In Quaint Korea.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIC, Issue 13367, 17 August 1907, Page 1 (Supplement)

In Quaint Korea.

Ivors?, is both b.autiful and interesting. Possibly its beauties ar-e. not more thar those of Fernshaw and the Federal Pees; v. t if ono loves blue seas and skier;, anc "the roso and purple tints of evening, whei under its veil of blue smoke, even a Kor; ean village is trar^figured; if one's eye: like to iove over broad plains, with thi green carpet of spring just beginning t' show, cr to rest on iTweliing hills or snow capped peaks beyond; if the broad ex panse of rivtrs, flecked with foam anc dot-ted with sai>-, delights one —thei Korea may be esteemed beautiful. Anc as for interest, who but a misantrop'. could fail to be interested in those quaint people clad in white? Is that hovel i dwelling for pigs or men? Probably both. vou learn. There goes a woman wearing on her head what appears to bo half of an tttormous driSS-bfcket. Is she going shopping, or is it to hide her face frorr curious men-folk? Ah, &he lifts her head, and you discover that Korean customs art tasteful in some respects at least. Such ugliness ought to bs hidd:n. And' through this country, where mist people do ;-."3 ha: been don:- for 5,000 yeais, a citizen ol th-e newest nation in the world is being carried at 25 miles an hour in a railway carriage-. Opprx-ite him is a Japanese waring a kimono and a bowler hat, anc caressing a bottle of Scotch whisky. It is more than interesting. It is a twentieth •ceriturv romance."' ."----''•-.

Almost the first thing that is borne in upon the traveller is the veiy strong hold which th? Japan-roe have on the country. At the close of the war with' Russia. Japan was left with the control of the foreign affairs of KeSrea. During 190f a* treaty was signed between Great Britain and United States on the one banc' and Japan on the other by which the two first-named countries agreed to give Japan a free hand in the country. Following this in the same year Korea agreed voluntarily—at the sword's- point—to p treaty putting her internal affairs, as wel as ber foreign ipolicy, into the hands of the Japanese. The consequence ia thai one sees Great Britain's ally, "the politest nation in the- world," in a rather different light from that in which they app3ar ir ths tales of travellers in Japan. At Hong Kong a friend said to the writer, " What-ever-you do up north, don't knock r Japanese coolie down." His reply w after the immortal Mr Dick, " But I nevei do knock Japanese coolies down, and 1 don't want to." It did not take long t< change tha intention., The typical Australian larrikin is a polished g-entlemai compared to the Japanese coolie in Korea Tlie succes.-es of the late war seem f.have given certain classy of th Jnpa.nfs---the complaint known .■>.«• .■-•i :'ie.i head However, the worst feature of the Japan e-<i rale is not their impudence to foieisn e-rs, who can on th« whole io:.k afte themselves, but their cruelty and in just ic to the native?. Seizure of lands, forcer labour r.n the railroads, and general over riding of the rights of Koreans are eons' of the complaints brought by their syrii paihisers against the Japanese. In Japar Mikado's wis:- Government prohibit: opium-smoking and gambling. In Korep the Japanxe are debasing th? native: with these and other curse-' without officia' interference. A few hours in Korea ar? sufficient te open one's •eyes to the fact that it is ■• desirable country, with great possibilitie: of development. Huge crops of rice ane" barley are already giown in spite- of tin crudity of the methods of agriculture. Cattle are used by the natives only fodraught purposes, but they are very fine animals and yi-hl guo.l beef. All kindof fruit and vegetable* can be grown i. prc.-fu : i<in, and come to great perfection Iheie is abundance- of coal and piecioumetals, whi-.h nc just beginning to b work.d. In .ipite of poor appliances th. handicrafts of the Korean show the ppss ession of considerable ability. The papehe manufactures ami the nvelaiwoik he turns are highly creditable to him. Ii contradiction to th:- commonly-recsiv-ec idea, the present writer venturer! to assert that Korea is :•. rich country, peopled bj a nation superior in many points to ihei: masters, th.- Japanese-. They arc at present without intelligent leadership. When that lack is supplied great thing. l may Ik- expected of th:m. 'Flie ph-asnr-.s of the Korean are fev. and simple. In winter he abstains from .old bat!;.---, and in spring different village; or factions engage in stone lights against one another. The fights proceed till some one is hurt, when they adjourn for lunch There rre some other pleasures, but 1 have forgotten what they are. The refer ,!■,... to abstention from cold baths ir winter must not be construed into_ a re itei-ti-.n on the c-hanlines of the Korean If he V~. dirtv it is not by conviction, a: i; th- case "with the Chinese, but fion force of circumstances. Until lately al': clothes were white. Umhr the patriar thai -system two or three families often life in about 70 square feet of floor space. Th.- Japamse fami'y would get over this difficulty by adjourning in abody to the front garden for their ablutions, but the Korean has some western ideas of decency. In addition every diop of water he uses

has to bo fetched from the nearest river or well, yet when he sets out. to be clean the Korean is a model. The whiteness of his garments is immaculate, and as for his person, oik: can sit in tin' middle of 600 Korean Christians in a. building 601.. by 30ft. without discomfort. If. however, your fancy leads you to v.'idt the heathen, it is as well to have 'smelling salts or a heavy cold in the head. By t-lti* way, ,he Koreans say that there, weie no had smells in the country till the foreigners came. A Korean coming into a roomful of foreigners feels faint. The .sprinkling of a little carbolic amongst a crowd is better than the reading of the Riot Act. Truly pleasures and pains are. relative to the individual. The study of compaiative values in tin: East and West is interesting. Recently a. man and a, cow Were, killed on a Koie'.in railway-crossing. The, dor.bly-bere.ivsd family recovered 700 yang (about £7) for the cow and 100 yang for the man! it is a" topsy-turvy country altogether. A few mornings after arriving I found myself imcoii'seiously putting my elothos on back to front. Superstition diss hard. Nightly or.e hear.-, the b;sting of drums, which indicates that demon-worship ir. the progr.;;?. Western 'medicine has not yet taken hold of the Korean mind. Almost every othe: child in the north has a bald spot about the size of a shilling on thct lop of tho head. Thin has been burnt out in infancy as a cure for convulsions. The usual remedy for all sorts of pain is to stick needle: into the sore part. As the r.earlki is no! rendered antiseptic after being used, bloodpoisoning is a common occurrence a.fic:' this treatment. A story ii 3 told of ;• 1\ clean official who had an affection of (ha eyes. He called in a Korean doctor and a medical missionary, uiring the missionary's ointment for tho right •eye and that of the Korean for ths left. During the last 13 years Korea has been stirred by two wars, by the assassination of ilo Quesn, and several political .movements of a revolutionary ehaiaeler. but there is a stirring of a different nature going on at present. A " revival" ha'.; struck the country, and scenes have been witnessed similar to those lately reported from Wales and India. People have been rolling, on the floor in apparent agony, rising after a while to confess their tins, and then professing to feel better. Of course, a perfectly obvious exp'anation will occur to every rational Australian. It is an attack of hysteiia, mnniog through a superstitious Th?opk-, hut when one comes to examine the results it. would appear to be a rather iemarkablo kind of hysteria. Peopl-3 have, openly confused crimen against the laws of the country, for which they might have been punished severely. This looks like sincerity. Denominational differences have been obliterated. Animosities and hatreds have been buried. Husbands and wives have begun to esteem each other, which is utterly unKorean. Restitution of stollen or "squeezed " money has be«n made. ; If 'this be hysteria, my masters, let us all wax hysterical.