2
1st. (26th of 9th Moon). Sunday.
3
This being the "All Saints Day," a grand service was held in the Cathedral of Notre Dame. The Archbishop of Paris was present. The whole service lasted nearly three hours. The singing was fine, more than 130 trained voices accompanying the great organ of 600 pipes and 10 octaves. Came away from the worship with bewildering impressions of theatrical displays of candles, lanterns, swinging censers, bells, bows, prayers which sounded like Buddhist chants, readings, which I could not, of course, understand.
4
From the ceiling of the nave in Notre Dame, there is suspended a cardinal's hat which once belonged to Richelieu. Napoleon I is reported to have said that if anyone could jump high enough (viz. about 50 feet) to reach the hat, he would make him a cardinal.
5
Rain all the p.m. About 5 p.m. heard loud talking and crying in the kitchen. As there was nobody in the house except the boy and the maid all scared, I went down to see what the matter was. Saw the cooks and their little boy weeping. The man seemed to be really mad but not drunken. Not being able to talk, all I could do was to place myself between the poor woman and the man. The cook, a young woman, seemed to provoke her husband's anger by incessant and unwise answers. Her tongue, which had not the strength to resist the man should have the sense to appease him; but then it would not have been a woman's tongue. Was glad when Madame B. came in there to talk down the trouble.
6
The cosmopolitan character of Paris may be seen in the different nationals one meets with in a pension, to say nothing of a hotel. There were 6 nations represented at one time at Mlle Schmidt's; Russia, Great Britain, America, Corea, Sweden and, of course, France. Here we have 5 Germans, 2 Russians, 2 English and 1 Corean, 1 Sweden.
7
To light three candles is against the French superstition.
9
2nd. Monday. Gloomy-showers.
10
Two things pathetic I have seen in Paris.
11
1. It was during the Franco-Russian fete. The magnificent Avenue of Grand Army illumined its brilliant way, as far as the eye could reach and much further, from the belighted Arc of Triumph westward. At the square opposite the Rue Poisson one of the street balls, so characterstic of a French fete, was going on. The scene was as bright as hundreds of lanterns could make, as lively as dance and music could inspire, and as gay as music, dance and light could render any place bright, lively and gay. Young men and young women, two by two, whirled away in rapture as their light steps kept time with the voluptuous notes of the band. All this however did not interest me so much as a pair of dancers near the music stand. One was a woman on whose brow care was written line upon line, and whose stiff movements indicated weighing years. Her partner, a girl between 10 and 12 years, with streaming hair, her cheeks flushed and her eyes sparkling, skipped about with agility and grace, all the more pronounced by the angular motions of the other. Now what pleasure could the old woman have in dancing in a public square? To see her dance with any other person but the girl, likely the last rose of her summer, would have been a ridiculous sight. But, as it was, the mother's love for the child trying to make her enjoy it while she may cast a sort of halo over the scene.
12
2. Yesterday evening, the hand of the enraged man dealt telling blows on the poor cook. Now I am utterly unable to say which was the more blameworthy of the couple, a man, in posession of cool senses, would not give it to his wife in that style without some good cause. The sight was nevertheless anything but edifying. What, however, almost drew tears into my eyes was the crying boy who clung to the mother in perfect agony seeming to feel in his heart the blows more painfully than she in her body. The tender relations between a child and its "mamma" is too sacred to smile at, seen even under comical circumstances.
13
Madame B. said this afternoon that the French children are very much spoiled and that fathers are responsible for it.
15
3rd. Tuesday. Chilly-pale sun.
16
So homesick this morning that I felt as if I couldn't stay here a day longer.
18
4th. Wednesday. Bright.
19
Went out this morning at 9 to divert my thoughts from their morbid paths. Bought my ticket from Marseilles to Shanghai―1, 150 Francs.
20
At the table this evening, Madame B. remarked that Mohammedanism has made more converts in China than Buddhism. I ventured to say that it was not quite so in fact. "Oh, yes," said she, "it is true not only but absolutely true. I read about it today."
21
Here were two overwhelmingly conclusive proofs for a woman; 1. That she had read about it; 2. That she had read about it today. Against such convincing evidence I couldn't say anything even if I had the inclination enough to make myself understood. Happy must be the woman who can believe as an absolute truth everything she reads about in a paper or in a book.
22
When a man studies a new language, people talk to him as if he were not only deaf but infantile as well. Thus if he is sometimes privileged to say foolish things under the cover of a second or third childhood, he is as often regarded as incapable of understanding much beyond baby talk.
24
6th. (2nd of 10th Moon). Friday. Chilly-pale.
