A BARBAROUS CUSTOM.

Evening Post, Volume XLVIII, Issue 48, 25 August 1894, Page 5 (Supplement)

A BARBAROUS CUSTOM.

♦ According to the San Francisco Call, a case of peculiar interest is likely to be decided shortly by one of the police judges of that city. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was recently notified that an eight - year - old Chinese girl, the daughter of Chung Say, waa being tortured by the barbarous custom in use among the Chinese of making their women have small feet. Two of the officers of the Society, C. C. Wells and F. A. Holbrook, visited Chung Say's place, and found the child seated on a lounge, with her feet and legs above the ankles tightly bandaged. Chung Say did not deny that the object was to make the child's feet small, but declared that she did not suffer any pain. He pointed to v pair of tiny shoes, which, he said, were worn by the girl's mother before Bhe died, and he wanted the child's feet small enough to fit her mother's shoes. The shoes are scarcely large enough for an ordinary oue-year-old baby, and the toe part comes to a sharp point that would scarcely admit a man's finger, much less a grown woman's toes. The child is possessed of substantial feet at present, and it would take years of suffering to reduce them to the size required by her father. The officers took the little girl and her father to tho Receiving Hospital. Dr. Somers examined her damaged feet. He did not think she was then suffering much pain, and she certainly did not appear as if she was. But a wellinformed Chinese, who also accompanied the officers, said that in throe or four weeks sho would suffer excruciating torture if the bandaging was continued. The feet were bound in such a way that the toes were forced inward and the instep had the appearance of being broken. Ultimately, from the lack of the circulation of the blood, the toes would rot otf, and there would be nothing but a sort of stump. But then, with her small feet the girl could get a rich husband, and she would be classed among the aristocrats. In other words, her marketable value would be enhanced with small feet, but with feet of a natural size she would virtually be a slave. Chung Say said that the girl's godmother and a Chinese woman with small feet, who lived across the street from his house, had done the bandaging. The Chinese woman's feet are so small that she had to be carried across the street, being unable to walk over the cobblestones. As the child was not suffering any pain, Dr. Somers said he could not interfere with the case, but the officers might get expert testimony if they intended to make a test case of it. After Wells and Holbrock had talked the matter over, they allowed Chung Say to take his daughter home again, but warned him not to again bandage her feet, otherwise they would send her to the Mission. Meantime they are taking legal advice as to further procedure, as it is the first case of the kind brought to the attention of the society.