e proxenets have many
other ways of keeping prostitutes under their dependence. It is very
difficult for ignorant girls, placed under the ban of society, to
return to a free and virtuous life. But if a girl shows signs of
wishing to leave a brothel, heroic measures are adopted, in the form
of international exchange. A girl who is unacquainted with the
language of the country is naturally more incapable of gaining her
freedom than one who does. This is one of the reasons why the brothels
of different countries exchange their women.

This expedient, which also satisfies clients who desire a change,
leads to the exportation of women from one country to another, under
false pretenses, such as the promise of lucrative and easy situations.
In this way young Swiss girls are exported to Hungary, Hungarians to
Switzerland, Germans to France, French to England, Europeans to
Buenos-Ayres, creoles to Europe, etc. For example, if a young French
girl has been exported to Buda-Pest or Buenos-Ayres, we may be certain
that she will lose all inclination to run away; for what can she do--a
stranger without a cent, with her ignorance and want of character,
alone in the streets, when she does not understand a word of the
language?

=White Slavery.=--The modern commerce in female slaves of civilized
Europe destined for prostitution is closely connected with the facts
we have just described. The manner in which brothels exchange their
merchandise only concerns one side of the question. The principal art
consists in obtaining young girls, of twelve to seventeen years of
age, for the brothels. This traffic is formally prohibited by most
laws; but what are laws made for, if not to be broken? There are so
many means of training children under some pretext or other, before
they are independent enough to escape this life of infamy. There are
so many depraved or hungry parents who are ready to sell their
children if, in hypocritical but transparent language, a good
situation is promised them with payment in advance.

During a railway journey, I was myself a witness of the manner in
which a young girl of twelve was sold in this way and sent to
Pressburg. I was also simple enough to try and appeal for the
intervention of a consul and an ambassador to prevent the perpetration
of the crime. They only replied by shrugging their shoulders. How
could I prove the matter before a tribunal? The child was accompanied
by a woman who admitted to me that ther