Page:Village life in Korea (1911).djvu/71

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The Capital.
61

supervision of a few Americans. It is to the credit of Koreans that these young men have in so short a time proven themselves capable of handling the cars so well.

Besides the hum of the trolley car and the rattling of the jinrikishas there is hardly a sound to be heard in all this great city save the hum of human voices. There are no paved streets with heavy wagons and carriages rumbling over them. The facts are, there are very few carriages of any sort in the country, and those that are here have all come since I came here, ten years ago. Ten years ago the only kind of cart or wagon to be seen around Seoul was the clumsy old oxcart that is used for moving heavy stones and such other things as cannot be carried by men.

See there in the distance the beautiful white marble pagoda. There is not another one like it in all the country. It is thirteen stories high, and about twenty feet square at the base. It was sent as a present by the Emperor of China to one of the former queens of Korea soon after the founding of the city. It is made in as many sections as there are stories, and is most elaborately carved in bold relief. The carving is a portrayal of some of the teachings of Buddha.

Let us return to the city. Even now the smoke is already beginning to rise from thousands of holes in the ground and in the sides of the houses which answer for chimneys. This means that the fires are being lighted to cook the evening rice, and soon the city will be so covered with smoke that we shall not be able to see anything. Sometimes this smoke refuses