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GAYLORD | 7
THE SOCIAL EVIL

ITS CAUSE
EFFECT AND CURE

BY
J. H. GREER, M. D.

Prof. Genito-Urinary Diseases, College of Medicine and Surgery, Chicago.

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR, AT 52 DEARBORN ST.,
CHICAGO, ILL.
Q)

Copyright, 1909
By
Dr. J. H. GREER
HISTORY OF THE SOCIAL EVIL

The Social Evil is very old, nearly as old as human
society itself. As far back as history gives any record,
evidences of the existence of this peculiar and terrible
traffic can be found. Throughout the ages man has been
the strong, invasive, dominant sex, and women have been
more or less weak, dependent, subservient. In various
ways, from savagery to modern civilization, women have
been subjugated; they have been first captured, beaten,
stolen, then bought and cajoled; and after all, prostitu-
tion is but one phase of this general and all prevailing
dominance of man.

Somewhere in the far away and shadowy beginning,
there probably was a time when the human female animal
was as strong, as swift and capable of self sustenance as
the human male animal. Olive Schréiner has in one of
her beautiful “Dreams,” said: “It is recorded on the
oldest, oldest rocks that once she walked side by side
with man, his equal;” Jack London in fiction has given
us, as among the possibilities, the story of females who
hunted, fought, and clambered through the tree tops be-
side their male companions, often excelling them in
2

swiftness and daring; while August Bebel writes: “We
have no grounds for assuming that in this primitive state
men were physically or mentally superior to women,”
then gives many reasons for believing that in primitive
society females were in every way the equals of males.

If such conditions existed there could have been no
semblance of traffic in sex favors. The instincts of sex
attraction and of procreation existed in both, and the only
inducement an individual of one sex could offer to one of
the other, was some superior beauty or some peculiar
fitness or adaptability. The male would have nothing
to offer the female as strong, as independent, as equal
to meet the struggle for existence as himself, to induce
her to do what her own nature did not prompt. In this
natural, primitive state of human existence, the one had
nothing to sell, and the other nothing with which to
purchase, and there could have been nothing akin to the
modern curse we have named “The Social Evil.”

But whatever may have been the conditions in this
rudimentary age of the world, we know well they did not
last. August Bebel further says:

“(The bondage of women in primeval times, the continua-
tion of this bondage through the centuries that followed, and
the consequent differentiation of bodily and mental powers
which resulted therefrom and thus became the secondary cause
of severer bondage still, have their foundation in the peculiari-

_ties of women as sexual beings. Primeval woman, although the
equal of man in 1 bodily and mental power, nevertheless became
inferior when periods of pregnancy, birth and lactation forced
her to look to the male for assistance, support and protection.
This occasional helplessness of women at a time when physical
3

strength alone was held in respect, and the struggle for exist-
ence appeared in its most brutal form, was the origin of many
acts of violence toward the female sex, of the destruction of
female children, of rape, ete.’?

We know this much: that as far back as we have any
record of human society, man has dominated. Out of
this very prevalence of mastery on the one hand and sub-
serviency on the other, men have grown stronger, phys-
ically and mentally, women smaller, weaker, more
dependent in character. The difference in strength and
power very early in the history of the race, became fixed
and permanent. In the early stages of society, after
masculine dominance had been established, sex relations
were merely a matter of capture and conquer. Women
had no choice in the transaction whatever. If we may
be allowed to quote Bebel still further:

‘*At first and for a considerable time, no lasting unions
existed between the sexes; unrestricted intercourse prevailed.
The women were the property of the horde or tribe, without the
right of choice or refusal.’’

Of course in such a state of society, anything re-
sembling our modern system of prostitution was
impossible. Prostitution is defined as “selling one’s self
to the use of another for a price,” or, according to the
Standard Dictionary “putting to base uses” one’s powers
or attributes, and this could not be done by persons who
did not own their own bodies. Women did not own their
persons and could not give themselves or sell themselves
to any one. They could be stolen, coerced, bought, or
4

accepted as gifts or loans from their masters, but they
did not possess the right to bestow themselves on any
man for money or love. Dr. Sanger, who is considered
an authority on the subject, says:

‘‘While some form of marriage has generally prevailed,
still there appear to have been in every age, men who did not
avail themselves of the marriage covenant or who could not
be bound by its stipulations, and their appetites created a de-
mand for illegitimate pleasures, which female weakness sup-
plied.’’

“Female weakness” did not voluntarily supply the
demand in those old days—women simply had nothing to
say in the matter. Dr. Sanger, throughout his exhaustive
work, History of Prostitution, apparently considers
prostitution as any intercourse between men and women
outside of customary or legal marriage relations. But
according to the best understood meaning of the word
“prostitution,” only sexual favors granted for the sake
of a stipulated price, can come under that head, and as
such the word will be used throughout this essay.

It is true that riotous and excessive intercourse pre-
vailed during the earlier stages of human society. But
women were not consulted as to their wishes. The chiefs
of the tribes owned all the women and they often ex-
changed or lent them to one another, and it was a com-
mon practice to hold feasts which terminated in the
wildest orgies of indulgence. Women were owned in
common by tribes or hordes, not considered as individ-
uals with rights of their own, but merely as communal
5

property. Property, slaves, cannot offer themselves for
sale. The peculiar practice of selling the use of one’s
own body did not come into use until after some form of
marriage was well established. The idea of marriage
or some form of permanent union between a man and a
woman arose thus, according to Bebel:

‘¢Man has everywhere abrogated supreme power to him-
self. This must certainly have been the case from the moment
in which a lasting connection between a single man and a
single woman commenced; a connection which was probably
brought about by the man. It was doubtless a scarcity of
women, or admiration of one particular woman that first
aroused in man the desire for permanent possession. Male
egotism awoke. One man took possession of a woman, with or
without the consent of other men, and others followed his
example. He obliged the woman to receive only his caresses,
taking in return the obligation upon himself to regard her as
his wife and to protect and bring up her children as his own.
This relationship appeared more advantageous than her former
position on account of its greater security. Thus marriage
arose.’’

But marriage for a long time was anything but an
exclusive arrangement between a single man and a single
woman. Wives were communal property, for, according
to Letourneau:

se.) 6. ~~. +=«the communal system extended to everything
and if women were subject to it, this was merely because they
were looked upon as things in possession. . . . Among the
Kamilaroi, it is the clan and not the individual that marries
since, simply by fact of birth every man is really or virtually
the husband of every woman in a given clan.’’
He adds further:

‘(Tf in a primitive country a certain amount of restraint is
imposed on a woman who is married, or rather owned by a
man, it is solely because she is considered as property, held by
the same title as a field or a domestic animal. For her to dis-
pose of her person without authorization is often a capital
crime; but the husband, on the contrary, has in many countries
the undisputed right to lend out, let out or barter his wife or
wives.’’

So that as yet, there were no women free to sell
themselves and personally receive the price. They were
still sold, given away or lent; but they could not dispose
of themselves in either of these ways. Modern prostitu-
tion had not yet begun.

With the evolution of private property in lands, dwell-
ings, and cattle, the idea of permanent marriage between
one man and one woman began to grow up. But even
where a monogamic form of marriage prevailed,
polygamy has always existed, also cases of polyandry.
But with the conception of private possessions came the
desire that one’s own children might inherit these
possessions ; therefore the custom of one man taking one
woman to be exclusively his own, to whom no other
man must ever be admitted, sprang up and came to be
a deeply rooted institution. When the man’s own strong
right arm could not always be present to enforce
obedience, a sort of mental watch dog was provided by
inculcating the idea of duty, and of the honor to be
found in faithfulness and virtue. Moses too, at a very
opportune time strengthened the spiritual shackles with
7

a convenient “Thus saith the Lord!” “Thy desire shall
be unto thy husband and he shall rule over thee.” Thus
woman’s status in society was fixed for ages to come.

The earth and its products coming to be held as
private property, it naturally followed that a large portion
of mankind were left without land or homes or means of
living. The majority of women were married or owned
exclusively by individual men, and in that sense “provided
for.” But there was still a large class of women who
did not belong to any one, fathers, uncles or brothers
not being able to care for or suitably dispose of all their
womankind. Naturally the dispossessed put their wits to
work to make themselves useful to or desired by the
possessing classes, in any and every way possible to
imagine. Men prostituted their talents, their powers,
their skill and often the women who belonged to them in
any way. Free women prostituted themselves. Thus,
the history of prostitution is the history of private prop-
erty in the earth and all that it brings forth when labor
is applied to it.

The first records of actual prostitution are found in
the Bible. In the eighteenth century before Christ,
Tamar, the daughter in law of Judah, desiring to bear
children, though it was against the Jewish custom, when
the only surviving son of Judah had not taken her to wife,
“put her widow’s garments off from her and covered
her with a veil, and wrapped herself and sat in an open
place. . . When Judah saw her he thought her a
harlot for she had covered her face.” This account in-
dicates that prostitutes were common and that they
8

usually sat in an open place and covered their faces.
Tamar demanded a kid as the price of her favors and
Judah not having the kid at hand gave into her keeping
his “signet, his bracelets and his staff” as a pledge for the
kid. When Judah sent his friend, a man of prominence,
to deliver the kid, the woman could not be found. Judah
expressed considerable concern “lest we be shamed” for
not having paid the stipulated price, though it did not
seem to be any disgrace that he had stopped by the road-
side and had intercourse with a harlot. Yet, afterward
when Tamar’s condition was discovered, Judah ordered
her to be burned for “playing the harlot.” This story
is useful in showing us the customs of the day and that
the all prevailing idea of man’s right to indulge his
passions, while his companion is a disgraced and wicked
creature, was common in that far away time. Tamar
was a very shrewd person for one of the weaker sex, and
brought forth the “signet, bracelet and staff” in time to
prove the fatherhood of her child, and set herself right
according to the customs of the day. This story indicates
a sort of tribal marriage since it seems to have been
nothing out of the way for her to bear children to her
father in law, as it would have been right for any of her
brothers in law to have “gone in unto her.”

