"Yesterday the little Prayer Advocate came and in it I noticed your

request for prayer for The Midnight Mission and I was reminded of the

beginning of this most blessed work. I think I could point to the spot

where you said, after telling the need so earnestly, 'Miss Rudy, will

you stand with me, for the Lord says where two agree He will do what

they ask?' I said, 'I will,' and we did pray fervently, for, having come

in contact with Beulah Home and other refuges, I had seen the great need

of going out to seek the lost. I remember our first night, when we

hardly knew who would go with us. I put the permit near so if an officer

came we could show it. I do praise God for the way He has blessed you in

this work. I have never ceased praying for this work and have always

held it up to others for prayer, as I have gone from place to place in

evangelistic service. I was so sorry to leave Chicago, but God's call

lay in another direction. I know I never was missed, for so many rose to

their privilege in Jesus. But I would have been missed had I not come to

China for we are so few in number here."

Before she went to China, Miss Rudy was at one time holding a gospel

meeting in Pennsylvania, when a man came up to her and said: "You do not

know me, but I know you. I heard you speak at midnight in Custom House

Place in Chicago, and I have been a Christian man since that midnight."

As I was a missionary in India and Miss Rudy is a missionary in China,

and as we constantly minister at midnight in the streets of Chicago to

Chinese, Japanese, an occasional Persian, Hindu or Arab, French, Polish,

Russians, Germans, Italians, Jews, and almost every nationality under

heaven, The Midnight Mission has some features of a foreign missionary

society.

A THOUSAND WITNESSES FOR CHRIST.

From the very beginning of this unique work many earnest people came to

help us. During the five years past nearly a thousand persons have taken

part with us--pastors, professors, deaconesses, foreign missionaries on

furlough, evangelists, judges, lawyers, physicians, "Gideons" and other

business men, and many good women. All these, with breaking hearts, have

shared our midnight toil and peril, snatching the lost from the fire in

the very vestibule of hell. Among the well known ministers, professors

and physicians who have come to help in the meetings are: Rev. Dr. Cain,

moderator of the Presbytery of Chicago; Rev. Robert H. Beattie, the

recent moderator; Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw, pastor of the Second

Presbyterian church; Rev. Dr. A. C. Dixon, pastor of the Moody church;

Professor Graham Taylor, Professor Solon C. Bronson, Professor Woelfkin,

of Rochester, New York; Professor G. H. Trever, of Atlanta, Georgia;

Drs. Linnell, Pollack and Van Dyke--the last a lecturer in the College

of Physicians and Surgeons, which is the medical department of the

University of Illinois.

Rev. A. H. Harnly, now an evangelist for the Baptist State Association

of Illinois, has preached many times with exceptional power in our

midnight meetings. Rev. C. A. Kelley, Rev. Ralph Waller Hobbs and Rev.

W. E. Hopkins, formerly a missionary in India, have labored much in this

cause. Scores of pastors of Baptist, Christian, Congregational,

Episcopalian, Methodist and Presbyterian churches have preached from the

little box which is our only pulpit, except when now and then a good

friend brings his automobile and lets us use it for a pulpit.

Mr. Rufus S. Simmons, a lawyer, a personal friend of President Taft, is

president of the mission since it was organized at the end of 1906; for

more than two years there was no organization. Mr. Simmons very often

attends the meetings and takes part. His partner, Mr. S. C. Irving,

comes occasionally and speaks. Judge Scott of Paris, Texas, spent one

night with us, and former Judge Devlin labors diligently.

Mr. C. E. Homan, president of the Chicago camp of "Gideons," an

organization of Christian commercial traveling men, and many members of

that order have steadily helped in this work.

Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, Miss Helma Sutherland, Miss Florence Mabel

Dedrick, missionary of the Moody church, Miss Mary F. Turnbull and

scores of good women have toiled with us in the night. No speaker is

more interesting and alarming to young men than Miss Turnbull, who was

formerly a nurse in an asylum for the insane in New York and knows why

many of the patients are there.

One of the best addresses ever given in our meetings was by a young Jew,

Mr. Nathan, a reporter, who asked leave to speak. For about forty

minutes he spoke with the earnestness of a prophet, though he spoke more

of temporal than eternal considerations. The sweat poured down his face

as he reasoned of righteousness and temperance, with some reference to

judgment to come.

Another friendly Jew, Mr. Richard L. Schindler, has come scores of times

to our meetings, not to speak, but to use his influence to help protect

us and otherwise encourage our work.

Still another friendly son of Abraham gave me information when enemies

were plotting against me. He warned them that he would expose them if

they did me any harm.

A HUNDRED THOUSAND FOOLISH YOUNG MEN.

Pastors and church people usually have no idea of the multitudes of men

and youths from avenues, boulevards and suburbs, who swarm by the ten

thousands through the vice districts of great cities on Saturday and

Sunday nights, and by hundreds or thousands every other night. Fathers

and mothers, sisters, sweethearts and neighbors are ignorant of the

ruinous folly of several million American young men. I have counted them

passing one street corner in the center of Chicago's red light

district--red with the heart's blood of mothers, wives and babies--at

the rate of 3,500 an hour. These are the young men of whom we read,

"void of understanding" as the book of Proverbs fitly describes them.

They gather by troops at the harlots' houses and throng the streets of

shame without a blush. They are even ready to give reasons why they

should support these slaughter houses, not knowing that "the dead are

there and her guests are in the depths of hell."

One night I dreamed that I saw a young man stepping carelessly on and

off a railway track, near a curve around which the express train might

come thundering and screaming at any moment. Whether on the track or off

it, the young man was indifferent to danger and wanton in his movements.

But as I looked I saw in my dream, that there was nothing whatever above

his coat collar--he had no head. This explained his recklessness. A

hundred times I have told this dream to crowds of young men, to

illustrate the folly of men who have heads and do not use them--"void of

understanding." We have warned probably one hundred thousand of these

foolish young men.

The Bible is always with us and always foremost. But some who would pay

no regard to an open Bible in the street preacher's hand, instantly give

heed when they see the Revised Statutes of Illinois open at the criminal

code, and they listen carefully to the section which pronounces them

criminal if they patronize an evil resort.

We quote to them the great utterance of Judge Newcomer, spoken before

the Methodist Preachers' Meeting of Chicago, September 17, 1906, when he

said:

THE CRIMES OF YOUNG MEN.

"The great majority of criminals now are young men--an appalling crop of

them year by year. After seven and a half years' experience in the

state's attorney's office, during which I have dealt with six thousand

criminal cases, sending seven to the gallows and hundreds to the

penitentiary and reformatory, I believe that the chief causes of crime

among young men are: 1, Liquor; 2, Lust; 3, Drugs; 4, Bad associates. Of

these, liquor, bad as it is, is not the chief cause of crime among young

men. The chief cause is that next after liquor. The welfare of the city,

of the commonwealth, of society as a whole, of the national life itself,

is menaced, to a degree exceeding any other cause, by the social evil."

We have never hesitated to warn our hearers by the prisons, by the

gallows, by the most tremendous issues of life, death and eternity.

INSANITY, SURGERY, BLINDNESS.

Some who are willing to harden themselves against the laws of God and

man alike, lay to heart the evidence of a standard medical treatise on

insanity when it is opened and read to them in the street. The

description of the brain of a dead lunatic, who lost his mind and his

life as the wages of the sin upon which they are bent, brings a pallor

over the faces of crowds that seem nailed down to the pavement and

unable to move away. Others heed the medical testimony concerning the

fearful suffering likely to come upon their present or future wives in

consequence of their iniquity. Modern surgeons attribute 25 per cent of

surgical operations upon women--mostly innocent wives--to these sins

against chastity. Statistics of the German Empire, Austria, Denmark, and

Holland show that 40.25 per cent of the blind in the asylums of those

countries owe their blindness, usually dating from earliest infancy, to

one of the diseases associated with prostitution--not the disease

commonly most dreaded.

We distribute leaflets specially prepared and attractively printed in

two colors, telling plainly the criminality of vice and the ruin that it

brings upon the body and brain and character of transgressors. We have

printed more than 150,000 tracts and cards, which are eagerly taken by

many thousands of young men, to the anger and loss of the keepers of the

criminal resorts. The work of tract distribution is carried on in all

weather, often when street meetings are impossible.

This educational work is carried on in friendly co-operation with The

Chicago Society of Social Hygiene--organized by the Chicago Medical

Society--which supplies us with circulars for this purpose. This feature

of our work led to an invitation to our superintendent to address The

Physicians' Club concerning the work of The Midnight Mission. Dr.

Archibald Church, editor of The Chicago Medical Recorder, has asked for

and accepted an article on this work for his paper.

IN RAIN AND SNOW.

"I respect you," said a divekeeper who with others has since abandoned

his loathsome business, "because you work in the rain and you work in

the cold." I find it equally blessed to be Christ's witness by the

Martyrs' Memorial in classic Oxford, on the hot sand beneath the palm

trees of Ceylon and India, and on a snowbank among Chicago's red lights.

Everywhere large audiences stand eagerly listening to the messengers of

God. Our midnight street meetings continue three, four, five, and even

six hours at one place, in the summer.

CONVERSIONS--AND BETTER.

