Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-06-07
A TALE OF WOE FROM NEW YORK.

over the discovery that the Chinese buy
and sell women as we do cattle. The reve-
lation has so shocked the press of the great
metropolis that it can scarcely find words
sufficiently strong in which to express its
horror. The Californians have, as all
know, not been believed all these years
while assuring the East that the Chinese
traffic in women as they do in merchan-
disc. Though for forty years California
has persistently told the story to the I'M
believing East, the tale has fallen upon
deaf ears. Even the records of our judicial
tribunals have been refused as evidence of
the verify of our complaint.
But at last the East awakes with a
nervous start to the truth, for the Chinese
woman and murder market has opened up
business in New York. Hear the New
York Epening Sun, for instance, OF May
2Sth:
''plain unvarnished tale" of horror was
told for the first time in the EUenta1 Sun of yes
terday. young woman. only 10 years of age,
swore before Police Justice that one man had
sold her to another for 5000: that she had been
secluded against her will for whole year; that
during that time she was starved, beaten, and
forced to lead an impure life.
We are familiar enough with such stories as
related with bated breath by missionaries who
have returned from foreign parts. The wicked
ness of the heather in foreign lands aud our
responsibility with regard to them. is often
enough brought home to US. Yet within few
hundred yards of the main thoroughfare of the
largest anG richest city in the Western Hemis-
n cir q
without windows, on the top floor of filthy tene
ment house, cut OFF from all communication
from English-speaking people
That the girl was native Of China, with no
knowledge of the English tongue, makes mat
ters worse instead of better. If q girl,
held under such conditions, managed to escape
for short time from her jailers, she would be
utterly helpless without the aid of an inter.
prefer. None of the residents of Mott street are
at all anxious to disclose the secrets of China
town to Americans. Whether man is found
dead in the street or an opium joint is raided
makes no difference. Every Chinaman seems
TO think he runs some risk by telling openly
what he knows about such events.
Those familiar with Chinatown in this city
say that Suen Yees case is only one OF q num-
Der. If so, the other sufferers should be discov-
cred and the protection of the law extended to
them. Otherwise the Mormons. with much
reason, may complain of the inequalities of the
law. The Police Board at once should engage
temporarily the services of an American citi-
zen who can speak the Chinese language. But
in future certain number OF appointments on
the force should be reserved for men who I'M
derstand the Chinese language. Only in this
way can the public feel sure that horrible bar
barities not secretly practiced in Mott street.
The Sun adds in its detailed report of
the case that the slave-dealer has been
arrested, and that his friends propose to
kill the informer.
But this tale that so stirs our contem-
porary, and which has been flashed over
the wires OF all the Geographic lines, with
EXPLANATIONS Of horror added, is as moth
ing compared to the everyday practices of
the Chinese in California. They not only
maintain a slave market and an assassin
bureau in every town on the coast of cor
siderable Importance but they use the
Courts as vehicles for the delivery of the
goods.
If the Sun is at all anxious to learn how
it is done it will have no difficulty in as
certaining. Probably it will not have long
TO wait for demonstration of the truth
in its own vicinage. Some morning its
columns will contain an item that All
Fong has sworn out warrant in an up
river town for the arrest in New York
city of Leon Shuen, the latter Chinese
woman, and the charge against her being
petty larceny. An up-river Constable will
arrive in New York and take his prisoner
possibly she may be wife, but if so the
husband will be unable to prevent the
capture.
The next the Sun will hear of the case
will be that on arrival before the Magis-
trate issuing the warrant, Leon Shuen was
bailed out, and inquiry will develop the
the fact that the bondsmen we're furnished
by the complainant. Then the charge will
be dismissed and the woman will disap-
pear, to be found later, possibly, back in
New York, but in the custody of the COM
plainant, doing infamous service for his
gain. If he is approached concerning the
matter, he will boldly claim that he pur-
chased the woman of one who imported
her, and who maintained the right to sell
her to whom he pleased. If he is arrested,
his friends will raise 81 GOO for his defense
lust as the Sun says was done in New
York last week in the case it refers to.
II the creature escapes from her thral-
dom, she viii be recaptured on another
warrant of arrest, and if her husband ven
lures to resist the processes of the slave
dealers, or if she is single and a lover Of
fers to marry her, he viii turn up his toes
on the pavement in Mott street some
evening, or be found floating in the dock