Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-03-02
CLOTHES IN CHINA
Where Women Wear Trousers
and Men Are Clad In Skirts.
A CURIOUS FASHION IN HAIR.

~ VOnlOO0 HOiliON i'm ttNill,
The Feminine Head is Decorated With
a Stiff Cushion That Demands Con
slant Ventilation to Be 5%earabIe.
Vogue of the Ear TickIer.
Even though | came to China know
ing that they did things backward,
there are some customs here that /
just can't get used to. One is seeing
women wearing trousers. There are
more women wearing trousers In Chi
ma than there are people in the United
Statesmen, women and children. !
suppose there is no reason why things
shouldn't be thus, but it will always
seem to me that the pants are on the
wrong side of the house.
The women look like clothespins
Their bodies are the same size all the
way down, and their feet are so tiny
that they go bobbing along for all the
world like jointed clotlespins. The
women shave their foreheads, with
the timber line almost at the top of
their heads, SO that the little patch of
face below looks as if it were trem
bling under threat of an impending
snowslide.
Their hair Is pulled and keyed back
as though for musical purposes. AT
the back of the head a Chinese wo
man ear a cushion of false hair, so
dressed as to show her rank, so that a
person skilled in the language of the
hair can read her history, can tell her
present plans and her future ambi
tions. A person up on hair can tell at
a glance whether or not she is mar
ried; If so, how many children she has.
n If a.. widow, If she is willing to
open correspondence with a desirable
party of about forty-6ve-object, mat
rimony.
In this cushion a Chinese woman
carries her head scratcher. Her hair
dressing is a preparation made of slip
perry elm. The person needing it can
run out to the orner and wait until
the carpenter takes a plane and SLAVES
of q few curls. This the Chinese lady
sleeps into a thick, gummy smear,
pours 1t IN her head and uses it to
stiffen her hair.
This layer makes the top of her head
hot, so that every odd moment when
she hasn't anything else to do she gets
down under the mess and let's in some
air with a darning needle. Her favor
lite time for doing this is at the theater
When the performance begins to drag
she gets out her darning needle and
improves the shining hour by making a
rift In the roof as she looks around
over the audience, lightly gossiping
about who are there. what they are
wearing and how awful they look.
Men In China wear skirts. Their
skirts are in a garment that reaches
from their shoulders to their shins and
looks like d n%ightgown worn by Il Cape
Cod deacon. 1t has a tasty slit up each
side. SO that on muddy crossings the
twinkle Of masculine ankles may be
seen. When they want to catch u car
they have to gather up their skirts in
the good old fashioned feminine way.
Under their skirts they wear a pair
OF drawers fastened at the ankles with
q %bandage, with the ends tucked in.
When a Chinaman has an important
letter or note to carry he unties the leg
OF his drawers, stulfs it in and puts the
b3ndage back. The bnndage works
loose, SO that when he reaches his des
tination the note is usually gone.
The only pockets a Chinaman has are
in his shirt waist, which he wears un-
der his skirt, SO that when he wants to
get q dime he has to intuition one side
n slip in a hand. Even though a
Chtnaman wears skirts he has not yet
learned about the First National bank.
The Chinese are a great nation to
think of the handy little things-things
that no other people in the world could
possibly think Of. You can run out on
- the street almost any time and buy
an ear ticker. Men make a living
going around selling them. An ear
ticker is a little puff of cotton on the
end Of a stick and is meant to combine
both business and pleasure-the bust
ness of cleaning the ear and the pleas.
ure OF the tickling sensation.
His is not an easy life, for the ped
der has to be constantly on the watch
against tricky people who come up,
sample his ticklers. give their ears a
couple Of good tingles. tell the man
that they don't like his brand of tick
Ter and go on their way.
The peddler's ingenuity has devel-
oped a way Of polishing up the ticker
30 that the next possible purchaser
may not know that the ticker has been
weighed and found wanting by carry
ing along a little bowl of white pow
del. After a ticker has been sampled
and declined he dabs the end into the
bowl. and, 1t is bright and fresh looking
asifstt were new. If you went to buy
one you conidn't tell for the life OF you
but that II was a new one--until you
had used ft a time or two.-Homer
Croy AT Leslie's Weekly.
Vanished His Own Coffin.
Tommaso Salvini was one of those
11enEsWhO take a grim satisfaction m