Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/23

Rh strongly suspected that they will be used for fraudulent purposes.

The above are some of the chief points brought out by indubitable evidence. They prove the evils and dangers which grow up in all large towns where an energetic public opinion has not begun to restrain the growth of vice.

The most serious danger involved in this state of unchecked evil is the increasingly youthful age of those who are corrupted. A vast and growing number of girls (and boys also) lead a life of youthful corruption. The evidence on this alarming tendency is full and positive. Only a few representative facts given in evidence can here be quoted.

It is stated: "There are houses in many parts of London where people procure children for purposes of prostitution at fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen years of age, without number; the children live at home, but go to the house at a certain hour, with the connivance of the mother, for the profit of the household" (579).

"There is a great deal of juvenile prostitution in my district, quite children, as young as twelve years of age." "The mothers treat it indifferently. I sent for a mother concerning her girl of fifteen; she said, 'I can not help it, she must do as she likes; I had to look after myself at her age, and she must do the same " (717).

Says Mr. Dunlap: "There are a lot of little