men. We feel confident that unless something is
done, and done quickly, a scandal of the most intense character will
break forth, and only by prompt action can its worst effects be warded
off from the fair name of American Jewry."

Hon. Oscar S. Straus wrote in his report as Secretary of Commerce and
Labor, for 1908:

"It is highly necessary that this diabolical traffic, which has attained
international proportions, should be dealt with in a manner adequate to
compass its suppression. No punishment is too severe to inflict upon the
procurers in this vile traffic."

B. C.

CHAPTER XIV.

BARRED WINDOWS: HOW WE TOOK UP THE CAUSE OF THE WHITE SLAVES.

This afternoon, August 26, 1909, between half past two and half past
three o'clock, Mr. Ralph Radnor Earle took photographs of various places
in Chicago's principal vice district. Among these were several
photographs of barred windows of resorts, positively known to myself and
Miss Dedrick, who both accompanied the photographer, as disorderly,
flagrant, infamous houses. Some of these barred windows on the dens of
crime are here reproduced from the photographs. The bars are on the
windows of both floors of these buildings; these are the back windows of
these dives, and look towards Clark street, a great Chicago
thoroughfare, from which the upper windows are plainly seen.

Five years ago barred windows on a house of sin, which had been turned
into a mission, alarmed some of us and gave us almost our first ideas of
the fate of the white slaves. The house was a notorious place, the most
notorious in Chicago a dozen years ago. The name of the woman who kept
it was known and is still spoken in the circles of the immoral
throughout Chicago and far beyond it. Stories are told of princes of
European houses, pouring out wine and money like water in this
glittering palace of mirrored walls and brilliant lights.

The woman died and the probate court would not allow her estate to use
the property for immoral purposes. It was leased for a mission and
rescue home by Mr. O. H. Richards, founder and superintendent of Beulah
Home. Many of the windows were barred, and whatever explanations might
be offered, we were never satisfied that they were not barred to keep in
girls who at least at times would gladly escape. When we learned that
many other houses in the vice district had windows similarly barred we
were obliged to conclude that girls were constantly detained against
thei