Difficulty of Enforcing Quarantine Regulations--Greedy
Officials “Eat” Relief Funds--Americans Stand Alone to Face
the Foe--The Emergency Cholera Hospital--The Inspection
Officers--We Decide to Use the Shelter--A Pathetic Case--The
Jesus Man--Gratitude of the Koreans--The New Church--The Murder
of the Queen--Testimony of Foreigners--The Official Report.
And now again the rod was to fall. The disease began with terrible
violence, men in full vigor in the morning were corpses at noon,
several members of the same family often dying the same day. It cropped
out in one neighborhood after another with a steadily marked increase
every day, that was frightful in its unrelenting, unswerving ferocity.
The Japanese and many of the more enlightened Koreans took the alarm
early, and seeking the counsel of European and American physicians
planned to establish quarantine and sanitary regulations for the whole
country, but as an astute young Korean sadly remarked, “It is easy
enough to make the laws, it is more than doubtful whether they can be
enforced.”
If officials and soldiers are sent to enforce quarantine, there is
little doubt among those who know customs and people that only too many
of them will be susceptible to a very small bribe. When the necessity
for quarantining Seoul from Chemulpo was mentioned, the high officials
themselves said it would be impossible on account of the importance
of the trade between the two places. One instance will show the
hopelessness of the attempt to carry out sanitary regulations.
In the effort to prevent the enormous and insane consumption of green
apples, melons and cucumbers, the sale of these articles was forbidden
with a penalty for buyer and seller, and notices of the law posted
everywhere. And yet, soon after, my husband passed a stand where they
were being sold in large numbers, over which one of these very notices
was hung, and several policemen among the buyers were munching the
forbidden fruit with a calm relish, edifying to behold. It is due to
the government to say that they seemed thoroughly awakened to the
situation and were doing all in their power, but were handicapped by
the deplorable corruption of many officials. Twenty thousand yen (ten
thousand dollars) were granted to fix up a temporary emergency cholera
hospital, enforce sanitary laws and prevent the advance of the plague,
but this money was, to use a common Korean phrase, “eaten” by greedy
underlings on all hands. In the preparation of the hospital, more
than twice the number of carpenters needed were employed, and these
men passed their time making little articles for private sale, or in
standing about doing nothing. A number of petty officials were hired
to do little, and improved on their commission by doing nothing but
receive their pay.
At a general meeting of the physicians then in the city, European,
American and Japanese, Dr. Avison having been chosen by vote director
of this emergency hospital and the sanitary work, the Japanese all
withdrew, saying they did not care to work under a Westerner, and in
the end the Americans only were left to face the foe.
After many discouragements and hindrances an old barracks building
was roughly prepared to receive patients, and a corps of nurses and
doctors, composed of quite a number of missionaries (Methodists,
Baptists and Presbyterians, with the assistance of hired Koreans) was
formed. The building was very poorly fitted up for such an exigency,
the haste with which it was necessary to get it ready, and the
character of the place, precluded the possibility of making it very
suitable for the purpose. It was open, damp and chilly, with no means
of warming or secluding the patients. It was only scantily furnished
with such absolute necessities as could be had at short notice in the
city. And think not, Oh civilized medical community in America! that
“necessities” according to your ideas are synonymous with “necessities”
according to our possibilities in Asia. Perhaps you have a fossilized
idea that beds and sheets and pillows are necessities. By no means. Our
patients lay on the floor, covered with small cotton wool rugs, and
back-breaking business it was to nurse them.
But the discouragements connected with our work was not merely the lack
of conveniences and almost dire necessities, or the want of proper
enforcement of sanitary regulations and of co-operation, and although
Dr. Avison and the foreign staff under him worked heroically, and with
unwearied devotion, it was an unequal struggle. The majority of natives
are not willing to go to hospitals, and it would have been dangerous
to try to force them, while many will not permit foreign doctors to
treat them even in their homes, or else use Korean medicines with ours.
But alas! in many cases the disease is so violent as to defy all that
science, aided by every advantage, can do.
