#The forces of darkness series

The circulation of the Gazette jumped from twelve thousand readers to an astonishing one million-plus. Salvation Army volunteers also distributed them. This scheme failed the famous playwright George Bernard Shaw snatched dozens of copies and sold them himself. The City of London, in a frantic effort to protect the reputations of the prominent men involved in trafficking, declared SteadвЂ™s exposes indecent Police were ordered to arrest paperboys for selling them. Everyone from Queen Victoria on down was shocked and horrified. The worldwide frenzy that resulted from these articles matches anything weвЂ™ve seen these last few weeks about George Floyd.

#The forces of darkness series

After Eliza was rescued, Stead wrote a ten-part series for the Pall Mall Gazette. She was then offered to a trafficker, who purchased the child and placed her in a brothel, where Stead awaited her. On June 2, Rebecca Jarret, a former brothel keeper now working with the Salvation Army, bought 13-year-old Eliza Armstrong from her mother. Stead would then would write a series of exposes about the sex industry-the first investigative journalist to make himself part of a story. Stead in turn contacted Detective Howard Vincent of Scotland Yard, who confirmed that trafficking was an immense problem.Д«ooth and Stead came up with a daring scheme: They would вЂњpurchaseвЂќ a young girl from a poor family, вЂњsellвЂќ her to a trafficker, and rescue her before she came to any harm. Booth contacted his friend, a journalist named W.T. Like Wilberforce before him, Booth understood that if he were going to go up against the powerful forces that profited from trafficking-including a cousin of Queen Victoria and members of ParliamentвЂ“he would need a good deal of publicity. She managed to escape at 2 a.m., and spent the rest of the night on the steps of the Salvation Army headquarters.Д«ooth was appalled to learn that, not only were girls as young as thirteen legally allowed to become prostitutes, but also that thousands of young English girls as young as twelve were either kidnapped or sold by their parents to traffickers who drugged them, nailed them into coffins with air holes, and shipped them to big cities all over Europe.ДЄs Eric Metaxas and I note in Seven MORE Men and the Secret of Their Greatness, вЂњThe House of Lords had repeatedly attempted to pass a bill raising the age of consent, only to be shot down by the House of Commons.вЂќ Offered a job as a maid in London, she arrived at the address sheвЂ™d been given and was locked into what turned out to be a brothel.

When a teenaged girl named Annie Swan showed up at the Salvation Army headquarters in May of 1885, Booth took on, one of the vilest practices of the day: The trafficking of children.ДЄnnieвЂ™s tale is tragically familiar to those who battle trafficking today. Seeing men sleeping under a bridge one winter day, he immediately directed his son to rent a warehouse, find a way to heat it, buy some blankets, and invite homeless men to sleep there at night. In 1870, he founded Food for the Millions, offering healthy, inexpensive meals for the hungry. While he was concerned with their souls, he soon became aware of their desperate struggle for survival. If he saw a social problem, it did not occur to him to ignore it, or assume someone else would solve it.ДЇrom a young age, he preached to the poor in the streets of the slums. I recently researched the life of one of these heroes, who began fighting social evils more than 150 years ago: William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army.Д«ooth-a tall, thin man with flowing white locksвЂ“was the William Wilberforce of the Victorian era. To the frustration of their opponents, they simply refused to quit. In some cases, a small handful of heroic leaders devoted their entire lives to fighting some great evil. In the U.S., they won the battle against child labor-after a 100-year battle. In England, they won against the slave trade-after 46 years of efforts. I have hope, because history teaches that when people spend decades fighting social evils, they usually win. I have hope because Americans determined to protect preborn children have not given up, even after nearly five decades. While the Supreme Court decision was a disappointment, I have reason to hope.

This means I have witnessed the battle to protect unborn babies for all the 47 years it has been fought. I am old enough to remember when abortion was illegal in America. The Supreme Court recently shot down LouisianaвЂ™s law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital-a law intended to protect womenвЂ™s lives, given that so many of the worst doctors go into the abortion business.