2
1st. (2nd of 10th Moon). Saturday.
3
Got a letter from my beloved Darling from Nagasaki. She had a pleasant passage in spite of a little sea sickness. Laura succeed to enjoy the voage. They were fortunate to travel with Mr. Makefield from here to Nasasaki. Darling says he was very good to her.
5
9th. Sunday. Beautiful. 65° 4 p.m.
6
The week just past has been a week of lovely days. The exceeding mildness of the weather reminds me of the November or '98.
7
I am hungry for words from my Love. I am so uneasy―either the effect or cause of many an unpleasant dream. How I wish I could take a trip to Shanghai to see my Darling comfortably settled.
8
Mr. Steadman, in his "Satan's Invisible World Displayed," astonishes me with the unspeakable corruption of the New York municipal government. The following quotations sound as if they were written expressly to describe the political condition of Korea:
9
"I tell you now" said Mike Walsh, "and I say it boldly, that in this body politic of New York (Korea) , there is not political or personal honesty enough left to drive a nail into to hang a hat upon."
10
Tweed, the boss of Tammany Hall, who in 1871, boasted that he had amassed a fortune of 20,000,000 dollars, inquire of the contractor who was decorating this country place, "Who the hell is that?" pointing to a statue. "That is Mercury, the God of merchants and thieves" was the reply. "That's bully," said Tweed, more frank than the Boss of Korea, "Put him over the front door."
11
A journalist who had been nearly murdered by a police captain was asked by the Lexow Committee if he had taken proceedings against his assailant. He replied: "I never did, Sir. It is no use going to law with the Devil and Court and Hell!"
12
"On the occasion the agents of the Society for the Prevention of Crime had been hunted by a mob of bullies and crooks for half a mile through the Bowery. The agents were struck and stoned―the police offers looking on as amused spectators. They were appealed to for assistance, and took no notice." Every word of this true of the scene which took place in the Japanese settlement of Wonsan in 1899. Then the Japanese coolies, with the connivance of their officials, mobbed the Korean sampan-men with clubs and stones, inflicting serious injuries on several. Japanese police officers looked on the dastardly conduct of the Japanese as amused spectators. The doctor in the Japanese hospital actually refused to treat the injured Koreans!
13
The Police Department of New York under the control of the Tammany Hall, "was proved to be one mass of putrefying sores from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet." Only in Korea, it is not the police Department alone, but the whole government, that is one mass of putrefying sores.
14
The Sources of Revenue of the N.Y. police were (are) (1) blackmail on ships and shops, (2) policy shops; (3) liquor dealers; (4) pool rooms; (5) houses of ill fame; (6) street walkers. The brutality, meanness and corruption of the New York Police, as exposed by the Lexow Committee are beyonding anything that I ever imagined possible in an enlightened community of the boasting "white men." Their cowardly treatment of helpless women made me exclaim involuntarily, where is the Anglo-Saxon chivalry? When Reverend Gale, (Essen Ⅲ) gets into fits to abuse the Korean as the lowest specimen of humanity, I wonder if he has ever read the Lexow Reports!
15
The wickedness of human nature is a greater proof of the common origin of races than their virtues. Different nations may have various standards of virtues; but wickedness finds a welcome and congenial home in every land whether democratic or autocratic.
16
The Bureau of Communication has been promoted an independent State Department with its paraphernalia of president and vice president, and secretaries and chusas and interpreters and artists (?) numerous enough to write all the letters handled in the Bureau in a year. Min Sang Ho, or Ho Sang Min as he signs himself is one of the few Korean officials who speaks and writes English decently. Yet his knowledge of English or of foreign administrations seems to have made him none the better in integrity or patriotism. He doesn't care what becomes of Korea so long as he gets his share of the spoils. Will time ever come to teach him and his likes a lesson, sharp and effective?
17
The craze to create new independent offices still holds its sway. A Korean drug store or a dispensary 廣劑院 is, I am told, to be made a department! The more chusas to sell, the more money for the Imperial coffer. In the name of wonders why doesn't His Majesty create a State Department of Scavengers with, say, ten thousand chusas to clean up the city of Seoul? His Majesty can make money by selling chusas as well as the manure, at the same time doing more good to the people than through any other public establishment.
18
Rain in the night―a harbinger of cold weather. The shower will do good to the hundreds of poplars I have recently planted in Tokwon.
