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Show girls follow, young married women join the ranks, and old women even sixty and eighty years of age bring up the rear. God bless them all and keep them always in line! NOTE. In case someone should ask, "But can the women unbind their feet so easily and go from the bound-foot shoe to the other kind and is thern no pain in the process of unbinding?"-let it be said that the method of binding the feet and the size of the bound foot differs with the locality. In the province of Shantung the feet are not so small as in the north and some other parts of China. A woman's feet are the smallest when she is a bride. From that time until io middle life she gradually loosens the bandages. If the feet are very small there can but be pain, and care must be taken in the unbinding. Time, too, must be given for the toes to come up and the instep to work down into its place. Though for a long time, it may be, the foot must retain its bound shape, still it is not compressed, and a shoe the width and length of the foot gives the body far more strength and support, than when the bandages are tight and the pointed shoe is worn. In this locality almost no trouble has resulted, aside from swelling of the foot, and the excuses have not been on account of fear from bodily suffering, but from fear of opposition and ridicule and slander from any and everyone, even the nearest relatives and friends. If proper care is taken, we believe there are few feet which will not in time submit to unbinding and in the end mean freedom for half a lifetime. |