Under certain circumstances, for instance at the time of conscription for recruits at Brussels, the brothels are besieged to such a point that one man has hardly time to finish coitus before another comes to take his place. It is obvious that such "file firing" greatly increases the danger of venereal infection, since a single infected person is sufficient to contaminate innumerable clients (even without the woman herself becoming infected). It is often denied that the brothel is a prison, yet this fact has been often demonstrated. When, as in France, the police can arrest a prostitute at pleasure--often a virtuous young girl who is taken for such--and put her on the inscription list, the thing is obvious. I have treated a girl who became the mistress of a police agent in Paris under the threat of being inscribed as a prostitute. Again, besides the debts we have spoken of, the proxenets have many other ways of keeping prostitutes under their dependence. It is very difficult for ignorant girls, placed under the ban of society, to return to a free and virtuous life. But if a girl shows signs of wishing to leave a brothel, heroic measures are adopted, in the form of international exchange. A girl who is unacquainted with the language of the country is naturally more incapable of gaining her freedom than one who does. This is one of the reasons why the brothels of different countries exchange their women. This expedient, which also satisfies clients who desire a change, leads to the exportation of women from one country to another, under false pretenses, such as the promise of lucrative and easy situations. In this way young Swiss girls are exported to Hungary, Hungarians to Switzerland, Germans to France, French to England, Europeans to Buenos-Ayres, creoles to Europe, etc. For example, if a young French girl has been exported to Buda-Pest or Buenos-Ayres, we may be certain that she will lose all inclination to run away; for what can she do--a stranger without a cent, with her ignorance and want of character, alone in the streets, when she does not understand a word of the language? =White Slavery.=--The modern commerce in female slaves of civilized Europe destined for prostitution is closely connected with the facts we have just described. The manner in which brothels exchange their merchandise only concerns one side of the question. The principal art consists in obtaining young girls, of twelve to seventeen years of age, for the brothels. This traffic is formally prohibited by most laws; but what are laws made for, if not to be broken? There are so many means of training children under some pretext or other, before they are independent enough to escape this life of infamy. There are so many depraved or hungry parents who are ready to sell their children if, in hypocritical but transparent language, a good situation is promised them with payment in advance.