We find nothing more authentic concerning prostitu-
tion until four centuries afterward when Moses the law
giver came and found a bad state of affairs among the
Jews. It seems that terrible excesses were the rule, and
many unnatural practices had grown up among them.
Conditions were unsanitary and disease and filth
9

abounded. We may imagine the situation was serious
when the law giver found it necessary to give a command
like this: “Do not prostitute thy daughter lest the land
fall to whoredom.” No doubt the Jews had learned much
from their Gentile neighbors, for the Egyptians were in
an even worse condition, and had mixed up with their
religious rites, their art, their literature, such as it was,
all kinds of amorous excesses, and the Jews were very
apt pupils.

Moses set about making thorough and drastic reforms
in every department of life. He condemned fornication
and all manner of uncleanliness; he forbade many bad
practices to which the Jews were addicted; he prohibited
improper and corrupt unions and specified the relatives
who must not marry; he established many rites and cere-
monies that are conscientiously observed by the Jews to
this day as strict religious observances; but they are in
reality sanitary safe guards and acts to insure cleanliness.
Given as a command of God, with a vague, terrible, future
penalty looming up before the eyes of the subjects, they
were more sure to be kept than if Moses had enjoined
them in his own name because they were necessary to
health and decency.

The great legislator forbade Jewish daughters to sell
themselves, but he did not prevent foreign prostitutes
from coming among the Jewish camps. Women of Syria,
Moabites, Midianites, all young and beautiful women,
but more than usually depraved, established themselves
in the land of Israel and were liberally patronized. Moses
endeavored to enforce high moral, sane and healthful
10

standards among the Jews by very strict laws and regula-
tions, and prostitutes were enjoined from entering
Jerusalem and other large cities. But the women lived
in booths and tents set along the road sides, as near to
the cities as they dared be. They often worked at some
kind of trade or sold small articles of merchandise, but
their main purpose was to attract the attention of well-to-
do travelers and cajole as much money from them as
possible. In spite of the laws, prostitution grew and at
length flourished to such an extent that the law givers
who succeeded Moses became frightened at the pre-
valence of immorality and disease, and resorted to the
most extreme punishments to prevent the further spread
of these things. Every woman captured among the
Midianites was condemned to death.

But the minds of men and women seemed to dwell on
sexual indulgence in those days, and laws, penalties and
punishments appeared to have little power to check
them. The law givers themselves set a very bad example,
for in King Solomon’s time, the prostitutes established
themselves in the city of Jerusalem without hindrance.
Prostitutes flourished and became popular, and could be
found in almost every house, in the groves, on the hill-
tops. Some of them became quite influential and took a
hand in public affairs. Perhaps King Solomon made no
distinction between women who made themselves public
and women who did not; he evidently kept a large num-
ber of the most beautiful to be found about him. Many
of the restrictive laws which had been made by his prede-
cessors were repealed or allowed to go by default. It is
II

said that even the Temple was the scene of riotous orgies
and both men and women became so abandoned as not to
care to conceal their acts. Dr. Sanger says: “It may be
questioned whether licentiousness ever assumed more
revoltingly public forms in any other country.”

Even with the destruction of the old Jewish nation,
the forms of social evil were not altered: the Baby-
lonians only changed the personel without altering the
performances.

One of the earliest forms of prostitution was that
assumed in participation of religious rites. In Chaldea,
religion at first connived at and finally commanded pros-
titution. Every Babylonian female was compelled by law
to prostitute herself once in her lifetime in the temple of
the Chaldean Venus, who was called Mylitta. Once
inside the grounds of the temple no woman could leave it
until she had placed on the altar of the goddess the fee
obtained from her lover. The handsome need only remain
a few minutes or hours before they found eager pur-
chasers. Some of the plainer ones were sometimes obliged
to wait there for years. It was a mark of great reproach
if no man offered a woman to pay the price, allowed her
to fulfill her “duty” and go free.

All Egypt for many ages was a hotbed of sensuality.
Before the time of Herodotus, the country was famed
for her beautiful and brilliant courtesans, who were held
in considerable honor and esteem. They were not held
in disgrace, for what they did was not considered wrong.
The religion of the Egyptians was suggestive and en-
ticing. There is little reason to doubt that the temples,
12

like those of Baal, were houses of prostitution on an
extensive scale.

We gather even from the classical pages of Homer
that the early Grecians entertained very free ideas regard-
ing sex. All the mythology of its early ages breathes of a
free and untrammeled love as the prevailing sentiment.
The ordinances of Solon gives us the first reliable infor-
mation as to authoritative regulation of the relations
between men and women. Before this it is believed that
Draco made the death penalty the punishment for rape
or seduction and forbade adultery. Solon modified these
laws and after a time established legal methods by which
men’s desires could be gratified. Ordinary prostitution
was not in existence, but houses of prostitution were insti-
tuted and filled with female slaves who were compelled to
satisfy the demands of all who visited them, and this
traffic in the bodies of their slaves proved to be quite a
remunerative source of revenue to the state. It is con-
jectured that a sort of religious prostitution was carried
on in the temples, but very little is known about it. The
laws concerning the Dicteriades, as the female slaves were
called, were that they were never allowed to mingle with
other people or to wear the ordinary citizen’s dress. In
time, however, these laws came to be disregarded and
some of the Dicteriades became honored and distinguished
personages.

Later, the laws of Sparta made great allowances in
the relation of its men and women. Individuals were
sacrificed to the good of the state, and the principal con-
sideration of its citizens was that robust and healthy chil-
13

dren should be born. The weak and incapable were pre-
vented from bearing children if possible, but otherwise
there was little restriction imposed upon the people. Con-
sequently, prostitution as a trade did not exist in Sparta.

But Athens abounded in prostitutes and Corinth as a
seaport town swarmed with women eager to sell them-
selves. After the Persian wars, however, an effort was
made to return to its Solonian rigor and adultery was
again made punishable by death. But the laws were sel-
dom carried out and in spite of restrictions and penalties
prostitutes grew very numerous and did not lack for
customers.

During the most prosperous days of Athens there were
four distinct classes of women who pandered to the pas-
sions of men. The highest in repute were the Hetairae,
or kept women, who exercised considerable influence in
the politics and manners of the times. Next were the
Auletrides, girls who danced and played the flute in the
streets and open places about the country and who were
usually attractive and entertaining. They took their
patrons to their tents or to the homes of those who
allowed the use of their rooms for a high price. Then
there were the Dicteriades, or slaves of the state, who
were looked down upon by all classes; and lastly, the
concubines or slaves of rich men who toiled for their mis-
tresses and by their consent submitted themselves to the
will of their lords whenever called upon. Besides these
distinct classes there existed a set of wandering, unspeci-
fied women who haunted old empty houses or the woods
or niches behind the cornices of great buildings watching
14

for any chance that might happen their way, Some of
them were old Hetairae whose charms had faded, and
who had been cast out from their homes of luxury; some
were Dicteriades who had become free in some way,
sometimes by buying their own freedom; often they were
seduced and abandoned native Athenian women who still
rebelled against being classed with the regular courtesans.
All these classes were made to pay heavy tribute to the
state or to the officials of the state, and, as is usual in
more modern times, the weaker and poorer women were
dealt with the most harshly.

The Hetaire or kept women were really the most
important females in Greece. The Athenian wives and
daughters lived secluded in their own homes, received no
education, attended no lectures, theatres or games, saw no
society except one another, and enjoyed no advantages
except the dull one of being the only “mothers of citi-
zens.” Qn the contrary, the Hetairz lived luxuriously,
dressed elegantly, attended the plays of Alexander and
Aristophanes, heard Socrates reason, they discussed poli-
tics with statesmen, and had the entre to the studios of
all the great artists. They could gather around them of
evenings the brightest intellects of the day, and in these
circles wit, wisdom, imagination and eloquence had full
play. The courtesans of that day filled an important
place in Greek society and many of them became noted
for intelligence, artistic ability, grandeur of character and
heroism. Very little has come down to us of Grecian
wives and mothers, not even of their domestic virtues.

In Rome, we have no record of a regulated prostitu-
15

tion before the days of Emperor Augustus, though it is
known that prostitutes were plentiful before that time.
They are spoken of in the earliest Roman literature and
were apparently well-known characters in the city three
centuries before the Christian era. Later, strict laws
regulated the traffic and all prostitutes were obliged to
register, taking an oath that they intended to follow this
calling all their lives. Thus, if they should reform and
become honored wives and mothers, as was sometimes the
case, this recorded oath stood ever against them. The
aim of Roman law was to make repentance and a virtuous
life impossible after once entering upon a career of
infamy.

The Julian laws were very strict and were aimed
toward keeping Roman blood pure and to further degrade
prostitutes. Marriage between citizens and descendants
of prostitutes were forbidden. A matron who became a
harlot incurred the death penalty, as also did her lover
and the owner of the house at which they met.

The republics which were afterward established en-
deavored also to carry out the strict laws which had pre-
ceded. But the laws were practically a dead letter. The
very rich did as they pleased; kept women in their pal-
aces and had young girls procured for them by their
hangers-on. Among the common people, the laws were
evaded so that prostitution flourished as greatly as ever.
There were large numbers of women who pursued the
calling without being registered; the better class women
who were luxuriously kept, besides dancers, servants in
hotels and bakeries who were nearly always prostitutes,
16

and lower still, wanderers who lurked about the country
roads and woods and had a peculiar cry like that of a
wolf. The baths were notorious places for assignations,
procurations, enticements, etc., and it is from these that
the word “bagnio” arose. Procurors swarmed through-
out all Rome and many and cunning were their schemes
for securing young girls for their terrible trade.

In later times the whole populace seemed abandoned
to lascivious pleasures. The priests and cardinals led
the others in sensuality. Art, literature, the drama were
filled with expressions of this depraved condition. The
stories told of these times are too terrible to repeat. It
was the age, too, when the distinction between classes
was most sharply drawn; the rich rioted in luxury and
unlicensed debauchery; the poor were wretchedly poor
and slavish, and were compelled to pander to the upper
classes, the men as gladiators in the arena, the women as
men demanded.

Naturally, secret diseases raged everywhere. The few
regular physicians refused to treat the common wretch
who was so afflicted, and there was nothing for him or
her but to creep away in hiding and die.

