Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1900-01-20

ULTIMATE FATE OF THE WHITE
SLAVES"
are made to sign contracts with an
agent for number Of years. The con-
tracts are always drawn up in lam
guage not understood by the signers.
Thus the Bohemian and Polish girls
are made to acknowledge contracts In
German, and vice versa. The con-
tracts, say the commissioners, are
regular pirate letters, and, what is
worse, they can be strictly enforced
under the old-time servant girls law.
The signer is bound to her master
body and soul, he assuming to look
after her physical and moral we'll be-
ing. which means that he reserves to
himself the right to administer to her
finances and to inflict corporal pun
ishment upon her If he thinks she de-
serves it. To that end he may strike
her with his open fist and whip her
with strap or walking cane-"but
with no deadly weapon" says the
merciful law. In the depots the girls
are kept until properly equipped for
business and until engagements can
be procured. The equipment and
board money usually eat up all wait
ress can earn in the next twelve
months: in fact, she is kept there I'M
til bill of sufficient proportions is
run up to give the agent the first call
on all the candidates money for year
to come at least.
Tho &c hfra IN,
all German-speaking countries and in
/ Belgium and Holland. and to avoid
publishing the criminal character OF
the transactions orders are given and
| contracts made in certain tele-
graphic cipher. which designates the
human merchandise as cases" In
vestigation in the Myslowitz Post and
Telegraph Office showed that in one
month a single agent there disposed
of 100 cases." receiving orders and
commissions for them. The commits
sions vary between ten and a hun
bred marks Here are some OF the
dispatches quoted in the report to her
Majesty:
Send us three cases. one big, an
other ethereal. the third fat"
"An elegant case wanted" That
means a waitress Of fine address,
wearing stylish clothes.
Send ten double cases for the first"
Double cases are girls who speak, be-
sides German, the language of the
country for which they are engaged.
Very frequently the kilograms call
for gold cases." promising extra COM
missions. Gold cases are mattresses
who understand how to inveigle Gus
toners into buying champagne and
into spending their last penny over
the bar.
IL waitress ever attempts to es-
cape the bondage or to spend some OF
her own money without letting it run
through the fingers of boss and agents,
she is at once blacklisted to all con-
cerned as bad case" and, II possi-
BILE, is dispatched to garrison towns,
where soldiers and officers maltreat
her in shocking style just because 1t
is the fashion there to Jump" on fe-
male menials. But waitress may
also be blacklisted for refusing to dis
grace herself by making men treat, or
for physical inability to swallow all
the liquor offered to her by guests.
Wages she receives not-unless she
is gold case" she must consider
herself lucky II the boss pays third
class railway fare for her. Tips con-
stitute her income. and out of these
she must buy at advanced rates food
for herself while tending to the sa-
loon.
She is usually on duty from twelve
to fifteen hours and knows neither
Sundays nor holidays; on the con-
trary, these are her hardest days
Mattresses are never kept longer than
month in one place. for the Treat
Kneipen proprietor Graves new at
fractions all the time and the agent