GLIMPSES OF 
 KOREA 
 
 by 
 
 E. J. Urquhart 
 
 LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 JAN 2 3 
 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 
 Printed in U. S. A. 
 
 Pacific Press Publishing Association 
 
 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A. 
 Kansas City, Mo. Portland, Ore. St. Paul, Minn. 
 
 Brookfield, III. Cristobal, C. Z. 
 
 2003 
 
 SEMINARY 
 
Copyright, 1923, by 
 Pacific Press Publishing Association 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 \ 
 
 Page 
 
 A Land with a Marvelous History 7 
 
 Our First Journey 19 
 
 The Gods of the Spring and Mountain .... 28 
 
 Market Day in Korea 38 
 
 The Trip to Quelpart and Back 48 
 
 A Look in at the Soonan Mission 59 
 
 Some Strange Customs 65 
 
 At the Union Conference Office 77 
 
 Tombs and Watchers 84 
 
 The Sad Funeral Trains 90 
 
 At the Church Service 
 
 97 
 
AO my nieces and nephews, and 
 to the children throughout the 
 world, this book is lovingly dedi- 
 cated by the author. 
 
 E. J. Urquhart. 
 
 Seoul , Korea. 
 
“Korea tried to shut itself away from 
 the world, like a hermit in his hut. . . . 
 But the day of opening doors came, and 
 Korea’s long-barred gates were swung 
 ajar. . . . Upon many troubled hearts in 
 the Land of Morning Calm has dawned 
 the day of salvation.” — W. A. Spicer . 
 
SOME OF THE GODS OF KOREA 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 
 
 Beginning Back in Early Bible Times — Kwicha, the 
 Wise — Koreans Built the First Suspension Bridge and 
 Battle Cruisers — Grafting Officials — Japan Comes In 
 — Funny Hats, Long Coats , Big Pantaloons — A Beauti- 
 ful Country Now 
 
 Are you all here? Why, there are Teresa, 
 Elnora, Freda, Kate, Jimmie, and Dwane. 
 Yes, all are present. I am a little surprised, 
 too, for I thought some of you would he sea- 
 sick after our rough night. Many persons 
 who have crossed the waters of the broad 
 Pacific from the Golden Gate of San Fran- 
 cisco to Yokohama, Japan, without a twinge 
 of seasickness, find this narrow strip of water, 
 called the Korea Straits, over which you can 
 cross in a single night, just a little too much 
 to stand. 
 
 I am glad you were more fortunate, and are 
 all here on deck ready to catch the first dis- 
 tant glimpse of Korea. Now look ahead over 
 the bow of the boat. In the distance, you can 
 discern a dark bank of clouds; that is a sign 
 that we are nearing land. 
 
 Now while breakfast is preparing, and be- 
 fore we actually see Korea, I want to tell you 
 a little of the history of the country. 
 
 One time, a woman who had spent some 
 years in Korea said to me, “I am glad it 
 takes a long time to learn the language.” I 
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
8 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 couldn’t imagine what she meant — “glad 
 it takes a long time to learn the language”! 
 I thought maybe it was all an Eastern joke, 
 for they are always hard to understand. 
 Then she said: “You see, it is best that we 
 know the people before we know the language, 
 or else we would be making so many mistakes. 
 Their way of thinking is as far from ours 
 as the two countries are from each other.” 
 
 Well, I could hardly appreciate such deep 
 wisdom then, but I understand better now. I 
 have found out that one of the best ways to 
 learn about this nation, with all its strange 
 customs, is to look back over the centuries and 
 see all the bends in the road down which they 
 have come. 
 
 BEGINNING AT ABOUT DAVID’S TIME 
 
 Away back in the days of Israel, when 
 David, the shepherd boy, watched his father’s 
 sheep on the hills surrounding Bethlehem, 
 the great Shan dynasty, or rulership, of China 
 was overthrown by a man named Mu. At 
 that time, there was a great statesman in 
 China whose name was Ivwicha. He was the 
 one exception to a group of men who were 
 cruel, corrupt, and wicked. 
 
 Back in those days, when one dynasty or 
 king overthrew another, every man who held 
 any office of responsibility was ruthlessly de- 
 stroyed. But this man Kwicha was so highly 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 9 
 
 esteemed even by his enemies, that he was 
 allowed to leave the country. So, gathering a 
 few thousand loyal followers around him, he 
 went eastward to the Yellow Sea. There he 
 made his way in junks, or ships, to the then 
 little known land of Korea. 
 
 Landing near the mouth of the Taidong 
 Eiver, he sailed up that stream to the present 
 location of Pyengyang. Here he built his capi- 
 tal and established a kingdom. Korea at 
 v that time was inhabited by a savage, wild race 
 of people who dwelt in caves and crude mud 
 huts. They knew little of agriculture, spend- 
 ing most of their time fighting the other wild 
 and fierce tribes to the north. 
 
 Kwicha became very much interested in the 
 savage peoples about him, so he decided to do 
 what he could to educate them and help them. 
 He was a farsighted chief, who looked ahead 
 to the day when there would be a great empire 
 in that region. 
 
 The first thing that Kwicha did was to learn 
 the language and customs of the native 
 peoples. He commanded that his followers 
 do likewise. He knew that he could not help 
 those about him until he thoroughly under- 
 stood them. He was truly a great man and 
 a great philosopher to appreciate that this 
 method was the wisest and best. Although a 
 heathen, he was a farseeing ruler. Jesus 
 Himself used this great principle of under- 
 
10 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 standing those about Him as a way of helping 
 them. 
 
 Kwicha in his new location began by train- 
 ing some of the natives in self-government 
 and in agriculture and in silk-weaving and 
 silkworm-growing. He was so successful that 
 before he died, he had the pleasure of seeing 
 people who had been warlike and savage, on 
 the road to a peaceful, happy kingdom. 
 
 After Kwicha ’& death, little is known of 
 Korea for several centuries. The next time 
 that we hear of Korea is in the first century 
 before Christ. Then there were three separate 
 and independent kingdoms. These were Silla 
 in the south, Pakchai in the center, and 
 Kokuro, from which we get the word Korea, 
 in the north. For many centuries, these three 
 kingdoms fought among themselves. Some- 
 times it was two against one, and sometimes 
 one was neutral while the other two fought. 
 
 Sometimes China sent her soldiers up to 
 Korea for the “fun” of robbing and destroy- 
 ing. But it was not always as much “fun” as 
 China wished, far back in those early cen- 
 turies ; for history says that many times, 
 the tiger hunters and soldiers of Korea were 
 more than equal to the Chinese, often making 
 them beat a hasty and disordered retreat back 
 to the country from which they came. 
 
 Finally, in the seventh century, the south- 
 ern kingdom conquered the center one, and 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 11 
 
 seven years later, the northern kingdom fell 
 before the victorious arms of the strong power 
 of the south. This united kingdom became 
 known as the Tai Han kingdom, or Chosen. 
 Most folks have, until quite recently, insisted 
 on calling it by the ancient name Korea. 
 
 LAND AHEAD 
 
 We must stop our story now, for there’s 
 the breakfast gong. Let us go and eat. 
 
 But look ahead once more. Ho you see that 
 dark gray streak in the distance there, lying 
 right near the water line'? That is just a 
 faint outline of the low-lying mountains of 
 Korea; and when we return from breakfast, 
 we shall be able to distinguish easily the rock- 
 bound coast. 
 
 On deck again, and, oh, see! The land is 
 now quite clear. It seems as if it were all 
 mountains, doesn’t it? And this is the way 
 Korea looks its whole length of seven hundred 
 miles. But there are valleys among the 
 mountains, thousands of them, small ones and 
 big ones, extending along the rivers and the ' 
 creeks. I think none of them are wider than 
 ten miles ; and even these are so crooked that 
 you can see but a short distance up or down 
 them, and thus even they appear small. 
 
 Now, listen a few minutes more and I will 
 finish my little historical sketch of the country 
 before we actually land. 
 
12 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 After the three nations of the Korean pen- 
 insula became one, there was a long time when 
 Korea was one of the great leading nations of 
 the East. In war, she successfully repelled a 
 mighty and determined Japanese invasion in 
 the latter part of the sixteenth century; and 
 some forty years later, the Manchus who 
 successfully overthrew the Chinese empire, 
 were glad to withdraw with a small tribute. 
 
 Then, too, Korea led the East and the world 
 in inventions. The first metal type ever used 
 was cast here. They built the first suspension 
 bridge known to the world. During the war 
 with Japan that I just spoke of, they con- 
 structed the first armored battle cruiser that 
 ever sailed the seas ; and it was this ship that 
 gained the victory for Korea, for with it they 
 destroyed in one day a whole Japanese fleet 
 of more than two score vessels. 
 
 The Koreans were also expert in the manu- 
 facture of tile and crockery. Nor were they 
 behind in the sciences as known a few cen- 
 turies ago. At Kyung Ju, North Kyung San 
 Province, is an observatory that is supposed 
 to be the oldest in the world, having been 
 constructed in 647 a. d. Their knowledge of 
 science gave them a very good understanding 
 of the movements of the stars and planets. 
 
 it’s all different now 
 But don’t think that you are going to see 
 great things now when you land, for the 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 13 
 
 glory of Korea is all in the past. After 
 Korea had learned so much and had advanced 
 so far along the road of civilization, a time 
 came when the officials all over the land be- 
 came most corrupt. They began to rob and 
 abuse the poorer and common people. If any 
 refused to do as the officials wished, or did 
 not give enough gold, or land, or horses, or 
 their beautiful daughters or wives, then they 
 were whipped until they were willing to give, 
 or until they died. This whipping in Korea is 
 called “ being put under the paddle.” 
 
 In Western countries, such practices of 
 obtaining money and such extortion are called 
 graft. Korea fell into the hands of grafters. 
 Each official became a terror to the country 
 over which he ruled. He held his office by 
 passing along large sums of money to the 
 governor of the province. 
 
 The office of the governor was sold to the 
 highest bidder by the king, who was as bad 
 as the rest. Each desired to make as much 
 money out of the people as possible. 
 
 KOREA CHANGES RULERS 
 
 It is no wonder that before many years 
 had rolled along, the people became discour- 
 aged. They stopped working — for what was 
 the use of working when only the cruel and 
 mean officials obtained all the benefits? The 
 rulers became worse and worse. 
 
 2 
 
14 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 Korea was in just this terrible condition 
 when the Western world discovered the East- 
 ern world — when America and Europe, 
 through their ships and their trading, came 
 in contact with the ancient peoples of the 
 East. 
 
 Many people felt that it was time to save 
 the kingdom of Korea from its own officials 
 and corrupt and cruel government. China 
 had long claimed that she had the first right 
 to rule the land, but China was herself in a 
 bad way — trouble and revolution. 
 
 At about this time, the nation that is called 
 ‘ ‘ the great bear ” — Russia — was feeling 
 about in the Far East. Russia found Korea, 
 and began to enter the country. Then Japan 
 became aroused, because she did not wish 
 Russia so close to her borders, and there was 
 the Russo-Japanese War. The result of this 
 war was that in 1910 Japan took possession 
 of the country. 
 
 Japan immediately set about her self- 
 appointed work of cleaning up the country. 
 The robber bands were suppressed, schools 
 were established, roads and railways, tele- 
 graph, telephones, and mails were started. 
 Soon the country began to look better. The 
 common people, instead of being robbed, were 
 helped in various ways. There were model 
 farms established, and experiment stations 
 and agricultural colleges set in operation. The 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 15 
 
 farmers were able to grow more and more 
 crops. The rolling hills of the country were 
 again green with the thousands of trees that 
 were planted by the government. 
 
 The country in ten years has grown from 
 one that could hardly feed its own people to 
 one that is selling food and supplies to far- 
 
 Transplanting rice, or “paddy.” The people over here make rice their staple 
 article of diet. 
 
 away nations. Where there was barrenness, 
 now there is beauty. Dollars are now more 
 common than cents were before. There has 
 been a great change. 
 
 RICE FIELDS — CITY OF FUSAN 
 
 Isn’t that really a beautiful little island 
 over there right in the mouth of the harbor? 
 See the young pine and fir trees that almost 
 cover it. Notice the rice fields rising terrace 
 
16 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 above terrace almost to the top of the hill. 
 From this on, wherever you go through the 
 land, you will see fields of rice, or “ paddy,’ ’ 
 for the people over here make rice their staple 
 article of diet, as we do wheat in America. 
 
 If you look ahead, you can see the city of 
 Fusan. Notice how many ships there are in 
 the harbor. This is the first port of the land 
 in point of shipping. Now you can see the 
 pier where we are to land. That large brick 
 structure just beyond is the Station Hotel. 
 You see where the city extends along the beach 
 for miles. There are not many brick build- 
 ings and not many large houses, are there? 
 However, this is a typical Japanese city. 
 
 You know Fusan is almost as much a Jap- 
 anese city as is any city in J apan proper, be- 
 cause for centuries the J apanese have claimed 
 Fusan as a foreign fishing station. In fact, 
 at the time of the great Japanese invasion of 
 which I told you, the privilege of holding this 
 city permanently was allowed the Japanese. 
 
 Now we are nearing the pier. It looks very 
 much like the wharf in San Francisco from 
 which we sailed, doesn’t it? Stand up here 
 at the rail so that you can see things better. 
 No, those men over there wearing the odd 
 little hats are not circus clowns. Those little 
 woven horsehair hats are a part of the natives 9 
 dress. You will meet them wherever you go. 
 And those long white gowns are not automobile 
 
A Land with a Marvelous History 17 
 
 dusters, but are the regular coats used over 
 here. They look very queer to you now, I 
 know, but you will get used to them as you 
 see them more. 
 
