An idea of the volume of the vice business in Boston may be estimated from one day in June when an observer counted 130 men who entered a resort on Corning street between the hours of seven and twelve in the evening.
A well-defined White Slave trade is difficult to discover in a short time in any city. Citizens of Boston have not yet unearthed it. They say it is not there. They tell of an isolated case which happened a long time ago. Boston and other New England cities have all the elements which make a traffic in girls quite certain. By going to the very bottom and getting information from those "who know" the business from the ground up, who live in it, and work in it, some very reliable facts have been gathered.
Walking down Washington, Tremont or Boylston streets in Boston at night, from say eight until ten o'clock, scores of girls are seen picking up fellows. Some are professionals, while others flirt just to have a good time, probably. In Providence, R. I., where Miss Margaret H. Dennehy has revealed a White Slave traffic, conditions are just as bad in regard to girls publicly displaying themselves as in Boston. This is the first symptom of something wrong which any visitor cannot help but see. Now let us look about the city a little and see what we can find. In Hayward place, one-half block from Washington street, the main shopping street of Boston, under the very nose of one of the largest retail stores, are the H—— and the E——, two places such as would only be tolerated in the lowest red light district of any city. Girls, and many young girls, too, sit at the tables and solicit men. On Beach street, one-half block from Washington street, is the D——, a similar place, owned by a Frenchman. The P—— G—— on Sudbery street is much worse than any of the others. The first three are within two blocks of Boylston and Washington streets, the principal corner in Boston.
One has but to pick up the telephone book and find the numbers there of at least two hundred houses of ill-repute. Chicago, one of the acknowledged centers of vice, does not tolerate that; nor can you find such places in the principal shopping districts of Chicago as those I refer to in the above paragraph. One of the most glaring examples of disorderly places—which the good citizens there overlooked—in the business district is the B—— house of prostitution on Bulfinch street, almost within a stone's throw of the State House and Capitol of Massachusetts.
Taking the biography of one hundred girls in disreputable houses at random, it was learned that about one-third come to Boston from Canada, mainly Nova Scotia.
To one who has made a study of the White Slave traffic the first question when one finds so many disorderly places is, where do they get the girls from? Why do so many come from one locality? Is the supply equal to the demand? Are there enough persons entering into such a life voluntarily each year to keep the places going? The average life of one of these girls is about five years, according to the best statistics.
Boston and the other New England cities have the "cadet system"—meaning men and boys living from the earnings of girls engaged in this unlawful business. Most "cadets" procure girls—and that is the question for New England to solve.
Are the "cadets" there engaged in the business of trading in girls? It is said that a certain Bobbie B——, a well known "cadet" in Boston, procured about seventy girls to be sent to Panama. A certain Lena D——, who was born in Quebec, is known to be procuring girls from Lowell, Mass., and the country districts, for a fast life in Boston. She perhaps is the greatest woman trader in human souls in New England. According to her own statement she "trains them to be wise." This woman once worked in Lowell in a shoe factory. The French, Jewish and Italian procurers are not so much in evidence in New England as in other American cities. The coast "cadets" there are mainly Canadians.
A new way of procuring girls has developed in Boston. Wayward girls who have offended the law in one way or another are placed on probation. The "cadets" go to the court records, find the girls' names who are on probation and persuade them to run away in order to evade probation and to secure freedom from the probation officers. There are instances where these girls have been sent into houses of bad character at Lowell, Portland, Worcester, the road house at Corderville, and other towns.
While the White Slave trade may not be as well developed in New England as in other parts of the country—to a certain extent it is there; and it is only to awaken the people to a realization of this fact that this article is written. Over two and a half years ago Chicago was told that there was a White Slave traffic, and the people were indignant. It seemed romantic and unbelievable. But Chicago knows it only too well today. Boston must be awakened in the same way. People will say it cannot be true. Indeed, it is hard to find because secrecy is its success. It keeps hidden in the darkness. Someone in Boston will drag it out into the light, and we stand ready to aid in any way we can. White Slavery is the system of making good girls bad or bad girls worse. It is the modern method of men living from the loathsome earnings of disreputable women.