into respectability and forgiveness again. This is the philanthropic aspect of the base. But it has another. It has its criminal aspect. County Crown Attorney Fenton, who is the secretary of the Society for the Prevention of Vice, was asked what his society was doing in regard to the social evil. “The society,” he said, “is in statu quo at present. The gentlemen who compose it did what they could and got a great deal of help from the police commissioners but they could not get Major Draper into their way of thinking. Letters passed between the chief and me but nothing ever came of it. My last letter requested him to give me a list of the houses known to the police to be houses of ill fame, but this he refused to do on the ground that he did not know what use I was to make of the information.” Here Mr. Fenton laughed very heartily. “What were the plans of the society for the eradication of the evil?” “I don’t think the society had any hope of wiping out the evil. All they hoped to do was to keep it in check. I know that my views were simply these. The law of the land declares that keeping a house of ill-fame, or being an inmate thereof, are offences punishable by FINE AND IMPRISONMENT. The chief constable and all his men are sworn to enforce the laws of the land, and I proposed they should do so in this particular class of cases.” “There were some raids made about that time. What were the results of them?” “Well, during the discussion of the question large numbers of the women took fright, and they left the city in droves. Quite a number were arrested when the raids were made, and a few sent to the Mercer, and more fined. Two or three keepers were frightened out of the business.” “Didn’t the girls disappear off the public streets at that time?” “Yes; I am told they did.” “But are they not now as bold and as numerous as ever there?” “I really couldn’t say. The society may give the subject its serious attention soon, and if it does, I’ll endeavor to make it as hot for these ‘high-toned’ houses as for the more miserable ones.” The reporter could have told him that the public promenades are thronged these days with females exhibiting the richest fabrics which the shops afford. CHAPTER XXXVIII. ANOTHER CLASS OF PROMENADERS. In another of these sketches I have spoken of certain members of the female sex who spend the most of their evenings in promenading the streets. They are young and full of lusty life. I come now to another class of promenaders—the saddest class of all God’s creatures—hopeless, heartless. It is almost impossible to avoid sermonizing in dealing with this sisterhood of sin. They are treated enough to words of opprobrium and hate. Let them be spoken of here rather in pity than in anger, and when the awful lessons of their sins are ascertained and pointed out, let them sink into the obscurity out of which neither law, love, nor mercy seems sufficient to lift them.