48
younger girl. She told the neighbours and the neighbours brought in the police. The younger girl proved to be quite uninjured, but it speedily came out that the elder girl was her own father's regular mistress for more than two years. The girl who was the cause of this action was one of the most virulent little minxes I ever saw, and she made no secret of her reason for splitting on her father being the fact that she found him taking up with another girl. I have included this little wretch as one of the habitual prostitutes, but I do not believe she comes under the definition. She does afford, however, a perfect example of how the great bulk of these charges are brought about."
Female Revenge on Father or Husband.
The following shows that a similar horrible charge may be brought against an innocent man:—
"Two little wretches, of ten and twelve, who had been thrashed by their father for stealing, promptly turned round on him with a charge of having 'seduced' them both, giving here an interesting example of female revenge of the direst kind, attempted at an unusually early age. The charge had not the slightest foundation, and they admitted as much when they found they were not believed. Stepmothers give frequent examples of the same abominable attempts to punish their husbands by trumping up such charges, and in three instances mothers used even their own children as the instruments of their diabolical designs."
Prejudice against Accused.
As to the prejudice accusations of sexual crime incite, Dr. Lawson Tait says:—
"Matters are such under this unrighteous combination that however men may laugh at it and make jokes, they do not willingly travel with single unknown female companions in railway carriages. They know very well that for a man to have the finger of a woman pointed at him with a charge of a sexual offence is to secure that man's extinction, no matter what the verdict of a jury may be. In 1881 (Lond. Med. Gazette) a case was tried in which a girl, to shield
