Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/30

20 life are carefully sought for, in order that they may be known to and registered by the police. The purpose of this registration is to bring women under very carefully prepared regulations. On submission to these regulations they may carry on a vicious trade unmolested.

The trade thus carefully ordered and regulated, assumes, in the course of time, all the dimensions of a vast and increasing commerce. Abundant capital is invested in it, talent and ingenuity are exerted to make its resorts attractive and luxurious, and an insatiable demand arises for fresh young articles of commerce.

It is under this system that the infamous trade sprang up which aroused the attention of the British Government.

The evidence in the Blue Book relating to Brussels states that, "Notwithstanding twelve convictions in 1879 and ten convictions in 1880, the brothel-keepers do not hesitate to run the risk of detection and punishment, in view of the material advantage to themselves to be derived from the prostitution of very young girls, who, as inmates of the houses, are more docile, more attractive, more easily deluded, and less exacting than women enrolled for the first time above the age of twenty-one."

The most valuable evidence given as to this