CHAPTER XVI

MRS. KIM OF SORAI AND HER FAMILY.PAGE 244

We found the mountains more beautiful, if possible, than ever. It was October, and hills that in the previous spring were rosy with rhododendrons and peach blossoms, were now scarlet, gold and purple with the magnificence of autumn foliage, asters and golden-rod. There was displayed on all sides some of the most brilliant coloring I ever saw. There were quantities of bitter-sweet wreathing all over trees and rocks, berries of many varieties, and bushes reminding me of that which Moses saw in Horeb, burning but not consumed. And though in a different way, still I too felt that the ground was holy with the unseen but felt presence, and that it would be well to remove one’s worldly shoes, which figuratively I did.

A few days later we crossed a mountain pass at over two thousand feet elevation, where we found the scenery more and more beautiful and wild. The gallant and unwearied “Captain” almost carried the rheumatic partner of his travels up the last steep ascent. The alternative was to sit in a chair and trust one’s self to a couple of tired coolies, who might stumble and dash one to atoms; or with chipangi (alpenstock) in hand, slowly drag one’s self up and then down over the rocks and steep slippery road. Arriving at the foot on the other side, we were once again in dear Sorai, where a good hot floor soon took out all the pain and weariness.

It had been decided that from Sorai we were to visit a certain island called Pang Yeng, or “White Wing,” where quite a number of people were believing through the teachingof some of the natives. The story is worth telling. A man, who had been banished to this island for a political offense, had received a Christian book from his nephew, a Methodist, just before his departure. The young man told his uncle that this religion was the basis of all civil liberty and civilization, so that the banished man in his loneliness proceeded to read it, and to publish and teach its doctrines among the islanders. He had been informed that on the opposite shore at Sorai lived people who could further explain the book and its doctrines, so one of the natives, the oldest and most honorable in the village, made a trip to Sorai, and begged Elder Saw to return with him and teach them.

They were lamentably ignorant, and while believing in Jesus were still carrying on heathen worship; they were as blind people only partly restored, who saw men as trees walking. Saw was not able to go at once, but after some time, when he visited them, he found the whole village assembled with all preparations made for offering their heathen sacrifices. He talked to them very earnestly and faithfully, and they then at once gave up all their idolatrous worship, and in a body promised only to serve the one true God.

The elder could not, however, remain long, and several months later, when Mrs. Kim, the indefatigable voluntary evangelist, visited them, she found that many of them seemed to have fallen back almost completely into old practices and beliefs. At first no one would receive her in their homes, but she talked to the women outside the houses so sweetly and winningly, that they at length invited her in, and gathered around her to listen. A great change was wrought through her teaching.

We made the trip in a little Korean sailing junk, which was rather small and uncomfortable for bad weather, butnot at all out of the way on such a day as that on which we started, with blue sky above, blue and sparkling water below, and charming islands studding the sea like jewels.

We found that White Wing measured about twenty miles round the coast line and was nine miles long, with a capital and several hamlets. It is extremely beautiful and fertile, well fortified by bold picturesque cliffs along the coast, with delightful valleys and gently rolling country snugly nestled behind them. The people are all farmers, living in the simplest and most primitive way. Money is rarely seen, there is indeed no need for it, with no fairs or stores. Their wants are few, they raise what they need for food, clothing, warmth and light on their little farms, bartering among each other to supply such simple articles as their own labor has not provided.

All appeared to have plenty of rice and firewood, and to be quite content. Drunkenness and dishonesty are almost unknown. The magistrate told us they rarely needed even the slightest punishment, but were as they seemed to us, a gentle, kindly, simple, honest farmer and fisher folk.

We found a small church built on the hillside, and a little company of believers, who were waiting for examination and baptism. Although very ignorant, they were most anxious to be taught, and Mrs. Kim, who had gone with me from Sorai, and I were kept busy instructing the women. Like the women everywhere in Korea, they especially enjoyed the hymns, and were most eager to learn them. The words were comparatively easy, but the tunes were quite another matter. We realized the advantage in their learning them, both as a means of fixing divine truth and publishing it to others.

We were to leave very early in the morning to catch the tide, and the night before we had a farewell service in the little church. When this was over, and good-byes said, Iwent to the tiny room to pack our belongings, and Mr. Underwood to one of the Christian houses to give last directions and counsel with the leaders. About ten o’clock Mrs. Kim came to my door with one of the women, asking very humbly if I would go to one of their homes and teach them a little more this one last time, though it was late. “We are so ignorant and have none to guide and teach us,” said they pathetically. Of course I was delighted to go, and followed them to a farmer’s thatched cottage. It was one of the poorest and rudest of the native homes; in one corner a farm hand was lying asleep, in another a tiny wick burning in a saucer of oil was the only light in the room. We sat down under this, and the poor, rough, hard-working women clustered round us as closely as possible. Their faces and hands bore the marks of care, toil, hard lives and few joys, but they were lighted with a glorious hope which transformed them, and this with the awakening desire for knowledge had banished the look of wooden stolidity, which so many Korean women wear.

