Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-08-25

Chinese women is much lighter. High
class women are treated as pets and
have frequently some little education.
They have, in fact, risen in the past to
great power. The greatest power in
China today is an old woman, the en-
press dowager
From their very birth Chinese wom-
en- are fated to an i'll destiny. While
the birth of son is hailed in a Chinese
household with rejoicing, that of
daughter is made the occasion of lam
entations or is passed over in silence.
The most convenient way to a China
man of getting rid of girl babies, es-
pecially if they come in too rapid sue
cesSion, is to kill them, and this he
does With great promptness either by
dropping them into canal or river or
by exposure. In former times these
were the accepted and usual ways of
treating girls, but the missionaries
have by their intervention, which the
Chinese are so vigorously reSenting at
present, caused some amelioration of
such horrible practices. They are still
common, however, and the finding of
dead female infant causes no comment
in China, but it must not be thought
that the practice Of this crime is com
mended by the Chinese themselves.
We must give them the credit, faint
though it be, of considering it a serious
evil 1t can only be abolished 10y rails
ing the position of the adult Chinese
women of the mass of the population,
which seems at present hopeless task.
The greatest article of Chinese faith
IS ancestor worship, and from this wo-
men, as an inferior class, are vigorously
excluded The Chinaman becomes an
ancestor and a fit subject for future
veneration only with the birth of SON
When, therefore, n daughter disap-
points him by being born, he turns his
rage against her. 1t is not always so,
the usual proportion Of daughters al
lowed 70 live being about two to five
sons. \ greater proportion is consid-
cred undesirable, and infauticde is the
result.
1t is impossible for an American to
! conceive the want of natural affection
displayed toward a Chinese daughter.
( When a Chinese father is asked how
many children he has Ae enumerates
/ his sons, his daughters being consider
ed as so much property. They are ar
/ ticles of commerce. and their value is
regulated by the law Of supply and de-
mand. and when there is a superhuity
of girl babies their price is apt to drop
10 n point too low to pay for their
maintenance. This is another cause of
| mfanticide.
However let us suppose that n Chi
nese girl has survived her unhappy
birth and lives to grow up. She Is
known by the designation of "ya-tou, Z"
which means "slave girl" which is
literally what she is and remains all
her life. The narrowness of her exist,
ence can scarcely DE described or
Imagined. She is compelled to work
from the moment she becomes able tc
assist, be it ever so little, in the house
hold or in the business occupation OF
her father Chinese work is done al
most wholly by hand, and Chinese wo-
men of the lower classes do much OF
it. especially in the cotton and silk in
dustries.
Such a thing as education for a Chi
nese girl is unheard of and would bt
derided if suggested, Some tentative
experiments in this line have beer
made by missionaries. with doubtful
success. The supreme, overshadowing
idea Of a girls parents IS that she viii
be the future wife Of some one, and al