Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots; Or, Life in Korea

SENTINEL GATE AT PALACE. Frontispiece
Copyright, 1904, By American Tract Society. Copyright, 1908, By American Tract Society.
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED TO MY HUSBAND IN MEMORY OF FIFTEEN HAPPIEST YEARS
It may be said at once, that Mrs. Underwood’s narrative of her experience of “Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots” constitutes a book of no ordinary interest. There is no danger that any reader having even a moderate sympathy with the work of missions in the far East will be disappointed in the perusal. The writer does not undertake to give a comprehensive account of missions in Korea, or even of the one mission which she represents, but only of the things which she has seen and experienced.
There is something naive and attractive in the way in which she takes her readers into her confidence while she tells her story, as trustfully as if she were only writing to a few relatives and friends. Necessarily she deals very largely with her own work, and that of her husband, as of that she is best qualified to speak. Everywhere, however, there are generous and appreciative references to the heroic labors of associate missionaries. Nor does she confine these tributes to members of her own mission. Some of her highest encomiums are given to members of other missions, who have laboured and died for the Gospel and the cause of humanity in Korea.
Mrs. Underwood, then Miss Lillias Horton, of Chicago, went to Korea as a medical missionary in 1888. As a Secretary of the Presbyterian Board, accustomed to visit our candidates before appointment, I found her a bright young girl of slight and graceful figure in one of the Chicago hospitals, where she was adding to her medical knowledge some practical experience as a trained nurse. There was nothing of the consciousness of martyrdom in her appearance, but quite the reverse, as with cheerful countenance and manner she glided about in her white uniform among the ward patients. It was evident that she was looking forward with high satisfaction to the work to which she had consecrated her life.