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AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE EAST 183
women as show prostitutes in Chinatown, New
York, where for two dollars the revolting sight
may be seen of a Chinaman snugly smoking
opium by
the side of an American woman.
These sights, and thousands of others many
of which are to be seen in London, and all of
them, with scientific variations, in Paris are
social plagues within the American gates.
Time and wise legislation may or may not
eradicate such evils or control them, but these
plagues are to-day within America's gates,
and the purpose of this chapter is to show,
or attempt to show, civilisation the awfulness
of the trade outside the gates far away in the
East, where America has great business propositions
on hand, and where America has
established herself as a first-class "Western
Power within the bosom, so to speak, of
the great Asiatic Powers. America very
properly aspires to become a leader among
the great Western Powers in the East. She
is now standing as a "good stepmother" to
China a vast territorial area covering nearly
one-twelfth of the known surface of the earth
and inhabited by a population of anything
from four hundred and fifty million to five
hundred million souls. America has certainly
got half her foot in China, and by many diplomatic
acts of statesmanship has impressed the
Chinese. Her last great act of " policy "
towards China was to reduce the fearful in-
the allied
demnity claimed against China by
Powers for the late Boxer rising.
America commands a great trade in Shang-