St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-06
HELD BY THE ENEMY.
Horrid Disclosures Of the Hellish Dives
Which Blot Northern
Wisconsin.
The Authorities Bought Up and Defied
by the Brutes Who Keep
Them.
None but Virtu0us Girls Wanted Girls
Sent from Minneapolis and
st. Paul.

+ A large and attentive audience as
ssembled at Westminster church yester-
Iday afternoon to listen to an address
made sby Mr.. Moore on IA Tour
among the Dives of Northern Wiscon-
SIN" The speaker started out by say
ing that this was supposed to be free
country, but that within 200 miles of
this city several hundred persons were
held in slavery of the most infamous
kind, and that young girls were
bought and sold like slaves in the South
before the war, only their treatment
and condition were much worse. "This
assertion may surprise yOu," he con-
tinued, but have travelled all through
the section where the most notorious
of these dives are located, and by rep
resenting myself first as prOcurer, and
afterward as the proprietor of a dive,
looking for girls, / have been
able to see for myself what the
press have never dared publish. You
may have seen in the papers that Gov.
RuSk, of Wisconsin, sent three de-
tectives to visit This locality of which
speak, and that they found nothing of
the kind. Now, l was with one of those
detectives part, of the time, and he saw
the same things that l did, and if it
was not for the money which
was paid by these wretches, who
are holding girls in slavery worse than
death, their reports would cOrrObOrate
mine. These wretches do not deal in
prostitutes, but have lot of persons,
who are known as pimpS, stationed
here in Minneapolis, st. Paul and Mil
waukee, who are
CONSTANTLY ON THE WATCH
to hire virtuouS young women as school
teachers, sewing girls, dining-rOOm
girls or chambermaids, and after they
are safely landed in one of the supply
depOtS they never 90 out again, except
as slave to some dive keeper, who,
after inspection, has purchased them.
All these dives are guarded by large,
fierce dogs, to prevent the girls frcm
escaping, and one dive near Washburn,
which was kept by a man named Prest
Wade, was enclosed by a board fence,
in addition to the guard of dogs,
to prevent the inmates from
finally closed up by the authorities on
account of several murders being com
mitted at his place, when he sold ten
girls, who had been inmates at his
place, to Jack Mahoney, dive keeper
near Ashland, for $500. None of these
dives are in the villages, but are located
back in the woods from one to
two miles distant. One of the main
supply depots which I visited was stu
ated in Diamond City, on the 500 road,
and was kept by character known as
Big Ike; he had fourteen girls. / rep
resented myself at this place as keeper
of dive looking for girls, and was
therefore able to obtain considerable in
formation about the way girls were OBJ
tanned. When girl is sold to dive
her and she is given Mother Hubbard
S25 is charged; this amount, with the
amount of
r, THE PURCHASE MONEY
paid for her, is entered on the books
against her, and in case she manages to
communicate with any of the authOri-
ties and they demand her release, this
charge is brought forward to show that
she is in their debt, and that they have
a right to hold her. The dive keepers
are not often put to this trouble, for they
hayeplenty OF money and are able to con-
troll the authorities as well as the press.
Charles LIE Clair,of Hurley, owns three
di yes; one at Hurley, one at Hayward
and one at Fifeld. saw letter which
he wrote to numbering firm, advising
them to sell out and go into the same
them of the profits in his bust
ness. While l was at LIE Clair's
place. at Hurley, six girls were
brought there from Minneapolis. One
of them refused to submit to british
looking fellow, when she was set upon
and 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 sub
mitted. There were thirty-two girls in
this dive. While l was at Bill Ander-
sons dive, at Eagle River, heard a
girl screaming in the bar room. and, on
going in, found small, frail-looking
girl, about fifteen years old, lying on
the floor, with the blood running out of
her mouth, while
THE BURLY BARTENDER,
with his knee upon her breast, was
choking her. Several men stood about
the room, among whom was the armed
guard, with one of his large dogs. The
cause of this assault was that, the girl,
who was very young, had, after submit
ting to nine men that morning, refused
to submit to large, brutish-looking
fellow who was standig by. 1 after
ward succeeded in getting this girl lib
Grated. She told me she was hired
in Milwaukee, to do housework, in a
family consisting of man and his wife,
who were represented as living in
northern Wisconsin, and instead was
brought to this place, where she had
been made to submit to as many as
nineteen men, in single night. There
were twenty-Six girls in this dive. To
show you how the people of Wisconsin
look at this traffic, / will relate
little experience l had while at Ash
land. was at low variety dive, kept
by John Gross, when Mark l.. Barnum,
editor of the Torch of Liberty. published
at Wausau, Wis, made a speech on this
matter, in which he excused it because
he said the boys must have
some way to enjoy themselves.
This is but an example of
the way the people in Northern Wiscon-
sin lock at this matter. There are sew
eral girls in this city now who have es-
capped from these dives, and it seems to
me here is great chance for the
churches to do something right here at
home which is of more Importance than
sending missionaries across the sea.
| I'D