Show COREAS COREA'S BIGGEST SQUEEZER Copyrighted by bv Frank G Carpenter 1894 l HE MAN who wh o has had more to do with the oppression ot of the Corean peo peo- people people people and who was to toa t ta toa o a large extent the th e cause of the rebel rebel- rebellion rebellion lion is going about Seoul today with wit h hundreds o 0 of f t fol followers o 0 f- f flowers lowers He rid ridin rides w y y in m a chair ch seated on a leopard skin and he ha has a house containing scores of rooms He is said d to be a A few years ears ago he was worth practically nothing He has made his immense fortune by squeezing the people and by his relationship to t o the queen His name is Min Yung Jun He is now now- about forty years old but heis he h his e is one of the greatest political strikers rs of the world and he is an adept in the th e selling of offices and in getting money mone y out of ot the people A part of his receipts have gone to the king but a large larg e amount has stuck to his own clothes He first showed his efficiency in this thi s line as governor of Ping Yang a city of o sf f perhaps inhabitants which lies lie s within a hundred miles of Seoul Here e se he was nicknamed by the people as a s Stove Min because he burned up u p sp everything he touched and he is now no w called Buddha Min probably for his hi s supreme cheek of everything about him into his own nirvana I have secured a photograph of him with a lot lotof lotof to t of his dancing girls behind him and his hisson hi hison hisson s son at his side His feet rest upon a aleo sa leo leopard ard skin and he is by no means a looking abad-looking looking bad Corean He has evidently great organizing powers and he h has as brought office brokerage down to system a system A LAND OF SQUEEZERS Corea like China is a land of squeezers ers Officials who are paid something like soo a year are expected to squeeze about annually from the people There is no security of property in Corea and hence no incentive for the people to accumulate If a man lays up money and the magistrates find it out they have one of their under accuse him of some crime False wit wit- witnesses witnesses wit witnesses nesses are are plenty and end they can whip the man or torture him until he pays something to be let go Sometimes poor men are arrested on such charges When tortured th they y say they have noth noth- ing nothing and can give nothing The reply often is ICy You ou have a rich uncle or a arich arich arich rich cousin and he must pay this amount for you As to the officials they must get their money out of the people and if they pay high prices for their offices they have got to oppress their subjects Until within subjects the last year or so the magistrates were allowed to have terms of from two to three years The prices of the offices were high By judicially apportioning their over this time they could squeeze enough to make a profit and still let the people live The wants of the court and of the officials however have increased within late years The debt to China has eaten up a great part of the revenue and Min MiD Yung Jun has supplied the by cutting down the terms for which the magistrates are appointed At the same time he has not decreased the price of their offices and they have had to squeeze all the money they could pos pos- possibly possibly sibly get out of the people in order t to come out even at the end of nin nine months instead of three years The re- re result result re sult suit is that in some parts of Corea star star- starvation starvation starvation practically stares the people in ID inthe the face and this the was cause of the rebellion The rebellion was not against the king but against his officials and had the king not foolishly sent his troops against the rebels he might have escaped his present troubles and the war between China and Japan deferred HOW THEY SQUEEZED CARP This squeezing which exists among the magistrates runs in tact through the whole Core Corean an society You ber remember the doggerel which runs something like this The biggest fleas have smaller fleas Upon their backs to bite em And those small fleas have other fleas fleas And so ad- ad infinitum ad-infinitum ad infinitum Well the Corean official flea is of aU all sizes from this great prime minister I Min Yung Jun down to the whO trot along beside your chair when you go through the city ty of Seoul I had four f our chair bearers to carry me and part of the time there was a soldier on each side of us In addition there was wasGen Gen Pak and I doubt not that every everyone everyone everyone one of them got his percentage out of everything I bought Sought I had to have the money paid over in in my presence to be sure that it would be paid at all and hen w hen Pak bought a cigar diar for me Iven I ven ven- venture venture venture ture he always received a cigarette as as- his commission on the purchase se The Chinaman who kept house for Mr Power the Power the electrician to the king with whom i stopped got his percentage on the price of every mouthful of food we ate and of I I everything we bought I could not Mire hire hl v i t a horse that the man who ran behind it and acted as my groom did not get percentage of the hire Such things are perfectly legitimate in Seoul The Theman Theman Then man n who keeps the gate of