5
252
Korea from its capital
George William Gilmore



1800
TRANSFERRED TO
Glasf_W LIBRARY
GARY
Book."
Copyright N: SANCE
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.


















Korean Stone Dog in Front of Palace.


KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL:
WITH A
CHAPTER ON MISSIONS.
BY THE
REV. GEORGE W. GILMORE, A.M.
OUPLU!!!
KUNAN
0977
22
* // به
33 کی
PHILADELPHIA :
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK,
1334 CHESTNUT STREET.


COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
THE TRUSTEES OF THE
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK.
All Rights Reserved.
..
WESTCOTT & THOMSON,
Stereotypers and Electrotypers, Philada.


kair?ne's
Се со $
.648
IX Eos
MAR 12 1907
то
THE FACULTIES
OF
THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY
AND OF
UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF EQUIPMENT FOR
LIFE'S DUTIES,
THIS BOOK IS:
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,


PREFACE.
THE author's apology for inflicting a book upon the
public is that he treats of a country concerning which
comparatively little is known. His aim has been to
supplement the very able book of Dr. Griffis, the in-
teresting work of Mr. Lowell and what we may call
almost the pioneer work of the Rev. John Ross. He
has tried to add to the public's knowledge of a curious
and, in some respects, very fascinating people. He has
not attempted to treat of the history of the nation-
that Dr. Griffis has done.
The narrative is confined to what a person may see
and learn while sojourning in the peninsula. Doubt-
less the experienced will find many mistakes of vari-
ous kinds. For those the author asks pardon, and
will be thankful to anyone who will indicate the
lapses.
Grateful acknowledgment is hereby made (1) to the
Rev. H. G. Underwood, D.D., for permission to use
several of the finest illustrations in the book ; (2) to
se


PREFACE.
the editors of The (New York) Evening Post for leave
to use the letters contributed to that journal by the
author while in Korea; (3) to the Rev. Samuel Macau-
ley Jackson and the Rev. Charles R. Gillett for en-
couragement and advice in the plan of the book; (4)
to the Rev. J. R. Miller, D. D., editor of the Pres-
byterian Board of Publication, for his most competent
assistance and innumerable suggestions in putting the
book through the press; and, last, to my wife for
her invaluable aid in smoothing down many nodosi-
ties in the composition.
THE AUTHOR.


CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
PAGE
I.—THE COUNTRY .................. 9
II.—THE GOVERNMENT ................ 22
III.—THE CAPITAL ..................
IV.-THE LANGUAGE .................
V.—THE PEOPLE ..................
VI.—DOMESTIC LIFE. .................
VII.—ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT ............. 134
VIII.-WOMAN AND HER WORK .............
IX.-AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES ...........
X.-RELIGION .................... 185
XI.-RESOURCES .................... 199
XII.-PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION. ......... 226
XIII.-FOREIGN RELATIONS ......
......250
XIV.-FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA . .... .......265
140
XV.-MISSIONARY WORK ................ 291


ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
KOREAN STONE DOG ............. Frontispiece.
MANDARIN IN COURT DRESS ............... 27
CITY WALL .......................
ENCLOSURE IN PALACE GROUNDS.....
LITTLE PORTERS AND CANDY VENDER ....
GROUP OF PEASANTS . ........
MY TEACHER AND HIS WIFE. .....
PEASANTS' HUTS . ..............
OUTSIDE WALL WITH VEILED WOMEN ....
MURAL DECORATIONS, END OF A HOUSE ....
BUDDHIST MONKS AND MOURNERS ......
RETURNING FROM WASHING ..........
DANCING GIRLS (two) ...............
BUDDHIST SHRINE .......
VILLAGE IDOLS ........
WORKING WITH SHOVEL ...
GRAIN-SHOP ......................211
MURAL DECORATIONS ...
GREAT EAST GATE ....
......... 235
WEST GATE ..........
..... 246
GATE OUTSIDE CITY ...........
... 254
GREAT SOUTH GATE ..........
SEDAN CHAIR AND ATTENDANTS ....
SCENE IN OLD PALACE GROUNDS ...... ... 307
MAIN PALACE ENTRANCE ................ 316
..... 179
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
. .
. 204
.
. .
. . . 281
8


KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY.
W HEN the writer of this first signified to a college
" friend his intention of going to Korea, that friend
replied, “I have a vague recollection that there is such
a place somewhere on the eastern coast of Asia, but I
must get down my atlas and definitely settle its location
in my mind.” Geographical knowledge is often very
vague. Many times people well informed in other re-
spects have asked how I liked it “ down there” or “up
there," and the question has often arisen bow such per-
sons would locate the little “hermit kingdom” on a
globe. People have a “general idea ” of a place, and
so a word or two as to the location may not be amiss
to particularize the position of Korea.
The most direct way of going to the country—a de-
scription of which will settle its geographical position-
is either by way of San Francisco or Vancouver. Tak-
ing ship at San Francisco, we sail almost directly west,
southing just a trifle, and so run into the harbor of


10
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Yokohama, Japan. Now, if the steamer could push
on through the Japanese Islands, as we have supposed
it to do through the waves of the Pacific, we should
after leaving them run into a peninsula jutting out
from the east coast of Asia toward the south-east.
This peninsula is the country of which we are speak-
ing. It stretches from about 43° to 34° north latitude,
and from 124° 30' to 130° 30' east longitude. Looked
at from the United States, it is directly behind Japan,
and is protected by the Japanese Islands from the waves
of the Pacific. Lying as it does between the Yellow
and Japan Seas, it feels the effect of the great equalizer
of temperature, and its climate is one which makes no
severe drafts on the vitality of the inhabitant.
This little country of Korea, or, as the natives call it,
Cho Son, the “ Land of Morning Calm,” whose king is
the “monarch of ten thousand isles," has unique claims
on the interest of Occidentals, and especially on that of
Americans. Dr. Griffis struck the key-note of this in
the title of his most excellent book, Corea, the Hermit
Nation. The fact that Korea was the last to open its
gates for the entrance of foreigners within its boundaries
and to permit the contact of an alien civilization is not
all that gives it title to this name. What makes valid its
right to the appellation “hermit” is rather the persistent
exclusion of all foreigners from its territory, going so
far as to detain as prisoners within its boundaries mari-
ners shipwrecked on its shores, in order that no news


THE COUNTRY.
might through them reach other nations to tempt incur-
sions for booty or conquest. The whole world is now
open to a Western civilization. Thibet still frets at the
visits of curious tourists, but that little corner is only a
province of China; while Korea is a nation with au-
tonomy practically complete, and in making treaties
with foreign nations it has taken the step which can-
not be retracted.
The United States has more than a passing interest
in this little country. While the policy of our own
government is to abstain from participation in the af-
fairs of other continents, it has done more to give to
two nations an impetus toward Western ways than any
other government. Its citizens have on this account
taken more interest and felt more responsibility for re-
sults in Japan and Korea than in any other countries.
Japanese and Koreans are both received with greatest
kindness in both government and private circles.
It was the expectation of many that when Korea was
opened up to the world its people would be found sav-
age, uncouth and forbidding in their manners. Stories
from Japan and China had given that impression. Peo-
ple looked to see a race of savages. What must have
been their surprise, therefore, to find that not only were
the people of Korea not of this description, but that, on
the contrary, in no countries in the East, Japan and
India not excepted, were foreigners so cordially wel-
comed, so kindly received and so right royally treated !


12
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
As one passes along the crowded streets of the capital
he has not to elbow his way through by main force or
by turning himself “edgewise,” as in the thoroughfares
of our own cities. The visitor is surprised to find that
nearly all natives, when they see other than Koreans
coming, turn aside and give the right of way to the
newcomer. And this comes not through fear-by this
time the people have become accustomed to seeing white
faces and dark clothing—nor through contempt or dread
of contamination, as in the case of Hindus of high
caste, for they look up to Westerners as people of won-
derful attainments and surprising ability. The move-
ment is one of native courtesy : the Koreans consider
foreigners the guests of the country, and as such to be
treated with all courtesy. Similarly, when the king
takes an outing in state, and a parade takes place which
corresponds in the minds of Koreans to the shows Bar-
num gives in the streets of our large cities, crowds flock
to see the sights, and line the streets six or eight deep.
At such times, if the cry goes up, “Here comes a
foreigner !" a passage is opened for the lucky man, and
he can walk through and take a front seat without the
slightest murmur or protest from any of the parties.
The only exception to this is perhaps the case of a coun-
tryman from the backwoods, who is as much the butt of
jokes for metropolitans in Korea as in our own land,
and who bears a name corresponding to our "country
bumpkin.” Such a person may be so engaged in star-


THE COUNTRY.
13
ing at, mayhap, the first foreigner he has seen, that he
forgets his manners, and is very likely reminded by the
shouts and laughter of other passers-by that he is doing
himself no credit by his strange action.
The question, therefore, naturally arises, If this is the
disposition of the inhabitants, if they are so universally
courteous and kind, how shall we explain the policy of
isolation which was so persistently adhered to till within
eight years—a policy which refused to the Chinese, who
claimed suzerainty over Korea, the right to a resident,
and even compelled an ambassador from the Emperor
of China, on the rare occasions when one made a visit,
to enter the country with only the scantiest train of
attendants? The answer to this, as to many other
questions which will arise, lies in the geographical posi-
tion of the peninsula between China and Japan.
The history of Korea is a peculiarly checkered one.
Were we to trace it, the one fact which would stand out
before us is the frequent invasions from China on the
north and Japan on the south. While the Chinese time
and again attempted the subjugation of the peninsula,
occasionally succeeding, and for a time adding it as a
province to China, only to find the national life rising
again, unweakened by terrible disaster, the Japanese
have held from the second century of our era that
Korea was a part of Japan. The consequence was
that hordes sometimes reckoned at a million of men
were sent like tidal-waves from China, carrying devas-


14
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ай
tation in their wake. And again from the south the
sturdy and brave soldiers of Japan (and there are no
better fighters in the world to-day than the Japanese)
overran the peninsula far toward the north. And not
only this : we find the Chinese and the Japanese, whose
hate for each other has ever been deadly (nothing would
be more popular to-day among the masses in Japan than
a war with China, in which, if fought on anything like
equal terms as to position, victory would almost surely
rest with Japan), fighting out their battles on Korean
soil. To this there must be added the incursions of
pirates from the Japan coast and islands, who, during
long periods when the government of their own country
was too weak or too much engaged in other things to re-
press them, ravaged the coasts of Korea, burned the
cities and kept the inhabitants of the peninsula in a
state of constant fear. It is no wonder, therefore, that
the Koreans reasoned thus: “If our own cousins, those
of Mongolian origin, the people of straight black hair,
oblique eyes and yellow skin, treat us in this fashion ;
if they know no use for us but to burn our cities,
plunder our territory and kill and capture our people,
what must we expect from barbarians of the West ?
We'll none of them.” And so, isolated from all that
she could keep out, rejecting all overtures, destroying,
so far as possible, all news that might reach the outside
world concerning herself, she lived in content, shut in
and confined to her own resources, until the next to the


THE COUNTRY.
15
last decade of the nineteenth century only has seen
treaties made with Western powers. Of course we are
not to forget that a start was made in the direction of
opening up the ports of Korea when, in 1876, a treaty
was made with the Japanese. This was not such a
strange departure. Communications between Japan and
Korea were not new. The nature of the relations be-
tween the two countries had often been practically that
of allied powers. But that year was a significant one for
Korea. By it Japan once for all gave up her claims to
the peninsula. In making a treaty the Japanese gov-
ernment acknowledged the independence of the sister
country, and it is to be hoped that Koreans will come
to understand what a great step was taken when this
was done, and that their gratitude to Japan will lead
them to regard the Japanese as their friends far more
than they do at present. The chief significance of this
treaty, however, is in its opening a port of the hermit
nation to trade with the Japanese. The hermit condi-
tion was by this act abandoned. The way was paved
for other nations to ask the same with some reasonable
ground of expectation that it would be granted. After
several futile attempts on the part of the United States
and other powers, a treaty with the United States was
negotiated in 1882, Commodore, now Admiral, Shu-
feldt representing this country. Soon treaties followed
with England, Russia, Italy and France, and the her-
mit nation is a hermit no longer. The world is watch-


16
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ing the results, and the curious are waiting to know
whether Korea is going to hasten, like Japan, into
Western ways, discarding as far as possible her own
civilization, or whether she will imitate her other
and greater neighbor, China, and take a conservative
and more cautious course, letting go the old only when
the new has forced it into retirement. The trend at
present is Chinese rather than Japanese, conservative
rather than radical.
One caution should not be lost sight of here. Japan
has been visited by very many tourists, and it has been
found a most fascinating country. The artistic tem-
perament of the Japanese has led to the development
of most delightful places of resort, and Nature herself,
the guide of the native artist in his home decorations,
has bestowed her treasures with lavish hand. People
knowing this, and charmed by the tale of Korea and
its hermit condition, may fancy that it too would be an
interesting land to visit. That fancy a visit would
rudely dispel. The peninsula presents to the casual
tourist none of the attractions of Japan. The traveler
will find here no interesting temples set in groves of
beautiful cryptomeria. There are no picturesque shrines
in lovely valleys, few wooded hills inviting the traveler
to rest, no art-producing workshops, a delight to the
eyes, suggesting a depletion of the purse. The country
in the neighborhood of the capital is denuded of forests.
One meets here no hills terraced to their crests and re-


THE COUNTRY.
17
warding the toil of thrifty cultivators with bountiful
harvests. Large areas of apparently rich lowlands lie
untilled. The hills, bereft of their mantle of tree and
bush, lie open to the baking sun and the wearing rain,
their gaunt sides furrowed and seamed with channels
worn by the midsummer floods. The sail up the coast
brings to view no beauties of cultivation such as are
seen in passing through the inland sea of Japan. Only
bleak hills, rugged crags, here and there in a recess
the few low huts of a fishing village, clustered together
as if seeking protection in company against the strag-
gling loneliness of a shore washed by surging tides of
nearly thirty feet, which, sweeping out, leave bare vast
mud flats and dreary weed-covered rocks. Its shores
are rocky and hemmed in by dangerous shoals and
treacherous rocks. Only a vivid imagination would
suggest Korea as a land worthy the visit of peo-
ple who seek wealth either by robbery or industry.
One going to Korea must be prepared to see a country
with apparently no resources. Its people seem slothful
and indifferent. Its towns and villages appear unhealthy
and its homes uninviting. And it is only during a longer
sojourn than tourists afford that aught attractive really
comes to the surface.
In passing through Japan every turn brings into view
something to charm the sense and instruct the mind.
Interesting faces, pretty costumes, neat homes, careful
and economical agriculture, grotesque horticulture, na-


18
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ture served by art beautifying the landscape, spright-
liness, wit and grace, all abound in Japan, and with all
there is to be seen an inherent politeness in the people,
that bestows additional charms upon all besides. In
the Korean peninsula faces appear dull, costumes re-
peating each other grow monotonous, houses are poor
and without adornment, agriculture is less skillfully
carried ou, and landscape gardening is unknown, the
exceptions being crude attempts at the graves of the
nobility, and the people gaze with open mouth at any
unusual sight, and seem at times bereft even of mother-
wit. There is this, then, to be said : only as one comes
to know the people, to get into their confidence, to see
their readiness to appreciate our advantages over them,
and to become aware of the fact that there is good mate-
rial in both country and people, does the possible value
of Korea to the world become manifest. Korea is not
the country for tourists. Its main title to the attention
of the curious is that it has so recently become possible
to see it at all.
In its physical features Korea much resembles Japan.
It is very mountainous, though the mountains nowhere
reach a great height. The backbone of the peninsula,
like the Pyrenees of Italy, runs rather nearer to the
north-eastern side. From this spurs reach out and run
toward the seas. The structure of the ground has a
marked character at about the middle of the peninsula.
There is one place where one can look toward the south


THE COUNTRY.
19
and see a soil composed of decomposed granite, while
to the north is seen that peculiar shade marking a lime-
stone formation. The valleys are fertile, but, as the
country is not so densely settled as in Japan, we miss
here the terraces on the hills, carrying up agriculture
to their crowns. The hills have been denuded of
forests except far toward the north and in the west,
and so they stand bleak and bare or with a stunted
growth of crooked pine, sometimes covered with brush,
yet in the early spring radiant with the pink and white
and magenta bloom of the oleander. For the most part
these hills are seamed and scarred and furrowed by the
gullies the rain has made, and at no season and in no
part of the country is the eye relieved, as in Japan,
with alternating scenes of cultivation and carefully-
cherished woodland.
The shores are protected by clusters and chains of
islands, some mere rocks, others beautiful with grass
and flower. The south-western coast has several nooks
which might be available as harbors, but navigation of
these coasts is difficult and dangerous. Hidden rocks
abound; fogs are frequent and dense. The tides rise
and fall twenty-eight to thirty feet, causing eddies and
whirls which perplex the sailor and cause him no little
trouble. At low tide vast mud-flats lie uncovered, and
rocks appear which reveal to the tourist how carefully
approaching vessels must pick their way.
The climate of the capital, which is in the latitude of


20
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Richmond, Virginia, is delightful except for about six
weeks in midsummer. Those sudden alternations of
heat and cold which mark the climate of New York,
and are so perplexing to the inhabitant, are unknown
there. Snow often lies on the ground from the middle
of December to the middle of February, but at no time
does the cold become unbearable. I have never seen the
thermometer below zero, though for nearly a month the
mercury in a sheltered place did not vary 15°, running
from about 50 to 20°. Thus there is in midwinter a
level of cold. About February 1 the mercury begins
to rise, until by March 15 people are making gardens.
The temperature continues to rise till about July 15,
when the summer level of about 90° is reached, with,
however, but few nights when the heat makes sleeping
difficult. This is the rainy season. And how it rains !
Apparently the water falls in sheets. Clouds roll across
and drop their loads, and then roll back and double their
contribution. Not steadily, but often a day or two of
fine weather succeeds a day or two of successive, almost
continuous, showers, and then, by September 1, the
magnificent autumn weather commences. This is the
crown of the year. Delightful days, bright and sunny
temperature, almost imperceptibly falling, so that ten-
nis is played sometimes till December 15. I have
played tennis on December 16 (though active work
was necessary for comfort), and gone skating on Christ-
mas. Thus there seem no unusual drafts on the resi-


THE COUNTRY.
dents' strength, and, with the care necessary in the East
regarding exposure to the sun and the boiling of water
for drinking purposes, life seems as secure in Korea,
and certainly as pleasant, as in our own beloved
United States.


CH A PᎢ ᎬᎡ II.
THE GOVERNMENT.
TN this chapter we shall deal with the composition
aud internal administration of the Korean govern-
ment. The relations of the country to the neighboring
nations will demand a separate chapter.
Power centres in the king, or hapmun, or ingum, as
he is called by the people. The functions of govern-
ment are all exercised in his name by ministers ap-
pointed presumably by him and acting under his au-
thority. The people have no share in the government,
and no authority proceeds from them. In Cho Son
truly “le roi est l'état.” From the king, therefore,
power filters through a line of officials down to the
head man of the smallest village, each official requiring
of those beneath him an account for whatever transpires
in his own jurisdiction.
Two wrong inferences might be drawn from this by
those unacquainted with the country: first, that the
people have only to submit, no matter what the char-
acter of the government; and second, that the type
of administration depends on the character and dispo-
sition of each monarch. One of the surprises a watch-
22


THE GOVERNMENT.
23
ful resident in the country meets is the influence of the
people on the government. Although the people have
no voice in the selection of officers, and no direct way
of influencing the actions of the government, yet when
measures distasteful to the mass of the inhabitants have
been decided on there is what might be called a popular
protest entered by the mass of citizens, taking shape in
a sort of foment, at first unnoticeable, but, as discussion
widens, increasing in degree until a state of excitement
ensues, when business is neglected, what might be called
mass-meetings are held, and the news gets to the palace
that the people are displeased. So far as I could learn
-and the phenomena under discussion appeared several
times during my residence in Korea—these popular
protests, if founded in right, were effective in producing
a change in the policy. If, however, the excitement
was caused by false rumors, if mischief-makers had cir-
culated false reports, and, owing to these, misapprehen-
sions were abroad, the usual course was for proclama-
tions to be posted in what corresponds to the Wall
street or City-Hall square of the metropolis, correcting
the misunderstanding and advising the people to return
to their occupations. If, however, this was not effective,
as was sometimes the case, a second proclamation was
issued, in a different tone. The tenor of the first
proclamation may be gentle and fatherly; that of the
second sterner, and giving the impression that “busi-
ness is meant.” Generally a day or two is allowed for
SHM


24
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
this to have its effect, when, if the excitement does not
subside, the military are put into service, the streets
patrolled, disturbers of the peace arrested and punished,
and so the trouble is settled. Thus the populace have a
way of making their wishes known and their power felt
even to the heart of the palace. Of course, inasmuch as
the Korean army is recruited from the people, a feeling
of dissatisfaction which is well grounded among the
people has more or less force among the soldiers. The
consequence is that it is difficult to control an outbreak
if the discontent has its basis on a real grievance. The
national conscience seems to have more weight with both
sides, the rulers and the governed, than is generally the
case in an absolute monarchy.
The individual peculiarities of each monarch have less
influence on the character of the administration of the
government than we should suppose. We might expect
that in a despotism untrammeled by a constitution each
ruler would make his individuality felt to the very limit
of the kingdom. But it will be found that in countries
dominated (as is Korea) by Confucianism there are, in
lieu of a constitution, certain traditional limits within
which the people may walk and which the rulers may
not transgress. It is significant in this connection that
the same two words pop and kyou-mo mean both “law”
and “custom.” In other words, while the king and
officials are restrained by no written constitution, there
is a tradition or custom of dealing with offences, which is


THE GOVERNMENT.
25
binding, and a transgression of which constitutes ground
for appealing from judicial decisions. Dominated thus
by the custom of the country, rulers of provinces, of
towns and of villages are less controlled by the king's in-
dividuality than might otherwise be the case. As a matter
of fact, the government in each locality depends far more
on the character of the head of that province, town or
village than does that of the whole realm on the quali-
ties of the king. The good aims and upright intentions
of His Majesty may be, and generally are, to a great
extent nullified by the cupidity and worthlessness of his
officials. The poverty of the people at large speaks vol-
umes for the venality and inordinate desire of the gov-
erning class. The king has as his immediate counselors
and assistants three men who are called the “prime
minister” and ministers of the "right" and the “left.”
These three are the chief men in the kingdom, and out-
rank all others. After these come the heads of the
departments, six in number. These are assisted by
numerous officials with rank running all the way
down to the pettiest official, ranking perhaps with our
country constable. The whole matter of “rank" or
pessal is so intricate that without an understanding of
it anything like a comprehension of the system of gov-
ernment is impossible. There are in Korea two kinds
of rank, civil and military (Korea has no navy). Of
these the higher is the civil. The highest civil rank
next to that of the prime minister bears the native name


26
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
of chai-sin or chöng-seung. This rank is possessed only
by- the two assistants of the minister. The next rank
to this is pan-sah, of whom there are only a limited
number in the kingdom. Below this is the rank of
cham-pan. Next comes cham-way, and then those of
chu-sah and chu-sð, of which there are nineteen or
twenty grades. As we shall have very little to say of
the military establishment, it will not be necessary to
give the names of the grades in that service. It may
be said, however, that there are in the capital four
battalions, named from the approximate positions of
their barracks or stations with regard to the palace-
those of the east, south, north and west, each com-
manded by a general or tae-jang. From the ranks of
the pansahs or champans are usually selected the govern-
ors of the provinces, called kam-sah, and the heads of the
departments (kyei-jang) in the capital are of this rank.
So foreigners going to the wae-yamen or foreign office
find the head officers pansahs. Detailed to assist them
are chamways, who may become governors of provinces.
The men of lower rank are detailed to lower and less
important duties in the departments, while the chief
judges of cities are taken from the ranks of the pansah
and two lower grades.
The etiquette between these different ranks and the
people in general will be treated of separately. What
the reader must now understand is that these various
ranks are grades of office-holders, one separated from



Mandarin in Court Dress.
Page 27.





THE GOVERNMENT.
27
another with the finest discrimination. Moreover, when
a man, by passing examination, gets“ rank,” he becomes
an office-holder; so that all “men of rank" are office-
holders. A man of the people becomes thereby a
“nobleman” or a “gentleman.” Here again the lan-
guage illustrates, for one word for nobleman is pessal
hanani, or "rank-having," while the same word pessal
serves for “rank" and for “office.” Their position
with reference to the body of the people is indicated
by another word, nopheun, or “high one.” It should
be mentioned, however, that men of high military rank
are often detailed to service in connection with civil de-
partments. Thus the first president of the board of
education, with which the author was connected, was a
general who stood very near, the head of the kingdom,
and is reported to be a cousin of the queen. A man on
becoming an office-holder is assigned to some duty, and
is thereupon in the line of promotion. He is supposed
to get his pickings at the public crib, and the people at
large furnish the fodder.
With all these ramifications of rank it ought to be an
easy matter to secure responsibility and good govern-
ment. But, unfortunately, the possession of official
position makes it possible to oppress the people with
but little danger of punishment following. There
seems to be a tacit agreement among the nobility to
suppress any attempt on the part of the common peo-
ple to carry any information against one official to another.


28
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
as
an.
The sumptuary laws are certainly defective. There
is an indisposition among the people to lay up for a
rainy day. While we were in the country our own
cook was becoming quite a wealthy man. He had
bought two houses, and had besides a little ready
money, but he informed me that he always wanted to
work for foreigners. On being asked for the reason,
he said that were he not in the employ of foreigners,
he would be immediately sought by some of the officials
for the purpose of loaning them thirty or forty thousand
cash (about twenty-five dollars). As this loan would of
course never be returned, it would amount to a levy on
his property. So long as he was employed by Amer-
icans, he, in accordance with treaty stipulations in such
a case, could not be arrested except through our own
consulate, and was consequently safe from the exactions
of the petty officials. It became very clear to me that
such was a very usual method of procedure in Korea.
If it became known that a man had laid up an amount
of cash, an official would seek a loan. If it were re-
fused, the man would be thrown into prison on some
trumped-up charge. The supposed criminal would be
whipped every morning until he had met the demands
or had by his obstinacy scared the officials into appre-
hension for their own safety, or until some of his rela-
tions had paid the amount demanded, or some compro-
mise had been made.
But this is not the only method of obtaining money,


THE GOVERNMENT.
29
By custom (or law), not only a person contracting a
debt, but even his relations, are responsible for its pay-
ment. The filching officials often take advantage of
this, and, not being able or not daring to arrest the
moneyed member of the family, will arrest a cousin
or brother, and then demand payment. When the un-
fortunate fellow protests that he has no money, and can-
not possibly pay, the officers will coolly retort, “Oh,
well, we know that. But your cousin has plenty.
Get him to pay your fine.” So close are the bonds
of family relationship that this method is usually
effectual.
Unfortunately, these abuses of power are not con-
fined to extortion of money. One of the saddest cases
which came under my observation was the following:
I was called out one morning by one of the servants,
who said that a man from the country wished to see
me. It should be premised here that a notion had
gained currency that foreigners were very influential
with the government. This countryman had heard this
rumor, and so came to lay his cause before me and to
seek my help. It appeared that he had been married
not a long time. He and his wife had occasion to
make a journey, and as they passed the house of a
yang-ban (“ gentleman ” !) near his own village the
latter's servants had rushed out, seized the woman,
and had kept her shut up and at the “gentleman's”
service. Her husband had sought her release at the


30
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
hands of such officials as he could reach, but they had
not dared to move in the matter, as the man whose
servants had committed the outrage was very influ-
ential, and his position screened him and prevented
others from seeking the punishment even of his ser-
vants. Of course the man's story aroused my indig-
nation and enlisted my sympathies, but, unfortunately,
I did not possess the influence attributed to me, and, be-
sides that, the interests of our school, and through that
of the advance of civilization in Korea, might have
been jeoparded by interference in matters in which
I was not properly concerned. The outcome I never
learned. I could only send the man, in company with
a soldier, to the president of the educational board, and
ask him to listen to the man's story.
Another case which came to the attention of the
teachers in the government school, and which con-
cerned us more immediately, had happier results :
There were attached to our school as directors and
assistants a number of officials. These were each at-
tended by a numerous retinue of servants, and in ad-
dition many of the scholars were also accompanied by
attendants. Thus there were collected quite a band
of men whose interests were common and who were
ready for almost any imposition. Our advent had
been watched for by the community with a good deal
of interest. We had come under the best auspices.
It was known that the government was at our back,


THE GOVERNMENT.
31
and so we were favorably regarded by the community.
After our work had proceeded for some time we were
surprised to find that people began to look with less
favor on us. Black looks were cast at us as we passed
to and fro. Finally there came to us the news that a
fight had taken place in the street near the school-
house, caused by the abduction of a woman from her
husband and her confinement in an outhouse where
the servants congregated. We soon learned, by a
searching investigation, that not only had this been
done, but that forced loans had been levied on the
neighborhood by the servants referred to above, who
had asserted that this had been done with our knowl-
edge and consent, and that we shared. We inmedi-
ately summoned the officers of the school and laid the
matter before them. We assumed, of course, that the
thing had been done without their knowledge, although
we were morally certain that at least one of the under
officials had profited by the scheme, but we told them
that no such course would be permitted, and intimated
that unless such doings ceased immediately we should,
through our minister, acquaint His Majesty with what
was going on. We also informed the scholars that
while they might not have known of the proceedings,
we should hereafter hold them responsible for the
correct behavior of their servants. These vigorous
and uncompromising steps showed them that we were
in earnest, and effectually broke up the practice in our


32
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
there is
then travelers the Korean
neighborhood. If such doings could be practiced in
the capital, almost under the walls of the palace, it
can be surmised how hard may be the lot of poor
people away in the provinces, entirely at the mercy
of unscrupulous and rapacious officials upon whom
there is little or no check.
Hence, when travelers return and speak of the
poverty and indolence of the Koreans, it must not
be taken for granted that this is the result of their
temperament. It must be remembered that the peo-
ple have no incentive to labor. The fact that men in
the employ of foreigners have shown commendable
zeal in laying up stores for a needy time while they
were practically under the jurisdiction of an American
consul, and so in no danger of oppression from their
officials, is proof that their laziness is not innate, but
results from the apathy caused by a kuowledge that all
fruit of toil above what is required for the veriest
necessities is liable to be stolen from them by corrupt
and insatiate officials against whom they are power-
less.
Appeals to the supreme power are exceedingly dif-
ficult from the fact, already mentioned, that officials
are chary of listening to complaints against one of
their number. So it is a very rare occurrence for
His Majesty to hear of the wrongdoings of his subor-
dinates. Besides this, there is a custom among them
that the king must hear no unpleasant news if it is


THE GOVERNMENT.
33
possible to prevent such reaching him. Of course,
when wrong has been done a man of another nation-
ality, the wrong comes to the king's ear through diplo-
matic or consular channels, and then punishment is swift
and sure. Thus, during my residence in the country it
happened that a friend of the president of the foreign
office had borrowed money of a Japanese, and the presi-
dent had gone on the man's bond. Money bears five to
six per cent, interest per month in Korea, and as the
debt was not paid it accumulated so fast that soon the
minister was unable to pay. The Japanese appealed
to His Majesty through his consul, and the result was
that Kim Yum Sik, the president of the foreign office
and one of the highest and best-known officials in the
country, was stripped of his rank and dignities and
banished to a distant province. The old man laugh-
ingly said to a foreigner, “Oh, I'll soon be back,"
meaning that he would be recalled; but in that he was
mistaken, as the king was seriously displeased, and
apparently has forgotten all about him, leaving him
in exile.
But not only in the ways indicated above do officials
abuse their power. There is besides a great deal of
nepotism in the ranks. It is a fact that the sons of
high officials are invariably, before reaching the age of
maturity, well advanced in official position. Thus among
the scholars in the school we had one who, being the son
of a deceased prime minister, had, before reaching the


34
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
age of twenty-six, gained the rank of cham-way, an ex-
ceedingly elevated rank for so young a man. We had
another student, the son of one of the prime ministers,
who, though under eighteen, had already reached one of
the highest grades of chu-sở. The case of this young
man was a remarkable one. He was very bright, and
his abilities were unusually good. But he was lazy,
and as soon as the novelty of his study of English wore
off he became remiss and paid almost no attention to his
work. The consequence was that when he came to an
examination before the king he was totally unprepared.
The officials were, however, equal to the occasion, for
the son of so high an official must not fail. Special
examination books had been prepared, and each scholar
had been given his page and told to prepare it. It was
expected that thus the scholars would go through swim-
mingly. One thing they had overlooked, however, and
that was that the king might submit the examination to
the teachers' judgment. In fact, this was what hap-
pened, as His Majesty asked the teachers how each
scholar had done, so that we were able to give to each
scholar the grade his work had earned. The son of
the prime minister, learning what was going on, sent
first the scholars, and afterward one of the board of
education, to plead with us to allow him to take a high
grade, on the plea that his father was a prime minister.
Our reply was that his father's position made no differ-
ence in the matter at issue, and every mistake he made


THE GOVERNMENT.
35
would be counted against him. The consequence was
that the young man went into the very lowest division,
and lost much prestige. Yet it was the purpose of the
school officials to have him pass as a fine scholar in
English, and so gain an advance in official position.
It is a fact well known in Korea that while examina-
tions * are held with the purpose of finding scholars who
are capable of taking part in the administration of
government, these scholars were most frequently found
among the sons of officials. The examiners, having
received a bribe, can easily find the paper of the
briber, and by ostentatiously showing it to His Maj-
esty gain for the writer the coveted honor.
My own teacher, an exceptionally honorable as well
as well-read man, told me that he would very much like
to obtain rank, but said he could not do so, as he had not
the money or the influence necessary. Asking how it was
that either was necessary when the examination was held
to find ability, he said, “Very true; but very many
papers are written. The king sees only a few, and
those are selected by the assistants of His Majesty. If
I knew one of these men, I might persuade him to see
my paper and show it, or I might brighten his eyes
with some cash.” Asking him how much cash would
be needed, he said, “Oh, perhaps a hundred thousand"
(about fifty dollars). I then said, “Suppose I should
offer to lend you that amount ?” To this his reply was,
* See chapter on language and literature.


