Of rudeness and petty assaults the Koreans have, no doubt, had much to endure at the hands of the coolies and other low-class Japanese. But not _so_ much as the Burmese and East Indians have had to endure from the British soldier and petty official in their own home land; or the Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific Coast of the United States; and, probably, not more than the Japanese themselves during the earlier days of the entrance of foreigners into Japan. While the atrocious treatment of the natives by the Belgians in Africa, by the French in Madagascar, by the Russians in many parts of Asia, is as midnight darkness to twilight or full dawn when compared with anything done to Koreans of late years by the Japanese. In order to understand, but not to excuse, this harsh and bullying attitude of the foreigner toward the native, two things need to be borne in mind. The first is this: _Korea has never been a land where the common people have been treated with any decency, not to say respect_. In the old days—the days to change which the Japanese Government is planning and doing more than any other human agency—the attendants of officials beat every commoner who came within their reach; this was as a matter of course; it was an evidence, not much resented by the people, of the superiority of their master. Lieutenant Foulk describes how, when he was travelling in the country, his chair coolies on approaching an inn would accelerate their pace and, rushing into the yard at the top of their speed, would begin to belabor every one in sight. “In 1885,” says Mr. Stevens, “I was riding through the streets of Seoul on official business. Among my attendants were several policemen armed with the many-thonged whips carried in those days. The policemen slashed with these at the curious who pressed around the chair, regardless of where the blows fell. One old woman, lashed in the face until the blood came, still pressed forward when the policeman had passed, eager to see the foreigner close at hand, and apparently regarding the blows as a matter of course.” To-day such cruelty is in no respect rare among the “amiable Koreans.” Indeed, without something of this kind, it is difficult in the country for the traveller, whether native or foreigner, to get anything done. “During the first two days,” says Mr. Henry Norman,[87] “I was greatly annoyed by my _mapous_, whom I could not get along at all. At the midday halt they would lie about for a couple of hours, and in the morning it was two or three hours after I was up before I could get them to start. On the third morning I lost my temper, and going into their room, I kicked them one after the other into the yard. This was evidently what they expected, for they set to work immediately. Unless they were kicked they could not believe the hurry was real. Afterward, by a similar procedure, I started whenever I wished.” Again, Mr. Angus Hamilton, after