It frequently happens also that a girl is drawn or drifts out of her family and community into a bad gang, as in case No. 78, becomes identified with them by assimilation, and cannot free herself. She may then be kept by one of the men or sold into a house. Cases No. 79 and No. 80 are typical of the psychology of the girl in this relation. 78. I am a girl 18 years old and am from a Polish village. Now I am an orphan. I was two years old when my mother died. Several years later my father left for America and left me with my grandfather. After spending several years in America, my father brought me here to New York. I was then 15 years old. I soon went to work and earned $5 a week. My father took the money from me and supported me. And now my troubles begin. After I was here several months, I became acquainted with a boy and through him I became acquainted with several other boys. I was yet young and did not very well understand that the boys accompanied me for their pleasure and not out of friendship. When my father found it out, he began to argue with me in a good way; but as he could not persuade me in a good way, for I did not then understand that it was dear friendship of a father to his child, he began to beat me. After my father gave me a good beating, I became mad; left the house and entered on a wrong path. My father remained alone and dejected and was forced to marry. I now have a stepmother and I am staying away and I feel that I am falling. I feel that my body is fading along with my soul. When I look at my companions, who shun me, who do not want to know me on account of my immoral life, I envy them. I now realize how bad and wrong my life is; and I see my future in dark colors. Now when I want to disengage myself from the charlatans and licentious scoundrels in man’s image, I cannot do it. My heart is bound to them. I am attracted to them as to a magnet. When I do not see them for a day, I am almost crazy. I do not know what to do. The question is; how can I wean myself from the boys, my murderers.... Perhaps it would have been well for me to leave New York altogether and go to some other city?[87] 79. Five pimps were playing cards in a restaurant on Seventh Avenue. The day was very hot. During the afternoon the girl who is “hustling” for one of them came into the restaurant wearing a heavy velvet suit. The wife of the proprietor asked, “What are you doing, wearing a suit like that in this kind of weather?” She replied that though she was bringing home eight, ten, and twelve dollars every night, she could not afford a new dress. “He needs it for gambling,” she said, pointing to her pimp. Leaving the table in anger he deliberately slapped her in the face. “Didn’t you pay $32 for that suit?” he said. “What more do you want?”[88]