Several women have repented and have been cared for or restored to their

relatives. But our effort has been chiefly directed toward the

thousands of men and youths whose money supports the institutions that

destroy manhood and womanhood alike. Hundreds of repentant men and boys

have knelt in the dust of Custom House Place, Peoria Street, and Armour

Avenue. In social and business position they range from a wholesale

merchant and a fallen minister to gamblers and wrecks.

But what can be better than conversions--that make glad the heart of

God? Nothing, except preventing the children of God from plunging into

deadly sin. If the only good accomplished by our midnight cry were the

prevention of the ruin of a dozen youths in a year, it would be

gloriously worth while to keep on crying. But hundreds have turned back

from the brink of perdition, including university students and Church

members. With outstretched hands and glad gratitude, they say to us: "We

thank you; you have kept us from sin tonight!" When we recall Dr. Prince

A. Morrow's estimate, quoted by Dr. Howard A. Kelly in a paper read

before the American Medical Association, that 450,000 American young men

make the plunge into the moral sewer every year, we see what an enormous

field there is for this preventive work.

One Sunday night a young husband from Racine, Wisconsin, whose wife was

in poor health, listened to our plain words and turned back from the sin

he intended. He had never been warned and he was very thankful; he told

me he was a Catholic and had never gone wrong. Another evening a very

handsome young man, twenty-eight years old, listened to the words of

warning and then came to me quietly and said: "I am a Christian and a

church member and I have never gone wrong, but I was just about to go

into one of these houses of shame, while waiting for a train which is

late, when I saw your gospel meeting and have been kept back from sin by

your message. Most men would be ashamed to tell you, but I tell you for

your encouragement."

IF THIS WERE YOUR SON.

Among the hundreds of repentant men and youths who have knelt in the

dust of Chicago's most infamous streets, in the open air meetings of The

Midnight Mission, is one whom we will call Joe.

One Saturday night Joe came to our meeting and told us that he was a

gambler, a pickpocket, a drunkard, a libertine and worse--enticing girls

from their homes and placing them in houses of infamy. He asked us to

pray for him, which of course we did. Joe disappeared for an hour or so,

but returned at midnight to our meeting, and at half-past twelve knelt

in the street, with another repentant young man, confessing his ruinous

and shameful sin.

For four years since that night we have kept in touch with Joe. We were

obliged to advise his father--living in another state, an elder in the

Presbyterian church, who never suspected anything wrong in his son--to

take more interest in Joe, and not to take less interest in the class

of other men's sons that he was teaching in Sunday School. On his own

motion Joe told his father the whole heart-breaking truth. Unspeakably

humiliated, the father proved himself a father indeed, and did

everything in his power to restore the young man to a right life, at

great cost to himself.

Joe now has his own home and his own business. He is a respected

citizen, instead of--God knows what--most likely a despicable white

slave trader in Chicago or Detroit or New York. He is one of hundreds

who have heeded our midnight protest against terrible sin, our midnight

testimony for the Lamb of God, who takes away sin.

ANTAGONISM--PROTECTION--TRIUMPH.

At the beginning of our work the keepers of evil resorts were respectful

and to a degree friendly. During the second summer, 1905, the meetings

increased very greatly in power. Sometimes we continued preaching from

ten o'clock at night till three in the morning. Workers reached their

homes after daylight, with hearts almost bursting for gladness because

many sinners had repented. As many as fifty workers were engaged in the

same block at once, holding four simultaneous meetings. All were working

voluntarily and without pay. I myself was earning my expenses with my

pen.

Thousands of misguided men had their attention called to the cross of

Christ and the holy life every week. The revenues of the resorts were

seriously diminished. One manager, who had been misled in his boyhood

and genuinely regretted the loathsome life he was leading, said to me,

"If you Christian people keep coming, we've got to go." The Christian

people kept coming. That man has since quit his awful business.

With our increasing spiritual power, keepers of saloons and resorts

became alarmed for their revenues and began to offer resistance. They

hired express men to drive into our meetings and organ grinders to

disturb us with their noise. On one occasion a cab driver was paid to

drive at high speed into our meeting, where deaconesses and many

Christian women were assisting. Many times automobiles were stationed

near us and made as noisy as possible in order to harass us. They wasted

some nice fresh eggs on us, and a melon. As we were proceeding lawfully,

under legal permits from the police department, we called upon the

police for complete protection. While an American patrolman was on the

beat we had no trouble, but a foreign-born officer showed us

considerable disfavor. We had our own opinion of the source of his

ill-will. Chief Collins was entirely just and friendly and took all

necessary measures for our protection.

At length, managers of resorts, saloons and gambling dens in notorious

Custom House Place calculated that each hour we worked they lost $250,

and they determined to give us "the worst of it" even if they had to

hire thugs to slug me. We kept steadily calling upon God and faithfully

preaching His truth. At length, near the end of October, such

representations were made to Chief Collins that he ordered our meetings

stopped at ten o'clock--when they began--on the ground that we were

disturbing the sleep of lodgers in hotels two blocks away!

Thereupon, accompanied by Mr. Arthur Burrage Farwell, Miss Lucy Page

Gaston, Deaconess Lucy A. Hall, Miss Eva Marshall Shonts and others,

eleven in all, we called upon the chief of police, explained our

surprise at being stopped in our work, which was entirely lawful, and

requested him to cleanse that street of resorts which were entirely

unlawful. This he immediately promised to do, on condition that we would

not stir the newspapers or arouse public sentiment to compel him to do

it. We accepted his word and awaited fulfillment. Two months

later--namely, at Christmas, 1905, he notified the resorts, and

published in the newspapers, that they must vacate on the first of May,

1906.

THE DIVES OFFER A BRIBE OF $50,000.

During the intervening months the white slave traders, gamblers, keepers

of the worst disorderly saloons and some property owners and real estate

agents who made money out of that precinct of perdition, raised a slush

fund, employed an attorney and used every device in their power to gain

a continuance of their nefarious traffic in the heart of Chicago--for

they were between the Federal building containing the postoffice, and

the Dearborn passenger station, used by the Erie, Grand Trunk, Santa Fe

and Monon railways.

Mayor Dunne told Pastor Boynton and myself, at the Sherman House on the

evening of March 15, 1907, when his political enemies were accusing him

falsely of being the friend of vice, that the divekeepers offered him

$50,000 if he would allow them to remain four months more in Custom

House Place. Mayor Dunne, a man of the highest character, attested this

statement by an appeal to God. Chief Collins had previously told me that

the dives had made this offer but he had replied to them, "If you had

Marshall Field's money you cannot stay there after the first of May, if

I am chief of police, so help me God." No political or other influence

could induce him to waver or to reverse his order, and when the first of

May came he drove them out with a mailed fist.

Mayor Dunne told us that while he was on the bench the case of a Polish

girl came before him, which had prepared his mind to act against the

resorts if he should ever have power. This innocent immigrant girl had

arrived at the Dearborn station and had been lured into one of the

adjacent dens, her clothes taken from her, and herself made a white

slave.

ON THE WEST SIDE.

In 1906 we worked principally on the vice-ridden streets of the West

Side. After the earthquake in San Francisco many depraved women, with

their parasites, took refuge in Chicago. These were very brazen women,

and the vile young men who lived on their shameful earnings were cunning

in thwarting the police. Conditions became insufferable. So wide open

was the district that a secretary of the Young Men's Christian

Association in walking four blocks on the sidewalk was solicited by

sixty-two women from their open doors and windows. A police court

justice was accused of assessing petty fines against these offenders

when the police brought them into court.

We steadily preached the word and prayed to God to abolish those

frightful traps for boys. We learned of one boy, a choir boy in a

Methodist church, who was dragged forcibly into one of those dens, and

infected with a disease from which he soon died.

Captain Barcal, of the Desplaines street police station, in plain

clothes and unknown to the evangelists, visited our midnight gospel

meeting in Peoria street at the corner of Randolph, Saturday night,

September 15. Several repentant young men were on their knees in the

dust, surrounded by missionaries working with them and praying for them.

The captain said to Alexander Cleland, one of the secretaries of the

Central Young Men's Christian Association: "I will not tolerate any

interference with this good work."

One Sunday afternoon as we were working on Sangamon street a beautiful,

sinful Jewess insulted me and justified herself by saying with a strong

Jewish accent, "You spoil our business." The next Sunday or so a young

Jew parasite succeeded in breaking up our meeting. Captain Barcal was

indignant and took better care of us than ever. One Sunday a Jew said to

me, "The girls say you have spoiled their business." Soon afterward a

police order and the new municipal courts utterly transformed that

region. Business interest were weary of such outrageous conditions and

demanded a decisive change. Some months afterward a policeman remarked

upon the transformation and explained, "The Lord's time came to work and

He has been working." There is still very much to be done there, but the

former flagrancy of vice has been abolished.

Mr. Henry De Vries, Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Macdonald and Mr. R. M. Hawkins

worked with me during our conflict on the West Side. Mr. Macdonald was

killed the next year by a train.

AT TWENTY-SECOND STREET.

