THE GIRL THAT DISAPPEARS
the man wanted to continue on his way, he would be allowed to do so. But the thing would have been made as unattractive as possible. There would have been no bright lights, and none of the glamour that surrounds certain phases of the evil in New York City now.
This would not have stamped out the social evil, but it would have reduced it to a minimum.
It would have removed the low-priced prostitute from the tenement house. At the present time, in almost every large tenement house inhabited by from twenty to forty or more families, you will find at least one woman who follows the calling in her dwelling. In the same house you will find many young girls and boys to whom her presence is a menace, and frequently a contagion. Of the agencies which tend to break down among the poor the natural feeling against the evil, the presence of these flashily dressed women
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