While we talked of our Lord and his teachings and conned again and again the hymns, a cough was heard at the door, and it was found that a number of “the brethren” were standing out there in the cold, frosty air of the November night, listening to such scraps of good words as they could catch. So when one of the women asked if they might come in, although generally out of regard for Korean custom and prejudice, I not only teach no men, but keep as much out of sight as possible, there were on this occasion no two ways about it, they must come, and in they thronged. It was a picture which I shall never forget, the dark eager faces, every one leaning forward in eager attitude, all seeking more knowledge of divine truth, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. A little dim humble room, and only such a poor feeble wick tolight them all. Such a poor feeble wick was I, and all were looking to me for God’s light. “Feed my lambs,” was his last command, and yet in many a hut and hamlet his hungry little ones are starving.

Next morning at the first streak of dawn they again came, and with tears streaming down their faces, begged me to come soon again. “Oh, we are so ignorant, and so weak, how can we escape the snares of Satan, with no one here to lead and teach us!” they exclaimed.

Our return trip was very different from our first crossing. A severe storm of wind and rain came up, the little ship was tossed about on the waves like a plaything, and Mrs. Kim and I were miserably sick, not to mention being drenched with rain. It was impossible to make our port, and we were obliged to attempt the nearest coast, which offered no shelter from the wind, in addition to which, the tide being out, our boat was bumped about mercilessly on the rocks and stones with no chance of a landing for some hours.

However, all things come to an end sometime, and we at length effected a safe landing, and were soon dried, warmed and fed in a fishing village at hand, and reached Sorai next day. Before we left Sorai, the Christians held their annual Thanksgiving service. The church being too small to hold all the people, a tent was spread outside. After thanking God for their bountiful harvests and growing prosperity, they offered thanks for the spiritual harvest he had given.

During the year over two hundred and fifty people of the neighboring villages had been baptized through the missions and labors of this one little church, not counting a much larger number of catechumens received. They had enlarged and repaired their church and school rooms, built a house for their school teacher, one for their evangelistand another for the entertainment of strangers, who come from a distance to the Sabbath services.

They are an open-handed people, and when they read of the famine in India they took up a collection, amounting to fifty yen. As their daily wage rarely amounts to more than ten cents gold, and as the community is small, this was a large gift. Several of the women who had no money put their heavy silver rings in the plate. These rings are in many cases their only ornaments, and are most highly prized, so that when they were given, we knew that our people were giving till they felt it deeply.

In the famine so severe in many counties last year, Sorai, which was more blessed, helped many of its sister communities. On our return to Hai Ju we had some interesting visits with the women both in their own homes and at our rooms. We were allowed to help prepare the “dock,” or bread, which we found them making in one of the houses, for a prospective wedding. They were having a “bee,” a number of friends had come in to help, and they seemed much amused and pleased when we asked to be allowed to assist. We were very clumsy and awkward, but we gained our end by making them feel we were one with them. Later we were invited to the wedding, and forced to swallow an amount of indigestible food, which at other times we should consider as simply suicidal. But when it is a duty, one simply shuts one’s eyes to consequences, takes all risks, and comes through with an immunity which I verily believe is miraculous.

One old woman, who attended the meetings very regularly and was very devout, is quite a character. With a loud strong voice, but not the remotest glimmering of a notion of harmony, time or tune, she shouts away several lines and bars before or behind the rest, no consequence which, and quite often, if the hymn chosen is not in herbook or according to her mind, she chooses another and proceeds as zealously as ever. When gently remonstrated with, she replies, “Oh, that is no matter, I’m not following you, I’m singing (?) by myself.”

We had only been in Hai Ju a few days when a fleet-footed messenger from Eul Yul arrived with a letter containing the news that a secret royal edict was being sent round to the various magistracies in that province, commanding all Confucianists to gather at night on the second of the next month (about fifteen days later), each at his nearest worshiping place in his district, and from thence to go in a body and kill all Westerners and followers of Western doctrine, and destroy their houses, churches and schools. A friend in the magistrate’s office, holding some petty position, happened to be present when this arrived, noted the excitement and agitation which the official evinced on reading it and the care with which it was guarded, and determined to learn its contents. He contrived an opportunity to read it unseen, and as some of his near relatives were Christians, he at once communicated the terrible news to them. One of the same family, a young man who was a fleet-footed runner, was instantly sent to us with a copy of the edict.

