ointed over and over again and the last performance is about to
begin, a little girl may be induced unthinkingly to barter her chastity
for an entrance fee.

Many children are also found who have been decoyed into their first
wrong-doing through the temptation of the saloon, in spite of the fact
that one of the earliest regulations in American cities for the
protection of children was the prohibition of the sale of liquor to
minors. That children may be easily demoralized by the influence of a
disorderly saloon was demonstrated recently in Chicago; one of these
saloons was so situated that the pupils of a public school were obliged
to pass it and from the windows of the schoolhouse itself could see much
of what was passing within the place. An effort was made by the Juvenile
Protective Association to have it closed by the chief of police, but
although he did so, it was opened again the following day. The
Association then took up the matter with the mayor, who refused to
interfere, insisting that the objectionable features had been
eliminated. Through months of effort, during which time the practices of
the place remained quite unchanged, one group after another of
public-spirited citizens endeavored to suppress what had become a public
scandal, only to find that the place was protected by brewery interests
which were more powerful, both financially and politically, than
themselves. At last, after a peculiarly flagrant case involving a little
girl, the mothers of the neighborhood arranged a mass meeting in the
schoolhouse itself, inviting local officials to be present. The mothers
then produced a mass of testimony which demonstrated that dozens and
hundreds of children had been directly or indirectly affected by the
place whose removal they demanded. A meeting so full of genuine anxiety
and righteous indignation could not well be disregarded, and the
compulsory education department was at last able to obtain a revocation
of the license. The many people who had so long tried to do away with
this avowedly disreputable saloon received a fresh impression of the
menace to children who became sophisticated by daily familiarity with
vice. Yet many mothers, hard pressed by poverty, are obliged to rent
houses next to vicious neighborhoods and their children very early
become familiar with all the outer aspects of vice. Among them are the
children of widows who make friends with their dubious neighbors during
the long days while t