Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/54

44 combination of just law, municipal vigilance, and private beneficence, applied to one root of licentiousness. Glasgow is one of the principal British manufacturing towns. It contained in 1881 over half a million of inhabitants. Its size and character will indicate the amount of squalid misery and corruption always found in such a town. The following passage in the evidence shows the astounding condition which formerly existed in this great ship-building and manufacturing town, under the "Let alone" system:

"From twenty to thirty years ago brothels were large places, occupying three or four flats, with a large number of windows, and in the evenings they were all lighted up, the blinds drawn up, so as to attract outward attention, and very frequently you would have seen the inmates lying over the window in a semi-nude state, just to draw the attention of men passing along the streets. It used to be quite a common thing on fine summer afternoons for the keepers of such houses to bring out a squad of women who were living in the house, and parade the principal streets dressed up in their best clothes, and make a circuit round and back to their houses, so as to let it be known where they were to be had."

Mr. McCall, who gives this evidence, has been on the police force for 31 years. All his testimony is given from personal knowledge. In 1870 he was placed in the office of Chief of the police force of