CHAPTER VIII

MR. CHOY CHO SI

ELDER YANG AND FAMILY

Ten years had passed, the refugees were still in Japan, but Eastern vengeance does not tire or sleep, least of all forget. A man named Hong, probably employed by the government, went to Japan, ingratiated himself with Kim Ok Kiun, decoyed him to Shanghai, and there murdered him, and on April the 12th, 1894, a Chinese gunboat brought the assassin and his victim’s remains to Chemulpo. Arrived in Korea, the body of the murdered man was divided and sent through the eight provinces. Two of the other refugees had gone to America, and one Pak Yung Ho remained in Japan. All three are to be heard from again. While we all shuddered at and deplored this revolting deed, a stain upon any government, it must be remembered that the man was a political criminal of theblackest dye, and that while any nation would under similar circumstances, if possible, have executed him as a traitor and assassin, the Korean government was that of unenlightened Eastern people who have not learned that revenge has no place in just punishment.

Mr. McKenzie—The First Church Built by Natives—Mr. McKenzie’s Sickness—His Death—Warning to New Missionaries—The Tonghaks—Mr. Underwood’s Trip to Sorai in Summer—Native Churches—Our Use of Helpers—Christians in Seoul Build their Own Church—Epidemic of Cholera—Unhygienic Practices—Unsanitary Condition of City.

In the meanwhile, in the fall of 1894, Mr. McKenzie, who had arrived from Canada in the winter of 1893, and, as we have said, had gone to Dr. Hall’s relief, after his return decided to go to the interior, the better to learn the language and people, and to live there as much as possible in every way like a native. Mr. Underwood advised him to go to the village of Sorai, or Song Chun, then under his care, where he had baptized almost the first converts ever received in the Korean church. Here he found a few Christians who received him as a brother. He made his home with one of them, and at once began to preach Christ by example. Long before the people understood his broken Korean they read his beautiful life, and little by little a change came over the whole community. We all thought of him often in his loneliness in that far-off hamlet, where, though he was a great light to the people, there was no real companionship for him. At Christmas we sent him a box of home-made bread, plumb-cake, canned fruits and vegetables, tea and milk and sugar, for we knew he had no foreign food and that he was living solely on Korean diet, but we did not know that it consistedof rice chiefly, with a chicken once a week, and occasionally a few eggs.

When our box reached him, he handed the contents all over to the Koreans. He wrote that hedarednot taste them, knowing that if he did it would be impossible to go back to native food. Meanwhile one and another of the villagers and people in the vicinity were giving up their old heathen idols and turning to Christ.

Some years before the Christians of that village had asked Mr. Underwood to give them a church, but, like the young man who came to Jesus, they went away sorrowful, when told they must build it themselves. Now, however, they again took up the idea in a different spirit. Near the village was a rising piece of ground on which stood a little grove, in midst of which had been for many years the shrine where the village deities were worshiped. This had long been neglected and destroyed, and here it was decided to build the new church. Every one gave as the Lord had prospered him, gladly, enthusiastically, and a heathen master builder undertook to direct the erection of the building on half pay, because it was for the great “chief God of heaven,” as he understood. Very likely he knew little enough of the one only God for whose service it was raised, but not very long after he learned both to know and love him.

The little meeting house was not a very imposing or lofty structure. It could boast nothing of the magnificence of our American churches, no doubt it would blush to be called a church at all in such a stately company, so I will call it a chapel, and even then it was an humble and unpretentious one,but it was the best building in the place. The poor people put into it their best wood, stones and tiles, the loving labor of their own hands, with fervent prayer. When it was finished no debt hung over it, andGod, who does not see as man sees, blessed and honored it by filling it to overflowing with simple-minded, sincere, earnest people, who came with hearts ready to receive with meekness his word.

PARTY STARTING OUT IN MORNING FROM THATCHED INN.PAGE 199

CHURCH AT SORAI.PAGE 124

In the early summer of 1895, Mr. McKenzie wrote, asking Mr. Underwood to go and dedicate the church and receive a number of applicants for baptism. This he promised to do, but just before he was to start, one sad day in July, when a number of us had met to hold a day of fasting and prayer, a messenger came with the news of the deadly illness of our dear brother, Mr. McKenzie. The pitiful letter, written with his own trembling fingers, showing in every sentence the evidence of terrible suffering and of a mind already unhinged, was followed immediately by the shocking news of his death. The blow fell like a thunderbolt. Such zeal, consecration and usefulness cut short so soon!