 LOOK LIKE FUNNY CLOTHES 
 
 What do the people wear those strange hats 
 for? Well, really, I don’t know. They seem 
 to give no protection from the cold, and are 
 no guard against the sun and the rain; yet 
 the Koreans will wear them in spite of every- 
 thing. But I think the little hat is doomed to 
 go. It can’t stand out much longer against the 
 clothes of the foreigners. Already, in the 
 city of Seoul, you see more foreign hats than 
 native. 
 
 Now when you ask them about the hat, they 
 in turn ask you some questions that are hard 
 to answer. They want to know why men’s 
 coats have buttons sewed on the sleeves, and 
 they ask many more questions like that. So 
 we’ll have to keep still, I think, about the dinky 
 little hat, and let them wear it if they think 
 they look better that way. I’ve thought that 
 the hat was first made to cover their topknots ; 
 for if you look closely through the meshes of 
 the hat, you will see that each man has a little 
 twist of hair sticking straight up on top of 
 his head about three inches high and two 
 inches around. Funny looking things to us! 
 
18 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 Do you see the legs of their trousers ? They 
 are very large, about twice as large as you 
 are used to seeing in America.. The people 
 make them this way because of their fashion 
 of always sitting on the floor with their legs 
 doubled up. This means that they have to 
 have loose-fitting clothes. 
 
 Look at the bottom of the trouser legs. See 
 how they are tied around with flashy-colored 
 bands. I don’t know why, unless these are a 
 sort of necktie worn at the ankles. 
 
 Now that the steamer has been made fast 
 and the gangplank hoisted, we will go ashore. 
 Across there not a hundred feet away is the 
 ferry railroad station, while there is another 
 still larger station about a block farther up. 
 We shall find the northbound express waiting 
 here for us to board, although it doesn’t leave 
 for an hour or so. This train runs from here 
 clear through to Mukden, Manchuria. 
 
 I know that after your ride through J apan 
 in narrow-gauge little cars, you are surprised 
 to see this American-looking traih with its 
 Baldwin locomotive. Korea has the best rail- 
 road and equipment of the whole East. Per- 
 haps this is because it was installed by an 
 American firm. I think so, anyway. 
 
Our First Journey 
 
 Where Wagons Are Drawn by Bulls — The “Gike” — All 
 Kinds of Fruit — Children Without Clothes Traveling — 
 Houses with Fire but No Chimneys — Paper Instead of 
 Glass — The First Mission Station — Living Alone in a 
 Strange Land 
 
 Since we have our baggage all safely on 
 the train, and there is about an hour left to us 
 before it starts, suppose we walk up the street 
 and get acquainted with things Korean. 
 
 It looks queer, doesn’t it, to see so many 
 wagons drawn by bulls? In Korea, the bull 
 
 is the beast of all 
 work. He is used for 
 packing and for haul- 
 ing. In some other 
 parts, however, there 
 are a good many 
 horses; but they are 
 small, more like our 
 Shetland ponies at 
 home. Unlike the 
 Shetland ponies, 
 though, they are vi- 
 cious and undepend- 
 able creatures. 
 
 You are all smiling 
 
 You are wondering what strange again ! I Can t blame 
 call that a “gike” in Korea. yOU. 1 SUppOSe yOU 
 
 ( 19 ) 
 
20 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 are wondering what strange thing that man 
 has on his back. We call that a gike in Korea. 
 It is used by the laborers for carrying things. 
 Here comes a man with a load of wood larger 
 
 In Korea, the bull is the beast of all work. 
 
 than the man himself. All the railroads, the 
 reservoirs, and the ditches have had the dirt 
 and gravel carried on these gikes. A man puts 
 a basket on one of them, fills it, gets under- 
 neath, and off he goes on the trot. 
 
 These fellows with their gikes get only 
 about twenty-five cents a day. That makes 
 the work cheaper than it could be done with 
 the best modern machinery. 
 
 FRUIT OF EVERY KIND 
 
 Look at the fruit! Just about every kind 
 that is to be had in America is here, and much 
 
Our First Journey 
 
 21 
 
 more besides. And the persimmons ! I think 
 they are the best in the world — great fine 
 ones, as large as apples. The persimmon is 
 a native of this country, and grows big and 
 juicy and good without any attention what- 
 soever. They are cheaper than oranges right 
 in the orange groves of Florida and Cali- 
 fornia. 
 
 Let us buy some of the fruit, and then 
 we’ll go back to the train. In about two hours 
 and a half, we shall reach Keizan, where our 
 southern mission station is located. You 
 won’t want to miss a thing that you can see 
 on the way, either. 
 
 This train seems just like those at home. 
 The only difference is that the seats are wide on 
 one side of the car and narrow on the other. 
 We’ll take these wide ones, so we can all be 
 in a little group together. Then I can tell 
 you about the things we see as we go along. 
 
 There are some Korean children on one side 
 of the car, and without any clothes. Thou- 
 sands of them are compelled to go that way in 
 the summer time ; and even in the cold, freez- 
 ing weather of winter, in the country districts, 
 I have seen them with nothing but a little 
 jacket that didn’t come below the waist — 
 not merely one or two, but hundreds of them. 
 
 HOUSES WITHOUT WINDOWS OR CHIMNEYS 
 
 We are passing beyond the Japanese part 
 of the town and entering the Korean now. 
 
22 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 See those little mud huts out there with the 
 thatched roofs. You wouldn’t guess that 
 people lived in such places, would you? But 
 if you notice closely, you will see. people 
 stooping down and passing through the little 
 doorways. Over the mud and stone walls 
 
 The floor of the Korean house is heated by the smoke from the 
 kitchen fireplace. 
 
 that surround each house, you can see the 
 women at work and the children at play. 
 When we stop off at Keizan, we will visit 
 some of these houses, so that you will know 
 more about them. 
 
 You see the smoke arising from somewhere 
 near the bottom of a house, and still there is 
 
Our First Journey 
 
 23 
 
 no chimney. Let me try to explain. The 
 Korean house has only two or three rooms, 
 seldom more, and one of these is three-sided, 
 with at least one side open, and serves as a 
 kitchen. The living rooms are generally about 
 eight by twelve feet, while the kitchen is 
 smaller. The floor of the living part of the 
 house is raised about two feet. It is made of 
 flat stones overlaid with mud. These cover 
 smoke holes through which the smoke from 
 the kitchen fire is supposed to pass. 
 
 The floor of the kitchen is the ground, and 
 the fire box is on the side next to the living 
 room. This fire box has a large kettle on top, 
 packed around with mud and rocks. Thus, 
 when the meals are cooked, the heat is sup- 
 posed to pass through the openings and heat 
 the floor of the living room. This sort of hot- 
 air furnace is the only kind that they know; 
 but it doesn’t work very well, for much of the 
 smoke backs up and gets into the eyes and 
 face of the one who is cooking. This smoke 
 gets out through the open side of the kitchen. 
 
 In the kettle over the fire, the food for the 
 family is prepared. It consists of boiled rice 
 for those who can afford it, and cooked barley 
 for the less favored, three times a day. To 
 the rice are generally added native pickled 
 turnips, and side dishes of a few greens or 
 fish or some kind of meat, if they can be 
 afforded. 
 
24 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 You notice that the houses have no win- 
 dows ; but the doors, which are merely a light 
 framework, are covered with a very tough 
 kind of Korean paper. This is put on every 
 fall, and it lasts the winter out; and in the 
 spring, it is removed, and left off till cold 
 weather demands its use again. This lets in 
 enough light ; and as to air, the Koreans seem 
 not to have learned as yet that it is necessary. 
 At night, when they are burning a lamp or a 
 candle, if the air becomes so impure that the 
 light will not burn, they open the door for a 
 moment, not for their own benefit, but merely 
 to save the light. 
 
 THROUGH TUNNELS TO KEIZAN 
 
 Maybe you have been wondering all the 
 time how our train was going to get out of 
 the little mountain-inclosed town of Fusan. 
 I suppose you thought that we should have 
 to pass through a tunnel; but now we are 
 passing up a small canon. Out there you 
 see the paddy fields with the rice all headed 
 out, waving beautifully under the late sum- 
 mer sun. The paddy fields rise one above 
 another up the sides of the hills. Korea has 
 an area about one half that of the state of 
 California; and about three fourths of that 
 small area consists of mountains. But even 
 though the natives are not so skilled in grow- 
 ing their crops, yet, because of the abundance 
 
Our First Journey 25 
 
 of rain and warm sunshine, Korea supports 
 a population fully five times that of fertile 
 California — over sixteen millions of people. 
 Surely God is kind to Korea. 
 
 Before we reach Keizan, let me tell you 
 something about the mission station and our 
 work in the south part of Korea. This is the 
 story of how the gospel conquered in this part : 
 Some time ago, a Korean gentleman, while 
 traveling in Japan, passed down the road by 
 our Kobe sanitarium. He noticed on the 
 building the Chinese characters which indi- 
 cated our church. For some reason, the 
 Korean was very much interested, and he 
 went into the sanitarium to ask questions. 
 
 He and one of our Japanese ministers were 
 able to hold a written conversation; and in 
 this way, the traveler heard about the seventh- 
 day Sabbath and other truth. When he re- 
 turned to his home in Korea, he told other 
 people of what he had learned ; and those whom 
 he told became very much interested. Before 
 long, there were hundreds who knew of the 
 glad news of the gospel. 
 
 A little later, some of our ministers from 
 Japan, with some Japanese believers, visited 
 Korea, and talked to the new believers who 
 had learned of the truth through the Korean 
 traveler. It didn’t take our missionaries long 
 to appreciate that it was time to open a 
 mission in Korea. 
 
26 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 In the fall of 1906, Missionary W. R. 
 Smith and Mrs. Smith opened the first mission 
 in Korea. They spent their first winter in the 
 city of Seoul, and then moved up to Soonan, 
 where the headquarters for the West Chosen 
 Conference are at the present time, and where 
 our hospital is located. These first mission- 
 aries are still working for the Koreans. 
 
 THE WORK GROWS 
 
 As the people became more and more in- 
 terested, it was necessary to open other mission 
 stations. So in Seoul, the capital, there is 
 now a mission station; and the publishing 
 work is located there. 
 
 But with these lights burning brightly for 
 the gospel, there was need of another station 
 down in the southern part of the country, where 
 most of the people are located. Another light 
 was soon to be put there. Missionary R. C. 
 Wangerin and his wife went to the southern 
 section of the country. In the summer of 1912, 
 they lived in a tent while the little four-roomed 
 mission cottage was being built. Many com- 
 panies of Koreans were soon ready to believe 
 and accept whole-heartedly the gospel. But 
 while working for these heathen people, Mr. 
 Wangerin became very sick, and later he died 
 — the first missionary who laid down his life 
 for the gospel in Chosen. 
 
Our First Journey 
 
 27 
 
 Here is another tunnel, the last one for 
 to-day, before we reach Keizan. There only 
 Miss May Scott is located, holding the mission 
 fort all alone until other missionaries come to 
 help her. How would you like to be all alone 
 in a strange land, among strange people, with 
 the next Adventist mission station over two 
 hundred miles away? That is the way it is 
 with Miss Scott right now, but she is willing 
 to brave it all for the sake of the gospel 
 message. 
 
 There are going to be many things to see 
 while we stop over here with her and the 
 Korean believers. Let’s get our traveling 
 bags together now; for the train only stops 
 about half a minute, and we’ll have to get 
 off in a hurry. 
 
The Gods of the Spring and 
 Mountain 
 
 “Pyngan Hasumnaka?” — Food and Clothing from 
 U. S. A . — Strange Church Customs — A Colored Bush 
 — Feeding the Spirits — The Country-Wide Cemetery — 
 Visiting the Cave — Sleeping on the Floor 
 
 “P 
 
 -t YNGAN hasumnaka?” say the native be- 
 lievers at the Keizan Mission Station, while 
 Miss Scott shakes our hands, and we are glad 
 to hear the language that we can really under- 
 stand. But the native greeting means, “Are 
 you peaceful?” which is their way of saying, 
 “How do you do?” 
 
 Yes, we’ll walk up to the house, for we can 
 then get better acquainted with the town and 
 the people. We came to Korea to get ac- 
 quainted, didn’t we? 
 
 What joy to be in a home that seems so 
 much like home back in America! How our 
 mouths water when we see the food from 
 America, the good kind of food that we have 
 been used to eating at home ! Then we realize 
 that even the food that the foreign mission 
 folks have comes from across the water, along 
 the same tiresome, long route that we took to 
 get here. 
 
 Butter, cooking oils, canned milk, dried 
 fruit, sirups, breakfast foods of all kinds, 
 and many other things, reach our mission- 
 
 ( 28 ) 
 
Gods of the Spring and Mountain 29 
 
 aries here in this way. But for such things 
 as flour, beans, eggs, and vegetables, we must 
 depend on the native folks. And they have a 
 plenty of these things. The things that come 
 from America are, of course, quite expensive, 
 because of the freight and the very high 
 customs duty. But really we get along better 
 for food than for clothes. Especially do the 
 women missionaries find it hard to get such 
 clothes here as they want. 
 
 You see, a good many of the Japanese men 
 and some Koreans nowadays wear foreign 
 shoes and foreign suits, so there are cobblers 
 and tailors. But few care much about what 
 the women wear. They do not have any idea 
 how to make women’s shoes or women’s suits 
 and dresses. Our women missionaries must 
 become dressmakers in order to provide them- 
 selves with the proper clothes. Their shoes 
 have to come by mail from America. It’s no 
 joy, either, but very perplexing, after a wait 
 of oyer two months, to find the much needed 
 shoes to be of the wrong size. That means 
 another wait and another order. 
 
 Let’s go over to the church near by; you 
 have finished your luncheon now. 
 
