St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-17
THE WOMEN OF JAPAN
ARE POSSESSED or AN EXC EEDIEGL Y
MODEST MMgDESTY.
THE JAPANESE AND CHINESE.

This is because the Buddhist religion
teaches that woman should simply be q
slave to her husband. The state of child
woman is so low in China that mother
prays that she may have no female
The birth of female child throws the
whole family in the deepest grief. Not
only is medicine given to kill the child.
but when born it is often put out of the
way. and boy adopted i'll its place.
The killing of girl baby in China is a
crime never punished. There is a
Catholic fondling asylum in Canton
with not a boy baby in it. Mothers
bring their little girl babies and aban-
don them on the asylum steps, so says
the London Times.
In Foochow saw this sign on the
banks of the Yuen-Fule river: "Do not
drown female infants here"
This sign is read by 100000 Foocho-
vans, causing no blush and no COM
ment.
why is this?'' asks the loving Amer
ican mother.
1t is because in all heather countries
women and girls occupy low positions.
The Chinese boy succeeds his father.
He alone inherits his fathers property.
1t is the law and custom in China that
mother shall obey her eldest son; and
when Chinese girl marries she not
only obeys her husband and son. but
also her father-In-law. A Chinese
father is allowed 10 kill child for dis
obedience, and he often does so, and no
law ever convicts him and custom hon
orS him. If a child strikes his father,
and that father does not kill him OH the
spot, then the authorities will take that
child and not only conSign it to an
ignominiOus death. but to SLOW and awful
torture. But if boy should strike his
mother, the father would look on with
a sort of pride.
The Chinese mother is not educated.
Few of them can read. 1t is common
for Cinnamon TO have two or three
wives. When you go to his house you
do not see his wife. She does not come
to his table. She is servant.
saw a poor fashionable woman's
foot in the English hospital at Shang-
hal. When the doctor unwound it he
found the ankle shriveled as thin as
chickens drumStick. The skin was
purple. The out toes were rolled under
the foot, Stunted and buried in the bot
tom of the foot, about the size of the
second joint of a turkey-a chunk Of
withered flesh ending in one poor, puny
toe. That foot represents the moral and
intellectual status Of the Chinese women
of 1892.
Now compare with the sad state of the
Chinese woman the evolution and adj
vancement of the Japanese woman.
Her civilization, language, written
characters, literature and religion came
from China. Thirty years ago Japan
csc women ranked with the Chinese
women. The Mikado was worshiped
unseen as god. His wife was myth.
He was the sun in daily intercourse
with Jehovah. He only spoke to the
tycoon, the visible ruler, from behind a
wall, while the tycoon, priests and
mobiles knelt to the floor.
Then men wore queues and shaved
their heads. They WOrShiped Shinto
and Buddha and ate no animal food
Mothers shaved their children's heads
and their own eyebrows, painted their
faces and rode horseback astride. Moth
erS bathed naked with husband, chill
dren and the neighbOrs: paradoXical
simplicity was everywhere. Servants
(musumes) in the country went naked
in the summer.
"Bashfulmess," says Rousseau, "came
with civilization" The Japanese that
Commodore Perry saw in 1854, when he
landed at IeddO, were as innocent as
Eve. They did not know what shame
was. As Sir Edwin Arnold says,
"They we're modest and yet immodest. y
The women all creased their hair like
GypSies. They all smoked, and when
get married, degrade themselves by
painting their teeth black. Many girls
of the lower classes had their arms and
backs tattOoed, and showed them proud
ly as marks of beauty.
husbands could have as many wives,
and could divorce any of them for DISC
bedience TO her husbands parents, bar
renness. drunkenness, talkatIveneSs
and could and did sell daughters and
consign them 10 lives of shame.
In 1867 great social and political
change came to Japan. The young
Mikado, so long shut up to commune
with Jehovah in the old feudal castle of
hloto. came to years of discretion.
Light struck all at once. He saw that
Totugawa, the old Tycoon or Shotgun,
had usurped the rulership, and was
running the country from his feudal
castle in Toxic. surrounded by military
DaimOis. He dcpo>ed him in a day,
and sent 10000 Daimois to their ploWs
or workshops or gave them new govern
ment positions. Their swords became
ploWshares, or were auctioned off in the
euro shops Of Toxic. With one stroke
he declared himself emperor, and his
wife an emprcss-his eQual.''
The act freed every woman IN Japan
Every wife IN the emperor's court was
declared equal to her husband. She
could sue Tor divorce, ride in a carriage
with her husband aud appear at the
court ball in full French costume, will
low neck, short sleeves and a long train
When the emperor left feudaIiSm be-
hind HIM lie rode into the old castle OF
tie dep0sed Tycoon in an open brough
am, dressed in full generals uniform
aid with bis empress sitting proudly OF
his right hand, dressed in a costume
from WOrth's.
Even young husbands are sending
their young wives To school. The Graz,
TO learn English is universal. TIT
cooley viii offer TO work for an Amer
lean tor two pounds OF rice day if the
American will occasionally talk TO him
Buddhism did not grant immortalit,
to women. 1t made her allegiance Il
her husband stronger than her allegiance
to morality.
This has all changed now with til,
educated japanese. The emperor ant
empress have licensed christianity
U''u OiiS YGSotlJli AidS diicduS come u
II cabinet meetings as 10 whether Bud
Ghisrn is har.Aiug or blessing Japan.
The emperor and empress have ~
children; but years ago they, in the oil
Japanese fashion, selected Nine. Yana
ziwari. q court lady, as wife by proxy
and she has borne the emperor a son
now called Prince HGro. He is nov
thirteen years old, looks like an Amer
can boy, and ran be seen any day in tn
grounds of tie Noble college jumpin
aud romping with the other boys in til
Most domestic fashion.
DOES FREEZING KILL FISH