N. AMER, 
 
 RESCUING CHINESE 
 GIRLS 
 
 CARRIE G. DAVIS 
 
 Superintendent Home for Chinese Women and Girls. 
 
 E almost persuaded ourselves 
 that there would be no res- 
 cue work for us to do for a 
 long time after the earthquake 
 and fire, as the Chinese peo- 
 ple had become so scattered; 
 and, as a matter of course, that they would be 
 unable to house themselves readily and carry 
 on their nefarious trade very soon in prox- 
 imity to their old haunts. We felt satisfied 
 that these slaves would be hurried to interior 
 towns up and down the Pacific Coast, where 
 there might not be such vigilance kept up, and 
 they might escape more easily. 
 
 A very few did, but they were not going 
 to allow themselves to be robbed of their 
 chattels, knowing that trade would not be as 
 successful in the interior as around the Bay. 
 A tremendous effort was put forth to locate 
 themselves in Oakland as quickly as possible. 
 The area for Chinese here is about three times 
 as large as that of San Francisco. Realty 
 owners saw a chance for gain, and buildings 
 were rapidly put up, with all the devices 
 and plans as near the old style of habitation 
 
in San Francisco as possible. A visit through 
 these slave dens not long ago with the Oak- 
 land police showed us there was nothing lack- 
 ing. The property owners were no better in 
 Oakland than in San Francisco. All were 
 willing to sell their birthright for a mess of 
 pottage. 
 
 Ah Yoke When Rescued 
 
 On an old, notorious spot in San Francisco 
 was erected a brothel by the time it was 
 decided that the Chinese would be allowed to 
 go back to their old location. 
 
 Many cases cannot be told, but a few may 
 be described. The first call came from 
 Fresno for a girl who had been taken there 
 
after the earthquake and fire. Taking the 
 3.30 p.m. train from Oakland, we arrived in 
 Fresno about 11.30. Our plans were to 
 sally forth into Chinatown at the "wee sma* 
 hour" of 1 o'clock. We had an hour and a 
 half to sit in the lonesome depot, my inter- 
 preter and myself. We purchased our return 
 tickets and secured our sleeper, for we would 
 again board the train at 2 o'clock a.m. At 
 the appointed time we went out into the shad- 
 ows of the night at that weird and uncanny 
 hour, creeping back into the blackest shadows 
 of walls and buildings, for night is daytime 
 for the Chinaman. We were quick-eared for 
 the stealthy tread of his noiseless slipper, 
 stealing back into the shadows whenever we 
 heard his approach, as we knew he would 
 keep out in the brightest part of the street. 
 
 At last we had reached our rendezvous and 
 awaited results. The girl was to recognize us 
 by a sign, but we had nothing to recognize her 
 by. Soon a Chinese woman appeared and by 
 her frightened actions and looking hither and 
 thither we were sure she must be the one. 
 We sprang out of the darkness and softly 
 called her name, at the same time surrounding 
 her. She quickly responded by rushing to 
 me and catching me by the arm. Then we all 
 rushed back into the shadows and hurried her 
 on over car tracks, and behind and between 
 cars, until we reached the station. There 
 we passed into the ladies' dressing room and 
 in a few minutes had her in American clothes, 
 veiled and cloaked. We passed out again 
 and down the track to where the sleeper was 
 waiting to be attached to the car from the 
 
south. We were soon in our berths, but not 
 to be settled until we were whirling along in 
 the darkness toward the city. This girl was 
 afterward married to the man who brought 
 us the word and helped plan her escape. 
 