It was strange, and yet there was a lesson in it for the noblest class of missionaries. And here let me say just a few words of warning to some who may have the foreign field in view, and to some who are perhaps already on the field. There are men and women, who, being John the Baptist sort of people, enter the work with such zeal and enthusiasm and allow themselves to become so overwhelmed with the awful responsibility for these dying millions (which indeed every true missionary feels only too heavily), that they forget the just demands of the body of this death. They forget that a solitary life gradually unseats the intellect, and that a body which has reached maturity, fed on plenty of nutritious food, cannot suddenly be shifted to a meagre, unaccustomed and distasteful diet of foreign concoction, and retain its power to resist disease, and to accomplish the heavy work they mercilessly exact from it, like Egyptian taskmasters demanding brickwithout straw. They forget that the spirit cannot remain united to the body unless the claims of the latter (in which are included those of the brain) are satisfied, and so they drop, one by one, our noblest and most needed laborers. But even so, they do not die entirely in vain, they leave an example of Christlikeness and devotion which preaches eloquently, and is an inspiration to all their brethren.

And yet if they could only have gone on living and preaching, as they might, had they been able to mix with their enthusiasm and consecration, wisdom and temperance! During my short experience I have seen several illustrations of what Mr. McKenzie’s death brought home so startlingly to us all. We learned afterwards that he had been sick for some weeks, his mind had been somewhat affected early in the history of the disease, the progress of which had not been very rapid, but as he had no companion who could observe the danger signals, and no doctor to help, his invaluable life was lost.

The more intelligent natives urged him to send for a doctor, but he hesitated to call others from their work to undertake a long difficult trip in the unhealthy summer season, lest it should prove to be only a passing temporary ailment. And so he went on doctoring himself (just as any missionary alone in the interior is tempted to do), delaying to call for help, from his very unselfishness and conscientious fear of giving trouble.

“Take care of your head. Don’t work too long in the sun,” he said to an old woman by the roadside, “or you may lose your mind as I have.”

He related to his friend, the Korean leader, accounts of long nights of anguished struggle with Satan, and then again of hours of ecstatic joy with his Saviour. The intolerable agony in his head grew steadily worse, until the end. The Koreans felt the terrible blow deeply, but theyhave never ceased to love and revere Mr. McKenzie’s memory. They cannot speak of him now after a lapse of several years without tears. Their loving hands prepared him for the grave and covered his bier with flowers. They held a funeral service as best they knew, after our custom, with prayers and hymns, and laid his loved remains in a quiet place, not far from the little church which he had been the instrument in God’s hands of building. His influence is still felt in the village and for miles around. He lived Christ and laid the foundations of that church on a rock. He had a reputation for great courage and prowess, and it is said that his presence alone saved Sorai from invasions of Tonghaks.

This society played a conspicuous part in the opening of the China-Japan war, its name means literally Eastern doctrine, and its aim was in brief, “the East for Easterners,” or “Korea for Koreans.” They declared their desire and intention to down all Westerners, Western ideas, reforms and changes, and to restore and re-establish old laws and customs. The sudden organization and wonderful popularity of this society was doubtless caused by the outrageous conduct of many corrupt officials, who ground down the people mercilessly with unjust taxation and brought about a general feeling of unrest and bitter discontent.

They were in many respects like the Boxers of China, and believed they had immunity from death and could not be hurt by bullets. They soon spread all over the land, a terror to officials, and the Korean government was powerless to stop them. They gave up the worship of all minor deities and honored only the Lord of the heavens. They forced people everywhere to join their ranks and subscribe for their support, levying taxes on small and great. Starting like many other movements, in a goodand patriotic determination to do away with abuses and institute reforms, it grew into a great evil and terror in the whole land. Bad and unprincipled men, of whom there are plenty in all climes, who are restless and ready to throw themselves into anything which promises a change, knowing that no change can be for the worse for them, joined in large numbers, and many companies of Tonghaks differed only in name from bands of robbers. As has been said, the government could make no headway against them, and whether or not the aid of China was officially sought, I am not prepared to say, but the fact that China did send troops to Korea, nominally to control this uprising, was used by the Japanese, who claimed that a mutual agreement existed between Japan and China that neither should introduce troops into Korea without the consent of the other, as acasus belli, and they forthwith sent an army to Korea, seized the palace, and sunk a transport bringing Chinamen to Chemulpo.

So much for a brief explanation of the Tonghaks. Large companies of these men threatened on three different occasions to raid Sorai while Mr. McKenzie was there. To show that he leaned on no earthly defense, but only on the arm of the almighty God, he took his gun all to pieces when he heard of their approach. They were told of this, and were deeply impressed; and were so thoroughly convinced that if he was leaning on some mysterious power with such strong confidence, it would be useless and worse to attack him, that they gave up their plan. The third time they decided to attack the place they were said to be ten thousand strong, but after coming part way, they turned back, and never again threatened Sorai, which was the only village in that section which was never raided.

