The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-03-06

erably advanced in g1flhOod. There Is q good
deal OF counterieiting small feet practised &C
this place. Stage actors, who are males some
times have their feet bandaged when they repre-
sent iemales.
! In consequence Of thus wearing shoes into
which the toes are thrust, this class of females
are apparently very tall. As has been explained
they walk and stand, to great extent, on their 1
tiptoes, and this fact makes them look taller
than they would otherwise look. The small
footed class cannot walk firmly. Their gait is
mincing and tottering their steps being short
and taken quickly. They are seldom seen to
stride along, While they are often quite strong
physically, they are generally unable to carry
heavy loads, and to manage themselves with
ease and adroitness while performing labor
which requires moving from place to place.
!, Coarse, heavy work in households, when the
women have small feet, is usually performed by
males, or by female servants who have large or
natural feet.
Small feet are a mark, not OF wealth. for the
poorest families sometimes have their daughters
feet bandegedit is rather an index Of gentility.
1t is the fashionable fern. Small feet, as they
appear bandaged, are considered by most OF the
Chinese "beautifu.n The words good lookingn
are very frequently heard, as indicative OF the
estimation in which they are held. 1t ls but
just to some Chinese TO say that they denounce
the custom, and view 1t as Gripping the ener-
ges of tho female sex, and as productive of
great deal OF suffering, and as entirely useless.
1t does no good, but rather produces evil. In
case OF emergencies as OF fires and sickness,
they whose feet are bandaged are almost help
less and useless. Those who admit such to be
the real state OF the case in regard to the small
footed women, after all feel obliged to conform,
in regard reg TO their own daughters, to the ussges
OF Chinese society, If living in the ciCy, and
connected with literary families. As q general
rule, families whose girls have small feet marry
| their sons into families of the same class.
In some parts of China oil the females have
bandaged feet, but 1t is not thus here. There
is alaIge proportion of the inhabitants OF the
country, also about six or seventenths of the
population of the suburbs of this city, according
n Vvh ho
feet of the natural size. 1t is said that probably
more than nine.tenths of the females who are
brought up in the city have bandaged feet. 1t
| is thought that, were II not for the poverty OF
| the people, all the females would in a genera
| ton or two have small feet. Necessity lays an
interdict ON many families, obliging them to rear
their daughters with feet of the size and shape
| which nature gave them, so that they can labor
in the fields and carry heavy burdens, thus earn
| ing living, or, at least, contributing largely
| towards the maintenance OF their families
Many poor families prefer to struggle along
for precarious living, bringing up their daugh.
| ters with small feet rather than allow them to
| grow az large as they would grow, and oblige
Them to carry burdens and do heavy work in
| order TO obtain q more competent support. As
| has been said, small feet are not an index of
wealth, but of gentllity. Families whose daugh-
| tiers have small feet are enabled to marry them
| into more respectable and moro literary fami-
lies than though their feet were Of the natural
| size Concubnes or inferior wives, hired SER
| wants and female slaves, generally have large
| feet In the city and suburbs there is strong
| tendency to change from the larger-footed into
| the smaller-footed class. Few or none change
from the latter into the former class OF society,
| II living in the city.
In this part of Cnina feld-women, those who
| labor in rlce-felds, and engage in the ordinary
| occupations of the farm, have large feet. In
| some OF the northern portions of the empire this
| class of females have bandaged feet. Those who
| bear burdens in the streets, or come from the
| country with loads of produce for sale, have
large feet. Foreign visitors to this port from the
other consular ports are usually Immediately
struck with the singular appearance of the large
| footed women as they go about the streets with
their bare feet, and with their pantaloons coming
but little below their knees-in TACT, often tucked
up so as to come above their knees, as though
| they were afraid OF soiling them. Not only is
| the appearance of the largefodted women very
| different from those of the small.footed class
| as regards their feet and the absence of clothing
on the lower part of their limbs, but their head
ornaments and the color and fashion of their
garments, are very different, and attract uni
| YeTsal attention, showing that there are two dis
tinct classes of females here, and that the
fashions which they follow differ widely from
| each other in more respects than the having of
bandaged feet. or the having of natural feet.
| The laws OF the empire are slent on the sub
| iect of bandaging the feet OF female children.
Bandaging the feet is simply a custom; but it is
| custom OF prodig1ous power and popularity, as
may be easily inferred from what has been said
aboye-a custom as imperious as was the custom
! OF tight lacing by some ladies in some countries
! at the West, and perhaps not more ridiculous or
unnatural, and much less destructive of health
and life. While foreign ladies wonder why Chi
rese ladies should compress the feet OF their
female children so unnaturally, and perhaps pity
them for being deyotees of such cruel and use
less fashion, the latter wonder why the former
should wear their dresses in the present ex-
panded style, and are able to solve the problem
of the means used to attain such O result only by
| suggesting that they wear chicken-coops beneath
Their dresses from the fancled resem blance of
crinoline skirts of which they sometimes get a
glimpse, to common instrument for imprison-
| ing fowls.