36.
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
“You are very kind, and I appreciate your offer, but it
is not according to my conscience to get rank in that
way.”
In short, after allowing for the superior abilities and
education arising from association with cultivated classes,
when we come to take note of the number who compete
in all examinations (often over one thousand competitors
appearing at a single one), and also when we take cogni-
zance of the wide diffusion of knowledge of the Chinese
classics, we cannot but agree with the scholar quoted,
that cash does “ brighten the eyes” and open them to
merit. The skill with which civil service examinations
are evaded in Korea might well awaken the admiration
of political heelers in our own land.
The divinity which doth hedge a king is in many
respects a hindrance to the advancement of the king's
own wishes. It often prevents his knowing things
which it were better he knew. It is true he is an auto-
crat, and that he may order instant death upon any of
his subjects. It is true that those found guilty of pecu-
lation or of malfeasance in office are degraded and
severely punished. But this does not hinder gifts and
moneys which emanate from the palace and are sent by
His Majesty's order from being appropriated in greater
or less quantities by the officials through whose hands
they pass. Thus, two months after our arrival it was
supposed by the king that the buildings for the royal
school and the teachers' houses had been completed, and


THE GOVERNMENT.
37
that the scholars had been assembled and put to work.
This was evinced by a present of fans being ordered for
the scholars during the hot weather. There being no
scholars in the school at that time, said fans were almost
certainly appropriated to the use of the official in charge.
There was no check on the matter, though doubtless
had the affair come to the king's ears, some one would
have been severely punished. Among the presents sent to
those in the government service things quite frequently
appeared which were certainly not worth receiving, but
no one supposed that such gifts were ordered to be sent.
Good gifts were intended, and probably were taken from
the storehouse, but they had been exchanged, and the dif-
ference was appropriated by some one.
A picture of the parade which attends official life is
given by Mr. Foulk, late lieutenant in the United States
navy, and may be found, with much other interesting
matter, in “ Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of
the United States, transmitted to Congress Dec. 8, 1885,"
Washington, 1886, pp. 319–23:
“About the courts of the yong mun (official residence)
is at all times a great crowd of attendants, police runners
and soldiers in coarse uniforms of variegated colors indi-
cating their position. These pass the orders of the great
man within in long-drawn shrill cries heard long dis-
tances away from the yong mun ; they come and go,
carrying and bringing messages. Squatting with heads
close to the ground, they speak in stage tones to the


38
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
officer in the high place within from morning to night,
at both of which times, at the opening and closing of the
gates, there is a great noise of drums, of shrill fifes and
of weird cries; all seems bustle and confusion, believed
to be necessary to the dignity of the officers. I was
assigned to a kilchung or guest-house, off the main court-
yard. This, like all official houses I have seen, was in
general arrangement like that of the governor. A host
of braves were detailed to provide for me. Their atten-
tions were painful in time. If I tried to nap, the word
went forth, “The great man (tai-in) sleeps ; be still,' and
in a little time a continuous wrangle and racket began,
preventing all sleep, in the efforts of the braves to keep
each other quiet, and thrashing vigorously the citizens
who came to get a peep at the foreigner. Meals ap-
peared six times the first day, seven the second, and at
short intervals during the day an officer appeared to ask
if I had eaten well, and, if so, to thank me."
Enough has been said to show that not the least of
the drawbacks the hermit kingdom has to battle with is
the cupidity and incapacity of her governors and rulers.
In the administration there is a strange combination of
shrewdness, weak puerility and indecision which is de-
cidedly Oriental.
The opening of the country to trade necessitated the
adoption of customs regulations, and nothing better could
have been done than what soon after took effect, viz. :
the collection of customs was placed under the adminis-


THE GOVERNMENT.
39
tration of the Chinese service, then under the direction
of Sir Henry Parkes. This ensured a faithful and care-
ful handling of the customs, and at the present time the
customs service of Korea is really a part of the customs
service of China, though no part of the duties collected
goes into the Chinese treasury. All surplus remaining
over the cost of administering the service goes into the
Korean treasury. This surplus is increasing each year,
and the government is deriving a considerable sum from
this source.
The government derives some revenue from the rais-
ing of silk, and so an expert was engaged to look after
the cultivation of the silk-worm. This became a burden
on the government's hands, for after an engagement of
about five years the expert has left his position, the only
result of his years' service to the government being some
small mulberry orchards of sickly growth ; and probably
not a dollar has come or will come to repay the thou-
sands of dollars expended in his services and in the
planting of the orchard. Another act of the govern-
ment was the establishment of a mint in the capital.
This had to be built almost entirely by foreign labor,
which is of course costly. Two experts were engaged
to oversee the setting up of the machinery. This last
was of the most costly kind, and some of the pieces of
mechanism are spoken of as being the best and most
delicate to be had. This has been completed now for
over two years, and the only use thus far made of the


40
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
plant, which cost nearly two hundred thousand dollars,
has been to run a few sample coppers through to show His
Majesty what it could do. Yet the native mints, manu-
facturing tediously and slowly the copper cash of the
country, remain in operation, sometimes working night
and day to turn out the medium of exchange. Thus the
machinery which cost so much is rusting away, and will
doubtless soon be utterly useless. A lack of judg-
ment as to what is needed here has caused the sinking
of what to the Korean government is a large sum of
money.
In the neighborhood of Ping Yang are some fine de-
posits of excellent coal, cropping out and running near
the surface of the ground. The government, with that
jealousy of allowing control to rest in foreigners' hands
which is seen in China and Japan, has refused to make
contracts with foreign syndicates to get out this coal.
They have, however, bought mining machinery, intend-
ing to have it set up under foreign direction and then
mine the coal themselves. Under foreign management
the working of these mines would bring in a very large
revenue. As the case stands, the mines are worked only
to a small extent, and that in a most wasteful manner.
The machinery is scattered all over the country, unpro-
tected and rusting away, while the burrs, nuts and all
detachable parts are being stolen and sold for the cop-
per or other metal that is in them. Here is another evi-
dence of the incapacity for properly administering affairs,


THE GOVERNMENT.
and of the absence of judgment as to the best interests
of the country.
One other example of this shall suffice: the Korean
army is naturally very small. There has been an effort
made to increase its efficiency. Now, Korea is in a pecu-
liar position. She is sandwiched in between Japan and
China, two very strong nations. She therefore needs
either a very strong and exceedingly well-equipped
army, so as to present at least a show of resistance
in case of attack, or else she must have an army sim-
ply for police duty, and rely for safety on the fact that
her autonomy is a necessity to both countries, and so
leave to them the task of defending her from impo-
sition.
But in 1888, no less than four officers, three from
the United States and one from Japan, were called in,
and contracts were made with them, calling for salaries
of $1100 a month, to train a corps of cadets, and so
to extend instruction to the four thousand troops or so
in the capital. But after these men had come and had
attempted to begin work, they found themselves ham-
pered and harassed so that they could accomplish
nothing. Add to this the fact that their salaries were
for months not forthcoming, and it will be seen that
this venture was one of disaster for all concerned.
Hardly any instruction has been given, money has been
expended in a change of uniforms, and but little real
benefit has resulted from the engagement of these gen-


42
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
tlemen. There might be added to these miscarriages a
powder-mill which makes no powder and a farm. which
produces no crops. But the fountain of all these trou-
bles lies in the non-perception by the government that
enterprises of such character as those mentioned, if un-
dertaken at all, must be carried through energetically
and worked for all there is in them.
Each of the enterprises mentioned above, except that
of the army improvement, might have done well and
have brought good returns. But they all stopped short
of thoroughness, of actual use.
Perhaps the root of the whole matter lies here: the
king has had a “foreign adviser," a gentleman whose
competency has not been seriously called in question.
This gentleman has advised against these various enter-
prises. He has argued that they should be entered upon
later—not until the government was in a position to fol-
low them up and derive benefit from them. To this
gentleman has been paid a salary of $1000 a month
to give advice upon which the government would not
act. The jealousy toward foreigners which hampers all
such as engage with the Korean government, and which
happily is felt least of all in the best service under
the government, viz. the customs, made the employ-
ment of this gentleman a farce, the money paid to him
a sheer waste, and all the other enterprises of the gov-
ernment pure loss.
The question now is, whether in time the king and


THE GOVERNMENT.
43
his advisers will let common sense in these matters
guide them; whether they will take the advice of a
“foreign adviser;" and whether they will not intrust
to those foreigners whom they engage the full control
of matters they are under contract to manage, and so
secure the end which they are seeking. If they are
content to let competent men direct such matters, the
finances of the kingdom and the government itself can
soon be put in excellent condition.


CHAPTER III.
a
THE CAPITAL.
W E are accustomed to speak of the capital of Korea
" as “Seoul,” supposing that to be the name of the
town. Really that word means “the capital," and the
name of the capital is Kyung-gi-door Kyung-gi.
Truly one may say of Seoul that the capital is the
state. The first impression one receives on passing a
night there is that somehow he has taken the place of
Mark Twain's Yankee in King Arthur's court. It has
a decided mediæval flavor to find one's self in a walled
town with the gates shut, going about after dark with
lantern in hand in streets otherwise unlighted and quite
deserted by men, with no possibility of exit except by
scaling the walls. The capital of Korea, occupying in
that peninsula a position much like that of Rome in
Italy, about twenty-eight miles from its port on the
south-west coast, is a town estimated to contain 250,000
to 400,000 inhabitants, including those villages clustered
on the outside beneath the walls. The city proper is
enclosed by a wall ranging from twenty-two to thirty
feet in height, forming approximately a square with a
perimeter of ten miles. This wall is made of squared
44



City Wall.
Page 45.





THE CAPITAL.
45
stones set loosely together in some parts, in others joined
with great nicety. It scales in its circuit two hills, one
of them about eight hundred, the other one thousand
feet in height. The masonry is about three feet thick
at the bottom, sloping to a thickness of less than two
feet at the top, and is surmounted by a coping. The
top is battlemented and pierced with embrasures, not,
however, for cannon, but for bowmen. On the inside
the walls are faced with a mound of earth six to ten
feet thick at the top, which is carried up to within four
feet of the top of the wall, and this of course forms a
vantage-ground for the defenders of the city in case of
assault. In time of peace there is here a pleasant prom-
enade, except where the wall passes over crags, in which
places the climbing is difficult and requires a steady
head. The excellence of the construction of this wall will
be understood when it is known that it has been built
about five hundred years and is now in excellent repair
except in a few places. It has not, however, a smooth
surface, but can be scaled at very many points, and at
intervals the slope is so great that there are found well-
worn traces where late arrivals habitually enter or leave
the city between the times of closing and opening the
gates. In some few places the top of the wall is
broken, but not so as seriously to impair its defensive
value. This wall, following the curves of the hills
and the inequalities of the surface so as to take advan-
tage of the defensive capabilities, is pierced by eight


46
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
gates, one of which is secret, leading by a hidden path
to the fortress of Pook Hon, and is for the purpose of
affording the king escape in times of danger. The road
could then very speedily be destroyed behind him, in one
of the defiles, so as to make pursuit impossible. These .
gates are all, with one exception, placed at the apex
of re-entrant angles, so that assailants would have to
submit to flank fire as they pressed to the assault. The
exception referred to is guarded by a secondary wall
projecting from the main one on the arc of a circle,
and run in front of the gate in such a way that assail-
ants on that side would have to march several rods
through a passage about twenty feet wide with flanks
exposed to a raking fire, while the narrow space would
allow but little opportunity for retaliation. These gates,
about fourteen to sixteen feet in width, are set in arches
about sixteen feet deep and made of large blocks of
stone finely hewn and joined, which furnish as perfect
specimens of arch-building as can be seen in any coun-
try. These arches are the most substantial works to be
seen in the country. The gates themselves are but sorry
affairs in comparison with the strong wall and the mag-
nificent arches. They are made of wood about three
inches thick, each side covered with a layer of iron
perhaps one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch thick,
and fold to the centre, being fastened by clumsy locks
so massive that one of them is a heavy burden for a
coolie. They are surmounted by typical structures of
In-


THE CAPITAL.
47
wood, two of them two stories in height, the others one
story only. These are meant as posts for detachments
to defend the approaches, and they make the gates
very picturesque objects and the sure cynosure of the
tourist's lens. While the walls, and especially the
arches, would endure the assault of quite heavy artil-
lery, a five-pounder or even a gatling gun would rid-
dle the gates.
Inside the walls, the impression of mediævalism re-
ceived on looking at a city begirt with massive walls
after the fashion of the thirteenth century is by no
means removed. The visitor finds that there are but
three wide streets in Seoul. One of these almost trav-
erses the city from east to west, ending at the great
east gate. . The others run off at right angles from this,
one of them to the main gates of the palace, and the
other to the great south gate. Only one of these is kept
clear so that its entire width can be seen at all times—
viz., the one leading to the palace. On the others
booths and shops are built out, so that only a narrow
way wide enough for ox-carts is left. On certain occa-
sions, to be referred to later, these booths are removed,
and the width of these streets as originally laid out
comes into sight. All the other streets are narrow
and winding, and in many of them it is barely pos-
sible for men on foot to squeeze past each other. A
closer investigation, however, shows that as originally
laid out the streets were not so contracted. Gradually


48
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
:
the owners on each side of the way have encroached
on the road, building farther and farther out, acquiring
rights by squatter's sovereignty, so to speak, and, having
been left undisturbed, have come to own the public way
and have almost closed it up. Through these streets,
owing to their narrowness and to the projecting thatch
and tiling of the roofs, a single mounted man often
finds it difficult to ride, and must pass carefully along,
bowing his head and swaying in his saddle, to avoid
being swept from his seat.
There is ample evidence that once a passable sewerage-
system was provided. Through almost the centre of the
town passes an open conduit, walled on the sides, ex-
panding in width from six to twenty-five feet, and still
about four feet in depth (it is now silted up with sand
and filth), which is the main sewer of the city. Into
this smaller channels throughout the city empty, and
through it the drainage of the whole city is carried off
during the rainy season. A description of the lay of
the city will show how susceptible it is of a good drain-
age-system, and how easily, under proper direction, the
capital might be made one of the healthiest cities in the
world.
The lowest part of the city is a valley through the
centre, sloping gradually from west to east, and leading
to a deeper depression conducting to the Hau River,
which flows some miles from the town. About the cen-
tre of the city, on the south, is a bold, well-wooded and


50
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
immediately under the North Mountain, and is enclosed
by a wall, exceedingly well built, fifteen feet in height,
running at the sides back to the city wall where it climbs
the mountain. Another enclosure is one occupied for-
merly by a regent, afterward used as a mint, and now
fallen into a woful state of dilapidation. The grounds
are occupied by mulberry groves planted by the govern-
ment for the fostering of the silk industry. The third,
which was until a very few years ago the residence of
the royal family, is a large enclosure containing very
many pretty buildings now fast falling into decay, and
which is of such great extent that there is said to be in
the thickets near the back the lair of a tigress and her
cubs. There has been some attempt at landscape gar-
dening, but, unfortunately, it is a persistent notion of
the Koreans that the grounds about a residence should
be cut up by walls, each set of buildings being enclosed
and shut off from the rest. The reason of this will be
seen when we come to the social life of the Koreans.
The houses of the Koreans may be divided into two
classes according to the materials of their roofs of thatch
or of tile. The poorer ones are of course thatched.
The typical shape of a peasant's hut is that of a horse-
shoe, with one side resting on the street, and the court in
the centre. These houses are separated one from another
by high walls, so that a view of a neighbor's yard is
impracticable. The houses are of one story, only a
few buildings used for stores and shops having two.



Enclosure in Palace Grounds.
Page 50.





THE CAPITAL.
51
The Koreans do not seem to care for fancy gardening,
nor have I ever seen a house with lawns laid out about
it. Some cultivate a few flowers, especially the chrysan-
themum and hollyhock. The houses of the more
wealthy are distinguished by occupying more ground,
by being built in a square around a hollow court and
by having tiled roofs. Besides this, the grounds are
entered through large gates, and contain not only the
residence of the owner, but sometimes a great number
of small out-buildings which are the homes of the
retainers and servants, besides wood-houses and store-
houses of various descriptions. The ground is by no
means all built up, and there is unoccupied space
enough inside the walls to furnish a large portion of
the population with food should the city be besieged.
The population of the city is not accurately known.
The census is taken by families or households. Conse-
quently the population of the city and suburbs is estimated
at from 250,000 to 400,000. Probably the former is
nearly the correct figure. The streets leading from
the great south gate to the central avenue, and the
central avenue itself, are the business quarters, and the
neighborhood of their intersection is the Commercial
Exchange of the city.
It speaks volumes for the orderly character of the
people that one sees in the daytime no police. Police
duty is done at night by the soldiers, and private watch-
men are also engaged, at least by some of the foreigners


52
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
and by the legations. But there is usually no force on
duty in the daytime. Very rarely, except in times of
popular excitement, is there to be seen anything that
suggests the need of a police force. Very rare indeed
is the sight of a man in an uproarious state of intoxica-
tion. Not more than two such cases came under my
observation during a residence of over two years. Not
more than a dozen cases of intoxication in any form
met my eye, and these were generally of men lying in
a stupor and sleeping off the effects of their potations.
Occasionally there would be what corresponded to a
fight, the usual method in such cases being for the
belligerents to seize each other by the hair and attempt
to drag each other about in that way.
Koreans are very susceptible to injury. The theory
of Marks in Uncle Tom's Cabin seems to be theirs : “I
don't see why I shouldn't take care of my skin : it's the
only one I have.” They are disposed, therefore, to
avoid quarreling. To be sure, the tourist might often
imagine a fight or a most provoking discussion going
on, for the natives are exceedingly loud in their con-
versation. A native in amicable discussion will often
raise his voice above concert pitch, and frequently, after
asking a dealer the price of a measure of peanuts, I have
had to tell him that I was not deaf. But life is per-
fectly safe, not only in the city, but anywhere through-
out the country.
Not the least strange of a newly-arrived foreigner's


THE CAPITAL.
53
sensations after nightfall is the perfect stillness of the
city. After dark the only sounds are the occasional
howl of a dog, sometimes awakening responses from all
the dogs in the neighborhood, or, in summer, the shrill
piping of the frogs (frogs piping in a city of two hun-
dred thousand inhabitants !) or the patter of the iron-
ing-sticks as the housewife smooths out the coat of her
lord for the morrow's outing. If the stranger feels
the stillness oppressive, and leaves his room for a
stroll, he will find a lantern a necessity, for the city
is not lighted, and as he looks out over the dwellings he
will see but few indications of the existence of the thou-
sands of inhabitants. As he passes through the streets
he may see a figure dart hastily through a doorway, as
though to be abroad were a niisdemeanor, or he may
meet a solitary woman, or, mayhap, a little company,
at least one of them carrying a lantern, passing quietly
along with faces carefully shielded from observation. He
may meet the patrol-two soldiers armed with musket
or native flint-lock-sauntering in a loose-jointed man-
ner over their rounds, but so silent is the city that his
own foot-falls re-echo unpleasantly from the walls,
as though he were in a city of the dead. Here and
there a door standing ajar will show a group of men in
a small room lighted by a rush-light, playing a game
very much like go-bang; or perhaps a company listen-
ing while one of them sings a solo and they all join in
the chorus; or they may take turns in telling delightful


54
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
little stories, of which there is in Korea a great abun-
dance. After going back to his lodging, if he is enter-
tained where a private watchman is engaged, he may
just be sinking into a doze when he will be aroused by
a sound entirely new to him—that of a staff with strips
of metal fastened loosely upon it, struck sharply on the
ground at measured intervals. He may then learn that
the custom is for watchmen to carry such a staff, and by
striking it on the ground give warning of their approach.
Of course a robber is seldom caught; and it always
seemed to me that one object of this rattle was to keep
up the courage of the watchman. Another sound some-
times heard, even less melodious than the howling of the
dogs and more penetrating than the clanking of the
patrol's staff, is the bray of a donkey. During our first
night in the capital we were entertained in this way, and
as the first note of the animal broke upon the ear, and
prolonged itself in mournful dolefulness until it seemed
as if the beast were nothing but wind and a hole to blow
it through, the terror of my wife was equaled only by
her disgust when she found what was the source of the
noise, and that he was stabled just over the wall. But
these noises are only occasional, and impress the more
deeply the fact of the peacefulness of the city's rest.
If the visitor wakes early in the morning and takes a
walk through the town, he will find the scene trans-
formed; and as he nears the centre of the city the
clangor of the morning market will assail his ears; he


THE CAPITAL.
55
owners
will find wooden platforms in the middle of the street,
covered with dried fish, fruit, greens, rice and all the
varied articles composing the Korean's diet, and their
owners crying out the virtue of their wares in thorough
Western fashion ; for the people are early risers, and
in summer five to six o'clock is high market-time. By
eight o'clock, or very little later, the streets are pretty
well cleared of these articles of perishable nature, and
then purchases must be made at the stores or booths.
One noticeable feature of the town is the abundance
of dogs. As the stranger passes along he will notice
that almost every door has a small square hole at the
bottom, for every one of which there is at least one
cur. The number of these animals is legion, and their
behavior is an unending source of amusement to all
the foreigners. It is the peculiarity of these dogs
that they take not the slightest notice of Koreans
along the streets; but let a foreigner approach one
of them so engaged as not to see him, and the dog
thus caught unawares, upon sight of the interloper,
rushes off in the utmost terror, tail tight between its
legs, and darts through the hole in the door, almost
breaking its back in its anxiety to get to a place of safety.
Then, standing at a safe distance from the hole, it barks
valiantly as the stranger goes by, and when he has got
to a good safe distance, out it comes from its retreat and
howls its defiance, the chorus being taken up by all the
dogs along the route. Abject fear of foreigners seems


THE CAPITAL.
to the palace to report to His Majesty the doings of
the day in the several departments of public business.
About the same time one near the west gate will find
his ears assailed by sounds which are new unless he has
visited China. These will be found to proceed from a
Korean band at the residence of the governor, just out-
side the wall, the duty of which is to play an evening
seranade. The gates of the city are closed soon after
nightfall, at about half-past eight or nine o'clock, no
exact time being set. About nine o'clock the strokes
of a huge bell near the centre of the town may be
heard resounding through the city, deeply and richly
resonant if struck in time, and this signal corresponds
to the curfew of King John of England, denoting the
time for people to retire from the streets. Further
notes concerning the customs depending on this will
be found in the chapters on the customs and social life
of the people.


CH A PᎢᎬᎡ IV.
THE LANGUAGES.
OREA is bilingual. Not that two languages are
1 spoken, but that two are used. Thus we find a
spoken and a written language, differing in vocabulary,
in grammar and in writing, in existence side by side.
The vernacular is a native language exactly like the
Japanese in its grammar, but differing from it in vocab-
ulary, excepting only those words which both have bor-
rowed from the Chinese or have derived from a common
ancestry. The vernacular is spoken by everybody from
the king down. The great difficulty a foreigner finds
in acquiring it arises from three sources : its euphonic
changes, its honorifics and the fact that there is a Sin-
ico-Korean corresponding to our Latin-English. In
its euphony it is like the Sanskrit, from which indeed
its alphabet is derived. One who has not had much
drill in languages finds this feature a perplexing one,
as the roots of verbs are often so modified by the in-
fluence of the endings attached and by contraction as
to be almost unrecognizable, while in compound nouns
one of the elements is often so disguised that few would
suspect its origin. The honorifics are at first a most per-


THE LANGUAGES.
59
plexing detail, and yet a thorough mastery is essen-
tial. These are found in the pronouns and in the verbs.
Their use is as follows: a Korean official in speaking to
a coolie would use what foreigners have agreed to call a
“low” form, indicated by the pronoun and by the end-
ing of the verb; but if he were speaking of the king,
he would indicate his respect for the king by a different
pronoun and by a syllable interpolated between the root
of the verb and the ending. If, however, he were speak-
ing to a person who was a little higher in station than a
coolie, but not so exalted as himself, and if, at the same
time, he wished the person addressed to remember their
relative positions, he might use the verb with no end-
ing whatever. When he spoke to an equal, he would
use a different ending; and so, if addressing one whom
he desired to honor, he would use a termination entirely
different from any of the others. As a rule, it may be
said that the longer the ending attached to the verb, the
greater the respect for the person addressed. A new-
comer who has not mastered these difficult points in try-
ing to converse is apt to confuse his endings; and it has
happened that when a host wished courteously to invite
a Korean visitor to dismount and enter and rest, the
mistake has been made of peremptorily ordering him
to get down and go into the house. On the contrary,
a lady has been known to use to her servant the politest
forms of language, such, for instance, as would be equiv-
alent to asking him to “have the extreme condescension


KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
to go and bring in a scuttle of coal.” Some difficulty
and qualms of conscience have been felt on this account
by Americans, especially by missionaries. Coming as
they do from a country where the equality of man is
preached (although socially, at least, not practiced), and
carrying a gospel one of whose fundamentals is the
brotherhood of man, they have felt the inconsistency
of addressing a man in terms which imply a conscious-
ness of superiority in the speaker. But it should be
recollected that this manner of speaking is a custom of
the country. The coolie who is addressed by a man
whom he regards as far above him feels no more sense
of degradation than does the jin-rickshaw coolie in
Japan at getting a passenger and acting as the latter's
horse, though the feeling of the foreigner at first is
about the same in each case. Further than that, were
any other course followed, it would be looked on very
much as would disregard of the rules of grammar in
polite society in our own country. Were a foreigner,
in traveling through the country, to address the coolies
as his equals, two things might result: the coolies
would consider him as low in the social scale as them-
selves, and, therefore, would not give him the respect
really his due; and the people whose social position
approximated his own, hearing him speak to common
people in what they would think too high terms of
respect, would, if addressed in the same way, consider
themselves aggrieved or insulted. It must, however,


THE LANGUAGES.
61
seen
be remembered that Koreans realize the difficulties
of their language for foreigners, and that they make
great allowances for the mistakes which they make
in using it. This belief of the people that others
cannot learn their language often puts the Koreans
into rather ludicrous positions. More than once,
when passing through a part of the capital not
much frequented by foreigners, we have seen arti-
cles we desired to purchase. On stopping and in-
quiring the price, we have been amused by the as-
sumption of the shopkeeper that we could not under-
stand his answer, and have watched his most extraor-
dinary pantomimic exertions as he tried to show the
value of the things, counting on his fingers or laying
out coins or sticks to show the price, notwithstanding
he had been addressed in Korean and had grasped the
meaning. After looking mystified for a while we
would suddenly ask the man if he spoke Korean, at
which he would look astonished and say, “Yeh, yeh "
(yes, yes), and we would tell him to do so; at which
the bystanders, who are generally quick at a joke,
would laugh, and sometimes bore the fellow with
their badinage.
The general courtesy of the people, spoken of in
another chapter, becomes especially noticeable in this
connection. When a Korean hears a foreigner speak
the native language correctly and fluently, his astonish-
ment knows no bounds. Once a party of us were pass-


62
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ing along one of the streets of the capital, when two
countrymen, attracted by the novelty of our appear-
ance, began to follow us in order to watch our doings.
This finally became monotonous and unpleasant, and one
of the party turned and requested the countrymen to do
one of two things—either to go ahead or stay behind.
They then passed on, one remarking to the other as
they passed, “And do they speak Korean in his coun-
try also ?”
Students of Korean are discussing the question of the
affinities of that language, and are disputing whether
it is an inflectional or an agglutinating one. Certain
it is that many of the endings, especially of verbs, are
words yet used independently. It must also be ac-
knowledged that of many other endings, for instance
that marking the accusative, the derivation is unknown
or at least very uncertain. It must also be borne in
mind by those who may study the Korean grammar
that the natives have very little idea of the science of
philology, and hence but little help must be expected
from them in the direction of scientific derivation, and
hardly any reliance can be placed on their statements.
As an example of this, on a certain occasion three men
of good attainments in Korean and Chinese were asked
the derivation of a certain ending, and as many differ-
ent answers were given. The facts seem to be these: a
student may consider the language inflectional, and may
so learn it; that is, paradigms of nouns and verbs can


THE LANGUAGES.
be constructed, by learning which he will have the
grammar of the language at command. But as surely
as he begins to use his knowledge, he will find that
most of the conjunctions are attached immediately to
the verb, from which the agglutinative character is at
once seen. Moreover, what may be termed the case
endings of nouns may be omitted when no ambiguity
will arise from their absence. The student has also
to learn that there are no prepositions in the language,
the words which perform those functions being post-posi-
tive. There is still another difficulty which learners will
meet: it is a matter of experience that a foreigner may
learn to understand the ordinary conversation of Koreans
whom he meets every day, and will take in the sense of
what is said by the mass of the people, but on a visit to
a nobleman or high official will find a different vocabu-
lary in use, and will be unable to follow the drift. This
is due to the fact that officials use many so-called Sinico-
Korean words—i. e., words borrowed from the Chinese
-which are not in use among the masses. This corre-
sponds to what is found in our own language, the Anglo-
Saxon warp and the Latin and French woof. And this
arises largely from the peculiarity we have mentioned
above-viz., the bilingual character of Korean.
Along with the spoken or vernacular, we find the
Chinese as the medium of correspondence, of official
documents, etc. ; not that the vernacular is not written,
but that it is not the vehicle of the best literature of the


64
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
country. Many books are printed in Korean, but they
correspond to our cheap fiction. Almost all works of a
philosophical, religious or ethical character are in Chinese.
A knowledge of this fact leads us to the correct conclusion
that Chinese culture and letters dominate the peninsula.
The Confucian and Mencian classics are the sacred books
of Korea, as they are of China. Those who make any
pretensions to scholarship must read easily and write cor-
rectly the Chinese. This is the medium of promotion to
official position. It is that without which no one can
hold office. Hence it is probable that at least one-third,
perhaps one-half, the male population is tolerably well
versed in both Korean and Chinese, for nearly all males
are eligible to office. Reference has been made to the
examinations held for promotion to official position. As
these vary only in importance and in the numbers attend-
ing them, a description of one will suffice:
. These examinations or quagas are held in the en-
closure behind the palace. To them come candidates for
honors from all parts of the country. These candidates
assemble at the time announced, to write essays or poems
on the topics assigned or to answer the questions asked
in the paper. Examinations are not conducted like
those in China, where each candidate is shut up in a
little compartment until he has produced his thesis.
On the contrary, the competition is in an open field,
where the candidates work, some in the heat of the sun,
some under the shade of a large umbrella, some of the



Little Porters and Candy Vender.

Page 65.





THE LANGUAGES.
65
san
2 SO
urce.
more wealthy under tents. One umbrella or one tent
will often shade several candidates, who take their ink
from the same source. The paper used by the contest-
ants is huge in size, measuring about a yard in width by
four feet in length. This is folded in a manner settled by
custom, and the requisite number of characters painted on
each side. The ink employed is India ink, for the prep-
aration of which a hollowed stone or slate is used, in
which a little water is poured and the ink then rubbed in
the water. The pen is, properly speaking, not a pen at
all, but a small brush, the holder of which is a piece
of bamboo. This is dipped in the mixture, and then
the characters are painted on the sheets of paper de-
scribed above. In this way beautifully shaded work
is produced. There are to be seen in the old palace in
the capital inscriptions which a well-informed Chinaman
said would bring thousands of dollars in China because
of the beauty of the writing. As the work of rubbing
the ink is no small task, it often happens that a party
will associate and work together, one rubbing while the
others work, and each taking his turn. Passing around
among the contestants are numbers of venders of candy,
which is made of honey and sprinkled with little seeds,
and venders of little cakes and of various drinks, some of
which are harmless enough, others suited for making the
head swim. Attendants and officials and soldiers swarm
in crowds. On one side of the field is a massive stone
platform elevated nearly six feet above the level, and on


66
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
this a canopy beneath which are chairs and in the rear
of which are neat little buildings, where His Majesty,
who is supposed to be the arbiter of the contest, remains
during the examination. A large space is fenced off in
front and at the side of this platform with ropes held up
and fastened by various curious native weapons—spears,
war-clubs, antiquated halberds and weapons combining
the make-up of sword and spear, and resembling bill-
hooks used for clearing underbrush from woodland.
Soldiers armed with muskets and various firearms,
native and foreign, antique and modern, march or
lounge around ; side by side lounge rather than stand
two soldiers, one armed with a repeating rifle of ex-
cellent make, with sabre-bayonet fixed, and the other
bearing a native flint-lock with small breech-piece, fired
not by pressing against the shoulder, but held out at
arm's-length. · These guards do not seem to be there
for the purpose of watching the candidates or to pre-
vent unfair advantages being taken. Their sole purpose
seems to be to add to the pomp of the occasion. The
candidates are all known by their caps, tall, black,
woven of horse-hair and open at the top, which dis-
tinguish them as far as they can be seen. These
candidates range in age from boys to hoary-headed
veterans, from the silken- and fur-robed noble to the
cotton-clad peasant. As their papers are finished they
are signed, then unfolded, rolled up into a neat roll,
and then brought and thrown as far into the rope-


THE LANGUAGES.
67
enclosed area as they can be tossed. We once saw a boy
come up gayly, with careless and joyous face, and with a
laugh that showed the hopefulness of youth gleefully
pitch over his paper, evidently casting hardly a thought
upon this his first essay in the arena of literature.
Thence his paper was picked up and carried to be
placed on the platform, where it would be lost in the
pile which soon became many feet in length. Soon
after, we saw approach an old man who pushed
his way through the throng which surrounded the
enclosure up to the very front, and then, with anxiety
written on every line in his face, carefully poising his
paper in the air, he threw it at the feet of a servant,
who picked it up without a thought that in that paper
were concentrated the study of a lifetime and perhaps
the last hopes of an old man of gaining that goal of a
Korean's desires, official position. We saw the old man
stoop and crane his neck as he saw his last venture carried
up and laid away in the pile, with nothing to distinguish
it from the hundreds which lay there, and then, as he
saw it safely laid away, with a sigh that reached our
hearts and aroused our sympathy, he turned away,
hoping against hope, and, gathering up his writing-
tablet and his equipments, he slowly wended his way
home. We saw few sights in Korea which appealed so
powerfully to our sympathy as that old man, whose
aspect was almost pitiful while with solicitude he
watched his paper laid away. We could not approach


68
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
him to ask his hopes and fears, but doubtless he had
been present at many quagas. Perhaps as a boy he had
first entered the lists. He had saved and studied, per-
haps come yearly from a distant province, and year after
year, trial after trial, had passed, and still to him the
coveted prize did not fall. At last, saving his strength
and husbanding his resources, he had mustered up cour-
age to try yet this once. If he failed now, perhaps he
would die of grief. Sad to say, this old man's effort
was unsuccessful. The man who took first prize was
a young nobleman, son of a high official.
The severity of these examinations is undoubtedly
very great. They are often on some important subject
treated in the Chinese classics. Such questions are
asked as: “What does the yih king say is the duty
of children at the death of a father ?” The answer
to such a question necessitates a perfect recollection of
a long passage, every character of which must be re-
produced with the utmost faithfulness. We recognize
at a glance the intricacy of the Chinese characters.
When we recollect that these characters have to be
memorized, and that the order in which the strokes
of the complex characters must be made is settled and
may not be deviated from, the severity of the task
begins to appear.
We have referred in the chapter on government to
the method in which the successful candidate is chosen.
When the competitors number nearly a thousand, as


THE LANGUAGES.
69
they often do, the king, who is the arbiter, can cer-
tainly not find time to examine all the papers. As a
matter of fact, he sees only a few, perhaps not more
than a single one. What more natural than that, by
a prior arrangement, the paper of a certain competitor
should be found so far in advance of all the rest that
only that one shall be found worthy of meeting His
Majesty's eye, and so the favored one get the reward
his cash has bought? Or perhaps a fellow-mandarin
has a son whom he desires to have elevated, and the
assistant, realizing that his time may come later, yields
to persuasion and favors his friend. Thus it happens
that very many of the important honors fall to the
nobles, though it does happen that “well-laid plans
gang aft agley.” The king sometimes perhaps sus-
pects the stratagem, and insists on seeing more than
his helpers desire: the consequence is an unexpected-
reward of merit. In the smaller and less important
quagas the poorer classes are very often successful, and
I have known several who have worked their way up
from low positions to very respectable places in the
public service. It is undoubtedly the purpose of His
Majesty to gather around him an able and faithful
corps of workers, but it must not be forgotten for a
moment that the means relied on for promotion to
positions of trust is nearly always proficiency in the
Chinese language.
This institution of the quaga is one of the redeem-


70
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ing features of countries dominated by Chinese learn-
ing. It shows the tribute paid to culture, and is one
of the things which renders so pleasant in the country
the position of foreigners, who are looked on as men
who have taken honors in the American quagas, and
so are entitled to high consideration.
Not the least peculiar of the abuses attending these
quagas is the passing of them by proxy. Thus a man
who finds himself unable from any cause to attend may
go to one of his friends and engage him to write a paper
for him, paying down a certain amount, from a dollar
to several dollars, and agreeing to pay a much larger
sum provided the paper shall secure the prize. One
man sometimes passes in not less than four papers in
a single examination. The facts that there is no reg-
istry of candidates, and that the papers are not handed
in, but are thrown inside the roped enclosure, make this
easy, and so in this way the quagas are a source of in-
come for men who are known to be good scholars and
excellent writers.
The Koreans have many tales connected with this
institution, and some of the best of them cluster
about a monarch who was the Korean Haroun Al
Raschid. One of these runs somewhat as follows :
The king, who loved to go around incognito, that he
might find out the condition of his people, one time
applied his eye to a crack in a window, and was amazed
to find in a room which betrayed the poverty of the


THE LANGUAGES.
71
occupants an old man weeping, a woman singing and
a younger man gayly dancing to the woman's merry
notes. The combination was an unusual one, and
aroused the curiosity of the king. He therefore
knocked at the entrance, and after a little conversa-
tion, in which he played the role of the belated trav-
eler, he confessed what his curiosity had led him to do,
and, mentioning the sight he had beheld, asked an ex-
planation of the peculiar actions. His host, who was
the dancer, was for a long time reluctant to tell the
reason, but at length told the disguised king that he
was the son of the old man who wept. The old man,
he said, had formerly been wealthy, but through the
avarice and oppression of officials had been stripped
of his possessions. They had since been in great
straits, and often knew not how to provide for their
daily needs. The old man, on this account, had grown
melancholy, and so, at eventide, the son and his wife
were wont to sing and dance, so as to draw the old
man's mind from his troubles. This was the explana-
tion of the strange scene presented to the visitor's eye.
The king, not disclosing his identity, then entered into
conversation upon topics of national interest, and dis-
covered in his host a man of extraordinary knowledge
and discretion, which, coupled with the filial love so
admirably shown in the repression of his own anxiety
in the endeavor to cheer the father, quite won the king's
heart. He then asked the host whether he proposed to
were V


72
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
enter the quaga to take place on the morrow. To this
the reply was given that he had not even heard there
was to be one. “Oh, yes,” said the king, “and if I
were you I would enter. If you take the prize, it will
place you above want, and make your father's last days
comfortable and bright.” The host promised that if
there was an examination, he would certainly attend.
The king, apologizing for his intrusion, withdrew, and
on returning to his palace ordered a proclamation to be
posted, giving notice of a quaga to be held on the fol-
lowing day. The people of the capital were surprised,
for no examination was expected then ; but the news
flew, and the candidates flocked in. When the subject
was given out, it was: “A weeping elder, a singing
woman and a dancing man.” The candidates, except-
ing one, were all astonished, and agreed that no such
subject was treated in the classics, and wondered how
they should proceed. The man who had entertained
the king was also lost in wonder, not at how he should
treat the subject, but at the coincidence between the sub-
ject and his own daily practice. However, he was at
home with the theme, and treated it in a skillful and
ingenious manner. Upon examination, his paper, of
course, was the only one which treated the subject
adequately, and so he was adjudged the prize. Orders
came to him to be present the following day at the
court, as he was now an official. He was therefore
presented at court, and was astonished to find on the


THE LANGUAGES.
73
throne his late inquisitive visitor. The king received
him kindly, appointed him to a lucrative office, and
gained for himself a staunch adherent and an able
officer.
The above story has a twofold use: it illustrates
the stories current in Korea, and also shows how it is
possible so to frame an examination as to benefit the
one intended, and no one else.
As to the originality of the Koreans and their lit-
erary ability the following little poems will be good
evidence. They were written in Japanese, and were
translated into English by the Rev. Henry Loomis of
Yokohama, Japan, to whom the author is indebted
for copies. The names of the writers will be remem-
bered, especially that of Kim Ok Kiun, as belonging
to men connected with the emeute of 1884:
Bright youth with all its joys has flown,
My locks are touched with gray,
And when a few more years have gone,
I too shall pass away.
I crave the feelings of a boy,
And purpose in my heart
That youthful hope and youthful joy
Shall nevermore depart.
My locks may whiten as the snow,
My form grow stiff and chill,
But in my heart shall dwell the glow
Of youthful spirits still.
KIM OK KIUN.


