"For those two weeks I was treated as well as could be wished. Two
elderly women came often to see me and talked pleasantly. A doctor came
and attended me through my illness.
"I can't make you understand the shock that came to me when they told
me that I would have no baby. The man and the two women had attended to
that. My baby was dead. There seemed nothing else to live for.
"One morning when I had nearly recovered, I got out of bed and went to
the door. To my dismay I found that it was locked from the outside.
The windows were also locked. When the women came a short time later I
asked them about it. They merely laughed and gave me no answer.
"It was only a few nights later when I was awakened by the sound of a
man's voice. In the darkness I could see him standing beside my bed.
I screamed and screamed but no one came. I jumped out of bed and ran
to the door. It was securely locked. The man laughed at my efforts to
evade him.
"Finally he pressed a button on the wall. Two women, dressed in short
costumes that barely reached to the knees, came into the room. The man
threw me on a bed and the two women held me.
"After that I was given something to eat. Instantly I seemed bereft of
my senses. It was not until a week later that I became normal again.
It was during that week that my ruin was forever accomplished. Of what
occurred I have but a vague recollection.
"I realized then that I could never return home again. I grew morose
and sullen as I thought. Often I tried to force myself to take my own
life, but the thoughts of my evil deeds kept me from doing so.
"The days that passed were like the fancies of a disordered mind.
Gradually the atmosphere, the viciousness of it seeped through me and
took the place of the innocence, the wifely feeling, the mother love
of which I had been robbed. The process of degradation, of evolution
into accepting life in this prison came about swiftly. I found myself
accepting this home, this place where I might exist.
"You know the verse:
"'Vice is a monster of so frightful mien
As to be hated needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.'
"That describes my case. The owners of the place gradually extended my
liberties. I remember the first day that came when they said I might go
out alone. They would trust me to come back.
"I had formulated a plan that morning. In the Chicago papers I had seen
a story telling of the finding of a girl of about my age in the waters
of Lake Michigan, near Lincoln Park. She did not have a coat or hat on
and a portion of her other clothing was missing.
"I went to a spot along the shore, near where the body had been found.
I took off my coat and hat and soaked it in the water. I left a small
pocketbook with my name and a small amount of money inside the coat
pocket. Then I hurried back to this place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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