“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, making every sort of filthy suggestion to them.  When the girls indignantly denied, he would order them to strip.

“Since you maintain you have not sinned in any way, I see the Bible says that if there is no sin in you take off all your clothes and go before all the people naked,” he told one girl.  “Sinless people live naked.”

Let us tell the rest of the story in the girl’s own words.  “The officer then came up to where I was standing, and tried to take off my clothes.  I cried, and protested, and struggled, saying, ’This is not the way to treat a woman.’  He desisted.  When he was making these vile statements about us, he did not use the Korean interpreter, but spoke in broken Korean.  The Korean interpreter seemed sorrowful while these vile things were being said by the operator.  The Korean interpreter was ordered to beat me.  He said he would not beat a woman; he would bite his fingers first.  So the officer beat me with his fist on my shoulders, face and legs.”