Maiden in modern Babylon

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 10

Maiden in modern Babylon

The Case of Eliza Armstrong. By Alison Plowden. 8.8. C. 142 pp. N.Z. price $9.70. In Fleet Street of the 1880 s William Thomas Stead was known as an impulsive and erratic editor. He was

also an ardent and courageous social reformer with special concern for the children of the poor. Stead took over the editorship of the evening “Pall Mall Gazette” in 1883. In the next seven years the paper, hitherto a sedate chronicle of the day’s events, became the initiator of all kinds of new programmes and movements, political and social, and astonished people by its dash and un conventionality.

“The Case of Eliza Armstrong,” on which the 8.8. C. has based a new television series, is the . one which brought Stead wide notoriety—and a prison sentence—in 1889. He wrote an exposure of criminal vice in England under the heading, “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon.” Stead learned that young girls of 13 and 14 were finding their way into brothels with the connivance of their parents. The age of consent was only 13, and he decided that the law should be amended.

To achieve his purpose he organised the purchase of a young girl for prostitution. His motives for promoting the curious case of Eliza Armstrong were above suspicion, they did not prevent his coming into conflict with the law. A reformed prostitute was sent into the slums to offer the mother of a young girl money to part with her child, not knowing (or pretending not to know) the fate for which she was intended. To clinch the bargain the girl had first to be proved to be a virgin. She was then to be rescued, placed in the hands of the Salvation Army, put to service in a respectable home and ultimately returned, sexually unmolested, to her parents. Stead’s laudable intention was frustrated by the laws and customs of the period. It was proved that the

child’s father was deemed to have complete authority as to her treatment and disposal. As his consent was not sought or obtained Mr Stead and his assoicates were prosecuted for abduction.

Their case might have prevailed had not the chain of responsibility broken at its weakest link—Rebecco Jarrett, the reformed prostitute. This woman, who confessed to having kept bawdy houses in the past, had been rescued from her calling by the Salvation Army. She stood up boldly in the witness box to all questions pertaining to the case. But she broke down and lied when pressed for details of her former life because she feared to incriminate old

friends. So the verdict went against the conspirators who each received a nominal gaol sentence. Stead’s moral rectitude was never called in question, and his three months’ martyrdom in gaol was repaid by the raising of the age of consent to 16, and other reforms in the brothel system. But his action was violently condemned by the London daily newspapers, and by the public in general, and he was i-eviled as a dealer in pornography. In his later years Stead’s strong spiritualistic beliefs weakened his

influence and prestige. But he continued to fight for good causes, and worked resolutely to promote peace by arbitration. He died in the Titanic disaster on his way to New York to attend a peace congress. Characteristically he was last seen helping women and children to escape from the ship. Alison Plowden has obviously done much research for the television series on “The Case of Eliza Armstrong.” She gives long explanatory passages to illustrate the period and their shameful toleration of organised prostitution by average familys in an outwardly very respectable society. The examination of the accused in the witness-box is given verbatim, and the text includes press comments, character sketches of all the public figures concerned, and innumerable photographs.