第23章 THE VICIOUS.(3)

But take women in professions and in businesses all round,and the number of young women who have received #500in one year for the sale of their person is larger than the number of women of all ages who make a similar sum by honest industry.It is only the very few who draw these gilded prizes,and they only do it for a very short time.But it is the few prizes in every profession which allure the multitude,who think little of the many blanks.And speaking broadly,vice offers to every good-looking girl during the first bloom of her youth and beauty more money than she can earn by labour in any field of industry open to her sex.The penalty exacted afterwards is disease,degradation and death,but these things at first are hidden from her sight.

The profession of a prostitute is the only career in which the maximum income is paid to the newest apprentice.It is the one calling in which at the beginning the only exertion is that of self-indulgence;all the prizes are at the commencement.It is the ever new embodiment of the old fable of the sale of the soul to the Devil.The tempter offers wealth,comfort,excitement,but in return the victim must sell her soul,nor does the other party forget to exact his due to the uttermost farthing.Human nature,however,is short-sighted.

Giddy girls,chafing against the restraints of uncongenial industry,see the glittering bait continually before them.They are told that if they will but "do as others do"they will make more in a night,if they are lucky,than they can make in a week at their sewing;and who can wonder that in many cases the irrevocable step is taken before they realise that it is irrevocable,and that they have bartered away the future of their lives for the paltry chance of a year's ill-gotten gains?

Of the severity of the punishment there can be no question.If the premium is high at the beginning,the penalty is terrible at the close.

And this penalty is exacted equally from those who have deliberately said,"Evil,be thou my Good,"and for those who have been decoyed,snared,trapped into the life which is a living death.When you see a girl on the street you can never say without enquiry whether she is one of the most-to-be condemned,or the most-to-be pitied of her sex.

Many of them find themselves where they are because of a too trusting disposition,confidence born of innocence being often the unsuspecting ally of the procuress and seducer.Others are as much the innocent victims of crime as if they had been stabbed or maimed by the dagger of the assassin.The records of our Rescue Homes abound with life-stories,some of which we have been able to verify to the letter --which prove only too conclusively the existence of numbers of innocent victims whose entry upon this dismal life can in no way be attributed to any act of their own will.Many are orphans or the children of depraved mothers,whose one idea of a daughter is to make money out of her prostitution.Here are a few cases on our register:--E.C.,aged 18,a soldier's child,born on the sea.Her father died,and her mother,a thoroughly depraved woman,assisted to secure her daughter's prostitution.

P.S.,aged 20,illegitimate child.Went to consult a doctor one time about some ailment.The doctor abused his position and took advantage of his patient,and when she complained,gave her #4as compensation.

When that was spent,having lost her character,she came on the town.

We looked the doctor up,and he fled.

E.A.,aged 17,was left an orphan very early in life,and adopted by her godfather,who himself was the means of her ruin at the age of 10.

A girl in her teens lived with her mother in the "Dusthole,"the lowest part of Woolwich.This woman forced her out upon the streets,and profited by her prostitution up to the very night of her confinement.

The mother had all the time been the receiver of the gains.

E.,neither father nor mother,was taken care of by a grandmother till,at an early age,accounted old enough.Married a soldier;but shortly before the birth of her first child,found that her deceiver had a wife and family in a distant part of the country,and she was soon left friendless and alone.She sought an asylum in the Workhouse for a few weeks'after which she vainly tried to get honest employment.Failing that,and being on the very verge of starvation,she entered a lodging-house in Westminster and "did as other girls."Here our lieutenant found and persuaded her to leave and enter one of our Homes,where she soon gave abundant proof of her conversion by a thoroughly changed life.She is now a faithful and trusted servant in a clergyman's family.

A girl was some time ago discharged from a city hospital after an illness.She was homeless and friendless,an orphan,and obliged to work for her living.Walking down the street and wondering what she should do next,she met a girl,who came up to her in a most friendly fashion and speedily won her confidence.

"Discharged ill,and nowhere to go,are you?"said her new friend.

"Well,come home to my mother's;she will lodge you,and we'll go to work together,when you are quite strong."The girl consented gladly,but found herself conducted to the very lowest part of Woolwich and ushered into a brothel;there was no mother in the case.She was hoaxed,and powerless to resist.

Her protestations were too late to save her,and having had her character forced from her she became hopeless,and stayed on to live the life of her false friend.