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188 THE WHITE SLAVE MARKET
do not know what the inside of a gaol is like.
The orders for girls for the Eastern " trade "
are generally booked, by cable, with the
agents in the New York or Californian centres.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of American
girls are yearly hustled off to the East
seldom to be heard of again.
The East is considered the best place to
" "
plant any troublesome girl who has friends
who may ask questions. The agents of the
"rings" or "trusts" get rid of her for so
much cash. They pass her on to a noted
" "
missus at Hong-Kong, Shanghai, or Siam
and that is the end of her. If she does not
"fall to the life" and "get going quickly,"
she simply disappears perhaps over the
"
fatal bridge at Shanghai."
One pitiable case came under my direct
notice in the East. It was that of a young
girl whose parents were good people in the
fruit-growing business in California. The
girl a child of the nation which claims in
the face of Christendom to have a well-
registered mortgage on all that pertains to
was entrapped by a procuress, seduced
liberty
by a man in high authority in California, and
secretly kept in hiding for months. Of
course, her parents became alarmed for her
safety, but by some pretext this young girl
was induced to leave California and go with a
motherly-looking person to New York, preparatory
to her proposed marriage with her
seducer. The unfortunate child-girl was only
one night in New York the next day she