"No, sir, there's no use talking, when they once get a whiff of that dope they might as well jump in the lake. They're no good."
She was still lying in a stupor on the iron cot when I left the dingy cell room. In a couple of hours she would awaken, but only to go into a delirium.
As I left I could see a vision of the innocent girl of the year before, standing among the sceneries of the down-town theater, telling of her ambitions.
How far had her whole being retrograded from that day!
But she was only one of many—a victim of the stage.
Probably the greatest agency through which girls are lured is the fake "theatrical agency."
In Chicago there exists many of these clearing houses for the vice trust. Sumptuous offices are maintained in great office buildings down town. Large office forces are necessary to carry on the enormous business they conduct.
These concerns operate usually under a name similar to those of the legitimate and responsible theatrical agencies. Their advertisements usually appear in papers in small towns and cities. The police keep a close watch on them, but without result.
Few of the girls obtained by the slavers through these agencies are ruined in the city.