The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1907-11-29

| peculiar" American sectS, which,
like many Independent missionaries,
plant their enterprises under the
shadow of long established missions
| and steal away the converts of the
latter. This sort of PROSECUTING is not
uncommon on the mission field on
the part of these smaller bodies, al.
though by all standards 1t is dishon-
| orable. Givers to foreign missions
should assure themselves that the
work they support is not of this sort.
There is small excuse for these new
undertakings going to port cities,
when there are thousands of interior
cities and towns where not a single
missionary has ever gone.
Big Feet Becoming Fashionable.
The disproportion In which many
matters Chinese have been viewed in
the occident is illustrated by the foot.
binding practice. Westerners have
been led to believe tA1t this has
meant constant agony snd hardship
for the chinese women and girls, and
the subject has been a STOCK argu-
ment In arousing sympathy for the
poor Chinese. One is therefore un.
prepared to find these "lily-footed"
women such merry, lively lot, as
they toddle about on the points of
their distorted feet In answer to a
remark upon this, an experienced
missionary said, There is no doubt
that the suffering incident to foot
binding has been greatly exaggerated"
Ii China had no worse evil than this
one she would have small need for
missionaries.
Not that the foot-binding is other
than bad practice; it is needless.
stupid, hurtful and probably worse
than the tight lacing of the white
woman. Progressive Chinese and mis-
s1onaries have all united to break up
the custom. The girls of mission
schools are always required to un.
bind their feet; the chief reason why
older Christian women do not always
do so is because the pain suffered
from unbinding would be greater than
the inconvenience of the small feet.
Peasant women are usually big-foot.
ed; so also is the empress dowager
and all other Manchu women. The
Manchus never followed the practice
of binding feet.
So substantial has been the prog.
ress made in this reform that the
Anti-foot Binding Society, vigorously
led by Mrs. A. Little, and served by
many European ladies, recently closed
out its affairs, after ten years of &C
tive campaigning. The fight for big
feet is now so far won that it's further
prosecution is left to the Chinese
themselves.
Wagins War on Opium.
Everybody knows that Chinese
smoke opium; strangers to this land
do not realize to what an extent it has
permeated the national fabric, so that
it has debilitated the physical
strength of China and Slapped the
moral fiber of its countless victims.
To an even greater extent than strong
drink, opium units its user for USE
fulness. For years the missionaries
have hammered away at this seeming
ly hopeless subject, Rev. DR.. H. c.
DuBose, Of Soochow, being the most
tireless and dauntless opponent of
opium in the empire.
At last the lethargic nation has
been stirred. The Chinese them
selves have become concerned at the
spectacle of their public men made
inefficient by opium, and their newly
educated youth rendered powerless by
the drug. In an inspection of the
great opium smoking resorts in Shang-
hal, (there are $1,000 in that city
alone) I was impressed by the fact
that it was the young, the prosperous
and the educated who furnished the
patronage; the old, the poor, the
wrecked were smoking in miserable
novels in obscure streets where a few
cash would suffice to satisfy their
cravings.
Now China Is treating with Eng.
land to secure cessation of the i'm.
portation of the drug into the empire;
and England, moved by a militant
sentiment at home against this dis
graceful situation, is lending listen
ing ear to China's plea. For its own
people the Chinese government has
issued an astonishing anti-opium
edict, which is already being put into
effect The edict declares sit rouses
our deep indignation even to speak
Of the matter. The court Is now
ardently determined to make China
powerful, and it is incumbent on US to
urge the people on to reformation in
this respect, that they may realize the
evil, pluck this deep-seated cancer,
and follow the ways of health and
harmony.
1--WE therefore decree that within
the limit of ten years, this harmful
foreign muck be fully and entirely
cleansed away, and we command the
council of state affairs to consider
means for the strict prohibition both
Of opium smoking and Of poppy grow.
ing in China itself and report their
deliberations to us for approval"
In all this progress the missionaries
have borne foremost, though often
unrecognized part. So, too, in elee-
mosynary institutions the missions
=