For the last three years since our mission was organized, chiefly

through the efforts of the Rev. Dr. John Balcom Shaw, we have labored

mostly in the great vice district and white slave market at

Twenty-second street. Of course we had no very glad welcome, after the

preceding conflicts. I have been assaulted three times in that district

and several who have worked with us have been roughly handled. Vile

drugs have been thrown into our meetings and on our clothes--assafoetida

and hydrogen sulphide. Viler words have been hurled into our ears. One

French trader threatened to break me to pieces and send me to a hospital

if it cost him a mint of money, but he afterward became friendly and

finally quit his loathsome business.

Objection was made to our scientific teaching and circulars. Even the

police captains, who have always taken splendid care of us, were

influenced by our adversaries to object to our telling the young men

about the diseases that are on sale in the resorts. Our circulars and

the circulars of the Chicago Society of Social Hygiene were referred by

the chief of police to the corporation counsel who promptly approved

them. He said we were like the Knights of the Garter and our circulars

not immoral but highly moral. We have circulated nearly a million pages

of these circulars. Young men hear us gladly and accept the circulars

with thanks. I have counted two hundred men listening at once to

Evangelist J. R. Beveridge, who is very plain speaking, while he was

working with us.

OTHER WORKERS IN THE NIGHT.

The Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America do not hold meetings in

the vice districts of Chicago, but women officers of those societies do

visit the resorts selling papers. At times both Salvationists and

Volunteers have taken part in our midnight meetings. Many people passing

our meetings suppose that we are from the Salvation Army, as it is

believed to do such work. The Army has rescue and maternity homes and

does much good work for the fallen, but the preaching in the vice

districts is done by our own and similar recent organizations.

Rev. V. A. M. Mortensen, a Lutheran minister, has organized The Rescue

League, which looks for support chiefly to the Lutheran churches. Mr.

Mortensen preaches in the night, chiefly on the West Side. He is much

interested in the work against the white slave trade. Through his agency

Jennie Moulton was sent to Joliet under a sentence of twenty years for

procuring young girls for some degraded Greeks. Mr. Mortensen has also

been very diligent against dealers in obscene pictures and postcards.

Rev. N. K. Clarkson has worked part of the time with The Midnight

Mission and part of the time independently. He has organized The White

Cross Midnight Missionary Association, which is very diligent, preaching

sometimes almost all night and never ceasing for rain or snow. This

heroic work compels respect.

Dan Martin works Saturday nights in the vice district with a large

company of devoted people. Hundreds of men and youths have knelt in the

dust, confessing their sins, in Mr. Martin's meetings.

JUSTICE

Three men went out one summer night,

No care had they nor aim,

And dined and drank--"Ere we go home

We'll have," they said, "a game."

Three girls began that summer night,

A life of endless shame;

And went through drink, disease and death,

As swift as racing flame.

Lawless and homeless, foul they died;

Rich, loved, and praised the men;

But when they all shall meet with God,

And Justice speaks--What then?

--Stopford A. Brooke.

E. A. B.

CHAPTER XXX.

HELEN CHAMBERS, SOME OTHER GIRLS AND "DAISY."

This is the story of Helen Chambers as told in a special dispatch from

Kansas City, Missouri, to the Republican of Joliet, Illinois, and

published in that newspaper August 5, 1909. Drink, drugs and debauchery

hurried this winsome and respected girl to her coffin before nineteen

years had passed over her head. She is one of thousands who perish

similarly every year in this beautiful land of churches and colleges.

FIRST DRINK SENDS GIRL TO HER RUIN.

Died a Drug Fiend.

Kansas City, Mo., Aug. 5.--On last New Year's eve Helen Chambers,

daughter of a respected family of Aurora, a girl not yet 18 years old

and still a student in the high school, with a girl companion went to

Chicago. There in a cafe Helen Chambers took her first drink. She took

several drinks, and before the night was over was enjoying to the

fullest the fascinations of a life that she had never known before.

After a lapse of several months Helen Chambers died at the general

hospital this morning of a reaction following an operation. Her system

had been too weakened by dissipation to recover from the shock. A mental

and physical wreck, she had gone to the hospital in the vain hope of

relief.

Lives Two Weeks on Absinthe.

Within seven months Helen Chambers, the simple Aurora girl crowded

events into her life that would have been good measure for as many

years. From the simple drinks that she indulged in on her first night,

which marked the passing of the old year, she went in for the stronger

ones. For two weeks prior to being taken to the general hospital she

virtually lived on absinthe, and at the last she began using morphine. A

message to her mother, still living in Aurora, received no response and

the girl, with her life slowly ebbing out, dozed restlessly through

weary and tortuous minutes until the end came.

"I was just quitting high school," she said yesterday, when asked to

tell her story. "On New Year's eve I went to Chicago with another girl.

We met two boys and went to a cafe, where the New Year's celebration was

just starting. I didn't know what it was like, but I found out.

Everything was in order, but I noticed that the girls seemed to drink as

much as the men.

"Every one drank freely and soon it seemed as though every one was

intoxicated. I took my first drink because every one seemed to be

drinking and to be happy as well. The minutes passed quickly and my

brain grew numb.

Decides to Leave Her Home.

"I don't know exactly how I got out of the cafe or the events leading up

to it. But when I awoke the next morning I felt disgraced. That was the

beginning, this is the ending of it.

"I then decided to run away from home. I decided it would be best. I

came to Kansas City about April 1. I fell in with bad associates, but

finally married. I went to Dallas, Texas, with my husband. There we

quarreled and he returned to Kansas City without me, but I soon

followed. We made up here, but quarreled again and separated, and then I

started anew, and the rest you know. I slept in a cheap rooming house

last Sunday night. Monday I came here, hoping that there might be some

relief, but it seems all up with me."

Both Miss Chambers and her parents are well known to many Joliet

residents.

VETERAN MINISTER PROTESTS AGAINST THE VICE TRAFFIC.

The Rev. Dr. Duncan C. Milner, a veteran of the Civil War and a veteran

in the wars of the Lord, published the following warning against the

white slave traders in the same issue of the Joliet Republican, which

told the tragic story of Helen Chambers.

Systematic Traffic in American Girls.

There has been much said in the public press about the "White Slave

Traffic." Some people suppose that this is only one of the sensational

inventions of yellow newspapers. There is undoubted evidence that young

women are made articles of merchandise for vile purposes and that the

business of supplying the market has assumed vast proportions.

The evil is by no means confined to the great city. While Chicago may be

the headquarters for this traffic in human flesh in this part of the

country, the smaller cities and the rural districts are involved. Edwin

W. Sims, United States district attorney, has prosecuted a number of

cases against the white slave traders and has also by his articles in

"The Woman's World" given to the public the results of investigation.

Mr. Sims said he had to "put aside personal feelings against appearing

in print in connection with a subject so abhorrent," because he wanted

fathers and mothers to know the perils of their daughters.

The extent of this evil can only be judged by the statements of such men

as Mr. Sims, his assistant, Mr. Parkin, Clifford G. Roe, assistant

state's attorney of Cook County, and by a number of judges of the

courts.

It has been said by investigators that 20 per cent voluntarily enter

such a life, and that 80 per cent are led into it or are entrapped and

sold. A small per cent of these are from foreign countries, but

two-thirds of them are from our country and largely from farms and

smaller towns and cities.

This systematic traffic in girls from American homes is carried on by

male parasites, who live lives of luxury from their gains from this work

as procurers and panderers. Women are also used to beguile other women

for the trade.

These infamous creatures sometimes go as agents for books, gramophones,

or machines. A woman now in the penitentiary said she canvassed

communities to sell toilet articles, for the purpose of finding girls.

Victims are looked for in railroad depots, and trains are watched for

young women traveling alone.

General deliveries in post offices are watched where young women call

for letters.

Recruiting stations are found in dance halls, in the cities and

amusements parks with drinking places as attachments. Ice cream parlors

and fruit stores sometimes serve as spiders' webs for entanglement.

The villainous men engaged in this work assume the guise of friends and

sometimes will even talk to parents about getting fine positions for

their girls. They are promised places in stores and laundries and in a

number of cases theatrical positions, with large pay. Sometimes the

procurer professes to have fallen in love and marries his victim and

then sells her in the market. Several of the runaway marriages on the

boat excursions and at summer resorts have been shown in the courts as

of this fraudulent order.

After girls are caught in the net and drawn into a vile resort various

plans are made to complete their ruin and hold them in absolute bondage.

Their street clothes are taken away, they are not allowed to write

letters to their friends, and some are confined under lock and key.

Their owners keep them in debt for clothes, charged for at exorbitant

prices, their wages are often paid to the parasite who has claims upon

them and often these ties of debt and vice so fasten the bonds of

slavery that they become broken and desperate. All of these things and

many more unprintable details of these cases have been made matter of

court record and show that this systematic traffic in American girls is

not a fiction.

To show the tremendous financial gains of the traffic, one couple gave a

bond of $26,500 and immediately ran away and forfeited their bond.

To combat this wide spread evil a National Vigilance Committee has been

organized and a number of states including Illinois, have formed state

societies, "to suppress traffic in women and girls." The Chicago Law and

Order League, of which Arthur Burrage Farwell is president, has done

active work in aiding to prosecute cases. Chicago has also The Midnight

Mission of which R. S. Simmons, an attorney of high standing is

president, and Rev. Ernest A. Bell is superintendent. Street meetings

are held in the "Red-light" districts and work is done to spread the

teachings as to the penalties of vice and the blessings of purity, and

appeals are made from legal, sanitary, moral and spiritual motives for

men and women to be saved.

