pleasure or to feed the imagination are thus converged upon the senses
which it is already difficult for young people to understand and to
control. It is therefore not remarkable that in certain parts of the
city groups of idle young men are found whose evil imaginations have
actually inhibited their power for normal living. On the streets or in
the pool-rooms where they congregate their conversation, their tales of
adventure, their remarks upon women who pass by, all reveal that they
have been caught in the toils of an instinct so powerful and primal that
when left without direction it can easily overwhelm its possessor and
swamp his faculties. These young men, who do no regular work, who expect
to be supported by their mothers and sisters and to get money for the
shows and theatres by any sort of disreputable undertaking, are in
excellent training for the life of the procurer, and it is from such
groups that they are recruited. There is almost a system of
apprenticeship, for boys when very small act as "look-outs" and are
later utilized to make acquaintances with girls in order to introduce
them to professionals. From this they gradually learn the method of
procuring girls and at last do an independent business. If one boy is
successful in such a life, throughout his acquaintance runs the rumor
that a girl is an asset that will bring a larger return than can
possibly be earned in hard-working ways. Could the imaginations of these
young men have been controlled and cultivated, could the desire for
adventure have been directed into wholesome channels, could these idle
boys have been taught that, so far from being manly they were losing all
virility, could higher interests have been aroused and standards given
them in relation to this one aspect of life, the entire situation of
commercialized vice would be a different thing.

The girls with a desire for adventure seem confined to this one dubious
outlet even more than the boys, although there are only one-eighth as