20
10th. Monday. Lovely wind-64 degrees F.Wonsan
21
Opium is making a rapid conquest of Korea. In frontier towns, like Ui-joo on the Ap-nok river, the poison is firmly rooted, while in open ports where Chinese reside in large numbers, the drug claims many a victim among Koreans. In Wonsan, the deadly habit spreads like a wild fire inspite of all official attempts at checking it. In the northern frontier districts, hundreds of the best acres are reported to be given up to poppy farms. In Sam Joo, Kap-San etc, the worth of a marriageable girl is measured by the number of cups of the juice she can gather in a day. The local authorities are said to contrive at the deplorable state of affairs finding the opium farmer a source of profitable squeeze.
22
The Chinese gardeners, mostly Santongnese beggars, ventured to grow poppies near here this summer. By prompt action I was able to destroy the crops, thanks to the co-operation of the Chinese head-man, Mr. Ung Kuk Chi.
23
Even now it is not too late to stamp the evil out of the country if the Central Government were strong and wise. But the "If"!
25
16th. Sunday. Lovely and cold. Wonsan.
26
A lovely day―rather a surprise after two days of drizzle.
27
At 1 p.m. went to the Won-Hung School, or the Japanese school for Koreans, to witness the class promotion exercises 進級式. The whole affair lasted five miserable hours―too long by four hours. The Korean boys who had studied Japanese for the past two or three years under naturally discouraging circumstances, read and spoke it better than the Japanese teacher could read Korean, notwithstanding his constant practice of it for the past twenty years.
28
As an exhibition of their advancement, the boys were made to read selections from their Japanese text books. I was displeased to note the pieces read were those in which Japan was glorified above all other nations not only; but in which the invasions of Korea were repeatedly mentioned. Now, all this must have been edifying enough to the Japanese present ; but to me and other Koreans(?) the selections argued an exceedingly bad taste on the paste of the Japanese teacher.
29
Mr. Kondo, the principal and manager and teacher of the school, has shown a degree of patience and persistence rare in a Japanese. In 1890, he started the school with little encouragement from Japanese and none from Koreans. I did my share to help forward the enterprise, honestly believing that, in present Korea, any kind of school is better than no school. The Japanese municipality seems to have taken the institution under its wing―though the feathers are too thin give any warmth to the protege, especially in cold weather.
30
Pak Chusa, with whom a bare assertion stands for proof and who has cheek enough to assert anything, tells us that the Japanese manufacturers are under a compact with their government not to make any article that would last longer than a year. Independent of the reliability of Pak, it is the fact of facts that fragility is the name of anything made in Japan. Particularly true this is in case of an initation article.
31
Take, for instance, a Japan-made bicycle which the Japanese get for a Korean at Yet 95. One trial sends the wheel to a tinker's shop for repairs, which costs anywhere from two to three Yen. The wretched machine looks as false and contemptible as its makers.
32
There are 21 wheels in the Japanese settlement and 4 in the Korean town. Outside of Seoul, Wonsan is the only place in Korea where bicycles are fashionable.
33
The little Japanese community of Wonsan, containing about 1,600 people, is regarded as a Rip Van Winkle among its sister settlements in Korea. Yet, it has, besides a school, a hospital and municipal hall, a large hotel and restaurant after the European style; a Japanese eating house with its "geisha" establishment; a number of smaller restaurants; two tailor shops: five or six barbershops; a shoemaker's shop; a theater; a park; a cemetery; a bank etc. etc. All this is Liliputian enough compared with what a European or American settlement of the like size might be. Yet what an immeasurable distance between the Japanese and the Korean. The Korean town has over 2,000 houses, with a population nearly ten times as large as that of the Japanese quarters; yet not a respectable eating house; not a decent inn; not a place for amusement; not a tailor shop; not a thing which places the people above the lowest level of human life.
34
A Korean carpenter costs from 400 to 450 cash a day. His time divided between smoking, eating, drinking and resting―only about 3 hours for actual work. A Japanese charges Yen 1.40 a day or 980 cash. He begins the work early and quits it late. A Chinaman is paid 70 sen a day. His work is slow but sure.
35
The behavior of the Japanese soldiers in Wonsan is above criticism. During the three years I have been here, not a single case of complaint against any disorderly conduct of a Japanese soldier has been brought to notice. This is all the more remarkable because the garrison changes its personnel every year, representing widely different sections of the Island Empire. What an honorable contrast the discipline of the Japanese soldier or sailor presents to the beastly manners of a Russian or a French bluejacket.
36
After all, it is shrewd on the part of Japanese authorities to connive at, and thus covertly encourage, the coolie attacks on arrogant foreigners now and then. A foreigner who has any love for his precious limbs will think twice before indulging in his occidental bullyism in Japan, not because of his civilization but of the fear of the coolie. Next to an effective army and navy, a controlled but furious cooliocracy is a useful means of upholding the national rights and honor of a country.