Judge Mack of Chicago and Judge Ben Lindsey of the Juvenile Court of

Denver, with noted physicians and ministers have spoken and written

words of warning to parents and also have sent out pleas for wise

instruction of children for their protection from the evils of sexual

vice.

It is not enough to simply prosecute the monsters who are part of this

vile traffic, but there should be a campaign of education in all

communities, city and county, with better laws and more strict

enforcement of those we now have.

Duncan C. Milner.

Many ministers might well follow Dr. Milner's example and write articles

for the newspapers to whose columns they have access, instructing,

warning and alarming parents and brothers of girls and the girls

themselves against the enemies of every home in the world.

AMERICAN GIRLS IN MOST DANGER.

An able investigator, a lady whose name we cannot divulge, comparing

virtuous immigrants and American girls, writes:

"The foreign girls have a safeguard in early marriage. While unmarried

and away from home, they usually live with families of their own

nationality and are treated as members of the family. Italian girls are

further protected by the severe standards of their parents; an Italian

father will almost kill a daughter who has gone astray. I have found

Russian, Jewish, and Italian girls innocent, very sweet and trustful.

"American wage-earning girls on the other hand present a different

picture. While many of them find homes in private families or among

friends, many others are rooming in houses where there is no one to look

after them. Many of them have no sitting room in which to receive men

friends and have to use their bedrooms for this purpose. Some girls

speak of this necessity with regret and a serious realization of the

situation. Such girls can live under such conditions and be safe. Others

resent the implication that these conditions are dangerous, feeling that

their own virtue is questioned. Others treat the matter flippantly.

"The men and women who are interested in girls for no good reason have

no difficulty in meeting the American girls, working as they do in

stores, offices, hotels and restaurants. I believe that the American

girl is surrounded by more numerous and far more subtle temptations than

is the foreign girl."

KITTY SCHAY.

(This story is clipped from The National Prohibitionist.)

Another of the horrid stories that have come to light in the work of the

Law and Order League of Chicago is that of a young girl who may be known

here as Kitty Schay. This girl was born in Milwaukee twenty-one years

ago, and became an orphan when only four years old. She was brought up

in the home of an aunt who seems to have been a good woman, but somewhat

unfeeling, and was given little or no opportunity for education, going

to work at any early age.

Seeking amusement and companionship that her home did not give her, the

poor girl began to frequent the public halls where dances were given,

under saloon auspices, and came to attract much admiration and secure

many acquaintances because of her graceful dancing. These associations

led to late hours, and although the girl, under circumstances that made

truthtelling likely, insists that she was guilty of no offenses against

virtue, her aunt became angry with her and drove her from her home.

Thrust upon her own resources, the poor creature sought work, living in

a cheerless furnished room, and found her associations for companionship

and pleasure at dances and in concert halls and in the back rooms of

some of the numerous gin mills that flourish in the city of Milwaukee,

with the approval and consent of so many of that city's good people.

Thus she lived, comparatively blameless, amid perils and temptations,

until one night she was introduced to a young woman who offered her a

position in Chicago where she could earn "good wages." The winter was

coming on. The child had no store of winter clothing and looked forward

to the terrible days of December and January with dread. She realized

that the scanty pay for which she worked would buy her little of what

she needed, and when the temptress talked to her of what seemed to her

fabulous pay she consented all too willingly.

Perhaps she did not inquire too closely into the character of the work

to which she was going. She had begun to drink, indeed, she says she was

partially intoxicated at that moment with drink that had been furnished

her by the woman and a male companion. At least, she agreed to go, and

at the depot in Chicago was met by a closed hack in which she was taken

at once to one of the dives of Chicago's greatest vice preserve where

the police, to whom she glibly told the story that she had been

instructed to tell, speedily enrolled her as a woman of the

"underworld."

Then began two months of horror. Exposure to disease, unthinkable

brutality, degradation never before dreamed of--these were her portion

in a full cup; and the alluring prospect of pay that had baited the trap

faded away and she received in return for all this nothing but the

barest, scantiest living.

At length a frequenter of the place, in whom honest impulses were not

wholly dead, moved by her sorrowful story, fought her way out of the

dive and reported the case to the Law and Order League.

The police have sent the poor creature back to Milwaukee to what

improvement of fate it may well be imagined. And the vice mills grind

on, and the police are busy "registering" new victims.

SALVATION ARMY EXPERIENCES.

Some time ago a Chicago girl found herself orphaned and almost

friendless; her aunt cared for her for a little while, but life was so

unbearable there that she decided to try domestic service.

One of the best known department stores in this city was at that time

running a Labor Bureau; the girl went there and in due time was

presented to a pleasant-faced ladylike woman, who offered her employment

as "parlor-maid."

The poor girl, with glad heart and bright hopes, set off for her new

home; but before night fell she found that she had been sold into a

slavery worse than death. Her pleadings and tears were all in vain, and

it was some months later before an opportunity of escape presented

itself. Then, while walking on Clark street with the keeper of the

house, she suddenly espied a little group of Salvationists holding an

open-air meeting. To the amazement and consternation of the woman with

her, the girl not only paused to listen, but took her stand between two

Army girls, saying, "You will take care of me, I know."

That night she slept in an Army Rescue Home, and stayed with us for some

time. An operation, made necessary by the life she had been forced to

live, ended her days; but she died in peace, confident that she was

going to a world where sorrow and sin never can enter.

Captain G., a Salvation Army officer while doing house to house

visitation in the "Red Light" district, was amazed to meet a woman who

came from her own township in the Fatherland.

It was perhaps a sentimental feeling which prompted the woman so freely

to speak to the officer in reference to her chosen life. She said that

years ago she had been beguiled to this country by an advertisement,

which promised a good home and good wages to suitable girls. She replied

to the advertisement and in due time was met at a Chicago railway

station by the parties with whom she corresponded; and a few hours later

found to her horror, that her confidence had been betrayed and that she

was an unwilling guest of a resort.

There seemed to be no way of escape; and as time went on she grew

accustomed to it and concluded that as others were making money in such

fashion, she would follow their example. For years she has maintained a

disreputable house, and most of the girls who live in it were entrapped

and snared from their country homes much after the same fashion as she

herself.

A Canadian school girl started to make a visit to her married sister in

New York State. The train reached its destination several hours late.

The sister, who had been waiting at the railway station for hours, had

just returned to her home when the train arrived; thus there was no one

to meet the little girl at the end of her journey.

A man who had been lounging around the railway station, stepped up and

asked her whom she was waiting for. Innocently enough she told him the

whole story, when he remarked that he had been sent by the sister to

take her to her home. Stepping into a carriage they drove to a well

appointed house; but in his haste to leave the station unobserved, the

man had forgotten to ask for the check for the child's trunk.

Leaving the little one, he returned to the station where the married

sister was frantically making inquiries in reference to the traveler and

was told that no one, answering that description, had stepped from the

train. However the trunk standing there with the child's initials on it

made her confident that her sister had arrived and, in some unexplained

fashion, had disappeared.

While the controversy with the station-master was going on, a man came

up to claim the trunk; and an innocent girl was thus saved from the

hands of the procuress, for the house to which she had been taken proved

to be a notorious house of ill-fame.

No steps were taken in this case, as in thousands of others, to punish

the wrong-doer; the sister dreading the notoriety, which would follow

such a case.

We present in this book photographs of "Daisy," who died the day these

words are penned. One picture shows her at seventeen in her beauty,

"young and so fair." Another shows her dying in the poorhouse before she

is twenty, after one year of sinful indulgence and one year of lingering

death. The third shows her coffin, if the photographer is successful in

snapping it tomorrow as the hearse leaves the undertaker's rooms, for

her friends are too ashamed to give her burial from their home. These

and all the others in this book are actual photographs, correctly named

and in no way made up or misrepresented. The story of Daisy is told over

their signatures, by Rev. W. E. Hopkins, formerly a missionary in India,

now pastor of the Baptist church at West Pullman, and a worker in The

Midnight Mission; and Miss Belle Buzzell who has been for many years a

worker in the slums and prisons of Chicago. Miss Buzzell's picture is

seen beside the bed of the dying girl. It was "Daisy's" own expressed

desire that her death might be life to other girls by its warning.

THE STORY OF "DAISY."

We found her one day in March in the venereal ward at Cook County

Hospital. She was unconscious, and it was five weeks before she could

tell us her story. One of those great blue eyes was sightless. One hand

was crippled. Her lower limbs were paralyzed. She was dying--dying of

the horrible, loathsome, putrefying disease of the life of shame.

Poor child! This was the work of but one year of this life and she was

not yet twenty years old. During that miserable year of sin, she was ill

but recovered sufficiently to resume the service of lust. Then came the

break and for long weary months she lay helpless in the resort amidst

the revellings of her stronger companions and their consorts--ghastly

haunt of the women whose way ends in death.

