In this article it is of course impossible to more than hint at the protective measures which conscientious parents of girls should employ in order to make the way safe for their daughters. There can be no doubt that Judge Lindsay of Denver, Judge Mack of Chicago, and Mr. Edward W. Bok of the Ladies' Home Journal, are right in insisting upon greater frankness between parents and children and that every child should have a sex education at home instead of being compelled to pick it up from contaminating sources on the street and at school. And I may add that the world owes a debt to these men who have handled this delicate and difficult problem in a practical as well as a powerful manner; and I feel impelled to add that, in face of the horrifying disclosures brought to me in the form of legal evidence, every boy and girl of high school age should be taught something of the awful physical as well as the moral consequences which lurk behind allurements of the life in which the "white slave" is the central figure. These things cannot be presented in the public prints, but the father who keeps close to his boy and the mother who is a companion to her daughter may reveal these things, in the home, in a way which may save almost untold suffering. And to such parents I would say that the investigations of the United States District Attorney's office in Chicago have brought together, as legal evidence, a mass of facts as to sanitary conditions in the districts where the "white slaves" are kept, which are horrifying and scarcely capable of exaggeration.



CHAPTER V.

A WHITE SLAVE CLEARING HOUSE.

A WHITE SLAVE'S OWN STORY.

The most conspicuous work of United States Attorney Sims against the white slave traders in Chicago was the arrest and indictment of a notorious French trader and his wife, Alphonse and Eva Dufour. The federal grand jury voted five indictments against each of them. They spent six weeks or so in Cook county jail, when they gained their liberty on bonds of $26,500, which they immediately forfeited and fled to Paris, in August, 1908.

My missionary duties took me occasionally to the clearing house of the Dufours, and we have often held gospel meetings in front of their resort. In this place were about twenty girls, whom the agents of this wicked couple had snared in different parts of Europe and America. One girl was from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who had been deceived into entering the house and then held there without her street clothes. She managed to send word out and secured her release. The Dufour woman was arraigned in court but was not punished seriously for this very common crime.

A very young black-eyed, black-haired Spanish girl was among the inmates, and my thoughts inevitably went to some broken-hearted mother in sunny Spain, whose daughter had been hunted for Chicago's white slave market. These murderous traffickers drink the heart's blood of weeping mothers while they eat the flesh of their daughters, by living and fattening themselves on the destruction of the girls. Disease and debauch quickly blast the beauty of these lovely victims. Many of them are dead in two or three years. Cannibals seem almost merciful in comparison with the white slavers, who murder the girls by inches. It is a dark mystery that twentieth century civilization allows these atrocities, even under the flag of the free.

In this glittering den, with its walls and ceiling of mirrors, was a sweet Russian girl, perhaps sixteen years old, whose fate made my heart bleed. She was of the best Russian type, blonde, of medium height, peach-blossom complexion, roundish mouth, and of exceedingly gentle and loving disposition. Some father, perhaps a nobleman, perhaps dead and unable longer to protect the delight of his eyes, comes inevitably to my thoughts as I write. Oh, the pity of it all, and the shame. How can any father of girls escape the nightmare of what might befall his own daughters if his own power to protect them should fail?

I went to Baron Schlippenbach, who was then the consul of the mighty Czar in Chicago, but I never learned that he was able to accomplish anything for this dear Russian girl. The Czar is only "the little father," as the Russian people call him. May the Great Father in heaven help his deeply wronged daughters, in a way that shall break in pieces their oppressors.

The den of the Dufours had an income of $102,720 in the year 1907, and $41,000 in the first five months of 1908. One white slave was made to earn for them in May, 1908, the sum of $723. These figures were taken from their own account books, which were seized by the United States government after the Dufours fled to Paris.

This terrible place was both a receiving and a distributing station, and also a wide open immoral resort, patronized by thousands of young men—who are the ultimate white slavers, as they pay the expenses of the white slave trade. From this central clearing house girls were shipped to Denver, San Francisco and every place where the Dufours had correspondents. All this was revealed by their own documents after the United States had driven this tiger and tigress back to Paris.

Soon after we had initiated the public agitation against the white slave horror in Chicago I received three letters from a victim of the French traders. Such parts of the letters as can be made public are here given. These letters have supplied both information and inspiration to the workers who first brought this infamous traffic to public notice in Chicago.

A WHITE SLAVE'S OWN STORY.

"I want you to know everything I have witnessed in my three years of slavery. I was first sold in Custom House Place, by a young man working for Mr. ——, traveling the city and little towns, or wherever he could find girls.

"Here we were, always from fifteen to eighteen girls, most of us very young. The man who bought me made us work like real slaves and then never gave us our money even if it was shamefully earned. His place was always full of so-called detectives, and if some one came to claim some one of us, quick she was slipped to some other town.

"Pictures of foreign girls would arrive by mail, and if one was pretty enough they would wire to Paris and say, 'Send parcel at once.' They arrive by different ports—New York, Boston, Quebec, San Francisco—and those poor unfortunates are all claimed by some one pretending to be an aunt, or father, or husband.

"Letters are received by the resort keepers from all the states, and I believe from all the prisons of the world. If any one could read all of those men's mail, I think one would learn horrible things.

"Also we never can receive our mail direct, for the keeper opens the letters, and if they are indifferent they are closed and given to us, but if they are any way wrong in his eyes we never see them.

"If we escape and insist on not returning, they will send some one after us to propose that we leave for Denver, San Francisco, China or Panama. Most of those men who make their living off those girls are old thieves and gamblers, and most of them have served terms in prison. There are very few girls who would tell, for those bad men surely would kill them if they found out who gave them away.

"If one girl is a good money-maker, they make her take one of those men to support. They say if she does not do this, she is not respected by their class of people. They take all those poor girls' money every night, and they send them back to work the next day penniless. If they should not make enough for them they are beaten, and sometimes killed.

"When those runners bring us to those houses, they keep us sometimes weeks to teach us what to say in case the police or some one would try to rescue us, and with the threat to kill us if ever we would tell.

"Some one ought to do his duty and make war on those horrid men. They simply take girls for their slaves in all the country. For even if we are weak, some one with courage ought to help us not to be persuaded by those men.

"I am certainly glad that all the men are not bad, that some one takes our part. You can be sure that most of the girls are happy that some one came to make us strong.

"Have courage! God is with you, and many of the slaves."

It is well known that some of these brutal traffickers were legally hanged in California for murdering the women on whose earnings they were living.

E. A. B.



CHAPTER VI.

THE TRUE STORY OF ESTELLE RAMON OF KENTUCKY.

By Principal D. F. Sutherland, Red Water, Texas.

She is one to be pitied, and not slandered. She was as pure as the air which she breathed in her humble home among the blue hills of the winding Cumberland. "She was light of heart and gay of wing as Eden's garden bird."

John and Amanda Ramon, after they were married, bought a little farm and settled down near the battlefield of Mill Springs. John was one of these great, big, good-looking, honest and hard-working men from the mountains. His wife, Amanda Ramon, was a refined and well educated Kentucky woman and a woman who loved to be with the "society" folks. She loved to wear fine dresses and spent more in this way than her husband could really afford, and this caused him to have to work very hard early and late. He went to clearing and improving his little farm and everybody was talking about what a noble fellow young John Ramon was and how well he seemed to be getting along. His wife did not seem to be satisfied to live in the hills. She wanted John to sell out and move to Somerset.

Two years passed away on the little farm, and Estelle Ramon was born. John promised Amanda when Estelle grew old enough to attend school that he would sell out and move to town. Years passed on and John Ramon continued to work hard, and by hard work and good management he began to prosper. He built a new house and bought Estelle a piano. His wife still wanted to move to town, but John didn't want to go. He told his wife that he had nothing in town and no work there to do, that they were beginning to get along fairly well and the best thing for them to do was to let well enough alone, and that he wanted her to release him from his promise to move to town, which by the entreaties of Estelle she reluctantly did. John was happy in his home life with his wife and little girl, who had now reached the age of fifteen years. She had from the time she could toddle around been constantly with her father. In the fields making the hay, gathering the crops, seeing after the stock, you would find Estelle and her father always together. After supper she would climb upon her father's knee and he would always tell her some little story to please her. She would ride the horse to the pasture and John would carry her back in his big, strong arms. She was essentially a papa's girl, and her father almost idolized his child. When she was old enough she attended the country school close by and was known as the brightest pupil in the school. She learned music from her mother, and it was her chief delight to sing and play in the evenings for her parents. She was loved by everybody in the neighborhood, young and old. At an early age she joined the church, and she could always be found in her place in the church and in the Sunday school, first as a pupil of the Sunday school and later on as a teacher of a class of little boys and girls. It was said that in after years every boy and girl in her class became model Christians.



