The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-15 00:00:00

the foot was cool and painless and appeared as
though the four toes had been cut off by a knife.
The foot was now somewhat the shape of a trowel.
In the fifth girl I saw the commencement of the
second operation—a torture under which sickly
children frequently die. The sole of the foot was
now curved into the shape of a bow ; the great toe
and the heel being brought together as near as pos-
sible. Take a jujube and double it till two points of
the lozenge nearly meet, and you will see what I
mean. This is done very gradually. The bandage
is never slackened—month by month it is drawn
tighter—the foot inflames and swells, but the
tender mamma perseveres—as the bones -and
tendons accommodate themselves to the position
constrained by the bandage so it is drawn tighter.
At last the ball of the natural foot fits into
the hollow of the sole, the root of the great toe
is brought into contact with the heel. The foot is
a shapeless lump. The instep is where the ancle
was, and all that is left to go into the slipper and
to tread the ground is the ball of the great toe and
the heel. This is the small foot of the Chinese wo-
man—a bit of toe and a bit of heel, with a mark,
like a cicatrice left after a huge cut, running up be-
tween them. Two of the girls were yet suffering
great pain, and their feet were hot and inflamed,
but in the eldest the operation was complete. She
had attained to the position of a small-footed wo-
man; and her feet were quite cool, had no corns,
and were not tender to the touch. One of the
mammas, influenced perhaps by a little liberality
iu the article of rice money, intrusted me with a
Chinese my3tere de toilette. Sometimes, it seems,
when a woman is expected to have to do bard work,
her toe and heel are not drawn so tightly together
as to produce the true " small foot." To disguise
this imperfection upon her marriage day she has
recourse to art. A piece of cork, shaped like an in-
verted sugar-loaf, is strapped on to her foot,
and the small part goes into her slipper and passes
for her foot. Thus are we poor men deceived !
While we are gossipping about small feet the old
lady's burial procession comes to an end. It would
be hissed 'at Astley's, and would be regarded with
blank astonishment at the Princess's, but it is very
successful at Shanghai. The opium broker has done
his duty as a good son. If he keeps his two ye'ars
of mourning properly, and if none of his wives
should commit the indiscretion of having a child
within two years, commencing from nine months
after this time (for the present Emperor is supposed=
to owe all his misfortunes to an unfortunwe acci-
dent of this sort), he will be esteemed a very re-
spectable man for evermore.
The Bund resumes its normal state, and the "Ah
ho's" are again in full chorus. What shall we do
next? It is-half-past 1 o'clock, tiffin time at Shang-
hai. You have made your calls on arriving here,
and your cards have been duly returned, so you
are free to go and come at tiffin time in all their
hospitable hongs. No lack of good dishes or of
pleasant iced drinks at a Shanghai tiffin. Where
the jusie r partner, with his employes of silk inspec-
tor, and tea-tater, and beekkeperand clot les, holds
a separate mess, the allowance from the house to
that mess is neverless than 50 Shanghai dollars per
month per head, or something more than 2001. a-
yesr to each employe for the table alone. We may
enter boldly. There is no chance of finding people
making shifts with small commons in China. There
is a great charm in European socety at all the
ports. Everybody is able, and is, indeed, obliged
to have a lordly indifference to expense. They can-
not control it, and they must let it go. There is no
struggling and contriving to keep up appearance,.
Toe profits are large and the expenditure is grat—
laissez alter.
Tiffin, however, is a bad habit, if we can keep out
of it. Let us rather stroll tewards the city and
trust to chance for a light lunch. " A'Lin, get a
Coolie and follow us with some dollars and some
cash"—the rascal wouldn't carry a string of copper
cash himself to save his father's tail. It is a long
stretch from the English settlement to the Chinese
city. We must pass through the French concession
in front of Mr. Conolly's long, wherein that gentle-
man, with exaggerated Shangai hospitality, has just
taken in a distressed Singapore tiger, whose roaring
attracts a crowd of Chinese around his gates. A
Chinese city is no novelty to us who have journeyed
together through so many of then ; but a festival
day always has some objects of interest. In Pekin
tho " Board of Rites" busies itself about many
th'ngs ; and among others it sets apart two days in
every month as the days upon which atone
marriages can take place. To day is one of these
days, and in consequence thereof several gorgeous
palanquins, like miniature Lord Mayor's coaches
taken off their wheels, and containing ladies all
splendid in jewels and gold, are passing through
the narrow streets. These ladies have jewelled
crowns upon their heads, and veils of strings
of pearls f2lling over their faces, and em-
broidered satin tunics, and fans of gold tissue.
They are going, properly accompanied, to
their new homes. One of them is just entering the
house of a distiller with whom I have some ac-
quaintance. We shall be welcome; let us go in.
