Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1902 — Korea and Electricity. [ARTICLE]

Korea and Electricity.

Near the center of the city of Seoul there is a beautiful marble pagoda that was brought from Pekin about 1300 by one of the Mongol Queens, who came as a bride to Korea. Her people at that time were shaking the whole known world, and, under leaders like Genghis, Kublal and Tamerlane, were upsetting all the thrones of Asia, so that Korea still speaks of them with bated breath, and the smallest children know them by name. The marble pagoda still stands, a silent witness before the world of the great Mongol conquerors; but past its stony ear whizzes an American electric car every ten minutes at ten miles an hour, regardless of all the Mongol shades. Along this, main street of Seoul, one of the oldest streets in the world, stretch Western wires charged with something that defies all the curiosity of the east to pronounce upon. A few days Ago a broken strand hung temptingly from one of the poles, and the Far East determined to get hold of it to investigate, with the result —one live wire, one dead man. A government notice was posted up: “If anyone is caught fooling with these thunder and lightning strings, let him be padded.”— The Outlook.