One day a messenger was sent in haste from the schoolhouse to John Ramon's home to tell him to come at once, that Estelle had become violently ill while playing on the school playground. John Ramon turned white and came near fainting, strong man as he was, when this saddest of all news reached him. In a few moments he had hitched up the horses to a carriage and he and his wife were going as fast as the horses could take them to their child, whom they found in a dangerous condition. She was carried in the arms of her father to the carriage and driven home. In a short time the doctor reached the Ramon home and was by the bedside of Estelle. She had been stricken down with typhoid fever. John Ramon, with his life almost gone out of him, waited for the doctor's report from the sick room. When he came out he asked him what were the chances for his child to get well. The doctor told him that she had a severe case of typhoid fever, and the chances of recovery were against her, but with close attention and nursing she had a chance to get well. John Ramon said, "Doctor, I am willing to take that chance." Day after day and night after night John Ramon sat by the bedside of his child as she lingered between life and death. The doctor would come and shake his head and say, "She is no better." For eight days and nights John Ramon had eaten scarcely anything and slept not a wink. On the evening of the eighth day the doctor came as usual. He told John Ramon that this night would determine whether his child would die or get well, that there would be a change before daylight for better or for worse. After giving John Ramon directions and telling him to wake him up if he saw any change in the child, the doctor lay down to get a much needed rest and some sleep. The clock ticked off the hours and no change came. The clock struck one, two, three. John Ramon had never, during all the long and weary night hours, taken his eyes off his child. There he sat in great trouble and sorrow, watching her. The clock struck three, and Estelle opened her eyes, looked at John Ramon, and said, "Is this you, papa?" He knew that she was better. He rushed into the room where the doctor was sleeping and awoke him. The doctor, not knowing whether the change was for the better or worse, hastened into the sick room and felt of Estelle's pulse and said, "John Ramon, your child is better, the crisis is passed. She will get well." The joy of John Ramon and his wife could hardly be restrained. The doctor told them that they must be quiet, or they might excite her and make her worse. The crisis had passed and Estelle improved rapidly and was soon able to sit up and ride out with her parents. John and Amanda Ramon were filled with joy and a great weight seemed to be lifted from the whole neighborhood on account of the recovery of Estelle, for she was dearly loved by all who knew her.

On an adjoining farm to John Ramon lived a neighbor by the name of David Scott, as true a man as ever lived among the hills of the Cumberland river. David Scott had one son, William Scott, as noble a lad as ever lived. He was honest, true, and like Estelle, was loved by all. William was just two years older than Estelle, and together they had played from early childhood. During Estelle's sickness no one, unless her parents, seemed more anxious about her than did William Scott. Never a day or night passed but that William Scott called at the Ramon home to inquire about Estelle during the whole time of her illness. After she got well and took her place in the church and the Sunday school William Scott was there too. He thought that there was none like her, and she thought a great deal of him.

One day about three months after Estelle had recovered Mrs. Ramon said to her husband, "John, have you noticed that William Scott is showing too much attention to Estelle? I don't like it and we must stop it or the first thing we know he will be coming here to pay his attentions to her. Another thing, I believe that Estelle thinks a good deal of him." "Well, suppose she does," said John Ramon, "is not William a good boy and a good companion for Estelle, or anybody else?" "Yes, I know that he is a good boy, but, if we continue to let Estelle associate with him as she has been doing, the first thing we know he will be thinking of marrying her, and I could not bear the thought of having William Scott for a son-in-law." "I don't suppose there is any danger of our having to lose our Estelle soon, but when she is old enough to marry, I would rather she would marry William Scott than anybody that I know." "What! Estelle marry Bill Scott? I would rather see her dead and buried." "Well, Amanda, what objections can you find to William Scott?" "I have no particular objection to him, but he is not good enough for Estelle. I want her to marry a man who knows how to take her into society. I want her to marry a professional gentleman, and not a greenhorn like William Scott." "Well, Amanda, I don't care so much about Estelle going into what some people please to call 'society,' but I want her to marry a true man who can and will make her life happy. I have no fault to find with William Scott. I know that he is thinking a good deal of Estelle, and that she thinks quite well of him, and if they should want to get married sometime I am not going to interfere." "You may not interfere, but I tell you now that Estelle shall never marry William Scott." Estelle came in from school, and this ended the conversation. Estelle and William had told each other from childhood that when they got old enough they were going to get married. On Sunday before the conversation between John and Amanda Ramon, William Scott had reminded Estelle of their long ago agreement, and Estelle had told him that they would carry out this agreement some day when they were older. Estelle one day told William that her father liked him, but that her mother hated him and that it would be best that he quit coming to her home. It was on this occasion that William and Estelle plighted each other their love and he told her that nothing but death could ever separate him from her, and that he would, if necessary, give his life for her. In after years they both well remembered these words.

John Ramon continued to work hard and to prosper. One day when he came home from town he told his wife and Estelle that rafting logs down the river was dangerous, and that if anything should happen to him he wanted to leave them a living, and, for this reason, he had his life insured today while in town for $5,000. Heavy rains were falling up the Cumberland and John Ramon was working hard, he and his hired hands, to get the log raft ready to go down the river and carry his logs to Nashville when the river got high enough.

One evening John learned that a head rise was coming down the Cumberland, and he and all hands were making ready to cut the raft loose and carry it to the saw mills in Nashville as he had been doing year after year. Late on this evening John Ramon kissed his wife and Estelle good-by. He lingered longer than was his custom, and said that somehow he felt uneasy as if something was going to happen. At dark he reached the river and at ten o'clock they heard the head rise coming. The raft was cut loose and the rise struck it and carried it out into the middle of the river. The rushing waters bore down so heavily on the raft that it broke and went to pieces in the middle of the rushing waters. John Ramon became entangled among some of the logs and could not loose himself. He called for help, but no help could reach him in the darkness of the night and the fury of the waters. His voice rang out above the noise of the waters, and he cried out the last words he ever spoke on earth, "William, I'm gone. Promise me that you will take care of Estelle." The voice of William Scott rang out "I swear to you that I will do it." John Ramon went down; others of the crew escaped on logs.

I shall not undertake to describe the great sorrow in the Ramon home when, three days later, the body of John Ramon was found and brought home for burial. Who can tell the heaviness which bore down upon the heart of Estelle? He was buried, and week after week Estelle would carry flowers and place them upon his grave.

A year now has passed away, and Estelle is seventeen, one of the most loveable and beautiful girls in Southern Kentucky. The death of her father had mellowed her life. She was a woman in ways, if a child in years. William Scott had watched her faithfully as he had promised her father in the hour of his death. Mrs. Ramon yet determined more than ever that Estelle should never marry William Scott. She had set her heart on some professional man for Estelle's husband who knew how to make her a belle of society. She was the only counsellor of her daughter, and in every way did she endeavor to cause her to break with young Scott. She often pictured to her the grand life she might live with some educated gentleman in the highest society; that her beauty and training could and would make her admired by everybody, and that she should not throw her chances away upon Bill Scott. She would never allow Scott to call upon Estelle, and managed to keep Estelle for the most part out of his company.

One day a well-dressed and handsome young man came into the Ramon neighborhood. He gave it out that he was an artist from Cincinnati, Ohio, and had come to make some sketches of the beautiful scenery along the Cumberland. He was polite and gentlemanly in his manners, a good conversationalist and entertaining. This artist, as he was thought to be, was introduced into the Ramon home and soon became a great favorite of Mrs. Ramon, and he did not fail to show every courtesy and attention to the fair Estelle. This artist soon found out that his success depended, not upon the girl, but upon her mother. He had been telling Mrs. Ramon of the beauty and the accomplishments of her daughter, and how she would shine in society if ever given an opportunity. He did not fail to impress upon her his own importance and society connections. This suited Mrs. Ramon exactly, and she determined to marry Estelle to the artist. He declared to the mother his great and undying love for her daughter, and how it would be the delight of his life to give her the chance in the world to which her beauty so justly entitled her. Little by little did the mother, her child's only adviser, succeed in winning her over to her way of thinking. The artist had declared his love to Estelle herself. She hesitated, and thought of young Scott, whose heart she knew was breaking. Her mother persisted and the artist used his blandishments, and soon it was given out that Estelle Ramon would be married to the Cincinnati artist. When this reached the ears of William Scott, he was nearly prostrated by the terrible blow. He wrote Estelle a letter in which he told her of the promise that he had made to her dying father, and that he was going to keep that promise. He warned her against marrying this strange young man, of whom she knew nothing. Estelle when she read this letter came near declining to marry the artist. Her own heart told her that William Scott was right, but the artist and the mother persisted. For fear that Estelle would yet refuse to marry the artist, the wedding day was set for the following Sunday. Sunday came, and Estelle, as pale as death, walked out on the floor, and she and the artist were married. How happy was the mother; how sad were Estelle and William Scott!

