The morning call., 1890-04-08
IN DENS OF SHAME.
Horrible Fate of Unfortunate
Chinese Slave-Girls.
Miss Gable Exposes Some RepulsiVe Phases Of
Monaghan Wiekednsss-Grave Charges
Against the Police.

Miss Emma R. Cable. who is well known
for her missionary labors in Chinatown,
read a paper at the seventeenth annual
meeting of the Occidental Branch of the
Women's Foreign Missionary Society of
the Presbyterian Church last Thursday
at Santa Clara. In the course of her read
ing she said:
when l mention the fact that during
the past year l have visited and taught in
l32 families you will readily see how i'm
possible it is for one person to devote to each
all the time that could be usefuliy employed.
In these families we frequently find three
and four wives under the same roof, the
practice of polygamy being the rule with
such of the Chinese as think they can af-
ford it. In most instances the women are
bought in this country in what may aptly
be called the open slave market, for there
Is no disguise about it at all. The price of
each human chattel varies from $1,000 10
$1,000. Their first cost is, however pretty
much their last ey are thereafter kept
busy sewing garments for the stores. an d
are expected to work from twelve to sixteen
hours every day, Sundays included. And
this is as true of the merchants wives as Of
the pc orer class.
"0ur entire number of girls now being
visited and taught is 156, ranging IN years
from to r. OF this number we have
taught fifty-eight regularly and systemat-
ically. and the superior grasp of mind and
capacity for development displayed by
many are at once to US pleasure and an
incentive to effort on their behalf. In these
families we have taught seven women, the
number being necessarily small, because,
unless they are willing and anxious to CO.
operate, it is impossible to devote time TO
them. In many instances, however, the
mothers acquire more or less of knowledge
thraupb the nprs0naI intPrnst fhPV take in
their children's studies.
IT Is REPELLINGw
I'VE daily encounter little girls in the
alleys and dens of vice, and could we induce
the proper authorities to exercise their
power we would not be compelled, as now,
to see the class of little girls we taught in
Bartlett alley, already in possession of own
ers of den5 of shame at the tender age of
10 and IA. This is the most hideous phase
of life which we are forced to face in Chi
natown. 1t is repelling to the last degree.
Is it not monstrouS that the educational
work | early did in Bartlett alley should be
made. to add to the accomplishments, and,
therefore, to the money value of these hu-
man adornments of dens of SIM / implore
the assistance of all good people in demand
ing the enforcement of the laws of the land
to the end that this direst form of human
slavery the mind can imagine may be abOl-
iShed, and terrible blight upon the fair
fame of our beautiful State may be blotted
out.
miss Carrie MacFarland and were en-
abled to rescue one of these girls from the
den in which she had so long been confined,
and for some four months it was necessary
to keep her in hiding in my home. as a large
reward was offered for her capture, and the
highbinders were threatening to murder
anybody found harboring her. For time
these wretehes had the andacity to place
my home under surveillance, and in this
free country to actually threaten it with
peril. Her whereabouts was finally trac ed
through white hackInan accepting 800 as
bride to tell whittier he had driven her.
The highbnders thereupon met and re-
solved in the most formal way possible to
exact the death penalty from any Chinese
found extending her aid and comfort. and
this resolution was avowed throughout the
quarter.
THE CHINESE DOLLAR.
"But you ask: Where was the law and
its officers all this time?' Good, innocent
folks the Chinaman's dollar is mightier
than the American Constitution with San
Francisco's policemen and politicians! 1t
is one of the most lamentable facts in con-
nection with this girls experience that a
moiety of her earnings was paid each week
to an influential policeman. In point OF
fact, the protector provided her by law was
in part her enslayeT and owner. She, of
whom all this is true, is yet only Is years
Of age. She is attractive in appearance, OF
superior mind. marked Individuality and of
refined manners, which it is diff
cult to tell how she acquired.
Born in China, her father was a
German sea captain and her mother
Chinese woman. The death of the father
lett the family in straltened circumstances,
and slaye-buyer from San Francisco APP
pearing, the mother was induced to part
with the child, then only IA years old, upon
the representation that Chinese merchant.
whose photograph was exhibited, would
M har arrival no yya n
stead sold for $500 and placed in the den
from which had the good fortune to rescue
her. Let me impress upon you, however.
that she is the representative of class in
this Christian land still in enforced and
sinful slavery, whose condition American
civilization cannot afford 10 tnlerate.n