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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 22, 1905)
How Corea Will Be Modernized by (Copyright. 19(5. by Frank O. Carpehtr ) ISKINQTON, D. C. Oct. 19 (Spe- w rial Correspondence of The -.) The second article of the Ru- I 1 'rA a'an-Japanese treaty practically '-"-' Corea to J.ipan. l stipu lates that Russia must keep its hands off and that the mikado will do as he please without let or hindrance. The kins of Core Is already under the thumb of the Japan emperor, and this .treaty Means the Japanlzation of the hermit kingdom. Japaniiatlon mean westernization, or as we call it, civilisation. The modern movement has already be gun. -The Japanese have been building railroads during; the war. They have completed the line from Fusan, the port at the lower end of the peninsula Just across the strait from Japan, to Seoul, .and have extended this line on north to ihe Yalu river at WuJI. Within a short time bridge will be put across the Yalu, and tho line extended on to Mukden to connect with the new Japanese railroads which have been transferred to them by the Russians. When the Mukden-Yalu line Is built there will be a. continuous railroad track from 8t.. Petersburg to Fusan. and one can go by land from Paris to Fusan and. with only a few hours' steamship voyage, on to Japan. Corea'a Great Trank Line. The railroad from Fusan to the Yalu will be the great trunk line of Corea. It vlll tap tho largest cities odd will open up the whole of the western and southern parts of the Island. I understand that the Japa nese .have bought large tracts of laud here and there along It, and that they will es tablish colonics. There are already thou sands of Japanese In Fusan and Seoul and from now on the ships will be full of Immi grants. This railroad will altogether be iilmtit 500 miles long. ' The Seoul-Fusan end Is of the standard American gauge. It is lui'gely equipped with American rails and the bridgo work Is American. It has Amer ican locomotives and other American roll ing stock. The line from Seoul to the Yalu was started . as a private enterprise, but the Japanese government took charge of It during" the war and completed It in a slov enly military way.. The result Is that the rails axe too light for a trunk line and the bridges are wooden. The track will have to bo relald and It will take some time to put It in commercial working order. Cores'! First Railroad. The first railroad In Corea was built by 'Americans. It runs from the port of Che mulpo on the west coast twenty-six miles inland to 8eoul, the capital. Tho conces sion for this was secured in the latter part of the nineties by James R. Morse, and the road was buiit by Colbran and BostwicK. American materials and American rolling stock were used. As soon as the road was completed It was Sold to the Japanese, and It is now "a, part of the Seoul-Fusan system. I understand that a road will be built fruin Seoul to Gensan, on the opposite side of the peninsula, but whether this will be done by the Seoul-Fusan company I do not know. I have traveled considerably in Corea and knew something of Its old means of transportation. When I first visited the country, sixteen years ago, there waa no way of getting from Fusan to Seoul ex cept V9 ?onles or by porters, and it would have taken two or three weeks to have, made the trip. It can now be made In less than a day. I then landed at Fusan and sailed around to Chemulpo. It took a whole day to go from Chemulpo to Seoul, a dis tance of twenty-six miles, and It la my re membrance tha the cost waa $25. I bad my wit with me and we were carried ovor the mountains in chairs with eight men to each Chair, or sixteen In all. The trip' can now be made at low cost. In a little more than an hour, and that In comfortable cars. My next' trip to Chemulpo was just be fore the Chinese-Japanese war, when the peninsula was torn by rebellion. I then went to Seoul up the Han river In a little Japanese steam launch, and was carried from the river to the city In a chair. Leav ing Seoul I made my way over the moun tains of Corea to the port of Gensan, on the east coast, along about the same route that a railroad will have to take In cross ing the peninsula. The distance Is 173 miles, and It cost me between one and two hundred thousand cash, or, In American money, about $100. I had to equip a pack train and carry a guide, a cook and food and bedding. It took about a week to go from One place to the other. With the new railroad the trip will be made In less than a day. tw Moaey System. One of the first things the Japanese will do will be to reorganise the money and banking system of Corea, The financial Officers Railway i - -. - ' : . . ' : ; .