The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-20
A CHINESE HOME.
Domestic Life OF an Asiatic
Family in New York.
Duties and Accomplishments
of a Chinaman'S Wife.

So far is is known, there are only
fourteen Chinese women in New York
says a writer in the Detroit Tribune
OF these nine are married, one is
widow, one an unmarried girl. one a
nurse and two aDonyma Although
residents of the United States, they
obey to the very letter the strange sys-
TEN of law and custom which obtains in
the flowery kingdom, a system which
strongly resembles the treatment of
a queen bee in an apiary by her
drones and workers. Five of these
women celebrated their marriage VOWS
in China, two in San Francisco and two
in New York. The moment the mon
golian damscl becomes the property of
her husband-a little more so than they
do in America. Her spouse has the
privilege, as all husbands the world
over, to chide, scold and chastise' her for
her faults, and they assert that in case of
grave crime he has the right to kill her
In his punishment he may put her on
what we would call bread and water
diet, keep her locked up in bedroom,
closet or cellar or beat her with his hand
or a bamboo rod. In this respect
the Chinese law is almost fac-simile of
the common law which prevailed in Eng
land and this country until about 1906,
and which allowed the husband to Cor
rect" his wife with ''thc open hand or a
light rod, " but not with the clenched
fist nor a club" Under this custom the
average almond-eyed woman expects to
be beaten with a regularity proportional
TO her qued lords affections, and like
the wives of English ''navvies," regard
the omission of corporal punishment as
a sure evidence of the loss of his love
In New YORK the Chinese family lives
in the same fiat or building as
that in which the paterfamilias as
does business To the wife is
allotted one, two or three rooms, accord
ing to his wealth. From these she
practically never stlrs. Either the hus-
band or servant does all the marketing
and shopping, Still worse, she must
not receive calls from the opposite sex
excepting in rare cases when the husband
presents an intimate friend. o. such
an occasion the visitor bows repeatedly,
shakes his own hand vigorously for a
minute or two, utters the usual stereo-
| typed remarks about the health of her
self, cousin and friends, and departs
without once having looked at her face.
| She goes to no places of amusement and
never walks upon the street. She reads
but little and that love stories, love
poems and religious books. But she
can generally cook, weave, crochet, en-
brolder and ''keep house" miraculously.
A dinner with Mo Kee, leading
| importer and banker at No. Mott
street, or with Fuong Hong Long at
| No. 5, is an event which will bear
comparison with a banquet at Delmon-
ico's or the Hoffman house. The wife
will take dozen eggs, pierce them at
either end, blow out the contents, refill
them with varl- colored and varl-
favored custards and jellies, seal the
apertures and then when cooked paint
the shells until they are a nightmare of
dragons, flying griffins and impossible
trees that look like men and men that
look like trees SIC will open and
steam a fish until the skin can
be removed without losing scale
and the bones without breaking the
flesh. 1t is stuffed with an aromatic
! and pungent mess of meats and spices.
Then the skin Is put back and the eyes
and head touched up so as to be half
natural and half grotesque. Most of
her culinary genius is expended on
stews and made dishes Here she uses
every article known to the Partisan chef
theophagous club and host of food
substances, spices and condiments for
which there are no names in any of
the European languages. Her skill
in weaving and embroiding
silk is equally great, With a
needle no finer than that which her oc-
cidental sister uses she will construct a
dragon an inch long and half inch
high, of which not only the teeth, eyes
and claws are perfect, but even the
pupil iris and cornea and the difference
between the incisors and CANNES are
clearly and naturally defined. An altar
cloth of dragons in the joss house at 202
Catham square and moving screen of
peacocks at No Mott street are good
illustrations of this marvellous workman
ship and probably could not be dupli-
Gated anywhere in Christendom.
The Holly Tree Of Virginia.
Pao1,' . iivinp in the colder latitud &c