14
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Oh mountain! Time's great sentinel !
Hoary with age, speak now and tell
What names, illustrious in their day,
In stately pride have passed this way.
And if in ages yet to come
Some passing traveler here may roam,
And make from thee the same request,
Oh, give my name among the rest.
PAK YONG Hio.
Within a mountain recess deep
A lonely hamlet stood,
And there I lay me down to sleep,
With nothing to intrude.
But when in slumber sweetly laid
A barking dog near by
Aroused me from my rustic bed,
To see what foe was nigh,
No form of danger hovered near-
The dog was there alone,
And, foolish brute ! in idle fear
Was barking at the moon.
And thus how often do we see,
For want of better sight,
A fancied ill will prove to be
Only the moonbeams light.
San JAI PIL.


CHAPTER V.
THE PEOPLE.
TT is a fact that even those who have visited the
I peninsula have returned with mistaken impressions
concerning the physique of the people. Tourists have
talked and newspaper correspondents have written as
though Koreans were much above the average of man-
kind in height. There are two possible explanations
of this: those who have either visited or lived in
Japan, or even in China, have become accustomed to the
diminutive stature of those peoples, and when among
the taller people of Cho Son have naturally magnified
the stature of the latter; another reason for this mis-
take is found in the garb of the Koreans. It is a well-
known fact that a long overcoat adds to the apparent
height of a tall person, and seemingly enhances the
stature of a short one. Now, the Koreans all wear
flowing coats, and when we remember that these coats
are often white, we can understand the misapprehension
visitors have labored under in speaking of the stature
of a Korean. One is often some time in the country
before he finds out the truth of the matter. Many
a time, as he looks at a man standing some few feet


76
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
away, he will imagine the latter considerably taller than
himself, but a side-by-side comparison will show the
shortness of the Korean’s stature. Anthropometric
records have not, so far as I know, been kept of the
Koreans, but my own observation would lead me to
say that the men average a little over five feet six
inches in height-perhaps five feet seven. The women
-those whom I have seen; and the reason for this
qualification will appear in the chapter on social life
-are very much shorter. Their hair is long, straight,
black and coarse. Without dressing or dye, such as
nearly all use, there is a tendency to a dirty, tawny
tinge, but as the hair is an important feature in the
toilet of both sexes, this tendency is carefully kept out
of sight under oil and a blacking mixture lavishly laid
on. There is not the slightest tendency in the hair to
curl, and even after it has been in braid for some days
there is hardly the suspicion of a wave. If there is
any feature which suggests the common origin of the
Chinese, the Koreans, the Japanese, the North Amer-
ican Indians and some of the Esquimaux, it is not the
one so usually pointed out—their high cheek-bones—
but rather their long, straight, coarse black hair.
A propos of this, has any one pointed out the fact that
the North American Indians shave all but the scalp-
lock, as a suggestion of a connection in origin between
them and the Celestials ? A joker might find room
for further comparison in the Koreans' habit of seiz-



ANTI
NOR
A
V
Group of Peasants.
Page 77.





THE PEOPLE
77
nese
ing the top-knot in a fight. The Koreans in many
points of physique seem, as in their geographical posi-
tion, midway between the Chinese and Japanese. They
are on the average much taller than the latter, and prob-
ably do not reach the average stature of the former. In
color they are not so dark as the Japanese, nor yet have
they the dingy yellow cast of the Chinese. Occasion-
ally one sees a native from the country whose skin is a
dirty brown. Some of them are quite fair, and white-
ness of complexion is so valued that the women are
not a whit behind our Western belles in the use of pow-
der, which they find ready to their hand in the shape of
rice flour. There is, however, in the case of girls—of
women, again, not much can be said here—no tendency
to hide the use of this beautifier. This whitener is
put on with lavish hand and quite often with good
effect. The Korean has the oblique eye, thus mark-
ing his Mongolian origin. The high cheek-bone is
also there, and a decided tendency to the flat nose. In
build the Koreans are generally sturdy, and the impres-
sion one gets is that they are a well-developed, strong
people. But observers are often surprised to find that
they do not have the strength their appearance seems
to call for. Newcomers often call them lazy on seeing
the great ado they make in bearing and lifting heavy
weights. Many a time, until we got used to them,
we have become impatient at the struggles of servants
in raising some article of furniture, and one of us has


78
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
lifted without unusual exertion what two of them
seemed to find a heavy burden. This weakness is
doubtless real, not assumed. Their diet is largely
rice, and often in times of scarcity not so good as
that; lentils and millet, and even barley, furnish
them sustenance, while in summer time many a meal
is made on cucumbers, skin and all, without salt! It
is well known that the rice-eating peoples lack the den-
sity and elasticity of muscle of the meat-eating nations,
and so here there is a reason much more to the credit
of the Koreans than that so often charged to them-
inpate laziness.
A reason has already been suggested for the disin-
clination of the average Korean to work beyond a cer-
tain maximum in a given time.
A very common (and correct) report is that women
are not generally seen in the streets ; that is, they are
not at liberty to go out as frequently and as freely as
in our own land—at any rate, those above the coolie
class are not. But the accomplished traveler, with his
usual perspicacity and penetration, is often in the
country only a few hours when he discovers that the
report is unfounded. One gentleman of this class, on
bis second day in the capital, asked about this, and
when he was assured of the truth of the statement,
he would not be convinced but that there was a con-
spiracy to make the world believe an untruth. In a
walk about the city he remarked on the way back


THE PEOPLE.
79
that he had seen many women during the stroll, and
in confirmation of this pointed to a group just ahead
of us. The mistake was certainly excusable, for the
party was clad in long, flowing overgarments, and
the hair hanging down the back in braid gave them
the appearance of women. This gentleman was con-
siderably crestfallen when he was informed that the
supposed women were unmarried boys, who always
wear their hair in that fashion. The adult-or, which
amounts to the same thing, the married man—wears his
hair done up into a knot on the top of his head.
Those women whom we have seen—and women of
good social position often take service under the for-
eigners—are very much shorter than the men, not ex-
ceeding the Japanese in stature, averaging not over five
feet two inches. They are of heavier mould than their
Eastern neighbors, having very solid, stout frames,
seemingly able to endure any amount of labor. Those
whom I have seen were of exceedingly modest dispo-
sition. The type of countenance is downcast, heavy
and sombre. In passing through Japan one becomes
accustomed to a certain sprightliness in the people.
There is nearly always present a pleasing vivacity, a
merry sparkle, in the eye of a Japanese woman, which
calls up the answering smile. Life for them seems a
game or a picnic. But from the Korean woman this
sprightliness and vivacity and sparkle are absent. Life
for them is serious and earnest business. Hence sober-


80
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ness is the characteristic feature of the Korean lady.
But this is not the case with the men. Nowhere can
be found a readier appreciation of a joke than in Korea.
As an instance of this may be mentioned the hilarity
occasioned by the success of a trap we laid for a dis-
honest attendant. One of our men had been detected
stealing wood. A particularly fine stick had captivated
his eye, and he had hidden it under the house, with the
intention of taking it home after dark. The place of
hiding was discovered, and at dusk a small string was
tied to it and attached to a mat in the dining-room in
such a way that the mat would curl up as soon as any
one attempted to remove the wood. The three teachers
waited patiently in the dining-room, playing dominoes,
until suddenly the mat began to curl, when we rushed
out by the exits and surrounded the hole by which the
man had crept under the house. We then called him
out and summoned the other attendants, among whom
were three soldiers. One of these handcuffed the fel-
low and awaited orders. A search was then instituted
by the servants to discover how we knew what was
going on, and we found two or three so overcome with
laughter at what they considered the fun of the trap
that they were literally rolling on the floor. For
weeks we heard of this story being told by our ser-
vants to their visitors, and the table-boy could hardly
cross the threshold where the mat lay without a glance
at the crack and a smile or chuckle at the stratagem.


82
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
rior powers and abilities. Tales of the achievements of
our fleets, armies and guns which do not in any way
equal the actual performances cause open mouths and
staring eyes in the listeners. There is no evidence that
with the people aught but respect is felt for visitors.
While we occasionally hear tales of the ferocity and hate
of Koreans for foreigners, we must remember that such
feelings are sporadic, and in the periodic recurrence of
these spasms on the part of the people we can always
trace the fine hand of the Chinese “resident," who is
at present, as he has been for years, the evil genius
among the Koreans. Left to themselves, the people,
rulers and all, would welcome gradual and sensible
approaches to the ways of the Western world. There
are among the higher officials two parties, conservatives
and liberals, the former opposed to, the latter favor-
ing, a tendency in the direction that Japan has taken.
Among the former the Chinese work, and so they man-
age to retard Korea's advance.
The masses in the country are exceedingly credulous
and excitable. They have most curious notions about
the ways and doings of foreigners. As a consequence,
reports concerning them, no matter how absurd they
may be, find a ready lodgment in the ears of the peo-
ple. The Chinese, since the Koreans have looked so
readily toward Western civilization, seem to have re-
pented urging them to open up the peninsula, and so
in all possible ways except that of open coercion have


THE PEOPLE.
83
endeavored to impede the Koreans' progress. The
Chinese ambassador, or “resident," as he calls him-
self, is heart and hand en rapport with this policy of
obstruction. Consequently, by all arts and devices, in
which he is an adept, he endeavors to combat the tend-
ency toward opening up the country. For instance,
in the summer of 1888, it was found that some boys
had been stolen and sold into slavery. This is an act
not often accomplished, but it is done sometimes.
There was an excitement quite widespread at the time,
and the Chinaman spoken of above fanned the spark
into a flame of excitement by subtly spreading abroad
the report, first, that the Japanese had bought the chil-
dren and cooked and eaten them, then that the foreigners
bought them to make medicine, and then that the eyes
of the victims were used in making photographs. As
the pages of this book testify, the author was a dabbler
in photography, and this report was brought to his ears.
The capital was in a ferment of excitement; the popu-
lace scowled from beneath lowering eyebrows whenever
foreigners were seen in the town. Natives were mobbed,
and in two or three cases stamped to death by a crowd
when some mischief-maker cried out, “There goes a
child-stealer!" In one case a man leading his own
child down the main street was attacked because of
such a cry, and only escaped by appealing to a petty
official who chanced near by, and then by being taken
before the chief justice of the city. Even after the man


84
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
wa
was proved innocent before the judge, and had brought
convincing testimony that the child was his own, the
mob remained sullen and threatening, and charged that
the judge was in league with those who were stealing
children for the foreigners, and also with the foreigners
themselves. The passion raged so violently that the
king issued a proclamation saying that the reports were
false, and commanded quiet. Even this had no effect,
and in the course of a day or two it was followed by a
stern edict that any one caught circulating such reports
should be immediately arrested and punished, and
that all disorder should be immediately repressed.
Meanwhile, threats of all sorts had been made against
the foreigners. The Koreans in the service of for-
eigners were menaced, and in one case mobbed.
Threats were made that the houses of all not natives
should be burned. Some of the foreigners were so
scared by these threats that they packed a few most
necessary belongings, procured ropes and hooks with
which to scale the wall should that become necessary,
and were ready to move at a moment's warping toward
the seaport thirty miles away. The writer, knowing
well the cowardly character of the people, took each
night a few extra precautions, ordered that the large
street gate should not be opened after night until after
careful reconnoitring, and then slept in peace. He was
known by the Koreans to be in possession of what they
especially dread—a repeating rifle and heavy revolvers,


THE PEOPLE.
85
and consequently no visit was anticipated from hostile
or marauding parties. In less than ten days the excite-
ment subsided, and where a few days before angry crowds
had congregated there were to be seen only the usual
number of laughing, happy-go-lucky loungers, mer-
chants and purchasers. It must be remembered, how-
ever, that as a contributing cause to fearlessness on the
part of foreigners there was the knowledge that very
few Koreans possess firearms. These are contrabaud
articles, and by treaty stipulation they are not allowed
to be sold to the natives. As the customs are admin-
istered by foreigners, it will easily be seen that very
few can be gotten into the country, so that the offen-
sive weapons are confined mainly to arrows, spears and
swords, while the Korean muskets, almost entirely in
the hands of the soldiers, are either flint-locks or
match-locks, and hence not very dangerous.
Koreans have a wholesome fear of an armed foreigner;
hence it would be no feat at all in times of excitement
for one well-armed and resolute man to keep a whole
street clear; and he could doubtless easily put to flight
a large band of evil-disposed persons. These traits of
excitability and credulity of course do not argue well
for the development of the people. Their existence
suggests that it might be possible for the nation to
make considerable progress in Western ways, and then
in a single term of excitement to upset and nullify all
the advance that had been made. On the other hand,


86
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
there is the reflection that the Koreans can scarcely be
more fickle than the Japanese, and that even now the
latter people are not beyond mobbing an inoffensive
foreigner on the very slightest grounds, as was shown
in the spring of 1890. Those who have been longest
in the country, however, think that there is a closer
approximation to the Chinese steadiness than to the
Japanese flightiness, and that there is an undercurrent
of good sense which will carry the people to a high
level of national life.
Another trait which is peculiarly Korean is curiosity.
In that peninsula this trait is by no means exclusively
feminine. It is a question whether the men are not
more infected with it than the women. Of course,
foreigners are as yet a curiosity. Especially is this
true of the ladies. Consequently, when foreigners,
especially if ladies are in the company, start for a
stroll with sightseeing or shopping as a purpose, they
are often followed by a crowd varying from a half
dozen to more than a score of persons, all good-natured,
though they often crowd a little too closely for comfort.
Every motion is watched, commented upon, and each
attempt to speak the language is greeted with a smile
of approval and appreciation. The freedom allowed
our ladies and their unconcern when under the scru-
tiny of many eyes is the subject of much remark.
Especially interesting to Koreans is an attempt to
make a purchase, and articles which to them seem


THE PEOPLE.
87
almost valueless are often picked up by these "crazy
foreigners.” The consequence is that merchants bring
all sorts of things to the houses to be sold, and for
trifles which have no value whatever they sometimes
ask astonishing prices; and, on the other hand, really
valuable articles are picked up for a mere song. But
these visits are made the occasions of satisfying a desire
to know how foreigners live, and many a surreptitious
peep through half-opened doors is indulged in while
some really interesting article is being examined. The
servants who are employed in the foreign quarter are
questioned as to the goings on inside the strangers'
homes. On certain days in the year women flock in
crowds sightseeing, and one goal of their desire is the
inside of the houses of the Mee-kook saram (Americans).
Some of the Americans, especially the missionaries,
throw open a part of their houses to inspection. This
is undoubtedly a wise procedure. Korean homes are
very bare of what we regard as comforts, and probably
in no way can the superiority of our civilization be so
closely brought home to the people as by showing them
how much it adds to our comfort. Certainly it looks
like an effective argument to say to Confucians and
Buddhists, “Our religion is superior to yours in this,
if in nothing else, that it has developed higher comforts
and made possible a higher enjoyment of life.” Mere
contact with foreigners often produces a wonderful
change in the ways of looking at things. I had as


88
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
teacher a wonderfully neat and very gentlemanly little
Korean. He came regularly, and appeared astonished at
nothing he saw. After visiting me during about three
months, he one day surprised me by asking if he might
bring his wife to see our house and its furnishings. This:
request was a strange one, as will appear later. When he
first came to the house, had such a thing been suggested,
it would possibly have been deemed an insult, and not
improbably would have caused a cessation of his visits.
Yet his association with such foreigners as he saw at our
home (the teachers of the royal school and their visitors)
showed him that no possible harm could result from a
visit by his wife. Accordingly, one day he brought
her, and a very cunning little body she proved to be
-unsophisticated, astonished at all she saw and ever
ready to laugh. She and her husband took luncheon
with us, and while she did not partake of the staple
articles of diet, she showed her appreciation of fruit,
cakes and nuts, receiving them with charming modesty
from the fingers of her husband. Before she left we
secured a photograph of herself and husband sitting
side by side, which is presented herewith. Rare indeed
are the pictures of a lady of the yang-ban (noble)
class.
Koreans are wretchedly poor; poor not merely ac-
cording to our standard, but judged by one much lower.
One gauge of this poverty is afforded by their scale of
wages. For work done about the foreigners' houses by



8382
BOON
X
26
.
ww
NA
www
My Teacher and his Wife.
Page 89.





THE PEOPLE
laborers, such as labor in the garden, the usual day's
wages is about twelve and a half to fifteen cents,
Skilled laborers, carpenters and masons, get twenty-
five cents a day. These latter after their day's work
is done wash and put on their clean robes, and strut
down the street with the gait of noblemen, rejoicing
in their easy way of living and their abundant means.
Even at this rate of wages they rarely work more
than four days in a week. Sewing-women and nurses
get four dollars a month; gatemen, who mind the
gate, cut and carry wood and fetch coal, get three
to four dollars; all the servants “find themselves."
Washing is done for three cents a piece. But a for-
eigner finds that it takes a number of people about the
house to keep the work going. Comparatively large
establishments are necessary there, since each servant
will perform only a certain line of duty.
Another characteristic of Koreans is a love of country.
They yield not even to the Swiss in their intense patriot-
ism. This was strikingly brought out in a case which
came under our immediate observation. When we
arrived in Japan, in 1886, we learned that Kim Ok
Kiun, the man who was at the head of the govern-
ment at the time of the emeute in 1884, and who
was charged with directing it, was staying in Yoko-
hama. We had an interview with him shortly after
our arrival, though this fact did not become known
to Koreans while we were in the peninsula. Staying


KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
at the hotel with us was another Korean, who was sel-
dom seen and who hardly ever left his room. We were
surprised soon to find that the hotel was guarded, and
the Japanese police officers were so stationed that no
one could leave the house without being seen. Subse-
quently we learned that this Korean had come over
with the intention of assassinating Kim Ok Kiun,
and the suspicion was that he was commissioned by
the government, of course secretly, to accomplish that
design. At any rate, the Japanese government appre-
hended him, and sent him back to Korea under guard,
delivering him to the officials of his own government.
Of course every one who knew the methods of Oriental
governments of the Korean type suspected that he was
going to his death, and doubtless so did he. The fact
that he had compromised his government would cer-
tainly produce that result. Notwithstanding that, as
soon as we came in sight of Korean shores he mani-
fested his delight in ways beyond mistaking, and when
we dropped anchor in Chemulpo harbor he came to us,
and, pointing to the town, said in English (the only words
he knew in that language, and which he had learned from
his Japanese guards), “My country. I very glad."
We never heard of him after that. At another time,
when some tumblers and tricksters exhibited themselves
at our compound, they were asked whether, if Mr.
Barnum would engage them “for much money,” they
would go to America for a year. The reply was,


KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
“it was very nice, but it cost too much money for
Koreans to buy it.” There is no likelihood of its
becoming common among the people.
The people have been much maligned in the matter
of cleanliness. In the East one learns to beware of
aphorisms. Foreigners like to be witty at the expense
of natives. So an Englishman was once heard to say
that the dirtiest man he ever saw was a clean Korean.
The impression the speaker meant to convey was that
Koreans are the dirtiest people on earth. It must be
kept in mind that the inhabitants of the peninsula dress
in light clothing, cotton such as we use for sheeting
being a staple. It follows that their clothing is easily
soiled. A man starting away in the morning with
freshly-laundried clothes may return at night with
these clothes in a disreputable condition. In the mat-
ter of raiment, bearing in mind the material of which
clothing is made, it does not appear that Koreans are un-
usually uncleanly. Boys clothes are apt to become very
dirty, especially the collars and backs of their tunics or
coats. The hair is anointed with a blackened oil to make
it glossy, and as it hangs down the back, it naturally
causes discoloration of the clothing. But boys there
are not more careless than elsewhere, and the same
is to a great extent true of adults. The few women
who are seen on the street are nearly always exquisitely
neat in appearance. Their shoes are whitened, their
socks are white as snow, their trousers hang spotless


THE PEOPLE.
93
below the skirts, while the latter shine in the sun and
the coat seldom shows a stain. In winter the appear-
ance is less prepossessing. Winter clothing is made by
laying cotton between two layers of cotton, linen or silk
material and quilting it. As the cleansing of garments
made in this way involves taking them apart, naturally
winter garments are worn longer before washing. At
that season Koreans often present a filthy appearance.
Their purses do not allow of the purchase of woollen
goods, and underclothes such as we wear are unknown.
In fact, wool is not produced in the peninsula.
Koreans are subject to about the same ailments that
affect the rest of mankind, but malaria is one of the
most common troubles. This results partly from the
imperfect sewerage, which has become clogged and
ineffective, and partly from the existence of ill-drained
rice-paddies, which are found everywhere. The in-
troduction of quinine has had a beneficial effect on the
inhabitants of the capital and vicinity, for very many
have discovered its qualities and use it extensively. The
people suffer greatly from cholera in seasons when it
appears in the country. The reason for this has been
given in the description of the wells. A great abettor
of this disease is found in the summer diet of the people,
as green cucumbers, eaten often rind and all, furnish not
seldom the sole substance of a meal. Night soil is never
disinfected, and is carried from the cities on the backs
of ponies or oxen in network bags to the farm lands


94
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
and there used as a fertilizer. One great difficulty which
doctors experience in their practice among the people
is the dislike and distrust of foreign medicine. Many
a death has been due directly to the women's obstinacy
in refusing or neglecting to administer the prescription
left by the doctor. In one case which came under our
immediate notice a Korean was attacked by the cholera.
Drs. Allen and Heron prescribed for him, and he was
fairly on the road to recovery. But his wife one day
disappeared, and it was learned subsequently that she
had gone to a native fortune-teller or sorcerer for medi-
cine, after hiding or throwing away what medicine the
doctors had given and which had done so much good.
A day or two elapsed before her absence and its mean-
ing came to light; the man had a relapse, and when his
wife returned he was dead and buried! The superstition
of the people and the fear of sorcery on the part of
native doctors causes much of this trouble, but as the
beneficence and ability of our physicians become more
widely known the superstition and opposition will vanish.
The pharmacopoeia is Chinese. Ginseng does not
play so large a part as in China, because it is too
costly. It is safe, however, to say that foreigners had
better suffer from almost any disease than take a Korean
remedy. For example, for some complaints tigers' claws
are a specific. But as knowledge of the cures American
physicians have wrought spreads, the people are coming
to have more confidence in them. They often have


CHAPTER VI.
DOMESTIC LIFE.
TT is in the social life of the Koreans that we find the
greatest contrast with our own institutions. The key
of Korean life lies in the seclusion of its women. As
one passes through the streets or along the roads one sees
very few females. Most of those who are met wear
what does duty as a veil—a light coat of some kind,
generally of green silk, sleeves and all, which is cast
over the head, and, when men are met, is drawn tightly
over the face, so that only the eyes, sometimes only one
eye, perhaps not even so much as that, can be seen ; and
often the wearer is so exceedingly bashful that she not
only takes this precaution, but also turns her back to the
street and her face to the wall of the houses along the
way. But whenever I met a female thus coy and bashful,
I have always felt that one thing would surely happen
—that, as soon as she thought I was fairly past, her
curiosity would get the better of her bashfulness, and
she would throw off all restraint, to see how the for-
eign stranger was made up. Accordingly, after pass-
ing her a few steps, I would, if feeling a little mis-
chievous, cast a quick glance over my shoulder, and
96



Peasants' Huts.
Page 97.





DOMESTIC LIFE.
97
catch the lady in the act, generally with her face entirely
exposed, gazing with both her eyes at the foreigner in
his queer garb. Of course my glance back would dis-
concert her and send her scurrying off in the opposite
direction.
Quite a number of women in the city will be seen
with no covering whatever on the head; and inquiry
would elicit the explanation that very many of these
are proprietors of or purveyors to the restaurants, and
that for the sake of getting the money they go with
face uncovered. In the country there is less restraint
than in the city in this respect. Women going to the
city may sometimes be seen along the road with their
coats neatly folded and carried on the top of the head,
but as they approach the city the coats are unfolded and
the head is covered. Among the peasantry, too, the
rule for the veiling of women is less strenuously insisted
on; but the fact remains that the custom is for women
not to be seen. The truth of this is especially seen in
the arrangement of their houses.
The typical form of a Korean house of the peasant
class is that of a horse-shoe, along one side of which
runs the street, the street door near one heel, and the
women's apartments in the other wing, or near the
other heel of the shoe. The apartments are arranged
around the open court, so that the horse-shoe represents
very accurately the plan of a Korean house. The typi-
cal plan of the house and grounds of a rich man is as


98
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
follows: Along the street is built a row of buildings,
generally eight feet wide (eight feet is the unit of meas-
ure in building a house), which are occupied by servants
or used as outhouses for stores of wood, etc. Sometimes
these outhouses are extended around two sides of the
enclosure, and even a third side may be occupied by
them, being shut in from the rest of the enclosure by
a wall, making several small yards, each with its little
set of houses or rooms. These are occupied by the ser-
vants, male and female, who are kept on the place. The
part of the lot unenclosed by outhouses is shut from the
world by a wall five and a half or six feet in height. I
have it on good authority that it is a penal offence for a
peasant to look over the wall of a nobleman's grounds.
The house of the master is placed toward the rear, and is
built in the shape of a square or oblong figure around a
hollow space, which is in area generally about a square
rod. The apartments of the women are in the rear,
and there or in the inner court they pass the most of
their time.
The cardinal point of social etiquette is that the
ladies of a household are not to be seen, and, so far
as conversation about them is concerned, are not sup-
posed to exist. Consequently, when a visitor makes
a call on a friend, he is not taken in and introduced to
the wife or wives and daughters of his host. The guest-
room and reception-rooms are either apart from the
house, inside the second court, or in front of the host's
as a
nce


DOMESTIC LIFE.
99
own residence. In the latter case no windows or doors
look in upon the inner court or toward the women's
apartments. The visitor is met in the front by his
host, is there entertained, and in his conversation does
not, unless he is a near relation or on the closest terms
of intimacy, allude to the ladies of the house. It fol-
lows from this that the make-up of social life in Korea
is entirely different from what it is in the West. The
factor which plays so large a part in our life, the “re-
fining influence of woman,” is there altogether wanting.
Young folks and old, young ladies and gentlemen, do not
meet together for social recreation and quiet games in
the evening. Parties of both sexes, made up for enjoy-
ment, do not gather round the fireside to pass away the
time in winter. One never sees a family picnic party
-father, mother, sons, daughters and friends—start-
ing away to pass the day rambling on the hills or
boating on the river. A picnic party may go on the
river, but if the mother go along, she is in an enclosed
boat, and her enjoyment is not for the spectator to
witness.
So, too, the institution which passes among us in the
country under the homely name of “courting” is not
known in Korea. A young man there does not choose
the partner of his joys and the sharer of his woes, nor
does the young woman have a voice in the selection of
a husband. She may have caught a glimpse of him
through a hole in the window as he passed along the
hoofC.


100
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
street, but he never knows how she looks, except from
the description of his mother or other female relation,
till he sees her on the wedding-day. The arrange-
ment is a family matter, managed by the father. The
method is somewhat as follows: A father, his son hav-
ing reached a marriageable age-14 to 16—decides that
the latter ought to settle down. Accordingly, he runs
over the list of his acquaintances whom he knows to
have marriageable daughters, and decides upon the fam-
ily to which he will make overtures; having gôt so far,
he may talk the matter over with his wife, and, having
found her acquiescent, will rise some morning, don his
best apparel and saunter down the street. The word
saunter is used advisedly, for a Korean is seldom in a
hurry. The old proverb so much quoted among Occi-
dentals, “Never put off till to-morrow what you can
do to-day," takes another shape in the Korean mind.
It would probably run thus if it were formulated :
“Never do to-day what can be put off till to-mor-
row.” “If a thing is not done to-day-why, there
are other days coming; and if there should not be
another day, it doesn't matter any way." Conse-
quently, the father saunters leisurely along, saluting
his acquaintances, stopping to discuss this matter or
that, till he reaches the home of his friend. There
he is welcomed by his host, who, noting the holiday
garb, has probably surmised the object of the visit.
Westerners would probably come immediately to the
ar
se-


DOMESTIC LIFE.
101
purpose in mind, but not so the Korean. He will talk
all around the subject; real estate transfers, the price
of living, the last famine, the cholera, the feats of for-
eign ships of war, the state of the market, all may come
under discussion. And when there is a lull in the con-
versation, the remark may fall as if casually : “By the
way, I have a son, a good-for-nothing fellow, whom I
want to see settled in life.” “Ah, is that so ?” says the
host. “I hope you will have the satisfaction of seeing
him well married and a suitable wife attending to his
wants.” Then the conversation wanders off on any
topic that suggests itself. After more or less time, if
the host thinks favorably of what is in fact (and is so
understood) a proposal, he will perhaps be heard to re-
mark, “Do you know, it seems like a providence, your
coming here to-day? It just happens that I have a mar-
riageable daughter, and perhaps you were directed here.
Mayhap my daughter, who is a no-account girl, might
be taught her duty to your son.” And from that the
two fathers may proceed to make the arrangements,
after which the visitor goes home and tells his son
that a wife has been found for him and that he will
be married on such a date. Visits are now in order
between the women of the two families, and the details
are arranged, and of course the mother tells her son the
appearance of his bride, expatiating on her good points
-her modesty, beauty, docility, obedience and so on.
The young man now takes a step upward in the social


102
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
scale. He is now becoming a man, so he no longer
wears his hair down his back in a braid, but has a lit-
tle place shaved at the crown and the rest of his hair
done up in a knot on the top. He may now wear the
black hat and begin to assume the deliberate step and
dignified manners of an adult. He must now be ad-
dressed in honorific language. He may use "low
talk” to his boy companions of yesterday. He is
now a “Mr.," and is to be treated with becoming
respect. Of the customs attending the celebration of
the marriage I cannot speak, except that etiquette de-
mands that during the wedding-day the girl-wife-
girls are married at the age of from 13 to 15 years—
must not speak to her husband after the salutations, at
the risk of hearing it as a reproach in after-life. But
the young Korean has as much mischief in him as the
young men of any other part of the world, and so it has
become a custom for the newly-married man to try and
extort from his bride some word of expostulation or re-
proach which may be held as a lash over her head in any
stormy days of matrimony. Consequently, some portion
of the time between engagement and marriage is spent in
conjuring up tricks of speech and manner to tantalize and
surprise some words from the bride's mouth. Sometimes
the youth gets more than he bargained for. There is
a story almost as widely spread in Korea as the George
Washington's hatchet tale in the United States, to the
effect that a bright youth had devised some particu-


DOMESTIC LIFE.
103
larly teasing speeches with which to regale his wife on
that first day, and he was unwilling that the fun to
result should be confined to himself. So he placed
a number of his friends in a room where they could
hear, but of course could not see, what was going
on. He then proceeded to apply the torture, and he
was so successful that the girl, after enduring bravely
for a long time all the taunts and sneers and persiflage
he could bring to bear, was at last stung into calling
him such a name that it covered him with confusion
and stuck to him through life. After the marriage the
girl is carried to her husband's home in a closed chair
with a leopard- or tiger-skin covering it, and takes her
place in the family of her husband. She no longer has
any ties connecting her with her own parents' home.
She is part and parcel of the family into which she has
married, and her hopes and ambitions are henceforth all
in this direction. It may be for this reason that so much
more joy is manifested over the birth of a son than
over that of a daughter. The former will always be-
long to the family, and he is one more hope of per-
petuating the family name and honor. But as a girl
when she marries goes out of and is lost to the family,
no hopes of increased honor to it can centre in her.
But though women may not appear in the street by
day, there is a time when they may take their outing.
After the curfew strikes all males are supposed to be in
their homes, and the ladies may then go abroad. They



Outside Wall, showing Street and Veiled Women.
Page 104.





DOMESTIC LIFE.
105
called in, given their directions, and they take up the
chair and fare, and, carrying her to the appointed place,
set her down in the inner courtyard, retiring until she
is ready to return, when the operation is repeated. It
should be stated, however, that while the chair-curtains
are so arranged as to prevent people's looking in, they
do not prevent the occupant from seeing out, so that
whatever goes on outside can be watched by my lady
as she passes through the streets.
This seclusion of women is an obstacle in medical
work, and also, as will be seen in the chapter on mis-
sions, in mission work. It necessitates the maintenance
of a lady medical missionary to treat Her Majesty the
queen. There is, however, one peculiar fact—that
women will throw off all restraint in the house and
presence of a foreigner, but if while they are visiting
there a native male comes in, they scurry out of his
sight with the utmost haste.
It might be imagined, too, that the method of con-
tracting marriage would produce very unhappy homes ;
and yet this does not seem to be the case. Of those few
cases which I have had the opportunity of studying, and
others which came under my eye, by far the larger part
seemed to have produced as much happiness at least as
is found in the majority of our own homes. My teacher,
who visited us in company with his wife, seemed almost
extravagantly fond of this engaging little woman; and
as one passes through the streets and sees the men on


106
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
every hand playing with and caressing the children with
every mark of fondness and affection, one is assured that
love is a potent factor in Korean homes.
Divorce is astonishingly easy, but infrequent. It
seems that all that is necessary is for a husband to tell
his wife to leave, and she is thereby divorced and the
decree entered. Yet but one case of this kind came
to our knowledge, and even in that instance the parties
afterward became reconciled.
The Koreans are a domestic people, and are generally
chaste. Their character in this latter particular is far
above that of their neighbors, the Japanese.
Of course it is seen at once that this absence of native
women of quality from the streets is one reason why
foreign ladies who go out for a walk or to see the sights
are such a curiosity to the Koreans. The latter deem
it strange that these ladies and they think nothing
disparaging or discreditable of foreign women on this
account-should be willing to let their faces be seen in
public and by any one who chooses to look.
But it must not be imagined from what has been said
that woman has no influence in Korean life. It is a
well-known fact that the queen has very great influence
with the king, and that a great deal is done according to
her wishes. More than once in the presence of her lady
physician, when matters of public policy were being dis-
cussed, she has asked the king to be quiet while she ex-
pressed her opinion; and, hidden by a screen, she once


DOMESTIC LIFE.
107
lectured an official on his remissness in the perform-
ance of his duties. In ordinary life this is also true.
When men address women in the street, it is almost
always with the “polite” forms. Koreans are loud
talkers, so that when a family misunderstanding is in
process of adjustment the neighbors generally hear
what is going on. Many a time, while passing along
the street, we have been amused to note that while a
husband was calling his wife all the names he could
think of, he usually ended by attaching to the verb an
ending indicative of his unbounded respect for the part-
ner of his bosom. There is still one other fact indicat-
ing the position of women : while foreigners are ex-
pected to talk “low" or "impolite” talk to their male
servants, the women, seamstresses and nurses, who are
in their employ expect to be addressed in polite terms,
and object if spoken to in any other way.
In a country dominated by Chinese culture, as we
have found Korea to be, it is to be expected that
Chinese customs of family life will be found in force.
We are therefore prepared to find in Korea the greatest
respect for old age. Hoary hairs are a sign of glory,
and a bald head is, among Koreans, a mark of wisdom.
Those who have followed the history of missions will
remember that Dr. Allen was the first missionary in
the country after the making of a treaty. He doubt-
less owed a great deal of his popularity and the con-
fidence of the king and government to the fact that he


108
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
was rather bald. On one occasion a number of for-
eigners were out skating, and the doctor was in the
company. The pond was surrounded by Koreans who
were watching our evolutions on the ice and wondering
at the skill displayed. Suddenly the doctor lost his hat,
and as the people gazed on the broad expanse of fore-
head, reaching nearly to his crown, they remarked, in
accents of respect, “Why, he's an old man !” and their
wonder increased at the agility he displayed. So the
father and grandfather are objects of veneration, and
the manners of youth toward old age are worthy of
imitation in our own land.
As in China, so in Korea, the elder brother is the
hope and pride, and, after the death of the father, the
seat of authority in the family. The younger members
of the household are taught to yield to him in all things,
and he is next to the elders in influence during their
lifetime. He inflicts chastisement in loco parentis upon
the younger members of the family, and as regard goes
by age, and the second son is superior to the third, and
so on down, the lot of the youngest son is often an un-
enviable one. We had in our employ two brothers
whose father was dead and whose mother was old and
very feeble. The elder brother had on one occasion
given the younger some command which was disobeyed.
The elder then proceeded to punish the offender, whose
cries reached me in my study. After finding out what
was the matter, I sent to have the beating stopped, but


DOMESTIC LIFE.
109
the messenger returned, saying that Jumbo (so the older
one had been nicknamed because of his size) had refused
to cease chastising his brother, inasmuch as he was the
elder and had the right according to Korean custom to
punish his junior. The cries of the little fellow were
pitiful to hear, so I went out and managed to make
Jumbo understand that whatever his rights under
Korean law might be, no such doings would be tol-
erated on the place of a foreigner. I found out after-
ward that this elder brother, a boy of about sixteen and
utterly irresponsible, had beaten his brother with a club
as thick as his wrist, and had bruised the little fellow
cruelly. Had the beating taken place before they came
into our employ, the authority of the elder would have
been almost despotic, and it was in his power to make
the other lead a wretched life. As the case stood, for-
eigners are not under Korean law, and even their ser-
vants are not liable to arrest except through their re-
spective consulates. It was therefore practicable to
interfere and save the boy from severe punishment.
While monogamy is the rule in Korea, there is no
law against polygamy, and many Koreans have two
wives. Or, to put it in another way, concubinage is a
legalized practice; so that two wives, or a wife and con-
cubine, are not infrequently heard smoothing out the
clothes of their lord, the fact of there being two being
easily discerned by the frequency of the taps of the
ironing-sticks.


