下関（日本）から釜山（朝鮮）へ

44. From Shimonoseki (Japan) to Fusan (Korea).

The Imperial Japanese Gov’t Rlys. maintain an excellent and speedy express service (day and night), and the commodious steamers (English spoken) make the 150 M. run in about 8 hrs. The 1st cl. fare of ¥12 includes a 2-berth cabin (alone if the ship is not crowded) and meals. The passage is usually smooth, but it can be rough. For this reason the night boats are popular, as one can sleep. Upper-deck cabins (portholes can be left open) are preferable and can be reserved (no extra cost) by telegraphing ahead to the station agent at either port. Red-capped porters meet trains, and for a small fee will see the traveler to his cabin. Transfers are made without friction and in a quiet, systematic way that appeals to one. At Fusan ships tie up at the pier near the rly. station. Customs-officers inspect luggage on the boat. Foreigners are taken but little notice of, as they are supposed not to be engaged in smuggling.

Those entering Japan are asked if they have tobacco in any form. Opium is excluded and is a risky thing’ to have in one's possession. After leaving Shimonoseki Strait the ship enters the Genkai Nada and follows a N.W. course along Tsushima Island (in the war zone; no photographing) visible at the S. and celebrated as the base for Admiral Togo's squadron during the Russian War. Iki Island is farther S. — Bare and precipitous hills mark the sea approach to Fusan (68 M. from Tsushima), which lies at the upper end of a crescent-shaped bay half-encircled by hills that rise to a height of 800-2000 ft. The big bare island at the left is Deer Island (zetsueito) and beyond it is Chinhai Bay (in the war zone). Some fantastic rocks start up near the entrance to the harbor (right) and produce a curious mirage effect. The white-clad Koreans always seen sitting in fatuous vacuity on the rocks at the head of the bay have been aptly likened to pelicans or penguins.

The first-class ships of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha ply between the two ports.

The *Fusan Station Hotel is under the direct management of the Government Railways of Chosen, is ably managed, comfortable, with good food and service, and is the best in the port. Member of the Japan Hotel Association. Recommended. Rooms can be engaged by telegraph free.

Single room only from yen 4.50 and up. Double rooms from 6 yen. With meals (Am. Pl.) from 9.50 to 17 yen and up. Cool, airy, baths, and all conveniences. Meals only: Breakfast yen 1.50. Tiffin 2 yen. Dinner yen 2.50. J. Horiuchi, Manager.

The hotel manager will secure autos for sight-seeing trips. Fares moderate.

Fusan (Korean, Pusan, or 'Pot Mt.'), an important and growing port at the southeasternmost point of the Korean Peninsula, 274 M. from Seoul, in South Kyong-Syang Province and lat. 35° 06' N., now celebrated as the Far-Eastern terminus of the great transcontinental rly. which links Europe to Japan, is the landing-place for most travelers from Japan, and the stepping-off place for those who leave the continent for Shimonoseki. It is picturesquely situated at the foot of the Yon-san Mt., which rises bulkily behind the docks and rly. station, but a few hundred yards from the sea. It has been held and claimed by the Japanese from time immemorial, and as the nearest port to Japan, it has been the landing-place for their armies since the days of the mythical Empress Jingo. For centuries Fusan was the strongest town in Korea, and for many years the Nipponese maintained a trading factory here under conditions very similar to those imposed upon the Dutch at Hirado and Nagasaki. Once a foothold was secured they clung to the place with a grip which the Koreans could never loosen. The lofty cryptomerias which adorn the summit of Ryuto-san are said to have been planted by them in 1592, and

every sign of progress one notes in the place is due to these purposeful and tenacious islanders. The port was formally opened to them by the treaty of 1876, and since then its trade has increased so that now it amounts to upward of 240 million yen a year. It is being so rapidly Japanned out of its decadence and insularism that now 34 per cent of the exports and 30 per cent of the imports of the entire country pass through it. The dominating note is Japanese, and those familiar with it two decades ago would scarcely recognize it now with its pretentious station and big commercial buildings. Of the 107,000 inhabs. 35,000 are Japanese, and each one is busy doing something. Wide areas are being reclaimed from the sea; solid retaining-walls are being built; new docks are under way; the harbor is being dredged to permit the entrance of ships of deep draught; a million tons of rock have been drilled from the granitic sides of the forbidding Yon-san, and 7 million yen are being spent to make Fusan the biggest entry port of the peninsula. The entire place resembles a transplanted bit of the hustling Island Empire. Waterworks, industrial schools, postal facilities, a good hotel, and a host of modern conveniences are among the improvements introduced, and more are to come.

Only a small section of the town can be seen from the bay, as it is packed snugly between the hills that rise abruptly around it. The old Korean town of Pusan stands at the other extremity of the narrow pass through which the main street leads, facing an arm of the bay that makes in there. The streets are narrow and unsavory, and the shops small and poor. The wares of many of these are displayed on mats stretched on the street, and over the tawdry collections the Koreans haggle amid considerable screeching. The traveler with time to spare can get a comprehensive view of the twin settlements by climbing the low Ryuto-san (‘Dragon-Head Hill') which faces the landing. Several paths lead up beneath grateful shade. Just below the small park at the summit is a Buddhist temple dedicated to the spirit of Kato Kiyomasa. The stone slab commemorates the soldiers who died in the Japan-China War. The surrounding hills are said to contain gold. — About 50 M. N. of Fusan is the old town of Kyonju, anciently the capital of the Kingdom of Silla; and the home of everything that was greatest and best in Korean art and literature. From here many of the artistic inspirations of the early Japanese were drawn.

Geographical Sketch. — The Peninsula of Korea (between 33° 12' and 43° 02' of N. lat., and 124° 18' and 130° 54' of long. E. of Greenwich) is bounded on the N. by Manchuria and the Russian-Asiatic maritime province of Primorskaya (upon which it abuts for 11 M. inward from the Japan Sea); on the E. by the Japan Sea; on the S. by the Eastern Sea (Tunq-hai) and the Korea Channel, and on the W. by the Yellow Sea (Hwang-hai).

Its northernmost part is delimited by the Tumen (which flows into the Japan Sea at the E.) and the Yalu River (which empties into the Yellow Sea), and between them by the Chang Paik (‘Ever-White') Mts. — the source of both streams. Its total length (from N. to S.) is about 600 M.; its coast-line is 1700 (5000 including the islands). Its widest part (between the mouths of the Tumen and Yalu) is 350 M.; its narrowest (in the vicinity of Seoul) about 120 M. The total area (much smaller than formerly) is estimated at 85,000 sq. M. (practically that of Utah, Kansas, or the British Isles). About one fifth is under cultivation. It is more than half as large as all Japan, including Formosa, the 20 million or more inhabitants being augmented by 500,000 Japanese (rapidly increasing in numbers), 80,000 Chinese, 800 Americans, 300 English, and 300 of other nationalities. In general shape and relative position to the continent of Asia, Korea resembles Florida, but is unlike it in that it is a land of rugged mts. Those at the N. are densely wooded, but the S. is so bare and drear that the Japanese often refer to the entire peninsula as ‘the land of treeless mts.’

The sinuous ridge of lofty, towering peaks starts up like a great buttressed wall at the N. boundary, as if striving to hold back the flowing Siberian steppes. Its trend S. is from the celebrated Paik-tu San (White-Head Peak; 7800 ft.) — the monarch of the Ever-White Range — and passing through the center of the N.E. province of Ham Gyong it reaches the E. coast at about the 40th parallel of latitude. Thence it extends in a continuous line to the extreme S., here and there on its way throwing out lateral spurs that wind toward the W. coast. Among the arms of this great axial range, nearly midway between the extreme N. and S., rises the (5856 ft.) Diamond Mountain (Keum-Kang — Japanese, Kongo) so-called from the title of the Buddhist scripture.

Perched high among the group of lordly peaks are the great historic Buddhist monasteries of Korea, celebrated alike for their antiquity and the grandeur of their environment. According to the natives this range winds in and out 99 times in its progress down the peninsula, and in addition to this maze there is a complicated pass called ‘ Pass of the Ninety-nine Turns' The E. section of this rugged spine which divides the country into two parts is merely a narrow strip, fertile but comparatively inaccessible, sloping sharply to the Sea of Japan; the W. section comprises the main body of the inhabited Korean territory — well watered, poorly cultivated but phenomenally rich and admirably suited for agriculture. Craters of long extinct volcanoes, of time-eroded lava streams and other signs of volcanic action are constantly met with, and they as constantly remind old travelers of the Transvaal and Kimberley regions, with all their suggestive possibilities. That the mts. are streaked with gold is shown by the mineral out-

put; it remains for some skilled prospector to find the diamonds, and thus confirm the name unwittingly given by the Koreans to the peaks. History records that during the terrible days of the Middle Ages, when the country was ruled by cruel and half-demented emperors, the peasants were forced to flee for their lives to the mts., and once there, to burn the trees thereon to keep from freezing. Each year sees more and more of the denuded slopes covered with young trees, and the Forestry Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Gov’t, is untiring in its efforts to make physical Korea match its almost perfect climate.

Korea’s nearest over-sea neighbor on the S. is Japan, from which it is separated by 122 M. of island-dotted strait. Midway, between the Tsushima Channel of Japan and the Korea Channel of Korea, is the celebrated Tsushima (‘ Twin-Island ’) the sentinel of the S. entrance to the Sea of Japan, and Nippon’s naval base during her titanic struggle with the Muscovites. Not far to the E., the Russian Armada of 38 modern fighting ships under Admiral Rozhdestvensky were * by the grace of Heaven and the help of the gods’ annihilated by Togo's fleet during the battle of the Sea of Japan, March 27- 28, 1905. Between Tsushima and the Korean promontories of the S. coast is one of the most remarkable archipelagos of the world, unknown to Europe until Captains Maxwell and Basil Hall, in the Alceste and the Lyra, navigated it in 1816; here 200 or more islets of many shapes and sizes, from bold masses of wild and arid rock a thousand or more ft. high, to low, cultivated islands barely awash at high tide, dot the sea, shelter a myriad sea-fowl, and form a shoal that completely screens the mainland from approaching ships. Some are thickly wooded; others bare and of forbidding aspect. Those that are submerged by the spring tides help to render the coast one of the most dangerous known to navigators. Sponges, pearls, beautiful coral-beds, and a host of bizarre marine creatures dwell in the waters roundabout them. The largest, most important, and the most fertile of the islands (sometime noted for its fine pearls) is Chyoi-ju or Quelpart (40 M. long by 17 broad), distant 60 M. from the S.W. corner of the peninsula; with a population of 100,000, chiefly fishermen, and an infamous reputation for shipwrecks. It is an elliptical, rock-bound island almost covered with conical mts. (many of them extinct craters) culminating in the lofty Hal-la San or Mt. Auckland (6588 ft.), on the top of which are triple extinct craters each holding a lake in its burned-out cone. Cultivation rises to the 2000 ft. level. The towns are of no

special interest to foreigners.

