The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-12-08

I
named are tastefully dressed and appear TO
be in good condition physically. There are
exceptions, it is true, as for instance that
| besotted, drink-soaked bag standing in front
OF the corner public, waiting for a treat real
| ~, but serving at the same time as a sign of
warning to the passer-by to shun such places
and to loaUhe the vicious she has led 0cca-
sionally, too, you a delicate, pallid face
set on frail body, which is convuised ever
and anon by a Deep hoarse cough and you
know that in that case dissipation and expo
sure to the biting air of night have brought
on consumption, and that it will not be long
ere one poor outcast more will have found
refuge in the grave. But only the mature
and experienced see these exceptional cases;
the young, the frivolous and the pleasure
seeking notice but the gilded aspects of this
evil-the girls that are well kept, well at
tired, and seemingly happy. What the effect
of all this is, your correspondent did not
need to be informed, as the reader will not
by Mr. Christien or anybody else. That gen.
tleman assured me, however, that this street
parade OF vice in its most attractive forms
ruins more young men, and entices to evil
courses more young women-the poor shop
| and factory girls, who work hard for starry
ing wages, and on their way home, weary
and wretchedly clad, see nightly these
exhibitions of the proftabeness of
life of easy virtue-than any other two
causes together The gentleman regretted
the closing by the authorities some years
ago, of the infamous Argyll rooms and
| other like places for centers of
vice as they were. These resorts, he ex-
planned by keeping the social evil largely
within doors, served at least one good pur-
pose and indirectly saved many from temp
tation.
My informant further admitted to me that
the ranks of the fallen in London were re-
cruited to considerable extent from the
young women who serve as bar-maids in
the public houses. An honest, intelligent
Woodworking and v1rtuous class of girls they
are for the most part and in almost any other
position they would be we'll able to take care
| of themselves. But their calling exposes
| them to peculiar temptations, They are not
! looked down upon by society as girls occupy
ing asimiar position would be in the United
States. The English bar-maid is an institu-
ton as old as the English inn, and she ranks
socially quite up to the respectable girls who
stand behind the counters in an ordinary
store. But her surroundings are very diff
ferent. She makes the acquaintance of large
numbers of men, and in her public capacity
IS necessarily on terms of familiarity with
them. This most pubicans require from
their bar-maids in order to draw and hold
custom. Acquaintance made over the flow
! ing bowl are often far from honorable and
the poor girl is the sufferer. A walk drive
or visit to the theater with some one she
knows only as patron of the house, is usu-
ally the first step in the path Of
indiscreJion, and the final result frequently,
though not always is RUN and life of
shame.
LACK OF PROPER TRAINING.
But of all the causes of prostitution in this
great and wicked city the most prolific, as
Mr. Christien declared, and as all who have
studied the subject will know, is the vicious
| training to which so many thousands of the
poorer children of the metropolis are
doomed. "The temptations to vice in the
East End" says the Daily Telegraph, "are
simply appalling 1t is said that vice must
| always exist as the condition of high state
of civilization; that it cannot be suppressed
and had better be ignored. But how about
| the increasing number of children and
| young girls whom we are quietly pushing
lnto perdition by our supineness and lack of
moral courage. What are the lives of thou
| sands OF young girls in the East End?
| Sprung from parents, a greater portion of
| whom are immoral women and thieves,
! living in one room with the rest Of the fami-
! ~ under conditions which preclude all pos
sibility of decency and innocence, they grow
up naturally vicious. Once grown up they
mustlive and earn their bread. The facto-
| ries then become their chief resource, and,
as the supply is greater than the demand,
thousands of girls must compete for the
| small pay and the hard work. And now,
remembering this side of the picture
let us look at the other Any girl who likes
can earn plenty of money by leading a bad
life, And this choice between luxury
and idleness or or slavish' hopeless
fourteen, fifteen and sixteen. In the Lam
guage of one who spends her life freely
among these oatcast girls, trying to raise
| them to an idea of better things, the Lon
don streets have been their cradle and their
nursery; the streets are the fields which they
find ready to their hand to till; on the streets
| they scatter seed of the only crops they
| know; from the streets they reap their bitter
| harvest, and in the streets at last they find a
grave They know it; they dread it; they
shudder as they speak of it. But to them,
with their grossneSs, their ignorance and
their wants, there seems no escape from the
fate which hens them in" Into the con-
ditons of life in which so many poor chill
dren of this city pass their early life
glimpse more sickening even than that given
above is afforded by pamphlet just issued,
and which is creating an immense stir,
called THE Bitter Cry of Outcast London"
I'm these districts" it says marriage as an
institution is Questionable. Ask ii the
man and woman living together are united
in wedlock. and your simplicity will cause
smile. Nobody knows. Nobody cares. No
body expects that they are. In exceptional
cases only could your question be answered
! in the affirmative. Incest is common, and
no form of vice or sensuality causes surprise
or attracts attention. The vilest practices
are looked upon with the most matter-ot-
fact indifference. Entire courts are filled
with thieves, prostitutes and liberated con-
victs. In one street are thrty-five houses
thirty-two of which are known to be broth
els. In another district are forty-three of
these houses and 428 fallen women anG girls,
many of them not more than twelve years of
age. OF the moral degradation of the peo-
pie some idea may be formed from the fol-
lowing incident A missionary rescued a
young girl from an immoral life and pro-
cured her a situation with family who
were going abroad. On his next visit to the
place he was violently abused by the girls
grandmother, who had the sympathy of her
neiehoors, for having taken away from
poor old woman her only means of subsist-