It is the most desperately, deadly thing I ever saw, and often
medicines seem useless to do more than slightly defer the ultimate
result. The poison attacks the nerve centers at once, and every
organ is affected. Terrible cramps contract the muscles, the heart
fails, the extremities grow cold, the pulse becomes imperceptible,
the mind wanders, or suddenly, without previous symptoms, the victim
falls and dies at once. Or, after the most violent symptoms of the
disease have disappeared, vomiting and pain have ceased, the pulse has
become almost normal and the patient nearly ready to be discharged, a
mysterious change comes, and the poor victim dies of pneumonia, uræmic
convulsions, or some of the other sequellæ of this frightful disease.
Mr. Underwood was placed in charge of inspection offices, which were
opened in different districts over the whole city, and all cases
reported there received immediate attention. Several of his young
Christians were trained by him to carry on this work, he himself at
first going out with them, hunting up infected localities, using
disinfectants, and teaching the helpers and residents how to purify
the premises. These young men worked indefatigably, with intelligence,
enthusiasm and courage. The inspectors and all the doctors and nurses
wore a badge, consisting of the red cross over the Korean flag, so that
even in heathen Korea the sign of the cross was carried everywhere, and
dominated the emblem of the Korean government.
The people picked up the idea that lime was a mysterious agent in
preventing disease, so it was not uncommon to see a handful of it
scattered, a few grains here and there, along the edges of some of the
filthiest ditches, or a gourd whitewashed with lime hanging by the door
as a sort of charm to drive away cholera.
Koreans call it “the rat disease,” believing that cramps are rats
gnawing and crawling inside the legs, going up till the heart is
reached; so they offer prayers to the spirit of the cat, hang a
paper cat on the house door, and rub their cramps with a cat’s skin.
They offered prayers and sacrifices in various high places to the
heavens--Hananim--and some of the streets in infected districts were
almost impassable on account of ropes stretched across, about five feet
high, at intervals of about every twenty-five feet, to which paper
prayers were attached. As my coolies, trying to pass along with my
chair, broke one of these, I could not help admonishing the owner who
came to its rescue, “_Better put them up a little higher_.”
Aye, put them up higher, poor Korean brother, they are far too near the
earth! One of the most pathetic sights in connection with this plague
were these poor, wind-torn, rain-bedraggled, paper prayers, hanging
helplessly everywhere, the offering of blind superstition to useless
dumb gods who can neither pity nor hear.
“They reach lame hands of faith and grope
And gather dust and chaff.”
Early in August it was decided, as the plague seemed on the increase,
to fill the “Shelter” with cholera patients, and Dr. Avison assigned to
Dr. Wells, Mr. Underwood and myself the supervision and care of this
place.
The “Shelter,” situated on a good high site outside the walls, with a
number of comfortable rooms, with the possibility of hot floors (which
proved an unspeakable benefit to the poor cold, pulseless sick), seemed
an ideal place for the purpose. It was not very large, it is true, but
as most of our patients were either quickly cured or quickly succumbed,
we were able to receive a goodly number. Mr. Underwood and Dr. Wells
worked indefatigably, stocking it with everything obtainable which
could be of use.
My husband arranged for a corps of voluntary native nurses. As the only
missionaries available were at work elsewhere, and we had seen too
much of hired native official nurses, he decided to ask some of his
Christian helpers to do this service for the love of Christ. Cholera is
a loathsome disease, only love makes it easy to nurse faithfully and
tenderly these poor afflicted creatures, without overwhelming disgust.
Some of the men thus approached belonged to the scholar and gentlemen
class, who had never done manual work of any kind, and at first they
hesitated. However, they at last decided to undertake the task, and
with willing hands and a little training, they turned out to be very
satisfactory nurses, faithful and devoted, never shirking the most
difficult and repelling work. Every evening a service of prayer and
song was held in the central court of the Shelter, where all who were
conscious could hear, and we believe that the blessing on that work
came in answer to these united prayers, and the public acknowledgment
of absolute dependence in God. Here, too, the workers gained new
enthusiasm and the strength born of faith and hope.
