Daily camera., 1897-05-06
A CHINESE REFORM.
Beginning of a Movement to Abol-
ish Foot B nding.
Horrors of m Inhumnn Practice
That Has Been Prevalent In
Chinn for Ccnturies-
The Refcrnner.

The nineteenth century craze for the
emancipation of womln has at last
found its way into the darkness Of
! China, and reformation has been
started of vastly more Importance to
the woman of the Flowery Kingdom
than the bloOmer question and other
like problems which have been veXing
her progressive sisters of the western
world.
This new departure calls for the abo-
! lition Of foot-binding, common among
! all classes of Chinese women, from the
poor creatures shaving in the rice
fields to the dainty bellies whose
fathers hold lucrative public offices,
| Everything moves with tremendous
slowness in China, particularly innova-
| tions, and the reformers expect that it
will take a century or more to make the
| change complete.
The practice has existed for 20 CEN
turies and may have existed for 40 cen
| turieS. and naturauy II VIII be a diff
| cult matter ~ root out 'the greatest
problem to r0e overcome is the aversion
of Chinese. men to marry women whose
feet are not squeezed into deformed OBJ
| iects bearing little or no resemblance
to the natural human foot.
As the oIr amultlon of Tne Chinese
| girl and of ner parents is to marry they
willingly undergo the tortures- of foot
| binding to realize the matrimonial
state. A woman whose foot is any
| ;r,+ SC
an outcast so far rs matrimony is con-
cerned. The men deem ii a disgrace to
marry her, and an unmarried woman is
burden to herself and her relatives.
| With these conditions to face the re-
formers are counting upon a hard time
of it.
The binding process IS the acme of
| torture. as the pain is incessant and eX-
| tends over a period of many years. The
little Chinese girl usually enjoys the
| full freedom of her feet until she is four
or five years old. She can run about like
other children and can rest the full
weight of her body upon her feet with
| out suffering exquisite torture.
| But all this is soon stopped, for it is a
custom. sanctioned by centuries, that
woman's feet must not be more than
three inches in length By the time
girl is four or five years old her feet are
already more than three inches long,
| end then comes the torture.
Narrow strips of silk nine or ten feet
| long are used by the fond parent to
crush the further growth. The silk is
drawn tightly over the instep and then
carried over the four small toes and the
| heel. The toes are drawn under the
| foot and the pressure is so great that
the sole is almost drawn into a semi
circle
The large toe is particularly difficult
to subdue, and separate bands of the
silk are drawn over the member and
carried under the heel, squeezing it
down with double pressure. Unyield-
ing shoes, made ironIille in strength,
are crowded upon the feet, and the
happy days of the little girl are over.
! The shoes are removed at night, but
the bandages remain night and day.
For the first few months the child is
urabIe TO move about except upon her
hands and knees. The circulation of
the blood in the feet has been choked
and the pressure of the body and the
! exercise of walking force the blood
through the strangled veins, causing
the most intense agony. This pain is
nothing. however, to that suffered when
| il is necessary to change the bandages
every fortnight for fresh ones. The
sudden Ioosening of the bands allows
the blood to shoot into the benumbed
end deadened feet. and thenaip is often
| times so exquisite that the child faints
away.
Even the girls who in later life must
perform the hardest kind of manual
labor have their feet crippled The
spectacle of women working in the
! fields on their hands and knees, be-
cause their deformed feet are unable to
! support the weight of the body has no
| effect on parents of other children. And
! fhc workers themselves bind the feet of
their girls without the slightest twinge
Cf conscience
The leader of Une reform movement is
a highly educated native of the city of
| Sniff, the chief town of the province
| CT Syechuan, one of the richest districts
of the empire. For many years he has
been employed in an official position in
Pelinc' and on his return home he found
his five-year-old daughter hobbling
about on crippled feet and crying from
the pain. He at once removed the band
ages and declared that he would never
consent to such torture of his children
or the children of his dependents.
This was the first of the reform
movement, He called upon the richest
and most influential men in the city and
| the province, and succeeded in inducing