"A few days ago the Bubbling Well Road Police station received an letter, stating that a Tientsin woman, named Hsieh, living at 186 Moulmein Road who, daily, heaped exueltios on her 12 years old slave girls. A Chinese and foreign policeman were sent together" to the address given ud found that what the letter stated was more than true. The woman and girl were brought together to the police station and the girl sent to a hospital for examin. ation, the woman, meantime, being. detained in the waiting room. Not being closely guarded she made a dash for freedom but was observed by a foreign policeman who gave chase and recaptured her after Yunning more than 300 yards. "She was then pat into a cell and, on being searched, several packet of opium were found concealed in hor underclothes. 'The woman and gir! were sent together to the Provision. al Court where a charge - under three heads was made against the mistress: (1) Cruelty to a slave girl, (2) 'Tracking in opium, and' (3) Attempted escape. The woman was represented by a lawyer and the girl was called on to give her evidence. She testified that she was 12 years old and that last year, her family being in dire poverty, she was mortgaged (ie. given to her mistress with the proviso that when she was of mar-lugeable age, her family would Pay back the mortgage money, take her back, and sell her in marriage) to the accused, for twenty or thirty dotiars. About ten days ago she said, my mistress said had been careless and she took the iron tongs and heated them over a charcoal fire, on which medicine was being brewed, and burned me all over the body with them. It was more painful than T can tell' As she spoke the tears rained down her cheeks. The policeman uncovered the upper art of her body and showed that
spectators could not bear to covered with barns so that Took at it.
The examining doctor's report was then handed to the judge and he read that the girl's arms and legs were covered with sears. The prosecution asked for an exemplary sentence.
The accused was then asked for her defence. She testified that her husband was formerly head of the constabulary in Tsungming and Wusih but was now out of a job. She had mortgaged the girl last year for twenty to thirty dollars. She had never il-treated her and the burns on her body were caused by her own carelessness when cookig. The woman she was not an opium addict but because of a pain in her inside she took a little opium to relieve her suffering. The lawyer addressed the court on her behalf and the judge pronounced sentence that she had been proved guilty of using such cruelty as imosed much suffering on the com-Diamant. On the first charge she would be sentenced to three months' imprisonment. For attempting to escape, one additional month. For smuggling opium she would be imprisoned for four months an addition, pay a fine of $200, If the money was not forthcoming she would be imprisoned one day for each two dollars of the fine." The ttle mit tai was consigned to the care of the Door of Lope, Sold to a Disorderly House The next ense is somewhat dilferent but it illustrates that unfortunate girls are sold to brothels almost as commonly as cabbages fare sold in the market, "The suicide is reported of " girl named Hsu Ahmao. She was twenty years of age and, when young, was betrothed to a' respeetable man in the village of Hsachiachino. She was the favourite daughter of a poor family and, though brought up in a village, she had net the appearance of a country girl. She went to school, dressed well and had her hair cut im the latest fashion. She talked much of woman's rights and had all the characteristics of the modern girl student. When she was seventeen she was attracted by a plausible scoundrel who persuaded her to accompany him to Shanghai where they put up at a hotel, and ho foreed her to submit to his embraces. He introduced other men to her and they lived on her earnings until he tired of her, when he sold her to a brothel-keeper. 'The mistress of this house was very jlltempered and, for the space of six months, she was beaten almost di Fortunately, she had an adopted father who' pitied her sad plight and redeemed her for the sum of 8300. Her childhood betrothal was. cancelled and it seemed as though 'a new and better life was opening out to her. But the promiseuoas life in the brothel had left its mark on hor and she had contracted a disease, which nearly cost her, her life. When she was fully recovered her adopted father gave her as second wife to an elderly gentleman in Wenchow who repaid to him the $300 he had paid to secure hier release from the brothel. In due time she bore her new husband a daughter but the jealousy of the first wife made life in the home intolerable and she returned to her father's house in Pootung. Some time Inter she received a letter from Wenchow saying that—her elderly husband released her, unconditionally, from her marriage contract and advised her to seck a younger mate. From this time she became depressed, refused food and said she had no' wish to She gave her daughter to a neigh-hour who was of a kindly disposition and promised to be good to her. Twice she attempted to hang herself and was out down but a thied time she stabbed herself and was found dying in a pool of blood."
One cannot read a tale of this kind without a deep feeling compassion for the unfortunate sufferer. But in Shanghai there fare thousands of girls in exactly the same position as those whose histories have been chronicled above. There is not a day that the Chinese press does not. contain similar stories and every city China could furnish others of the same kind. There are, possibly, brothel Keepers who are not cruel to the inmates of their houses but, in every case, the girls are. the chattels of rose that have pur-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.