New-York tribune., 1906-03-25
SOME ARE BORN WEAK.

Some girls take to that life who are not i'm
moral, but simply immoral. there is the kitten
type of woman who wants a soft warm place
to snuggle into; the kind Of girl George Eliot
pictured in her Hetty S0rreI. such girls will
drift into shame sometimes because it offers
ease, they think, and they have not the courage
TO work. don't underrate the difficulties that
face an unlearned girl who has to earn her iiv-
ing. Speaking of that, we are often hard put To
it to find work that will bring any money worth
mentioning for the girls we keep in our Rescue
Home in East 18th street Not long ago L read
an offer by a patent medicine firm to pay for
having labels trimmed-15 cents a thousand la
bells l sent for Il bunch OF them. and one of
the girls here worked at them all day. and how
many do you supposed she trimmed in ten hours?
Not quite thOusand-1J cents-and she worked
faithfully. 1 trimmed some myself. Just to test
it, and il took me an hour TO cut the margins
from hundred labels"
Better pay for the working girl would help
to cure the social evil though. as I saw. thar
wouldn't touch every phase Of it," Mrs. Gran
mis- went on. "One great mistake, / think. is
the fntng of girls who are brought up for walk
ing the streets. The fine is just an incentive
to them to go back and work harder at their
trade to make up the money"
Miss Julia Rosenburg. who is in charge Of tte
Home for Jewish Immigrant Girls in East 9th
street a branch OF the Clara de Hirsch Home.
mas mad good deal of experience with girls. L
car car teil you much Of the white slave traffic
SHe % sald 20 the reporter. we don't touch that.
we often have a girl here who has sent her
IOFer on ahead from the old country with
money she, the girl earned: and perhaDs when
she comes he objects to marrying her. he vraDrs
10 wait till he earns more: or uayba he sue-
gests thelf living together without marriage.
But we generally persuade him. and we always
agree my
People who know much Of tenement life. the
worst sort know that these tenement conditions
help TO feed the disorderIy houses. As one or
Ger OF the Council OF Jewish Women put IT
'When big family lives in two small rooms "a
many do, and takes bOarders into the bargain
and they perfOTce sleep herded together board
ers ana young girls and all why things happen
neIore tney know it, Can you wonder that girls
brought up like that sometimes go to ruin
But that is not what is called the white
save IdinG' and II is not the variety OF the
soCIdI eNl Ihat means most suffering. The tragic
instances are, first, those women who are driven
INTO II by physical want: second, those who are
lured or enslaVed by force. Why Is IL that so
many of the latter class can never be saved or
else they drop from sight and disappear utterly?
Patrick McCool. who died few weeks ago.
out who for many years was stationed AT Ellis
Island as the gent OF the Mission Of Our LADY
OF the Rosary, said to reporter when talking
one day:
I can't tell We much about the white slave
trafhc,' for II never came under my Observa.t~-
He see every people has some quality il thinks
most or; with one 1t is truth perhaps with an
other something else; and so with the Irish girls
with whom have most to do they prize their
chastity. II disgrace comes TO one of them We
never hear CT her again; she goes clean out oe
sight"
Whether or not Mr.. lIcCOOl was quite right
as TO Irish girls, what he said is true of some
types Of women. But perhaps a certain club
woman of this city put il more subtIy.
In one Of the novels of two years ago" she
said, there occurs this sentence: 'Woman's for
tihcatiOn is not her virtue; wOuan's virtue is
mans virtue. more. no less: her fOrtffca tio1
her bulwaTk. is her mOdesty.' I believe that Is
true. and that is why the sensitive woman
who falls victim, through chance or force
feels herself lost forever Her virtue is not taken
from her; one cannot be robbed of ones virtue.
II is through her mOdesty that she feels hersel
lost beyond all saving"