No words can express our state of mind on receiving the news. Thought flew back to one peaceful little community after another, which we had so lately visited, all rejoicing in the beautiful new life, all growing up toward Christ, like flowers reaching up to the sun, with the light of a glad hope in their faces, happy, harmless, kindly people, the aged, the little toddling children, helpless women, unsuspecting farmers, all consigned to utter destruction. As for ourselves, we were in one of the worst of Korean cities, it was impossible to make the slightest movement without attracting the notice of every one, for we wereconstantly the center of the observation of the whole town. It would be impossible to make our escape if any one wished to detain us. To make matters much worse, we had two young ladies and a child in our party. Probably little danger threatened us personally, as the governor was friendly, but our first duty was to send word to the American minister in Seoul, and it must be done quickly. To send a dispatch in any Eastern or European language would be futile, as, if suspicion was aroused, there were means of interpreting any of them. We at length concluded to send a Latin message, not to our minister, but to one of our mission, as less likely to attract attention either in Hai Ju or Seoul. This was done, and the message was at once carried to the American legation.

The news was at first received with incredulity, so friendly had the attitude of the government always been, but when it was remembered that recent Boxer disturbances in China might have suggested a similar course here, and that there were strong Buddhists high in influence at the palace who might have caused this strange measure, and when at the Foreign Office, through admissions and contradictions, it was made evident that the circulation of such an edict was not unknown to them, all doubt was over. Not long after it developed that from similar sources (that is, friends of Christians or of missionaries) the news had been carried to missionaries in Kang Wha and in Pyeng Yang. That it was unadvisedly done, and speedily repented, was proved by the fact that a few days later another edict rescinding the first was sent everywhere. Nevertheless and notwithstanding, I breathed freely and slept well for the first time since hearing the bad news, when I found myself on the little Japanese steamer well started on my way back to Seoul. The supposed authors of the order were put under arrest, and Ibelieve punished, the Korean officials vigorously protesting that it was all a mistake and sent without the knowledge of the king or the government.

These trips to Whang Hai province usually occupied six or eight weeks of our time, and full of delightful incidents and experiences as they always were, did not represent more than a fraction of the work. In the fall of 1900 the whole New Testament was given to the people. To celebrate this event a large meeting was held in the Methodist church, the largest audience hall in Seoul, composed of as many natives and Christians as could be packed within its walls. A suitable thanksgiving service was held, and the board of translators and their native literary helpers were presented by the American minister with copies of the book, with very kind remarks on their work. The board now consisted of Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, Dr. Scranton, Rev. W. D. Reynolds, Rev. James S. Gale and Mr. Underwood.

In addition to the editorship of a weekly religious newspaper, Bible translation, preparation of tracts and hymns, city training classes, weekly religious services and meetings, supervision of schools and language class for missionaries, Mr. Underwood felt that a special effort ought to be made for the nobility and gentry, the hardest people in the country to reach with the gospel. This is the case, partly because officials who would retain office must go at regular intervals and offer certain prayers and sacrifices at royal shrines, partly that the ideas of caste are so strong that the nobility are unwilling to seat themselves on the floor in our churches among farmers, peddlers, coolies, merchants or even scholars, to listen to the gospel; and in addition, that their family life is grounded and interwoven on and in the concubine system. All of them have two or more families, some of them many.These numerous wives, their parents and progeny would make life intolerable should the husband put them aside. His friends and relatives would look upon him as too evil to live should he neglect to worship the ancestral tablets, and the spirits of his ancestors themselves would follow him like harpies, with all sorts of misfortunes and diseases.

Each man, too, looks forward with great complacency to being honored in his time as he has honored his dead parents, and seems to be overwhelmed with something like terror at the idea of having no one to worship his memory and offer sacrifices before his tablets, so that childless men usually adopt sons to keep their memory green. The ladies of this class, the first wives, are, as I think I have said before, very closely secluded, and are never seen except in their own apartments or the anpang of their kin, whither they are carried in closely covered chairs.

In such a state of affairs it is not strange that men should hesitate to listen to the doctrines of a religion which would turn their whole social world upside down, wreck their homes, cast upon them the blackest stigma, turn them outside the pale of court and official life, rob them of their income, and rank them with the common people. Knowing that it was almost impossible to induce them to attend church, an invitation was therefore issued, asking a large number of them to come to our house to talk over religious matters. To our surprise the call was most heartily responded to, and two large rooms were crowded with high Korean gentlemen, all of whom came no doubt from politeness or curiosity.

There were princes, generals, members of the cabinet, all men of the highest rank and birth. All listened with the closest attention, many of them asking thoughtfulquestions, which showed their real interest in what was said by the missionaries who came to assist Mr. Underwood in receiving and talking with them. Some asked for books, and many came repeatedly to talk over these matters in private. Meetings were held regularly Sunday afternoons, and a stereopticon exhibition was given, showing a series of scenes from the life of Christ.

