St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1898-07-27
Chinese Slave Girls in California.

1t is estimated that there are $500
Chinese women and girls in San
Francisco. OF these about 1000 are
married women; the rest are slaves.
The slave girls may be divided into
two classes.
The first class is the domestic bond
servant, muey tsai. 1t is the custom
among poor families in China where
girls are plentiful to sell one or two
of their daughters to wealthy fami-
lies as servant girls. The price paid
depends upon the age, character and
personal appearance Of the girl. A
good-looking girl OF ten years Of age
in Canton can be bought for $3.50.
Before the purchase is completed she
is carefully examined to be sure that
she has no hereditary faint. If sheis
found to be healthy a contract is ex.
ecuted between her parents and the
purchaser, in which it is stipulated
that she shall not be sold for immoral
purposes, that she shall be kindly
treated, provided with wholesome
food and suitable clothing until she
is IS or 10 years Of age, when her
owner is bound to provide her with
a husband who pays her redemption
money, and she is henceforth a free
woman. These muey tsai are to be
found in the homes of nearly every
well,to.do Chinese family in Califor-
MIA. They are employed to wait
upon the ladies of the home, to nurse
the babies, and to drudge about the
house. Scores of these little girls
may be seen about the tenement
houses in Chine town, each with an
infant strapped to her back. With
this burden she must jog about all
day long, hushing its cries with
sugar cane and candies or with lula
bies from the Chinese "Mother
Goose" The life of these little bond
servants is often hard one. Igno
rant OF our language, and taught to
look upon Americans as foreign
DEVILS" there is practically no chance
of escape from the CALLING tasks and
often cruel blows OF their dreary ser.
vitude. 1t must be confessed that
many of them are kindly treated, eat
at the same table with their masters
children, are brought up as one Of
the family, and have much better
time than they would have in their
own homes.
The second class, by far the larger,
are those adult girls who have been
imported for the vilest purposes. In
some instances an opium-smoking
father sells his own daughter. For
the sake of making an extra hundred
dollars be is not careful to stipulate
what kind Of bondage she shall enter
In the greater number of cases these
poor creatures have been decoyed
away from their homes or kidnapped
during the absence of their parents.
The child is carried away to distant
town. Her cries and expostulations
are in vain, and she finally succumbs
to life of infamy or finds rest in a
suicides grave. Many of these
wretched girls are taken down to
Hong Kong and exported to Chinese
colonies in foreign lands, where they
bring high prices. In San Francisco
they often get past the custom in
spectors under the pretense OF being
the wives of merchants. In some in
stances they are taken to Victoria,
British Columbia, and there, dis
guised as Lywashee Indian women,
they cross Puget sound into Wash
ington. 1t must be borne in mind
that the girl is party to the fraud,
believing as she does that she is to
be the wife of rich merchant in Cal
ifornia.
Since the restriction and exclusion
laws the difficulty of importing these
women has been so great that their
price has gone up in the market. A
good-looking Chinese girl is now
worth het veen 10000 and $4,000