The San Francisco call., 1899-04-09

~ A raid on a Chinese slave
den was imminent. Another
woman slave had grown weary
Of captivity,
Small wonder, then. that the clash
ing cymbals, shrieking strings and
tom-tom rat-tat-tat-plan in front Of
the theater, failed to draw the crowd
it preferred to jostle and sandal itself,
tiptoe and breathless from cobble to
cobble; 1T was agog with excitement,
because Miss Cameron, of the Presby-
terian Mission, had stepped into the
entrance of No. Is to try and rescue
Yuen Ho, beautiful Chinese slave.
All Chinatown that could squeeze its
shoulders between the notorious walls
Of this Mongolian byway was watch
ing and hoping that the Christians
would fail, but the prayers ascending
from the slave within and the strong
arms and hearts of the friends with
out gave promise Of better things
Besides this Love had a hand and
Love usually wins the game.
Poor, frightened trembling Yuen Ho.
whose name in English means Double
Good, had lifted the latch of her prison
door on Friday night for the last time.
crossed her threshold to the entrance
chamber and had done precisely the
same thing-lifted the latch and each
time stole cautiously back to her own
little den to wait for deliverance.
But Double Good did not despair. for
the man who loved her whispered
words of courage and hope, of the new
life that would be hers in the world
outside hers If she would only be
brave.
He told her that the Christians God
was kind and that He would put 1t into
the hearts of His people to take her
from her life of shame and give her
home of peace until he should prepare
one for her.
Double Good could not do much but
hope and pray, but she did what she
could; she slipped noiselessly across
the uncarpeted floor and raised the
latch with her careful fingers. then
hurried back to her room with duak-
ing limbs and hid her fluttering. ter
rified little self in its darkest corner.
She waited patiently, fearfully, and
with the fortitude born Of the misery
which had been crowded into the too
eventful narrowing years of her life
in this land of the free.
1t was her wish to wait for freedom
If her unknown friends should sue
ceed.
It was her purpose to prepare for
death if they should fail.
For failure meant to prolong an eX-
istence already as useless as a funeral
paper god, and If she we're to be dis
covered in the plot by her owner. Sing
Yee, the consequences would be too
terrible to bear.
In either event, life or death. the
goddess of mercy would be kind.
If the fates decreed life. it would be
one of love among the blossoms of
spring.
If death, why her body dead would
no longer feel the smarts of the blows
dealt by Sing Yee. the She monster who
owned her.
True to the philosop>y of her peo-
pie, Double Good reasoned in her own
quaint, stoical way: She had prayed
to the heavens; but the heavens were
too high to hear her prayer then she
prayed to the devils, and the devils
were too cruel to heed it.
So there was but one thing more to
do, she would ~~ay to the earth. the
earth on whose husks she fed. and by
whose sins she suffered. Would it also
turn a deaf ear?
Two years of dumb, pitiful, signing
prayers. and these had been offered up
hour after hour and day after day from
the heart of a child.
For two years this pretty slave girl
had never seen the light Of day, not
even so much as sometimes creeps
through cruel iron bars to gladden.
lonely prisoner; for her room, save the
artificial light, was as dark as a dun
geon and it's only opening is a door that
swings into a dark opium smelling hall.
For two years she had never peeped
at the stars, nor whispered her offer
ings to the pale moon.
She had to pay the penalty of exceed
ing beauty.
She was a "kept-in' slave.
Then the heaven dragon spread