One result of these meetings was that Mr. Underwood was approached with the suggestion that he should establish a Presbyterian state church. We were told that a large number of officials would prefer (if they were to be forced into giving up their own religion and joining a foreign church, as at that time seemed likely) to make it one of their own choosing, and connected with Americans rather than Russians. They were, of course, informed that we could not organize churches in that way, nor baptize men for state and political purposes. The suggestion was not official, but if we had been willing to use opportunities of this sort, the roll-call among the high class of nominal members might have been greatly swelled.

Furloughs—Chong Dong Church—Romanists in Whang Hai—Missionaries to the Rescue—Romanists Annoy and Hinder the Judge—Results—Interview between Governor and Priest—The Inspector’s Report—Women’s Work in Hai Ju—Deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Miller.

In 1901 we took another furlough, during which we were brought in touch with American Christians in nearly every large city in the country, and thus were able to make the church aware of God’s wonderful dealings in Korea and to enlighten the public on the needs of this country. On our return, we missed among the faces of dear old friends who came to welcome us that of our work-fellow and beloved brother, Rev. H. G. Appenzeller. Mr. Appenzeller, the first evangelistic worker of his mission, had labored with my husband, heart and hand, for over sixteen years, and they had taken their earliest itinerations to the country in company. The loss fell heavily upon both native and foreign community, and seems to grow, as we feel the need of the enthusiastic and ready service everywhere. On our return our first attention was given to our dear Chong Dong (city) church, the members of which have from the first been marked as energetic, generous and full of faith. With a membership, as has been said, of two hundred and nineteen, they carry on five missions near the city, within a radius of five miles. These are places where chapels have been built—but they have also several other missions in districts where servicesare held in private dwellings. The church members conduct and take charge of all these services. They have contributed during the past year (1902-1903), reckoned in gold dollars:

This total, however, is not a complete report, not including the gifts of the largest mission, that of Chandari, a (from a Korean standpoint) prosperous little farming community outside the city. For the women and girls, beside Sabbath services and regular prayer meetings, six weekly Bible classes are held in different neighborhoods, all but two of which are well attended. There are a number of these women well fitted for Christian teaching, and one or another of them has repeatedly gone off on a six-weeks’ trip, with some of the lady missionaries, asking nothing more than her bare expenses. They often go away on evangelistic trips quite at their own instance, visiting village after village, distributing tracts which they themselves have bought for the purpose, and teaching the country women who cannot read.

Very soon after our return to Korea my husband was requested by the American minister and the members of our mission to visit Hai Ju, in the province of Whang Hai, on a mission of very serious importance. We were sent to Hai Ju in February, and since the preceding September, it had come to be a matter of common report that the native Romanists (of whom there are said to be twenty thousandin that province) had, under the lead of the French priests, been robbing, torturing and blackmailing the poor people of the province “for money to build churches,” resisting with arms, maiming, beating and even imprisoning officers of the law sent to stop them, and establishing a veritable reign of terror through the whole district; so that the weaker magistrates dared not lift a finger against any criminal favored by the priests, or belonging to that church, and fairly trembled for fear of them, obeying with the alertness of terror their slightest behest.

The state of affairs grew so bad at length that the governor sent a manifesto to Seoul, saying he could no longer carry on the government of the province in such a state of insurrection and anarchy. The following is a translation, made for the KoreaReview, of the official copy of a part of the governor’s complaint:

“In the counties of Sin-ch’un, Cha-ryung, An-ak, Chang-yun, Pong-san, Whang-ju, and Su-heung, disturbances created by the Roman Catholics are many in number, and petitions and complaints are coming in from all quarters.

“In some cases it is a question of building churches and collecting funds from the villages about. If any refuse to pay, they are bound and beaten and rendered helpless. When certain ones, in answer to petition, have been ordered arrested, the police have been mobbed and the officers of the law have been unable to resist it. While investigating a case on behalf of the people, I sent police to arrest Catholics in Cha-ryung. They raised a band of followers, beat off the police, arrested them, and dismissed them with orders not to return. Then I sent a secretary to remonstrate with them. At that the Sin-ch’un Catholics, a score or more of them, armed with guns, arrested the secretary, insulted him, etc.”

One of the priests, who is apparently most influential and has been most notorious, whose Korean name is Hong, and who is known among foreigners as Father Wilhelm, told my husband that the native Romanists were not to be blamed for all this, for they had only obeyed his orders. Mr. Underwood had had a slight acquaintance with this priest for some years, meeting him occasionally and knowing little of his life, but supposing he was doing an earnest if mistaken work of self-sacrifice, he was unable to believe that the priest was cognizant of all that was being done by his followers, until he had both written and had a personal interview with him, when he was sorrowfully forced to see that rumor had not misrepresented his conduct.

