China has been more than once alluded to as "Topsyturvy Land; but one Little county of that vast Republic lying not many miles distant from the city of Canton is, to the Chinese mind, the world upside down. Its womenfolk look. upon marriage as a hideous custom: Vase numbers refuse flatly to live with their husbands after marrying. Hundreds upon hundreds of maidens chose female friends for "arouse and may live with these "Life com-"until death breaks up the ship.
AA peculiar economic condition has riven rise to this distorted notion that to go through life tied down fo a home and family ig all wrong. For these are the women of the nunty of Suntak, the great malberry-producing belt of the Kuangtung Province, were most of the silk filo: tures of' the southlands are to be found. Unveeling silk' from the cocoon is essentially a woman's Job; and the Suntak women havea monopoly of the industry. They make good money, and hence nood not be dependent upon a soul for their support, In fact, most of them not only earn a wage. that enables them to live well themselves, but makes it possible for them to be the main support of their parents, Why should they bow to the overlordship of a mother-in-law as, der Chinese custom, a married woman must, they argue? Why should they assume the great responsibill> ties of motherhood? Why. should one forfeit her independence, give up a "eaveer;" be a drudge for, mere man, adding to his happiness, while she' herself must pine away, and live a life of sorrow and misery? An average wage of 80 cents a day has decided the issue against the marriage relationship, This state of mind has given rise to the practice of women finding each another of her sex similarly minded, and entering into compacts whereby they pair off living with the chosen ones as life companions. The majority, driven to it by their parents, do go through the marviago ceremony; but it often happens that a wife passes through life from marriage to the grave without having, stepped inside the door of her husband's home except on the wedding day. Some, out of their earnings, make settlement with the spouse, go that he can afford acquire a concubine; if the man concerned has plenty of money of his own, though, he will not expect such an arrangement to be made.
Throughout Suntak are cludhowses, of apartment houses, in. which live a number of these mated female couples. But oftentimes they build their own separate abode.
In China, the son is the apple of hig father's eye, and of his niother's too, for that matter, Daughters many, especially in former days when the act was not punished, as it may be, now, as a criminal offence, were thrown' into the discard, left by the roadside to dio. In Suntak, iis the other way around; daught: ers if anything axe preferred—to sons. And in no part of China are many "mut tsai" or girl attendants purchased a this prosperous region.
About the first of this year, by mandate, the provincial government attempted to wipe out the life com= panionship system. Other trials have been made of changing age-old customs too, but they have been 10 more successful than has been the attempt to alter the way of living which these country people have eon ditto adopt. Until the Suntak women change their way of thinking they will openly, or, if driven to it, secret, carry'on'tho same practice, law or no law, mandate or no mandate. They will not give up 80 cents a day for any individual of the opposite sex, no matter what you may say or do.—Reuter. satisfy the demand in time, he believed.
Mrs. En was born on the island of Ma An elaborate reception was given im honour of the visiting diplomat and. ju connection with the Doublee Ten holiday—United Press.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.