The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian LandsPlatt, Mary Schauffler
Religion
The Child in the Midst: A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian Lands
Platt, Mary Schauffler
Church work with children; Missions
_The Spirit of Missions_ for June, 1905, tells of a woman’s conference
held at Shanghai at which one of the subjects chosen for discussion
was “Chinese Slave Girls.” A successful effort was made to enlist the
co-operation of non-missionary ladies, and the result was the opening
of a home for slave children under the direction of a committee on
which the missionaries and the foreign residents were represented.
After four years they were able to report the presence of fifteen
girls, most of them very young and looking even younger than they
really were because stunted by harsh treatment and lack of sufficient
food. Not a child in the home but had been taken from a life of pain
and cruel hardship, and none is too wretched or maimed or low to be
received. They are taught to sew, to read and write in their own
language, and to know and love Christ who put it into the hearts of
His children to save and help them.
[Sidenote: Result of saving a slave-child.]
If you are tempted to query,--Can a stunted, maimed, degraded
slave child ever repay such an outlay of effort and toil and
expense?--please read the following extract from a letter from Miss
Muir of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in China.
One year ago last spring Dr. B. was called to see a little slave
girl in one of China’s most prominent official’s families. She was
five years old. She was caught napping when she should have been
fanning one of the young ladies of the family. This young lady,
sixteen years old, a spoiled pet, struck the child over the head
and face, leaving deep scars, tied her hands and feet together,
and threw scalding water upon her. When Dr. B. saw her he
persuaded them to let her go to the Hospital, where her feet and
all fingers except the stump of her right thumb had to be
amputated. Then Dr. B. wanted to put her into the school, and so
he told this official he would have to settle a certain amount of
money on her for life or he (Dr. B.) would expose him to the
public and the foreign countries where he had lived. After he had
tried in every way to creep out of it, Dr. B. holding fast,
$3000.00 was settled upon the child as long as she lives, but
whatever has not been spent of it at her death goes back to the
family. This is poor little Mary, who is compelled to walk on her
knees the rest of her life just because she was too sleepy to keep
awake one afternoon when only five years old. But her influence in
the school cannot be estimated. Her being there has helped to
soften and make more kind and thoughtful every girl from the
oldest to the youngest. It is beautiful to watch the little ones
try to carry her or pick her up when she falls. It has been the
redemption of “Pontsi” (Fattie), who used to be the mischief of
the school: she would not study for any teacher, and was the
hopeless case of every one. “Pontsi” appointed herself the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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