St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1913-11-05
WHITE SLAVERY
Mrs. WhittemOre Addressed WO-
mans Club On Her Work Among
Girls of the Street.

nG 1NOYGMDGI uGGIlnS Vi LuG
Woman's club nelC Monday after
noon opened with the secretary's re-
port. The following names were
presented for membership: Mrs. d.
D. Bean, Mrs. G. r. Bollinger, Mrs
E. e. Holbrook, Mrs. L. N. Smythe,
Mrs. j. Thomas Brightly and Mrs. F.
M. Walsh. Announcement was made
that the meeting of the executive
board of the State Fedora
tlon of woman's clubs will be held
in White River Junction, November
6. The meeting was then given into
the hands of the Social Science COM
mittee, of which Mrs. F. S. Tolman
is chairman. Miss Ruth Flint sang
two selections in a very pleasing
manner, being accompanied by Miss
Eugenia Scott. MIS-. Tolman then
introduced the speaker of the after
noon, Mrs. E. M. Whittemore, of
New York.
After a brief Introduction Mrs.
Whittemore requested that a few
minutes be devoted to silent prayer.
After this she told briefly of her past
life. She had been an invalid for IL
years. suffering Intensely from spin
dl LIOuOl0. AT last S1lG SluI uGIS01l
away from the rest of the world for
three days and save herself up to
prayer, saying that If she were heal
ed she would devote her life to
whatever God might have for her to
do In four days she was as well as
anyone. Then it was that she realiZ-
ed that her work was to be with the
girls of the street," whom previ-
ously she had ioathed and almost
hated 1t was hard for her to make
up her mind to do this work, but
finally convinced that that was what
the Lord demanded of her, she enter
ed upon this great task with the fer
Vor of her convictions and in such
way that she has been able to do
untold good. In a very forceful and
appealing way she asked the audi
ence to do something to help these
thousands of girls who are leading
lives every day 50 much more ter
rible than we could even imagine,
basing her appeal on the command
ment of our Lord, Thou shalt love
thy neighbor as thyself."
Mrs. Whittemorn then cited Incl
dents that brought home to all
those who listened the awful truths.
She stated that it was more often
girls from fine families, even well
educated girls. that need help, more
than the girls of the slums. She
enumerated some of the many ways
in which girls are led into this kind
of life from which she and her fell
low-wcrkers are trying to save them.
She also spoke of the work which
Rockefeller is attempting to do tor
the prevention of the white slave traf-
e. do IN oft fu Che ri LOT ac
that the many committee and the ex-
pensiVe offices are about all it
amounts to. One country girl was
traced to one of the Blicker Street
houses. Her case was reported to
the Rockefeller committee. They
got the cir lout it is true, but sent
her to Blackwe1l's Isle. The madame
of the house was fined $50. This
was paid by one Of the members of
the committee and the madame was
allowed 10 keep ner house running.
Hattie Ross, a former madame of
a similar house on becoming convert
ed formulated a list OF statistics Cnat
would be of priceless value to any
one really working to put stop 10
evils. These facts, disclosing nearly
all the houses nNew York togeth-
er with the names of the inmates,
were given to the Rockefeller COM
mittee. That was all the good it
did. Nothing apparently has been
done with them however.
Many stories that showed the need
and desire for help of the girls of
the street. were told. Mrs. White
more surely showed the greatness of
her field and the vast amount of
good that she ana her helpers are
uo4ng not only in New York, but
in all parts of the world wherever
she has been able to establish her
little missions, the doors of Hope"
After this address, the club voted
to have their December meeting in
the evening inteai of afternoon as
is customary.