Show SELLS SLAVE GIRLS how ahn queen of cores santala Sant aln her lloyal there are slave girls innumerable around the royal palaces of the hermit kingdom of corca says alie philadelphia press it is difficult to find out how many there are one official will say hundreds another thousands A consul who has had opportunity to 1 earn the facts in the case says there are about fifteen it is equally difficult to lean where they come from their appearance shows that they are nob irom any one stock some are comeans and some arc Tong haks from guing shang do in the south of the kingdom some show japanese blood others chinese and still others manchurian they are of all sorts and types all speak corean and nearly all have a smattering of chinese they are all well brought up and quiet polite and industrious they begin their career as domestic servants when mere children and are seldom found in the royal establishment after they are twenty five years old A few who are unusually good looking become royal concubines and a large number are taken for the same purpose by the princes and lords of the realm and it is said for a very larg large e price alie rest are sold as commodities to the highest bidder and the proceeds paid into the royal treasury the latest available blue book of corea in summarizing the royal income includes these articles ninety one thousand nine hundred and seventeen stone of best rice forty one thousand four hundred and eighty four stone of beans one hundred and seventy two thousand seven hundred and thirteen hyang in money twenty four thousand hyang from sale of slave girls A hyang is a string of one hundred copper coins whose value in american money ranges from five hundred to one thousand to alie dollar the market of a varies from ten to forty dollars upon these figures the monarch must raise and sell in the public market every year from thirty to four hundred and eighty young women the general average would be about two hundred per year the custom is not so bad as it seems at first sight the majority are purchased by men for their wives and a small minority for immoral purposes this trade in human beings is considered perfectly legitimate and has come down from time immemorial it is not confined to the royal palace but is practiced to a certain extent all over cocrel alie custom is followed likewise in china and seems to characterize nearly every mongolian race |