Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots; Or, Life in KoreaUnderwood, Lillias H. (Lillias Horton)
Religion
Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots; Or, Life in Korea
Underwood, Lillias H. (Lillias Horton)
Korea -- Description and travel; Missions -- Korea
Here, then, in the hospitable little town of Wewon we rested, made
friends whom we hoped to draw into the friendship of our Leader, and
ministered to sick bodies and souls, as opportunity was given. Here in
a few days were brought our boxes and a few of the men who had attacked
us. Still later, for they were unable to travel for some time, came our
poor attendants, who had twice been cruelly beaten with clubs and left
tied up all night in a painful and agonizing position. The mapoo’s arm
was broken, and our helper never entirely recovered from the injury his
back had suffered. Those of the criminals who were found were sent up
to the provincial capital to be punished by the governor.
Before leaving Wewon we gave a dinner to the magistrate in order to
gratify his curiosity and that of his friends. We wished to show in
some way our appreciation of his kindness and hospitality, and Mr.
Underwood, who had considerable experience and much skill in camp and
bachelor cooking, undertook, in the face of some odds, to manage the
matter; and we found our ingenuity well taxed in evolving a feast from
the now scanty remnants of our larder and the few obtainable native
articles out of which a foreign meal could be manufactured. However,
we prided ourselves that we did quite well, with some six courses,
including soup, fish, a bewitching little roast pig, well decorated
with wreaths and berries, served with apple sauce and stuffed with
potatoes, chestnuts and onions. Our dessert, marmalade spread on
crackers, was sufficiently light to please the most æsthetic, and we
introduced a novelty, coffee sweetened with honey, never whispering
that our sugar was gone. The magistrate came with a huge crowd of
retainers, who filled our tiny room and flowed over into the kitchen,
peered into and fingered everything, and nearly wrecked the courses,
which our overtried servant was attempting under many difficulties to
serve. With nothing but a bowl of charcoal in lieu of a stove, and no
proper kitchen utensils, it was by no means easy to achieve such a feat
of culinary art in the far interior of the hermit kingdom, but we did
not stop to consider a little inconvenience or bother, nor regret a
little extra work where we could thereby make or strengthen friendship
with Koreans. Trifling as it may look for missionaries to be planning
_menus_ and giving dinners to country magistrates, there are more ways
of furthering the cause than preaching only. The hearts of the people
must be won, and he who wins most friends wins the readiest and most
attentive audience, one inclined in advance to favor and accept what he
has to teach, and nothing is trifling which helps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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