110
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
The greetings Koreans use are quite Oriental. The
three most in use are, “Are you well ?” used generally
to inferiors; “Have you been free from sickness ?" or
“May you be free from sickness !” more honorific than
the preceding; and “May you have peace !" which is
the most complimentary.
While promiscuous social gatherings are from the
nature of things not permitted in Korea, there are
usually little assemblies of men after night, and
groups may be seen in the little anteroom or entrance,
seated around the hibachi if it is cold, chatting or sing-
ing songs or telling tales or listening while one reads a
book. One thing which strikes a newcomer as particu-
larly strange is that a Korean when reading, no matter
what it is-song, letter, book or prayer even-sings or
rather intones it. This is the only peculiarity which
suggests a connection with the Chinese, and may be a
reminiscence or reflection of the “tone” of the Chinese
language. The little gatherings of men just spoken of
suggest the meetings at the country store in our own
country districts. Undoubtedly, many a disturbance
has been fomented at these assemblies; and it is quite
well known that the Jesuits, who have lived so long in
disguise in the peninsula, have taken advantage of the
custom to tell the tale of the Virgin and her Son.
Nor are household games wanting in this country.
It is well known that China disputes with India the
honor of inventing chess, and we should naturally sup-


DOMESTIC LIFE.
111
pose that in Korea, Chinese culture would bring in that
game. But a Western chess-player would not recognize
the game from the pieces or the board. The pieces are
all flat, and bear their titles cut in the top and bottom.
They are not played in the squares, but on the inter-
sections of the lines. Nor are they all placed on the
board at once, but repose in a basket at the player's
side, and are put in position as the exigencies of the
game require. Another indoor game is one resembling
go-bang, played also at the intersections of the lines,
and requiring two hundred pieces. Dominoes are used,
as are also cards and a game somewhat resembling
draughts.
One tradition which obtains in Korea undoubtedly
obstructs the advance of the country. It is that men
of the yang-ban (gentleman or noble) class, even though
their means do not furnish them the necessities of life,
are not expected to work and produce their own living.
A gentleman may starve or beg, but may not work.
His relations may support him, or his wife may, in one
way or another, supply means, but he must not soil his
hands. This custom has so firm a hold that it is con-
stantly observed in practice. If a nobleman loses offi-
cial position and property, he generally becomes a
hanger-on at the home of some relation who is more
fortunate, and he trusts to the turn of the wheel to re-
gain his position at the public crib.
Although living is remarkably cheap for natives in


112
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Korea (one hundred cash, or five cents, sufficing for
food for one day), the number of non-producers is
swelled to large dimensions by this addition to the
number of officials, who of course add nothing to the
wealth of the country. The only remedy for this is
probably the adoption of a new civilization, and famil-
iarity with the fact that among Western men, who stand
so high in the opinion of Koreans, work is not a dis-
grace. Mere association with foreigners will do much
to bring a change in this respect.
When the teachers arrived in the country to take
charge of the king's school, called the Royal College,
they found themselves occupying an enviable position
in Korean eyes, as men who had taken rank in the
great American quaga. In other words, they were
looked upon as “gentlemen” in the Korean sense.
Now, Korean “gentlemen” are not supposed to carry
anything for themselves. Our scholars, all chosen from
the nobility, would not carry their books from their
study-rooms to the class-rooms: a servant had to do
that for them. Whenever a gentleman goes abroad he
is accompanied by a band of servants, more or less
numerous according to his rank or means, who carry
his belongings. He does not carry even his pipe. So
when we went out into the street, it was very much
against the will of the attendants that we should carry
anything.
Soon after our arrival a soldier, by order of His


DOMESTIC LIFE.
113
Majesty, was sent to each teacher, to be a sort of
personal attendant and messenger. If either of us
went hunting, the soldier in attendance always took the
gun and carried it till we got to the hunting-grounds.
The distress of my man was rather pitiful the first
day that I brought out two pieces, a shot-gun
and a rifle, and he had to submit to my carrying
one.
In like manner, in the spring, when one of the
teachers commenced gardening, of which occupation
he was especially fond, and began by using the spade,
an attendant ran up and tried to take the spade out
of his hands, and remonstrated with him on doing
“coolies' work.” The servants can hardly understand
ladies taking hold of the housework in the energetic
way of Americans, and accomplishing so much.
It is a revelation to the Koreans to find men who,
they admit, are gentlemen, the peers of their own of-
ficials of high rank, deeming it no dishonor to engage
in manual labor. This foreign custom is bearing fruit
already. One Korean at least of the yang-ban class
can be pointed out who, finding himself out of funds,
instead of living upon his relations, took a place in the
house of one of the missionaries, and as steward earned
his bread by hard labor. That Korean was really little
short of a hero, for it was no slight thing for him to
brave the uplifted eyebrows and familiar address of
those who had been beneath him, to fly in the face of


114
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
the traditions of his country, and to earn instead of
“sponge” his bread. Yet there is an epithet used in
quarrels which shows that there is a foundation in the
sentiment of the people for a better order of things. A
man will sometimes call an opponent a peero mogganan
nom, a “fellow who lives by borrowing." This is as
insulting an expression as can be applied. There may
come a time, then, when Koreans will believe in the
dignity of labor; and foreigners who are in the coun-
try now, and who are the objects of Korean watch-
fulness, cannot do a better work than to show, by dis-
daining no decent work, that there is no disgrace attach-
ing to labor. There is a tendency in Eastern countries,
where service is cheap and servants are many, to let the
natural laziness in one's nature assert itself, and to allow
matters to go easily. The Anglo-Saxon race owes its
dominant position to its energy and tirelessness, and
these, in turn, are born of the knowledge that labor
is honorable. It is to be hoped, then, that the tendency
of foreigners in Korea will not be to pander to Korean
notions in this respect, for fear of losing caste in their
eyes, but to maintain the ascendency their civilization
gives them over Koreans, and to prove that that ascend-
ency is due to the exercise of natural and acquired
powers in doing useful and beneficent work.
In the peninsula there is of course nothing resembling
the caste distinctions of India. Men may pass, through
the medium of scholarship, from the peasant class to


DOMESTIC LIFE.
. 115
the rank of scholar and noble. But there is a great
deference among the people, which is insisted on by
officials themselves, toward officials. For instance, in
discussing business men below a certain grade (that
know as cham-way) may not sit in the presence of
men of higher rank unless invited to do so. Hence
when the teachers sent on to open the royal college
met the commissioners of education, while chairs were
provided for all at the house where we met, the
interpreters did not dare to sit down, explaining
to us the reason for their declining our request to
be seated. Officials passing along the street are often
preceded by soldiers and attendants, who clear the
way for these great men, and order all men to rise
and show respect to them. In the case of men of
high rank, soldiers of a certain class precede the
chair of the official nearly a hundred yards, shout-
ing out at short intervals, at the top of their voices,
what sounds like “Kee-roo-che-ro0-00-00 ! Kee-roo-
che-roo-00-00 !” Generally two old soldiers perform
this duty, each taking his turn in shouting the above
call. The exact translation of the term I have never
learned, but the meaning is unmistakable. It is equiva-
lent to “Look out, all you people ! here comes a great
man; get out of the way, and be prepared to show re-
spect.” After these two leading soldiers, who walk on
opposite sides of the street, come others, sometimes to
the number of thirty or forty, and they are followed, in


116
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
the case of military officers, by two or more ranks of
soldiers with muskets and fixed bayonets enclosing the
chair of the officer, and then comes a train of servants,
secretaries, etc., bearing various utensils.
Etiquette is graded with exactest nicety. Even the
distance a host accompanies his guest on the latter's
departure is measured by the elevation the guest has
attained in official station. A curious custom is that
two intimate friends passing along the street on horse-
back will not speak or recognize each other. When
a Korean riding in a chair meets in the street a for-
eigner whom he knows, he usually stops his chair,
dismounts and passes the time of day. This is a mark
of respect, and a tribute not usually paid by Koreans
to men of their own nationality. One thing that strikes
foreigners is the universal use of the fan. A part of
the equipment even of soldiers is a large fan. Every
person who keeps servants is supposed to supply them
during the summer season with these indispensable
articles; and they serve not only to cool the person,
but also to shield the face from too curious observers.
Many a time have we passed Koreans on horseback
and been amused to see the riders hold their fans
before their faces so as not to be seen.
As in Japan, shoes are removed on entering a house.
Since the shoes are a sort of sandal or slipper, this does
not cause any great amount of trouble. They are easily
released, and stand at the door ready to be slipped on


DOMESTIC LIFE.
117
again when the call is over. The reason for this re-
moval of the shoes will be seen as we describe the floor
of the house. The hat is not taken off, but as it is
only a light hair net, its retention on the head pro-
duces no discomfort.
The laws of etiquette are peculiar in the matter of
smoking. They resemble somewhat the customs ob-
served in our own army. It is known to most persons
that among officers of the army the punctilios of formal
salutes when meeting otherwise than in the line of duty
are not observed. A major and colonel meeting in a
friendly way do not give the military salute. But when-
ever a private and commissioned officer meet or pass,
the latter is saluted by the former. Similarly, when
men of high rank are in the presence of men of still
higher rank, all smoke together. But the servant never
smokes in the presence of his master. So the servants
about foreigners' houses, if they are caught by the
master with a pipe in their mouth, take it out and
hide it behind them. Often when going down to the
river for swans in the early morning, and taking my
soldier along, I would put in my pocket a cigar to
cheer him as we waited for the light to come or the fog
to lift; but he would never smoke before me. Were
we waiting, he would get behind a boat, where he could
not be seen, or if we were walking he would come some
distance behind me. If a nobleman passes along the
street, the common people who are smoking hide their
mel


118
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
pipes until he has gone by. The use of tobacco is
universal, even boys and women using the weed. A
part of the dress of a Korean is his tobacco-pouch, his
flint, steel and tinder or his matches. Without it he
never goes abroad, and tobacconists and pipe-dealers
are far more common than in our own country. A
traveler has well said that you can tell approximately
the rank of a Korean by noting the length of his pipe-
stem. The official is unable to light his pipe by holding
a match to it-he cannot reach the bowl. So men of
rank have their pipes filled and lighted by their servants,
and it usually takes two to accomplish the lighting.
Much taste is displayed in the ornamentation of the
pipes. The bowls are usually of metal, and often the
mouth-pieces are of the same material. Frequently
the mouth-piece is of jade, and is correspondingly costly.
Very tasty mouth-pieces are made of agate, and are dis-
played in all sizes and varieties in almost every store.
The stems, the shortest and plainest of which are used
by the coolies, are plain reeds. The more costly, deco-
rated with paints in dainty patterns or carved, bring
from twenty-five cents to a dollar. The metal bowls
and mouth-pieces are made of copper and are nickel-
plated. Short and handy pipes of foreign make are
coming into use among the coolies, but a short pipe is
to a man of note an abomination.
Should representative government ever come into
vogue in Korea, colonization of voters and “repeat-


120
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
loser by a fire or other calamity. The mode of work-
ing is as follows: Blocks of stone above a foot in height
and perhaps fifteen inches square at the base are set at
distances of eight feet apart along the line of what is
to be the outer wall of the house, and their tops placed
at the same level by means of a line tightly stretched.
Opposite these, and at distances of eight, twelve or six-
teen feet, according to the width of the house, are placed
corresponding blocks of stone on the line of the inside
wall. Upon these are erected planed posts of pine,
eight inches square or larger, and eight to ten feet in
height. These are connected at the top and bottom by
beams stretching both lengthwise and across the house.
Upon the cross-beams at the centre are placed other
posts, upon which the ridge-poles rest, and the frame
of the house is now complete. The window-frames
and door-frames are then placed in position, and the
spaces between them and the beams and posts are filled
in with a basket-work of intertwined twigs. There is
then laid over this, inside and out, a coating of clay,
which is allowed to harden, and the cracks resulting
from the drying are then filled up. Over this is spread
a coating of plaster, and sometimes over this again a coat
of the tough native paper is pasted. The roof is made
by arranging poles about two inches thick from the ridge-
pole to the beams running lengthwise of the house, and
allowing them to project three or four feet over the
side of the house. Across these smaller scantlings are



Mural Decorations, End of a House.
Page 121.





122
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
om.
cooks the meals serves also for warming the sitting- and
sleeping-room. The fireplace is outside the sleeping-
room, and is a place about a foot square and a foot deep,
covered often with a stationary pot or kettle for cook-
ing. This fireplace is on that side of what we may call
the kitchen which is next to the sitting-room. The
chimney is at the farther end of the sitting-room. The
flue, after leaving the fireplace and passing through the
partition wall, divides into two, three or more flues,
according to the size of the room. These flues are
made somewhat like a drain, about a foot wide, below
the level of the floor, and are covered with flagging.
These flues unite in one flue at the end of the room
furthest from the fireplace, and thence lead to the chim-
ney, a very crude one, built often outside the house.
The fire thus does double duty, serving first to cook
the food, and then to heat the sleeping-room. The
flagging is covered with a layer of mud an inch to two
inches in thickness, laid on very smooth. This, when
dry, is covered with a very thin rice-straw paper, and
over that is laid a very thick and heavy oil paper,
pasted down upon the straw paper. This last serves as
a carpet, and is sometimes decorated in designs. In
houses of the better class are mats or rugs of straw-
sometimes the famous Kang Hwah mats. But outside
of the thin rush or straw mats which serve as beds-
and often these are lacking—there are no carpets, and
there is no substitute for them.


DOMESTIC LIFE.
123
It is doubtless owing to this peculiar construction of
the flooring, and to the fact that the hob-nails of their
shoes would puncture it, that the custom of leaving the
shoes oựtside the floor has grown up. Koreans sleep on
the floor. They rarely have bedsteads, though a few are
to be seen, made only for ornament, and raised only a
few inches from the floor. In winter the floor is heated
as described above, and from this the air of the room
takes its heat. Sometimes as an adjunct hibachis with
charcoal fires are put in the room, but in general the
only heat furnished is from the kang fireplace described
above. The arrangement is one most suited to the
means of the inhabitants, being both economical and
convenient. The kang method is used by foreigners
in some of their rooms, though of course without
the cooking-utensil adjustment. With grates coal can
be burned, making a very economical heat, and one
especially pleasant to dress by in winter; for as the
floor is warm, there is no disagreeable chill while don-
ning the apparel. For fuel almost anything does duty
-weeds, dried grass, fallen leaves, brush and wood.
But as wood is dear in the neighborhood of the capital,
brush, dried grass and weeds are the principal fuel.
Coal is very little used by the Koreans. They have
no grates, and coal does not burn in the kangs without
a grate. Koreans will bear almost any amount of heat
and foul air in their rooms in winter. They seal the
windows almost hermetically, and the doors are made as


124
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
tight as possible. For light they use either tallow or
wax rush-lights or little tin kerosene lamps with no chim-
neys. These latter shortly make the air unbearable to
Americans, but the natives seem to experience no in-
convenience. Bad odors never seem to cause uneasi-
ness, either in the house or without.
The inside walls are papered with native or Japanese
or Chinese paper. The peculiarity of this is that it
comes in squares, not in rolls. Native paper-hangers
in using foreign wall-paper in rolls have to be watched
when papering foreigners' houses, or they will cut the
paper into blocks, since they can handle it much more
easily in that shape. The beams of wood and the rafters
which show are stained a dark brown and varnished, and
the spaces between the rafters are papered. A house
nicely finished inside is really very artistic, and as
some of the rooms have a height of twelve feet to
the ridge-pole, they are dry and healthy, with abun-
dant means of ventilation. Foreigners in remodeling
the native houses for themselves use glass windows,
but natives, like the Japanese, use translucent though
not transparent white paper. For the last ten years.
small bits of glass have been coming into use more
and more, and now as one passes along the streets
one sees in the windows little pieces of glass, one or
two inches square, set in the paper-peep-holes for
the inmates. But the street side of the houses has
very few windows-generally not more than one-this


DOMESTIC LIFE.
125
custom of course being in furtherance of the privacy
of the dwelling.
In wall-building Koreans have an economical material
-mother earth. Along the line of the wall to be built
a foundation of stones is laid. Alongside of this founda-
tion stakes are driven in at distances of about six or
eight feet, and firmly fastened at the top to prevent
their spreading. Boards about a foot and a half in
width and sixteen to eighteen feet long are then put
in position on their edges inside the stakes, the space
inside the boards being equal to the width of the wall
to be built. Loose earth is then dug up, thrown
between the boards and tightly rammed down and
packed. When the space is filled the boards are
raised and the operation is repeated until the proposed
height of the wall is reached. The boards are then
moved along, another length is built, and so on until
this part of the work is completed. The wall is then
allowed to dry, after which it is covered with a coat
of mortar and the top protected with a roof of tiles
projecting beyond the sides of the wall. The earth
is packed and rammed so tightly as to have almost
the hardness and consistency of stone. The main
thing to be provided for is the surface drainage,
for in the rainy season the rainfall is very heavy,
and as the slope is often great, the erosive power of
the water is considerable, and many a wall goes down
because of insufficient or careless surface drainage.


126
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Walls of this character said to have been built forty
years ago may be seen, off which tiles and mortar
have fallen, and which will resist sturdy blows with
a pick, so solid was their construction. It should also
be said that the projection of the roof three or even
five feet beyond the walls of the houses is for the
purpose of protecting the walls, which rarely suffer
even in the rainiest season.
Another feature in Korean life is the water-carrier.
Of course such a thing as water-works is unknown in
Korea. Public works on such a scale are undreamt of,
notwithstanding that in few countries are the natural
conditions more favorable for the supply of water to
large cities than in that peninsula.
Few houses have private wells, and the foreigners
have had to have wells dug on their grounds in order
to have within reach a supply of pure water. The
culinary and domestic supply of water is therefore
drawn from the public wells, which are situated by
the roadside and seldom more than six or eight feet
deep. Often within six feet, sometimes within three,
flows the open drain carrying off the filth of the city,
and doubtless much fetid matter filters into the wells.
In the outside room of the house, or in some place
equally convenient, stands a large crock or jar of earth-
enware as a receptacle for the drinking- and cooking-
water of the family. This is brought from the wells
by the water-carriers, of whom there are a certain num-


DOMESTIC LIFE.
127
ber in each district, who belong to one of the guilds.
These men wear a yoke very much like that used by
the milkmen of Switzerland and England, carried on
the shoulders and projecting beyond the sides, from the
ends of which depend two ropes or chains with hooks at-
tached, which fit into rings ou the handles of the buckets.
These buckets each hold about three gallons, and the
carrier has two of them depending from his yoke.
Their labors begin early in the morning, and their work
is to keep the neighborhood dependent on them supplied
with water. For this they receive a small sum each
month from each household supplied by them. Our
own supply was brought from one of the neighbors'
wells, as the government had not dug one on our
compound. This was a little further than the public
well from which we should naturally have drawn our
supply, consequently we had to pay more for carriage
than we otherwise should. Besides this, we used eight or
ten times the amount of water consumed in native fami-
lies; yet the cost to us was only about a dollar a month.
The carriers are of course met everywhere in the street,
and even without their yokes they can be recognized by
their gait. It is a marvel to the stranger how they man-
age to stride or swing along with pails full to the brim,
scarcely spilling a drop. They have not even the device
of carrying a floating board in the pails to prevent
slopping. The water is not drawn up by windlass and
bucket, but is ladled up by a wooden bowl attached


128
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
usually by three cords of straw to a straw rope. This
is let down into the well, and by a peculiar flip, which
is hard to learn, sent under the water and drawn up
full, and the water poured into the pails. A few
wells have pole-and-swivel attachments, but such are
rare.
The washing is not generally done at home. Some
few articles are necessarily washed there, but the most
of the washing is done in the meadows and by the side
of streams. More concerning this will be found in the
chapter devoted to woman and her labors.
Among the strange features of Korean life are the
changs or fairs, where the trade of the country is car-
ried on. The places for these fairs are always near a
stream and close to cross-roads, and of course on a level
spot. These spots are marked by a few inns and by
rude sheds put up for the protection of the wares. There
are several of these in a district, and they are the media
of interchange of merchandise for the neighborhood.
These fairs are held about every five days, and on fair
days what at other times looks like a deserted village
becomes lively with the moving crowds and resonant
with the cries of the venders. The goods are dis-
played under a shed and in the open air, and often
a huge umbrella will shelter the stock in trade of
a merchant. As the fairs are held on different days
in different districts, venders move from one to an-
other, transporting on their own backs or on those of


DOMESTIC LIFE.
129
· oxen or ponies the stock remaining unsold at the last
one. It has arisen from this custom that there is a
profession of peddlers and another of porters, and
these peddlers are organized into a guild which goes
by the name of pusang. The porters are also organ-
ized, and they are called posang. The former guild
is under government protection, and is under the
supervision of officials; it is divided into sections
of one thousand men, with heads or chiefs appointed
by the home office. These men are utilized by the
government in various ways. They serve, for ex-
ample, as detectives, their roving life making them
of much value in this way, and they are also liable
to military service. They are said to number nearly
one hundred and fifty thousand men, and their patri-
otism is of a very high order. The following graphic
description by Mr. Foulk, naval attaché to the legation
at Seoul, and at that time an ensign in the United States
navy, is taken from the “Papers relating to the For-
eign Relations of the United States, transmitted to Con-
gress Dec. 8, 1885," Washington, 1886, p. 320, and
will give an excellent idea of the working of this guild.
It gives Mr. Foulk's experience in returning from a
visit to Song-To, a stronghold and one of the fortresses
of the capital:
“It was nightfall when we started to return. The
magistrate, who was an officer of the pusang, brought
his seal into use, and called out thirty of the body to


130
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
light us down the mountains. Where these men came
from or how they were called I did not understand, for
we were apparently in an uninhabited, wild, mountain
district. They appeared quickly, great, rough moun-
tain men, each wearing a straw hat with a cotton ball
in the band and the characters “fidelity” and “loyalty”
written on the brim. We descended the worst ravine in
a long, weird, winding procession, the mountains and
our path weirdly illuminated by the pine torches of the
pusang men, who uttered shrill reverberating cries con-
tinually to indicate the road or each other's whereabouts.
Suddenly we came upon a little pavilion in the darkest
part of the first gorge; here some two hundred more
pusang men were assembled by a wild stream in the
light of many bonfires and torches. On the call of the
magistrate they had prepared a feast for us here at mid-
night in the mountains. Here the magistrate told me
he had been asked by the late minister to the United
States, Nim Yong Ik, to suddenly call on the pusang
men of the Song-To district for services, to show me the
usefulness and fidelity of the body; and he had selected
this place, the middle of the mountains, and time, the
middle of the night. I need not say that the experi-
ence was wonderful and impressive. The manner of
the magistrate to the pusang men was most kind and
pleasing, and they likewise exhibited the utmost regard
and deference for him. I was assigned the place of
honor at the feast, in the middle, before the largest


DOMESTIC LIFE.
131
table, which was piled with a great variety of food.
The leading pusang men-old men, nicely dressed,
with kind faces—were presented to me, and exhibited
curiously their pleasure in thus talking pleasantly with
a foreigner for the first time in their lives. The fact of
my traveling in Korea utterly alone (so far as the com-
pany of other foreigners was concerned) seemed to please
them very much.
In returning to the city our own escort was sent to
the rear at the request of the pusang men, who took
charge of us. They carried us across rocky streams,
up and down rocky gullies, energetic and cheerful all
the while, a distance of eight miles; thence on into the
city, over a comparatively level road. Thirty or forty
men carried torches, which were found lying across the
path at regular intervals, to light the way. At 3 A. M.
we arrived at the yongmun (official residence); here the
pusang men were dismissed, to return, for the most part,
to their homes in the mountains.”
It would be expected that people living on the other
side of the globe would have customs differing from ours.
The following may be mentioned as some of the things
which go by contraries : Hats are not removed by
visitors when they enter a house, nor in greeting an
acquaintance on the street. But the shoes, which re-
semble our slippers, are left at the door when a call
is made. The Korean language is written not in words,
but by syllables. It can therefore be written so as to be


132
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
read intelligently either up or down or from left to
right or vice versa. The usual way of writing and the
only way of printing, however, is in vertical columns,
and the first column is on the right. Often the greeting
and name of the writer come first. Watches are not
carried in a watch-pocket, but hanging from the girdle.
The consequence is that when people desire to know the
time they hold their watches upside down. When in
the school the pupils desired to know the time from the
teacher's watch, the latter had to hold it reversed or
difficulty was caused. The people sit down at their
work much more than we do. A woman sits to wash
and iron, a carpenter sits to plane and saw, and the
laborer to chop wood. The law of the road is to turn
to the left : this is particularly confusing to the new-
comer. The method of counting on the hands is
also peculiar : All the fingers are closed. One extends
the thumb, two the forefinger, and so on; then six closes
the little finger, seven the third finger, and so on; while
eleven extends the thumb, and so on. As in China, the
last name comes first; so that if a man's name is written
Kim Chul Mo, he is Mr. Kim. But he is not addressed
in that way; he is called “Kim So-Pang,” “Kim Mr.”
So all titles follow the family name. Hence a gentle-
man is not called “Count Min,” but “Min Count."
In reviews the cavalry is drawn up with the tails
of the horses to the street. When the four quarters
of the compass are mentioned, it is in the order east


DOMESTIC LIFE.
133
west, south, north. So points between are not “south-
east,” “north-west,” but “east-south," “ west-north.”
The farmer's plough throws the furrows to the left,
and instead of making his field level he throws it into
ridges looking very much like those in a field of culti-
vated maize. The saws for making planks and boards
have their teeth pointed away from the centre, toward
the ends, instead of all pointing the one way. Men
are accustomed to go out—"take their outings”-in the
daytime. After the curfew rings the men retire from
the streets and the women go out. In fractions the
denominator comes first: not “three-fourths,” but
“fourths-three,” is the order. In entertainments the
place of honor is at the left of the host. The seasons
are in the same order, but the first three months are
spring, the next summer, and so on, irrespective of
temperature and the sun's course in the heavens.
It will be seen from the foregoing that the foreigner
in Korea needs to exercise care or he will continually
outrage the proprieties.


CHAPTER VII.
ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
M HE traveler who for the first time approaches from
the west the eastern shores of Asia is very likely to
have his sensibilities considerably shocked. Before he
gets in sight of the coast—nay, sometimes a hundred
and fifty miles out—he will, if it be night, be surprised
at seeing lights scattered over the waters, which will be
found to be on board fishing-junks, fleets of which are
always out in fine weather. If it be daytime and
summer, not only the shape of the boats but the attire
of the boatmen will attest the entrance into a different
civilization. Crossing in June, the party to which the
writer belonged was prepared for what was coming by
the appearance of a crew of Japanese, for whose attire
certainly a yard of sheeting apiece would have been
ample. As we gained the coast and entered the harbor
we learned that this was the usual summer costume of
the boatmen, since it was the exception to see a man in
a more complete dress. After we landed and began to
take excursions in the jin-rickshaws we grew accustomed
to having the coolies strip off all but the waist-cloth soon
after they left town, and nearly all the runners we met
134


ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
135
were in the same undressed condition. We learned that
the Japanese in native employ, in deference to the wishes
of their employers, go more fully dressed, and, except
the boatmen in the harbor, the people generally in the
city do not affect so close an approach to nudity as is the
habit in the country districts.
The fabrics of which dress is composed in Korea are
cotton—the ordinary unbleached or bleached muslin-
silks (native, Japanese and Chinese) and grass cloths;
no woollen garments are found there.
Sheep are not raised in the peninsula, except one
or two flocks in the neighborhood of the capital and
a few in the northern part, near the Chinese border.
The resources of the people do not allow them to in-
dulge in woollen goods.
The prevailing color of clothing is, from its nature,
white. But the white cotton goods are, for women, often
dyed blue, for boys and girls red or pink. The silks are
of all colors except black, and the gaudiest materials are
made up for the men. Black is used only in the hat.
The play of color on a Korean street, especially when
viewed from an eminence, is very varied and bright.
Green, red, pink, white and blue mingle in kaleidos-
copic richness. Sometimes all of these are found in a
single costume. In style there is no change. The
fashion once set, everybody follows it and sticks to it.
An odd commentary on this is the fact that the
Chinese, who are the embodiment of conservatism,


136
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
call the Koreans “old-fashioned”! The present style
of dress is conceded to be about four hundred years
old, and corresponds with the Chinese costume of the
fifteenth century. Since the model for dress is Chinese,
not Japanese, nudity does not prevail in Korea.
One of the first matters of concern in the toilet of
these people is the hair. The fashion is different for
men, boys and women. Boys wear all their hair down
their backs in a braid. This must not be confounded
with the queue of the Chinese. The Chinaman shaves
all the hair except that on the crown. The Korean boy
has all his hair braided. In dressing the hair all Koreans
use a pomade into the composition of which lampblack or
some similar substance enters, since they desire the hair
to be as black and shiny as possible. The consequence
is that the boys soil sadly the backs and shoulders of
their tunies and coats with the braid blowing loosely
in the wind. This braid down the back is the sign of
the boy—that is, of the unmarried or unbetrothed male.
As soon as a boy becomes betrothed or married, he is
a man, and the transition is shown in the style of dress-
ing the hair. When a wife is chosen for him and his
partner for life is engaged, his hair is unbraided, a spot
twice as big as a silver dollar is shaved on the top of his
head, just forward of the crown, and all the hair is then
combed up toward a spot about two inches from the top
of the forehead, and there gathered into what foreigners
call a “top-knot,” but which is named by Koreans the


138
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
forms of speech. He has reached the stage when you
must say “Sir” and “Mr.” to him.
The women dress their hair in a very neat fashion by
parting it in the middle, then combing it straight back
and coiling it rather lower on the back of the neck than
is done in the Greek coil. Through this a pin is neatly
thrust to hold it in place. This pin is sometimes of
tortoise-shell, often of silver-plated metal. But one
great ambition of a Korean female is to possess a pin
of real silver. Such pins are round, about a quarter
of an inch in diameter and perhaps five inches long.
The head is often decorated with precious stones—jade,
pearl or agate. It is commonly the case that women
who take service in foreign households as nurses or
seamstresses devote a part of their first two or three
months wages to the purchase of one of these pins,
costing from four to ten dollars.
The articles of clothing commonly worn are a hat
--sometimes two or three even, counting the mangon,
are worn at one time—a tunic, loose and reaching to the
waist; loose, baggy trousers supported by a girdle and
gathered in at the knee by leggings which tie at the
ankles ; stockings padded with cotton; and, over all,
a coat the sleeves of which are wide-flowing and reach
to the hips or lower, and are sewed up from the bottom
to the wrist so as to form very capacious pockets, where
merchants often carry goods in astonishing quantities.
In these pockets the petty official carries his fan, his


ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
139
handkerchief, his writing-tablets and sundry articles of
every-day use. Not to be forgotten are the purse for
coins, the knife and the tobacco-pouch and pipe, with
flint and tinder or matches, without which no Korean is
dressed. In the case of men of high rank, however,
these latter articles are carried by his servants, a great
retinue of whom attend him. Dealing with each article
in turn, we may find matter interesting and novel.
Of all lands in the world, Korea is the land of hats.
There is some variety, but no change in style. Except-
ing the forests of the Amazon, where hats like umbrellas
are worn to shed the snakes which rain down from the
dense overhanging branches, Korea leads the world in
the superficial area of head-gear. Hats may be seen
measuring over two feet from rim to crown. Nor is
this an uncommon size. But the usual hat is of black
woven horsehair, silk or split bamboo, resembling buck-
ram, with straight brim and crown, square on the top,
the crown not large enough to fit down upon the head,
but kept in place by the crownless hat or mangon used
in dressing the hair and by ribbons underneath the
chin. Some of the mandarins have, instead of ribbons,
beautiful strings of amber or tortoise-shell beads. This
is the dress hat, corresponding to our derby or our silk
hat. Often not merely one hat is worn at a time, but
sometimes three go together. First there is the mangon;
then another indicating that the wearer has taken the
quaga” or passed an examination for the rank of


140
CAPITA
KOR CAPITAL.
KOREA AFRO
FROM ITS “scholar;" and over these the usual straight-brimmed
black hat. The quaga hat is of peculiar shape, being,
as one might say, two-storied. The front part over the
forehead is quite low, and the hat rises abruptly from
this low part near the centre of the head, so that the
back is highest. At the palace the outside hat is dis-
carded, and instead of the quaga one of similar shape
is used, but with two appendages looking like little
wings joining at the back and reaching around loosely
to just above the ears. These ear-tabs let loose are
said to typify the ear of the servants and courtiers open
to the commands of the king. His Majesty wears the
same kind of a hat, but in his case the ear-tabs are tied
up, as of course there is no one to issue commands to
him.
The largest hats are of three varieties: the coolie's,
the mourner's and the monk's. The former is very
large, nearly equaling the size of the mourner's, but
the shape is slightly different. The shape of all three
is that of a very flat cone, but the edges differ. The
coolie's hat has a straight edge; the monk's is scalloped
with the convex outward; while the mourner's hat
has scallops with the curve inward. The monk's hat
has a much smaller surface, is much thicker and more
massive, and the diameter from edge to edge is about
eighteen inches. The material is braided rush. The
coolie's work-hat is usually of slits of wood, very thin,
and is made very much like a splint basket. The mourn-



Buddhist Monks and Mourners.

Page 140.





ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
141
er's hat is larger than either of these, is usually made of
straw, and when put on level covers the entire face.
These hats all have a framework in the crown so as
to fit evenly on the head. The reason assigned by
some for the size of the mourner's hat is that Heaven
is angry with the family of the deceased, and so the
face of the mourner must be hidden from the sky.
This hat, with the additional mourner's badge of a
narrow strip of grass cloth, twelve inches by eight,
fastened to two short reeds and held so as to screen
the lower part of the face, makes the entire head of
the mourner invisible. It is worn only by male adults.
It was by adopting mourners' garb as a disguise that the
Roman Catholic missionaries were able to penetrate and
stay in the country. Etiquette forbids looking under
the hat of a mourner, and this added to their security.
A person in mourning is not allowed inside the palace
grounds. Consequently, a death in the family of a
courtier necessitates withdrawal from the court for a
period of three years, during which time the official is
in the garb of sorrow. He may, however, at the com-
mand of the king, put off his mourning sooner, espe-
cially if His Majesty summon him to the palace. In
the case of the death of a member of the royal family
the whole nation goes into mourning. Further details
as to the mourning garb will be given later.
Other shapes of hats are worn by different classes of
people. Soldiers have a uniform hat of rough felt.


