I knew no more of the formalities which
set the law in motion than a child. But I had another alternative
(you will say). Charitable societies would have received me and
helped me, if I had stated my case to them. I knew no more of the
charitable societies than I knew of the law. At least, then, I
might have gone back to the honest people among whom I had lived?
When I received my freedom, after the interval of some days, I
was ashamed to go back to the honest people. Helplessly and
hopelessly, without sin or choice of mine, I drifted, as
thousands of other women have drifted, into the life which set a
mark on me for the rest of my days.
"Are you surprised at the ignorance which this confession
reveals?
"You, who have your solicitors to inform you of legal remedies
and your newspapers, circulars, and active friends to sound the
praises of charitable institutions continually in your ears--you,
who possess these advantages, have no idea of the outer world of
ignorance in which your lost fellow-creatures live. They know
nothing (unless they are rogues accustomed to prey on society) of
your benevolent schemes to help them. The purpose of public
charities, and the way to discover and apply to them, ought to be
posted at the corner of every street.
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