2
2nd. (1st of 3rd Moon) Friday. Fair.
3
Arrived at Shanghai about 11:30, after a rather rough voyage. Mr. Min's party went to Astor House and I came to the Japanese Hotel. Found my Darling and the children all well. They say this is the first sunny day they have had in Shanghai in nearly four weeks.
5
3rd. Saturday. Beautiful.
6
Bought tickets for Mr. Min's party for the Doricexpected to leave Woosung on the 5th. Went about all the day with them to make purchases. Mr. Min seemed to buy things not because he needed them but because he didn't know what to do with his superabundant money.
7
Mr. Min invited Mr. Mollendorf and myself to dine with him at the Astor House. In the course of conversation, Mr. Min said to Mr. Mollendorf, "I wish you would come and help out the Corean Customs." "If His Majesty says so, the thing will be done." was the prompt answer. I think Mr. Mollendorf wants to go to Corea.
9
5th. Monday. Beautiful.
10
On account of some unfinished business with Mr. Min Yong Ik, Mr. Min had to postpone his departure from Shanghai and I had the unpleasant job of getting the tickets for Doric cancelled.
11
The wheelbarrow coolies of the Settlement, refusing to pay the additional tax of 200 cash which the Municipal Council had laid on them, "struck" this morning. A serious riot was threatened and the Shanghai volunteers had to be called out. Marines from foreign gunboats guard different consulates.
12
Intended to leave Shanghai tomorrow per Yechigo Maru going directly to Chemulpo. But no cabin accommodations. Wrote to Drs. Reid and Jaisohn.
14
9th. Friday. Beautiful.
15
Mr. Min has had a deal of trouble in getting a steamer going to Nagasaki in time to catch the Russian boat which will leave there on the 11th inst. However, Mr. Min succeeded in having the Russian steamer to postpone a day, through the good offices of the Russian Consul General here.
16
Min Yong Chan told me this morning that his brother is a hard man to interpret for. "When anything goes wrong," said the young man, "he blames me for it as if I had control of all circumstances. Not knowing any foreign language, he suspects us of despising him. Foreign travels do very little good to those who go about in a grand style." I was glad to hear it, because this shows that it was not my fault alone which produced the friction between Mr. Min and me during our Russian experience. I like the young Min.
17
At 4 p.m., with Mr. Min's party, drove to the Chinese garden, 張國. There met Mr. Min Yong Ik. After a game in the bowling alley, we all went to the sweetmeat Castle for supper at Mr. Min's inviation. At 9 walked to the residence of Mr. Min Yong Ik. On our way, Mr. Min, arm in arm with me, said in an undertone, "There will surely be some trouble in Corea soon. What am I to do then? I shall return to Shanghai to get news before going to Corea. Hope to meet you here then."
18
The Shanghai ratepayers are indignant that the Municipal Council should have revoked their order increasing the wheelbarrow tax.
20
10th. Saturday. Changeable.
21
At 1 p.m. accompanied Mr. Min's party to Woosung in a launch. Parted with them at 3 on board of the Empress of China. My relation with them has been very pleasant all the way through.
22
Mailed to Reverend Appenzeller, my letter Ⅱ of the Corean Abroad.
23
At 5:30 went to Sister's house and there met her betrothed, Mr. Theodore Wang. He seems to be a nice young man. He has just returned from America.
25
11th. Sunday. Beautiful.
26
Worshipped in the A.C.C. chapel. By the way, the A.C.C. has over 200 boys now.
27
Took tiffin at Mr. Loehr's. He talks more freely about the mission affairs here than anybody else, it being the policy of missionaries in general to hide from the "native" Christians any defects in their management. But "natives" know all about them all the same.
28
The weather being almost perfect, Dr. Allen invited Mr. L. and me to join him in a ramble in the "country." Some distance this side of the highway to Woosung, we three sat with our backs leaning against a mound and talked, or rather heard, the Doctor talk. He lamented the absence of men in China to seize and improve the grand opportunities of the time, suggested that Corea, properly managed, might in course of comparatively few years, beat China in the race of progress; philosophically predicted the time when man shall be able to read in "weeds" some noble message of Nature, though they are now despised on account of human ignorance.
30
18th. Sunday. Cloudy-chilly.
31
Have had a series of miserable days during the week just gone－rainy, chilly and damp.
32
Worshipped in the Union Church. Bishop Joice preached a stirring sermon. He compelled the attention of the crowd. The ruling thought of the discourse was that life is a mission.
35
A sunny morning. At 11 called on Mr. Min Yong Ik. Mr. Mollendorf came in and told us that the King of Corea had asked Messrs. Brown and Jordan to frame a constitution. "It is a great mistake on the part of Coreans," said the German, "to make friends with England and America." Englishmen always talk about liberty and equality, but who rules England? The rich and the noble. Americans are all so "common," vulgar. In America all have the same sort of education; nobody is more learned than another. The Englishman is more refined than the American. Corea ought to cultivate friendship with Russia, Japan and China. England cares about nothing but her self-interest. Corea will have trouble "if she makes friends with England."
36
Mollendorf would not have been a true German had he liked England. By the way, he is very cool to me; he knows well enough that I have neither money nor influence in Corea. European fortune hunters in the East worship influence as abjectly as Asiatics themselves.
37
Took Corean tiffin with Mr. Min Yong Ik. Enjoyed the "Kimchi" very much. Mr. M. Y. I. has a comfortable home and lives well and grows fat. But what is the end of his life? Mere gratification of his animal nature. I don't envy his mode of existence. He is very sensible in saying that Corea should use every possible means of spreading education.