your house is given iven 10 io per cent of the amount of aU all purchases made This of course out ot of the landlord who is charged an additional price price It the percentage is not paid the seller will get no more business and he will be beThe boycotted by all the of the town The squeezing is awful You have to watch all the time for fear some someone someone someone f one else is being cheated or oppressed through you The servants of foreigners are not subject to the ordinary Corean laws and our legation to Corea found n not t long ago that the connected I with the establishment had been selling certificates to men about Corea stating that they were employed by the lega lion tion and they had received from Irom one thousand to twenty thousand cash apiece for the these e Each of the foreign legations has bas a a number of these keso soldiers which are detailed del ailed to it from the service of the king and my soldiers are of this character An outrageous instance of squeezing occurred not long ago in con con- connection connection connection with the Russian legation and it was carried on a long time before the Russian minister found it out These went out into the country and found men who were in debt to people in Seoul They told them that the Rug Rus- Russian Rus-Russian Russian minister had bought the claims against them and that they must be paid with high interest They put them in chains and brought them right to the thel l legation and kept them in the out out- outhOuses outE out E hOuses which are reserved for the s acid which surround every large Corean I eStablishment Here they whipped them fr from time to time wit with pad paddles They would strip them half naked sus suspend end them by their elbows and tor- tor tort torture t ture re them by touching their bare legs with pokers Now and then they would let them out in the yard and If the minister came in sight would warn t them em that they had better be quiet for he was a dangerous man and was al- al already already al already ready inclined to cut their heads off for their payment payment non of the money Think of such a thing actually going on for tor weeks without the minister knowing it it a and d I am told that a somewhat similar st state te of affairs prevailed for a short time I connection with the quarters of one of the missionaries I In la another case a teacher of one of i ithe the government schools found that his popularity was-waning was The people did not seem to like him and he could not tell what was the matter until he found that his bis servants had been borrowing m money Dey of the people of the neighbor neighbor- neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood hood and that under compulsion in his me name He believes that one of the chief officers of the school had a hand handin handin in iD the the scheme and it was only stopped upon his threatening that the imposition would be reported to the king unless a I change was immediately made and the thet t money returned I did not buy any any- anything thing g in in the Seoul shops unless I saw i a money honey handed over for my pur pur- purchases II chases Otherwise my soldiers might ti say that I had just taken it and inas inas- inasmuch inasmuch inasmuch much as I was a foreigner and of pre pre- presumably presumably presumably high rank they would to a extent have to grin and bear it it ite itTe n e greatest squeezer in n Corea are the and the Chinese minister f I I I i Yuan is supposed to make a great deal of money in in this way The Chinese consul at made something like 5 out of a squeeze which he manipulated in some way on the ship ship- shipments shipments shipments ments of ot rice from Corea Core just the present trouble and the whole of the social and governmental structure of this country and of China seems ms to me meto meto meto to be honeycombed with corruption and bribery MONEY OR BLOOD There is nowhere in the world that the almighty dollar is worth more to a aman aman aman man than it is in Corea He can often save his skin by hy plating the palm of his enemy with silver and persons sentenced sentenced sen sentenced to flogging can ransom their punishment with money They have in fact a fixed rate for this in Corea Ten blows of the bamboo will be omitted on the payment of about 5 twenty blows for 10 io and so on upward There are few men who would not give all they have rather then have their thighs re- re reduced reduced re reduced to a jelly and the bamboo is a great persuader At the same time officials are sometimes punished for their cruelty and those who cause the death of persons by torture receive zoo blows and are dismissed from the public ser ser- service service ser service vice I am told that the present dynasty has much less terrible punishments than were common in the past and that within the last years knee crushing knee and branding have been abolished and there is no curing off oft of the noses and feet of men as was done in the middle ages STEAMED TO DEATH Still the punishments are bad enough I will devote my next letter to describing describing describing I ing them They are far worse than any any- anything anything thing that is known outside of China and the wives and families of rebels and criminals even to the third and fourth generation are included in the sentences