During an audience with a foreigner, the manner of the Emperor has an air of frankness and singular bonhomie. He talks with every one, pointing his remarks with graceful gestures, and interrupting his sentences with melodious and infectious laughter. The mark of the Emperor’s favour is the receipt of a fan. When a foreigner is presented to him, it is customary to find upon the conclusion of the audience a small parcel awaiting his acceptance, containing a few paper fans and sometimes a roll of silk. The Emperor rarely exceeds this limit to his Imperial patronage, for, like the rest of his people, he cannot afford to be unduly generous.
The dress of his Majesty upon these occasions is remarkable for its impressive and Imperial grandeur. A long golden silk robe of state, embroidered with gold braid, with a girdle of golden cord, edged with a heavy gold fringe, covers him. While the magnificence of this attire excites envy in the heart of any one who sees it, the ease and dignity of his carriage suggest his complete unconsciousness of the impression which he is creating in the minds of his guests.
The Emperor is ignorant of Western languages, but he is an earnest student of those educational works which have been translated for the purposes of the schools he has established in his capital. In this way he has become singularly well informed upon many subjects. He speaks and writes Chinese with fluency, and he is a most profound student of the history of his own people. The method and system of his rule is based on the thesis of his own personal supervision of all public business. If there be some little difference between the Utopia of his intentions and the actual achievement of his government, it is impossible to deny his assiduity and perseverance. He is a kind, amiable, and merciful potentate, desirous of the advancement of his country. He works at night, continuing the sessions and conferences with his Ministers until after dawn. He has faults, many, according to the Western standards by which I have no intention of judging him. He has also many virtues; and, he receives, and deserves, the sympathy of all foreigners in the vast works of reform which he has encouraged in his dominions.
THE HALL OF AUDIENCE, SEOUL
His Majesty is progressive. In view of the number and magnitude of the developments which have taken place under his rule, it is impossible to credit him with any of those prejudices against Western innovations which have distinguished the East from time immemorial. There are special schools in Seoul for teaching English, French, German, Russian, Chinese and Japanese; there is a School of Law, a School of Engineering and Science, a School of Medicine, and a Military Academy. These are but a few minor indications of the freedom of his rule, the sure sign of a later prosperity. He is tolerant of missionaries, and he is said to favour their activities. It is certain that his rule permits great liberty of action, while it is distinguished by extraordinary immunity from persecution. His reign is in happy contrast with the inter-regnum of the Regent, Tai Won Kun, who regarded priests and converts as a pest, and who eradicated them to the best of his ability.
As the autocratic monarch of a country, whose oldest associations are opposed to all external interference, the attitude of his Majesty has been instinct with the most humane principles, with great integrity of purpose and much enlightenment. It cannot be said that his reign has been a failure, or that it has not tended to the benefit of his people and his realms. Certain evil practices still exist, but his faults as an Emperor are, to a great extent, due to the worthlessness of his officials. Indeed, he frequently receives the condemnation which should be passed upon the minds and morals of his Ministers.
Saving Yi Yong-ik, the most important figure in the Court is the mature and elderly Lady Om, the wife of his Majesty. In a Court which is abandoned to every phase of Eastern immorality, it is a little disappointing to find that the first lady in the land no longer possesses those charms of face and figure, which should explain her position. There is no doubt that the Lady Om is a clever woman. She is most remarkably astute in her management of the Emperor, whose profound attachment to her is a curious paradox. Lady Om is mature, fat, and feebly, if freely, frolicsome. Her face is pitted with small-pox; her teeth are uneven; her skin is of a saffron tint. There is some suggestion of a squint in her dark eyes, a possible reminder of the pest which afflicts all Koreans. She paints very little and she eschews garlic. Her domination of the Emperor is wonderful. Except at rare intervals, and then only when the assent of Lady Om to the visit of a new beauty has been given, he has no eye for any other woman. Nevertheless, the Lady Om has not always been a Palace beauty; she was not always the shining light of the Imperial harem. Her amours have made Korean history; only two of her five children belong to the Emperor; yet one of these may become the future occupant of his father’s throne.