The Christian religion coming to the front at a time
when the people seemed most abandoned to sensuality
had a marked effect on the society of the day, for a time.
The early Christians laid great stress on personal chas-
tity. Marriage was to them a sacrament, undertaken for
the procreation of children and not for “luxury,” as they
expressed it. The young girls who adopted the Christian
religion kept themselves pure from the touch of man for
17

the sake of Christ whom they worshipped, and deemed it
the worst thing that could happen to them if their virtue
was violated. As a refinement of cruelty, the Romans
threw the Christian maidens into the brothels to meet the
violence and outrages that awaited them there. There
are traditions of wonderful miracles occurring to save
some of the most beautiful and devoted. One was stripped
and her hair immediately grew until it covered her body,
whereupon no man could be found to go in unto her
through fear. Another kept on praying while men were
brought to her; they saw a rosy light about her body and
could not be persuaded to touch her. There is no doubt
that the early Christians believed and practiced the most
extreme asceticism, and in fact this radical stand was
necessary in an age when all civilization had apparently
gone sex mad. But the Christian church did not adhere
to its first attitude of celibacy. While the Christian re-
ligion was a persecuted and outlawed religion, while its
disciples were hunted like wild animals, and were driven
to meet in hidden dens and in the catacombs, its followers
were simple and true to one another; they were com-
munists and no one was richer than another; they were
plain and pure in their lives, and their religion was a
heartfelt, deeply seated devotion; but later, when it had
been adopted by Constantine, it grew corrupt as do all
religions when they become rich and popular. Many of
the old Pagan lascivious practices were adopted into the
church in secret. And while many Christians devoted
themselves to rigorous discipline, lived hermits’ lives and
tortured themselves for purity’s sake, some of the very
18

devices used to mortify the flesh and purify the soul only
sharpened the carnal desires and passions. Neither relig-
ious fanaticism or heathen abandonment to the pleasures
of the senses are calculated to lead to sanity, health and
happiness; scientific knowledge, good judgment, and self-
control are the true guides to these things.

During the middle ages not much can be gleaned con-
cerning prostitution. No official records were kept and
it had no recognized existence. But this fact is no indi-
cation that human beings were more temperate than in
the older times or than in our modern days when the
social evil is our knottiest problem. The nobility and the
very rich kept harems on their private estates; these were
constantly being recruited by supplies from country
around, the most beautiful young girls of the villages,
farms and cities were seduced, coaxed, bought, kidnaped
and brought to the lords by. people who made it their busi-
ness and who were well rewarded. Often the daughters
of noble families were bought from their parents or
guardians, and sometimes they were seduced and taken
to the harems to live in petted luxury while they were
young and beautiful; to be cast out when their owners
became tired of them.

The poorer classes were no better, and women were
bought, stolen, hired and exchanged as conditions afforded
opportunity. But prostitution was forbidden by the
clergy, and the promiscuous intercourse which was the
rule was carried on secretly. Nevertheless, it is said that
the monasteries and nunneries were simply brothels of
the worst type.
19

The worst phase of the social evil during the dark
ages was the disease incurred and allowed to rage without
check. Such physicians as lived in those days refused
to treat secret diseases, and the afflicted had no recourse
but to creep away in hiding and endure their misery until
they died. The actual beginning of the disease called
syphilis is unknown, but secret diseases or “unclean” con-
ditions are mentioned in the Bible. The Italians say that *
it was introduced into their country in 1490 by the French
soldiers. It prevailed in Spain in 1493 and the wise men
of the day ascribed it to an unusual planetary conjunction.
But sixty years previous to this time, London had made
public regulations regarding the admission of persons so
afflicted into the hospitals and houses of prostitution.
Whether the disease as known today was common or not
before this date, it is evident that it was alarmingly prev-
alent at the close of the fifteenth century. Some attempts
were made to establish hospitals where syphilitic patients
could be treated, in France, in the last years of the cen-
tury, but they were poorly kept and much neglected.
They soon became hotbeds of filth and disease, the suf-
ferers were crowded together in unsanitary conditions,
received little or no treatment and usually died in their
unrelieved misery.

Quacks, old women, witches were eagerly sought out
by the afflicted and all sorts of strange, weird remedies
were snatched at in the hope of relief. Decoctions of
“holy wood” (wood of the lignum vite tree) were used to
a great extent, and later, mercury was hailed as a great
deliverer.
20

It was not until 1691 that any systematic attempt was
made to treat diseased prostitutes. All the previous spas-
modic endeavors to relieve syphilitic sufferers had been
confined to men, who were looked upon as the poor vic-
tims of the wicked prostitutes.. But in the above men-
tioned year, a hospital was established in France by the
government, called “Salpetrierre,” for the treatment of
diseased prostitutes. The rules were very rigorous, for
every one who presented herself for treatment was first
subjected to a whipping as a punishment for her wrong
doing. For a long time, though every effort was made to
really cure the patients, the hospital was in a bad condi-
tion from overcrowding and inefficient medical require-
ments; and presently the attendants robbed the patients
of the food and comforts supplied by the government, and
they were in a pitiable condition. Finally, another hospi-
tal for the treatment of the worst cases was built at
Bicetre, which improved things for a time. But before
very long conditions were as bad in both places as ever.

It was not until the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
tury that anything like a scientific and adequate system
for treating syphilitic subjects was instituted in France.
In London and in the German cities hospitals for the
treatment of prostitutes existed, but were badly conducted
and poorly supplied. Following the example of France,
other countries soon adopted wiser, more scientific meth-
ods of treating these poor victims of the social evil.

In the latter part of the fifteenth century strict laws
began to be made controlling prostitution in Italy, France,
Spain, Prussia and other European countries. Severe
aI

penalties, such as floggings, brandings, mutilations of
feet or hands were laid on those who in any way pro-
cured women for prostitution, or who endeavored to
reap a gain from the calling. The regulations against
prostitution itself were severe. Prostitutes were for-
bidden to appear among honest citizens; they were not
allowed to go in debt for food, clothing or lodging, and
it was made difficult for them to buy the necessities of
life with the money known to have been gained by the
hire of their persons. They were compelled by law to
assign half of their property to some convent when they
died. A heavy tax was laid on all brothels, and regula-
tions made with a view of keeping prostitution within the
limits of these licensed and taxed houses. But all these
laws were more or less broken, evaded or ignored; the
rich easily bought immunity for themselves, and the poor
escaped punishment by cunning or toadyism to those in
power. Prostitution spread and flourished more and
more as the years went by.

A brief sketch of France from Louis XIII to the pres-
ent day will give a fair idea of the state of society in all
the civilized countries of Europe during the same period.
Most of the severe laws against prostitution, some of
which banished prostitutes and their accomplices or com-
pelled them to receive worse punishment, were on the
statute books until into the eighteenth century. But they
were seldom enforced—never unless pauper prostitutes
became too numerous, which was the case when shiploads
of women were sent to the colonies of Canada, or when
wealthy men and noblemen wished to be rid of some
22

troublesome mistress or to be revenged upon a faith-
less one. Louis XIV made some changes in the laws
regulating prostitutes which were quite important. Houses
were licensed, taxes collected from them, and a sort of
a governmental supervision instituted. Prostitutes were
given to understand that they were barely tolerated when
fairly decent conduct and prompt payment of taxes were
the rule; on complaint of any one for bad conduct or
thievery they could be punished by whippings, imprison-
ment, or banishment.

In 1778, new laws were passed which punished women
for soliciting on the streets, also landlords for renting
rooms to couples who could not show a marriage certifi-
cate, or in any way lending their premises for “lewd pur-
poses.” These laws were intended to affect outsiders
and private prostitutes, the governmentally controlled
brothels not being supposed to be interfered with by
them.

But the fact is that these laws were practically dead
letters, for prostitution prevailed more than ever. It
came about that the streets of Paris and of all the large
cities and towns fairly swarmed with prostitutes of the
boldest character. They resorted to all sorts of devices
to attract notice to themselves, appeared at the windows
in a nude condition, assumed suggestive attitudes in the
streets, etc. No check on lascivious conduct seemed to
have any force whatever.

But when we remember the examples set by the
royal courts of Europe and by the aristocracy on their
own estates, the intrigues, amours and debaucheries
23

among all those who arrogated to themselves the right
to be called the upper classes, we cannot wonder that
licentiousness ran riot through all grades of society.
Adultery and seduction were commonplace affairs. Every
woman was supposed to have a lover, and every man
to have the run of several seraglios. Among the poorer
classes, whose condition through this and succeeding cen-
turies was as wretched as human conditions could pos-
sibly be, it was said that any and every woman would
lend her body for a price. They were used to treatment
so much worse, that the opportunity to yield the use of
their persons for a compensation was considered a privi-
lege. The poor were so abjectly poor in those days that
men and women would do anything asked of them for a
bit to eat or a pittance of money. Peasants were worked
to death, flogged, taxed to starvation, killed for sport,
or used in any manner the lords of the soil saw fit.
Women were theirs when they were wanted, and the
seigneur was accustomed to claim the first night of every
girl married within his manor. In most of the provinces
the complete authority of the lord over the serfs attached
to his glebe was such that he could use the bodies of
their wives and daughters as he pleased. No written law
ever justified these practices, but so completely were the
serfs under the domination of the owners of the land
that whatever was demanded of them was yielded up
without a protest. The lords did as they pleased with
the human beings born on their land and were held
accountable to no higher power than their own.

In the so-called higher circles, feasts which were
24

orgies of abandonment to all that inflames the passions
were constantly being celebrated. At these feasts, plays
were given in which the actors, men and women, ap-
peared in a nude condition; the conversation was of the
grossest description and the close of these occasions were
scenes of the wiidest debauchery and intoxication. The
literature and art of the day teemed with allusions to
sex intercourse; the only popular stories were those
which dealt with the passions and their gratification; the
most attractive pictures were the most suggestive, and
only those plays were well patronized which catered to
the passions in their worst form. Kings and noblemen
were not content with ordinary harems of women of ma-
ture age. The country was scoured to obtain young and
beautiful girls from twelve to fifteen to pander to their
desires. It has been said that France under the Regency
was one vast brothel house from the highest to the
lowest.

