The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1925-12-10

Client ruler of Korea,-or
IL Chosen" as it is officially
called by the Japanese, meaning
land of morning calm"-once OBJ
served that IF men cannot put their
heads together they cannot con-
spire." So he proceeded to stamp out
conspiracy by making his subjects
wear hats so big that they had to
shout to one anotherl Fanciful as
this story is, the fact remains that
even now, since the land has become
a province of the Japanese empire,
it is 'the land of hats"-hats Of
enormous size and infinite variety,
each kind having its own signifi-
canoe. You may still see the peasant
in short white jacket, loose baggy
trousers tied to the ankle, wadded
socks, and wooden boat-shaped slip
pers, wearing an enormous white
straw, hat sloping out over his shout
ders like tent. The Korean gentle
man, carrying a parasol of strong
oil paper, struts about in a long
flowing kimona, and wears a stiff
hat Of glossy black horsehair or split
bamboo, sometimes tied with ribbon
under the chin. In former days the
single men were not allowed hats,
and must wear their hair in queues
down Heir backs; but II a man was
engaged to be married he was al
lowed a compromise hat of yellow
straw!
But much Of this old picturesque
Korea has now disappeared, along
with the hermit-like seclusion, and
ignorance of the rest of the world,
and disease and bad sanitation that
ruled before the land was formally
annexed to Japan in 1910. Railroads,
telegraphs, improved harhors, new
agricultural methods, scientific
stock-breeding, schools Of silk-cul-
ture, an improved educational sys-
tenn, and better hospitais--these are
the marks OF revolutionizing energy
with which Japan is now seeking to
remake Korea. as she herself was
made over in the second half of the
nineteenth century. In every way
material progress under Japanese
rule has been great. But the Korean
nationalistic sentiment. with the cry
Korea for the Koreans" became
formidable in the years following the
World War. despite the stern hand
with which Japan put down con-
spiracies and revolutionary attempts.
nj KOREA is a rather mountain.
k Gus country. about as large
- as Minnesota, less than half
of it being under cultivation. Most
of it is a penguin-shaped peninsula
thrusting south from Manchuria be-
tween the Sea of Japan and the Vel
low Sea. In the wild, bleak north
rise richl., timbered mountains 1000
to 5000 feet high. Here prowl man.
eating tigers, while foxes, antelopes.
leopards and bears roam the wooded
zigzag mountain range which
stretches southwark the length OF
the peninsula. To the west this
range throws off a chaos OF spurs
with steep-sided valleys-a rich re-
gion filed with flooded fields af rice
and plantations of tobacco, cotton,
hemp. peas, soy beans, grains and
ginseng. Here you see the oddly
CARRIED natives, who are of mixed
Mongolian and Malayan descent. till
ing the soil often with crude wooden
plows drawn by oxen. and you see
the big native hammer, for pound
ing grain, rising and falling like a
thing OF life. 1t is a mere log whose
followed end Is so balanced under a
stream that the water alone oper-
ates 1t.
You pass many walled villages.
whose one-storied mud huts matched
with white straw look like fields Of
mushrooms. You are astonished to
find that the Koreans long ago an
ticipated our hot-air furnaces; for
fire is built at one end of each hut
for cooking. and the heat is carried
under the house through system
of pipes and fiues to the log chimney
at the opposite end.
1.-The inland walled city OF Seoul,
the capital. is city of
IL strange contrasts-of red
rooted mud huts and splendid mod
ern buildings. Street cars clang past
vendors squatting In front of their
shops and porters trudging along
under enormous burdens. Such inno-
vations and the many others which
are Transforming Korea from
hermit nation" are due to the Jap
anese, who have been masters here
since their victorious war with Rus
STA d904-5).
But Korea's national life extends
more than 1900 years in the past
1t early developed its own arts and
a literature written almost entirely
in Chinese.
Printing by means Of movable
metal types existed In Korea in the
fifteenth century; and one of their
admirals in the sixteenth century
invented an iron-clad vessel pro-
PEELED by oars.
About the same time Korea be
came tributary to China, following
an unsuccessful invasion by Japan,