2
1st. Friday. (Awful) hot. Couldn't be lower than 98°F.
3
Song Do home. One of the pleasures of this quiet retreat is to lull the darling baby 明姬 to sleep in my arms. Some ask me why I don't go to the Diamond Mountains for the summer. For me these beautiful trees, the refreshing cool fountain and these precious children have more attractions than any summer resort. The summer resorts where foreigners patronize are no place for rest. Their lectures, concerts, classes, studies, turn any resort into a busy restless centre of activities. Their idea of rest so different from that of us, orientals. To the foreigner, the grave is the only place of rest.
5
2nd. Saturday. Baking hot.
6
Song Do home. No sign of rain in sight. The 7th of the 7th moon―farmers have been looking for some rain on this day. Vegetables are withering under the uncompromising heat of the burning sun. This fearful drought, the miserable ragged subsidiary coins, (10,20,50 sen paper money―) which are helping to raise the price of rice;―the moistless heat, ragged money and the ever ascending prices are causing a great discontent among the people. But who cares? "Who wants you to live?" is the despairing question which one Korean cynically asks another.
8
3rd. Sunday. Baking hot―Strong east wind.
9
Song Do home. Another rainless hot day. Worshipped at Northward Church. Han Do Su gave a good talk.
10
Baby 明姬 sick again. In the afternoon, the air in the rooms are so heated as to resemble the air in an oven.
11
I read Ambassador Gerard's book less than four months ago. Opening it again this time, every chapter and every incidence read as new to me as if I had never seen them before. Mr. Gerard think that the ambitions of Sophie Chotek, the Bohemian girl whom the Crown Prince of Austria had married was largely responsible for the great War Be it as it may, one fact is beyond conjecture viz.: her assassination at Sarajevo proved the immediate cause of the War.
12
Now the point: Austria oppressed the Bohemians for over 4 centuries. A Bohemian girl, unwittingly became the cause of the downfall of Austria and the deliverance of Bohemia. Isn't that wonderful!
14
4th. Monday. Baking hot.
15
Song Do home. Baby still sick. The raging hot temper of wife raises the hot atmosphere of home about 150°F. Indeed, the heat of the weather as great as it is would be far more tolerable but for the abominable burning, sulphurous temper and tongue of thus ill-bred woman. She indulges in soliloquies something like this: "These little things try to eat up my very bones. They are not children but enemies(원수) ". "The children are sickly because of the curses(악담) which everybody in the house pours on them!" This wicked woman is a sort of Ismael whose hand is against everybody etc. The principle on which she lives and acts seems to be this: "Let me hate everybody, but let everybody love me".
17
5th. Tuesday. Very hot.
18
Song Do home. Almost a touch of an early Autumn in the night and morning. Baby 明姬 a little better.
19
Baron Kim Yong Hui is notorious for having been one of the principal rumors of Korea; for being one of the richest men in Korea on his ill-gotten and blood-stained wealth, for being a usurer and a miser. One day a man told him on following story in the presence of Mr. Yi Pyeng Hui: There was a rich old miser on his death bed. He had three sons. He summoned the eldest son to his bed and asked what he intended to do with his body when he (the old man) died. The son said: We are well off, I shall therefore spare no money to make your funeral as sumptuous as possible. The old man was so enraged that he ordered him to get out of his sight. The second son was called in and asked the same question. The young man said: "I will bury you in your old clothes as the finest dress will make no difference in the grave. The old miser was a little pacified and told the young man to retire. Then the same question was put to the third son who said "I will make money of you by selling your flesh for soup meat." The old man was pleased and gave the 3rd son the greater part of property.
21
6th. Wednesday. Very hot.
22
Left Song Do by 11:50 a.m. train for Seoul. Found all well at Seoul home―Thank God. Mother is outside of the North Gate at the Summer home.
23
Hear 李一 and 李商在 both set free by the preliminary judge.
24
The Japanese writers try to make the Koreans regard or call Japan, their mother-country. Korean's authentic history goes back to a thousand years B.C. While mythology and history put together to not carry the Japanese history further than 600 B.C. The little girl, Grace, when asked whose daughter her mamma is said: "Mamma is my daughter". Such an innocence is charming to a child of three; but when grown people talks like that their puerility loses its charm. Japan however may, with all propriety be called the Koreans' Stepmother country.
