The record-union., 1897-06-25
THE CASE OF LAURA LEE.

The story told of an educated and
refined half breed Chinese girl in San
Francisco who the other day took ref
uge in a mission to avoid being sold
into worse than slavery by her Chinese
father is so pitiful and irritating one
that it makes the humane heart futter
between the emotions of pity and right
eous Indignation.
Here is a modest, pure seventeen
year-old girl who was born in Chicago
of a white mother by a Chinese father.
She was educated in Chicago, raised as
a white girl, does not speak the Chinese
language, nor observe the customs of
that people She is passing fair, graced
by much of refinement and is intelligent
through culture and a good education.
Her father attempted to sell the girl
in Chicago and actually received the
money for her, but her friends inter
fered, broke up the scheme, and the old
rascal fled to San Francisco. There,
coming to financial straits. the father
and mother paraded her be-
fore lecherous Chinese with a
view to selling her as concubine, after
which she would be as they all are,
turned'out as a common morsel to serve
in the vile dens of San Francisco's Curl
osity shop, Chinatown.
Under the law the father Of this girl
~, er,1aY.5iau
and entitled to her custody and earn
ings. But the law is not so rigid as to
maintain these rights in his behalf when
it can be shown that he makes misuse
of his power and legal guarantees. 1t
permits the minor OF certain age to
choose his or her own guardian, when it
is shown that the natural protector acts
in an unnatural manner, and this mercy
of the law is to be invoked in the case
of Laura Lee.
The incident serves to illustrate a
phase of Chinese civilization that the
great East has not fully comprehended,
and which when advanced to its con-
sideration, as a usual rule, is replied to
with unbelief and citation of the fact
that American women are disposed Of
sometimes without their consent and
forced into unhappy and repulsive mar
riages. But if that is ever SO true and
ever so frequent, what has it to do by
way of excuse for the abominable prac-
tice of selling Chinese women into pros
titution?
In this city not long ago the Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chill
dren rescued white female child from
a house of shame, where an unnatural
mother had placed it to be raised up to
infamy, But what have such instances
of human depravity to do with the buy
ing and selling of Chinese women in
America and their absolute subsection
to masters as instruments for unholy
money getting?
If the girl Laura Lee Is returned to
the custody of her unnatural father
but such a thing is so abhorrent that it
is really unthinkable, it viii never be
accomplished. However, We have known
quite as bad things as that to be done
in California. We have known of many
cases where the laws of the land have
been successfully invoked to return an
escaped slave to her master, who used
her for no other purpose than to hire
out for prostitution under compulsion.
1t is by no means infrequent for one Of
these human chattels to escape from
bondage. Her master thereupon swears
out a warrant for her arrest for larceny
in carrying away some trinket of per-
sonal adornment, and in one case the
complaint simply charged the woman
with wearing away her underclothing
alleged to be the property of her mas
ter The woman is arrested by an Off
Ger of the law, whereupon the master
gives bail for her and she IS set at lib
erty, and that instant her owner seizes
her and restores her to slavery. The
bail is forfeited or it is saved by dis
missal Of the action, and thus is the
law of the republic employed to pro-
tect the owner Of slaves.
Another method is for the master to