KORKA. 



379 



being mainly the backs of bulls and men. The 



anarchy prevailing in certain provinces has also 

 thus Car checked the healthy development of com- 

 merce. 1'robably double the amount of gold leave- 

 the country beyond that declared at the custom- 

 house. The chief products of the country are rice, 

 cotton, beans, tobacco, silk, hides, fish, and gold 

 dust. At Chemulpo during the five years before 

 IS!':! the volume of trade by the .Japanese and Clii- 

 \vas in the ratio of 63 and 216. During 1894, 

 the year of war, the Japanese trade with Koreans 

 amounted to 8,088.010 yen. against 1,s<)4.4', > :> yen 

 by Chinese: and this discrepancy remained till 

 August, IS!)."); but during four months of 1895 the 

 Chinese merchants distanced their rivals. In im- 

 ports, those from Japan are driving out those from 

 Great Britain. The Japanese weavers, having 

 studied the Korean market closely, adopt the tex- 

 ture, length, and width of cotton goods of native 

 make in the southern provinces, which are deserved- 

 ly popular for their durability; and the width, 18 

 inches, is especially adapted to the making of Ko- 

 rean clothing without waste. These imported goods 

 are much cheaper than the native article. Hence 

 the import of Japanese cheap goods, which before 

 the war was insignificant, has thrown from the value 

 of $67.000 in 1894 to 390.000 in 1895. The ratio 

 of increase at one port. Won-Sen. was as 3-J to 39 in 

 one year. The Japanese yarn, though coarser and 

 less evenly spun, is s5 a picul (133 pounds) cheaper 

 than the British article, -and is rapidly supplanting 

 both that and the native yarn, for the native manu- 

 facture of cotton goods. Miscellaneous Japanese 

 piece goods are also a formidable rival of those 

 from Great Britain. The total net trade of Korea 

 for the past five years is: 1891, $10.249.199 : 1H'2. 

 s!Uiii!!.4iM.t : ]>'.:;.' s7.'.<*0.840; 1894, $11,067,000; 

 l^'-'i. xl2.sS4,232. 



The Army. Under Japanese and American offi- 

 cers the military forces of the kingdom have been 

 reconstructed, and the men armed, drilled, and uni- 

 formed in modern style. Most of the work, in the 

 face of great difficulties, has been creditably done 

 by American officers, (ten. William McE. Dye and 

 Col. Xieusted. During the past year the soldierly 

 appearance of the troops and their ability shown in 

 coping with the insurrections in the southern prov- 

 inces, won much praise from foreign critics. The 

 soldiers are partly drilled by Russian officers, and 

 are uniformed in Russian style. There is no navy. 



Events. The year opened with the pro-Japanese 

 Cabinet in power, some of the members of which 

 had been concerned in the murder of the Queen. 

 The King had been forced by them to sign a docu- 

 ment transferring the Government of the country 

 from the sovereign to the Cabinet. By his people the 

 King was believed to be virtually a prisoner in the 

 palace. The hair-cutting edict, which compelled the 

 people to alter the fashion of five hundred years and 

 to clip their hair short, was so very unpopular that it 

 was resisted, even to insurrection, in some places. 

 The news of the acquittal in Japan of the Japanese 

 envoy Miura and 47 other persons, believed to have 

 been implicated in the attack on the palace (led by 

 the Tai-Wen-Kun) and in the murder, by irrespon- 

 sible Japanese ruffians, of the Queen, Oct. 8. 1895, 

 caused intense indignation in Korea. It being 

 openly declared that some of these Japanese would 

 return to Seoul and be given important offices, the 

 people of Chung-Cheng rose against the authority 

 of the Cabinet and threatened to march on Seoul. 

 The King, fearing a plot that would endanger his 

 personal safety, determined to escape to the Russian 

 legation. The plan was elaborated chiefly, by the 

 palace women. Early on the morning of Feb. 11 

 the King and the Crown Prince made secret flight in 

 one of the common closed chairs used by the female 



servants of the palace. The day before the Ru 

 legation guard was increased by the arrival of IL'7 

 men from the C/.ar's men-of-war at Chemulj 

 that inside the gates the force was -I rong enough 

 to protect the King in case forcible attempt- should 

 be made to remove him. By night every member 

 of the old Cabinet was dead or fugitive', and two 

 members the Prime Minister and the Minister of 

 Agriculture (who was known to have prevented tin- 

 Queen from escaping from her murderers) had 

 been killed and their naked bodies outraged by the 

 mob, which sympathized wit lithe King in his escape. 

 On the same day the King issued an appeal to his 

 soldiers to protect him and to "go after the chief 

 traitors (members of his former Cabinet); to cut off 

 their heads at once, and bring them." A later edict 

 modified this, and ordered the traitors to trial. 



A new Cabinet was appointed, and the troops 

 were recalled from Chung-Chong province, because 

 the rebels laid down their arms when they heard 

 that the pro-Japanese Cabinet had ceased to have 

 power. In other parts of the country anti-Japanese 

 riots broke out, in which the telegraph wires and 

 poles were cut down. In all. 62 Japanese, mostly 

 telegraph workmen or operators, were killed. The 

 other events of that day were the repeal of the ob- 

 noxious law ordering the cutting off of the top- 

 knots, the release of prisoners from the prisons, 

 and the removal of the Queen Dowager and the 

 Crown Princess also to the Russian legation, where 

 the King still holds his government, though going 

 to the palace to receive foreign envoys, one of whom 

 presented the claim of the Mikado's Government 

 for $146,000 indemnity for Japanese subjects killed 

 during the February riots. 



The official report of the judicial commission ap- 

 pointed by the King to examine into the murder of 

 the Queen and the result of the trial, conducted be- 

 fore ex-United States Consul C. R. Greathouse and 

 by the Minister of Justice, Yi-Pom-Chin (now Ko- 

 rean minister in Washington), was made public in 

 March. It showed that the actual assassins of the 

 Queen were Japanese ruffians, and that the Japanese 

 dressed in plain clothes and armed with swords and 

 pistols who were directly engaged in the affair (ex- 

 clusive of the regular Japanese military, whose offi- 

 cers facilitated their entrance) numbered about sixty. 



On April 7 appeared the ' Seoul Independent." a 

 journal of Korean commerce, politics, literature, 

 history, and art. printed in Korean and English, 

 and edited by Philip Jaison, a Korean by birth, but 

 now an American citizen. 



The Memorial Dispensary in honor of James 

 Hall, M. D., an American missionary at Ping- Yang, 

 was begun in May. 



Dr. McLeavy Brown was appointed adviser to 

 the Finance Department. 



The forty-fifth birthday of the King was cele- 

 brated Sept. 2 by native and foreign dignitaries 

 and by a great gathering of Korean Christians 

 who. Church members and adherents to the num- 

 ber of about 2.000. assembled in the pavilion near 

 the old Mo-Ila-Kwan ("Gate of Welcome and 

 Blessing"), where formerly before the ambassadors 

 from China the King of Korea used to perform the 

 act of vassalage to the Chinese Emperor. The cere- 

 monies consisted of prayer, songs, and addresses, 

 and were highly approved of by the King, who also 

 received later 'the students of the Royal English 

 School. These, in their foreign uniform, with hair 

 cut in Western style, after wishing his Majesty long 

 life, gave him three cheers. 



On Sept. 4 a great procession left the palace, 

 bearing the remains of the late Queen, and through 

 a vast concourse of people moved to the Spirit 

 House and House of Preparation, where the body 

 was deposited with solemn ceremonies. On the 



