Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1908-12-24

and knees, scrub the mouse from
top to bottom. No WEAKNESS, no
exhaustion, ever excused her from
this drudgery, which was a full
days work for a strong woman.
After her scrubbing was done
she was allowed to go to her cham
Der and sleep-locked in her room
to prevent her possible escape-un-
til the orgies of the next day. or
rather night, began. She was al
lowed no liberties, no freedom, and
in the two and half years of her
slavery in this house she was not
even given one dollar to spend for
her own comfort or pleasure. The
, legal evidence collected shows that
during this period of slavery she
earned for those who owned her not
less than eight thousand dollars
and probably ten thousand dollars
If this is not slavery | have no
definition for it.
Let me make it entirely clear that
the white slave is an actual pris-
oner. She is under the most con-
slant surveillance, both by the
keeper to whom she is "let" and by
| the procurer who owns her. Not
until she has lost all possible de-
sire to escape is she given any lib
erty.
Many-very many-letters have
been received from parents who read
the first article on this subject in
the September issue of the Wom-
ans World. A considerable num-
Der of them are from ministers of
the gospel from officers and MEM
bers of the leagues, woman's clubs
and kindred organizations. But
there is a pathetic remainder which
does not come from these public
spirited servants of the common
good. These letters are from the
fathers and mothers whose fears
and suspicious were aroused by the
=. warning that the girl who has left
her home in the country, gone up
: to the city and does not come home
to visit, needs to be looked up,
Before me, as | write, is a letter
from father which is a tragedy
in a page. He begins the note by
saying that the warning has arous-
ed him to inquire after his little
girl" There is a pathetic pride in
his admission that she was consid-
cred an uncommonly pretty girl
when she left her home to take a
|
states, have been more and more
infrequent, but that she does occa-
sionally write home, and sometimes
encloses a small amount of money.
From the tone of the fathers note
it is evident that, while he is a
trifle anxious, he asks that his
daughter be Cooked up" rather to
confirm his feelings of confidence
that she is all right than otherwise.
A glance at the address where she
was to be found left no possible
Question as to the fR&a,-Thich had
lSa4.-'r 4 ps M
Try nome far asN 5ivledge OF
the girls mode of li4c-is concerned,
no investigation was necessary--the
location named being in the center
of Chicago's red light" district.
However, the case was placed in
the hands of a settlement worker,
and at this moment the girl is wait
ing, in a place of safety, for the
arrival of her father, who is ON his
way to take her back to the mother
and the brothers and sisters who
have supposed that she was holding
respectable but poorly paid posi-
tion. They will, however, welcome
a very different person from the
pretty girl who went out from
that home to make her way in the
big city. She is pitifully wasted by
| life which she has led and her con-
| stitution is so broken down that she
cannot reasonably expect many years
of life, even under the tenderest
care. What is still worse, the fact
cannot be denied that her moral
fiber is much shattered and that the
work of reclamation must be more
than physical.
The white slaves who have
been taken in the raids in the
course of the present prosecution
have, generally, been very grateful
for the liberation and glad to re
turn to their homes. 1t has beer
necessary-fo their own protection
as well as for other reasons-tt
commit some of these unfortunatei
to various prisons pending the tria
of the cases in which they are t.
appear as witnesses, and PRACTICAL,
every one of them gives unmistak
able evidence that Imprisonment IL
a welcome liberation by compari
son with the life of white slavery.
Now as to the practical means
which parents should use to pre-
: vent this unspeakable fate from
overtaking their daughters. The.
cannot do it by assuming that thei
daughter is all right and that sh
will take care of herself in the BIZ
: city. In large measure it seem
impossible to arouse parents-es
cially those in the country-to
: realization that there is in ever,
. big city a class of men and womel
who live by trapping girls into
: life of degradation and who are a
inhumanly summing in their awfu
craft as they are in their other in
stincts; that these beasts of tn