This sad condition of things might have gone on, no one knows how long, but some of the people so robbed and tortured were Presbyterian Christians, and there is something about Protestant Christianity that resists oppression and favors a growth of sturdy independence and a love of freedom and fair play. One of these men was a particularly determined fellow who had been persistently seeking justice ever since, and would not be discouraged or daunted. He first went to the missionaries, who told him to take the matter to the Korean courts, but as the provincial courts were quite helpless against such a giant evil, he went up to the capital. The officials at the capital, probably in awe of the French, dared not interfere. He and his companion, another sturdy farmer like himself, went from one missionary to another in Seoul, all of whom put them off, disliking to take up native quarrels, and on principle opposed to using influence with Korean officials, and none of them realizing to what threatening dimensions the affair had grown.

These poor men were not eloquent, they could onlytell a plain, simple story, but they knew that they and thousands of others were deeply wronged and were able to do one thing well, namely, to persist. Persist they did with unwearied resolution.

Failing to obtain any help or satisfaction, they at length decided to go directly to the French legation and seek justice and relief there. They were received, attentively heard, carefully questioned, given a promise of redress, and sent politely away. They waited long and patiently, but no redress came, nor any sign of it. Again and again they sought the fulfilment of the promises of the representative of France, only to be put off repeatedly with fair words and indefinite assurances.

So at length they published their whole story in the leading Korean newspaper in Seoul. Then the French minister did indeed begin to act. He immediately requested the Korean Foreign Office to have the men beaten and imprisoned,on the ground that conduct like theirs had caused the Boxer trouble in China.

When affairs came to this crisis, the Protestant missionaries awoke to the situation. Rev. Mr. Gale and Mr. Underwood went to the office of Foreign Affairs and pled for the men, and also laid the matter before the American minister, Dr. Allen. He gave it his careful attention and succeeded in having a commission appointed by the Korean government to go to Hai Ju and investigate the charges. Dr. Moffett, of Pyeng Yang, and Mr. Underwood were also requested to be present and attend the trials. From the beginning to the end of this attempt to bring the truth to light, the French priests by every art in their power tried to block and delay the proceedings of the judge, to annoy and overawe him in Hai Ju, and (we were informed) by letters, special messengers and telegrams, to limit his power, hinder his plans, and undermine him in Seoul.

CARRIERS WITH JIKAYS.PAGE 184

WOMAN WITH BUNDLE OF WASHING ON HER HEAD.PAGE 246

He was a sturdy, clear-headed, determined man, who had had long intercourse with Europeans in his post in the Foreign Office, and held his own with much self-possession andsang-froid. It was said of him that he carried on the trials more fairly and more in accordance with equity than had ever been seen before in Korea.

The priests arrested and tortured a policeman who had been sent to bring some of the accused to the court, hanging him by his wrists. They used all the influence they possessed in Seoul, through the French, to force the Korean government to order the commission to yield to their demands for the release of prisoners already in the hands of the law, and for the remittance of punishment as they should dictate.

They induced the commissioner to promise that he would not try to arrest any one for a week, on the solemn assurance that they would themselves bring all the accused to court, and then, although they had two of the most notorious malefactors in their house for several days before the week expired, they allowed them to escape.

They forced themselves into the commissioner’s presence and with bluff and reiterated demands wearied him into sending his resignation to Seoul, which, however, the king refused to accept.

“Father Wilhelm’s” church is in a valley about ten miles from Hai Ju, entirely surrounded by high hills. The entrance to the valley at that time was guarded by sentinels, and the points of vantage on the hill tops were occupied in the same way. When any one is seen approaching, a signal is given, and the people (for the village is full of fugitives from justice) flee into the church, which it will be seen serves the triple purpose of a court with torture chamber, a citadel, and a place of worship.

When police were sent there with warrants of arrest forsome of the worst miscreants, Father Wilhelm met them at the door with a revolver, demanding what they wanted. When told, he requested to see the warrants, denied that any such persons were there, would not allow them to enter, nor would he return the warrants, but with threats bade them begone. On more than one occasion posses of armed men were sent by him to rescue criminals who had been seized.

The cruelest forms of torture, such as are used only by Korean officials in cases of murder and treason, were used by the priests in their churches to force poor peasants to give over their money or the deeds of their houses and farms. Mr. Underwood and Dr. Moffett spent some weeks in Hai Ju, carefully studying these matters and in close attendance at the trials. In addition to the above facts they discovered that this was not a persecution waged upon Protestants by Catholics, but a system of blackmail laid on the whole community, and that the number of complaints brought in by non-Christian natives were, compared to those from Christians, as twenty to one. Again, that the French priests were (in the present instance, at least) demanding, as in China, a right to sit with a judge in a court of justice and modify sentences. We learned further that the people were tormented to the verge of insurrection, and had planned to rise on a certain day, when the news that a commission had been appointed, and that the missionaries had come down to see fair play at the investigations, calmed and decided them to await further developments.

