164 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



have girls with more experience. So they came back. Well, 

 the thing was getting serious then, and that was where my first 

 knowledge came in. I called them in and asked them where 

 they were from; they told me the town they came from, about 

 sixty or seventy miles below. They had seen a copy of my 

 advertisement in one of our daily papers and came, just sup- 

 posing, of course, that it was all right. ^ I told them that I would 

 give them the money to pay their railroad fare and they had 

 better go back home and practice up a little bit with somebody 

 in the community and learn to sew, to be more competent to 

 fill the places. They were ashamed to go back. They told me 

 their story. They were both poor girls, splendid girls I think, 

 but ignorant. They said their mother died when the oldest one 

 was seven years old and the other four. They had lived in that 

 community with the father, a farmer, on a little farm, and he 

 had worked around for his neighbors a little and managed to 

 eke out an existence. As little girls they had, with his help, done 

 what cooking there was to be done, and they told me that they 

 never had a chance to learn anything. I said, "Did none of the 

 neighbors ever volunteer to help you?" "No." "None of the 

 neighbor women ever come to see you?" "No." And there 

 they had grown up in ignorance and thought themselves as well 

 equipped for the battles of life as the ordinary girl. 



I know nothing about the lives of those girls since, except 

 that I know their lives were wrecked, and I want you to tell me 

 who was responsible for the wrecking of the lives of those girls. 

 Was it the girls themselves or was it at best themselves and 

 neighbors? You know, the Good Lord told us that the world 

 is our neighbor, and it is those conditions that we talked about 

 in this particular instance that make it imperative, that throws 

 the responsibility on you as citizens. Now, parents, think of 

 this side. You may say that it is not necessary for your daugh- 

 ter to ever take such a position; it is not necessary for your 

 daughter because you can give her some advantages that other 

 people don't have, but don't it stir your heart to know that there 

 are people in your community growing up just like those two 

 girls, and, if not in your immediate community, in some other 

 community? It is time for good citizens of this country to 

 arouse themselves to a knowledge of those conditions and to 

 rectify them. 



You must in your own homes provide entertainment for 

 your young people, for your sons and daughters and for your 



