Editorial Letter by William W. Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 25, 1907

Editorial Letter

By William W. Prescott

Jottings from the Editor’s Note-Book

We left Kobe Tuesday morning, January 8, and the whole day was occupied in the ride to Shimonoseki, a city at the extreme south end of the principal island. Here we took a steamship for Korea, traveling second class. This meant that we had a large room with mats on the floor, similar to the room which we occupied at the Japanese hotel, where we could make ourselves as comfortable as possible with such bedding as we had. This would have been all well enough, but unfortunately for me it turned quite cold in the night, and a strong wind blowing through an open port-hole onto the back of my neck was the direct cause of a bad cold. This stayed by me very faithfully during my week in Korea, and prevented me from seeing and doing as much as I otherwise would have seen and done during that time.

We reached Fusan at ten o’clock the next morning, having passed over the scene of the famous naval battle between the Russian and Japanese forces near the close of the late war. At Fusan we took a train over a line constructed by the Japanese for the purpose of transporting troops and supplies, and which is still operated by them as a military railroad. The day was bitterly cold, and there was no heat at all during the first part of our journey, and a very uncertain amount the remainder of the time. From looking at the map of Korea one would readily conclude that the ride from Fusan to Ping-Yang, sixteen miles south of Soonan, where Brother Smith is located, would probably occupy one day, but I found that trains in Korea make very slow progress and run only by day, stopping overnight at Seoul and Ping-Yang, so that it required two days and nights and a part of the third day to reach our destination.

The country around Fusan was bare and mountainous, and I found it about the same during the whole of the journey. It reminded me of some parts of Colorado and Utah. Little groups of houses with mud walls and thatched roofs were scattered along the line, and occasionally there were larger towns, and we saw one walled city.

The people were an interesting study. They are of larger stature than the Japanese, with about the same color of skin and of rather a sturdy appearance. Almost without exception, men, women, and children dress in white garments (or in garments which were once white) summer and winter, padding their clothes with cotton in the winter, in order to keep warm. The trousers worn by the men are of enormous size (one writer has said that a pair would serve to clothe loosely the statue of liberty in New York harbor); and their hats appear to the careless observer to be neither useful nor ornamental. They seem to be intended to protect the knot of hair which crowns the top of the head like a monument on the top of a hill. Like the Japanese, the Koreans are inveterate smokers, and every car is a smoking-car. We breathed tobacco smoke for three consecutive days. And yet I liked the people. There was something about them which suggested solidity of character, and gave a ground for hope that the soil would be favorable for the good seed.

It was ten o’clock that night when the train stopped at Seoul, the capital of Korea, where it would remain overnight. We found comfortable accommodations at a foreign hotel (all but natives are foreigners in the far East), where I took some vigorous treatment for my cold. I was thankful for some knowledge of hydrotherapy, and that Brother Smith had had some instruction in nursing.

Seoul is a large walled city, and a stay in it would have been interesting, but we were compelled to leave the next morning. The day was occupied in the journey to Ping-Yang, a distance of about two hundred miles. Here we stopped at a hospital under Presbyterian management, but with Korean helpers, and on account of local conditions were compelled to occupy one room.

Here I had my first experience with the Korean method of heating their houses. The fire is in the kitchen at one end of the house, and the smoke passes through several flues under the floor of the other rooms. They have no chairs, and we sat down flat on the floor. In a short time I felt an uncomfortable sensation from the heat, and was obliged to lift myself from the floor and sit on my hands. The Koreans sleep on these floors, but foreigners who have tried it report results which were not altogether satisfactory.

Ping-Yang is built on the bank of a large river, and is in the shape of a boat. No one is permitted to dig a well within the city, as it is held that this would make a hole in the bottom of the boat and result in sinking the city! The people are therefore compelled to bring all their water from the river, or to employ the professional water-carriers.

A short ride the next morning brought us to the village where Brother Smith lives. We were thankful for his hospitable home and the kind entertainment which we received. I greatly regretted that, owing to my weak condition, I was unable to meet with the people on the Sabbath, but I made an appointment for the next day, which I was able to keep, and so I had the privilege of speaking to this company of Korean believers. The little church was crowded to its utmost capacity, and others stood outside. I could talk only a short time, Brother Smith interpreting, and then the leader, a Korean brother, followed with an appropriate response.

It was a most interesting experience for me to look upon this company of Koreans who had accepted the third angel’s message, and especially as I called to mind the fact that in a very short time nearly four hundred had begun to keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, about half of whom had already been accepted for church-membership. It is a striking illustration of what the Lord will be able to accomplish in a short time when the message swells to the loud cry. We must certainly send more help to Korea. The providence of God urges us to do this. It promises to be a most fruitful field, and many doors are already open.

Soon after my meeting closed, it was necessary for me to take the train in order to reach Chemulpo in time to make connection with the steamer for North China. Brother Smith accompanied me as far as Ping-Yang, where we again spent a night, and during the remainder of the journey I had the company of a Presbyterian missionary who was taking his son to Chefoo to place him in school at that place. We sailed from Chemulpo the next morning, and anchored in the harbor of Chefoo about eleven o’clock the following day, when I got my first glimpse of China. Of this I will write later. W. W. P.