Year: 1872

their periodical raid on the Broadway concert saloons, arresting the proprietors and the girls in attendance. A city paper says that on the way to the station house the miserable girls were followed by large crowd and their lovers pressed upon them, but they were turned back by the officers, who did their duty as gently as men under the circum- stances in which they were placed could do The night was bitterly cold, the thin snow which had fallen earlier in the evening. hay ing melted, and as the girls trudged along they shivered from top to toe, their fiimsy drapery and light shoes offering but little pro- lection against the inclemency of the weather As the first batch entered the station house Q crowd of roughs and maudlin lovers enr deavored to gain admission also, but the po- lice soon closed the doorway to all but parties who had business and the representatives of the press. Minute by minute fresh detach- ments of girls came in, and by twelve o'clock the large room was completely filled with weeping, hysterical. laughing and giggling girls.

 Looking at the group we would wonder how the places in which they held forth hai so long fourished. Out of the whole crowd there were not half dozen who could be called pretty, the great majority being bloat- ed, faded and dissipated in appearance. The gaudy dresses by which they have been too loHS diIoWeu Go ueluue SIeouIloIIlS were pitl- italy concealed by the waterproof cloaks which they all wore. The display of legs which have dazzled the eyes and walked into the purse of many an innocent countryman, did not appear so attractive in the station house as they did half an hour previous in the concert saloons under the brilliant gas light. Shorn of their padding aad bedaubed with mud, they presented sorry spectacle, and a feeling of disgust would creep over the mind looking at the miserable creatures whose vile calling has long eince driven away every spark of modesty and decency. The snow had washed away the paint from their faces, and it trickled down their checks like ochre upon red Indian. There were faces in the crowd which might once have been handsome, but, though still young, time and dissipation had done the work, and where the eye was once bright with innocence and puri- ty it only now glitters when lascivious leer is put on or @ glass of wine quaffed. The bloated countenances of the majority of the girls. gave evidence of the calling and the foul stench of the vile compounds they had drunk during the night made the station al- most insupportable.

 The greater part bore their sufferings with philosophic calmness. laughing and cracking Jokes with each other and the policeman, but here and there girl might be seen weeping bitterly who had evidently not been so long inured to life of sin as her companions. One girl of tender years-she could not have been more than siXteen-sat upon a chair near the stairs and rocked and moaned as if her heart would break. A wealth of golden hair fell upon her shoulders, and the beauty of her blue eyes could be discerned, although her eyes were swollen with weeping. She had evidently been brought up in superior station of life, but misfortune came ali too early, and rudely nipped her inn ocence and beauty in the bud. Another fair haired Teuton, who spoke English but imperfectly, abandoned herself to grief and refused to be colnforted The officers did all in their power to quiet the weeping ones, and the hardened sisters in crime mocked them for being so chicken hearted; but they only wept the more, and continued to do so until they were removed to their cold lodgings for the night.

 By half-past twelve o'clock the last con- tingent of prisoners arrived, and the scene at that time was truly dramatic. So long as the girls thought they would not be locked up for the night they bore the ordeal bravely but when the order was given that their names should be taken, and as they were taken that they should be hustled off for the night even the most hardened felt uneasy. Many wept who had not wept before. Some blasphemed and scolded, and others plunged into mysteries, but all did not avail. The girls were of all ages Some were as young as fourteen and others as old as forty, and it was painful to contemplate the wreck of every thing pure and holy, and the sinful destruc- tion of body and soul that could be witnessed all around.

 When the girls were called up at the desks to give their names they nearly all gave ficti- tious ones To listen to them it might be imagined that the poets had been ransacked for poetical names. There were any number of Mauds, Florences, Marys, Idas and Coras. Scarcely any of the girls gave in any names so common as Mary or Maggie, and there was not a single Bridget or Rosy in the entire crowd. AS fast as their names were entered the girls were taken to their quarters and as batch after batch left the room was rapidly cleared As the number grew less the re- maining ones became more agitated and the sound of weeping could be heard both in the cells and the outside rooms.' It was a sicken- ing and painful sight, and the officers looked upon themselves in the light of men who had to perform a very disagreeable duty. The next morning the girls were discharged, the proprietors being fined. .a.t

 CAPT1vEs RErURNED.-Superintendent Hooo in his recajpt Ot 1attors from A Upnt