One of them, a brawny fellow whom we called Pat, from his resemblance to gentlemen of the nationality which favors that name, at a bound had singled out his prey from the midst of the crowd and dragged him forth from his encircling friends and protectors.
He dragged him forth in the usual approved Korean method, under such circumstances, by the top-knot, a very convenient and effective handle, for a man once in the grasp of his enemy in this way is practically at his mercy. He was soon on the ground being pummelled. But it must be remarked that we were but a little party, four coolies, one helper, one missionary, one woman, and they were a hundred or more strong. Our calling and dearest hopes forbade our using severe measures, nor would they, even firearms, have availed for long, but would only have served to make enemies for us on all sides, supposing we had frightened this crowd into order. So it behooved us to make peace, and speedily, for there were black looks and angry and threatening murmurings as the friends of the culprit drew near, preparing to defend him.
METHOD OF IRONING. [PAGE 46]
So Mr. Underwood rushed down into the crowd, drew off our exasperated coolie, and quieted the rising storm. But Patrick could not depart without giving some expression to his indignation, and waving his chair rod like a shillalah in the air around his head, he stood at the top of the steps, his back to the crowd (the pure Korean method in quarrels), vociferously announcing to whom it might concern his opinion of such actions in general, and this one in particular, and bidding them, in the spirit of James Fitz James at the ford
“Come one, come all, this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I.”
But my husband saw that it would be best to get away while we could without exasperating them further, and before the temper of the crowd should change again for the worse. A similar occurrence in either China or Japan would almost certainly have ended very differently for us.
The Koreans do not bear malice, nor are they very revengeful or cruel without great provocation. We merely had to do with a rough crowd, who gathered thinking we were probably a base sort of people; and when they saw that we behaved as quiet, decent Koreans would do, they respected our reserve and curbed their curiosity, though a few boys threw stones and hooted, and they all followed us a few rods outside the village, but we soon found ourselves peacefully alone.
Before passing on I must say a few words on the general effectiveness of the top-knot method. It is a great pity men do not wear their hair in this way in America. We women who favor women’s rights would soon find it a mighty handle by which to manage them, for in the hands of a discerning woman it is indeed an instrument of unlimited possibilities. Who would care to wield a scepter abroad, who could wield a top-knot at home? By one of these well-tied arrangements have I beheld a justly irate wife dragging home her drunken husband from the saloon; and firmly grasping this, I have seen more than one indignant female administering that corporal punishment which her lord and master no doubt richly deserved. The Korean wife stands and serves her husband while he eats, she works while he smokes, but when family affairs come to a certain crisis, she takes the helm (that is to say, the top-knot) in hand, and puts the ship about.
At another of our stopping places on this road we found a magistrate who had been so long in the interior and who was so ignorant and illiterate that he neither knew the uses of a passport, nor could read it when presented. This was serious, indeed, for here with a rough and curious crowd to be refused the shelter of the magistracy might mean our being subjected to mob violence, and would almost certainly insure our passing the night on the road. Here we must exchange exhausted pack-ponies for fresh ones, here we must obtain money for the next stage, and food and fire for our tired coolies and ourselves. So when our helper returned with the disquieting news that the magistrate would none of us, “the captain” donned his harness, and passport in hand, strode into the presence, gesticulated, I am afraid, stamped, waved the passport in the air, flung it to the ground, and by dint of noise and vehemence succeeded in impressing the astonished little official with a sense of the dignity and importance of the Foreign Office passports in the hands of strenuous Westerners.