Soon the Ramon home and all the property were sold, preparatory to taking Estelle and her mother to the city. The $5000 of insurance and the $3000 which the home and other property were sold for were turned over to the artist to invest in a home in the city. Mrs. Ramon was to visit her people for a short while and Estelle and the artist were to go on and make ready the home in the city. On the morning before Estelle left she received a note from William Scott, saying that if ever she needed his assistance she would get it. She and the artist took the train at Somerset, and Estelle Ramon was whirled away to her doom. She was carried to Cincinnati, Ohio, where her husband told her that they would spend a week before looking out for a home. She spent this week in a lodging house in the outskirts of the city. At the end of this week the artist told her that they had better rest up another week before they began looking around. The second week passed away as the first, and when he tried to put her off again she grew suspicious and became alarmed for the first time. She told him that he must get the home, or that he had to take her back to her mother. He went out and pretty soon came back with a telegram from, he told her, a friend of his in Cleveland, inviting them to visit Cleveland and procure a home there. Reluctantly she went with the artist to Cleveland, where they were met by some one in a closed carriage and driven to a house, which she soon learned was a house of ill-fame. On reaching this place she was carried to a room in a secluded part of the building. Her husband then informed her where she was and that here she would have to remain. That he was done with her, and for her to give his regards to her mother if they ever met again; that he was much obliged to her for the $8000 in cash, and that he wished her a good time with the madam. Estelle fainted, and this devil turned on his heels, walked away and has never been heard of since. The madam knew how to treat girls who fainted, for she had seen them faint in her house before, and she brought Estelle back to consciousness. Who can picture now the horrors which rose up before Estelle? It can not be done, and I must leave it for the imagination of the reader. In vain did Estelle beg and plead to be let go. Useless were her piteous moans for freedom. The madam told her that she had bought her and paid for her, and that she was going to keep her; that the best thing she could do was to quiet down and submit to her fate willingly, and was informed of what she was expected to do and had to do. The madam told her that she had often paid as much as $100 for pretty girls like her, but that she only had to pay $50 for her by solemnly promising that she would not let her get away. Three months she was confined in this prison. It is beyond the power of man to describe the darkness, the blackness, the fearfulness and the horrors of her life now. Her only hope was the words of William Scott. She knew that he meant every word he said, and would rescue her if possible. How could he find her, was the question she would ask herself in her despair. Yet she hoped against hope that in some way or other he would find her.

Three months had passed away and the mother of Estelle had heard no tidings of her child. She was wild, she was frantic, she was mad. The terrible strain had been more than she could bear. She became a maniac, and in her ravings she would call for Estelle to come back to her. She would talk of nothing but Estelle. Amanda Ramon had destroyed her own life and the life of her child.

Where is William Scott, the child playmate, the youthful lover of Estelle, the one who promised to defend her?

William Scott had believed that the "artist" was a scoundrel the first time he laid eyes on him. No sooner had suspicions of foul play been aroused in the neighborhood than young Scott took the train for Cincinnati. There he employed a detective to aid him in his search for Estelle. After one week of close search in every part of the city, the place was found where the "artist" and Estelle boarded during their two weeks' stay in Cincinnati. Where they went could not be learned from any source, so well had the "artist" covered up his tracks. He advertised for her in the newspapers and secured the services of detectives in several cities. He concluded after a search of two months that she had been killed or taken to New York City, and perhaps across the ocean to some foreign country. His money was by this time all gone. He wrote home to his father and told him to see his friends and the friends of Estelle and send him money with which to continue the search, for he intended to find her, if alive. The money was raised immediately and sent to William Scott. He next went to New York, where he spent day after day and night after night in searching for the lost girl, but with a sad heart he had to give it up, for not the remotest clew could he get. He resolved to go back to Cincinnati and see if he could find out anything more about her in the neighborhood where she spent the two weeks. He learned nothing new and had almost lost all hope. One night while sitting in the lobby of a hotel he overheard a conversation between two gamblers. One of them was telling the other about being in Cleveland and at a certain place where he met the most beautiful girl that he ever saw. He went on to describe her to the other gambler, and wound up by telling him that she fought like a tiger, and showed him the scratches which he said this girl had made on his face with her finger nails. The description given by one of these gamblers to the other was that of Estelle. William Scott later said that he could hardly keep from killing this man then and there in the hotel. Young Scott took the first train for Cleveland, not daring to seek further information from the gambler. He was fully convinced that Estelle was in a house of ill-fame in that city. By this time he had learned that it would not do him any good to tell his troubles to the police, for some of them would be more likely to help the madam secrete the girl than to help him get her away. On reaching Cleveland, he determined to tell no one of his mission or why he was there. He determined to form his own plans and carry them out. He felt sure that he and Estelle were now in the same city and the thought almost made him wild. He knew that if she was in a house of ill-fame she was there against her will and was forced to remain there. He determined to visit every house of prostitution in the city or find her.

The third night of his rounds he visited one of these houses and was admitted into the parlor. The madam came in and asked him if he wished to see some of the girls. He told her that he would not object if she had one real pretty. She told him that the girls were all out now except one she called the "fighting girl from the country." He told her that he didn't guess that she was much of a fighter and that he didn't mind her fighting. He could hardly control his feelings. He paid the madam $5 and went upstairs. "What if she screams when she sees me and gives the whole thing away?" thought young Scott to himself. He felt sure that she was Estelle, and that he was going to meet her now. The door was unlocked, and he entered. She had dozed off into a sleep. He locked the door and waited till the hall was clear before waking her. He turned on the light, looked into her face. She was Estelle! He pulled two revolvers out of his pockets and laid them where they would be handy, for he had resolved to take her out of this place this night or die in the attempt. The light shone on her face and showed him how pale and troubled she looked. He could see the great sorrows of her soul written in her face as she lay there sleeping. He bent over her, touched her face and whispered, "It is William Scott, from Mill Springs, Kentucky, who has come to take you home. For your life, don't make any noise." She opened her eyes and saw him and knew him and fainted away from joy. He bathed her face and soon returning consciousness came to her. She realized at once how necessary it was for her to keep quiet. They held a whispered conversation as to how to escape. He did not want to raise any scene, for this might lead to his arrest and defeat all his plans of getting away. He determined to steal her out of the house quietly and get away. He opened the door to see if there was any one in the hall, as there was no chance to escape through a window from the room. He went out in the hall and carefully locked the door behind him so as to make no noise. He then went to a window at the far end of the hall; it was open. He went back to the room and tied some bed covers and sheets together and they went out again, locked the door as before, went to this window and tied one end of the sheet and covers to a radiator and threw them out. Estelle went down and he followed. In the alley where they landed it was dark and they were soon out of sight of this building. He told her that he was afraid to take her to the depot in the city, so they walked on in the darkness till they came to the railroad. They took down this road and walked till they reached the next station, some miles away, reaching it just a few minutes before the southbound train came along. Here they took the train for Cincinnati and for home. Who could tell of the joy which Estelle now felt on being rescued from her prison house, from the worst slavery ever known to the world? At Cincinnati William Scott and Estelle took the train for Somerset and soon reached home. Great joys oftentimes have great sorrows, and such awaited Estelle. William had not told her about her mother on the trip home. He knew that she would learn it soon enough. Mrs. Ramon's people thought, perhaps, if Estelle could be found, that she might come to her right mind, but such was not to be. Soon after the marriage of Estelle and William Scott Mrs. Ramon died in an insane asylum.



CHAPTER VII.

OUR SISTER OF THE STREET.

By Miss Florence Mabel Dedrick.

Note—Miss Dedrick is rescue missionary for the Moody Church, Chicago. She is devoting her life to the visitation and rescue of sinful women in Chicago. She is heart and soul in the work and has been wonderfully blessed in her efforts.

When asked to write for you, giving some of the experiences in the work of rescue of our sisters of the street, and those who are victims of the white slave traffic, I was more than glad of the opportunity of sharing this burden which God has laid so heavily on my heart. I will treat of conditions as I have found them in the underworld of Chicago.

What are we doing for our tempted sisters?

Are we going to let the white slave traffic have free and undisputed sway without a word of protest, blighting and ruining the homes in this fair land of liberty and freedom? Are we in Illinois, the State that sent Abraham Lincoln forth as leader in the conflict for freedom of the slaves of the south, going to let an evil, worse, yea, far worse than that ever was, or could be, exist and triumph, and not rise up in arms against it?



The question, what are we doing for our sisters came up as far back as Solomon's time, but has an answer been found? No! It was only when Jesus met the woman at the well did a new life open up for our unfortunate sisters. I plead with you do not draw away your skirts for fear of contamination. Remember, the Master Himself allowed a fallen woman to wash His feet with her tears and wipe them with the hairs of her head. It was a fallen woman who was first to see the omissions and deficiencies of hospitality forgotten by others. Are not fallen women included within the scope of the Master's great commission?

Jesus said, another time, "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more."

