totally unable to pay for a ride on the scenic railway or for a ticket
to an entertainment, these disappointed children easily accept many
favors from the young men who are standing near the entrances for the
express purpose of ruining them. The hideous reward which is demanded
from them later in the evening, after they have enjoyed the many
"treats" which the amusement park offers, apparently seems of little
moment. Their childish minds are filled with the memory of the lurid
pleasures to the oblivion of the later experience, and they eagerly tell
their companions of this possibility "of getting in to all the shows."
These poor little girls pass unnoticed amidst a crowd of honest people
seeking recreation after a long day's work, groups of older girls
walking and talking gaily with young men of their acquaintance, and
happy children holding their parents' hands. This cruel exploitation of
the childish eagerness for pleasure is, of course, possible only among a
certain type of forlorn city children who are totally without standards
and into whose colorless lives a visit to the amusement park brings the
acme of delirious excitement. It is possible that these children are the
inevitable product of city life; in Paris, little girls at local fêtes
wishing to ride on the hobby horse frequently buy the privilege at a
fearful price from the man directing the machinery, and a physician
connected with the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children writes: "It is horribly pathetic to learn how far a nickel or a
quarter will go towards purchasing the virtue of these children."

The home environment of such children has been similar to that of many
others who come to grief through the five-cent theatres. These eager
little people, to whom life has offered few pleasures, crowd around the
door hoping to be taken in by some kind soul and, when they have been
disappointed over and over again and the last performance is about to
begin, a little girl may be induced unthinkingly to barter her chastity