25
Received an answer from Mr. Yi Pom Chin, now at Washington. He tells me that my dear father has lately been appointed the Governor General of Southern 全羅道 and that my Darling and baby were all well when he saw them in Shanghai in August. Answered him at once.
26
A miser learning that the man who resided across the street lived more economically then himself, called on him one evening and found him writing by the candlelight. The host turning around and asked the visitor what he wanted, "I came, Sir," said the latter, "to find out how you have succeeded in gaining the reputation of being more economical than I" "Well" replied the other, blowing out the candle at the same time, "if you want to talk, we needn't waste the candle as we can hear without being seen" "That's right", answered the miser, "but I think you are, after all, not so economical as I". "How so?" asked the host. "When you were writing" said the guest, "I noticed that you put the dots over the letters, ( ) which I never do for fear of wasting ink" A French story.
28
7th. Saturday. Bright cold.
29
Received a note from messrs. Joo and Min telling me that, according to the news received in Petersburg, the Corean embassy had safely arrived at its destination about twenty days ago.
30
It was once rumored that the Corean government had mortgaged the province of Ham Kiung To for a Russian loan. I seriously fear that something of the sort was actually done while Mr. Min was at Petersburg. What did the secret document mean which Mr. M and Co. prepared under bolt and lock, before he went to see the Minister of Finance?
31
To him that hath more shall be given; its wonderful how quietly and gradually Corea falls into the hand of the Northern Giant.
32
At 8 a.m. with Mr. Feller, a German fellow boarder, went to the Theatre du Gymnase to get an idea of a Parisian stage. The comedy of the evening. Villa Gary, was an amusing and a very decent piece. A pretty woman who loved her husband was visited by a former sweetheart. The husband gets suspicious and accuses her of a guilty familiarity with a painter. She becomes mad, and telling the suffering man that she is really in love with the painter, sues for divorce, with the intention of marrying her former worshipper. In the meantime, her young and flirting sister gets in love with the latter and explains to the husband and wife that their misunderstanding had no ground for it except her foolish machinations and tells her married sister of her love for the man who has transferred his affections from the elder to the younger beauty. The wife and husband are reconciled, the new lovers married, and the scene closes with good will in all the individuals concerned.
33
The French manners in ordinary life are so theatrical that the theatrical manners on the stage seem to me quite ordinary-lifelike.
35
8th. Sunday. Rain all day. Cold.
36
At 3 p.m. went to the Y.M.C.A. to attend a farewell service celebrated on the occasion of the departure of a number of Protestant young men entering the military service. There were many nice speeches. The spirit of the meeting was excellent. Yes, there is some sense in a Protestant meeting. Returned late, almost frozen to the bone.
38
9th. Monday. Rain a.m. Cold.
39
An interesting chat with Mr. Jordan. a German fellow pensionnaire. He tells me that he is decended from one of the Huguenots who took refuge in Germany after the reformation of the Edict of Nantes. "The French hate us," said the young Prussian, "but, as individuals, we like the French much better than we do the English. There are in France, even among the intelligent, those whose prejudice makes them regard Germany as a barbarous nation. In Paris itself, some mothers still tell their children, when they are naughty," "Prussians are coming," as much as to say "the devil is coming"!
40
Some days ago I wrote in the album of a German young lady, here, the following sentiment in the form of a Corean ballad: of course in Corean.
41
산外에 은실 갓치, 흐르는 물은, 바다를 가고 동산에
42
고흔 은 봄을 오다시, 셩각은 그만 가네
43
The English translation; "As the silvery stream by the hillside runs to the sea, as the smiling flowers of the field seek the spring, so my thoughts turn only to thee." Jordan tells me that he and the young lady thought the above words were nothing but English translated into Corean, "for" said he, "we could hardly believe that Coreans have such pretty ideas." These people must have a very poor opinion of Corea and Coreans.
44
This morning, Mrs. Arcambeau sent me, through her husband, a penholder. Anything she sends is sweet for it is the hand which gives and not the thing that sanctifies a gift.
46
10th. Tuesday. A lovely day.
47
After lunch went, with several fellow boarders, to the Pantheon. Had a fine view of Paris from the dome. Then to the vaults where are deposited the remains of the illustrious dead. The tomb of the late President Carnot was loaded with artificial flowers and crowns in silver and in porcelain. The gold crown which the Czar placed on the sepulchre a month ago attracts attention.
48
Next to the Sainte Chapelle. This exquisite piece of Gothic architecture is a jewel of its kind. Was built under Saint Louis (1245-48) for the reception of relics. The lovely chapel, with its mosaic floor as beautiful as a piece of choice carpet, has 15 windows, 49×13 feet of stained glass.
