communication a translation of the Chinese laws relating to slavery, which is permitted under certain restrictions in that country. Nothing could exceed their stringency at the point of any resistance on the part of the slave to the condition of servitude. From that set of laws we quote the following:
“If a female slave deserts her master’s house she shall be punished with 80 blows.” … “Whosoever harbours a fugitive wife or slave, knowing them to be fugitives, shall participate equally in their punishment.” … “A slave guilty of addressing abusive language to his master shall suffer death by being strangled…. If to his master’s relations in the first degree he shall be punished with 80 blows and two years’ banishment. If to his master’s relations in the second degree, the punishment shall be 80 blows. If in the third degree, 70 blows. If in the fourth degree, 60 blows.” “The master or the relations of a master of a guilty slave may … chastise such slave in any degree short of death, without being liable to punishment. Nevertheless, if a master or his aforesaid relations, in order to correct a disobedient slave or hired servant, should chastise him in a lawful manner on the back of the thighs or on the posteriors, and such slave or hired servant should happen to die, or if he is killed in any other manner accidentally, neither the master nor his aforesaid relations shall be liable to any punishment in consequence thereof.”
“All slaves who are guilty of designedly striking their masters shall, without making any distinctions between principals and accessories, be beheaded.
“All slaves designedly killing their masters, or designedly striking so as to kill their masters, shall suffer death by a slow and painful execution.
“If accidentally killing their masters, they shall suffer death by being strangled.
“If accidentally wounding, they shall suffer 100 blows and perpetual banishment to the distance of 3,000 li (1,000 miles).
“Slaves who are guilty of striking their master’s relations in the first degree … shall be strangled…. All slaves who strike so as to wound such persons shall … be beheaded.”
The “painful execution” which is the penalty of killing a master, means execution by slicing the criminal into 10,000 cuts. Foreigners who have witnessed it say it is too horrible to recite.
It is under such slave laws as these that the young girl is trained as a brothel slave before she is brought to California. After such tuition, it seems hardly credible that girls do, in San Francisco, dare to escape from their masters, and flee to the missions for protection. Governor C.C. Smith, who was for years the Registrar General of Hong Kong, previous to being knighted and sent to Singapore as Governor of the Straits Settlements, replied to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in reference to the freedom of prostitutes, “out of an experience of over a quarter of a century”:
“There are no restrictive regulations on the part of the Government which go to prevent or interfere with the entire freedom of the inmates of brothels, and they can go abroad alone. This statement will not, I hope, deceive you into believing that as a consequence they are really free agents … such is actually not the case. A child who strikes its parent is liable to a death sentence. The girls in brothels are in the position of daughters to the keepers, and … call them mother. There is no sense of freedom, as we understand the term, possible in such a state of affairs. The women are fearful of the unknown; of what should happen to them if they should disobey their pocket-mothers, and are terribly ignorant of everything connected with the Government under which they nominally live. It is out of the question to educate them up to the English standard of liberty of the subject. They stay but a few short years in an English Colony, seeing nothing but the worst phases of a life of vice and immorality, and only know of the officers of Government as ‘foreign devils’ or ‘barbarians’.”
This is all only too true as regards California also, excepting that the experiment of educating them by just treatment in the “English standard of the liberty of the subject,” has certainly never been tried either in Singapore or America. The brothel keepers, however, have learned to understand that matter of “liberty of the subject” only too well, and take advantage of the habeas corpus act at every turn to capture a slave who is trying to escape their clutches.
These words of Governor Smith should be borne in mind and brought to attention every time our law officers in California put brothel girls through the farce of asking them if they are desirous of liberty, and when they say no, proclaim triumphantly to the world that “there isn’t a slave girl in Chinatown.” These officers deceive others by these falsehoods, but they know too well the conditions to be themselves deceived.
When certain Chinese girls appeared before a committee appointed to investigate conditions at San Francisco, the members of the committee were put under promise not to divulge their names or stories, as “their lives would not be safe for five years to come,” if the brothel-keepers and their former owners knew that they had informed against them. It is a little difficult to describe the various secret societies of Chinatown in full, but for practical purposes and as relates to the welfare of Chinese women, it may be said that the secret society, or tong, is a sort of mutual benefit society and has generally a very commendable sort of name; but it exists to divide the profits of the trade in women, among other villainies. When anyone gives any evidence against such a society, or informs a rescue worker where a girl will be found who desires her liberty, then some one from the tong that has a special interest in the profits of that girl’s slavery, deposits a sum of money in a place mutually arranged for, and the highbinder society undertakes for the sum paid to see that the informer is assassinated within twenty-four hours. That is the length of time usually claimed for the act. But sometimes years may pass before the marked victim can be traced and killed.
We will next give a few cases from the records of the Presbyterian and Methodist Mission Rescue Homes of San Francisco, which will clearly show the similarity between the state of affairs in Hong Kong and California.
CHAPTER 17.
STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM.
A Chinese girl of 14 was brought to this country, and served six months as a domestic slave, and was then put into a brothel. She was rescued. Her Chinese master got out a writ of habeas corpus, went to the Mission with an officer and took the girl away at once to court before a corrupt judge. It was just at noon-time, and the missionary pleaded for a little time in which to summon a lawyer. The judge said: “I have no time to fool with this case.” The lawyer arrived in haste and pleaded for a little time in which to prepare the defense. The judge said to the lawyer: “You shut up, or I’ll have you imprisoned for contempt of Court.” He awarded the slave to the care of her master.
This and other such cases led to a valuable alteration of the law at the point of the protection of minors. We will explain the change in the words of Miss Cameron:
“In years past it was necessary in each case to in a way break the _letter_ though not the _spirit_ of the law when we rescued a Chinese child, for there was no written law to uphold us in entering a house and carrying off a child–then, too, before it was possible to carry out guardianship proceedings, the ever-available writ of habeas corpus would in many cases deliver the child back into the care of the Chinese, until the matter could be settled in the Superior Court–in such instances we seldom won our case. Our attorney saw wherein the difficulty lay, and proposed an amendment to the law of the State in the matter of the guardianship of minor children, which would give power to a presiding judge to sign an order to the Sheriff, commanding him immediately to take into custody the child whose name appeared on the warrant and place her in the care of those applying for guardianship, until such time as the hearing could be had.”
This means of protection for minors was secured by the combined efforts of mission workers and their friends. This explanation will prepare the way for a rehearsal of some cases of rescue which might puzzle the reader as being carried out by unusual methods of procedure.
