REFORMS IN COREA.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10215, 10 December 1898, Page 7

REFORMS IN COREA.

Very curious, indeed, are some of the reforms which have been introduced in Corea during the last generation. The reforming hero, according to an article quoted by the "North China Herald,'-' from the "Korean Repository," was "The recently-deceased Grand Old Man of the East, the Taiwon Kun." For ten years he practically governed Corea, and fought all the time with the J yangban. He demolished their Temples of Fame, and suppressed their tablets. He | gave the common people permission to wear black shoes, a priviledge previously reserved* for the yangban, reduced the suse of their sleeves, and cut down the brim of their hats, which were then 4ft in diameter, bo that only four people could sit in a room Bft square with their hats on. He suppressed the mysteries of the Tonghaks, and was, in a word, an energetic reformer. AERIAL NAVIGATION. The problem of aerial navigation is stated by the"Neves Wiener Journal" of Vienna to hav<e been solved by a German nobleman, Count Zeppelin, who has long interested himself in ballooning. The balloon which he has .constructed is over 300 ft in length, and cylindric in form. It resembles an immense lead-pencil in shape. Inside the balloon itself are several smaller balloons, which will perform the same functions as watertight compartments on ships. Water in a tank under the car will be used j as ballast. The steering-gear will be composed of paddle-wheels, driven by elee-' tricity, fixed to the side of the car. Experts who have tested the apparatus de- i clare it to be perfect. It will be possible j with this balloon to make a voyage of eight days in any direction which the aeronaut desires. A company has been formed with a capital of 500,000 florins to work the invention. One of its first undertakings will be a balloon voyage to America, which Count Zeppelin is confident can be accomplished in four days. AMUSING EPISODES. Some rather rich stories were told in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly by Mr Carroll apropos of the military vote, regarding certain volunteer officers who happen to be able to place the magic letters M.P. after their names. A colonel was at the head-of a body t>f 400 men on the heights about Sydney Harbour, a small hostile force being supposed to be somewhere in the vicinity. This latter body was in charge of a captain, also a member of the Assembly. While the colonel was haranguing his troops m grandiloquent terms, and his warriors were listening spell-bound to the stirring oration, the small force crept up unobserved, and, according to the ethics of sham fighting, surprised and captured the whole of the 400. The colonel, who had been interrupted in the midst of a most inspiriting passage, was greatly incensed at the rude and unceremonious approach of the enemy, and in high dudgeon placed the captain under "arrest." The two M.'sP. were now, Mr Carroll said, fighting out the matter on paper before the military authorities, and this was the safest method of warfare, he thought, they could indulge in. There was a second campaigning incident in which another member, a captain, covered himself . with glory. He was advancing in connec-' tion with the Rookwood encampment at the head.of a company of braves, but crossing the lines a "picket" told the captain to consider himself under arrest. Tins was too much for the dignity of the soldier-legisla-tor, and ho ferociously ordered his men to fix and charge the presumptuous picket. The picket, however, was up to date in the art pugilistic, and ?'laid out" the captain with one "under the ear." After recounting these amusing occurrences, the member for the Lachian said that this was how. the people's money was squandered on the military. . -