LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE CI-11NA FAMINE. [To THD EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR, In connection with your recent and admirable article on the awful famine in China, the following extract from a letter just received from my brother, the Rev. E. R. Barrett, of Shanghai, may interest some of your readers. The letter is dated Shanghai, February 14 :- "I was told by a Chinese this morning that there are vast numbers of little girls being sold ; they bring them down here from the famine- stricken districts. My Chinese informant had himself bought a little girl, a few years old, for $38, and intended adopting it. He did this to save the child from being brought up for immoral purposes,—the only fate otherwise. There is a great deal of this kindly feeling among the Chinese. As an instance of this, only a few minutes ago I saw a well- dressed native buying a lot of live sparrows from a poor Chinese in the street. Ho bought them for about a farthing each, and immediately set them free. Tho custom is to catch the birds by means of bird-lime on a long bamboo, like a fishing-rod. The birds are then put into a 'bag as they are caught, until some passer-by, taking pity, buys them, and gives them their freedom. This is done as a charitable act. The ludicrous thing is—surely to be seen nowhere but in China—the man stands there and goes on catching the birds, perhaps the very ones that have just been freed. I said to the bird-catcher just now, ' My good man, if the one who sets the birds free acquires merit for doing so, you as evidently are accumulating sin by catching them.'—' Oh no,' said be, 'the cases are very different. I am in want, very miserable, and must do something for a living.'" A little incident such as this gives us a glimpse of the fact, to many so obscure, that the Chinese have the feelings and needs of humanity, in common with ourselves.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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