em within its grasp. We can
only warn them to be more cautious, to investigate carefully before
going away from home with people they do not know. Fathers and mothers
are too negligent in this regard, and through their laxity and
carelessness they have allowed their daughters to be entrapped. They
should see to it that the girls, in going to the cities, are surrounded
by honest and reputable acquaintances. In one case they contributed
directly to the procuring of their daughters by not writing a letter to
them as they had promised. The girls who had gone to the post-office,
turning away from the window downcast and disheartened, were approached
by a young man who had noted their sad faces. He said to them: "You
appear to be in trouble." One answered, "Yes, we expected a letter from
home with some money, but we did not receive it. We have been here only
two days and are without funds until we receive this letter. We did not
get the positions we expected to get and until we find work we have no
place to stay."
The young man volunteered to find them work. They had fallen into the
hands of a procurer, ever on the watch, and were sold into a disorderly
house before they knew it, thinking it was at this place they were to
obtain work. When the facts in this case were brought to light, the
procurer had fled to New York City. Through funds advanced by one of the
leading clubs of Chicago and some big hearted police officers the
procurer was apprehended, extradited, brought back, tried and convicted.
Through the other well known method the procurer, by pretending to be in
love with his victim, appeals to her vanity and is often successful.
Pretending that it is love at first sight and showering flattery upon
the girls they succeed in winning confidence and hearts by the easiest
method in the world.
In the early summer of 1907, Mona M----, while working at the ribbon
counter of one of the Chicago stores, fell in love with handsome Harry
B---- on sight. After an acquaintance of three days she was willing to
go away with him to be married. It was the sale of this girl into a
disreputable house and her final escape that led to the unearthing of
one of the headquarters of the white slave traders and seven of them
were arrested in one night, her procurer receiving the longest sentence
of them all.
The little Elgin girl mentioned in Chapter X, on page 142 of this book,
was caught by the love method in one day; and the very recen
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