Children Sold to the Lowest Bidder

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 31.

Children Sold to the Lowest Bidder

The public hiring out of children to the lowest bidder still obtains in the Swiss canton of Berne. A heart-rending case of this kind is reported from Biel, where the public crier, despite the tears and entreaties of the widowed mother, "placed" her four young children of ten, eight, six, and two years for twenty-eight, thirty-one, forty, and seventy francs respectively for the remainder of the year, thus separating the whole family for fear lest the wretched woman become a burden upon the town. And that is done in republican Switzerland!—Sel.