 THE STRANGE CHURCHES OF KOREA 
 
 In this church, I preached my first sermon 
 to the Korean people. It was through an in- 
 terpreter. I was feeling a little homesick 
 
 3 
 
30 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 when we landed at Fusan; but when I met 
 here with the little company of believers that 
 first Wednesday night, I felt much better, for 
 I realized that Jesus was fulfilling His promise 
 that He had given, where He said: “Verily I 
 say unto you, There is no man that hath left 
 house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or 
 children, for the kingdom of God’s sake, who 
 shall not receive manifold more in this present 
 time.” I saw in that little company, fathers 
 and mothers, brothers and sisters, and sons 
 and daughters ; and above and beyond all 
 that, I knew that Jesus was there, too, for the 
 very faces of the people showed it. 
 
 The church, you see, is built the shape of 
 the letter L, and the pulpit is in the corner, 
 with two separate rooms, as it were, leading 
 away from it, for the congregation. You 
 never heard of anything like that in America, 
 did you? 
 
 One side is for the women, and the other 
 side is for the men. All our churches in 
 Korea are arranged like this, or else there is 
 a curtain hung between. Women and men, 
 and boys and girls, don’t mingle together here 
 as they do in other lands ; so this is their own 
 arrangement. It seems very strange to us at 
 first; but it is one of the customs of the land, 
 and must be respected. 
 
 You notice that there are no seats in the 
 church; but the people don’t use seats — that 
 
Gods of the Spring and Mountain 31 
 
 is, such seats as we are accustomed to. There 
 are straw mats on the floor; and on these the 
 people sit while attending services, their legs 
 doubled up under them. 
 
 They sit the same way at home, too. We 
 couldn’t get used to it at all. Even an hour 
 sitting in this way nearly cramps all the feel- 
 ing out of our legs, except the soreness. 
 
 Sitting on the floor never troubles the 
 Koreans a bit ; for they practice it from baby- 
 hood. Old men and women with gray hair 
 spend hours at a time sitting this way in com- 
 fort and contentment. There are no chairs 
 in the native houses any more than at church. 
 There are no bedsteads, either. The people 
 not only sit on the floor, but they sleep on it 
 as well, and all without a mattress ! 
 
 About the only furniture in a Korean home 
 is a chest or two where they keep their clothes 
 and bedding. Their beds are spread on the 
 floor at night, and folded up and put away in 
 the daytime. 
 
 So they come to church and sit on the 
 floor while the service lasts, with their song- 
 books and Bibles opened up before them, lying 
 on the floor, too. They all take part in the 
 singing; for they like to sing, even if they do 
 miss the tune quite as often as they hit it. 
 Anyway, the words mean more to them than 
 the music, I suppose. 
 
32 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 When we have prayer and testimony meet- 
 ing, all take part. It is very seldom indeed 
 that one passes an opportunity by of witness- 
 ing for Jesus. They are not blessed with 
 many reference books, as Americans are; but 
 they have their Bibles, and they know them, 
 too, and you can’t fool them about its teach- 
 ings. Sometimes I think they are quicker 
 than the ordinary American to detect error. 
 
 There’s a fine cool spring up there on the 
 hillside, about a mile and a half away. It 
 never goes dry. During the seasons of heavy 
 rains, the people living here at the station 
 get their drinking water at the spring, for 
 the wells often become muddy and impure 
 from the surface water running in. 
 
 There is something up there at the spring 
 that I want to show you, so let’s walk up. If 
 you look up on the side of the mountain nearly 
 to the top, just where I am pointing, you will 
 see what looks like a hole in the cliff, but it 
 is really a large cave. Even though the path 
 is steep and rocky, we’ll walk up, for there 
 are things you’ll want to see all the way along. 
 There is something especially interesting at 
 the cave. 
 
 THE DECORATED BUSH 
 
 Almost to the spring! You see that pe- 
 culiar bush up there about a hundred yards 
 farther that seems to be covered with flowers 
 of all colors ? The spring is under that bush. 
 
Gods of the Spring and Mountain 33 
 
 Well, we find that what seemed to be colored 
 flowers at a little distance are, in fact, nothing 
 but small pieces of different colored cloth tied 
 to the branches of the bush. You wouldn’t 
 guess their meaning in a hundred years. Now 
 look into the water here, where it comes out 
 from the rock in the bottom of this little pool, 
 and you’ll see there much cooked rice. You 
 remember the dream of Pharaoh of the time 
 of Joseph, away back in Bible times? Just 
 as the kine and the corn meant one and the 
 same thing, so this bush with the rags on it 
 and the rice in the spring mean one and the 
 same thing. 
 
 This is the secret of it all: The people be- 
 lieve this to be a spirit spring. They believe 
 that it is the dwelling place of some spirit; 
 and so, to appease this spirit and coax it to 
 bless them, they bring rice here for it to eat. 
 Those pieces of cloth on the bush represent 
 the prayers to the spirit for blessing. Each 
 piece of colored cloth represents a prayer. 
 
 They don’t think how foolish it is to try to 
 feed a spirit, and how strange it is to tie 
 pieces of cloth to a bush to please a spirit and 
 to coax it to bless them. The spirits, to them, 
 are powers that they are afraid of; so they 
 try to please them and win their favor. How 
 would you like to believe in a religion like 
 that? There are spirit springs, and spirit 
 trees, and spirit mountains, all over Korea; 
 
34 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 and the people reverence them, not knowing 
 how foolish it all is, for they have never 
 heard of the true God, or, if they have heard, 
 they do not believe. They don’t know any- 
 thing about the loving Jesus w T ho came into 
 the world and died for them. 
 
 This, children, is the reason for foreign 
 missions. And the more you see of Korea, 
 the more you will be made to realize how very, 
 very much they are needed. There are not 
 merely a few thousand people believing in 
 spirits and held by superstition and fear, but 
 millions are bowing down to idols, or demons, 
 or some sort of false gods. 
 
 ON TO THE CAVE 
 
 But let’s go on up to the cave. We will 
 have to skirt along the base of the mountain 
 for a way, till we come to the little rocky 
 canon that leads up the mountain side. 
 
 Notice how thick the wild flowers are up 
 here. They are of all kinds and all colors. One 
 Sabbath afternoon in the fall of the year, 
 while we were out walking, some of us gath- 
 ered forty different kinds of flowers on these 
 hills. Many of them were the same sweet 
 flowers that we see in America. The warm 
 rains keep the hillsides of Korea very beauti- 
 ful indeed. 
 
 Under the flowers, and all over the hillsides, 
 are mounds of earth, some small, some large. 
 
Gods of the Spring and Mountain 35 
 
 There are hundreds of them. Wherever you 
 look, you can see them. What are they ? They 
 are graves. Korea is one great burial ground. 
 You never get outside of the cemetery here. 
 They are within a hundred feet of most of our 
 houses ; they are on the low hills, and on the 
 highest mountains; and thousands more are 
 being added every year. 
 
 The cave is about a hundred yards farther 
 on; but before we go up to it, let’s take a 
 good look at the valley from here. Look at the 
 little villages clustered along its sides. You 
 can count over thirty of them from here, each 
 with its hundred or so mud-walled, thatch- 
 roofed houses. The people like to live to- 
 gether in Korea. This is because, back in the 
 days when the country was filled with robber 
 bands and beasts of prey, the people had to 
 band together for mutual protection. And 
 now the habit still clings. It isn’t a bad 
 scheme for this country, where the population 
 is so dense ; because, all the villages being built 
 along the sides of the hills, on land that can 
 not be cultivated, none of the much needed 
 good soil is used to put buildings on. 
 
 TO THE MOUNTAIN GOD 
 
 Here’s the cave. It is quite large inside, 
 you see, and may have been used for a house 
 by several families back in the days when 
 
36 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 wild tribes roamed about. Here in the center 
 is a little altar with ashes in front of it. On 
 the altar, there is an inscription in Chinese 
 characters, saying that it is dedicated to the 
 god of the mountain. 
 
 How would you like to have a church lo- 
 cated up here and have to make the climb to 
 get to meeting? I am afraid you would soon 
 grow weary of going to church. But many 
 old men and women who are tottering into the 
 grave, make this long trip up here just to 
 burn incense to the mountain spirit. People 
 are doing just such things all over Korea 
 to-day. When such people become converted 
 to the true God, they don’t mind a little hard- 
 ship. 
 
 I brought you up this long path especially 
 to see this little altar, that you may better 
 understand the condition and the need of the 
 people of this faraway land. 
 
 It is getting late, so we must hasten back to 
 the mission home. After supper, we can ex- 
 pect some of the native people to come in to 
 see us. There is no meeting to-night, but they 
 will want to visit with you. They are great 
 folks to visit. 
 
 You may find it a little hard to visit through 
 an interpreter; but that is the way I had to 
 talk at first, and that is the way that the visit- 
 ing ministers from America and Australia 
 
Gods of the Spring and Mountain 37 
 
 and other places , have to talk. The inter- 
 preter is the link. 
 
 After your visit, you will want a good 
 night’s rest; for to-morrow is market day, 
 and you are to see how commerce is carried 
 on in the East. Then to-morrow night we go 
 on the train again. 
 
Market Day in Korea 
 
 On the Fifth Day — Ki niche ” — Selling Rocks — Wooden 
 Combs — Taking Our Shoes Off — Chopsticks — Lepers 
 — Taking the Train 
 
 GoOD morning, Teresa, Elnora, Freda, 
 Kate, Jimmie, and Dwane ! You need not tell 
 me you have had a good night, for it shines 
 out through your very faces. How good it feels 
 to get in a real bed, after sleeping, or trying to 
 sleep, for a whole month on steamers and rail- 
 way trains! 
 
 Just come out here on the porch and look 
 out across the Talley there. Do you see those 
 white-robed figures, some leading bullocks, 
 some with packs on their backs, all coming 
 into the village from every bypath in the 
 country? Well’ this is market day, and these 
 people are all going to the market. Under 
 the old Korean government, stores and shops 
 were ahnost unknown ; so every fifth day, the 
 people held a market in the largest village of 
 a neighborhood, and that brought some score 
 of villages together for trade and barter. 
 
 Nowadays the Japanese are opening up 
 small stores and shops all over the land, and 
 even many of the Koreans are doing the 
 same; yet many hold their fifth-day markets 
 even as they used to do. The man who has 
 anything to sell takes it to the market, while 
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
Market Day in Korea 39 
 
 the people who must buy make this their day 
 for shopping. Then, too, the country people 
 make this a day of fun and good time. There 
 are others, though, who spend the day drink- 
 ing and doing many sinful things. 
 
 The market days are big days to the Ko- 
 reans one and all. When Jesus referred to 
 
 The market days are big days to the Koreans one and all. 
 
 the markets and the market places, I suppose 
 He had some such picture as this in mind ; for 
 in that time, they had similar ones in Judea. 
 
 After breakfast is over, we will walk over 
 to the market place, and you will have the 
 opportunity of seeing thousands of Koreans, 
 and of getting better acquainted with their 
 habits of life. We like to go on market days, 
 because not only can we buy things, but it is 
 
40 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 also an excellent time to give away tracts that 
 some will read. 
 
 All ready now to start? We have our 
 tracts, and, Teresa, I see you have your 
 camera, while I have a basket. We must 
 always take a basket to carry things home in, 
 for the market men don’t furnish even a paper 
 bag. We must follow the path by which we 
 came, down to the railroad station, cross the 
 track, and go through the Japanese section of 
 the town. Then after crossing the bridge, we 
 have about a quarter of a mile to go to reach 
 the market. You can tell where the market 
 is, by the white-dressed people surging about. 
 
 STRANGE FOODS AT THE MARKET 
 
 Here we are at the first stall of the market, 
 but I suppose you are all looking for the stall. 
 You see that it is a mat thrown down in the 
 dust by the roadside, with the material to be 
 sold stacked upon it, while the man in charge 
 is sitting cross-legged by the side of the mat. 
 
 This is where turnips are sold; or are they 
 radishes? I have never found anyone who 
 could tell which. At least, they are the vege- 
 tables of which the Koreans make their 
 pickles. Sometimes Chinese cabbage is added. 
 The Koreans call these pickles kimche, and 
 they make them by simply washing the vege- 
 tables and putting them in strong salt water 
 to which is added an abundance of red peppers. 
 
Market Day in Korea 41 
 
 This kimche is eaten at every meal, along with 
 their rice. No Korean eats without his 
 kimche . 
 
 This is the fish market. The fish are spread 
 out like the turnips, on the mats. There are 
 little fish and big fish, dried fish and fresh 
 fish; and from the way you are holding your 
 noses, you would add, i 4 rotten fish.” Aside 
 from the fish that you don’t like, there are the 
 flies and the dirt, until you wonder how the 
 people live, and wonder they don’t all die. 
 And it is a case for wonder, too. A little of 
 this fish market goes a long way, so we will 
 move on. 
 
 SELLING FLINT STONES AND WOODEN COMBS 
 
 This part is a little more enticing, for it is 
 the fruit market. They have fine red apples, 
 you see, and nice juicy Japanese pears. Be- 
 fore we leave, we must come back here and 
 buy some to take on our trip. Here is a man 
 that has matches to sell ; and you will observe 
 that he has a whole pile of broken rocks for 
 sale, too. Do you know what they are for? 
 
 That is flint, and is what our great-grand- 
 fathers used to kindle fires with; and thou- 
 sands of people in Korea to-day start their 
 fires by striking sparks from flint. Almost 
 every house keeps a flint rock on hand, so 
 that if their supply of matches gives out or 
 gets wet, they will still be able to start a fire. 
 
42 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 Here is a man selling Korean combs. They 
 are made of wood, yet some of them are quite 
 well made, with fine teeth, and are of good 
 appearance. 
 
 There’s a man selling hats, and now you 
 can get a closer and better view of the little 
 dinky things that have caused you so much 
 amusement. The hats are woven nearly as 
 loosely as our window screens at home, but 
 there is a little band of bamboo around the 
 edge of the brim to hold it in shape. Some 
 of these hats cost several dollars. 
 