The houae is decorated for the fete. It is hung
with lanteliis inside and out. The courtyard is
full of relatives and hangers-on ; and at the gate is
the comprador, who receives the money offerings of
the visitors ; the principal room opening upon the
courtyard is prepared for the fea,t. Lanterns are
hung from the ceilings, a small joss-house with
candles and incense before it is at ono end, and in
the middle is the table on which stand the small
basins of sauces and sliced shellfish, and goose flesh
and sweetmeats and cakes, which are the pre-
cursive appetisers to a Chinese dinner. The bride-
groom (the son of the proprietor) is lounging on a
chair in his shift-sleeves smoking ; the bride is gone
up to her chamber, where she is sitting on her nup-
tial
couch and receiving her guests. We may go
up if we please, but it is less trouble to wait and
look about us till she comes down. We crack a
joke or two with the bridegroom, and he retires to

put on his gorgeous array, and then the bride ap-
pears followed by her retinue of bridesmaids, and
escorted by an old woman, the go-between who has
made up the match. We present ourselves in due
form, and the bride, who, in spite of her high
crown and embroidered tunic and trousers, looks
nervous and twitchy and slightly convulsive, just
as she might if her name were Brown and if we had
accosted her at the door of the vestry-room of St.
George's, Hanover-square, returns our salutation
and would like to pass on. But such is not selon
les regles. The duenna insists upon our admiring
the beauty of the head-drees and the thickness of
the embroidered satin whereof her tunic is made ;
but, above all, she will pull up the trousers to ex-
hibit the faultless proportions of the little feet.
They are marvellously small. A flea couldn't find
room to hop in that Lipper. "Chin, chin. I" let us
be off. There is another decorated dwelling on
our way, but it is a cottage, and presents a
different' scene. Three men are drinking samshu
at table, while the bride, dressed in her borrowed
bravery, sits on a brrrel in the most distant corner,
alone and unnoticed. To-morrow and for ever
more sho will be a beast of burden. Perhaps, how-
ever, she will, in the fulness of time, create her own
distractions. A few years may probably see a
crowd of mangey brats, exhibiting every form and
sprcies of cutaneous complaint, fighting and yelling
over their rice basins, and; aided by the mother's
shrew voice and the grandmother's croak, making
their neighbourhood unbearable.
Such a family lived opposite to my bedroom win-
dow at Ningpo. From early cockcrow to sun-
down the screams and shrill cries were unintermit-
tent. The nuisance burst into being all on a sud-
den ; but I found, on inquiry, that, it had existed
in its present aggravated form about 2 years before,
and was then cured. After many vain remon-
strances, an English merchant complained to the
Toutar. Next clay the lord of the house.was sent
for to the Prefecture, and being suspended by the
thumbs received 40 blows of the bamboo ; be was
then dismissed with a warning. When that re-
spectable housekeeper returned disjointed and
macerated to his dwelling be went in and shut his
doors about him. What happened in the bosom of
that family no man may know ; 'but thenceforward
the rice was eaten within the house, and the screams
did not vibrate in the street. When I heard of this
I thought I would try what a threat of the Touter
would d :so I sent my boy down-with a message.
He returned with the air of an envoy who has
failed. " Well, what does the woman say 1"
"She talkos no care—last moon husband dead."
We must on, it is not pleasant to linger in the
streets of a Chinese city. The porters jostle you,
and the palariquins push you aside, and the smells
assail you. The French Jesuit, to whom acom-
xa exaggerated when he
com-
patriots taecenaptaploi
of China,
htionas,enradthh.
rather
rr
esp.egcgimens of all the
replied, " Alas ! Madam,inChr Tthheerreeiasrbeumt
many
scent, and that is not a perfume."
scents, but with the exception of tho white blossom
wherewith they scent their teas none of them are
perfumes.
We bustle our way through the narrow streets.
We pass the temples
,and the yamuns, unentered,
for we have seen a hundred such before, and we
reach the tea gardens of Shanghai city. These are
worth a visit, for they are the beat I have seen in
China. A Chinese garden is usually about 20 yards
square, but these cover an area of ten acres. It is
an irregular fignre flanked by rows of shops, rudely
analogous to those of the Palais Royal. e area is
tracers( d in all directions by broad canals of stag-
nant water, all gt own over with gre. n, and creased
of the willow-
by zig-zag wooden bridges, pettein
plate model, sadly out of repair, and destitu'e of
paint. Where the water is net, there are lumps
of artificial rockwork, and large pavilion-Shaped
tearooms, perhaps 20 in number. Here self-heating
kettles of gigantic proportions are always hissing
and bubbling ; and at the little tables the Chiueee