A woman may fall lower than a man, but this is due to her sensitive moral nature. With the conviction that she is past redemption, doors closed, no one loving her, people, yes, her own sex, ostracizing her—she becomes hopeless, desperate, reckless. Can you blame her? Again, let me recall to your mind, Jesus Himself forgave and renewed repentant ones. Even when a woman had fallen to the depths of sin and degradation He still called her "woman."

Not every girl who leads a life of sin and shame is by any means a white slave in the full sense of the word, as the white slave traffic exists, though truly a slave she is, for God is no respecter of persons and the same judgment will be hers unless she hastens home to Father's House, where room and to spare and warm welcome awaits her. Not many open doors await her in this world.

An example of this is found in the case of a young girl in Mississippi who, ruined, went from door to door to find someone who would befriend her. Some have one excuse, some another. All said: "We cannot take you in." Tired, discouraged, only one door open, and that the brothel, to which she went.

It is said in one city of half a million people, as reported through the press, they determined to expel 1,500 fallen girls from the city, without offering them a place to go. When brought before the authorities, between sobs and tears, these girls said: "Where can we go, no homes, money, nor friends?" The reply was: "I cannot tell you, but you must leave here."

Many ask: "Who are these girls who go astray?"—having an idea that it is only the ignorant class who are down in sin. It is not so, and let me undeceive everyone on this point, though many, many of the ignorant class do go astray also. Satan is claiming our best, our VERY best girls of education, refinement, advantages and religious training. In one of the most notorious and elegant resorts, known as the ———— in the red light district of Chicago, there are college girls, who have had every advantage. Only lately, as I have done personal work there, did I learn that these very girls were at times in such despair as to threaten to commit suicide.

Within a few blocks of Moody Church was a girl, an elocutionist, a musician, a sweet, stately girl of refinement, whose home has been in a house of shame for the last five or six years.

Some girls come to me when in these resorts and say: "I used to sing in Moody Church Choir." Others will tell you they went through every department of the Sunday school, some were Sunday school teachers. Members of almost every Church you will find among them. When these facts are considered one cannot help but realize the need for action. Satan has entered our churches, as well as every other place. It is only recently that our churches have opened to workers to even speak on this subject, but thank God, they are gladly beginning to do so, since they see danger staring them in the face. The time for prudishness, false modesty, indelicacy is over; too long has Satan been aided in his onward march in this way.

A sad incident occurred in one of our West Side churches. Seven or eight boys, whom everyone considered pure, were found, upon investigation, to have caused the ruin of thirteen girls. One girl, in telling me how she had been led astray said she had only been getting $3.50 a week. Seeing an advertisement for experienced workers at $5.00, she answered it. For two weeks they kept it from her that she was in a house of shame.

A problem that must be met is the preservation of our American homes. Let me quote from Mr. Moody: "Intemperance comes as a blight upon one family in seven, but the evil of impurity threatens seven times as many families, that is all of them." There are hundreds of towns and villages where it is impossible to get a drink of liquor of any kind, while on the other hand there is not a single town, hamlet or community of any size where the evil of impurity does not exist to a greater or less degree.

There must be co-operation on the part of the state, the home and the church. What we need is a practical salvation, something more than saying: "Be ye saved." The church can do what the state cannot, and vice versa. Not only present, but future generations are in danger. Vice and crime are being flaunted, as it were, and advertised in our very faces. Every man, woman and child has a place in the battle.

It is girls whose ages are from 13 to 22 who are going astray, even as young as 9 years; deceived, betrayed, led away, through wiles of abominable men, whose business is to traffic in girls. Since living in Chicago, many girls I have known gave birth to little ones at the ages of 13, 14 and 15.

Let me give some figures: During the month of May alone in the two syphilitic wards in Cook County Hospital, 140 men and 32 women passed through. In Twenty-second Street Red Light district, by police enumeration a few months ago, there were 1,100 girls living lives of prostitution, farther South, 1,200, making a total of 2,300. This is appalling, and yet this does not take in the whole city.

As many of you know, as far as can be learned, the average buying price of a girl is $15.00. She may be sold for $200.00. If specially attractive, anywhere from $400.00 to $600.00.

The conscience of these girls is by no means dead. Upon giving one my card in the hospital, she said: "If I had only known it before; many tell me about being a Christian, and another world, but I never could understand it."

The cry of another sinsick girl was, amid sobs and tears: "Oh! it is awful and sin has done it."

Oh, Christian women, mothers, give recognition to the fact; yes, welcome it, that a fallen woman can be saved, and extend to her sympathy, encouragement and love!

These girls are reached, not only through resorts, but in our city prisons, police stations, courts, hospitals, and elsewhere. The rescue homes are doing a noble work, especially Beulah Home, Salvation Army Home and others. The Girls' Refuge, where the Juvenile Court cases are taken, has girls of all ages up to 18 and 19—at present 140 girls are there under Christian influence.

The superintendent of a rescue home recently asked 200 girls who were there how many had been warned as to temptation and danger by their mothers—not one had, only in a few instances had they been told to be good while they were gone. Another sad fact, and, oh, how hard to admit, is that a girl receives the most discouragement from her own sex, and with this censure and criticism, is it any wonder our sisters do not have any drawing toward Christianity?

One word of warning to Christian workers. Many take money from these resorts, going in with the sole object of getting money, by selling papers, or taking money when offered them.

One night, as I started to talk to a girl, she offered me money, and, as I refused, she seemed quite surprised. I told her I was not doing the work for money, I was interested in her soul's welfare only. She said: "How is it some of you Christians come in here and take our tainted money?" Oh, workers, remember the Gospel is without money and without price! Do not forget these girls, down as they are in sin, they are watching OUR lives, and it is this that counts for most.

Especially let me say: "The girls of today are the mothers of the morrow, and as in the life and influence of mother rests the making of men and nations, let us, with God's help, save the girls." Knowing the price of a single soul, the burden of my heart is, that the minds of our American people may be so stirred and awakened to the existing causes of evils that are engulfing our girls, that we will each take our part, appoint ourselves as a committee of one, to do all we can to stamp out this monstrous soul scourge, and hinder and stop its further progress.

WHAT ARE THE DANGERS OF CITY LIFE FOR A COUNTRY GIRL?

After an experience in rescue missionary work for women and girls, not only in this city but in New York City and Boston, there is one conclusion which I am forced to come to and more and more is becoming an undeniable fact.

It is this, that our country girls are in more danger from white slave traders than city girls. Were I alone in making this statement, I should not hesitate for one moment in what I have to say, but others agree with me in this, among them being United States District Attorney Sims, who has written much on the subject of white slavery. One reason for reaching this conclusion comes from the personal hand-to-hand and heart-to-heart touch with these girls themselves. The country girl is more open to the enticements of city life, being more truthful, perfectly innocent and unsuspecting of those whose business it is to seek their prey from girls of this class.

A girl reared in the country is not taught to suspect everyone she meets, unless a rare occurrence presents itself, and when involuntarily the defense instinct asserts itself. While, on the other hand, the city girl has had it drilled into her, as it were, from the time she could walk, that she must regard people with distrust, not speaking to strangers anywhere, accepting nothing from anyone, her own people being the only ones she should make confidants of.

Mr. Sims says: "There is a definite but undefined danger in the very atmosphere of the city for the girl or young woman, which demands a constant and protective alertness, while on the other hand, life in the rural districts is comparatively free and unrestrained." Again he states, and through his investigation of the white slave traffic has reached the conclusion, that the best and the surest way for parents of girls in the country to protect them from the clutches of the white slaver is to keep them in the country.

While this may be the safest, surest, easiest course to take, it would not be advisable in all cases, for many girls have an ambition and aim in life, which they are seeking to attain, and the city offers advantages for this development which the country does not, and we should not seek to put obstacles in her way, but to protect her in carrying out her purpose in life.

But if circumstances should seem to compel a change from country to city, the only safe way is for parents to accompany their girls and see them settled, though this would have its disadvantages, as many parents are just as ignorant as their children regarding the perils of city life.

A TIMELY WARNING.

Parents who do not believe in the warnings given on these lines but say, as many do, "Wait, time enough when they are older, then let them find out for themselves; experience is the best teacher," should remember this: Ignorance is not innocence, and it is but the preface to the book of vice. To parents is given the first and greatest opportunity of fortifying their children with the true armor of knowledge and purity.

More than one girl with whom I have talked in resorts in the Red Light district, when questioned as to how they came there, would say, "Oh, mother thinks I am working, a good position." I have said, "Does she not ask you?" "Oh, no, mother never questions me much," and in many cases they would say, "I send money home and"—think of it—"that has satisfied mother."

WHAT IS HER MOTIVE FOR CITY LIFE?

There comes a time in nearly every girl's life when her cry is to go to the city, and I think I can speak from personal experience here. It may be necessary through force of circumstances, or to develop herself along the line of her cherished ambition, or a thirst for knowledge. If it is to satisfy the desire for mere personal happiness and enjoyment and craving for excitement, I say, "Beware!" for here it is many slip and are lost.

