Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-18

one of the live questions which IL
now before the women of China Is
whether their feet can be cured II they
take Off the bancases. In the case
of the older womc7 it Is Impossible.
although even they can be relieved Of
pain Their deformed feet. however.
cannot be made over again. and they
must walk with canes or hobble to
the end of their days, The feet or
the younger women largely resume
their natural shape, although they
have none OF the beauty of Shosc
which have not been bound The un-
binding has to be carefully done. and
the feet must be rubbed and massag-
ed TO increase the circulation II Is
difficult to persuade the women who
have been binding their feet to stop
but the young girls arc Wild for the
change, and that especially az II Is
row becoming possible to get a hus-
band II ones foot is large. Indeed. the
hiG foot, or rnthcr tho unbound foot,
Is liable to be beau-catcher AS
Chinese official said to me. the men of
the now regime arc anxious to have
their wives go about with them and
those who have chance to travel
abroad would like their company, This
Is rot possible with tho small-footed
woman, who has often to walk with
a cane or to have servants support
her when she goes out from home.
NTI-TOOTBINDING SOCIETIES.
This movement against foot binding
Is being pushed by associations of ma
tive mon and women In different parts
of China. There Is an organization In
Canton, known as the No Footblnding
society, to whlch 10000 fathers be-
long They have pledged themselves
not TO bind the feet OF their daughters
and 10 object to their sons marry
Ing girls with bound feet Many of
the wives of the members have taken
Off the bandages, and literature de-
nounclng the custom Is being dis
tributed.
There is similar organization In
Ear western China on the borders of
Tibet. and for some years Il propa-
ganda against this evil has been car
ricd on Mt Shanghi There Is an
Englishwomnn of Shanghai who has
done more perhaps for the female
cripples of this nation than any ma
tive man or woman. l refer to Mrs
Archibald Little. who has written
several excellent books upon China.
1t was She who originated the T'ian
Tsu Hui society, whish advocates ma
tural feet for the women of China.
This was started about IS years ago,
with branches all over the empire
1t was supported by the missionary
women and other foreigners and 1t
evils of the practise everywhere. 1t
memorlalizcd the throne. and was
largely instrumental in getting the
empress dowaSer to send out the big
foot edict Among other pictures made
by this society was the photograph
of a bound foot by the X-ray process.
This shows how horribly the foot Is
deformed, the bones being crushed out
of shape.
1 have talked with many Chinese
about tho natural foot woman. The
best of them deprecate the custom
of foot binding. and all say that 1t Is
bound to go. AL the same time they
get even with me by donouncing the
practise of lacing, so common among
the women of the United States, say
ing that 1t is worse to compress the
vital organs that tho feet They con-
slider the small waist ugly, rather
than beautiful. and say both customs
have their foundation in depraved
ideas OF the beautiful. One Chinese
remarked:
"Our men have been accustomed to
consider small feet beautiful The
women think the men Ike II, and that
the girl who has a golden lily foot
will have a better chance for mar
riage Therefore they Undergo the
pain of binding, Your men think the
wasp-like waist Is beautiful and there
fore your women squeeze their bones
by tying one end of the corset rope
to q bedpost and pulling on the other
in order to lace it the tighter. You
may call our people a nation of Grip
pies because the better class of wom-
en- have to hobble around on bound
feet. From tight lacing your people
are a nation OF invallds. Three-fourths
OF your women are under the care
of the doctors half the time, and that
from the bad practise of lacing.
venture that on the average the
Chinese women is healthier than the
American woman. Why do you not stay
at home and advocate an anti-wnist-
binding society, instead of coming over
here to write about foot binding?"
THE ABOLITION OF THE QUEUE.
Connected with the antl-foot- bind
Ing movement is another relating to
the men. This Is for the aboli-
ton of the queue. The high-class
officials and the better element of
the people are seriously discussing do
ing away with the pigtail. This WAS
not favored by the old empress dow
ager. 1t was proposed to her IN 1898.
but she replied that no edict favoring
1t should be issued while she lived