Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-03
WOMEN IN CHINA.
Their Education, Industry and
Social Position.
Daughters More Profitable Than Sons
Woman's Supremacy in All House,
hold Affairs-Marriage LAWS
and Customs.

and Customs.
From a financial standpoint, raising
daughters in China is far more profita-
BILE than raising o n There is almost
a SUR return for evrey dollar invested
and frequently heavy interest in the
former, while the latter are often ac-
companicd with loss. Wives are not
bought in China. The young husband
simply makes a sort of genteel redcmp-
ton in presents to the good mother-in-
law for the trouble incurred in bring
ing up her daughter. These incurable
courtesies and frequent redemptions
often cost the unfortunate husband 100
per cent. more than the wife would
bring if put up at auction. Even then
there are many who would pay double
the amount expended to return their
wives without comment on the bargain.
Most American writer's lapor under the
erroneous impression as to Chinese So
cial life, suggested in the trite remark
.'the Chinese are partial to male in
fants and that the females are not
much thought Of" These I quote
from Gutzcaff. There is, perhaps, no
nation except Turkey in which the fe-
males are less seen and less known
than China. Their absolute secluslon
from public gaze, both in the street
and at home, make them strangers to
their own race. This is so true that [
can safely say that married men in
China do not know the opposite sex,
except through their own wives.
Womanhood is so sacred that it is shut
in and begirt by prejudioes and customs
more completely than by a Chinese
wall. A wife, daughter and mother
in the Middle Kingdom are like the
Lares and Penatcs Of the early Roman
household.
Women associate with women and
men with men upon all occasions and
7undcr all circumstances. This is strin-
gently carried out in all well-regulated
Chinese families. Even brothers and
sisters are not allowed to eat at the
same table, but have their separate
servants and meals. In China private
dwellings are built in such Il manner as
to prevent visitors of the opposite sex
from meeting or even seeing the women
OF a family. un2er these circumstances
it might seem difficult to describe the
condition of the Chinese women and
their treatment. But this condition
and treatment are formulated by the
common law of China. Theyhave been
-taught. generation after generation, at
school and tircside, and have become
the public and private law of the land.
Exceptions are treated as mlsdemean-
.or- and 7. ,,poiclod oooord;o~1r Tbo
girl of Pc Chi Ii is brought up on the
OF course, this training is widely, if not
Numerically, different from that fol-
lowed in Christian countries. Yet the
enforced seclusion is no greater than
that which prevails in France, Spain
and Italy, and the fashionable COM
preston of a girls feet is not to be
mentioned in the same brain with the
voluntary compression of the waist and
vitals so noticeable in America.
With all due respect TO demagogues
and bigots, l am certain that the health
of the average Chinese girl and woman
is superior to that of their Occidental
sister. The fashionable doctors of the
great cities of Christendom would
srarve in the populous capitals of the
Middle Kingdom. In respect to do
mestlc comtort and happiness the
Chinese paterfamilias stands head and
shoulders over the American. While
in the store and Office the husband
rules supreme, in the house the wife is
lady paramount. From babvhood she
has been trained in household duties.
The government of servants, the rear
ing Of children and the management of
the home are to her household words.
From the wedding day she is, to COM
bine the slang of the Orients and Oc-
v cident, both boss and joss of the family.
1t may, therefore, please the leaders of
the woman's rights organization. to
know that in one land woman reigns
supreme in all domestic relations.
While women are educated, and well
educated, they can not gain literary
,honors like men. Their CULTURES what
is required by and for the family. In
cooking, marketing, medicine, music,
art decorations and bellies letters thew
arc universally well informed. In
science, business, politics and state
craft they are ignorant to the last de-
gree.
Their education is practical as well
a. theoretical. The educated girl
paints, embroiders, raises silk worms,
makes, spins and weaves silk, carves,
enamels, grows fine vegetables or breeds
animals for the markets, and thus fire.
qucntly makes a good living for both
herself and her parents. Many of the
handsomest robes and most beautiful
tissues in the New York market are
from the hands of young girls of good
families in China. Where in America
a thousand women have mastered the
g, jacquard loom a million have in China.
1hc most important part of her educa-