ed as a means to reduce the victims to a state of helplessness,
and sheer physical violence is a common thing.

When once a white slave is sold and landed in a house or dive she
becomes a prisoner. The raids disclosed the fact that in each of these
places is a room having but one door, to which the keeper holds the key.
In here are locked all the street clothes, shoes, and the ordinary
apparel of a woman.

The finery which is provided for the girl for house wear is of a nature
to make her appearance on the street impossible. Then added to this
handicap, is the fact that at once the girl is placed in debt to the
keeper for a wardrobe of "fancy" clothes which are charged to her at
preposterous prices. She cannot escape while she is in debt to the
keeper--and she is never allowed to get out of debt--at least until all
desire to leave the life is dead within her.

The examination of witnesses has brought out the fact that not many of
the women in this class expect to live more than ten years after they
enter upon their voluntary or involuntary life of white slavery. Perhaps
the average is less than that. Many died painful deaths by disease, many
by consumption, but it is hardly beyond the truth to say that suicide is
their general expectation. "We all come to it sooner or later," one of
the witnesses remarked to her companions in the jail, the other day,
when reading in the newspaper of the suicide of a girl inmate of a
notorious house.

A volume could be written on this revolting subject, but I have no
disposition to add a single word to what will open the eyes of parents
to the fact that white slavery is an existing condition--a system of
girl hunting that is national and international in its scope, that it
literally consumes thousands of girls--clean, innocent girls--every
year; that it is operated with a cruelty, a barbarism that gives a new
meaning to the word fiend; that it is an imminent peril to every girl in
the country who has a desire to get into the city and taste its
excitements and its pleasures.

The facts I have stated are for the awakening of parents and guardians
of girls. If I were to presume to say anything to the possible victims
of this awful scourge of white slavery it would be this: "Those who
enter here leave hope behind." The depths of debasement and suffering
disclosed by the investigation now in progress would make the flesh of a
seasoned man of the world creep with horror and shame.