The following cases are from the records of the Methodist Home for Chinese Girls, located, since the earthquake, at Berkeley:
No. 1. Made the following statement: “I am 12 years old; born in Canton; father a laborer; mother a nurse; parents very poor. Mother fell sick, and in her need of money sold me. Took me to Hong Kong and sold me to a woman; saw the money paid, but do not know how much; it looked a great deal. This was 3 years ago. The woman promised my mother to make me her own daughter, and little did my mother know I was to be a slave, to be beaten and abused by a cruel mistress. My mother cried when she left me; it was very hard to part. The big ship, ‘City of Pekin,’ took me soon out of sight. I have heard that she is now dead. On arriving we did not come ashore immediately. I was landed after 4 days. There was trouble in landing me. I had a red paper, bought at Hong Kong, that they called a certificate, and there was trouble about it. The woman who bought me had no trouble getting ashore because she had lived in California before. She told me what I was to say when I was questioned. She told me I must swear I was her own daughter. The Judge asked, ‘Is this your own mother?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ This was a lie, but I did not know it was wrong to do as I was told, and I was afraid of my mistress. The Judge said, ‘Did this woman give you birth?’ and I said, ‘Yes.’ The Judge said, ‘Did anybody tell you to say all this?” and I said, ‘No,’ because my mistress had instructed me how to answer this question, if it was asked me. She taught me on ship-board what to say if I was taken to court. My mistress was an opium smoker, and she and her husband had awful quarrels, which made her bad-tempered, and then she would beat me for no reason. I used to get so tired working hard, and then she would beat me. She beat me with thick sticks of fire-wood. She would lay me on the bench, lift my clothes, and beat me on the back. Another day she would beat me thus with the fire tongs. One day she took a hot flat-iron, removed my clothes, and held it on my naked back until I howled with pain. (There was a large scab on her back from this burn when she came to the Mission.) The scars on my body are proof of my bad treatment. My forehead is all scars caused by her throwing heavy pieces of wood at my head. One cut a large gash, and the blood ran out. She stopped the bleeding and hid me away. She beat my legs one day until they were all swollen up. I thought I better get away before she killed me. When she was having her hair washed and dressed I ran away. I had heard of the Mission, and inquired the way and came to it. A white man brought me here. I am very happy now.” While being brought to the Mission by this gentleman, she laid hold of his coat, and would not let go until she was safely inside. It is significant that in this case and the following, methods of punishment allowed even unto death by Chinese law, are administered by the mistresses of slaves in America.
No. 2. “One day I was playing in the street near my home in Canton, and a man kidnaped me. He said: ‘Come with me; your mother told me to take you to buy something for her, and you are to take it back.’ I have never seen my father and mother since. In 3 or 4 days I was taken to the Hong Kong steamer. I dared not cry on the street, but on board the steamer I cried very much. The kidnaper said: ‘Don’t you cry, or you will have the policeman after you, and they’ll take you off to the foreign devils’ prison.’ At Hong Kong he sold me to a woman, and after staying at her house a few days she brought me to California. I had a yellow paper given me, but I don’t know what it was. The woman told me I must say I was born in California. I came here last winter. I am 11 years old. I don’t remember the name of the steamer. The woman sold me to another woman. I had to work as cook, and nurse her little bound-footed child, who was strapped to my back to carry. The child I carried was 9 years old; and I was 11. My mistress was very cruel. Often she took off all my clothes, laid me on a bench and beat me with a rattan until I was black all over. Then she said: ‘I will get rid of you and sell you.’ The keeper of a brothel came to buy me, and look me over to see how much I was worth. A Chinaman living next door, knowing how I was treated and that I was going to be put in a brothel, when I saw him in the passageway, asked me if I wished to come to the Mission, and I said ‘Yes.’ My mistress had gone out into the next room, leaving her daughter and another slave girl in the room. I said I would go at once, and he brought me. I am very glad to live here and lead a good life.”
No. 3. The rescuer was requested to meet a girl at the corner of Stockton and Jackson streets. She did so. K—- Y—- was comely and refined looking. She had been sold into a brothel at a tender age. When about 22 she met a young Chinese man who wished to marry her, and he paid down $600 for her, promising $1,400 more in time. Another man objected to the sale, because the girl had mortgaged herself to him for $600. Through the Mission the girl was released from her bondage, and remained at the Mission one year and then married the first man, and they left San Francisco and resided for a time in an inland town. Here an effort was made to kill her in her own garden one evening. Her husband brought her back to San Francisco, and later she went back to China.
No. 4. Came from a brothel on Spofford alley. She was occasionally allowed to attend the (Chinese) theatre. One evening when at the theatre she had word conveyed to the Mission to come get her immediately. The rescuer did so, and the girl promptly arose, when the rescuer entered the room, from the front tier of seats, and seizing the hand of the missionary in the presence of them all climbed over the backs of two seats, regardless of their occupants, and escaped. Later she was married and returned to China.
No. 5. In a dark, dismal room where the sun never shone lay a poor Chinese woman helpless with rheumatism. She had a baby girl 10 months old and was too sick to care for it. The invalid felt forced to put the child in the hands of a friend she trusted, who promised to care for it, and advanced money for the sick woman. When the mother got better she worked two years and saved until she had enough money to buy the child back, but the cruel woman who had got possession of it refused to give it up unless paid three times as much as was originally borrowed. The mother could not do this, and finally, hearing of the Mission, reported the case there. The baby was traced to a horrible den in Church alley, where it was in the possession of a notorious brothel-keeper. The mother secretly visited the Matron at the Mission, who had secured the child, urging her to keep possession of the baby, saying she would not dare testify against the woman on the witness stand, as it would cost her her life. The case was a long time in court, but after six months the Judge committed the child to the Home, and the mother was made very happy.
No. 6. She ran into the Mission leading her little son. She was chased to the very door of the Mission, but kept her pursuers at bay, by means of a policeman’s whistle which she held in her mouth, walking backward and threatening to blow it if they dared touch her child. She was a widow with this only child, and her relatives were bound to sell her into an immoral life and take the boy away. After being in the Mission a few months she became a Christian. Her little boy was placed in an orphanage. Later the widow married respectably.
