"Throw out the life-line to danger-fraught men,Sinking in anguish where you've never been."
"Throw out the life-line to danger-fraught men,Sinking in anguish where you've never been."
So deep an impression was made upon her that she was wretched all the next day, quiteunfitted for her old life. Next morning she escaped. She told me that she had been a very wicked girl, that her young husband had committed suicide because of her sin. She never went back to her evil life. Her physical heart was seriously weakened from her addiction to drugs, liquor and vice.
In October, 1906, the National Purity Federation, of which Mr. B. S. Steadwell of La-Crosse, Wisconsin, is president, held a conference in Chicago, at Abraham Lincoln Center. Among the speakers was the late Rev. Sidney C. Kendall, whose whole soul was torn and bleeding over the shame of making commerce of women. He told us of the crimes of the French traders, of their systematized traffic in girls and of their organization for defense when any of them is under prosecution in the courts. Mr. Kendall was sick when he was here and died the next summer. With his latest strength and his dying breath he antagonized the loathsome white slave trade. He was a member of the National Vigilance Committee for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. Mr. Kendall's most conspicuous work was done in Los Angeles. Some of his spirit remained with a few of us in Chicago and we could not rest until some effort was made here to rid us of the shame of slavery in the twentieth century under the flag of the free.
On January 30, 1907, Mr. O. H. Richards told me how he had rescued a girl, with the help of the police, from a resort after the woman who kept the place had refused to surrender the girl to her mother and stepfather, on the claim that the girl owed twenty dollars for clothes. As there were three good witnesses to the illegal detention—the mother, the stepfather and Mr. Richards—I saw that this was a good case to bring into court. I asked the mother if, for the sake of other mothers' girls, she would take the witness stand. She heartily consented, as did her husband, and with strong crying and tears, she gave her testimony when the offending woman was arraigned, January 31, before Judge Newcomer at Harrison street. She was convicted, fined, and sent up to the bureau of identification—"rogue's gallery"—to leave her picture and measurements. This broke her pride and she came down wilted. She immediately abandoned her wicked business and is a good woman today. Last September when the midnight workers had some annoyance from dive-keepers, she visited the district at midnight to express her sympathy with the missionaries. She told me, "I remember what you said to me in court. You said, 'I love your soul, but I hate your devilish business.'"
As it was now publicly shown that girls were held in houses against their will, we printed the statute of Illinois against such detention, as a leaflet, and placed a copy in the hand of every keeper and inmate of disorderly resorts in the vice district at Twenty-second street. Captain Harding posted a copy of the leaflet in the police station. Beneath the statute we printed a note saying, "No white slave need remain in slavery in this state of Abraham Lincoln, who made the black slaves free. For freedom did Christ set us free; be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage, which is the yoke of sin and evil habit." Pastor Boynton tells in another chapter how Deaconess Hall, himself and I, with Policeman Cullet, went from house to house in the great vice district with this leaflet, which proved so powerful.
Thereafter the cause of the white slaves lay heavy on the hearts of a number of men and women, particularly Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, whose insistence that something be done led, ultimately, to the organization of the vigilance work in Chicago.
In the autumn of 1907, Mrs. Ida Evans Haines obtained a copy of a report of the Episcopal Diocese, of Massachusetts, on Social Purity and the ravages of the diseases that are the wages of sin. At Mrs. Haines' request, Rev. Morton Culver Hartzell organized a committee of ministers of various denominations, of which Rev. Dr. Swift, of Austin, was chairman, and Rev. Dr. Cain, of Edgewater, secretary. Under authority of this committee, a meeting was held at the Y. M. C. A. lecture room in November, 1907, which was addressed by Miss Rose Johnson, of Panama. Out of this meeting came the "Committee for Suppression of Traffic in Vice," of which Dr. Cain was chairman. This committee employed an investigator and was appalled by the revelationof conditions in Chicago, existing not only in so-called red light districts, but also in residence districts. The activity of this committee for the suppression of traffic in vice attracted a much larger number of persons, who promoted numerous meetings, which culminated in the union meeting of ministers to consider the suppression of the white slave traffic in Chicago and Illinois, on February 10th, 1908.
BLIND BABY IN THE POOR-HOUSE
BLIND BABY IN THE POOR-HOUSEThis baby's condition is the direct result of disease in the parents. Probably 25 per cent of the blindness of children is caused by illicit sexual relation. (Dr. Wm. T. Belfield, page 299.)
