The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-03-11

to wear sable is conferred as a mark
of distinction upon the higher officials.
The Manchu women and the Chinese
women differ materially. The Man
chus, whose ancestors came from
Manchuria, still retain the customs
peculiar to their section. The hair
is stretched over a broad, winglike
frame, and three hours are required for
it's arrangement. Flowers, natural
and artificial, and ornaments made of
feathers, beads and tinsel, are pro-
fusely used in hair decoration. The
Manchu women, except the widows,
! employ paint and powder with bold
ness which would put to shame the
most inveterate user of cosmetics in
America. In the painting here there
is no suggestion of the 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 harmonic 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, tho by wearing skirts and
shoe resting on block, shaped like
French heel, the size of the foot
| is concealed.
X = !.
Foot binding is probably the straug-
est form that human pride has even
taken, and it is hard to believe that
Chinese women from tire immemorial
have endured the agonies of foot bind
ing and forced it upon their daugh-
tiers. It is not known certainly how
the custom originated. One tradition
is that it began with a club-footed
queen; another that it was designed
to distinguish the upper-class women
from the coolies; and third tradi-
ton has it that it was scheme de-
vised 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 a prominent China
man told me that, being opposed to
foot binding, he had, when young
man, tried to find wife with natural
feet, but was unable to do So He
has in recent years persuaded his
wife to unbind her feet and has kept
his daughter from undergoing the or
deal. . .-..-.- -..- ...
The process, as described by physi-
!, clan, is as follows: At the age of 5 or
! the little girl feet are tightly ban
daged, the second, third, fourth and
+. fifth toes being gradually brought back
under the sole of the foot; the heel is
3 then drawn forward under the instep
! and the natural growth of the foot
entirely arrested. The medical mission
4 aries report instances in which the foot
has rotted away because of lack of
e circulation On one of the boats we
met an intelligent. Chinese merchant
e woo, after condemning the practice of
s foot biz Sing and telling us that, in
: opposition t. his wife's wishes and in
+ opposition to tie girl herself, he had
n saved one daughter from foot binding
1 compared this custom to tLat "f lacing,
S which he affirmed was much More in.
T furious. He also ventured to suggsEt
e that Chinese women do not expose theii
e health and their shoulders in decolettt
: gowns, but perceiving that he had dis
I. covered a weak spot in our own socia
/ armor, 1 hurriedly changed the subject
e But I must reserve for another article
n the discussion Of other characteristics
8 (Mr. Bryan's next letter will appear II
t The Sunday Journal March 49,