CHINESE WOMEN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1619, 26 February 1884, Page 2

CHINESE WOMEN.

A young girl walking in the street must not tnni her lied round, nor at home is she t,o glance slyly at visitors She is to remember, moreover, that girls who are always laughing and talking aic not much esteemed, and that virtuous women have been honored from the earliest limes, Tlio philosopher Mendez grieved when lie saw his mother break her shuttle; the woman Tsoun threw herself oil a sword in order to save her husband's life; the mother of Ao, being so poor that she could not buy writing materials, taught her ton to read by tracing characters in the sand. Women should be able to read, write, and use the counting machine, so as to be in a position to direct, a household. They should read books of piety, and stories of morality in action, while avoiding love-poetry, songs, and anecdotes. Women should .be reserved, and they are cruelly enjoined never to occupy themselves with other people's affaire, Meiji ought never to talk of domestic matters, while women- should never talk of anything else. When a visitor is in the drawing-room, the lady of tho house should not bo heard raising lier voice in the kitchen. Women are not to paint their faces and wear striking colors, for tho insufficient reason that if they do .men will look at them. Young women, as well as young men, are to be dutiful to their parents, and always in a. good humor, even when their lathers and mothers are not. They arc to ask them whether they are hot or whether they are cold; to take them food and drink, and to furnish them with new boots and shoes. When a young girl is grown up and married to an honest man she must not forget her parents, and once or twice a year must ask permission of her husband to go and see them. "From the highest antiquity until the present day the rale in marriage has been that the hnsband commands and the wife obeys," Virtue for a wifo consists in having an equal temper, and to arrive at this much must be supported. "If tho first wife has not the happiness to give her husband! a male child, he chooses a person he loves in order to have by her a son who will continue his line, It is necessary under these circumstances." says the Manual, not to givo way to jealousy, but to live together oil friendly terms in the same house. At present great dissentions take place between first and second wives, Out of a hundred first wives you will scarcely find one or two of a sweet and affable disposition. I have taken great pains," adds the author, " in writing this paragraph. Do not

read it thoughtlessly." If, however, lie had been more thoughtful himself, it might have 1 occurred to him that the want of sweetness and affability which ho deplores in supplanted "first wives" is the result less of character than of circumstances, and that it would show itself equally in second wives if they in their turns were to bo replaced.