CHAPTER V
Our Stay in Wewon—We Give a Dinner—Our Guests—Magistrates Propose that we Travel with a Chain-Gang—Our Trip down the Yalu—The Rapids—Contrast between Korean and Chinese Shores—We Enter Weju—The Drunken Magistrate—Presents and Punishments—Unpleasant Experiences with Insincere People—Rice Christians—The Scheming Colporter—The Men Baptized in Weju—The Lost Passport—Another Audience at the Palace—Queen’s Dress and Ornaments—Korean Summer House—The Pocket Dictionary—Our Homes.
Here, then, in the hospitable little town of Wewon we rested, made friends whom we hoped to draw into the friendship of our Leader, and ministered to sick bodies and souls, as opportunity was given. Here in a few days were brought our boxes and a few of the men who had attacked us. Still later, for they were unable to travel for some time, came our poor attendants, who had twice been cruelly beaten with clubs and left tied up all night in a painful and agonizing position. The mapoo’s arm was broken, and our helper never entirely recovered from the injury his back had suffered. Those of the criminals who were found were sent up to the provincial capital to be punished by the governor.
Before leaving Wewon we gave a dinner to the magistrate in order to gratify his curiosity and that of his friends. We wished to show in some way our appreciation of his kindness and hospitality, and Mr. Underwood, who had considerable experience and much skill in camp and bachelor cooking, undertook, in the face of some odds, to manage the matter; and we found our ingenuity well taxed in evolving a feast from the now scanty remnants of our larder and the few obtainable native articles out of which a foreign meal could be manufactured. However, we prided ourselves that we did quite well, with some six courses, including soup, fish, a bewitching little roast pig, well decorated with wreaths and berries, served with apple sauce and stuffed with potatoes, chestnuts and onions. Our dessert, marmalade spread on crackers, was sufficiently light to please the most æsthetic, and we introduced a novelty, coffee sweetened with honey, never whispering that our sugar was gone. The magistrate came with a huge crowd of retainers, who filled our tiny room and flowed over into the kitchen, peered into and fingered everything, and nearly wrecked the courses, which our overtried servant was attempting under many difficulties to serve. With nothing but a bowl of charcoal in lieu of a stove, and no proper kitchen utensils, it was by no means easy to achieve such a feat of culinary art in the far interior of the hermit kingdom, but we did not stop to consider a little inconvenience or bother, nor regret a little extra work where we could thereby make or strengthen friendship with Koreans. Trifling as it may look for missionaries to be planning menus and giving dinners to country magistrates, there are more ways of furthering the cause than preaching only. The hearts of the people must be won, and he who wins most friends wins the readiest and most attentive audience, one inclined in advance to favor and accept what he has to teach, and nothing is trifling which helps.
After the return of our men and belongings, and as soon as the former were able to travel, we felt we must hurry on to Weju. The magistrate of Wewon proposed that when we departed, the eight criminals who had been captured should be chained together, two and two, and led in advance of our company during the rest of our journey. Thus should we march through the land like conquerors, instilling awe and terror in all hearts, and none who looked on this tableau would ever again dare assail a foreigner. Now this was of course exactly the impression that we wished to produce as missionaries! We pictured ourselves going about preaching the cross, with such an object lesson as this, trying to win the hearts of the people, while driving their compatriots before us in chains, and we enjoyed the vision hugely. It would hardly have been possible to have obtained the relief of our Koreans without the arrest of the criminals, several of whom were identified as notorious men, whose seizure was necessary to the peace and safety of the community. But we never would have had them punished on our own account or to gratify revenge, so we politely thanked the magistrate for his tactful suggestion, but begged to be excused.
We found the town of Chosan, where we stopped on the evening after leaving Wewon, quite a unique and interesting little place. It is situated near the Yalu, or, as the Chinese call it, the Amno River, which forms the boundary line between Korea and China. Two “kisus,” a sort of soldier police, were sent out three miles to meet us, and preceded us into the town, blowing trumpets all the way, to our helpless annoyance and disgust, for they either could not or would not understand that this sort of demonstration was most distasteful to us both.
As at Kangai, more and more soldiers met us at intervals. There were flags, music, crowds, and again we entered the town like a circus. The crowds, however, were kept well back, the place was much smaller, and we were undisturbed at the magistracy. As soon as we entered the house a small tray was brought, with cups of hot ginger tea, most restful and refreshing, the kind thought of the magistrate, who, unlike others, did not force himself at once upon us, but considerately waited until we were a little rested and refreshed. We found here a custom which we had not met elsewhere, that of sounding a bell every morning at a certain hour, when all morning fires must be extinguished, not to be relit until late in the afternoon.