The madam was kind to her, Daisy told us, and during the long illness at

the hospital and later at the poorhouse she visited her frequently,

bringing flowers and fruit and supplying her with money for the little

delicacies which the county forgets to provide. But she, too, is a woman

of sorrow. She is much better than her business and did not mean that

her parlor should become a death-chamber. When we told her tonight of

Daisy's death she broke down in an agony of tears and for an hour cried

out her story of shame, of heartbreak, of regret and remorse, and of

longing for home and a worthy life. Yet she is bound for the present

and we pray for her deliverance from this partnership with hell, and

hope that Daisy's death may be as the touch of the Divine Spirit that

shall restore in her the marred image of an exalted Christian womanhood.

About two years ago Daisy was left an orphan under peculiarly sad

conditions. She resented the solicitude of an only sister--tho' her

senior--and as neither was a Christian, the friction grew into a

quarrel. She was given the alternative of submission or separation, and

her sensitive spirit sought a place in the strange world without.

She entered the employ of a man whose family and business standing gave

her reason to believe that she could trust him, and she testifies that

he treated her as a true friend until he had won her entire confidence.

Then in an hour of need when she was in search of a new place, he

directed her to No. ---- West Madison street. He did not take her in,

lest he be charged with selling her as a white slave, but left her on

the brink of ruin to take the plunge alone. How true the saying of the

wise man, "Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a

broken tooth or a foot out of joint."

After six months at Cook County Hospital she was removed to the

infirmary at Dunning. She thought that her sister was having her taken

to a private sanitarium and the rude awakening in the County poorhouse

broke her heart. We had secured funds for a Christian burial to save

her from the potter's field, when after a long search, we found her

sister, who will bury her; and we would gladly have saved her from the

poorhouse had it been within our power.

She told us that she was always of an affectionate disposition and was

led to hope that her lonely heart would find loving companionship among

prostitutes. Oh! God, judge these devourers of loving, trustful,

innocent children. Instead of love she found betrayal and shame and

remorse, and sickness, and death; another victim sacrificed to ignorance

and treachery and greed and lust.

During the second month in the hospital, Daisy made such gain as to

raise hopes of at least partial recovery. With returning strength she

came to realize the sinfulness of her life and repented in deep

humility. She was at her best when she accepted Jesus as her Savior, and

definitely, determinedly yielded herself to him. Her sympathy went out

to the diseased and friendless other girls in the ward, and her

testimony moved them profoundly.

Her love for Jesus grew so strong that one desire possessed her--that

she might live to warn girls of the sure end of the evil way and win

them to Christ. In response to flowers and loving messages from young

peoples' societies and friends, she sent most pathetic warnings. "Tell

the girls for me always to confide in and obey their mothers," was her

common message, and she urged us to tell her story wherever we could to

warn mothers and daughters, and to use it in every possible way to save

lost girls.

In fulfillment of her request, we send out on this day of her death,

September 2, 1909, this message to accomplish the ministry that she was

unable to perform.

"She, being dead, yet speaketh."

Belle Buzzell,

W. E. Hopkins,

Missionaries.

E. A. B.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VICE DISTRICTS OF LOS ANGELES AND DES MOINES.

"My God! If I only could get out of here!" This midnight shriek of a

young girl in the "crib" district of Los Angeles pierced the ears and

the hearts of Rev. Sidney C. Kendall and Rev. Wiley J. Phillips, editor

of The California Voice. They joined hands under the midnight sky and

vowed to God and to each other to fight against that white slave market

until it was annihilated.

Mr. Kendall could pray and preach and write. Mr. Phillips controlled the

columns of the Voice, and also had the spirit and skill to use the law

against the horrible traders in girls. Every week the Voice exposed and

denounced the "cribs." Everyday Mr. Kendall wrote an article or a

chapter, or addressed a ministers' meeting against the city's awful

curse and shame. At night these determined men led little companies of

ministers and others through the crib district that they might know the

infamies that were practiced in their city.

Mr. Kendall wrote a book, "The Soundings of Hell," exposing the white

slave traffic, particularly in Los Angeles. Mrs. Charlton Edholm made

one hundred and twenty speeches in the churches, pleading that Christ's

people stamp out the traffic in girls. Mass meetings were held,

petitions were signed, circulars were sown broadcast exposing the

appalling conditions and demanding the destruction of the slave market.

On Sunday, December 15th, three thousand people from the churches

gathered at Temperance Temple and marched like an army into the crib

district--"Heaven invaded Hell."

Mr. Phillips believed in all this and helped it all along, but he also

believed that the law was made for the unholy and profane. He collected

evidence for use in court and signed complaints when no one else was

willing to do it. He was warned that if he assailed the owners of the

crib district he took his life in his hands, but he was not the man to

be deterred by threats. He found that Ballerino, an Italian millionaire,

owned many of the cribs. Mr. Phillips brought fifteen of the girls into

court to show that they were paying Ballerino $7.50 a day for each of

the sordid rooms called "cribs."

The first girl called to the witness stand perjured herself, and failure

seemed inevitable as the witnesses had been tampered with. She herself

asked to be recalled to the stand, said she had lied and wished now to

tell the truth, as the girls had been talking it over and had decided to

tell the truth. The other fourteen then gave truthful testimony.

Ballerino was convicted, an appeal to the higher courts went against

him, he was put on the chain gang and compelled to pay a fine and costs,

though he was a millionaire.

Agitation, publicity and prosecutions were maintained until the

scandalous crib district of Los Angeles was absolutely annihilated. The

French traders recognized that the city was no longer a market for girls

and turned their cargoes aside to other cities, that love these

monstrous beasts so dearly that they give them segregated districts,

where they may enslave young girls and debauch young men, with assurance

that laws are contemptible, and graft is precious, and the good people

have sand in their eyes.

The story of the destruction of the open market for girls in Des Moines

is best told in the following articles of the commissioner of public

safety, the chief of police and the city physician. The determination to

annihilate the dens which had been protected so long was caused in part

by the high crime of bringing back a girl who had escaped to another

city, to compel her to work out a debt in one of the dives of Des

Moines. We are indebted for these articles to The Light, published at La

Crosse, Wisconsin, by B. S. Steadwell.

THE NIGHTMARE ENDED IN DES MOINES.

By J. L. Hamery, Superintendent, Department of Public Safety.

Of all the cities of the United States, Des Moines stands today a bright

and shining example of the utter fallacy of the "segregation" idea.

Practiced more or less openly for twenty years or more, now, after a few

months of freedom, the past seems like a nightmare, which it is

impossible to believe will ever be tolerated in this city again.

In a short paper, hurriedly prepared, it will be impossible to give much

more than general statements of opinion. We have affidavits, statistics

of arrest, opinions of high-class citizens, opinions of independent

investigators from other states, statements from experience by police

officials and city physicians to support the following:

Segregation, as applied to prostitution, is but another term for

"incubation."

Segregation is the nucleus and backbone of the White Slave Traffic.

Segregation provides a resort, refuge and hiding place for criminals and

thugs of every description.

Segregation is affiliated with gambling, bootlegging, opium and cocaine

joints.

Segregation, with its red lights, its music, the painted women in the

windows, etc., provides an educational feature for school children and

students, the possibilities of which can be better imagined than

described.

Segregation could never be made to completely segregate, but rather,

provided a center from which prostitution radiated in every direction

like a cancer.

Segregation makes its baleful influence felt in business and politics

and is a direct factor in all the criminal influence of a large city.

All the open and recognized houses of prostitution in the city of Des

Moines were suppressed by a general police order issued September 8,

1908. With the exception of two police captains, one of whom is now

chief of police, the order was criticized by the body of police and

especially by the then chief; it was opposed by city officials; public

sentiment made no especial demand for it, to say the least, and it was

freely prophesied that the order would be followed by a saturnalia of

crime and rapes. I am free to confess that even the honest doubters

could advance many plausible arguments on the utter absurdity of trying

to totally suppress this evil. But now, after a few months' trial, one

of the most convincing (if somewhat amusing) tributes to the unqualified

success we have met with, in spite of the most diabolical opposition, is

the manner in which officials of all degrees of importance are now

jumping into our band-wagon and actually trying to crowd us out.

The fact that we have an army post and a full regiment of cavalrymen was

repeatedly advanced with arguments and statements as to what might be

expected from this source alone if the red light districts were

abolished. It is true that soldiers were giving the city much trouble at

that time. Murders and rapes were becoming common occurrences. Loud and

indignant protests were being made by citizens and the press of the city

was filled with debates of what to do with soldiers and the army post.

With the suppression of the segregated districts all trouble with

soldiers ceased as if by magic. It was very clearly proved that with

temptations removed soldiers are quite as good as average citizens, and

there is no further talk of removing the fort from this city. All

through the troublous times of "red-light," however, the officers,

non-commissioned officers and the very many respectable soldiers, were

always eager and ready to co-operate with the police for the maintenance

of law and order.

No one questions the success of the suppression of public houses of

prostitution in this city, and no disinterested person questions the

beneficent effect. What the future holds is open to serious conjecture.