One day Mr. McKenzie heard that a tiger was prowlingaround in the vicinity, and started out with his shotgun to hunt the beast, but fortunately did not have a chance to try conclusions with that weapon, which, however useful in killing partridges, would not be likely to do more than tease a tiger. As soon as we received news of his death, Mr. Underwood and Dr. Wells started that very day for Sorai, to arrange his effects, make sure the death had been as reported, and comfort and encourage the native Christians. Before they returned, Mr. Underwood dedicated the little church, which was packed almost to suffocation, with crowds standing around the doors and windows. He baptized on that day quite a little company, as well as admitted a large number of catechumens and held a memorial service for Mr. McKenzie.

THE THREE STAGES OF MAN IN KOREA1. MARRIED MAN 2. ENGAGED BOY. 3. YOUNG BOY

Mr. Underwood was kept longer than I expected on this trip, and there were no means of postal or telegraphic communication. We women, whose husbands go hundreds of miles into the interior, realize that we must take strong hold on God, and learn patience and faith. When the time for Mr. Underwood’s return had passed, and no news came, I remembered flooded rivers, bands of Tonghaks, the various forms of deadly disease that may attack the man who travels in the country in July or August, and the waiting and suspense grew harder every day.

Every morning I looked up the road, where it curves around the hill, to see if he were coming. Every evening when the hateful twilight hurried into darkness, I strained my aching vision along the awful emptiness of that road, and all night long I listened for the plash of oars on the river, or almost fancied I heard his voice as the boats rounded the point, for he might come in a boat. Sometimes I saw Japanese coming in the distance, and deceived by their dark clothes, thought it was he. Once a native chair came up the road near the house, and they told mehe had come, but it was only a stranger, and the chair passed on. Yet my case was not harder than that of many women in the homelands who must all learn what anxious suspense and long vigils mean, but at length, fearing he was seriously sick, I concluded that I would go and find him.

To do this secrecy was necessary, for none of my foreign friends would allow me to go at that season, if they were informed of my intention. So I called up Mr. Underwood’s trusted literary assistant, and arranged with him to hire ponies. I planned to start from our house in Seoul (we were then at the river cottage), and as nearly every one was out of town, expected to be able to get away without any one’s knowledge. But on the very day, word came that he had already started, and was well on his way home, his ponies had returned, and he, coming by water, was almost due. No use to go now, and in a day or two he was safe among us again, and again in contrition I heard the gentle rebuke, “Oh ye of little faith, wherefore did ye doubt?”

The church in Sorai was the first built and paid for by the natives, was in fact the first Presbyterian church built in Korea. The Christian natives in Seoul had met in a little guest-house on our place, and in similar rooms in other sub-stations. So, Sorai in the van set the marching order, and all others, with almost no exceptions (in the Presbyterian missions), have followed in their lead.

Paid pastors none of them have, but all the stronger ones employ evangelists, whom they often pay in rice or fields or wood, to systematically carry the gospel to their heathen neighbors. It is our custom to select in each church the most earnest and intelligent of the Christians as a leader, who takes charge of the services, and oversight of the flock, and reports progress to the missionary incharge. The leaders are gathered once a year, at the time when farmers have most leisure, at some central place, and instructed in the doctrines of the Bible, church government and history, and careful exegetical Bible study. They are carefully trained in conducting religious services and in preparing illustrated Bible readings. In every way possible the missionary tries to fit these men for their duties. Mr. Underwood is accustomed to hold one of these classes in the city for those who live near enough, and one in the country for those who are at too great a distance to attend the city class, and I believe nearly all the others do the same.

Such is the interest felt in the gatherings and the thirst for more light, that many who are not invited, and who hold no office in the church, travel many miles, bringing their own rice, to attend these classes, which are often crowded to overflowing. The church leaders are rarely paid any salary, even by the natives. Each missionary engaged in evangelistic work is allowed one paid helper, at five dollars a month. This man employs his whole time in this way, and some missionaries who have a large field under their care are allowed two such assistants.

Mr. Underwood has always had a good many men, who freely gave the greater part of their time to the work, or who were paid by the native Christians, or were provided by him with some means of gaining their living which would admit of their giving much time to the work. Some would peddle quinine, at sufficient profit to make a good living. Each bottle is wrapped with a tract, and pains were taken to insure only the best article being placed in the hands of these dealers. Some of these men are placed in charge of little book shops, without any salary, some in charge of a chapel or dispensary, the privilege of occupying the house their only pay. Thereare always a number of young men around him glad and proud to be asked to serve on a special mission here or there, and the young men’s missionary societies band themselves together for systematic gospel work, so that they each week visit some village, distributing tracts and preaching. All these, with the leaders, who are always at his disposal for work in their own vicinity, form a valuable corps of helpers. This plan, or something like it, I believe, is carried out by all the evangelistic missionaries in the Presbyterian missions. Mr. Underwood, also, copying from the Methodists, established a circle of class meetings among the Christians under his care in and around Seoul.

The class leaders meet with him once a week, each bringing his book, make a report of attendances, absences, sickness, removals, backslidings, deaths and conversions. The class leader, being, as far as we know, the best man in his class, and in a way responsible for it, becomes again a very useful helper.

