Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-27

here held in Just as abject bondage as in
China. The great mass of the coolies are
so held, and their wages are bargained for
and absorbed by the masters, and they in
turn have to remit a stipulated percentage
to the patriarch of the slaves family in
China. If there is any doubt on this sub
/ ject we can cite standard authorities
which uniformity agree that these things
are true.
We in California know that Chinese
women are bought and sold as sheep in the
shambles or cattle in the stalls We know
that these women are mainly unaware of
the fact that in the eye of the law they
are not slaves; are ignorant of their right
to go free, and are by education and the
traditions of their race, incapable of avail
ing themselves OF their rights as free
women. The Chinese make no conceal
ment of this fact. They speak of buying
and selling women as we do of buying and
selling pigs. In the Turkish slave marts a
degree of secrecy is required, and only the
favored few can buy woman. Nominally
the law prohibits the traffic there, but
practically it is carried on with the knowl-
edge of the officers of the law But here
women are bought openly and enslaved,
even to the right Of the master to take the
life of the refractory woman, or of putting
her out of the way when she is worn and
old, and no longer serviceable to vice and
the purse of the owner And the China
man says to US, "What are you going to do
about ?' The Courts reply, Nothing,
if slavery is charged And the Courts
are right.
In that cutting operate satire that has
been the rage of the stage recently, a
maiden lirt and her lover exclaims, We
must not do this, for it is against the law
We must not kiss thus, for it is against the
law We must not Irvine our arms about
each other thus, for it is against the law
We must not look into each others
eyes thus, for it is against the law. Now,
! If 1T were not for the law, we might kiss
| each other thus and thus; if it were not
for the law, we might embrace each other
thus, and thus; if it were not for the law.
we might gaze at each other thus; but as
it is against the law we must not do this
and this, and this" More satirical is the
Chinaman in California He caricatures
the caricature, and burlesques the bur-
| lesque. He says to his slave: may
not buy you thus, for the law does not
recognize the purchase as possible. | may
not sell you thus, for it is an act unknown
to the law. | may not enslave you as l do
for the law declares | cannot do it. | may
not beat you as master does his slave
and as do now, for the law says I cannot
commit that crime as u master NAV
not consume your substance my slave,
as | do, for the law declares [ am in
capable of it."
Well, what are we going to do about
it? Suffer il? Certainly not If it is
the law that there is no slavery here, then
we must see to it that there Is IN fact no
slavery here. The nome missionary field
is wide and inviting, and there is indeed
cry from the Macedonia of California
Chinatowns. We might organize anti
slavery clubs to protect the conscience of
the law, and see to it that the fact con-
forms to the theory We might organize
habeas corpus societies, to enable the
slaves that the law says do not exist in
theory, are accorded their rights in fact
and made free indeed We boast that in
this land there is no wrong that may not
be righted: no injury without remedy,
let US make our Boosting reality.
Our laws insuring personal liberty
are ample, let us enforce them.
1t will be something of difficult matter,
for it is notorious that Chinese assassins,
hired to do deeds of blood, are ready paid
and regularly employed to knife us if we
attempt to make the theory of the law
good in practice. We know that these as
sassins do the service required of them.
We have seen it done repeatedly on Third
street in this city between sunrise and sun
set. We know that in the identical cases
| under consideration the walls of China
town blaze red with rewards for the blood
of the men who had the temerity to rescue
the Chinese slave women from the Chinese
slave masters, but whom the law says are
not such. The facts and the theory do not
harmonic very well, it must be confessed
but 1t must be our duty to bring them into
more fraternal relations The only ques-
ton is just now. "who is ready to take his
life in his hand and open the missionary
ball p