Читать книгу Fighting the Traffic in Young Girls; Or, War on the White Slave Trade - Various - Страница 29

After an experience in rescue missionary work for women and girls, not only in this city but in New York City and Boston, there is one conclusion which I am forced to come to and more and more is becoming an undeniable fact.

It is this, that our country girls are in more danger from white slave traders than city girls. Were I alone in making this statement, I should not hesitate for one moment in what I have to say, but others agree with me in this, among them being United States District Attorney Sims, who has written much on the subject of white slavery. One reason for reaching this conclusion comes from the personal hand-to-hand and heart-to-heart touch with these girls themselves. The country girl is more open to the enticements of city life, being more truthful, perfectly innocent and unsuspecting of those whose business it is to seek their prey from girls of this class.

A girl reared in the country is not taught to suspect everyone she meets, unless a rare occurrence presents itself, and when involuntarily the defense instinct asserts itself. While, on the other hand, the city girl has had it drilled into her, as it were, from the time she could walk, that she must regard people with distrust, not speaking to strangers anywhere, accepting nothing from anyone, her own people being the only ones she should make confidants of.

Mr. Sims says: "There is a definite but undefined danger in the very atmosphere of the city for the girl or young woman, which demands a constant and protective alertness, while on the other hand, life in the rural districts is comparatively free and unrestrained." Again he states, and through his investigation of the white slave traffic has reached the conclusion, that the best and the surest way for parents of girls in the country to protect them from the clutches of the white slaver is to keep them in the country.

While this may be the safest, surest, easiest course to take, it would not be advisable in all cases, for many girls have an ambition and aim in life, which they are seeking to attain, and the city offers advantages for this development which the country does not, and we should not seek to put obstacles in her way, but to protect her in carrying out her purpose in life.

But if circumstances should seem to compel a change from country to city, the only safe way is for parents to accompany their girls and see them settled, though this would have its disadvantages, as many parents are just as ignorant as their children regarding the perils of city life.