Then there are the Billies from the hills - small and stocky, no more than about belt-high. I'd average them about four feet in height - rounded neatly. Some are as cute as American jitterbugs in their rolled-up trousers and funny aprons.
In each locality styles in headgear show wide variations, though the coolie straw is worn generally for protection from sun and rain.
When you consider Chinese fashions the most striking thing about the costumes is their practicality. They're designed for comfort and with a desire to please some particular male - in contrast to the American way, where changing style trends are designed to impress other women.
Another deep-seated misconception of mine is defeated by the fact that Chinese are not house-bound creatures who have no opportunity to get out into the world. I find Chinese girls engage in a vartiety of occupations.
The village vintner, of whom I made a sketch sells "Jing Ba" - the local vodka or alcohol, a powerful pulverizer of man or machine. In other sections I also saw an oriental orange vendor, street dealer in cigarettes, and a charcoal coolie - all feminine. All in all, the Chinese women are both decorative and charming, and would give the gals back home a good-sized chunk of competition in sophistication.
I would like to tell you more about them, but at present I am pressed for time, as I am taking a correspondence course in Life Saving, on the off chance that the Chinese may once again decide to use the Yangtse River to liquidate their girl problem in the old-fashioned way my mother used to describe. I want to be around to save a couple!