142
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
Keesang wear a hat which is distinctive. On the days
of examination the candidates have caps of peculiar
shapes which mark them as aspirants. Women wear
none except in winter, when they have a fur hat, worn
also by boys and men, which is rimless. For them
the coat worn as a veil serves instead of hat or bonnet,
In Korea, as in China, it is a mark of respect to keep
on the hat in the presence of others. When my teacher,
soon after beginning to give me lessons in the language,
removed his hat in my presence to adjust his quaga hat,
he looked askant at me to see whether I knew this was
a breach of courtesy. It is said that so peculiar and so
nicely settled is the way of wearing the hat that the
rank of high officials can be told by the set of the head-
gear, it being, in the words of a native, “not too much
80, nor too much so."
The tunic or short jacket is worn in place of a shirt.
It has sleeves, and the cut resembles that of a very
short sack coat. It is a very easy and comfortable
garment. Of the trousers not much need be said.
They are loose and baggy, resembling those of zouaves.
They are gathered in at the lower part of the leg by
leggings, which are fastened quite tightly from knee
to ankle. Next come the stockings, which are quite
peculiar. They are invariably white, and are made
by putting between two thicknesses of cotton sheeting
or silk a thick padding of native cotton. They are not
clumsy, as one would suppose; on the contrary, they are


ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
143
quite shapely. The padding is necessitated by the con-
struction of the shoes. These latter are of several kinds
-of wood, straw, twine, cloth and leather. The straw
shoes are often worn without stockings—nearly always
so by coolies and by those whose work is dirty and car-
ries them into the streets. Wooden shoes are hewed out
of blocks of wood and set on two pieces of timber so as
to raise them about three inches above the ground;
hence they serve as rain-shoes. This kind is very
hard, and of course can not be nicely fitted to the feet.
The padded stockings therefore render easy and com-
fortable what would otherwise be almost unwearable.
To walk in these requires considerable practice. A
foreign lady who desired one day to step outside the
door into the mud thought a pair of these shoes stand-
ing at the door very convenient. She put them on and
started off, but at the second step found herself pitched
forward at full length into the mud. The straw shoes
are cheap, a pair costing less than a cent, but of course
they do not last long. They may serve for one day's
travel if the road be not too rough. The twine shoes
are of various degrees of fineness, the best being very
shapely and pretty, and they are kept very white by
washing and the application of whitening. They are
held on by the big toe's being thrust through a hole
left for that purpose in the shoe; the heel also binds just
behind the ankle. A rawhide sole is often sewed on,
making them very durable. The heels are not built


144
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
up as they are on our shoes. The leather and cloth
articles are not raised from the ground, but have very
thick soles with hob-nails on the bottom. They are
very neat in appearance, and look as though they might
be worn with comfort by any one. A very short trial
by a European, however, makes evident the necessity
for padded stockings, for they are full of prominences
and bunches which would soon produce blisters or
corns. Courtiers and officials when going to the palace
wear a short boot of dark cloth or felt, which, so far as
ascertained, is worn nowhere else. Upon going into a
house a Korean leaves his shoes at the door and enters in
his stocking feet, and servants move about in the house
shoeless and noiselessly. To one who has lived in Japan,
and has been annoyed by the scuffling of the servants'
shoes, unfastened at the heel, the relief is great. There
the house-slipper is simply a flat mat of woven straw
with a small loop in front, which is grasped between
the first and second toes. The result is that the front
or toe of the slipper is lifted from the floor, but the
heel scrapes and rubs it, producing a sound anything
but soothing to weak nerves. The Korean fashion is
decidedly an improvement upon the style in Japan.
The coats are made in several shapes. One is very
much like the full-dress evening “clawhammer" style
with the tails greatly lengthened. Another is like an
exaggerated sack coat with the flowing sleeves already
mentioned. The color of these is often white; for boys,


ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT,
145
wori
especially those engaged to be married, pink; sometimes
a pale blue is the shade, and not seldom green. Often
two or three coats made of silks of different colors are
worn at once, the effect sometimes being very pretty,
often very odd. The winter overcoat is made of the
same materials, but is padded with cotton and quilted.
Those worn by the wealthy are often trimmed, and
occasionally lined, with fur of the sable or mink. For
winter wear the tunic and trousers also are padded and
quilted, so that people endure well the severe cold of
their steady cold season.
The dress of women differs only slightly from that
above described. They use the same shoes, wooden and
leather, as the men, the same padded stockings, the same
trousers and leggings, but over them a full skirt gener-
ally colored blue (girls usually wear pink) and falling
below the knee.
Most of the women seen in the streets are models of
neatness, their shoes, stockings, skirts and leggings
shining like encrusted snow in the sunshine. They
are fond of adornment, and are skilled in the use of
powder to whiten the skin. They wear not one wed-
ding-ring but two, and these of silver, very thick and
massive. Exceedingly few of them have gold orna-
ments.
The most peculiar article of woman's wear is the
coat worn over the head. This is made of green or
blue cloth or silk. The account of the origin of this
10


146
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
custom is that in former times the country was exposed
to assaults from different quarters, and men were often
summoned hastily from their employments to take the
field against the enemy, not having time to go to their
homes for extra clothing. Under these circumstances
women made coats for their husbands, and went with
the men to their work, wearing the garments thrown
loosely over their heads, that at a moment's notice they
might hand to the men the needed extra wraps. What-
ever the truth of the story, that is evidently not the
purpose for which they are now worn; for outside of the
fact that the coats are too small for wear as a protection
from cold, they would be of little use, so light is their
material. The prettiness of the story reconciles one to
the ugliness of the spectacle presented by the mummy-
like figures stalking around the streets with faces hidden
and empty sleeves flapping derisively, if not sugges-
tively, from about the region of the ears.
Mention should not be omitted of the court-dress of
officials, which, in addition to the items already de-
scribed, consists of a dark-green overcoat, on the back
and breast of which is worn a square of cloth upon
which figures are embroidered. These figures are either
cranes or tigers, the former denoting civil rank, the lat-
ter military. All officials below a certain grade may
wear only one of these figures; all above that grade
wear two. In addition to these signs of rank, there
is another, worn on the mangon behind the ear. The


ATTIRE AND ADORNMENT.
147
artis,
cham-way wears a white button, usually of jade, while
all above cham-pan sport the gold button. When His
Majesty honors a foreigner with native official rank,
he often sends with this the badges of the rank as a
present.
In summer natives have a peculiar device for keeping
cool. Next the body is worn a framework made of split
bamboo woven in fancy designs. This is so made that
it is supported from the shoulders and springs out from
the body. It therefore holds the tunic away from the
person, and permits the air to penetrate beneath the
clothing and circulate freely. On the arms are also
worn cuffs woven of horsehair, which serve the same
purpose for the arms.
The color of mourning is a dull straw hue. Gar-
ments for mourners are often made of grass cloth, which
has that shade. For rain-coats some Koreans have
overgarments or capes made of straw or grass so woven
as to shed the rain like the thatch of a roof. This gar-
ment is very common in Japan-more so than in Korea.
The usual means of keeping off the rain is a mackin-
tosh made of oiled paper, which is excellently adapted
for its purpose. Instead of an umbrella a sort of roof
of the same material is used, which is put on a frame-
work of bamboo, adjustable over the ordinary hat. The
rain thus falls upon the coat, and thence is carried to
the ground. Rain-shoes are also made, covered with
the same material and then varnished.


148
KOREA FROM IT'S CAPITAL.
As already related, the materials range, according
to the wealth of the wearer, from a very coarse and
cheap grass cloth to fine Chinese silks.
When all is said, and it is remembered that the pre-
vailing color is white, and that clothing is therefore
easily soiled and bears the mark of every spot, it must
be admitted that Koreans are not so dirty as some would
claim. Mechanics after a day's work wash themselves
and put on clean clothes before going home, and after
that, on their way, look like gentlemen of leisure tak-
ing an evening stroll.
Watches are worn, like the knife, hanging from the
belt. Usually they are enclosed in an embroidered
holder very much like that used by many gentlemen
to fix the watch in at the bed-side at night. Some-
times they are carried in a little detachable pocket, like
a lady's embroidered hand-bag, which is attached to the
girdle.
A comparison of the dress of Koreans and Japanese
as seen every day among the working-classes is largely
in favor of the former as regards modesty. At the
same time, if we except the Korean gentlemen in full
attire, we cannot claim for the former the element of
the picturesque as it exists in Japan.


150
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
creen
is often manifested in the disposal of spare capital.
Most people in Korea find, sooner or later, that the
king pays good heed to Her Majesty's suggestions,
and at times she does the talking, of course from be-
hind a screen. In a word, in Cho Son, as in America,
the lady of the house is a very important personage,
and can do much to make home comfortable or the
reverse, as she holds the key to the situation. Natu-
rally, from the peculiarity of their mode of life and
from the seclusion which limits them to the female
apartments, boldness is not a trait of Korean women.
Of the few women seen by the author during his resi-
dence in Korea, only two, and they were keesang (dan-
cing-girls), were anything but modest. The only native
women who visited our house in other than a menial
capacity were patterns of modesty and of charming
simplicity. One of these, the wife of my instructor
in Korean, was an example of wifely devotion. Every
word of her husband evoked a coy smile, and evidently
he was to her the acme of perfection. At the same
time, it was clear that she was the darling of his heart.
Nothing appeared wanting to complete their happiness
but a little one to call out the parental affection. The
fondness of the fathers for children, as made evident
wherever one went in the city or country, was certain
proof that the mariage de convenance as practiced in
Korea is not as unfortunate in its results as is said to
be the case in our own land.


WOMAN AND HER WORK.
151
ces
The labors of a woman in Korea lie in much the
same direction as in the United States. She is queen
of the kitchen and laundry. She is seamstress and
tailor, and she varies the monotony of her existence
by embroidering in silk the badges of rank of her
husband. The cuisine of the Korean is very limited.
Rice is the staple, and that in a boiled state. Soup is
as common as gravy is in our own country, and serves
much the same purpose. Meat is not so common as
with us, and when used is generally broiled. But with
the aid of vegetables, and especially the red pepper (not
so pungent as is that vegetable with us), she makes a
variety of dishes which seems to satisfy the appetite of
her family. Some housewives there, as here, are noted
for their skill in making certain dishes; and one of the
most envied of accomplishments is the concocting of a
dish which is about as savory in its odor as the sauer-
kraut of the Germans, and which is said to resemble it
in its taste and composition. One of the tribulations of
Korean brides is the reminiscence by the husband of the
choice dishes his mother used to present. Canning and
preserving of fruit are not practiced by them, for sugar is
almost unknown. Candy is made from honey and vari-
ous seeds and beans. Some of their fruits, notably the
persimmon, are dried, and form the relishes of many a
meal. Bread-making in none of its branches bears the
slightest resemblance to our methods. Koreans have no
flour-mills, so far as I have seen. Hand-mills similar


WOMAN AND HER WORK.
153
oughly indigestible. After the kneading it is cut or
chopped into strips, rolled into pieces about the size
of sausages and toasted over a charcoal fire. Koreans
are a dyspeptic folk, and the bread they eat would fully
account for all their trials. A sort of muffin is made
by boiling maize until it is soft, running it through a
mill which mashes it into pulp, drying it out and toast-
ing it as muffins. There is no butter used-cows are not
kept for their milk.
But, all things considered, cooking occupies only a
modicum of the Korean wife's time. Her most weary-
ing and incessant labor is at the laundry. The most of
this is done away from home. It has been explained
that the water for household uses is generally supplied
by the water-carrier, who is paid for his services. Econ-
omy is so necessary in family life that the supply of
water obtained in this way is limited to the demands
of the cuisine and the bath. Washing is done, there-
fore, at the well-side, by the side of the street or by the
side of a brook or river. Even the main sewer, at
places where the mountain stream which flows through
it runs less laden with filth than elsewhere, is utilized
for this purpose. The early riser would, in a walk
through the streets of the capital, meet many a woman
with a bundle of clothes on her head and her face cov-
ered with her little coat, on her way to a meadow or
stream outside the walls, to do the family washing.
There are several places outside the city where the lay


154
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
of the land is favorable for this purpose, and which on
almost any bright day appear almost white with the
linen laid on the grass or on bushes to dry. Hither
the women come with their little paddles, about a foot
long and three inches wide, and at a stone worn smooth
by constant use they squat or kneel. Here, in a hol-
low in the brook's bed, they dip the clothes, and then,
laying them on the stone, proceed to beat out the marks
of wear, turning the clothing now and again to bring
uncleansed spots under the paddle. They beat in time,
as though to a tune, and dextrously change the paddle
from one hand to the other without losing a stroke. As
buttons are little used, or are made of knots of thread
or braid, the paddles do no harm to the clothing. Lines
are little used for drying purposes : the clothes are spread
out upon rocks or grass or bushes until ready to be taken
in. This is the method of washing, winter and summer.
In winter, of course, they have to break through the ice
to get the water, and doubtless much suffering is experi-
enced at that season, though I never heard a complaint
in the matter. It might be supposed that this method
of washing would be hard on the fabric. But though
Korean clothes are often of thin texture, the paddle
seems less destructive than our own way of rubbing.
Against its effectiveness nothing can be said, for no-
where is there a more glowing whiteness produced in
the laundry. Starch made of rice is used for produ-
cing stiffness and body. Especially interesting is their





WOMAN AND HER WORK. 155
method of ironing. In the first place, the “irons”
are made of wood, and, instead of being flat, are round
and resemble a shortened base-ball bat. The table, in-
stead of being a flat board, is a wooden roller about
three to six inches in diameter, around which the arti-
cle is wound. They do not heat the “irons,” but, in-
stead, sometimes heat the flat stone on which the “iron-
ing-board” rests. Instead of steady pressure to smooth
out the wrinkles, the ironing is done by quick, sharp
raps, like those of a drummer. By the rate of the
taps it can often be told whether the man of the house
has one or two wives. If two women are ironing, they
alternate their strokes, beating with a rhythmic motion
rather lulling in its effects if not too close. The roll
is often turned by a little maiden who sits at the end
to perform this labor. Add to the above that most of
the ironing is done at night, and what more antipodal
to our own methods can be imagined ? It should be
said that in this way a beautiful polish is produced,
and no injury to the fabric seems to result.
It has already been stated that in the country there
seems to be less strictness in regard to the seclusion of
women. It is therefore not unusual to see a woman
in the field, assisting in the work of cultivation. They
assist in the gathering of the crops, and often in pre-
paring them for use. But far less out-door work is done
by Korean women than by their sisters in Japan.
In sewing the women are very neat. They are ex-


156
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
tremely deliberate. Not much is accomplished in a
day, but what is done is well done. Some specimens
of quilted silk have called forth loud encomiums from
those who have inspected them. Korean garments are
always very neatly made. As embroiderers Koreans
are not particularly skillful. They are far behind the
Japanese in this respect. As in the production of
landscapes by painting, so in embroidery everything
is stereotyped. The way of representing rocks is re-
peated in each piece of work. While in the representa-
tion of birds, bats and butterflies they are wonderfully
true to nature, and in reproducing such striking figures
as the bamboo and various flowers they are accurate, the
general effect of their work is tame and uninteresting.
Embroiderers who, according to Korean notions, are
skilled are kept at work in the palace embroidering
panels for screens. These screens are sometimes pre-
sented to officials, and thence occasionally find their
way through the medium of a commission merchant
into foreigners' hands. In this way the writer became
possessed of one regarded by Koreans as peculiarly
handsome. In both sewing and embroidery the thim-
ble, made of cardboard covered with silk or cotton, is
worn on the index finger. Doubtless this accounts
for the slowness with which the work is done.
The disposition of the women in Korea is reverent,
and it is among them that the Romanists have made
their best progress. Their congregations in Seoul num-


WOMAN AND HER WORK.
157
ber sometimes over five hundred. They are exceed-
ingly earnest, and are most zealous in their advocacy
of the Christian religion. Too much cannot be said
to contradict the notion that has gained currency that
the female sex is considered as beneath the strong
and sturdy male. The fact has already been noted
that even the husband, who in one book is said to
converse only occasionally with his wife, “whom he
regards as being far beneath him," applies honorific lan-
guage when addressing her. I found no traces of any
other state of things. While keesang are spoken to
in “impolite” language; married women are addressed
with respect. And this is not merely external usage.
The children respect women and are generally obedient.
Whoever has noticed the quickness of children to mark
any lack of respect to a person in authority, and to pre-
sume on that deficiency, will see at once how strong a
proof this respect of children is of the high position of
the mother. At the same time, in fairness there must
be admitted, on the other side, the fact that a man may
divorce his wife by simple repudiation. Yet recourse to
this is exceedingly rare. It necessarily carries with it
some publicity, and that, in matters pertaining to the
household, is the very last thing to be desired. In some
of the very few cases where this method was known to
the writer to have been taken to get rid of a wife, the
couples afterward became reconciled.


CHAPTER IX.
AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
"NOUGH has been said in preceding chapters to
show that the Koreans, while gravity is a promi-
nent characteristic, are yet by no means loath to have
fun. While not as volatile in spirits as the Japanese,
they are yet not so stolid as the Chinese. They “love
their little joke," and recreation is as dear to them as
their food. From the small toddler who can scarcely
stand to the gray-haired minister of state, all like fun
and do their share in making it. The children of such
a people are not likely to suffer from want of amuse-
ment. One going through the streets of the city or
along the roads will find much the same diversity of
games' as is seen in our own land, and each game has
its appropriate season. At one time of the year the
sky will be dotted with kites; at another season not a
kite will be in sight. But it must not be supposed that
the children have nothing to do but play. By far the
most of the Koreans read their own language, and a
large proportion read and write Chinese; hence a por-
tion of the children's time must be spent in school.
This institution is altogether different from ours.
158


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
159
There is, in the government, no department of instruc-
tion, having the care of the education of the people.
Instruction is a private enterprise. A school can al-
ways be located by the noise it makes. Children there,
as in China, study aloud; and some say the greater the
volume of sound, the greater the industry of the scholars.
With this as the principle of study, it is easy to imagine
how fifteen or twenty scholars can make the air hum.
Girls are not found at the schools. While many of
them read the vernacular, and some even understand
Chinese, they have to acquire their knowledge from
scholarly brothers or parents. But the most of their
energies are confined to tending the baby at home or
in the street or in assisting the mother in the care of
the house. The time not filled with these occupations
may be employed in seeking fun in the streets. But
at best the play-time of the girls is a short one, for at
the age of twelve they are marriageable, and for some
months at least before that time must be confined to
the women's quarters, out of sight of the men; thence-
forward their view of the world is confined to what
they can see through the square inch or two of glass
set in the paper window of the house, or from under
the collar of the little coat worn as a veil over the
head, which they wear whenever they appear in the
streets. Babies are tended very much in the same way
as in Japan-tied on the backs of older children, who
play in the gutter or wherever their fancy takes them,


160
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
in happy indifference to the load they carry. Thus tied
on, the babies sleep or cry or laugh with but little at-
tention from the older children who carry them. It is
not at all unusual to see a boy flying a kite while the
baby on his back gazes at the bright thing in the air or
sleeps with its little head thrown back to a position in
which dislocation of the neck seems imuninent.
By far the most popular amusement is that of flying
kites. To fly the Korean kite involves an amount of
skill far exceeding that called for by the American
species. The name given kites is yun, and they are of
peculiar construction. They are nearly square, con-
structed of thin pieces of bamboo covered with tough
paper, with a hole left in the centre, and connected
with the line by three pieces of string joined to the
sides near the top and to the centre of the bottom.
It requires a nice degree of skill and practice so to
attach the line as to make the kite balance. A spot
near the top indicates to the owner when the kite is
right side up in its plunges-something most necessary
to know in order to ensure its safety. It generally
has no tail, and is therefore very unsteady in its move-
ments until a great amount of line is out. In taking
in and letting out line the Korean contrivance used is
far ahead of our own. All who fly kites use a reel
which resembles in miniature the paddle-wheel of a
steamboat. The axis is prolonged on one side to form
the handle, and the paddles reach beyond the axis on


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
161
the other side. To let out line it is necessary only to
hold the reel with the axis parallel to the line, when
the latter runs off by the pressure of the kite. To
take in line, the boy turns the axis across the line,
grasps the end of a paddle with one hand and the
handle with the other, and whirls the whole around,
taking in line at a rapid rate. (The same arrange-
ment is used in fishing with line and hook.)
To fly an American, English, Japanese or Chinese
kite is a much easier task than to operate the Korean
article. One holiday the three “ American teachers”
tried their hands at this, and, having flown kites at
home, anticipated no difficulty. They had noticed the
antics and gestures used by natives in manipulating the
string, but supposed this to be the effect of the Koreans'
natural demonstrativeness. But another opinion gained
ground, as the only success achieved on that occasion
was the loss of several kites, which by their plunging
were cast down into neighboring grounds and became
the prey of the ubiquitous small boy. The absence of
a tail makes these playthings unsteady, and in letting
out the line the kite generally makes a series of plunges,
which must be controlled by the promptest action,
guided by a remarkably quick eye. But the feature
of kite-flying in the peninsula is the fact that men
and boys of all ages indulge in the pastime. The
“kite-fights” are an absorbing part of the sport. To
witness one of these the shopkeeper will often stop
11


162
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
as &
serving a customer and risk losing a sale, though
as a rule the customer is as eager as any one to see
the fun. A kite-fight is carried on as follows: Some
man or boy, seeing a kite in the air the string of
which passes in a way favorable to the undertaking,
determines to have some fun and raise a little excite-
ment. He brings out his own kite, gets it up, runs out
the string to a proper distance and then so maneuvres
it as to run it athwart the string of the kite he wishes
to bring down. It frequently happens that the man
at the end of the string of the other kite is equally
adroit, and he will make his kite dodge and twist so
as to evade the attack. When once the two lines meet,
they become entangled, and the kites dash and curvet
in the air, and dive and plunge at each other in such
a way as easily to suggest to the imagination that they
are alive. After entanglement the object is either to
capture the enemy's kite by hauling it down where
it can be seized, and with it as much of the line as
can be secured, or to saw the string so as to sever it
and cause the loss of the opposing kite. It requires skill-
ful strategy to accomplish this, for the chances are even
that the aggressor's kite will be lost. At times entan-
glement does not follow, for the swoop of the attack-
ing kite is so sudden and swift that the line of the
attacked kite is cut through as with a knife. So great
is the interest in these encounters in the air that some-
times a thousand people gather and look on in breathless


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
163
excitement and with keenest interest, which they show
by their ejaculations and cries of encouragement or
dismay as one or the other scores a point or wins
the game. This diversion reaches its height during
the New Year's holidays and on the fifteenth day
of the first month, when men and boys in great num-
bers indulge in the sport and others innumerable watch
the spectacle. Toward night the strings, one by one,
are cut, and the kites fly away, bearing from their
owners any ill luck that may have befallen them.
A game ranking next in popularity is one peculiar to
Korea. Some tufts of pliable grass are tied together
at the centre and curled up so as to resemble a chestnut-
burr or a small worsted ball about the size of a burr.
This is thrown into the air, and is kept there untouched
by the hands, by means of kicks deftly administered.
The feat requires much practice, but boys twelve years
of age have been seen to keep the thing in the air for
eight minutes. The kick is not from the toe or front of
the foot, but sidewise, the ball hitting the foot just below
the ankle. A variation of this is made by having a coin
tied in paper, the string brought tightly down to the
coin, when the paper left loose acts as the feather on
an arrow, and the weighted end falls first. With this
plaything two, three or more persons play, kicking it in
turn from one to another. This form of the game is
popular among the men, and at Chong No, the part of
the capital which corresponds to the Wall Street of New


164
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
York City, it is seen at its best. With it the brokers of
the capital make what corresponds to the “ horse-play”
of the Wall Street operators.
In summer children find no little fun in pelting the
dogs. Being Korean, of course they do this in a pecu-
liar way. The instrument of torture is a plaything
shaped like an L, the lower part of which is a slim
blade of iron or a piece of stout wire, while the handle
is round and perhaps two feet long. With the point of
the iron they pick up in the streets pieces of garbage, bits
of potato, pieces of turnip or radish or lumps of mud,
and then, taking careful aim, propel the missile at the
animal by striking sharply the handle of the sickle or
L against the raised leg. The projectile passes beneath
the leg and often hits the object aimed at. Naturally,
this sometimes brings the small boy into conflict with
the owner of the dog, but that only adds to the spice of
life, and does not deter from the sport. Of course there
are bad little boys in Korea, as elsewhere, and sometimes
these naughty boys aim at larger game. Occasionally
the stately steppings of some lordly and dignified adult
are checked or accelerated by the sharp tap of a mud
ball or an unsavory morsel propelled as by a catapult
from the vigorous arm and leg of an urchin who is
invisible.
In the winter and early spring a favorite amusement
is jumping the rope. In this sport the Korean children,
boys and girls, compare not unfavorably with Western


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
165
children, and have introduced complexities into the
game, some like and others unlike those seen in the
United States and England. The children are lithe
and agile, and display an endurance utterly beyond
what we should look for in the East. At the same
time of year the see-saw is very much in vogue, but it
is different from that so much used by little Westerners.
In Korea a strong warped board or plank is placed,
hollow upward, upon a bunch of straw or on bags
filled with sand, so as to raise it from the ground a
foot or so. Alongside of this, and at the proper height
for children to reach, is stretched a rope which the
jumpers seize and retain while they play. On the ends
of this warped board two children stand, the heavier
jumping from the board and alighting upon it again,
by the impact sending the other child into the air.
The child thus propelled alights with all the impetus
possible upon its end of the board, and in two or three
jumps the two will be rising into the air as high as
six feet. The exercise is much more violent than in
the American game, and frequent rests are necessary.
It requires more skill, greater nerve, keener sight and
nicer powers of balancing. The result to the muscles
and nerves must be, when played in moderation, ex-
ceedingly beneficial.
Pitching coins is a favorite amusement with young
and old. Many a time a little knot may be seen col-
lected around two boys who are the champions of their


166
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
districts, engaged in settling a dispute as to their skill
in tossing. Boys may also be seen whipping tops along
the streets, but the ordinary cord-top has not yet made
its way into the country. Sliding has its devotees in
Korea, as in America, and limbs are in as great danger
in the streets of Cho Son as on our own smoothly-paved
sidewalks. The wooden shoes speedily make the roads
and little sheets of ice slippery enough to cause the
most homesick of New Yorkers or Brooklynites to
feel thoroughly at home. The make of the native
shoes prevents the development of any sport like our
skating, but that sport as practiced by foreigners is
greatly admired by the natives. At any time, in the
vicinity of the capital, crowds of from five hundred
to two thousand can be collected in a short time around
the rice-paddies or ponds where skaters are enjoying the
ice. This pastime having been mentioned once in the
presence of the queen by Her Majesty's lady physician,
a desire was expressed to see how it was done. An in-
vitation was given to the skaters of the capital to bring
their skates and give an exhibition. This invitation
was accepted by quite a number. The place appointed
was one of the little lakes in the palace grounds, circu-
lar in form, about seventy yards in diameter, with a
pretty little summer house on an island in the centre.
In this latter were the king and queen with their attend-
ants, hidden by screens, but themselves able to see, and
doubtless they were eager and interested spectators.


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
167
ICO
Grandees of various grades watched the evolutions
and shouted applause and encouragement. Her Maj-
esty was especially interested in an ice-chair gotten up
for the occasion, used by several of the ladies who were
not skaters. One of our number was an expert trick
and figure skater, and the climax of interest was reached
when he jumped over a chair while going at full speed.
A buzz of astonishment reached the ears of the skaters,
which presumably came from their majesties and their
attendants. When skating is enjoyed elsewhere, the
spectators are of lower rank. As the skaters pass
through the streets, word is passed along from urchin
to urchin, and also among the adults, that foreigners
are on the road to the ice. In a very few moments
a crowd of a thousand collects, and it is a constant
wonder to them how movements so graceful and fleet
can be made on a footing apparently so treacherous.
One gentleman, at the time spoken of, was learning,
and the information was often heard given to new-
comers, “Those great men are very skillful, but this
one is just learning.” So quickly did the natives be-.
come connoisseurs !
This gathering to see a new or strange sight is very
characteristic of the Koreans. One of their most com-
mon words is koo-gyung, sight-seeing. They are ex-
ceedingly fond of spectacles. Accordingly, whenever
the king and prince leave the palace for an outing or
for purposes of worship, or on other occasions, the day


168
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
is a holiday; the opportunity is seized for making a
display, and the people gather to witness the sights. It
is quite usual for a number of the foreigners to go to
see the sights, although, like Barnum's parade, repeti-
tion wearies one. For the foreigners some choice posi-
tion is usually secured. Countrymen generally come to
town in great numbers on such occasions, and very often
congregate in front of the rendezvous of the white
strangers. To many of them a part of the sights of
the day is a glimpse of the foreigners, and they are
especially pleased at the romps and fun of the fair-
faced children. But sometimes, while laughing and
commenting upon the ways of the foreigners, they
will be dispersed by an advance file of soldiers who
march down the street, and then they have to betake
themselves to the cross-streets or flatten themselves
against the houses that line the streets. The show or
kur-dong is coming. Natives struggle for the best
positions, and foreigners settle themselves to explain
to newcomers the sights or to compare the display
with that seen on former occasions. Coolies are car-
rying baskets of soil, which they place at intervals
along the middle of the streets through which the king
is to pass. Squads of soldiers and officials pass up and
down, to see that all is in proper condition. When the
head of the procession is seen, gay with flags and stream-
ers, an old official may be seen to pass along on horse-
back, superintending the strewing of the baskets of dirt


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
169
down the middle of the street. The tradition is that
His Majesty's person is sacred, and he must not be car-
ried over soil trodden by the foot of common men.
Virgin soil must be beneath his royal soles. After this
comes the procession proper-companies of soldiers of
varied sorts, footmen and cavalry, spearsmen, swords-
men and bowmen; captains and generals guarded by
files of soldiers, each one held on his horse by men on
either side of him, and the horse led by a groom. The
little horses are tipped out with brass-bedecked cover-
ings. Officials are in their most gorgeous robes. Flags
stream in the wind. Men armed with poles or paddles
pass along the sides of the street, pushing or striking
the people with the poles or paddling them with the
paddles to keep the way clear, and sometimes singling
out some unfortunate individual for severe punishment
in this way. Some of the troops of swordsmen in the
cavalry wear coats with red sleeves, the object of which
is said to be that in battle they may wipe their bloody
swords on the sleeves and not be sickened by the gory
stain. Emblematic flags and standards borne on bloody
fields are carried with the ranks of soldiery. Now comes
a body of tiger-hunters, bearing the native match-lock or
fint-lock weapons—men to whom fear is said to be un-
known; who else dare beard the royal man-eater in his
lair? Clad as they are in flowing and picturesque uni-
forms of blue, with dark, broad-brimmed hats adorned
with red tassels, they present a striking appearance. It


170
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
may be that right behind them marches, in company
front, a regiment of infantry armed with breech-loading
Remingtons and sabre bayonets, and dressed in what is
supposed to be foreign-fashioned uniforms. The gen-
erals look ridiculously helpless, supported by their at-
tendants, and they are said to go into battle held on their
horses. Civil officers are attended by huge retinues of
servants; and one of the novel sights was an official
who, instead of being carried in a chair on the shoulders
of men, rode a unicycle, the seat being over the wheel.
The official was held up by servants on each side, while
the motive power was furnished by coolies who pushed
and pulled at poles passed through the bottom of the
chair or seat. One has fair time to get wearied watch-
ing troop after troop of cavalry mounted on ridiculously
small horses, company after company of infantry armed
with mediæval or modern weapons, bodies of spearmen
and clubmen and swordsmen, companies of bowmen and
others, before the noise made by a company of buglers
announces the approach of the king. It is a curious
fact that wherever the king goes, this band of buglers
accompanies him, blowing marches which are identical
with those used in guard-mounting in our own garri-
sons. But before the king is always carried a large
chair borne by eighteen men, with no one in it. This
chair is exactly like the one His Majesty occupies. The
custom originated in the times when the king was always
carried in a closed chair. Once when the monarch was


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
171
going out a conspiracy had been formed, and through
the chair which was supposed to contain him arrows
were shot with the purpose of assassinating him. But he
happened to be in another chair, and so escaped. Ever
since that occasion an empty chair has been borne in the
royal procession, and as long as closed ones were used it
was not known in which one the king rode. But since
the ruler of the kingdom began to ride in open chairs
the custom has been maintained, not that it was of any
use, but was simply a reminiscence of the ancient at-
tempt at regicide. It is an instance of the persistence
of a ceremony after the occasion demanding it has passed
away. Many such instances exist. The king himself
is borne in a large open chair raised aloft in the air, for
none may look down upon His Majesty. He is in full
view of all who choose to look, though the natives are
accustomed to bow the head as he passes. To foreigners
when present in a body he almost always shows the
courtesy of stopping the chair a moment as he passes.
If during an outing he passes foreigners to whom he
has granted audience, and even others whom he knows
only by reputation, he generally recognizes them by a
gracious bow and a very pleasant smile. After him is
usually carried a second empty chair, and following that
comes one which bears the prince, who generally accom-
panies his father. After them go other bodies of sol-
diers, nearly a repetition of what precedes.
I know of no occasion in the United States when the


172
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
display of color is so varied and magnificent as in the
Korean capital on the day of the king's outing. The
varied suits of the troops, the gorgeous standards and
flags embroidered with silks, the gay trappings of the
horses and the brilliant clothing of the courtiers, flanked
by the gala dress of the natives, make a kaleidoscopic
picture probably not to be equaled elsewhere in the
world, unless, perhaps, in India. This, then, is one
of the occasions which the native seizes for a holiday,
and which is an excuse for donning his best apparel.
It is also a means for the king to exhibit himself to the
populace and keep himself in their favor. As he goes
out four or five times a year, he succeeds in maintaining
his popularity, and at the same time, by being unap-
proachable by the masses except at such times, the
“majesty which doth hedge a king” is easily sup-
ported, and with it the awe of the common people for
the august ruler of the kingdom, the “ favorite of
Heaven."
These spectacle-loving people have their propensities
indulged by the traveling troupes of rope-dancers, tum-
blers and clowns who come from the southern province
of Chul-la-do. The dancers are generally boys, whose
walking on tight ropes of straw and balancing without
balancing-poles on slack ropes are well worth witness-
ing. They intersperse with their performances jokes
cracked at the expense of bystanders, which are taken
in good part by their victims. The tumblers, often


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
173
adults, are very good performers, turning hand-springs
and somersaults of all varieties, with all sorts of horse-
play thrown in. These troupes are sometimes engaged
by officials to perform in public, and the foreign friends
of the host are invited to witness the performance.
Another spectacle, which reminds one of the stories
told of the mystery or miracle plays of England, col-
lects crowds of people in places where the hollows in the
hillsides form natural theatres. The players, in hideous
masks, personate legendary and mythical characters, and
the performance lasts for two or three days. The object
of these it seems difficult to learn, and, curiously enough,
they are not visited by the mandarins or gentlemen of
the vicinity. They seem to be frowned upon by the
orthodox Confucian. No collection is taken up and no
fee demanded.
But all the rage in the late winter and early spring is
the game which stirs up the most life and engages the
most zeal that Koreans ever display. This is the stone-
fight. In England a similar game is often engaged in
between boys of rival districts. In Korea boys and
men participate in it, the former in emulation of the
latter. Villages are generally built around the bases
and part way up the sides of the rolling hills and
spurs of the mountains. Often between two villages
thus situated there is a large level stretch, and this is
made an annual battle-ground. The sport usually
begins in good humor, often continues so to the end,
N
.
es SC


174
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
but not unfrequently engenders bad blood and arouses
angry passions. The sides engaged are proportioned to
the size of the villages, the largest number I have seen
on a side being estimated at from eight hundred to one
thousand; but fights are seen where not more than a
dozen in all participate. The game is begun by the boys,
sometimes early in the afternoon, and there is desultory
fighting until toward evening. Then the men begin to
arrive and take a hand, and the battle becomes sharp.
The end comes soon after sunset. The weapons em-
ployed are stones and clubs, the stones being thrown
from the hand or from slings made of straw string.
The clubs are short and stout, and can be wielded, as
they occasionally are, so as to cause instant death. The
fight is begun by a few of each side collecting near the
centre of the ground, between the two villages. Stones
are thrown and challenges shouted, each party exhorting
the other with badinage and repartee to retire from the
field while it can do so with safety. As the fighters col-
lect, bystanders from near and from far gather, gene-
rally out of reach of danger, though occasionally a stone
will drop among them from the erratic sling of a partici-
pant. The distance between the sides is usually a little
more than a stone's throw, but ahead of the main body
are adventurous spirits who look like a line of skirmish-
ers, and who harass the enemy by throwing stones from
hand and sling into the densest masses. Charges and
counter-charges are made, those armed with clubs lead-


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
175
ing the attack, backed by the masses who throw stones;
on the opposing side the clubbers stay to meet the at-
tack, while the vanguard of the assailants is harassed
by the sharpshooters of the party attacked. When a
charge is to be made, it is signalled by a loud chorus of
kah’s (equivalent to our slang phrase "git”), and when
this sound, resembling the noise of a flock of crows,
arises, the other side usually retreats in full run until
sufficient courage has been gained to stop and face the
foe. When the retreating party turns and sees a few
rash and daring men far in advance of their support,
the answering kah comes from their side, and then be-
gips the counter-charge, which may be met or may re-
cover the ground lost. In the biggest fight witnessed
by the writer, when perhaps two thousand men and
boys were engaged, one side charged and drove their
opponents half-way back to their village. A sudden
rally was made, the signal given and more than the
lost ground recovered by a grand rush. After a
moment's breathing-spell the rush was continued, the
first assailants were driven in among their houses, and
had to watch in helpless rage while their opponents
stoned and tore down an out-building so as to leave a
mark in the enemy's camp of the grand rush thus made.
This of course created hard feeling : some were heard to
say that on the morrow they would collect "many men,
and whip the miscreants severely.” Sometimes these
stone-fights become more than mere sport, and are the


176
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
occasions when the bad blood existing between the vil-
lages is let out. It is said that they are reminiscences
of the times when each village furnished a contingent
for the army, and the neighboring hamlets vied with
each other as to which could produce the strongest and
bravest set of men. The first months of the year are
devoted to this mimic warfare. Occasionally, so large
are the numbers engaged, so great the noise made and
so dangerous to life is the game that the thing comes to
the king's ears, and he has to give orders that the fight-
ing shall cease. It is a wonder that so few are hurt;
but when we remember that the participants wear their
winter clothes, including a long, flowing overcoat padded
with cotton, the danger is seen to be much less than at
first seems to be the case. A traveler who visits Korea
and does not see one of these fights misses one of the
most characteristic sights to be witnessed among this
strange people.
The Koreans are exceedingly fond of the hills. The
consequence is that the South Mountain (the North
Mountain is included in the palace grounds, and hence
is not open to the public) is a great place of resort for
the people. In the spring, summer and autumn, on
almost any fine day little companies may be seen ram-
bling over the mountain or reclining under the trees,
sometimes sitting on the wall of the city and enjoying
the exceedingly fine view to be had south, toward the
river. Sometimes one of the company will have with


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
177
re
him a musical instrument which is a compound of the
clarionet and the cornet, the mouth-piece and stem being
of reed and bamboo and the flare or end of brass. This
instrument is frightfully loud, and when experts upon it
come to the houses of foreigners to play they usually re-
tire behind an out-building, in order that the sound may
reach the ear only after being muffled by passing through
the enclosing buildings. At such times crowds of peo-
ple gather to hear the music, and it is often difficult to
keep the mob out of the grounds, so great is their fond-
ness for the sounds evoked from the instrument. At
dinners “music” is furnished by a band, but upon
Western ears the impression is decidedly unpleasant.
Their instruments are Chinese in origin, are very im-
perfect, and the music is in a minor key. But while
the South Mountain is a favorite resort, being well
wooded, it is not the only one. Upon all the hills in
the neighborhood of the capital are well-worn paths,
and at all times men and boys may be seen, solitary,
in couples or in companies, strolling along or resting
on a rock, happy and content. A very curious feature
is that every Korean as soon as he reaches rising land
seems impelled to sing. The writer was never on a hill
with a native that the latter did not break forth into
song. Almost every one met on the heights, boy or
man, will be either singing or humming.
One is constantly reminded by the Koreans of two
traits of the Swiss, their love of mountains and of song.
worn
see
12



ON
.
Dancing Girls.

