The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1928-01-06


slave children suffer at times at the
hands of some fiendish mistress,
fated by poverty, by kidnapping. by
all the pitiable circumstances that
generally surrounds their birth,
these little girls who are not much
removed from the babe age are the
victims of an existence that foreign
ers in other lands could scarcely
credit.
Let it be said at once of the aver
age Chinese women, ninety-tive per-
cent of them are mothers in every
ense of the word, mothers who fight
tooth andnail for such children, they
have brought to justice hundreds OF
slave girl heaters and at times have
taken these children away from
homes where their lives have been
known to be of extreme misery and
i'll treatment. But they and the
police can not reach all the dens OF
torture, as some Chinese homes in
Shanghai have been proved to be,
and pathetic of it all is that these
shockingly i'll treated girls often
posses names that sing with poign-
ant beauty, names like dropping
flower, heart of the moon, whisper
ing love, rose Of fragrance, weeping
hands, and others that suggest moth
ing but life OF happiness or SYM
Dol of sad loyingness OF grace; what
they are called by some OF their mis-
tresses is another thing, they can be
guessed when one looked at their
pinched faces and starved bodies
that some times trembled at mere
sound.
But let the Door of Hope tell their
tale, here and there is a child In
bed frail and helpless thing, with a
wan smile wisful and penetrating;
they have long learned to judge
quickly, for their own protection,
every one of your moods. These
poor children glance up at you Quick
ly, allowing fieeting look OF appre-
citation to dawn in their eyes; they
watch you walking about the ward,
wondering why you are here, for
very few foreigners apparently have
found time to visit this most pathe-
tic of any hospitals in the world,
most pathetic because nearly all the
inmates have come there either from
beds of vice or horrible whipping
posts.
A sister in charge will say to you,
look at this child and count the
scars, as she turns the bed clothes
down to disclose the child's limbs
for Inspection. Across the ch1ld's
chest were eighteen deep scars from
some LASH they are criss crossed as
il the mistress had wearied OF one
position and changed to another, 10
relieve the strain on her wrist.
Some are faint but they burn into
your memory. On the throat are
scars also, where the lash has dWelt
sometimes by mistake and often by
intention; the finger tips even have
not eshsAed the attention OF the
woma, Who boat this child with a
fiendish delight, many of them are
not blue, but jet black under the
nails.
The small head with the mass OF
tumbled dark hair hides cuts that
Nook weeks to heal, some OF these
hts had been reopened by further
nishments on the child's back.
nther little girl who for seven
bars was slave girl; to look
HIVES you sudden catch in
|hnfor it never smiles or
lnffig. Her eyes where not
the other girls in the
for the pain OF her past ex-
as not yet left her body, and
circular scars on her face,
her head, and on her pitt
located arms are the marks
lighted cigarette, held close
kin and pressed deep in by
with the heart OF devil
nany beatings the slave girl
len asleep in some corner and
led to hear the call OF the
Is: out of her troubled dreams
6kes with scream, as the red
pressed on her neck, or on
Iny breast to wake her up.
the punishment end there?
a heavy stick falls on the child's
D6dyi panic stricken with fear even
more terrible than the pain she Is
suffering from the biting burn, the
child fees hither and thither until
she is entraped in some corner, and
has fallen in dead faint on the
stairway. The mistress now fearful
that the child's screams may have
attracted the attention of the neigh
bors, calms down again and probably
throws bucket OF water on the
PROSTATE form. When the child re-
covers she is jerked to her feet and
pushed into place where she lies
wounded and moaning.
Some of these children have told
with trembling lips that they them
selves have seen others literally
beaten to death. There are a few
who escape this mercifpl treatment,