The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-04-02

VI SlGN6 ElIlSt Has D6COllle. q
Christian. She says her seven
Y girls may go free if they will live
- right life. She is the first woman
slavekeeper in Chinatown ever
known to give up her business for the
Christian religion.
She did not intend to become a Chris
tan. She wanted the white teachers"
to be friends because sometimes her
girls were sick, sometimes they were
kidnapped. Then, shrewd Chinese be-
lieve that the white teachers are good
friends to have in a contest with high
binders. Suey Hin reasoned that way,
and she went about gainingtheir friend
ship in the usual shrewd Chinese way.
She went TO the lassies of the Saliva
ton Army and asked them to come and
pray for her. She returned with them
10 her little sitting-room, with its great
carved and canopied bed. with its shrine
and burning punk sticks and prayers
On scarlet paper pasted at the sides of
the altar. May honorable guests con-
ts-Cclly visit this house" and the pune
cured red paper which makes the money
Eods happy. Only two of the seven
slave girls We're in the room, and they
krelt while the lassies prayed. They
could not understand English, so their
slaVeowner thought the prayers could
not hurt them, but it was a way to gain
the good viii of the lassies. Suey Hin
did not understand the prayers herself
AZ first, but the more she did under
stand them the better she remembered
her mother and the old home in Shan
tGnE, and how life waahefore she be
gan to buy and sell young girls.
She owned seven girls. There was
III Lung, she would sell for $1,000. and
All San, she would bring just as much.
Hon Get and Man Yet and Wo Sing,
they would each bring $1,000 All HO
and All Ching were both sick, but they
were each worth $1,000 That made $500
Little All San was only 3 years old, but
she was worth at least $500. Eighty
four hundred dollars in all, and Suey
Hin would have to give it all up if she
became a Christian. To be sure she had
money put away but not much. Then
she must not leave the highbinders out
Of her calculations. There was the Hop
Sing. Tong and their protege tong, the
Kwai Hung. They wouId not forcibly
oppose, but they would be very IN
friendly.
self and night and day she considered
the problem: Shall 1 become a Chris
tlan?"
For weeks she lived apart, revolving
the whole matter in her mind.
II took Suey Hin five months to get
so much conversion that she reached
the point where she could give up her
trade. Then she went back to her
under the care Of a woman she called
her. sister.
1t was in this home I listened to her
story, partly in her own pigeon English
and the rest from the lips of an inter
prefer. And this is the story she told
me in her broken pigeon English:
Il am old, very old, too old to be an
American l like Americans, and if
were younger I would be one. Long,
long ago I was born in Shantung, where
the flowers are more beautiful and the
birds sing more sweetly than in any
. other place. But my people were poor.
There was not enough for all our
stomachs Two baby girls had been left
exposed-that is, to die, you know
They We're born after me and my father
said often. She is too many.
"Once there was an old woman came
to our house and she looked at me.
was S that year, 6 the next When she
looked at me I was afraid and 1 hid
myself behind my mother. My father
told the old woman to go away.
But that night she came back again
and talked TO my father and mother.
She put a piece of gold money in my
hand and told me to give it to my
father. I did, for wanted nothing to
do with her 1 had enough; yes. I had
plenty to eat!
But that night the old woman car
rled. me away, and / kicked and
= screamed and said I would not go.
do not remember much more about the
beginning. remember the ship. and l
remember playing with other little
girls. We were brought to San Fran
: cisco and there were five or ten of us
and we all lived with a woman on
Ross alley. Every little while some one
would come and see us, and as we grew
older the girls were sold.
zone day it was my turn. They said
7 was II years old, but l was really
p ! don't know how much 1 cost. but
! know both my hands were filed three
times with all the gold they would
hold. The money, you know, is always
put ina girls hand when she is sold.
We'll, then I was a slave for ten
years. There was a man who loved me,
but he was a poor washman. and he
worked eight years and saved all, all
the time. I saved all 1 could get, too
but 1t took eight years before we had
saved $1,000 Then we bought me from
my owner and we were married.