Page 179.





AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
179
TC.
of the lower extremities, are very graceful. Boys and
girls are the dancers, the professional dancers being
girls called keesang, of whom mention has been made
elsewhere. These keesang figure quite largely in the
literature and stories of the people.
The transition from grave to gay is not always an
abrupt one. Smiles and tears are kin. The solemnities
of Koreans are confined to the thought of the dead.
Worship and death alone call out their solemn feelings.
And yet the people do not seem to dread death. Their
belief leads them to look for a life beyond. While
Heaven is angry when it removes a friend or relation
who has not reached old age, it is the survivors who
are punished, not the one whom death has taken away.
Mourning is natural and obligatory. Therefore pro-
fessional mourners are hired to express the grief female
relatives may not exhibit in public. In death, as in life,
there is a great distinction between the rich and the poor.
Hills are the burial-places. For members of the royal
family a single grave occupies a hill, and no one else is
interred there. Of wealthy men or high officials a
number may occupy a hill together. But the people
are buried together in numbers, their graves as closely
contiguous as they can be placed. Passing out of the
capital by almost any road, the traveler will come upon
the burying-places, always on the tops and sides of hills
and bold knolls, never in the valleys. Within the capi-
tal no graves and no temples are allowed. Almost as


180
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
soon as one passes through the gates the sights which
meet the eyes are hills and knobs of ground, covered
even down to the edge of the road which winds through
them with little round hillocks generally not over two
feet in height. The social position held in life by the
deceased can always be inferred from the size of the
mound over the grave and the amount of space de-
voted to it.
To us, who are accustomed to see the dead laid away
in cemeteries which pleasant walks intersect, which trees
and shrubs beautify, where the love which survives death
makes attractive the last resting-place and preserves order
there, the sight of the dead buried in promiscuous con-
fusion, without (except in rare cases) stone or mark to
tell whose body has been laid away, is strange and pain-
ful. The shape of the grave is new to us—a rounded
mound heaped together as if to blot out recollection of
the shape the earth has taken to itself. No walks or
drives or paths separate the dead of one family from
those of another, but wherever the blind magician or
fortune-teller, called in to locate the grave, says the
lucky place is, there is the grave. It must not be sup-
posed, however, that prince and pauper lie side by side.
Here, where rank is so fixed a barrier that the noble
may not work even to ward off starvation, the distinc-
tion which rank brings does not terminate with death.
The poor naturally bury together, while those who
commanded more money occupy hills in company and


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
181
take more space for their graves. The richer people
have larger mounds, broader and higher, and around
each grave a space is levelled, while the hill behind the
grave is terraced in crescent form to the grave next
above, and the grass is kept closely cut and raked.
No shrubs nor flowers are set to adorn the place, the
only adornment being nature's carpet of green grass or
shining snow. Among the highest nobility even this
kind of association is disdained, and whole hills are
pre-empted for the burial-places of individuals. Around
the capital there are several hills occupied by but a sin-
gle grave, and these hills may not be used for the burial
of others. In these cases the grave is high up on the
hill, and partially surrounded at the back by a wall;
at the side and in front are placed stone images, rudely
carved, of sheep, pony, attendants (priests), and some-
times a calf. A crescent-shaped background of dark
pines sets off the hill. At a short distance, directly in
front of the hill, are two high posts joined by a cross-
beam with ornamental work on it, similar to those in
front of temples in Japan. Directly at the foot of the
hill is a building in which are usually kept the para-
phernalia used in ancestor-worship, and in front of this,
like a porch, is a flagged space roofed with tiles and
shaded by screens. At the side of this is a small house
roofed with tiles, but enclosed at the sides and front with
railings, which contains the tablet on which are inscribed
the name, rank and deeds of the departed. These tab-


182
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
е
)
use
lets are often of dark granite, highly polished, with the
inscriptions beautifully cut. These spots are often made
by foreigners the rendezvous for picnic parties, for they
are generally so located as to be both picturesque in
themselves and to give very pretty outlooks on the
surrounding country. The royal family has in its
burials chosen the prettiest spots in all the country
round in which to lay away its dead.
A Korean funeral is a sad affair. When a death
occurs in any family, the neighbors have no excuse
for being ignorant of the fact. The women and girls
and boys mourn in shrill and penetrating tones that
reverberate through the night air with frightful dis-
tinctness. Oftentimes hired mourners are called in,
and they make night hideous with their cries. One
of the duties of the survivors, who mourn as they do
it, is to burn the clothing of the dead. This is done at
night, usually in the street in front of the door. Sev-
eral times, when the author has started out very early
for the purpose of spending a morning with his gun,
he has surprised women at this mournful task, and at
length became quite accustomed to noting a sudden
withdrawal of the women engaged in the task and an
abrupt termination of the mourning cries. Female re-
lations do not accompany the body to the grave. If the
dead person was very poor, he is carried by two bearers
to his final resting-place on a rude bier covered by a
half cylinder of paper pasted to reed hoops. The body


AMENITIES AND SOLEMNITIES.
183
ves a
is prepared for burial by being wrapped in straw. No
coffin is used. The body often rests on the ground out-
side an inn while the bearers take their breakfast or
quaff sool (native beer) inside. The whole cost of such
a burial is not much over two or three dollars. The
graves are often very shallow, especially in the winter.
One of the ghastliest sights I witnessed in Korea was a
dog taking his dinner from the foot of a corpse buried
almost on top of the earth. The spring thaw had caused
the mound to crumble away, and so had exposed the
body. A raven stood only a few feet away, evidently
waiting till the dog had sated himself and had left the
feast.
It is probably on account of the occupation of the
hills as burial-grounds, and the horror felt at the
thought of disturbing graves, that the Koreans are
averse to opening up the mineral wealth lying in the
mountains. As worship is paid to the spirits of the
dead at the graves, disturbing the tombs is to the peo-
ple the equivalent of sacrilege. There is a probability
that this feeling will give way to a desire to develop
the resources of the country
It is quite certain that the antipathy felt by natives
toward foreigners has been fostered by thoughts of what
really occurred in the shameful expedition which has
been described by Oppert in his A Forbidden Land.
At the capital the respect shown by foreigners for
the dead and the bereaved, and the kindness ex-


184
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
tended to the needy survivors in cases where their
want has come to be known, have had their effect in
proving that such expeditions as that referred to are
only the deeds of the lawless and irresponsible among
foreigners. A most kindly feeling is shown and is
growing toward the representatives of a higher civ-
ilzation than is possessed by the natives of the “king-
dom of ten thousand isles."


CHAPTER X.
RELIGIONS.
PELIGION in Korea has attained neither the in-
IV tensity of growth which it has reached in China
nor the luxuriance it shows in Japan.
In Japan art and nature have lent their charms to
the deepening of religious fervor. The temples and
shrines have absorbed the devotion of artists and me-
chanics and the resources of the wealthy. The result
is that tourists in Japan visit the temples as the reposi-
tories and embodiments of beauty. The people frequent
them in masses and as individuals. The visitor becomes
accustomed to seeing the wayfarer stop to throw his cash
into the treasury, ring the bell and clap his hands to
catch the attention of the god absorbed in meditation, and
say his prayer. The peddler lays aside his pack while
he bows his head. The mechanic on his way to work
stops and says a prayer. Many a priest may be heard
chanting his orisons and varying his notes with strokes
on a gong. The blind and diseased bring their troubles
to the gods of wood and stone, and to those whom a piece
of paper represents in the Shinto temples. Everywhere
the religious life of the people forces itself into prom-
185


186
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
inence. Temples and worshipers abound on every hand,
and in most houses there are family altars, as in the old
days of Rome.
In China religion has petrified. As wood hardening
in the process of silicification becomes heavier and colder
and presses its way down upon the matter lying beneath,
religion in China has hardened and grown weighty until
its prescriptions have become the formulæ of life. His
religious belief is the citadel of the Chinaman's conserv-
atism. You may reconcile him to a difference in do-
mestic environment; he may be brought to accept the
results of Western researches in social and political
economies, until the point is reached when advance
comes into contact with religious life; but there the
advance stops. Religion is not demonstrative, but it
is intense and unyielding.
In Korea an altogether different aspect confronts us.
The temples are few, and lack the element of pictur-
esqueness. They reflect the poverty of the country.
Stately structures on commanding sites, approached
through rows of votive lanterns, rich in lacquer and
wealthy in decorations and gifts, are conspicuous only
by their absence. Thus the conditions we find in Japan
are lacking. In Korea extended association with the
people for a decade has convinced us that among the
masses the conservatism and intense opposition to a
change of religion found among the Chinese has not
to be encountered. A fair start has been made by


RELIGIONS.
187
Protestant missionaries in the six years they have
been at work in the peninsula. While China and
Japan have each three cults or forms of religion, in
Korea only two are found—Buddhism and Confucian-
ism. Of course the introduction of both of these was
from China.
From what we have learned of the literature and
language of the peninsula, we should infer that the
dominant religion there is Confucianism. In fact, such
is the case. From the lowest peasant up to the king,
Confucianism is practiced by all. But, as is natural,
since the upper classes are the most influenced by the
Chinese classics, it is there that the most strenuous
opposition to the introduction of Christianity is found,
and where there is the most resistance to all innovation.
The worship of ancestors before tablets and at their
graves is the one practice which all follow. This wor-
ship seems a perfunctory performance. When officials
and peasants have been asked why, on a certain day in the
year, they go to the ancestral tablets or to the graves of
their ancestors and present offerings—whether it is that
they fear that those ancestors have power to bring them
evil, or that they wish to implore their active favor and
intervention in the matters of this life, the uniform
answer has been, “No, we neither apprehend evil nor
anticipate good; it is law, it is custom, to do this." We
have been able to elicit no other answer. Religion, then,
is not among Koreans a motive force which controls the


188
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
will, operates on the emotions and moulds the life. On
the contrary, it seems to be in its senescence. It is a
dutiful following out of time-honored customs. Of
course the ethics of Confucianism rule the country.
Its crowning jewel, filial regard, appears as prominently
in the peninsula as in the Celestial empire. A young
man, of whatever station, regards with respect the
speech of an old man, no matter how lowly his social
status. Confucianism has moulded state relations, and
in times of famine and pestilence the king is the one
who appeals to the Lord of heaven to avert the plague.
There are traces throughout the country of a former
more extensive worship of Buddha. At present, while not
tabooed, Buddhism is little followed. True, the guard-
ians of some of the fortresses are Buddhist monks.
They are supported by His Majesty from the public
granaries in return for this service. The monks who
have the care of the little shrines placed here and there
along the way do not have this advantage, but they beg
from the people, and certainly do not seem to suffer.
There is no mutilation, no maiming of the body-
nothing that repels one from the priests and monks
except the shaving of the head. Yet the status of
Buddhism in the eyes of the people is fixed by the
fact that no monk may enter the capitals. One found
within the walls is put to death. Consequently there
are no temples inside the walls of the capital. There
are ancestral tablets before which Confucian rites are



100031323300203
339
Buddhist Shrine Outside the Capital.,
Page 188.





RELIGIONS.
189
performed, but there is no temple except one in the
north-west corner, a “Temple of Heaven," really no
temple at all, but an open space paved and surrounded
by a low wall and with a grove as a background.
One who visits, say, the fort of Puk Hon, a fortress
ten miles to the north of the capital, will find the men
inside it all monks. He will see these men with
shaved heads lounging around, doing nothing that
looks at all like either military or religious duty except
that a number may be found at a dingy temple in which
are disreputable images before which attendants mumble
or chant prayers unintelligible even to themselves. Dili-
gent inquiry would show that these monks are not such
upon deep conviction and for religious principle, but that
the rice given from the public stores suffices to make this
mode of living attractive to them. Among the people
I never met a single hearty Buddhist. I found persons
who spoke of the monks with a laugh or a sneer, show-
ing in their way of speaking that they pitied them. The
monks themselves were harmless enough. They seemed
too lazy to do anything. They were in a state of harm-
less inactivity. Occasionally one is met with miniature
drum or cymbal, begging, singing a song in native
fashion and receiving alms in goods or cash for his
monastery. These gifts are made to secure the prayers
of the community, on the principle that no harm could,
and good might, result from the prayers thus bespoken.
But little efficacy was expected from any such inter-
a
so


190
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
position, and the alms were given rather from the
generosity which is a component of Korean character.
The real worship of the Koreans is before the ances-
tral tablets and at the graves. This is simple in charac-
ter. It consists merely in setting out, on small tables,
offerings, principally rice with various condiments, before
which prostrations are made and prayers offered. The
spirit is supposed to be present and to partake of the
gifts thus presented. Among the upper classes more is
attached to this ceremony than among the peasants, to
whom, indeed, it is often a meaningless ceremony. Read,
as are the literati, in Confucian lore, these upper classes
find there the guarantee and strength of their eminence,
and the urgent reason for supporting Confucianism and
for opposing all other forms of worship. This ceremony
becomes to them the warrant of their respectability and
orthodoxy and the guarantee of the permanence of their
position.
But subsidiary to these two religions, which are the
prominent religious features, is belief in a multiplicity
of spirits and demons of different powers and various
characters. The gates of the cities, palaces and temples,
and often of private houses, are surmounted by tiles cast
as ridge-pieces and corner-pieces, in grotesque shapes of
birds and monkeys and contorted figures of men. These
are to frighten off the various spirits of evil and the
demons which otherwise might enter the city to disturb
its peace and destroy its prosperity. During the cholera


RELIGIONS.
191
season of 1886, as I passed from street to street, I often
found stretched across the entrances of the narrower
ways bits of string from which depended slips of paper
or pieces of rag inscribed with invocations to cholera
devils not to enter that street and carry off the inhab-
itants. Fires were burned outside the walls to scare
away or propitiate the same malicious beings. As the
traveler goes along any road or path he will every little
while pass a tree or bush decorated with bits of colored
rag or paper; occasionally a prayer is attached, and
beneath the tree will be found an irregular pile of small
stones. He will find that these bushes or trees are the
reputed homes of sprites or genii, and that the stones
are cast there by chance wayfarers, who deposit with the
stones whatever bad luck the journey might have brought
them.
Here and there the tourist may be shown a little hut
inside of which he will find some figures painted on
paper, representing the patron deity, and hung on the
walls prayers in Korean and Chinese, in which the
petitioner begs " for one year of 360 days to be delivered
from all sorts of sickness and disease, and from all un-
profitable ventures.” Occasionally a more stately build-
ing will be seen, which is perhaps erected to the memory
of some celebrated warrior, who after his death was
deified, and to whose honor the temple was built.
Passing in from the street through the gate, at each
side of which is stationed, in a little chamber, a wooden


192
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
horse of wonderful variety of color, held by a wooden
image of a mah-poo (groom), of surpassing ugliness, the
visitor will find himself in a courtyard, on one side of
which is the main building, while the other sides may
be given up to rooms open in front, though cut off by
railings, and on the inner wall of which are depicted
the principal scenes, drawn in a stereotyped and gro-
tesque manner, of the mundane existence of the demigod.
The main building will generally be found dark, but
when opened, the figure of the deified warrior, in red
and gilt, with glaring eyes and impossible mustache,
may be seen, seated in defiant attitude on his throne.
In close proximity to each other may be seen the
strangest objects-gifts of worshipers. Here an ancient
sword of native make keeps guard while a Waterbury
clock ticks the seconds as if in derision. In one shrine
I saw before the god a solitary rubber boot, much the
worse for wear, which the donor had perhaps picked up
from the ash-heap of some foreign resident of the capital,
or which had been discarded by a disgruntled hunter.
But as an object of beauty no temple is worthy of a
visit after seeing those of Japan. The temples are
interesting only as showing the torpor of religious
life and the decadence of art and taste.
Little family shrines are sometimes erected in the
country districts; and at points along the great highways
are found what might be called private shrines, at which
the traveler may stop and perform his devotion and


RELIGIONS.
193
then proceed, giving the maker and keeper of the shrine
a gratuity of one or two cash (one-quarter of a cent).
The only representative of deity in such places is a
poorly-painted figure on a sheet of white paper.
But the Korean is intensely superstitious. Events
which to the Western mind are perfectly explicable and
devoid of mystery are to the native gruesome and awful.
Not long after my arrival in Korea I was startled by
one of the men attached to the house running in to tell
me, with an air of perturbation, that “a heavenly dog
was eating up the moon, and would I please come out
and see.” It occurred to me that there was an eclipse
of the moon due at that time, so I went out to view the
phenomenon. When I got out of the house I heard a
great din in the street, the beating of drums and iron
instruments throughout the city, together with firing of
guns. Soon came from the palace the sound of platoon
firing, and then the quick rattle of the American gatling-
guns turned on the voracious monster. Asking what all
this meant, I was told that it was noise made with the
object of scaring off the heavenly dog; that it had been
uniformly successful all through Korean history; that
though the beast had often nearly eaten the moon up, he
had always been scared off before completing it; and, in
short, that this noise was very good medicine, and that
they proposed to keep it up.
In like manner, various bodily ailments are ascribed
to the evil influences of sprites and devils. This comes
13


194
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
out in the enchantments to ward off the cholera. The
same thing is evident, too, in the employment of con-
jurers to locate graves, in order that the remains may
rest securely, and in taking circuitous routes to the grave,
to prevent the return of the spirit or the attack of demons
on the survivors.
The belief in demoniacal possession is very common.
This belief is fostered by numbers whose interests are
furthered by it. The exorcists and conjurers find in
the commonest ailments excuses for using their powers
in dispossessing the sick body of the sprites which
have made it their home. It was no infrequent
occurrence in rambles over the country or when out
hunting to hear the noise of drums and to see a crowd
around some house, waiting with eager curiosity to learn
the result. Inquiry would elicit the fact that some
devils had entered that house, and the sickness of one
of the inmates had resulted. Meanwhile, day and night,
it may be for a week, the ceaseless beat of drums is main-
tained until nature is either wearied out and death
results, or she recovers herself and the patient is re-
stored to health.
Spirits good and bad, sprites evil and benign, fairies
kindly and malign, abound on hill and in dale, in nook
and crevice of the rock, in hollow trees and cunningly-
hidden caves. Any event of life may be governed by
their interference. Luck plays a large part in the
economy of native life. Innumerable are the specifics


RELIGIONS.
195
for various ills, the former growing out of the care,
and the latter out of the malevolence, of fairies or
demons. Children are scared into good behavior, and
adults are kept at home, by reports of spirits that are
abroad at night. Omens are seen in the visits of
the birds; the dreams which disturb the night are
portents; and almost every chance event has for Koreans
a bearing on the future. One of the departments of the
government is that of Etiquette and Ceremonies, in
which men studied in magic and in the lore of omens
regulate official and royal conduct, guiding the course
of events according to tradition and to prognostications
from chance happenings. That an .event is unlucky is
sufficient to forbid the entrance upon any enterprise.
The occurrence of the outbreak upon the occasion of
the intended opening of the post-office will probably
prevent for years the consummation of this project.
Consequent upon this belief in omens are the various
subterfuges for overreaching or circumventing Dame
Fortune. Thus the season of kite-flying, which ends
on the fifteenth day of the first moon, is closed by
cutting the string of the kite as it flies in the air,
when it falls and bears away with it much of the
bad luck which might have attended the owner during
the year. At the same season of the year an effigy
of straw representing the maker is tied together, and
in different parts of it are hidden cash, and also a scrap
of paper on which is written, in Korean or Chinese,


196
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
some such prayer as, “For one year of twelve months,
from all plagues and diseases and misfortunes deliver
me.” This effigy is then given to a boy who calls for
it, and he, after cutting it up as much as is necessary to
secure all the cash that can possibly be hidden in it,
throws it where roads cross or meet. Sometimes a
number of these effigies accumulate in some cross-roads,
and the bystanders amuse themselves by making a fire
of them or in kicking or tossing them about, or per-
haps examine them closely to see whether any cash has
been overlooked by the small boy. The more this man
of straw is mutilated, the better the luck of the person
it represents and the more complete his immunity from
the evils that might assail him. Hence the money is
hidden with all the ingenuity that can be exercised, to
tempt to the complete demolition of the image. A
variation of this is the cutting out of a paper figure, the
writing on it of a prayer or incantation and giving a boy
some cash to carry it away. So, too, at the same season,
the tug of war is engaged in, since the winning side is
supposed to revel in luxury throughout the year, while
to the vanquished life will not be so pleasant. On this
same fifteenth day of the first moon it is the custom for
men of the same station in life to call to each other as
they pass along the street, and if one answers the other,
the person answering may be expected to carry away in
his own person whatsoever diseases and misfortunes
might have befallen the one who accosted him. There-


RELIGIONS.
197
fore on that day every one is on his guard, and to the
various and pressing calls no heed is given. In this we
are reminded of some peculiar customs of our own per-
taining to All-Fool's Day. On this day nearly all par-
take of one meal in which five kinds of grain are used,
this being a mode of beseeching an abundance and
variety of food during the coming year. At this
meal a peculiar kind of wine called the “ear-brighten-
ing wine” is drunk, which is supposed to have the effect
of sharpening the hearing and preventing aural diseases.
At night there is a suspension of laws relating to curfew,
and men may wander around the city without fear of
arrest. The reason for this privilege is a current super-
stition that if a person traverse the city and pass over
every bridge within the walls, he will have immunity
from diseases of the lower limbs and extremities for a
year. For this day nine is the lucky number. Accord-
ingly, nine meals are eaten. If a man bring to the
house a load of wood, he must manage to bring nine;
or if a woman spin, she must spin nine bundles. The
fifteenth of the Korean January is the time for prognos-
tications regarding weather and crops. If on that day
there is any wind, even enough to “move a rooster's
tail,” there will be much wind during the spring.
There is naturally a great deal of blustering during
the season. Men go down to the barley-fields and pull
up grains of the fall-sown barley. If these grains have
only one main root, the crop will be small; two roots
One


198
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
denote a fair crop; while three foretell a great abun-
dance. The wise ones also tell which months will be the
most rainy. A piece of bamboo is split, and into the
slit twelve beans are inserted, and the whole is taken
into the field and buried lightly for the dew or rain to
moisten. The beans which swell most represent the
months in which there will be the greatest rainfall.
While many of these superstitions have practically
little to do with religion, the fact that belief in them
is so universal indicates the lines along which mis-
sionaries find the most resistance. The tenacity with
which they persist shows a power of reserve. Espe-
cially is the demonology of Korea an obstacle to suc-
cess. Of this no adequate study has yet been made.
The writer regrets few things so much as that his atten-
tion was not called to this field of investigation soon
enough to permit of his getting a mastery of the subject.
With a belief in demons so universal and persistent, un-
doubtedly the convert to Christianity finds his way a
hard one. It is to be hoped that study along this
special line, giving knowledge that will doubtless prove
not only interesting but also helpful and practical, will
be pursued by those who have such excellent opportuni-
ties as the missionaries now resident in the country.



wy
Village Idols.
Page 198.
1





CHAPTER XI.
RESOURCES.
M EASURED by her developed industries, her ex-
ports and her imports, Korea is perhaps the poor-
est member of the family of nations. Measured by her
possibilities, she stands very much higher in the list.
As already stated, the country is not at all thickly
settled if compared with her neighbors, Japan and
China. Consequently the economy of ground and
zealous and careful development of every inch of land,
even to terracing the hills, is not seen in Korea, as it is
in Japan, and still more in China. At a rough estimate,
not a twentieth of the arable land is under cultivation.
When we take note of the industries of the peninsula,
we find even a greater torpidity. There are no manu-
factures which command an outside market, and while
she has plenty of mineral wealth, what little is developed
is done only in the crudest and most wasteful manner.
Likewise—what might prove another most fruitful
source of income—from the waters which nearly sur-
round the peninsula, of not half that might be gained
do they take advantage. Of forestry in the parts
around the cities, naturally, there is none. Yet the
199


RESOURCES.
201
and consequently their coal, if mined by themselves,
cannot well become a source of revenue. As the mines
are almost on the bank of a large and navigable river,
they are most favorably situated. Japanese coal brings
from ten to twelve dollars (Japanese) a ton in the capital,
so the native article could easily become a competitor
with the Japanese, not only in Korea, but even in Japan
and with the Chinese in China. In dealing with for-
eigners, Orientals show a not surprising wariness and
caution, considering how often they have been over-
reached. In Japan the government has been for some
years gradually displacing the foreigners in its employ,
and replacing them with Japanese. But this is not done
until the officials are tolerably certain that the natives
have learned their lesson and know how to manage
things. In Korea, however, especially in regard to
developing its resources, the government is very shy
of foreigners. Several good offers have been made
by foreign firms, German and American, to open the
mines and give the government a fair percentage of the
proceeds. In this matter, however, the Koreans have
played the part of the dog in the manger. Once, acting
upon the advice of the foreign adviser and under the
persuasion of the customs service, the residents of the
capital were supplied for the winter with coal. The
taste just whetted the appetite, for the Korean article
was so much cleaner and better than the Japanese that
everybody desired it. Since then no one has been able


202
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
to obtain it until the winter just passed. It is used in
the palace, but hardly any one else can obtain it. It is
not in demand among the people, who use twigs, dried
grass and weeds and wood, for their fireplaces are not
suited to the use of coal.
We understand that not very far from these coal-
mines iron ore of an excellent quality is to be found.
With abundant supplies of these two staples of indus-
try almost touching each other, the statement that Korea
may become wealthy is not unfounded.
Another source, at present the principal one, of rev-
enue to Korea is gold-dust. In obtaining this, too, the
crudest methods are in vogue. Only placer diggings are
worked, and the report is that these are very rich. Only
a few of these are worked, with pan and shovel, and yet
several hundred thousand dollars' worth of dust is said
to be sent every year to Japan. Of course, if placer
diggings, worked without quicksilver, produce so much,
what would be gained with modern methods, especially
if the quartz veins which are the sources of the gold in
the streams were prospected and worked, is sufficient to
tempt high flights of fancy. It must be admitted, how-
ever, that the policy of the government does not seem to
promise any immediate opening up of these sources of
wealth. A considerable amount of silver is also gath-
ered in different localities.
Besides the minerals above mentioned, copper is found
in abundance, and of this more use is made than of any-


204
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
but any man may take up a homestead, and after tilling
it and paying taxes on it for a period of three years it
becomes his own, and must be purchased should the
government need it.” It is rather because of the poor
tools which the Korean farmer has at his command, and
of his small needs, which do not demand the unceasing
attention which the care of a large farm would claim.
All the average Korean cares for is sufficient to tide
him over from one year's end to another. Beyond that,
work is thrown away. What territory is tilled at all is
well tilled. Their ploughs are superior to those of Japan,
but they throw their furrows to the left. Perhaps the
most striking of their instruments is the shovel, the
mode of working which is rather unusual. This in-
strument has a straight handle about seven feet long,
which is set into the blade, and this is made of wood,
shod at the point and sides with iron. In the upper
corners of the blade holes are bored and ropes are at-
tached. Because of its form it requires an odd number
of men to work it. One man takes the handle, holding
it nearly perpendicularly and guiding it into the dirt,
while one, two or three men hold and pull each rope,
throwing or carrying the soil where it is needed. Work
can be done very rapidly in this way, and we have seen
laborers throw earth to a distance of two rods with one
of these shovels. The principal use to which these in-
struments are put in farm-work is in clearing out the
ditches or drains. The soil is full of springs, and,


RESOURCES
205
season
moreover, the amount of rain which falls in the rainy
season necessitates the opening of channels for drainage.
Garden plats are cultivated mainly by the use of a grub-
bing-hoe. On the farms rude - harrows with wooden
teeth, and even mats of brush, are used to level the soil
and break it up. Fields are not plowed level, but in a
succession of ridges, so that they look more like maize-
fields than anything else. On garden patches a succes-
sion of crops is raised in a season. The climate is such
that nearly all the products found in the United States
can be grown in Korea.
In the way of fruits a great variety is found. Apples
such as we have are not found there, though there is a
variety of fruit which foreigners call apples, rather dry
and mealy, but having a much more spicy flavor than
our apple. Some of the missionaries have obtained
grafts from Japan and China which are doing well.
Of pears there are several varieties, though it requires
a “cultivated taste" and abstinence from home fruits to
enable one to like them. One or two varieties are de-
cidedly puckery, reminding the eater forcibly of the
choke-pear. The standard and most common kind are
to the newcomer a delusion and a suare. They resemble
in appearance the russet apple, being round, and they
have the rough, tawny skin of that fruit. The first we
saw were on the steamer plying between Nagasaki,
Japan, and Chemulpo. They were on the dinner-table,
and our eyes fairly glistened at the sight. We were


206
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
sadly disappointed on biting them to find them tough
and woody, though exceedingly juicy. The most vola-
tile of our party, who was late down to dinner, and
consequently did not know of our disappointment, and
who, being a New Englander, was very fond of russet
apples, on his entry fairly rushed up to the table, and
could not wait for dessert to get a taste of the russets.
Winks passed around as we marked his eagerness, and a
chorus of laughter greeted the disgust his countenance
displayed. Disappointing as they are to the newcomer,
the following season, or at any rate the second summer,
will bring him to like them, for they contain so much
juice that they are really refreshing. Plums are abun-
dant and of good quality, though the season is short.
They are not as large as our largest varieties, but are of
excellent flavor, though apt to be somewhat affected by
the curculio. Apricots and nectarines are very abundant,
and equal in flavor the best of those grown in California.
They are very cheap, but some caution is necessary in the
eating of all fruits because of the tendency in the East
to bowel troubles. Of peaches there is a great abun-
dance, though they are different from any I have seen
in our own land. They are longer, cling closely to the
stone and the pulp is streaked a deep red, which, dropped
on the clothing, leaves a very persistent stain. These
are of good flavor, though the pulp is quite coarse.
They are rather dearer than other fruit, though still not
dear according to our standards. They can be bought


RESOURCES.
207
for between one and two cents each—not a high price for
a peach larger than the average with us. The trees are
cultivated not only for the fruit, but for the flowers.
These come out before the leaves, and as many of them
are a deep scarlet and double, an orchard of peach
trees in bloom is one of the prettiest sights to be seen
anywhere in the spring. The peach-blossom figures
very largely in the artist's work both in Korea and in
Japan. Wild grapes of the small variety are very
abundant, but are insipid. There is grown in small
quantities a very large green grape, which is produced
in great clusters and is very similar in flavor to the
Tokay grape. This variety is somewhat difficult to
obtain. I once secured a bunch weighing two and a
half pounds, for which I paid about fifty cents. It
was the most shapely cluster I had ever seen.
The surprise of our lives, however, was met when we
tasted the last fruit of the year. After my return I met
a company of gentlemen, one afternoon, who questioned
me as to my experience in the hermit kingdom. At last
one of them asked, “Well, Gilmore, what fruit did you
like best there?” To this I unhesitatingly replied,
“The persimmon," at which they burst into a loud
laugh, one remarking, “ What a depraved taste!” After
letting them have their laugh out, I told them what the
fruit was. Of course their knowledge was limited to
our own wild persimmon, which is recommended to
those afflicted with too great extension of the principal
ad


208
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
facial orifice. The Korean variety, however, even when
green, is scarcely a reminiscence of our own. It resem-
bles in appearance, as it equals in size, our large, smooth,
pink tomato, so much so, in fact, that Koreans call
tomatoes “ American persimmons." The stones are no
larger than the stones of our own variety, so that the
pulp is much more abundant than in ours. This fruit
begins to come into market from the first to the middle
of September, and it is often purchasable till the first of
February. It is constantly on the table, as one never
seems to tire of it. The way this luscious fruit is eaten
is to pull out the stem and then scoop out the pulp with
a spoon. Well cooled in the refrigerator, a persimmon
is as refreshing as a draught of water in the warm days
of September and early October.
While Japan is called the land of the persimmon, it
is certain that even in Japan the excellence of this fruit
is never realized to the full. The Korean variety is un-
equaled. Fortunately, the raw state is not the only way
in which these fruits are eaten. They are dried and
pressed, and when in this shape they are still excellent
and are a good substitute for figs. It may not be gen-
erally known that in October and November this fruit,
though not in its perfection, can be obtained in New
York, for it has been acclimated in California and, I
believe, in Florida. I venture to prophesy that when
it is more widely known it will make a strong bid for
the favor of those who can afford the luxury.


RESOURCES.
209
Another fruit which is eaten in considerable quantities
is the jujube-berry; but though the flavor is agreeable
to some, it cannot be recommended, as it causes diarrhoea.
Muskmelons and watermelons are both indigenous,
though they never attain the perfection they reach
in the United States. A Korean watermelon never
reddens, and the muskmelon never mellows. It is
a peculiar fact that seed from home had never, up
to 1889, matured in Korea, probably owing to the
plants' being fertilized by the blowing pollen from
native varieties. Occasionally one finds muskmelons
in the market which have a good flavor, but they are
generally insipid and do not suit the taste of foreigners.
Strawberries are grown by foreigners for their own
tables, and produce well both in quantity and flavor.
Of vegetables there is a great abundance and great
variety. Potatoes are raised in the north, though they
are not a staple article of diet, as with us. They are
generally small, though the report is that the yield is
very good. Sweet potatoes are not grown except in the
south, though they are so very abundant in Japan as to
be called “the poor man's food.” Egg-plants are abun-
dant and cheap, though not so large as we are accustomed
to see. A very important article of diet to Koreans is
their lettuce or cabbage. It seems most like a cross
between the two. Foreigners do not use it, as it is too
coarse for use as a salad, and does not boil well as a
green. Natives consume large quantities of it, using it
14


212
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
the birds from their grain-fields. The country is over-
run with the sparrow and magpie, and when the millet
and rice are ripening they settle down in flocks upon the
grain. To prevent the ruin of their crops the farmers
put stakes around the fields of grain, and connect them
with strings which are also carried across the fields, and
on them are hung scarecrows of rags, while other scare-
crows are set up, to the arms of which the strings are
attached. Boys are employed to watch the field, and,
as the birds attempt to settle, to shake the stakes and
strings and to shout with lusty lungs, thus keeping the
little thieves from their pilferings. Three or four boys,
with the assistance of the strings and stakes and a man
to keep them busy, can protect quite a large field from
the depredations of the feathered robbers.
The foregoing list includes the principal resources of
the inhabitants for food. Large granaries are placed in
the principal cities and in the fortresses, in which the
tribute rice is stored for use for national purposes. In
times of scarcity these granaries are sometimes opened for
the benefit of the people. The real purpose, however,
is to receive the tribute, which is paid in kind, and to
afford sustenance for the army and for His Majesty's
retainers.
Other agricultural products are cotton, of not very
good quality, growing rather poor, and mulberry trees
for the silk industry, more especially in the south.
Korean silk is very thin, is poorly spun and not


RESOURCES.
213
well woven. It resembles very thin pongee, and is not
likely to become an article of commerce. Flax is also
raised to some extent, and a fair quality of coarse linen
is manufactured.
Of nuts, the English walnut and the large chestnut
are particularly abundant, and the latter is so very
plentiful that it is an acceptable article of diet.
Ploughing is done with oxen or cows. All the farm-
work is done by hand. The oxen are of enormous size,
and the ordinary cattle one meets along the roads are
larger than the average prize cattle of our own land.
They are kept by the natives solely as beasts of labor
and burden, for Koreans use neither butter nor milk.
Foreigners buy the cows for dairy purposes, but natu-
rally the native cattle give very little milk, seldom over
two quarts at a milking. The servants do not under-
stand the dairyman's art, and are unable to develop the
cow's milking qualities. The principal use of these cat-
tle is as beasts of burden, and in a ride of a few miles
in the morning a person will meet hundreds of the
patient beasts moving slowly along, almost entirely
hidden beneath loads of grass or brush or wood which
are being taken into the city to be sold as fuel. But if
the oxen are of large size, the horses or ponies make
the balance even, for they are exceedingly small. It is
a large animal which measures fourteen hands. The
consequence is that a very tall foreigner has sometimes
to hold his feet up when riding on a foreign saddle.