No. 7. This girl was aged 14 when rescued, and had been placed in a vile life four weeks before. Two days later she was taken to court on a writ of habeas corpus. Her case was put off three times, and finally came to trial. The Judge remanded the girl to the custody of the M.E. Mission Home. He said, on dismissing the case, that never in all his experience had he listened to such perjury, and that the alleged mother should be punished to the fullest extent of the law for her lying. The girl seemed very happy and contented in the Home, but nine days after she was committed to it she was again taken out on a writ of habeas corpus and appeared before another Judge, who returned her to the brothel-keeper. (This was before the new guardianship law came into operation).
No. 8 proves that the buying and selling of children takes place in America up to the present day. It is but one instance of this sort out of scores of others given by the missionary:
“She was sold when she was but four weeks and five days old. Her parents being very poor and having several other children, she was disposed of to a man who was a friend of the father. The wife, however, was an inmate of an immoral house. Part of the time the child was kept there and part of the time in a family house where we often saw her in our rounds of visiting prior to the earthquake and fire. We did not know but that she belonged to the family in whose care we saw her.
“After the fire the man returned to China, leaving the woman and child. The woman took to abusing the child, and word was brought to us of the condition of things. We appeared on the scene one morning about 10 o’clock with an officer. Leaving him outside, we entered, and found the woman and child eating breakfast. Three other women and two men soon came in. After talking for a while I saw the woman was anxious to get the child away from the table, so I informed her we had come to take her, and proceeded to do so, catching the child up and darting into the street, leaving my interpreter and the officer to follow. We ran several blocks, followed by the irate woman. Finally hailing a man with a horse and wagon, we sprang in and were driven away to where we could take the street cars for home. The child did some screaming and crying, at first. But once we were seated in the street car, her tears were dried and her little tongue rattled along at a rapid rate; she was delighted to get away.
“The case was in court for some weeks, but the woman was afraid to appear, and had no one to assist her but the lawyer, and as he could not prove any good reason why the child should remain with an immoral woman, we were given the guardianship.”
No. 9. A young girl came to San Francisco from China as a merchant’s wife, and missionaries used to visit her at her home in Chinatown. Once when they went they were told that the wife had gone to San Jose, but she could not be traced at the latter place, and the missionary was suspicious. A year passed, and one night the door bell at the Mission rang, and when it was opened a Chinese girl fell in a faint from exhaustion, across the threshold. A colored girl stood by her holding her by the cue. The colored girl said she saw her running, and divined where she wished to go, and seizing her by the hair to prevent her being dragged back, rushed her to the Mission. It was the merchant’s young wife. She had been confined in a brothel not two blocks from the Mission, and often saw the missionary pass by, but had no means of attracting her attention. The merchant told her one day that he wished to take her to a cousin to learn a different way of dressing her hair, and he would leave her there a day or two while he was away from town on business. The young wife went without fear, but never to return to virtue until she escaped to the Mission. She was tied to a window by day to attract custom, and at night tied to a bed, for she was no willing slave. When rescued she was horribly diseased. Three days before her rescue, the Chief of Police and an interpreter had gone through the house questioning every inmate as to whether they wished to lead a life of shame or not. She was asked the question in the presence of the brothel-keeper, the head mistress, and all the girls. She had been told beforehand, “If you dare say you want to escape, we will kill you.” The Chief of Police had it announced in the papers that he had made this investigation, and that no slaves existed in Chinatown. Immediately after his visit, she was removed to a family house, lest her rescue might be effected, and one man and two women set to watch her day and night. She feigned willingness to lead a bad life, and the two women, lulled into a sense of security, turned aside to gossip, while the man dropped off asleep. She suddenly rushed out of the house, and but for the quick wit and good offices of the colored girl might have missed the way to a safe harbor.
The following are cases of rescue reported from the Mission Home of the Occidental Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church:
No. 1. Qui Que. This little girl was taken from a gambling den at Isleton, a small town on the Sacramento river. The woman who brought her from China died, and she was thus left to the care of this gang of gamblers. When Miss Cameron and her escort arrived at the house, the little girl of six or seven years sat on a table rolling cigarettes for the men who sat around it gambling. They were taken by surprise, and before they quite understood the situation the rescuers were gone with the little girl. When they discovered this, they fired several shots after the party, but no harm was done. The officer, with one hand on his revolver, drove rapidly for the boat landing, and Qui Que, safe in Miss Cameron’s arms, will probably never know the danger risked in securing her freedom.
No. 2. Ngun Fah. This child was a domestic slave in the family of a well-to-do merchant in Chinatown, but so cruelly was the child overworked and abused that the matter was finally reported to the Mission, and little Ngun Fah rescued. When found at the home of her master, she was in a most pitiable condition. Weary from hard work and worn out with crying, after the cruel punishment which had just been administered, the lonely little girl crawled on to the hard wooden shelf which served as a bed, and with no covering but the dirty, forlorn garment worn through the day, had dropped off to sleep. Thus she was easily captured and carried to the Mission, where upon examination it was found that her head had been severely cut from blows administered with a meat knife, the hair was matted with blood and the child’s whole body was covered with filth, and showed signs of former punishments. After the first fears of “being poisoned” were allayed, Ngun Fah expressed herself as being very happy to be rescued from the suffering and weariness of her life in Chinatown. Her master sent many emissaries to the Home with offers of bribes, and many promises of better treatment in the future, but all these overtures were rejected, and when at length the matter of guardianship came up, there was no one present to claim the child but her new friends at the Mission Home.
No. 3. Suey Ying. Our dear baby was surely sent to dispel any clouds of sadness which may be hovering round, for she takes all of life as a huge joke. And where did Suey Ying come from? From a part of Chinatown, dear friend, that you would not dare to enter, and the strangest thing about her coming is that she was carried to the Home by a fugitive slave woman, who was escaping to China. Long ago this woman had spent a day or two in the Mission and was impressed by the happy life of the children here and by the kind treatment she herself received. Later on she purchased for $120 a little baby girl. She grew to love the tiny waif, and when at length troubles of many kinds drove her to sudden flight across the ocean, instead of selling the baby she brought it to this Home of happy memory and asked that we keep it always.
No. 4. How Wan. A frail young girl with bound feet was brought to this country to be the wife of a man who had died while she was en route. Refused a landing, she was detained in the Mission by immigration officials, while the young man’s parents made frantic efforts to secure her admission to the country. She remained here, a prisoner, for two years. Thousands of dollars were expended without avail, and How Wan was deported. Nothing daunted, they accompanied her as far as Japan, and returned with her, secured a license and landed her as a merchant’s wife. She lived with the family in a dark basement on Sacramento street, where the mother-in-law abused her with such cruelty that, shrinking girl as she is, she found courage to send word to us if we did not come to her rescue she must relieve herself by suicide–the Chinese woman’s only hope. We began at once to plan to get her taken to the steamer to hid good-bye to some friends, and rescued her at the Pacific Mail dock. She is now a grateful member of our household family, and is unbinding her feet.
