all her clothes away, and threatens to have her arrested if
she doesn't stay and do as she's told. So she stays, and
the longer she stays, the more in debt she gets. Often,
too, they are girls that didn't know what they were coming
to, that had hired out for housework. Did you notice that
little French girl with the yellow hair, that stood next to
me in the court?"

Jurgis answered in the affirmative.

"Well, she came to America about a year ago. She
was a store-clerk, and she hired herself to a man to be sent
here to work in a factory. There were six of them, all to~
gether, and they were brought to a house just down the
street from here, and this girl was put into a room alone,
and they gave her some dope in her food, and when she
came to she found that she had been ruined. She cried,
and screamed, and tore her hair, but she had nothing but a
wrapper, and couldn't get away, and they kept her half insen~
sible with drugs all the time, until she gave up. She
never got outside of that place for ten months, and then
they sent her away, because she didn't suit. I guess they'll
put her out of here, too -- she's getting to have crazy fits,
from drinking absinthe. Only one of the girls that came
out with her got away, and she jumped out of a second-
story window one night. There was a great fuss about
that -- maybe you heard of it."

"I did," said Jurgis, "I heard of it afterward." (It
had happened in the place where he and Duane had taken
refuge from their "country customer." The girl had be~
come insane, fortunately for the police.)

"There's lots of money in it," said Marija -- "they get as
much as forty dollars a head for girls, and they bring them
from all over. There are seventeen in this place, and nine
different countries among them. In some places you might
find even more. We have half a dozen French girls -- I
suppose it's because the madame speaks the language.
French girls are bad, too, the worst of all, except for the
Japanese. There's a place next door that's full of Japanese
women, but I wouldn't live in the same house with one of
them."

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