means of earning her living, and that
she had become too idle and broken for regular work. The child clung
piteously to the mother, and, having gathered from the evidence that she
was considered "bad," assured the judge over and over again that she was
"the bestest mother in the world." The poor mother, who had begun her
wretched mode of life for her child's sake, found herself so demoralized
by her hideous experiences that she could not leave the life, even for
the sake of the same child, still her most precious possession. Only six
years before, this mother had been an honest girl cheerfully working in
the household of a good woman, whose sense of duty had expressed itself
in dismissing "the outcast."

These discouraged girls, who so often come from domestic service to
supply the vice demands of the city, are really the last representatives
of those thousands of betrayed girls who for many years met the entire
demand of the trade; for, while a procurer of some sort has performed
his office for centuries, only in the last fifty years has the white
slave market required the services of extended business enterprises in
order to keep up the supply. Previously the demand had been largely met
by the girls who had voluntarily entered a disreputable life because
they had been betrayed. While the white slave traffic was organized
primarily for profit it could of course never have flourished unless
there had been a dearth of these discouraged girls. Is it not also
significant that the surviving representatives of the girls who formerly
supplied the demand are drawn most largely from the one occupation which
is farthest from the modern ideal of social freedom and self-direction?
Domestic service represents, in the modern world, more nearly than any
other of the gainful occupations open to women, the ancient labor
conditions under which woman's standard of chastity was developed and
for so long maintained. It would seem obvious that both the girl
over-restrained at home, as well as the girl in domestic service, had
been too much withdrawn from the healthy influence of public opinion,
and it is at least significant that domestic control has so broken down
that the girls most completely under its rule are shown to be those in
the greatest danger. Such a statement undoubtedly needs the modification
that the girls in domestic service are frequently those who are
unadapted to skilled labor and are least capable of taking care of
thems