Only a few months ago a young country girl, twenty years of age, while attending a moving picture show in this very city, met a woman whom she thought to be a friend, and who offered to secure domestic employment for her in a distant Southern city. The young girl, herself innocent of any wrong, and unsuspicious, accepted the offer and, using the railroad ticket furnished her by her false friend, went to the address given, and not until she was imprisoned in that house and forcibly overpowered and ravished in the infamous effort to reduce her to that most awful slavery did this pure, brave-hearted girl realize that this woman here in Louisville was but the tool of a set of fiends to whom adequate punishment can never be administered by any of the processes of modern law. Through a fortunate chain of circumstances this young girl escaped the dreadful pit which is devouring thousands of other girls all over our land, but the awful business remains, a crying disgrace to our great country.
Among the many other cases shown by our records is one involving a girl seventeen years of age, of good character, who lived in one of the smaller cities on
Lake Michigan. This girl, while employed as a telephone operator, attended a dance, where she met a young man of good appearance and apparently of good character. This young man was, however, a procurer for a house of ill repute in one of our large cities and while accompanying this young girl along the country road to her home, he forcibly ravished and subsequently placed her in a house of ill fame. This young man is now serving a term of five years in the penitentiary and the girl was rescued from the life of shame and returned to her parents.
In another instance, a girl of sixteen, while spending the afternoon at a seaside resort of one of our largest cities, was approached by two white slave procurers, who exhibited bogus police badges and pretended to place her under arrest as a truant. Supposing that they were acting under proper authority she made no outcry, but accompanied them to a street car going in the direction of her home. The facts as to the manner in which this girl was subsequently intimidated by these fiends, and, under threats of death, compelled to go with them to a room, where she was ravished and subsequently placed on board a coastwise vessel and taken to a house of ill fame in another city and State, and there confined and compelled to receive foreigners and turn the earnings over to the master to whom she was sold by her captors, are almost unbelievable. However, these facts were clearly established in court during a trial, as a result of which the defendants are now serving terms in the penitentiary.
Another case which was recently prosecuted by our Bureau of Investigation involves a young girl who answered an advertisement which appeared in a leading paper in one of our largest Southern cities. Under a contract made pursuant to this advertisement this girl proceeded to a city in another Southern State for the purpose of complying with the terms of her contract of employment. She found, however, upon entering her place of employment, that, instead of being a respectable house, it was a house of ill fame. Upon attempting to leave the place she was forcibly detained and every effort was made to induce her to practice prostitution. However, she refused to do so, and, finally, with the aid of one of the patrons of the place, she secured assistance and was thereby enabled to leave. The defendant in this case was promptly convicted and is now confined in the penitentiary.