COREA. 
401 
luxuries, such as kerosene oil and other objects, and, instead of taking 
his sack to market himself and thus losing time, he was beginning to 
club with his neighbours and send bis produce down by boat or wagon. 
The number of cargo boats on the rivers and of wagons on the 
roads was increasing rapidly. The roads were being improved; 
new and better houses were being erected in the towns and villages ; 
silver and paper money were coming into use, and the ease with which 
they could be carried and concealed were inducing the people to save; 
whereas previously the heavy and bulky coins of spelter (about 9 lb. 
to one shilling) were not fitted either for carrying or storing. Gold 
dust, the currency among the nobles, was far too expensive an object 
for the plebeian to invest his savings in. The administration of the 
country was deplorable, and I should have thought it impossible to 
have been worse than it w r as in the beginning of 1891, but, on reading 
up accounts by various authors of the state of things previously exist- 
ing, I discovered that there had been great amelioration. This 
amelioration, slow and almost imperceptible at first, was proceeding 
with accelerating speed, and until the Japanese invasion there were 
signs of the beginnings of better things. The police of Soul was 
well organised; the town was remarkably free from crime, and in no 
city in the world was order better maintained. 
One vice of the Coreans — untruthfulness — be partly shares with 
all Asiatics; but partly it is the effect of oppression. Duplicity is 
always the refuge of the oppressed, and in them the vice has its 
palliations. Duplicity in the oppressor is the height of iniquity, and 
has no excuse. 
I think I have pretty well gone through the list of Corean vices. 
I think I may now take a turn at his virtues, and the first of Corean 
virtues is politeness. It is a manly politeness, without ceremony or 
cringing. It is, I think, the exceedingly gentlemanly manners of the 
Coreans that, with the beautiful scenery and pleasant climate, make 
Corea so charming a place to live in, especially after China and Japan. 
It is almost impossible to convey an idea of the delightful politeness 
of the Coreans by description and anecdote. From ITis Majesty the 
King to the poorest Corean, every native has a grace and a tact in 
doing little acts of courtesy and iu saying kind things. The street 
urchins greet one as one passes through the streets with smiles and a 
few words of English. The peasants in the country present one with 
bundles of wild flowers and ferns. (The Corean is passionately fond of 
flowers.) If there is a procession or sight, the Corean will lend an 
upper room in his house for strangers to see the show r , and will not 
accept any remuneration. Once I went with my wife to see a 
procession, and we determined to take our place with the crowd of 
sightseers. Several Corean gentlemen came to me and asked me to 
allow my wife to join their families in the balconies they had engaged 
for them. Nothing could exceed the good nature and the politeness 
of the crowd. The men and women of the mob literally bubbled over 
with fun, and were playing all sorts of jokes on one another. It was 
a remarkably clean crowd for Asiatics, for the Corean man specially 
prides himself on the spotless purity and lustre of his white clothing. 
The women and children are in gay colours. In summer the children 
go without clothes, and are not as particular about their persons as 
they might be. 
