girl. Although the city girl, once procured, is later allowed more
freedom than is accorded either to a country girl or to an immigrant
girl, every effort is made to demoralize her completely before she
enters the life. Because she may, at any moment, escape into the city
which she knows so well, it is necessary to obtain her inner consent.
Those whose profession it is to procure girls for the white slave trade
apparently find it possible to decoy and demoralize most easily that
city girl whose need for recreation has led her to the disreputable
public dance hall or other questionable places of amusement.

Gradually those philanthropic agencies that are endeavoring to be of
service to the girls learn to know the dangers in these places. Many
parents are utterly indifferent or ignorant of the pleasures that their
children find for themselves. From the time these children were five
years old, such parents were accustomed to see them take care of
themselves on the street and at school, and it seems but natural that
when the children are old enough to earn money, they should be able to
find their own amusements.

The girls are attracted to the unregulated dance halls not only by a
love of pleasure but by a sense of adventure, and it is in these places
that they are most easily recruited for a vicious life. Unfortunately
there are three hundred and twenty-eight public dance halls in Chicago,
one hundred and ninety of them connect directly with saloons, while
liquor is openly sold in most of the others. This consumption of liquor
enormously increases the danger to young people. A girl after a long
day's work is easily induced to believe that a drink will dispel her
lassitude. There is plenty of time between the dances to persuade her,
as the intermissions are long, fifteen to twenty minutes, and the dances
short, occupying but four or five minutes; moreover the halls are hot