During the spring of 1895 the Presbyterian church in Chong Dong, Seoul, decided to build themselves a place of worship. The people were all of them poor, even according to Korean ideas, paper-hangers, carpenters, small retail shopkeepers, farmers, policemen, soldiers, interpreters, writers, copyists, even chair coolies, gardeners and peddlers, the richest of them rarely earning more than five dollars in gold a month. So we missionaries decided to raise the most of the two thousand yen necessary among ourselves, encouraging the natives to give as much as they could.

Mr. Underwood, however, in trying to impress them with the duty of supporting the Lord’s work liberally, was met one day with the remark, that this was called a foreign religion, and so it was difficult to convince natives that foreigners should not pay its way. “And so it willcontinue to be regarded,” said my husband, “just as long as you allow foreign money to be used in carrying it forward. When you build and own your churches, send out your own evangelists, and support your own schools, then both you and others will feel and realize it is not a foreign affair, but your own.”

“Then,” said the deacon, “we will build the Chong Dong church ourselves.” Mr. Underwood was astonished. “How can you build such a church?” said he. The deacon replied, “Does the pastor ask such a question of what relates to God’s work? With God all things are possible.” Nothing, of course, remained to be said. The missionaries decided that it would be wiser for them to own the land, in case of possible political complications, but the building itself would cost the whole of one thousand yen. The people went to work with a will, the pastor and one or two other missionaries took off their coats and lent a hand at the work, boys hauled stones, Korean gentlemen, scholars, and teachers who had never lifted anything heavier than a pen, set themselves to work on the building, carpenters gave their skilled labor every alternate day, working for their own living only one out of every two, women saved a little rice from each bowl prepared for the family until enough was laid aside to be sold, and gave the money thus earned, and so in manifold ways the money came in and the work grew. At length, however, there were no more funds and the building came to a standstill. No one was willing to go into debt, even to borrow of the missionaries, and it was decided to wait until the way opened.

Just when everything seemed hopelessly blocked, the epidemic of Asiatic cholera broke out. Why Koreans do not have this every summer raging through the whole country is one of the unsolved problems. All sewage runs into filthy, narrow ditches, which are frequently stopped upwith refuse, so as to overflow into the streets, green slimy pools of water lie undisturbed in courtyards and along the side of the road, wells are polluted with drainage from soiled apparel washed close by, quantities of decaying vegetable matter are thrown out and left to rot on the thoroughfares and under the windows of the houses. Every imaginable practice which comes under the definition of unhygienic or unsanitary is common. Even young children in arms eat raw and green cucumbers, unpeeled, acrid berries and heavy soggy hot bread. They bolt quantities of hot or cold rice, with a tough, indigestible cabbage, washed in ditch water, prepared with turnips and flavored with salt and red pepper. Green fruit of every kind is eaten with perfect recklessness of all the laws of nature, and with impunity (and I must say, an average immunity from disastrous consequence) which makes a Westerner stand aghast. Any of us would surely die promptly and deservedly if we presumed to venture one-tenth of the impertinences and liberties with Dame Nature which a Korean smilingly and unconcernedly takes for granted as his common right.

The only solution I have ever reached, and that I hold but weakly, is, that in accordance with the law of the survival of the fittest, none but exceptionally hardy specimens ever reach adolescence, or even early childhood, and that having survived the awful tests of infancy, they are able to endure most trials which befall later.

But even these, so to speak, galvanized-iron interiors are not always proof. It takes time, but every five or six years, by great care and industry, a bacillus develops itself, so hardened, so well armed, so deeply toxic, that even Koreans must succumb, and then there is an epidemic of cholera. Eight years before, in 1887, the plague swept through the land, and thousands fell. Christians, bothmissionaries and natives, united in prayers that God would stay the scourge. Physicians pronounced it contrary to the laws of nature that it should stop before frost came to kill the bacilli, but, in wonderful justification of faith, the ravages of the plague were abruptly checked in the midst of the terrible heat of the last days of August and the first of September.

Difficulty of Enforcing Quarantine Regulations—Greedy Officials “Eat” Relief Funds—Americans Stand Alone to Face the Foe—The Emergency Cholera Hospital—The Inspection Officers—We Decide to Use the Shelter—A Pathetic Case—The Jesus Man—Gratitude of the Koreans—The New Church—The Murder of the Queen—Testimony of Foreigners—The Official Report.

And now again the rod was to fall. The disease began with terrible violence, men in full vigor in the morning were corpses at noon, several members of the same family often dying the same day. It cropped out in one neighborhood after another with a steadily marked increase every day, that was frightful in its unrelenting, unswerving ferocity. The Japanese and many of the more enlightened Koreans took the alarm early, and seeking the counsel of European and American physicians planned to establish quarantine and sanitary regulations for the whole country, but as an astute young Korean sadly remarked, “It is easy enough to make the laws, it is more than doubtful whether they can be enforced.”