 Over there is a cloth merchant. While he 
 has foreign cloth a plenty, much of his cloth 
 is homespun — meaning that it is made from 
 the cotton grown here by the country people 
 and woven on little hand looms. 
 
 As we continue up the street, let us each 
 take tracts and give them out to everybody 
 who will receive them. Many will refuse, 
 because there are millions of people in Korea 
 who can not read even a word. 
 
 We have made our way the full length of 
 the market. You have seen its wares and the 
 crowds, the filth and the flies, and have smelled 
 things that you didn’t know existed; so doubt- 
 less you have had enough market for one day. 
 Besides, it is getting late, and by the time we 
 press back through the crowd and purchase 
 our fruit, it will be high time to go for dinner. 
 Our train leaves at one o’clock, you know. 
 
Market Day in Korea 
 
 43 
 
 I promised you . that we would visit some 
 Korean houses to-day before starting north- 
 ward; but we took more time at the market 
 than I expected, so we shall only have the 
 chance to make a short visit at one house. 
 One of our mission workers lives near the 
 path that we take in going back, and we will 
 stop at his home a few minutes. 
 
 AT CHAY’S HOUSE 
 
 This is Chay’s house. He is one of our 
 native ministers, and the head of the Sabbath- 
 school work in Southern Korea. He is more 
 fortunate than many of the poor Koreans, for 
 he has three rooms. Before we step inside the 
 house, we must take off our shoes ; for it would 
 be very bad form indeed, from a Korean view- 
 point, to go in with them on. And besides, 
 the rock-earth floor is covered with a heavy 
 oiled paper, and our shoes would break it 
 badly. 
 
 Now we shall have to sit down on the floor 
 and draw our legs up under us the best we can. 
 We shall not be very comfortable; but we can 
 stand it for a few minutes, which will be as 
 long as we can stay. 
 
 As you look around the room, you see that 
 they do not have very much furniture. There 
 are the chests that have their clothes in them, 
 and you will notice that their bedding is folded 
 up and laid on top of the chests. Those 
 square blocks are the pillows. Not very invit- 
 
44 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 ing, are they? Nor is the bed; for it is this 
 hard floor, with a single quilt spread over it. 
 
 The table over there with legs about a foot 
 long is Chay’s writing desk, and you will ob- 
 serve that he has a few books on top. No 
 chance to use a chair while writing there, is 
 there ? 
 
 LITTLE TABLES AND CHOPSTICKS 
 
 The mud walls and ceilings of the room are 
 papered over with old newspapers, which give 
 it a clean appearance. Most of the houses are 
 destitute of anything on the walls save the 
 clay with which they are plastered. Look out 
 and don’t lean back against the wall, or you will 
 get your clothes all soiled. This is very much 
 like a playhouse, isn’t it? 
 
 Now let us go outside and see the kitchen. 
 There is seldom a door leading from the living 
 room to the kitchen, so we shall have to go 
 outside in order to get into the other room. 
 
 There is the fire box with the large kettle 
 over it that I told you of yesterday. The rice 
 for dinner is already on cooking. Over there 
 are two small tables, with legs about the same 
 length as those that the writing table has. 
 When dinner is ready, it is placed on one of 
 these little tables and carried into the living 
 room, where the diners sit down before it on 
 the floor and eat with chopsticks, the same 
 as do the Chinese. 
 
Market Day in Korea 45 
 
 There is not much here in the kitchen in the 
 way of furniture — just a few earthen crocks 
 and a few bowls of brass and chinaware. 
 When the missionaries out in the field visit 
 the churches, they have to live in houses like 
 this for weeks at a time. Generally speaking, 
 the houses are not nearly as clean as this one 
 is. When we have more time, I will tell you 
 of a long trip that I took one time with Mr. 
 Smith when we visited the island of Quelpart, 
 down in the Yellow Sea, about a hundred 
 miles to the south of Korea. 
 
 Now we must hasten back to the mission 
 and take dinner, so that we shall be ready to 
 catch that northbound express. 
 
 Missionary Chay and his wife and mother 
 are saying, “Pyngane ka sipseo.” That 
 sounds a little like what they said when they 
 welcomed us at the station, doesn’t it? It 
 really means, “Go peacefully on your jour- 
 ney.” Many of the expressions that the Ko- 
 reans use remind folks very much of old 
 Bible times, when J esus was here upon earth. 
 I can fancy that He and His disciples would 
 have used about the same sweet expression in 
 bidding a companion good-by. 
 
 THE LEPERS VISIT THE HOUSE 
 
 Do you hear those mournful cries out in 
 front of the house? There are some lepers 
 before the door; and even though we are eat- 
 
 4 
 
46 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 ing dinner, I know you will want to go out 
 and take just one look at them. 
 
 Perhaps we had better give them a little 
 money to brighten them up. Aside from a 
 leper station that the foreign missionaries are 
 maintaining, which is entirely too small to 
 take in all the lepers in Korea, there is no 
 provision made for them. There are hundreds 
 of these poor diseased people who can do 
 nothing but beg from door to door and sleep 
 in caves. So they are dirty and ragged and 
 repulsive. 
 
 I suppose the lepers of Christ’s day were 
 similar to these poor fellows. It is no wonder 
 that the compassionate heart of the Saviour 
 was drawn out to them in sympathy as He 
 ministered to them the healing balm of heaven. 
 
 Probably your dinner doesn’t taste as good 
 to you since you looked at those poor lepers ; 
 but perhaps this sight has helped you to grasp 
 better the condition of the country, and will 
 make you more sympathetic for the suffer- 
 ing, and a little more thankful to God that 
 you are spared such things. The East is a 
 land of disease, poverty, wretchedness, suffer- 
 ing, and death. 
 
 The first year that we were in Korea was 
 what is know as a cholera year. Within 
 twenty miles of this very house, people were 
 dying by the hundreds. The government tried 
 to help the poor people, but they were mostly 
 
Market Day in Korea 47 
 
 too ignorant to be helped. The officials tried 
 to quarantine the diseased districts by throw- 
 ing ropes across the streets and placing sol- 
 diers on guard, but the people would escape 
 and spread the germs of death all about. The 
 disease spread over large sections of the coun- 
 try, and continued until stopped by the cold 
 of winter. 
 
 Here we are at the railroad station, ready 
 to start. The native believers are here to bid 
 us Godspeed. They are so filled with praise 
 and thanksgiving at their acquaintance with 
 Jesus that it just naturally overflows. What a 
 contrast there is between these dear souls and 
 the heathen here who swarm around them! 
 They are neater and cleaner, and have on 
 their faces an expression of joy not seen on 
 the. faces of the others. 
 
 Here comes the train. Let us shake hands 
 with all and bid them good-by, and thank 
 Miss Scott for our pleasant stay at the Keizan 
 Mission Station. 
 
The Trip to Quelpart and Back 
 
 Sleeping on the Floor — Across the Yellow Sea — At 
 Quelpart — Fighting Fleas — Polliwogs in the Drinking 
 
 Water — Climbing the Mountain — The Big Hole 
 
 Here we are on the train speeding north- 
 ward. We shall arrive at Seoul at ten-forty 
 to-night. During this long ride, you will find 
 the country just about what you saw on your 
 ride from Fusan to Keizan, so I am. going to 
 tell you about a trip I took not long after I 
 came to Korea. 
 
 It was during our second summer in Korea, 
 while we were still at Keizan studying the 
 language, and while Missionary W. R. Smith 
 was superintending the work in the south, 
 that he had to make a long trip through that 
 part to do some baptizing and to look after 
 the work. It was necessary to go as far as the 
 island of Quelpart. 
 
 So on a Friday in June, when the barley 
 was being harvested and the rice transplanted, 
 we left Keizan on this same train that we are 
 on now, going as far north as Taiden, where 
 there is a branch line running almost due 
 south to the port of Mokpo, a little over a 
 hundred miles distant, on the Yellow Sea. 
 After about an hour’s ride on this branch line, 
 we got off at a station by the name of Tokee. 
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
The Trip to Quelpart and Back 49 
 
 We have a church about five miles from there, 
 out in the country, where we were planning 
 to spend the Sabbath. The elder of the church 
 was at the station, waiting to act as our guide 
 out to the church. We secured two men to 
 carry our beds, then we started out ahead, and 
 reached the church after dark. 
 
 Brother Smith preached to the little com- 
 pany that night ; and afterwards the men who 
 were carrying our freight came in empty 
 handed, telling us that it was too hard to 
 travel with the loads after dark, so they had 
 left them. This wasn’t very pleasing for us; 
 but we managed to get a quilt from the church 
 elder, and tried to sleep on the floor of the 
 church. 
 
 ON THE LITTLE STEAMER 
 
 The following morning, there was a nice 
 little company gathered in for Sabbath-school 
 and church services. One man who was past 
 seventy had walked over. twenty miles to be 
 at the meetings. We had several services 
 there that day; and early the next morning, 
 we went back to the station, where we caught 
 an early train for the south. That afternoon 
 at about two o’clock, we reached Shoteriri, 
 where we had a native minister located, and 
 a little company of believers. Here we stayed 
 till the following evening, and had many in- 
 teresting experiences ; then on toward the 
 island of Quelpar; 
 
50 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 When we finally arrived at Mokpo, we 
 learned that a little three-hundred-ton Jap- 
 anese steamer was planning on weighing an- 
 chor about noon the following day to go to Quel- 
 part. It was then about eleven at night, so 
 we went to a Japanese hotel and stayed the 
 rest of the night. At about one o’clock the 
 following day, our little steamer got under 
 way. We found that there was only one 
 first-class cabin. This had four berths; we 
 had two, and there were two Japanese occupy- 
 ing the other two. The great Yellow Sea was 
 quite rough, and the little steamer pitched 
 around in great style. 
 
 REACH THE ISLAND 
 
 Some time that night, we reached an island 
 port, where the steamer tied up until morn- 
 ing. But early the next day, we were on our 
 way again for the south. I think that it was 
 at about eleven o’clock that forenoon that we 
 had our first glimpse of the island of Quel- 
 part; and I shall never forget the thrill of 
 delight that swept over me when, as I stood on 
 the prow of that little steamer, this myste- 
 rious island arose like a phantom from the 
 shifting mists of the Yellow Sea. It seemed 
 like a little world of its own — an empire 
 hidden away in unending reaches of water, 
 where peace and plenty cast their joys with- 
 out the price of greed and war and human 
 life. 
 
The Trip to Quelpart and Back 51 
 
 Quelpart is an island of volcanic origin, and 
 the central figure of the island to-day is a 
 mighty extinct volcano rising six thousand 
 five hundred feet above the sea. The top of 
 this lone sentinel is usually lost in the clouds. 
 
 Not only was this volcano responsible for 
 the existence of the island, but the high moun- 
 tain breaks the clouds that ever roll up from 
 the south, causing them to empty their water 
 on the island, and hence there is plenty of 
 rain. This provides for the needs of vegeta- 
 tion, while the timber of its slopes gives fire- 
 wood and building material to the people. 
 
 About noon, we anchored off Iltori, the 
 ancient capital of the island ; and the sampans, 
 or little boats, came out and carried us in to 
 shore. There we found two friends waiting 
 to welcome us to their island field. We went 
 directly up to the house that was being used 
 for meeting, and found one of our friends 
 living in the same compound. 
 
 We took dinner there, and afterwards 
 walked out along the old city wall, only a 
 portion of which is still standing. We were 
 only opening up work in this place, and as 
 yet had claimed no converts. However, there 
 were several interested men, the owners of 
 small shops, who came around that afternoon 
 to see us. 
 
 That night was one of the worst I ever 
 spent; and of course you will want to know 
 
52 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 how it happened. Yon see, we were not very 
 fond of fleas or mosquitoes, and we guessed 
 that there would be plenty here to contend 
 with. So we planned on going to a Japanese 
 hotel ; for they are generally free from fleas, 
 and furnish mosquito nets for the beds. But 
 the folks assured us that we would not be 
 troubled by any of these pests; so we at- 
 tempted to sleep on the floor of the church. 
 Well, we lay there on the floor and fought 
 fleas and mosquitoes all night long. We were 
 glad to get up some time before daylight and 
 prepare for our trip. We had planned to go 
 to a village some twenty miles down the coast 
 that day, where there were a few interested 
 people; and as we could not afford to take 
 more than one carrier along with us, we had 
 to decide just what we could take along in the 
 way of food and bedding and clothes, and what 
 had to be left behind. When we got our food 
 and clothes packed, we had room for nothing 
 in the bedding line but one sheet. 
 
 ALONG THE STRANGE WALL 
 
 We started on our walk a little after day- 
 light, taking the carrier and the two workers 
 with us. We were surprised, when we got out- 
 side the city, to find that we were in a lane 
 inclosed by a cobblestone wall on either side. 
 We continued in this lane all the way. We 
 found later that one can walk all over the 
 
The Trip to Quelpart and Back 53 
 
 island without getting outside of these cobble- 
 stone walls. 
 
 There is a cobblestone wall around practi- 
 cally every farm plot on the island ; and most 
 of the plots are quite small, the largest ones 
 not containing more than two or three acres 
 of land. The walls were built, apparently, 
 merely to get rid of the bowlders that had 
 been on the ground; and there are places 
 where even the walls do not use them all, and 
 the people have to build big piles besides. 
 
 We stopped at a wayside inn, and our two 
 workers called in the few interested ones, 
 and we talked with them on the Bible that 
 afternoon. That evening, Brother Smith 
 spoke to a little band of people who gathered 
 in a room that was being used as a school- 
 room by the villagers. We slept on the floor 
 that night, with nothing but our sheet between 
 us and the stones; but as there were no mos- 
 quitoes and only a few fleas, we slept very 
 well. 
 