We were compelled to go on some miles farther to obtain a boat for our short trip down the Yalu. In rainy weather the rapids between this point and Weju are rather dangerous, but at this time it was only a swift current, which made the trip the pleasanter. We found a Korean junk, which served our purpose as well as any that were to be had, which was flat-bottomed, and thirty feet long by three wide. This would carry our attendants, our packs, two or three boatmen and ourselves. Some mats were rigged on bamboo poles above us for an awning, and others stretched across the middle of the boat for a partition, which left one half for the use of the natives, while we reserved the other for ourselves. Here we spent three days and nights; during the latter, however, we always anchored near the shore. Provisions in plenty were obtained from the villages we passed, when a great many people came out to kugung; but here we had the advantage, and while quite able to talk to them from the boat, were not forced to permit more than we liked to examine us and our belongings.
One night we were wakened with the cry of “Pull, pull!” “Fire, fire!” and found the boat was on fire. Some one had fallen asleep while smoking and dropped hot ashes among combustibles; but we were close to the shore, there was plenty of water and people to use it. The blaze was soon out, and nothing thrilling came to pass. Thus was it ever with our adventures. While danger in one form or another made itself known, as if to prove beyond a doubt our Father’s care, we were kept as safe and unharmed as a child in its mother’s arms; and were we not with the everlasting arms underneath us?
As we drifted down the Amno those lovely spring days, with China lying on one side of us and Korea on the other, the contrast was wonderfully marked, almost as much, indeed, as if the two nations had been separated by oceans rather than a river. This difference too was almost as marked in the physical features of the country as in national customs. On the Korean shore the trees were mostly of pine; on the China side, of oaks and other deciduous varieties. The Korean peasants’ huts were of mud, straw thatched; the Chinese houses of brick or stone, roofed with tile. Koreans dressed in white were plowing with oxen; Chinese farmers in blue were plowing with horses. Rhododendrons gave a lovely roseate tinge to the rocks and hills on either side. It was easy for the passing traveler to see which country bore the greater appearance of prosperity and thrift.
On the evening of the 27th of April we reached Weju. Fortunately no official notice had gone before, and there were no trumpets, drums, harps, sackbuts, psalteries and all kinds of music at hand to make our lives a burden. A chair was hired for Mr. Underwood, and in the kindly protection of the deepening twilight we surreptitiously entered these conveyances and were carried into the city as quietly and unobtrusively as happy common folks.
And now, to return a little, soon after leaving Pyeng Yang we had met a Mr. Yi, of Weju, an agent of the Bible Society, then on his way to Seoul; but when he heard where we were going he concluded to return with us. Mr. Underwood was at that time trying to decide whether Weju or Pyeng Yang would be the better place for a sub-station, with a half-formed plan to purchase a house, to which we could go when itinerating, in charge of which we might place a care-taker, who would also be helper, intending to select from among the converts in that region, if possible, one of the most capable and earnest. This plan was in part communicated to Mr. Yi, and seemed to strike him most favorably. He shortly proposed to precede us to Weju and select such a place. Mr. Underwood, however, told him plainly that he must on no account purchase or promise to purchase any such house for us; that, as our plans were indefinite, we could not buy until we had seen the city and the Christians, and, in a word, until we had some data by which to decide whether we needed such a house there at all. And even then the locality and the house must first be seen by us.
We, however, consented that he should go in advance and arrange at some inn or Christian home for our entertainment, so that we could be quietly and quickly housed on entering the town. We also consented that some inquiries should be made as to what houses in localities convenient for work were purchasable, and at what price, so that we might have something definite to consider on reaching there. Accordingly he left us before we reached Kangai and hurried on to Weju. When we arrived, therefore, he met us and conducted us with much éclat to a very commodious and nice bungalow, which he said was his own. Here we were introduced to his consumptive wife, his aged father, and his little children.
According to custom, we sent our passport to the magistrate as soon as we arrived. This scarcely reached his office before an order was sent out for the arrest of our servants and helper, who were forthwith dragged off to the yamen, beaten and locked up. We had hardly received this disconcerting news when it was announced that some messengers had arrived from his excellency with a very generous present of chickens, eggs, nuts, fruit and other edibles. These articles again had barely been received and the messengers not well out of sight when officers arrived with orders to arrest our host and have him beaten. This very contradictory conduct was certainly disquieting, and we were at a loss to conjecture what it meant.
