Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-05-10
THE WOMEN OF COREA.
THEIR SOCIAL CONDITION AND
QUEER COSTUME.
n Life of Strict Wearing
Their Husbands Goats For Head
Ooyerings-Their HOLIDAY

Nothing. could be more dreary and
hopeless than the social condition of the
women of Qorea. They cannot be said
20 occupy any position at all, and are re.
garded as of the least importance in the
family order md arrangements. The
subJection OF women has reached the
extreme point in Corea, and their
seclusion is strictly enforced after the
seventh year, except with those of the
lowest and poorest classes, who cannot
{help being seen while they work or carry
burdens on the streets aud roads. Even
these poor creatures try to cover their
faces ut sight OF a man, although thcy
are not as lovely as our Indian souaws
Their, costume is no aid to comlinesss.
Like the men the common dress of
Corean women is of white cotton, or of
the lustrous grass cloth woven of the
fibre oil wild nettle that grows on the
peninsula rs we'll as i'll China. White is
really the color of mourning; but from
the fact that the whole nation is ordered
into mourning garb when o king dies,
the practical minds of few centuries
ago voted to stay in mourning and be
ready for untoward events rather than
make the change from blue &c white
clothes SO often. Their costume, con-
sisting of bagGy trousers, long petit
coat, and short jacket, has nothing to
recommend 1T on the score of beauty or
grace of outline, and color is the one
redecming point. The full pcttcoat is
gathered TO band, but even the poor
est women make their skirts half-yard
too long, after the fashion of the palace
ladies, and then gather and tie them up
in bulky folds around the waist. Tbey
wear the shortest little long sleeved lack
| - &c 4. "a
cloth thickly waddei with cotton, and
the quantity of padding for each stock
ing is regulated by law. The padded
stocking makes the whole people seem
afflicted with elephantiasis. A we'll
woven straw sandal protects the foot in
ordinary times, but in rainy and wintry
weather they wear the regular wooden
sabot of Holland, but raised by two
pieces OF wood under the foot and heel
that relate it closely to the japanese
rain clog, and curiously combine the two.
Often the women wear full petticoats
of pale blue and pale green cloth, and
their short jackets of green, blue, or
pink give good solid touches of color to
the costumes. When. walking in the
streets they throw "a green coat over
their heads, and hold it closely down SO
as to conceal everything but the eyes.
They never put these coats on properly.
as they are supposed to he the coats Of
their soldier husbands, and the wives
have them ready to hand over ut the in
slant call to war. Very often the green
coat is folded and laid on the top of the
head as pad or cushion for the heavy
bundle, jar, or basket they may be car
rying there. Little girls wear the same
costume in miniature, but the whole
wealth of the color-boX is spent on
their clothes, and their bright pink,
blue, and green gowns are surpassed by
coats with the sleeves made up of strips
of different colored cloths sewed to.
gethcr
While the beauty of some of the chill
! drcn suggests the possibility of beauty
among the women, no ones experience
proves. it, and the general Indifference
OF CoreaE men to the green-draped fig.
ures that skulk by must be warranted by
facts and their wide experience oil the
unveiled women who for centuries have
tailed to evolve bonnet, or. veil, or
national head-gear, Or asserted the rights
oil their head to proper covering OF its
own. These exceptional bonnetless wo.
Men, putting up with such makcshifts
us their husbands coats for centuries, do
not command ones sympathies as much
as if they went honestly bareheaded. If
there were anything TO be seen inside the
green coats but their stolid, stupid heavy
faces, one might pardon for coquetry's
sake the ugly veil.
Indoors their hair dressing proves to
be quite simple affair, the abundant
black hair beng parted and smoothly
drawn back into knot Mt the nape of
the neck, andcaught with thick silver
or gold pin. Some of the women seen
IN the Queens suite at the palace were
enormous chignons of false hair, weigh
ing ten and twenty pounds, but this is
head dress of rank and for state cere-
mony. AT the same time their petit
coats are distended by bamboo hoops
that exceed the "tilters'' of so MANY
years ago. The singing and dancing
girls at the palace wear full divided
skirts that allow them to ride astride of
ponies in the royal procession, and they
have coqucttish little cap for winter
and full brimmed hat for summer as n
mark OF their profession. The Queen
wears the same dress rs other Corean
women, only that it is made of silk and
fine materials, and the jacket and broad
girdle are handsomely embroidered. On
very rare occasions she has given audi
ence to foreign ladies, and she has dis
charged all'the astrologers and wizards
in her suite, and employs woman ply
stefan who recently went out from
America.
The Corean women, unlike good chill
dren, are heard if not seen at night, and
in the stiffness succeeding the curfew
bell Of Seoul one hears them lifting their
voices in quavering, camp.meeting walls,
and singing the most -plantive songs
The white cotton clothes of the people
are washed by the women, who pound
them with stones in some dirty pool or
watercourse, and they are ironed or given
their silken. gloss by being wound tightly
on wooden rollers and pounded with
wooden sticks by the hour. Two women
sit on the ground, facing each other.
with the roller between them, and play
a regular and lively tune with their drum
sticks: One hears that steady rat-tat all
day and half the night; and as they do
not know or drink tea, it is question
when. the down-trodden women of Corea
get even the poor privilege of gossiping
about their sad condition.
The wOmen's preat holiday comes in