Travelers know this region as one of the most beautiful of the world, particularly during certain seasons. A sail through the cluster on a fine summer day, when atmospheric conditions are propitious for the formation of the wonderful

Inferior Mirages for which the locality is celebrated, is an experience one does not forget. Then the whole Korean world looks ghostly, and the islands loom upside down in a way that amazes the beholders. At times the sea is almost rippleless; at others tremendous tides scour through the channels, and dense fog-banks add to the treachery of the tides. The Korean port of Fusan — the landing-place for many travelers from Japan — faces Tsushima (which belongs to Japan), and from this point round the E. coast of the mainland (where there are no islands), the rise and fall of the tides is 1 to 2 ft. In singular contrast are the conditions on the W. coast; at Chemulpo the stream rushes in with startling rapidity and violence to a depth of 37 ft. The tidal range is greater in summer and autumn than in winter and spring. A winding channel leads up the bay, and unless big ships moor head and stern in the constantly altering fairway, they will be left sticking in the black mud when the tide swirls out. The flat-bottomed native junks are fashioned to meet this contingency, and one may often see a dozen or more resting on the black mud of the harbor bottom, looking like fat geese or beached scows. The tidal stream is so strong that it runs for 51 M. up the Han River, to the rapid near Ma-po. There are several fine harbors and sheltered ports on this deeply indented coast. The richest section of the peninsula flanks the Han River from its mouth to its source in the Keum-kang San. Much of the soil is rich alluvium, from 5 to 10 ft. deep, capable of bearing two bumper crops a year with little or no enriching. Few of the hills are terraced as in Japan. Many wild flowers deck them after the rains, and fine purple thistles grow in profusion. — Outside the capital, which is practically the only city worth seeing, there are few places of importance. The small towns are mere clusters of hovels with narrow, dirty streets, and a preponderance of listless men and frowsy women. Abominable stenches abound, and open drains are common. The most important of the ports are mentioned in their proper places in the Guidebook.

The merciful hand of Providence has bestowed on the Koreans a magnificent land abounding in resources of all kinds — one where none ought to be poor, and where misery ought to be unknown — a land whose products and riches of many kinds are abundant, and as varied as they are rich. With a superb climate, an abundant rainfall, a productive soil, and a hardy people; with mts. sprinkled with gold, coal, iron, silver, copper, and lead; with an extensive coast-line laved by a sea teeming with fine fish from whales to sardines, and dotted with islands noted for their pearls, Korea has lacked only a good gov’t to make it one of the most opulent countries of the gorgeous East. Earthquakes are unknown; typhoons are rare; its wonderful climate makes of the country a sort of open-air

sanatorium, and its bright, beautiful, strangely calm and perfect mornings — clear as the tones of a chapel bell, and musical with the call of many birds — fill the spirit with the electric joy of youth, and with a tranquillity all too rare in this work-aday world. It is fast becoming a health resort for the steamed colonials of the China and India littoral, and in the summer the attractive hotel at Seoul is full to overflowing with limp and enervated Europeans from the torrid south.

Agriculture is the national industry and it gives occupation to six or seven millions of the people. The native methods are so primitive that ere long the production will be trebled by the modern system introduced by the Japanese. Three men at least are required to use a spade — one to guide it by the handle, two others to raise it from the ground by ropes attached to a long blade, and the latter are sometimes increased to six or eight. Oxen are employed to drag ploughs (wooden with a removable iron shoe) as crude as those of early Mexico or Egypt. Rice and barley are threshed on a board, or with a flail, and winnowed by throwing the grains into the air; then they are milled by pestles in a wooden mortar. The chief crops are rice, beans, pease, millet, wheat, barley, tobacco, cotton, castor-oil, potatoes, melons, and peppers. The people are inordinately fond of lettuce, and nearly every yard has a plot of it. Besides teaching the Koreans methods for the development of the land on scientific lines, the Japanese have established model farms, miniature cotton and tobacco plantations; horticultural, forestry, and seedling stations, and besides stocking the country with fresh seeds and new agricultural tools, they have taught the people how to breed and care for live-stock, and have quadrupled the yearly output of Korean silk. The country has been referred to as a ‘natural orchard,' and experts are supplanting certain of the poorly developed fruits with American pears, grapes, apples, etc. The appearance of the Korean peasantry often tempts one to paraphrase Artemus Ward's remark about Spain, and agree with him that there would be more arable land if the people did not carry so much of it around on their persons!

Ginseng (Panax Schinseng), originally a wild Manchurian product, is one of the most valuable economic plants. Credulous Chinese ascribe almost miraculous curative powers to it, and ailing persons will sometimes pay $200 for a special root 3 or 4 in. long and weighing but a few ounces. The Chinese name jin-tsan (or jin-shen) is said to allude to the resemblance of the forked, carrot-like root to the legs of a man (jin). Panax (Greek, ‘all-healing’) expresses the Asiatic belief in its efficacy. The Japanese name, ninjin, is the word for carrot, and its high price is referred to in the proverb, Ninjin hide kubi kukuru (‘after ginseng, death by hanging’) meaning, ‘you will probably get well if you eat ginseng, but you will die of hunger after-

ward, for it will make you poor.' The manufactured product, red ginseng, whose only medicinal effect is that of a mild aromatic stimulant, is known to Chinese and Koreans as Hongsam. The cultivated root is esteemed less highly than the wild (which grows in N. Korea and Manchuria), one kin of the former bringing only 45 taels in the Shanghai market, against 30 taels of the American product (Panax quinquefolius, the introduction of which broke the market and brought down the price), and 3 taels for the Japanese plant (which is cultivated in many of the provinces of Japan). Korean ginseng has always been highly esteemed at the Peking Court, and anciently it was included in the annual tribute. Its cultivation has long been a gov't monopoly, and is at present in charge of the Monopoly Bureau of the Chosen Gov't. The annual production is 111,000 lbs., the best quality bringing ¥80 per lb. The plant is cultivated in ground which has not been used for ginseng culture for 7 yrs. The carefully fenced beds (of sand, leaf-mould, etc.) are about 18 in. wide and 24 high. When 2 yrs. old, the plant puts forth 2 leaves, and 2 yrs. later it has 4 leaves and is 6 in. high. It reaches maturity in the 6th-7th yr., up to which time it is tended with extreme care and is sheltered from the sun and wind by reed blinds stretched above or slanting at the side of the plots, and inclining slightly to the S. Hong-sam can be made only out of the roots of plants 5 yrs. old and upward. After being steamed and dried, the ‘ beards ' and ‘ tails' are cut off, the trunks are classified according to size and quality and packed in neat baskets of 5 catties each.

Southern Korea is practically bare of trees, but the mts. of the N. and E. provinces contain splendid forests which cover wide areas; chief among the indigenous trees are silver-firs, many species of pine, oak, and maple; birch, juniper, mt. ash, hazel, lime, willow, alder, larch, chestnut, poplar, walnut, etc. Vast quantities of timber (chiefly larch, red-pine, and walnut) are felled annually in the Hyoi-san-chin Mt. (the center of the forest on the upper reaches of the Yalu) and rafted down to

Shin-wiju — the huge rafts constituting picturesque features of the Yalu River. From the several species of hornbeam found in the peninsula, the Koreans make mallets, handles, and agricultural implements. The Forestry Bureau is busily engaged in afforestation throughout the country (many stations), and among the thousands of trees planted yearly the splendid Cryptomeria japonica figures largely, along with the quickgrowing acacias. Splendid groves of Spanish chestnuts are features of the upper reaches of the Han River. The Umbrella Pines are called Parasol Pines, because they resemble in shape the parasols carried over the King. Many of the gnarled, weird Japanese pines are seen, but not in such profusion as in Japan.

The Flora is extensive and interesting, but not so varied or prolific as that of Japan. The plums and cherries bloom just

as beautifully, and wild azaleas flame from the hill-slopes just as they do around Karuizawa and other places in the island Empire. The several varieties of clematis warm the hearts of travelers from New England, and the splendid rhododendrons impart a semi-tropic aspect to the land. In some places fragrant honeysuckle is as plentiful as at Nikko. Travelers will not fail to note the omnipresent climbing ivy classified as Ampelopsis (of the family Vitaceae — a near relation to the Japanese ivy) and the many-flowered rose (a Japanese species, Rosa multiflora), which climb to the topmost points of the loftiest trees to flaunt their beauties wantonly in the face of the sun. Tiger-lilies, weigelas, gentians, peonies, marigolds, buttercups, violets, white aconite, dandelions, asters, syringa, spiraea, pink iris, and many other old-fashioned flowers and flowering shrubs grow in profusion. In S. Korea plums put forth their pinkish-white blooms in late Jan., and peaches and cherries follow soon thereafter, albeit the displays are not so extensive as in Japan.

For purposes of civil administration Korea is divided into 13 Provinces (do), all maritime, all based mainly on the river basins; and named (the 8 original ones) by uniting the initial syllables of the largest cities within their borders; for example, Hoang-chiu and Hai-chiu, when thus separated form the province of Hoang-hai. They are subdivided into twelve prefectures {pu) and 220 districts (kun). The present excellent system of gov't is modeled on that of Japan. Japanese names are being given gradually to the provinces and cities. The annual income is between 220 and 230 million yen.

Upward of 8000 steamers, sailing-ships and junks touch at Korean ports each year. The largest of the provinces, North and South Ham-Gyong (Complete View), with 1,388,611 inhabitants, border Manchuria and Asiatic Russia, from which they are separated by the Tumen River and the Ever-White Mts. The region (called Kankyd by the Japanese) is one of lofty, forest-clad mts. — the home of the tiger, leopard, the huge Korean bear, and of much small game. Within the boundaries is Paik-Tu Mt., a limestone formation prominent in Korean folk-lore as the abode of a benevolent goddess who presides over the entire country. Chinese writers have compared the peak to a 'white porcelain vase with a scalloped rim,' and it is believed (by the credulous) that the whitehaired fauna of the district never injures man. Snow covers Paik-Tu for 10 months of the year. The chief port, Gensan, on the S. shore of Broughton Bay, contains little to interest travelers. Ships of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha ply weekly to Fusan (297 M.), Osaka (618 M.), and minor ports.