38
He maintains that cheating is the secret of business success; that it is a mistake to think a foreigner is all honesty; and that the reason why Coreans make no money is because they don't cheat enough. It's a pity his intercourse with foreigners has given him no higher ideas on business morality.
40
22nd. Thursday. Pretty.
41
Job was a wonderfully patient man, but, among all his trials, waiting in Shanghai for a Japanese steamer to Corea was not one. A boat which had been expected to come in every day in the last two weeks got here only yesterday p.m. Then, lo and behold, she hasn't but two cabins all told! I came near being left again this time, but Mrs. Collyer kindly consenting to share her cabin with my Darling, I was able to arrange our passage per the steamer.
43
23rd. Friday. Sandstorm.
44
Spent most of the day with my Darling. This evening, in exhorting me to put the baggages on board in time, Miss Hughes said, "Excuse me for being officious, but I can't help regarding you but as small children. You know how missionaries are(!) " The remark cut to the quick. She meant to say that we, "natives", are so stupid that we are incapable of taking care of ourselves. This is how missionaries look upon "natives," and no wonder they are so often out of favor with the sensitive Japanese.
45
Miss Hughes was once going to Japan for a summer vacation. Mr. Parker and I went on board and I did the greater part of looking after her luggages etc. When we got through, Miss Hughes thanked Mr. P. only and said, "Oh what a relief to have a foreigner help us!" As she said yesterday, I know how missionaries are－and I know some of them are wrong in cherishing these insulting opinions in regard to "natives."
46
A propose, this is one of the reasons why I don't want to join a Mission－I don't want to be under too many spiritual "bosses."
47
God forbid that I should harbor the least unkind feeling toward Miss Hughes or that I should forget her manifold kindnesses to my wife. She is a devoted and thoroughly good-hearted missionary and if she thinks poorly of us "natives," we must remember that she is from America, known for racial pride and prejudice.
48
What a pity that I can't be used to seasickness and to slights. Yet I have had so much of them. With my Darling, took dinner with Dr. and Mrs. Allen.
49
The Doctor said to me "What's the matter? You look tired and worried." When I told him that I looked as I felt, he said, "Well, these difficulties and uncertainties which worry you may be the part of the providence concerning you."
51
24th. Saturday. Rainy.
52
Up at 6:30 a.m. Busy all the mornig and most of the p.m. in packing, in going about to see people etc. Rain all the p.m. Thoroughly tired and blue. At 5:45 p.m. all the trunks, boxes etc, were put on wheelbarrows etc, to be ready for the steamer. I was just going out of the back gate of Trinity Home, when Miss Alice Allen came in and handed me a telegram from Dr. Allen of Seoul reading: "Rev. AllenShanghai, Yun Chi Ho must remain Shanghai awaiting official instructions."
53
I was bewildered. Besides being put to a great deal of inconveniences, of which the emptiness of the pocket book is one, I am as anxious as I can be. I wonder what happened in Corea. God grant no evil has befallen on my family. Took supper at Mctyiere Home.
54
Wrote to Drs. Reid, Allen, Jaisohn, Underwood. Also to Mr. Waeber and to my aunt. I feel so tired. What is before me? Rather thank God that the message didn't come a minute later. Is there no chance of a fair weather for me?
55
This morning received a letter from my 1st cousin in Tokio. Dated Apr. 14 '97
57
25th. Sunday. Pretty day for Sh'ai.
58
Was too tired to sleep well last night. Called on Dr. Allen at 10 a.m. He thinks that the king may have something for me to do here. The different ways in which my Shanghai friends interpret the cablegram is rather characteristic. Miss Haygood showed her sympathy for my anxious situation in her kind looks. Miss Richardson－a woman whom I cannot help esteem and love－told me that it was a wonderful providence that delayed me, against my wishes, in Shanghai until the telegram got me just in time to escape some trouble. Miss Reynolds supposes that the government may send me to America. My conjectures:
59
1. Something might have happend in Seoul affecting my personal safety in case I should return there now.
60
2. Somebody may be concocting some unfriendly plots against my father or me and in order to mature them without my possible interference, has induced Dr. Allen of Seoul, by some plausible lies, to send me the message.
61
3. The king may still leave the position of the Vice President of Education vacant waiting for my return. But there being persons, like Joo Suk Min, for instance, who want to get the place, they asked Dr. Allen, with some lies, to wire me the message.
62
4. Mr. Yi Pom Chin, who has been accused of some misconduct, may have been relieved of his post at Washington and I may have been nominated to take the place. But this supposition is impossible because, while I don't care to go abroad, there are in the government too many who want to go to Washington and that I have too many enemies in the court to help me to a place so coveted as the Legation as Washington.
63
In case anything has happened in Corea preventing me from going back, the consequences are too dark to contemplate.
64
Worshipped in the Union Church. Dr. Guinesse preached.
66
27th. Tuesday. Rain all day.
67
This morning my Darling removed to Sister's home, as the children disturb Miss Steguer who is suffering from a kind of nervous prostration in the Trinity Home. Is there going to be no end to our nomadic mode of life?
68
The first fair day in a long time. What a gloomy day this is, rain and damp everywhere. Am tired of Shanghai and its everlasting rain.
69
Every day this week I have tried to read and study regularly and to translate some hymns for Dr. Reid. If it is true that a poet alone can translate a poem, it is equally true that one must enjoy a larger amount of poetical talent and of devotional spirit than I have, in order to translate the pious songs of Wesleys or Watts into Corean with any degree of success. Nothing but the exceeding poorness of the translation in the Corean hymn books now in use would have given me the brass to degrade good English hymns into bad Corean.
70
Official instructions! What are they? When will they reach me? Who will send them? Stranded here high and dry sans money and sans employment, the prospect scares me like a nightmare.
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