-4 '. . : y v -w-aa. ("' V " " v: V : -k C. R LONG. SECRET ART-TREASURER. SIXTH DIVISION RAILWAT MAIL ASSOCIATION. system of Jnpan will be adopted. A gov ernment bunk will probe My be established at Seoul, and the currency placed on a gt.ld basis. At present the Corenn money Is of nil kinds. There are silver dollars, nlcke's, copper coins and copper cash. Many of the nickels were made by the Cores n govern merit, but others hnve been manufactured by private parties, under permits from the government: so thnt one cannot tell where the coins come from. Counterfeiting Is com mon, und there- are altogether aUout twen.-: ty-slx different varieties of nickels In cir. cMation. each supposed to be -worth I't rents, and most of them bad. As a result the people are afrnid of these coins and the time hns been when it would take VO nickels to ciual the Value of an American dollar. The silver coins ate the Japanese yen. the half-dollars, or half-yen, and the in and 10-sen pieces. Copper catth is still in use In out of the way places. It takes 1.00 or 2.000 of these to eqnn) n. dnlUir J'f pur money, tho values rising and tailing;. During my stay in the country all account for small things had to le paid in these cash. When I went out shopping I took a servant with nie to carry my money, and on my trips through the In terior we bad a porter who was loaded down with such stuff. Indeed. $50 worth of cash Is a good-sized burden for a mul". Kncli cash has u hole In It. In order tliet It may be strung with Its fellows upon strings for ease In counting and carrying. re per Money end Banking. There Is now considerable Japanese paper money In circulation In Corea. The notes of the chief Japanese banks are worth pur and about 3.000.000 paper yen are scattered over the country. They are generally used by the foreigners and are the chief cur rency for largo transactions. , Banking in Corea is practically confined to the Japanese. - The Ichl-Glnko or First Bank of Japan has an establishment In Seoul and branches at all the treaty ports and so has the Nippon Klnko of the Bank of Japan. The First bank has had Its branches on the peninsula for more than Uti years. ' I remember there was one at Some Recent Events in the Competition In Telephones. YUR separate and well-financed telephone companies are knocking for admission on the door of Greater New Y6rk and are prom ising sweeping reforms and re- ductlons as conditions of their franchises. The New York Telephone Company now holds a monopoly of the business and col lects top-notcli tolls. The companies wish ing to compete are the Atlantic Telephone, the Star Telephone, the Commonwealth Telephone and the Manhattan and Bronx Telephone and Teleautograph. The At lantic Is the most feared by the monopoly, as It is affiliated with the syndicate headed by W. D. Powers of Louisville, which has been bullllng Independent telephone lines In many of the best paying territories of the country. The Commonwealth company also has been building many new lines In New Jer sey, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsyl vania. , It Is believed that there Is a link be tween these independent companies and their applications are a part of a concerted fight on tho Bell company In Greater New York,, the best paying telephone territory In the world. . All the . independent com panies promise a 6-cents-a-call rate In the confines of any borough, as against the 10-cent rate of the New York Telephone Company. They also promise a 10-cent call rate between boroughs, whereas the present rates range from 15 to 25 cent. Electricity la the Hoasehold. Everybody knows more or less about elec tricity as applied to the big public utili ties, but acquaintance with tho many uses of the "fluid" to make domestic living more comfortable Is still confined largely to the Individual users. How many persons know, for example, that a man may go on a journey with a stove In his trunk? Such Is the fact, however, and the stove, to gether with a cup that will hold three and a half pints of water, may be packed away In something less than the space needed for a pair of shoes. The little stove looks like a plain iron disk, but inside of It are the wires that generate heat whenever it is connected with an electric light fixture. And this heat Is without flame, and, there fore, much safer than an alcohol burner. It provides him with hot water for shaving, bathing or drinking If be happens to be one of the good-sited army of nien who find that good digestion waits on a regu Mail Association - F -. . w . ' : A! ,- ; . -' .. v.. r . SEOT'I8 OLD WATER WORKS-NEW ARE BEING PUT IN BY AMERICANS. Gensan when I reached there after my trip across the mountains from Seoul In 1894. I was out of money and askedfthem to cash a draft on my letter of