.CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF .; 
 
 George B^ t/akeley 
 UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 HQ 111.S22 
 
 The history of prostitution:its extent, 
 
 3 1924 014 347 763 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014347763 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION: 
 
 ITS EXTENT, CAUSES, AJSfD EFFECTS THEOUGHOUT 
 THE WORLD. 
 
 rBEINO AN OFFICIAL EEPOET TO THE BOARD OF ALMS-HOUSE GOVEENQES 
 OF THE CITY OF NEW YOEK.] 
 
 BY WILLIAM W. SANGER, M.D., 
 
 EESIDENT PHYSIOIAN, BLAOKWELL'S ISLAND, NEW TOBK OITT ; MEMBEE OF THE AMESXOAN 
 
 ABBOOIATION FOB THE ADVANCEMENT OF BOIENOB; LATE ONE OP THE FUTBIOIANS 
 
 TO THE MAEINB nOSriTAL, QTTAEANTINB, HEW TOfiE, ETtt, ETC., ETC. 
 
 "To such grievances as society can not readily cure, it usually forbids utterance on pain of 
 its scorn; this scorn being only a Bort of tinseled cloak to its defonned weakness/'-— Citsbbb 
 Bell, Shirley, 
 
 NEW YOEK: 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 PEAEL STREET, FRANKLIN SQUAEE. 
 
 1859. 
 

 /// 
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred 
 
 and fifty-eight, by 
 
 HAEPEE & BEOTHEES, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York. 
 
 3sd 
 
 
DEDICATION. 
 
 TO THE GOVERNORS OF THE ALMS-HOUSE OF THE CITY AND 
 COUNTY OF NEW YORE. 
 
 Sirs, — To your Honorable Board I dedicate the following 
 pages, the result of an investigation into the causes and extent 
 of Prostitution. 
 
 Yours was the conception, mine has been the execution of the 
 work; to you am I indebted for many valuable suggestions; to 
 your kindness for much encouraging approbation ; and now to 
 your hands I confide my labors, in the conviction that they will 
 not be fatile ; that your patriotism, your philanthropy, and your 
 humanity will be at once enlisted in the cause. 
 
 In so noble an endeavor it will be a source of satisfaction to 
 remember that I assisted you in those generous exertions which 
 will add fresh laurels to your names ; that I had some share in 
 the effort which will induce future generations to remember with 
 pride that the first blow struck in the "Western World at the 
 gigantic vice Prostitution was aimed by the Governors of the 
 Alms-House of the City and County of New York. 
 I- am your obliged fellow-citizen, 
 
 William W. Sanger, M.D. 
 
 Besident Physician's Office, Blackwell's Island,) 
 New York City, August 10th, 1858. ) 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The reader will perceive from tlie body of this work that the 
 "History of Prostitxition" was commenced in the year 1856. It 
 was completed and ready for the press at the close of 1857. On 
 the morning of February 13th, 1858, the Island Hospital on 
 Blackwell's Island was entirely consumed by fire, which spread 
 so rapidly as to render it impossible to save any thing from the 
 flames. Among the property destroyed, my library and manu- 
 scripts were included. Fortunately, the first draught of this work 
 had been previously removed from my of6.ce, and was preserved, 
 and from that the present volume has been prepared. 
 
 Advantage has been taken of the opportunity thus afforded 
 carefully to revise the work and introduce some additional facts, 
 bringing the history, of New York especially, to the present time. 
 
 The chapters describing foreign prostitution are not claimed to 
 be entirely original. They are compilations and condensations 
 from every available source. It is believed that the authorities 
 have been named in most cases where the ideas of others have 
 been used ; but, owing to the loss of all the original works, it is 
 highly probable that in some instances this has been overlooked. 
 Shoiild the reader discover any omissions of this nature, he will 
 be kind enough to understand that accident alone prevents the 
 usual acknowledgements. W. W. S. 
 
 Resident Physician's Office, Blackwell's Island, 
 New York City, August I'oth, 1858, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTteB I. 
 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 Prostitution coeval with Society. — Prostitutes in the Eighteenth Centuiy B.C. — 
 Tamar and Judah. — ^Legislation of Moses. — Syrian Women. — Kites of Moloch. 
 — Groves. — Social Condition of Jewish Harlots. — ^Description by Solomon. — The 
 Jews of Babylon Page 35 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 EGTPT, STKLA, AND ASIA MINOE. 
 
 Egyptian Courtesans. — Festival of Bubastis. — Morals in Egypt. — Eeligious Prosti- 
 tution in Chaldsea. — Babylonian Banquets. — Compulsory Prostitution in Phoeni- 
 cia. — ^Persian Banquets 40 
 
 CHAPTER lU. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 Mythology. — Solonian Legislation. — Dicteria. — Pisistratidse. — Lycurgus and Spar- 
 ta. — ^Laws on Prostitution. — Case of Phryne.^-Classes of Prostitutes. — Pornikon 
 Telos. — ^Dress. — Hair of Prostitutes. — The Dicteriades of Athens. — Abode and 
 Manners. — Appearance of Dicteria. — Laws regulating Dicteria. — Schools of 
 Prostitution. — ^Loose Prostitutes. — Old Prostitutes. — Auletrides, or Elute-players. 
 — Origin. — How hired. — Performances. — Anecdote of Arcadians. — Price of 
 Flute-players. — ^Festival of Venus Periboa. — Venus Callipyge. — Lesbian Love. — 
 Lamia. — Hetairte. — Social Standing. — Venus and her Temples. — Charms of 
 Hetairae. — Thargelia. — Aspasia. — Hipparchia. — ^Bacehis. — Guathena and Gua- 
 thenion. — ^Lais. — ^Phryne. — Pythionice. — Glycera. — Leontium. — Other Hetairse. 
 —Biographers of Prostitutes. — Philtres 43 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Laws governing Prostitution. — Ploralian Games.— Registration of Prostitutes. — 
 Purity of Morals. — Julian Law. — .ffidiles. — Classes of Prostitutes. — ^Loose Prosti- 
 tutes. — Various Classes of lewd Women. — Meretrices. — Dancing Girls. — Bawds. 
 — Male Prostitutes. — Houses of Prostitution. — Lupanaria. — Cells of Prostitutes. 
 — Houses of Assignation. — Fornices. — Circus. — Baths. — Taverns. — Bakers' 
 Shops. — Squares and Thoroughfares. — Habits and Manners of Prostitutes. — So- 
 cial standing. — Dress. — Rate of Hire. — Virgins in Roman Brothels. — Kept Wom- 
 en. — Roman Poets. — Ovid. — Martial. — Roman Society. — Social Corruption. — 
 Conversation. — Pictures and Sculptures. — Theatricals. — Baths. — Religious In- 
 decencies. — Marriage Feasts. — Emperors. — Secret Diseases. — Celsus. — Roman 
 Faculty. — Archiatii 64 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EAELT CHRISTIAN BEA. 
 
 Christian Teachers preach Chastity. — Horrible Punishment of Christian Virgins. — 
 Persecution of Women.— Conversion of Prostitutes.— The Gnostics.— The Ascet- 
 ics.— Conventual Life. -^Opinion of the Fathers on Prostitution.— Tax on Prosti- 
 tutes.— Punishment of Prostitutes under' the Greek Emperors Page 86 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PKANCE. — ^HISTORY DURIKG THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Morals in Gaul.— Gynecea.— Capitulary of Charlemagne. — Morals in the Middle 
 Ages,— Edict of 1254.— Decree Of 1358, re-establishing Prostitution. — Koi des 
 Eibauds. — Ordinance of Philip abolishing Prostitution. — Sumptuary Laws. — 
 Punishment of Procuresses. ^ Temples. — The Provinces. — Prohibition in the 
 North.— Licensed Brothels at Toulouse, Montpellier, and Avignon. — Penalties 
 South.— Effect of Chivalry. — Literature. — Erotic Vocabulary. — Incubes and 
 Succubes. — Sorcery, — The Sabat. — Flagellants. — ^Adamites. — Jour des Inno- 
 cents. — ^Wedding Ceremonies. — Preachers of the Day 93 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 FRANCE. — ^HISTOKT PROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS SIU. 
 
 The Court. — Louis IX. to Charles V. — Charles VI. — Agnes Sorel. — Louis XI. — 
 Charles VIII. — Louis XII. — Frapqis I. — La Belle Feronniere. — Henry II. — Di- 
 ana de Poictiers. — Lewd Books and Pictures.-^Catharine of Medicis. — Margaret. 
 — Henry IV. — Mademoiselle de Ehtragues. — Heniy III. — Mignpns. — Influence 
 of the Ligue. — Indecency of Dress. — Theatricals. — Ordinance of 1560. — ^Police 
 Regulations 108 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FRANCE. — HISTORY FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 Exile of Prostitutes. — Measures of Louis XIV. — Laws of 1684 and 1713. — Police 
 Regulations. — Ordinance of 1778. — Republican Legislation. — Frightful state of 
 Paris. — Eiforts to pass a general Law.^The Court. — ^Louis XIII. — The Medicis. 
 — ^Louis XIV. — La VaUiere.-:— Montespan. — Maintenon. — ^Literatui-e of the Day. 
 — Feudal Rights.— The Regency. — Duchess of Berri. — Claudine de Tencin. — 
 Louis XV, — Madame de Pompadour. — ^Dubarry. — Pare aux Cei'fs. — Louis XVI. 
 — Philippe Egalite. — Subsequent Soyereigns.-^Literature. — Lewd Novels and 
 Pictures.— Tendency of Philosophy. — The Church 120 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FRANCE. — SYPHILIS. 
 
 First recorded Appearance in Europe. — Description by Fracastor. — Conduct of the 
 Faculty. — First Hospitals in Paris.— Shocking Condition of the Sick. — New Syph- 
 ilitic Hospital, — Plan of Treatment. — Establishment of the Salpetri^re. — ^Bicetre. 
 — dapuchins. — Hospital du Midi. — Reforms there. — ^Visiting Physicians. — ^Dis- 
 pensary. — Statistics of Disease. — Progress and Condition of Disease 181 
 
PONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 FRANCE. — PRESENT REGULATIONS. 
 
 Number of Prostitutes in Paris. — Their Nativity, Parentage, Education, Age, etc. — 
 Causes of,Prostitution. — Eules concerning tolerated Houses. — Maisons de Passe. 
 —Windows. — Keepers.-^Formalities upon granting Licenses. — Recruits. — Pimps. 
 — Profits of Prostitution, — Inscription. — Interrogatories. — 'Nativity, liow ascer- 
 tained. — ObstBieles.^-Prinoiples of Inscription. — Age at which Inscription is made. 
 — Radiation. — Provisional Radiation. — Statistics of Radiation. — Classes of Pros- 
 titutes. — yisit to the Dispensary. — Visiting Physicians. — Punishment. — Offenses. 
 — ^Prison Discipline. — SaintDenis. — Tax on Prostitutes. — Pnspectors. — Bon 
 Pasteur Asylum. — (Note: Duchatelet's Bill for the Repression of Prostitu- 
 tion.) Page 139 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 Decline of Public Morals. — Papal Court. — Nepotism. — John XXII. — Sextns IV. 
 — Alexander VI. — Effect of the Reformation. — Poem of Fracastoro. — Benvenuto 
 Cellini. — Beatrice Cenci. — ^Laws of Naples. — Pragmatic Law of 1470. — Court 
 of Prostitutes. — Bull of Clement II. — Prostitution in Lombardy and Piedmont. 
 — Clerical Statute. — Modern Italy.T— Laws of Rome. — Public Hospitals. — Laz- 
 aroni of Naples.-r-Italian Manners as depicted by Lord Byron. — ^Foundling Hos- 
 pitals. — True Character of ItaUan People ISl 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Resemblance between Spanish and Roman Laws on Prostitution. — Code of Al- 
 phonse IX. — Result of Draconian Legislation. — RufBani. — Court Morals. — 
 Brothels. — ^Valencia. — ^Laws for the Regulation of Vice. — Concubines legally 
 recognized. — Syphilis. — Cortejo. — Reformatory Institutions at Barcelona. — 
 Prostitution in Spain at the Present Day. — Madrid Foundling Hospital 168 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 POKTUGAX. 
 
 Conventual Life in 1780. — Depravity of Women. — Laws against Adultery and 
 Rape. — ^Venereal Disease. — Illegitimacy. — ^Foundling Hospitals of Lisbon and 
 Oporto. — Singular Institutions for Wives „ 178 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 ALGERIA. 
 
 Prostitution in Algiers before the Conquest. — Mezonar. — Unnatural Vices. — Tax 
 on Prostitutes. — Decree of 1837. — Corruption. — ^Number of Prostitutes and Pop- 
 ulation. — Nationality of Prostitutes. — Causes of Prostitution. — Brothels.^Clan- 
 destine Prostitution. — ^Baths. — Dispensary. — Syphilis. — Punishment of Prosti- 
 tutes 180 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 BELGIUM:. 
 
 Hospitals and Charitable Institutions. — Foundlings. — Estimate of the Marriage Cer- 
 emony. — ^Regulations as to Prostitution. — Brothels. — Sanitary Ordinances.. 187 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HAMBnKO. ^ 
 
 Ancient Legislation.— Ulm.— Legislation from 1483 to 1764.— French EeTolution, 
 and its effects on Morals.— Abendroth's Ordinance in 1807.— Police Ordinance 
 in 1811.— Additional Powers in 1820.— Hudtwalcker.— Present Police Regula- 
 tions.— Number of Registered Women.— Tolerated Houses.— Illegitimacy.— Age 
 and Nativity of Prostitutes.— The Hamburger Berg and its Women;— Physique, 
 Peculiarities, and Diseases of Prostitutes.— Dress.— Food.— Intellectual Capaci- 
 ty. — Religion. — Offenses. — Procuresses. — Inscription. — ^Locality of Brothels. — 
 Brothel-Jceepers.— Dance-houses.— Sunday Evening Scene. — ^Private Prostitutes. 
 — Street-walkers.— Domes tic Prostitution. — ^Unregistered Prostitution. — Houses 
 of Accommodation. — Common Sleeping Apartments.— Beer and Wine Houses. 
 —Effect of Prostitution on Generative Organs.— General Maladies.— Forms of 
 Syphilis. — Syphilis in Sea-ports. — Severity of Syphilis among unregistered 
 Women.— The "Kurhaus" and general Infirmary. — Male Venereal Patients. — 
 Sickness in the Garrison. —Treatment. — Mortal Diseases of Hamburg Prosti- 
 tutes. — Hamburg Magdalen Hospital Page 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL 
 
 PRUSSIA. 
 
 Patriarchal Government. — Ecclesiastical Legislation. — Trade Guilds. — ^Enactments 
 in 1700. — Inquiry in 1717. — Enactment in 1792. — Police Order, 1795. — Census. 
 — Increase of illicit Prostitutions — Syphilis. — Census of 1808. — Ministerial Re- 
 script and Police Report, 1809. — Tolerated Brothels closed. — Re-enactment of the 
 Code of 1792. — Ministerial Rescript of 1839. — Removal of Brothels. — Petitions. 
 — Ministerial Reply. — Police Report, 1844. — ^Brothels closed by royal Command. 
 — ^Police Embarrassment, and Correspondence with Halle and Cologne. — Local 
 Opinions. — Public Life in Berlin. — Dancing Saloons. — ^Drinking Houses. — Im- 
 morality. — Increase of Syphilis. — Statistics. — Illegitimacy. — ^Royal Edict of 1851. 
 — Recent Regulations 219 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 LEIPZIG. 
 
 Population.— Registered and illicit Prostitutes. — Servants. — ^Kept-women. — ^Broth- 
 els. — ^Nationality of Prostitutes. — Habits. — Fairs. — Visitors. — ^Earnings of Pros- 
 titutes 252 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DENMAKK. 
 
 Prostitution in Copenhagen. — Police Regulations. — Illegitimacy. — Brothels. — 
 Syphilis. — Laws of Marriage and Divorce. — Infanticide. — Adultery. — New Mar- 
 riage Ordinances , 256 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SWITZEELAUD. 
 
 Superior Morality of the Swiss.— Customs of Neufchatel.— "Bundling."— Influ- 
 ence of Climate 259 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 RUSSIA. 
 
 Ancient Manners. — Peter the Great. — Eudoxia. — Empress Catharine, her disso- 
 lute Conduct and Death. — Peter's Libertinism. — Anne. — Elizabeth. — Catharine 
 II., infamous Career and Death. — Paul. — Alexander I. — Countess Narishkini — 
 Nicholas. — Court Morality. — Serfage. — Prostitution in St. Petersburg. — Excess 
 of Males oyer Females.— Marriage Customs. — Brides' Fair. — Conjugal Eolations 
 among the Russian Nobility. — ^Foundling Hospital of St. Petersburg. — Illegiti- 
 macy Page 261 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 SWEDEN AUD NORWAY. 
 
 Comparative Morality. — Illegitimacy. — Profligacy in Stockholm. — Infanticide. — 
 Foundling Hospitals. — Stora Barnhordst. — Laws against Prostitution. — Tolera- 
 tion. — Government Brothels. — Syphilis. — Marriage in Norway 277 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. — ^HISTORY TO THE TIJIE OP THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Aboriginal Morals and Laws. — Anglo-Saxon Legislation. — Introduction of Chris- 
 tianity. — St. Augustine. — Prostitution in the Ninth Century. — Com-t Example. 
 — ^Norman Epoch. — Feudal Laws and their Influences. — Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 Courts. — General Depravity. — Effects of Chivalry. — Fair Rosamond. — Jane 
 Shore. — Henry VIII.— Elizabeth. — James 1 282 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. — HISTORY FROM THE COMMONWEALTH TO THE PRESENT DAY'. 
 
 Puritans. — Results of Asceticism. — Excesses of the Restoration. — General Licen- 
 tiousness.— Art. — ^Literatnre.-^The Stage. — NeU Gwynne. — Nationality in Vice. 
 — Sabbath at Court. — James II. — Literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 Centuries. — Lord Chesterfield. — House of Hanover. — Royal Princes. — George 
 III. — George IV. — Influence of French Literature. — Marriage Laws. — Increase 
 of Population 298 
 
 CHAPTER XK.Y. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. — PROSTITUTION AT THE PRESENT TIME. 
 
 Influence of the Wealthy Classes. — Devices of Procuresses.— ^Scene at a Railway 
 Station. — Organization for entrapping Women. — Seduction of Children. — Con- 
 tinental TraflSc. — Brothel-^^eejers^— -^^JISJlcjLjWen'' and " Spooneys." — Number 
 of Brothels in London.- }-CaSsesq r^TOtitutioyi — Sexual Desire. — Seduction. — 
 Over-crowded Dwellings. — Parental Example. — Poverty and Destitution. — Pub- 
 lic Amusements. — Ill-assorted Marriages. — Love of Dress. — Juvenile Prostitu- 
 tion. — Factories. — Obscene Publications. — Census of 1851. — Education and 
 Crime. — Number of Prostitutes. — ^Female Population of London. — Working 
 Classes. — Domestic Servants. — Needlewomen. — Ages of Prostitutes. — Average 
 Life. — Condition of Women in London. — Charitable Institutions. — Mrs. Fry's 
 benevolent Labors - 312 
 
xii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 6SEAT EBITAIN. — SYPHILITIC DISEASES. 
 
 Pirst Eecognition in England.— Regulations of Henry VI.— Lazar Houses.— John 
 of Gaddesden.— Queen Elizabeth's Surgeon.— Popular Opinions.— Proclamation 
 of James IV. of Scotland.- Middlesex and London Hospitals.— Army.— Navy,— 
 Merchant Service.— St. Bartholomew's Hospital.— Estimated Extent of Syph- 
 ilis Page 354 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 Spanish Conquest.— Treatment of Female Prisoners.— Mexican Manners in 1677. 
 —Priesthood.— Modern Society.— Fashionable Life.— Indifference of Husbands 
 to their Wives.— General Immorality.— Offenses.— Charitable Institutions. — The 
 Cuna, or Foundling Hospital.. •■ 359 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIIL 
 
 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMEKICA. 
 
 Low moral Condition. — San Salvador. — Guatemala. — ^Yucatan. — Costa Rica. — 
 Honduras. — The Caribs. — Depravity in Peru and Chili. — "Children of the 
 House." — Intrigue in Lima. — Infanticide. — Laxity of Morals in Brazil and Par- 
 aguay. — ^Foundling Hospital at Rio Janeiro 364 
 
 CHAPTpi XXIX. 
 
 NOETH AMEBIOAN INDIANS. 
 
 Decrease of the Indian Race. — Treatment of Females. — Courtship. — Stealing 
 Wives. — Domestic Life among the Crow Indians. — "Pine Leaf." — Female Pris- 
 oners. — Marriage. — Conjugal Relations.— Infidelity. — Polygamy. — Divorce. — 
 Female Morality. — Intrigue and Revenge. — Decency of Outwaid Life. — Effects 
 of Contact with White Men.— Traders 372 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 BAEBAEOBS NATIONS. 
 
 Africa. — Australasia. — ^West Indies. — Java,— Sumatra. — ^Borneo 385 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 
 
 Persia. — Afghanistan. — Kashmir. — India. — Ceylon. — Ultra -Gangetic Nations. — 
 Celebes. — China. — Japan. — Tartar Races. — Circassia.— Turkey. — ^Northern Af- 
 rica. — Siberia. — ^Esquimaux. — Iceland. — Greenland 415 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. — 
 
 NEW TOEK. — STATISTICS. 
 
 Schedule of Questions.— Age. — JuvenilejDeprav ity. -PrematnrR Old Age.— Grad- 
 ual Descent. — Average Duration of aTtrostiftite's Life.^-Nativity. — Proportion 
 of Prostitutes from various States. — New York. — Effects of immigration. — For- 
 eigners.— Proportion to Population. — Proportion to Emigration. — Dangers of 
 Ports of Departure, Emigrant Ships, and Boarding-houses.— Length of Resi- 
 dence in the tfnited States.— -Prostitution a Burden to Tax-payers. ^Length of 
 
 Residence in New York State.— Length of Residence in New York City.— In- 
 ducements to emigrate.— Labor and Remuneration in Europe.— Assistance to 
 
CONTENTS. xiii 
 
 emigrate ; its Amount, and from whom. — Education. — Neglect of Facilities in 
 New York.— Social Condition. — Single Women. — Widows. — Early and Injudi- 
 cious Marriages. — Husbands; — Children. — Illegitimate Children. — Mortality of 
 Children. — Infanticide. — Influences to which Children are exposed Page 450 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXIII. 
 
 NEW TOKK. — STATISTICS. 
 
 Continuance of Frostituti sn. — AY e aage in Par is and New York. — Dangers of Pros- 
 titution. — Disease^ CausesofProstitution.A -Inclination. — Destitution. — Seduc- 
 tion. — IntemperanceT— Ill-trea tment. — Duties of Parents, Husbands, and Bela- 
 tirri ijlnflnniirfi '? f ProatituM| s. — Intelligence Offices. — Boarding-schools. — Ob- 
 scene Literature 484 
 
 ^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 NEW YORK. — STATISTICS. 
 
 Means of Support. — Occupation. — Treatment of Domestics. — Needlewomen. — 
 Weekly Earnings. — Female Labor in France. — Competition. — Opportunity for 
 Employment in the Country. — Effects of Female Occupations. — Temptations of 
 Seamstresses. — Indiscriminate Employment of both Sexes in Shops. — Factory 
 Life. — Business of the Fathers of Prostitutes. — Mothers' Businesa — Assistance 
 to Parents. — Death of Parents. — Intoxication. — Drinldng Habits of Prostitutes. 
 — Delirium Tremens. — Liquor Sold in Houses of Prostitution. — Parental Influ- 
 ences. — Religion of Parents and Prostitutes. — Amiable Feelings. — Kindness and 
 Fidelity to each other.. 623 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 NEW TOBK. — ^PHOSTIIDTES AND HOUSES OP PHOSTITUTION. 
 
 First Class, or "Parlor Houses." — Luxury. — Semi-refinement. — Rate of Board.— 
 Dress. — Money. — ^Lavish Extravagance. — Instance of Economy. — Means of 
 Amusement. — House-keepers. — 'Rents. — Estimated Receipts. — Management of 
 Houses. — Assumed Respectability. — Consequences of Exactions from Prostitutes. 
 — Affection for Lovers. — Second Class Houses. — Street-walkers. — ^Drunkenness. 
 — Syphilitic Infection.-^Third Class Houses. — Germans. — Sailors. — Ball-rooms. 
 —Intoxication. — Fourth Class Houses. — Repulsive Features. — Visitors. — Action 
 of the Police.— First Class Houses of Assignation. — Secrecy and Exelusiveness. 
 — Keepers. — Arrangements. — Visitors. — Origin of some Houses of Assignation. 
 — ^Prevalence of Intrigue. ^Foreign Manners. — Effects of Travel. — Dress. — Sec- 
 ond Class Houses. — ^Visitors. — Prostitutes. — Arrangements. — Wine and Liquor. 
 — Third Class Houses. — Kept Mistresses. — Sewing and Shop Girls. — Disease. — 
 Fourth Class Houses. — "PaneLSo»ses!JUii....jj,.rfrrr>, 549 
 
 ICHAPI 
 
 :. — EXTEW^-lEFFI 
 
 I CHA PTER . XXSVL 
 
 NEW YORK. — BXTEHrrlEF FECTS. AND COST OV rROSTITnilQ N. 
 
 Number of Public Prostitutes. — ibpi nion of Chief of Police in l856^Effects on 
 Prostitution of Commercial PaffiTbf 1(^57. — Extravagant SurmisesT— Police In- 
 vestigation of May, 1858. — Private Prostitutes. — Aggregate Prostitution. — Vis- 
 itors from the Suburbs of New York. — Strangers. — Proportion of Prostitutes to 
 Population. — Syphilis. — Danger of Infection. — Increase of Venereal Disease. — 
 Statistics of Cases treated in Island Hospital, Blackwell^s Island. — Primary 
 Syphilis and its Indications. — Cases of Venereal Disease in Public Institutions. 
 — Alms-house. — Work-house. — Penitentiary. — Bellevue Hospital. — Nursery 
 
xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 Hospital, Eandall's Island.— Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island.— New York 
 City Hospital.— Dispensaries.— Medical Colleges.— King's County Hospital.— 
 Brooklyn City Hospital.— Seamen's Eetreat, Staten Island.— Sufimary of Cases 
 treated in Public Institutions.— Private Treatment.— Advertisers.— Patent Med- 
 icines. — Drug-stores. — Aggregate of Venereal Disease. — Probabilities of Infec- 
 tion.— Cost of Prostitution.- Capital invested in Houses of Prostitution and As- 
 signation, Dancing-saloons, etc.— Income of Prostitutes.— Individual Expenses 
 of Visitors.— Medical Expenses. —Vagrancy and Pauper Expenses.— Police and 
 Judiciary Expenses. — Correspondence with leading Cities of the. United States. 
 —Estimated Prostitution throughout the. Union. — Remarks on " Tait's Prostitu- 
 tion in Edinhurgh." — Unfounded Estimates.— National Statistics of Population, 
 Births, Education, Occupation, Wages, Pauperism, Crime, Breweries and Distil- 
 leries, and Nativities Page 675 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 NEW TOKK. — KEMEDIAI, MEASUHES. 
 
 Effects of Prohibition. — Required Change of Policy. — Governmental Obligations. 
 — Prostitution augmented by Seclusion. — Impossibility of benevolent Assistance. 
 — Necessity of sanitary Regulations. — ^Yellow Fever. — Effect of remedial Meas- 
 ures in Paris. — Syphilitic Infection not a local Question. — Present Measures to 
 check Syphilis. — Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island. — Mode of Admission. 
 — Vagrancy Commitment "on Confession," and its Action on Blackwell's Isl- 
 and. — Pecuniary Results. — Moral Effects. — Perpetuation of Disease. — Inade- 
 quacy, of Present Arrangements. — Discharges.^ — Writs of Habeas Corpus and 
 Certiorari, how obtained, and their Effects. — Public Responsibility. — Proposed 
 medical and police Surveillance. — Requirements. — Hospital Arrangements to he 
 entirely separated from punitive Institutions. — Medical Visitation. — Power to 
 place diseased Women under Treatment and detain them till cured. — Refutation 
 of Objections. — Quack Advertisers. — Constitution of Medical Bureau. — Duties 
 of Examiners. — License System. — ^Probable Effects of Surveillance. — Expenses 
 of the proposed Plan. — Agitation in England. — The London Times on Prostitu- 
 tion. — Objections considered. — Report from Medical Board op Bbllevue Hos- 
 pital on Prostitution and Syphilis. — ^Report from Resident Physician, Ran- 
 dall's Island, on Constitutional Syphilis. — Reliability of Statistics. — Resume 
 of substantiated Facts.. .w ,. 627 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Akguments are unnecessary to prove tlie existence of prosti- 
 tution. The evil is so notorious that none can possibly gainsay 
 it. But when its extent, its causes, or its effects are questioned, 
 a remarkable degree of ignorance or carelessness is manifested. 
 Few care to know the secret springs from which prostitution 
 emanates; few are anxious to know how wide the stream ex- 
 tends ; few have any desire to know the devastation it causes. 
 —Society has formally laid a prohibition on the subject, and he who 
 presumes to argue that what affects one may injure all ; he who 
 believes that the malady in his neighbor's family to-day may visit 
 his own to-morrow ; he who dares to intimate that a vice which 
 has blighted the happiness of one parent, and ruined the charac- 
 ter of one daughter, may produce, must inevitably produce, the 
 same sad results in another circle ; in short, he who dares aUudeL 
 to the subject of ^prostitution .iiup-ny other than a mysterious and 
 wEspered manner, must prepare to meet the frowns and censure 
 jofsocietyr' 
 
 Keen was the knowledge of human nature, acute the perception 
 of worldly sentiment in the breast of an accomplished woman 
 lately deceased, when she wrote, " To such grievances as society 
 can not readily cure, it usually forbids utterance on pain of its 
 scorn ; this scorn being onl;^ a sort of tinseled cloak to its deformed 
 weakness." How true the idea, many a man who has attempted 
 to unveil a hidden crime, or probe a secret sorrow, but too well 
 knows. 
 
 Not then to prove that prostitution exists, for that is so glar- 
 ingly palpable that all must perforce concede it, but to ascertain 
 its origin, progress, and end, is the object of these pages. The 
 finger of scorn may be pointed at the labor ; the self-righteous 
 world may wrap itself in a mantle of prudery, and close its ears 
 against sickening' details; the complacent public may demur at 
 an approach to sin and misery ; the self-satisfied community may 
 object to view wretchedness drawn from the obscurity of its hid- 
 
 B 
 
18 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 ing-place to the full light of investigation : nevertheless^ there is 
 now existing a moral pestilence which creeps insidjjiusly into the 
 privacy of the domestic circle, and draws thence the myriads of 
 its victims, and which saps the foundation of that holy confidence, 
 the first, the most beautiful attraction of home. There is an 
 ever-present physical danger, so fatally destructive that the world 
 would recoil, as from the spring of a serpent, could they but ap- 
 preciate its malignity ; a malignity which is daily and hourly 
 threatening eveiy man, woman, and child in the community; 
 which for hundreds of years has been slowly but steadily making 
 its way onward, leaving a track marked with broken hopes, ruin- 
 ed frames, and sad recollections of stricken friends ; and which 
 now, in the full force of an impetus acqmred and aggravated Ijy 
 concealment, almost defies opposition. Th&ra is a^oeial-wrong^ 
 jjrhich forces upon the community vast expenditures for an object 
 of which they are ignorant j ' which swells the public taxes and in- 
 creases individual outlay for a vice which has hitherto been studi- 
 ously kept in concealment. These reasons were sufBiciently pow- 
 erful to induce the necessary researches for the accomplishment 
 of this work, and they are considered sufficient tojustify its pub- 
 lication. 
 
 An unseen evU, of which only the effects are visible, is more 
 frightfiil than one whose dimensions are apparent. No statesman 
 would grapple with a political question untQhe knew its "form 
 and pressure ;" no philanthropist can satisfactorily encounter an 
 unknown misery. Both may judge, to some slight extent, of the 
 evil they can not see, but the one can not venture to remove it, 
 nor the other to modify its woes until its power is fully known. 
 This has so far been the case with prostitution. The world has 
 studiously drawn a screen before it, and when the sufferings of 
 its victims became so apparent that the vice was palpable, an ad- 
 ditional mystery was thrown around it, and the people of the 
 nineteenth century know it but as a sin with which they can not 
 interfere. It has all the imagined force of a monster, because of 
 its obscurity ; all the virulence of an avenging fiend, because its 
 true powers are hidden ; and even those who suffered from its 
 poison have been led to believe that its mysteries were so inscru- 
 table as to defy all approach. 
 
 Hitherto reticence has been the policy. This position has been 
 held too long, for it is false in principle and injurious in tendency. 
 The day has arrived when the shroud must be removed; when 
 
INTEODUCTION. 19 
 
 the public safety imperiously demands an investigation into the 
 matter ; when those who regard it as a small wrong may have 
 their attention directed to its real proportions ; and when those 
 who have viewed it as an unmanageable giant may be alike un- 
 deceived. 
 
 A small matter it decidedly is not: the eternal ruin of one 
 misguided woman would effectually preclude such an opinion; 
 the physical ruin of an impetuous man would prohibit such an 
 estimate, and both these are among those daily consequences 
 which call for an investigation. There is scarcely a person in the 
 community who can not recall some circumstance he has known 
 to support this assertion ; for so wide-spread has been the bane- 
 ful influence of prostitution, that there are comparatively few but 
 have suffered, through friends or rektives, if not in their own 
 persons. 
 
 Nor is it unmanageable, except when concealed. Stripped of 
 the veil of secrecy which has enveloped it, there appears a vice 
 arising frofn an inextinguishable natural impulse on the part of 
 one sex, fostered by confiding weakness in the other ; from social 
 disabilities on one side, and social oppression on the other ; from 
 the wiles of the deceiver working upon unsuspecting credulity ; 
 and, finally, _/roTO the stern necessity to live. 
 
 It is a mere absurdity to assert that prostitution can ever be erad- 
 icated. Strenuous and well-directed efforts for this purpose have 
 been made at different times. The whole power of the Church, 
 where it possessed not merely a spiritual, but an actual secular arm, 
 has been in vain directed against, it. Nature defied the mandates 
 of the clergy, and the threatened punishments of an after-life were 
 futile to deter men from seeking, and women from granting, sin- 
 ful pleasures in this world. Monarchs victorious in the field and 
 unsurpassed in the council-chamber have bent all their energies 
 of will, and brought all the aids of power to crush it out, but be- 
 fore these vice has not quailed. The guilty women have been ban- 
 ished, scourged, branded, executed ; their partners have been sub- 
 jected to the same punishment; held up to public opinion as im- 
 moral ; denuded of their civil rights ; have seen their offenses vis- 
 ited upon their families ; have been led to the stake, the gibbet, and 
 the block, and still prostitution exists. The teachings of moraJity 
 and virtue have been powerless here. In some cases they restrain 
 individuals ; upon the aggregate they are inoperative. The re- 
 searches of science have been unheededi They have traced the 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 physical results of vice, and have foresliadowed its course. -They 
 have demonstrated that the suffering .parents of ^is generation 
 will bequeath to their posterity a heritage of ruinecTpowers ; that 
 the malady which illicit pleasure communicates is destructive to the 
 hopes of man ; that the human frame is perceptibly and regularly 
 depreciating by the operation of this poison, and have shown that 
 even the desire for health and long life, one of the most powerful 
 motives that ever influences a human being, has been of no avail 
 to stem the torrent. 
 
 But if history proves that prostitution can not be suppressed, it 
 also demonstrates that it can be regulated, and directed into chan- 
 nels where its most injurious results can be encountered, and its 
 dangerous tendencies either entirely arrested or materially weak- 
 ened. This is the policy to which civilized communities are tend- 
 ing, and to aid the movement it is needful that the subject be 
 examined, even at the risk of the world's, contumely. ,,^^ 
 
 In some of the countries of Continental Europe the examina- 
 tion has been made, and the natural consequences of a searching 
 and philosophical investigation are there seen in legislation, which 
 aims not to dam a wild torrent, but to lead it where its rage may 
 be harmlessly spent. "When a mighty river overflows its banks, 
 the uncontrollable flood works wide-spread ruin and devastation 
 along its course ; but the same river, confined to its natural chan- 
 nel, may be of immense service in carrying off a vast amount of 
 filth and debris that otherwise would cause pestilence and death. 
 In this Western hemisphere, and in the mother-country, Anglo- 
 Saxon prudery has stood aloof from inquiring into a vice which 
 every one adniits to be offensive to the moral sense of the people, 
 and has submitted to an accumulation of etils rather than seek to 
 abate them, until the suffering and the wrong have become so 
 boldly defined that they force themselves upon the public eye. 
 
 Assuredly it is high time to inaugurate a new line of action ; 
 to cast aside as unwortiiy those puerile doubts of propriety and 
 expediency which have stood in the way of an onward progress. 
 The very meaning of the word "propriety" supplies am argu- 
 ment in favor of the proposed course. Conventionally, it has been 
 construed to mean an indefinite so^^ethiug which every person 
 has moulded to suit his own predilections. Upon the same prin- 
 ciple that a, man who makes his living dishonestly would consid- 
 er it a. glaring impropriety to examine the laws of fraud, has the 
 world decided it an outrage against propriety to inquire into a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 vice ■wMch: many secretly practice, but all publicly condema 
 Eeasoning like tbis bas been too often applied, and witb too great 
 an effect. Can tbere possibly be an impropriety in investigating 
 a vice wbicb threatens the purity and peace of the community, 
 because in so doing unpleasant facts ■wUl be disclosed ? Is there 
 not a far more striking inconsistency in supinely allowing the same 
 vice to exist and increase, without hinderance or examination? 
 
 Again : it must be conceded that the demands of propriety are 
 universal. They are not restricted to any person or place, but 
 press with equal force upon every member of the community in 
 every possible situation. The common welfare is involved in 
 their general application, and he well merits the good opinion of 
 his fellow-men who points them to a case where propriety is out- 
 raged, and asks their aid to apply the remedy. In a word,^ra- 
 priety demands an exposure Of all acts of impropriety, and the ap- 
 plication of the needful cure. 
 
 Then the question arises, In what form shall the exposure be 
 made ? Truth admits of but one reply. It must be so explicit 
 as to leave no doubt of its meaning ; it must be so guarded as not 
 to offend in its application. If the first of these rules is not ob- 
 served, any disclosure will be worthless ; if the remarks are vague, 
 indefinite, or generalized, no good result can accrue. Take a sim- 
 ple illustration. It conveys no determinate idea to a benevolent 
 man to say, " There is distress in a certain city ;" but point him 
 to the particular locality, and give him the precise circumstances, 
 and his sympathy is at once aroused and effectively exerted. The 
 same rule is equally applicable to a monster vice and to an indi- 
 vidiial hardship, and upon this principle have the disclosures of 
 the following pages been based. The idea has been to particu- 
 larize sufficiently to draw attention, but not enough to gratify a 
 prurient inclination ; to exhibit the evil in a truthful aspect, but 
 not in a fascinating form. None can doubt the truth of Pope's 
 well-known lines : 
 
 " Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, 
 As, to, be hated, needs but to be seen ; 
 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
 We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 
 
 The endeavor should be to ftdfiU the imperative demands of pro- 
 priety, without disturbing the conventional prejudices implied by 
 the same word. 
 
22 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Then, as to expediency, or the fitness to effect some good end. 
 It must be admitted that the mere fact of provjjjg prostitution 
 capable of control is a good object, and it is apparent that such 
 proof can not be afforded while the vice remains a myth. Some- 
 thing must be known of its haunts and its customs ere any one 
 can decide in what shape a supervisory power can be best applied. 
 This knowledge must be obtained in defiance of deep-rooted prej- 
 udices. Conunonplace objections about the danger of touching 
 inipure objects are best met by the remark that to the pure all 
 things are pure. Though benevolence may at times lead its dev- 
 otees through scenes where moral purity is shocked, and to neigh- 
 borhoods where filth and obscenity vitiate the very air they 
 breathe, there is no contamination to those whose motives are 
 good. Inexpediency has been urged as often and as falsely as im- 
 propriety. In their application to this subject, both are perverted 
 from their legitimate meaning; both are made subservient to a 
 false taste, or a mawkish sensibility which fears to encounter an 
 imaginary danger. 
 
 r The safety of the community, so far as its sanitary condition is 
 |concemed, imperatively demands an inquiry like this. It is no 
 (longer necessary to prove that syphilitic taint is propagated by 
 |_the direct agency of prostitution. That fact has been demon- 
 strated years ago, and, reasoning from it, we rightly infer that the 
 ravages of that poison can be checked by compeUing abandoned 
 women to certain judicious observances. One thing is absolutely 
 certain, that the public health can not be endangered by the inter- 
 ference, and there is a moral certainty that it may be materially 
 benefited. The value of this investigation, so far as relates to 
 purely physical questions, consists in not merely pointing out 
 where the evil is, but in showing to what extent it exists, and then 
 contrasting the state of venereal disease, its rapid increase and aug- 
 menting virulence in this country, with its condition in those na- 
 tions where similar investigations have resulted in practical meas- 
 ures. 
 
 Public safety imperatively demands this investigation as a 
 means of tracing the habitual resorts of criminals. jJEt is not nec- 
 essary to inform any man conversant with city life that houses of 
 ill fame are the common resort of the most abandoned of the male 
 part of the community. J{There the assass in, against whose hand 
 no life is secure, has a safe retreat. The burglar, who commits 
 his depredations under cover of the shade of night.; the swindler, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 wlio defrauds tte honest trader by false representations ; ^&Bcg^a.-__ 
 terfeiter, who earns a precarious living by his unholy trade — these 
 hold there high carnival. There they meet to recount their ex- 
 
 / ploits andTdlvideThe^oils ; to devise new schemes of wicked- 
 ness, or lay plans by wMch simple youths may be allured to vilest 
 
 I practices. 
 n There is another phase of public safety which demands this in- 
 
 /yestigation, namely, the preservation of female honor. Those who 
 
 [frequent these haunts of vice are forever employed in casting about 
 snares to entrap the young, the unwary, or the friendless woman. 
 They tempt her to minister to their libidinous desires, and swell 
 
 L-the already overcrowded ranks of frailty. WhUe these resorts 
 are secret, there is every facility for such infamous conduct, with 
 but slight probability of its detection, and still slighter opportuni- 
 ties for prevention. Thither, too, young men, and even boys, are 
 inveigled by those who have grown old in vice, and there are they 
 taught the horrid mysteries of unhallowed passion.. Many a prom- 
 ising youth has left such haunts as these not only with a ruined 
 constitution, but with loss of character and honor ; many whose 
 names swell the criminal records of the day date their first step in 
 crime from the hour they entered a common brothel. 
 
 Again : Pubhc safety demands this investigation because of 
 the superior opportunities it will afiford to reformatory measures. 
 Start not at the supposition of reformiag courtesans. There is 
 hope even for them, for they are human beings, though depraved. 
 Their hearts throb with the same sympathies that move the more 
 favored of their sex. Their minds are susceptible to the same 
 'emotions as those of other feniales. Few of them become vile 
 from natural instiucts : poor victims of circumstances, many of 
 them would gladly amend if the proper means were used at the 
 proper time. 
 
 " There is in every human heart 
 Some not entirely barren part, 
 Where flowers of richest scent may blow, 
 And fruit in glorious sunlight grow." 
 
 This consummation can be achieved only when the pseudo-virtue 
 of the. world shall yield to true benevolence, and charity be in 
 deed what it professes in name. 
 
 If public safety is thus urgent, private interest also has argu- 
 ments in favor of iavestigating prostitution, ITo one need be 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 told that public aid is required to give medical treatment to tlie 
 unfortunate men and women tainted by tbis vice ; nor need any 
 one be assured that such aid, administered with every regard to 
 economy, requires yearly a large portion of the taxes paid by m- 
 dividuals. It would be sheer folly to assert that any measures 
 which can foUow this inquiry will be efficacious in eradicating 
 syphilis, but experience proves that an effective supervision would 
 materially abate its influence, render it curable in a much shorter 
 space of time, and reduce the expenses for each patient in a cor- 
 responding ratio. 
 
 Another large claim upon the public funds arises from the 
 necessity of employing an extensive judicial and police organ- 
 ization to deal with the crime and the criminals generated and 
 fostered in houses of ill fame. Nests of vice as they are now in 
 their darkness and seclusion, it would be impossible to suppose 
 a more fitting nursery for crime, or one whence more ciiminals 
 would emanate. As with disease, so with crime. It can not be 
 suppressed by placing its retreats under public notice, but it can 
 be watched, and, once brought to the light of day, half its dangers 
 and difficulties become surmountable. 
 
 Finally, private interest demands this investigation on mere 
 private grounds — ^the individual and personal expenses caused by 
 diseases contracted by debauchery. There is the money a work- 
 ing man must pay for his cure : this is his share of the loss. 
 There is the unproductive time, and the loss of profits upon his 
 labor: this is his employer's sacrifice. There is the deprivation 
 of comforts and necessaries experienced by his family and de- 
 pendents: this is their penalty. Society is thus involved in a 
 general loss on account of an act of folly, or passion, or crime 
 (call it which you please), committed in a concealed and secret 
 haunt, and such loss could be saved by the intervention of proper 
 means. 
 
 Common sense asks for a full investigation of all the evils 
 attending prostitution. In the every-day affairs of life, any man 
 who feels the pressure of a particular evil looks at once for its 
 cause. He may be neither a philosopher nor a logician, and may 
 never have heard of or read any of the luminous treatises which 
 professedly simplify science, yet he knows very well that for every 
 effect there must be some adequate cause, and for this he gener- 
 ally searches dihgently till he can find and remove it. But here, 
 in the city of New York, is a population who claim to be as 
 
INTEODUCTION. 26 
 
 intelligent as any on tke "Western continent, ■who have been for 
 years suffering from the effects of a vice in purse and person ; 
 who have paid and are paying every year large sums of money 
 on account of it ; who witness every day some broken constitu- 
 tion or ruined character resulting from it, and who yet have nev- 
 er thought of seeking out the cause ! Is it now too late to enlist 
 your sympathies in the undertaking? 
 
 Hence we conclude that propriety, expediency, public safety, 
 private interest, and common sense demand an investigation like 
 this now submitted to the reader. And what is the argument 
 brought forward to oppose it? The world's scorn — "this scorn 
 being only a sort of tinseled cloak to its deformed weakness." 
 But is not this scorn powerless agaiast the array of favoring mo- 
 tives ? Will it stand the test of comparison with any one of them, 
 much less of aU ? Is not its influence lost when its real character 
 is known ? The reckless carelessn^ess which has suffered a grow- 
 ing vice to iacrease and multiply, which has permitted a deadly 
 Upas-tree to take root and blossom in the community until its 
 poisonous exhalations threaten universal infection ; which has, by 
 its actual indifiference, fostered vice, promoted seduction, perpet- 
 uated disease, and entailed death ; shall this deformed weakness 
 now raise its trembling hands, and exhibit its tottering frame, 
 and lift its puny voice to forbid an examination into the sources 
 of the danger? Has not the finger of this scorn too long forbid 
 the search for truth ? Has not the hour arrived when truth will 
 speak trumpet-tongued, and when her voice must be heard? 
 
 Now the question will arise. Has the world's indifference pro- 
 duced these evils? Undoubtedly it has, and in the following 
 manner : Laws have been placed upon the statute-book declaring 
 prostitutes, and houses of prostitution, and all who live by such 
 means, illegal and immoral. There the law yet stands. At un- 
 certain intervals some poor and friendless woman is arrested as a 
 vagrant, and, to appease the offended majesty of law, she is sent to 
 prison, a scapegoat for five thousand of her class. It also some- 
 times happens that another woman equally gmlty, but with money 
 or influence, is arrested at the same time and for the same offense, 
 and before she reaches the prison walls a legal quibble has been 
 raised and she is free. Is there no culpable indifference in this? 
 Houses of prostitution are proscribed by law. How many of them 
 are ever indicted, or, if indicted, how many are suppressed ? This, 
 too, is owing to criminal neglect, and it is aggravated by the in- 
 
26 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 jurious effects arising from the mere circTimstance of allowing a 
 law to exist, and making no efforts to enforce it. The chafacter 
 of a people is judged, not by the laws that are made, but by the 
 strictness with which those that do exist are enforced and ob- 
 served. In regard to the first, there may be exhibited an acute 
 perception of an existing evil, and a desire to reform it by legisla- 
 tion ; but a second glance may reveal no wish to make this legis- 
 lation effective. In the special matter of prostitution, the opinion 
 is expressed elsewhere that prohibitory laws are worse than use- 
 less, and in the experience of New York City there is nothing to 
 shake that opinion, notwithstanding the fact that the efforts made 
 to enforce them are so " few and far between." Had existing 
 laws been more vigorously enforced, their inefficiency would long 
 since have been much better understood than it now is, and peo- 
 ple would not have rested under the delusion that every thing 
 necessary has been done. 
 
 There are yet other cases of culpable iudifference. These same 
 proscribed houses of prostitution are suffered to exist uncontrol- 
 led, and to spread disease and increase crime and vagrancy in all 
 parts of the city. It has been generally conceded that they can 
 not be suppressed. What effort has been made to hold ia check 
 their baneful influence ? None — ^literally none. The statesman 
 has looked on appalled at an evil of whose magnitude he could 
 form no correct idea ; the clergyman has hesitated to encounter 
 those who he judged would not respectfully receive his admoni- 
 tions ; the masses of society have shrunk from considering a sub- 
 ject which was repugnant and distasteful. Is there no guilty in- 
 difference in this ? There can be but one answer to this query ; 
 but one opinion as to the share this general apathy has had in 
 fostering the evU. 
 
 To substitute for this apathy a healthy action is the object of 
 this investigation. It is but the means to an end. In them- 
 selves, as mere matters of information, the facts and deductions 
 presented in the following pages can do nothing but demonstrate 
 the necessity of exertion ; but of this necessity they do afford 
 overwhelming demonstration. 
 
 Thus much for the general arguments as to the necessity of a 
 work of this nature. There are other special and local causes 
 which led to its accomplishment in the present form. 
 
 " The Governors of the Aims-House of the City and County of 
 New York," or, as they are more generally known, " The Ten 
 
INTEODUCTION. 27 
 
 G-ovemors," is a body called into existence by an act of tbe State 
 Legislature passed April 6, 1849, specially to take charge of the 
 vagrant and pauper institutions of the city. The present mem- 
 bers of the Board are the following well-known citizens :' 
 
 C. Godfrey Gunther, Esq., President. 
 Isaac J. OLnrER, Esq., Secretary. 
 
 Washington Smith, Esq.^ 
 Anthony Dugro, Esq.^ 
 Cornelius V. Anderson, Esq. 
 Isaac Townsend, Esq. 
 
 Daniel F. Tiemann, Esq. 
 Joseph S. Taylor, Esq. 
 P. G. Moloney, Esq. 
 Benjamin F. Pinckney, Esq. 
 
 At the time these investigations conmienced two other prom- 
 inent men were also members of the organization, Hon. Edward 
 C. "West (now Surrogate of the city) and Simeon Draper, Esq. 
 Both of these gentlemen had served as President of the Board 
 of Governors with honor to themselves and satisfaction to their 
 colleagues and the public ; both took a lively interest in the pro- 
 jected inquiry, and to both am I indebted for much valuable as- 
 sistance. 
 
 The act establishing the Board of Governors assigned to them, 
 with their other duties, the Tnedical care of all persons who had con- 
 tracted infectious diseases in the practice of debauchery, and who re- 
 quired charitable aid to restore them to health. The result was that 
 a very large number of persons, both male and female, chargeable 
 to the citizens of New York through the medium of the institu- 
 tions on Blackwell's Island, came under their cognizance, and they 
 became convinced that some measures were necessary in connec- 
 tion therewith. 
 
 Individual members had held this opinion for some time before 
 any official action was taken, and foremost among such was Gov- 
 ernor Isaac Townsend. This gentleman was one of the originally 
 appointed Governors, and has been connected with the Board by 
 re-election ever since — ^a circumstance which made him perfectly 
 acquainted with all the workings of the present system, and to 
 him the public is indebted for the conception of this undertaking. 
 For years has he labored to bring about this result, with an in- 
 
 ' Since this introduction was written (1857) some changes hare taken place in 
 -the constitution of the Board of Gdrernors. The election of Mr. Tiemann to the 
 Mayoralty caused a vacancy which is now filled by P. McElroy, Esq., and the res- 
 ignation and subsequent death of Mr. Taylor has resulted in the election of William 
 T.Pinkney, Esq. 
 
 » Now (1858) President of the Board. 
 
 ' Now (1858) Secretary of the Board. 
 
28 iNTEODUCTION. 
 
 domitable energy and perseverance equaled only By his known 
 benevolence and honesty of purpose. He frec[uejg.ly made the 
 practicability of such a measure the subject of conversation with 
 the gentleman who preceded me as Eesident Physician of Black- 
 well's Island, and, on my appointment (1853), the subject was 
 again urged by him ; nor could I be unaware of its importance. 
 No ofacial action was taken until the commencement of the year 
 1855. At that time Mr. Townsend was President of the Board, 
 and one of his first acts in that capacity was to submit a list of in- 
 terrogatories on the subject, which were adopted and transmitted 
 to me. I transcribe them from the Minutes of the Board : 
 
 "At a meeting of the Board of Governors of the Aims-House, held Jan- 
 ■uary 23, 1855, the following interrogatories were presented by the Presi- 
 dent: 
 
 " 1. What proportion of the inmates of the institutions on BlackweU's 
 Island under your medical charge are, in your opinion, directly or indirectly 
 suffering from syphilis ? 
 
 " 2. Are, or are not, the number of such inmates steadily on the increase ? 
 
 "3. Do not patients in the different institutions, particularly in the Peni- 
 tentiary Hospital, often leave before the disease is cured, so that they are 
 liable to infect other persons after their departure ? 
 
 " 4. Are not the offspring of parents affected with constitutional syphilis 
 subject to many diseases of like character, which cause them to become a 
 charge upon the city for long pmods of time, and qften for life 1 
 
 " 5. What are your views in reference to the best means of checking and 
 decreasing this disease, and what plan, in your opinion, could be adopted to 
 relieve New York City of the enormous amount of misery and expense 
 caused by syphilis ■? 
 
 " 6. You will reply in fuU to the above queries at the earliest possible date. 
 
 " Resolved, That a copy of the above be sent to the Resident Physician. 
 BlackweU's Island." 
 
 To reply to these questions, especially to the fifth, I discovered 
 that it would be requisite to extend my investigations beyond the 
 limits of the institutions on BlackweU's Island. This idea was 
 communicated to President Townsend, who 'joined me in appre- 
 ciating the necessity of such a movement. He also was the means 
 of interesting Mayor Wood and other officers of the city in the in- 
 vestigation as subsequently carried on, while his. continued exer- 
 tions and earnest support aided me generally in the prosecution of 
 the labor, and merit my most sincere and grateful acknowledg- 
 ments. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 The steps thus taken are fully detailed in the following letter 
 to the Board of Governors, that letter, or preliminary report; hav- 
 ing been called for in connection with the reports from the Med- 
 ical Board of Bellevue Hospital, and from the Eesident Physician 
 of Eandall's Island, which will be found, ^'^ extenso, in Chapter 
 XXXVII. of this work ;! 
 
 " Isaac Townsend, Esq., President of the Board of Governors. 
 
 " Deak Sir, — In reply to your letter asking for answers to cei-tain inter- 
 rogatories on the subject of prostitution and its diseases, I have to state that 
 I am not prepared to report, nor can I do so for some considerable length of 
 time to come. 
 
 " Had I confined myself to simply answering the queries propounded as 
 regards the institutions under my medical charge, simply given you the gross 
 numbers, with the percentages of those who have suffered or are now suffer- 
 ing from venereal disease, such reply could have been sent to you long ago. 
 A report of this kind from this department would have been looked upon 
 by the public at large as containing the history of nearly all the prostitu- 
 tion in the city, and particularly would a majority of the public have be- 
 lieved that nineteen twentieths of the disease resulting from prostitution 
 found its home here. Such is not the fact. Great as is the number of 
 prostitutes annually sent here, and enormous as is the number of cases of 
 venereal disease yearly treated here, yet these compose but a small fraction 
 of the sum total actually existing in this city. There are but few more 
 prostitutes on the island than are to be found on the same number of acres 
 in certain portions of the city ; and as for the venereal disease, why, gentle- 
 men, the island has the advantage. It is the least dangerous locality. 
 
 " Believing these to be facts, I could not bring myself to think that any 
 practical good would be accomplished by giving you the statistics of these 
 institutions alone. It would have been merely doing what has been done 
 before, and would have yielded no additional information for your guidance. 
 But it appeared to me that the time had come when your attention might 
 be solicited to the various fiicts attending the aggregate prostitution of the 
 city ; for, despite all our prohibitory laws, it is a fact which can not be 
 questioned or denied that this vice is attaining a position and extent in 
 this community which can not be viewed without alarm. It has more than 
 kept pace with the growth of aur city. Unlike the vice of a few years since, 
 it no longer confines itself to secrecy and darkness, but boldly strides through 
 our most thronged and elegant thoroughfares, and there, in the broad light 
 of the sun, it jostles the pure, the virtuous, and the good. It is in your 
 
 ' To explain the apparent solecism of addressing a letter to President Townsend, 
 detailing actions in which he had taken so important a part, it may be necessary to 
 say that a standing order of the Board of GoTemors requires all official correspond- 
 ence with them to be addressed to their President. 
 
30 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 gay sfa-eets, and in your quiet, home-like streets ; it is in your squares, and 
 in your suburban retreats and summer resorts ; it is in your theatres, your 
 opera, your hotels ; nay, it is even intruding itself into tne private circles, 
 and slowly but steadily extending its poison, known but to few, and entirely 
 unsuspected by the majority of our citizens. The whole machinery of the 
 law has been turned against these females without success ; its only result 
 having been a resolve, on their part, to confront society with the charge of 
 harsh, cruel, and unjust treatment. 
 
 " From these considerations, I felt it my duty to obtain all the facts 
 which could possibly be collected having any relation to the vice in ques- 
 tion, assured that you were desirous of taking a comprehensive view of it ; 
 and hence the resolve, if possible, to trace to the fountain-head prostitution 
 and its attendant diseases, so as to be enabled to bring the subject before 
 you in a form which should exhibit it in its proper colors and dimensions. 
 
 "The first step in this investigation was to obtain ample and reliable 
 information of the extent of the vice as it exists outside of these depart- 
 ments — a step which woxild have been beyond my power alone. Erom the 
 bold and reformatory stand which his honor Mayor Wood had taken in 
 regard to many matters connected with oiu* city government, it was be- 
 lieved that he would render his assistance if convinced of the propriety and 
 prospective usefulness of the investigation, and the result of an application 
 by President Isaac Townsend to his honor fully justified the correctness of 
 this supposition. He was found not only willing to aid in this great work, 
 but fully alive to its necessity and importance. The plan adopted to for- 
 ward the inquiry was to take a census of the city, so far as regards prosti- 
 tution, including the number of houses of prostitution ; the number of 
 prostitutes ; the causes which led them to become such ; their ages, habit% 
 birth-places, early history, education, religious instruction, occupation, etc., 
 and which census is now being taken by the Chief of Police, Creorge W. 
 Matsell, Esq., and the Captains of Police. 
 
 " Simultaneously with this, inquiries are also being prosecuted concerning 
 the extent of venereal disease in New York, which wiU afford interesting 
 information. This, of course, will be done without individual exposure, 
 nor will the report, when completed, assume the form of a guide-book by 
 which persons can find houses of ill fame. I am desirous of obtaining the 
 aggregate facts of the vice, and shall be cautious to take no steps toward 
 gratifying a prurient curiosity or lacerating a rankUng wound. 
 
 " When these facts are before you, they will be their own argument for 
 the necessity of action. 
 
 " I do not trouble you on this occasion with any remarks upon the deadly 
 nature of the venereal poison, but when you are informed as to the facilities 
 for its diffusion will be the proper time to do so. Neither would it be 
 consistent with this stage of the inquiry to enter into any discussion as to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 81 
 
 the plans that could Be adopted in mitigation of the vice ; for although 
 prohibitory measures h^ve failed to suppress, or even check it, yet, until its 
 full extent is known, 1 do not imagine that you would deem it prudent to 
 attempt to grapple a monster whose strength was not fully ascertained. 
 
 " You perceive that to obtain all the information necessary on this mat- 
 ter will be a work requiring both time and labor, and I respectfully ask 
 your forbearance, with the assurance .that I will lay the result of my in- 
 quiries before you at the earliest possible opportunity, and with the hope 
 that the magnitude and' importance of the subject will be an apology for 
 the time to which it is necessarily protracted. 
 
 " I am, sir, yours, very respectfully, 
 " William W. Sanger, JReddent Physician, BhckwelPs Island." 
 
 To aid the police officers in the duty of taking the census al- 
 luded to above, a schedule of questions was prepared.' This was 
 submitted to the Board of Governors by Governor Townsend, and 
 a resolution was adopted at their meeting of October 23d, 1855, 
 sanctioning the plan adopted, and authorizing him to have a suf- 
 ficient number of copies printed.. The mayor, the district attor- 
 ney, the chief of police, and the captains of the several districts, 
 willingly and zealously co-operated with Governor Townsend and 
 myself, and every possible exertion was used to obtain accurate 
 and extensive information. It became my duty to assist the offi- 
 cers in the execution of their task, and I am thus enabled to speak 
 with certainty as to the authenticity of the statistics given, which 
 were mainly collected under my own observation. 
 
 I gladly avail myself of the present opportunity to record my 
 obligations for services rendered by his honor Fernando "Wood, 
 Mayor of the city of New York ; George W. Matsell, Esq., Chief 
 of Police ; and to the Captains of Police in the different wai:ds of 
 the city, namely, 
 
 Capt 
 
 Michael Halpin, 1st ward. 
 
 Capt 
 
 Galen T.Porter, 12th ward 
 
 
 James Leonard, 2d " , 
 
 a 
 
 John B. Bussell, 13th 
 
 
 
 James A. P. Hopkins, 3d " 
 
 (( 
 
 David Kissner, 14th 
 
 
 
 J. Murray Ditchett, 4th « 
 
 a 
 
 George W.Dilks, 16th 
 
 
 
 Daniel Carpenter, 5th " 
 
 it 
 
 JohnD.M'Kee, 16th 
 
 
 
 Joseph Bowling, 6th " 
 
 e< 
 
 J.W.Hartt, iTth 
 
 
 
 Edward Letts, Tth « 
 
 i( 
 
 George W. Walling, 18th 
 
 
 
 Charles S. TumbuU, 8th « 
 
 a 
 
 Francis J. Twomey, 19th 
 
 
 
 Abraham Ackerman, 9th " 
 
 it 
 
 Thomas Hannegan, 20th 
 
 
 
 George W.Norris, 10th « 
 
 u 
 
 Francis C. Speight, 21st 
 
 
 
 Peter Squires, 11th « 
 
 a 
 
 Daniel Witter, 22d 
 
 
 See Chapter XXXII. for these questions. 
 
32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 To Captains Halpin, Hopkins, Ditchett, Carpenter, Dowling, Letts, 
 Turnbull, Kissner, and Dilks, in whose wards is |gund tlie great- 
 est amount of prostitution, and upon whom fell me largest share 
 of labor, I am more particularly indebted. 
 
 The necessary particulars were finally obtained, and are em- 
 bodied in Chapters XXXII. to XXXVU. of this work, but there 
 was still an important point to determine, naimely, whait had been 
 done elsewhere, and' what was the result of sucih actioh, to check 
 prostitution and diminish the ravages of venereal disease. The 
 Continent of Europe presented a field for this inquiry, and to it I 
 turned for the information required, which is given in the various 
 chapters devoted, to„the several countries in such a form as to 
 show the measures which have been taken, the effect, and the 
 causes which led to legislative interference, contrasted with those 
 other parts of the world, where, as yet, no remedial plans have 
 been tried, notwithstanding the necessity which calls for them. 
 
 The reader is now in possession of the facts which led to this 
 inquiry. Is it too much to ask his attention to the analysis and 
 exhibition of prostitution as it is at the present time, he being well 
 assured that no assertions will be made that are not supported by 
 good authority, nor any conclusions drawn from doubtful prem- 
 ises? 
 
 So far as New York alone is concerned, the evil is known to a 
 large portion of her citizens, although its ramifications are but 
 very imperfectly understood ; and the ' endeavor will be to present 
 all possible information on the matter, and to give a truthful, un- 
 exaggerated picture of the depravity. Disagreeable as this must 
 be from the nature of the task, it is hop^M from a belief that the 
 result will tend to public good. 
 
 One of the most painfully interesting branches of the inquiry is 
 that relating to the ages of the unfortunate women. Their num- 
 ber includes many who are but mere children; who but recently 
 knelt at a mother's side, and in infantile accents breathed a pray- 
 er to the Almighty; who but recently sprang with eager, joyous 
 bound to the returning footsteps of a father ; who, in a happy and 
 innocent home, hjave but recently given promise of a bright and 
 virtuous life. Therein are also included many who were deprived 
 by death of their natural protectors, and who, thus lefb unwatched 
 and uncared for, have fallpn before the destroyer ere yet the age 
 of womanhood was reached. 
 
 The places of their birth form an interesting subject for consid- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 eration. In this land the frigid North and sunny South, the busy 
 East and fertile West have each contributed their quota, while 
 foreign countries have sent large numbers to swell the moumfiil 
 aggregate. 
 
 The most useful portion of the subject will be found, it is imagr 
 ined, in replies to the question, "What was the cause of your be- 
 coming a prostitute ?" These tend to expose the concealed vices 
 of mankind, and to prove that many of the unfortunate victims 
 are " more sinned against than sinning." Among the reasons as- 
 signed for a deviation from the paths of virtue are some which 
 tell of man's deceit ; others, where the machinations employed to 
 effect the purpose raise a blush for humanity ; others, where a 
 wife was sacrificed by the man who had sworn before God and in 
 the presence of men to protect her through life; others, where 
 parents have urged or commanded this course, and are now liv- 
 ing on the proceeds of their children's shame, or where an abuse 
 of parental authority has produced the same effect ; and others 
 still, where women, already depraved, have been the means of 
 leading their fellow- wonien to disgrace. A bare allusion to these 
 wrongs is sickening ; but, while the gangrene of prostitution is rap- 
 idly extending through society, it becomes an imperative duty to 
 examine its causes completely and impartially. 
 
 Another prolific source of female depravity will be exhibited 
 by the several tables showing the description of employment pur- 
 sued, and the wages received by women previous to their fall, and 
 it will be a question for the political economist to decide how far 
 mere business considerations should'be an apology on the part of 
 employers for a reduction in their- rates of remuneration, and 
 whether the saving of a small percentage on wages is not more 
 than counterbalanced by the enormous amount of taxation en- 
 forced on the public at large to defray the expenses incurred on 
 account of a system of vice which is the direct result, in many 
 cases, of insufficient compensation for honest labor. 
 
 In conclusion, it must not be assumed that the information 
 collected from two thousand women in New York City relates to 
 all the prostitutes therein. The many difficulties surroimding the 
 investigation, and especially the secrecy to which prohibitory laws 
 have driven this class of persons, rendered the task impossible ; 
 but, from the best information that could be obtained of those 
 whose knowledge of the vice was derived from actual experience, 
 it is imagined that the replies represent about two fifths of the 
 
 C 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 total number.! rpj^gy. ^^^ presented with full confidence in their 
 general authenticity, and may be very reasonably concluded to 
 offer a fair average of the whole. They unquestionably exhibit 
 an appalling amount of depravity and consequent wretchedness, 
 with but very few redeeming features, and present mournful sub- 
 jects for reflection to all classes, with forcible arguments for re- 
 medial measures. Without this end in prospect it would have 
 been scarcely justifiable, at least in a moral point of view, to in- 
 stitute this inquiry or make these disclosures ; but it certainly 
 may be reasonably inferred that many will feel sufficient interest 
 in the advance of virtue to aid in the mitigation of this enormous 
 vice which threatens, all^ social relations ; which has already in- 
 troduced physical suffering into so many families ; and the influ- 
 ence of which, increasing in a direct ratio to its existence, will 
 very probably extend, its malignant , poison, mental and bodily, 
 into all ranks and classes of the community. The necessity for 
 action is apparent, but its successful consummation must rest with 
 the public at large, who have, the bane exhibited before them in 
 its actual power, and the necessity of an antidote demonstrated 
 from positive facts, and not deduced from a mere arbitrary theory. 
 If some antidote be applied, even though a partial one, it wiU 
 be a satisfaction to reflect that the investigations have not been 
 profitless, nor the labor in vain. 
 
 ' It is quite probable that the commercial and financial panic which commenced 
 about the time these pages were nearly ready for the press, and continued through- 
 out the winter of 1857-8, has added to the number of prostitutes in New York City, 
 very likely as many as five hundred, or perhaps a thousand, but certainly not to 
 the extent generally imagined. Allusions have been made elsewhere to the exag- 
 gerated estimates of the extent of this vice, and the opinions publicly expressed in 
 regard to accessions to the ranks of prostitutes during the last few months gener- 
 ally seem to be of a similarly vague nature. 
 
HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 pf the reader has not already perused the Introduction to this volume, he is ad- 
 vised to do so at once, as therein are stated the reasons which hare called it forth, 
 and extended it to the present dimensions.] 
 
 OHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE JEWS. 
 
 Prostitution coeval with Society. — Prostitutes in the Eighteenth Century B.C. — 
 Tamar and Judah. — Legislation of Moses. — Syrian Women. — Kites of Moloch. 
 — Groves. — Social Cpndition of Jewish Harlots. — Description by Solomon. — The 
 Jews of Babylon. 
 
 OuB earliest acquaintance with the human race discloses some 
 sort of society established. It also reveals the existence of a mar- 
 riage tie, varying in stringency and incidental effects according to 
 climate, morals, religion, or accident, but every where essentially 
 subversive of a system of promiscuous iutercourse. No nation, it 
 is believed, has ever been reported by a trustworthy traveler, on 
 sufficient evidence, to have held its women generally in common. 
 StUl there appear to have been in every age men who did not 
 avail tljemselves of the marriage covenant, or who could not be 
 bound by its stipulations, and their appetites created a demand for 
 illegitimate pleasures, which female weakness supplied. This may 
 be assumed to be the real origin of prostitution throughout the 
 world, though in particular localities this first cause has been as- 
 sisted by female avarice or passion, religious superstition, or a mis- 
 taken sense of hospitality. 
 
 Accordingly, prostitution is coeval with society. It stains the 
 earliest mythological records. It is constantly assumed as an ex- 
 isting fact in Biblical history. We can trace it from the earliest 
 twilight in which history dawns to the clear daylight of to-day, 
 without a pause or a moment of obscurity. 
 
 Our most ancient historical record is beheved to be the Books 
 of Moses. According to thejn, it must be admitted that prosti- 
 tutes were common among the Jews in the eighteenth century 
 
36 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 before Christ. When Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah, de- 
 sired to defeat the cruel Jewish custom, and to bgir children, not- 
 withstanding her widowhood, she " 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."' The Genesiacal account 
 thus shows that prostitutes, with covered faces, must have been 
 common at the time. It is the more valuable, as it furnishes the 
 particulars of the transaction. To keep up her disguise^ Tamar 
 demands a kid as her recompense. Judah agrees, and leaves his 
 "signet, and his bracelets, and his staff" as a- pledge for the kid. 
 It appears to have been regarded as no dishonor to have com- 
 merce with a prostitute, for Judah sends his friend the Adulla- 
 mite, a man of standing, to deliver the kid ; but to defraud the 
 unfortunate womanof her ill-gotten gain mustiavB been consid-, 
 ered shameful, for, when Judah learns, that sheias disappeared, 
 he expresses alarm "lest we be shamed" for nqt having paid the 
 stipulated price. It may also be noticed, as an illustration of the 
 connection- between prostitution and pure domestic morals, that 
 when Judali.jlearns that his daughter-in-law is pregnant, he in- 
 stantly orders. her to be burned for having "played the harlot." 
 
 Pour centuries afterward it fell to the lot of Moses to legislate 
 on the Jewish morals, no doubt sadly corrupted by their sojourn 
 in Egypt. His command is formal and emphatic: " Do not pros- 
 titute thy daughter, les* the land faU to whoredom. . . ., There 
 shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel."^ He was equally 
 decided in his condemnation of worse practices, to which it would 
 appear the Jews were much addicted.^ He laid penalties on un- 
 cleanness of every Idnd, and on fornication ; but it would appear 
 that he rather confirmed than abrogated the customary right of a 
 Jewish 'father to sell his daughter as a concubine.* With the 
 practical view of improving the physical condition of the race, 
 Moses guarded, by elaborate laws, against improper and corrupt 
 unions. Adultery and rape he punished with death. The bride 
 was bound, under pain of death by stoning, to prove to the satis- 
 faction not only of her husband, but of the tribe, that she had 
 been chaste to the day of her marriage.,^ A long list of relatives 
 were specified among whom it was illegal to intermarry. Fur- 
 Jihermore, Moses endeavored, with marked zeal, to check the prog- 
 
 * Gen. xxxviii. 11. ' Lev. xix. 29 ; Deut. xxiii. 17. 
 
 * Ex. xxii. 19 ; Lev. xviiL ?3. * Ex. xxi. 17. » Deut. xxii. 17. 
 
THE JEWS. 37 
 
 ress of disease among botli sexes. Whetlier the maladies men- 
 tioned in Leviticus^ -^vere syphilitic in their nature, it were diffi- 
 cult to say. Modern medical science admits that, in hot climates, 
 "want of cleanliness and frequent amorous indulgence will generate 
 phenomena similar to the "issue" so frequently mentioned by Moses. 
 However this be, it is certain that both Jews and Jewesses were, 
 subject to diseases apparently similar to the common gonorrhoea ; 
 that these diseases were infectious ; and that Moses, in reiterated 
 injunctions, forbade all sexual intercourse, and almost all associa- 
 tion, with persons thus afflicted. So earnest was his desire to 
 eradicate the evil from the people, that he extended his prohibi- 
 tion to women during the period of their menstrual visitation. 
 
 Having done this much for the Jews, Moses appears to have 
 cbnnived at the intercourse of their young men with foreign 
 prostitutes. He took an Ethiopian concubine himself. Syrian 
 women, Moabites, Midianites, and other neighbors of the Jews — 
 many of them, as it appears, young and lovely, but with de- 
 bauched and vicious principles — established themselves as pros- 
 titutes in the land of Israel. For many years, imtil the time of 
 Solomon, they were excluded from Jerusalem and the large cities. 
 Driven to the highways for refiige, they lived in booths and tents, 
 where they combined the trade of a peddler with the calling of 
 a harlot. Unlike Tamar, they did not veil the face. Eeclining 
 within the tent, with no more clothing than the heat of the climate 
 suggested, these dissolute girls invited the complaisance of pas- 
 sengers who stopped to refresh their thirst or replenish their 
 wardrobe at their booth. So long as their practices violated no 
 law of naturCj the prudent legislator pursued a tolerant pohcy. 
 Before long, however, abominable rites in honor of Moloch, Baal, 
 or Belphegor, were formally estabhshed by the " strange women" 
 and their male accomplices. Moloch, whose disgusting exactions 
 we find in Phoenicia, and at Carthage also, demanded male wor- 
 ship. The belly of the god's statue was a, furnace, in which a 
 fierce fire was kindled and fed with animal sacrifice ; around it 
 the priests and their proselytes danced to the sound of music, 
 sang wUd songs, and debased themselves by practices of a dis- 
 gusting and unnatural character. Nor was the worship of Baal 
 less revolting. He too had his statues, in forms eminently cal- 
 culated to excite the animal passions, and surrounded by cool 
 groves in which the most shameless prostitution was carried on 
 
 ' Lev. XV.. 
 
38 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 by all wlio would deposit an offering on tlie altars of tlie idol, 
 ■would even seem, from several passages ia i^ Bible,* tbat 
 participators in these infamies were not invariably buman bein 
 Against such enormities the wrath of Moses and his success 
 was aroused, on hygienic as well as moral and religious grouu 
 Participation in the rites of Moloch was punished with deal 
 Aaron's grandson did not hesitate to commit a double homic 
 to mark the Divine abhorrence of the daughters of Midian ; i 
 Moses himself, warned by the frightful progress of disease amc 
 the male Jews, struck at its roots by exterminating every fem 
 Midianite among his captives, save the virgins only. 
 
 An express command forbade the establishment of groves n 
 the Jewish temples, evidently on account of the convenience si 
 shady retreats afforded to prostitutes. Yet on various occasi( 
 in the history of Israel we ;find accounts of the destruction of si 
 groves, and of the statues of the gods in whose honor hun 
 nature was defiled.^ Solomon, whose wisdom was singularly 
 loyedwith sensuality, not only set the example of inordinate li 
 keeping, it is said, seven hundred wives and three hundred c 
 cubines, but repealed the wise restrictions of his predecessors 
 regard to prostitutes, allowing them to exercise their call 
 within the city of Jerusalem. They multiplied so fast that 
 prophets speak of them wandering on all the hUls, and pro 
 tuting themselves under every tree, and at a later date they e^ 
 invaded the Temple, and established their hideous rites in 
 courts. That noble edifice had become, in the time of Maccab 
 a mere brothel plenum scortaniium cum meretricAus.* 
 
 It is, however, apparent, notwithstanding the severe ordinan 
 of the Jewish legislators, that prostitutes were a recognized cl 
 laboring under no hopeless ban. Jephtha, the son of a prostiti 
 became none the less chief of Israel ; and some commental 
 have contended that the retreat to which he condemned 
 daughter was simply the calling of her grandmother. Joshi 
 spies slept openly in the house of the harlot Eahab, whose ser\ 
 to Israel was faithfully requited by the amnesty granted to '. 
 family, and the honorable residence allotted to her in Jud 
 Samson chose the house of a harlot to be his residence at Gra 
 his fatal acquaintance with another harlot, Delilah, is the lead 
 trait of his story. Even Solomon did not disdain to hear 
 
 ■ Dent, xxiii. 18, etc. " Ibid, xxiii. 18. 
 
 ' Chron. xv. xvii. etc. * Maccabees. 
 
THE JEWS. 89 
 
 rival wranglings of a pair of harlots, and to adjudicate between 
 them. Prostitution was in fact legally domiciled in Judaea at a 
 very early period, and never lost the foothold it had gained. Of 
 the manner in which it was carried on, an idea may be formed 
 from the very vivid picture in Proverbs :' 
 
 " For at the window of my house, 
 I looked through my casement. 
 And beheld among the simple ones, 
 I discerned among the youths, 
 A young man void of understanding, 
 
 Passing through the streets near her (the strange woman's) comer ; 
 And he went the way to her house, 
 In the twilight, in the evening. 
 In the black and dark night ; 
 And, behold, there met him a woman 
 With the attire of a harlot, and subtile of heart. 
 She is loud and stubborn ; 
 Her feet abide not in her house : 
 Now she is without, now in the streets. 
 And lieth in wait at every comer. 
 So she caught him, and kissed him. 
 And with an impudent face said unto him, 
 I have peace-offerings with me ; 
 This day have I paid my vows. 
 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, 
 Diligently to seek thy face, 
 And I have found thee. 
 
 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestiy, 
 With carved works, with linen of ^gypt. 
 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, 
 Aloes, and cinnamon. 
 
 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning : 
 Let us solace ourselves with loves. * * * 
 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield. 
 With the flattering of her lips she forced him. 
 He goeth after her straightway, 
 As an ox goeth to the slaughter, 
 Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks." 
 
 That prostitution continued to be practiced generally and open- 
 ly until the destruction of the old Jewish nation, the language of 
 the Biblical prophets does not permit us to doubt. It may be 
 
 » Ch. vii. e, etc. 
 
40 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 questioned -whether it ever assumed more revoltingly public forms 
 in any other country.. The Babylonish conquest must have 
 changed the parts, without altering the performaifte. At Baby- 
 lon, the Jewish maidens, whose large, expressive eyes, voluptuous 
 mouth, slender and graceful figure, with well-developed bust and 
 hmbs, were frequently the theme of ancient poets, peopled the 
 houses of prostitution, and ministered to the lusts of the nobles. 
 Nor even after the return to Jerusalem was the evil extirpated. 
 It was to a prostitute that Christ uttered the memorable sentence, 
 "Her sins are forgiven because she loved much." 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 EGYPT, SYRIA, AND ASIA MINCE; 
 
 Egyptian Courtesans. — ^Festival of Bubastis. — Morals in Egypt. — Religious Prosti- 
 tution in Chaldaea. — ^Babylonian Banquets. — Compulsory Prostitution in Phoeni- 
 cia. — Persian Banquets. 
 
 Before passing to the subject of prostitution in Greece, a glance 
 at Egypt, and those nations of Asia which seem to have preceded 
 Greece in civilization, may not be out of place. 
 
 Egypt was famous for her courtesans before the time of Herod- 
 otus. Egyptian blood runs warm- girls are nubile at ten. Un- 
 der the Pharaohs, if ancient writers are to be believed, there ex- 
 isted a general laxity of moral principle, especially among young 
 females.^ Their religion was only too suggestive. The deities 
 Isis and Osiris were the types of the sexes. A statue of the lat- 
 ter, a male image, made of gold, was carried by the maidens at 
 festivals, and worshiped by the whole people. Nor, were the rites 
 of Isis more modest. " At the festival at Bubastis," says Herodo- 
 tus, " men and women go thither in boats on the Nile, and when 
 the boats approach a city they are run close to the shore. A fran- 
 tic contest then begins between the women of the city and those 
 in the boats, each abusing the other in the most opprobrious lan- 
 guage, and the women in the boats conclude the performance by 
 lascivious dances, in the most undisguised manner, in sight of the 
 people, and to the sound of flutes and other musical instruments."^ 
 There is little reason to doubt that the tenaples, lite those of BaaJ 
 were houses of prostitution on an extensive scale. Herodotus re- 
 ' Ctesias, quoted by Atheneeus, »ii. 10. ' Herodotus, ii. 60. 
 
EGYPT, SYRIA, AND ASIA MINOR. 41 
 
 marks significantly that a law in Egypt forbade sexual intercourse 
 "witHn the walls of a temple, and exacted of both sexes that inter- 
 course should be followed by ablution before the temple was en- 
 tered.' 
 
 Where piety required such sacrifices, it is not surprising that 
 public morals were loose. It was not considered wholly shameful 
 for an Egyptian to make his living by the hire of his daughter's 
 person, and a king is mentioned who resorted to this plan in order 
 to discover a thief. Such w^s the astonishing appetite of the men, 
 that young and beautiful women were never delivered to the em- 
 balmer until they had been dead some days, a miserable wretch 
 having been detected in the act of defiling a recently-deceased 
 virgin !^ Of course, in such a society, there was no disgrace in be- 
 ing a prostitute. The city of Naucratis owed its wealth and fame 
 to the beauty of its courtesans, whose reputation spread through- 
 out Europe, and was much celebrated in Greece. Ehadopis, a 
 Thracian by birth, led the life of a prostitute in Egypt with such 
 success, that she not only bought her own freedom &om the slave- 
 dealer who "had taken her there on speculation, but, if the Egyp- 
 tians are to be believed, built a pyramid with her savings. A 
 large portion of her story is doubtless mythical, but enough re- 
 mains to warrant the opinion that she was, though a prostitute, a 
 wealthy and highly considered person. 
 
 In Chaldsea, too, religion at first connived at, and then com- 
 manded prostitution. Every Babylonian female was obhged by 
 law to prostitute herself once in her life in "the temple of the 
 Chaldsean Venus, whose name was Mylitta.^ Herodotus appears 
 to have seen the park and grounds in which this singular sacri- 
 fice was made. They were constantly fiUed with women with 
 strings bound round their hair. Once inside the place,' no woman 
 could leave it until she had paid her debt, and had deposited on 
 the altar of the goddess the fee received from her lover. Some, 
 who were plain, remained" there as long as three years ; but, as 
 the grounds were always filled with a troop of voluptuaries in 
 search of pleasure, the young, the beautiful, the high-born sel- 
 dom needed to remain over a few minutes. This strange cus- 
 tom is mentioned by the prophet Baruch, who introduces one of 
 the women reproaching her neighbor that she had not been 
 deemed worthy of having her girdle of cord burst asunder by 
 any man.* Similar statements are made by Strabo and other 
 • Herodotus, ii. 64. ' Id. ii. 89. » Id. ii. 89. » Baruch, vi. 
 
42 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ancient writers. At the time of Alexander the Great the de- 
 moralization had reached a climax. Babylonian banquets were 
 scenes of unheard-of infamies. When the meal f egan, the women 
 sat modestly enough in presence of their fathers and husbands ; 
 but, as the wine went round, they lost all restraint, threw off one 
 garment after another, and enacted scenes of glaring immodesty. 
 And these were the ladies of the best families.* 
 
 The Mylitta of Chaldsea became Astarte in Phcenioia, at Car- 
 thagie, and in Syria. Nothing was changed but the name ; the 
 voluptuous rites were identical. In addition to the forced pros- 
 titution in the temples, however, the Phoenicians and most of their 
 colonies maintained for many years the practice of requiring their 
 maidens to bestow their favors on any strangers who visited the 
 country. Commercial interest, no doubt, had some share in pro- 
 moting so scandalous a custom. On the high shores of Phoenicia, 
 as at Carthage and in the island of Cyprus, the traveler sailing 
 past in his boat could see beautiful girls, arrayed in light gar- 
 ments, stretching inviting arms to him. 
 
 Originally the sum paid by the lover was offered to the god- 
 dess, but latterly the girls kept it, and it served to enhance their 
 -value in the matrimonial market. In some places the girl was 
 free if she chose to abandon her hair to the goddess, but Lucian 
 notes that this was an uncommonly rare occurrence. 
 
 Very similar were the customs of the Lydians and their suc- 
 cessors in empire^ the early Persians. Their Venus was named 
 Mithra, in honor of whom festivals were given at which human 
 nature was horribly outraged. Fathers and daughters, sons and 
 mothers, husbands and wives sat together at the table, while 
 voluptuous dances and music inflamed tjieir senses, and when 
 the wine had done its work, a promiscuous combat of sensuality 
 began which lasted all night. Details of such scenes must be left 
 to other works, and veiled in a learned tongue.^ 
 
 ' Quintus Curtius, t. 1. 
 
 = Macrobius, Sat, Conr. vii. Athenseus, xii. passim ; Plutarch, Vit. Artaxerxes. 
 
GREECE. 43 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 GKEEOE. 
 
 Mythology. — Solonian Legislation. — ^Dicteria. — Pisistratidae. — Lycurgus and Spar- 
 ta. — ^Laws on Prostitution. — Case of Phryne. — Classes of Prostitutes. — Pornikoii 
 Telos. — ^Dress. — Hair of Prostitutes. — The Dieteriades of Athens. — Abode and 
 Manners. — Appearance of Dicteria. — Laws regulating Dioteria. — Schools of 
 Prostitution. — ^Loose Prostitutes. — Old Prostitutes. — Auletridps, or Flute-players. 
 — Origin. — How hired. — Performances. — Anecdote of Arcadians. — Price of 
 Elute-players. — ^Festival of Venus Periboa. — ^Venus Callipyge. — Lesbian Love. — 
 Lamia.— Hetairse. — Social Standing. — Venus and her Temples. — Charms of 
 Hetairse. — Thargelia. — Aspasia. — Hipparchia. — ^Baochis. — Guathena and Gua- 
 thenion. — ^Lais. — ^Phryne. — Pythionice. — Glycera. — ^Leontium. — Other Hetairse. 
 — Biographers of Prostitutes. — ^Philtres. 
 
 The Greek mythology supposes obviously a relaxed state of 
 public morals. What period in the history of the nation it may 
 be assumed to reflect is, however, by no means certain. It is 
 not reasonable to suppose that the Homeric poems were composed 
 for immodest audiences, and it would perhaps be fairer to lay the 
 blame of the mythological indecencies at the door of the age 
 which polished and improved upon them, rather than of that 
 which is entitled to the credit of their conception in the rough. 
 
 Our first rehable information regarding the morals of the Greek 
 women, passing over, for the present, the legislation ascribed to 
 Lycurgus, is found in the ordinances of Solon. Draco is supposed 
 to have affixed the penalty of death indiscriminately to rape, 
 seduction, and adultery. It has been conjectured that the safety- 
 valve used at that time, ordinary prostitution being unknown, 
 was a system of rehgious prostitution in the temples, borrowed 
 from and analogous to the plan already described. This, how- 
 ever, is mere conjecture. Solon, while softening , the rigors of 
 the Draconian code, by law formally established houses of pros- 
 titution at Athens, and filled them with female slaves. They 
 were called Dieteria, and the female tenants Dieteriades. Bought 
 with the public money, and bound by law to satisfy the demands 
 of all who visited them, they were in fact public servants, and 
 their wretched gains were a legitimate source of revenue to the 
 state. Prostitution became a state monopoly, and so profitable 
 
44 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 that, even in Solon's lifetime, a superb temple, dedicated to Venus 
 the courtesan, was built out of the fund accj^ing from this 
 source. The fee charged, however, appears to have been small,^ 
 In Solon's time, the Dicteriades were kept widely apart from the 
 Athenian women of repute. They were not allowed to mix in 
 religious ceremonies or to enter the temples. When they ap- 
 peared in the streets they were obliged to wear a particular 
 costume as a badge of. infamy. They forfeited what rights of 
 citizenship they may have possessed in virtue of their birth. A 
 procurer or procuress who had been instrumental in introducing 
 a free-born Athenian girl to the Dicterion incurred the penalty 
 of death. Nor was the law content with branding with infamy 
 prostitutes and their accomplices alone. Their children were bas- 
 tards ; that is to say, they could not inherit property, they could 
 not associate with other youths, they could not acquire the right 
 of citizenship without performing some signal act of bravery, they 
 could not address the people in the public assemblies. Finally, 
 to complete their ignominy,' they were exempt from the sacred 
 duty of maintaining their parents in old age.^ 
 
 These regulations, for which Solon obtained the praise of Athe- 
 nian philosophers,' were not long maintained in force. Tradition 
 imputed to the profligacy of the Pisistratidae a relaxation of the 
 laws concerning prostitutes. It was believed that the sons of Pi- 
 sistratus not only gave to the Dicteriades the freedom of the city, 
 but allotted to them seats at banquets beside the most respectable 
 matrons, and, on certaia days each year, turned them into their 
 father's beautiful gardens, and let loose upon them the whole pet- 
 tilance of the Athenian youth.* The law against procuresses was 
 modified, a fine being substituted for death. " About the same 
 time," says the scandalous Greek chronicle, " the death-penalty for 
 adultery was also commuted for scourging." 
 
 Still, notwithstanding this falling off, it would appear that Ath- 
 ens was more moral than her neighbors, Corinth and Sparta. The 
 former, then the most flourishing sea-port of Greece, was filled 
 with a very low class of prostitutes. No laws regulated the sub- 
 ject. Any female who chose could open house for the accommo- 
 dation of travelers and seamen, and, though Corinth was yet far 
 
 ' Nicander, quoted by Athensens, xiii. 26J 
 ° Plutarch, Life of Solon : Lucian, Dialogues. 
 ' I*hilemon, quoted by Athenseus, xiii. 25. 
 " Idomeneus, quoted by Athenseus, xii\<H. '^ 
 
GREECE. 45 
 
 from the proverbial celebrity it afterward obtained for its prosti- 
 tutes, there is no doubt they bore a fearful proportion to the ag- 
 gregate population of the port. At Sparta the case was different, 
 Inf the systein of legislation which bears the name of Lycurgus, 
 the individual was sacrificed to the state ; the female to the male. 
 Women were educated for the sole purpose of bearing robust chil- 
 dren. Virgins were allowed to wrestle pubhcly with men. Girls 
 were habited ia a robe open at the skirts, which only partially 
 concealed the person in walking, whence the Spartan women ac- 
 quired an uncomplimentary name.^ A Spartan husband was au- 
 thorized to lend his wife to any handsome man for the purpose of 
 begetting children. That, these laws, the skillfully contrived ap- 
 peals to the sensual appetites, and the constant spectacle of nude 
 charms, must have led to a general profligacy among the female 
 sex, is quite obvious. Aristotle affirms positively that the Spar- 
 tan women openly committed the grossest acts of debauchery.^ 
 Hence it may be inferred that prostitutes by profession -vyere un- 
 necessary at Sparta, at all events until a late period of its history. 
 After the Persian wars, the subject of Athenian prostitution is 
 revealed in a cle&,rer light. As a reaction jfrom the looseness of 
 the age of the Pisistratidae, the Solonian laws were reaffirmed and 
 their severity heightened. It has been imagined, from certain' ob- 
 scure passages in Greek authors, that the courtesans formed sev- 
 eral corporations, each of which was responsible for the acts of aU 
 ita members. They were liable to vexatious prosecutions for such 
 acts as inciting men to commit crime, ruining thoughtless youths, 
 fomenting treason agaiast the state, or committing impiety. 
 Against such charges it was rarely possible to establish a sound 
 defense. If the accuser was positive, the Areopagus, notoriously 
 biased against courtesans, unhesitatingly condemned the culprit to 
 death, or imposed on her corporation a heavy fine. In this way, 
 says an bid author, the state frequently contrived to get back 
 from these women the money they obtained from their lovers; 
 Before the famous case of Phryne, they were wholly at the mercy 
 of their profligate associates. A man only needed to threaten an 
 accusation of impiety or the hke to obtain a receipt in full. Phry- 
 ne, so long the favorite, of the Athenians, was thus accused of va- 
 rious vague offenses by a common informer named Euthias. Her 
 friend Bacchis fortunately persuaded Hyperides,' the orator, to un- 
 d,ertake her caise, and he softened the judges by exhibiting her 
 ' Fcmomerides, See Flutarcb, Life of Lycurgus. ' Politics, ii. 7. 
 
46 HISTOET OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 marvelous beauty in a moment of affected passion. " Henceforth," 
 says the hetaira Bacchis to Myrrhina, "our profits are secured by 
 
 At this time, that is to say, at the height of Athenian prosperi- 
 ty, there were four classes of women who led dissolute lives at 
 Athens. The highest in rank and repute were the Eeiairce, or 
 kept women, who lived in the best part of the city, and exercised 
 no small influence over the manners and even the politics of the 
 state. Next came the Auhtrides, or flute-players, who were danc- 
 ers as weU. They were usually foreigners, bearing some resem- 
 blance to the opera-dancers of the last century, and they combined 
 the most unblushing debauchery with their special calling. ^ The 
 lowest class of prostitutes were the Dicteriades, already mentioned. 
 They were originally bound to reside at the Piraeus, the sea-port 
 of Athens, some four miles from the city, and were forbidden to 
 walk out by day, or to offend the eyes of the public by open in- 
 decency. Lastly came the Concubines, who were slaves owned by 
 rich men with the knowledge and consent of their wives, serving 
 equally the passions of their master and the caprices of their mis- 
 tress. These all paid a tax to the state, called Pomikon Tehs, 
 which was farmed out to speculators, who levied it with proverb- 
 ial harshness upon the unfortunate women. In the time of Peri- 
 cles the revenue from this source was large. 
 
 All classes, too, wore garments of many colors. The law orig- 
 inally specified " flowered robes" as the costume of courtesans ; 
 but this leading to difficulties, a farther enactment prohibited pros- 
 titutes from wearing precious stuffs, such as scarlet or purple, or 
 jewels. Thenceforth the custom, which appears to have been gen- 
 eral throughout the Greek cities and colonies, prescribed cheap 
 robes, with flowers or stripes of many colors embroidered or paint- 
 ed on them. To this a part of the women added garlands of roses. 
 It was lawful in some cities for courtesans to wear light, transpar-, 
 ent garments ; but at Sparta, as may be imagined, the reverse was 
 the rule, semi-nudity being the badge of .virtuous women." 
 
 Perhaps the most singular of the marks by which a Greek cour- 
 tesan was known was her hair. It is said that no law prescribed 
 the habit; if so, it must have been a sort of esprit de corps which 
 
 ' Athenseus, xiii. 69 ; Alciphron's Letters. 
 
 = Athenseus, xiii. 20, et sed. ; Snidas, Lex., Vo. Diagramma ; JEschylns c. Ti- 
 march. p. 134 ; St. Clement of Alexandria, Fcedag. ii. 10 ; Becker, Charicles, i. 
 126; etc. 
 
GREECE. 47 
 
 led all courtesans to dye their liair of a flaxen or blonde color, 
 Allusions to this custom abound in the light literature of Greece. 
 Frequently a flaxen wig was substituted for the dyed locks. At 
 a very late period in the history of Grreeoe, modest women follow- 
 ed the fashion of sporting golden hair. This forms one of the sub- 
 jects of reprimand addressed to the women of Greece by the early 
 Christian preachers.^ 
 
 THE DICTEEIADES, OR COMMON PROSTITUTES OF ATHENS. 
 
 This class approaches more nearly than any other to the prosti- 
 tutes of our day, the main difference being that the former were 
 bound by law to prostitute themselves when required to do so, oh 
 the payment of the fixed sum, and that they were not allowed to 
 leave the state. Their home, as mentioned already, was properly 
 at the port of Pirseus. An open square in front of the citadel was 
 there usual haunt. It was surrounded with booths, where petty 
 trade or gambling was carried on by day. At nightfall the pros- 
 titutes swarmed into the square. Some were noisy and obscene.; 
 others quiet, and armed with affected modesty. When a man 
 passed on his way from the port to the city, the troop assailed him. 
 If he resisted, coarse abuse was lavished on him. If he yielded, 
 there was the temple of Venus the Courtesan close' by, and there 
 was the wall of Themistocles, under the friendly shelter of either 
 of which the bargain could be consummated. "Were the customer 
 nice, the great dicterion was not far distant, and a score or more 
 of smaller rivals were even nearer at hand, as a well-known sign 
 was there to testify. 
 
 The Dicteria were under the control of the municipal police. 
 The door was open night and day, a bright curtain protecting the 
 inmates from the eye of the passer-by ; and in the better class of 
 establishments, a fierce dog, chained in the vestibule, served as 
 sentinel. At the curtain sat an old woman, often a Thessalian 
 and a pretended witch, who received the money before admitting 
 visitors. Originally the fee was an obolus^ — about three cents ; 
 but this attempt to regulate the value of a variable merchandise 
 was soon abandoned. Within, at night, the sounds of music, rev- 
 elry, and dancing might be constantly heard. The visitor was not 
 kept in suspense. The curtain passed, he was in full view of the 
 dicteriades, standing, sitting, or lying about the room ; some en- 
 
 ' Pollux, Onom. ii. 30; x. 170; St. Clement of Alex, he, dt. 
 ' Philemon, quoted by Athenseuf, xiii. 25. 
 
48 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 gaged in smootMng their blonde haiir, some in conversation, some 
 anointing themselves with perfumerj. The legal principle with 
 regard to the dicteriades appears to have been^hat thej should 
 conceal nothing; no doubt in contrast to the irregular prostitutes, 
 of whom something will be said presently. There was no rule, 
 however, forbidding the wearing of garments in the dicterion, but 
 the common practice appears to have been to dispense with them, 
 or to wear a light scarf thrown over the person. This custom 
 was observed by day as well as by night, and a visitor has de- 
 scribed the girls in a large dicterion as standing in a row, in broad 
 daylight, without any robes or covering.^ 
 
 It seems that in later times any speculator had a right to set 
 up a dieterion on paying the tax to the state. An Athenian 
 forfeited his right of citizenship by so doing ; but, as a popular 
 establishment was very lucrative, avaricious men frequently em- 
 barked in the business under an assumed name. Comic writers 
 have lashed these wretches severely. On paying the tax to the 
 state regularly, the pornobosceion, or master of the house, acquired 
 certain rights. The dicterion was an inviolable asylum, no hus- 
 band being allowed to pursue his wife, or the wife her husband^i 
 or the creditor his debtor, within its walls. Public decency re- 
 quires, says Demosthenes, that men shall not be exposed in houses 
 of prostitution.^ It was not, however, considered wholly shame- 
 ful to frequent such places. 
 
 There appear to have been attached to these dicteria schools 
 of prostitution, where young women were initiated into the most 
 disgusting practices by females who had themselves acquired 
 them in the same manner. Alexis vigorously describes the 
 frauds taught in these places,^ while there is a shocking signifi- 
 ca,nce in an expression of Athenaeus — "You will be well satisfied 
 with the performance of the women in the dicteria."* 
 
 Besides these regular dicteriades, there were at Athens, as 
 there have been in every large city, a nmnber of women who 
 exercised the calling of prostitutes, without properly belonging to 
 any of the recognized classes. They were sometimes caUed free 
 dicteriades, sometimes she-wolves, and also cheap hetairse. Some 
 were native Athenians who had been seduced and abandoned, 
 
 ' Xenarchus and Eubulus, quoted by Athenseus, jdii. 25, 
 
 ' Demosthenes against Nesera. 
 
 ' Alexis, quoted by Atkensens, »ii, 23. 
 
 * Athenseus xiii. 26. 
 
GEEBCE. 4& 
 
 and who, led by stings of conscience and idleness to pursue their 
 career, had still an invincible repugnance to adopt the flowered 
 robe and yellow hair of the regular courtesan. They roamed the 
 Piraeus, and even the streets of Athens, after dark, eking out a 
 miserable subsistence by the hardest of trades, and haunting the 
 dark recesses of old houses or the shade of trees. Others, again, 
 were old hetairse whose charms had faded, and who sought a 
 scanty subsistence where they were not known, and shrank from 
 encountering the eye of a lover where the friendly shade of night 
 would not hide the ravages of time. Others were the servants 
 of hotels and taverns, who were always expected to serve the 
 caprices of visitors. 
 
 All of these led a most miserable life. Now and then we hear 
 of one or two of them meeting a rich and inexperienced traveler, 
 after which the heroine of the exploit naturally ascended to the 
 rank pf hetaira ; but, in general, their customers were the lowest 
 of the port people — sailors, fishermen, farm-servants. Their price 
 was a meal, a fish, a handfiil of fruit, or a bottle of wine. One 
 poor creature, who belonged to no class in particular, but acquired 
 some celebrity by being kept by the orator Ithatocles, was named 
 Didrachma because she offered her favors to the public generally 
 for two drachmas, about thirty-five cents.^ 
 
 Perhaps the most curious fact in reference to these prostitutes 
 is the singular predominance, of old women among them. It ap- 
 pears to have been adopted as an invariable rule for this sort 
 of courtesans to paint their faces with a thick ointment, and it is 
 even said that the great painters of Greece did not disdain to 
 beguile their leisure hours by thus improving upon nature.^ Of 
 course, under this disguise, it was impossible to distinguish a 
 young face from an old one. An aged prostitute thus bedizened 
 would place herself at an open window with a sprig of myrtle in 
 her hand, with which she would beckon to people in the street. 
 When a customer was found,, a servant would open the door and 
 conduct him in silence to the chamber of her mistress. Before 
 entering he paid the sum demanded,, when he found himself in a 
 room lighted only by a feeble glimmer passing through the cur- 
 tain, which now hung down over the window. In such a twilight 
 the most venerable old woman could not be distinguished from a 
 Venus.^ 
 
 ' See Lacian. ■ Dialogue of Courtesans, passim. 
 
 ' Letters of Alciphron, 46. ' Lucian, foe. dt. 
 
 D 
 
50 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 THE AULETEIDES, OR FLUTE-PLATERS. 
 
 Female flute-players were a common, accompamment to an 
 Athenian banquet. The flute, which in modem times is played 
 by men, was rarely seen in male hands in Greece. Though the 
 fable ascribed its invention to the god Pan, and its development 
 ,to the mythical king Midas; it was monopolized at a very early 
 period by women, who consoled themselves for the ravages it 
 wrought in their beauty by the power of fascination it imparted 
 among a people intensely musical. Flute-playing soon became 
 an essential rite in the service of certain deities. Ceres was in- 
 variably worshiped to the sound of the flute. And when the 
 Athenians had once tried the experiment of listening to flute- 
 players after dinner, they never would dine in company without 
 theni. 
 
 Thebes appears to have been the native city of the earliest 
 famous flute-players,^ but before long the superior beauty of the 
 Asiatic girls— lonians and Phrygians — drove their Theban rivals 
 out of the field. Dancing was combined with flute-playing, and 
 in this art the Asiatics bore' the palm from the world. During 
 the golden days of Greece, numbers of beautiful girls were every 
 year imported into Athens from Miletus and the other Ionic ports 
 in Asia Minor, just as in more modem times a similar trade was 
 carried on between Trebizond and£)onstantinople. 
 
 An Athenian hired his flute-players as a modem European noble 
 hires his band. They charged so much for their musical per- 
 formances, reserving the right of accepting presents in the course 
 of the evening. Some were singers as well as performers. At 
 each course a new air was played, increasing in tenderness and 
 expression as the wine circulated. It is stated that the sounds of 
 a good flute-concert excited people to such a state of phrensy that 
 they would take off their rings and jeweled ornaments to throw 
 them to.the performers : those who have witnessed a triumphant 
 operatic soiree can readily believe the statement. But the "fair 
 artists did not wholly rely on their music for their success. The 
 performer danced while she played, accompanying every note 
 with a harmonious movement of the body. There is no doubt 
 these dances were in the highest degree immoral and lascivious. 
 Athenseus teUs a story of an embassy from Arcadia waiting upon 
 King Antigonus, ajid being invited to dinner. After the hunger 
 ' Anthology, ed. Jacobs, ii. 633. 
 
GREECE. 51 
 
 of the venerable guests was appeased, Phrygian flute-players were 
 introduced. They were draped in semi-transparent veils, ar- 
 ranged with much coquetry. At the given signal they began to 
 play and dance, balancing themselves alternately on each foot, and 
 gradually increasing the rapidity of their movements. As the 
 performance went on, the dancers uncovered their heads, then 
 their busts; lastly, they threw the veils aside altogether, and 
 stood before the wondering embassadors with only a short tunic 
 around the loins. In this state they danced so indecently that 
 the aged Arcadians, , excited beyond control, forgot where they 
 were, and rushed upon them. The king laughed ; the courtiers 
 were shocked at such Ul-breediEg, but the dancers discharged the 
 sacred duty of hospitality.^ 
 
 A flute-;player who had achieved a success of this kind was en- 
 abled to conclude a lucrative bargain for other performances. We 
 find allusions to fees as high as two talents (say $2500) and fifty 
 pieces of gold,^ though these were evidently unusual charges. 
 Many of the most fashionable flute-players were slaves who had 
 been brought to Grreece by speculators. They were commonly 
 sold by auction at the dinner-table, when their owner judged that 
 the enthusiasm of the guests had attained the highest point. , An 
 anecdote is told of one of the most* esteemed names in Greek 
 philosophy in reference to this strange custom. He was dining 
 with a party of young men, when a youthful flute-player was ia- 
 troduced'.- She crept to the philosopher's feet, and seemed to shel- 
 ter herself from insult under the shadow of his venerable beard ; 
 but he, a disciple of Zeno, spumed her, and burst forth into a 
 strain of moralizing. Piqued by the affront, the girl rose, and 
 played and danced with inimitable grace and pruriency. At the 
 close of the performance her owner put her up to auction, and 
 one of the first bidders was the philosopher. She was adjudged 
 to another, however, and the white-haired sage so far forgot his 
 principles as to engage in a fierce conflict with the victor for the 
 possession of the prize.^ Hand to hand battles on these occasions- 
 were common in the best society at Athens, and a flute-player in 
 fashion made a boast of the riots she had caused.* Of the for- 
 tunes realized by successful artists in this line, an idea may be 
 formed from the gorgeous presents made to the Delphian oracle 
 by flute-players, and from the fact that the finest houses at AI- 
 
 ' Athenseus, xiii. 86. ' Letters of Alciphron, 31. 
 
 ' Athenseus, xiii. 86. * Antiphanes, quoted ia Athenseus, xiii. 51. 
 
52 HISTOET OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 exandria were inscribed with tlie names of famous Greek anle- 
 trides.' • 
 
 As might be inferred from the character of their dances, the 
 anletrides were capable of every infamy. Constantly breathing 
 an atmosphere of debauchery, and accustomed to the daily spec- 
 tacle of midities, they naturally attained a pitch of amorous ex- 
 altation of which we, at the present day, can hardly form an idea. 
 They kept a cherished festival in honor of Venus Peribasia, which 
 was originally established by Cypselus of Corinth. At that cere- 
 mony aU the great flute-players of Greece assembled to celebrate 
 their calling. Men were not usually allowed to be present, a 
 regulation prompted perhaps by modesty, as the judgment of 
 Paris was renewed at the festival, and prizes were awarded for 
 every description of beauty. The ceremony was often mentioued 
 as the Callipygian games ; and a sketch of a scene which took 
 place at one of these reunions, contained in a letter from a famous 
 flute-player, justifies the appellation. The banquet lasted from 
 dark till dawn, with wines, perfumes, dehcate viands, songs, and 
 music. An after-scene was a dispute between two of the guests 
 as to their respective beauty. A trial was demanded by the 
 company, and a long and graphic account is given of the exhibi- 
 tion, but modem tastes will not allow us to transcribe the details.^ 
 
 A knowledge of these scandalous scenes', it may be briefly 
 observed, would be worse than useless, were it not that they 
 illustrate the life of Greek courtesans; and, being performed 
 under the sanction of religion and the law, they throw no incon- 
 siderable light on the real character of Greek society. Their 
 value may be best apprehended by trying to realize what the 
 effect would be if similar scenes occurred annually in some public 
 edifice in our large cities, under the auspices of the police, with 
 the approval of the- clergy, and with the full knowledge of the 
 best female society. > 
 
 It has been suggested that these festivals were originated by, 
 or gave rise to, those enormous aberrations of the Greek female 
 mind known to the ancients as Lesbian love. There is, no doubt, 
 grave reason to believe something of the kind. Indeed, Lucian 
 affirms that, while avarice prompted common pleasures, taste and 
 feeling inclined the flute-payers toward their own sex. On so 
 ' repulsive a theme it is unnecessary to enlarge. 
 
 • Theopompus, Dicsearchus, etc. quoted by Athenseus, xiii. 67, 
 ? -Letters of Alciphron, 44. 
 
GREECE. 53 
 
 Many flute-players seem to have been susceptible of lasting 
 affections. In the remains we have of the erotic works of the 
 Greeks, several names are mentioned as those of successful flute- 
 players whose gains were consumed by exacting lovers. It does 
 not appear that they often, ot ever, married. The most famous 
 of all the flute-players was Lamia, who, after being the delight of 
 Alexandria and of King Ptolemy for some fifteen or twenty years, 
 was taken with the city by Demetrius of Macedon, and raised to 
 the rank of his mistress. She was forty years of age at this time, 
 yet her skill was such that she ruled despotically her dissolute 
 lover, and left a memorable name in Greek history. The ancients 
 asserted that she owed her name. Lamia, which means a sort of 
 vampire or bloodsucker, to the most loathsome depravities. Her 
 power was so great that, when Demetrius levied a tax of some 
 $250,000 on the city of Athens, he gave the whole to her, to buy 
 her soap, as he said. The Athenians revenged themselves by 
 saying that Lamia's person must be very dirty, since she needed 
 so much soap to wash it. But they soon found it to their interest 
 to build a temple in her honor, and deify her under the name of 
 Venus Lamia. ^ 
 
 The Hetairse were by far the most important class of women in 
 Greece. They filled so large a place in society that virtuous fe- 
 males were entirely thrown into the shade, and it must have been 
 quite possible for a chaste Athenian girl, endowed with ambition, 
 to look up to them, and covet their splendid infamy. An Athe- 
 nian matron was expected to live at home. She was not allowed 
 to be present at the games or the theatres ; she was bound, when 
 she appeared in public, to be veiled, and to hasten whither she 
 was going without delay ; she received no education, and could 
 not share the elevated thoughts or ideas of her husband ; she had 
 no right to claim any warmth of affection from him, though he 
 possessed entire control over her.^ 
 
 Now, to judge of the position into which this social system 
 thrust the female sex, one must glance at the mythology, or, to 
 speak more correctly, at the rehgious faith of the Greek people. 
 It has been conjectured that they derived their idea of Venus 
 fi-om the East. However this be, Venus was certainly one of the 
 
 ' Plutarch, Life of Demetrius, 16, 19, 24-27 ; Athenaeus, xiii. 39. 
 " Demosthenes against Nersea, p. 1386 ; Becker, Charicles, ii. 215. 
 

 54 HISTORY OV PEOSTITUTIOlir. 
 
 eatiiest goddesses to wlioin their homage was paid. Solon erect- 
 ed opposite Ms dicterion a temple to Venus Pqj^emos, or the 
 public Yenus. In that temple were two statues : one of the god- 
 dess, the other of a nymph, Pitho, who presided over persuasion ; 
 and the attitudes and execution of the statues were such that they 
 explained the character without iascription. At this temple a 
 festival was held on the fourth of each month, to which aU the 
 men of Athens were iavited. But Venus Pandemos soon made 
 way for newer and more barefaced rivals. Twenty temples were 
 raised ia various cities of Greece to Venus the Courtesan. In one 
 author we find allusion made to Venus Mucheia, or the Venus of 
 houses of Ul-fame. Another celebrates Venus Castnia, or the god- 
 dess of indecency. Others honor Venus Scotia, the patroness 
 of darkness ; and Venus Derceto, the guardian deity of street- 
 walkers. More famous still was Venus Divaricatrix, whose sur- 
 nanie, derived, it is said by a father of the Church, a divaricalis 
 cruribm^ must be left in a learned tongue. And still more re- 
 nowned was Venus Callipyge, whose statue is at this day one of 
 the choice ornaments of one of the best European collections of 
 ' antiquities. It owed its charm to the marvelous beauty of the 
 limbs, and was understood to have been designed from two Syra- 
 cusan sisters, whose extraordinary symmetry in this particular 
 had been noticed by a countryman who surprised them while 
 bathing. All these Venuses had temples, and sacrifices, and 
 priestesses. Their worship was naturally analogous to their name, 
 and consistent with their history. Their devotees were every 
 man in Greece. Yet it was in this society, trained to such spec- 
 tacles, and nurtured in such a creed, that matrons and maidens 
 were taught to lead a life of purity, seclusion, and self-sacrifice. 
 
 The consequence was obvious. While ignorance and forcible 
 restraint prevented the women from generally breaking loose, the 
 men grew more and more addicted to the society of hetairae, and 
 more liable to regard their wives as mere articles of furniture. 
 Nor was the anomaly without effect upon the kept women. They 
 alone of their sex saw the plays of Alexander and Aristophanes ; 
 they alone had the mtr^ of the studio of Phidias and ApeUes; 
 they alpne heard Socrates reason, and discussed pohtics with 
 Pericles; they alone shared in the iatellectual movement of 
 Greece. No women but hetairae drove through the streets with 
 uncovered face and gorgeous apparel. None but they mingled in 
 
 ' St. Clement of Alex. ; Hortat. Addi-ess, 97. 
 
GREECE. 55 
 
 tile assemblages of great men at the Pnyx or tlie Stoa. None 
 but they could gather round them of an evening the choicest 
 spirits of the day, and elicit, in the freedom of unrestrained inter- 
 course, wit and wisdom, flashing fancy and burning eloquence. 
 "What wonder that the Hetairse should have filled so prominent a 
 part in Greek- society ! And how small a compensation to virtu- 
 ous women to know that their rivals could not stand by the altar 
 when sacrifice was offered ; could not give birth to a citizen ! 
 
 There are many reasons besides these why the contest was un- 
 equal. Tradition reported several occasions on which hetairse 
 had rendered signal service to the state. Lesena, for instance, the 
 mistress of Harmodius, had bitten off her tongue rather than re- 
 veal the names ' of her fellow-conspirators. EecoUections like 
 these more than nullified the nominal brand of the law. Again, 
 every wise legislator saw the necessity of encouraging any form 
 of rational intercourse, in order to arrest the startling progress 
 which the most degrading of enormities was making in Greece. 
 When Alcibiades was openly courted by the first philosophers 
 and statesmen, it was virtue to applaud Aspasia. And besides, it 
 can not be questioned, in view of the Greek memoirs we possess, 
 that many of the leading hetairse were women of remarkable 
 mind, as well as unusual attractions. Indeed, the leading trait in 
 their history is their intellectuality, as contrasted with other class- 
 es of dissolute women in antiquity.^ That trait can be best illus- 
 trated by referring to the lives of a few of the more celebrated 
 hetairse. 
 
 A Milesianr prostitute, named Thargelia, accompanied Xerxes 
 on his invasion of Greece. Some idea may be formed of the po- 
 sition in society occupied by prostitutes from the fact that Xerxes 
 employed this woman as negotiator with the court of Thessaly, 
 just as in later times modern ministers have used duchesses. 
 Thargelia married the King of Thessaly. 
 
 Fired by her success, another Milesian girl, named Aspasia, es- 
 tablished herself at Athens. She set up a house of prostitution, 
 and peopled it with the most lovely girls of the Ionic cities. But 
 wherein she differed from her rivals and predecessors was the 
 prominence she gave to intellect in her establishment. She lec- 
 tured publicly, among her girls and their visitors, on rhetoric and 
 philosophy, and with such marked ability that she counted among 
 her patrons and lovers the first men of Greece, including Socrates, 
 ' Grote's History of Greece, vi. 100. 
 
56 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Alcibiadea, and Pericles. The last divorced his wife in order to 
 marry hel-, and was accused of allowing her to eovem Athens, 
 then at the height of its power and prosperity, ^he is said to 
 have incited the war against Samos ; and the principal cause of 
 that against Megara was believed to have been the rape, by citi- 
 zens of Megara, of two of Aspasia's girls. What a wonderful 
 light these facts throw on Greek society ! 
 
 Enraged beyond control at her success, the virtuous women of 
 Athens rose against her. She was publicly insulted at the thea- 
 tre ; was attacked in the street ; and, as a last resort, was accused 
 of impiety before the Areopagus. Pericles, then in the decline of 
 his power, and unable to save his friends Phidias and Anaxago- 
 ras, appeared as her advocate. But on such an occasion his elo- 
 quence failed him. He could only seize his beloved wife in his 
 arms, press her to his breast, and burst into tears in presence of 
 the court. The appeal succeeded ; possibly the judges made al- 
 lowance for popular prejudice ; at all events, Aspasia was acquit- 
 ted and restored to society. She lived to be the delight of a flour 
 merchant, under whose roof her lectures on philosophy were con- 
 tinued with undiminished success to the day of her death.^ 
 
 Her friend, and the inheritor of her mantle, Hipparchia, led an 
 equally remarkable life. She was an Athenian by birth, and of 
 good family, but, having. heard the Cynic Crates speak, she de- 
 clared to her parents that nothing would restrain her from yield- 
 ing herself to him. She kept her word, and became the philoso- 
 pher's mistress, in spite of his dirt, his poverty, and his grossness. 
 She is reported to have acquired great reputation as a practical 
 professor of the cynic philosophy. Having engaged one day in a 
 fierce discussion with a somewhat brutal philosopher of a rival 
 sect, the latter, by way of answer to a question she put, violently 
 exposed her person before the whole assembly. " Well," said she, 
 coolly, "what does that prove?" This woman was one of the 
 most voluminous and esteemed authors of her day.^ 
 
 Bacchis, the mistress of the orator Hyperides, illustrates the 
 character of the Athenian kept woman from another point of view. 
 She was extremely beautiful, and gifted with a sweet disposition. 
 One of her early admirers had presented her with a necklace of 
 enormous value. The first ladies of Athens, and even foreign 
 
 ■ Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 24, 32, etc. ; Demosthenes against Nerrea, p. 1350; 
 Aristophanes, Acharm. 497, etc. ; Athenseus, xiii. 25-56. 
 ' Diogenes Laert. vi. 96. 
 
GREECE. 57; 
 
 ■women of rank, coveted the precious trinket in vain. She was in 
 the height of her fame and charms when she heard the orator Hy- 
 perides plead. Smitten on the spot, she became his mistress, and 
 observed a fidelity toward him which was neither usual with her 
 class, nor reciprocated by her lover. On one occasion, a rival an- 
 nounced that the price of her complaisance would be the posses- 
 sion of the necklace of Biicchis. The lover had the meanness to 
 ask for it, and Bacchis gave it without a word. Again : when all 
 Athens knew that she was the mistress of Hyperides, an ofELcious 
 friend came to tell her that her lover was at that moment making 
 love to another woman. Bacchis received the announcement 
 tranquilly. "What do you intend to do?" asked her visitor, with 
 impetuosity. " To wait for him," was the meek answer. She died 
 very young, and her lover partially atoned for his ill treatment 
 by pronouncing a splendid oration over her remains. Very few 
 passages in Greek literature are marked by such eloquent tender- 
 ness and genuine feeling as this fragment of Hyperides.^ 
 
 Grnathena, and her heir and successor, Grnathenion, were famous 
 in their day as wits ; the biography of the first was written in 
 verse by the poet Machon.^ She began life as the mistress of the 
 comic poet Dyphiles, but soon abandoned him to keep a sort of 
 table d'hdte for the wit and fashion of Athens. The "best society" 
 gathered around her board, and at the close of the meal she sold 
 herself by auction. Athenjeus has chronicled a number of her 
 witty and sarcastic sayings, adding that the grace of her elocution 
 imparted a singular charm to every thing she said. Her pro- 
 tegee, Gbiathenion, grew up in time to receive the mantle which 
 age was wresting from the shoulders of Gnathena. An anecdote 
 is preserved which throws some light upon the profits of the 
 calling of hetairae. At the temple of Venus, Gnathena and her 
 protegee met an old Persian satrap, richly clothed in purple, who 
 was struck with the beauty of the latter, and demanded her price. 
 Gnathena ..answered, a thousand drachmas (about two hundred 
 dollars). The satrap exclaimed at such extortion, and offered 
 five hundred, observing that he would return again. " At your 
 age," maliciously retorted Gnathena, " once is too much," and 
 turned on her heel. In her old age it appears that Gnathena 
 was reduced to the disgraceful calling which the Greeks termed 
 hipjpppornos.^ 
 
 ' Athenseus, xiii. 56, 66, etc. ; Alciphron's Letters, 30. 
 , ' Atienseus, xiii. 39, etc. ' Id. xiii. 43, 47. 
 
58 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 But the fame of these lietairse is eclipsed by that of the only 
 t\yo kept women who can rank with Aspasia— Laj| and Phryne. 
 
 Lais was a Sicilian by birth. Like the Empress Catharine of 
 Eussia, she was taken prisoner when her native city was captured, 
 and sold as a slave. The painter Apelles saw her carrying water 
 from a well, and, struck with the beauty of her figure, he bought 
 her, and trained her ia his own house. This, again, is a striking 
 picture. Fancy a leading modern painter deliberately training a 
 prostitute ! It is to be presumed that Apelles gathered round 
 him the best society in Greece. Lais, when her education was 
 complete, was as remarkable for wit and information as for her 
 matchless figure and lovely face. Her master freed her, and 
 established her at Corinth, then in the height of its prosperity, 
 and the largest commercial emporiimi of Greece. 
 
 Coriuth and the Corinthian prostitutes deserve particular notice. 
 It appears that almost every house- in the place was, in fact, a 
 house of prostitution. There were regular schools where the art 
 of debauchery was taught, and frequent importations of young 
 girls from Lesbos, Phoenicia, and the -^Egean Islands supphed 
 them with pupUs. Ancient erotic writers are fall of allusions 
 to the danger of visiting Corinth ; the proverb, Non cuivis homini 
 contingit adire Corinthum, which most moderns have erroneously 
 conceived to refer to Lais alone, was, in fact, an adage justified 
 by the experience of merchants and sailors. It would be incor- 
 rect, however, to compare Corinth with modem sea-ports, where 
 the natural demands of sailors require a cheap supply of women. 
 The first-class hetairse of Corinth charged as high as a talent (say 
 $1000) for a single night's company, and $200 appears to have 
 been no unusual fee. For the' common sailors, the commercial 
 shrewdness of the Corinthians had established a temple to Yenus, 
 containing a thousand young slaves, who were obliged to prosti- 
 tute themselves for a single obolus (a cent).^ 
 
 It was in this metropolis of prostitution that Lais commenced 
 business. She soon rose to the first rank in her trade. Her 
 capriciousness gave additional value to her charms. Even money 
 could not purchase her when it was her whim not to yield. She 
 refused $2000 from the orator Demosthenes, who had actually 
 turned his property into money to lay it at her feet; but she 
 yielded gratuitously to the muddy, ragged cynic Diogenes, and 
 
 ' Plato, De Rep. iii. p. 404 ; Aristoph. Pint. 149 ; MviUer, Dor. ii. 10, 7 ; atrabo, 
 Tiii. 6, 211. 
 
GREECE. 59 
 
 graciously shared tlie patrimony of the philosopher Aristippus. 
 To the latter, who occupied no mean rank in Greek society, a 
 remark was made to the effect that he ought to debar his mistress 
 from promiscuous intercourse for his own sake. He repHed 
 phlegmatically, "Would you object to live in a house or sail in a 
 ship because others had just preceded you in the one or the other?" 
 Xenocrates, the disciple of Plato, resisted Lais successfully. She 
 had made a wager that she would overcome his stoical coldness. 
 Eushing' into his house one evening in affected terror, she be- 
 sought an asylum, as she said thieves had chased her. The 
 philosopher sternly bade her fear nothing. She sat silent tUl 
 Xenocrates went to bed.; then, throwing off her dress, and reveal- 
 ing all her. wonderful beauty, she placed herself at his side. He 
 grufGly submitted to this encroachment. Growing bolder, she 
 threw her arms round him, caressed him, and exhausted her arts 
 of fascination, but Xenocrates remained unmoved. " I wagered," 
 she cried, "to rouse a man, not a statue;" and, springing from the 
 couch, she resumed her dress and disappeared. 
 
 The- people of Corinth desired to possess her statue, and, hav- 
 ing spent her money in embellishing the city, perhaps she was en- 
 titled to this mark of respect. Myron, the sculptor, was deputed 
 to model her charms. He was old and gray ; but so fascinating 
 was her beauty, that at his second visit he laid at her feet all the 
 savings of his life. The haughty courtesan spumed him. He 
 went away, placed himself in the hands of a skiUful perfumer, had 
 his hair and beard dyed, and his appearance rejuvenated. Then 
 he renewed his suit. "My poor friend," said Lais, with a bitter 
 smUe, " you are asking what I refused yesterday to your father." 
 
