Sajikol, Seoul,
November 11, 1928.
Dear father and mother:
After your four letters came within one week, I
was not surprised when none came this week.  Of course the
chief event in America the last few davs was the election;
and everyone was quite elated when the first news came on'
Thursday afternoon.  The only English newspaper in the country,
The Seoul Press, is full of advertising and has one column
of news; and even that is usually-poorly selected, has very
little of real interest.  The Koreans seem to get much more
information about America in their paper than we get; they
say the paper is full of comments on the presidential campaign.
I shall be glad. when I can get some first-haM word from you.
The great event in the Orient this week was the
"coronation" o^ the Japanese emperor.  Three holidays have
been declared, and +he schools are having special observances.
As a,special indulgence, ^11 students who at any time have
been suspended for any reason or against whom suspension
proceedings are pending are to be allowed to return and their
record cleared.  The city is decorated with flags and Japanese
lanterns bearin^ the Chinese characters for "Bow to the Emperor"
Every Korean house must have its flag out.  there were floats
being drawn through the streets all day by masked  nd costumed
men, some of them drunk; and the carts were :full of musicians
beating out their wierd Oriental strains of unutterable monotony.  A high tower was erected at a principle street intersection, which is,a blaze of electric lights every night, and very
beautiful seen from our hill at night.  Last night I saw
thousands of schoolboys marching through the streets, everyone
carrying a red lantern; at a distance it looked like a great
mass of red-hot coals.
For five minutes before three yesterday the sirens
and bells were rung, and at three every vehicle was to stop,
and everybody was to come out on the street and bow toward
Tokyo.  Some of the missionaries feared that some of the Koreans
might refuse to do it, and there would be no telling what might
result.  Mrs. Swinney said there is "far more anti-Japanese
feeling here than there was anti-foreign feeling in China when
they,went there. 'Thev never suspected that there would be a war
in China.  About all that it would take here to start trouble
would be for some leader to open the way, and everybody would^
stand by him.  The Japanese keep their soldiers and police (all
flashing"swords at their sides) in great prominence.  The
Koreans•don't like to hear the Japanese mentioned.  One of them
said the other day that we could not tell them.a thing about the
Japanese that they did not know already.  All publications are
censored, and hi have seen a book with wide black stripes across
the pages where objectionable matter had been blotted out- When
the independence movement was fresh in'their memory, people were
arrested for "dangerous thoughts".
As far as I know, there was no trouble yesterday;
although nobody bowed to Tokyo where I was.  The son of the
pastor^of the City Mission was married at three at the largest
Methodist church in the city, and we were all invited.  It was
a formal wedding according to good American style; and Bro.
Stokes performed the ceremony.  The bridegroom is a student at