credit. They' re fused. The result was that I had to wait until I reaped Vladivostok, Siberia, the Jupanese Steamship company kindly trust ing me for my passage from Gensan to that port. (W Telegraphs aid Telephones. The postal and telegraph systems of lar glass of hot water or, maybe, for a little laundry work necessitated by the exigencies of travel. Jf he likes to keep his clothes pressed his trunk may also contain an electric pressing iron which hitches to a convenient electiict light fixture. Women travelers nowadays often carry these convenient Irons, and their remarka ble safoty is Illustrated by a bit of care lessness that recently occurred In a New York hotel, and might, under . any other form of heating, have had the most serious consequences. A woman, who had been using an electric Iron left it standing on the floor and departed on. a shopping ex pedition without turning oft the current. The Iron remained . hot; ,but without set ting the house on fire It slowly burned Its way through the wood and was .discovered when It was just about to continue to burn Its way through tho plastered celling un derneath. It had settled slowly, literally eating up the flooring and leaving a hole the exact size of, the iron. , In the "electrical household" chafing dish parties, are, of course, conducted- with elec tric chafing dishes, the heat being not only more regular, but much safer than that supplied by the familiar alcohol burner. But in many households where electricity has not displaced either the coal or gus stove Officers of the Railway Mail Association N THE fifteenth annual convention of the Sixth Division Railway Mail association held recently in Lincoln an Omaha manv G. H. Worley, was honored by election 2S to the presidency and C. R. Long of Coun cil Bluffs was chosen secretary-treasurer. Mr. Worley is a clerk in the railway mall service and runs In the Omaha and Ogden railway postoftice over the Union Pacific between Omaha and Cheyenne. Mr. Long Is a clerk in the same service and runs In the Chicago and Council Bluffs railway postoftice over the Burlington route be tween Chicago and Council Bluffs. The railway mall service is divided Into New Method of f OW beat to Impart the rudimentary I JJ I Instruction in muslo has puzzled LJLJ those who follow the study for iLW'.'lJ many years. The old-fashioned UaUi methods were laborious and tedi ous and lacked In the essential element, that they did not early Impress the child ish mind with the Importance of the funda- mentals. - One natural effect of this was that the drudgery destroyed the interest, and much was lost to the cause of music because the beginner waa turned away from ita beauties by the difficulty of the approach. It has been the effort of the best thinkers to devise some means whereby this could be avoided and a solid founda tion fur a musical understanding be laid without the tiresome routine tha$ so often gave the child an aversion rather than a love for the beautiful art. As relates to thd piano much If not all of this difficulty 7- ' V ' Si f: -. 1 -i 1. v V WATER WORKS Corea will probably be under the manage ment of the Japanese. - Indeed, I believe it Is practically so now. During the war the telegraph system has been rapidly pushed and there are now more than 2,000 miles of line. There are cables from Fu.san to Japan and all the open ports and mines are in telegraphic communication with Seoul. The different Corean lines connect with the dif ferent Chinese telegraph systems, so that one can send messages to Corea from any part of the world. Telegrams are received the electric oven has become extremely pop ular. The advantage of the electric oven is that It heats up quickly and 'maintains a perfectly uniform heat. Or in this same partly electrified household one may find that an electric lighter, with a small port able battery. Is being used to light the gas ; or that a small electrical searchlight Is tak ing the place of any other form of lllumlna ' tlon when, the mistress of the house wishes , to find something way back in the pantry or linen closet. Clocks also are now made to keep Umo by electricity and the smallest member of the family may likewise thank Benjamine Franklin for discovering a sub ; stance that warms the milk bottle almost quicker than ono can set .thirsty, to say , nothing of providing a remarkably neat and ' comfortable substitute for the old - fashioned hot water bag. - Katare of Electricity. i Dealing; with the science problems of the twentieth century In the. Popular . Science 'Monthly Pro.Ay E. Dol bear says concern- . lag 1 the ' all-embracing -mystery of electri city: .' .. ; ; , ,v, ." . , "Here. on the . threshold of the new cen tsry we are confronted with the question, 'What is electricity?' and