The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 83

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

83

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is the principal cereal crop, and certain kinds of
vegetables are raised in great abundance; also some
cotton is grown.

Inhabitants.

The Koreans are plainly members of the Mon-
golian race, though they are easily distinguishable
from the Chinese and Japanese. While they have
their own language, the upper classes use the
Chinese language. In outward appearance the
Koreans resemble the Japanese more than they do
the Chinese, though they are generally taller and

recent years these and other strange customs are
rapidly changing and will soon be a matter of the
past altogether. Women, who formerly were kept
in strict seclusion, are beginning to be seen on the
streets, girls are going to school the same as boys,
and European dress is by no means any longer a
rare thing.

Up to recent years the houses of Korea were
mostly very rude affairs, made of mud. Homes that
were warmed at all received their heat from flues
running beneath the floors. The mud huts of the

“The Gates of Korea.”
A Korean Village on the Manchurian Frontier.

stouter than either. Their dress is almost always
of cotton, which is heavily padded in winter.
A JXorean peculiarity is the headgear.
men wear great bowls as big as umbrellas made of
white straw, while others have little hats made of
black horsehair, fastened to the head by means of
a ribbon passing under the chin. These horsehair
hats are the badge of the gentleman class and are
the most highly prized part of a man’s outfit. Every
style of hat had its meaning in old Korea, and still
has to a certain extent. There are hats for
mourners and hats for bridegrooms, a special head-
gear for bachelors and a special head-covering for
married men. However, it must be said that in

Some of the .

poor looked like haycocks from a distance while the
houses of the better classes resembled barns. Be it
ever so humble, every Korean house has its dog,
which goes out and in by a hole specially cut at
the bottom of each door for its accommodation.
The upper-class Koreans are very polite and cul-
tivated; the lower classes are very social among
themselves, vivacious, good-natured, and talkative.
Before Christianity was introduced, the Koreans
were neither cleanly nor industrious, but the advent
of the Gospel has wrought a marvelous change.
The children are extremely quaint and pretty.
Every unmarried person is treated as a child. Be-
fore marriage the youth carries his hair hanging

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