 In old age Lais had leisure to repent of her caprices. She had 
 spent her money as fast as she made it, and she retained her call- 
 ing long after her charms had vanished. Epicrates has drawn a 
 melancholy picture of a drunken old woman wandering over the 
 quay at Corinth, and seeking to sell for three cents what had once 
 been considered cheap at a thousand dollars. Such was the end 
 of Lais.^ 
 
 Phryne was more fortunate. She husbanded her attractions 
 with judgment, and to the close of her long life retained her rank 
 and her value. Her wealth was such that, when Alexander de- 
 stroyed Thebes, she offered to rebuild the city at her own ex- 
 
 ' Diogenes Laert. ii. 84 ; St. Clement of Alex. Strom, iii. 47 ; Pausanias, ii. 2, 
 4; Ansonius, Epig. 17; Atbensens, xiii. 26, 64, etc. 
 
60 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 pense, provided tlie Thebans would commemorate the fact by an 
 inscription. They refiised. She had counted ai^ng her lovers 
 the most famous men of the day, among whom were the orator 
 Hyperides, whose successful defense of his mistress has already 
 been mentioned ; the painter Apelles, and the sculptor Praxiteles. 
 It was to her that the latter gave his crowning work--his Cupid. 
 He and Apelles were both privileged to admire and reproduce 
 her nude charms, a privilege rigorously denied even to the most 
 opulent of her lovers. 
 
 Phryne was a prodigious favorite with the Athenian people. 
 She played a conspicuous part in the festival of Neptune and 
 Venus. At a certain point in the ceremony she appeared on the 
 steps of the temple at the sea-side in her usual dress, and slowly 
 disrobed herself in the presence of the crowd. She next advanced 
 to the water-side, plunged into the waves, and offered sacrifice to 
 Neptune. Eeturning like a sea-nymph, drying her hair from 
 which the water dripped over her exquisite limbs, she paused for 
 a moment before the crowd, which shouted in a phrensy of en- 
 thusiasm as the fair priestess vanished into a cell in the temple.^ 
 
 Other famous hetairse achieved pohtical and hterary distinction! 
 When Alexander the Great undertook his Asiatic expedition, his 
 treasurer, Harpalus, a sort of Croesus in his way, accompanied 
 him, surrounded by the most lovely women the court of Macedon 
 could afford. Eewarded for his fidelity by the governorship of 
 Babylon, and stUl farther enriched by the spoils of that lucrative 
 of&ce, Harpalus sent to Athens for the most skUlfal and lovely 
 hetairse of the day. Pythionide was sent him. She was not in 
 the bloom of youth. Some years before she had been the familiar 
 of young Athenians of fashion ; she was now the staid mistress 
 of two brothers, sons of an opulent corn-merchant. But her tal- 
 ents were undeniable. She arrived at Ba,bylon, and was installed 
 in the palace; began to rule over the province, and governed 
 Harpalus, it is said, with sternness and vigor. In the midst of 
 her glory she suddenly died ; poisoned, no doubt, by some one of 
 the hundred fair ones whom she had supplanted in the governor's 
 affections. Harpalus, inconsolable for her loss, expended a large 
 portion of the contents of his treasury in burying her and com- 
 memorating her fame. No queen of Babylon was ever consigned 
 to the grave with the pomp, or the show, or the ostentatious afflic- 
 
 1 MUan, V. H. ix. 32 ; Alciphron's Letters, i. 31 ; Jacobs, Alt. Mus. iii. 18, 
 86, etc. ; Athenceus, xiii. 69, etc. 
 
GREECE. fgl 
 
 tion wliicli did honor to the memory of the Athenian prostitute. 
 Her tomb cost $50,000 ; and historians, admiring, in after ages, 
 its splendor and its size, inquired, with mock wonder, whether the 
 bones of a Miltiades, or a Cimon, or a Pericles lay under the pile ! 
 Harpalus found consolation in the arms of a Greek garland- 
 weaver named Grlycera, for 'aught we know the poisoner of Pythi- 
 onice. She, too, became Queen 'of Babylon, issued her decrees, 
 held her court, submitted to be worshiped, and saw her statue of 
 bronze, as large as life, erected in the Babylonian temples. She 
 was a woman of a masculine mind in a feminine body. When 
 Alexander returned from the East, breathing vengeance against 
 faithless servants, she compelled her lover to fly with her to At- 
 tica, where she raided, by her eloquence, her money, and her ad- 
 dress, an army of six thousand men to oppose the hero of Mace- 
 don. It is said that she purchased, at what price we know not, 
 the silence of Demosthenes ; she certainly bribed the Athenian 
 people with large donations of corn. But she could not bribe or 
 persuade her wretched lover to be sensible ; his folly soon roused 
 the Athenians against him, and he was exiled with his mistress. 
 In this exile, one of his attendants cut the throat of the venerable 
 lover, and Glycera, left a widow, returned to AthenS to pursue her 
 calling as a hetaira. She was no longer young, and needed the 
 ■ aid of the dealer in cosmetics ; but her prestige as the ex-mistress 
 of Babylon procured her a certain celebrity, and she soon obtained 
 a position in the society of Athens. Out of a crowd of admirers 
 who attached themselves to her court, she chose two to be, as the 
 French would say, her amants de coeur. One was the painter Pau- 
 sias ; the other the comic poet Mfenander. The former achieved 
 one of his most brilliant triumphs by painting the portrait of his 
 mistress. But, whether his temper was not congenial to hers, or 
 his rival inspired an exclusive affection, Glycera soon discarded 
 Pausias, and became the mistress of the poet alone. Menander, 
 we are led to believe, was a man of a harsh, crabbed disposition ; 
 the haughty Glycera was the only one whom his houtades never 
 irritated, who bore with all his ill temper. When he was success- 
 ful, she heightened his joy ; when his plays were ill received, and 
 he returned from the theatre in low spirits, she consoled him, and 
 • endured the keenest affronts without murmuring. Her amiabUity 
 had its reward. From being one of the most dissolute men of 
 Athens, Menander became solidly attached and faithful to Glycera, 
 and, so soon was her Babylonish career forgotten, she descended 
 
62 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 to posterity in the Athenian heart inseparably coupled with the 
 dearest of their comic writers.' ^ 
 
 Another famous hetaira was Leontium, who succeeded her mis- 
 tress Philenis in the affections of the philosopher Epicurus. She 
 is said to have borne him a daughter, who was born in the shade 
 of a grove in his garden ; but, whether she put her own construc- 
 tion upon the Epicurean philosophy, or did not really love the 
 gray-headed teacher, she was far from practicing the fidelity which 
 was due to so distinguished a lover. She figures in the letters of 
 Alciphrpn as the tender friend of several younger fashionables ; 
 and she has been accused, with what truth it is hard to say, of at- 
 tempting a compromise between the doctrines of Epicurus and 
 those of Diogenes. However this be, Leontium was undoubtedly 
 a woman of rare ability and remarkable taste. She composed sev- 
 eral works ; among others, one against Theophrastus, which ex- 
 cited the wonder and admiration of so good a judge as Cicero. 
 She survived her old protector, and died in obscurity.^ 
 
 Something more might be said of Archeanassa, to whose wrin- 
 kles Plato did not disdain to compose an amorous epigram ; of 
 Theoris, a beautiful girl, who preferred the glorious old age of 
 Sophocles to tfhe ardent youth of Demosthenes, and whom the vin- 
 dictive orator punished by having her condemned to death ; of 
 Archippa, the last mistress and sole heir of Sophocles ; of Theo- 
 dote, the disciple of Socrates, under whose counsels she carried on 
 her business as a courtesan, and whose death may be ascribed, in 
 som&part, to the spite caused by Theodote's rejection of Aristoph- 
 anes ; and of others who figure largely in every reliable history of 
 intellectual Greece. But we must stop. 
 
 In most of the nations to which reference must be made in the 
 ensuing pages of this volume, prostitutes have figured as pariahs ; 
 in Greece they were an aristocracy, exercisiag a palpable influ- 
 ence over the national policy and social life, and mingling con- 
 spicuously in the great march of the Greek intellect. No less than 
 eleven authors of repute have employed their talents as historiog- 
 raphers of courtesans at Athens. Their works have not reached 
 us entire, having fallen victims to the chaste scruples of the clergy 
 of the Middle Ages ; but enough remains in the quotations of 
 Athenseus, Alciphron's Letters, Lucian, Diogenes Laertius, Aris- 
 tophanes, Aristsenetus, and others, to enable us to form a far more 
 
 ' Pansanias, i. 37, 5 ; AthensEus, xiii. 45, etc. ; Diod. xvii. 108 ; An-, ap. Phot. 70. 
 " Diogenes Laert. x. 4 ; AtheniEus, xiii. 29 ; Cicero, de Nat. Deor. i. 33. 
 
GBEECB. 63 
 
 accurate idea of the Athenian hetairse than we can obtain of the 
 prostitutes of the last generation. 
 
 Into the arts practiced by the graduates of the Corinthian acad- 
 emies it is hardly possible to enter, at least in a modern tongue. 
 Even the Greeks were obliged to invent verbs to designate the 
 monstrosities practiced by the Lesbian and Phoenician women. 
 Demosthenes, pleading successfully against the courtesan Nesera, 
 describes her as having seven young girls in her hquse, whom she 
 knefw well how to train for their calling, as was proved by the re- 
 peated sales of their virginity. One may form an idea of the 
 shocking depravity of the reigning taste from the sneers which 
 were lavished upon Phryne and Bacchis, who steadily adhered to 
 natural pleasures. 
 
 The use of phtltres, or charms (of which more will be said in 
 the ensuing chapter on Eoman prostitution), was common in 
 Greece. Eetired courtesans often combined the manufacture of 
 these supposed charms with the 'business of a midwife. They 
 made potions which excited love and potions which destroyed it ; ■ 
 charms to turn love into hate, and others to convert hate into 
 love. That the efiicacy of the latter must have been a matter of 
 pure faith need not be demonstrated, though the belief in them 
 was general and profound. The former are well known in the 
 pharmacopoeia, and from the accounts given of their effects, there 
 is no reason to doubt that they were successfully employed in 
 Greece, as well by jealous husbands and suspicious fathers as by 
 ardent lovers. A case is mentioned by no less an authority than 
 Aristotle, of a woman who contrived to administer an amorous po- 
 tion to her lover, who died of it. The woman was tried for mur- 
 der ; but, it being satisfactorily proved that her intention was not 
 to cause death, but to revive an extinct love, she was acquitted. 
 Other cases are mentioned in which the philtres produced mad- 
 ness instead of love. Similar accidents have attended the exhibi- 
 tion of cantharides in modern times. 
 
64 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 ROME. 
 
 Laws governing Prostitution. — Floralian Games. — Registration of Prostitutes. — 
 Purify of Morals.— Julian Law.— iEdiles.— Classes of Prostitutes.— Loose Prosti- 
 tutes. — Various Classes of lewd Women. — Meretrices. — Dancing Girls. — Bawds. 
 — Male Prostitutes. — Houses of Prostitution. — ^Lupanaria. — Cells of Prostitutes. 
 —Houses of Assignation. — Fornices. —Circus. — Baths. — Taverns. — Bakers' 
 Shops. — Squares and Thoroughfares. — Habits and Manners of Prostitutes. — So- 
 cial standing. — Dress. — Rate of Hire. — Virgins in Roman Brothels. — Kept Wom- 
 en. — Roman Poets. — Ovid. — Martial. — Roman Society. — Social Corruption. — 
 Conversation. — Pictures and Sculptures. — Theatricals.— «Baths. — Religious In- 
 decencies. — Marriage Feasts. — Emperors. — Secret Diseases. — Celsus. — Roman 
 Faculty. — Archiatii. 
 
 LAWS GOVERNING PROSTITUTION. 
 
 OuE earliest acquaintance with, the Eoman laws governing pros- 
 titution dates from the reign of the Emperor Augustus, but there 
 is abundant evidence to show that prostitutes were cormnon in 
 the city of Eome at the time when authentic history begins. 
 
 It does not appear that religious prostitution was ever domiciled 
 in Italy, though in later times the festivals in honor of certain de- 
 ities were scandalously loose, and, to judge from the Etruscan 
 paintings, the morals of the indigenous Italians must have been 
 disgustingly depraved. 
 
 In the comedies of Plautus, which are among the oldest works 
 of Eoman literature which have, reached us, the prostitute (mere- 
 trix) and the bawd {leno) figure conspicuously. They were thus, 
 evidently, in the third century before Christ, weU-known charac- 
 ters in Eoman society. "When the Floralian Games were insti- 
 tuted we have no means of knowing (no credit whatever must be 
 placed in the puerile stories of Lactantius about the courtesans 
 Acca Laurentia and Flora') ; but it is certain that the chief at- 
 traction of these infamous celebrations was the appearance of pros- 
 titutes on the stage in a state of nudity, and their lascivious dances 
 in the presence of the people f and there is evidence, in the story 
 that the performance was suspended during the presence of the 
 stern moralist Cato, that they had been long practiced before his 
 time.^ Indeed, it would not be presuming too far to decide, with- 
 
 ' Lactant. i. 20. ° Martial, 1. 1 ; Seneca, Epist. 96. ' Val. Max. ii. 10, 8. 
 
ROME. 65 
 
 out other evidence, that prostitution must have become a fixed 
 fact at Eome very shortly after the Eomans began to mix freely 
 with the Greek colonists at Tarentum and the other Greek cities 
 in Italy, that is to say, about the beginning of the third century 
 before Christ. 
 
 We learn from Tacitus' that from time immemorial prostitutes 
 had been required to register themselves in the office of the sedile. 
 The ceremony appears to have been very similar to that now im- 
 posed by law on French prostitutes. The woman designing to 
 become a prostitute presented herself before the sedile, gave her 
 age, place of birth, and real name, with the one she assumed if 
 she adopted a pseudonyme.^ The public officer, if she was young 
 or apparently respectable, did his best to combat her resolution. 
 Failing in this, he issued to her a license — licentia stujori, ascertain- 
 ed the sum which she was to demand from her customers, and en- 
 tered her name in his roll. It might be inferred from a law of 
 Justinian' that a prostitute was bound to take an oath, on obtain- 
 ing her license, to discharge the duties of her calling to the end 
 of her life ; for the law in question very properly decided that an 
 oath so obviously at war with good morals was not binding. 
 However this was, the prostitute once inscribed incurred the taint 
 of infamy which nothing could wipe off. Eepentance was impos- 
 sible, even when she married and became the mother of legitimate 
 children ; the fatal inscription was stiU there to bear witness of 
 her infamy.* In Eome, as in so many other countries, the princi- 
 ple of the law was to close the door to reform, and to render vice 
 hopeless. 
 
 There is every reason to suppose that these regulations were in 
 force at a very early period of the Eepublic. Of the further rules 
 established under the imperial regime we shall speak presently. 
 Meanwhile, it may be observed that there is ground for hoping 
 that, at the best age of the Eepublic, the public morals were not 
 generally corrupt. The old stories of Lucretia and Virginia would 
 have had no point among a demoralized people. AH who are 
 familiar with Eoman history will remember the fierce contest 
 waged by Cato the Censor against the jewels, fine dresses, and 
 carriages of the Eoman ladies,* an indication that graver delin- 
 quencies did not call for official interference. This same Cato, aft- 
 er the death of his first wife, cohabited with a female slave ; but, 
 
 ' Annal. lib. ii. 85. = Plautus, Psenulus. ' Nov. 5. 
 
 * See Tabl. Heracl. i. 123. ' Plutarch, Vita Catonis. 
 
 E 
 
66 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 though concubinage was recognized by the Eoman law, and 
 would seem to have involved no disgrace at aj^ter period, the 
 intrigue no sooner became known than the old censor married a 
 second wife to avoid scandal.' A similar inference may be drawn 
 from the strange story told by Livy of the Bacchanalian mysteries 
 introduced into Eome by foreigners about the beginning of the 
 second century before Christ. It is not easy, at this late day, to 
 discover what is true and what false in the statement he gives ; 
 but there is no reasonable doubt that young persons of both sexes, 
 under the impulse of sensuality, had established societies for the 
 purpose, among others, of satisfying depraved instincts. To what 
 extent the mania had extended it is not possible to judge ; the 
 ■numbers given by the Latin writeTs are not very trustworthy. 
 But we may learn how strong was the moral sentiment of the Eo- 
 man people from the very stringent decree which the senate is- 
 sued on motion of the Consul Postumius, and from the indiscrim- 
 inate executions of parties implicated in the mysterious rites.^ 
 
 Other evidences of the purity of Eoman morals might be found, 
 if they were wanting, in the remarkable fidelity with which the 
 "Vestals observed their oaths ; in the tone of the speeches of the 
 statesmen of the time ; in the high character sustained by such 
 matrons as the mother of the Grracchi ; and, finally, in the legisla- 
 tion of Augustus, which professed rather to affirm and improve 
 the old laws than to introduce new principles. 
 
 As we approach the Christian era the picture gradually dark- 
 ens. Civil wars are usually fatal to private virtue : it is not to 
 be doubted that the age of Sylla and Clodius was by no means a 
 moral one. Sylla, the dictator, openly led a life of scandalous de- 
 bauchery ; Clodius, the all-powerful tribune, is accused by Cicero 
 of having seduced his three sisters.^ Soldiers who had made a 
 campaign in profligate Greece or voluptuous Asia naturally 
 brought home with them a taste for the pleasures they had learn- 
 ed to enjoy abroad. Scipio's baths were dark: through narrow 
 apertures just light enough was admitted to spare the modesty of 
 the bathers ; but into the baths which were erected in the later 
 years of the Eepublic the light shone as into a chamber.* Even 
 Sylla, debauched as he was, did not think it safe to abdicate pow- 
 
 ' Livy, xxxiv. 1, et seq. 
 
 " Livy, xxxix. 8-19. See also St. August. De Civ. Dei, vii. 21. 
 
 • Cicero, ad Fam. i. 9. 
 
 * Val. Max. ii. 1, 7 ; Cicero, de Off. 1, 35. 
 
ROME. 67 
 
 er without legislative effort to purify tlie morals he had so large- 
 ly contributed to corrupt by his example.' 
 
 Of the Augustan age, and the two or three centuries which 
 followed, we are enabled to form a close and comprehensive idea. 
 Our information ceases to be meagre ; on some points, indeed, it 
 is only too abundant. 
 
 The object of the Julian laws was to preserve the Eoman blood 
 from corruption, and still farther to degrade prostitutes. These 
 aims were partially attained by prohibiting the intermarriage of 
 citizens with the relatives oi descendants of prostitutes ; by ex- 
 posing adulterers to severe penalties, and declaring the tolerant 
 husband an 'accomplice ; by laying penalties, on bachelors and 
 married men without children ; by prohibiting the daughters of 
 equestrians from becoming prostitutes.^ Tiberius, from his in- 
 famous retreat at Capi'ese, sanctioned a decree of the senate which 
 enhanced the severity of the laws against adultery. By this de- 
 cree it was made a penal offense for a matron of any class to play 
 the harlot, and her lover, the owner of the house where they met, 
 and all persons who connived at the adultery, were declared 
 equally culpable. It seems to have been not uncommon for 
 certain married women to inscribe themselves on the aedile's Hst 
 as prostitutes, and to occupy a room at the houses of ill fame. 
 This was pronounced a penal offense ; and every encouragement 
 was held out, both to husbands and to common informers, to 
 prosecute.^ 
 
 In other respects the republican legislation is beheved to have 
 been unaltered by the emperors. The formality of inscription, 
 its accompanying infamy, the consequences of the act remained 
 the same. Prostitutes carried on their trade under the sedile's 
 ■eye. He patrolled the streets, and entered the houses of ill fame 
 at aU hours of the day and night. He saw that they were closed 
 between daybreak and three in the afternoon. In case of brawls, 
 he arrested and punished the disturbers of the peace. He pun- 
 ished by fine and scourging the omission of a brothel-keeper to 
 inscribe every female in his house. He insisted on prostitutes 
 wearing the garments prescribed by law, and dyeing their hair 
 blue or yellow. On- the other hand, he could not break into a 
 house without being habited in the insignia of his office, and being 
 
 1 Plutarch, Vit. Sylte, 85. 
 
 ' Lex Jul. et Pap. Popp. ; Lex Jul. de Adult. ; Dig; 35, tit.l, § 63 ; Gains, ii. 113. 
 
 ' See Dig. 48, tit. 3. 
 
68 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 accompanied by his lictors. Wheii tlie sedile Hostilius attempted 
 to break open tbe door of the prostitute Mamili^on.his return 
 from a gay dinner, the latter drove him off with stones, and was 
 sustained by the courts.^ The sedile was bound also, on complaint 
 laid by a prostitute, to sentence any customer of hers to pay the 
 sum due to her according to law.^ 
 
 CLASSES OF PROSTITUTES. 
 
 It was the duty of the ^dile to arrest, punish, and drive out 
 of the city all loose prostitutes who, were not inscribed on his 
 book. This regulation was practically a dead letter. At no time 
 in the history of the empire did there cease to be a large and 
 well-known class of prostitutes who were not recorded. They 
 were distinguished from the registered prostitutes {mereirices) by 
 the name of prostibulce? They paid no tax to the state, while 
 their registered rivals contributed largely to the municipal treas- 
 ury; and, if -they ran greater -risks, and incurred more nominal 
 infamy than the latter, they more frequently contrived to rise 
 from their unhappy condition. 
 
 "We have njo means of judging of the number of prostitutes 
 exercising their calling at Eome, Capua, and the other Italian 
 cities during the first years of the Christian era. During Trajan's 
 reign the police were enabled to count thirty-two thousand in 
 Eome alonei, but this number obviously fell short of the truth. 
 One is appalled at the great variety of classes into which the 
 prostibulcR, or unregistered prostitutes were divided. Such were 
 the DelicafcB, corresponding to the kept-women, or French loreites, 
 whose charms enabled them to exact large sums from their visit- 
 ors;* the Famosm, who belonged to respectable families, and took 
 to evil courses through lust or avarice ;* the Doris, who were re- 
 markable for their beauty of form, and disdained the use of cloth- 
 ing;^ ikQ-Ltipm, or she-wolves, who haunted the groves and com- 
 mons, and were distinguished by a particular cry in imitation of 
 a wolf;' the jElwarm, or bakers' girls, who sold small cakes for 
 sacjiBce to Venus andPriapus, in the form of the male and female 
 organs of generation ;° the Bwtuarice, whose home was the burial- 
 ground, and who occasionally officiated as mourners at funerals ;' 
 
 ' Aulus Gell. quoting Ateius Capito. 
 
 = Pierrugues, Gloss. Erot. For the duties of the ffidiles, see Schubert, de Rom. 
 iEdilibus, liv. i. ' See Pkntjis, passim. * Suetonius. ' Cicero. 
 
 • Ausonius. ' Plant. Panulus. • Cic. pro Cselio. » Jurenal. 
 
KOME. 69 
 
 tke Cojpm^ servant-girls at inns and taverns, wlio were invariably 
 prostitutes ;* the NoctUuce, or night-walkers ; the BUiidce, a very- 
 low class of women, who derived the name from hlitum, a cheap 
 and unwholesome beverage drunk in the lowest holes f the Diobo- 
 feres, wretched outcasts, whose price was two oboli(say two cents) ;^ 
 th.e Forarice, country girls who lurked about country roads; the 
 Gallince, who were thieves as well as prostitutes ; the Quadrania- 
 rice, seemingly the lowest class of all, whose fee was less than any 
 copper coin now current.* In contradistinction to these, the mere- 
 trices assumed an air of respectabiUty, and were often called ionce 
 Tneretrices.^ 
 
 Another and a distinct class of prostitutes were the female 
 dancers, who were eagerly sought after, and more numerous than 
 at Athens. They were lonians; Lesbians, Syrians, Egyptians, Nu- 
 bians (negresses), Indians, but the mdst famous were Spaniards. 
 Their dances were of the same character as those of the Greek 
 flute-players; the erotic poets of Eome have not shrunk from cel- 
 ebrating the astonishing depravity of their performances.^ 
 
 Horace faintly deplored the progress which the Ionic dknces — 
 lonice motus — were making even among the Roman virgins.'' 
 These prostitutes carried on their cdling in defiance of law. If 
 detected, thej^ were liable to be whipped and driven out of the 
 city;^ but as their customers belonged to the wealthier classes, 
 they rarely suffered the penalty of their conduct. 
 
 Apart, again, from all these was the large class of persons who 
 traded in prostitutes. The proper name for these wretches was 
 Lemo (bawd), which was of both'sexes, though usually represented 
 on the stage as a beardless man with shaven head. Under this 
 name quite a number of varieties were included, such as the Im- 
 panarii, or keepers of regular houses of ill fame ; the Adductores 
 and Perdixtores, pimps ; Conciliatrices and AnciUuIcB, women who 
 negotiated immoral transactions, and others. Then, as almost ev- 
 ery baker, tavern-keeper, bath-house-keeper, barber, and perfumer 
 combined the knocimum, or trade in prostitutes, with his other call- 
 ing, their various names, tonsor, unguenkirius, balnearius, &c., be- 
 came synonymous with leno. This miserable class was regarded 
 with the greatest loathing at Eome.^ 
 
 ' Juvenal. ' Suidas. ' Plautus, Clstellaria. * Suetonius. " Martial. 
 ' Plant. Panulus. Juvenal says, 
 
 "Ad terrain tremulo descendant dune pmllce." 
 ' Horace, Od. iii. 6, 21. ' See Schubert, he. eit. 
 
 ' Terence, Adelph. 1 ; Catullus, etc. 
 
70 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 This hasty classification of the Eoman prostitutes would be in- 
 complete without some notice, however brief, of ^ale prostitutes. 
 Fortunately, the progress of good morals has divested this repul- 
 sive theme of its importance ; the object of this work, can be ob- 
 tained without entering into details on a branch of the subject 
 which in this country is not likely to require fresh legislative no- 
 tice. But the reacler would form an imperfect idea of the state of 
 morals at Eome were he left in ignorance of the fact that the num- 
 ber of male prostitutes was probably fiill as large as that of fe- 
 males ; that, as in Greece, the degrading phenomenon involved 
 very little disgrace ; that all the Eoman aiithors aUude to it as a 
 matter of course ; that the leading men of the empire were known 
 to be addicted to such habits ; that the sedile abstained from in- 
 terference, save where a Eoman youth suffered violence ; and that, 
 to judge from the language of the writers of the first, second, and 
 third centuries of the Christian era, the Eomans, like some Asiatic 
 races, appeared to give the preference to unnatural lusts.* 
 
 HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION". 
 
 Having examined the laws which governed prostitution at 
 Eome, and the classes into which prostitutes were divided, it is 
 now requisite to glance at the establishments in which prostitu- 
 tion was carried on. 
 
 M. Dufour and others have followed Publius Victor and Sextus 
 Eufus in supposing that during the Augustine age there were 
 forty-six first-class houses of ill fame at Eome, and a much larger 
 number of establishments where prostitution was carried on with- 
 out the supervision of the sedile. As it is now generally ad- 
 mitted that the works bearing the name of Publius Victor and 
 Sextus Eufus are forgeries of comparatively recent date, the 
 statement loses all claim to credit, and we are left without sta- 
 tistical information as to the number of houses of prostitution at 
 Eome.^ 
 
 Eegistered prostitutes were to be found in the establishments 
 called Lupanaria. These differed from the Greek Dicteria in be- 
 ing of various classes, from the well-provided house of the Peace 
 ward to the filthy dens of the Esqiiiline and Suburran wards; 
 and farther, in the wide range of prices exacted by the keepera of 
 the various houses. It is inferred from the results of the excava- 
 
 ' Bom. i. 26, 27, and all Latin poets, passim. 
 
 ' See Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Eome, 1830, i. 173. 
 
ROME. 71 
 
 tions at Pompeii, and some meagre hints thrown out by Latin 
 authors, that the lupanaria at Kome were small in size. The 
 most prosperous were built like good Eoman houses, with a 
 square court-yard, sometimes with a fountain playing in the mid- 
 dle. Upon this yard opened the cells of the prostitutes. In 
 smaller establishments the cells opened upon a hall or porch, 
 w;hich seemingly was used as a reception-room. The cells were 
 dark closets, illuminated at night by a small bronze lamp. Some- 
 times they contained a bed, but as often a few cushions, or a mere 
 mat, with a dirty counterpane, constituted their whole furniture. 
 Over the door of each cell hung a tablet, with the name of the 
 prostitute who occupied it, and the price she set on her favors ; 
 on the other side with the word occupata. When a prostitute re- 
 ceived a visitor in her cell, she turned the tablet round 'to warn 
 intruders that she was engaged.' Over the door of the house a 
 suggestive image was either painted, or represented in stone or 
 marble : one of these signs may be seen to this day in Pompeii. 
 Within, similar indecent sculptures abounded. Bronze ornaments 
 of this style hung round the necks of the courtesans ; the lamps 
 were in the same shape, and so were a variety of other utensils. 
 The walls were covered with appropriate frescoes. In the best- 
 ordered establishments, it is understood that scenes from the my- 
 thology were the usual subjects of these artistic decorations; but 
 we have evidence enough at Pompeii to show that gross inde- 
 cency, not poetical effect, was the main object sought by painters 
 in these works. 
 
 Eegular houses of prostitution, lupanaria, were of two kinds : 
 establishments owned and managed by a bawd, who supplied the 
 cells with slaves or hired prostitutes, and establishments where 
 the bawd merely let his cells to prostitutes for a given sum. In 
 the former case the bawd was the principal, in the latter the 
 women. There is reason to suppose that the former were the 
 more respectable. Petronius alludes to a house where so much 
 was paid for the use of a cell, and the sum was an as, less than 
 two cents.^ Messalina evidently betook herself to one of these 
 establishments, which, for clearness' sake, we may call assignation 
 houses ; and as it appears she was paid in copper (oem poposcii), 
 it is safe to infer that the house was of slender respectability. 
 
 The best houses were abundantly supplied with servants and 
 luxuries. A swarm of pimps and runners sought custom for them 
 
 ' Plautus, Asinaria ; Martial, Ep. passim, ' Petronius, Satyricon, i. 28. 
 
72 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 in every part of the city. "Women — ancilke ornatrices — were in 
 readiness to repair with skill the ravages which ai^rous conflicts 
 caused in the toilets of the prostitutes. Boys— 6acanbnes— at- 
 tended at the door of the cell with water for ablution. Servants, 
 who bore the inconsistent title of aquarii, were ready to supply 
 wine and other refreshments to customers. And not a few of the 
 lupinaria kept a cashier, called villicus, whose business it was to 
 discuss bargains with visitors, and to receive the money before 
 turning the tablet. 
 
 Under many public and some of the best private houses at 
 Eome were arches, the tops of which were only a few feet above 
 the level of the street. These arches, dark and deserted, became 
 a refuge for prostitutes. Their name,/oTOtces, at last became sy- 
 nonymous with lupanar, and we have borrowed from it our generic 
 word fornication.' There is reason to believe that there were sev- 
 eral score of arches of this character, and used for this purpose, 
 under the great circus and other theatres at Eome,^ besides those 
 under dwelling-houses and stores. The want of fresh air was 
 severely felt in these vile abodes. Frequent allusions to the 
 stench exhaled from the mouth of a fornix are made in the Ro- 
 man authors.^ 
 
 Establishments of a lower character still were the pergulm, in 
 which the girls occupied a balcony above the street ; the stabula, 
 where no cells were used, and promiscuous intercourse took place 
 openly ;* the furturilla, or pigeon-houses ;^ the casauria, or suburb 
 houses of the very lowest stamp. 
 
 The clearest picture of a Eoman house of iU fame is that given 
 in the famous passage of Juvenal, which may be allowed to re- 
 main in the original. The female, it need hardly be added, was 
 Messalina : 
 
 "Dormire virum quum senserat uxor, 
 Atisa Palatino tegetem praeferre cubili, 
 Smnere noctumas meretrix Augusta cueullos, 
 Linquebat comite ancilla non amplius una, 
 Sed nigrum flavo crinem abscondente gakro, 
 Intrayit ealidum veteri centone lupanar, 
 Et celhtn vacuam atque suam. Tunc nuda capillis 
 Constitit auratis, titulum mentita Lyciseae, 
 
 ' Hor. Sat. i. 2, 30 ; Jut. Sat. iii. 156 ; Suet. Jul. 49. 
 
 ' PrudentiuB, in Agn; Boulenger, Cirque, etc. 
 
 " Olenti infornice, Hor. Redokt/tiligmara/omicis, Mart. • Plautus. ' Id. 
 
HOME. 73 
 
 Ostendit que iuum, generose Britannice, ventrem. 
 Excepit blanda intrantes, atque cem poposcit, 
 Et resupina jacens multomm absorbuit ictus. 
 Mox leiwne sttas JQ,m dimittente pwttas, 
 Tristris abit,, et quod pbtuit, tamen ultima cellam 
 Clausit, adbuo ardens rigidae tentigine vulvae, 
 Et lassata viris necdum satiata recessit ; 
 Obscurrisque genis turpis fumoque lucemaB 
 Foeda lupanaris tulit ad pulvinar adorem.'" 
 
 Tlie passages in italics contain useful information ; we shall allude 
 to some of them hereafter. Meanwhile, it is evident from the line 
 mox lenone, etc., that, at a certain hour of the night, the keepers of 
 houses of ill fame were in the habit of closing their establishments 
 and sending their girls home. The law required them to close at 
 daybreak, but probably a much earlier hour may have suited their 
 interest. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the fornices under the cir- 
 cus. It is well understood that prostitutes were great frequenters 
 of the spectacles, and that in the arched fornices underneath the 
 seats and the stage they were always ready to satisfy the passions 
 which the comedies and pantomimes only too frequently aroused.^ 
 This was one formidable rival to the regular lupinaria. 
 
 The baths were another. In the early Eoman baths, darkness, 
 or, at best, a faint twilight reigned ; and, besides, not only were 
 the sexes separated, but old and young men were not allowed to 
 bathe together.^ But after Sylla's wars, though there were sepa- 
 rate svdaria and tepidaria for the sexes, they could meet freely ia 
 the corridors and chambers, and any immorality short of actual 
 prostitution could take place." Men and women, girls and boys, 
 mixed together in a state of perfect nudity, and in such close prox- 
 imity that contact could hardly be avoided. Such an assemblage 
 would obviously be a place of resort for dealers in prostitutes in 
 search of merchandise. At a later period, cells were attached to 
 the bath-houses, and young men and women kept on the premis- 
 es, partly as bath attendants and partly as prostitutes. After the 
 bath, the bathers, male and female, were rubbed down, kneaded, 
 and anointed by these attendants. It would appear that women 
 submitted to have this indecent service performed for them by 
 
 ' Juvenal, ii. Sat. vi. 116. 
 
 " Cyprian, Ep. 103 ; Boulenger, De Circe Rom. ;- Arnob. ; TertulUan. 
 
 ' Seneca, Ep. 86; Val. Max. ii. 1, 7. * Plin. H. N. 33, U, 
 
7_i HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 men, and that healtli was not always the object sought, even by 
 the Eoman matrons.* Several emperors endeavomd to remedy 
 these frightful immoralities. Hadrian forbade the intermixture 
 of men and women in the public baths.^ Similar enactments were 
 made by Marcus Aurelius and Alexander Severus ; but Helioga- 
 balus is said to have delighted in uniting the sexes, even in the 
 wash-room. As early as the Augustan era, however, the baths 
 were regarded as little better than houses of prostitution under a 
 respectable name.^ 
 
 Taverns or houses of entertainment were also in some measure 
 brothels. The law regarded all servants waiting upon travelers 
 at inns or taverns as prostitutes.* It would appear, also, that 
 butchers', bakers', and barbers' shops were open to a suspicion of 
 being used for purposes of prostitution. The plebeian sediles con- 
 stantly made it their business to visit these in search of unregis- 
 tered prostitutes, though, as might be expected from the number 
 of delinquents and the very incomplete municipal police system 
 of Eome, with very little success. The bakers' establishments, 
 which generally included a flour-mill, were haunted by a low class 
 of prostitutes to whom allusion has already been made. In the 
 cellar where the mill stood cells were often constructed, and the 
 sedUes knew well that all who entered there did not go to buy 
 bread.^ 
 
 Finally, prostitution to a very large extent was carried on in 
 the open air. The shades of certain statues and temples, such as 
 those of Marsyas, Pan, Priapus, Venus, etc., were common resorts 
 for prostitutes. It is said that Julia, the daughter of the Emperor 
 Augustus, prostituted herself under the shade of a statue of Mar- 
 syas. Similar haunts of abandoned women were the arches of 
 aqueducts, the porticoes of temples, the cavities in walls, etc. Even 
 the streets in the poorer wards of the city appear to have been in- 
 fested by the very lowest class of prostitutes, whose natural favors 
 had long ceased to be merchantable.* It must be borne in mind 
 
 ' "Callidus et criatse digitos impressit aliptes." — Juyenal, ii. Sat. vi. 
 ' Spartianus, Hadrian, c. 1. ' See Ovid, Ars Amat. 
 
 * Ulpian, lir. xxiii. De rit. nupt. ; Jul. Paulus, Dig. ; Cicero. 
 ' Martial, xvi. 222. 
 
 * Lesbia nostra, Lesbia ilia, 
 nia Lesbla, quam Catullus uuam, 
 Plus quam se atque suaa amavit ornnes, 
 Nunc in quadriviia et angiportis 
 Glublt magnanimoa Semi nepotes. 
 
 Cattolus, Carm. B8. 
 
BOME. 75 
 
 that the streets of Kome were not lighted, and that profound dark- 
 ness reigned when the moon was clouded over. 
 
 HABITS AND MANNERS OF PROSTITUTES. 
 
 A grand distinction between Eoman and Greek prostitution 
 lies in the manner in which commerce with prostitutes was view- 
 ed in the two communities. At Athens there was nothing dis- 
 graceful in frequenting the dicterion or keeping an hetaira. At 
 Eome, on the contrary, a married man who visited a house of ill 
 fame was an adulter, and liable to the penalties of adultery. An 
 habitual frequenter of such places was a moechus or scoriator, both 
 of which were terms of scathing reproach. When Cicero wishes 
 to overwhelm Catiline, he says his followers are scoriator es.^ Un- 
 til the lowest age of Eoman degradation, moreover, no man of 
 any character entered a house of ill fame without hiding his 
 face ■^ith the skirt of his dress. Even Caligula and Heliogaba- 
 lus concealed their faces when they visited the women of the 
 town.^ 
 
 The law prescribed with care the dress of Eoman prostitutes, 
 on the principle that they were to be distinguished in all things 
 from honest women. Thus they were not allowed to wear the 
 chaste siola which concealed the form, or the vitta or fillet with 
 which Eoman ladies bound their hair, or to wear shoes {soccus), 
 or jewels, or purple robes. These were the insignia of virtue. 
 Prostitutes wore the toga like men ; their hair, dyed yellow or 
 red, or filled with golden spangles, was dressed in some Asiatic 
 fashion. They wore sandals with gilt thongs tying over the 
 instep, and their dress was directed to be of flowered material. 
 In practice, however, these rules were not strictly observed. 
 Courtesans wore jewels and purple robes,^ and not a few boldly 
 concealed their profligacy imder the siola. Others, seeking rather 
 to avoid than to court misapprehension as to their calling, wore 
 the green toga proudly, and over it the sort of jacket called amic- 
 ulum, which, like the white sheet of baronial times, was the badge 
 of adultery. Others, again, preferred the silk and gauze dresses 
 of the East {sericce vestes), which, according to the expression of a 
 classical writer, " seemed invented to exhibit more conspicuously 
 what they were intended to hide."* Eobes of Tyre were likewise 
 
 ' Cicero in Cat. " Lampridius, Script. Hist. Aug. Elagabahs. 
 
 = Martial, Ep. i. 36, 8 ; ii. 39 ;, vi. 64, 4. See Becker's Gallus, i. 321. 
 * See also Seneca. 
 
76 HISTOEY or PROSTITUTION. 
 
 in use, whose texture may be inferred from the name of " textile 
 vapor" (yenius iextilis) which they received. ^ 
 
 The law strictly prohibited the use of vehicles of any kind to 
 courtesans. This also was frequently infringed. Under several 
 emperors prostitutes were seen in open litters in the most public 
 parts of Eome, and others in litters which closed with curtaiiis, 
 and served the purpose of a bed-chamber.^ A law of Domitian 
 imposed heavy penalties on a courtesan who was seen in a litter. 
 
 In the lupanar, of course, rules regarding costume were un- 
 heeded. Prostitutes retained their hair black, but as to the rest 
 of their person they were governed by their own taste. Nudity 
 appears to have been quite common, if not the rule. Petronius 
 describes his hero walking in the street, and seeing from thence 
 naked prostitutes at the doors of the lupanaria.^ Some covered 
 their busts with golden stuffs, others veiled their faces. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that the rate of remuneration 
 exacted by the prostitutes was fixed by themselves, though ap- 
 parently announced to the sedile. It is impossible to form any 
 idea of the average amount of this charge. The lowest classes, 
 as has been mentioned, sold their miserable favors for about two 
 tenths of a cent ; another large class were satisfied with two cents. 
 The only direct light that is thrown on this branch of the subject 
 flows from an obscure passage in the strange romance entitled 
 " ApoUonius. of Tyre," which is supposed to have been written 
 by a Christian named Symposius. In that work the capture of a 
 virgin named Tarsia by a bawd is described. The bawd orders a 
 sign or advertisement to be hung out, inscribed, "He who de- 
 flours Tarsia shall pay half a pound, afterward she shall be at the 
 public service for a gold piece." The half pound has been as- 
 sumed by commentators to mean half a Eoman pound of silver, 
 and to have been worth $30 ; the gold piece, according to the 
 best computation, was about equivalent to $4. But whether these 
 figures can be regarded as an average admits of doubt, even sup- 
 posing our estimate of the value of the sums mentioned in the 
 ancient work to be accurate. 
 
 The allusion to Tarsia suggests gome notice of the practice of 
 the Eoman bawds when they had secured a virgin. It will be 
 found faithfully described in that old English play, " Pericles, 
 Prince of Tyre," which is sometimes bound up with Shakspeare's 
 
 ' Seneca, Ep. 80, 110; Suet. Jul. 43; Claud. 28; Domit. 8. 
 " Petron. Satyi-. i. 26. 
 
ROME. 77 
 
 works. When a bawd had purchased a virgin as a slave, or when, 
 as sometimes happened under the Jater emperors, a virgin was 
 handed to him to be prostituted as a punishment for crime, the 
 door of his house was adorned with twigs of laurel ; a lamp of 
 unusual size was hung out at night, and a tablet exhibited some- 
 what similar to the one quoted above, stating that a virgin had 
 been received, and enumerating her charms with cruel gross- 
 ness.^ "When a purchaser had been found and a bargain struck, 
 the unfortunate girl, often a mere child, was surrendered to 
 his brutality, and the wretch issued from the cell afterward, 
 to be himself crowned with laurel by the slaves of the establish- 
 ment. 
 
 Thus far of common prostitutes. Though the Eomans had no 
 loose women who could compare in point of standing, influence, 
 or intellect with the Greek hetairte, their highest class of prosti- 
 tutes, the famosce or delicatce, were very far above the unfortunate 
 creatures just described. They were not inscribed in the sedile's 
 rolls ; they haunted no lupanar, or tavern, or baker's stall ; they 
 were not seen lurking about shady spots at night ; they wore no 
 distinguishing costume. It was in broad daylight, at the theatre, 
 in the streets, in the Via Sacra, which was the favorite resort of 
 fashionable Eome, that they were to be found, and there they were 
 only to be distinguished from virtuous matrons by the superior 
 elegance of their dress, and the swarm of admirers by whom they 
 were surroxmded. Indeed, under the later emperors, the distinc- 
 tion, outward or inward, between these prostitutes and the Eoman 
 matrons appears to have been very slight indeed.^ They were 
 surrounded or followed by slaves of either sex, a favorite waiting- 
 maid being the most usual attendant.' Their meaning glances are 
 frequently the subject of caustic allusions in the Eoman poets.* 
 Many of them were foreigners, and expressed themselves by signs 
 from ignorance of the Latin tongue. 
 
 ; These women were usually the mistresses of rich men, though 
 not necessarily faithful to their lovers. "We possess no such bi- 
 ographies of them as we have of the Greek hetairse, nor is there 
 any reason to suppose that their lives ever formed the theme of 
 serious works, though the Eoman erotic library was rich. "What 
 little we, know, of tiiem we glean mostly from the verses of Horace, 
 Tibullus, Ovid, Propertius, Catullus, Martial, and from such works 
 
 • Juvenal, Sat. vi. ; Tertullian, De exhort, cast. 45. ' Juvenal, Sat. vi. 
 
 ' Petronius, ii. 352. * Plautus, Miles ; Apuleius, ii. 27. 
 
78 HISTORY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 as the Satyrieon of Petronius, and the novel of Apuleins, and that 
 little is hardly worth the knowing. it 
 
 The first five poets mentioned— Catullus, Horace, Propertius, 
 Ovid, and TibuUus— devoted no small portion of their time and 
 talent to the celebration of their mistresses. But beyond their 
 names, Lydia, Ohloe, Lalage, Lesbia, Cynthia, Delia, Ne^ra, Corin- 
 na, (fee, we are taught nothing about them but what might have 
 been taken for granted, that they were occasionally beautiful, las- 
 civious, extravagant, often faithless and heartless. From passages 
 in Ovid, and also in one or two of the others, it may be inferred 
 that it was not uncommon for these great prostitutes to have a 
 nominal husband, who undertook the duty of negotiating their 
 immoral bargains (Jeno mariius). 
 
 The' only really useful information we derive from these erotic 
 efEusions relates to the poets themselves. All the five we have 
 mentioned moved in the best society at Eome. Some of them, 
 like Horace, saw their fame culminate during their lifetime ; oth- 
 ers filled important stations under government. Ovid was inti- 
 mate with the Emperor Augustus, and his exile is supposed to 
 have been caused by some improper discoveries he made with re- 
 gard to the emperor's relations with his daughter. Yet it is quite 
 evident that all these persons habitually lived with prostitutes, 
 felt no shame on that account, and recorded unblushingly the 
 charms and exploits of their mistresses in verses intended to be 
 read indiscriminately by the Roman youths. 
 
 Between Ovid and Martial the distance is immense. Half a 
 century divided them in point of time ; whole ages in tone. Dur- 
 ing the Augustan era, the language of poets, though much freer 
 than would be tolerated to-day, was not invariably, coarse. No 
 gross expressions are used by the poets of that day in addressing 
 their mistresses, and even common prostitutes are addressed/with 
 epithets which a modern lover might apply to his betrothed. 
 But Martial knows no decency. It may safely be said that his 
 epigrams ought never again to be translated into a modem 
 tongue. Expressions designating the most loathsome depravi- 
 ties, and which, happily, have no equivalent, and need none, in 
 our language, abound in his pages. Pictures of the most revolt- 
 ing pruriency succeed each other rapidly. la a word, such lan- 
 guage is used and such scenes depicted as would involve the ex- 
 pulsion of their utterer from any house of ill fame in modem 
 times. Yet Martial enjoyed high favor under government. He 
 
ROME. 79 
 
 was enabled to procure the naturalization of many of his Spanish 
 friends. He possessed a country and a town house, both probably 
 gifts from the emperor. His works, even in his lifetime, were 
 carefully sought after, not only in Eome, but in Gaul, Spain, and 
 the other provinces. Upon the character and life of courtesans in 
 his day he- throws but little light. The women whose hideous 
 depravity he celebrates must have been well known at Eome; 
 their names must have been familiar to the ears of Eoman society. 
 But this feature of Eoman civilization, the notoriety of prostitutes 
 and of their vile arts, properly belongs to another division of the 
 subj'ect. 
 
 ROMAN SOCIETT. 
 
 It was'bften said by the ancients that the more prostitutes there 
 were, the safer would be virtuous women. " Well done," said the 
 moralist to a youth entering a house of ill fame;, "so shalt thou 
 spare matrons and maidens." As this idea rests upon a slender 
 substratum of plausibility, it may be as well to expose its fallacy, 
 which can be done very completely by a glance at Eoman society 
 under the emperors. 
 
 Even allowing for poetical exaggeration, it may safely be said 
 that there is no modern society, perhaps there has never existed 
 any since the fall of Eome, to which Juvenal's famous satire on 
 women can be applied.^ Independently of the unnatural lusts 
 which were so unblushingly avowed, the picture drawn by the 
 Eoman surpasses modern credibility. That it was faithful to na- 
 ture and fact, there is, unhappily, too much reason to believe. 
 The causes must be sought in various directions. 
 
 Two marked distinctions between modem and ancient society 
 may at once be noticed. In no modern civilized society is it al- 
 lowable to present immodest images to the eye, or to utter im- 
 modest words in the ear of females or youth. At Eome the' con- 
 trary was the rule. The walls of respectable houses were cover- 
 ed with paintings, of which one hardly dares in our times to men- 
 tion the subjects. Lascivious frescoes and lewd sculptures, such 
 as would be seized in any modern country by the police, filled the 
 halls of the most virtuous Eoman citizens and nobles.'^ Ingenuity 
 had been taxed to the utmost to reproduce certain indecent ob- 
 jects under new forms.' Nor was common indecency adequate 
 
 ' Juvenal, Sat. vi. 
 
 ' Propertius, il. 6 ; Suet. Tib. 43, and Vit. Hor. ; Pliny, xxxy. 37. 
 
 ' See the collection at the Museo Borbonice at Naples, etc. 
 
80 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 to supply the depraved taste of the Eomans. Such groups as 
 satyrs and nymphs, Leda and the swan, Pasiph^ and the bull, 
 satyrs and she-goats, were abundant. Some of them have been 
 foimd, and exhibit a wonderful artistic skill. All of these were 
 daily exposed to the eyes of children and young girls, who, 
 as Propertius says, were not allowed to remain novices in any 
 infamy. 
 
 Again, though a Horace would use polite expressions in ad- 
 dressing Tyndaris or Lalage, the Latin tongue was much freer 
 than any modern one. There is not a Latin author of the best 
 age in whose writings the coarsest words can not be found. The 
 comedies were frightfully obscene, both ia ideas and expressions. 
 A youth or a maiden could not begin to acquire instruction with- 
 out meeting words of the grossest meaning. The convenient ad- 
 age, Gharta non erubescit, was invented to hide the pruriency of 
 authors, and one of the worst puts in the wretched plea that, 
 " though his page is lewd, his life is pure." It is quite certain 
 that, whatever might have been the effect on the poet, his readers 
 could not but be demoralized by the lewdness of his verses. 
 
 Add to these causes of immorality the baths, and a fair case in 
 support of Juvenal will be already made out. A young Eoman 
 girl, with warm southern blood in her veins, who could gaze on 
 the unveiled picfures of the loves of Venus, read the shamefal 
 epigrams of Martial, or the burning love-songs of Catullus, go to 
 the baths and see the nudity of scores of men and women, be 
 touched herself by a hundred lewd hands, as well as those of the 
 bathers who rubbed her dry and kneaded her limbs — a young 
 girl who could withstand such experiences and remain virtuous 
 would need, indeed, to be a miracle of principle and strength of 
 mind. 
 
 But even then religion and law remained to assail her. She 
 could not walk through the streets of Eome without seeing tem- 
 ples raised to thehonor of Yenus, that Venus who was the mother 
 of Eome, as the patroness of illicit pleasures. In every field and 
 in many a square, statues of Priapus, whose enormous indecency 
 was his chief characteristic, presented themselves to view, often 
 surrounded by pious matrons in quest of favor from the god. 
 Once a year, at the Lupercalia, she saw young men running 
 naked through the streets, armed with thongs with which they 
 struck every woman they saw; and she noticed that matrons 
 courted this flagellation as a means of becoming prolific. "Wliat 
 
ROME. 81 
 
 she may have known of the Dionysia or SaturnaUa, the wild 
 games in honor of Bacchus, and of those other dissolute festivals 
 known as the eves of Venus, which were kept in April, it is not 
 easy to say, but there is no reason to believe, that these lewd 
 scenes were intended only for the vicious, or that they were kept 
 a secret. 
 
 When her marriage approached the remains of her modesty 
 were effectually destroyed. Before .marriage she was led to the 
 statue of MutinuSj a nude sitting figure, and made to sit on his 
 knee,^ ut ejus pudicitiam prius deus delibasse videtur. This usage 
 was so deeply rooted among the Eomans that, when Augustus 
 destroyed the temple of Mutinus in the YeHan ward in conse- 
 quence of the immoralities to which it gave rise, a dozen others 
 soon rose to take its place. On the marriage night, statuettes of 
 the deities Subiqus and Prema hung over the nuptial bed — ut 
 suhacta a sponso viro non se commoveat quum premitur ;^ and in 
 the morning the jealous husband exacted, by measuring the neck 
 of his bride, proof to his superstitious mind that she had yielded 
 him her virginity.^ 
 
 In the older age of the republic it was not considered decent 
 for women to recline on couches at table as men did. This, how- 
 ever, soon became quite common. Men and women lay together 
 on the same couch so close that hardly room for eating was left. 
 And this was the custom not only with women of loose morals, 
 but with the most respectable matrons. At the feast of Trimal- 
 chio, which is the best recital of a Eoman dinner we have, the 
 wife of the host and the wife of Habinus both appeared before 
 the guests. Habinus amused them by seizing his host's wife by 
 the feet and throwing her forward so that her dress flew up and 
 exposed her knees, and Trimalchio himself did not blush to show 
 his preference for a giton in the presence of the company, and to 
 throw a cup at his wife's head when her jealousy led her to re- 
 monstrate.* The voyage- of the hero of the Satyricon furnishes 
 other pictures of the intensely depraved feeling which pervaded 
 Eoman society. The author does not seem to admit the possibil- 
 ity of virtue's existence ; all his men and women are equally 
 vicious and shameless. The open sp^tacle of the most hideous 
 
 ' Mutinus, cujus immanibus pudendis horrentique fascino vestras inequitare ma- 
 
 trones Araobins, v. 132. See also St. Augustine and Lactantius. 
 
 " August. Da Civ. Dei. ' Catullus, Epithalam. ; Arnobius, loc. at. 
 
 * Petron. Satyr, ii. 68. 
 
 F 
 
82 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 debaucliery only provokes a laugh. If a man declines to accede 
 to the propositions which the women are the firslj^o make, it must 
 be because he is a disciple of the aversa Venus, and whole cities 
 are depicted as joining in the hue and cry after the lost /rater of 
 a noted debauchee. 
 
 The commessaftbnes, which Cicero enumerates among the symp- 
 toms of corruption in his time, had become of universal usage. 
 It was for them that th^ cooks of Eome exhausted their art iti 
 devising the dishes which have puzzled modern gastronomists; 
 for them that the rare old wines of Italy were stowed away in 
 cellars; for them that Egyptian and Ionian dancing-girls stripped 
 themselves, or donned the nd}ula, linea} No English words can 
 picture the monstrosities which are calmly narrated in the pages 
 of Petronius and Martial. "Well might Juvenal cry, "Vice has 
 culminated."^ 
 
 It is perhaps difficult to conceive how it could have been oth- 
 erwise, considering the examples set by the emperors. It requires 
 no small research to discover a single character in the long list 
 that was not stained by the grossest habits. Julius Caesar, "the 
 bald adulterer," was commonly said to be "husband of all men's 
 wives."^ Augustus, whose youth had been so dissolute as to sug- 
 gest a most contemptuous epigram, employed men m. his old age 
 to procure matrons and maidens, whom these purveyors of impe- 
 rial lust examined as though they had been horses at a pubhc 
 sale." The amours of Tiberius in his retreat at Caprese can not be 
 described. It will suffice to say there was no invention of infamy 
 which he did not patronise ; that no young person of any charms 
 was safe from his lust. More than one senator felt that safety re- 
 quired he should remove his handsome wife or pretty daughter 
 from Eome, for Tiberius was ever ready to avenge obstacles with 
 death. The sad fate of the beautiful Mallonia, who stabbed her- 
 self during a lawsuit which the emperor had instituted against her 
 because she refused to comply with his beastly demands, gives a 
 picture of the age.^ Caligula, who made some changes in the tax 
 levied on prostitutes, and estabhshed a brothel in the palace, com- 
 menced life by: debauching his sisters, and ended it by giving grand 
 dinners, during which he -yould remove from the room any lady 
 he pleased, and, after spending a few minutes with her in private, 
 
 ' Petron. Satyr, ii. 70, etc. = Juvenal, Sat. yi. = Suetonius, Jul. 61. 
 
 * Videsne ut cinssdus urbano, digito temperat ? Suet. Aug. 68 etc. 
 ' Suetonius, Tiberius, 42. 
 
KOME. 83 
 
 return and give an account of the interview for the amusement of 
 the company.' Messalina so far eclipsed Claudius in depravity 
 that the " profase debauches" of the former appear, by contrast, 
 almost moderate and virtuous.^ 
 
 Nero surpassed his predecessors in cynic recklessness. He was 
 an habitual frequenter of houses of prostitution. He dined in pub-; 
 lie at the great circus among a crowd of prostitutes. He foimded, 
 on the shore of the Gulf of Naples, houses of prostitution, and 
 filled them with females, whose dissolute habits were their recom- 
 mendation to his notice. The brief sketch of his journeys given 
 by Tacitus, and the allusions to his minister of pleasures, Tigel- 
 hnus, leave no room for doubting that he was a monster of de- 
 pravity.^ 
 
 Passing over a coarse Gralba, a profligate Otho, a beastly Vitel- 
 lius, a mean Yespasian, and a dissolute Titus, Domitian revived 
 the age of Nero. He seduced his brother's daughter, and carried 
 her away from her husband, bathed habitually in company with a 
 band of prostitutes, and set an example of hideous vice while enact- 
 ing severe laws against debauchery. After another interval, Com- 
 modus converted the palace into a house of prostitution. He kept 
 in his pay three hundred girls of great beauty, and as many youths, 
 and revived his dull senses by the sight of pleasures he could no 
 longer share. Like Nero, he violated his sisters ; like him, he as- 
 sumed the dress and functions of a female, and gratified the court 
 with the spectacle of his marriage to one of his freedmen. Final- 
 ly, Blagabalus, whom the historian could only compare to a wild 
 beast, surpassed even the most audacious infamies of his predeces- 
 sors. It was his pride to have been able to teach even the most 
 expert courtesans of Eome something more. than they knew; his 
 pleasure to wallow among them naked, and to pull down into 
 the sink of bestiality in which he lived the first officers of the em- 
 pire. 
 
 "When such was the example set by men in high places, there is 
 no need of inquiring farther iiito the condition of the pubhc mor- 
 als. A censor like Tacitus might indignantlyreprove, but a Mar- 
 tial — and he was, no doubt, a better exponent of pubhc and social 
 life than the stern historian' — would only laugh, and copy ,the 
 model before him. It .may safely be asserted that there does hot 
 exist in any modem language a piece of writing which indicates 
 
 * Suetonius, Caligula, 24. , ' Id. Claudius, 26 ; Juvenal, Sat. vi. 
 
 = Tacitus, Ann. XV. 37-40. 
 
84 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 SO hopelessly depraved a state of morals as Martial's epigram on 
 bis -wife. ^ 
 
 SECRET DISEASES AT EOME. 
 
 At what period, and where, venereal diseases first ma.de their 
 appearance, is a matter of doubt. It was long the opinion of the 
 faculty that they were of modern origin, and that Europe had de- 
 rived them from America, where the sailors of Columbus had 
 first contracted them. This opinion does not appear to rest on 
 any solid basis, and is now generally rejected. The fact is, that 
 the venereal disease prevailed extensively in Europe in the fif- 
 teenth century ; but the presumption, from an imposing mass of 
 circumstantial evidence, is that it has afflicted humanity from the 
 beginning of history. 
 
 StiU, it is strange that Greek and Latin authors do not mention 
 it. There is a passage in Juvenal in which allusion is made to a 
 disgusting disease, which appears to bear resemblance to venereal 
 disease. , Epigrams of Martial hint at something of the same kind. 
 Celsus describes several diseases of the generative organs, but 
 none of these authors ascribe the diseases they mention to venere- 
 al intercourse. 
 
 Celsus prefaces what he says on the subject of this class of 
 maladies with an apology. Nothing but a sense of duty has led 
 him to allude to matters so delicate ; but he feels that he ought 
 not to allow his country ^tp Ipse the benefit of his experience, and 
 he conceives it to be "desirable to disseminate among the people 
 some medical principles with regard to a class of diseases which 
 are never revealed to any one." 
 
 After this apology, he proceeds to speak of a disease which he 
 calls inflammatio colis, which seems to have borne a striking an- 
 alogy to the modern Phymosis. It has been supposed that the 
 Mephantiasis, which he describes at length, was also of a syphilitic 
 character ; and the symptoms detailed by Aretous, who wrote in 
 the latter half of the first century, certainly remind the reader of 
 secondary syphilis ; but the best opinion of to-day appears to be 
 that the diseases are distinct and unconnected. 
 
 Women afflicted with secret diseases were called aucunnumtce, 
 which explains itself. They prayed to Juno Fluonia for relief, 
 and used the aster atticus by way of medicine. The Greek term 
 iox this herb being Bonhomion, which the Romans converted into 
 Bubonium, that word came to be applied to the disease for which 
 
ROME. 85 
 
 it was given, whether in the case of females or males. Modem 
 science has obtained thence the term Bubo. The Eomans said 
 of a female who communicated a disease to a man, Hcec te im- 
 hvhinat} 
 
 "We find, moreover, in the later writers, allusions to the Ttvorhus 
 campanus, the clazomenm, the rvjbigo, etc., which were all secret dis- 
 eases of a type, if not syphilitic, strongly resembling it. It must 
 be admitted, however, that no passage in the ancient writers di- 
 rectly ascribes these diseases to commerce with prostitutes. 
 
 Eoman doctors declined to treat secret diseases. They were 
 called by the generic term morbus indecens, and it was considered 
 unbecoming to confess to them or to treat them. Eich men own- 
 ed a slave doctor who was in the confidence of the family, and to 
 whom such delicate secrets would naturally be confided. But the 
 mass of the people were restrained by shame from communicating 
 their misfortunes ; as was the case among the Jews, the unhappy 
 patient was driven to seclusion as the only remedy. However 
 cruel and senseless this practice may have been as regarded the 
 sufferer, it was of service to the people, as it prevented, in some 
 degree, the spread of contagion. 
 
 Up to the period of the civil wars, and perhaps as late as the 
 Christian era, the only physicians at Eome were drug-sellers, en- 
 chanters, and midwives. The standing of the former may be in- 
 ferred from a passage in Horace, where he classes them with the 
 lowest outcasts of Eoman society.^ The enchanters {sagce) made 
 philtres to produce or impede the sensual appetite. They were 
 execrated, and even so amorous a poet as Ovid felt bound to warn 
 yoimg girls against the evil effects of the aphrodisiacs they con- 
 cocted.^ Midwives also made philtres, and are often confounded 
 with the sagce. The healiag science of the three classes must have 
 been small. 
 
 About the reign of Augustus, Greek physicians began to settle 
 at Eome. They possessed much theory, and some practical ex-, 
 perience, as the Treatise of Celsus shows, and soon became an im- 
 portant class in Eoman society. It was not, however, tiE the 
 reign of Nero, that an of&ce of public physician was created. 
 Under that emperor, a Greek named Andromachus was appoint- 
 ed archiater, or court physician, and archiatii popuh/res were soon 
 afterward appointed for the people. They were allowed to re- 
 ceive money from the rich, but they were bound, in consideration 
 ' Scaliger. ' Horace, Sat. j. 2, 1. ^ Ovid, Bemed. Amor. 
 
86 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 of various privileges bestowed on their office, to treat the poor 
 gratuitously. They were statipned in every city in the empire. 
 -Borne had fourteen, besides those attached to the Vestals, the 
 Gymnasia, and the court ; other large eifies had ten, and so on, 
 down to the. small towns which had one or two." From the du- 
 ties and privileges of the archiatii, it would appear they were sub- 
 ject to the sediles. 
 
 It may seem almost superfluous to add that no careful medical 
 reader of the history of Eome under the empire can doubt but 
 the archiatii filled no sinecure, and that a large proportion of the 
 diseases they treated were directly traceable to prostitution. 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 THE EARLY CHKISTIAJST EEA. 
 
 Christian Teachers preach Chastity. — Horrible Punishment of Christian Virgins. — 
 . Persecution of Women.-^Conyersion of Prostitutes. — The Gnostics. — The Ascet- 
 ics. — Conventual Life. — Opinion of the Fathers on Prostitution. — Tax on Prosti- 
 tutes. — ^Punishment of Prostitutes under the Greek Emperors. 
 
 Perhaps the most marked originality of the Christian doctrine 
 was the stress it laid on chastity. It has been well remarked 
 that even the most austere of the pagan moralists recoromended 
 chastity on economical grounds alone. The apostles exacted it as 
 a moral and religious duty. They preached against lewdness as 
 fervently as against heathenism. Not one of the epistles contain- 
 ed in the New Testament but inveighs, in the strongest language, 
 against the vices classed under the generic head of luxury. Nor 
 can it be doubted that, under divine Providence, the obvious 
 merit of this feature in the new religion exercised a large influ- 
 ence in rallying the better class of minds to its support. 
 
 From the first, the Christian communities made a just boast of 
 the purity of their morals. Their adversaries met them on this 
 ground at great disadvantage. It was notorious that the college 
 of Vestals had been sustained with great difficulty. Latterly, it 
 had been found necessary to supply vacancies with children, and 
 even under these circumstances, the number of Vestals buried aKve 
 bore but a very smaU proportion to the number who had iacur- 
 red this dread penalty. Nor could it be denied that the chastity 
 
 ' Dig. 27, 1, 6; Cod. Theodos. xiii. 3. De Medic, et profess. 
 
THE EAELY CHRISTIAN ERA. 87 
 
 of the Eoman virgins was, at best, but partial, the purest among 
 tbem being accustomed to unchaste language and unchaste sights. 
 The Christian congregations, on the contrary, contained numbers 
 of virgins who had devoted themselves to celibacy for the love of 
 Christ. They were modest in their dress, decorous in their man- 
 ners, chaste in their speech.^ They refused to attend the theatres; 
 lived frugally and temperately ; allowed no dancers at their ban- 
 quets; used no perfumes, and abstained generally from every 
 practice which could endanger their rigorous continence.^ Mar- 
 riage among the Christians was a holy institution, whose sole 
 end was the procreation of children. It was not to be used, as 
 was the case too often among the heathen, as a cloak for immoral- 
 ities. Christ, they said, permitted marriage, but did not permit 
 luxury.' The early fathers imposed severe penitences on forni- 
 cation, adultery, and other varieties of sensuality. 
 
 Persecution aided the Church in the great work of purifying 
 public morals, by forcing it to keep in. view the Christian distinc- 
 tion between moral and physical guilt. At what time it became 
 usual to condemn Christian virgins to the brothel it is difficult to 
 discover. The practice may have arisen from the hideous custom 
 which enjoined the violation of Eoman maidens before execution, 
 if the existence of such a custom can be assumed on the authority 
 of so loose a chronicler as Suetonius.* However this be, this hor- 
 rible 'refinement of brutality was in use in the time of Marcus Au- 
 relius.° Virgins were seized and required to sacrifice to idols. 
 Eefusing, they were dragged, often naked, through the streets to 
 a brothel, and there abandoned to the lubricity of the populace. 
 The piety of the early Christians prompted the belief that on many 
 conspicuous occasions the Almighty had interfered to protect his 
 chosen children, in this dire calamity.^ St. Agnes, having refused 
 to sacrifice to Yesta, was said to have been stripped naked by the 
 order of the prefect ; but, no sooner had her garments fallen, than 
 her hair grew miraculously, and "enveloped her as ia a shroud. 
 Dragged to the brothel, a wonderful light shone from her body, 
 and the by-standers, appalled at the sight, instead of offering- her 
 violence, fell at 'her knees, tUl, at last, the prefect's son, bolder and 
 more reckless than the others, advanced to consummate her sen^ 
 tence, an.d was struck dead at her feet by a thunderbolt' Theo- 
 
 ' Ambrosius, De Virg. lib. i. Prudentius in Symmach. ; Basil, Inter. 17, resp. 
 ' Cyprian, De Pudici. etc. = Clem. Pisdag. ii. 10. « Sueton. Vit. Tiber. 
 ' Tertal. Apol. ' Basil, De vera "Virgin. 62. ' Ambros. Epist. iv. ep. 34. 
 
88 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 dora, a noble lady of Alexandria, was equally undaunted and 
 equally faithful to her creed. The judge allowed her three days 
 to deliberate, warning her of the consequences of ODstinacy. She 
 was firm, and was led into a house of prostitution. There, in the 
 midst of debauched persons of both sexes, she prayed to God for 
 help, and the sight of the half-naked virgia bent in fervent prayer 
 struck awe into the minds of the people. At last a soldier de- 
 clared that he would fulfill the judgment. Thrust into a cell with 
 Theodora, he confessed that he was a Christian, dressed her in his 
 clothes, and enabled her to escape. He was seized and executed ; 
 but the Christian virgin, refusing to purchase her safety at such a 
 price, gave herself up, and died with him.' Similar stories are 
 contained in several of the Christian fathers." 
 
 There is, unhappily, no reason to doubt that in many instances 
 the brutal mandate of the pagan judges was rigorously executed, 
 and that the faith of many Christian virgins was assailed through 
 the channel of their virtue. This appears to have been frequent- 
 ly the case during the persecution of Diocletian, when we hear of 
 Christian women being suspended naked by one foot, and tortured 
 in other savage and infernal ways. The practice led to the clear 
 enunciation of the important doctrine of moral chastity, already 
 stated by Christ himself in the Gospel. The Eomans could not 
 conceive a chaste soul in a body that had endured pollution, and 
 hence for Lucretia there was no resource but the poniard. It was 
 left for St.Augustin, St. Jerome, and the other fathers, to assert 
 boldly that the crime lay in the intention and not in the act ; that 
 a chaste heart might inhabit a body which brutal force had soiled ; 
 and that the Christian virgins whom an infamous judge had sen- 
 tenced to the brothel were none the less acceptable servants of God.^ 
 
 The only retaliation attempted, by the early Christians was the 
 conversion of prostitutes. The works of the fethers contain many 
 narratives of remarkable conversions of this character, and a learn- 
 ed Jesuit once compiled a voluminous work on the subject. The 
 Egyptian Mary was the type of the class. She confessed to Zosi- 
 mus that she had spent seventeen years in the practice of prosti- 
 tution at Alexandria. Her heart being opened, she took ship for 
 Jerusalem, paid her passage by exercising her calling on board, 
 and expiated her sins by a life of penitence in the woods of Ju- 
 
 ' Ambrose, Epist. iv. 34. 
 
 = See Ruinart, Actes ii. 196 ; also Palladius, Vit. Patr. cap. 148, etc. 
 
 ' August, contr. JuL 1. iv. ; id, ep. 122, and the other fathers. 
 
THE EABLY CHRISTIAN ERA. 89 
 
 dsea. She lived, tlie legend said, forty-seven years in the woods, 
 naked and alone, without seeing a man. A chapel was buHt at 
 Paris during the Middle Ages in her honor. The painted win- 
 dows, representing her in the exercise of her calling on shipboard, 
 were in existence at a very late period.' 
 
 In revenge for the victories of the Christians, the pagans ac- 
 cused them of committing the grossest immoralities. For many 
 centuries the early Christian congregations met under circum- 
 stances of great difficulty, in secret hiding-places, in catacombs. 
 Their religious rites were performed mysteriously. Lights were 
 often extinguished to foil the object of spies and informers. These 
 peculiarities served as the pretext for many obvious calumnies. 
 It was commonly believed, even by men of the calibre of Tacitus, 
 that the Christian rites bore strong resemblances to those rites of 
 Isis which, at an early period of Roman history, had created such 
 alarm and horror at Eome. Nor were these calumnies confined 
 to the heathen. In the third and fourth centuries, when sectarian 
 rivalries menaced the destruction of the Church, similar accusa- 
 tions were freely bandied. That they were wholly unfounded in 
 every case seems difficult to believe, in the face of the clear state- 
 ments of such writers as Epiphanes. "What the precise doctrines 
 of the various sects called Adamites, Cainites, Nicolaites, and some 
 subdivisions of Gnostics, may have been, it were perhaps super- 
 fluous now to inquire ; but it seems not unreasonable to suppose 
 that, in some instances, men of depraved instincts may have avail- 
 ed themselves of the cloak of Christianity to conceal the gratifica- 
 tion of sensual habits ; or, on the other hand, that minds in a state 
 of religious exaltation may have stumbled upon irapurities in the 
 search for the state of nature. In comparatively late times we 
 have seen, in America as well as Savoy, a few persons of weak 
 miads give way to religious enthusiasm in a manner that warred 
 with public decency. Similar aberrations may haye been more 
 frequent during the seething era which preceded the establish- 
 ment of Christianity, and prostitution, in some shape or other, may 
 have again become a religious rite in certain deluded or knavish 
 sects. Nor was it unnatural, unjust though it certainly was, for 
 the heathen to charge Christianity at large with the vices of those 
 of its followers who worshiped in a state of nudity, and accom- 
 panied prayer with promiscuous intercourse.^ 
 
 ' Eeynaud, Act. Sanct. 
 
 ' Ignat. Ep. ad Trail, et ad Philad. ; Clement. Strom. 3 ; Epiphan. Ha;r. 27 ; 
 Theodor. Hseret. i. 5. 
 
90 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Even in the bosom of the true Ohtircli practices ■would break 
 out from time to time wliicli jarred sadly witli th^moral theory 
 of the Apostles. Many persons of both sexes, under the influence 
 of religious enthusiasm, sought rehef for their troubled souls in 
 solitude, and unwisely attempted to mortify the flesh by practices 
 which too often sharpened the appetites. One only needs to read 
 the eloquent effusions of St. Jerome to become satisfied that the 
 course of life adopted by many early Christian recluses, of both 
 sexes, must have led unwittingly to moral aberrations. Young 
 men and young women, devoting themselves to a life of seclusion 
 in the woods, living like wild beasts, without clothing and with- 
 out shame, would naturally revive the system of religious prosti- 
 tution in a more or less modified shape. On the other hand, in 
 many parts of Europe, Christian churches thought it not unsafe to 
 accept the legacies of the heathen religions in the shapes of idols, 
 forms, and ceremonies. Saints succeeded to the honors of gods; 
 dances in honor of Yenus became dances in honor of the Virgin ; 
 statues which were originally intended to represent heathen dei- 
 ties were saved from destruction by being adopted as fair repre- 
 sentations of Christian saints. Until very recent times there ex- 
 isted, in various parts of Europe, statues of Priapus, under the 
 name of some saint, retaining the indecency of the idol, and -asso- 
 ciated with the belief of some simple women that the image pos- 
 sessed the power assigned it in mythology. In processions, dur- 
 ing the third and fourth centuries, sacred virgins were seen to 
 wear round their necks the obscene symbol of the old worship; 
 and in places the holy bread retained the shape of the Eoman c'o- 
 liphia and siEgines. St. John Chrysostom complains that in places 
 he designates, women were baptized in a state of nature, without 
 even being permitted to veil their sex.^ A majority of Christian 
 teachers, unwUling to deprive the masses of a superstitious con- 
 venience afforded them by pagaiiism, allowed them to pray to cer- 
 tain saints not only for fertility, but for the removal of impotence 
 from husbands and lovers.^ 
 
 To these immoral features must be added occasional instances 
 of looseness in conventual hfe. The preamble of various edicts in 
 France and elsewhere leaves no room to doubt that, in several 
 instances, immoral persons had assumed the religious garb, and 
 collected themselves together in religious communities for the 
 purpose of gratifying sensuality. 
 
 ' Letter to Innocent I. = Calvin, Tr. Relig. 
 
THE EABLY CHEISTIAN ERA. 91 
 
 These were the aids Christianity afforded to prostitution in its 
 Various forms. They are a mere trifle in comparison with the 
 ohstacles it threw in its way. Independently of the eflfect pro- 
 duced by the moral teaching of St. Paul and the Apostles, the 
 rising power of the Church was vigorously exerted to modify the 
 legislation both of the Eastern and Western empires on the sub- 
 ject of sexual depravities. 
 
 The fathers did not uniformly proscribe prostitution. Saint 
 Augustin said, " Suppress prostitution, and capricious lusts will 
 overthrow society.'" Jerome recognized prostitution, and argued 
 that, as Mary Magdalene had been saved, so might any prostitute 
 who repented.^ The canons of the apostles excluded from the 
 ministry all persons who were convicted of having commerce 
 with prostitutes, and excommunicated those who were guilty of 
 rape, but they passed no general sentence on prostitutes.' But 
 the apostolic constitution branded as sinful any sexual intercourse 
 quae non adhihetur ad gen&rationem filiorum sed iota ad volwptatem 
 spectat* The same principle is asserted in various passages of 
 the work; wine being denounced as a provocation to impurity, 
 and the faithful are warned against the society of lewd persons 
 (scoriaiores). The Council of Elvira pronounced the penalty of 
 excommunication against bawds and prostitutes, but it expressly 
 commanded priests to receive at the communion-table prostitutes 
 who had married Christians.^ St. Augustin conceived that no 
 church should admit prostitutes to the altar till they had aban- 
 doned the calling.^ A similar doctrine was expressed by the 
 Council of Toledo. At a later period, as we advance in mediaeval 
 history, we find the councils recognizing prostitution, and prosti- 
 tutes as a class. In 1431, at the Council of Basle, a holy father 
 presented a paper on the subject of prostitution, in which it was 
 implied to be the only safeguard of good mqrals. A century 
 later, the Council of Milan took especial pains to identify prosti- 
 tutes as a class. They were to wear a distinctive dress, with no 
 ornaments of gold, silver, or silk ; to reside in places expressly 
 designated by the bishops, at a distance from cathedrals ; to avoid 
 taverns and hostelries. The execution of the decree was intrust- 
 ed to the bishops and the civil magistrates.' 
 
 » Tr. Ord. Ub. ii. c. 12. 
 
 ' Ep. ad Puriam, ad Eabiolam. See also Lactantius, lib. vi. cap. 23. 
 
 = Can. 61, 7T. * Constit. lib. viii. c. 7. » Canons 12, 44. 
 
 ° Lib. de fid. et oper. c. xi. ' Const. Milan, tit. 65, de roeret. et lenon. 
 
92 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The vedigal or tax paid by all persons subsisting by prostitution 
 was exacted by the emperors, from Caligula to '^eodosius. It 
 was usually collected every five years. Zosimus accuses Con- 
 stantine of having enlarged and remodeled the tax, but apparent- 
 ly without foundation. The early Christians made it a subject 
 of reproach to the emperors.^ In consequence of their assaults, 
 Theodosius abandoned that portion of the law which laid a tax on 
 bawds, leaving the tax on prostitutes. The latter was levied as 
 rigorously as ever. A contemporary writer describes the imperial 
 agents hunting for prostitutes in taverns and houses of prostitu- 
 tion, and forcing them to purchase, by payment of the tax, the' 
 right of pursuing their calling.^ At length, in the fifth century, 
 prostitution and the tax on prostitutes, or chrysarguron, were for- 
 mally abolished by the Emperor Anastasius I., and the records 
 and rolls of the collectors burned. , It is said that some time aft- 
 erward, the emperor gave out that he had repented of what he 
 had done, and desired to see the chrysarguron re-established. The 
 announcement gave great joy to the debauchees, and numbers of 
 persons prepared to avail themselves of the re-enactment of the 
 law. The emperor let it be known that he desired to have mat- 
 ters placed, so far as could be, on their old footing, and would 
 therefore desire to collect as many as possible of the old rolls and 
 records. They were gathered together at all parts, and laid at 
 the imperial feet. Notice was then given to the people to meet 
 at the circus on a given day ; when they were all assembled, the 
 whole collection of documents was burned, amid the frantic ap- 
 plause of the populace.' 
 
 It has been asserted, however, that the chrysarguron was revived 
 subsequently, and was levied under Justinian. That legislator al- 
 tered the old Eoman laws regarding prostitution, and relieved 
 prostitutes from the ineffaceable ban of infamy which the repub- 
 lican jurisprudence had laid on them. He permitted the marriage 
 of citizens with prostitutes, and encouraged it by his example. 
 His own wife, the Empress Theodora, had been a ballet-dancer 
 and ,a prostitute. When she attained the imperial dignity, her 
 first thought was of her old companions. She built a magnificent 
 palace-prison on the south shore of the Bosphorus, and in one 
 night caused five hundred prostitutes in Constantinople to be seized 
 and conveyed thither. They were kindly treated ; their every 
 wish was gratified ; but no man entered their asylum. The ex- 
 
 ' Justin, Apol. pro Christ. = Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. liv. 3, c. 89. ' Id. ib. 
 
FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 93 
 
 periment was a complete failure. Most of tlie girls committed sui- 
 cide in their despair, and the remainder soon died of ennui and 
 vexation. 
 
 Theodosius had laid heavy penalties on brothel-keepers ;^ Jus- 
 tinian reiterated them, and increased their weight. The seizure 
 and prostitution of a girl he punished with death. He who con- 
 nived at the prostitution of females was to be expelled from the 
 city where he lived, and any person harboring him was to be fined 
 one hundred gold pieces. "Whatever legislation could effect to 
 uproot the system of procurers and public prostitution, Justinian 
 did f but his laws contain no trace of any harsh policy toward 
 prostitutes. Those unfortunate creatures he regarded with an in- 
 dulgent humanity, which, for the sake of human nature, one may 
 perhaps ascribe to the kindly sympathy of the empress. 
 
 CHAPTBE VI. 
 
 FRANCE. — HISTOET DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Morals in Gaul. — Gynecea. — Capitulary of Charlemagne. — Morals in the Middle 
 Ages. — Edict of 1254. — Decree of 1358, re-establishing Prostitution. — Roi des 
 Ribands. — Ordinance of Philip abolishing Prostitution. — Sumptuaiy Laws. — 
 Punishment of Procuresses. — Templars. — The Provinces. — Prohibition in the 
 North. — ^Licensed Brothels at Toulouse, Montpellier, and Avignon. — Penalties 
 South. — Effect of Chivalry. — Literature. — Erotic Vocabulary. — Incubes and 
 Succubes. — Sorcery. — The Sabat. — Flagellants. — Adamites. — Jour des Inno- 
 cents. — ^Wedding Ceremonies. — Preachers of the Day. 
 
 The Eoman accounts of the Gauls represent them as leading 
 virtuous lives. Severa matrirrwnia is the expression of the histo- 
 rian. This would appear to apply more particularly to the wom- 
 en than the men. As is usually the case among semi-civilized 
 nations, the Grauls, Germans, Franks, and most of the aboriginal 
 nations of Northern Europe imposed upon the women obligations 
 of chastity which they did not always accept for themselves. 
 Adultery, and, in certain cases, fornication, they punished capital- 
 ly ; but, if the early ecclesiastical writers are to be believed, these 
 rude warriors were addicted to coarse debaucheries, in which in- 
 toxicating liqtiors and promiscuous intercourse with females play- 
 ed a prbminent part. The feasts which followed victories in the 
 field, or commemorated national anniversaries, bore some resem- 
 blance to the Eoman commessationes, though, of course, they lacked 
 ' Cod. Theod. lib. xv. tit. 8, De lenon. ' Novel. 14, col. 1, tit. 1, De lenon. 
 
94 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 the refinement and the wit which, occasionally strove to redeem 
 those disgraceful banquets. So far as the female^were concern- 
 ed, there is no doubt the Eoman writers judged correctly. Wheth- 
 er the severity of the climate tempered the ardor of northern sen- 
 suality, or the harshness of the law kept the passions" in check, the 
 female population of Gaul, from the time of the Eoman conquest 
 for at least two or three centuries, was undoubtedly virtuous. 
 Prostitution was comparatively unknown. An old law or usage 
 directed that prostitutes should be stoned, but we do not hear of 
 this law being carried into effect. 
 
 Simultaneously with the consolidation of the kingdom of the 
 Franks, we note that concubinage was an established institution, 
 recognized by the law and sanctioned by the Church. All the 
 Frank chiefs who could afford the luxury kept harems, or, as they 
 were called in that day, gynecea, peopled by young girls who min- 
 istered to their pleasures. The plan, as it appears, bore some re- 
 semblance to that which is at present in use in Turkey and some 
 other Mohammedan countries. The chief had one lawful and 
 proper wife, a sort of sultana valide, and other wives whose mat- 
 rimonial rights were less clearly defined, but still whose condition 
 was not necessarily disreputable. How the people lived we are 
 not so well qualified to say, but no doubt prostitution prevailed 
 to some extent among them, though in all probability the public 
 morals were purer than they became toward the tenth and elev- 
 enth centuries. 
 
 Perhaps the first authentic legislative notice of prostitution in 
 France is to be found in the Capitularies of Charlemagne. That 
 monarch, who seems to have seen no mischief in the system of 
 gynecea, was severe upon common prostitution. He directed vul- 
 gar prostitutes to be scourged, and a like penalty to be inflicted 
 on all who harbored them, kept houses of debauch, or lent their 
 assistance to prostitutes or debauchees. In other words, Charle- 
 magne treated the same act as a crime among the poor, and as 
 an excusable habit among the rich. 
 
 Our information regarding society in the Middle Ages is neces- 
 sarily obscure and scanty, but we have enough to learn that im- 
 morality prevailed to an alarming degree during the tenth, elev- 
 enth, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries. Probably the rich men 
 who had their gynecea -wqicq the most virtuous class in the nation. 
 Most of the kings set an example of loose intercourse with the 
 ladies of the court. The armies of the time were noted for the 
 
FBANCE DUEING THE MIDDLE AGES. 95 
 
 ravages they committed among the female population of the coun- 
 tries where they were quartered. Both of these classes seem to 
 have yielded the palm of debauchery to the clergy. It is a fact 
 well known to antiquaries, though visual evidence of it is becoming 
 scarce, that most of the great works of Gothic architecture which 
 date from this period were profusely adorned with lewd sculp- 
 tures whose subjects were taken from the religious orders. In 
 one place a monk was represented in carnal connection with a 
 female devotee. In others were seen an abbot engaged with 
 nuns, a naked nun worried by monkeys, youthfiil penitents un- 
 dergoing flagellation at the hands of their confessor, lady abbesses 
 offering hospitality to well-proportioned strangers, etc., etc. These 
 obscene works of art formerly encumbered the doors, windows, 
 arches, and niches of many of the finest Grothio cathedrals in 
 France. Modesty has lately insisted on their removal, but many 
 of the works themselves have been rescued from destruction by 
 the zeal of antiquaries, and it is believed some have still escaped 
 the iconoclastic hand of the modern Church. When such was 
 the condition of the clergy, and such the notoriety of that condi- 
 tion, it would be unjustifiable to expect purity of morals among 
 the people. 
 
 Louis VIII. made an effort to regulate prostitution. It proved 
 fruitless, and it was left to the next king of the same name, Louis 
 IX., to make the first serious endeavor to check the progress of 
 the evil in France. His edict, which dates from 1254, directed 
 that all prostitutes, and persons making a living indirectly out 
 of prostitution, such as brothel-keepers and procurers, should be 
 forthwith exiled from the kingdom. It was partially put in force. 
 A large num.ber of unfortunate females were seized, and impris- 
 oned or sent across the frontier. Severe punishments were in- 
 flicted on those who returned to the city of Paris after their ex- 
 pulsion. A panic seized the customers of brothels, and for a few 
 months public decency was restored. But the inevitable conse- 
 quences of the arbitrary decree of the king soon began to be felt. 
 Though the officers of justice had forcibly confined in establish- 
 ments resembling Magdalen hospitals a large proportion of the 
 most notorious prostitutes, and exiled many more, others arose to 
 take their places. A clandestine traffic succeeded to the former open 
 debauchery, and in the d^rk the evils of the disease were necessa- 
 rily aggravated. More than that, as has usually been the case 
 when prostitution has been violently and' suddenly suppressed, 
 
96 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 the number of virtuous -women became less, and corruption in- 
 vaded the family circle. Tradesmen complained ^jjiat since the 
 passage of the ordinance they found it impossible to guard the 
 virtud of their wives and daughters against the enterprises of the 
 military and the students. 
 
 At last, complaints of the evil effects of the ordinance became 
 so general and so pressing that, after a lapse of two years, it was 
 repealed. A new royal decree re-established prostitution under 
 rules which, though not particularly enlightened or humane, stiU 
 placed it on a sounder footing than it had occupied before the 
 royal attention had been directed to the subject. Prostitutes 
 were forbidden to live in certain parts of the city of Paris, were 
 not allowed to wear jewelry or fine stuffs, and were placed imder 
 the direct supervision of a police magistrate, whose oificial or 
 popular title was Le roi des ribauds (the king of ribaldry). The 
 duties of this officer appear to have been analogous to those of 
 the Eoman jediles who had charge of prostitution. He was em- 
 powered to arrest and confine females who infringed the law, 
 either in their dress, their domicil, or their behavior. It was aft- 
 erward urged against the maintenance of the office of Hoi des 
 ribauds that it was usually filled by reckless, depraved men, who 
 discharged its duties more in view of their private interests and 
 the gratification of their sensuality than from regard to the public 
 morals. Instances of gross tyranny were proved against them,, 
 and, in the absence of evidence to show that their appointment 
 had been beneficial to the public, but little regret was felt when 
 the office was abolished by Francis I. 
 
 To return to Louis IX. In his old age he repented of what he 
 had done, and returned to the spirit of his early ordinance. In 
 his instructions to his son and successor, he adjured him to remove 
 from his country the shameful stain of prostitution, and indicated 
 plainly enough that the best mode of attaining that end would be 
 by re-enacting the ordinance of 1254. Philip dutifully fulfilled 
 his father's request. Prostitution was again declared a legal mis- 
 demeanor, and a formidable array of penalties was again brought 
 to bear against offending females and their accomplices. But, like 
 many a legislative act in more modern times, Philip's ordinance 
 was too obviously at variance with ptiblic policy and popular sen- 
 timent to be carried into effect. It was quietly allowed to remain 
 a dead letter, and, with probably few exceptions, the prostitutes 
 of Paris pursued their .calHng unmolested. 
 
FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 97, 
 
 A few years afterward, its nullification was authoritatively sanc- 
 tioned by fresh, sumptuary laws. A royal edict directed courte- 
 sans to wear a shoulder-knot of a particular color as a badge pf 
 their calling. The whole force of the government was rallied to 
 enforce this rule, and also those which had been enacted by Louis 
 IX. The records of the court contain innumerable reports of the 
 arrests of prostitutes for violating these enactments. When they 
 had taken up their abode in a prohibited street, they were im- 
 prisoned and dislodged ; when their offense was wearing unlaw- 
 ful garments or jewelry, the forbidden objects were seized and 
 sold, the constable apparently sharing the proceeds of the sale. 
 Pimps and procurers were dealt with more severely. As usual, 
 * the statute-book contained a variety of conflicting enactments on 
 this subject, and menaced them- with all kinds of penalties, from 
 burning alive to fine and imprisonment. It appears beyond a 
 doubt that, duriag the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, several 
 notorious procuresses were burned alive at Paris. Others were 
 put in the pillory ; were scourged, and had their ears cropped ; 
 while many of the richer class escaped with a fine. There are 
 records of cases in which the procuress was exposed naked to the 
 insults of the mob for a whole day, and toward evening the hair 
 on her body was burned off with a flaming torch. Others again 
 were chased through the city in a state of nudity, and pelted with 
 stones. These barbarous penalties appear to have been very much 
 to the taste of the people. Procuresses have always been an odi- 
 ous class, and it is not surprising to find that the punishment of a 
 notorious wretch of the class was observed as a joyous holiday by 
 the populace of the French capital. On the other hand, the pros- 
 titutes themselves were often subjects of public sympathy. 
 
 Peculiar reasons operated at this period to produce a favorable 
 sentiment with regard to prostitutes. The horrible depravities of 
 the Templars were beconiing known. Society was horror-struck 
 at the symptom of a revival of the worst vice of the ancients. 
 There hav6 been, as is known, ingenious and eloquent efforts- 
 made, in comparatively recent times, to throw a veil over the cor- 
 ruptions of the Templars, and to prove that they fell victims to 
 royal jealousy, but the argument is not sustained by the facts. 
 Documents on whose authenticity and credibility no possible sus- 
 picion can be cast, establish incontrovertibly that the sect of the 
 Templars -was tainted with unnatural vices, and that one of the 
 chief secrets of its maintenance was the facility it afforded .to de- 
 
 G 
 
98 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 based men for the gratification of monstrous propensities. That 
 this was the opinion which prevailed in Paris ^ the time of 
 the outburst which finally, led to the suppression of the order, 
 there is no room to question. , It is easy to understand how 
 the horror such discoveries must have awakened would lead 
 men to entertain more lenient views with regard to a vice which 
 had at least the merit of being in conformity with natural in- 
 stinct. 
 
 . ^us far of Paris only. During the Middle Ages, as is well 
 known, most of the provinces of France were self-governing com- 
 munities, which administered their own affairs, and received no 
 police regulations from the crown. A complete exam^ination of 
 the subject throughout France \?-ould therefore involve as many 
 histories as there were provinces. Our space, of course, forbids 
 any thing of the kind, and we can only glance at leading divis- 
 ions. 
 
 Most of the northern people had adopted, partly from the old 
 Germanic constitutions ancj partly from the Eoman law, severe 
 provisions against prostitution, but they were nOwhere, appar- 
 ently, put in force. Occasionally a notorious brothel-keeper or 
 professional procuress was severely punished, but prostitutes were 
 rarely molested. In the north and west of France, indeed, toler- 
 ation was obviously the natural policy, for we are not led to be- 
 lieve that in that section of country the evU was ever carried to 
 great excess. In Normandy, Brittany,, Picardy, and the great 
 northern and western provinces, a virtuous simplicity was the rule 
 of life among the peasants, and even the cities did not present any 
 striking contrast. In many provinces, usage, not fortified by the 
 text of any custom, sdlowed the seigneur to levy toll upon prosti- 
 tutes exejcising their calling within the limits of his jurisdiction. 
 Some old titles and records refer to this practice. One sets down 
 the tax paid by each prostitute at four deniers to the seigneur. 
 Others intimate that the tax may be paid in money or in kind, at 
 the option of the seigneur. In many seigniories this singular tax 
 was regarded with the contempt it deserved. 
 
 In the south of France we meet with a different spectacle. 
 There prostitution had long been a deeply-seated feature of so- 
 ciety. The warm passions of the southerners required a vent, 
 and, m the absence of some safety-valve, it was obvious to all that 
 the ungovernable lusts of the men would soon kindle the inflam- 
 mable passions of the dark southern women. Public houses of 
 
FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 99 
 
 prostitution -were therefore established in three of the largest cities 
 of the south — Toulouse, Avignon, and Montpellier. 
 
 That of Toulouse was established by royal charter, which de- 
 clared that the profits of the enterprise should be shared equally 
 by the city and the University. The building appropriated for 
 the purpose was large and commodious, bearing the name of the 
 Grand Abbaye. In it were lodged not only the resident prosti- 
 tutes of the city, but any loose women who traveled that way, 
 and desired to exercise their impure calling. It would appear 
 that they received a salary from the city, and that the fees exact- 
 ed from the customers were divided between the two public bodies 
 to which the enterprise was granted. They were obliged to wear 
 white scarfs and white ribbons or cords on one of their arms, as a 
 badge of their calling. 
 
 When the unfortunate monarch Charles VI. visited Toulouse, 
 the prostitutes of the Abbaye met him in a body, and presented 
 an address. The king received them graciously, and promised to 
 grant them whatever largess they should request. They begged 
 to be released from the duty of wearing the white badges, and the 
 king, faithful to his promise, granted the boon. A royal declara- 
 tion specially exempted them from the old rule.^ But the people 
 of Toulouse, no doubt irritated by the want of some distinguishing 
 mark between their wives and daughters and the " foolish wom- 
 en," by common consent mobbed the prostitutes who availed 
 themselves of the king's ordinance. None of them could venture 
 to appear in public without being liable to insult, and even bodily 
 injury. Eesolutely bent on carrying their point, the women shut 
 themselves up in the Abbaye, and did their best to keep custom- 
 ers at a distance. Their calculation was just; the city and the 
 University soon felt the effects of the dimiuution of visitors at the 
 Abbaye. The corporation appealed to the king ; and when, dur- 
 ing the disorders which distracted France at that time, Charles 
 VII. visited Toulouse, a formal petition was presented to him by 
 #ie capitones, praying that he would take such steps as his wisdom 
 might seem fit to mediate between the prostitutes and the people, 
 and restore to the Abbaye its former prosperity. The king acted 
 with energy. He denounced the assailants of the prostitutes in 
 the severest language, and planted his own royal _/?eMrs de lis over 
 the door of the Abbaye as a protection to the occupants.^ But 
 the people did not respect the royal arms any more than they did 
 
 ' Ordonn. des Rois de Trance, vii. 327. ' Ibid. xiii. 75. 
 
100 HISTOEY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 tlie "foolish ■women,^. On the contrary, assaults on the Abbaye 
 became more numerous than ever. The prostitul^ complained 
 incessantly of having suffered violence at the hands of wild youths 
 who refused to pay for their pleasures ; and the civic authorities 
 proving iacompetent to check the disorder, the prostitutes found 
 themselves compelled, to seek refuge in a new part of the city, 
 where,, it is to be presumed, they enhsted adequate support among 
 their own individual acquaintances. For a hundred years they 
 inhabited their new domicil in peace and quiet. The Universily 
 then dislodging them in order to occupy the spot, the city built 
 them a new abbaye beyond the precincts of the respectable wards. 
 It was called the Chateau.' vert,, and its fame and profits equaled 
 that of the old abbaye. 
 
 About the middle of the sixteenth century the city yielded to 
 the scruples of some moralists of the day, and ceded the revenues 
 of the. Chateau vert to the hospitals ; but the grant being made 
 on condition that the hospitals should receive and cure all females 
 attacked- by venereal disease, it was found, after six years' trial, 
 that it cost more than it yielded. The hospitals surrendered the 
 chateau to the city. It happened, just at this time, that many 
 eminent philosophers and economists were advocating a return to 
 the old ecclesiastical policy of suppressing prostitution altogether. 
 After a discussion which lasted several years, the city of Toulouse 
 adopted these views, and closed the Chateau vert. A magistrate, 
 high in authority, left on record his protest against this course, 
 founded on the scenes of immorality he had himself witnessed ia 
 the suburbs, and the country in the neighborhood of Toulouse; 
 but the city authorities adhered to their opinion, and: contented 
 ■fliemselves with arresting gome of the most shameless of the free 
 prostitutes.^ Erom thajt time forth, prostitution at Toulouse, was 
 subject to the same rules as in the rest of France. 
 
 The history of prostitution at IVLontpellier was analogous. At 
 an early period, the monopoly which -jthe crown had granted to 
 the city being farmed out to individuals, fell into the hands o^ 
 two bankersj in whose family it remained for several generations. 
 During their tenure; a brothel was established in the city by a 
 speculator of the day, but the holders of the monopoly prosecuted 
 him, and obtained a perpetual injunction restraining Viitti from 
 lodging or harboring prostitutes. 
 , At Avignon prostitution was legalized by Jane of Naples just 
 
 ' Aun. de la Yille de Toulouse, par Lafallle, ii. 189, 199, 280. 
 
FBANCE DUEING THE MIDDLE AGES. IQl 
 
 before tlie cession of tlie city to the Pope. The ordinance estab- 
 lishing a pubUc brothel seems to have been drawn with care, and, 
 though doubts have lately been thrown on its authenticity, they 
 are not so well founded as to justify its rejection. Prostitutes 
 were ordered to Hve in the brothel. They were bound to wear a 
 red shoulder-knot as a badge of their caUing. The brothel was 
 to be visited weekly by the bailli and a "barber," the latter of 
 whom was to examine the girls, and confine separately all who 
 seemed infected. No Jew was allowed to enter the brothel on 
 any pretext. Its doors were to be closed on saints' days, and 
 special regulations guarded against the prevalence of scenes of 
 riot and disorder.' 
 
 This ordinance seems to have remained in force during the 
 whole occupation of Avignon by the Popes, and its penalties 
 were occasionally inflicted on offenders. But if Petrarch and 
 other contemporary writers are to be believed, the city was none 
 the less a refuge for debauchees, and a scandal to Christendom. 
 Petrarch complains that it was far more depraved than. old Eome, 
 and a popular proverb confirms, at least in part, his opinion.^ 
 
 There were, however, in some southern provinces, severe laws 
 against prostitution, although some of the penalties seem to have 
 been framed as much with the view of stimulating as of repress- 
 ing the passions. In one or two cities we find accounts of prosti- 
 tutes and their customers being forced to walk naked through the 
 streets by way of expiation. In others, the punishment of the 
 iron cage was inflicted on pimps and procuresses. When a pro- 
 curess had rendered herself particularly obnoxious, she was seized, 
 stripped naked, and dragged in the midst of a great crowd to -the 
 water's side. There she was thrust into an iron cage, in which 
 she was forced to kneel. When the cage door was closed, she was 
 thrown into the river, and allowed to remain under water long 
 enough to produce temporary suffocation. This shocking punish- 
 ment was repeated several times. 
 
 A potent influence over the morals of the southern people, the 
 higher classes at least, was exercised by the institution of chivalry. 
 It was of the essence of that institution to promote spiritual at the 
 expense of sensual gratification. The chevalier adored his nm- 
 
 " Astruc, Be morh. verier. 
 
 " Sur le pont d* Avignon 
 Tout le monde y passe.'* 
 
 The bridge was a haunt of prostitutes. 
 
102 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 tress in secret for years, without even venturing to breathe her 
 name. For y§ars he, carried a scarf or a ribbongjn her honor 
 through battle-scenes and, dangers of every kind, happy when, 
 after a lustrum spent in sighs and hopes, the charmer condescend- 
 ed to reward his fidehty.with.a gracious smile. It is evident that 
 sexual intercourse, must have been rare among people who set so 
 high a value on the merest compliments and, slightest tokens of 
 afifection ; nor can there be any question but the effect of chivalry 
 was to impart a high tone to the feelings and language of society, 
 and to soften the manners of all who came within its influence. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we glance at the literature which flour- 
 ished in France during the period of the revival of learning, we 
 can not but infer that the morals of the people at large were not 
 pure. During the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, 
 the standard reading of the educated classdfe among the French 
 was the celebrated i^oTwan de la Rose, a work of remarkable talent, 
 but, at the same time, distinguished by a' cynic vein of philosophy 
 and a singular obscenity of language. No' portion of that work 
 was wholly free from lewd expressions, and it would be impossi- 
 ble to quote fifty, lines of it to-day in a modem language. The 
 doctrine of the author .with regard to women was insulting and 
 cynical.^ They were uniformly depicted as being restrained only 
 by legal difficulties, from giving way to the loosest passions ; and 
 all men, in like'^ manner, were painted as seducers, adulterers, and 
 violators of young girls. , Such was the reading of the best soci- 
 ety in France. The Boman de la Rose was to them what Shaks- 
 peare is to us. - 
 
 Nor was it alone of its kind. Of the works which that age has 
 bequeathed to us, nearly all are tainted with the same grossness 
 of language and pruriency of idea. All, or nearly all, breathe the 
 air of the brothel. It was rather a matter of boasting than of 
 shame with the authors. Villon and Eegnier seem to plume 
 themselves on their familiarity with scenes of debauch, and their 
 extensive acquaintance among the prostitute class. The best of 
 their works are descriptions of episodes of dissipation ; their most 
 lively sketches have prostitutes, or their fortunes, or their dis- 
 eases, for the themes. They seemed to fancy they were imitating 
 Horace when they borrowed his most odious blemishes. Some of 
 them were actors as well as poets, and used the machinery of the 
 
 " Toutea estes, serez, ou fiitea, 
 De fniot ou de volonM, putes."— jRomon <Je la Rose. 
 
FEANCE DUEING THE MIDDLE AGES. 103 
 
 stage to disseminate their lewd compositions. Though it was still 
 unusual, or even unlawful, for women to appear on the stage in 
 their time, the boys who played female parts were well drilled to 
 the business, and the performances which delighted the towns and 
 villages of France fell but little short, in point of grossness, of the 
 theatrical enormities of the imperial era at Rome. 
 
 One may form some idea of the popularity of erotic literature 
 at this period in France from the amazing vocabulary of erotic 
 terms which is gathered from the works of Eabelais, Beroald de 
 Verville, Regnier, Brantome, and their contemporaries. There 
 was not a form of lewdness for which an appropriate name had 
 not been invented ; and as to the ordinary acts and instruments of 
 prostitution, a dictionary of synonyms might have been compiled 
 without embracing all of them. Monsieur Dufour, in his consci- 
 entious work, fills a couple of pages with the mere words that 
 were employed to express the act of fornication. 
 
 Many events likewise indicate a. loose state of morals. The. 
 history of the incvhes and succubes, filling some space in every 
 treatise on demonology, is a most curious feature of the morals 
 of the day. The existence of demons who made a practice of 
 assailing the virtue of girls and boys, was admitted by some of the 
 fathers of the Church," who quoted the words of Genesis in sup- 
 port of the singular doctrine. They were of two kinds : incubi, 
 from the Latin incubare, male demons who assailed the chastity 
 of girls; and succubce, female demons who robbed boys of their 
 innocence. The old chronicles are full of accounts of the mis- 
 chievous deeds of these evil spirits. As might be. expected, the 
 incubi were more numerous anfl more enterprising than the suc- 
 cubce. For one boy who confessed that a female demon had at- 
 tacked him in his sleep, and compelled him to minister to her 
 sensuality, there were a score pf girls who furnished very tolerable 
 evidence of having yielded their virginity to creatures of the male 
 gender, who, they were satisfied, could be none other than devils. 
 The ecclesiastical writers of the period have preserved a number 
 of scandalous stories of the kind, which were so well credited that 
 Pope Innocent VIII. felt impelled to issue a bull on the. subject, 
 and provide the faithfiil with an efficacious formula of exorcism. 
 
 Females, most of whom appeared to be nuns, confessed that 
 they had been subject to the scandalous visits of the demons for 
 long periods of time, and that neither fasting, nor prayer, nor 
 
 ' St. August, per cent. ,• St. John Chrysost. Horn. 22, sup. Gene. 
 
104 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 spiritual exercise could release tliem from the hated plague. 
 Some girls were brought to admit a similar interc^rse, and were 
 burnt at the stake as partakers of the nature of sorceresses.' 
 Married women made similar confessions. They stated that they 
 were able to affirm that intercourse with demons was extremely 
 painful ; that their frigid nature, combined with their monstrous 
 proportions, rendered their society a severe affliction, independ- 
 ently of the sin. It was noticed that the women, married or 
 single, who applied to the ecclesiastical authorities for relief from 
 this curious form of torment were almost invariably young and 
 pretty. 
 
 In the year 1637 a public discussion took place at Paris on the 
 question. Whether there exist succvhce and incubi, and whether 
 they can procreate their species? The discussion was long and 
 elaborate. It was conducted by a body of learned doctors, in 
 presence of a large audience, composed partly of ladies ; and 
 while the judgment of the tribunal appeared to be in the nega- 
 tive, it was not so emphatic as to settle the question.^ Even a 
 century later, when one of the royal physicians im.dertook to 
 explode the theory of lewd demons, and to prove that girls had 
 endeavored to conceal their intercourse with lovers by attributing 
 to them a devilish character, the public was not convinced, and 
 the inaubi were not left without believers. The laws still pro- 
 nounced the penalty of death against all persons, male or female, 
 who had commerce with demons. 
 
 Another practice which was brought to a close about the same 
 time was entitled "Le sahat des sorciers," the witches' vigil. It 
 appears that, at the earliest timdfe of which we have any record, 
 the inhabitants of France and Germany were in the habit of fre- 
 quenting nocturnal assemblies in which witchcraft was believed 
 or pretended to occupy a prominent place. In the thirteenth 
 century they were denounced by Pope Gregory IX.,' who was 
 satisfied that the devil had to do with them, and that their prime 
 object was the gratification of sensuality. His bull did not attain 
 its object. The witches' meetings were stUl held, or believed to 
 have been held throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth, and part of 
 the sixteenth centuries. The popular belief was that the persons 
 in league with witches anointed their bodies with magical cSnt- 
 
 ' Bodin, Demonomanie. 
 
 ' Recueil general des questions traictees es Conferences du Bureau d'Adresse. 
 Paris, 1656. ' Hist. Ecclesiast. Henry XVII. 53. 
 
FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 105 
 
 ment, bestrode a broom, and were forthwith carried tbrougli the 
 air to the place of meeting ; that Satan was present at the cere- 
 mony in the form of a huge he-goat, and received the homage of 
 the witches and their proselytes ; that songs and dances followed 
 next in order, and that the whole performance was dosed with a 
 scene of promiscuous debauchery.' The Inquisition took the 
 matter in. hand, and obtained affidavits from- several females 
 averring that they had had commerce with demons on these occa- 
 sions, and relating with singular crudity the peculiar sensations 
 they experienced.^ On the strength of this evidence prosecutions 
 were instituted, and many persons were condemned and exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 It has been usual in modern times to regard the persecution of 
 the witches as a proof of the barbarous intolerance of the ancient 
 Church ; but, in truth, a careful examination of the evidence leaves 
 no room for doubting that witchcraft was only the cloak of real 
 vices. Most of the persons who were burned in France as sorcer- 
 ers had really used the popular belief in magic to hide their own 
 debaucheries, and had succeeded in depraving large numbers of 
 youth of both sexes. It was stated by a theological writer of the 
 time of Francis I., that in his day there were one hundred thou- 
 sand persons sold to Satan in France.^ Allowing for some exag- 
 geration, it must still be inferred from this statement that this form 
 of prostitution had assumed alarming proportions. Nor isthei'e 
 any good reason for doubting but priests and other persons of lewd 
 propensities turned the simplicity of the village girls to account 
 in very many instances, and richly earned the severe penalty that 
 was inflicted upon them by the arm of the Church., The vigil, or 
 sabat, disappears from history during the sixteenth century. That 
 it had been for some time before its extinction a haunt of debau- 
 chees and a fertile source of prostitution, the writers on demon- 
 ology and the old chroniclers establish incontrovertibly. 
 
 Other aids to prostitution were obtained from the very ranks 
 of the Church. During the Middle Ages numbers of strange sects 
 appeared, many of which relied for success on the favor they al- 
 lowed to sensuality. At the present day it is not easy to determ- 
 ine what proportion of the stories that are in print respecting many 
 of these sects were the fruit of sectarian jealousy on the part of 
 their rivals ; some of them were doubtless calumniated, but there 
 
 ■ Bodin, Demonomariie. ° Nicolas Reiihj. 
 
 ' Pere Crespet, De la Haine de Satan. 
 
106 THE HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 are others about wliose character and practices there is no room 
 for controversy. The Flagellants, for instance, wiiP counted eight 
 hundred thousand proselytes in Prance in the fourteenth century, 
 ■werejunquestionably depraved. They marched in procession, men 
 and women together, through the cities of France, each member 
 of the society using the whip freely on the bare back of the per- 
 son before him ; and at night they assembled in country places, 
 and proceeded to more serious flagellations. The opinion of 
 learned persons ascribed erotic effects to these flagellations, it be- 
 ing said, apparently with truth, that when the flagellants had ex- ■ 
 cited their senses by their discipline, they gave way to frantic de- 
 bauchery. However this be, it is plain that the spectacle of naked 
 men and women marching in procession and scourging one an- 
 other can not but have been provocative of prostitution.^ 
 
 Another similar sect was the Adamites, who argued that nudity 
 was the law of nature, and that clothes were an abomination in the 
 sight of God. It is said that, at first, the Adamites- insisted on 
 nudity only during their religious exercises, and that their prose- 
 lytes stripped themselves within the place of worship ; but one, 
 Picard, who became a leading authority in the sect, took the 
 ground that their principles should be carried out boldly in the 
 face of the world. He and his followers, male and female, accord- 
 ingly appeared in the streets in the costume in which they were 
 bom. The Inquisition very properly laid hands on them, pun- 
 ished some, and exiled the others.^ 
 
 Again: if we pass from individual accidents to the state of so- 
 ciety at large, we shall find many features that can not have been 
 aids to virtue. Allusion has already been made to the obscene 
 character of much of the early poetry of France, and to the ex- 
 cessive grossness of those works especially which obtained, and 
 perhaps deserved, the widest popularity. Many of the customs 
 of the day were equally adverse to sound morals. To cite one 
 by way of example : On the Jmir des Innocents, which fell on the 
 28th of December, men were allowed to invade the bed-chambers 
 of girls, and, if they could find them in bed, to administer the 
 chastisement which used to be common in schools. Hence arose 
 the proverbial expression, Bonner hs innocents d gudqvlun, which 
 meant to birch a person on the bare skin. No doubt the old 
 chroniclers were justified in saying that when the girl was worth 
 
 ' Boileau, Hist, des Flagellants i Pic de la Mirandole, Tr. contre Ics Astrolopies, 
 liv. iii. ch. 27. » Bayle's Dictionary, Vo. Pieard. 
 
FRANCE DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 107 
 
 tte trouble, tlie invader of the clianiber was not satisfied witli in- 
 flicting a chastisement.^ 
 
 Marriages were attended witli ceremonies far grosser than any 
 that were practiced in Eome. It was not only decorous, it was 
 fashionable, both for men and women, to spy out the bed-chamber 
 of the newly-wedded couple, and the fortunate man or girl who 
 had contrived to see the interior of the room through a chink in 
 the wall or a hole in the door was loudly applauded when the re- 
 sult of his or her discoveries was made known.^ The invention 
 of bridal chambers is therefore not original in America, as some 
 have supposed. 
 
 Strange to say, neither the lewdness of the poets nor the gross- 
 ness of the social habits of the times strikes one as more singular 
 than the tone of the sermons which were delivered in- Paris at the 
 same period. One of the most famous preachers of the day was 
 Maillard, who rose to eminence under Louis XI. His sermons on 
 the luxury and corruptions of the times were very popular. "We 
 find him cursing the "burgesses" who, for the sake of gain, let 
 their houses to prostitutes : " Vuliis vivere de posierioribus meretri- 
 cum" he cries, indignantly. He denounces with extraordinary 
 virulence the " crimes of impudicity which are committed in 
 churches," and which "the pillars and nave would denounce, if 
 they had eyes and a voice." He did not spare his congregation. 
 Turning fiercely to the women who sat before him, he apostro- 
 phized them: "Dioatis, vos, muheres, posuistis, posuistis filias ad 
 peccandum ? vos, mulieres, per vestros traitus impudiae, provocas- 
 tis alios ad peccandum? Et vos, maquerellse, quid dicitis?" He 
 thunders against this latter class, the procuresses, who ought, he 
 says, to be' burned at the stake, especially when, as is often the 
 case, they are both the mothers and the venders of their daugh- 
 ters. Words fail him ^o denounce the intercourse of abandoned 
 women with ecclesiastics ; he invokes the divine wrath upon those 
 of his congregation qwB dant corpus curialibus, monacMs, presbyte- 
 ris. Both he and other famous preachers of the day pronounced 
 maledictions upon lewd convents, which some of them say are 
 mere seraglios for the bishops and monks, where every abomina- 
 tion is practiced. 
 
 It was estimated that at this time, say the fifteenth century, 
 
 ' Lenglet, Dufresnoy sur Marot, iii. 97 ; Richelet's Diet. 
 
 ' Brantome, in his Dames Galantes, describing a marriage, says, " Oliacim estoit 
 a Tescontes, a taccousiumee." ' 
 
108 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 wlien Paris was comparatively a small ■ city, it contained five to 
 six thousand prostitutes, who were said by an Iliiian to be far 
 more beautiful and attractive than any prostitutes he had seen 
 elsewhere. 
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 FRANCE. — HISTORY FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIIL 
 
 The Court.— Louis 'IX. "to Charles V.— Charles "VI. — Agnes Sorel.— Louis XI.— 
 Charles VIII.— Louis XII.— Francis I. — La Belle Feronniere. — Henry II.— Di- 
 ana de Poictiers. — Lewd Books and Pictures.— Catharine of Medicis. — Margaret 
 — Henry IV. — Mademoiselle de Entragues. — Henry III. — Mignons. — Influence 
 of the Ligue. — Indecency of Dress. — Theatricals. — Ordinance of 1660. — Police 
 Regulations. 
 
 The memoranda we have already given will enable the reader 
 to form an idea of the state of society at large. It remains to say 
 something of the court, which, in some respects, was France. 
 
 From Louis IX. to Charles V. inclusive, it is said that the kings 
 of France set no example of debauchery, and that the court rath- 
 er encouraged virtue than vice. When the sisters-in-law of Philip 
 the Handsome scandalized Paris by their loose life in the Tour de 
 Nesle, into which they were said to make a practice of inveigling 
 students, whom they assassinated when their lubricity was sati- 
 ated, the king had them brought to punishment and dealt with as 
 though the popular scandal was weU founded in fact. When 
 Charles VI. ascended the throne the scene changed. This unfor- 
 tunate monarch was not only himself weak and depraved, but his 
 wife, Isabel of Bavaria, was more vicious stiU. The pair encour- 
 aged every practice that could shock modesty or outrage decency. 
 The queen lived almost openly with her lover, the Duke of Or- 
 leans. The king, so long as he retained his reason, was a leading 
 actor in the scandalous masquerades of the court, and narrowly es- 
 caped losing his life on one occasion when he disguised himself 
 as a devil, and danced immodestly before the ladies of the court. 
 Bound his loins, as round those of his fellow-demons, a sort of 
 girdle of tow had been fastened, and all the masqueraders were 
 chained together. In the midst of their dances, some foolish per- 
 son threw a lighted torch at them. Their girdles took fire, and 
 aU were burned to death except the king, whom the Duchess of 
 Berri saved by courageously raising ier skirts and throwing them 
 over the burning monarch. 
 
FRANCE FEOM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIII. 109 
 
 diaries had. had many mistresses in Ms youth. When he went 
 mad, the physicians directed the queen to refuse to discharge her 
 conjugal duty. Charles had enough of his former nature left to 
 resent this privation. He even employed force, and succeeded at 
 last in compelling his wife to resume her place in the royal couch. 
 She contrived, however, to defraud him by hiring a pretty girl to 
 take her place. It is said Charles never detected the fraud. His 
 ■wife, meanwhile, gave the reins to her loose passions, and was 
 known to have had at least a score of lovers. 
 
 A very striking picture, of the manners of the time is afforded 
 by the story of Agnes Sorel. She was, as is known, the mistress 
 of Charles VII., a lady of good family, and, otherwise than as the 
 king's mistress, of spotless reputation. Her influence, over the 
 king she used for the, best of purposes. It was she who roused 
 him to inake the efforts which eventually expelled the foreigner 
 from Fraucg. Her private character was laudable : she was ami- 
 able, generous, kind, and true ; yet when she visited Paris in com- 
 pany with the king, the crowd followed her whenever she appear- 
 ed in the streets, insulting her, and calling her a prostitute in the 
 grossest .terms. The king lived with, her eighteen years, but nev- 
 er ventured to acknowledge her publifcly.as his mistress. Of the 
 four daughters she bore him, three only were legitimated by his 
 successor. 
 
 Louis XI. had, a seraglio and a colony of bastards before he be- 
 came king, nor did he altex his mode of life when he assumed con- 
 trol of the kingdom. His favorites were usually chosen frona the 
 lowest class of his; subjects, many of whom had gone through an 
 apprenticeship for thft king's service in the houses of prostitution 
 of the capital., Louis never pretended to bear them any affection ; 
 he used them as he used the men of letters who composed for his 
 diversion the lewd tales which have reached us. 
 
 Charles YIII. appears to have been more virtuous than his pred- 
 ecessors, though, of course, he did not pique himself upon any con- 
 jugal fidelity. A story is told which reflects credit upon his. 
 character. It is said that during his campaign in Italy, when he 
 retired to his chamber one evening, he found there a young girl 
 of marvelous beauty in. a state of complete d&habUl^. She was 
 kneeling and in tears when the king entered. On Charles inquir- 
 ing the cause of her sorrow, she confessed that her parents had 
 sold her to the king's valet for. the use of his majesty, and con- 
 jured Charles to spare he:^- The king was touched by her dis- 
 
110 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. . 
 
 tress. He inqiiired into tlie facts, and, finding that they were as 
 she stated, and, farther, that she was betrothed to^ youth of the 
 neighborhood, he sent for him and married the young couple 
 forthwith. 
 
 It appears certain that Charles's death was caused by his indis- 
 creet commerce with the sex. All the chroniclers state that he 
 fell a victim to the indulgence of his passions, being frail of body 
 and of feeble constitution. 
 
 The court of Louis XII. was purer than that of his predecessors, 
 owing to the austere virtue of the queen. Louis himself had shared 
 the profligacies of his family in his youth, but, on becoming king, 
 he allowed his wife to regulate his household according to her 
 principles. For the first time for many years, say the old chron- 
 iclers, prostitution was banished from court. 
 
 We shall have something to say of Francis I. in connection with 
 syphilis, of which he was a conspicuous and an early victim. At 
 the age of eighteen his mother, stated that he had been punished 
 where he sinned. The misfortune did not operate as a warning. 
 His life was notoriously dissolute at a time when profligacy was 
 so much the rule that it was hardly likely to be noticed. Bran- 
 tome asserts positively' that his expedition-to Italy was prompted 
 by the desire to make acquaintance with a courtesan of Milan 
 whose charms Admiral Bonnivet had extolled. Previous to his 
 time, it seems, there had always been attached to the court a body 
 of prostitutes for the use of the courtiers. Francis suppressed this 
 body, and actually invited the ladies of the court to take their 
 place. Brantome reviews this policy, and while he praises it in 
 view of the "joyous pastimes" to which it led, he is bound to ac- 
 knowledge that it produced the greatest immorality ever known 
 in France. The ladies of the town followed the example of those 
 of the court, and but little was wanting but that every woman in 
 France became a prostitute. 
 
 It was the custom during this reign for the king to invite all 
 his courtiers and their wives and daughters to lodge at the royal 
 palaces from time to time. The ladies had apartments by them- 
 selves, and to each- room the king had a key. We are assured 
 that the husbands, fathers, and brothers of ladies who refused to 
 submit to the royal demands had but little chance of retaining 
 their offices. If they had been guilty of maladministration or 
 peculation, as was the case with most of them, they could hope 
 ' Vies des Hommes Illnst. ; Bonnivet. 
 
FRANCE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIII. m 
 
 for pardon only througli the complaisance of tlieir female relatives. 
 The story of M. de St. Vallier, who was reprieved on the scaffold 
 in payment for the favors which his daughter, the beautiful Diana 
 of Poictiers, had granted to the king, is too well known to need 
 repetition here. 
 
 It was the boast of Francis that he had always respected the 
 honor of the ladies of the court, and the boast was just, from his 
 point of view. His visits to his mistresses were always made in 
 a mysterious manner, and at night. Even to. the Duchess of 
 Etampes, who was his acknowledged mistress and procuress for 
 a period of nearly twenty years, he never behaved in public in a 
 manner to compromise her reputation. In private he was not so 
 scrupulous. When this lady's husband disturbed the king one 
 evening, Francis drew his sword on him, and threatened to kill 
 him instantly if he dared to reveal what every one knew, or to 
 punish the wife at whose adultery he had connived for years. 
 His idea seems to have been that words alone constituted the' sin 
 of debauchery. On one occasion he took all the ladies of the 
 court to see the royal deer in the rutting season; but when a gen- 
 tleman ventured a very obvious pleasantry on the scene, he exiled 
 him from court for life. 
 
 His death has been frequently described. Some writers imply, 
 by their silence, doubts of the authenticity of the story oi La Belle 
 Ferronnihre ; but it rests on very ixjlerable evidence. This lady, who 
 was uncomnaonly beautiful, was the wife of a lawyer or a mer- 
 chant (the authorities do not agree on the point). The king so- 
 licited her favors, "but, strange to say, was met with a positive re- 
 fiisal. On consultation with the court lawyers, however, Francis 
 was informed that he could, by the exercise of his royal preroga- 
 tive, enjoy the company of any woman he pleased, and the Ferron- 
 ni^re was accordingly notified that the king conunanded her to 
 yield to his desires. She confided the order to her husband, who, 
 on reflection, counseled her to submit. Meanwhile Ferronni^re 
 himself used his best endeavors to catch a syphilitic disease, which 
 he communicated to his wife. She gave it to the king, who died 
 of it after much suffering. 
 
 Henry II. had the merit of fidelity, not to his wife, but to his 
 mistress. The latter was the famous Diana de Poictiers, whose 
 siiccessful intercession with Francis I. on her father's behalf has 
 been already noticed. Brantome' asserts that she did not emulate 
 the constancy of her royal lover, saying that in her youth she had 
 
112 HISTOET OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 '.'obliged many persons." He tells a story -wliich, if true, reflects 
 credit on the temper of the king. Visiting his mi|Jress one day, 
 he surprised her in the company of a courtier named Brissac, who 
 had only time to hide himself under the bed. After spending 
 some moments with Diana, the king asked for some refreshmemt&i 
 Some boxes of confectionery were brought hhn, and in the midst of 
 his meal he took a box and threw it under the bed, saying, " Hal-, 
 loo, Brissac, every body must live !" Diana lost no portion of 
 her lover's heart in consequence of her infidelities. This she owed; 
 in some degree to her extraordinary beauty, which she preserved, 
 so late in life that it was commonly reported she was in the habit, 
 of using soap made of liquid gold. Henry was proud of his mis- 
 tress, and never concealed their liaison. He had his arms inter- 
 woven with hers on many public buildings and pieces of plate. 
 He used constantly to ride through the streets with the beautiful 
 Diana on his crupper ; and he showed her so marked a preference 
 over his' wife that judicious courtiers never made the mistake of 
 courting the latter. 
 
 But the orderly life of the king was not imitated by the court. 
 According to Brantome and Sauval, the excesses of the age of 
 Francis were aggravated under Henry. It. was rare, says the for^ . 
 mer, that ladies presented their virginity to their husbands ; and > 
 husbands who objected to the intimacy of their wives with "kings^ 
 princes, noblemen, and others of the court," were eschewed froni 
 society. A woman was held to be virtuous because she beggedi^ 
 her lover to wait till she was married to gratify his desires ; mar- 
 ried women who retained their love for the same galani for sev- 
 eral years were considered inodels of purity. Brantome intimates 
 distinctly that ordinary debauchery fell short of the desires of the, 
 courtiers; incest, sodomy, and similar enormities could alone sa-, 
 tiate the passions of the old debauchees of the day. 
 
 The same writer <partiaUy explains the spread of vice by say- 
 ing that within the last half century the ladies of France had ac- 
 quired the arts of Italy; nor is it doubtful that with the Medicas 
 many of the monstrous vices which have been peculiar to Italy 
 ever since the age of Imperial Eome were imported into France. 
 We hear of all kinds of instriimeiits of debauchery ; of lewd books 
 and lewd pictures ; of indecent sculptures and bronzes being sold 
 without let or hinderance in the stores of Paris. It was the age of 
 Aretino ; and besides that famous or infamous writer, a number 
 of other Italians had competed for the- prize of lewdness in com-. 
 
