The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-04-08
The Women Of the Antipodes.


written about the women of the far
East, and every one who deals with the
subject has more or less to say concern
ing the inferior position of the Eastern
woman, as compared with the social
standing of the woman of Europe and
America. In the brief space at my dis
posal I will endeavor to show the great
advantages possessed by the woman of
the East over her unhappy and benighted
sisters in this land of enlightenment.
In the first place, she is much more
numerous at the antipodes than here;
where we count q few millions of
women in the United States, they may
be counted by hundreds of millions on
the other side of the world, with good
many districts and wards to hear from.
In most of the Eastern countries she IL
saved the drudgery of learning to read
and write. she has no music lesson to
practice, and if she learns to paint, her
accomplishm ents in that line are gener-
ally confined to her own face. The
fashions of dress remain the same from
year to year and from century to CEN
fury; consequently she is never troubled
as to what she will wear at the next
ball or dinner party. She has no occa-
sion to send to Paris for something new
and dazzling to rouse the envy Of her
sisters, and she is not likely to ask q
friend to smuggle something through the
custom house on returning home from
tour of the Continent. Her husband
never compels her to waste her time in
going to the theatre or the opera in his
society, and if he stays out late at his
club. she never thinks of reproving him
for his brutal conduct. In some Orien-
tai countries, she is emphatically what
might be called "a home body" as she
rarely goes out of doors at all; in the
dense crowds you see on the streets
there is not a, single woman-nor q
married one, either. She is never sub
jected to the annoyance Of being called
"a DEAL" as she isn't dear at all. In
some of the countries where the old
English custom of buying and selling
wives prevails, the market value of Q
good wife is about fifty dollars, while
husbands are often quoted as low as
thirty dollars. According to the best
of my information and belief, the same
relative values prevail in America, with
the disadvantage that we have no open
market for the adjustment of figures.
In matrimonial matters the woman Of
the East--of China, for examples far
better off than her Occidental sister.
1t has been said that q woman in Amer
lea is often perplexed as to the accept.
ance or rejection of an applicant for her
hand. In China she has no such
trouble, as the whole matter Is arranged
by her parents aud friends, and she
does not see her husband until the we'd
ding ceremonies are half over. Under
such circumstances there can be no
disagreeable Impressions on the part of
either party that have been formed
during courtship, and must be dispelled
or strengthened after marriage. The
Oriental man is being Of liberal mind
and heart, and he may have not only
one but several wives to share his joys
and be silent ever his sorrows. If he
is very rich and very respectable, he
may have goodly number of them,
andsf he happens to be King he may
have a palace full of them. The King
of Siam, for example, is said to have
two hundred wives; but he is young.
yet, and will propably have more as he
CLOVIS older. Among the lower classes
in the East polygamy is not popular;
and it is becoming less and less FASH,
ionable as the years 60 on; the people
evidently feel as did the convert to
Mormonism who was on his way to Salt
Lake City accompanied by his wife,
also q convert. In the hotel at Omaha
one evening she tainted while ascend
ing the stairs; she was stout and he was
small, and he had long and painful
struggle to carry her to their room.
When he finally deposited her on the
sofa, and wiped the Precipitation from
bis brow, he exclaimed. "Mormonism's
played Sut; one wife is more than
can handle easily."-TAon'as W. K''oS,
in Hayper's Bazaar.