North and South Phyong-An (Tranquil Peace) or Ping Yang, or Heian, lie to the W. of the above provinces and flank Manchuria and the Yalu River at the N., and the Yellow

Sea at the W. They belie their peaceful name, for S. Phyong- An had been the great battlefield of Korea for ages. For centuries it was the gate of ingress for, and outlet to, China, and on its wide plains (which support a pop. of 3,000,000) hosts of Mongols and Koreans, Japanese and Chinese have fought and died. The region is rich in minerals; the Japanese Navy makes its briquettes from the anthracite product of the extensive Ping Yang Coal Mines (veins 32 M. long by 7 1/2 M. wide) owned by Gov’t. Many ruins of early Chinese occupation are to be found, and fortified castles, quaint old gates and walls dot the hills. Heijo, the capital, is mentioned at p. 754.

Hoang-Hai (Yellow Sea, or Hwang-hai, or Kokai), with 1,500,000 inhabs., borders this sea, and its extreme point is the nearest in Korea to the (80 M.) Shantung Promontory of China. It was long the camping-ground for the hordes of Chinese pirates (from Chefoo and Teng Chow) who formerly made periodical raids in the peninsula. On their arrival it was customary for the Korean lookouts to light great signal-fires (pong-wha) by night and to send up dense columns of smoke by day to warn the inland people of the approach of the buccaneers; other fires were soon lit on other hills until a luminous chain of them flamed to the sky clear to Nam-San at Seoul, and the King was apprised of the on-coming peril. This picturesque arrangement (one now superseded by the telegraph of the 1 foreign devil ’) was, until quite recently, employed extensively, and by means of it the King received intelligence from the uttermost end of his realm. Hoang-hai was also the objective point of the early missionaries who tried to enter the forbidden land — there to suffer martyrdom and a cruel death. The adjacent sea teems with fine fish, and it was long the chosen fishing-ground for Chinese from the mainland. The most important islands off the coast are the Hall Group, so called (in 1816) by Basil Hall (captain of the ship Lyra) in memory of his father Sir James Hall, sometime president of the Edinburgh Geographical Society. Rock-salt and ginseng are among the chief products. The extensive Chai-ryong Iron Mine is owned and operated by the Gov’t. The Mitsubishi Co. also owns some iron mines at Chai-ryong, and operates the Iron Foundry at Kenjiho, near Chinnampo.

The Mining Laws drawn up by the Japanese are liberal, and favorable to foreign capital.

Kang-Won (River Moor), or Kogen, with 833,000 inhabs., is unique among the provinces in that its (150 M.) coast is unsheltered by islands, and is without harbors. It is the most mountainous of all the provinces. The Twelve Thousand Peaks of the Diamond Mt. are within its borders, as is also the source of the river Han. Forty-five miles off the coast lies the solitary and rarely visited Dagelet Island (named for this astronomer by La Perouse, the French navigator who discovered

it in 1787). From the high rampart of bare rock which surrounds it a central peak rises 4000 ft. above the sea. The few Koreans and Japanese who dwell in this lonely spot subsist by fishing for the whales which abound in the waters roundabout. The coast of the province is noted among Koreans for its Eight Views (P’al-kyong), which are of no interest to foreigners.

Kyong-Kwi (Capital Boundaries), of Keiki (pop. 2,018,- 832) though smallest in area, is one of the richest of all the Korean possessions. It flanks Kang-Won on the E., the Yellow Sea on the W., is crossed by the Han River (largest of the native rivers flanked on both sides by Korean territory), and beside Seoul, the modern capital, it contains within its borders the important port of Chemulpo and the one-time prosperous town of Kang-hoa.

North and South Chyung-Chyong (Pure Loyalty), or Chusei, a rich and fertile province (pop. 2,129,515) sometimes referred to as the Granary of the Kingdom, is celebrated among Christians as the ‘nursery of the faith,' for its soil has been repeatedly soaked with the blood of native believers. Along its coast are numerous bays and islands marked on European charts with the names of the foreign navigators who visited them in the early days. Jerome Bay and the Prince Imperial Archipelago recall the ill-fated wrecks (in 1846) of the ships Glory and Victory. Fogs are frequent off the coast, and these, with the many shoals and strong high tides, render navigation extremely hazardous. The Keum, a river of minor importance, drains both provinces and empties into the Yellow Sea near Kun-San.

North and South Chyolla (Complete Network), or Zenra, the most fertile and warmest of the provinces (pop. 3,526,163), occupy the site of the ancient Kingdom of Pakchi; are the nearest to Shanghai, and produce cattle for the meat-eating Koreans, and cotton for the Japanese mills. The island-dotted shores have been the scene of many shipwrecks.

North and South Kyong-Syang (Joyful Honor) or Keisho, occupy the site of the sometime kingdoms of Silla, Kaya, and Karak in the southeasternmost region of the peninsula, and are at once the richest and most populous (4,354,602 inhabs.) of the provinces. The plains and valleys are watered and drained by the Nak-long, and the equable climate is free from the rigors of the northern winters. From time immemorial the invading Japanese have landed their troops here, and here the earliest Korean civilization and art reached their highest development before being expatriated to the island of Kyushu. Fusan, one of the most important of the ports, is mentioned at p. 694. The Japanese are developing the region, and Chinhai, on the bay of the same name, is perhaps destined to be a

Korean Highways. Under the ancient native administration these were deplorable, but the progressive Japanese have already put many of them in condition to withstand the automobile traffic which is rapidly increasing all over the country. Narrow roads have been widened, bridges strengthened or rebuilt, and new thoroughfares made to link up the chief towns. Beautifully printed maps of the country can be had free of the Railway Administration Bureau, at Keijo.

The Japan Tourist Bureau, which has branch offices in many places in Chosen, will help the motorist form his plans.

The River System is extensive, and the country is well watered, but with few exceptions the streams, because of their shallowness, are practically valueless for navigation. The largest of the rivers, the Yalu, called by the Koreans Am Nok, or Green Duck (from its bluish-green color after the melting of the snow and ice near its mt. source), forms a part of the N. boundary and separates Korea from Manchuria. It is navigable for 60 M. from its triple mouth (at the Yellow Sea), and is much used for rafting down (to Antung) the logs cut near its upper reaches. The cold Tumen, which rises in the Ever-White Mts. and separates N.E. Korea from Asiatic Russia, though about 200 M. long is of little benefit to Koreans. It is frozen over during several months of the intense Siberian winter, and in the spring, when the snows melt, it becomes a raging torrent difficult to navigate. The Tai-dong (Daulo), which drains South Phyong-An and is often called the Ping Yang (after it passes the old capital of that name), empties into the Yellow Sea near Chinnampo and is one of the important rivers of the peninsula. At Ping Yang it is about 1200 ft. wide, and during the season its surface is often quite covered with the timber-rafts that come down from the mts. to the sea. The upper reaches are noted for fine scenery. The stately Han, the finest of the Korean rivers, referred to by mariners as the Seoul River and by others as the River of Golden Sand (because of the auriferous deposits in its bed), rises in the Diamond Mt., serves as the great fluvial artery between that region and Seoul (where it is 900 ft. wide), thence flows 45 M. to the Yellow Sea. It is navigable for small flat-bottomed craft for nearly 170 M. from its mouth, and up and down its sinuous course, through gorges that remind one of those of the Yangtze kiang, go many picturesque, mediaeval junks. There are 50 or more rapids along its upper reaches, and some of them glissade down amid the most beautiful and inspiring scenery in the country. It is the favorite river with foreigners for houseboating, and a journey to its mt. source leads one through the very heart of Korea, where many of the old beliefs and customs prevail. Trips can always be planned with the assistance of the hotel manager at Seoul. The high tides of the Yellow Sea affect the river 56 M. from its mouth. Thirty miles

below the capital it divides, the main stream flowing W., and a branch, the Salee, turning S. At the mouth stands Kanghoa Island (‘Flower of the River ’), long regarded as one of the invincible fortified outposts of the capital, and oftentimes the retreat of kings forced out by foreign invasion or domestic uprisings. Duplicates of the national archives were formerly preserved here, and the library was anciently rich in Chinese MSS. The fortress was bombarded and destroyed so many times after the foreigners forced their way into the country, that its one-time prestige has vanished. — The Nak-tong, the most prominent of the southern rivers, drains the greater part of North Kyong-Syang before emptying into the Korea Channel near Fusan. The Keum River rises in Chyung-Chyong and merges its shallow waters with those of the Yellow Sea near Kunsan.

Climate. The physical configuration of Korea gives it a climate of almost unsurpassed excellence. The winter quality is superb; the summer is supportable. It is without asperity, and there are no extremes of heat or cold to guard against. Foreigners are not affected by climatic maladies, and European children thrive. Because of the length of the peninsula, the winter at the N. is considerably colder than at the S. At Shingishu it opens earlier, and the spring 30 days later, than at Fusan. Persons accustomed to life in the Temperate Zone find the Korean climate exhilarating; particularly the cold, dry, bracing winter. It is much superior and more agreeable than that of Japan. The summer heat, though strong, is tempered by sea-breezes, and is without the disintegrating quality of the heat in Japan or the savage torridity of that of Hongkong. January is the coldest month, the mean temperature being 15° at the N. and 35° at the S. The northland is sometimes covered with deep snows from Sept, to March, but with bright, beautiful clear days, and still, frosty, moonlit nights that suggest packs of running wolves, and ‘ frosty but kindly ’ tonic effects. The golden quality of the sunshine is so apparent, and the early mornings are of such rare beauty, that the name of the country, ‘Land of the Morning Calm/ is derived from them. The Yalu and the Tumen Rivers are frozen over for 3-4 months, and the Han for 2-3. The ice is usually thick enough to permit the passage of any army with impedimenta. For 9 months of each year one can customarily count upon bright blue, unclouded skies from the Yalu to the Korea Channel. The winter at the S. is bright and mild, with a crisp tang like that of the climate of the Mexican tableland.

The hottest month is Aug., with a mean temperature of 72° at the N. and 77° at the S. The mean summer temperature at Seoul is about 75° F. and, that of winter about 33°. The mean of the E. coast is from 2° to 4° higher than that of the W. coast

the case during April-July. From Oct. to March northerly winds prevail; in April and Sept, they are variable, and from May to Aug. they are usually southerly. The rains are well distributed during the year; the average rainfall is 36 in. a year, and during the summer rainy season 22 in. Irrigation is necessary only for the rice crop. — The Rainy Season occurs in July-Aug. on the N.E. and W. coasts, and April-July on the S. coast; the annual rainfall in those localities being about 35, 42, and 30 in. respectively. It is dry on the W. coast from Sept, to Jan., on the S. in Feb. (where the rainfall is more evenly distributed throughout the year than elsewhere) and on the N.E. coast from April to Aug. Europeans find the fiercely hot summer (mid-July to mid-Sept.) trying but not unhealthy. Fogs frequently occur on the N.E. coast in summer, and occasionally at the beginning and end of winter; on the W. coast from March to July, and on the S. from April to August.

