The Korean Repository. Weekly Edition. Vol. 1 . No. XIII. Thursday, May 4, 1899. ATHLETIC
SPORTS. The
third annual Athletic Sports by the Foreign Language
Schools took place last Saturday afternoon at the old
drill ground in the eastern part of the city. The
sports were held under the patronage of the Minister
of Education, the Hon. Min Pyeng Suk. Six schools were
represented, each school having its own color. Chinese—orange
English—red
French—yellow
German
—purple Japanese—blue
Russian—green.
The
starters and judges ware Dr. E. H. Baldock, Lieut K L.
Mayhew, H. A. Ottewill, Esq., Rev. A. B. Turner, W. F.
Sands, Esq., S. Wakefield, and S. Woo Esq., assisted
by members of the British guard. The program was
divided into two parts as follows. I.
1.
Weights. 2.
200 YARDS—Senior. 3.
200 YARDS—Juniors. 4.
LONG JUMP 5.
WRESTLING— 1st Heat. 6.
400 YARDS. 7.
HIGH JUMP—Juniors. 8.
TUG-OF-WAR—1st Heat. II 9.
100 YARDS—Seniors. 10.
100 YARDS—Juniors. 11.
WRESTLING—2nd Heat. 12.
HIGH JUMP—Seniors. 13.
TUG-of-WAR—2nd Heat. 14.
STRANGERS RACE. 15.
TUG-of-WAR—3rd Heat. 16.
DONKEY RACE. Long
before the hour for beginning the sports, an immense
crowd gathered. This is the first good opportunity
Seoul had for coming together since the diurnal and
nocturnal meetings last fall. The people made the most
of the opportunity. The large pavilion was beautifully
draped with the flags of the several treaty
powers-High officials and government clerks; foreign
diplomats and foreign ladies were in attendance;
ice-cream and Tansan, to say nothing of the counter
only too liberally patronized provided for the wants
of the inner man. The presence and extensive use, on
such an occasions of strong drinks seems to us
incongruous and to be deprecated. The
several schools entered the sports with enthusiasm. We
are indebted to the courtesy of one of the pupils of
the English school for the following results of the
contests: 200 yards race—(Seniors)—first, Yi In-kiu,
French; second, Tai Suk-hun, Russian; third, Yi
ki-yong; Russian; 200 yards
race—(Juniors)—first, Yi kung-man, French; second,
Whang chong-sok, Russian; third Aw yun kun, Russian. Wrestling—first,
Yu pong-chin, French; second, Kim hah-sik, Chinese;
third, Yi chin-teh, Japanese. Long
jump—first, Cho che-sung, Chinese; second, Yi In-kui,
French; third, Yi kung-man, French. 440
yards race—first, Yi In-kui, French; second, Tai
suk-hun, Russian; third, Chang eui-kun, English;
fourth, Cho che-sung, Chinese. High
jump—(Juniors)—first Whang chong-sok,
Russian; second, Yi kung-man, French; third, An il
soon, English. Tug-of-War—the
French Language scholars. 100
yards race—(Seniors)—first Tai suk-hun, Russian;
second, Yi In-kui, French; third, Cho che-sung,
Chinese. 100
yards race—(Juniors)—first, Han chai-duk, French;
second, Song hun-kwan, Chinese, third, Roh hui-won,
English. Weight—first,
Chung eui-kun, English; second, Yi In-kui, French;
third, Yu pong-chin, French. High
jump—(Seniors) first Yi in-kui French; second, Im
si-up, French; third, Tai suk-hun, Russian. Stranger’s
race—first, Mayhew; second, Matthews, third Ottewill.
Korean
teacher’s race—first, Kim pok-tong English; second,
Kim nam sik, Chinese; third, Yi han-eung, English. Donkey
race—first, Chung sang-cio, Japanese; second, Kim
piung-hup,Chinese; third, Yi ki-pong, English; last,
Pak yu-kwang, English. THE
TROUBLE AT CHEMULPO. In
our last issue we noted the outbreak of trouble
between Koreans and Japanese at Chemulpo. Since then
the excitement has not subsided and has rather been
increased. The meeting which was in progress last week
was held at the call of the local authorities over the
twelve wards of Chemulpo. It was an orderly one and
simply threatened a general strike of all Koreans in
the employ of Japanese unless justice was done. They
sent a messenger out to the bosses of the coolies on
the railroad to notify them that a strike was
imminent, but the messenger got thrashed by the
Japanese on the railroad and had his hat broken.
