New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-04-17

her check or fingers until she has to he carried
to the "nowery" and after that, only her huS
band may touch her.
CARRYING THE BRIDE AWAY
The "nowery" Is the iorally decked sedan
chair in which she Journeys as a bride to he,
husbands fathers house She must be carried
there because 1t cannot be conceived that a
right feeling, modest, respectable girl would de.
lberately leave her parents and her home On
her own feet and OF her own free will. There.
fore her father must carry her out to the chair
or. II her father is dead. an uncle must do II
Only when there Is no other male relative big
enough and strong enough may her own brother
pick her up in his arms and carry her out Of the
door Of her home.
One docs not need Sam Weller's double million
magnifying glass to see that Europeans who
wish to ingratate themselves with the Chinese
take up a bigger contract than merely learning
the Chinese language.
II 10 all very well for the Sydney to say
that n Chinese wife Is merely a boughten chattel
If he does not mind throwing stones while he
lives in a glass house. In China man may
have only one wife The other women he keeps
are merely cOncubines, and the more he can
afford the prouder his wife becomes. 1t shows
that her husband Is better off than most OF his
neighbors. And. besides, concubines rank as
servants TO a real wife, so that the more her
husband has the easier things become for her,
The concubines are the boughten chattelS
When IL comes to real wlfe-gettlng. whether In
China or Europe. appearances diner more than
realities.
In China the real wife comes TO grief when
abe fails to bear a son to her husband. Girl
babies don't count Nobody carves them, as
apples or grapes. to the credit OF mother on
the headstone OF her grave. as Is done In Tur.
kev II she has no son she Is practically, though
moi legally degraded. The concubne who
bears a son to worship his fathers tablet rises
TO the place of honor in the house, because II M
one Is worshppng a dead mans tablet he can.
not carry on business In the spirit world.
Then again a Chinese wife Is proudcst when
her husband calls her his little stay at home"
She Is never called any ones little bicycler," or
"littlc election canvasser. or ''lIttl" theatre
6erd" as she might be In other chimes. She
STAYS at home in the middle one OF the three
buildings that compose well-ordcred Chinese
house The front building IL for the man, the
centre one for the women, the rear one TOT the
servants Her husband may not go into the
wc,nan's building unless he gets permission, and
his wife does not go To his quarters without
heing invited She goes into the str Its very
seldom and only in her chair. She could not
walk on her little manglcd feet II she wanted to-
hut even If she could she would not do II. be-
caus. II is not considered respectable 70 trot
about out of doors and to hc stared al 10y men,
There, that is the mcrest. vaguest glance at Q
Chinese lady's ways. Yet II begets the ldea that
missionary women who dress like Europeans
who kiss their husbands and brothers IN PUBIC
and chase about as freely as fresh air IN mems
nunrt,rs ard strangers houses, ar" not batting
their hooks with the right fly for Chinese trout
But as | said. the intelligent ones kno" that a.
well az any man in sydney.