Health. Korean ideas of hygiene are almost as negligible as those of a Hottentot. Travelers should always be on their guard against sampling native dishes and beverages, and on no account should water or milk be drunk unless recently boiled. The average Korean well is little short of a pest-hole, and is often the cause of epidemics. While the progressive Japanese have installed modern waterworks in certain of the large cities, it is difficult to prevent an ignorant populace from defiling the sources. Boiled milk is always to be had in the foreign hotels, and the excellent Takaradzuka Tansan Mineral Water (p. 629) is imported from Japan. For the traveler who takes ordinary precautions Korea is healthier than most countries in the East.

Money. The old Korean system was so cumbersome that when the invading Japanese army once bought 10,000 yen worth of timber in the interior, and was obliged to pay in copper cash, it was found necessary to charter a small steamer and fill it with the old coins. These, along with the debased nickels, the silver 20 chon (sen) pieces and the dollars (won) have been withdrawn, and the currency system made identical with that of Japan — with the difference that the bank bills are issued by the Bank of Chosen instead of by the Bank of Japan.

The circulation of Korean coins was prohibited in 1920. As many of these were freely counterfeited, and are still to be found in certain places, the tourist should be on his guard against accepting them.

The cent or (Japanese) sen, was called chon, and so marked on the coins. The nickel was 5 chon and the 10 and 20 cent silver coins 10 chon and 20 chon. The dollar, or yen, was won (50 cents, or one-half dollar, 1/2 won).

On leaving the country the traveler should change his bank bills to avoid their being discounted (in

Japan or elsewhere). This also applies to the different banknotes issued by the (governmental) Bank of Chosen.

Hunting and Fishing. The extensive fauna includes splendid striped tigers (Bengal variety) whose magnificent pelts (because of the cold winters) have much longer and thicker fur than their southern brothers. The great size and beautiful markings of the skins make them highly prized by foreigners, who often come from a distance to seek them. The chief range is in the N., among the forest-clad mts. of Ham-Gyong, but the animals harass the villages throughout the peninsula, and during the year kill numbers of Koreans. Not long ago they came up to, and over, the walls of Seoul, and in some districts they are still such a pest that they are exterminated when possible. The dread of the beast is so widespread that when the natives are obliged to travel at night, they often associate themselves in bands and yell, beat gongs, and swing lanterns and torches. Tiger-hunters form a class by themselves, and customarily seek the animal in the winter, when the snow lies deep and it can be tracked easily. In the summer, when the people are busy with other things and the underbrush affords shelter, ‘stripes' remembers the compliment of the preceding season and returns it with great diligence and singleness of purpose. The hunters are usually so inept that good tiger-skins are harder for the tourist to get than Korean skins are for the tiger. The latter is sometimes trapped and poisoned by baiting a pit with a dog or a pig. The Chinese pay high prices for the tiger’s bones, as they consider them a specific for strength and courage! A winged tiger anciently formed one of the symbols on the Korean flag, and typified power and fierceness. The animal occupies as prominent a place in the history, language, and minds of the people as the peasants do in the internal economy of the tiger.

Tiger-cats, sleek and handsomely spotted leopards, big black Korean bears, several species of deer, wild boars, foxes, beavers, otters, sables, badgers, squirrels, and other minor game are common features of this hunters' paradise. The horns, in the velvet, of the large Manchurian deer (Cervus manchuricus) are much valued by the Chinese, who use them for medicine. Prominent among the feathered game are several varieties of silver and copper pheasants (very common), geese, swans, teal, mallard and mandarin ducks, turkey-buzzards, eagles, herons, imperial cranes, storks, harriers, peregrines (employed by the Koreans as hunting-falcons), white and pink ibises, hawks, kestrels, pigeons, doves, snipes, and so on. Among the numerous birds are cuckoos, halcyon and bright blue kingfishers, clanking blue jays, wood-larks, thrushes, redstarts, wagtails, orioles, nut-hatches, rooks, many warblers, and the omnipresent Korean crow, a species of magpie (Kasa-sagi).

easily distinguished by their black head, black-and-white breast, and long, nervous tail; the tips of the outstretched wings are white, and in certain lights the back shows a greenish sheen. They are the size of a small crow, bright-eyed, saucy and noisy, and the markings are very pretty when the bird is on the wing. Game is not persecuted as in certain other countries, as for some of the birds there is a close season (May to Sept.) and a special license (obtainable from the authorities for ¥20 for the season) is required to hunt them. Big-game hunters should always plan their excursions with the knowledge and advice of the authorities.

Mines and Mining. Chosen is highly mineralized. Gold, silver, copper, iron, zinc, arsenic, anthracite, asphalt, petroleum, graphite and other products exist in quantities, and various properties are being developed. Gold occupies the most important place. The most noted gold mine in the country is at Unsan, and is operated by an American Syndicate known as the Oriental Consolidated Mining Co. Next in importance is the Shojo Mine (a French property), the Suian Mine (operated by Britishers), and the Shokusan Mine, owned by Japanese and Americans. Chief among the Iron properties is that of the Kuhara Mining Co., at Chinnampo; that of the Japan Metal Co., at Roryoshin; and the extensive iron works of the Mitsubishi Iron Co., at Kenjiho.

The Mining Laws promulgated by the Japanese are liberal. They invite foreign capital and initiative, and scrupulously respect their rights. The best results from mining ventures come from partnerships between foreigners and Japanese who understand the legal requirements and get the best returns from the native labor.

Fishing is a profitable and growing industry. The warm and cold currents that swirl about the Korean coast swarm with fine fish. Of the 80 or more species, the most prominent are mackerel (with many horse-mackerel), cod, sea-bream, plaice, yellow-tail, herring, sardines and Alaska pollack.

Historical Sketch. When Korea, or Chosen (Ch'ao Hsien — 'Morning Calm,' or 'Fresh Morning'), became known to the Chinese (who called it Tung-kwo, or ‘Eastern Kingdom *) during the reign of Wuti, of the Han Dynasty (b.c. 206 to a.d. 221), it was peopled by numerous groups of semi-savage tribes (perhaps nomadic Turanians) of different stock, language, and institutions, who are supposed to have entered the peninsula overland from that great hive of nations, Manchuria, at the north. The flimsy legends and tribal beliefs of these rude and unlettered peoples, though supposed to reach back to B.C. 2300, throw but little true light on their origin or provenience. After the lapse of an unrecorded period, history finds their descendants cemented into a number of fairly strong kingdoms ruled over by their own kings and all

apparently animated by the wish to suppress or absorb their weaker neighbors. For the first 600 yrs. of the Christian era the history of the peninsula is practically that of three kingdoms, and for 400 yrs. thereafter that of Silla (Jap. Skiragi), which rose to such prominence that before its decay and downfall in a.d. 935 its sovereign unified the country and ruled it under one crown. The word Korea is derived from Korai, the name of the most northern of the three old kingdoms which originally shared the peninsula between them. ‘ Each kingdom had a long line of kings of varying characters and fortunes, who worked weal or woe to their countries, some of whom fell beneath assassins’ knives, while others, deposed or defeated, died by their own hands; some leaving behind them the memories of strong and efficient governments, which brought nothing but good to their subjects; others those of merciless tyrants, sunk in debauchery and cruelty, whose memories are akin to those of Nero and Caligula. Each had its episodes of national triumph and reverse, its incidents of heroic fortitude and craven submission, amidst which all steadily progressed on the paths of learning, art, and industry; each received its teachers and missionaries from China; each preserved throughout its history the characteristics that had marked its origin. Each contributed in its turn to the stream of emigrants that poured from the peninsula into Japan, bringing with them all that they themselves had learned from China, and assisting in laying the foundations of the systems of religion, statecraft and literature, science and social life which formed the civilization of Japan for more than 1200 years, and was only replaced in the latter half of the 19th cent, by the higher civilization of Europe.’ (Longford.)

Conspicuous among these petty states was Pakchi (Jap. Kudara) which rose in b.c. 17 and lasted until a.d. 660.* It is of interest, for it is believed that from it the islanders got the first tincture of continental civilization. Japanese records refer to various embassies that passed between Japan and the peninsular kingdoms, particularly one in a.d. 284 when two horses (said to be the first to enter Japan) were sent from the mainland. In time this kingdom — which stretched along the shores of the Yellow Sea from the neighborhood of the present Korean capital to the S. W. extremity of the peninsula — served as the bridge over which much of the Chinese culture of the times passed to Japan. Thither went Buddhism along with its sutras, idols, temple fitments, and artisans to erect the first temples in Japan in a.d. 552, and later the first specimens of ceramic art (said to have come to Korea from Persia), with skilled potters, who settled in Kyushu and there established primitive potteries, destined later to send their wonderful products far afield and to make Satsuma ware celebrated throughout the world. Thither also went (about A.D. 725), the dread

scourge smallpox, which soon spread all over the Island Empire and gained therein such a foothold that it has never been entirely dislodged. Prior to this, in a.d. 405, a celebrated teacher of writing named Wani went from Pakchi to Japan and introduced in that country a system of writing and of preserving written records, thus laying the foundation of Japanese written language and history. He was but the forerunner of a long list of skilled emigrants who went to Japan during the succeeding centuries, and by their industrial, literary, and technical attainments founded most of the fine arts for which that empire is famous to-day. It was not until the 7th cent, that Japanese students began finding their way direct to the seats of learning in China, and thus getting their information at first hand. They adopted printing from Korea in the 12th cent., at which time a work of the Buddhist canon was printed from wooden blocks. ‘A Korean book is known which dates authentically from the period between 1317 and 1324, over a century before the earliest printed book known in Europe/ — In time the kingdom of Silla was swallowed up in the new kingdom of Koryu, which, originating in the N. in a.d. 918, soon acquired such power that it extended its sway over the whole peninsula, and far beyond the Yalu, in Manchuria. With the rise of the great Kublai Khan in 1265, Koryu (or Korai, or Korea — Chinese: Kaoli) was forced to acknowledge Mongol suzerainty, and the people of the peninsula were obliged to aid Kublai in his abortive descents against the Japanese coast. Koryu came to a political end in 1392 when the ancestor (Yi Taijo) of the line of sovereigns who ruled the country down to 1910 ascended the throne and established what was thenceforth known as Chosen. History records that Tai Jong (1418-50), the younger son of Taijo, first conceived and carried out the idea of movable copper types.1

The Arabs, who were among the earliest races to trade with the Koreans, knew of the country in the 9th cent.; reference is made to it by an Arab geographer, Khordadbeh, in his Book of

