Tt has often been observed that when Cores is comparatively quiet the Seoul correspondents of-the Japanese Press are correspond ingly active in manufacturing news in order togive some raison @étre for their existence. i. latest attempt, however, runs counter to the old saw that "every lie contains a grain of truth The, startling news of cholera and famine and plagues locusts are absolutely without foundation, for the missionary doctors tell us that the death rate amongst the natives has not been so low for.years, and the natives unite in saying that there is a prospect of a very good rice crop. As for locusts none have yet been seen. Why the European Press coninnes to give credence to all the startling news sent by. Japanese correspondents is difficult to understand, considering that. they have so frequently. been taken in. There are no deaths from starvation, there are no locusts, there is no cholera and the Degyers are not "forty. -years of age" but young boys Fanging, from fourteen years to twenty; half a dozen or. perhaps a dozen in number in Seoul and about the same in Chemulpo
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.