The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-12-30

queer population takes a perpetual
siesta. What queer looking animals
these are, which squat and smoke in
couples or in dozens on the 81 ie or at
the corners OF the streets. They might
be Chinese and they might be Japanese,
but they are better looking than either.
What gorgeous dresses some of them
wear, and you look twice to sec
whether the big sugarloaf hats or horse
hair which are fastened to their heads
are q natural part of their person or an
article of dress.
How many of them dress in white!
and their long full gowns belly out at
the front and each of their legs look
like baby in swaddling clothes. They
wear padded white stockings and the
shoes of the rich are gorgeous in their
embroidered decorations. There is
one of then walking. He swings his
arms as he goes, and his pipe with its
long stem and small silver bowl hangs
almost to his knees in his smoking.
What q maze of bright colors and how
gorgeous are the delicate sky blues, the
| bright pinks and the crushed strawber-
ries which come forth from thess mud
walled matched huts. The contrast of
colors is striking and that of conditions
is more SO. New shapes and oolors
strike your eye at every turn and had
Dean Swift lived here he would have
had no excuse for CULVER The hats
are as different as the men and each hat
has its meaning. Here comes a man
in long gown of gray hemp
and his head has covering of finely
| or
| brella which comes out and down
over his shoulders and makes him look
as though his hat was walking off with
him. You wonder what kind of an
animal he is and you peek under as he
passes. He has g little strip of gray
linen stretched between two sticks
which he holds before his face and you
| see only his eyes and his forehead
This is mourner. For three wears
after mans father or mother dies he
is compelled to put on this garb. He
must not let his face be seen; he dare
not engage in festivities, and he cannot
marry. If, at the end OF this time or
during it, another relative dies he is
forced to mourn three years longer,
and in this way would-be benedicts
are sometimes kept for nine years out
of the married state. From the num-
Der of these hats on the streets death
seems as common in Korea as else
where, and the cycle of old time cuts
down the Acknowledged Korean quite
as freely as his straight-eyed brother.
There mourner's hats are the same
as those of the bull drivers. They are
merely Of finer material. The bulls aud
men are the beasts Of burden of Korea,
and coming up the wide street of the
capital you see many a bullock hsr-
messed to rude carts, the wheels of which
are fastened together with pins and
which are almost as rude as those sawed
out of logs by our early pioneers.
|, Korean hats are by no means in
expensive. The stiff sugar loaf variety
of black horse hair cost about SIG
apiece when of the best quality, and the
Korean men spend more time on the
| dress of their heads than they do on
any other part of their bodies. II is
said that from 5000 to $500 are some
times invested in head gear, and every
Korean carries a little oiled paper
, oonical cap which looks like an i'm
mense lamp shade closed at the top
and which folds up like fan. When it
rains he carefully pulls this over his
, horse hair hat and carefully ties it I'M
der the chin. l have as yet seen no
| III hOI60, dlu W6I0 uU
t Waterproofs in such shops as | saw.
Korean hair is as queer as are Korean
hats, and there is here almost Ian
guage in hair dressing. Married men
g wear their hair different from those IN
5 married, and no matter what be his
age person is not man in Korea I'M
Til he has wife. Boys and bachelors
rank on the same footing. They part
l their hair in the middle and it is
braided in strand which hangs down
g the back. When the boy is married he
? has the right to cut off his hair, and
J when it grows again he combs it up
= into a round hard knot on the crown
! This knot is as big around as your
9 wrist, and it stands straight up on the
I crown of the head like handle, which,
if the American Indians could hunt in
2 Korea, would be bonanza in scalping.
/ With their gowns and their long hail
, thus parted in the middle the boys oil
. Korea look like girls. and the candy
} sellers and vendors who carry their
: goods around in little boxes slung be-
/, fore them by straps about their necks
are often taken by travellers as the fail
3 girls of the country.
In Korea, however, the high-bred
. girls are unseen. They are secluded al
I and after this are seen only by their
) brothers, their fathers and husbands
: If they come out at all in the streets
? they come out at night, and their quar-
, tiers are in the back of the house and
/ apart from the gaze of strange men
Only the common women, and not the
[ ladies, are to be seen in the city, and
a., these are as queer as the men. They
attempt to hide their faces by throwing
: a great cloak of green silk over theil
} heads and holding this at the neck
with the hand. so that often only one
, ara non he seen Meaning ont This