FRANCE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIII. Hg 
 
 position. Poets, painters, sculptors, seemed to try how far art 
 could be prostituted. Cellini, Leonardo da Vinci, Giulio Eomano, 
 NicoUo deir Abate, and, indeed, almost all their contemporaries, 
 debased their genius by the execution of indecent works. Many 
 of these found their way to Paris. Whpn Pope Clement VII. un- 
 dertook to prosecute the authors of indecent works, whether in 
 letters or art, most of the compositions that were endangered by 
 his bull were transported to Erance. Brantome alludes to many 
 of them as being quite common in his tim'e. He describes, for in- 
 stance, a silver goblet on which the most indecent scenes were 
 graven, and which a nobleman of the court always obliged the 
 ladies who visited him to use at table. Other noblemen had their 
 rooms painted in fresco in similar taste. It is stated that Anne 
 of Austria caused three hundred thousand ^cus worth of frescoes, 
 of this kind to be removed from the ceilings of the palace at Fon- 
 tainebleau.^ But in the reign of Henry II. it does not appear that 
 any one was ever prosecuted for dealing in this kind of merchan- 
 dise. 
 
 During the three following reigns, it was Catharine of Medicis 
 who gave the tone to the court, and really ruled the kingdom. 
 AH historians concur in stating that she used prostitution as the 
 mainspring of her policy. She had a court of sometimes two to 
 three hundred ladies of honor, whom she employed to worm out 
 the secrets of the politicians of the day. They were known as 
 the Queen's Flying Squadron, and it appears they performed their 
 duties successfully ; of course, at the cost of whatever virtue or 
 decency the court still retained. Brantome is still our authority 
 for asserting that they introduced a new feature of debauchery; 
 they took the initiative in affairs of this kind, and instead of yield- 
 ing to the entreaties of lovers, it was they who pressed their lovers 
 to meet them half way. He likewise informs us that they aided 
 the establishment in France of other vices which had hitherto 
 been peculiar to Southern and Eastern climates, by the revival of 
 practices which had been common among the lietaircR of Athens. 
 
 It has been asserted that Catharine willfully tutored her children 
 in habits of debauchery, in order to divert their minds from poli- 
 tics, and retain control over the kingdom, but this scandal does 
 not appear to rest on authentic evidence. It is unquestionable, 
 however, that Charles IX., the author of the massacre of St. Bar- 
 
 ' Sauval, Amours des rois de France ; from which work many of the facts in the 
 text throughout this chapter are drawn. 
 
 H 
 
114 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 tholomew, lived in incestuous intercourse witli his sister Margaret, 
 and there seems no reason to doubt the truth <g^ the story that 
 Catharine more than once entertained the king and court at a 
 banquet at which nude females served as waiters. 
 
 Perhaps the best idea of the morals of the time can be obtained 
 irom the adventures of the Margaret just mentioned, who married 
 Henry TV., King of Navarre, and afterward King of France. It 
 is said that at the age of eleven she had two lovers, bdth of whom 
 claimed to have robbed her of her virtue. Marrying the King of 
 Navarre, she found means to leave her husband and reside at 
 Paris, whose air suited her better than the country. Here her 
 debaucheries were a cominon theme of scandal, her lovers being 
 counted by the score. Happening at last to give birth to a cluld 
 which mysteriously disappeared, her brother Henry 111. sent her 
 to her husband in a quasi-disgrace. Henry of Navarre refused to 
 cohabit with her. The king vainly endeavored to reconcile the 
 couple. With more zeal than tact, he used as an argument with 
 his cousin that the mother of the King of Navarre had not her- 
 self led an irreproachable life. At this Henry burst into a laugh, 
 and remarked to the envoy that the king was very compliment- 
 ary in his letters, his majesty having in the first described the 
 vices of the wife, and in the second alluded to the frailties of the 
 mother. 
 
 He persisted in refusing to receive Margaret, and she took ref- 
 uge in the little town of Agen, but no sooner began to lead her 
 usual life there than the people rose and expelled her. She found' 
 a second refuge in the fortress of XTsson, and there she lived 
 twenty years in a sort of prison which she converted into a 
 brothel. She was debarred from the society of men of fashion 
 and courtiers, but for her purposes, servants, secretaries, musicians, 
 and even the peasants of the neighborhood answered as well, and 
 of these there was no lack. Eetuming to Paris in her old age, 
 she did not alter her course of life. She became outwardly de- 
 vout, and established a nunnery and monastery near her hotel ; 
 the latter, the people said, in order to have monks always at hand; 
 but the list of her lovers remained undiminished to the very verge 
 of her death.* 
 
 Nor did her husband present any striking contrast to his wife, 
 though he reflected so severely upon her in the work published 
 under .the title Le divorce Satirique. Bayle remarks that, had he 
 ' Le divorce Satirique. 
 
FRANCE PROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOTUS XIII. 115 
 
 not expended so large a portion of Ms energy in tlie pursuit of 
 sensual pleasures, lie would have been one of the greatest heroes 
 of history.* He was profuse and indiscriminate in his attach- 
 ments ; duchess or farmer's daughter, it was all the same to him. 
 He changed his mistress once a month at least. As an exception 
 to this rule, his affection for Gabrielle d'Estr^es, a very lovely 
 creature, whom he shared with the Marquis of Bellegarde, and 
 who bore him, or them, three children, lasted several years. He 
 was not faithful to her, and made no secret of his infidelities, but 
 he loved her passionately. On one occasion he left his army in 
 the midst of a campaign, disguised himself as a peasant, and trav- 
 eled through the enemy's country to meet her. He once went to 
 see her, but was stopped at the door with the announcement that 
 Bellegarde was with her. His first impulse was one of rage. 
 Drawing his sword, he rushed toward the door, but stopped half 
 waiy, and saying, "No, it would make her angry," he returned 
 home. Gabrielle was a very beautiftil and charming person. 
 She was in the habit of having herself painted in a state of per- 
 fect nudity, with her children playing around her. 
 
 When she died, Henry proposed to replace her by Mademoiselle 
 D'Entragues, whose beauty had made some sensation at court. 
 Negotiations were opened with the lady, who dutifully placed 
 the matter in the hands of her family, and father, mother, and 
 brothers began to treat with the king for the prostitution of their 
 daughter and sister. They asked a hundred thousand crowns. 
 The king thought the sum large, and offered fifty thousand, but 
 the family refusing to give way, he acceded to their demands; 
 They then added that they would like to have a promise of mar- 
 riage, conditioned upon the lady's bearing a male child within 
 a year. To this likewise Henry agreed, in spite of Sully's re- 
 monstrances ; and Mdlle. D'Entragues became the acknowledged 
 mistress of the king. It need not be added that the promise of 
 marriage was never fulfilled. 
 
 Some time afterward Henry fell in love with a young lady who 
 was betrothed to Marshal Bassomplerre. As ardent as ever, he 
 sent for the marshal, explained his feelings, and ordered Bassom- 
 plerre to renounce his claims. The marshal obeyed, and Henry 
 married the lady (who was a Montmorency) to the Prince of 
 Cond^. The marriage was hardly over befor§ the king opened 
 negotiations with the bride. It will be scarcely credited that the 
 
 ' Bayle's Dictionary, Vo. Henry IV. 
 
116 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 emissary lie employed was the mother of the Prince of Gond^ 
 who left no means untried to effect the dishonor q§»her son. The 
 prince, of less complacent temper than most other courtiers, re- 
 fus.ed to allow, his wife to become the king's mistress. He re- 
 moved her from France, and, just as Henry was about to send 
 after her, the assassin Bavaillac freed Cond^ from the danger. 
 
 The disorders of Henry III., the predecessor of the King of 
 Navarre, are shamefully notorious. There was a time during his 
 reign when, for the same reason which induced the establishment 
 of Dicteria at Athens, prostitution almost seemed a desirable in- 
 stitution at Paris. In his youth he had been a famous seducer of 
 the ladies of honor. An anecdote of his life at this period not 
 only reveals the tone of the court, but happily shows that de- 
 pravity was not so universal as might be imagined. When Hen- 
 ry was chosen King of Poland, he was anxious to settle his mis- 
 tress, Mdlle. de Chateauneuf, by finding her a husband. He ap- 
 plied to a courtier, the Provost of Paris, M. de NantoniUet, but 
 received the scathing reply that " M. de Nantonillet would not 
 marry a prostitute till the king had established brothels in the 
 Louvre." 
 
 It is best, perhaps, to throw a veil over the later stories of Hen- 
 ry III., his mignons, and the frightful infamies that were practiced 
 in Paris in his time. They piay be divined from the fact that 
 Brantome mentions some orgies in which the king and a party of 
 friends, male and female, stripped themselves naked, and tried to 
 place themselves on a level with the brute creation, as rather re- 
 deeming instances of his sensuality. 
 
 We shall take occasion hereafter to follow the history of the 
 court from Louis XHI. to modern times. Meanwhile, some feat- 
 ures of society bearing on prostitution in the age we have sketch- 
 ed must be briefly noted. 
 
 It is asserted by all the chroniclers that the influence of the 
 League {Ligue) was most pernicious. A sort of religious enthusi- 
 asm seems to have been kindled by the sectarian strife of the pe- 
 riod, and practices which purported to be religious, but were only 
 immoral, were encouraged by the highest authorities. Eeligious 
 fanaticism ruled throughout France, Men and women walked 
 naked in processions which were led by the curates. As was 
 natural at an age of civil war, violence was freely used toward fe- 
 males by both of the contending armies. At every city that was 
 taken, either by the Leaguers or the Huguenots, all the women, 
 
PEANCE FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIII. II7 
 
 married and single, were violated by the soldiery ; sucli, at least, 
 is the statement of a contemporary historian. Moreover, in the 
 general confusion, no proper police was enforced either at Paris or 
 elsewhere, and the windows of print'shops teemed with lewd pic- 
 tures, which no one, says the historian, thought of having seized. 
 It was, in factj a period of anarchy. The Moyen de parvenir, by 
 Beroalde de Yenille, which has reached us, affords some criterion 
 of the popular literature of the day. Aretino, text and plates, 
 was much in vogue ; and Sanchez and Benedict! left their lay ri- 
 vals far behind in the composition of works which may contend 
 for the palm of lewdness with Martial or Petronius.' 
 
 Throughout the Middle Ages, and, indeed, up to the middle of 
 the seventeenth century, great complaint was made by the clergy 
 of the indecency of the dress of the people of France. About the 
 thirteenth century it became fashionable to adorn the toe of the 
 shoe or boot with an ornament in metal ; either a lion's claw, or 
 an eagle's beak, or something of that kind. Some immodest per- 
 son ventured to substitute a sexual image in bronze for the usual 
 appendage, and the fashion soon became general. Women even 
 adopted it, and all the best society of Paris soon exhibited the in- 
 decency on their feet. The king forbade their use by royal edicts,* 
 and a special bull was fulminated against them by Pope Urban V.,' 
 but the monstrous shoes held their ground against both, and were 
 only disused when fashion set in a different direction. The Bra- 
 guette was another enormity of the same character. Originally, it 
 is said, the working-classes invented the idea of a small bag hang- 
 ing between the knees in which a knife or other utensil could be 
 carried. The fashion was adopted about the beginning of the fif- 
 teenth century by men of rank, and became immediately of an 
 immodest nature. All the arts of fashion were called into requisi- 
 tion to give the hragxwttes the most novel and remarkable appear- 
 ance, and every possible means was used to render them at once 
 disgustingly indecent and extravagantly rich. They were attach- 
 ed to the dress with gay-colored ribbons, and, when the wearer 
 was a rich man, were adorned with jewels and lace. At the time 
 Montaigne wrote, Sragrwe^fes had almost gone out of vogue: they 
 were worn only by old men, who, in the language of the essajrist, 
 " make public parade of what can not decently be mentioned." 
 Women, on their side, invented hoops, bustles, and low-necked 
 
 ' De Matrimonio, Le Somme des Peches. ' Charles V. 17th Qctob. 1367. 
 » A.D. 1365. 
 
118 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 dresses. The libraries contain a large collection of works written 
 by moralists and preachers of the time against tj^ese " indecent 
 abuses" of the ladies. As they are all in use at the present time, 
 we may perhaps conclude that the. old French moralists were un- 
 necessarily alarmed; but it is likely that the form of the bustle 
 was by no means as modest as that of modern crinoline skirts, and 
 that the fashion of ladies' drawers had not yet come in. Such, at 
 least, is the inference from some of the criticisms they provoked. 
 The exposure of the breasts was checked for a time under Louis 
 XrV'.,but the reform was evanescent, and the custom against which 
 churchmen thundered in the sixteenth century survives to-day. . 
 Some allusion has. already been made to the theatre. Theatri- 
 cals were forbidden by the early French kings, at the instigation 
 of the Church, but the prohibition was evaded by the performance 
 of scenes from the Gospel dramatized. From the remains of these 
 Moralities it would appear that they were always coarse and often 
 immoral. The devil always played a prominent part, and would 
 have been inconsistent had he not outraged decency. Under 
 Henry III. women began to appear on the stage, and farces very 
 broad in ideas and language began to be played instead of the 
 old MoralitieSi We are led to believe that nothing was too scan- 
 dalous to be represented on the stage ; in fact, the idea seems to 
 have been to crowd as much sensuality and vice into the farces as 
 possible. Scarcely any incident of life was too indecent to be either 
 portrayed or described, and if the latter, the description was given 
 in the m6st undisguised language. It is altogether impossible to 
 transcribe scenes of this nature. Enough to say that women were 
 made to go through the pains of childbirth on the stage ; husband 
 and wife went to bed in presence of the public ; and when modesty 
 prompted the retirement of actors for causes still more indecent, a 
 colleague rarely failed to explain why they had retired and what 
 they were doing behind the curtain. Many of La Fontaine's most 
 grivois stories were taken from farces which were once acted with 
 copious pantomime before the ladies of Paris. Even as late as the 
 reign of Henry IV., plays of this character were commonly acted 
 at Paris at the Hotel de Bourgogne. It was usual for the star 
 actor to speak a prokgue or an interlude, which was invariably 
 recommended by its indecency. We have some of the titles of 
 these prologues, and they were generally of the same character as 
 the one on the question, C/ier vir an mulier se magis delectei in 
 copulaiione. 
 
TEANCE FEOM THE MIDDLE AGES TO LOUIS XIII. HQ 
 
 Of the number of regular prostitutes exercising their calling in 
 France during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries no correct 
 estimate can be made. It was undoubtedly large. During the 
 religious wars, a writer on the side of Protestantism undertook to 
 draw up a statement of the number of prostitutes and lewd women 
 whose vices were chargeable to the clergy. His estimate is, of 
 course, open to suspicion, as being a sectarian performance ; but, 
 allowing for great exaggeration, it will still appear alarming. He 
 calculates that there were at that time one million of women, more 
 or less, who led habitually lewd lives, and ministered to the pas- 
 sions of the clergy. These, were independent of the married women 
 who were led into adultery, and of the pimps and procuresses who 
 were in clerical pay.^ 
 
 To return to the laws regulating prostitution, it appears that a 
 serious effort was made to put it down under the sovereignty of 
 Catharine of Medicis. An ordinance of Charles IX., dated 1560, 
 prohibited the opening or keeping of any brothel or house of re- 
 ception for prostitutes in Paris. For a short period it seems that 
 the practice was actually suppressed, and the consequence is said 
 to have been a large increase of secret debauchery. A few years 
 after the passage of the ordinance, a Huguenot clergyman named 
 Cayet proposed to re-establish public brothels in the interest of 
 the pubhc morals, but the authorities of his Church assailed him 
 so vehemently that his scheme fell to the ground without having 
 had the benefit of a public discussion, and he was himself driven 
 to join the Romanists. In 1588 an ordiaance of Henry III. reaf- 
 firmed the ordinance of 1560, and alleged that the magistrates of 
 the city had connived at the establishment of brothels. Ordi- 
 nances of the provost followed in the same strain, and all prosti- 
 tutes were required to leave Paris within twenty-four hours. An 
 ordinance dated 1635 was still more rigorous. It condemned all 
 men concerned in the " traffic of prostitution" to the galleys for 
 life, and all women and girls to be "whipped, shaved, and ban- 
 ished for life, without any formal trial." As might be imagined, 
 this ordinance was alternately disregarded and made to serve the 
 purposes of private malice. Men who wished to revenge them- 
 selves on their mistresses accused them of being prostitutes ; but 
 it does not appear that the actual supply was ever seriously diminished. 
 ' Cabinet da Roi de France, Paris, 1581. 
 
120 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vm. 
 
 FRANCE. — ^HISTORY FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 
 
 Exile of Prostitutes.— Measures of Louis XIV.— Laws of 1684 and 1713.— Police 
 Regulations. — Ordinance of 1778. — Republican Legislation. — Frightful state of 
 Paris. — Efforts to pass a general Law. — The Court. — Louis XIII. — ^The Medicis. 
 — Louis XIV. — La VaUiSre. — Montespan. — Maintenon. — Literature of the Day. 
 — Feudal Rights. — The Regency. — ^Duchess of Berri. — Claudine du Tencin. — 
 Louis XV. — Madame de Pompadour. — ^Dubarry. — Pare avix Cerfs. — Louis XVI. 
 — Philippe Egalite. — Subsequent Sovereigns. — ^Literature. — Lewd Novels, and 
 Pictures. — Tendency of Philosophy. — ^The Church. 
 
 We have thus sketched the history of prostitution in Prance 
 from the commencement of the Prench nation to the reign of Louis 
 XIII. This chapter will complete the subject to the present day. 
 
 The ordinance of 1560, prohibiting prostitution in any shape, 
 and granting twenty -four hours only to prostitutes and their ac- 
 complices to evacuate Paris, remained in force till late in the eight- 
 eenth century. Though, so far as the general traf&c went, it was 
 a dead letter, it enabled the police authorities to imprison or exile 
 unruly prostitutes from time to time, and was the basis of the 
 high-handed measure by which the colonists of Canada were first 
 supplied with wives direct from the Paris stews. It also enabled 
 noblemen and officials connected with government to avenge 
 themselves upon unfaithful mistresses, and to exercise a conven- 
 ient sort of tyranny over the pretty Img^Tes and sewing-girls of 
 the metropolis. 
 
 In 1684 Louis XIV. made some alteration in the laws govern- 
 ing prostitution. He provided prisons for the detention of pros- 
 titutes, and armed the lieutenant of police with authority to cor- 
 rect them ; and he drew a broad line of distinction between disso- 
 lute women who were not actually upon the town and the class 
 of prostitutes proper. 
 
 A farther police regulation on the subject was made in 1713. 
 By that measure a sort of regularity was introduced into the pro- 
 cedure against courtesans and lewd women. They were definitely 
 divided into two classes : women who led dissolute lives without 
 being precisely prostitutes, and prostitutes proper. The poUce 
 were authorized to interfere against both on complaint of any per- 
 
FEANCE FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 121 
 
 son wlio charged them with outraging public decency. In the 
 case of prostitutes the proceeding was summary. The culprit was 
 summoned, condemned on slight evidence, and sentenced either to 
 exile, imprisonment, or, more rarely, to a whipping or the loss of 
 her hair. "With regard to dissolute women who were not iregular 
 prostitutes, the authorities proceeded more cautiously. They were 
 entitled to all the privileges of other accused persons, sentences 
 rendered against them being subject to appeal; and, when found 
 guilty, the penalty inflicted was usually a fine. Occasionally, the 
 houses where they had carried on their calling were closed, the 
 furniture was thrown out of the window, and a crier proclaimed 
 their disgrace throughout the city. 
 
 Monsieur Parent-Duchatelet, who had the patience to read all 
 the records of proceedings against prostitutes in the city of Paris 
 from 1724 to. 1788, infers the law from these instances of its appli- 
 cation, and concludes : (1.) That, notwithstanding the ordinance of 
 1560, brothels were licensed by the police. (2.) That prostitutes 
 were never troubled except on complaint of a responsible person. 
 (3.) That brothels were disorderly ; that riots, rows, and murders 
 not unfrequently occurred within their walls or in their neigh- 
 borhood. (4.) That the punishment was left to the discretion of 
 the magistrate. (5.) That the penalties inflicted were lighter to- 
 ward the close of the period examined. (6.) That certain streets 
 in Paris were wholly occupied by prostitutes.' 
 
 Probably with a view to enlarge the discretion of the magis- 
 trates, a new ordinance was passed in 1778, renewing, in peremp- 
 tory language, the prohibitive provisions of the enactment of 
 1560. This ordinance, which bears the name, and probably em- 
 anated from the office of Lenoir, the police magistrate, declares 
 that no public woman shall hereafter try to catch {raccrocher) men 
 on the wharves or boulevards, or in the streets or squares of 
 Paris, under penalty of being shaved, whipped, and imprisoned ; 
 that no householder shall let his house, or any part thereof, to 
 prostitutes, under penalty of five hundred francs fine, and that 
 boarding-house keepers shall allow no men and women to sleep 
 together without seeing their marriage contract. 
 
 The most curious feature in connection with this ordinance was 
 the fact that it was not intended or held to interfere with estab- 
 lished brothels, which the government continued to license as be- 
 fore. It was intended to affect private prostitutes only. "We 
 ' Parent-Duchatelet, De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris, ii. 473. 
 
122 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 may judge of its success from the general statement that, soon 
 after its passage, the streets and squares were throned with, pros- 
 titutes. No woman or modest person could walk the garden .of 
 the Tuileries at night. Lewd women showed themselves at their 
 windows in a state of nudity, and shocked public decency still 
 more glaringly by their postures in the streets. It was, ia fact, 
 so complete a failure, that two years after its establishment it was 
 practically repealed by a new police regulation. 
 
 In 1791, the whole body of the legislation of the monarchy was 
 abolished, and in its stead the republican Legislature enacted a 
 code which was the only law in force in France. That code mak- 
 ing no reference to prostitution, it was inferred by lawyers that 
 women had a natural right to prostitute their bodies if they chose, 
 and accordingly the traffic became open and free. The conse- 
 quence of this was a tremendous development of the vice. Pros- 
 titutes established themselves in every street, and monopolized 
 every public place. Paris became scarcely habitable for modest 
 women. An outcry against this monstrous state of things reach- 
 ed the Executive Directory in 1796, and that body sent a message 
 to the Council of Five Hundred, begging them to legislate on the 
 subject. The message was clear and able, calling upon the coun- 
 cil to define "prostitute," and suggesting that "reiterated offenses 
 legally proved, public notoriety, or arrest in the act," appeared to 
 constitute proof of prostitution. It seemed to call for penalties, 
 in the shape of imprisonment, on women exercising this calling. 
 But neither this suggestion, nor a subsequent project of the same 
 character was ever carried into effect. Napoleon swept the Palais 
 Eoyal of the prostitutes who had made it their head-quarters, and 
 broke up some of the greatest brothels by harassing their inmates 
 in various ways, but he made no law on the subject. 
 
 In 1811, M. Pasquier, Prefect of Police, drafted a bill for the 
 regulation of prostitutes, but it never went into effect, and the im- 
 perial ordinance drawn by the prefect ias been lost. Five years 
 later, M. Anglis, Prefect of Police under Louis XVIII., attempted 
 the same thing with no better success, the law officers of the 
 crown seemiag to have supposed that the general provisions of 
 the articles of the code on public decency and " outrages upon 
 public morality" covered the particular case of prostitution. The 
 last efforts that were made in France to obtain a law for the regu- 
 lation of prostitution were in 1819 and 1822, when the ministry 
 seriously thought of settling the whole matter by a royal declara- 
 
I-RANCE FEOM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 123 
 
 tion. These endeavors had the same fate as the former ones, lead- 
 ing to no result. 
 
 A general impression has prevailed of late years that the moral 
 sense of the public would be shocked by any legislative act li- 
 censing so great a sin as prostitution ; and as the government has 
 assumed, without constitutional warrant, the control and regula- 
 tion of prostitutes, and has exercised as full authority as it could 
 have done had there been a law on the subject,- the deficiency has 
 hardly been felt. A conscientious official has occasionally expe- 
 rienced qualms of conscience at acting without legal warrant ; the 
 government has sometimes been frightened by a menace of resist- 
 ance from some bold lawyer, but no trouble has ever actually 
 arisen, and custom now gives to the police regulations the force 
 of law. 
 
 We shall review these regulations in another place ; meanwhile 
 a glance must be cast upon the progress of morality in France 
 during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. 
 
 The gallantry which distinguished the court of Henry IV. be- 
 came more refined, though not less criminal, under Louis XIII. 
 Adultery and seduction were every-day matters in the circles 
 which educated Mary, Queen of Scots, and developed the wit of 
 the author of Grammont's Memoirs. Every lady was presumed 
 to have a lover ; every man of fashion more than one mistress. 
 Richelieu boasted that no lady could reject him when he chose to 
 throw the handkerchief, and Mazarin was accused of intrigues 
 with the queen herself. Louis did not blush to visit his mistresses 
 at the head of his guards, and in aU the pomp of royalty ; and, 
 as an instance of their influence over him, it has been stated 
 that it was at the request of Mademoiselle de la Fayette that he 
 consented to visit his wife nine months before the birth of Louis 
 XIY. 
 
 A race of women had sprung up, under the teaching of the Med- 
 icis, who combined political skill with licentious propensities, and 
 conducted state and amorous intrigues with equal ardor and suc- 
 cess. ' The ladies who surrounded Anne of Austria and- Mary of 
 Medicis, and that brilliant circle which has been described in the 
 Memoirs of Madame de LongueviUe and Madame de Sabl^, were 
 undoubtedly as dissipated as they were refined ; their virtues were 
 in inverse proportion to their wit. Paris no longer witnessed the 
 Louvre converted into a royal preserve, or detestable debauchees 
 haunting its dark passages; but there reigned throughout the 
 
124 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 court an air of polished sensuality, whicli, in point of fact, must 
 have been at least equally prejudicial to good morjjs. 
 
 Louis XIV. imbibed the spirit of the age during his minority. 
 Eoyal mistresses had become a recognized institution, fathers and 
 husbands rather courting than dreading dishonor at the hands of 
 the king. After having dispensed his favors -witli some impar- 
 tiality among the ladies of the court, be discovered, apparently to 
 his surprise, that one of them, a charming girl, named Louise de la 
 Valli^re,' really loved him. The only person who showed much 
 annoyance at the warmth with which the king entered upon this 
 new liaison was the Duchess of Orleans, Henrietta of England, 
 the king's sister-in-law, who seems to have expected that she 
 would be the fortunate recipient of whatever crumbs might fell 
 from the royal table. She was unable, however, to divert Louis 
 from his purpose ; La Vallifere became his mistress, and bore him 
 two children. When he grew tired of her, as he did soon after 
 the birth of her second child, she retired into a convent, and ex- 
 piated her fault by thirty years' austere penitence. 
 
 The king then turned his attention to a lady of noble rank, the 
 wife of the Marquis of Montespan, and in a business manner ex- 
 iled the marquis to his estate, and lived with his wife. A woman 
 otherwise virtuous, proud, and queenly, she lived with the king 
 for fourteen years, and bore him eight children. These children 
 were openly legitimated by Louis, and were married by him to 
 members of the royal family. He even contemplated securing the 
 throne to them, though they were thus doubly adulterine. 
 
 The last mistress of Louis XIV. was the famous Madame de 
 Maintenon, the widow of the poet Scarron ; a person of remark- 
 able abilities, and old enough to have recovered from the passions 
 which were said to have disturbed her youth. She was intro- 
 duced to the king as the governess of his illegitimate children, and 
 by her arts contrived not only to wean the king's heart from his 
 mistress, but even to alienate the children from their mother. 
 For thirty-five years she wielded supreme control over Louis's 
 mind ; and whatever may be said of her early life, and hdwever 
 harsh a judgment must be formed of her political measures, it 
 must be allowed that, in general, her influence was exercised for 
 the good of religion and morality. Under her direction the court 
 became positively devout. Intrigues were concealed, not ostenta- 
 tiously paraded before the public eye ; and the ladies by whom 
 she was surrounded were obliged to lead at least outwardly deco- 
 
FRANCE FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 125 
 
 rous lives. She miglit not be able to check the monstrous prac- 
 tices of the Duke of Orleans; but much of the looseness of the 
 court she could, and really did bring to an end. Her royal lover, 
 who at first piqued himself upon rising as far above obligations 
 of fidelity to his mistresses as he considered himself superior to 
 political obligations to his people, resigned himself to the spiritual 
 direction of the marquise, and allowed old age to assert its rights 
 in condemning him to virtue. All things considered, the last 
 twenty years of Louis XIV.'s reign was perhaps the most moral 
 in the whole history of the monarchy. 
 
 This is well illustrated in the history of the literature of the 
 day. The leading philosophers, writers, and poets of the age of 
 LoTiis XIV. forbore to shock decency, and may be read to-day as 
 safely as any modem work. Preachers — Bossuet, Massillon, Bour- 
 daloue — exercised a potent influence over the tone of letters and 
 society. CorneiUe, Eacine, and their contemporaries provided the 
 stage with a repertory that could never bring a blush to the cheek. 
 Even Moli^re, who did occasionally let slip a joke of questionable 
 propriety, for the pit's sake, seems a daring innovator when he is 
 contrasted with his predecessors. Decency is, in fact, one of the 
 most striking characteristics of the literature of the age. 
 
 We may also date &om the reign of Louis XIV. the final ex- 
 tinction of many of the old feudal rights which were at war with 
 morality. Horrible as it may seem, there were parts of France 
 where the custom allowed the seigneur to debauch the daughter 
 of his vassal without obstacle or penalty. In some provinces it is 
 said to have been customary for the seigneur to enjoy the first 
 night of every girl married within his manor. ' In others,, the pe- 
 culiar authority of the seigneur over the serfs who were attached 
 to the glebe was held to endow him with the right of using the 
 bodies of their wives and daughters as he saw fit. , No written 
 custom justified these monstrous privileges, but frequeni; allusions 
 to them in the old French writers show that in certain parts they 
 were sanctioned by usage. Louis XIV. made it his especial busi- 
 ness to break down the privileges of the nobility; and it was no 
 doubt to the general police regulations he made for the govern- 
 ment of the kingdom at large that the extinction of these rights 
 was mainly due. 
 
 "With the Eegency the scene changes. The Duke of Orleans 
 had long been one bf the most depraved men in France. So long 
 as Louis XIV. lived he had perforce observed a certain outward 
 
126 HISTOEY OF PBOSTITUnON. 
 
 deconmi ; but the death of the monarch, and the duke's high" 
 handed seizure of the regency, enabled him to giv^free scope to 
 his propensities. He resided in the Palais Eoyal, and gave sup- 
 pers there almost every evening to a select circle of roues and fast 
 women, among whom Madame de Parabfere long held the place of 
 honor. The company not unfrequently varied the entertauiment 
 by the performance of charades and tableaux, among which the 
 judgment of Paris was a favorite. of the regent. The conversa- 
 tion of the guests was so gross as to shock all but the initiated, 
 and when they separated they were generally all intoxicated.^ 
 
 The most startling and horrible feature of these entertainments 
 was the fact that the regent's daughter, the Duchess of Berri, was 
 almost always present. Her life was a romance. Married while 
 a child to the Due de Berri, by her passionate temper and her lev- 
 ities she was the bane of her husband's life. She embraced the 
 infidel and licentious doctrines of the age in company with her fa- 
 ther, and the pair were so fond of each other that the most horri- 
 ble suspicions began to gain ground. They were dispelled for a 
 time by the discovery of an intrigue between the duchess and her 
 chamberlain, which so provoked the diike that he seized his wife 
 by the hair and beat her. On his death, which occurred soon aft- 
 erward, she gave the reins to her passion, and set an example of 
 scandal. At the Luxembourg, where she had apartments, she ex- 
 hibited the state of a queen, and lover succeeded lover with start- 
 ling rapidity. At last she seems to have fallen in love with an 
 officer of her guards, named Eiom, whose only merit was youth. 
 He subdued her. She became as docile and submissive to him as 
 she had been intractable and haughty with her former lovers, and 
 all Paris was talking of the transformation. After about a year 
 of this liaison, she gave birth to a child. During the pains of 
 childbirth she was not expected to live, and the curate of St. Sul- 
 pice was sent for in all haste to administer the extreme unction. 
 The ecclesiastic happened to be a rigid champion of morality, and 
 he refused to administer the rite till Eiom had been dismissed 
 from the Luxembourg. The duchess would not consent to part 
 with her lover, and for many hours this strange conflict went on 
 by the bedside of the failing woman. The curate was obstinate, 
 however, and no sacrament was administered; but the duchess 
 recovering, the regent used his authority, and sent Eiom to join 
 
 ' See Taylor's House of Orleans, vol. i. and Memoires de la Duchesse d'OrleariS, 
 patiim. 
 
FRANCE FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 127 
 
 liis regiment. It killed Ms daughter. She invited her father to 
 sup with her, and used all her eloquence to persuade him to let 
 her marry Eiom ; but the regent remaining firm, she withdrew to 
 her chamber, took to her bed, and died two days afterward. 
 
 In alluding to the regent's mistresses, a word should be said of 
 the famous Claudine du Tencin, whose adventures shed a flood 
 of light on the morals of the day. She was a pretty girl, of re- 
 spectable, if not noble family, living in a distant province. To 
 escape from a marriage that was forced on her, she took refuge in 
 a convent. Instead, however, of suiting her habits to her place 
 of residence, she contrived to alter the mode of life at the convent 
 so as to meet her desires, and it became famous for the gayety of 
 its social entertainments and the liveliness of its inmates. One 
 of the gentlemen who were allowed to share its hospitality was the 
 poet Destoudhes. He was smitten with the pretty Claudine, who 
 acknowledged the charm of his accomplishments, and, after a few 
 months' intimacy, gave birth to a male child, who became the 
 mathematician and philosopher D'Alembert. 
 
 Claudine had a brother, an abb^, a man of considerable cunning, 
 and no principle whatever. He persuaded his sister to go to Paris 
 and seek her fortune. He obtained an introduction for her to the 
 regent, and Claudine contrived to produce such an impression that 
 she was soon installed as titular mistress. This did not last long, 
 however. One day, venturing to remonstrate with the regent on 
 his loose mode of life, his habitual drunkenness, etc., her lover lost 
 patience with her, and suddenly summoned a crowd of his court- 
 iers from the ante-chamber to witness the deshabilM and listen to 
 the sermons of madame. In revenge, Claudine rushed out and 
 became the mistress of the prime minister. Cardinal Dubois. Her 
 brother, the abbe, got a bishopric for his share in the transaction. 
 
 At the death of Dubois, Madame du Tenciri gave him as suc- 
 cessor the Duke of Eichelieu, the most famous lady-killer of the 
 court. But she was growing old, and ambition had more attrac- 
 tions for her than love. She became an authoress, wrote religious 
 wotks and novels, patronized letters, and brought out Montes^ 
 quieu's Spirit of Laws. Her salons became the most fashionable 
 in Paris. It was not a little singular that she should have been 
 the head of one literary clique, and her son, D'Alembert, the chief 
 of another — ^neither positively jealous of the other, yet living on 
 terms of cold reserve. 
 
 Louis XV. trod in the steps of his great-grandfather and the 
 
128 HISTOET OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 regent. His amours attracted no attention, being evanescent and 
 trifling, till he quarreled -with the queen, and bestowed the title 
 of mistress on the Countess of Mailly. This lady had four sisters^ 
 three of whom had reached womanhood. They were jealous of 
 their sister's success, and solicited a share of the royal favor. The 
 monarch graciously granted their prayer, and admitted all four 
 into an associate liaison. He was much hurt when the fifth, at the 
 age of sixteen, declined an interest in this delectable partnership. 
 Falling ill soon afterward, he allowed his confessor to frighten 
 him into parting with the sisters, and when he got well replaced 
 them by the wife of the subfarmer of the finances, Madame le 
 Normand d'Etoiles. He created her Marquise de Pompadour, and 
 compelled the court to recognize her. Happily for him, she was 
 a person of moderate taste and habits. She patronized letters, was 
 the friend of Voltaire, and seems to have employed her influence 
 over the king for his advantage and that of the public. It is re- 
 corded, as an instance of the heartlessness of the king, that when 
 she died he stood at a window to watch her funeral pass, and no- 
 ticing that it was a rainy day, observed, with a smile, "that the 
 marquise had bad weather for her long journey." 
 
 Her successor was Madame Dubarry, a common prostitute, fish- 
 ed out of the Paris stews in consequence of her skill in debauch- 
 ery. Her real name wasVanbemier; but, in order to present her 
 at court, a niobleman of the name of Dubarry was persuaded to 
 marry her. It was under her reign that the Pare aux Cerfs (in 
 which Madame de Pompadour was said to have had a hand), reach- 
 ed its highest point of celebrity and eclat. This was a royal se- 
 raglio filled with the most beautiful girls that could be bought or 
 stolen. The monstrous old debauchee who filled the throne of 
 Prance had a weakness for very young girls, fifteen being the age 
 at which he preferred his mistresses. Under the skillful directions 
 of Dubarry, a host of pimps and purveyors searched France for 
 young girls to suit the king's fancy. Where negotiations could 
 not be effected, the prerogative was stretched, and the police au- 
 thorities judiciously blinded; but we are led to believe that it 
 was seldom necessary to resort to these violent measures, and 
 that French fathers of that day seldom made difficulties except 
 about the sum to be paid. That the king was liberal may be in- 
 ferred from the sum which this seraglio cost him — ^not less than 
 one hundred millions of francs. It was a large, handsomely fur- 
 nished building at Versailles, giving every woman her separate 
 
FRANCE FROM LOUIS XIII. TO THE PRESENT DAY. 129 
 
 apartments. The king rarely visited each one more than three or 
 four times ; but, on the occasion of his fifst visit, he prided himself 
 on observing the etiquette of a husband. He insisted on the poor 
 child whom he was about to ruin kneeling down by the bedside, 
 and saying her prayers in his presence. It need hardly.be ob- 
 served that the Pare aux Cerfs was the great reservoir from whence 
 the brothels of the time derived their supply of recruits. After a 
 residence of a few weeks or months, in case they became pregnant, 
 the poor children were thrown out upon the world, and ruin was 
 a necessity. 
 
 The last monarch of the old French line, the unfortunate Louis 
 XVI., forms a bright contrast to his predecessors. His education 
 had been severe, his principles were naturally strict. Placed upon 
 the throne after the Eevolution had become inevitable, his whole 
 attention was devoted to the business of reigning, and attempting 
 reforms which came quite too late. Neither he nor his wife ever 
 gave rise to merited scandal. 
 
 The profligate character of the court was, however, sustained by 
 the Orleans family and their connections. Philippe Egalit^ was 
 a true descendant of the regent. On the very eve of the Revolu- 
 tion he indulged in orgies that were closely imitated from those 
 of the Palais Royal. 
 
 Our sketch of the immoralities of the French court naturally 
 ends here. Though the period of the Directory was marked by a 
 general looseness in the best French society, and both ISTapoleon 
 and Louis XVIII. set no example of conjugal fidelity to their sub- 
 jects, yet vice was not exhibited so openly under them as it had 
 been under former kings, and the laws of decency were not actu- 
 ally set at defiance. Their frailties were private matters, into 
 which it is scarcely the duty of the historian to intrude. The 
 same may be said of Charles X. and Louis Philippe. The former 
 had, in his youth, been a sharer of many of the excesses of the 
 Orleans family, but at the time he became king he was an old 
 man, and could afford to lead a decent life. Louis Philippe had 
 never afforded a theme for scandal, and as king he set an example 
 of rigorous morality. 
 
 If we turn back now to the xperiod of the Regency, we shall find 
 letters sympathizing in the most marked manner with the court. 
 Under the regime of severe etiquette and decenCy established by 
 Louis XIV., authors respected the ear of innocence ; under the 
 brutal sway of the regent, and the lewd influence of the satyr Louis 
 
 I 
 
130 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 XY., the old prostitution of literature was revived. Thus we find 
 that the most sncoessM authors of ^he day, such a^oltaire, hand- 
 led themes grossly immoral in themselves, and rendered still more 
 offensive by their mode of treatment. The most popular novel of 
 the eighteenth century-^Manon Lescant — the work, by the way, 
 of an abb^, is the narrative of the adventures of a prostitute. Of 
 all the romance writers of that age, no one was more widely pop- 
 ular or more generally read than Crebillon fils, whose works 
 would almost fall into the hands of the pohce at the present time. 
 Diderot, Mirabeau, Montesquieu, and, with few exceptions, all the 
 most eminent men of France, prostituted their genius to the com- 
 position of erotic works which were widely read by women as 
 well as men. Of the light poetry of the eighteenth century very 
 little is fit for modern reading, the poets being, as a general rule, 
 either dull or depraved. Nor were the arts behindhand. Frescoes 
 differing but little from those which had adorned Fontainebleau 
 under Francis I. again covered the walls of rich men's houses; 
 and the most fortunate painters of the day were those who could 
 best outrage decency without positively suggesting the brothel. 
 Lewd books and- pictures were freely sold in Paris during the 
 Eegency, the reign of Louis XV., and the Eevolutionary period. 
 Napoleon burned all he could find, but there still remained enoiigh 
 to supply the demand almost ever since. 
 
 It should be noticed in connection with the state of morals in 
 France during the second half of the eighteenth century, that the 
 tendency of the philosophical doctrines which were then current 
 was to tmdermine the respect paid to marriage and chastity. The 
 former, being a sacrament, was assailed as part of the ecclesi- 
 astical system ; the latter was conceived to be at war with the 
 natural, and, therefore, the proper passions of mankind. Sev- 
 eral of the philosophers left it to, be inferred from their writings, 
 or stated broadly, that promiscuous intercourse, or, at all events, 
 unlimited facilities of divorce, were the natural destiny of the hu- 
 man race, and that the restrictions which have been imposed on 
 sensual gratification had no warrant in reason or sound ethics. 
 These foolish notions brought forth fruits after their kind. Under 
 the Directory, prostitutes were received into certain societies, and 
 . ladies of fashion became prostitutes. Even under the Empire it 
 was not unusual for a lady to request her husband to pay her a 
 visit, as it was well, perhaps, to avoid questions of legitimacy aris- 
 ing at any future period. 
 
SYPHILIS. 131 
 
 There was one brancli of society in wHoh morality had made 
 great progress during the century : that was the Church. It still 
 contained cardinals like Dubois, and bishops and abb^s like Du 
 Tencin, but the vast body of the country clergy led pure moral 
 lives. This point is placed beyond a doubt by the silence of the 
 parties opposed to the hierarchy when the Eevolution broke oul;, 
 and they were so disposed to assail the priesthood on every vul- 
 nerable point. It may be broadly stated that the vices which had 
 infected the whole body of the clergy during the sixteenth cen- 
 tury had disappeared by the eighteenth ; despite the law of celi- 
 bacy, the country curates were, as a rule, moral, austere, virtu- 
 ous men. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 FRANCE.— SYPHILIS. 
 
 First recorded Appearance in Europe. — Description by Fracastor. — Conduct of the 
 Faculty. — First Hospitals iuParis: — ^^Shocking Condition of the Sick. — New Syph- 
 ilitic Hospital. — Plan ofTreatment.-^Establishmentof the SalpetriSre. — Bicetre. 
 — Capuchins. — Hospital du Midi. — ^Eeforms there.-^ Visiting Physicians. — ^Dis- 
 pensary. — Statistics of Disease. — Progress and Condition of Disease. ^ 
 
 It properly belongs to this chapter to allude to the rise and 
 progress of the diseases termed syphilitic. 
 
 Whether they were of ancient date — ^whether the "shameful 
 diseases" which have been mentioned in the chapter devoted to 
 prostitution at Eome were the same as the modern syphilis-r-^may 
 be decided by the reader. It will suffice here to say that, through- 
 out the Middle Ages, a species of disease, termed sometimes lep- 
 rosy, sometimes pudendagra, appears to have prevailed in France 
 as in other European countries, and to have chosen for its chief 
 seat the organs of generation. It was not, however, till the close 
 of the fifteenth century that pubHc attention began to be general- 
 ly-directed to the subject of sexual disease. 
 
 We shall briefly enumerate the earliest notices of its appear- 
 ance. When Charles VIII. entered Naples in 1495, he foimd 
 the city suffering from a plague (syphUis) to which the prejudice 
 of the natives gave the name of " French malady." Italy, said 
 the writers of the day, was attacked simultaneously by the French 
 army and this new disease.' Most of the Italian writers accuse 
 ' Nicolas Leoniceno, De Morbo Gallicd, alid' others. 
 
132 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 the French of its introduction. Benevenis, however, says they 
 got it from the Spaniards, and Guicciardini candiily admits that 
 his countrymen were the real propagators of the malady. Ger- 
 man physicians likewise traced its origin to Naples, and placed it 
 about the year 1493, * ascribing it to an untoward planetary con- 
 junction. The disease appeared at Barcelona in 1493, and in 
 other parts of Spain in the following year.^ But sixty years be- 
 fore, in 1430, public regulations had been made in London to pre- 
 vent the admission of persons attacked with a disease very similar 
 to syphilis into houses of prostitution, and requiring the police to 
 keep constant watch over such as should show symptoms of this 
 infirmitas nefanda? The first authentic allusion to the disease in 
 France is the ordinance of the Parliament of Paris, dated 1497, 
 ordering all persons attacked by the "large pox" to vacate the 
 city within twenty-four hours, and not to return till they were 
 cured ; providing a sort of hospital for those who can not move ; 
 and appointing agents to bestow four solsparisis on the exiles to 
 pay for their journey." This ordinance alludes to the disease 
 having been prevalent for two years. 
 
 It may therefore be taken for granted that, whether syphilitic 
 diseases had existed before or not, they prevailed to a very alarm- 
 ing extent throughout Europe at the close of the fifteenth century. 
 
 To prevent misconception, it may be as well to give the diag- 
 nostic signs of the "French malady" as furnished by Fracastor: 
 " The patients were in low spirits, and broken down ; their faces 
 were pale. Most of them had chancres upon the organs of gener- 
 ation. These chancres were obstinate ; when cured in one place 
 they reappeared in another, and the work was never ended. Pus- 
 tules with a hard surface appeared upon the skin, generally on the 
 head first. On first appearing they -yvere small, but gradually in- 
 creased to the size of an acorn, which they resembled in shape. 
 In some cases they were dry, in others humid ; some were livid, 
 others white and pale, others again hard and reddish. They burst 
 after a few days, and discharged an incredible quantity of vile 
 fetid humor. "When they began to suppurate they became true 
 phagedsenic ulcers, consuming both flesh and bone. "When they 
 attacked the upper part of the body they gave rise to maUgn 
 fluxions, which gnawed away the palate, or the windpipe, or Ihe 
 
 ' Ulrich de Hutton, De Motbi Gallici curatione. 
 
 ' Roderic Dias, Contra las Bubas. " W. Beckett, Phil. Trans, vol. xxx, 
 
 * Begistres du Parlement de Paris, 1497. 
 
SYPHILIS. 133 
 
 throat, or the tonsils. Some patients lost their lips, others the 
 nose, others the eyes, others the whole organs of generation. 
 Many were troubled with moist tumors on the limbs, which grew 
 as large as eggs or small loaves. When they burst, a white and 
 mucilaginous liquor exuded from them. They were usually found 
 on the legs and arms. Some were ulcerated, others again remain- 
 ed callous to the last. And, as if this was not enough, the patients 
 suffered terrible pains, especially at night, not only in the articu- 
 lations, but in the limbs and nerves. Some sufferers, however, 
 had pustules without pains, others pains without pustules ; but, 
 in most cases, both occurred together. The patients were languid, 
 had no appetite, desired to remain constantly in bed. The face 
 and legs swelled. Some had a slight fever, but this was rare ; 
 others had severe headaches for which no remedy could be found."^ 
 At first, it seems, the faculty, strangely misapprehending its 
 duties, refused to treat patients assaUed by this new plague. As 
 at Rome, they were left to the tender mercies of quacks, barbers, 
 and old women. About the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
 however, the extent of the mischief provoked sympathy from the 
 physicians, and one or two treatises appeared on the subject. Su- 
 dorifics seem to have been the chief agent employed. Large use 
 was made of holy wood (the wood of the lignum- vitse-tree), which 
 was imported from America for the purpose. It was doses of 
 holy wood, in decoction, which are said to have saved the life of 
 the great Erasmus. 
 
 After the passage of the law of 1497, a house in the Faubourg St. 
 Grermain was appropriated to the reception of the victims of syph- 
 ilis ; but there is no reason to believe that any attempt was made 
 to treat them there. They were left to die, or to quack themselves. 
 Eighteen years after, in 1505, the house in question being too 
 small for the numbers of the sick, and it being clearly shown that 
 ^yphUis was not contagious except by sexual intercourse or posi- 
 tive pecuhar contact with the person afflicted, a new decree of Par- 
 liament appropriated funds for the construction of " a hospital for 
 persons attacked by the large pox (fes grands verolis)" and direct- 
 ed that they should be properly cared for.^ This decree was never 
 carried into effect. Thirty years afterward the condition of the 
 sick was far worse than it had ever been, they being left to die in 
 the streets. A new decree, in 1535, appointed commissioners to 
 choose a locality for a hospital ; and, notwithstanding some oppo- 
 1 Jerome Pracastor, De Morb. Contag. ' Eegistres du Parlement de Paris, 1505. 
 
134 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 sition from the religious authorities, they performed their task. 
 A small hospital was appropriated to syphilitic p^ents, and per- 
 sons suffering from itch, epUepsy, and St. Vitus's dance. It was 
 soon filled, and several patients were thrust into the same bed. 
 Owing to mismanagement on the part of the directors, it was short 
 of linen, Unt, and medicine. The Parliament interfered, but with- 
 out success ; and, in despair, the unfortunate sufferers contrived to 
 effect an entrance into the hospital general, the Hotel Dieu. They 
 were soon admitted on the same terms as other sufferers ; but, as 
 the establishment was far too small to accommodate all who sought 
 refuge there, they were thrust four and five together into the same 
 bed, and persons with syphihtio diseases lay by the side of men in 
 contagious fevers, and others with broken legs and arms. 
 
 The Parliament interfered a second time. The municipal ofGi- 
 cers of Paris were assembled, and called upon to provide a hospi- 
 tal for venereal cases ; but for many years the strenuous opposi- 
 tion of the Hotel Dieu neutralized all the efforts that were made. 
 It was not till 1614 that the project of the Parliament was real- 
 ized, and a syphilitic hospital actually opened. 
 
 Up to this time, that is to say, for a period of a century and a 
 quarter, persons attacked by venereal disease were left to the care 
 of Providence. Males could, with some exertion, occasionally ob- 
 taiu admission to the Hotel Dieu, where they often contracted new 
 diseases without getting rid of the old ; but of females, not a word 
 had yet been spoken. No one in that hundred and twenty-five 
 years had ever raised a voice to plead on behalf of the prostitutes ; 
 it never seems to have occurred, even to the Parliament which had 
 so much sympathy for the pavmres veroles, that the women like- 
 wise deserved pity and attention. 
 
 We possess no information with regard to the treatment used 
 in this new hospital. It is certain, however, that, in obedience to 
 the law of its foundation, patients were soundly whipped when 
 they entered and when they left it, by way of punishing them for 
 having contracted the disease. In 1675 the managers of the hos- 
 pital declared that this practice deterred many sick persons from 
 coming forward and confessing their condition ; but it prevailed, 
 apparently, for a quarter of a century afterward. 
 
 About the middle of the seventeenth century, under the reign 
 of Louis XIV., a hospital prison, named the Salp^tri^re, was es- 
 tablished for the reception of prostitutes ; but, by a strange incon- 
 sistency, in 1658 it was closed to women suffering from syphilis 
 
. SYPHILIS. 135 
 
 {femmes gatees), and physicians were directed to examine all wom- 
 en " who showed symptoms of syphilis on the face." A few years' 
 experience showed the fallacy of this system. Diseased women 
 were confined in the place; should they not be treated there? 
 The physicians thought they should, and accordingly, though in 
 violation of the rules of the establishment, a. small room was ap- 
 propriated to this class of patients. It appears that at this time a 
 prostitute found some difficulty in obtaining admission to the Sal- 
 petri^re ; it being not unusual for unfortunate creatures to have 
 themselves arrested for vagabondage, and to submit voluntarily 
 to the whipping which the ethics of the day required in the case 
 of females as well as males, in order to obtain, medical treatment. 
 It will be seen that our New York system can not claim the merit 
 of originality. Prostitutes, in fact, flocked to the Salp^tri^re in 
 such numbers that the room furnished by the connivance of the 
 authorities was soon far too small to accommodate them. The 
 hospital managers declared to the royal government that medical 
 treatment was out of the question in so crowded an apartment, 
 and that a putrid fever might be expected if better accommoda- 
 tions were not provided. In reply, the government placed at 
 their disposal a ward in the hospital of Bic^tre. 
 
 This was in 1691. For nearly a hundred years afterward the 
 severe cases of venereal disease were sent, to Bic^tre, the milder 
 ones kept at Salpdtri^re. Both establishments were a disgrace to 
 humanity. The patients were cheated of the food allowed them, 
 and supplied with cheap broth and cheese in its stead. No baths,, 
 and but few medicines were at their command. Their ward was 
 filthy, close, and in ruin. Patients were often obliged to wait so 
 long for medical attendance that their maladies became incurable. 
 The air in which they lived was pestiferous, and no one could 
 visit the hospital without being shocked at its aspect.^ Medical 
 men who saw the place, expressed amazement that so many per- 
 sons should exist in so small a room. Eight women slept in a 
 bed, and in the room appropriated to those whose turn for treat- 
 ment had not come, the patients slept by gangs, one half sleeping 
 from 8 P.M. to 1 A.M., and the remainder from 1 A.M. to 7 A.M. 
 The floor was covered with dirt and filth, and the windows were 
 nailed down, for fear of their being broken if opened. There was 
 but little linen, and that was in rags, and abominably dirty. One 
 
 ■ CuUerier : Eeport of Chinirgien Mareschal j Report of M. de Breteuil to the 
 Government ; Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 180. 
 
136 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 hundred persons only were treated at a time, fifty men and fifty 
 women. A new batch was admitted to treatment every two 
 months, and, as the hospital always contained from three to four 
 hundred sufferers, some cases remained six or eight months withr 
 out any treatment whatever. Many died before they reached the 
 hands of the doctors. The diet was the same for all. Those who 
 had not been admitted to treatment were supplied with coarse 
 bread, cheese, rancid butter, and (very seldom) a little meat. The 
 surgeons of Bic^tre usually made fortunes in a short time.' 
 
 If any thing farther were needed to characterize the hospital 
 of Bic^tre in the eighteenth century, it would be the rules in virtue 
 of which no diseased person could claim admission until a com- 
 plete year had elapsed from the time of their first application, and 
 every diseased person 'was turned out, whether ill or well, after 
 six weeks' treatment. It was stated to M. Parent-Duchatelet that 
 the average mortality was one hundred women and sixty men per 
 ahnum.^ 
 
 In 1787, Dr. Cullerier was appointed surgeon in charge of syph- 
 ilitic cases at Bic^tre. He commenced his administration by de^ 
 nouncing the state of things he found there, and it is mainly from 
 the memoires he addressed to the government that the preceding 
 facts have been obtained. His representations seem to have met 
 with but little success. In 1789, however, the bulk of the pris- 
 oners at Bic^tre were set free, and he immediately availed him- 
 self of the increased room to accommodate his patients. , 
 
 The reform was so slight, or rather so vast a reform was needed, 
 that the moment the attention of the republican government was 
 drawn to the subject, it removed the syphilitic cases from the hos- 
 pital of BicStre to the hospital of the Capuchins. That establish- 
 ment was enlarged, and ntimed the Hospital of the South (l'H6- 
 pital du Midi). Gardens and baths were provided ; ample wards 
 permitted the classification of diseases ; the food was of the best 
 kind, and sufficient in quantity. This immense step was the work 
 of the republican authorities. 
 
 It was, however, only the first of a series of reforms. Original- 
 ly, men and women of all grades were admitted promiscuously. 
 This led to grave inconveniences. The decorum of the hospital 
 was frequently disturbed by the conduct of some of the men with 
 regard to the prostitutes in the adjoining wards. To obviate this, 
 a new hospital, was set apart, under the reign of Charles 3C., for 
 
 ' Cullerier; Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 184. • Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 186. 
 
SYPHILIS. 137 
 
 the reception of male patients only. It is the Hospital de Loux- 
 cine. 
 
 A still more serious trouble arose from the mixture of prosti- 
 tutes with other -women who, from the infidelity of their hus- 
 bands, hereditary disease, or other causes, found themselves in- 
 fected with syphilis. For some time complaints had been madfe 
 on this head, but an accident, which occujred in 1828, compelled 
 the authorities to act. The daughter of a professional nurse, re- 
 siding in the vicinity of Paris, caught syphUis from a child her 
 mother was nursing, who had inherited the disease. It took the 
 shape of a virulent chancre on the palate, and the girl was sent to 
 the Hospital du Midi for treatment. She found herself thrust 
 among the vilest prostitutes, whose language and sentiments shock- 
 ed her so terribly that she insisted on leaving the hospital at once. 
 The physician on duty declined to grant her retjuest, whereupon 
 the poor girl contrived to get into the yard, and threw herself into 
 a well. She was drowned, and on an autopsy of her corpse it ap- 
 peared that she was a virgin. This dreadful incident aroused the 
 public mind. Hitherto the disposal of the prostitutes had been a 
 subject of dispute between the administration of the hospital and 
 that of the city, each wishing to thrust them upon the other. The 
 government now interfered, and special accommodation was pro- 
 vided for prostitutes at the prison of Saint Lazare. The Hospital 
 du Midi was devoted exclusively to such women as were not in- 
 scribed on the roUs of the police. 
 
 Before these distributions took place, when men and women 
 were indiscriminately received at the Hospital du Midi, the aver- 
 age annual admissions, from 1804 to 1814, were 2700 ; from 1822 
 to 1828 it exceeded an average of 3100. Twenty years ago the 
 mortality was said to be less than two per cent. ; it was ten per 
 cent, at Bic^tre. 
 
 At the Hospital du Midi, diseased persons who do not desire 
 admission to the hospital are treated outside, all the medicines 
 they require being furnished them free of charge. 
 
 It would appear, from stray allusions in various old ordinances, 
 that some sort of medical office had been established in the eight- 
 eenth century by the government, for the purpose^ of affording 
 gratuitous advice to. prostitutes, and denouncing those who were 
 diseased ; but there exists no positive evidence of any such estab- 
 lishment or office. It was ' not till 1803 that a regulation was 
 made by the prefect of police, requiring all public women to sub- 
 
138 
 
 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 mit to be visited by a physician appointed by him. The plan 
 was a bad one, as the physician was paid by fees t»hich he was 
 authorized to exact ; and it was rendered worse in practice by the 
 dishonesty of the man chosen for the office, one Coulon. This 
 individual made money and neglected his duties. The system 
 was altered in 1810, and a dispensary established, with a strong 
 medical staff, who weip directed to visit all the prostitutes ia 
 Paris. This institution is still in existence ; it will be farther no- 
 ticed in the next chapter. 
 
 When the dispensary was established, its medical officers were 
 directed to offer to prostitutes the choice of being treated at home 
 or going to the hospital. Almost all chose the former. The phy- 
 sicians then undertook to decide themselves which should go to the 
 hospital and which remain in their houses. The results of their ex- 
 perience, and the policy it compelled them to adopt, are shown in 
 the following table, which was compiled by Parent-Duchatelet : 
 
 Year. 
 1812 . 
 
 Treated 
 at home. 
 
 276 
 
 300 
 
 296 
 
 ... No report. 
 
 Year. 
 
 1817 ... 
 
 1818 ... 
 
 1819 ... 
 
 1820 ... 
 
 Treated 
 at home. 
 
 123 
 
 ... No report. 
 
 25 
 
 19 
 
 Year. 
 1821 
 
 Treated 
 at home. 
 27 
 
 1813 . . 
 
 1824 
 
 27 
 
 181i . . 
 
 1825 ...... 
 
 7 
 
 1815 . 
 
 1826 
 
 4 
 
 1816 ... 
 
 
 
 
 
 The system of treating prostitutes at home was, in fact, given up. 
 It was found they could not be compelled to take the medicines 
 given them ; and that, though laboring imder the most severe dis- 
 ease, they would not abstain from the exercise of their calling. 
 
 The tables prepared by the sanitary office, or dispensary, at 
 Paris, afford a clear view of the extent and progress of disease in 
 that city. Of those which are furnished by M. Parent-Duchatelet, 
 we shall take a few of the most striking. The following gives the 
 aggregate disease for a period of twenty years : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Average 
 Patients. 
 
 Total. 
 Patients 
 
 1812 ... 
 
 51 
 
 612 
 
 1813 ... 
 
 79 
 
 948 
 
 1814 ... 
 
 102 
 
 1224 
 
 18)5 ... 
 1816 ... 
 
 Report missing. 
 
 88 
 
 1056 
 
 1817 ... 
 
 76 
 
 912 
 
 1818 ... 
 
 68 
 
 816 
 
 1819 ... 
 
 58 
 
 696 
 
 1820 ... 
 
 62 
 
 744 
 
 1821 ... 
 
 65 
 
 660 
 
 1822 ... 
 
 1823 ... 
 
 .. Report missing. 
 69 
 
 828 
 
 1824 ... 
 
 84 
 
 1008 
 
 1825 ... 
 
 81 
 
 972 
 
 Years. 
 
 1826 ... 
 
 1827 ... 
 
 1828 ... 
 
 Average 
 
 Patients. 
 
 93 
 
 ... Report missing. 
 104 
 
 TotaL 
 Patients 
 .. 1116 
 
 .. 1248 
 
 1829 ... 
 
 99 
 
 .. 1188 
 
 1830 ... 
 
 91 
 
 .. 1092 
 
 1831 ... 
 
 110 
 
 .. 1320 
 
 1832 ... 
 
 78 
 
 .. 936 
 
 17376 
 3250 
 
 Add approximate estimate ) 
 for three years wanting J 
 
 Totel diseased in twenty) nnRnw 
 years j '^"''■^° 
 
 Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 124. 
 
PRESENT REGULATIONS. 139 
 
 Other tables, apparently drawn witli care, sliow tliat the pro- 
 portion of disease to prostitutes varies widely in different years. 
 In 1828 it was six per cent., that is to say, six out of every 
 hundred prostitutes were diseased ; but in 1832 it was barely 
 three per cent. Four or five per cent, would seem a tolerably 
 fair average.^ 
 
 Prom another table compiled by the same author we gather 
 that, during a period of eighteen years, January was found the 
 most fatal month for prostitutes ; next came August and Septem- 
 ber ; while February, April, May, and July seemed seasons less fa- 
 vorable to disease. M. Duchatelet, however, candidly admits that 
 he can trace the operation of no law here, and inclines to the be- 
 lief that the variation is wholly due to chance.^ 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FRANCE. — PRESENT REGULATIONS. 
 
 Number of Prostitutes in Paris. — Their Nativity, Parentage, Education, Age, etc. — 
 Causes of Prostitution. — Rules concerning tolerated Houses. — Maisons de Passe. 
 — ^Windows.-^Keepers. — ^Formalities upon granting Licenses. — Recruits. — Pimps. 
 — Profits of Prostitution. — Inscription. — Interrogatories. — Nativity, how ascer- 
 tained. — Obstacles. — Principles of Inscription. — Age at which Inscription is made. 
 — ^Radiation. — Provisional Radiation. — Statistics of Radiation. — Classes of Pros- 
 titutes. — Visit to the Dispensary. — Visiting Physicians. — ^Punishment. — Offenses. 
 — Prison Discipline. — Saint Denis. — Tax on Prostitutes. — Inspectors. — Bon Pas- 
 teur Asylum. — (Note : Duchatelet's Bill for the Repression of Prostitution.) 
 
 It remains to describe the state and system of prostitution at 
 Paris at the present day. The vast importance of the subject will 
 doubtless justify the length at which it must be treated. 
 
 It was usual, during the last century, to estimate the number of 
 prostitutes in Paris at twenty-five or thirty thousand. ■• Even as 
 late as 1810, the number was said by good authority to be not less 
 than eighteen thousand.^ The police rolls show that these calcu- 
 lations were wide of the mark. According to them, the average 
 number of prostituted inscribed had risen, from about 1900 in 1814, 
 to 3558 in 1832, the last year of which we have any record. As- 
 suming that the number at present is 4500, or thereabouts, which 
 would suppose an increase equal to that noted before 1832, the 
 
 ' Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 130. " Id. ii. 138. 
 
 ' MSS. Reports quoted by Parent-Duchatelet, i. 30 ; Restif de la Bretonne ; Por- 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 prostitutes are one to every two hundred and fifty of tlie total pop-- 
 ulation. Of these the city of Paris furnishes rathei^pjore than one 
 third. The remainder come from the departments ; those border- 
 ing on Paris being the most fruitful of prostitutes, and the north 
 being largely in excess of production over the south. 
 
 The vast majority of these prostitutes are the children of oper- 
 atives and mechanics. Of 828 fathers, there were 
 
 Liquor-sellers 22 
 
 Smiths 23 
 
 Grocers and Fruit-seUers 18 
 
 Soldiers, on pensions 30 
 
 Clock-makers and Jewelers 16 
 
 Barbers and Hair-dressers 16 
 
 Persons without trade or calling.. 64 
 
 Tailors 22 
 
 Plasterers, Pavers, etc 21 
 
 Coopers 11 
 
 Painters, Glaziers, and Printers.. 25 
 
 Weavers 19 
 
 Peddlers 12 
 
 Masons and Tilers 28 
 
 Water-carriers 11 
 
 Stage and Carriage Drivers 35 
 
 Shoemakers 50 
 
 Farmers and Gardeners 31 
 
 Servants 23 
 
 Individuals employed in Foun- 
 dries, etc 18 
 
 Day-laborers 113 
 
 Carpenters 31 
 
 Whereas there were only 
 
 Surgeons, Physicians, and Lawyers 4 
 
 Teacher^ 3 
 
 Musicians 9 
 
 The inference drawn by M. Parent-Duchatelet from this is, that 
 brothels are supphed from the classes of domestics and factory- 
 girls ; and that girls not bred to work rarely find their way into 
 them. Eather more than one third of the fathers of these prosti- 
 tutes were unable to sign their names. 
 
 Of the prostitutes bom at Paris, about one fourth were illegiti- 
 mate ; of those bom in the departments, one eighth were illegiti- 
 niate. 
 
 Eather more than half the Paris prostitutes could not write their 
 names ; a degree of ignorance which argues very remarkable neg- 
 lect on the part of parents, for at Paris every one may learn to 
 write gratuitously, and a person who can not write will always 
 experience difficulty in obtaining employment. 
 
 Nearly half the prostitutes were between the ages of twenty and 
 twenty-six inclusive. One declared herself, or was proved to be, 
 only twelve years old ; thirty-four were over fifty ; two were over 
 sixty. On reference to the rolls of inscription, it appeared that 
 the bulk of the prostitutes registered themselves between the ages 
 of eighteen and twenty-two ; but thirty-four were inscribed before 
 the age of fourteen, which may be assumed to be the period of 
 puberty in France, and a few after passing fifty. 
 
PRESENT EEGULATIONS. 
 
 141 
 
 The following table shows the number of years during wMcb 
 the Paris prostitutes had exercised their calling at the time the 
 inquiry was made : 
 
 Time Numljerof 
 •^™°' Prostitutes. 
 1 year and under 439 
 
 From 1 to 
 
 " 2 to 
 
 " 3 to 
 
 " 4 to 
 
 " 6 to 
 
 " 6 to 
 
 " 7 to 
 
 " 8 to 9 
 
 " 9 to 10 
 
 " 10 to 11 
 
 " 11 to 12 
 
 2 years 590 
 
 3 " 
 
 i " 
 
 5 " 
 
 6 " 
 
 7 " 
 
 8 " 
 
 440 
 485 
 294 
 139 
 150 
 143 
 
 96 
 100 
 109 
 
 93 
 
 Time. 
 From 12 to 13 years., 
 
 13 to 14 
 
 14 to 15 
 
 15 to 16 
 
 16 to 17 
 
 17 to 18 
 
 18 to 19 
 
 19 to 20 
 
 20 to 21 
 
 21 to 22 
 
 22 to 23 
 
 Number of 
 Prostitutes. 
 99 
 
 107 
 80 
 19 
 14 
 17 
 4 
 
 M. Duchatelet made careful inquiries into the causes of prosti- 
 tution. He admits that, the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy 
 information on this head being very great, many errors may have 
 found their way into his calculations. He gives them, however, 
 for what they may be worth. 
 
 Want 1441 
 
 Expulsion from home, or desertion of parents 1255 
 
 Desire to support old and infirm parents 37 
 
 " " " younger brothers and sisters, or nephews and nieces 29 
 
 Widows with families to support 23 
 
 Girls from the country, to support themselves 280 
 
 " " " " brought to Paris by soldiers, clerks, stu- 
 dents, etc 404 
 
 Servants seduced by masters and abandoned 289 
 
 Concubines abandoned by their lovers 1425 
 
 Total 5183 . 
 
 It appears that there were in Paris, in 1832, two hundred and 
 twenty "tolerated houses" — ^that is to say, brothels. The rules 
 regarding these are numerous. They can not be estabhshed in 
 certain localities, such as the Boulevards, or other great thorough- 
 • fares. They must not be within one hundred yards of a church, 
 or within fifty or sixty yards of a school, whether for boys or 
 girls ; of a palace or other public building, or of a large boarding- 
 house. The proprietor of the house must have given his consent 
 before the house can be used as a brothel. Two houses can not 
 be established side by side, much less can they have the same 
 entry. As a general rule, a preference is given to small, narrow 
 streets, especially cuh de sac, and to places where brothels have 
 been established before. 
 
 With regard to the interior of these houses, they must contain 
 a room for each girl ; on no account are two prostitutes allowed 
 
142 HISTORY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 to occupy the same room, much less the same bed. Each room 
 must, moreover, be amply provided with utensils, |^ap, and water, 
 for ablution. No house of prostitution can have back or side 
 doors, or in any way communicate with the adjoining buildings.. 
 No house can contain dark closets, or dark passages, or concealed 
 hiding-places. In none of them can any trade or traffic be car- 
 ried on. 
 
 With regard to the class of houses called maisons de passe (as- 
 signation houses), the pohce authorities require that in every such 
 house two regular prostitutes, inscribed on the police rolls, shall 
 live permanently. The object of this rule is to obtain a control 
 and supervision over these houses. Before it was adopted the 
 police was often embarrassed by denials of its authority to invade 
 them. It is found that the prostitutes, being naturally hostile to 
 the mistresses of the houses, will act as agents of the police in the 
 event of any scandalous proceedings. 
 
 The windows of houses of prostitution must be roughed, as 
 also must those of rooms where iadividual prostitutes live. They 
 can only be partially opened. These regulations were made in 
 consequence of the shocking scenes that were witnessed at the 
 windows of brothels after the Eevolution, naked women being the 
 least of the scandals that used to be exposed. 
 
 No one can keep a house of prostitution in Paris without an au- 
 thorization from the police. Men are never permitted to keep 
 establishments of the kind. A woman who desires to open a 
 house must apply in writing to the Prefect of Police. On receipt 
 of her application, reference is made to the Commissary of Pohce 
 of the ward to ascertain her character. If she has been condemn- 
 ed for crime or inisdemeanor, her request is rarely granted. If 
 she stands in the police books as a woman requiring supervision, 
 she can not succeed. Nor can she obtain a license, under ordi- 
 nary circumstances; unless she has been a prostitute herself. The 
 reason of this regulation is obvious ; no one but a prostitute un- 
 derstands the business thoroughly ; and as the position of brothel- 
 keeper is found to be the most demoralizing station in the world, 
 it has been the policy of the Paris police to throw impediments in 
 the way of persons not wholly depraved devoting themselves to 
 so dangerous a calling. Furthermore, the applicant must have 
 reached a certain age. She must also be of sober habits, and ap- 
 parently possessed of sufficient force of character to be able to 
 command a house full of prostitutes. She must possess a sum of 
 
PRESENT EEGTJLATIONS. 143 
 
 money sufficient to guarantee her against immediate failure, and 
 slie must own the furniture in the house she wishes to keep. 
 
 "When all these conditions are fulfilled, the applicant receives a 
 pass-book, in which the number of girls she is allowed to keep is 
 specified. In this book she is bound to enter the name of every 
 prostitute she receives, whether as a boarder or a transient lodger ; 
 her age, the date of her entry into her house, the date of her in- 
 spection by a physician, and the date of her departure from the 
 house. A printed form in the beginning of the pass-book reminds 
 the mistress of the house that she is bound, under heavy penal- 
 ties, to inscribe on the police rolls every girl she receives within 
 twenty-four hours of her arrival. 
 
 In the event of the neglect of these rules by the keepers of 
 houses of prostitution, the license is revoked. It is understood 
 that the police enforce this regulation with due rigor. 
 
 Much has been said and written about the manner in which the 
 keepers of houses of prostitution obtain recruits. M. Parent-Du- 
 chatelet, whose sources of information were the best, gives it as his 
 opinion that most of the prostitutes are obtained from the hospi- 
 tals, especially the Hospital du Midi, where female venereal dis- 
 eases are treated. It appears that this hospital and others are 
 haunted by old women who have been prostitutes, and who, in 
 ■their old age, eke out a livelihood by enticing others into the 
 same calling. They soon discover the antecedents and disposition 
 of every young girl they find in hospitals ; and if she be pretty or 
 engagiag, she must either have much principle or careful friends 
 to rescue her from the clutches of the old hags. While she lies ill 
 on a bed of pain, the latter are constantly with her, and gain her 
 friendship. They know the devices that are needed to impose on 
 her simplicity, and not unfrequently are enabled to strengthen 
 their promises by small donations in money, or a weekly stipend 
 during her convalescence. For a pretty girl as much as fifty 
 francs will be paid by a brothel-keeper. As the girls in France, 
 with few e?;ceptibns, come to Paris to be cured when they have 
 contracted disease from association with lovers, it seems quite 
 likely that, as M. Parent-Duchatelet supposes, these hospitals are 
 a fruitful source of prostitutes. 
 
 Other brothel-keepers have female agents in the country towns, 
 who send them girls. One well-known woman, who kept for 
 many years one of the largest establishments in France, employed 
 a traveling clerk with a large salary. Some obtain boarders. from 
 
144 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 their own province or native city ; others, who have followed a 
 trade, get recruits from the acquaintances they ma,^ at the work- 
 shop. Latterly, it would seem, pimps have carried on their trade 
 with unusual boldness and success. Some time since it was no- 
 ticed that an uncommon number of girls arrived at Paris from 
 Eheims. They all came provided with the name and address of 
 the houses to which they were destined, and drove there from the 
 stage-office. Information was sent to the pohce authorities of 
 Eheims, and on their arrival the girls were sent back again. The 
 design of the authorities was bafled for a while by the cunning 
 of the pimps, who sent their recruits round by other roads ; but 
 the police finally triumphed by refusing, for a year or two, to in- 
 scribe any prostitutes from Eheims. 
 
 It is notorious, however, that the same traffic is carried on at the 
 present day to an alarming extent between London and Paris, 
 London and Brussels, and other large cities in the neighborhood. 
 Several societies have been formed, and the police have made 
 great exertions to suppress the trade, but without any particular 
 success. 
 
 It is understood that the prostitutes of Paris receive nothing for 
 their "labors" but their board, lodging, and dress. The latter is 
 often expensive. In first-class houses it will exceed five hundred 
 francs, which in female attire will go as far at Paris as five hund- 
 red dollars will in New York. The whole of the fees exacted from 
 visitors goes to the mistress, and the girls are reluctantly permit- 
 ted to retain the presents they sometimes receive from their lov- 
 ers. They are usually in debt to the mistress, who, having no 
 other means of retaining them under her control, hastens to ad- 
 vance them money for jewelry, carriages, fine eating, and expen- 
 sive wines. 'No written contract binds them to remain where they 
 are ; they may leave when they please, if they can pay their debts ; 
 and the obligation they incur for the latter is one of honor only, 
 and can not be enforced in the courts. 
 
 Houses of prostitution, when well conducted, are very profita- 
 ble in Pari?. It is estimated that the net profits accruing from 
 each girl ought to be ten francs or more per day. Many keepers 
 of houses have retired with from ten to twenty-five thousand francs 
 a year, and have married their daughters well. The good- will of 
 a popular house has been sold for sixty thousand francs (twelve 
 thousand dollars). 
 
 We now come to the great feature of the Paris system : the in- 
 
PRESENT EEGULATIONS. 145 
 
 scription of prostitutes in a department of the Prefecture of Police, 
 called the Bureau des Mbeurs. It seems that some sort of inscrip- 
 tion -was in use before the Eevolution, but no law referring to it, 
 or records of the rolls, can be found. Various systems were em- 
 ployed during the Eepublic and the Empire. The one now in use 
 was adopted in 1816, and amended by a police regulation of 1828. 
 Prostitutes are inscribed either 
 
 1. On their own request ; 
 
 2. On the requisition of the mistress of a house ; or, 
 
 3. On the report of the inspector of prostitutes. 
 
 When a girl appears before the bureau nnder any of these cir- 
 cumstances, she is asked the following questions, the answers be- 
 ing taken down in writing : 
 
 1. Her name, age, hirth-plaoe, trade, and residence t 
 
 2. Whether she is a widow, wife, or spinster? 
 
 3. Whether her father and mother are living, and what their calling 
 was or is 1 
 
 4. Whether she lives with them, and if notj when and how she left 
 them ? 
 
 5. Whether she has had children, and where they are ? 
 ,6. How long she has been at Paris? 
 
 t. Whether any one has a right to claim her? 
 
 8. Whether she has ever been arrested, and if yes, how often, and for 
 what offenses ? 
 
 9. Whether she has ever been a prostitute before, and for what period 
 of time ? 
 
 10. Whether she has, or has had, venereal disease 1 
 
 11. Whether she has received any education? 
 
 12. What her motive is in inscribing herself? 
 
 The answers to these inquiries suggest others, which are put at 
 the discretion of the of&cials. Their practice is so great that they 
 are rarely deceived by the women; M. Parent-Duchatelet af&rms 
 that they could tell an old prostitute merely by the way she sat 
 down. 
 
 The interrogatory oyer, the girl is taken by an inspector to the 
 Dispensary and examined, and the physician on duty reports the 
 result, which is added to the inquiry. Meanwhile, the police reg- 
 isters have been consulted, and if the girl has been an old offend- 
 er, or is known to the police, she is now identified. 
 
 If the girl has her baptismal certificate {extrait de namccnee) with 
 
 K 
 
146 HISTOEY QF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 her, she is forthwith inscribedj and registered among the puthc 
 women of Paris. As prostitutes rarely possess ^his document, 
 however, a provisional inscription is usually effected, and a direct 
 application is made to the mayor of the city or commune where 
 she was born for the .certificate. This application varies accord- 
 ing to the age of the girl. If she is of age it is simply a demand 
 
 for the '■^extrait de naissance of ■ ■ , who says she is a 
 
 native of your city or commune." If, on the contrary, she is a 
 
 minor, the application states that " a girl who calls herself 
 
 and says she was bom at , has applied for inscrip- 
 
 tion in this office. I desire you to ascertain the position of her 
 family, and what means they propose to take in case they desire 
 to secure the return of this young girL" 
 
 It often happens that the family im.plore the intervention of the 
 police; in that case the girl. is sent back to the place whence she 
 came. In many cases the 'family decliae to interfere, and then 
 the girl is duly inscribed on the register. She signs a document, 
 in which she states that, " being duly acquainted with the sanitary 
 regulations estabHshed by the Prefecture for Public Women, she 
 declares that she will submit to them, will allow herself to be vis- 
 ited periodically by the physicians of the Dispensary, and will con- 
 form in all respects to the rules in force." 
 
 Of course this procedure is occasionally delayed by falsehoods 
 uttered by the women. It often used to happen that- the mayors 
 would report that no person of the name given had been bom at 
 the time fixed in their city or commune. In 'that case the girl 
 was recalled, and made to understand that truth was better pohcy 
 than falsehood. Girls rarely held out longer than a fortnight or 
 so, and, at the present time, the number of false declarations is 
 very small indeed. They seem satisfied that the police are an 
 omniscient machine which can not be deceived. 
 
 When the girl is brought to the ofS.ce either by a brothel- 
 . keeper or an inspector, the proceeding is slightly varied. In the 
 latter case she has been arrested for indulging in clandestine pros- 
 titution, but she almost invariably denies the fact, and pleads her 
 innocence. The rule, in this case, is to admonish her and let her 
 go. It is not till the third or fourth offense has been committed 
 that she is inscribed. When the mistress of a house brings a girl 
 to the office, interrogatories similar to the above are put to her. 
 If she has relations or friends at Paris, they are sent for and con- 
 sult,ed. When the girl appears evidently lost, she is duly in- 
 
PRESENT EEGTILATIONS. 147 
 
 scribed ; but if slie shows any signs of shame oi contrition, she is 
 often sent home by the office at the public expense. It need 
 hardly be said that when a girl is found diseased she is sent to 
 hospital and her inscription held over. It occasionally happens 
 that virgins present themselves at the office and desire to be in- 
 scribed ; in their case the officials use compulsion to rescue them 
 from infamy. 
 
 In a word, the Paris system with regard to inscriptions is to in- 
 scribe no girl with regard to whom it is not manifest that she will 
 carry on the calling of a prostitute whether she be inscribed or not. 
 
 From the following table, prepared by M. Parent-Duchatelet 
 from the records of a series of years, it appears that the mistresses 
 of houses inscribe over one third of the total prostitutes : 
 
 Girls inscribed at their own request 1388 
 
 " " by mistresses of houses 4436 
 
 " " by inspectors 720 
 
 Total 12544 
 
 The age at which girls can be inscribed has varied under differ- 
 ent administrators^ Under one it was seventeen, under his suc- 
 cessor eighteen, under the next twenty-one years ; but now the 
 general rule is that no girl should be inscribed under the age of 
 sixteen. Exceptions to this rule are made in the case of younger 
 girls — of thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen, who lead a life of prostitu- 
 tion, and are frequently attacked by disease. From a regard to 
 public health, they are inscribed notwithstanding their age. 
 
 Only second in importance to the subject of inscription is that 
 of " radiation," the obliteration of an inscription. This is the proc- 
 ess by which a prostitute takes leave of her calling, throws off 
 the control of the police, and regains her civU rights. At Eome, 
 as has been shown already, no such formality as radiation was 
 known to the law ; once a prostitute, always a prostitute, was the 
 Eoman rule. This system did not long sustain the test of a Chris- 
 tian examination. 
 
 The policy of the French Bureau des Mceurs on this head is gov- 
 erned by two very simple maxims : 1st. The amendment of pros- 
 titutes ought to be encouraged as much as possible ; 2d. But no 
 prostitute should be released from the supervision of the police 
 and the visits of the Dispensary physicians until there is reason- 
 able ground for believing that her repentance and alteration of 
 life are sincere and likely to be permanent. 
 
 A person desiring to have her name struck from" the rolls- of 
 
148 
 
 HISTOET OP PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 public women must make a written application, specifying her 
 reasons for desiring to change her mode of life, an* indicating the 
 means of support on which she is henceforth to rely. In three 
 cases the demand is granted forthwith : 1st. "When the ^l proves 
 that she is about to marry ; 2d. When she produces the certificate 
 of a physician that she is attacked by an organic disease which 
 renders it impossible for her to continue the calling of a prosti- 
 tute; and, 3d. When she has gone to live with her relations, and 
 produces evidence of her late good behavior. 
 
 In aU other cases the office awards a "provisional radiation." 
 For a period of time, which varies, according to circumstances, 
 jfrom three months to a year, the girl is still under the supervision 
 of the police, such supervision being obviously secret and discreet. 
 When the girl passes triumphantly through this period of proba- 
 tion, her name is definitely struck from the roll of prostitutes. 
 
 When a girl, after having her name thus struck out, desires to 
 be inscribed afresh, her request is granted without delay or in- 
 quiry, it being wisely supposed that she has repented of her decis- 
 ion. A re-inscription also takes place when a girl, after radiation, 
 is found in a house of prostitution even as a servant. 
 
 A prostitute is struck from the rolls by authority of the office 
 when she has disappeared, and no trace of her has been found for 
 three months. 
 
 M. Parent-Duchatelet gives the following table of radiations, 
 which, taken in connection with the table already given of the 
 number of prostitutes registered, shows the movement of reform : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Women etrack off the Bolls of 
 
 Prostitutes 
 
 Years. 
 
 Women struck off the EoUs of 
 Prostitutes 
 
 At their 
 own re- 
 quest. 
 
 In conse- 
 quence of 
 absence. 
 
 Total. 
 
 At their 
 own re- 
 quest. 
 
 In conse- 
 quence of 
 absence. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1817 
 1818 
 1819 
 1820 
 1821 
 1822 
 1823 
 1824 
 1825 
 
 485 
 477 
 469 
 415 
 433 
 417 
 502 
 442 
 , 456 
 
 675 
 582 
 671 
 716 
 733 
 739 
 605 
 602 
 527 
 
 1060 
 1059 
 1040 
 1131 
 1166 
 1166 
 1107 
 • 1044 
 983 
 
 Bt. forw'd 
 1826 
 1827 
 1828 
 1829 
 1830 
 1831 
 1832 
 
 4096 
 486 
 490 
 672 
 298 . 
 334 
 284 
 449 
 
 5650 
 554 
 642 
 415 
 536 
 602 
 452 
 718 
 
 9746 
 
 1040 
 
 1032 
 
 987 
 
 834 
 
 886 
 
 736 
 
 1167 
 
 7009 
 
 9369 
 
 16378 
 
 4096 
 
 6650 
 
 9746 
 
 Once inscribed, prostitutes are divided into three classes : 
 1st. Those who live in a licensed or " tolerated" brothel. 
 2d. Those who live alone in furnished rooms. 
 3d. Those who hve in rooms which they furnish, and outward- 
 ly bear no mark of infamy. 
 
PRESENT EEGULATIONS. l4g 
 
 In the eye of tlie law there is no difference between the three 
 classes; all are equally subject to police and medical supervision. 
 Every girl that is inscribed receives a card bearing her name, and 
 the number of her page in the register ; a blank column of this 
 card is left to be filled by a memorandum of the date of each visit 
 by the physicians of the Dispensary. 
 
 But the three classes differ in respect of the place where they 
 are visited. The Dispensary physicians visit the inmates of broth- 
 els in the houses where they live ; all other prostitutes visit them 
 at the Dispensary. Yet another visit is made by the Dispensary 
 physicians to the D^pot, or Lock-up, at the Prefecture of Police ; 
 as there are always a certain number of prostitutes arrested for 
 drunkenness or disorderly conduct every night, it was thought 
 well to seize the opportunity of their confinement to inquire into 
 the state of their health. 
 
 All houses of prostitution are visited by the Dispensary physi- 
 cians once a week ; the hour of the visit is known beforehand, and 
 every girl must be present and pass inspection. The examination 
 is private ; the result is noted in a " foHo" kept by the physician, 
 and a corresponding memorandum is made in the pass-book of the 
 house and on the card of the prostitute. When disease is detect- 
 ed, the mistress of the house is notified, and cautioned not to allow 
 the girl diseased to receive any visitors. That afternoon, or the 
 next morning, she comes or is brought to the Dispensary, where 
 she undergoes a second examination, and, if the result is the same 
 as at the first, she is forthwith sent to Saint Lazare for treatment. 
 
 Free prostitutes, that is to say, those who live in lodgings or 
 rooms furnished by themselves, are bound to visit the Dispensary, 
 and submit to examination once a fortnight. They choose the 
 time and day themselves, but more than a fortnight must not 
 elapse between the visits. 
 
 It appears, fi:om tables published by M. Parent-Duchatelet, that 
 these rules are strictly enforced. Free prostitutes are visited 
 nearly thirty times a year, and prostitutes in tolerated houses more 
 than fifty times. We have alluded elsewhere to the results of 
 the visits. 
 
 Experience has proved that the only safe method of punishment 
 for prostitutes is imprisonment. Formerly they were whipped, 
 and at a later date their hair was cut off; but the humane spirit 
 of modem legislation has rejected both these punishments as un- 
 duly cruel. At the present day, offenses against the rules con- 
 
150 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ceming prostitution {delits de prostitution) are pimished by impris- 
 onment ; misdemeanors and crimes provided agaii^ by the code 
 being within the cognizance of the ordinary courts in the case of 
 prostitu<tes as well as other persons. 
 
 JDeliis de prostitution have been divided by theBurecm desMceurs 
 into two classes, sHght offenses and grave offenses; slight offenses 
 are: 
 
 1. To appear in forbidden places. 
 
 2. To appear at forbidden hours. 
 
 3. To get drunk, and lie down in doorways, streets, or other thorough- 
 
 4. To demand admittance to guard-houses. 
 
 5. To walk through the streets in daylight in such a way as to attract 
 the notice of people passing. 
 
 6. To rap on the windows of their rooms. 
 
 I. To absent themselves from the medical inspection. 
 
 8. To beg. 
 
 9. To remain more than twenty-four hours in their house, after having 
 been pronounced diseased by the physician. 
 
 10. To escape from the Hospital or Dispensary. 
 
 II. To go out of doors with bare head or neck. 
 
 12. To remain in Paris after having been ordered to leave, and present- 
 ed with a passport. 
 
 This class of offenses is punished by imprisonment for not less 
 than a fortnight or more than three months. One month is the 
 Tisual term. 
 
 A prostitute is held to be guilty of grave offenses when she 
 
 1. Insults outrageously the visiting physician. 
 
 2. Fails to visit the Dispensary. 
 
 3. Continues to prostitute herself after being pronounced diseased. 
 ' 4. Uses obscene language in publici 
 
 5. Appears naked at her window. 
 
 6. Assails men with violence, and endeavors to drag them to her home. 
 
 These offenses are punished by imprisonment for not less than 
 three months, and not more than a year, rarely more than six 
 months. The time is fixed in these cases with reference to the 
 fonrier character of the prostitute. 
 
 "When a prostitute is arrested she is taken to the Prefecture of 
 Police, where there is a room specially appropriated to her class. 
 She is tried within forty-eight, nsually within twenty-four hours 
 
PRESENT REGULATIONS. 151 
 
 of her arrival; When condemned, she is conveyed in a close car- 
 riage or van to the prison. 
 
 The prison at Paris usually contains from four hundred and fifty 
 to six hundred inmates. They, are all obliged to -work. A few 
 are generally found incapable, either from idiocy, blindness, or in- 
 corrigible obstinacy, of performing even the simplest work. These 
 are lodged in a department called "the ward of the imbeciles." 
 The others are allowed to choose their work ; the bulk naturally 
 take to sewing. They are paid a small sum for what they do, 
 partly as they proceed with the work, and the balance when they 
 leave the prison. Industrious girls receive, from the money com- 
 ing to them, from five to eight sows daily. That this, added to 
 the ample food supplied by the prison, suf&ces for their wants, is 
 proved by the frequent purchases they make of flowers and other 
 superfluities. Formerly, prostitutes in. prison were not expected 
 to work, and at this period fights and disturbances were of con- 
 stant occurrence. Now the discipline is excellent and the prison- 
 ers orderly. The only penalty for disobedience of rules or mis- 
 conduct is close confinement in the cachot. 
 
 M. Parent-Duchatelet admits that the prison discipline is so gen- 
 tle that the punishment has no terrors for prostitutes. It is quite 
 common to find girls who have been thirty times condemned to 
 imprisonment. He recommends the use of the tread-niill as a cor- 
 rective. 
 
 His experience led him to question the utility of nuns and 
 priests in the prostitutes' prison. He does not think they do any 
 good, and inclines to the belief that the counsels and visits of mar- 
 ried women, who look rather to the moral than religious reform 
 of the women, would be productive of more benefit. 
 
 The old practice in France was to admit visitors to the prosti- 
 tutes' prison at certain hours and in a certain rOom, but this was 
 found to be productive of great evils. The scenes in the visitors' 
 room were outrageous, and a new system was accordingly adopt- 
 ed. J^o one was allowed to visit a prostitute but a bona fide rela- 
 tion, and even such a one was required to obtain a written permit 
 from the Prefecture of Police. 
 
 A certain number of prostitutes are sent every year to the pris- 
 on of St. Denis. These are those who, from physical or mental in- 
 firmities, such as recto-vaginal fistula, cancer, incurable organic 
 disease, idiocy, etc., are incapacitated from pursuing their calling, 
 and run risk of starvation. Not more than eight or ten of these 
 
J52 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 are sent to St. Denis in tlie course of the year. The mortality 
 among them there is not less than twenty-five per cejg;. per annum.* 
 
 UntU. a few years ago, a tax was levied on the Paris prostitutes 
 for the support of the Dispensary. Each mistress of a house paid 
 twelve francs per month ; each girl living alone, three francs per 
 month. A fine of two francs was also laid on aU prostitutes who 
 were behind their time in visiting the Dispensary. The product 
 of these various taxes amounted to from seventy-five to ninety 
 thousand francs per annum. The system was abolished on the 
 ground of its immorality. A popular notion is said to have pre- 
 -vaQed that the police received half a million or more from the tax 
 on_ prostitution, and attacks on the administration in consequence 
 were incessant. The police authorities gave way at last, and the 
 municipal council of the city undertook to defray the cost of the 
 Dispensary for the future. Similar taxes appear to have existed 
 at Lyons, Strasbourg, and other cities.^ 
 
 Allusion has been made to inspectors. At the time M. Parent- 
 Duchatelet wrote there were ten inspectors, who had each charge 
 of one tenth of the city. Their business was to see that the reg- 
 ulations governing prostitutes were carried out. They arrested 
 offending wpmen, and transferred them to the Prefecture of Police. 
 In case of resistance, they summoned the aid of the ordinary po- 
 lice of the ward. They were not allowed themselves to use Ador 
 lence either to arrest or drag a girl to prison. They were usually 
 picked men Osgood character. Their salary was twelve hund- 
 red francs a year, besides handsome presents.^ 
 
 In conclusion, a word must be said of the establishment called 
 the Bon Pasteur. It is a Magdalen Asylum established many years 
 ago by some benevolent ladies, and now mainly supported by an 
 annual vote from the city of Paris, and an allowance from the 
 hospitals. It receives prostitutes who desire to reform; feeds, 
 clothes, and instructs them ; provides them with places when they 
 desire to leave, or with work when they wish to remain in the es- 
 tablishment. The rule is that no prostitute can be received imder 
 eighteen or over twenty-five years of age. Beyond these limits 
 it has been found that the humane, efforts of the directresses of 
 the establishment have rarely led to any result. No compulsion 
 is used in any case by the managers. Girls are fi'ee to leave as 
 they are free to come. So long as they remain, however, they 
 must conform to the rules of the establishment, which are strict 
 ' Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 273. " Id. ii. 898. = Id. ii. 403. 
 
PRESENT REGULATIONS. 153 
 
 •without being monastic. The average admissions to the asylum 
 for the first twelve years of its existence were twenty per annum. 
 The mortahty among the residents was very large, being equal to 
 twenty per cent, on the total number during the twelve years. 
 Of the whole number (two hundred and forty-five), forty were dis- 
 missed for insubordination ; twenty-seven left of their own accord, 
 and probably returned to their old courses, and fifteen were re- 
 turned to the police. The remainder were either restored to their 
 families, or placed in situations in the hospitals or elsewhere. 
 
 Small as these numbers appear in comparison with the large 
 army of prostitutes exercising their calling at Paris, it is not at 
 all doubtful but the establishment is a useful one. No one can 
 help but concur with M. Parent-Duchatelet when he observes 
 that, " did it not exist, it would be necessary to create it." 
 
 Note. — ^As M. Parent-Duchatelet has ■written the best, we might almost 
 say the only philosophical work on prostitution extant, it may be useful to 
 BTibjoin the text of the statute which he proposed to regulate the subject of 
 prostitution. 
 
 LAW EELATIVE TO THE EEPEESSION OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Art. 1. The duty of repressing prostitution, whether with provocation on 
 the public highway or otherwise, is intrusted at Paris to the Prefect of Po- 
 lice, and in all the other commttnes of France to the mayors respectively. 
 
 Art. 2. A discretionary authority over all persons engaged in public 
 prostitution is vested in these functionaries, within the scope of their 
 powers. 
 
 Art. 3. Shall constitute evidence of public prostitution either, 1st, direct 
 provocation thereto on the public highway; 2d, public notoriety; or, 3d, 
 legal proof adduced after accusation and trial. 
 
 Art. 4. The Prefect of Police at Paris,^and the mayors in the other com- 
 munes, shall make any and all regulations which they may deem suitable 
 for the repression of prostitution, and such regulations shall bear upon all 
 those who encourage prostitution as a trade — lodgers, inn-keepers and tav- 
 ern-keepers, landlords and tenants. 
 
 Art. 5. The Dispensary at Paris for the superintendence of women of the 
 town is placed on the same footing as the public health establishments, 
 Other similar dispensaries may be established wherever they are needed. 
 
 Art. 6. A fall report of the proceedings of these dispensaries shall be for- 
 warded annually to the Minister of the Interior. 
 
 M. Duchatelet conceived this short law to be adequate for the purpose. 
 It may be presumed that he took for granted that the mayors of the com- 
 
154 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 munes would never attempt to carry out original views of tteir own on the 
 sulgeet ; he doubtless gave them credit for sufficient s|^-abnegnation to 
 adopt, without question, the elaborate and sensible plan .which experience 
 has taught the authorities of Paris. How far this assumption was justifi- 
 able appears imcertain, in view of the fact that at Lyons and Strasbourg, 
 the prostitutional system has always differed from that of the capital. In 
 both those cities a tax has been levied on prostitutes till a very late period ; 
 at Lyons it was exacted, it is believed, in 1842. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ITALY. 
 
 Decline of Public Morals. — ^Papal Court. — Nepotism. — John XXII. — Sextus IV. 
 -^Alexander VI.— Effect of the Reformation. — Poem of Fracastoro. — ^Benvenuto- 
 Cellini, — ^Beatrice Cenci. — ^Laws of Naples. — ^Pragmatic Law of 1470. — Court 
 of Prostitutes. — Bull of Clement II. — ^Prostitution in Lombardy and Piedmont. 
 — Clerical Statute. — Modern Italy. — Laws of Kome. — Public Hospitals. — ^Laz- 
 aroni of Naples.r-Italian Manners as depicted by Lord Byron. — Foundling Hos- 
 pitals. — True Character of Italian People. 
 
 BiETH-PLACE of modem art and literature, dowered with, the 
 fatal heritage of beauty, Italy, in the varied passages of her career 
 among the nations, has been as remarkable for the vice and sen- 
 suality of her children as she has been eminent for their talents 
 and acquirements. 
 
 The heart of the historical student thriUs with respectful sym- 
 pathy over the sorrows and ennobling virtues of her patriots in 
 aU ages, or his intellect is captivated with enthusiastic admira- 
 tion and reverence in considering the monuments of resplendent 
 genius given to mankind by her sons. Let him turn the page, 
 and his soul recoils in disgust and deepest horror from the narra- 
 tive of corruption the most abandoned, ambition the most unscru- 
 pulous, lust the most abominable, crime the most tremendous, to 
 which the history of the world scarcely offers a parallel, and 
 which brands the perpetrators witb the execration of all succeed- 
 ing generations. 
 
 The most glorious era of the Italian republics immediately pre- 
 ceded their downfall. Like shiniilg lights, they perished by their 
 own effulgence. The mutual jealousies of Florence, Pisa, Genoa, 
 Lucca, and the numerous independent cities and states, stirred up 
 in them a "noble and emulous rage" to excel each other in the 
 
ITALt. 155 
 
 encouragement tkey gave to art and letters, and the mighty works 
 produced by their respective citizens. But the same sentiment 
 also roused them to deadlier feuds, and the common field of nation- 
 al patriotism being shut up, they exhausted themselves and each 
 other by desperately-protracted struggles and incredible sacrifices 
 of blood and treasure. Thus they paved the way to the introduc- 
 tion of the foreigner and the mercenary, who completed their 
 ruin ; imtU, in place of the small but illustrious republics which 
 formed a diadem of brightest gems, arose a system of petty tyrants, 
 who plunged the country into misery and degradation. These, in 
 turn, were swept away by the strong arm of a despotism which 
 has never since relaxed its grasp of this loveliest country of the 
 earth. 
 
 No influence played a more important part in bringuig about 
 this catastrophe than that of the court of Eome. By the in- 
 trigues of the Eoman pontiffs the mutual jealousies of the states 
 were exacerbated and their quarrels fomented. While these re- 
 sults were caused by the political actions of the popes and their 
 advisers, the worst effects were produced upon public manners 
 and morals by their example. The abuses which had established 
 themselves among the Eoman hierarchy were the natural conse- 
 quences of long and undisturbed enjoyment by the clergy of their 
 vast immunities and privileges. The demoralization and disso- 
 luteness which thus existed, and which spread its poison through- 
 out the civilized world, but especially throughout Italy, are at- 
 tested to posterity by all contemporary writers. 
 
 The enormous iniquity which distinguished such men as John 
 XXII., Sextus IV., or Alexander YI., is notorious to all. Al- 
 though the character of communities is not to be inferred from 
 the 'actions of exceptional prodigies, either of virtue or vice, it is 
 evident that the system which could place monsters like these m 
 the august positions they filled must have been rotten to the core. 
 The worth of a Leo X. or a Clement Yll. consisted in the absence 
 of the grosser vices rather than in any positive excellence, and the 
 encouragement given by such men to objectionable practices did 
 more to confirm a laxity of morals than the odious and unpardon- 
 able offenses of their predecessors. 
 
 Some of the political profligacy of the court of Eome, and, 
 through its example, of the other Italian courts, was owing to the 
 system which had sprung up of each pope providing for his fam- 
 ily. The term nejooie (nephew) was in common use as expressing 
 
156 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 the relationfehip wHcli existed between the pope and the individ- 
 uals selected for adyancement. The priests. of al^i^enominations 
 had nephews and nieces to provide for, and the abuses covered by 
 the term were objects of the keenest satire. In fact, Innocent 
 Vm. thus provided for eight openly avowed sons and daughters.^, 
 The pseudo-avuncular obligations of Sextus IV. were also well 
 known. Other popes, whose sins were not in this particular di- 
 rection, having no sons, adopted a honafde nephew, and one or 
 two, feeling the want of ties of kindred or family relationship, ac- 
 tually adopted strangers. In one instance, the Donna Ohmpia, a 
 niece by marriage, and "a- lady of ability and a manly spirit," 
 took the place of a nephew in the court of Innocent X., without 
 any imputation on the character of either pope or niece.* 
 
 The effect produced by this example in high places, particular- 
 ly upon the clergy, and through them on the conimunity, can be 
 imagined. By a decree of the Church in the eleventh session of 
 the Lateran Council it appears that the clergy were accustomed to 
 live in a state of public concubinage, nay, more, to allow others 
 to do so for money paid to them by permission. Dante, in one 
 of his daring flights, compares the papal court to Babylon,, and 
 declares it a place deprived of virtue and shame. In the nine- 
 teenth canto of the Inferno, Dante, visiting hell, finds Nicholas 
 III. there waiting the arrival of Boniface, who again is to be sue-, 
 ceeded by Clement. 
 
 The Eeformation compelled some attention to morals among 
 the clergy, and for a time an earnest endeavor was made at a pu- 
 rification of the Church. This was one of the chief labors of the 
 famous Council of Trent. ■ That council certainly did repress the 
 abuses among the general clergy, but the law-makers were law- 
 breakers. They could not touch the cardinals, archbishops, or 
 the Pope himself, and thus little radical change was effected among 
 the chief dignitaries.^ 
 
 There are not wanting writers who acquit the Italian national 
 character of blame in the matter, attributing the general corrup- 
 tion partly to the frightful example of foreign invaders. The in- 
 
 ' Dennistoun's Dukes of Urbiuo; Eanke's History of the Popes ; Gibbon's Rome. 
 
 " Eanke, li. Appendix. 
 
 ■ ^ In 1849, when the Roman people opened the palace of the Inquisition, there 
 was found In the library a department styled " Summaiy of Solicitations," being a 
 record of cases in which women had been solicited to acts of criminality by their 
 confessors in the pontifical state, and the summary is not brief.— Dwight's "Ro- 
 man Republic in 1849," p. 115. 
 
ITALY. 157 
 
 vasion of Charles VIII., himself a dissolute monarch, with the 
 universal licentiousness of the French troops, did undoubtedly 
 contribute largely to ruin the morals of the people at large, but, 
 to use the words of Machiavelli, " If the papal court were removed 
 to Switzerland, the simplest and most religious people of Europe 
 would, in an incredibly short time, have become utterly depraved 
 by the vicious example of the Italian priesthood."^ 
 
 The ecclesiastics ' did not confine themselves to licentiousness 
 of conduct. The clerical writers are charged with a taste for that 
 lowest practice of debased minds, obscenity, in which particular 
 they exceed the lay writers. Eoscoe, an accomplished Italian 
 scholar and a man not given to railing, maintains this allegation.^ 
 This reminds us of Pope's lines : 
 
 " Immodest words admit of no defense, . 
 For want of decency is want of sense." 
 
 For the limited range of our present subject, history, so profuse 
 of illustration of war, bloodshed, and the personal adventures of 
 men noteworthy by their position or character, is exceedingly 
 chary of materials. In the case of Italy the testimony as to the 
 morals of men in high places is superabundant, and these and the 
 legislative enactments of the period will furnish some of the in- 
 formation of which we are in search. 
 
 In the fifteenth century, Charles YIII., in his wars to gain Na- 
 ples from the Spaniards, drew down unspeakable miseries upon 
 the wretched Italians. His armies are reputed to have indulged 
 in every excess of unbridled license and rapine ; and it was during 
 the siege of Naples that the venereal- disease is said to have first 
 made its appearance, although the particulars given of this malady 
 in Chapter IX., under the head of France, show that syphilis ex- 
 isted in Naples two or three years before the siege. As generally 
 happens with new diseases, whether from fear or ignorance of the 
 means to control them, it was represented that the affliction was 
 of a malignity never since known. Its frightful ravages and dis- 
 gusting character impressed the minds of men with a belief that 
 it was a new scourge, sent specially as a punishment for 'the de- 
 bauchery and prostitution of the period, each party retorting on 
 ■the other the charge of having introduced it, and styling it Morho- 
 Gallico or Mdl de Naples, according to the nation to which they 
 belonged. No class seenjs to have been exempt from it. Sextus 
 ' Discorsi, i. 12. ' Life of Leo X. Appendix. 
 
168 HISTOET OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 della Eovere, neplie-w of Sextus IV., one of tlie wealthiest and 
 most dissolute ecclesiastics of the age, was " rotte^^from his mid- 
 dle to the soles of his feet."* Even the haughty and majestic Ju- 
 lius II. would not expose his feet to the obeisance of the faithful, 
 because they were decolored by the Morbus Gallicus •?■ Leo, his 
 accomplished and munificent successor, was said to have owed his 
 elevation to the fact that he was in such a depraved state of body 
 as to render necessary a surgical operation in the Consistorium 
 while the election was proceeding, the cardinals selecting the most 
 sickly candidate for the papal tiara.^ Ammequivocal allusion to 
 the pontiff's pursuits is found in an honorary inscription to Leo 
 X. on his entrance into Florence, of which he was a native. 
 Olm, hahuit Cypris sua tempora : tempora Mnvos 
 Olim hahuit ; nunc sua tempora Pallas habet : 
 Marsfuit ; est Pallas ; Cypra semper erit. 
 Formerly Venus reigned supreme, then Mars, now Pallas : 
 Mars was, Pallas now is, Venus shall always be. 
 
 Cardinals were not ashamed to contend openly for the fevers 
 of celebrated courtesans, and Charles VIII., when on his march 
 to Naples, was provided by Ludovico Sforza and his wife Beatrice, 
 his hberal entertainers, with the most beautiful women that could 
 he procured.* Charles, indeed, is by some authors asserted to 
 have been actually the first who introduced the venereal disease 
 into Italy. 
 
 An eccentric trophy of pubhc license is to be found in the poem 
 of Fracastoro, a physician and accomplished writer — a really ele- 
 gant production under the title of Syphilis. The argument of it 
 is drawn from the sufferings of Syphilus, a shepherd who has been 
 punished by ApoUo with a malignant disease for impiety. In this 
 work the author introduces the reader to the inner regions of the 
 earth ; to the mines, minerals, and attendant sprites, and explains 
 the discovery of mercury, and its beneficent and healing influences 
 on the invalid, who, once cured, is enjoined to pay his vows to 
 Diana. 
 
 In 1520, that turbulent and reprobate artist Benvenuto CeUini, 
 in his autobiography (one of the most spirited representations of 
 national manners extant) gives an account of a syphilitic disease 
 which he contracted from a courtesan. He says little of the mode 
 
 ' Fabronius, Leo X. p. 287. 
 
 ' Paris de Grassine, Memoirs of the Court of Julius II. p. 579. 
 
 ' Jovius, lib. iii. p. 56. * De Commines, v. ii. c. 6. 
 
ITALY. 159 
 
 of cure, but it is evident from the above that the use of mercury- 
 was known at a very early period after public attention was gen- 
 erally directed to the disorder. 
 
 The excesses of this iron age were not limited to ordinary li- 
 centiousness ; crimes against nature seem to have been prevalent, 
 and are even alleged to have been a source of revenue. In a col- 
 lection of papal lives which has fallen under our notice, but which 
 is not very particular in giving its authorities,* we find it stated 
 that a memorial was presented to Sextus IV. by certain individu- 
 als of the family of the Cardinal of St. Lucia for an indulgence to 
 commit sodomy, and that the Pope wrote at the bottom of it the 
 usual "Fiat." 
 
 The case of Beatrice Cenci is better attested. Every one recol- 
 lects the accumulated horrors of the story. The father, hating his 
 children, his wife, all mankind, introduces prostitutes to his house, 
 and debauches his daughter Beatrice by force. Through the in- 
 strumentality of a bishop she procures him to be murdered, and, 
 with her step-mother, was executed for the crime, the Pope refus- 
 ing to show any mercy. The Count Cenci haibeen addicted to 
 unnatural offenses, and had thrice compounded with the papal 
 government for his crimes by paying an enormous sum of money, 
 and the narrator says that the acrimony of the Pope toward the 
 wretched daughter was for having cut _ off a profitable source of 
 revenue. 
 
 In Naples, the laws on the subject of prostitution were extreme- 
 ly severe. Previous to the thirteenth century, every procuress 
 endeavoring to corrupt, innocent females was punished, like an 
 adulteress, by mutilation of her nose. The mother who prosti- 
 tuted her daughter suffered this punishment until King Frederick 
 -absolved such women as trafficked with their children from the 
 ^pressure of want. The same prince, however, decreed against all 
 whb.were found guilty of preparing drugs or inflammatory liquors 
 to aid in their designs upon virtuous females, death in case of in- 
 juries: resulting from their acts, and imprisonment when no seri- 
 ous harm was effected. These laws proved insufficient for their 
 purpose^ .and toward the end of the fifteenth century profligacy 
 ran riot •in Naples. Euffiani multiplied in its streets, procuring 
 by force or corruption multitudes of victims to fill the taverns 
 and brolihels of the city. Penalties of extreme severity were pro- 
 claimed against them. The Euffiani were ordered to quit the 
 
 • ^he Roman Pontiffs, New York, 1845. 
 
160 HISTORY Oi' PROSTITUTION. 
 
 kingdom, and prostitutes were prohibited from liarboring sucli 
 persons among them. Any woman who disobeye^was condemn- 
 ed to be burned in the forehead with an iron, whipped in the 
 most humiliating manner, and' exiled. 
 
 Under King Eoger a charge of seduction was never taken, but 
 William, the successor of that prince, punished with death the 
 crime of rape. The victim, however, was required to prove that 
 she had shrieked aloud, and that she had preferred her complaint 
 within eight days, or that she had been detained by force. When 
 once a woman had prostituted herself, she had no right to refuse 
 to yield her person to any one. 
 
 In Naples, prostitutes, in spite of the law passed to confine 
 brothels to particular quarters, established themselves in the most 
 beautiful streets of the city in palatial buildings, and there, with 
 incessant clamor, congregated a horde of thieves, profligates, and 
 vagabonds of every kind, imtil the chief quarter became -uiiiiihabr 
 itable. In 1577 they were ordered to quit the street of Catalana 
 within eight days, under pain of the scourge for the women, the 
 galleys for such of the proprietors as were commoners, while 
 simple banishment was declared against the nobles. 
 
 One example of good legislation was the pragmatic law of 
 1470, to protect unfortunate women against the cnpidity, the ex- 
 tortions, and the frauds of tavern-keepers and others. Men were 
 in the habit of going into places of amusement with single girls, 
 contracting a heavy debt, and then leaving their victims to pay. 
 These were then given the choice of a disgraceful whipping or an 
 engagement in the house. They often consented, and spent the 
 remainder of their days in dependence on their creditors, without 
 ability to liberate therttselves. By the new law, masters of taverns 
 were forbidden to give credit to prostitutes for more than a cer- 
 tain sum, and this only to supply them with food and clothing 
 absolutely necessary. If they exceeded this amount they had no 
 means of legal recovery. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in Neapolitan legislation on this 
 subject was the establishment at an unknown, but early date, of 
 the Court of Prostitutes. This tribunal, which sat at Naples, had 
 its peculiar constitution, and had jurisdiction over all cases con- 
 nected with prostitution, blasphemy, and some other infamous of- 
 fenses. Toward the end of the sixteenth century it had risen to 
 extraordinary power, and was prolific of abuses. It practiced all 
 kinds of exaction and violence, every species of partiality and in- 
 
ITALY. IQi 
 
 justice, and even presumed to promiilgate: edicts of its own. The 
 judges flung into prison numbers of young girlsj whom they com- 
 pelled to buytheir liberty with money, and sometimes even dared 
 to seize women who, though of lax «onduct, could not be included 
 in the professional class. This was discovered, and led to a re- 
 form of the court ia 1589. Its powers were strictly defined, and 
 its form of procedure placed under regulation, while the avenues 
 to corruption were narrowed. The institution ; existed for nearly 
 a hundred years after this. 
 
 In Eome, in the eleventh century, a brothel and a church stood 
 side by side, and five hundred years after, under the pontificate of 
 Paul ILj prostitutes were numerous. Statutes were enacted, and 
 many precautions taken, which prove the grossness of manners at 
 that epoch. One convicted of selling a girl'todnfamy was heav- 
 ily fined, and if he did not pay within ten days had one foot cut 
 off. The nobility and common people alike indulged habitually 
 in all kinds of excess. Tortures, floggings, brandings, banishment, 
 were inflicted on some to terrify others, but with very incomplete 
 success. , To carry off and detain a prostitute against her will was 
 piinished by amputation of the. right hand, imprisonment, flogging, 
 or exile. The rich, however, invariably bought immunity for 
 themselves. . • 
 
 Among the most extraordinary acts of legislation on this sub- 
 ject was the bull of Clement II., who desired to endow the Church 
 with the surplus gains of the brothel. Every person guilty of 
 prostitution was forced, when disposing of her property, either at 
 death or during life, to assign half of it to a convent. This regu- 
 lation was easily eluded, and proved, utterly inefELcacioi*. A tri- 
 bunal was also established having jurisdiction over brothels, upon 
 which a tax was laid, continuing in existence until the middle of 
 the sixteenth century. Efforts were made to confine this class 
 of dwellings to a particular quarter, but without success, ' 
 
 ' In some of the Italian states, as in Lombardy, men were forbid- 
 den to give prostitutes an asylum. They were prohibited from 
 appearing among honest citizens, and were prevented from pur- 
 chasing clothes or food, and from borrowing money by the hire 
 of their persons. 
 
 After a time, however, a system of licensed brothels, in imita- 
 tion of the institutions founded at Toulouse and Montpellier, was 
 introduced into parts: of Italy, and the brothels became very nu- 
 merous. There was one at Mantua, and Venice was a very sink 
 
 L 
 
162 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of prostitution. In 1421, the government enlisted women in this 
 service to guard the virtue of the other classes. ^ matron was 
 placed over them, who governed them, received their gains, and 
 made a monthly division of profit. The names of several wom- 
 en, the most notorious and beautiful of the Venetian courtesans, 
 are preserved by Nicolo Daglioni. A very small sum was paid 
 them by their patrons. 
 
 The laws regulating prostitution and prostitutes seem to have 
 had a wonderful similarity throughout Europe. Among other 
 enactments were those regulating clothiug, which were at one time 
 promulgated in every state. Some of these were sumptuary, and 
 merely prohibited the wearing of fashionable attire. Others di- 
 rected particular costumes as a badge of the prostitute's calling, 
 and to distinguish them in public from well-conducted women. 
 At Mantua, prostitutes, when they appeared in the streets, were 
 ordered to cover the rest of their clothes with a short white cloak, 
 and wear a badge on their breast. At Bergamo the cloak was 
 yellow ; in Parma, white ; in Milan, at first black woolen cloth, 
 and then black silk. If disobedient, they might be fined ; and in 
 case of a second offense, whipped ; and any one might strip off the 
 garment of a girl illegally attired. 
 
 In the Duchy of Asola, in Piedmont, a regulation was establish- 
 ed that a mother could disinherit her daughter for leading a vi- 
 cious life, but she lost this privilege if it was proved that she had 
 connived at her immorality. The father had equal authority, but 
 with one curious limitation. When, says the law, a father has 
 sought to marry his daughter, and has endowed her sufficiently, 
 if she revises to marry and becomes a prostitute, he may cut her 
 oQ"; but if he have ftpposed her marriage until she has reached 
 the age of twenty -five, and she then become a libertine, he can not 
 refuse to bequeath her his property ; and the woman, on every op- 
 portunity to marry, is bound to present herself before her father 
 and demand his consent. If he refused it, he was not allowed to 
 punish her in cases where, at the age of thirty, she became a harlot. 
 
 The efforts to root out prostitution from houses and neighbor- 
 hoods in Italy had, as elsewhere, the result of driving loose women 
 to places of public resort. The baths were regularly frequented 
 in every city in the Peninsula (hence the use of the word bagnio, 
 as expressive of a disreputable place), so that there was scarcely a 
 bath-keeper who was not also a brothel-keeper. 
 
 In Avignon, which, in consequence of the schism of the popes, 
 
ITALY. 163 
 
 may be considered a second Eome, a statute of the Churcli, in 
 1441, interdicted to tlie priests and clergy tKe use of certain baths, 
 notorious as brothels. The license of prostitution was soon taken 
 away in Avignon. The residence of the popes in that city had 
 attracted a concourse of strangers from all parts of the globe, and 
 brothels sprung up at the doors of the churches, and close to the 
 papal residence and bishops' palaces. They brought so much 
 scandal on the community that an edict was passed driving pros- 
 titutes out of the city. 
 
 In endeavoring to investigate the condition of prostitution in 
 modern Italy, our inquiries and- researches have been almost 
 profitless, from the dearth of reliable statistical information as to 
 any part of that most interesting countiy. In the fine arts, and 
 in certain departments of abstract science, the repubUc of letters 
 can show numerous records of Italy's state and progress. In all 
 that tells of the people, their condition, their relations to each 
 other, and their rulers, the statements of writers, both native and 
 foreign, are so contradictory, so imbued with party passions and 
 prejudices, or so flippantly careless and inaccurate, that we must 
 peruse them with constant suspicion. At the same time, of&cial 
 documents are so sparingly given to the world that it is hopeless 
 to fall back upon them!^ 
 
 It is custoniary to think and speak of Italy, like Germany, as a 
 whole. In reality, however, a wide difference prevails among 
 the inhabitants of Piedmont, Tuscany, and Austrian Italy, the 
 Papal States, and Naples. Eome, though not the pohtical cap- 
 ital of Italy, must be considered the capital, in virtue of her 
 papal court, her past traditions, and her large concourse of for- 
 eigners. But even her manners scarcely give the tone to the re- 
 mainder of the country. * 
 
 In Eome, prostitution is tolerated, though not legally permit- 
 ted. There are no statistics from which the number of prostitutes 
 can be calculated. At one time there were said to be five thou- 
 sand of these unfortunates in the city ; but this estimate is only 
 another sample of the carelessness which is to be observed in 
 writers on . this subject. Under Paul lY. there were only fifty 
 thousand inhabitants ; forty years after they had increased to one 
 hundred thousand. Public prostitutes are now as rarely seen in 
 
 • Aftpr the occupation by the French in 1809, a collection of facts was made by 
 the French authorities, with a view to a census, but this we have been unable to 
 obtain. 
 
Ig4 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 the Streets of Eome as in those of other Italian cities. It is said, 
 also, that there are scarcely any public brothels.^ #'here is a law 
 that a woman guilty of adultery shall be imprisoned for three 
 jmonths, but Italian usages are averse to Ibgal proceedings; the 
 fecandd is offensive tp J society ; besides, the courts require posi- 
 tive proof of the offense^ With regard to seduction, the laws are 
 equally stringent ; but such oases, when brought to notice, are 
 usually compromised by permission of the ■ authorities, either by 
 payment of a sum of money, or by marriage: > Syphilis is always 
 of considerable extentMn Eome, and the venereal ward in San 
 Jacomo is always fuU.^ After the siege of Eome by the* French 
 in 1849; the disease was frightfully prevalent. 
 
 In 1798 there! were thirty thousand poor, or about one fifth of 
 the population of Eome, upon the lists of the curates of the sev- 
 eral parishes. Under ^ the administration of the French, up to 
 1814, the proportion had been' diminished to one ninth. Since 
 that period it has been on the increase. 
 
 There are in Eome nineteen hospitals for the treatment of the 
 sick. In' eight public hospitals the average . number of patiente 
 daUy is about fourteen hundred, who cost nineteen cents each per 
 day. There are fourteen semi-convents where young girls are 
 gratuitously received and educated, receiving a small dowry when 
 they leave to marry or become nuns. The Hospital of St. Eoch is 
 for pregnant women.^ 
 
 The Albergo dei Poveri at Naples is the finest poor-house in 
 Italy. It accommodates upward of three thousand paupers of 
 both sexes, and is provided with workshops and schools, so as to 
 afford suitable employment, and' instruction. Notwithstanding 
 -this nlodpl establishment, and numerous others, whose annual rev- 
 enues amount to nearly tVo millions and a half of dollars, Naples 
 , is infested with a large mendicant population in addition to the 
 numbers accommodated in the poor-houses. The Lazaroni are a 
 class peculiar to the place. Many of them utterly refuse to work; 
 and prefer to subsist on the smallest coin of the kingdom which 
 they can gain by begging. They bask in the sun all day, sleep 
 on the ground or on the steps at night, and starve with the ut- 
 most complacency. An Epicurean might find in this abnegation 
 of the cares of life a sound practical philosophy. That such a 
 class is in the iighest degree, obnoxious to society must be ap- 
 
 ' Medical and ChirufgicalEeview, April, 1854. - "Ibid. 
 
 » Harper's Magazine, February, 1855, p. 326 ; Italian Life and Morals. 
 
ITALY. 165 
 
 parent to every one. In tlie famous rising of Cardinal Eiaffo, at 
 the time of tlie Frencli occupation in 1805,'the Lazaroni perpe- 
 trated the most frightful excesses, and are said to have been relied 
 on by the imbecile Bourbon government as their ehief.frienda and 
 supporters against the dangers of French Eepublicanismi Modem 
 progress has drawn even Naples and the Lazaroni within its magic 
 circle, and an accomplished traveler expresses doubts "of their al- 
 leged unconquerable laziness, for, he, has seen them work, wear 
 clothes, sleep at home, earn money, when they had a chance, and 
 conduct themselves very much .like other people.' Perhaps, as 
 with the Irish, a want of' fair remuneration may be at; the root of 
 their idleness. 
 
 A singular institution of Italian society is the Qicisheo, or Cava- 
 Tiere Servente. This is a distant male relative, or friend, who in- 
 variably attfendsa married lady on all occasions of her appearance 
 in publiCp He pays her all conceivable attentions, and performs 
 even the most serVile offices ; carries her fan, her parasol, or her 
 lapdog. We are not aware that any foreigner has been able to 
 settle this anomaly of social life to his satisfaction. Thei Italians 
 themselves sometimes maintain that there is no immorality or im- 
 propriety in the arrangement— that it is a matter of etiquette, in 
 which the heart is in no waly concerned, The husband is perfect- 
 ly cognizant of it, and the appearance of the cicisbeo with the lady 
 is more c?e regie thfuo. that of her husband. Opginally, there can 
 be very little question that the institution was of an amorous char- 
 acter, and the parties met privately at the Casini, where certain 
 apartments were specially dedicated to the use of the ladies and 
 their cavalieri.^ With the French occupation of 1800 the custom 
 became the subject of immoderate raillery and satire, and there is 
 reason to believe it has been but partially revived. '■ 
 
 In place, however, of the cicisbeo or cavaliere serveiite, whose 
 services and attentions were a form of society, it is, we fear, unde- 
 niable that more intimate though less avowed relations exist be- 
 tween many Italian ladies and other men than their husbands. 
 That there are numerous and admirable exceptions to the rule, if 
 it be a rule, we freely admit ; but, unless the concurrent testimo- 
 ny of all writers and travelers in Italy be absolutely false, and 
 either basely slanderous or culpably careless, the marriage vow- 
 can 'only be regarded as a cloak for a license that is inadmissible 
 to the unmarried woman. , 
 
 ' Eoine, by a New Yorker, 1845. ' Sharpe's Letters from Italy,- 1705; 
 
166 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The testimony of a profligate man is rarely to be taken against 
 women; and thougli the witness be a. lord and aftoet, we do not 
 know that this should make a difference were the case one of 
 mere abuse. Coupled, however, as the inculpation is with exten- 
 uatory remarks, we think Lord Byron's observations valuable. In 
 a letter to Mr. Murray, the celebrated London publisher (February 
 21, 1820), he says : 
 
 " You ask me for a volume of manners in Italy. Perhaps I am in the 
 ease to know more of them than most Englishmen. *****! 
 have lived in their houses, and in the heart of their families, sometimes 
 merely as Amico di Co»a, and sometimes as Amico di Cuore of the Dama, 
 and in neither case do I feel justified in making a hook of them. Their 
 moral is not your moral ; their life is not your life ; you would not under- 
 stand it ; it is not English, nor French, nor German, which you would all 
 understand. ***** I know not how to make you comprehend 
 a people who are at once temperate and profligate, serious in their characters 
 and huffoons in their amusenients, capable of impressions and passions which 
 are at once sudden and durable. *****! should know some- 
 thing of the matter, having had a pretty general experience among their 
 women, from the fisherman's wife up to the Nohil Dama whom I serve. * 
 * * * * They are extreipely tenacious, and jealous as furies, not 
 permitting their lovers even to marry if they can help it, and keeping them 
 always to them in public as in private. ***** The reason is, 
 that they marry for their parents and love for themselves. They exact 
 fidelity from a lover as a debt of honor, while they pay the husband as a 
 tradesman. You hear a person's character, male or female, canvassed, not 
 as depending on their conduct to their husbands or wives, but to their mis- 
 tress or lover. If I wrote a quarto I don't know that I could do more than 
 amplify what I have here noted. It is to be observed, that while they do 
 all this, the greatest outward respect is to be paid to the husbands, not only 
 by the ladies, but by their serventi, particularly if the husband serve no one 
 himself (which is not often the case, however), so that you would often sup- 
 pose them relations, the servente making the figure of one adopted in the 
 family. Sometimes the ladies run a little restive, and elope, or divide, or 
 make a scene, but this is at the starting, generally when they know no bet- 
 ter, or when they fall in love with a foreigner, or some such anomaly, and 
 is always reckoned unnecessary and extravagant." 
 
