Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/42

32 find that in several cases, misrepresentation, falsehood, and deceit marked every stage of the procedure from the moment that the girl was first accosted by the placeur in England to that of her installation in the maison de débauche.

Answer 3. From the point of view of the "procurers" (placeur), young English girls are a form of merchandise to be acquired by industry, and disposed of at a market price per parcel or package. "300 francs par colis" appears to be the ordinary tariff. From the point of view of the brothel-keepers (tenants maisons), the girls form a costly portion of their stock-in-trade; they are, like stock upon a farm, kept in good condition, more or less, and prevented from straying or escaping. From the point of view of the girls themselves, they are in some, if not in most instances, following a calling in which they have accepted a life of degrading and dangerous servitude in order to secure the certainty of a livelihood; in other instances they are victims caught in the widespread net of the placeur, who has pocketed his fee and decamped, leaving them bewildered and helpless, and abandoned to a fate to which, generally, they become accustomed or inured, but from which, now and then, they are rescued or contrive to escape.

This last answer contains in its few unimpassioned words the fact which, above all others, must show to every thoughtful person the really diabolical