IN THE REFUGE
IN THE REFUGEAlone in the world with no one but her baby she comes to the refuge to save herself from starvation. She has no husband. She was tempted and fell
The purpose of that meeting was to enlist the ministers, as the moral leaders of the community, in the effort to rid our city of this shame, and by holding a public convention to give the newspapers opportunity to tell the facts to the public.
Bishop Wm. F. McDowell presided; the devotional service was led by Rev. A. H. Harnly; prayer was offered by Rev. A. C. Dixon. Addresses were made as follows: "Chicago's White Slave Market; the Illegal Red Light District," by Rev. Ernest A. Bell. "The White Slaves and the Law," by Mr. Clifford G. Roe. "The International White Slave Traffic," by Dr. O. Edward Janney, of Baltimore, chairman of the National Vigilance Committee. "The Lost," by Mrs. Raymond Robins.
Judge Fake spoke briefly, and a letter was read from Judge Sadler.
At that meeting, it was determined to proceed with the organization of a State Association for the suppression of the white slave traffic in Illinois. That same afternoon, February 10th, 1908, a largely attended meeting representing ministers' meetings, settlements, clubs, temperance and other reform organizations, set themselves to establish the "Illinois Vigilance Association."
The publicity given by the conference just mentioned to the testimony of ministers, judges and prosecutors, led the Chicago Tribune to inquire very carefully into the truth of these statements, and finding them true, that newspaper committed itself in numerous editorials to antagonize the White Slave Traffic.
The same conference helped to enlist Hon. Edwin W. Sims, the United States district attorney at Chicago, in the prosecution of the traffickers in foreign girls under the Immigration Act of February 20, 1907. Mr. Sims has repeatedly stated in public meetings that we brought to his notice the appalling traffic in alien girls, which he has since done so much to suppress.
Much has been done, we rejoice to say. Still, today we photographed the barred windows in Chicago's principal market for girls.
LATER—On September 3, in an interview with Hon. LeRoy T. Steward, chief of police, Mr. Arthur Burrage Farwell and the writer submitted photographs of barred windows to the chief. He examined them carefully and said he saw no need of such bars on houses of infamy. The explanation of divekeepers that the bars were "to keep out burglars," was not satisfactory. Assistant Chief Schuettler, who was present, said, "Give it to me, I'll tend to it." He took one of the photographs and in a few days the bars were all removed.
Similar barred windows were found and photographed in Los Angeles during the crusade of the decent people of that city against its white slave market. It's wonderful how carefully these slavers everywhere protect themselves against "burglars."
We reproduce in this book two flashlight pictures of a dungeon door and a steel screen found in Custom House Place, the former white slave market of Chicago. These are taken by permission from "Chicago's Soul Market," by Dr. Jean Turner Zimmermann. She writes concerning these views as follows:
"In the south wall of the basement of 114 Federal street (Custom House Place) that congested, central Redlight District of three years ago, now given over to slum and immigrant habitation, is a great steel door about the size and shape of the door of a railway freight car. On the outside, this door opens into a narrow, blind passageway between 114 and 116 Custom House Place, formerly the notorious dive 'The ——.' On the inside this door opened into a large closet, windowless, sound proof (about 4×7 feet) and it is alleged that it was through the alley and into this blind passage way that the unwilling victims of White Slavers were carried into this little solitary cell.
"The accompanying photograph, secured by the writer, gives at least a faint idea of this frightful trap against whose pitiless walls have, no doubt, beat the agonized shrieks of more than one innocent girl.
"For two years we occupied the premises at 114 Custom House Place as a mission. Upon moving into the place we found every window incased in heavy iron bars, while between the bars and the glass of each window was mortised a one-half inch steel screen (see cut). Entrance or exit from the building was as utterly impossible as from a penitentiary, excepting by the front door."
Certain policemen, from motives best known to themselves, attempted to prevent Dr. Zimmermann from taking these photographs. Scorning their despicable threats of arrest, she took the pictures with her own hands.
—E. A. B.
By James Bronson Reynolds, New York.
Note:—Few Americans are better informed than Mr. Reynolds on the subject of commerce in white women and girls, and in Chinese and Japanese women and girls. He has investigated this awful traffic on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, in Panama, in China and Japan. He is a member of the National Vigilance Committee, which co-operates with similar organizations in other nations for the extermination of this shameful traffic. In other important investigations he has been a special commissioner of President Roosevelt.This chapter is an address delivered by Mr. Reynolds, who came from New York for the purpose, before the conference for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic held by the Illinois Vigilance Association in Chicago, February 8, 1909.
