The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-11-08
CHINESE GIRLS SOLD INTO
SLAVERY in AMERICA ARE
WORTH FROM $1,000 UP
Slave Dealing Associations Of Frisco Send Agents to China VIM
Buy Girls From Their Parents and Then Bring Them to
the United States a. Their Wives and Throw Them
Into Cells to Await Purchasers.
duel inlthe hear,

! the heart OF the Chinese quarter.
Watchmen stood where Baker court
opened off Dupont street, one of the
public ~thoroughfares OF the s%ection4
day and night. for there was q CONF
slant fear OF trouble from the federal
officers. Since the hre OF April. 1906.
the helpless slaves have been kept IN.
smaller buildings in Bartlett alley, .
dirty, ferbidding place. and In an im-i
mense wooden prison, specially cons,
structed for the purpose. at the corner,
of Second and Harrison streets across
the bay in Oakland.
The buildings are cut up into smalN
rooms in each OF which sits a slave
girl. little more than q child. crochet
ing some dainty thing for her adorn,
ment, slipping tea or breathing In Tho
fumes from the sacred smoking punks.
year, she is kept there with only AM
occasional outing for a breath OF fresh
air.
These outings are given her once "
week. On a bright afternoon one q
see a pale faced Chinese girl. appar-
emily walking alone along the streets
of the quarter. But is not alOne,s
for q few steps behind her may be
seen a withered old Chinese woman.
The girl is under constant surveillance.
TO cry out the alarm should she att
tempt to escape. The slave Is not al
lowed to wander outside Chinatown,
and before dark is again securely
locked in her little cell. The outing Is
more in the nature of an exhibition Of
the girl before possible Chinese ad-s
mirers. Always she is dressed In the
prettiest of b~louses. her black hair
coiffured with utmost care and heavily
~orna,nented with gold and Jade.
1t is a miserable life that the en-
shaved girls are forced to endure. mi
in awhile n is stolen from a slave
den by a Chinese and carried AWAY to
be made his wife. Blu Immediately
one of the highbinder tongs fixes a
price upon the mans head and unless
hunted down and assassinated Every
slave owner, importer and agent be-
longs to one of the two powerful tongS
the See Yup tong or the Suey Sing
tong-and to his tong he reports the
loss of his slave girl.
There is always a market for the
pretty young girls. They are often sold
long before they arrive from China,
and for two weeks before a steamer
bearing a victim docks the girls fu-
Chinatown with haring red nnounce
ments hat he will soon nave a new
slave in his den.
The girls know nothing about the
fate that awaits them. Having been
delivered by their parents into tho
in nearly every instance, trulstinglyund
tdocilely. Once having been sold into
servitude, they would try u escape but
for the fear OF death kept always IN
their minds by their owners. A con
siderable number of them have been
rescued by the officers Of the mission
homes, but ever when safe from the
vengeance Of their masters within the
they live in terror of being recaptured.
For a long time the mission. WORKER,
have been Striving to check this crneI
trafic but despite its efforts IL haa
grown to alarming proportione. The.
missionaries have been Greatly handi-
caDDed by the Inability Of the girls 10,
sneak the English language and the.
refusal Of watchmen to allow them near.
the slave prisons. But they have man
aged to a v a good many al the girls
by bold rescues and by kidnapinS them
on the streets when they 70 out under
the care Of the old woman.
Those Of the slave girls rescued have.
told h~eartrendin9 stories Of the abuse
jected BY their Chinese masters and.
though ignorant. as only the women.of
interior Asia can be. they have been
found to shrink with horror from the
immoral existence from which they
In the care Of these girls. even when;
they have succeeded IN taEinr Thorn
from the Infamous slave dens. the mis-
sion workers encounter . pusslinr
problem. The Immigration Law demands
: every case the parents Of the victim,
= have been parties to her enslsvemenf.
hence the futility Of sending her hack ID
{ China for proper care and. protection.,
These mission workers have seen . giri
brought twice into the countrv n ~
ostensible wife OF . Chinese having hsr,
In custody. each time under Q different,
name. When the child was depOrtea.