No. 5. During the St. Louis Exposition a Chinese company brought from China a large number of women for exhibition in the Fair.
Four of these, upon learning that they were not to be returned at the close of the exposition, as agreed, but were destined to be sold into houses of prostitution in San Francisco, refused to land, and were brought to the Mission by the Commissioners of Immigration.
These Chinese were arrested, the case tried in Federal Court, these girls being the principal witnesses; yet twelve supposedly good men dismissed the criminals, and the case was lost.
Surrounded by the genial environment of our Mission, the minds of these four girls unfolded in a remarkable manner; fascinated with their studies, they constantly begged us to intercede with the authorities that they might remain in the Mission and obtain an education; but, although every effort was made, they were deported after a seven months’ stay.
They had learned to love our Home life, had united with our Christian Endeavor Society and had become interested in all our work, and we would be quite unreconciled to their departure did we not know that our missionaries in Shanghai stand ready to receive and care for them when they arrive.
No. 6. Seen Fah. The first beams of the rising sun shone bright and hopefully into a pleasant room in the Presbyterian Mission Home one morning last autumn. It threw its cheerful radiance over a group of three gathered there to plan an important undertaking, lighting the bright, eager faces of two young Chinese girls, and giving renewed courage to the anxious heart of the Superintendent. What important event had to be discussed? What serious matter decided? News had reached the Mission Home, a few hours before, of a young Chinese girl just landed in San Francisco and sold for three thousand dollars. Plans to save this helpless and innocent child, before it was too late, were the subject of discussion at that early morning meeting. In such a serious undertaking every possibility of failure must be carefully guarded against. Each possible device of the wily Highbinder slave-owner must he conjectured and frustrated. So the three planned this campaign: “When is Detective —- coming?” asked Chan Yuen, as a step sounded on the quiet street below. “At six he promised to be here with one of his trustiest men. It is best to reach Chinatown early, that our coming may not be signaled by those on the streets at a later hour. If the alarm is given, every slave den will be doubly bolted and barred; and perhaps little Seen Fah, whom we wish to save, will be spirited away beyond reach of help.” Well did the questioner know the terrible truth of these words. A sympathetic shade of sorrow and anxiety crossed her bright face. She, too, was a rescued girl and had not forgotten the dark, mysterious ways of Chinatown. The Superintendent rose to answer the summons of a small electric bell. Two trusted detectives had arrived. After a short conference, the rescuing party set forth on its strange mission. One who had eagerly thought and planned for the success of the undertaking felt her heart throbbing between hope and fear, but was reassured when a slender hand slipped into hers and a sweet, encouraging voice whispered: “I have faith to believe God will give us the girl.” Faith triumphed that day. Through two of Chinatown’s most desolate old tenements, upstairs and downstairs in dark closets and unexpected corners, while Highbinders uttered imprecations in the alleys below, the rescue party kept up a diligent search for many hours. When at last the quest was about to be abandoned as hopeless, suddenly a cry of success echoed through every gloomy corner of the old building–Seen Fah was found! A small, dark closet, overlooked in the earlier hours of the search, was discovered. A lighted candle soon revealed a pile of empty rice bags and broken boxes. Pulling these away, the object of the long search was discovered, nearly smothered beneath the debris. Dazed and terrified, but safe, Seen Fah was at last in the hands of friends–and the slave ring had lost just three thousand dollars. Later on, Seen Fah and her new friends were haled into court. As usual, the sleek, well-paid attorney appeared for the Chinese owners. But they and he were alike powerless to drag back into slavery the rescued girl. There was but one course for the court to pursue. _Finding that Seen Fah was over fourteen, she was allowed to choose for herself_ between the life of Chinatown and that offered by the Mission. She chose the Christian Home; so to its care Judge Cook consigned her. To-day, a free happy girl, Seen Fah joins gayly in the simple, wholesome life of her new surroundings. Rescued before the blight of slavery actually darkened her life, she will never fully understand from how great a danger her guardian angel snatched her. But we who do know thank daily the kind Providence who thus protects His own.
No. 7. Kum Ping. She was married in the American Consulate at Hong Kong in the most approved European way. Her new husband had made a good impression on the old aunt who was her guardian, and for a small consideration in Mexican coin, Kum Ping became his property according to Chinese custom, as well as his legal wife by American law. When these arrangements were completed, passage was immediately engaged on the Korea, bound for that harbor of romance, San Francisco Bay. There was, however, to be little romance in the life of our small Chinese heroine. The man who made her his wife did so simply as a means toward an end, and that end was to be a life of slavery and degradation in California. The landing of slave girls in free America is prohibited by law, thus the slave-dealers must resort to the best means at their command to thwart or circumvent our laws. A witnessed marriage in China gives an American-born Chinaman the right to land his wife in this country, so many an innocent village girl crosses the ocean secure in the belief that she is the honored wife of a respectable husband. She is landed as such, and, alas! often finds out when too late that she is merely the chattel of an evil and unscrupulous Highbinder society, whose paid agent is the man to whom she is bound. Soon after the Korea’s arrival in port, on the voyage in which we are interested, I visited the ship to interview the Chinese women on board, and there for the first time met our little dark-eyed friend, Kum Ping. She had been carefully coached on the way as to the visits she might receive from foreign missionaries, and the replies to all our questions showed a guarded suspicion that seemed quite hopeless. Our cheerful interpreter talked on, nevertheless, and finally won a quiet smile and the offer of some roast duck (a great delicacy among Chinese). All warnings about the dangers and wickedness of Chinatown apparently fell on deaf ears. “I am a married woman, my husband can take care of me. I do not need your protection!” was the rather indignant response. So we presented some bright flowers as a token of good will and friendship, and with them slipped into the small, soft hand a talisman that might help her out of future trouble. Just a slip of paper, but the magic of the name and number written there many an escaped slave girl can bear witness to. Some weeks passed by after our visit to Kum Ping on the steamer. She had landed, and, like hundreds of others, had simply disappeared from view in that place of many mysteries, old Chinatown. One night perhaps a month later, I was called to the reception room to see a strange visitor (Chinese) who refused to divulge either name or business to any one else. On meeting this messenger I noticed his great excitement and nervousness. Only after the door was tightly shut did he tell