The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1906-08-31
UGLY WOMEN
OF Korea, With Their Unattractive
Costumes, Inspire no Enthusi-
astic Attention.

astic Attention.
| think the assertion may safely be
made that the women of Korea are
the most unattractive in the world,
says writer in Leslies Weekly.
One of my chief occupations during
my stay in the little hermit king.
dom" has been making diligent
search for a passerby pretty face |
have failed to find one. 1t is not that
they havn't pretty eyes, they have.
Eyes of softest brown and gentlest
expression. 1t is not that their feat
ures are coarse on irregular; for,
while this may be true of many, 1t is
not by any means true of all, and
have caught glimpses of as delicately
moulded features at Seoul as in any
| part of the world. But the Korean
woman is just ugly. One doesn't or
dinarily see much of the women of
the better class in this strange little
land, but being admitted, as | have
| been, to the imperial palaces and
several houses of high degree, l have
been at least able to receive impress
sions. The women who are to be
seen on the streets of the cities are
usually slaves or servants of a low
order, or perhaps the plentiful and
ever-present courtesans; but whatevel
they are, they, each and every one of
them, look as if they had hurried out
into the street without taking time to
dress themselves properly. Whoever
invented Korean attire had never
seen any other, or had seen such
specimens as were very misleading
in their proportions.
used the word "slave" ad
visedly. They are many female
slaves in Korea to-day, and there
were slaves of both sexes until the
Japanese almost annihilated the race
in the sixteenth century and made it
necessary for the government to de-
clare all males free. There are Tanr-
lilies of slaves who have been in
bondage for centuries, and they pre-
sent curious domestic situation A
woman slave may marry whom she
pleases, or whomever may care to
). marry her, and her master must pro-
vide her a household; and, since he
becomes master of all the female off
spring of such alliances, it is to his
advantage to encourage them. The
son of a slave mother is his fathers
son, and is brought up with a proper
contempt for women in general and q
proper appreciation of the fact that
he is man and may close his fathers
eyes in death, and have the same
proud office performed for himself by
a son of his own one day. The Kore-
J ans live only to die. and the most i'm
portant training they receive in life
! is that which fits them for properly
: mourning and burying their dead, and
2 for approaching the great final honor
/ of death themselves. But Korea is a
country for men, and women enjoy
few of it's privileges.
Daughters count for little, and in
consequence their lives would be most
unhappy did they know any other sort
: of life. But they do not. They are
received into the world with more or
less resentment and are Immediately
. dedicated to a sort of slavery to the
male members of the family The
Korean child receives no name. This
is an honor reserved for the individu
allied man. She is given some small
pet name in babyhood for the con
t venience of her elders, but as soon
as she becomes old enough to take
? her place in the women's apartments
e away from the eyes of man, she be
5 comes the daughter of 80 and so,
: and this is the only Identification
v vouchsafed to her until she becomes
the wife of 80 and So" and to her
own parents "our daughter of the
: house of so and So" When she be
, comes the mother of 80 and So this
this title is added to her wifely dig
, mites, and when she is buried as the
: mother of 80 and So" and her sor
: performs for her the wonderful fun
eral rites so dear to the Korean heart
A Korean may divorce his wife fol
any one of the Confucian Jus
} causes" for divorce, but he canno
I give her freedom to honorably marry
$ again. He may do whatever he likes
: and marry as often as he pleases
d but he can never marry a widow un
d less he wishes to defy all the socia
e laws of his country. The children o
g a widow who has remarked are con
sidered illegitimate, and are lower il
the social scale than are the children
of the innumerable concubines KEEP
by every man who can afford to sup