The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, the Wickedest City in the WorldHarland, Robert O.
History
The Vice Bondage of a Great City; or, the Wickedest City in the World
Harland, Robert O.
Chicago (Ill.) -- Moral conditions; Prostitution -- Illinois -- Chicago
In the city they appeal to their vanity: they tell them they are
beautiful, loveable; they promise them clothes and jewelry, and again the
woman falls.
Every form of amusement, from the nickel theaters to the wine rooms, is
used to entice the prey.
Outside the professional procurer, the city is infested with men who make
the business a side issue.
The extra procurers are found in the department stores, in the dance
halls, in the nickel theaters and penny arcades, in the waiting rooms of
the railroad stations, on the lake boats, at excursions, at rest rooms, at
employment agencies, theatrical agencies, factories, business offices, and
a hundred other places where girls are employed at meager salaries.
AND ALL THIS TO FILL THE ROTTEN COFFERS OF THE VICE TRUST!
PRICE OF ONE BODY, ONE HEART, ONE SOUL.
In 1860 one black woman was sold for $25!
In 1860 one black woman was sold for $500!
You shudder when you remember those times!
In 1911, in the city of Chicago, one white woman is sold for $25.
In 1911, in the same city, one white woman is sold for $500!
Slavery succeeded by slavery, or worse than slavery!
THE TRAFFIC OF WHITE SLAVERY!
After a victim is procured, the next step on the part of the perfidious
combine is to dispose of her to the highest bidder.
Absolute examples of women-selling and the prices paid by resort keepers
for the women purchased are in the hands of the federal government. Uncle
Sam does not tolerate fiction. That is why we know this is the truth.
Investigation has shown that the prices for women sold into bondage of
crime run from $25 to $500.
That scale is sliding and depends on the qualities, mostly physical, of
the woman, and the immediate demands of the purchaser.
A girl taken by a procurer who has dazzled her by his insidious lies, and
who is not of a type that would attract men of wealth or particular
tastes, can be bought by a keeper of a house of ill fame from the agents
of the White Slave Trust for the inhuman price of $25.
If the girl is ruddy with the glow of health, well-formed of limb and
innocent of deep crime--the price soars.
Cases have been cited by ministers and reformers within the past year,
where keepers of high-priced houses in the levee districts have paid
outright, $500 to the White Slave combine's agents for girls whose purity
has only been defiled by the procurer himself, and whose bodies are
capable of bringing their masters thousands of dollars within the year.
These are the treasure-slaves of the hell-hounds!
It is of standing record, according to an investigator into the flesh
traffic, that one procurer in one trip into the country districts of
Illinois, trapped eight girls and sold them at prices ranging from $40 to
$350!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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