The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-29
MISS DAISY WI.
The Young Chinese Debutante in
Washington Society.

From the Boston Post.
The society of the Capital City will
meet this coming winter the most in
teresting debutante 1t has seen for
many years. She is Miss WI Shou
Ching, the relative and adopted daugh-
ter of Mr.. and Mrs. WI, the Chinese
minister and his wife.
Miss WI, who has already been nick
named Daisy" is just one year over
sweet 49," as we Americans reckon
time. She is petite, fascinating and
wholly Oriental. In her land they call
her 16 but the years are longer there
than in Yankeedom. She is pretty as
a plum blossom-to the Chinese way
of thinking-and at once high and
blue blooded. Also she is very rich
which counts nowadays.
When the writer first saw Miss WI
she was dressed for the reception of
visitors and her face was covered with
very fine and very white rice powder,
her cheeks without rouge, her narrow
eyebrows, carefully formed under the
maids deft fingers, were blackened and
her mouth had just one narrow car
mine streak at the center of the full
lower lip, as though she had been din
features, she has long, dark, couquet-
fish locks, combed after a fashion pc
culiar to Chinese damsels, and quite
impossible for married women. AS in
Yiddish circles, where married women
are supposed to shave their hair and
make themselves otherwise hideous
that they may attract only their lords
and masters, so in China matron
combs her hair severely back and
fashions it into knot at the nape of
her neck.
But a maiden with the world of mat
rimony all. before her is permitted-by
custonl-to draw all her silken hair in
to one great roll at the side of her
head, and over one ear, there to con-
fine it in net of finest pearls and dia-
monds and opals-fit, quite for a kings
ransom.
1t is very pretty fashion-among
the Chinese wonderland vastly becom-
ing to little Miss WI. Her hands are
long and slender and her feet the feet
of 5-year-old child. Her tiny be-
jeweled shoes have high, white heels,
higher than any of the time of the
Louis. She is five feet and an inch tall.
perhaps, including, Of course. her heels,
and her face is a plump oval, with
lines that just fit the Oriental idea of
beauty.
Miss Wu's eyes are long and narrow
and as black as the proverbial ace of
spades, with whites that are positively
blue, they are so clear. Her skin is
tinted with cream and her lids fold or
pleat over at the corners, very much
more aslant than Mrs. Wu's.
They are full of fire, too. 1t was
when Yankee photographer dared
disarrange the set of formality of Miss
Wus skirt that the miss shot a fierce
glance at her chaperon, as If to ask,
"Can such things be?" After thousands
of years of repression it would seem
that the soul of this Chinese girl is
not perfectly tanned; mayhap, though,
it is the contagion of a few days OF
American air.
Not one drop of plebeian blood flows
in Miss Wu's veins, for she is the blood
relation of Madame WI, as well as
her ward and adopted daughter, and
even now she carries herself like a
beauty and BELLE
"She is very young" smiles Mad
anne WI, though 16 is maturity In Chi
ma. Madame WI went to her home
land six months ago on private bust
ness, nor did she go with the express
purpose of bringing back this charm
ing young ornament for the Chinese
Legation in Washington, but since she
was there she decided to chaperon Miss
WI and another niece, Miss All Chez,
who is the daughter of Ho Vow, Mrs.
Wus brother, consul general at San
Francisco.
All Chez is a dainty little maid OF 10,
and some day she, too, may go to
Washington to come out" but not just
now. For the present she Will remain
at the home of her father in the City
of the Golden Gate--the prettiest thing
in all his costly dwelling.
Miss WI Is accomplished. She plays
on the Chinese harp--a sort OF lutte
that is beaten with two sticks of bam-
boo-and she sings a little, but only
for her relatives and friends-not as
public accomplishment.
In her family circle she plays many
clever and intricate Chinese games to
which our bridge and even chess Is as
child's play.
Madame WI is a most intelligent
woman as we'll as a refined lady, ana
comes Of a family noted for its pro-
gressiveness.
Her father, for instance, the head OF
the great Ho family, was the first
man in China to divide his fortune
equally between his sons and daugh-
tiers. Such a thing had never been
known in the Flowery Empire before
but no cataclysm followed.
A brother of Mrs. WI was graduated
at oxford and married an English girl
OF excellent family, taking her home to
China TO live. He never took another,
wife though he had but one daughter
by his English spouse. and after the
death OF his wife he went TO England
to live and educate his daughter, be
cause he believed his wife would have
Wiahpd N