Year: 1878




Just imagine the foot of a full-grown
lady but five inches in length Yet
even this is large, and in highly aristo-
cratic families four inches is the stand
ard.


This queer custom of compressing the
feet of Chinese girls is of very ancient
date, and in our day is almost universal
only nuns, slaves, boat-women, and
others who are obliged to perform out
door drudgery, being exempt. As to the
origin of the custom, the Chinese them
selves are not agreed. Many suppose it
is fashion intended to draw a line be-
tween the higher and lower classes.
Others say that its object was to keep
ladies within doors, where they would
not be subjected, like common market
or boat-women, to the gaze of the other
sex; and some boldly declare that to
cripple them was known to be the only
way by which women could be kept at
home, and rendered of use working for
their husbands or fathers, instead of
spending their time in gadding and gos-
sip. Some of the most reliable native
historians state that the custom began
during the reign of Take, somewhere
about the year 1923, with whim of the
last empress of the Shang dynasty.


The time for putting on the first
bandages varies in different families.
In some, the process is commenced when
the baby is only few weeks old, others
defer the ceremony for year or two /;
but all begin before the little one has
reached the age of four years.


No iron or wooden shoe is used. as
some travellers have stated but strip
of cotton cloth, some three inches wide,
and about six feet long, is wound around
the toes, over the instep, and then be-
hind the heel, after which it is brought
back again over the foot and drawn 30
tightly around the toes as to press them
into pojnt-all except the first and
second having been previously doubled
under the sole.


These bandeges are never removed,
except for purposes of cleanliness, per-
haps once a month and they are re.
placed as quickly as possible, each time
being drawn tighter, until the instep
bends into bow and the ball of the
foot is forced against the heel.


The stockings are made of white cot
ton or silk. The dainty little shoes are
of silk, richly embroidered and often
beautifully adorned with tiny pearls or
rubies. The soles are of white satin,
quilted, and stifened with lining of
pasteboard. The heels are very high
and pointed, and the white satin that
entirely covers them, as we'll as the mp
turned toes, presents pretty contrast
to the blue or crimson silk uppers.


White satin seems to US an odd ma
terial for shoe soles but they are in
tended only for carpeted floors.


When one of these tiny satin.soled
slippers is cast off as "worn out" it
has probably never for single time
come in contact with terra frn7a; and
probably the wearer, when robed in the
white slippers for her last sleep, has not
from her infancy had oDe gleeful romp
outdoors.


This compression produces, during
all the years of childhood, the most ex-
cruciating pain, followed at length by q
sort of numbness. I never saw one of
these compressed feet entirely without
covering, but I saw enough when the
outer bandages had been removed to
excite both pity and disgust; and a
lady who had seen the bare foot OF
one of their greatest bellies, told me
that she had never even conceived OF a
spectacle 80 shockingly revoltiug as this
tiny foot when divested of all that could
hide it's deformity. Although the young
lady was full grown, the sole of her
foot was but three and three-quarter
inches in length. The great toe formed
q point that was bent upward and back
ward, while the heel, of natural size,
seemed by contrast disproportionately
large.


Chinese ladies of rank are seldom
seen abroad unless in closely-curtained
Sedan-chairs but we used occasionally
to meet those of the middle class making
short excursions in the immediate vicin-
ity of their homes. Their attempts at
walking were pitiable in the extreme, as
they hobbled along, leaning on an um'
brella, or the shoulder of a servant, for
support, or with hands outstretched
against the houses as they passed, en-
deavoring to keep their balance Vide
AaOake.