The Days of a Man 1911 



square foot of blackboard; for his services he re- 

 ceived $7.50 a month. Outside, half a dozen girls 

 were manipulating a clumsy machine for threshing rice. 

 Korean The Korean peasant is a person of amazing 

 ^wnt' patience, seemingly affected little by the incidents of 

 life. Good luck he never knew, and misfortune 

 seems a matter of course. To show something of the 

 serenity even in squalor and misery which per- 

 vades the "Land of Morning Calm," Esson Third, 

 a Korean scholar, tells an odd little story. 



Among his neighbors was a man named Chew who 

 maintained about his house seventeen quarreling 

 dogs. "How could he and the wife stand the noise?" 

 asked Esson Third. Both marveled at the question; 

 what had "dog-noises" to do with them? "The 

 Chews were at peace in unbroken face and with no 

 unstrung harp or loose strings in their souls." 



The intelligent Korean would not deny the advan- 

 tages of Japanese rule, nor minimize the grotesque 

 badness of the native regime. The usual point of 

 view, however, might be expressed as follows: 



The old government was cruel and brutal, unjust and ineffi- 

 cient but it was ours. We are not fit to govern ourselves; 

 we never were, but we may learn by trying. It is our country, 

 and no one else can take our place to make it good. 



Said Esson Third: 



The Korean Emperor has no confidence in his people. His 

 people have no use for the Japanese and the Japanese have no 

 faith in the Emperor. Reverse this and it is still correct. The 

 Emperor mistrusts the Japanese, the Japanese have no confi- 

 dence in the people, and the people despise the Emperor. 



A prominent Yang Ban by the name of Kim stated 

 his position as follows: 



C 394 3 



