Certainly, the Chinese women of the day bind their feet. When a girl is
seven or eight years old, her mother binds them for her, and everybody
approves, If the mother did otherwise, the girl herself would be the
first to reproach her when she grew up. It is wonderful how they endure
the torture; but public opinion has sanctioned the custom for
centuries, and made it as much a duty for a Chinese woman to have small
feet as it is for us to wear clothes! And yet they do a wonderful
thing. When they are taught how wrong the practice is, how it cripples
them, and weakens them, and renders them unfit for their work in the
world, they take off their bandages! Think of that! and remember that
they are timid and sensitive in a womanly way to a degree that is
painful. When I learnt that, and when I remembered that my countrywomen
bind every organ in their bodies, though they know the harm of it, and
public opinion is against it, I did not feel that I had time to stay
and teach the heathen. It seemed to me that there was work enough left
yet to do at home."
"But, Ideala," Claudia protested, "what is the use of drawing degrading
comparisons between ourselves and other nations? You gave great offence
last night.
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