APPENDIX.

Since this book has been written it has been submitted in manuscript form to a number of publishers, and I desire just a word more to the public to answer the various reasons given for the refusals to publish it.

First, word was sent me that "it (the story) was mere idle gossip and would only be read by the curious," and it was evidently dismissed on these grounds as unworthy of consideration. That this story is a series of facts and an exposition of the conditions existing in the theatrical world to-day; that it is the truth and nothing but the truth I can affirm. I am unable to add that it is the whole truth, for it would take many volumes to cover this inexhaustible subject.

Quite recently I came across the following in a daily paper. The remarks were made before thousands of men and women by a man whom we are led to believe has the good of humanity at heart and the saving of people's characters as a profession.

"As to drink, I never touch the stuff. * * * I am just as sound on the theatres. Clement Scott, the English critic, once said that a woman's promotion on the stage depends on the concessions she is pre

"It's so everywhere, and is it conducive to the spiritual life of anybody?" Many voices replied "No," when the speaker said:

"Then you have no right to pay to expose another man's child. I know what I think of anybody who is willing to take pleasure at the expense of another's ruin. I made a statement like this once in England, and next morning there were seven actresses in my audience. They wrote and thanked me that one man had had the courage to speak out against a system that was robbing women of their purity."

Just read that over again, "A SYSTEM that is robbing women of their purity."

Again, I have been informed that while undoubtedly these conditions exist to some degree it is not expedient to bring them to the attention of the public; the least said on such matters the better.

NoT So. If you saw the stream of young men and women daily, yearly rushing toward this luring siren, only to be swallowed up in the vortex as I have seen them, your very soul would cry out and demand a halt; and I have hoped in every line I have written that the serious minded will believe me, who has been in the pit, and avoid the pitfall.

If this book saves one aspiring soul from Miriam's fate or even mine, it will not have been written in vain.