 The next day, we walked about thirty miles 
 across the island to a town called Sarcade, 
 where we have a church building and a little 
 company of believers. But on the walk, we 
 found no water; and as we did not have any 
 with us, we were very, very thirsty, for the 
 day was quite warm. We finally came to a 
 rain-water pond that was full of polliwogs, 
 wigglers, and other strange things; but we 
 
54 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 were so very thirsty that we didn’t let that 
 bother us, and we took a big drink. 
 
 It was about three o’clock on a Friday 
 afternoon that we arrived at our church vil- 
 lage, very tired, and more thirsty still ; and to 
 our great disappointment, the only water of 
 the village was a rain-pond, on the edges of 
 which the women of the village were doing 
 their washing, while the cows of the place 
 were wading around in it. Matters began to 
 look as if we should have to take another 
 drink of such strange drinking water. We 
 asked questions, though, and were told that 
 there was a spring about three miles farther 
 on; so, tired as we were, we decided to press 
 on for the water. 
 
 We found the spring there; and we were 
 just in time, too, because the spring was down 
 on the beach, and the tide was coming in. It 
 had already reached the spring, and a few 
 minutes later would have buried it in the 
 ocean until the tide had gone out. I don’t 
 need to say that we drank and drank, and 
 filled a gallon jug with water to take back 
 to the church for the Sabbath. It was here 
 at this port, while waiting for a steamer sev- 
 eral days, that Brother Wangerin caught the 
 cold that later resulted in his death. 
 
 THE NEXT DAY IT RAINED 
 
 We were so tired when we got back to the 
 church that we went right to bed. The na- 
 
The Trip to Quelpart and Back 55 
 
 tive workers conducted the services that night, 
 with the people who came in for their weekly 
 missionary meeting. We slept on the floor, 
 but were too tired to notice how hard it was; 
 or perhaps we were getting used to hard 
 beds, for we put in a quite peaceful night. 
 
 The Sabbath was a beautiful day, and after 
 the Sabbath-school and the morning church 
 service, we all went down to the beach, which 
 was about a mile away, where three new 
 believers were baptized. 
 
 That afternoon, the church people, for the 
 first time in their experience, had the privi- 
 lege of taking part in the ordinances of the 
 Lord’s house. In the evening, Brother Smith 
 performed the ceremony that married two of 
 the young people of the church. The young 
 man has since distinguished himself at can- 
 vassing, and is at present attending the Min- 
 isterial Department of our Soonan Training 
 School. 
 
 The next morning, we found it raining, and 
 we had a thirty-mile walk before us in cross- 
 ing back over the island to Iltori. By this 
 time, too, what was left of the food that we 
 had brought with us had spoiled. With 
 gloomy looks we ate our boiled potatoes, which 
 were all we had to eat that morning. 
 
 After breakfast, we started out in the driz- 
 zling rain, which became a steady downpour 
 as we climbed up the trail leading over the 
 
56 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 mountain side. We walked for many miles 
 in a six-foot lane that had a stone wall on 
 either side; then we came to an old roadbed 
 twelve feet wide. In ages past, a great deal 
 of effort had been put forth to make this 
 road suitable for wagons. Great cuts and 
 long even grades had been established. But 
 we found some deep washouts across it, which 
 showed that it had many, many years before 
 fallen into disuse. Tradition says that when 
 the Mongols planned the invasion of Japan 
 in the thirteenth century, they used Quelpart 
 as a base for the construction of ships, and 
 built this road to transport the timber from 
 the mountain to the beach. 
 
 GOING OVER THE TOP 
 
 As we went higher and higher up the side 
 of the mountain, we at last passed the bounds 
 beyond which no one lived. For a time, the 
 stone wall was only on one side of the path, 
 while the upper side was a wilderness of un- 
 derbrush which would be difficult for even a 
 rabbit to go into; and finally the stone wall 
 gave way altogether. These higher places 
 were almost free from the bowlders and 
 stones. Besides the underbrush, we saw large 
 areas of beautiful meadow land, wher6 horses 
 and cattle roamed at will. 
 
 At the top of the divide, the rain ceased, 
 and the sun shone in glory. No rain had fallen 
 
The Trip to. Quelpart and Back 57 
 
 on the north side of the island. We were at 
 that time some two thousand feet above the 
 sea, and we could see fbr miles and miles 
 around. There were spread before us the 
 various-colored fields of many shapes and 
 sizes down among the lower levels. Some 
 parts were yet green with the first crop, some 
 were golden with ripening grain, while others 
 had been harvested, and replowed for the 
 second planting. Beyond this were the un- 
 ending reaches of the Yellow Sea; and above 
 us, now and then, the summit of the mountain 
 looked out from among the clouds. 
 
 We arrived at Iltori about three-thirty that 
 afternoon, very hungry. We soon found a 
 •Japanese hotel and had dinner. Remember- 
 ing the very unpleasant night we had spent in 
 this city before, we did not venture to have 
 even a Japanese padded mat, which isn’t very 
 soft, you know. 
 
 THE STRANGE HOLE 
 
 The next morning, we walked out through 
 the old South Gate, over lava slabs that had 
 been polished smooth by the pattering and 
 shuffling of generations of sandaled feet. 
 There were stone images sitting or standing 
 all along the way. They were as solemn look- 
 ing on their pedestals as when they had been 
 placed there in the far-away ages of the past. 
 These were the gods of the island. The storms 
 
58 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 and the cold and the sun had pitted them and 
 scarred them, but the people treated them 
 with great respect and veneration. 
 
 When almost a mile beyond the city, we 
 came to a circular stone wall that inclosed 
 some five acres of ground. Within this wall 
 was a smaller square one. Both of these plots 
 of ground are considered too sacred for the 
 plow ; so the inner one bears only grass, while 
 the outer one is a splendid park of large, fine, 
 and very old pine trees. In the center of the 
 inner inclosure is a hole in the ground about 
 ten feet deep by twenty across. In the bottom 
 of this hole are three smaller holes around 
 the sides. 
 
 In front of this strange hole is a square 
 platform of cut rock; and resting on this is 
 a huge granite slab declaring, in Chinese 
 characters, that from these three holes issued 
 the first parents of the human race. The 
 people, believing this, take their little island 
 to be the first of nations, and the mother of 
 the whole world. 
 
 We were thirty-six hours going back to 
 Fusan, where we caught the same train that 
 you came in on yesterday. It was the Fourth 
 of July; and when we reached home, at one 
 o’clock, a good dinner was waiting for us. 
 You can’t really think how delightful it seemed 
 to be at home again, and how good the food 
 tasted. 
 
A Look in at the Soonan Mission 
 
 A Bit of History — TJp on Top — A Busy School — At 
 the Hospital — Conference Headquarters 
 
 Since we have had our lunch, and inas- 
 much as it will still he some time before we 
 reach Seoul, I will tell you a little of our work 
 in Northern Korea. You remember that our 
 work in this peninsula started in the north- 
 west part of Korea. Here our first school 
 work was opened in what has since grown to 
 be our Korean Training School. Here, too, 
 our first medical work began in what has 
 since grown to be the Soonan Hospital- 
 Dispensary. To-day this part of the mission, 
 covering the three northwest provinces, has 
 developed into the West Chosen Conference, 
 with headquarters at Soonan. 
 
 To keep this work going and in the best 
 of shape, a number of buildings have been 
 erected. We now have at this station three 
 two-story brick dwellings ; one two-story brick 
 school building large enough for over a hun- 
 dred students besides the primary grades ; the 
 new two-story hospital-dispensary building, 
 with its general ward, private wards, operat- 
 ing room, dispensary room, ocular parlor, 
 treatment rooms, and so forth. There is also 
 a large brick building which was formerly 
 used as a girls’ dormitory, but which is now 
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
60 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 used partly as a dwelling, and partly as a 
 food factory in connection with the industrial 
 department of the school. Besides, there are 
 the boys’ dormitories, the native houses, the 
 barns, and other buildings. 
 
 You can see that there are many workers 
 and much work at Soonan. It is indeed a 
 very busy place; and if you were to go up 
 there, you would understand this even more. 
 
 If you should stay on this train instead of 
 getting off at Seoul, you would arrive in Soo- 
 nan at about five o’clock to-morrow morning. 
 If, when you were within a few miles of the 
 railroad station, you were to look ahead on 
 the right side some half mile from the track, 
 you would see the mission station right on the 
 top of a hill and several hundred feet above 
 the valley. Up there it is free and airy; just 
 the thing for the sluggish Korean summers, 
 but a little breezy for the blustery winters. 
 Still those who live there would not want to 
 make a change. 
 
 VISITING THE SCHOOL 
 
 In going up to the mission, which is about 
 a mile from the railroad station, you would 
 pass part of the school farm. There is an 
 acre or two of strawberries, which would 
 please you. Our school is an industrial one, 
 you see, and we have some forty acres of farm 
 land. Part is in bearing orchards, mulberry 
 
A Look in at -the Soonan Mission 61 
 
 trees, and grapes, there is some young or- 
 chard, and the rest is used for general farm- 
 ing. 
 
 After going a little distance farther, you 
 would see on the right the little thatched-roof 
 
 Our Primary School at Soonan 
 
 native house where Doctor Russell began his 
 medical work in Korea, and where he treated 
 thousands of patients while he was waiting 
 for the money to be raised in America for a 
 better building. Just across the side road 
 from here, you would see the new dispensary- 
 hospital building, which was just erected, and 
 for which the doctor waited so long. Across 
 
 5 
 
62 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 the road from the hospital is the girls’ dormi- 
 tory. 
 
 Standing in front of the hospital building, 
 you could look up the road about a hundred 
 yards and see the training school; and still 
 another hundred yards would bring you to 
 three dwelling houses for the workers. 
 
 If you went down to chapel exercises at the 
 school in the morning, you would meet about 
 one hundred and twenty-five students gath- 
 ered for worship, and this does not count the 
 primary department. You would find the 
 students sitting on the floor, row upon row, 
 on round straw mats. All these young men 
 are in the high school grades. They are bright 
 looking boys, with no long hair hanging down 
 their backs in dirty, greasy braids, such as 
 you see on these heathen all about us. Their 
 clothes are neat and clean, and they sit up 
 straight and have some life in them. 
 
 A good many of our young ministers and 
 departmental workers, besides our church 
 school teachers, came through this school. 
 And there are many boys in the school now 
 who are definitely planning and fitting them- 
 selves for the .Lord’s work. It is on these 
 students that we are depending quite largely 
 for the supply of workers that are to carry 
 the gospel message to the thousands of valleys 
 and the millions of people of Korea ; and they 
 are not going to disappoint us. 
 
A Look in at the Soonan Mission 63 
 
 After chapel, you might go down to the 
 hospital for a while. The doctor and his wife 
 spend most of their time at the hospital, even 
 though they have two native assistant doctors 
 and a nurse or two. 
 
 AT THE HOSPITAL 
 
 In the front hall of the building, you would 
 no doubt see many natives waiting for medical 
 aid of some kind. To one side, you would see 
 a pass window leading through into the room 
 where medicines are kept, and where all 
 callers make their wants known. If it is just 
 medicine that they want, they obtain it and 
 go ; while if they require examination or 
 treatment, they are furnished with tickets, 
 and await their turn to pass through into the 
 dispensary treatment room. After coming 
 in, they are looked over by the attending physi- 
 cian; and usually, because they are so dirty, 
 they are sent into the bathroom, where they are 
 thoroughly cleaned up. Then they are ready 
 for examination or treatment. Those who 
 require special treatment are passed on up 
 to the second floor, where the general and 
 private wards are situated. 
 
 In this building and in similar ones through- 
 out the Far East, our medical missionaries 
 meet with the most awful diseases known to hu- 
 manity. Here, where vice has run unchecked 
 for ages, bitter indeed is the harvest that is 
 reaped by the generation of to-day. There is 
 
64 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 a young man in the hospital at Soonan who is 
 paying the extreme price for the sins of his 
 parents or grandparents. He went through 
 our school there, became an efficient secre- 
 tary, and connected with our press at Seoul 
 as proof reader. Now he lies there with eye- 
 sight gone, while in agony he waits the call of 
 death, which is rapidly approaching. Only a 
 few more days and he will have passed away. 
 
 If you want to know the most pitiful side of 
 the East, just go into one of its mission hos- 
 pitals for a few days, and there you will be- 
 hold it, bare, bold, and unvarnished, repulsive 
 in the extreme. 
 
 After having been through the hospital and 
 having seen the dark side of the picture, you 
 could walk up to visit the conference office. 
 Here you would find the tract society and 
 conference headquarters, with its various de- 
 partments. Then after having seen every- 
 thing there, and having been told of the work 
 that is represented there, you would surely 
 take heart, and praise the God of heaven, who 
 has accomplished all this ; for this bright side 
 of the picture would almost eclipse the dark 
 side that you saw at the hospital. 
 
Some Strange Customs 
 
 Men Who Are Boys — “Hair Done Up” — White and 
 Black Hats — The Go-Between — Hammering the Clothes 
 — Two Years Old Two Days After Birth — Sticking a 
 “Chim” In — Centipede Medicine — The Native Reli- 
 gions — New Church Every Day 
 
 It is growing dark, still we have several 
 hours to spend on the train. During this time, 
 I am going to tell you something of the strange 
 Korean customs. Some you may have already 
 noticed. 
 
 You have seen that most of the men wear 
 the topknot, while most of the boys wear long 
 hair hanging down their backs in one or two 
 braids. But you have also seen some men with 
 long hair the same as the boys, and you have 
 likewise seen some of the larger boys with 
 their hair done up in topknots. I will explain. 
 
 A boy is supposed to wear his hair down 
 his back until his wedding day. Then the 
 center of the head is shaved, and the hair left 
 around the outside is drawn up over this and 
 formed into the topknot. In this way a man 
 is a boy until he is married. A man may be 
 fifty; but if his hair is down, he is still a boy, 
 and treated as one. On the other hand, a boy 
 of twelve, if his hair is up, is a man, and is 
 treated with all the respect due a man. 
 
