The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 18, 1897, Page 20

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, APRIL 18, 1897 THE PRESERVATION OF MONTEZUMA GASTLE IN ARIZONA. A strong effort was made to get the last Arizona Legislature to pass a bill appro- priating a modest sum of money to be expended in the preservation, at least, of Mon- tezuma Castle, which is the largest end most pretentious of the prehistoric ruins exiant in ihe Territory. The sum of $300) was asked for, and had the amount been allowed it would have been sufficient to have provided for the partial restoration of the noble ruin upon the original lines, which are yet clearly discernible. Legislature had an economical streak, and its few members who took any interest in archwological matters were unable to offer any trades or other inducements to secure the passage of the bill. Now, however, several private individuals who realize the importance of presery- ing these ruins, have taken the matter in hand and are attempting to raise a sufficient fund by subscription. A few hundred dollars will be enough to preserve the ruin in ts present condition for many years to come, while a couple of thousand wiil be enough to restore exterior walls to their original condition. The uppellation “Montezuma Castle” is certainly a misnomer, for none of Monte- ztuma’s people ever reached Arizona. The castle is far older than any of those built by the sanie race that welcomed Cortez and his band of pillaging treasure-seekers to e opinion of Lieutenant Cushing, who had charge of the fa- mous Hemingway archmological expedition, that the ruins in Verde Valley, where Montezuma’s casile is located, were those of the Toltec, a race that was the forerunnef / of the Aztecs, and in many respects their superior. His opinion also was that what is now known as Maricopa County at one time contained a population many times | their shores. It was greater than the present population of the entire Territory. And the center of this population was the Verde Valiey, which lies to the north of and appears to be a tributary or branch of the greater Salt River Valley. Beaver Creek courses through Verde and the banks of this stream are lined with ruins of the cliff-dwellers, as well with the crumbling walls of other peoples who lived in great stone and cement honses. What is knowr as Monteznma Castle is the largest ana most pretentious of these latter ruins, but it is surrounded on all sides by numbers of cliff dwellings dug into or carved out of the solid rock. Montezuma's castle probably takes its name from a huge hole intheground that well. There ars cliff dwell- ings carved into the walls of this huge well, which is now partly filled with eood spring water that courses down from a lakelet some distance above. The old castle stands well inside a huge cave formed by the erosions of time in a limestone formation. There is an outer battlement wall at the mouth of the cave, but has been given the fanciful appeliation of Montezum this 13 in a far worse state of preservation than 1s the castie within. i . i 2 %7 One of the Cliff Dy The castle is a huge building constructed of a lime concrete. 1t is perhaps a hunared feet long and fifty feet in width, There are several stories to the building and the floorings are in a ellings on Beaver Creek, Near Montezuma Castle. But the - S h, e e \ —en A Montezuma Castle, in Verde Valley, Arizona, One of the Noblest Toltec Ruins Extant, a Fund for the Preservation and Partial Restoration of Which Is Now Being Raised. £ood state of preservation. Nearly all the dividing walls, which separate the interior into many chambers of various sizes, are also well preserved. The roof of the cavern was the roof of the top story, and above the parapet are galleries on three sides. The front of the building rises int the only part of the structure that boasts a rcof. The floors are made of red cvpress voles, that appear to have been hewn with rough stone hammers. This cypress is said to grow only in the Verde Valley and in certain parts of the Holy Land. The wood is finely preserved. It looks much are made. Over the cypress poles are placed saguara (giant cactus) ribs, and over these ribs is packed closely a coating of white clay mixed with straw and leaves, all of which makes an excellent flooring. Tue cypress poles have been barked, but lack ail other finishing. A wealth of ancient pottery and stone implements, obsidian, turquoise and other precious substances has been taken away from the miscalled Monte: much still remains, and the castle itself is well worihy the sincere effo: ful men and women to restore and preserve. Dr. Miller of Prescott, a confirmed and very learned and enthusiastic antiquarian and archwmologist, together with Frank C. Reed of Flagstaff, who is also deeply skilled and interested in these wonderful relics of zation, is chiefly responsible for the efforts now being made to preserve and restore this splendid monumert of a time-d:m civilization, and those who desire to con- e S YM iy i h.