The new slave-trade, which has been carried on with a secresy that is only now beginning to attract attention, has its source of supply in Southern Italy, from which large numbers of children are drawn every year and brought to this country.
"The headquarters of this trade--cruel enough in some of its features to bear comparison with the African slave-trade itself--are in New York.
From this city agents are sent out to Southern Italy every year, where little intelligence and great poverty exist.

These agents tell grand stories of the brilliant prospects offered to the young in America.

Let me now read to you from the published testimony of one who has made a thorough investigation of this nefarious business, so that you may get a clear comprehension of its extent and iniquity.
"He says: 'One of these agents will approach the father of a family, and after commenting upon the beauty of his children, will tell him that his boys "should be sent at once to America, where they must in time become rich." "There are no poor in America." "The children should go when young, so that they may grow up with the people and the better acquire the language." "None are too young or too old to go to America." The father, of course, has not the means to go himself or to send his children to this delightful country.

The agent then offers to take the children to America, and to pay forty or fifty dollars to the father upon his signing an indenture abandoning all claims upon them.

He often, also, promises to pay a hundred or more at the end of a year, but, of course, never does it.
"'After the agent has collected a sufficient number of children, they are all supplied with musical instruments, and the trip on foot through Switzerland and France begins.