668 



The National Geographic Magazine 



The people also seem to be responding 

 in some measure to the appeals of the 

 authorities by organizing anti-opium so- 

 cieties. The methods of the one in Can- 

 ton will indicate the character of their 

 efforts. The members of this society 

 pledge themselves not to use opium, and 

 to do all in their power to free others 

 from its deadly grasp. They provide 

 doctors and medicines to those making 

 an effort to abandon the vice. They also 

 organize street parades, in which men 

 are dressed as confirmed opium sots, with 

 most ragged and disreputable garments 

 and their faces painted an ashy paleness 

 familiar among confirmed smokers, thus 

 exhibiting to the spectators "the awful 

 example" of the opium fiend. 



REFORMS IN DR^SS AND EOOTBINDING 



It would seem that the foregoing state- 

 ment of the reforms undertaken in China 

 would be sufficient to satisfy the demands 

 of the most advanced advocates for its 

 regeneration; but still other reforms are 

 being urged upon the government and 

 people. There are many who favor a 

 change of the dress to the western style 

 and the abolition of the queue by imperial 

 edict. Changes in these matters are al- 

 ready in progress in the army and the 

 public schools, and it is probable that 

 they will be extended, as in Japan, with- 

 out governmental interference. The 

 abolition of slavery and polygamy is 

 being strongly pressed. Neither of these 

 practices has been widespread, and while 

 from our western standpoint they are 

 blots upon oriental civilization, the gov- 

 ernment may well be spared the burden 

 of undertaking their abolition till the 

 other important reforms it has in hand 

 are in a more advanced stage of accept- 

 ance. 



The movement for abandoning the cus- 

 tom of foot-binding is making progress, 

 but it seems the most tenacious practice 

 to be overcome. It has withstood more 

 than one imperial edict, and the vast ma- 

 jority of the society women still cling to 

 it as an evidence of refinement and fash- 

 ion. The Empress Dowager seems de- 

 termined upon its destruction, has re- 



cently issued a new fulmination against 

 it, and is seeking to bring to bear official 

 ostracism and the influence of the schools. 



OBSERVANCE OE SUNDAY 



The late announcement of Sunday as 

 a legal holiday, when the public offices 

 are to be closed, is not to be construed as 

 a step toward the acceptance of Chris- 

 tianity, but is another evidence of con- 

 formity to western practices. Prince Pu 

 Lun, a member of the imperial family, 

 who visited our country two years ago 

 as the Emperor's representative to the 

 St. Louis Exposition, in answer to my 

 inquiry as to what impressed him most in 

 our country, said it was our weekly rest 

 day, as in China they toiled on day after 

 day without cessation. I have been told 

 that one of the reasons for the step taken 

 was that Sunday was a favorite day with 

 western diplomats at Peking to visit the 

 Foreign Office, the day when the officials 

 of that department desired a vacation. 

 Some color is given to that assertion 

 when it is seen from the last volume of 

 the Foreign Relations of the United 

 States that the American minister is ask- 

 ing for an appointment on that day to 

 visit the department on business. 



Many parts of the country seem to 

 have a rage for foreign ways and ar- 

 ticles. A correspondent from the far- 

 away interior province of Szechwan, on 

 the confines of Tibet, writes: "I notice 

 quite a number of the natives are wear- 

 ing leather shoes made by local cob- 

 blers. What they want is a shoe that 

 will polish and look like the foreigner's. 

 In fact, they want everything to look like 

 the foreigner's. They want hats like 

 they wear in Shanghai ; likewise their 

 coats; they try to write with a lead pen- 

 cil instead of a Chinese pen; they want 

 foreign pictures for their shops. All this 

 is a feeling after something different from 

 their old ways of living. The next gen- 

 eration will want more luxuries than their 

 fathers." 



The American observer from whose 

 book just published I have already quoted 

 says : "It is not unusual to see wealthy 

 Chinese going about in their motor cars r 