Note:—Few Americans are better informed than Mr. Reynolds on the subject of commerce in white women and girls, and in Chinese and Japanese women and girls. He has investigated this awful traffic on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States, in Panama, in China and Japan. He is a member of the National Vigilance Committee, which co-operates with similar organizations in other nations for the extermination of this shameful traffic. In other important investigations he has been a special commissioner of President Roosevelt.
This chapter is an address delivered by Mr. Reynolds, who came from New York for the purpose, before the conference for the suppression of the White Slave Traffic held by the Illinois Vigilance Association in Chicago, February 8, 1909.
On May 18, 1904, a treaty was signed between the leading countries of Europe, for the repression of the white slave traffic. This treaty was presented to our government andafter careful consideration its ratification was advised by the senate and proclaimed by the President, June 15, 1908. If I am correctly informed, this is the first treaty relating to social morality consummated between the leading civilized governments of the world. This action is of the highest significance and importance. The provisions of this treaty should be generally known by our people, which is not the case today, and we should carefully consider our obligations as citizens to its proper fulfillment. It should be hailed as a step of progress in this twentieth century, which seems destined to record great improvements in social well-being and in the removal of inequalities of condition. The most important provisions of the treaty which I will summarize are contained in the first three articles:
Article 1. Each of the contracting governments agrees to establish or designate an authority who will be directed to centralize information concerning the procuration of women and girls, for the purpose of their debauchery in a foreign country: That authority shall be empowered to correspond directly with the similar service established in each of the other contracting states.
Article 2. Each of the governments agrees to exercise supervision of railway stations, ports of embarkation and of women and girls in transit, in order to procure all possible information leading to the discovery of a criminal traffic. The arrival of persons involvedin such traffic, as procurers or victims, shall be communicated to diplomatic or consular agents.
Article 3. The governments agree to inform the authorities of the country of origin of the discovery of such unfortunates and to retain, pending advices, such victims in institutions of public or private charity. Such parties will be returned after proper identification to the country of origin.
The execution of the provisions of the treaty in European countries has been entrusted to the national police service. In this country, where the police are not a department of the national government, the Bureau of Immigration, which seemed best equipped for the service pledged, has been instructed to carry out, so far as possible, the provisions of the treaty.
Even this exceptionally well informed audience may not be fully aware of the extent and power of the evil forces which Europe and America have through this treaty combined to oppose. That the treaty was originally drafted without the assistance of our own government, indicates that Europe first realized the necessity of governmental action. The adhesion of our own government to the treaty proves its subsequent recognition of the seriousness of the evil. Briefly stated, the status of the white slave traffic is this: It is a traffic withlocal, interstate, national and international ramifications. It has the complete outfit of a large business; large capital, representatives in various countries, well paid agents, and able, high salaried lawyers. Its victims are numbered yearly by the thousands. They include not only the peasant girls of European villages, but also the farmers' daughters of our own country. Some are uneducated and wholly ignorant; others have enjoyed good education. While most of them come from the homes of poverty, occasionally a child of well-to-do parentage is numbered among the victims. The alert agents of the traffic move from place to place, alluring peasant girls and farmers' daughters from their homes, entrapping innocent victims at railway stations and public resorts. Not a few girls who go to the cities to seek their fortunes and fail are caught by these harpies. And remember, I am alluding now not to those who go astray because of incidental misfortunes of circumstance, condition, or blind trust in some unworthy lover, but only to those who are entrapped by the agents of the organized white slave traffic system.
The above statements have been abundantly established by the investigations of the National Vigilance Committee within the past two years and have been confirmed by other competent authorities. These conditions have been due not to the wish or the intention of our people, but to our blindness or our ignorance. We forget that eternal vigilance is the price ofliberty, as one declaiming of political freedom has said. The same price must be paid for every other civic excellence or right. The liberty of woman, quite as much as the liberty of man, should be protected, and woman's moral freedom, quite as much as man's political freedom, demands for its protection unceasing vigilance.
