The Opelousas courier., 1888-01-07
A CHINESE HOME.
Domestic Life of an Asiatic
Family in New York.
Duties and Accomplishments
of a Chinaman's Wife.

So far as is known, there are only
fourteen Chinese women in New York
saws n writer in the Detroit Tribune.
OF these nine are mated, one is a
widow, one an unmarried girl, one a
nurse and two anonyma. Although
! residents oil the United States, they
obey to the very letter the strange sys-
| TEN of law and custom which obtains in
the 1owery 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 danssel becomes the property of
her husband. little more so than they
do in America. Her spouse has the
privilege, as all husbands the world
over, to chide, sco!d 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 upin a bedroom,
closet or cellar or beat her with his hand
or a bamboo rod. In this respect
the Chinese law is almost a fac-simile of
the common law which prevailed in Elg-
land and this country until about 1905,
and which allowed the husband to "cor-
rect" his wife with 'the open hand ora
light rod" but not with 'the clenched
fist nor a club" Under this custom the
average almond-eyed woman expects to
be beaten with q 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
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 tho marketing
and shopping. Still worse, she must
not receive calls from the opposite sex
excepting in rare cases when tHS-aasband
presents an intimate friend. Ga such
an occasion the visitor bows repeatedly,
shakes his W hand vigorously for a
minute or twoS utters the usual stereo-
typed remarks 4bout the health of her
self, cousin arSa friends, and departs
without once hfking lookel at her face.
She goes to no '4aces of amusement aud
never walks upon the street. She reads
but little and that love stories, love
poems and religious books. But she
car generally cook, weave, crochet, en-
brolder and 'keep house" miraculously.
A dinner with Mo Kee, a leading
importer and banker at No. 8 Mott
street, or with Fuong Hong Long at
No. s, is an event which will bear
comparison with a banquet at Delmon-
ico's or the Hoffman house. The wife
will take a dozen eggs, pierce them at
either end, blow out the contents, refill
th.m with varl- colorcd and varl-
favored custard, and %jellics, seal the
apcrtures and then when cooked paint
the shells until they are q nightmare of
dragons, flying grihins and impossible
trees that look like men and men that
look like trees. She will open and
steam a fish until the skin can
be removed without losing a scale
and the bones without breaking the
flesh. 1t is stuffed with an aromatic
and pupgent mess of meats and spices.
Then the skin is plt} back and the eyes
and head touched up SO as to be half
natural and half grbtesque. Most of
her culinary genius is expended on
stews and made dishes. Hero she uses
every article known to the Partisan chef
and President Blackford of the Ich-
theophagous club and a host of food
substances, spices and condiments for
which there are no names in any of
the European languages. Her skill
in weaving and embedding
silk is equally great. With a
needle no finer than that which her &C.
cidental sister uses she will construct a
dragon an inch long and a half inch
high, of which nobonly the teeth, eyes
and claws are perfect, but even the
pupil, iris and cornea and the difference
between the i~ncisors and CANNES are
clearly and naturally defined. An altar
cloth of dragons in the joss house at 20a
Gatham square and a moving screen Of
peacocks at No. 8 Mott street are good
illustrations of this marvellous workman
ship and probably could not be dupli
Gated anywhere in Christendom.