his errand. We listened with interest to his story of a young girl sold to a very cruel master, who beat her daily and never allowed her to leave the place in which she was closely guarded. Unless relief came soon she must end her life. Would the Mission try to save this poor girl? We gladly promised what help we could give, and our visitor left as quickly and mysteriously as he came, only leaving for our guidance a roughly sketched diagram of alley and house where the little captive could be found. There followed much planning and plotting. Our staunch friend, Sergeant Ross of the Chinatown squad, was summoned and consulted. The place was a difficult one to reach, but at last satisfactory plans were made, the day and hour set. There were three officers and three Chinese girls from the Mission. It was a good-sized rescue party and divided into three companies, we guarded well the three exits from the low-roofed house on Spofford alley. With Sergeant Ross leading and our courageous young interpreter at our side, we stealthily ascended the dark, narrow stairs to the second floor, where a heavy door barred the way, but for such obstacles our good officer was prepared. A few blows of his strong hammer made bolts and bars yield. We passed through into a small dark passage. From there could be heard on all sides sounds of excitement; light feet running hither and thither to places of escape, only to be turned back by the sight of our guards, who stood on watch. As we cautiously felt our way further in we were met by the baffled and angry keeper of the den–a woman, but not worthy the name. She fiercely demanded our business–there was no need to tell it, for she knew as well as we; but she wished to find some means of hindering our search for her newest and most valuable slave. A room was at length discovered in which we felt sure the treasure was hidden. Again Sergeant Ross had to force open a door. As it gave way, a small, dimly-lighted room opened before us. In the center cowered a Chinese girl. It needed not a second look to recognize in the frightened, anxious face before me Kum Ping of the steamer. Our talisman had worked its charm. She had proved to the depths the terrible truth of our warning, and now gladly entrusted herself to our care, while her almost frantic owner stormed, threatened and at last laid violent hands on the officer who was helping us. As we led the trembling Kum Ping out, a greatly excited crowd of chattering Chinese met us at the end of the passage at Spofford alley, and the news passed from lip to lip, “The Mission people have taken Woon Ha’s new slave girl!” We would be glad to end the story of our little friend’s troubles and safe escape with her arrival at last in the Mission Home that day. But how few rescues ever do end in that peaceful and pleasant way! There followed the usual train of lawyers and warrants. To avoid these unpleasant experiences, Kum Ping had to change her place of residence several times, the last time being the night before the fatal eighteenth of April. A warrant was served at ten o’clock that night, but being forewarned, the one named in it was with friends at some distance from the city. The warrant summoned us to court at two o’clock next day. God disposed of that case! No court has ever passed judgment on it. Long after the excitement of these days was over, Kum Ping returned to our Home; country air and a free life are working their spell. It is hard to recognize in the round, sun-tanned, happy face we see today, the unhappy slave girl of Woon Ha’s den on Spofford alley.
CHAPTER 18.
PERILS AND REMEDIES.
It is a matter of no small importance that the Christian public of America should realize that in the Oriental slavery of its Pacific Coast it faces a flood. One can gaze with indifference upon a little stream that trickles through a wall, so long as it is thought to be merely a natural spring of water; but when one is informed that this is the trickling of water through a dike which dams out the raging sea, the sensations are changed to a realizing sense of imminent peril. If some are disposed to criticise this book for leading its readers into past history and far distant countries, to tell them harrowing tales, let them know it is intended to take them for a view behind the dike,–that they may understand the source of the trickling stream of brothel slaves that, almost unobserved, flows steadily into our fair land, and know that the stream is the precursor of a flood. No mere wall of immigration restrictions will ever get control of the flow so long as men are permitted to hold slaves after they have once been landed. And for the further reason, that so soon as China and Japan have drilled a little longer with the fire-arms furnished them by Western nations, they will force a free entrance to America. The yellow flood is sure to come, and we must make ready for it. We must realize what may happen to American women if almond-eyed citizens, bent on exploiting women for gain, obtain the ballot in advance of educated American women. We must realize how impossible it is to throttle this monster, Oriental Brothel-Slavery, unless we take it in its infancy. For these reasons, we wish to sound the cry long and loud: “At once to arms! Not a moment to be lost! We cannot build a dam in the midst of the raging sea. The new dam must be finished before the old one bursts.”
And beside the peril arising directly from the flood of Orientals who are accustomed to dealing with women as chattels, there will be the peril from a debased American manhood. Men cannot live in the midst of such slavery as this, tolerate it, defend it, make gain through it, patronize it, without losing all respect for woman and regard for her rights.
And then, the slave business is fast becoming a vested interest of large dimensions to American men as well as to Chinese. There are fully as many (probably more) Japanese slaves as Chinese in the United States, and at the moderate reckoning that they are worth three thousand dollars each, that represents six million dollars in capital; and at the present time the Japanese traffic is more threatening to the United States than the Chinese, with which alone this book deals.[A]
[Footnote A: When we undertook the task of writing this book we intended to include in it also a representation of the Japanese slave-trade, but have been obliged to desist for want of space.]
In these latter days, when everything in the business line tends to take on the form of trusts and combines, bent on defeating all law and exploiting the common people for gain, it casts a shadow of gloom over one’s spirits to think of capitalists entering so largely upon the active culture and development of vice for pecuniary profit. This can no longer be looked upon as an evil due to the frailty of human nature and the strength of the sex appetite; it is rather the expression of a greed for gold, and should be actively combated as such. The owners of property, especially those who have a monopoly in the matter of housing vice because of municipal measures for its segregation, are most potent offenders against decency, and should be punished as such, instead of their being admitted, as too often they are, not only to good society, but to membership on the church roll.
No individual can afford to be indifferent and ignorant as to the existence of social vice in the community. The only escape from moral blight and confusion is by active conflict with the forces of evil. The wrong training of youths who grow up in the presence of tolerated evils, cannot be overcome in a single generation, nor in a single century. There is a confusion of the moral sense in the presence of evil to which one has become accustomed, that is truly terrible.
