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A WORD WITH THE WOMEN

(By Elia W Peattie)

Some members of the recent grand jury opine that the critisms in this column on thier manner of dealing with the Ninth street problem have been too severe. Certainly those criticisms were not meant ot be oblivious to the excessive difficulties attending any action in in this matter. Most positively nothing said in this column was intended to defend the slavery to which men have reduced those unhappy women of the district referred to So heavy has the tax of rent been placed upon them, so imperative the perfunctory licesnse-for such the fine has become-so tryannical the attitude of the "policemenm who have some to hold the opinion that htey are zar's of this district, so arbitrary and unlawful the limiting of the district itself, that these poor creatures are nothing more than slaves The police are practically their bosses-their drivers-their tyrants. They infrom them where they can and cannot go And the poor women have no choice but to submit or be preosectued endlessly They are not aware that the line whihc limits their unholy district is an imaginary one placed there by a mayor who wished to do the best he could but who was so well aware of the fact taht his act was unlawful that he did not permit and record of its to be taken

"We cannot," said a member of the grand jury yesterday, "put an end to the existence of these women. They are here We must fact that fact We advised enlarging the district only that they might escape the cruel ectorion from rapacious renters, which now forces these women to sink themselves to a depth beyond the depths For rent and fines they must raise $80 every month Over and above this must come living and dressing India itself could not show greater degradation in its bazar caste than that to which these creatures are reduced The absence of rules governing the police force in its dealings with them, the ecercise of personal judgment permitted these officers, and the natural frailty and venality of men in general and policemen in particular, has reduced the inhabitants of this district to the misery of slaves- bondswomen. We only had a thought of protecting them fomr persecution in what we advised We are not endeavoring to protect prostitution"

It must not be supposed that any one thought they were trying to do this What was said in this column and what must be relterated is that the grand jury seemed to forget the state statute which made it a punishable offense for any citizen to use or permit to be used any building owned on leased by him for immoral purposes Either that statute ought to be enfroced or taken form the books Either the city of Omaha ought ot see that its officers enfroce the laws in regard to fune, or else admit that it is a seceder from the sate If Omaha as a municipity does not observe state laws it cannot look upon itself as a law abiding community The grands jury is too imortant a body of men to act inonsistently, or to persevere in the errors which are indugldged in ny the unthinking-and those who think only to attain their own eds The act of the mayor in fixing one illegal boundry does not justify the grand jury from fixing another illegal boundary.

This may be a good place to say that if any woman in the prescribed distict desires to leave the life she is leading, she can do so The Home of the Good Shepherd, standing on one of the hills west of South Omaha will be open to her day or night. She has only to knock at that door to be received with love and sympathy.If she is too ill to remain, she will be sent to a hospital in another she will be sent to a hospital in another town till she shall have recovered If she is in good health she may remain till the end of her days, if she cooses Nor would she find life in the convent in any way sad or diteary There are many pleasures there besides those of a religious nature There are innocent gayeties of many soits strong friendships, the beautiful association of the women who have set their lives apart for the redemption of their kind, good living enought work and order and peace after the misery and pain and shameof that ghastly life in the district Think of the opportunity for the redemption of body, sould an dmind It is like safe harbor after The hurrican-wholesome food after the famine and the plague.

If those women have been crowded out of the cruel rapcity of men who have degraded, defrauded and defied them, it is comfroting to know that if they will they can rurn their own sex with the surety of finding protection and friendship