that is, in importing slaves from other cities.

Some months before, the firm for which I was then working had sent me to
Milwaukee to sell toilet preparations, and this business had brought me
in contact with a considerable number of foolish young women. I knew
that some of them were anxious to come to Chicago and I was sent to
Milwaukee to induce them to come and bring them with me.

I made several such journeys to Milwaukee and other cities, bringing a
number of victims for Chicago's slave market. I attempt no defense for
this infamous work. I ask for no moderation of judgment against me, but
I feel that I have a right to call the attention of the public to the
glaring injustice of the situation that puts me behind these bars,
with long months of imprisonment before me, and leaves others who were
equally guilty with me, and who are equally well known in their guilt,
to go on with their wicked work.

[Illustration: IN THE HOSPITAL--SINS OF THE FATHERS VISITED UPON THE
CHILDREN

These poor mites of humanity are brought into the world with the double
handicap of poverty and disease--a charge upon the county]

[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S SIAMESE TWINS

Tough saloon and dive combined. Into this place Mona M. was sold]

I know that ignorance of law is no excuse for its violation, but I was
certainly ignorant that I was breaking any law. I never dreamed of it
until, just before my arrest, the proprietress of one of the houses from
which a girl whom I had brought to the city had run away, told me of my
danger. I asked her why she was not also in danger, and she replied that
it was because she carefully followed the instructions of the police and
maintained an ignorance concerning the sources from which the girls were
brought who came to her house.

I may or may not be believed, but I state the truth when I say that I
never brought to this slavery a girl whom I believed to be an innocent
girl. I brought only girls whom I found in bad surroundings, usually in
disorderly saloons, and girls who claimed to be and appeared to be
beyond the protection of that extremely virtuous law, which our wise
lawmakers have given us, known as the "age of consent" law. How any sane
person must hate such cursed nonsense as such a law!

Now, let me ask why--why, when I was sent as a mere agent of others,
when I brought girls from well-known dens where they had been ruined,
brought them into a recognized slave market, delivered them