Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1885 — Chinese Child Venders. [ARTICLE]

Chinese Child Venders.

In Nankin and Kai-fun children from Q to 12 years of age are sold by tens of thousands. Not hired ont or transferred, but sold for a smaHl sum in cash, in consideration of which the progenitor, by a tacit understanding, renounces all parental rights, even the right of inquiring into the fate of his offspring. The purchasing trader may he the middleman of a well-to-do childless couple, or the agent of a wholesale teaplanter, or a coolie breeder, raising and training slaves for a foreign market. For the equivalent of sls any commission peddler will undertake to “adopt” the same number of young Mongols in the name of any employer, and at very short notice. The authorities might object to a formal and public purchase, but the meaning of the adopting transaction is well understood and connived at. It is a lesser evil, and few parents ask any questions. Rather than see their children starve, they will resign them to any fate—with one exception. The orthodox Buddhists seem to have evinced occasional scruples in delivering up their youngsters to the proselytizing missionaries, whom they suspect of all sorts of damnable practices. But even such scruples can be readily outweighed by a few extra dollars.— Hong Kong Cor. Cincinnati Enquirer.