The day book. [volume], February 10, 1914, NOON EDITION, Image 9

About The day book. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917

Image provided by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, Urbana, IL

                
SAYS MORE POLICEWOMEN WILL RID STREETS
OF MASHERS WHO PESTER YOUNG GIRLS . .,
BY NIXOLA-GREELEY-SMITH
New York, Feb. 10. Coincident
with the introduction of a legislative
bill providing for 20 policewomen in
New York city was the appearance
here of Mrs. Alice Stebbins Wells,
pioneer policewoman of Los Angeles,
Cal.
Mrs. Wells believes, among other
things, that the policewoman would
have a deterrent effect on the mash
ers of large cities. Her belief was
deepened the other day by the fact
that she, the guardian of Los An
geles morals, was "actually accosted
by a masher herself!
"I had stopped for a moment to
look at aposter in front of a moving
picture place," she told me, "when
a man came up and asked ingratiat
ingly if I did not want to see the
show, offering to take me. Now, I
can readily imagine that if I had been
3 poor young girl without a nickel
Insert at top is pic
ture of Mrs. Alice Steb
bins Wells, America's
first policewoman.
and worse yet, with' the knowledge
that I never would have a nickel to
spare for such a treat, I might have
accepted the man's offer and so pos
sibly have taken the first step to ruin.
"If the incident had occurred in Los
Angeles I should have watched that
man and that show to see that he did
not repeat the performance with a
younger and more ignorant woman.
In Los Angeles once I saw a young
girl walking along by herself at night
and I thought from her manner that
she needed my attention.
"So I followed her till she stopped
at the entrance of a dime museum
show and asked for employment
"Tie manager of the show told her
that he did not need her services, but
at a branch of the museum'in another
part of the city, and that he would
take her there. So they started out
together, I following them. After
they had walked quite a distance he