Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 250, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1911 — CUSTOMS IN THE HERMIT KINGDOM [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

CUSTOMS IN THE HERMIT KINGDOM

rnnvright Underwood & Underwood. N. Y.

THE ragged, jagged coast of Korea, which haa been a terror to mariners for centuries and whose wolftoothed rocks have bitten through the cockleshell hulls of Chinese junks, the stout timbers of full rigged sailing ships from European ports and the sheet metal of modern steamers with equal ease and strewed an unlighted and desolate' shore line with wreckage, will blaze at night with warning lamps to save skipper from catastrophe and display by day floating buoys to mark the channels and the danger points where the wrong course means disaster. Roads will belt the hintdrland and Japanese schools, from whose history course all mention of the American revolution and other successful wars of Independence will be eliminated lest the Korean school boys should develop patriotism Instead of learning submission, will dot the country. A modem system, qf credit and currency will facilitate the transaction of business where the copper "cash” that Was formerly used was so bulky that a shipload of it was required when the Japanese paid for a timber tract in north Korea before the annexation. Mines in which are stored .great riches will be worked by modem machinery with Japanese, Americans and Englishmen as “operators” and Japanese and Koreans as the men behind the picks. Railroads broad gauged and rock ballasted like American trank lines, over which will be driven American made locomotives drawing American made coaches, will increase their mileage between the ancient walled city of Korea through sections in which the tiger, the leopard and the elephant are now hunted. Urban and eventually interurban electric lines will become an important factor in transportation. Korea will be “reformed” just as the Japanese have insisted it will. When the reformation is complete it will no longer be Korea, but a province of Japan used as an outlet for congested population and. as a "buffer state” on the Asian mainland and as the site of a naval base that will command the Yellow sea and threaten China. Some Queer Customs. Korean women of the classes that go unattended and unveiled wear a green, white trimmed wrap called a "changot” thrown over their heads, with the sleeves hanging down over their shoulders. The “changot” is held about the face in such a manner that only the eyes bf the woman are seen, and they are visible only when you are in front of her. It prevents the wearer from seeing anything that approaches from behind. When the Japanese rickshaw boy I had engaged upon arriving in Seoul ran over a Korean woman and did not offer to stop and apologize till a Korean mob filled the street and blocked the way I realized the attitude of the conqueror. I discharged 'the boy, dusted the weeping woman’s garments, mopped the blood from her face with a handkerchief, apologized to the mob in a dumb show and hired a* Korean boy. . * Contrasts between the customs of Korea and those of other countries are striking everywhere. For Instance, in most countries snakes are more or less feared by everyone and

are never liked about the house. They are certainly unpopular with persons who are habitual and intemperate users of alcoholic beverages. In Korea snakes live about the eaves of native houses and are not feared or disliked. The native legend about their introduction into the country is that a certain prince who was a drunkard ordered a shipload of them from India' to be brought to the palace to drive! away the .evil spirits of drink that possessed him. In other words, to cure diellrium tremens. In most countries the horse is considered a better mount than the donkey. Not so in Korea. Here the meek ang slow moving ass is regarded as the mount for a gentleman, and especially the man of fashion. In other countries progress is highly regarded, but the tortoise is the emblem of a dignified and desirable conservation’in “The Land of the Morning Calm," where the evening was equally calm and the middle of the day more so when the Koreans ruled the country. Street signs are relied upon in the cities of other countries, and nowhere are they more used than in China, which formerly exercised a shadowy suzeranity oyer Korea and was her neighbor. But In Seoul they were not used at all before the Japanese came. In almost all other countries women are fond of going shopping and merchants strive to please them and to sell them something just as good if they haven’t the article asked for. How Shopping Is Regarded. In Korea it is otherwise. The women regard shopping as a necessary evil,- Ad the merchants keep their goods in closets instead of on counters and shelves and in showcases. The merchant does not hustle for trade or argue for a sale. If the customer asks for something she is likely to be shown what the merchant has and told that he has nothing like what she wants. The shopkeeper is a fair emulator of the highly-respected tortoise that was the national emblem of conservation during the halcyon days'of the Hermit Kingdom when no diplomatic or trade relations were sustained with foreign countries. In most countries retailing liquors It not regarded as a suitable avenue of activity for an aristocratic woman whose fortune has dwindled. In Korea a lady in distress may operate a saloon without fear of any social stigma resting upon her. And a bar is the only kind of shop she may keep with Impunity. Her maid acts as barmaid, but the saloon is given space In the residence without injuring the tone of the establishment. A woman of social distinction may make shoes provided she makes such as the common people wear. To make shoes for her own class would remove her from that class. x Of the Hermit Kingdom, which was unknown such a short time ago, only a very small portion of the outside Wbrid had a glimpse before the Japanese began transforming a country In which breech loading cannon were cast centuries before gunpowder was known in Europe and which fought naval battles with ironclads more than three centuries before the "Yankee Cheesebox” eclipsed the glory of the Merrimac at Hampton Roads.