Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-10
A Tour Through the Villages
of the Unchanged Orient
Fifth Avenue Preachers
Strenuous I INES Among
the Top-Knots.

the living room and coming out on the other
side of the house.
No provision is made for ventilation In
the Korean home, and a foreigner nearly
SuHocateS. The conditions are very favor
able to the growth and comfort of other
residents than human, and one of the often
futile performances of the itineratng mis-
sionary ere he retires is to sprinkle circle
of yellow powder on the floor about each
leg of his cot and over the bedding One
does not have to possess an uneasy con-
science in order to suffer from troubled
dreams in Korean house. Probably the
endurance of centuries of vermin has Injured
the Korean to the lesser evils of political
oppression. AS to germs, the missionary
must forgo imagining; perhaps the very
room he occupies has been vacated for his
benefit. Several missionaries have died of
typhoid fever so contracted.
The farm house In which we sojourned
was built, like the Syrian khan, about a
courtyard. In the same building with US
was stored the years harvest, and the man.
ner in which a patient, big-eyed OK shared
onr roof-tree made very vivid the Bethle-
hem story. A large part of the village pop
ulatiOn followed us into the courtyard and
filled the doorway, watching us eat Finger
holes made in the paper windows glistened
with black eyes that watched the strange
foreigners. who did not know how to sit
on the floor properly, and neither used chop
sticks nor ate rice. Our shoes and clothes
and outfit Especially the Indian moccasins,
which are a great convenience in lands
where shoes are never worn indoors), were
all objects of childlike wonder on the part
of the simple, kindly peasants, some of
whom showed their good will by bringing
us fresh eggs and the big, delicious Korean
perSimmonS, the size and color Of ripe to-
matoes.
While we were at supper Korean Chris
tian entered with the news that in a small
village two hours farther on, where no mis-
sionary had visited, a group of believers
that word is commonly used in Korea) had
recently sprung up, numbering ten fami-
lies. They had been visited each Sunday
by the Christians from our village and
given Instructions. but they wanted the
missionary to visit them and establish a
catechumen class. Mr.. Halls program was
too full on the present tour to admit of
this In our stopping place the elder
further reported there were forty candi-
dates for baptism to be examined. This
particular community illustrates the pheno-
menal Christianization of this country,
which Is now less than generation re-
moved from rank heathenism and Sc
clusion which earned for it the title of
"the hermit nation" The settlement COM
prises thirty-eight houses, and Of these
twenty-five are Christian.
Practically the entire village turned out
for the evening service, most of them car
rying Bibles and hymn books. The singing
was led by the missionary, there being no
organ. The congregation Is dependent upon
his visits for new tunes, though they retain
with surprising correctness the ones for
merly learned. Mr.. Hall also taught the
people, by having them repeat the words
after him, the first question and answer of
the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which
has lately been rendered into Korean. The
ime-honored figure drank in every word
best expresses the attitude of the congre-
cation toward the sermon.
After the service was over, the elders
gathered around the missionary and prof.
fered formal request that he come as soon
as possible and spend a few days in teach
ing them the Bible. Mr.. Hall had to put
them of with a vague PROMISE as his field
is too large for him to do more than look
over 1t. I was interested to note that
while elsewhere missionaries have to adopt
various devices to attract hearers, such as
English classes, cooking classes etc, in
Korea the people seem to want simply the
Bible; and the missionaries are unable to
meet the demand for the teaching Of it.
Early the next morning, after a night
which in the interest of delicacy would bet
ter be passed over without comment, the
missionary began the work of examining the
forty applicants for baptism. The three
leaders of the local church and visiting
elder from Seoul sat on the floor of our
sleeping room, and the candidates were
brought in one by one. The first was a
man of forty who had learned to read in
order to read the Bible, a common expe-
rience among the Korean converts The
next was a boy of twelve. son of Christian
parents. Then came young man of TWEEN
ty-eight, then an old man. A bright boy of
twelve, with his hair up in a top-knot, in
token of being "a man." had been married
year to girl of fifteen, also a believer.
Although married. these children reside
with their own parents; the missionary in
structed them to do SO until they have
reached the marriageable age fixed by the