THE SLAVES OF CHINA.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 3559, 6 May 1901, Page 4

THE SLAVES OF CHINA.

(London "Daily Express.") There are at a low estimate 10,000,000 .human, beings who are in servitude ia the Celestial Kingdom. China has 80,000,000 families, and this makes one slave, to every- eight families. The average is greater in South China, where nearly every one owns slaves.. There is scarcely a Chinese family of means in Nankin, Canton, Macao, or Amoy but possesses one or more slave girls; slave boys are less common, but the girls are found in every street and in almost every, house. Girls fetch from £2 to £2O and upwards in South China. They are sold at any age from three to fifteen, and most commonly at seven or eight. The prettiest girls are the mosfc desirable, as in case of marriage or sale they will bring more to the family -which buys them. Most of the slave girls are bought to work about the house. It is cheaper to buy a servant than to hire one, for if you take a girl of eight you can have her services until she is fifteen, getting eight) years services for nothing but her board and clothes, and then sell her for perhaps ten times your original price. there are no slaves in Hong Kong, as it is British territory, but in reality the city is full of them. They are the" maid servants and nurses of the Chinese. Every small-footed lady needs slaves to help her about, and in the houses of the rich, where there are many daughters, it is not -uncommon* to find from-20 to 30 slaves in a single family. Female slaves are often presents from on<j man to another, and not infrequently they form part of the bridal outfit. They are ccmmonly bought as secondary wives and often as teachers.

There are localities in China where the girls " are noted for their beauty. The cities of Yang-chau and Su-chau are as famous for rearing handsome young girls as. is Georgia in the Caucasus, from which rich Turks so often obtain their wives. There are persons in those cities who make a business of raising* slave girls. They search the country about for promising young girls, and put them through a regular of training. They have farms where the slaves are taught to sing, play upon musical instruments, and to acquire other accomplishments which.added to beauty, will cause them to sell for high prices to Bich mandarins.' These girls are chiefly -the daughters of poor people or the daughters of slaves. It is common for a man to purchase hh wife. Indeed, there are more wives purchased in this way than in any other. Every ttimi in. China has a right to as many wives as he can maintain, and a secondary wife is cjjeaper than a hired servant. The first wife is the legal one, but the others have their rights, although they are practically slaves. The man who is addicted to the opium habit will sell.his wife and not infrequently his children to supply his appetite. Wives are sometimes sold by gambling husbands, being put up on a turn of: a card or the rake-out of the cash at fan-tan. There are slave brokers in all the large Chinese cities. Their business increases at times of famine, and the starvation p-hich lately prevailed in. North China caused many parents to sell their children. With some it was a question, of allowing them> to starve or selling them. The result is that girl babies are a drug in the market.

Think of buying a baby for a shilling! This is the price which one of the infant asylums of Shanghai is said to pay for them. This is a philanthropic institution, and the children axe bought as a matter of charity and religion. They are reared surrounded by Christian influences, and are taught all sorts of domestic duties, and trhen they arrive at the proper age are given, respectable husbands. The brokers, as a rule, do not.buy babies. The cost of rearing them and the

risli of death are too great. They prefer to have girls or boys of eight years and apwards.