The usefulness of such Homes is too evident to need any discussion.
There is one class of unfortunate creatures who must be objects of pity to all who have any knowledge of their existence,and that is,those men and women who are being continually dragged before the magistrates,of whom we are constantly reading in the police reports,whose lives are spent in and out of prison,at an enormous cost to the country,and without any benefit to themselves.
We should then be able to deal with this class.It would be possible for a magistrate,instead of sentencing the poor wrecks of humanity to the sixty-fourth and one hundred and twentieth term of imprisonment,to send them to this Institution,by simply remanding them to come up for sentence when called for.How much cheaper such an arrangement would be for the country!
SECTION 5.--A NEW WAY OF ESCAPE FOR LOST WOMEN.THE RESCUE HOMES.
Perhaps there is no evil more destructive of the best interests of Society,or confessedly more difficult to deal with remedially,than that which is known as the Social Evil.We have already seen something of the extent to which this terrible scourge has grown,and the alarming manner in which it affects our modern civilisation.
We have already made an attempt at grappling with this evil,having about thirteen Homes in Great Britain,accommodating 307girls under the charge of 132Officers,together with seventeen Homes abroad,open for the same purpose.The whole,although a small affair compared with the vastness of the necessity,nevertheless constitutes perhaps the largest and most efficient effort of its character in the world.
It is difficult to estimate the results that have been already realised.By our varied operations,apart from these Homes,probably hundreds,if not thousands,have been delivered from lives of shame and misery.We have no exact return of the number who have gone through the Homes abroad,but in connection with the work in this country,about 3,000have been rescued,and are living lives of virtue.