Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-02-07
LET'S HAVE THE TRUTH.
RELIABLE CITIZEN MAKES
SOME TERRIBLE STATEMENTS

|
Northern wlsconsin-An Infamous Blot
ON the state II the Truth Is To,d-A Chi.
cago Saloonkeeper Commits Most
Dastardiy Murder of His Vile.
| CHICAGO, Feb THE Herald has tho
following from Minneapolis, Mum: r H.
Moore, gentleman well known in this city,
aAd of the most reputable character, has just
| returned from an extended tour OF the
northern Wisconsin region, where he de-
clares that several hundred women are held
| in slavery Of the most infamous description.
| Young girls are bought and sold like slaves
| in the south before the war, only their treat
| ment and condition are much worse He
said: 81 have Travelled all through the sec.
| ton whore the most notorious of these dives
are located, aud by representing myself first
as procurer and after ward as / he proprie-
tor of "A dive looking for girls / have been
able to see for myself what tho papers have
never dared publish You may have soen in
| tue papers that Governor Rusk of WscOn-
sin sent three detectives to visit this locality
OF which | speak, aud that they found moth
ing of the kind. Now, | was with one of
these detectives part of the time He saw
the same things | did, and if it was not for
| the money which he was paid
| by these wTctcheS who are hold
ing girls in slavery worse than DEATH
| the officers reports would corrObUrate
| mine. These wretches do not deal in prosti-
| tutes, Tut have a lot Of miserable scCundrels
stationed here in Minneapolis, st. Paul aud
Milwaukee who are constantly on the watch
| to hire virtuous young women as school
| teachers, sewing-girl1, dinng-room girls or
| chambermaids, After they are safely landed
| in one Of the supply depots thoy never get
q. H..
who, after inspection, purchase them. All
these dives are guarded by large, fierce
| dogs to prevent the girls from escaping, and
| one den near Washburn, which was kept by
| a man named Wade, was incosel by "A board
| fence in addition to the guard of dogs. This
| place Of Wades was finally closed by the
authorities on account of several murders be-
| ing committed there. He then sold ten girls,
| who had been inmates at his place, to Jack
Mahoney, a divekeeper near Ashland, for
| 800. None of these dives is in the villages,
| but all are located back in the woods from
one to two miles distant.
"One of the main supply depots which |
| visited was situated in Diamond City, on the
500 road, and was kept by character
known us Big Ike. He had fourteen girls. l
represented myself at this place keeper
of dive looking for girls. and was, there
fore, able to obtain considerable information
about the way victims were obtained. When
a girl is sold to Il dive-keeper everything is
taken away from her, and she is given a
Mother Hubbard dress and pair of slippers,
for which So is charged This amount,
with the amount of hhe purchase
money paid for her is entered OH the books
against her and in case she manages to COM
municate with any of the authorities and
they demand her release, this charge is
4, l., Ias.,
debt and that they have right to hold her.
The dive vipers are not often put to this
trouble for they have plenty of money and
are able to control the authorities as well
the press.
"Charles Lcclair of Hurley, owns three
dives-ono at Hurley, one a, Hayward and
one at Fifold. Isaw letter which he wrote
to lumber firm, advising them to sell out
and go into the same business He told them
of tn profits in his business While was at
Leclairs place at Hurley six girls were
brought there from Minneapolis One Of
them refused to submit to a brutish-looking
fellow, when she was set upon aud kicked,
bruised, and beaten so that she was unable to
leave her bed when last saw her, six weeks
after. The others saw there was no escape
and submitted There were thirty-two girls
in this dive While | was at Bill Anderson's
dive at Eagle river / heard girl screaming
in the bar-room, and on going in found
small, frail-lookng girl, about Is years old,
lying on the floor, with the blood running out
of her mouth, while the burly bartender, with
his knees upon her breast, was choking her
Several men stood about the room The
cause of this horrible scene the re-
fusal of the poor young girl to SUBJ
nit to the attentions of half score of
male brutes, who had been selected
bx,f ba I of I'd al in
getting the girl liberated. She told me she
was hired in Milwaukee to do homework in
family consisting of man and his wife,
who were represented as being in northern
Wisconsin. Instead she was brought to this
place. There were twenty-six girls in the
dive.
"To show you how the people of Wiscon-
sin look at this traffic will relate little ex-
perience had at Ashland. | was at low
variety dive kept by John Gross when Mark
l.. Barnum, editor of The Torch Of Liberty,
published at Nausau, made speech on this
matter in which he excused it. because, he
said, tie boys must have some way to enjoy
themselves. This is but an example of the
way the people in northern Wisconsin look at
this matter There are several girls in this
city now who have escaped from the dives
and it seems to me here is great chance for
the churches to do something right here at
home which il of moro Importance than send
ing missionaries across the sea-"
EAU CLAIRE, Wis, Feb Tt TRANSFERRED
Monday that party from Hayward came
to this city and hired the services of certain
local immoral and disreputable characters,
and that the gang have organized system
attic scheme to entrap young women here and
at Chippewa Falls by bogus promises of en-
ployment, and send them to Hayward, Wis,
where they are to be turned over to the Hay
ward end of the organization and distributed
to the so-called parlor houses there and in
towns farther north. Once in Hayward in
the heart of pine wilderness, they would
be practically helpless 1t is believed that
several young women have already been sent
there, but no case can be made out. The
gang has been spotted and are being watched.
Arrests are expected.