Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1891-07-04
CHINESE GIRL SLAVES.

CHINESE GIRL SLAVES.
Caan.s. N Ais cs..ny E.sas..say 81
xAeir Daughtsss.
On the border Of Chinatown In
Son Franoisco. there stands . neat.
square frame house. surrounded by .
well-kept garden, which is used - .
mission homo for young Chinese girlsof
the city, who have been rescued from
the peculiar form of child slavery which
prevails amongthe Chinese, or who seek
or are given refuge from distress and
degrading surroundings.
It seems to be well-established fact
that young Chinese girls-even girls
in their infancy-are sometimes bought
and sold among the Chinese of San
Francisco; and SO remote are those peo-
pie from American customs and infiu-
ence that it ID practically impossible for
the laws to prevent this practice. or
to rescue its victims, unless specific acts
Of cruelty can be proved.
In this mission house any wretched or
homeless Chinese girl can not only find
. secure refuge, but may learn. 1t the
hands Of kind American women, how to
do many kinds of useful work.
The inmates learn, moreover, what
are rarely understood among the Chi
nese of San Francisco, the virtues and
benefits of cleanliness, order, fresh air
and light.
The girls who have found shelter in
this home spend much of their time
upon embroidery, fancy work and sew
ing, in all of which they show q natural
facility. They wear the Chinese Co.'S
tune. and are often found at work on the
facings of their wood-soled slippers, or
on their foos. as their silk or cotton
trousers are called.
How completely accustomed the Chi
nese of San Francisco are to the idea Of
selling their female children is illus
trated by story told by young lady
who works as missionary among them,
and who is held in great esteem by
them. Among this young lady's Chinese
friends was q woman who sought to
provide for herself and her four little
children by binding slippers for Chi
nese factory.
Her husband smoked opium con-
stantiy and gave her no assistance.
They lived in q damp basement, and
had not sufficient food.
The young missionary not only car
ried food to the family, but spent much
time instructing one of the children, a
girl years old, in English, in order
that she might be better able to earn
money and help her mother. The child
fell i'll, and the missionary went often
to take her nourishing food. During
one of these visits the mother made her
this proposition:
Miss Emma, you buy baby. I no
feed him, baby all so hangly. Yo buy
baby-I got sell him."
Him" was q baby girl. As the
mothor knew, the child had already q
small market value with some specu-
lator, because when she grew older, she
could be sold for considerable sum.
The Chinese girl slaves are generally
purchased by the spectators when they
are under IL years of age, and afterward
sold as wives or servants. They are
often, indeed, put to regular day labor,
considered too young to send to school.
The yonng girls in the mission home
are gentle, sweet-voiced little band,
and in this respect there seems to be a
radical difference between them and the
Chinese boys at the public schools pro-
vided for them.
These boys, it is said, are often very
rough and ungentle fellows. The
teacher of this school says that he has
frequent occasion to quell small riots
among til sm, and that it seems impossi-
BILE to teach them American ideas of
good behavior in the school room.
The places in which some of these
Chinese children dwell, when at home
with their parents, seem quite uninhab-
table. In one two-room tenement five
women were found living with their chill
dren, in space not exceeding ten by
sixteen feet square. There were two
small windows in the outer room, but
no window in the sleeping room. In
this room hunks were built in tiers, one
above another, on both sides of anarrow
passageway. No light or air was adj
mitted save by the door and here all
Eve families slept. The living room
was six feet squsre.
The most wonderful thing about the
matter was that the children looked
we'll and happy.
Many of the girls who are sheltered
and taught in the mission home leave it
when their work in it is done, to become
the wives of respectable Chinese mer-
chants, and they carry with them to
their new homes many American ideas
of cleanliness and beauty. - Marie
Francis Upton. IN Youths Compas-
ION.
Largest Hammer and Anvil in tho World.