412 



KOREA. 



KRUGER, STEPHANUS JOHANNES PAUL. 



Foreign Trade. The total trade for 1897 was 

 $11,755,625 in gold, and for 1898 $8,703,932 in 

 gold. The short crop of 1897, though succeeded 

 by a better one in 1898, made the natives timid 

 about parting with their food supplies, and 

 hindered trade. American imports have increased. 

 In 1897 they amounted to $400,000 in gold. In 

 1898 railroad material, $297,861, and petroleum, 

 $189,380, were the chief items in the total of 

 $655,037. In textiles the import of Japanese yarn, 

 used by the native women on their hand looms, 

 increases, while that of shirting decreases, that 

 for 1898 being 500,000 pieces. The Korean's com- 

 mercial instinct is feeble. He runs easily into 

 debt, and permanently overdraws his account at 

 the bank. Hence the Chinese trader is steadily 

 replacing the native. Japanese and Chinese have 

 acquired so much land, through the foreclosure 

 of mortgages, that the Korean Government fears 

 lest whole cities get into the hands of these aliens. 

 Concessions are granted to American, German, 

 and English syndicates to work gold mines on 

 condition that one fourth the net product be paid 

 to the Korean Government, and these enterprises 

 are doing well. Forty Americans and 1,200 Kore- 

 ans are employed on the 60 stamps that treat 

 the auriferous rock in the region of Wonsan (or 

 Gensan), including 1,000 square miles. Coal is 

 not yet mined by foreigners, but the surface fuel 

 is bagged at $90 a ton, mixed with red clay and 

 used in balls, which burn well but are costly. 

 Japanese and Russian companies are licensed to 

 catch whales off the coast. The whales are shot 

 from small steamers, and their carcases are towed 

 ashore, cut up, and salted, to be sent to Japan 

 as whale beef, which is bought at good prices 

 and eaten. This Japanese interest amounted in 

 1898 to $1,750,000, and into Nagasaki alone 2,030,- 

 912 pounds of whale meat, worth $56,470, were 

 imported. The whalebone, being inferior, is sent 

 to Japan for manure. Various minor concessions 

 have been granted to Russians (lumbering, lease 

 of land for whale curing, etc.), Germans, and 

 Americans, native workers having the privilege 

 of steamer service on the Ta-tong river, the Seoul- 

 Gensan telegraph, and the working of coal mines. 



Railways. Surveys for the Seoul-Fusan Rail- 

 way have been completed by the Japanese, but 

 since the change in the programme of the Rus- 

 sian Manchurian lines nothing beyond survey has 

 as yet been done by the French syndicate. The 

 Seoul-Chemulpo Railway, 25 miles long, stand- 

 ard American gauge, built by Messrs. Colbran & 

 James for James R. Morse, the concessionaire 

 all Americans at a cost of $1,500,000 in gold, 

 is running 4 trains daily between port and 

 capital. The concession and materials were sold, 

 Dec. 31, 1898, to a Japanese syndicate. It was 

 opened for traffic Sept. 1, 1899. In Seoul Mr. 

 Colbran built an electric trolley railway 6 miles 

 long for a Korean company, of which Ye-Cha- 

 Yun, formerly in Washington, is president. It 

 runs from outside the new west gate through 

 the city to the east gate, and thence to the im- 

 perial tomb. It was at first injured by the mob, 

 because they supposed it hindered rain, but it is 

 now popular and pays well. 



Politics and Events. The yrar has been char- 

 acterized by an intense conservative reaction in 

 the Government and an absence of important 

 diplomatic or political events, except the chronic 

 local rebellions in the provinces and the plots 

 of rivals and partisans in the capital. Though 

 the solar calendar was adopted in 1895, and is 

 officially observed, yet the people still celebrate, 

 with a fortnight of rejoicings and old-time cus- 

 toms, the lunar calendar and the Chinese New 



Year's Day and season. After riots between the 

 reform and the conservative elements, the ped- 

 dlers' and butchers' guilds were abolished and 

 the Independence Club and the popular move- 

 ment were reduced to nullity. In March a school 

 for girls was opened in Seoul by Korean ladies, 

 the first in the country under native auspices. 

 After much excitement between the anti-Russian 

 party and their few opponents, during which Kim- 

 Hong-Niuk, a powerful pro-Russian, was mur- 

 dered and his body mutilated by the mob, Russia 

 and Japan, on April 25, agreed on a modus Vivendi, 

 both recognizing the sovereignty of Korea and 

 engaging to refrain from direct interference in 

 her internal affairs. No military or financial ad- 

 visers will be nominated by either without mu- 

 tual agreement. Russia agrees not to impede 

 the commercial relations between Japan and 

 Korea. On June 8 Prince Henry of Prussia ar- 

 rived at Chemulpo, and on the llth he had audi- 

 ence of the King, with a review of 3,000 troops. 

 On the same day there were attacks with dyna- 

 mite bombs on five Korean ministers. On Oct. 

 21 the King's adviser, Mr. G. R. Greathouse, an 

 American of great legal ability, followed in death 

 Gen. Charles Le Gendre, who for several years 

 held the same office, and Gen. William McE, Dye, 

 the American military instructor and Vice-Minis- 

 ter of War. The year was one of notable activity 

 in Christian missionary work at the ports and 

 the capital, and of steady progress in education, 

 with a revival of Confucianism among the yang- 

 ban. 



KRUGER, STEPHANUS JOHANNES 

 PAUL, President of the South African Republic. 

 He was born in Rastenburg, Cape Colony, in 1825. 

 His father was not of the old Afrikander stock, 

 but an immigrant from Germany, one of the 

 many that came from the Rhine country in the 

 eighteenth century and merged readily in the 

 Dutch population, to which in language and race 

 they were closely related. When the Boers of 

 the eastern parts of the colony, rendered desper- 

 ate by the decision of the British Government 

 that the Kaffirs who had murdered their neigh- 

 bors, stolen their cattle, and burned their home- 

 steads were in the right, aggrieved too by the 

 policy of the colonial Government to uproot the 

 Dutch language and laws, determined to abandon 

 their homes and their fixed property and to go 

 far into the wilderness to seek a promised land 

 where the English scepter could not reach, the 

 Krugers were as ready as the old Cape families 

 to leave their roof tree and encounter the dan- 

 gers of the great trek. Paul Kruger was only 

 a boy of twelve, but so strong and bold that when 

 a leopard seized his little sister he rescued her 

 and killed the beast with his knife. They were 

 with one of the commandos, all neighbors and 

 relatives, that trekked all the way over the 

 Orange, over the Vaal, up the valley of the Cale- 

 don, over the Drakensberg, and from their laager 

 on the Tugela sent their wisest farmers out to 

 view the land; and they found it fair, the rich 

 terrace country of Natal, truly the promised land 

 of Canaan. Then came the negotiation with 

 Dingaan, then his treacherous massacre of their 

 leaders, then the deep cry for vengeance, the 

 vengeance of the Lord, and the long, crafty war, 

 that strange war of 200 or 300 men against 30,- 

 000; but their faith gave them strength, and they 

 won the final victory. Then came a British de- 

 tachment, and the officer told them that they were 

 British subjects; and when re-enforcements ar- 

 rived the British flag was raised over the land 

 of the Amorites that they had taken with the 

 sword. Back over the steep pass of the Drakens- 



