The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1878-10-11
Tiny Feet of Chinese Ladies.

Just imagine foot of full-grown lady
but five inches in length! Yet even
this is large, and in highly aristocratic
families four inches is the standard.
This queer custom of COMPRISING the
feet of Chinese girls is of very ancient
date, and in our day is almost universal,
only nuns, slaves, boat-women and 9TH
ers who are obliged toperform outdoor
drudgery being exempt. AS to the orr
gin of the custom, the Chinese them
selves are not agreed. Many suppose
that it is fashion intended to draw a
line between the higher and lower
classes. Others say that its object was
to keep ladies within doors, where they
would not be subjected, like common
market or boat-women, to the gaze of
the other sex; and some boldly declare
that to cripple them was the only way
by which women could be kept at home
and rendered of use working for their
husbands and fathers, instead of spend
ing their time in gadding and gossip.
Some of the most reliable native histo-
rians state that the custom began dur
ing the reign of Take, somewhere about
the year 1923, with within of the last
Empress of the Shang dynasty.
The time for putting on the first
bandages varies in different families.
In some, the process commences when
the baby is only few weeks old; 9TH
ers defer the ceremony for year or
two: but all begin before the little one
has reached the age of years.
No iron or wooden shoe is used, as
some travellers have stated; but "a strip
of cotton cloth, some three inches wide,
and about six feet long, is wound around
the toes, over the instep, and then be-
hind the heel, after which it is brought
back again over the foot and drawn SO
tightly around the toes as to press them
into a point-all except the first and
second having been previously doubled
under the sole.
These bandages are never removed,
except for purposes of cleanliness, per-
haps once month; and they are re-
placed as quickly as possible, each time
being drawn tighter, until the instep
bends into a bow and the ball of the
foot is TO, ced against the heel.
The sCockings are made of white cot
tor u silk. The dainty little shoes are
G. silk, richly embroidered and often
beautifully adorned with tiny pearls OF
rubies. The soles are of white satin,
quilted, and stiffened with lining OF
pasteboard. The heels are very high
and pointed, and the white satin that
entirely covers them, as well as the
upturned toes, presents pretty con-
trast to the blue or crimson silk uppers
White satin seems to us an odd
material for shoe soles; but they are
intended only for carpeted floors.
When one of these tiny satin-soled
slippers is cast off as worn out" it has
probably never for single time come
in contact with terra .tirn,d and proba-
bly, the wearer, when robed in the white
slippers for her last sleep, has not from
her infancy had one gleeful romp out
doors.
This compression produces, during
all the years of childhood, the most ex-
cruciating pain, followed, at length, by
q sort of numbness. / never saw one OF
these compressed feet entirely without
covering, but / saw enough, when the
outer bandages had been removed, to
excite both pity and disgust; and q lady
who had seen the bare foot of one oil
their greatest bellies told me that she
had never even conceived of spectacle
so shockingly revolving as this tiny
foot when Invested of all that could
hide its deformity. Although tn,
young lady was full grown, the sole o.