A few days later, after asking many questions about my own country, she said rather sadly, “Oh, that Korea were as happy, as free and as powerful as America!” Here was another opportunity which I tried to improve by saying, that America, though rich and powerful, was not the greatest or the best, attempting to picture that better land without sin, pain or tears; a land of endless glory, goodness and joy. “Ah!” exclaimed the queen, with unspeakable pathos, “how good it would be if the king, the prince and myself might all go there!”
Poor queen! her kingdom threatened on all sides, at that time in the hands of an ancient foe, traitors and relentless enemies among her own people and kindred, and some of the men whom she had raised and advanced ready and plotting then to betray her to death. No wonder she sighed for that haven of peace and rest. But I was forced to tell her very sadly, that no sinners might enter there. “No sinners!” Her face fell, the bright look faded, for she knew, accustomed though she was to almost divine honors, that she was a sinner. Then as silence fell in the room, I told her the good tidings, that all who would trust in Jesus were forgiven and purified through him, and so made holy and fit for that country. She listened very thoughtfully, and though no other opportunity came to talk further on this subject, I was unspeakably thankful that I had been permitted on these occasions to point out clearly the way of salvation.
I think that in this time, when her nation’s helplessness and weakness were emphasized, the queen sought to strengthen friendly relations with European and Americans. She gave several formal audiences to European and American ladies, and all who met her felt her powerful magnetic charm and became at once her friends and well-wishers. Twice during that winter the queen bade me ask all my friends to skate on the pond in the palace gardens, graciously asking me to act as hostess in her place and serve tea in the little pavilion near-by.
On Christmas day her majesty sent a beautiful sedan-chair, which had been her own, covered with blue velvet and lined with Chinese brocaded silk, and with it any number of screens, mats, rolls of cloth and interesting and curious articles of Korean manufacture, with great quantities of eggs, pheasants, fish, nuts and dates, and on the Korean New Year’s day five hundred yen, which the queen requested me to use in the purchase of pearls, or something similar, for myself, and a gift as well for my little son.
He was then between four and five years of age, and the palace women were constantly urging me to bring him with me to the palace. This, of course, I would not do without a special request from their majesties, and at length one day the queen asked why I had never brought him, expressed surprise that I considered an invitation necessary, and bade me bring him next day. I therefore took him to the palace, and no sooner had the coolies lowered my chair than the women, who were evidently on the watch for us, clutched him up and bore him away in triumph, I, his mother, knew not whither. Some few minutes elapsed before I was asked to go from the waiting room to the audience, during which I employed my time in lively conjectures as to what was happening to my kidnapped son. When I was called for a little later I found him with the royal party, the center of an admiring circle.
Both the king and queen have always shown a passionate fondness for children. Only a few months ago the king spent nearly four hundred thousand dollars on sorcerers and temples in trying to mollify the smallpox god, which had attacked the youngest son, a boy of about six. So no wonder they were kind to the small American. The queen ordered nuts and candies brought in, and insisted on his eating then and there, although, knowing that it was bad form in the eyes of Koreans as well as of foreigners to eat in the royal presence, and fearing for his health as well (for he had never as yet eaten nuts), I begged her majesty to allow this treat to be postponed. His looks and actions were praised far beyond their deserts, and every expression noted and remarked upon. The queen drew the child to her side in a motherly fashion, placing her hand on his forehead, remarked anxiously that it was too hot.
When we were ready to go, the king, to my amazement, actually knelt down in front of the baby, and with his own “jade” fingers buttoned on the little coat and made a brave attempt to tie the cap strings, one of which, I blush to confess, in the unfamiliar tug was quite torn from its moorings. Of course I was overwhelmed with confusion over the bad conduct of the ribbon on such an occasion, but the king overlooked it, and farewells were said and again the child was spirited swiftly away by the palace women. I found him in the women’s quarters handed round like a curio from one to another, petted, caressed, discussed, half-frightened, but demure.
Poor palace women! with no homes or children, living such an aimless, shut-in life, a child in their midst was a godsend indeed. But all Koreans are extremely fond of children. A child is an open sesame to their hearts and homes at all times. God blesses the missionary babies, and these little preachers open doors that yield to no other touch than their little dimpled fingers. From palace to hovel I never found a woman whose heart would not soften, whose eyes would not brighten, whose interest could not at once be enlisted by the sight of a child.
That evening as we returned home through the narrow and winding streets of Seoul we were quite an imposing procession. A number of palace lantern bearers accompanied us, each carrying the gayly-colored silk official lanterns of their majesties, and preceding us were a train of servants, carrying on their heads great trays of oranges, nuts, dried persimmons and candies. It took little imagination, looking at those men in their Eastern attire, at the lanterns and streets, and even our own chair with its oriental splendor, to transport ourselves into the middle of a chapter of the Arabian nights, with a little Aladdin sitting in my lap and the slaves of the ring attending us home.
Soon after Christmas I dressed a Christmas tree for the royal family, but to my great vexation, the effect was quite spoiled because their majesties were too impatient to wait till dark to view it, and one cannot lock the doors on kings and queens and forbid them to do as they will in their own palaces. There were no heavy hangings or means of darkening the room, and so the poor little candles flickered in a sickly way in the glaring daylight, and I felt that Western customs were lightly esteemed in the critical eyes of the East.