It is a straight chute down which, every year, thousands of girls descend to the way of the prodigal.

No one has counted their number.

All we know of the unclassed is that they exist, apparently in ever-increasing masses.
It was estimated in Chicago, not long ago, that there were about six thousand unfortunate women known to the police, and something like twenty thousand who managed to avoid actual collision with the law.

That is, the latter lived quietly and plied their trade on the street so unostentatiously that they were seldom arrested.

How many of these unfortunates reached the streets through the dance hall is impossible to know--we only know that it constantly recruits the ranks of the unclassed.
[Illustration: A DANCE HALL] The dance hall may be in the rear of a saloon, or over a saloon; it may occupy a vacant store building, or a large loft.