They thought, when the flames
of those burning villages ceased leaping into the skies; and at last
were but smouldering embers; that the flames had died. But the Japanese
were wrong, for on that very day, the Flames of Freedom began to burn in
Korean hearts and souls! And from that day to this; those flames have
been rising higher and higher. These are Flash-Lights of Flame that, as
the years go by; mount, like beacon lights of hope on Korean hills, to
light the marching dawn of Korean Independence.

* * * * *

A beautiful Korean custom that used to be; flashes a flame of fire
across the screen of history.

In the old days the Korean Emperor used to have signals of fire flashed
from hill to hill running clear from the Chinese border to Seoul, the
Korean capital. This signal indicated that all was well along the
borders and that there was no danger of a Chinese invasion from the
north.

Korea has always been a bone of contention between China, Russia and
Japan. Consequently this little peninsula has always walked on uneasy
paths, which is ever the fate of a buffer state.

Never did a Korean Emperor go to sleep in peace until he looked out and
saw that the signal fires burned on the beautiful mountain peaks
surrounding the city of Seoul; fires indicating that the borders were
safe that night and that inmates of the palace might rest in peace and
security.

"It must have been a beautiful sight to have seen the light flashing on
the mountain peak there to the north," I said to an eighty-year old
Korean patriarch.

"It meant peace for the night," he answered. "It was beautiful. I often
long to see those fires of old burning again on yonder mountain."

He said this with a dramatic wave of his stately white robed arm.

"The sunsets still flame from that western mountain peak, overlooking
your city beautiful!" I said with a smile.

"Yes, the sunsets still flame behind that peak," he responded with a
far-away look in his aged eyes.

"Perhaps the good Christian God is lighting the fires for you?" I
suggested.

"Yes, He, the good Christian God; is still lighting the fires for us;
but they are fires of freedom, fires of hope, and fires of Democracy!"
the old man said with a new light in his own flashing eyes.

"And fires of peace," I added.

"Yes, fires of Peace when freedom comes!" he responded.

But whatever the political implications are; it is historically true
that this old cu