El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-02-11


ant churches IN Japan; many Ro-
am Catholic church, and over
5000 Buddhist and Shinto temples of
worship IN Toxic alone. the capital city
Of two million inhabitants, yet. despite
al this religious paraphernalia, Japan
has some difficult problems. unsolv-
ed. regarding the condition Of her wc-
men.
There are good women, happy and
well cared for women in Toxic, there
are culture and progress to be met
with everywhere IN the daily walks OF
life, and the women encountered cas-
ually and studied specifically seem
happier and more content than the
women judged in the same in Euro
pean or American capital cities.
The streets Of Toxic are orderly and
quiet at night
Vice does not fIaunt itself wantonly
in the face Of the belated pedestrian
along the general thoroughfares. as In
London or Paris, or any large Ameri-
can city.
Uncomfortable diseases are not prev
alent in Toxic, are scarcely known
here, il is said
But there are 1000, women who live
in what is known as Yoshina dis
tricts who are moral outcasts- They
are under police and medical supervis-
ion and their confession is as old as
the world.
They are ali young, and their ranks
are continually supplied by new re-
cruits when death, sickness. marriage
or reformation causes q vacancy to oc-
cur in the army of 1000.
The Yoshina Girls
The Yoshina girls have no disguise
or pretence of any secondary occupa-
tion like the Gheisa girls, who are
taught to sing and dance and amuse
patrons of tea houses and other re-
sorts.
The Yoshinawas are seldom seen
during the day; they never leave their
precinct save with police permission
and supervision But as soon as the
evening comes, with it's fictitious
lights, they appear In their gilded
cages, like birds OF gay plumage, and
await their patrons
The houses in which these 1000
white slaves" live are veritable cages,
with gilt bars in front, facing closely
on the narrow streets. In the back and
above are small private rooms. Each
cage contains perhaps q score Of girls,
nearly all pretty; all appearing young
and gay and smiling, while coquetting
with passersby
At the side Of each cage with his
vile face thrust through window, sits
one who calls himself a man; q male
creature, who in American Coney ISL
and parlance would be called a bark
err" and who employs" the occupants
Of his special cage and receives a
commission for their services.
Probably nowhere else in the entire
world has the segregation of women
of immoral lives been systematized in
such a manner as this; and while 1t
may and unquestionably does, protect
the city in general from promiscuous
vice and from disease, yet II is an ap-
palling sight TO see 1000 young girls
dedicated to such a life; and scarcely
less appalling to think of the DESPITE
able class Of men created and sustained
by this condition of things.
twas stated that the Yoshinawas
ranks are mainly supplied by parents
Of extreme poverty. who induce their
daughters TO enter this life rather than
face the desperate outlook of the poor
in Japan.
1t may be-urged that there is always
honest work to be found by women in /
what Dr.. Kuwada, a philanthropist in :
Japan. has to say on the subject Of |
working girls in his land
The Jap Labor Question 1
Dr. Kuwada, a member of the house !
OF peers, has given deeply sympathet-
&c attention TO the labor question in
this country and. has also spent several
years in Europe studying his social /
problems Discussing in the Shin Ko-
ron, a Toxic monthly. the condition |
Of the female laborers in Japan, he
says:
There are in Japan about 10000 |
factories and workshops employing |
about 1000 600 laborers. OF this total.
about zoe, 600 are females. As there is /
no law limiting the age of factory 4
hands, almost 10 percent of the female /
1aborers are under Ia years.
Twenty percent OF the girls employ !
ed in the match factories, and one per-
cent of those in the glass and tobacco /
factories. are even under 10 years. We (
have adopted compulsory education, but /
how are we to enforce it in the alb |
sence Of any legislation which forbids
the employment Of children in work |
shops and factories2 ,The adoption of a |
labor law has been talked about more /
than once during the past several years,
but the attempt has been nipped in the
bud by the strenuous objection Offered
by a class of capitalists
DR.. Kuvada tells US heartrending
stories Of how the army of 700. 900
working girls have been recruited. At
first, we are told. the employers hunted
the daughters of poor people living in
large cities, but as the supply from this
source was soon exhausted, they turn to
rural districts for a, fresh supply. The
agents Of factory owners go into the
country and persuade unsophisticated
farmers TO send their daughters to the
factories, explaining what fine oppor-
tunity the girls will have to acquire
refinement and culture in the large cit
les, and telling what beautiful things
and interesting places there are in the
city, all Of which factory girls are free
to see and visit on Sundays.
The good, credulous men Of the ham
let and village readily believe the cum
ming agents and allow their daughters
to go, only to see them come homo
after four or five years broken in
health and spoiled in character, if, in
deed, they do not die before their term
expires.
Outrageous Treatment.
The treatment accorded to these girls
is an outrage. Says DR.. Kuwada:
In some factories It is no secret