Dear father and mother:
Sajikkol,   Seoul,
March 3,   1930.
It  is about nine  o'clock in the evening,  and I have  just come back  from'
the presiding'elder's house,  where all the preachers in Seoul had a
very elaboi<ate Korean feast.*   We met  first at the central church,  Chong-
kyo,   to report the progress in each of the charges and make  some plans,
and then walked together to Bro. Yang's house  for dinner.    How I wish
you could  see a  real Korean feast'.     If tables ever * groan1',   they certainly d'o at  such a' time,    ^he dishes actually overlap each other,   they are
so thick.'   There are many,  many different kinds,   and each one is a"
work  of hours or even da^s. k^k % p
The long table was  stretched  the length of the room,  and about twelve
of us arranged  ourselves on the  floor 'cushions around it.    Every so
often down the table the  same dishes were repeated,   like figures in a
pattern,  and nothing is passed.    Each person has his bowl  of rice and
soup and rejbhes  for the  other things as he wants them,  always using
his own chopsticks.     The main feature  on the  table was the  "sinsuilo"
chafing dishes;   the central  stem is filled with burning charcoal,   and
the receptacle  surrounding it is  filled*with a  great variety of things,
chicken,  vegetables,   eggs,  arranged in a  most beautiful  symmetry and
colorful^pattern.    The  servants refill one's rice bowl  from an apparently
Inexhaustible supply in theikitchen.  mhe tice,   being wholly without
seasoning,   is mixed With the other thincts as eaten.
Such is a Korean meal at  its best,
in a number of frills in addition.
But  foreign influence has brought
The table was cleared,  and tanger-
/
ines,   apples,  arid ..pea'rs wereiserved,   the latter already peeled.    Then
followed a  choice -of coffee or postum,  with cookies.    And- finally
candy completed thefmenu.    The old Korean custom was to have everything
that w^s to be eaten all on the table  from the  start,   and  so one was
never in doubt as 1% how much he 'should take of any one thing.     It was
all before him,   and he ate as he pleased.     The Chinese custom is to
bring on course ^fter course,   so that Jone is always kept in suspense.
If one doesn't eat enough now,   perhaps there will be nothing else and
one will  go hungry;  and ^Tet on the other hand,   if ^one eats too much,
perhaps there will be  far better things to follow which one will not
be able to partake of. ■ ' ' ..',.■   fc
This morning one of the leading Christians  from Everlasting Peace11
(where my teacher used to live^  and where I -made my first country trip)
returned^home after several days here as Han moksa's guest.    After
months  of illness,  he brought his wife up to the hospital.    Their baby,
a month or so 6ld,thad  just^died  from lack of nourishment.    A day or
two after coming,   the  second^child,  a  girl three  or  four years old,
died at home;  and the Christians buried her..   Saturday afternnon his
wife died  from tuberculosis.     She was only twenty-three years old,  and
every one said  she was a  very fine Christian.     So of the five in the
famllv,   within a month they were reduced-fto two,  JJr.  Pak and his boy
abput" six vears old.     Of course the expenses and the  sorrow weighed
heavily on'him,   but his  faith seemed to be made  stronger.    He had only
two yen left this morning,  *nd|l  lent him fifty yen to tide him over
till he  could  sell!some of his land.
Saturday afternoon a   goodljr group of the language  students called here
and asked me  to hike €p the mountain with them.    Of course  I went and
had. a   good [lime,     that   evening I  e^ve a   guitar solo at  the City Mission.
At the Worker's Counfcll this afternoon when Bro. vang cabled on me ior