Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/117

Rh dress coats are of such a fine texture that they remind one of the spider's web. He speaks in low talk to all the village people who did not happen to be born with the blue blood in their veins. Not only does he use the low forms of speech when addressing other people, but he requires other people to address him in the high forms of speech. Thus the very language itself is a means of ever widening the chasm that separates the classes living in the same little village. He has little regard for the rights of his neighbors; whatever they may have that he wants he appropriates at his own price or at no price, as the notion strikes him. If he is in need of a man to run an, errand, he simply calls for some one from among the common people, and he dare not disobey his orders. The common people on entering his presence must stand till he orders them to be seated, and then they only crouch on their knees like frightened animals unless he orders them to sit in peace. There he sits on his little mat and smokes his long-stemmed pipe by the hour, while his neighbors of the common herd are not allowed to take one little whiff at the pipe while in his presence without his gracious permission. This pipe of his has a long stem—yes, so long that he cannot light it himself, not being able to reach it with his hand when the stem is in his mouth; so he must call a servant every time he wants the thing fired up for business. And I can assure you that there is little time during his waking hours that this business is not running at full blast. I have been amused to see the turn taken by a gentleman when he wanted to smoke and there was