II cubnes Court!ers and parasites OF vari
Gus kinds. such as camped ahou M
=, courts Of the East In ancient times, tia
the japanese under orders from Tok.,
> murdered and burned the Empress, who's
. remains composed Of one little Nn%er
a were buried with pomp and ceremony an'
honored with the tomb
Contrasts between the customs o
n Corea and those Of other countries ar
striking everywhere In other land
h when y man wants to remove Il hog trN'
one pasture to another re drive. it o
tolls It With corn. Not so In Corea. Her
\ a stout laborins man catches a fun grow
e hog, ties Its feet together. puts It on
wood frame made from the limbs Of tree
and carries il TO market. The same WOO
frame is used by the porter who carrie
e your trunk from the station to the ho;'
:. instead Of using a truck or wheelbarroN
~ In other countre. the tiger. the leoT
ard and tho elephant inhabit the tropic!
In Corea these animals flourish In
Is climate as severe as that OF Now Ems
: land The fur Of the Corean tiger
,s longer ara glossier than that Of HI
cousin In the tunslcs OF tropical Indi'
II for the same reason that the coat OF
h Kentucky raccoon is inner In winter tina
in summer when It IL not needed 10
warmth.
Tho Coreen TIGER IL 4 royal lookin
beast seen frequently standing In con
mandins position upon a snow covcre
"a mountainside looking down disdainful!
at a passing train and growing the pre-
testing natives answer TO the shrek
N the invading "mogul." The dcforestatto
OF Corea is accounted for In nauN
p, legend by the statement that certai
king who had forbidden the people
w bear arms. fearing revolt, determine
lS upon the denudation Of tho country II
n a certain distance around each vilaf
n, and residence to prevent the populato
from being decimated by ferocious an
!" mails.
In Sporting Englishmen have few shoe
IL ing boxes In Corea and like TO hunt ell
plants there because the climate is II
more agreeable to them than that
Burma, Ceylon or Africa, where elephan
are found
Fine bulls loaded with the branch
vi Of trees used as flrewood are commC
10 sight In tho streets If Seoul. Ponies a
''u ridden, but never used to draw vehicl
t" as they are in other countries, and catt
are never killed for beef Cows, whi'