The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-22

while her mother has simply been call
 ed g, slave Under this circumstance 1t often happens the slave girl, if un-
 married, becomes part of the dowry of her masters daughter. It is only i1l
 such case slave can be compe1Ie9 to change ownership.
 OTHER DEVICES.
 The third way in which a woman may enter sIavedom, even though. she may have no reIatives dependent upon her, is when she is SC poor that she finds it impossible for her to provide herself with the necessities of life. Be- ing thus in want of a home she may Vo1untarn yofer SerseIf as a slave | without any compensation, except that Of the food, clothes and shelter which will be given to her. Strange as it
 may seem, one who enters this form
 of slavery has far less rights than the one who is purchased. She is be- l1eyed to be of a lower grade and is 1 invariably given the toughest and most menial work. The one who sold 1 herself has the privilege of at any 1 time buying herself back, but the one who has gratuitousay become a slave l cannot free herself by any means
 The fourth and last circumstance un-. 1 der which a woman may become a slave calls for passing reference. It l has happily fallen into disuse through 1 the promu1gation Of an imperial re- 1 script in 1895. For a number of cen turies past many thousands have been. placed in bondage not through any fault of their own, nor yet because 1 they were so poor that necessity com pelIed them to sell themselves. Under 1 the old regime a minister of state or any other person being convicted of | treason or even of counterfeiting his fate, like that of most other criminals was either banishment or execution; while his wife, his daughters, and even l -fv1-1 1o~~ H1-v the king as slaves to his favorite of- hcials. It should be stated that this l inhuman practice was instituted ratil- Ter as preventative than as a cura- Ettve of crime. It was thought that if the punishment was so terrible. so far-reaching in it's effects; the very 1 thought of it would strike dismay into the hearts Of those who were tempted 1 and thus prevent them from. commit l ting crimes that otherwise they would not have been afraid to a1Tempt.
 Nut those who became slaves in this l manner could not under any circuu1- stances be passed from one family to another; oftentines they were soon set | at liberty by their masters. In the other three cases a slave could be sold, or transferred, from one family to an other, provided her consent thereto was obtained and not infrequentIy it was the slave herself who took the first ,isteps to bring about the sale or trans fer.
 I A SINGULAR ANOMALY.
 The enquiry naturally presents itself as to what is the distinctive mark of s1avedom in Korea, and the particular form that the thra1dom takes. Strange as 1t may seem the slave was the freest woman in Korea! She, and she only, was allowed the freedom of the streets; no woman but she was per nitted to go hither and thfther, or to
 
 cia1 custom which decrees that all wo- men should ge closely yelled when they
 go outside their own apartments, in sists that the slave woman shall never wear any covering on her head. Hence,
 1t is that the wearing Of the veil has become badge of honor.
 In most cases the work of the slave
 is the ordinary round of household du- ties, such as preparing and serving the food, washing and ironing clothes, pur-
 chasing supplies, running errands, and so on. In addition to which two of
 her most important duties are, to walk
 in the funeral cortege of her master,
 and to carry on her head some of the , wedding presents in the marriage pro-
 cession of any member of his house hold.
 Slavery, even in it's rni1dest form, is now a thing of the past. for when the . Japanese annexed Korea. a few years
 ago they made it illegal
 SLAVE FOLKLORE.
 ; Since slavedorn is such an old insti- tuition in Korea we naturally find many
 references to it on the pages of a his
 tory full of tradition and folklore
 as that of Korea.
 . It is told how centuries ago a. faith full slave wore himself out in attempt ing to support his master, whose home
 and income had been suddenly swept away. He went from house to house.
 in the villages through which they ! passed, begging for his master. On one occasion it is said, while crossing a
 mountain a tiger leaped out into the
 road in front and crouched as though ) to spring at him. The old slave asked the tiger if he saw anything worth capturing in him who had lost all his
 flesh in attempting to keep his master
 alive. Instead of speaking to him the
 tiger retired to the woods, while the slave continued his journey. But few minutes later much to his terror, he
 saw the tiger stealthily following him and thinking that his end had come, he turned only to see the tiger let fall !, a nugget of gold from it's mouth and suddenly bound off to the forest. The slave picked up- the nugget and iname- diately -carnied it to his master. This change of fortune, not only. stemmed, but turned the tide of diversity, for with it luck continued to increase. Among other stories is one which re-
 fers to a, wicked female slave who was
 continually going about grunabling be-
 cause her master had plenty of money
 without working for 1t, while she-l , | One day she ran into her masters 3 presence declaring she had been se- verely beaten by a man living in g given house. In proof of the rougt 7 way she had been handled, she pointed = to her torn clothing and dfshevelle6 l hair. Upon enquiry into the matter l the men-servants, who were sent to in 3 vestigate the matter, found the house s to be an empty one and when they 3 forced their way into it discovered 2 l dead body lying on the floor While 5 hurrving back to tell their master o1 the horrible discovery. they were me E by two men who charged them witt