Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade — John Shaqi
Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade
History
Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade
Prostitution
Within a few blocks of Moody Church was a girl, an elocutionist, a
musician, a sweet, stately girl of refinement, whose home has been in a
house of shame for the last five or six years.
Some girls come to me when in these resorts and say: "I used to sing in
Moody Church Choir." Others will tell you they went through every
department of the Sunday school, some were Sunday school teachers.
Members of almost every Church you will find among them. When these
facts are considered one cannot help but realize the need for action.
Satan has entered our churches, as well as every other place. It is only
recently that our churches have opened to workers to even speak on this
subject, but thank God, they are gladly beginning to do so, since they
see danger staring them in the face. The time for prudishness, false
modesty, indelicacy is over; too long has Satan been aided in his onward
march in this way.
A sad incident occurred in one of our West Side churches. Seven or eight
boys, whom everyone considered pure, were found, upon investigation, to
have caused the ruin of thirteen girls. One girl, in telling me how she
had been led astray said she had only been getting $3.50 a week. Seeing
an advertisement for experienced workers at $5.00, she answered it. For
two weeks they kept it from her that she was in a house of shame.
A problem that must be met is the preservation of our American homes.
Let me quote from Mr. Moody: "Intemperance comes as a blight upon one
family in seven, but the evil of impurity threatens seven times as many
families, that is all of them." There are hundreds of towns and villages
where it is impossible to get a drink of liquor of any kind, while on
the other hand there is not a single town, hamlet or community of any
size where the evil of impurity does not exist to a greater or less
degree.
There must be co-operation on the part of the state, the home and the
church. What we need is a practical salvation, something more than
saying: "Be ye saved." The church can do what the state cannot, and vice
versa. Not only present, but future generations are in danger. Vice and
crime are being flaunted, as it were, and advertised in our very faces.
Every man, woman and child has a place in the battle.
It is girls whose ages are from 13 to 22 who are going astray, even as
young as 9 years; deceived, betrayed, led away, through wiles of
abominable men, whose business is to traffic in girls. Since living in
Chicago, many girls I have known gave birth to little ones at the ages
of 13, 14 and 15.
Let me give some figures: During the month of May alone in the two
syphilitic wards in Cook County Hospital, 140 men and 32 women passed
through. In Twenty-second Street Red Light district, by police
enumeration a few months ago, there were 1,100 girls living lives of
prostitution, farther South, 1,200, making a total of 2,300. This is
appalling, and yet this does not take in the whole city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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