The results of the trials were very unsatisfactory. With the small force of men at his command, with the priests foiling every effort to make arrests, few men were apprehended. Those who were brought to trial, by their own admissions and self-contradictions, and by the consistentand overwhelming testimony of many witnesses, were all proved guilty of the charges laid against them. The priests, and by far the majority of the miscreants, including the ringleaders, who could not be caught, went scot free. The commissioner made a report to the Korean government, asking for the deportation of the two priests, Wilhelm and Le Gac, which the Korean government did not ask, but which it would have been thought should hardly have been necessary. Were not the Koreans long suffering to a remarkable degree, as well as a feeble power, they would long since have risen and cast out all foreigners from their desecrated shores. In the light of what we have seen and heard here, the cause of the Boxer troubles in China is not far to seek. Thus is national sentiment aroused against us; for long persistence in conduct similar to this was foreign blood spilled like water there, and for such reasons are the gates of Thibet barred to the gospel.

The following official report of the interview between the priest and the governor of Whang Hai province, in the presence of the inspector sent by the king, will show what a state of affairs existed.

“Translation of the official report of the interview held between the governor of Whang Hai Do and Father Wilhelm, in the presence of the Inspector Yi Eung Ik. Eighth day 2d Moon Koang Mu.

“In the seventh year of Quang Mo in the second moon and eighth day, the governor of Whang Hai Do, Yi Yung Chick, and the French teacher, Hong Sok Ku (Mons. Wilhelm), conferred. Hong Sok Ku said, ‘The controversy between the governor and myself arose from the governor’s not appeasing my wrath by arresting Mr. Pak Chang Mou of Whang Ju, and punishing him. This Pak, at night after dark, had thrown stones at the church ofHan Sinpu (a native Korean priest), and I therefore had spoken to the local magistrate of Whang Ju and asked to have him arrested and imprisoned, but Pak, through his local influence, had returned undisturbed to his home, and as there seemed no other means of having him punished, I wrote a letter to the governor, asking that he would have Pak brought up to the provincial town of Hai Ju and severely punished. The governor repliedthat he could not have the people of local magistracies brought up to Hai Ju, and I therefore supposed that the governor had no power to arrest the people of outside local magistracies, and when I learned to my surprise that there was an order for the arrest of some of the Christians (Romanist) of Shinampo by the governor, feeling sure that it was a false order, I released by force all those whom the police were arresting, and at once ordered all my Christians, if any one came out to arrest them again, to resist it utterly.’”

The governor replied: “As for the business of Pak of Whang Ju, since he had been already arrested and imprisoned in Whang Ju, and there was therefore no reason why he should be brought up to Hai Ju, I did not do so as you had asked, and as for my reply in my former letter, that I could not arrest him, it was in accordance with theChibang Cheido(Book of Laws) in regard to local and provincial jurisdiction, and the reason why,after my people have appealed, I can order them arrested to try the case, is in accordance with theChaipan Chang Chung, or book of rules for courts of justice, and if you had any doubts about the earlier or later affair, while it would not have been out of the way to have asked a question, is it right with your followers to gather a crowd and organize a band to arrest and carry off policemen, to release and set free those who have broken the laws, and to order your followers to resist authority, so making your peoplefall into sin, and making it impossible for the appointed authorities to administer justice?

“Desirous of instructing these ignorant people, I sent one of the Chusas (high official next to the governor) attached to this governorship, but you sent out a company of men with firearms, twelve miles, and after dark seized and carried off this official. A Chusa is a national government officer, military arms are outrageous things; leaning upon what authority did you do such things as these, and by whose authority do you arrest and carry off Koreans and try to administer justice?”

Mons. Wilhelm replied: “I myself know that these things are not right, and did them purposely. As far as the bookChaipan Chang Chungis concerned, I know nothing about it, but I simply relied upon the previous letter which you had sent. I desired to understand the matter, and sent you another letter, and because you sent my letter back to me I still feel very angry.”

The governor replied: “But your saying that you only recognized my first letter shows you simply know one thing and cannot know two; as for your letter and my returning it without an answer, it was because, after the arrest of my Chusa, I had sent by special messenger a letter to you, and you had given no answer and sent the man back emptyhanded, I was indignant. As I had no reply to my letter to you in regard to the Chang Yung affair, why should I only answer letters? Because I thought it would be wrong for me to keep your letter that I did not answer, I returned it.”

