Herself, Edith Belle Lowry [world best books to read TXT] 📗

During the past few years the public has been much interested in the prosecution of the white slave investigation. Every adult person had a more or less definite idea that there were in existence immoral houses. But the majority of women had no idea that their existence should be of any especial interest to them.

The Hon. Edwin Sims, U. S. District Attorney, Chicago, says: "There are some things so far removed from the lives of normal, decent people as to be simply unbelievable by them. The 'white slave' trade of to-day is one of these incredible things. The calmest, simplest statements of its facts are almost beyond the comprehension of belief of men and women who are mercifully spared from contact with the dark and hideous secrets of the 'under-world' of the big cities.

"Naturally, wisely, every parent who reads this statement will at once raise the question: 'What excuse is there for the open discussion of such a revolting condition of things? What good is there to be served by flaunting so dark and disgusting a subject before the family circle?' Only one—and that is a reason and not an excuse! The recent examination of more than two hundred 'white slaves' by the office of the U. S. District Attorney at Chicago has brought to light the fact that literally thousands of innocent girls from the country districts are every year entrapped into a life of hopeless slavery and degradation because parents in the country do not understand conditions as they exist and how to protect their daughters from the 'white slave' traders who have reduced the art of ruining young girls to a national and international system. I sincerely believe that nine-tenths of the parents of these thousands of girls who are every year snatched from lives of decency and comparative peace and dragged under the slime of an existence in the 'white slave world' have no idea that there is really a trade in the ruin of girls as much as there is a trade in cattle or sheep or other products of the farm.

"I have no disposition to add a single word to what will open the eyes of parents to the fact that white slavery is an existing condition—a system of girl hunting that is national and international in its scope, that it literally consumes thousands of girls—clean, innocent girls—every year; that it is operated with a cruelty, a barbarism that gives a new meaning to the word fiend; that it is an imminent peril to every girl in the country who has a desire to get into the city and taste its excitement and pleasures."

One of the worst obstacles to be overcome in the work of protecting innocent girls and restoring to useful lives those who have been betrayed, is the blind incredulity on the part of a large percentage of the public. There are thousands of women all over the country who know as little about what is going on in the world as do so many children. They are wonderfully ignorant of the terrible conditions that are in existence all around them. Of course their blindness to these awful conditions makes them more peaceful and contented for the time being than they possibly could be if they realized the temptations and perils that are lying in wait for their daughters and the daughters of their friends. But this peace is not permanent and every year thousands of mothers are rudely awakened from their sleep of peace to find that while they were asleep to the perils of the world their daughters have been drawn into the whirlpool. The awakening of such parents comes too late usually to do any good. The recent agitation along this line has caused many a mother to exclaim, "How terrible; I did not dream that such a condition of affairs could exist in this country."

If you possessed a rare jewel and knew you were surrounded by those who would try to obtain possession of that jewel you would not entrust it to a blind or a deaf watchman or one so ignorant of the wiles of the robbers that he would trustingly allow it to pass into their possession. There is nothing in the world so priceless to the father and mother as the virtue and happiness of their daughter. And yet there are thousands of parents who have been entrusted with the care of a daughter who are trying to discharge that trust with their eyes blinded and their ears closed. They insist upon keeping the childish belief that there is no real danger threatening their daughter. These parents do not live in the world. They fold their hands and raise their eyes towards heaven and cry, "Peace! Peace!" and are unable to see the enemy slipping upon their daughter to drag her down to a life of shame.

In this age no young girl is beyond temptation. She needs all the protection possible, and in order to protect her the parents must be awake to the dangers and provided with the best means of protection. One of the things hardest to make honest and trusting parents believe is that there can be people in the world who make it their business to lead girls into a life of shame. But such is the case whether we believe it or not. The men and women who ply this trade lay their plans more carefully and employ more artifices than can be conceived of by the ordinary parent. The wonder is that not more are caught in the net.

Another fact which the public finds it hard to believe is that the girls who are lured into the life of shame find it impossible to escape from such a life, that they are prisoners and slaves in every sense of the word.

The artifices employed by these slave-dealers to obtain their victims are many and frequently are so adroitly formulated as to blind not only the victim but her parents as well.

One common trick of these slave procurers is the promise of a good position. Many a girl has gone to the cities thinking she had obtained a definite and desirable position. Perhaps she was to be met at the station by the person who obtained the position for her. Too late she finds her position is in a house of ill-fame. So common has this trick become that in every large city there are organizations of social workers who offer through the churches to look up the desirability of any position which has been obtained by a girl so that should it prove to be a lure of the destroyer she could be warned before it was too late.

Another favorite device of the white slaver for landing