When it was first learned in England that such an official had been appointed at Singapore and Hong Kong as the inspector of brothels, the matter could scarcely gain credence. Mr. Benjamin Scott, Chamberlain of the City of London, in his valuable book, “A State Iniquity,” in mentioning this exclaims: “Her Majesty’s Inspector of Brothels! Curiosity is aroused to inquire what were the attributes, duties, rank and status of this official. From the evidence taken by the Commission [at Hong Kong], we gather that he kept a register of ‘Queen’s Women,’ and saw that their names were duly inscribed on the door-posts of the Government establishments, as lawyers’ names are inscribed on nests of Chambers in the Temple, and those of merchants and traders are written on offices in the City. He comptrolled the receipt of the fees paid by the women into the Colonial Treasury…. But, what was the fashion of his uniform? Did he attend the receptions of His Excellency and the Port Admiral? Was he allowed precedence of chaplains, or how otherwise? and was he expected to dine with the Bishop? Was he decorated on the abolition of his office, and allowed a good service pension? or is he still in the service of ‘our religious and gracious Queen?'” That officer still remains in the service of the Government, both at Singapore and at Hong Kong. By the ruse of denominating all the tasks connected with the Government management of immoral houses at Singapore “protection,” the Chief Inspector of brothels in this place holds a more honored place in the community than at Hong Kong. As to Mr. Scott’s ironical questions in regard to that officer’s rank, we cannot answer, nor whether he is invited to the Governor’s receptions; but Mr. Scott would have been astounded, indeed, had he, like ourselves, first met the Chief Inspector of brothels at a reception given to ministers of the Gospel and missionaries; had he, like ourselves, been introduced to the official by a minister of the Gospel than whom none stands higher in British India, and that in terms of eulogy of the Inspector’s activity in Christian work. How can we explain such a state of affairs? Just as we would explain the religiousness of early days of America and England associated with the monstrous cruelty of the slave traffic. There is often in connection with great human wrong great moral confusion, and without judging the individuals living under such conditions, we can say emphatically, those conditions are most undesirable, and attended by moral peril, especially to the young. It is a truly lamentable thing when prolonged familiarity with vicious conditions leads to such lack of discernment as to a man’s true character, even among the best portion of a community. We do not wish such a state of things as this in America.
California does not lack in excellent laws (as they read, in the Statute Book), for the suppression of prostitution. There are laws against procuring; against trading in Oriental women for evil purposes; against buying or selling a female, with or without her consent, for prostitution; against a husband forcing or influencing a wife to lead an evil life; against a husband even consenting to his wife practicing prostitution; against keeping a house of ill-fame; and against knowingly renting a house for a place of prostitution. But all these laws, almost the world over, as well as in California, are weak at one point, namely, that they provide for imprisonment _or_ fine, whereas they should provide for imprisonment _and_ fine. This is not because the penalty would then be heavier, of necessity, but in order that the law may not be prostituted into license. The alternative of a fine instead of imprisonment defeats the object the public-spirited citizens have in demanding a law for the discouragement of vice, and places before the police officials a temptation to corruption. A mild sentence, which invariably puts the procurer or brothel-keeper in prison, is worth more than a heavy sentence by way of fine, which can be met by further oppression of his slaves. Besides, the heavier the sentence threatened, if there be an alternative fine, the more potent implement it furnishes for blackmail in the hands of corrupt police officials. Penalties by means of fines invariably tend to degenerate into a monthly squeeze to the police, in payment for toleration, and thus tend to make the police official a defender of social vice, rather than an exterminator.
It has always been considered, among experienced workers, a most difficult thing to attack prostitution itself by means of penalties, for the reason that the punishment is invariably visited with greatest severity upon the head of the female partner in shame, who is often the mere victim, while the male partner goes free. But surely those men who make a business of cultivating vice and vicious practices,–who use every sort of device to corrupt the youth and develop the trade in women, can be reached by just and wholesome laws. We cannot make men moral by act of parliament, but we can restrict their depredations.
It has long been our feeling that every form and kind of spurious marriage, such as bigamy, polygamy, illegal divorce and remarriage, seduction, adultery, and bastardy, besides constituting sometimes cause for civil action, might with good results be lifted into offenses against the State. National development depends not upon the individual but upon the _family unit_, and that family unit is non-existent outside the monogamous relation, or, at least, is so frail as to easily crumble. Nothing could be more vicious in moral education to the youth than the average suit for civil damages, in which the whole decision of the case is made to depend upon whether some young girl can or cannot be ruined in reputation by lawyers of the defense and by their client, concerning whom there is not a question as to their lack of a decent reputation. When the State rises to defend itself against counterfeit marriage, just as it defends itself against counterfeit coin, then the whole horizon of the life of a profligate woman will not be brought before the public gaze every time she comes into court, but will be kept in deserved obscurity, and the woman will be tried for a _single_ offense, just as the man is tried, and not for all the offenses and indiscretions of a life-time. The penalty for such wrong doing may not be placed at even so high a figure in the Statute Book as it now stands, while accounted a civil injury, but the dignity of the trial would give serious lessons in virtue to the youth. No nation can long exist that does not incessantly discourage the practice of every sort of offense against the sanctity of the marriage relation.
But after all, there will be no success in attempting to cope with Oriental prostitution by means of laws against prostitution and kindred vices, for the reason that the evil is a far graver one than this. Innocent children are reared for vice, and at a certain age thrust into the life through no choice of theirs; and not infrequently perfectly respectable women of mature years are kidnaped for the vile service. The effect upon the moral character of a man who resorts to a _slave_ class of victims to his evil propensities, must be to make that man a menace to society wherever he goes, through deeds of violence which he is willing to commit, and accustomed to commit, of the worst imaginable sort.
And an attack upon the slave _traffic_ alone will never prove adequate. The history of our country’s dealing with negro slavery is instructive on this point. There were laws in abundance for the suppression of the _traffic_ between Africa and America; it was forbidden to bring slaves into the country, and devices were invented looking to an eventual liberation of all the slaves in certain regions; but what did all these amount to, so long as slavery could exist? There had to be one sweeping, general emancipation of slaves wherever they were found, under whatever circumstances, and when the state of slavery was abolished, the trade in slaves died a natural death. The words of Mr. Francis concerning conditions at Hong Kong bear directly on this point: “Until the system of prostitution which prevails in this Colony … is declared to be _slavery_, and treated and punished as such in Hong Kong, no stop will ever be put to the kidnaping of women and the buying and selling of female children in Hong Kong. This buying and selling and kidnaping is only an effect, of which the existing system of Chinese prostitution is the cause.”
In 1880, Mr. Berry, a member of the House of Representatives from California, made use, in a debate in the House, of the argument that “if the British authorities had not been able to prevent slavery from being practiced in Hong Kong, there would be great danger that, if an unlimited immigration of Chinese were allowed, it would be followed by the prevalence of slavery in this country.”
