wealthy classes it would
be reprehensible enough, but it curses rich and poor alike, and almost
every day we saw heavily laden coolie women steadying themselves by means
of a staff, hobbling stiff-kneed along the roads or laboring in the fields.

Although the agitation against foot binding is undoubtedly making itself
felt to a certain extent in the coast provinces, in Yuen-nan the horrible
practice continues unabated. During the year in which we traveled through a
large part of the province, wherever there were Chinese we saw bound feet.
And the fact that virtually _every_ girl over eight years old was mutilated
in this way is satisfactory evidence that reform ideas have not penetrated
to this remote part of the Republic.

I know of nothing which so rouses one's indignation because of its
senselessness and brutality, and China can never hope to take her place
among civilized nations until she has abandoned this barbarous custom and
liberated her women from their infamous subjection.

There has been much criticism of foreign education because the girls who
have had its advantages absorb western ideas so completely that they
dislike to return to their homes where the ordinary conditions of a Chinese
household exist. Nevertheless, if the women of China are ever to be
emancipated it must come through their own education as well as that of the
men.

One of the first results of foreign influence is to delay marriage, and in
some instances the early betrothal with its attendant miseries. The evil
which results from this custom can hardly be overestimated. It happens not
infrequently that two children are betrothed in infancy, the respective
families being in like circumstances at the time. The opportunity perhaps
is offered to the girl to attend school and she may even go through
college, but an inexorable custom brings her back to her parents' home,
forces her to submit to the engagement made in babyhood and perhaps ruins
her life through marriage with a man of no higher social status or
intelligence than a coolie.

Among the few girls imbued with western civilization a spirit of revolt is
slowly growing, and while it is impossible for them to break down the
barriers of ages, yet in many instances they waive aside what would seem an
unsurmountable precedent and insist upon having some voice in the choosing
of their husbands.

While in Yen-ping we were invited to attend the semi-foreign wedding of a
girl who had been br