Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade

by Unknown

Now a word as to the method used in procuring girls from our American cities. Some of the various schemes, which are used by the procurer, have been detailed in these pages in preceding articles, and I need not worry the reader with a repetition of their details. It is not always necessary for the procurer to go from the city to the country village to get the girl he is seeking. Indulgent parents very often permit their daughters to come to the great city unaccompanied by any protector; the Sunday excursion, the fat stock show, a world's fair, some theatrical production, a monstrous convention—these are the lights which allure the daughter and sister to the city. Perhaps she has never been in the city before and has no relatives or friends to whose house she may go. Perhaps she has been in the city once or twice before and has met a supposed woman friend, who has taken her to her house and shown her every courtesy. If the former, she will oftentimes be met at the railroad station by a young man, well dressed, pleasant and affable, who offers to spend his money to procure her a cab to take her to some respectable hotel. Unexperienced in the ways of the city, she accepts only to find that instead of a protector she has found in the affable young man a procurer for some vile house of prostitution. Many, many times have instances like this occurred, and the innocent young girl has awakened the next morning to find herself situated in a gaudy bedroom, without clothing, the prey and victim of her procurer. Her clothes have been taken away from her, and upon inquiry she finds that she is in debt and will not be permitted to leave the house until she has earned sufficient money to pay back what the affable young man has spent upon cab fares and hotel bills, and, in addition to that, to repay the price which the keeper of the house gave to her seducer. An instance of this kind, in which a girl had been procured by this identical method, was related by Mr. Sims in a magazine article. She has since been rescued and is leading a respectable life back home with her parents.

Or it may be that the girl from the country is making a second or third visit to the city and has been invited to again visit the kind and elderly lady who met her in a department store and so kindly cared for her upon her last visit. This kindly elderly lady usually occupies a flat at some distance but within easy reach of the red light district. It is sumptuously furnished and, as the elderly woman explains, is a home for several young ladies who are working in stores in the city. Here the country maiden is given every luxury free of expense, is entertained royally, and, alas, very many times before she attempts to leave for her home has been caught unawares and so compromised that she dare not face her home folks again. The city of Chicago in certain sections is full of apartments of this kind, where an elderly lady, usually a semi-retired keeper of a house of prostitution, has furnished an apartment and runs a supposed respectable home for working girls. Three to five girls live with her. Her telephone number is furnished to hotel employees and elevator operators, to "steer" male inquirers who are in search of a "pleasant evening" to the flat in return for a commission of fifty cents or a dollar for each customer. The girls who live in this class of places are girls who come from the country and who have fallen, but who are not low enough to go to the regular houses of prostitution in the red light district. Clerks from department stores, whose meagre salaries are not sufficient to support them while away from their parents, seek these houses as a means of supplying the deficiency in their weekly earnings. They are thus enabled to dress tastily and just a little bit better than the virtuous girl who works next to them upon the same salary but who does not sell herself for lust. In such places as these I have known of girls who came to the city to study painting, stenography, bookkeeping and other occupations, and who, while ostensibly pursuing their daily labor, are all of the time going to these houses of assignation whenever there is a dollar to be gained which will place them in a position to dress better or go to some place of amusement which costs money.

What, then, shall we do to protect our daughters and our sisters? That is the question which is puzzling not only prosecuting officers and police officials, but one upon which economists and charitable organizations are spending months debating. One safe and sure protection we all have. That is, do not permit the daughter or the sister to go from the country village to the large city unless you know absolutely and beyond the peradventure of doubt, that the hotel where she shall stay, or the people whom she shall visit, are absolutely above reproach of any kind. Advise your daughter and your sister of the snares which lay in her path before it is too late. Forewarn her so that she shall be advised in time to spare her the great anguish and the pain to which she may be otherwise subjected.

If the procurer comes to the village in search of his victim, teach the daughter and the sister to have no confidence in affable strangers, well dressed and fluent of speech, but to confide always in her mother when she makes an engagement to go driving, to visit an ice cream parlor or to go to the city with a male escort.

CHAPTER XXVI.

PRACTICAL MEANS OF PROTECTING GIRLS.

By Harry A. Parkin, Assistant United States District Attorney, Chicago.

What can be done about it?

There could be no legitimate excuse for exploiting the white slave trade in the public prints without the definite and sincere purpose of securing practical and substantial protection against this terrible social scourge. Such is as surely the purpose of this article as it has been that of the excellent articles by Hon. Edwin W. Sims which have brought out a vast and interesting volume of correspondence.