1 According to Mr. S. Wells Williams (Middle Kingdom, vol. 1. p. 603): 'The honor of being the first inventor of movable types undoubtedly belongs to a Chinese blacksmith named Pi Sheng, who lived about a.d. 1000. and printed books with them nearly 500 yrs. before Gutenberg cut his matrices at Mainz.' They were made of plastic clay, hardened by fire after the characters had been cut on the soft surface of a plate of clay in which they were moulded. The porcelain types were then set up in a frame of iron partitioned off by strips, and inserted in a cement of wax, resin, and lime to fasten them down. The printing was done by rubbing, and when completed the types were loosened bv melting the cement, and made clean for another impression. This invention seems never to have been developed to any practical application in superseding block printing (adopted from the discovery of Fungtau, in the 10th cent.). The Emperor KangM ordered (about 1722) approximately 250 thousand copper typos to be engraved for printing publications of the Government, and these works are now highly prized for their beauty. The cupidity of his successors led to melting these types into cash, but his grandson Kienlung directed the casting of a large font of lead types for government use/ -i

Roads and Provinces. Marco Polo carried the news of it to Europe, and later did also the Portuguese and Franciscan friars. It soon became known to Europeans as 'The Hermit Kingdom,' from the circumstance that for centuries Korea successfully carried out the policy of isolation. Father Gregorio de Cespedes, a zealous Jesuit missionary, was the first recorded foreigner to enter the forbidden land, but he was deported soon after he had landed at Fusan in 1594. It was nearly 200 yrs. later before another missionary entered the kingdom, as during that long interval the Koreans made strenuous efforts to hermetically seal the country, laying waste the seacoast and inhospitable land zones, and killing or turning back all aspirants for admission. The unfortunate Dutch sailors of the Sparwehr (Sparrowhawk) who were wrecked off Quelpart in 1653 were enslaved and were detained as captives for 27 yrs. — the fate of a number of them being unknown. During its long isolation the peninsula was a constant bone of contention between the Chinese on one side and the Japanese on the other. The latter laid claim to the country in the 2d cent, a.d., and made frequent efforts to possess it. In lieu of possession they exacted yearly tribute, and it was not until Feb. 27, 1876, that the Mikado's Minister Plenipotentiary signed a treaty which recognized Chosen as an independent nation. For upward of 50 yrs. prior to this it had been the crux of the international policy of the Far East, while for centuries it had been the theater of prolonged internecine wars, and Japanese, Manchu, and Mongol raids. Dreadful persecutions of Christians, and misrule and cruelty that shock the sensibilities, are among the most salient episodes in the history of this backward nation. In 1592, Konishi Yukinaga and Kato Kiyomasa, Hideyoshi's most popular generals, invaded the kingdom at Fusan, and with more than 300,000 troops (50,000 of whom were killed) waged a tremendous war against the Koreans and their Chinese allies; nor did this oversea campaign (one of the greatest in the history of any country) cease until Hideyoshi's death in 1598.

Of peculiar interest in connection with this titanic invasion is the reference (made often by historians) to the Kwi-sun, or Tortoise-boat (invented by Admiral Yi Sun-sin), ‘which had a curved deck of iron plates like a tortoise which completely sheltered the fighters and rowers beneath,’ and which many authorities accept as the true prototype of the modern ironclad warship (particularly of the type used in the American War of Secession). Also of the wonderful new missile (invented by Yi Jang-son) called ‘The Flying Thunderbolt.’ This was projected from a kind of mortar (about 8 ft. long) made of bell metal, and having a bore of 12-14 in. History records that this could hurl itself through the air for 40 paces. When the 'Flying Thunderbolt’ was thrown over the wall of a town, and when the Japanese inside flocked to see what it might be, it exploded with a terrifying noise, killing a score or more men instantly. ‘The length of the gun compared with its caliber, the distance the projectile was carried with the poor powder then in use, and the explosion of the shell all point to this as being the first, veritable mortar in use in the East, if not in the world.’ It is said that, the Japanese were so enraged at the destructiveness of these new instruments of war that at the

final great battle of the campaign at Sochon (near Fusan), nearly 39,000 Korean and Chinese heads were gathered up from the field, the ears and noses were cut off and pickled in lime and water and forwarded to Hideyoshi, — later to be buried in the famous Ear Mound (Mimi-zuka; p. 430) at Kyoto. One authority says that 214,752 human bodies were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for this ear-mound, and he further adds: ‘Thus ended one of the most needless, unprovoked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever cursed Korea, and from which it has taken her over two centuries to recover.* So far-reaching was the suffering this stupendous campaign entailed that thenceforth the Japanese were customarily referred to by the Korean commonalty as ‘the accursed nation.’

In 1797, Captain Broughton, in his voyage of discovery in H.M.S. Providence, cruised along the E. coast of Korea and gave his name to the great bay in the S. of Ham-Gyong Province. He was soon followed by others, and Korean cruelty toward those who attempted to enter the country, and official arrogance toward the foreign gov’t that essayed to protect its nationals, involved the authorities in frequent disastrous scrimmages. A fleet of 7 French ships commanded by Bellonet anchored off the mouth of the Han River in 1866, and the city of Kang hoa, on Kang hoa Island, the military headquarters of W. Korea, was bombarded and destroyed. When the crew of the American schooner General Sherman were murdered by Koreans at Ping- An, in 1866, the United States sent a punitive expedition (of 750 men) under Rear-Admiral John Rodgers, and after a rapid shrapnel demonstration (sometimes referred to as ‘Our little war with the Heathen’), the Koreans made amends and the ships withdrew. The repeated breaches made by England, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States, soon broke down the wall of Chosenese seclusion, and after the signing of the treaty with Japan, the first Korean embassy (which since the 12th cent, had been accredited to the Mikado’s Court) left for Japan, and reached Yokohama May 29, 1876. Other treaties were soon signed with foreign powers (that of the United States in 1882), the most important being that with Great Britain (in 1884), for, as is customary with that greatest of all colonizing powers, the intelligent and able representatives who trod in the footsteps of Sir Harry Parkes (prominent among them Dr. McLeavy Brown) left their indelible impress upon the country and its people. The first American minister to the Hermit Kingdom was General Lucius H. Foote. The events which led up to the final annexation of Korea (Aug. 22, 1910) by Japan were rapid and sanguinary; Russian greed, haughtiness, and duplicity were the underlying and accelerating motives.

The world knows how holy, peace-loving Russia unmasked her batteries after the Japan-China War of 1895, and, aided by other powers, compelled Japan to give up all claims upon the continent and to be content with an indemnity from China and the cession of Formosa. Also how all administrative reforms instituted by Japan in Korea were nullified and rendered abor-

tive by Muscovite intrigue. To remain in direst ignorance, but to join the Greek Church, recognize the supremacy of, and pay tribute to, the ‘Little Father, and later to aid him in a denationalizing campaign against Japan, comprised Russia’s aims toward the Koreans. But more enlightened and progressive Japan had wider and more humanitarian ambitions — ambitions similar to those of the United States in the Philippines, and Great Britain in India. For years the Mikado’s unswerving policy has been to correct Korean maladministration, and to open the Hermit Kingdom to the world. ‘Twice’ (says Mr. Longford) 1 the Japanese attempted to secure their own position in Korean vis-a-vis Russia, first by the convention negotiated at St. Petersburg in 1896, and second by that negotiated at Tokyo in 1898, known from the names of their signatories, the first as the Yamagata-Lobanojf, and the second as the Nishi-Rosen, convention. All were in vain. Russia pursued her own course regardless of all treaty obligations, obtained and held control of the military and financial systems of Korea, and, while she had agreed to respect Korea’s territorial integrity and not to obstruct the development of commercial and industrial relations with Japan, she was rapidly securing for herself concessions which placed the most valuable resources of Korea at her disposal. Her Minister at Seoul was always in the confidence of the King, and, backed both by gratitude which the King owed for the protection given to him in his time of peril (after the murder of his Queen) and by the prestige of Russia, was practically able to obtain all that he asked. It seemed only a question of time when Korea should become in name, as she already appeared to be in fact, a Russian province, when a series of incidents occurred that were as insignificant in their origin as they were momentous in their results.

‘Among the many concessions granted by the Korean King when a refugee in the Russian Legation (in 1896) was one to a Russian subject for cutting timber in the valley of the River Yalu, on the N.W. frontier. It was a valuable one, in view of the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the immense number of sleepers that would be required, and the rich forests of the Yalu Valley, which could furnish the material, while, the river itself afforded easy and cheap facilities for transport from the forests to the borders of Manchuria. Members of the Imperial family of Russia and high officials in E. Siberia took large pecuniary interests in it, so that the concessionnaire became assured of strong political and official support whenever the time came at which it suited him to make use of it. It was never made public, and nothing was heard of it till the summer of 1903, when Chinese laborers from Manchuria began to fell timber on an extensive scale under Russian direction; and the laborers were soon followed by soldiers, to protect them from

the mounted Chinese bandits who infested Manchuria immediately to the N. of the Yalu. The sale of land to foreigners outside the limits of the recognized settlements was forbidden by Korean law, but a large tract was purchased by the Russian timber concessionnaire at Yongampho, a Korean port on the Yalu, about 15 M. from its mouth, from the Korean owners. Substantial dwellings, sawmills, and other buildings were erected on it, the river frontage was embanked, and every intention was manifested of founding a large settlement. A little farther up the river, on the Manchurian side, is the Chinese port of Antung. Yongampho is said to be one of the ten best harbors in Korea. If the possession of Yongampho was combined with that of Antung, which, like the rest of Manchuria, was at the time in Russian occupation, the river Yalu could be closed to all approach from the sea, and the Russians, with open contempt for both Japanese and Korean protests gave every indication of their intentions. A fort was erected on the highest part of the acquired land in Korea, guns were mounted, and a garrison established in it. A second fort was commenced on the Manchurian side, on a cliff commanding the river, a few miles farther up. The Korean Gov’t was awakened by these proceedings to the danger which threatened their N. frontier and their N.W. province. An old prophecy foretold that when the Tartar was in the N. and a shrimp in the S., and white pines grew in the valley of the Yalu, the end of Korean independence would be near. The configuration of Japan is supposed to resemble a shrimp, and Japanese settlements were now all over the S. — at Fusan, Masampo, and Seoul. The Russian Tartar was establishing himself in the N. and lining the valleys of the Yalu with white telegraph-posts made of pine, and all combined to signify the realization of the prophecy. Korea was still under the thumb of Russia, the King (later the Emperor), both in gratitude and fear, subservient in all things to the masterful Russian Minister at Seoul; but both King and Gov’t, pressed by the Japanese Minister, who was supported by the diplomatic representatives of the other powers at Seoul, especially by those of England and the United States, plucked up courage to send orders to the local governor of Wiju, the most important frontier town of Korea, and the capital of the prefecture, to stop the illegal sale of real estate. The Governor reported that the Russian methods rendered him powerless; that the Russians simply took possession of the land in the first instance, with or without the consent of the native owners, and went through the form of buying it afterwards. The Russian Minister in Seoul, in answer to the feeble protests of the Gov’t, declared that the “valley of the Yalu” included not only the line of the river itself throughout its entire length, but all its tributaries and all the adjoining districts, and that a concession to cut timber implied the priv-

ilege of exercising every operation incidental to it, in no matter how remote a degree. He claimed, therefore, the right to construct rlys. or roads, erect telegraphs, acquire land for building purposes, and to take whatever military measures appeared to be prudent for the protection of the Russian settlers engaged in all or any of these works. He claimed, in fact, the fullest military control and very extensive proprietorial rights over the entire N.W. frontier.