 As a counterpoise to these opinions of Lord Byron, it is but fair 
 to give that of M.yaler^>:teav-eler whose personal opportunities 
 may have been lessthSnin the case of the noble poet : " The mor- 
 als of the Italian/6ities, which we still judge of from the common- 
 place reports 9/ travelers of the last century, are now neither bet- 
 
ITALY. 167 
 
 ter nor worse than those of other capitals ; perhaps at Naples they 
 are even better." 
 
 The Countess Pepoli, a lady of patriotic and literary family, has 
 written an able educational manual, in which she claims consider- 
 ation for the number of " good and virtuous women" in Italy, 
 whose existence is ignored by the prejudiced writers of extrava- 
 gant diatribes. But we are afraid that the very exception, and the 
 pains she takes to prove the temptations to which the married 
 woman is exposed, only af&rm the truth of the general charge. 
 
 Whatever allegations of veracious or exaggerated unchastity or 
 immorality may be made against the Italians, they are generally 
 to be laid at the door of the aristocracy and upper classes. Among 
 the humbler Italians, the peasantry and the country poor, there is 
 no ground for ascribing to them either greater idleness or worse 
 morals than are to be found in other parts of Europe. 
 
 Foundling hospitals are to be met with in most great cities of 
 Continental Europe. Among Protestants, a strong prejudice ex- 
 ists against these institutions. That they prevent infanticide is 
 self-evident. Their operation as an encouragement of illicit inter- 
 course can not be estimated without some minute inquiries into 
 the illegitimacy of places which encourage them, and of others 
 which are without them. 
 
 The proportion of children in the foundling hospitals of Italy is 
 certainly large, but it is believed, on good grounds, that a consid- 
 erable number of them are legitimate, and are abandoned by their 
 parents on account of their poverty. Of the really illegitimate, 
 there are no means of saying with accuracy (nor, as far as we 
 know, have any attempts been made to do so) to what class of so- 
 ciety the infants belong. Meanwhile, -although there is no ground 
 for assuming a larger proportion of illegitimate children than in 
 northern climates, on the other hand, the publicly displayed pros- 
 titution of Italy is infinitely less. 
 
 Naples has a population of about four hundred thousand. Of 
 fifteen thousand births there are two thousand foundlings ; we can 
 not say illegitimates, for, owing to the reasons already specified, 
 there are-no means of ascertaining the facts. 
 
 In Tuscany, in 1834, there were twelve thousand foundlings re- 
 ceived into the various hospitals. 
 
 The Hospital of the Santo Spirito at Eome is a foundling asy- 
 lum with a revenue of about fifty thousand dollars per annum. 
 
 About one in sixteen of these children is claimed by its parents ; 
 
168 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 the majority are cared for, during infancy and cMdhood, either in 
 the hospitals or with the neighboring peasantry, -w^h whom they 
 are boarded at a sniall stipend. "When of suficient age they are 
 dismissed to work for themselves ; but in many of the^ hospitals 
 they have some claim in after-life on occasions of sickness or dis- 
 tress. 
 
 We have already alluded to. the wide differences of national 
 character in the various pohtical divisions of Italy. The vices of 
 laziness, mendicancy, and their. kindred failings of licentiousness 
 and unchastity are chiefly confined to the towns, large andsmall.^ 
 The peasantry of Naples and. of the Papal States are industrious, 
 temperate ; and the; peasant women, even those who, from the vi- 
 cinity of Eome, frequent the studios of the artists as models, are 
 generally of unexceptionable character.^ The mountaineers of the 
 Abruzzi, long infamous as banditti (a stigma affixed by the French 
 or other dominant powers on those who resisted their rule), ia 
 harvest-time brave the deadly malaria of the Campagna to earn a 
 few liri honestly for their starving children, although in so doing 
 the many that never return to their mountain homes show the 
 risks that all have run. The com, wine, and oil raised in Italy, 
 the well-supplied markets of Rome and other cities, are evidence 
 that the peasantry do not all eat the bread of idleness. The Papal 
 States contain some of the finest, richest, and best cultivated prov- 
 inces in Italy.' It is in the towns we must look for the worst re- 
 sults of misgovemment and bad example. 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 SPAIN. 
 
 Resemblance betweea Spanish and Roman taws on Prostitution. — Code of Al- 
 phonse IX. — Result of Draconian Legislation. — Ruffiani. — Court Morals.— 
 Brothels. — ^Valencia-r- Laws for the Regulation of Vice.^-Concubines legally 
 recognized. — SyphiHs. — Cortejo. — Reformatory Institutions at Barcelona. — 
 Prostitution in Spain at the Present Day. — Madrid Foundling Hospital. 
 
 Between the ancient Spaniards and the' Romans a most inti- 
 mate connection subsisted from an early period of the Roman re- 
 public, and the laws and customs, of the former bore the closest re- 
 semblance to those of the latter. This affinity continued so long 
 
 ' History of Italy : Family Library, vol. iii. 
 
 ' Roman Republic, 1849 ; Roinej by a NewTorker. ' Valery. 
 
SPAIN. 169 
 
 as the Eoman empire had. a name, and after the establishment of 
 Christianity as "the state religion, the ties of kindred and depend- 
 ence were drawn still eloser, for the Spanish kingdom has ever 
 been the favored heritage, and its rulers the most obedient sons 
 of Eome. Thus the maxims of the Eoman civil law were early 
 incorporated into the political system, and they still remain the 
 chief pillars of Spanish jurisprudence. Accordingly, we find, in 
 their legislation on prostitution, that the Spaniards, together with 
 the general theories, adopted the specific enactments of other Latin 
 nations. 
 
 By the code of Alphonse IX., in the twelfth century, procurers 
 were to be condemned to "civil death." Such offenders were 
 thus classified: 
 
 1. Men who trafficked in debauchery ; these were to be banished. 
 
 2. Keepers of houses of accommodation, who were to be finedj and their 
 houses confiscated. . 
 
 3. Brothel-keepers who hired out prostitutes, which prostitutes, if slaves, 
 were to be manumitted ; if free, were to be dowried at the cost of the of- 
 fenders, so that they might have a chance of marriage. 
 
 4. Husbands conniving at the prostitution or dishonor of their wives : 
 these were liable to capital punishment. 
 
 6. A class of persons styled Ruffiani (whence the modem word ruffian). 
 
 These latter were analogous to the pimp and bully of the pres- 
 ent day, and, from the repeated and very severe laws against them, 
 seem to have given great trouble to the authorities. They were 
 banished, flogged, imprisoned ; in short, got rid of on any terms. 
 Girls who supported .them were pubHcly whipped, and the general 
 laws upon the matter were similar to those noted in the previous 
 chapter on Italy. 
 
 In Spain, the profligacy of public morals attained a pitch be- 
 yond all precedent, possibly owing, in some measure, to Draconian 
 legislation. Further laws were, from time to time, passed against 
 the Euf6.ani, as preceding edicts had fallen into desuetude, and 
 their presence and traffic was encouraged by the prostitutes. 
 These latter were forbidden to harbor the men, and on breach of 
 this prohibition were to be branded; pubhcly whipped, and banish- 
 ed the kingdom. Procurers, procuresses, and adulteresses were 
 punished by iniitilation of the nose. Mothers who trafficked in 
 their .children's virtue, exc^t under: ^pressure of extreme want, were 
 also liable to this barbarous punishment. 
 
 In 1552 and 1566, edicts were again passed against the Euffiani. 
 
170 HISTOEY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 They were styled a MgUy objectionable class, dangerous to pub- 
 lic order. On the first conviction as a rnffiano,<Klie offender was 
 sentenced to ten years at the galleys ; for a second conviction, he 
 received two hundred blows or stripes, and was sent to the gal- 
 leys for life. 
 
 Up to this time the court of Spain seems to have been almost 
 as strongly tinctured with licentiousness as those of other nations. 
 About the middle of the fifteenth century, Henry IV. divorced his 
 wife, Blanche of Aragon, after a union of twelve years, the mar- 
 riage being publicly declared void by the Bishop of Segovia, whose 
 sentence was confirmed by the Archbishop of Toledo, "por impo- 
 iencia respedwa, owing to some malign influence." Henry subse- 
 quently espoused Joanna, sister of Alphonse V., Kang of Portugal. 
 The bride was accompanied by a brilliant train of maidens, and 
 her entrance into Castile was greeted by the festivities and mili- 
 tary pageants which belonged to the age of chivalry. In her own 
 country Joanna had been ardently beloved ; in the land of her 
 adoption her light and lively manners gave occasion to the gross- 
 est suspicions. Scandal named the Cavalier Beltran de la Cueva 
 as her most favored lover. He was one of the handsomest men 
 in the kingdom. At a tournament near Madrid he maintained 
 the superior beauty of his mistress against all comers, and dis- 
 played so much prowess in the presence of the king as induced 
 Henry to commemorate the event by the erection of a monastery 
 dedicated to St. John.' It does not appear, however, whom Bel- 
 tran de la Cueva indicated as the lady of his love on this occasion. 
 
 Two anecdotes may be mentioned as characteristic of the gal- 
 lantry of the times. The Archbishop of Seville concluded a superb 
 fete, given in honor of the royal nuptials, by introducing on the 
 table two vases filled with rings garnished with precious stones, 
 to be distributed among his female guests. At a ball given on 
 another occasion, the young queen having condescended to dance 
 with the French embassador, the latter made a solemn vow, in 
 commemoration of so distinguished an honor, never to dance with 
 any other woman. 
 
 "While the queen's levity laid her open to suspicion, the licen- 
 tiousness of her husband was undisguised. One of Joanna's maids 
 of honor acquired an ascendency over Henry which he did not 
 attempt to conceal, and after the exhibition of some disgraceful 
 scenes, the palace became divided by the factions of the hostile 
 
 » Prescott, History of Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 66. 
 
SPAIN. 171 , 
 
 fair ones. The Arclibisliop of "Seville did not blusli to espouse the 
 cause of the paramour, who maintained a magnificence of state 
 which rivaled royalty itself. The public were still more scandal- 
 ized by Henry's sacrilegious intrusion of another of his mistresses 
 into the post of abbess of a convent in Toledo, after the expulsion 
 of her predecessor, a lady of noble rank and irreproachable char- 
 acter. 
 
 These examples of corruption influenced alike the people and 
 the clergy. The middle class imitated their superiors, and in- 
 dulged in an excess of luxury equally demoralizing and ruinous. 
 The Archbishop of St. James was hunted from his see by the in- 
 dignant populace in consequence of an outrage attempted on a 
 youthful bride as she was returning from church after the per- 
 formance of the nuptial ceremony.' 
 
 Under the j-eign of Ferdinand and Isabella a total change was 
 effected. " They both exhibited a practical wisdom in their own 
 personal relations which always commands respect, and which, 
 however it may have savored of worldly policy in Ferdinand, was 
 in his consort founded on the purest and most exalted principles. 
 Under such a sovereign, the court, which had been little better 
 than a brothel in the preceding reign, became the nursery of vir- 
 tue and generous ambition. Isabella watched assiduously over 
 the nurture of the high-born damsels of the court, whom she re- 
 ceived into the royal palace, causing them to be educated under 
 her own eye, and endowing them with liberal portions on their 
 marriage."^ 
 
 Joanna, the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was un- 
 fortunate in her marriage to Philip, son of the Archduke Maxi- 
 milian, and sovereign — ^in right of his mother — of the Low Coun- 
 tries. The couple embarked for Flanders in the year 1504, and 
 soon after their arrival the inconstancy of the husband and the 
 ungovernable sensibility of the wife occasioned some scandalous 
 scenes. Philip was openly enamored of one of the ladies in her 
 suite, and his injured wife, in a paroxysm of jealousy, personally 
 assaulted her rival, and caused the beautiful locks which had ex- 
 cited the admiration of her fickle husband to be shorn from her 
 head. This outrage so affected Philip that he vented his indigna- 
 tion against Joanna in the coarsest and most unmanly terms, and 
 finally refused to have any farther intercourse with her.^ 
 
 Public brothels were established in Spain, as in other countries 
 ' Prescott, i. 66, et seq. ' Id. i. 227. " ' Id. iii. 171. 
 
172 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of Europe, one of great extent being in existence in Valencia in 
 the fifteenth century. It constituted a complete suburb in itself, 
 similar to the Ghetto, or Jews' suburb of most capital cities. In- 
 deed, from its description, it is doubtful if it was not a rogue's 
 sanctuary, similar to the well known Alsatia in London. It was 
 surrounded by a wall with one gate only, at which a warder was 
 stationed. He was a public city officer, and one of his duties was 
 to warn all comers of the risk their property ran, in visiting such 
 a place. If they wished to leave valuables in his care they could 
 do so, and receive them on their exit, • There were some hundreds 
 of girls resident in this vast den of iniquity. To add to the dis- 
 grace of the locality, the place of public execution was at its gate. 
 
 In 1486, the rents, profits and emoluments of the public broth- 
 els of Seville were assigned to AlonzoFajardOjthe'master of the 
 royal table. ■ . 
 
 In 1559, there is an enactment in (Jranada fixing the rents to be 
 paid by the women for their rooms and accommodation in pubHe 
 brothels, and also detailing the furniture and food with which they 
 were to be provided in return. This is similar to the minute leg- 
 islation of the Gerinah cities. This public provision having been 
 made, no person was allowed to lend'these women bed-linen. 
 
 The "authorities of various cities might not permit a prostitute 
 to reside in the town without previous examiiiation by a duly li- 
 censed' physician, who was to declare, upon oath, whether the 
 woman then was or had recently been diseased; 
 
 By some of the Spanish laws, varraganas (kept mistresses or 
 concubines) seem to have been a legal institution, for rnen of rank 
 were forbidden to take slave-dancers, tavern-servants,; procuresses, 
 or prostitutes as concubines. This breach of the ordinary insti- 
 tutions of Christianity may probably have been a compromise of 
 Moorish and Christian usages and morals. Before the final dead- 
 ly struggle which ended in the expulsion of the Moors, intermar- 
 riages were not uncommon among the two peoples. Interchange 
 of Mendship and close intimacy existed between the races, and a 
 mutual tolerance of each other's laws and customs was maiatain- 
 ed, except by the enthusiasts of either religion. ; 
 
 The Spanish juristsdistinCtly recognized, the woman's right to 
 recover the wages of her infamy. . The scholiasts struck out vari- 
 ous fine distinctions, for which the monkish dialQcticians werg so 
 deservedly ridiculed by the free-thinkers of the eighteenth -cen- 
 tury, and these were debated aiid discussed with the utmost eager- 
 
SPAIN. I'^g 
 
 ness.' One ; question was whether, if the man paid beforehand^ 
 and the woman refused to complete the contract, he could compel 
 her ? The weight of opinion seebied to be that, i as he contem- 
 plated an immorality, he could neither recover the money nor en- 
 force the agreement. Another equally important point was the 
 use to which the gains of prostitution might be lawfully applied. 
 The legality of their gains would: seem to have overridden the 
 mode of their expenditure, but casuists thought otherwise,, and, 
 by: a royal edict of AlphonselX., it was decided that priests could 
 not receive funds obtained from such impure sources. 
 
 By the old Spanish law prostitutes were subjected to various 
 disabilities in matters of inheritance ; or testamentary disposition. 
 As mentioned in the review of' the old G-erman customs, the 
 Church considered it a meritorious act to marry a harlot, on the 
 assumption that thereby a brand was saved from the burning,* 
 It is related of a young man that, while being led to the, scaffold, 
 a courtesan, struck by his manly beauty aiid bearing, offered to 
 marry him, whereby, in virtue of a law- or usage, his life would be 
 saved.. He rejected her proposition, as existence was not worth 
 redemption at such a price. It is added that his life was never- 
 theless spared, in consideration of his spirit and courage. 
 
 In ' 1570, by order of Philip II., the regulations in force in the 
 principal towns of Andalusia were extended, to those of Castile. 
 By these it was enacted that a woman became a prostitute, of her 
 own free will, and that no one could compelher to continue such, 
 even though she had incurred debts. A surgeon was directed to 
 pay her a weekly visit at her house, and report to the deputies of 
 the Consistory those who were diseased,, in order that they might 
 be removed to hospital. The keeper of a brothel could not re- 
 ceive into his house any one who had not been previously exam- 
 ined, nor allow any one who was diseased to remain there, under 
 a fine of a thousand maravedis, with' thirty days' imprisonment. 
 Each room was to contain certain furniture, and the house was to 
 be closed on holidays,' during Lent, Ember "Week, and on all fast 
 days,uiider a punishment of a hundred stripes to each woman 
 
 ' Voltaire says that' these prurient questions were debated with a gusto and a 
 minuteness of detail not found felsewhere. He instances a variety; of these absurd 
 theorems. 
 
 ' It may be imagined, as was the case in Berlin, that this behest flowed from the 
 irregular manner and conduct of the clergy; but some of the fathers of the Church 
 entertained and avowed this opinion at a time when the morals of the clergy were 
 not open to impeachment. 
 
174 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 wlio received visitors, as well as to the keeper of tlie house. 
 These and other orders were to be hung upon different parts of 
 the house, under a fine (about six dollars) and eigtt days' im- 
 prisonment. 
 
 The subject of venereal disease in Spain has acquired some in- 
 terest from a generally received opinion that its appearance was 
 made in that country, whence it was disseminated throughout Eu- 
 rope. Columbus and his crew were reported to have introduced 
 it from America, but later investigations have proved that syph- 
 ilis was not known on this side of the Atlantic until imported by 
 Europeans. Facts have been advanced in preceding pages show- 
 ing its almost simultaneous appearance in Italy and Spain, and 
 we recur to the subject now merely with reference to the theory 
 of its American origin. A late work, Letter e sulla Storia <h Mali 
 Venerei, di Bomenice Thiene, Venezia, 1823, enumerates some proofs 
 on the question. The main points are : 1. That neither Colum- 
 bus nor his son allude, in any way, tb such a disease in the New 
 "World. ■ 2. Among frequent notices of the disease in the twenty- 
 five years following the discovery of America, there is no mention 
 of its originating there, but, on the contrary, a uniform derivation 
 of it from some other source is assigned. 3. That the disorder 
 was known and described before the siege of Naples, and there- 
 fore could not be introduced by the Spaniards at that time. 4. 
 That it was known in a variety of countries in 1493 and the 
 early part of 1494 ; a rapidity of diffusion irreconcilable with its 
 importation by Columbus in 1493. 6. That the first work pro- 
 fessing to trace its origin in America was not published till 1517, 
 and was the production, not of a Spaniard, but a foreigner. The 
 question of its origin is more definitely settled by a letter of Peter 
 Martyr, noticing the symptoms in the most unequivocal manner, 
 and dated April 5, 1488, about five years before the return of 
 Columbus. Some doubts have been thrown upon the accuracy 
 of this letter, but they do not invalidate it.^ 
 
 In Madrid, in 1522, a special hospital for venereal patients was 
 founded by Antoine Martin, of the order of St. Jean de Dieu. In 
 ,1575 the Spaniards passed an ordinance that no female domestics 
 under forty years of age should be taken to service by unmarried 
 men. The tenor of this law bespeaks the evil intended to be 
 remedied. 
 
 ' Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, ii. 602 (note). The learned his- 
 torian argues the subject at some length. 
 
SPAIN. 175 
 
 In tte present day, little is done in Spain in reference to pros- 
 titution by legislation on tlie subject. In his memoir on tbe sub- 
 ject to the Brussels Congress, Ramon de la Segra tells us that the 
 old edicts have gradually become obsolete, and that neither the 
 municipal authorities or general government take any farther in- 
 terest in the question than an occasional enforcement of the cath- 
 olic laws against immorality and women of ill fame. It is said 
 that in Seville first-class houses of prostitution have a custom of 
 retaining the services of a physician at their own expense, whose 
 oflS.ce is to attend and make examinations of the women. Cadiz 
 is notorious for its attractive climate and its dissipations.^ 
 
 In the last century a tone of manners prevailed in the Spanish 
 peninsula which was materially, changed by the French occupa- 
 tion sweeping away many of the laxities of the age. In 1780 the 
 Italian system of an attendant upon married ladies was adopted 
 in Spain. These were termed Cort^os, and it is stated that in the 
 cities they were principally, military men, but in the country the 
 monks performed the duty. The fidelity and affection of the 
 women were directed to their gallants, andit even was thought 
 discreditable, without very sufficient reason, to be guilty of fickle- 
 ness in this particular. Married men were even the cortejos of 
 other men's wives, neglecting their own, or leaving them to fol- 
 low the bent of their private inclinations.- No husband was jeal- 
 ous, but it was etiquette for Spanish ladies to keep up an external 
 decorum, and to abstain from marked attentions to a cortejo in the 
 husband's presence, although he might be perfectly aware of his 
 wife's infidelity, and of her lover's presence in the house.^ A cu- 
 rious illustration of this extraordinary state of public manners is 
 given in an incident that occurred in Carthagena. A gentleman 
 one morning remarked to a friend, " Before I go to rest this night 
 the whole city will be thrown into confusion." He occasioned 
 this public disorder by going honie an hour sooner than his usual 
 time, whereby his wife's cortejo was compelled to beat a precipitate 
 retreat. The cortejo' s arrival at his own house produced a similar 
 effect, which was multiplied through polite society all round the 
 town. 
 
 ' Byron commemorates the beauty of the women of Cadiz, and, in his description 
 of the shipwreck, saves the mate from being eaten by his starved companions on 
 
 account of 
 
 " A Bmall present made to him at Cadiz^ 
 By general eubscription of the ladies." 
 
 =' Townsend : Travels in Spain in 1786 and 1787. 
 
176 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 By the Spanish laws, which were in many provinces especially 
 favorable to women, they could make ex parte cases against their 
 husbands of ill treatment, and if they had beaten them the punish- 
 ment might be made very severe. These laws were, as may be 
 supposed, the frequent means of flagrant injustice. 
 
 In Barcelona there was a Magdalen institution, having- the 
 double object of reforming prostitutes and of correcting women 
 who failed in the marriage vow, or who neglected or disgraced 
 their families. The former department was called the Casa de 
 Gralera; the latter, the Casa de Correccion. The prostitutes were 
 partially supported at the public cost, their extra foodj beyond 
 bread and meat, being provided by their own labor, to which they 
 were obliged to devote themselves all day. The lady culprits 
 were supported by their relations. They were imprisoned by the 
 sentence of a particular court, on the complaint of a member of 
 their famUy, and they, as well as the prostitutes, were required 
 to work. When deemed necessary, these offenders received perr 
 sonal correction. Drunkenness was one of the grounds of incarcera- 
 tion. The precise offenses are not mentioned by our author,* but 
 the fashions and customs of nations are so distinct, that indiscre- 
 tion, or even familiarity in- one, might be immorality in another. 
 A leading principle in Spanish manners is not to give offensei 
 People may be as vicious as they please ; it may be even notorir 
 ous that they are so, but their manners must be outwardly correct. 
 There is little doubt the violation of this maxim was the principal 
 cause of imprisonment. , " 
 
 In Barcelona there was also, in 1780, a foundling hospital lib- 
 erally supported. A curious custom was observed in reference 
 to the girls. They were led in procession when of marriageable 
 age, and any one who took a fancy to a young woman might ask 
 her hand, indicating his choice by throwing a handkerchief on 
 her in public. 
 
 In the Asturias certain forms of disease appeared with excessive 
 virulence, and were very common. SyphiHs was prevalent. 
 There was a hospital at Oviedo for its cure, but patients had con- 
 siderable reluctance to apply to it. Whether incident to this prev- 
 alence of syphilis or not, we have no means of ascertaining, but 
 leprosy was very general, and there were twenty or more large 
 houses for its cure in the Asturias. The common itch in a high- 
 ly aggravated form was also general, and often productive of par- 
 asitical vermin. 
 
 ' Townsend. 
 
SPAIN. 177 
 
 The present state of Spanish society is the subject of the usual 
 discrepancies between travelers, owing to their different preju- 
 dices, means of information, or opportunities of making observa- 
 tions. No country of Europe retahis more of its original peculi- 
 arities and national habits than Spain. Under the fervid sun of 
 Andalusia, the same rigorous observance of proprieties is hardly 
 to be found as in the northern climate of Biscay, whose hardy 
 sons have ever been the defenders of their rights and political 
 privileges. Madrid, as the capital, might be thought a fair illus- 
 tration of the habits and manners of the great bulk of the city 
 populations, whose peculiarities of race have not been smoothed 
 away by intercommunication, the traveling facilities of Spain be- 
 ing yet among the worst in Europe. The descendants of the Goth 
 and the Moor are still distinct in character. A general prejudice 
 exists as to the morality of Southern nations in Europe, and the 
 Spanish women are by no means exempt from a full share of this 
 unfortunate opinion. Nevertheless, a recent writer says : 
 
 "I speak my sincere opinion when I say that, with the exception of a 
 few fashionable persons, whose lives do indeed seem to pass in one constant 
 round of dissipations, whose time is spent in dxivirig on the Prado, attending 
 the theatre, the opera, or the ball-room, precisely as their compeers do in 
 every other great city, the Spanish women are the most domestic in the 
 world, the most devoted to the care of their children, the most truly pious, 
 and the best trtinageres. This latter circumstance may arise from the fact 
 that their fortunes are rarely equal to their rank, and that a lavish expend- 
 iture would soon bring ruin Upon the possessors of the most ancient names 
 and most splendid palaces in Madrid."^ 
 
 This opinion is confined solely to the higher classes^ of the city 
 of Madrid. It expresses nothing as to the great bulFof the pop- 
 ulation, and, however gratifying the record of worth may be, we 
 fear the eulogy must be takep cum grano salis. 
 
 Of the education of Sptoish women, Mrs. Donn Piatt states that, 
 by reason of the small fortunes of the nobility, the daughters of 
 an ancient house must be made useful before they, are accomplish- 
 ed ■ that the first consideration, however, is their religious educa- 
 tion, to which, and to the preparation for confirmation— the great 
 juvenile rite of Catholic countries — the utmost care and attention 
 are devoted. Next after their religious tuition, the greatest pains 
 are taken to make them accomplished housekeepers. They are 
 taught to make their own clothes, to keep accounts, to regulate 
 
 ' Attache in Madrid : Appleton, 1856, p. C4. 
 
 M 
 
178 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 their expenditure, and to attend to the most minute details of the 
 family economy. The advantages of a good solii education are 
 not neglected ; their natural capacity and innate taste for the arts, 
 especially as musicians and pSinters, rapidly develop themselves, 
 under very moderate tuition, to acquirements of a superior chara& 
 ter, and the productions pf young women of high station are 
 spoken of with much admiration. One trait of Spanish character 
 that speaks loudly in favor of the women is tl^e devotion, respect, 
 and obedience paid by sons to their mothers long after age has 
 relieved them from maternal tutelage. 
 
 In Madrid there is a hospital for foundliogs, which are said to 
 amount to about four thousand annually. These are actual found- 
 lings, exposed publicly to the compassion of the charitable. It is 
 principally served by the Sisters of Charity. The infants are ia- 
 trusted to nurses, and at the age of seven they are transferred to 
 the Desamparados (unprotected) college, where they receive in- 
 struction in the simpler rudiments of education, and their rehgious 
 and moral training is cared for. There is also an asylum to which 
 others are drafted to learn some practical handicraft, such as glove- 
 making, straw-hat making, embroidery, etc., and which seems, in a 
 great measure, a self-supporting institution. 
 
 There are three Magdalen Hospitals: St. Nicholas de Barr, 
 founded in 1691 for women of the better class, who are banished 
 for misconduct from the homes of their husbands and fathers; that 
 of the Arrepmtidas, for penitents ; and that of the Becogidos, found- 
 ed in 1637, for the correction of women sent there by their fami- 
 lies, in order that they may be induced to return to the paths of 
 virtue. 
 
 CHAPTEE Xin. 
 
 PORTUGAL. 
 
 eonyentual Life in 1780.-Depravity of Women.-La*s. against Adultery and 
 Rape—Venereal Disea«e.-Illegitimacy.-Foundling Hospitals of Lisbon and 
 Oporto.— Singular Institutions for Wives. 
 
 A WRITER on Portugal, in the year 1780, complains of the 
 scandalous hcentiousness of the monks and nuns, of whom there 
 were no- less than two hundred and fifty thousand in a population 
 of two millions It is said that the convent Odivelas, the harem 
 of the monarch John V., contained three hundred women, account- 
 
PORTUGAL. 
 
 179 
 
 ed tlie most beautiful and accomplished courtesans in tlie king- 
 dom. The great Marquis de Pombal suppressed many of these 
 convents, and was the general reformer of the religious orders. 
 
 Of the effect of such an example from such quarters on the pop- 
 ulation at that time, sunk, as they were, in the most imbecile ig- 
 norance, little need be said. The women of Portugal were reputed 
 to surpass all European females in gallantry, and their attractions 
 were such that only one interview was necessary to complete the 
 conquest. To this condition of common immorality, the rigor of 
 their husbands and male relations may have contributed not a 
 little. They are said to have been outrageously jealous, and to 
 have made no scruple of murdering any stranger who gave therti 
 even the weakest grounds of suspicion. 
 
 In the fundamental laws of Portugal, promulgated in 1143, it is 
 enacted that, " if a married woman commit adultery, and the lius- 
 band complain to the judge, and the judge is the king, the adul- 
 terer and adulteress shall be condemned to the flames ; but if the 
 husband retain the wife, neither party shall be punished." 
 
 In the case of a rape perpetrated on the person of a lady of 
 rank, aU the property of the ravisher went to the lady; and in 
 case the female were not noble, the man, without regard to his 
 rank, was obliged to marry her. 
 
 The writer whom we have already quoted' speaks of the vene- 
 real disease as being, at the time he wrote (1770^1780), habitual 
 in Portugal, and that the Portuguese not knowing how to cure it, 
 its malignity had become so intensified that, in some cases, individ- 
 uals who had contracted a peculiar form of the makdy had died 
 in a few hours, as though struck down by an active and deadly 
 poison. This is most probably the exaggeration of popular opin- 
 ion on the subject. More recent writers are chary of information, 
 and avoid the mention of matters so offensive to ears polita 
 
 The manners and morals of the higher ranks of society must 
 have undergone a, material change for the better in the present 
 century, for an English nobleman (Lord Porchester, since Earl of 
 Caernarvon) speaks in very favorable terms of the propriety, ami- 
 ability, and excellence of the Portuguese ladies, which, excepting 
 in the matter of intellectual education, left them in no wise behind 
 the worthy of their sex in other countries of Europe. 
 
 Among the lower classes, however, it would not seem that the 
 tone of morals had been very much amended, whether we con- 
 "• Due de Chatelet's Travels in Portugal. 
 
180 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 sider their regard for female virtue, or their cultivatipn of the ma- 
 ternal tenderness, and solicitude natural to all crated beings. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Oporto, country women may be met 
 conveying little babies to the Foundling Hospital, four or five to- 
 gether, in a basket. These helpless creatures are the illegitimate 
 children of peasant girls, openly deserted in the villages, and thus 
 forwarded by the authorities to the care of those pious strangers 
 who undertake their nurture and preservation.^ 
 
 In these cases, says Mr. Kingston, the females are not treated 
 by their parents with any harshness or rigor. They are rather 
 compassionated for their misfortune, and are only sent away from 
 home when found obstinately persistent in a course of evil. 
 
 As may be supposed, the foundling hospitals have abundant 
 claims on their funds. The Eeal Casapia, at Belem, near Lisbon, 
 and another hospital in Lisbon attached to the Casa de Misericor- 
 dia, receive together . nearly three thousand children, who are 
 brought up to different callings, and otherwise prepared for active 
 life, as is usual in such institutions. There is a similar asylum, 
 equally frequented, in Oporto. In this city there is also an asylum 
 in which husbands may place their wives during their own ab- 
 sence from home. It often happens that ladies, on such occa- 
 sions, enter the asylum of their own accord. 
 
 There is also in Oporto an establishment in the nature of a Pen- 
 itentiary, in which husbands may immure their faithless wives, or 
 even those who give grounds of suspicion. It is presumed that 
 in the nineteenth century, even in Portugal, this must be done 
 under color of some legal authority. 
 
 CHAPTBE XTV. 
 
 ALGERIA. 
 
 Prostitution in Algiers before the Conquest.— Mezonar.— Unnatural Vices.— Tax 
 on Prostitutes.-.-Decree of 1837.— Corruption.— Number of Prostitutes and Pop- 
 ulation.— Nationality of Prostitutes.— Causes of Prostitution.—Brothels.— Clan- 
 destine Prostitution.— Baths,— Dispensary.—Syphilis.—Punishment of Prosti- 
 
 tutes. 
 
 A PAMPHLET has lately appeared in France on the subject of 
 Prostitution in Algiers. Its author. Dr. E. A. Duchesne, has ren- 
 ' Kingston, Sketches in Lusitania, 1846. 
 
ALGERIA. 181 
 
 dered service by collecting a large number of important facts and 
 statistical data.^ 
 
 When the French conquered Algiers in 1830, they found pros- 
 titution'established there, and prevailing to a large extent. So 
 far as we are able to ascertain, it had always been a leading feat- 
 ure of Algerian society ; travelers had noticed it in the seven- 
 teenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1830 it was estimated that, 
 with a population of thirty thousand, Algiers contained three 
 thousand prostitutes. We have already had occasion to notice 
 the unreliable character of similar estimates in general, but there 
 is no doubt that the number of lewd women at Algiers under 
 Arab rule was inordinately large. They were mainly Moors, 
 Arabs, and negresses. All were under the control of the chief 
 of the native police — ^the Mezonar. He kept a list of them, and 
 laid a tax amounting to about two dollars per month on each. 
 As he paid a fixed sum to the government for the privilege of 
 collecting this tax, it was to his interest to increase the number of 
 prostitutes as much as possible, and he appears to have done so. 
 He kept' in his employ a number of spies, who watched women 
 suspected of immoral habits, and denounced them whenever they 
 were- detected, in which event they were inscribed on the Mezo- 
 nar's list, and became prostitutes for life. He was empowered to 
 compel every prostitute to discharge the duties of her calling, and 
 was frequently applied to by strangers to supply them with wom- 
 en. He was not allowed, however, to lease women to Christians 
 or Jews. Twice a year the Mezonar gave a public fSte, tQ which 
 all the male inhabitants of Algiers were invited ; the prostitutes 
 formed the female portion of the assemblage, and the public of- 
 ficer profited by the increased patronage they obtained during the 
 festivities, as well as by the sale of tickets for the entertainment.^ 
 
 It is right also to add that the French found that other feature 
 of Oriental manners, unnatural habits, largely developed at Al- 
 giers. The caf^s, the streets, the baths, the public places were fall 
 of boys of remarkable beauty, who more than shared with the 
 women the favor of the wealthier natives. Owing to a criminal 
 negligence on the part of the French authorities, no systematic 
 endeavor has ever been made to eradicate this shameful vice, 
 which appears stUl to prevail to an alarming extent. 
 
 The influx of population, mainly soldiery, into a city thus 
 
 ' De la Prostitution dans la Ville d' Alger depuis la conquete, par E. A. Duchesne. 
 Paris, Bailliere, 1853. Mb. p. 64, et seq. 
 
182 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 Steeped in immorality, produced natural results. A few weeks 
 after the invasion, the French general was comg|^led to establish 
 a Pispensary, and to decree that all dissolute women must under- 
 go an examination there once a week. A tax of five frjmcs per 
 month was laid upon prostitutes to defray the expenses of the 
 establishment. "Within less than a year, such grave abuses had 
 crept into the collection of this tax that it was resolved to ferm it 
 out, and it was adjudged at auction to a man who agreed to pay 
 1860 francs per month for its proceeds. In 1832 the monthly tax 
 was raised successively to seven ■^, and nine francs per girl, and 
 on these rates it was farmed to one Balr^, who paid 1666-^ for 
 the privilege of collecting it. He was also entitled to levy and re- 
 tain the amoimt of all fines imposed by the. police on prostitutes, 
 and to charge women ten francs each time they went to a fite out- 
 side the city, and five francs if the f^te were within the limits. 
 The profits of the farm were so great that in 1835 Balr^ was able 
 to pay the government 2250 francs (four hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars) per month. ^ 
 
 Under this system the gravest inconveniences occurred, and 
 became so troublesome that in Noyember, 1835, the governor 
 promulgated a decree remodeling the regulations in force on the 
 subject. It appears the farm system was then abandoned, and 
 the government agents who were intrusted with the collection of 
 the tax robbed both the prostitutes and the state shamefully. 
 
 Hence, in December, 1837, a new decree was issued by the gov- 
 ernor, repealing all forrner laws and regulations, and placing the 
 whole subject under the control of the Commissary of Police. The 
 leading provisions of that decree were as follows : 
 
 " Bveiy public woman who desires to prostitute herself must declare her 
 intention beforehand to the Comptroller of Public Women, who shall enter 
 her name in his register, and present her with a pass-book which he shall 
 sign." 
 
 "Every girl inscribed on the register shall place in the hands of the 
 treasm-er of the Dispensary, monthly, a sum of twenty francs if she be a 
 kept woman, and ten francs if she be not kept. The treasurer shall give 
 her a receipt for the same, and record it in his,account-book." 
 
 " The mayo^r shall be authorized to remit this monthly due, as well as any 
 fines that may have been incurred, when the girl owing the same can prove 
 by a certificate from the comptroller, the treasurer, and the physician that 
 Ae is indigent." 
 
 ' Duchesne, p. 22, 171. 
 
ALGEKIA. 
 
 183 
 
 "Every girl who shall not have paid her monthly due, as well as her 
 fines, within ten days after the visit to the Dispensary, shall undergo an im- 
 prisonment of not less than five days and not more than three months, un- 
 less she establish her indigence as aforesaid." 
 
 " Girls detained in prison shall, on the first symptoms of syphilis, he trans- 
 ferred to the Dispensary for treatment, after which they shall be remanded 
 to prison to serve the remainder of the time." 
 
 " The physician of the Dispensary shall not only treat patients in that 
 establishment, but shall pay periodical, accidental, and all necessary vidts to 
 the prostitutes, who are hereby subjecte#to such visits. He shall visit the 
 Dispensary twice a day, from 7 to 9 A.M. and from 3 to 4 P.M. He shall 
 enter upon his memorandum-book, and upon the pass-book of the girl, the 
 result of all accidental or necessary visits. He shall receive a salary of two 
 thousand francs."^ 
 
 This law is in force at the present time, and is said to iave led 
 to great inconTenience. Police agents are accused of levying black 
 mail on tiie prostitutes to an enormous extent, in the shape of 
 fines, dues for going to balls, hush-money for escaping the visit to 
 the Dispensary, presents to the policeman on the birth, of his chil- 
 dren, etc. The product of the tax is inordinately large, amount- 
 ing, independently of fines, to one hundred and iwentj francs, or 
 twenty-four dollars per annum for each girl. Several administra- 
 tors have recommended its diminution or total suppression, but it 
 is stm retained.^ 
 
 In the year 1838, when the present law was passed, the number 
 of women inscribed on the police register was 320, the total pop- 
 ulation of Algiers being 34,882, of whom two thirds were Afri- 
 cans and one third Europeans ; but the mayor of the city gave it 
 as his opinion that this figure (320) was in reality far below the 
 truth. In 1846 measures were taken for enforcing the police reg- 
 ulations more strictly than before, and some care was used to pro- 
 cure correct statistics of population and prostitution.' We com- 
 pUei the folio vying table from several given by Dr. Duchesne : 
 
 Year. 
 
 Registered 
 Prostitutes 
 (average). 
 
 POPULATION, j 
 
 African 
 (estimated). 
 
 European. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1847 
 1848 
 1849 
 1850 
 1851 
 
 442 
 387 
 395 
 479 
 342 
 
 25,000 
 25,000 
 25,000 
 26,000 
 
 42,113 
 37,572 
 37,572 
 29,392 
 
 67,113 
 62,572 
 63,072 
 56,392 
 56,392 
 
 To these figures, some of which are only approximative, must 
 
 ' Duchesne, p. 31. ° M. p. 172. ' Id. p. 54, 56. 
 
184 
 
 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 be added the number of French soldiers in the garrison at Algiers. 
 At times the effective force has been as large" as t-vwlve or fifteen 
 thousand men. 
 
 Another point of interest is the nationality of the prostitutes of 
 Algiers. It is known that the native women are loose in their 
 morals. In many parts of the interior it is common for fathers or 
 brothers to let out their daughters or sisters by the night or the 
 week to strangers, and the young women themselves are only too 
 willing to ratify a bargain Tjijiich promises to gratify their un- 
 bounded sensuality. The following table gives the nationality of 
 the registered prostitutes during the period 1846-1851.^ 
 
 Years. 
 
 BUEOPEANS, 
 
 AFBIOANB. 1 
 
 ! 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 o 1 
 
 1! 
 
 CQ 
 
 
 n 
 
 i t 
 
 J, . 
 
 1° 
 
 i 
 
 TotaL 
 
 1847 
 1848 
 1849 
 1850 
 1851 
 
 107 
 78 
 82 
 
 113 
 81 
 
 14 
 10 
 
 8 
 8 
 i 
 
 6 
 5 
 .2 
 2 
 5 
 
 11 
 
 10 
 
 17 
 
 20 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 58 
 49 
 60 
 57 
 37 
 
 2 
 
 203 
 181 
 183 
 248 
 170 
 
 26 
 28 
 22 
 19 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 7 
 7 
 8 
 
 16 
 16 
 17 
 17 
 13 
 
 451 
 387 
 401 
 493 
 336 
 
 On inquiring for the causes of prostitution at Algiers, Dr. Du- 
 chesne found that they might be summed up under three heads : 
 1st. Poverty, mainly due to the French conquest and the wars 
 which followed. To the present day it appears that it is not un- 
 usual for an Arab chief to relieve his wants by sending his pret- 
 tiest daughter to Algiers to perform a campaign as a prostitute. 
 2d. The idleness in which all Arab and Moorish women are train- 
 ed. It was proved that, while all the European women were ca- 
 pable of working at some oaUihg or other, and did work during 
 their stay in the hospital, not one of the native women had any 
 idea of manual employment. A few could sing, and had at one 
 time gained a livelihood as street-singers, but the immense major- 
 ity were absolutely incapable of doing any thing for a livelihood. 
 3d. The Oriental idea that the woman is a chattel, to be sold or 
 hired out by her legitimate owner, fathier, brother, or husband. 
 This idea, which prevails in many savage nations, among others, 
 many of our own Indian tribes, is, of course, the best of all enter- 
 ing wedges for prostitution.^ 
 
 There are fpurteen houses of prostitution at Algiers, all kept, it 
 seems, by Europeans, and the greater part by retired prostitutes. 
 The natives objfect to living under the control of a brothel-keeper. 
 They live alone in their own rooms. Sometimes three or four of 
 
 1 Duchesna, p. 58. ' Id. p. 70, et s&i. 
 
ALGEBIA. 185 
 
 them club togetlier and form a partnersliip. Their rooms are gen- 
 erally shabby and ill furnished.^ 
 
 Arab prostitutes seldom appear in the streets, and when they 
 do, they are veiled and dressed like modest women. They may 
 be seen at their windows of an evening, peeping through small . 
 holes contrived for the purpose, and smoking cigarettes. Their 
 customers are procured by means of runners, who are mostly small 
 boys. 
 
 As may be inferred from the amount of the tax on prostitutes, 
 clandestine prostitution is very extensively practiced at Algiers. 
 We have no details or even approximate estimates of the number 
 of clandestine prostitutes, but itdoubtless exceeds that of the reg- 
 istered women. Many of the*are attached to the garrison, and 
 are handed from regiment to regiment, shielded from the police 
 by being claimed as wives by some of the soldiers. Others in 
 like manner prevail upon some colonist to afford them a tempo- 
 rary home, and so elude the visit of the physician. Dr. Duchesne 
 had reason to believe that syphilis prevailed to an alarming ex- 
 tent among the secret prostitutes, and that, until the tax was re- 
 moved, and they were encouraged to register themselves on the 
 police roll, it would continue to be general and virulent.^ 
 
 Formerly the baths were the great haunts of clandestine pros- 
 titutes. It is known that in most eastern countries the bath is 
 not only a sanitary necessity, but a common ally of sensuaHty. 
 At Algiers, before the conquest, men and women are said to have 
 bathed promiscuously, and frightful scenes of debauchery occurred 
 daily. Under French rule this has been reformed. Men may 
 not bathe fi;om 6 A.M. to 6 P.M. ; but Dr. Duchesne was led to 
 believe that it was quite common for men to introduce women 
 into the baths at night, with the connivance of the bath officials. 
 Indeed, some of the latter appear to fill the same office to the Al- 
 gerine bathers as the Koman bath servants did to the dissolute 
 men of that day.^ 
 
 It now remains to speak of the Dispensary at Algiers. It was 
 established, as has been stated, within a few days after the capture 
 of the place. For nearly ten years it was a scandal to the faculty 
 and the authorities. The wards were too small ; there were not 
 beds enough for the women ; every thing was either deficient in 
 quantity or objectionable in quality. In 1839, orders were given 
 for the establishment of a proper and commodious Dispensary. 
 ■ Duchesne, p. 132. = Id. p. Hi. ' Id. p. 148. 
 
;186 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Three old Moorisli houses were hired and divided into wards. 
 They contain at present thirteen wards, with bed* for seventy- 
 seven patients ; a bath-room, containing six baths ; a hall for the 
 visits of prostitutes ; and the necessary offices, etc. The staff of 
 the Dispensary consists of a director, treasurer (econowie), physician, 
 apothecary, clerk, cook, assistant apothecary, porter, five laborers, 
 and four police agents. All the washing is done in the establish- 
 ment. The commissariat is on the amplest scale; meat, soup, 
 vegetables of aU kinds, rice, eggs, fruit, etc., being supplied in 
 abundance to the patients.^ 
 
 Every morning at seven o'clock the women are visited by the 
 physician, assisted by the apothecary. Those who are able to 
 walk are examined in the salle arvisite, the others in their beds. 
 The average number of patients during the year appears to be 
 from five hundred and fifty to six hundred. The average dura- 
 tion of the treatment is from twenty-four to thirty-four days. The 
 cost to the Dispensary averages from one and a half to one and 
 three quarters franc per day for each girl (about thirty or Ikirty- 
 five cents).^ 
 
 The Dispensary physician reported to Dr. Duchesne that, so far 
 as his observation went, syphilis was more severe on the sea-coast 
 than in the interior ; and in the months of September, October, 
 November, and December, than at any other period of the yeari^ 
 
 Prostitutes are punished for being more than twenty-four hours 
 behind time in visiting the Dispensary; for leaving it during 
 treatment; for insulting the physician or other authorities; for 
 continuing to exercise their calling after being attacked by dis- 
 ease. The penalty is imprisonment, either in the ordinary prison 
 or in the solitary cell. Formerly, the tread-mill was used, and in 
 bad cases a girl's hair was cut off, and her nose slit ; but these 
 savage relics of Moorish legislation were long since abandoned. 
 Solitary confinement is found to answer every useful purpose.* 
 
 ' Dnchesne, p. 152, et seg;. ' Id. p. 176. ' Id. p. 192. * Id. p. 198. 
 
BELGIUM. 187 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 BELGIUM. 
 
 Hospitals and Charitable Institutions. — ^Foundlings. — Estimate of the Mai'riage 
 Ceremony. — ^Regulations as to Prostitution. — Brothels. — Sanitary Ordinances. 
 
 Belgium takes a more prominent position in Europe than its 
 mere extent would warrant. ' TMs influence is derived from the 
 vigorous aiid effective stand made in behalf of rational freedom, 
 and from the manner in which free institutions have been origi- 
 nated and maintained. 
 
 The hospitals and other eleemosynary institutions of Belgium 
 are of a magnificent character, supported at an annual expenditure 
 of nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Almost every town, and 
 many of the larger villages, have hospitals for the sick, sometimes 
 maintained at corporation expense, sometimes by private endow- 
 ments. In 318 hospitals, during the four years from 1831 to 1834 
 (inclusive), no less than 22,180 persons were treated.^ 
 
 Foundling hospitals are a marked feature of these charitable es- 
 tablishments. The turning table, which was formerly in use in 
 aU such institutions, has lately been abandoned in most of them, 
 but still remains in use at those of Brussels and Antwerp. The 
 total number of children annually abandoned in Belgium is esti- 
 mated to exceed eight thousand out of one hundred and forty-four 
 thousand births, a ratio of about one in eighteen. The average 
 expense attendant upon the maintenance of each infant is about 
 seventy-two francs. 
 
 Marriage in Belgium is, by law, simply a civU contract, requiring 
 fifteen days' notice posted in front of the Hotel de Ville. Not- 
 withstanding the simplicity of this ceremonial, it is affirmed that 
 an enormous extent of immorality and illegitimacy is to be met 
 with, and that a virtuous servant-girl is altogether exceptional, 
 there being scarcely one of them who has not an illegitimate- chOd, 
 while they maintain with the most unyielding confidence that, so 
 long as the father is a bon ami (sweetheart), there is no moral tur- 
 pitude in the case. 
 
 ' W. Trollope's Belgium. Scarcely a more liberal work toward the Belgians 
 than Mrs. Trollope's toward ourselves. 
 
188 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Belgium is remarkable for its regulations witli respect to prosti- 
 tution and tlie spread of venereal disease. The peflfections of the 
 latter arrangements are shown in the fact that, out of an army of 
 thirty thousand men, there were less than two hundred cases of 
 syphilis in the year 1855. 
 
 The brothels of Brussels are of two kinds : les maisons de de- 
 bauche and ks maisons de passe; these are visited by les filUs ^par- 
 ses, who.keep their appointments there. The two classes of houses 
 are distinguished by different-colored lanterns hung over the doors. 
 
 All classes of prostitutes are required to be examined twice a 
 week ; those who hve in brothels of the first and second class are 
 visited by the physicians, while the very poor- women of the third 
 class, and all those who do not reside iu brothels, are obliged to 
 attend at the Dispensary. If they are punctual in their visits for 
 four weeks in succession they are exeimpt from all tax ; but if, on 
 the contrary, their attendance is irregular, they can be imprisoned 
 from one to five days. . Any woman who does not live in a broth- 
 el can be examined at her own residence, provided that she pays 
 at the Dispensary a sum amounting to about eighty -five cents. For 
 this she receives four visits, and the physicians will continue to 
 call upon her as long as the payments are made in advance. Thus 
 the denizens of the aristocratic brothels are saved the inconven- 
 ience of attending at the Dispensary, as also that portion living in 
 private lodgings who can afford to pay the fee to release them- 
 selves from going to the office as common prostitutes, while the 
 half-starved, ill-dressed pauper of the third class must wait at the 
 Dispensary until examined, and then return to her squalid home, 
 where none but her companions and the police-of&cers are ever 
 seen. 
 
 The medical staff of the Dispensary is composed of a superin- 
 tending inspector, whose duty is to be present in the Dispensary 
 when examinations are being made, and to visit the houses once 
 a fortnight at least ; of two medical inspectors, who, during alter- 
 nate months, examine, one the women in the brothels, the other 
 those who attend at the Dispensary. The date and result of every 
 examination, are marked on a card belonging to each woman, ia 
 the registers kept at the brothels, and in the records of the Dispen- 
 sary. If a woman be found affected with syphilid or any other ia- 
 fectious disease, the owner of the brothel must send her immediate- 
 ly, in a car, to the hospital, and as soon as her cure is complete her 
 card is handed to her, and she is at liberty to resume her calling. 
 
HAMBURG. 189 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HAMBURG. 
 
 Ancient Legislation.— TJlm.— Legislation from 1483 to 1764.— French Revolution, 
 and its effects on Morals. — Abendroth's Ordinance in 1807. — Police Ordinance 
 in 1811. — Additional Powers in 1820; — Hudtwalcker. — Present Police Regula- 
 tions. — ^Number of Registered Women, — Tolerated Houses. — Illegitimacy. — Age 
 and Nativity of Prostitutes. — The Hamburger Berg and its Women. — Physique, 
 Peculiarities, and Diseases of Prostitutes. — Dress. — Food. — Intellectual Capaci- 
 ty. — Religion. — Offenses. — Procuresses. — Inscription. — Locality of Brothels.T- 
 Brothel-keepers; — Dance-houses. — Sunday Evening Scene. — Private Prostitutes. 
 — Street-walkers. — Domestic Prostitution. — Unregistered Prostitution. — Houses 
 of Accommodation. — Common Sleeping Apartments. — ^Beer and Wine Houses. 
 — Effect of Prostitution on Generative Organs. — General Maladies. — Forms of 
 Syphilis. — Syphilis in Sea-ports. — Severity of Syphilis among unregistered 
 Women. — The "Kurhaus" and -general Infirmary. — Male Venereal Patients. — 
 Sickness in the Garrison. — Treatment. — Mortal Diseases of Hamburg Prosti- 
 tutes. — Hamburg Magdalen Hospital. 
 
 The ancient legislative enactments respecting prostitution in 
 Hamburg seem to have been of the same character, and based 
 upon the same principles, as in other Continental cities, namely, a 
 partial toleration of a necessary evil for the sake of preventing in- 
 jurious excesses. This may be traced in the oldest extant law on 
 the subject, dated in 1292. In the public account-books for 1350 
 are entries of charges which imply that public brothels were built 
 by the corporation, though we find no satisfactory information as 
 to whether they were managed by an appointed ofGicial as in Co- 
 logne, Strasbourg, or Avignon, or were leased by the city to an in- 
 dividual as in trim. It will be interesting to give a sketch of the 
 regulations of prostitution in the latter city before proceeding with 
 the investigation concerning Hamburg. 
 
 The laws of the city of Ulm in 1430, or at least that portion of 
 them called " womian house" laws, provided that the houses should 
 be leased, and the lessee, on becoming tenant, swore to serve the 
 city faithfully ; to prevent all foul play or concealment of suspi- 
 cious goods in his house; to provide clean, healthy women, and 
 never to keep less than fourteen. He was bound to observe a 
 fixed dietary scale; the daily meals were to be "of the value of 
 sixpence ;" on meat days every woman was to have two dishes, 
 soUp with meat and vegetables, and a roast or boiled joint, as most 
 
190 HISTORY OF PKOSTITUTIOK 
 
 convenient. On fast-days and in Lent they were to have the 
 same number of dishes, which (out of Lent) mightWonsist of eggs 
 and baked meat. As a change to this, they might have herrings 
 and eggs; or fishes (probably fresh-water fish), which they could 
 cook for themselves, and to which the keeper must add white 
 bread. If a woman refused the food provided, he was bound to 
 give her something. of the value of sixpence; he was also to sell 
 them wine "when they required it." If a woman was pregnant, 
 he was to put her out of the house. In the "woman's house" 
 there was a chest for 'general purposes, and a money-box for the 
 accounts between the host and the women. Every woman who 
 kept company with a man at night must pay the keeper a kreut- 
 zer, the remainder of the fee being her own property. All money 
 the women obtained in the day was to be put into the general 
 chest ; the third of this belonged to the host ; the balance was paid 
 to the women at the end of the week, less any debts they had con- 
 tracted in the mean time. A woman resided in every house who 
 made financial arrangements between inmates and visitors. If a 
 woman received a present in addition to the stipulated fee, she 
 was at liberty to spend it on clothes, shoes, or personal matters to 
 which nobody oould lay claim. The keeper could not supply the 
 women with clothes, etc., without the knowledge and consent 'of 
 the Master of the Beggars (a local functionary who seems to have 
 combined the supervision of brothels, and of known vagrants and 
 beggars). The host was required to provide, at his own cost, a 
 cook and a cook's maid. Girls or women could, with their own 
 consent, be apprenticed to the " women keeper" by their parents 
 or husbands; but if one was apprenticed against her will, and she, 
 or her friends, wished to cancel the agreement, the keeper was 
 bound to release her without requiring the repayment of any 
 money he might have disbursed for her. If a woman who had 
 accumulated a guilder of her own wished to quit her sinful life, 
 she was allowed to tender it to the keeper in discharge of all her 
 liabilities, and must then be permitted to leave the house, wearing 
 the clothes she wore when she entered it, or, if they were worn 
 out, in her common "Monday clothefe." A woman who desired 
 might leave without this payment if she had nothing to give, but 
 if subsequently detected in any other house the keeper could en- 
 force his demands against her, the discharge not affecting his claim 
 under such circumstances. Every Monday each woman had to 
 contribute one penny, and the host twopence, to the money-box 
 
HAMBUEG. 191 
 
 to purchase tapers for tlie Virgin and the saints, to be offered in 
 the Cathedral on Sunday nights. If any of the women were sick 
 or could not support themselves, they were to be provided with 
 necessaries from the money-box, to which (for greater security) 
 there were two keys, one kept by the host and the other by the 
 Master of the Beggars. Bach woman had to spin daily for the 
 keeper two. hanks of yarn, or, in default, to pay three hellers for 
 each hank. On Sunday, Lady-day, and Twelfth-day, after ves- 
 pers, and in Passion Week, the house was not to be opened. If 
 the keeper broke any of these regulations the council could dis- 
 miss him. The oath taken by the Master of the Beggars required 
 him to visit the women-houses every quarter day ; to read the 
 laws to the women ; and to report to the council any offenses he 
 found existing.' 
 
 In Hamburg, in 1483, the calHng of brothel-keeper was limited 
 to certain streets, apart from the ordinarily frequented thorough- 
 fares — ^a rule which would imply that the authorities had discon- 
 tinued building public brothels, and relinquished the business to 
 individuals. 
 
 In the seventeenth century a different course of action was 
 adopted, and, in place of toleration and limitation of brothels, 
 strict laws were made in reference to visiting suspected places, 
 and the custody of persons of bad character. The women-houses 
 were pulled down and the women expelled ; the criminal records 
 contain frequent instances where the pillory or exile was inflicted 
 for the crime of prostitution. 
 
 In 1764, and again in 1767, the Hamburgers enacted very se- 
 vere laws against offenders, under the title of "delicia carnis," by 
 which both sexes were subject to pains and penalties, but men 
 seem to have been allowed to clear themselves on oath. The offi- 
 cers of 'justice were directed to make domiciliary visits in search 
 of offenders, and the pillory, bread and water, the House of Cor- 
 rection, or banishmentj are the penalties threatened on habitual 
 evil-doers. 
 
 In Germany, prostitution received a terrible impulse from the 
 French Eevolution, when the general disruption of public obhga- 
 tions paved the way to unbounded private license. Probably the 
 licentiousness of Europe at the end of the last and commence- 
 ment of the present century was more extravagant than at any 
 other time. The irruption of immigrants at the fall of the French 
 
 ' Jager's " Schwabisehen Stadtwesen des Mittelalters. " 
 
192 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 monarchy flooded Hamburg -with Parisian morals and customs. 
 Places of entertainment and sensual gratification «rose in all di- 
 rections, the homely, simple manners of the Vaterland were sub- 
 verted, and a less rigid line of conduct took their place. In the 
 ■words of a writer of the day : " Our eating-houses were meta- 
 morphosed into restaurants ; our dancing-rooms into saloons ; our 
 drinking-shops into pavUions; our cellars into halls; our girls 
 into demoiselles ; In short, we were thoroughly polished up by 
 the immoral shoal of iiEmigrants. Quick and unrestrained strode 
 the crowd over our pleasant streets, and modesty and respectabil- 
 ity fled with averted faces, to the sorrow of the few good men." 
 
 The name demoiselk-was granted to m,any of the common wom- 
 en, their places of resort being called "Ma'amseUe houses." In 
 those days the Hamburgers saw, with astonishment, houses fitted ' 
 up and furnished in the style of mansions, with costly upholstery 
 and cabinet-work.' Among the women were the femmes entre- 
 tenness, who received their friends at certain hours, and whose 
 favors were dispensed for a Louis d'or or a ducat. They fre- 
 quented the first and second boxes of the German and French 
 theatres, and drove through the public streets in handsome car- 
 riages. Some of the keepers of this class of houses had physicians 
 in their pay, whose services were always available by the inmates. 
 Petits soupers were given here, and sometimes a ball took place. 
 
 These were literally the aristocracy of prostitution. The sec- 
 ond, third, and fourth grades resided in inferior streets or in the 
 suburbs, differing in their attractions according to the rank which 
 they assumed, but all equally shameless and unequivocal in their 
 conduct and appearance. 
 
 Notwithstanding this rapid spread of prostitution, the police of 
 the city can not justly be charged with neglect of duty, any pub- 
 He outrage being followed by condign punishment. At one time 
 a whole ship-load of nymphs of the pave was dispatched to the 
 colonies ; at another a raid was made on the most conspicuous 
 houses, some of the inmates alarmed into decency of conduct, and 
 the incorrigible publicly exhibited in the streets, decorated with 
 inscriptions signifying their offenses. The voice of the few was 
 powerless against the corruptions of the many. The pamphlets 
 and papers of the time teem with the proffered services of go-be- 
 tweens, and even the Hamburg ladies themselves were far from 
 perfection, if we may credit the evidence of a fictitious petition, 
 • Hamburg and Altona Journal, 1805, iii. 60. 
 
HAMBURG. 193 
 
 praying, among other things, that the ladies restrict the indecency 
 of their costume, and not make such a liberal display of their charms. 
 
 It was impossible such an extravagant state of society should 
 long exist ; a reaction was inevitable ; and we find, accordingly, 
 an ordinance enacted in 1807 by the Praetor Abendroth in refer- 
 ence to the matter. It recognized brothel-keeping and prostitu- 
 tion as a calling, and permitted it under certain restrictions. A 
 tax on the class was imposed, and means were prescribed by which 
 a register of all persons engaged therein was to be kept, and their 
 health and general good conduct maintained and enforced. The 
 ofiicial justification of the tax is found in the order itself, which 
 declares that, "for the purposes aforesaid" (police register and 
 supervision, medical examination, maintenance in sickness, pov- 
 erty, etc.), " and in order that the public shall be at no charges, 
 each housekeeper shall, for every woman residing with him, pay 
 two marks to the Prsetor's treasury. The surplus of this treasury 
 shall go to the Hospital." 
 
 During the French occupation in 1811, the pohce renewed and 
 enforced the stringent regulations on the subject of, common houses 
 and women. The preamble of their "Instructions" (April, 1811) 
 is worthy of notice : 
 
 "Public and personal safety require a constant inspection, as well of the 
 public houses dedicated to debauchery, as of the women and girls who fre- 
 quent the same, live therein, or dwell there from time to time. This in- 
 spection must also be extended to those places which are not expressly ap- 
 pointed for dwelling-houses, but which, nevertheless, must be included among 
 the public houses, inasmuch as they serve for refuge to the women and girls 
 who wander about the streets." 
 
 " The grounds of this inspection are two-fold. In one respect they belong 
 to the maintenance of public order : it is needful that no one be withdrawn 
 from the eye of the police, nor find an asylum in such houses. It is like- 
 wise expedient that the magistracy take notice of disgraceful and disorderly 
 proceedings, or prevent those which take place too often in the town. The 
 other grounds respect the public health. The habits of debauchery have be- 
 come so genejal, and inspection has, for some years, become so difiBcult, that 
 the most dangerous maladies have increased to an unprecedented extent. 
 All classes of society complain, and call loudly for regulations to restrain 
 these evils. These considerations have moved the General Police Commis- 
 sary to renew, in full force, the before-enacted laws and regulations, and to 
 order them to be enforced with rigor in the present state of aflfairs." 
 
 After the withdrawal of the French, the vigilance of the police 
 authorities seems to have relaxed, if we are to judge by com- 
 
 N 
 
194 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 plaints published at the time, in which they are accused of com- 
 plicity with the unfortunates who infested the strfpts of Hamburg, 
 and are said, "by the agency of a trifling bribe, to be able to ply 
 their hideous trade unobstructed, and to the great annoyance of 
 the virtuously disposed, who, after certain hours of the evening, 
 are unable to pass along the streets." 
 
 In 1820, " the previously existing police regulations against 
 prostitutes being* proved very ineffectual, insomuch that they in- 
 fest the pubhc streets and ways, not only to the offense of decency 
 and propriety, but to the endangerment of public order and safe- 
 ty," it was ordered that the regulations should be renewed, and 
 additional powers were given to the police to enforce the registry 
 of individuals coming within the scope of the law. 
 
 At this time we find some inforijiation as to the number of 
 prostitutes, who are stated to be about five hundred, chiefly for- 
 eigners, and their receipts from their patrons, but we have no 
 guide to the number of women who pursued their calling private- 
 ly, which must have been large. 
 
 The civic administration of the Senator Hudtwalcker is marked 
 by earnest endeavors to control prostitution and restrict it within 
 known bounds. Some of his views on the subject met much op- 
 position. He wished to close up one end of a notorious street, 
 and to wall up the back windows, stationing a watchman con- 
 stantly at the end left open. After great personal attention to 
 the subject, he published the result of his experience.* His prin- 
 ciples are those upon which the present police regulations of Ham- 
 burg are based. He says : 
 
 "All brothel-keepers and girls should he distinctly made to understand 
 that their infamous and ruinous calling is only tolerated, not permitted, or 
 authorized, or even well wished. Still less can they feel that they have 
 any right to compare themselves with worthy citizens as though their 
 calling, because an impost is levied on them, can be put on a level with 
 other permitted callings. They must remember that this impost is raised 
 solely to defray the necessary cost of police supervision, and of the cure of 
 maladies brought on the common women by their own profligate course of 
 life." 
 
 «2. Public or private brothel-keeping to be notified to the poUce; the 
 regulations to be read over and subscribed ; offenders to be punished by ' 
 bread and water, and the House of Correction. If an uninsoribed woman 
 have the venereal disease, the fact is prima fade evidence of prostitution." 
 
 ' Vorschri/ten die BordeOe md iffenUichen Madchen hetr^end: Hamburg, 1834. 
 
HAMBURG. 195 
 
 " 3. Change of residence to be notified, under penalty." 
 
 " 4. The concession may be withdrawn by the authorities at their pleas- 
 ure." 
 
 " 5. Houses of accommodation will only be tolerated, 
 (a.) where the landlord is inscribed ; 
 (5.) where a resident girl is inscribed ; 
 (c.) where an inscribed girl is the party using it." 
 
 " 6. Women from abroad, kept by single men, muet obtain the police 
 residence permission, and should pay the tax for the first class, without, 
 however, being subject to medical visits. They have the right of the free 
 use of the General Infirmary. Should such a girl be proved to have inter- 
 course with several men, or, being venereal, to have infected others, she 
 should be treated as a public woman." 
 
 7, 8, 9. Prescribe the identification of individuals subscribing ; 
 the details of theif place of birth ; the consent of parents vrhen 
 living ; also, " That any brothel-keeper detaining an innocent girl 
 on false pretenses shall be punished with fine and imprisonment, 
 and the concession be withdrawn." 
 
 • " 10. Female servants or relatives of brothel-keepers residing with them 
 to be over twenty-five years of age." 
 
 "11. No prostitute is suffered to keep children of either sex over ten 
 years of age ; even her own must be brought up elsewhere if she continues 
 her calling." 
 
 12. Prohibits solicitation of passengers. 
 
 "13. No common woman to be in the streets after eleven at night with- 
 out a male companion." 
 
 14. Limits the places to which prostitutes may resort. 
 
 "15. Young people, under twenty years, not to enter a brothel." 
 
 " 16. No music or gaming in brothels, nor liquor-selling, except by spe- 
 cial permission." 
 
 " It. Noise and uproar in brothels punishable." 
 
 "18. No brothel-keeper or inscribed woman to permit extortion or vio- 
 lence to a customer, but they may detain persons who have not paid.. 
 Thefts or foul dealing prohibited ; the landlord prima facie responsible." 
 
 " 19. No compulsion or violence of the women by the keeper, nor by 
 guests with his cognizance." 
 
 " 20. A woman wishing to return to a virtuous life at liberty to do so, 
 notwithstanding any keeper's claims. If they disagree as to such claims, 
 the police to settle them, but in no case has the keeper any lien on her. 
 Nevertheless, this privilege not to be abused. If a woman returns to her 
 evil courses, the keeper's claims on her revive, and she may even be pun- 
 ished. Limitation, according to the class of a woman, of the right of bor- 
 rowing money." 
 
196 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 "21. If parents or relatives will undertake the reclamation of a prosti- 
 tute, the police will compel restitution of her person, fcespective of the 
 keeper's claims, or even of the woman's own refusal." 
 
 " 22. A woman changing her residence, and disputing any settlement 
 with the keeper, can have the same rectified by the police." 
 
 « 23. The women to be subjected every week to medical visitation. No 
 woman, during menstruation, Or with any malady in the sexual organs, to 
 receive visits from a man. No woman to be approached by a man diseased, 
 or reasonably suspected of disease. To this end, a statement of the signs of 
 venereal disease to be furnished." 
 
 " 24. The orders of the public physician are imperative, and must be 
 strictly observed. Want of personal cleanliness increasing the virulence of 
 syphilis, the directions of the physician on this matter to be imperatively 
 followed." 
 
 " 25. The medical officer to report the result of examination to the po- 
 lice, and to enter the same in a book to be kept by each woman, to be pro- 
 duced on demand." ., , 
 
 " 26. A woman finding herself to be venereally infected to report either 
 to the keeper or the police-; in other illness to report to the medical officej, 
 who will direct her course of treatment at home, or, in venereal and infec- 
 tious cases, at the hospital. In cases of pregnancy she is to report herself 
 to the medical officer." 
 
 " 21. A keeper punishable for the disease of a man in his house, and lia- 
 ble for the charges of cure." 
 
 The remaining sections relate to the collection of the tax ; the 
 penalties for violation are fine and imprisonment. 
 
 Having thus briefly sketched the progress of legislation on pros- 
 titution in Hamburg:, based upon the principle that "prostitution 
 is a necessary evil, and, as such,' must be endured under strict su- 
 pervision of the authorities," it seems an appropriate place to copy 
 the following remarks of an eminent local writer: 
 
 " That brothels are an evil no one can deny ; still, the arguments against 
 the sufieranoe of brothels are, except as to that incontestable truth, no an- 
 swer to the 'necessity,' which is the very gist of the thing, and which ne- 
 cessity is based on the uncontrollable nature of sexual intercourse, and on 
 the circumstances of our social condition." 
 
 ">The sufferance of brothels is necessary, 
 
 " 1. For the repression of profligacy, of private prostitution as well as of 
 its kindred crimes, adultery, rape, abortion, infanticide, and all kinds of il- 
 licit gratification of sexual passion. The latter cases occur very rarely with 
 us. Of Paederasty or Sodomy we find but few instances ; and of that im- 
 natural intercourse of women with each other, referred to by Parent-Duchat- 
 elet as common among the Parisian girls, we find no trace." 
 
HAMBURG. 197 
 
 " The sufferance of brothels operates to the suppression of private prosti- 
 tution, in so far as brothel-keepers and the ' inscribed' women are, for their 
 own interest, opposed to it, and are serviceable to the police in its detection. 
 Unquestionably, private prostitution is an incalculably greater evil than 
 public vice." 
 
 " 2. On grounds of public policy ia regard to health. It is quite errone- 
 ous to suppose that these legalized brothels contribute to the spread of 
 syphilitic maladies. This should rather be imputed to the private prosti- 
 tution which would ensue on the breaking up of the brothels, and from 
 which that medical police, supervision that now limits the spread of infec- 
 tion would, of course, be withdrawn. The experience of all time proves that, 
 by means of secret prostitution, the intensity and virulence of venereal dis- 
 orders have been aggravated, to the multiplication of those appalling ex- 
 amples familiar to every medical reader, and which cause one to shudder 
 with horror ; while numerically, disease and its consequences have been car- 
 ried into every class of society. It is precisely our knowledge of these very 
 facts which has induced the sufferance, or, rather, the regulation of these 
 brothels." 
 
 " 3. Suppression is absolutely impracticable, inasmuch as the evil is 
 rooted in an unconquerable physical requirement. It would seem as if the 
 zeal against public brothels implied that by their extinction a limitation of 
 sexual intercourse, except in marriage, would be effected. This is erroneous, 
 for reliable details prove that for every hundred brothel women there would 
 be two hundred private prostitutes, and no human power could prevent this. 
 In a great city and frequented sea-port like Hamburg, the hope of amend- 
 ing this would be purely chimerical." 
 
 Thus mucli for Hamburg legislation, and the sound arguments 
 in its favor. We will now give some facts illustrative of the vice 
 as it exists at the present time, using a pamphlet by Dr. Lippeet, 
 entitled "Prostitution in Hamburg. 1848." 
 
 It must be premised that, for the purpose, Hamburg is divided 
 into two parts : the city proper, and the suburb of St. Paul. The 
 latter is under a distinct municipal authority, and is the ordinary- 
 residence of seamen and those depending on a seafaring life. 
 
 For many years the police returns of the city proper would 
 show about five hundred of the registered "common women" 
 (eingeschrieben Birnen), and one hundred registered brothels. The 
 pohce regulations requiring monthly payment of the personal.aiid 
 house tax, and also a renewal of the permission to keep brothels 
 at the same time, is a very convenient method of obtaining a census 
 of the class. The following is a statement of the largest and small- 
 est monthly number of registered women for several years : 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Year 1833 . . 
 
 Largest 
 
 number, 550 
 
 « 1834 . . 
 
 
 « 550 
 
 « 1835 . . 
 
 
 « 481 
 
 « 1836 . . 
 
 
 « 546 
 
 « 1837 . . 
 
 
 « 514 
 
 « 1844 . . 
 
 
 « 502 
 
 « 1846' . . 
 
 
 « 512 
 
 Smallest number, 456 
 
 ^' " 450 
 
 « « 441 
 
 « « 478 
 
 « « 484 
 
 > No reports. 
 
 These monttly reports do not show any marked variation at 
 any particiilar period, the rise and fall being arbitrary. The fluc- 
 tuation is not very great in the aggregate, although from Novem- 
 ber, 1834, to January, 1835,, there was a decrease of 86 (or nearly 
 one fifth), while between November, 1835, and January, 1886, 
 there was a corresponding increase. Since that time the numbers 
 have remained steadily at about one point. 
 
 The housekeepers' {hordehoirth) return does not vary to the same ex- 
 tent. The average is 105 
 
 But it decreased in 1844 to 90 
 
 " « " 1845 « 93 
 
 « « « 1846 " 96 
 
 Of these housekeepers in the last-named year (1846) there were 
 
 Males 60 
 
 Females 36—96 
 
 In December, 1844, there were 
 
 Registered women 502 
 
 who were subdivided into those 
 
 Living in registered houses 294 
 
 Living privately 208 — 502 
 
 In May, 1845, there were 
 
 Registered women 505 
 
 who were subdivided into those 
 
 Living in registered houses 326 
 
 Living privately 179 — 505 
 
 (At this period there were four registered houses without any women m 
 them.) 
 
 In August, 1846, there were 
 
 Registered women 512 
 
 who were subdivided into those 
 
 Living in registered houses 834 
 
 Living privately 178 — 512 
 
 These figures show that the number of those living privately is 
 gradually diminishing, more of them being concentrated in the reg- 
 istered houses. 
 
 Dr. Lippert is of opinion that prostitution decreases in the sum- 
 mer and increases in the winter months. The statistics will cer- 
 tainly support this theory, but the difference is so small as scarcely 
 to warrant its reception as a rule. 
 
HAMBUEG. 199 
 
 Thus the months of May and July, for five years, give a monthly 
 
 average of . . 499^ 
 
 and the months of November and January for the same time give 
 
 a monthly average of 501-iig- 
 
 showing an average increase in the winter months of ... . l-j^ 
 or about one third of one per cent, on the average number of prostitutes. 
 
 In reference to the classes from which the ranks of the common 
 women in Hamburg are recruited, Dr. Lippert states that fouf 
 fifths are from the agricultural districts of the vicinity ; that they 
 live as house-servants, tavern-waiters, or in other callings for a 
 time, and then become prostitutes "as a matter of business." 
 Without any desire to controvert his opinion on local questions, 
 it may be doubted whether bad example, vicious education, igno- 
 rance of moral or religious obligations, or temptation, are not suffi- 
 cient to account for their fall, aside from this sweeping denuncia- 
 tion, this commercial view of the question, opposed as it is to all 
 experience in every civilized country where any inquiries on the 
 subject have been made. 
 
 The private prostitutes, whether registered or unregistered, are 
 mainly seamstresses or others dependent upon daily labor. These 
 women seem to retain some natural sense of the disgrace attached 
 to open and avowed courtesans, and in their secrecy and quiet re- 
 tain a few feminine characteristics of which the common brothel 
 woman is destitute. 
 
 We have no reliable detail of private unregistered prostitution, 
 or of mere houses of accommodation in Hamburg ; but an impor- 
 tant fact is to be found in the number of illegitimate children, and 
 the decrease, in proportion to the population, of the number of 
 marriages. The following results are taken from Neddermeyer's 
 "Statistics and Topography of Hamburg." 
 
 In 1T99, the marriages were about 1 in 45; 
 
 From 1826 to 1835, " « « « 1 " 97 ; 
 
 In 1840, ' " " " " 1 " 100. 
 
 The proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children is about 1 
 to 5, the actual number of illegitimate births being as follows : 
 
 Vrara niegitimate 
 
 Years. Births. 
 
 1826 649 
 
 1827 606 
 
 1828 T23 
 
 1829 801- 
 
 1830 786 
 
 1831 805 
 
 1832 926 
 
 1833 867 
 
 1834 846 
 
 1835 730 
 
 1836 807 
 
 1837 771 
 
 1838 762 
 
 1839 765 
 
 Y?ars. 
 
 Illegitimate 
 Births. 
 
 1840 7,54 
 
 1841 749 
 
 1842 703 
 
 1843 ......... 655 
 
 1844 797 
 
 1845 778 
 
 1846 779 
 
200 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The population of Hamburg was in 1826 . . 100,902 
 
 « " « « 1840 . . 124,967 * 
 
 " « « « 1846 . . 130,000 or upward was as- 
 
 sumed as the number. 
 
 "We have now to examine tlie pHysiological and pathological 
 peculiarities of the Hamburg prostitutes. 
 
 The police regulations require that no registered woman shall 
 "be under twenty years of age ; but in this they have a discretion- 
 ary power, so as to keep under inspection and supervision some 
 younger girls whom neither the work-house nor prison can re- 
 claim, the experience of the Hamburg authorities having con- 
 vinced them that such ^punitive institutwns are seldom successful in 
 the work of reformation ; a truth which will, ere long, be more gen- 
 erally acknowledged, especially in reference to abandoned women, 
 than it is at the present day. 
 
 The official list for 1844 shows that of the registered prostitutes 
 there were 
 
 Under 20 years of age . 16 
 
 From 20 " to 30 years 401 
 
 « 30 « " 40 « 74 
 
 « 40 " « 50 « 11 
 
 Total 502 
 
 In 1846, of women living in registered houses, there were 
 
 IVom 20 years to 30 years of age 199 
 
 « 80 « « 40 « « .... 50 
 
 « 40 « « 50 " « 8 
 
 Total 257 
 
 The birth-places of the 502 women reported in 1844 included 
 most of the countries in Germany. There were from 
 
 Holland 2 
 
 Hamburg 108 
 
 Hanover 101 
 
 Prussia 81 
 
 Holstein 78 
 
 Other parts of Germany 129 
 
 Russia 2 
 
 France \ 
 
 Total . . 502 
 
 The nativity returns for 512 women, in 1846, do not vary ma- 
 terially from the above, the difference in the foreign-born being 
 that there were four, instead of five, born out of Germany. These 
 tables show that about one in five are natives of Hamburg city 
 and territory. Dr. Lippert notices this fact as a small proportion, 
 and accounts for it by enumerating the difficulties of local rela- 
 tionship, parentage, etc., which would be opposed to the registra- 
 
HAMBURG. 201 
 
 tion of native ■women. These circumstances favor tlie presump- 
 tion that many of the unregistered women are city bom. 
 
 The Hamburger Berg, or St. Paul's Suburb, is on the west side 
 of Hamburg, and has already been mentioned as the abode of sea- 
 men and their dependents. Brothels were tolerated here, in def- 
 erence to the wants of the inhabitants, at a time when they were 
 strictly excluded from the city proper. The women and the 
 houses are of a different type from those of other parts of Ham- 
 burg. All the prostitutes live in registered houses, unregistered 
 or private traf&c in this quarter being rigorously opposed by the 
 authorities. The brothels and their inmates are in ^he most flour- 
 ishing condition at the end of autumn, when the home voyages 
 are completed and the sailors paid off. For a time mirth and ex- 
 citement bear the sway; when the wages are all spent, things re- 
 lapse into their old condition, and sometimes the keepers dismiss 
 some of their women, the supply being in excess of the demand. 
 
 During the year 1846 the number of registered women in this 
 
 district was 
 
 January 186 I August 181 
 
 May 189 | December 169 
 
 The 169 women registered in December were distributed among 
 nineteen tolerated houses. In seven of these music and dancing 
 were permitted, and they contained respectively 21, 13, 11, 19, 20, 
 18, 29 women, leaving only 26 women to inhabit the remaining 
 twelve houses. 
 
 The ages of these women were 
 
 Under 20 years ' 27 
 
 From 20 " to 30 years 129 
 
 « 30 " "40 « 13 
 
 Total 169 
 
 The places of birth do not vary materially from the proportions 
 given already. Other matters relating to this particular class will 
 be found hereafter. 
 
 In their physique the great majority of the registered women 
 present no pleasing aspect. Grenerally taken from the rudest 
 classes, they are coarse and unattractive in their appearance, and 
 from the consequences of irregular indulgence and continual ex- 
 posure, they soon lose the womanly characteristics they once pos- 
 sessed. But this is not a portrait of the whole. Among the un- 
 registered private women may be found some of considerable 
 beauty. The registered women who reside in private, or in first- 
 
202 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 class brothels, have some prepossessing members of their ranks, 
 while the St. Paul suburb has few but of the rougbffet kind. Phys- 
 ical strength seems more in demand among the habitues of that 
 section than a graceful form or a pretty face. 
 
 In their bodily peculiarities and diseases there is no dififorence 
 between the pubHc women of Hamburg and those of other cities. 
 At the commencement of their career they frequently become 
 thin, and emaciated, but after a time, probably owing to their idle 
 life and good food, regain their substance. In their phrenological 
 development we find a marked preponderance of the animal in- 
 stiacts over the iutellectual faculties. The effect of their mode of 
 life will depend somewhat upon individual constitution. The 
 teeth of women of the town are generally bad, but in Hamburg 
 they are ia excellent order — much better than the majority of the 
 general population. Their complexion is pale, and they endeavor 
 to remedy this by the constant use of coarse cloths, applications 
 of eau de Cologne, and other stimulants, but very rarely by paint- 
 ing, except among the lowest classes. They soon lose their hair 
 from dissipation, the use of pomatum, curling irons, etc. It is, 
 however, in the rough, harsh voice that the most conspicuous re- 
 sult of their calling is shown. 
 
 We will leave, for the present, the medical portion of this in- 
 quiry, and give a sketch of their domestic or every-day life. It 
 must be borne in mind that the police divisions are into " register- 
 ed" or "unregistered," and "pubHc" or "private" women. 
 
 The public women {pffentlichen dimeri) are undqr the special 
 control and supervision of a police authority charged with this 
 duty. "Without his express cognizance and permission they can 
 not be registered, or "written in" {eingeschrieben), nor can they 
 have liberty to change their residence, or to be "written out" 
 {aiosgeschrieben). This officer is the collector of the impost upon 
 them and upon the brothel-keeper (bordelwirih), which is paid 
 over to the fund {meretricen Tcasse). We can not give the detailed 
 application of this money, but, in general terms, it does not sweU 
 the revenues of the city, and, to avoid public scandal, id applied 
 exclusively to the police and medical services required by the class. 
 
 The keepers and women are of three grades. It does not clear- 
 ly appear whether a woman can select the class with whom she 
 will associate. We are inclined to think the magistrates decide 
 this point, and allot her to the one for which she seems best 
 adapted. 
 
HAMBURG. 203 
 
 In their apparel and food tliere exists the usual difference that 
 may be found in all places and ranks of life. The police regula- 
 tions, and the generally sober style of dress among the Hamburg- 
 ers, restrict any immodest display of the person or extravagance 
 of attire. The first-class women are generally costumed with taste 
 and elegance, while among the lower ranks plain and serviceable 
 garments are in demand. In most cases of the registered women 
 residing in brothelSj the keeper supplies the clothes, and very 
 often charges extravagant prices for them. Extortionate demands 
 in this respect are a fruitful source of complaints to the police, who 
 moderate the bills with no very tender sympathy for the creditor. 
 The clothes and jewelry of some of the first-class women are hired 
 from some clothes-lender (vermietheinnen), but others seldom resort 
 to this expedient, excepting for trinkets. 
 
 The food of the house-women is good and plentiful, varying ac- 
 cording to the rate of the brothel in which they live. The old 
 sumptuary laws are not in force, but the interest of the keeper in- 
 duces him to desire a prudent popularity among his women, and 
 to maintain the character of his house by the liberality of his en- 
 tertainment both in quantity and quality. A considerable portion 
 of their liquids is coffee, of which they are very fond. Wines and 
 liquors are supplied by the house only on holidays, but visitors 
 can purchase them at any time they wish. Drunkenness is com- 
 paratively rare among the better class, partly owing to the care 
 of the keeper, but more from dread of the poHce supervision and 
 consequent punishment. 
 
 In their intellectual capacity there is nothing to distinguish the 
 prostitutes in Hamburg. Few can read, and fewer stUl can write. 
 Those who can read seek their amusement in the old romances of 
 the circulating libraries, seldom perusing that libidinous style of 
 publications known among us as " yellow-covered hterature." Mi 
 passant, this seems the universal practice of the class, wherever 
 any inquiries have been made. Like other ignorant persons, they 
 are superstitious. Lippert mentions one particular omen connect- 
 ed with their calling : she who picks up any article which has 
 been thrown away is sure to receive a visit from a man soon after. 
 He does not say whether this has been verified by experience. 
 
 Their ordinary routine of life is one of useless idleness. They 
 rise about ten and, take breakfast, of which coffee is the staple. 
 The morning is loitered away in dressing, reading novels, playing 
 cards or dominoes, and kindred occupations. In some of the low- 
 
204 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 er-class houses they dispel their mnui \>j assisting in domestic 
 work, but this is a matter of favor which they arefkreful shall not 
 become an obUgation. By the middle of the day they are ready 
 for dinner. In the afternoon they add the finishing touches to 
 their dress, and wait the arrival of visitors. Some resort to the 
 public lounges or dancing saloons to form or cultivate acquaint- 
 ances, but the aristocracy of the order hold it more becoming to 
 their dignity to stay at home and wait for their "friends." 
 
 In that fine and peculiar quality of modesty, which adds the 
 crowning grace to woman's charms, even the prostitute is not 
 wholly deficient. Some trace of the angel attribute is visible, but 
 mostly in the private women, where a regard for the decent pro- 
 prieties of life yet lingers amid the wreck of character, and to such 
 it frequently forms the chief attraction. 
 
 Eeligion has an influence over some, strangely at variance with 
 its dictates as are their lives, but a large majority are entirely des- 
 titute of any such sentiment. Occasionally, Biblical pictures may 
 be seen in the rooms of brothels, but merely as ornaments, for they 
 are neutralized by the contiguity of others more consonant with 
 the place. 
 
 In their relations to the male sex there are differences between 
 women residing in public brothels and those living privately, 
 whether registered or imregistered.- Partly from inclination, but 
 mainly from policy on the part of the keeper, the former seldom 
 own allegiance to any particular lover. It is true that any one 
 who is able and willing to pay liberally can come and go as he 
 pleases, provided he does not interfere with the girl's " business" 
 in other profitable quarters. Not so with the private women, who 
 frequently have particular " lovers" to whom they show much 
 kindness, although from them they often receive but little sympa- 
 thy or protection, many of these men not scrupling to exist en- 
 tirely upon the earnings of a woman whom they would publicly 
 insult if they met her away from home. 
 
 In their personal conduct toward each other the women resid- 
 ing in one house are constrained and envious. In the first class 
 there is a ceremonious retention of the forms of politeness but 
 they are too frequently brought into personal rivalry to entertain 
 much good feeling. In the lower classes jealousy often finds vent 
 in reproaches or blows, and frequently a conflict ensues requiring 
 the interposition of the host or of a neighboring police officer. 
 Among those who live alone warm friendships are not uncommon ; 
 
HAMBURG. 205 
 
 mucli timely assistance is afforded in times of sickness or want ; 
 good offices are reciprocated ; and it sometimes happens, in tlie 
 delicate matter of their visitors, that a man who has been in the 
 habit of favoring one woman wilLnot find his attentions welcomed 
 by others. 
 
 Their crimes and offenses include the ordinary category, but it 
 is asserted that theft is less common in Hamburg than elsewhere, 
 and, when it does take place, it is more frequently committed by 
 the irregular members of the body than by the duly registered 
 women. It will be perceived that the system of registration of- 
 fers too many facilities for detection, a fact to which the unusual 
 honesty must doubtless be ascribed. Personal quarrels and as- 
 saults, or drunkenness among the older members, consign them to 
 the House of Detention or House of Correction. Those imprison- 
 ed from various causes generally amount to one hundred or one 
 hundred and twenty. 
 
 The licensed brothels are supplied with inmates by females 
 (kupplerinnen) whose services are recognized by the authorities. 
 In case of any emergency, the keeper applies to one of the procu- 
 resses, and if the girl she offers suits him, the candidate is first sub- 
 jected to a medical examination. Passed safely through this or- 
 deal, she is taken to the police office and " written in" to her new 
 keeper, who is bound to discharge certain of her debts, as the 
 amount due his predecessor, for instance. If the medical officers 
 report her sick, she is sent to the infirmary if she belong to Ham- 
 burg, but if a foreigner is dispatched out of the city forthwith. 
 In cases where a woman thus applying to the authorities has not 
 previously lived as a prostitute, she is usually exhorted by the 
 magistrate to abandon her intention and return to the paths of 
 virtue, a routine piece of benevolence which is usually fruitless. 
 The ordinary police fee for registration is two marks, the phy- 
 sician's fee is one mark, and the agent's usual remuneration four 
 marks. 
 
 The registered women are thus kept strictly under the eye of 
 the police, and, whenever they are disposed to quit their wretched 
 hfe, have the special protection of that body. The keepers natu- 
 rally throw all possible obstacles in the way of such a determina- 
 tion, especially if a girl is much in debt; but, by some means, 
 whenever a woman is under any restraint, and is consequently 
 unable to apply personalty to the police, an. anonymous note finds 
 its way to the office, and speedily effects the desired object. The 
 
206 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 authorities do not sympathize in any way -vp-ith. the brothel-keep- 
 ers, but' use all their energies .to serve the wom^ whenever any 
 occasion offers. 
 
 The registered women are designated as "Brothel women" 
 {Bordell dirnm), -who live in licensed houses; as "Private wom- 
 en" {fur sich wohnende dirnen) when they live by themselves, in 
 which case their landlbrds are mostly mechanics, hucksters,, or 
 laundresses; and the common " Street- walkers" {Strassen dirnen), 
 who ply their trade in the streets, and find shelter in the abodes 
 of indigence and misery. These last are the lowest grade of the 
 registered women. 
 
 l^ost of the brothels (pordelle) are in the oldest parts of the 
 city, to which they were originally limited, but the leading houses 
 may be found in the Schwieger strasse, a. street of moderate traffic 
 in a good neighborhood. Here the women are seated at the win- 
 dows, conspicuously dressed up and prepared for the public eye, 
 making themselves known to passengers by their gestures and 
 salutations. Some of these houses accommodate as many as four- 
 teen inmates. They are well supplied with good mahogany fiir- 
 niture and fine draperies, and are neat and elegant throughout. 
 The women are generally from twenty to twenty-five years old, 
 and are attractively dressed and decorated. The venereal disease 
 is very rare among this class, great attention being paid to per- 
 sonal cleanliness, and the bath very frequently used. The men 
 who visit this neighborhood consist of merchants, the richer pub- 
 lic and business employes, officers, and especially the numer- 
 ous commercial men who resort to Hamburg at aU seasons of the 
 year. 
 
 The denizens of the Dammthorwall, the DreJibahm, and Ul- 
 ricas strasse lead but a dull hfe, as it is the custom in those locali- 
 ties for the women to sit at the windows aU day. Their great di- 
 urnal event is the visit of the hair-dresser {friseurian), who, while 
 contributuig to the adornment of the person, a very serious af- 
 fair, owing to the quantity of false hair required, and the neces- 
 sity of making to-day's effect vary from yesterday's, also retails 
 the latest items of interesting news or scandal. Whenever any 
 of these women go out to walk, it is customary for the keeper to 
 send together two who are at variance with each other, so as to 
 establish a mutual check. The hair-dressing and walk over, the 
 next important occurrence is dinner, after which they spend their 
 time solely at the doors or windows. 
 
HAMBURG. 207 
 
 The hotiTS of closing in these first and second rate brothels are 
 not so strictly enforced by the police as in the lower parts. Oc- 
 casionally the women are allowed to visit the balls at the cele- 
 brated Hall of Mirrors, or other well-known dancing saloons in 
 the vicinity. 
 
 In first-rate houses the accounts between the keeper and the 
 women are but little understood. As already observed, some of 
 them hire their clothes ; others purchase from the landlord on 
 credit, and he charges accordingly ; but these matters trouble the 
 women very slightly. If they leave one house to reside in anoth- 
 er, the new keeper pays the old one's bill ; if a woman abandons 
 prostitution entirely, the host's demand is totally irrecoverable. 
 
 In the second and third rate houses the charges for board and 
 lodging are better understood. It will average about twenty 
 marks (five dollars) a week, washing, fire, and light being extra 
 charges. The keeper will supply fortunate or attractive women 
 with articles of dress to any reasonable amount, but his liberahty 
 is restricted toward those who have fewer visitors. His endeavor 
 is to keep all in debt, and in this he is usually successful. Their 
 ornaments are usually the property of the landlord, and form a 
 common stock distributed among his boarders in the manner best 
 calculated to increase or display their powers of fascination, and 
 resumed by him at discretion. 
 
 Passing over some intermediate classes of brothels, which pre- 
 sent no remarkable characteristics, to those in the Gangen, we find 
 the lowest grade of registered houses and re^stered women. Most 
 of these are drinkiag-shops, and the police exercise the right of 
 determining the prices to be charged for liquors. Here may fre- 
 quently be seen host, guests, and girls, drinking and frolicking to- 
 gether in a small back room, where scenes of gross indelicacy (to 
 use a mild term) frequently take place. The women in this district 
 have literally to work hard, and are generally required to perform 
 all the domestic labor of the establishment. In winter it is a com- 
 mon occurrence for them to take a shovel and clear the snow and 
 ice from the pavement in front of their domicile. Like others of 
 their caUing, they are seldom out of the landlord's debt, their 
 board costing them from ten to fourteen marks weekly (say three 
 to four dollars). Washing, fire, and light cost a dollar more, and 
 the hair-dresser's charge is about fifty cents. In addition to this, 
 they must pay the weekly-medical and monthly police tax. They 
 spend a miserably monotonous existence, seldom leaving the house 
 
208 HISTOEY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 for weeks or even months, except when they are required to visit 
 the doctors or the police. Their visitors are frsBi the roughest 
 and most animalized of the population, and the treatment they re- 
 ceive is merely that of purchasable commodities, intended to 
 supply the grosser wants of men whose lives are centred in sen- 
 suality. Like their compeers of the St. Paul Suburb, they are 
 usually women of great strength and endurance, but soon degen- 
 erate into mere passive, passionless tools. Could it be imagined 
 that they were of reflective habits, it would be impossible to con- 
 ceive a more severe punishment than their own sense of the deg- 
 radation, the total loss of all womanly feelings, exhibited in their 
 daily existence. 
 
 The brothel -keepers, among whom are some Jews, have no 
 striking peculiarities as a class. It has been already shown that 
 both sexes are engaged in the hideous trade, and, despite the police 
 regulations and restrictions, the obligations and disabilities under 
 which they are placed, it is undoubtedly a most lucrative occupa- 
 tion. The rental of a registered house is usually double the or- 
 dinary charge for similar tenements. There are some keepers 
 who own the houses in which they live. In their liabilities must 
 be included the regulation which makes them responsible for 
 thefts committed in their houses, and for. any violence or disorder 
 which may take place there, the penalties for which are fine, im- 
 prisonment, and loss of license. They also sustain considerable 
 losses from the repentance of some of their inmates ; but, in spite 
 of all untoward circumstances, they contrive to make money rap- 
 
 idly. 
 
 The period during which they continue in business is uncertain, 
 many of them continuing their houses from inclination long after 
 they have accumulated sufficient property to retire. Of the fe- 
 male keepers some are young and handsome, but these do not find 
 much favor with their women, who dread the effects of an opposi- 
 tion. They are rarely married, but cohabit with some man for 
 the sake of his protection. Among these pro tempore husbands 
 are some whose qualifications and previous positions render.it sur- 
 prising that they should consent to purchase existence from so 
 polluted a source. 
 
 The housekeepers of the Hamburger Berg are not only under a 
 separate municipal jurisdiction, but are in themselves a dififerent 
 class of people. They are mostly; men, their dealings being prin- 
 cipally with sailors, and their visitors sometimes demanding more 
 
HAMBURG. 209 
 
 physical strength than a woman could command to restrain them 
 ■within the prescribed limits. Their houses are but indifferently 
 furnished, and the whole arrangements are very humble and un- 
 pretending in character. A few years ago fatal quarrels were not 
 uncommon among their, customers, but this pugnacious tendency 
 has been materially checked by a stricter and more constant police 
 visitation. Even now, jealousy will sometimes cause a furious 
 contest between two of the hardy sons of Neptune. The singular 
 fidelity of some sailors to particular women will account for this. 
 When a man returns from a long voyage, he is desirous of paying 
 his attentions to the female who has before shared his affections 
 and his wages, and if he finds her under the protection of another 
 man, the natural result is a trial of strength as to who shall be the 
 possessor of the beauty in dispute. These tournaments, or the 
 general fray which sometimes arises at the close of the Sunday 
 evening dance, require to be subdued by no gentle means : hearty 
 blows are far more effectual peace-makers than words or threats. 
 
 Some of these registered hosts have followed their calling for 
 many years. One noble incident in connection with them must 
 not be omitted. In the severe winter of 1846, the landlord of the 
 "Four Lions," a brothel-keeper of twenty-four years' standing, 
 maintained at his own cost, for some months, nearly one hundred 
 poor families, many of them with three or four children each. 
 
 In the dance-houses there is music every evening except Sat- 
 urday; on week-days from six to eleven, and on Sundays from 
 four to eleven. At eleven the music is stopped, and at twelve 
 the house is peremptorily closed. The evenings during the week 
 are comparatively dull affe,irs, and male visitors are sometimes so 
 scarce that the women are compelled to dance with each other, or 
 sit in inglorious idleness. A scene of the wildest uproar and most 
 uncontrolled mirth is exhibited on Sunday evenings. Every va- 
 riety of national dance may then be seen — cachucha, reel, jig, 
 contrd-dance, waltz, and hornpipe have each their several admir- 
 ers. Songs and shouts are heard in every conceivable dialect, 
 and the room becomes literally "confasion worse confounded" 
 until the hour arrives for closing. 
 
 Of the registered women living by themselves there is little to 
 note. They are more industrious than those in brothels. Many 
 of them have a fixed occupation, but resort to prostitution to in- 
 crease their income. Money earned in this way is occasionally 
 required for the common necessaries of life, but is more frequent- 
 
 O 
 
210 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ly spent in personal gratification, in tlie way of fine dresses^ ornar 
 ments, etc., or is appropriated to support the^xtravagance of 
 some lover, who repays the generosity by a little flattering atten- 
 tion, or an occasional escort to some dancing saloon m the sub- 
 urbs. The visitors to these women are more select than those to 
 the courtesans hitherto described. 
 
 In the lowBSt ranks of prostitution, the common " street-walk- 
 ers," to be met at all times and places, under all circumstances 
 and of all ages, we find the most prolific sources of infection. A 
 certain, though very small remnant of decency, seconded by the 
 invaluable watchfulness of the police, secures the visitor from dis- 
 ease among the inmates of registered houses^ but the street-walk- 
 er is under no such control. Young girls scarcely more than chil- 
 dren, old women almost grandmothers, ply their frightful trade on 
 the "walls" around the city, and in other obscure places, where a 
 trifiing present wiU purchase their caresses. Their principal cus- 
 tomers are young boys and very old men, their practices being 
 continued under the shades of evening until the arrival of the 
 night-watch drives them to their wretched dens. 
 
 The Hamburg police are perfectly cognizant of these proceed* 
 ings, and wage perpetual war against individuals, but find it alto- 
 gether impossible to suppress the class, among whom are the ha- 
 bitual tenants of the jail and the House of Correction. No one 
 can differ in. opinion from Dr.Lippert, who sa;ys, " In this class of 
 women the most pernicious results of prostitution are to be found." 
 
 Private or domestic prostitution, so widely extended in every 
 great town, exists in less proportion in Hamburg than in other 
 capital cities of the same extent. That disgraceful union in evU 
 occasionally met with on the Continent, in which husband and 
 wife mutually agree to follow their inclinations or lusts untram- 
 meled by each other, is scarcely known. The kept woman is 
 comparatively rare. The expense attendant upon such an ap- 
 pendage of luxury is a serious consideration, and none but the 
 wealthy patrician or suceessftd business man venture on the step. 
 It is assumed, on very good authority, that there are not fifty 
 "mistresses" in Hamburg. Those residing there are Trnder no 
 police control, as in a public point of view they commit no breach 
 of law. , 
 
 Under the second head of private prostitution we find those 
 who, having legitimate employment, increase their earnings in 
 this manner. We have alluded already to the same class of reg^ 
 
HAMBURG. 211 
 
 istered women, but tte greater portion keep themselves aloof from 
 police observation as long as possible. They are composed of 
 needle-women, laundresses, hair-dressers, shop-girls, and others, 
 but it must not be supposed that they represent the majority of 
 women dependent upon those occupations. The contrary is the 
 fact ; for in Hamburg, as every where else, are to be found many 
 bright examples of chastity in the midst of poverty; of patient, 
 persevering industry and integrity in unfavorable circumstances; 
 Those working women who are wilhng to accept the price of sin 
 are known in the streets by a peculiar gait, by their searching and 
 inviting glances, or their treacherous but winning smile, and also 
 by frequently walking in the same neighborhood. They are 
 seldom seen abroad during the day, but in the afternoon, about 
 " 'change hours," they begin to resort to the streets near the 
 Bourse, encountering the men as they hurry to and from the centre 
 of business. In the evening they promenade in the vicinity of 
 the hotels and theatres, on the Jungfernstig, the new walls, etc., 
 when night helps their J.neo^'mto, and shrouds them in a little more 
 mystery. They are fond of attending the theatres and dancing 
 saloons on Sundays and holidays, like the Parisian 5'meife, in com- 
 pany with a lover, but the sum of their enjoyment is complete if 
 they can participate in the annual Shrove Tuesday ball and mas- 
 querade at the Apollo Saal, the Elb Pavilion, or the theatre. 
 
 Another class of private prostitutes is known to the pohce by 
 
 the term " WivMehuren" (hedge w- )■ These are of the lower 
 
 class of female operatives. Sen'ant-girls, from their proximity to 
 the junior members of families, often spread disease in the house- 
 hold of their employers* Dr. Iiippert records as a medical fact 
 that examinations have frequently shown the domestics in the 
 highest families to be literally saturated with venereal disease, 
 and he states his opinion that six out of every ten servant-girls 
 who are found in the'streets at night are accessible to pecuniary 
 temptation. This^ratio' is very large, but aa it is a local matter 
 with which he is presumed to be well acquainted, it would be out 
 of place to attempt either to sustain or controvert it. 
 
 All these private prostitutes resort to the houses of acconmio- 
 dation (Absteigequariiere), which exist in Spite of the constant 
 watchfulness of the police. When they are himted up and rooted 
 out of one place, they reappear under another guise elsewhere ; 
 a removal being facilitated by the slender nature of their equip- 
 ment, which seldoia consists of more than fiirniture for one room. 
 
212 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 For "genteel" delinquents, they are placed wliere tlie accommo- 
 dation is veiled under the French disguise oUtpetits soupers, or 
 some such flimsy artifice. 
 
 To the question, " What becomes of the prostitutes ?" Ham- 
 burg offers no special reply. Under favorable circumstances, 
 they abandon their calling, and become the wives of mechanics or 
 small tradesmen ; or they carry on some business for themselves, 
 and strive to become reputable members of society ; or they be- 
 come companion to some man, and follow his fortunes, usually re- 
 verting to common prostitution. When their charms are entirely 
 lost, and no hope remains of earning a living from their sale, they 
 sometimes, hut very rarely, become brothel-keepers ; sometimes 
 procuresses; and, more frequently, servants in the registered 
 houses. 
 
 Some of the dancing saloons already mentioned have attained 
 European celebrity. They stand in the same relation to common 
 women as the exchange does to the mercantile community. Their 
 female visitors are mostly prostitutes, a fact which deprives the 
 scene of many fascinations existing in other cities. In the end 
 of the last century there was no public place expressly designed 
 for dancing, until, with the many equivocal blessings disseminated 
 by the French Eevolutten, they also became an institution. The 
 Hamburg saloons are coiidiicted with order and quiet, and are 
 generally closed about one o'clock in the morning. One of the 
 most important, the Bacchus Hall, was burned down some few 
 years since, and the authorities have, as yet, refused to grant a 
 license for its re-erection. 
 
 As public places which in some degree facilitate prostitution, 
 mention must be made of the common sleeping apartments 
 locally called "deep cellars" {tiefen hellar). These are roomy 
 vaults, many feet under ground, in which the poor find nightly 
 shelter at very low prices. They are provided with beds and 
 bedding. In the depth of poverty to which some of their cus- 
 tomers have fallen, they can not afford to pay two schellings 
 (about four cents) for the luxury of a bed, and these repose their 
 weary Ihnbs on some foul straw, or on the ground, at the charge 
 of half a schelling. Some of these cellars are fifteen or twenty 
 feet below the surface of, the street, and it will not require a very 
 vivid imagination to portray their.horrors. 
 
 The beer and wine houses of Hamburg are tolerably free from 
 prostitution ; but a new class has lately sprung up, called " cellar- 
 
HAMBUEG. 213 
 
 keeping" (kellervnrthschaff), and in these the guests are served by 
 females in fancy costume, Swiss, Polish, or Circassian, as the case 
 may be. Many of these contain private rooms for prostitution, 
 and, although they are closely watched by the police, who some- 
 times ungallantly expel the fair foreigners and^ close the estab- 
 lishments, they still flourish, others being speedily opened else- 
 where to fiUup the gap. 
 
 From this general description of prostitutes, their habitations, 
 and customs, we will proceed to a consideration of their condition 
 as to health, and the extent and virulence of syphilis among them, 
 still taking the pamphlet of Dr. Lippert for our guide. 
 
 It is generally imagined that the excessive action of the gener- 
 ative organs interferes with the power of procreation in common 
 women. Dr. Lippert undertakes to controvert this opinion, with 
 what success medical men whose professional experience has been 
 among this class will be able to judge. He supports his views by 
 general assertions rather than by specific facts, but refers, in cor- 
 roboration, to well-known instances in which children have been 
 born while the mothers were living in a state of open prostitu- 
 tion, as also to those cases where women who have abandoned 
 the habit of promiscuous intercourse confine themselves to one 
 man by marriage or cohabitation, and then become mothers. He 
 attributes their sterility during prostitution to their wUd and ir- 
 regular life, their constant exposure to_ weather, etc., and argues 
 that the powers of conception are suspended, but not destroyed 
 thereby. He also introduces the fact that abortions are frequent- 
 ly produced in Hamburg by the common women themselves, or 
 by some old crones who preside over their orgies, and are stated 
 to have a long list of drugs applicable to this purpose, which they 
 use in a reckless manner. The medical police are not unaware 
 of these proceedings, but find them difficult to detect, as a woman 
 will endeavor to avoid the stated examination by pleading excess- 
 ive menstruation, or inventing some story she thinks likely to 
 deceive, until all traces of the abortion are removed. The remarks 
 of Dr. Lippert would lead to the belief that the excessive use of the 
 female organs was more favorable to health than the disuse would 
 be, a conclusion which most physicians will not be willing to ad- 
 mit. He adds, " Cancer of the womb occurred but once in my ex- 
 perience of eleven years at the General Infirmary, and cases of 
 prolapsus uteri are very rare." 
 
 A disease incident to common women, Oolica scoriorum (W 's 
 
214 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Colic), happens in Hamburg as elsewhere, but is attributed to ex- 
 posure to the weather more than any other cau». It consists of 
 pain in the womb, extending across the abdomen round to the 
 loins, and sometimes including the whole region of the stomach. 
 It is frequently accompanied with gastric derangement, sickness, 
 or diarrhoea. 
 
 The enlargement of the clitoris, so much insisted on by some 
 writers, Lippert altogether doubts, except as a very exceptional 
 case ; nor does he admit any effect of prostitution on the rectum 
 unless induced by unnatural intercourse. As a general result of 
 his observations, he concludes that, " apart from syphilitic affec- 
 tions, the generative organs of a prostitute do not usually differ 
 . from those of a virtuous woman." ^ 
 
 We find some returns of diseases not directly connected with 
 prostitution ; thus, cases of itch, which is now becoming rare, 
 were in 
 
 1836 
 1837 
 1838 
 1839 
 
 62 
 
 1844 
 
 76 
 
 1845 
 
 87 
 
 1846 
 
 98 
 
 
 38 
 22 
 36 
 
 Of other general maladies, including fevers, inflammation of the 
 lungs, liver, womb, etc., rheumatism, small-pox, piles, jaundice, 
 gout, dropsy, and diarrhoea, the following are reported : 
 
 1837 
 1838 
 1839 
 
 62 
 
 1844 
 
 90 
 
 1845 
 
 100 
 
 1846 
 
 85 
 76 
 
 77 
 
 Convulsions are more rare than in the female sex in general; 
 of hysteria there is scarcely a trace, and a few cases of epilepsy 
 are ascribed to the use of ardent spirits. 
 
 Delirium tremens seldom occurs. The vigilance of the police, 
 and the prompt committal to prison of every .prostitute found 
 drunk and disorderly, may account for this. The proportion of 
 cases of delirium tremens was only about one in one thousand. 
 
 Mania sometimes shows itself. Eemorse may produce this, as 
 may a violent affection for some particular man. 
 
 Of the actual extent of venereal disease in Hamburg, or any 
 other city, it is impossible to speak with certainty, but the feet 
 that in the general hospital there it is of a very mild type is an 
 argument in favor of medical inspection. Dr. Lippert says : 
 
 " The usual form is gonorrhoea, with its complications, bubo, inflammation 
 ■ of the scrotum, phymosis, paraphymosis, etc. Inflammation of the prostate 
 
HAMBUEG. 215 
 
 gland, and stricture, are comparatively rare. Disease of the rectum is very 
 rare, but there are examples." 
 
 " We have excoriations and irritations of the sexual organs. The sim- 
 ple chancre is common ; the indurated chancre not unfrequent ; the phage- 
 denic chancre is seldom met with. In general, the sores have a mild char- 
 acter, and heal easily with simple treatment and regular topical applications. 
 Herpes preputialis is extremely general. This is a group of small pustules, 
 quickly healing up, hut as quickly breaking out again, often in regular pe- 
 riodical recurrence. It is found especially on men who have suffered from 
 gonorrhoea or chancre." 
 
 " Secondary syphilis, ulcers of the neck, eruptions, syphilitic inflamma- 
 tion of the eyes, tumors, etc. These prevail more at some times than at 
 others ; how far the genus epidenmum, the weather and season, the idiosyn- 
 crasy of the person, or the intensity of the infection operate, we have yet to 
 learn." ' 
 
 " Tertiary syphilis is rare." 
 
 "In sea-ports it is often observable that the disease takes peculiar as- 
 pects, and what may be called exotic forms are occasionally encountered. 
 With sailors, syphilis is frequently latent or only partially cured, and is in- 
 tensified by their habits and diet. Sexual intercourse with them will pro- 
 duce it in an exaggerated character. This is not so much the case in Ham- 
 bin'g, owing to the constant and prompt medical attention ; still, some dis- 
 tinction is observable between the venereal maladies of the city women and 
 those of the St. Paul Suburb. Among the latter the cases of a malignant 
 type generally occur." 
 
 The negro sailor is held in very bad repute by these women, 
 and some keepers will, not allow him to enter their houses, believ- 
 ing that infection, from a colored man is of the worst kind, and al- 
 most incurable. 
 
 The medical returns for the year 1846 give the following tables 
 relating to the women in the St. Paul Suburb : 
 
 " In January there were 186 women, of whom 15 were sick ; the dis- 
 eases were 
 
 Venereal disease .... 9 
 
 Itch 1 
 
 Colic 1 
 
 Gastric fever 1 
 
 Eheumatic fever .... 1 
 
 Catarrh of lungs .* . . 1 
 
 Calculus 1 
 
 Total 15 
 
 "In May, of 189 women, 21 were sick : 
 
 Venereal disease .... 9 
 
 Itch 8 
 
 Crastrio fever 2 
 
 Inflammation of lungs . . 1 
 Spitting of blood . . . . 1, 
 
 Total 21 
 
 "In Auigust, of 181 woinen. It were sick: 
 
216 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Venereal disease .... 13 1 Itch | 
 
 Colic 2 I Rheumatism •«»••• _i 
 
 Total It 
 
 "In December, of 161 women, 18 were sick : 
 
 Venereal disease .... 6 
 
 Itch 6 
 
 Sprain 1 
 
 Colic 1 
 
 Gastric fever 2 
 
 Disorder of digestive organs 1 
 
 Cold on the chest . . . . _1 
 
 Total 18 
 
 This would give an average of about ten per cent, of the women of the sub- 
 urb sick." 
 
 From the facts we have quoted, it is evident ihat the virulence 
 of syphilitic affections among the registered women is unquestion- 
 ably mitigated. "Tertiary syphilis is rare;" secondary syphilis 
 but occasional, while primary forms have lost their malignity. 
 " There is a marked aggravation of the disease during the sum- 
 mer months, when a considerable influx of strangers takes place. 
 This was particularly observable after the great fire in 1842." 
 
 The mildness of the disease, and its easy control, can he ascribed to 
 nothing hut the weekly medical supervision. The women are visited 
 at their own houses, and any reluctance or refusal renders them liable 
 to punishment. 
 
 Contrasted with this state of affairs, we have the severity of 
 syphilis among unregistered women, who conceal their disease as 
 long as they can. Of those arrested, many are found to be dis- 
 eased in an aggravated form. In the year 1845, of 138 unregis- 
 tered women sent to prison, 43 had syphilis, or nearly one third 
 of the whole. Parent-Duchatelet says this proportion is exceeded 
 by the same class in Paris, where the infected amount to one half 
 the illicit prostitutes. 
 
 The "Kurhaus" is a medical institution especially designed for 
 bad characters who are arrested by the police, be they registered 
 or unregistered. The General Infirmary has also a venereal ward. 
 The police authorities contribute annually, from the amount raised 
 by the impost on brothels and prostitutes, 5000 marks ($1500) to 
 the fimds of this infirmary. From the following facts this would 
 seem an inadequate amount. In 1844 there were received and 
 treated 580 females with syphilis ; the total residence amounting 
 to 30.387 days, or a pro rata average of 53^ days each, the stipend 
 allowed for which service would be shout four and a half cents per 
 day. 
 
HAMBUEG. 217 
 
 The number of female cases of syphilis received into the same 
 institution in 1843 was, 
 
 Registered women 480 
 
 Unregistered women 14 
 
 Total 554 
 
 and in 1845, 
 
 Registered women 521 
 
 Unregistered women *ll 
 
 Total 592 
 
 The state of the male venereal patients proves the same general 
 amelioration in the character of the disease. The cases, however, 
 are worse than among the registered women, which must be as- 
 cribed to the dislike of men to enter the hospital until such a 
 course becomes unavoidable. The numbers received were, in 
 
 1843 355 
 
 1844 . 385 
 
 1845 316 
 
 Some returns are given by Dr. Lippert of the amount of sick- 
 ness in the garrison ; but he has not stated the number of sol- 
 diers, so no comparison can be drawn from his information. The 
 figures are as follows : 
 
 1843, Gonorrhflea 90 
 
 Chancre 67 
 
 Secondary syphilis 13 — 110 
 
 1844, Gonorrhoea 58 
 
 Ulcers 63—121 
 
 1845, Gonorrhoea 89 
 
 Ulcers 19—168 
 
 The treatment of syphilis adopted in the Hamburg hospital 
 was introduced by Dr. Fricke, one of the first to apply the non- 
 mercurial system. Eicord's practice is also followed, and Hy- 
 dropathy has been tried. It would be out of place to enter into 
 any arguments here as to the relative merits of these systems. 
 
 The mortal diseases of the Hamburg prostitutes are incidental 
 to their course of hfe. Exposure to the weather, alternate ex- 
 tremes of want and luxury, night-watching and constant excite- 
 ment, induce consumption, inflammation of the lungs, dropsy, in- 
 ternal and abdominal complaints ; gastric, rheumatic, or nervous 
 fevers ; and these, or chronic diseases resulting from renewed 
 venereal infection, lead to the 
 
218 HISTORY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 " Last scene of all, 
 That ends this strange, eventful histortpl'' 
 
 Before dismissing tMs subject, we will give a sketcli of the 
 
 HAMBURG MASDALEN HOSPITAL. 
 
 This institution was founded in 1821 througli tlie exertions of 
 the Burgomaster Abendrotk and others, and was constructed on 
 the model of a similar lasylum in London. The object is to re- 
 claim women from "viCe by means that can be appHed only in a 
 place expressly dedicated to the purpose. 
 
 . The number of inmates is small; only twelve can be received. 
 The business of the asylum is conducted by a committee, includ- 
 ing two ministers, a physician, three female overseers, and a ma- 
 tron. The overseers are respectable married women or widows, 
 who voluntarily undertake the duties of a sub-committee. They 
 assume the direction of the household affairs alternately for a 
 month each. They meet frequently at the house, assist in Divine 
 service, and take care of the girls who are discharged. These are 
 provided with situations or placed in business, and require to be 
 upheld and maintained iu their new character. 
 
 The chaplain assists the ladies' committee in their duties, but 
 directs his energies particularly to the religious instruction of the 
 inmates. Frequent meetings for prayer are held, and every half 
 year the sacrament is ddministdred to such as he deems duly pre- 
 pared to receive it, and who have a, competent knowledge of its 
 importance and .efficacy. . . 
 
 To be qualified for admission^ the applicant must be young, and 
 must have a deSire to ainehd. The limited room will not allow 
 the reception of old or worn-out women, who would flock there in 
 crowds to obtain a shelter under which they could die in peace. 
 When a woman's application is granted, she must go through a 
 novitiate of four or eight weeks. During this time she works 
 and, eats with the other inmates, but sleeps alone, and is closely 
 watched by a member of the committee. When her novitiate ex- 
 pires and she is fully received, she is requested to give an exphcit 
 account of her life, every particular of which is recorded. Her 
 name is not disclosed to her companions, but she, as are all the 
 others, is known only by a Christian name, 
 . The women are employed iu all kinds of housework,- needle- 
 .work, or, when practicable, in any manner which will accustom 
 
PEUSSIA. 219 
 
 them to continued physical exertion. Their previous life having 
 made indolence almost " second nature," this course is adopted to 
 inculcate the necessity of industry. A strict account of the prod- 
 uce of their labor is kept, and a portion is set apart as a fund for 
 their benefit. 
 
 The time of their stay is usually about two years. "When they 
 leave they give the chaplain a written promise of good conduct, 
 and receive from him a Bible and a Prayer-book, and the sum of 
 money accumulated fpr them. The results of this benevolent at- 
 tempt are sufficient to encourage the laborers in the good work, 
 and we can not but think that their endeavors must be productive 
 of great good, based as they are upon the sound priaciple of re- 
 ceiving but a few women, and treating them as members of one 
 family, in opposition to the general theory of such institutions, 
 whose' managers attempt to crowd in as large a number as a large 
 building will contain, and, in the endeavor to generalize rules for 
 reformation, lose the valuable opportunities for noticing and acting 
 upon individual traits of character. 
 
 The particulars of the subsequent life of twenty women are 
 given as follows : 
 
 Continued- faithful to their promises 6 
 
 Eemoved from where they were placed 10 
 
 Relapsed into vice, only 1 
 
 Died 1 
 
 Unknown 2 
 
 Total ..... 20" 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 PEUSSIA. 
 
 Patriarchal Government. — Ecclesiastical Legislation. — Trade Guilds. — Enactments 
 in 1700. — Inquiry in 1717. — Enactment in 1792. — Police Order, 1795.— Census. 
 — Increase of illicit Prpstitution.-'Sypliilis. — ^Census of 1808.^Ministerial Ee- 
 script and Police Eeport, 1809. — Tolerated Brothels closed.-— Ee-enactment of the 
 Code of 1792.— Ministerial Rescript of 1839.— Eemoval of Brothels.— Petition^. 
 —Ministerial Eeply.— Police Eeport, 1844.— Brothels closed by royal Command. 
 — ^Police Embarrassment, and Correspondence with Halle and Cologne. — Local 
 Opinions, — Public Life in Berlin. — ^Dancing Saloons .-^Drinking Houses. — Im- 
 moraljty. — Increase of Syphilis. — Statistics. — Illegitimacy. — Eoyal Edict of 1851. 
 — Eecent Regulations. 
 
 , Among the warlike Germans in the dayg of'Henninius, sexual 
 .intercourse was looked upon as enervating to youth, and disored- 
 
220 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 itable or even disgraceful to men until their valor had been proved 
 by deeds of arms, and their experience authorizediftiem to assume 
 the duties of husbands and fathers. 
 
 In the Middle Ages, when the legislative and executive func- 
 tions were vested in one individual, and the rights and obligations 
 of the governing power were of a paternal or patriarchal charac- 
 ter, we find much of their law-giving directed to the preservation 
 of morality, the repression of extravagance, and the minute regu- 
 lation of public economy. In their edicts against prostitution 
 this paternal spirit was visible, in conjunction with what may be 
 considered a due regard to the rights and interests of the law-giv- 
 ers, the punishments being professedly directed against a breach 
 of morality or a public scandal, because it was a disgrace to fami- 
 lies, and a peril to husbands and fathers, rather than a vice in it- 
 self. The provisions tacitly sanctioned its existence ; and while 
 they severely punished any invasion of domestic peace or infrac- 
 tion of marital rights, it seems to be conceded that, when no such 
 relationships were involved, illicit intercourse was regarded as an 
 allowable solace or an actual necessity for the physical require- 
 ments of unmarried men. 
 
 We learn from the German historian Fiducin {"J)iplomatischen 
 Beitrage zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin"), that the German laws 
 rendered it obligatory on every honorable man to espouse a vir- 
 tuous maiden, and the term " hurenkind" (illegitimate child) was 
 the bitterest form of reproach. The early statutes were very se- 
 vere in the punishment of immodest females, and some carried 
 this principle so far as to require that a woman who led an un- 
 chaste life in her father's house should be burned at the stake. 
 The ecclesiastical legislation moderated this severity, and crimes 
 against morality became sins which were expiated by public pen- 
 ance. The citizens of Berlin became convinced that the penances 
 of the Church were not sufficiently potent to coimteract the evil, 
 the morals of the clergy themselves being frequently impeached, 
 and secular government was suggested in place of ecclesiastical. 
 This seemed especially necessary, because the canon law, which 
 ordained the celibacy of the priesthood, pronounced it to be a 
 work of mercy to marry an erring woman, in opposition to the 
 Berlin sheriff law {schoffen recht) declaring the children of such 
 marriages illegitimate ; and persons were not wanting who held 
 the opinion that the work of mercy recommended by the Church 
 was at times advocated by the clergy as a means of covering their 
 own frailties. 
 
PEUSSIA. 221 
 
 The same ■writer records instances as late as tte close of the six- 
 teenth century in which adultery was punished by death, the of- 
 fenders in each case being married persons. He also cites the 
 records of the fourteenth century to show that the same punish- 
 ment was inflicted on those who acted as procurers or procuresses, 
 wherever family honor was encroached on. 
 
 In the sixteenth century the law required that an immodest 
 woman belonging to any reputable family should be publicly shorn 
 of her hair, and condemned to wear a linen veil ; nor was any dis- 
 tinction made between unmarried women and widows against 
 whom the offense was proved. 
 
 About the same period the trade guilds enacted stringent laws 
 prohibiting the admission of improper characters to their public 
 festivals, and restraining their members from marrying women of 
 that class. To attain this end, any master tradesman who design- 
 ed to marry was compelled to introduce his intended bride at a 
 meeting of the company, that all might be convinced of her dis- 
 creet character and conduct, and any who married without ob- 
 serving this requirement were expelled the association. The 
 guilds inflicted the same penalties on any of their members who 
 had intercourse with improper characters, or who seduced a vir- 
 tuous woman and subsequently married her. 
 
 A certain recognition of the existence of pubho women may be 
 traced throughout these regulations, which appear to have admit- 
 ted the necessity from regard to the rigorously enforced sanctity 
 of the domestic circle, but, at the same time, endeavored to pre- 
 vent the increase of immorality by attaching odium to its fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 Again, turning to the pages of Fiducin, we find that, "in all the 
 great towns of the German Empire, the public protection of wom- 
 en of pleasure (lust dirnen) seems to have been a regular thing," 
 in proof of which he says, " Did a creditor, in taking proceedings 
 against his debtor, find it necessary to put up at an inn, one of the 
 allowed items of his expenditure was a reasonable sum for the 
 company of a woman during his stay (frauen geld)." This was a 
 question of state etiquette in Berlin in 1410, a sum having been 
 officially expended in that year to retain some handsome women 
 to grace a public festival and banquet given to a distinguished 
 guest, Diedrich V. Quitzow, whose good-will the citizens desired 
 to cultivate. 
 