Later it appears that some of the leading courtesans
directed the spirit of the times into more refined and
intellectual realms, and politics, science, art and literature
were made subjects of conversation, while state intrigues
were combined with amorous schemes and at least pur-
sued with equal vigor. Brilliant circles where wit, beauty
and intellect sparkled have been described by distin-
guished writers of the day, but they were undoubtedly as
dissipated as they were refined.

After the Directory, France was not so openly given
over to licentiousness as under the reign of the kings.
Of course society was not greatly restricted as to its
25

morals, but amorous excesses were not carried on so
publicly, and the laws of decency were not so brazenly
set at defiance. The number of prostitutes decreased to
a noticeable extent, and a better state of affairs prevailed
among the peasantry. With the startling examples of
the rich eliminated, and the extreme conditions of the
poor somewhat modified, prostitution receded to a point
which might be called normal.

’ The history of civilization’s great “evil” is nearly the
same in every country and in every century from the
middle ages down. Now spreading, growing, scattering
disease and ruin everywhere; now checked ever so
slightly by some new impulse of rigorous stamping out,
or by some inexplicable wave of reform, or quite notice-
ably by a period of prosperous times or by a wholesale
deportation to some new country. But always going on
its terrible way, gathering into its insatiable maw recruits
from the youngest and fairest of the population, a verita-
ble monster which must always be fed with human sacri-
fices of the most precious to be found in the land. Now
and again some new ruler or new set of law makers,
or some old ruler suddenly jostled into doing something
to show he existed, has inaugurated a crusade against
prostitutes, had them driven out of cities, whipped, im-
prisoned or banished; but these punishments do not
reach the cause, and only succeed in driving the poison
into all the dark and hidden crannies of society, where
it works more ruin and woes than in the open.

Prostitutes always die young. It has been estimated
that the active life of a prostitute does not average more
26

than four years. And when we remember that such a
life often begins at the age of sixteen or earlier, we do
not wonder that there are so few old or even middle-
aged women to be found among prostitutes. And this
vast army must constantly be renewed from the ranks of
the young and innocent. Many and cruel are the methods
resorted to for the accomplishment of this renewing.
Many and cruel are the causes that drive good eile. into
the downward road.

Out of two thousand prostitutes questioned in New
York as to the cause of their taking up the life, 525
answered that destitution had driven them to it; 258 had
been seduced and deserted; 164 had been ill-treated by
parents or guardians; 160 had been deceived and coaxed
into bad places before they knew where they were. This
is a most terrible indictment against society under modern
civilization.

It would seem that a human being could not sink
lower than to become a procurer of young girls for
this awful traffic. Yet refined and genteel appearing
people make this their occupation and pursue it with as
much enterprise as though engaged in a legitimate busi-
ness. An eminent French official who has the best means
of knowing says that the largest number of recruits are
obtained from the hospitals. Procurers hang about the
hospitals, learn all they can about any young girl who
may be brought there, call on her as an old friend, do
her many kindnesses, and when she is discharged, still
weak, helpless and penniless in most cases, she is an
easy prey to their wiles. Other procurers manage to get
27

into the factories and mills, often going to work to enable
them to become familiar with the lives of the working
girls. Any girl whom they find discouraged, overworked,
hungry for some of the beauties of existence, is sought
out, given sympathy and confidence, and temptations are
alluringly thrown in her way; and it usually is not long
before the unfortunate girl is an inmate of a brothel, find-
ing too late that she can never go back. Intelligence
offices are closely watched, and girls that promise well
for the designs of the procurers are approached, enticed
away by promises of better paid employment than can
be obtained there, and taken to places from which they
do not return. Always the lonely, the poor, the deserted,
the homeless or hopeless girl is looked after much closer
than do the Christians who might save them, and usually
she becomes an easy victim. The traffic is largely car-
ried on between different cities, and international asso-
ciations even have been formed that carry on an enor-
mous secret business.

France has undertaken to control the social evil to
a greater extent perhaps than any other country. In
Paris, all prostitutes are inscribed in a department of the
Prefecture of Police, and kept under careful supervision.
They are inscribed on their own request, that of the
mistress of a house, or on the report of the inspector of
prostitutes. They must give age, place of birth, trade
or occupation if one has had one, place of residence, etc.
The woman must tell how she lives, all about her rela-
tives, if she has any children, and what are her reasons
for following the life of a prostitute, give the state of
#B

her health and several other items of information. If
there is nothing to prevent, the girl is examined by
physicians, and asked to sign a document declaring “she
will submit to the regulations for the Prefecture for Pub-
lic Women, will allow herself to be visited periodically
by the physicians of the Dispensary, and conform in all
respects to the rules of the force.”

Mistresses of brothels often bring in girls for inscrip-
tion whom they accuse of carrying on the traffic illegally,
aud in this case the questioning is somewhat different.
If it is possible to save the girl, it is done. Girls are not
inscribed if they will promise good behavior or if they
have friends who will vouch for them. If they can ever
show that they have homes and honorable occupations,
they are removed from the registration book. Sometimes
girls are given a provisional release, when they are
closely watched for from three months to a year; if
they prove that they are sincere and that they have means
of living honestly, they are permanently freed from all
responsibility to the Prefecture.

The inscribed prostitutes are divided into three
classes: those who live in licensed brothels, those who
live in furnished rooms which bear no outward sign of
their character, and those who live in rooms of their own
furnishing which are apparently homes of respectability.
Physicians examine inmates of houses once a week, and
every prostitute arrested on a “drunk and disorderly”
charge is examined. Prostitutes living in rooms of their
own are bound to present themselves once in every fort-
night. Every prostitute is supposed to have.a card bear-
29

ing name, residence, number of page in the register, and
on this in regular order is recorded the result of the
last examination. When a woman is found to be dis-
eased, she is sent to the Dispensary or hospital for treat-
ment and is forbidden to receive visitors until pronounced
cured.

Prisons for the punishment of unruly prostitutes were
established in the last century, and some of them are
said to be very well conducted. There are also hospitals
for the thorough treatment of diseased prostitutes, which
are a great improvement on those of the century before.

We have told little of the kept mistresses who live
in luxury and dress extravagantly during the short period
that their beauty is fresh and alluring; of the grissettes
of Paris, working girls who eke out their meager earn-
ings by living with students, tourists or artists and admin-
istering to their wants; of the coarser class of working
women who are engaged in rough work of various kinds,
but who are ever ready to gain a few additional sous by
giving the use of their persons in any dark corner that
may be found; or of the worn-out prostitutes who hang
onto the outer edge of society in the most abject poverty
and wretchedness, until death relieves them. But one can
learn of them in the sensational literature of the day, or
in the statistics of sociologists who have made them a
particular study. This essay would be too long to go into
further details concerning them.

One important fact has been omitted in regard to
French brothels. The inmates seldom or never receive
any money for their services. They are boarded, lodged,
30

dressed and provided for while they are young and able
to attract visitors. Most of the keepers of such houses
accumulate large fortunes at the “business,” some retire,
change their names and live afterward as wealthy and
respectable citizens. The profits reaped from this nefa-
rious traffic in women’s bodies are excessive.

In a brief way we have recorded what is known of
this “social evil” which is a concomitant of civilization the
world over. At present, conditions are no different ex-
cept in degree throughout all civilized countries. Various
nations have and are trying various methods of control-
ling, regulating or eliminating the evil, but anything so
far tried has had little effect. Whatever is done, one
fact is noticeable, and that is that after every panic, or
period of “hard times,” prostitutes increase in number;
when work is plentiful and tolerably well paid, prostitu-
tion recedes. Prostitution is little affected by rigorous
laws, punishments, moral preaching, or charitable efforts.
The cause lies so much deeper than statutes or alms-
giving can reach. :

We thought it horrible when we read of the slave
prostitutes of Athens; of the girls stolen and kept pris-
oners in the harems of France; of the unspeakable woes
of women in less civilized countries; but we comforted
ourselves with the thought that it was all in the past
and such terrible things were done away with. But alas!
modern prostitution has not improved, and right here in
free America, in the twentieth century, presents some
horrible features that have never been surpassed in any
age. The inmates of the large houses in New York,
31

Chicago, St. Louis and Denver do not own their own
persons, and WHITE SLAVERY is a fact as true as
ever black chattel slavery was in the south. Nothing can
give the reader a more vivid conception of the condition
of affairs in the city of Denver than an editorial of the
Rocky Mountain News of April 3, 1908; and what is
true of Denver is more than probably true of the larger
and older cities of the east. The following is the edi-
torial :

‘‘Billy Wheeler, described by himself as a retired gentle-
man of leisure, and by the district attorney as a well known
macquereau, was sentenced for vagrancy in the county court
the other day. Unlike most of his ilk when once caught in
the toils, Wheeler elected to go on the stand in his own behalf.
His testimony makes interesting reading for the decent citizen-
ship of Denver. For he told on the stand that he has $9,000
in one bank on deposit, that he has valuable property in
Canada, and has money out at interest. AND HE WAS
FORCED TO ADMIT THAT EVERY DOLLAR OF HIS
WEALTH WAS MADE BY MARKETING THE BODIES OF
THE WRETCHED WHITE SLAVES IN THE MARKET
STREET CRIBS; those cribs which Mayor Speer has been
‘regulating’ these many years.

“Tt is doubtful if the average citizen comprehends the
full meaning of the conditions revealed in Billy Wheelers testi-
mony. The average man, or even a man whose morals are
considerably below the average, must make a distinct effort to
sense the infamy of the calling of the macquereau. Here are a
group of men who are nothing less than slaveholders. THESE
SLAVES ARE NOT BLACK BUT WHITE; NOT MEN BUT
WOMEN. Many of them have been literally kidnaped into
slavery. All of them are compelled by their masters, the mac-
quereaux, to hold their bodies at the disposal of all comers
who will pay, not the woman’s but the mac’s price. Jack
32

Maynard, one of these reptiles, has a cash register in his place,
and collects the fees from his customers as they come in. The
women get nothing but their keep. They are compelled to lead
a life not only unspeakably degrading, but so deadly to health
that few endure it five years,

‘¢Tt is the business of the macquereau to hold these women

in slavery. The News submits that no language can exagger-
ate the degradation of such a calling. Compared to this, ordi-
nary prostitution is decent, and burglary a respectable and
aristocratic profession, The offense of the macquereau is so
foul that the law never thought to provide a penalty for it;
and vagrancy is the worst charge that can commonly be main-
tained against these scoundrels. And yet THEY HAVE BEEN
PLYING THEIR TRADE IN DENVER UNDER POLICE
PROTECTION FOR YEARS, and today nearly 300 macquereau
are listed and registered at police headquarters.
Why do not these white slaves rebel? Why do not thee ip
peal to the law of the land? For many reasons. In the first
place, very few of them have any knowledge of either the
laws or the language of the land; and the account of these laws
which they get from their masetrs is not calculated to encour-
age an appeal. In the second place, suppose a woman in one
of those cribs decides to strike for freedom, to whom would she
appeal? To the officer on the beat, of course. AND HE
WOULD TURN HER OVER TO HER MASTER, THE MAC—
WHO WOULD PROMPTLY PROCEED TO BEAT HER HALF
TO DEATH. Why not? He is killing her by inches anyway;
why should he shrink from hastening the process? He does not
hesitate, his slaves know that he will not hesitate; and so—
THEY ENDURE. What else is left them to do?’’

