.

word 'to be,' which also signifies to do,'' to play the part of.' 'If you are not to be a good girl,' replied the mother, 'it follows naturally that you are not to be a bad one.'

The seventh heading is Tsao, and includes women who have made themselves eminent in any department of literature. About 510 examples are given, mostly poetesses. One of these, a deserted wife, whose husband had gone off to his post with a favourite concubine, leaving her to herself, achieved a feat which certainly has not been surpassed even in monastic annals. She wove a handkerchief, about a foot square, containing 841 Chinese characters (29 × 29) arranged in a symmetrical design of five colours, red, blue, yellow, green, and purple. These 841 words formed a kind of palindrome, which could be read in so many different ways as to form more than 200 quatrains of Chinese poetry, bearing on the injustice of her position, and correct in all the intricate details which belong to the art. This she forwarded to her husband, with the result that the concubine was dismissed and she herself restored to her proper position. This happened in the fourth century A.D. It was first published by Imperial order in A.D. 692 and has come down to the present day.

The eighth heading is Hui, which includes witty and clever women. Only seven examples are recorded.

The ninth heading is Ch'i, which includes all remarkable women, such as those who have put on man's dress and have gone to the wars, great huntresses, and even one who was distinguished at football, also women who have risen from the dead, who have been taken up to heaven, who have been buried alive, who have had large families (in one case twenty-one children, including seven sets of twins), women with no arms or with a short allowance of fingers, hairy women, bearded women, hermaphrodites, etc., etc. About 250 examples are given.

The tenth heading is Ch'iao, which includes artistic women, distinguished for music, painting, etc. Of these only twenty-six examples are given, a number which is far below the mark in any one branch of the arts.

The eleventh heading is Fu, which includes women who have been exceptionally blessed in this world. Of these twenty examples are given. The first was wife of a descendant of Confucius; she flourished at the beginning of the Christian era, and had eight sons. The second had nine distinguished sons, known as the Nine Dragons. The third was the mother of two sons, one of whom (Li Kuang-pi) was a famous general, d. A.D. 763, and the other also rose to eminence. As an additional but to Western eyes a more doubtful blessing, this lady had a beard of several tens of hairs over five inches in length.' Other examples are those of women who lived long and useful lives, in one case reaching an age of 120 years.

The twelfth heading is Yen, which includes women of great beauty.

Of these only forty-five examples are given; to make up for which there is quite an extensive literature on beauty in the abstract, essays, panegyrics, and ballads, useful and otherwise, made to the (moth) eyebrows of mistresses.

Some idea of the standard of beauty in ancient China may be gathered from an account which has come down to us of the young lady who was married in A.D. 148 to the young Emperor, then sixteen years of age.

Her face (we are told) was a mixture of glowing sunrise clouds and snow, and of such surpassing loveliness that it was impossible to look straight at her. Her eyes were like sparkling waves; she had a rosy mouth, gleaming teeth, long ears, and a tip-tilted nose; her jet-black hair shone like a mirror, and her skin was glossy and smooth. She had blood enough to colour her fat, fat enough to ornament her flesh, and flesh enough to cover her bones. From top to toe she measured 5 feet 4 inches; her shoulders were 1 foot 23 inches, and her hips 11 inches, in breadth; from shoulder to fingers she measured 2 feet 0 inches; her fingers, exclusive of the palm, were 38 inches in length, and like ten tapering bamboo shoots; from the hips to the feet she measured 2 feet 4 inches; and her feet were 7 inches in length.

These measurements are English equivalents of Chinese measure

ments.

Add to the above 'eyes like split almonds, teeth like shells,'' teeth like the seeds in a water melon,' ' eyebrows like those of the silkworm moth,' 'waists like willow wands' but no stays, 'lips like cherries,' and you have a fair picture of what the Chinese admire in a woman.

A writer of the twelfth century (already quoted) recalls his ladylove in ten quatrains, as he has seen her under ten conditions, viz., walking, sitting, drinking, singing, writing, gambling, weeping, laughing, sleeping, and dressing. She walks-it is the poetry of motion; she sits it is the harmony of repose; she drinks-and the wine adds a lustre to her eyes; she sings-and black clouds turn to white; she writes-about turtle-doves; she gambles-and smiles when she loses ; she weeps at parting; she laughs-in golden tones; she sleeps—like a fragrant lily; she dresses-limning her eyebrows like those of the silkworm moth.

The Chinese themselves are not agreed as to the origin or reason of foot-binding. Authorities vary between the second century A.D., the fifth century A.D., and about A.D. 970, the last-mentioned being in all probability correct. It was well pointed out so early as the twelfth century that none of the great poets of the T'ang dynasty (606-918) make any allusion to the custom. Only in one instance is there a reference to a lady's foot of six inches in length; and although that may be reckoned small, the T'ang foot measure being shorter than that of the present day, still, the writer adds, there is absolutely no mention of the employment of artificial means. In the Lang Huan Chi we read of a little girl who asked her mother why women's feet were bound. 'Because,' replied her mother, 'the sages of old

valued women highly, and would not have them gadding idly about. So they bound their feet to keep them at home.' This is the reason for the practice of foot-binding which is most generally accepted among Chinese and foreigners, coupled of course with the fact that the men admire bound feet; but there is also a possible physiological reason which can hardly be discussed here.