26
7th. Thursday. Very hot. 4 p.m. 96°F.
27
Went outside the North Gate to see mother in the morning. After lunch returned home.
28
Everybody, the police authorities more than others, laments the fact the number of 浮浪子 of prodigals is increasing at an alarming rate. Are the authorities really sorry to see the Korean youths go to devil like this? Why do they sanction the multiplication of licensed quarters in every town? After a bonafied warning, if a dozen or so of notorious prodigals were made to serve a term in the penitentiaries with real hard labor, this type of social evil would be stopped. But there is no law for it. Why can't the Government Genl. make one, since it can make any law to repress a sign of liberty among the Koreans. The truth seems to be that a Korean prodigal is too profitable to the Japanese usurers.
30
8th. Friday. Suffocating heat.
31
Lunch at Y.M.C.A.邊壎 called on me this evening and hinted that some more trouble seems in brewing, this time in the district of Hong Joo. This awful drought and heat plus the prospect of a poor harvest are pushing up the price of rice skyward. 76 sen for 一升 already. A dire famine will help forward the Japanese policy in Korea more than any one cause. The farmers will sell their patches of rice field and who but the great colonization schemes will buy them up for the subsidized Japanese emigrants? Thus Heaven is helping Japan through warough as well as famines. What impoverishes others "narikinize" Japan.
33
9th. Saturday. Hot as usual.
34
No sign of rain. Lunch at Y.M.C.A. Mr. 李一 tells me that the police used sticks very freely in examining him and fellow prisoners, that they insisted that the membership campaign in which Yi had participated had some political meaning, that after two or three prisoners having been examined, the room was full of broken pieces of large sticks.
35
The right(wrong) of Eminent Domain is being abused as ever; the subsidized settlers from Japan are being poured into Korea in ever increasing number; the petty officials and red tapes of indescribable nature are as annoying as before. I supposed the so called reforms will be change of uniforms―and nothing more.
37
10th. Sunday. Hot. 4 p.m. 92°F.
38
Stayed at home. The older I get the more I realize that it means in the verse: Like as father pitieth his children, so Jehovah pitieth them that fear Him". My pet, 恩姬 runs before me not heeding my call to come to me. But the moment she sees a big dog or cat somewhere she runs into my arms or takes hold of my hand. What a picture of the way we act toward God!
39
I have been trying to read Don Quixote, but I find no pleasure in reading it. In fact I have lost all interest in novels. My head has become so hard and matter of fact, that refuses to be illusioned by fictions.―thus a source of pleasure is denied me. Another proof that incease of wisdom doesn't enhance happiness and that of the so-called happinesses in life foolishness plays an essential and important part.
41
11th. Monday. Sultry-very hot.
42
Paik Nam Suk came this morning to bid me good-bye as he expects to leave for America soon. I repeated to him the advice which Dr. Niezima gave me when I saw him in Tokyo on my way to U.S. in 1888. "You will find in America many evils. But we don't have to go so far to learn what is evil. Therefore learn only what you find good". Counseled Paik to keep out of politics. As B. Washington insisted that the Negro must attain economic equality before he can claim social equality so the Koreans must reach economic equality before we may claim political equality. Presented him ￥200 to help defray his travelling expenses.
44
12th. Tuesday. Very hot.
45
By the 1:40 p.m. train left Seoul for Song Do. The heat in the car was simply oppressive. Arrived Song Do home about 5:30 p.m. All well. Wife's sister came with me. She is a handsome woman though her beauty lacks delicacy and refinement. The feminine vicissitudes through which she has passed have so disciplined her that she controls admirably her strong temper and tongue. She seems to have a fund of commonsense. She is a model housekeeper and makes a fine wife―(wish I had married her instead of her young sister―a born scold!
47
13th. Wednesday. Scorching heat.
48
Song Do home. About 3 p.m. a few drops of fine rain visited our parched garden. So glad was I that I went out bareheaded just to feel the joy of a rain―but the few fine drops literally sizzled off the heated tiles lining the dried up flower beds then all passed away―the patch of vapor cloud and the faint hope of a refreshing shower.
49
The postcard which I mailed to 文姬 on the afternoon of last Sunday (10th) was delivered only this noon! Some months ago a telegram which I sent to 光善 from Seoul actually took two days to get here! Yet if I complained of this, the petty autocrats of the postal service would set me down as an anti-Japanese. Who dares question the efficiency of the almighty bureaucracy of the daring Government General!