Without going further into general conditions, I wish to present a statement regarding America's relations to the white slave traffic in China and Japan and to the yellow slave traffic in the Pacific Coast states of our own country. My information regarding China and Japan is based primarily on my own personal observations and inquiries in those countries. My information regarding conditions in California is based upon the report of a special agent of the National Vigilance Committee and upon the reports of missionaries and other workers among the Chinese and Japanese women on our Western coast.
I shall consider my subject in two divisions: First, white slave traffic in Asia; second, yellow slave traffic in AMERICA. I trust I do not seem to be stretching the application of the subject of my address in the title of the second division. It is the traffic in the bodies and souls of women, and I care not whether they are white, yellow or black. (Applause.) Our responsibility is independent of the color of the victims.
The record of white slave traffic in the Orient presents one of the darkest pages in our history. In many Oriental cities, notably in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Yokohama, there exists a quarter made up of houses of ill-repute. The most showy and stylishly dressed of their occupants are Americans. Some of them are often conspicuous in expensive equipages on the leading thoroughfares. It is so well known a fact in the Orient that these women are Americans that I was told in three cities that the term "American girl" was synonymous of a prostitute. Such a condition would be deplorable in itself, but in addition it must be understood that just as we Americans derive our chief impression of the Chinese nation from the Chinese quarters in Boston, New York, Chicago and San Francisco, so the Chinese in their home form their impression of Americans from the American communities in the Orient, in which the daughters of shame are most in evidence.
Until recently Shanghai held first place among Oriental cities of such shameful repute. That this status has been somewhat modified is due chiefly to the courage and persistence of Judge Wilfley, American Circuit Court Judge at Shanghai. He was severely criticised, I believe, before a Congressional investigating committee last winter, for lack of tact, and forusing rough-shod methods. A careful investigation by Mr. Root, the Secretary of State, resulted, however, in Judge Wilfley's complete vindication and in the highest praise for the service he had rendered in cleansing out the Augean stables of American vice in Shanghai. But in spite of his admirable efforts, the reform has not been permanent, and will only become so when we manifest that our moral house-cleaning is a permanent duty to be kept up at all times.
Of course there are clean and happy American homes in these cities, just as there are happy Chinese homes in our Chinese quarters, though few of us are aware of the latter fact, as neither our reporters nor our slumming parties discover them. But the American dens of vice in the coast cities are the most conspicuous exponents of Americanism in China and Japan, as the Chinese opium and gambling dens in our American cities are supposed to be typical of life in China. We hasten to assert that in our case the imputation is deplorably incorrect. We might with equal truth recognize the injustice of judging the average Chinaman by impressions formed in a Chinatown slumming party.
The Chinese colonies of this country and the European and American colonies in the Orient exhibit the worst side of their respective national character. Thus through the depravity of a fragment of our people the nation is misjudged and is believed to make for unrighteousness. This has been the direct result of our indifference to our reputation in the Orient. It is well to remind you that under the exterritoriality clause of our treaty with China, all Americans in China are under the protection and control of our consular representatives. The Chinese in this country have no such protection from their home government. The Chinese nation is, therefore, entitled to hold us responsible for the conduct of Americans in China, as we cannot hold the Chinese government responsible for the conduct of its people in our country.
When I was in Japan, at the request of the American government, I approached certain Japanese officials to learn if something could not be done to stop the sending of Japanese girls to this country for immoral purposes. I was courteously received, and after some discussion was assured that the Japanese government would gladly co-operate to suppress this traffic and would welcome any suggestions to that end. A high official said to me, "We desire to have the Japanese enjoy a good reputation in your country, and therefore we are most anxious that only those Japanese should go to your country who will contribute to the good reputation of our country." But on leaving this official he said with some hesitation, "Do you think it would be possible on your return to America to suggest to your officials that they might do something to prevent the sending of American girls to our cities?" Let those whohastily declare the Japanese to be wholly depraved because of the Yoshiwara in their cities, understand that we have been and still are responsible for an American Yoshiwara in more than one Japanese and Chinese city.
Should not this mortifying suggestion of a Japanese official to a Christian nation, the burning disgrace to our country, and the dictates of patriotism, of decency and of humanity, arouse us and through us our government? If we realize the necessity of action, then there are three things which we can and should do.
1. Provision should be made by law so that the protection of American citizenship, impudently flaunted in the Orient by the American prostitutes and other outlaws, should be withdrawn. American citizenship should not be a cloak for the protection and promotion of vice. I realize the danger of the possible abuse of such proscription. Proper safeguards must be maintained so that an arrogant or unprincipled consul may not abuse his power; but with proper checks, protection sought in the name of American citizenship should bring good character as its credential.
