Salt Lake Tribune | 1900-08-13 | Page 2 | No "Sweet Sixteen" in China

No Swcol Sixteen In China I In China there Is nothing of tho sweet girlhood which Is enjoyed In thin country coun-try In fact ono rarely sees girls in China They marry so young that they appear ap-pear to spring from childhood to maturity ma-turity without any Intermediate stage of girlhood There Is no blushing 15 or sweet 16 no flirtations no balls I no picnics no billetdoux The child I has not ceased to play with her doll before sho has a baby to dandle The only Joy of a womans life Is In dressing her hair This Is done with an elaborate artistic science curious to see Their hair is Invariably black and very long It la drawn tightly from I tho face and stiffened with gum I Is Am then piled up In cols and wings and loops that stand alone without the aid of pads roulets pugs or hairpins There arc no uplnstcrs In China HIC plntels except ex-cept the nuns who dedicate their virginity vir-ginity to Buddha These ladles shave their heads like priests and thus deprive de-prive themselves of the only Chinese l sign of gender the hair dressed a 10 teapot London Mail