If officials and soldiers are sent to enforce quarantine, there is little doubt among those who know customs and people that only too many of them will be susceptible to a very small bribe. When the necessity for quarantining Seoul from Chemulpo was mentioned, the high officials themselves said it would be impossible on account of the importance of the trade between the two places. One instancewill show the hopelessness of the attempt to carry out sanitary regulations.

In the effort to prevent the enormous and insane consumption of green apples, melons and cucumbers, the sale of these articles was forbidden with a penalty for buyer and seller, and notices of the law posted everywhere. And yet, soon after, my husband passed a stand where they were being sold in large numbers, over which one of these very notices was hung, and several policemen among the buyers were munching the forbidden fruit with a calm relish, edifying to behold. It is due to the government to say that they seemed thoroughly awakened to the situation and were doing all in their power, but were handicapped by the deplorable corruption of many officials. Twenty thousand yen (ten thousand dollars) were granted to fix up a temporary emergency cholera hospital, enforce sanitary laws and prevent the advance of the plague, but this money was, to use a common Korean phrase, “eaten” by greedy underlings on all hands. In the preparation of the hospital, more than twice the number of carpenters needed were employed, and these men passed their time making little articles for private sale, or in standing about doing nothing. A number of petty officials were hired to do little, and improved on their commission by doing nothing but receive their pay.

At a general meeting of the physicians then in the city, European, American and Japanese, Dr. Avison having been chosen by vote director of this emergency hospital and the sanitary work, the Japanese all withdrew, saying they did not care to work under a Westerner, and in the end the Americans only were left to face the foe.

After many discouragements and hindrances an old barracks building was roughly prepared to receive patients, and a corps of nurses and doctors, composed of quite anumber of missionaries (Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, with the assistance of hired Koreans) was formed. The building was very poorly fitted up for such an exigency, the haste with which it was necessary to get it ready, and the character of the place, precluded the possibility of making it very suitable for the purpose. It was open, damp and chilly, with no means of warming or secluding the patients. It was only scantily furnished with such absolute necessities as could be had at short notice in the city. And think not, Oh civilized medical community in America! that “necessities” according to your ideas are synonymous with “necessities” according to our possibilities in Asia. Perhaps you have a fossilized idea that beds and sheets and pillows are necessities. By no means. Our patients lay on the floor, covered with small cotton wool rugs, and back-breaking business it was to nurse them.

But the discouragements connected with our work was not merely the lack of conveniences and almost dire necessities, or the want of proper enforcement of sanitary regulations and of co-operation, and although Dr. Avison and the foreign staff under him worked heroically, and with unwearied devotion, it was an unequal struggle. The majority of natives are not willing to go to hospitals, and it would have been dangerous to try to force them, while many will not permit foreign doctors to treat them even in their homes, or else use Korean medicines with ours. But alas! in many cases the disease is so violent as to defy all that science, aided by every advantage, can do.

It is the most desperately, deadly thing I ever saw, and often medicines seem useless to do more than slightly defer the ultimate result. The poison attacks the nerve centers at once, and every organ is affected. Terrible cramps contract the muscles, the heart fails, the extremitiesgrow cold, the pulse becomes imperceptible, the mind wanders, or suddenly, without previous symptoms, the victim falls and dies at once. Or, after the most violent symptoms of the disease have disappeared, vomiting and pain have ceased, the pulse has become almost normal and the patient nearly ready to be discharged, a mysterious change comes, and the poor victim dies of pneumonia, uræmic convulsions, or some of the other sequellæ of this frightful disease.

Mr. Underwood was placed in charge of inspection offices, which were opened in different districts over the whole city, and all cases reported there received immediate attention. Several of his young Christians were trained by him to carry on this work, he himself at first going out with them, hunting up infected localities, using disinfectants, and teaching the helpers and residents how to purify the premises. These young men worked indefatigably, with intelligence, enthusiasm and courage. The inspectors and all the doctors and nurses wore a badge, consisting of the red cross over the Korean flag, so that even in heathen Korea the sign of the cross was carried everywhere, and dominated the emblem of the Korean government.

The people picked up the idea that lime was a mysterious agent in preventing disease, so it was not uncommon to see a handful of it scattered, a few grains here and there, along the edges of some of the filthiest ditches, or a gourd whitewashed with lime hanging by the door as a sort of charm to drive away cholera.

Koreans call it “the rat disease,” believing that cramps are rats gnawing and crawling inside the legs, going up till the heart is reached; so they offer prayers to the spirit of the cat, hang a paper cat on the house door, and rub their cramps with a cat’s skin. They offered prayers andsacrifices in various high places to the heavens—Hananim—and some of the streets in infected districts were almost impassable on account of ropes stretched across, about five feet high, at intervals of about every twenty-five feet, to which paper prayers were attached. As my coolies, trying to pass along with my chair, broke one of these, I could not help admonishing the owner who came to its rescue, “Better put them up a little higher.”

