The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1886-08-12
A CHINESE HOUSE.

The PatriarchaI Encampment of the En-.
tire Family or Clan.
In her new book on China, Miss Cor.
don-Cumming gives this description OF
Chinese house of the better class: 1t
covers so much ground, and there are
SO many open halls, consisting chiefly
of pillars and ornamental roofs. scat
tered promiscuously about, among
paved court-yards, decorated with
flowers in pots, and then there are walls
pierced by oddly-shaped portals, formed
like octagons, or circles, or even tea
pots, and all placed at, irregular inter
walls, never oppos te one another; and
then shady morsels of garden. with all
manner of surprises in the way of little
ponds, and angular bridges and quaint
trees. Then somehow, quite unexpect-
edly, you find yourself in brightly orna-
mental suites of small rooms, which
seem to have been originally one great
room, subdivided by partitions Of the
most elaborate wood carving, and fur
nished with beautiful polished black
wood and hangings of rich materials.
Such houses are, in fact, the patri-
archal encampment of whole clan, to
which all the sons and brothers of the
house bring their wives, and there take
up their quarters, living together az
parently in very remarkable peace.
We were received by our host and
half dozen gentlemen of the family,
and for some time we sat in fine open
reception hall, drinking pale straw-col-
ored tea in its simple form, and playing
with nice little son, the hope of the
house. Presently our host (who is very
friendly to foreigners, and. from inter
course with them, is less punctilious
than most Cinnamon on the matter of
being seen speaking to his women folk)
led us aside and presented us to his
most kindly and courteous old mother.
who conducted us to her apartments,
her son accompanying us. He then in
troduced us to his little bride, aged
thirteen. His matrimonial ventures
have so far been unlucky, two previous
wives having died very early. This one
seems nice, bright little lady. She
was very highly rouged, as was also
her .sister-in-law. Another sister, be-
ing indisposed, was not rouged, nor
was the mother, and therefore pleas
anter to our eyes; but the Canton ladies
love to lay on the color thick. There is
no deception about it! 1t is good, hon.
est red, laid thick upon the cheek, and
carried right round the eyebrows. The
latter are shaved to refine their form.
They can not understand why English
ladies should refrain from such embel-
lishment. Only when in mourning do
they refrain from its use, and one nota-
BILE exception is that of bride, who, on
her wedding day, may wear no rouge,
so that when her red silk veil is removed
and the fringe of pearls raised, her hus-
band, looking on her face for the first
time, may know for certain what share
of beauty unadorned has fallen to his
lot.
But of all eccentricities of personal
decoration the oldest, think, is that of
gliding the hair, which. am told, young
Canton girls do on every full-dress oc-
casion. Certainly I do remember a
time when some English ladies powdered
their hair with gold dust; but then they
owned golden locks to start with, where
as these are all black and glossy as the
raven Chicago Times.