The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-09-08

| Ing prosperity Is W IeinoNetiAo OH
yer !" (Cheers
The New American Slavery.
Among the articles in the Sep
tember number of the North Ameri-
can Review there is one concerning
the Chinese residents of this coun
try, which is sure TO excite wide
spread anger and apprehension The
anthor. Mr. Charles Frederick Hold
er, charges that these people, in San
Francisco and perhaps in other large
American cities, carry on slave
trade which is as vile and revolving
as any traffic in human beings to be
found in the world. His statements
indicate careful study of the matter
under discussion, and are made with
such exactness of detail! and specif-
cation that they will shock the moral
sense of tie public.
Of the 10000 Chinese in San Fran
cisco, Mr.. Holder declares that there
are 5000 whose only business is the
importing and selling of women and
girls from China These criminals,
he continues. conduct regularly or.
ganized slave market, where their
victims are bought and sold with lit
tie or no attempt at concealment, and
the business is so profitable that its
leaders have grown rich and power
fni. The helpless creatures who are
thus disposed of to bidders at prices
ranging all the way from $50 to
So, 500, are mostly young girls, who
have been stolen from their homes j,
China ty agents of the slave traders
and brought into America by means
Of fraud, forgery and false certificates
of residence. There are $500 Chi
nese women and young girls in San
Francisco. according 10 hlr. Holder,
and he estimates that fully l,500 of
the whole number are slaves in every
sense of the word, who have been
bought and paid for ae if they had
been so many sheep or cattle.
All efforts to suppress the mon
strous business have failed. Now and
then a miserable wretch revosts
against the cruelty of her master and
appeals to The courts or the church
missions, is rescued from her living
death, but these cases are rare. The
victims are ignorant and supersti
tious, and having been taught by their
owuers to believe that they will
be tortured aud put to death by the
officers of the law in case they apply
for protection, they submit to their
dreadful fare rather than provoke new
evils by fighting against it The bust
ness is 80 carefully organized aud its
profits are so enormous that the men
engaged in it stop at no expense to
defeat every legal attempt TO destroy
it. The traffic has the acQuiesceDce
if no, the sanction and approval Of
the powerful companies which coEs
troll all Chinese interests in San Fran
cisco, and with their protection. to
gether with the ready trickery, .per
jury and fraud of it's followers. Ut
prospers and grows in spite of all ei-
forts TO eradicate it.
That a trade so hideous as the
barter and sale of human beings
should thrive in this country-not
only in San Francisco. but possibly
also much nearer our own homes-is
an insult and reproach to Christian
institutions. This wicked business
has frequently been hintede at before
now. and strange stories have been
told of Iawless customs that prevail
among the Chinese residents of
American cities, but it has remained
for Mr. Holder fully to disclose the
vilest oe them and to show that The
slave market has been re established
within the territory of the United
States. His recital not only war
rants, but demands searching in
quiry into the social and moral ai-
fairs of the Chinese quarter in every
American city For if his charges
are in accordance with the facts,
these outlaws from the Orient are
boldly conducting a traffic in this
country which is an outrage upon
morals, Justice and social institutions,
and an Infamous crime against the
government N. Y. Mail and Ex
| press.