Dr. Wells’ brilliant management deserves the highest praise. The
necessity of caring for my little one, lying sick five miles away,
allowed me only alternate nights of service at the hospital, so the
labor for the other two members of our trio was severe, but while the
need lasted strength was given.
Unspeakably pathetic were many of the scenes we were forced to witness.
One poor woman, only that day widowed, with three little ones to care
for, was brought in cold and almost pulseless. We spent the night
trying to save this poor mother. Early in the morning her eldest, a
dear little fellow of eleven, came to watch with and take care of
her. To see the anxious little face (a child’s face in the shadow of
a great sorrow is the saddest thing on earth) as he chafed her hands
and affirmed, half interrogatively, how much warmer they were now
than before, and as he looked eagerly to us, every time we entered
saying, “Will she live, will she live?” was enough to make one ready
to die for that life. We felt that woman must live. And yet--. After a
long contest the pulse revived, the extremities grew warm, nearly all
untoward symptoms disappeared, we all dared to hope. “She will live
now,” joyfully said the child. “Oh, if I could live, it would be good!”
said the now conscious mother. But alas! next day the three little
ones were motherless and fatherless, and another sad funeral, with one
drooping little mourner, joined the awful procession, which nightly
filed through the city gates, and covered the surrounding hills with
new-made graves. One poor old father watched and tended his boy of
fourteen with agonized devotion. The only one left to his old age of
what was a few days before a large family. We all worked over the lad
with strong hopes, so young, and many of the old had recovered, so much
needed, surely he would be spared, but at length the cold young form
grew a little colder, the tired little pulse ceased to flutter, and a
broken old man followed his last hope to the grave.
And yet we had great cause for devout thankfulness that so many of
our patients were spared. Sixty-five per cent of recoveries is almost
unheard of, and yet this was our record at the Shelter.
Under God we ascribed this large percentage of cures, mainly to the
three following causes: The use of salol as early and in as large doses
as possible. Keeping the patients on the very hot floor till warmth
returned and circulation improved. And the conscientious and untiring
nursing by the native Christians.
Of course this is not the place, nor have I the time, to go into a
minute description of the various remedies and forms of treatment used.
We believed we were reaching the case with salol, but various other
remedies also were used to control the symptoms. In fact, everything
we knew was done, and all must be done quickly or not at all. Many of
the cases brought to us were in a state of collapse when they arrived.
Often the pulse was not perceptible, and yet repeatedly, where we felt
that treatment was hopeless, the hot floor and vigorous chafing, with
hypodermic administration of stimulants, brought about sufficient
reanimation to make it possible to take the salol, and this seemed to
act miraculously. It was in obedience to Dr. Wells’ suggestion that
we tried this drug which proved such a blessing. In one case, that
of a young man of high rank, his family despaired of his life from
the first, and finally went home to prepare his grave clothes, but
on returning with them in the morning, found him, to their joy and
amazement, quite out of danger. Another striking case was that of an
old lady nearly seventy years of age. Her son and daughter, as a last
resort, but quite hopelessly, brought her to us. She was far gone,
unconscious, and almost pulseless. We rubbed her cold extremities
with alcohol, keeping her quite warm on a fine hot floor (she lay
practically on a stove all night), and to the astonishment of all,
after a few hours, steady improvement began and she was soon restored
to her delighted friends.
I insert here our medical record, for the benefit of medical readers,
giving all the uninterested the privilege of skipping. We received
altogether 173 patients, of whom 61 died; of those received, 18 arrived
dying or dead; 95 were taken in rigid, of whom only 42 died; 35 were
verging on collapse, of whom 2 died; 4 were in partial collapse, of
whom none died; 20 were in the first stage, of whom none died. Of
those who died, 25 never reacted, 2 had puerperal complications, 2 were
already affected with tuberculosis, 3 developed cerebral meningitis, 1
complication of chronic cystitis, 1 chronic nephritis, and 2 received
no salol.
All these recoveries made no little stir in the city, especially as
elsewhere nearly two-thirds of those affected died. Proclamations
were posted on the walls, telling people there was no need for them
to die when they might go to the Christian hospital and live. People
who watched missionaries working over the sick night after night said
to each other, “How these foreigners love us, would we do as much for
one of our own kin as they do for strangers?” Some men who saw Mr.
