ve forgotten most of what he said, but I remember he did say that the
victims of the saloon are willing victims.

Great God! I have been a victim and God knows that I never was willing!

I found that my husband was a drunkard. A railroad man with a good
"job," able to earn a comfortable living for himself and me; he never
for a day could be depended upon. Many a morning did he kiss me goodby,
leaving me the impression that he had gone to his work, when it would be
three days, a week, a month, sometimes three months before I saw or
heard from him again, though I might be in the sorest straits for the
necessities of life. Three times he did this when he knew that I was
soon to become a mother. Once, after three months' absence, I heard from
him in a hospital in another city. I went to him, nursed him, brought
him home and when he was able to work, gave him out of my own earnings
money to pay his board until payday (for his work would oblige him to
board in another town) and he went away and I never saw him again for
months.

Forced to work for a living, I came to Chicago, finding a position in a
legitimate business, although, unfortunately, it was the sort of a
business that brought me into contact with many people of bad morals,
and tended to deteriorate my own moral ideals.

Here in Chicago, while I was buying a railroad ticket one day in a
ticket broker's office, I was introduced by the clerk to a man who
appeared to be a gentleman, with the suggestion that he would be willing
to do for me a slight service which I needed at the moment, regarding my
baggage. A few weeks after, this man, whom I had no reason to suspect of
any evil motive, sought me with the offer of a good place to work. He
promised me a good salary, and the offer was specially attractive in
view of the fact that I was then without work, and I accepted the place
in perfect good faith.

I want to emphasize what I now say for the benefit of those who may read
these lines who are parents of young girls.

I suppose I may claim to be a reasonably intelligent woman, with a fair
education, some years of observation of the world and a little
opportunity to know of the world's wickedness, but I was at that time
absolutely ignorant of the existence of such a thing as a business in
vice.

I had never heard that girls were bought and sold.

I did not know the character of what are called "disorderly houses."

It seems to me that good people, pious fathers