Evening star., 1909-06-12

through. The cloaks themselves were 90
thin as to be of no value for warmth.
and they were used only as wells. Tooay
the common women use the same sort or
cloak. but they are not held tightly, ana
one can see a score OF female faces on
any Of the main streets during any work
ing hour of the day. These street wom-
en- belong to the laboring classes. Many
of them are slaves and they are as rule
homely. dirty and frowsy.
So far, the new woman belongs to the
nobility or the upper classes. She is
usually the daughter OF some vaughan
who is pro-Japanese or is anxious to
ape foreign ways. Many of these gentle
men now dress in European clothes and
not few are anxious to have their wives
do likewise. They see the Japanese and
European ladies going about unveiled and
observe how they are treated by their
husbands as a result and they allow their
attended a court garden party the other
day at which many of the royal family
were present. There were several princes,
relatives of the emperor. all of his i'm
perial majesty's cabinet ministers, the
high Japanese officials and others. The
foreigners brought their wives and they
wore. of course, European costumes. The
japanese ladies we're dressed in beautiful
kimonos. There were in addition about
a half dozen Korean ladies' some of
whom wore European dress and the
others Korean gowns. Such women be-
long to the advance guard of the new
movement. They go out on the streets
with their husbands and even ride in
carriages or jinrikishas, always creating
a sensation among the natives when they
do so. The older men cannot realize that
good woman who has been raised
Korean would do such a thing and many
of them consider the morality of the new
woman questionable. to say the least.
X
AS to the clothes the new woman wears
these at the present time are strange to
an extreme. The Koreans have no idea
of what the proper foreign dress is: and
they appear in the most outrageous CO.'S
tunes. thinking them correct. For in
stance. the wife of a high Korean Of
fetal came to an afternoon tea at an
American house this week dressed In a
trailing gown of gauze tissue. the mate
rial of which was of about the consistency
of fine mosquito netting. The dress was
properly made. but under 1t there was
almost nothing. The woman had petit
coats which reached only to her knee
so that her pipe-stem legs. clad in black
stockings. could be plainly seen. She had
on heavy cowhide shoes and hat of the
vintage of a dozen years ago. The latter
was of dngy straw, trimmed with moth
eaten roses, which hung down almost to
her shoulders. The combination was
strange that the foreign ladies' could
hardly keep their faces straight as she
she was a woman Of wealth, and money
had been no object to her in securing
the proper dress. l doubt not she con-
sidered herself more fashionably attired
than any other lady present.
Such things occur from ignorance az to
what the foreign costume is, and the
shopkeepers here are taking advantage Of
the fact that the women do not know.
They have for sale a miscellaneous outfit
of bygone clothing brought from Shang-
hal and other parts of the east. The
hats are of all shapes and styles and the
dress goods are of every outrageous de-
scription. These things are bought by
Korean parents for their little children
who are going TO school. quite a number
of whom are now wearing foreign dress
and almost all of whom have foreign
hats. 1 attended an athletic exhibition Of
the girls of the public schools the other
day. 1t was held in the grounds of the
Mulberry Palace and about 500 girls with
their teachers were present. They were
all dressed in school uniforms. Korean in
cut but they wore foreign hats, which
looked as though they had been fshed out