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
Are the "cadets" there engaged in the business of trading in girls? It
is said that a certain Bobbie B----, a well known "cadet" in Boston,
procured about seventy girls to be sent to Panama. A certain Lena D----,
who was born in Quebec, is known to be procuring girls from Lowell,
Mass., and the country districts, for a fast life in Boston. She perhaps
is the greatest woman trader in human souls in New England. According to
her own statement she "trains them to be wise." This woman once worked
in Lowell in a shoe factory. The French, Jewish and Italian procurers
are not so much in evidence in New England as in other American cities.
The coast "cadets" there are mainly Canadians.
A new way of procuring girls has developed in Boston. Wayward girls who
have offended the law in one way or another are placed on probation. The
"cadets" go to the court records, find the girls' names who are on
probation and persuade them to run away in order to evade probation and
to secure freedom from the probation officers. There are instances where
these girls have been sent into houses of bad character at Lowell,
Portland, Worcester, the road house at Corderville, and other towns.
While the White Slave trade may not be as well developed in New England
as in other parts of the country--to a certain extent it is there; and
it is only to awaken the people to a realization of this fact that this
article is written. Over two and a half years ago Chicago was told that
there was a White Slave traffic, and the people were indignant. It
seemed romantic and unbelievable. But Chicago knows it only too well
today. Boston must be awakened in the same way. People will say it
cannot be true. Indeed, it is hard to find because secrecy is its
success. It keeps hidden in the darkness. Someone in Boston will drag it
out into the light, and we stand ready to aid in any way we can. White
Slavery is the system of making good girls bad or bad girls worse. It is
the modern method of men living from the loathsome earnings of
disreputable women.
Let me tell you of a twenty-one-year-old girl in Boston. She was born in
New York City. Her father is dead and her mother is an actress. She is
pretty and well educated. This girl, by living a disreputable life,
supports a Jewish "cadet" who is coarse and vulgar, and who beats her
when she fails to bring back to him as much money as he desires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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