A BUTCHER SHOP
BASKET SHOP
However, we had not long to wait. The deputy or vice-magistrate was shortly afterwards announced, and before he left, he gave Mr. Underwood to understand that his honor the magistrate had been imbibing rather freely and was not altogether responsible for his honorable (?) conduct, and that he, the deputy, hoped, therefore, that we would overlook his slight playfulness in arresting and beating our poor innocent people. These little aberrations were, he said, quite frequent, and of course when once we understood what was to be expected and the reason, no concern need be felt. We were, of course, immensely comforted and soothed by this explanation, and rested with quiet minds in the happy consciousness that it was entirely uncertain what sort of magisterial and honorable earthquake or cyclone might strike us next; assured it would be all right, as he intended no harm in his sane moments. The poor deputy, in a strait betwixt two (the magistrate near at hand, and the Foreign Office in Seoul, represented by our passport), had been trying to smooth over the magistrate’s uncivil reception of the passported foreigners, by offerings of said chickens, eggs, etc., and this was the explanation of the strange combination of presents and punishments.
Drunkenness is, I am sorry to say, very common in Korea. The people do not, as in Japan and China, raise tea, and even the wealthiest have apparently only recently learned the use of either tea or coffee, which the common people are far too poor to buy. Milk, strange to say, they have never used, and they are therefore without a harmless beverage which they can offer their friends on convivial occasions. As it is, they resort only too generally to wines and some very strong alcoholic drinks, which they make themselves.
We had had Christian workers at Weju for some months, one of whom Mr. Underwood had appointed and two who had constituted themselves such, of whom we were doubtful then, and later had cause to be more so, and who now hoped to prove themselves so useful to us that we would give them some good-paying position in the mission. Several of our experiences at Weju were very bitter and disappointing to us, for the insincerity of men whom we trusted was made clear, and yet at the same time they were instructive, for they taught us to be very slow and cautious in investing men with responsibility, and to be very guarded both in receiving converts and in using money, and helped to strengthen us in those ideas of rigid self-support which Mr. Underwood had already, from the study of Dr. Nevius’ book, begun to consider deeply and to some extent follow. One of the self-appointed begged us to start a Christian school in a place where as yet there was no opening for it, and to put him in as teacher with a good salary. “But,” Mr. Underwood objected, “we are not yet ready for such a school, and I cannot start a school merely to give you a living.” Such unconcern for his material interest grieved him sorely. Long he pleaded his need and begged with great naïveté that we would then inform him how he was to subsist, with refreshing guilelessness rolling the whole of the responsibility of his existence upon us. We were obliged to tell him with some emphasis that we were not here to provide incomes for indolent men, but to further the gospel.
Another man whom we had trusted had given us altogether exaggerated, and we feared intentionally false, accounts of the interest in Kangai, of which we had failed to find any signs. He did not suppose we would go there to verify the reports which were to accrue to his credit. But another and still more annoying experience awaited us. The agent Yi told us that the house we were in belonged to us, that in spite of our repeated injunctions he had bought it for us, and had sold his own little home in part payment and installed his family here. This was now the only shelter of his aged father, his sick wife and his helpless little ones. The scheming fellow had indeed placed us in a serious predicament. To turn these weak and helpless people into the street for the sins of this man was not to be thought of; to allow the man to profit by his dishonest trick would be to encourage every covetous hypocrite who sought to make gain out of the church and to misuse consecrated funds. Fortunately within ten days after a sale the money or deeds may be demanded back, and so we made him ask back his own house and return the one we had used, with a slight extra payment, to the original owner. It is due to the British Bible Society to say that they were of course deceived in this man, as we are all liable to be at times, no matter how careful. The distance from his employers at which he was working made supervision almost impossible.
We were visited by a great many people, mostly men, who seemed deeply interested in Christianity and eager for baptism. Over one hundred such applicants presented themselves. Mr. Underwood examined them with great care, and found that all had studied the Scriptures and tracts with great assiduity, and nearly all were well informed in the cardinal truths of the gospel. One man was quite a phenomenon of a rather useless kind of Biblical erudition. He knew the number of chapters and verses in the Old and New Testament (Chinese, of course), the number of characters, the number of times the name of God and Christ occur, and a variety of similar facts, showing he had an extremely facile memory, but proving nothing with regard to his conversion. I could not help regarding the poor man with compassion. It seemed too bad that he should have taken so much pains and spent so many hours of toil to gain non-essentials when the sweet bread of life and honey out of the rock might have been had so simply and easily, had he only really wanted them, had he learned enough of their wondrous value to desire them. I am afraid that this man and some of the others that we questioned had no inkling of what Christianity really is, but supposed it was a philosophy, fine and good, no doubt, which if adopted would bring them in touch with rich and influential foreigners, and find them speedy employment as teachers, helpers and what not.