‘The Japanese Gov't was profoundly moved by the Russian proceedings and claim, recognizing that if both were permitted to pass without resistance, they would form stepping-stones for further extension of the Russian sphere of influence that might end in the absorption of the whole peninsula. She had before her many instances of Russian methods and of Russia's cynical disregard of the most solemn treaty obligations when it suited her to break them. Russia had already in her present action violated in their most essential items both of the conventions she had made with Japan for the regulation of their mutual interests in Korea. She had stationed troops in Korean dominions, though they were not necessary for the protection of existing settlements; and she had acquired land in places not open to the residence of foreigners in defiance of the provisions of Korean law; in both respects outraging the sovereignty of Korea as an independent kingdom, which she had solemnly bound herself to recognize. Japan tried in vain to rouse the Korean Gov't to take steps which would throw some moral obstacles in the way of Russia's encroachment, but neither the King nor his Ministers would go beyond their first feeble protests, and they blindly and fatuously yielded to the dictates of the Russian Minister. Japan then tried to safeguard her own interests by offering Russia a free hand, as far as she was concerned, in Manchuria, provided the safety and independence of Korea were adequately guaranteed; and she exhausted every step that was possible in patient diplomacy in her endeavor to procure Russia's assent to the guarantees which she considered essential. Russia treated her well-meant and courteous efforts with offensive indifference till her patience was exhausted, and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 began. Its results as completely put an end to Russia's further interference in Korea as the China-Japan War had to that of China 10 yrs. before.

‘ By two great wars Japan had freed Korea from all interference on the part of the two great neighboring empires, and she was now herself at liberty to start on the task of the regeneration of the unhappy kingdom which had been the ostensible object of all her interference in its affairs for thirty yrs. Korea henceforth stood toward Japan in the same relation as that of Egypt to Great Britain since 1882, and the task before her was very similar to that which faced Great Britain — to

reform a Gov’t rotten with corruption to its very core, and to elevate a people reduced by ages of oppression and spoliation to the lowest abysses of unrelieved misery and hopeless degradation. All Korea’s history in recent years left no hope that she could ever reform herself.’ (The Story of Korea.)

The atrocious murder of the Queen consort by ruffians in the service of Yi Haeung (the Tai Won Kun, or Prince Parent — of the King), aided by low Japanese assassins, in 1895, and the consequent flight of the King to the Russian Legation (where he remained for 2 yrs.), convinced the well-meaning Tokyo Gov’t of the difficulties attending the introduction of reforms in a state not entirely under its control, so when by the terms of the Portsmouth Treaty (of Sept., 1905) Russia acknowledged Japan’s ‘paramount political, military, and economical interests’ in the peninsula, a Protectorate with a Resident General vested with practically sovereign authority was established by Japan (1905-07), and the reformation of the country was begun. The administration of the Court, its property and revenues, was taken in charge by Japanese officials; a Cabinet was formed on the model of that in Japan; an elaborate scheme of local gov’t was adopted; the judiciary was reformed; taxation readjusted; prisons cleansed and amplified torture abolished; primary, technical, law, language, agricultural, forestry, and other schools established; new highways, streets, and parks opened; an elaborate system of railways planned; and more abuses corrected and civic and other reforms instituted than China and Korea combined had perhaps thought of during the preceding two thousand yrs. When the Japanese undertook the work of reform there were but two classes in Korea, ‘the robbers and the robbed.' Squeezing and peculation were the rule from the highest to the lowest, and every position was bought and sold. The peasants had neither rights nor privileges, except that of being the ‘ultimate sponge.’ ‘Standards of official rectitude were unknown, and traditions of honor and honesty if they ever existed, had been forgotten for centuries.’ In order to protect the peasantry, who were powerless to protect themselves, the Japanese punished grafters, and this so incensed the Korean officials that assassination, Korea’s craven but popular method of political attack, was resorted to, and Prince Hirobumi Ito, whose splendid administration was in a fair way to regenerate the unhappy country, was shot (in the Harbin Station) Oct. 26, 1909, Prior to this the old Emperor had relinquished his crown (July 17, 1907), and his ‘long, unhappy reign had come to an end (the reign which commenced with the extermination of the Christians within his dominions and

ended with these dominions in the firm grasp of his traditional enemy) and a new Emperor had been installed; but his reign was destined to be brief.’ Everything had been tending to one

unavoidable end; Korean politics showed a perpetual repetition of the same tale: plot, counterplot, insurrection, and foreign complications. The brutal murder (March 24, 1908) of Mr. Durham White Stevens, the American Councillor to the Korean Gov’t, and that of the lamented Prince Ito (one-time Resident General of Korea, and at the time of his death President of the Privy Council in Japan) were the last straws, and on Aug. 22, 1910, Korea was formally annexed to the Japanese Empire.

On introducing the new regime, the Mikado pardoned 1711 criminals, granted special gifts to 12,115 aged members of the Korean aristocracy and literati, and to 3209 faithful women and dutiful sons, and distributed special bounties (amounting to 17,398,000 yen) to 317 rural districts. In addition he ordered to be immediately established 35 sericultural training schools, 21 for weaving, 8 for paper-making, 3 fishery training schools, 13 industrial workshops, 37 seedling nurseries, 4 mulberry farms, and several hundred primary schools, etc. The scientific, hygienic, educational, and other reforms instituted by the Japanese would require a book to catalogue. Nearly every city now has its industrial schools, and model farms and even model villages have been established throughout the country to teach the benighted people how to help themselves. A network of rlys. is being pushed in all directions; mines are being developed; hospitals and waterworks, telephones and telegraphs installed; the cities have been cleansed, beautified, and rendered safe for all; aliens are protected; the death-rate among the people has been materially diminished, and the public health has noticeably increased. Small manufacturing plants, museums, public libraries, and institutes for the aged, the helpless, and the blind are now to be found in several of the cities, along with courts where justice is dispensed and from which intrigue has been abolished.

The progress of the erstwhile Hermit Kingdom — once a ‘ going piggery,’ but now something more than a geographical nonentity — has been almost as great in its way as that of Japan after its opening to the world by Commodore Perry. That intelligent Koreans will later be as grateful to Japan as the Japanese now are to the United States, there is but little doubt. With customary astuteness and good will, Japan has adopted the admirable British idea in colonization of giving every man, British or alien, friend or foe, the same chance. The dog-in-the-manger policy — one of the silliest ever practiced — is conspicuous by its absence. It is to her credit also that she has given practically a free hand in Korea to the right sort of missionaries (of whom there are 500 or more, 75% American) in their chosen but not always amply rewarded tasks. For since the days of Father Cespedes, certain missionaries have, by splendid work and continued self-abasement, striven for the uplift and betterment of the down-trodden Koreans,

and not a little of the refinement noticed among certain classes to-day could easily be traced direct to their unremitting individual efforts. Japan is to-day repaying Korea for centuries of unjust invasion, by the introduction of civilization and enlightenment. The student may consult: The Story of Korea, by Joseph H. Longford (London, 1911). — Corea the Hermit Nation, by William Elliot Griffis (New York, 1907). — Korea, by Angus Hamilton (New York, 1904). — Korea and Her Neighbors, by Isabella Bird- Bishop (New York, 1897). — History of Korea, by Rev. John Ross (Paisley, 1880). — History of Korea, by Homer Hulbert (Seoul, 1904); and others. The actual progress of Korea under the able administration of the Japanese is set forth annually in an interesting book (published at Seoul, by the Government General of Chosen) called Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Korea.

Korean Characteristics, The average Korean man is 5 ft. 4 in. tall, of good physique, well formed, with not unhandsome Mongoloid features, oblique dark-brown eyes, high cheekbones, and noncurling hair that shades from a russet to a sloe black. The olive bronze complexions in certain instances show a tint as light as that of a quadroon — a phenomenon which some writers lay at the door of the Dutch sailors of the Sparrowhawk who were wrecked off the coast in the 17th cent., and held prisoners for 27 yrs. To the observing eye there is the same diversity of racial types among Koreans as one notes among the Japanese and Chinese. Straight and aquiline noses, as well as others that are broad and snubbed, with distended nostrils and Negroid characteristics are common, and, as is the case with the Japanese, all do not show the looped-up eyes. The physiognomic peculiarities are sufficiently distinctive easily to differentiate Koreans from Chinese or Japanese. The hands and feet of both sexes and all classes are small and well formed; the finger nails are almond-shaped. The men are endowed with considerable physical strength and they will carry heavy weights on their shoulders with the ease of Turkish porters or Mexican cargadores: They are a sturdy, nonmaritime race, with large, fairly healthy families. Whiskers are at a premium, and whenever a man can, he raises a pseudo full beard of spiky hairs that refuse to grow close together and which can be counted readily. Those who cannot force this bristly desideratum wear a lean black mustache turned upside down like that of the mandarin pictured on tea-boxes, and, when possible, cultivate a goatish, paint-brush-like imperial, similar to that usually shown in cartoons of ‘Uncle Samuel' of the United States. This hirsute adornment, attached to the cheerful if vacant Korean physiognomy, is so startlingly like that of the average Cora Indian, of Tepic Territory, in Mexico (who claim that their forebears came from the Far East, and who are so much like Mongolians that the Mexicans call them

Chinos, or Chinese), as to make a singular impression upon one acquainted with the two peoples. (Comp. Terry's Mexico, p. 95.)

