The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-06

me that our people have awakened to the fact that the public affairs are also tn cir private concerns. which is further proved by the willingness of the busy merchants and overworked scholars to serve as municipal councillors and as committeeman on public causes.
 "The anxiety of young men and wo- men to acquire a modern education in schools at home and abroad, and the Joyful sacrifice on the part of parents and elders of luxuries and comforts. to which they have been accustomed for years. in order that the younger gem eration may receive a liberal educa- ton, costing ten or twenty times more than the old method, affords sight unparalleled in our Aistory Female education, very much neglected in the past, is recognized as work of the first importance, and the position of woman is approaching, though at present slow ly. the ideal of that in the West
 suppression of FOot-binding.
 "A movement of striking signifi- canoe, on account of the remarkable success it has met. is that started by the Anti Foot Binding Society. Foot binding, originally intended to check the feet of young women from at taining abnormal and disfguring size, grew Into most horrible custom through the perverted ideas of beauty, OnI1l IL became Ln0 eACGpllou than the rule for women to possess a pair of natural feet. could never bring myself to see the beauty of hu- man feet compressed and arbitrarily shaped by artificial means, and from my boyhood I always expressed my strong condemnation of the absurd fashion. I remember I agitated fin my early days the question by exposing the absurdity and cruelty of the prac- tice, and with a view to It's gradual discontinuance I endeavored to per suade my friends and relatives to join with me in forming league pledging ourselves to prohibit the compression of our daughters feet. But to my disYnay l could not induce any one to become a member of my proposed ass sociation. It was. therefore, with genuine pleasure and agreeable sur prise that some years ago I learned that an anti-foot- binding society was organized by few foreign ladies, whose object was to accomplish the same thing that l had previously aimed to do. Through the instrumentality of public meetings, pamphlets and leaf let's, which were supported by official proclamations and imperial decrees, the people in a short time have been awakened to the folly and injurious ness of the custom, and the appeal has met with a response that must be grat- ifylnk 10 all Lue pcOphS Wh0 NOuAo hNANs their bodies as sacred. Today one walks the streets of the larger cities and hardly ever sees a girl of ten or under with bound feet, and ladies of middle age whose extremities have been cramped for a score of years, deem it their patriotic duty to liberate themselves from their bondage. Re- gently the work of the committee of that society has been handed over to A group of prominent Chinese gentle men, who, 1t was believed, could bet ter advance the interests of the society now that it has passed It's period of infancy.
 Another popular movement. which has given great joy to all friends and we'll wishers of China. has been the efforts for the suppression of opium. |. No event in China has given more and better evidence of the hopeful vitality and the solid moral character of our people than the enthusiastic and ener- retic manner in which the vice of opi- nm smoking Is being attacked. On the mart of the government. the high est officIals in Peking have been Eus- nended from office for not curing them selves of the habit, creating a sensa- tion in mandarindom. Decrees and proclamatIons hve been issued com ma nding an annual decrease in the cui- tivation of the poppy. the closing Ot nublic opium dens. the registration oG snokers, and other measures which win result In the wiping out of the national curse in eight or ten years Only a few days ago. I received by ooble two Imperial Decrees issued on the 7th and 10th of last month whicl