50
11th. Wednesday. Bright and cold.
51
At the lunch table, Miss Grey, being absent, was the topic of conversation. She is a temperance missionary from England. Mad. Babut justly ridiculed the assertion of Miss Grey that the wine which our Lord used was unfermented.
52
It is a pity that some good people, preaching so respectable a cause as temperance, often cripple their influence by unwarranted and unwise doctrines.
53
Not only in temperance, by the way, but also in religion men and women otherwise sensible let their zeal degenerate into fanaticism which distorts plain facts of history to fit their cranky theories, setting up, for eternal truths of inspiration, the ephemeral of an over stretched imagination.
54
After lunch went to see (or rather to hear) the Bourse. The building surrounded by a colonade of 66 Corinthian columns reminds one, at the first view, of the Madeleine. The business begins at 12 p.m., and as large as it is―daily transactions averaging to 10,958,90―I doubt if it is commensurate to the noise it makes. The big hall 35 yards by 19, with a platform railed off from the rest of the room, presents a lively sight. Substantially dressed men with silk hats, sharp looking brokers with no hats on at all, most of them with pencils and note pads in hands, all eager and excited, talk run, push, laugh, shout and gesticulate, filling the place and the adjacent streets with deafening roars. Seeing me, the lighter sort of them cries out "Japanais" and were inclined to be mischievous. I kept myself at a safe distance and came away with the reflection that the confusion worse confounded becomes well the temple of Mammon.
56
13th. Friday. Bright a.m.
57
At 8 p.m. went to the opera to see Faust played. the theatre, said to be one of the largest in the world, is a superb palace of rare marbles. Built at a cost of 1,460,000 L. if the exterior is imposing the interior is luxurious. The monolithic columns, of mirror-like polish the magnificent staircase with handrails of Algerian on 4, the elegant decorations in allegorical paintings and figures, the gold and purple giving richness to the general effect of many colors―all this at once delights and beggars description.
58
The tragedy of Dr. Faust, weary of life, whose power of enjoyment has been displaced by a decrepit age, attempts to commit suicide. Mephistopeles the devil, comes and offers him youth and all its pleasures on the condition that the doctor should serve him in the world below. The old man hesitates but the sight of the beautiful Margarite and the prospect of enjoying her society tip the scale in favor of the devil. The contract is signed and Faust stands out in full bloom of youth and vigor. Satan helps him to compass the object of his passion, Margarite. Valentin, her brother, fights a duel with the seducer but gets killed. The woman is thrown into a prison for an infanticide. Satan and Faust try to lead her out of the confinement but she repents of her sins and dies pardoned of God. The doctor? The devil gets him.
59
The scenic manipulations were very charming to me, unaccustomed as I am to such things. The stage was now a garden adorned with lilacs and roses blushing under the caresses of the seen, now into mountains frowning with the darkness of a stilly night. Now a gay street runs along the river dotted with sails; now a church stands forth in its mysterious soberness. Now a grand palace reveals the voluptuous scenes of infernal splendors; now a heavenly valley smiles under a light harmoniously composed of the softness of a twilight, the freshness of dawning rays and the brilliancy of a noon day. What wonders of science and art in a single representation!
61
16th. Monday. Rain all the p.m.
63
1. the worst man in pursuit of worldly pleasures seems to me wiser than I because he has never made solemn resolutions beyond his power; better than I because he has never broken them; and happier than I because he has no violated vows to startle him in solitude.
64
2. The Rue Morge is not a very extensive street; but medicine something like 25,000m.ds are turned out per anum in Paris alone.
65
3. There are four political parties in France; (1) Conservatives―including Royalists and Bonapartists. Their leaders; M. Buffet in the Senate, and M. de Mun in the Chambre. The latter regarded as the best orator of the day. Their organs; Roi; Le Soleil; Le Ganlois. L'Authorite and L Figaro are non-partisan.
66
(2) The Republicans of Government. Their leaders; M.W. Rousseau in the Senate; M. Deschanel and Poincarre in the Chambre. Organs: Les D'ebats; Le Temps.
67
(3) Radicals. Leaders: M. Bougois; M. Brisson the President of the Chambre. No representative in the Senate. Organ; Small popular journals, like L'Eclaire.
68
(4) Socialists. Leaders; M. Jaures in the Chambre, a rival orator of M. Mun. Organ; Lapetite Republique, L'Intransigent (Editor Rochefort.)
69
There is an anti-semitic paper; La Libre Parole, edited by M. Drumont.
70
4. The smallest political unit in France is the commune, then the canton, then the arrondissement, then the department. To be an elector; (1) one must be a French; (2) must have satisfied the military law; (3) must enjoy civil rights; (4) must have resided one year in the commune.
