| | | 19 February |
Seoul, 19 Febry 1891
Dear Amy,
The last mail brought me a very gushing letter of thanks from Mrs. Barnes, which I would send you but that I suppose she will have writtn you one like it as I told her I sent her the letters of introduction at your request. It was dated from the Government House L??? which may have been an additional reason for hurrying up her acknowledgement!
Our life runs on in the usual way & I do not know that I have anything very particular to tell you by this steamer. I dare say Max will write you of her performance at the last "Soci???" an entertainment got up under the control of the missionaries every month, & to me rather a nuisance than otherwise. On the last occasion Max was on the committee & they got up some tableaux vivants in which she figured conspicuously. Max provoked a good deal of criticism from one or two of the young ladies who would not be present at "such an indecent exhibition" but notwithstanding things went off with great success & the approbation of all who witnessed them. On this occasion Max was asked to take part & consented but would not give us any idea of what we were to see.
It turned out to be a dramatic rexamination of Longfellow's story of Miles Standish & Max was the maiden Priscilla, John Alden being taken by a young clergyman & the doughty captain by another parson. If I had known what it was to be, I should certainly have prohibited it. For though I can stand alomost anything, I don't like mock marriage & when I saw Max kneeling by the side of this young parson & another standing over them with his blessing, I could hardly keep from swearing loud.
The whole clerical community joined in it. It was a? t??? but favorite theatricals badly done, winding up with a mock marriage. The entire troup, with two or three exceptions, being of people who were shocked at the sound of billiards or a game of whist. I bide my time & some day I shall tell them what I think of this making a jest of one of the "holiest sacraments of the church"
These intensely religious people are very funny to my mind. They stra?? after their neighbors ???? but ??? s???? the most prodigious ???? of their own! It all depends on whose bull it is.
We have been getting up a sort of country club -- lawn tennis and reading room - & the community is so small it has been necessary to mix the religios and the scandalous elements, as oil and water. I don't know whether it will be possible to make it go, but ground has been bot. for almost $1500 to which all hands have subscribed & we now must get some $3000 or more for a building. This wd not have been very difficult but for some narrowmindedness manifested in committee which has alienated some of the best men, and now I fear. However these last theatricals give me a little hope.
You will wonder why I should have written you all this yarn and it will give you the measure of the magnitude of our social interest: but it will perhaps throw light on Max's letter. We are expecting a mail next Monday the 23, & then I shall have something from you to answer perhaps. Meanwhile I have scratched this off while waiting for your mother to undress & give me a chance to go to bed.
| | | 19 February |