Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1909-08-13
"ELSE SIGELS CASE NOT WORST" SAYS WOMAN MISSIONARY
BY VIOLA RODGERS.

With Captain NJ ]. Calvin, of tn
Elizabeth street police station. as es
cort, and with Detective Brickley'
courteous guidance when tht Captain
was forced to return to the station,
was taken about Chinatown, New Yorl
City, for the purpose of seeing witt
my own eyes the conditions unde
which the missionary work among tn
Chinese is conducted.
Much has been written seemingl,
too impossible to believe, too unspeak
able to tell, of the lives led by whit,
women in the Chinese quarter, and i
was not until had actually visited tive
houses where white women are Living
as the wives of Cinnamon, had talked
with these women, and others as well
that | could credit the truth of wri.
ten statements from ministers and 9th
ers as to what the life down in tina
strangely isolated section of Manhattan
really means.
A talk with a free lance" mission
airy worker, who requested that hel
name be withheld, but whose worl
among the white women of Chinatown
Is known by every white and Chimes,
In the entire section, convinced me tbs
missionary work of women with tn,
Chinese is without results, EXCEPT dis
astrous ones to the women themselves
This conclusion was further
strengthened by talk with Miss Hell
en- Clark, director of the Helen f
Clark Mission, No. 1875 Worth street
he went so far as TO say, CLOSE the
doors OF every mission where women
are employed to Chinese men. The
picture / have seen of young, foolish
frivolous-minded white women deliber-
ately egging the Chinese Bible students
on to dangerous fiirtations makes me
| shudder over the results"
Fashionable Women's Mission Work
Deliver me-" said the other mission
worker, from the women that come
here from fashionable uptown districts
from the Riverside Drive and else
where-who come here with Bibles in
one hand and the other stretched out
in coquetry to these young Cinnamon
This very mission UPSTAIRS she said,
rs filled with women missionaries
who come from their home with their
Bibles and a desire to convert the Chi
nese. Yet If their husbands knew one
quarter Of what | could tell them
things l havt seen these men do, the
places they have gone with these
would be Christian converts-the d.
vorce courts would do lively business
for some time to come.
Il will tell you plainly that the
Chinese do not need the conversion so
much as the white women of China
town need it, and many of the women
missionaries need 1t more than the
circles of Chintse young men whom
they fawn upon as they teach from
the word of God. The only work for
white women to do in Chinatown is
with white women. The Chinese men
do no. need 1t and nobody knows it
better than the would-be missionaries.
Hypocrites they are, almost in every
instance, | would say
Tell me-" the missionary worker
was asked, how DO these affiliations
between Chinese and white women
begin?"
I'm two ways. The Elsie Eigel way
is one. And let me tell you hers is by
no means an isolated case, but the mis-
sions here are teeming with such cases
and worse things. The other way is
through the Summing tours. Women
and young girls say: Come in a jolly
party to see the sights of Chinatown"
Their curiosity is aroused; the scene
has certain fascination and allure
ment, the very opium in the air assists
in measure to give Chinatown a pc
culiar charm.
The day after or the day after that,
perhaps, a couple of the girls in the
party will decide to make a visit by
themselves to the quarter. They wan
der about and maybe they will be gaz-
ing into a window or examining things
in the stores. and they will get into
with the Chinese men
who are not averse to such advances
from pretty girls, and perhaps they
will offer to take the girls about the
district and show them some sights
that they could not otherwise see.
three Women Who Were vassar
Girls Are Here"
1T all sounds well enough, and in
he spirit of a lark they will accept
he escart. They may visit an opium ,
len and watch the effect of the drug on
some others. They are induced to
ny puff or two, and before they
NOW it they wake up in an opium
len, stupefied from the effects of the
rug. They are willing to take more
o get away from the awful reality |
it is the old story.
why, know right here in Mott street |
hree women who were Vassar girls
Tho came here just in that way, and |
hey are here still, forever ruined and
Tithout caste. One has been smoking
plum for nine years. They become so
sed to their surroundings that they
ave no ambition to leave. Some
hinaman takes care of them, and
hen he is tired he introduces his