Finally the people’s meeting was dismissed by an
imperial rescript which promised them justice within a
certain period. In
the meantime the Korean Kamni and the Japanese Consul
have been hard at work on the problem and as the time
of truce expired to-day the twelve wards are now
assembling in front of the Kamni’s yamun to hear
his report and concert measures. All sorts of rumors
are in circulation but they are nearly all false. It
is said that if justice (whatever is meant by that) is
not done the Koreans will attack the general foreign
settlement. This is absurd for there is a Japanese
gun-boat in the harbor and the Koreans know it. The
whole question is a badly entangled one. It is claimed
by the Koreans that of the original price agreed to by
Mr. Okura, which was 2,300 yen, only, 800 yen has been
paid. The Kamni claims that no legal papers covering
the sale have been issued by his yamun. The matter has
been before the Korean Foreign Office and they ordered
the Koreans to return to Mr. Okura the 800 yen paid,
and declare the sale off. But the Koreans say that
even if they were to be deprived of the land the act
of attacking them in the night,
destroying not only their houses but their furniture
and injuring their persons was a high handed and
lawless one, a violation of all international law, and
they demand redress. But
to further complicate the question, there is a prior
claim to owner-ship in the land on the part of one of
the German residents of Chemulpo. The following letter
which reached us too late for our issue of last week
is here given as throwing light on this phase of the
question: CHEMULPO,
April 26, 1799. THE
EDITORS KOREAN REPOSITORY: DEAR
SIRS—Will you give space in your paper for the
following news from . Chemulpo. The Koreans here are
in open retaliation against foreigners in general and
Japanese in particular. On the 21st at 3 a. m. a
Japanese named Mr. Okura with 150 Japanese coolies
began to break down houses in the part of the Korean
settlement caked Tok po. Now these houses are on
ground which has belonged to a European since 1889 and
it was only in 1897 that he obtained false title deeds
fraudulently from Kim chu-sa. A
Korean boatman named Nom received $200 to act as the
owner of the land and Kim received $400 for his part
in the transaction. Both Kim chu-sa and Mr. Okura knew
that said ground had been owned by a foreigner since
1889 as the former was present with the Korean
magistrate when the foreigner set up his boundary
stones in 1890. This
may cause serious trouble here; all Korean shops are
closed and coolies are not permitted to work; Kim chu-sa has
been placed in jail. He tried to to commit suicide and
has been handcuffed and his feet put in irons. The
false land owner has refunded the $200 and it is hoped
that this matter will be settled and justice served
out to the European and rightful owner. F. H. MORSEL.
About
300 Koreans are assembled in front of the Yamen. The
report is that the Japanese claim lawful ownership and
demand the land. The government can do nothing in the
matter so it is said that the Kamni has personally
agreed to indemnify the Koreans in the sum of 1,000
yen. ANOTHER
ACCOUNT. CHEMULPO,
26th April, 1899. All
the Koreans at this pert are an strike. About,
three years ago, a Japanese bought a piece of land
with four houses on it in Korean town; from time to
time the original owners have promised to move out in
a month or so; the Kamni was also applied to several
times, and always promised to get the people out,
until a recent interview when he informed the Japanese
owner that the original owners refused to move, and
that he, the Kamni, was powerless to make them. Thereupon
the Japanese gave the tenants three days grace to
quit, as he was going to pull down the houses and
build new ones. The tenants still refused to move, so
four days ago the Japanese took with him 50 Japanese
coolies and demolished the houses and turned the
tenants off the land. Today
in consequence the Koreans are boycotting both
Japanese and Chinese, Korean pickets are stationed
outside the settlement boundaries who prevent their
fellows from coming into the settlement to their usual
duties; the market people refuse to sell food or
anything to Japanese or Chinese. There is not a Korean
to be seen in the foreign settlements. The
steamships Higo
and Sendai
are expected today, and they will probably have some
bother in landing their cargo as the Korean coolies
are on a strike. Mr.
Commissioner Chalmers left here yesterday for Kunsan,
in company with Mr. Assistant Nakabrashi. Mr. Chalmers
returns in about three weeks leaving Mr. Nakabiashi in
charge. ANNUITY
GOES ON. It
gives us great pleasure to learn that the widow of the
late stevedore Wong Hichi, or “Joe” whose death we
recently noticed, has notified her intention to
continue the annuity always sent by her husband to the
missionary lady who first started him in life. This
lady lost her all through the failure of a bank, and
it was Joe s custom to remit her $700 a year, and this
allowance will be continued, and does the widow and
her country honour—Peking and
Tien-tsin Times. QUEEN
VICTORIA TO PRES. MCKINLEY. The
following telegram was sent by Queen Victoria to
President McKinley: “President, United States. I thank
you sincerely and the American nation for the honors
paid to the memory of Lord Herschell and for the
friendly sympathy shown with my country in its
bereavement.—Victoria. JAPAN’S
FOREIGN POLICY. Marquis
Ito, the foremost statesman in Japan to-day, in a
speech recently in Nagano is reported by the Japan Times
to have said touching upon the foreign policy of his
country, “Of all the questions in the domain of
foreign politics, the most important to Japan were
those relating to China and Korea; the critical
condition of affairs in those countries demanding more
imperatively than ever the preservation of a united
front on the part of the Japanese people.” P.