38
22nd. Saturday. Cloudy-chilly.Tokwon
39
A beautiful and unseasonably warm cooled itself in untimely rain since the night before last.
40
A representative of a cotton-operatives union condemned the oppressive beef trust and coal trust with great intensity. Yet the same he allowed that he would welcome a trust of cotton manufacturers in cooperation with a strong cotton operatives' union, throwing the increased cost of cotton goods on the public. Yes, how often I have heard a German or a Russian who never rains but pours sarcasms on the land-grabbing propensity of the English, quite forgetting the Kio-chou Bay, or Port Arthur or Manchuria. The truth is that every nation is a thief and liar, only its critic is a shade worse.
41
Two years ago, the extortions of Yi Yong Ik's agents and high-handed lawlessness of Catholic converts―so called provoked a righteous insurrection in the island of Quelpart. Except the doubtful satisfaction of killing a few Catholics, the oppressed people got no redress. Honorable or, more properly, dishonorable, Sands, the almighty advisor who was sent to investigate the affair, made it a common cause with Catholic priests (French) to land the people on the wrong side, and a couple of hundred soldiers were dispatched to suppress the insurrection. Through the French Legation, the Catholic Mission demanded and obtained the punishment of the ringleaders of the discontented and an indemnity for certain damages done to the Catholic Mission property.
42
Some months ago, the Japanese coolies in Chemulpo assaulted a European, of the Customs out-door staff, in his room and, tying a rope around his neck, they dragged him about through the street like a dog until a Japanese policeman put the coolies to flight. The Japanese Consul actually refused to arrest the dastardly Japanese on the ground that, the day being a festival occasion, the coolies had been drunk; and that they, being drunk, could not be held accountable for their deeds. This was cool enough even for last summer. What a hell and devil the European Minister or Consul would have raised, had the assailants been Koreans!
43
For a missionary or two killed, the Christian nations seize territories and extort indemnities, in China, far out of proportion to the magnitude of the offence. In September, this year, an American mob attacked a Chinese village in Oregon and killed three Chinamen. The central government of America would not and could not do anything to bring the murderers to justice, while it goes without saying that the Governor of the State flatly refused to do anything in the matter.
44
What do the four instances out of thousands of similar cases teach?
45
In a talk with Hong Jai Yu, a man of local experience. I culled the following facts:
47
A farm hand 5 to 8 Yg for a term of 3 months―7th to 10th Moon. Fed three times a day―a suit working clothes. Same for another term of 8 months―11th Moon to the 6th.
48
Now 35 to 40 Yang each term.
49
Fuel per "tan" or bundle at 10 to 15 cash 50 to 100 cash
50
Rice per mal 30 to 40 cash 600 to 800 cash
51
Beans per mal 10 to 12 cash 200 to 220 cash
52
Paper Sandal per pair at 12 cash to 150 cash
53
Straw Sandal per pair at 4 cash to 40 cash
54
Inn fair per table 10 to 14 cash 60 cash to 70 cash
55
Hat 70 to 200 cash 1500 cash to 1700 cash
56
Cotton-cloth per pil of 35 cha 3 to 4 yang 8 to 9 yang
57
Puk-uh or dry fish per 20 13 cash 200 cash
58
Salt per mal 15 to 20 cash 100 cash
59
Cattle per head 50 to 60 yang 250 to 300 yang
60
Hair band 150 cash 1500 cash
61
Shoes per pair 110 cash 900 to 1200 cash
62
Muckmelon 4 or 5 for 1 cash 5 to 6 cash one
63
Common day laborer 12 to 15 cash a day 200 cash
64
Field 1 day ploughing 30 to 50 yang 500 to 700 yang
65
Hong tells me that an old man of seventy in the good old days went to the Wonsan market with an ox load of beans-say of 20 mals. He sold it 4 cash per measure and had to come away mighty quick lest the purchaser might back out of the bargain!
67
Tokwon November 29th; Saturday.
68
Drizzly 50-2 degree F. 4 p.m.
69
Another warm week ending in a drizzly day. The mercury between 50 degrees and 55 degrees through the week. Kim ( ) and tells me that the last years of the Dynasty of Joo, about 300 B.C. were characterized by warm Winters. This little remark suggests to my mind two of the saddest things in Korea, etc: a Korean, no matter how learned, knows next to nothing about his native history or native literature. Every question that garnishes his conversation and every historical allusion that adorns his statement is drawn from Chinese books. Another thing is that every Korean seems to think these are the last years of the present dynasty; and, what is worse, that his wish is the father of his thought.
