From Far Off Corea

Thefnllowins' letter froin Corea will le of iutere-st to readers, for wliich in type. we re tadebted to the Daily Ti m '.- : " Seoul, July 24, 1894. Dear Bro. Ohlinger. - We were awakened yesterday at 5 i;: thb morning- the wir ha? heatun! ïor a nur'th or so we were lold, 'Tliere w;ll be war," and were not over surprised to hea: the news. I -.vent lo the 1-o!ccl hul. and in the 31reetlqn vf the '; a.1 palace a few minutes later I ht-ard the sharp report of a musket, another, still another. faster and faster until the hills echoed and the flring became Quite vigorous. As we were nearly threequarters of a mile from the flring we had no concern for personal safety. The city gates were full of Japanese soldiers and we concluded the Japs were making an effort to capture the king. The firing soon cooled down to random shots and then ceased, lasting in all perhaps half an hour . The excitement among the people was great, crowds of them came running to our quarters from all sides, imploring us to save them, as thoush we possessed some magie. Later in the morning Dr. Hall, of our mission, and I took a walk through the city and found Japanese troops at all the pivotal points. They made a brilliant dash, siezed the palace and the king, posted a guard at Chong To, the center of the city and then made for and secured the gates of the city. In the afternoon we again hear flring in the eastern part of the city, where the barracks are. The soldiers I offered resistance to the Japs, but the king sent orders to surrender their arms and uniforms. so they became private citizens in a moment. This finifched the day's fighting. The greatest excitement prevailed all over the city. "Generáis" of the army and an "admiral" of the navy came to the legation boo-booing and asking to be taken in to save them. Some tore off their nlumes from their hats and gold tons from behind their ears, donned eommon clothing and made for the nearest "bush" they could flnd. Everybody for himself, no one with any confidence in either king's official. The king either believed the Japanese are his friends or else he is a craven coward, and some of his higher officials have shown themselves worthy of high rank in the latter class. You can admire a man when he flghts, but when he runs and bawls like mad before he is hurt you have all you can do to restrain your eontempt. The Japanese have undertaken to reform, reorganize the government, and they have begun in a vigorous way. The Korean king's army is now in their hands. "Will the Chinese troops come?" is the serious question. If they come then we will have real war. If not the king will remain on the throne and Japan will teil him what to do and see that he does it. July 26.- The Tai Mon Kim is at the helm again. He has taken or set up the guillotine and flve heads (official) of the wings have dropped to the ground. There is report of a land engagement between Japanese and Chinese at Asan. Jones says he heard the flring of an engagement off Chemulpo, and report says two gun boat& (Chinese) were sunk. We have 50 American marines, 40 English and some Russians here. Thousands have left the city. No business is done. We guard property every night. Mr. Sill is doing grandly, ably seeonded by Dr. Allen. We are safe and comfortable just now, but we remember the war is upon us and "what a day may bring forth" we know not.