Robbers Attack Missionaries in Korea

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 11, 1910

Robbers Attack Missionaries in Korea

BROTHER W. R. SMITH, who with his family recently moved to the eastern coast of Korea, writes: “A few nights ago we had our first experience with robbers, very numerous in this country. We had gone to bed with doors and windows unfastened as usual. Near morning Mrs. Smith noticed an object in the open window near the foot of the bed, but as carpenters had been at work, she thought it might be a board left leaning against it. She reached out with something to make sure what it was, when a man stepped aside, and fired with a revolver into the room. This awakened me, and I grabbed my wife, thinking she had hurt herself in some way. As I spoke to her, two more shots were fired into the room. I then saw what was up, and asked the man what he wanted. He said, ‘Money.’ I told him we had no money (there was not five dollars in the house at the time). He said, ‘Yes, you have.’ I told him to come in, and I would give him what we had. At that he sprang up as if to come through the window; but as he did so, my wife cried out, ‘O God! spare our lives!’ He instantly dropped back and disappeared. At the time I thought he had fired the shots to frighten us, but the bullet holes were too near our heads for us to retain that opinion longer than until morning. Later we learned that one of the Korean women belonging to our company here stood guard the entire night following to see that no harm came to us. We thank God for his mercy and protecting care.”