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AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE EAST 189
was en route for Shanghai. When she landed
at Shanghai she was dumped into the " house
with the golden stairs," hut as her sobs and
sighs, her tears and her importuning for her
mother, her brother, and her little sisters
became nauseating to the strong-minded
" "
missus
"
of the house with the golden
stairs " who was out for money, not tears
the child-girl disappeared so completely that
not a trace of her or her having lived in the
fearful Babylonian house now exists. It is
freely whispered that this unfortunate daughter
of America crossed the "fatal bridge at
Shanghai " ; if so, poor child, she was, or is, in
the " ante-room " to hell itself. It is simply
marvellous what some of these American
" "
missuses can do with young girls who
pass through their hands in the East. A
pretty girl will be laughing and joking in
a house of infamy on, say, Monday ; by
Wednesday she has vanished, disappeared
completely, Heaven knows where. These disappearances
are " table-talk " in every hotel
in Shanghai, but nobody seems to bother.
The lines
Rattle her bones over the stones,
Only a prostitute whom nobody owns
are an epitaph callously applied to the American
daughters in the East when the hour for
their disappearance or death arrives.
As already stated, the Hon. John Goodnow
tried to stop the traffic of American women
in the East, but he failed.