 During this period of toleration the expediency of controUimg 
 
222 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 public women was imquestioned ; but the first Berlin enactment 
 of material importanee to this investigation bears«iate in 1700, 
 and is remarkable as clearly enunciating the principles which have 
 been adhered to, with only a short interval, ever since. The first 
 section declares, " By law this trafS.o is decidedly not permitted 
 (erlaiAf), but simply tolerated {geduldei) as a necessary evil." 
 
 Sections 2, 3, and 4 require the keeper of any house of prosti- 
 tution to give notice to the commissary of the quarter when any 
 of his women leave him, or when he receives a new one, and re- 
 strain him from keeping more women than are specified in hig 
 contract. 
 
 Sections 5 to 9 provide that a surgeon shall visit every woman 
 once a fortnight, " for the purpose of protecting the health of rev- 
 elers {schwarmer), as well as that of the women themselves ;" that 
 every woman shall pay Tiim two groschen for each visit ; and that, 
 upon observing the slightest signs of disease, the surgeon shall re- 
 quire the housekeeper to detain the woman in her room. If the 
 keeper neglect this order, he is made responsible for the entire 
 costs of the iUness which any visitor could prove was contracted 
 from one of his women. If the surgeon finds the woman already 
 so far infected that she can not be cured by cleanliness and retire- 
 ment alone, he is authorized to order her removal to the Charity, 
 " where she will be taken care of in the pavilion free of charge^" 
 
 Sections 10 and 11 provide that the debts of a woman must be 
 paid before she can remove from one house of prostitution to an- 
 other, or before she can leave one house to commence another on 
 her own account. 
 
 Section 12 enjoins that any woman who desires to quit her mode 
 of life altogether shall be entirely discharged from any debts to 
 the housekeeper. 
 
 The last section requires every housekeeper who has music to 
 pay six groschen a year for the permit to his musicians, the money 
 to be applied to the benefit of the poor-house. 
 
 The " toleration but not authorization" clause is the noticeable 
 feature in these regulations, and indicates the policy which was 
 then generally adopted throughout the kingdom. 
 
 In reference to the period succeeding the issue of these rules, 
 which continued in force till 1792, we find some information in 
 the pages of Fiduoin. Thus, in 1717, an inquiry proved that the 
 inmates of brothels, and also the secret prostitutes, were mostiy 
 the children of soldiers, who "had been brought to vice as a trade. 
 
PRUSSIA. 223 
 
 either from the want of a proper bringing up or of a skillful handi- 
 craft." .... AU measures for the extermination of the evil having 
 been found ineffectual, " they were obliged to adopt the system of 
 a larger toleration of common brothels, to be strictly watched over 
 by the police, as a necessary outlet for the tendency to immoral- 
 ity." The number of houses of ill fame increased in proportion 
 to the population, the influx of strangers, and the additions to the 
 garrison made under Frederick II. ; and still more so after the close 
 of the seven years' war. In the year 1780, there were one hund- 
 red such houses in Berlin, each containing eight or nine women. 
 They were divided ifdo three classes; the lowest were those in 
 which the wonlen dressed in plain clothes, and were frequented 
 mostly by Hamburg or Amsterdam mariners; the second class of 
 women paraded themselves with painted faces, haunted the more 
 retired comers of the town, had little attractive about their per- 
 sons or dress, and were principally visited by mechanics and la- 
 borers; the third, and apparently the most select of the kind, was 
 a description of coffee-house, frequented by females, who were des- 
 ignated " MaTOselles .•" these did not live in the houses, but used 
 them merely as a convenient rendezvous. 
 
 In 1792 a new code of regulations appeared, the bulk of which 
 continued in force in Berlin and other towns for many years. 
 The rules of 1700 were too vague, made no provision for a variety 
 of cases likely to arise, and were silent as to the question of pri- 
 vate prostitution. Many inconveniences had arisen from these 
 omissions, and, in consequence, a memorial was addressed to the 
 government by the police director, Von Eisenhardt, containing 
 suggestions for amendments to the law. 
 
 The preamble of the royal reply to this application acknowl- 
 edges the attention of the police to the matter with much satisfac- 
 tion; admits prostitution {hurenanstalien) to be "a necessary evil 
 in a great city where many men are not in a position to marry, 
 although of an age when the sexual instincts are at the highest, 
 in order thereby to avoid greater disorders which are not to be 
 restrained by any law or authority, and which take their rise from 
 an inextinguishable natural impulse;" but expressly reiterates 
 that it is "only to be tolerated (zu dulden);" and that it can not, 
 " without impropriety and consequences injurious to morality, be 
 established by the public laws, which do not contain any sanction 
 whatever to common prostitution." 
 
 The sections following this preamble provide that any one who 
 
224 HISTOBY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 seduces a woman, or induces lier to carry on a venal traffic witb. 
 her person, shall be liable to one year's impris.onm«t in the House 
 of Correction, and on repetition of the offense, besides doubling 
 the punishment, shall be whipped and driven from the country; 
 declare any man or woman who communicates the venereal dis- 
 ease hable for the expenses of the cure and incidental damages 
 (soTistigen interesse), together with imprisonment for three months, 
 commutable by paying a fine of one hundred dollars; prohibit 
 taking young women from the country into houses of prostitution 
 by any device against their will, and authorize the punishment of 
 any man who wUlfully infects a common woman. 
 
 In reference to the special directions touching brothels and 
 prostitutes, the document provides, "as a leading point, that 
 every' thing which exceeds the mere gratification of the natural 
 passions, and tends to the advancement of debauchery, or the 
 misuse of our toleration of a necessary evil, must be prevented;" 
 and accordingly the women are prohibited from increasing their 
 attractions "by painting or distinguishing attire," and also from 
 soHciting passengers in the pubhc streets, or at the doors or win- 
 dows of their houses, " as this is not only in contravention to pub- 
 hc morals, but especially perilous to male youth ; and such means 
 of increasing the gains of people seeking. their livelihood in this 
 manner is not to be tolerated." For similar reasons, the keepers 
 of houses were restrained from offering wines or other strong 
 drinks to their visitors, although it is admitted "they can not 
 be prevented from providing refreshments," yet stimulants are 
 forbidden, "because they are great inducements to debauchery, 
 whereby other excesses may be caused." 
 
 The orders farther provide that no woman shall become a resi- 
 dent in a house of prostitution without previously appearing before 
 the police, and obtaining permission from them ; and the pohce 
 are directed not to allow this permission to any female under age, 
 unless they are satisfied that she has previously made a trade of 
 prostitution. The section containing this stipulation is prefaced 
 by a statement that "keepers of these houses seek especially to 
 obtain blooming young girls, who can not be procured without 
 infamous seduction, calculated to lead to debauchery." 
 
 In reference to precautions against infection, it provides that 
 the prostitutes and keepers of houses shall be instructed by some 
 competent surgeon in the signs, of venereal diseases, so that they 
 may detect it in their visitors or themselves ; also that any man 
 
PRUSSIA. 225 
 
 comrminicating infection to a prostitute may be sentenced to make 
 ample compensation if the woman can identify Mm ; and farther, 
 that the punishment inflicted upon girls infecting their visitors 
 shall also be inflicted on the housekeepers, " as, although they may 
 be innocent, their being included in the punishment for an inci- 
 dent of their trade is for the general weal." All fines received 
 were to accrue to the medical iastitutions provided for the cure of 
 syphilis. 
 
 Again, it was deemed that "the venereal disease was much ex- 
 tended by common street- walkers," and no women but such as 
 resided in the known houses, where medical visits of inspection 
 were constantly paid, were to be tolerated, and the night-watch 
 were instructed to arrest those common women who were in the 
 habit of plying their trade in the streets after dark — a portion of 
 the penalty exacted being awarded to the officers who made such 
 arrests, " to encourage their zeal." But they were strictly cau- 
 tioned against annoying innocent persons, " inasmuch as blunders 
 in such matters create ill impressions against the authorities, and 
 because the honor and happiness of the person might be irretriev- 
 ably injured, so that it would be better to pass over a guilty per- 
 son here and there, than to inculpate a single innocent one." 
 The royal rescript concludes by directing that a strict surveillance 
 be kept over the females of the garrison, many of whom are stated, 
 in very plain language, to be of improper character. 
 
 These directions were subsequently embodied ia the general 
 statute, or law of the land (Jandrecht), and upon that the poUce 
 regulations which we quote hereafter were based. 
 
 The statute formally declares procurers and procuresses liable 
 to imprisonment for from six months to three years ia the House 
 of Correction,, with "a welcome and farewell;" Anglice, a sound 
 whipping when admitted, and another when discharged. In the 
 cases of parents or guardians who may aid in or connive at the 
 prostitution of their children or wards, the term of imprisonment 
 is doubled, and made more severe. It requires all common women 
 to reside in the tolerated houses " under the eye of the ptate," which 
 houses are only to be permitted in populous cities, and " not else- 
 where than in retired and back streets therein, the consent of the 
 police authorities having been first obtained." And in any case 
 where a house of prostitution was established without this consent, 
 or ia defiance of the public orders, the keeper was to be Hable to 
 one or two years' imprisonment The police are strictly coromand- 
 
 P 
 
226 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ed to keep all tolerated houses under strict and constant surveil- 
 lance; to make frequent visits in company with«aedical men, so 
 as to check the progress of venereal disease ; to prevent the sale 
 of intoxicating hquors therein ; to see that no woman was intro- 
 duced without the knowledge and permission of the authorities, 
 under a fine of My thalers, for each offense ; and, more especially, 
 that no innocent female was, by force or deceit, compelled or in- 
 duced to hve therein ; which latter offence imposes " a public ex- 
 hibition," in the stocks or piUory, we presume, and from six to 
 ten years' imprisonment, with "welcome and farewell," on the 
 keeper, who was not to be allowed to keep such a house again 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 The police are farther enjoined to see that the mistress of the 
 house informs the authorities of the pregnancy of any woman re- 
 siding in the house as soon as she is aware of it herself, but if it 
 is concealed she (the mistress) is liable to imprisonment, especially 
 if a secret birth takes place. The mistress is required to take 
 charge of any woman who becomes pregnant, if there is no public 
 institution to which she can be removed, and is at liberty to seek 
 compensation frona the father of the chUd, or, if he can not be 
 found, she has a claim upon the mother. The child must be re- 
 moved from the house as soon as it is weaned, and is to be cared 
 for at the public cost if the parents have not means to do so. 
 
 If the keeper of the. hoilse, or the inmates themselves, conceal 
 any venereal infection from the knowledge of the police, they ren- 
 der themselves liable to imprisonment from three months to a 
 year, with " welcome and farewell." 
 
 If thefts, assaults, or other offenses occur in such houses, the 
 keeper is, in all cases, liable to the injured party, who can not in 
 any other way obtain his indemnity, and is also suspected of 
 complicity in the offense so long as the contrary can not be sub- 
 stantiated ; and if it is proved that he did not exert all his power 
 to prevent such occurrences, his neglect is to be punished by fine 
 or imprisonment. 
 
 No woman desirous of leaving a tolerated house to change her 
 mode of life, and support herself honestly, can be retained against 
 her inchnation, and no difaculties may be thrown in the way of 
 her doing so ; nor will the master be allowed to force her to re- 
 main, even though she may be in his debt, under the penalty of 
 the loss of his permission from the police. 
 
 Prostitutes who do not conform to the regulations and place 
 
PRUSSIA. 227 
 
 themselves under supervision, are to be arrested and imprisoned 
 for three months, and, when their term of imprisonment has ex- 
 pired, are to be sent to the "work-houses," and detained there un- 
 til they have inclination and opportunity for honorable employ- 
 ment. Any females, not being inmates of the tolerated houses, 
 who had intercourse while suffering from disease, and thereby in- 
 fected men, are declared liable to an imprisonment for three 
 months. 
 
 This comprehensive legal enactment left many matters of detail 
 to the discretion of the police, and accordingly they issued their 
 rules. The opposition these subsequently encountered makes 
 them important in the history of Prostitution in Berlin, and al- 
 though they are in many points a mere repetition of the terms of 
 the statute, we give them in extenso. They are entitled, 
 
 "provisions against the misleading op todno women into brothels, 
 AND roR prevention of the spread op venereal disease. 
 
 "Preamble. It has been brought to notice that simple young girls, 
 especially from the smaller towns, under the craftiest pretensions to place 
 them in good situations, have been brought to Berlin, and, without their 
 knowledge of the fact, taken to brothels, and therein, against their will, led 
 astray to their ruin, and to the life of a common prostitute. 
 
 " At the same time, it is matter of remark that common prostitutes, after 
 they have been diseased, continue their practices as long as the state of 
 their sickness permits, and thereby farther infection is extraordinarily in- 
 creased and extended. 
 
 " With the express view of meeting such infamous seductions, and the 
 highly injurious results of the before-mentioned communication of venereal 
 disease, the following directions are brought to the cognizance and perfect 
 information of the keepers of houses of prostitution, and of the females who 
 make a trade of their persons. 
 
 " 1. No one can set on foot a brothel, or keep women for the purposes of 
 prostitution, without having communicated previously with the Police Di- 
 rectory on the subject, and obtained their permission in writing. Whoso 
 acts contrary to this shall, together with absolute withdrawal of his license, 
 be liable to one or two years in the House of Correction. 
 
 " 2. Every brothel-keeper must, before taking a girl into his service, 
 produce her before the Police Directory, and must not conclude any con- 
 tract with her until the Police Director has given him written leave to do 
 so ; whereupon, forthwith the conditions upon which the keeper and said 
 woman have agreed are to be registered with the police, and an abstract 
 thereof shall be given to each party, for which eight grosohen are to be paid 
 
228 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 as fees. The before-mentioned brothel-keepers, to whom the Police Direct- 
 or's toleration is extended, must, at his order, produce th# common prosti- 
 tutes, and submit the same to a similar license, and the conditions must be 
 drawn up for them in the before-mentioned manner. If a keeper omits the 
 same, and is accused of having any woman for common use in his house for 
 forty-eight hours without such notice, he shall pay a fine of fifty thalers, and, 
 upon the third offense, in addition to the said fine, his trade shall be stopped, 
 and he shall not carry on the same any more. Further, it shall be no ex- 
 cuse that the person in question was not there for the purpose of prostitution, 
 inasmuch as he is enjoined to point out every female whom he receives into 
 his house, without exception, and neglect of this shall be taken as a proof 
 of contravention. Under penalty of the same punishment, he must give a 
 similar notice if a common woman comes to him from another house. 
 
 " 3. Females under age, who have not, before the publication of these 
 ordinances, notoriously abandoned themselves to common prostitution, are 
 not to be received by any brothel-keeper, and when he produces such per- 
 sons before the Police Dbeotory the permit shall not be allowed. If he 
 acts contrary to this prohibition, he shall be punished with two years' labor 
 in jail. 
 
 " 4. The departure from a brothel of any woman who desires to change 
 her mode of life, and to subsist in a respectable manner, is not to be check- 
 ed or prevented. Even on account of sureties entered into or debts incur- 
 red, the keeper is not to retain any such against her will, at the risk of los- 
 ing his permit, and the police are charged to give every assistance. If, 
 however, any such person desire only to remove to another house of prosti- 
 tution, this can not be done without the consent of her former keeper, until 
 after three months' notice given, when it will be permitted upon proof of 
 brutal treatment by the keeper, or other good and reasonable grounds shown 
 to the police. No woman who seeks to quit a brothel for the purpose of 
 carrying on prostitution for pay on her own account will be permitted to do 
 so ; and if any person, having, on pretense of an honest calling, quitted a 
 house of prostitution, shall be adjudged guilty of prostitution on her own 
 account, she shall have four weeks at the House of Correction, with a wel- 
 come and farewell. And whereas it is known that many brothel-keepers, 
 who treat their girls with an unbearable harshness, keep so strict a watch 
 upon them that they can not succeed in bringmg their complaints before 
 the authorities, information shall from time to time, ex-offido, and without 
 the presence of the keeper, be taken, whether the girls have any well-found- 
 ed complaints to bring forward against the said keeper. 
 
 « 5. The common prostitutes in the brothels are strictly prohibited from 
 enticing or inviting passengers in the streets, with looks or signs from the 
 houses or windows, and the keepers are on no account to permit the same. 
 Diligent regard to this is to be had by the police, and those who act con- 
 
PRUSSIA. 229 
 
 trary •will be punished, the first time with three days, and, on a repetition 
 of the oflFense, with a week's solitary coufinement, one half of the time on 
 bread and water. The keeper who is shown to have been party to the 
 same will suffer double punishment. 
 
 " 6. In these houses the keepers shall not supply visitors with wine, 
 brandy, liquor, punch, or other strong drinks, or with food, but only with 
 tea, coffee, chocolate, beer, or similar beverages ; further, it is not permitted 
 for the visitors to bring in drink or food. For every case of contravention 
 the keeper shall pay five thalers, or a week's detention ; on repetition, he 
 shall be punished more severely ; if this will not suffice, the permit shall 
 be withdrawn from the house. No brothel-keeper shall allow any guest to 
 remain after twelve o'clock at night, nor allow any one to enter after that 
 hour. Whoso acts contrary shall, for the first offense, pay ten thalers ; on 
 repetition, the fine is doubled ; for the third time, the keeper shall lose his 
 permit. 
 
 " T. Should thefts, assaults, or other offenses take place in such houses, 
 the keeper is in all cases liable to the injured party if he can not get his 
 redress elsewhere. Further, the said keeper is suspected of complicity in 
 the offense so long as the contrary is not proved, and if it appear that he 
 did not use all possible means for the prevention of such offense, he shall be 
 punished by fine or in person. 
 
 " 8. In case any innocent female shall, by fraud or violence, be brought 
 into any brothel, the keeper and those who are accomplices in such infamous 
 offense shall undergo public exhibition, and four to ten years' House of Cor- 
 rection, with welcome and farewell. Besides this, the permit will be with- 
 drawn. It shall be no excuse for him to allege that he neither knew nor 
 assisted the said seduction, inasmuch as he had no right to receive any fe- 
 male into his hotise without first giving notice thereof to the Police Direc- 
 tory, and receiving from them, after inquiry into the circumstances, per- 
 mission to do so. 
 
 " 9. In like manner, a brothel-keeper may not, under penalty of twelve 
 months' imprisonment, give any one (whatever his rank may be) facility to 
 carry on criminal intercourse with any woman who has been brought into 
 his house ; and it is absolutely forbidden for any person to bring a female to 
 such house, and there to have any private communication with her, which 
 shall be only with the regular women of the place, inasmuch as by section 2 
 no keeper is permitted to receive any woman as servant-maid, or under any 
 pretense whatever, among his inmates, without previous notice to the police, 
 and their assent to the same. 
 
 " 10. In order to combat the frequent infection of common prostitutes, 
 and, if possible, prevent them from severe attacks of venereal disease, or its 
 farther extension, and at the same time not only to restrain the rapid prog- 
 ress of this highly pernicious malady, buty so far as possible, entirely to 
 
230 HISTORY OF PKOSTITTJTION. 
 
 root it out, the brothel-keepers and the women kept by them are bound to 
 give their most observant attention thereto, both for thei^own advantage, 
 and also for the diminution of their own misfortunes and severe punishment. 
 To this end, the brothel-keepers are not to oppose the appointed surgeons 
 in each quarter, so often as the same make theu- visits to the women at their 
 houses ; and every woman shall be subject to these visits. For the informa- 
 tion of every brothel-keeper, and of the prostitutes kept by him, a copy of 
 printed directions, prepared by competent authority, shall be given to the 
 brothel-keeper, whereby the signs of actual infection and of the commence- 
 ment of venereal disease may be known, and they shaU be clearly instructed 
 by the duly appointed surgeon how to "form an opinion upon their own state 
 of health, and be able to explain the same on his visits, so that thereby the 
 detection of venereal disease at any time may be faciUtated. Furthermore, 
 upon perceiving the symptoms whereby venereal disease is known in a man, 
 they should abstain from carnal intercourse with him. 
 
 " 11. Should a woman suspect that she is infected, she must permit no 
 one to have connection with her, but shall mention the same as well to her 
 keeper as to the surgeon of the district, upon which steps shall forthwith be 
 taken for her cure. If she neglect this she shall* be punished with detention, 
 three months for the first time, on repetition of the offense with sis months 
 in the House of Correction, with welcome and farewell. If the said woman, 
 through concealment of her venereal malady, has given occasion to a wider 
 spread thereof, she shall the first time be liable to twelve months in the 
 House of Correction, with welcome and farewell. In case the brothel-keeper 
 shall know of the diseased condition of such woman, and shall not hinder her 
 from the exercise of her trade, or shall keep her therein, he shall be liable to 
 the same punishment, and, moreover, shall be liable to the costs and charges 
 of cure and attendance of the man so infected by such woman, if he requires 
 it, or if he can not pay such expenses. For this reimbursement a brothel- 
 keeper shall be held liable even if he did not know the diseased condition of 
 a woman kept in his house, inasmuch as such obligation shall, for the public 
 weal, be taken to be a risk and burden incident to the trade permitted to be 
 carried on by him. 
 
 " 12. On the other hand, a prostitute can prosecute any one for having 
 infected her by^ means of connection, and such person shall, upon the com- 
 plaint and showing of her and the brothel-keeper, bear the expense of cure 
 and maintenance for so a long time as, pursuant to the orders of the author- 
 ities of the Charite, the woman may have to remain in the Charite ; and 
 further, shall be liable to a fine of fifty thalers, or three months' imprison- 
 ment in the House of Correction." 
 
 " 13. If any woman, before declaring her venereal disease, shall have 
 concealed it so long that, by opmion of competent persons, she must have 
 known the same for a oonsidemble length of time, she shall, whether she 
 
PEUSSIA. 231 
 
 shall or shall not have infected other persons, be liable to the same punish- 
 ment as if she had infected others. 
 
 " 14. Whereas, it has been the practice for the women to conceal their 
 venereal diseases ; and whereas, they have intrusted themselves to incom- 
 petent persons for cure ; and whereas, the brothel-keepers are bound to re- 
 fund to the Charite the expenses of the cure and attendance, which some- 
 times fall ruinously heavy upon them : it is hereby directed, for the re- 
 moval of this difficulty, that a healing fund {heilings casse) shall be estab- 
 lished, by means whereof the keepers and their women, on the occurrence 
 of disease, may be relieved of the heavy expenses to which they are put, 
 and may be assured against the de'struction of their bodies and health, 
 which ensue from the growth of this terrible disease To this fund eveiy 
 brothel-keeper shall contribute a monthly sum of six grosehen (twelve cents) 
 for each woman that he keeps, and shall give in a statement of the name 
 and place of birth of such woman ; for which, at the commencement of the 
 following month, he shall receive an acknowledgment, and he shall recover 
 such sum from every woman on whose account he shall have paid the same. 
 Nevertheless, any brothel-keeper who shall have allowed more than one of 
 these monthly payments to run into arrear with the women, shall not, on 
 that account, be abl6 to prevent her leaving him, if, as before ordered, she 
 desires to change her way of life. If a woman goes from one brothel to 
 another without the six grosehen having been paid for her, the brothel- 
 keeper to whom she goes must pay this amount in due time for her. This 
 shall happen notwithstanding that she is bound to give notice of her re- 
 moval to the police coromissary of the quarter. The monthly payment of 
 this tax is to be made to the duly appomted medical officer of the quarter, 
 who shall pay over the whole amount of the same to the collector of the 
 healing fund, who shall give him for the same a receipt under his own 
 hand ; whereupon the comptroller shall compare the list of the same with 
 the list of the brothel-keepers and women in the several districts, and shall 
 compel defaulters to pay the outstanding tax. 
 
 " 15. A perfect account is to be kept of this healing fund, and out of 
 the same every diseased woman shall be taken to the Charite, and, without 
 farther charges to herself or keeper, shall be maintained and thoroughly 
 cured without being sent, as formerly directed, to the work-house. Far- 
 ther, the woman shall not intrust herself either to the visiting surgeon or 
 to any other person for cure, but such shall take place only in the Charite. 
 
 " 16. No brothel shall be tolerated in the respectably inhabited and fre- 
 quented streets and squares of the city, but they shall be established at a 
 moderate distance from the same, so that the police can watch- them and 
 speedily correct any disorder ; otherwise only in the smaller streets and 
 thoroughfares. 
 
 "It. The matters that are ordered and prescribed in the foregoing arti- 
 
232 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 cles to the brothel-keepers, are also to he observed by female brothel-keep- 
 ers under like penalties. 
 
 " 18. Single women living by themselves for purposes of prostitution 
 must give in their notices to the Police Directory in the same manner as the 
 women in the brothels ; must also undergo examination by the medical offi- 
 cers of the quarter in which they reside ; must pay their six grosohen a 
 month to the healing fund, and be subject to all the directions applicable to 
 brothel-keeperp and their hired women, and to the like punishments in case 
 of offending against the directions. 
 
 "19. Procurers and procuresses, who make it their business to provide 
 opportunities in their houses for criminal intercourse of men and women 
 (whatever their condition), shall be strictly watehed, and, upon conviction, 
 shall be liable to three months' detention in the House of Correction. 
 
 " 20. The street-walkers roaming the streets after dark are not to be 
 tolerated, but where they can be met with are to be taken into custody, 
 and after being cured, if they are affected with venereal disease, shall be 
 sent from six to twelve months to the House of Correction. 
 
 " 21. Whoever can not pay the fines shall receive a corresponding cor- 
 poral (ant leibe) punishment. 
 
 " 22. Informers shall receive half the fines paid in, and the remaining 
 fines shall be collected and distributed as the reward of those who make dis- 
 covery and information of any contraventions of these regulations. 
 
 " 23. In those cases mentioned in section 3, wherein, together with a 
 breach of these regulations, a crime against the laws of the state is com- 
 mitted, the criminal department of the High Court will take cognizance of 
 it, and the remedies proceed from them to the criminal deputation of the 
 Chamber of Justice. 
 
 " 24. In order that no one who, whether as keeper or girl, makes a trade 
 of prostitution, shall be in a position to excuse themselves on account of their 
 ignorance of this code of regulatioiis, a copy of them shall be given to every 
 person at the time of registration, for which six groschen shall be paid, and 
 carried to the reward fund for informers." 
 
 The royal rescript, the statute, and the police ordinance of 
 1792 are founded upon the principle that prostitution is a neces- 
 sary evil, which, if unregulated, tends to demoralize all society, 
 and inflict physical suffering on its votaries ; but, as it can never 
 be suppressed, it is tolerated in order that those who practice it 
 may be brought under supervision and control. In furtherance 
 of this idea, another police order was promulgated in 1795, pro- 
 hibiting music and dancing at the tolerated houses, and limiting 
 the resort of prostitutes to public places of amusement. The im- 
 mediate effect of this measure was to close several coffee-houses 
 
PRUSSIA. 233 
 
 served by women {mddclien tcAagieen). At the same time, the 
 women were classified into first, second, and third classes, and 
 the monthly tax graduated to one thaler (sixty-eight cents), two 
 thirds of a thaler, and one third of a thaler, which was appro- 
 priated to the healing fund, as directed by the regulations of 1792. 
 This impost was doubled at a subsequent period in consequence 
 of public calamities. 
 
 To enforce the police directions and collect the tax, a census of 
 the public prostitutes in Berlin was taken in June, 1792, when 
 they amounted to 311. The toleration was withdrawn from some 
 of these for various reasons, and the numbers were, in 
 
 July 269 
 
 August 268 
 
 September - 249 
 
 October (a period of fairs and other assemblages) . . 258 
 
 And the average fmally settled at about . . . . 260 
 
 in a population of 150,000. 
 
 In the exercise of the discretionary power vested in the police 
 of Berlin, as in most other cities of Continental Europe, they found 
 it necessary to extend their toleration so as to include in their su- 
 pervision those private prostitutes who could not be permitted to 
 reside in the tolerated houses because they had not reached the 
 age prescribed by law, which in Prussia fixes majority at twenty- 
 four years ; and also another class who were secretly visited at 
 private lodgings by those wealthy libertines whose pride would 
 not allow them to enter a common brothel, and whose amours 
 consequently exposed them to liabilities which the spirit of the 
 law justified the pohce in encountering. The persons (mostly 
 widows) with whom the private prostitutes resided were made 
 answerable to the police, and subjected to the same rules as the 
 tolerated houses. 
 
 Under ,the new scale of impost there were, in 1796, 
 
 6 brothels of the 1st class, with inmates . . .' . 16 
 
 8 " « 2d « « .... 33 
 
 40 « « 3d « « .... 141 
 
 190 
 
 Private prostitutes of the 1st class 39 
 
 « « « 2d " 28 
 
 — &[ 
 Total 25T 
 
 About this period, an epoch of general political movement, men 
 of the highest rank in Prussia began to doubt the propriety of tol- 
 
234 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 eratipg prostitution, and orders were given, in opposition to the re- 
 monstrances of the police, to tal^e measures which would effectually 
 compel brothel-keepers to close their houses. This appears to have 
 been the first positive attempt at absolute repression, and the po- 
 lice intimated that illicit prostitution would be its inevitable result. 
 In reply, they were directed that, if their prediction should be veri- 
 fied, they must pursue the vice more closely. In 1800 the number 
 of registered women had decreased to 246, lut it was notorwvs that 
 illicit prostitution had increased largely. This fact was not denied by 
 the poHce. They ascribed it, very justly, to the restrictions im- 
 posed on the tolerated houses, which were now actually less than 
 ever, at a time when the resident population of Berlin was twenty 
 thousand more than at the last computation, exclusive of a large 
 influx of troops and foreigners. They were not supported in their 
 views, but were ordered, on the ground of extensive disease among 
 the soldiery, to "crush out" the illicit prostitution, and this order 
 they vainly endeavored to accomplish. An inquiry into the com- 
 parative state of the venereal disease was directed at the same 
 time, and the state physician reported that there was less disease 
 among registered than illicit prostitutes, and inferred that a diminution 
 of tolerated, hut strictly guarded regular brothels, was not for the pub- 
 lic benefit. 
 
 The year 1808, when the French army overran Europe, was a 
 period of general war and trouble ; the police regulations fell into 
 abeyance, and prostitution became comparatively free and uncon- 
 trolled. The French military commanders in Berlin made com- 
 plaints to the police of the lawless state of the town, particularly 
 specifying some of the brothels, which had become nests of gam- 
 blers, wherein robbery, duels, suicides, and other offenses were of 
 frequent occurrence. The results of an iaspection were as follows : 
 
 50 brothels containing women 230 
 
 Private prostitutes 203 — 483 
 
 In addition to this, there were of notorious Ulicit prostitutes known \ 
 
 to the police (60 of whom were stated to have disease in its worst > 400 
 
 forms) j 
 
 And also reasonably suspected of prostitution 61 
 
 Making an aggregate known to the authorities of ... . 900 
 
 There were also seventy dance-houses, which were known as 
 ■ places of accommodation. The population at this time was ,about 
 150,000. The figures thus given, from an official enumeration, 
 are the best practical commentary upon the effects of the aban- 
 donment of a tried system of surveillance. 
 
PEUSSIA. 235 
 
 The state of affairs disclosed by this inquiry called forth a min- 
 isterial rescript, dated May 8, 1809, -which we copy : 
 
 " The brothel-houses are, by reason of the great influence they have on 
 morahty and health, a very important branch of police administration. 
 We should desire to be satisfied whether it is more desirable to suppress or 
 tolerate them. In any case, it is, however, improper and injurious to license 
 them, and thus to give them a certain sanction ; still less can they be toler- 
 ated in public neighborhoods of a city. It is rather to be desired that, upon 
 every convenient and properly occurring opportunity, they should be stamp- 
 ed with the well-merited brand of the deepest depravity and infamy. .We 
 have therefore commanded the Police Directory to effect the removal of all 
 such houses into quiet, retired streets of the suburbs and liberties, and we 
 direct you to take into consideration whether a like regulation can not be 
 accomplished here in the city of Berlin ; whereupon you will make to us 
 a well-considered report. You are also to take into consideration what can 
 be done to brand such places with the deepest depravity and infamy." 
 
 In obedience to this order, vrhich had doubtless emanated direct 
 from royalty itself, Herr Von Grruner, the head of the Berlin po- 
 lice, communicated a report containing his conclusions, as follows: 
 
 " 1. That closing, or even limiting the brothels, would lead to very gen- 
 eral ill health." 
 
 " 2. That, in consequence of the exertions of the police, illicit prostitu- 
 tion had been diminished very much, and even the number of the registered 
 women had decreased." 
 
 «3. That in 1809 there were in Berlin 
 
 1 first class brothel containing women 6 
 
 20 second " " « « 15 
 
 22 thhd « « « « 111—198 
 
 Private prostitutes • 113 
 
 Total registered 311 
 
 That this number might seem larger than before, but the passage of troops 
 and the large garrison of Berlin had led to the increase, and evidently a 
 great increase of secret prostitution and its results would ha-ve been experi- 
 enced in place of the registered prostitution, had not an extension of this 
 same registered prostitution been tolerated." 
 
 " 4. That particular streets in which brothels were to be found were cer- 
 tainly no longer suitable places on account of the greater traffic, which they 
 had gained, and these houses might, on that account, be removed to back 
 streets, including the Konigsmamr, etc." " 
 
 " 5. That he did not know in what manner ' the brand of depravity and 
 
236 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 infamy' could he impressed on the trade of prostitution, except by directing 
 a particular costume, differing from the clothing of respectsWe women,'' 
 
 In continuation of this report, the commissary states his opinion " that 
 it would be dangerous to public order to keep the common houses in nairow 
 limits, as it would bring together all the idle people, which might lead to a 
 disturbance ; that a special costume for the women would be of no use at 
 home, and out of doors it would only give occasion for a public scandal 
 without effecting the purpose of their reform ; that, lastly, he objects to the 
 toleration of private prostitutes, as there is no good result from their regis- 
 tration except their health, and the general regulation in that and other 
 matters is much better secured in the brothels." 
 
 Among the oflSicial correspondence on this matter we find another 
 docmnent worthy of notice. It is a report by a sub-inspector to the 
 superior police authorities, dated January 16, 1810. 
 
 " There are forty-four such houses of prostitution, and, compared with the 
 population of Berlin, 180,000, that is not many. They are divided into 
 three classes, and, togethei" with the prostitutes living on their own account, 
 are controlled in conformity with the regulations of February 2d, 1192. In 
 compliance with such rules, they pay the taxes to the healing fund. 
 
 "Past negligent mismanagement has unfortunately permitted several 
 brothels in much-frequented streets. Their removal to more retired places 
 I find highly desirable. It is urgent that no more private women of the 
 town should be tolerated, but rather that they should, if they can not return 
 to good conduct, be sent into the brothel-houses, or, where they are not na- 
 tives of Berlin, be sent out of the city forthwith, or otherwise be sent to the 
 House of Industry. These women, living alone, are very perilous to morality 
 and health, inasmuch as they can not be so perfectly controlled as in the 
 brothels in modesty of deportment, cleanliness, and retirement ; also because 
 they are able to withhold themselves from medical inspection, and to carry 
 on their trade when they know themselves to be suffering from venereal 
 diseases. The lists of the prostitutes under treatment at the Charite demon- 
 strate this. The opinion that this living alone favors a return to virtue is 
 not supported by experience ; were it even so, the disadvantages enumerated 
 are more important than so rare and problematical a benefit. 
 
 " The question, ' whether the toleration of brothels in large cities, and 
 their regulation by the police, so that infected females should not be permit- 
 ted therein, is advisable, in order to counteract the seduction of respectable 
 females'!' can not be categorically answered in the afiSrmative. Still, in 
 Berlin, it seems that brothels, if not a necessary evil, can not be momentarily 
 abolished, but such steps must be devised as will gradually remove the evil, 
 and make the disgrace generally noticeable. To this end, the above proposi- 
 tions, touching private prostitutes and removal of brothels from public streets, 
 will be carried into effect. Express limitations of the brothels to two or 
 
PRUSSIA. 237 
 
 three streets would give occasion to gatherings On holidays that might lead 
 to riots and other excesses. 
 
 " A special external designation of prostitutes would only lead to uproar, 
 ■without causing the women to feel the odium of their calling more than at 
 present." 
 
 The remainder of this report is unimportant. In October, 1810, 
 a public order was made for effectuating its recommendations. 
 
 After this event the king became impressed with an idea of the 
 impolicy and impropriety of the "toleration" system, and a lengthy 
 correspondence ensued between the various departments and state 
 ofS.cials on the subject ; the royal rescripts enunciating the oft-re- 
 peated opinions on the subject in general, objecting to the details 
 of the police management, or directing reports on some particular 
 incident of the system ; the police authorities, fortified by experi- 
 ence as opposed to theory, adhering to the toleration practice, and 
 demanding increased powers to restrain private prostitution, and 
 compel all such persons to enter the public houses. The matter 
 was brought to a close in 1814 by an order from the crown for a 
 total closing of the tolerated brothels. The police president, Lecoq, 
 thought it advisable to communicate with the authorities of the 
 town of Breslau before he complied with this order, requesting 
 some information as to the state of public morals there, it beiag 
 stated that there was not a single brothel ox registered prostitute 
 to be found within its limits. 
 
 The reply from the Breslau officials was in the affirmative as to 
 the fact. As to the results, they had consulted with the state 
 physician and the hospital physician, and their opinion was that 
 closing the brothels and withdrawal of toleration had not been 
 advantageous, as, in spite of the police vigilance, illicit prostitu- 
 tion had increased since, and procuresses carried on their arts more 
 extensively, their operations being altogether secret, and under no 
 police control ; that the venereal disease had not decreased; thai noth- 
 ing counteracted it so effectually as the medical inspection of known 
 brothels; and that its secret spread had been so great as to extend its 
 ravages, through the instrumentality of female servants, into respectable 
 families; that the hospital returns proved but little, because the 
 cases were suffered to run on or were privately cured, but these 
 returns were given as follows : 
 
238 HISTORT OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Years "^^°^^^^ cases in lUegitinate births 
 ' Brealau Hospital. in Breslau. 
 
 «. Venereal cases in Illegitimate birttaa 
 
 years. ]3Jg|jlJ^^ Hospital. in Breslau. 
 
 1810 118 ♦ 382 
 
 1811 98 316 
 
 1812 139 282 
 
 1813 159 222 
 
 1805 155 
 
 1806 202 
 1801 323 
 
 1808 233 
 
 1809 150 
 
 The years 1806 and 1807 were those of the French invasion. In 
 1812 the brothels in Breslau were closed. 
 
 The general peace of 1814 diverted the energies of crowned 
 heads and leading statesmen from matters of internal pohcy, and 
 the police of Berlin were left at liberty to pursue their old plans. 
 Then the inhabitants began to object to brothels, and to petition 
 against those in their immediate neighborhood. This drew from 
 the police an argumentative document, in which they folly re- 
 viewed the question, but refiised the prayer of the petition. 
 
 The change of localities, alterations in the law, and other cir- 
 cumstances, made a re-enactment of the code of 1792 desirable, 
 and this took place to 1829. The alterations are chiefly in minor 
 details of no general interest, but the law against ftequenting 
 places of public amusement was made part of this police order, 
 which declared that the presence of prostitutes at houses of public 
 entertainment was strictly forbidden. The most material change 
 consisted in some very minute directions for guarding against 
 venereal disease. To this end, every brothel-keeper was required 
 to furnish each woman in his house with a proper syringe, which 
 she was directed to use feequently, under the orders of the medical 
 visitors. The private prostitutes were directed to observe similar 
 precautions, and in place of a fixed weekly inspection by a med- 
 ical ofi&cer, he was ordered to make his visits at uncertain intervals. 
 
 At this time there were thirty-three brothels in Berlin. Some 
 of the citizens renewed their petitions for a removal of a portion 
 of them, but with no better success than before. 
 
 In 1839, the morality of the system of toleration was again 
 questioned by those in authority, and the Minister of the Interior, 
 in a rescript to the authorities of the Ehine provinces, alluded 
 to the matter of prostitution, and expressed himself as strongly 
 opplosed to any system of toleration. We quote a portion of his 
 remarks : 
 
 "As for the granting of licenses to brothels, I can not accede to it, in- 
 asmuch as the advantages to be gained are, in my opiaion, illusory, and in 
 no degree countervail the inconvenience of the state sanction thus aflForded 
 to discreditable institutions. All attempts by the police to introduce de- 
 
PEUSSIA. 239 
 
 cency and propriety by means of brothel regulations are idle. * * * * 
 Brothels are not an invention of necessity, but are simply an offshoot of 
 immoral luxury. (?)**** No one has a right to expect himself 
 to be protected from injury and disease while seeking the gratification of 
 unreasonable sexual enjoyments. * * * * The opinion that broth- 
 els are outlets for dangerous arts of seduction has never been substantiated. 
 * * * * Had the police ever realized the suppression of illicit prosti- 
 tution by means of tolerated brothels, then, indeed, a decided opinion might 
 be formed as to the utility, in a sanitary point of view, of brothels." 
 
 Opinions of this nature from such a quarter, notwithstanding 
 their absurdity in many respects, could not be without their effect, 
 and induced the citizens to ^:enew their petitions for the suppres- 
 sion or removal of some of the tolerated houses of prostitution. 
 In 1840, a' ministerial order enjoined such removal. It was 
 promptly obeyed: some brothels were at once suppressed, and 
 others were removed and concentrated in a notorious spot called 
 the Kdnigsmauer. The relative number of brothels and prosti- 
 tutes in the years 1836 and 1844 was as foUpws : 
 
 1836, brothels .... 33 Prostitutes .... 200 
 
 1844, " .... 24 « . .... 240 
 
 Decrease of brothels in 1844 . 9 
 
 J)iereaseofprostitutesinl844 . . • . 40 
 
 Forty more women crowded into a less number of houses ; an 
 average of ten prostitutes to each brothel, instead of six as before, 
 is but a poor commentary on enforced suppression. 
 
 The known inclination of the highest persons in the kingdom 
 to put down brothels speedily induced a renewal of the agitation 
 against them. So far as locality was in question, it was admitted 
 that no more suitable place could have been found. The Konigs- 
 mauer was a spot shunned by decent people from old times ; out 
 of the way, and with few inhabitants but those interested in the 
 traf&c, there was nobody to suffer, and the whole argument virtu- 
 ally turned upon the moral consequences of the government reg- 
 ulations and their utility to the public. 
 
 Among the petitions of 1840, one had been presented "from a 
 number of Berlin citizens" to Prince William, the uncle of the 
 king, stating that these brothels were an abomination ; that many 
 of them were splendidly fitted up, in which all means of excite- 
 ment were used ; that the women appeared at the windows ex- 
 posed and bare-necked ; in short, the memorialists said all that is 
 customarily- said on such occasions. But they seem to have for- 
 
569 
 
 Women . 
 
 . . 634 
 
 Total . . 
 
 . 1209 
 
 695 
 
 a 
 
 . . 738 
 
 « 
 
 . 1433 
 
 104 
 
 11 
 
 . . 757 
 
 « 
 
 . 1461 
 
 240 HISTOEY OF' PROSTITUTION. 
 
 gotten that the pohce possessed both power and inclination to sup- 
 press such grievances, or else it never occurred tqgthese "Berhn 
 citizens" that their assistance given to the police would have 
 speedily' checked the evils. The memorial was handed to the 
 king himself, and he required a report upon the matter from the 
 Director of Police. This was duly furnished, and represented, 
 
 " 1. That the corruption of manners in Berlin, and in the parts of Ber- 
 lin complained of, was not more extreme than in other great cities of Ger-- 
 many, and in like places. 
 
 " 2. That in the limitation of the ineradicable vice of prostitution by 
 her police regulations, Berlin had greatly the advantage of Vienna ; for in 
 1840, Berlin (including the garrison) had a population of 350,000 souls, 
 among whom there was, of course, a very large number of unmarried men. 
 That the syphilitic cases in the Charitd had been in 
 
 1838, men . , 
 
 1839, " . . 
 
 1840, « . . 
 
 Assuming that one third of the venereal cases in Berlin were treated pri- 
 vately, this gives an average of 1 in 450, or in every four hundred and 
 fifty men there is one syphilitic subject, whereas M. Parent-Duchatelet's 
 calculation for Vienna is'l iA every 250.'" 
 
 The same report continues : 
 
 " Every official will bear out my assertion that the number of brothels is 
 in inverse proportion to illicit prostitution ; that is, the fewer of the for- 
 mer, the more of the latter, and the greater the difficulty of dealing with 
 them, and preventing syphilis." 
 
 In 1841 another memorial was presented, with further com- 
 plaints against the same houses in the Konigsmauer. This was 
 referred to the police au:thorities with the brief injunction, 
 "Make an end of the nuisances about which there are so many 
 complaints." 
 
 The iSchulkolkgium of the province of Brandenburg now joined 
 their influence to swell the public outcry that the few houses of 
 prostitution on the Konigsmauer were hurtful to public morals, 
 and a bad example to youth, and, on the ground of interest in 
 
 ' This calculation is not very explicitly stated. It is intended to show that 
 syphilis is not dangerously prevalent among the general population. The police 
 arrive at this conclusion by deducting the cases treated in the Charite (which they 
 estimate at two thirds) from the total population, and then divide the remaining 
 ca?es among the bulk of the people, to prove that only a very small proportion are 
 exposed to venereal influence. We transcribe the statement literally, but do not 
 consider it of much value. 
 
PRUSSIA. 241 
 
 their students and pupils, demanded that they be closed. The 
 police, who had previously taken every precaution against a vio- 
 lation of public decency, now deputed a special inspector to give 
 his personal attention to the locality. He reported there was no 
 valid ground of complaint as to the outward conduct of the in- 
 habitants, or the internal management of the houses. Thus satis- 
 fied as to the nature of the opposition, the police treated the col- 
 lege officials somewhat cavalierly, and recommended them to pro- 
 hibit their students visiting such an out-of-the-way place: a very 
 sensible piece of advice, and the best that could have been given 
 under the circumstances. 
 
 According to Dr. Behrend (who has written on Prostitution ia 
 Berlin), the leading spirits of this agitation were a clergyman, and 
 a distiller who had a brewery and spirit-store in the vicinity of 
 the Kdnigsmauer. The clergyman proceeded upon moral and re- 
 ligious grounds, and led the crusade against brothels as a public 
 disgrace, unworthy a Christian nation. We do not learn what 
 line of argument the distiller adopted, or whether the prohibition 
 of liquor in houses of prostitution influenced his zeal. These agi- 
 tators applied to the police with a succession of general complaints 
 as to the luxury of the houses, the gains of the women, the bad 
 example tO' the young, and other topics of a similar nature. They 
 met with but scant favor ; however, they were assured that every 
 possible means should be used to keep the offenders within the 
 bounds of existing rules. 
 
 The memorialists then carried their grievances to various influ- 
 ential people, and at length to Count Arnim, the Minister of the 
 Interior, to whom a petition was presented, praying the entire 
 suppression of all tolerated brothels. This petition contained all 
 the allegations and arguments which could possibly be advanced 
 against the places in question, augmented by much rhetorical 
 flourish about the degradation of royal officers ; the desecration 
 of the baptismal register produced by prostitutes at the time of in- 
 scription ; the insult to majesty in allowing brothels to exist in a 
 street called Kdnigsmauer, and many similarly weighty points. 
 The practical knowledge of the police as to the effect of registra- 
 tion in checking more baneful excesses was theoretically disputed; 
 the propositions on which the toleration system was based were 
 denied ; the defense of the plan by those cognizant of its work- 
 ing was entirely ruled out; so that, to a person unacquainted with 
 both sides of the question, a sufficient ex parte case was presented. 
 
 Q 
 
242 HISTORY OP PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The ministerial reply was favorable, but not conclusive ; it was 
 to the effect that, ' • 
 
 "1. The number of brothels is to be reduced one half, which are to be 
 removed beyond the city walls to the most retired position possible, where 
 annoyance to the neighbors is not to be feared. 
 
 " 2. For the control of those remaining, patrols of gens d'armes are to be 
 kept afoot, and relieved six times a day. 
 
 "3. Every third bjreach of the regulations, whether in small or great 
 matters, will be followed by the closing of the house. , 
 
 " Should these orders not be sufficient, the police are empowered to close 
 all the houses, for it must be understood that brothels are not licensed, but 
 only tolerated as necessity requires, and care for public decency permits." 
 
 The police authorities foresaw diiSculties in the details of these 
 proceedings, and asked for more explicit instructions, which were 
 supplied. In the second communication was thiS' remarkable pas- 
 sage: 
 
 " Should a diminution in the number of brothels take place, and thereby 
 the number of common prostitutes be affected, we shall then learn by expe- 
 rience whether consequences injurious to public morality and order ensue, 
 and the decision of the main question can then be made with certainty, 
 whether we can not advance to the entire abolition of brothels." 
 
 In following the prescribed course, and overthrowing an estab- 
 lished system in order to furnish ministerial " experience" of the 
 trouble it would cause, the police instituted a series of inquiries, 
 and embodied the result in a report to the Minister of the Interior, 
 dated July, 1844, which shows that there were 
 
 26 brothels, containing women 28T 
 
 Kegistered private prostitutes 18 
 
 Total 305 
 
 The amount received and disbursed on account of the healmg 
 fund was also reported in thalers, thus : 
 
 Disbursed . . . 1027 
 " ... 861 
 
 " ... 689 
 
 It concludes with the opinion entertained by the police : 
 
 "As for the influence which the extinction of brothels may have upn 
 the morals, safety, and health of society, the police authorities think them- 
 selves obliged, as before, to declare against the expediency of the proceeding. 
 What should be done in case this course should be adopted is a question 
 that requires much consideration. Meanwhile, the police are of opinion it 
 
 1841. 
 
 Received . 
 
 3884 
 
 1842. 
 
 <c 
 
 3393 
 
 1843. 
 
 « 
 
 3365 
 
PRUSSIA. 243 
 
 would be highly objectionable to close the brothels before other measures 
 are prepared in reference to prostitution." 
 
 No such measures were prepared. TheTsing would hear no 
 farther argument upon the matter; and, by positive "royal com- 
 mand," the brothels were closed and registered prostitution stop- 
 ped, December 31, 1845. Berlin became (nominally) as virtuous 
 as an edict from the throne could make it. The majority of the 
 prostitutes were either sent to their former homes or supplied with 
 passports for places "out of the kingdom. A few were left house- 
 less, friendless, and destitute. History does not say whether the 
 friends of enforced continence provided for these sufferers. 
 
 This summary edict seriously embarrassed the police, especially 
 as the state laws tolerating prostitution were unrepealed. They 
 applied to the authorities of Halle and Cologne, where a similar 
 measure had been enforced, and the substance of the replies re- 
 ceived was as fdlows. 
 
 From Halle: 
 
 " Since the EVench occupation, the brothels had been put down. There 
 had been a few persons charged with prostitution, whom the police caught 
 now and then, and sent to jail, where they were cured. There were, how- 
 ever, very few vicious persons in Halle, and there had been no need of 
 special provision. It was not difficult to find honest livelihood for the 
 common women. As to syphilis, there had been no increase of cases since 
 the last of the brothels." 
 
 The authorities of Cologne had no such pleasing tale to tell. 
 They say, 
 
 "At the end of the French occupation, the authorities had put down all 
 the licensed brothels, and, at the same time, made vigilant search for private 
 prostitutes. Legal difficulties had for many years been in the way, as the 
 laws made no provision against private prostitution, when not carried on as 
 a trade for gain, and the technical proof was difficult. Against procurgrs 
 and procuresses the law was ineffective, except in cases where the seduced 
 female was under age. When the amendments in the law had taken place, 
 the police had worked vigorously, and in the years 1843 and 1844, a time 
 when illicit prostitution had enormously increased, they had presented three 
 hundred cases of that offense. 
 
 "As regarded syphilis, the city physician was of opinion that, in late 
 years, the disease had increased among all classes, and had appeared in a 
 much worse type. 
 
 " In consequence, however, of the increased energy of the police, affairs 
 had become under better control, and the number of private brothels had 
 
244 HISTORY OS" PROSTITUTION. 
 
 materially diminished, so that there are now but about fifteen in the city. 
 The secret prostitution was not, however, under any coniRl. The police 
 found it impracticable to keep vicious persons in check, who (in default of 
 other accommodation) committed the most depraved acts in stray vehicles 
 or any suitable hiding-place." 
 
 The writer of this of&cial communication added his private opin- 
 ion, based upon the experience of some years, that " no effective 
 steps could be devised to suppress prostitution : all that could be 
 done would be to palliate it, and keep it under surveillance" 
 
 These statements were not calculated to relieve the anxiety of 
 the Berlin officials, who were pressed by the ministers to devise 
 plans for executing the royal orders. They accordingly met, in 
 much embarrassment, and prepared a scheme which was not ac- 
 ceptable to the superior powers. It was ordered, eventually, "that 
 the women suspected of prostitution, being about 1000 or 1200 in 
 Berlin, should be warned by the police to discontinue their prac- 
 tices. If found out, they were to be punished, and, after punish- 
 ment, to be continued xmder swrveUh/nce until good behavior. Dur- 
 ing such period they were to be periodically examined for disease, 
 at the police office, by medical men ; the punishment to be made 
 more severe on the repetition of the offense." 
 
 These orders, following immediately the suppression mandate, 
 will strike every one as reaffirming the principles of the toleration 
 system in the most important particular — the regard for pubhc 
 health. The poHce used all their energy to enforce them, but at the 
 same time represented their fears of the consequences, namely, the 
 spread of prostitution, the increase of disease, and a general hcen- 
 tiousness of habits. 
 
 It now remains to trace the effects, of the suppression of regis- 
 tered brothels, and local authorities afford abundan); and satisfactory 
 proof that the fears of the pohce were realized. 
 
 The Vossicher Zeitung (July, 1847), says : 
 
 "Well meant but altogether erroneous is the proposition that brothels 
 can be dispensed with in times of general intelligence and education, and 
 that now this relic of barbarism can be done away with. Already, only 
 two years after the closing of the brothels, this deception has been exploded, 
 and we have bought experience at the public cost. The illicit prostitutes, 
 who well know how to escape the hands of the police, have spread their nets 
 of demoralization over the whole city ; and against them, the old prostitu- 
 tion houses, which were under a purifying police control in sanitary and 
 general matters, afforded safety and protection." 
 
PRUSSIA. 245 
 
 Iq another local paper we find : 
 
 " Prostitution, which had previously kept out of sight in dark and retired 
 comers, now came forward boldly and openly ; for it found protection and 
 countenance in the large number of its supporters, and no police care could 
 restrain it. The prostitutes did not merely traverse the streets and frequent 
 the public thoroughfares to hunt their prey, thereby iasulting virtuous 
 women and putting them to the blush, they crowded the fashionable prom- 
 enades, the concerts, the theatres, and other places of amusement, where 
 they claimed the foremost places, and set the fashion of the hour. They 
 were conspicuous for their brilliant toilettes, and their example was pre- 
 eminently captivating and pernicious to the youth of both sexes." 
 
 From a work called "Berlin," by Sass, we obtain the annexed 
 view of 
 
 PUBLIC LIFE IN BERLIN. 
 
 " No city in Germany can boast of the splendid baU-rooms of Berlin. 
 One in particular, near the Brandenburg gate and the Parade-ground, is 
 remarkable for its size, and presents a magnificent exterior, especially in the 
 evening, when hundreds of lamps stream through the windows and light up 
 the park in front. The interior is of corresponding splendor, and when the 
 vast hall resounds with the music of the grand orchestra, and is filled with 
 a gay crowd rustling in sUks or satins, or lounging in the hall, or whirling 
 in the giddy waltz, it is certainly a scene to intoxicate the youth who fre- 
 quent it in search of adventure, or to drink in the poison of seductive and 
 deceiving, although bright and fascinating eyes. Should the foreigner visit 
 this scene on one of its gay nights, he may get a glimpse of the depths- of 
 Berlin life. Many a veil is lifted here. This splendid scene has its dark 
 side. This is not respectable Berlin, This whirling, laughing crowd is 
 frivolous Berlin, whether of wealth, extravagance, and foUy, or of poverty, 
 vice, and necessity. The prostitute and the swindler are on every side. 
 Formerly the female visitors were of good repute, but gradually courtesans 
 and women of light character slipped in, until at length no lady could be 
 seen there. And the aforesaid foreigner, who lounges through the rooms, 
 admiring the elegant and lovely women who surround him in charge of 
 some highly respectable elderly person, an ' aunt,' or a ' chaperone,' or pos- 
 sibly in company with her ' newly-married husband,' seeks to know the 
 names and position of Such evident celebrity and fashion. 'Do not you 
 know herl Any police officer can tell you her history,' are the replies he 
 receives. There is a class of men at this place who perform a function sin- 
 gular to the uninitiated. These worthies are the ' husbands' of the before- 
 mentioned ladies. They play the careless or the strict cavalier ; afe Blue- 
 beards on occasion ; appear or keep out of sight, according to the proprie- 
 ties of the moment.'' 
 
246 HISTOEY OF PBOSTITITTION. 
 
 From the same writer we extract the foUowing sketch of a 
 
 DANCING SALOON. 
 
 "The price of admission is ten groschen (about twenty cents), which in- 
 sures a company who can pay. The male public are of all conditions, and 
 include students, clerks, and artists, with, of course, a fair share of rogues 
 and pickpockets. The majority of the women are prostitutes : there may 
 be foHud girls of rare beauty, steeped to the lips in all the arts of iniquity. 
 The philosopher may see life essentially in the same grade as in the last de- 
 scription, but in a somewhat less artificial condition. Scenes of bacchant 
 excitement and of wildest abandonment may be witnessed here. The out- 
 ward show is all mirth and happiness ; pleasure unrestrained seems the busi- 
 ness of the place. Turn the picture. The most showy of the costumes 
 are hired ; the gayety is for a living ; the liberty is licentiousness. These 
 creatures, who, all blithesome as they seem, the victims of others who fleece 
 them of every thing they can earn, are now engaged in securing victims from 
 whom they may wring the gains which are to pay the hire of their elegant 
 dresses, or furnish means for further excesses, or perhaps to pay for their 
 supper that evening. It is the fashion of the place for each gentleman to 
 invite a lady to supper, where the quantity of wine drunk is incredible. 
 How many a young man has to trace not merely loss of cash and health to 
 such a place, but also loss of honor ! The ladies who have no such agree- 
 able partners sit apart, sullen and discontented ; oftentimes they have no 
 money to pay for their own refreshments. Pair by pair the crowd dimin- 
 ishes, untn toward three or four o'clock, when the place is closed." 
 
 •The lowest dancing-houses are the Tanz wirihschaften, inferior 
 to the saloons, where (again quoting) 
 
 " The dance is carried to its wildest excess, to ear-splitting music in a 
 pestilential atmosphere. The poor are extravagant ; drunkenness and prof- 
 ligacy abound. Servants of both sexes, soldiers and journeymen, workwom- 
 en and prostitutes, make up the public. Here, on the most frivolous pre- 
 tenses, concubinage and marriage are arranged, and from this scene of folly 
 and vice the family is ushered to the world. The wet-nurse is met here, 
 " the type of country sipiplicity," who, after a night of tumult and uproar 
 with her lover, will go in the morning to nurse the child whose mother neg- 
 lects her parental duties at the dictates of fashion. The working classes 
 have their representatives, who drown their cares in drink, while boys and 
 girls make up the motley party. In these assemblies there is a difference. 
 Some are attended by citizens of the humbler classes, by working men and 
 women ; others by criminals and their paramours. In these latter resorts 
 the excesses are of a more frightful character than in those where a show of 
 decency restrains the grosser exhibitions ; youth of both sexes are among the 
 
PRUSSIA. 247 
 
 well-known criminals, who are habituated to smoking, drinking, and the 
 wildest orgiesy long before their frames have attained a proper development. 
 Physiognomies which might have sprung from the most hideous fancy of 
 poet or painter may be met with." 
 
 In an anonymous pamphlet, entitled "Prostitution in Berlin," 
 is another hideous picture : 
 
 " In the Konigstadt there is a drinking saloon where, besides the wife of 
 the host, there are two young girls who exceed aU compeers in shameless- 
 ness and depravity. The elder betrays secondary syphilis in her voice ; the 
 younger has such noble features, is of such beauty, and is altogether of such 
 prepossessing appearance, that the infamy of her conduct is incredible. In 
 the evening these girls and the host are generally drunk. At one or two in 
 the morning the place is a perfect hell, the whole company, guests, host, and 
 girls, being mad with liquor. Some are dancing with tjlie girls to the tinkle 
 of a guitar, the player of which acted her part in one of the abolished broth- 
 els ; others are roaring obscene songs. If the guitar-player has brought her 
 daughter, then the tumult of the den is complete. It is never closed before 
 four o'clock in the morning, when the girls retire to their dwellings in com- 
 pany with one or the other of their guest-s," 
 
 In reading these descriptions, it must be remembered that, un- 
 der the toleration system, the police would not permit prostitutes 
 to visit places of public amusement, nor would they allow music 
 and dancing in the brothels. 
 
 Another part of Dr. Sass's work contains a truly horrid picture 
 of the immorality of the city. We transcribe it, in conclusion of 
 this branch of the subject : 
 
 PRIVATE LIFE IN BERLIN. 
 
 "... Let us enter the house. The first floor is inhabited by a fam- 
 ily of distinction ; husband and wife have been separated for years ; he lives 
 on one side, she on the other ; both go out in public together ; the propri- 
 eties are kept in view, but servants will chatter. On the second floor lives 
 an assessor with his- kept woman. When he is out of town, as the house is 
 well aware, a doctor pays her a visit. On the other side the staircase lives 
 a carrier, with hi^ wife and chad. The wife had not mentioned that this 
 child was born before marriage ; he found it out ; of course they quarreled, 
 and he now takes his revenge, in drunkenness, blows, and abuse. We as- 
 cend to the thwd floor. On the right of the- stahs is a teacher who has 
 had a child by his wife's sister ; the wife grievesr sorely over the same. 
 With him lodges a house-painter who ran away from his wife and three 
 children, and now lives, -with his concubine and one child, in a wretched 
 little cupboard. On the left is a letter-carrier's family. His pay is fifteen 
 
248 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 thalers (twelve dollars) a month, but the people seem very comfortable. 
 Their daughter has a very nice front room, well furnished, ^d is kept by a 
 very wealthy merchant, a married man. Exactly opposite there is a house 
 of accommodation, and close by there is a midwife, whose sign-board an- 
 nounces ' An institute for ladies of condition, where they can go through 
 their confinement in retirement.' I can assure the reader that in this 
 sketch of sexual and family life in Berlin I have ' nothing extenuated, nor 
 set down aught in malice.' " 
 
 In estimating the effects of tlie suppression of brothels, it ■will 
 be necessary to take medical testimony. In Dr. Loewe's pam- 
 phlet, " Prostitution with reference to Berlin, 1852," we find : 
 
 " In vain the Charite, after the ordinary wards were full of venereal pa- 
 tients, set aside other parts of the building. The patients were still poured 
 in from the houses of detention, until, at length,, the directors of the Charite 
 refused farther admission, the consequence of which was a long and angry 
 correspondence between them and the police. The Minister of the Interior 
 interfered, and ordered more accommodation for the Charite. This was 
 done, but the new wards were soon filled with venereal females; the pa- 
 tients exceeded the accommodations, and at last it was found necessary to 
 take the Cholera Lazaret for syphilitic cases. Against this arrangement 
 the magistracy of Berlin remonstrated that the present infiux of venereal 
 patients must be regarded as the inevitable, natural consequence of the abo- 
 lition of the brothels ; that this abolition had not originated with them, 
 therefore they were not bound to provide for it." 
 
 Dr. Behrend, to whose work we . have already alluded, gives 
 much statistical information, from original documents, showing the 
 results of suppression. He says : 
 
 "In 1839, out of 1200 women brought to punishment for begging and 
 similar offenses, there were about 600 common unregistered prostitutes. 
 In 1840, the period of reducing the number of brothels, there were 900 
 such women. In 184T, a year after their suppression, there were 1250 no- 
 torious prostitutes. Those, in the opinion of the police, constituted but a 
 portion of those who jwacticed prostitution, but yet had an apparent means 
 of living. Behind the Kbnigsmauer the traffic is carried on worse than for- 
 merly, while the place itself is the scene of disorder and irregularity, which 
 used not to be under the former system. These offenses can not be pun- 
 ished, owing to the difficulties of technical proof which must always exist. 
 The police have done what is possible by continually patrolling the streets, 
 and arresting openly objectionable characters, and even those who are in- 
 formed against as being diseased, but they can do no more. The proslitu- 
 tion which was formerly confined within a limited district is now spread 
 over the whole town," 
 
PRUSSIA. 
 
 249 
 
 Respecting the influence of the withdrawal of toleration upon 
 the public health, Behrend concludes there is a greater amount of 
 syphilis. He gives the following list of cases in the Charity : 
 
 Year 1840 
 
 
 
 Females, 151 . . 
 
 . Males, 
 
 " 1841 
 
 
 « 143 . 
 
 
 « 1842 
 
 
 
 « 616 . 
 
 
 « 1843 
 
 
 
 « 669 . 
 
 
 " 1844 
 
 
 
 " 651 . 
 
 . « 141 
 
 « 1845 
 
 
 
 514 . 
 
 .• " 111 
 
 " 1846 
 
 
 
 " 621 . 
 
 « 813 
 
 « 1841 
 
 
 
 « 161 . 
 
 . . « 894 
 
 « 1848 
 
 
 
 « 835 . 
 
 " 919 
 
 He also investigated the average time each patient was under 
 treatment, as tending to show the malignity of the disease, and re- 
 ports: 
 
 Year 1844, men, 2l|- days ; women, 31^ days ; both sexes, 26i days. 
 " 1845, " 26f " " 421 . " " " 34J " 
 " 1846, " 30^ " " 51^ " " " iOi " 
 " 1847, " 34* " " 431 " " " 383- " 
 " 1848, " 33J " " 63i " " " 43i " 
 
 These facts are corroborated by the registers of the Military 
 Lazaret. From returns made to the pohce department by Herr 
 Lohmeyer, General Staff Physician, it appears there were in the 
 garrison 
 
 In 1844 and 1845, 135 syphilitic cases. Of these, 
 633 cases of primary syphUis required 11,916 days of attendance ; 
 102 « " secondary « « 4,941 « « 
 
 135 « " " 22,863 « « 
 
 In 1846, and the first six months of 1841, there were 618 cases : 
 501 cases of primary syphilis required 11,188 days of attendance ; 
 111 " "secondary « " 5,213 « « 
 
 618 " " " " 23,001 « « 
 
 Dr. Behrend states, as the results' of conversations and commu- 
 nications with many of the medical profession, and of his own ex- 
 perience : 
 
 " 1. That in the last four years there are more cases of syphUis. 
 
 " 2. That, in consequence of the increased facilities for communication, 
 the disease has spread to the small towns and villages. 
 
 " 3. That it has been introduced more frequently into private families. 
 
 " 4. That the character of the disease is more obstinate, thereby oper- 
 ating severely oa the constitution and on future generations. 
 
 " 5. That, since the abolition of the toleration system, unnatural crimes 
 have been much more frequently met with." 
 
250 
 
 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 As to the influence on public morals, he contends that the abo- 
 lition has produced the most injurious consequendfc, particularly 
 alluding to the desecration of 'matrimony. He says: 
 
 " It is common for persons of vicious habits to arrange a marriage, for 
 the purpose of enabling them to avoid the police interference. This mar- 
 riage bond is broken when convenient, and other marriages are formed : 
 sometimes two couples will mutually exchange, and go through the cere- 
 mony." ' ^ 
 
 He also made inquiries as to illegitimacy, and publishes some 
 voluminous tables on the subject. From them we condense a 
 CoMPAEATivE Statement of the legitimate and illegitimate Births in 
 Berlin from January 1, 1838, to March 31, 1849. 
 
 Years. 
 
 - ■ '-■ : 
 
 Births. 
 
 
 Ratio of illegitimate 
 to legitimate Births. 
 
 Legitimate. 
 
 Illegitimate. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1838 
 
 8,587 
 
 1196 
 
 9,783 
 
 1 in 7-2 
 
 1839 
 
 ■ 7, 820 
 
 1412 
 
 9,232 
 
 1 in 5'5 
 
 1840 
 
 9,019 
 
 1487 
 
 10,506 
 
 line- 
 
 1841 
 
 9,024 
 
 1557 
 
 10,581 
 
 1 in 5-7 
 
 1842 
 
 10,^69 
 
 1928 
 
 12,177 
 
 1 in 5-3 
 
 1843 
 
 10,370 
 
 1969 
 
 12,339 
 
 1 in 5-2 
 
 1844 
 
 10,958 
 
 2000 
 
 12,958 
 
 1 in 5-4 
 
 1845 
 
 11,402 
 
 2138 
 
 13,540 
 
 1 in 5-3 
 
 1846 
 
 11,717 
 
 2140 
 
 13,857 
 
 1 in 5-4 
 
 1847 
 
 11,294 
 
 2204 
 
 13,498 
 
 1 in 5-1 
 
 1848 
 
 12,113 
 
 2303 
 
 14,416 
 
 1 in 5-2 
 
 3 mos. of 1849 
 
 3,278 
 
 646 
 
 3,921 
 
 1 in 5-1 
 
 Having rapidly traced the Berlin experience of the various 
 methods of controlling prostitution for nearly three fourths of a 
 century, it only remains to say that the increased evils of iUicit 
 prostitution, and the total inabihty of the police to counteract them; 
 the spread of the venereal disease, and its augmented virulence; the 
 palpable and growing licentiousness of the city ; the complaints 
 of pubhc journals ; the investigations of scientific men ; and the 
 memorials of the citizens generally, reached the royal ear, and 
 induced an ordinance in 1851, restoring the toleration system, aad 
 entirely repealing the edict of 1845, which had produced such dis- 
 astrous results. 
 
 The experiment of " crushing out" had been fairly tried. The 
 kiag and his ministers lent all their energy and inclination to the 
 task, and, after six years' attempt, it was admitted to be a futile 
 labor, and entirely abandoned. Berlin wiU have to suffer for years 
 from the consequences of this misdirected step, for it is an easy 
 matter to abandon all control, but an exceedingly difficult one to 
 regain it. Now that the police are reinvested with their former 
 authority, they strive, by every possible means, to repair th& evils 
 
PRUSSIA. 251 
 
 of the interregnum. Their most recent regulations are embodied 
 in the following 
 
 DIRECTIONS FOE KEEPERS PERMITTED TO EECErVB FEMALES ABANDONED 
 TO PROSTITUTION INTO THEIK HOUSES. 
 
 " 1. The duties hereby imposed upon the keeper are not to he taken to 
 relieve him from the ordinary notices to the police respecting persons taken 
 into his house or employment. 
 
 " 2. The keeper must live on the ground floor of his house, near the outer 
 door, in order to watch all entrance into his house, and to he ready to inter- 
 fere in case of tumult or uproar therein. 
 
 " 3. The keeper has the right to refuse any person admittance into the 
 house. For preservation of order and quiet in, and'in front of his touse, 
 the keeper will have the requisite assistance from the police. 
 
 " 4. Dancing and music in the house are strictly forbidden ; billiards, 
 cards, and other games are also forbidden, whereof the keeper is to be par- 
 ticularly watchful. 
 
 "5. In order to avoid quarrels with the visitors, the keeper must affix, 
 in each of his rooms, a list of prices of refreshment, to be previously submit- 
 ted to the undersigned commission for approval. 
 
 " 6. The agreement which the keeper enters into with the females living 
 in his house must be also communicated to the undersigned commission. 
 In case of dispute as to this agreement between the keepers and the females, 
 both are to address themselves to this commission. 
 
 " 1. Each of the females receives a printed list of directions, which she is 
 strictly to foUow. It is the duty of the keeper to make himself well ac- 
 quainted with these directions, and to see that they be followed. 
 
 "8. It is for his own interest that the keeper should keep his house in 
 order and quiet, and should also give attention to the cleanliness and health 
 of the female inmates. Each of these is ordered to obey him in every thing 
 relating thereto, and should any of them be contumacious, the keeper is to 
 appeal to the police commissary, or to the undersigned commission, but he 
 can not himself chastise or use force with any female. 
 
 " 9. If the keeper know or suspect any female to be sick with venereal 
 disease or itch, he must give notice to the visiting medical officer, or to the 
 undersigned, and the person is to be kept apart until she has been examined. 
 In default of this notice, or even of the privacy required, the keeper is liable 
 to the same punishment as the law inflicts for being knowingly accessory to 
 illness of other people. 
 
 "10. If the keeper knows or suspects that any of the females are preg- 
 nant, he must give notice thereof to the visiting medical officer. Neglect 
 of this involves the punishment of concealing pregnancy. 
 
 "11. Every person is f be visited thrice a vreek by a medical officer, 
 on appointed days and hours ; and, besides, according to the order' of the 
 
252 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 commission, at hours not appointed. These visits the keeper is to facilitate 
 in every way. • 
 
 " 12. For these visits, indispensably requisite fer the health of the female 
 inmates, the keeper is to provide beforehand, 
 
 " (a.) An examination chair, of an approved pattern. 
 
 " (b.) Two or three specula. 
 
 " (c.) Several pounds of chloride of lime. 
 
 " (d.) For every female, besides necessary linen, her own washing appa- 
 ratus, her own syringe, and two or three sponges. 
 
 « 13. The keeper is strictly charged that he cause the women to observe 
 decency and propriety whenever it is allowed them to walk abroad in the 
 streets, or to take exercise in the open air for the sake of their health. If 
 any of these persons require to take any such necessary walk, the keeper 
 can not refuse her, but must provide a suitable male companion, who is to 
 take charge of her. She is to be respectably and decently clad, is not to 
 stand still on the streets, nor to remain out longer tiran is requisite for com- 
 pleting her business or for proper exercise. 
 
 " 14. In case any woman manifests a fixed desire to give up her profligate 
 mode of life, the keeper shall make no attempt to turn her from it, and can 
 not, even on account of sureties he may be under, hinder her from carrying 
 out her determination. Moreover, the keeper must present the woman with 
 apparel suitable to a woman of the serving class, in case she should be desti- 
 tute of the same." 
 
 15. Provides for change of keepers. 
 
 " 16. The keeper is expected to give all assistance to the commission in 
 their efiForts to lead such persons back to an honest livelihood ; especially so 
 in their endeavors to suppress illicit prostitution, and to detect the sources 
 of venereal infection." 
 
 CHAPTER XVin. 
 
 LEIPZIG. 
 
 Population. — Registered and illicit Prostitutes. — Servants. — ^Kept- women. — Broth- 
 els. — ^Nationality of Prostitutes. — Habits. — Fairs. — Visitors. — Earnings of Pros- 
 
 titutes. 
 
 But very few remarks are necessary concerning prostitution in 
 Leipzig, where no striking peculiarity marks the common women 
 as a class, and the legislation is based on the ordinary German 
 principle of toleration. 
 
 If we reckon its garrison as a part of the population of the 
 
LEIPZIG. 253 
 
 town, the number of inhabitants will amount to about one hund- 
 red thousand, nearly one third of whom are soldiers or transient 
 residents. It is subject to many fluctuations at various times, but 
 the general average may be assumed at the number stated. Of 
 the permanent residents there are about six hundred well known 
 and professed male rogues and blacklegs ; these are under the con- 
 stant and vigilant surveillance of the police. They unquestionably 
 exert a considerable influence on the female morahty of the place, 
 not only from their own amours, for which men of this character 
 are notorious wherever located, but by the agency they frequently 
 assume to arrange the "pleasures" of their victims and acquaint- 
 ances. 
 
 It need, therefore, occasion no surprise to ascertain that, in addi- 
 tion to about three hundred registered prostitutes who are subject 
 to medical and police supervision, there are about twelve hundred 
 women who notoriously frequent the city, from the neighboring 
 towns and villages, for purposes of prostitution, whenever a large 
 influx of visitors makes it probable that Leipzig wiU be a lucra- 
 tive market for them. These are not directly under any police 
 control. To this number- of fifteen hundred avowed and known 
 prostitutes, who are to be found in the city during busy seasons of 
 the year, must be added the class of irregular or private courte- 
 sans, mostly composed of domestics. It is estimated there are three 
 thousand servant-girls in the city, and the habits of a large num- 
 ber of them leave no doubt as to the propriety of including them 
 in. this enumeration; indeed, those who have had the best oppor- 
 tunities for observation do not hesitate to assert that at least one 
 third are vicious. Assuming this to be an accurate calculation, we 
 have 2500 prostitutes, or one in every forty of the gross popula- 
 tion, exclusive, of kept mistresses, or those frail women in the more 
 aristocratic circles of society who should properly be classed with 
 them. In this respect we have no reason to conclude that Leipzig 
 is either better or worse than other large cities of the present day. 
 
 There are about sixty-six common brothels in Leipzig, the ma- 
 jority of which are registered and closely watched by the pohce. 
 They are situated in the lowest and least frequented parts of the 
 city, and many of them present, in excess, some of the worst feat- 
 ures of such places. To escape their annoyances as far as pos- 
 sible, and retain that outward show of respectability most accept- 
 able to their visitors, many of the prostitutes have private lodgings 
 in various parts of the town, resorting to every conceivable dis- 
 
254 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 guise to conceal or modify their real character. Very many of 
 them are said to be married women, whose hnsl^ds not merely 
 connive at, but frequently compel this loathsome trade for the sake 
 of its emoluments. 
 
 The proprietors of the tolerated brothels "assume a virtue if 
 they hare it not," and seek to disguise their houses under the 
 names of coffee-houses or restaurants ; a course recognized by the 
 authorities, who do not insist upon calling such places by the ver- 
 nacular designation, as is done in Hamburg or Berhn. 
 
 The women inhabiting these houses are principally natives of 
 Altenburg, Berhn, Dresden, or Brunswick ; those from the latter 
 district are noted by travelers for their personal beauty. Very- 
 few Pohsh women are found here. The requisite supply of women 
 is kept up through the agency of procuresses, as in Hamburg, who 
 are remunerated by the brothel-keepers in proportion to the dis- 
 tance they have traveled to secure recruits, or according to the 
 attractions of the girl, or her probable success in the establishment. 
 
 In regard to dress, manners, conduct, and the other incidents of 
 their calling, there is little distinction between the prostitutes of 
 Leipzig and those of other European cities. A late anonymous 
 writer gives them credit as a class for a studious, literary habit, 
 and names a somewhat intelligent selection of light works as those 
 they prefer to read, such as the writings of Fredrika Bremer, Bul- 
 wer, "Walter Scott, Caroline Pichler, Soiuller, and others. If this 
 statement be correct, it may be accounted for by the great local 
 demand for literature, books and furs being universally known as 
 the great staples of Leipzig, and the fact can scarcely be assumed as 
 indicative of any especial inchnation for helles-httres. Prostitution 
 and studious habits or reflective minds are very seldom associated. 
 The majority of the brothel-keepers are stated to be anti-literary 
 in their tastes. They keep the women plentifully supplied with 
 cards and dominoes, which they use more for the purpose of pre- 
 dicting good fortunes to their visitors and themselves than for 
 gambhng. "We have never heard that any of their hberal prog- 
 nostications have been verified. Apparently the same usages and 
 habits of life prevail among the common women of Leipzig as 
 among those of Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, London, or elsewhere. 
 Indolent from the nature of their position, envious from their re- 
 lationship to their compeers, their life would seem to pass in a 
 routine of doing nothing with considerable zest, or of quarreling 
 among each other with noteworthy animation. 
 
LEIPZIG. 255 
 
 No material variation from, tlie ordinary routine of sickness 
 caused by prostitution has been discovered in Leipzig. Sypbilis 
 bas its average number of victims, tbe intensity of tbe malady 
 being diminished or aggravated as a less or greater number of 
 strangers may happen to be in the city.. 
 
 The medical and police surveillance of prostitutes in European 
 countries beiug modeled almost literally from one system, as is 
 also the strictness with which it is now enforced, it is unnecessary 
 to say any thing of its workings in Leipzig farther than the fact 
 that the variable and floating nature of the population, at times, 
 makes its apphcation a difficult task. A description of it would 
 be only a repetition of what has already been said of Paris, Ham- 
 burg, or Berlin. 
 
 The great fairs draw a large concourse of strangers from all 
 parts of the world to Leipzig, and its geographical position beyond 
 the centre of Europe brings it so close to the frontiers of Turkey, 
 Poland, the Danubian provinces, andEussia, that the scene at these 
 meetings is perhaps more motley and curious in race, costume, and 
 characteristics than in any other city in the world. Among so 
 heterogeneous a mass there exist many standards of morality. The 
 semi-barba,rous habits of some of the visitors entail a large share of 
 sorrows on the prostitutes ; more, in fact, than are generally ex- 
 perienced, by any but the very lowest grade of women in other 
 places. When in the tolerated houses, these rude hordes abandon 
 themselves to the grossest licentiousness, use expressions compared 
 with which the ordinary conversation of brothels is chaste and re- 
 fined, and seek to extinguish every vestige of shame or womanly 
 feeling in their companions. If a woman ventures to remonstrate 
 at such extravagant lewdness, the reply is, "WeU, now, be silent. 
 I have paid you, and you are mine as long as I have you." It 
 may therefore be easily credited that during such periods no shadow 
 of decency can be found in the common houses. Any which ex- 
 ists (and truth compels the admission that it is very rare during 
 the crowded season) can only be traced among those women who 
 have private lodgings. 
 
 The only compensation for such depravity is found in the large 
 sums obtained by the women from their lovers, in some cases 
 amounting to forty thalers (about thirty dollars) per week. Of 
 this, one half always goes to the brothel-keeper as his share, and, 
 calculating his expenses to be five thalers per week for the board 
 and lodging of each woman, it will be seen that his profits are not 
 
256 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 inconsiderable. The sum retained by the women is spent for ar- 
 ticles of dress, pleasure, etc. This calculation is flSl- a time when 
 the town is in the Ml tide of commercial prosperity ; but if we as- 
 sume the average receipts at ordinary times to be one half only, 
 we shall be able to form a tolerably good idea of the financial re- 
 sult of prostitution in Leipzig. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 DENMARK. 
 
 Prostitution in Copenhagen. — Police Regulations. — Illegitimacy. — Brothels. — 
 Syphilis. — Laws of Marriage and Divorce. — Infanticide. — ^Adultery. — New Mar- 
 riage Ordinances. 
 
 Prostitutes are very numerous in Copenhagen. This might 
 be expected from the mixed character of the city, at once a capi- 
 tal, military station, and sea-port. It has been remarked by a 
 traveler of great experience' that it is very rare to see a drunken 
 man or a street- walker in Copenhagen ; all seem to have a home 
 or a place to go to, and the general character of the Danes is that 
 of an orderly, educated, well-conducted people. 
 
 Some of the prostitutes of Copenhagen live in a kind of hotel, 
 where they hold public entertainments; others live in brothels; 
 and others still have private lodgings. There is nothing remark- 
 able enough about them to call for any particular description. 
 They are under police regulation to some extent, and receive a 
 sort of half permission, which is not withdrawn during good con- 
 duct. A regulation is extant which professes to limit the num- 
 ber of children they are allowed to bear, without becoming amen- 
 able to the law as criminals. It requires that the mother of more 
 than two niegitimate children be fined and imprisoned. As may 
 be readily imagined, the law is very rarely enforced, its impolicy, 
 if rigorously applied, being self-evident, since it would operate as 
 a direct premium for abortion. 
 
 "Formal concessions are not granted either to public prosti- 
 tutes or those with whom they lodge ; neither are there in Den- 
 mark brothels, in the ordinary sense of the term, as they are found 
 in other countries."^ So writes a Danish official. His distinction 
 
 ' Laing's Denmark in 1851." 
 
 ' Braestrup, Director of Police at Copenhagen, on Prostitution and public Health. 
 
DEKMAEK. 257 
 
 is too nice to be. appreciated. The Copenliagen police know of 
 tlie existence of such women, and put them under strict 'regula- 
 tions, not altogether prohibitory. They control and interfere with 
 prostitutes ; they do not tolerate them-^that is to say, they do not 
 issue a regular; license to them or to the brothel-keepers. Conse- 
 quently, there are no recognized brothels. The house in which 
 courtesans live is a private dwelling, so far as the police, are con- 
 cerned, and is only interfered with when it becomes disorderly, 
 the keeper not being, accountable for the women or their conduct. 
 Nevertheless, the police regulations prescribe the number of 
 women recognized as prostitu.tes who may live in any house, 
 and from their official reports, it seems that there were in Copen- 
 hagen in 
 
 1850 201 prostitutes. 
 
 1852 198 " 
 
 In the latter year there were sixty-eight persons who were author- 
 ized to lodge from one to foiir women each, the total of the wom- 
 en pennitted to live in these houses being 139, and the remaining 
 59 being' allowed to reside in private apartments. " Care is taken 
 that they are all treated in the general hospital, and that they 
 shall not be treated elsewhere, unless they give a sufficient guar- 
 antee not to propagate disease, or their personal position requires 
 certain consideration, a thing which can seldom apply to the gen- 
 erality of. prostitutes." The meaning of this regulation is not 
 very clear, nor is "certain consideration" an intelligible phrase; 
 it may imply pregnancy, or it may mean influential friends. The 
 medical officer visits all cases which the police refer to him, and 
 makes the necessary examinations, receiving his fees from the 
 police. , 
 
 The rules for detection and suppression of syphilis in Copen- 
 hagen are very stringent. All persons under arrest are required 
 to deelare if tiiey are then, or have been lately diseased, and are 
 liable to punishment if they conceal or misstate the facts. A visit 
 of inspection is made when a ship is about to go to sea. All non- 
 commissioned officers, musicians, and soldiers are examined on en- 
 tering and leaving the service, and also regularly every month 
 during their stay in it. 
 
 V To check the propagation of venereal disease, every soldier who 
 is attacked is obliged to state the source of his infection, where- 
 upon information of the individual is given to the police. Those 
 who do not give early intimation of their disease are liable to 
 
 R 
 
268 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 bread and water diet for a certain time after, their cure. In 1797, 
 all the inhabitants of several districts were obligid to submit to 
 an examination, ordered by the chancellor, on account of the fre- 
 quency of syphilitic cases therein. 
 
 The following table, taken from Berhand's minute on Copen- 
 hagen, shows the working of the system there for seven years. 
 The most remarkable feature is the large number who married or 
 went to service, which would seem to indicate a more charitable 
 feeling on the part of the Danes than is"*usually evinced toward 
 these unfortunates : 
 
 Years. 
 
 Prostitutes registerea. 
 
 Prostitutes abandoned their calling. | 
 
 a 
 
 fi 
 
 u 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 bD 
 
 H 
 
 U2 
 
 s ■ 
 
 1 
 
 2 fe 
 
 g 
 S 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 ■ .i' 
 
 1 
 
 1844 
 1845 
 1846 
 1847 
 1848 
 1849 
 1850 
 
 297 
 284 
 256 
 241 
 116 
 208 
 196 
 
 34 
 '43 
 18 
 22 
 27 
 19 
 23 
 
 331 
 327 
 274 
 263 
 143 
 227 
 219 
 
 20 
 14 
 15 
 20 
 16 
 17 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 27 
 16 
 17 
 16 
 10 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 1 
 
 16 
 24 
 13 
 17 
 16 
 9 
 1 
 
 2 
 4 
 1 
 2 
 2 
 
 7 
 3 
 2 
 4 
 7 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 63 
 
 77 
 49/. 
 62 
 51 
 
 44. 
 27 
 
 By a code of 1734, promises of marriage might be either verbal 
 in the presence of witnesses, or written and certified by two wit- 
 nesses. Widows acting against the consent of their guardians, 
 and women of bad repute, were excluded from the benefit of this 
 code. A servant pregnant by her master, her master's son, or 
 any one domiciled in her master's house, could not pleadi'a prom- 
 ise of marriage. Corroborative testimony was sometimes required 
 in affiliation cases, where the putative father denied his liability 
 on oath. 
 
 Divorce was allowed on simple abandonment for seven years ; 
 desertion for three years; in case of sentence of perpetual im- 
 prisonment ; of ante-nuptial impotence ; of ante-nuptial venereal 
 disease ; of insanity ; and of adultery. Divorce by mutual con- 
 sent might also take place, but three years' separation from bed 
 and board was requisite as a preliminary. The king had a pre- 
 rogative of divorce, without cause shown. 
 
 Illegitimate children were to be supported by their father until 
 two years old, according to his rank in life. They could not in- 
 herit the paternal property, but might take the mother's. They 
 could be legitimatized by subsequent marriage or adoption. 
 
SWITZERLAND. . 259 
 
 Infanticide was punished by beheading, and exhibiting the head 
 of the criminal on a spike. 
 
 Adultery is punished by law in both husband and wife. Prac- 
 tically it is seldom noticed. 
 
 In 1834 a new ordinance was proclaimed fixing all the minu- 
 tiae of marriage contracts, parental obligations, and the general 
 laws of sexual intercourse. A man is a minor untQ eighteen, and 
 under some degree of parental authority to twenty-five, at which 
 age he becomes a citizen. The woman is under tutelage all her 
 life. Guardians are assigned to widows, who control their legal 
 powers, but a widow may choose her own guardian. The laws 
 of divorce are similar to those of France. The practice of formal 
 betrothal is as common in Denmark as in Northern Germany, 
 and implies a real and binding engagement, not to be brokeii 
 without cause shown, or without discredit to one or both parties. 
 Whether this custom favors illegitimacy is still a disputed point 
 in Denmark. 
 
 CHAPTEE XX. 
 
 SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Superior Morality of the Swiss. — Customs of Neufchatel. — "Bundling." — Influ- 
 ence of Climate. 
 
 This country, from her republican form of government, and her 
 comparative isolation from the rest of the world, presents matter 
 of peculiar interest to the inquirer into the nature and working 
 of social institutions. Protected, as are the Swiss, from violent 
 contrasts of excessive wealth and extreme indigence, the moral 
 condition of their people wiU compare favorably with that of most 
 nations. The simplicity of patriarchal relations is maintaiaedboth 
 in their national and municipal governments ; and although many 
 customs are retained which smack strongly of the despotism of 
 the Middle Ages, they can not be said to materially check the wel- 
 fare of the people. In the absence of the emulation encouraged 
 by the constant contemplation of luxury and wealth, the wants of 
 the population are few and easUy satisfied. Their virtues, how- 
 ever, partake of the bold and rugged nature of their country ; and 
 while there may be little of that practical vice and immorality 
 which are the usual accompaniments of society in most kingdoms 
 and states, we are not prepared to assert their superiority over the 
 
HISTOBY g^ PBQSTITUTION. 
 
 |p,§gt of maBMsAin iwate; virtue., , Hardness of liearii and selfish- 
 ness of disposition -will Se found as rifejinSwilperlan^ as elge;- 
 wbere ; , it is, tbfi iftanifestation only, ^kat differs. .;:,),.; 
 
 Authors are so universally deficient, of, remark on ^e, subject 
 of prostitution, or ,. eiven of :iinniors.lity ii^ Syritzerland, fhat, if -vve 
 may judge; from jMr. iSilence, nothing, of ■thef.ki^Ld exists there, 
 "The Swis^ population is generally moral, a^dwell-^tjehaved. ,^ 
 ^ri^kaffdis sel^^nj,. geqn, and illegitimate children are, rare," says 
 Bowring.V , , ,,^,, . ,; , ;■, , .-,, i ' , , 
 
 ,j ,Iti Neufchatel, which, except; politiQ^'yj ca'P? hardly be. consid- 
 ered part of Switzerland, a oustofl£V exists strongly similar to .one 
 in Norway, ,and,' a general usage among Jjutherans, namely, that 
 of associating before marriage. This, as Washington Irving s^ys 
 of the."d9li#itful practice of bundling," is sometimes productiyp 
 of unfortunate results. , A lady ^jrriter says that public opinion 
 upholds the respectability of the feinales, if they ^are. married time 
 enoifgh to legitimatize their offspring. Instances haye, occurred 
 of two couples quarreling, and a mutual interchange of lovers and 
 sweethearts taking" place^lhenbrninal fathefs"adopting the early- 
 bom children.^ ~ry <|- - r. 
 
 The frugal thrift of the great bulk of the Swiss population, their 
 distribution over the couiitry in stnall numbers, the absence of 
 large masses of -human beings pent up in the reeking atmosphere 
 of cities, their constant and intimate association with their pastors, 
 and the hope wl^ic|l^ every in dividual, cherishes of purchasing \pith 
 hia savings a, small patch of his J)e^oyed native soil as a patrimony, 
 seem to discourage prostitution, as a Vade, . The i^uence of.dJL- 
 mate, also, must ;not.|)ft forgotten ; and Mr. Chanibers, in account- 
 ing for the general good conduct of tlie Swiss peasantry, lays much 
 stress on, their temperate habits, the use of intoxicating liquor 
 among them bjeiiog very rare indeed.. . 
 
 ' Report on Switzerland to the British Parliament, 1836, by Dr. (now Sir John) 
 Bowring. Re was sent on a Continental tour of inqui]^ into the condition, of the 
 working classes, in reference to the English ^oojr-laws. 
 
 " Mrs. Strutt's Switzerland, ii. 231. ' 
 
EtJSSlA. 261 
 
 CHAPTEE XXl. 
 
 Ancient Manners. — Peter the Great. — Eadoxia. — Empress Catharine, her disso-' 
 
 lute Conduct and Death. — Peter's Libertinism. — Anne. — Elizabeth. — Catharine 
 
 ,'II., infamous Career and peafh.— Paul. — Alexander J.^Cfluntes^ Narishkin. — 
 
 Nicholas. — Court Morality. — .Serfage. -r-iprostitution, in St. Petersburg.— Elxaess 
 
 of Males bver Females.' — Marriage Customs. — Brides' Fair. — Conjugal Relations 
 
 ' among the Bnssian' Nobility. — Foundling Hospital of St. Petersburg. — lUegiti- 
 
 - maey.M, 
 
 The brutality, drunkenness, and debaucliery whicli aQC,6itipa!ny 
 semi-barbarism, and of wliicll the old Eussian manners had more 
 than a due proportion, continued to be characteristic of the people 
 of that country until a Very recent period ; while their amiabUity, 
 their plastic disposition, their highly imitative faculty ia the' arts, 
 and their capabilities of improvement, are noted by m&ly writers. 
 Just emerged from savage life as a nation, they 'have been mould- 
 ed and welded as oile m&s by the steady and undeviating pohcy 
 of their soVefei^s, amohg whom we have examples of vast' men- 
 tal powers and towering ambition, combined with th6 lowest de- 
 pravity and the most shameless profligacy, exemplifying in the 
 salme individual the extrenies of huHian nature. 
 
 Previous to Peter the Great, Eussia was comparatively un- 
 known, and in the EUzabethan age of England the Czar of Mus- 
 covy was considered only as a barbanah, whose subjects were far 
 inferior in civilization to the Tartars of the Crimea. Indeed, it 
 was not till the eighteenth century that the Eussians -were admitted 
 within the pale of European pohtics. Or their power reckoned aS 
 an element in' the calculations of statesmen. ' 
 
 The most iinportaht,"we! fliiglit alihost say the only lawgiver 
 previous to Peter the Great, was Iv&n III., who reined in the 
 early part of the sixteenth century. ''Aicftong the laws of that Jife^ 
 riod, which were aU sanguinary, was bile 'fi'xiiig' the value of a fe- 
 male life, in case of death by misadventure, at half the life of a 
 man.'- Slavery was the institution of the state, eaCh child being 
 the absolute jiroperty of its p§,i?Mb. "*The;wolnen were more en- 
 slaved than am«ng the Asiatics, no law 'protecting them: against 
 their husband's violence. A wife who killed her husband was to 
 
262 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 be buried alive up to tlie neck, and a guard was set around her to 
 see that no one supphed her with food or the means of ending 
 her sufferings.' Females lived in the strictest seclusion, and had 
 no weight nor authority in the household. Their duties were to 
 spia, to sew, and to do menial work. 
 
 Peter I. came to the thron^e, as most Eussian sovereigns have 
 done, either through intrigue or usurpation. Both before and 
 after Peter, the will and caprice of the ruling power was para- 
 mount. He might appoint his successor, either during life or by 
 will, and such appointment was often set aside by a more power- 
 fill competitor. In Peter's public life, ia his aspirations for the 
 general welfare, in his self-devotion, in his conceptions of all that 
 was wanting to his country's elevation and greatness, and in his 
 iron will and supernatural energy, he was a hero ; in his private 
 life, in his passions, his tastes and habits, he was on a level with 
 the lowest of mankind. 
 
 Our object is the delineation of national characteristics, and in- 
 dividual propensities or delinquencies are unimportant except so 
 far as they illustrate national character. It has been well ob- 
 served that a people's virtue or vice does not consist in the arith- 
 metical increase or decrease of immoral actions, but in the prevail- 
 ing sentiment of an age or people, which condemns or approves 
 them. It is in this respect that the conduct of monarchs and 
 courtiers becomes of importance in the estimate of national man- 
 ners, especially in a despotism. The Czar of Russia is at once the 
 religious and political leader of his people, and his personal con- 
 duct becomes the standard of their moral relations, offering en- 
 couragement and support to the good, or sanction and justifica- 
 tion to the depraved. 
 
 Peter's first wife, Eudoxia, was a woman of virtue and merit. 
 Neither her youth nor beauty secured the affections of her hus- 
 band. She did not escape the voice of slander. Gleboff, her al- 
 leged lover, was impaled by Peter, who went to see him writhing 
 in his death agonies, when the wretched man avenged himself in 
 the only way left him : he spat in the Czar's face. Eudoxia was 
 subsequently sent to a nunnery at Moscow by Peter's orders, and 
 at last took the veil under the name of Helena. 
 
 Scarcely had Peter attained the crown when he formed a con- 
 nection with Catharine. The romantic history of her origin and 
 elevation is too well known to repeat here. Her husband, a 
 
 * Earamsin, 
 
RUSSIA. 263 
 
 Swedish dragoon, was living ; and she was the mistress first of 
 Marshal Sheremeloff, then of Mentchikoff, in whose house Peter 
 saw her, and whence he took her. She acquired great influence 
 over the Czar's untamed ferocity, and, to her infinite credit, this 
 influence was always used to mitigate the fearful rigor of his pun- 
 ishments, and to soothe his otherwise implacably revengeful spirit. 
 During the lifetime of her husband and of his first wife, Peter 
 married her. 
 
 The pleasing traits of Catharine's character were obscured by 
 the irregularity of her life. Eaised, by the affection of Peter, to 
 the imperial throne, she set an example of dissoluteness to her 
 subjects. There is ample reason for believing that she had several 
 iutrigues during Peter's lifetime, but the case of Moens de la Croix 
 is beyond question, and the discovery of her infidelity in this in- 
 stance led to her separation from Peter and the death of her lover. 
 
 In 1724, after the campaign against the Turks, in which Catha- 
 rine had accompanied the Czar, and had, by her spirit and exam- 
 ple, kept up the courage of the army amid great difficulties and 
 reverses, Peter determined on pubhcly crowning her; a ceremony 
 very unusual in Eussia,- and almost tantamount to declaring her 
 his successor. 
 
 Moens de la Croix was the young brother of Anne de la Croix, 
 one of Peter's early mistresses. He was Catharine's chamberlain. 
 His office brought him in close attendance on the empress, and an 
 intimacy was established. This was for a time notorious to every 
 one except Peter himself. At length, however, his suspicions 
 were aroused, and, by setting spies on Catharine, he became a per- 
 sonal witness to her infidelity. The first explosion of his resent- 
 ment was terrific, and he was on the point of executing both. the 
 empress and her paramour, but by the temperate advice of some 
 of his friends, who counseled him to avoid a scandal, it was de- 
 termined to arrest Moens on a false charge of conspiracy. 
 
 Moens and his sister were accordingly seized and confined in an 
 apartment in the winter palace. Peter peirmitted nobody to ap- 
 proach them, and took them their food with his own hands. 
 When they were examined as to the conspiracy, Moens, to save 
 the empress with the public, confessed to every thing. He was 
 accordingly- condemned and beheaded. His sister was knouted 
 and sent to Siberia. 
 
 Catharine had presented her lover with her miniature on a brace- 
 let, which he always wore.. As he walked to his death, he managed 
 
264 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 to deliver ■ it, imperceived, to the Lutheran minis^ who accom- 
 panied .him, with instructions to convey it back to the empress 
 privately, which was accomplished. The Czar was a spectator of 
 the execution, after which the head of the culprit was fixed on a 
 stake, according to custom. To terrify Catharine the more effect- 
 ually, Peter drove her round the head of her lovetJ Happily for 
 her, she managed to preserve self-control during the torture of this 
 horrid spectacle. After this the Czar only spoke to her in public. 
 
 At Peter's death, Catharine ascended 'the throne of Eussia by 
 virtue of a pretended dying declaration of her husband. She went 
 through a pantomime of sorrows and tears over his body, but, as 
 soon as she was firmly seated, she abandoned- herself to pleasure 
 and voluptuousness, and had two lovfers, Prince Sapicha' and 
 Loewenwolden, at the same time. " These two rivals equally 
 strove to please, her^ and alternately received proafe' of her tender- 
 ness, without suffering their happiness to be marred by jealousy." 
 The irregularity of the empress's Hfe, and her intemperate use of 
 ardent liquors, hastened her death, which took place in her thirty- 
 ninth year. 
 
 Peter himself was a wretched example of conjugal infidelity and 
 low debauchery. His associates were often of the very lowest of 
 the populace^ It is true that in his time the highest were not 
 much removed from their inferiors in -decency of manners ; whUe 
 the inferiors often had the advantage, if not of intellectual cultiva- 
 tion, at least of practical inteUigence, ia which Peter took delight. 
 He spent many of his hours drinkingi brandy and: other liquors 
 with sailors^ carpenters, and artisans, irrespective of his- temporary 
 assumption of the working mail's pursuits. He consorted indis- 
 criminately with women of all sorts land conditions. Eventually 
 he contracted the venereal disease. From neglect, and the general 
 depravity of his life, the disease became so aggravated' that at last 
 it proved the indirect cause of his death. He himself used to say 
 that he had taken it from Madam& Tchnertichoflf, -wife of the 
 general and diplomatist of that name; Upon the fact being men- 
 tioned to, her, whether casually or -with malice prepense does not 
 appear, she is reported to have replied very naively that she had 
 not given it to him, but that he, on the contrary, had such loose 
 habits and low associates that he had given it to her.' 
 
 It was in 1722 that Peter was attacked -with this malady, and 
 while suffering from it he marched into Persia, and shared the 
 
 ' Villebois. 
 
RUSSIA. 265 
 
 fatigues of tlie meanest soldier througllout the campaign. The 
 heat, drought, and constant dust increased the disease frightfully, 
 and the pains became so excruciating that he could not conceal 
 them from his immediate attendants. Still, however, he would 
 not consult the court physician, but directed his servant to get ad- 
 vice as if for some one else. He then went to the hot baths of 
 Plonetz, and apparently recovered. But it seems the disease was 
 not cured; it was merely palliated by, this treatment, and he was 
 obliged, on a relapse, to have recourse to the regular physicians, 
 and for three months his life was despaired' of. At last he recov- 
 ered ; but now, in spite of all' warniags, he resumed his usual habits 
 of hfe, renewed his long 'and' severe journeys, his pubhc works, 
 and his general activity of mind and body, while he in liowise 
 amended other and more injurious pursuits and practices. 
 
 On November 5, 1724, while on a journey to Finland, he stop- 
 ped at the port of Lachta. There, from the shore, he saw a small 
 vessel full of soldiers and saUors which had struck upon a shoal. 
 Perceiving their imminent danger, he shouted to them, but the 
 boisterous wind drowned his voice. He sprang into a skiff, pull- 
 ed out to the shoal, and, having reached the 'vessel, jumped into 
 the water, got her off, and landed the passengers all safe. He neg- 
 lected all the precautions necessary in the then state of his health, 
 and was seized with violent fever, and at the same time his former 
 pangs came on with all their old force. He was taken back to 
 St. Petersburg, where he obtained partial relief from his suffer- 
 ings. He employed one of his intervals of ease in celebrating the 
 great festival of blessing the waters of the Neva, and by his iu- 
 temperance in the festivities renewed his attack, and after a period 
 of protracted agony, died on the 28th of January, 1725. 
 
 Peter is described as having been excessively libidiaous in 
 temperament, and his coarse promiscuous amours were made the 
 common subject of his jocularity, even in the presence of Catha- 
 rine. He was even addicted to abominable depravities, which are 
 stated by contemporary writers to have been the common practice 
 of the Eussians at that time.^ Peter at times gave way to fits'of 
 lust, in which, hke a furious beast; he regarded neither age nor 
 sex. Unnatural vices were punished in the Eussian army at this 
 time by an express military regulation, and the crime was a stand- 
 ing reproach with the people, who were said to have acquired it 
 from the Greeks of the lower empire.^ 
 
 ' Memoires Secrets de la Cour de Russia. Villebois. = Earamsin. 
 
266 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Anne, the successor of Peter and Catharine, had two publicly 
 avowed lovers — Dolgorouki and Ernest John Bireff The latter 
 was the better known, as his influence and importance during 
 Anne's reign were very great. Dolgorouki had become one of 
 the deputies to announce to Anne her succession to the throne, 
 which office he accepted, with the hope of being able to resume 
 his former intimate relations with his future sovereign. When 
 he entered the apartments, he found a man in mean apparel seat- 
 ed by the side of the princess. He csrdered him to withdraw, and, 
 upon his inattention to the order, took him by the arm to tvim 
 him out, when the empress stopped him. This unknown person 
 was Biren, who became regent of the empire.^ 
 
 Anhe was not sunk in the same abyss of profligacy as her suc- 
 cessor Elizabeth, nor in brutahty as her ancestor Peter. She had 
 been brought up in Courland, and had acquired some little refine- 
 ment of ideas and manners. Gluttony and drunkenness were 
 somewhat less in vogue at her court, but dissipation, ruinous 
 gambling, and boundless extravagance were in fuU fashion. The 
 whole court became a body of buffiaons and jokers, and the most 
 absurd and preposterous fashions of dress, the rudest and most 
 boisterous romps and gambols were generally practiced. As a 
 specimen of court manners, the practical joke played on Prince 
 Gralitzin, in which there was as much mahce as fan, may be re- 
 membered. 
 
 Having given offense by changing his religion, the prince was 
 compulsorily married to a girl of the lowest birth. A palace 
 was built in his honor, but the material was ice, and all the furni- 
 ture was composed of the same. The wedding procession, con- 
 sisting of more than three hundred persons in their national cos- 
 tumes, who had been collected from all the provinces of Russia, 
 passed along the streets. The newly-married couple were mount- 
 ed in a pagoda on the back of an elephant. When the ball was 
 over, the bride and bridegroom were conducted to their nuptial 
 chamber, like the rest of the house, all of ice, and were there in- 
 stalled in an ice bedstead, and guards were posted at the door to 
 prevent them escaping from the room before morning. 
 
 Anne died in 1740, and, after a short interregnum, Elizabeth, 
 .daughter of Peter I., came to the throne. She inherited all her 
 father's vices and sensuality, but none of his great qualities. Be- 
 fore she became empress, Elizabeth had outraged all propriety ; 
 > Earamsin, p. i2i. 
 
RUSSIA. 267 
 
 had openly carried on an improper intercourse witli the sub-offi- 
 cers and soldiers of the guards who had been quartered near her 
 dwelling. The lust and drunkenness in which she wallowed in- 
 disposed her from all longings after greatness. But there were 
 others who needed her name, and a conspiracy being formed, she 
 became empress in spite of herself Her chief paramour at the 
 time was Grunstein, sergeant in the guards, who was elevated to 
 the rank of major-general. The other soldiers and non-commis- 
 sioned officers who had been the ministers of her lewdness were 
 made officers. These individuals frequented the common public 
 houses, got drunk, made their way into the houses of persons of 
 condition, and committed all sorts of depredations with impunity. 
 "When the men who could boast of the empress's favors became 
 intolerable, they were drafted off to the army, as officers in regi- 
 ments on service. 
 
 Elizabeth is said to have been privately married to Razamoffsky, 
 as also to the well-known Chevaher d'Eon, who visited the court 
 of Russia in the disguise of a woman, and undoubtedly enjoyed 
 Elizabeth's favors, whatever may be the truth about her marriage 
 to him. Elizabeth withdrew herself for whole months from busi- 
 ness, and was drunk for days or even weeks consecutively. She 
 had a reputation for humanity ; but, although she sentenced no 
 one to death, not less than eighty thousand of her subjects were 
 tortured or sent to Siberia during her reign. Her extravagance 
 was such that when she died there were in her wardrobe some 
 fifteen thousand dresses, thousands of pairs of sleeves, and several 
 hundred pieces of French and other silks. 
 
 Catharine 11. of Russia was, like Peter, a compound of the no- 
 blest intellectual endowments, with a moral organization of un- 
 surpassed depravity. She has usually been considered a monster 
 of lust ; but she was no less infamous for her cruelty, and for the 
 total absence of all those qualities and feelings which form the 
 chief grace and beauty of woman's inner life. Her favorite din- 
 ing-room in the Tauric palace was adorned with pictures repre- 
 senting the sacking of Ohkzakoff and Ismail, in which the painter 
 had surpassed the gloomy vision of a Carravaggio, and had de- 
 picted the assault, the carnage, the mutilation, and all the hidieous 
 details of such scenes. In these Catharine is said to have taken 
 great delight. She hated music, and never could permit other 
 sounds than those of drums, trumpets, and similar barbaric instru- 
 ments within her hearing ; and yet it is said that, in her outset in 
 
268 HISTORY OF PBOSTITDTION. 
 
 life as Princess of Anhalt Zerbst, she had a womanhr heart, deli- 
 cacy of taste, and refinement of intellect ;^ that it was not till long 
 after her husband, Peter III., had insulted her by open neglect of 
 her very winning person and youthful graces, and had abandoned 
 her for the vulgar and ugly Princess WoronzofP, that she commit- 
 ted herself to the terrible career which she afterward pursued so 
 steadily. 
 
 The Duchesse d'Abrantes, in her memoir of Catharine, tells us 
 that' her first lover, SoltikofF, was forced- upon her as a matter of 
 public policy by the crafty and unscrupulous Bestujeff, theabld 
 ihinister of Elizabeth, for the sake ' of procuring an heir to the 
 Grand Duke Peter.' Catharine remonstrated, and threatened to 
 complain. "To whom will you complain?" asked the minister, 
 coldly. Catharine submitted, aind accepted the lover thus imposed 
 upon her. At the time of this adultery for expediency sake, 
 Catharine was deeply intent upon study, with a view to qualify 
 herself worthily for her fature destiny, disgusted as she was with 
 the indecencies of the Eussian court ! 
 
 Subsequently, it was considered expedient to remove Soltikof^ 
 Catharine had given birth to a child, and was not pleased with 
 this dismissal; but the impassible Besttljeff only sneered at her re^ 
 monstrances and professions of affection for the dismissed lover, 
 and recommended her to choose another. This was a lesson she 
 was not slow to carry out. The list of her paramours was little 
 less numerous than that of Elizabeth. 
 
 ^ After Catharine had caused Peter III. to be murdered, and had 
 ascended the throne as empress in her own right, she abandoned 
 herself to the fullest gratification of her passionSj both royal and 
 personal. Besides the vulgar crowd whom she selected as the re- 
 cipients of her filthy favors, the world knew, as the public and 
 recognized paramours, the names of Orlofif, by whom she had a 
 son called Count Bobimski, WassUitchikoff, Potemkin, Louskoi, 
 Momonofif, and Zuboff. 
 
 These were appointed in a manner that was reduced to a sys- 
 tem, and an etiquette was estabhshed as precise as that of naming 
 a state minister. -When Catharine was tired of her present fa- 
 voritCjOne of her intimate friends was commissioned to look out 
 for another: At other times, her notice having fallen on some 
 yoxmg man who pleased her fancy, she sigiiified her wishes to some 
 female friend, and thereupon an entertainment was arranged at 
 ' ' Duchesse d' Abi'antes, p. 3i. 
 
RUSSIA. 269 
 
 the lady's house, wMcli the empress honored, with her .presence, 
 and thereby gained an opportunity of closer acquaintanceship with 
 the chosen indiyidixal. ,,He then received, orders to attend at the 
 palace, where he was introduced to the csqurt physician, and exam- 
 ined as to his general health and physical condition. After this 
 he was placed under the charge of a certain Mademoiselle Pro- 
 tasoff.^ The various examinations having been successfully pass- 
 ed, the favorite was iAStalle^ into the, regular apartments of office, 
 which were immediately contiguous to those of the, empress. . On 
 the first day of his installation he received one hundred thousand 
 rubles (about twenty-five thousand dollars) fpr linen, and an al- 
 lowance of twelve thousand rubles per month ; besides which, all 
 his household expenses were defrayed. He was required to at- 
 tend the enapress wherever she went, and was not permitted to 
 leave the palace without her permission. He. might not converse 
 femiliarly with other, women, and if he dined with his friends, it 
 was imperative that the mistrpss of the house should be aibsient.. ■ 
 When a favorite had completed his term of service he received 
 prders to travel, and from- that moment all access to her majesty 
 was denied. The favorites rarely rebelled against their destiny in 
 this particular ; but Potemkin and Orlofi", who had far other views 
 than those of dalliance, had the temerity to disobey the order, and 
 succeeded in retaining power and the friendship of the empress 
 long after their pergonal claims on her tenderness were at an end. 
 On terminating the intimacy, the favorite usually received mag- 
 nificent gifts. Potemkin,. after he had ceased his functions as fa- 
 vorite, became pander tp his royal mistress, thereby secuiing the 
 4puble advantage of the favor of the empress and the patronage 
 of the favorite, from whom he levied a handsome fee for the intro- 
 duction. Potemkin and Orloff were al; one period rivals, in which 
 jPpntest Orloff was at last defeated; but when Potemkin reached 
 his pride of place, he became so n,ecessary to Catharine inhis high- 
 er capacity that he set up and pulkd down the favorite of the hour 
 as he pleased, and even ventured upon the most extravagant flights 
 of insolence and personal disrespect to the empress. Orloff had 
 been also the rival ,of Poniatowski, but his superior capacity and 
 
 ' " Miss Pratasoff then, therd 
 
 Named from her mystic office rEprouvense, 
 A term inexplicable to the mnse, 
 With her then, as in hnmble duty honnd, 
 Juan retired," — Byron. 
 
270 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 brutal energy of will made Mm respected and feared by Catbarine 
 long after sbe bad ceased to lite bim. • 
 
 Tbe pecuniary results to tbe state, enormous as was tbe plun- 
 der, was perbaps tbe least of tbe evils sustained tbrougb tbis sys- 
 tem of iniquity. Tbe registered' gifts to tbe twelve favorites 
 amounted to upward of one bundred million dollars.^ Lanskoi, 
 wbo bad beld no political offices, and tbe wbole of wbose fortune 
 was drawn from tbe flagitious profits of bis post of disbonor, died, 
 after less tban four years of of&ce, wortb, in casb only, and exclu- 
 sive of valuables, seven millions of rubles. Potemkin's wealtb, 
 wbicb was accumulated from all sources of public robbery and 
 private extortion, was fabulous. At bis deatb be owned two bund- 
 red tbousand serfs ; be bad wbole cupboards filled witb gold coin, 
 jewels, and bank-bills ; be beld tbirty-two orders, and bis fortune 
 was estimated at sixty million dollars.^ 
 
 In tbe closing days of Catbarine's reign sbe found a lower 'deep 
 into wbicb to plunge. "Wben upw'ard of sixty, sbe took into office, 
 as ber favorite, Zuboff, wbo was not quite twenty-five. Sbe now 
 formed tbe Society of tbe Little Hermitage. Tbis was a picked 
 company of wits and libertines, of botb sexes, over wbose scenes 
 of debaucbery and revelry tbe empress presided. An inner pen- 
 etralia even of tbese orgies was establisbed, and called tbe Little 
 Society. 
 
 Tbe pernicious influence of sucb an example, set for so long a 
 period of time by a sovereign distinguisbed for ability, and wbose 
 reign bad been rendered famous by its successful foreign enter- 
 prises, was tbe almost universal corruption of tbe Eussian court 
 and aristocracy of botb sexes. Tbe women, in imitation of ber 
 majesty, kept men, witb tbe title and office of favorites. Tbis was 
 as customary as any otber piece of fasbion, and was recognized by 
 busbands. Tender intrigues were unknown ; strong passion was 
 still more rare ; marriage was merely an association. Tbere was 
 a club, called tbe club of natural pbilosopbers, wbicb was a society 
 of men and women of tbe bigbest classes, tbe object of wbose meet- 
 ings was indiscriminate sexual intercourse. Tbe members met to 
 feast, and after tbe banquet tbey retired in pairs cbosen by lot. 
 Tbis club was afterward put down by tbe Eussian police, in com- 
 mon witb all otber secret societies. A bospital was founded by 
 Catbarine for fifty ladies affected witb venereal disease. Tbese 
 were all to be taken care of; no question was permitted as to name 
 
 ' D'Abrantes, p. 294. a Id. p. 297. 
 
RUSSIA. 271 
 
 or quality, and tTie linen of tlie establislunent was marked witli 
 tlie significant word " discretion." 
 
 Catharine's end was sudden and frightful. She had grown cor- 
 pulent, and her legs and body had swKDllen and burst. She moved 
 about with considerable difficulty, although her imperious will 
 would not allow her to give way in her career either of ambition 
 or profligacy. She was at the Littlp Hermitage November 4, 1796, 
 in remarkably high spirits, and even joked her buffoon, Leof Naus- 
 kin, among other things, as to his death and his fears thereupon. 
 The next morning the dread messenger, of whose advent she had 
 made sport, brought his orders for her. She fell into an apoplec- 
 tic fit, and, after thirty-seven hours of insensibility, died unbless- 
 ing and unblessed, to be succeeded by Paul, her detested son by 
 her first lover Soltikoff. 
 
 ■ The emperor, or as he was better known by Napoleon's sobri- 
 quet, the mad Emperor Paul, was too remarkable for his eccen- 
 tricities to make himself conspicuous for his gallantries. Even in 
 this particular he preserved his eccentricity. He neglected his 
 wife, an amiable and handsome woman, the mother of Alexander 
 and Nicholas, for an ugly mistress. Mademoiselle Nelidoff, and for 
 another, Mademoiselle Lapukhin, who would not accept his ad- 
 dresses, but to whom he nevertheless professed the patient devo- 
 tion of Don Quixote. The most noteworthy circumstance, in this 
 connection, of Paul's life was the indirect effect of female frailty in 
 procuring his murder. The enemies who subsequently plotted his 
 downfall and destruction procured their return from banishment 
 through the offices of a certain Mademoiselle Chevalier, a French 
 actress who rul'ed-Kutaisoff, who on his part ruled the Czar. 
 
 As we approach" our own times, the description of historical 
 characters becomes liable to the tinge of prejudice or partiahty. 
 
 Alexander, the son and successor of Paul, was distinguished by 
 the amenity of his disposition and the philosophical tone of his 
 political theories. He was married at an early age by order of 
 his grandmother Catharine, who in his case insisted on making 
 him a good husband; and took numerous precautions for that 
 purpose, all of which her example neutralized or belied. The 
 selection made for him might, under the conditions of humble life 
 or a free choice, have turned out happily. As it was, he pre- 
 ferred the society of the ladies of his court, and in particular of 
 the Countess Narishkin, by whom he had three children. The 
 countess proved inconstant, and all his children by her died, to 
 Alexander's deep grief 
 
272 HISTORY OF gPEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ,4.fter.tli,e -logs, of, these illegitim3,te children, the affections of, 
 Alexander were turned toward th^ empress, whose Jjjue worth he 
 recognized iwhen it was too late. She was, struck with. jdigease, 
 and he was on a journey to.Southern^Eupsi^' to select a suitably 
 spot for a residence for her, when he was seized with the fever of 
 which he died. ' 
 
 If Alexander's mild character had but little influence on his 
 subjects, the name of his successor, Nicholas, has been, identified 
 with the very existence of the Eussian people, as much as any 
 sovereign since Peter the Great. His example andiCxpressed wiU 
 have had immense effect, both for good and evil. It is almost 
 impossible to arrive at the true character of Nicholas at the pres- 
 ent time^ for the reasons just mentioned. In his private life as 
 husband and father, and in his public life as ruler and politician, 
 writers are diametrically opposed to each other. Party prejudice 
 denies him all worth, or makes him a very Socrates. Golovin 
 and authors of the democratic school af&rm, in addition to his 
 other offenses, that Nicholas had several illegitimate children, and 
 also "that no woman could feel herself secure from. Nicholas's 
 importunities ;" while writers like Von Tietz, Jermann, and other 
 panegyrists of the Eussian court, describe Nicholas as an exem- 
 plary husband .and father^ a model'to his subjects in his domestic 
 relations. They allege farther, that the gross immorality which 
 has been the chief feature of Eussian society was very much dis- 
 couraged, and rendered altogether unfashionable by the estima- 
 ble manners of the imperial family. 
 
 Truth is rarely found in extremes. The prevalent usage among 
 sovereigns in this century has been "to assume a virtue if they 
 have it not," and to maintain a respectable exterior for the sake 
 of public opinion. So politic a ruler as Nicholas was not likely 
 to reject this. He did all that could be done to bring virtue iato 
 good, repute at court. But too many little incidents are told of 
 him to justify a belief in his perfect spotlessness. The characters 
 of individuals, even as rulers, would be unimportant to us were it 
 not that in Eussia society is in a transition state, and shows itself 
 plastic in the hands of an energetic emperor. " The state ! I am 
 the state !" was perfectly true in the mouth of Nicholas. By his 
 subjects he was held in an esteem little short of idolatry, and he 
 Was, in every sense of the word, the most remarkable man in his 
 vast dominions. 
 
 Thompson, an English traveler, who has spoken very favorably 
 
EUSSIA. . 273 
 
 of the personal wortli of the Emperor Nicholas, says of the moral- 
 ity of the upper classes among the Eussians, " Denied the advant- 
 ages of rational amusement and innocent social enjoyments, de- 
 prived of those resources •which, while they dispel ennui, elevate 
 the feelings, the mind resorts to sensual indulgences and to the 
 gratification of the passions for the purpose of finding recreation 
 and relief from the deadening pressure of despotism. Immorality 
 and intrigue are of universal prevalence, and (in a social sense) 
 are hardly looked upon as criminal acts, while gambling and 
 debauchery are the natural consequences of the tedious monotony 
 from which all seek to escape by iudulgiug in gross and vicious 
 excitement." 
 
 Under the system of serfage, now approaching its end, it was 
 almost impossible that there should be such a thing as public mo- 
 rality in the lower classes. The Eussians, both noble and serf, 
 are false and dishonest to a proverb. Prostitution in such cases 
 is a superfluous term : a woman had no right or opportunity to 
 be virtuous. 
 
 The morality of St. Petersburg is undoubtedly of the lowest, 
 and yet we have not met with any accounts of local prostitution 
 there. It is a city of men, containing one hundred thousand more 
 males than females.' Kelly says the women form only two sev- 
 enths (f ) of the entire population, and calls it " an alarming fact." 
 The climate is unfavorable to female beauty, and it is generally 
 conceded that the men are handsomer than the women. The 
 German girls have an almost exclusive reputation for good looks 
 in St. Petersburg. By reason of the disproportion of the sexes, it 
 is said that ladies can not venture out unattended. This is eti- 
 quette among the higher classes of all Continental Europe, and 
 tiie simple fact, without the reason, would not be surprisiag. 
 
 The attention to miautise which distinguishes a despotism, and 
 which is so remarkable a feature of Eussian state craft, does not 
 allow us to suppose there are no statistical papers on the subject 
 of prostitution ; on the contrary, it is perfectiy well known that 
 such are in existence. The secrecy which is scrupulously main- 
 tained in all public matters, and the watchful vigilance of the police 
 over strangers, prevents them obtaining any information except 
 on the most patent and notorious subjects. The remarks of trav- 
 elers on Eussian society are very vague and general, and unsup- 
 ported by any of those details which could alone authenticate them. 
 
 ■ Kohl. 
 S ' 
 
274 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 We have already alluded to tlie ancient Oriental seclusion of 
 women among the Russians. This was so stricSl^that a suitor 
 never saw, or at least was presumed never to have seen, the face 
 of his bride before marriage. In 1493, Ivan the Great told a Ger- 
 man embassador who demanded his daughter in marriage for the 
 Margrave of Baden, that Eussians never showed their daughters 
 to any one before the match was decided. Peter the Great abol- 
 ished this lottery, and directed that the parties might see each 
 other, but he still found it necessary to promulgate a strong ukase 
 against parents compelling children to marry against their wishes. 
 
 The compromise of the ancient custom which has been brought 
 about by this law is that the elders of the family usually pre- 
 contract for the juniors : then succeeds the bridal promenade, at 
 which the young people, if unknown to each other, are led acci- 
 dentally to meet in the same walk. Having thus managed an in- 
 terview, the father of the young man, if all the preliminaries have 
 been satisfactory so far, sends to the bride's father, and a general 
 family meeting takes place, at which the arrangements are com- 
 pleted, the dowry determined, and then follows the betrothal. 
 The elect pair kneel down on a fiir mat and exchange rings. The 
 preparations for the marriage are cornmenced, during which time 
 the lovers have frequent opportunities of meeting and becoming 
 better known to each other ; this is a general period of visiting 
 and parties. On the wedding-day the bridemaids unbraid the 
 lady's hair, and she receives her husband with flowing locks. 
 This is a remnant of ancient Russian usage, when the greatest 
 outrage that could be committed on a woman was to unbraid her 
 hair. It is generally believed that among the lower orders the 
 wife is bound to draw off her husband's boots on the wedding- 
 day, and also that the Russian peasant beats his wife at the com- 
 mencement of her married life, so as to indicate supremacy. As 
 to the substantial observance of the latter practice modern travel- 
 ers differ, although it would seem that symbolically it is still main- 
 tained.^ 
 
 A curious exhibition takes place on Whitsunday in the Peters- 
 burg summer garden, called " The Bride's Fair." All the mar- 
 riageable daughters of the Russian tradesmen turn out on that 
 day for a promenade. The young men, in their best attire, come 
 forth to view them. The brides expectant do not limit their dis- 
 
 ' GoloTln states that the whip is an article in frequent requisition in the conja- 
 gal state. 
 
RUSSIA. 275 
 
 play to their charms, but second them by attractions of a more 
 substantial character, adorning themselves with trinkets, jewels, 
 or even now and* then with silver tea-spoons, plate, and other 
 valuables useful in housekeeping. This has been inveighed 
 against as indicative of the prevalent indelicacy of the Eussians, 
 a sort of bride-market. Is it more reprehensible than many cus- 
 toms nearer home? It is now, however, falling into disuse. 
 
