KOREA. 



411 



paper, and the assertion was made that the elec- 

 tion should be declared void in those counties. 

 On the other hand, it was declared that the 

 returning boards had thrown out every vote for 

 rejecting which the slightest pretext could be 

 found, and that 25,000 anti-Goebel votes were 

 lost by their rulings. 



The official count gave the election to the Re- 

 publicans, the vote for Governor being reported: 

 Taylor, 193,714; Goebel, 191,331; Brown, 12,140; 

 Blair, 3,038; Wallace, 2,34(5; Schmutz, 510. 



One member of the Board of Commissioners 

 prepared a minority statement, in which he de- 

 clared his belief that the Democratic candidates 

 were legally elected, and that the use of tissue 

 ballots should have rendered void the election in 

 several counties. He denounced the use of militia 

 on election day as reprehensible and intolerable 

 in an Anglo-Saxon community. 



The Railroad Commissioners elected were J. 

 Fletcher Dempsey and C. C. McChord, Democrats, 

 and John C. Wood, Republican. 



The Legislature of 1900 stands: In the Senate, 

 26 Democrats and 12 Republicans; in the House, 

 59 Democrats and 41 Republicans. 



The inauguration of the new State officers took 

 place Dec. 12. Notices of contest were served. 

 It was expected that while those for the two 

 higher offices would come before the Legisla- 

 ture, those for the minor offices would be decided 

 by the election board sitting as a board of con- 

 test. Two members of this board having re- 

 signed, the State Election Board, or some other 

 Democratic authority, appointed two Goebel 

 Democrats to succeed them, while Gov. Taylor 

 appointed a Republican and an anti-Goebel Demo- 

 crat, thus further complicating matters. 



Meantime, in December, a suit was brought to 

 have a local-option election in Ohio County de- 

 clared void. One of the minor grounds of con- 

 test was the use of very thin or tissue-paper 

 ballots, and it was supposed that the decision 

 in regard to their acceptance would be used in 

 the election contests that were to come. The 

 county election on the local-option question was 

 held to be valid. 



An address was issued to the Democrats of the 

 State, Dec. 21, signed by former Senator Black- 

 burn, chairman of the State Campaign Commit- 

 tee, Chairman Young, of the State Central and 

 Executive Committees, and all of the members of 

 those committees, in which they said: 



"The Democratic party of Kentucky, through 

 its several State committees, has unanimously 

 declared that the best interests of the party, as 

 well as justice, demand that contests shall be 

 made by all the candidates on the Democratic 

 ticket for the respective offices for which they 

 were nominated." 



The contest for the offices of Governor and Lieu- 

 tenant Governor before the Legislature belongs 

 to the history of 1900. 



KOREA, or Cho-sen (" Morning Radiance "), a 

 country in eastern continental Asia. Seaward it 

 fronts Japan, and it lies between China and Rus- 

 sia, separated from the former by Yalu river 

 and the Ever- White mountains, and from the lat- 

 ter along a frontier of 11 miles by Tumen river. 

 No exact census of the population has been taken, 

 but, estimating from the number of houses, there 

 are 13,000,000 to 15,000,000 souls in the empire. 

 Females are in the minority. The three social 

 classes are the yang-ban (civil and military), who 

 live by Government employ in idleness or by evad- 

 ing taxes and tolls; the mass of the people, mostly 

 agricultural ; and the seven degraded classes. The 

 peddlers and butchers form powerful guilds, 



which, though now abolished in form, are very 

 influential, and almost all industry is organized 

 into powerful societies. Buddhism, under ban 

 from 1392 to 1895, and its priests and monks dur- 

 ing that period disallowed entrance into cities, 

 is the popular religion, and is now unrestrained. 

 Confucianism is the cult of the literary and of- 

 ficial classes. Sorcery and superstitions abound, 

 influencing every action of life. There are many 

 grotesque expressions of these in the sculpture 

 fronting the royal palace, besides the colossal 

 monolith mir-ycks (distance posts) near every 

 village, tablets, and stone work of various kinds 

 throughout the country. 



Government. Succession to the throne of the 

 Korean Empire is hereditary, and the edict of 

 the sovereign is law. The written Constitution, 

 in 9 articles issued in August, 1899 declares 

 the independence of the country, and that for 

 five hundred years Korea has been an absolute 

 monarchy, and that it shall remain so for all 

 time. The other 7 articles asserts in detail his 

 prerogatives of absolutism. Historically, Ki-ja, 

 an ancestor of Confucius, was the founder of 

 Cho-sen (1122 B.C. to 9 A. D.), which gave way 

 to the Three Kingdoms (9-9GO A. D.), and these 

 to united Korea, or Korai (960-1392), and this 

 again to Cho-sen, founded by the present ruling 

 dynasty, which in 1864 failed of direct heirs, when 

 the present King, then a minor, was nominated, 

 his father, the Tai-Wen-Kun, practically ruling 

 the country for twenty years. From early ages 

 Korea was China's vassal, and paid tribute, while 

 Japan also claimed her as a tributary. Through 

 the Chino- Japanese War of 1894-'95, and by the 

 treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Korea was de- 

 clared free. On Oct. 14, 1897, at 3 A.M., before 

 the altars of the spirits of the land, the King 

 assumed the title of Emperor and named his 

 realm Dai-Han (" Great Han," in distinction from 

 the ancient San-Han, or "Three Kingdoms"). 

 In administration he is assisted by a Council of 

 State and 9 ministers, presided over by a Pre- 

 mier. The ministers are: Royal Household, Fi- 

 nance, Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, War, Jus- 

 tice, Agriculture, and Education. In each of the 

 14 provinces there is a governor, and in each of 

 the 360 districts a magistrate. There is no navy 

 apart from revenue vessels, but 5,000 men are 

 armed and drilled in modern style. Nine ports 

 are open to foreign trade and residence. 



Open Ports. Chemulpo, near the capital, Fu- 

 san, in the southeast, and Wonsan, in the north- 

 east, have hitherto been open to foreign com- 

 merce and residence, and aliens, mostly nontrad- 

 ing, also have lived in the capital. Mokpo and 

 Chenampo were opened in 1895. On May 1, 1899, 

 4 new ports, after due survey of the land, were 

 formally opened Kunsan, on the west coast, 

 south of Chemulpo; Masampo, in the southeast, 

 near Fusan; Sungchin, on the east coast; and 

 the city of Ping- Yang, in the north, as a trade 

 mart. The Russians and Japanese have at Ma- 

 sampo especially taken up land so eagerly and 

 so largely that a collision between these rivals 

 seemed for a while imminent. There are now 

 about 20,000 Japanese in Korea, 2,000 being in 

 Seoul and the majority at Fusan. In the new 

 treaty, published in October, 1899, in which China 

 is called the Middle Kingdom, Korean subjects 

 in China have the full rights of the most-favored- 

 nation subjects, while in Korea no Chinaman 

 can do stationary trade outside the treaty ports. 

 A handsome new bund or sea wall and avenue 

 fronting the water in Chemulpo was opened with 

 a grand celebration in June, 1899, by the Japanese 

 residents, who number 6,000. 



