104 



The Review of Reviews. 



asked to describe as by far tlie most ruinous form 

 of London vice, I would point, not to West End 

 houses, nor to the systematised business of pro- 

 curation, but rather to certain of tlie great drapery 

 and millinery establishments of the metropolis, in 

 which, every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of 

 young women are ruined. It is not niv purpose to 

 gi\o names, and I have no wish to do more at 

 present than indicate one of the most deadly plagur 

 spots on the social system. It is iiitiful to think 

 of the number of young girls who have been tenderlv 

 trained and carefully educated at school in <.)U)- 

 country \illages, and who will come up to town in 

 the course of the present year, only to discover that 

 the business on which their parents fondly built 

 high hopes as to their luture position in life is little 

 l)ett<'r than an open doorway — a pathwa\ leading to 

 hell. 



ANTE-CHAMBERS TO HELL. 



It is said that at a certain notorious theatre no 

 girl ever kept her \'irtue more than three months ; 

 and that at an equally notorious business establish- 

 ment in West London it is rare to find a girl who 

 has not lost her virtue in less than six months. This 

 must be an exaggeration. But .some theatrical 

 managers are, rightly or wrongly, accused of in- 

 sisting upon a claim to ruin actresses whom they 

 allow to appear on their boards; and it is to be 

 feared that a certain persistent report is not ill- 

 founded, and that the head of a great London em- 

 ])orium regards the women in his emplo) in much 

 the same respect as the Sultan of Turkey regards 

 the iimiates of his seraglio, the master of the estab- 

 lishment selecting for himself the prettiest girls in 

 the shop. Such an example is naturally followed 

 throughout the whole warehouse, from top to bot- 

 tom. I ha\-e not been able to de\ote much time to 

 the \^erification of individual cases, but sufficient 

 has come to my knowledge to justify the as.sertion 

 that, while many houses of business, employing hun- 

 dreds of women, may be, and are, excellently con- 

 ducted, others are little better than horrible ante- 

 chambers to the brothel. 



EMPLOVMENT AGENCIES AND SERVANTS' REGISTRIES. 



It is bad enough when a man kills a sheep lor 

 the sake of its fleece, but it would lie worse if 

 the animal were slaughtered solelv for its ears. 

 This is, however, a fair analogy to the case when 

 girls are ruined, not for the sake of the pos.session 

 of the victim, but solely because an intermediary 

 can turn a miserable commission by luring them into 

 a position from which a life of vice is the only 

 exit. In the cour.se of this enquiry it has come 

 repeatedly under our notice that, while many re- 

 spe<:table agencies are carried on, even the most 

 resix^lalile are liable to be abused for \icious pnr- 

 fKjses l)y uuM-rupulous men and their female agents, 

 and in some cases there is a suspicion, almost 

 amountinL' to a certaintv. that th<' .Hri-ncv iisflf !>; 



little better than an organisation for carrying on the 

 business ol procuration. When you find that a 

 notorious keeper of immoral houses occa.sionally 

 opens a servants' registry in the intervals when the 

 police have chased her from the pursuit of her 

 ordinary calling, such suspicion is natural, and, un- 

 fortunately, it is too often the ca.se that persons 

 engaged in a business which .should be be\'ond re- 

 proach have a I'ecord more or less immoral, if not, 

 in some cases, actually criminal. A sojourn in 

 prison for a felony is harilly a better preparation 

 for the honest conduct of an employment agencv 

 than the keeping of a disorderly house. Some of 

 the most .scandalous of the.se agencies are among 

 those which are, reputedly, the most respectable. 

 Girls are brought from a distance, often from 

 abroad, by promises of a situation which does not 

 exist. They pay their fee, and live in continually 

 increasing anxietv, either in lodgings connected with 

 the agency, or elseivhere, until their little capital is 

 exhausted. Debt is incurred. again,st which their 

 box is held as security, and, \vhen all hope dis- 

 appears, the agent who tempted them to London 

 with fair promi-ses of honest and profitable employ- 

 ment suggests that the only mode of making a li\-e- 

 lihood is to accept their kind service in introducing 

 them to gentlemen, or to keepers of houses, who are 

 on the constant look-out for re.spectable \oung girls. 



THE IMPORT OF FOREIGN GIRLS TO LONDON. 



London, .say those who are engaged hi the while 

 sla\e trade, is the greatest market of human flesh in 

 till* whole world. Like other markets, the traffic 

 consists of imports and exports, and although we 

 have heard a great deal of late about the exportation 

 of English girls abroad, there is a chapter <.]uite as 

 ghastly whicJi remains to be written, concerning the 

 import of foreign girls into England. The difference 

 between the two is that, in I^ngland, vice is fret\ 

 whereas on the Continent it is a legalised slavery, 

 and that, of course, is immense. Hut, .so far as 

 the ruin of innocent girls is concerned, the coni- 

 ])ulsion of povertv and helplessness arising from 

 voulh. inexperience, friendle.s.sness, and absolute 

 ignorance of the language, is quite as tyrannical as 

 the savagery of the State brotliH-keeper, and the 

 unfeeling liarbaritv of the official doctor. Girls 

 are regularly brought over to I.ondon from Fr.uice. 

 Belgium, Germany and Switzerland for the purpose 

 of being ruined. The idea of the men who import 

 these girls, many of whom are perfectly respectable, 

 is to force them to lead a life of vice, from which 

 they can reap a heavy jirofit. There is a great 

 colony of maqucrcanx in the French quarter, whose 

 chief idea of securing an easy livelihood is to get 

 a girl into their posses.sion, Ixxly and soul, to 

 drive her upon the street, and to live and thrive 

 u|)on the profits of lier prostitution. 



Several times in the cour.se of the present enquiry 



w/^ linvA Iw'irrl rvf m<:p'; nminrpntK .n iitlienf ic. in 



