The record-union., 1894-11-02

War, the Tiger God and the God of
Death, and, appropriately enough, there
was no sign of the gentle Goddess of
Mercy, who is the most poetic and at
tractlve divinity IN the Chinese worship.
EXERCISE CAUTION.
The pirates in the far East have learned
wisdom by experience. They no longer
cruise the wide seas, attacking whatever
craft may come along. There are too
many gunboats patroling the coast, too
many rifle guns and too mSIy yardarms
Law and order in the past eighty years
have shot, hanged, drowned, blown up
or burned at least 100, 600 followers of the
black flag" The survivors are pain
fully aware of the fact, as is also the
younger generation, which has filled the
vacancies made by death. To-day their
work is done upon a smaller, but a far
shrewder and safer basis.
They keep spies at various places in
their neigh ghborhood, who report to head
quarters whenever some junk is about to
leave that has rich cargo or carries a
large amount OF money. Along with this
goes the information of who commands
the boat, how large a crew it carries and
how il is armed.
The pirates then plan to intercept the
craft in some river or arm of the sea, or
else in some shoal water near the coast,
where there is no chance of meeting
q
berry, they will have safe means of
escape. Their calculations are carefully
made, but come out right only once in
in four or five times. The reasons of the
failures are various. 1t may be that
foreign or Chinese gunboat suddenly ap-
pears upon the scene. 1t may be that the
junk they are after goes past their rendez-
vous with a European steamer or river
launch, or mayhap that the prospective
victim is delayed by adverse winds
and tides, and SO does not appear at the
time and place figured upon.
When they do make capture they are
not so brutal and cruel as in the old wears,
They only kill those who resist or take
arms against them. They confiscate
everything of value on board and carry il
to their own strongholds, or else to some
receivers shop OF pawnbroker's in any
convenient town.
GRADES OF PIRACY.
There are different grades of piracy, as
of every other crime. As in robbery you
have at one extreme the highwayman
and the bank burglar and at the other
the miserable sneak thief, so in piracy
you have two widely separated types 10
the freebooter who takes his life in
his hand to win his prize, and the
prowling night boat pirate who steals
children from the river bank and the sea
coast.
Slavery exists in China to-day as it has
done from the beginning of history.
| Children have their regular market price,
which varies according to the prosperity
or adversely of the times. In general,
small boy below the age of five or
ten will bring from five to twenty
five dollars, while little girl of the
same age will command from ten
to one hundred dollars. In warm cli-
mates little folks do much of their play
inc tor ho haG 6nIvn nd ha
intense heat of the day is over. Then is
the time for the pirate child stealer. The
trade hourishes chiefly on the larger
streams and rivers where the children
are stolen, and in the great cities, where
they are sold.
the fate of these poor little captives is
not so bad as might be supposed. Most
of the boys are bought for adoption by
Chinese families who have no son, and
who, i'll adopting them, give them all
the rights which a natural son. would
have. Others are sold as man servants,
who, in the main, are very well treated.
The female children do not nave as
happy LOT. One-third are sold to be-
come ladies' maids and house slaves.
one-third to be brought up as concu-
bines. and one-tbird for the most i'm
moral purposes. There is hardly an
abandoned woman in all of China but
what owns one or more of these So
calIeu pOcket uaugnterS.
JUSTICE BRIBED.
The penalty for child stealing is de-
capitation. bur it is very seldom inflicted
| The pirates who are arrested generally
get out upon the plea that that the child
was lost or sold to them by some i'm
| poverished parent. This, with the addi-
ton OF a handsome sum paid to the mag
| istrate, together with the. lack of positive
proof on the part of the prosecution,
usually insures their acquittal and hon.
orable discharge.
Now and then they run across an up
right Judge who cannot be corrupted nor
| lntlmidated, and then it fares hard with
them. One of this sort is the present
Hal-fang-ting of Annoy City. who on one
occasion beheaded five pirates found
guilty OF child-stealing, Notwithstanding
they were men of considerable influence
and wealth. After they were beheaded