In many respects the Korean is sui generis. Frugal in the use of water (to which he has a determined hostility), fond of a frowsy smell, economical of the truth, as avid of 'fire-water' as the red man of the American plains, and with light prehensile fingers that readily assimilate the detachable impedimenta of the ‘foreign devil,' he suspects the wide world and possesses to a sordid degree the Oriental vices of duplicity, cunning, and general untrustworthiness. He steals freely when the opportunity offers, and his capacious sleeves and balloon-like trousers make ideal places of concealment for one’s cherished belongings. The spawn of a low order of civilization, he is untidy and swinish in his habits, and apathetic in the face of work — for which he has a fervid distaste. He is a born dawdler, gambler, and brawler: and, like the Chinaman, he has, in his fathomless conceit and besotted ignorance, a sturdy and unshakable faith in his own impeccability and the flagrant worthlessness of everything foreign. He is lethargic, purposeless, devoid of thrift or ambition, and he dwells contentedly amidst incredible dirt and discomfort. His specialty — the curse of his country — is sponging on his relatives or friends. He is an inveterate smoker and he will sit for hours in a limp state of fatuous vacuity, sucking a bowlful of tobacco not larger than a marrowfat pea, while his puny little wife (or one of his several concubines) — usually several hands shorter and of much smaller physique — may be squatting beside some wayside pool washing the raiment which her lord and master always wears out first in the seat. The long-stemmed pipe with its tiny bowl (much like the Japanese pipe) of enameled base metal, and its miniature pellet of home-grown tobacco is to him what the cigarette is to the Spaniard, — an almost inseparable companion. Over this travesty of a smoke, men and women will sit for hours gossiping and indulging in acrid scandal; for owing to the insatiable curiosity of the people nothing can be kept sacred or secret. They are said to be the most irrepressible scandal-mongers in the world, — which in truth is saying a good deal!

One of the qualities which prove Koreans destitute of the commonest sense is cruelty; in this respect the sensitive person soon classes the country with southern Italy. Few travelers can pass through Seoul without seeing unfortunate and loudlysquawking poultry undergoing the painful operation of being plucked alive, and there is no dearth of mistreated animals to be commiserated. It would, indeed, be a greedy person who would wish to revisit a Korean abattoir, as the method of dispatching the poor animals is almost too revolting to be described. The throat of the beef is first cut, then a peg is inserted in the opening, and the butcher takes a hatchet or a heavy

mallet and beats the martyred animal on the rump until it dies. The process takes about an hour, and the wild-eyed creature suffers agonies of terror and pain before it loses consciousness. By this wicked method very little blood is lost during the operation; the meat is full of it, and its heavier weight is to the advantage of the vendor. The method is so repugnant to foreigners that they deal almost exclusively with the Japanese butchers, shunning the Korean product as one does pork at Shanghai. Goats (which are sold for mutton) are killed by pulling them to and fro in a rivulet; a method which is said to destroy the rank taste of the flesh. Dogs are dispatched by twirling them in a noose until they are unconscious, after which they are bled.

The people are practically without a national religion; ancestor-worship influences their life and character (chiefly through fear of what demons may do to them if they neglect the spirits of those that have gone), and Confucianism, which is ostensibly the official cult, is supposed to provide the guiding rules of life. A wave of Buddhistic fervor swept over the land in the 15th cent., but it left but little impress on the Korean morality. Sorcerers and sorceresses abound and fatten on the credulity of the unlettered classes, and while exorcising alleged evil spirits, they annex the victims' cash. Demonism with its host of allied superstitions gives rise to many idolatrous practices, and not a few ridiculous customs; an uncharitable and characteristic one of these is to stuff rude straw dolls with a few cash, and on certain days cast them into the street, so that the unwary who pick them up may acquire all the present and future ills of the persons who threw them out! Christianity is making its influence felt, and it is indubitably the religion of the future.

Koreans usually settle individual or village disputes or feuds with stones; they are said to be the most expert stone-throwers in the world, both in their accuracy of aim and in the force and distance of the throw. They can hurl a granitic message through the air with a dexterity peculiarly embarrassing to an opponent, and about every so often the necessity seems to arise for them to let off steam in this Biblical fashion. When there is a dispute between villagers, instead of soiling their knives on their enemies, each side lines up its most pugnacious men, who in turn scour the neighborhood for the hardest missiles they can find. When these are piled in convenient places, each side draws off and the battle begins. Until the projectiles have all been thrown out of reach, the sight is a peculiar one. The men stand their ground gamely enough until downed by some hurtling boulder. For a time the air is thick with flying stones, which oftentimes clash in mid-air with’ on-coming ones and strike brilliant sparks from them. Battered faces and bruised heads are always the outcome of these little tribal wars.

Swinging is a favorite pastime; at certain seasons stout swings are erected at almost every village, for the enjoyment of old and young. Kite-flying is the sport most relished by men and boys (Jan. is the great month, on account of the light winds), since considerable discomfiture can be given an opponent by cutting his kite-string (and thus winning his kite) by a more skillfully manipulated string coated with glue and powdered glass. — The native music is as painful to the foreign ear as ours is to the Koreans; the musical instruments are many and of crude workmanship and design. Drums, cymbals, gongs (of which the people are passionately fond), unkeyed bugles, trumpets, flutes, several sizes of rude guitars, and a five-stringed violin assist in the execution of their wild and melancholy minstrelsy — from the dissonancy of which foreigners usually hasten as fast as possible.

Of Korean grotesqueries the national costume is among the most pronounced. The grass-cloth worn by both sexes is made from the fiber of a white nettle (Urtica niveus) grown in many parts of the country and woven on rude looms. When the upper classes can afford it, they wear thin silks of the brightest colors obtainable, usually blue, green, and purple, or white. The voluminous winter costume consists of huge trousers and socks and a sleeved coat. The costume peculiar to the women of the capital is a swathed skirt (resembling exaggerated Turkish trousers) and a (masculine) green, blue, or lavender silk coat put over the head and clutched below the eyes, the long wide sleeves falling from the ears. The effect is that of a person who has hastily thrown a coat over the head without putting the arms through the sleeves. Tradition has it that the custom arose at a time when most of the fighting men were slain, and women had to mount the walls arrayed in men's coats to deceive the enemy. It is declared that no Korean woman ever puts her arms through the sleeves of her coat.

The Korean Top-Knot, an inherited custom established upward of 20 centuries ago, is as much a Korean characteristic as the queue has long been in China. The average Korean is very much attached to it, as it is his badge of legal manhood (rather than one of subjugation, like the pig-tail), and until he possesses it he has the title of ‘a half man' bestowed upon him. Boys wear twin plaits or tails down their backs until they are old enough to be invested with this manly attribute, and the investiture is one of the most important ceremonies in their lives. To the American, this hirsute adornment bears a striking resemblance to a twist of Navy tobacco; it is protected by a fine crinoline hat (made of horsehair) which distinguishes Koreans from all other nationalities. It weighs about 1 1/2 ounces, and through its fine meshes one can see the cherished knot coiled tightly on the top of the wearer’s head. The truncated conical crown (which is about 5 in. in diameter at the

base, tapering to 4 in. at the top), with its circular brim (about 18 in. across) gives it the appearance of a new-fangled fly-trap. When tied beneath the chin with broad black crinoline ribbons, it imparts to a chubby, bewhiskered face a ludicrously lackadaisical and infantile air! It is not unlike the old-style Welshwoman’s hat, or that of a Tipperary brawler. Of a uniform glossy black, it is a source of ceaseless anxiety to the wearer; if it gets wet it is ruined, and to prevent this it is often covered with an oiled paper, an arrangement both conical and comical. They are the special predilection of the Yang bans (officials and men of leisure), who saunter along the street with a serenity born of possessing absolutely nothing and consequently having nothing to lose. This decayed gentry, who try so hard to impress the beholder with their worth, who strut along with a swinging gait befitting their supposed standing, and whose pockets are usually as empty as their top-knotted pates, form a striking class in Korea. Their long bamboo pipes and their wooden shoes recall those of the first Dutchmen who came to Japan, and their haughty demeanor (much copied by the aspiring jeunesse doree) oftentimes accords illy with their general appearance of ambulating rag-bags. Many of the Koreans possess an alert mentality, but this is usually so befogged by superstition, prejudice, and conceit, that it is of little use to them.

The social position of Korean Women is deplorable. They have been rigidly secluded for ages; they are the slaves of their masters, the men, and they are kept down by a tyrannical oppression that would scarcely be credited in the West. Silence is regarded as a woman’s first duty; her husband addresses her by the word yabu, signifying < Look here,’ which is significant of her relations to him. From a young girl she is kept carefully shut up and is not allowed to be seen or spoken to by a man. She has no voice in the matter of her marriage, as her husband is selected for her by her father. She may never have seen her husband before the wedding-day, and even then etiquette does not permit her, throughout all the festivities, to exchange a word with him. If a man speaks to a girl before she is married, she is considered as disgraced; if a malevolent ravisher penetrates to her apartment at night undiscovered, it is safer for her to permit him to work his will rather than to call for help, for thus the world would know that a man had spoken to her, and she would be dishonored! Despite the fact that the Koreans are an intensely passionate people, a man is supposed never to glance at a woman. Marriage at an early age is common among them, and immorality is commoner.

Korean women have always borne the yoke. They accept inferiority as their natural lot, and they do not look for affection in marriage. The wife has recognized duties to her husband, but he has few, if any, to her. It is correct for a man to

treat his wife with external marks of respect, but he would be an object for scorn and ridicule if he showed her affection or treated her as a companion. On her marriage-day the bride must be as mute as a graven image. This silence must remain unbroken even in her own room. From the moment she enters the nuptial chamber with her stranger husband (who oftentimes attempts to make her break her silence by coaxing, taunts, or jeers), she is spied upon by all the female servants of the house, who hang about the doors and chinks waiting for such a breach of etiquette as speech. A single utterance would cause her to lose caste forever in her circle. As it is, whatever the newly wedded couple do is told by the servants to all the neighborhood, which evolves choice bits of scandal in order to make the pair a laughing-stock among their friends. The custom of silence is observed with great rigidity among people of the so-called upper classes. It may be a week, or many weeks, before the husband knows the sound of his wife’s voice; even then she speaks only when absolutely necessary. The daughter-in-law often passes years without raising her eyes to those of her father-in-law, or addressing him. Among the highest class, a bridegroom, after passing three or four days with his wife, leaves her for a considerable time to show his indifference; to act otherwise would be bad form. — When the girl becomes a mother her position is somewhat improved. She rarely goes out by daylight except in closed chairs. If she leaves the house at night it must be with her husband’s consent, and she must be accompanied by some one to bring back proof of where she has been. Korean babies have no cradles, and are put to sleep by being tapped lightly on the stomach. Widows are not permitted to marry again, and the inevitable consequence is that many become the concubines of married men. Concubinage is very common. Phyong An is said to have formerly produced the most beautiful women in Korea, and from that region came the Gesang for the Royal Court at Seoul.