‘.fl very rmmetrically shaped dome, and this is ike the red cedar of which lead pencils uma Castie, but s of thought- past and aimost unknown civili- 7 4 /-‘ Wi i tribute to such a worthy cause shou'd address their subscriptions to Mr. Reed. il / Charles F. Lammis, one of the best authorities on the ancient rnins in the South wall. * * west, and one of the very few writers who have ever described the Rio Verde ruins, bas written the following on this notable prehistoric monument: Four or five miles up Beaver Creek from Camp Verde, ancient from a lime-stone hill, is & strange, * Farur its face i martens of long 1go stuck the half high in the eternat shadow of the clifi’s brow, looks as If carved fr This prehistoric American c back in the shadow of the rock, front is over sixty feet in lengih. The rooms number twenty-five; while b atits sides, are many other tiny chambers—natural crottoes in the cliff, wal rubble masonry. The foundation of the casde is about eighty feet above the oot of the eliff d is not—nor ever was—accessible except by ladders. * * * Heedless relic-nuaters h s0 undermined the walls that some of them sre tn d begins the whole castie will go very fist. Witha little care and attention it would stand for another 500 years; hnd if this great rich Philistine of a Nation let it fail to wreck, the shame would be indelible. hewn by the patient stream 14T, 200 feet high, & semi-uae in shape, sheer as a & great cavity, like a besin set on edge; and therein the human prodigious nest. The gray ruin, half in the swhite sunlight, the rock behind it tle is five stories high—about fifty feet. The upper tier, far is hardly visible in the photographs. The crescent-shaped w the castie, and ed in front with ve nger of falling; and when the process JO LIBERATE THE TENDER FEET OF GELESTIAL DAMSELS. ‘Within the next few weeks there will be tried in San Frane cisco an experiment which is without parallel in a period of 1000 yeas This is nothing less than lecal interference with the practice of making small feet artificially for the maidens of Chinese parentage who reside on the sandy peninsula of San Francisco. Imagine the effect of an attempt to regulate by law the corsets which are worn by the blue-e: maidens of Ger- many, the yellow-haired girls of rdinavia, the chic girls of gay Paris, the red-cheeked girls of Engiand and rhe briliant, high-spirited maids of the broad dominion of Uncle Sam! Imagine what a task it would be to commingle the castes of India, to transform the ladies of Borneo, to cure the Hawaiian meid of her fondness for swimming in tle breakers which impearl her beloved island of Qabu! That would all be easy in comparison with the execution of a foot reform among Chinese girls, Nevertheless a gentleman of prominence in this City has vowed that Le will take steps to prevent hereafter the maiming of any Chinese girl in the proud City of San Francisco. He wishes to remain unknown for the presant, but he is the presi- dent of probably the most popular puklic institution in San Francisco—one which is daily visited by crowds of our most intelligent people. He realizes the difficulty, but is firmly 1n earnest. Before the week is out he will address letters to both of tne Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ask- ing them to interfere to prevent the torture upon little Chinese girls. ‘When Chinese women began to curb the natural growth of their feet is not absolutely known. But tbe most credible legend says that one thousand years ago there was a veritable Chinese Cinderelia, worthy to wear glass slipvers and to ride in the smaliest carringe that mice ever drew! Paung-hiwas a favorite of Ting-hain-chio, in the time of the Tang dynasty. Her feet were so smal! and dainty that they alone won her fame. Golden lilies were embroidered by royal mandate upsn the silken fabrics upon which she proudiy trod., But even pretty littie Paung-hi was not satisfied. Spots there are on the sun, and ambition ever fails to realize its ideal. Pretty as her fcet were, she still thought that she could im- prove upon them by Jacing them. Straightway the facile minds of the children of the Orient *‘caught on,” as might be said in Occidental vernacular. *‘By degrees,” savsa hoary and vera- cious Mongol chronicler, *the peaple (women) imitated her example until the custom prevailed in all the provinces of tne empire.”’ In San rrancisco, one thousand vears later, native dauch- ters of the Golden West, almond-eyed, olive-skinned, bloom- ingly appareled in as many vivid colors as a Dutch tulip-bed in humid springtime, are weeping, sroaning, day after day, under- going tortares, that they may assume the badge of gentility. In hovels reeking with filth and redolent of the nauseating fumes of opium, in underground, charnel-likeabodes, where the poorer coolies nest like burrowing rats, in the stores and marts where chairs of ebony are considered every-day accompani- ments of ordinary barter and dicker, from Kearny street to the crest of Powell street, and from California street to Jackson street—there are childish groans, streaming tears, hobbling and crippled children, losing all the joys which arise from activity— 10 be genteel! Every daughterof every Chinese merchant in San Fran. cisco is perforce a small-footea girl. When the children are about 5 or 6 years old the compression by bandaging begins, to prevent their further growth and to give them the form and appearance so much admired by the literary people of China. For this purpose the foot is practically extended to the ankle. The fleshy portion of the heelis pressed downward and for- ward and the entire foot is carefully wound with a long bandage from the ankie to the extremity of the toes and back again. The smailer toes are crowded together unnaturaily and bent under the foot and the foot is prevented from spreading out, as when the weight of the bogy is thrown upon it in astate of freedom. It tapers to a point at the end of the great toe. The instep is made unnaturally prominent and the os calcis, or bone which forms the bottom and posterior part of the heel, is turned downward. The foot, so com- pressed, is placed in a short, narrow shoe, tapering to a point, and sometimes a block of wood is used, so supporting the heel that the body seems 1o stand on tintoe, the heel being from one to two inches higher than the toes. It usually requires two years or longer for the feet, if properly treated, to become cramped into the genteel shape. The foot gradually shrinks and shrivels up, When after months of compression the small toes are unbandaged for the purpose of being washed or Tearessed, they are unable to assume their original positior. and appearance, but remain curled up and almost devoid of sensa- tion or feeling. When the process is begun at tlie most favorable age of the victim the heel can sometimes be brought down even with the tips of the toes. But if the girl reaches above i2 years before the torture is inflicted it is very dificult to make ber feet as- sume the “‘nroper’” shape. The bones by thistime have become bardened and a!most full size. Generally in such cases merely the toes are bent under, leaving the rest of the foot in its nor- mal condition. Larger shoes may be worn and easier walking done by this class, and it is not uncommon for a girl so fixed to eventually discard her foot bandages and leave herfeet at liberty 1o go back 1o their original form. This is especiaily true of girls who g0 out to work for wages and are required to walk abont a good deal. Of course a large proportion of the women of China have are called “large feet’” from the cradle to the prave. That is to say their feet are never hampered by bandages. Small feet are not so much a national custom as an individually elective fashion, denoting a particular profession of gentility rather than a conferred or purchased distinction. The words *good looking'’ are very frequently heard as indicative of the estimation in which they are held. It is but just to some Chinese to say that they denounce the custom and view it as nothing mors than a cripoling of the energies of the female sex, and as productive of a great deal of needless suffering. Yet those who admit that this is the case zfier all feel obliged to conform io the custom in regard to their own daughters if they reside in the cities or are associatea with the literary classes. There is no torture that a woman will nat undergo for the pur- pose of being in the fashion or being thought distinguished. So 1t was that the new Chinese Minister's wife, whose fame as an uncommonly small-footed woman has spread throughout the United States from San Fraacisco during the past week, acquired the shane of foor which the Chinese poetically call ‘‘goiden lilies.”” 8o it is that the daughters of shrimp-catchers and merchants, of house-servants and cigar-rollers, of high- binders and keepers of gambiing dens, have become small- footed. Walking through the alleys of Chinatown the contem- plative observer may be surprised any day to see a gorgeous and stiange apparition. Pattering over sidewalks of plank, climbing Iaboriousiy and with shortened breath, are large. footed women, erect, robust, toiling as beasts of burden. Upon their backs are their patrician sisters, raised from the plebeian to the npatrician state through enforced and unnatural deformity. Masses of shimmering silks and glancing jadestone rings, and waxen coiffures made gay with artificial flowers, are these women of fashion, who taper steadily downward to an animated exclamation point. They could not walk around a block in half a day. They are as helpless as the extinct dodo. Yetin their eyes 1s pride, and the onlooking hoi polloi, the flotsam and jetsam of the Chinesc human stream, feed pride with their undisguised admiration. It is said that about nine-tenths of the females who are brought up in the cities have bandaced feet, thus