It is perfectly true that immigration of Chinese, even though it has been greatly restricted, has been followed by the introduction of slavery into the United States, yet the premises laid down in this argument, may not pass unchallenged, for the following reasons: There was never any serious attempt to put down slavery at Hong Kong, excepting in the efforts of Sir John Smale and perhaps one or two others, whose efforts were opposed by others, and in large part defeated. The records go to show that there was at once a growth of healthy moral sentiment created among the Chinese, through Sir John Smale’s endeavor, that promised much good for the future had his course of action been continued. This official planted his feet squarely upon the doctrine that all buying and selling of human beings was slavery, and that a human being cannot, in law, “become a slave, even by his own consent.” And moreover this official, with Governor Hennessey’s encouragement, prosecuted his cases without any tender consideration as to the demands of European libertines, who would be left with scant opportunities to be self-indulgent unless slaves were placed at their disposal. The truth is, from the foreign standpoint, the plea for brothel slavery was based upon the “necessity” of vice, and from the Chinese standpoint the plea for slavery was based upon so-called Chinese “custom.” The Government was impressed that it must have consideration for the demands of libertines, and consideration for Chinese “custom.” Neither of these arguments has any worth when applied to the slave conditions of California, and therefore the most serious, baffling obstacles to a removal of the evil are out of the way. Both pretexts, we maintain, were false. There is no necessity for furnishing vice to libertines; there was no lawful Chinese custom to be opposed in opposing brothel slavery. But even if these were claimed to be sufficient arguments across the water, they have no force in California. There are women, alas! willing to make a trade of their virtue for _their own gain_, without forcing Chinese women to make a trade of their virtue for _the gain of masters_. As to Chinese custom: America is not setting forth inducements for the Chinese to come and live in our midst, as did Sir Charles Elliott when he promised the Chinese the privilege of practicing their own social and religious rites and customs, “pending Her Majesty’s pleasure.” If Chinese or any other class of foreigners come to reside in the United States, it is with the understanding that they must conform to the laws of the country, whatever modification or radical alteration it obliges them to make in their native customs, and if they will not do this they must take the consequences.
No class of people, taken as a whole, are possessed of a greater moral sense or can be reached more readily by moral suasion, than the Chinese. We believe that if a proper condition of public moral sentiment were maintained, by the enforcement of the laws of the United States in Chinese communities, no class of people would be more delighted than the respectable Chinese themselves, who are now left in a state of terror for their own lives from the highbinders, and who often dare not bring over their lawful wives from China, to live in the midst of this reign of terror, at the mercy of slave-traders and women-stealers. Then Chinese criminals would seek safer shelter elsewhere, and respectable Chinese family life would take the place, in our Chinatowns, of a combination of criminal men and slave women. And Chinese men of weak character, separated far from home influences, would not be met on every hand by temptations of the most potent sort. Such is the real worth of the sort of Chinese character that one meets in other parts of that country from those vitiated by familiar contact with foreign profligates, that the presence of such could not but be a benefit to us, and would afford peaceable, thrifty, useful Chinese settlements in our midst, of which we would feel justly proud.
In order to see that the entrance of Chinese to our country from China is not made a cover for this dreadful slave trade, there is an urgent need of cooeperation between rescue workers of the California coast and rescue workers in all the open ports of China. Chinese men are constantly returning to China to “marry,” in duly prescribed form, and then return with their wives and reenter the United States, merely to put the women into the brothels. Any man who is willing to run the risk of detection can thus get a trip home to China to see his lawful wife and family, and make it a profitable business trip besides,–with all expenses more than paid by the importation, and sale of a slave. Chinese women are constantly returning to China to bring “daughters” to put in the slave pens. No woman (even lawfully married to a Chinaman), should be allowed to take a ticket at Hong Kong or any of the open ports of China for the United States, whose case has not been thoroughly investigated by days of acquaintance with a woman inspector in a house of detention, if necessary, on the other side. And no Chinese woman should be allowed to enter on this side of the water, until she has passed the second time under such surveillance in a house of detention. And such rescue workers should have the Government authority signified by a policeman’s star.
The evil to be combated should be met with the right remedy. “Fitches are not threshed with a thresher, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.” Much of the failure to control brothel slavery has grown out of the application of the wrong remedy, not out of a difficulty in controlling the Chinese. These cases of trading in human flesh have generally been treated in the courts as though coming under the laws against ordinary prostitution. To illustrate:
Within the past month, three Chinese girls were captured by a rescue worker. They were cooped up, with a man who had charge of them, in a tiny closet scarcely sufficient to hold the four, which had been entered by a panel door which was securely nailed up and bags of rice piled against it. The rescuer pulled away the bags, pried open the door of the secret receptacle with her hatchet, and drew out the girls, dripping with perspiration and panting for breath, in consequence of the two hours’ confinement, while the brothel was being searched for them. They were conveyed to the mission home, and were very happy, and expressed their eager wish to remain. A Chinese woman came to call at the mission home, in the absence of the superintendent, and, unfortunately, was allowed to get access to an acquaintance of these girls, and she conveyed to them a promise that if they would come back, in a very little while they would all be given their liberty. After that the girls said they wished to go, and for the following reasons: They could not dwell in safety among their Chinese people, if in debt to a brothel-keeper, for he would be always on their track, and if he could not capture them and they would not return, he would certainly secure their death at the hands of high-binders. The case came up in court. The girls told there all the details of their being recently smuggled into this country; that they were bought by their present owner for $3,030 each; that they were flogged when their earnings for their owner fell below $300 a month, and other similar details,–_but_ they also declared their wish to go back to the brothel and to their owner. To be sure, they had expressed elsewhere a contrary wish, and the wish to return had been begotten in their hearts by the threats and inducements conveyed to them by the woman who came to the home. The judge was one who could not be bought nor bribed, and who sincerely wished the good of the girls, but they said they chose a life of prostitution, and to that life they were returned.
