The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-19
SLAVERY in THE EAST
WOMEN IN CHINA BOUGHT AND SOLD
FOR IMMORAL PURPOSES,
Owners Often Being Nominal
peans Responsible for the Evil.

They went hand in hand together in Bibi-
cal days, and they go hand in hand to-
gether in China to-day. A woman in a
p~olygamous household is really, if not
nominally, more or less a slave. Even
where a No. 1 wife enjoys some liberty and
independence, Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 have less
and less. until it becomes impossible to say
where the free woman ends and the human
chattel begins.
There are millions Of polygamous homes
in China, and millions of slaves. Even in
those Chinese cities which are owned by
European governments. such as Hong
Kong, Singapore and Penang by the En-
glish, Saigon and Haiphong by the French,
Ma "a by the Portuguese. Manila by the
Spanish and Batavia and Deli by the Dutch,
slavery is almost as prevalent as in China
proper. In any one OF these cities a slave
can report to the government, and Is in
stantly free. In nearly every inn and other
places where people congregate are placards
Ia Chinese notifying them of the law in
this respect. Nevertheless. the slave pre-
fers his slavery and declines the boon of
freedom. Even where a man slave is
worked almost to death, and a woman
slave Is leased out to the lowest dens in
the slums of these cities. it is exceedingly
rare tudl lie, Vi sic, tdhCo duNaAldSC "a thS
law.
Slave girls are purchased from their par
ents or guardians when they are quite
young. From three to seven is the favorite
age in the market, as the child then shows
about how it will look when fully grown.
The price is then quite low. from $40 to
$50. and the danger of it becoming home
sick and running away amounts to nothing.
These girls are brought up as ladies' maids
and receive an education which, while very
deficient from a European standard, is
equal to that of their mistress. They are
treated kindly and at fifteen are often ad-
mirable housekeepers. They. receive no
are supposed to be able to sleep anywhere
-on two chairs, a board, a stone bench, or
a tile floor. AT any time the purchaser has
the right to sell his slave girl again. This
is very seldom done, and only when bust
ness troubles or accidents have reduced the
master to poverty.
At sixteen the girl is marriageable, and,
i'm the next five years, usually at twenty,
she is married. Sometimes her owner is the
happy bridegroom, he choosing her as an
inferior wife, or copCubine. Generally she
is married outside, and, in that case, her
nuptials are celebrated with nearly as
much eclat as those of a daughter. There
is, however, one curious point of difference.
All her wedding presents go to her owner
under the theory of recouping him for the
loss of her services. whereas. in the case
OF a daughter. they are her marriage por-
ton with which she starts her new house
hold.
When a slave girl is pretty and popular
her presents are numerous and popular. In
this way her owner will receive several
hundred. or even a thousand dollars, when
he may have paid for her in the beginning
less than two hundred.
CHILDREN FOB SALE.
AS the families which sell their daugh-
tiers for slaves of this sort are usually des-
perately poor. the change is almost always
for the better. Besides the betterment Of
the girls condition is the help afforded her
people by her purchase money on the one
side and by the diminished strain on the
family purse occasioned by her support.
Without this system there would be an in
crease in infanticide, in death by starva-
ton or privation, and in sales of young
women for the lowest immoral purposes.
| Girl slavery has. therefore, been favored
by the Chinese policy during many centu-
ries. and is an organic feature of their CIV
i~lization.
1t extends from the imperial household in
Picking down to the domestic circle of the
prosperous coolie. The humblest wife looks
forward to have a slave girl, while an i'm
poverished home sees In its young daugh-
tiers valuable assets that can always be
converted into cash.
A slightly different kind OF slavery is that
where widows and old maids buy children,
especially boys, as an investment for sur
plus money, with a view TO their support
in old age. These are known as pocket
children and their owner as the pocket
mother" Boys bring from so to $50; girls
from $50 to SIS.
They are taken from the lowest classes
coming from slums, bagnios, farm hands
and opium dens. The owners take excellent
care OF the pocket children, and look after
their physical training and education as
we'll as their finances will permit. If a boy
can become a clerk he will earn s. or Sc a
month, when he is eighteen, whereas If he
is a porter or a day laborer he will seldom
In the treaty ports where there are Euro
peans the pocket mothers" try hard to
work these little waits into the latter's en-
| ploy. In this way the children come to get
a %colloquial knowledge of English, which is
of great commercial value, and besides this
get from % y 20 so ry ,b per uo EN- bv more i6n C Wagss
themselves.
The fourth and most somber type of
moral purposes. 1t exists In tremendous
proportions all over China, but most ex-
tensively and in it's lowest forms in the
waited by Europeans. The lowest form of
this type is when young women are bought
outright as slaves for disreputable houses.
There IL no hope nor escape for these luck
less victims of vice. as the law and custom
of China is about the same as that of
Christendom.
cities where Europeans are not allowed.
But in those where there is a large foreign
1t assumes 5 nm o,I f1rmidable dimen,
in China; that. be Ii said to the credit of
the Chinese law, Is strictly prohibited. The
only ones are in Hong Kong and the for
eign settlement in Shanghai. A large part
of their support, il not their chief support,
comes from Europeans and Eurasians. of
whom nine-tenths are the illegitimate off,
spring Of the former. Such an example and
SUCH conduct are not unprecedented by the
quick-sighted Chinese. 1t Is for this rea-
son that some of the missions appear to be
failures in the treaty ports, while they en-
joy an appreciable success inland.
The ratio of illegitimacy among the
Chinese proper is not two in a thousand.
Put in the treaty ports the illegitimate
Eurasians outnumber the Europeans, and
outnumber European children five TO one.
1t is naturally impossible TO convert intelll-
gent human beings 10 a faith whose
avowed professors and representatives are
monsters of wickedness from a Chinese
point of view.
That is why In China. in anti-misslonary
placards. there is always the suggestion.
or even the open charge, that the gospel is
q mask and cloak for immortality OF the
grosssst type. A Canton missionary de-
olared three years ago that the chief foes
to Christian progress in the far East were
Christians themselves. No class OF per-
sons appreciate this growing evil more than
do the self-sacrificing missionaries who
spend the best part OF their lives in doing
noble work in China.
a TWIN OF POLYGAMY.
The other form of slavery for immoral
purposes is equally Objectionable officially,
but is so wisely managed by the commu-
nifty. and so shrewdly regarded by the law.