This is not prostitution, _merely_,--Oh, how tenderly men are inclined to deal with the male harlot! but for once the libertine has not a shadow of a shade of defense,--the patrons of _slaves_ are something worse than fornicators; they are guilty of as many offenses of criminal outrage as they are guilty of visits to the slave-pens stocked with Chinese girls, and they deserve a prison sentence for every such visit. Girls are afraid to come out of Chinese brothels until they have earned their freedom. This is because powerful Chinese societies have been formed that will either kidnap such a girl or kill her. So she declares in court that she consents freely to be returned to the brothel, and an extraordinary misconstruction of the doctrine of the "liberty of the person," leaves the judge with nothing to do but to deliver the girl over to compulsory voluntariness. Again, Chinese young men do not wish to marry liberated Chinese girls, but they go, rather, to the brothel and buy a wife; and for much the same reason. If a man marries the liberated slave of a brothel keeper, the high-binders will teach the lesson that he has stolen another man's property, by watching their chance and assassinating him. Why are not these societies broken up, root and branch? Cannot? Nonsense; the officers of the law have not made the attempt with any degree of earnestness as yet. For years, the "Protectors" at Singapore and at Hong Kong have summoned the slaves into their offices and informed them that they were free, and asked them if they freely consented to going into a life of shame, before putting them there? But to what purpose? Let the Police Magistrate, H.E. Wodehouse, reply, as he did concerning a case of suicide: "When registering her name she said she had no pocket-mother, that her parents were both dead, and that she became a prostitute of her own free will. The inspector said that that was the description of themselves that nearly all prostitutes gave, and that it was very rarely that it was true." Remember that, reader, when the columns of your morning paper inform you that all the girls of Chinatown have been interrogated, and that they all said they were there of their own free will? It is "very rarely that it is true." Referring to this case, which we describe on page 118, the Marquess of Ripon wrote to Hong Kong that the brothel-keeper who attempted to extort money from the young man before delivering up his captive to him for marriage, should have been prosecuted, and adds: "A single successful prosecution in a case of this kind would, in all probability, do more to show that the inmates of brothels are free to leave such places when they wish, than could ever be effected by the present system, under which efforts are indeed made to explain their positions to the inmates of brothels." This is a very clear statement of exactly what is needed in California. The public should refuse to be satisfied with visits of the police officials to the girls, to