Underwood hurrying along the road in the gray twilight of a summer
morning remarked, “There goes the Jesus man, he works all night and all
day with the sick without resting.” “Why does he do it?” said another.
“Because he loves us,” was the reply. What sweeter reward could be had
than that the people should see the Lord in our service. Surely the
plague was not all evil when it served to bring the Lord more clearly
to the view of the souls he died to save.
A tolerably fair count of the deaths inside the walls each day was
possible, since all the dead are carried through two or three gates.
The numbers rose gradually to something over three hundred a day and
then gradually declined, the plague lasting not quite six weeks.
The extra-mural population is probably as large as the intra-mural,
including the people within the two miles radius outside the walls. All
taken together there are between three and four hundred thousand people.
When the plague was nearly over the following very grateful letter of
thanks from the Korean office of Foreign Affairs was sent through the
American minister.
THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
504th Year, 7th Moon, 3d Day.
August 22d, 1895.
_Kim, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
to Mr. Sill, United States Minister._
SIR: I have the honor to say that my government is deeply
grateful to ---------- and his friends who have spent a great
deal of money for medicines and labored in the management of
cholera, resulting in the cure of many sick people. I trust
your excellency will kindly convey an expression of thanks to
them on behalf of my government. I am, etc., etc.
(_Signed_) KIM YUN SIK.
Gifts were sent to the missionaries, who had assisted at the hospitals,
of rolls of silk, fans, little silver inkstands, having the name of the
Home Office and the recipient engraved upon them, and most interesting
of all, a kind of mosaic mats made of a peculiar sort of reeds grown
for the purpose at the island of Kang Wha. These mats have bits of
the reeds of different colors skilfully inlaid to form the pattern,
and that on those which were given to us was at one end the national
emblem, at the other the red cross and the name of the Home Office.
This was of course extremely gratifying. No, more, it was a thing for
which to be profoundly grateful that government and people recognized
that we, the representatives of our Lord (however inefficient and
unworthy), were their friends, and, as far as in us lay, their helpers.
The best, however, was to come. The names of the Koreans who had nursed
and served at the Shelter and inspection offices were asked for, and
the intention to pay them stated. We told them that the men had done
this with no expectation of pay, but to this they would not listen
and insisted on rewarding them handsomely. On the receipt of this
unexpected, and, for them, large sum, almost all the Christians (quite
voluntarily, and to our surprise) put it all into the fund for the new
church, considering it a gift of God, specially sent in answer to
prayer, to help them in the enterprise undertaken in faith.
They were, therefore, now able to go on and finish the church, which
accommodates, with crowding, two hundred people. It is an unpretentious
building, entirely native, substantial as possible with mud walls,
tiled roof and paper windows, yet built and finished much in the style
of the best Korean houses, none of which knew, at that time, what it
was to boast of a pane of glass, or brick or stone walls. Into it the
little congregation flocked, and with glad hearts dedicated to God the
work of their hands, which through sacrifice, love, faith and prayer
was more costly and precious in his sight than gold or ivory, which had
not been so sanctified.
Not long after the cholera epidemic, and the events connected with it,
occurred the tragedy at the palace--the murder of the brilliant and
progressive queen, the friend of progress, civilization and reform.
Her majesty was a brilliant diplomatist, and usually worsted her
opponents. The Japanese, after the war, had indeed proclaimed the
independence of Korea, yet seemed in practice to desire to establish
a sort of protectorate and to direct her policy at home and abroad.
Many public offices were filled with citizens of Japan, or Japanese
sympathizers as far as possible, and a large body of the Korean troops
were drilled by and under the command of Japanese officers.
Realizing that in the patriotic and brilliant queen they had to meet
one who would not readily submit to their plans for the Japanizing of
Korea, they objected to her participation at all in the affairs of
government, and were promised, under compulsion we were told, that
these orders should be obeyed. Naturally this was not done, and the
queen continued to be a source of confusion and rock of offense
to them and their plans. Finally a decided change was made in the
personnel of the Japanese embassy. Count Inoye, who, in the name of
his government, had hitherto promised to the queen the support and
protection of Japan was recalled. He was replaced by Count Miura, who
was a man of very different tendencies. Count Miura was a very strong
Buddhist, and passionately devoted to the supposed interests of Japan
as against those of any other nation.