Aye, put them up higher, poor Korean brother, they are far too near the earth! One of the most pathetic sights in connection with this plague were these poor, wind-torn, rain-bedraggled, paper prayers, hanging helplessly everywhere, the offering of blind superstition to useless dumb gods who can neither pity nor hear.

“They reach lame hands of faith and gropeAnd gather dust and chaff.”

Early in August it was decided, as the plague seemed on the increase, to fill the “Shelter” with cholera patients, and Dr. Avison assigned to Dr. Wells, Mr. Underwood and myself the supervision and care of this place.

The “Shelter,” situated on a good high site outside the walls, with a number of comfortable rooms, with the possibility of hot floors (which proved an unspeakable benefit to the poor cold, pulseless sick), seemed an ideal place for the purpose. It was not very large, it is true, but as most of our patients were either quickly cured or quickly succumbed, we were able to receive a goodly number. Mr. Underwood and Dr. Wells worked indefatigably, stocking it with everything obtainable which could be of use.

My husband arranged for a corps of voluntary native nurses. As the only missionaries available were at workelsewhere, and we had seen too much of hired native official nurses, he decided to ask some of his Christian helpers to do this service for the love of Christ. Cholera is a loathsome disease, only love makes it easy to nurse faithfully and tenderly these poor afflicted creatures, without overwhelming disgust.

Some of the men thus approached belonged to the scholar and gentlemen class, who had never done manual work of any kind, and at first they hesitated. However, they at last decided to undertake the task, and with willing hands and a little training, they turned out to be very satisfactory nurses, faithful and devoted, never shirking the most difficult and repelling work. Every evening a service of prayer and song was held in the central court of the Shelter, where all who were conscious could hear, and we believe that the blessing on that work came in answer to these united prayers, and the public acknowledgment of absolute dependence in God. Here, too, the workers gained new enthusiasm and the strength born of faith and hope.

Dr. Wells’ brilliant management deserves the highest praise. The necessity of caring for my little one, lying sick five miles away, allowed me only alternate nights of service at the hospital, so the labor for the other two members of our trio was severe, but while the need lasted strength was given.

Unspeakably pathetic were many of the scenes we were forced to witness. One poor woman, only that day widowed, with three little ones to care for, was brought in cold and almost pulseless. We spent the night trying to save this poor mother. Early in the morning her eldest, a dear little fellow of eleven, came to watch with and take care of her. To see the anxious little face (a child’s face in the shadow of a great sorrow is the saddest thing onearth) as he chafed her hands and affirmed, half interrogatively, how much warmer they were now than before, and as he looked eagerly to us, every time we entered saying, “Will she live, will she live?” was enough to make one ready to die for that life. We felt that woman must live. And yet—. After a long contest the pulse revived, the extremities grew warm, nearly all untoward symptoms disappeared, we all dared to hope. “She will live now,” joyfully said the child. “Oh, if I could live, it would be good!” said the now conscious mother. But alas! next day the three little ones were motherless and fatherless, and another sad funeral, with one drooping little mourner, joined the awful procession, which nightly filed through the city gates, and covered the surrounding hills with new-made graves. One poor old father watched and tended his boy of fourteen with agonized devotion. The only one left to his old age of what was a few days before a large family. We all worked over the lad with strong hopes, so young, and many of the old had recovered, so much needed, surely he would be spared, but at length the cold young form grew a little colder, the tired little pulse ceased to flutter, and a broken old man followed his last hope to the grave.

And yet we had great cause for devout thankfulness that so many of our patients were spared. Sixty-five per cent of recoveries is almost unheard of, and yet this was our record at the Shelter.

Under God we ascribed this large percentage of cures, mainly to the three following causes: The use of salol as early and in as large doses as possible. Keeping the patients on the very hot floor till warmth returned and circulation improved. And the conscientious and untiring nursing by the native Christians.

Of course this is not the place, nor have I the time, togo into a minute description of the various remedies and forms of treatment used. We believed we were reaching the case with salol, but various other remedies also were used to control the symptoms. In fact, everything we knew was done, and all must be done quickly or not at all. Many of the cases brought to us were in a state of collapse when they arrived. Often the pulse was not perceptible, and yet repeatedly, where we felt that treatment was hopeless, the hot floor and vigorous chafing, with hypodermic administration of stimulants, brought about sufficient reanimation to make it possible to take the salol, and this seemed to act miraculously. It was in obedience to Dr. Wells’ suggestion that we tried this drug which proved such a blessing. In one case, that of a young man of high rank, his family despaired of his life from the first, and finally went home to prepare his grave clothes, but on returning with them in the morning, found him, to their joy and amazement, quite out of danger. Another striking case was that of an old lady nearly seventy years of age. Her son and daughter, as a last resort, but quite hopelessly, brought her to us. She was far gone, unconscious, and almost pulseless. We rubbed her cold extremities with alcohol, keeping her quite warm on a fine hot floor (she lay practically on a stove all night), and to the astonishment of all, after a few hours, steady improvement began and she was soon restored to her delighted friends.