We do not pretend to understand as well as that judge the laws that were available, on which he rendered his decision, but this we do say: If California has not a law that will not permit the introduction of slavery into the state, even though Chinese women _consent_ to slavery, then it needs such a law at once. _Slavery is too formidable an evil for free Americans to allow its existence on the consent of enslaved Chinese women._ Age of consent legislation, as applied to the question of social vice, is one thing, and consent as applied to the question of slavery, quite another thing. Sir John Smale, in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, quoting from Sir R. Phillimore on International law (vol. I, p. 316), declared that it was not possible for a human being legally to “become a slave _even by his own consent_.” Had the matter of consent or non-consent of slaves been consulted as to negro slavery, we have no reason for believing that the negro would ever have had his freedom. Though prostitution is entangled with the conditions of servitude, under which Chinese women and girls groan in California, yet only about half the slaves are as yet prostitutes, and slavery looms up so large against the western sky, as compared with the mere consent or wish of a creature brought up from babyhood in familiarity with vice, that to consult the option of such an one in determining the existence or non-existence of _slavery_ in America, is a thing that ought not to be tolerated for a moment.
We have shown how every Chinese girl who has escaped from her servitude to the city of refuge,–the mission home,–is received and welcomed. How the rescued and rescuer run the race for dear life, and the pursuers are obliged to turn back at the door. But what a state of things in this country which we call free! Should not the entire country be one great city of refuge? Do we not pretend that it is such to all who are oppressed? Why should not the pursuer be turned back at the Golden Gate, rather than at the door of an exceptional home in San Francisco? We are fond of saying that under the stars and stripes slavery cannot exist. We must make it good, or acknowledge, in dust and ashes of repentance, that we are hypocrites. Idle words will not do in place of deeds; we must make good our profession at any cost. Everyone of these Chinese women should be removed from the brothels, wherever these exist, consent or no consent, placed in houses of detention, instructed as to the condition of liberty of the person in which she _must_ live, and then, if she _prefers_ a slave’s life, he deported to China,–a land in which slavery is permitted. Every Chinese man who attempts to interfere with this radical treatment of the situation, should be imprisoned or driven from the country. These “Watch-dogs,” who are perfectly known to the police, both by name and by face, should be put behind bars and in stripes, for a long time to come. This is not prostitution, _merely_,–Oh, how tenderly men are inclined to deal with the male harlot! but for once the libertine has not a shadow of a shade of defense,–the patrons of _slaves_ are something worse than fornicators; they are guilty of as many offenses of criminal outrage as they are guilty of visits to the slave-pens stocked with Chinese girls, and they deserve a prison sentence for every such visit.
Girls are afraid to come out of Chinese brothels until they have earned their freedom. This is because powerful Chinese societies have been formed that will either kidnap such a girl or kill her. So she declares in court that she consents freely to be returned to the brothel, and an extraordinary misconstruction of the doctrine of the “liberty of the person,” leaves the judge with nothing to do but to deliver the girl over to compulsory voluntariness. Again, Chinese young men do not wish to marry liberated Chinese girls, but they go, rather, to the brothel and buy a wife; and for much the same reason. If a man marries the liberated slave of a brothel keeper, the high-binders will teach the lesson that he has stolen another man’s property, by watching their chance and assassinating him. Why are not these societies broken up, root and branch? Cannot? Nonsense; the officers of the law have not made the attempt with any degree of earnestness as yet.
For years, the “Protectors” at Singapore and at Hong Kong have summoned the slaves into their offices and informed them that they were free, and asked them if they freely consented to going into a life of shame, before putting them there? But to what purpose? Let the Police Magistrate, H.E. Wodehouse, reply, as he did concerning a case of suicide: “When registering her name she said she had no pocket-mother, that her parents were both dead, and that she became a prostitute of her own free will. The inspector said that that was the description of themselves that nearly all prostitutes gave, and that it was very rarely that it was true.” Remember that, reader, when the columns of your morning paper inform you that all the girls of Chinatown have been interrogated, and that they all said they were there of their own free will? It is “very rarely that it is true.” Referring to this case, which we describe on page 118, the Marquess of Ripon wrote to Hong Kong that the brothel-keeper who attempted to extort money from the young man before delivering up his captive to him for marriage, should have been prosecuted, and adds: “A single successful prosecution in a case of this kind would, in all probability, do more to show that the inmates of brothels are free to leave such places when they wish, than could ever be effected by the present system, under which efforts are indeed made to explain their positions to the inmates of brothels.” This is a very clear statement of exactly what is needed in California. The public should refuse to be satisfied with visits of the police officials to the girls, to ascertain the girls’ state of mind as to a sense of liberty, and demand to know the official’s state of mind,–whether he is ready to _prove_ the freedom of the slave by hounding the slave dealers out of the community.
There was recently a war of secret societies in Oakland’s Chinatown. One of the “tongs” quarreled with another, and three or four Chinese men were shot on the streets of Oakland,–one fatally, named Lee Bock Dong, in his own house. Lee Bock Dong had a slave girl who saw the shooting, so she was taken into custody by police officers. But the Chinese got her out of jail by means of the usual writ of habeas corpus, and she was sent to Sacramento to another person, who had disputed her ownership with Lee Bock Dong. It seems, Lee Bock Dong had been holding the slave girl for a debt owed to him by her real owner in Sacramento, of $2,000. The Oakland _Enquirer, of_ Feb. 20th, 1907, informed its readers a few days after the affray as follows: “This girl’s possession was one of the points in dispute between the two tongs, and it was this that was settled at yesterday’s conference.” It is interesting to note that other newspapers gave the information that police officials attended the conference of these tongs, to help settle the dispute. The report continues: “Lee Bock Dong’s widow demands the return of the girl as security for the money, or the payment of the $2,000. This the Bing Gongs (one of the tongs) finally agreed to, and it was for them to determine the course they would pursue. The police say that this step is only preliminary to a settlement of the whole affair … that peace will be declared, the complaint against the alleged murderers withdrawn, and the case dismissed … it is now expected that within a few days the extra police force, which has been maintained in Chinatown ever since the night of the shooting affray, will be withdrawn and peace reign once more.” This article is headed: “Warring Tongs Hold a Conference, and it is Agreed Chinese Maiden is to be Returned, or Equivalent in Cash.” The _Enquirer_ of March 9th reported that the “Chinese tong men have been dismissed.”
“Equivalent in cash” for a Chinese maiden! Can it be possible that this is the United States of America, and the twentieth century! One actual murder, and two murderous assaults on the public streets, all dismissed by an understanding entered into with the police that they could now withdraw their extra force, since the Chinese girl had been passed over as security for a debt, until the “equivalent in cash” is paid! Have we spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and shed the blood of thousands of young men, and widowed and orphaned tens of of thousands besides, in a civil war to put down African slavery, introduced from the Atlantic Coast, merely to turn about and welcome Chinese slavery from the Pacific Coast?
“Behold this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.
“Who among you will give ear to this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come?”