 ( 65 ) 
 
66 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 I remember being at one of our country 
 churches one day when a lad of about twelve 
 came in and sat down; whereupon Brother 
 Smith inquired of one of the brethren whose 
 boy he was. The brother answered, “That is 
 
 The Mourning Hat 
 
 not a boy; that is a man.” I looked again, 
 and saw that he wore a topknot. 
 
 The girls, like the boys, have their hair done 
 up on their wedding day; but until then, it 
 hangs down their backs in a single braid. 
 However, the girls’ heads are not shaved on 
 top, but the hair is done up with a hairpin 
 on the back of the head, the front being 
 combed back perfectly tight after being oiled. 
 
Some Strange Customs ' 
 
 67 
 
 Oftentimes, when we would say a certain girl 
 has been married, the natives will say, “ She 
 has had her hair done up.” 
 
 The most of the Koreans wear the little 
 horsehair hats ; but you have occasionally seen 
 one with a large, drooping straw hat with 
 brim coming well down over the shoulders. 
 Most of the horsehair hats are black, while 
 you have seen a few that were white. There 
 is a deep meaning to these hats. This is the 
 way: If a man loses either parent through 
 death, he is supposed to wear one of these 
 wide-brimmed hats for a year ; and the second 
 year, he wears a white horsehair hat. 
 
 He wears the large hat because he feels that 
 for some reason he has offended the gods and 
 they have killed the parent. He feels so 
 greatly ashamed of himself that he refuses to 
 allow his neighbors to gaze upon his face. 
 Sometimes he carries a piece of cloth attached 
 to a stick, as we carry a flag, except that he 
 has another stick on the opposite side of the 
 cloth. When meeting another person, he takes 
 a stick in each hand, and holds the flag over 
 his face. 
 
 Most of these people with mourning hats 
 on wear also suits made of a different kind of 
 cloth from the usual muslin. It is about the 
 color of dead grass, and is in fact woven from 
 some kind of grass. It is similar to the sack- 
 cloth of Bible times. 
 
68 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 THE GO-BETWEEN 
 
 Another strange custom of Korea, as in 
 most of the East, is the use of the go-between. 
 Everything that you would say to another that 
 in any way might be distasteful to that one 
 must be said through a go-between. When we 
 first came to this country, we were likely to 
 forget this custom and tell a man to his face 
 whatever we had to say; but we learned that 
 the go-between is a great help here — almost 
 a necessary evil, we would say. 
 
 In engagements and marriages, the young 
 people have nothing to do, nor can they do 
 anything ; for the parents themselves, or 
 through a go-between, arrange everything in 
 a satisfactory manner as far as they them- 
 selves are concerned. 
 
 There is a curse, though, that comes from 
 this go-between system, and that is the plu- 
 rality of wives — a number of wives. Many 
 thousands of men, after they come to middle 
 age, pick out a woman of their choice ; but she 
 becomes the second wife or concubine. 
 
 THE POOR WOMEN OF KOREA 
 
 Here, when a young man is married, he 
 does not found a home of his own, as in 
 America and other civilized countries, but his 
 wife comes into his father’s home, to become 
 a servant as long as the mother-in-law lives. 
 Her life is usually one of toil and hardship, 
 
Some Strange Customs 69 
 
 with very few bright days. Her only satis- 
 faction is to look forward to the time when 
 she herself as a mother-in-law will have the 
 privilege of lording it over another girl. 
 
 The lot of women in Korea is one of toil 
 and sorrow, hedged in by superstition and fear, 
 with no education to begin life with, and no 
 praise or sympathy while it is in progress, 
 and little regret when it is ended. Cooking 
 and sewing are both real jobs. Consider that 
 generally, in preparing a meal, a woman has 
 to take the rice in the hulls, put it in a hole 
 in the end of a large block, and then beat it 
 with a heavy club nearly as large as a fence 
 post. She raises this club high up, and brings 
 it down with all her might into the rice, con- 
 tinuing the process until the hulls are all 
 pounded off. Then she takes the rice out and 
 blows away the chaff. All their clothes have 
 to be made by hand, and that is a slow task. 
 
 The mode of washing here is not easy. The 
 clothes are taken to some running stream, 
 where they are dipped into the water, then 
 taken out one at a time and placed on a large, 
 flat rock, where they are hammered with clubs 
 until the water is all hammered out. Then 
 they are redipped and hammered again and 
 again, until they are fairly clean. Next they 
 are taken to the house, and placed in strong 
 lye water in the cooking kettle and boiled. 
 After this, they are again taken to the creek, 
 
70 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 to be put through the hammering process 
 once more. 
 
 Sometimes the women place the clothes in 
 baskets on their heads and carry them for 
 miles in order to find a suitable washing place. 
 At most of these laundry spots, you will see a 
 dozen or so women busy at their work. 
 
 The Korean Women’s Method of Laundering 
 
 Then you should see how the clothes are 
 ironed! They are folded up and placed on a 
 large, flat block or a flat rock, and hammered 
 with round clubs until the wrinkles are all 
 hammered out, the ironer holding a club in 
 each hand. 
 
 Another thing that makes much work for 
 the women is the winter clothes. These are 
 made with cotton padding. When they are 
 
Some Strange Customs 71 
 
 washed, they have to be ripped up, and re- 
 sewed after laundering. 
 
 THE QUEER WAY OF COUNTING AGES 
 
 Aside from all this and many other duties 
 around the house, the women are compelled 
 to go out to the fields and spend long hours 
 at weeding, hoeing, and in other farm work. 
 American girls and women who have seen the 
 misery and work of the women of the Far 
 East, have been very thankful that they were 
 horn in a more favored land. 
 
 Another queer custom of Korea is their way 
 of reckoning ages. A child is a year old at 
 birth, and another year is added to his age 
 on the first New Year, thus making a child 
 born the day before New Year’s day two 
 years old two days after birth. 
 
 In asking ages, they usually say, “How 
 many New Year’s cakes have you eaten?” 
 This way of reckoning ages bothers foreigners 
 for a long time. Thus when any of the 
 Koreans ask us the age of a boy or a girl, and 
 we tell them, without thinking, according to 
 our way of saying it, they naturally think the 
 child very large for its age. 
 
 Korea is also a land of spirits. The people, 
 in imagination, see spirits all around them, 
 mostly evil ones, too. Every calamity, every 
 adversity, and every mishap, whatever its 
 nature, is the work of these spirits, so they 
 
72 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 think. If a person is sick, or has a pain in 
 any part of the body, there must be an evil 
 spirit within which needs to be driven out 
 in order to make the patient well. And such 
 strange ways they have to do this ! The most 
 common one is to stick a chim (an instrument 
 like a large darning needle) into the place 
 where the pain is. These chims are none too 
 clean, so there is very often an infection ; and 
 thousands of people lose their lives as a result 
 of using dirty chims . 
 
 A much used way of driving the evil spirit 
 out of a small child is to put a piece of some- 
 thing that looks like wax, about the size of 
 a thimble, on the child’s head and set it on 
 fire. It burns slowly, and makes a hole in the 
 little one’s head. You meet thousands of 
 grown-ups with a deep scar on the head where 
 no hair grows. 
 
 MEDICINES OF STRANGE CONCOCTIONS 
 
 The physicians of Korea’s old school are 
 quacks beside whom the patent medicine men 
 of America stand as professionals by contrast. 
 They make medicine of the most unthought of 
 things. A bear’s gall is prized highly for 
 medicine, and brings more in a sale than the 
 hide and the flesh together. Centipedes are 
 sought far and wide, to be ground up into 
 medicine. Deer’s horns, when soft, as they 
 are in early summer, bring fabulous prices. 
 
Some Strange Customs 73 
 
 Besides these, almost every imaginable root 
 is used, and some other unmentionable things. 
 
 The Japanese government is trying to do 
 away with the quack doctors. They have 
 established medical schools and have encour- 
 aged scientific medical education and prac- 
 tice; but it is as hard to wean these people 
 from their false ideas and practices of ages 
 as it is to turn them from their false gods. 
 
 The first language teacher that we had after 
 coming to Korea was afflicted with a running 
 sore on one of his feet. It had been in that 
 way for over a year. He was using various 
 kinds of native yak (medicine) concocted 
 from such things as I have mentioned, or 
 worse. We told the man to leave his yak 
 entirely alone and we would soak his foot in 
 hot water every day, using boracic acid pow- 
 der afterwards. He consented to this; but a 
 number of times, he came in in the morning 
 with native yak pasted all over the sore, until 
 we became almost discouraged in trying to do 
 anything for him. Finally, however, we kept 
 the native medicine off long enough for the 
 foot to heal over; but the fight was a long, 
 stubborn one. 
 
 RELIGIONS OF KOREA 
 
 Let me tell you something of the religions 
 of Korea. Confucianism and Buddhism were 
 early introduced into this country. When 
 
74 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 visiting the Diamond Mountains, I saw a 
 Buddhist monastery that was over a thousand 
 years old; but even this does not go back to 
 the beginning of Buddhism here. Both of 
 these religions have made a lasting impres- 
 sion upon the people of the land. Because of 
 
 A Buddhist monastery over a thousand years old. 
 
 these religions, ancestor worship — that is, 
 worship of parents and grandparents — is 
 common. On certain days during the year, 
 sacrifices are offered to the spirits of parents 
 and grandparents. This is done at their 
 graves. 
 
 The worship of ancestors has led to the 
 keeping of a very strict chronological record, 
 and this means that each individual knows his 
 parentage for generations back. Once when 
 
Some Strange Customs 
 
 75 
 
 visiting a country church, I asked the elder 
 if his people had resided in that district very 
 long; whereupon he answered in all serious- 
 ness, “No, not long; only fourteen genera- 
 tions.” 
 
 About the close of the nineteenth century, 
 when the country had degenerated about as 
 far as a nation can, tjie people began to lose 
 confidence in their gods and their religions. 
 It was at this opportune time that God planned 
 k the preaching of the gospel in Korea, with the 
 result that thousands believed in Jesus. 
 
 In 1884, the first Protestant church began 
 active missionary work in this country. By 
 the year 1898, five great Protestant denomina- 
 tions were here, being supported by the home 
 churches of America, England, and Australia. 
 The first twenty years of missionary endeavor 
 saw twenty thousand native Christians in 
 Korea; while a convert every hour, and a 
 new church every day, has been the record 
 here for the past thirty years. This is a won- 
 derful growth when you remember that a few 
 short decades ago this was the “Hermit King- 
 dom,” and that foreigners were called devils 
 and killed almost on sight. In no other coun- 
 try of the Orient has Christianity made the 
 growth that it has made right here. 
 
 Although we as a denomination were rather 
 late in the field, still we have made progress. 
 
76 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 We now have in this land a union mission, 
 consisting of a local conference and two or- 
 ganized mission fields, besides the work that 
 the union is doing for the Korean settlers in 
 Manchuria. There we have an ordained and 
 a licensed minister and nearly a hundred be- 
 lievers. All told, we have in the union some- 
 thing over two thousand Sabbath-school mem- 
 bers and over a thousand baptized believers. 
 
 Now we shall soon be at Seoul; so I will 
 stop my story, and we will make ready to get 
 off, because we must rush if we would catch 
 the last car that runs out toward the mission 
 station. 
 
At the Union Conference Office 
 
 Modern Seoul — Sam Kak San — The Publishing Plant 
 — Reading Backwards 
 
 We made a quick get-away from that train, 
 didn’t we? And here we are on the street 
 car going toward home. We are passing old 
 South Gate now. Here the old city wall has 
 been torn away, and only the gate remains. 
 They have both served their day; and while 
 they were an effectual barricade in the olden 
 times, they would be valueless in this day of 
 modern war equipment. The gate is left as 
 a monument to an age that has forever passed 
 away. The street cars used to run through 
 the gate when the system was first installed; 
 but now they go around it, as you see. 
 
 What you see of Seoul along this street is 
 quite modern and new. Of course, there are 
 a few tumble-down native shacks to give 
 variety to the scene, else you might forget 
 that you are really in Korea. This large 
 stone building on the left is the Chosen Bank, 
 and one of the best buildings in the whole 
 Orient. Just across the corner there is the 
 post-office building, another substantial struc- 
 ture and a credit to the Japanese government. 
 
 Although you can not see far to-night, you 
 will learn later that Seoul is a city fenced in 
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 6 
 
78 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 almost entirely with mountains. It has been 
 the capital of Korea for some five hundred 
 years. It was a typical Oriental city, with 
 a massive wall about it, narrow, crooked 
 streets within, mostly one-storv buildings with 
 thatched roofs, and no water system. Here, 
 also, were the stately palaces of its monarehs, 
 several of which still stand, shut away from 
 common eyes by high, massive stone walls. 
 
 Civilization had made some changes in the 
 city even before the Japanese came, but it 
 took a faster pace afterwards. Straight, 
 broad streets have been cut across the city; 
 a creditable water system has been installed; 
 modern brick and concrete buildings have 
 been erected ; an electric light system has been 
 established that reaches into the outlying sub- 
 urbs ; while paved streets take the place of the 
 narrow, crooked, muddy ones of a few decades 
 ago. Still there are many places within the 
 city where little change has been made. Be- 
 tween the broad new streets, the narrow, 
 crooked alleys are there as of old. 
 
 BACK IX THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 To the north of the city, and also to the 
 south, are mountain fortresses, where large 
 sections are inclosed by stone walls, with 
 palaces and houses built within them for the 
 king, his court, and his army, should they be 
 compelled to retreat in time of invasion. The 
 
At the Uniox Conference Office 79 
 
 south fort was used at the time of the Man- 
 churian invasion ; but, as far as I know, 
 Pook-Han, or the north fortress, was never 
 used as a retreat by the sovereign. 
 