sentences sentences ces of their husbands and fathers Here is a curious method which I am told old prevails in Seoul of executing the fathers ot of rebels It Is It almost lr s necessary to understand the structure of a Corean house to appreciate it it The rooms are heated you know by fires which are built under the house and the flames of which run through flues covering every part of the floors of the rooms These floors are of brick or mortar and they are covered witha with a thick white paper well oiled With a good fire they turn the rooms into ovens and a small room soon becomes a furnace if a big fire is built buil t under it Among the lowest clas clas- classes classes classes ses in Corea are the butchers and it is 15 in a butchers butcher's house outside the west westgate westgate westgate gate of the city that the fathers of rebels are sometimes poisoned The poison is mixed with rice water which has been leftover left over night in in order that its taste may be bitter The officer of the law takes the man to this house He wears wooden clogs and thus keeps his feet from the red hot floor upon which he heto puts the man and where he he forces him to drink the poisoned water In the back of this room there is a great jar of Corean pottery which holds almost as much as a hogshead This is filled with water After the official has given the he breaks this jar and the water poison waterS S i ia a re i- i flows out upon the floor If the man does not die of the poison poison the steam and heat soon finish him and the body is par par boiled boiled before it is taken out It Itis Itis Itis is carried through h one of the dishonor dishonor- dishonorable dishonorable dishonorable able gates and cast out cast out of the city It must be left there for a certain time and then if its relatives do not take it away the birds grow fat over its cooked meat WHAT FOREIGNERS MAY EXPECT These punishments will give you some idea of the horrors borrors which are bound to attend any protracted war in this part of the world The Japanese will carry on their struggle on western methods but the and the Chinese will do as they have done in the past and woe be beto beto beto to the prisoners who fall into their hands During the war between the I Chinese and English about a generation ago the foreign prisoners prisoners were carried about in iron cages and I met an Eng Eng- English English English lish consul at Canton a few years since who had his whiskers pulled out one at ata ata ata a time while he was being shown as a curiosity to the people in an iron pen the roof of which was so low that he could neither sit nor stand within it This man S Slid said at the time that China should give up a life for every hair he lost from his beard and his position I 1 Iam Iam am told was such that he was able to to- toL L carry out his threat The father of the present king who is now at the head of the government murdered the French missionarIes and the Corean Christians in the most barbarous of ways The heads of some of them were cut their top-knots top being tied together they were hung high on poles like so many onions The bodies of the dead were brought to Seoul in straw bags and were cast on the ground outside the southeast gate Such things are hardly possible today The are afraid of the foreigners and the officials have too much sense to allow the people to to- massacre them Still bull this was only a afew afew afew few years ago and when war comes in at the door common sense flies out at atthe atthe atthe the window THE AMERICAN COLONY IN COREA And this brings me to the American colony in Corea Some of the best men that the United States has ever pro pro- produced produced produced are now laboring there Dr H HN N Allen Alien the secretary of the American legation will go down into history as one as-one one of the greatest of our He has done more for Corea than any man ever connected with the United States legation and if our diplomatic service was or organized on any other than thana a political basis he would today be the American minister to Corea He has his wife and his children two bright boys with him and his house is inside the legation compound He comes from Ohio and he is thoroughly an able man manin manin manin in every respect He practically saved the life lite of one of the princes of the royal family and his value to America and Europe is inestimable The Ameri Ameri- American American American can minister Mr Sill has been in Corea only a short time I will write more concerning him in a future letter He has been a professor and an educator all his life and he is a cultured gentleman He comes from and was ap- ap appointed appointed ap appointed pointed largely through the influence of Don Dickinson He is a man of no ex- ex experience experience ex experience in diplomatic life life but he is well liked and he is making a very good minister There is only one American firm in Corea orea and this is is that of Morse Townsend which has its chief house at the port of James R Morse the senior senior partner lives in New NewYork NewYork NewYork York He has spent some years in Corea and Japan and he is a very able ableman ableman ableman man W D Townsend the other mem- mem member mem member ber of the firm is a a- a awell well educated Bos- Bos Bostonian Bostonian tonian |