Twenty tales by twenty women: From real life in Chicago

by Anonymous

After having established the reputation of being “game,” there is no dearth of so called respectable men who are willing to be “kind” to her. The men who are responsible for these conditions are not the rough men of the lower classes, but the professional men, the men in business; many with families and nice homes, who represent the respectable element in the community.

If all the ancient prudes and wind-jammers, who are so intensely interested in the fallen, would give their support to the decent men who give their employes living wages, instead of straining their corsets to wedge in next to the bargain counter in the department stores, whose scale of wages breeds prostitution and moral depravity, they might discover in the next decade, more self-supporting, decent women, and less fair faces flushed with lust in the glare of the red light “brothel.”

In presenting this work to the public it is not the intention of the author to bruise the hearts of fond parents, who may be able to recall sad occurrences, after having read the following chapters; nor to censure the subjects, whose life stories are told in the following narrations; not to bring down unjust criticism on the head of any class; but rather to point out in a measure, the reasons most apparent to a man of the world, for licentious crime.

If asked why I have chosen Chicago as the field from which to gather data for this volume, my answer would be, “because of its great population”; because to it visitors flock from every part of; the United States and many foreign countries; because it is nearer to the center of population than any other large city, hence more often sought by wayward girls from the surrounding territory, and the inducements which are held out to the pleasure-loving public, whether those in quest of enjoyment be saint or sinner, wolf or lamb, in gay Chicago are conducive to the character of amusement and excitement necessary to the life of those whose stories are herein told.

This book will claim its right to life by detailing the life story of each one of these children of God, from the child-life in a quiet, peaceful home in some rural hamlet, through the trials and vicissitudes of unfortunate or misspent life.

This book, unlike the Bible, is all written in Chicago. The twenty disciples come from twenty different places. They, endeavoring to lose their identity in the whirl of racy life and excitement, seek the phantom happiness in this great city. For a time all goes well. Gaiety and mirth mingle, and fortune conspires with pleasure to mislead the novice; then the scenes grow old; happiness eludes the grasp; tawdry garments no longer please the eye; the tinsel tarnishes; disappointed hope begets despair, and then a few grains of a friendly drug or the cold waves, of the lake offer rest and relief. The city becomes pregnant with these poor unfortunates, tortured by regret and shame, goaded down by necessity and the scorn of former friends. Then there is birth—this book is born. It goes out into the world to tell the naked truth for the good of mankind.

While this work is prepared from a truly moral standpoint, let it be known that it is the intention to entertain as well as to instruct, to deal with bare facts in order that the reader will thoroughly understand the situation as it exists.

Should the reader, while in the act of drinking in the words of these crushed flowers, find an instance wherein, by the recital of her story, by sheer accident or otherwise, recognize the possessor of that story, do not, for the love of humanity, be so unkind as to say, “I told you so.”

You may know, aye adore, some man whose fault it is that that particular girl was placed in the position which makes the tale of her life so miserably sad to some and yet so racy and full of color to others. If, after having read the story of his wrong-doing, together with the pain he has caused, he does not develop into a different sort of a man, put him down as an iniquitous night-bird, fit to flit and hoot by night in search of prey; one in whom a spark of manhood never glows and whose crimes and abominations are myriad, marking him as a loathsome creature, who fears the truth and shuns the light of day; one whose conscience is seared beyond redemption and who possesses no conception of charity, pity, sorrow or regret.

It is a pitiable and cruel fact that the great source from which the ranks of scarlet are replenished, are young women from the country, who, disgraced in their own community, fly from home to escape the infamy and rush to the city with anger, desperation and revolt in their hearts. Oh, that society would punish more severely the respectable seducers and destroyers of innocent women.