Father Wilhelm replied: “Because in the governor’s last letter on the envelope he had writtenSahamI did not answer the letter.”Sahamis written outside of letters which are replies from one slightly superior in rank.

The governor replied: “Is it right to allow questions togo unanswered; is it because you have nothing to say that you fail to answer all these questions?”

Father Wilhelm replied: “When Pak Chang Mou’s wrong-doings had not yet been punished, is it right that he should have been made one of the tax collectors? When you have arrested and brought him to Hai Ju and severely punished him, then only will my wrath be appeased.”

The governor then said: “In the eighth moon of last year when I went to Whang Ju, I looked carefully into this affair of Pak’s.Although it was stated that he had thrown stones, there was no sure proof, and yet he had been locked up in the local jail and had been punished, during the investigation, how, then, can you say that he has gone unpunished? How can you claim that giving him a petty office several months later is an injustice? Then, too, you took this man to your church and there beat him, and still claim that your wrath has not been appeased. Would you have me arrest him, bring him here and make him and the complainants face each other?”

Père Wilhelm answered: “Although I did have him beaten with ten strokes, it was not a punishment for his main crime, but because when his magistrate sent Pak to confess his sins he was on the contrary impudent, and therefore I punished him, but his former offence still existed.”

The governor replied: “When you are not a Korean official, is it right that you should arrest and beat Koreans?”

Father Wilhelm said: “It is because if I did not beat them I could not hold my position as superior that I do it.”

The governor answered: “You, a private citizen, arresting and beating Koreans and doing wrong, and your written orders to your people, have caused them to break thelaws in eight different ways. They resist the authority of the government, beat the underlings, and refuse to pay their taxes.

“In addition, at their churches and meeting places they establish courts of justice.

“Still further, without order, in companies they rush into the presence of magistrates to terrify them.

“Still again, of their own accord they arrest, beat and imprison the people.

“Again, calling it money for the building of churches, they extort contributions by force from the people.

“Furthermore, at their own desire they cut down trees used for Korean spirit worship, they organize bands to forcibly bury the dead and move graves; and still further, they force people, who have no desire to do so, to enter their church.”

Father Wilhelm replied: “I will with great care stop these eight offences and will not allow them to do as before; have no fear.”

Thus ends the report of this unique interview between the governor of one of the most populous provinces of Korea and the French missionary. It is to be regretted, however, that his ready promise in regard to nearly all the eight offenses was repeatedly broken within a very short time after it was made. I will add one or two other transcriptions from the official documents, which came directly from the commissioner’s office to our hands, and which translations appeared in the KoreaReview, March, 1903. The first report of the imperial inspector to the government:

“I have looked carefully into the disturbances among the people in the different counties, and the various crimes up to this date noted in the public records are only one or two in hundreds. Outside of two or three counties,all the magistrates have been under this oppression, and with folded hands, are unable to stir. The poor helpless people sit waiting for doom to overtake them. Receiving imperial orders to look into the matter, I have undertaken the task, and daily crowds with petitions fill the court. There are no words to express the sights one sees, the stories one hears. Depending on the influence of foreigners (French), the Catholics’ issuing of orders to arrest is of daily occurrence; their runners are fiercer than leopards, and the torture they inflict is that reserved for only thieves and robbers; life is ground out of the people, goods and livelihood are gone. Unless this kind of thing is put down with strong hand, thousands of lives will be lost in the end.

“A French priest by the name of Wilhelm, living in Chang-ke-dong in Sin-ch-un, a retired spot among the hills, has gathered about him a mob of lawless people. Their houses number several hundred. Many of them carry foreign guns, so that country people are afraid, and dare not take action. A number of those already arrested have been set free by this priest. Most of those who have slipped the net have escaped there, and now form a band of robbers. There is no knowing where trouble will next arise, and it is a time of special anxiety. Those who assemble there at the ‘call of the whistle’ (bandit) are outlaws, and must be arrested. They may, however, make use of dangerous weapons, so we cannot do otherwise than be prepared for them. This is my report. Look carefully into it. Send word to the office of generals. Wire me permission to use soldiers, and as occasion offers lend me a helping hand.”

While this painful business was on, and my husband was daily attending the trials and listening to the harrowing tales of the poor, tortured and robbed people, and seeingheartrending evidences of the cruelties inflicted upon them, I was holding meetings with the Christian women who came every morning to study the Bible. One visit only was made to a small village a short distance outside the city, where there were quite a number of Christian families.

All the Christian women quickly assembled at the house of my hostess, a wholesome farmer’s wife, who came out to the road to welcome me, took both my hands in hers with a long gentle pressure, and a look of gladness as bright as if I had been a radiant angel from heaven, or a returned apostle. Her small rooms were soon filled with Christians and others, who listened while we held a service and talked of the things concerning the kingdom.