She sees no danger, even though some warnings may be given, it is hard for her to realize that she, herself, will be in danger, she will tell you that she is able to take care of herself, forgetting her surroundings will be vastly different. She finally sees the danger when, alas, too late. I found an instance of this in a resort where a dear girl said one night, "we are the fools. It's a broad door to come in but so narrow to get out of here."

A HIDDEN DANGER.

The danger begins the moment a girl leaves the protection of Home and Mother. One of these dangers, and one that seems to be well nigh impossible for parents to realize, is the fact that there are watchers or agents, who may be either men or women, at our steamboat landings, railroad stations, everywhere, who seek attractive girls evidently unused to city ways, try to make their acquaintance, using inducements and deception of every conceivable kind, offers of helpfulness, showing her every kindness.

I remember so well one dear girl whom I found in Cook County Hospital, brought there from a brothel, sold, led away, deceived, from another town, on the promise of work, who said to me, "Every one in Chicago deceives you. No one told me the truth until I met you. You are the first real friend I could trust."

Girls are offered refreshments, either to eat or drink. Many are secured in this way and the girl has realized when too late, her refreshing drink was drugged, and she is a victim, a prisoner, and her life ruined.

HUNGRY FOR A LITTLE COMPANIONSHIP.

After coming to the city, homesickness may overtake a girl and even if in some cases warnings have been given, she may forget, throw off restraint and pour out her heart freely to those of whom she knows nothing, but in this unguarded moment the mischief is done.

One little realizes the longing in a girl's heart, who is alone in a big city. The following incident brings out this point:

In a brothel one night I was talking with a girl who was playing with a little pet dog. As I continued to talk to her, all at once she said looking into the dog's face, then into mine, "This is the only friend I have and if I feel blue and discouraged, he will climb into my lap and try to comfort me."

Another danger still, and a serious one, is our lodging houses of today, many of which are houses of shame, hidden from public eye. Let a girl just coming to the city beware of these for in many, many instances, I am very sure, it is just such an existence, no home life. Coming in tired, lonely, no one cares about you, you may live or die and few would know it, so to speak, unless you were in a Christian home, which are only too scarce in the lodging house business, though thank God for some. Unprotected she is here, not knowing who lives in the next room to her.

Boarding or rooming rather in one place, taking meals in another, is a great danger and one which her mother should guard against. Boarding houses are not much of an improvement, though in many cases a little more home life.

Another evil and serious danger, and only another of Satan's waiting rooms, is the entertaining of gentlemen friends in her room—true, this little room is the only place she has—and here is one of the birthplaces to immorality and temptation constantly before her. Much danger might be avoided if every lodging house had a parlor where a girl could have some home life and entertain her friends occasionally.

Oh, may the parents who read this, make sure your child has Christian influence and surroundings. It may cost you extra money to do it, but better far to cost you something than to have her life blasted and ruined.

DANGEROUS AMUSEMENTS.

Without a moment's hesitation, I would say after much investigation, one curse of our land today is five-cent theaters. Many nights have I worked outside of these, and investigated inside, and have seen these pictures not possible to describe in words, and have seen children mere babies, of every age, flocking in and out of these theaters, many of them with older people or guardians with them, many entirely alone. More harm is done here in one night than could be undone in years.

Ice cream parlors of the city and fruit stores, in many cases combined, largely run by foreigners, are where scores of girls have taken their first step downward. Mr. Sims states that he believes the ice cream parlor even in the large country town is often a recruiting station and feeder for the white slave traffic.

Do not get the idea that we mean that all of these are connected with white slavery, but some of them are and wise parents should be careful on these points.

There are restaurants selling wines and liquors where many young girls go as waitresses, which hold dangers for any girl.

Also, let me say here a word in warning. Look out for the signs Satan is putting up all over our cities like this: "Ladies Entrance," "Family Entrance," which has been the "entrance" of many a precious girl to a life of sin.

The amusement parks are now becoming a serious menace to our young people. Shut up in a small room, hot and stifling, a girl gladly accepts the chance for an outing. All over these places Satan has his agents stationed, seeking victims.

Advertisements are another temptation in store for the country girl. It is in these days the devil's own invention, such alluring, attractive offers.

One girl told me she owed it to this that she was a "white slave." She said she saw an advertisement in the paper for experienced servants for $5.00 per week. She was only getting $3.50.

She went and found out to her sorrow after a few days that she was a prisoner in a house of shame.

A life full of subtle and fierce temptation is the life of a stenographer and oh, how many here are led astray by those who should protect them. One will say, "What is a girl to do? From all you have said, she would not dare to go anywhere."

One of the most fascinating allurements of city life to many a young girl is the dance-hall, which is truly the ante-room to hell itself. Here indeed, is the beginning of the white slave traffic in many instances. A girl may in her country home have danced a little, but here, 'mid the blazing lights, gaiety and so-called happiness, she enters. She is told she is awkward and will become more graceful, no harm in it. You know the rest.

Had I a daughter or a sister, one of the places I would warn her against when going to the city would be some of our large department stores, not all, thank God, but alas, too many of them.

Many girls have a great desire and ambition to work in a store in the city. Unless it were a positive, absolute necessity, I would never allow her to do it, unless I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she possessed great strength of character. I hesitated in writing this but I felt I must or God would, indeed, hold me responsible, for parents have no idea of the girls who are ruined behind counters.

When told the small salaries they will receive and a girl says, "Oh, I cannot live on that," the answer is, "We will see to that, we will provide another way for your support," and there is begun the downward career.

Fathers, mothers, did you ever stop and ask yourselves, how can these girls dress themselves the way they are required to nowadays in these stores and do it honorably on the salary that many of them receive? It will bear investigation.

A serious cause for the downfall of many girls is the small wages which so-called Christians are paying, which is barely enough for mere existence.

One father, not long ago, after some striking warnings, wrote saying he had been aroused to inquire after his little girl, her letters had been more and more infrequent, he was a trifle anxious, and wished her address looked up.

At a glance it was known at once where the girl was, the location being the center of Chicago's Red Light district.

When rescued, it was a girl with a blighted, pitifully wasted life, a sad return, indeed, to the old home. Once a pretty, pure, innocent girl. I find a majority of girls gone astray are from the country towns, villages and hamlets. There is need for the small communities to awake.

It is through the lack of education of the fathers and mothers along these lines, particularly in the rural districts, that Satan has been aided in his onward evil march. Some one has said, "No reform will ever be successful till people know the truth." Until then there will be no decrease in vice.

The closed door of a father's home is the reason why many go deeper down in sin. A sad mistake here many parents make, refusing forgiveness, when your child may have made just one mistake. Are all parents following the example Jesus Christ set before us?

There is a point in a girl's downward career, just at the beginning, that she may be rescued on the rebound, as it were, and untold suffering saved her, for she is very tender at this time and easily influenced.

An instance of this and the steps by which a girl travels downward is found in that of a very dear, sweet girl, brought up in a Christian home, whom I found recently. Trouble at home a year and a half ago and she left. Her father forgave her and corresponded with her. The mother would not. She worked about a year with a prominent firm, then in a department store. Through illness, she lost her position. Tempted in different ways, going to a high class wine room, so-called, then on the stage as a chorus girl. She did not enjoy it; suffered all the time. Finally, through God's own way, lost this place. Found her in the hospital, weak, but able to leave, but nowhere to go but to hotel life. I took her to friends and a happier girl you would seldom find, especially to receive a letter from mother telling her to come home. She could scarcely wait and her one cry was "to see my mother." We were able to have her return to her home in one of the neighboring states. Rescued just at the danger point, not a bad girl, but naturally innocent, unused to these hard experiences.

Some will say, "What is a girl to do? Must she be deprived of all pleasure? For from what you have said, it is not safe for a girl anywhere."

I do not wish to hinder any girl from attaining her desire and ambition, or having pleasure, but I do say with all the force I can command, that all these things spoken of, yes, and many, many more, are all serious and great dangers which when a girl is just starting out in life, ignorant of all this, if unguarded against, will be her ruin.

Discretion and wisdom must be used, and if so, there are plenty of places where a girl can find amusement which is pure, holy, elevating and uplifting. Most of the danger is hidden and our object is to bring to light these secret lurking places and expose them to the gaze of an alarming public. Many go through safely in answer to mother's prayers, warnings, advice, and careful watching of dear ones, thus being firmly established in character and morality. If one seeks to walk with their whole heart "in the straight and narrow way," these dangers will be avoided.

ON THE STREET.

On the street, on the street, To and fro with weary feet;— Aching heart and aching head; Homeless, lacking daily bread; Lost to friends, and joy, and name; Sold to sorrow, sin, and shame; Wet with rain, and chilled by storm; Ruined, wretched, lone, forlorn;— Weak and wan, with weary feet, Still I wander in the street.

