Rapid Reviews

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 57, 12 April 1912, Page 7

Rapid Reviews

The Story of a House of a Prostitution. "The Rose Door." By THOMAS B. WORTH.

Of «ill tOio cantors that have grow upon sodety bcea.uso of tlio privat ownership by a low of tho mcar whereby tiho junny must produce wealt in order that all may livo, perhaps th greatest and tho most far-reaching i its evil eilecta is prostitution, liecaus of its nature, few have dared to tone it; very t< uv, comparatively, liave dare even to investigate it. Society is invar of its existence, has always bee eivare of it, bill, has hitherto attempts to ignore it. Of all the evils produce by the uiieijual distribution of wealth it is tiio greatest, most damnable, alii th© vilest, eating like a cancer hit the heart of society, ruining the livo and polluting tho blood of some of th best of our youth, both malo and fc male; yet because of its nature and ex tent, beeuuso of public prudery and i mistaken policy of "Hush it up," i has boon allowed to stalk through coun try after count/ry, civilisation afte, civilisation, and no one has dared t< interfere. Whore attempts have beei made to chwk it, they have usually resulted in driving it into secrecy tihere to work its evil way and t< •pread its honors from se cret chambers out over so ciety, often with more evil result: than have followed when it Jias noi been forced to hide itself from generaj gaze. * • * Happily, however, with the broadening of which has taken place throughout the world dnring the last few decades, and with the growing ■enee of social responsibility that has followed as a result thereof, this great aocial evil has come under the light of investigation, its effects havo been traced, and what is better still, its cause has been probed to its source; and as in the case of drink, so in the case of prostitution the fact has been demonstrated that the thing itself is not a cause, but merely tho effect of a cause. The cause in both eases is tho •ame, i.e., poverty, and the awful uncertainty ox life in a world where sufficient is produced to assure- to all abundance but for the fact of unequal distribution. A book which will have a splendid influence in dispelling the dense clouds of ignorance which prevail regarding this evil of prostitution is ''The Rose Door, !) by Kstolle Uaker, recently published by Ren- and Co., Chicago. It is a story of a house of prostitution ; but more than that, it is a story which shows how, by some of the most ■Unexpected happenings in this world of ■uncertainties, three girls were forced to beconio prostitutes and to submit themselves to the vile treatment of men who themselves were looked upon as respectable members of society. In the one case we see a Jewish maiden, friendless and alone in America, madly needing monoy in order to get backto friends in Europe. The ajrl is young and comely. A man befriends her, tells her an easy way to get the money. At first she scorns the idea, but life is hard, employment she cannot get, and tihe desire for homo grows on her more end more, until at last sdio takes the step—tiie step which, desperately and despairingly though she tries, she finds it impossible to retrace. She escapes and seeks refuge in domestic service, only to iind herself discovered time and again—serving dinner at table in one case to a man who had been a customer of hers in the dv>n from which she had flown, and ordered by him from the house, Befiton in all her attempts, she. at last takes a fiendish delight in exposing a mm to tho wile who adored him, thus forcing tJio bitterest of cups to bo drunk by one of the women who had hindered Rebecca in hea- attempt to escape from the toils society had made for her. tm • m The- second case is one of boy and girl love, sweet and pure. The boy has plenty of money and is at school; tho girl ho finds crying on a seat in tho park, lost ajid friendless, lie. finds a Borne for her, and gradually they come together, until at last they nro all in all to each other. But the boy cannot speak out, lie fears his father", a father who loves him and whom ho Jovca very dearly. The, boy goes to spend his vacation with his father, and through no fault of his never returns. Ho dies, and tho girl falls a victim to the seeming kindness of friends (or enemies). Sho, too, goes to tho "Hose Door." She, too, tries to escapo, but_ cannot. She is strictken with an, evil and writes to warn tho mother of a ma,n wJto is iv danger; and sho writes because this Woman oneo had a,n opportunity to res■froo her, but refused, because sb-a fear-

cd her own daughter would he forrupted if sho cain<' into contact with the girl who had l;oeu wrciigcd. That same daughter is now the wife of the son lit' tho man whom the .Jewish n-.vl exposed—a soil cii'i-ali'.' as vi:••];: ~■;■ ;;s the father. Bum 111 the other case w sit a uiil, < ;;ivm<r for t-ho love sin , i'-N ii,ii>t cou.e i<.r her, saying to hers- ll : "Unless you can i"< I. «'hi: 3H. i.y one, 'Hint all men el>r v;-.> un't him." * * •;.■ Eventually, she lin-ds \h- <'\c. an;] .''.-i----tale, of their love-ma Kir.", i.- -\. <•■ ... i> , it bad the .slim; of ihe a-,- in i f "n almidy the oil" \i,- ni aniother. I'hi , )_nl .'mm. ii. v.■ ■li intrayod. witJi a< ml id> I ■ a.<! i'vei'yone's Jianil iiinii'd ;;:_;,mi*..■ li< v. Sho, too, conies to the ''Uo.-e i>(ior.' ; In Ih'i , last days, dyii!!.' of eoiisiiiiipih,) , she esraprs, and is taken in>m a w<>moi'i's hospital to l)t> nurs<-d anti eawd for by the wil'o ol '."'n- .nan u'io );sd l'uiiii'd her. T\w Minn si.-c,; lier in ihc prosc-il.ce of llis Wll'- , . t!ie I'.it'l r<'en;inises her ljetra>er, and anoiher Jieart is hrokiill, another Iwautilul love is uninaskod. Tiw, enu 1 ,seHisliness of tho man hciJ wen yd a \vi>b of ini;ii'ry tLo meshes of which were all-enveloping, 'to gratify his lust ho had blasted tho life, of one. girl, and she, falling into the tender earn of his wife, by a look and a word of recognition, breaks the heart of that wife. To her Imnefad ress tho prl presents a, copy of Greer's "Social Evil," from which tho woman learns the causos of prostitution. ,S]ie reads: "Where there is poverty and destitution there will be prostitution, both of men and women." ''Vke and trime can bo abolished. When? Wlien we, nvo. cerlain of the canso of them —and then remove thoso causes. Wliat aio ihcir causes? Involuntary poverty/ , "The world is waking up to the fact that all human beings are related, and that what concerns one concerns all." * # * " 'Tho concern of one. is the c<::;crvn of all/ murmured Mrs. Thompson. ' ll is true, it is true! .My Frank 1 l.]y Susiol' And again Mrs. Tliomjison, leaned back with closed ovea wliieli saw." )f * « Read the lwck, and there will bo more oyos and brains to see and uiklitsband. The iiujror of scorn will not bo so readily pointed at the victims of tho Social Evil aa it too often is today. Wo would to God that what the book says were not true., but in these. days wo can. no longer pretend. The evil is with us, and tho cause, of tiio evil we know. Its violin's are numbered by thousards. It blasts tho innooent with the guilty, and all arc guilty in a society where the cause is known, but no attempt, made to remove that 1 catiso.