The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-09-12
LIES VICISSITUDES IN THE
HERMIT KINGDOM.
Seoul, Its Bedraggled Capital-There
Are Three Grades Of Society,"
Costumes Of the Natives-Pov-
erty and Squalor Abound.

any man caught out after that hour is
whipped. When the gates are shut,
access to the city is only obtainable
by scaling dilapidated portion of the
wall. 1t is officially estimated that
the city contains about 80, 900 houses,
and the bulk of these consist of
thatched novels, lining narrow and
fetid lanes. There are three main
streets communicating with the Kings
palace. They are quite fifty yards
wide and smoothly graveled; but even
in these principal ,thoroughfares over
crowding and squalor assert them
selves, for along the roadway may be
seen rows Of straw-thatched sheds on
either hand, which reduce the space
for traffic to q narrow riband in the
center. Upon either side of the streets
or alleys runs loathsome gutter.
Sanitation is absolutely unknown,
and consequently no attempt is made
to flush these stagnant drains. The
people, it will be readily understood,
are filthy in their habits. They done
seem to have even o remote idea of the
elementary laws of health.
The Korean towns and villages are
worse, if anything can be worse, than
the capital There may be said to be
too distinct types of the country town
or village; the purely agricultural,
which lies away from the beaten track,
and that which depends as much on
the entertainment OF travellers as it
does on farming. Any wayside etafe
furnishes an example of the latter
kind. The road enters between two
"higgledy piggledy" lines of low,
mud walled, straw-thatched novels,
thrown up at random, irrespective of
convenience or effect. The usual
refuse heaps, stacks Of fuel and open
sewers abound; while number of
tanned children, playing around
the entrance to the huts, and crowd
of adults arguing on some question OF
the hour, combine to make the scene
lively one. The inns are generally
only eating houses, and do not pro-
vide lodging. The rear of the inns
furnishes court yard, oftened garn-.
ished with pig-stye, Uttered with
fodder and pitchers and vats contain
ing condiments, so much priced by
the Koreans. A large iron cauldron
for cooking food is placed in some
convenient corner OF the room, al
though it is always best, needless to
say, for travellers to cook their own
food in their own utensils. The
guests rooms are quite without 'frni-
ture, and contain nothing but a reed
mat spread over the mud floor and
some blocks of wood for pillows. In
the winter they are heated by means
of fues passing under the clay floors.
The eating-shop is quite open to the
street with the exception of shelf,
on which the vlands are exposed.
These vary slightly with the season
and locality, but they generally con-
sist of small, ragged bits of raw beet,
slices of bean-cured boiled pork, salt
fish, sprouted beans, chopped turnips,
chillies, and steamed dough in rolls.
Wine can also generally be had at ths
inns. The stock in trade of the pro-
prietor consists of rude kind of fur
mace made of mud and stone; this
heats a pot which is always full of
seething brown broth. There is also
a rice copper, bench of brass basins
and spoons, q collection of coarse
china bowls, and an earthenware pan
of charcoal, kept busily engaged with
gridiron, in which scraps OF meat,
or It'd bits composed of three or four
onions and shreds Of beef skewered on
wooden spit, are roasting. Men
usually attend on customers; women
superintend the cooking and distribu-
ton of food.
The ordinary Korean magistrate or
Government official lives in building
fifty or sixty feet square, with small
piece of open yard in the centre. The
magistrates Office is, say, ten or twelve
feet square, and the open yard court
house. Tattered mats are spread
about over the wooden floor, and an
earthenware pot, containing live char
coal, hangs in the centre for lighting
pipes. The mud walls are upholstered,
and show all the cracks; the pillars
which support the heavy tiled roof
are bending beneath the weight, and
the rafters are grimy with dust and
cobwebs. Dirty robes hang about,
and brooms and gourds are scattered
about the floor. The writing materials
consist of small round table the size
of foot stool, an ink stone, Chinese
ink, and hair pencils. Writing is done
by sitting on the ground and taking a
roll of paper in the left hand and
gradually unrolling the paper as the
writing progresses. When finished it
is cut off the roll, neatly folded into
narrow oblong. so that it can be easily
closed by pasting one corner, seal is
put on, it is addressed, and finally
dispatched. Money is frequently SO
scarce that it has taken Korean
tradesman, upon whom letter OF
credit was drawn, all day to collect
from his ueighbors the sum Of twelve
dollars.
Korean society is divided into three
classes: l. The upper class, which
consists of the nobility. The mobiles
are autocrats and have absolute power
over the lower class. The public ser
vice and teaching are the only two
forms of employment open to them.
The middle class forms the merchants
and junior public service; while the
lowest class, which comprises four
tifths of the native population, are