Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1865-01-13
Baby Tower at Shanghai, China.

k The only structure like tower, If W.
IT except the turrets on the city walls ant
+ watch towers erected within the past few
years, when the Taepings have threaten
n ed the city, is tall, white monument
rising to the height of twenty feet, and
>. without inscription or Distinguishing mark
Q of any kind. 1t looks like a fine white
: iomb. higher and more ambitious than
usual. and truly il is 'wbited sepulchre :
Baby tower, it is called by the foreign
residents, for it is filled with the bones Of
infants-not such as have died natural
death, as Bayard Taylor asserts, but
which have been thrust into this horrid
monument of heather cruelty when but
ia few hours old Humanity Shndders az
the ihoughtl These dazzling white baby
towers. with their mockery of purity.
their object known to all men, and openly
inviting, as il were, the most unnatural
and heartless OF murders, are among the
most hideous spectacles to be met with in
a heather land. True, a river or a 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
a horror as these palpahle structures,
erected with the best skill of their archi-
tects for this express purpose. The wa
err closes over the murdered infant, ana
no trace of the crime remains but here
is toweE--a high tower-with deep
foundations, filed with the bones Of muir
dered babes that have been accommodating
for generations No wonder that Chris
Iian mothers, resident IN the East, cannot
~peak of them or see them without
and never willingly pass them
in their drives. Who knows but they
might hear, il they approached the tower
The wall of some poor infant Just thrown
IN, or meet its father returning from his
cruel errand? At Shanghai, the Baby
over stands on the southwest side Of the
:ity, without the walls, but al Foo Chow,
where the crime of infanIicide is still
more prevalent, they use no baby towers,
'ut bave provided ponds for this express
purpose. 1t is the saddest part of this
reat national crime of the Chinese, that I
is sanctioned by the mandarins, and
iewed as disagreeabe necessity, not :
5 a crime.
II has been the fashion of late years to y
sny the existence of this abomination !; {
e doubters wise in their own concpt, n
sisting that the crime is too great for 0
imam nature. Human nature, unlortu. |
'tely, has proved but frail barrier to 0
ime of this character in all parts of the 0
orld, and the facts of Chinese infan- !
tide are indisputable. The witnesses
e too numerous, the crime is too public,
I'd the evidence of it too notorious to
sny its existence. The children DESTROY 7
are girls the most common methods i
destroying them are first, by drown /
lg in tub of water ; second, by throw {
lg into some running stream third, by
urying alive. The last-named mode is
dopted under the hope and with the
nperstitious belief that the next birth
viii be boy. The excuse is that il is
90 expensive to educate girl, but if
ONE friend will take The child to bring ,
Ip as wife for little boy, the parents '
will sell or give away the infant rather {
han destroy it. The regular price is two !
copper cash, or two dollars for
very year Of their lives, for sometimes
,irl will be saved for year or two, aud
hen sold for Is wife or slave. Many in, ,
iances have come TO the notice Of mis- /
onaries where large families of girls
rave been destroyed. There is one
woman now employed as a nurse in I
family at Fuh. Chow, who !
ays that her mother had eight girls and
hree boys, and thai she was the only girl
permitted by her father to live. We
lever heard of an instance of boy be-
ne destroyed at birth. There is a viii
age about fifteen miles from Fuh. Chow, !
which is swarming with boys, but where |
urls are very scarce. The people ac- c
cunt for it themselves by alleging the {
COMMON practice of killing the girls at G
firth, a practice which is INDUCED in by c
be rich, as well as by the poor Con- j
mental Monthly. I
Divine justice steals upon US softly !.