Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-01-09

of binding the feet of their high-borr
women, a custom that has prevailed
for eleven centuries. The members OF
the society are Americans, Europeans
and Chinese, and women are leading
in the work. The educated admit III;
terrible mistake which has been mad,
by their people for eleven centuries.
Consul General Ho Vow of that city
a distinguished scholar and diplomat
is opposed to the custom and in
hearty sympathy with the movement
to abolish it.
i Here, from purely Chinese stand
point, is an interesting article on the
subject written for the San Francisco
Examiner by PAX Cav Wun, who
graphically describes the cruelties OF
footbinding and pleads for Christian
aid in uprooting the evils of the super
stition which has fostered the custom:
! with regard to this foolish practice
Oh the part of my countrywUmen," she
writes, "our folklore abounds with
! legends purporting to explain it's orr
| gin and the reason of it's continuance.
The most popular one relates that
many hundreds of years before the
| Christian era there was a young and
beautiful Empress of China, who in
| order to save the life of hr husband
| the emperor, consented to become the
food of cruel old dragon which had
taken the emperor prisoner. 1t was
! stipulated that the beast should eat
| her piecemeal, beginning with her feet.
| and that her husband be allowed to
| visit and condOle with her.
In the meantime the emperor set
out on a swift-fying phoenix-bird to a
| distant corner of the world, where
| dWelt a witch or sorceress who was
! the daughter a dragon by an en-
press wife. Her dragon father kept
her shut up in a dark cavern day and
night. This witch possessed a pow
| eFfuI poison a portion of which she
| gave to the emperor, and he fastened
| back to find that the dragon had not
| yet awakened from a profound slum-
| Der into which he had fallen imme-
diately OTTER devouring the empress
left foot. He accordingly anointed the
other foot with the poison. The
| dragon aWoke at dusk, and, approach
| ing the empress, bit off her foot. In
less than five minutes he expired, the
empress was free and joyfully depart
ed with her husband; but, alas! with
out her feet, which she willingly sac
rlticed to save her beloved husbands
| life.
Then the spirits of the earth and
! air caused golden lilies, or lotus flow
| ers, to spring up in her footsteps
whenever she walked abroad; and all
| the well-bOrn women of China, desir-
| ing to emulate their great and vir-
| tuous empress, and as a tender mark
of respect and sympathy for her, at
once adopted the practice of tootbind-
ing, that their feet might resemble
her sticklike extremities. The custom
has continued to this day, and the
awful deformities resulting from bind
ing are still called golden lilies and
bound-foot women are called dragons
| daughters.
ct matters little just how the custom
originated. But it is of moment to
know if there be any real reasons
and If so, what they are-for it's con-
| tinuance in this enlightened age.
| There is absolutely nothing to be
urged in its defense. 1t is responsible
directly Or indirectly, for almost half
a hundred diseases, according to the
eminent Drs. Mccartney, of Chung
king; Macklin, of Nankin, and Mrs.
Reifsnyder, head of the Margaret Will
hanson Hospital at Shanghai and
many others.
Feet are 'part-bound,' half-bound,
'well-bound' and 'full-bound as to size,
ranging in length (and corresponding
width-or, rather, narrowness) from
two inches less than normal down to
two and one-half inches or less in
! length"
There are three divisions of the
! period of torture, known as the mar
rowing time the shortening time and
the keeping time The first period
usually begins with the third year of
the child's life, and is devoted to wrap
ping the foot so as to force the sides
together. This is the least painful
period and usually lasts only about
three years, though some
| times as much as II
or II years are required, if the
bones are firm and strong The next
period, also called the time of tears
and the 'sorrowful season., because of
the awful torment endured, makes the
poor victims so sad and sorrowful
looking during the time that a glance
often enables one to tell if she has yet
/ entered on this time of torture 1t
often results in the death of the child
lin about one-sixth of the cases.
''The shortening is done by bandag-
ing in such manner as to force the
| heelbone downward and forward, and
the toes and forepart of the foot down
ward and backward so as to as nearly
as possible meet the heel. During this
period the bandages, which are OF
strong cloth, 8 inches wide and from
6 to II feet long, are changed and
frightened twice or thrice daily, a
heavy wooded clothes-bea mallet
being used to pound the bones and
muscles and tendons to soften or break
them SO that they may be forced into
the abnormal position desired. I'm
med1ately after each renewal of the
2 bandages during this period the nm