2. Direct communication should be established between our government and the governments of Japan and China, assuring these governments that we deplore the presence in their territory of such unworthy representatives of our country, and that we will gladly co-operate in driving them from their unholy traffic.
3. A formal treaty agreement should be instituted with China and Japan under which the high contracting parties should agree to use their respective police powers to detect and punish those who seek to send girls or women from one country to the other for immoral purposes.
Second. Yellow slave traffic in America.
Deplorable and disgraceful as is the white slave traffic in the Orient, the yellow slave traffic in our own country is infinitely more disgraceful. We call ourselves a Christian nation. The Chinese and Japanese are classed as heathen, but I am compelled to believe that the heathen slaves imprisoned in the pens of California are in a much worse plight under Christian rule than are their unfortunate sisters in Chinese and Japanese cities under heathen rule.
I am informed that five years ago very few Oriental women were imported for immoral purposes. A small number of Chinese women were kept in certain houses for the accommodation of Chinese men. Today there is an organized system of commerce in human flesh between China and Japan and this country, and an organized system of slavery in certain of our coast states. After the payment of money for this human property, title is passed just as forreal estate, and the alleged property rights are respected by our officials. Is this Christian? Is it decent? Is it American? Is it anything but a vile shame and disgrace, a disgrace to be abolished by the determined action of every lover of decency in our land? [Cries of No! No!]
I am not making these statements on the basis of newspaper stories or travelers' gossip. Let me quote from a report of our investigator. Speaking of one city in California, he says, "The crib system, which means the keeping of many girls in small rooms in large buildings, sometimes under lock and key, sometimes at liberty to come and go, is adopted to a limited degree among Japanese girls. Across the river these girls are kept in the Chinese quarter. They are owned by wealthy Japanese and Chinese men. The property thus used for saloon, gambling and for a slave market for girls is said to belong to an estate controlled by a high official of the state."
Of another city our investigator says: "In conversation with a very intelligent Chinese woman, the direct question was asked, 'Are the Chinese and Japanese women actual prisoners owned and controlled by their keepers?' She said that such was practically the case, and that none of these girls were allowed to leave their rooms without being escorted by older people, whose presence with them would insure their return.
"It is remarkable that the authorities ofOakland seem to regard this crib slavery of young girls as part of the legitimate business of the city."
Of a third city he says: "There is a district in ——, covering five blocks—a crib district—where the floating population gathers by the hundreds. The girls here number from 100 to 600.
"One other similar section of —— is owned by some very prominent and wealthy citizens, who pay taxes on the property. Their names are known. In the suburbs is a field containing the nameless graves of 451 unknown girls."
Many cases are on record of the attempts of missionary workers, some successful and some unsuccessful, to snatch these victims from their owners. One missionary told of an instance where she had been informed that one of five girls confined in a certain room in a house of ill-repute desired to escape. With the help of an honest policeman and two assistants the missionary forced her way into the room. When she found the five girls she was at a loss to determine what to do, because she could not recognize which one wished to escape. She had been informed that the girl she sought would be afraid to indicate her wish. After hesitation the missionary selected one girl and told the detective to seize her. The girl screamed, kicked, scratched and fought her rescuers with the greatest energy, but was carried into the street and into the mission house. As soon as she was inside the house she fell atthe feet of the teacher and said, "Teacher, you know I didn't mean what I said. I did not dare to show any desire to go for fear I might be taken back." It happened that the missionary got the girl whom she sought and who desired her liberty. Other attempts at rescue have been less successful. On one occasion a rescue party sought a Chinese girl, whom it was agreed should hold to her mouth a white handkerchief as a signal that she was the one to be taken. When the rescue party entered the place, they saw the girl with the handkerchief to her face, at the soliciting window. Unfortunately, in the excitement of the moment the girl lost her presence of mind, and, waving her handkerchief, cried out, "O teacher!" But a locked door still separated her from her rescuers, and her keepers, suspecting the truth, dragged her back, and she was lost in the house before the door could be forced. Other girls who escaped from the den afterwards told her fate. Her enraged owner kicked her to death in one of the rooms of her slave prison where there was none to defend her. No one was ever punished for this crime.
