Korean homes are in a sense open to all the world. Any one
who pleases may try the door, push it open, and come in. He
needs no first acquaintance, and no introduction. An ordinary
Korean guest-room is free to all the world. On the other hand,
the inner quarters are separate, and for a male traveler to
venture there would be a breach of the most sacred law of
society. Into this outer room come gentlemen of leisure, tramps,
fortune-tellers, Buddhist priests, all mankind, in fact. Here
is located the high seat of the master. As you live in this
guest-room, you feel the fearful lack of privacy. You are as
tho encamped on the open highway, under the gaze of all men. If
you write a letter, the question is, to whom are you writing
it. “Why do you write thus and thus? What reference is here?
Who? When?” These are the questions that are asked by those who
look over your shoulder, without any breach of proper form or
infraction of the eternal law that governs things.--JAMES S.
GALE, “Korea in Transition.”
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