A. G., whose “Stray Notes” in the Kobe Chronicle
are always interesting and sometimes very funny
comments on our find of a silver spoon in the
following strain: There
has been a silver spoon found at Seoul bearing the
initials “A. M. F.” or “A. M. T.” and the find is
honoured with a paragraph in the Korean Repository,
which solemnly remarks that the spoon is at the
“Trilingual Press Office.” Babies born in the
neighbourhood of a Trilingual Press doubtless have
their mouths full enough without the traditional
silver spoon, and if the owner cannot be founf,
perhaps the Trilingual Press will be good enough to
send the spoon on to me as a mark of respect and
esteem. The
paragraph did not say the spoon was found “in the
neighborhood of a Trilingual Press” and we regret to
say the owner saw our notice and promptly claimed the
lost article. We beg to send our compliments to this
new aspirant for spoons. In
the same issue F. A. G. thinks it is a very
round-about way for the Japanese Post Office “to send
missives from Yokohama to Kobe via Korea” wherein he
is right again. SIN
THE SQUEEZER. The
North China
Herald for April 17th honors us with four
columns of an excellent editorial review of this
distinguished one time Korean official. The editorial
begins as follows: “The contributions to THE
REPOSITORY of the writer who uses the signature ‘X’
are always welcome. Observations and humor are
admirably mingled in their composition, and we are
glad to know that in this case ‘X’ is not an unknown
quantity, and that several of 4, his articles have
been reprinted in a volume entitled “Korean Sketehes”.
* * * As THE REPOSITORY in a notice of his book says:
“Good natured, eyes wide open, the author sees
everything and makes the reader feel a warmth and glow
for Korea and her people we have not found in any book
we have read on this country: His contribution to the
recently. published November number of THE REPOSITORY
is entitled ‘Sin the Squeezer’ and is an English
version of one of the many Korean traditional tales of
how rascally officials have by smart tricks and
cunning expedients contrived to hoodwink or outwit the
higher officials and to cover up their evil deeds and
thus escape the punishment they so richly deserved.’
The story of Sin is rather a long one, and it is to be
feared that in compressing it into a column we shall
miss much that is good in but it is an excellent tale
both intrinsically, and as an illustration of the
burlesque exaggeration of Chinese methods of
govermnent with which poor Korea is oppressed.” The
editor concludes his very admirable review by saying:
“It is one virtue of ‘X’ that he does not feel bound
to tag a moral onto these delightful old
folk-stories.” We wish to say that the author of these
charming stories of Korean folk-lore and the author of
“Korean Sketches” are different persons. THE
GUARD ONCE MORE. The
guard during the past week encamped only part of the
time in Mr. Kenmure’s front gate. Last Sunday
afternoon when the Pyeng-yang braves put the Seoul
braves to flight, the guard was well up the hill
toward the west gate and the usual gravitation for the
shelter of our neighbor’s gate for the time being was
not so manifest. ORACULAR.
The
Yorodzu Choho
a Japanese newspaper whose editor causes a great deal
of amusement by his oracular comments on current
events in his own country, takes up the recent
dismissal of two cabinet ministers and after a brief
statement of the case, delivers himself in the
following manner. “Tho nothing remarkable appears on
the surface, a keen struggle is being steadily and
quietly waged in Korea between Russia and Japan. It is
like the sport of sea-saw, this game that is played
between the two Powers. At one time, Japan is up and
after a time of ascendency, is down again. At another,
Russia pops up her head and then down it goes. The
latest cabinet change in Seoul is another ascendency
of the Damian
influence. While, however, these ups and downs of the
Japanese and Russian influences are going on, Korea is
gradually weakening, and things in that kingdom, under
the instability of its government, are going from bad
to worse. In a word, Korea will sooner or later die of
herself and fall into the hands of either of the two
Powers. Which Power it will be that is destined to
rule Korea, it is not easy to prophesy, but, unless
Japanese statesmen are not wide awake to the Russian
movements, the Peninsular Kingdom may become a Russian
province in no distant future.” BACK
NUMBERS. Nearly
every week we are in receipt of a communication from
some one asking us to send THE WEEKLY from the
beginning. The consequence is we shall soon be out of
back numbers. If any of our subscribers have failed to
receive any numbers and desire to complete their file
they had better notify us soon or we shalt be unable
to accommodate them. WAR
DRAWING TO A CLOSE. The Manila
Times of April 1st in a review of the
situation announces that General MacArthur has made a
very decided advance. The American forces tried to get
a decided engagement out of the Filipinos. The
insurgents were forced back to Malolos the last week
in March, where it was expected they would make a
stand but the following extract shows how the
Americans were disappointed in the capture of the
insurgent capital on March 31: Friday
was a dreadful disappointment. After all the great
expectations of a desperate “fight to the finish,” and
all the great preparations to do justice to the
occasion the rebels cleared out of Malolos at
day-light, leaving only a few men to fire an
occasional shot or two by way of keeping up
appearances. By the time the Americans began to move
on Malolos, the rebels were “over the hills and far
away,” laughing heartily, no doubt, at the way they
fooled the Americans. Col. Funton and the Kansas
Regiment were first to enter about 11 o’clock. Only a
few shots were fired by the retreating enemy for half
an hour, during which 14 Americans were wounded and
one killed while entering Malolos. It is reported that
the enemy have retreated to Calumpit, about six miles
further up the railroad. The Americans found fine
trenches in Malolos, but entirely deserted. Malolos
was all burned by the rebels except a few
substantially built structures. The insurgent
government buildings (old convent) were destroyed.
