New-York tribune., 1911-01-29
Slavery in China
Continued from Third Page.

rebels The latter custom has now been
surerseded by that Of banishing the con-
nections OF offenders against the state so
that all OF the slaves Of to-day may oe
cIasced under the single head Of those who
have been sold or sell themselves into bond-
age and the children of such.
Even before the recent edict there was
law making it serious offence to keep
hitherto free man or a lost child as
slave but the sale OF stolen or LOST chii-
dren and the sale of free children ana IN
ferior wives we're daily transactions. IN
undatIons and famines were and are, the
. chief causes for the sale OF children oy
their parents while the lucrative business
of kidnapping for the purpose or selling
into slavery is the mainstay or the south
of China pirates of to-day.
As far as possible children Of rich par
ents are carried off and held for ransom,
and in the rare event of the latter's not
being forthcoming. the child. II not killed
for the moral effect, is sold into slavery
parent discovering his child so held must
pay to the person who owns him the
amount that individual paid the kidnappers
| before his unfortunate offspring may be
! taken nome. w utU lllt ppp'A thiili'' A''
! kidnapping the children Of rich parents do
not offer young and old of any and all
classes Unfortunately are carried off for
what they may bring as slaves.
| A boy sold into slavery faces the dismal
! prospect of a lifetime of servitude. In no
case is he allowed 10 marry a free girl,
while his union with a female slave frees
neither himself nor the girl. Children Of
such marriages are born slaves and be-
come the property Of the owners Of their
parents A slave girl may marry, either
as first or secondary wife, any man who
may choose to purchase her freedom. As
this almost invariably happens. the lot of
the girl sold into slavery is by no means
so hapless as that Of the boy similarly dis
posed Of Many Of the old water coolies
and scrub coolies seen about the prefec-
tural yamens of South China are slaves
whereas very few old women Of the SER
want class may be reckoned as such.
A curious anomaly Of the administration
of the thing called Chinese justice today
is that, while servitude has been prac-
ticaly prohibited by imperial edict. in the
courts of that country slave will repeat
edly be more severely punished for any
given crime than a free man. while Just as
surely will a lighter sentence be meted out
to one who commits a crime against slave
than would have been the case had the
same offence been committed against a per.
son not so held
The following extract from the Canton
correspondence OF a recent issue Of a morn
ing Hong Kong newspaper. which am set
ting down verbatim. clearly illustrates the
facts have just stated:
From time TO time in this city one hears
OF the horrible cruelty practsed by some
Chinese women upon their house slaves
! The following gives a good idea OF the lives
Of terror and torture which some poor chill
dren are compelled to lead: A man called
Ip Luen was very poor and could not sup
port his family so he made arrangement.
for his young daughter 10 enter a rich
family as house slave. or 'mooi-chai as the
Chinese call them.
after a time the man went 10 see hi,
daughter. but was denied admission to III,
house. The neighbors then told him tha
| the screams of the maid servants in tn,
house were terrible 70 hear. and that th'
mistress appeared 10 spend all her tim'
in beating some one. The father was
man Of resource. so he at once went for
police officer and with him gained admis
sion 10 the house. There he found his poo
little daughter shut up In a dark room
She was taken out and examined and he
body was found TO be a mass Of welts an,
bruises II has since transpired that tw
former 'mooi-char died under this woman
treatment and their families will now COM
forward TO accuse her. and though the girl
concerned were only slaves. IL is possbl
that she may he heavily fined"
These children in the first place probabl,
AID not cost over a hundred dollars apiec
in Cantonese currency-about forty-1v
dollars in American money-and II is no
likely that the fine which may he impose
will exceed the aggregate OF their origina
value.
Items OF this character. an average O
two or three OF which a day may be foun
I'm any OF the Hong Kong papers. are 4
themselves sufficient evidence that SLAYER
not only exists in China at the presen
time, but also that 1t is recognized insti
tuition.