Some of the advocates of segregation have loudly expressed the hope that

a brothel would be set up by the side of each "preacher's" door, so that

the city would be glad to return to segregation. A city election will be

held next spring, complicated with a fierce struggle for the

congressional nomination. There is no doubt the so-called "liberal

element" will be a unit for an open town, while the better elements, as

usual, will be confused and divided. In the event of the election of a

reactionary who could secure control of the Department of Public Safety,

the cause of clean and moral city government would receive a decided

setback. Nothing less than everlasting vigilance by the heads of the

police department will keep the city out of the old rut. Great things

are expected from the "Cosson" law, passed at the last session of the

Iowa State Legislature. It has even been intimated that this law is

responsible for the abolishment of the red-light districts, though it

does not become effective until July 4, 1909. There has always been

abundance of laws against prostitution and its attendant evils. The

trouble has always been that they were not enforced.

In addition to the statements of the chief of police and the city

physician, I am sending you a copy of a voluntary statement received

from an independent investigator, representing a civic association in

one of the largest cities of the Middle West. As the association desires

to continue these investigations in other cities for some time to come

we are only allowed to use this statement on the express stipulation

that the name of the investigator and the city he represents is

suppressed for the time being. His statement is as follows:

Mr. J. L. Hamery.

Dear Sir: After a careful and critical examination of conditions in Des

Moines, it is with the greatest pleasure that I extend to the citizens

of your city my hearty congratulations upon the successful progress of

the campaign for civic betterment. Having been particularly interested

in the effort made here to stamp out the recognized houses of

prostitution, and having been qualified by considerable experience in

the investigation of all phases of the social evil in large cities, I

feel that I speak with some degree of authority on this subject. And it

gives me great pleasure to say to you and Des Moines that there is not

now in this city a recognized and admitted house of prostitution.

There are not any considerable number of loose women to be seen upon the

streets, and the deportment of the women who do walk the streets of Des

Moines speaks volumes in praise of the efficiency of your police

regulation.

I have made special search for indications of prostitutes having taken

up residence in the city at large, and am absolutely convinced that your

experience has proven this bugaboo to be wholly chimerical. This

conclusion has been amply verified by interviews I have had with

representative business and professional men, whose homes are in the

residential districts of your city.

The evidences of activity in Des Moines real estate are to my mind

conclusive proof that this city is rising to a proper realization and

appreciation of its opportunities to become recognized as one of the

most desirable places in America for homes, educational centers and

legitimate business enterprises. (Signed)

The following is the statement of Chief Miller. The appointment of Mr.

Miller as chief was unanimously endorsed by the press and public. He is

the first chief in Des Moines selected from the ranks and appointed

entirely on his merits.

STATEMENT OF CHIEF OF POLICE MILLER.

I have been a member of the Des Moines police force for over seventeen

years, filling every position from patrolman up. I was appointed Chief

of Police on October 14, 1908. I have pleasure in submitting the

following conclusions, based on my experience as a police officer:

Segregation never segregated in Des Moines. The most prosperous houses

with the high-class patronage absolutely refused to enter the segregated

districts, and were always able to command sufficient influence to

enable them to defy the police.

Landladies in segregated districts, by reason of severe competition,

were compelled to resort to all means of advertising, which included red

lights over the doors, the serving of liquors and other refreshments,

orchestral music, persistent displaying of charms by women in the

windows and other means of making their business as conspicuous as

possible, and thereby attracting even innocent spectators to the

vicinity who were often robbed by attaches and hangers-on from the

resorts. The segregated districts always became notorious and the evil

was greatly augmented thereby.

Property in the segregated districts was manipulated by money sharks for

the purpose of securing complete financial control over the women, who

in their slavery and despair were often driven to commit desperate

crimes in their futile endeavors to free themselves from the hands of

their masters. The cleaning up of the resorts freed between two and

three hundred of these women, who immediately left the city and have not

been replaced. As they were well known it was impossible for them to

locate in residence districts and citizens have taken pleasure in

keeping us posted with reference to suspicious persons in the suburbs.

In conclusion will say that the remarkable freedom of the city from

crime, immediately following the closing of resorts, the boom in

residence and city real estate and business in general, also the higher

moral tone of the city, is so pronounced and apparent to all in Des

Moines, that I have no hesitation in placing myself on record with the

deliberate statement that any future administration will hesitate

before attempting to again place the city of Des Moines in the

"segregated" class.

Respectfully submitted,

A. G. MILLER,

Chief of Police.

STATEMENT OF THE CITY PHYSICIAN.

One of the most difficult questions before municipal governments for the

past half a century has been the controlling and the successful handling

of prostitution, and during the last ten years this problem has become

more and more perplexing.

Men of knowledge and familiar with this subject have given this problem

much thought and consideration trying to devise some logical plan that

would lead to a satisfactory solution. Segregation has been argued pro

and con; licensing and physical examination have been suggested and put

into practice, but not until recently has it been actually demonstrated

that this great question can be solved.

All great cities have been wrestling with this question and have tried

various methods, and have yet to find a satisfactory method by which

these classes can be controlled. Prostitutes and their followers are no

small factor that go to make up a city's population, and they will

follow their vocation to some extent under any circumstances or

conditions.

This being true, it has on the other hand been proven beyond a

reasonable doubt that this class of traffic can be almost entirely

abolished. Prior to September 15th, 1908, this city had what is commonly

known as a "red-light district" covering an area of about three square

blocks. In this district the rowdy and tough element naturally

congregated, and it was an every day occurrence to see drunken brawls,

cutting and shooting scraps, and suicides; everything, in fact, that

would be disgusting and annoying to the sober-minded citizen. It was an

every night occurrence for ambulance calls to come from this district,

where some unfortunate had been stabbed or shot down, or an inmate of

one of the disorderly houses had committed or made the attempt at

suicide.

On the fifteenth day of September, 1908, the superintendent of the

Department of Public Safety issued an order to the effect that the

"red-light district" would no longer be tolerated, and that the common

prostitute and street-walker would be prosecuted to the fullest extent

of the law. From that date on a gradual decline was noticeable in the

emergency work, and the calls for shooting and cutting affrays were few.

At this time I can safely say that emergency work coming from this

source has decreased ninety per cent.

Whenever you have a consolidation of elements which appeals to the rough

class, viz., houses of ill-fame, saloons of the low type, and gambling

dens, you are sure to have more crime committed and vice protected. Do

away entirely, or scatter these factors in crime and you will notice a

decided slump in your police service calls relative to this line of

work.

In my judgment the abolishment of the "red-light district," coupled with

the prosecution of prostitute and street-walker, has proven the most

satisfactory solution of the perplexing problem, and offers more

protection to the home, and a greater inducement to the prospective

citizen, and keeps the criminal class away from the city's gates. In

conclusion, will state that I was originally opposed to the suppression

of the red-light districts and believed it would result in making

matters worse. I base all the foregoing statements on my four years'

experience.

Respectfully,

CLIFFORD W. LOSH,

City Physician.

E. A. B.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CONDITIONS IN LONDON.

By Miss Lucy A. Hall, Deaconess of the Methodist

Episcopal Church, Chicago.

George R. Sims says, "The mother of cities lays her whole heart bare to

no man. There is no man living who has fathomed her depths. There is no

man living who has mastered her mysteries."

For the last quarter of a century especially there have been

emancipating influences and efforts of noblest kinds which are really

bringing, somewhat gradually, but very surely, a new London--a city that

is winning a right to be viewed as a centre of largest endeavor for

civic righteousness that history can so far record.

The Bishop of London, presiding at their National Vigilance Association,

July 20, 1909, had a right to say, "We have succeeded in getting London

united on moral questions." By his side was the Archbishop of

Westminster, who said among other significant words, for the Catholic

Church that, "While we work together to advance the object of the

Association and its dealings with this terrible traffic, we should also

make every possible effort to build up, in the children of the country,

a definite and clear belief of what they owe to their Maker and of the

account they will have to give Him hereafter."

The Chief Rabbi, Dr. Adler, made many vigorous statements, among which

some were unusually impressive. Speaking of the White Slave Traffic, he

said, "It does not merely affect the welfare of the English people, but

also the welfare of the entire globe. The evil must be regarded as a

veritable cancerous growth on the body politic, which must be excised.

The authorities in Argentina have largely succeeded in purifying Buenos

Ayres." He then spoke of the purpose of the National Vigilance

Association, and said it was "To obey the bidding of the prophet, that

which is lost, I will seek again, that which has gone astray, I will

bring back, that which has a wing broken I will bind up, and that which

is sick I will strengthen."

Seated at the right of the chairman were Her Royal Highness the Duchess

of Albany, Alice, Countess of Strafford, the Countess Dowager of

Chichester, and Mrs. Creighton. The last named in representing the women

of England called attention to the need of educational plans, and said,

"Sometimes one gets afraid of the people fighting with evil, thinking

only of that fight, and not sufficiently of the building up that is

needed to make the right so strong, that it has nothing to fear from the

wrong. Don't let us forget to let it educate ourselves also, and to

make it for each of us our great work to maintain that high and healthy

public opinion which will make it ever more and more difficult for evil

to prevail."

