Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-10-29
WIVES OF CHINAMEN.
DEPLORABLE lNTERMARRIAGES OF
WHITE GIRLS AND MONGOLlANS.


Grave Problem-The Terrible Fate
Endured by Conhding Women.
Nowhere in the world is there such
a striking commingling of diametri-
cally opposite races as there exists to-
day in the Chinese quarter of San
Francisco, writes Lucie f. Pierce
! Nowhere has the Monaghan race so
persistently intermarried with ma
tionalities of the white race. Mo-
where have white women who venture
to enter into such a contract so lost
their caste, their station in society,
and become such wretched outcasts,
without a friendly tie of either clan
or country, as they have within the
! limits of the California city.
Marriage between whites and Chi
nese is increasing to an astonishing
| extent. Nearly one hundred cases are
now known to exist. This is not
large, of course, in comparison with
the number of Chinese in the city
/ Indeed, that number is small. But its
| significance is terrifying. In that lies
the problem.
Contemplate for a moment what a
white woman surrenders when she
marres a Chinaman. First of all, she
| must abandon all association with her
! relatives. She is forced to this on ac-
count of the wide breach which ex-
! lists between the races She not only
must cast aside all filial ties, but she
must sever forever all connection with
/ the whole white race. When she
abandOns her race she abandons her
caste. And when she loses her caste
| she loses her country. She becomes a
| social outcast. She has lowered her
self from the ranks of a progressive,
! cultured race to those of a vile. un-
clearly semi-civilized horde weak
mentally and morally. She has lost
all that would make patriotic woman,
| loyal to whatever national flag, thrill
with the deepest feeling.
And the gain? Why. there is no
| gain. 1t is all loss. She secures a
husband but she loses pride. She Sc
/ cures miserable home, and she loses
forever what a woman holds most
! dear. her name
At any moment we may expect to see
her celestial husband wind his pig
tail around his yellow, shaver head,
and depart for China. leaving her
without means of support cast upon
| the world, a despised and ignored
]
midst of disease breeding filth, the
husband may be carried off by death.
He may leave some landed property
or the merchandise of a shop or few
bags of gold coin. Naturally one
would think that she who had surren-
dered everything that is precious and
noble in life for her Chinese husband
would reap the benefit of all this and
receive the heritage due her. Not so.
| No white woman ever inherited
dollar of a Chinamans wealth. 1t goes
to the beloved uncles and parents and
| brothers and sisters in the big flow
cry kingdom over the water. and the
white woman is left to starve.
Hated and spurned in America. she
may seek the shores of her husbands
country and throw herself upon he
mercy and leniency of his family there.
She who had once been superior to
them in intellect, in form, in Leauty,
in morality, in instinct, receives not
even the respect of equal to equal.
There have been cases where white
women have married Christianiza
| Mongolians. Marriage in this case is
sacred, binding. legal. There have
been a few such that have turned out
happily.
Strange as it may seem. q major
itE of the women who marry Chinese
| have sprung from Scandinavian Ger
man or Russian parentage. 1t seems
tina; the yellow hair and the blue
eyes Of the buXom northern beauties
appeal particularly to the Monaghan
race. The rosy complexion and grace
of white women astonishes AID at
tracts them. No Chinaman will marry
woman of his own race if he can
prevail upon a white woman to accept
marriage.
If the Chinaman will consent to be-
come a Christian and give Up some of
the marital privileges of his native
land, they are looked upon as respect
able members of the community. The
woman really gains nothing by this
neither does she lose. She is taking
chances neither way. And the Chi
nese husband and father rises some
what in the nature of his instincts,
one step in the ladder of advancement.
But this has not been the happy out
come of all the intermarriages which
have taken place. Only a rare few
have consented to accept Christianity.
And white women persist in throwing
themselves away on these pagan in
CRATES. Mission workers plead with
them and still they persist in entering
into unions that end eventually in
utter degradation and social degener-
acy If they are not strong enough
to resist the attentions of a pagan ce-
lestial they are not strong enough to
Withstand his awful vices. Let them
step out into the by-way of a pagan
marriage and they have chosen the
road to everlasting social damnation.
The end is generally violent death.
Sight of Birds.