Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1917-07-25
WAY GIRLS LEAVE HOME
BY DOROTHY DIX
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman
. Writer

-HE Police OF New York City are
being bitterly arraigned because
y they so dilatorily and half-heart-
eddy prosecuted the search. when she
was first reported missing, OF pretty
little Ruth Cruger, the high school
girl, who went forth from her fathers
house to have her skates sharpened,
and who was never heard Of again
until her mangled body was found
buried in the cellar OF the shop to
which she had gone.
] hold no brief for the police.
Doubtless they deserve all the blame
that is being visited upon their
heads in this particular case. Doubt
less, also, it is better that the whole
{ energy Of the force should be expend-
ed in tracing down thousand run
away girls who have merely elopcd
with their sweethearts than that OUe
abducted girl should remain 40.
ayeneged.
Apathy Of Police
Nevertheless, anyone who has ever
had any practical experience in trac.
Ing down the stories Of hundreds OF
girls who are yearly reported missing
in every great city, can at least un.
derstand the cynical apathy Of the
police in the matter. For in over 80
not the victims of foul play but Of
stolen. They have gone Of their oyn
stolen. They have gone Of theid own
accord. And the last thing on earth
they want 10 to be found and re-
turned to the bosom of the families
they have left.
The prodigal son who, careless OF
the anxiety and misery he caused his
parents, ran away from home in order
20 sow his wild oats where he pleased,
is q figure as old as human society.
The prodigal daughter, who likewise
wishes 70 be free from home res
traints in order to follow the desires
Of her eyes and who treads in her,
brothers footsteps, is q newcomer in
our midst, but she 10 here in daily
increasing numbers and she is one of
the great moral problems OF our day.
The question of why girls leave
home, however, il one that IL not 50
much up to the police as 1t is to
parents, for It IL far more important
70 keep q girl from going than Il is
60 discover her after she has left
home. The time to prevent tragedy
d before It happenA
Generally speaking. the reason that
girls leave home is because they
either have grinding tyrants or pur.I
blind idiots for parents. This IL true
even when the compelling cause Of
the girls going to man.
When girl elopes with the sort
Of q man to whom she could not be-
decently married IN orthodox fashion,
4 IL more often than not her parents
fault. Sometimes the father and
mother have taken high handed at
titude In the matter than. any girl
of spirit would resent. They have
antagonized her until she wrecked her
life In blind anger that made her I'M
able to see the man as he really was
Sometimes they have been the sort Of
parents that never let q girl have a
beau IN peace and comfort at home,
20 that she meets the kind of men
she should not know outside of her
home.
unsynpathetie Parents
Never are they the parents who are
sympathetic, and helpful, and to whom
girl can open her heart and tell
her secrets. Girls with that kind OF
fathers and mothers never run away
with their chauffeurs, or their
grooms, or married men with whom
they propose to defy conventions.
Girls leave home because their par.
ents are grasping and tyrannical. In
the recent white slave investigation
one of the men who most successfully
trafficed in the souls and bodies Of
young girls said that the easiest girl
IN the world to lure into the life was
the working girl whose parents made
her turn over her pay envelope to
them.
Take q young girl who works from
early dawn to night, who tolls to ex.
haustion every day, and who gets
nothing out Of her labor but the few
cents her mother gives her for spend.
ing money. who never has any pretty
clothes because her mother doesn't
believe In wasting money on finery
Who never has the price Of a thea.er
ticket because her mother thinks n
sinful to spend money on amusenents.
tell this girl you'll put her in the way
OF making money that she win have
Tor her own, and that she can spend
aha ylA0oAo