It is not necessary to add one word concerning the
status of prostitution and those who profit by it. Noth-
ing worse has existed in any age, and yet we know that

such things are common in this the twentieth century of
the Christian era.
33

Philanthropists and psuedo students of sociology
have endeavored to lessen the evils of prostitution by
converting the unfortunate women, by building homes
for them, by sending them away from their usual haunts,
by stirring up the legislatures to pass more strict laws
against prostitutes. They discover that it is as useless
as to try to dip up the ocean with a spoon. They do
not know where to place the women they have converted,
for no one wants them in their houses to work; they find
that women will not remain in the dull “homes” pro-
vided for them, which are conducted by strict rule and
system and which marks the inmate as one of the irrevo-
cably fallen; they find that to scatter the prostitutes is
only to spread the evil wider and send it into more
secretive and dangerous places; and strict legislation
only results in greater grafts for those in power.

St. Louis has tried the registration and licensing sys-
tem. But those who know say that in the degree that
it has been successful, in that degree has it been a curse
to society in general. The safer it is made, the more
prostitution is patronized. But after all, the examination
and record arrangement are not satisfactory in the least;
physicians and the police officers can be bought off, and
the whole system only proves a source of inexhaustible
graft to state and city officials.

There seems to be no hope in any of the remedial
or repressive efforts that have been made so far. A
complete change in the institutions of civilization, and in
the prevailing ideas of our attitude as human beings
toward each other, must be brought about before a thor-
34

ough cure of this monstrous evil can be accomplished.
But this is another and an important subject, and will be
dealt with in another chapter.

CAUSE AND CURE OF THE SOCIAL EVIL.

In order to lead up logically to the underlying causes
of the “social evil,” it will be necessary to review some-
what, and repeat a little that has already been said. But
this will be briefly done.

When the world was new and men and women were
but little advanced beyond the animals around them, they
swung from the branches of the trees, slept in caves and
hunted for their food, nearly on an equality as to physi-
cal and mental strength. They planned for their safety,
fought and worked side by side, neither sex generally
dominating the other. In this condition, neither could
demand any extreme sacrifice or service from the other.
As wild, free human animals, there was no advantage in
sex, and the evils of slavery and of sex traffic were as
yet unknown.

The primitive peoples, no doubt, early learned to
combine for mutual safety and to form tribes which
were able to defend the individual members from the at-
tacks of other tribes or combinations. Fighting was an
acquirement gained as soon as the struggle for existence
became in the least difficult; battles were fought in that
shadowy early time, when hands, teeth, clubs and stones
were the only weapons. A battle then was probably
never ended until one side or the other was completely
35

destroyed, as they knew of no method by which a domi-
nance could be perpetuated beyond the time physical
force could be exerted over the vanquished. A conquer-
ing tribe today might become a vanquished one tomor-
row, and it was not safe to allow an enemy to escape
alive.

And while the struggle for existence went on in that
blind, unknowing manner, the male human animal was
learning that at times the female human animal was not
his equal. There were times when he could easily out-
strip her, or conquer her, and when merely by withhold-
ing his aid she and her young might perish for lack of
food, protection and shelter. The sex instinct prompted
him to succor her, but the primal instinct of self-preser-
vation urged him on to make her his slave while she
could not help herself. This occasional dominance be-
came habitual in time, and this resulted in a greater
differentiation between the sexes until the superiority of
the male became established. As Bebel said, “Woman
was the first slave.” Man conquered her before he con-
quered any one else, and he found her a useful conquest.
A slave female meant unlimited sexual indulgence. Free
and equal females inferred some trouble exercised in
winning them.

In the course of time, conquering tribes began to
save some of their prisoners from death to make them
work. At first, conquered prisoners were likely to be
rescued and released from servitude. But rescues be-
came less frequent, the prisoners served their masters
until it became a habit, and in time the position of the
36

conquered servers and their children became fixed and
permanent. So, very early in the history of the human
race, slavery became an established institution, and
woman, the first slave, was forced into that most abject
position—that of a slave toa slave.

For unknown centuries women were considered sim-
ply as property, and were owned along with cattle, beasts
of burden and sheep by the tribes in common. ‘They
were stolen, captured, lent, sold and given away, but
they could not choose as to the bestowal of their persons,
they had no right to receive a price for their own bodies.
In those days, when brute strength was king, and uncon-
trolled passions the rule, no consideration was given to
weakness in any form, and women were valued only as
they could work and minister to the pleasure of men.

Some writers refer to a stage in the progress of human
evolution when women ruled; when matriarchy generally
prevailed throughout the known populated world. But it
is difficult to prove that such a condition ever obtained,
at least since man became a thinking, inventing being
having any social instincts whatever. Even before he
became this, he had discovered that at times women de-
pended upon him for subsistence and protection, and
throughout all human experience, dependence has meant
subordination. Instances of matriarchy have existed,
and places on the earth have known a matriarchal form of
society. But it cannot be shown that mothers ever really
tuled the tribes in which they lived, as a prevailing sys-
tem. It has been shown that children often traced their
ancestry through the maternal side, but this is no proof
37

that women were esteemed as superiors, or that they were
even equally consulted as to the affairs of the tribes. Mor-
gan’s Ancient Society is one long history of woman’s
subordination and oppression; Letorneau says nothing of
a matriarchal period, though he mentions instances of
female leadership. Only that vague and misty sugges-
tion we have mentioned before, that there may have been
a time when women were the equals of men in bodily
strength, in mental cunning, in dexterity and swiftness;
when they were as able to keep up the struggle for exist-
ence as their masculine mates, and as likely to survive
the vicissitudes of life in the crude, wild world in which
they found themselves, hints at such a condition. But
if women ever actually dominated, it was because of some
superior individual attribute or power, and sex had noth-
ing to do with the matter.

Some form of human slavery seems to have existed
as far back as we have any record of human society. It
has assumed various forms and degrees in different ages
and in different geographical positions on the globe, but
it has never disappeared entirely. It began in the defeat
of one of the opposing parties in a battle, when the pris-
oners were saved from death only to be made to serve
their conquerors; perhaps for ages such slaves were
held in bondage only as brute force was exerted to keep
them so. But by degrees a sort of mental power was
brought to bear upon the slaves; precedence, a habit
of long standing, an established custom, became more
effectual in keeping slaves in subjection than brute force.
Brute force was not always available; the master could
38

not always stand over the prisoner with a whip or club,
and some power must be found which could be exerted
through the mind. Very early in the progress of the
human race, superstition was called into play as a means
of enforcing authority. A command from a god was
found to be stronger and more lasting in its effect than
whips or chains or prison walls. Other gods before
Jehovah had no doubt issued their mandates, and the
command, “Servants, obey your masters,” was as effectual
in the older days as in more recent times.

When the same family had been slaves for many
generations, their status became fixed, the class was estab-
lished, and the members of it were irrevocably bound to
it—there was no escape, no other possible mode of liv-
ing, for them. When any wrong is repeated from age
to age, it at last becomes a right which few dare to dis-
pute. Precedent, habit, custom, are stronger than iron
chains or stone walls—nothing but a strong, positive new
thought can ever vanquish them.

So we have had slaves of all kinds, from the most
abject bondsmen that could be tortured and killed at
will, to the petted inmate of a modern harem; captured
slaves, hereditary slaves, serfs, peasants, subjects; pris-
oners for crime, and poor natives dragged from their own
lands to toil for others in foreign countries; mental and
religious slaves, wage slaves, and slaves to the passions
of strong men. And all these have toiled, sweat and
suffered, and have prayed to all manner of gods for deliv-
erance, and mostly prayed in vain. For deliverance has
not yet come, though the dawn of liberty is lightening
39

the eastern sky. Sometimes the slaves have rebelled, but
when they have failed, no crime is so terribly punished,
no disgrace so black as that visited upon the crushed
aspirant after liberty. And yet, each effort, though it
failed most dismally, aided the next oppressed rebel to
take one step nearer the glorious goal. And as the years
roll on and the vision of humanity broadens, the ideal of
liberty grows brighter, nearer and mere possible of
realization. Absolute, unquestioned slavery once ex-
isted. As nations became more clearly defined and
strong, as their governments became better organized,
and private property became an institution deeply rooted
in the constitutions and statutes of each, slavery changed
its form. It was no longer a matter of brute force so
much as a thing of tradition, of accepted standing, of
recognized right. It was modified perhaps, not always so
cruel and degrading, but more inevitable, more inescapa-
ble. Under the feudal system, serfs who could not be
sold or torn away from their homes on the land to which
they were born, did the work and fighting of the world.
Later on, as industries grew and became more complex,
the workers of the world were not so fixed in status;
they could move about and form guilds, and in becoming
highly skilled in hand labor, were comparatively inde-
pendent. In modern times, with the invention of steam
and many labor-saving machines, the whole aspect of
industrialism has completely altered, and conditions
greatly changed. Working men and women are not held
as chattels or by title deeds as of old, but they are not
40

free, by any means, and their living is much more pre-
carious than ever before.