 Pook-Han is about seven miles north of 
 Seoul, and occupies a sort of basin near the 
 top of the highest mountains in this section 
 of the peninsula. It furnishes a fine day’s 
 outing for those who take pleasure in moun- 
 tain climbing. Some of us here at the com- 
 pound have made two different trips to the 
 place. There are three rocky summits up 
 there called Sam Kak San (Three-Horned 
 Mountain), the climbing of which furnishes 
 excitement enough for almost anybody. In 
 fact, it is said that one of them has never 
 been scaled. We climbed the others on our 
 two excursion trips. 
 
 Here we are at East Gate, where we 
 must change cars. I thought we might get 
 here too late to catch the last car out, but we 
 are in time. It is about three miles from here 
 to the mission homes. 
 
 While we are riding out, I will tell you 
 something of our mission station. This is 
 the headquarters of the Chosen Union Con- 
 ference, and our publishing house also is 
 located here. It is the largest station that we 
 have in Korea. At the present time, there 
 are five dwelling houses; but another, or per- 
 haps two, will have to be built before the 
 
80 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 station will be able to take care of the families 
 that will be needed in connection with the 
 work here. So far, two families have been 
 living in some of the houses. 
 
 The publishing house was large enough to 
 furnish offices for all and a chapel for wor- 
 ship ; but with our growing work, it has 
 become too small, and plans have been laid 
 looking forward to an enlargement. 
 
 Well, here we are at the end of the car 
 line; so we shall have to get off, turn our 
 hand bags over to a coolie, and walk on out 
 to the station, which is almost a mile from 
 here. 
 
 LOOKING AROUND THE OFFICES 
 
 Now that we have had worship, and eaten 
 our breakfast, suppose we go over and see 
 how things are going at the publishing plant. 
 You will see that we do many things quite 
 differently here from the way they are done 
 in the States, some because of necessity, some 
 because of custom, and some apparently for 
 no reason at all. 
 
 Here we are in the entrance to the building. 
 This door to the left leads into our church 
 school room, where Miss Hibben is teaching 
 our own children. You would feel at home 
 in there, I know, and would be able to forget 
 that you are in Korea, except when the funeral 
 trains go by outside with their heart-rending, 
 mournful cries. The door on the right under 
 
At the Union Conference Office 81 
 
 the stairway, leads to the press secretary’s 
 office and the stockroom. The second door 
 opens into the conference treasurer’s office. 
 The hall leads out into the pressroom. We 
 will go out there first. 
 
 Here are the type racks, with their thou- 
 sands of Chinese characters, besides the hun- 
 dreds of native Korean characters. There are 
 no linotype machines here; nor has any sort 
 of machine yet been invented to set this type, 
 because of the large number of characters. 
 They all have to be picked out of the racks 
 by hand and placed in a small box holding a 
 few hundred of them; then they are turned 
 over to another man, who arranges them, 
 with proper spacing, into lines of the required 
 length. 
 
 An impression is then taken of them on 
 that little proof press there that looks like 
 the one Franklin used; and this is sent up 
 to my room for proof reading. I mark all 
 the wrong characters, then return it for cor- 
 rection. This process has to be repeated the 
 second time. Next the type is made up in 
 pages, corresponding to a magazine. After 
 this, it is made ready for printing. 
 
 LEARNING THE WAY THEY TALK 
 
 Over there is our new press on which the 
 magazine is printed. We have been waiting 
 for a long time for this press, while we have 
 
82 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 been trying to turn out creditable reading 
 matter on that little rattletrap of a Japanese 
 press. The new press is going to give us a 
 better and neater paper; and, of course, that 
 will help in building up our circulation. 
 
 Now we’ll go upstairs to the other offices. 
 The first one here on the right is the union 
 Sabbath-school department’s office. The sec- 
 ond one is the office of the field secretary 
 and his native secretary. The first door on 
 the left leads into the Chosen Union Con- 
 ference president’s office. The next one opens 
 into the Central Mission superintendent’s of- 
 fice ; and the hall leads on into the large 
 editorial room. Here the translator, copy 
 writers, and proof readers work. My office 
 opens off there at the side. I have also the 
 head writer on the magazine in my office. 
 
 Here on my desk is the last month’s maga- 
 zine. The back is the front, you see; and in 
 reading it, we start at the back and read for- 
 ward. But instead of reading across the 
 page, we begin at the top and read down. In 
 this language, every sentence is turned around 
 from the way we put it; for they always put 
 the verb as the very last word in the sentence. 
 Thus instead of saying, “That is a white 
 house,” they say, “That house white is.” 
 Where we would ask, “Have you eaten your 
 breakfast?” they ask, “You breakfast eaten 
 have?” 
 
At the Union Conference Office 83 
 
 It seems sometimes that everything we meet 
 here is turned squarely around. It takes 
 years to get the Korean viewpoint, and then 
 it is hard to remember. 
 
 Our publishing work in Korea has shown 
 a steady increase from year to year, until now 
 we are printing a sixty-eight page monthly 
 magazine, “The Signs of the Times,” a sixteen 
 page monthly church paper, “The Church 
 Compass,” and are translating and printing 
 two Sabbath-school quarterlies each quarter, 
 one for the children and women, and one for 
 the men. We have also a series of tracts 
 covering our message. We have printed an 
 abridgment of “Patriarchs and Prophets,” 
 and several of our smaller books; and we are 
 translating “Gospel Workers” at present. 
 We expect to bring out others of our truth- 
 filled books just as soon as copy can be pre- 
 pared and the money raised for the printing. 
 We are making every effort to scatter these 
 printed pages like the leaves of autumn, as 
 we have been told by God’s servant. 
 
Tombs and Watchers 
 
 The Village Street — “Cull Pang” — Visiting the Royal 
 Tombs — The Stone Guardians — The Subterranean Pas- 
 sage — The Watchei's 
 
 Dinnek being over, let’s get all the children 
 of the compound together and go for a little 
 walk. You have seen how the wooded hills 
 come right down to our compound, and that 
 these are the only hills of the neighborhood 
 that are covered with large trees. The reason 
 for this is that these hills are what are known 
 as the Royal Tombs. There are several places 
 near here where royalty lies buried. These 
 grounds thus belong to the state and are held 
 sacred by the people. We will go to one of 
 these tombs this afternoon, so that you can 
 see how they are arranged. 
 
 We must first pass through this village that 
 borders here on our publishing house lot. 
 Most of these places along the road are public 
 eating houses — “short-order hohses” I sup- 
 pose we would call them in America. As they 
 are thus situated on one of the main roads 
 leading into Seoul, thousands of people pass 
 every day, and many of them stop here and 
 eat their meals. You see them sitting there 
 on the earth floor in front of the little benches 
 on which are their bowls of rice and other 
 food. They are eating, of course, with chop- 
 
 ( 84 ) 
 
Tombs- and Watchers 85 
 
 sticks. The flies are thick on the food, but the 
 people don’t seem to care. 
 
 Dozens of small children play here in the 
 street, many without any clothing, and some 
 with only little jackets on. Very seldom is 
 there one in a full suit. 
 
 Here is what we call a Cull Pang in Korea, 
 or a place where boys study Chinese charac- 
 ters. You see the little fellows are sitting on 
 the earth floor, with their Chinese character 
 books in front of them; and they repeat the 
 words and letters aloud. They vie with each 
 other to see which can shout loudest. They sit 
 here all day long shouting. In the govern- 
 ment schools, the quiet system of study that 
 you are acquainted with at home is used. We 
 follow the quiet system in our church schools 
 here in Korea, too. 
 
 Aside from these eating houses, you see a 
 few native shops where rice, beans, a little 
 cloth, coal oil, and other such things are sold. 
 There are also a few blacksmith shops where 
 farming tools are made and bullocks and 
 horses are shod. Off the main street are a 
 few score houses where the farming people 
 of the district live. We have here a typical 
 Korean village, except that it has more shops 
 than such a village usually has. 
 
 THE TOMB MOUNDS 
 
 If you look to the head of this valley, you 
 will see the tomb to which we are going. It 
 
86 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 is on that elevation of some fifty feet or more. 
 Now, having crossed the little valley with its 
 rice fields, we come to another village. One of 
 our workers lives in that house with the little 
 screened-in porch. Some of our people have 
 learned that flies bring dysentery, a disease 
 that is plentiful in Korea all through the 
 summer months; and they know, too, that 
 mosquitoes cause malaria, and there is plenty 
 of that, too. So they try to keep these pests 
 out of their houses. 
 
 Here we are at the tombs, after a walk of 
 about three fourths of a mile. You see the 
 location is good, and commands a splendid 
 view of the little valley. We sometimes bring 
 our lunch over here on Sabbath and eat it on 
 the grass. The tomb is marked by a well- 
 sodded mound of earth some ten feet high by 
 perhaps twenty across. A stone and brick 
 wall reaches around the back and the sides, 
 while the front is left open. The space be- 
 tween the tomb and the wall is some twenty 
 feet wide; and in this space, facing away 
 from the tomb, are about twenty stone images 
 of lions and rams set alternately. 
 
 In front of the tomb, standing on massive 
 stone legs, is the sacrificial table, which is 
 merely a slab of granite about six by ten feet 
 square, polished smoothly. On either side of 
 this wide passageway leading up to the tomb 
 are a stone horse and a warrior, a stone horse 
 
Tombs and Watchers 
 
 87 
 
 and a priest. The horses are of ordinary size, 
 but the men are twelve feet high. These images 
 are the guardians of the tomb. 
 
 Beginning under this sacrificial table is a 
 subterranean channel leading back to the 
 burial chamber, which is a good sized room 
 
 These images are the guardians of the Royal Tombs. 
 
 where most of the king’s personal possessions 
 are buried along with the body. It was the 
 custom in Korea anciently to entomb many 
 of the king’s wives and servants alive with 
 his body, so they would accompany the mon- 
 arch to the spirit world. 
 
 This tomb is one of the oldest around here, 
 and dates back some five hundred years. In 
 construction, they are nearly all alike, except 
 
88 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 that they vary in size, and some do not have 
 as many stone images around them as others. 
 
 Just down over the hill there, yon observe 
 a little cluster of houses, most of which have 
 tiled roofs. That is where the watchers of 
 the tomb live, a company of them being en- 
 gaged by the state. Every tomb of royalty in 
 the country is thus provided for. There is 
 also a Buddhist temple situated there, where 
 priests conduct daily services. 
 
 LOOKING AT THE TEMPLE 
 
 After you are through looking at the tomb, 
 we will go down and see the temple. Here we 
 are, just in time to see the priests go through 
 their sacrificial and prayer ceremony. Look- 
 ing through the door there, you see a bronze 
 Buddha sitting upon a sort of desk. Here to 
 the left, on this table, are all kinds of ready 
 prepared food, which is left here as an offer- 
 ing until the service is done, when it is taken 
 away and eaten by the priests. You see the 
 priests are on their knees before the Buddha, 
 chanting their prayers. Every few moments, 
 they bow themselves until their faces almost 
 touch the floor. They will keep this up for an 
 hour or longer. 
 
 A half mile from our houses, on the west, 
 is another temple, which is occupied by priest- 
 esses. They are women who in childhood and 
 youth dedicated their lives to this purpose. 
 
Tombs and Watchers 
 
 89 
 
 They wear their hair cut short to the head, 
 men’s clothes, and never marry. Every day, 
 they go through services similar to this. The 
 gong that you heard ringing this morning was 
 over there. This beating of the gong in the 
 early hours often disturbs people when they 
 first come; but we get used to it, and hardly 
 realize that it is going on. 
 
 Often people who wish the blessing of the 
 Buddha bring an offering of costly food here 
 to be presented to it. This is afterwards eaten 
 by the priests. Sometimes women who desire 
 a blessing will come here and dance for hours 
 before the image. 
 
 There are literally thousands of these places 
 all over Korea, where tens of thousands of 
 people are bowing down to false gods. The 
 work of telling these people of their error, 
 and pointing them to the true God, in wdiom 
 there is salvation, is our appointed task here 
 in Korea and throughout the Ear East. The 
 more you travel over the country and are 
 made sensible of the wretched condition of the 
 people, the more you realize their need of the 
 very thing that God has put in our hands for 
 them — the everlasting gospel. 
 
The Sad Funeral Trains 
 
 The Shouts of the Mourners — Backwards and Forwards 
 — Half Drunk — Boyal Funeral Two Miles Long — 
 Western Advance 
 
 Do you hear those mournful cries coming 
 from somewhere beyond our compoimd ? That 
 is a funeral train on its way from Seoul; so 
 if we hurry back to the mission, you can get 
 your first sight of a Korean funeral. 
 
 We are just in time, for here they come. 
 The corpse is under that silken canopy. 
 Sometimes the corpse is in a crude wooden 
 coffin and sometimes it is only wrapped in 
 matting; but you can not know which unless 
 you go to the place of burial or to the house 
 where it is placed upon the carrier. It is 
 borne upon the shoulders of some twenty 
 coolies ; but sometimes there are a great many 
 more, and sometimes less. The number of 
 carriers is an index to the standing and wealth 
 of the deceased. 
 
 There is a man with a small hand bell 
 dancing along ahead of the bier, sometimes 
 facing it, and sometimes facing forward. As 
 he rings the bell, he sends forth a volley of 
 mournful questions, whereupon the carriers 
 shout back with all their might, in such 
 mournful notes as almost to curdle the blood 
 in one’s veins. 
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
The Sad Funeral Eites 91 
 
 The mourning shouts are hurled back and 
 forth until the grave is reached. Because of 
 this shouting, the whole neighborhood for 
 miles around know that one more unfortunate 
 is being carried to the place from which none 
 return. 
 
 Behind the bier, clothed in sackcloth, and 
 with crude wooden staffs in their hands, w T ith 
 heads bowed, and with groans of apparently 
 great anguish, walk the mourners, men and 
 boys. (No women are allowed to accompany 
 the procession.) The others following in 
 rickshas and on foot are friends or relatives 
 of the departed. 
 
