Leadixg Articles in the Reviews. 



657 



THREE MILLIONS A YEAR PROFIT 

 FROM WOMEN'S SHAME. 



Mr. Archibald J. Allen, in the current number o( 

 the Church Quarterly Revieiv, writes on the social evil 

 in Chicago and elsewhere. He says : — 



When Mr. W. T. Stead, seventeen years ago, pu1)lishe<l his 

 somewhat remarkable book, " If Christ came to Ciiicago," 

 with a plan of a portion of that city upon which brotheU were 

 coloured red and saloons were shown in black, it was thought 

 by not a few that his fierce but righteous sympathy with the 

 victims of what has, for want of a better or more accurate 

 designation, become knovra as the While Slave Traffic had le<l 

 him to see more red and to paint a blacker picture than the 

 facts would warrant. 



He says that the report of the Vice Commission 

 appointed bv the Mayor and City Council of Chicago 

 makes it clear that "Mr. Stead was not guilty of any 

 exaggeration." 



" A COMJrERCIALISED BUSINESS." 



The Commission reports that " prostitution in the 

 citv is a commercialised business, controlled largely 

 by' men, and producing a profit of more than three 

 millions sterling (^15,000,000) a year." The Commis- 

 • sion fixes the number of professional prostitutes in 

 ' Chicago at approximately 5,000. An official police list 

 in 1 9 10 contained 192 houses of prostitution with 

 2,343 rooms, and flats and assignation hotels containing 

 \ 4,525 rooms, used (or immoral purposes. The Com- 

 mission discovered 514 houses, flats, and saloons used 

 for immoral purposes not on the police list. 



THE UNDERPAID SHOP-GIRL. 



The Commission makes it clear that but for the cor- 

 ruption of a lonsiderable part of the police force the 

 existing scandal would not have attained to such 



' gigantic proportions. In the opinion of the Commis- 

 sion, economic conditions— that is, the under-payment 



^ of unprotected girls in stores and business houses— are 

 an important factor in the recruiting of the army of 

 shame. The Commission lays special stress on the 



\ department stores as a source of supply. It is proved 

 that it is quite impossible for a girl in a large city to 



' live on less than eight dollars a week ; yet the average 

 wages in a department store is from six to seven dollars 

 ■A week, (urlhcr reduced by fines for minor irregu- 

 larities. The department stores are regular hunting- 

 grounds for procuresses. The writer presses (or the 

 passing of the Criminal Law Amendment (While Slave 

 Traffic) Bill. 



'• CHICAGO IS HELL." 



Of all the black spots on the scutcheon of any city, 

 'irely this annual revenue o( three millions a year 

 profit made by men (rom the moral and physical 

 damnation o( five thousand women is probal.K one o( 

 the very blackest . almost enough to justify the laconic 

 flescription given l>v a visitor to the great Lake City— 

 " Chicago is hell ' 



A SECRET OF AN INDIAN 

 WOMAN'S EMANCIPATION. 



In the Woman at Home for June Mr. Saint Xihal 

 Singh describes the Ranis of India, and begins with the 

 Rani of Gondal, Her Highness Shri Nundkuverba. One 

 of the leaders amongst the emancipated women of 

 India, she confessed to Mr. Singh that she was led to 

 emancipate herself, not out of any passion for equality 

 or abstract principle, but out of love for her husband, 

 which is a characteristic woman's reason : — 



Her Highness, in reply to questions, told the story of her 

 emancipation. The gisl of it was that the chief had imbibed 

 advanced notions from his Western tutors at the Rajkumar 

 College, and in the course of an e.xlended lour in Europe, and 

 she loved him loo dearly to allow him to slip away from her 

 because she was not advanced enough to be a true comrade to 

 him. So, although the prejudices in regard to the segregation 

 of the sexes were bred in. the bone, she decided to be the first 

 Indian noblewoman to cast aside the veil, and also assiduously 

 applied herself to her studies 50 as to become educated enough 

 to be a pleasant and useful life companion to her liege lord, 

 endeavouring to keep pace n ith him in his progress. She said 

 it all as unassumingly as if it was nothing more than going to 

 sleep at bed-time. ; 



Mr. Singh gives many other interesting sketches and 

 portraits of many other notable Indian women, 

 amongst them Her Highness the Begum of Janjari, 

 the only emancipated Mahomedan Queen in India. 



UNGALLANT L.C.C. ! 



" Women first I " may be the rule enforced in the 

 tragedies o( the sea. But, according to Mr. Herman 

 SchetTauer in the Lady's Realm, it is entirely reversed 

 when it comes to making provision (or lonely persons 

 in London. Every effort is made to raise £100.000 to 

 provide for homeless young men in London, but the 

 lot of the lonely woman in London, who is in much 

 greater need of the protection and comforts of home, 

 is sadiv neglected. The position of ladies dependent 

 upon their small earnings is staled to be often uncom- 

 fortable to the point o( actual hardship, while the 

 L.C.C. which has built houses with splendid accom- 

 modation (or men, who have aNo Row ton Houses to 

 go to, declined to consider in their housing department 

 the claims of working women. 



A i.iTTLE monthly. Sunshine, has been sent out for 

 manv years to brighten the homes of rich and poor and 

 to give a message o( love and kindness to its readers. 

 With the beginning o( the year a new editor has com- 

 menced her work, and certainly the change will not 

 dim Sunshine. Children will find stories, poems, com- 

 petitions—children themselves boinK the judges o( the 

 merits of some o( these last— gardening notes, etc. The 

 .Sunshine charities are an especial (calure o( this 

 interesting little magazine. 