Horrible as these incidents were, they are but the regular accompaniments of slavery. They have been paralleled in all ages and in all countries where slavery has existed. The shame of it is that in America in the twentieth century such slavery should still be tolerated.
Ought we not to give active support to our government in its fulfillment of its treatyagreement with the nations of Europe? And should not our example in the Orient and our conduct in our own country be more worthy of our national moral standards? If so, then such an association as this has a more than local service to render. Placed in this important center, it must reach out both to the East and to the West, awaken interest, give warning, and help to provide a chain of national protective agencies to combat and destroy the closely linked chain of purveyors of vice.
During the administration of President Hayes the United States consul general at Shanghai, Mr. D. H. Bailey, made a report to the president, relating to slavery in China and the menace to our country from that cause. He enclosed with his report a translation of the laws governing slaves, some of which are as follows:
"If a female slave deserts her master's house she shall be punished with eighty blows. Whoever harbors 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.
"The master or the relatives of a master of a guilty slave may chastise such slave in any degree short of death, without being liable to any punishment.
"All slaves who are guilty of designedly striking their masters shall, without making any distinction between principals and accessories, be beheaded.
"If accidentally they kill their master, they shall suffer death by being strangled."
In China, and wherever Chinese live, slavegirls and women are subject to two forms of slavery, domestic slavery and brothel slavery. Every respectable Chinese family has one or two house slaves. The brothel slave is a literal slave, bought and sold like a sheep or cow. Traffic in Chinese girls for wicked uses extended to Hong Kong as soon as the island became prosperous and populous after being ceded to Great Britain in 1841. From Hong Kong the horrid trade reached to California, and to Singapore and other places.
Commissioners appointed by the governor of Hong Kong made a report in 1880, from which the following accounts are taken:
"Young girls, virgins of thirteen or fourteen years of age, are brought from Canton or elsewhere and deflowered according to bargain, and as a regular business for large sums of money, which go to their owners. The regular earnings of the girls go to the same quarters, and the unfortunate creatures obviously form subjects of speculation to regular traders in this kind of business, who reside beyond our jurisdiction. Mr. Lister speaks of the brothel-keepers as a horrible race of cruel women, cruel to the last degree, who use an ingenious form of torture, which they call prevention of sleep, which he describes in detail."
"Two girls were brought before the registrar general, both of whom pleaded for protection against their owner, stating that she intended to sell them to go to California. One of these had been bought by this woman foreighty dollars; the girl saw the price paid for her. The other said her mother was very poor and sold her for twenty dollars. The inspector said: 'There has been at times a number of women residing in the house, and I do not know what has become of them. I believe that they have been sent to California by the defendant.'"
The poor slave girls, as shown by court proceedings at Hong Kong, had the same terror of being "sold into California" that the negro slaves in this country had of being "sold down the river." One of the girls testified that she had seen several women sent away to California. She had been present when bargains were made, the price varying. In Hong Kong the price was from fifty to one hundred and fifty dollars; they would bring in California from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and fifty dollars.
Owing to the restriction of Chinese immigration, and the penal laws against importing women for evil uses, the value of a slave girl on the Pacific Coast has greatly increased; it is now $3,000.
The system of Chinese brothel slavery differs from the white slave trade, in that the Chinese brothel slaves are not weak or wicked women who have fallen into the clutches of traffickers, as so many of our European and American white slaves unquestionably are, but are good girls who have been sold by their actual owners intoa life of shame for money, sometimes sold by their own parents. Some are not sold outright, but are mortgaged to pay off a loan. So much is credited each month until the debt is canceled—unless fresh debts, real or fictitious, keep the victim indefinitely, as with the white slaves. On the marked differences between the white slave and the yellow slave, the commissioners previously quoted say: "Prostitutes in Europe are, as a general rule, fallen women, the victims of seduction, or possibly of innate vice. Being the outcasts of society, and having little, if any, prospect of being admitted again into decent and respectable circles of life, deprived also of their own self-respect as well as the regards of their relatives, occasionally even troubled with qualms of conscience, they mostly dread thinking of their future, and seek oblivion in excesses of boisterous dissipation. The Chinese prostitutes of Hong Kong are an entirely different set of people. Very few of them can be called fallen women, scarcely any of them are the victims of seduction in the English sense of the term, refined or unrefined. The great majority of them are owned by professional brothel-keepers or traders in women in Canton or Macao, have been brought up for that life and trained in various accomplishments suited to it. They frequently know neither father nor mother, except what they call a pocket-mother, that is, the woman who bought them from others." There are 18,000such slaves in Hong Kong, if the estimates accepted by the commissioners are correct.
