nl_e17

Finch, White Slave Traffic, 1912
the girl was degraded to the point where her master was able to force
her to solicit on the streets and finally she was transferred by her
procurer, through a white slave agency in New York City, to a house of
ill repute in the City of Washington, where she was when the facts as
to the matter were developed by our Bureau. As a result of the
prosecution in this case, the defendant was sentenced to five years in
penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, where the manager of the agency
through which she was sold is also confined. The girl was restored to
her parents, and has since been living a respectable life. In another
notorious case which occurred in one of our Southern cities, the
defendant, who is now serving a term of three years in the Atlanta
penitentiary, married a very a young girl--a mere child--and took her
from place to place, arranging with cab drivers and keepers of
assignation houses for meetings between his wife and other men, he
taking the proceeds. The investigation in this case showed that he had
previously married other girls and mistreated them in a similar manner.
In another recent case which arose in one of our Eastern cities one of
these white slavers, as a result of carefully laid plans, covering a
considerable period, succeeded in separating a very young woman
from her husband and under the pretext of procuring a divorce and of
marrying her, led her into an immoral life and finally succeeded in
compelling her to practice prostitution and turn over her earnings to
him.
There are a multitude of other cases in which young women and
girls, from thirteen years of age and upwards, of good moral character,
have, in a variety of ways, been led or driven, by deception, fraud, and
force, into becoming victims of the white slave trade.
If there is one thing above another which it seems to be difficult
for people generally to understand, it is with regard to the manner in
which these girls are led to continue in their immoral lives and to
surrender their earnings to the white slavers after the physical
restraint, to which they are at first subjected, is removed. In the first
place it should be remembered that when these girls fall into the hands
of procurers an attempt is made to debauch them; as speedily as
possible, to such an extent that they themselves, as well as every one
else, will feel that they are hopelessly lost and can never again be
received by their families and friends, and that there is absolutely no
chance for them to go back to their old modes of life. Many of these
girls disappear in such a manner that their relatives and friends never
know what has become of them. Their relatives some times fear the
truth, but they hope against hope that they are mistaken, and when,
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