Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1858-02-12
small Fect Of the chinese women

JONATHAN JACK-kNIFE.
Small Feet of the Chinese Women.
The correspondent of the London Times
gives the following desert ption OF the un-
natural process by which the Chinese wo-
men secure such email feet:
There are small footed ladies at Hong Kong
who gain very fair livelihood by exhibiting
their pedal extremities to sea-captains and
other curious Europeans, at dollar head;
bat as SO superficial an examination of this
national peculiarly did not satisfy me, had
recourse to some of my good friends the
missionaries. By their aid, obtained that
some po.r Chinese women should bring me
complete gamut of little girls from the
missionary schools. Many of these female
children probably owed their lives to the per-
suasion (aided by opportune donation of rice)
of my missionary friend and his lady, but
their influence had been powerless to pre-
vent the torture of their feet. On the appoint
ed DAY they were all seated in a row in my
friends library, and their feet, which | sus-
pect had undergone preparatory washing,
were unbound by their mamas. The first
was child of two years old. Her Penance
had Just commenced. When the bandage of
blue cotton was taken off | found that the
great toe had been LETT untouched, but the
other. four had been forced down under
! the ball of the foot, and closely bound in
that position The child therefore, walked
upon the knuckIe joint OF her four toes. The
| toes were red and infamed, and the ligature
caused evident pain. In the next three chill
J (.H IF adr ut all inta
yals) the preparation was only to the same
extent; it was confined to the four toes:
gradually, however, these four toes cediug
to the continual pressure, lost their articula-
ton and their identity as limbs, and became
amalgamated with the sole oi the foot In
the eldest of the four the redness and inf1am-
nation had entirely disappeared, the foot was
cool and painless, and appeared as though
| the four toes had been cut off by knife
The foot was now some what the shape OF
a trowel.
In the fifth girl 1 saw the commencement
of the second operation-u torture under
which sickly children frequently die. The
sole of the foot was now curved into the
shape of bow; the great toe and the heel
being brought together Us near as possible
Take jujube and double it till two points
of the iozenge nearly meet, and you vii
see what mean. This is done very gradu
ally. The bandage is never slackened-
month by month it is drawn tighter-tiIt
foot infiames and swells, but the tender mann
may persevere--as the bones and tendon
accommodate themselves to the position
constrained by the bandage, SO it is drawn
. tighter At last the ball of the natura
foot fits into the hollow of the sole, the roo
of the great toe is brought into contact will
the heel. The foot is a shupeless lump
The instep il where the ankle was, and al
that is left to go into the slipper and to trea'
the ground is the ball of the great toe ant
, heel. This is the small foot of the Chimes
women--a bit of toe and bit of heel, witt
a mark like cicatrice left after huge cut
running up between them. Two of tn
girls were yet suffering great pain, and thei
\ feet were hot aud infiamed, but in the elder
| the operation was complete. She had a,
. tanned 10 the position of small-footed wo
man, and her ieet were quite cool, had N
cerns, and were not tender to toush. On
p of the mammas, Influenced, perhaps, by lii
7 tie hberality in the article of rice money
f intrusted NE with a Chinese mystere de tol
iette. Sometimes, it seems, when woma
: is expected to hLve to do hard work, her to
h and heel are not drawn SO tightly togethe
as to produce the true small foot. To dis
!, guise this imperfection upon her marriag
+. day she has to resort to art. A piece
r cork, shaped like an inverted sugar-loaf,
"A strapped on to her foot, and the small pa
IS goes into her slipper and passes for her foo
Thus are we poor men deceived!
N
:. News Items.
r The WAY OF TRANsGREssoR IS HARD. :
If We conversed yesterday with gentlema
! who spent much of last summer and fall