of their father, which he was unable to meet. Such instances, however,
are very rare.

As a rule the girls seek the streets from mercenary motives. They begin
their wretched lives in the society of the most depraved, and are not
long in becoming criminals themselves. They are nearly all thieves, and
a very large proportion of them are but the decoys of the most desperate
male garroters and thieves. The majority of them are the confederates of
panel thieves. They are coarse, ugly, and disgusting, and medical men
who are called on to treat them professionally, state that as a class
they are terribly diseased. A healthy Street Walker is almost a myth.

Were these women dependent for their custom upon the city people, who
know them for what they are, they would starve. They know this, and they
exert their arts principally upon strangers. Strangers are more easily
deceived, and, as a rule, have money to lose. Hundreds of strangers,
coming to the city, follow them to their rooms, only to find themselves
in the power of thieves, who compel them on pain of instant death to
surrender all their valuables. The room taken by the decoy is vacated
immediately after the robbery, the girl and her confederate disappear,
and it is impossible to find them.

I know that this whole subject is unsavory, and I have not introduced it
from choice. The Social Evil is a terrible fact here, and it is
impossible to ignore it, and I believe that some good may be done by
speaking of it plainly and stripping it of any romantic features. It is
simply a disgusting and appalling feature of city life, and as such it is
presented here. I know that these pages will find their way into the
hands of those who contemplate visiting the city, and who will be
assailed by the street girls. To them I would say that to accompany
these women to their homes is simply to invite robbery and disease. New
York has an abundance of attractions of the better kind, and those who
desire amusement may find it in innocent enjoyment. Those who
deliberately seek to indulge in sensuality and dissipation in a city to
which they are strangers, deserve all the misfortunes which come to them
in consequence.

The police do not allow the girls to stop and converse with men on
Broadway. If a girl succeeds in finding a companion, she beckons him
into one of the side streets, where the police will not interfere with
her. If he is willing to go with her, she conducts h