Note 257 — CXXXIII. LIFE PROLONGED.
Herbert Allen Giles translation
The long flowing robe is a sign of respectability which all but the very poorest classes love to affect in public. At the port of Haiphong, shoes are the criterion of social standing; but, as a rule, the well-to-do native merchants prefer to go barefoot rather than give the authorities a chance of exacting heavier squeezes, on the strength of such a palpable acknowledgment of wealth. return to text