Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-11-22
Ladies, Feet In China.

The operations necessary for distort
ing the feet generally commence be
tween the ages Of six or nine, and the
later it is deferred the greater is the
pain inflicted ON the girl. Long strips
of native calico are bound round the
foot, going from the heel over the in
step and toes; they are then passed
under the foot and round the heel, and
are fixed very FIRMLY. The operation
causes much pain, and takes long time
usually two or three years) before it is
perfected. for the only agent employed
is the long bandage of cloth; the feet
remain extremely tender and useless for
all practical purposes till the bones,
etc., have become set in the new shape
into which they are forced. = is said
that after the lapse of a few years, If
the operation has been skillful, theFo is
no pain, and the foot becomes, in a
manner, deadened, the effect of the
bandaging being to check the circula-
ton of the blood, and to prevent the
further growth and development of the
foot. A medical observer tells us that
"there is class of women whose voca-
tion it is to bandage the feet of chill
dren, and who do their work very neatly;
and, from what have seen, the Chi
nese women, who in childhood have
undergone skillful treatment do not
suffer much pain, beyond the weakness
of the foot, from the destruction of the
symmetrical arch, and the inconvenience
of being able to walk when the foot is
unbound and unsupported. If the feet
have been carelessly bound in infancy,
the ankle of the woman is generally
tender, and much walking will cause
the foot to swell and be very painful.
Without going too deeply into sur
gisal minuti@, the following seems to
be the consequence of the compression
of the foot the instep is bent on itself,
the heel-bone is thrown out of it's hori-
zontal position, and what ought to be
the posterior surface is brought to the
ground. The ankle is thus forced up
ward, and the great toe is the only one
that remains, the four smaller ones be-
coming, in course of time, mere useless
pieces of skin. The foot, too, becomes
narrow, and tapers off to the end of the
great toe it is placed in q short, mar
row shoe, which is pointed at the toe,
and very commonly the heel is elevated
by means of block of wood, the con-
sequence being that the woman seems
to be standing, as it were, on tip-toe,
or, to be more precise, on the tip of
her great toe. The following paragraph
will give fair notion of the effect pro-
duced by the force of fashion on the
Chinawoman's foot under varying con-
ditions
When the process is begun at the
proper age, and the bandaging is prop
erly attended to. the heel sometimes
comes down to the ground, or rather to
the level of the end of the large toe.
The heel seems to elongate under the
process of bandaging; but, when the
foot is large and almost full grown be-
fore the compression of it begins, the
heel often cannot be brought down to a
level with the end of the toe. Under
these circumstances, block of wood
is put in the shoe under the heel. SO
that the bottom of the block and the
end of the toe are nearly on the same
level when the individual is standing.
We would here add that the fashion
able shoe which the Chinese lady wears
is not much more than three inches
long, and that strips of cloth are wound
round part of the foot and the lower
part of the leg.