I insert here our medical record, for the benefit of medical readers, giving all the uninterested the privilege of skipping. We received altogether 173 patients, of whom 61 died; of those received, 18 arrived dying or dead; 95 were taken in rigid, of whom only 42 died; 35 were verging on collapse, of whom 2 died; 4 were in partial collapse, of whom none died; 20 were in the first stage, of whomnone died. Of those who died, 25 never reacted, 2 had puerperal complications, 2 were already affected with tuberculosis, 3 developed cerebral meningitis, 1 complication of chronic cystitis, 1 chronic nephritis, and 2 received no salol.

All these recoveries made no little stir in the city, especially as elsewhere nearly two-thirds of those affected died. Proclamations were posted on the walls, telling people there was no need for them to die when they might go to the Christian hospital and live. People who watched missionaries working over the sick night after night said to each other, “How these foreigners love us, would we do as much for one of our own kin as they do for strangers?” Some men who saw Mr. Underwood hurrying along the road in the gray twilight of a summer morning remarked, “There goes the Jesus man, he works all night and all day with the sick without resting.” “Why does he do it?” said another. “Because he loves us,” was the reply. What sweeter reward could be had than that the people should see the Lord in our service. Surely the plague was not all evil when it served to bring the Lord more clearly to the view of the souls he died to save.

A tolerably fair count of the deaths inside the walls each day was possible, since all the dead are carried through two or three gates. The numbers rose gradually to something over three hundred a day and then gradually declined, the plague lasting not quite six weeks. The extra-mural population is probably as large as the intra-mural, including the people within the two miles radius outside the walls. All taken together there are between three and four hundred thousand people.

When the plague was nearly over the following very grateful letter of thanks from the Korean office of Foreign Affairs was sent through the American minister.

The Department of Foreign Affairs.504th Year, 7th Moon, 3d Day.August 22d, 1895.Kim, Minister of Foreign Affairs,to Mr. Sill, United States Minister.Sir: I have the honor to say that my government is deeply grateful to ————— and his friends who have spent a great deal of money for medicines and labored in the management of cholera, resulting in the cure of many sick people. I trust your excellency will kindly convey an expression of thanks to them on behalf of my government. I am, etc., etc.(Signed)Kim Yun Sik.

The Department of Foreign Affairs.504th Year, 7th Moon, 3d Day.

August 22d, 1895.

Kim, Minister of Foreign Affairs,to Mr. Sill, United States Minister.

Sir: I have the honor to say that my government is deeply grateful to ————— and his friends who have spent a great deal of money for medicines and labored in the management of cholera, resulting in the cure of many sick people. I trust your excellency will kindly convey an expression of thanks to them on behalf of my government. I am, etc., etc.

(Signed)Kim Yun Sik.

Gifts were sent to the missionaries, who had assisted at the hospitals, of rolls of silk, fans, little silver inkstands, having the name of the Home Office and the recipient engraved upon them, and most interesting of all, a kind of mosaic mats made of a peculiar sort of reeds grown for the purpose at the island of Kang Wha. These mats have bits of the reeds of different colors skilfully inlaid to form the pattern, and that on those which were given to us was at one end the national emblem, at the other the red cross and the name of the Home Office.

This was of course extremely gratifying. No, more, it was a thing for which to be profoundly grateful that government and people recognized that we, the representatives of our Lord (however inefficient and unworthy), were their friends, and, as far as in us lay, their helpers.

The best, however, was to come. The names of the Koreans who had nursed and served at the Shelter and inspection offices were asked for, and the intention to pay them stated. We told them that the men had done this with no expectation of pay, but to this they would not listen and insisted on rewarding them handsomely. On the receipt of this unexpected, and, for them, large sum, almost all the Christians (quite voluntarily, and to our surprise) put it all into the fund for the new church, consideringit a gift of God, specially sent in answer to prayer, to help them in the enterprise undertaken in faith.

They were, therefore, now able to go on and finish the church, which accommodates, with crowding, two hundred people. It is an unpretentious building, entirely native, substantial as possible with mud walls, tiled roof and paper windows, yet built and finished much in the style of the best Korean houses, none of which knew, at that time, what it was to boast of a pane of glass, or brick or stone walls. Into it the little congregation flocked, and with glad hearts dedicated to God the work of their hands, which through sacrifice, love, faith and prayer was more costly and precious in his sight than gold or ivory, which had not been so sanctified.

Not long after the cholera epidemic, and the events connected with it, occurred the tragedy at the palace—the murder of the brilliant and progressive queen, the friend of progress, civilization and reform.

