The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
The Secrets of the Great City: A Work Descriptive of the Virtues and the Vices, the Mysteries, Miseries and Crimes of New York City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- History
Some months ago, two girls, daughters of a respectable man, engaged as
foreman on Prospect Park, Brooklyn, met with an advertisement calling
for girls to learn the trade of dressmaking, in West Broadway, New
York. The two sisters in question, applied for and obtained the
situation. After being engaged there for a few days, at a salary of
three dollars a week, the woman, by whom they were employed, proposed
that during the week they should board with her. In the furtherance of
this idea, the woman visited the parents of the girls in this city, and
made the same proposition to them. Highly pleased with her agreeable
manner, and kind interest in the welfare of their daughters, the
parents acceded to her request, with the understanding that they should
return home every Saturday evening. Saturday night came, and with it
rain, but not with it the daughters. On Monday morning the woman
appeared before the anxious parents, offering as an excuse for the non-
appearance of the girls on Saturday night, that she did not deem it
prudent for them to venture out, owing to the inclemency of the
weather, and assuring the old folks that they should visit them on
Thursday night, which assurance was not fulfilled. Next morning the
father, becoming alarmed for their safety, went over to New York, and
searched for the dressmaker's residence in West Broadway, but was
unable to find it, or indeed to learn any thing of the woman. Now
becoming thoroughly aroused to the danger of their position, he
instituted a thorough search, securing the services of the New York
detective force. After a lapse of five weeks, the younger girl was
discovered in a low house in Baltic street, Brooklyn. The story was
then told the unfortunate father by his wretched daughter. After
entering the service of the woman, the sisters were held against their
will, and were subjected to the most inhuman and debasing treatment.
Finally they were separated from each other's society, and became the
inmates of dens. The woman's whereabouts is unknown to the police, and
the elder sister is still missing. The above facts are vouched for on
the most undoubted authority.
RECRUITS FROM NEW ENGLAND.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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