In the effort to prevent the enormous and insane consumption of green apples, melons and cucumbers, the sale of these articles was forbidden with a penalty for buyer and seller, and notices of the law posted everywhere. And yet, soon after, my husband passed a stand where they were being sold in large numbers, over which one of these very notices was hung, and several policemen among the buyers were munching the forbidden fruit with a calm relish, edifying to behold. It is due to the government to say that they seemed thoroughly awakened to the situation and were doing all in their power, but were handicapped by the deplorable corruption of many officials. Twenty thousand yen (ten thousand dollars) were granted to fix up a temporary emergency cholera hospital, enforce sanitary laws and prevent the advance of the plague, but this money was, to use a common Korean phrase, “eaten” by greedy underlings on all hands. In the preparation of the hospital, more than twice the number of carpenters needed were employed, and these men passed their time making little articles for private sale, or in standing about doing nothing. A number of petty officials were hired to do little, and improved on their commission by doing nothing but receive their pay. At a general meeting of the physicians then in the city, European, American and Japanese, Dr. Avison having been chosen by vote director of this emergency hospital and the sanitary work, the Japanese all withdrew, saying they did not care to work under a Westerner, and in the end the Americans only were left to face the foe. After many discouragements and hindrances an old barracks building was roughly prepared to receive patients, and a corps of nurses and doctors, composed of quite a number of missionaries (Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, with the assistance of hired Koreans) was formed. The building was very poorly fitted up for such an exigency, the haste with which it was necessary to get it ready, and the character of the place, precluded the possibility of making it very suitable for the purpose. It was open, damp and chilly, with no means of warming or secluding the patients. It was only scantily furnished with such absolute necessities as could be had at short notice in the city. And think not, Oh civilized medical community in America! that “necessities” according to your ideas are synonymous with “necessities” according to our possibilities in Asia. Perhaps you have a fossilized idea that beds and sheets and pillows are necessities. By no means. Our patients lay on the floor, covered with small cotton wool rugs, and back-breaking business it was to nurse them.