Evening star., 1909-06-12

toms: and the remainder, numbering mill
lions. are in the same condition that the
sex has held for many generations. The
customs vary according to the class to
bility, q middle class, common people and
slaves. All OF the rich families own hered-
itary slaves, and the daughter of a slave
is slave girl in turn. In the past such
not long since they were sold. When
the member OF a family committed a
grave offense against the government. the
whole family Of the guilty one was often
reduced to slavery. This was. the case
Tun. the rebel who was assassinated by
orders OF the King Of Shanghai some
years ago. Quite number of the sing
ing girls are slaves. and as such they
have been bought and sold Today al
most every Korean lady has her slaves.
who walt upon her and do her bidding
l understand that the slaves are usually
well treated. and that most of them
would not leave their mistresses If they
could.
Until just now 1t has been impossible
for foreign man to know anything
about the dress Of the high Korean lady
except from hearsay. I attended a garden
the grounds of one of the old palaces this
afternoon at which several of the high
ladies of the empress court were pres
ent. Among them was a sister of her
iiidJOSly. lHSS dppcdIcu III tHcH COuIt
gowns, with great gold pins studded with
pearls in their hair and with gold badges
of their rank over their foreheads. Each
woman had on a short jacket of white
light blue silk which reached only half
way to her waist. and below this a very
full skirt of dark blue silk gauze, which
was fastened around the body under the
arms and trailed upon the ground. As
they raised them l could see their stock
ings of padded cotton and their low en-
brOidered white lilac shoes
They were bareheaded, and their jet
black locks were put up in knot which
rested far down on the nape Of the neck.
They wore no wells nor face covering of
any kind and moved about among the
people. interested in all the sights of
the occasion. During the celebration the
court ladies. who heretofore have been
absolutely secluded. sat upon the plat
form, with the leading Korean and jap
anese officials. representing her majesty
the empress and one of them even read
q message from the empress to the as
semblage. No one would have dreamed
such thing possible five years ago.
The dress of the new woman will be
far more comfortable and more beautiful
than that of the present. A Korean
friend of mine has given me some Of the
details as to the costume of the present.
DAYS lie.
THE first thing a girl puts on Is di-
vided skirt, consisting OF pair of very
full drawers which fall in folds to her
feet. At the top of these is band about
eight inches wide. which is fastened
tightly over the breast by white ribbon
drawstring, tied at the front The drew
ers are SO full that they might be fastened
about the neck instead Of the waist, if
the girl so wished. The waistband is
very tight. and it comes high up the
back. Above it and just meeting it is a
little jacket with long sleeves. This is
yellow, green, blue or white, and it is
tied together with ribbons Of the same
color. The jacket Is SO short that a strip
of bare skin an inch wide shows out under
the shoulder blades when the woman
bends over, and IL she goes in the sun
she may have red stripe there. The
drawers narrow as they fall to the feet.
and are lost In great stockings of wad
ded white cotton, which make her small
feet look Ave times as large as they are.
They are more like boots than anything
else. and they take the place of shoes and
slippers at home. The better class houses
are carpeted with mating, and the women