 The conjugal relations of the Russian nobility were extremely 
 loose and indefensible during the time when vice was fashion, and 
 virtue in a courtier would have been deemed condemnation of the 
 higher powers. Then, and even down to the reign of the Em- 
 peror Nicholas, marriage was simply an affair of convenience — ^the 
 husband living at Moscow or St. Petersburg, the wife in Paris or 
 Italy ; such separations frequently lasting for years.^ 
 
 The Foundling Hospital at St. Petersburg, the Wospitatelnoi 
 Bom, is the most magnificent foundation of the kind in Europe, 
 and it pleases the authorities to give information upon its feat- 
 ures. The endowments are enormous, owing to the munificence 
 of successive sovereigns, who have made it a kind of state caprice. 
 The annual expenditure exceeds five milHons two hundred thou- 
 sand rubles.^ The number of children in this institution is com- 
 mensurate with its wealth. Upward of twenty-five thousand are 
 constantly enrolled on its books. 
 
 The lodge is open day and night for the reception of infants. 
 The daily avetage of children brought is about twenty. The only 
 question asked is if the child has been baptized, and by what name. 
 Knot baptized, the ceremony is performed by a priest of the Greek 
 Church. At the time of leaving, the mother receives a ticket, the 
 duplicate of which is placed around the child's neck. The mortal- 
 ity which takes place among these helpless victims of sin and mis- 
 fortune is enormous. Some die in the lodge when just received ; 
 more perish during the tedious ceremonies of their baptism, which 
 last several hours. The total number of deaths among children 
 in the asylum and those out at nurse is probably three thousand 
 per annum, or about one in four of the whole number committed 
 to its charge.^ 
 
 ' Von Tietz, p. 73. 
 
 " Kohl. There is some dfficulty in estimating the ruble from the difference in 
 the currency of Bnssian silver coin. We believe this sum would be upward of a 
 million dollars. 
 
 ° Yon Tietz says that, as regards morality, the institution does not work badly, 
 
276 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The children are given in care of wet nurses for about six weeks, 
 when they are sent into the country until six yeiSlfs old. They 
 are then brought back to the institution and educated in a superior 
 manner ; the girls being qualified as governesses in Eussian fami- 
 lies, and the boys as artisans in the imperial manufactories. In 
 cases of special capacity, they receive a scientific or musical edu- 
 cation. 
 
 An incident which is said to have occurred at this institution 
 has gone the rounds of the press. The story is, that one of the 
 young women having given birth to an infant, and the deliaquent 
 not being discovered, the Emperor Nicholas heard of the occur- 
 rence, and made a visit of inspection. Having summoned the 
 pupils before him, he demanded to know the guilty one, add- 
 ing that, if she came forward, she should be pardoned. No one 
 obeyed the invitation, and he was going away, with threats of 
 disgracing the whole body, when one girl, to save her compan- 
 ions, came forward, threw herself at his feet, and confessed her 
 feult. Nicholas kicked her out of the way, exclaiming that it 
 was too late.^ 
 
 A Lying-in Hospital is one of the appendages of this establish- 
 ment. Pregnant women may enter there four weeks before their 
 confinement, and the strictest secrecy is maintained as to .their 
 name and character. Even the omnipotent Czar respects the priv- 
 ileges of the place. 
 
 The institution at Moscow is on a similarly gigantic scale, and 
 is managed after the same fashion. 
 
 The empress is the mother of the foundlings, which, be it ob- 
 served, are mostly the children of such as can not or do not desire 
 to keep their offspring. Free access, on appointed days, is permit- 
 ted to the parents of the children ; and, under special circum- 
 stances, the empress wiU permit a child to be removed from the 
 institution, if the parents prove their means and disposition to 
 support it properly. 
 
 Kohl, who gives us particular^ and even minute accounts of 
 the management and arrangement of the public hospitals, makes 
 no mention whatever of the syphilitic wards. The high system of 
 efBciency in which the military infirmaries are maintained might 
 have encouraged a hope for more detailed information on this 
 subject, 
 
 for there are comparatively less illegitimate births at St. Petersbnrgh than in most 
 other cities, but be gives do figures to support this assertion. » Golovin. 
 
SWEDEN AKD NOEWAT. 277 
 
 CHAPTEE XXn. 
 
 SWEDEN AIJD NORWAY. 
 
 Comparative Morality. — Illegitimacy.— Profligacy in Stockholm. — Infenticide.— 
 Foundling Hospitals. — Stora Barnhordst. — Laws against Prostitution. — Tolera- 
 tion. — Government Brothels. — Syphilis. — Marriage in Norway. 
 
 The ancient Scandinavian peninsula, land of the Scald and the 
 Eune, with its Vikings and Beisckers, has sent down to us many 
 a legend of war and conquest, l)ut few of social manners or mbral 
 relations. The high esteem in which the ancient Germans held 
 their women, and the affinity of laws and customs between the 
 ^Norsemen and the Teutons, justify us in believing that the blue- 
 eyed maids of the Scandinavian heroes were as much respected for 
 virtue as beloved for beauty. The eternal virgins in the Walhalla 
 of Western mythology were not associated with the grosser pleas- 
 ures with which the impure fancy of the Koran invested the houris 
 of the Mohammedan Paradise ; and the Norsemen, through their 
 posterity, the Normans, introduced, among the other amenities of 
 chivalry, that prominent obligation of true knighthood, " devoir 
 aux, dames,^'' perhaps not the least humanizing incident of the in- 
 stitution. 
 
 Passing, by a long stride, at once to modem times, we find in 
 the joint kingdom of Sweden and Norway two territories as dis- 
 tinct in their social condition as they are in their geographical 
 divisions. Norway has always been remarkable for a simple and 
 hardy population of fishermen and small farmers, elements in the 
 highest degree favorable to virtue and independence, and their 
 poverty and isolation &oni the continental interests of Europe have 
 exempted them from politics and war. Sweden, on the other 
 hand, though not much wealthier as a nation, has had an heredit- 
 ary nobility, and the ambition and abUity of some of her monarchs, 
 especially of the great Gustavus, caused her to play apart in his- 
 tory wholly disproportionate to her territorial importance. If, 
 however, the historical significance of Sweden be somewhat great- 
 er than that of the less.pretentious sister kingdom, statistics do not 
 accord to the former the same estimation, in point of morals, as 
 they concede to the latter. 
 
278 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The average of illegitimate births, though not infallible, is gen- 
 erally accepted as a fair test of the immorality of a jJibple. Taken 
 by this standard, Sweden ranks lower than almost any country of 
 Europe. But if the character of the general population be indif- 
 ferent, that of Stockholm "out-Herods Herod." 
 
 In Stockholm, in 1838, there were 1137 illegitimate to 1577 le- 
 gitimate ; in 1839 there were 1074 illegitimate to 1492 legitimate 
 births. 
 
 The average of illegitimate to other births in the capital and 
 throughout the country was as follows :^ 
 
 . 
 
 1835. 
 
 1838. 
 
 1839. 
 
 In Stockholm 
 
 In other towns * 
 
 lin 2-44 
 1 in 6-18 
 1 in 20-41 
 1 in 15-20 
 
 lin 2-47 
 lin 6-18 
 1 in 20-01 
 1 in 14-69 
 
 ] in 2-38 
 lin 6-40 
 1 in 20-01 
 1 in 14-94 
 
 In the country 
 
 Throughout the kingdom. . 
 
 As regards the average of the whble kingdom, the proportion 
 is much the same as that of England and France. What, then, 
 must be the condition of the towns, and, in particular, of the cap- 
 ital 1^ The figures are such as to justify the allegation against 
 Stockholm of being the most immoral capital in Europe, and also 
 the presumption that the late decrease in its population, from 
 which it is but recently recovering, is a direct consequence of 
 the vice that stains it. 
 
 "With so large an amount of illegitimacy, it is not surprising that 
 infanticide should be of common occurrence. The penalty of this 
 crime is death, although, from a growing aversion to capital pun- 
 ishment, it is generally commuted. 
 
 There are numerous foundling hospitals throughout the king- 
 dom of Sweden ; one in particular, the Stora JBarnhorst in Stock- 
 holm, established by Gustavus Adolphus, originally intended for 
 the children of military men of broken health and fortunes. It 
 has been perverted from the simplicity of its original foundation, 
 and now receives children of all comers, who pay an entrance fee 
 of about thirty-five dollars. JSTo questions are asked on the pre- 
 sentation of an infant to the asylum, and, excepting the fee, it is in 
 no respect different from the ordinary foundling hospitals. This 
 very fee, however, it is considered by some writers, makes all the 
 difference, as it in some measure justifies those parents who, hav- 
 ing adequate means, choose to release themselves of the care and 
 
 ' Swedish Eegistrar-General's Reports, 1838, 1839. 
 
 " Baron Gall's Reiser duroh Schweden, Bremen, 1838 ; Laing's Tour through 
 Sweden ; Baron Von Strombeck Durstellunger, 1840. 
 
SWEDEN AND NOEWAY. 279 
 
 expense of their offspring, and wlio use tTiis payment as a salve to 
 their consciences, considering that they have to that extent done 
 their duty. The Stora Barnhorst is wealthy, having an income 
 of above one hundred and fifty thousand dollars per annum. 
 
 In 1836, prostitution was forbidden, by express enactment, 
 throughout all Sweden, and women who had not a legally recog- 
 nized occupation were liable to imprisonment as disorderly char- 
 acters. The prostitute, of course, came within the category. It 
 was asserted at the time that there was no common prostitution, 
 but a coimter statement was made by the jurist Angelot, who af- 
 firmed that every house of entertainment was a brothel, and every 
 servant a loose woman. 
 
 This prohibitory system did not work so well as had been an- 
 ticipated, and in 1837 a change was effected. A large hotel was 
 taken by the corporation, and, after the plan of various cities in 
 the Middle Ages, was managed by public oificers. Thus a gov- 
 ernment brothel was established. Nor did this lewdness by au- 
 thority have the desired effect. The brothel was filled with women, 
 but no customers appeared. Private brothels were resorted to for 
 a time, and were opened under regular licenses. They have now 
 disappeared, and as the inefiicient police management never suc- 
 ceeded in repressing illicit prostitution, even while tolerated broth- 
 els were in existence, it will surprise no one to learn that Stock- 
 holm is now one vast, seething hot-bed of private harlotry. 
 
 There are Lock Hospitals throughout Sweden, established by 
 public funds, and kept up by direct taxation as a charge upon the 
 municipal rates. The Stockholm Hospital for syphilis in 1832 
 received seven hundred and one patients, of whom one hundred 
 and forty-eight were from the country, and the remainder from 
 the city. The capital contained in that year 33,581 persons of 
 both sexes above the age of fifteen, consequently one person in 
 every sixty-one was affected with syphilis. 
 
 The superficial aspect of society in Sweden is certaialy not 
 such as here described. The upper classes are cultivated, polite, 
 and observant of all the usual refinements of modern society, 
 while to the humbler classes, excepting that intercourse is free 
 and unrestrained among them, there is no ground for attributing 
 any unusual departure from modesty and propriety. Neither are 
 the laws remarkably stringent: although difficulties are thrown 
 in the way of affiliation, they are the same in principle as those 
 which have been adopted by the modern statute law of England. 
 
280 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Still, that there is sucli an excess of immorality can not be doubted. 
 The official statistics of the country prove it, weft any possible 
 doubt thrown upon the statements of the many travelers, of the 
 highest repute for correctness and reliability, who have noticed it. 
 The latest publication upon the matter is from Bayard Taylor, 
 who, writing from Stockholm under date May 1, 1857, says, 
 
 " I must not close this letter without saying a word about its (Stockhohn's) 
 morals. It has been called the most licentious city in Europe, and I have 
 no doubt with the most perfect justice. Vienna may surpass it in the 
 amount of conjugal infidelity, but certainly not in general incontinence. 
 Very nearly half the registered births are illegitimate, to say nothing of the 
 illegitimate children born in wedlock. Of the servant-girls, shop-girls, and 
 seamstresses in the city, it is very safe to say that scarcely one out of a 
 hundred is chaste, while, as rakish young Swedes have coolly informed me, 
 a large proportion of girls of respectable parentage are no better. The men, 
 of course, are much worse than the women, and even in Paris one sees fewer 
 physical signs of excessive debauchery. Here the number of broken-down 
 young men and blear-eyed, hoary sinners is astonishing. I have never been 
 in any place where licentiousness was so open and avowed, and yet where 
 the slang of a sham morality was so prevalent. There are no houses of 
 prostitution in Stockholm, and the city would be scandalized at the idea of 
 allowing such a thing. A few years ago two were established, and the fact 
 was no sooner known than a virtuous mob arose and violently pulled them 
 down. At the restaurants young blades order their dinners of the female 
 waiters with an arm around their waists, while the old men place their hands 
 unblushingly upon their bosoms. All the baths in Stockholm are attended 
 by women (generally middle-aged and hideous, I must confess), who per- 
 form the usual scrubbing and shampooing with the greatest nonchalance. 
 One does not wonder when he is told of young men who have passed safely 
 through the ordeals of Berlin and Paris, and have come at last to Stockholm 
 to be ruined. * * * * Which is best, a city like Stockholm, where 
 prostitution is prohibited, or New York, where it is tacitly allowed, or Ham- 
 burg, where it is legalized 1" 
 
 We have spoken of the difference between Sweden and Nor- 
 way in their moral relations. At first this is not apparent, for 
 illegitimacy is as frequent in one as the other ; but there are at- 
 tendant qualifying circumstances, which go to constitute a materi- 
 al variation in the conclusion to be drawn from the unexplained 
 fact. "We may remark that street- walking and open prostitution 
 are rare. Illegitimacy is of considerable extent, averaging one in 
 five, or, in some parts, one in three of the total births. 
 
 The people are betrothed by the practice of the Lutheran 
 
SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 281 
 
 Cliiirch a long time before tlie actual marriage. This is consid- 
 ered as notHng more than a wholesome check upon hasty nnions 
 in a general poiat of view. In Norway, however, this probation- 
 ary period is extended to a limit beyond the endurance of flesh 
 and blood. The wedding is a prodigious merry-making, and it 
 is absolutely indispensable that the means for an extravagant hos- 
 pitality should have been accumulated before the parties dare at- 
 tempt the. public ceremony. The profusion is so great as some- 
 times to dissipate a whole year's earnings. The obligation to this 
 expense increases the delay required by the Church, and it fre- 
 quently happens that the af&anced cohabit before the nuptial 
 benediction is pronounced. As the betrothal is a half-marriage, 
 the arrangement loses part' of its offensive character in the eyes 
 of the parties themselves, and also of their neighbors. The chil- 
 dren are legitimatized by the subsequent marriage, which takes 
 place in by far the largest number of cases. In those occasional 
 instances where the wedding ceremony is not duly completed, 
 there is a particular legal act by which a child can be acknowl- 
 edged. Failure of marriage under such circumstances, or failure 
 of natural duty to offspring, is against the sentiment of the people. 
 "While these facts do not alter the actual concubinage or illegiti- 
 macy, it is easy to understand that a considerable difference exists 
 between such conduct, however reprehensible, and those habits 
 which may be fs^irly characterized as licentiousness or profligacy. 
 Norway is very far from being free of syphilis. Bayard Taylor 
 says, " Bergen is, as I am informed, terribly scourged by venereal 
 diseases. Certainly I do not remember a place where there are 
 so few men, tall, strong, and well made as the people generally 
 are, without some visible mark of disease or deformity. A phy- 
 sician of the city has recently endeavored to cure syphilis in its 
 secondary stage by means of inoculation, having first tried the 
 experiment upon himself, and there is now a hospital where this 
 form of treatment is practiced upon two or three hundred patients, 
 with the greatest success, another physician informed me. I in- 
 tended to have visited it, but the sight of a few cases around the 
 door so sickened me that I had no courage to undertake the task." 
 We have ao means of ascertaining whether the malady exists 
 with the same virulence in the interior as on the coast. The habits 
 of the people would seem adverse to the supposition that it does. 
 
282 HISTOET OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXm. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. — HISTORY TO THE TIME OF THE COMMON- 
 WEALTH. 
 
 Aboriginal Morals and Laws. — Anglo-Saxon Legislation. — Introduction of Chris- 
 tianity. — St. Augustine. — Prostitution in the Ninth Century. — Court Example. 
 — Norman Epoch.^Feudal Laws and their Influences. — Civil and Ecclesiastical 
 Courts. — General Depravity. — Effects of Chivalry. — Fair Bosamond. — Jane 
 Shore. — Henry VIII. — Elizabeth. — James I. 
 
 The first references to prostitution -which we find in the works 
 of the early British annalists are so vague that it is difficult to 
 derive from them any very definite idea as to its extent and char- 
 acter. Among the crude efforts at legislation there are laws to 
 enforce chastity among women, but whether the necessity for 
 these enactments was owing to general licentiousness or to the 
 existence of a regular class of prostitutes does not appear. 
 
 At the period of the Eoman invasion, the morals of the Britons 
 were as low as niight be expected from their nojnadic habits. 
 "iThe population was divided into small communities of men and 
 women, who appear to have lived promiscuously, no woman being 
 attached to any particular man, but all cohabiting according to in- 
 chnation, the carnal instinct being the feeling which regulated 
 sexual intercourse. A sort of marriage was instituted, but with 
 no idea that either of the parties -to it should be restricted by its 
 obligations. Its only object seemed to be to provide means for 
 rearing the children, and to fix somewhere the responsibility of 
 their nurture and support. A society constituted as this was can, 
 of course, be considered scarcely a step removed from barbarism. 
 The regulation to provide for the children was necessary to pre- 
 vent depopulation ; its tendency was to remove from the woman's 
 path every obstacle to lust ; over the man it exercised but very 
 slight control. 
 
 A still farther proof of the demoralized condition of the people 
 is found in the gross ceremonies attending these marriages. The 
 man appeared on his wedding day dressed in all the rude trap- 
 pings of the time ; the woman was entirely naked. A repulsive 
 coarseness marked their licentiousness, and the rudeness of man- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 283 
 
 ners was nowhere more conspicuous than in the relations existing 
 between the sexes. 
 
 It is to be presumed that the Anglo-Saxons imported into En- 
 gland the laws and customs prevailing in their own country. The 
 rules they made against adultery were frightfully severe. When a 
 couple were detected in the commission of the offense, the woman 
 was compelled to commit suicide, to avoid the greater tortures 
 awaiting her if she refused. Her body was then placed on a pile 
 of brushwood and consumed. Nor did her partner in guilt escape 
 punishment ; he was usually put to death on the spot where her ash- 
 es lay collected. These penalties would appear to be sufficiently se- 
 vere, but in some instances worse were inflicted. Where the case 
 was one of peculiar aggravation, the adulteress was hunted down 
 by a number of infuriate demireps of her own sex, each armed 
 with a club, a knife, or some other formidable weapon, and stab- 
 bed or beaten to death. If one party of her pursuers became 
 weary of the sport, another took their places until the victim ex- 
 pired beneath the blows. 
 
 These extremely rigid ideas of the Anglo-Saxons do not seem 
 to have been consistent, for while adultery was punished in the 
 severe manner described, incest was not only permitted, but com- 
 monly practiced ; and it was even the custom for relations to mar- 
 ry within the closest degrees of consanguinity. 
 
 But they were not long located in England before the more sav- 
 age traits of their character were softened down, and the women 
 soon found amusement more suitable to their sex than that of 
 chasing their erring sisters as quarry. The marriage ceremonies 
 also assumed a more refined and decent character, although the 
 wife continued to be regularly purchased by her husband, and the 
 contract was still considered a mere matter of bargain and sale. 
 By the laws of Ethelbert marriageable women were made com- 
 modities of barter, and enactments of this character are to be found 
 in existence long subsequent to his reign. 
 
 As the Anglo-Saxons were a hardy, vigorous race, and existed 
 chiefly by hunting, fishing, and a rude and imperfect system of 
 agriculture, it is not probable that prostitution existed among them 
 to any great extent. The fatigues of the chase and field exhausted 
 the energy of the body, and. diminished the desire and capacity 
 for sexual indulgence, and, living in smaU detached communities 
 as they did, they knew nothing of the stimulating incentives of 
 city life. 
 
284 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Yet that prostitutes existed, and lived by the wages of their 
 profession, is proved by the fact that women (wh* were entitled 
 by law to hold and dispose of property) bequeathed their wealth 
 to their daughters, with the occasional stipulation that they should 
 live chaste lives in the event of their remainiag single, and not 
 earn money by prostituting their persons. 
 
 In the reign of Canute a law was enacted by which any one 
 found guilty of adultery was to be punished by the loss of the 
 nose and the ears.^ In the course of tuHe the crime came to be 
 punished by a fine paid to the husband of the woman. This pen- 
 alty soon fell into disrepute, as it was found that some husbands 
 and wives took advantage of it to extort fines from persons pos- 
 sessing more money than prudence. By a subsequent enactment 
 the male adulterer became the property of the king, who might 
 send him to the wars, or employ him at hard labor as he pleased. 
 By a law of Edgar's time the adulterer of either sex was compel^ 
 led to live, for three days in each week, on bread and water for 
 seven years. This was treating the evil on physiological princi- 
 ples. 
 
 We can not infer any very strict condition of morals as the re- 
 sult of this harsh legislation. When punishment is carried to an 
 extreme entirely disproportioned to the offense, it is as likely to 
 fell in its object as mistaken lenity. Forgery and arson were more 
 frequent in England when punished with death than they are at 
 present ; and although we have no statistics of the time from which 
 we can deduce any positive conclusionSj we may reasonably im-, 
 agine that neither the death penalty, nor the other barbarous pun- 
 ishments substituted for it, exercised any very powerful influence 
 in the diminution of the crime among our hardy progenitors. It 
 may have taught them greater caution and dissimulation in the 
 prosecution of their evil' purposes, but it did not render them the 
 less eager to profit by the opportunities thrown in their way. 
 
 It has been already shown that the founders of Christianity 
 treated illicit sexual indulgence as a sin, and resorted to extreme 
 measures for its suppression, but yet, to some extent, tolerated 
 prostitution. Shortly after he had established himself in Britain, 
 Augustine put some curious queries to the Pope touching the 
 manner in which chastity among converts to the new faith should 
 be enforced. The nature of these interrogatories and replies for- 
 bids their appearance here.* 
 
 » Spelman. = Bede, Ub. i. cap. 27. 
 
GREAT BEITAIN. 285 
 
 That Augustine required to be instructed on such prurient de- 
 tails proves that he was a believer in the Jewish observances of 
 physical ablutions and cleansing of the person being necessary to 
 the removal of moral impurities, and that he carried his scrutiny 
 into the morals of his flock much farther than was consistent with 
 modesty and good sense. However much his religious teachings 
 might have improved the manners of the people, the regulations 
 alluded to would have exercised no very salutary or ef&cacious 
 influence over them. 
 
 The lives of the early kings and rulers of Britain serve to illus- 
 trate the morals of the nation during their respective reigns, not 
 only by exhibiting individual examples where the condition of 
 the masses is hidden from view, but by affording us an index to 
 that condition when it is considered that the manners of the court 
 have, in all ages and all countries, exercised- an important influ- 
 ence on those of the people. 
 
 Augustine converted Ethelbert, but his son Endbald deserted 
 the Christian Church because it refused its sanction to his mother- 
 in-law becoming his wife. It is true that he afterward divorced 
 her, and returned to Christianity, but in this he was influenced 
 rather by satiety than by the promptings of a reviving faith. 
 Many of the other kings of the Heptarchy were as remarkable for 
 the headstrong ardor of their passion as Endbald. Canulph of 
 "Wessex had, in the year 784, an intrigue with one of his female 
 subjects, and frequently quitted his court to enjoy her society in 
 the country. During one of these clandestine excursions he was 
 surprised and surrounded in the night by the followers of Kynch- 
 ard, a rival pretender to the throne, and murdered in the arms of 
 his mistress. 
 
 In the ninth century prostitution seems to have been a prevail- 
 ing vice throughout the country, and frequent references are made 
 to it in the discussions of the period. , In the arguments used in 
 favor of tithes, in the time of Athelstan, it was held by some 
 canonists that the clergy had a right to demand one tenth of the 
 profits eaT;ned by prostitutes in the exercise of their calling. It is 
 but right to add that the Church did not persist in enforcing this 
 extraordinary claim.^ 
 
 Bdwy, who ascended the throne at the early age of seventeen, 
 became involved in a controversy with the monks on the question, 
 then first started, of the celibacy of the clergy. The celebrated 
 
 ' Padre Paolo. 
 
286 HISTOEY OK PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Dimstaii favored the new doctrine, but Edwy opposed it. The 
 youthful and inexperienced prince was no matcher his sagacious 
 antagonist, as he soon after discovered. On the day of his coro- 
 nation, which took place soon after his marriage with his cousjn 
 Elgiva, whom he loved and resolved to wed, though she was with- 
 in the degrees of consanguinity prohibited by the Church, his no- 
 bles were indulging in the pleasures of the banquet, when it was 
 discovered that Edwy had stolen away. Dunstan and Odo, Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, conjecturing the cause of his absence, pro- 
 ceeded to the private apartments of the queen, and found him in 
 her company. They tore him from her, and dragged him back to 
 the party. Elgiva's face was seared with a red-hot iron to destroy 
 her beauty, and she was transported to Ireland. Her wounds 
 being soon healed, and all trace of the injuries removed, she re- 
 turned to her own country, but was met by a party the archbishop 
 had sent to intercept her, and put to death. Thus, professedly to 
 preserve the morals of the king, these high ecclesiastics committed 
 crimes of far greater gravity than a marriage even between persons 
 more nearly related than Edwy and Elgiva. 
 
 Edgar, who succeeded Edwy, was of a still more passionate and 
 licentious disposition. He broke into a convent, and carried off 
 one of the nuns, named Editha, who was remarkable for her beau- 
 ty. In the heat of passion, he violated her person ; and for the 
 double offense of abduction and rape, the Church, according to the 
 peculiar morality of the times, punished him by compelling him 
 to resign his crown for the period of seven years. By a curious 
 inconsistency, he was permitted to retain possession of Editha, who 
 lived with him as a concubine. 
 
 Another of his mistresses he obtained by a less violent process. 
 In passing through Andover, he accidentally met the daughter 
 of a neighboring noble, who fascinated him by her remarkable 
 beauty. Listening only to the suggestion of his passion, he pro- 
 ceeded immediately to the residence of the maiden's mother, and, 
 informing her of the violent love with which she had inspired 
 him, demanded that she should be permitted to share his bed that 
 night. The mother, fearing to excite the king's anger by a re- 
 fusal, resorted to a stratagem, by which she hoped to evade his 
 wrath, and, at the same time, preserve the chastity of her daugh- 
 ter. She directed a handsome waiting-maid to introduce herself 
 into the young lady's chamber, and the king was admitted after 
 dark. When Edgar discovered the trick which had been played 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 287 
 
 on him, he manifested no resentment, and the accidental partner 
 of his bed became afterward his favorite mistress. 
 
 These were not his only amours. Elfrida, daughter of the Earl 
 of Devonshire, was distinguished by extraordinary beauty, and 
 the fame of her charms reached the court, although she resided in 
 the country in strict retirement, and had never been a mile from 
 home. Edgar, hearing of her beauty, and doubting whether her 
 appearance justified the extravagant praise lavished on it, sent one 
 of his trusted favorites, Earl Athelwold, to her father's residence 
 to make a report to him on the subject. Athelwold himself, like 
 many a similar envoy, fell in love with the young lady, and in- 
 formed the king that rumor had greatly exaggerated her merits, 
 and that she was positively ungainly. This was sufiicient to allay 
 the king's curiosity, and Athelwold shortly afterward secured the 
 young lady's hand in marriage. He explained the matter to Ed- 
 gar by remarking that it was her fortune which induced him to 
 overlook her homely features. The king desired him to intro- 
 duce her at court, and Athelwold persistently refusing, the king 
 suspected the true state of the case. He intimated to the earl 
 that he had determined to visit the castle where she resided, and 
 the husband, dreading the consequences, implored his wife to con- 
 ceal her beauty as much as possible. Elfrida, woman-like, did 
 precisely the contrary, and set off her charms by the richest and 
 most becoming toilette in her wardrobe. Edgar was so enraged 
 at the deception practiced on him that he put the unfortunate earl 
 to death, and married the widow. 
 
 The infusion of Danish blood does not seem to have exercised 
 an improving influence on Anglo-Saxon manners. Judging from 
 the following, the contrary may be inferred. 
 
 Ethelred kept a number of Danish troops in his pay, who were 
 stationed in different parts of the country. A complaint was made 
 to the king that the Danes had attained such a pitch of refinement, 
 and made such an advance in luxury, that they combed their hair 
 daily, and were guilty of other acts of personal embellishment 
 equally reprehensible. Worse still, it was averred that the wom- 
 en looked with favor on these practices of the Danes, and that the 
 latter debauched the wives and daughters of the English, and dis- 
 graced the nation.^ It is evident that women who could thus 
 easily be led away were only virtuous from the want of oppor- 
 tunity, 
 
 ' Wallingford. 
 
288 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The legislation of this period shows that prostitution was noli 
 only tolerated, but indirectly encouraged. 9 
 
 If a man seduced the wife of another, he was compelled, by an 
 early Saxon law, to pay a fine to the husband, and to procure for 
 him another woman, whom he was to remunerate for. admitting 
 Mm to her bed.' This was not only offering a direct premium to 
 prostitution by providing for the debauching of a woman every 
 time another chose to be seduced, but it shows that females were 
 in the habit of cohabiting with men for hire. The fines for adul- 
 tery were graduated according to the rank of the woman. If she 
 happened to be the wife of a nobleman, her chastity was valued 
 at the moderate sum of sis pounds sterling (about thirty dollars) ; 
 while the wife of, a churl brought to her husband as a salve for 
 his injured honor about a dollar and a half. The effect of these 
 enactments could not but exercise a demoralizing and injurious 
 influence on the manners of the people. They reduced the esti- 
 mate of female chastity to that of a cheap marketable commodity, 
 whose loss could be repaid by a small money compensation. 
 
 By the laws of Bthelbert a man was permitted to buy a wife, 
 provided the purchase was made openly, and many such transact 
 tions are recorded, the price being sometimes paid down in money, 
 and sometimes in palfreys and other kinds of property. The prac- 
 tice, however, was soon modified, and it became necessary to ob' 
 taia the consent of the bride. The husband was compelled to 
 support and protect her, and to treat her with respect. A couple 
 desirous of contracting marriage were formally betrothed in pres- 
 ence of the priest, and this practice, having something of an eccle- 
 siastical obligation without any of its legal force, was frequently 
 productive of the same evil consequences as in Norway at the 
 present day. This custom of betrothal prevailed down to the 
 time of Elizabeth. 
 
 The Normans introduced into England, if not a higher stand- 
 ard of morals, at least a greater refinement in vice. Their laws 
 were moulded by the spirit of the feudal system which they im- 
 ported with them. Under their sway society was divided intp 
 two classes — ^feudal lords and their vassals. The lord could dis- 
 pose of the person and property of the vassal, limited, indeed, by 
 certain restrictions, but stUl leaving so much power in his hands 
 as to render the latter a virtual slave.' 
 
 Thus, by the laws of the time, a vassal who seduced or debauoh- 
 
 ' Leges Saxonicse. 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 289 
 
 -ed Ms lord's wife or near relative, or wlio even took improper 
 liberties with thenij might be puhished by the forfeiture of Ms 
 land. When a baron died, the estate escheated to the king, who 
 took immediate possession, and kept it until the heir applied to 
 do homage for it, and pay such a fee as the king might demand. 
 If the heir happened to be a imnor, the king retained possession 
 of the estate until he reached Ms majority; and when' the inherit- 
 ance devolved on a female, the king might give her any husband 
 he I thought proper. He often turned this privilege to account by 
 selhng the right to the hand and fortune of an heiress. Geoffrey 
 de Mandeville paid Henry III. -a sum equal to about twenty thou- 
 sand dollars for permission to wed Isabel, countess of Gloucester, 
 with the right to all her lands and revenues. Even a male heir 
 couldnot select his own bride except by purchasing permission 
 from the king, otherwise he had to accept his majesty's choice. ' 
 
 "We have no means of estimating the amount of licentiousness 
 arising from these arbitrary regulations, but we only require &, 
 little acquaintance with human nature to arrive at the conclusion 
 that they must have been a prolific source of vice. The husband 
 being selected by the king from purely inerceriary or interested 
 motives, no attention was, of course, paid to disparity of ages, or 
 other circumstances on which the purity' of the marriage-bed de- 
 pends. . When the inclinations are forced in this wdy, Women, as 
 well as men, are apt to revenge theroselves on their partners by 
 seeking illicit enjoyments. Mercenary marriages, when projected, 
 as they are even in our day, from^ sordid motives on the part of 
 parents or guardians, almost invariably lead to infidelity, and 
 many an old dotard, who- forces himself upon a girl under age, 
 merely serves as a screen for her clandestine amours. 
 
 In the reign of Henry III., grave disputes occurred between the 
 civil and ecclesiastical courts on the subject of bastardy. The 
 common law deemed all children to be illegitimate who had been 
 bom before marriage. By the canon law they were held to be 
 legitimate if the parents married subsequent to their birth. 
 
 When a dispute of inheritance arose, it was customary for the 
 civil to issue writs to the spiritual courts, directing an inquiry to 
 be instituted into- the legitimacy of the claimants ; and as the 
 bishops always returned answers in accordance with the canon 
 law, all persons whose parents had married' at any period were 
 legitimate. When it is considered how strongly most parents feel 
 for the hofior' of their offspring,, the tendency of such decisions to 
 
 T' 
 
290 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 increase prostitution becomes apparent. It may be considered un- 
 just to inflict disabilities on the cbUd for tbe siil of tbe parent, 
 but sucb penalties undoubtedly have, the effect of imposing a check 
 upon concubinage, 
 
 We have stated that the king claimed the disposal of the hands 
 and fortunes of heiresses : the barons claimed a still greater privi- 
 . lege from their tenants. In some localities the feudal lord insisted 
 upon enjoying the person of one of the daughters of each tenant 
 who happened to be blessed with a plurality of them. He return- 
 ed her to her parents within a given time. 
 
 Every extreme is followed by a reaction in the opposite direc- 
 tion. The abject condition of women, as indicated by the fore- 
 gpiag facts, led to the institution of chivalry, which elevated her 
 •ftom the position of a slave, and the mere instrument of sensual 
 gratification, to that almost of a deity, thus assigning her a rank 
 as much above her real sphere as her former one had been be- 
 neath it. 
 
 ■previous to the advent of this system, women could not appear 
 at any public exhibition or place of amusement unless accompa- 
 nied by a band of armed retainers. Any female encountered alone 
 and unprotected was liable to insult. 
 
 Chivalry, if it did not put an end to, greatly modified this state 
 of things, By its .rules each of its members was constituted a 
 champion of female virtue and honor. No man was admitted into 
 the order whose valor was not above suspicion, and a word utter- 
 ed by him derogatory to the beau sexe excluded him from its ranks. 
 No woman, however, was deemed worthy of knightly protection 
 .who had not preserved her honor, it being to that quality alone 
 that knighthood volunteered its safeguard. At public ceremonies, 
 if a woman of easy virtue ventured to take precedence of a woman 
 of honorable fame, she was immediately reminded of the impro- 
 priety of her conduct by some member of the order, and compelled 
 to retire to the rear. 
 
 This recognition of virtue had a strong tendency to promote 
 female chastity. It could not put a stop to voluntary prostitution, 
 but it at least prevented virtuous women being necessitated to 
 yield their honor to force.; It held out, moreover, an attractive 
 premium to correct conduct among the sex by making it the ob- 
 ject, of heroic exploits, celebrated in the romantic lays of minstrels 
 and troubadours. Its observances have a fantastic aspect in the 
 light of modem civilization, but they unquestionably exercised a 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 291 
 
 poweiful corrective influence over the female character, so de- 
 graded at its commencement, while, at the same time, they eleva- 
 ted that of the male sex by teaching them to respect themselves. 
 
 In the wars of the period, it was against the rules of chivalry to 
 take women prisoners. When a town was captured and entered 
 by victorious troops, the first step taken was to make proclamatioii 
 that no violence should be offered to any female. This conduct 
 was so much at variance with the notions and habits of soldiery, 
 that the feelings which sustained chivalry must have taken deep 
 root in the minds of all classes to restrain the passions of the mili- 
 tary, strengthened as they were by dissolute habits, and the absence 
 of opportunity for their gratification during service in the field. 
 
 To such an extreme was this feeUng of deferential courtesy to 
 the sex carried, that the Normans were severely censured fi)r their 
 conduct at the capture of the castle of Du Guesclin, it b6ing alleged 
 that they disturbed the repose of the ladies. But as the tendency 
 of every human institution is to degenerate from its original pur- 
 pose, the rigid purism which marked the foundation of chivalry sOoQ 
 began to relax, and disorders crept in. and sapped the basis of a 
 system which was too theoretically perfect to have any extended 
 duration. 
 
 It is difficult to ascertain the precise character of the relations 
 which existed between the Troubadours aiid the mistresses to whosei 
 service they devoted themselves, and who were frequently mar- 
 ried women. The knight Bertram happened to lose the favor of 
 his mistress, the wife of Talleyrand de Perigord, in consequence 
 of stories which had been related to her impheating his fidelity, 
 and charging him with dividing his knightly attentions. He pro- 
 tests his innocence of these accusations in a lay as impassioned as 
 that of a lover to the object of his adoration, and invokes a num- 
 ber of knightly calamities upon himself if his devotion to her be 
 not above suspicion. 
 
 It is hardly credible that the loves of such ardent admirers was 
 immaculate Piatonism. On the other hand, the fact that husbands 
 were rarely or never jealous of them, goes some way to refute the 
 idea that they had a more serious character. The lords of those 
 times were proud of the protestations of regard offered to their 
 ladies, and rewarded the Troubadours with rich and valuable pres- 
 ents. The lords of our day, grown wise by experience, make -a 
 point of keeping all such interlopers at a distance. 
 
 While chivalry poised its lance ia defense of the Lucretias, and 
 
292 HISTOBY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 then of. the Dulcineas of the day, the reUgious view of the com- 
 merce of the sexes was particularly ascetic. • 
 
 Although the most profound devotion was paid to woman in 
 the abstract by the orderj the Church sought to encourage perpet- 
 ual cehbacy, the seclusion of women, and the separatibil of the 
 sexes. The clergy were forbidden to marry, and the idea seemed 
 to prevail that it was impossible for men and women to mingle 
 without being under the influence of lascivious ideas, and ready 
 to carry them into practice as soon as opportunity offered. The 
 attempt to organize, society on such a basis had an inevitable tend- 
 ency to produce demoralization. • Its obvious result, instead of 
 promoting chastity, was to increase secret licentiousness and en- 
 courage prostitution: 
 
 Even the voluntary vows of knights and troubadours were, in 
 the end, as little observed as these ecclesiastical precepts. The 
 profligacy of the Troubadours became open and undisguised, and 
 the virtue of their mistresses naturally kept pace with their exam- 
 ple. The knights who enlisted in the Crusades, with a large amount 
 oif zeal and but a small share of wealth, supported their retainers 
 by robberies on the way, and the females who accompanied them 
 acted as camp followers usually do. No institution which deals' 
 merely in external observances can restrain immorality in circum- 
 stances favorable to its development, and hence chivalry was 
 forced to yield before more powerful influences. That it served 
 its purpose in elevating the condition of woman, and in giving a 
 better tone to society at large, it would be unjust to deny. 
 
 Even when chivalry declined and ceased to inspire feats of 
 knight-errantry, we find women, instead of falling back into the 
 degrading position they had formerly occupied, employing them- 
 selves in intellectual pursuits, publishing books, mixing in pubhc 
 controversies, distinguishing themselves in the acquisition of lan- 
 guages, and even taking a leading part in the political affairs of 
 the times. 
 
 Among the women who acquired, a historical notoriety by their 
 p9sition as royal mistresses, during the epoch comprised between 
 the Norman conquest and the reign of Henry VIII., were the Fair 
 Eosaniond, concubine of Henry II., and Jane Shore, the mistress 
 of Edward lY. The misfortunes, as well as the generoufe qualities 
 of these fair sinners have thrown a sort of halo around them. 
 
 Eosamond, sumamed the Fair on account of her exquisite 
 beauty, was the daughter of "Walter, Lord Clifford, and was edu- 
 
GEEAT BHITAIN. 293 
 
 cated in the nunnery of Godstow. The popular tradition concern- 
 iag her is that Henry, hearing of her charms, paid her a visit, but, 
 finding her virtue inflexible, had to exercise his authority as sover- 
 eign to compel her to yield to his wishes. He placed her in a 
 building erected in the midst of a labyrinth at Woodstock, axjcess 
 to which could only be obtained by a clew of thread. Henry lo- 
 cated her here to protect her from the jealousy of his queen Elea- 
 nor. She bore the Icing two sons, William Longsword, Earl of 
 Salisbury, and Geoffrey, Bishop of Lincoln. During the king's 
 absence in France he intrusted the keeping of Woodstock and the 
 care of the Fair Eosamond to one Lord Thomas, who endeavored 
 to seduce her. In revenge for the rejection of his overtures, the 
 faithless warden conducted Queen Eleanor to her retreat, and the 
 latter is said to have mixed a cup of poison, which her minions 
 compelled the unfortunate Eosamond to drink. It is also alleged 
 that the queen struck the poor girl on her lip with her clenched 
 hand.* Some assert that Eosamond died a natural death in a con- 
 vent at Oxford, and attribute the origin of the story of poisoning 
 to the figure of a cup which was sculptured on her tomb. It is 
 more probable that this ef&gy was placed there to commemorate 
 -the actual event. Eosamond was buried in the church of Godstow, 
 opposite the high altar, where her remains lay undisturbed until 
 they were ordered to be removed, with every mark of indignity, 
 by Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, in the year 1191. She was regarded 
 by the people as a saint, if not a martyr, and wonderful legends 
 were related concerning her. 
 
 Jane Shore, the celebrated concubine of Edward lY., was the 
 wife of Matthew Shore, a goldsmith in Lombard Street, London. 
 Edward possessed a good figure and pleasing address^ and was fond 
 of athletic sports and exercises, which he enjoyed in company with 
 the citizens, among whom he became exceedingly popular. His 
 popularity extended to many of the citizens' wives, and it was not 
 considered out of the natural course of things that Mrs. Shore should 
 be removed from Lombard Street to shine at court as the royal 
 favorite. Historians represent her as extremely beautifiil, remark- 
 ably gay in temperament, and of uncommon generosity. The 
 king, it is said, was no less-charmed with her temper and dispOsi- 
 
 ' A popular ballad which narrates the particulars describes the blow as having 
 dyed Fair Rosamond's lips 
 
 "A coral red j 
 Hard Tras the heart that gave the blow, 
 Soft were the lips that bled." 
 
294 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 tion than with her person. She never -made use of her influence 
 over him to the prejudice of any one, and if she ef%r importuned 
 him it was in favor of the unfortunate. 
 
 After the death of EdWard she attached herself to Lord Hast-_ 
 ings, and when Eiehard HI. cut off that nobleman as an obstacle 
 to his schenies, she was arrested as an accomplice on the ridiculous 
 charge of witchcraft. This accusation, however, terminated in a 
 public penanocj with the loss of whatever little property she pos- 
 sessed. Notwithstanding the severities exercised against her, it is 
 certain that she was alive in the reign of Henry Vni., when Sir 
 Thomas More mentions having seen her, poor and shriveled, 
 without the least tra,ee of her former beauty. Mr. Eowe, in his 
 tragedy of " Jane Shore," has adopted the popular story related ia 
 the- old ballad, of her perishing from hunger ia a ditch where 
 Shoreditch now stands, but Stow assures us that that street was 
 thus named previous to the time of Jane Shore. 
 
 The example of none of the English kings had a greater influence 
 in bringing the marriage tie into disrepute than that of Henry 
 VIII. An effort has been made by Mr. Fronde, in his new his- 
 tory of England, to redeem the character of this monarch from 
 some portion of the obloquy with which it is covered, but there is 
 no doubt that he was an unmitigated monster. Curious to say, 
 during his youth and early manhood he betrayed no evidence of 
 the brutal passions which afterward moved him; He was the hus- 
 band of Catharine for seventeen years before his domestic conduct 
 incurred reproach. At that late period of his career he conceived 
 a violent passion for Anne Boleyn, and, ia order to get her to share 
 his bed, sought to divorce his wife. From this period he seemed 
 to become the prey of a restless concupiscence, which sought grat- 
 ification in new objects of indulgence, and his passion for the wom- 
 en he married and beheaded was as short-lived as it was violent. 
 
 There is reason to believe that his marriage with Anne Boleyn 
 was more than adulterous. It is said Anne's mother had been 
 more complaisant to Henry than her duty to her husband or the 
 laws of morality would have sanctioned, and we have the authority 
 of Bishop Fisher for concluding that Anne was the result of this 
 illicit connection, and that, when the king expressed an intention 
 of marrying her. Lady Boleyn exhorted him to abandon his de- 
 sign, as Anne was his own daughter. Henry was not to be deterred 
 by an obstacle of this sort. He had great difficulty in procuring a 
 divorce, and in the mean while he and Anne had become so inti.- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 295 
 
 mate that slie begaa to exhibit proofs of the connection which 
 could not be concealed. A private marriage was resorted to, con- 
 siderations of state rendering it prudent to keep the union secret. 
 
 Catharine was divorced through the intrumentality of Oranmer, 
 but Henry did not long continue to repose confidence in his new 
 bride. -Soon after the marriage was made pubhcj and ^he had 
 been formally inaugurated as queen, she attended a tUting-match 
 at Grreenwich, accompanied by the kiag and a large concourse of 
 spectators. The king observed her exchange amorous signals 
 with one of the combata];Lts, who was also one of her paramours. 
 Henry had entertained suspicions of her connection with this man, 
 and this proof, as he regarded it, of her infidehty aroused his jeal- 
 ousy. He left the scene on the instant and returned to Westmin- 
 ster, where he issued orders to have her immediately arrested. 
 She was thrown into prison, and tried on the joint charges of 
 adultery and incest. She was accused of having conamitted adul- 
 tery with four separate members of the king's household, and of 
 having had incestuous intercourse with her own brother, Loi;d 
 Rochfoid. She was tried, found guilty, and executed. 
 
 Whether she committed the entire criminality laid to her charge 
 it is impossible to say, but that the incidents of the career just de- 
 scribed were in perfect unison with the doings of Henry and his 
 court there is no doubt. Of the influence of such examples on 
 the mSrals of the people at large, there is, unfortunately, as littM 
 question. If court manners and court styles are zealously fol- 
 lowed, the vices that spring from them are not less assiduously 
 improved upon. 
 
 Henry's strong sexual passions, as well as his arbitrary disposi- 
 tion, were bequeathed to his daughter Ehzabeth. However his- 
 torians may differ as to the degree of her depravity, they all agree 
 that her right to the title of " Virgin Queen" was exceedingly ill 
 founded. Many of her delinquencies with persons of the opposite 
 sex were notorious, although perhaps difficult of proof. While 
 she had not the sHghtest claim to beauty, she delighted in flattery, 
 and could swallow any amount of gross and fulsome adiilation. 
 Her vanity so blinded her that she never perceived that the ex- 
 travagant praises lavished .on her personal attractions were mere- 
 ly covert satire. 
 
 It is said that Ehzabeth indulged in almost indiscriminate lewd- 
 ness, and that Leicester, Hatton, Essex, Mountjoy, and numerous 
 Others shared her favors. In one of the notes appended to Hume's 
 
296 HISTORY 01' PROSTITUTION. 
 
 fourth voliime, the nature of B&abetli's dealiags witli a large 
 number' of her favorites is set forth, the author oftthe statement 
 being the Countess of Shrewsbury. . 
 
 , Mary, Queen of Scots, at a time when friendly relations existed 
 between her and Elizabeth, wrote to the latter that the countess 
 had reported that Elizabeth had given a promise of marriage to a 
 certain courtier, but, finding the marriage inexpedient^ had dis- 
 pensed with the ceremony and admitted him to her bed. The 
 countess also stated that she had been equally indulgent to Simier, 
 the French agent, and that Hatton, another of her paramours, had 
 spread many reports indicative of her extreme sexual passion. 
 
 The immediate successors of Elizabeth were of a different per- 
 sonal temperament, and did not abandon themselves to such scan- 
 dalous excesses. James I. had no mistresses, and was not of a 
 character to seek pleasure iu extravagant licentiousness, but his 
 court was not free &om the scenes which had disgraced those of 
 Henry and Elizabeth. James, being desirous of uniting the Earl 
 of Essex with the Lady Frances Howard^ daughter of the Earl of 
 Suffolk, had the young couple betrothed, although they had not 
 attained the age of puberty. The earl was only fourteen years of 
 age, while Lady Frances was but thirteen, and it was deemed 
 proper for the youth to travel until both should have arrived at 
 the maturity necessary for the consummation of the marriage re- 
 lation. After four years spent on the Continent, the earl returned 
 to England, and found his af&anced bride in the ftill lustre of ex- 
 traordinary beauty, and of the fame which great personal charms 
 excite. He had also the mortification to find himself repulsed 
 when he approached her as a husband, and was met by every 
 manifestation of dislike and contempt. He complaiQed to her par- 
 ents on the subject, and they compelled her to accompany him to 
 the country. 
 
 Although the young countess obeyed this mandate literally, 
 the feud between her and Essex was far from terminated: she 
 recognized him as her husband ia name only, and sedulously kept 
 herself aloof from his society; nor could any of his endeavors 
 overcome her repugnance. The lady persisted in her obstinacy ; 
 the husband redoubled his attentions and importunities, but, find- 
 ing that she was inviacible, he finally abandoned the pursuit, and 
 separated from her. 
 
 The cause of this strange conduct on the part of tiie countess 
 was the passion which she entertained for a Scotch adventurer 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 297 
 
 named Eobert Carr, who had found a favoraBle reception from tlie 
 king, by whom he was created Viscount Eochester. She believed 
 that by refusing to consummate her marriage with Essex she 
 would not be considered by the world in the light of his wife, and 
 she hoped to procure a divorce, which would enable her to many 
 Eochester.^ As their mutual attachment was ardent, and their 
 opportunities for beiag .together frequent, they anticipated the 
 probability of a marriage, and indulged their passions without 
 waiting for the ceremony. They did not find as much trouble in 
 procuring a divorce as they had anticipated. 
 
 The king, who had a strong, partiality for Eochester, favored 
 their views, and EsseXj finding that his suit was hopeless with his 
 tyife, opposed no obstacle to the nullification of his marriage. The 
 grouiids on which the countess sued out the divorce were of rath- 
 er a curious character. The chief allegation against Essex was 
 impotency. At that time a firm faith existed ia the absurd no- 
 tions that there were people who possessed the power of witch- 
 craft, enabling them, among other things, to deprive a man of his 
 virility. It was asserted and maintained that Essex had been 
 subjected to this influence, and was therefore incompetent to oc- 
 cupy the position of a married man. The divorce was secured, 
 and Eochester and the countess experienced no ferther obstacle to 
 the gratification of their desires. , 
 
 Eochester had previously consulted Overbury on the difficulties 
 of his position, and the latter strongly advised him not to marry 
 the countess. These facts, coming to the ears of Lady FranoeSj 
 she induced Eochester to have Overbury poisoned. On the dis- 
 covery of the murder, Eochester and his wife were . brought to 
 trial and convicted, but the mistaken clemency of the king inter- 
 posed between them and the doom they so richly merited. They 
 passed the remainder of their days in obscurity, but as bitter ene- 
 mies, and although they resided ia the same house &i many years, 
 no word or message was ever exchanged between them. 
 • State Trials, i. 228. 
 
298 HISTOEY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXiy. 
 
 GEEAT BEITAIN. — ^HISTORY FROM THE COMMONWEALTH TO THE 
 PEBSENT DAY. 
 
 Puritans. — Results of Asceticism. — Excesses of tte Kestoration. — General Licen- 
 tiousness. — Art. — Literature. ^-The Stage.^^Nell Gwynne. — Nationality in Vice. 
 — Sabbath at Court. — James II. — Literature of the serenteenth and eighteenth 
 Centuries. — Lord Chesterfield. — House of Hanover. — ^Eoyal Princes. — George 
 III. — George IV.— 'Influence of French Literature. — Marriage Laws. — Increase 
 of Population. 
 
 On gaining the ascendant, the Puritans endeavored to reform 
 the general corruption of society by cutting to the root of the 
 disorders that afflicted it. Instead, however, of applying the 
 knife judiciously, they excised the sound as well as the unhealthy 
 parts. Their measures went to the extreme of killing; all thfr af- 
 fections and impulses natural to the human breast, in order to re- 
 press the excesses arising from too ftee an abandonment to them. 
 Some fanatics, for instance, gravely suggested that, in order to put 
 an end to fornication and adultery, all intercourse should be pro- 
 hibited between the sexes. 
 
 In our days it is found that innocent amusements are the best 
 safeguard against criminal indulgence, but the Puritans thought 
 otherwise, and looked upon joyous exhilaration of any kind as 
 almost sinful. They enforced their gloomy doctrines with a tyr- 
 anny as unbending as their tenets themselves were harA and un- 
 natural. Theatrical entertainments', dancing, etc., were sternly 
 placed under ban,, and Puritanism presented merely a heavy and 
 murky atmosphere, with scarcely a social star to enliven its gloomy 
 aspect. - - 
 
 When the Eestoration removed the oppressive weight of fanat- 
 icism from the public spirit, it rebounded as far above a healthy 
 pitch as it had been formerly depressed below it. An immediate 
 revolution took place in the manners and habits of the people. 
 The theatres, which had been closed by the Puritans, were at 
 once reopened, and the populace abandoned themselves to pleas- 
 urable excesses with an eagerness proportionate to the restraint 
 which had been imposed on them. This license would, in time, 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 299 
 
 have been checked by reflection, had not the impulse been sup- 
 plied from the quarter where a repressive influence should have 
 been exercised. The Merry Monarch and his court led the race 
 in this national carnival, and the examples which they set only 
 served to stimulate the public appetite for debauchery. Indeed, 
 the court of Charles was little better than a public brothel, and 
 the wit with which its orgies were embelhshed only served to in- 
 crease the dangers arising from its conspicuous position, and its 
 power over men's minds as the centre from which all rank and 
 consideration flowed. The conduct of the courtiers was strictly 
 modeled on that of their royal master, and their social accomplish- 
 ments only imperfectly varnished over the gross features of a 
 coarse sensuality. "Women were flattered and caressed, but not 
 respected, and the homage paid them was such as no decent wom- 
 an in our time would consent to receive. 
 
 The most faithfiil portraiture of the manners of this epoch is 
 to be found in its dramatic literature. The staple incidents of the 
 pieces represented at the theatres consisted of love intrigues, se- 
 ductions, and rapes. The fop of the play never elicited such hearty 
 applause as when he recounted his exploits in the ruin of female 
 virtue among the citizens' wives. 
 
 The theatre not only fostered lewdness by depicting it in glow- 
 ing and attractive colors, but its actors spread abroad the corrupr 
 tion which it was their busiaess to delineate. Their personal char- 
 acter corresponded, in too many instances, with the parts which 
 they performed, and they re-enacted in private the debaucheries 
 which they presented on the stage. 
 
 The theatre itself became a central rendezvous for immoral 
 characters, and the place where assignations were most conven- 
 iently fixed. Lively wenches, under the pretense of selling oranges 
 to the spectators, frequented the pit, and took their places in the 
 front row, with their backs to the stage. It was well understood 
 that they were as ready to sell fevors as fruit, and, in fact, that they 
 had come from the neighboring brothels for that express purpose. 
 
 Deep drinking was another characteristic feature of the times, 
 and bacchanalian orgies were freely indulged in by all classes, 
 from the king to the beggar, dififering httle in the extremes to 
 which they were pushed. Conversation, even in what was called 
 the best society, was disfigured by the grossest obscenity and blas- 
 phemy, and Ion ton consisted in the extravagance to which this 
 vicious conduct was extended. 
 
300 HISTOET OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Even tlie peasantry endeavored to imitate the costumes and car- 
 riage of the courtiers, and country women were to b#feeen in flaunt- 
 ing dresses cut so as to expose as much as possible of the person. 
 . Up to this period no female had ever appeared upon the English 
 stage ; where women were introduced, their parts, had been filled 
 by boys. -Neither was it customary for a monarch to show him- 
 self at a public representation of a play; but, when they were en- 
 acted for his amusement, .the performance took place in some apart- 
 ment of the royal palace. In Charles's reign, women for the first 
 time appeared on the stage, and performed the parts allotted to 
 the heroines of the drama. 
 
 The king and queen became regular frequenters of the theatre, 
 and encouraged by their presence the double entendre and broad 
 indecencies of the pieces in vogue. We may remark, parenthet- 
 ically, that unmarried actresses usually adopted the title Mistress 
 before their names, the word Miss, as then applied, signifying 
 that she who bore it was a concubine. In modern days it is the 
 habit to reverse this practice, as the marriage state is considered 
 to divest the- actress of half her attractions. 
 
 There were but two theatres in London at this period: the 
 King's Theatre, where the celebrated Nell Gwynne and Mrs. Ee- • 
 becca Marshall were the chief actresses, and the Duke's, where 
 another company performed. One day the reigning favorites at 
 the King's Theatre had a violent quarrel, and Mrs. Marshall called 
 Nell "Lord Buckhurst's Biistress." Nell contented herself with 
 rejpining that she was but one man's mistress, though brought up 
 in a brothel, while Mrs. Marshall bore the same relation to three 
 or four, notwithstanding she was the daughter of a Presbyterian. 
 Their own accounts of each other leave no doubt as to their mo- 
 rality. 
 
 • The pieces represented in the London theatres in the time of 
 Charles II. were, as we have before stated, filled with indecent al- 
 lusions, and their interest with the public turned on the number 
 and intensity of these prurient passages. The ladies never at- 
 tended the first representation of a comedy except in masks ; and 
 when the dames of the court, with their established reputations 
 for gallantry, were apprehensive of being seen at them, some idea 
 may be formed of the licentious character of the pieces most in 
 favor. 
 
 But many of these plays are still in evidence to speak for them- 
 selves. It will be seen that in the majority the plot is so framed 
 
GEEAT BEITAIN. 301 
 
 as to admit the greatest license in libidinous allusions. The dis- 
 tinguishing feature of them is that the most immodest passages 
 are put into the mouths of women, and, indeed, we know that that 
 actress was the most succeMul who took the greatest liberties 
 :with the text, and most improved upon its lewdness of expression. 
 
 ; As a specimen of the general character of these plays, we may 
 name "All Mistaken, or the Mad Couple," quite a favorite with 
 the public in its day. The hero is importuned by six olamoroufi 
 unfortunates whose ruin he has effected, and dunned in addition 
 by the nurses of their illegitimate offspring for wages owing to 
 them. The delectable superstructure of obscene dialogue which is 
 raised on this foundation may be better imagined than described, 
 u The usual hour at which the theatres opened their doors was 
 four in the afternoon, and after the close of the performances the 
 ^.udienoe generally repaired to some garden or other place of pub- 
 lic amusement. , Here scenes were enacted which proved a iif se- 
 quel to those witnessed on the stage. 
 
 ' The orange-girls had a superior known as " Orange Moll," who 
 occupied a position somewhat analogous to that of the modern 
 brothel-keeper. She attended the girls to the theatre, and super- 
 intended and directed their operations there. During the enire- 
 actes lewd conversations were carried on between the orange-girls 
 and the gallants, which were interspersed with obscene jokes, and 
 highly relished by the audience. The ' custom of iaterpellating 
 the gay women who frequented the theatre was continued to a 
 period comparatively recent. Every one has heard the story Of 
 Peg Plunket and the Duke > of Eutland, in the days when the gods 
 of the Dublin theatre were esteemed the most discriminating^ 
 though boisterous and rollicking audience of .the three kingdoms. 
 - Charles Selected several of his mistresses from the stage, for 
 which he had a passionate 'fondness. Miss Davis literally sang 
 and danced her way into his aiffections. Her conquest of the king 
 was consummated by the manner in which she sang the popular 
 ballad " My lodging is on the cOld ground;" Charles thought she 
 was deserving of warmer quarters, and raised her to his own bed. 
 He established her in a splendid residence, and lavished on her 
 the most extravagant gifts. , 
 
 The queen at first resented 'the open and undisguised infidelities 
 of the king, and publicly manifested her sense of them on one oc-' 
 casion by quitting the theatre when Miss Davis made her appear- 
 ance on the stage ; but, finding it impossible to reclaim him from 
 
302 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ids vicious propensities, slie abandoned all hopes of restricting his 
 libertinism, or even of keeping him within the bouftis of conven- 
 tional decency. 
 
 The Countess of Gastlemaine (afterward created Duchess of 
 Cleveland) was of a more jealous temperament than the queen, 
 ^jid took a more characteristic revenge on Charles for his frailties. 
 She took another lover, and went to reside at his house, very much 
 to the comfort of her royal patron, who had a kingly dislike of 
 trouble. 
 
 After quarreling with Lord Buckhurst, ISTeU Gwynne returned 
 to the stage, but had not long resumed her profession when it was 
 rumored that she had made a conquest of the king. These reports 
 were apparently contradicted by her continued appearance at the 
 theatre, and the progress she made in her art, which could only be 
 the result of carefal study. A tragedy by Dryden was advertised, 
 the principal character to be performed by Nell ; but, before the 
 night of its first representation arrived, it was found necessary to 
 postpone the performance, owing to NeU's not being in a condi- 
 tion to appear. From this time her connection with Charles no 
 longer remained a secret. 
 
 Nell, like her predecessors, was not long suffered to maintain 
 uncontested her supremacy over the king's affections. When the 
 Duchesse d'Orleans, the sister of Charles, paid a visit to the En- 
 glish court in 1670, she had in her train a handsome maid, who 
 was admired for ier simple and childish style of beauty. Wheth- 
 er iiistigated by the courtiers who accompanied her mistress; 
 whose visit was a political one, or prompted by her own sagacity, 
 she made her acquiescence in the king's desires conditional upon 
 his executing the shameful treaty which gave France such impor- 
 tant advantages, and rendered Charles a mere tributary to the 
 French king. This girl, Louise de QuerouaUle, became the rival 
 of Nell Gwynne, and had a child by Charles, who was created 
 Duke of Eichmond. 
 
 So scandalously public had the relations of Charles with the 
 loose women who surrounded him become, and so flagrant and 
 unblushing was the conduct of the latter, that the queen could no 
 longer reside in the palace of Whitehall, and accordingly removed 
 to Somerset House in the Strand. This feeling of indignation on 
 the part of her majesty soon extended to the virtuously disposed 
 part of ,tiie public. Efforts were made to apply a remedy to the 
 disorder which threatened to corrupt the whole &amework of En- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 303 
 
 gligli society. In Parliament it was proposed to levy a tax on the 
 play-houses, wHch had become undisguised nests of prostitution. 
 The debate which ensued elicited a witticism which led to serious 
 consequences to the gentleman who uttered it. On Sir John Birk- 
 enhead's remarking that " the players were the king's servants 
 and part of his pleasures," Sir John Coventry was imprudent 
 enough to inquire " whether the king's pleasures lay among the 
 men that acted or the women." For this offense to Charles he 
 was waylaid by some of the courtiers, who slit his nose, and other- 
 wise maltreated him. 
 
 It is impossible, however, to deny that this very license of man- 
 ners rendered the king popular with a certain class of his subjects. 
 The 03ily exception taken by them to his conduct was the selec- 
 tion of a foreigner as one of his mistresses, and even this would 
 have passed without comment but for the political consequences 
 -of the connection. It was generally understood among the people 
 that Mademoiselle de QuerouaiUe, or Mrs. Carwell, as she was 
 commonly called, was an agent used for the purpose of securing 
 the ascendency of French interests. This brought upon her the 
 hostility of the populace, who availed themselves of every oppor- 
 tunity of manifesting their dishke to her. 
 
 Nell Gwynne was an English woman, a Protestant, and the idol 
 of the town. She was known by the title of the Protestant mis- 
 tress, while Mrs. Carwell went by that of the king's Popish con- 
 cubine. Nell was one day insulted in her carriage at Oxford, and 
 came very near being mobbed by the populace in mistake for 
 Mrs. Carwell. With her usual wit and presence of mind, she put 
 her head out of the window, and quieted the rioters by telling 
 Item that she was " the Protestant w — e." 
 
 As the literature of the times reflected the general licentious^ 
 ness of manners, it was not to be expected that the arts would es- 
 cape their demoralizing influence. .Most of the paintings then ex- 
 ecuted were characterized by the- same freedom of expression 
 which was used on the stage. There is an old print extant of the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, reclining on a bank of violets, wearing no 
 other covering than a lace robe ; and in another Nell Gwynne is 
 represented in the same semi-nude condition. It is said that this 
 dress had belonged to the duchess, and had been much admired 
 by the king, but that, with her usual love of mischief, Nell had 
 purloined it, greatly to the amusement of her royal lover, and very 
 much to the chagrin and mortification of the duchess. 
 
304 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The king had his own peculiar way of celebrating the Sabbath. 
 On that-day he usually collected his mistresses ardSb-d him, and 
 amused himself by toying with them and humoring their Caprices. 
 We have a picture by a contemporaneous writer of one of his Sun- 
 day evenings at Whitehall, where the court resided. It was short- 
 ly before his death. 'Charles sat in the centre of a group of these 
 w'omen, indulging in the most frivolous amoisements, and appar- 
 ently in high humOr. At a little distance stood a pag6 singing 
 love-songs for the delectation of the king's mistresses, while round 
 a gambling-table were seated a number of his courtiers, playing for 
 stakes which sometimes ran as high as ten thousand dollars of our 
 money. ' The orgies of the night were kept up until daylight broke 
 in upon the revelers. At eight o'clock the same morning the king 
 was seized with a fit of apoplexy, and died within a week. 
 
 James II., though of & grave and stem character, was scarcely 
 less amorous in his temperament than Charles; They differed^ 
 however, in their tastes. ' Charles required beauty in his mistress- 
 es ; andNeU Gwynne &nd some of his other concubines were not 
 only beautiful ia person but possessed of intellectual graces which 
 gilded their gross sensuality. ' James eared but little for personal 
 attractions, and lavished his favors on coaise-featured and coarse- 
 minded women. His wife was below him in rank, and he did not 
 stoop to her for her beauty, for she was plain,- if not: downright 
 ugly in her features. He soon transferred his affections to a still 
 plainer mistress, Arabella ChtirchiUj His strongest attachment 
 was, however, that which he entertained &r Catharine Sedley, who 
 possessed a powerful influence over him. She was the daughter 
 of Sir Charles Sedley, and seems to have inherited from.' him the 
 strong passions and reckless disregard of public opinion by which 
 he was distinguished. Sedley's writings were more licentious than 
 those of any of his contemporaries. His literaty talents were not 
 of a high order, but he possessed fair conversatidnal abilities, which 
 made his society attractive. The extreme dissoluteness of his life 
 and disregard of all decency provoked censure even in that age 
 of loose morals. On ohe occasion, after a drunken revel with some 
 of his profligate companions, he presented himself on the balcony 
 of a tavern near Covent Garden in a state of complete nudity, and 
 commenced a harangue so full of lewdness and obscenity that the 
 ferowd pelted him with stones and other missiles, and compelled 
 him to withdraw into the house. A daughter inheriting these 
 1 Evelyiu 4th February, 1684-6. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 305 
 
 propensities, and brouglit up under the influence of this example, 
 could not fail to become conspicuous for similar traits of character. 
 Her person possessed none of the attributes which render women 
 attractive. A lank, spare figure, a hollow cheek, sallow face, and 
 an eye of glaring brightness comprised the sum total of her charms. 
 
 Charles, whose taste was more cultivated, remarked that his con- 
 fessor must have recommended Catharine to his brother as a pen- 
 ance for his sins. She herself had the discrimination not to be in- 
 sensible to the truth of this remark, and was even in the habit of 
 boasting of her own plain looks. Her taste for finery was as great 
 as if she possessed attractions worth setting off by its aid. James, 
 when he formed this connection, had advanced to middle age, and 
 it is difficult to account for the influence which she contrived to 
 exercise over him. On his accession to the throne he promised 
 the queen to abandon her, but his good resolutions soon gave- way. 
 Whenever the absence of his wife afforded the opportunity, Chif- 
 finch might be seen conducting Catharine tl^rough the private pas- 
 sage lea,ding to his chamber. Notwithstanding all the affected 
 austerity of his manners, James was, in reality, but little better 
 than his volatile brother. 
 
 At no period in the history of England, as we have just shown, 
 had the licentiousness of the court been greater than it was during 
 the reigns of Charles II. and James II. ; only to be exceeded, per- 
 haps, by the fearful abyss of debaudheryand atheism which a few 
 years later was beheld in the courts of Louis XV. and the Eegent 
 of France. The vigor and intellect of the early par t of the reign of 
 Louis XIY., the magnificence of his tastes, and the glory of his en- 
 terprises, stand out in powerful contrast to the doings of the imbe- 
 cile, corrupt, and- utterly profligate and debased court of England. 
 The influence of this most pernicious example it is somewhat dif- 
 ficult to arrive at. The great body of the people, especially in 
 the country, in those times of difficult communication, were prob- 
 ably but little affected by the extravagance of the restored Cava- 
 liers, added to which there was a powerful leaven of religious 
 feeling working through the country, which did not for some time 
 settle down into the apathy that called for a new manifestation of 
 Puritan feeling in the establishment of Wesleyan: Methodism. In 
 the upper classes of society, however, the core-rottenness of the 
 courts of Charles and James was yet felt, throughout the reigns of 
 the succeeding sovereigns, even down to the time :of George III. 
 The writings of contemporary authors, especially of the comic dra- 
 
 U 
 
306 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 matists, " the abstract and brief chronicles of the times," are a fair 
 type of the public morals and intelligence in alli^es. At this 
 epoch we have from these sources overwhelming evidence of the 
 reaction which had taken place. 
 
 After the removal of the compulsory restraint of Puritan con- 
 trol, the nation seemed at once to have lost its reason : modesty and 
 decency were badges of Puritan Eepublicanism, and therefore un- 
 suited to loyal men, who showed their attachment to the monarchy 
 by their abandonment of decorum and violation of every moral 
 virtue. The productions ©f the favorite authors teem with coarse 
 images, unequivocal allusions, and gross facts. Wit degenerated 
 into blasphemy, liveliness iuto obscenity, metaphors into lasciv- 
 iousness. The scenes that took place in the court, and which con- 
 stituted its daily amusements, were disgusting to the last degree. 
 The mere commerce of the '-Sexes, and the libertinism of the pe- 
 riod in that respect, were the smallest vices, and might almost be 
 considered merely follies, but the venality and corruption were 
 open and shameless. The courtiers cast aside the last rag of patri- 
 otic propriety, and avarice, cruelty, lust, and perjury iilled the- 
 measure of wickedness. On one occasion, it is said, an infant was 
 prematurely born in one of the rooms of the palace, and Charles, 
 with many jocular remarks, had the body conveyed to his own 
 closet for dissection by his own hand ! An incident of such brutal- 
 ity, which might be frequently paralleled by others equally bad in 
 degree, though different in fact, shows the hideous destitution of 
 all decency with which the court must have been cursed. The 
 pages of Eochester, Etherege, Buckingham, Congreve, Vanburgh, 
 and Fletcher, in the close of the seventeenth, and Prior, Gay, 
 Swift, and scores of inferior writers in the commencement of the 
 eighteenth century, all exhibit this state of affairs, while the no- 
 ble Muse even of a Dryden could stoop to earn base applause by 
 lending her powers to the decoration of vice, and voluntarily 
 quitting her native regions to wallow in the mire. 
 
 The vices of this period must have left an iaeradicable taint be- 
 hind them, when, after the full, tide of iniquity had swept on, and 
 purer waters were succeeding, we find Lord Chesterfield, a British 
 statesman of distinguished ability and high position, thus advis- 
 ing his own son : "Let the great book of l;he world be your prin: 
 cipal study. Nbcturna versaie manu versdte diuma, which may be 
 rendered thus: Turn over men by day and. women by night: I 
 mean only the best editions." 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 307 
 
 While, as we have already observed, there was probably a 
 wholesome religious element in a portion of the population, which 
 operated as an antiseptic against the rottenness of the court, it is 
 impossible -but that the capital must have been imbued with the 
 reckless iniquity, outrageous dissoluteness, and general immoral- 
 ity of the higher classes. The poets, playwrights, essayists, and 
 biographers of the age all bear traces of the effects of bad exam- 
 ple in high places on public manners. A critic of those days says, 
 " The accomplished gentleman of the English stage is a person 
 that is familiar with other men's wives Und indifferent to his own, 
 and the fine lady is generally a composition of sprightliness and 
 falsehood." A thorough disrespect for female virtue, or rather 
 the admiration of libertinism, tainted the life's blood of the capi- 
 tal. And when, passing over the coarse wit of Prior, or the per- 
 verted genius of Dryden, we come to the sober and moderate 
 writings of essayists and satirists, we find material which gives us 
 some little insight into the lower London life of the period, and 
 that which has more immediate interest for us in this inquiry. 
 
 In the delightful and ever youthfal pages of the Spectator, there 
 are some incidents of great pathos touching the state of those un- 
 fortunates whose condition was then, as now, one of the disgraces 
 of civilization. One paper contains a singularly apposite remark. 
 " I was told," says the writer (a woman of the town), " by a Soman 
 Catholic gentleman last week, who I hope is absolved for what 
 then passed between us, that in countries where Popery prevails, 
 besides the advantages of licensed stews, there are larger endow- 
 ments given for the Incurdbili, I think he called them. This man- 
 ner of treating poor sinners has, we think, great humanity in it ; 
 and as you, Mr. Spectator, are a person who pretends to cany your 
 reflections upon all subjects which occur to you, I beg therefore 
 of you to lay before the world the condition of us poor vagrants, 
 who are really in a way of labor instead of idleness." 
 
 At another tim^the Spectator himself meets "a slim young girl 
 of about seventeen, who, with a pert air, asked me if I was for a 
 pint of wine. I could observe as exact features as ever I had seen ; 
 the whole person, in a word, of a woman exquisitely beautiful. 
 She affected to allure me with a forced wantonness in her look 
 and air, but I saw it checked with hunger and cold. Her eyes' 
 were wan and eager; Tier .dress thin and tawdry; her mien gen- 
 teel and childish. This strange figure gave me much anguish of 
 heart, and, to avoid being seen with her, I went away, but could 
 
308 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 not avoid giving her a crown. The poor thing sighed, courtesied, 
 and with a blessing, expressed with the utmost veh*ience, turned 
 from me. This creature is what they call newly come upon the 
 town." 
 
 The arts of the procuresses; their experiments on inexperienced 
 country girls ; their attendance at coach-offices and public places 
 to hunt for and entrap the unwary ; the regular customers they 
 have for new wares ; the mode, first of offering them to private 
 sale, and, when the first gloss is worn off, casting them on the 
 pui)lic market, are all as true of 1858 as of the day for which it 
 was written. In one case, the Spectator, being at a coach-office, 
 overhears a lady inquiring of a young girl her parentage and 
 character, and especially if she has been properly brought up, and 
 has been taught her Catechism. Desirous of seeing a lady who 
 had so proper an idea of her duties to servants, he peeps through 
 and sees the face of a well-known bawd, thus decoying a young 
 girl just arrived in London. One amusing cheat in the business 
 of these go-betweens is complained of by a lady correspondent : 
 for a consideration, they profess to iatroduce some ambitious for- 
 eigner or country gentleman to the favors of ladies of high degree, 
 ruling toasts, leading belles, etc. Some lady, Wilhelmina AmeHa 
 Skeggs, is foisted upon the deluded customer, who must, of course, 
 be ignorant of the person of his inamorata, and he walks off boast- 
 ing, in great self-gratulation, of his good fortune, to the great in- 
 jury of an irreproachable woman's fame.' 
 
 It was reserved for the reign of George III. to give a favorable 
 turn to court morals and to make virtue respectable. The Georges 
 I. and n. had exercised but a negative influence on their sub- 
 jects. They were merely viewed as pohtical necessities, and held 
 in little or no personal esteem. Their uncouth manners, foreign 
 mistresses, and decidedly heavy liaisons had no charm for either 
 eye or fancy. "With George III. and his queen, virtue in courts 
 became in some degree fashionable ; the slough of libertinism in 
 which Louis XV. and the Regent Orleans had plunged themselves 
 seemed in France to have created some reaction. Louis XVI. in 
 Paris, and George III. in London, presented the rare spectacle to 
 their respective subjects of two weU-conducted men, whose do- 
 mestic life and character were unimpeachable. But as the sons of 
 
 ' For the prose writers of those days who give lively pictures of manners and 
 morals, the reader is referred to the pages of Fielding, Smollett, and especially De 
 Foe, who wrote much upon low life. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 3O9 
 
 George III., especially tlie Prince of "Wales and the Duke of York, 
 attained their majority, they were surrounded by bands of flatter- 
 ers and parasites, who stimulated and encouraged the natural 
 proneness of youth to pleasure and dissipation. The libertinism 
 and excesses of the Stuarts again became bon-ton, devoid, it is true, 
 of poHtical debasement and national dishonor ; checked also by 
 parental disapprobation, and by the influence of public opinion. 
 This, though very weak, was not quite powerless; and, though 
 lenient to the errors of youth, it drew an unfavorable comparison 
 between the reckless extravagance and dissolute tastes of the 
 princes, and the moderate and personally estimable conduct of the 
 king and queen.^ 
 
 The masses of the English people were distinguished for plain 
 good sense, and attachment to the cause of religion and morality; 
 and although drinking, gambling, boxing, and racing were, in 
 honor of the royal princes, fashionable amusements, and their at- 
 tainment coveted and emulated by many of the rising generation, 
 still the general sentiment of the nation at this period was con- 
 demnatory of these vices. Those incliaed to charitable views of 
 human nature found excuses in the temptations of youth, a fine 
 person, a commanding position, and, lastly, in the infamous coun- 
 sels of those who found political capital in the encouragement of 
 these excesses, thereby promoting a division between the heir to 
 the throne and his sovereign parent. Others there were who be- 
 held in George IV., whether as prince or monarch, a modern Ti- 
 berius, a man of ungovernable lusts ; a ruthless libertine and a 
 debased sensualist, without any redeeming qualities. As a fact, 
 apart from causes and political prejudices, George IV. was un- 
 doubtedly a debauchee and a man of dissolute habits f but he 
 
 ' "Pure, and above all reproach in her own domestic life, the queen'^knew how 
 to enforce at her court the virtues, or, at the very least, the semblance of the vir- 
 tues which she practiced. To no other woman, probably, had the cause of good 
 morals in England ever owed so deep an obligation." — Erord Mahon's History of 
 England, 1713-1782, vol. iv., p. 221, 222. 
 
 ' It was asserted some years ago, and by many believed, that after his death a 
 large number of prurient French prints, which were in the Custom-house of Lon- 
 don, and designed for the private amusement of the king, were burned. The story 
 of the prints and their deflagration may be true, but it is very questionable if they 
 were for royal use. A number of low class London papers always attacked George 
 IV. personally, among which the Weekly Dispatch (the " Sunday Flash" of War- 
 ren's novel of " Ten Thousand a Year") took a prominent position from the coarse- 
 ness of its language and the acerbity of its animosity, assumed at a time when 
 party feeling ran high, as an attractive bait to its readers. 
 
310 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 was a man of liberal education, of cultivated taste, ofdistinguislied 
 appearance, and elegant manners. He and the ft)unt D'Artois, 
 brother of Louis XYI., were considered the most finished gen- 
 tlemen in Eiirope, so far as mannerism went. These externals 
 glossed over, and, even lent a charm to, the vices of his youth; and 
 the. mysterious orgies of Carlton House were associated in the pub- 
 lic mind with the brilliant wit of Sheridan, the manly grace of 
 Wyndham .(that hau ideal of an English gentleman), the vast tal- 
 ent of Fox, and the enchanting grace of Georgiana, Duchess of 
 Devonshire, the bright .particular star amid a galaxy of minor 
 luminaries. The respectability belonged to the court party ; the 
 genius and fascination were ranged on the side of the Prince of 
 Wales. 
 
 It is difficult, even at this brief lapse of time, and when so many 
 eye-witnesses are yet surviving; to speak with any degree of con- 
 fidence of the state of general public morals in England as affect- 
 ed by the French Eevolution, and the violent Tory and "Whig 
 contests of the period. The literature which preceded and ac- 
 companied the French Eevolution went the whole length of un- 
 dermining and unsettling every established institution, both of 
 politics and religion, without building up an effective substitute 
 in place of the structure destroyed. The doctrines of moral obh- 
 gation and the balance of general convenience, which, according 
 to the Volney, Voltaire, and Eousseau school, were to supersede 
 , the effete and worn-out dogmas of the Gospel, were little known 
 and less liked in England. At the outset of the French move- 
 ments, the cause had the sympathy of the English Liberals ; but 
 afterward, when the social and political excesses of the time dis- 
 gusted even its moderate British supporters, and when the deep- 
 rooted and apparently innate antagonism of the two nations was 
 revived by the war, the hatred and contempt of the English peo- 
 ple for French manners, French literature, French men, French 
 every thing, knew no bounds. Thus, while the leaven of Parisian 
 philosophy was fermenting in the breasts of all Continental Eu- 
 rope, it is our opinion that its influence in England was purely of 
 a reactionary character ; and as under the last Stuarts patriotism 
 and libertinism went hand in hand, so, in the end of the eighteenth 
 ' and the commencement of the nineteenth centuries, an English- 
 man's love of his own country and his hatred of France were asso- 
 ciated with a detestation of the heresies of French philosophers and 
 patriarchs. 
 
GBEAT BEITAIN. §11 
 
 Of tlie effect produced on the morals of tlie people by tlie loose 
 manner in which, previous to' 1753, the marriage ceremony was 
 performed, we have the evidence brought forward in the debates 
 on Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Bill. Anterior to that time, a boy 
 of fourteen and a girl of twelve years of age might marry against 
 the will of their parents or guardians, without any possibility of 
 dissolving such marriage. The law, indeed, required the publica- 
 tion of banns, but custom and the dispensing power had render- 
 ed them nugatory. A dispensation could be purchased for a 
 couple of crowns, and the marriage could take place in a closet or 
 a tavern, before two friends who acted as witnesses. But dispen- 
 sations were not always necessary. There were privileged places, 
 such as May Fair and the Fleet, where the marriage ceremony 
 could be performed at a moment's notice, and without any incon- 
 venient questions being asked. 
 
 Gretna Green, on the borders of Scotland, was long a famous 
 place for runaway matches. It has been questioned how far the 
 Scotch law of marriage was conducive to morality; but, judging 
 from its effects upon the people themselves, it can scarcely be con- 
 sidered an ally of vice. This law, which has only been repealed with- 
 in a few years, treated marriage as a civil contract, valid if contract- 
 ed before witnesses, and required no ceremony or preparatory no- 
 tice. That unions so formed were binding, admits of no possible 
 dispute : the question has been tried in the British courts of law 
 on every conceivable ground, and their legality has been always 
 affirmed, but in the case of marriages at May Fair or the Fleet 
 the same certainty did not exist. Gretna Green is the first village 
 after passing the dividing line between England and Scotland, and 
 owes its fame to its locality. It has doubtless been the scene of 
 many heartless adventures, for which the actual law of the land 
 must be held accountable. 
 
 The marriage act which came into operation in 1754, had for its 
 object the prevention of clandestine marriages in England, but did 
 not interfere with the law of Scotland. It sought to effect this 
 reform by making it necessary to the validity of a marriage with- 
 out license, that it should take place after the proclamation of 
 banns on three Sundays in the parish church, before a person in 
 orders, between single persons consenting, of sound mind, and of 
 the age of twenty-one years, or of the age of fourteen in males 
 and twelve in females, with the consent of parents and guardians, 
 or without their consent in cases of widowhood. The new mar- 
 
312 HISTORY OE PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 riage act of 1837 allows marriage, after notice to the superintend- 
 ent registrars in every district, either in the publidfcegister offices 
 in the presence of the superintendent registrar and the registrar 
 of marriages, or in duly registered places of worship. 
 
 We have no statement as to the number of marriages previous 
 to the year 1753. All we know is, that from 1651 to 1751 the 
 population only increased sixteen per cent., the increase being 
 only one million and fourteen thousand in one hundred years. 
 Since the act of 1753 came into operation, the registers of mar- 
 riages have been preserved in England, and show an increase of 
 marriages from 50,972 in the year 1756, to 63,310 in 1764. " The 
 rage of marrying is very prevalent," writes Lord Chesterfield in 
 the latter year; and again in 1767, "In short, the matrimonial 
 phrensy seems to rage at present, and is epidemical." After many 
 fluctuations, the marriages rose to seventy, eighty, ninety, and one 
 hundred thousand annually, and in 1851 to one hundred and fi%- 
 four thousand two hundred and six. Fourteen millions were add- 
 ed to the population, an increase of 187 per cent, or at the rate 
 of one per cent, annually.* 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 GEEAT BEITAIN. — PEOSTITUTION AT THE PEESEKT TIME. 
 
 Influence of the Wealthy Classes. — Devices of Procuresses. — Scene at a Railway 
 Station. — Oi'ganization for entrapping Women. — Seduction of Children. — Con- 
 tinental Traffic. — Brothel-keepers. — "Fancy Men" and " Spooneys." — Number 
 of Brothels in London. — Causes of Prostitution. — Sexual Desire. — Seduction.— 
 Over-crowded Dwellings. — Parental Example. — Poverty and Destitution. — Pub- 
 lic Amusements. — Ill-assorted Marriages. — Love of Dress. — Juvenile Prostitu- 
 tion. — Factories. — Obscene Publications. — Census of 1851. — Education and 
 Crime. — Number of Prostitutes. — ^Female Population of London. — ^Working 
 Classes. — ^Domestic Servants. — Needlewomen. — Ages of Prostitutes. — Average 
 Life. — Condition of Women in London. — Charitable Institutions. — Mrs. Fry's 
 benevolent Labors. 
 
 The corruption of court morals alone, and without circum- 
 stances of national weight and moment, has seldom, we take it, 
 affected the bulk of the population. It is nevertheless undeniable 
 that a lax morality, and, ct fortiori, a system of absolute profligacy 
 among the wealthy classes of society, will contribute in a signifi- 
 cant degree toward the increase of prostitution in metropolitan 
 ' Census of Great Britain, 1851. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 313 
 
 cities. It is in the service of lier wealthy customers and patrons 
 that the professional procuress is chiefly employed, and, stimulated 
 by high gains, she plies her vile calling, and exerts all her hellish 
 ingenuity to discover new sources of amusement and gratification 
 for them. 
 
 In Fletcher's " Humorous Lieutenant," written in 1690, a court 
 bawd is introduced reading her minute-book, and calling over the 
 register of the females at her command. " Chloe, well — Chloe 
 should fetch three hundred and fifty crowns ; fifteen ; good figure ; 
 daughter of a country gentleman ; her virtue will bring tne that 
 sum, and then a riding-horse for her father out of it ; well. The 
 merchant's wife, she don't want money. I must find a spark of 
 quality for her." The representation of such character is out of 
 vogue in these days on the English stage ; but, while the proprie- 
 ties are observed, the omission is but a veiling of the subject. 
 The reality exists, though unseen. 
 
 In the London Times of July, 1855, an incident is thus related 
 by a correspondent: "I was standing on a railway platform at 
 
 , with a friend waiting for a train, when two ladies came into 
 
 the station. I was acquainted with one of them, the younger, 
 well. She told me she was going to London, having been fortu- 
 nate enough to get a liberal engagement as governess in the family 
 of the lady under whose charge she then was, and who had even 
 taken the trouble to come into the country to see her and her 
 friends, to ascertain that she was likely in all respects to suit. The 
 train coming in sight, the fares were paid, the elder lady paying 
 both. I saw them into the carriage, and the door being closed, I 
 bowed to them and rejoined my friend, who happened to be a 
 London man about town. ' "Well, I will say,' said he, with a 
 laugh, ' you country gentlemen are pretty independent of public 
 opinion. You are not ashamed of your little transactions being 
 known !' ' What do you mean ?' I asked. ' "Why, I mean your 
 talking to that girl and her duenna on an open platform.' ' Why, 
 
 that is Miss , an intimate friend of ours.' ' Well, then, I can 
 
 tell you,' said the Londoner to me, coolly, ' her friend is Madam 
 
 , one of the most noted procuresses in London, and she has 
 
 got hold of a new victim, if she is a victim, and no mistake.' I 
 saw there was not a minute to lose ; I rushed to the guard of the 
 train, and got him to wait a moment. I then hurried to the car- 
 riage-door where the ladies were. ' Miss , you must get out ; 
 
 that person is an unfit companion for you. Madam , we 
 
314 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 know who you are.' That was one victim rescued, but how many 
 are lost ?" * 
 
 In another case, the practices of a .scoundrel named Phinn were 
 made the subject of a public warning by the Lord Mayor of Lon- 
 don from his judicial chair. This fellow's plan was to advertise 
 from abroad for ladies to go to Cologne, or other places on the 
 Ehine, to become governesses in his family, which was traveling, 
 and whose governess had unexpectedly left them, or been taken 
 ill, or was otherwise got rid of The candidates were to pay their 
 own passage to the place of rendezvous, when the appointments 
 of the situation were to commence. In some cases in which the 
 practices of this rascal had failed of their full effect, he had suc- 
 ceeded in defrauding poor women of their funds, and they had 
 found the utmost difficulty in making their way home again. 
 
 While it is impossible to have any precognizance of the persons 
 and circumstances among which these wretches find their prey, 
 some eases are peculiarly within the scope of their operations. 
 Young females who have lost their natural protectors, and are 
 brought into contact with the world under their own guidance, 
 are easily imposed upon by the pretended friendship of these per- 
 sons, and being under a pretense of employment inveigled into 
 their houses, are there kept until their fall is accomplished by per- 
 suasion or force. It is said that women even attend regularly at 
 churches and Sunday-schools for the purpose of decoying female 
 children. They first accost them, and interest them, without mak- 
 ing any direct advances. The next time they proceed a little far- 
 ther, and soon invite them to accompany them a little distance, 
 when they lead them to a brothel. They have been known to take 
 the children away in the presence of the teacher, who, seeing them 
 act as acquaintances, had no suspicion of the real nature of their 
 associations.^ 
 
 The London Society for the Protection of Young Females have 
 recorded instances of children of eleven years of age being en- 
 trapped by procuresses into houses of prostitution. Those who 
 are thus decoyed are not permitted to escape, nor to go into the 
 streets for two or three months. By that time they are supposed 
 to be incapable of retracing their steps, or to have become recon- 
 ciled to their mode of life, and are permitted to go or remain. 
 Occasionally they are. turned adrift to seek new lodgings, their 
 places being supplied by fresh arrivals. Some of these children 
 
 ' Dr. Ryan. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 315 
 
 find their way home again, but the majority of them are of course 
 irretrievably lost, and continue in the course into which they have 
 been thus indoctrinated. 
 
 The procuresses have agents in different parts of London, whose 
 business it is to discover young persons, servant-girls and others, 
 who are dissatisfied with their earnings and condition in life, and 
 who may be considered suitable subjects. The number of serv- 
 ants out of place, in London alone, is enormous — ^many thousands 
 in number ; and as " service is no inheritance," such a body con- 
 stitutes a very favorable field of operations. The intermediate 
 agents in these cases are small shop-keepers, laundresses, char- 
 women, and such others as from their avocations have the oppor- 
 tunity of becoming acquainted with young women in service. 
 Common lodging-house-keepers too, residing in the suburbs of 
 London, contribute their quota of assistance. Young women com- 
 ing fresh from the country^and sleeping in such places for a night, 
 receive recommendations to procuresses and brothel-keepers as 
 servants. Intelligence-offices for hiring servants, which in London 
 are called " Servants' Bazars," and are not under any hcense, are 
 visited by these people in search of new faces. 
 
 In some cases procuresses are found to act on behalf of partic- 
 ular individuals only. In one case, such a woman kept a small 
 shop, to which she invited servant-girls in the neighborhood after 
 a little acquaintance. By her assistance, aided by liberal enter- 
 tainment with wines and spirits, her employers (two men of prop- 
 erty) were enabled to corrupt eight servant-girls in a short space 
 of time. 
 
 A constant trade in prostitution is carried on between London 
 and Hamburg, London and Paris, and London and the country. 
 Three or four years ago a trial took place at the Central Criminal 
 Court (London) of a man and woman who were engaged in the 
 importationof females for purposes of prostitution. The prison- 
 ers were convicted. The details of the trial show that a regular 
 organization existed. In some cases, Parisian prostitutes were 
 hired in Paris for the London market by the ordinary agents in 
 such contracts ; in other cases, the parties in both capitals decoyed 
 young women into their service on pretense of reputable engage- 
 ments, and shipped them over to their consignees. Of course, 
 every care is taken in these matters to keep the transaction confi- 
 dential ; for, although the English laws are practically most de- 
 fective, still, in cases exciting any degree of notoriety, and in which 
 
316 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 the offense can bs satisfactorily established by legal proof, prose- 
 cutions do take place. * 
 
 We can not close this branch of our subject better than by once 
 again quoting from the Spectator, and giving a genuine letter, 
 which, although written a century and a half ago, is just such a 
 one as might, for a similar purpose, be penned at the present 
 day. It as accurately describes the mode in which " articles of 
 trade" in the procuress line are disposed of now as then. 
 
 " Mt Lord, — I having a great esteem for your honor, and a better opin- 
 ion of you than of any of the quality, makes me acquaint you of an affair 
 that I hope will oblige you to know. I have a niece that came to town 
 about a fortnight ago. Her parents being lately dead, she came to me, ex- 
 pecting to have found me in so good a condition as to set her up in a milli- 
 ner's shop. Her father gave fourscore pounds with her for five years. Her 
 time is out, and she is not sixteen : as pretty a gentlewoman as ever you 
 saw ; a little woman, which I know your lordship likes ; well-shaped, and as 
 fair a complexion for red and white as ever I saw. I doubt not but your 
 lordship will be of the same opinion. She designs to go down about a month 
 hence except I can provide for her, which I can not at present. Her father 
 was one with whom all he had died with him, so there is four children left 
 destitute ; so, if your lordship thinks fit to make an appointment, where I 
 shall wait on you with my niece, by a line or two, I stay for your answer, 
 for I have no place fitted up, since I left my house, fit to entertain your 
 honor. I told her she should go with me to see a gentleman, a very good 
 friend of mine ; so I desire you to take no notice of my letter by reason she 
 is ignorant of the ways of the town. My lord, I desire, if you meet us, to 
 come alone, for, upon my word and honor, you are the first that I ever men- 
 tioned her to." 
 
 Next to procuresses in this gradation of iniquity are the brothel- 
 keepers, who, although often procuresses, are not necessarily so. 
 Shakspeare, who included all human existence in the sphere of 
 his observation, says of them, 
 
 " A bawd ! a wicked bawd ! 
 The evil that thou causest to be done, 
 That is thy means to live : do thou but think 
 What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back 
 From such a filthy vice ; say to thyself. 
 From their abominable and beastly touches 
 I drink, I eat, array myself, and live. 
 Canst thou believe thy living is a life ? 
 So stinkingly depending." 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 817 
 
 Many of these persons have been prostitutes themselves, and 
 ■when past service in the one branch of business have naturally 
 fallen into the other. Others, without having been such, adopt 
 the trade fi:om inclination or circumstances. The condition of 
 these people and the interior of their houses are as various as the 
 people themselves. At the west end of London there is a consid- 
 erable degree of style ; in the lower parts of the town they are 
 sordid and filthy habitations, fit only for deeds of darkness. They 
 are confined to private streets, alleys, and lanes out of the great 
 thoroughfares. The law is usually put in operation in England 
 against the brothel-keepers as the representatives of the whole 
 class. As they get the chief profits of the trade, so they run aU 
 the legal risks. The indictments against them, however, are com- 
 paratively few. There is no public prosecutor in England, as with 
 us. The police administration of the metropolis, perhaps the best 
 organized, the most efficient and cheapest department of the pub- 
 lic service, does not include the prevention of brothels within its 
 duties, which are confined to the preservation of life and property. 
 The prosecution of brothel-keepers and abolition of their estab- 
 lishments are usually undertaken by the parish authorities when 
 the places are so conducted as to become a nuisance to the neigh- 
 borhood ; and police officers merely interfere to prevent the as- 
 semblage of prostitutes in the public streets, or the soHcitation of 
 passengers by them. Yirtually this provision is little better than 
 a dead letter, and the women evade it by walking when an officer 
 is in sight, and thus deprive him of the only proof which would 
 enable him to make an arrest.' 
 
 Some of the girls who pay exorbitant board also stipulate to 
 give their mistresses one half of their cash receipts, which are fre- 
 quently very large in the case of attractive women, amounting 
 sometimes to one or two hundred dollars a week. The mistress 
 is treasurer, and the prostitutes rarely succeed in receiving back 
 what ostensibly belongs to them. The very prosecution before 
 mentioned originated in a French girl's being cheated by the 
 brothel-keeper. The clothing is furnished by the mistress, and 
 for this she charges prices which absorb the entire earnings of the 
 
 ' The ineffectual provisions of the law have recently engaged the attention of 
 the inhabitants of London, and a meeting was held in January of the present year 
 (1858) to consider the evil, and decide what steps should be taken in the premises. 
 We shall notice in another part of this work some of the suggestions made on that 
 occasion. 
 
318 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 girls. She even contrives to faraish them with such a number 
 of showy and useless garments that she keeps them* ways in her 
 debt, and so has a lien on each to prevent her leaving as long as 
 she is a profitable member of the establishment. Some girls who 
 have been seduced have, when entering on a life of prostitution, 
 extensive and valuable wardrobes. The mistress runs them into 
 debts of her own contracting, and if they become dissatisfied with 
 their treatment and desire to leave, they are held for the debt. 
 By the common law of England, all debts incurred for an immoral 
 purpose are void, but this law is of little value to those who are 
 ignorant of its existence ; besides which, the brothel-keepers have 
 possession of the booty, and thus effectually drive the debtor to 
 an adjustment of the matters in dispute. 
 
 Such of the brothel-keepers as have no lawful husbands form 
 intimacies with some man whom they support. In slang dialect, 
 there is a class of men called " spooneys," who support the wom- 
 en, or furnish them with funds when necessary. They set them 
 up in business, become responsible for their debts, and assist them 
 in all their difficulties. The "fancy men" are those who do noth- 
 ing for them, but live at their expense. The lower class of broth- 
 el-keepers have no "spooneys," but they invariably have "fancy 
 men," who act as bullies, and settle by physical force any disputes 
 that may arise between the inmates and their visitors. These 
 men spend the day in taverns, and the night in the particular 
 brothels to which they are attached, and are frequently felons of 
 the deepest dye. 
 
 Some of the brothel-keepers are married women, and even moth- 
 ers of families. The husbands are lazy, worthless wretchies, ad- 
 dicted to gambling and drinking, and brutally indifferent to the 
 sources from which their luxuries are supplied. In some cases 
 the wealthier individuals have been known to send their children 
 to good schools away from home, and to have kept them in igno- 
 rance of their own wretched vocation. Thus sin entails its own 
 punishment. 
 
 The number of brothels in London has been variously esti- 
 mated. The whole number of houses at the last census was three 
 hundred thousand and upward. Among them it was calculated, 
 and probably correctly, that there were five thousand brothels, in- 
 cluding houses of assignation. The rents of these establishments 
 vary as much as the houses and situations (from fifteen hundred 
 down to one hundred dollars a year). In good neighborhoods we 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 3I9 
 
 should be slow to believe tbat landlords bad any previous knowl- 
 edge of the purposes to which their houses are to be applied. In- 
 dependent of moral objection, such a house deteriorates the char- 
 acter of the property. Indeed, the clauses in leases of the great 
 London properties are very strict, and include all objectionable 
 trades as causes of forfeiture. 
 
 The owners of the houses are of all classes. The Ahnonry of 
 Westminster, once the abode of Oaxton, which within these six or 
 eight years has been pulled down, was one of the vilest aggrega- 
 tions of vice and crime in existence. This was the property of 
 the dean and chapter of Westminster Abbey. The common law 
 of England, as already mentioned in the matter of dress, prohibits 
 the recovery of the rents of houses let for immoral purposes. 
 Many of the brothel-keepers themselves hire houses, furnish; them, 
 and sublet them; It has been made a matter of reproach that 
 landlords should, even iadirectly, derive income fi-om such sources. 
 But poverty and vice are closely allied ; where poverty exists, 
 vice will come. It is impossible for a landlord to exclude any 
 class of tenants in a particular neighborhood suited to them, and 
 those who know aught about the improvement and ventilation of 
 large cities, and the breaking up of bad neighborhoods, are well 
 aware that they are accompanied with a fearful amount of extra 
 misery to the very poor. 
 
 In a subsequent portion of this work we have endeavored to 
 analyze the causes of prostitution as it exists in the city of New 
 York. It may be reasonably supposed that the same reasons 
 would be applicable to the kindred people of Great Britain. We 
 give the following, mainly deduced from English writers, as indi- 
 cating the sentiments of the best-informed in that kingdom as to 
 the sources of so deep-rooted an evU, which must be sought in a 
 variety of circumstances, national as well as personal. 
 
 A professional man, Mr. Tait, to whose pages we have turned 
 for inform a.t,inn as to prostitution in Great Britain, classifies the 
 causes as natural and accidental. The natural he subdivides 
 into hceaitiousness of disposition, irritability of temper, pride and 
 love of dress, dishonesty and love of property, and indolence.^ 
 The accidental include seduction, ill-assorted marriages, low wa- 
 ges, want of employment, intemperance, poverty, defective educa- 
 tion, bad example of parents, obscene publications, and a number 
 of.minor causes. Without assenting to the classification, we will 
 accept the enumeration. 
 
320 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The Operation of sexual desire on the female sex is a mooted 
 question among English writers on prostitution. "WRether it is la- 
 tent, and never powerful enough to provoke evil courses until it is 
 itself stimulated and roused into energy by external circumstances, 
 or whether it be an active principle impelling the iU-regulated fe- 
 male mind to sacrifice self-respect and reputation in the gratification 
 of dominant impulses, has been frequently discussed. Many con- 
 sider that its influence on the inducement of prostitution is no less 
 unsatisfactory of solution than the physiological problem, alleg- 
 ing that those who have followed the bent of their natural appe- 
 tites would undoubtedly prefer to ascribe their lapse to other cir- 
 cumstances. This subject is treated more fully elsewhere, and it 
 is needless to repeat here the views there expressed. 
 
 That sexual desire, once aroused, does exercise a potent influ- 
 ence on the female organization, can not be questioned. Self- 
 abuse, which is a perverted indulgence of the natural instinct, 
 is well known to English physicians as being practiced among 
 young women to a great extent, though in a far less degree than 
 among young men. Its frightful influences upon the latter have 
 been the subject of the liveliest anxiety to those who have made 
 the care of youth their profession, and this source of trouble is 
 shared to some degree by female teachers. Such subjects seem 
 by common consent to be banished from rational investigation by 
 the majority of people, as if shutting one's eyes to the fact would 
 prove its non-existence. This false delicacy is more injurious 
 than is commonly supposed; for the unchecked indulgence in 
 such habits is not only destructive of health, but in the highest 
 degree inimical to the moral feeling, and directly subversive of 
 all self-respect, leaving but one step to complete the final descent. 
 
 Seduction. — The effect of undue familiarity, and too unre- 
 strained an intercourse between the sexes, can not be exaggerated 
 as paving the way for the last lapse from virtue. It is precisely 
 these familiarities which, in ill-regulated minds, excite the first 
 impulses of 'desire ; and even where such a result does not imme- 
 diately flow from too free an intercourse, it breaks down that mod- 
 esty and reserve which so much enhance the beauty of woman, 
 and constitute her best safeguard. The inclined plane by which 
 the female who permits the first freedom glides unchecked to final 
 ruin, though gradual, is very difficult to retrace. The unrestrict- 
 ed intercourse permitted, or rather encouraged between the sexes 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 321 
 
 at places of public amusement much, facilitates the opportunities 
 of seduction. Prostitutes frequently, and we believe with truth, 
 allege seduction as the first step toward their abandoned course 
 of life, and the allegation itself should induce a sympathy for the 
 misfortune of their present existence. Although, ia some cases 
 the story can not be implicitly believed, at the same time there 
 is no doubt that a heartless seduction is but too frequent a circum- 
 stance in such cases, and contributes its sad quota of heavy ac- 
 coimt to prostitution. 
 
 It is a general opinion that cases of (so called) seduction in En- 
 gland occur between employers and female servants, and that of 
 these g,re vast numbers. By seduction in such circumstances is 
 meant the inducement to ^o wrong by promises or other sua- 
 sives, in opposition to the commonly received idea, which makes 
 tbe fall the result of strong personal attachment. In a work like 
 this we must notice the largest definitions, and can not consist- 
 ently limit ourselves to the inducement cuistomarily brought for- 
 ward in law proceedings, namely, " a promise of marriage." In 
 this sense, illegitimate children may be saidto be the consequence 
 of seduction. Certainly not all of them, however, because many 
 persons, voluntarily and with their eyes open, enter upon cohab- 
 itation arrangements; hut doubtless many are. Once seduced, 
 of course the fepaale becomes herself th@ seducer of the inexperi- 
 enced. 
 
 The policy of English law, of late years, has been to compel the 
 woman to protect herself — in the maiuj a wise policy. But the 
 balance of human justice is very unevenly maintained. The male, . 
 the real delinquent, incurs no legal punishment, and but little so- 
 cial reprobation. Actions for seduction are very unpopular, and 
 those brought bear but an infinitesimal proportion to the occur- 
 rence of the crime. The onits of proqf in bastardy affiliations of 
 course rests upon the woman. Of late years the alterations in 
 the law have thrown great difficulties in her way by what is 
 called the necessity of corroborative evidence, namely, some Mad 
 of admission, direct or indirect, or some overt act which will fur- 
 nish oral or documentary testimony other than the woman's un- 
 supported statement. This may be strictly expedient, but it ren- 
 ders the man almost irresponsible if he only play his part with' 
 knavish prudence. Lastiy, popular feeling is against charges of 
 rape : acquittal is very frequent, and the usual rebuttal is to im- 
 X 
 
322 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 peach the character of the prosecutrix. The opinion of One of 
 England's greatest judges has passed into a proveft : " N"o charge 
 so easy to make, none so dif&cult to disprove." Queen EHza- 
 beth's mode of proving her disbelief of rape is also expressive of 
 public opinion. • - - ; 
 
 From the combination of these circumstances, it' would seem 
 that seduction must, almost as a matter of course, lead to prostitu- 
 tion, inasmuch as, in ordinary English parlance, the mother of a 
 bastard and a prostitute are almost synonymous. 
 
 OvERCBOWDED Dwellings.— The natural impidses of animal 
 instinct in both sexes seem to be implicated in the effect of crowd- 
 ed sleeping apartments, as met with in the habitations of the poor 
 both in town and country. In the latter we have the show, and 
 sometimes the reality, of family life and virtuous poverty. In the 
 towns we find abodes of poverty sometimes honest, sometimes ia 
 closest propinquity or intimacy with vice, and there too we have 
 the dwelling-places of the lowest depravity and vagabondism. 
 
 Those who have not given their attention to the condition of 
 the poor, and the relation which their lives hold to the ordinary 
 habits of decency and morality, have much difficulty in compre- 
 hending, or even beKevJhg, statements which embody the plainest 
 every-day truths. It is hard to realize things as they are, if the 
 mind has been full of ideal pictures of things as they should be. 
 The Dives of society has been often reproached with his ignorance 
 of Lazarus. The sin lies exactly in that ignorance. As Carlyle 
 finely says, " The duty of Christian society is to find its work, and 
 to do it." Negative virtue is of no practical use to the communi- 
 ty. But yet the ignorance is natural enough, and no easier of re- 
 moval than other ignorance. It has feeen generally attributed to 
 the wealthy and upper classes of society, but it exists just the 
 same, differing only a little in degree, in the middle class and mod- 
 erately rich members of the English social system. 
 
 The misery and inconvenience which the poor suffer from the 
 straitness of their domestic arrangements are beyond behef. 
 Grown-up girls and boys sleep in the same bed ; brothers and sis- 
 ters, to say nothing of less intimate relations, are in the closest 
 contiguity ; and even strangers, who are admitted into the little 
 home to help in eking out the rent, are placed on the same family 
 footing. This momentous question to the moral well-being of the 
 poor has excited very lively interest ia England, and has called 
 
GBEAT BRITAIN. 323 
 
 into active operation several philanthropic associations, which 
 have in view the employment of capital in improving and cheap- 
 ening the dwellings of the working classes.^ 
 
 In London this system of close lodging was carried to a fearful 
 pitch. In some places from five to thirteen persons slept in a 
 single bed, whUe in the country the evil was nearly as bad, al- 
 though, from the slight restraint imposed by family ties, the actual 
 evil is positively less ; though the moral contamination is of nearly 
 the same extent, and paves the way for other relations out of doors. 
 The facts which justify these conclusions are to be found in a va- 
 riety of shapes — parliamentaiy reports, statistical tables, appeals 
 from clergymen, addresses from philanthropic associations, etc., etc.* 
 
 The Honorable and Eeverend S. O. Osborne, a clergyman well 
 known for his philanthropic exertions in behalf of the poor, says 
 of country life in England : 
 
 " R:om infancy to puberty the laborer's children sleep in the same room 
 with his wife and himself; and whatever attempts at decency may be made, 
 and I have seen many ingenious and most praiseworthy attempts, stiU there 
 is the fiict of the old and the young, married and unmarried, of both sexes, 
 all herded together in one and the same sleeping apartment. * * * * I do 
 
 ' General secondary questions do not come within the scope of this work, but 
 the labors of these dwelling improvement associations are intimately connected With 
 the subject we have now under investigation. In London, model lodging-houses 
 for single men, single women, and married couples with their children, have been 
 tried and found eminently successful, both as a moderate interest-paying investment, 
 and as a very admirable arrangement for promoting the comfort and health of the 
 working classes. The details given some two years ago, through the daUy papers, 
 on the lodgings of the poor and the very poor of New York, were frightful enough 
 to excite the active sympathy of the benevolent capitalists of this great city. The 
 very best philanthropy is that which teaches and enables the poor man to benefit 
 his own condition. This principle is practically in operation all over the United 
 States ; but in great cities, the freedom of action, and the directly beneficial results 
 of frtgality and industry, are not so iinmediate as in country places. The attempt 
 ,by the poor to improve their own dwellings in these large cities is almost hopeless, 
 because it does not depend upon individual exertions, but on combination both of 
 money and knowledge. The "how, when, and where" have to be found out and 
 carried through : very small difiiculties these, and easily overcome, if those who have 
 the requisite means to cany out such a reform, and thus lend their aid to the solu- 
 tion of an important social problem, have an inclination commensurate with their 
 resources. 
 
 ' See, in particular, as regards London, Statistical Society's Reports, vol.^xiii. ; 
 Reports of Metropolitan Association for improving the Habitations of the Poor ; 
 Board of Health Papers. And for the country districts, Health of Towns Reporte ; 
 Report on the Employment ofWomen and Children in Agriculture, 1843. 
 
324 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 not choose to put on paper the disgusting scenes that I have known to occur 
 from the promiscuous crowding of the sexes together. Set^g, however, to 
 what the mirid of the young female is exposed from her very childhood, I 
 have long ceased to wonder at the otherwise seeming precocious licentiousness 
 of conversation which may behehrd in every field where many of the young 
 are at work together." 
 
 Mr. A. Aiistin, Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, says : 
 " The sleeping of bpjs and girls, young men and young women, in beds 
 almost touching one another, must have the effect of breaking down the 
 great barriers between the sexes. The accommodation for sleeping is such 
 ae necessarily to create early and illicit familiarity between the sexes." 
 
 "Without entering into disgusting details, the pain of perusing 
 wMcli could add nothing to the value of the statements, the con- 
 clusion is indisputable that much of prostitution, if not of prostitu- 
 tion for hire, certainly of prostitution from corrupt and profligate 
 motives, is engendered by the vicious habits induced by habitual 
 proximity of the sexes in early life. The prostitutes themselves 
 frequently assign these habits as the commencement of their career 
 of vice, and some even admit the breach of the closest natural ties 
 , during early yputh, by reason of the too great facihties thus of- 
 fered.^ The great importance of this want of decency and propri- 
 ety in family hfe can' not be overrated. The contagious nature of 
 vice is proverbial ; and it is almost impossible to imagine the power 
 attained by ill-conditioned children, and the fatal readiness with 
 which their sinful words and practices are propagated. 
 
 The cheap lodging-houses are a pendant to the close-packed 
 dwellings of the poor, although they do not produce the same 
 early pernicious resijlts as incjecency and immorahty in family hfe. 
 The latter prepare the way to the scenes of the common lodging- 
 house, in which the lowest depth of vice is speedily reached. Here 
 prostitution is habitual — a regular institution of the place. The 
 smallest imaginable quantities of food can be purchased ; adults, 
 youths, and children of both sexes are received, and herd promis- 
 cuously together ; the prices of beds are of the lowest (from three 
 to six cents) ,; no questions are asked, and the place is free to aU. 
 A new-comer is soon initiated, or rather forced into aU the myste- 
 ries of iniquity. Obscenity and blasphemy are the staple conver- 
 sation of the inmates ; every indecency is openly performed ; the 
 
 ' Mayhew's Letters to the (London) Morning Chronicle; Mayhew's London La- 
 bor and the London Poor. 
 
GREAT beitain; 325 
 
 girls recite aloild their experiences of life; ten or a dozen sleep in 
 one bed, many in a state of nudity. Indeed, the details of these 
 places are horrible beyond description. Unmitigated vice and 
 lustful orgies reign, unchecked by precept or example, and the 
 point of riyalry is as to who shall excel in filth and abomination. 
 
 Example is the next imniediate cause in what may be consid- 
 ered the natural series. There are a few prostitutes who have 
 children. That these latter should follow the same course is quite 
 in the common course of events, although considerable anxiety is 
 occasionally evinced by such women to have their children brought 
 up to better courses. Such redemption is all but impossible. In 
 ordinary life, however, the inind of youth is often perverted by 
 direct evil example in thfe elders ; and, as we have already re- 
 marked, the corruption of the human affections in their fountain- 
 head — ^family life — where they ought to be sweetest and purest, is 
 more fatally demorahzing, and more certain to insure eventual ruin 
 than almost any other. Fathers and mothers are both wanting 
 often enough in their dtity, although it is a matter of universal 
 faith that the influence and example of the father are of less im- 
 portance than that of the mother. A bad man may have virtuous 
 children, a bad woman hardly ever. There are cases where the 
 mother and daughter sleep in the same bed, each with a male 
 partner. In the city of Edinburgh there are two mothers, prosti- 
 tutes, each with four daughters, prostitutes ; :five prostitute moth- 
 ers each with three prostitute daughters, ten siich with two daugh- 
 ters each, and twenty-four such with one daughter each, all follow- 
 ing the practices of the taiothers.^ 
 
 Such iafluences brought' to bear on the young are irresistible. 
 This may perhaps account for the number of sisters "Who carry on 
 prostitution. The eififect bf mere sisterly example would be suf- 
 ficient to account for the circumstance, but the parental becbtnes 
 almost a compulsion, inasmuch as the parent (in such circum- 
 stances, the mother) will not only connive at,' but be the maia 
 cause of her child's ruia for her own direbt profit and advantage. 
 This, indeed, seems more accordant with our ideas of the natural 
 tendencies of prostitutes and procuresses, than that such persons 
 should be excessively anxious for their children's piirity and mor- 
 al welfare. 
 
 POVEETY is an integral part of nearly all the conditions of life 
 
 ^ Tait's Prostitution in Edinburgh.. 
 
326 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 which we have to consider as incentives to prostitution. In some 
 msiances, more, perhaps, than may he generally credited^gpoverty is a 
 direct and proximate cause of this vice. In other words, " women 
 .previously and otherwise virtuous do prostitute their bodies for bread." 
 In most of the casps enumerated except that purely natural, but 
 rare one, innate sexual desire, poverty is a remote cause. From 
 the number of the human race who are under its griping, chilling 
 pressure, poverty may be set down as a fruitful source of pros- 
 titution. 
 
 The connection of political circumstances with the phases of 
 public morals is more intimate than the consideration of the su- 
 perficial differences of the two matters would at first sight imply. 
 But an attentive comparison of the state of public prosperity with 
 the state of public crime will show that crime is somewhat de- 
 pendent on food : the man with a well-filled stomach is no foe to 
 order. Prostitution, as a means of supplying the cravings of 
 hunger, is part of the same connection. It is true that in En- 
 gland there are poor-laws and work-houses, from and in which ev- 
 ery destitute person, without reference to character, has a right to 
 food and shelter. In the first place, however, the work-houses are 
 objects of unmitigated aversion to the poorer classes. Yarious 
 rules, in themselves hard, but rendered necessary by consideration 
 for the rate-payers as well as for the beneficiaries, such as separar 
 tion of husband and wiffe while receiving relief, separation of 
 child and, parent, etc., make the work-house system odious to the 
 worthy and honest poor ; while the strict rules, and the restraint 
 and discipline enforced within the walls, make it still more odious 
 to those who place their happiness in license and irregularity ; 
 Bidded to this, in populous and poor districts, the claims upon the 
 work-house ia seasons of distress are too numerous for its capa- 
 bilities. It is an awful truth that, notwithstanding the enormous 
 revenues, nearly fifty millions of dollars per annum, collected for 
 poor relief, and the immense establishments instituted throughout 
 the country for the support and shelter of the distressed, some- 
 times the number of applicants is- so great that their demands can 
 not be met. Possibly, if these unfortunates could be distributed 
 throughout the kingdom, so that the poverty of one spot could be 
 balanced by the comparative prosperity of another, the fearful 
 starvation in the midst of plenty, which is occasionally witnessed, 
 need not occur. But in the mean while, and until the time when 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 327 
 
 all tlie schemes and devices of modem improvement and advance- 
 ment shall be finally perfected, and universal happiness attained, 
 there is a mass of inconceivable wretchedness to be dealt with. 
 In " Household Words" for November, 1855, Mr. Dickens gives a 
 harrowing picture of London distress, of which he was himself an 
 eye-witness. 
 
 It was a dark, rainy evening, and close against the wall of 
 Whitechapel Work-house lay five bundles of rags. Mr. Dickens 
 and his friend looked at them, and attempted to rouse them in 
 vain. They knocked at the door, were admitted, saw the master 
 of the work-house, and asked him if he knew there were five hu- 
 man beings — ^females — ^lying on the ground outside, cold and 
 hungry. He did — at first he was annoyed — such applications were 
 frequent — how could he meet them? — ^the house was full — the cas- 
 ual ward was full — what could he do more? When he found 
 that Mr. Dickens's aim was inquiry, not fault-finding, he was soften- 
 ed. The case was certainly shocking : how was it to be met? 
 Mr. Dickens said he had heard outside that these wretched beings 
 had been there two nights already. It was very possible. He 
 could not deny or affirm it. There were often more in the same 
 plight — sometimes twenty or thirty. He (the master) was obliged 
 to give preference to women with children. The place was full. 
 Unable to do more, Mr. Dickens left. On getting outside, he 
 roused one of these poor wretches. She looked up, but said noth- 
 ing. He asked her if she was hungry ; she merely looked an af- 
 firmative. Would she know where to get something to eat? 
 she again assented in the same way. " Then take this, and for 
 God's sake go and get something." She took it, made no sign of 
 thanks — "gathered herself up and slunk away — wilted into dark- 
 ness, silent and heedless of all things." 
 
 To what will not such misery as this compel suffering human 
 nature? In times of commercial depression the police of London 
 note an increase of street prostitution. It is said in the cities of 
 England that the permanent prostitution of each place has a nu- 
 merical relation to the means of occupation. In Edinburgh there 
 are but few chances of employing female labor. Glasgow, Dun- 
 dee, and Paisley are the seats of manufactures, and employ female 
 labor extensively. According to Tait, the prostitution of Edin- 
 burgh far exceeds its proportion of prostitution to population as 
 compared with the manufacturing towns.' 
 
 ' These conclusions are not always reliable. Other causes may operate. If we 
 
328 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 It seems mmecessary to multiply instanoes of poverty and in- 
 digence, inasmuch as the fact is most miserably "ihdisputable: 
 shirt-making at three cents, pantaloon-making at fire or six cents — 
 unceasing labor of fourteen hours a day bringing in only sixty or 
 eighty cents a week, and competition even to obtain this. As the 
 London T^mes once said, " The needle is the normal employment 
 of every English woman ; what, then, must be the condition of 
 those tens of thousands who have ■ nothing but that to depend 
 upon ?" Of late years, too, a still farther competition has been in- 
 troduced in that ingenious invention of oui country, the sewing 
 machine. 
 
 In order to show the relation between unpaid and excessive la- 
 bor and prostitution, we will instance a few cases. 
 
 One young woman said she made moleskin pantaloons (a very- 
 strong, stifif fabric) at the rate of fifteen cents per pair. She could 
 manage twelve pairs per week when there was full employ- 
 ment ; sometimes she could not get work. She worked from six 
 in the morning until ten at night. With full work she could make 
 two dollars a week, out of which she had to expend thirty-eight 
 cents for thread and candle. On an average, in conseqiienoe of 
 short work, she could not make more than seventy-five cents a 
 week. Her, father was dead, and she had to support her mother, 
 who was sixty years of age. This girl endured her mode of ex- 
 istence for three years, tUl at length she agreed to live with a 
 young man. When she made this staitement she was within three 
 months of her confinement. She felt the disgrace of her condition, 
 to relieve her from which she said she prayed for death, and 
 would not have gone wrong if she could have helped it.^ 
 
 Such a case as this scarcely comes within the term prostitution, 
 but she stated that many girls at the shop advised prostitution as 
 a resource, and that others should do as they did, as by that means 
 they had procured plenty to eat and clothes to wear. She gave 
 it as her opinion that none of the thousands of giris who work at 
 the same business earn a livelihood by their needle, but that all 
 must and do prostitute themselves to eke out a subsistence. 
 
 Another woman, a case more directly in point, also said she 
 could not earn more than seventy-five cents. She was a widow, 
 
 recollect rightly, Edinburgh is a garrison town. In factory towns, moreover, we 
 should always expect to find a very large amount of immorality, which would some- 
 what displace open and avowed prostitution for hire. 
 ' Mayhew's Letters to the London Morning Clirenick. 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 329 
 
 and liad tliree cliildren when her husband died. Herself and her 
 children had to live on these seventy -five cents. She might have 
 ■gone into the work-honse; and been there better supported than by 
 her labor. Had she done so, the laws of the work-house are inex- 
 orable, she would have been separated from her children. Al- 
 though one child died, she was now so reduced that she could 
 not procure food. She took to the streets for a living, and she 
 declared that hundreds of married and single women were doing 
 the same thing for the same reasons. 
 
 A widow who had buried all her children could not support 
 herself. From sheer inability to do so she took to prostitu- 
 tion. 
 
 A remarkably fine-looking young woman, whose character for 
 sobriety, honesty, and industry was vouched by a number of wit- 
 nesses as unimpeachable, had been compelled to work at fine shirts, 
 by which she could not earn more, on an average, than thirty -five 
 cents a week. She had a chUd, and, being unwOling to go to the 
 work-house, she was driven by indigence to the streets. Struck 
 with remorse and shame, and for the sake of her child determined 
 to abandon prostitution, she fasted whole days, sleeping in win- 
 ter-time in sheds. Once her child's legs froze to her side, and ne- 
 cessity again compelled her to take to her former course. Her 
 father had been an Independent preacher. 
 
 These circumstances, and innumerable others, will establish in- 
 contestably the intimate relation which poverty bears to prostitu- 
 tion. A consideration of such circumstances as the foregoing, and 
 the every-day observation of hosts of others of a similar character 
 which will come within the cognizance of any one who searches 
 into human motives, must incline all but the most outrageously 
 virtuous to judge more tenderly of the failings and errors of their 
 fellow-creatures. 
 
 All young females engaged in sewing are liable to the same dis- 
 tress, and the same resource against it is, of course, open to all. 
 The hard labor and long hours are the least part of the evU, al- 
 though in that light even there would be ground for commisera- 
 tion.^ The real grievance is that the most patient and industri- 
 
 ^ When Mrs. Sydney Herbert instituted her Distressed Needlewoman's Society, 
 a great deal was thought to have been accomplished in one particular branch of 
 female labor— -the millinery and dress-making business — when the leading employ- 
 ers had been induced to promise that the working-day should be restricted to 
 twelve hovas.T-Needleiooman's Soci&ty Heport, 1848. 
 
330 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ous can not, by any hours of labor, earn a sufSciency to support 
 themselves. It is true that the work-house is the lepil reftige of 
 the poor ; but the tender mercies of the work-house have passed 
 into a proverb. The policy of the poor-laws as administered is to 
 deter the needy from applying for relief e?:cept in very extreme 
 cases. Hence many rules are made, and much formality is inter- 
 posed, which render the legal provisions so irksome and unbear- 
 able that many fly to the nearest means of satisfying their wants 
 rather than demand their legal rights. 
 
 Domestic Servants are, in respect of their removal from ab- 
 solute want while in service, more happily situated than those who 
 are thus dependent upon the needle. But they are open to influ- 
 ences of another kind — we mean seduction by masters and male 
 members of the household. Where this evil begins is an exceed- 
 ingly difficult question to determine. When corrupted, they be- 
 come themselves, by the very opportunities they possess, ready 
 and dangerous instruments of corruption, and contribute to dis- 
 seminate the poisons of immorality and of bodily disease. We 
 have already incidentally mentioned that this class is at times 
 open to a great deal of poverty and distress, namely, when out of 
 .service, and at such times they are peculiarly the mark for the 
 lures of persons who make seduction their business and profitable 
 occupation. 
 
 The domestic servants and the sewing- women are the principal 
 adult laborers of Great Britain, except the factory girls. In 1851 
 there were, 
 
 Female domestic servants, 905,165 I Seamstresses .... '72,940 
 Dress-makers . . . 2f0,000 | Stay-makers .... 12,969 
 
 and of these one third were under twenty years of age. 
 
