The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1901-08-15

Markets,
There are, at a low estimate, 100000
QUO human beings who are in servitude
in the Celestial kingdom. China has
S0O,OOO,OO0 families, and this makes one
slave to every eight families. The av-
erage LIS greater in south China, where
nearly every one owns slaves. There
is scarcely a Chinese family of means
In Nankin, Canton, Macao, or Annoy
but possesses one or more slave girls.
Slave boys are less common. but the
girls are found in every street and in
almost every house. Girls fetch from
az to E2O n upward in south China.
They are sold at any age from 8 to Is,
and most commonly at z or s. The
prettiest girls are most desirable, as in
case of marriage or sale they will bring
nor to the family which buys them.
Most OF h slave girls are bought to
work about the house. 1t is cheaper
to buy a servant than to hire one. for if
you take a girl of s you can have her
services until she is Is, getting eight
years of work for nothing but her
board and clothes, and then sell her for
perhaps ten times your original price.
Theoretically, there are no slaves in
Hong Kong, rs 1t is British territory,
but in reality the city is full of them.
They are maid servants and nurses of
the Chinese. Every s~mall-footed lady
needs slaves to help her about. and in
the houses of the rich, where there are
many daughters, it is not
to ind from twenty to thirty slaves
IN a single family. Female slaves are
often presents from one man to an
other, and not ~infrequently they form
a part of the bridal outfit. They are
commonly bought as secondary wives,
and often as teachers. There are To-
in China where the girls are
noted for their beauty. The cities of
Yang-Chau and Su-Chau are as ia
mou for rearing handsome young
girls as is Georgia in the Caucasus,
from where rich Turks so often obtain
their wives. There are persons in
these cities who make a business of
raising slave girls. They search the
country about for promising young
girls and put them through a regular
of training. They have farms
where the slaves are taught to sing,
play upon musical instruments, and to
&c Suire the other accomplishments
which, added to beauty, will cause
Them to sell for high prices to the
'1ch mandarins. These girls are
the daughters of poor people or
daughters of slaves. 1t is common
or a man to purchase his wife. In
Iced, there are more wives acquired in
his way than in any other. Every
nan in China has a right to as many
wives as he a maintain, and a sec
'ndary wife is cheaper than a hired
ervant. The first wife is the legal
me, but the others have their rights.
Though they are practically slaves.
The man who is addicted to the opium
Iab1t will sell his children, and not in
frequently his wife, to supply his ap-
elite. Wives are sometimes sold by
ambl1ng husbands, being put up on
he turn OF a card or the rake-out of
he cash at fan-tan. There are slave
Ia oA NAC 1dA sc SnlAGS0 ClIlGS.
heir business increases at times of
anime, and the starvation which
ately prevailed in north China caused ]
lany parents to sell their children.
With some it was a question of allow
1g them to starve or selling them. !
he result is that girl babies are a ]
rug in the market. s
Think of buying a baby for a shil- {
ng. This is the price which one of {
ne infant asylums Of Shanghai is said '
} pay for them. This is a philan- l
1ropic institution, and the children q
re bought as a matter of charity and t
They are reared surrounded |
y Christian influences, are taught all I
orts of domestic duties, and when {
ley arrive at the proper age are given '
spectacle husbands. The brokers, as {
rule, do not buy babies. The cost of I
them and the risk of death {
re too great. They prefer to have I
iris or boys of eight years and up {
'ard.-Chicago Journal. t