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

by Unknown

"Nothing," cried the auctioneer, "I throw that in with the sale of the body."

That is the value the White Slave traders place upon the soul of a girl when she is auctioned off to the highest bidder for a house of ill-repute. For a few paltry dollars to the buyer of girls, not only is the body delivered to be ravished and diseased, but the soul is given over to be tortured and depraved. This is the price fathers and mothers are placing upon their daughters' souls when they think more of the money the daughter can earn by sending her away to work without careful regard as to where she is going or with whom she is going away. That is the price that false modesty, which is nothing more nor less than affected innocence, is placing upon human beings when people shun the thought of White Slavery, because it has to do with the darker side of life.

Nothing is more beautiful than an innocent girl. Nothing is more hypocritical than affected innocence. Nothing is grander than a pure home. Nothing is more loathsome than the sham glare and tinsel of a house of ill-repute. Knowing the human weakness, the White Slave trader makes capital out of the carelessness and ambition of the parents, and the false modesty of the public, and thereby undermines innocence and steals the purity from the home.

Many and various schemes are resorted to by these auctioneers of souls. It is because no set rule for inveigling their captives away from home has been followed that they have succeeded so long in baffling detection.

The question of white slavery is economic as well as social. The condition of the working girl, the low salaries paid by employers, the desire for better clothes, and the great increase of the number of girls earning a livelihood contribute their share to the downfall of girls. All of these things are considered by the crafty trader who procures the girl to be auctioned into a life of slavery. Then, too, the confidence of the girl is gained by arousing her ambition or love. This is done by appealing to her vanity, by referring to her ability or her beauty.

True it is that some girls go willingly to the block to be auctioned into a disreputable life, only to find later their terrible mistake. The system of making bad girls worse is just as vicious as making good girls bad and all this is white slavery.

The most worked method of securing the confidence by appealing to the ambition of the girl is by the stage or theatrical route. It is because so many girls are "stage struck" now-a-days that this method has been worked most successfully. Perhaps of all the cases that have been tried in nearly the last three years in Chicago, the girls who have been procured by inducements to go upon the stage outnumber all others. The slave trader represents himself as the agent of some theatrical manager, or perhaps as the manager himself. Going to a factory town, for example, he makes it his business to meet some girl who is working there who he has learned is "stage struck." After the formalities of an introduction, which he secures in one way or another, he leads up to the subject by telling that he is a theatrical man and is looking for new recruits.

The girl is at once interested. She is naturally ambitious. She wants to better her condition in life. She doesn't suspect that a fiend with the heart of a devil is masquerading before her as the agent of some theatrical manager. He explains to her that if she will accompany him she can make from $15 to $20 a week at the very start and in a year she will be playing a part, and a year or so later she will possibly be leading lady. The picture is an alluring one to this young girl, for she is now making only perhaps $4, $5 or $6 a week, and the thought of securing such a large salary at the very start almost sweeps her off her feet. She is entranced by the beautiful picture that has been painted and she goes, perhaps to a stage from which she will never return.

The trader often has the impudence and nerve to interview the parents of the girl and obtain their consent, knowing that he is hiding behind some fictitious name, with little possibility of ever being apprehended. This was true in the case of a certain cadet who brought a little girl from Duluth, Minn. The girl was 17 years old. The parents gave their consent, thinking that through the girl's life upon the stage their position in life would be raised, and they sent the little girl on to Chicago with this man, bidding her "God-speed." The testimony in this case showed that under compulsion she wrote several letters to her parents, telling of her initial stage success, while the truth was that this man was a procurer and collecting toll upon the loathsome earnings of this girl, who was compelled by him to lead a disreputable life. He was convicted under the law for bringing a girl into the State under the age of 18 for immoral purposes and was sentenced to three years, and the girl was returned to the home of her parents.

This only serves as an illustration of how easy it is to appeal to the girl's ambition; yes, even to that of a parent, in this nefarious business of securing girls to be auctioned as white slaves.