" when she
left her home to take a position in Chicago. Her letters, he states,
have been more and more infrequent, but that she does occasionally write
home, and sometimes encloses a small amount of money. From the tone of
the father's note it is evident that, while he is a trifle anxious, he
asks that his daughter be "looked up" rather to confirm his feelings of
confidence that she is all right than otherwise.

A glance at the address where she was to be found left no possible
question as to the fate which had overtaken this daughter of a country
home. So far as a knowledge of the girl's mode of life is concerned, no
investigation was necessary--the location named being in the center of
Chicago's "red light" district.

While the case was a sad one there appeared to be no violation of the
Federal laws, the girl having come from a neighboring state. A Federal
prosecution against those detaining her was, therefore, impossible.
However, the case was placed in the hands of Mr. Bell of the Illinois
Vigilance Association. Through his efforts she was rescued and shortly
thereafter returned to her mother and brothers and sisters who had
supposed that she was holding a respectable, but poorly paid position.
They, however, welcomed a very different person from the pretty girl who
went out from that home to make her way in the big city. She was
pitifully wasted by the life which she had led, and her constitution is
so broken down that she cannot reasonably expect many years of life,
even under the tenderest care. What is still worse, the fact cannot be
denied that her moral fibre is shattered and the work of reclamation
must be more than physical.

The "white slaves" who have been taken in the course of the present
prosecution have, generally, been very grateful for the liberation and
glad to return to their homes. It has been necessary--for their own
protection as well as for other reasons--to commit some of these
unfortunates to various prisons pending the trial of the cases in which
they are to appear as witnesses, and practically every one of them gives
unmistakable evidence that imprisonment is a welcome liberation by
comparison with the life of "white slavery."

Now as to the practical means which parents should use to prevent this
unspeakable fate from overtaking their daughters. They cannot do it by
assuming that their daughter is all right and that she will take care of
herself in the big city. In a large measure it