The thirteenth heading is Hên, which includes women who have been the victims of great misfortune or injustice. Of these over 200 examples are recorded.

The fourteenth and last heading is Wu, which includes women who have 'awakened' to a sense of religious inspiration, and those who have come in any way under religious influences. For instance, the daughter of one of China's great poets, Liu Tsung-yüan, A.D. 773-819, was attacked with a serious malady. As she did not get better, her name was changed from Harmony' to 'Handmaid of Buddha;' and on her recovery, attributed of course to the change of name, she shaved her head and became a Buddhist nun. Another lady is immortalised because, when her husband was contemplating an essay entitled 'There is no God,' she stopped him by aptly observing, 'If there is no God, why write an essay about him?'

The number of separate biographical notices under the above fourteen headings reach a total of over 24,000, i.e. nearly as many as all the lives, mostly of men, included in the Dictionary of National Biography. Like those, they range in length from a few lines to several pages; in any case, these lives form a monumental record, built up chiefly in honour of women, such as no other nation in the world can pretend to rival.

HERBERT A. GILES.

1904

THE CHECK TO WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE UNITED STATES

WOMAN suffrage, as exercised in the United States, is, broadly speaking, in four forms:

(1) Tax-paying Suffrage.-This privilege has been granted in four States, Montana, Iowa, Louisiana, and New York. It does not carry with it the choice of officers. Neither does it involve a share in the control of ordinary expenditures, which are regulated by town or city authorities. It becomes operative only when some special question of an appropriation for a given purpose, or the borrowing of money for some public improvement, is submitted to the vote of taxpayers. An effort has been made of late years so to extend this privilege that women who pay taxes shall have the same right to vote for the election of city and town officers that men have, but in no State has this effort been successful.

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(2) School Suffrage.-Seventeen States which do not give women any other form of suffrage permit them to vote at elections for school officers. In Kentucky the right is restricted to widows, and in Delaware to taxpaying women, but usually women vote on equal terms with men for these particular officers. One State, Montana, gives to women both school and taxpaying suffrage. The grant of the school ballot is nowhere strenuously opposed; and there is no good reason why it might not be extended to other States if women really cared for it. But the number of women who avail themselves of this privilege in States where it has been granted them is so small that no

The Louisiana law provides for submitting propositions to incur debt and issue negotiable bonds to the vote of property taxpayers, and that 'resident women taxpayers shall have the right to vote at all such elections without registration, in person or by their agents authorised in writing.' In Iowa the statute reads: The right of any citizen to vote at any city, town or school election, on the question of issuing any bonds for municipal or school purposes, and for the purpose of borrowing money, or on the question of increasing the tax levy, shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.' The Montana law declares that upon all questions submitted to the vote of the tax-payers of the State, or any political division thereof, women who are taxpayers and possessed of the qualifications for the right of suffrage required of men by the State Constitution, equally with men, have the right to vote.' In New York the law provides that a woman who possesses the qualifications to vote for town officers, except the qualification of sex, and who is the owner of property in the town assessed upon the last preceding assessment-roll thereof, is entitled to vote upon a proposition to raise money by tax or assessment.'

ground seems to exist for asking its extension. In Connecticut the proportion of women voting at school elections is about 1 per cent. In Massachusetts, under ordinary conditions, it is not more than 3 or 4 per cent. I say under ordinary conditions, becaus› occasionally, when questions arise which appeal to the emotions, and those especially in which religious antipathies are involved, the women's vote attains large proportions. In Boston, for example, at the election in 1882, only 498 women voted. Six years later, when questions were at issue between Catholics and Protestants, the vote of the women rose to 19,490, a level which never has been reached since, because there has been no other year in which sectarian passions were so aroused as in 1888. But, in general, the fluctuations of the women's vote in Boston might almost serve as a barometer of sectarian or personal controversies. Conservative Americans regard with apprehension a vote which fluctuates between such extremes, and which comes out in force only when mischievous issues are raised.

(3) Municipal Suffrage. This is found in Kansas only. That State, in 1887, gave to women the right to vote for all city and town officers on equal terms with men, and to be elected to such offices. The woman-suffragists claim that the experiment has worked satisfactorily. But none of them are at any pains to explain the fact that Kansas, since the grant of the municipal ballot, has steadily refused to enlarge the rights of women at the polls. In 1891, four years after municipal suffrage was given to women, the Kansas Legislature rejected a Bill to confer general suffrage upon them and also a proposition to give the right to them by constitutional amendment. Three years later a constitutional amendment conferring full suffrage upon women was submitted to the people and was defeated by a majority of 34,827. In nearly every legislature since some proposition for a fuller franchise for women has been defeated. This obduracy of public sentiment in Kansas is a phenomenon which deserves more attention than the advocates of woman suffrage have given it. A State which had become accustomed to the spectacle of women contending on equal terms with men at city elections might naturally be expected to be favourably inclined towards an extension of their privileges, all the more so because the political power acquired by them in municipal affairs should make them a body whose desire for a larger franchise could not be treated as a negligible quantity. To find some explanation for the contrary state of sentiment which is consistent with the declaration that municipal suffrage by women in Kansas has worked well and has the approval of the public, should be the first duty of those who wish other States to follow the example of Kansas in giving to women the municipal ballot.

(4) Full Suffrage. This privilege has been given to women in four States-Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Utah. In those States