[Illustration: THE ROUND GATE, SEOUL]
One morning, the 8th of October, 1895, we heard firing at the palace.
This was in time of peace, and such sounds we knew must be portents
of evil. All was confusion, nothing definite could be learned, except
that certain Japanese troops had arrived at about three in the morning,
escorting the Tai Won Kun (the king’s father and the queen’s bitter
enemy), and had driven out the native royal guard under General Dye
(an American) and were now guarding the palace gates. The air was full
of ominous suspicions and whispers, but nothing more definite could
we learn till afternoon, when meeting a Korean noble, he told us with
face all aghast, that it was currently reported that the queen had been
murdered.
In a few hours this news was confirmed with particulars. The Tai
Won Kun was at that time under guard, in exile from the court, at
his country house, for conspiracy against the king in favor of his
grandson, and he of course readily consented to become the leader of
the plotters against the queen, to enter the palace at the head of
their troops and take possession of the persons of their majesties (and
the government incidentally), necessarily, of course, doing away with
the queen. The troops therefore marched with the old man in his chair
to the palace gates, where all had been made ready. Ammunition had been
secretly removed, native troops trained by Americans had been mostly
exchanged for those trained by Japanese, and after a few shots, and
scarcely a pretence of resistance, the attacking party entered. It was
some distance to the royal apartments, and the rumor of disturbance
reached there some time before the attacking party. Her majesty was
alarmed. She was a brave woman, but she knew she had bitter, powerful
and treacherous foes, and that, like Damocles, a sword suspended by
only too slight a thread hung over her life.
The king’s second son, Prince Oui-wha, begged her to escape with him by
a little gate which yet remained unguarded, through which they might
pass disguised to friends in the city. The dowager queen, however, was
too old to go, and her majesty nobly refused to leave her alone to
the terror which occupation of the palace by foreigners would insure,
trusting no doubt to the positive assurances of protection that had
been made to her through Count Inoye, and the more so, as one of the
courtiers in waiting, a man by the name of Chung Pung Ha, had assured
her that whatever happened she might rest confident that the persons
of their majesties would be perfectly safe. This man was a creature of
low origin, whom the queen had raised and bestowed many favors upon,
and in whom she placed great reliance. He advised her not to hide,
and kept himself informed of all her movements. With no code of honor
wider or higher than his pocket, he of course became a ready tool of
the assassins, and there is much evidence to show he was a party to the
conspiracy.
The queen therefore remained in a good deal of uneasiness and anxiety,
but only when the Tai Won Kun and the hired assassins rushed in,
calling for the queen, did she attempt, alas! too late, to hide.
There was some confusion, in the numerous verbal reports which reached
us, but two foreigners, a Russian, Mr. Sabbatin, and an American,
General Dye, who were eye-witnesses of nearly all that occurred, both
agreed in the statement, that Japanese troops under Japanese officers
surrounded the courtyard and buildings where the royal party were, and
that the Japanese officers were in the courtyard, and saw the outrages
which were committed, and knew all that was done by the Japanese
_soshi_ or professional cutthroats. About thirty of these assassins
rushed into the royal apartments crying, “The queen, the queen, where
is the queen?”
Then began a mad and brutal hunt for their prey, more like wild beasts
than men, seizing the palace women,[1] dragging them about by their
hair and beating them, trying to force them to tell where the queen
was. Mr. Sabbatin was himself questioned and threatened with death. The
_soshi_ and officers who wore the Japanese uniform passed through the
room where his majesty stood trying to divert attention from the queen.