Somewhat different social regulations apply to the women of the lower class, who share in the toil of daily life and must in consequence make their appearance by day in the streets. As a rule they are ill-bred and unmannerly, far removed from the gracefulness and charm of the same class in Japan. The wearing of white clothes by the men puts severe and almost incessant work on the women’s shoulders, and they are the national drudges. They have few if any pleasures, and they try to get even with fate by singeing their compatriots with the lash of their pungent and scarifying vocabulary. The average low-class women possess a fund of invective that usually sends the men scattering to the four points of the compass; it is as inelegant as it is complete, and it seems to be both dreaded and effective. Age treats these poor creatures shockingly; at 30 they look 50, and at 60 the stranger wishes, he hadn’t seen

them. Their vixenish dispositions indubitably add to their extraordinary unattractiveness. One pities them for the style of dress evidently forced upon them. As the feminine waistline is supposed to be at the arm-pits, and as tight swathing of the bust does not permit the mothers to respond readily to baby’s hungry and imperious clamor, the twin maternal founts are worn, as it were, on the outside. Thus the firm buds of youth and.the flapping rags of age are displayed to the world — exposing to all Korea what antipodal women strive to conceal. The bulging trousers of the women are the acme of unpicturesqueness, and they render them devoid of all grace and charm. One is often astonished in Korea at the patrician beauty of the girl children; some of their faces are unusually fine, and it is a pity that age does not in their case fulfill the promises of youth. The present humane government is striving to ameliorate the condition of Korean women, and the closer observation by them of Western ways and manners, aided by the uplifting work of the missionaries, is having a beneficent effect.

Food. Koreans are voracious meat-eaters, and the cuisine is on the whole more substantial than that of the Japanese. Omnivorousness is a native characteristic; dog meat is in great request at certain seasons, and dogs are extensively bred for the table. Pork, beef, fish, — raw, dried, and salted, — the intestines of animals, all birds and game, no part being rejected, are eaten — a baked fowl, with its head, claws, and interior intact is considered a special dainty which every one enjoys. Cooking is not always essential. ‘ In this respect all classes are alike. The great merit of a meal is not so much quality as quantity, and from infancy onward, one object in life is to give the stomach as much capacity and elasticity as is possible, so that four pounds of rice daily may not incommode it. People in easy circumstances drink wine and eat great quantities of fruit, nuts, and confectionery in the intervals between meals, yet are as ready to tackle the next food as though they had been starving for a week. In well-to-do houses beef and dog are served on large trenchers, and as each guest has his separate table, a host can show generosity to this or that special friend without helping others to more than is necessary. Large as a portion is, it is not unusual to see a Korean eat three and even four, and where people abstain from these excesses it may generally be assumed that they are too poor to indulge in them. It is quite common to see from 20 to 25 peaches or small melons disappear at a single sitting, and without being peeled. There can be no doubt that the enormous consumption of red pepper, which is supplied even to infants, helps this gluttonous style of eating. It is not surprising that dyspepsia and kindred evils are very common among Koreans. They eat not to satisfy hunger, but to enjoy the sensation of repletion.

The training for this enjoyment begins at a very early age. A mother feeds her young child with rice, and when it can eat no more in an upright position, lays it on its back on her lap and feeds it again, tapping its stomach from time to time with a flat spoon to ascertain if further cramming is possible. “ The child is father to the man,' and the adult Korean shows that he has reached the desirable stage of repletion by eructations, splutterings, slapping his stomach, and groans of satisfaction, looking round with a satisfied air. The very poor only take two meals a day, but those who can afford it take three and four. Among the dishes dear to the native heart are pounded capsicum, bean curd, various sauces of abominable odors, a 'species of sour kraut (kimshi), seaweed, salt fish, and salted seaweed fried in batter. 'Hot dog' in the literal sense is the piece de resistance of the Korean menu.

There are no harder or more constant drinkers than the Koreans, and the vice is common to all classes. The greatest happiness that can fall to the commoner is to be able to drown his cares in the forgetfulness of intoxication; he is then the envy of all his neighbors. The fermented liquors (for which Europeans have to acquire a taste) vary from a smooth white drink resembling buttermilk in appearance, and very mild, to a waterwhite spirit of strong smell, fiery taste, and great potentiality. Between these comes the ordinary rice wine, slightly yellowish, akin to Japanese sake and Chinese samshu, with a faint, sickly smell and flavor. They all taste more or less strongly of smoke, oil, and alcohol, and the fusel oil remains even in the best. They are manufactured from rice, millet, and barley. The peasants drink hot rice-water (in which the rice has been boiled) with their meals, honey-water as a luxury, and occasionally an infusion of orange peel and ginger. Tea is rarely drunk.

Language. Modern Korean is closely akin to Japanese in structure, and there is no lack of analogues in the terms of the two tongues; both are thought to be of Turanian origin, and Korean bears much the same relation to Japanese that Italian does to Spanish. Japanese and Koreans learn each others' language easily, and communicate readily by the written characters — many of which are of Chinese origin. As in Japan, specially literate classes introduce archaic Chinese frequently into their conversation, and two written languages, stilted Chinese and a derived demotic, are used side by side. The Korean alphabet, or On-mun, said by expert sinologues to be one of the most perfect in the world, was invented by Sejong in 1451, but it is disdained by literates, whose education is usually in the Chinese classics. The masses can usually read their own script. The tongue is a difficult one for foreigners to acquire; unlike Japanese it is full of ungallant epithets which the proletariat use with scandalous inelegancy. Scalding invective is their strong point, and sensitive persons who have to overhear

them are fortunate in not knowing the language. The vituperative epithet of the Koreans is ‘son of a rat,' a somewhat meaningless expression which reflects on one’s father — usually an object of veneration by the Korean son. Nom (fool) when applied in a contemptuous tone, is apt to provoke quick physical retaliation; emi, the root form for 'mother,' if used in a disparaging accusation (referring to ancestry and moral purity), is very offensive to Koreans, and often stirs up a fight. The name of the Creator is never taken in vain.

Korean Literature is said not to repay one for the time spent in studying it. The inspiration is chiefly Chinese; the natives lack the ardent imagination of certain Orientals, and literary themes too often turn to erotic things. Love songs are popular, and some of them are not lacking in grace; the following stanza (one of four) translated by Mr. Gale, is often quoted: —

'Silvery moon and frosty air,

Eve and dawn are meeting;

Widowed wild goose flying there.

Hear my words of greeting!

On your journey should you see Him I love so broken-hearted,

Kindly say this word for me,

That it ’s death when we are parted.

Flapping off the wild goose clambers.

Says she will if she remembers.'

The Flag of the old Korean Kingdom displayed symbols which travelers frequently see repeated in the art, architecture, and decoration of the people. Though apparently totally different from those on the Japanese flag, the emblems are nevertheless founded on the same order of ideas. The cabalistic central figures on the white ground are (in the philosophy of the Chinese) the Yang and Yin, or male and female principles of nature — the twofold division (the first strong or hard, the second weak or soft) of the one primordial ki (air) — dual powers which first formed the outlines of the universe, and were themselves influenced retroactively by their own creations. These comma-shaped figures (called by the Japanese Futatsu-tomoe, and by the Chinese Taiku, the body) are always shown (in Korea), one in light, one in shade, coiled within an involved circle (called Yang and Yong), and are considered a sort of distinctive badge of nationality. (Comp. Kuro-shiwo, p. cxlvi.) The mystic forms (siang) at the four corners are supposed to express the state and position, at any given place or time, of the Yang and Yin, and they are called Fuh-hi (from Fuh-hi, the supposed founder — in b.c. 3322 — of the Chinese nation). They represent but one half of the eight trigrams (kwa) evolved from the two original principles, and among other things stand for the four cardinal points, the earth, fire, sun, water, clouds, rivers, seasons, and what-not. The meanings are subtle and confusing to the lay mind; an effort is made to explain them in the Yih King (of the Chinese Five Classics)

or Book of Changes, translated by James Legge (Oxford, 1882). Consult also The Middle Kingdom, by S. Wells Williams, vol.

1, p. 626.

The Chosen Government Railways (tetsudo) are managed by the Government Railway Bureau, connect all the chief cities of the country, operate over approximately 1500 miles of broad gauge track, and are rapidly being extended to the more remote places. The equipment (3397 cars; 256 locomotives) is modern, the best English and American practice is in vogue, American-style cars are used, along with excellent dining-, sleeping-, observation and other cars. In many respects the dependable train service is like that of the fine Imperial Government Railways in Japan.

Fares are approximately seven sen a mile, first class, with lower quotations as the mileage increases. A small additional fare is charged on fast express trains. For this and other information relating to sleeping-cars, etc., consult the Railway Time Table. Parcel Rooms are to be found at all big stations.

The Baggage allowance is similar to that on the Imperial Japanese Government Lines (133 lbs., on a 1st cl. ticket). Luggage-porters similar to those in Japan assist travelers in the stations, to and from trains.

Railway Tickets, and information relating to Railways, hotels, etc., can always be obtained at one of the offices of the Japan Tourist Bureau — located in many places in Chosen.

The Main Line of the Chosen Government Railway, from Fusan to (590 M.) Shingishu, is an important link in the trans-Siberian system between Europe and Japan, and also between Japanese points and Peking.

The Railway Hotels owned and operated by the company are excellent in every way, and will always be found to be the best in their respective localities. The most important hotels are the Chosen Hotel, at Keijo (Seoul); The Station Hotel at Fusan; Station Hotel at Shingishu; and the Railway Hotels at Onseiri (Heijo), and Choanji (both in Kongo-san, or the Diamond Mt. district).

The Dining-car Service on the Chosen Government Railways is known far and wide for its special excellence. Good food, well served, at moderate prices.

The Railway Bureau of the Government General of Chosen issues handsomely illustrated booklets (in English) replete with information relating to the railway and to the country, and will send them free on application. The maps and plans in colors are unusually handsome and serviceable. Address The Railway Bureau of the Government General of Chosen, N. Toda, Esquire, General Traffic Manager, Keijo, Chosen. Or The Japan Tourist Bureau, Chosen Railway Building, Seoul (Keijo) Chosen.

Travelers arriving in Chosen from Japan are recommended to apply to the Station Agent or the Hotel Manager in the Station Hotel, for time tables and illustrated literature descriptive of Chosen and South Manchuria.

Central Standard Japanese Time is in use in Chosen, and is one hour ahead of South Manchurian Time.

The Nippon Yusen Kaisha, and the Osaka Shosen Kaisha run frequent big, clean, fast, comfortable ships between Japanese, Chinese and Korean ports. Good food and cabins. Moderate fares. For information concerning them address any agent or the Japan Tourist Bureau.