the answer im plied by the question seems to demand , a - eleven divisions and this,' the Sixth divi sion. Is composed of the states of Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and the Black Hills district of South Dakota. In this di vision there are 1,700 clerks, traveling over 26,000 miles of railroad, which extends from Chicago on the east to Ogden on the west and from Kansas City on the south to Bil lings, Mont., ' on the north. The Railway Mail association, like the railway mall service, has eleven division organizations, which, taken together, form the national association. The Sixth Division association has over 1,500 members, who pay Into the national organization annually, 'through Treasurer Long, the sum of $21,750. This Teaching Music Beginners Is now evaded by a course which gives the pupil a thorough preliminary training with out the drudgery at the keyboard and sends him to the instrument fitted to enjoy and appreciate its beauties almost at once. It is not claimed that the new fystem fits the pupil to perform any of the greater com positions at first; that roust be learned, as always, by long practice, but the new plan does make it easier for hinNtp learn. The piano Is approached by easy gradations. Before the students go to the piano to practice they are taught to read all over the grand staff and the added lines, and are able to calculate note values, as high as the l-12Sth notes. The hands are shaped, the wrists made loose, and the proper action is given to the fingers. The memory and the ear are thoroughly and - - - - t- eiV "V- 'W' ' I " " " ! f .V' Wit ''" -4 t CHILDREN LEARNING IfTJSIC BY NEW METHOD. Its New 1' y A- NATIVE CORKAN FREIGHT TRAIN, WHICH WILL BE SUPPLANTED BY JAPANESE RAILROADS. In Chinese, Japanese or Corean. They are sent by the Morso code. There are now telephones from Seoul to Chemulpo and a telephone system will probably be extended to all the large cities. V Japanese Shipping-. The Japanese expeGi to Improve the ship ping facilities. The shores of the peninsula are 'dangerous, there being many sunken rocks: It Is planned to build a string of lighthouses about the coast, and this work Field of something which could be described by one who knew enough, as one would describe some new mineral or gas or (thtng. Some eminent scientific men ore befogged by the question, say it is some ultimate, unknow ablo thing and hopeless as an Inquiry. If It be a something it must be described by its constant properties as other things are. If it be unlike everything' else then It can not be described by tei-ms that apply to anything else. All .material things bave some common properties. A glowing coal Is an Incandescent solid, a flame is an In candescent gas, but neither glow nor flame' exists apart from the matter that ex hibits the phenomena. Both are conditions of partloula kinds of matter.; If electrio phenomena are different from 'gravitatfve or thermal or luminous phenomena it does not follow that electricity Is miraculous or that It Is a substance. We know pretty thoroughly what to expect from It,' for it is as quantitatively related' to mechanical and' thermal' and luminous phenomena as they are to each other, so if they are con ditions of matter the presumption would be' strongly In favor of electricity's being a condition or property of matter, and the question, 'What Is electricity? would then be answered in a way by saying so, but large payment is required because the as sociation furnishes Its members with ac cident Insurance, Indemnifying both for ac cidental injury and accidental death. Mr. Worley is also a member of the ex ecutive committee of the national body and went recently to Cincinnati to attend the fourteenth annual convention. He was accompanied by the following named dele gates, who represented the Sixth division in the convention: Messrs. W. H. Rlddell, Dekalb, Hi.; R. E. Erwln, Omaha; O. H. Perry, Cedar Rapids, la.; J. G. Piper, Bur lington, la.; T. L. Senseman. Chicago, and D. K. Walker, Kankakee, 111. systematically trained; a great 'deal of systematlo Instruction about muslo Itself Is given, the elements of harmony are taught, even to the youngest, and the whole course to the higher ranks of preformers is made as smooth as possible. About twenty weeks is the course prescribed for the beginners before they are called on to do any practice at the Instrument, though at the end of that time they play all the major and minor scales, chords and cadences, play simple exercises and trannpose into any key. Even though they can not play a Mozart sonata, they' have a better start in muslo than the average grown-up. and can under stand and appreciate music, as they could not In years of study at tho instrument. A school for teaching