On January 30, 1907, Mr. O. H. Richards told me how he had rescued a girl, with the help of the police, from a resort after the woman who kept the place had refused to surrender the girl to her mother and stepfather, on the claim that the girl owed twenty dollars for clothes. As there were three good witnesses to the illegal detention—the mother, the stepfather and Mr. Richards—I saw that this was a good case to bring into court. I asked the mother if, for the sake of other mothers' girls, she would take the witness stand. She heartily consented, as did her husband, and with strong crying and tears, she gave her testimony when the offending woman was arraigned, January 31, before Judge Newcomer at Harrison street. She was convicted, fined, and sent up to the bureau of identification—"rogue's gallery"—to leave her picture and measurements. This broke her pride and she came down wilted. She immediately abandoned her wicked business and is a good woman today. Last September when the midnight workers had some annoyance from dive-keepers, she visited the district at midnight to express her sympathy with the missionaries. She told me, "I remember what you said to me in court. You said, 'I love your soul, but I hate your devilish business.'"
As it was now publicly shown that girls were held in houses against their will, we printed the statute of Illinois against such detention, as a leaflet, and placed a copy in the hand of every keeper and inmate of disorderly resorts in the vice district at Twenty-second street. Captain Harding posted a copy of the leaflet in the police station. Beneath the statute we printed a note saying, "No white slave need remain in slavery in this state of Abraham Lincoln, who made the black slaves free. For freedom did Christ set us free; be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage, which is the yoke of sin and evil habit." Pastor Boynton tells in another chapter how Deaconess Hall, himself and I, with Policeman Cullet, went from house to house in the great vice district with this leaflet, which proved so powerful.
Thereafter the cause of the white slaves lay heavy on the hearts of a number of men and women, particularly Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, whose insistence that something be done led, ultimately, to the organization of the vigilance work in Chicago.
In the autumn of 1907, Mrs. Ida Evans Haines obtained a copy of a report of the Episcopal Diocese, of Massachusetts, on Social Purity and the ravages of the diseases that are the wages of sin. At Mrs. Haines' request, Rev. Morton Culver Hartzell organized a committee of ministers of various denominations, of which Rev. Dr. Swift, of Austin, was chairman, and Rev. Dr. Cain, of Edgewater, secretary. Under authority of this committee, a meeting was held at the Y. M. C. A. lecture room in November, 1907, which was addressed by Miss Rose Johnson, of Panama. Out of this meeting came the "Committee for Suppression of Traffic in Vice," of which Dr. Cain was chairman. This committee employed an investigator and was appalled by the revelation of conditions in Chicago, existing not only in so-called red light districts, but also in residence districts. The activity of this committee for the suppression of traffic in vice attracted a much larger number of persons, who promoted numerous meetings, which culminated in the union meeting of ministers to consider the suppression of the white slave traffic in Chicago and Illinois, on February 10th, 1908.
BLIND BABY IN THE POOR-HOUSE
This baby's condition is the direct result of disease in the parents. Probably 25 per cent of the blindness of children is caused by illicit sexual relation. (Dr. Wm. T. Belfield, page 299.)
IN THE REFUGE
Alone in the world with no one but her baby she comes to the refuge to save herself from starvation. She has no husband. She was tempted and fell
The purpose of that meeting was to enlist the ministers, as the moral leaders of the community, in the effort to rid our city of this shame, and by holding a public convention to give the newspapers opportunity to tell the facts to the public.
Bishop Wm. F. McDowell presided; the devotional service was led by Rev. A. H. Harnly; prayer was offered by Rev. A. C. Dixon. Addresses were made as follows: "Chicago's White Slave Market; the Illegal Red Light District," by Rev. Ernest A. Bell. "The White Slaves and the Law," by Mr. Clifford G. Roe. "The International White Slave Traffic," by Dr. O. Edward Janney, of Baltimore, chairman of the National Vigilance Committee. "The Lost," by Mrs. Raymond Robins.