F. Colburn (Francis Colburn) Adams
Chapter 86
educated in vice. She took me into her nursery, and I was glad to
get there, for I had no other place to go.
"In the morning we were sent out to pilfer, to deceive the
credulous, and to decoy others to the den. Some were instructed by
Hag Zogbaum to affect deaf and dumb, to plead the starving condition
of our parents, to, in a word, enlist the sympathies of the
credulous with an hundred different stories. We were all stimulated
by a premium being held out to the most successful. Some were sent
out to steal pieces of iron, brass, copper, and old junk; and these
Hag Zogbaum would sell or give to the man who kept the junk-shop in
Stanton street, known as the rookery at the corner. (This man lived
with Hag Zogbaum.) We returned at night with our booty, and re-
ceived our wages in gin or beer. The unsuccessful were set down as
victims of bad luck. Now and then the old woman would call us a
miserable lot of wretches she was pestered to take care of. At one
time there were in this den of wretchedness fifteen girls from seven
to eleven years old, and seven boys under eleven-all being initiated
into the by-ways of vice and crime. Among the girls were Italians,
Germans, Irish, and-shall I say it?-Americans! It was curious to see
what means the old hag would resort to for the purpose of improving
their features after they had arrived at a certain age. She had a
purpose in this; and that purpose sprang from that traffic in
depravity caused by the demands of a depraved society, a theme on
her lips continually."
CHAPTER X.
A CONTINUATION OF GEORGE MULLHOLLAND'S HISTORY.
"HAVING served well the offices of felons and impostors, Hag Zogbaum
would instruct her girls in the mysteries of licentiousness. When
they reached a certain age, their personal appearance was improved,
and one by one they were passed into the hands of splendidly-
dressed ladies, as we then took them to be, who paid a sum for them
to Hag Zogbaum, and took them away; and that was the last we saw of
them. They had no desire to remain in their miserable abode, and