this method has been opened at the Chambers' academy and is attracting much attention among teachers and students. - " ? - J- f ; a, ' ' ,. ''-v . K. Japanese will probably be begun at once. As It is now, the Japanese do most of the carrying trade. The Stiosen Kalsha has frequent steamers between Corea and Japan, and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha has a rcKtilur service between China. Jnpan and Coren. There la an American in, Corea who own." a fine little vessel Vlrlch sails from Kolio ajid Osaka In Japnn to the various ports of Corea. His ship flies the American flag. It is called tho Ohio, and Is noted for Its ex cellent passenger accommodations. The ' American Gold Mining company has also some small ships at Chennmpo which sail under tho American flag. The Ilamburg- ' American line runs German steamers be tween Chemulpo and Shanghai. Now that the war is over Japanese .hinlis may be put on the Yalu river. This stream Is about 3i miles long and It can be navi gated by native craft as far as Shlukulhuo, although steamers now stop at Antung. Japan Will Gobble the Trade. Japun bus already the bulk of the Corean trade, and under the new regime it will have more than ever. Corea's foreign com merce amounts to about $13.0oo.0P0 a year. It is steadily Increasing and will probably double and triple within a decado or so. Much of the gouds that we send to Corea goes through Japanese hands and is clashed as Japanese. We send a great deal of cotton goods and we supply most of the coal oil. The Standard Oil company has storage warehouses at Chemulpo and Fusan. and it ship two or three million gallons of oil to them every year. Our chief competitors In this line aire the Russians, but their oil congeals In the winter, and, although they undersell us, we do the most business. Our cottons are popular In Corea. They are stronger and heavier than the goods made by the Japanese or British: and. although more costly, are In general demand. Every man, woman and child of Corea wears cotton. The men have long gowns, and the amount of clothes per capita is greater per haps than that 'of any other country. Americans We ought to have lu Corea. a monopoly of most Electricity such an answer would not be the answer apparently expected to the question. To say it was a property of matter would be not much more Intelllgiblo than to say the same of gravitation. At -best It would add another property to the list of prop erties we already credit It with, as elas ticity, attraction and so on. In any case the nature of electricity remains to be discovered and stated in terms common to other forms of phenomena, and It is to be hoped that long before this new century shall have been completed mankind will be able to form as adequate an Idea of elec tricity as it now has of heat." Prof. Dol bear intimates in his article the belief that the field of Investigation and research re mains as large and fruitful as it has ever been. Frelajht-Carrytnc Trolley Lines. v Two lnterurban electric railroad com panies have been organized In California for the purpose of handling freight as well as passengers. The San Francisco Chron icle says the projected lines "will pene trate productive districts which cannot be reached by steam railroads, owing to tha excessive gradients and other engineering difficulties to be overcome. Such lnterur ban electric railways as are now In operas tion as feeders to steam railroads are so far devoted only to passenger carrying. Their franchises 'qualify them, however, to carry freight also, and, in time, they will doubtless exercise the, privilege. Indeed the Pacific lnterurban electric system, op erated In.Loa Angeles county, has blossomed out as a freight carrier. The innovation lias provoked a lawsuit to permanently en join It from currying freight through the city of Los Angeles, but this litigation will no doubt end in establishing its right to do so without let or hindrance. The electrio railways in this city and in the transbay cities are exercising the right of freight carrying In a modified degree by hauling over their tracks the fuel consumed In their respective power-houses, and It is only a question of time, probably, when they will assume the character of common carriers of freight at such periods of the day when it will not Interfere with the passenger traffic. As the business of freight carrying on suitable electric cars can be conducted as inoffensively as pas senger carrying, there can be no reasonable objection raised against the practice. If It should be put in operation." Officers Railway a H. WDRLET. PRESIDENT, SIXTH XION. Masters things In the hermit kingdom. Americana bavo done more for It than the peoplo of any other nation. It was our naval ves sels which