ago, it has
already tainted perhaps one-sixth of the total population, and it is
steadily spreading; in the United States the ratio is but little better.
(These percentages are merely estimates, since there are no official
records of the venereal diseases except in public institutions.)

CHAPTER XXV.

RECRUITING GROUNDS OF THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFICKERS.

By Harry A. Parkin, Assistant United States District
Attorney, Chicago.

In all of the articles which have been published, and in all the
addresses made respecting the white slave traffic, the public has been
warned in general terms to beware lest daughters and sisters in their
own towns and villages should become the prey of the white slave
traffickers. In these articles it was undoubtedly thought best to spare
the sense of security which the resident of a peaceful community usually
has, by failing to mention specific cities where it is known that
procurers and panderers of girls secure their victims. In an article
which I wrote in the March number of a magazine, I transgressed to a
slight extent this rule, and gave as an example the story of the little
German girl from Buffalo. Those who read this will remember this
pathetic case of a child widow who was persuaded to come to Chicago,
with her infant in her arms, in search of more remunerative employment,
and who was there sold into white slavery.

Buffalo is not the only city which is a hunting ground of white slave
traffickers. I think it safe to say that every city, village and hamlet
whose daughters are fair to look upon, has been or will be, as time
proceeds, the hunting ground of some procurer or agent for the white
slave syndicate. I do not say this rashly, nor for the purpose of
startling villagers where the church bell and the school bell are
practically the only sounds which break the peace and quiet of the
community, but I make the statement for the purpose of sounding a
warning to that very resident, that very mother, that daughter, who sits
in that schoolhouse or in that church pew and believes that she is safe
from the snares of the traffickers because of the remoteness or the
inaccessibility or otherwise of her peaceful village. It is not alone
the large cities that furnish beautiful girlhood to lives of shame and
debauchery. It is not necessary to go to New York, Pittsburg,
Philadelphia or Kansas City to procure beautiful and attractive girls.
It is well known that out on the prairies, in T