Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/25

Rh, to a line regiment now lying in the Tower. The men associate very much with young girls." "At the East End there is a large amount of prostitution of girls, mainly between fifteen and eighteen. They come principally from the large factories. Nearly all the industries of London are represented at the East End. A great many females do factory work, and are prostitutes at the same time, with the tacit understanding and knowledge of their parents. The younger ones take men to low brothels, the elder ones to almost any coffee-house or brothel in the neighborhood. The facilities are very great" (811 to 15).

Says another: "Young girls from twelve, and even eleven, are accosted in the streets by men, who offer money and make improper overtures to them, and so they are led on by the evil associations of other girls, who are older than themselves, to drift into a life of immorality" (865).

Says an experienced Magistrate: "There are assaults committed upon young girls, in many cases by brothers, and even by fathers" (915). "It is an indisputable fact that there are boys and youths soliciting in the streets. The punishment for sodomy is severe; but the difficulty, not to say danger, of obtaining evidence is immense" (652-4).

One of the most experienced witnesses states the following fact: "There is a low description of