The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-12-19
THE SMALL
 FOOT TO 60
THE CHINESE WOMEN ARE TAX ING OFF THE BANDAGES AND ADOPTING LOOSE SHOES.
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

Ranking. "HE new woman promises to be
 live figure in the future of China \ Today she is practically a slave in the hands of her husband or father, with few rights that men are bound to respect She is a cripple, hobbling about on bound feet. If she is rich and high class. she is not allowed to go on the 9 streets. and if poor she works in the fields and does all sorts of drudgery. The av- craze Chinese girl is uneducated and not one woman in 100 can read and write. The new China Is to be full of girls schools, it's girls feet are to be allowed their natural growth and it's women are to take their part in the work of the world. Girls are already employed in the telephone offices of Hongkong and Shanghai. They are teaching everywhere in the kindergartens and primary schools, and medical colleges have been estab- lished to fit them for trained nurses and doctors The viceroy of Wuchang has school in which the boys and girls study together, and the same Is true of Yuan Fang, the viceroy of Ranking. There are several large girls schools in Pekin, and one of the Manchu princesses. a member of the imperial family, has established girls school In Mongolia. All the mis- sionary establishments are now teaching girls and the demand for educated women wives is far greater than the sup ply.
 The Anti-F Movement.
 The sentiment against binding the feet is very rapidly growing. The great em- press dowager sent out an ediet shortly before her death denouncing the custom, and advising all the girls and women of the empire to do away with it. Chang Chi Tung has written an article the subject. and before he died Ii Hung Chang advised that the custom be dis continued Many of the viceroys and gov ernors have sent out proclamations fav- bring the abolition of footbinding. and a number of societies have been started in the different provinces in favor of the natural foot for all women. In all the girls schools the government regulations provide that the pupils must come with their feet unbound, and a system of gymnastie exercises has been instituted which are impossible for q crippled foot pupil. In talking last night with one of the high officials Of Ranking, l was told that foot-bnding would soon disappear and that the sentiment against it is rap idly growing. The man I refer to was educated in the United States. Said he:
 T have two daughters and one is nine- teen years old. Neither have bound feet. The same is true of many Well to do girls in my city and especially so with the children of high officials all over the empire. The edict of the empress dow ager has wonderful effect. It has mada the big foot respectable and the ordinary Chinese parent will give up the custom as soon as he finds his daughters can get husbands without it." 1 talked last night with a Chinese off cial, who is worth ten million dollars or more He tells me that none of his wom- en are binding their feet and believes that the practice will gradually disap- pear
 The Big-Footed Manchu.
 As it is now footbinding Is confined to the Chinese. The Manchus, who are the reigning family of this empire, have never bound their feet, and the great empress dowager and all the court ladies of Pekin have feet which are less pinched than those cf the average American belle. They wear shoes of silk and satin beautifully embroidered and when they go visiting have gorgeous slippers with heels in the center of the sole about two inches high. The aver age Chinese woman has naturally d beautiful foot, and the same is true of the Manchu. It is smaller than that of the Caucasion, and the instep Is usual ly such that water could run under it without touching the skin. So far I have seen none which corresponds with the old darkey song about his sweetheart: F And de hollow ob her foot makes a
 hole in de groun."
 The Chinese women were binding their feet when the Manehus cane in and the men then wore long hair all over their heads. The Manchus compelled them to shave their heads, excepting the pigtail, as a sign of servttude and before long the practice became so popular that they adopted 1t themselves. It was different with the binding of the feet The Tar tars have always denounced it and sev- eral of the empei ors of the past have tried to abolish It. The custom among the Chinese began, it Is said, more than a thousand years ago, having been in- troduced by an empress who had goats feet covered with hair and who ban daged them. and thus set the fashion She clothed them in yellow satin and they came to be known as golden lilies, which is the term for the celestial crp- pied tootsie- wootsie of today Of course, the people did not know of the deforrni- ty. They though the empress had natural feet, and they bound up their children to make them like her. At any rate, the custom of the binding of the feet came into vogue and to this day 1t is common.
 How Bound Foot Looks.
 No one who has not seen golden lily with the bandages off can appreciate how one of these deformcd Chinese feet looks. In the satin shoe embroidered with gay silk or silver and gold 1t IS more like a stuffed club than foot. The big toe only rests on the ground and the size of the foot is measured by this rath CT than the full length of the foot. know of one woman who has a foot so small that she can stand on silver dol lar and tba snla will not come olItsida of