r
legs. Then they trampled them with their heavy boots, kicking them in their
faces till their eyes were swelled and blood flowed."

Seventy-five persons, forty men and thirty-five girls, were confined in a
small room. The door was closed, and the atmosphere soon became dreadful.
In vain they pleaded to have the door open. The girls were left until
midnight without food or water. The men were removed at about ten in the
evening.

During the day, the prisoners were taken one by one before police officials
to be examined. Here is the narrative of one of the schoolgirls. This girl
was dazed and almost unconscious from ill-treatment and the poisoned air,
when she was dragged before her inquisitor.

"I was cross-questioned three times. When I went out to the place of
examination they charged me with having straw shoes, and so beat me over
the head with a stick. I had no sense left with which to make a reply. They
asked:

"'Why did you wear straw shoes?'

"'The King had died, and whenever Koreans are in mourning they wear straw
shoes,'

"'That is a lie,' said the cross-examiner. He then arose and took my mouth
in his two hands and pulled it each way so that it bled. I maintained that
I had told the truth and no falsehoods. 'You Christians are all liars,' he
replied, taking my arm and giving it a pull.

"... The examiner then tore open my jacket and said, sneeringly, 'I
congratulate you,' He then slapped my face, struck me with a stick until I
was dazed and asked again, 'Who instigated you to do this? Did
foreigners?'

"My answer was, 'I do not know any foreigners, but only the principal of
the school. She knows nothing of this plan of ours!'

"'Lies, only lies,' said the examiner.

"Not only I, but others too, suffered every kind of punishment. One kind of
torture was to make us hold a board at arm's length and hold it out by the
hour. They also had a practice of twisting our legs, while they spat on our
faces. When ordered to undress, one person replied, 'I am not guilty of any
offence. Why should I take off my clothes before you?'

"'If you really were guilty, you would not be required to undress, but
seeing you are sinless, off with your clothes,'"

He was a humorous fellow, this cross-examiner of the Chong-no Police
Station. He had evidently learned something of the story of Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden. His way was first to charge the girls--schoolgirls of
good family, mind you--with being pregnant,