71
5. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are the legislative body of the nation. A deputy must be 25 years old, enjoying all civil rights. He represents 70 thousand inhabitants. The Senate composed of 300 members at the rate of 2, 3 or 4 for each department. A senator must be 40 years old.
72
6. The executive body is composed of 11 ministries, with the president of the Republic at the head. The president receives a year 600,000 Frs. as his private salary and 1,000,000 Frs. for public expenses. Napoleon III, for instance, used to get 36 millions a year.
73
7. A French citizen, when he attains the age of 21, serves 3 years in the active army; 6 years in the reserve; 15 years in the territorial army.
74
8. The navy is recruited from the fishing population in the maritime districts. The sailor is under the service from his 21st year to the 50th, 3 years of which must be spent in active service. In return he enjoys certain fishing privileges. Charbourg, Brest, Orient, Rochefort and Toulon are the five naval stations.
75
At 8 p.m. went to Mr. Arcambeau's. Had a cup of tea with the family. Mrs. A was up and made the little tea party attractive. Mr. A is an ardent lover of Japan. Returned about 9:30 thro drizzly rain.
77
17th. Tuesday. Gloomy, chilly, sad.
78
After lunch sent to Grevin's Museum to see the wonders in wax. The figures look so life-like that I often mistook a waxman or a waxwoman for a real person and vice versa. The representation of the coronation of the Czar is fine. The Emperor with his dazzling crown, the guard with their burnishing cuirasses and helmets, the bishops in their golden robes, the pretty Russian women with their bright raiments―the whole scene made me live over for a moment my Moscow experience.
79
On the other hand how sad and repulsive are the subterranean representations of the scenes of the French Revolution! The sufferings of Marie Antoinette touched me most by reminding me of the cruel fate of the late Queen of Corea.
81
18th. Wednesday. Weather―so dark, so chilly, so damp, so gloomy.
82
This p.m. 9:30 I shall quit Paris with its beautiful monuments and its ugly season. When I leave Marseille on the 22nd inst, I shall have accomplished exactly three months in France.
83
The future seems anything but cheerful. After 35 or 40 days and nights of tedious and sea sickly voyage I shall see in Shanghai not open doors and warm hands of welcome, but offended friends from whose love and society I have alienated myself by my inconsistency. There I shall have to leave my Darling once more and sail for Corea. At Chemulpo, I shall find nothing but ice, snow, Japs putting on airs and Corean down in the dust. A cold journey and Seoul. But shall I meet with cheer and joy? I fear not. To begin with, my parents will be in the country, hence there will be no home; the missionaries will be arrayed in righteous indignation against my shortcomings, hence there will be no friend; the unhappy state of affairs must have prevented the cultivation of our lands, hence there will be no money; all the offices must be full to over flowing, hence there will be no position; thus I leave a strange land for my native country where I expect to be, at least for sometime, sans home, sans friend, sans money and sans position.
84
The other day one of the car conductors who refused to take an Italian "sou", gave me among his small changes a Sardinian piece of 2 francs which does not pass. Yes, he who would not suffer the loss of a single "sou" would inflict on a passenger the loss of 40 "sous". A concrete illustraion of the spirit of the world which says not, "Live and let live," but "Live, perish who may."
85
After lunch called on Mr. Uriu, the Japanese naval attache. He returns to the East per Sidney. Thence called on Mr. Tsing Tsang, the Chinese minister at Paris. His legation is close to Monceau garden. The reception room is very elegant. Mr. Tsing threw all the blames on Li Hong Tchang for the loss of the Chinese influence in Corea, for the defeat of the war, for the cession of Formosa. "China," he said, "should have co-operated with Russia from the start of the war."
86
Took a promenade in Monceau Park. This is one of the prettiest gardens in Paris with its grassy surface gently undulating; with its artificial lake at one end of which stands a section of a graceful Corinthian colonnade reminding the stranger of the happier days gone by; with its grottoes covered with vines and shrubs; with its pretty statues just enough preserved to show their original delicacy and just enough ruined to excite the sympathetic interest of the visitor. The judicious combination of a tasteful art and a modest naturalness consitute the chief attraction of a Parisian garden.
87
At 8 p.m. went to Mr. A's. He kindly accompained me to the station (La Gare de Lyon) and helped me in procuring the ticket, checking the baggage and in securing a good seat. Very kind of him!
89
19th. Thursday. A lovely day.
90
Had a night much more comfortable than I had feared. The 2nd class on the Paris and Lyon line are even better than the 1st class accommodations between Cologne and Paris.
