Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 2, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 June 1858 — The Baby tower of Shangha. [ARTICLE]

The Baby tower of Shangha.

The special correspondent of the London Times, in China, writing from Shanghai on the 7th of August, 1857, thus describes a horrible “speciality” of that country : While walking with my friend Vice Consul Harvey I am induced to exclaim: “Tell me, O Vice Consul, what means that more than unusually pestilent stench? It seems to radiate from that decaying paper box shaped tower which, although not twenty feet high, we must by the courtesy of Chink call a pagoda.” Undismayed, the energetic vice-consul, who sometimes acts as guide, philosopher, and friend, and expatiates with me over this maze, advances through avaper so thick that I wonder the Chinese do not cut it into blocks and use it for manure—and at a distance of five yards from the building puffed hard at his cheroot and said, “That is the baby tower.” “The what!” said I inquiringly. “The baby tower. Look through that rent in the stonework, not too close, or the steam of effluvia may kill you. You see . a mound of wisps of bamboo straw. It seems to move, hut it is only the crawling bf the worms. Sometimes a tiny leg or arm, or a little fieshless bone protrudes from the straw. The tower is not so full now as I have seen it; they must have cleared it out recently.” ‘ls this a cemetery or a slaughter hopse!” “The Chinese say it is only a tomb. The coffins are dear and the peasantry are poor. When a child dies, the parents wrap it round with bamboo, throw it in at that winjdow, and all is done. When the tower is full the proper authorities burn the heap, and spread the ashes over the land.” There is nh inquiry, no check. The parents have power to kill or to save. Nature speaks in the heart of a Chinese mother as in the breast of an English matron- But want and shame sometimes shout louder still. There is a foundling hospital in the Chinese city, with a cradle outside the door, and a hollow bamboo above it. Strik a blow upon the bamboo and the cradle is drawn inside. If it contain an infant it is tak.en and cared Tor, and no questions asked. There is also a system of domestic slavery in China. Atari early age, a child is worth a dollar—a father or mother may for money delegate their own absolute power—delegate without losing it; for, although the father may have sold his son to a stranger, or although a mother may have sold her daughter to prostitution—-and concubines in China are only thus to be obtained—the duty from child to parent Remains unimpa'red and is strictly performed; The incentives thus offered by Mammon and the alternative proffered by native charity may save lives that would otherwise be destroyed; but this baby tower is a terrible institution. It stands there, close to the walls of a crowded city, an intrusive invitation to infanticide.