he Lord will take me up." Nothing brought back to me my far-away
Western home more pleasantly than the tones of the Angelus sounding from
the belfry of this institution.

There was a native orphan asylum in Foo Chow, not far from the American
Consulate--a fact I have never seen stated in any of the numerous books
I have read relating to the "Middle Kingdom." With true Chinese insight,
the largest salary was paid the nurse who successfully reared the
greatest number of babies. When I lived in China, the laws for the
prevention of infanticide were as stringent as our own, but they were
often successfully evaded. Poverty was so grinding in the East that the
slaughter of children was one of its most pitiable consequences. Infants
were made way with at birth, before they were regarded with the eye of
affection.

Fifty years ago slavery was prevalent among the Chinese, and one of its
saddest features consisted in the fact that its victims were of their
own race and color. Poverty-stricken parents sold their offspring to
brokers, and in Foo Chow it was recognized as a legitimate business.
Theoretically there were no slaves in Hong-Kong, which is British
territory, but in reality the city was full of them. Both men and women
slave-brokers infested the large cities of China, and boys and girls
between the ages of ten and twelve were sent from all the neighboring
villages to be sold in Foo Chow. The girls were purchased to be employed
as servants, and sometimes parents would buy them for the purpose of
training them until they reached the proper age and of then marrying
them off to their sons. In this way, as may readily be seen, some of
the young people of China were spared the vicissitudes and
discouragements of courtship so keenly realized in some other countries.
I have seen girl slaves sold with no other property except the clothes
upon their backs. Frequently their garments were of the scantiest
character and in some cases even these were claimed by the avaricious
brokers. Many of the waifs were purchased upon trial as a precaution
against leprosy which prevailed throughout the East. One of the tests
consisted in placing the child in a dark room under a blue light; if the
skin was found to be of a greenish hue, the slave passed muster; but, on
the other hand, if it was of a reddish tinge it indicated the early
stages of this fatal malady. Babies were not much in demand in Foo Chow
and did not even command the price of fres