Chin Fung Toy and Moy You Toy, the first named 13, and the other 14 years old, trembled much in the presence of the austere figure on the high seat, who they had no doubt was a ruler of mighty power; but he spoke kindly to them and they saw that it was not his intention either to eat them or cast them into a dark dungeon. Still, though his voice was gentle, they longed somehow to be at home again at 30 and 34 Mott street, respectively, to look upon their own people and hear their own tongue spoken.
It was not to be--not at once, anyhow. The agent who had charge of them submitted a paper to the Magistrate, in which was contained the information in terse, legal phraseology that there was no proper guardianship for the two maids, and Justice Wyatt committed them to the care of the Society, setting the case down for an examination next Wednesday. It was represented to the Court that there was reason to believe that their so-called parents were not their parents at all. Superintendent Jenkins of the Gerry Society promised to say something about that phase of the question later. In the meanwhile Moy You Toy and Chin Fung Toy will look on the world through the windows of the Society’s building at Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue, and not from the closely shuttered blinds of Mott street.
How were Chin Fung Toy and Moy You Toy found? That is another story, which has not been told yet; but there are hints of interesting developments to follow before the wanderings of the children of Mott street become known.
The statements issued from the offices of the Gerry Society this afternoon, statements made by the little girls through an interpreter, put an entirely different complexion on their disappearance and made it appear that they had been little white slaves in Mott street. They were both sold like common chattels in China, they said, and in the quarter they got more kicks and blows than kindness. For instance, Moy You Toy, after stating that she is 14 years old, according to our reckoning, and 15 years old according to the Chinese, giving the place of her nativity as Sung Hing district, Moy-how city, said:
“My address has been 34 Mott street, Room 11. My father died when I was very young, and my mother married again and left me alone with my grandmother, who was very, very poor. I was sold to the wife of Moy See Chai, who brought me over here to America about two years ago, and I have been with her ever since.