nl_e17

Finch, White Slave Traffic, 1912
after a while, they receive from the girl a communication--written at the
dictation of her master--to the effect that she is engaged in some
legitimate occupation and is happily situated, they are only too ready to
believe that such is the case, and the girl herself no doubt, takes
comfort in the thought that her relatives and friends know nothing of
the depths of degradation to which she has been driven. These
circumstances serve the procurer well. He makes it his business to
obtain full information as to the relatives and friends of the girl, and
knowing the real facts as to her life, and knowing that she feels that it
would be better to perish in that life than to bring shame upon her
mother or father or her other relatives or friends, he uses this
knowledge as a club to force her to do his bidding. If at any time he
sees a disposition on her part to leave him and to return home or to
engage in some legitimate occupation, he threatens to tell her mother
and her friends all about her and to represent to them that she has
voluntarily engaged in the nefarious business into which he himself
has driven her.
These creatures also frequently represent to their poor slaves
(whether truthfully or not it is not for me to say) that they "stand in" with
the police authorities, and are able and ready at all times to protect
them from arrest or to secure their release by furnishing bail or
otherwise in case of arrest, provided they do their bidding. They also
threaten to cause their arrest and imprisonment if these poor victims
fail to do their bidding.
These representations and others, which readily occur to these
unscrupulous traffickers, who hesitate at nothing in order to hold their
victims, usually serve to induce girls to at least postpone the time when
they will change their mode of living, and often enable these men to
control them without physical restraint, other than an occasional
beating, after they have had possession of them for a few months.
One of the principal representations that is made by these men to
the girls, in order to continue to hold them under their control, is that
they are saving the money for them in order that both, within a short
time, may quit their improper mode of life and take up some legitimate
line of business. The date when they are to take this step is, of course,
put off from time to time, as necessity arises, in order to hold the
services of the girl, and many false representations are made as to the
manner in which the money is being saved, the whole purpose of the
white slaver being to retain possession of the girl during the period of
her greatest earning capacity and eventually to drop her or turn her
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