51
14th. Thursday. Very hot. Strong east wind all the a.m. and p.m.
52
Song Do home. The new Governor of Korea admiral Saito started his career as a janitor (給仕) in the Office of Naval Department. Some say that he has no learning, I should say that a man who has forced his way from an office boy to the Viceroyship of a Kingdom is learned enough even if he couldn't sign his name. Nor do I agree with the Koreans who object to his being a militarist instead of being a civilian. What matters most is: what is the real spirit or design or purpose or policy of Japan in regard to Korea? If what Japan wants is Korea and not the Koreans then, whoever the Governor may be, the Korean has no hope. If, on the other hand Japan really wishes to develop the natural resources of Korea for the benefit of the Koreans as well as that of the Japanese, we may rest satisfied with the present tutilage whether the Governor is a soldier or a civilian.
54
15th. Friday. Strong easterly gale.
55
Song Do heme. Strong easterly gale whole day yesterday and this morning. Cool as early Autumn last night. When I awoke in the midnight the scenery was too lovely to sleep. The blue sky was high and the air cool and refreshing. The moon shone silvery and serene while the luxuriant woods surrounding our homes gave to the scene the affects of solitude and solemnity. Perfect silence reigned all round and I wished I were a poet. The most dominant sentiment or feeling which a scene like this awakens in me is sadness. The transient dreamlikeness of all things human compared with the permanence of the hills and stars, rocks and rivers, fills me with indescribable melancholy. Too much indulgence in feelings of this kind tend to unnerve and unfit a man for the conflict and competition of life. This is the weakness of Buddhism.
57
16th. Saturday. Strong easterly gale.
58
Song Do home. Strong east wind still continues. Farmers dread east wind worse than drought itself. The drought in the three Western Provinces 平安南北道 and 黃海道 is so great that the farmers are reported to sell their cattle there being no grass to feed them. Old farmers tell me this is worse drought than that they had in the Year of 辛丑, 19 years ago. The year 1875(丙子) was a record breaker in the famine history of Korea have met several old people in Seoul and Song Do who tell me the exact date on which the disastrous frost came―the 10th day of the 8th Moon.
60
17th. Sunday. Cloudy―a.m. Sunny and hot p.m.
61
Song Do home. Worshipped in the Northward Church. Han Do Su preached on effective prayers.
62
A letter from 瑞興 says that the calamitous effects of this drought are heartrending to behold. Mr. 崔洗九 the new agriculture instructor of the High School who has recently come from 龜城 told me this afternoon that a deep well over 10 "keel" located near the magistrate's office in 龜城 had become dry―a thing which the oldest man in the place could not recollect having happened before. People there in other parts of 平安道 are selling and killing cattle because they couldn't be fed. 金呈烈 tells me that a measure of rice, 12 sen 4 years ago now costs him 50 sen; a measure of millet 8 sen then, now 40 sen; meat 10 or 15 sen 4 years ago, now 50 and 55 sen.
64
18th. Monday. Beautiful.
65
Song Do home. A regular Autumnal day of ideal beauty. If we had such a weather after having had an adequate quantity of rain what a joy it would have been. But the clear blue sky and bright sunshine showing no sign of rain only enhances our distress.
66
Sick today―of stomach trouble and a touch of malaria.
67
Read through, the other day, Macauley's article on Frederik the Great, with renewed pleasure. The European races love war for its own sake. A few years of peace seem to inevitably make them itch for wars. Hence war-like races only will be able to exist in this world as long as human nature remains what it is―and what prospect is there for any change in human nature?
69
19th. Tuesday. Beautiful.
70
Song Do home. 邊壎 came from Seoul about 1 p.m. My brother 致昌 sent in an application for a passport for America. The Police wants to know how much property he has in land, houses, and in cash. Not only so, they demand that I, my brother's protector, should make a detailed statement of my property in land, houses, bank acc't, etc! I don't think the Japanese are going to issue the passport. They ask these impertinant questions―and will continue to ask similar questions―so as to delay the matter as long as they want, then to reject it on some trivial excuse. Paik Nam Suk's application was rejected after one year and half's delay―and "sirabe" or investigation. My brother has no reason to hope for a better success.
