Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-04
AN ENGLISH WOMAN IN ASIA.
The Journeys, Adventures ana obser-
yutions of Mrs. Bishop.

John A. Cockerll in New York Herlll
ON NV way to Nagasaki l fell in win
Mime. Isabella Bird Bishop, the famous
traveller. who was a feliow-passenger on
the steamer through the ever beautifui
Inland Seattle finest, think, OF all
Japan's physical exhibits. Nine Blshop
has three times circunlnavigated the giooe.
She is now sixty-four years of age, ana
for wears she has been something of an in
valid. but she finds little happiness she
informs me, outside of travel and study.
She is a native of Yorkshire, England. Her
voice Is soft and well marked with the
broad dialect of her native district. her
conversation is always instructive, FOR she
is a woman who travels to observe eX-
pIore and investigsee. She always travels
alone save when a guide or interpreter
may be Indispensable, and she loves tent
life and rugged contact with the varied as
meets of strange countries. Mrs. Bishop
made her first trip abroad in 1855, when
she visited Prince Edwards Island and
the United States. She wrote book about
us in 1866, and her last visit was made
in 1873. She gave much attention to the
Rocky mountains, and subsequently wrote
a book on them.
She has spent much time in Japan. Her
book on Japan, entitled "Cnheaten Tracks, ,
the interior of China, following the great
rivers hundreds of miles. Her visit to
Persia five years ago and her writings
thereon attracted great attention. Her
among the Thibetans' appeared last year.
Her favorite field is western Asia. She
spent four months among the noInad'c
races of that great and almost uneXplored
section of the world, facing many dangers
and narrowly escaping death more than
once Having devoted herself to hospital
work considerably and having a fair knowl-
edge of surgery and medicine, she has
frequently resorted to these arts In In
gratiatng herself with savages. One of
the wild tribes of Asia, she told me, In
Persia had offered to enrich her If she
would settle among them and look after
their sick. She is an excellent photog-
rapher and she has a collection of the
rarest pictures in the world. She told
me that in interior China she had great
difficulty in securing photographs of the
natives. They mad a belief that in taking
their pictures she gained great power over
them and could cause them to wither at
will.
Nine Bishop told me a story about the
Coreans which leads me to believe that
they can possibly be regenerated She
SAYS that while in eastern Siberia she
found a section of the country back of
VIadsvostock. peopled with Coreans to
the number of sixteen thousand. They
had migrated thither some years ago, dur
ing a famine in northern Corea, and hav-
ing squatted upon the land, inoffensively
and rather pathetically, had been permit
ted by the Russians to remain. AS the
country began filling up with Russian
farmers there was some dispute about
the land. and the authorities had finally
given to each head of q Corean family a
deed to forty acres of good tillabe land.
With an incentive and something to live
for these poor Coreans took on new char
acteristics. No longer oppressed and
robbed of the little that they could sccu-
mulate they became energetic. frugal and
actually ambitious. Nine. Bishop found
them cleanly in their homes and premises,
Industrious and prosperous. They had
changed for the better in character, until
they We're no more like the poverty-strick-
en-, sodden, helpless citizen of Corea than
the student of the Hampton Indian School
is like the degraded Digger of the south
west. She astonshed She could
not believe the Corean capable of such
transfo, nation. Her narrative convinced
me that there was hope for the degenerate
Corean when even Russia could improve
his condition and uplft him. Nine. Bishop.
however, agrees with most Intelligent OBJ
servers that Japan is better able to es-
tablish law and just rule in Corea than
any other nation, and she regrets that a
people who have done so much for them
selves in the past twenty-five years cannot
take the distressed Coreans under their
protection.