All that we intend by this brief and inefficient resume
of society’s progress is to show that from first to last
there has always been a large class of human beings who
apparently have no right to-the earth on which they
were born, and who are compelled by their very necessi-
ties to serve others on any terms these more fortunate
“others” may dictate. Men and women so placed are
forced to offer anything, to serve in any capacity, in order ,
to live at all. They must eat, they must clothe them-
selves, they must have some sort of a shelter. They can-
not resort to an earth that is owned and monopolized out
of their reach—only savages under a society without uni-
versal government could go to the land for the necessities
of life. What is left them?

Men offer their physical strength, their brain power,
their skill, in exchange for the means of living. When
they are sharp and shrewd and learn “to play the game”
correctly and successfully, they may become masters
themselves. And where the fear of want urges human
beings on to do or give their utmost, this fear engenders
another more powerful yet—the greed of gain; and to
this fierce incentive men prostitute their talents, their
integrity, all they possess. When successful, the world
honors them and points them out as examples to be fol-
lowed by the ambitious youth who come after them.

But women have had little strength or ability to offer
in exchange for the necessities of life. They could not
work as well, and being under greater necessity they have
41

been forced to sell their services at a much lower rate
than their brothers have done. They have never been in
a condition to dictate terms, and often their terms of
servitude have been so hard, so cruel and exacting, that
death itself were preferable.

Woman has one possession that men are willing to
pay her well for, and that is, her sex nature. It ‘ts~but~
natural, that the disinherited ones of the earth, placed as
they are at such a frightful disadvantage, should. think
of every | device, every possible service they could render
in order to obtain the comforts of life. Once having
gained these necessities, they still see luxuries and means
of development all around them, yet held out of their
reach, and they will continue to barter whatever they
possess f for 1ese se further good things of life. Where men
offer their strength, skill, shrewdness, honor and integ-
rity for the things they crave, women offer that which
brings the most and is the surest sale—their sex favors.
It is not a pleasant fact to contemplate, but it is here and
must be recognized. Where there is poverty and destitu-
tion, there will be prostitution, both of men and women.

eee be urged that there is no poverty in modern
society that is so dire as to justify the sale of one’s body,
brains or honor for a price; and that there must be
something inherently bad in the man who sells himself,
something instinctively base in the woman who will,
under any circumstances whatever, yield up her body for
the sake of a price. For it is known that there are thou-
sands of good women who are poor and who could not
be induced to give up their virtue for any price. Poverty

  
43

alone, it will be argued, cannot be the cause; there must
be some natural, inborn tendency toward vice in every
woman who takes up a life of shame, voluntarily.

For answer, we must examine more closely into the
conditions of society in modern times. It will not be
necessary, in_order_to prove our position, to. go back
again into the dark ages of the past when the majority
of { the people were kept in the-densest ignorance,. debase-
ment, servility, and were at_once.a_ prey to their own low-
est passions and those of their masters, If throughout
the past, sexual excesses prevailed among human beings,
we know, too, that brutality, cruelty, hatred, greed and
vice of every kind predominated, and that those who
called themselves the superior class set the worst kind
of an example to the inferior ones. With slavery, igno-
rance and degradation on one side, tyranny, lust and in-
dulgence on the other, a fierce struggle for bare existence
among the masses, a cruel greed for power inciting the
few at the top, it is true conditions were horrible and
vice of all kinds flourished.

But we will look only into conditions of the times since
the most important nations have been called civilized and
enlightened; since science, invention, art and literature
have supposedly lifted the world out of the darkness of
the middle ages. We would naturally expect to find
people much happier, better and more comfortable than
they were even a hundred years ago, considering the
great strides progress has taken in a material way. But
compared with what the world can afford its children we
are yet in a deplorable state.
43

A little more than a hundred years ago, the civilized
world had reached a critical stage—a point at which the
progressive forces were seemingly at a standstill—poised
as it were, ready for an onward impetus, or a fall back-
ward into apathy and inertia for another long period of
time. Behind, lay centuries of slavery, ignorance, un-
requited toil, vice and misery for the masses of mankind.
In the future—what?

A little enlightenment, a wavering gleam of the idea
of liberty, had sifted down to the minds of the common
people. A faint hope, a glimmer of something better
than was ever known before, trembled across the path-
way of the future. Steam power had been discovered,
the printing press had been invented, a few labor-saving
machines had come into use. Of course, in their igno-
rance, some of the wretched poor had been angered at
the new machines and had destroyed them. But the
more intelligent hoped for some lifting of the burdens
which labor had borne for so many ages. The thinkers
of the day took up the subject and sought for scientific
reasons for the existence of the conditions which ob-
tained. Since political governments had been improved,
and labor-saving machines had come into use, why was
not the condition of the masses of the people improved?
Many of those investigators were sincere and earnest
and might soon have led to the discovery of the real
causes of poverty. But one of the number came out with
a conclusive work which apparently solved the whole
problem, freed everybody from blame, and threw the
whole responsibility of the wretchedness and poverty of
44

the world on the Creator thereof. The Rev. Malthus
published his “Principles of Population” as an essay in
1798, and afterward revised and enlarged and printed it
in book form in 181s. In this book he uncovered a
truth, that the tendency in all forms of life was to propa-
gate faster than the means of subsistence increased. That
is, it is a truth of blind, uncontrolled life—the forms of
life which follow only the powerful inner impulse of self
preservation. Millions of insects, reptiles, fish, etc., are
propagated that a few may reach perfection. If they all
survived, they must eventually all starve to death, as
there would nowhere on earth be sufficient food for them.
And Malthus argues that the same principles must apply
to human beings. Too many people are born to admit
of even a majority coming to maturity without subject-
ing the whole human race to want. In the past, wars,
famines, and pestilence, had kept population down so
that the race, as a whole, did not suffer from destitution.
The only further remedies Malthus could suggest were
late marriages and self control. It apparently never
occurred to him that the earth itself might be brought
up to a vastly greater state of prolificacy, by scientific
methods; or that the thousands of undesired children
born of slave mothers might be eliminated—the idea of
free mothers who would control the birth of loved
children had never been conceived in those days. There
was no practical way to force men and women to wait
until their youth was passed, to marry, and the case
looked hopeless. The rich breathed a sigh of relief and
returned to their fleshpots, the poor groaned and bent
45

a little lower under the burden that could not be lifted.
Poverty then, was inevitable. Nature had not spread
her table for all her children. Many must submit to
hunger, cold and pestilence, to being worked to death or
killed in wars of their masters’ making, that a few might
live luxurious, secure and refined lives. The Malthusian
doctrine has been an opiate to many a good man’s con-
science, a hoodwink over the eyes of the seemingly
surplus poor, and an illusion that has deceived the
thinkers so that the real truth has been long delayed.
For poverty is unnecessary in this bountiful world, and
man is terribly at fault that all do not obtain what they
need in order to grow and develop as they should.

But whatever its source, poverty is the underlying
cause of nearly all the vice, crime and misery that exists
in society. The fear of destitution forces men and
women to look about for any means by which they can
ward it off, for self preservation is the first law of nature,
always. The fear of want engenders the greed of gain,
and these two factors in human society work more wrong
than any other one thing.

The conventional idea is that criminals and prostitutes
are naturally and inherently bad. Ordinary people do
not consider conditions, environment, hereditary in-
fluences as being any excuse or justification for wrong
doing. Still, it is one of the hopeful signs of the times
that serious, thoughtful people are studying these sub-
jects, and that the causes of crime and misery are
earnestly being investigated. It is being acknowledged
that punishments and penalties are no cures for crime,
46

that they are not even preventatives. To one person
who is deterred from crime by the severe punishment of
a criminal, twenty are started on the criminal pathway
by the suggestion, and the arousing of latent passions
psychologically by the excitement and commotion inci-
dental to the event.

Climate, geographical position, institutions, all of
which are elements in political economy, go to make up
the individual with all his desires, tendencies, passions,
hopes and capabilities. Mankind must have, first of all
a place to exist in, and then the means of existence. The
character of the human animal is largely determined by
the manner in which he must obtain that subsistence.
If it can be gained by the ordinary normal exercise of
his faculties and strength, such as he instinctively does
if free and uncorrupted, he will develop into a normal,
reasonable, good human being—he has no incentive to
prostitute himself in any way.

But when he is deprived of his natural abiding place,
the land, because it is owned and monopolized out of
his reach, if in consequence he must toil long hours for
a pittance in order to live at all, or is denied even the
chance to so toil, it must be expected that he will resort
to many and devious ways in order to satisfy his wants.
Naturally he will prostitute his faculties—naturally, be
it man or woman, human beings will offer what they
possess, prostitute themselves, “put to base uses” their
bodies or their abilities.

Modern prostitution is but the logical outcome of
centuries of abuse, oppression, and robbery ; woman being
47

the weaker sex, has suffered most and given most, but
her vice is but the vice that men have pushed her into.
For ages, women were not even free enough to sell
the use of their bodies and receive the price themselves.
Nevertheless, their bodies were used. Society was
doubly vicious because men arrogated to themselves the
claim of superiority, that on that account they should
be under no constraint whatever, and that women had
been created solely for their benefit. During the dark
ages, while feudalism was the established system of so-
ciety, women were the most helpless and wretched of
beings. Matilda Joslyn Gage says, in “Woman, Church
and State’: “At an age when human life was valueless,
and suffering of every kind was disregarded, we can
readily surmise the fate likely to overtake unprotected
peasant women. For a woman of this ciass to be self-
respecting was to become the target of the vilest abuse.”

Serfs were held at the absolute command of the lords
of the estate. They had no rights which their masters
were bound to respect; the men must give up their labor,
their crops, their lives in their masters’ battles, when the
masters demanded it of them. The women must yield
their bodies when the lords looked with desire upon them.
The right of the seignior to the first night of every
bride upon his estate was everywhere recognized. The
husbands and fathers might grind their teeth in impo-
tent rage, but for ages this unwritten law held full sway.
Toward the close of the feudal system, the peasants
began to violently protest against this outrage and at
48

last did make the lords fear their vengeance in some
degree.

