Belle Buzzell, W. E. Hopkins, Missionaries. E. A. B. CHAPTER XXXI. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE VICE DISTRICTS OF LOS ANGELES AND DES MOINES. "My God! If I only could get out of here!" This midnight shriek of a young girl in the "crib" district of Los Angeles pierced the ears and the hearts of Rev. Sidney C. Kendall and Rev. Wiley J. Phillips, editor of The California Voice. They joined hands under the midnight sky and vowed to God and to each other to fight against that white slave market until it was annihilated. Mr. Kendall could pray and preach and write. Mr. Phillips controlled the columns of the Voice, and also had the spirit and skill to use the law against the horrible traders in girls. Every week the Voice exposed and denounced the "cribs." Everyday Mr. Kendall wrote an article or a chapter, or addressed a ministers' meeting against the city's awful curse and shame. At night these determined men led little companies of ministers and others through the crib district that they might know the infamies that were practiced in their city. Mr. Kendall wrote a book, "The Soundings of Hell," exposing the white slave traffic, particularly in Los Angeles. Mrs. Charlton Edholm made one hundred and twenty speeches in the churches, pleading that Christ's people stamp out the traffic in girls. Mass meetings were held, petitions were signed, circulars were sown broadcast exposing the appalling conditions and demanding the destruction of the slave market. On Sunday, December 15th, three thousand people from the churches gathered at Temperance Temple and marched like an army into the crib district--"Heaven invaded Hell." Mr. Phillips believed in all this and helped it all along, but he also believed that the law was made for the unholy and profane. He collected evidence for use in court and signed complaints when no one else was willing to do it. He was warned that if he assailed the owners of the crib district he took his life in his hands, but he was not the man to be deterred by threats. He found that Ballerino, an Italian millionaire, owned many of the cribs. Mr. Phillips brought fifteen of the girls into court to show that they were paying Ballerino $7.50 a day for each of the sordid rooms called "cribs." The first girl called to the witness stand perjured herself, and failure seemed inevitable as the witnesses had been tampered with. She herself asked to be recalled to the stand, said she had lied and wished now to tell the truth, as the girls had been talking it over and had decided to tell the truth. The other fourteen then gave truthful testimony. Ballerino was convicted, an appeal to the higher courts went against him, he was put on the chain gang and compelled to pay a fine and costs, though he was a millionaire.