On the street, on the street, Still I walk with weary feet; Lonely 'mid the city's din, Sunk in grief, and woe, and sin; Far from peace, and far from home; No one caring where I roam; No kind hand stretched forth to save; No bright hope beyond the grave; Feeble, faint, with weary feet, Still I wander, "on the street."



CHAPTER VIII.

MORE ABOUT THE TRAFFIC IN SHAME.

By Mrs. Ophelia Amigh, Superintendent of the Illinois Training School for Girls.

One of the most disheartening things in the work of protecting innocent girls and restoring to useful lives those who have been betrayed from the path of right living is the blind incredulity of a very large part of the public. There are hundreds of thousands of women in the homes of this country who know as little of what is going on in the world, so far as the safety of their daughters is concerned, as so many children. They are almost marvelously ignorant of the terrible conditions all about them—and all about their children, too.

Of course, their blindness to these awful actualities makes them more comfortable, for the time being, than they could possibly be if awake to the perils which beset the feet of their daughters and the daughters of their friends and neighbors. But there is no permanency to this sort of peace—and thousands of mothers of this class are annually brought to their senses and recalled to earth by discovering that their own daughters have made the fatal misstep and have passed under the brand of the pariah. The awakening of such parents comes too late, generally, to do much good. Not always, but in a majority of cases. Many, many times after I have related to a casual woman visitor the simple details of a typical "case" brought here to the State Home, the caller has exclaimed: "How terrible! I didn't dream that such things were going on in the world!"

Now, if you had something of great value which needed to be protected day and night, would you select for such a task a blind watchman? or one who was firmly possessed of the idea that there was really no danger, no occasion for watchfulness? Certainly not! There is nothing in the world of such priceless value to a father or a mother as the honor, the purity, the good character of a daughter. No parent will possibly question this statement. And still there are many thousands of parents entrusted by Providence with the safe-keeping of this priceless treasure who are themselves in the position of discharging that great responsibility with closed eyes, with dull ears and with a childish belief that there is no real peril threatening the safety of their daughters! These parents do not live on earth, their heads are in the clouds and their ears are filled with the cry of "'Peace! Peace!' when there is no peace."

As one whose daily duty it is to deal with wayward and fallen girls, as one who has had to dig down into the sordid and revolting details of thousands of these sad cases (for I have spent the best part of my life in this line of work) let me say to such mothers:

In this day and age of the world no young girl is safe! And all young girls who are not surrounded by the alert, constant and intelligent protection of those who love them unselfishly are in imminent and deadly peril. And the more beautiful and attractive they are the greater is their peril!

The first and most vital step for the protection of the girls who walk in this path of pitfalls is to arouse the sleeping watchmen who are, by reason of their parenthood, responsible for the safekeeping of their daughters. This is why the "White Slave" articles by Hon. Edwin W. Sims and others, which have been published in the Woman's World, have done great good. They have stirred to a sense of alarm thousands of parents who were asleep in a false sense of security. If they accomplish nothing beyond this they will fully have justified their publication.

But it is evident that they will also result in the enactment of much needed legislation, of laws which will make it easier to convict and punish those who live from this foul traffic in the shame of girls whose natural protectors are asleep in this false sense of security. Of course, practically every state has some laws against that traffic—but I do not know of any state in which the laws now on the statute books are adequate to deal with the situation as it should be dealt with.

One of the things which comfortable and trusting parents seem to find especially hard to believe is the point upon which both United States District Attorney Sims and his assistant, Mr. Parkin, have placed so much stress—the existence of an active and systematic traffic in girls. There is no safety for the daughter of any parents who are not awake and alive to the actuality of this fact!

It is one of the satisfactions of my life to reflect that I have been one of the agents in sending a dozen—perhaps more—persons to the penitentiary for participating in this traffic.

The dragnets of the inhuman men and women who ply this terrible trade are spread day and night and are manipulated with a skill and precision which ought to strike terror to the heart of every careless or indifferent parent. The wonder is not that so many are caught in this net, but that they escape! I count the week—I might almost say the day—a happy and fortunate one which does not bring to my attention as an officer of the state a deplorable case of this kind.

Just to show how tightly and broadly the nets of these fishers for girls are spread, let me tell of an instance which occurred from this institution:

This girl, whom I will call Nellie, is a very ordinary looking girl and below the average of intelligence, but as tractable and obedient as she is ingenuous. She is wholly without the charm which would naturally attract the eye of the white slave trader.

Because of her quietness, her obedience and her good disposition, she was, in accordance with the rules of the institution, permitted to go into the family of a substantial farmer out in the west and work as a housemaid, a "hired girl"—her wages to be deposited to her credit against the time when she should reach the age of twenty-one and leave the Home.

She had been in her position for some time and was so quiet and satisfactory that one Sunday when the family were not going to church the mistress said:

"Nellie, if you wish to go to church alone you may do so. The milk wagon will be along shortly and you can ride on that to the village—and here is seventy-five cents. You may want to buy your dinner and perhaps some candy."

When Nellie reached town and was on her way past the railroad station to the church, the train for Chicago came in, and the impulse seized her to get aboard, go to the city and look up her father, whom she had not seen for several months. She went to the city and had hardly stepped from the train into the big station when she heard a man's voice saying: "Why, hello, Mary!"

Instantly—foolishly, of course—she answered him and replied:

"My name's not Mary, it's Nellie."

"You look the very picture," he responded, "of a girl I know well whose name is Mary—and she's a fine girl, too! Are any of your folks here to meet you?"

"No," she answered. "My father's here in the city, somewhere, but he doesn't know I'm coming. I've been working out in the country for a long time and I didn't write him about coming back."

Her answers were so ingenuous and revealing that the man saw that he had an easy and simple victim to deal with. Therefore his tactics were very direct.

"It's about time to eat," he suggested, "and I guess we're both hungry. You go to a restaurant and eat with me and perhaps I can help you to find your father quicker than you could do it alone."

She accepted, and in the course of the meal he asked her if she would not like to find a place at which to work. "I know of a fine place in Blank City," he added. "The woman is looking for a good girl just like you."

"Yes, I'd be pleased to get the place, but I haven't any money to pay the fare with," was her answer.

"Oh, that's all right," he quickly replied. "I'll buy your ticket and give you a little money besides for a cab and other expenses. The woman told me to do that if I could find her a girl. She'll send me back a check for it all."

After he had bought the ticket and put her aboard the train going to Blank City, he wrote the name of the woman to whom he was sending her, gave her about $2 extra and then delivered this fatherly advice to her:

"You're just a young girl and it's best for you not to talk to anybody on the train or after you get off. Don't show this paper to anybody or tell anybody where you're going. It isn't any of their business, anyway. And as soon as you get off the train you'll find plenty of cabs there. Hand your paper to the first cab driver in the line, get in and ride to Mrs. A——'s home. Pay the driver and then walk in."

Believing that she was being furnished a position by a remarkably kind man, the poor girl followed his directions implicitly—and landed the next day in one of the most notorious houses of shame in the state of Illinois outside of Chicago. How she was found and rescued is a story quite apart from the purpose which has led me to tell of this incident—that of indicating how tightly the slave traders have their nets spread for even the most ordinary and unattractive prey. They let no girl escape whom they dare to approach!

It may be well and to the point to add, however, that two other girls who had been in care of the State Home were found to be in the same house to which the girl had been lured, and they were also recovered.

Almost at the beginning of my experience I received a penciled note which I have kept on my desk as a stimulus to my energies and my watchfulness along the line of checkmating the work of the white slavers. It is very brief and terse—but what a story it tells! Here is a copy of it—with the substitution of a fictitious name:

"Ellen Holmes has been sold for $50.00 to Madame Blank's house at —— Armour avenue."

The statement was true—and the man who sold her and the woman who bought her were both sent to the state penitentiary as a penalty for the transaction!

Another fact which the public finds hard to believe—especially the public of mothers—is that girls who are lured into the life of shame find it impossible to make their escape, and that they are prisoners and slaves in every sense of the word. I recall one instance of a girl from a good home who had fallen into the hands of a white slave trader and been sold to a house in the red-light district. Her people were frantic over her disappearance and made every possible effort to locate her, but without success. Several months after the excitement and publicity aroused by her disappearance died away, a newsboy who had delivered papers at her home—which was in a very good residence district of the city—happened to be passing along a cross street of the red-light section—just on the fringe of it, in fact. Suddenly he heard a tap on the window, looked up and saw the anxious face of the lost girl. Then she disappeared.

Knowing the story of her strange disappearance, he hurried straight to her home and told of his experience. Instantly the father secured officers and the little newsboy led the posse back to the house, in the window of which he had caught a glimpse of her face. They raided the place and rescued the girl. The story of the terrible treatment which she had received cannot be told here. It is enough to say that she had been held as a captive, imprisoned as much as any inmate of a penitentiary is imprisoned, and that if the friendly newsboy had not happened to pass as he did, the window from which she was looking out, she would undoubtedly be there today or in some other similar prison of shame through the process of exchange.

