Evening star., 1909-05-08

bowed i then went on until | reached
his majesty, when | bowed again. To
my surprise. the emperor bowed. too. and
held out his hand. took it and we
shook. I wish you could have felt that
hand. 1t was as soft as cotton and warm
and pleasant to touch.
The man who had been received before
me had merely bowed upon his reception
and turned away. I supposed this was
proper. and started to do likewise where
upon the emperor motioned me to stop
and the master of ceremonies said that
his majesty wished to speak to me- The
emperor then asked how long / had been
In the country and when ! was going
away. He wanted to know whether had
had an audience with him before, and
when / replied that l had met him four
teen years ago. at the beginning of the
war between Japan and China and diplo-
matically added that his majesty looked
As young today he did then. he per-
ceptibly smiled. This encouraged me to
the United States. The master of cere-
monies pretended to submit this request
but whether he did SO or not l do not
know, as he spoke in Korean. At any
rate. his majesty did not answer. but in
reply said that he was glad that | had
come to Korea. and that he hoped
would have a pleasant tour through Man.
churia and China. where. he understood.
was going. This was a signal for leav-
ing. and l backed my way out, bowling
betimes
AS I stood before the emperor I had a
chance to study him. He is not bad
looking and appears tall in contrast to
the Japanese generals about him. He
has a large head, rather high over the
eyes. He wears a black mustache just
large enough to enable 1t to be waxed,
and his hair, strange to say, is cut short.
His complexion is cream yellow, his eyes
black, IS height five feet seven and
his weight, / judge. about 10 pounds.
When ] saw him today he was clad in
the uniform of a Korean general. which
is now cut foreign style. and the con-
which L had with himself and the former
emperor his father was striking. 1t
shows the changes which are going on in
Korea.
My last audience was In the palace in
which the deposed emperor is now living.
The man who introduced me got down
on his knees and crawled over the floor,
humping his head on the carpet when we
entered the audience chamber. He con-
tinued to crawl until he reached his maj
esty and then got up and bent half
double, whispering my question to the
emperor and in the same way conveying
his answers to me. That interpreter was
a noble Korean. dressed in Korean dress.
Will d HOTScIdlT HdL OIl Ills Hedu. u0
master of ceremonies who acted as in
terpreter today stood straight up and
looked the emperor IN the eye He
wore European clothes and was so dressed
that he would not have appeared out Of
place at a diplomatic reception at the
White House.
When / met the crown prince at my
last audience he wore a long gown of
red silk, with a stiff hooplike belt run
ming around his body, under the arm
pits. 1t was large that it extended
out six inches from the dress all around
This belt had decorations of jade and
precious stones and it was a mark Of
high rank. His gown was high at the
neck and embroidered with gold medal
lions as big around a tea plate. There
was one of these on each of the shouT-
ders and one each side at about the fifth
rib. His feet were shod with heavy cloth
boots and his head was covered with Il
navy blue cap of horsehar net. which
was at least five inches high This had
no brim and it came we'll down over his
forehead. Inside the capI could see his
topknot. His majesty then wore his hair
long and put it up in Korean style on
his crown. Today the barber keeps it
cut to the length of two inches or less.
and the horsehair hat has disappeared,