214
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
The Koreans escape this difficulty by having their sad-
dles built up nearly a foot from the horse's back. One
of the ludicrous sights which met me on my first day
in the country was one of these little animals running
away with a tall foreigner on its back, and the gentle-
man trying to stop the beast by dragging his feet on the
ground. This course eventually brought both man and
horse to the ground. As the former had just donned a
clean white suit, he did not look very respectable after
his encounter with Korean dust.
Chickens are plentiful and large, and are bought
readily for about fifteen cents each. They therefore
are quite an item in the foreigners' bill of fare. Eggs
are sold by the yard. They are placed side by side and
rolled in wisps of straw, each wisp being nearly a yard
long and containing ten eggs. These also are cheap,
looked at from our standpoint. There are no turkeys
in the country, but occasionally an enterprising for-
eigner secures one from China in order to grace a
Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner-table.
The fisheries, which are excellent, produce no rev-
enue for the kingdom, as the fishermen sell only to
their own people. Immense quantities are dried, and
various and queer are the ways for preserving them.
A few pearls are found, but very few of good shape
and color, most of them, though large, being flat and
dark. They are highly esteemed among the people,
and bring good prices from officials.


RESOURCES.
215
A great deal of ginseng is found by the people, but
this must be turned over at a certain valuation to the
officials, to be sold for the king's benefit, as the exporta-
tion of ginseng to China is a monopoly of the crown.
China consumes large quantities of it, and it is there
considered the very best of medicines. The revenue
thus accruing is said to be very large, and the drug
brings enormous prices in Korea. It was reported
that it is a capital offence to smuggle ginseng from
the country.
As Dr. Griffis states in his Corea, the Hermit Nation,
the last great invasion of the peninsula by the Japanese
marks the death of Korean industry and art and the
renaissance of Japanese art. The Japanese when they
retired carried away with them every artisan they could
learn of, and so brought about a revival of industry and
of production of art objects in their own country and
the extinction of both in Korea. There cannot be
claimed now for Korea any important manufacture.
The two lines in which the most is done is in the
way of cabinet-work and the production of sets and
pieces of brassware.
It may be said here that there is no necessity for a
family, say of missionaries, who intend to live in Korea
to take bureaus with them. They will find there cabi-
nets, large, roomy, convenient and ornamental, at a less
price than bureaus command here. One made of hard
wood which we had while in the country stood six feet


216
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
high, and was four feet wide by one and a half feet deep.
The front was of curled maple veneering, with the pat-
terns of the wood beautifully matched, and trimmed
with heavy brass designs of butterflies, etc., the doors
being fitted with brass hinges. It had two large closet-
like apartments, and fourteen small drawers suitable for
table cutlery and other small table furniture. The cost
of that article was five dollars in gold. Smaller ones,
suitable for washing-stands, were at that time obtain-
able for three dollars, and, as they were easily moved,
were very convenient articles of furniture. One street
of the capital is called by foreigners “Cabinet Street,"
because the shops on both sides are nearly all devoted
to the sale of these articles. Considering the price of
these cabinets and the value they would have in the
United States, I have often wondered that the supply
was not exhausted for American use.
The Koreans turn out an excellent line of brassware,
some of the dinner-sets being especially fine. One of
these I have at my home, consisting of thirty-two pieces,
nicely turned, and which cost me about three dollars in
gold. These, too, are made only for domestic use; none
are exported. In the making of both brass-work and
cabinets no originality is shown, and each piece is
modeled after a pattern with great exactness. Every-
thing seems to be stereotyped and a reproduction of
something after which it is made.
In the south some mother-of-pearl work is done


RESOURCES
217
which has a very pretty effect, and indeed a few pieces
show great artistic taste. One cabinet of about the same
dimensions as the one spoken of above, inlaid on two
sides and on the front with exceedingly fine work, was
offered at thirty-five dollars, Mexican, and was sold for
twenty-four. Undoubtedly the piece in New York
would have commanded two hundred dollars.
Fans of various sizes, shapes and materials are made
in the country, and as tribute to His Majesty is paid in
kind, he has a vast number to give as presents to his
servants and to the nobles who have duties at the
palace. These fans are far superior in strength to
those of Japanese make, though the paper is pasted
only on one side. The bamboo which forms the
framework is well polished, often decorated with great
patience and pretty effect. Some of the open fans,
made with paper, are marvels of cleverness in color-
ing, and some which have been brought or sent to
friends in the United States have been thought superior
to anything seen here, as they certainly excelled in
oddity. Another industry peculiar to Korea is the
making of Kang-Wha mats. These are made at
Kang-Wha (where our marines just escaped the deadly
fire of the Korean fort), of rushes which are cultivated
only there. These mats are made about three to four
feet wide and from eight to sixteen feet long. The
patterns, which look as though they were painted on,
are really made of short pieces of stained rush sewed



ge
Mural Decorations.
Page 219.


220
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
paintings, and most of those only in one or other of the
palaces. To a Western eye they were exceedingly
ridiculous, showing not even the most elementary
knowledge of perspective. In the temples erected to
the honor of deified heroes there are usually a number
of paintings purporting to portray the important events
and achievements in the lives of the heroes. These bear
a very marked resemblance to similar paintings in
Japan, the style of execution being the same.
The tourist when passing along the street often sees
little disks of decorated work, sometimes cloth em-
broidered, sometimes of wood inlaid with mother-of
pearl, and again of carved stone-work, these disks vary-
ing in diameter from four inches to ten, and always
going in pairs. His curiosity will be aroused, and only
whetted when he learns that they are pillow-ends, since
there is nothing about them to suggest a pillow, accord-
ing to his notions of what a pillow should be. He will
soon learn that a Korean pillow is a small roll filled
with cotton, and that these disks are the ends, which are
decorated according to the fancy and means of the owner.
Some of these bear designs, the favorite being tigers,
bats and Chinese characters. I have quite a collection
of these, which show the native liking for decoration of
this sort. A curio which is much affected by tourists is
a little iron puzzle box, the iron being inlaid with silver
in a curious way in various patterns. Possibly this
work is done in Japan, but I have never seen it outside


RESOURCES
221
of the Korean peninsula. In their correspondence
Koreans, as well as Japanese, like to use decorated
paper, the decorations being stamped on with wooden
plates carved in relief. Some exceedingly pretty work
is done in this line, one block in my possession giving
a very graceful impression.
In the foreign commercial relations there is as yet
little inducement for foreigners to enter the country.
Chinamen are there in great numbers, as also Japanese,
who have opened stores where nearly everything of
foreign production can be obtained. Since Chinese and
Japanese can live very much cheaper than Western mer-
chants, as a rule they can sell for much less, and conse-
quently there is nothing to induce traders to settle there.
Besides this, the poverty of the people is so great that
they are unable to pay the high prices Western-made
articles command. Two firms, one German and one
American, do business in the capital, but the bulk of
their trade is with the palace and the government
directly in the furnishing of arms, gatling-guns and
furniture, and, of course, the inevitable champagne and
liquor. These commodities are fortunately too high
priced for the masses, so there is less danger than
might be expected of the corruption of the Korean
people by the introduction of fiery drinks. The most
important imports from England are unbleached mus-
lin, out of which clothing is made, rice and silk from
Japan and silk from China. A curious penchant of


RESOURCES.
223
is at any rate room for thought whether a policy which
shuts out our manufacturers from competition with those
of a nation which is hated and feared, and which com-
pels us to look to domestic consumption alone, is not in
the long run, whatever it may be now, a mistaken one.
Clearly, a time is coming when Americans will desire
foreign trade as an outlet for superabundant manufact-
ures. Bearing in mind the conservative tendencies of
Eastern nations and the largeness of the stake, one
would suppose that the catering to the wants of over
one-third of the population of the world would be
looked to, since the earliest on the ground is likely to
stay the longest. With the ground early occupied and a
reputation for fair dealing established, the United States
could doubtless in the near future have a profitable trade
with the twelve to fifteen millions of Koreans, and not
less with the hundreds of millions of Chinese. Kero-
sene from America is used very largely. Other things
might be profitably introduced.
At the same time, it must be remembered that the
average commercial transaction is very small. The
coin of Korea is the “cash,” which, however, is not
uniform over the country. The piece in use at the
capital, which is called a five-cash piece, has about the
value of one-fourth of a cent. This is the basis of cal-
culation. Twenty-five dollars' worth of this is a load
for a coolie. The comparative smallness of even the
largest Korean transaction can be seen from this. In


224
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
dealings with foreign countries the Mexican dollar used
to be the basis, but since it was so greatly debased and
sweated and tampered with by the Chinese, it has been
largely replaced by the Japanese yen, a beautiful coin
engraved with such fine designs and so excellently
milled that even the Chinese experts at stealing silver
from coins and plugging them up are unable to operate
upon it. Kerosene is retailed in quantities of about a
gill, and if a native has made a sale of a case to a for-
eigner (a thing he can do only in an emergency, since
the Koreans often dilute their kerosene with water), he
has set himself up in business on quite a large scale.
The above, then, is a gauge for the extent of the retail
mercantile operations. Yet with patience, with the in-
troduction of cheaper grades of woollen goods and with
the development of resources a respectable trade will
doubtless develop with the once hermit nation.
The balance of trade, which is against Korea, is paid
mainly by the exportation of gold-dust. Considerable
aid is derived from the exportation of ginseng to China.
Occasionally large consignments of beans to Japan re-
duce the balance against Korea. Yet the country can-
not be said to be in a safe way to a healthy financial
condition until it learns to develop what must prove
from the beginning to be its main sources of reliance—a
healthier and more energetic system of agriculture, and
the opening of mining interests, under proper restrictions,
by foreign capital (until Koreans have learned how such


RESOURCES.
225
an
COS.
operations should be carried on), in all this acting with
more candor and less distrust toward the people to whom
it must commit the developing of its resources. With
the customs left under its present able and honest man-
agement, though it were better if freed from Chinese
interference and dictation, and with China compelled
to keep hands entirely off, a very few years would see
Korea rivaling Japan in the advance toward wealth and
prosperity.
15


CHAPTER XII.
PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
TT OREA has now been a member of the family of
nations for eight years, and naturally the thought-
ful are beginning to ask what has been accomplished.
Japan on the one side has made wonderful strides. She
has thrown off the incubus of feudalism. She has
entered the markets of the world, and her products
have become an appreciable factor in the calculations
of the statisticians of commerce. Her people are doing
all they can to become Westernized. National support
of native temples has been withdrawn. Her sons have
been educated in European and American universities.
Her own school system is modeled after Western pat-
terns. European and American instructors sit in her
professorial chairs. Her military and naval officers
have learned their lessons at Western military and
naval schools. A constitution similar to that of some
of the European governments has been adopted. The
government from being an absolute monarchy has
now become a constitutional government, with its pro-
visions copied after and suggested by European and
226


228
PITAL
KOREA .
KOREA FROM FRO
ITS CAPITALsee which of them Korea will follow-Japan and Occi-
dentalism, or China and the Oriental conservatism.
Let us see what has been done. Only a mention of
the opening of three ports by treaty need be made: it
is the results of that opening in which we are interested.
It will be remembered that in 1883 His Majesty sent an
embassy headed by Prince Min Yong Ik to America,
and that this embassy was received in the United States
with open arms. The members were shown much of
the country. They were told not a little of the opera-
tions of the government. Our educational system came
under their view. And when their visit was termi-
nated, and they were escorted back in a United States
man-of-war, they expressed themselves as impressed
with the greatness and excellence of Western govern-
ment. Among other things recommended was the
starting of a school under royal auspices, and the
American Government was asked to nominate three
competent young men to undertake the management
and teaching of this institution. Negotiations were
conducted ably, thoughtfully and disinterestedly by
Lieutenant Foulke, U. S. N., then chargé d'affaires
ad interim for the United States. The author was one
of the three nominated, and we expected to proceed some
time during 1884 or early in 1885. In the late winter
of 1884–85 the excessive and bloodthirsty zeal of some
of the radicals precipitated a revolution which seemed
likely to nullify the preparations made; but, as events


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
showed, it only delayed our departure till 1886. We
were summoned in the spring of that year, and landed
on Korean soil July 4th. We found the Koreans ready
to welcome us and do us all honor. Houses had been
bought and partly prepared for our occupation, school-
buildings and quarters for the scholars were well under
way and everything looked promising. But the pro-
verbial slowness of the Orient harassed us, and it was
the last week in September before we got to work.
The pupils belonged to the nobility, and were appointed
by the king. Thirty-five were named as our first class,
of whom thirty began attendance on the exercises. We
found that not one of them knew a word of English, so
that we had to begin with the alphabet. Three inter-
preters were attached to the school, one for each of the
teachers. These we found helpful at the start, though
we could soon have dispensed with their services. A
word should be spoken here about the purpose of the
school. There are two parties in Korea, which may be
called the Conservatives and the Progressists. The
king is at heart a Progressist. He is not a radical,
but a ruler who believes his people can be benefited
by being led up to a higher level, but with the wise
determination not to have them led faster than they
can follow. He is surrounded by men steeped in
Chinese dogmatism and conservatism. China herself,
as will be shown in the chapter on foreign relations,
is continually interfering to retard progress. Charges


230
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
WHS
are trumped up against those of the king's counselors
who are supposed to support him in this policy, and
these men are in one way or another gotten out of
the way. There is thus a constant need for men who
are prepared to support His Majesty in his measures
of progress. Our school was expected to do this. It
was supposed that the scholars by association with men
representing Western culture and attainments, having
learned something of enlightenment and its blessings,
would become liberals and firm supporters of the king.
Thus far that end has been attained. And it is the
belief of the teachers that in no way can a civilization
which will raise Korea out of its present low estate
get so firm a foundation as by gaining supporters among
the governing class.
To return to the work of the school: The scholars
learned very rapidly. Their memories had been de-
veloped by the study of Chinese. Our teaching was
by daily praxis. As soon as the scholars had learned
a small vocabulary, natural science and mathematics
were brought before them, and they learned English
through these channels. Their eyes were opened by
one of the first lessons in geography, when they heard
for the first time of the relative unimportance of their
little kingdom. Their country goes by the name of
“Tai Cho Son," GREAT Cho Son. They learned that
the title “great” was a misnomer. But as economics
was brought to their attention the truth was soon grasped


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
231
that a country which developed its resources and paid
its debts, no matter what its rank in greatness among
the nations, gained the respect of the world.
In intellectual ability the Koreans rank well. We
found, however, that we had to be on our guard against
merely memoriter work. The tendency was to commit
sentences and to store them up for possible future use.
Notwithstanding this, we found good logicians, bright
mathematicians and, now and then, promising philologists
among them. Unfortunately, our work was hampered
by the distrust of foreigners which is universal in the
East. The school board of mandarins winked at the
lax attendance of the scholars. The idea of steady
application is repugnant to a Korean. As there is no
royal road to knowledge, of course our scholars had to
study. We naturally were on our mettle. At the same
time, we endeavored to have them digest thoroughly
what we gave them. Soon application was made to
shorten the school hours from six to four hours a day
during the winter. We protested against this, but to
no avail. The work was too hard, they thought, and
the scholars who were officials were influential enough
to secure this favor from His Majesty. Soon we found
these same scholars missing days at school on the pre-
tense of “business at the palace," and this in the face
of the fact that for three months not a day's absence
had marred the record of any scholar. The president
and vice-president of the school were nice, easy-going


232
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
fellows who were easily imposed upon, and they readily
listened to excuses in reply to our complaints. Finally
but few of the “rank men” or scholars with official
position attended. They had a smattering of English,
could talk a little, and were too indolent to work since
they could get along without it. Meanwhile the younger
scholars had been doing fine work. The best scholars
were the youngest boys and those who could hope for
advancement through their English studies. The efforts
of the school board, at the examination held in the
presence of the king, to pass as good scholars men who
had done no work met the defeat it deserved. Experi-
ence suggested ways of getting men to work. It was
suggested that the appointers should all be without
official rank, that rank should be bestowed for scholar-
ship and that absence beyond a specified time should
forfeit the appointment or cadetship. Improvement
was manifest from that time. The scholars have an
incentive for work. With perhaps a single exception,
all scholars who have attended the school have by their
association with the teachers and by what they have
learned been made opponents of the policy which would
shut up Korea within herself, if that were possible.
One purpose of the school has been gained, and if the
machinations of the Chinese do not prevail, and if the
school founded in the capital be allowed to develop into
something like the school system which is bearing such
excellent fruit in Japan, the possibility of the develop-


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
233
ment of the peninsula will become not merely a prob-
ability, but a certainty. When the three teachers
reached Korea they found there a school for inter-
preters taught by a Mr. Halifax, a man who, though
not a scholar, yet deserved all praise for his attain-
ments, which were self-acquired. He was an English-
man, and had been, it was said, a common sailor. He
had studied telegraphy, and had gone to Korea to take
a position in the telegraph service. Disappointed in
this, he had secured the opening of a school for train-
ing interpreters, and, considering the opportunities he
had had, did very good work. We hoped this school
would be continued, as we foresaw that were this not
done, possibly we should lose our best scholars through
the demand for interpreters at the legations, at the for-
eign office and in various other departments. As inter-
preters commanded from twenty-five to one hundred
dollars per month, a large sum for a Korean, the in-
ducements such positions would offer would likely take
from us our best men. Unfortunately, the school was
shut up. Mr. Halifax blamed the teachers, though, as
said above, this course was against our wishes. The ex-
pected did happen, and one or two of the best scholars
were detailed to this kind of work. We consoled our-
selves with the reflection that our scholars were thus put
into positions of usefulness, and could make a return for
their tuition and support under the government in sub-
serving the interests of civilization.


234
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
But the above two schools are not the only places
where instruction in the English language and in West-
ern science was given. The two principal missions have
schools where daily lessons are the rule. In the Methodist
mission a large part of the time of the clerical members
is devoted to instruction in English and the elementary
branches. Of course there is more or less religious
instruction given there, as the superintendent is resolved
that, since the school is paid for by mission funds and
many of the scholars are supported in the same way,
the instruction shall not be irreligious. This school
is training men whom the government is already putting
into its offices. Interpreters are going out from the
school into government service, carrying with them
new ideas concerning the world and the relations of
man to man and of nation to nation. The Methodist
Church is thus contributing to the development of
Korea.
The Presbyterian mission, under the sanction of His
Majesty, has established an orphanage for boys and one
for girls. These boys and girls are regularly indentured,
and are given up for training in all respects. Under the
care of the Rev. H. G. Underwood, D. D. what is re-
garded as the most promising feature of the Presbyterian
mission to Korea has been wisely managed. The boys
are being trained in such a way that they will be the
peers of their associates when they come to manhood.
Not only is instruction in English given them every



Great East Gate.
Page 235.





PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
235
day, but they have instructions in Korean and Chinese.
In this way they are being fitted to go from the school
right into the cabinet of the king ; for not only would
their English acquirements secure them high recognition
in official circles, but this, supplemented by proficiency
in the Chinese classics, ensures prominence in public
station. We shall have something more to say, in a
later chapter, on the influence of this orphanage in
the development of the kingdom.—So much for edu-
cational steps.
In the direction of the development of the military
power much has been attempted. The native fire-arms
of Korea are of course very ineffective as compared
with modern Western weapons. Accordingly several bat-
talions have been armed with modern breech-loaders,
and, I believe, some with magazine rifles. Not the
least curious of the sights to be seen on the king's
parades is the appearance of companies marching side
by side, one carrying the old flint-locks, or match-locks
fired with punk, and the other armed with breech-
loaders and sabre bayonets. In line with this new
equipment was the purchase of several gatling-guns,
and practice with these is frequent, especially as the
noise is pleasing to His Majesty. Equipment for a
powder-manufactory has also been purchased and put
in place. The uniform of most of the soldiers has been
changed from its picturesque though somewhat incon-
venient form, and is supposed now to be modeled after


236
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
the Western military style; but as the material is dyed
cotton, and the dye fades with all degrees of irregularity,
and since the cut of the clothing is decidedly sui generis,
the aspect of the companies on march is peculiar rather
than picturesque. The government has made provision
for the instruction of the soldiers by engaging military
instructors from the United States. In 1886 four of
these were secured, one of whom was an American who
had seen service in Japan, the other three being officers
of the militia in different parts of the United States,
two of them men who had fought in the Civil War.
The youngest two of these men came out full of pluck
and energy, and amused those who had had more ex-
perience with Oriental life, and especially with Korean
inertia, with accounts of the reforms they were going to
institute and the transformations they would effect in the
appearance and effectiveness of the army. But months
wore on, and even a start was hardly made. They
found that the reluctance to give foreigners control
hampered and opposed them. The cadet corps could
not be turned out at reveille. The soldiers had hardly
any idea of military discipline. Precision and punc-
tuality were alike lacking. Soldiers served for their
rice, and they had no esprit de corps. While the in-
structors were treated with all courtesy and considera-
tion, effective use of their acquirements was not made
because of the sloth, indifference and distrust of the
officials. Added to this was the impecuniosity of the


·
237
PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
government. The salaries of the four military in-
structors amounted to 1150 yen ($920 in gold) per
month. The income of the government is a very
uncertain factor. There was a lack of business-like
management on the part of officials, and it soon became
apparent that no provision had been made for paying
the salaries of the American officers. This caused in-
convenience to the instructors, and, naturally, some
impatience was manifested on their part. One of
them wrote articles for some home papers, and then
for some of the Anglo-Chinese periodicals, and as
his remarks were not complimentary his dismissal
was ordered by the government. At the same time
charges of another character were made against another
of the officers, and he also was dismissed. These two,
being under contracts which had been negotiated by
the American minister, refused to consider themselves
dismissed unless salary was paid them for the time
for which they had contracted. Consequently their
claims were entered through the legation, but it was
only after a considerable time had elapsed, and after
many negotiations between the legation and the Korean
government, that settlement was made. There are two
officers on duty trying to effect changes in the discipline
and effectiveness of the army, but their efforts do not meet
with the success which like efforts on a more energetic
people would probably produce. It will be seen, then,
that there is an attempt to model the army after a


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
239
only means as yet of making them productive and of
beginning the development of resources.
In a third way Korea has started on Western paths.
In her treaties the right to admit and to send diplomatic
officers is given. Korea has made use of this right.
The ranking diplomatic agent at the court of Seoul
is the minister of the United States. Japan puts her
interests in the country into the hands of a chargé
d'affaires. France has sent a “commissionaire.” Russia
has at the capital a chargé d'affaires. Germany is rep-
resented by a consul-general, and England sends only a
consul or vice-consul. Korea has representatives in only
two countries, the United States and Japan. Another
enibassy was started to Europe, but by intrigue on the
part of the Chinese it was prevented from leaving the
Chinese port whence they were to sail. Of this more
will be said in the chapter on the relations of Korea
with China and Japan. In the United States the em-
bassy has been received with great favor. The sim-
plicity, earnestness, good nature and wonder at our
civilization displayed by the Korean representatives,
together with the modest and winning ways of Mrs.
Yi, the lady in charge of the legation, have endeared
the Koreans to our people, and won much good-will
among Americans for the ex-hermit nation. The harass-
ments of the king in relation to this have been particu-
larly grievous. They can only be hinted at here. It
was upon the advice of the Chinese viceroy that Korea
m
.
wa


240
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
made the first treaty with a Western nation. Of course
the power to make a treaty supposes autonomy. China
sought to have incorporated in that treaty with the
United States a clause acknowledging the suzerainty
of China. Certainly no treaty could be made under
such conditions, since treaties can exist only between
sovereign powers. This point was therefore abandoned
by the Chinese, who by that very act, abetting (as they
did) the act of making a treaty, acknowledged the inde-
pendence of Korea. But after the treaty was signed and
Korea made ready to send embassies and representatives,
the government of China began to protest, claimed a
veto power over the appointment, and the Chinese
“ resident” at Seoul went so far as to seize a minister
who was sent on a mission. But the mission was sent,
and, as stated above, Korea now has representatives
abroad who are winning golden opinions for the little
kingdom. Korea has also in various countries mer-
chants who act as her consuls, though as yet there is no
business demanding their attention.
Other advances and attempts have been made, the
fruits of which have not as yet been realized. In 1884,
under the administration of a radical government, prepa-
rations had been made to enter the postal union. The
stamps had been printed and all arrangements com-
pleted for the performance of this important function
of the government. A banquet was held at the foreign
office to rejoice over and celebrate the consummation of


242
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
is in the establishment of a national mint. The coin
of Korea is the cash (strictly, a “five-cash ” piece), a
piece varying in value from one-fifth to one-fourth of a
cent. This is a rough coin made of brass or copper
with a square hole in the centre. It is made in a
clumsy manner at native mints, and is rude and rough
in its make-up, besides being variable in quality and
weight. These are strung on strings of straw, two
hundred on a string. It will be noticed that the unit
of value is very small. The value of the cash fluctu-
ates with its abundance. At times four hundred and
twenty of these pieces may be bought for a Japanese
yen (value seventy-five to ninety cents, American gold),
while at times not over two hundred and seventy can be
obtained for the same. The unit of calculation is not
one of these pieces, but one-fifth of one, for besides
these larger cash there is a smaller coin, not current at
the capital, whose value is much less than the other
kind. Thus it is seen there is no coin which is current
throughout the kingdom. For larger transactions the
Mexican dollar used to be current, but the Chinese had
so tampered with it that a professional shroff or ex-
pert was needed to detect the light and spurious coins,
and so the Japanese yen displaced it. These and other
considerations, especially the clumsiness of the native
coin, led to the suggestion of the establishment of a
mint. Experts from the royal mints of Germany
were sent for, a spacious site was allotted and build-


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
245
on
was not raised, but now it may be seen growing, though
still only in small patches, in many fields in the neigh-
borhood of the capital. The manager of the farm did
some good by offering seeds to the Koreans who would
use them. Some few have accepted and sown these for-
eign articles, but only very rarely as yet is there any
view of American plants growing in native gardens.
Koreans in this respect seem less receptive and adaptive
than the Japanese, who welcome any addition to their
list of edibles. The table of the king is often supplied
from the farm, and the members of the royal family are
familiar with the taste of many vegetables commonly
seen only on foreigners' tables.
One of the interesting sights of the capital was the
hospital. It seemed a wonderful thing in 1886 to find,
in the capital of a kingdom which, less than four years
before, had been sealed to the world, a hospital the run-
ning expenses of which were in large part paid by the
king. After Dr. Allen had in such a providential way
gained the confidence of the court, he found an oppor-
tunity to tell of the means employed to reach and benefit
by the healing art many of the poverty-stricken in our
own country. This caught the attention of the king,
and soon grounds were set aside, buildings prepared
and a hospital was in full operation. Not only was
this the case, but soon afterward the hospital in con-
nection with the Methodist mission received the sanction
of the king, and a name in Chinese was fixed over the


246
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
zasn
gate as a sign to Koreans that the work done within
had the sanction of the government.
Owing to the death of Dr. Heron, one of the medical
missionaries of the Presbyterian Board, the work of the
hospital was necessarily dropped. We understand, how-
ever, that a physician is going out from New York,
under contract with the government, to carry on the
work. It speaks volumes for the kindly feeling of the
king that such work should be provided for out of the
national funds, or what is practically the same for
there is nothing like a national treasury in Korea,
the national money really belonging to the king as
being the government.
We have had occasion to speak of the custom of sig-
naling daily along the tops of the hills the news of the
peace and welfare of the kingdom. Alongside of this
mediæval system of despatching news must be placed the
modern way of using the electric current, since for years
the capital has been connected by wire with the southern
port of Fusan, with its own port of Chemulpo and with
the capital of China, and so with the whole outside
world. Korea, the hermit nation of 1882, in teleg-
raphic communication with the isles of the West in
1885!
In the domestic life of the nation but little change
has been caused by the opening of treaty relations with
other nations. But few Koreans have changed their
manner of living. The general poverty of the people


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
247
would preclude indulgence in luxuries, such as most
articles of foreign make would be considered. In the
palace, in the way of furniture, much has been brought
in from Europe and the United States. The king's
apartments are furnished in foreign and luxurious style.
Besides this, table furniture and kitchen equipments of
foreign styles are provided for the palace use, for often
guests are entertained by order of the king. At such
times His Majesty is not visibly present, but is repre-
sented by a mandarin. A latticed screen covered with
paper shuts off a part of the banqueting-hall, and behind
that screen the royal family often assemble, and after
punching holes in the paper a view of the banqueting
guests is had by the members of the family. A few of
the wealthier men in the capital were very much capti-
vated by some spring mattresses seen in foreigners'
houses, and they have obtained others for their own
use. In the capital there are shops, kept by Chinese and
Japanese, where various commodities of foreign manu-
facture are exposed for sale. As elsewhere mentioned,
one of the chief attractions in these stores is the cuckoo
clock, and many of these have found their way into the
homes of the people. The most extensively used of
foreign commodities is the cotton goods in the way
of sheeting muslins, out of which clothing for every-
day wear is made. Of this thousands of bales are im-
ported yearly. The revenue from imports is increasing
largely each year, proving that Western products are


248
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
taking their place in the domestic economy of the
people, and with each importation and its use among
the people a wider interest in the nation from which
the article came is excited, and so progress is made.
It is yet too early to prophesy as to the national prog-
ress these varied agencies will bring about. Much,
very much, will depend on the character of the repre-
sentatives of the various nations who may drift or be
sent to Korea. As yet, it is fortunate that most for-
eigners have been of a very respectable class. The
character of the diplomatic and consular corps has
been, in general, above reproach. The missionaries are
men who, with a commendable zeal for the spread of
the tidings they bear, have a knowledge of the prejudices
of the Koreans, and judgment sufficiently balanced to
prevent the use of means which shock and alarm the
conservatism of Confucianists and arouse the religious
jealousy of the officials. The poverty of the country
offers few inducements for grasping tradesmen to settle
there, consequently but two firms have dealings of any
importance with the people. The populace at large is
being led on gradually to the realization of an influx
of foreign ideas. The money spent by missionaries
and government officers in the country brings benefits
to many poor householders. Were the country left
to follow its desires, and not harassed by the inter-
ference and domination of China, a gradual approach
to Western ways might be anticipated. As it is, the


PROGRESS TOWARD CIVILIZATION.
249
chances are so balanced and the disturbing causes so
many that a chapter is needed to discuss them and to
give data for the determination of the probable result
of the present efforts toward Occidental enlightenment.
A matter not to be passed over lightly is the abolition
(February 6, 1886) of the hereditary transmission of
slavery—a grand move for a “barbarous” nation to
make of its own volition !


CHAPTER XIII.
FOREIGN RELATIONS.
QUESTION which is not only interesting in
1_ itself, but also important in its bearings upon
the economic and religious development of the penin-
sula, is the independence or autonomy of Korea. Is
Korea an independent State, or a vassal State subject
to China ? The decision is not easily reached. On one
side, in favor of the independence of the kingdom is the
act of acknowledgment of her independence by Japan,
the United States, Russia, France and Italy in making
treaties with her. Treaties are negotiated only between
independent States. It must also be borne in mind that
the treaties were entered into by the advice of China.
Against the autonomy of Korea may be cited the
strenuous insistence on the part of the Chinese, since
the treaties were made, upon the claim of suzerainty
over Korea; the interference, or attempted interference,
of the Chinese in the management of the finances and
the development of the resources of the kingdom; the
course of action of the Chinese “resident minister” at
the Korean capital, which is consistent only with his
claim that he is the representative of the over-lord of
250


FOREIGN RELATIONS.
251
the king of Korea; and also certain acts of the king of
Korea and his government toward China, which, when
interpreted after Western fashion, seem to lend force to
the assertion that not even the king himself believes in
his independence of the emperor.
Historically, both China and Japan have claimed
Korea as a portion of their respective empires, and
have founded their claims upon acknowledged and
indisputable conquest. The latter power, however,
gave up all claim to ownership when, in 1876, she
negotiated a treaty with the hermit nation. In the
preceding year China had practically conceded the in-
dependence of Korea in disclaiming any responsibility
for the acts which led to the Japanese storming the
Kang-Wha fort. To this last declaration should be
added the statement (cited by Mr. Rockhill in his able
article printed in the Journal of the American Oriental
Society for 1888) of an emperor of China about the
middle of the seventeenth century : “Kao-li (Korea)
is a small region in the East, and is not under the rule
of the middle kingdom.”
This question has been ably discussed by two gentlemen
-by Mr. Rockhill, quoted above, and by Judge Denny,
late foreign adviser to the king, in his pamphlet China
and Korea, privately printed in 1888. The former
draws his arguments from historical documents of the
Chinese, and his statements lead almost irresistibly
to the conclusion that up to the last few years China


252
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
regarded Korea as independent. Judge Denny concedes
the tributary relation of Korea to China, but shows
that the condition of a tributary State does not neces-
sarily in any case imply vassalage, and that it certainly
does not carry that conclusion in the case under consid-
eration.
Looked at from a diplomatic standpoint, Korea is a
sovereign State. She has made treaties, while China,
knowing that international law holds that to be the act
of a sovereign State, has looked on and permitted (as-
suming that she could have stopped it) the assumption
of treaty obligations. China has herself made a treaty
with Korea, though she has called that treaty “ Com-
mercial and trade regulations for the subjects of China
, and Korea.” Yet, guarded as this title was meant to
be, it in mentioning the two countries gives up China's
contention, for if Korea is subject to China, there are
no subjects of Korea, but only those of China. The
question, therefore, naturally arises, If the case, diplo-
matically considered, is so clear, what need is there to
discuss it again? The answer is, that though Korea
made treaties with the full and free consent and knowl-
edge of the Chinese government, and although China
knew the consequences of such acts with reference to
her claims of suzerainty, the Chinese government has
since the making of the treaties reasserted those claims,
and has used its power as a stronger nation to interfere
in the internal affairs of Korea (as when it prohibited


254
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
attempting to overthrow the Chinese power, and pun-
ishment for aid given to those rebels.
(3) The undisputed and indisputable fact that tribute
has been and still is regularly sent to the Chinese em-
peror by the king.
(4) The tenor of a letter sent to the emperor by the
king, apparently asking permission to send representa-
tives to foreign courts.
(5) The way in which the king receives the envoy
sent in acknowledgment of tribute or on special occa-
sions. His Majesty usually goes outside the walls of the
capital and meets the envoy, instead of awaiting his ap-
pearance in the palace grounds and in the audience-
chamber. A more compromising fact than this was a
visit paid by the king to the temporary residence of
the envoy in the capital in 1890, something which it
is impossible to reconcile with even Korean ideas of
urbanity. This act, more than any other since the
treaties were made, staggered the asserters of Korean
autonomy.
(6) Very significant, not to say perplexing, is the
bearing of Chinese officials and their suites in the
country, both to Koreans and toward foreigners. For
instance, the present Chinese “minister resident for
political and commercial affairs ” (so does China desig-
nate her representative at the Korean capital) has dared
nominally to memorialize, really to lecture, the king
upon the method of conducting the development of



FC
Gate Outside City, where King meets Chinese Envoy.
Page 254.





256
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
agreement seems to be wholly unknown to the Western
powers.”
Concerning this agreement Mr. Foulk further says
(p. 337): “ It has been positively stated to me, though
not until they seemed forced to divulge it, by So
Kwang Pom and Kim Ok Kiun, that the result of
this use of Chinese troops (in Dec., 1884] was the ex-
actment of a new agreement between China and Corea,
by which the Chinese obtained such rights in Corea as
made her more intimately a dependency of China than
had ever been the case before. .... The king and the
progressive Coreans looked upon the American treaty as
the wedge which, at least politically, freed Corea from
China, and it was hailed by them with great joy. It
may then be understood how great was their chagrin to
find Corea, by the action of Cho and the Mins before
the American treaty was yet ratified, placed anew or
more rigidly than ever subservient to China.” Mr.
Foulk goes on to say that this anxiety was relieved
when Minister Foote arrived, since the treaty was rati-
fied; that this meant to the Koreans either that the
United States meant to force the recognition of Korean
independence, understanding the position of Korea to
China; or else that that position was unknown, and so
the American treaty would give a leverage whence to
work for the completion of the attempts at securing
entire autonomy.
The above seem to me to embrace all the arguments


260
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
that the expressions employed on the occasions of in-
terchange of courtesies between the two countries are
those “used between neighboring countries which are
on a footing of equality."
Striking a balance between the arguments for and
against the independence of Korea, the preponderance
of evidence seems greatly against the pretensions of
China. In fact, as before hinted, the only facts which
seem at this time to point to any other conclusion are
the overt acts of the Chinese “minister resident” at
the Korean capital and the cowering or timid attitude
of the people and rulers of the country.
This attitude is due to a realization, born of inter-
course with other nations, of the real weakness of Korea
as compared with the strength of China's immense re-
sources. “ Great Cho Son" has assumed her real posi-
tion in the eyes of her rulers. Uncertainty as to the
amount of support she would receive from other powers
in a direct and decisive rejection of the Chinese assump-
tions and an expression of indignation at the interference
in the conduct of internal affairs, makes Korea's rulers
seem weak and vacillating. And yet those who have
been longest in the East, and who know the temper of
China, of Korea, of Japan and of Russia, are not slow
to express the opinion, first, that were the king to take
a decided stand, China would back down and withdraw
her claims; second, Japan would not permit any action
prejudicial to her own interests, such as the occupation


262
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
wiles and intrigues of Yuan, the present “commis-
sioner” of the Chinese government in Seoul. This
man is a typical Oriental, of no special ability, but
with an abnormal amount of cunning and duplicity.
He was formerly a subordinate, but was elevated to
the commissionership in 1885. The king's affability
and desire to maintain friendly relations with all treaty
powers have been seized upon by Yuan to forward his
own schemes. This latter, inflated by his importance,
and by the fact that probably at his suggestion the
claims of China have been reasserted, has taken upon
himself to advise the king in disorderly and impudent
“memorials” and to force his way into the royal pres-
ence. It was doubtless this gentleman who suggested,
if he did not execute, the bogus treaties referred to,
containing an acknowledgment of the vassal relations
of Korea to China. He stands convicted of having
smuggled under his official seal a large case of ginseng,
which in a Korean would have been a capital offence.
He has thus transgressed the laws of the country. He
has shown his contempt and insolence by riding in his
chair inside the palace grounds, a thing never done by
a native Korean, and so has trampled on the custom
which has been honored and observed by the repre-
sentatives of all other powers. Judge Denny also
charges him (the evidence is known by the writer to
be clear and convincing) with being the author of a
plot to dethrone and abduct the king in order to make


FOREIGN RELATIONS.
263
a pretext for the interference of China. Full provis-
ions were made for carrying out this plot, with the
accompaniments of riot, arson and murder. The gov-
ernment of China has been informed of this, and has
been asked to withdraw the mischief-maker, but as yet
has disregarded all appeals. The pity is that the king
does not make a peremptory demand for the withdrawal
of Yuan, and if this is not acceded to, give him his pass-
ports and escort him to the frontier. A firm stand and
resolute demand would almost certainly produce the de-
sired result. At any rate, the status of Korea would
then be certainly known, and the condition could not
be worse than the present uncertain state of affairs.
The relations between Japan and the peninsula are,
officially, most excellent. There is at times some fric-
tion of feeling between the populace and the Japanese
merchants, owing to the disposition of the latter to
drive hard bargains and claim their pound of flesh,
but in general there is nothing but good wishes on the
part of the Japanese people, and the most ardent hopes
on the part of the Japanese government for the pros-
perity of Korea. With Russia the relations are most
friendly. The Russian chargé d'affaires, Mr. Waeber,
and his most accomplished wife are favorites at the
capital, and the influence of Russia has been exerted
positively in favor of Korean independence.
There is hardly any need to speak of the friendly
feelings existing between the United States and Korea.


