us to take charge of a young girl who had been brought into the station
by an older woman for registration
One day a telephone message came to Hull House from the inspector asking
us to take charge of a young girl who had been brought into the station
by an older woman for registration. The girl"s youth and the innocence
of her replies to the usual questions convinced the inspector that she
was ignorant of the life she was about to enter and that she probably
believed she was simply registering her choice of a boarding-house. Her
story which she told at Hull House was as follows: She was a Milwaukee
factory girl, the daughter of a Bohemian carpenter. Ten days before she
had met a Chicago young man at a Milwaukee dance hall and after a brief
courtship had promised to marry him, arranging to meet him in Chicago
the following week. Fearing that her Bohemian mother would not approve
of this plan, which she called 'the American way of getting married,'
the girl had risen one morning even earlier than factory work
necessitated and had taken the first train to Chicago. The young man met
her at the station, took her to a saloon where he introduced her to a
friend, an older woman, who, he said, would take good care of her. After
the young man disappeared, ostensibly for the marriage license, the
woman professed to be much shocked that the little bride had brought no
luggage, and persuaded her that she must work a few weeks in order to
earn money for her trousseau, and that she, an older woman who knew the
city, would find a boarding-house and a place in a factory for her. She
further induced her to write postal cards to six of her girl friends in
Milwaukee, telling them of the kind lady in Chicago, of the good chances
for work, and urging them to come down to the address which she sent.
The woman told the unsuspecting girl that, first of all, a newcomer must
register her place of residence with the police, as that was the law in
Chicago. It was, of course, when the woman took her to the police
station that the situation was disclosed. It needed but little
investigation to make clear that the girl had narrowly escaped a
well-organized plot and that the young man to whom she was engaged was
an agent for a disreputable house. Mr. Clifford Roe took up the case
with vigor, and although all efforts failed to find the young man, the
woman who was his accomplice was fined one hundred and fifty dollars and
costs.
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