The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-15
EMPRESS OF KOREA.
American Girl on Throne of the
 f Hermit Kingdom.

Pittsburg Dispatch.
 In6the crisis which Is threatened in the East we shall hear much, no doubt, of Korea and it's threatened throne. The ~pelitical shuttlecock among the na- tions." as a great man has called the Kingdom of VI Hi, has lived through stormy times, and 1t is not easy to i'm agine what its ultimate destiny will be. K The progress of Korea for twenty years and more has been through turbulence and strife, and in the last few chapters of its story we read of generals degraded for cowardice, of ministers executed for treason, of courtiers banished and recall ed, of the flight of the king and the mur-
 der of his queen, and of all the tragic and dramatic events that follow upon
 revolution. And amid it all there stands,
 the chief figure of interest yen environed
 in mystery, Emily Brown. ance singer
 in a chapel choir, at this moment Elm
 press of Korea.
 Even to this remote Pacific kingdom the American wife has found her way
 New York was proud when the daughter of Mir. Letter became, in New Yorks own phrase, American queen of India," and if was eIated, we may be sure, when Edia Hensler married king of Portu- gal and became an actual queen or Flu rope. But Emily Brown Is the nrsr American girl to become real empress
 The story reminds one of another strange chapter of politics in the Paclhc' of the notorious Shirley Baker who ran the Kingdom of Tonga for his own amuse- ment and profit, and gave up hfs mission ary life to be lord high everything to King George I. But the father or Emily Brown had no dafk history such as stain ed the reputation of the missionary "TSing' of Tonga. He was a devout and courageous missionary. the grst Pro testant to enter the Korean capital where he had been sent by the Presbyterian Church in the States Emily was his youthful daughter, and his jealous helper in the mission field. She led the singing in the mission chapel at Seoul, and it was thus that her beauty came to be reported to the king
 Kings have their own way In Korea, save when it happens that subjects have theirs. and 1t is not unnatural that when the king commanded the missionary's daughter to enter his household she should have been so captivated by the prospect that she could not resist. For time. it is true, Miss Brown refused the royal invitation, but. having obtained the kings promise of marriage at the earli- est possible date. she yielded to pressure, left the mission church, entered the palace, and is today the crowned wife of Vi Hi, who six years ago this week took the title of emperor Her son, if he lives and if his country keeps its sover eighty, will one day be emperor of Korea. and for the first time in the history of the world the son of an American wo- man will be the crowned monarch of an empire. This is the age of emancipated woman, and the rulers of our little king doms are not behind. For the first time in Abysslnia a woman sits down at the enperor's table. and for the first time in Korea a woman has been raised to the rank of her consort.
 The coronation ceremony made Lady
 Emily" Empress Om. 'The Dawn of the
 Morning." as the native dictionary has
 it. One wonders if ever before an Amer