Los Angeles herald., 1906-09-30
HOPE TO STOP
SLAVE TRADE
CHINESE GIRLS IMPORTED
ILLEGALLY
Government officials Plan a General
Investigation of Unspeakable
Houses in the Los Angeles
Crib District

In an attempt TO put a stop " lhe
Chinese slave trade at present existing
on the southern coast government OIL
icials are planning a general investl-
CATION among the various houses of i'll
repute where Chinese women are held
as inmates to determine just how many
of them have a right to stay in this
country.
This action is the result of recent
discoveries in the Los Angeles Chinese
district. where it is Estimated more
than twenty Chinese girls are being de-
tanned in houses Of ill-repute against
their will. In one particular house In
Ferguson alley there are ten or twelve
girls scarcely over 16 years of age, ana
all, according to their own statements,
have been in this country less than a
year. BY the exclusion laws Chinese
women are forbidden ,le country un-
less they come in as wives to chinese
born in America, so at that rate some
idea can be obtained of the trafnc IN
women now existing.
The story told by Wu Sing, IT.
year-old Chinese girl taken from a
house in Apablasa street several weeks
ago. is being investigated by the federal
authorities in the hope of capturing the
Chinese who are actually in the traffic,
for it is understood that a regular COM
pany exists whose purpose 1T is to bring
the little Chinese women across the sea
to force them into a life of shame after
they have reached this country and are
powerleSs.
Slave Girl Escapes
In the case of the Sing girl it is
understood that her terrible plight re-
suited more from accident than from
intent. She came to America as the
wife of a San Francisco Chinese boy.
She went with her husband to San
Francisco and was with him at the
time of the earthquake The boy lost
his life in the disaster, and the young
wife, unable to speak English and with
out friends, fell easy easy prey to an
agent from Los Angeles, who told her
that as a fri.-.d and countryman
he would bring her to Los Angeles,
secure her a position in a white family
and thus make life easy for her.
She came to Los Angeles and was
taken to one of the many crib houses
on Apablasa street and China alley and
left there in a tiny room for several
days before she was approached. When
she finally understood the trap she
made a desperate fight to get Free and
with the aid of officers who heard her
screams and dashed to her rescue she
managed to escape the Chinese and
under the care of the government she
was sent to a mission school at San
Francisco. But her escape was an ex-
ception to the rule.
When a Chinese girl is put in one of
these houses she loses all hope She
has hardly any chance to escape, for all
the girls are carefully guarded and the
managers of the houses have the pro-
of fft Il
companies, so that il is useless to ap.
peal to any of their countrymen, and
they rarely see white man.
Girls Are All Deceived
A further investigation is being made
of a more recent case, where a Chinese
girl was taken from a house on Apa-
blasa street by Salvation Army girl.
1t was proven in that case that the
girl had been smuggled into the coun-
try through Arizona as the wife of a
Chinese agent and that as soon as she
reached Los Angeles she was forced
into house of ill-repute.
AS a Chinese wedding consists of
more fomallties than contracts a
Chinese couple cannot be expected to
produce any paper telling of their mar
riage unless they have been married in
this country. so that the government
has a hard time determining whether a
Chinese is really married to the woman
with him. If the mans papers are all
right and he swears that the woman
with him Is his wife he is generally per-
mitted to enter the country, and often
girls are smugged in under the very
noses of the federal authorities.
The moral standing of most of the
Chinese women is said to be of an ex.
ceptionally high standard, and accord
ing to reports of local Chinese mer-
chants the Chinese girls would never be
permitted to leave their country had
they suspicious that they were to be ILL
used. Instead they come along trust
ingly with the promise of good wages
as house girls and with the hope of win
ming some wealthy Chinese merchant
for a husband, as Chinese girls of mar
riageable age are rare in this country
and Los Angeles in particular is sup
posed to be the Mecca for good Chinese
husbands.
In the future. however, according Ia
the reports Of the authorities, an extra
guard viii watch the border cities
where Chinese have occasionally landed
before, while certain information about
the procuring" companies of Los An
geles and San Francisco Will be care
fullW invest tipafad hU the aOVarnmanf