72
20th. Wednesday. Beautiful―Hot in the p.m.
73
Song Do home. Still sick. The Tokyo Cabinet seems to have had much trouble in finding a suitable man for the Gov. Generalship of Korea. The bother is the Japanese, Cabinet as well as the people, don't realize the root of trouble. Any decent man can be the Governor General, provided the army of lower officers in the provincial and district offices are conscientiously selected and vigilantly supervised. For one Korean who may have the priviledge of chatting with the Governor General once in a while, there are hundreds of thousands who are coming in daily contact with the little despots―whose will is an absolute law within the laxity of the clerkly duties. The detectives who are tracking and annoying harmless men driving them into fear and hatred and agitation should be utilized to bring to light the misdeeds of these little autocrats, who are really responsible for the great anti-J. storm now raging.
75
21st. Thursday. Hot-breezy.
76
Song Do home. Early marriage which was a cause among the Koreans still runs its damnable course unchecked. In Song Do children 6 or 9 year old are married and made to sleep in one room. This is one of the evils which the authorities can put down by the wave of the hand―but they wouldn't lift a finger against the abominable custom. Yet the Japanese actually have the cheek to boast that the prevention of early marriage is one of their beneficent reforms in Korea!
77
My sister who, against my advice, married her grand-son of 14 to a girl of 17 three years ago, had the typical argument that she wanted to see her grandson perfected in manhood that little fellow has already lost his wife and will have to be "perfected" the second time very soon.
79
22nd. Friday. Rain from 6 to 10:30 a.m. Cloudy p.m.
80
Song Do home. Rain―welcome―rain from about 6 a.m. until 10:30. Not enough but for better than none. When we turned in last night, the sky was so clear and stars so bright that we despaired for any rain in a near future. But this morning the refreshing and reviving rain reminded us the grand old fact that what is impossible with men is possible with God.
81
Take God out of the universe; this world is simply confusion worse confounded. Life has no meaning and death, no hope. Enthrone God where He is, life has meaning while death loses its sting. Oh for a unshaking and unshakable faith in this God.
83
23rd. Saturday. Pleasant.
84
Song do home. A card from cousin 致旿 tells me that Mr. Sekiya is to leave Seoul on the 25th for Tokyo for good. Mr. S. is one of the nicest men among the higher members of the retiring circle of bureaucrats but I suppose he has to share the responsibilities of the misgovernment to the extent of being supplanted by a new man. Mr. 宇佐美, I understand, has also been removed. He is the man who ran the Government of Korea during the last five of six years. He is a cool, calculating, efficient bureaucrat. Even among the Japanese he is regarded as being too narrow.
86
24th. Sunday. Bright. Sultry.
87
Song Do home. Worshipped at the Northward Church. A young man named Choi conducted the service. He took a text and preached everywhere. He began somewhere and wondered so about that he didn't know where he was at. All sympathy for him! Preaching is undoubtedly one of the greatest works to do well. Indeed no one can do it well who hasn't got a real religion, who talks about things unseen from his own realization of the same.
88
Mr. Yu Sang Ha, my general superintendent of the 鎭安 farm came to see me. He reports a good prospect of the year so far.
90
25th. Monday. Cloudy and sultry.
91
Song Do home. Passing showers now and then―better than nothing.
92
Once upon a time an old yangban lived in a house sandwitched between a blacksmith shop on one side and a brass workers' shop on the other. The harsh clanging of the brasswares and the everlasting hammering of the smith vexed his righteous soul to an unbearable degree. One morning the blacksmith came and told the yangban that he was going to move into another house. The old man was so pleased with the news that he gave the smith a cup of wine. An hour later the brass worker came and bid him good-bye saying that he was going to remove from his old home. The yangban was so overjoyed that he gave him a cup of wine and asked incidentally where he was going to start his shop. To the utter disappointment and disgust of the yangban, he was told that the blacksmith and the brass worker were simply swapping their old house. Moral: The Japanese reforms in Korea(?)
94
26th Tuesday. A good shower in the morning.
95
Song Do home. Reports from 南陽 and 牙山 are that they have had no rain so far―and that everything is parched up.