indicating more clearly than anything else that it is a mark or aristocracy and fashion. And, of course, the poor people desire to emu- late the fashion and hope to become higherin caste oy a method whic invoives no outlay of money, for no one is too poor to obiaic bandages. But poverty, nevertheless, gets in its work - of restriction in another way. Neces«ity lays its interdict on many families, compelling them to rear their daughters with feet upon which they mey work in the fields and bear heavy burdens. The girls of China contribute largely toward the maintenance of their parents’ housebolds. Many poor families, however, prefer to strugg'e along for a precarious living, doing all the work themselves, in order to bring up their daughters with small feet. As has been said, small feet are not an index of wealih but of gentility, and families whose daughters have the proper feet are enabled to marry them into more respect- able and more literary families than if their feet were of the natural order. But if the movement, now in its incipiency, can make suffi- cient headway, all this ridiculous vain show must go. While the Chiuese cynic, poring over the problems of life through his slant eyelids, may wonder gravely how it would be n Canton or Peking if the Kmperor of the'Flowery Kingdom should issue an edict that Jadies of European or American ancestry residing in his dominions should thereafter refrain from torturing them- selves and their children by lacing, compressing their ribs, dis- placing their vital organs and causing deformation, under penalty of the cangue, or the bastinado, or some other deter- rent, his thought may be considered irrelevant and immaterial. The deformation by the compression of feet must stop. Information derived from reliable sources leads to the con- clusion that not less than 1000 Chinese girls of very tender age are now undergoing that form of torture 1n San Francisco alone. Here the bandaging of the feet is performed by nurses. The feet are first immersed in hot water, hotter and hotter, until it reaches nearly the scalding point. This helps to relax the muscies. At once the bandages are applied, and made as tight as practiced skill and strength can effect. Thereafter they are never removed or relaxed except to apply new ones. One thousand children in torture to be relieved necessarily implies a great task for the officers of the humane societies if they shall be induced to seriously undertake to perform it fully. Cnildren with bandaged feet, being able to walk very little, must be sought in the fastnesses and secret nooks of Chinatown. The eutire fashionable sense of the dauchters of the Flowery King- dom must be assailed. Really nothing surpassing the proposi- tion in odd and unique human interest has arisen in modern times. A fact httle known to men and women of Caucasian blood is that the Chinese regard & pair of little Chinese feet, made small by compression, an unmistakable mark of chastity. Never in all the history of the Chinese in San Francisco has this been disproved. Skilled interpreters of the Chinese lan- guage regard this statement as axiomatic. - Mysterious as the Chinese are in most things there is no greater mystery to care- ful students than this undeviating feminine rule. The girls have undergone so much physical pain and prolonged agony for the sake of gentility that what they have acquired they hold dear. To destroy this distinction will be to Chinese equivaient to abrogating the significance of the decoration of the Order of the Garter. Contrary to common supposition Chinese women’s shoes are three inches long on the sole, and even shorter are not un- common in San Francisco. What that implies let the average American lady ask herself. The laws of theempire aresilent on the subject of bandagirg the feet of female children. Bandaging the feet is sumply a custom; but it is a custom of prodigious power and popularity, as may be easily inferred from what has been said above—a custom as imperious as was the custom of tight lacing by ladies in some countries ut the West, and perhaps not more ridicu- lous or unnatural, and much less destruc- tive of health and life While foreign ladies wonder why Chinese ladies shounld compress the feet of their female children s0 unnaturally, and perhaps pity them for Leing the devotees of such a cruel and useless iashion, the latter wonder why the former should wear their dresses in the present expanded style, and are able to solve the problem of the means used to attain such & result only by suggesting that they wear chicken-coops beneath their dresses, from the fancied resem- blance of crinoline skirts, of which they sometimes get a glimpse, to a common instrument for imprisoning fowls. An aerolite feil in Belgium, Injuring a man who was working in the fields. It weighed thirty pounds, one side being smooth and covered with what resembled hieroglyphics cut by means of an instru- ment. Some people think 1t may be a message irom Mars.