Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1901-07-05
Women in Korea.

I'VE may say without hesitation that
the lot of the Korean woman is the most
pitiable, just as the position of her peo-
pie 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, sell
dom seen before Inc marriage, which is
arranged by a go between las in China
and Japan, and after marriage to talk to
her even is a degradation for the hus-
band. In the lower classes she must
work, work, work.
"A few instances will give point to
these facts. In the city OF Fusan, in
southern Korea, there lived a Korean
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 Japanese settlement
nearby. 1t lay only half mile away,
but the woman had never seen 1t. This
event took the place in her life that a
trip abroad does with us, 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 Korean girl has no
name She is known as So-and-So's sis
ter, or So-and-Sos mother, when she
becomes married and has son. Her
husband calls her by her sons name. A
husband in Korea Is entitled to 2 divorce
on the ground of his wife's incompau-
bility with her mother-in-law. The pro-
fessions of sorceress, Buddhist nun and
dancing girl seem the only avenues by
which the Korean 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 inno-
walton seems almost hopeless, A young
Korean 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 go?' inquired
the father-in-law of the Korean girl.
Z" TO see our husbands was the re-
spouse.
"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
Korean husband was away, he wrote a
letter to his wife; but the father-in-law
was ashamed to give il to her, declaring
that it was a violation of all Korean
custom.
The women in this country are often
unhappy 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 husband may use much haste
and tact in getting out of the way, or
he may retaliate by some effective blows,
or later by a divorce. 1t is an interesting
fact that, while as a nation the Koreans
are least assertive, individually they are
more apt to give way to violent out
bursts of temper than either the Chinese
or Japanese. When a Korean woman is
deeply incensed she reduces everything
to simple equation, forgetting in her
fury the teachings of Confucius, and her
centuries of subsection. We have it in us
to wish that all Korean womankind would
rise up in simultaneous frenzy and tram
pie the old order of things to death I'M
der foot l can imagine the whole army
of Korean men scrambling hastily to
cover. II Ainslee's Magazine.