The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1903-05-23
SELL WIVES AND CHILDREN.
A Practice TNAnt Il Common In china
IN Times of Famine-COnditions
Of slave Trade.


their wives and children to prevent
them from starving to death Their
purchasers supply them with 1000
and the lives Of the sellers OF their
own flesh and blood are also pre-
served by the money they receive
says the New York Sun.
When Mr.. Nichols travelled through
the famine-stricken province OF
Shensi he heard much of this prac-
tice. He wrote that however much
Chinese parents might love their lit
tie ones, they could be induced TO
sell them when all were starving.
This practice marks the worst and
last phase of famine horrors. There
is always a market for children in
China and the demand is usually far
greater than the supply; for parents
will not sell their children, as rule,
until they have suffered long through
hunger.
We hear comparatively little OF
slavery in China The fact Is, how
ever, that it is time-honored 1nstl-
tuition. Housemaids and women in
domestic service in the interior towns
usually receive no wages. Until they
are married they are the property
of their masters, who purchase them
when they are little girls.
The EXTREMIST poverty, the inahil-
ity to provide their family with food,
Is the sole cause Of the selling by
fathers of children into bondage.
Rich families often own these girls
by the dozen and most families in
easy circumstances have at least one
slave among their servants. The
slave state is for the women only
temporary, their masters being
obliged to provide them with hus-
band when they are Of marriageable
age, and as married women they
cease to be slaves.
The absolute right of the father
to sell his offspring into bondage is
fully recognized by the law, but the
descendants Of slaves cannot always
be held in bondage. Male slaves have
right before their thirtieth year
to require their owners to find wives
for them, and as heads of families
they transmit the slave state only
down to the fourth generation.
In all respects, except that they
are in bondage, they are treated, as
a rule, like other servants, receiving
instruction in the schools, competing
at the public examinations and some
times obtaining official appointments.
In this case the owner is bound to
permit them to redeem themselves
and their families.
The Sun dispatch says that hus-
bands are selling their wives as well
as their children. 1t is permitted un-
der the law for married women to
be sold, but never as slaves. They
are purchased cnly as wives by those
who buy them.
When the famine was at its worst
in Shensi, men in carts, according to
Mr.. Nichols, appeared in the city OF
Sian-fu. They were spectators
whose business was the buying OF
children in the famine market.
Starting from Siam as the head
quarters for the trade they made ex-
cursions into the surrounding coun-
try. They bought hundreds of chill
dren, paying ordinarily about 1000
cash for a little boy, while little girls
could be purchased for half that
sum.
The trade was carried on by whole
sale and the children were scattered
all over China to be sold to the rich.
Reclus says that the price Of chill
dren is usually at the rate Of two
dollars to $3.50 for every year Of
their age
A while ago Bishop Favier published
book on Peking in which he spoke
Of gambling as the national vice OF
the Chinese. He told how beggars
in rags would bet their last scrap
of clothing; and how some frenzied
gamblers would stake their wives
and children at the gaming table.
He told Of one young man who
staked his wife and lost her. The
woman was only 20 and the gam
bling debt involved was only $500
Bishop Favier paid the debt and re
turned the young woman to heI
mother A few months afterward
She reioined her husband and 'ir
all probability" added the bishop, "he
has played and lost her again"
1t is extreme poverty also that is
responsible for large proportion OF
the infanticide that is known
to exist in China The crime
is much more common in the soutt
than in the north; but it exists ev
erywhere and is especially prevalent
when the people, who in their most
prosperous days are drinking ths
dregs of poverty, find themselves un
able to procure enough food to keeT
their children from starving.
Queer Land Tenure.
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