96
Mr. 洪忠鉉 came to fetch his 2nd wife. He started life penniless, but by dint of hard and clever manipulation he has amassed a considerable amount of money. He is ignorant to the extent that he can't sign his own name, yet his dignified manner and polished conversation easily make one take him to be an educated man. He has a whole library of stories of corruption of bribery and of squeezing during the last 30 years of Emperor Yi.
98
27th. Wednesday. Real rain.
99
Song Do home. Hard rain from early morning until 1 p.m. Left Song Do by 5:40 p.m. train for Seoul, with Mr. Hong and his wife. Found all well at home.
100
Mr. Hong's experience with the Japanese and the Chinese. Some years ago he went to Nagasaki with ￥70,000―to buy Annam rice. He negotiated with a merchant and closed the bargain the money being all paid up. He was to sail back to Korea in a day or two. Next morning he was called on by the rice merchant who broke the bargain returning the money, etc. Another time he went to Ningkow to buy a few thousand bags of millet from a Chinese merchant. The bargain was closed and the bags of millet all heaped up at the wharf for shipment. That night a storm of mixed snow and rain raged and Hong passed sleepless night as he faced the loss of a fortune as he expected the bags to have been soaked in water. Next morning he hurried to the wharf and found none of his precious bags. They had all been removed into a safe place of the Chinese who had sold them. In gratitude he offered to pay for the expenses of moving the bags out. The Chinese wouldn't accept it.
102
28th. Thursday. Clear-hot.
103
Went Y.M.C.A. in the morning.
104
5 p.m. went to a tea party given by Mr. 宇佐美 at the Chosen Hotel.
105
Three years ago Bish. Hiraiwa said to me in Tokyo that he had told Mr. 宇佐美 not to be in too great a hurry to succeed. 成功ヲ忙クナサルナ. If the failure of the Japanese regime during the last ten years could be expressed in one single sentence, I believe it could be put in Bish. Hiraiwa's phrase: viz.: the chief actors in the Government Genl, all have been in too great a hurry to succeed. The Japanese are so impatient that they can't wait. All right among themselves. But when they come in contact with continental peoples like the Chinese and Koreans impatience ruins Japanese plans and defeats their purposes.
107
29th. Friday. Cloudy-south wind-cool.
108
As by a magic all the stores on the main streets closed. I understand the order for closing stores sent forth last night about 10. This to commemorate the Day of Annexation. "Independence" circulars are distributed as "usual" in spite of the vigilance of the police and spies. Koreans are learning, but they have to learn the secret of all success yet; the ability of sacrificing personal and sectional interests to the social and racial well-being. I hear the "Provisional Government" crowd in Shanghai is rent into factions. As long as that goes on, no use of talking and yelling about independence. Miss Kim Tuk Sung, the Korean teacher in the High School for Girls came to see me, to find out how much it costs her to study in an American school. She is one of the prettiest and sweetest girls I have seen. What makes her so charming is her unassuming modesty.
110
30th. Saturday. Real hard rain from 3 a.m. to 2 p.m.
111
9 a.m. went to Hoon Ryon Won to attend the Funeral Service of Viscount Cho Joong Ung. Returned to Y.M.C.A. Refreshing bath. Stores open about 11 a.m.
112
The Annual Meeting of the So. Methodist Church is to start on the 3rd Sept. The presiding Bishop now in Japan hasn't come yet. For a Bishop to come all the way from Nashvill to Seoul just in time to preside over the meetings and then leave the next day for China―is that worthwhile to spend so much money on? The Bishop on these flying trips seek no interviews with the Korean pastors or church people. They go more ignorant of the situation of the church―the relation between the Korean workers and the missionaries, than when they came.
114
31st. Sunday. Pale and sunshine mixed-sultry p.m.
115
9 a.m. went to the Station to meet Bish. Lambuth and party who didn't come. Mr. 宇佐美 left for Tokyo by 10 a.m. train―a big crowd to see him off. At 11:40 Mr. 永野 left for 咸興 where he is going as the head of the Provincial Police Department. He is a nice young man.
116
Mary Abbe(文姬) returned from Song Do. So happy to see her. Her mother too selfish to come to look after the comforts of her school―going children or of her husband. Yet her temporary absence makes everybody in this home so happy and peaceful that I dread her returning with her viperish tongue and devilish temper. Only I long to see my precious babies, Grace and Margaret.
117
No flag to be seen at the gates of the Koreans on this anniversary of the birthday of the Emperor.
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