70
They say this is the worst year Tok-won―Ham-kyong Province, in fact―has seen since 1884 甲申. Nay, worse, because, in that year, though grains failed, the famine-stricken people had potatoes to fall back on; while the hill farmers have had no potatoes these three years, to speak of, much less to satisfy hunger.
71
A farmer who makes about 50 "sums" of rice a year, made about 5 this fall. Another who nets about 60 mal of rice in an ordinary year, got only 1½ mal this years. And so on. From all this, the entire rice crop seems but one-tenth of what it should be, taking the Tokwon district as a whole. Those who witnessed the fearful sufferings of the famished people in 1884 predict similar scenes of dire starvation next spring―villages deserted, pines barked, and people dying on the highways. The only spark of hope that these things might not be is that there being now ten times more facilities of transportation than in 1884, grains would flow in so much easier.
72
In the meantime, the government makes the confusion worse confounded by increasing the farm taxes by three-fifths per "Kyol." In Hamkyong-do, that is, a farmer will have to pay 42.67 yang per "Kyol," instead of 26.67 yang as hitherto.
73
When one considers that field which yields anywhere from 20 to 100 "sums" of rice per "Kyol" may well enough afford to pay 42 yang, or the price of a little over a "sum." In fact, the taxes are ridiculously light by themselves. Yet what do the people get in return? No schools, no roads, no bridges, no protection, no security of life and property. Every cash the people give is not every cash thrown away; but adds a link to the devil's chain to tie them harder and faster to the powers of tyranny by enabling the corrupt government to keep up armed rabbles euphoniously called soldiers. God's Mill grinds slow but sure, they say. But that is a poor consolation when the said mill reduces to powder more innocent millions than stinking dynasties and high titled workers of iniquity who, like the proverbial fool and American, seem to be the objects of special Providence.
74
A new independent bureau with its pact of presidents, secretaries, chusas and agents has been hatched under the feathers of the vulture of Korea, the Household Department, Yu Min Won or People-Easing Bureau, or Emigration Department, is the name of the new concern whose business is to sell passports to Koreans going abroad. Hitherto the fees collected from this source of revenue have been a perquisite to the Foreign Office. In the Monsan Kamni Yamen for instance a passport is sold at 500 cash, of which 200 cash goes to the Yamen and 300 to the Foreign Office. But from now on the pro-ceeds of the sale will go to the Emperor's pocket which like Solomon's horseleach, cries "Give, give". It is a pity that this bottomless pocket was unknown to Solomon when he enumerated the three things, yea, four things, that say not "It is enought,"
75
Well, now I shall leave the official buildings of Tokwon better than I found them. The Confucian College―so called―was rebuilt at the exceptionally low cost of about 12,000 yang. The stonework and the timbers are of much superior quality to those of the old house. The fine timbers were contributed by persons owning pine groves, while the transportation of the materials was done by the vllagers free of charge, as their custom is in works of state importance. But for this, the building might have cost three or four times as much.
76
I have repapered the rooms in the Tong Hun, or Magisterial Office, rebuilt the walls, and planted over 600 poplars. The Tokwonites have still a lingering hope that Tokwon "Up" or the magisterial seat, may yet regain its former importance by having the magistrate residing there permanently.
77
I can not share this hope, as Tokwon is too small for a Kamni and a magistrate and as the Kamni will always find it necessary to reside in Wonsan.
80
Returned to Kamni Yamen early with a feeling of positive pleasure. The Tong Hun 東軒 at Tokwon offers me a sunnier and roomier accommodation with quietness verging to solitude. But I can not stand the solitude longer than a week and that alone. A retired home with ample supply of trees, flowers and gardens in or near a busy city suits me better than sheer solitude.
81
At 2 p.m. called on Mrs. Manheimar, who had just returned from Germany a week ago. Found her as vivacious as when I first met her in 1899, besides looking stronger. Her house stands on one of the prettiest sites in Wonsan. Her rooms are necessarily small, made unnecessarily smaller by over furnishment. The little parlor gasps for breath, so to speak, being choked with tables, chairs, pictures, photos, curio stands et cetera. I have not the slightest doubt that her breakdown was due much to her over crowded rooms.
82
Mr. M. came to Korea in 1895 on the same steamer, Port Adelaide, that my Darling was on when she first came to this country. Mrs. Manheimar often tells me what a delightful impression my Love made on her by her (My Darling's) beauty and sweetness.
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