What we anxiously, longingly sought for in these applicants were the signs of a sincere change of heart, of a real love for the God who was crucified to save them, and of the fruit of this belief in a change of life and character. Out of the hundred applicants we selected thirty-three, not those who answered most glibly or showed the greatest information, but those who gave almost unmistakable evidence of sincerity of heart and true knowledge of Jesus. I say almost, for it is well-nigh impossible not to make mistakes at times.
We had been forbidden to baptize in Korea, under our passport, and we all crossed the river into China, and there held a communion service, a very solemn and deeply felt occasion to us, and Mr. Underwood baptized these men, the only ones baptized during the whole trip, a larger number than he ever received before, or after that, for some years. These numbers, rather large so early in the history of the mission, were afterward much exaggerated by rumor. No one was able to visit this little company of newborn souls for two years. No response from the church at home to urgent pleas for help; exacting demands of work in Seoul, sickness which took us to America, made it impossible for any one to go and strengthen, encourage and uphold them. With no pastor, few books but Chinese, they were sadly neglected, and humanly speaking, it would hardly be surprising if they were scattered and lost as sheep without a shepherd. We had hoped to visit them at least once a year, but had no idea how the work near home would grow and how impossible it would be to leave. These men were not of the city of Weju, but from some little hamlets at some distance, some of them fifteen or twenty miles away. Several of the men were already well known to Mr. Underwood and had been under instruction for more than a year, and some had been reported ready for baptism by Mr. Saw, who had been employed by Mr. Ross when he came to Seoul three years before.
This is to show that a horde of new professors, of whom we knew nothing, were not rashly baptized in zeal to increase the list of church-members, as was stated by persons who were ignorant of the real facts. All were rigidly examined, all had been long prepared, and although two missionaries who paid a visit to Weju on their way to China two years later, and one who made a long stay eight or nine years later, said they found none of these Christians, we believe God was able to keep his own. It would not be easy, knowing neither the names of the men nor the villages where they lived, to find them, especially when we remember the roving, almost nomadic character of the people, most of whom had probably moved quite away, the Japanese war having worked marvelous changes. More than half of the population of Weju and vicinity seemed to melt away during that disastrous war.
When our work in Weju was done we started on our return trip to many waiting duties in the capital. The magistrate had not restored our passport, so we sent for it, but it was not forthcoming. We waited some time, and again meekly requested it; still it was withheld, and at length we learned that on the night of our arrival the magistrate had been in such an irresponsible condition that he had no recollection to whose care he had confided it, and, in fact, the passport was lost. This was indeed a serious state of affairs! To travel without one would involve great risk, to wait for another from Seoul would take more time than we could afford to spare. And, indeed, whether we should believe that it was really lost, or that this was only the excuse of an inimical magistrate who meant to detain us there for some dark purpose, was a question. After some annoying delay, however, it was found and duly returned, and with sad farewells from our friends, but with the hope and intention of returning soon to feed these lambs of God’s fold we left Weju, to which we have never as yet been permitted to go back.
Mr. Underwood and I discussed long and earnestly on our return trip the comparative merits of Pyeng Yang and Weju for the establishment of a sub-station. In the one the opening was more hopeful, the other held the more advantageous position. We at length concluded to leave the matter open and allow future events to decide where we should start our station. We returned to Seoul by the main road, with as few delays as possible, and had an uneventful trip, troubled by no mobs or robbers. The season was somewhat advanced and the inns were very hot, but the country was beautiful, with many varieties of the loveliest flowers. Lilies of the valley we found growing in masses not ten feet from the roadside, lilacs, eglantine, sweet violets and quantities of other sweet-scented flowers filled my chair. We found ourselves safely at home near the middle of May, having been absent over two months, traveled more than a thousand miles, treated over six hundred patients, and talked with many times that number.
We were dismayed to find on our return that one of the too loyal missionaries had, in supposed obedience to the edict, closed the little room, where services had been held with the natives, and they were worshiping secretly in one or another of their own little homes. We at once threw open our own house and regularly gathered the Christians there, till all the mission were willing to use the little chapel again.