 Now the procession stops, and the carriers 
 weave from side to side, and drop backward 
 a few paces. They seem to be making an 
 effort to go ahead, but still they go back. 
 They do this at intervals along the road. 
 Sometimes, too, they stop and offer sacrifices 
 to the supposed spirit of the departed. They 
 do all this to fool this spirit into thinking that 
 their love for the dead is so great that they 
 are even loath to carry his body to the tomb. 
 They fear lest his spirit become angry and 
 bring a curse upon them. 
 
 I went to see a funeral start one day. It 
 was ten o’clock in the morning. The men 
 were adjusting the canopy of the bier. Silk 
 cloth of all the colors of the rainbow was spread 
 over a wooden framework. Tassels hung from 
 
92 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 beneath and along the side, while the' heads 
 of dragons protruded from the corners. 
 
 THE CARRIERS HALF DRUNK 
 
 Presently a great earthen vessel of liquor 
 was brought, and those who were to carry the 
 bier dipped in their gourd-shell dippers and 
 poured the liquor down their throats like water. 
 When they had thus nerved themselves for 
 the ordeal, the crude coffin with the body 
 within was carried out and placed on the 
 carrying frame, and the silken canopy was 
 placed over it. Then the carriers raised it 
 to their shoulders, and they were off in such a 
 procession as you see here. These carriers, 
 too, are half drunk ; look how they walk. 
 
 What a contrast the whole dismal picture is 
 to one where the mourners mourn not without 
 hope ! What wretchedness is here, what hope- 
 lessness! With mourning they are borne 
 along, and hopeless they are placed in the 
 grave. How well the devil has succeeded in 
 these heathen lands, in his warfare against 
 God and His plan of redemption, can be 
 better grasped by watching a funeral train 
 than perhaps in any other way. 
 
 Now that we are back home, I want to tell 
 you of a royal funeral we saw a few years 
 ago. It was the funeral of the first king that 
 Korea had buried for well over half a century, 
 and it was made a grand affair. Nearly half 
 
The Sad Funeral Rites 93 
 
 a million dollars was expended in the funeral, 
 with the interment and the arrangement of 
 the tomb. Thousands of natives from all over 
 the peninsula gathered here at Seoul to wit- 
 ness the ceremonies. 
 
 The funeral car was a mammoth affair, 
 with a priest riding on it at either end. It 
 
 The funeral car was a mammoth affair, with a priest riding on it at either end. 
 
 was carried on the backs of some five hundred 
 coolies to the place of interment, about twenty 
 miles distant. This took two days. They 
 stopped for hours at certain places along the 
 way to offer sacrifice and do honor to the 
 dead. 
 
 The funeral procession was over two miles 
 long, consisting of soldiers, sedan chairs, great 
 wooden horses, hundreds of men carrying 
 
 7 
 
94 : 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 banners and lanterns, with hundreds of 
 mourners in rickshas, carriages, and auto- 
 mobiles. The sedan chairs, of which there 
 were many, were each carried by some twenty 
 coolies. These held the personal effects of the 
 departed monarch, and were to be buried with 
 his body. 
 
 The first part of the processional march 
 was within the city, and was a Japanese state 
 funeral; but after they passed without the 
 gate of Seoul, it was considered a private 
 affair, and was conducted by the household 
 of the king, in accordance with ancient Korean 
 customs and ceremonies. 
 
 GREAT CHANGES 
 
 As the grand procession moved through the 
 city streets and then out upon the country 
 highways, the tens of thousands of Koreans 
 set up an awful weeping and wailing as the 
 bier was carried past. Many of them bowed 
 themselves to the earth; for, good or bad, he 
 had been their king for nearly a half century, 
 and they wished to do him honor as they car- 
 ried him to the grave. 
 
 The procession went by this same road, 
 right in front of our compound. Some of us 
 went up to my office, where we had a clear 
 view. As I watched it, I thought of the 
 great changes that had taken place in this 
 land since as a mere boy in 1864: the king was 
 
The Sad Funeral Rites 
 
 95 
 
 called to the Korean throne. During his 
 reign, nation after nation had knocked at the 
 doors of Korea, and had attempted to open 
 the land to outside influence and commerce, 
 
 The funeral procession was over two miles long. 
 
 only to he turned away, and often with 
 gunfire. 
 
 It was after the warships of the United 
 States had been fired upon, and they in turn 
 had demolished the little fortress at the mouth 
 of the Han River, that the notable tablet was 
 raised in Seoul which read: “The Western 
 barbarians have attacked and injured us, with 
 a view either to make war upon us, or to 
 force treaties upon us. If we consent to the 
 latter, it will be the betrayal of our country. 
 Let our descendants to the ten thousandth 
 
96 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 generation bear this in mind.” In various 
 other places, hostile tablets were likewise 
 raised up, warning the populace against the 
 “ Western barbarians,” as they called all the 
 Westerners. 
 
 But tablets and threats, or even guns, could 
 not long roll back the mighty tide of civili- 
 zation that was pressing upon the doors of 
 Korea. This same monarch, now dead, had 
 been a factor in all this hostility. He lived 
 to see his country invaded and uplifted by 
 the very forces that he had tried so hard to 
 resist. Probably never before in the history 
 of the world has a monarch seen his realm 
 pass through so many sweeping changes as 
 this king saw Korea pass through during his 
 lifetime. 
 
 Surely God, who is preparing all nations 
 for the speedy proclamation of the gospel mes- 
 sage for this time, has had a hand in the open- 
 ing of Korea. And more, He who has accom- 
 plished all this is able to carry that message to 
 this nation, and to all nations, by influencing 
 His people here and at home to consecrate their 
 lives and their means to the finishing of this 
 great work. 
 
At the Church Service 
 
 Going to Church and Sabbath-School — Girls Not Wanted 
 — The Missionary Meeting — The Same Story — Hope 
 
 Ahead 
 
 Well, children, as you know, to-morrow is 
 Sabbath, while to-night we have our mission- 
 ary meeting in the chapel over the pressroom 
 of the printing plant. Of course, you will 
 want to go to-night and get your first ex- 
 perience in attending a Korean meeting. So 
 I suppose I might tell you a little of what you 
 may expect to see there. It will help you to 
 understand things, and will give you a deeper 
 interest. 
 
 When the people come in to-night, you will 
 see that the men and boys all file over to their 
 side of the chapel and sit down upon the floor, 
 while the women and girls will go to the other 
 side and sit down on the little round woven 
 straw mats. You will also see that each, upon 
 being seated, bows his head in silent prayer 
 for a few moments. 
 
 Even we foreigners observe the rules of the 
 country when it comes to taking sides in the 
 chapel, but we do not always follow the cus- 
 tom of sitting on the floor. We try to have a 
 few chairs on hand to sit on. 
 
 After all are thus seated, and the hour for 
 the services arrives, the leader and the secre- 
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
98 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 tary will go forward, and the meeting will be 
 opened by the singing of one of the same 
 songs that we use for worship in America. 
 The words, to be sure, will be in the Korean 
 tongue, and you will not understand them; 
 but you can understand the tune, and get the 
 spirit of it all. 
 
 As the meeting progresses, you will observe 
 very little difference in the general plan of 
 the meeting from that at home, except that, 
 as with the singing, you will understand noth- 
 ing that is said unless some one is beside 
 you to interpret. 
 
 The Koreans feel their responsibilities as 
 missionaries, with the result that nearly as 
 many attend this meeting as any other church 
 service. They have done very well in the 
 distribution of tracts, and the big canvassing 
 week idea for the common people is gaining 
 ground rapidly. 
 
 If you were to go out and visit almost any 
 of our country churches, you would find the 
 majority of the members regular home mis- 
 sionaries, doing creditable work indeed com- 
 pared with their knowledge and abilities. 
 They sense the importance of making known 
 to others what God has graciously made 
 known to them. 
 
 Our Sabbath-school will be held at ten 
 o’clock to-morrow morning. At the Sabbath- 
 school, you will see between thirty and forty 
 
At the Church Service 99 
 
 boys, besides the regular church members. 
 Most of these boys are the children of heathen 
 families, but are attending our native church 
 school here. We believe that many among 
 them will be led to the Saviour as a result 
 of having thus come into contact with the 
 Bible. We have a good many young men in 
 Korea holding responsible positions who were 
 won to Christ thus, or while acting as servants 
 in some of the foreigners’ homes. 
 
 Most of these boys who attend the Sabbath- 
 school learn perfectly the memory verses, and 
 also secure perfect attendance cards. Some 
 of them are rather dirty and unkempt; but 
 there are also wide-awake ones among them, 
 who are as quick to catch a point as you 
 children are. 
 
 GIRLS NOT WANTED 
 
 You will find only a few girls at the Sab- 
 bath-school, and these the children of our 
 church members. You know that as a general 
 rule, little girls are not thought much of in 
 Korea, — nor big ones either, as far as that 
 is concerned. A little girl can carry a younger 
 child on her back; and when she grows up, 
 she can become somebody’s servant through 
 a marriage ceremony. Beyond this, girls 
 seem to have no value from the Korean stand- 
 point. 
 
 The Koreans don’t. believe in teaching the 
 girls to read; for the nearer they can keep 
 
100 
 
 Glimpses of Korea 
 
 them like animals, the more physical labor 
 they can get out of them, and this seems to 
 be the desired end for Korean women. About 
 the only time they have any privileges is after 
 they have sons old enough to marry ; and by 
 that time, they have become so hardened by the 
 terrible battle of life that they are too hard- 
 hearted to bear the trust rightly. 
 
 You will find the wives of our church mem- 
 bers present at the Sabbath-school, and you 
 will find that most of them can read a little; 
 for as soon as they become Christians, we do 
 all we can to see that in some way they are 
 taught to read the native characters, so that 
 they can read the word of God for themselves. 
 
 The women are not held down because they 
 are mentally deficient, for they are usually 
 bright and quick to learn. Since the Japa- 
 nese have taken over the country, the same 
 school privileges are offered to the girls as to 
 the boys; yet few of the parents, aside from 
 those in the cities, accept the aid thus held out 
 to the girls. But all missions, of whatsoever 
 denomination, advocate and strive to advance 
 the same standard for both sexes. Thus 
 Korea is slowly changing under the various 
 influences, and the women of Korea have 
 something better to look forward to. 
 
 You will observe that the Sabbath-school, 
 like the missionary meeting, is conducted 
 the same as at home. We have the lesson 
 
At the Church Service 
 
 101 
 
 review and class recitation periods as you 
 have them there. A good many of the people 
 follow the daily lesson study program, with 
 the result that the class periods are times of 
 intense interest to all. And the Sabbath- 
 school lessons that are such an important fac- 
 
 The Women of Korea 
 
 tor at home in building the people up in the 
 truth, are equally effective here. 
 
 THE GOSPEL STORY DOES THE WORK 
 
 We have to charge the same price for the 
 lesson quarterlies here that we charge in 
 America, which, when compared with the 
 money values of the country, where a laborer 
 only gets fifty cents a day, is rather high; 
 still the native Christians almost without ex- 
 ception buy and use the quarterly. 
 
102 
 
 Glimpses of Kokea 
 
 After Sabbath-school, we have a church 
 service at which time the same precious truth is 
 taught from the same all-powerful word of 
 God that you have learned to love and obey. 
 All this will be in a tongue strange to you. 
 Yet, it isn’t so much the language through 
 which the message is given, but rather the 
 effect that that message has upon those who 
 accept it, that counts. 
 
 Here, while the gospel story is told in a 
 strange language, you will see that it produces 
 the same good fruit as in America. It brings 
 love, joy, peace, and all the other Christian 
 graces. It is thus preparing a people in this 
 far-away land who will be among the number 
 of whom it shall presently be said, “Here is 
 the patience of the saints: here are they that 
 keep the commandments of God, and the 
 faith of Jesus.” 
 
 Now, children, I have finished my little 
 talk; for I am sure that from to-night, you 
 will be initiated into the fellowship of the 
 Korean church, where you will go on learning 
 more of this people than I could ever tell you. 
 
 I hope that the little I have said will give 
 you a desire to know more about this people, 
 and will act as a kind of foundation for future 
 study, whether through books or otherwise. 
 The more you learn of those beyond, the more 
 ready will be your sympathy for them, and 
 
At the Church Service 
 
 103 
 
 the stronger will be the tie that will bind you 
 to them; for they are all the children of God, 
 some gone astray, to be sure, but still His 
 children, whatsoever their color, or race, or 
 nationality. 
 
 “ Another good book finished! Oh, what 
 can I read next?” did we hear you say? 
 Well, let us think a minute. We have so 
 many good books, w r e want to suggest them 
 all. But here is a selected list for boys and 
 girls who enjoy true stories of animals and 
 birds, and of boys and girls in far-away lands 
 — yes, and of the common things about us 
 as told by “Uncle Ben.” 
 
 At Home with the Hakkas in South China . . $ .25* 
 
 Elo the Eagle and Other Stories 1.50 
 
 Gospel Primer No. 2 1.00 
 
 House We Live In 1.50 
 
 Hurue, a Boy of the South Seas 25* 
 
 In Beaverdom and Other Nature Stories. . .25* 
 
 Little Bible Boys 75* 
 
 Manana Land (Mexico) 75 
 
 On Our Block 75 
 
 Selections for Our Little Folks 1.00 
 
 Strange Peoples and Customs 1.25 
 
 Uncle Ben’s Cloverfield 1.75 
 
 Uncle Ben’s Cobblestones 1.75 
 
 Up and Down the Andes on a Burro 25* 
 
 With the Wild Men of Borneo 1.25 
 
 ♦Paper covers ; all others are cloth. 
 
 Prices are postpaid. Higher in Canada. 
 
 Pacific Press Publishing Association 
 
 MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA