The Virginia enterprise., 1907-12-06

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-.
slonarles have all united to break up
the custom. The girls of mission
schools are always required to un.
bind their feet; the chief reason whv
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
Ant1-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.
Wasins 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
1t has debilitated the physical
strength of China and sapped the
moral fiber of its countless victims.
TO an even greater extent than strong
drink, opium units it's 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 a listen
ing ear to China's plea. For its own
people the Chinese government has
edict, which is already being put into
effect. The edict declares 1T 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
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 a foremost, though often
unrecognized part. So, too, in elee.
mosynary institutions the missions
have pioneered the way for the new
China to care for it's own. In Canton
alone one may see a school for blind
girls, an asylum for the insane, a
home for the untainted children of
lepers, an orphan asylum and school
for children of various ages and condi-
| tions.
1t is fair to say that the missionary
is school-master of civilization to
the Chinese
Copyright. by Joseph b. Bowles.)