Shortly after our return the queen invited me to a private audience, in order to give me a very unique pair of gold bracelets, which she had ordered made for a wedding present, and which had not been ready before we went to the country. She also gave a ring set with a beautiful pearl for my husband. She kindly asked about our trip, and was, as usual, all that was friendly and considerate. I wish I could give the public a true picture of the queen as she appeared at her best, but this would be impossible, even had she permitted a photograph to be taken, for her charming play of expression while in conversation, the character and intellect which were then revealed, were only half seen when the face was in repose. She wore her hair like all Korean ladies, parted in the center, drawn tightly and very smoothly away from the face and knotted rather low at the back of the head. A small ornament (indicating her rank, I suppose, as I have never seen any other woman wear one) was worn on the top of the head; fastened by a narrow black band. One or two very ornamental long hairpins of gold filigree set with coral, pearls or jewels were stuck through the knot of hair at the back. She usually wore a yellow silk chogerie, or jacket waist, like those worn by all Korean women, fastened with a pearl or amber button and a very long flowing blue silk skirt. All her garments were of silk, exquisitely dainty.
Her majesty seemed to care little for ornaments, and wore very few. No Korean women wear earrings (except young girls in the north, who wear a large silver hoop), and the queen was no exception, nor have I ever seen her wear a necklace, a brooch, or a bracelet. She must have had many rings, but I never saw her wear more than one or two of European manufacture, set with not so many nor so large diamonds as numbers of American women of moderate means and station often display. She had any number of beautiful watches, which she never wore. According to Korean custom, she carried a number of filigree gold ornaments decorated with long silk tassels fastened at her side. So simple, so perfectly refined were all her tastes in dress, it is difficult to think of her as belonging to a nation called half civilized.
On the occasion of this visit she gave me a fresh proof of her thoughtful kindness. I was wearing my wedding dress and very thin satin slippers, and as I was leaving it suddenly began to rain. My chair was nearly half a mile distant, waiting outside the gate, according to rule. The queen, whom nothing escaped, noted the rain, and my difficulty. She came in person to the window and imperatively ordered word to be sent to the gate for my chair to be brought to the waiting room.
PLEASURE HOUSE. [PAGE 22]
But this was too much. The officials who attended me there said that such an exception as this in my favor would awaken bitter criticism and jealousy, that one of the highest officials in the land was at that moment waiting at the gate for the shower to pass so that he could attend at an audience, and would be obliged to walk through the rain. They therefore begged that I would wave the fulfilment of the queen’s order and walk to my chair. I saw the reason and the good sense in their protest, and of course at once consented, as much comforted by the queen’s kind intention as if my slippers and silk gown had been well protected. This rule for the exclusion of chair coolies was changed soon after, and my chair was brought close to the royal apartments.
That summer was passed on a high bluff on the banks of the river, in a Korean summer house, which belonged to the king, which their majesties had allowed our mission to use a previous year, and which favor was now extended to us. It was situated on the rocks about fifty feet above the water, and was one of those charming, cool and picturesque summer refuges which Koreans understand building to perfection. Its roof, with artistically upward curving corners, was supported on several stout pillars, but its walls were all windows of light wood, in fancy open-work designs, which were covered with paper on one side, and which, being made to swing out and hook to the roof, formed a very effective awning. Here with a breeze always sweeping through, effectively screened from the sun, with a perfect view of the mountains and the Han River, with its lovely green valley, Mr. Underwood worked nearly all summer on his small dictionary, Mr. Gale or Mr. Hulbert giving him much useful help at times. My husband had been at work on a larger dictionary, which he planned to make a very full and complete one, for nearly three years, and had already many thousands of definitions of words with synonyms. It was to be both Korean-English and English-Korean, not like the French, merely the Korean into the foreign tongue. It was a darling scheme of his heart, on which he was putting all the time that could be spared from direct mission work; but persuaded by his brethren that something was sorely needed immediately by missionaries now beginning to arrive, he laid his magnum opus aside for the present, not without regret, but without a backward look, and working without cessation from early dawn into the night hours all that long summer, prepared and finished the small dictionary, for the convenience at the present indigent moment of those who were struggling with the language.
The following fall, the loved secretary, Dr. Mitchell, and Mrs. Mitchell visited our mission and gave us all much advice and help, for which we were most grateful. We were not then quite so well housed as now. Our homes were mud-walled and rather damp, often leaking badly in rainy season and admitting much frosty air through numerous cracks in the winter. Many of our windows were not glazed, but merely covered with paper. During the doctor’s visit there came one night a heavy storm of wind and rain, which beat against the window near our bed, and thoroughly demolished it, the rain pouring in on the floor. The roof leaked over us, but with umbrellas and waterproofs we kept quite dry. In the morning, however, at the sight of the flooded floor and the paper windows hanging in shreds, Dr. Mitchell gave us a severe reprimand for our carelessness, warning us that missionaries are far too expensive commodities to be so ill protected. A lesson it were well for all young missionaries to learn, but which, as a rule, alas! they are too slow to heed.