The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1876-02-03
A Chinese Home.

One New Year | was invited to spend
the day with a Chinese tea merchant
and his family; and as l was anxious
TO learn exactly how they observed the
feStal season, | begged them to make
no change either in their festivities or
the bill of fare, but to let me be treated
Just as one of themselves. had known
the old merchant and his sons for some
time, but had never met the ladies of
his household. There were three of
them. e., the old gentleman's wife,
an unmarried daughter and the newly
welded wife of the eldest son. The
last, | had heard, was beautiful, but ]
was not prepared for such vision of
loneliness as met my view, when the
tiny-fOoted, gentle-spoken twelve-year-
old bride was introduced by her mother
in-law. She was very fair, with eyes
bright as diamonds, and her long, jet
black hair, in one heavy braid, was
twjned with wreath of natural flowers
about the beautifully formed head, and
held in place by jeweled pins. She
wore earrings, of course,
with necklaces, chains, bracelets
and rings enough to have constituted
quite respectable fortune in them
selves. Her dress was of pale blue silk,
very richly embroidered-al her own
work, she told me. The skirt hung in
full plaitS about her slender figure, and
the tight-fitting jacket showed to per-
lection the eXquisitely rounded form,
while the loose sleeve, open to the elbow,
displayed an arm that might have served
rs a model for the sculptor. But all
this loneliness was only for female eyes,
for before entering the sitting-room,
where her husband, father and brother
in-law were assembled, she put on the
long, loose, outer garment that Chinese
ladies always wear when in ''full dress"
This came below the knee, its sleeves
reaching to the tips of her fingers, whilst
its loose, flowing style effectually vailed
the fairy form, hiding all its symmetry
She had the tiny, pressed feet that the
Chinese consider not only beautiful,
but necessary to high breeding; and
they were encased in the daintieSt
of satin slippers, embroidered in
seed pearls. But finery could not
hide the deformity produced by so UNI
natural process, nor the awkward
limp of the poor little lady as she lean
ed on the shoulders of her maidens in
hobbling from room to room. | asked
her if the feet were still painful, and
she replied that for the last two or three
years a sort of numbness had succeeded
the pain, but that formerly, and from
her earliest recollection, her sufferingS
had been so intense that she would I
gladly have died; and that she had Of {
ten, in frantic agony, torn off the band |
ages, and when they were replaced, |
shrieked and screamed till delirium, for /
a time, relieved the consciousness of |
suffering. But after the fifth year the
pain gradually became less intOlerable,
she said, and now she did not think very
much about it, exceptw the bandages
were changed. Then the return Of the
blood to the foot was such torture as
language could not describe. Yet in
reply to my question on the subject, this
gentle girl-wife said it would be cruel
in parent not to press the feet of his
as he thereby shut her out
from good society, and made plebeian
Of her for life.
The bandages are always applied in
early infancy, and before putting them
IN, all the toes except the first and
second are doubled in beneath the Soles ,
If the feet. The length of the foot, ;
Lfter undergoing this painful operation, ;
lever exceeds five inches, and ordina- {
lily is scarcely four. .
The young daughter of my host was a
,eiites maiden of ten, attired in dainty I
obes Of rose-colOred satin, embroidered :