 Places of Public Amusement in England are few when com- 
 pared with those of the Continent, and their influence must be pro- 
 portionately less. On the Continent dancing saloons are a prom- 
 inent feature ; in England this character of entertainment is al- 
 most unknown. In London there are a few places of this sort, 
 such, for example, as Cremorne Gardens. Mr. Tait lays some 
 stress Gin the evil effects of dancing-houses in Edinburgh. We 
 should be inclined to think the cases of misconduct traceable to 
 these places actually few in number, though not unworthy of no- 
 tice. The single females who frequent dancing-rooms, theatres, 
 and other similar places in England, without friends or family es- 
 cort, have very little virtue to risk. The country faira are far 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 33I 
 
 more injurious ; they are indiscriminately attended by all ages 
 and sexes, and their effects upon tlie female agricultural popula- 
 tion are often very pernicious. Greenwich Fair, a three days' 
 scene of rollicking and junketing, was held at Easter and Whit- 
 suntide, in the outskirts of London, but is now abolished. It had 
 its uses a century or two ago, but recently had been attended by 
 all the idlers of London, of both sexes, and was justly dreaded by 
 the friends of youth. It is proverbial that more young women 
 were debauched at Greenwich Fair (allowing for its duration) than 
 at ^ny other place in England. 
 
 Ill-assorted Marriages axe decidedly a cause of prostitution. 
 Certainly breach of the marriage vow is one thing, prostitution for 
 hire another. In estimating the number of prostitutes in Edin- 
 burgh at eight hundred, Mr. Tait adds two hundred to them under 
 the head of married women, which he considers accrue from ill- 
 assorted marriages. That the marriage was ill-assorted is plainly 
 shown by its result, and that want of congeniality and tempera- 
 ment is the cause of prostitution to the extent thus named we 
 have no ground to question. He speaks of such women sell- 
 iag their favors generally to one lover only, occasionally to any 
 one who will pay ; although the latter forms what is commonly 
 known as prostitution, no other construction can be put upon the 
 former. 
 
 Love of Dress is another incident which many writers, and Mr. 
 Tait among them, have introduced into the direct causes of prosti- 
 tution. "We should consider it doubtful if any woman ever posi- 
 tively sold her virtue for a new gown or a knot of ribbons. Of 
 course, after the Eubicon is crossed, all subsequent steps are 
 easy, and may be taken from any motive. The love of admi- 
 ration, which, under regulation, is sometimes a commendable in- 
 stinct, when uncontrolled, becomes a snare. The love of dress 
 is a modification of this sentiment, and may help to work out 
 the effect when other causes have overthrown the balance of the 
 mind. 
 
 Juvenile Prostitution. — We have now arrived, in the con- 
 sideration of the causes of prostitution ia England, at decidedly the 
 most painful of all the phenomena connected with this condition 
 of human life, namely, the immense extent of juvenile depravity. 
 We have already sketched the evils of insufficient house accom- 
 modation and its noxious effects upon the morals of the rising 
 . generation. In this connection, also, bad example is particularly 
 
S32 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 prominent ; perhaps, indeed, witli respect to the yonng, evil com- 
 munications are the greatest dangers. • 
 
 The work-hoiisei was formerly one -great hot-bed of vice, and the 
 greatest license and irregularity prevailed in every department. 
 That children bom or brought up in such a place should grow up 
 debased was perfectly in the expected course of things. Now, 
 however, under the new Poor-LaWs Commission, the scene iS 
 stripped of its more revolting accessories. The sexes do not min- 
 gle, children do not associate with adults: some modicum of edu- 
 cation is given. The sweetest and holiest of all ties, that of family, 
 is yet wanting, and self-respect is totally deficient. In the absence 
 of these protective influences, the wonder is, not that so many 
 children should turn out ill, but that so many girls should turn 
 out well. Formerly, also, there was a system of compulsory pau- 
 per apprenticeship, and the interests of the parish apprentice out 
 of doors were very little looked after. This, again, has been alter- 
 ed, both in town and country, and the improvement is marked. 
 
 Even with aU 'this, it is recorded in the London Times (June, 
 1848) that a correspondent, visiting one of the metropolitan work- 
 houses, was strhck by the happy and healthy appearance of the 
 female children, and inquired of the master of the work-house 
 what became of all of them. He was informed that they were 
 sent out, at the age of fourteen, as servants or in other capacities; 
 and that nine tenths of them, after coming backward and forward 
 fiom their places to the work-house, eventually got corrupted and 
 took to the streets. 
 
 Factories are made accoimtable by many writers for much ju- 
 venile immorality and prostitution. Factories in England are, as 
 most of our readers are aware, institutions materially differing in 
 some respects from those of our own country. In no feature is there 
 so wide a dissimilarity as in the character of the work-people. 
 The factory children of England are the offspring of the poorest 
 of the community, whose only heritage is pauperism, with wages 
 at no time too good, and often at starvation point. The miserable 
 earnings of the factory operatives are still farther reduced by con- 
 stant strikes and contests with their employers, in which it is a 
 foregone conclusion that the workmen must yield. Macaulay tells 
 us that, two centuries ago, the employment of children in factories, 
 and the dependence of the parent's bread upon the. children's earn- 
 ings, was a notorious fact, much condemned by philanthropists. 
 The introduction of machinery and the value of child-labor grad- 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 333 
 
 ually aggravated, all tte horrors of the factory system, the enormity 
 of which called down the indignation of the non-manufacturing 
 community, and compelled the protective interference of Parlia- 
 ment. The Ten Hours' Bill, the Factory Childrens' Education 
 regulations, appointment by government of factory commissioners 
 and inspectors, have all, contributed to ameliorate the hard lot of 
 the factory child. The employment of very young children in 
 factories is still to be regretted, or rather its necessity, for probably 
 it is better they should be employed in a not very laborious occu- 
 pation than left to roam the streets. 
 
 The direct influence of factory work on juvenile prostitution is 
 insisted on by many writers ; by others, some reservations have 
 been introduced, such as. The young associate only during hours 
 of recreation. In business hours they are generally employed in 
 different parts of the building. They have a certain amount of 
 education. Their parents are generally, or very often, employed 
 in the same establishment. Assume that these children were not 
 in the factory, where would they be, and what could they do ? 
 Are evil influences rife only in the factory ? The overcrowding 
 at home ; the frequent drunkenness and debauchery of their par- 
 ents and associates ; the endless indigence ; the frequent visits to 
 the work-houses, are all circumstances which have been considered 
 and argued in the case. But of the fact of juvenile prostitution 
 and depravity in factory populations none can doubt ; of its being 
 exclusively or chiefly attributable to factory life, others are mot 
 certain. 
 
 That children who labor in factories, and thereby contribute to 
 the family earnings and their own support, could do better in the 
 present condition of English society, is doubtful. Mill-owners are 
 required to devote a portion of their time to education. Sunday- 
 schools are established ; personal attention is paid by leading mill- 
 owners to the improvement of the poor; many build good cot- 
 tages (for which, by the way, they receive a good interest ia the 
 way of rent) ; many inspect the schools ; some build school-houses 
 and pay the teachers. The good example of benevolent null- 
 owners in a measure compels others, whose moral perceptions are 
 less keen, to follow them. 
 
 We would not be supposed to argue that English cotton fac- 
 tories are types of the Millennium, any more than are similar in- 
 stitutions on this side of the Atlantic. In fact, we have a very 
 decided opinion on the matter, but common honesty requires that 
 
334 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION 
 
 tie opinion of all wHo have investigated tlie subject should be fair- 
 ly recorded. In submitting the various arguments Adduced in 
 favor of factory labor and its bearing on immorality, we present 
 merely subjects for consideration. 
 
 Disease in Childben. — A fact of importance to public health 
 is the disease acquired by children. In the first address issued by 
 the London Society for the Protection of young Females, it is 
 stated that in three of the London hospitals during the preceding 
 eight years there had been no less than two thousand seven hund- 
 red cases of venereal disease in children between eleven and six- 
 teen years of age. 
 
 Dr. Eyan, on the same subject, speaking from his professional 
 experience as medical of&cer of several charities, mentions the 
 shock he felt on seeing numerous cases of venereal disease in 
 children. 
 
 Mr. Miller, of Glasgow, testifies to the same fact. 
 
 The very imperfect data which exist on this important branch 
 of our subject' will not enable one to form any sound opinion on 
 the spread of disease from these juvenile sources. It is, however, 
 reasonable to conclude, from the few facts, and from the very fa- 
 cilities afforded at their age for intercommunication between chil- 
 dren, that the spread of disease from direct contamination, and the 
 deterioration of health and constitution from unknown excesses, 
 must be very great. 
 
 Obscene Publications. — Of these there are vast numbers, and 
 the extent of juvenile contamination from this source must be 
 very great. The Society for the Suppression of Vice, in London, 
 reports having seized, at different periods, thousands of obscene 
 books, copper-platQS, and prints, all of which they caused to be 
 destroyed. Within a period of three years they procured the de- 
 struction of 
 
 Blasphemous and impure books . ^*19 Obscene songs (on sheets). 1,495 
 Obscene publications .... 1,162 Obscene prints .... 10,493 
 
 and even this was but an item in the calculation. 
 
 The police of London take but little interest in this matter. 
 The above-mentioned society is the principal agent in the repres- 
 sion of this infamous species of depravity. There are certain 
 places in London in which the trade still lives and flourishes, not- 
 withstanding the attacks made upon it. Holywell Street, in the 
 Strand, and the vicinity of Leicester Square, are places of dis- 
 graceful notoriety in this respect. The secret is, that wherever 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 335 
 
 there is a public demand, no repressive laws will ever prevent 
 trade. The attempt at repression but makes it more profitable. 
 
 To the corruption of the youthful mind and the pr-eparatives 
 for prostitution these publications must contribute. It is matter 
 of question what number of prostitutes have become such directly 
 from this cause. The results of visitorial inspection do not show 
 among London prostitutes, any more than elsewhere, a taste for 
 books and prints of an obscene tendency. Their taste in litera- 
 ture is that which would prevail among persons of low intellect- 
 ual calibre. Startling tales, romances with a plentiful spice of 
 horrors, thrilling love-stories, highly wrought and exaggerated 
 narratives, are their taste. In the practice of prostitution, the use 
 of indecent or prurient prints is chiefly for the adornment of visit- 
 ors' rooms in brothels. 
 
 Education. — In the relations between education and crime are 
 found no distinctive marks whereby prostitution may be separated 
 from any other development of vice or immorality. It is to be 
 presumed that the same general laws which apply to the unregu- 
 lated manifestation of the passions apply to those with which pros- 
 titution is chiefly implicated. 
 
 ' In the present generatioil it is generally assumed that crime is 
 the offspring of ignorance, therefore Education ! is the cry. Edu- 
 cation has become a party watchword in England. The neces- 
 sity of education, the quality and the quantity, with all the minor 
 propositions that branch off from the main question, are, and have 
 been for years, the subject of the hottest polemics. But recent re- 
 sults, evolved from statistical inquiries, would seem to call up the 
 previous question as to the value of education at all. The pres- 
 ent work is not the place in which to discuss the fact, or to point 
 out a remedy, or indicate the deficiencies of a system which can 
 suffer such a question to arise. We give the facts. From the 
 Parliamentary reports of 1846-1848, it appears that the number 
 of educated criminals in England was at that time more than 
 twice, and in Scotland more than three and a half that of the un- 
 educated : 
 
 Years. 
 
 England. 
 
 Scotland. | 
 
 Eaucated. 
 
 Uneducated. 
 
 Educated. 
 
 Uneducated. 
 
 1848 
 1847 
 1848 
 
 16,963 
 
 19,307 
 
 ■ 20,176 
 
 7698 
 9050 
 9671 
 
 8155 
 3562 
 3985 
 
 903 
 
 1048 
 
 911 
 
 In calculating a percentage on certain criminal returns during 
 the undermentioned years, the results were : 
 
336 
 
 HISTORY or PROSTITUTION. 
 
 
 1839. 
 
 1840, 
 
 ISE. 
 
 184St. 
 
 1843. 
 
 1844. 
 
 1845. . 
 
 1846. ■ 
 
 
 33-53 
 
 53-48 
 
 10-07 
 
 0-32 
 
 2-60 
 
 33-32 
 
 55-67 
 
 ' 8-29 
 
 0-37 
 
 2-45 
 
 33-21 
 
 56-67 
 
 7-40 
 
 0-45 
 
 2-27 
 
 32-35 
 
 58-32 
 
 6-77 
 
 0-22 
 
 2-34 
 
 3100 
 
 57-60 
 
 8-02 
 
 0-47 
 
 2-91 
 
 29-77 
 
 69-28 
 
 8-12 
 
 0-42 
 
 2-41 
 
 38-34 
 8-38 
 0-37 
 2-30 
 
 30-66 
 
 59-51 
 
 7-71 
 
 0-34 
 
 1-78 
 
 Imperfectly edacated.. 
 ^Tell educated 
 
 Superior education .... 
 Unascertained 
 
 
 100- 
 
 IOD- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 This table, wMoh on its face conclusively establislies an increase 
 in criminals imperfectly educated, and a decrease both in those 
 who could read and write well, and those who could not read or 
 write at all, may be, and has been made, the subject of much 
 pseudo-philosophical remark, as proving the injury of education. 
 In the first place, it only shows the effects of partial education, if 
 it shows any thing. But the misfortune of statistical results is 
 that they are relied on too implicitly, with a narrow-minded sub- 
 servience to figures and feets, whereas they require to be accom- 
 panied with explanatory circumstances, which may either enhance 
 their value up to the point of mathematical demonstration, or may 
 so pare them away as to render them perfectly worthless. In the 
 consideration of the above figures, all that would seem to appear is 
 that there was an increase of education keeping pace with the in- 
 crease of population, and that in the statistics of crime the increase 
 of imperfectly educated people would be as perceptible as else- 
 where. Mere reading and writing, unaccompanied by moral ele- 
 vation, will not reform mankind. Alone, they will not prevent a 
 hungry man from satisfying his hunger. The words of CsesaX' 
 apply to criminals equally as to conspirators : 
 
 " Let me have men about me that are fat, 
 Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep d'nights : 
 Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look." 
 
 Pursuing this question, and turning to the population tables 
 of 1851, the period of the last census, we find that Middlesex was 
 the most generally educated county, taking the signature of the 
 marriage register as the test of education. Eighty-two per cent, 
 signed the marriage register, yet in the ]ist of criminality. Middle- 
 sex stood third of all the counties of England. Gloucester, which 
 was first in crime, was far from being the most ignorant. There 
 sixty-five per cent, signed the register. The general average of 
 the whole population by the same list is forty per cent. Here 
 again is a qualLfying circumstance, London is included in Mid- 
 dlesex, with its vast seething mass of human misery and corrup- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 337 
 
 tion to swell the record of crime, wHle its general population is, 
 of course, about the most intelligent of the British empire, so that 
 in the same spot is found at once the greatest intelligence and the 
 greatest misery. We are not aware of such qualifying circum- 
 stances in Gloucestershire. 
 
 Dr. Eyan, writing on this point, refers to the Metropolitan PoUce 
 Eeport for 1837, by which it appears that of prostitutes arrested ia 
 that year there . 
 
 Could not read or write 1113 
 
 " read and write imperfectly 1231 
 
 " " « « well 89 
 
 Had received a good education 4 
 
 Total ^I03 
 
 This is a tolerably fair criterion ; for although, as before said, the 
 police only interfere with peace-breakers, and all these came un- 
 der the technical term of "drunk and disorderly," still we beheve 
 the state of prostitution in London to be such that an average pro- 
 portion of all classes of courtesans pass through the hands of the 
 police during the year. 
 
 Mr. Tait, speaking of Edinburgh, confirms the view put forward 
 as to educational influences. A large proportion of the Edinburgh 
 prostitutes (eighty-seven per cent.) read and write. The Scottish 
 peasantry are perhaps the best-educated in Europe, and those girls 
 who come to Edinburgh from the country are no exception to 
 the rule. The uneducated, Mr. Tait thinks, are city girls. 
 
 As to the religious denomination of prostitutes, for that a pros- 
 titute may have a religion we may say, in the kindly spirit of 
 Corporal Trim, but doubtingly, " A negro has a soul, your honor." 
 In Edinburgh they iaclude all sects except Independents, Baptists, 
 and Quakers. There may be those who smile at the idea of a 
 prostitute having any belief How many of us are there whose 
 actions are accordant with our religious professions? Of London 
 we have no data on this point. 
 
 Illegitimate Births seem, by common consent of most writ- 
 ers, to be classed with details of prostitution. In France, it is said 
 by those who profess intimate local knowledge, there is almost a 
 prejudice against marriage, although it can be performed as a legal 
 ceremony. We think Bayle St. John states this fact. In the 
 poorer districts of London, the east end, for example, it is notorious 
 that numbers live in a state of concubinage. Again : in the coun- 
 tiy, and away from the dense population of towns, a woman of im- 
 
338 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 moral habits may often be found who has had two or three illegit* 
 jmate children bj different men with whom she h*. cohabited. 
 Such a woman would most probably have been a prostitute in a 
 town; as it is,>she is no better; still, she is not. a prostitute for 
 hire. But to proceed to details. - 
 
 ,, The number of illegitimate births in every thousand births in 
 J^e various counties is as follows: • ,, : , -;. 
 
 Suffolk 81 1 York 71 
 
 Derby 81 Stafford .... 69 
 
 Berks 19 'Sussex ..... 68 
 
 Leicester . . : 79 Cambridge. . . 66 
 
 Cumberland . . 108 
 Norfolk .... 105 
 Hereford. ... 100 
 Salop ..... 99 
 Nottingham ; . • 91 
 Cheshire . v . ' 89 
 Westmoreland . • 8.1 
 
 North Wales . . 78 
 South Wales - 72 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Middlesex . . .' 40 
 
 Cumberland is a pastoral and mountainous county, with a thin- 
 ly-settled population, Norfolk is an agricultural and grazing 
 county, broken np into large farms. Neither county has many 
 large towns. Stafford is a manufacturing county, with a long list 
 of thickly-populated small towns, in which as great indigence and 
 misery can be found as in any part of England. Middlesex con- 
 tains London. Here, then^ we see at once that illegitimacy and 
 prostitution are not, the same thing. Where there are no prosti- 
 tutes there are basta,rdsj, but the women in the coxmtry are mostly 
 employed ; they are obliged to work in the fields, rough country 
 labor, or in some domestic manufecture such as button-making, 
 stocking-making, etc. 
 
 An apparent paradox may be here mentioned, although not in- 
 timately affecting these investigations. The preponderance of bas- 
 tards is accompanied by a preponderance of early marriages. This 
 has been accounted for by the theoiy that both are dependent on 
 sexual instincts precociously or excessively stimulated, which 
 seek marriage when practicable, or illicit intercourse where not.* 
 
 Dlegitimacy is somewhat regulated by the disproportionate 
 number of the sexes. In an excess of females there are few bas- 
 tards ; in an excess of males there are many. Upon this fact, un- 
 attended by qualifying circumstances, might be based an argument 
 
 ' It would be interesting to know whether this illicit intercourse is by way of co- 
 habitation or merely temporary. Instances are not rare of people cohabiting who 
 allege themselves too poor to pay the marriage fees. In order to obviate tlus, it is 
 customary for ministers in poor and populous parishes in England, where the cir- 
 cumstances of individual parishioners are not kitown tothem, to invite all parties 
 who are living in concubinage to come and be married free of expense. Many avail 
 .themselves of this offer. r 
 
GEEAT BBI'l^AIl?. 339 
 
 as to the innate sexual instinct in females. It might have been 
 expected the relations would be somewhat different, namely, an 
 increase of prostitution with an excess of men, but an increase of 
 bastards with an excess of women. 
 
 The number of rapes in England seems to be governed by the 
 excess of men over women. Where the number of illegitimate 
 children exceeds the average, rape is less frequent. 
 
 The cases of abuse of children between the ages of ten and 
 twelve are three in every ten million of the whole population. 
 There is some difficulty in this matter, arising from a legal tech- 
 nicality on the subject of age. In any case, neither of the last 
 items of criminahty is of any value, inasmuch as they include 
 only those cases judicially investigated and proved to conviction. 
 Many are guilty, yet acquitted ; and many more are never charged 
 with the offense. Shame prevents parties prosecutiag ; or, in the 
 case of children, the fact does not transjpire, or else it is compro- 
 mised. 
 
 Keeping a brothel is, as we have said, an offense at common 
 law. We have a computation of the number of offenses of this 
 kind based upon every ten milHon of the population. In Middle- 
 sex it was two hundred and ninety-six; in Lancashire one hundred 
 and eighty 'three. Both counties iaclude'4he most populous towns 
 in England. Lancashire contains Mandhester and Liverpool; 
 This fact also is of little value, owing to the peculiar administra- 
 tion of the law on the subject. Eemote or indirect injuries to the 
 public safety are not noticed in England. The police may be well 
 aware of crime meditated and planned, and of the hsiunts of crime, 
 but the theory of public justice is cure, not prevention. ' ■ 
 
 Concealment of birth is an offense which, as it emanates -from 
 undue sexual iatercourse, is generally associated with prostitution. 
 In Hereford and other counties, the proportion of illegitimate 
 births is eighty-eight out of every thousand born, and there were 
 twenty-two conceahnents to every thousand bastards. 
 
 In four counties the illegititoate births were fifty-eight in a thou- 
 sand, and the conceahnents thirteen in a thousand illegitimates. 
 
 In fifteen counties there were fifty-three illegitimates in every 
 thousand births, and twenty-seven concealments to every thousand 
 illegitimates. 
 
 With the kxgest proportion of illegitimates there are the fewest 
 concealments; namely, with seventy-nine illegitimates out of. a 
 thousand births, there were only twelve concealments to a thou- 
 sand illegitimates. 
 
340 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 It is absolutely impossible to ascertain tbe mirnber of prostitutes 
 in London -with any degree of certainty, and even dfcatisfactpry 
 approximation is exceedingly difficult; nevertheless, it is most 
 important to attain as nearly as possible to the actual facts, be- 
 cause without this knowledge no adequate idea can be formed of 
 the vast seed-bed of disease and corruption in constant action ia 
 a great capital city, shedding forth and disseminating its pernicious 
 growth on every side, through channels unknown and unsuspected. 
 
 Mr. Colquhoun, a magistrate of the British metropolis toward 
 thte cbse of the last century (1796), made an arbitrary enumeration, 
 fixing the number of prostitutes in iondon at fifty thousand. Drs. 
 Eyan, Campbell, Mr. Talbot, and others, carry their estimate in 
 1840 to eighty thousand I 
 
 Mr. Mayne (now Sir KichardMayne), chief commissioner of the 
 Metropolitan Police in 1840, made an estimate of the number of 
 regular London prostitutes, which he considers were then eight 
 thousand and upward. The seemingly irreconcilable discrepant 
 cy of these numbers is no doubt to be found in the loose terminol- 
 ogy of the one party, and the technicality of the other. The term 
 " prostitute" would seem to be best applied to those unhappy fe- 
 males who make prostitution their sole calling, and may therefore 
 be styled "regular" prostitutes, while the larger estimate includes 
 all shades, both "regular" and "occasional" or "irregular," by 
 which is understood those females with whom prostitution is aux- 
 iliary to some reputable calling. 
 
 i We can not find that any reliable or detailed returns have been 
 made on this branch, of public life by the London police, although 
 they must possess peculiar -and exclusive powers of preparing 
 them. As long back as 1837 the following rough calculation was 
 made. 
 
 ' ' 
 
 1st Class. 
 
 2d Class. 
 
 3d Class. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Wellrdressed prostitutes in brothels .... 
 Well-dressed prostitutes walking the ) 
 
 streets ; .......'.... ) 
 
 Prostitutes infesting low neighborhoods 
 
 813 
 1460 
 3533 
 
 62 
 
 79 
 
 U7 
 
 20 
 73 
 
 184 
 
 895 
 1612 
 3864 
 
 5806 
 
 288 
 
 277 
 
 6371,, 
 
 On this return Mr. Mayne very probably based his estimate 
 of 1840.1 
 
 ' While this work was passing through the press, we met with a recent publica- 
 tion by Wm. Acton, Esq., M.E.C.S. of London,- entitled "Prostitution considered 
 in its Moral, Social,- and Sanitary Aspects," which gives later information on this 
 point, The Metropolitan Police estimated the number of prostitutes in London in 
 1841, and again in 1857, with the following results : 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. g^ij^ 
 
 Mr. Talbot, the secretary of the Society for the Protection of 
 Young Females, made the subject one of special inquiry, both per- 
 sonally and with the aid of the local police o£ the different cities ; 
 and although his details are very meagre, he professes to have 
 satisfied himself of the general accuracy of the following figures, 
 showing the regular prostitutes in various cities. 
 
 Edinburgh .... 800 
 
 Glasgow 1800 
 
 Liverpool . , . . . 2900 
 
 Leeds 100 
 
 Manchester .... 100 
 
 AH parties are, however, agreed in representing that it is imprac- 
 ticable to form any thing like a correct estimate of "the number 
 of female servants, milliners, and women in the upper and middle 
 classes of society who might properly be classed with prostitutes^ 
 or of the women who frequent theatres, barracks, ships, prisons, 
 etc." 
 
 In 1851, the police of Dublin published in their statistical re- 
 turns the number of prostitutes in that city, which is the only 
 public or official paper on the point having any appearance of 
 system or accuracy. It is as follows : 
 
 1848 ... . Brothels 385 ... . Prostitutes 1343 
 
 1849 .... « 330 ... . « 1344 
 
 1850 .... « 212 ... . « 1215 
 
 1851 .... « 291 ... . « 1110 
 
 This table shows a steady decrease in the number of thesei wom- 
 en. We are uninformed as to any local causes for this, nor do we 
 know whether it has been balanced by an increase of " sly" or oc- 
 casional prostitution. 
 
 From the preceding figures a calculation has been made of the 
 regular prostitutes relatively to the population in the several towns. 
 It appears to have been based on the number of inhabitants at the 
 date of the various estimates. That of Dubhn is according to the 
 census of 1851, the remainder according to that of 1841. . 
 
 
 1841. 
 
 . 1867. 
 
 Well-dressed prostitutes in brothels 
 
 2071 
 1994 
 5344 
 
 921 
 2616 
 6063, 
 
 ■Well-dressed prostitutes walking the streets. . 
 
 Prostitutes infesting low neighborhoods 
 
 Total 
 
 9409 
 
 8600 
 
 Mr. Acton says, "The return gives, after all, but a faint idea of the grand to- 
 tal of prostitution. * * * * Were there any possibility of reckoning all those 
 in London who would come within the definition of prostitutes, I am inclined to 
 think that the estimates of the boldest who hare preceded me would be thrown into 
 the shade."— P. 16-18. 
 
342 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITIJTION. 
 
 Pkoportion of Prostitutes to Populatioii. 
 
 
 Ntimber of 
 Prbstitates. 
 
 Proportion to Population. ] 
 
 To Males. 
 
 To Females. 
 
 To total 
 Population. 
 
 Liverpool 
 
 Manchester... 
 Leeds 
 
 2900 
 
 700 
 
 700 
 
 800 
 1800 
 IIZ.O 
 
 350 ' 
 
 Ito 43 
 1 to 156 
 Ito 70 
 1 to 106 
 1 to 87 
 J, to 101, 
 'Ito 113 
 
 Ito 45 
 1 to 169 
 Ito 75 
 1 to 130 
 Ito 97 
 1 to 119 
 1 to 134 
 
 Ito 88 
 1 to 325 
 1 to 145 
 1 to 236 
 1 to 184 
 1 to 220 
 1 to 247 
 
 Edinburgh.... 
 
 Glasgow 
 
 Dublin 
 
 Cork' 
 
 
 The mean p£ the above may be taken as a fair representation of 
 the general state of the kingdom. The qualifying circumstances 
 to which we haye already made allusion as peculiar to each city 
 or district are^ of course, neutralized by the aggregate. 
 
 For example^ Liverpool is a great sea-port town, and a large 
 number of regular prostitutes would be inevitable there. In Man- 
 cheater) a large manufacturing city^ with an immense pauper and 
 factory operative population, the trade of prostitution would meet 
 with less profitable custom ; accordingly, we find the proportion 
 much smaller. Glasgow is both manufacturing and commercial^; 
 there, again, the proportion is larger. Dublin has but little com- 
 merce, but is a capital city, and has a court and a large garrison. 
 The combination of all these circumstances is found in London, 
 and a fair estimate would be obtained by adding all the preceding 
 proportions together, which would give a mean of about 1 in 232, 
 and this upon the population (2,362,000) is within a fraction of 
 ten thousand: 
 
 We have seen that Mr. Mayne in 1840 stated his opinion to be 
 that there were about eight thousand regular prostitutes in London, 
 qualifying that statement by a profession of total ignorance as to 
 the irregulars who did not make prostitution their only means of 
 living. Mr. Mayne had peculiar sources of information open to 
 him, and it is more than probable that his opinion was well found- 
 ed. From the above calculation, from the best sources available 
 to us on this very obscure question, we are satisfied to assume ten 
 thousand as at least a probable approximation to the number of 
 r^wfar prostitutes in London. 
 
 Mr. Mayne, in his statement on this subject, mentioned that 
 
 » An estimate of Cork was made in 1847 for the Medico- Chirurgioal Bemetn, 
 which gave two hundred and fifty prostitutes living in eighty brothels, besides one 
 hundred clandestine prostitutes. Their ages were stated as between sixteen and 
 twenty years. 
 
GKEAT BRITAIN. 343 
 
 tbere were 3335 brothels. 'Some autliors have attempted to make 
 a calculation of the mirnber of prostitutes on the basis of this num- 
 ber of houses ; one has assumed three, another ten. : Dr. Wardlaw 
 has fixed upon five women per house, without, as' it appears to us, 
 any precise reason for preferring that figure; These different opin- 
 ions may be thus worked ou,tri' V >>.;,,:„, , ■ . . 
 
 5 women in eaci hoiise would give .''.,. . . 16,6Y5 piostitutes. 
 4 « " « (as in Dublin) would give 13,340 « . / 
 3 " « « (as, in Cork) ■ «, « 10,005 « 
 
 We have not been able to obtain Mr. Mayne's statement ipsissimis 
 verbis, and failing that we may be in error, but we should be in- 
 clined to think that, in his of&cial capacity as a magistrate, and in 
 his personal character as a lawyer, Mr. Mayne would be apt to as- 
 sign the term, ." Ijrothel" indiscriminately to all houses trading in 
 prostitution, ■y^heitheriliouses.qf assignation oj: houses in whiph pros- 
 titutes habitually r,eside. If our reading of the word ',.' brothels' ' in 
 this sense be correct, it is clear that any .attempt to enumerate on 
 theba^isofthe women attached to each house would be fallacious. 
 The expression used by the Dublin police is "houses frequented 
 or occupied," and its ambiguity shows that the authorities there 
 considered the word '-'brothel" in the sense given to it by Enghsh 
 jurists. 
 
 How does this number of ten thousand regular prostitutes bear 
 on the population ? i i , > , 
 
 In London there are, above twenty' yfears of ag;e,' ' 
 
 1 -Male. " Female. 
 
 Bachelors 196,857: 
 
 Spinsters (^ 246,124 
 
 Hus))auds , 398,624 ,,.,, „ 
 
 Wlve^ , . . . • r • 406,266 
 
 Widowers''. . . . .' . 37,064 
 
 "Widows ;'/ ^ 110,028 
 
 Totals . . . '633,545 762,418 
 Omitting fractions, the propD'rtions 'wolild be, ' ' ' 
 
 On bachelors and widowers .' . ;' i ... 1 in 23 
 " total' male ^population . . 'J^ • .' J . '. .1 " 63 
 « "ufemale '^ ........ 1 '? 76 ' 
 
 "i aggregate population .9,bove twenty years of age 1 " 139 
 ;. This wottld,;establish ten thousand as the nucleus of the pros- 
 titution, system: of London. (Those females who come within the 
 designation- of" irregular prostitutes" are' in no respect less preju- 
 dicial ,tci the fio^iaiwi^J .'h^'i^' tlis " regulars.". The. diflference is 
 that they have some other real or nominal occupation, which they 
 
344 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 follow according to circumstances. An even moderately correct 
 estimate of their number is little better than guess--w<i-k, and we 
 therefore think it expedient to put our readers in possession of 
 our own limited means of information, and take them on to a 
 conclusion. There are so many elements to be taken into the 
 account, and the data are so scanty, that we only consider our- 
 selves justified in intimating an opinion rather than announcing 
 a satisfactory conclusion. 
 
 To show the extremes to which the doctrine of possibilities may 
 lead in this development of misery and vice, we will recur to the 
 statement of some of the London prostitute needle-women them- 
 selves. "We quote from Mayhew's letters to the Morning Chron- 
 icle: 
 
 "I now come to the second test that was EwJopted in order to verify my 
 conclusions. This was the convening of such a mimber of needle- women and 
 slop-workers as would enable me to arrive at a correct average as to the 
 earnings of the class. I was particularly anxious to do this, not only with 
 regard to the more respectable portions of the operatives, but also with ref- 
 erence to those who, I had been given to understand, resorted to prostitution 
 in order to eke out their subsistence. I consulted a friend, who is well ac- 
 quainted with the habits and feelings of slop-workers, as to the possibility 
 of gathering together a number of women who would be willing to state that 
 they had been forced to take to the streets on account of the low prices for their 
 work.i He told me he was afraid, from the shame of their mode of life be- 
 coming known, it would be almost impossible to collect together a number 
 of females who would be ready to say as much publicly. However, it was 
 decided that at least the experiment should be made, and that every thing 
 should be done to assure the parties of the strict privacy of the assemblage. 
 It was arranged that this gentleman and myself should be the only male 
 persons visible on the occaaon, and that the place of meeting should be as 
 dimly lighted as possible, so they could scarcely see or be seen by one another 
 or by us. Cards of admission were issued privately, and, to my friend's as- 
 tonishment, as many as twenty-five came on the evening named to the ap- 
 pointed place, intent upon making known the sorrows and sufferings that had 
 driven them to fly to the streets, in order to get the bread which the wretch- 
 ed prices paid for their labor would not permit them to obtain. 
 
 « Never in all history was such a sight seen or such tales heard. There, 
 in the dim haze of the large bare room in which they met, sat women and 
 girls, some with babies sucking at their breasts, others in rags, and even 
 those borrowed in order that they might come and tell their misery to the 
 
 ' This may be deemed a foregone conclusion, but it was based upon previous in- 
 quiries in individual cases. 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. g^g 
 
 •world. I have witnessed many a scene of sorrow lately ; I have heard sto- 
 ries that have unmanned me ; but never, till last "Wednesday, had I heard or 
 seen any thing so solemn, so terrible as this. If ever eloquence was listened 
 to, it was in the outpourings of these poor, lorn mothers' hearts for their 
 base-bora little ones, as each told her woes and straggles, and published her 
 shame amid the convulsive sobs of others— nay, of aU present. Behind a 
 screen, removed from sight, so as not to wound the modesty of the women, 
 who were nevertheless aware of their presence, sat two reporters from this 
 journal, to take down verbatim the confessions and declarations of those 
 assembled, and to them I am indebted for the following report of the state- 
 ments made at the meeting." 
 
 Then follow a series of most heart-rending statements, all to the 
 same purport as those quoted in other parts of this work, and bear- 
 ing all the internal evidence of truth. The letter concludes with 
 the following sentence : 
 
 " They were unanimous in declaring that a large number of the trade 
 
 probably one fourth of the whole, or one half of those who had no husbands 
 or parents to support them— resorted to the streets to eke out a living. Ac- 
 cordingly, assuming the government returns to be correct, and that there 
 are upward of eleven thousand females under twenty living by needle and 
 slop work,i the numerical amount of prostitution becomes awful to contem- 
 plate." 
 
 Thus, then, we have it in evidence that "probably" one fourth 
 of all women engaged in sewing occupations for a livelihood are 
 compelled to have occasional recourse to prostitution as their 
 only and compulsory refuge from starvation. 
 
 The number of women engaged in these sewing occupations is 
 enormous. According to the census of 1851, they constitute, in- 
 deed, the main support of the female working population through- 
 out Great Britain, exclusive of domestic servants, laundresses, and 
 persons employed in agricultural pursuits, and in the cotton and 
 linen fectories. The figures for the three kingdoms are as follows : 
 
 Hatters .... 3,500 
 Straw-hat-makers . 20,500 
 Bonnet-makers . . 1,600 
 Cap-makers . . . 4,'?00 
 Furriers .... 1,900 
 
 Tailors 11,600 
 
 Shawl-makers . . 3,200 
 
 Milliners . . . 261,400 
 
 Seamstresses . . 12,900 
 
 Stay-makers . . 12,100 
 
 Stocking-makers . 30,100 
 
 Glovers .... 25,300 
 
 Case-makers . . 31,400 
 
 ' We do not understand this figure. The sum of the sewing trades of London 
 is nearly twenty times this number. Perhaps Mr. Mayhew refers only to slop-work, 
 including the, very commonest garments, both woolen and cotton, or even to that por- 
 tion of the trade that have their principal abode in the particular localities visited. 
 
^46 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 In all Great Britain this class numbers . .... 1,181,600 : 
 Of whom there are under twenty years of age . ,. .gi^ 458,168 .. 
 
 We have not the details- of the occupations of London, but the 
 proportion which the population of the metropolis bears to that 
 of Great' Britain is about one ninth. One ninth of the above 
 "aggregate would givb fot London about 196,500 women engaged 
 in the sewing trades, all of whom', it may be assumed, are over 
 fifteen. We omit from the consideration of female trades those 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits and factories, such, occupations 
 having comparatively few representatives in the metropolitan dis- 
 tricts, although there are more of them than would be supposed. 
 Laundresses are also omitted, as a very large proportion of them 
 in and about London are, as is well known, married and iniddle- 
 aged women. But another class to which all writers assign a 
 large amount of prostitution are domestic servants, a body most 
 numerously represented in London. There are in the metrop- 
 olis 165,100 domestic servants, the peciiliarly unprotected char- 
 acter of whom, as a class, may be inferred from the singular fact 
 that to the work-house, the hospital, and the Lunatic Asylum they 
 supply an immense number of inmates, exceeding that of any 
 other class. 
 
 Thus, then, are shown two very large figures, amounting togeth- 
 er to 361,000, as the stock from which prostitutes to any extent 
 may be procured. Some consideration, perhaps, of the ages of 
 prostitutes, and of other circumstances in the condition of the. fe- 
 male population, may enable us to appreciate the state of the, case 
 without being driven to the necessity of looking qn these enor- 
 mous totals, as incapable of reduction. 
 
 Nature would indicate the period between 15 and 45 as the age 
 during which the trade of prostitution must be carried on. Much 
 has been said as to the means used for decoying young children for 
 purposes of prostitution. Of the fact we are perfectly convinced, 
 but should think it of little numerical importance in the aggre- 
 gate body. The influence of evil communication oil the young is 
 of infii^itely greater mischief, and the extent of.youthful deprav- 
 ity from this cause is very great among the poorer classes, and 
 would oblige us to date the commencing age- of prostitution back 
 to twelve years. 
 
 As to the period of life at which the prostitute's career is term- 
 inated, it is contended by some of the English writers thjatpnly an 
 infinitesimal, proportion reach the age of forty-five in the exercise 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 34.7 
 
 of their soul and health, destroying trade. Mr. Tait says, " In less 
 than one year from the commencement of their wicked career these 
 females bear evident marks of their approaching decay, and in the 
 course of three years very few can be recognized by their old ac- 
 quaintance, if they are so fortunate as to survive that period. 
 These remarks apply more especially to those who are above 
 twenty years of age when they join the ranks of the victims." 
 From the average of Edinburgh, Mr. Tait goes on to assume that 
 "not above one in eleven survives twenty-five years of age; and 
 taking together those who persist in vice, and those who, after hav- 
 ing abandoned it, die of diseases which originated from the excesses 
 they were addicted to during its continuance, perhaps not less than 
 a fifth or sixth of all who have embraced this course of sin die an- 
 nually." Dr. Ryan seems to adopt an opinion that the average 
 duration of life after commencing prostitution is four years.' Cap- 
 tain Miller, of Glasgow, thinks that "the average age at which 
 women become abandoned is from fifteen to twenty, and the av- 
 erage duration of women continuing this vice is about five years." 
 
 The ages of patients admitted into the Lock Hospital at Edin- 
 burgh were as follows : 
 
 Under 15 years .... 42 
 
 From 15 years to 20 years 662 
 « 20 " « 25 " 199 
 « 25 « " 30 " 69 
 
 Total 1000 
 
 These figures alone would go to make out the presumption that 
 the ages ofprostitutes are between twelve andthirty, andthat-j^^ 
 are between fifteen and twenty-five. According to the above table, 
 nine tenths of the number at twenty have disappeared at thirty, 
 and according to Captain Miller's opinion that " cases of reform 
 and abandonment of their Hfe are very rare," the conclusion would 
 be that their career ends in death.^ 
 
 ' The reader will notice that neither Dr. Ryan, Mr. Tait, nor the views as to the 
 duration of life expressed in the portion of this work devoted to New York, agree 
 with those German authors who have asserted the healthfulness of prostitution. 
 See Chapter XVI., Hamburg. 
 
 ' At the meeting in London to which allusion has been niade, Mr. Acton (late 
 Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary and Fellow of the Royal Medical Society) said 
 that, "in his opinion, the subject under discussion was one worth legislating for. 
 As a stirgeon, he had investigated the siibject not only in London, but in Paris and 
 other Continental Capitals, and he could speak with some authority as to the statis- 
 tics of prostitution, and the manner in which the women became, as it were, ab- 
 sorbed in the population by whom they were surrounded. From calculations based 
 upon the census tables, it had come out that of all the unmarried women of full age iii the 
 
 From 30 years to 35 years 
 
 16 
 
 « 35 « " 40 " 
 
 6 
 
 Over 40 years .... 
 
 6 
 
348 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTIOK. 
 
 The duration of prostitution being ascertained, we would find 
 the number of women between tlie ages of fifteen andPtwenty-five. 
 In the whole female population this is one fifth, but the very aged 
 or the very youthful are necessarily excluded from the classes of 
 work-women and servants ; of servants, indeed, there are five and 
 upward under twenty to three above twenty years of age. This, 
 therefore, would indicate very little reduction of the numbers. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that some portion of the above are 
 married women having husbands living, and if so, it is not an 
 unreasonable supposition that their wives are not obliged to have 
 recourse to prostitution ; in fact, the poor creatures themselves 
 seem to imply that immunity. The number of wives is about 
 one third of the whole female population ; of these wives about 
 one fourth are employed in trades apart from those of their hus- 
 bands. K we deduct only such a proportion firom the sewing- 
 women, it makes something when we have to deal with such 
 enormous masses; we should strike off nearly 50,000, leaving 
 only 150,000 sewing-women. 
 
 There is comfort, however, in the fact that, of these sewing- 
 
 country one in every 13 or 14: were immoral. This might appear a startling an- 
 nouncement, but the calculation had been made upon returns, the truth of which 
 had not been questioned. It was a popular error to suppose that these women died 
 young, and made their exits from life in hospitals and work-houses. The fact was 
 not so. Women of that class were all picked lives, and dissipation did not usually 
 till them. They led a life of prostitution for two, three, or four years, and then 
 either married or got into some service or employment, and gradually became 
 amalgamated with society. It was estimated that in this manner about 25 per 
 cent, of the whole number amalgamated each year with the population." 
 
 From these remarks we may deduce the same continuance of a life of prostitu- 
 tion as given in the text, namely, an average of four years ; but they advance an- 
 other theory as to its termination, substituting reformation for death. We should 
 be slow to give an unqualified endorsement to this opinion. That cases of reform- 
 ation do take place, and probably to a greater extent than is generally imagined, 
 can not be denied; but that one fourth of the total number of prostitutes abandon 
 their sinful life every year, and become virtuous members of society, is a conclusion 
 that American experience will not support. In England and on the European 
 continent there maybe a class of men in the lower ranks of life who do not regard 
 virtue as a sine qua non in the choice of a wife ; indeed, the notorious facility with 
 which the cast-ofif mistresses of noblemen or gentlemen can be married to u de- 
 pendent sufficiently proves this ; but in this country public opinion sets strongly in 
 the opposite direction. Here, if a woman once errs, or is even suspected of error, 
 she is rigorously excluded from virtuous society, and, although her subsequent life 
 maybe irreproachable, the lapse is seldom forgiven. The old Eoman law, "Once 
 a prostitute, always a prostitute," is too sternly enforced on this side of the Atlan- 
 tic. Mr. Acton's speech is the first intimation we have met of so very liberal a be- 
 nevolence in England. 
 
GEEAT BEITAIN. 349 
 
 "women, tliree fourths are known to be over twenty years of age ; 
 and if we only assume one half instead of three fourths, allowing 
 the other fourth for the difference between twenty and twenty- 
 five years of age, it brings our figure down to seventy-five thou- 
 sand. 
 
 AU these deductions are, we fear, in excess ; and it must be rec- 
 ollected, moreover, that the above large sums by no means in- 
 clude all the female occupations of London,^ but merely those 
 classes which, either from the temptation incident to their posi- 
 tion, or from the imperative demands of want and necessity, are, 
 by competent authority, supposed to be peculiarly obnoxious to 
 the risk of prostitution. If to this large number of women, which 
 we can not assume at less than 273,000 between the ages of 
 twelve and twenty-five, be added aU the other denizens of a great 
 city unexampled in its magnitude, embracing in itself all the pe- 
 culiarities of all other cities, at once a manufacturing, a commer- 
 cial, a garrison, and a capital city, and, finally, containing the 
 largest population in the world, one such item being nearly four 
 hundred thousand single females o^er twelve years of age, then, 
 indeed, the mass of misery, wretchedness, vice, and crime there 
 accumulated appals the mind seeking to grapple with it, and op- 
 presses us with the apprehension that even eighty thousand, the 
 highest estimate which has been made, is, when understood to iu- 
 clude all contingencies, not an incredible figure.^ 
 
 Englishmen pride themselves, and, it must be admitted, not 
 without reason, on their numerous and admirable public charities. 
 In this particular direction it would seem that public munificence 
 has not been so liberally displayed as in some others. " Joy shall 
 be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over 
 ninety and nine just persons," does not, we fear, apply to minds 
 and hearts of earthly mould. People, in charitable as in other 
 institjitions, like to see a return for their investment; and, not- 
 
 ' We have calculated that there are upward of six hundred thousand women in 
 London between fifteen and forty-fiye years old. The proportion of married women 
 among these would be 370,000 and upward ; unmarried women over twenty years, 
 and widows, about 314,000. 
 
 ' A very singular fact in connection with the census is that there is not a single 
 indivWual returned as a prostitute. This is not. that the authorities do not take 
 cognizance of crime, for there are 23,451 female prisoners in Great Britain, all of 
 whom, however, except 1274, are returned as having some legal occupation. There 
 are 7600 female vagrants, sleeping in barns, tents, etc., of whom 2600 aie under 
 twenty years of age. 
 
850 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 withstanding the immense field for benevolent labor in prostitu- 
 tion, there is a general impression among both the ^blic and of- 
 ficials that it is an irretrievably barren wasteland that it is worse 
 than profitless to squander money and time upon it. The results 
 which have been achieved would, however, show that the exer- 
 tions of philanthropy, although not producing so much fruit as in 
 some other quarters, have not been entirely vain. In reference 
 to these results, too, it must be borne in mind that the discipline 
 of the various institutions is severe, and even repellent, a poUcy 
 M adapted to insure a large amount of success. 
 
 The Lock Hospital is the oldest institution in London for the 
 benefit of lost females, and is devoted entirely to the cure of ve- 
 nereal disease. It was founded in the year 1747, and in a century 
 had cured 45,448 cases. 
 
 The Magdalen Hospital of London was founded in 1758, and up 
 to January, 1844, had received 6968 females. The results were 
 as follows : 
 
 KeoonoUed to their friends, or placed in service or other 
 reputable employment . ». . . . . . . . . . 4t52 
 
 Discharged at their ownfequest .1182 
 
 " for improper conduct 720 
 
 Died 109 
 
 Sent to other institutions (being insane or afflicted with in- 
 curable diseases) 101 
 
 Eloped . _ , 2 > 
 
 Bemaining in the Hospital 96 
 
 Total 6968 
 
 A considerable number of the women, when discharged from the 
 institution, are under twenty years of age ; and it is an invariable 
 rule not to dismiss any one (unless at her own desire, or for mis- 
 conduct) without some means being provided by which she may 
 obtain a livelihood in an honest manner. 
 
 The Lock Asylum was founded in 1787, for the reception of 
 penitent female patients when discharged from the Lock Hospital ; 
 and up to March, 1837, the number of women received was 984. 
 The results were : 
 
 Eeconciled to their friends 110 
 
 Placed in service or employment t 281 
 
 Died 22 
 
 Eemaining in Asylum 18 
 
 Total 491 
 
 Of the remaining number, many had been sent to their parishes ; 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 35J^ 
 
 some kad eloped, and some had been expelled for improper con- 
 ductj but of several even of these favorable accounts had been aft- 
 erward received : some of them were kaovm to be married, and 
 living creditably, and others were earning a living honestly. We 
 have been unable to obtain any account of the operations of this 
 institution since the year 1837. 
 
 The London Female Penitentiary was instituted in 1807. Of 
 6939 applicants, 2717 were admitted into the house. The results 
 were: ' 
 
 Reconciled and restored to friends, placed in service, or oth- 
 erwise provided for . . 1543 
 
 Discharged from various causes 631 
 
 " at their own request 350 
 
 Emigrated 47 
 
 Sent to their parishes 23 
 
 Died 28 
 
 Eemaining in Penitentiary 95 
 
 Total 2Yn 
 
 The Guardian Society was established in 1812, and from that 
 period up to 1843 had admitted 1932 wretched outcasts to partake 
 of the advantages it offered. The results were : 
 
 Eestored to their friends 533 
 
 Placed in service, or satisfactorily provided for ... 455 
 
 Discharged or withdrawn 843 
 
 Sent to their parishes 53 
 
 Died 11 
 
 Bemaining in iostitution 31 
 
 Total , 1932 
 
 Besides these institutions, others have, been established with sim- 
 ilar objects, namely. The British Penitent Female Eefiige, The 
 Female Mission, The South London Penitentiary, and one or two 
 others. As compareid with the great number of unfortunate wom- 
 en in London, these institutions have effected but a very small 
 amount of good. During seventy-seven years, ending 1835, ten 
 thousand and five females were received within the walls of four 
 of the London asylums, of which number six thousand two hund- 
 red and sixty-two (more than three fifths) were satisfactorily pro- 
 vided for, and two thousand nine hundred and eighty were dis- 
 charged for misconduct. Taking the whole of the institutions in 
 London up to that time, it may be fairly estimated that fourteen 
 or fifteen thousand prostitutes have had the opportunity of return- 
 ing to a virtuous life. 
 • TJiose who, like the Pharisee,' content themselves with thanking 
 
S52 HISTOEY OP PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 God that they are not as other men, and even as these imforta- 
 nates, are a very impracticable set to deal with, ancMf such there 
 be who read these pages, we pass them by, and pray for the better 
 health of their souls. The gentle spirits who, imitating a blessed 
 example, think it not pollution to extend their sympathy and sav- 
 ing help to publicans and harlots, may, in the following lines, writ- 
 ten by a prostitute and found in her death-bed, see matter for med- 
 itation, and ground for the belief that aU efforts in the cause of 
 the sinner wiU not be unsuccessful. They were headed 
 
 "verses foe my tomb-stone, IP EVEE I SHOULD HAVE ONE. 
 
 " The wretched victim of a quick decay, 
 Believed from life, on humble bed of clay. 
 The last and only refuge for my woes, 
 A love-lost, ruined female, I repose. 
 From the sad hour I listened to his charms, 
 And fell, half forced, in the deceiver's arms. 
 To that' whose awful veil hides every fault. 
 Sheltering my sufferings in this welcome vatdt, 
 When pampered, starved, abandoned, or in drink. 
 My thoughts were racked in striving not to think ! 
 Nor could rejected conscience claim the power 
 To improve the respite of one Serious hour. 
 I durst not look to what I was before ; 
 My soul shrank back, and wished to be no more. 
 Of eye undaunted, and of touch impure, 
 Old ere of age, worn out when scarce mature ; 
 Daily Sebased to stifle my disgust 
 Of forced enjoyment in affected lust ; 
 Covered with guilt, infection, debt, and want. 
 My home a brothel, and the streets my haunt, 
 For seven long years of infamy I've pined. 
 And fondled, loathed, and preyed upon mankind. 
 Till, the full course of sin and vice gone through, 
 My shattered fabric failed at twenty-two." 
 
 The enormous extent of this evil, its deep-rootea causes, the 
 difficulty of combating it, either by religious arguments, legisla- 
 tive provisions, or appeals to conmion sense and physical welfare, 
 may well deter the philanthropist from the attempt to purify this 
 stable of Augeas ; but benevolence has accomplished tasks as ar- 
 duous, and we can not conclude this chapter better than by a short 
 description of the discouragements which attended the. first efforts 
 
GREAT BRITAIN. 353 
 
 of Mrs. Fry in tlie reformation of the prostitute felons in Newgate, 
 and of the blessed results of her indomitable perseverance and 
 immovable faith.' 
 
 This admirable woman, on her first visit to Newgate, found the 
 female side of the jail in a condition which no language can de- 
 scribe : " Nearly three hundred women, sent there for every gra- 
 dation of crime, and some under sentence of death, were crowded 
 together in two small wards and two cells. They all slept, as 
 well as a crowd of children, on the floor, at times one hundred 
 and twenty in a ward, without even a mat for bedding. Many 
 of them were nearly naked. They were all drunk, and her ears 
 were offended by the most terrible imprecations." The authori- 
 ties of the prison, of course, advised her against going among 
 them: tJiey were sure that nothing could be effected ! She, however, 
 determined to make the trial ; she went alone into what she felt 
 was like a den of wild beasts. In vain the governor reasoned 
 with her : " She had put her hand to the plow and was not to be 
 turned back." In one short month, such was the effect of her 
 merely moral agency and religious instruction, that she felt her- 
 self justified in inviting the lord-mayor, the sheriffs, and several 
 of the aldermen to saitisfy themselves, by personal investigation, 
 of the result of the exertions which she herself and some few lady 
 members of the Society of Friends, who had joined her in .the 
 good work, had effected. 
 
 Thus was conviction forced upon the obtuse intellects of corpo- 
 rate authorities, and hence was dated the era of Prison Eeform in 
 England. 
 
 In our own country, where the means of diffusing intelligence 
 are unbounded, and whose reformatory system for criminals has 
 already claimed the attention of European statesmen and philan- 
 thropists, there can be no insuperable barriei!" even in so difficult 
 an undertaking as that to which our labors are directed. Para- 
 phrasing the opinion of one of the most distinguished essayists of 
 this century,^ we venture to assert that " it is impossible that so- 
 cial abuses should be suffered to exist in this country and in thi^ 
 stage of society for many years after their mischief and iniquity- 
 have been made manifest to the sense of the country at large." 
 
 ' Thomas Fowell Kuxton, on Prison Discipliiw. 
 ' Lord Jeififrey, Edinburgh Beriew. 
 
 z 
 
354 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN. — SYPHILITIC DISEASES. 
 
 First Recognition in England.— Regulations of Henry VI.— Lazar Houses.— John 
 of Gaddesden.-.tQUeen Elizabeth's Surgeon. — Popular Opinions. — Proclamation 
 of James IV. of ^cofland.— jMiddlesex and London Hospitals.— Army.— Navy.— 
 Merchant Service.— St. Bartholomew's Hospital.— Estimated Extent of Syphilis. 
 
 The best English and Frencli writers are of opinion that syph- 
 ilis, as it exists at present, has, in some shape or another, always 
 existed among mankind, although it was not known to science 
 or history, in a distinct manner, until the middle of the fifteenth 
 century. 
 
 The period at which syphilis first made its appearance in En- 
 gland is involved in obscurity, but we know that it began to at- 
 tract attention early in the fifteenth century. The first official 
 recognition of it found on record is a police regulation of the 
 year 1430, during the reign of Henry VI., excluding venereal pa- 
 tients from the London hospitals, and requiring them to be strict- 
 ly guarded at night. In the time of Henry VIII. there were 
 six lazar houses in London for the reception of venereal patients, 
 namely, at Knightsbridge, Hammersmith, Highgate,,Kingslaiid, 
 St. George's Gate, and Mile-End. These localities were doubtless 
 fixed upon as beiug some distance from the city. 
 
 That the disease, however, must have been known long before 
 the period above specified is certain, from passages which are 
 to be found in the writings of the previous century. John of 
 Gaddesden, who wrote in,.1305, and who was a Fellow of Merton 
 College, Oxford, thils speaks, of the possibility of contracting the 
 disease, from leprous women:, "lUe qui concubuit cum muliere 
 cum qua coivit leprosas puncturas intra carnem et corium sentil 
 et ahquando calefactiones in toto corpore.'" Mr. Wm. Acton, upon 
 -whose pages as an English standard writer on. this subject we 
 draw largely, is of opinion that leprosy, which was formerly so 
 common in Europe, consisted merely of what we now call sec- 
 ondary syphilis. Some of the Jewish observances were no doubt 
 •dictated by a scientific appreciation of the influences which pre- 
 disposed the body to the effects, of syphilitic virus. The practice 
 
 ' Rosa Anglica, Pavia, 1492. 
 
GEEAT BRITAIN. 355 
 
 of circumcision seems instituted with a direct view to the preser- 
 vation of the chosen people from venereal contagion, to which, in 
 a hot climate, and with the extreme defioiiency of means for gen- 
 eral cleanliness, they would be liable. 
 
 As to, the typie of the disease in former times, there seems no 
 ground for believing that it was more severe than at present, while 
 its numerical importance must have been much smaller. The fol- 
 •iowing extract is from a treatise by Queen Elizabeth's surgeon : 
 
 " If I be not deceived in my opinion, I suppose the disease itself was 
 never more rife in Naples, Italie, France, or Spain, than it is in this day in 
 the realme of England. • I may speak boldly because I speak truly ; and 
 yet I speake it with grief of minde, that in the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, 
 in London, there hath been cured of this disease by me and three others, 
 within five years, to the number of one thousand and more. I speak noth- 
 ing of St. Thomas's Hospital, and other houses about the citie, wherein an 
 infinite number: are daily cured. It happened very seldom in the Hospital 
 of St. Bartholomew while I staid there, among every twenty diseased that 
 were taken into the said houge, which was most commonly on the Monday, 
 ten of them were infected with the lues venerea,"^ 
 
 It was supposed, in former ages, that syphilis was transmissible 
 by personal communication, tOjUching the clothes, drinking out of 
 the same vessels, or even breathing the same air with infected 
 persons, and accordingly we find the lower orders of people driven 
 out into the fields to die, and physicians refusing to attend the 
 sick for fe3,r of infection. 
 
 Some writers, indeed, doubted this kind of contagious iufluence, 
 and held that it required intercourse, or at least contact." But 
 nobles, and especially the clergy, preferred to ascribe their mala- 
 dies to misfortujie rather than to licentiousness, and sought to 
 '* put down" such innovating doctrines. The consequence was 
 that patients were shunned universally, and left to die or get well 
 without assistance. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that -in 
 numerous instances the disease should assume its most inveterate 
 aspect, and hence the notices found among many old writers as 
 to the supposed malignancy and incurability of what they were 
 disposed to consider a newly-imported malady. That the disease, 
 in reality, differed little from that which exists in our day, is 
 proved by the fact that cases of the once formidable Black Lion 
 are occasionally to be met with in the London hospitals. 
 
 ' A brief treatise touching the cure of the disease now usually called Lues Ve- 
 nerea. By W. Clowes, one of her Majesty's Chirurgeons. 1569 : p. 149. 
 
356 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Cardinal "Wolsey, among other charges made against him by 
 his enemies, was accused of whispering to the ki%, Henry VIEE., 
 and thereby casting his poisonous breath upon his royal grace, he 
 (Wolsey) having at the time "the foul contagious disease" upon 
 him. The belief as to contagion by this means is not entirely ex- 
 tinct, but is cherished by the laboring classes of England, many 
 of whom entertain great prejudices on the score of health against 
 drinking from the same vessel out of which an infected person has 
 partiaken. 
 
 In 14r97,- James IV. of Scotland, in consequence of the fiightful 
 prevalence of venereal disease in his kingdord, issued a proclama- 
 tion banishing the infected from Edinburgh. Hisniajesty "charges 
 straitly all manner of persons being within the' freedom of this 
 hurt, quilks are infectit, or has been infectit, uncurit with this said 
 contagious plague, callit the grandgor devoyd, red and pass fort 
 of this town, and compeir upon the sandis of Leith at ten hours 
 before none ; and thair sail thai have and find boatis reddie in the 
 havin ordainit to them by the officers of this burt, reddy fameist 
 with victuals, to have them to the Infche (Lachkeith), and thair to 
 remain quhUl God provyd for thair health." Those evading this 
 ordinance "salle be byrnt on the cheik with the marking ime, that 
 thai may be kennit in tym to cuni." 
 
 A remnant of this barbarous system was retained in the regu- 
 lations of Middlesex Hospital, London, by which an admission fee 
 of forty shilliugs sterling (ten dollars) was directed to be paid by 
 venereal patients. The reason assigned for it was, that a hospital 
 intended for the virtuous might not be made subsidiary to pur- 
 poses of vice. The regulation, however,* became a nullity, and 
 was repealed, owing principally to the fact that the work-house 
 guardians were in the habit of paying the forty shillings and send- 
 ing in pauper patients, well knowing that the cost of cure in the 
 work-house would far exceed the admission fees. 
 
 In the London Hospital a similar regtdation exists even now, 
 but is openly evaded, however, by the house surgeon describing 
 the disease as a cutaneous one. 
 
 The extent of this 'disease in Great Britain is matter of opinion 
 alone. There are no positive data whatever upon which to form 
 any conclusion with respect to the general population, while the 
 hospital lists are very imperfectly kept, and it is only in the army 
 and navy returns that, we can find any real assistance. 
 
GREAT BEITAIN. 
 
 357 
 
 BRITISH ABMY. • 
 
 The army reports quoted extend over a period of seven years 
 and a quarter, and enter into the details of the various venereal 
 affections of the soldiers, amounting to the aggregate strength of 
 44,611 quartered in the United Kingdom. The cases admitted 
 into hospitals were : 
 
 Syphilis Primaiy . , . , 1415 
 
 " Consecutive . . . 335 
 
 Ulcer Penis non Syphiliticum 2144 
 
 Bubo Simplex 844 
 
 Cachexia Syphilitica ... 44 
 
 Gonorrhoea . . " . . . . 2449 
 Hernia Humoralis . . . .114 
 Stricture Urethra . . . . 100 
 Phymosis and Paraphymosis . 21 
 Total -8072 
 
 Eatio : 181 per 1000 men, or nearly one in five in the whole num- 
 ber. 
 
 These returns show that the venereal disease is of much- more 
 frequent occurrence in the British than in the Belgian a;rmy. 
 
 BRITISH NAVY. 
 
 The navy reports extend over a period of seven years, and in- 
 clude 21,493 men, employed on home service ; that is to say, on 
 the coasts or in the ports of Great Britain. Of this number, 2880 
 were .attacked with'venereal disease. Eatio: one in seven. 
 
 BRITISH MERCHANT SERVICE. 
 
 The returns of the " Dreadnought," hospital ship for seamen of 
 all nations, extend over a period of five years, during which 13,081 
 patients, laboring under surgical and medical diseases, were ad- 
 mitted. Out of these, 3703 came under treatment for venereal af- 
 fections, showing a ratio of two in seven. 
 
 As a mode of testing these returns, we turn to the analysis of 
 the surgical out-patients of Messrs. Lloyd and Wormald, assistant 
 surgeons of Saint Bartholomew's, the largest of the London hos- 
 pitals. These out-patients are attended gratuitously by the hos- 
 pital officers : 
 
 Attended by 
 
 Venereal Cases. | 
 
 Men. 
 
 Women and Children. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Mr. Lloyd 
 
 1009 
 986 
 
 245 
 273 
 
 1254 
 1259 
 
 Mr. Wormald 
 
 Total 
 
 1995 
 
 518 
 
 2513 
 
 These cases were part of a total of 5327 general patients. 
 
 This last item alone would not enable one to form any idea of 
 the number of sufferers from this terrible scourge. There are in 
 
358 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 London nine great hospitals, besides smaller ones, and dispen- 
 saries in every parish, "or division of a large pifish, and other 
 means of gratuitous medical assistance. Suppose the smaller ined- 
 ical foundations put aside, and their patients thrown into the ag- 
 gregate of the great hospitals, we should have 22,617 venereal pa- 
 tients. Suppose the private practice of the London army of med- 
 ical men to yield only half as many more, we have 35,000 vencr 
 real patients inXondon only. Without reckoning the Lock Hos- 
 pital, parish doctors, barracks, and all ihe other institutions, one 
 would very readily iniagine that London alone furnished 50,000 
 venereal patients per annum. 
 
 Again, on the number of single men and widowers in London 
 above twenty years of age (upward of a quarter of a million), the 
 venereal cases, if in the same proportion as among soldiers and 
 sailors, would in the same period amount to 30,000 and upward. 
 
 There is, however, another way of conjecturing the amount of 
 disease introduced into the community by prostitution, which En- 
 glish writers have adopted. The Medico-Chirurgical Eeview, a 
 periodical of high standing, speaking of the extent of venereal dis- 
 ease and its effects on the population, says : 
 
 " There is every reason to believe that, to represent the public prostitutes 
 of England, Wales, and Scotland, fifty thousand is an estimate too low. We 
 presume there will be no objection made to the assumption that, unless each 
 of these fifty thousand prostitutes submitted to at least one act of inter- 
 course during every twenty-four hours, she could not obtain means sufficient 
 to support life. The result of the evidence contained in the first report of 
 the Constabulary force of England was that about two per cent, of the pros- 
 titutes of London were suffering under some form of venereal disease. But 
 yet we will descend even lower, and presume that of one hundred healthy 
 prostitutes, if each submits to one indiscriminate sexual act in twenty- 
 four hours, not more than one would become infected with syphilis ; an es- 
 timate which is, without doubt, far too low, yet, if admitted to be correct, 
 the necessary consequence will be, that of the fifty thousand prostitutes, five 
 hundred are diseased within the aforesaid twenty-four hours. 
 
 " If we next admit that a fifth of these five hundred diseased women are 
 admitted to hospitals on the day on which disease appears, it follows there 
 are every day on the streets four hundred diseased women. Let it be sup- 
 posed that the power of these four hundred to infect be limited to twelve 
 days, and that of every six persons who, at the rate of one each night, 
 have connection with these women, five become infected, it will follow that 
 there will be four thousand men infected every night, and, conseqziently, one 
 million fmtr hundred and dxty thousand in the year. Farther, as there 
 
MEXICO. 359 
 
 are every night four hundred women diseased by these men, one hundred 
 and eighty-two thousand five hundred public prostitutes will be syphilized 
 during the year, and hence one million, six hundred and ffiy-iwo thousand, 
 five hundred cases of syphilis in both sexes occur every tivelvR months. If, 
 then, the entire population had intercourse ■prith prostitutes in an equal ra- 
 tio, the gross population of Great Britain, of all ages, and sexes, would, dur- 
 ing eighteen years, have been affected with prinjary syphilis. Be it remem- 
 bered, we do not assert that more than a million ,apd a half of persons are 
 attacked every year, but that that number of cases occur annually in En- 
 gland, Wales, and Scotland, though the same individual may be attacked 
 more than once. Although it is evident that all the estimates used for 
 these calculations are (we know no other word that expresses it) ridiculously 
 low, yet we find that more than a million and a half cases of syphilis occur 
 every year, an amount which is probably not half the actual number. How 
 enormous, then, must be the number of children born with secondary syph- 
 ilis ! how immense the mortality among them ! how vast an amount of pub- 
 lic and private money expended in the cure of this disease !" 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 Spanish Conquest. — Treatment of Female Prisoners.— Mexican Manners in 1677. 
 
 Priesthood. — Modern Society. ^-Fashionable Life. — Indifference of Husbands 
 
 to their Wives. — General Immorality .-^Offenses.-^Charitable Institutions. — The 
 Cuna, or Foundling Hospital. *' 
 
 The social condition of Mexico is of importance, as it was for- 
 merly the chief seat of Spanish domination in America, and its 
 manners and government gave the key to all the other colonies 
 and viceroyalties which owed allegiance to the crown of Spain.- 
 Whatever the state of the native population may have been when 
 Spanish leaders and their myrmidons burst upon them, and broke 
 up the kingdom of the Mexican emperors, they rapidly succumb- 
 ed beneath the lust, avarice, and cruelty which were ever the dis- 
 tinctive features of Spanish warfare and conquest in every chme 
 and against every people. Of the enormities perpetrated by these 
 soldiers, the history of the Mexican conquest gives us innumer- 
 able instances; but one soHtary example, from Bernal de Diaz, 
 will be enough. He tells us that when they took women prison- 
 ers, they made a division of them at night for the sake of greater 
 peace and quietness, and that they branded them with the marks 
 
360 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of tlieir owners. They were tims at liberty to choose the hand- 
 somest of the Indian women, and reserve them f^ their own uses. 
 What these uses were can be easily supposed. The fate of less fa- 
 vored female prisoners is lefb in doubt ; they were turned over to 
 their savage allies, to be butchered in cold blood, or otherwise dis- 
 posed of as most convenient 
 
 From Mexico the flood of Spanish cruelty and immorality spread 
 itself like a stream of lava over the whole of South America. The 
 chivalry of tie soldiery soon degenerated, and the self-denial and 
 lofty motives, darkened though they were by bigotry and cruelty 
 in some cases, which had distinguished the priests, were lost. In- 
 glorious ease and luxurious indolence now superseded that love 
 of adventure and unconquerable daring which distinguished Cor- 
 tez and Pizarro, and their comrades : no trace of the old heroic 
 character remained save the grinding oppression and reckless sel- 
 fishness whicli usually accompany ambition. 
 
 An illustration of the loose manners which prevailed in Mexico 
 among the clergy is to be found in the voyages of Thomas Page, 
 a Dominican monk, who visited Mexico with some of his order 
 on their road to the western coast of America and to Asia as mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 From this work, published in 1677, we learn that the writer 
 and Ms companions visited the prior of Yera Cruz on their jour- 
 ney, and, after a sumptuous dinner, adjourned, by invitation, to his 
 cell. They found it richly tapestried and adorned with feathers 
 of the birds of Michoacou ; the walls were hung with various pic- 
 tures of merit ; rich rugs of silk covered the tables ; porcelain of 
 China filled the cupboards and sideboards, and there were vases 
 and bowls containing preserved fruits and sweetmeats. " My 
 companions," says he, " were scandalized by such an exhibition. 
 The holy friar talked to us of his ancestry, of his good parts, of 
 the influence he had with the Father Provincial, of the love the 
 principal ladies of the place bore him, of his beautiful voice and 
 skUl in music. He took his guitar and sang us a sonnet in praise 
 of a certain lady." Afterward, speaking of the Franciscans of 
 Jalapa, Thomas Page says : " Their lives are so free and immodest 
 that it might be suspected with reason that they had renounced 
 only that which they could not obtain." After witnessing a gam- 
 bling scene in a convent, he concludes that " the cause of so many 
 Friars and Jesuits passing from Spain to regions so distant was 
 libertinage rather than love of preaching the Grospel." 
 
MKXICO. 361 
 
 The same -writer subsequently passes from portraiture to more 
 general delineation, and thus- depicts the body of the clergy : " It 
 seems that all wickedness is allowable, so that the churches and 
 clergy flourish. Nay, while the purse is open to lasciviousness, 
 if it be also open to enrich the temple walls and roof, it is better 
 
 than any holy water In their lifetime the Mexicans 
 
 strive to excel one another in their gifts to the cloisters of nuns 
 and friars." 
 
 " Among the benefactors was onOj Alonzo Cuellar, so rich that he was 
 reported to have a closet in his house laid with bars of gold instead of 
 bricks. This man built a minnery for Franciscan nuns, which cost him 
 thirty thousand ducats, and left to it two thousand dollars yearly. And yet 
 his life was so scandalous that commonly in the nightj with two servants, 
 he would go round the city visiting scandalous persons, and at every house 
 letting fall a bead and tying a knot, that when he came home in the morn- 
 ing, ho might number, by his beads, the uncivil stations he had visited that 
 night. 
 
 " Great alms and liberality toward religious houses are coupled with great 
 and scandalous wickedness. They wallow in the bed of riches and wealth, 
 and make their alms the coverlet to conceal their loose and lascivious 
 lives 
 
 " I will not speak much of the lives of the friars and nuns of this city, 
 but only that they enjoy there more liberty than in Europe, where they 
 have too much, and that surely the scandals committed by them do cry up 
 to heaven for vengeance, judgment, and destruction. 
 
 " It is ordinary for the friars to visit their devoted nuns, and to spend 
 whole days with them, hearing their music and feeding on their sweetmeats. 
 For this purpose they have many chambers, which they call loquatories, to 
 talk in, with wooden bars between the nuns and them, and in these cham- 
 bers are tables for the friars to dine at, and while they dine the nuns recre- 
 ate them with their voices." 
 
 We need no addition to these deep shadows from the dark pen- 
 cil of so vigorous a limner as worthy Thomas Page, to delineate 
 character nearly two hundred years ago, but we can scarcely be- 
 lieve it equally applicable to the present day. The reign of op- 
 pression in Mexico, it is to be hoped, is approaching its end, and 
 recent events have shown that the population is ahve to some of 
 those truths which were long ago patent to all the world except 
 those most intimately concerned. 
 
 Of modem Mexican society, an accomplished female writer, who 
 had the best opportunities of judging, says : 
 
 "It is long before a stranger even suspects the state of morals in this 
 
862 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 country, for, wliatefver be the private conduct of individuals, the most per- 
 fect decorum prevails in outward behavior. But indolence is <Be mother of 
 ivicp. , They rarely gossip tp strangers about their neighbors' faults. Habit 
 has rendered themtolerably indiflferent as to the liaisons subsisting amo;ng 
 particular friends, and as long as a woman attends church regularly, is a 
 patroness of charitable institutions^ ?.nd gives no scandal by |her outwanj her 
 havior, she may do pretty much as she. pleases. As for flirtations in publiq, 
 they are unknown."? 
 
 The present aniiability of tlie Mexican ladies is i admitted on all 
 bands, as is tbe genial warmth of their manner. • Some travelers, 
 indeed, and among them Mr.Waddy Thompson; are of opinion 
 that this is attributed to thein as a fault, and that the reproach of 
 unchastity is imjtstly urged against thein, as there is no city in 
 Europe where there is less immoraUty. The constant presence of 
 a duenna, and the house-porter, who is an appurtenance of every 
 household of respectability, are excellent checks on immorality. 
 But this would rather argue the necessity of a safeguard not found 
 in the female virtue of Mexico. Besides, these appendages of rank 
 have lost their real meaning, and the duenna may be converted 
 into the convenient cloak or abettor of an intrigue, the more safe 
 as she is the supposed protectress of the husband's honor. A na- 
 tive writer, in summing up the character of his countrymen, says 
 that "they are moderate in eating, but their passion for liquor is 
 cjarried to the greatest excess. The .affection which husbands 
 bear their wives is certainly much less than that borne by wives 
 to their husbands, and it is very common for the men to hve their 
 imighhors^ wives better than their own."^ This one-sided censure 
 presupposes, as a necessary consequence, that the neighbors' wives 
 must show some reciprocity. 
 
 The general immorality of the lower classes in Mexico would 
 almost exclude the expectation of a system of prostitution, as we 
 usually understand the term. Puebla, a manufacturing town near 
 Mexico, is summarily described as having a most devout female 
 popialation, and a most abandoned one ; but this is matter of con- 
 duct rather tha;n of calling. The enumeration of offenses in the 
 justice list of Mexico does not tell of one prostitute, although it 
 contains a large number of persons guilty of *' incontinence." The 
 exact meaning of this offense, in its legal and technical sense, is 
 not given us, but we presume it relates to improper and disgust- 
 ing practices. The charge of "violation of pubHo decency," al- 
 ' Madame Calderon de la Barca. ■ " Clavijero. 
 
> MEXICO. 
 
 36a 
 
 thbugli it may relate to mmtual familiarities, will probably include 
 both indecency and immorality. 
 
 The following table gives the number of persOnla arrested in the 
 city of Mexico in 1851. 
 
 Offenses. 
 
 Males. ' 
 
 Females. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Drunkenness 
 
 1256 
 
 728 
 
 354 
 
 311 
 
 884 
 
 180 
 
 209 
 
 120 
 
 39 
 
 86 
 
 15 
 
 1944 
 
 246 
 
 403 
 
 318 
 
 120 
 
 84 
 
 85 
 
 25 
 
 17 
 
 "3 
 
 3200 
 
 974 
 
 757 
 
 629 
 
 504 
 
 264 
 
 294 
 
 145 
 
 56 
 
 36 
 
 18 
 
 
 Incontinence 
 
 Violations of public decency 
 
 Robbery 
 
 Suspicion of robbery 
 
 
 Picking pockets 
 
 False pretenses 
 
 Breaking prison 
 
 Murder 
 
 Total 
 
 3632 
 
 3245 
 
 6877 
 
 Among a population of inferior intellect, and with the excess of 
 women always to be found in tropical countries, the character of 
 the priesthood becomes of primary importance. On this particu- 
 lar, some writers are of opinion that what was written in, 1677 will 
 apply with almost equal force in the present day ; a position cer- 
 tainly open to doubt.^ 
 
 The lower orders of the priests and friars in Mexico are gener- 
 ally uneducated and frequently hcentious. The most revolting 
 spectacles of vice and immorality are exhibited by some of them. 
 They are remarkable for the rcme appearance they present; but 
 they can not be considered types of the class, for the higher orders 
 and respectable members of the priesthood are exempt from the 
 imputation of such flagrant immorality. Even these are not 
 blameless members of the Church. Many of them have nephews 
 and nieces in their houses, or at least those who call them uncle, 
 but to whom scandal ascribes a closer relationship. 
 
 , Among the charitable institutions in Mexico, perhaps the most 
 important is the Owna, or Foundling Hospital. It is supported by 
 private iadividuals, and the members of the society consist of the 
 first persons in the capital, male and, female. The men furnish 
 the money ; the women give their time and attention,; When a 
 child has been about a month in the hospital, it is sent with- an 
 Indian nurse to one of the adjacent villages ; but if sick or feeble, 
 it remains in the institution, under the immediate inspection of 
 the society. These nurses are subject to a responsible person, who 
 lives in the village and answers for their good conduct. The child 
 ' Waddy Thompson, Mexico in 1846, p. 115. 
 
364 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 is brought back to the hospital when weaned, and remaios in its 
 charge for life. Few, however, are left to grow up in tM asylum ; 
 they are adopted by respectable persons, who bring them up either 
 as servants or as their own children. In this, as in other institu- 
 tions of the same character, the mothers of the children often get 
 themselves hired as nurses. There are usually five or six hund- 
 red children in this asylum.' 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVm. 
 
 CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 Low moral Condition.— San Salvador. — Guatemala. — Yucatan. — Costa Eica. — 
 Honduras. — The' Caribs.— Depravity in Peru and Chili. — "Children of the 
 House." — Intrigue in Lima. — Infanticide. — ^Laxity of Morals in Brazil and Par- 
 aguay. — ^Foundling Hospital at Eio Janeiro. 
 
 The whole peninsula of South America, and the states com- 
 prised in Central America, are involved in the same social system 
 with Mexico, derived as they are by common origin from pure or 
 mixed Spanish blood. The same political circumstances and or- 
 ganization have always affected the various territorial divisions, 
 and whether we consider the semi-civilized nations of ancient 
 Peru and its dependencies, or the savage tribes in the valleys of 
 the Amazon and the La Plata, we find them, after the first irrup- 
 tion of Spanish conquerors, victims of indiscriminate oppression, 
 insatiable avarice, and unsparing lust. South America was long 
 considered a mere treasure-field of the Spanish monarchy, to be 
 worked without liabOity to account by every adventurer who 
 chose to encounter the hardships of foreign travel, or the perils 
 of residence in a tropical climate and amid hostile savages. 
 
 The natives far outnumbered their masters, and the same ruth- 
 less system of depression was extended to them as to Mexico. 
 The consequence was, that before the lapse of many generations 
 from the Conquest, there were but two classes throughout the 
 vast Spanish territories-^masters and slaves. The natural and in- 
 evitable result of servile institutions could not long be postponed. 
 The descendants of the conquerors rapidly degenerated, and im- 
 becility and incapacity took the places of heroism and ability. 
 The original hardihood and daring, which had vanqxdshed un- 
 counted enemies, had traversed unknown wilds, had defied every 
 ' Madame Calderon de la Barca, p. 259. 
 
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMEEICA. 355 
 
 danger, were lost in voluptuousness and self-indulgence. Tlie 
 posterity of those men wlio liad discovered a new world, and 
 swayed tlie destinies of the old by a nod or the stroke of a pen, 
 were unable to protect themselves against the weak ministers of a 
 wom-ou^ despotism, or against any unscrupulous demagogue who 
 could rally a band of roving Indians around him, and maraud the 
 peaceable and well-disposed. A state of political degradation 
 reigned supreme over the whole of South America, only to be 
 paralleled by the debasement of its social condition. 
 
 In Central America, including San Salvador, Guatemala, Yuca- 
 tan, Costa Rica, and Honduras, the condition of the women is very 
 much the same as in Mexico. The statements of travelers in those 
 little-frequented regions are very vague in reference to the subject 
 of public morality, and give us no reliable or detailed information 
 on the specialities which would be of service in this inquiry. In 
 Yucatan, the ladies are said to be somewhat more domesticated 
 than their- Mexican neighbors, and to interest themselves in the 
 management of their households and the education of their chil- 
 dren ; but still the standard of morality is not very high, if meas- 
 ured by United States habits and ideas. ^ In the neighboring re- 
 public of Gruatemala, the free manners prevalent in the country 
 districts of the kindred territories are usually met with f but these 
 would rather indicate low ideas of decency than any actual immo- 
 rality. Difference of climate and of race would make many things 
 tolerable, or even reputable, which our colder skies and more rigid 
 notions would totally exclude from the observances of civilized 
 society. 
 
 The Indian populations of South America have become so com- 
 pletely slaves during long years of bondage that they have lost 
 their prominent characteristics,^ and are but a reflex of their mas- 
 
 ' Norman, Yucatan. ' Stevens, Travels in Central America. 
 
 ' Among the Napuals, a remnant of the ancient Aztec inhabitants, marriage 
 seems to have been under the direction of the chiefs, and consisted in first submit- 
 ting the parties to lustrations, such as washing them in a river, and afterward tying 
 them together in the bride's house, whither the relations brought presents to the 
 
 new couple. 
 
 It was customary for only the kindred to lament the death of ordinary persons, 
 but the decease of a cazique or war-chief was signalized by a general mourning for 
 four days. Rape was punished with death, adultery by making the offender the 
 slave of the injured husband, "unless pardoned by the high-priest on account of 
 past services in war." There were certain degrees of relationship within which it 
 was unlawful to marry, and sexual intercourse in such limits was punished with 
 death. Upon matters of this kind there existed the greatest rigor, for, says Her- 
 
366 HISTOEY or PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ters ia the lowest state of.ignoranoe. The women may be gener- 
 ally described as of very loose ,morals, yet kind and gpntle unless 
 roused-by jealousy, in which case they can use the knife as prompt- 
 ly as their male friends,. It is said they make very affectionate 
 mothers. ,., ,r . i , ^ 
 
 There are a. few tribes who have preserved some semblamce.of 
 nationality. The Oaribs of : Honduras are a hardy , and, athletic 
 race. Polygamy is general among them, three or four wives be- 
 ing a not uncommon number. The husband is compelled to have 
 a separate :hoiise and iplantation for each, and, if he make one a 
 present, he musj; give the others something of equal value. Hje 
 must also divide. his time among, them, giving a week, tO; each in 
 succession. When a Oarib, takes a wife, he fells a plantation and 
 builds a house ; the wife then takes the management, and he be- 
 comes a gentlem3,n., , fte women attend thpir plantations with 
 great care, and, in thC; course of twelve or fifteen months, have: ev- 
 ery description of breadstuff ,un4er cultivation. About Chriatmae 
 they engage several . creers, and freight them with produce, for 
 TruxiUq and Belize, hiring their husbands and others as sailors. 
 It is also the custom, when a woman can not do all the work re- 
 quired on her plantation, for her to engage her, husband as a la- 
 borer, and pay him two dollars per week. Industry and fore- 
 thought are peculiar trails of the Carib women, consequently they 
 easUy surround themselves with necessaries and comforts. 
 
 The data, bearing on the proportion of ;the sexes in the aggre- 
 gate population, although too imperfect to be worth presenting, 
 yet go to show that, as in Mexico, there is a considerable prepon- 
 derance of females.* The disproportion in births is not so great 
 as in deaths ; for, while the number ,of males and females born is 
 nearly equal, more of the ,fprmer than the latter die annually. 
 There are more old women than old men, ascribable, no doubt, to 
 the greater sobriety of the women, drunkenness being a vice 
 which, under the tropics, is rapid in its consequences. . In, Nica; 
 ragua the women number two to one of the male populatioui 
 The Department of Cuscatlan in San Salvador has an excess of 
 1838 women over men, and of 1709 boys over girls. 
 
 Peru and Chili, though neighboring countries, and both in the 
 strip of western coast between the Andes and the sea, present, con: 
 
 rera, "he who courted or made signs to a married woman was banished." Fomir 
 cation was punished by whipping. — Squier's Notes on Central America, p. 346. 
 ' Squier, p. 60. 
 
CENTBAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 357 
 
 siderable difference of condition. Chili is rapidly rising in politi- 
 cal importan(J6 by means of the internal energy of the people, and 
 the development of natural resources by native 'and foreign enter- 
 prise and. capital. 1 1 
 
 It has been asserted by resident eye-witnesses that female vir- 
 tue was at so low an ebb in Chili within a few years, that in most 
 families, even of good standing, there were one or more children 
 who were called " children of the house," and whose parentage was 
 distributed generally among the ladies of thd family. Nay, we 
 have heard that the rites of hospitality sometimes included civili- 
 ties in respect to the females which are usually considered as pe- 
 culiar to certain Oriental nations. A rapid chaiige for the better 
 is, however, .taking place in these usages, and even the sea-port of 
 Valparaiso is described by Wilkes as being greatly improved from 
 the period of his first visit, when, few sailors left it without having 
 lost both their money and health among its women. 
 
 Peru has made but little advance in its recent political changes. 
 The government is in a state of continual anarchy. A new mine 
 of wealth has been discovered in the guano deposits of the Chin- 
 cha Islands, which has attracted great numbers of foreign vessels 
 to its shores. But the wealth acquired from this source has done 
 little for the people. Lima, the capital, has long been remarkable 
 for the levity and dissipation of its inhabitants. The very dress 
 of the ladies, which may have been originally intended to insure 
 seclusion and privacy, has become an emblem of intrigue. It con- 
 sists of a peculiar hood and petticoat, covering the wearer en- 
 tirely, who, when thus in domino, is styled tapadd, and is, by com- 
 mon usage, held to be secure from all impertinent interference or 
 insult. The same term is applied to a shawl worn over the head, 
 so as to cover the mouth and forehead. Under this concealment 
 the wearer is known only to the most intimate friends, and ladies 
 thus attired frequent the theatres. It is favorable to intrigue, 
 and so perfect is the security that any place of amusement may 
 be visited with impunity, and, even if suspected by the husband 
 or relative, she is protected from discovery by the respect attach- 
 ed to the custom. 
 
 Dr. Tschudi draws a very cheerless picture of the st*te and 
 prospects of Peru.' Its moral degradation is significantly typified 
 in the decline of its population, which has been continually dimin- 
 
 ' Peru ; Eelseskizzen in den Jahren 1838-1842. (Peru, Sketches of Travel.) 
 By J. J. Von Tschudi. 2 toIs. St. Gallen, 1846. 
 
368 HISTORY OK PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ishing since the establislimeiit of its independence. That noble 
 land, which contained an enormous popiilation at the^me of the 
 Conquest, numbered in 1836 less than 1,400,000 inhabitants ; not 
 so many as were formerly found in the department of Cusco alone. 
 The deaths in Lima vary annually from 2500 to 2800 out of a 
 population of 53,000 ; in the ten months from January 1st to Oc- 
 tober 31st, 1841, they were 2244, the births in that period being 
 1682, of which 860 were illegitimate. 
 
 "Not less remarkable than the nmnber of illegitimate children is that of 
 the new-born infants exposed and found dead (495). These afford the most 
 striking proofs of the immoraUty which prevails in Lima, especially among 
 the colored people. To them belong nearly two thirds of the illegitimate 
 births, and fully four fifths of the children cast out to die. There is reason 
 to suspect, though it can not be positively proved, that no small portion of 
 the latter suffer a violent death by the hands of their mothers. When a 
 dead child is picked up before the church of San Lazaro, or in the street, it is 
 carried, without a word of inquiry, to the Pantheon ; frequeiitly it is not 
 even thought worth while to bury it. I have seen the vultures dragging 
 about the sweltering carcasses of infants, and devouring them in populous 
 streets. * * * * On comparing the lists of births and deaths from 1826 to 
 1842, 1 satisfied myself that the annual excess of the latter over the former 
 averages 550. 
 
 " The women of Lima are far superior to the men, both corporeally and 
 intellectually, though their conduct in many respects is any thing but ex- 
 emplary. They cling with invincible tenacity to the use of their national 
 walking garb, the saya y manto, in which they take their pleasure in the 
 streets, making keen play with the one eye they leave uncovered, and quite 
 secure in that disguise from detection, even by the most jealous scrtitiny. 
 The veil is inviolable ; any man who should attempt to pluck oft' a woman's 
 manto would be very severely handled by the populace. The history of 
 their lives comprises two phases : in the fuU bloom of their fascinating 
 beauty their time is divided between doing naught and naughty doings ; 
 when their charms are on the wane, they take to devotion and scandal. A 
 young lady of Lima i?ises late, dresses her hair with orange or ^smine flow- 
 ers, and waits for breakfast, after which she receives or pays visits. During 
 the heat of the day she swings in a hammock or reclines on a sofa, smoking 
 a cigar. After dinner she again pays visits, and finishes the evening either 
 in the 'ftieatre, or the Plaza, or on the bridge. Few ladies occupy themselves 
 with needlework or netting, though some of them possess great skill in those 
 arts. 
 
 " The pride which the fair Limenas take in their dainty little feet knows 
 no bounds. Walking, sitting, or standing, swmging in the hammock or ly- 
 
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMEEICA. QQQ 
 
 ing on the sofa, they are ever watchful to let their tiny feet he seen. 
 Praise of their virtue, their- intelligence, or their beauty, sounds not half so 
 sweetly in their ears as encomiums bestowed on their pretty feet. They take 
 the most scrupulous care of them, and avoid every thing- that might favor 
 their enlargement. A large foot {pataza Inglesa — an English foot, as they 
 say) is. an abomination to them. I once heard a beautiful European lady 
 deservedly extolled by some fair dames of Lima, but they wound up their 
 eulogy with these words : " Pero que pie ! .valgame Dio, sparece una Ian- 
 cha .'" (but what a foot ! Good heavens, it is like a great boat !) and yet the 
 foot in question would by no means have been thought large in Europe. 
 
 " The Limenas possess, in an extraordinary degree, talents which unhap- 
 pily are seldom cultivated, as they should be. They have great penetration, 
 sound judgment, and very correct views respecting the most diversified af- 
 fairs of life. Like the women of Seville, they are remarkable for their quick 
 and pointed repartees, and a Limena is sure never to come off second best in 
 a war of words. They possess a rare firmness of character, and a courage 
 not generally given to their sex. In these respects they are far superior to 
 the dastardly, vacillating men, and they have played as important a part as 
 the latter (often one much more so) in all the political troubles of their coun- 
 try. Ambitious and aspiring, accustomed to conduct, with ease the maziest 
 intrigues with a presence of mind thatr never fails them at critical moment^ 
 passionate and bold, they mingle in the great game of politics with moment- 
 ous effect, and usually turn it to their own advantage, seldom to that of the 
 state." 
 
 Add to this picture that,' tlioiigli delicate, modest V7omen are 
 rare, actual adultery is: not often committed by the sex, but that 
 concuTDinage is more common, or rather, perhaps, more public than 
 in Europe, the father being usually rery fond and carefulof his 
 natural children, and a fair view is obtained of female character 
 in Lima. The white Creoles are noted for sensuality, and some 
 of the dances in which they indulge are of indescribable ob- 
 scenity.^' 
 
 The influx of foreign ships. and seamen into Callao, the port of 
 Lima,' has brought in its train the. usual" accompaniments, drunk- 
 enness and debauchery. A few years ago it was almost in decay 
 and ruin; now it . swarms with . drinking-shops ('^uZ^enos) and 
 prostitutes, and is probably^ as. profligate a place as any in the 
 western hemisphere. " : ' f 
 
 Passing to the Atlantic coast of South America, we fiiidEob- 
 ertson,. the, author of" Letters fromParaguay,"vratuig of female 
 Spanisksodefry at the city'of Santa Fe:' V "' " . ' 
 
 " Horace St. 'John. 
 
 Aa 
 
370 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 " I was particularly struck by the extremely free nature (to use the VBiy 
 gentlest expression) of the conversation which was adopted \^h the ladies, 
 young and old. It was such as to make me, with my unsophisticated En- 
 glish feelings, blush at every turn, although such modesty, whenever it was 
 observed, caused a hearty laugh." 
 
 The same author, speaking of female society in Eio, says : 
 " There is no society at Eio, for I can not call that society from which 
 females are excluded. Generally speaking, the husband of a Brazilian wife 
 is not so much her companion as her keeper. His house is the abode of 
 jealousy and distrust, for he can not always stretch his confidence to the 
 point of imagining fidelity in the wife of his bosom, any more than he can 
 rely on the virtuous forbearance of the friend of his heart. His daughters 
 are brought up in Moorish seclusion, and his wife is delivered over to the 
 keeping of a train of sombre slaves and domestics." 
 
 It may be thought that some of these remarks are applicable to 
 periods of time and conditions of society now bappUy passed 
 away. But the poison of moral depravity, when once taken up, 
 is not to be speedily eliminated from the system of nations more 
 than of individuals. A very recent traveler, Mr. Stewart, testifies 
 to the demoralization of female society in all classes.* 
 
 "With such uniform representations of the general immorality, 
 and of the low estimate in whicb female virtue is held in South. 
 America, it is not to be expected that there are any special details 
 on the subject of our investigation. Prostitution is in some degree 
 attendant upon a state of public feeling in which the purity of 
 wives and daughters is held in respect — ^not viewed with 'jealousy, 
 but with reverence. In South. America, even in the present time, 
 females mix but little in society. Their education is very limit- 
 ed, terminates early, and they are always under some kind of 
 guardianship or chaperonage in public. This does not elevate 
 the female character. Freedom and self-respect are tbe best pro- 
 tectives to virtue and honor, and the seclusion of women from 
 general society only serves to invest them witb the attraction of 
 mystery to the Hbertiae, while it takes away from tbemselves the 
 experience and self-reliance in wMcb they find a safeguard. 
 
 In South America generally, the character of the priesthood is 
 unfortunately open to reprobation. In Brazil, tbe priests are re- 
 puted to be free livers. Nearly all of them bave families, and 
 when seen leaving the dwellings of tbeir wives, or of the females 
 they visit, they speak of them as their nieces or sisters. Some 
 ' Stewart's Brazil and La Plata ; New York, 1856. 
 
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA. 37^^ 
 
 unequivocally admit tlie relationship existing, and acknowledge 
 their children.^ The value of the priestly character, in estimatiag 
 the standard of morality among a population is unquestionably 
 great. 
 
 An enlightened native said to Mr. Ewbank, " The priesthood 
 of this country is superlatively corrupt. It is impossible for men 
 to be worse, or to imagine them worse. In the churches they ap- 
 pear respectable and devout, but their secret crimes have made 
 this city a Sodom. There are, of course, honorable exceptions."^ 
 
 Another, a man of unquestionable authority, said, " They are 
 assuredly the most licentious and profligate part of the commu- 
 nity. The exceptions are rare. Celibacy being one of their dog- 
 mas, you wUl find nearly the whole with families." 
 
 At Eio Janeiro there is a Foundling Hospital, estabhshed in. 
 1582, which is a noble institution. The boys are provided for at 
 Botofoga, and are in due time apprenticed to trades. The girls re- 
 side in the city establishment, and are taught to read, write, sew, 
 etc. At each anniversary, bachelors ia want of wives attend at 
 the festival, and if they see girls to their liking, make themselves 
 known. If a girl accepts such a lover, he makes his application 
 to the managers, who inqTiire into his character, and, if satisfac- 
 tory, the marriage takes place, and a small dowry is given from 
 the fiinds of the society. In the management of the institution 
 or the reception of infants, there is nothing peculiarly worthy no- 
 tice. But if those who are averse to such institutions contrast 
 the blessed results of saving these helpless infants from misery, 
 and the horror of beholding their dead bodies cast on dunghills, 
 to be devoured as carrion by obscene animals and birds of prey, 
 as has been mentioned in the notice of Lima, they would, on such 
 grounds, even if there were no better to be urged, suspend a hasty 
 judgment on Foundling Hospitals. 
 
 • Ewbank's Brazil, p. 135. ' lb. p. 141, 
 
372 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 Decrease of the Indian Race. — Treatment of Females. — Courtship. — Stealing 
 Wives. — Domestic Life among the Crow Indians. — "Pine Leaf." — Female Pris- 
 oners. — Marriage. — Conjugal Relations. — Infidelity. t— Polygamy. — Divorce. — 
 Female Morality, — Intrigue and Revenge.— Decency of Outward Life. — Effects 
 of Contact with White Men. — Traders. 
 
 The aboriginal intabitants of tbe vast continent of America 
 bave been variously described by different writers, one man land- 
 ing tbem as models of chivalry and virtue, another decrying them, 
 as the personification of meanness and vice. Hence it is only at, 
 a recent period, comparatively speaking, that any reliable infor- 
 mation has been obtainable on the subject. In the limited space 
 that can be given to a consideration of the Indian and his social 
 h&,bits, we shall endeavor to reject both romance and vituperatiomi 
 We do not believe him so stoically virtuous as the former class 
 of writers depict, nor do we think that all of the race are so deep- 
 ly sunk in depravity as the latter represent. 
 
 In addition to the authorities quoted in the progress of the 
 chapter, we are under obligations to Mr. Horace St. John's article 
 on Prostitution, incorporated by Mr. Mayhew in his tracts on 
 "London Labor and the London Poor." 
 
 At the time of the settlement of Jamestown and Plymouth, it 
 was estimated that there were about two millions of Indians scat- 
 tered over this continent. They were then a brave and hardy 
 people, who lived on the produce of the chase,, varying their lo- 
 cations as the facilities for hunting required. When the last census 
 of the United States was taken, their numbers were about four 
 hundred thousand, exclusive of fifteen thousand in Canada and 
 the British possessions. This decrease has been ascribed to the 
 occupation of their hunting-grounds by white men, and the con- 
 sequent extermiaation of the game upon which they depended for 
 subsistence ; the free use of intoxicating liquors, and the iutroduc: 
 tion of smaU-pox and other fatal diseases. These causes wiU, in 
 all probability, result in the entire extinction of the race. In the 
 
NOETH AMERICAN INDIANS. 373 
 
 Small number mentioned are many half-breeds, children of white 
 fathers and Indian mothers. 
 
 It might naturally be supposed that in the several tribes com- 
 posing this people there would exist great diversity of manners, 
 but these are found only in minor particulars. The social insti- 
 tutions of the North American Indians are so generally uniform 
 as to render it possible to sketch the whole at one view. 
 
 Their occupations are still confined to the chase and the war- 
 path. To perform a round of daily labor, even though it insured 
 the most ample provision for his wants, would be contrary alike 
 to, the inclination and the supposed dignity of the EedMan, who 
 will scarcely deign to follow any pursuit which does not com- 
 bine enterprise and excitement. Woman, therefore, becomes the 
 drudge and slave ; upon her devolves the duty of cultivating the 
 ground, whenever any attempt is made to assist the spontaneous 
 efforts of Nature ; she it is who must bear the load of game which 
 her husband has killed ; must carry wood and water, build huts, 
 and make canoes. In fishing, and in -leaping their scanty har- 
 vest, the man will, at times, condescend to assist her, but other- 
 wise all the labor falls to her .share. In those tribes visited by 
 traders, her duties are stiU li^vier ; she must join in the hunt, and 
 afterward dress and p]:ppa,re the skins and furs which are to be 
 bartered for whisky .and other luxuries. To this degraded con- 
 dition the women ^seem perfectly reconciled, and expertness at the 
 assigned employment is a source of pride to them. 
 
 The treatment of the female sex is generally admitted to be a 
 standard by, which man's moral qualities can be estimated. It 
 iqay be doubted if this rule would apply to the Indian tribes, for 
 those who treat their females most mildly are by no means the 
 most virtuous, nor is their deference attended by any increase of 
 attachment,, the general opinion of a wife's value being the con- 
 sideration of her capacity to be useful. "Where they aid in pro- 
 curing food or luxuries for the tribe, they are held in more esteem ; 
 while in places where the chief burden of providing rests upon 
 the men, they are treated with severity.^ 
 
 Even when oppressed with these laborious occupations, the 
 women have as much native vanity in respect to decoration as 
 the sex in any part of the world ; and an accurate observer re- 
 marks that, "Judging from the time a squaw often occupies in 
 arranging her hair, or disposing her scanty dress, or painting her 
 ' Lewis and Clarke's Expedition across the Bocky Mountains, toI. ii. p. 144. 
 
374 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 round cheeks with glaring circles of vermilion, it is evident that 
 personal ornament occupies as much of her thouglro as among 
 fashionable women in civilized society.'" 
 
 Courtship and marriage are differently arranged among various 
 tribes. The predominant custom is for a man to procure a wife 
 by purchase &om her father, thus acquiring a property over which 
 he has absolute control, and which he can barter away or dispose 
 of in any manner he pleases. The example of Powhatan, who was 
 chief ruler over thirty tribes in Virginia at the time of the English 
 colonization, is a case in point. It is said that he always had a 
 multitude of wives about him, and when he wearied of any would 
 distribute them as presents among his principal warriors. In most 
 cases the woman is not consulted at all, the whole transaction be- 
 ing a mercantile one; in others an infant female is betrothed by 
 her father (for a consideration) to some man who require? a wife, 
 either for himself or for his son. The girl remains with her par- 
 ents untU the age of puberty, when the contract is completed, at 
 which time the father often makes a present to the husband equal 
 in value to the price originally, paid for his daughter.* 
 
 Another mode of obtaining a wife is to steal a girl from some 
 neighboring tribe. Captaia Clarke, -who crossed the Eocky Mount- 
 ains in the years 180^1806, as one of the leaders of an expedition 
 ordered by the executive of the United States, records instances 
 of this kind. He says, "One of the Ahnahawaya had stolen a 
 Minnetaree girl. The whole nation immediately espoused the 
 quarrel, and one hundred and fifty of the warriors were marching 
 down to avenge the insult. The chief took possession of the girl, 
 and sent her by messengers to the hands of her countrymen in 
 time to avert the threatened calamity."^ "A young Minnetaree 
 had carried off the daughter of a chief of the Mandans. The fa- 
 ther went to the village and found his daughter, whom he brought 
 home, and at the same time took possession of a horse belonging 
 to the offender. This reprisal satisfied his vengeance. The steal- 
 ing of young women is one of the most common offenses."* 
 
 A more peaceable kiad of preliminary to matrimony is for a 
 man desiring a wife to offer a small present to the woman : if 
 she accepts it and offers him one in return, the match is coniplete; 
 or he may tell her his wishes without any introductory gift, and, 
 if agreeable, she will reply accordingly. Others will not venture 
 
 > Thatcher's Indian Traits, vol. i. p, 61. 
 
 ' Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, i. 368. ' lb. i. 16e. * Id. ib. 
 
NOETH AMERICAN INDIANS. 375 
 
 to express their thoughts, but wiU sit quietly by a girl's side, and, 
 if she does not remove from her seat, her assent is understood to 
 be given.^ Still another custom is for the lover to enter the wom- 
 an's tent at night, bearing a lighted torch. If she allows it to 
 bum, it is a sign that his attentions are not desired ; but if she ex- 
 tinguishes it, she thus intimates that he is accepted. It will not 
 require much knowledge of human nature to imagine the conse- 
 quences of these nocturnal visits. 
 
 A recently published work, " Life and Adventures of James P. 
 Beckwourth, New York, 1856," professes to give an accurate ac- 
 count of the domestic life of the Grow Indians, among whom he lived 
 for some years, and became a chief of the tribe, who believed that 
 he was one of themselves, and had been stolen from them in infan- 
 cy. It may be necessary to say that we only quote him on points 
 where corroborative evidence can be obtained from other sources. 
 His character for veracity is questionable, and among the miners 
 of California, where he is known, any extravagant tale is proverb- 
 ially called " one of Jem Beckwourth's lies." His first experience 
 of matrimony, showing that the woman's consent was not asked, 
 but that the arrangements were made by the parents, is thus 
 stated : " While conversing with my father, he suddenly demand- 
 ed if I wanted a wife; I. assented. 'Very well,' said he, 'you 
 shall have a pretty wife and a good one.' Away he strode to the 
 . lodge of one of the greatest braves, and asked one of his daugh- 
 ters of him to bestow upon his son. The consent of the parent 
 was readily given. He had three very pretty daughters, and the 
 ensuing day they were brought to my father's lodge, and I was 
 requested to take my choice. The eldest was named ' Still Wa- 
 ter,' and I chose her. The acceptance of my wife was the com- 
 pletion of the ceremony, and I was a married man, as sacredly in 
 their eyes as if the H6ly Christian Church had fastened the irrev- 
 ocable knot upon us."^ 
 
 Cases are also recorded by Indian travelers wherein a custom 
 more assimilating to civilized notions is adopted. A young man 
 will court a girl for a length of time, using all his endeavors to 
 cultivate her affections, and the woman, upon her part, wiU enter- 
 tain an equal tenderness for him. Again turning to the pages of 
 Beckwourth, we find an instance of this in the case of a woman 
 who attracted his attention. It must not be considered that he 
 
 ' Indian Traits, i. 104. 
 
 " Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, p. 148. 
 
376 HISTORT OF PEOSTITUTIOK. 
 
 ■was a victim of thie romantic affliction called '^first love," for lie 
 had some six or -eight wives in the tribe at the time. Mis deserip- 
 .tion is as follows : ■ ~ 
 
 "In connection with my Indian experience, I conceive it to be my duty 
 .to devote a few lines to one of the bravest women that ever lived, namely, 
 'Pine Leaf' — in Indian, Barcheeampe. She possessed great intellectual 
 powers ; her feature^ were pleasing, and her form symmetrical.- She had 
 lost a twin brother in an attack on the vUlage, and was left to avenge his 
 death. She was at that time twelve yeays of age, and solemnly vowed that 
 she would never marry until she had killed a hundred of the enemy with her 
 own hand. Whenever a war-party started, Kne Le^f was the first to volunteer 
 to accompany them. ..... She had chosen my party to serve in. .... . 
 
 I began to feel more than a common attachment toward her. One day, 
 while riding leisurely along,! asked her to marry me, provided we both re- 
 turned safe. She laughed and said, ' Well, I will marry you.* ' When we 
 return V 'No, blit when the pine leaves turn yeUovr.' I reflected that it 
 would soon be winter, and regarded her promise as valid. A few days aft- 
 erward it occurred to me that pine leaves do not turn yellow, and I saw I 
 had been practiced upon. When I again spoke to her on the subject, I 
 said, ' Pine Leaf, you promised to marry me when the pine leaves turn yel- 
 low ; it has occurred to me that they never turn yellow. Am I to under- 
 stand that you never intend to marry me V ' Yes, I will marry you,' she 
 said, with a coqiiettish smile. ' But when V ' When you shall find a red- 
 headed Indian.' I saw I advanced nothing by importuning her, and I let 
 the matter rest."^ 
 
 It ■would occupy too much space to recite all the details of a 
 long courtship, including scenes in 'war and chase, at the camp, 
 or on horse-stealing excursions ; suffice it to say that the heroine 
 Accomplished her vo^w, and seemed convinced of the sincerity of 
 her lover. She concluded the courtship thus : 
 
 " She then approached me, every eye being intently fixed upon her. 
 •' Look at me,' she said. ' I know that your heart is crying for" the follies of 
 the people ;. but let it cry no more. I am yours, after you have so long 
 been seeking me. I believe you love me. Our lodge shall be a happy one, 
 an J, when yoii-depatt to the happy hunting-ground, I will be already there 
 to welcome you. This day I become your wife.' "^ 
 
 Women ■will sometimes voluntarily ask men to marry them, 
 promising to be faithful., good-tempered, and obedient. This re- 
 quest is seldom refused, as the marriage tie is easily dissolved if 
 the union proves impleasant. Tanner, ■who ■was taken prisoner by 
 a ■war-party, and hved among various tribes in the noxthwest for 
 
 ' Beckwourtb, p. 201. » Id. p. 401. 
 
JSrOETH AMERICAN INDIAN'S. 377 
 
 nearly thirty, years, relates a case in point. The woman's en- 
 deavors to secure him as her husband commenced with an invita- 
 tion to smoke with her. He acceded ; but either his blood was 
 not so warm as that coursiag through Indian veins, or from some 
 other cause, it was long before he consented to the proposed com- 
 panionship, which a Eed Man would have accepted on the spot. 
 The girl resolutely pursued him, and at last, with the consent of 
 her father, took possession of his hut while he was absent. When 
 •he returned, "he could not put the young woman to shame" by 
 sending her back to her friends, .and so they became man and 
 wife.^ 
 
 Beckwourth also had some experience of this custom. " A lit- 
 tle girl, who had often asked me to marry her, came to me one 
 day, and with every importunity insisted on my accepting her as 
 my wife. I said, ' "When you are older I will talk to you about 
 it;' but she would not be put off. 'You are a great brave,' she 
 said ; ' and,if I am your wife, you will paint my face when you 
 return from the war, and I shall be proud.' The little innocent 
 used such powerful appeals that I told her she might be my 
 wife."^ He lived with her until he left the Indians, and her son 
 ■is now (1855) chief of the tribe. 
 
 The women taken prisoners in war are frequently married into 
 -the tribe that captured them, but never to the captors, who stand 
 ia the relation of brothers to them, and by whom they are pro- 
 tected from iasult. A warrior who. has taken a female prisoner 
 usually makes an exchange with another who- has had the same 
 fortune, each being thus accommodated without infringing upon 
 custom. If a man has seized more than he can dispose of in. that 
 way, he generally gives them to any man who will accept them.^ 
 In the same manner, a woman whose husband has been killed in 
 ■battle will ask a warrior, for a male prisoner, who accordingly be- 
 comes the successor of one whom he has probably slain. In these 
 cases the man is adopted as one of the tribe, is kindly treated, and 
 entitled to his share of ajl their advantages.* 
 
 The marriages are without ceremony of any kind; the parties 
 agree to hve with each other as long as they can do so with mu- 
 tual satisfaction,, and the man conducts his bride to his huV at 
 once, or resides with her at her father's cabin. It must not be 
 supposed that the ordinary requiremeiits of a married life are sys- 
 
 > Indian Traits, i. p. 114. " Beckwourth, p. 169. 
 
 ' Beckwouitb, p. 2i2. * Murray's British North America, vol. i. p. 115. 
 
S78 HISTOEY OE PROSTITUTION. 
 
 tematically unheeded, for, as a general rule, tke squaws are faith- 
 ful, to their husbands, who, upon their part, rigidl^^exact this 
 fidelity, even if they do .not practice it themselves. 
 
 The general description of the position of Indian women already 
 -given appHes equally to their state after marriage. They con- 
 tinue sometimes the abject slaves, otherwise the patient servants 
 of their husbands. While he eats the food she has cooked, and 
 probably caught herself, she must wait in submissive silence. At 
 all times she approaches him with the deference due to a superior 
 being. An Indian will never evince the slightest symptom of 
 tenderness toward his wife ; this would be opposed to his idea of 
 manly dignity ; but the eagerness with which he will revenge her 
 wrongs proves that his apparent apathy springs only from pride, 
 or a fancied sense of decorum.^ "When Catlin proposed to paint 
 the portrait of the wife of a Sioux chief, his offer was ridiculed, 
 and it was considered marvelous that he should honor a woman 
 in the same manner he had honored the warriors, as the former 
 had never taken any scalps, never done any thing but make fires, 
 dress skins, and other servile employments.. 
 
 To infer, from these facts that there is no conjugal affection 
 among this people would be erroneous. Notwithstanding their 
 assumed indifference, instances are not rare of strong mutual at- 
 tachment. To an Indian there is nothing inconsistent with- affec- 
 tion in his indolently walking through the forest, while his wife 
 follows him bearing the heavy wigwam poles, his ideas never 
 having been led to consider this as other than her natural duty. 
 Many pictures of domestic happiness are exhibited among the 
 Indians, and the Blackfeet, Sanee, and Blood tribes strongly de- 
 sire that their wives may live long and look young, Heckewel- 
 der relates a singular instance of indulgence. In 1762 there was 
 a scarcity of food among many tribes, and during the prevalence 
 of this famine a sick woman wished for a mess of Indian com. 
 Her husband rode about a hundred miles to obtain it, gave his 
 horse in exchange for a, hatful, and returned home on foot with 
 the coveted dainty.^ 
 
 These " lords of creation" attempt to enforce their marital rights 
 with much severity, and, if their suspicions are excited against 
 their wives, become very indignant, and punish them by beating, 
 biting off the nose, dismissing them in disgrace, or even killiag 
 them. The wife of a Mandan Indian ran away from him ia con- 
 
 « Murray's British North America, toI. j. p. 94. ' Indian Traits, i. p. 136. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 379 
 
 sequence of a quarrel. By, so doing slie forfeited her life, wMcli 
 custom would have justified the husband in taking, and he would 
 have murdered her but for the interposition of the travelers, who 
 " gave him a few presents, and persuaded him to take his wife 
 home ; they went off together, but by no means in a state of much 
 apparent, love." This trouble arose from jealousy.^ In another 
 case, a Minnetaree had much abused his wife for the same reason, 
 and she sought refage in the camp. Her husband followed and 
 demanded her, and she " returned with him, as we had no author- 
 ity to separate those whom even Indian rites had united.^ 
 
 Since an Indian considers his wife as so much property,''equally 
 valuable as his horse, and for the same reason — ^for the labor she 
 can perform — we can easily understand that polygamy is univer- 
 sally allowed, though it is not generally practiced, being confined 
 to great chiefs and medicine-men, as the rank and file are often 
 too poor to buy a second wife. Many follow the custom for the 
 mere purpose of amassing wealth, but others of the stoic warriors 
 delight in the harem from the same sensual motives as a Turk or 
 Hindu. Among the communities that CatUn had an opportunity 
 of visiting, it was no uncommon thing to find from six to fourteen- 
 wives in the same lodge. He mentions an instance in which a 
 young chief of the Mandans took four wives in one day, paying a 
 horse or two for each. These brides were from twelve to four- 
 teen years of age. An Indian marriage at this age is far from 
 uncommon, and, indeed, it appears from good testimony that ce- 
 libacy, beyond the age of puberty is very rare. Some of the fe- 
 males are mothers before they are twelve years old. It is not 
 .universal for the wives to live all in one hut, some tribes requir- 
 ing separate lodgings for each. This custom is in force among the 
 Grows, and Beckwourth relates that, on returning from one of his 
 exciarsions, he made a round of visits to his wives, some of whom 
 he had not seen for months.' 
 
 It is not uncommon for a man to marry his wife's sister, and, 
 indeed, the whole family of girls, on the supposition that his 
 household wiU thus be rendered more harmonious.* For the 
 same reason, a Cherokee will marry a mother and her daughter at 
 one time, though he will not, upon any account, take a wifefrom 
 his own kindred. Among the Oregon tribes it is strictly required 
 that each wife should be purchased from a different family. 
 
 ' Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, 1. p. 135. " lb. i. p. 161. 
 
 ' Beckwourth, p. 179. * Murray's British America, i. pt 94. 
 
380 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 So well established among Indians is the custom of polygamy, 
 'that civilization meets the greatest difficulty in oppoftig it, and, 
 if ever abolished, it will overthrow their whole social system, and, 
 in changing their national character, tend to their speedy extinc- 
 .tion. Sir George Simpson relates an amusing anecdote of an In- 
 dian who came intoithe settled districts of British NorthiAmerioa, 
 learned to read and write, and adopted the principle of monogamy. 
 Eeturning to his tribe, he endeavored to persuade them to the 
 same course. Long. and earnest were the debates on the question, 
 and the finah was, instead of converting them, they reconverted 
 him. He took a great number of wives, foreswore books, and 
 never again appeared in the character of a social reformer. An- 
 other chief- offered to renounce polygamy, he having five wives, 
 .and a large fortune in horses and cattle. Falling in love with the 
 daughter of a gentleman in the service of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
 pany, he dismissed his harem, and presented himself, with great 
 parade and confidence, to make his matrimonial proposal to the 
 lady's family. To his extreme disgust and mortification, they re- 
 jected the honor of his distinguished alliance. He revenged him- 
 self by refilling his hut with women as quickly as possible.- 
 
 If the obligation of marriage, is easily contracted, divorce is ef- 
 -fected with as Utile trouble. It is not often that a separation takes 
 place, for it is held dishonorable to forsake a wife for a trifiing 
 cause, particularly if she has borne children. When it does oc- 
 cur, the offspring are usually permitted to decide which of the 
 parents they will accompany, although Tisage gives the mother the 
 right to take charge of them. In some instances the form of di- 
 vorce is simply for the husband to- bid his wife go; in others he 
 wiU not take the trouble to give her notice of his discontent, but 
 will quietly put his gun on his shoulder and move off him- 
 self.' There are a few instances of this being done for very slight 
 reasons ; but, in addition to the restraint of custom just mentioned, 
 the actual value of the wife is. a subject of consideration. Where 
 a separation does take place, the man wiU often endeavor to re- 
 new the connection. A' missionary mentions a woman who con- 
 tracted a new marriage after her husband left her. He returned 
 and claimed her. The dispute was referred to a chief, and he, ei- 
 ther wanting a precedent or distrusting his judicial capacity, could 
 think of no better expedient than placing the woman at an equal 
 distance jBrom each claimant, and then ordering the men to run, 
 ' Indian Traits, i. p. 128. 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 381 
 
 promising that the one who first reached her should retain pos- 
 session of the prize.^ In some tribes divorce renders it impossible 
 for the woman to marry again, but in others she can make a new 
 alliance as soon as free from the old one. 
 
 It is difficult to form any opinion as to, the morality of females 
 among a people where marriages are contracted and dissolved so 
 easily. We may safely say that they have very little idea of 
 chastity as a positive virtue, notwithstanding their general, al- 
 though not invariable fidelity when married, which, may probably 
 be induced more by fear of consequences than sense of duty. Of 
 prostitution for a price, as known in civilized communities, we 
 find no trace in the Indian nations while in a normal condition ; 
 but if we assume Webster's definition, ."the act of offering the 
 body to an indiscriminate intercourse with men," it can scarcely 
 be claimed that they are free. The predominant motive seems to 
 be an inordinate- sexual appetite, which must be gratified, if not in 
 legitimate marriage, then by illicit intercourse. We are told that 
 in most large assemblies of Indians there are to be seen voluptu- 
 ous looking females, whose passions urge them to this; and Car- 
 ver, in his " Travels in North America," says that among the Ma- 
 nedowessis it was a custom, when a young woman could not get 
 a husband, for her to assemble all the leading warriors of the tribe 
 at a feast, and, when their hunger was appeased, to retire behind 
 a screen, and submit to the embraces of each in succession. This 
 gained her great applause, and always insured her a husbstod. 
 Though the custom is now almost obsolete, the principle still ex- 
 ists, and prostitution is regarded by many as the shortest road to 
 marriage. 
 
 The birth of a bastard child entails little shame upon a girl, and 
 that such children are not more frequent is due less to their chasti- 
 ty than to the means they employ to. procure abortion.. One of the 
 reasons advanced for their early marriages is that the impetuosity 
 of the girls would render it difficult to obtain a virtuous wife if 
 the union was delayed. The confessions upon starting for war, or 
 what is called the " war-path secret," would also favol the opinion 
 that abstract virtue is at a low ebb.- At these tirdes every war- 
 rior is required to relate to his companions each act of illicit inter- 
 course he has committed since the last excursion, naming his part- 
 ner, and enumerating the facts' attending the frailty. This, obligar 
 tion is enforced by the most rigid oaths known to. Indian customs.* 
 
 ' Murray's British -America, i. 94. ' Beckwourth, p. 157. 
 
382 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 This immorality is not confined to the single women, for the 
 squaws are, at times, as ready to take part in an intrigSe as any in 
 civilized nations. Beckwourth, whose experience of Indian man- 
 ners seems to have embraced every conceivable phase of life, re- 
 lates his adventures in this way : 
 
 " A brave named ' Big Eain' was elected chief of the village. 
 He possessed a most beautiful squaw, who was the admiration of 
 the young men, and aU were plotting to win her from her lord. 
 I determined to steal her, be the consequences what they might." 
 Having enticed the husband to a smoking-party, he says, "I went 
 to Big Eain's lodge, dressed and painted in the extreme of fashion, 
 and saw the lady reclining upon her couch. She started up, say- 
 ing, ' Who is here V ' Hush ! it is I.' ' What do you want here ?' 
 * I have come to see you because I love you.' ' Don't you know 
 that I am the chief's wife ?' ' Yes, I know it, but he does not love 
 you as I do. I can paint your face and bring you fine horses, but 
 as long as you are the wife of Big Eain he will never paint your 
 face. With you by my side I could bring home many scalps. 
 ■Then wecOuld often dance, and our hearts would be merry.' 
 ■****' Go, now,' she pleaded, 'for if my husband should return 
 I fear he would kill you. Go, for your own sake and for mine.' 
 'Ko, I will not go till you give me a pledge that you will be 
 mine.' She hesitated for a moment, and then slipped a ring from 
 her finger and placed it on mine. All I had to do now was to 
 watch for a favorable chance to take her away. * * * * The ap- 
 pointed time had arrived, and on going to the place of assignation, 
 I found the lady true to her word — ^ia fact, she was there first. 
 We joined the party, and were absent about a week. We suC' 
 ceeded in capturing (stealing?) one hundred and seventeen horses, 
 and arrived safe with them in. the camp. Meanwhile Big Eain 
 discovered the loss of his wife. When we rode in, he took no part 
 ia the rejoicing, but ordered his wife and me to be surrounded, 
 and, with half a dozen of his sisters, all armed with scourges, ad- 
 ministered a most unmerciful whipping. I. received it with Indian 
 fortitude. If I had resisted, they would have been justified in 
 killing me ; also, if they had. drawn one drop of blood, I should 
 have been justified in taking their lives." 
 
 Without wishing to delay the progress of the narrative, we can 
 not resist the impulse to express admiration of the Indian punish- 
 ment for a seducer of married women. Could the same unro- 
 mantic penalty be duly and zealously inflicted for similar trans- 
 
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 383 
 
 gressions, in places of more pretensions, some of tlie scandals of 
 civilized life would be curtailed. To resume : 
 
 " I sent word to tlie wife of Big Eain that I should go out again 
 the next night, and should expect her .company. She returned a 
 favorable answer, and was faithful to her promise. On my return 
 I received another such flogging as the first. Two nights after- 
 ward I started on a third expedition, my new wife accompanying 
 me, and received a third sound thrashing from her husband. Fi- 
 nally, he grew furious ; but my soldiers said to him, ' You have 
 whipped him three times, and shall whip him no more ; we will 
 buy your claim.' He acceded to the offer, and consented to re- 
 sign all interest and title in Mrs. Big Rain for the consideration 
 of one war-horse, ten guns, ten chief's coats of scarlet cloth, ten 
 pairs of new leggins, and the same number of moccasins.'" This 
 was not a bad remuneration for a faithless woman. 
 
 In another case an intrigue resulted tragically. One of the 
 wives of a Minnetaree chief eloped with a man who had formerly 
 been her lover. He deserted her in a short time. She returned 
 to her father's hut, whither her husband traced her. He walked 
 deliberately into the hut, smoked quietly for a time, and then took 
 her by the hair, led her to the door, and killed her with a single 
 blow of his tomahawk.^ The caprice or generosity of the same 
 chief gave a very different conclusion to a similar incident which 
 occurred some time afterward. Another of his wives eloped with 
 a young man who was not able to support her as she wished, and 
 both returned to the village. She presented herself before her 
 husband and asked his pardon. He sent for the man, inquired if 
 they still loved each other, and on their acknowledgment gave up 
 his wife to her lover, made them a present of three horses, and 
 restored them both to his favor.^ 
 
 "With the exception of some national customs, the outward life 
 of the Indian is generally decent. A temporary interval of wild 
 license, corresponding to the Saturnalia of the ancients, and called 
 the festival of dreams, is common among the Canadian tribes. 
 This carnival lasts fifteen days, and, laying aside all their usual 
 gravity, they then commit every imaginable extravagance.* Our 
 a,uthority does not say whether immorality forms a portion of this 
 relaxation, but from the custom of other bands it is not improba- 
 ble. Lewis and Clarke mention several instances in which they 
 
 ' Beckwourth, p. 238. " Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, i. 166. 
 
 ' Id. ib. * Murray's British America, i. 125. 
 
3841 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 were present at dancing and similar festivals, and witnessed exhi=- 
 bitions of the most foul and revolting indecency. •* > 
 
 Mr. Catlin records his opinion that the Old World has very little 
 of superior molality or virtue to hold as an example to the North 
 American Indians, and we are not inclined to enter into any long 
 comparison of the races. The manners of each have been de- 
 scribed ; and while, it would be unjust to expect the untutored son 
 of the forest to display as much delicacy as his more cultivated 
 fellow-men, it would be equally ungenerous to assert that the 
 white female population, as an aggregate, are governed by the im- 
 pulses which apparently sway the Indian woman. 
 
 But whatever doubts there may exist as to the immorality of 
 the Indian women in their natiiral state, all are entirely removed 
 as soon as they come in contact with the white race. Those in the 
 provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada have rap- 
 idly learned the worst of vices. They' are drunken, sensual, and ^ 
 depraved. The venereal disease commits frightful ravages among 
 them;' in fact, most of their sickness arises from excess of one 
 Mnd or another.. Maclean, in his " Twenty-five years' Service in 
 Hudson's Bay," says that the riien employed by the company 
 are reconciled to their hard employment and poor remuneration 
 by the immorality of the women, of whom numbers are prosti- 
 tutes, selling themselves for the smallest remuneration. On the 
 Northwest Coast chastity is scarcely even a name. The sea tribes 
 are the most licentious, and at some places, where ships touch for 
 supplies, hundreds of women come down to the beach, and by in- 
 decent exposures of their persons endeavor to obtain permission 
 to come on board. Sir George Simpson received a visit from a 
 chief who wanted to negotiate the loan of Lady Simpson, and of- 
 fered his squaw in temporary exchange. i . 
 