91
Reached Marseille at 3 p.m. Came straight to the Hotel de la Poste on the Rue Colbert 2 and 4. This a decent hotel where one may get a room nicely fit up for 2:30 frs a day.
93
20th. Friday. A lovely day.
94
Marseille was founded about 600 B.C. by a colony of Phoenicians under the name of Massalia. It flourished for many a century as a commercial centre of Western Europe. Thro many political vicissitudes, the city became French in 1481. The present population is 406,919, of which 75% are foreigners. It has 487 schools, all grades with, say, 60,937 students of both sexes. Its principal products are supplied from 90 soap factoris, 45 oil (olive) mills; 3 sugar refineries 96 flour mills; 99 tile fields, 25 tanneries, 31 brasieries; 10 copper foundries. The most favorite and traditional dish of Marseille is the "bouillabaisse," a kind of soup in which a large variety of fishes contributes their delicacy. I like the soup rather.
95
After lunch went to the Notre Dame de la Garde. This edifice, built on a conspicuous eminence in the eastern part of the city, is a beautiful monument worthy of the principal port of the artistic France. They lovely mosaics on the walls, the vaults and on the altar, to say nothing of the floor, are like paintings. The virgin of this church is the patron of seamen. The inclined elevater of 72 metres is another attraction of the cathedral. Beautiful memorial tablets all over.
96
The "Nouvelle Cathedrale," near the sea downtown is a superb building in costly marbles. This is regarded to be the largest church in France, the Notre Dame of Paris only coming next in size.
97
To one who has been used to the beautiful streets and buildings and stores of Paris, Marseille seems untidy, poor and provincial. But to a Corean, whose capital city is no other than Seoul, it is astonishing to find a town, hundreds of miles away from Paris, so gay and so beautiful as that of Marseille. By the by, there extends from Marseille to Paris a highway as good as a street in Paris.
99
22nd. Sunday. A lovely day.
100
At 8:30 wait aboard. At 4 p.m. the S.S. Sydney weighted anchor.
101
Adieu Marseille with thy romantic history dating back to the 7th century; adieu France, a land of the brave and the home of the beautiful; adieu Paris the lovely drawing room of the luxurious Europe!
102
It was in Paris that the struggles raged fiercest between the Christian and base elements of my heart; it was in Paris that I had the manhood enough to send off my confessions on the 25 October; it was in Paris that I consecrated to God the trinity of my motto―simplicity, sincerity, and sweetness, the lack of the last having been the cause of my failures―it was in Paris that I retraced my steps to God. There I renounced all words of profanity, of obscenity and of bitterness into which I had fallen Paris, thou Queenly city on the Seine, it was a mere accident that blessed me with a visit to thee. As accidents rarely happen often, I expect not to see again, from the top of the Arc de Trioumphe the magnificent avenues of the Gand. Army, of the Champs Elysee and of the Bois du Boulougne, the superb height of the Eiffel Tower on the right, and the graceful Place de la Concord on the left, of the river, to say nothing of many other monuments that bejewel thy crown. As long as I shall, by the help of god, keep my sacred vows made within thy arms, I shall entertain nothing but the sweetest recollection of thee!
105
The Mediterranean Sea, perhaps the most renowned and most historical of all seas, was not a rough as I had feared. I stood the voyage well, happily the dangerous weather of the 25th night, I passed in sleep.
106
Reached Port Said soon after the lunch. this town, an Egyptian, is built on a tongue of the mainland. Its population said to be somewhere near or over 28,000. French language and French coins in free circulation. The system of squeezing in full swing. The merchant never contents himself with asking at least three-fourths more than the real price. But the most contemptible creatures one may meet with in this Egyptian town is the policeman who helps the boatman or a merchant to cheat the traveler and go half in the profit. An example!
107
After dark, I asked a "street Arab" to show me a W.C. I was in a hurry and I availed myself of the first place he pointed at―viz. a shady place near the bank. Before I got through, a policeman came on the scence and seemed to be mad with the boy. But after the exchange of a few words the guardian of peace went off, to my relief. When I came out, the boy asked one franc for having shown the place. I smiled and gave him 25c. Upon which he followed me and said "The policeman had let me go on the condition of sharing with him the franc I should demand of you. If you don't give me a franc, he will punish me." "Well my fellow," said I. "I'll go to the police station with you and report to the higher officers what the policeman had told you. This at once silenced the boy; but this is a poor commentary on the morals of the people. No wonder that Egypt is under England.
108
A small tramway runs to and from the principal parts of the town. The track is no larger than that of a miniature railroad in the Garden of Acclination in Paris.
109
Left Port said about 10 p.m.
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