Page:Glimpses into Chinese homes.djvu/14

8 the people go trafficking in their houses, from one province to another, whilst they dwell in their houses with all their families, with their wives and their children, and all their house- hold utensils and necessaries. And so they live upon the water all the days of their lives."

These cities on the sea are crowded with the most degraded class of the people. Filth and squalor, vice and vermin, sin and wretchedness in every form exist among them. The feet of these women are never bound, and they perform the most of the work. Many a mother may be seen with a baby strapped to her back, propelling one of these wretched crafts, while other miserable little ones tug at her dress; and the father, drunk with opium, dreams of broad acres and fair domains in the little cabin, so small that he cannot stand erect, or stretch his limbs in the limited space.

Thousands of innocent children are yearly born into this life. From their mother's lips they learn to lisp the vilest obscenity; and