Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls Part 10

Dear Sir:--Did you receive a letter from my mother, Mrs. Effie ----, from Eloise, Mich. If so, I wish you would come and see me so I can tell you everything. I have not been out of the house for three months. I have not got any clothes to wear on the street because I owe a debt. I wish you could come and see me and I can tell you everything then. I am a White Slave for sure. Please excuse pencil, I had to write this and sneak this out. Please see to this at once and help me and oblige,

Viola ----.

With people pa.s.sing back and forth on the street and in and out of the house every day it seems astonishing that girls can be kept as slaves.

However, the above appeal for help tells the story, not alone of the writer, but of the thousands of girls whose lives are being crushed, the minds depraved, and the bodies diseased by outrageous bondage. It was discovered that Viola had been given a fict.i.tious name, all avenues of communication with the outside world were cut off, and she had lived in constant fear of being beaten if she let anyone know who she was. At last through a ruse she succeeded in getting letters to her mother and myself, which brought about her rescue and the return of the girl to her mother, who is an invalid in Wayne County Hospital at Eloise, Michigan.

The owners of the resort where she was held were brought before the bar of justice and the judge in sentencing them said: "The levee resort keepers are murdering the souls of girls and women by binding them with ropes of illegal debt; this practice must be wiped out."

The next question which confronts us is what shall we do with the girls after they are liberated from the houses? Some have parents, some are ashamed to go back home, while others are diseased. Certainly it seems a pity to turn them out and let them battle against the prejudice of a "past life." Homes and inst.i.tutions for girls are often filled or the doors are barred against fallen women. The solution of the problem is a home for white slaves in every large city in the country.

Such a home should be well equipped with a hospital to cure disease contracted in disreputable houses, and then there should be schools in the inst.i.tute for training the girls for useful lives, where sewing, cooking, music, art, and other things are taught. In this way the girls would be fitted to earn honest and wholesome livelihoods when they go out to face the world.

Letters are sent me from all parts of the continent asking what can be done to help the white slaves. My answer is, form organizations everywhere to fight this traffic. Through these organizations educate the girls in the rural communities to be careful how they are enticed or persuaded to go to the cities. Demand proper legislation, write the senators and representatives about it, in all places see that the laws in regard to disorderly resorts are enforced, that the foregoing proposed commission is established and help build homes for training the girls for better lives.

What mockery it is to have in our harbor in New York the statue of Liberty with outstretched arms welcoming the foreign girl to the land of the free! How she must sneer at it and rebuke the country with such an emblematic monument at its very gate when she finds here a slavery whose chains bind the captive more securely than those in the country from which she has come!

What a travesty to wrap the flag of America around our girls and extol virtue and purity, freedom and liberty, and then not raise a hand to protect our own girls who are being procured by white slave traders every day!

Some ministers have said that the subject is too black to present to their congregations. It is a problem, they said, for the public authorities and slum workers, not a question for the high-minded citizen. It is the hope that the readers of this book, who are church members, will suggest that their pastors aid in the struggle against white slavery, and that through them, people everywhere may be awakened to a realization of its importance. No social problem is too unclean for the people to take hold of when the cause undermines the fairest heritage in life, our homes. For, after all, the home is the social unit and the very foundation of all government.

CHAPTER XI.

THE BOSTON HYPOCRISY.

Arraignment of False Modesty That Deters Well-Meaning People from Fighting the White Slave Evil.

By Clifford G. Roe, a.s.sistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois.

None of us is perfect. However, it is well to strive toward perfection.

It is well sometimes to look into the gla.s.s and see ourselves as others see us. That is the very thing Boston needs to do at the present time.

Like the ostrich that hides her head in the sand and thinks because she cannot see anyone no one can see her, Boston shuts her eyes to the social evil problem and says there is no such thing here.

To learn whether or not the White Slave traffic is nation wide, conditions in various parts of the country have been studied. From ocean to ocean the trail of this monster can be seen. New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and many other cities, realizing that there is a trade in the bodies and souls of girls, are making determined efforts to blot it out. They acknowledge its presence and they are fighting it. In New England it is different. The good people there shun the thought of such a subject. They have not learned that false modesty is a thing of the past, and the time has come when we must know the social evil problem as it is and meet it face to face.

In talking with one of the leading workers for the betterment of Boston the above t.i.tle was suggested, for he said: "The att.i.tude of the people here regarding social evil is plain Boston hypocrisy." The idea is to hide the evil, if it is there. In this beautiful city there is not a well-defined red light district or levee as the houses of ill-fame are scattered throughout the city, often side by side with fine private residences. Here and there is a district where perhaps a dozen or more of the disorderly houses are located.

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 princ.i.p.al 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 princ.i.p.al 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 prost.i.tution on Bulfinch street, almost within a stone's throw of the State House and Capitol of Ma.s.sachusetts.

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, Ma.s.s., 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.

Let me tell you of a twenty-one-year-old girl in Boston. She was born in New York City. Her father is dead and her mother is an actress. She is pretty and well educated. This girl, by living a disreputable life, supports a Jewish "cadet" who is coa.r.s.e and vulgar, and who beats her when she fails to bring back to him as much money as he desires.

Many of the girls come from or go to Washington. There seems to be a sort of an underground roadway between Boston and Washington which many of these girls travel. Hundreds of these girls do not live in the disorderly houses, but have their own apartments, and are summoned to the houses by telephone. The houses to which they are thus summoned are known as "call houses." At these houses descriptions of the various girls are kept, as to height, complexion, etc. In examining the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts relating to procuring, we find the same flaws which existed in Illinois and the other states before the pa.s.sage of the pandering laws.

In the revised laws of Ma.s.sachusetts, 1902, Vol. 2, page 1785, Sec. 2, the procuring must be fraudulent and deceitful and the woman must be unmarried and of chaste life. If the procurer marries the girl to circ.u.mvent the law he cannot be prosecuted; if the girl makes one mistake in life, she cannot be protected from being procured. In many cities the evidence in the cases shows that "cadets" are paid to marry girls by White Slave traders so that prosecution may be avoided and they may thus crawl through one of the many loopholes in moss-covered laws made before pandering became a curse upon civilization. Because a girl is not of chaste life is no reason she wants to become a prost.i.tute. One wrong step and she is no longer chaste, and then we say, according to the law, let her shift for herself. We all make mistakes, so let us be charitable. The words "previous chaste life" should be erased from the law and all female persons should be protected from the traders.

There are four ways of combating the White Slave evil; proper laws regulating the procuring of girls; the enforcement of these laws; education as to this great social evil, and publicity--that is, finding the evil and then making it known. Let New England awaken and look about her and she will catch the true spirit of this article, which is meant to be one of helpfulness and written only with kindest motives.

Embellished with quaint landmarks and historical retreats dear to all the nation and beautiful in its past, let it not live in this past alone, but be alive to modern ideas and agencies. There is one society known as the New England Watch and Ward, with headquarters in Boston, which has begun to pierce into the hidden mystery of the traffic in girls. It is managed by able men, and its secretary, J. Frank Chase, is already on the trail of the White Slave monster. Through this society great efforts will be made no doubt in the near future to eliminate whatever exists of this nefarious traffic in Boston. Let us hope the Boston people will meet this problem fearlessly, candidly and honestly, and when they do they will have gone a long way toward stamping out the worst evil of the age.

CHAPTER XII.

THE AUCTIONEER OF SOULS.

By Clifford G. Roe, a.s.sistant State's Attorney of Cook County, Illinois.

"Hear ye! Hear ye! How much will ye give for a human being--body and soul?"

"What is the soul worth?"

"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.