Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-06-27
cHINA's EMANcIpATED FEET.
An Edfct Issued by the Emperor
Against the Barbaraus Practice
of Footbinding.

An imperial eO1ct puDIIShed IN the
Pekin Gazette on February 1 says:
THE Chinese women for the most
part have followed for a long time
the custom of footbinding, which is
an injury to the good order of crea
tion- Hereafter let the officials and
gentry all exert themselves gently to
persuade and lead the people and
cause them all to understand, in the
nope that this old custom may be
gradually abolished
The reigning dynasty in China has
:or centuries been Manchu, and the
Nanchus have been addicted to the
practice of footbinding. The en-
press dowager, therefore, in giving
Ter influence to reform in this re-
spect, is not treading on the toes OF
any of her own people, says the New
York Sum-,
1t is appalling to think that hun
dreds of thousands of women in
practice of footbinding. This Gus
tom does not prevail among the low
er classes. Poor girls need to work
for a living and their efficiency would
be almost destroyed if they were
compelled to hobble through life on
mere stumps of feet. 1t is the
wealthy and the well-to-do who sub
ject their daughters to this terrible
mutilation, and the reason TO! it is
that the Chinese are very jeal JUS of
their women and very fearful that
they will go astray.
The Chinese missionary, A. III
Smith, wrote awhile ago that as SCOT
as a Chinese girl becomes of mar
riageable age she is proverbially e
commodity as dangerous as SNUG
gled salt" When once she is be
trothed she is kept far more seclud
ed than ever before. The smallest
and most innocent circumstance i
sufficient to start vicious and malevo
lent gossip and it is a social axiom
that scandals cluster about widows
door.
According to all accounts the evil
of foot compression in China is miti-
gated to some extent by the fact that
that little or no pain is associated
with~the process by which the de-
formity is caused. The feet are
bound when the baby is only few
days old.
Lie OOu0S are OAUIS"cIy SOIC UIlS
little feet are scarcely more than
mass of pulp and compression sim
ply arrests development. 1t certain
ly causes some discomfort; but ply.
sicians say that acute pain is not i'll
volved in the process.
The Pekin government has also de-
clared itself in favor of another re-
markab1e innovation. For ages there
has been no intermarriage between
the Manchu and the Chinese people.
The hundreds of millions of Chinese
have permitted themselves to be gov
erned by the Manehus, though 4
sharp line of demarcation has sep
arated them into two distinct peo-
pies.
The imperial edict goes on to ex-
plain that the original reason why
intermarriage between the Manchus
and the Chinese was prohibited when
the Manchu dynasty came into power
was that the customs and speech of
the two peoples were considerably
unlike and therefore it was thought
best to keep them distinct.
Now, however," says the edict.
"customs and beliefs are alike, and
more than 200 years have passed, we
ought to defer to the general feeling
and remove the prohibition. We
therefore, command that Manchus
and Chinese, whether officials or pec
pie, be allowed to intermarry. Let
there be no bigoted adherence to
old CUSTOM"
The edict, however, makes it clear
that the government wishes to avoid
too far-reaching reforms.
''At the times for selecting girls
for palace attendants" continues the
edict, the Manchus must still be
chosen. There must not be any Sc
lection of Chinese, lest we fall into
the corrupt practices of the former
Ming dynasty. We, therefore, make
this restriction out of Difference to
the feelings of the Chinese people"
The emperor's attendants will,
therefore, continue to be Maro<lus-
1t would be an innovation indeed if
the palace grounds were permitted
to be overrun with Chinese.
What Grant Saw in Canada.