266
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
ing influences of climate undoubtedly have their effect in
toning down vigor of action. Consequently the energy
which an American is wont to display on his first en-
trance into Oriental life soon wears down to more meas-
ured movement. This is doubtless one reason for the hold
which Eastern life takes upon Western-born people.
Another powerful factor is the position which persons
from other countries take among the natives. Even in
Japan a foreigner is recognized as having superior abil-
ities, as having been under the guidance and training
of greater forces than the Japanese of an equal station
in life. The very quickness and decisiveness of his
touch in matters of business, art or mechanics doubt-
less contributes to this end. While Orientals excel in
matters requiring patience—for instance, in the carving
of a set of ivory chessmen or the production of a piece
of lacquered ware—the Occidental excels in the com-
mercial faculty, and for an equivalent period of time
will produce a sum of wealth which seems to the Ori-
ental like the realization of a wonderful dream. So
in Korea the college graduate seems to be a man of
wonderful attainments. The man of middle station in
society at home ranks very high in Korean society, and
to almost all foreigners the tribute of precedence over
natives is readily yielded. Thus a sort of flattery to
which close observers, and particularly cynics, say hu-
manity is especially subject is paid to the foreigner who
goes for residence in the Korean peninsula. He finds the



Great South Gate.
Page 266.





FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
267
con
people in the street making way for him. When any
spectacle is to be seen, the place of honor is reserved
for his accommodation. The high place at feasts falls to
him. He is treated with a consideration which is not
infrequently the cause of an increase in the perimeter
of his cranium. Woe to him, then, if he has to return
to Western life! When he looks for people, mechanics
and day-laborers, to turn out for him on the sidewalk,
a jostle recalls to his mind that in this country all men
are “free and equal." Whereas on the other side of
the Pacific his opinion was asked and listened to with
respect, he finds himself here a very inconsequential
sort of person, carrying only the influence which his
mental calibre and his real worth earn for him. Natu-
rally, then, he yearns for a return to his life in the East.
In this respect life in Korea is very agreeable to the
foreigner.
That country has as yet been peculiarly fortunate in
the class of foreigners who have gone there. The ma-
jority so far are missionaries, men who have been singu-
larly disinterested, and have in several instances gained
not only the respect of the community, but the confi-
dence of the king and court. Nearly all the other for-
eigners there have belonged either to the diplomatic and
consular corps or to the customs, or have gone out for
educational work. The merchants have been few, for
the commercial advantages to be gained will not sustain
the competition of large numbers or of numerous houses.


268
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
To the poverty of the country, then, is due the immu-
nity from an incursion of foreigners carrying to the na-
tives the whiskey-jug which has been the curse of so
many countries, especially of Africa.
The houses which foreigners occupy are, with but one
or two exceptions, native houses altered by building ad-
ditions, knocking out partitions and adapting them in
various ways to our different habits. As has already
been mentioned, the rooms of a house are very small;
but since the partitions are often nothing but a frame-
work of wood covered with paper, they are easily re-
moved, and several rooms thus thrown into one make
comfortable living-quarters. Foreigners usually pur-
chase houses from the better class, and as these houses
generally have plenty of ground around them, they are
easily transformed, with but little outlay, into pleasant
abodes with the accessories of lawn, flower-garden and
often tennis-courts. Repapered and furnished, their
paper-covered windows replaced with others of glass,
these native houses make very comfortable residences
both in summer and winter. The abundance of win-
dows and doors makes ventilation in summer easy,
while these same vents can in winter be so sealed up
with the tough paper which can be obtained there in
great abundance as to be comfortable and cheery in the
steady cold of winter. The shape of the houses, built,
as we have shown, around a hollow court, allows plenty
of light in all the rooms, even though the eaves do over-


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
269
hang four or more feet. Of furniture almost nothing
can be obtained in Korea. Cabinets, of which we
have spoken, brass vessels of various sorts, china
water-pitchers, earthen crocks for keeping grain, meals,
sugar, etc., and matting and grass rugs are about the
only native articles to be obtained toward housekeep-
ing there. Of course, in Japan and in China all sorts
of foreign stores sent from England and the United
States are to be obtained, and imitations of these, made
by Chinese and Japanese, can also be bought. The
furniture of Japanese manufacture is, however, to be
shunned. It is made to sell, not to use, and a Japanese
chair, for example, requires constant tinkering to keep
it in a condition in which one would willingly trust him-
self upon it. As a result, those who are wise take with
them all stores from this country or England, since to
buy the same articles in Shanghai or Yokohama re-
quires double the money. Carpets, rugs, hangings of
various sorts, beds and bedding, stoves and kitchen fur-
niture and various kinds of crockery can be bought to
advantage in Japan, especially the nicer grades. Really
exquisite dinner- and tea-sets can be obtained there. Of
course the pocket of the purchaser can be consulted as
well there as at home; but care must be taken to avoid
the foreign stores, where exorbitant prices are charged.
The list of productions given in the chapter on the re-
sources of Korea shows how far native productions can
be relied on for the larder. As a matter of fact, every-


270
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
thing necessary for the household can be bought in the
country, of Chinese or foreign merchants established
there, though at largely increased prices. Foreigners
send large orders to San Francisco and to London,
while Shanghai is also much resorted to. The foreign
merchants of China and Japan are exceedingly courteous,
and the writer has met with very kind treatment in
Shanghai at the hands of Mackenzie & Co. and of
others. The rule is to get all staples, such as flour,
sugar, canned goods, jams and preserves, preserved
meats, relishes, etc., from either London or San Fran-
cisco. From the latter place it takes at least three
months to get an order, while six months are required
for an order to reach London and to be filled. Beef
and mutton are obtainable in the capital in such quan-
tities as one needs, both Japanese and Chinese fur-
nishing these supplies. Fruits in their season are ob-
tainable, and especially the persimmon, the star fruit
of the East.
In the matter of domestics there is a choice between
Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, and they stand in just
that order as to the amount of wages asked. A first-
class Chinese “boy” (all Chinese male servants are
called boys, irrespective of age) can be obtained for
about twelve to fifteen dollars a month; a Japanese
cook and his wife can be hired for about fifteen dollars
a month; while a Korean man or boy will serve for
from four to six dollars and find himself. Koreans are


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
271
very handy after a little teaching, and they adapt them-
selves very speedily to the individualities of their em-
ployers. We had a native cook who had had his train-
ing in the American legation, and was quite equal to
getting up a very creditable dinner for almost any occa-
sion. His ingenuity in producing fancy dinners out of
what looked like very scanty materials did him great
credit, and he could serve up chickens (a standard arti-
cle of diet among foreigners in Korea) in more ways
than one uninitiated would dream possible. We paid
this man six dollars a month—all he asked. When we
first commenced housekeeping we used to let our cook
have the keys to enter the store-room and get the ma-
terials for use, but rapid diminution of the stores sug-
gested a different plan. Still the goods seemed to van-
ish with remarkable quickness. We soon found that the
ingenuity of our cook was displayed in other ways than
in the getting up of odd dishes. It became necessary to
mete out to him daily just the amount of staples re-
quired to carry us over the day. One day, after this
movement had been inaugurated, the dust-cloth was
called for and was nowhere to be found. Cook, whose
house was only a short block away, was missed imme-
diately from the kitchen. On his return he was asked
about the missing duster, and after some search he dis-
covered it in some corner of the kitchen. But the pecu-
liar thing about this was that one side of the cloth was
marked with flour in the center, while the edges and


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
273
dinner was cooking. Examination disclosed the legs
and feet (claws included), the neck, and finally the
head (comb, eyes and all) of a chicken. Cook was out
at the time, but when he returned he was asked if he
was making soup. Temporary relief was afforded by
the assurance that he was cooking those portions for
his own sustenance. A new alarm was raised soon
after luncheon, when the same pot was found on the
stove, with the same amount of water and apparently
the same contents. My wife immediately concluded
that the cook was pocketing the amount of cash neces-
sary to buy meat for soup, and was serving up chicken's
extremities so cooked as to be unrecognizable. A spoon
brought up from the bottom of the pot a ragged piece
of meat which I recognized at once as beef, but it had
to be turned over several times before the lady could be
convinced that of all the vagaries a cow indulges in,
she never grows a rooster's comb on any part of her
anatomy.
Korean servants are very willing to learn, yet there
are vexations in the way of training them that call for
the exercise of much patience. At first the necessity
for frequent ablutions does not appear to the natives,
and constant watchfulness is necessary to have them
retain the cleanliness essential in housekeeping. They
pick up quickly the ways of the household, often do
things in the way they have been taught for a consid-
erable period, and then, when they have become familiar
IS


274
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
with their duties, they begin to grow lax. It seems
as if a certain amount of “toning up” in the way of
scolding is requisite to keep them up to the performance
of their duties. One thing peculiar about these servants
is that a scolding in English, which is unintelligible to
them, produces far more effect than one in Korean.
The only time I ever lost my patience was when one
of our boys was beating his younger brother, who was
our table-boy. I had stopped the process once and for-
bidden him to do so again, but when he thought I was
engaged he continued the chastisement. I was so an-
gered at his brutality and his disobedience that I forgot
my Korean and scolded him in English. The fellow
turned pale with terror, for I had never so spoken to
him and he had never seen me angry. I had often.
heard this peculiarity spoken of as a fact, but had
never experienced it.
Curious mistakes sometimes result from the ignorance
of the servants and their desire to do smart things. One
time a resident desired to have for dinner some canned
green peas, and gave a can to the cook with directions
to prepare them. The article was new to the servant,
so he set it unopened on the stove, not taking the pre-
caution to punch a hole as a vent for steam. Suddenly
a loud report was heard, and when the host, who had
been entertaining his guests, rushed out into the kitchen,
he found all the servants outside except the cook, who
was seated on the floor, dazed, but ejaculating “no


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
275
sabhy, no sabby.” Peas were sprinkled in all the
courses, making a careful process of elimination neces-
sary. This incident did not detract at all from the mer-
riment at the table.
There was at the capital a Japanese washerman who
in general did very good work. It may interest house-
keepers here to know that the ordinary price for wash-
ing in the East is three cents a piece, little and big,
things that go in pairs, such as cuffs and hose, count-
ing only as one piece. Owing to unsatisfactory work
in some particulars, one of the ladies tried the experi-
ment of hiring and teaching a native to act as laundry-
man. This lady took the precaution of herself starch-
ing the fine pieces. One day she was called away from
the washing at a critical point, and when she returned
she found that all the starching had been done by her
washerman, who proudly told her that he had finished.
When her husband tried to put on his shirt the next
week, he found that that article had received starch not
only in the bosom and cuffs, but all over, and was per-
fectly competent to stand alone and in any position.
Koreans often at first hesitate to enter a foreigner's
service, but one taste acts as an appetizer, and there-
after they eagerly seek positions in a foreign house-
hold. There are two drawbacks, however: they seem
to be natural peculators, not of large things, but of
small, and little things are constantly missing out of
the house, especially in the way of vegetables. The


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
277
there is no little one, the nurse does some of the sewing
and mending. Besides this, a cook is almost a necessity,
and, moreover, a table-boy or boy-of-all-work is required,
so that in Korea quite a retinue is necessary, for each
person will perform only his own duty. Often, for a
proportionate increase of pay, the gateman will perform
the duties of gateman and groom or stableman, but that
is about as far as retrenchment can be carried. The
native gentleman has so large a retinue of servants that
the natives cannot understand how a few can possibly
carry on the work of a household. Reasons for main-
taining a household somewhat after the Korean notions
of what is fitting will be shown in the chapter on mis-
sions. Another peculiarity about Korean servants is
what is called “ squeezing ”—an institution well known
also in China. On everything brought into the house
by native merchants there is a commission charged by
the gateman, which is divided among the servants of
the household. The consequence is that the merchant
in selling the goods always allows for the amount which
he must give to the servants as commission. This is
the case with everything sold by native merchants.
Of course they have no control over what comes from
Chinese or foreign merchants. Also, if a servant is
sent out to buy any article for use in the house, it is
more than likely that he will charge for his services.
Our cook on entering our employ bought a water-crock
or jar for which he charged us eight hundred cash, but


278
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
it cost him only about three hundred. We learned in
our last year in the country that for many articles
bought during our first year we had paid double the
amount paid by natives for similar ones.
But these Koreans are very useful in transforming
apparently worthless articles into useful utensils. We
used to buy kerosene in ten-gallon cases, put up in five-
gallon cans. These cans, set on a broad bottom and re-
inforced by wooden cleats around the edges and sides,
were used after cleansing as very light and useful water-
buckets. Ordinary cracker-boxes or dry-goods cases
were changed by the native cooper into excellent pails,
wash-tubs and even bath-tubs.
Japanese servants require less training than Koreans.
Japan is now so enlightened that it is not difficult to se-
cure domestics who have had sufficient experience to en-
able them to do all that is required with but little teach-
ing beyond showing the individual tastes of the family
they are to serve. They are also much more efficient,
and will do much more work and in a steadier manner
than double the number of Koreans. The main draw-
back here is that they become afflicted with homesick-
ness, and leave one on the spur of the moment and at
the most inopportune times. The experience in Korea
has been that one cannot rely on the permanence of
Japanese help.
Perhaps the most satisfactory method is to have a
Chinese head servant or steward, and give the manage-


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
279
ment largely into his hands. The Chinese make most
excellent help. They are reliable and steady, and if one
becomes attached to the family, he will remain with it
even at much personal inconvenience. They have the
knack of managing Koreans, and one Chinaman with
native help will make things move very smoothly in
the household. The only drawback is that Chinese
help is quite costly.
In Eastern countries the great menace to health comes
in the tendency to bowel complaints. Cholera is espe-
cially a scourge. From India, where it is endemic, it
passes by the trade routes through Singapore up to
Hong Kong, thence to Japan and so over to the penin-
sula. In consequence of this the utmost care has to be
taken, especially with water for table purposes. In
Korea water is generally drawn from wells on the
compounds or private enclosures, and not from the
public wells on the street. But even this precaution is
not considered enough, and water is boiled and filtered.
Such precautions are generally sufficient, and it is very
seldom that in Japan or Korea a foreigner dies of that
scourge. The great mortality in Korea from this source
is due almost entirely to the fact, already noted, that the
public wells are often close by the open sewers of the
cities, and the germs of the disease infiltrate through the
soil into the water. In Japan there is already great at-
tention paid to sanitation, so that there the plague is
less deadly.


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
281
cept during a very long ride, when the constrained posi-
tion becomes a little tiresome.
To those who are fond of walking the vicinity of the
capital offers many inducements for a stroll. One cau
go in many different directions and find sights to charm
the eye. Spectacles curious and interesting meet the
gaze at almost every turn and at all seasons. What
has been said of walking applies equally well to horse-
back exercise.
There is one drawback to the outing of ladies within
the city limits, at least on foot, and that is the curiosity
of the people. Unaccustomed as people there are to see-
ing women on the streets, the sight of our ladies riding
or walking without the pretence of keeping their faces
hidden from the gaze is a novel one. The people seem
unable to see often enough these peculiar creatures, and,
if allowed, will follow for blocks a company going out
shopping or for a walk. It often requires the author-
ity of a soldier to keep the crowds from pressing too
close.
Doubtless upon the ladies presses most heavily the
ennui of Eastern life. Even in Japan there are greater
possibilities of amusement. Concert troupes pass through
the country, and some enjoyment is to be gained in that
way. Then there are larger colonies of foreigners and
greater diversity of occupation. Still, even in Korea
there are enjoyments which do much to make time pass
lightly. The foreign colony in the capital is of just


282
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
such size as to make intercourse easy and familiar and
without constraint. Numbering about fifty, exclusive
of Japanese, there is a unity of feeling and a com-
munity of interests among the foreigners in the capi-
tal which contributes very largely to the delightfulness
of life there. Each season has its amusements, and in
a round of social pleasure the years pass away for the
most part comfortably indeed. Of course the ladies
generally find their household duties occupying their
mornings. During the spring and autumn, and also
often in summer and winter, very pleasant recreation
is found in horseback rides to various points. As
already mentioned, there are many charming bits of
scenery, and many roads where a little mountain climb-
ing varies the monotony and deepens the breathing.
Often picnics are made up to visit this spot and that. ·
Occasionally a picnic party decides to go some three
miles away to the river, and then, crossing in the
native boats, the rendezvous is found on the high
bluffs on the opposite side. Visits are sometimes
made to the fortress of Puk Hon, some fifteen to
eighteen miles north of the capital, where most ex-
quisite scenery, varied and wild, meets the eye and
charms the senses. In every direction in which one
turns some objects of interest are found. In their
seasons various flowers make the hills and meadows
bright and odorous. White violets, softly fragrant,
tempt the lover of that flower down to revel in banks


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
283
of perfume. The hills are in the spring covered with
oleander, and parties come home and make their dwell-
ings bright with magenta and white bloom.
Another popular amusement is tennis. Many of the
compounds have excellent tennis-courts, and the ladies
acting as hostesses invite as guests their friends to join
and make the afternoon enjoyable. As business ceases
at from four to five, and some are able to get away
much earlier, the afternoons pass without much mon-
otony. Generally there is such a spirit of friendly
rivalry between pairs and teams that to the mere sport
of the game there is added the spice of a real contest
for supremacy. Such weather for tennis as the weeks
from September 1st to about December 1st afford can
surely be found nowhere else. Then the temperature
has cooled down from the midsummer heat of August
to a comfortable degree, and as the thermometer grad-
ually drops hard play increases, while seldom are the
grounds unfit for play by reason of storms. One sea-
son the writer played tennis from March 15th till De-
cember 16th, when the ground froze and the racquet was
laid away. Of course, during the summer the play did
not commence till after six, when the heat of the sun
had diminished.
Besides these out-door exercises, amusements and di-
vertisements intellectual occupy the mind during the
evenings. Dinner-parties are a pretext to gather the
people at some one of the homes. There readings, cha-


284
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
rades, musical selections vocal and instrumental, story-
telling, chess, dominoes and the varied resources of cul-
tured people are drawn upon for the common interest
and pleasure. Musicians and singers of practice and
skill are numbered among the foreigners there. Occa-
sionally the Mikado's empire is drawn upon for the en-
tertainment of the guests, and Japanese tricks of leger-
demain and illusion mystify those gathered. For those
gentlemen who like to hunt there is game for the shot-
gun and the rifle. I have spent many a day out with
my gun after wild pigeons, ducks, swans, geese and wild
pheasants, seldom returning with empty game-bag. The
hunter there is never harassed, after leaving the city, by
being warned off an inviting piece of woodland by the
repellant “Trespassers will be prosecuted to the full ex-
tent of the law.” He may go almost where he will and
yet not trespass. Should he desire deer, he may take a
five days' trip from the capital, with more than an even
chance of bringing back à haunch of venison. Should
larger game be his object, a few days' journey will bring
him to the haunts of the leopard and the royal tiger.
In fact, during my residence in Seoul a leopard was
shot within a third of a mile of our house, and one was
seen several times within a hundred yards of the same.
This animal was driven into one of the old palace en-
closures by the deep snows of the winter. Doubtless
he hoped to make a few meals on the innumerable dogs
to be found within the city limits. Several varieties


288
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
them thoroughly several times during the wet season.
This precaution prevents trouble.
The principle of extra-territoriality is applied to for-
eigners. None but Koreans are subject to Korean law,
and even those who are in the employ of foreigners can
be arrested only through the respective consulates of
their employers. Foreigners are subject only to the
consuls representing their own countries. The exten-
sion of the principle to employes of foreigners is to
prevent the latter from being placed in straits through
pressure applied by means of the servants. This same
principle of extra-territoriality is usual in the East.
The forms of justice in those countries are so different
from our own, and the punishments so at variance with
what we deem right, that naturally we do not care to
submit to the punitive decisions and regulations in
vogue there. But, while foreigners are not subject to
the native laws, they yet have influence in securing
mitigation of punishments or release of prisoners held
under the operation of those laws. In several cases
which came under our observation the missionaries
secured the release of men who had been imprisoned
on grounds which to the missionaries seemed unjust.
I was, as related elsewhere, appealed to in a case of
this kind by a man whose wife had been seized by a
rural mandarin. But while foreigners are able to wield
a corrective or restraining agency in this way, it needs a
careful discrimination to use that influence. Korean of-


FOREIGN LIFE IN KOREA.
289
ficials, like all Eastern magnates, are jealous of their
prerogatives, and unwise interference would soon have
the effect not only of weakening the influence of for-
eigners, but would arouse resentment and pave the way
for a restriction of the privileges now enjoyed by resi-
dents in the country.
A novelty to Occidentals who are in the employ of
the government is the presents which come to them
from the palace at certain times of the year. On the
occasion of the birthdays of the king, queen, crown
prince and other immediate connections of the royal
family the king orders the president of the home office,
whose office corresponds somewhat to that of our secre-
tary of the interior, to send presents to those foreigners
who are connected with the government. These pres-
ents differ somewhat according to the time of year. At
one time we received a present of about fifty pounds of
beef, six large fish weighing from ten to twenty pounds
each, four hundred eggs, done up in straw strings con-
taining ten in a string (we used to have our jokes about
buying eggs by the yard), half a dozen live chickens,
about half a bushel of large chestnuts and the same
quantity of English walnuts. In the time of persim-
mons three or four hundred of that luscious fruit would
be sent in place of some other articles. Sometimes a
dozen pheasants would appear. In the summer from
forty to eighty fans of various patterns found their way
to our door. To the bearers of these we were expected
mo
19


CHAPTER XV.
MISSIONARY WORK.
M HIS little book should not be closed without a word
on missions. Other works on Korea were for the
most part written prior to the occupation of that coun-
try as a mission field, or were the productions of men
who had no special interest in the work of spreading
the gospel. The missionaries and others who from
occupation or from love for the Master have felt an
interest in the religious welfare of the Korean nation
have written, now and again, to periodicals such as The
Independent of New York, giving isolated facts or the
bearing of certain occurrences on the work of missions,
or the yearly summaries of things accomplished. But
the situation of missionaries, the disposition of the gov-
ernment and of the people toward Christianity, the re-
ceptivity of the population, the obstacles and limitations
of missionary enterprise, have not been set forth in their
correlations. And yet there is a very general interest
among Americans concerning these matters. Wherever
the writer has preached, and has mentioned that he has
been in Korea, the request has come, “Tell us about the
work there." Eager inquiry and pointed questioning
291


MISSIONARY WORK.
293
between the two countries, but because of the gradual
settlement of that neutral strip communication has be-
come more frequent. Besides this, the embassies bear-
ing the tribute of the king of Korea to China were
pretexts for more than the mere embassy to pass to
Pekin, and so it happened that copies of the Scriptures
in Chinese passed by way of Pekin into Korea. It
came about in this way that Koreans of the North
heard of the Christian religion, and inquiries were
made for an evangelist to explain what had been read.
Mr. Ross studied the Korean dialect, and a translation
of the New Testament was made into Korean, which
was provisional, but served its purpose very well.
Visits were made by Koreans into China especially to
learn about this religion, and thus a beginning was
made in the conversion of a few in the North, who
themselves became evangelists and carried the news
further. This opening was sought by Mr. Ross him-
self. In 1873 he visited the frontier town to secure a
teacher. Later he succeeded in this. His work showed
itself in the translation of the New Testament with the
aid of his colleague, Mr. MacIntyre. A Korean was
found who could set type, and he was employed to do
this. Mr. Ross was surprised and delighted to find that
over the types this man had imbibed the truths of
Christianity and had become a follower of the Master.
Soon his place was supplied by another, more apt in
typesetting, while the former printer was instructed


MISSIONARY WORK.
295
Yong Ik, next to the king the most prominent person
in the kingdom, by giving Dr. Allen an opportunity to
display the skill of Western medical science, opened the
way for more direct mission work. His success in
bringing Min Yong Ik through his illness led to his
being asked to prescribe for the king and other mem-
bers of the royal family. Success attended him here.
He was consulted in other matters, and his conservatism
and the common sense of his advice gained for him the
entire confidence of the king, so that when the latter
sent an embassy to the United States, Dr. Allen was
made foreign secretary, and thus became the escort of
the embassy.
In a conversation with the king, some time after the
emeute, the work of the hospitals in the Western lands
was brought to his attention, and the description the
doctor gave of their operation and benefits interested
the king so much that he suggested, or acted upon the
suggestion of Dr. Allen, that one be established in the
capital. This was warmly welcomed by Dr. Allen, and
buildings were set apart for the purpose, a certain sum
was devoted to its maintenance and Dr. Allen became
the head of it, while mandarins were detailed to look
after its management and servants were appointed for
doing the necessary work. Dr. Allen, by his shrewd-
ness and conservatism, had thus opened the way for the
working of missionaries in a land which a little over
two years before had been sealed against them.


300
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.'
the field not only a determination to work for the
women of Korea, but also means of her own to aid
her in her efforts, and the Rev. H. G. Appenzeller
and wife, were on their way to open work under direc-
tion of Methodist Episcopal Church missionary socie-
ties. One of Dr. Scranton's first cares was the estab-
lishment of a private hospital-private in the sense that
it was not under government supervision and soon
he was hard at work healing the diseases of many
who came to seek relief at his hands. Meanwhile,
Mr. Appenzeller had opened a school where he daily
gave lessons in English, not neglecting the weighty
matter of giving religious instruction. Mrs. Scranton
built a large house in native style, and in a short time
she had around her a class of interesting girls, whom
it is her care to train up as Christian women. It should
be said here that it is not the purpose of these girls'.
schools to train the inmates in such a way as to unfit
them for their station in their own society. The aim
is to develop them in such ways as to make them
model housewives under the conditions in which they
must pass their lives, and to make them missionaries
of the Cross among their relatives and associates.
These pioneers were cheered, as the years went by, by
the coming of other helpers sent by the home boards.
For several years these were the only Protestant denomi-
nations represented. But within the last two years the
Canadian Presbyterian Church has sent out a helper


302
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
that the protests made to the United States minister
were made at times of political excitement, when such
evangelistic efforts were fraught with peril to mission-
aries and to converts, and might have contributed to a
revolt against the government. The truth is, therefore,
that the government has winked at the prosecution of
the missionaries’ labors. No open preaching is per-
mitted. Even teaching is prohibited. Therefore the
missionaries do not carry on aggressive warfare in the
sense of approaching people with a view to converting
them. Evangelistic work is done, first, by means of
the distribution and sale of books—the Bible in Chinese,
the Gospel of Mark as revised by the missionaries in
Seoul, and such tracts and translations as are from time
to time prepared ; secondly, by conversation with such
as come to the missionaries for instruction; and thirdly,
through native converts who act as colporteurs and
“local preachers,” spreading the good news among
their intimates and bringing the knowledge of the
Saviour to their acquaintances. Of course all this is
in contravention of the letter of the law. The mis-
sionaries have therefore to face this problem of the
observance of the letter of the law, which means com-
plete quiescence so far as active evangelization is con-
cerned, or of acting contrary to the law of the land and
the construction placed on the treaty by our ministers
to the court of Korea. It is a hard position in which
to be placed.


MISSIONARY WORK.
303
Men are coming to the missionaries asking to be
taught about Jesus. People who have read the Bible
and have been led to believe its truths beg to be cate-
chized, and if found ready they desire to be baptized.
And all this is not in consequence of personal solici-
tation on the part of the propagators of Christianity,
but because of their own insight into their needs and
their conviction that satisfaction has been made for them
by Christ. Shall the missionaries refuse to teach these
“seekers after God," who come with pleading faces and
anxious hearts to get ease for awakened consciences ?
shall they turn them away unsatisfied ? The mission-
aries say, “No. We will avoid all ostentatious display.
We will not invite the public to witness the confession
of believers. No daring challenge shall be flouted in
the face of the authorities. They know of our work.
They wink at it in all times of quiet. They are will-
ing to employ men who are known to be Christian
ministers to teach in their schools, and missionaries to
serve in their hospitals. And we believe that the pres-
ent rulers are not much concerned at the proselyting of
Koreans to the Christian faith."
The missionaries have good grounds for this reason-
ing. Part of these grounds we have already given; a
part is still to be mentioned. Reference has been made
to the school and hospital of the Methodist Episcopal
mission. It should be stated here that institutions
which have the sanction of the government are al-


306
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
converts were found and were baptized. Reasonable
care was always taken that the assemblies should not
be broken in upon by chance visits of officials or others
who are fond of calling on foreigners.
By and by the workers grew bolder. Mr. Under-
wood translated into Korean in the same meters such
hymns as “Nearer, my God, to thee," and taught the
foreign airs to the Koreans, and soon the meetings of
Koreans for Bible instruction, for prayer and confer-
ence were marked by lusty singing which could be
heard from the street.
The speedy development of the seed which had been
sown was very encouraging to the workers there. They
remembered that in Japan it cost twelve years of weary
toiling before the first-fruits of the now abundant har-
vest were reached. That less than two years of labor
should develop in this way, even the great faith of the
missionaries had not anticipated. Progress from this
point on was rapid. In two years more from that
time the author baptized two men, who were the sixty-
fifth and sixty-sixth converts in the Presbyterian Church,
while between Seoul and the northern boundary a hun-
dred others were waiting to be catechized and baptized !
From what has been written by tourists, and even by
residents in the East, it has been inferred that the so-
called converts are not sincere—that there is some ul-
terior motive for their “ pretended” acceptance of Chris-
tianity. Especially from China has the statement come


MISSIONARY WORK.
309
answer can be returned to that. While the mission-
aries, as foreigners, are not subject to the Korean gov-
ernment, and in case of offence are tried by their con-
suls, native converts are subject to the laws of the
Korean government. A persecution under those laws
is at no time an impossibility. So long as Confucianismi
is the State religion, and the tenets of that religion are a
legal obligation on the people, the door is open for the
approach of a trial of faith by fire and sword. Were
such to occur, the missionaries and other foreigners could
wield no legal weapon to stop it. While they have in
isolated cases so brought influence to bear on officials as
to release from prison and punishment persons charged
with misdemeanors, the nature of the causes giving rise
to a religious oppression would prevent any effective in-
terference to avert it. In anything which concerns the
conduct of internal affairs Koreans would brook no in-
terference. Extra-territoriality ensures the safety of the
missionaries, but adds nothing to the security of the con-
verts. We can judge of the possibility of persecutions
in the future only by noting the causes of their occur-
rence in the past. Romanists have been in the country
for over a hundred years. During that time they have
had to sustain several severe trials. The last one, as
late as 1868, is estimated to have cost the death of
nearly twenty-five thousand converts. The machinery
which wrought such destruction is still in existence.
The only question, then, is as to the occasion to put


310
KOREA FROM ITS CAPITAL.
it into action or the disposition to use it. From the
facts given above, as to the feeling of the government
toward Christianity, it can be seen that there is no dis-
position among the authorities to precipitate a massacre
of Christians or a suppression of Christianity. While
officials and the government know of proselyting, and
may even be informed of individual cases of conversion,
only in one or two cases, has official notice been taken
of the work of the missionaries. This was when the
ill-advised action of the Romanists caused a hard feel-
ing among the courtiers and in the palace, in 1888.
Then a request was sent to the American minister that,
in accordance with the treaty, there should be no teach-
ing of Christianity. Our minister felt constrained to
comply with the request, and sent a note to the Amer-
ican missionaries, informing them of the request and
intimating that non-compliance with the terms of the
treaty would forfeit the protection of the American flag.
This was what was called “the check” in Korea. Some
of the missionaries considered it wisest to heed the warn-
ing, and, while not absolutely stopping work, let their
teaching be more quiet, their work less ostentatious.
But the excitement passed away, and before long the
missionaries were greeting each other in the street and
laughing about “the check” as they interchanged the
news of increase in the number of converts. They
wrote to the papers at home deprecating the statement
that there had been any stoppage in the work. There



Main Entrance to Palace.
Page 316.


MISSIONARY WORK.
317
One topic more requires mention here, and that is
the need of the missions to Korea. The Presbyterian
Church has now (since the death of Dr. Heron and the
entrance of Dr. Allen upon new duties as secretary of
the American legation at Seoul) eight missionaries on
the field, of whom three ladies are married and conse-
quently restricted somewhat in their opportunities of
furthering the cause among the Koreans. Three are
ordained, and are bending all their energies to the
work before them. Mr. Underwood has prepared
two books which will greatly lengthen the productive
period of every missionary who goes to that country
—a grammar or manual and a dictionary of the lan-
guage. Besides this, he has worked actively in the
translation of hymns, setting them to meters which
admit singing the translations to the tunes to which
they are sung in English ; in the writing of tracts and
summaries of Christian doctrine, and in the translation
of the Shorter Catechism.
The Methodist Board of Foreign Missions is repre-
sented by missionaries, of whom two are physicians.
Since the death of Dr. Heron and the retirement of
Dr. Allen from the work of the mission the medical
department of the Presbyterian station at Seoul has had
to languish. Mrs. Underwood has not been able alone
to carry it on, and consequently there is at this very
time a call for a man who is a capable physician and
an earnest Christian to take up a labor which has been


MISSIONARY WORK.
321
deavored to have the mandarin punished (for doing his duty). The
government felt its inability to cope with France, granted the former,
but firmly refused the latter. The consequence is that under the
“favored nation" clause our missionaries might claim residence
where they choose in the interior. It is undoubtedly the case that
if such settlements be made quietly and Christian work be done unos-
tentatiously, practically the whole country can be reached by Christian
teaching and influences. As yet, however, we have not workers
enough to supply fully the treaty ports.
21


INDEX.
327
Missionaries, excellence of, 248. ism of, 89; and cleanliness of,
Missionary work, obstacles to, 198 ; 92; diseases of, 93; fondness
beginnings of, 292, 899.; enter of, for the hills, 176; open to re-
prises of, 295, 899.; limitations ligious instruction, 186; super-
of, 301, 308; and success, 305, stitions of, 193; intellectual
308; among women, 315; needs ability of, 231.
of, 317; prospects of, 320. Persimmon, lusciousness of the, 207.
Monks, Buddhist, 191.
Pipes, 118.
Mourning, garb of, 147.
Political parties, 229.
Music, 177.
Polygamy, 109.
Porters, guild of, 129.
Pottery, fine grades of, not produced,
Navigation of coasts, dangerous, 19. 218.
New Year's customs, 195.
N.
R.
0.
Rainy season, 20, 125.
Officials, grades of, 25; and corrup- Registration, how effected, 119.
tion, 27; connivance at crime, Religions, in Japan, 185; in China,
30; abuse of powers, 33; nepot 186; in Korea, 186, 899.; ob-
iem among, 33; bribery among, servance of ceremonies per-
35; etiquette among, 115; court functory, 187.
dress of, 146.
Rockhill, Mr., on the independence
Old age, regard for, 107.
of Korea, 251, 257, 259.
Opium, little used, 91.
“Royal College,” the, 228.
P.
s.
Palaces, 49.
Salutations, 110.
People, the, of Korea, influence of, Schools, native, 159; governmental,
on government, 23; reasons of 228; missionary, 234, 297, 300.
indolence of, 32; orderly char-Shufeldt, Admiral, negotiates a
acter of, 51; literary ability, treaty, 15.
73; physique, 75; their appre-Signal fires, 56, 246.
ciation of humor, 80, 158; kind. Silk industry, 50, 212.
ness of, 11, 81; credulity of, 82; Spirit-worship, 190, 193.
excitability of, 84; curiosity of, Stone-fights, 173.
86, 167; poverty of, 88; patriot- | Superstitions, 193.