The Greenville journal. [volume] (Greenville, Ohio) 1850-1918, 1907-07-25

separable from residence in a real ma.
tive house in a crowded Korean COM
munity.
These missionaries at Taiku are all
Presbyterian, except the French priest,
who has an imposing European church
on the edge of the city. The Presby.
terians, North, South and Canadian,
and the Methodists, North and South,
and the Roman Catholics, have a mo.
nopoly of the mission work in Korea,
except modest enterprise by the Aus
tralian Presbyterians and the Anglic-
ans. All the missionaries in Taiku
are young people; yet some are called
"old missionaries" which reminds one
of the fact that all mission work in
Korea is Of compar atively recent de.
velopment 1t is only 20 years since
Korea was "the hermit nation" and 20
years since the arrival of the first
missionary. Each year since the be.
ginning, the number Of converts has
been doubling, and the additions to
the Protestant churches for the pres
ent year are given at 10000. Korea,
with 100000 population, and 200
missionaries, has nearly, If not quite,
as many Protestant converts as Japan,
with 45,O00,0O0 population and more
than 500 missionaries.
The little colony of nine Americans
here-including one unmarried wom-
an, Miss Cameron, who lives alone in
little house overrun with rats and
mice, of which she is afraid!-consists
of Rev. and Mrs. ]. E. Adams, DR.. and
Mrs. w. o. Johnson, Rev. and Mrs
H. M. Bruen, Rev. E. F. Macfarland
and Rev. Walter J. Erdman. They
have impaired somewhat of an Ameri-
can air to their compound (every mis-
sion residence Is surrounded by
fence or wall, and is called a COM
pound) by setting out fruit trees and
flowers from the homeland, so that
they have apples, and peaches, straw
berries. etc. They exchange plants
and cuttings with their neighbor the
French priest. From him they obtain
ed their strawberries, which proved to
be bread upon the waters, for last
year every one of the priests plants
perished and he was obliged to get
fresh start from which he had given
to the Americans.
Re-Makino a Nation.
A buster lot OF missionaries than
these have not yet seen; most Of
them are engaged chiefly In country
work, itinerating for weeks at a time
among the villages. Down in Taiku
visited the missions primary school,
where hive of gaily dressed young
sters were crowded In a native house,
studying their lessons at the top of
their lungs, and swaying to and fro
as they studied. In another little ma
| tive house l found Mr.. Adams teach
ing the beginnings Of higher educa-
tion to 25 Korean young men-most of
them. by the way, with their hair up,
in token that they are married. There
is practically no modern education in
Korea except that given by the mis-
sionaries. The latter are spreading
the desire and the opportunity for an
education throughout the country, and
many say that this will be the means
of preserving the rational identity.
So general is the belief that the in
fiuence of Christian schools, churches
and literature may help Korea to find
herself after centuries of ignorance,
corruption and oppression, that have
been told by other than missionaries,
that the Japanese government is back
ing a Buddhist propaganda and organ
izing a new native religion, in order
to counteract the widespread accept.
ance of Christianity. The mission.
aries are alert to keep the churches
from being used for political purposes.
The Koreans, for example, not long
ago established more than 1000 patri-
otic societies, which they called "Y.
/ M. C. AS" and the officials of the as.
sociation had to secure an imperial
edict correcting the abuse.
The missionaries have a thousand
Protestant and a thousand Roman
Catholic adherents in Taiku. The
church of the former is simply
primitive native house, enlarged again
and again, until more than 500 persons
can crowd into it for the weekly serv-
ice. 1t looks scarcely large enough to
hold 100, American fashion, but the
Koreans sit cross-legged on the floor
and crowd closely together. The
women are separated from the men by
a curtain, and in church they remove
the cloak which ordinarily conceals
their faces. This. particular church,
like all others in Korea, is entirely
seif-supporting. Mission funds are
here not used for the churches, but
entirely for medical, educational and
evangelistic work. #a2
copyright, 1907 BY Joseph B. Bowles.)