Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-06
WOMEN IN COREA.
Lower Class Must Work, Upper Class
Must he Entombed.

Lower Class Must Work, Upper Class
Must he Entombed.
From Ainsee's Magazine.
We may say without hesitation that the
lot of the Corean woman is the most pit
liable, just as the position of her people is
the most deplorable. in the far east. Every
degrading idea emanating from China is
here carried to an extreme. The wife is not
more than a chattel, seldom seen before the
marriage. which is arranged by a ''go be-
tween Gas in China and Japan. and after
marriage to talk to her even is a degrade
ton for the husband. In the lower classes
she must work. work, work. In the upper
classes she must be entombed.
A, few instances will give point to these
facts. In the city of Fusan, in the south
ern Corea, there lived Corean wife OF the
upper. though not noble, class. She had
been reached in her home, which was her
prison, by some young women missionaries.
One night, with the consent Of her husband,
they planned to take her to visit the Jap
anese settlement nearby. 1t lay only half
a mile away, but the woman had never seen
it. This event took the place in her life that
a trip abroad does with U.S. She said that
for many years she had seen nothing more
than the roof OF her husbands house. Now
she had something to think of until she
died. A Corean girl has no name. She Is
known as So-and-So's sister, or So-aad-So's
mother, when she becomes married and has
a son. Her husband calls her by her sons
name. Her husband in Corea is entitled to
a divorce on the ground of his wife's in
compatibility with her mother-in-law. The
professions of sorceress, Buddhist nun and
dancing girls seem the only avenues by
which the Corean woman can escape her
bondage. Though In some cases the adop-
ton of Christianity has led to a better state
of affairs, yet the attempt at innovation
seems almost hopeless. young Corean
couple in Fusan had become Christians,
and the husband. being the right hand OF
one of the missionaries. went with HIM on
long trips into the country. He had fallen
in love with his little wife-a very unusual
thing-and, In his treatment of her, wished
to emulate the example of his foreign
friend. When he and the missionary found
that they were to be in certain village for
a Few days, they sent for their wives.
Where do you wish to goT' inquired the
father-in-law of the Corean girl.
ITO see our husbands" was the response.
Thereupon, he forbade his daughter-in-
Law to take the trip, saying that his son
would be the laughing stock of the city,
and he could not allow her to create such
a scandal
On another occasion when this same Co.
resn husband was away, he wrote a letter
to his wife: but the father-in-law was
ashamed to give II to her, declaring that II
was violation of all Corean custom.
The women in this country are often I'M
happy and intelligent enough to realize the
misery of their position. In a way, they
are more spirited than the women OF the
neighboring countries, for they have fits Of
uncontrolled anger, during which they tear
their hair, cut themselves and generally
make things fly. At such a time the hus-
band may use much haste and tact in get
ting out of the way, or he may retaliate by
Some effective blows, or later by divorce.
1t is an interesting fact that. while
nation the Coreans are least assertlve, in
diyidualy they are more apt to give way TO
violent outbursts of temper than either the
Chinese or Japanese. When Corean wo-
man Is deeply incensed she reduces every
thing to simple equation for getting In
her fury the teachings of Confucius, and
her centuries of subsection. We have IL in
us to wish that all Corean womankind
would rise up in simultaneous frenzy and
trample the old order of things to death
under foot. 1 can imagine the whole army
of Corean men scrambling hastily to covert