But when feudalism finally was overthrown, the abuse
of women did not cease. The old plea that men were
superior and had desires that must be gratified, and that
women were created to administer to these desires, is
one that is made in all ages and in all countries and is
the basis of all the cruelty and licentiousness from which
women have suffered under every political system. Even
in the last century, the disclosures made of a terrible
state of affairs in England, showed that the right of the
seignior was still upheld by the aristocracy. The pretty
young daughters of tenant, both in England and Ireland,
were sent for or deluded into being led to the castles of
the lords, and if the girls refused to go or complained of
the treatment they received, the parents were turned out
of their homes. Matilda Joslyn Gage gives many authen-
ticated examples of this sort of thing. And she says:

‘“‘To H. R. H. and his aristocratic companions in guilt is
due the support and protection of England’s notorious and in-
famous purchase and sale, outrage and exploitation of helpless
young girls . . . . Trace as you will, the path of either
ecclesiastical or temporal ruler claiming authority by divine
right, and you will find the way marked with the remains of

women and children whose lives have been wrecked by man
under the plea of created superiority.’’

The rulership of man, and poverty, which is but an
outcome of this rulership and monopolization of the
earth and its products, are the causes of nearly all of the
misery, vice and degradation which have blackened the
pages of history. Modern “social evil” is but a part of
49

it all. The slave prostitutes of Greece were but little
worse off than the women who are forced, either by
destitution or by deceit or violence, to minister to men in
our own days. Those wretched Dicteriades had no
possible recourse—it was the government itself that held
them in bondage and there was no higher power to appeal
to. Today the laws do not actually protect the masters
of the women they hold for prostitution; but it winks at
them, and it is difficult indeed to enforce such statutes
as might protect the miserable women.

In most large cities today the houses of prostitution
are owned by individuals, who practically own the in-
mates. The women are dressed, lodged and fed, but
they receive no money from patrons; the price is paid
to the proprietor and the customers are handed over to
their women, and not one of them dare refuse herself
to whoever comes. They are usually kept in debt to the
proprietors, and made to believe that they cannot get
away while they owe anything. But to whom could they
apply if they tried to escape? There is no one but the
policeman on the beat and he stands in with the keepers.
The women are, to all intents and purposes, slaves, in the
twentieth century, and under the shadow of churches
and court houses.

Some of the most frightful stories have come from
far away places where men have congregated to work
or fight or explore. Some years ago, a hideous state of
affairs was unearthed in the Michigan and Wisconsin
lumber camps. They kept the women as prisoners, be-
hind high walls, in dens too filthy for description;
50

bloodhounds were kept to track the girls if they suc-
ceeded in running away; they were unmercifully beaten
if they tried to escape, and they were constantly subjected
to the most brutal treatment, by the coarsest and lowest
of mankind. Does any one suppose for a moment that
any woman living would willingly subject herself to such
a condition?

It was found that young women were induced to go
there under the promise of work for good wages; often
they were stolen and made prisoners without any pre-
tense whatever; and some of the women had been old
in the business, but had been induced to go there with
the promise of making a great deal of money. These
soon found themselves in a hell worse than any they had
ever dreamed of, from which they would gladly have
escaped if they could.

One of the most terrible phases of the social evil
is the traffic carried on to procure young and attractive
girls as recruits for prostitute’s ranks. Wherever an un-
protected, lonely or discouraged young girl is to be found,
there will the procuror work his wiles in the most
cunning fashion. They will act friendly when the whole
world seems cold and cruel, and the girl is easily led,
until they are behind the doors that almost in every case,
close behind them forever. The girl is ignorant and
does not know what to do to free herself; and what
violence or threats are used to keep her silenced cannot
be known to the outside world.

Now, this nefarious work would never be carried on
if it were not for the profits to be gained. Human
51

beings do not do these cruel things because they love the
work, but because the making of a living has been
rendered so hard, so precarious, that they will escape it
if possible; they forget their humanity in their frenzy
to “make money” at all hazards—at any cost. The
economic urge under our present social and industrial
systems, drives the middle classes into doubtful tran-
sactions for the sake of “profits,” as it drives the lower
classes to selling themselves for bread.

There may be cases of natural tendency toward the
life of a prostitute—some abnormal sex formation which
induces a woman to drift into the promiscuity of a
prostitute’s life—but these cases are rare indeed. A
woman may be strong, healthy and soundly sexed, but
she will not choose a prostitute’s life of her own free
will. She may love and may express her love, but—
only her lover will know it. And if he is a good, true
man, she will be none the worse for it; the street will
never swallow her up in its terrible maw.

Nearly every woman of the street who has ever been
questioned will tell, if she tells the truth, a painful story
of want, of suffering on the part of some dear one, or of
some deceit, or outrage, or actual violence, of abandon-
ment, and utter loneliness. The woman left alone to
starve or freeze, nearly always thinks of this last resort.
The fact that for so many ages women have been out-
raged and violated, forced to yield to that old idea that
man’s superiority demands gratification at the sacrifice
of women, has taught the sex to remember that there
is always a price they can pay for the comforts and
52

necessities they need. Man has set the world-old ex-
ample of sex barter with no element of love whatever
in it. Women driven by destitution find it easy to do
what they have been cowed and beaten into doing for
ages. ‘

Now the thought will arise, that not all fallen women
sell themselves because of actual, dire destitution. Many
have yielded themselves through an extreme love of
finery and things of beauty, or from the hope of greater
luxury and more leisure than an honest life would afford
them. This is all true too. Society has made the earning
of a good, decent living for the average woman a very
difficult thing. It has made the opportunities for exer-
cising her faculties and abilities to advantage very scarce
indeed. Always, under our economic systems, there is a
large class of unemployed workers. This must inevitably
be the case when the actual workers are not paid enough
to buy back a fourth of what they produce. An ever
abundant surplus of goods on the market, necessitates
hard times, or no work at all to a large number of wage
workers. The individual members of the class change
each month perhaps, but the class is always there.
Women have a natural love for the beautiful and for
refinement and sweetness of life; it is contrary to their
natures to toil continuously, and a little daily leisure is
like a glimpse of heaven to most of them. For the innate,
uncomprehended craving so many women experience,
they do voluntarily sell themselves without love and
without passion, hoping to find the ease, luxury, beauty
and cheer they long for, and little dreaming how much
33

worse their fate will be than it was before. Women
marry to gain wealth, position, influence, leisure and
luxury, and the world does not condemn them. Yet, they
are no different and no better than the women who give
themselves for a month, a week or an hour for these
same things. The former, has a ceremony pronounced
over her and all society is notified with great display of
what she is about to do; she sells herself for a life
time and there is litfle probability that she will ever know
the happiness of a mutual love and the spontaneous ex-
pression of it. But she will be honored and flattered,
and life will be made easy for her. The latter, may
escape her bonds if they are too harsh, but she will be
scorned and slighted to the end of her life. Society
seldoms forgives a woman for violating her mandates.
But both these women are equally blamable, and both
to be tolerantly dealt with.

What is the alternative today for the good woman
who will not give herself in either of these ways, and who
has not inherited money or has no father or brother
who is willing to support her? Progress has opened up
many new fields of activity to women, but after all, un-
less one is born with unusual ability or has had unusual
advantages in an educational way, one will find the strug-
gle to earn a living a nerve wearing and bitter struggle.
Not all women can marry the men they love, not all are
willing to take up the inevitable burden of being a poor
man’s wife with all the subjection, narrowness, hard work
and suffering this entails. What else can they do?

If the woman takes up sewing for a living, she must
s+

work ten, twelve or more hours a day as fast as her
fingers can fly, seated always in a close room, getting no
fresh air, no physical exercise, until disease sets its fatal
mark upon her; and she will receive for it, barely enough
to keep body and soul together. Or, she can work in
some of the factories, under similar conditions or worse.
Or, she can go to work in somebody’s kitchen and be
looked upon with as much regard as would be given a
machine, considered as a thing without feelings, desires,
or capacity for happiness; a creature not fit to sit with,
to eat with, or to talk with, one who is not supposed to
need love or friendship or companionship. What self-
respecting woman will voluntarily choose such an exist-
ence? One may wash and scrub, and grow bent and
wrinkled with hard, knotted hands and ugly form; be
always tired, and always just outside the circle where
life is really lived.

Or one may rise to be a stenographer, a bookkeeper,
or a clerk. But even here, unless one buys her position
with her sex favors, it is insecure, and she is poorly
paid and ill-considered. Her work is wearing and con-
fining and she will sooner or later lose her health and
power to work. A teacher perhaps, has a better chance,
as her hours are not so long and she is treated with
some respect by her patrons. But women who teach
continuously, are usually nervous wrecks at forty or
forty-five. And there are not places for all who would
be teachers. Women do sometimes make good canvassers
or agents. If they possess a quality generally known as
“cheek” and are not sensitive to the treatment they
55

receive from strangers, they may make a success of it
and may not be compelled to work all the time. But the
woman has to know that she is forcing articles upon
people which they do not want, and she must too often
feel herself a fraud. All these devious ways are so
dreary, so ugly, so devoid of all that makes life worth
living. It is a strong character indeed that can turn
back from the enticement of an apparently luxurious and
easy life spent in ministering to man’s desires, to take
up the dull, plodding life of a common wage worker.
The majority of prostitutes come from the wage
working classes, which proves that women are driven to
such a life, instead of leaning toward it from innate
“badness.” Women workers are subjected also to more
temptations and opportunities than the better protected
class of women. Their occupations often throw them
where the very next logical step is into the street. Type-
writer girls, bookkeepers and clerks are easy prey to their
employers because they are often in the midst of well
dressed, refined people, and see gaiety, enjoyment, good
cheer on every side, and find it impossible to participate
in any of these or to dress decently on the wages they
receive for mere toil. The domestic servant is subject to
many trying ordeals, the master or the master’s son,
usually considering the servant legitimate prey, a sort
of reminiscence of feudal times when serfs or servers
were used practically as lawful property. When they
are tired of, or discovered by the mistresses, they are
turned out; what other resources have they but to drift

to the houses of prostitution?
56

Laundry workers are also subject to many bad in-
fluences and must be strong indeed to maintain their own
self respect through all they have to endure. Heat, bad
air, foul odors, wet floors, drafts, these are the usual
accompaniments to work in a laundry, and women sel-
dom work longer than three or four years before break-
ing down entirely. They earn from $4 to $8 a week, and
generally support several children, perhaps an un-
fortunate or drunken husband, or an invalid relative.
The exhaustive toil and the long hours create a craving
for stimulants, and, from drinking a little in one’s own
room from sheer weariness, to drinking in a wine room
with a lover or several rollicking friends is but a step.
Once on the downward road it is a swift and sure pace
to the bottom.

