The Girl from Farriss | Page 8

light district," said one, "and the criminals and
degenerates of the underworld will hunt our wives and daughters as the
wolves of the north woods hunt their prey--there will be no safety for
them upon the streets nor within their own homes. Banish the women
of the levee, and a state of anarchy and rapine will follow. For the sake

of the good women of the city I pray that you will stand firm against
the fallacious arguments of paid reformers and notoriety seekers."
No one mentioned property values--the pill had been properly coated.
The State attorney smiled. Mentally he had been roughly estimating the
political influence of each petitioner. When an editorial appeared in one
of the leading dailies under the caption, "Go Slow, Mr. State Attorney,"
in which all these arguments were rehashed and the suggestion made
that another commission be appointed to investigate and recommend a
solution of the vice problem, he laughed aloud, for did he not know that
the uncles and aunts and sisters-in-law of that great paper owned nearly
a third of the real estate in the segregated district?
But the State attorney knew that no man knew what would be the result
of the adoption of the drastic suggestions of the reformers, so it was an
easy matter for him to justify himself to himself when he waged his
bitter war of words against vice, and gave private instructions to his
assistants in the safety and seclusion of his own office--instructions that
did not always exactly harmonize with the noble sentiments enunciated
in the typewritten "statements" passed out impartially to the
representatives of the press for publication.
The State attorney was far from being a corrupt man; but the vice
problem had been the plaything of reformers and politicians for years;
it was as old as the sexes; it never had been solved, and the chances
were that it never would be. If he had spoken his mind he would
probably have admitted that he was afraid of it, entirely from
sociological reasons, and apart from its political aspect.
But the State attorney was in no position to speak his true mind on
many subjects--he hoped, some day, to run for Governor.
And so it was that he called an assistant to his office and poured words
of wisdom into his attentive ear.
"And what sort of a bunch have you got this month?" he concluded.
"Oh, just about as usual. A couple of bank presidents, some retired

capitalists, several department managers, and one farmer. They're new
now, but by the time that case reaches us they'll be tired of the grind
and ready to jump through whenever I tell 'em to."
Thus spake the young assistant State attorney of the ancient and
honorable grand jury.

CHAPTER III
THE GRAND JURY
TWO weeks had elapsed since Mr. Farris had been held for the grand
jury. He had been at liberty on bail. The girl, against whom there had
been no charge, had been held, virtually a prisoner, in a home for erring
women that she might be available as a witness when needed.
The grand jury was returning after lunch for the afternoon session.
Something they had done the previous day had aroused the assistant
State attorney's ire, so that he had felt justified in punishing their
foolish temerity with two calls that day instead of one.
A little group had gathered in the front of the jury-room. They were
discussing the cases passed, and speculating upon those to come. One
and all were wearied with the monotony of the duty the State had
imposed upon them.
"And the worst of it is," said one of the younger members of the panel,
"it's all so utterly futile. When I was summoned as a grand juror I had a
kind of feeling that the State had placed a great responsibility upon my
shoulders, that she had honored me above other men, and placed me in
a position where I might help to accomplish something really worth
while for my fellow man."
One of the bank presidents laughed.
"And the reality you find to be quite different, eh?"

"Quite. I hear only one side of a great string of sordid, revolting stories,
and I hear nothing more than the assistant State attorney wishes me to
hear. There are momentous questions stirring the people of the city, but
when we suggest that we should investigate the conditions underlying
them we are told that we are not an investigating body--that those
questions are none of our business unless they are brought to our
attention through the regular channel of the State attorney's office. We
are told that the judge who charged us to investigate these very
conditions had never charged a grand jury before, and while doubtless
he meant