One other matter in this connection needs to come in for clear and decisive emphasis: the fact that the runaway marriage is the favorite device of the white slaver for landing victims who could not otherwise be entrapped. These alleged summer resorts and excursion centers which are well advertised as Gretna Greens, and as places where the usual legal and official formalities preliminary to respectable marriage are reduced to a minimum, are star recruiting stations for the white slave traffic. I have never seen this point brought out with any degree of clearness in any article, and I earnestly urge all mothers to give this statement the most serious consideration, and never to allow a daughter to go to one of these places on an excursion or under any pretext whatever, unless accompanied by some older member of the family. And even then there is something unwholesome and contaminating in the very atmosphere of such a place.

Do you think that I overstate the perils of places of this kind? Of these gay excursion centers, these American Gretna Greens? I hesitate to say how many girls I have had under my care who were enticed into a "runaway marriage" at these places—and then promptly sold into white slavery by the men whom they had married, the men who married them for no other purpose than to sell them to the houses of the red-light district and live in luxury from the proceeds of their shame.

Let every mother teach her daughter that the man who proposes an elopement, a runaway marriage, is not to be trusted for an instant, and puts himself under suspicion of being that most loathsome of all things in human form—a white slave trader!



CHAPTER IX.

THE TRAFFIC IN GIRLS.

By Charles Nelson Crittenton, President of the National Florence Crittenton Mission.

Twenty-six years ago in New York City when I first began to feel an interest in unfortunate girls and established the first Florence Crittenton Home, now known as the Mother Mission, one of the things which surprised and impressed me most in coming close in touch with the subject, was that almost every girl that I met in a house of sin was supporting some man from her ill-gotten earnings. Either the man was her husband, who had driven her on the street in order that he might live in luxury and ease, or else he was her paramour, upon whom with a woman's self-forgetful devotion she delighted to shower everything that she could earn. In addition to this form of slavery I also found that the majority had to pay a certain percentage of their earnings to some individual or organization who had promised them immunity from arrest and to whom they looked for protection.

These were well recognized facts. Every policeman and every judge of the police court knew the true conditions and no one thought of denying them. Although frequently the poor girls would be kept at their trade by slaps and blows and threats of death, the authorities would contend that they were "willing slaves" and that they therefore deserved no consideration or sympathy.

But when we began to get closer to the hearts of the girls, to know their true history, we discovered that the commencement of this form of slavery had been even in a baser form—that before the girls had become so-called "willing slaves" they were "unwilling slaves." Many of them had fought for their liberty and had submitted only because they had been overcome by superior force. Some of them had been drugged; others kept under lock and key until such time when either their better nature had been drugged into unconsciousness or hardened into a devil-may-care recklessness. Some had had their clothes taken from them, others had been cajoled into quietness by promise of great rewards or by intimidation, which with this young and inexperienced class is one of the most potent methods. But when we, who knew, made these statements, people began to think those interested in the welfare of these girls were going too far, that no such conditions existed. They pointed to the fact that it was beyond human possibility. Many times in those early days, when I would talk to my friends and business associates and tell them of the conditions which existed in New York City, although upon ordinary subjects they had the greatest respect for my truthfulness and conservativeness, having known me in business for a good many years, they would look at me with pity for my misguided opinions. While they would mildly express unbelief at my statement to my face, when they got behind my back they would shake their heads and say, "Crittenton has gone crazy, do you know he even believes now that girls are held in slavery in New York City, against their wills, for immoral purposes."

But I have been familiar with so many cases of this form of slavery that they are too numerous even to recall. I remember well one night, being on one of the streets in lower New York, when a girl came down a flight of steps leading from a disreputable house where rooms were rented. At the foot of the steps stood a man waiting to receive her earnings. As she stepped upon the pavement in full light of the gas above the entrance, she handed him the money. He looked at it, and finding it was less than he expected or needed, with a terrible oath he felled her to the ground and said, "I will show you how to bring me such a little amount of money as this, you ought to have gotten a great deal more."

Among those who came to take shelter at the Florence Crittenton Home in those early days were beautiful twins, not sixteen years old, from a country village. We called them "Mary and Martha." Both of them had been brought to New York under a promise of marriage and sold into a life of sin. We did all we could to free them from their masters, but it was impossible. They were determined that they would not be robbed of their prey which was so valuable a financial investment. Time and time again they were hunted down by their masters and lost their positions through the interference of these men. In two years one of the girls died from the mistreatment and shame she had endured. It is not unusual for me to see the other one in New York whenever I am there, still under the bondage of her so-called husband, and for her to tell me that it is no use trying to escape. Long since she has given up all hope, and that she expects to die where she is, earning money to supply her master with the luxuries of life, by selling her poor little body.



Among the many methods used by these fiends in human form to trap girls into houses of sin, is courtship and false marriage. These men go into the country districts and, under the guise of commercial men, board at the best hotels, dress handsomely, cultivate the most captivating manners, and then look for their prey. Upon the streets they see a pretty girl and immediately lay plans to become acquainted. Then the courtship begins. In the present condition of society it is a very easy thing for well reared girls to begin a promiscuous acquaintance, with ample opportunity for courtship. There was never a time when the bars were so low. With the public dance, or even the more exclusive german, the skating rink and the moving picture arcades, all of which lend themselves to the making of intimate and promiscuous acquaintances under questionable surroundings, it is easy for a man to come into a community and in a few days meet even the best class of girls, to say nothing of the girls who are earning a living and who have no home influence. These girls are flattered by the handsome, well-dressed stranger paying them marked attention, and are quick to accept invitations to the theater or to walk or drive with him. If the girl is religious, he is not above using the cloak of religion, expressing fondness for church and prayer meetings and is frequently to be found at such places. When a girl's confidence and affection have been won, it is a comparatively easy thing to accomplish her ruin, by proposing an elopement. Her scruples and arguments are easily overcome by the skilled deceiver, and trusting him implicitly as her accepted lover, she unwittingly goes to her doom. When they arrive in the city a mock marriage is performed, for there are accomplices on every hand, and the child wife is taken into a house of sin, which she has been told by her pretended husband is an elegant boarding house.

Can you imagine any greater horror than that of this trusting child wife, when she realizes she is a prisoner and a slave in that den of shame? And such slavery! the blackest that has ever stained human history. Shut up beyond the reach of friends—for no letter she may write finds its way beyond the doors of her prison house. Should she call a police officer the chances are he is receiving bribes from her keeper and he will not help her to freedom. Is it strange that soon she eagerly drinks the wine that is constantly offered her, and sometimes actually forced down her throat, and smokes the cigarette with its benumbing effect of opium and tobacco, so that under the influences of these fatal drugs she may forget her awful fate and hasten her early death, for surely no hell in the other world can be more dreadful than a house of shame in this world.

And then good women and good men who see her poor painted face later peering out between the lace curtains of her dread abode, or, if meeting her on the street, draw away from her and say, "Oh! I guess she is there because she wants to be."

This expression is one of the reasons that this condition has existed so long unchanged. It is frequently made because of the ignorance of the general public upon the subject. But the thought that when one sees a woman in a life of sin, she is there because she likes it and wants to be, has become so deeply engraved upon the human mind that it is difficult to change it. Some people are conscientious in thinking this, because they are ignorant. Others know better, but in order that they may not feel called upon to take an active part against these conditions, try to salve their conscience by saying that a fallen girl cannot be helped—nothing can be done for them. And so it goes—anything to remove the responsibility of bettering conditions from their shoulders.

But today we are facing a very different condition from that which has existed ever since I have been interested in rescue work, and for centuries before. The International Agreement for the Abolition of the White Slave Traffic between the civilized nations of the world, which was entered into some ten years ago by all of the civilized nations except the United States, and which was subscribed to by the United States last June, has put an entirely different aspect upon the whole subject. The abolition of the white slave traffic is now no longer to be considered as the feverish dream of enthusiastic reformers, but its effacement has become a part of a great international agreement between nations of the world, and takes its place along with other great international questions which are adjudicated by the same process.

The recent splendid immigration laws which have been passed by the United States, protecting immigrant girls until they have been in this country three years, has been the law under which most of the cases of white slave traffic have been prosecuted. The records of the Federal courts, wherever the authorities have taken cognizance, are full of the records of cases which have been brought to trial. Many of the guilty parties have been prosecuted and are now behind prison bars. Others are awaiting trial, and many others have escaped because of the difficulty of getting people to testify against them. One of the most dangerous leaders in the traffic has recently forfeited handsome holdings of real estate in Chicago, which she had put up for her bond, and escaped to France. Although fleeing from the United States into France, which is also one of the countries co-operating in the abolition of the white slave traffic, her passion for the business was so great that, when recently arrested in France, under a similar charge, she was found to have several young women from America in her clutches.

