SNAPSHOTS IN KOREA

Hastings Standard, Volume VIII, Issue 4206, 16 April 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

SNAPSHOTS IN KOREA

Any European who arrives at Fusan or at Chemulpo finds it difficult to understand knf Korea can excite such axdent covetousness. It is the pooivst and the least picturesque country in the universa. The tinge of civilisation which the Japanese have given to Fusan is merely superficial. The street®, the architecture of the houses, the aspect of the shops, and the imperfect copies in everything of Western customs remind one of tlfe maritime towns of the third or fourth class in the islands of Nippon or Kiou-Skm. At Fusan it is easy to see that the Japanese copy of European models is only a. rough draught. The railroad goes through a. wild oountry, and stops at the end of a little river that/ might easily "be bridged. This river runs through, a marshy country, where there is not* a tree to be seen. (Here and there a. few lit- A tie black points emerge from the swamp, reminding one of the little islets that appear at low water on the shores of Marennes, in central Italy. These dark spots are the huitg in which the Korean peasants live. The inhabitants of the towns are even more wretched than the inhabitants of these huts. A little less than half a mile from Port Fusan there is an old native city which Japanese! civilisation has not yet reached. It is aa» agglomerate of miserable mud cabins covered with thatch. In these rude habitations, without floors and without windows, five or six persons ore crowded into a space hardly large enough for a single human being. Ther uncleanliness of these abodes beggars description. It would be impossible to find in any other portion of the globe human dwellings so repugnant and so sickening. At at little distance from these abominable hovels, which would be shunned by domestic animals accustomed to the cleanliness of Western civilisation, the ruins of palaces ind the walls of a city, abandoned for several centuries, bear testimony to the fact that thia country, now fallen into such deep distress, onoe had its period off splendors. Seen from the Fusan side, the great peniirsula of northern Asia gives the impression of a desert, but it causes a still more lugubrious sensation upon the European traveller who lands at Chemulpo and goes to Seoul by the railway. The line runs through a country which has the aspect of an endless oametery. It is the land of the dead. Thousands and thousands of little mounds covered with grass present evidence going to prove that the Koreans, after their death, are transported to this funereal suburb, which, all .around the capital, stretches out further than the eye can reach. The resj>ect which' the disciples of Buddlha have for past generations oblige® them to hold in reverence the resting places of the dead. Consequently, every day additional rows of graves, freshly dug, add new undulations to this immense mortuary plain. But at last we come to Seoul, the capital of Kor?a. It is a village of about 200.000 inhabitants, in which the habits of unclean liness of the populations of the Far East, who have dropped back into barbarism, successfully resist the invasion of Western civilisation. The sewers are uncovered along the public highways, and great cesspools are seen in the most frequented places. When heavy rains fall, the streets, which are not generally paved, become impassable swamps. Close np to these filthy puddles stand majestic edifices. The Catholic Cathedral built of red brick, is not an architectural marvel, but it is remarkable for the symmetry of its proportions. The buildings in which the diplomatic agents residb present a showy exterior, intended to give a high idea of tlie Powers whose representatives are accredited to the Emperor YaisHyoung. Tramways run through the marshy streets, and the care go so fast that they kill children every day, but the people of Seoul give themselves little trouble about the innumerable victims" that are crushed under the wheels of European civilisation. The character of the- Korean is an enigma., says an English traveller who is thoroughly acquainted' with tihe population of the Far East. The Koreans are a race who go through life and lace death with the ssmtcw careless placidity. So long as they are not obliged to give up their monumental hatsand their destiny, whatever it may be.. They will not take up arnwfor tihe Russians, although the ooly deep which it is possible to discover in tafeMfaarts is their deadly hatred of the Japanese.