Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-12-22
VOL. IA.
CONDEMN TIGHT WAISTS.
Chimes Abandoning Foot Bind
ing, But Condemn Waist
Binding by American
Women.

MI. Frank Carpenter, one ofsthe
sablest as well as possibly the most
celebrated of modern newspaper
correspondents, isnow in China and
writes weekly letters to many lead
81 ing papers in America. Last Sum
day,s State contained a very inter-
esting article upon China. The
following concerning foot binding
i'm China and waist binding in Amer
,iiica is taken from that, letter:
The movement against footblnd-
ing is being pushed by associations
!: of native men and women in diff
erent parts of China, .Phore is an
Organization In Canton, known as
the No. Footbinding s5elety, to
which 10, loo fathers belong: They.
have pledged themselves not to:
bind the. feet of their daughters and
not to5obiect to their sons marry
IN ing /; girls 81 with bound feet. Many
Of the wives of the members have
stakensof the bandages, and lltera-
ture denouneing the custom is beng
distributed.
There is similar organization
in far western China on the borders
cf Tibet, and for some years a pro
paganda against this evil has been
carried on at Shanghai. There Is
an Englishwoman of Shanghai who
has done more perhaps for the fe-
male cripples, of this nation than
any native man or woman. i refer
to Mrs. Archibald Little, who has
written several excellent books upon
China. Itswas she who origina ted
the Tian Esu Hui society, which
advocates natural feet for the wo-
men of China. This was started
about Is years ago, with branches
all oyei the empire. 1t was sup
ported II by the missionary women
and other foreigners, and it has dis
tributed tracts, picturing the evils
Of the practice, everywhere: 1t
memorialized the throne, and was
largely instrumental in getting the
empress dowager to- send out the
BIC foot edict. Among other pic
&. ztures made by this soeiat was s, the ll
pho tograph of a bound foot By the
-ray process. This shows how
horribly the foot is deformed, the
I. bones being crushed out of shape.
Il i have talkedwith many Chinese
about the natural foot woman. The
best of them deprecate the custom
of footbinding, and all say that it is
1 bound to 90. At the same time
they, get even with me by denounc-
ing the practice of lacing, SO COM
s mon among the women of the Unit
ed States, saying that tits worse to
compress the vital organs than the
feet. They consider the small
waist ugly, rather than beautiful,
and say both customs have their
foundation in depraved ideas of the
beautiful. One Chinese remarked:
Sour men have been accustomed
to consider small feet beautiful.
The women think the men like 1t,
and that the girl who has golden
lily foot will have a better chance
of marriage. Therefore, they under
90 the pain of binding. Your men
think the wasp-like waist is beautl,
full and therefore your women
squeeze their bones by tying one
end of the corset rope to a bedpost
and pulling on the other in order to 4
lace it the tighter. You may call
our people nation of crippfes be
cause the better, class of women
have to hobble around on bound
feet. From tight -laeing your peo
ple are a nation ofinvalids. Three.
fourths of your women are under
the care of the doctors half the time
6 and that.fro the bad practice of
lach,g. / venture that on the aver
age the Chinese woman is healthier
than the American woman. Why
/ do you not stay at home and advo'
cafe an notwithstanding society
instead Of coming over here to
write about foot binding?:"
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