Sir Percy W. Bunting, M. A., one of the founders of the Association,

spoke of it as "an organization of the helping instincts of all the

churches, based on the mere humanity of the case. We touch here the

fringe of the greatest moral problem in all time." Mr. Donald Maclean,

Member of Parliament, Mr. Archibald J. Allen, Mr. Arthur R. More, Sir

Francis Channing, Member of Parliament, Mr. Bullock and Mr. Coote spoke

hopefully of prospects insured. This was really a platform of very

earnest people of differing creeds representing Royalty, representing

the great Law Making Body, different organizations and the great

business world.

Among those in attendance were Lady Hughes Hunter, Lady Bunting, Lady

McLaren, Colonel and Mrs. Young, Lord Radstock, Very Rev. Dr. Jackman,

Very Rev. Father Bannan, Miss Leigh Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Fox Butlin, and

Dr. Wilbur Crafts of Washington, D. C., with many others, making a

really great meeting--great with people of diverse thought on other

subjects, great in the inspiration gained, great in assurance of

increasing momentum of a magnificent endeavor that should, with

correlated efforts of other National Vigilance Associations bring a

world force that shall be mightier than the evil however deeply

intrenched that may be.

At the meeting of the British Committee of the International Bureau for

Suppression of the White Slave Traffic there was a demonstration of the

power of crystallizing different National organizations. The Bureau is

strong in its members and leaders and especially its General Secretary,

Wm. Alex. Coote, who has visited every capital in Europe and organized

National Committees in every country except Turkey. He has won Royal

recognition in Germany in having presented to him by the Emperor of

Germany a diamond monogram as a recognition of his efforts on behalf of

German girls. The President of the French Republic has made him a

Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. King Alfonso of Spain has made him a

Cabellero of the Order of Charles III.

At this day's meeting, W. F. Craies, Esq., legal advisor presided.

Reports were read from different countries.

From Sweden, came the word that the Princess Royal had accepted the

Presidency of the National Committee and attended nearly every Committee

meeting, which was a guarantee and stimulus to the success of the work.

Efforts for legislation and plans for assisting girl travelers are among

the good works.

From Switzerland, among other good methods for defeating vice,

Government has legislated against the abuse of the Poste Restante,

providing that no minor can be allowed to receive correspondence

without a permit or authorization from parents.

From Germany, fifteen traffickers had been condemned and forty-two girls

re-patriated as some of the results of their National Committee. They

are also working toward strengthening their laws.

From Egypt came news of development in spite of many difficulties. Seven

hundred fifty-nine girls of minor age had been stopped and placed in

hands of their respective Consuls, 485 of them being Greeks. Three

hundred ten girls have been rescued. Forty-six souteneurs denounced, 22

of whom are exiled. Thirty minors were re-patriated.

Canada has a strong new law that with the impulse of the International

Council of Women held in June brings the question squarely to the front.

From the United States reports showed aggressive work on the part of

voluntary organizations, state's attorneys, and federal attorneys in

vigorous law enforcement, and effective new laws enacted, with good hope

of further legislation, and some diligence in educational plans through

public gatherings, and sending literature where it has proven to be the

needed help in many communities.

Mr. Coote referred to the deputation to the Home Office of March 30,

which had been fully reported at a previous meeting. He regretted now

that owing to other urgent matters before Parliament their bill which

met such encouragement might not be brought forward at the present

session.

Plans were made for delegates to the Congress of the International

Bureau to be held in Madrid in May, 1910.

Announcement was made for a conference of station workers in Neuchatel,

June 2, 3 and 4, 1910.

From these two great meetings, it would be discovered to any in

attendance, that there is a purpose, and loyalty and persistence,

characterizing the people and their methods, which is just as readily

discovered in their everyday work.

Several similar and strong organizations are doing thoroughly good and

effective work. The British Committee for the Abolition of State

Regulation of Vice, under the efficient leadership of Henry J. Wilson,

Member of Parliament, is one of merit. The London Council for the

Promotion of Public Morality with the Bishop of London as chairman, is

an organization standing for justice and skilled means in the obtaining.

The societies known as preventive are numerous The Girls' Friendly

Society of the Church of England, is a splendid plan covering truly what

its name implies, being real friends to its members. Their work includes

clubs, classes, and a most careful record, copy of which is sent ahead

to other cities or countries in case of removal, so that there are

friends to meet them and continue the chain of friendship, reporting

back to the national office from time to time, sustaining a relation to

the girls wherever they go, friendship awaiting them through record

made.

The Church Army of the Church of England is doing a most beautiful and

many sided service, chiefly among the criminal, outcast, careless and

neglected classes. They connect with the Probation System and help many

who otherwise would go to the prisons, restoring many to their families

and places in society. Their many departments include the League of

Friends of the Poor, working toward removing causes of distress, giving

employment where warranted, planning labor homes where direction is

given to expenditures and habits. The Emigration Department seeks to

farther locate some who are better for being quite away from old

associates. The Women's Social Department is very successful. Industrial

homes whether for rescue or preventive cases have been of great service.

Women's clubs have held together those who have passed through these

homes. A large work-room affords work for many who otherwise would find

no way. Fresh air homes, dispensaries, factory girls' club, with the

evangelists' training home, the missions, women's evangelistic

departments, needle-work guild, out-door rescue work and rescue worker's

training home, rescue workers' union, the Church Army Brotherhood and

the many other departments make a very great plant yielding most

beautiful fruitage in the lives of those helped.

From their rescue training home the sisters go forth, two by two, to

seek during the night hours for the poor wanderers who haunt the

thoroughfares. On such an evening out where London is worst, around

Piccadilly, Bloomsbury, Haymarket, among the showy throngs, and in the

less lighted streets where distressed, cowering, fearful ones wander,

let us come with these workers and note the many who are willing to stop

and receive a flower or a message or daintily prepared letter, and see

the surprise when they feel that there are earnest souls who wish to be

sincerely kind. Many are willing to stop and tell us their difficulties,

some we will wish to see in the courts next day.

But in all our going about, morning, noon or night, we will have to

admit our surprise that notwithstanding the many individual instances of

wrecked lives who are influencing downward too many others, there is not

a street in all London where we would not feel as safe as in the very

best business streets of Chicago or New York. There are no dens of

continuous growing infamy. Workers in all organizations are on the hunt

for them. Police officials are alert and take the initiative in many

instances; if a plant of this noxious kind is set out, it is uprooted

before it has much chance for spreading its influence. Business men say,

"We will not have them, no toleration is given, when known; there are

no houses of prostitution, known as such for longer than till they can

be taken before the courts."

The strenuous efforts of the organizations mentioned heretofore have

been directed so long toward these things through preventive plans and

legislation and wholesome law-enforcement that there is no longer any

doubt concerning the wish of the people or their representatives in

official places.

Since the reign of toleration of vice was broken by the strong word of

government in 1886, there has been a winning battle, which though still

on, has brought so much of victory that we can believe that completeness

of triumph will dawn, and at just about the time that England shakes

itself from the related enslaving chains of intemperance and the

obstinate industrial system.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING.

The testimony already given in these pages leaves no room to doubt the

existence of a widespread, hideous commerce in girls. In conclusion, as

a sort of judicial summing up of the case against the most odious

criminals of the world, we quote Judge John R. Newcomer of Chicago, who

says:

"Within one week I had seven different letters from fathers, from

Madison, Wisconsin, on the north, to Peoria, Illinois, on the south,

asking me in God's name to do something to help them find their

daughters, because they had come to Chicago and they had never heard

from them afterwards.

"If you mean by the White Slave Traffic the placing of young girls in a

brothel for a price, it most undoubtedly is a real fact, based upon

statements that have been made in my court during the past three months

by defendants, both men and women, who have pleaded guilty to that

crime, and in a sense it is both interstate and international.

"Not one, but many shipments, of which I have personal knowledge based

upon testimony of people who have pleaded guilty, many shipments come

from Paris and other European cities to New York; and from New York to

Chicago and other western points; and from Chicago as a distributing

point to the West and the Southwest; and on the western coast, coming in

to San Francisco and other ports there. Yes, it is a real fact; and it

is something that we have got to take notice of, and something that,

while it may have been developed largely during the last ten years, the

national government itself has recently taken notice of its existence.

"There are three specific classes of what we might call white slave

traders. First, the man or woman who conducts the brothel; and if I had

more time I would like to tell you something about the ways and means

used by these people to keep at least a large number of their girls

there. Second, the man who acts as a sort of broker, dealing in girls,

transferring them from one brothel to another. The third class is the

lowest of all--those men and women, largely women, who make a business

of procuring girls for the brothel. These three classes make a living

off that traffic and the profit therefrom."

Bishop Anderson of the Episcopal diocese of Chicago says: "The mind of

the public is moral, and if it can be convinced of the actual state of

affairs the public conscience will soon be aroused and something good is

bound to be accomplished. Accurate and conservative information, if

spread broadcast, will go far to accomplish the great work which we have

in hand."

St. Paul had a like confidence in the public intelligence and

conscience, and in the usefulness of information spread broadcast to end

the White Slave Traffic. The apostle wrote on this subject in 2 Timothy,

3:6-9: "For of these are they that creep into houses and lead captive

silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning

and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and

Jambres withstood Moses so do these men also resist the truth, men of

corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no

further, for their folly shall be known unto all men, as theirs also

came to be." St. Paul here intimates that publicity will overthrow the

traffickers in women as the opponents of Moses were overwhelmed in

Egypt.