 The same morning, on our arrival, we 
 found a worker from Los Angeles with an- 
 other girl. She had come as the wife of a 
 native son and landed but a short time before 
 the earthquake. Immediately after, she was 
 taken to Oakland for a week or so, then 
 to Sacramento, and finally to Los An- 
 geles, where she was placed in a house of 
 prostitution by the husband. To be revenged 
 on the keeper with whom he had quarreled 
 over the amount paid for her, he told the 
 workers that he did not know the nature of 
 the place when he took her there, and that 
 when he wished to get her away the man 
 would not let her go. He was promptly 
 arrested, and has been in jail for six months, 
 while the little girl has been sheltered in the 
 Home. Thus these poor girls are ever being 
 brought to a strange land without knowing 
 the fate that awaits them. 
 
 Several years ago another poor unfortunate 
 was brought as a wife, but was sold into a 
 life of shame. After some time she was re- 
 sold to a man as a second wife. Here she 
 was so badly beaten and abused by the first 
 wife that she lost her hearing, and was badly 
 burned by the inhuman creature. After this 
 they concluded to sell her back again into the 
 immoral life, but she stubbornly refused to 
 go. For this she was repeatedly whipped and 
 abused, so that the neighboring Chinese took 
 
pity upon her and informed mission workers, 
 who rescued her and sent her to the Home. 
 Here she is quiet and painstaking, and we 
 wonder as we see her at work where she 
 learned all she knows, and more especially 
 who taught her to be so particularly clean 
 and careful. 
 
 * 
 
 Ah Yoke in the Home 
 
 The most tragic rescue is that of a little 
 girl of fourteen years of age who had become 
 a mother. She had been kept in a room in 
 the rear of a cigar factory in San Francisco, 
 where some hundred men were employed. 
 
When the baby arrived it was promptly taken 
 by the man who pretended he was her hus- 
 band; but he feared detection and so left it 
 on the steps of an American hospital. Sup- 
 posing it to be a Japanese baby, it finally 
 landed at our Japanese Home. Being a boy 
 it was given away to a Christian Chinese man 
 and woman who had no children, but were 
 delighted to get even a Japanese boy, as this 
 was supposed to be. Some time afterward 
 the little mother and a man appeared on the 
 scene claiming the baby as theirs. This led 
 to the belief that all was not right, and up- 
 on word being sent to me I investigated the 
 case and found the father of the child had 
 fled to China, and turned the girl over to this 
 man who now claimed her, although he was 
 married and had a wife and child in China. 
 We forthwith secured an officer and carriage 
 and took the girl. It was not quite as easy 
 as it is to write about it, as we left the Home 
 at 7.30 in the morning and returned at 6 
 o'clock in the evening, having been all day on 
 the case. 
 
 It was a bitterly contested case in the 
 courts for weeks, but finally we won. The 
 child did not know from what she was being 
 saved as she fully believed she was the wife 
 of the first man and had a perfect right to 
 the second if she wished. For that reason 
 she has been one of the hardest cases we have 
 had to deal with. However, she is doing 
 beautifully now; is going to school, and very 
 industrious at her lessons and at her work 
 as well, quick and bright about all she does. 
 
 Still another case is that of little Ah Yoke, 
 
1 
 
 a four-year old. She was sold when she was 
 but four weeks and five days old. Her par- 
 ents being very poor and having several other 
 children, she was disposed of to a man who 
 was a friend of the father. The wife, how- 
 ever, 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 
 1 0 o'clock with an officer. Leaving him out- 
 side, 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 so to do, 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. Fin- 
 ally 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. 
 
 This little one's support has been assumed 
 by the Woman's Home Missionary Society's 
 auxiliary of Springfield, 111. She can say 
 almost everything in English now. Has 
 learned "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep" 
 and "Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild," as 
 well as three Bible verses. 
 
 The girls in this Home must be supported 
 for the period of a year, or longer. We 
 cannot turn away any that seek assistance 
 from us, nevertheless it costs to aid them. We 
 must depend on assistance from individuals 
 and societies. Seventy dollars per year sup- 
 ports one. "Inasmuch as ye have done it 
 unto one of the least of these — ye have done 
 it unto Me." 
 
 WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City 
 50 or less, 6c; 50 to 100, 10c.