Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-12-08
THE LOST CHILD.

LIE LOo4 IAIl-D.
am little girl ten years old, and would
like to see my story published in the RECORD
UNION saturday morning. Here it is i
Mr.. Thompson, very wealthy gentle
man, lived with his family in large
house on Fifth avenue, in New York city.
The children were well provided with
toys, and they had large play-room in
the back of the house. On rainy days,
when they could not go out, they would
stay in their play-room all day and play
with their toys.
Mr.. and Mrs. Thompson had a very in
innate friend, Mrs. Norton, who used to
come and visit them occasionally, but it
always made her feel bad when she saw
the children playing, for her little girl had
been lost when she was Z years old. One
day while Mrs. Thompson was in the
library reading a book there was knock
at the door, and the servant came in and
told Mrs. Thompson that there was a
strange child there. Mrs Thompson went
to the door, and saw a ragged little girl,
with no companion except rag doll
which she held tightly. On being
asked what her name was, she said
her first name was Ruth, and she
did not remember her last name, as it was
long time since she had been home. Mrs.
Thompson knew, by looking at the child,
that she was not a street child, and when
she asked for shelter, she was given it..
Mrs. Thompson gave her work, and Ruth
lived happily in her new home
A week after she had been there Mrs.
Norton came to visit Mrs. Thompson, and
on Mrs. Thompson's telling her of the new
girl, she asked to see her. When Mrs.
Norton saw her she thought she
looked something like her lost child; so
she asked her what her name was. On
her saying her name was Ruth, Mrs Nor
ton became more curious, for that had been
her little girls name. She then asked
her where she had lived, and on her say
ing Madison avenue, Mrs. Norton recog-
nized in her her own long-lost child. Ruth
was overjoyed at seeing her mother again,
and after telling her all her trials, she
went home happy child. L. \.
THE BIG-ToED PEOPLE.
The strangest of all the Indo-Chinese
races, the ancient Gloa-Chi, or big-toed
race, is called in our Biographies "the
Anamese." This extraordinary people are
about the ugliest and worst built of all our
semi-civilized Asiatic cousins. They are
much shorter than the Malays, darker
skinned, with lower foreheads, less devel-
oped skull, flatter nose, larger mouth,
thicker lips, blackened teeth, gums often
destroyed by the use of betel-nut. very
prominent cheek and jaw-bones, so that
the face is lozenge-shaped, short neck,
shoulders sloping abruptly, and see-saw-
ing sort CT gait when walking. But the
most curious development of all this is
the big toe. 1t is very large, broad and
fiat moreover, the distance between that
member of the foot and the other toes is
so great that the Chinese so long ago as
1857 B. c. gave them the name of Gloa-
Chi, or the big-toed race
This curious physical formation is such
that it quite marks them from other Asiatic
people who walk barefooted, and, strange to
say, that though more than forty cen
turies have passed since this pecuIiarity
was first noticed by Chinese travellers, and
in spite OF frequent intermarriages with
other races, the Anamese have transmitted,
without the least perceptible modification,
this formation of the foot to their descend
ants to-day, which fact, according to some
ethnologists, serves to prove that the
Anamese are not descended from the ming
ling of indigenous races, but rather that
they have existed for an immense period
of time as distinct and peculiar race.
However this may be, in a funny old
Siamese legend the origin of the Anamese
race is attributed to the prayer of pious
Buddhist missionary, the sole survivor OF
shipwrecked crew, who, finding himself
cast on the beautiful coast of Anam, with
no living creatures in sight save multitud-
inous focks of geese, prayed the Adhl
Karma, or First Cause, to change the wild
geese into human beings, so that he might
instruct them in the doctrines of the Bud
dah. Then and there the focks swooped
down at the feet of the suppliant and were
in the twinkling of an eye transformed
into crowds of men, women and children,
without vestige of their former condition
as web-footed creatures, save the broad
fiat, distended big toe-Wide Auake.