Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1864-12-07
THE EVENING STAR.
The RabY Tower Of Shanghai.

The following is from a description OF the
Chinese city 81 Shangai contributed to the Ooh-
nnen tai Magazine by III. b. Auchincloss:
THE only structure like tower, if we ex-
cept the turrets on the city walls and watch
towers erected within the past lew yeas,
when the Tacpings have tnreatenea me c,sy, Is
a TALL white m 1nnnent rising to the height OF
twenty feet and without lnscrlptioI or dis
unguist :. z mark of any kind l.. looks like
fns phi ta tomb, higher and J.iore ambitious
than usual and truly 1t Is q 'tehits sepulchre!'
BABY Tower, it is called BY the foreign resi-
dents for 1t is filled With the bones OF infants
not such as have died natural death as Bay
ard TAYLOR asserts, but which ha We been thrust
into this hoTrid monument of heather cruelty
when but few hours old. Humanity shud-
ders at the thought Thess dazzling white
baby towers, with their mockery OF purity,
their object known to all men, and openly in
wiling, as il were, the most unnatural and
heartless OF murders, are among the most hid
eous spectBcles to be met with in q seathen
land. True, ariver or pond will be pointed
out to you in other parts of China or in India,
where babies are daily drowned like puppies
or Kittens; but they do not affect the mind with
such horror as these palpable structures,
erected with the best skill of their architects
Tor TINS express purpose. The water closes
over he murdered infant, and no trace OF Inc
crime remains: but here is a tOwer-a nlgn
tower-with deep foundations, filled with the
bones of murdered babes that have been &C.
umUlatIng for generations.
No wonder that Christian mothers, resi-
dents In the East, cannot speak OF them or see
them without g shudder, and never willingly
th' might heaT II they approached the tower.
he vail of some poor infant just thrown In,
meet its tSIher returning from his cruel err
rand!
lat Shanghai the Baby Tower stands on the
southwest eide OF the city, without the walls,
but at Foo-Ch ow, where tho crime of infauti-
eide is still more prevalent, they use no baby
towers, bat have provided ponds for the ex.
pres purpose. 1t rs the saddest part of this
great national crime OF the Chinese, but tits
sanctioned by the mandarins, and vie wed as 6
GleagrSP4Hip QECpSslty, not SrIma
alt has been the fashion OF the late years to
deny the existence of this denominations; the
douhteTs, wise in their own conceit, insisting
that the crime is too great for human nature.
Human nature, unfortunately, has proved
but trail barrier to crime of this character in
all paris of The world, and the facts of Chinese
infanticite are ipdisputable. The witnesses
are too numerous, the crime is too public, and
the evidence of it too notorious 10 deny its ex-
Istence. The children destroyed are girls; the
most common methods of destroying them are:
first, by drowning in tub of water second,
by throwing into some running stream; third,
by burying alive. The last named mode is
adopted under the hope and with tbs super
sutious belief hat the next birth will be a DO v
The excuse is that it is too expensive 70 edn-
cate a girl, but il some friend viii take the
child to bring Up as wife for a little boy, the
parent Will sell or give away the infant rather
than destroy IL. The regular prica is two
thousand copper cashier two dollars Tor every
year Ct their lives, tor sometimes a gil will be
saved fer year or two, and then sold for a
wife or slave. Many instances nave come to
the HOliEt u MISSIONARIES WHtGH large I3uflIieS
OF girls have been destroyed. THERE'S one wo-
man now employed as q nurse III a mission
ary's family al Fun. Chow, who says that her
mother had eight girls and three boys, and tina.
she was the only girl permitted by her father
10 live We never heard OF au instance of
boy being destroyed at birth There is will age
about fifteen miles from Fuh- Chow, which is
sWarming with boys but where girls are very
scarce. The people ACCOUNT for it themselves
by alleging the common practice ofl,illing the
girls at birth, aprHetice which is INDUCED in
10y the rich as we'll as by the poor
WERRE THE OLE CONES FRoM.-An fold
whale Captain was expressing his opinion at
the Petroleum Hotel, Oil City, that the oil came
from huge deposit of whale, which were
caught there when the flood abated, and inter-
venIng convnleions of nature had since covered
them up. What might q whale be worth,
Captain!" inquired a native who had never
seen salt water "About twenty thousand dol
lars" replied The Captain. We'll, a whales
pretty good property, isn't it,' Eyes, when
you catch him. quietly responded the old salt,
who, after being quarter of century
whaling harpoener, had now become pe,ro-
leum lamp ooner.
~The Albany shoemakers have struck for
VI aOa