Girls who are early in life sent to the factory to help
eke out the meagre wages of the father are easy victims.
The hard toil before they are matured, the bad air full
of dust and odors that they breath so much of their
time, the long hours of constant strain, weaken and
dwarf the bodies, and they can never be the strong,
healthy, well poised women who can keep their honor and
self respect inviolate. They are thrown with all sorts
of companions, and must often walk home in the dark
with no protector after work hours. It can well be sur-
mised what often happens to them, and once having
succumbed or been over-powered, the next stopping
place is the street or the brothel.

And thus, wherever there is poverty, helplessness,
poor development and ignorance, there prostitution finds
57

its recruits. Rich, well cared for girls do not become
prostitutes. They may be deceived and deserted and
may run away or be driven from home, but they then
belong to the class of poor, helpless, resourceless girls
and are liable to meet all that they meet. But wealthy
girls do not deliberately choose a life of shameful barter ;
and it may be asserted that no free, intelligent, econom-
ically independent woman ever deliberately offers herself
for sale to all comers. Women do not go from safe,
loving, comfortable, happy homes direct to public
brothels. It has been believed that prostitutes were
naturally vicious women, that they adopted the life from
choice and that they delighted in drawing worthy and
innocent masculinity into depths of iniquity. Once in
the midst of such an existence anything can be expected
of them, and they are generally dissipated and depraved.
But they never arrived at such a stage at one step, and
that step of their own choosing. Women instinctively
shrink from sex expression unless love sanctifies it.

A strong, healthy, well poised girl who is industrially
independent, may want love and may desire the natural
expression of her love. But this expression must be
spontaneous and mutual, not in any sense a sale or a
barter. Once let this love be consecrated by a marriage
ceremony, and the girl is called, womanly, loving and
good. Is the same natural impulse all bad when the rite
is omitted? In either case the intuitive reaching out for
the fulfillment of her being, is nothing akin to the feeling
of the woman who is driven by desperation to offer her
body for the sake of a price. It is pitiful, it is tragic,
#8

that a noble and beautiful natural impulse, deeply im-
planted within the living organism, that can be rendered
so high and holy by love, should be dragged to the abyss
of forced or bought exchanges. But it is all a part of
that perverted selfishness, which has crushed the greater
portion of mankind into submission, for the benefit of a
few supposedly superior ones. In reality it makes con-
ditions worse for even the few, than if all had an equal
share in Nature’s gifts and an equal opportunity to use
them. If people were wisely selfish, they would see that
no person on earth clanked a chain or uttered a groan of
hunger and despair. Then love would render all rela-
tions so beautiful that no man would dream of going
back to the days when force and a false idea of duty
afforded him such gratification as he obtained.
Women are not as sweet and noble today as Nature
would have had them. For, woman was first mastered,
beaten into submission, robbed, outraged, violated, until
her whole sweet, natural sex nature became distorted
and stunted; later on, she was starved and frozen into
offering her body with apparent willingness; and then,
she has been flattered, coaxed, and humored until she
would consent to become a docile plaything; sometimes
she has been placed upon a pedestal and worshipped,
not for her humanity but for her sex; again, she has
been hawked about and offered for sale by ambitious
parents seeking buyers in worn out old roues with titles
or money bags. Can there be any wonder that women
are what they are, shallow, volatile, deceitful, vain, in-
capable of great love or of great actions? Woman has
9

been slave, a hired thing, a toy, an idol, an ornament,
an appendage to man, but never yet what she will be in
the glorious future, a comrade, a friend, a willing lover,
an equal, an individual standing on the same footing with
man, clasping hands face to face, eyes meeting eyes on
a level, responsive and sympathetic, each to the other.

And now, what of the cure for the “social evil”? A
great many good people are devoting their lives to saving
fallen women from the depths of misery and degradation
into which they have been flung, and it speaks well for
the progress of the world that this is so. Two centuries
ago, no one thought of showing kindness to a prostitute
—the sooner she was worn out and cast aside to a
wretched death the better. A woman, once having lost
her virtue, might better die immediately than to live to
go through the successive stages she must before she
reached the bottom. But in recent years, the great,
divine pity, which has awakened in the hearts of human-
ity, has done much to soften the misery and modify the
vice of the lower strata of society. “Homes” have been
erected as a refuge for women who wish to forsake an
evil life and numbers have been saved in this way. Hos-
pitals have been established in which sick prostitutes
may be treated and cared for. Houses where the young,
innocent and unprotected girl who is alone in a city
may find friends and a shelter, have been provided in
every large city. Philanthropists and sincere Christians,
like the Salvation Army lasses, go down into the worst
dives, nurse the sick, clean up the filth, talk kindly to the
women there and often “pluck a brand from the burn-
60

ing,” bring her up and out of the depths and set her to
work to earn an honest living. But, oh! It is as though
one tried to sweep back the ocean with a mop—the
mighty stream is fed so much faster at the source than
can be taken care of at the mouth.

In Chicago, some years ago, a prominent merchant
was asked to subscribe $500 toward the building of a
“home” for fallen women. He amiably complied, and
—the next morning reduced the wages of all the sewing
women in his manufacturing department. He liked to
be known as a charitable patron of homes for fallen
women and the like, but he took the amount subscribed
out of his employes and thus gave them an extra push
toward the downward path that led to his “home for
fallen women.”

The well meaning Christians who work to save the
souls of fallen women do not know what to do with
their bodies when they get them saved. Respectable
ladies do not want them in their houses to do their work,
and there is no room for them anywhere. Occasionally
one seems to be suitably placed with some liberal woman
who is willing to give the saved one a chance. But
nearly always, the monotony and dullness of a conven-
tional worker’s life, the restrictions, constraint, and sus-
picion which inevitably surround the woman, prove to
be too much for her good resolutions, and sooner or
later she throws :: all up and goes back to the old life.

The ordinary “homes” are but little better than jails
with their strict rules and regulations, and the “tag” that
is necessarily placed upon the inmates. They are cold,
61

systematic and repellant, where they should be loving,
wise and kind in order to be effectual; fallen women are
more apt to run away from them than to seek refuge
behind their walls.

The very few poor women who have been “saved,”
do not make any real impression on the mass of misery
and vice precipitated in the lowest stratum of society.
The ranks of prostitutes are constantly being filled, at
a much faster rate than they can be saved after once
having fallen. After every panic, or financial depression,
the women and girls come down in flocks, from desks,
offices, stores and factories, because of hard times. Since
the recent scare in money circles and the consequent
“shut down” of shops and mills, the tenderloin districts
in all our large cities are more crowded than ever. While
poverty is crowding women down to ruin, charity can
do very little to check the current.

But the law might do something to wipe out the
evil, surely. Many people believe even yet, that it is only
necessary to “pass a law” to eliminate. any wickedness
that exists. This has been the principle on which govern-
ments have regulated society for ages. The world has
been legislating against sin for thousands of years, but
the sin remains just the same.

Every once in awhile, in all the important cities, a
great wave of morality sweeps over the political and
social surface and ruffles it up considerably. New laws
will be passed, old ones brightened up, and officials will
be prodded into renewed activity. Vile corners of the
city will be “cleaned up,” a few of the worst offenders
62

will be sent to jail, and the others will be driven out.
Then the political party in power boasts of the wonderful
great work they have accomplished, and really make peo-
ple believe that a fine moral revolution has taken place.
Actually, they have not abated or abolished a single
evil. “Cleaning out” such a place is like clearing an old
decaying house of rats by making a loud noise and
frightening them away for a time. All the unhappy
wretches exist still, and must live in some way. They
have no other way of securing it except by practicing
their old profession, only now, they must do it more
secretively, and in darker and more dangerous corners.
They may drive the offenders to some other place, but
they are not made good, nor are the conditions which
make their occupation profitable in the least improved.
Nothing but a complete change in the social and
economic institutions and systems of our civilization will
effect a cure for the evil under discussion. This seems
like a big and an impossible cure, and it will be urged
that we must not wait until a revolution can be brought
about before we try to remedy the worst of our evils.
No, I would welcome every kindly effort that is made
to modify the evils of our unjust economic system and to
save the victims from a portion of their inevitable suffer-
ing. But while this is being done and we are realizing
more and more every day that these little remedies do not
actually effect the evils and their underlying causes, the
system itself is being pushed to its last possible stand
and the thinking world is waking up to the fact that all
human beings are related and that what concerns one
63

concerns all. Mankind must eventually get together in
one great, co-operative, fraternal whole; men must learn

to thoroughly understand and then to adopt the true
democratic principle in everything—not in a pretended
political sense alone. For, while there are owners of
the earth, and homeless ones because of it, while there
are masters and servants, while there are the favored
few, and the oppressed majority, there will always be
wrongs and abuses that cannot be cured. We must get
out of the old concept of “classes” and get down to the
basic fact that human beings are all brothers and that
one Supreme Principle of Good pervades them all. The
earth and all its resources must not be owned and
monopolized by a few—it must belong to all alike, and
every man and woman must have an equal opportunity
to labor and create upon it. Useful labor, the natural,
healthful exercise of the faculties, must be the only
foundation for the ownership of wealth. None need be
idle—idleness is deteriorating and corruptive; none
should be overworked—drudgery dulls the faculties,
paratyzes the brain, and dwarfs the body. Let all be
workers and all be consumers! This, radical as it sounds,
is pure selfishness, enlightened selfishness, after all, for
every one will be secure and happy—each will possess
enough and need not fear the encroachments of his
needy brother.

When all are afforded full opportunity to act and
develop and grow, when each one has an equal opportun-
ity to work, when every one stands on equal footing as
to liberty—does any one think that man or woman will
64

“sell himself or herself for base uses’? Would there
be any reason or cause for prostitution? Certainly not.
Love would come into its own again and would bless and
purify the inborn impulse that has been dragged through
the mud and mire of centuries until it is a monster, not
a natural attribute of the complete, sane, self controlled
human being. Love will bless and consecrate all society
and all that belongs to it, and there shall be none to make
afraid.
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