Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/62

54 structed that during the business hours it can all be taken out, thus leaving the entire store open. The articles of trade are placed around the three sides of the room and piled about in different places, to display them to the passer-by. The customer does not enter the shop, but stands in the street while he makes his purchase. The merchant sits on a mat in the middle of the room, from which point he can reach almost everything in stock. There are some larger shops and stores in which the wholesale trade is carried on, but these have very little likeness to an American store.

In the capital there are many people who have no business — that is to say, they are gentlemen of leisure. They are gentlemen, and gentlemen are not supposed to meddle with such sordid matters as manufacture and merchandise — no, not even office work, unless it be an office connected with the government. The business of a gentleman is to hold office and rule the people, and Seoul is supremely a city of gentlemen. Many of these gentlemen spend the greater part of their lives hanging around waiting for some office — which they never get, for the simple reason that they cannot raise money enough to pay for it.

There are little communities or localities in the city where manufacture s carried on by the people who are compelled to work for a living. But the stranger would have to be told that it is a manufacturing part of the city, as there is nothing in the style of the houses that would show that they are not dwelling houses. There may be found Girdle Town, Pot Town,