he bretheren in the meetin'-house, and pass the
compliments with 'em and clasp my own hands and shake 'em quite a
spell, not touchin' their hands. I may, but can't tell for certain; it
would be real uneek to do it."

"Well," sez I, "Josiah, every country has its own strange ways; we
have ourn."

Sez he, "How you would scold me if I wuz to wear my hat when we had
company, and here it is manners to do it, and take off your specs. Why
should I take off my specs to meet Elder Minkley?"

"Well," sez I, "there hain't anything out of the way in it, if they
want to."

Sez Josiah, "You seem to take to China ways so, you and Arvilly, that
I spoze mebby you'll begin to bandage your feet when you git home, and
toddle round on your big toes."

And I sez, "I d'no but I'd jest as soon do that as to girt myself down
with cossets, or walk round with a trailin' dress wipin' up all the
filth of the streets to carry home to make my family sick."

But it is a awful sight. I had the chance right there in Canton to see
a foot all bound up to make it the fashionable size.

The four small toes wuz twisted right under the ankle, and the broken,
crushed bones of the foot pressed right up where the instep should be.
The pain must have been sunthin' terrible, and very often a toe drops
off, but I spoze they are glad of that, for it would make the little
lump of dead flesh they call their feet smaller. They wear bright
satin shoes, all embroidered and painted, and their little pantelettes
cover all but the very end of the toe. They all, men and wimmen, wear
a loose pair of trowsers which they call the foo, and a kind of jacket
which they call a sham.

"A fool and a sham," Josiah called 'em all the time. The wimmen have
their hair all stuck up with some kind of gum, making it as good as a
bunnet, but I would fur ruther have the bunnet. Sometimes they wear a
handkerchief over it. Wimmen hain't shut up here as they are in
Turkey, but no attention is paid to their education and they are
looked down on. Men seem to be willin' to have wimmen enjoy what
religion they can, such as they have. But her husband won't let her
set to the table with him, and he can whip her to death and not be
touched for it, but if she strikes back a single blow he can get a
divorce from her.

I thought wimmen wuz worse off here than they wuz in America, but
Arvilly argyed that our govermunt sold stuff and took pay for it that
made men beat their wives, and sold the r