Then they, with bounteous hospitality, brought in a store of the best their homes contained of dainties. They feasted my two native companions and myself and all the visitors, both Christians and mere sightseers, and even my chair coolies were given as much as they could eat, which is no mean amount.

One woman said that her eldest son had just returned from Sorai and was urging his father to sell his good farm and home and move there with his family, so that he and his brothers might attend that school and church and learn more about God and his will.

The work in this hamlet all started through the instrumentality of a young girl in Hai Ju, not seventeen years old, who, having formerly lived here, after her marriage into a Christian household in the city, and after her conversion, often returned to her old home and begged her family to believe and accept Christ.

Though they scoffed and reviled at first, after a while they began to listen, and finally one, then another, yielded their hearts. After the manner of Korean Christians,they “passed on the word,” and so at length seven families were trusting Christ.

After seven weeks in Hai Ju we returned to Seoul, having done all that was possible in the matters we had been sent there to look after, and having made it plain that Americans would not stand by and see the natives persecuted and wronged without a strong protest; for while we try not to interfere between them and their rulers (and this is at times extremely difficult), we do not feel the same obligation in the case of French priests. Our hope now is that these outrages will henceforth be somewhat restricted and that Protestants will at least remain unmolested, as the mere advertisement and bringing to the light of the evil would do much to prevent its repetition, the children of darkness having an ancient dislike of the light.

Before we returned from Hai Ju we learned of the death by smallpox of our dear brother, Mr. W. V. Johnson, who had arrived early in February of that year, his consecrated young wife having died on the way to the field, in Kobe, Japan.

We all felt the sweet devoted spirit of the earnest young brother, and knew that these two valuable lives were not given in vain, but that God has accepted their sacrifice as if they had done all they planned, and has chosen to call them to reward a little earlier, because they will better so fulfil his purpose, for, through and in them. Again, only a few months later, we were all called to part with a dear sister, Mrs. F. S. Miller, whose loving sympathy and patient endurance of sickness and pain had endeared her to missionaries and native Christians alike. Not a month before her own death, her hands prepared the casket for the cold little form of one of the dear little missionary babies, of whom so many are now in heaven. And so, as was said at the time of her release, “Korea seems agate to heaven.” Sure it is good to go from service to the vision of the King.

This little chain of reminiscences is now at an end. Its object has simply been to interest Christian people in this most interesting country, and to show what God is working here.

It has been necessarily limited, mainly to the experience of one pair of missionaries, because the writer has neither the knowledge nor the liberty to speak freely of the lives and work of all, and neither the ability nor the space to write a complete history of mission work in Korea. It is hoped that although so restricted, as to be a mere glimpse of a small fraction of what is being done, it will serve to make plain what grand opportunities are theirs (at present) who would lead a nation out of bondage into liberty, the only liberty worth calling the name, or that sinful mortals can use, “the liberty of Christ.”

Korea, lying as she does so close to China (whose future is fraught with such mighty possibilities of good or evil to the whole world), with such close affinities and wide sympathies for that people, is, we hope, to be a polished shaft in God’s quiver in conquering that great nation for his kingdom. But whatever his eternal purpose may be, there is no doubt as to our present privilege and “power to the last particle is duty.”

If in these pages you have seen much that leads you to think the land is a difficult one in which to live, if you have read of political unrest, bad government, riots, robbers and plagues; if you have learned that missionaries have died of typhus fever, smallpox, dysentery and other violent forms of disease, this will only serve to remind you that the more valuable the prize to be won, the greater the difficulty and cost. If you desire to share in the joy of this great harvest, and are worthy, you will fear no danger,shrink from no obstacles, either for yourselves or for your loved ones, whom you are asked to give to the work.

God placed an angel with a flaming sword which turned every way at the gate of paradise. Is the kingdom still thus guarded? Must we all who would enter follow him who was made perfect through suffering? What was our Lord’s meaning when he said, “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,and the violent take it by force.” Some of us are ready to pray that God would place another such flaming sword at the gate of our mission fields, so that no man or woman who could or would not brave such baptism of fire should enter. There is no more place on the mission field for the fearful and unbelieving than in heaven itself. Like Gideon’s army, let the applicants be reduced till only the resolute, the consecrated, those who believe in God, the people and themselves, are accepted for this mighty privilege, this high calling.

Let it only be remembered by all who would enter the Lord’s army to wrest the kingdom of heaven from the rulers of darkness, that he, whose we are, and whom we serve, he who never faltered on the thorny road that led to Calvary, who trod the wine press alone, who came with dyed garments through the conflict to victory, has bidden those who profess to love him, as one of his last commands, thrice repeated, feed his sheep.

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