Page:Korea (1904).djvu/327

Rh roads which are passed. This is useful; the map of Korea is most hopelessly out of date, and by forwarding these names to the Geographical Society some little good is accomplished. The interpreter will pay the coolies, grooms, and other servants in debased currency, and charge the account in Mexican dollars, making a profit of seventy-five per cent.; he is greedy and tenacious to the interests of his pocket, and he will suggest that he requires a servant. For this remark he should be flogged. He will muddle his accounts whenever he can; he will lose receipts if he can find no other way of squeezing. He is apparently an innocent, transparently honest, and devoted to the principles of sobriety and virtue—unless there is an opportunity to go the usual path. Under every condition he should be watched.

The Korean does not approach the Chinaman as a body-servant; he has neither initiative nor the capacity for the work, while he combines intemperance, immorality, and laziness in varying degrees. The master usually ends by waiting upon his man. There is, however, an antidote for this state of things. If sufficient point be put into the argument, and the demonstration be further enforced by an occasional kick, as circumstances may require, it is possible to convert a first-class, sun-loving wastrel into a willing, if unintelligent, servant. Under any conditions, his dishonesty will be incorrigible.

It is never necessary to take any large stock of provisions when travelling in Korea. Eggs, fowl, fresh fish, fruit, matches, tobacco, vegetables, and crushed rice flour can be procured at any village in large quantities. The inhabitants will perhaps declare that there are no such things in the village; that they are miserably poor. The village usually bears the stamp of its condition pretty plainly, and I found