The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-04-18
WOMEN OF THE FAR EAST
THEIR SEX is THEIR HANDICAP IN
TIE CELESTIAL EMPIRE.
Disappointmcnts mt Birth, Slaves In Mar
riage. But Rulers After They Become
Mothers = Ono Rarely Sees Face
That Betrnys Unhnppiness.

Mothers Ono Rarely Sees Face
That Betrays Unhnppiness.
Woman in China enjoys the distinc-
ton of having escaped the admiration
of foreigners. Her praises are un-
sung in the verses of other lands: she
is not enshrincd on the canvas OF those
whose ideals of outward being the
world has adopted; she has flashed no
wit upon the page of romance or dnz-
zled It with her beauty. Everybody
has agreed in letting her alone from
the ankles up, as though her only pos
sible claim to consideration lay in her
cramped and tortured feet. which
everybody pities, and about which
nobody ever does anything except to
pass resolutions.
Even at home she is under initial
disadvantage. She starts life handi-
canned by her sex. No family ever
wants n girl baby. When the women
go to the temples they always pray
for boys and buy hoy images in the
hope that the gods will remember and
favor them. If girl results, she is
tolerated. rather than enjoyed. While
hardly out of her babyhood her feet
must be swathed, if she belongs to
n proper family. AS she grows her
liberty is restrained. She known moth
ing of life outside the walls of her
home, except such glimpses rs she
may catch from a window, or from a
covered chair in which she may oc-
casionally be carried to visit families
in which there are other upfortunates
like herself.
Thus she remains n prisoner until
ready for delivery to a husband she
has never seen, hencefoIth becoming
the slave Of that husband and his par
ents. A brood of her own springs up
about her quickly enough and by the
time that process ends she is n grand
mother. Life becomes easier for her
as the children mature. for the wives
of her sons must be her landmarks,
and the children are bound to provide
for her comfort as the most sacred of
their obligations. and to respect her
authority as long as she lives.
Modern credulity is taxed to recon
ception of happiness as free agents
understand it. The difficulty lies ii
the appreciation of environment. A
Chinese woman knows no life but
this. Her aspirations are restricted
TO it by traditions and customs that
seem to her as immovable and as i'm
pentrable as the walls that hedge in
Il 1Afa l,nr .ft ftxr te.
to suggest other thoughts to her. The
minds against which her mind brushes
have limitations as narrow as her
own. She usually makes the best of
her lot cheerfully and turns out a fond
wife and devoted mother. OF her
wifely duty she is rarely forgetful. A
womanly instinct to please prompts
her to make herself attractive to her
husband.
Heartbreakings may not always be
violent when the man strays abroad
and returns with other women for his
household, but they are often pathetic
Yet custom permits and the wife must
bow, whatever her feelings. Her main
comfort is that additional women can
not be wives. She is alone in that re-
latlon. Secure in her place she has
an innate sense Of it's superiority and
of the dignity that BELTS it. Hence it
happens that wives are tolerant of the
Others, and often provide for them
when husbands die, and rear the chill
dren they have borne.
This sketch of life, as found among
those of good estate in character as
well as means, is analogous 10 sum-
mary applying in Western homee
where conscience joins with custom in
regulating social and domestic con-
duct. Circumscribed though the life
of Chinese woman may be, and diff
fering so sharply in detail from ac-
cepted standards elsewhere as to make
it seem almost intolerable, it has
compensations of some weight. The
privatlon, drudgery, and subordina-
tlons to which Chinese woman is
SUBJECT come when she has youth and
strength and buoyant vigor AS these
depart and she needs relief. social and
family customs provides ii, ana with
advancing years her cares tighten. her
comforts increase, and her afternoon
is pillowed for her
In spite of limitations Chinese wom-
an is quite human. By foregoing the
pleasures of courtship and selection,
she does not, as matter of course,
shut her heart to romance. When at
her marriage the gates of the world
open little wider to her than before,
she puts her sharp little eyes to the
uses for which they We're intended. If
they are looking for Prince Charm
ing and they fall and llnger ON the
husband TO whom she is introduced,
there Is occasion for thanksgiving.
1t happens also that mild and yielding
disposition in newly welded pair is
not invariably more pronounced in
the woman. When one of that sex
Is assertive, the Imagination is taxed
TO believe that she is the subject party.
Man is, of course, supreme but he not
infrequently finds it polite to declare
himself only in a figurative way and
Tor practical purposes appear to be
submissive. The national costume,
which puts the trousers on women and
the frocks on man in China, does NOT
always seem displaced.
The Chinese do not think IL worth
while to name girl. She is sister, and
goes by number. III her mother gives
her pet appellatlon, that is their own