In China the yellow slave has hope of escape from her bondage. If she is pretty and accomplished, some rich man may buy her for his first, second, third or fourth wife. If she is homely some honest working man may take her. Or she may sing or play an instrument and thereby add to her earnings until she can buy her own freedom, if dissipation and disease have not killed her first.
The mortgaged girls are often such as have sacrificed their own to their family's honor, according to the Chinese and Japanese notion of filial piety. The money thus advanced by the keeper is thought necessary to rescue the girl's family or some member of it from calamity or ruin. One Japanese man is quoted as saying that such sacrifice on a girl's part is "Christ-like." He should hear the voice of Christ, saying of all these sins, "which things I also hate." Revelation, 2:6.
The terrible system of Chinese and Japanese brothel slavery has been imported into San Francisco, Oakland, and other cities of California. Americans and Europeans have invested money and devoted business ability to this enormous iniquity, because it pays well. Apart from the horrors of Chinatown, one thousand Japanese women are held in this form of slavery in California. The San Francisco Chronicle said of this statement: "There is not the slightest doubt of the truth of the assertion, disreputable as it may seem."
The police will generally say after investigating, that these women are willing to remain in their present condition. Doubtless this is true of most of them, but they are slaves, none the less, literal and actual slaves, bought and paid for and acknowledging the ownership. In a letter of Abraham Lincoln, written before the war, he tells of a company of negro slaves that he saw on a boat on the Ohio and he never saw such a happy company of people in his life. When John Brown made his raid into Virginia and captured 200,000 stands of arms at Harper's Ferry, he hoped that the thousands of negro slaves in that region would join him and fight for their freedom. He could only get six or eight negroes to join him, and those at the point of the bayonet. One was shot rather than seek his liberty. At the beginning of the Abolition movement a petition from slaves was sent to Congress in favor of slavery! Women terrorized by such laws as are quoted at the beginning of this chapter, and further terrorized by all the brutal treatment and threats of the slave traders, are not likely to say to the police that they desire liberty. But it is our duty to give them liberty and to punish their owners, who cannot legally own them, but do practically own them under the Stars and Stripes.
The following cases illustrate the traffic andthe work of missionaries. These three girls were in the Methodist Home for Chinese Girls, located since the earthquake at Berkeley. One says:
"I am twelve 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 to a woman three years ago in Hong Kong. The woman promised my mother to make me her own daughter. My mother cried when she left me; I have heard that she is now dead. The big ship City of Pekin took me soon out of sight. There was trouble in landing me. The woman had no trouble in landing, because she had been in California before. She told me what I was to say. She told me I must swear I was her own daughter. The judge asked me, '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. She taught me on shipboard what to say if I was taken to court. She beat me with thick sticks of firewood. She beat me with the fire tongs. One day she took a hot flatiron, removed my clothes and held it on my naked back until I howled with pain. (The scab was on her back when she came to the Mission.) My forehead is all scars caused by her throwing heavy pieces of wood at my head. Onecut a large gash and the blood ran out. She stopped the bleeding and hid me away. 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."
Another little slave, eleven years old, who was about to be sold from domestic slavery into a brothel, was saved by a Chinaman. She says: "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."
In the following case the rescuer was a negress. A young girl came from China to San Francisco as a merchant's wife. Missionaries visited her in Chinatown, but she disappeared and explanations were not satisfactory. A year later the door bell rang one night at the Mission and when it was opened a Chinese girl fell in a faint across the threshold, a colored girl holding her by the queue. The colored girl saw her running and, to prevent her from being dragged back by her tormentors, seized her by the queue and helped her run to the Mission. It was the merchant's young wife. Thewretch had left her on false pretense in a den of shame. She was tied to a window by day and to a bed by night, a thoroughly unwilling slave. Three days before her escape, 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 divekeeper, the madam 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 announced in the papers that there were no slaves in Chinatown. Though watched night and day, she rushed out at an opportune moment and, with the help of the colored girl, ran to safety.
Since the earthquake immense slave pens have been built at Oakland and in San Francisco. A photograph of one large wooden structure, to hold more than a hundred girls, is before me as I write. The girls are kept in small rooms, nine or ten feet square. Americans and Chinamen are partners in the horrible business.
