Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1909-06-25

pillow; the Oriental sees nothing
strange in Jacobs stony pillow at
Bethel. The houses are matched with
straw, tied on with ropes. A village
presents a dull gray appearance seen
from any distance. Large ugly dogs,
noisy but cOwardly, swarm the streets
waiting for the inevitable day when
they will find their way onto their
masters tables. Taiku is surrounded
by a wall in the fashion of all Korean
cities; but the day l arrived the Jap
anese had begun to tear this down,
after standing for centuries.
The American Colony Abroad.
On commanding site outside the
city OF Taiku l found settlement of
American missionaries living in
houses of mixed Korean and Western
architecture. Formerly some of them
lived in native houses right down in
the heart of the city, where, do not
hesitate to say, no white man, mis-
slonary or otherwise should ever live.
| quite agree with the contention that
missionary should get as close as
possible to his people; but not at the
price of discomfort, darkness, depres-
sion, dirt and disease which are in
separable from residence in 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 Presbys
terians, North, South and Canadian,
and the Methedists, North and South,
and the Roman Catholics, have 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 comparatively recent de-
| yelopment. 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-
been doubling, and the additions to
! the Protestant churches for the pres
ent year are given at 100000 Korea,
with 100000 population, and 200
missionaries, has nearly, if not quite,
as many Protestant converts as Japan,
with 45,000,000 population and more
| than 800 missionaries.
The little colony of nine Americans
| here-including one unmarried wom-
! an, Miss Cameron, who lives alone i'll
! little house overrun with rats and
mice, of which she is afraid!-consists
of Rev. and Mrs. J. 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 (eyery mis-
sion residence is surrounded by a
fence or wall, and is called a COM
! pounO 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
| persisted and he was obliged to get a
fresh start from which he had given
to the Americans.
ReMaking a Nation.
A buster lot of missionaries than
! these | have not yet seen; most of
them are engaged chiefly in country
among the villages. Down in Taiku
visited the missions primary school,
where a 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 I found Mr.. Adams teach
ing the beginnings of a higher educa-
ton 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
! 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
fluence 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-
otto societies, which they called "V-
M. c. s" 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 a
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
self-supporting. Mission funds are
here not used for the churches. but
entirely for medical, educational and
evaHgeUstic work.
| Copyright. 1907. BY Joseph B. -Bowles)