But as this law protects only immigrant girls, all the cases brought have been in the interest of these foreign girls. Thus far no one has undertaken to prosecute the offenders against American-born girls. When the curtain is drawn back upon the iniquitous system in which they have been the victims, a new chamber of horrors will be opened to the public gaze. But, thank God, good will follow, as is always the case when the light is turned on. Already laws have been presented before a number of state legislatures looking to the prosecution of those guilty of this inhuman traffic in native-born girls, and it will not be long before every state in the Union will have laws under which they can prosecute any man or woman guilty of this crime.

One of the great troubles in fighting this evil is the prejudice against fallen girls and the fact that because a woman is fallen seems to be just cause to convict her of every other crime in the decalogue, thus removing her from the pale of helpful sympathy which is extended to almost every other class of unfortunate beings. Even convicted murderers and kidnapers are treated with more intelligent sympathy. Every statement which she makes is at once considered to be untrue. So far has this prejudice gone that in the state of Missouri, in a decision by its supreme court, made some years ago, it was declared that a woman of immoral life was debarred from giving testimony in the courts of that state, as the fact of her immorality prevented her from being a credible witness. It declared at the same time that immorality did not in the same way unfit or debar a man. The difficulty of convicting a person under trial for such a crime as this is largely increased because of this attitude of the public mind. The evidence must be so overwhelming against the person that all of the quibbles and questions and flaws which is possible for the human mind to make, are answerable, and even then many will feel the guilty person has been unjustly punished, and that if the girl had really wanted to make her escape from her captors she could have done so.

The prosecuting of any other character of cases where the sex question does not enter is very much easier. Take the two last cases of kidnaping, which have interested the entire public and press of the country, as an example of what I mean. In the well-known Philadelphia case of 1908, in which an unusually bright boy of ten years was the victim, it was found that the kidnaper, a man, had taken the boy with him to lunch at several restaurants, had left him alone for hours in a vacant house, from the window of which he might at any moment have called to a passer-by and told him of his sad plight; had even sat several hours with him in the crowded Broad Street Station in Philadelphia, and yet, with all of these opportunities of making his trouble known, and escaping from the clutches of the man, the boy had taken advantage of none of them, but had sat silent and apparently a willing victim. In spite of these extenuating circumstances, it only took the jury a few moments to convict and send the guilty man to the penitentiary for a long period. Had the boy been a girl, and had she not made any more effort than he did to escape from her captor, and had the fact been known that the man had taken advantage of her innocence not only to kidnap her, but also rob her of her virtue, it would have been absolutely impossible to convict him of kidnaping. A recent case prosecuted in Baltimore, of a similar character, with these added features, proves the truth of this statement, the child being a girl eleven years old. The man was given a sentence of twenty-one years only, and that upon the ground of the child being under the age of consent. Even this verdict was considered extreme by many who believed that the child was willing to go with him because she had written a letter to her father and mother, in which she had not complained of ill treatment. It was proven that the little girl was made to write the letter by the man, who took it out and mailed it himself, and who forced her to write just what he said. Had little Billy Whitla been a little girl, and it was proven that she had sat in a buggy and had taken candy and accepted favors, and had been perfectly happy, as a child might, with her captor, it would have been a very much more difficult case to prosecute than that when the victim was a boy. In one the sex question would almost certainly have been introduced to the further undoing of the punishment for the crime.

Such work as the Woman's World is doing, as well as the Ladies' Home Journal and other well-known magazines, in giving publicity to these facts, will be of inestimable value in the protection of youth. Soon it will be impossible for human ingenuity to devise schemes for the undoing of girls that have not already been exposed by the daily papers and magazines, thus warning girls and their parents or guardians of the conditions under which they are placed. Had this information been given to the mothers alone, many of them are so ignorant of the present conditions that they would not have seen the necessity of informing their daughters. But coming, as it does, through the avenues of daily reading, it reaches the daughter as well as the mother, thus giving her the knowledge gleaned at a frightful cost by others, to protect her.



CHAPTER X.

WARFARE AGAINST THE WHITE SLAVE TRADE.

By Clifford G. Roe, Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Ill.

There is a problem of slavery today for the people to solve. The question is: "How shall the warfare against White Slavery be waged to blot out this cloud upon civilization expeditiously?" Over two years ago I learned that there was a gigantic slave trade in women, and with a handful of people we began to fight the traders. That a system of slavery, debasing and vile, had grown to enormous proportions before our very doors seemed beyond belief, an impossibility, and even romantic. Most people were skeptical of the existence of a well defined and organized traffic in girls, and they seemed to think that those advocating the abolition of this nefarious trade were either visionists or fanatics. The struggle against this trade in women was a hard one at first. The ministry, although dazed, were finally aroused to an appreciation of the truth.

Having faith in the people, and believing that this republic lauds and honors the chastity and sanctity of women, I believed in bringing this hideous traffic in girls to the public notice, and when our citizens fully realized its importance they would rise to the occasion and aid in the warfare to exterminate white slavery. The result has been most gratifying, for churches, clubs, associations, newspapers, men and women in all walks of life have taken up the cause. Great armies like those of a generation ago cannot uproot this slavery, but the slavery of today must be eliminated by publicity, education, legislation and law enforcement. That is the reason magazines have brought to their readers facts concerning this hideous trade. The results of this heroic work have been wonderful, for thousands of letters inquiring about white slavery have been received, and associations and clubs have formed to fight white slavery, and legislation upon the subject has been introduced in many states. If this great good to our social life could not be brought about by publicity, there would not be any reason for bringing before the people and into the midst of the family circle facts which are so black and revolting. But to know and understand we must cast aside false modesty, take off our kid gloves and handle this great social problem with our naked hands.

The trade in women is domestic and foreign, local and international. The Honorable Edwin W. Sims, United States District Attorney at Chicago, and Harry A. Parkin, his Assistant, have been waging valiant warfare against the foreign and international trade during the past year. Articles in leading magazines which were written by them have dealt chiefly with that phase of the white slave trade. They have explained, also, the debt system as a means of keeping the girls in resorts after they are procured and sold. It is with the domestic and local trade I have been mostly concerned. In Chicago alone there are more than 5,000 women leading a life of shame, and statistics show that the average life of a fallen woman is five years. One thousand persons must, therefore, be recruited every year in Chicago alone. How many voluntarily go into this life? It is estimated about forty per cent! This shows us that sixty per cent are led into it by some scheme or entrapped and sold, and at least two-thirds of this number are from our own country, being inveigled from farms, towns and cities. One may inquire, "How is it that girls are procured so easily without the public being aware of what is going on?"

The answer is that love and ambition are the baits which the procurers flaunt in the faces of their proposed victims. Often it happens that promises of positions on the stage, in stores, and various occupations alluring to young girls cause many to fall, captives in the great net set for them.

During the past two years there have been more than two hundred and fifty white slave cases tried in Chicago under the Illinois law, resulting in scores of confessions made by the procurers, and statements by hundreds of the girls who were procured as to the methods employed by the traders.

To show how easily it is done, let me tell you a story of a girl from Elgin, Illinois, who was caught by the love scheme. One day this pretty little German lass was in a Chicago store buying sheet music when a well-dressed, handsome, young man, apparently looking at music, too, asked her the names of some of the latest popular songs, as he wanted to buy them. At first she turned away and did not heed him, but he was not to be repulsed, and pressing his attentions further upon her, he finally engaged her in conversation. A luncheon at a nearby restaurant, in which she joined him, was the result, and there he told her how at first sight he had fallen in love with her beauty. After lunch he suggested a visit to his bachelor apartments, but this she refused. Seeing that this plan was a failure, he asked her to marry him then and there. The silly girl, believing he loved her, and enchanted by the picture he had painted of his father's wealth and fine home in New York City, consented, and they were married. After the ceremony he told her that he was about "broke," and said that he would take her to a place where she could make enough money in a few days to pay their way to New York, where everything would be lovely, and as they were married it would be no one's business how she got the money. Immediately accounts of white slave procurers which she had read came to her mind, and she then realized what she had fallen into. Lest she might arouse in him suspicion, she consented to do as he asked, but told him that before going out to the resort she wanted to buy some clothing, and arranged to meet him at a certain down-town corner toward evening. She hurried to the County Court, where an escort was given her, and she was brought to the court where I was prosecuting. I armed an officer with a warrant and he followed the girl to the appointed place of meeting. The young man was there waiting for his victim. The officer stepped up and put him under arrest, and the next day he was tried and convicted. It was then learned that he was a well known procurer of girls. Thus saved from a life of ruin, the Elgin girl went home heart-broken, but wiser for her experience. Recently she secured in the County Court an annulment of the marriage. Inquiry proved that the girl was from a very respectable home, and that she had always been a good, honest, industrious girl. Many similar cases have come out in the courts; however, the girls in most instances were not favored by the same good fortune which blessed the little girl from Elgin, and the outcome was much more disastrous. This is an illustration of the ease with which panderers make use of love as a means of securing girls for immoral houses.