|
2
1st. (24th of 3rd Moon). Thursday. Chilly-rain.
3
The last two days of the parting April were marked by violent wind-storms―none of your balmy breezes yet!
4
His Excellency Soh Jung Soon, the new Governor of Ham Hung, arrived at Wonsan yesterday, and left for the provincial capital this morning. This is the third time he comes here as governor. He is one of the few big "yang-bans" whose official record is clean. He is honest and poor―a striking contrast to his immediate predecessor, Kim Jong Han. Though far advanced toward seventy, Mr. Soh enjoys unimpaired senses. He used to sympathize with the Independent movement.
5
In the afternoon, had a picnic in Kwang Suk Dong, or Broad Rock Valley. The party was exclusively composed of the Korean officers in the various government establishments. The place, like most places in and around Wonsan, is pretty. The hills covered with azaleas, pink, white and yellow violets. yet the lack of unfailing streams detracts much from the attractions of the pleasure(?) resorts of Wonsan. What lovely sites for neat cottages on these hills. The pity is that most of the pretty places are given up to dead bones.
6
We were driven, by rain, into a house behind which a rock about 20 feet long and half as broad affords an excellent accmmodation to a picnic party. A nice spring at the side of the rock makes the place all the more valuable. I wish I had the place―the hills, the rock and the trees surrounding the house, I am sure I could make a very charming property of the whole. At present the pretty valley is left to the desecration of washerwoman, half-famished dogs, and indiscriminating wood cutters.
7
The rain dampened our picnic sprit, yet every one was glad to get wet by the precious shower. By the by, three years ago we had a picnic party in the same valley; except three old faces, the personnel of the party today was entirely new. Returned home about 7 p.m.
9
7th. (30th). Wednesday. Damp-cloudy, Tokwon
10
Last Saturday, the 3rd, came to Tokwon with the hope of resting from the worry and annoyance of Wonsan. I feel so run down in the whole system that sleep itself doesn't give me refreshment.
11
About 3 a.m. of the 3rd inst. I was awakened by the coming of Mr. Yi Kang Ho, who had gone to Vladivostok with the intention of working his way to St. Petersburg. He said that there was no means of living for a Korean except "chi-kei"; that the brutality of the Russian in his treatment of Koreans was sickening; that the thousands of Koreans in the Russian port don't care a fig what their native land may become; that the few Koreans naturalized, looked up on their former compatriots with greater disdain than the Muscovite himself. "Kim Pyong Hak," said Yi, "is a naturalized Korean who has made a fortune in Vladivostok. He lives in a fine house in the European fashion. He would not lift a finger even if that might benefit the whole world. There is no school for the common people in Vladivostok. In the Oriental Language School, there are a Chinese, a Mongolian and a Korean, teachers, but they are treated like slaves. A Russian may kick, beat and kill a Korean without running the least risk of being called to justice. A Cossak's favorite diversion is to aim, and fire, at the forehead of a Korean in a solitary place. If the defenseless coolie is killed, the body is thrown into the sea or left to dogs and vultures. In the night one dares not go out in the streets for fear of Chinese robbers. With Russian brutality on one hand and the Chinese lasso on the other, with hunger staring into our face and no hope of study in future, we couldn't do otherwise than to leave the inhospitable shore while we had some money left. So we bought our tickets to Ba-kan, Japan, knowing that the Japanese would not kick and kill us for nothing."
12
I advised, and finally succeeded in persuading, him to quit his plan of going to Japan on the plain reason that the Japanese may not kill him for nothing but will not feed him for nothing either. Without knowing the language and customs of Japan and without any support or friend, he and his two pupils would do exactly as many other Koreans have done; viz; go about begging from one place to another and that failing, return to Korea neither Japanese nor Korean. Worse still they might be suspected as the friends of the refugees and be compelled to stay away from Korea without any compensating gain.
13
Mr. Yi's account of the savage conduct of the Russian toward Koreans opened my eyes to one fact to which the meanness and often injustice of the Japanese in Korea had made me blind; that is, Japan, with all her faults, is a better friend than Russia. If there were half as many Russians in Korea as Japanese, they―the Russians―would soon make themselves intolerable by their brutality and beastliness.
14
The meanest Japanese would be a gentleman and scholar compared to a vodka-drunk, orthodox Russian. Between a Japanese and a Korean there is community of sentiment and of interest, based on the identity of race, of religion, and of written characters. Japan, China, and Korea must have one common aim, one common policy, one common ideal―to keep the Far East the permanent home of the yellow race, and to make that home as beautiful and happy as nature has meant it to be.
