The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-03-09

THE HERMIT KINGDOM
Koreans Claimed to Be De-
SCended from Gods.
PEOPLE QUEER BEINGS
Good Stories of Their Contact
with Americans.


ever. Korea well deserved its poetic name
'the Land of the Morning Calm"
The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune
has the following on the subject:
The Koreans claimed to be descended
from the gods, though they admitted
there might be something of a Chinese
cross. They have a horror of foreigners.
If you meet a foreigner, kill him -
used to be the inhospitable injunction
written on wayside tablets which still
exist
= Yet with all their aloofness the Koreans
have never been exactly an independent
race. Since the twelfth century before
Christ kora has been continuously under
thu domination of some one of her neigh
bors
From the time when the great sage,
Xiii, passed over with his 5000 followers
into the Korean peninsula, upon the fall
of the corrupt Shang dynasty in China
O122 B. c. every Korean dynasty has
acknowledged the suzeranity of its great
patron. China. From the very first Chin
csc law, literature. art, religion, dress
olEN dlillbSl ever l4ililS Use NIAilitStH "a
cept the spoken language, were forced
upon her. About the beginning of our era
the written Chinese character came into
common use in Korea through the infiu-
'ence of Chinese refugees This in itself
has constituted the strongest bond be-
tween Korea and China; for, through its
agency, the whole drift of Korean thought
has been cast in Chinese molds.
The Chinese are dandified race. but
what strikes the European spectator,
even more than the richness and costr-
ness of the costumes which vary with the
rank of the wearer. is their unblemished
purity, from the fine sik-lawn or cal
ico of those Of the less exalted rank.
Bright, and not Unlocking, with regu-
lar features and nose slightly aquiline,
the Korean, like the man of ideals" he
is, is deplorably INDECENT and averse from
cudgelling his brains more than he can
possibly help. 1t is said that a thousand
years ago they were intellectually pro-
digiously active people. They had the
printing press long before Gutenberg. and
It is said also that they possessed ar
mored battleships twenty generations at
least before the invention of the Monitor
race they are played out. The eastern
man of ideals has become Mr.. Toots
The Chinese DR. Blimber weights upon
him like an incubus
Il once upon a time-that is. since the day
when their intellectual decline set init
is said that the Koreans manifested a
faint anxiety to know exactly how they
stood, how the seasons passed. if this
could he ascertained without astronom-
zeal calculations. which, as We know. are
So wasting on the gray matter and the
nervous tissues. So the Emperor of China
sent every year by his ambassador cal
endar in which not only were the seasons
set forth. but much other useful and
timely advice was given
For instance, the calendar would say:
March 20 the season Of great cold ends
you can put on your spring clothes. July
10 the great heat begins. shed your wad-
ded overallS and show your skin" TIE
King would Immediately order the calen-
dar to be printed and distributed through
out the land, and so it can be said that
the whole Of Korea went by Picking time
The calendar did not fit very well with
the weather conditions of Seoul. and the
Hermits often sweltered in their wadded
overalls. and bloUses when the warm
weather had come. but like many another I
people. though the physical discomfort
was great, they had the proud satisfaction
of knowing that they were running and
dressing according to the court calendar /
Seoul, the capital of Korea. from being
one Of the dirtiest cities of the East, has
shown remarkable Improvement in recent
built houses have replaced the dark. filthy.
narrow alleys and waited huts of ten or /
twelve years ago. The streets are
thronged with curiously hated crowds
menfolk entirely-for with the better class
of women absolute sccIusion is the rule.
and the peasant woman is nothing but a
house drudge
The Korean ladies have their own
Courtyards and apartments. which must
not be overlooked by the windows Of the
mems apartments. The seclusion of fe-
males is carried so far that it is said po-
likeness requires that their existence
should be ignored.
Women Of the Esiddle and upper class
venture out at night only. and then in
strict concealment. although nowadays
the rule which excluded men from the
streets while the women were abroad is
not so strictly enforced. The nocturnal
promenade. or an occasional visit in a rig
chair. are the only outings
permitted TO the woman OF the better
class. and the low-class woman only
leaves her home for the purpose Of work.
The separation OF the sexes commences
At the age Of seven. after which age the
cir Of -,
their fathers and brothers. until their
marriage. Even then the brides eyes are
glued together for twenty-four hours az
ter the marriage. SO that she can not see
her husband
Every Korean wears = Iop-knot. The
top knot is more to him than the pig
tail to the Chinaman. \ royal edict
which enforced hair-cutting. issued in 1895.
almost set the country ahame. To the
Korean the topknot means nationality
and ssnctity. 4 Korean with
out the top-knot. even If OF mature age
Is treated in the ljSht Of a nameless
end irresponsible boy only In few
cases the Korean to escape this indignity
too poor 10 support his family
scrapes together enough 70 pay for the
top knot ceremonies and the hat and
ong coat which are their sequence; but
n most cases the top knot IS only as
suned on marriage. without which the
wearer has the title OF n ''half-man' be !
slowed upon him.
The women go bare-headed. and the
hair is worn quite simply on the nape 81 !
he neck.
The ordinary head-covering Of the men
resembles the old fashioned steeple- !
,rnureS hat with a hrnad hrin1 made IN