aroundworldortra00peebiala-1

164 AROUND THE WORLD.
for the prevailing foeticide of America? That infanticide
prevails to an alarming extent in some of the poorer localities,
is beyond dispute, while in others it is entirely unknown.
Major Studer, our American consul in Singapore,
though residing in this city of sixty thousand Chinamen,
says there has not been a case of infanticide before the
courts, nor has he as yet even heard of a child's being killed
by the parents. Chinese women, like other mothers, naturally
love their children ; but the family is large, the means
of support limited, and the country deluged with population.
What must be done ? A check of some kind seems
indispensable. They do not destroy the first female infant.
If the second born is a female, there comes a struggle
between natural affection, and the nuisance of two female children,
with no son to bear the name down to posterity, securing
ancestral worship.
If the third is a daughter, it seldom
escapes strangling by the " woman-nurse " in attendance.
There is a tacit understanding between the parties to this
effect. The method of destruction is either by strangulation
or drowning. True, there is a well-defined law against
this crime ; and the public sentiment of China is decidedly
opposed to it. And what is equally encouraging, Chinese
scholars write essays and books against the criminal practice.
A popular tract has this heading :
" An Appeal to dissuade
from drowning Female Children.''^ In it I find these teachings
:
—
" Virtue and vice are connected with their appropriate results as the
shadow follows the substance. The offending man meets with innumerable
troubles and distresses. Suffering follows him, , . . Suppress
what is evil, , , , Avoid displaying the faults of others, doing things
in an underhanded maimer, and destroying children before or after birth,"
Not mentioning other authorities, the Rev. Dr. Eitel, the
German missionary in Hong Kong, assured us that the morals
of Chinamen would compare very favorably with those
of Europeans ; that they were far more chaste, and upright