Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-02-16
ALL QUIET IN s0NGDo
CONDITION OF THIS KOREAN
TOWN JANUARY 10.
Waiting for Korean News by Way OF
Washington, D. C.-1mpressions
Of the Country.

News from the front In time of war Is al
ways welcomed. The world is getting tele-
graphic reports from the far east, but these
are in many instances far from satisfactory
In their vagueness and uncertainty, so that
a letter. even under date of last month.
from the midst of the fighting district, will
not be without interest, especially to Wash
ington readers The letter comes from the
daughter of resident of this city.
Miss Sadie B. Harbaugh, daughter of
George w. Harbaugh, 1O3 Sd street south
east, and sister of Robert B. Harbaugh,
1905 It'll street northwest, has been mis-
sionary in Seoul and Songdo, Korea, for the
past three years, working under the direc-
ton of the Methodist Episcopal Church
South. She writes as follows under date or
Songdo, Korea, January 10:
1T seems that our foreign mail struggles
in irreguldrly these days, and we are won
dering whether the war arrangements are
already interfering with the mails. or
course, you hear great deal about war
these days; doubtless more than we do
Since my return from China, In OCTOBER,
we have been reading all about it in The
Washington Star, and getting the news
some four or six weeks later than you,
which has been interesting to us, as we
have known practically nothing from any
other source.
During the past week. however, things
have developed somewhat. We hear that
war has been declared between Russia and
Japan; that the Japanese will soon land
their troops at Chemulpo, but also that ar
bitration is being talked of and that the
command to the Russian forces is for them
not to fire the first gun, which, some seem
to think, alters the situation.
THE Russian legation guard has arrived,
but was refused transportation over the
Japanese railroad between Chemulpo and
Seoul. 1t is making it's way on foot. We
have two gunboats in the Chemulpo harbor.
guard at our legation in Seoul, and trans
port of American soldiers is on it's way
from Manila. DR.. Allen, our minister. does
not propose to be caught in the Picking
pickle of 1900 We have been rather I'M
easy, hearing that Dr. Allen will order us
out of Songdo. as we have no treaty rights
and are simply here on passport. He has
not done SO yet, but / have no doubt he
will long before things get to the danger
point, for l imagine he is man who would
be on the safe side.
1--WE have heard that Songdo, on account
Of the big mountains a mile back of us,
would be one of the strategic points, but
we hope that this will not be the case.
Songdo "Silent City"
cat present Songdo is the same "Silent
City" Not a ripple Of excitement or of
sound passes over her from day to day.
can almost feel his hair turning gray. 1
look from my window and L can see move
ment and life, but can hear no sound save
my own pen scratching over the paper, or,
as pause, the tick of watch ten feet away.
l think we make more noise in our resi-
dence than all the rest of Songdo put to-
gether. l cannot imagine hearing the tread
of soldiers or the boom of cannon here.
However, would rather-infnitely rather
be here than in Seoul
Seoul is bad enough, ordinarily, with it's
half starved populace, lon the qui vive for
loot and plumber, if only the opportunity is
offered. 1t has crowds of political discon-
tents and intrigues and ostentatious mill
tary blare. / should think it would be
perfect bedlam in time of war, and that one
would have a difficult time in finding a
safe place for either person or belongings,
unless under strong military guard-which
latter, of course, is an advantage to be
found in Seoul.
I'VE go on as usual here and do not even
take the trouble to shut the gates of our
compound or lock our doors when we go to
bed at night At least, l do not on my
side of the house. l think others lock
theirs through force of habit.
This you will doubtless think a good
commentary on Korean honesty and. per-
haps it it is, for every cent of money l
ever keep in the house is kept in my desk
drawer. The desk is never locked, yet 1
have never lost anything from it or from
the house. Yet the Koreans are anything
as dishonest they can we'll be, which
leads me to remark that one can say two
exactly opposite and contradictory things
about oriental character, and they both can
be true-a paradox which l have not yet
been able to explain.
I'VE had a very pleasant Christmas here
this year-the most pleasant l have yet
spent in Korea. We took dinner with Mrs.
Cram and there were present Mr. and Mrs.
Cram. DR.. Rose, Miss Kinds. Miss Houn-
shell and myself Santa Claus remembered
us with cards, books and letters of greet
ings from friends, and altogether it seemed
like a real Christmas.
During the morning we attended meet
ing to which we were invited by the Ep-
worth League boys, a large number of
whom are my school cherubs. This they
had got up entirely by themselves and was
their idea of concentrating the birth of
Christ, and / must say l have seen older
and supposedly more enlightened people do
worse"