The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-03-11
= By William Jennings Bryan

furs, and the right to wear sable is
conferred as a mark of distinction
upon the higher officials.
The Manchu women and the Chinese
women differ materially. The Manchus,
whose ancestors came from Manchuria.
still retain the customs peculiar to their
section. The hair is stretched over a
broad winglike frame ana three hours
are required for its arrangement. Flow
ers, natural and artificial, and Orna-
ments made of feathers, beads and tin
sci are profusely used IN hair decOra-
ton. The Manehu women, except the
widows, employ paint and powder witt
a holiness which would put to shame
the most inveterate user of cosmetics
in America. In the painting here there
is no suggestion Of delicate glow Of
health: it is a generous application Of
bright red in two streaks, running from
above the eyes to the corners of the
mouth. The rest of the face is whitened
with rice powder, which does not har-
monize with the yellow skin of the
neck.
But if the Manchu women show more
vanity in the treatment of the face,
they at least do not initiate the Chinese
women in the binding of the feet.
though by wearing skirts and shoe
resting on a block, shaped like
French heel the size of the foot is con-
cealed.
Foot binding is probably the strang-
est form that human pride has even
taken, and it is hard to believe that
Chinese women from time immemortal
have endured the agonies of foot bind
ing and forced 1t upon their daughters.
1t is not known certainly how the Gus
tom originated One tradition is that
it began with a club-footed queen; an
other that it was designed to distin-
guish the upper class women from the
frT haC
that it was a scheme devised by the
men for keeping the women at home
/ But whatever causes may have led to
the Inauguration of the custom, it has
become so firmly established that q
prominent Chinaman told me that, be-
ing opposed to foot binding. he had
when young man tried to find wife
with natural feet, but was not able To
do so. He has in recent years persuad-
| ed his wife to unbind her feet and has
kept his daughters from undergoing
the ordeal.
The process. as described by a physi-
clan and as shown in photograph and
model which 1 secured, is as follows
At the age of , or the little girls feet
are tightly bandaged, the second, third,
fourth and fifth toes being gradually
brought under the sole of the foot; the
heel is then drawn forward under the
instep and the natural growth Of the
foot entirely arrested. The medical mis-
siOnaries report instances in which the
foot has rOtted away because of lack
of circula ton On one of the boats we
met an intelligent Chinese merchant
who, after condemning the practice OF
foot binding and telling us that. I'm op-
position to his wifes wishes and in OPP
position to the girl herself, he had
saved one daughter from foot binding,
compared this custom TO that Of lacing,
which he affirmed was much more in
furious. He also ventured to suggest
that Chinese women do not expose
their health and their shoulders I'm
decOIIete gowns, but perceiving that he
had discovered a weak spot in our own
social aTmOT. I hurriedly changed the
subject. But I must reserve for an
other article the discussion of other
characteristics,
Copyright, 1906. by Joseph B. Bowles)
Copyright in Great Britain-All Rights
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