Dress is confined to the rag worn about the loins, except that the
women wear in addition a small cloth over their shoulders. The
children wear nothing whatever, but we saw none that were not
ornamented by cheap jewelry in the most extraordinary manner.
The subject of clothes, as we all know from the days of "Sartor
Resartus," lies very closely at the roots of civilization. I think
every thoughtful person must admit that here the Heathen Chinee
shows that he has reached the best solution of that annoying
question. The every-day dress of the Chinaman is to-day just what
it was thousands of years ago. As there is no going out or coming
in of fashion, he wears his clothes till they can be worn no
longer. The heavy-overcoats which distress Americans and are a
weight even to the Englishman, our celestial friend escapes by
having three or four light coats all of one pattern and weight. It
is a one, two, or a three-coat day, according to temperature.
Again and above all he escapes the horrid starch entirely, neither
shirts nor collars nor cuffs, sometimes like thin sheets of iron,
irritating his skin.
Vandy and I seriously resolved to-day that we would never again
tolerate a starched thing about us; no matter what others did, we
would discard the vile custom and be free. In revising this I am
bound to admit our weakness: neither Vandy nor I have been strong
enough to contend against our mothers.
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