Litchfield enquirer., 1871-11-23
AMONG THE CHRISTMAS.


 A Miss Susan A. King. a lady who hal
 accumulated quite fortune by specnlat
 ing in real estate in New York city. ha.
 made quite tour through China, princi
 pally in tea-growing districts A reporter
 of the New York World interviewed hel
 the other day, and from that source W.
 learn some interesting facts about the so
 cial life of the Celestials. She says the
 condition oi women in China is about th.
 same as in this country; that the higher
 classes of Chinese ladies are taught liks
 ours to control their voices; that it Is no
 polite to speak above certain tone
 They study attitudes aud effects before
 their mirrors for hours at a time, just like ours. aud they bandage their feet for the came reason that our girls cramp tbeirs
 "In fact. small feet are the ..style," and what American girl wouldn't walk on hei head to be even with "style?" The ladies of the higher classes are extremely agre- able in manuers. They are much more DO
 lite than our ladies in some respects. They always offer you cup of tea. and something to eat. But. just as with us, business topics are tabooed and only ESQ ciety" talk allowed in the parlor. the diff. ference being that it is Mir. Chefoo instead of Mir. Fitznoodle, and the size of lady s foot instead of her pannier, winding up in both hemispheres with the length of somebody's purse. Education of a eer tain kind is encouraged. anything that is pretty and useless is encouraged for wo- men. just as it is with us, and precisely for the same reason. because men, veal. thy men. will not marry them if they have large feet and hands. coarse complexions, and look as if they were accustomed to labor. It is all alike. I could not see any difference in reality between the ''civ- ilization" of the West and the ''barbarism' ' of the East. In both cases the high class lady brides herself upon her helplessness, upon how little she knows, and how little she can do. and the more helpless they are the better men like them in New York, as we'll as in China. There are some of the smartest women in the world to be found among the middle-class wo- men in China. They have natural feet, which would prevent them ever being first wives to men of any social position or con sideration; but they do business. can go anywhere they please, and are nearly al- ways intelligent and well read. Custom, which is stronger than law in China, gives married women the control of money they earn. The business women, the cdnap0- dOresses, have their own money, and spend 6 great deal. The New York women thought they did great things in forming a little club, and meeting once a month at Delmonico's. We'll, in China the canapa- doresses meet and gamble and dress and dine. just as men do here. and enjoy it nDSn m kr 1R gatherings, which take place sometimes at the tea-houses, sometimes at their own houses; and tell you they dress magnifi- gently, and spend money exactly as men do at their clubs" One important fact mo- ticed by Miss King was the entire absence of whiskey and drunkenness in the interior of China. It seems that where our boast ed civilization pepetrates, whether to the savages of America or the philosophical celestials, there follow in it's train drunk eness and bestiality. In all the parts of China or Japan that Miss King visited she saw much drunkeness and crime among the natives, but when she got beyond civilization the evils disappeared. Tea is the universal beverage, and go where you will you find ''Tea Houses" and the mo- ment yoD enter cup of tea is handed you and perhaps some syeet.meats, 6 sort of sugar bean is the usual kind. 4 cup of tea costs about one leash. eleven of which are required to. make one of our cents in value. Living is very cheap. Miss King says, if you conform to the Chinese meth. ods, but if you want European articles of food, all of which are imported froM Eng land or America, fortune will be swal. Inwn6 Ioeu fhon tSsnn Eoss n stance, the oows ara imported, and cost two thousand dollars each; the ownership, therefore. is confined to few wealthy European families and two or three great European hotels. You can imagine what butter and milk cost under such conditions as these. A sheet of English note paper costs $1, and very poor common bonnet, that could be bought here from $3 to $5, costs $40 there. After little experience, says Miss King, I began to adopt the Chi. nese method of living. and finally got along very chesply indeed. A Chinaman can support Q wife and family first rate on ten cents per day; he can do it telerably on six; but ten cents provides really good living. The midde class women don't spend their time cooking and house clean ing as the same class do here. There are cook-shops all along the streets, where men get their chow-chow, and where wo- men send for dishes already cooked for the family. Then they have no beds that need making or coverings that needs washing; and the better class sleep on mats, and the poor in tRe northern part of China, where it is sometimes very cold, have corner bricked up. SO as to make a sort of great open oven. or furnace. \ A very small fire is sufficient to keep this warm. so that the children can be put in it at any time during the day and the whole family turned in to sleep at night.
 Women don't live single in China; there IS hardly single woman to be found in China; all the efforts of the parents are devoted to getting her married, and fe- male child is often promised to the son of a friend before she is born. Daughters ere undesired all over the world. and in China with reason even more than in America, for the lot of a girl, if she is poor, is terrible, and mothers and fathers too would rather see them die than live to inherit it. That is the reason why female infanticide is so common in CL.-a. They consider it Q justifable act to rid her of the evil to come. Moreover, a, daughter IS hardly considered as belonging to her parents. or in her own family.
 AS soon as she is betrothed-which is as quickly as a suitable husband eau be found-she is adopted into his family, is brought up and educated by them, and even if he should die, would still be at their disposal to bestow in marriage. If they choose, upon some one else She has the alternative, however. of ded;cating herself to the memory of her first affianced, and such an act is considered very praise worthy. If she should do 90, and live to to be one hundred years old, faithfully fulfilling her. VOWS. and worshipping the tablets of his ancestors, she would have a pagoda erected to her memory. There are several such in China. I saw one on the road between Wampocn and Canton.
 Tablets are blocks of wood, common or fragrant. upon which are carved names, titles or representations of the animal which represents the year in which the ancestor was born. and the name and date of the reigning dynasty. They form a sort of genealogical record. and descend to the eldest son. who with his family,