This chapter is a review, in part, of the book, "Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers," written by Dr. Katharine Bushnell and Mrs. Elizabeth Andrew.
It was my good fortune and delight to meet Dr. Bushnell and Mrs. Andrew in Bombay, at the time when Lord Roberts had contradicted their statements about procuring women for British soldiers in India—"Queen's women" as they were called. Upon being convinced that Dr. Bushnell and Mrs Andrew had told the truth, Lord Roberts, then commander-in-chief of the forces in India, said, "I apologize to the ladies without reserve."
E. A. B.
At the end of May, 1907, Rev. Melbourne P. Boynton, pastor of the Lexington Avenue Baptist Church, was requested by the Chicago Examiner to make a tour of the vice district at Twenty-second street and write against its iniquities for the columns of that newspaper. Pastor Boynton stipulated that I should accompany him, as a recognized worker in the slums and superintendent of the Midnight Mission. Rev. E. L. Williams, a Methodist pastor, also accompanied us, with Detectives Considine and Thomas of the Chicago police.
As we went out I prayed God to give us a thunderbolt to alarm the people of Chicago. We did not foresee the answer to this prayer, but I have always felt that it was answered very quickly and in the following manner:
Shortly after one o'clock on the morning of May 31, we entered a resort on Dearborn street, whose former owner had come to me at midnight to tell me that he had not had one happy minute since he took up that terrible business and that he would quit it, which he did. In this place among the half-dressed inmates we noticed a modestly gowned youngwoman, sitting at a small drinking table opposite something that ought to have been a man. The thing's name was Neil Jaeger; the girl's name was Macdonald. I asked the girl if she were an inmate or leading a life of that sort and she said no. She told me her true name and address and lied only about her age, as Jaeger had taught her to say she was twenty, when she was only sixteen, that he might sell her in the white slave market. The keeper of the resort, convinced that she was under age, had refused to deal with him. When I began to question the snake, it hissed, "Mind your own business." I replied that this was my business, and asked the detectives to investigate. Discerning quickly what it was that we had discovered, they promptly locked the thing in an iron cage, like any other wild beast. The girl was cared for. Her anxiety was expressed in her words, "What will my mother say?"
At the trial of Jaeger before Judge Fake, he himself told brazenly how he had brought this young girl from her own home in an Illinois town, her mother supposing that she was going to work in Rockford. While the girl was giving her testimony I heard the click of a camera, to my sorrow—for we were doing our utmost to keep the girl's secret and to send her quietly to her mother. More than half a million copies of her photograph went out in the great daily papers of Chicago. When the truth was known, other young girls told what theyhad escaped by the capture and exposure of this reptile, for he was luring several of them to Chicago, one of them only fifteen years old. About half a million pages were published in the Chicago newspapers at this time against the traffic in girls. Such, it seemed to me, was the thunderbolt, for which I had prayed.
In a letter written from Rockton, Illinois, on May 27, the hypocrite Jaeger had said to one of his intended victims: "I have learned to love you as I never loved a girl before and probably never will again. Now, sweetheart, I want you to get away from this town and the life you are leading there as soon as you possibly can. When you are ready let me know, and I will send you plenty of money to start out on, and will meet you wherever you say and then we can be together as much as we please and can live happy ever afterward—that is, of course, if you like me that well and I certainly hope you do. Be a good girl and God bless you and keep you from harm. Lovingly, Neil M. Jaeger."
In another letter he wrote: "From our last conversation I feel determined not to give you up, but to do all in my power to aid you to free yourself from the bondage that undermines your health and temper and open to you a life free from care and strife, where you can go where, when and with whom you please without being kept like a girl in a convent. Yournatural vivacious and care-free nature rebels against the shackles, which fate has placed upon you, and I am willing to give you physical, mental, moral and financial support, to give you a life where none of the troubles which now harass you will be manifest, but instead will be a life where love will rule supreme. I will further try to prove myself worthy of your esteem if you will allow me to do something in a financial way. I am a man of character, honesty and uprightness, possess an estate valued at $50,000, own an automobile and a private yacht, have an income of some $2,500 a year and am thoroughly independent. I come from one of the best families in the west. I am willing to take you to Chicago, support you, and if you desire, secure employment for you at Marshall Field & Co.'s, besides taking you to dances, theatres, automobiling and yachting. Surely anything would be better than the life you are leading there."