Evening star., 1901-12-28
The Daily Life Of Young Washing
ton Missionary,
A BED ROOM EIGHT FEET SQUARE
Interesting Letters Received From
Miss Sadie Harbaugh.
FLOORS OF OILED PAPER

Houses with mud walls and floors. win
| dows pasted over with white paper, doors
four feet and a half high, and ovens oper-
| ated with charcoal above and beneath the
baking pan-this is a partial list of the
| surroundings in which Washington
woman is spending her winter. A fair pic
| ture of her life Is presented to her District
| Of Columbia friends in a series of interest
| ing letters, most of them dated from ko
| Yang, Corea, and all Of them signed by
| Miss Sadie Harbaugh a young woman
missionary, who left Washington for Corea
several months ago.
81 expect to be out in the country among
| the Coreans," Miss Harbaugh wrote some
| time in October, for a month or more,
| during which time 1 do not expect to hear
| word In English or see face that is
| not Corean 1t Is an experience, 1 assure
| you. However, It is not at all depressing.
| If you could look into my little eight by
eight room tonight-and L wish with all
my heart you could-I am sure you would
say that it is quite cozy and comfortable.
| An eight-foot room Is not very large but
| it is large enough for one woman and an
| interesting outfit.
THE greatest difficulty is that 1 am al
ways knocking my head against the raft
| erS. Corean rooms are eight feet high at
| the highest part only. Some of the timbers
are only about four feet six inches from
| the floor and as am about an inch taller,
we become more familiar some times than
care to be- The room has two doors and
| a window. The latter is about eighteen
| inches wide and the doors are about four
| feet and a half high. and between lodging
| and STOPPING to get in and out of the doors,
| 1 feel as though 1 had made mistake in
not adding to my outfit some kind of lini-
| ment that would keep my back in order. .
| The window and door frames are pasted
| over with white paper, with here and there
| little round hole punched through to ac-
commodate the inquistive eyes of the
| natives.
| Paper Floors Like Bronze.
"a Corean floor is the handsomest part
| of the house. 1t is made of a plaster of
mud with fues underneath for heating pur-
| poses. On the mud is pasted five or six
layers of paper and then layer of heavy
oiled paper. The floor is covered with oil
| and a fire is then left burning under 1t for
| three days before the oil is wiped up and
| the floor is ready for use. The paper is
| wiped up every now and then with oil to
clean it, and in time it becomes a beautiful
| piece of bronze. l never saw hard wood
| floor at home half so handsome.
MY outfit consists of my steamer trunk,
| containing my study books, changes of
| clothing bed clothing etc. a small canvas
| folding cot; small folding table; light
| willow chair with rockers l had Chinese
carpenter put on 1t, but it isn't comforta-
| BILE, and a provision box containing twen-
| ty-five pounds of flour, some potatoes and
some American canned goods. Besides
| these have tea kettle frying pan, stew
ing pan, couple of granite plates, cups
and saucers, and knife, fork and two
spoons. l started out without a cook,
| thinking 1 would rather do my work my
| self than bother with one, but L have to
| do my cooking in a shallow stone basin
with a charcoal fire above and below the
pan, and it is a decidedly slow process and
| has already taken so many hours of the
| day away from my other and more impor-
I hac 70
| Seoul for some one and L shall be glad to
resign that part of my work. 1t is a work
Of art to keep pots and pans balanced on
the charcoal. Today | tipped one over and
| burned my hand and came near being
Scalded badly.
Procession Across the Country.
| Day before yesterday I left Seoul with
one Of our Bible women to accompany me.
| l wish you could have picture of the pro-
| cession. Three coolies headed it-one with
the provision box and the others with the
smaller articles followed in two-coolie
| open chair and the Bible woman in Corean
closed chair came last. We went through
| the dirty alleys of the city, out through the
west gate, and then to the north, for
| short distance travelling along outside the
| wall.
In little while we passed the Liberty
Arch, think it is called. which was
| erected when Corea ceased to pay tribute
to China. few hundred yards further on
| is pass cut through a mountain,
| through which the Chinese came annually
| to receive tribute. We passed through
| this, and then went by the Lone Tree
mountain, which stands a bare peak ex-
cept for solitary tree on the summit like
| a sentinel over against Seoul: and then out
into the open country. winding through the
valleys, with the mountains rising beauti-
| fully all sides Of us.
Now and then the coolies would put
| down the chairs and rest, or. 1 am sorry to
| say, set us down in front of 'seul.' or
in, for drinl
money soon gave out, however, and they
| had to quit They asked for some of their
| pay In advance to buy more 'seul but
when declined they went on without COM
ment. Their 'seuP is made of rice 1 think
| but l am not sure. 1t is thick. and looks
| like yeast. 1t is Intoxicating. Drunken Co.
not use opium
A Corean Chorister and Western
Toward the end Of the valley and to the
| west in the fork Of the hills was a larger
| village, of perhaps some 200 or $50 houses
| This was ko Wang and my first stopping
place. Coming into the village we passed
| through an avenue Of willow trees, and the
whole evening scene was sweet and quiet.
Without any inquiry from us the people
along the way directed the coolies to the
kyo.' or, in language you can understand.
to the Christian meeting place-it cannot
| be properly called a church. There are
some tnirty-HVe OF IOrIy CHRISTIANS In the
village. Their meeting house is the regular
Corean thatched-roofed, mud-walled house
adapted for the purpose
Il wish you could see the old keeper and
his wife, who probably owned the place be-
fore the Christians secured 1t for a place
of worship. You would only have to look
at the old mans face to tell he was a
Christian. 1t fairly beams. And 1 wish
you could hear him sing. That he cannot
sing goes without saying. But he knows |
and appreciates the meaning of the words |
and seems to love to sing them and while the |
effect would perhaps be very laughable to |
an outsider, 1t seems very sweet to me- for |
the heart is sincere. though the sounds are |
not musical. The first night came / was |
quite tired, and so after a cold lunch and |
prayers with them spread my cot and went |
to bed. But 1 was soon awakened by the |
old gentleman's hymns of praise.
Unrestrained Native Curiosity.
Yesterday. which was my first day, 1 |
spent in receiving the people who came and /
in adjusting myself to my new surround
ings. After the people started to come in |
the morning do not think there was any |