eat with me and perhaps I can help you to
find your father quicker than you could do it alone."

She accepted, and in the course of the meal he asked her if she would
not like to find a place at which to work. "I know of a fine place in
Blank City," he added. "The woman is looking for a good girl just like
you."

"Yes, I'd be pleased to get the place, but I haven't any money to pay
the fare with," was her answer.

"Oh, that's all right," he quickly replied. "I'll buy your ticket and
give you a little money besides for a cab and other expenses. The woman
told me to do that if I could find her a girl. She'll send me back a
check for it all."

After he had bought the ticket and put her aboard the train going to
Blank City, he wrote the name of the woman to whom he was sending her,
gave her about $2 extra and then delivered this fatherly advice to her:

"You're just a young girl and it's best for you not to talk to anybody
on the train or after you get off. Don't show this paper to anybody or
tell anybody where you're going. It isn't any of their business, anyway.
And as soon as you get off the train you'll find plenty of cabs there.
Hand your paper to the first cab driver in the line, get in and ride to
Mrs. A----'s home. Pay the driver and then walk in."

Believing that she was being furnished a position by a remarkably kind
man, the poor girl followed his directions implicitly--and landed the
next day in one of the most notorious houses of shame in the state of
Illinois outside of Chicago. How she was found and rescued is a story
quite apart from the purpose which has led me to tell of this
incident--that of indicating how tightly the slave traders have their
nets spread for even the most ordinary and unattractive prey. They let
no girl escape whom they dare to approach!

It may be well and to the point to add, however, that two other girls
who had been in care of the State Home were found to be in the same
house to which the girl had been lured, and they were also recovered.

Almost at the beginning of my experience I received a penciled note
which I have kept on my desk as a stimulus to my energies and my
watchfulness along the line of checkmating the work of the white
slavers. It is very brief and terse--but what a story it tells! Here is
a copy of it--with the substitution of a fictitious name:

"Ellen Holmes has been sold for $50.00 to Madame
Blank's house at ---- Armour avenue."

The statemen