The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-03-25
1.-THE LAND OF THE
MORNING CALM"
Korea, the Battlefield OF the
Russia-Japanese Con-
flict.
HATRED OF FOREIGNERS
lf You See a Foreigner, Kill Him
Used to Be the InhospitabIe In
junction in the Hermit
Kingdom"

'SlnclhHaI commercial Tribune: The
events Of the last few weeks have
caused the Hermit Kingdom" to loom
large In the eye of the most Indifferent
searcher Of maps. Ten years ago., how
ever, Korea we'll deserved its poetic
name, the Land of the Morning Calm"
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 foreign
Ars.
IF you meet a foreigner, kill HIM"
used TO be the inhospitable Injunction
written on wayside tablets which still
Exist.
Yet with all their a~loofness the Kor-
cans have never been exactly an indie
pendent race. Since the twelfth century
before Christ Korea has been continu-
pusly under the domination of some one
of her n%eighbors.
From the time when the great sage,
Ei1a, passed over with his 5000 follow
ers into the Korean peninsula, upon the
Iali OF the corrupt Shang dynasty in
CHINA ll22 b. O. every Korean dynasty
has acknowledged the suZerainty of Its
great patron, China. From the very
irst chinese law, literature, art, re-
llgion, dress and almost everything else
ChlneSe, except the spoken language,
were forced upon her. About the be-
ginning of our era the written Chinese
character came into common use in
KOREA through the influence OF Chinese
refugees. This in Itself has constituted
the strongest bond between Korea and
emma; for, through its agency, the
whole drift of Korean thought has been
cast in Chinese molds.
The Chinese connection has scarcely
been an improving one for the Koreans.
The Korean, by nature a ia of ideals,
has had his individuality crushed out
by the phlegrnatic and unitarian
China1nan. The connection between the
two is somewhat like that between the
Anslo-Saxon II the Kelt. 1t extends
TO the common details of life, and has
resulted in the loss of all s~pontaneity
and originality. Korea's connection
with the outside world has been solely
through China.
: The Koreans are a dandifed race,
but what strikes the European spec
tator, even more than the richness and
costliness of the costumes, which vary
with the rank Of the wearer, Is their
unblemished purity, from the fine silk
laWh of the noble wearer to the humber
lawn or calico of those Of the less ex-
allied rank.
Bright, and not ill-looking, with regu-
lar features and nose slightly aquiline,
the Korean, like "the man Of ideals he
Is, Is deplorably indolent and averse
from cudgeling his brains more than he
can possibly help. 1t is said that a
thousand years & they were intel
~lectually q prodigiously active people.
They had the printing press long before
Gutenberg, and it is said also that they
possessed armored battlcships twenty
generations at least before the inven-
,tion Of the Monitor. However that
may be. as a "brainy" race they are
MI ,yn1 r"f III - t-.-- a
ideals" has become a Mr.. Toots. The
Chinese DR.. Blimber weights upon him
like an incubus.
upon a time-that is, since the
day when their intellectual decline set
init is said that the Koreans mani
Tested a faint anxiety to know exactly
how they stood, how the seasons
passed, If this could be ascertained
without astronomical calculations,
which, as we know, are so wasting on
the gray matter and the ervou It's
sues. So the emperor Of China sent
every year by his ambassador a calen-
dar in which not only were the sea-
sons set forth, but much other useful
and timely advice was given.
For instance, the calendar would say:
March 20 the season Of great cold
clothes. July 10 the great heat begins,
shed your wadded overalls and show
your skin" The king would imme-
dlately order the calendar to be print
ed and distributed throughout the land,
and so 1t can be said that the whole Of
Korea went by Pekin time. The call
endars did not At 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 people, though the physical
discomfort was great, they had the
proud satisfaction of knowing hat they
were running and dressing according to
the court calendar.
ing one of the dirtiest cities of the east
has shown remarkable improvement in
recent years. Broad streets and sub
stantially built houses have replaced
the dark. filthy, narrow alleys and
waited huts of ten or twelve years ago.
The streets are t~hronged with curiously
hated crowGs-merfolk entirely-for
the better class of women absolute Sc
cluslon Is the rule, and the peasant
woman Is nothing but q house drudge.
TIL Korean ladies have their own court
yards 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 thu middle and uppe class
venture out at night only, and then in
strict concealment, although nowadays
the rule which excluded men from the
streets while the women We're abroad Is
not SO strictly enforced. The nocturna,
promenade, or an occasional visit in 8
rfgidly closed 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 commence.
at the G OF z, after which age the girl.
see none of the male sex, except their ia
theirs and brothers, until their marriage
Even then the BRIDES eyes are glued to
getler for tWenty-four hours after thu
marriage, so that she cannot see her hus
band.
Every Korean wears a top knot. Thu
top knot is more to him than the pig
tai. TO the Chlnaman. A royal edict which
enforced hair cutting, issued in 1895, al
most set the country afiame. TO the Ko
rean the top knot means na~tionality-an
tiquity and sancity. A Korean withou
the loTknot, ever X OF mature age, Il
.t.eai cd in the light of a nameless and ir
responsible boy only. In a few cases thu
lIeseaQ 10 escape this ~indignity %(althongi
too poor to support his family scrapes to
gefher eloi;gh to pay for the top kno
cerciresilies and the hat and long Goa
vi. III a.e their sequence. but in mos
cases the tap knot is only assumed OF