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Updated: May 24, 2025
Small feet are thus in no way associated with aristocracy or gentleness of birth; neither is there any foundation for the generally received opinion that the Chinese lame their women in this way to keep them from gadding about. Small-footed women may be seen carrying quite heavy burdens, and even working in the fields; not to mention that many are employed as nurses for small children.
But she did not suffer from want, for Chinamen are kind to the needy of their own race. Among the objects which excited our curiosity were the tiny shoes of the small-footed woman. These were not quite three inches in length, and looked as if they were more suited for a doll's feet than for a full grown woman's.
Very often this compression creates diseases that are difficult to heal; it is always impossible for the small-footed woman to walk easily, and sometimes she cannot move without support.
The couch is a lively one, as the feathers are a convenient warren for a miscellaneous lot of living things not often mentioned in polite society. In the southern cities of China one sees fewer women in the street than in the north. Those that appear in public are always of the poorer classes, and it is rare indeed that one can get a view of the famous small-footed women.
The result was a sort of bastard mule, a small-legged, small-footed, cowardly animal, inheriting all the vices of the mule and none of the horse's virtues the very meanest of his kind. The mule seems to have been used by the ancients in a great variety of ways; but what should have prompted his production must for ever remain a mystery.
Some of them look up and read it all and some only get as far as "to earn a little, to spend a little less" . Small-footed Chinese women pass, humping along on their stumps and their babies running along beside have larger feet than the mothers who bore them, Bench warmers gaze after them with lazy curiosity.
Roblado believed in the belles of the Havannah, and descanted upon the plump, material beauty which is characteristic of the Quadroons; while the lieutenant expressed his penchant for the small-footed Guadalaxarenas not of old Spain, but of the rich Mexican province Guadalaxara. He had been quartered there. So ran the talk rough and ribald upon that delicate theme woman.
They are both strong and kind, and it is pleasant to see women not deformed in any way, but clothed completely in a dress which allows perfect freedom of action. The small-footed women are rarely seen out of doors; but the sewing-woman at Mrs. Smith's has crippled feet, and I have got her shoes, which are too small for the English baby of four months old!
At about ten we passed out of the mountain range, and soon after neared Chechow, from which the population seemed to be moving, as we inferred from the numbers of small-footed women hobbling along the bank with their household effects. We were boarded by a mandarin- boat, the officer of which informed me that he had been sent by the Governor-General to pay his respects.
Many of the 'progressive' Chinese, now that it is the fashion for Chinese wives to be seen in public with their husbands, finding the uneducated, gauche, small-footed household drudge unable to compete with the smarter foreign-educated wives of their neighbours, have actually repudiated them and taken unto themselves spouses whom they can exhibit in public without 'loss of face'! It is, however, only fair to add that the total number of these cases, though by no means inconsiderable, appears to be proportionately small.
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