Another report is that the rebels have retired to San
Isidro. There is a San Isidro about six miles
northeast of Malolos, near the great swamp of Candaba.
The
Hongkong Telegraph
in a dispatch dated at Manila April reports as
follows: Yesterday
Dewey’s ships shelled Paranaqur and Bacoor, while
General Hall’s brigade engaged the enemy near the
waterworks, succeeding, after a desperate fight, in
preventing the insurgents in that part of the country
from joining forces with main body of Aguinaldo’s
troops near Malolos. FROM
WONSAN. Mr
Oieson started on April 21st for Song-ju, the harbor
of Kil-ju, to open it as a port to foreign trade. Since
the arrival of Mr. Yun the grounds in front and about
the superintendents’ yamen that
were formerly a region of desolation have undergone a
change. They are now a delight to every foreigner and
ought to prove a balm to even the most jaundiced
conservative eye. The
people of Takwon, like the region in front of the yamen, are
enjoying order and cleanliness in official
administration. A
BRAWL AND A FLIGHT. Last
Sunday afternoon a few soldiers from Pyeng-yang got
into a wrangle with the soldiers of the capital. Both
were under the influence of liquor it is said and the
Seoul men assumed lordly airs over the braves from the
northern capital. The Pyengyang men stood their ground
by the use of stones. When it comes to throwing stones
they take high rank and it was not long until the
Seoul braves made a mad rush, as an eyewitness said,
“for the first hole he could get into.” A dozen or
more men cleaned out the whole guard in front of the
palace driving them up “as far as the Paichai school,”
to use the words of a native paper. The result of the
fracas was an application to place ten wounded men
into the Government hospital five Seoul and five
Pyeng-yang. The honors were equally divided in this
respect. A Pyeng yang man received a flesh wound in
the back and another a bayonet wound in the chest. A
Seoul man broke his leg and several showed effects of
the stones used. All are doing well under the
treatment of Dr. Eva H. Field. The less you say of
bravery the better. One of the most common sights on
the streets of the capital is that of drunken
soldiers. No discipline, absence of authority, higher
pay, the people are apprehensive of trouble. CITY
AND COUNTRY. Last
Sunday was Russian Easter. A
daughter was born to Dr. and Mrs. Wells of Pyeng-yang
on the 3d inst. We extend congratulations. We
are happy to welcome back to Seoul again the Hon. P.
A. Dmitrevsky, recently Russian Consul-General at
Shanghai. Mr. Dmitrevsky was Charge d’Affaires here
five years ago and he comes again to take charge of
the Legation in place of Mr. Pavlow who returned to
Russia on furlo. Rev.
W. D. Reynolds of Chunju arrived in Seoul last Friday.
Rev. J. S. Gale of Wonsan
arrived on Monday afternoon. Both are members of the
Board of Translators of the Scriptures. The Rev. M. N.
Trollope of the English Church Mission, tho on the
Board, is not able to attend. The Board began its
sessions on the 1st inst. and is at work on the gospel
of Luke. On
account of a break in the machinery at the power house
of the Electric Railway the formal opening was
postponed from Monday to a date to be announced later.
We understand the announcement of the opening of the
railway attracted many people from the country to the
city. Naturally these were disappointed.
THE
AMERICAN SOLDIER IN THE PHILIPPINES. STEAM
SERVICE ON THE NORTHERN KOREAN COAST.
DENTAL
NOTICE.
VERY
WELCOME NEWS
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