Her majesty was a brilliant diplomatist, and usually worsted her opponents. The Japanese, after the war, had indeed proclaimed the independence of Korea, yet seemed in practice to desire to establish a sort of protectorate and to direct her policy at home and abroad. Many public offices were filled with citizens of Japan, or Japanese sympathizers as far as possible, and a large body of the Korean troops were drilled by and under the command of Japanese officers.

Realizing that in the patriotic and brilliant queen they had to meet one who would not readily submit to their plans for the Japanizing of Korea, they objected to her participation at all in the affairs of government, and were promised, under compulsion we were told, that these orders should be obeyed. Naturally this was not done, and the queen continued to be a source of confusion androck of offense to them and their plans. Finally a decided change was made in the personnel of the Japanese embassy. Count Inoye, who, in the name of his government, had hitherto promised to the queen the support and protection of Japan was recalled. He was replaced by Count Miura, who was a man of very different tendencies. Count Miura was a very strong Buddhist, and passionately devoted to the supposed interests of Japan as against those of any other nation.

THE ROUND GATE, SEOUL

One morning, the 8th of October, 1895, we heard firing at the palace. This was in time of peace, and such sounds we knew must be portents of evil. All was confusion, nothing definite could be learned, except that certain Japanese troops had arrived at about three in the morning, escorting the Tai Won Kun (the king’s father and the queen’s bitter enemy), and had driven out the native royal guard under General Dye (an American) and were now guarding the palace gates. The air was full of ominous suspicions and whispers, but nothing more definite could we learn till afternoon, when meeting a Korean noble, he told us with face all aghast, that it was currently reported that the queen had been murdered.

In a few hours this news was confirmed with particulars. The Tai Won Kun was at that time under guard, in exile from the court, at his country house, for conspiracy against the king in favor of his grandson, and he of course readily consented to become the leader of the plotters against the queen, to enter the palace at the head of their troops and take possession of the persons of their majesties (and the government incidentally), necessarily, of course, doing away with the queen. The troops therefore marched with the old man in his chair to the palace gates, where all had been made ready. Ammunition had been secretly removed, native troops trained by Americanshad been mostly exchanged for those trained by Japanese, and after a few shots, and scarcely a pretence of resistance, the attacking party entered. It was some distance to the royal apartments, and the rumor of disturbance reached there some time before the attacking party. Her majesty was alarmed. She was a brave woman, but she knew she had bitter, powerful and treacherous foes, and that, like Damocles, a sword suspended by only too slight a thread hung over her life.

The king’s second son, Prince Oui-wha, begged her to escape with him by a little gate which yet remained unguarded, through which they might pass disguised to friends in the city. The dowager queen, however, was too old to go, and her majesty nobly refused to leave her alone to the terror which occupation of the palace by foreigners would insure, trusting no doubt to the positive assurances of protection that had been made to her through Count Inoye, and the more so, as one of the courtiers in waiting, a man by the name of Chung Pung Ha, had assured her that whatever happened she might rest confident that the persons of their majesties would be perfectly safe. This man was a creature of low origin, whom the queen had raised and bestowed many favors upon, and in whom she placed great reliance. He advised her not to hide, and kept himself informed of all her movements. With no code of honor wider or higher than his pocket, he of course became a ready tool of the assassins, and there is much evidence to show he was a party to the conspiracy.

The queen therefore remained in a good deal of uneasiness and anxiety, but only when the Tai Won Kun and the hired assassins rushed in, calling for the queen, did she attempt, alas! too late, to hide.

There was some confusion, in the numerous verbal reportswhich reached us, but two foreigners, a Russian, Mr. Sabbatin, and an American, General Dye, who were eye-witnesses of nearly all that occurred, both agreed in the statement, that Japanese troops under Japanese officers surrounded the courtyard and buildings where the royal party were, and that the Japanese officers were in the courtyard, and saw the outrages which were committed, and knew all that was done by the Japanesesoshior professional cutthroats. About thirty of these assassins rushed into the royal apartments crying, “The queen, the queen, where is the queen?”

Then began a mad and brutal hunt for their prey, more like wild beasts than men, seizing the palace women,1dragging them about by their hair and beating them, trying to force them to tell where the queen was. Mr. Sabbatin was himself questioned and threatened with death. Thesoshiand officers who wore the Japanese uniform passed through the room where his majesty stood trying to divert attention from the queen. “One of the Japanese caught him by the shoulder and pulled him about, and Yi Kiung Chick, the minister of the royal household, was killed by the Japanese in his majesty’s presence. His royal highness, the crown prince, was seized, his hat torn off and broken, and he was pulled about by the hair, thesoshithreatening him with their swords while demanding where the queen was.”2At length they hunted the poor queen down, and killed her with their swords. They then covered her body, and bringing in various palace women, suddenly displayed the corpse, when the women shrieked with horror, “The queen, the queen!” This was enough; by this ruse the assassins made sure they had felled the right victim.

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