“One of the Japanese caught him by the shoulder and pulled him about,
and Yi Kiung Chick, the minister of the royal household, was killed by
the Japanese in his majesty’s presence. His royal highness, the crown
prince, was seized, his hat torn off and broken, and he was pulled
about by the hair, the _soshi_ threatening him with their swords while
demanding where the queen was.”[2] At length they hunted the poor queen
down, and killed her with their swords. They then covered her body,
and bringing in various palace women, suddenly displayed the corpse,
when the women shrieked with horror, “The queen, the queen!” This was
enough; by this ruse the assassins made sure they had felled the right
victim.
[1] “Korean Repository,” 1895.
[2] From official report of “Korean Repository.”
Soon after, the remains were taken to a grove of trees not far off,
kerosene oil poured over them, and they were burned, only a few bones
remaining.
Later developments all went to prove that the murderers were actually
guilty of the inconceivable folly of imagining that by this means it
would be possible to conceal the crime and their share in it.
Stories of all sorts were circulated, as that her majesty had escaped
and was lying concealed, or that she had simply been removed for a
time by the Japanese, who could bring her back at any moment. In the
official account of the murder, and of the trial of Count Miura and
the _soshi_, held in Hiroshima, Japan, for which I am indebted to
“The Korean Repository” for 1895, the following words occur: “The
accused Miura Gow assumed his official duties ... on September 1, 1895.
According to his observation, things in Korea were tending in the
wrong direction, the court was daily growing more and more arbitrary,
and attempting wanton interference with the conduct of State affairs.
Disorder and confusion were in this way introduced into the system of
administration that had just been reorganized under the guidance and
advice of the Imperial government. The court went so far in turning its
back upon Japan that a project was mooted for disbanding the _Kurentai_
troops (Koreans under Japanese officers) and punishing their officers.
Moreover, a report came to the said Miura that the court had under
contemplation a scheme for usurping all political power by degrading
some and killing others of the cabinet ministers suspected of devotion
to the cause of progress and independence. Under these circumstances
he was greatly perturbed, inasmuch as he thought that the attitude
assumed by the court not only showed remarkable ingratitude towards
this country, which had spent labor and money for the sake of Korea,
but was also calculated to thwart the work of internal reform and
‘jeopardize the independence of the kingdom.’”
The report then proceeds to state that the accused felt it necessary
to apply a remedy which would on the one hand “secure the independence
of the Korean kingdom, and on the other _maintain the prestige of this
empire in that country_!” The report further proceeds to state, that
conferences were held with the Tai Won Kun and with Japanese officials,
at one of which, October 3rd, “The decision arrived at on that occasion
was that assistance should be rendered to the Tai Won Kun’s entry
into the palace by making use of the _Kurentai_, who, being hated by
the court, felt themselves in danger, and of the young men who deeply
lamented the course of events, and also by causing the Japanese troops
stationed in Seoul to offer their support to the enterprise. It was
further resolved that this opportunity should be availed of for taking
the life of the queen, who exercised overwhelming influence in the
court.”
After further particulars in the completion of the plan the Japanese
document continues: “Miura told them (the men who were to escort
the Tai Won Kun) that on the success of the enterprise depended the
eradication of the evils that had done so much mischief to the kingdom
for the past twenty years, and instigated them to despatch the queen
when they entered the palace.” The report then goes on at some length,
describing the various steps taken in carrying out the conspiracy,
and continues: “Then slowly proceeding toward Seoul the party met the
_Kurentai_ troops outside the west gate of the capital, where they
waited some time for the Japanese troops.... About dawn the whole party
entered the palace through the Kwang-hwa gate, and at once proceeded to
the inner chambers. Notwithstanding these facts there is no sufficient
evidence to prove that any of the accused actually committed the crime
originally meditated by them.... For these reasons, the accused, each
and all, are hereby discharged.... The documents and other articles
seized in connection with this case are restored to their respective
owners.
Given at Hiroshima local court by
YOSHIDA YOSHIDA,
Judge of Preliminary inquiry,
TAMURA YOSHIHARU,
Clerk of the court.
Dated 20th day of the first month of the twenty-ninth year of Yeiji.
This copy has been taken from the original text.
Clerk of the local court of Hiroshima.”
This document needs no comment. Count Miura was recently restored to
all his titles and dignities which had been temporarily removed.