Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 285, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1913 — SELL CHILDREN AS SLAVES [ARTICLE]

SELL CHILDREN AS SLAVES

Plan of Callous Welsh Father Recalls Actual Practice in Some Places. Great indignation was caused recently when a, relieving officer in Wales said that a man had told him he ‘intended to make an application to the J board of trade for permission to sell his children. According to the relieving officer, this mau said that “sheep were selling well at present, and he believed that his children would also sell well if put up at "public auction.” Such callousness on the part of a father is almost unbelievable in civilized Britain, and it will no doubt astonish people to hoar that in many parts of the world the selling of human beings still goes on with lamost as much energy as In the old days of slavery. For Instance, at Ravensburg, In the

Tyrol, a children’s market is held every year, where the children of the poor are sold by auction to the highest bidders. As a rule, boys and girls do not bring more than a few shillings. When bought the children are taken away to do hard work, the boys being used for agricultural purposes and the girls for domestic work. Sometimes, when a would-be purchaser cannot decide between two boys he makes the youngsters fight, and buys the winner. A former woman police assistant in Germany created a sensation last year when she alleged that hundreds of children are sold at prices varying from $76 toyfl.OOO, most being sent to Russia. In Germany, so it was asserted, the sale of boys and girls is not confined to the poor. Even the children of aristocratic parents are occasionally sold. prlceß varying from $1,250 to $2,500. Apparently the police do nothing to (top this state of things.—Tit-Bits.