s morally responsible for their condition. Even after the actual sale
of girls was forbidden by an imperial ordinance in 1872, the purchase
price was called a loan to the parents of the girl, and subsequent
loans for clothing entered upon the books of the establishment kept the
unfortunates so continually in debt to their masters that they could
never escape from the bondage in which they were held except through
death, or by purchase by some infatuated admirer. Public opinion, while
it indulged in some sentimental pity for the hard lot of the
_j[=o]r[=o]_, did little or nothing to aid any one who desired to help
them, regarding the profession as a necessary one, and caring not at all
for the injustice to which the girls were subjected. Ten or twelve years
ago, a movement started by some prominent Japanese Christians against
the _j[=o]roya_ fell flat for want of a public opinion behind it.
Speeches on the subject were hissed down by audiences of young men, and
nothing could be done to help even the most innocent and unhappy of the
girls to a better life. In the new code, perhaps as an effect of this
movement, a new law provided that the _j[=o]r[=o]_ might leave her
calling by giving notice to the police. A police regulation, however,
forbade any girl to cease her employment, or to leave the house in
which she was kept, unless her official notice of cessation was
countersigned by the keeper of the _j[=o]roya_, so that by her own
effort she could not free herself.

In the year 1900, one of these girls in a provincial city appealed to an
American missionary for help in getting her liberty. Through his aid,
and that of his Japanese helpers, her case came before the court, which
decided that the contract under which she was held was opposed to the
public welfare and good morals, and that the keeper must affix his seal
to her notice without regard to her debt. Although the local police
refused to act in the matter, and although the missionary and his
helpers were subjected to personal violence by the employees of the
_j[=o]roya_, an appeal to the authorities at T[=o]ky[=o] resulted in an
enforcement of the court's decision, and the girl was freed.

At this juncture the Salvation Army, which has a valiant contingent in
T[=o]ky[=o], and which was actually spoiling for a good fight with the
world, the flesh, and the Devil, in any form, took up the cause of the
oppressed _j[=o]r[=o]_. A special edition of the "War Cry" containing