llrst unlinked Its doors to tha world, and our missionaries savn It th1 first tusto of western civilisation and of the Christian religion. Our trader were among the first Importers, and our capitalists built the first railroad. Americans now own most of the valmible gold mines and are developing them. The electric railway of Seoul Ik-Iodrs to Americans, and Its eloclria light company Is an American Institution. It Is the same with the Seoul water works) and also with the national bank, the char ter of which was given to an American. There nie now 240 Americans In Corea, Of these leo live in Seoul, sixty-five are working In the gold mines at I'nsan, thirty four live In Pingyang and ten are associ ated with the railroads. Five Americana are In the service of the Corean govern ment ami the confidential foreign adviser of the king on the' part of the Japanese Is also an American. The man who has done more than any other for western civiliza tion In Corea, more to render the life of foreigners safe there and more to advance the Interests of the United States la Dr. Horace N. Allen, our former minister a ' Seoul, who has. J regret to say, recently given up his work there and returned ti the United States. . ... We Own lb Gold Mines. The best of the gold mines of Corea ar owned by Americans. The concession taf them was gotten by Mr. James R. Mnrsa some years ago and transferred by him to Mr. Leigh Hunt, formerly of Seattle, who organized a company for their develop ment. - This company Is now known as th Oriental Consolidated Mining company ami It has been one of the profitable gold prop erties of the world. Its concession em braces a district ' Just about half as large as the state of Rhode Island, In the moun tains of northwestern Corea. Gold Is scat tered throughout this district and there Is now more than $S.0U0.0i0 worth of.ort In sight The company is taking about $l,S0O, 000 annually out of Its mines, producing this from something like 200,000 tons of ore. It has the busiest Institution In Corea, and that which Is most up-to-date In all Ita workings. It uses the best of modern ma chinery and is now operating five mills, with 00 stamps. It employs altogether about seventy white men and several thou sand Asiatics. The Corean miner ara said to be entirely satisfactory. They work for 20 or 30 cents a day and ara easily man aged. In this vicinity the British and Germans have mining concessions and the natives have been mining there for many years. In 1S94 I saw specimens of gold that camn from northern Corea. They were carried about In quills and used as money in mak ing purchases with the merchants. Tha king then had a monopoly of the gold mines, and he had a great deal of gold In nuggets and dust in his pajace. He paid some of his bills for foreign purchases In this way, the gold being sent to the Japa nese mints for assay and valuation and the proper amount then credited on tha bills. Seoul's Kevr Water Works. I doubt not there are good copper mines in Corea. Kxcellent brassware is sold all over the country and copper Is known to exist. Under the Japanese the country will be thoroughly prospected. Americans are doing much to modernise Seoul. The city has about 800.000 people, who live inside walls forty or fifty feet high. Most of the houses are thatched huts. There are a few wide streets, but they are narrow and winding. The water until now has come from wells sunken her and there In tha midst of the city, and one of the chief businesses has been that of the water carrier, who trots about from house to house with two buckets fastened to a pole on his back. The sewage flows through the streets in drains or open ditches and everything la unsanitary to an extreme. An American company has recently ae cured a franchise to institute an up-to date system of .water works. It will bring tha water from the Han river, which passes within three miles of Seoul, taking It from about five miles above the city. The water Is to be filtered, and It will be pumped through the city by two high-duty tripla expansion pumping engines, each with a capacity of 6,000,000 gallons per day. The system will require fifty-four miles of cast iron pipe of from four to twenty-four Inches in diameter and a large amount of other pipe. All the equipment will be Ameri can. This company has a capital of $1,000. 000. The Amertcan-Corean Electrio company has also a capital of $1,000,000. It has tha exclusive franchise for electrio railways, telephones, light and power in Seoul. It has now eleven miles of street car tracks and twenty-live cars, and it is largely In creasing Ita mileage. The light plant is In operation, furnishing more than S.000 elec trio lights. FRANK O. CARPENTER. Mail Association DrVTSION RAILWAT 1UIL AUoCTJU