">?m
Dear
*bff
I fi
y%
come
. j i
hard
■* v
from
ba il.KSCOJgi   Deoule,
February  10,   1929.
father and mother:
, I  y$&  s.d  long  getting my last week's  letter
that I have no new letters  from you this  time  to answer.     And
nd  I  am   beginning +o arrive at,  the  stage ^here all  foreigners
sooner  or later--  where  the  strangeness has worn off and  it is
to distinguish what will be  interesting to the people at home
what is  commonplace.
I   enjoyed   looking  over the papers,   especially
^ the  one all about  Lloyd*s new building;   it revealed  the  esteem in
i w g which he  is held   in V*lie jo.     I  would  like  to write to  them,   but
; ...make myself no promises;   for I  have already   found how  letters  can
i stare me  in the  face  for weeks here  on mv desk and  not   #et answered,
.1  need  a   secretary who  can write English
well
.orean.
fa
Today is Korean New Ybar Day (Chinese and f
■ Japanese too, for that matter), the beginning of"their great
«* holiday season of fifteen days.  It was quite a sight to walk
through the streets today and see everybody in their new clothes;
especially the children in their unending variety of flaming color,
the little fellows with their scarlet, grass-green, or yellow
, turuma.ggies, and the babies with their striped sleeves or sometimes
; a whole dress in stripes of every hue;  certainly Joseph* s coat was
' not more brilliant,,  ^hen the older folk were out in their spotless
white or black.  One boy of about twelve I particularly noticed who
cs was ^rhite from cap to shoes, quite handsomely arrayed.
On this day everyone must go and bow to .their
Mf 1 . parents if they are living. . The Swinney1 s hired man, himself not
very young, had to go to Songdo yesterday so he could perform his
^.Jjo . duty today to his mother, who is eighty-two. This bowing is quite
an accomplishment; to be able to. get down on your knees, touch
! your forehead to the floor, and then back to a standing position
In an acceptable manner is not easy. Miss Erwin of Chulwon counts
it amon.sr. her accomplishments, and demonstrated it to us at Christmas
time.  I would like to see the Koreans do it.  They say that when
the children bow to their parents, everyone present pats them on
\*V
the head and compliments  them highly and has a  great deal  ol
out  of it.
run
<K
During these fifteen days ail business used
| to stop, and everyone went around calling on all his acquaintances,
I eating*at every place, and the children receiving presents. When
the Koreans have so few good times, we can hardly blame them, poor
) though they are, for making the most out of such occasions,  ^he
i  Swinnev*s hired man spent a quarter of his month*s salary for
>-- -
4^
jpresentsf
ih was hardly  #2!
at  that.
lifetim
leans b
,o celebrate
The  other great celebration of a Korean
sixty-first birthday.     A  great  feast must by all
means be  given then,   and all  the  friends and  relatives  Invited  in
It was verv interesting to hear ?£rs.  Swinney
how all  the women at her church tried "to console her over the
awful misfortune  of  being away on her  grandmother's  sixty-first
birthday
twelve,
They  count  their  years  in  obexes
each vear in the  evele having a   special name,   that of  some animal,