of the females from their
birth was a gradually declining custom. Some few middle-aged women were
met with in the streets whose feet had been thus treated in infancy, and
who hobbled about with much difficulty, but no young girls were to be
seen thus hampered. When this hideous deformity has been adopted, the
knee and ankle joints do not bend at all in walking; all movement is
from the thigh joints, a mincing gait is imparted, and the arms swing
from side to side, the whole body being at all times liable to topple
over. A traveler is not competent, however, to speak of the higher
classes of women, as no access is afforded to domestic life in wealthy
families. Only women of the common class appear indiscriminately in
public, Oriental exclusiveness wrapping itself about the sex in China
nearly as rigidly as in Egypt. If women go abroad at all, it is in
curtained palanquins, quite hidden from the public eye, or at most only
partially visible through semi-transparent veils of gauze. Anywhere east
of Italy woman is a toy or a slave.

The European portion of Hong Kong consists almost entirely of one broad
avenue, called Victoria Road, which is the Broadway or Washington Street
of the city, and which runs parallel with the shore front, from which it
is separated by a single block. This thoroughfare is well paved, and is
mostly lined with attractive stores, hotels, and club-houses, with a few
dwellings intermixed. The intersecting streets are in many cases so
steep as to be ascended by broad stone steps, like portions of Naples
and Rome. After leaving the Victoria Road, one plunges immediately into
Chinese life among narrow lanes and crowded, dirty abodes, like China
Town at San Francisco, such dwellings as are only to be found in the
midst of a miserable and degraded condition of humanity. The river or
harbor front is lined with lofty European warehouses, and some good
residences,--half devoted to business, however, the locality being
mostly given up to the requirements of commerce. It will be remembered
that Hong Kong is an island, nearly forty miles in circumference,
consisting of a cluster of hills rising almost to the dignity of
mountains. The gray granite, of which the island is mostly composed,
affords an excellent material for building purposes, and is largely
employed for that object. Nearly all the public buildings are
constructed of this granite, which presents a fine appearance, and
affords good opportunity for arc