An excerpt from the second chapter:
LITTLE MAY.
A COMMERCIAL—agent traveling in the interest of one of the well-known houses of shame in Cincinnati, was making a business trip through the South. He approached a certain town, registered in a good hotel, and started out in search of victims.
As soon as his eyes fell upon the attractive form and beautiful face of " Little May," he began laying plans for her ruin. He had made a study of human nature, and saw in her a fine specimen of womanhood. He promptly embraced what he knew to be a rare opportunity. He was most careful of all "his movements. At first his point was merely to meet her every few days, and every time so polite as to soon make her feel she was somewhat acquainted with him, and then when received into her home it was always in the presence of her parents. He so completely covered his tracks that nothing appeared out of the way.
He secured her confidence, won her affections, and in a short time proposed marriage. It seemed impossible for her to decline the offer. Her parents were Christians, and had strange impressions about it all, but seemed unable to dissuade her from her purpose. The villain had completely captured her affectionate nature; she loved him, and would go with him to the ends of the earth. Having succeeded thus far, he gave plausible reasons why they should be married in Cincinnati.
To this her parents stoutly objected, but to no purpose. When in Cincinnati, a license was secured (she supposed it was a license), and they went to the " parsonage " ( ?) (she was told it was a parsonage), where they would be joined in a happy union. She was only seventeen, and her young, confiding heart was full of hope. When the parsonage ( ?) door was opened and they were ushered in, she found herself amid strange surroundings. Very soon her supposed husband excused himself with the promise that he would return soon.
Little May was overwhelmed by the strange actions about her, and when her supposed husband's return seemed delayed, there came a great lump in her throat, and with streaming eyes, and a forlorn look, she sat there one of the purest of girls amid the vilest of earth. But, oh! who can imagine her feelings when the madam told her he would never return that she had just paid him thirty dollars for her.
Her anguish and grief seemed too much for any human frame. No pen can describe it can never be expressed. She was only told that it was not worth while to weep, that it was an easy way of making money, and she would soon overcome those feelings. .
Little do fathers and mothers think as their little brood gather about the evening fireside in the childish glee of a happy home, that such a fate should ever come to them. But, alas! the plunderer's hand is abroad the destroyer is in the land! It was two or three months before Little May's escape was possible. One day one of our faithful missionaries forced an entrance into that haunt of vice, and Little May was recovered and brought to one of our Rescue Homes.
It was not long till she was wonderfully saved from all sin, and after a short time we returned her to her heart-broken parents in the South. They had wept and prayed and cried to God day and night for some clue to their precious darling who seemed lost to them forever.
Can you imagine their joy when she re-entered the old home and rested her throbbing head just where it used to rest on her mother's breast? When her father planted kiss after kiss just where he used to plant them in her childhood days? You ask if rescue work pays? Beloved, if Link May had been my daughter, don't you suppose I would think it pays? If May had been your daughter, would you have ever asked the question?
I am often asked what per cent of the girls rescued really get saved, and stand true. I have just had a report from one of our Homes which includes an answer to that question. It is, that eighty-five per cent of all who have come into that Home have proved true. Where is an evangelist that can show such proportionate results in churches? Who can show sixty per cent, forty per cent, or ten per cent, of their converts at the end of a year? Jesus always thought it would pay to save the fallen, and I know of no investment equal to it anywhere. To Him be all the glory for the power of the Gospel in the slums.
