I close this brief description of our varied experiences in Seoul with a warning against a very common but, in my judgment, quite fallacious view of the relation in which the capital city stands to the entire country of Korea. It is customary to say that “Seoul _is_ Korea” just as “Paris is France.” But this is even less true in the macrocosm of Seoul than in the macrocosm of Paris. It is indeed true, as Dr. Jones has said, that “as the capital of the Empire its political pre-eminence is undisputed. Intellectually and socially it has ruled Korea with an iron hand for half a millennium.” But it is also true that the real interests and undeveloped material and human resources of the nation are in the country; and that the uneconomical, ignorant, and depressed condition of the people outside of Seoul is the chief concern of all who really care for the welfare of Korea. The local magistrates must be reformed, or the well-nigh hopeless task of reforming the corrupt Court at Seoul would be, if it could be accomplished, of little value to the nation. And if it becomes necessary, in order to effect this reform, and so to bring about the redemption, industrially, educationally, morally and religiously, of the people of the country, then the “iron hand” which rules them from Seoul must be either gloved or broken in pieces. But, in truth, the idol at Seoul which the Koreans worship is an image of clay. CHAPTER V A VISIT TO PYENG-YANG From the historical, as well as the geographical and commercial points of view, the city of Pyeng-yang (spelled also Pyong-yang and in various other ways) is the most important place in all Northern Korea. It has frequently been besieged and assaulted, both by Japanese invaders from the south and by various forces—Mongolian, Chinese, Manchu—coming down from the north to pour their devastating hordes over the country. It was hither that the Korean king fled before the armies of “men in fierce-looking helmets and bright armor with little pennons at their backs bearing their names and family badges,” which were sent against him by Hideyoshi more than three hundred years ago. The city is beautifully situated; it is by nature constituted for all time as a principal centre for distributing over the Yellow Sea the industrial products of fertile North Korea and for receiving in return whatever the adjoining parts of China and Manchuria may furnish for coastwise trade.