In this confidence we are sending forth this volume, to spread broadcast

the testimony of many witnesses, whose character and intelligence none

can impeach. We are certain that if the facts set forth in this book by

lawyers, physicians, missionaries and other workers are understood by

the English-speaking peoples the White Slave Traffic will be immediately

and permanently reduced and speedily abolished throughout the

Anglo-Saxon world. All Christendom must follow if we lead worthily in

this reform. Japan will quickly join us and is already doing so. Human

nature itself, once it is enlightened as to the facts of commerce in

girls, must almost necessarily abolish the cursed trade.

Surely every one whose own mind is not debauched will take some part in

this most essential and inevitable reform. As General Booth of the

Salvation Army said so many times, on one of his tours in this country

and around the world a dozen years ago:

"FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING. IT WILL COST YOU TIME, IT WILL COST YOU

MONEY, IT MAY COST YOU REPUTATION, BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE DO SOMETHING."

About the year 1877 an excursion steamer, the "Princess Alice," was sunk

by another ship in the Thames, near London, and six or seven hundred

happy excursionists were drowned in a few minutes. At the inquest, as is

told, a gentleman asked permission to testify, as he was an eye-witness

of the disaster. He told what he saw and said that he was most impressed

by a young mother, who held her baby as high as her hands could reach,

as she sank and rose again and again, hoping that some one would rescue

the child--but in vain. The judge asked the witness, "What did you do

for those sinking hundreds, and for that perishing mother and baby?" The

man answered, "I--I--I did nothing." The judge replied, "You saw all

that, and did nothing--nothing?"--and they hissed him from the court

room.

The great Judge will hold an inquest on the thousands who are engulfed

every month in the black waters of the vice markets of our great cities.

Shall He wither us with His wrath as we answer, "Nothing," or shall He

say as He said of one long ago,

"She hath done what she could"?

E. A. B.

WHY ARE YOU WEEPING, SISTER?

By Herbert Kaufman.

_Why are you weeping, Sister?_

_Why are you sitting alone?_

I'm bent and gray

And I've lost the way!

All my tomorrows were yesterday!

I traded them off for a wanton's pay.

I bartered my graces for silks and laces

My heart I sold for a pot of gold--

Now I'm old.

_Why did you do it, Sister,_

_Why did you sell your soul?_

I was foolish and fair and my form was rare!

I longed for life's baubles and did not care!

When we know not the price to be paid, we dare.

I listened when Vanity lied to me

And I ate the fruit of The Bitter Tree--

Now I'm old.

_Why are you lonely, Sister?_

_Where have your friends all gone?_

Friends I have none, for I went the road

Where women must harvest what men have sowed

And they never come back when the field is mowed.

They gave the lee of the cup to me

But I was blind and would not see--

Now I'm old.

_Where are your lovers, Sister,_

_Where are your lovers now?_

My lovers were many but all have run

I betrayed and deceived them every one

And they lived to learn what I had done.

A poisoned draught from my lips they quaffed

And I who knew it was poisoned, laughed--

Now I'm old.

_Will they not help you, Sister,_

_In the name of your common sin?_

There is no debt, for my lovers bought.

They paid my price for the things I brought.

I made the terms so they owe me naught.

I have no hold for 't was I who sold.

One offered his heart, but mine was cold--

Now I'm old.

_Where is that lover, Sister?_

_He will come when he knows your need._

I broke his hope and I stained his pride.

I dragged him down in the undertide.

Alone and forsaken by me he died.

The blood that he shed is on my head

For all the while I knew that he bled--

Now I'm old.

_Is there no mercy, Sister,_

_For the wanton whose course is spent?_

When a woman is lovely the world will fawn.

But not when her beauty and grace are gone,

When her face is seamed and her limbs are drawn.

I've had my day and I've had my play.

In my winter of loneliness I must pay--

Now I'm old.

_What of the morrow, Sister?_

_How shall the morrow be?_

I must feed to the end upon remorse.

I must falter alone in my self-made course.

I must stagger alone with my self-made cross.

For I bartered my graces for silks and laces

My heart I sold for a pot of gold--

Now I'm old.

THE RED ROSE.

By A. A. P.

A white-faced wreck upon the bed she lay,

And reaped the whirlwind of her yesterday.

Before her rose the record of the past,

And sin's dark wages all were due at last.

A gentle messenger of God was there,

Who kissed her brow and smoothed her tangled hair;

And, in the tend'rest accents, told of One

Who died for her--God's well-beloved Son.

"No power could ransom such as me," she cried,

"No cleansing stream my crimson sins could hide;

For souls like yours there may be pardon free;

The Son of God would never stoop to me."

"I bring a gift of love," the listener said,

"This dewy rose of richest, deepest red.

Will you not take it? Have you not the power?"

The trembling fingers reached and grasped the flower.

"My sister," said the giver, "Just as I

Held out to you that rose of scarlet dye,

God offers you salvation from above,

Through Jesus' precious blood--His gift of love.

"Reach out and take it without doubt or fear."

"Is it so simple?" sobbed the girl, "So near?"

"Ay, nearer to you than myself He stands,

Eternal life within His pierced hands."

"So simple, Lord?" she moaned. "Nothing to do,

But reach and take eternal life from you?

I take it, Lord!" And lo, the dying eyes

Were radiant with the light of Paradise!

O death triumphant! Victory complete!

Today she worships at her Savior's feet.

Lost one, God offers you for Jesus' sake

Eternal life. Will you not reach and take?

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

The following typographical errors from the original

edition have been corrected for this electronic edition.

In Chapter III, "the man at the head of this

unthinkable enterprise it known" has been changed to

"the man at the head of this unthinkable enterprise

is known".

In Chapter VI, "The clock struck one, two three" has

been changed to "The clock struck one, two, three";

and "till they came to the ralroad" has been changed

to "till they came to the railroad".

In Chapter VII, "forgave and renewed repetant ones"

has been changed to "forgave and renewed repentant

ones"; and "barely enough for mere exstence" has been

changed to "barely enough for mere existence".

In Chapter VIII, "the man who proposes an elopment"

has been changed to "the man who proposes an

elopement".

In Chapter XI, "plain Boston hyprocisy" has been

changed to "plain Boston hypocrisy"; and "the

enforcement of these law" has been changed to "the

enforcement of these laws".

In Chapter XII, "they have succeeding so long in

baffling detection" has been changed to "they have

succeeded so long in baffling detection"; and

"apprehended, extradicted, brought back, tried and

convicted" has been changed to "apprehended,

extradited, brought back, tried and convicted".

In Chapter XIII, "some indirect connection with the

business of prosstitution" has been changed to "some

indirect connection with the business of

prostitution".

In Chapter XIV, "Committee for Suppresson of Traffic

in Vice" has been changed to "Committee for

Suppression of Traffic in Vice".

In Chapter XV, "correspond directly with the similiar

service" has been changed to "correspond directly

with the similar service"; a missing period has been

added following "our blindness or our ignorance"; and

"information regarding conditions in Calfornia" has

been changed to "information regarding conditions in

California".

In Chapter XVIII, "my situattion was very different"

has been changed to "my situation was very

different".

In Chapter XXI, "When the Law falls to regulate sin"

has been changed to "When the Law fails to regulate

sin"; and "resorts which are in suc favor with the

city government" has been changed to "resorts which

are in such favor with the city government".

In Chapter XXIV, "yet the possibilties of

transmitting the contagion" has been changed to "yet

the possibilities of transmitting the contagion";

"admittedly a prequisite for marriage" has been

changed to "admittedly a prerequisite for marriage".

In Chapter XXVI, "placing the girl in the the house"

has been changed to "placing the girl in the house".

In Chapter XXVII, in the laws of Illinois, "An Act in

relation to pandering; to definie and prohibit the

same" has been changed to "An Act in relation to

pandering; to define and prohibit the same"; in the

laws of Nebraska, "causing such female to have such

illicit carnal intercouse" has been changed to

"causing such female to have such illicit carnal

intercourse"; in the laws of New York, "detaining by

any person for the purpose of prostitution or sexual

intercouse" has been changed to "detaining by any

person for the purpose of prostitution or sexual

intercourse"; in the laws of Oklahoma, Sec. 1825, "is

punishable by imprisonment not exceeding five years,

or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by a

fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both

such fine and imprisonment" has been changed to "is

punishable by imprisonment not exceeding five years,

or by imprisonment not less than one year, or by a

fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by both

such fine and imprisonment"; in the laws of Oregon,

"Present the facts within your knowlege of the

alleged crime" has been changed to "Present the facts

within your knowledge of the alleged crime".

In Chapter XXIX, "1, Liquor, 2, Lust; 3, Drugs; 4,

Bad associates" has been changed to "1, Liquor; 2,

Lust; 3, Drugs; 4, Bad associates"; and "the Federal

building containing the postoffice" has been changed

to "the Federal building containing the post office".

In Chapter XXX, "she virturally lived on absinthe"

has been changed to "she virtually lived on

absinthe".

In Chapter XXXIII, "case against the most odius

criminals of the world" has been changed to "case

against the most odious criminals of the world".