Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1756-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities external link and the Library of Congress. Learn more
Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL
Newspaper Page Text
?(PWw5' 5 TSB!P ANOTHER GIRL VANISHES AND NEW YORK IS PUZZLED New York, Dec. 9. Again the van ishing from the streets of New York City in broad daylight of Miss (ffe Jessie McCann, a young woman v of culture and refinement, has set the great city's criminal jungle. The lat ! est mystery, occurring almost to the ' day on the third anniversary of Dor- j othy Arnold's unsolved disappear ance, has again focused. the interest I of the country on New York, the port of missing women. I With Mayor Kline, a personal ' friend of the family of Miss Jessie McCann, directing the efforts of the police, the city is being fairly combed for clews. Again the thinking women of this man-ruled city are facing the problem of marking dangerous shoals of Manhattan shoals which take a heavier toll of woman and girl life in a year's time than the country's en- tire Atlantic seaboard. Inquiry at police headquarters to day revealed that the total number of women and girls officially reported "missing" in New York during 1913 will be well above the thousand" mark. While the police refuse to make known the exact number in advance of the official publication of their an nual report, it was learned that the year's figures will b& high above those of 1911 and 1912, when the total number of missing reported was 1,091 and 1,080, respectively. In 1911, 894 of those were subse- iiinntl-ir Innntprt (vr np.nrtiintpil fn-r l& while 197 left absolutely no trace. lUrUUgU yUUUG CUU1UJ XOV Ul LUC 1912 victims were traced, but 270 have as yet not been accounted for. The 1913 record promises to be even more appalling. That the toll of oblivion always greatly exceeds the official figures is frankly admitted by the authorities. Scores of cases are never reported to the police. Other scores have 'to do with girls who drop from sight in their home cities, drift to New Ybrji and disappear in the maw of the metropolis. Miss Belle de Brunner of the New York Probation Association, one of the woman most experienced in wo men's rescue work, in commenting on the Jessie McCann case today said: 'Vhile our experience shows that most of the girls who disappear are victims of the world-old profession, it is incidents like the present one which are the real problems. We know it is literally true that good, pure women are actually decoyed in to traps or taken away by force. But it has not yet been possible to create the public interest necessary for proper prohibitive measures. "And of those girls who go wrong, really through ignorance, hundreds of cases are preventable. But the remedy lies in social and economic readjustment, not merely in police measures." The disappearance of another young woman was reported today to the police. Mabel Vera- MoUlton, 16, daughter of Westcott G. Moulton, a retired business man, has been miss ing since December 3. She had" work ed in a store for two weeks when she announced she was going to quit. She then telephoned her mother she was starting home. When she did not ar rive a search was started. Gen, Bliss reports that, in spite of his efforts to prevent it,-large quan tities of war munitions are being smuggled into- Mexico, and he asks that two government lawyers be ap pointed to travel -along the line. This is a fine idea. We can spare the law yers. But why not ask for 200,000 lawyers, general? -o o "How did your daughter pass her examination?" asked' one mother of another. "Pass!" was the' 'answer, "She didn't pass at all. Perhaps you wouldn't believe it, but they asked that girl about things that happened long before she was born!" mmmmmmmmmmmmmmamjmmmagfjg