Show BURDENS OF the people grievously imposed upon by Gov government Govern emment mont officials I 1 nigie priced offices office bought by them are afterwards paid tor for by the merchant and farmer through extortionate torti onate taxation A residence of eight years in corea says 8 a seoul correspondent in the new york sun has given git en me the opportunity of studying the character and disposition of this and neighboring peoples which comparatively few strangers have had the characteristic which is most marked in the is their patience we hear of their turbulence their uprisings in one section or another the lawless outbreaks of the mobs but most people fail to examine the causes of these disturbances here is nn an illustration A governor is appointed to the south ern cm province of sang bang he fie has pa paid id twenty million cash for the office that twenty million cash means about eighteen thousand dollars now it if you talce take into consideration thercsa the relative cost of living in corea corca and america you will find that eighteen thousand dollars means to a corean what two hundred and fifty thousand dollars would mean to an american a princely fortune well the governor goes down to his provincial capital about him gathers an immense retinue of his mediate immediate in and mere distant relatives who live off his bounty during his term of office the term averages perhaps three years during that time the governor has just four things to do first he must got get back the twenty millions cash which he paid for his office second od he must forward to the central government one tenth of the total product of the province third he must support hie immense retinue and the district magistrates and their suites who by the way have paid for their offices and carry out the same plan as the governor only on a smaller scale and fourth lie he must lay up enough money no ney to support himself in ease case after he has retired the question arises from whom does this money come it comes out of the farmer and the merchant and as between these two the farmer pays practically the whole I 1 suppose it would be a conservative estimate to siy say that every producer in the country is laul eted to the extent of sixty per cent of his gross bernings I 1 do not say sixty f per cent of his savings but of his gro gross earnings canan can an american conceive of the patience and forbearance of a people that will endure such treatment you may ask in what way are these enormous taxes collected the governor is surrounded by a body of men whom we usually call yamen runners whose business it is to collect tile the money if a merchant has made a successful transaction the yaman runners who are spies as well as tax collectors lec tors are sure to know of it and they come to him and ask him to unload if he be refuses which he is generally too wise to do be is likely to be arrested on a false charge and thrown into prison and beaten beahn every morella morn morning lla g until the sum is paid and in such a case the sum increases every day americans say that this is an exaggerated statement but a knowledge of the workings of things here would show that my my language is conservative A corean friend of mine had one thousand dollars which he wanted to invest and he be was thinking of buying from the government the right to cut firewood on a certain tract of government land and sell it in seoul As I 1 was acquainted with the president of the foreign office I 1 put him in the way of buying the franchise lie ile estimated he would realize ten per cent on the investment lie ile paid the money to the president of the foreign office who in a addition ildi tion to his regular duties had charge of the government woodlands now before this corean could be bein begin in work he be received word from the fr foreign office that the same franchise had bad been sold hold again and that he must divide the work with the other purchaser of course he was ruined it maybe may be asked what my corean friend did about it did he rave and tear his hair meditate revenge or curse the ex existing order of things nota not a bit of it lie ile shrugged his shoulders and said id kalsu esno capo which means it sa cant ant be helped and went to work to earn a living for himself and a large family on a salary of six dollars a month now do you see why I 1 tay say the coreana are among the most patient of people but there are limits limit to the patience even of a corean when they are driven to the wall they will turn and show their teeth the one essential quality in in a success successful fil corean corcan official is the ability to see just how far he can grind the people down without causing a revolt an instance of this came under my observation once I 1 was taking a little pleasure trip in the saddle to the northern metropolis ping yang one day as I 1 was sitting hitting in my room a corean came in to calf call ile he raid paid that a day or two before the governor had tent sent an official down to the cotton merchants c and asked for a loan the answer was not verbal but the merchants arose rushed to the house of the official pulled it down and si scattered at the debris along the street that w was as a characteristic answer for the men of ping yang but they are much more energetic than the southern corean s now the idea of the japanese is to change all this the idea of the chinese is to keep things thing sas as they are |