15
White Australia! White Philipnines! White America! What an amount of arrogance, of unfairness, of downright injustice in these words! The white race forces itself into the land of other races, enslaves them or exterminates them or robs them of their homes. Then turns around and says, "This shall be white country; all other races keep hands off!"
16
Yet, indignation or rage will not help us. Seek to be mighty first: then all other things, right, justice, and property (other people's) shall be added unto us.
17
Tokwon-Up, or the magisterial capital of this district, has less than a hundred houses. The official buildings, like others all over the country, are hopelessly in ruin. The little detached buildings which are of no earthly use now should be sold for what they are worth: but no, the absent-minded Government let them fall to pieces, their tiles, stones, doors, floors, etc gradually disappearing only to re-appear in some village houses.
18
These useless, ugly edifices are, however, less offensive to me than the six secretaries, ten constables, ten runners, ten servants(使僮, 使傭) , three ushers, three councilors(鄕長ㆍ鄕員) . They are the local "yang-bans" in fact if not in name. Two secretaries and five servants would be sufficient, but men are cheap in this country. They are not worth a fig. Hence in order to make up by quantity what one misses in quality, every little one house office is choked out of its miserable life by a plethora of officers.
19
When I want to have the gate opened or shut very quickly, I must do it myself. For if I tell the "to-in" or usher or waiter to do it, he will call the "sa-dong" or servant who, in turn howls out to the runners or "sa-ryong", thus requiring three able-bodied and strong-lunged fellows to shut or open a little gate which any child can. By the way, one of the "ushers"―Hong Soon Won―is so ugly that he would scare the very devil himself. If I were hunting for a model for Caliban I would go no further than Hong.
20
Formerly each local government, be it magisterial or gubernatorial, was modeled exactly on that of the Central Government. The magistrate was the local King, say. Under him were Jua-soos or Hyangs-changs corresponding to the prime ministers of Seoul. The secretaries or A-juns, whose name was legion, were divided into civil, military, ceremonial, treasury, judicial, public work sections, in imitation of the six boards in the Capital. These sub-local positions were held by privileged classes of the place as the great offices in the central system were monopolized by the yang-bans of the first class. As the yang-bans, as the local privileged classes in all manner of vices and abuse of power. It is partly true, therefore, when one says that yang-bans have been the curse of Korea, as these privileged classes in each district were as bad as yang-bans in extortions. "A-juns" in Korea are notorious for their unscrupulous corruption. They servile as dogs to superiors but as ravenous as wolves and cunning as foxes toward the people. As a class they are detestable. As big yang-bans, they have been the blood-suckers of the country, killing out the very desire of industry, and leaving in Korea, at the end of five inglorious centuries of their domination, a people whose heart is dead to everything that is noble and whose only wish is to be let alone, caring not whether the country falls into the hands of Japan or Russia.
21
Owing to last year's drought, eight of the thirteen provinces have been suffering dreadfully from famine. In many districts of Kyong Kui or Choong Chong Provinces, whole villages have disappeared either by death or by emigration or both. It is reported to be a common sight to see groups of dead persons under pine trees whose barks satisfied only temporarily their gnawing hunger. What are His Majesty and his Government doing? They are very busy in trafficking in offices, in enlarging existing bureaus or creating new ones in vain, but expensive, childish ceremonies and festivals. The Official Gazette, month in and month out, contains nothing but the programs of some fool ceremonials, the names of magistrates, of chusas, of royal grave keepers, either dismissed or newly appointed. Within the past three or four years, I wouldn't be surprised, if more royal grave keepers have been appointed than the trees in the graveyard. The price of a keeper ranges from 4000 yang to 1500. His Majesty must be grateful to his ancestors whose bones are such an unfailing source of income to him.
22
The state of the weather has been very unsatisfactory so far. For the two months and more past, no day without wind. Warm one day only to be chilly the next. This damp weather since yesterday is breeding or nourishing pine-tree worms.
|
|
|
|
여러분의 댓글이 지식지도를 만듭니다.
【
글쓰기
】
|
〔미분류〕
|
|
|
|
|
▪ 최근 3개월 조회수 :
43
|
|
- 전체 순위 : 1221 위 (2 등급)
|
|
- 분류 순위 : 42 위 / 105 작품
|
|
|
▣ 함께 읽은 작품
(최근일주일간)
|
|
|
▣ 참조 지식지도
|
|
▣ 기본 정보
|
|
|
◈ 기본
◈ 참조
|
|
