Woman's chronicle. (Little Rock, Ark.) 1888-1???, 1890-03-08
Daughters in China.

From the North China News.l
Daughters in China are from the beginning Of
their existence more or less unwelcome This fact
has most important bearing on their whole SUBJ
sequent career, and furnishes many significant il
Illustrations of the absence of altruism The age
at which marriages take place in China is yery'
much earlier than in Western lands, though we
have never heard of anything in China at all com
parable to the terrible child-marriages of India
Bnt in some regions, it is the fashion to marry the
boys at the age of from fifteen to twenty or even
younger while the girls to whom they are married
are several years their seniors. No one will give
any explanation of this eccentrcity, unless it be
that contained in a popular proverb about the man
who buys donkey end rides on its neck instead
of close to the tail, in Chinese fashon-namely,
that she likes that way best" But in the case of
adult brides yoked to adolescent bridegrooms, the
reasons for the practice are easy to be understood,
when once ascertaned. 1t is the family Of the
boy, that holds up its head and that of the girl
must take such terms as it can get. A daughter
in-law is regarded servant for the whole fami-
ly, which is precisely her position, and in getting
servant, it is obviously desirable to get one who
is strong and well grown, and who has already
been taught the domestic accomplishments of cook
ing, sewing, and whatever industries may be the
means of a livelihood in that particular region,
rather than child who has little strength or ca
pacity. Thus we have known of case where a
buxom young woman of twenty was married to
slip of a boy literally only half her age, and in
the early years of their welded life she had the
pleasure of nursing him through the smallpox,
which is considered as disease of infancy. ~
hnn q dam ia mn ad Tho 10 rdaJ
as having no more relations with her family, than
those which are inseparable from community of
origin. There is deep-seated reason for emitting
daughters from all family registers. She is no
longer our daughter, but the daughter-in-law of
some one ese 1t is proverb that no
family can stand the strain of a continued ''bottom-
leak" One of the facetip of the Chinese repre-
sents two old women as meeting after long sepa-
ration, and making inquiries as to each others
families. allow is your sons business" says
one, ''and what kind of daughter-n-aw have
you" "My sons bushes is fairly good" was
the reply, "but the daughter-in-law is bad-she
steals from us to give to her mother" "And
your married daughter, how is it with her?'
"Ah!" was the reply, ''if it were not for the
help we get from her, we should not be able to
get on at ALP The Chinese believe that the
graves of successive wives should be placed alta
due distance from each other, until their common
husband has died, when the bodies are to be taken
up, and may be placed on each side of him. The
theory is that "e'en in their ashes live their
wonted fires" and that the ghosts of wives SO
buried as to be adjacent to one another, with no
intervening husband as peace-maker, would be
certain to maintain war which would render the
lives of surviving members of the family scarcely
worth living. At first sight this may appear mere
ly curious superstition, with no especial bearing
on practical affairs, but 1t is in reality most
serious matter, and one which enters into the mar
row of ones existence.