 Many of the traders on the Upper Missouri, from motives of 
 policy, connect themselves with, women of the tribes. The most 
 beautiful girls aspire to this station, which elevates them above 
 their ordinary servile- occupations. These engagements are not 
 marriages in our sense of the word ; a price is paid for the girl, 
 and she is transferred at once to the trader's house. With equal 
 facility he can annul the contract, for which her father, is not sorr 
 ryj as he is: thus enabled to sell her over again. The tariff of 
 prices will range from two horses to a handM of awls : such is. the 
 remuneration for which an Indian chief will prostitute his.daugh- 
 ter. , It.mustbe added that pecasionally the couple live perma- 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 335 
 
 nently together as man and wife, tlie possibility of their doing so 
 being always supposed in the first instance. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXX. 
 
 BARBAROUS NATIONS.^ 
 Africa. — Australasia. — West Indies. — Java. — Sumatra. — ^Borneo. 
 
 The relations of the sex^s among uneducated races are modified 
 by every circumstance . of their position, but the natural ascend- 
 ency of the strong over the weak is universally displayed, and 
 wherever woman is allowed , a social rank approaching that of 
 man, it will be found that a degree of civilization has been attain- • 
 ed. Many branches of the human family have advanced, more or 
 less, beyond the utterly savage state, the love of ornament and the 
 practice of exchange having raised them one step in the scale, 
 while they vary as much in the characteristics of their barbarism 
 as civilized nations do in their refinement. Waiving generalities, 
 a better idea of their respective customs will be obtained by no- 
 ticing the position of females among the different nations. 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 Some of the most wild and savage tribes of the human family 
 are to be found in the immense peninsula of Africa. Observation 
 has proved that a medium state of refinement is accompanied with 
 the least immorality, and that it is among the merest savages and 
 the most highly-polished communities that the greatest profligaicy 
 exists. In order to present the subject clearly, we will make a 
 geographical arrangement, and, commencing from the south, pass 
 over the continent, till we reach the valley of the Lower Nile. 
 
 The Hottentots are a dissolute, profligate race, and have borne 
 that character from the earliest period. It was remarked by Van 
 Riebeck in 1656, and confirmed by Colonel Napier in 1840, the 
 latter describing them as " proverbially unchaste." Indecency and 
 lewdness are their characteristics; and even now, though accus- 
 tomed to clothing, it is not uncommon for them to strip them- 
 selves, and dance in a lascivious manner at their festivals. The 
 
 ' The principal facts in this and the following chapter are taken from Mr. Hor- 
 ace St. John's article on Prostitution, in Mayhew's "London Labor and the Lon- 
 don Poor." 
 
 Bb 
 
386 HISTORY OF PBOSTITDTION. 
 
 females prostitute themselves readily to strangers, some from in- 
 cliaation, others for money or a gift of finery ; but Wb kave no 
 means of estimating the numbers of this disreputable class. A few 
 of superior order are scattered among these degraded creatures, 
 and intelhgent and weU-conducted women have attracted the no- 
 tice of travelers. 
 
 The pastoral Kaffirs are more moral, though more ferocious 
 than the Hottentots, being more addicted to arms, and less to de- 
 bauch. They practice polygamy, buying their wives for so many 
 head of cattle. The girls undergo a probation before marriage, 
 during which they are fcept in seclusion. As the tribe wander 
 from place to place, they carry their women with them, and upon 
 them all the domestic labor falls, even the chief's wives assisting 
 ■ in grinding com and similar work. Divorce is easy on very slight 
 grounds. We oocasionally hear of women committing fornication, 
 but no professed class of prostitutes has been described. Marriage 
 is not held as a sacred tie, but adultery by a wife is severely pim- 
 ished. Natural affections appear extremely weak among the Kaf- 
 firs, and mothers have but little attachment to their children, the 
 sickly and feeble being sometimes abandoned to avoid the trouble 
 of rearing them. Mrs. "Ward knew of a woman who buried alive 
 a sickly daughter. The little creature was but imperfectly inter- 
 red; it burst from the grave and ran home. A second time it 
 was subjected to the same torture, and again escaped. A third 
 attempt was made with a similar result, when its mother received 
 it, and it ultimately recovered. Such instances of inhumanity are 
 not rare. Husbands frequently drag their sick wives into a 
 thicket, and leave them to die. It is important to mention that, 
 where these people have embraced Christianity, their manners 
 have totally changed; polygamy has been renounced, and they 
 manifest an inclination to conform to the morals taught them. 
 
 Between the tropics the people are notorious for licentiousness. 
 Morality is a strange idea to them, nor is a man restrained by any 
 social law from intercourse with as many females as he pleases. 
 The result is, that women are regarded strictly as marketable com- 
 modities, and the commonest feelings of humanity are unknown. 
 On the Gold Coast husbands openly prostitute their wives for 
 money. In other places an adulterer pays a fine to the husband, 
 and many urge their wives to commit the crime for the sake of 
 the penalty. When Laird visited the Niger in 1832, he found 
 the condition of the females upon its borders most humiliating. 
 
BAEBABOUS NATIONS. 38? 
 
 Polygamy was universal, and ■wives were reduced to slavery in 
 their own houses. In short, the race may be described as the most 
 idle, ignorant, and profligate in Africa. The king possessed one 
 hundred and forty wives, one of whom was under thirteen years 
 of age, and all had been purchased for a few muskets or a piece 
 of cloth. Half a dozen of the fattest were known as his favorites, 
 and one of them was said to weigh over three hundred and fifty 
 pounds. The mother of this prince lived in his palace, and amused 
 the court with obscene dances. Adultery by any inmate of the 
 harem was punished with death. When a man died, one at least 
 of his wives was expected to attend him; she was bound and 
 thrown into the river. In another place the woman was buried 
 alive ; and in the kingdom of Fundal, when a chief died leaving 
 fifteen wives, the king selected the ugliest to be hanged over the 
 grave, and transferred the remaining fourteen to his own qiiarters; 
 
 The native of Western Africa looks upon his wife as a source 
 of pleasure and gain, reckoning her as property to the amount she 
 can earn. With a strange inconsistency, some of these barbarians 
 profess a sentiment of attachment. The King of Atta told Lander 
 that he loved him as he loved his wife. As he was a polygamist," 
 it is to be assumed the traveler thought it a divided affection. 
 Marriage is held as one of the common occurrences of life. When 
 a man is old enough, he takes a wife, and goes on adding to his 
 property until he probably owns a hundred, if he has means 
 enough to buy them. Even under this system many women can 
 not obtain stated husbands, as some men will not take permanent 
 wives ; but it is safe to assert that no single man lives without fe- 
 male intercourse, and no single woman remains chaste. .A wife 
 suspected of adultery is forced to drink a poisonous decoction, but 
 she sometimes bribes the priest, to render it harmless. Widows 
 who have lived on bad terms with their husbands have to undergo 
 the same ordeal. An illicit connection with the king's wife results 
 in death to both parties, bijt for the wife of a chief the gift of a 
 slave is an expiation. The price of a handsome wife is from 
 eighteen to thirty-six dollars; a plain-looking one is worth about 
 seven dollars. As a man's inclination varies, he often sells one 
 wife, and buys another with the' proceeds of the transaction. 
 
 In the kingdom of Dahomey, once the centre of the slave-trade, 
 a most profligate population is found, and the traveler entering its 
 sea-port is immediately struck with the immodesty of the women. 
 Throughout the country the same characteristic is observable ; 
 
388 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 tliey are profligates from tlie higliest to the lowest. The king is 
 superior in brutality and filthiness (traits which seeitf^hereditary 
 to the throne of Dahomey) to any of his subjects. He has thou- 
 sands of wives, his chiefs have hundreds, his subjects tens. The 
 royal favorites'are too sacred for the gaze of common people, who 
 must turn aside or hide their faces if any of them are passing. 
 Strangers, are excluded, from the harem, but the privileged nobil- 
 ity attend the king's feasts, at which his wives take a leading part 
 in drinking rum and conducting the debauch. "When the king 
 desires to confer honor on any favorite, he chooses a wife for him, 
 and presents her publicly. She hands her husband a cup of rum, 
 which is a sign of union. 
 
 The King of Dahomey supports an army of several thousand 
 amazons, who dress in male attire, do not marry, and are supposed 
 not to have intercourse with men. These troops were long con- 
 sidered invincible, but a few years ago they encountered a defeat 
 on one of their marauding expeditions, and a thoiisand or more 
 were killed on the field. 
 
 As the' king and his wealthy subjects have so many wives, poor 
 people are obliged to content themselves with the company of 
 prostitutes, who are a licensed and taxed class in Dahomey. There 
 appears to be a band of these in every village, but their profits 
 are often insufficient for support, and they resort to industrial oc- 
 cupation, hiring themselves to carry heavy burdens, etc. One 
 traveler saw two hundred arid fifty collected in a troop, and an- 
 other was assailed by a crowd of women who offered to " be his 
 wives" for a drop of rum. Many of the poorest class stroll about 
 naked, and a gratuity, however small, will purchase their favors. 
 
 The dirty, lazy, dull people of the Fantee Coast have the same 
 moral aspect as the subjects of Dahoiney. Parents sell their chil- 
 dren, husbands sell their wives, women sell themselves, for a tri- 
 fling sum. One woman was so anxious to make a bargain of this 
 kind that she took possession of a traveler's bed, and force was 
 necessary to expel her. Marriage is a mere purchase, a wife cost- 
 ing about sixteen dollars. Woinen are unsalable when more than 
 fifteen or sixteen years old. Any inan committing adultery is 
 forced to buy his paramour at her cost price. 
 
 Along the coast of Benin similar customs prevail. Public 
 danpers act as prostitutes, and offer themselves at a small price. 
 Every woman considers it an honor to be the king's companion, 
 even for one night. 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 389 
 
 In Asliantee, where also polygamy prevails, adultery is com- 
 mon, especially among the king's wives, who are hewn to pieces 
 if discovered. The people are profligate beyond any thing which 
 can be conceived. A practice of unusual depravity prevails 
 among the Kroomen, a son who inherits his father's property tak- 
 ing his wives also, and thus his own mother becomes his slave. 
 
 The Edeeyahs of Fernando Po offer a strong contrast to the 
 above, treating their women with consideration, and assigning 
 them far less than the usual amount of work. Polygamy is al- 
 lowed. The first wife taken by a man must be betrothed to him 
 at least two years before marriage, and during that time he is in 
 a state of servitude like that of Jacob for Eachel, the girl being 
 kept in seclusion. When she appears as a married woman, all 
 the virgins of the tribe salute and dance round her. This cus- 
 tom is only observed with the first wife, the others being con- 
 cubines who are governed by her. Adultery is severely pun- 
 ished: for the first offense both parties lose one hand; for the 
 second, the man and 'his relatives are heavily fined and chastised, 
 the woman loses the other hand, and is driven from the settlement 
 into the woods — an exile more terrible than mutilation. 
 
 It would be but a needless repetition to pass in review all the 
 various groups of African states. We have seen that in the west 
 profligacy is a universal feature, and it is scarcely less so in the 
 east. In Zulu, for example, the king has a seraglio of fifteen hund- 
 red women. The manners of the communities in the Sahara are 
 imperfectly known, but appear to be above those in other parts 
 of Africa, though many customs prevail which shock our ideas of 
 decency. A chief offered Eichardson his two daughters as wives. 
 Immorality is usually a secret crime, and their general customs 
 with regard to sexual intercourse are outwardly decent. Still 
 the condition of the female sex is degraded, for they are regard- 
 ed as materials of a man's household, and ministers to his sen- 
 suality. 
 
 Abyssinia presents various characteristics of manners. In Taju- 
 ra men live with their wives for a short time, and then sell them. 
 Parents are known to hire their daughters out as prostitutes. One 
 chief offered his daughter as a temporary or permanent compan- 
 ion to a traveler, and a woman presented herself as a candidate 
 for a similar appointment, saying, by way of recommendation, that 
 she had already lived with five men. One strong evidence of the 
 immorality of Tajura is the fact that syphilis affects nearly the 
 
390 HISTOKY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 wliole populatiojn, man and woman, sultan and TaeggaT, priests and 
 their wives inclusive. • 
 
 In Shoa the king has one wife and five hundred concubines, 
 the latter scattered in various parts of his dominions. He makes 
 a present to the parents of any girl he may desire, and is usually 
 well paid in return for the honor. The governors of provinces 
 and cities foUow his example. There are two kinds of marriage 
 in Shoa: one a mere (arrangement to cohabit, the other a holy 
 ceremony. The former is almost invariably used, the man and 
 woman declaring before witnesses that they mean to live together. 
 Divorces are as easily obtained, only mutual consent being neces- 
 sary. A wife is valued according to the amount of her property, 
 and the owner of a hut, a field, and a bedstead is sure to get a 
 husband. When they quarrel and part, a division of property 
 taJies place. Concubines are procured as well from the Christians 
 as from Mohammedans and pagans, but the latter are forced to 
 declare themselves converted, for Shoa is professedly a Christian 
 kingdom. A favorite concubine holds the same position as a 
 married woman, and no distinction is made between legitimate 
 and illegitimate children. The court overflows with licentious- 
 ness, numerous adulteries take place, and the example is followed 
 by the people, among whom a chaste married couple is rare. The 
 sacerdotal class of Shoa is notoriously drunken and profligate ; in 
 a word, the morals of the country are of the lowest description. 
 In the Mohammedan states of the neighborhood the condition of 
 the female, sex is also degraded, and if there is less general prosti- 
 tution, it is because every woman is the slave of some man's lust, 
 and is closely watched by him. 
 
 In the provinces of Kordofan, south of the Nubian mountains, 
 the sentiment of love is not altogether unknown, and men fight 
 duels with whips of hippopotamus hide on account of a disputed 
 mistress. The wife is, however,- a virtual slave, and is stUl more 
 degraded if she prove barren, the husband then solacing himself 
 with a concubine, who is raised to the rank of a wife if she bear a 
 child: The general demeanor of the girls of Kordofan is modest, 
 and their lives are chaste, while the married women are addicted 
 to intrigue, espeeiaily if neglected by their husbands. In some 
 parts of the country men consider it an honor for their wives to 
 have intercourse with strangers, and often assist the woman to this 
 end. There is a class of pretty dancers who are usually prosti- 
 tutes, and are celebrated for their successes in the latter vocation. 
 
BAEBAEOUS NATIONS. 39I 
 
 Marriage is arranged without the woman's consent ; the man bar- 
 gains for her, pays the price, and takes her home. A feast and 
 dance sometimes celebrate the event. When a wife is ill treated 
 she demands a divorce, and returns home, taking her female chil- 
 dren with her. Trifles often produce these separations, an insuf- 
 ficient allowance of pomatum to grease her skin being a valid 
 complaint. These remarks apply to the fixed population; the 
 wandering tribes of Kordofan are a moral, modest race, naked, but 
 not indecent. 
 
 A chief of the Berbers offered a late traveler his choice of two 
 daughters for a temporary companion, both being already married. 
 Many women there are rea,dy to prostitute themselves for a present. 
 A virgin may be purchased, either as a wife or a concubine, for a 
 horse. A young Berber, who was asked why he did not marry, 
 pointed to a colt and said, " When that is a horse I shall marry." 
 
 The condition of women in Khartum, on the upper borders of 
 the Nile, as described in Ferdinand Werne's account of his voyage 
 to discover the sources of the White Stream, is so degraded that 
 it may be said with truth the female monkeys of the neighboring 
 woods occupy a far nobler and more natural position. Farther 
 up the river the morals are purer. The Keks are described as 
 leading a blameless life. Marriageable girls and children are kept 
 in seclusion, and during a considerable part of the year the wom- 
 en live in villages apart from the men, who possess only tempo- 
 rary huts, the substantial habitations of their wives being accessi- 
 ble to them during the rainy season. A man dare not approach 
 the "harem village" at any other time, but some of the women oc- 
 casionally creep into their husbands' huts. Polygamy is allowed, 
 but is too costly for any but the chiefs. 
 
 Among some of the tribes on the banks of the White Nile, 
 women sell their children, if they can do so with profit. The 
 maidens appear naked, but married women wear an apron. All 
 experience shame at appearing unclothed before travelers. Be- 
 yond the Mountains of the Moon Werne found a people whom 
 he describes as chaste and decent, where unmarried men and 
 women were kept separate. 
 
 Our information is so limited that any inquiry into the morals 
 of Africa must be incomplete, but enough has been stated to give 
 a fair idea of the average morality. Statistics are of course im- 
 possible, but from a description in general terms we can not hesi- 
 tate to form an opinion. 
 
392 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 i 
 
 AUSTRALASIA. |^ 
 
 In this division of the earth's surface are generally included the 
 great island of Australia, Papua or New Guinea, and some ad- 
 jacent islands, comprising New Caledonia and Van Diemen's 
 Land. Politically and geographically the islands of New Zealand 
 are also in this division, but there is some question as to the pro- 
 priety of this distribution for ethnographical purposes. Opinions 
 vary as to the state of the New Zealanders. There is much simi- 
 larity between them and the inhabitants of some of the Poljme- 
 sian Islands, while there are equally strong points of resemblance 
 between them and the AustraUan aborigines. The New Zealand- 
 3r, when discovered by Cook, was far superior to the Australian 
 in intelligence and in the arts of life. He inhabited a decent hut, 
 30uld build a stockade fort, and lived upon cooked food. The 
 Australian lived in a hoUow tree, could put together a tempoi:ary 
 liut made of bark and brush, and fed upon grubs, roots, and raw 
 lesh. Among such a race as the Australian blacks it is needless 
 X) say that the position occupied by women was of the most de- 
 grading and brutal character. 
 
 ; The Australian savage does, not even pay his fiiture spouse the 
 jompliment. of wooing her. Might makes right in their case. The 
 iv^oman is often betrothed by her parent or kinsman, and becomes 
 iier husband's property by sale and bargain. If this has not been 
 iffected in the usual way, he acquires his marital privileges by an 
 inroad on the grounds of another tribe, and then meeting a wom- 
 m, he knocks her down with his waddy (a heavy club), and carries 
 iier to a place of security, where he makes himself master of her 
 person by force. This, indeed, is so usual a course of procedure, 
 l;hat it has given rise to a belief that the Australian rival bache- 
 lors compete for a wife by knocking her on the head, and whoever 
 Fells her bears away the belle. 
 
 The habits of the native Australians are not so observable now 
 as they were at the commencement of the system of colonization. 
 At first a continual intercourse was kept up between them and 
 the settlers. The reciprocal injuries inflicted upon each other, in 
 which the whites were more to blame than the natives, brought 
 about an exterminating warfare. The black race has gradually 
 wasted away from the Settled, or rather partially settled country, 
 while the much-diminished interior tribes have retreated, in South 
 Australia, New South "Wales, and Victoria, far into thewilderness, 
 beyond ordinary communication with the white man. 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 393 
 
 In Van Diemen's Land tlie natives were almost extiBpated by 
 the constant warfare carried on between them and the settlers, 
 convict as well as free, and the government was obliged to take 
 the few survivors under its protection, and to establish a place of 
 refuge for them. They were accordingly collected, and deported 
 to an island in Bass Straits, under the charge of a special commis- 
 sioner. But, notwithstanding the increased comforts of their con- 
 dition, and their immunity from the murderous hostility of their 
 white foes, they have languished, and, instead of the population 
 increasing, it has gradually decreased, until, at the present time, it 
 is believed that the numbers are under one hundred. In Central 
 Australia, north of the Murray, the tribes are still comparatively 
 numerous, and in some cases warlike and hostile to settlers. 
 
 The married women among the aborigines are called "gins," 
 and the single girls " lubbras." The women follow their lords on 
 their migrations and excursions, carry the loads, and do all the 
 work. They bear patiently and submissively the blows and ill- 
 usage to which they are subject. Polygamy is practiced by the 
 more powerful men of the tribes, who appropriate to themselves 
 such women as they choose, and cast them off at pleasure. Now 
 and then they sell or present a "gin" to a friend in want of such 
 a commodity. There is considerable disproportion between the 
 sexes, attributable partly to continual ill-usage, partly to the habit 
 prevalent among savage nations of destroying female infants. 
 
 At one time in the history of these colonies, the outlying stock- 
 ,men and shepherds occasionally endeavored to solace their loneli- 
 ness with a " lubbra" whom they had managed to decoy from her 
 lawful owner, but the half-breeds from such unions are very rare. 
 The natives, notwithstanding the low estimate they have of their 
 women, are exceedingly jealous of them as property, and keep 
 them away as much as possible from the stations. 
 
 Chastity is at all times of little account among savages, always 
 excepting the old Celts and Teutons, who held continence in high 
 esteem, and whose women were objects of general respect. From 
 the peculiar habits of the Australian aborigines themselves, it can 
 scarcely be said that prostitution exists as an institution. The 
 woman has no choice in the matter. As between the "gins" and 
 "lubbras" and the white settlers, there is scarcely any chance for 
 prostitution. A woman now and then visits the towns or settle- 
 ments, but always in company with her male friends. When 
 quite young, the girls are not more disagreeable than others of 
 
S94 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 their complexioH. When more advanced in years they are abso- 
 lutely repulsive, and are rendered hideous by scars and^ther evi- 
 dences of brutality. At all times both sexes are loathsome in 
 their persons, and are clad in filthy blankets or sheep-skins, unless 
 when they can pick up tattered remnants of European clothing. 
 
 Among the New Zealanders the state of the women was a httle 
 better than among the Austrahans. The amelioration was rather 
 in degree than principle. They were subject to the same control 
 by parents and kinsmen. They were disposed of in marriage as 
 matter of right, and were often betrothed from infancy, in which 
 case they were tapu or taboo to other persons than the young chief 
 or warrior who had purchased the reversion. Cruel punishmente 
 of the women for infidelity were general, and even for minor of- 
 fenses they were subject to very severe chastisement. In one 
 case, even recently, a New Zealand woman was suspended by the 
 heels naked, and in that 'position unmercifully whipped. Her 
 sense of the outrage was so keen that she committed suicide. Li- 
 centiousness among the women was probably more rare formerly 
 than now. Adultery was punished in both parties by death, and 
 the family of the male offender were often involved in the pun- 
 ishment. Now, however, the constant visits of whalers and sea- 
 faring men, the gradual settlement of whites in the islands, and, 
 above all, the profits and advantages derivable from illicit inter- 
 course, cause the women to be free of their persons. Parents and 
 even husbands are oftentimes the principal gainers by the trans- 
 action, and even negotiate the profit to be made. The marriage 
 ceremony, too, was formerly of so easy a character that, whatever 
 the New Zealand woman might have thought of it, no settler,, and 
 especially no seaman, would feel himself bound hj the tie, and, 
 although associations based on this weak bond were not wrong in 
 the woman, they paved the way for less excusable relations. 
 
 The influence of civilized institutions and the presence of a reg- 
 ular clergy and missionaries is effecting some improvement in 
 native morals, and many lawful marriages have taken place be- 
 tween the whites and the native women, the offspring of which — 
 a fine race of half-breeds — may be met with throughout the Aus- 
 tralian colonies.' The example of the consideration in which the 
 native women thus married are held, and the rights and social po- 
 sition that they acquire, is not without influence on others, and 
 predisposes them to the same course. Among the tribes removed 
 from the coast and withdrawn from civilized control, the ancient 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 395 
 
 customs are still kept up in their integrity, and tlie chiefs and na- 
 tives jealously resist all encroachments on their independence. 
 Among, those chiefe, even, who have been converted to a nominal 
 Christianity, Eauperaha for instance, heathen institutions of re- 
 venge for injury, polygamy, power of life and death over their 
 wives and followers are maintained, and the humanizing lessons 
 of the Gospel have made but little way toward an amendment of 
 their barbarous lives. In New Zealand it is asserted that the ve- 
 nereal disease is very prevalent among the natives, and from their 
 diet and licentious habits is often fatal. 
 
 In colonial white society there are no particular incidents to 
 characterize prostitution. At all times during the continuance of 
 transportation, female immorahty has been very prevalent. The 
 general law so often observed as attendant upon irregularity of 
 the sexes has been powerfully operative; besides, there have been 
 local influences at work to deteriorate female manners. The large 
 importations of convict women, who were always the most unruly 
 and vicious of the felon population, and who notoriously gave 
 more trouble and vexation to the authorities than any one else, 
 was prejudicial to public virtue. Just, however, as, on account of 
 these faults, women of indifferent character were lightly esteemed, 
 so did the respectable females gain in public opinion, however 
 poor their worldly condition. There was not much regular pros- 
 titution, although incontinence prevailed. There was a continual 
 system of marriage going on among the convicts. When a man 
 chose to marry, he brushed himself up, put on a clean shirt, and 
 went to the nearest superintendent, to whom he intimated his de- 
 sire for matrimony. Permission was always given. The eUgibles 
 at the station were forwarded for his inspection, and the selected 
 one rarely refiised, inasmuch as her connubial bonds reHeved her, 
 during good behavior, from the more galling bondage of the law. 
 Some of these unions turned out more satisfactorily than might have 
 been expected from the character of the parties, especially of the 
 women. 
 
 South Australia and the gold colony of Victoria never were pe- 
 nal settlements. The deficiency of respectable young women was 
 very much felt by the colonists, and the home government made 
 many weU^intentioned efforts to supply the want A large num- 
 ber of young women went out from Great Britain, under the 
 charge of matrons and medical officers, and, in the majority of 
 cases, their arrival was haUed with great satisfaction. It was no 
 
HISTORY OF PEOSTITnTION. 
 
 Tinusual thing for a young man, a settler far away up tte country, 
 to come down to the government dep6ts at Adelaide oMIelbourne 
 on the arrival of a female emigrant ship, and then and there to 
 pick out his partner for life. Of course, the greater number were 
 hired out to service by the colonists, and, in the order of events, 
 passed from service to independence. Parental care and precau- 
 tion were exercised by the authorities over the young women thus 
 sent abroad. They were not allowed to hire into dram-shops or 
 lodging-houses: the parties who hired them required to be known: 
 they had liberty to remain at the depot for some months if not 
 suited, and for any length of time in case of sickness on arrival ; 
 and afterward, during good conduct, the dep6t was an asylum for 
 an indefinite length of time. Notwithstanding all these safeguards, 
 there was a constant supply of prostitution. The good intentions 
 of the emigration commissioners in London were too frequently 
 neutralized by the depraved character of of&cers of the vessels' in 
 which females were sent, or by the interested conduct of the local 
 authorities in England. A good reputation was essential to the 
 intending emigrant, but frequently masters of work-houses and 
 parish of&cers shipped off unworthy or troublesome characters, 
 who were better got rid of at any price. 
 
 During the gold mania, prostitution in Australia was rampant. 
 The enormous gains and flaunting extravagance were a great 
 temptation to young women who could not readily suit themselves 
 with situations,. and who disliked the moderate restraints of the 
 dep6t. The persuasive arts of the procuress and brothel-keeper 
 were not wanting. It was a singular fact that at one time all the 
 public vehicles were owned by brothel-keepers. The profits of 
 these joint tailings were perfectly fabulous. It was an every-day 
 sight to see a party of prostitutes in the most gaudy costumes 
 parading the streets in open' carriages. Indeed, it was generally 
 understood to be part of their contract that they should have un- 
 limited clothing, of the most garish colors and style, and expensive 
 material, and also Sunday rides in open carriages. The police au- 
 thorities did what they could to check this shameful display, but 
 they were powerless before the reckless extravagance of the min- 
 ers and the inflijx of women. It is believed that this excess has 
 now toned down, and miners having taken to buying land and to 
 marriage, order is once more resuming sway, and prostitution in 
 the gold colonies, though not' at an end, is much shorn of its pub- 
 lic show and display. 
 
BAEBAKOUS NATIONS. 397 
 
 POLYNESIA. 
 
 The principal groups of tlie Polynesian Islands are the Society, 
 Friendly, Samoan, Sandwich, and Marquesas. These last have 
 been rendered famous of late years by Mr. Hermann Melville's 
 TypBe and Omoo. 
 
 The South Sea Islands were usually depicted in the most glow- 
 ing colors by early navigators. The lands were the fairest on 
 earth's surface ; the climate was unsurpassed, combining the genial 
 warmth of the tropics with the fresh breezes of ocean ; the soil 
 spontaneously bringing forth in luxuriant abundance the loveliest 
 and most valuable vegetable productions; and, finally, the inhabit- 
 ants were fitted both in person and disposition to tenant such an 
 Eden. 
 
 It is easy to comprehend the frame of mind which led to these 
 descriptions. The seaman, after wandering over the pathless 
 ocean, with only the dark waste of waters in view, might well 
 recognize a paradise in the green hills and shady groves of the 
 islands of the Pacific, and angels in their dusky denizens. But 
 these pictures were eminently fallacious: the virtues of savage 
 life disappear on close acquaintanceship. Implacable ferocity 
 among themselves ; sanguinary and exterminating warfare ; can- 
 nibahsm ; unbounded licentiousness and its concomitants of un- 
 natural lust and lasciviousness ; debasing and horrid idolatry ; in- 
 fanticide ; the most grinding tyranny of the strong over the weak, 
 and of the man over the woman, who is not permitted to live in 
 the same dwelling, eat the same food, cook at the same fire, or 
 even use the same dish as her lord and master : these enormities 
 are the ordinary conditions of savage life. Some local modifica- 
 tions may be found, but such were the main incidents in Polyne- 
 sian life and character. 
 
 It is true that in the first instance the natives received the whites 
 with all friendship, and evinced toward their visitors much hos- 
 pitality and gentleness of demeanor. This is to be attributed to 
 the wonder and reverence with which they regarded foreigners, 
 looking on them as superior beings of another sphere, and awe- 
 struck at their wonderful powers, at the astonishing engines they 
 wielded and managed, and at their unknown attributes. But 
 familiarity lessened respect; some ill-advised and unjustifiable 
 tyranny brought out the ofiensive points of savage character, and 
 theft, treachery, and murder were soon practiced as freely against 
 
398 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 tlie ■wliites as against eacli other whenever fear of consequences 
 did not restrain them. The murder of Captain Cook •id the at- 
 tack on La Perouse were remarkable cases on account of the bold- 
 ness of the savages, and the public loss in the death of the great 
 navigator, but they were not isolated outrages. . Many a small and 
 feebly-manned vessel perished among the islands, and, on repeated 
 occasions, when landings were effected, the mariners ran great risks 
 from the uncertain despotism .of the natives. 
 
 Whatever may have been their other qualities, either among 
 themselves or in their intercourse with foreigners, hcentious- 
 ness.was the universal characteristic of the Soiith Sea Islanders* 
 It was not merely polygamy or excess among a few of the more 
 powerful, members of the community, but the ordinary habit 
 among aU classes. Chastity, whenever met with, was not a cus- 
 tomary part of woman's life, but only an incident dependent f on 
 particidar circumstances ; in fact, an abnormal condition. It was 
 associated with either marriage or betrothal. A peculiar institu- 
 tion of all these islanders was the tapu or taboo, a semi-religious 
 ceremony performable either by priest or chief, whereby places, 
 persons, or property could be rendered unapproachable by other 
 than the lawful owner. The, breach of this law has always been 
 the- greatest violation of propriety and public feeling of which a 
 native or foreigner could be guilty. When, young girls were be- 
 trothed at an early age, either, to boys of corresponding years or 
 to older persons, such females were tabooed. This insured chas- 
 tity until, they had reached a marriageable age. As this betroth- 
 al system, was almost exclusively confined to chiefej it follows 
 that the obligation to chastity was very limited. The farther in- 
 ference wouldi be, that chastity .was associated rather -with prop^ 
 erty in the female than propriety m the woman. 
 
 Another institution of the South Sea Islanders was that of the 
 Areai. These were a body of men and women baaded together 
 for certain purposes, which had originally been of a religious 
 character. They, had probably been once Obi men, medicine- 
 naen, or wizards, as among the negroes and Indians. The cus- 
 tom, so often observable among heathen nations, of incorporating 
 amusements and. festivities into religious rites, had been taken up 
 by these Areoi, and in process of time they degenerated into mere 
 mimes or buffoons, and yet preserved to themselves by prescript 
 tive right aU. the immunities and privileges otherwise accorded to 
 priests. They traveled about from .place to place, and sometimes 
 
BAEBAKOUS NATIONS. 399 
 
 from island to islands Their observances yet retained a trace of 
 their religious origin, inasmuch as they commenced with a sacri- 
 fice to the gods, after which they entertained the people with 
 theatrical performances, in which obscene songs and lascivious 
 dances formed the chief features. They gave dialogues and reci- 
 tations, in which they freely satirized all classes, not excepting 
 the priests. They were every where gladly received, and had a 
 right to free quarters wherever they stopped. It is said the mem- 
 bers were usually the handsomest of both sexes, the women being 
 the most profligate among the inhabitants. Tradition maintained 
 that these persons had been originally incorporated by the gods, 
 and that one of their rules was perpetual cehbacy, and that they 
 should have no descendants. This, though it might perhaps in 
 the outset have been a, prohibition intended for pure purposes, 
 has ended in the perversion of such an intention. In their pres- 
 ent condition, whether degenerate or not, the iflhibition is not 
 taken to exclude them from sexual intercourse and enjoyment, 
 but from its natural consequences. Their lives were accordingly 
 most abandoned, and abortion and infanticide were invariably 
 practiced. Nor were their enormities confined to their own body : 
 after their representations , the wildest excesses were perpetrated 
 in all quarters. Eesistanoe or retaliation was impossible, by the 
 sufferer, on account of the fear these wretches excited by the 
 mysterious powers with which they were accredited, and which 
 were, in reality, the secret affiliations of all the bands.^ 
 
 When performing, the Areoi painted their bodies black and 
 their faces scarlet ; they wore dresses of bright-colored plants and 
 flowers. They were divided into several classes, named after 
 some particular ornament ; and, taking into account the subordi- 
 nate members of the troops and the attendants who performed 
 the menial ofifices, they must have been exceedingly numerous. 
 Places were specially built for their reception, and for the greater 
 convenience of their representations.^ 
 
 Candidates for admission into their number were received by 
 secret ceremonies akin to the mysteries of paganism. Solemnities 
 intended to awe the vulgar were performed,, and the idea of special 
 reservation of the blessings of a future elysium to these deceivers 
 was promulgated and believed. 
 
 ' Russell's History of Polynesia, p. 76. 
 
 = Their institution is ascribed to Oro, the god of war. The resemblance between 
 Areoi and Aej??, the Greek god of war, is a coincidence. 
 
400 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The existence of such organized societies could not but be in 
 the highest degree subversive to all order and decencj^ Accord- 
 ingly, when the missionaries first arrived, they found the general 
 depravity of morals the greatest dif&culty they had to encounter. 
 Obscenity, libidinousness, and incontinence were so ingrafted into 
 the very nature of the people that they seemed almost ineradica- 
 ble. Accordingly, we find it narrated of an intelligent convert 
 that he expressed his conviction that "the people ought to be in- 
 duced to discontinue infanticide, human sacrifice, and demon wor- 
 ship, but that preservation of female virtue and Christian marriage 
 would never be obtained."^ 
 
 The Society Islands are said to have been formerly proverbial, 
 even in Polynesia, for the licentiousness which is still remarkably 
 prevalent among them. The missionary. regulations have appar- 
 ently mitigated the evils, and they have succeeded in establishing 
 laws on the subject, which are not, however, binding upon stran- 
 gers. The foreigners who come to these islands, while denounc- 
 ing the conduct of the inhabitants, are too often the chief instiga- 
 tors to vice, and, finding themselves checked in their misconduct, 
 they vent their disappointment on the missionaries. 
 
 The foreign influences at work in these islands are of a two-fold 
 nature ; one striving for the improvement of the natives, and the 
 inculcation of virtuous principles, and the encouragement or en- 
 forcement of virtuous practices; the other including all the base 
 and sordid passions and motives of seamen and whalers bent on 
 the reckless enjoyment of the passing hour; of traders and. ad- 
 venturers eager in quest of gain ; and among the worst specimens 
 of runaway seamen, and even convicts from the Australian settle- 
 ments. All these influences combine to check the advancement 
 of th? natives. 
 
 The beauty of the women in these islands has been much ex- 
 aggerated. Commodore Wilkes says,^ "I did not see among 
 them a single woman whom I could call handsome. They have, 
 indeed, a certain sleepiness about the eyes which, may be fasci- 
 nating to some, but I should rather ascribe the celebrity which 
 their charms have acquired among navigators to their cheerful- 
 ness and gayety." Others, who visit theni with equally cool judgr 
 ment, tell us that they were disappointed in their appearance, 
 for " there were few who could be called handsome ; nevertheless, 
 they had eminent feminine graces, their manners being affable 
 
 * South Sea Missions, p. 88. ^ U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 22. 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 401 
 
 and engaging, their step easy and graceful, their behavior free 
 and unguarded, their temper mild, gentle, and unaffected, slow to 
 take offense, easily pacified, seldom retaining resentment or re- 
 venge, whatever the provocation."^ 
 
 There can be no doubt that their demeanor was winning and 
 affable, and their conduct sportive and playful. Their industry 
 was not very great, the few wants of the islanders being amply 
 supplied by nature. The women prepared the poe from the bread- 
 fruit and the ava, and, till Europeans introduced the hog, this was 
 their usual diet, if we except the cannibal feasts of the warriors, 
 in which the wom,en took no part. The female occupations were 
 weaving flowers and grasses into garlands and mats. Their chief 
 amusement was paddling the canoe or sporting in the surf, for all 
 the islanders took to the water, and the women were, perhaps, from- 
 the greater buoyancy of their persons, better swimmers than the 
 men. Before the arrival of the .missionaries, it was customary for 
 the women to swim out to a ship and swarm on board, where scenes 
 of debauchery and indecency cominenced, lasting as long as the 
 vessel lay in the harbor, and the fascination of which worked so 
 powerfully on the excited passions of the seamen that desertions 
 and mutiny were continually occurring. , 
 
 The earliest intercourse of whites has never yet been beneficial 
 to the untutored savage, and, had these occurrences only taken 
 place on board the ships of foreigners, it might have been laid to 
 the account of foreign corruption. But this 'was not the case. 
 The gains derivable from the white men's visits might give prof- 
 ligacy a greater zest for both sexes of the natives, for indiscrimi- 
 nate intercourse was a time-worn institution ere yet the European 
 came. 
 
 The South Sea Islanders are no exception to the general rule 
 of keeping their women in a subordinate and inferior condition. 
 A chief is sometimes taboo, and his women may not approach him ; 
 he may see them when he pleases; at all times the woman is in 
 bondao-e. Those of the chief live in separate apartments from 
 their master, and are not permitted to associate with him on equal 
 terms excepting when the female is of high Mood. In this case 
 she is perfectly independent, can exerdse the same powers as her- 
 husband, and in some particulars can even throw off her allegiance ■ 
 
 to him. 
 
 Polygamy was, and still is, practiced among th© cMef& Even- 
 
 ' Missionary Voyage of Ship Duff, 1796^ p. 33a. 
 C C 
 
402 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 where missionary influences have been successful, the chiefs look 
 upon the abolition of polygamy as a most objectionEille innova- 
 tion. They look back to their past liberty with regret, and can 
 not understand why they are restricted to one wife. Polygamy 
 could, of course, .only be practiced by the powerful at the expense 
 of the weak. Already, from various causes operating among sav- 
 ages there was a preponderance of males over females, rendered 
 stOl more great by polygamy. This again depreciated female vir- 
 tue, justifying illicit intercourse to those who lived in forced celi- 
 bacy, and in its consequences came concealment and infanticide. 
 To such an extent was illicit intercourse carried, that some writers 
 assert that no girl ever reached the age of puberty a virgin. The 
 nature of the marriage bond is very uncertain. The husband 
 could get rid of the wife at pleasure. There seems to have been 
 a slight distinction between marriage and concubinage. Most of 
 these social institutions are extended over all the islands alike, with 
 very few local differences. Infanticide, for example, has been 
 practiced in most of the islands, but not invariably so. At Tutui- 
 la,' one of the Samoan group, it had never obtained. Circumcis- 
 ion was common among most of the natives. 
 
 Among the Samoans the women are treated with considera- 
 tion.^ The men do all the hard work, even to cooking, while the 
 women perform only in-door labor, .attend to the children, and pre- 
 pare the food for the fire. In the Sandwich Islands there is no 
 such chivalrous sentiment. At the arrival of the missionaries 
 there were no marriage institutions .amsong them. The only laws 
 were such as to regulate somewhat their licraitiousness. There 
 were traditions to show that at some past time, feefore the discov- 
 ery of the island, the marriage tie had been held in respect by the 
 natives, and that the marriage ceremony "had been an important 
 one. At present, personal chastisement of Ihe wife by her hus- 
 band is not infrequent, and it is spoken of by them as a matter of 
 course. 
 
 The relations of parents, to. children differed mueh at different 
 periods. The Samoans seem to have been the most observant of 
 moral obligations and natural ties. Among them it was lie usage 
 of the mothers to suckle the children for several years, and to 
 bring them lUp with great care and attention, so much so that a 
 crippled child was sometimes discreditable as evincing a degree 
 ^ftfiijlpable carelessness in the mother. 
 
 "■ JX S. Exploring lExpedUion, .vol. ii. p., 80. =" lb. 148. 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 403 
 
 The Society and Sandwicli Islanders, whose lives were habitu- 
 ally dissolute, shunned all trouble which interfered with their 
 freedom of intercourse, and children were considered especially 
 burdensome. Infanticide prevailed to a frightful extent among 
 them, and, as if the ordinary dissoluteness of the people had hot 
 been ample inducement to this most flagitious crime, the tyranny 
 of the rulers invented a poll-tax, in whose operation children over 
 ten were included. The poorer inhabitants of these blissful re- 
 gions, who already felt the rod of oppression too severely, found 
 in this an additional motive to child-murder. But in its operation 
 it was even more cruel than infanticide, for many children who 
 had been suffered to live were put to death as they approached 
 the period when they would be liable to taxation. The murder 
 was consummated sometimes by the parents, at times mercifully, 
 and at times horribly. There were a class of persons who prac- 
 ticed child-murder professionally.. 
 
 In the Samoan group the girls are often early betrothed, with- 
 out reference to years, the girl being taboo until of marriageable 
 age. During the intervening period the bridegroom accumulates 
 property. The marriage festival is held with all circumstances of 
 uproar and debauchery, and the guests stay as long as there is any 
 thing to eat. The consummation of the marriage and the virgin- 
 ity of the bride are published by the proofs required in the Jew- 
 ish law. 
 
 When a man in this group wishes to take a wife, he must ask 
 the chief's consent. This obtained, he presents to the girl of his 
 choice a basket of bread-fruit, by accepting which she accepts the 
 donor. The husband then pays the parents a sum of money for 
 her, according to her rank and estimation ; sometimes the court- 
 ship is to the famUy, without' consulting the girl, who is expected 
 to conform to her parents' will in the matter. 
 
 A Samoan may repudiate his wife and marry again on certain 
 conditions, but the woman may not leave her husband without 
 his consent. 
 
 Adultery among the Samoans was formerly punished by death, 
 and the marriage vow is strictly observed by them. It is consid- 
 ered highly discreditable for a young woman to form a connection 
 with a native before marriage, although temporary intercourse 
 with a foreigner is not considered objectionable. It may be that 
 such a distinction is in compliment to the conceded superiority of 
 the white ; but the explanation of a chief would rather put the 
 
404 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 question, on convenience than morality, for he objected to native 
 young men as always hanging about the premises, anJteittfiching 
 themselves to the yqung woman, whereas the foreigner gave his 
 presents and sailed away when the period of his stay was ended,, 
 leaving the object of his choice free again. 
 
 The Marquesas Islands have a singular institution, similar to 
 one prevalent among the ancient Lacedaemonians. A woman has 
 more than one husband. This has been called polyandiism, but 
 it does not seem precisely ,suchi. A wife of a young warrioy un- 
 known to fame is honored by the advances of a more distinguish- 
 ed individual, by whom children may be begotten. The superior 
 chief takes the wife and her lawful husband under his protection 
 and into his hut. 
 
 The population of some of the districts in the Sandwich Islands 
 is rapidly decreasing. By a register kept in Hawaii, it appears 
 there are three deaths to one birth. This disproportion is attrib- 
 uted to. low habit of body, the consequence of venereal disease. 
 Syphilis was introduced, into these islands by Cook's expedition, 
 and the whole of the natives in some districts are now Siaid to be 
 reduced to a morbid, sickly state, many of the women being in- 
 capable of child-bearing, and but few of the children attaining 
 maturity. 
 
 There are other concurrent causes to contribute toward this de- 
 cay, among which the difference of food, and the introduction of 
 clothing, and consequent diminution of, ablution among a people 
 who spent half their lives in the water,, are not unimportant ; but, 
 the district of Hanapepe, where the decrease was most rapid, was 
 that in which the virus was first introduced, and here it is still 
 most virulent in its action and effects. 
 
 Whatever the causes, the same effect is in powerful operation, 
 though not to the same depopulating extent, in other places. At 
 "Waialua, in 1832, the population was 2640 ; in 1835 it had fallen 
 to 2415. There had been no war nor epidemic. It was the or- 
 dinary Condition of the people.. Sterility and abortion are con- 
 sidered the most potent causes. Abortion is very common, and 
 there are cases in which women have had six or seven, and some- 
 times ten in as many years, and no children.^ 
 
 Personal and mutual abuse had been much practiced in early 
 life among the settlers, and is a cause of sterility. 
 
 Previous to 1840, infanticide was, as we have shown, common. 
 > Wilkes, vol. iv. p. 77. 
 
BAEBAKOUS NATIONS. 405 
 
 But liere, as elsewtere, the marriage regulations ■which have been 
 enforced by the missionaries and adopted by the converted na- 
 tives are already operating in a reactionary manner against the 
 decrease of population, and infanticide is almost unknown. The 
 poll-tax for children over ten years of age has been repealed, and 
 in its stead premiums are given for rearing large famOies of legit- 
 imate children. 
 
 It is admitted by all that licentiousness prevails extensively 
 among the people even at present, but to a far less degree than 
 formerly, when promiscuous intercourse was universal. Men 
 were living with several wives, and vice versa. All improvement 
 in this respect is to be ascribed to the labors of Christian mission- 
 aries. To them the Sandwich Islanders owe their moral code, 
 and the enactment of laws respecting marriage, as well as their 
 pohtical institutions. 
 
 The observance of outward morality and decency of behavior 
 has, as we have mentioned, been made compulsory in those isl- 
 ands in which the missionaries have permanently fixed themselves, 
 and acquired sufficient power to make their regulations respected. 
 They have interdicted public gatherings for the purpose of amuse- 
 ment, and even suppressed private games and diversions. This 
 has been objected to as an interference with innocent recreation 
 and pastime, and as encouraging formalism. 
 
 But the missionaries had no choice in the matter. Paganism 
 was deeply rooted in the daily life and habits of the people. In 
 all religious festivals, feasting, dancing, and diversion formed so 
 prominent a part,' that the only method of eradicating the attach- 
 ment of the people to their heathen practices was to abolish the 
 usages which made the worship attractive. The dances are al- 
 ways immodest, often lascivious and grossly indecent. They con- 
 sist of little more than contortions and twistings of the limbs and 
 body, and of throwing themselves into postures which, as they 
 are mostly performed by females, are highly' conducive to im- 
 morality. 
 
 Even among the Sanioans, the dances, as performed by the 
 women, are of the same libidinous character- with the others, 
 though the dances of the men are not indecorous. 
 
 The diseases generally prevalent are skin affections. From the 
 delightful climate and simple diet of the people, these are not of a 
 very severe character. The islanders have been no gainers in 
 -this respect by their intercourse with Europeans. The venereal 
 
406 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 disease has been introduced, and, from the deficiency of medical 
 treatment, makes great ravages. Secondary syphilis 9 sometimes 
 severe. At Tutuila, one of the Samoan group, it is said that ve- 
 nereal disease is entirely unknown, while in the other islands of 
 the group it is very rare. 
 
 Political circumstances ; the introduction of new elements into 
 Polynesian hfe ; the daily increasing intercourse between the isl- 
 anders and foreigners, all contribute to make the alterations in the 
 social aspects of the South Sea Islands very rapid, so that every 
 year may work new changes. Some recent writers affect to doubt 
 the benefits of missionary labors among the islanders, who, as they 
 say, have been thereby diverted from their innocent and simple 
 habits of life ; in place of which, it is alleged, a harsh and hypo- 
 critical austerity has been adopted ; the purity of their morals and 
 the vigor of their constitutions have been sapped and destroyed 
 by the contact with Europeans and Americans, and the whole re- 
 sult of foreign intercourse has been unmixed evil. We reject 
 these conclusions, as savoring too strongly of party prejudice and 
 class antipathies. The tendency of the Gospel always is to purify 
 and elevate savage tribes. The missionaries have, perhaps, over- 
 estimated and overstated the extent of benefit accomplished by 
 them, and the gayety and cheerfulness, so pleasing in appearance 
 to the casual visitor, yet so deceptive in reality, may have been 
 diminished. But the purity of savage life is a delusion, and some- 
 thing has been achieved if only an outward conformity to the 
 laws and dictates of Christianity has been produced. 
 
 WEST INDIES. 
 
 A very slight notice of the "West Indies will suffice, for of the 
 savage races scarcely a vestige remains ; of the negro population 
 a general view is all that is required, and the civilized colonists 
 retain so much of the impress of the countries whence they came 
 as to require no special remarks. When Columbus first visited 
 these beautiful islands, he found them inhabited by two classes of 
 men — ^the savage Caribs, who delighted in war and preyed upon 
 the weaker tribes; and the simple communities, whose pacific 
 habits made them victims of their violent neighbors. The people 
 were alike distinct in the treatment of women. The peaceful isl- 
 anders admitted females to a participation in all the delights of 
 their rural life, allowing them to mingle in the dance, to inherit 
 power, and to share all their pleasures. Among the cannibal 
 
BAEBAROUS NATIONS. 407 
 
 Caribs a different fashion prevailed. The handsomest of their 
 war-prisoners were retained as slaves, the rest were drowned. 
 The lot of these exiles, as of the Carib women themselves, was 
 hard enough. The nation was low and barbarous, and its women 
 were treated accordingly, the men regarding them as an inferior 
 race, whose degradation was only natural. A wife was her hus- 
 band's slave, and all the drudgery of life fell upon her. She ap- 
 proached him with abject humility, and, if she ever complained of 
 ill-usage^ it was at the risk of her life ; her children, however, 
 were loved and watched with tender care. 
 
 The original inhabitants of the West Indian islands have dis- 
 appeared, and are succeeded by a mixture of races, of whom the 
 negroes claim our attention now. Among the blacks of Antigua, 
 as an example, immorality is characteristic. Infanticide is fre- 
 quently practiced, even since the Emancipation Bill was passed. 
 The reason for this is clear. Under slavery, negroes could not 
 contract a legal marriage ; they therefore cohabited, and the union 
 lasted as long as their affection or appetite existed. No disgrace 
 attached to a woman who had borne children to sevpral men. 
 Now an idea of female virtue has been awakened, and they seek 
 to escape the consequences of an illicit amour by destroying its 
 offspring, upon the principle that where no tangible evidence of 
 a crime exists, no crime has been committed. 
 
 During slavery, concubinage was general ; and although many 
 masters offered rewards to such as lived faithfully with one part- 
 ner, the vice was all but universal, and a permanent engagement 
 between a man and woman was seldom formed. Two females 
 frequently lived with one man, one being considered his wife, and 
 the other his mistress. When the negroes were emancipated in 
 1834, many were anxious to be legally married, and others put 
 away the partners of their compulsory servitude and took new 
 companions. Bigamy was not uncommon then, nor is it rare now, 
 many devices being adopted to elude the stringent laws on this 
 matter. Concubinage is less general than formerly, but the mar- 
 riage covenant is by no means respected, nor is chastity much es- 
 teemed. 
 
 In St. Lucia sexual intercourse was unrestrained and almost 
 promiscuous, and the negroes of the island are, even to this day, 
 averse to matrimony and inclined to concubiaage. In either re- 
 lation they are equally faithless, the only, redeeming feature being 
 love of their children. 
 
408 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The same low state of morals is observable in Santa Cruz, but 
 in Jamaica the negroes are mostly married and faithMl to their 
 engagements. Formerly the intercourse of the sexes was loose, 
 profligate, and lewd. When the missionaries attempted to reform 
 this, any who submitted to their teachings were ridiculed by the 
 demoralized of their comrades. It must be admitted that Euro- 
 peans have not shown any good example to the negroes, but, on 
 the contrary, have encouraged their vices. 
 
 JAVA. 
 
 A curious system of manners now prevails in Java. Hindoos 
 have been succeeded by Mohammedans, and they, in turn, have 
 given place to Dutch, each having impressed some characteristic 
 on the people. As elsewhere, the condition of the female sex will 
 indicate the general character. The institution of marriage is uni- 
 versally known, if not practiced or respected; and the lot of women 
 may be considered fortunate. They are not ill-used in any man- 
 ner, and the seclusion imposed upon the more opulent is rather a 
 withdrawal &om the indiscriminate gaze of the people than that 
 lonely secrecy exacted by j ealousy in some parts of the East. The 
 condition of the sex in Java is an exception to the habits of Asi- 
 atics. They associate with the men in all the pleasures and offi- 
 ces of life, eat with thena, and live on terms of mutual equality. 
 They are sometimes permitted to ascend the throne, and, in short, 
 nowhere throughout the island are they treated with coarseness, 
 violence, or neglect. They are willing and industrious, and are 
 admitted to many honorable employments. Men sometimes act 
 tyrannically in their households, but this only shows the fault of 
 an individual, not of a class. 
 
 Polygamy and concubinage are practiced by the nobility with- 
 out reference to public opinion, but are not generally adopted, 
 being regarded as vicious luxuries. The first wife is always mis- 
 tress of the household ; the others are her servants, who may min- 
 ister to her husband's pleasures, but do not share his rank or 
 wealth. No man will give his daughter as second or third wife, 
 unless to some one far,superior in rank to himself; and a woman 
 considers it dishonorable, not, in the abstract, to prostitute herself, 
 but to form a connection with any man of humbler birth than her- 
 self. 
 
 But, though polygamy and concubinage are seldom known in 
 Java, their absence must not be considered as implying superior 
 
BAEBAEOUS NATIONS. 4O9 
 
 morality. On tlie contrary, it is the most immoral country in 
 Asia. A woman who would not condescend to be the^gBecond 
 wife of a chief would not scruple to commit adultery wifli him. 
 In general terms, both sexes are profligate and depraved, although 
 the islanders boast the chastity of their women as a distinguishing 
 ornament, because a married woman would shriek if a stranger 
 attempted to kiss her before her attendants. 
 
 Divorce can be procured in Java with the utmost freedom, and 
 is a privilege in which the women indulge themselves to a wanton 
 degree. If a wife pays her husband a sum of money, he must 
 leave her. He is not legally bound to accept her offer, but public 
 opinion considers it disreputable to live with a woman who has 
 thus signified her wishes for a separation, and he yields to general 
 sentiment what is not exacted by law. The husband is often 
 changed three or four times before the woman is thirty years old, 
 and some boast the exercise of this privilege twelve times. As 
 the means of subsistence abound, and are procured as easily by 
 women as by men, the former are independent of the latter, and 
 find no diE&culty in living without htisbands. Unfortunately for 
 the theories of some female reformers of the present day, who im- 
 agine that such independence foreshadows the millennium of wom- 
 an's rights, it must be admitted that, where the experiment has 
 been tried, the sex are proverbially dissolute. 
 
 Among the wealthier classes the utmost immorality prevails, 
 and in the great towns the population is debauched to the last 
 degree. Intrigues with married women continually occur, and 
 are prosecuted almost before the face of the husbands, who are 
 often so tame and servile that they dare not assert their conjugal 
 rights. Travelers have noticed flagrant instances of the looseness 
 of Japanese manners, but one case will suffice. One of the princes, 
 who had seduced a married woman, and was in the habit of visit- 
 ing her at times when her husTaand, an officer in the public guard, 
 was on duty, was surprised in her company on one occasion, the 
 chief having returned home earlier than was expected. He knew 
 the rank of his visitor, and discreetly coughed, so that the prince 
 had time to escape. He then went to the chamber and flogged 
 his wife. She complained to the priace, who was particularly de- 
 sirous, at that time, to conciliate his subjects. He sent fbr the 
 husband, made him many rich presents, and allowed him to select 
 the handsomest woman in the royal household in place of the frail 
 one who had betrayed him. The husband accepted the peaCe-of- 
 
410 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ferings, allowed Ms wife to return liome witli him, and all the par. 
 ties were satisfied. • 
 
 . In Java women are usually married very young, as their chas- 
 tity is in danger as soon as they reach maturity. At eighteen or 
 twenty a girl is considered to be getting old, and scarcely any are 
 unmarried after twenty-two. Yet age does not exclude a woman 
 from the probabilities of matrimony, for widows often procure 
 husbands at fifty. , The preliminary arrangements are made by 
 the parents, as scandal would not allow the young people to take 
 any part in a transaction in which they are looked upon, as the na- 
 tives express it, as mere puppets. The father of the youth, having 
 made a suitable choice, proposes to the parents of the ^rl. If they 
 are willing, the betrothal is ratified by some trifling present, and 
 visits are made, that the intended nuptials may be publicly known. 
 Subsequently the price of the lady is arranged, varying according 
 to the rank and circumstances of the family. Sometimes this is 
 plainly called the "purchase-money," and sometimes by a more 
 delicate term, the " deposit." It is considered as a settlement for 
 the bride. The only religious feature in the marriage ceremony 
 is an exchange of vows in the mosque. This is followed by many 
 observances of etiquette and parade. Finally, the married couple 
 eat from the same vessel, to testify their common fortune, or the 
 bride washes her husband's feet in token of subjection. 
 
 The Javanese support a large class of women as public dancers. 
 The inhabitants are passionately fond of this amusement, but no 
 respectable woman will join in it, and all its female partisans are 
 prostitutes ; in fact, the words dancer and prostitute are synony- 
 mous in their .language. A chief of high rank is not ashamed to 
 be seen with one of these women, who figure at most large enter- 
 tainments, and frequently amass enough money to induce some 
 petty chief to marry them. So strong, however, is their ruling 
 passion, they soon ascertain that domesticity is not their sphere, 
 and become tired of their husbands, whom they divorce without 
 ceremony, and coolly return to their public life. The dress in 
 which they perform is very immodest, but they seldom descend to 
 such flbscene and degrading postures as may be witnessed in oth- 
 er Eastern countries. 
 
 European example has not done much for Java. The Dutch 
 merchant has usually a native female called his housekeeper. 
 In every city public prostitutes abound, while about the roads in 
 the vicinity may be found others ready for hire. Their disguise 
 as dancers is thought to conceal their profligacy. 
 
BARBAROUS NATIONS. 411 
 
 SUMATRA. 
 
 The population of this island is divided into several tribes, 
 slightly differing in their manners. The Eejangs, who may be 
 supposed to represent its original inhabitants, are rude barbarians, 
 scrupulously attentive to the show, but wanting the spirit of deli- 
 cacy. They drape their women from head to foot, dread lest a 
 virgin should expose any part of her person, and yet modesty is 
 not a characteristic of the people in towns and villages. Those 
 in rural districts who are not so rigid as to costume are more dis- 
 tinguished by decency. 
 
 The customs of Sumatra are of a peculiar character, great im- 
 portance being attached to required formulas ; and the ritual is 
 more essential than the principle. It is curious to examine the 
 intricate details of a Sumatran marriage contract, which appears 
 to be so little understood even by the people themselves that, we 
 are informed, one of these documents is sufficient to originate an 
 almost endless htigation. 
 
 There are several modes of forming a marriage contract. The 
 first is when one man agrees to pay another a certain sum in ex- 
 change for his daughter. A portion of, the amount, say about 
 five dollars, is generally held back, to keep the transaction open, 
 and allow the girl's parents a chance to complain if she is iU used. 
 If the husband wound her, he is liable to a fine, and in many 
 ways his authority is controlled. But if he insists on paying the 
 balance of the purchase-money, her parents must accept it, and 
 then their right of interference ceases. If a father desires to get 
 rid of a girl suffering from any infirmity, he sells her without this 
 reservation, and she has fewer privileges in consequence. 
 
 In other cases marriage is an affair of barter, one virgin being 
 given for another. A man having a son and a daughter will give 
 the latter in exchange for a wife for the former ; or a brother wiU 
 dispose of his sister in the same way. Sometimes a girl evades 
 these customs by eloping with a lover of her own choice. If the 
 fugitives are overtaken on the road, they can be separated; but 
 if they have taken refiige in any house, and the man declares his 
 willingness to obey existing rules, his wife is secured to him. 
 The Jewish custom of a man marrying his brother's widow is in 
 force among the Sumatrans, and if there be no brother, she must 
 be taken by the nearest male relative, the father excepted, who is 
 made responsible for any balance of her purchase-money which 
 mav be due. 
 
412 , HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Adultery is not frequently committed under this system, but 
 when it is, the husband chastises "his wife himselffbr else forgives 
 the offense. If he desire to divorce her, he may claim back the 
 purchase-money; less twenty-five dollars, which is allowed her par- 
 ents for depreciation in the woman's value. If a man who has 
 taken a wife is unable to pay the whole price, her friends may 
 sue for a divorce, but then they must return all they have re- 
 ceived from him. The ceremony of divorce consists in cutting a 
 ratan in two in presence of the parties and their witnesses. 
 
 Another kind of marriage is when a girl's father selects some 
 man whom he adopts into his family, receiving a premium of 
 about twenty dollars. The father-in-law's family thus acquire a 
 property in the young husband; they are answerable for his 
 debts, claim all he earns, and have the privilege of turning him 
 out of doors when they are tired of him. 
 
 The Malays of Sumalda have generally adopted a third kind of 
 marriage, which they call the free. In this the families approach 
 each other on an equal level. A small sum, about twelve dollars, 
 is paid to the girl's parents, and an agreement is made that all 
 property shall be common between husband and wife, and if a 
 {^vorce takes place it shall be fairly divided. The actual cere- 
 mony of marriage is simple : a feast is given, the couple join their 
 hands, and some one pronounces them man and wife. 
 
 Where the female is an article of sale, little of what we call 
 courtship can be expected. It is opposed to the manners of the 
 country, which impose striqt separation of the sexes in youth; 
 and, besides, when a man pays the price of his wife, he considers 
 he is entitled to possession, without any question as to her predi- 
 lections. But traces of courtship may be met with. On the very 
 few occasions when yoiing people are allowed to meet, such as 
 public festivals, a degree of respect is shown to women contrast- 
 ing very favorably with the observances of more civilized com- 
 munities, and mutual attachments sometimes spring from these 
 associations. .The festivals are enlivened by dances and songs. 
 The former have been described as licentious, but an English 
 traveler says he has often seen more immodest displays in a ball- 
 room in his native country. The songs are extempore, and love 
 is the constant theme. 
 
 Polygamy is~ permitted, but only a few chiefs have more than 
 one wife. To be a second one is considered far below the dignity 
 of a respectable woman, and a man would demand a divorce for 
 
BARBAEOUS NATIONS. 4I3 
 
 his daughter if her husband was about to take an additional com- 
 panion. , , , 
 
 Marsden, the traveler already mentioned, says that ia^the coun- 
 try parts of Sumatra chastity is general ; but. the merit is lost when 
 he adds that interest causes the parents to be watchful of their 
 daughters, because the selling price of a virgin is far above that 
 of a woman who has been defiled. If a case of seduction occurs, 
 the seducer can be forced to marry the girl and pay her original 
 price, or else give her parents the sum which they would lose by 
 her error. 
 
 Eegular prostitution is rare. In the bazars of the towns some 
 women of this, class may be found, and in the sea-ports profligacy 
 abounds, troops of professional courtesans parading the streets. 
 No one would estimate the morality of a country from the spec- 
 tacles exhibited in maritime cities. As a general rule, the Suma- 
 tran-is content to marry^ and is faithful to his wife. This may 
 proceed from temperament rather than morality, as their ideas on 
 the latter are not very rigid. This is shown by their opinion of 
 incest, which they regard as an infraction of conventional law, 
 sometimes punishing it by a. fine, and at other times confirming 
 the marriage, tmless it occurs within the first degree of relation- 
 ship. 
 
 BORNEO. 
 
 NotA/rithstanding the attention which has been drawn to the 
 island of Borneo within the last few years, it is yet but Httle 
 known to the general reader. The investigations of Sir James 
 Bropke and others have enabled us to discern many of its social 
 features. Most of the inhabitants of Borneo are in a state of bar- 
 barism. Some wander naked ip. the forest, and subsist on the 
 spontaneous productions of the earth ; others cultivate the soil, 
 dwell in villages, and trade with their neighbors. The river com- 
 munities are more advanced than those who live inland, and the 
 inhabitants of sea-ports are more educated and more profligate 
 than any. These have been farther debased by the abominable 
 system of piracy, which, until recently, was their occupation. 
 
 Among the Sea Dyaks, or dwellers on the coast, there is no so- 
 cial law to govern sexual intercourse before marriage, nor is the 
 authority of parents recognized in the matter. The Dyak girl se- 
 lects a husband for herself, and, while she remains single, incurs 
 no disgrace by cohabiting with as many as she pleases. After 
 
414 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 marriage she is Stibject to more stringent rules, for, as a man is 
 allowed only one -wife, lie requires her to be faithM, or in default 
 punishes her with a severe whipping. If he is incontinent he in- 
 curs a similar penalty. Cases of adultery are not frequent, though 
 they sometimes occur in time of war. 
 
 The ceremony of marriage is as simple as possible. The con- 
 sent of the woman is first obtained, then the bride and bridegroom 
 meet and give a feast, which completes the contract. 
 
 If a girl becom^ pregnant, the father of the child must marry ^ 
 her, and this is a common way of securing a husband. A man 
 and woman live together for a time, and separate if there is no 
 prospect of a family. During this probation constancy is not con- 
 sidered indispensable. The fear of not becoming the father of a 
 family, a misfortune greatly dreaded by the Dyaks, favors the 
 loose intercourse of unmarried people. In some tribes the duties 
 of hospitality require that if a. chief is traveling he shall be "fur- 
 nished with a pro tempore female companion at every place where 
 he sleeps. 
 
 Among the Dyaks dwelling on the hills morality is of a higher 
 standard. Single men are obliged to sleep in a separate building 
 and the girls are not allowed to approach them. Marriage is con- 
 tracted at a very early age, and adultery is almost unknown. 
 Polygamy is not allowed, but some of the chiefs indulge in a con- 
 cubine, for which they are generally blamed. There are certain 
 degrees of consanguinity within which marriage is unlawful. One 
 man shocked public feeling by marrying his granddaughter, and 
 the people affirm that ruin and darkness have covered the face of 
 the sun ever since that act of incest. As they marry constantly 
 withi^i their own tribe, the whole commonwealth is in time imited 
 by ties of blood, and to this is. ascribed the insanity common 
 among them, a conclusion warranted to some extent by the im- 
 becile state of well-known royal families condemned to perpetual 
 intermarriages. 
 
 It is said that many prostitutes may be found among the people 
 of the South, but this rests on doubtful testimony, and in the 
 Dyak language there is no word to express the vice. 
 
 The Sibnouan females are neither concealed from strangers nor 
 shy before them. They will bathe naked in the presence of men. 
 The unmarried people sleep promiscuously in a common room, 
 but married couples have separate apartments. The labor of the 
 household is allotted to females, who grind rice, carry, burdens, 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 4I5 
 
 fetcli water, catch, fish, and till the ground. They are not so de- 
 graded as in other barbarous nations. They eat with the men, 
 and take part in their festivals as well as their labor. 
 
 Among the Mohammedan Malays there is more civilization and 
 more corruption. They are polygamists, iadulge in concubinage, 
 encourage prostitutes, and ill use their wives. An EngUsh phy- 
 sician lately received a message from the wife of a chief appoint- 
 ing a secret meeting. He was punctual to the assignation, and 
 met the lady, who asked him for a dose of arsenic to poison her 
 husband, as he ill-treated her. Eeport says that the Englishman 
 was disappointed in the nature of the interview, but firmly refused 
 to grant her request. 
 
 The rich Malays allow their wives to keep female slaves, and 
 the jealousy of the mistress renders their situation any thing but 
 pleasant. They sometimes serve as concubines, in which case the 
 law renders them free, but many refuse to avail themselves of this 
 advantage. 
 
 We have no definite account of prostitutes in sea-port towns, 
 but they appear to be of several classes : tl;iose who cohabit tem- 
 porarily with the Malays, those who prostitute themselves indis- 
 criminately to all comers, and those who are supported by sailors 
 and profligate Chinese, who invariably create such a class wher- 
 ever they, settle. It is certain that women of this class exist in 
 considerable numbers in Borneo. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 
 
 Persia. — Afghanistan. — Kashmir. — India. — Ceylon. — Ultra- Gangetic Nations. — 
 Celebes. China.-^Japan. — Tartar Races. — Circassia. — Turkey. — Northern Af- 
 rica. Siberia.— Esquimaux. — Iceland. — Greenland. 
 
 PEESIA. 
 
 WoMEN.occupy, an inferior position in Persia, where they are 
 literally the property of: men.' The lower classes consider them 
 valuable for their labor, the: rich regard them as instruments of 
 pleasure. While Persian poetry, and romance are devoted to the 
 praise of female eharms, the realities of every-day life prove that 
 the eex is held in slight esteem. The wives of the Shah vegetate 
 within the walls of a luxurious prison ; and if one is ever permit- 
 
 \ \\ 
 
416 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ted to breathe tlie air outside, she is paraded ia solemn procession, 
 guarded by a troup of. eunuchs armed with loaded«touskets, in 
 order to drive off any curious wayfarer who might be tempted to 
 gaze on the charms of a royai mistress. Nor is this isolation pe- 
 culiar to them;, it pervades all the upper classes, and brothers are 
 not allowed to see their sisters after a certain age. 
 
 This jealousy is not decreased by the polygamy which is com- 
 mon ifli the country. The religious laws limit a Persian to four 
 wives, but allow him to keep as many concubines as he can af- 
 ford ; and, in pursuance of this privilege, the harem of the palace 
 is said to contain at times more than a thousand women, who need 
 a stringent discipline to keep them in order. They are arranged 
 with a strict, regard to 'precedence. The chief favorite lives in 
 splendor, her attire is covered with costly jewels, and she has the 
 privilege of sitting in the royal presence. Her inferiors are sub- 
 ject to much rigor, and the eunuchs preserve decorum by admin- 
 istering personal chastisement with the heel of a slipper on the- 
 face of a re&actory woman. They seem insensible to any degra- 
 dation. Many of them lead a pleasant, idle life, lounging for hours 
 in the warm bath, and emerging with enervated frames to deck 
 their pretty persons in order to render themselves attractive to 
 the Shah. They court his favor as much as they fear his frown, 
 and with good reason. The former can raise them to the summit 
 of their ambition ; the latter can condemn them to be fastened in 
 a sack and thrown from a lofty tower. 
 
 Common usage permits a Persian to take a woman in three dif- 
 ferent ways: he may marry, purchase, or hire her. In the first 
 case, betrothal sometimes takes place in infancy, but it must be 
 subsequently confirmed by the parties. In this they seldom fail ; 
 for if"a girl shows aiiy repugnance to ratify her father's contract, 
 he whips her until she consents, and she requires little of this 
 kind of argument to induce compliance'. The nuptial ceremony 
 must be witnessed by two persons, one of whom is a legal ofiicer 
 to attest the contract. This is delivered to the bride, and by her 
 carefully preserved, as it proves her title to provision in the event 
 of widowhood or divorce. Though a man has the right to put 
 away his wife when he pleases, the attendant expense and scandal 
 render it a rare proceeding. Mohammedan jealousy farther pro- 
 tects the woman, as no one will willingly allow a female with 
 whom he has lived to fall into the hands of another. In addition 
 to this, interest restrains a husband from using his privileges in a 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 4X7 
 
 direct manner, as when lie takes tlie initiative he must pay back 
 the dowry he received with his wife. If she applies for divorce, 
 he is free from this obligation. The advantage being thus on the 
 man's side, a species of tyranny is frequently practiced until the 
 woman is forced to open the suit, when he gets rid of her, but re- 
 tains her property. 
 
 A Persian may purchase as many female slaves as he desires. 
 These acquire no advantage of position by being his concubines ; 
 he may sell or otherwise dispose of them at any moment he thinks 
 proper. 
 
 The custom of hiring wives still. prevails in Persia, though strict 
 Mohammedans abhor and condemn the practice, which was pro- 
 hibited by Omar, the successor of Mohammed. In operation, it is 
 an agreement made by a man and woman to cohabit a specified 
 time for an agreed sum of money. The chUdreh springing from 
 this union must be supported by the father. If the rdan terminate 
 the connection prematurely, he must still pay the whole stipulated 
 amount, and the woman is restrained from accepting any other 
 protector until a suf&cient time has elapsed to prove whether she 
 is pregnant by the former. Although these contracts are ranked 
 as marriages, few readers will be inclined to think them any thing 
 but systematic prostitution. 
 
 Formerly there were numerous open and avowed prostitutes in 
 Persia, among whom the dancing girls were conspicuous for the 
 beauty of their persons and the melody of their voices. They had 
 considerable sway until the time of Futteh Ali Khan, who crowd- 
 ed his palace with concubines, and from among them issued edicts 
 to suppress immorality, prohibiting the dancing girls from ap- 
 proaching the court, and exiling them to the distant provinces. 
 Social life was most depraved under the Sefi djmasty. Public 
 brothels were very numerous, and largely contributed to the na- 
 tional revenue, no less than thirty thousand prostitutes paying an 
 annual tax in Ispahan alone. The governors of provinces allowed 
 similar privileges for money, and there was scarcely a town which 
 had not one licensed brothel at least, whose inmates (also licensed 
 and taxed) were known as Cahhelm, or the worthless. As soon as 
 the shops were closed these houses were opened, and the women 
 repaired to particular localities, where they sat in rows, closely 
 veiled. With each company was an old harridan, whose business 
 was to show the faces of her troop to any man desiring a compan- 
 ion and to receive his payment when the selection was made. Un- 
 
 Dd 
 
418 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 der the reigning family this system has been checked ; no licenses 
 are now given, and prostitution has retired to secrd%. But the 
 vice has in no way decreased, and public brothels abound in all 
 the cities of Persia. 
 
 AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 Marriage in Afghanistan is a commercial transaction, the wom- 
 en being sold for prices varying according to circumstances. This 
 system is carried to such an extent that if a widow marries, the 
 friends of her first husband can recover from his successor the 
 amount originally paid for her. The necessity of purchasing a 
 wife renders many of the poorer classes unable to marry until 
 well advanced in years, iu opposition to the custom of their 
 wealthy neighbors, among whom bridegrooms of fifteen and brides 
 of twelve years old are common. 
 
 The prior iutercourse of the sexes is regulated by various cir- 
 cumstances. In crowded towns men have little opportunity of 
 associating with women, and there professional match-makers ex- 
 ist. Their functions are, in the first place, to see and report upon 
 any girl whom a man may wish to marry ; then to ascertain if 
 her family would agree to the match, and, finally, to make ar- 
 rangements for a public proposal. This is made by the suitor's 
 father, in company with a number of male friends, to the father 
 of the girl, while a similar deputation of females waits upon the 
 mother. Presents are made, the selling price determined, and the 
 couple are betrothed. Soon after, the parties sign a mutual con- 
 tract ; stipulation is made for provision for the woman if divorced ; 
 a festival is given ; the bridegroom pays for his wife, and she is 
 delivered at the dwelling of her future master. Similar formali- 
 ties take place in the country, but, as the social intercourse is less 
 restricted there, marriages frequently spring from attachment, and 
 the negotiations are mere matters of etiquette. 
 
 A romantic lover may obtain his mistress without the consent 
 of her parents by tearing away her veil, cuttiiig off a lock of her 
 hair, or throwing a large white cloth over her, and declaring her 
 his affianced bride. These proceedings do not release him from 
 the obligation to pay for her, which is only evaded by an elope- 
 ment, a serious step, considered by the girl's family as equivalent 
 to murder, and revenged accordingly, unless the couple secure 
 shelter and protection from some neighboring tribe. Sometimes 
 a man never sees his bride until the marriage is completed. In 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 4I9 
 
 certain districts where this rule nominally exists it is practically 
 violated, secret interviews between the bride and bridegroom be- 
 ing tolerated, and called " the sport of the betrothed." The young 
 man steals after dark to the house of his charmer, affecting to 
 conceal his presence from the men, and is introduced by the moth- 
 er to her daughter's room, where the couple are left till the morn- 
 ing undisturbed. The ordinary result of this is the anticipation 
 of nuptial privileges, and cases have been known where the bride 
 has borne several children before she has been formally delivered 
 to her husband. 
 
 Polygamy is allowed, but is too expensive to be practiced by 
 the majority of the -people, although some rich men maintain a 
 large number of concubines in addition to the four legal wives. 
 
 The social condition of females is low in Afghanistan. Among 
 the more barbarous tribes they labor in the fields. With the poor 
 all the drudgery of the house falls upon them, while the rich keep 
 them secluded in the harems. The law allows a man the privi- 
 lege of beating his wife, but custom is more chivalrous than the 
 code, and considers such an act disgraceful. 
 
 Of avowed prostitutes in this region we know but little beyond 
 the bare fact that such a class exists, and that their profligacy is 
 materially aided by the ignorance and insipidity of the wives and 
 concubines, when contrasted with the knowledge of the world and 
 comparatively polished manners exhibited by courtesans, whose 
 society is frequently sought as a relief from the monotony of 
 home. 
 
 KASHMIR. 
 
 Unoppressed by any rigid code of etiquette, and naturally ad- 
 dicted to pleasure, the people of Kashmir find much of their en- 
 joyment in female society, and &om the earliest times have been 
 noted for their love of singers and dancers. In former days the 
 capital city was the scene of constant revels, in which morahty 
 was but a secondary consideration, and now the inhabitant re- 
 lieve the continual struggle against misfortune and despotism by 
 indulging in gross vices, and drown the sense of hopeless poverty 
 in the gratification of animal passions. The women of this de- 
 Hghtfiil valley have long been celebrated for their beauty, and are 
 still called the flower of the Oriental race. The face is of a dark 
 complexion, richly flushed with pink; the eyes large, almond- 
 shaped, and overflowing with a peculiar liquid brilliance ; the 
 
420 HISTOBY OF PKOSTITUTIQN. 
 
 features regular, karmonious, and fine ; the limbs and bodies are 
 models of grace. But all writers agree that art dodf nothing to 
 aid nature, and it is not unusual to see eyes unsurpassed for bright- 
 ness and expression flashing from a very dirty face. Among the 
 poorer classes filth ajad degradation render many women actually 
 repulsive, notwithstanding their resplendent beauty. 
 
 Travelers always remark the dancing girls who have acquired 
 so much renown in Kashmir. The village of Changus was at 
 one time, celebrated for a colony of these women, who excelled all 
 others in the valley; but now its famous beauties have disap- 
 peared, and live only in the traditions of the place. The dancing 
 girls may be divided into several classes. Among the higher 
 may be found those who are virtuous and modest, probably to 
 about the same extent as among actresses, opera singers, and bal- 
 let girls in civilized communities. Others, frequent entertain- 
 ments at the houses of riph men, or publio festivals, and estimate 
 their favors at a very high price, while the rem,ainder are avowed- 
 harlots, prostituting, themselves indiscriminajglyitoany.who desire 
 their company. Many of these are devoted to the.'serivice of some 
 god, whose temple is enriched from the gains of their! calling. 
 
 The "Watul, or Gipsy tribe of Ka3hmir is remarkable for many 
 lovely 'women, who are taught to please the taste of the voluptu- 
 ary. They sing licentious songs in an amorous tone, dance in a 
 lascivious measure, dress in a peculiarly fascinating manner, and 
 seduce by the very expression of their countenances. When they 
 join a company of dancing girls, they are uniformly successful in 
 their vocation, and have been known to amass large sums of 
 money. Now that the valley is in its decadence, their charms 
 find a more profitable market in other places. The bands of 
 dancing girls are usually accompanied by sundry hideous duen- 
 nas, -yrhose conspicuous ughness forms a striking contrast to their 
 charge. 
 
 TheNach girls are under the surveillance of the government,, 
 which licenses their prostitution. They are actual slaves, and can 
 not sing or dance without permission from their overseer, to whom 
 they must resign a large portion of their earnings. 
 
 Li addition to these, who may be styled poetical courtesans, 
 there exists a swarm of prostitutes frequenting low houses in the 
 cities or boate on the lake ; but of them we have no distinct ac- 
 count. It is certain that they are largely visited by the more im- 
 moral of the population, and an accurate idea of their status may 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 421 
 
 be formed from a knowledge of the fact that the traveler Moor- 
 craft, who gave gratuitous medical advice to the poor of Serina- 
 ghur, had at one time nearly seven thousand patients on his lists, 
 a very large number of whom were suffering from loathsome dis- 
 eases induced by the grossest and most persevering profligacy. 
 In short, there can be but little doubt that the manners of the ia- 
 habitants of this interesting and beautiful valley are corrupt to 
 the last degree. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 India exhibits, ia its different communities, many aspects of 
 social life, but it may be said, in general terms, that the state of 
 woman is degraded, as she is absolutely dependent upon man, and 
 can do nothing of her own will. She must approach her lord 
 with reverence; is bound to him so long as he' desires it, what- 
 ever his conduct may be ; and if she rebel, is liable to be chas- 
 tised with a rope or a cane in a cruel manner. Debarred the 
 advantages of education, not allowed to eat with their husbands 
 or to mix in society, women are yet not treated as abject slaves ; 
 and from the few revelations of the zenana which have been made, 
 it may be inferred that its inmates receive considerable deference 
 and attention. 
 
 Polygamy is permitted in India, but not encouraged by the 
 religious law, and only sanctioned in certain cases, such as barren- 
 ness, inconstancy, or some similar cause, and then the wife's con- 
 sent must be obtained before a second and subordinate wife can 
 be added to the household. 
 
 Marriage is viewed as a religious duty by the Hindoos, only a 
 few being exempt from the obligation. It is forbidden to purchase 
 a wife for money ; but the girl^ have little choice as to their des- 
 tiny, being usually betrothed while young. A father has the 
 right to dispose of his daughter until three years after the age of 
 puberty, when she may choose a husband for herself: not niany 
 remain single till that time, as cehbaxiy would be accoimted dis- 
 gracefiil, and few men would marry a maiden so old. In Bengal, 
 ■ betrothal takes place with many rites and much ostentation. The 
 girl-bride is taken to her future husband's house, and remains 
 there a short time, when she returns to her parents until mature. 
 The anxiety to dispose of a daughter as young as possible arises 
 from the fact that her birth is regarded as inauspicious, and even 
 as a domestic calamity, from which her parents are glad to escape. 
 
422 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Hence the character- of the bridegroom is a secondary considera- 
 tion, and marriage often results unhappily. In faol|i little else 
 can be expectedwhere the parties are absolutely strangers to each 
 other until the union is effected. The uneducated wife, without 
 a gleam of knowledge, amuses herself by a thousand trivial de- 
 vices, such as adorning her person, curhng her hair, or listening 
 to the gossip of her slaves. It is, nevertheless, generally admitted 
 that the majority of Hindoo women are faithfiil to their marital 
 vows. The severe laws against unchastity are framed more for 
 preserving caste than morals, and severely punish any woman de- 
 tected in an intrigue with a man of different grade to herself. 
 
 Divorce may be easUy effected by the husband, but the wife 
 has no corresponding power. A man who caUs his wife "moth- 
 er," renounces her by that act. A barren wife may be superseded 
 in the eighth year: she who bears only daughters, or whose chil- 
 dren die in the birth, in the eleventh year; and one of an unkind 
 disposition may be divorced without any delay. 
 
 The customs that prevail in different provinces respecting wives 
 and their treatment may be described in a few words. In Arra- 
 can, when a man wants money, he pawns his wife for a certain 
 sum, or else sells her altogether. In the southern parts of the 
 peninsula polygamy is largely practiced. The Shaynagas of Ca- 
 nara are not allowed to take a second wife unless the first be child- 
 less. The Corannas, the Panchalura, and other tribes, permitted 
 polygamy and the purchase of wives. Among the Woddas every 
 man had as many wives as he pleased ; all worked for him, and a 
 lazy one was divorced sans ceremonie. The Carruburru took nc;) 
 notice of an act of adultery if the wife was a hard-working wom- 
 an; otherwise she might live with any man who chose to keep 
 her. In Eajpootana woman holds a higher position, and exercises 
 considerable influence on the actions and tastes of men, for a Eaj- 
 poot consults his wife on every important occasion. The estima- 
 tion in which they are held is indicated by a national proverb, 
 which says, " When wives are honored the gods are pleased ; 
 when they are dishonored the gods are offended." This district 
 exhibits the Hindoo women in the most favorable circumstances,, 
 and even here they hold but a subordinate place, as must always 
 be the case where polygamy is tolerated. It is scarcely necessary 
 to review all the local peculiarities of so extended a people: 
 enough has been said to show the social condition of married 
 women. It remains to give some account of prostitution. 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 423 
 
 Some of the dancing women and musicians of Southern India 
 ■were attached to every temple; a portion were reserved by the 
 sensual Brahmins for their exclusive pleasures, and. the rest hired 
 themselves out indiscriminately. Each troop was under a chief, 
 who regulated their performances and prices. In the temple of 
 Tulava, near Mangalore, a curious custom existed. Any woman 
 could dedicate herself to prostitution by eating some of, the rice 
 which had been offered to the idol, and was allowed her choice to 
 live within or without its precincts. In the former case, she re- 
 ceived a daily allowance of food, and her prostitution was limited 
 to the priests; in the latter, her amours' were unrestricted, but a 
 stipulated portion of her profits must be given to the temple. In 
 Sindh every, town has a troop of dancing girls, many of whom are 
 very handsome. Before the British conquest the vice was largely 
 encouraged ; numbers of the women acquired considerable fortunes, 
 and their political influence was potent in the durbars of the de- 
 bauched Amirs. • An evident reform has taken place of late 
 years. 
 
 The lascivious scenes of the southern country are not enacted, 
 at least to the same extent, in Hindostan proper, where the inter- 
 est of the English government has been directed against immoral- 
 ity. Toward the close of the last century an official report was 
 made on the morals of British India. It was bad enough : much 
 laxity prevailed in private hfe ; receptacles for women of bad 
 character abounded ; prostitutes had a place in society, made an 
 important figure at great entertainments, and were admitted to the 
 zenanas to exhibit their voluptuous dances. Contrasted with for- 
 mer years, a great improvement is now perceptible, and the profli- 
 gacy of large cities scarcely exceeds the vices of European com- 
 munities. Thus Benares, with a population of 180,000, had 1764 
 prostitutes ; and Decca, with nearly 67,000 inhabitants, had 770 
 prostitutes. 
 
 Apart from governmental influences, it can scarcely be denied 
 that Europeans have contributed to the advance of vice by taking 
 temporary companions. These liaisons were scarcely considered 
 . improper. The custom was to purchase ^rls from their mothers. 
 Many of them were faithful and attached to their protectors, but 
 their extravagance and propensity for gambling made them very 
 costly adjuncts. 
 
 The religious ceremonies originated by the Brahmins were often 
 \)vA, scenes of the wildest debauchery, rivaling the ancient Egyp- 
 
424 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 tian festival of Bubastis, and no good would result from an ex- 
 tended description of dances performed by nude o# semi-nude 
 women, of the desecration of wives by a licentious priesthood, or 
 of the disgusting polygamy of the Brahmins. Suffice it to say 
 that such customs existed, but are now yielding to more refined 
 observances. . 
 
 The general profligacy of the country has introduced syphilis 
 in most parts of Hindostan. Some assert that it was carried there 
 after the discovery of America, but neither history nor tradition 
 warrants this opinion. It may be noticed that it is not called by 
 any Sanscrit word, but is known by a Persian appellation. 
 
 Our notice of India would be incomplete without an allusion to 
 the suttee, or burning of widows, and to infanticide. The Shas- 
 tres are full of recommendations to perform the first of these 
 shocking observances, and promise ineffable bHss to the voluntary 
 victim. It was carried to such an extent that fifteen thousand 
 women are reported to have perished in one year in Bengal. This 
 is doubtless an exaggeration, although the number was confessed- 
 ly very large. Among the hbrrible details of the practice we find 
 that betrothed children of eight or ten years old, and women of 
 eighty-five, have alike been thrown into the biumng pile. Fear- 
 ful scenes have been witnessed on these occasions. A miserable 
 wretch has twice escaped from the fire and clung to the feet of a 
 traveler, vainly imploring hirn to save her ; and then, naked, and 
 with the flesh already bumed fi-om parts of her body, has been 
 bound and thrown into the flames by the frantic relatives. Let 
 British rule in India be what it may, no man, no " Aborigines 
 Protection Society," can regret its spread, in conjunction with the 
 services rendered to our common humanity by the abolition of 
 the suttee. 
 
 Infanticide formerly prevailed to a great extent, but is now al- 
 most extirpated from British India. The crime was sanctioned 
 by custom, but not by religion or tradition. Its victims were 
 chiefly females, and their murder was in consequence of the diffi- 
 culty of marrying them within the required boimds of caste, or of 
 the ruinous expenses which fashion required should be incurred . 
 at the wedding ceremonies, rather than from any other cause. It 
 appears to have been the custom among the ancient dwellers on 
 the banks of the Indus for the father of a female child to carry it 
 to the market-place, and publicly demand if any one wanted a 
 wife. If the reply was in the affirmative, it was betrothed at once. 
 
>SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 425 
 
 and carefully reared, but otherwise it was immediately MUed. 
 "Wilkinson asserted twenty-five years ago that twenty thousand 
 children were annually murdered in Malwa and Kajpootana, but 
 by the system of rewarding parents who reared their offspring, 
 and the gradual introduction of salutary laws, a mighty reform 
 has been effected. 
 
 CEYLON, 
 
 Under the original institutions of the Singhalese, they never li- 
 censed pubhe prostitution, nor made brothels of the temples, as in 
 India. Whatever effect the Buddhist religion produced was in 
 favor of virtue, but the character of the people is naturally sen- 
 sual ; profligacy among men and want of chastity among women 
 are general characteristics, and even those who profess Christian- 
 ity and acknowledge the moral law of England are not free from 
 this stain. 
 
 In Ceylon, as, indeed, in most parts of Asia, marriage is con- 
 tracted at an early age. A man " attains his majority" at sixteen, 
 and a girl as soon as marriageable by nature is marriageable by 
 law, at which time her parents or relatives give a feast, inviting a 
 number of single men. Soon after, a man who may desire to 
 marry her sends one of his friends to her parents to mention, in 
 apparently a casual manner, that a rumor of the intended mar- 
 riage of his friend and their daughter is in circulation. If this an- 
 nouncement meets a favorable reception, the father of the bride^ 
 groom calls, inquires the amount of the dowry, and carries the 
 negotiation a few steps farther. Mutual visits are then exchanged, 
 preliminaries settled, and an auspicious day fixed for the wedding, 
 which takes place with much ceremony. The stars are consulted 
 in every step, and shotdd the bridegroom's horoscope differ from 
 the bride's, his younger brother may act as his proxy at the cer- 
 emony. The whole Buddhaical ritual is a tedious succession of 
 formalities, entails enormous expenses, and can not be followed 
 by the poor. To those of low caste it is positively forbidden, 
 even if they are rich enough to meet the outlay, and with these 
 marriage is limited to a simple agreement between the parents of 
 the young couple. 
 
 Among the Kandians polyandrism prevails to a great extent, a 
 matron of high caste being sometimes the wife of eight brothers. 
 The people justify this custom upon several groxtnds : among the 
 rich, because it prevents litigation, saves property from minute 
 
426 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 subdivision, and concentrates family influence ; with the poor, be- 
 cause it reduces expenses, and frequently where onebwther could 
 not alone maintain a wife and family, the association of several 
 can command the means. This plurality of husbands is not neces- 
 sarily confined to brothers, for a man may, with his wife's con- 
 sent, introduce a stranger, who is called an "associated husband," 
 and is entitled to all marital rights. This practice does not ex- 
 tend beyond the province of Kandy, although it was formerly 
 prevalent throughout the maritime districts of the island. 
 
 ' Another Kandian peculiarity was a kind of marriage called 
 "Bema," in which the husband lived at his wife's house. He re- 
 ceived but httle respect frOm his relations, and could be ejected at 
 once if unpopular. There is an ancient proverb in reference to 
 this dubious arrangement, which says that a man married accord- 
 ing to the Bema process should only take to his bride's house a 
 pair of sandals to protect his feet, a palm leaf to shield his head, a 
 staff to support him if sick, and a lantern in case he should be ex- 
 pelled in the dark, so that he may be prepared to depart at any 
 -hour of the day or night. 
 
 In Ceylon, women frequently seek for divorces for the most triv- 
 ial catises, and as separation can be attained by a mere return of 
 the marriage gifts, it often takes place. If a child is born within 
 nine months from this separation, the husband is required to sup- 
 port it for three years. If a married woman commits adultery, 
 and the husband is a witness, he may kill her lover. When a 
 man puts away his wife on account of an intrigue, he may disin- 
 herit her and the whole, of her offspring, even if the latter were 
 bom before any crime had been committed by their mother. If he 
 seeks a divorce from caprice, he must relinquish all his wife's 
 property, and share with her whatevet may have accumulated 
 during ;their cohatiitation. The Singhalese do not always exercise 
 their privileges, but are frequently iiidulgent husbands, and forgive 
 offenses which most people hold unpardonable. In proof of this, 
 a Katidian asked the British authorities to compel the return of 
 an unfeithfiil wife, pleading his love for her, and promising to for- 
 get her frailty. English jurisdiction did not extend so far as this, 
 and the woman coolly turned her back upon her husband and ac- 
 companied her paramour, whom she soon after deserted for a third 
 partner. Many instances of this kind have induced the native 
 poets to produce a number of satirical effusions upon woman's in- 
 constancy, and a traveler translates the following specimen : 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS: 427 
 
 " ' I've seen the adumbra-tree in flower, wtite plumage on the croW, 
 And fishes' footsteps on the deep have traced through ebb and flow ;' 
 If man it is who thus asserts, his words you may beUeve, 
 But all that woman says, distrust ; she speaks but to deceive." 
 
 To understand the first clause, it will be necessary to remember 
 that the adumbra is a kind of fig-tree, and the natives assert that 
 no mortal has ever seen it in bloom. ' 
 
 Infanticide was at one time common in Ceylon, and all female 
 children, except the first-born, were liable to be sacrificed, espe- 
 cially if bom under a malignant planet ; but latterly the British 
 government have denounced the crime as murder, and punished 
 it accordingly. This has had the effect of gradually abolishing it, 
 and the population has increased in consequence. 
 
 The social condition of the Singhalese women is not so degraded 
 as in other parts of the East, but their moral character does not 
 correspond. Profligacy is prevalent. Open and acknowledged 
 .prostitution is rare, excepting in the sea-port towns, and of its ex- 
 tent there we have no reliable particulars. Under the Kahdian 
 dynasty a common harlot had her hair and ears cut off, and was 
 publicly whipped in a state of nudity. 
 
 ULTRA GANGETIO NATIONS. 
 
 In this division we include the immense tract lying between 
 Hindostan and China. Although these countries present some 
 variety of customs and degrees of progress, yet, generally speak- 
 ing, their manners are uniform. In all, the condition of women is 
 extremely low. They are held in contempt, are taught to abase 
 themselves in their own minds,- and employ their license by de- 
 grading themselves still farther. The effect of Asiatic despotism 
 is plainly visible : every man is the king's serf, and the support 
 of the community devolves upon the women, who, in Cochin Chi- 
 na especially, plow, sow, reap, fell trees, build, and perform aU the 
 other offices civilization assigns to the stronger sex. 
 
 The marriage contract is a mere bargain. A man buys his 
 wife, and may. extend his purchases as far as he pleases, the first 
 bought being usually the chief. A simple agreement before wit- 
 nesses seals the union, which can be dissolved with equal facility, 
 the only requisite in Cochin China being to break a chopstick or 
 porcupine quUl in presence of a third person. A man has also 
 the privilege of selling his inferior wives. 
 
 The unmarried women are almost universally unchaste, and do 
 
428 HlSTOET OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 not incur mfamy or lose tlie chance of marriage by prostituling 
 themselves. Custom allows a father to yield his dau^ter to any 
 visitor he may wish' to honor, or to hire! her for a stipulated price 
 to any one desirous of her company, and she has no power to re- 
 sist the arrangement, although she can not be married against her 
 "will. 
 
 A wife is considered sacred, more as the property of her hus- 
 band than from respect to her chastity. The theory of the la,w 
 is, that a man's harem can not be invaded, even by the king him- 
 self; but Asiatic- absolutism was never famed for its adherence to 
 law when personal interest was in the other scale, and there is but 
 little exceptionia this case. 
 
 Adultery is punished in Siam by fine, and in Cochin China by 
 death. In Burmah executions of females are very rare, but they 
 are disciplined with the aid of the bamboo, husbands sometimes 
 flogging their wives in the open streets. 
 
 Although professed prostitutes exist in large numbers through- 
 out the region, still there are not so many as might be expected, 
 because no single woman is required to be chaste. Little is known 
 of their habits, pecuharities, or position, except that in Siam they 
 are incapacitated from giving evidence before a justice. This re- 
 striction does not seem to arise from a consideration of their im- 
 morality, but from local prejudices, and the disability under which 
 they labor is also extended to braziers and blacksmiths. 
 
 CELEBES. 
 
 Leaving the Asiatic Continent for a short tirtie, we will now ex- 
 amine the condition of the inhabitants of Celebes. This island is 
 noticed here rather than with Java, Sumatra, and Borneo^ which 
 are incltided in the list of barbarous nations, because it enjoys a 
 considerable degree of civilization, and in its pohtical and social 
 state is far in advance of other countries of the Lidian Archipela- 
 go. The idea of freedom is recognized in its public system, and 
 its institutions have assumed a republican form. 
 
 Women are not excluded from their share in public business ; 
 and though their influence is usually indirect, their counsel is 
 sought by the men on aU important occasions. In Wajo, they are 
 not only elected to the throne, or, rather, the presidential chair, but 
 also often fill the great offices of state. Pour out of the six coun- 
 cilors are frequently females. 
 ■ Their domestic condition, to some extent, corresponds Tnth their 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. , 429 
 
 political privileges. The wife has the uncontrolled management 
 of her household, eating with her husband, and mingling freely 
 with the other sex. on pubhc or festival occasions. The women 
 ride about, transact business, and even visit foreigners as they 
 please, and their chastity is better guarded by the sense of honor 
 and the pride of virtue, than by the jealousy of husbands or the 
 surveillance of parents. 
 
 This is the bright side of; the picture. For the reverse, we find 
 the barbarian practice of polygamy, which is universally permitted, 
 under certain restrictions. The most important of these is that 
 two wives seldom inhabit the same house ; each has usually a 
 separate dwelling. The men can easily procure a divorce, and, if 
 the wish to separate is mutual, nothing remains but to do so as 
 quickly as possible. If the woman alone desires to be released 
 from the matrimonial bond, she must produce a reasonable ground 
 of complaint. Concubinage is rarely practiced, although some 
 man may take a woman of inferior rank as a companion until he 
 can marry a girl whose birth equals his own. 
 
 The morals of both men and women are siaperior to those of 
 any other race in eastern or western Asia. Prostitution is all but 
 unknown. The dancing girls are generally admitted to be of easy 
 virtue, but even they preserve decorum in their manners, and 
 dress with great decency, although their pubhc performances are 
 of a lascivious nature. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 In the immense empire of China a general uniformity of man- 
 ners is observable, for its civihzation has been cast in a mould 
 fashioned by despotism, *id the iron discipline of its government 
 forces all to yield; There is great reason to beheve that prosti- 
 tution forms no exception to the rule. We know that a remark- 
 able system exists,, that frail women abound in the Celestial Em- 
 pire, and form a distinct class. We know something of the man- 
 ner in which they Uve, and how or by whom they are encour- 
 aged, but no traveler has as yet given any lucid account of the 
 vice and its connections, and our comparatively meagre knowl- 
 edge is drawn from a multiphcity of sources. 
 
 The general condition of the female sex in China is inferior to 
 the male, and the precept?; ^d: examples of Confiicius have taught 
 the people that the former, were created for the convenience of the 
 latter. Feminine virtue, is severely guarded by the law ; not for 
 
430 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTIOK 
 
 the sake of virtue, but for the -well-being of the state and the in- 
 terest of the men. But national morality, inculcated l!^ codes, es- 
 says, and poems, is, in fact, a dead letter, for the Chinese rank 
 among the most unmoral people on the earth. The inferiority of 
 women is recognized in their politics, which embrace the spirit of 
 the Salic law. The throne can be occupied only by a man, and 
 an illegitimate son is more respected than a legitimate daughter. 
 
 The paternal government of China has not failed to legislate on 
 the subject of marriage. In this contract the inclinations of the 
 parties themselves are practically ignored ; parental authority is 
 supreme, and it is not unusual for weddings to take place between 
 persons who have never seen each other before the union. Match- 
 making is followed as a profession by some old women, who are 
 remunerated when they succeed. When two families commence 
 a negotiation of this kind, all particulars are required to be fully 
 explained on both sides, so" that no deceit can be practiced. The 
 engagement is then drawn, and the amount of presents agreed on. 
 This contract is irrevocable. If the friends of the girl desire to 
 break off the match, the one who had authority to dispose of her 
 receives fifty strokes of the bamboOj and the marriage proceeds. 
 If the bridegroom, or the friend who controls him is dissatisfied, 
 he receives the same punishment, and must fulfill his engagement. 
 If either of the parties is incontinent after betrothal, the crime is 
 punished as adultery. If any deceit has been practiced, and either 
 person has falsely represented the party about to be married, the 
 offender is severely punished, and the marriage is void, even if 
 completed. In spite of all precautions, such instances sometimes 
 occur. It must be noticed that, though betrothal binds a woman 
 positively to her future husband, yet hS can not force her from 
 her friends before the stipulated time has expired, nor can they 
 retain her beyond the assigned day. 
 
 Polygamy is allowed under certain restrictions. The first wife 
 is usually chosen from a family equal in station to that of the hus- 
 band, and acquires all the rights and privileges which belong to a 
 chief wife in any Asiatic country. The man may then take as 
 many more women as he can afford to keep, but these are inferior 
 in rank to the first married, although the children have a contin- 
 gent claim to the inheritance. This position, if it brings no posi- 
 tive honor, brings little shame. It is sanctioned by usage, but 
 was originally condemned by strict moralists, who designated the 
 arrangement by a word compounded of crime and woman. It is 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 431 
 
 a position, wliicli only a poor or humble woman will consent to 
 occupy. A national proverb says, " It is more honorable to be the 
 wife of a poor man than the concubine of an emperor." The so- 
 cial rule which makes all subsequent wives subordinate to the 
 one first married may probably have had some effect in forming 
 this opinion. 
 
 The Chinese system is rigid as to the degrees of consanguinity 
 between which marriage may be contracted. In ancient times the 
 reverse of this seems to have been the rule, and tradition says that 
 much immorality was the result. The law now prohibits all un- 
 ions between persons of the same family name, and is attended 
 with some inconvenience, because the number of proper names is 
 small. K such a marriage is contracted, it is declared void, and 
 the parties are punished by blows and a fine. If the couple are 
 previously related by marriage within four degrees, the union is 
 declared incestuous, and the offenders are punished with the bam- 
 boo, or, in extreme cases, by strangling or decapitation. 
 
 Not only are the degrees of relationship definitely specified, but 
 the union of classes is under restriction. An of&cer of govern- 
 ment must not marry into a family imder his jurisdiction, or, if he 
 does, is subject to a heavy punishraent; the same being accorded 
 to the girl's relations if they have voluntarily aided him, but they 
 are exempt if their submission was the result of his authority. 
 To marry a woman absconding from justice is prohibited. To 
 forcibly wed a freeman's daughter subjects the offender to stran- 
 gulation. An of&cer of government, or any hereditary functionary, 
 who marries a woman of a disreputable class, receives sixty strokes 
 of the bamboo, and the same Tnodicum awaits any priest who mar- 
 ries at all, he being also expelled from his order. Slaves and fi-ee 
 persons are forbidden to intermarry. Those who connive at an 
 illegal union are considered criminals, and punished accordingly. 
 
 According to Chinese law, any one of seven specified causes are 
 allowed to justify divorce, namely, barrenness, lasciviousness, dis- 
 regard of the husband's parents, talkativeness (!), thievish propen- 
 sities, an envious, suspicious temper, or inveterate infirmity. 
 Against these the woman has three pleas, any one of which, if 
 substantiated, will annul the husband's application. They are, 
 that she has mourned three years for her husband's family ; that 
 the family has become rich, having been poor at the time of mar- 
 riage ; or, that she has no father or mother living to receive her. 
 These are useless when she has committed adultery, in which case 
 
432 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 her husband is positively forbidden to retain her, but under other 
 circumstances they present a check to his caprice. I# cases of 
 adultery, a man may kill both his mfe and her paramour if he de- 
 tect them and execute his vengeance forthwith, but he must not 
 put her to death for any other crime. In the same connection 
 may be mentioned a law denouncing severe penalties on any man 
 who lends his wife or daughter. This is not an obsolete enact- 
 ment against an unknown offense, for instances do sometimes oc- 
 cur of poor men selling their wives as concubines to their richer- 
 neighbors, while others prostitute them for gain. 
 
 From this view of the social condition of women and the laws 
 of marriage, it is necessary to pass to a subject which has given 
 China an unenviable notoriety, namely, the custom of infanti- 
 cide. Two causes appear to have encouraged this practice : the 
 poverty of the lower classes,, and the severity of the laws respect- 
 ing illicit sexual intercourse. The former is the principal cause. 
 When the parents are so indigent as to have no hope of main- 
 taining their children, the daughters are murdered, for a son can 
 earn his living in a few years, and assist his parents in addition. 
 Among this class the birth of a female is viewed as a calamity. 
 Several methods are adopted to destroy the child. It may be. 
 drowned in warm water, its throat may be pinched, a wet cloth 
 may be pressed over its mouth, it may be choked with rice, or it 
 may be buried alive. 
 
 When Mr. Smith, a missionary, was in the suburbs of Canton 
 in.' 1844, he made many inquiries as to the extent of infanticide. 
 A pative assured him that, within a circle of ten miles' radius, the 
 children killed each year wouM not exceed Jive hundred. In Fokien 
 province the crinie was more general, and a,t a place called Kea 
 King Chow there were computed to be from five to six hundred 
 cases every month. A foundling hospital at Canton was named 
 as preventing much of the crime, but it seems to have received 
 only five hundred infants yearly; but a very smaU proportion of 
 the births. The Chinese generally confess that infenticide is prac- 
 ticed throughout the empire, and is regarded as an innocent and 
 proper expedient for lightening the pressure of poirerty. It is not 
 wholly confined to the poor ; the rich resort to it to conceal their 
 amours. The laws punish illicit intercourse with from seventy to 
 one hundred strokes of the bamboo. If a child is bom, its sup- 
 port devolves upon the father; but in cases where the connection 
 has been concealed, this evidence is usually destroyed. 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 433 
 
 Prostitution prevails to a prodigious extent. " Seduction and 
 adultery," says Williams, in his Survey of the Chinese Empire, 
 "are comparatively infrequent, but brothels and their inmates 
 are found every where, on land and water. One danger attend- 
 ing young girls walking alone is that they wUl be stolen for in- 
 carceration in these gates of hell." This allusion may be explained 
 by the fact that in 1832 there were from eight to ten thousand 
 prostitutes in and near Canton, of whom the greater portion had 
 been stolen while children, and regularly trained for this life. 
 Many kidnappers gained a living by stealing young girls and 
 selling them to the brothels, and in times of want parents have 
 been known to lead their daughters through the streets and offer 
 them for sale. A recent visitor to Canton describes the sale of 
 children aa an every-day affair, which is looked upon as a simple 
 mercantile transaction. Some are disposed of for concubines, but 
 others are deliberately bartered to be brought up as prostitutes, 
 and are transferred at once to the brothels. 
 
 Of Chinese houses of prostitution we have no particular de- 
 scription, but one singular feature is the brothel junks, which are 
 moored in conspicuous stations on the Pearl Eiver, and are distin- 
 guished by their superior decorations. Many of them are called 
 " Flower Boats," and form whole avenues in the floating suburbs 
 of Canton. The women lead a life of reckless extravagance, 
 plunging into all the excitements which are offered by their mode 
 of life to release themselves from ennui or reflection. Diseases 
 are very prevalent among them, and visitors suffer severely for 
 their temporary pleasures. They are usually congregated in 
 troops, under the government of a man who is answerable for 
 their conduct, or for any violation of public peace or decency. 
 The last can scarcely be considered an offense, for the CMnese 
 make a display of their visits to brothels. Persons pass to and 
 from the Flower Boats without any attempt at concealment, and 
 rich men sometimes make up a party, send to one of the junks, 
 retain as many women as they wish, and collectively pass the 
 time in debauch and licentiousness. 
 
 This is not the only form prostitution assumes in China. "Wom- 
 en of the poorer classes, whose friends are not able to provide for 
 them, are lodged in prison under the care of female warders, and 
 these employ their prisoners in prdstitution for their benefit. An 
 incident which occurred at Shenshee a few years since reveals an- 
 other phase. A young widow resided there with her mother-in- 
 
 Ee 
 
434 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 law, both being supported by the prostitution of the former. Her 
 charms failed, she was deserted by her visitors, and Starvation 
 seemed inevitable. The old woman would not recognize her 
 daughter's inability to support her, and flogged her. The prosti- 
 tute, in attempting self-defense, killed her mother. She was con- 
 victed of the crime, but, as the victim had acted illegally in endeav- 
 oring to force her to prostitution, the sentence of the court, which 
 had ordered her to be hewn to pieces, was commuted into decap- 
 itation. 
 
 As before remarked, it is much to be regretted that we have 
 not more reliable information of the vice, which is acknowledged 
 to be all but universal in China.^ 
 
 ' Since the preceding paragraphs were written, the operations of the Allied 
 Powers against Cliina, and the capture of Canton, have given some farther insight 
 into the domestic economy of this people. The special correspondent of the London 
 Times, writing from Hong Kong, February 22, 1858, thus describes Chinese holidays : 
 
 "During the entree acte all China has been exploding crackers, and Hong Kong 
 has been celebrating its 'Isthmian games.' Toward the close of the three days of 
 festivity the Chinese holiday became almost exciting. If they had kept up half as 
 sharp a fire at Canton on the 29th of December as they did on the 14th of Febra- 
 ary, we should never have got over the walls with a less loss than 500 men. The 
 streets both of Canton and Hong Kong were piled with myriads of exploded cracker 
 carcasses. In Hong Kong, where I passed the last day of these festivities, grave 
 men and sedate children were from morning till midnight hanging strings of these 
 noisy things from their balconies, and perpetually renewing them as they exploded. 
 The sing-song women, in their rich, handsome dresses, were screeching their shrill 
 songs, and twanging their two-stringed lutes on every veranda in the Chinese 
 ijuarter, while the lords of creation, assembled at a round table, were cramming 
 the day-long repast. The women — hired singing women of not doubtful reputa- 
 tion — ^in the intervals of their music, take their seats at the table opposite the men. 
 They do not eat, but their business being to promote the conviviality of the feast, 
 they challenge the men to the samshu cup, and drink with them. It is astonishing 
 to see what a quantity of diluted samshu these painted and brocaded she-Celestials 
 can drink without any apparent effect. Ever and anon one of the company retires 
 to a couch and takes an opium pipe, and then returns and recommences his meal. 
 I was invited to one of these feasts ; the dishes were excellent, but it lasted till I 
 loathed the sight of food. I believe the Chinese spend fabulous sums in these en- 
 tertainments ; the sing-song women are often brought from distances, and are cer- 
 tainly chosen with some discrimination. They are an imitation of the Chinese 
 lady, and, as the Chinese lady has no education and no duties, the difference be- 
 tween the poor sing-song girl and the poor abject wife is probably not observable in 
 appearance or manner. The dress is particularly modest and becoming. They all 
 have great quantities of black hair. If they would let it fall disheveled down their 
 backs as the Manilla women do, they would be more picturesque, but not formal 
 and decent, as China is, even in its wantonness. The Chinawoman's hair is gummed 
 and built up into a structure rather resembling a huge flat-iron, and the edifice is 
 adorned with combs, and jewels, and flowers, arranged with a certain taste. An 
 embroidered blue silk tunic reaches from her chin nearly to her ankles. Below the 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 435 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 The recent connection establislied by American enterprise vrith. 
 the semi-fabulous empire of Japan (the Zipangi of Columbus) 
 makes the institutions of that country more than usually interest- 
 ing. From the earliest accounts of the Dutch and Jesuit writers 
 to the present time, we know that the Japanese, like the Chinese, 
 have attained a high degree of civilization, and among both, the 
 vices which, in the present experience of mankind, seem the ac- 
 companiments of that improvement, have been developed in a 
 remarkable degree. 
 
 Among savage tribes female honor is held in very little esteem ; 
 the woman is merely property. As we advance in the scale of 
 intelligence they take higher grade, and virtue and modesty are 
 more cherished. Our information concerning Japan is, even yet, 
 comparatively limited, but no circumstance of its ordinary life 
 seems more clear than that female virtue among the higher classes 
 is much valued, and that, at the same time, there is an enormous 
 extent of public prostitution, in which men of all ranks indulge. 
 
 The Jesuit Charleroix, Kcempfer, Adams, and some Dutch 
 -writers, have given accounts of Japan from the sixteenth century 
 to the present time. Like most Oriental nations, the manners 
 and habits of the Japanese have undergone so little change, that 
 the practices of a centuiy ago are the fashions of to-day. The 
 most recent traveler (for those who composed Commodore Perry's 
 expedition can hardly be said to come under that denomination) 
 is Captain Golownin, and he had opportunities for close observa- 
 tion not equaled since the times of the early writers. He was 
 commander of the Russian sloop-of-war Diana, and visited the 
 Japanese empire in 1811. Having paid a visit of ceremony 
 ashore, he was induced, by the duplicity of the Japanese, who are 
 
 tunic appear the gay trowsers, wrought with' gold or silver thread ; the instep glanc- 
 ing through the thin, white silk stockings, and a very small foot (when left to na- 
 ture the Chinese have beautiful feet and hands) in a rich slipper, with a tremen- 
 dous white sole in form of an inverted pyramid. In these sing-song girls you see 
 the originals of the Chinese pictures— the painted faces, the high-arched, penciled 
 eyebrows, the small, round mouth, the rather full and slightly sensual lip, naturally 
 or artificially of a deep vermilion, the long, slit-shaped, half closed eyes, suggestive 
 of indolence and slyness. What the voluble and jocose conversation addressed te 
 them by the men may mean I can not tell, but their manners are quite decent, 
 their replies are short and reserved, and every gesture, or song, or cup of samshu 
 seems to be regulated by a known ceremonial." 
 
436 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 adepts in all the political arts of lying and hypocrisy, to trust him- 
 self in their hands a second time without arms or esc8^. The 
 Japanese had an old grudge to settle mth the Eussians on ac- 
 count of injuries done them by certain individuals of that nation, 
 and took the opportunity of rendering a quid pro quo by entrap- 
 ping the unlucky Golownin, who was thus made prisoner. He 
 was treated at iirst with much indignity and severity ; afterward 
 with mor^ indulgence, but did not regain his liberty for upward 
 of two years. 
 
 The Japanese can marry .only one wife, but have as many con- 
 cubines as they please. The precise value of the distinction is 
 not readily appreciated, as the concubine does n6t lose caste by 
 her position. There are great facilities of divorce, and without 
 cause shown ; but a gentleman who exercises this privilege loses 
 his character as a husband, and can only procure another wife or 
 additional concubines by paying a large price to his father-in-law. 
 Adultery is punished with death, either- by law or at the hands 
 of the husband. Japanese husbands are represented as jealous, 
 and as keeping their wives and women in strict seclusion. This 
 strictness is relaxed in the cases of the middle and poorer classes, 
 the necessities of the household removing those artificial obliga- 
 tions imposed on the higher ranks by pride or fashion. But even 
 the women of the humbler ranks do not converse with, or even 
 speak to strangers, unless in the presence of their husbands. 
 
 An anecdote is told in Adams's narrative which somewhat re- 
 sembles that of Lucretia in Eoman history, and which would im- 
 ply great self-respect among the high caste of Japanese ladies. 
 A nobleman made dishonorable advances toward a lady of rank 
 during her husband's absence on a journey, and, notwithstanding 
 a repulse from her, seized an opportunity to gratify his passion by 
 violence. On the husband's return the wife treated him with re- 
 serve, and declined any explanation of her singular conduct, which, 
 however, she promised to afford at a banquet to be given the fol- 
 lowing day. Accordingly, during the feast, at which the author 
 of thei outrage was present, when the guests had satisfied their ap- 
 petites, the lady piade her appearance. She told her husband and 
 his friends what had happened, denounced herself as unworthy to 
 live, received the caresses of her husband and relations, by whom, 
 however, she refused to be comforted, and then leapied from the 
 parapet of the house, and so killed herseE Meanwhile the crim- 
 inal had escaped ; but when the horror-stricken guests rushed out 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 437 
 
 to pick up tlie devoted wife, they found the nobleman -weltering 
 in his own blood at her side. He had ripped himself up, the or- 
 dinary way of committing suicide in Japan. 
 
 The Japanese brothels are of great splendor, and very numerous- 
 ly frequented, containing thirty, forty, fifty, or even a larger number 
 of women. Every place of public entertainment or refreshment 
 maintains prostitutes as a part of the estabhshment. On stopping 
 at a tavern, it is customary for the courtesans of the house to come 
 out, painted and bedizened, and set forth the claims of their house to 
 the traveler's patronage, exhibiting themselves as one of the items 
 of the bill of fare. No village, however insignificant, is without one 
 or more houses of ill fame, and there are villages on much-frequent- 
 ed roads, in popular districts, the whole of whose female inhabit- 
 ants are prostitutes. Two in particular, Agasaki and Goy, are 
 thus, described by Kcempfer. The females are designated .ffme,, 
 which literally signifies a castle turned uppide down. It is uncer- 
 tain whether the government licenses these places, or merely tol- 
 erates them. The former is the more probable, when it is consid- 
 ered that in their mythology they have a goddess analogous to 
 the Corinthian Venus, in whose worship prostitution is a recog- 
 nized part of the ceremony. Attached to the temple of this im- 
 pure deity are a large number of priestesses, six hundred or up- 
 ward, who all prostitute themselves to the worshipers. Notwith^ 
 standing this large force, there are constant offers to recruit the 
 ranks by young girls. 
 
 The extent of this, vice, which is universal throughout the em- 
 pire, would cause it to be taken as a regular iastitution of Japan. 
 Nothing is done stcb rosa. Courtesans form part of a pleasure par- 
 ty ; parents sell their children to brothel-keepers, or apprentice 
 them for a time to such places, and at the expiration of their term 
 they resume (it is s^id, but this is doubtful) their places in society 
 without any stain on their reputations. Husbands make bargains 
 for the transfer of their wives' channs, which is a legitimate charge 
 over and above the gratuity to be accorded to the lady. Kcemp- 
 fer ia describing the prostitute quarter of Nagasaki, says it con- 
 sists of very handsome houses. The poor people sell their pret- 
 tiest daughters to the brothel-keepers, who bring the girls up with 
 various accomplishments. The price of these women is regulated 
 by law, and many of the prostitutes are enabled to abandon their 
 caUiag, for their good education and agreeable manners procure 
 them husbands, and .in their married condition they are fuUy as 
 good as others. 
 
1:38 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 In his lifetime the brothel-keeper is said by some writers to 
 rank with the skinner or tanooer, an opprobrious calling, v^Kle oth- 
 ;rs say he ranks with merchants, and his company is not deemed 
 )bjectionable. This Mtter statement, if trae, may be owing to the 
 iircumstance that he holds a government license. In Japan, as in 
 jhina, the crown is the fountain of all distinction, and every gov- 
 imment ofScial has peculiar privileges and a distinct position in 
 he social scale. After his death, however, the brothel-keeper is 
 leld in great disesteem. The sanctity of the burial-place, to which 
 Jarticular reverence attaches, would be polluted by his unholy 
 )resence, and his odious remains are denied the rite of sepulture, 
 md are dragged in the clothes in which he died to a dunghill, 
 here to be devoured by wild beasts and birds of prey. 
 
 Prostitution as a public institution is said to have been intro- 
 luced into. Japan by a certain 'Sfarlike emperor or usurper, who, 
 eading his troops from' one place to another in the empire, feared 
 est, from want of home comforts and domestic ties, they might be- 
 ome disgusted and abandon his service. Accordingly, as a sub- 
 titute for lawful enjoyments, he had^gtations for bands of prosta- 
 tites at various points, to the nearest of which he led his fatigued 
 oldiers after his engagements. 
 
 Another statement as to the origin of this system is that, on one 
 iccasion during a revolution, the spiritual emperor having fled, 
 ttended by his foster-mother and a numerous band of female at- 
 endants, temporary nuns, the emperor and his foster-mother 
 Irowned themselves in fear of capture by the enemies ; where- 
 ipon the attendant nuns, cut off from all other resource, adopted 
 ibertinism as a means of hvelihood, and this gave the first public 
 xample and sanction to a reprobate state of life. 
 
 There are in Japan various religious institutions of a character 
 imilar to convents and monasteries. The vow of celibacy and 
 hastity is one of the requisites of this state, yet, notwithstanding 
 his vow, the monks are described as living very intemperately, 
 educing both women and girls, and committing other shameful 
 normities.' 
 
 Among the mendicant religious orders to which both sexes be- 
 ong, the nuns are numerous. They are described as being very 
 ine-looking women. They are generally the children of indigent 
 )arents, and good looks are essential to success in their calling, 
 )etween which and prostitution there seems no difference save ia 
 ' Golownin, vol. iii. p. 52. 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 439 
 
 name. Indeed, many of tliese mendicant nuns go direct from the 
 brothel to their new employment, which, combining various quali- 
 fications, is probably more lucrative. 
 
 "We have been unable to find any information as to the nature 
 or extent of venereal diseases, if any, in Japan. Of infanticide 
 also we have no account. 
 
 Commodore Perry, in the Narrative of his Expedition, confirms 
 the facts above stated so far as his opportunities for observation 
 extended. Difficulties were at first thrown in the way of his see- 
 ing the Japanese women, and when he walked about the inter- 
 preters preceded him, and, under a show of doing him honor, or- 
 dered all the women into their houses. Afterward, on the com- 
 modore's remonstrance, the women were allowed to make their 
 appearance, and their manners and looks were not by any means 
 unpleaaing. When the officers of the expedition were entertained, 
 they sometimes waited on the party with tea, coffee, and other re- 
 fireshments. Their manners were mild, their countenances were 
 soft and pleasing, the only objectionable point about them being 
 the abominable habit of blackening their teeth with a highly cor- 
 rosive pigment partly composed of iron filings and a fermented 
 liquor called saki, which affected the gums very offensively, and 
 caused an appearance and odor decidedly unpleasing to the tastes 
 of Western travelers. 
 
 The women of the working classes were engaged in hard field 
 and out-door labor, but not to a greater extent than in densely 
 populated countries in most parts of the world. Commodore Per- 
 ry assumes that licentiousness must be prevalent in large cities, 
 but he bears his testimony to the good conduct of the women 
 whom the people of the expedition met while on shore.^ 
 
 The opportunities of information and particular inquiry were, 
 however, not very great^ owing to the more important political 
 objects of the visit, and the not very protracted stay of the squad- 
 ron in Japan. 
 
 Not content with the excess of incontinence in which the Jap- 
 anese as a nation indulge, they largely practice unnatural vices, 
 and the youth of the province of Kioto, which is the peculiar ap- 
 panage of the spiritual emperor, are celebrated on account of their 
 beauty, and command a high price in this horrid traffic. 
 
 ' Perry's Expedition,, p. 462. 
 
440 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 TARTAR RACES. 4^ 
 
 Central Asia is but little known and seldom visited. Among 
 tie most remarkable of its people are tbe Kirghiz Kazaks, wbo 
 form a nation of sKepherds. They dwell in huts, or temporary- 
 habitations of wicker-work covered with fleeces, and are a robust; 
 hardy race, addicted to sensual enjoyments. Their manners as to 
 the treatment of the female sex are coarse, but it is curious to re- 
 mark that, while the men are indolent aind licentious, the women 
 are fond of exertion, for which their only recompense is to be 
 treated as slaves. 
 
 The Kirghiz, when rich enough, eagerly avail themselves of the 
 privilege of polygamy; indeed, this part of the Mohammedan 
 creed is the one they have embraced with most ardor, yet few 
 possess sufficient wealth to marry more than one wife. The price 
 paid for a woman will- range 'from fivei or six sheep among the 
 poorer classes, to two hundred, five hundred, or even a thousand 
 horses among the rich, to which are added different household ef- 
 fects, and occasionally a few male or female slaves. A consider- 
 able share of these payments is absorbed by the Mohammedan 
 moolahs, who find a profitable source of revenue in marrying 
 these people. They consecrate the union as soon as prcgected, 
 and immediately the amount of the Tcalym, or price, has been ar- 
 ranged between the parties, the moolah solemnly asks the parents 
 of the bride and bridegroom, " Do you consent to the union of the 
 children ?" repeating the question three times to each, and then 
 reading prayers for the happiness of the couple to be married. No 
 marriage is complete tiU the whole of the stipulated amount is paid, 
 but neither party can honorably retract after the first installment 
 has been offered and accepted. From that time the bridegroom has 
 leave to -visit his bride, if he engages not to take away her chasti- 
 ty. In cases where this liberty leads to an anticipation of the final 
 ceremony, the unpaid portion of the halym is not allowed to pro- 
 tract the union, which is hastened as much as possible. If a man 
 find his wife to have been incontinent before he married her, he 
 may return her to her patents, and demand the restitution of her 
 price, or the substitution of one of her sisters. If he actually de- 
 tects her in the commission of adultery, he may kill her, otherwise 
 the adulterer is fined,- and the wife may be divorced or chastised. 
 The morals of the Kirghiz are good. Chastity in the woman 
 is highly prized, and the sensuality of the men is served by pros- 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 441 
 
 titutes, wlio live in eaoli camp, either in companies or in separate 
 tents. Numbers of these women appear wherever the Eussians 
 have encampments, and virulent disease among them has tended 
 rapidly to thin the people. The prostitutes are composed of two 
 classes — widows and divorced women, who have no other means 
 of subsistence, and linger out a miserable life in dirt, rags, and 
 contempt ; and a few who addict themselves to prostitution from 
 mere licentiousness. 
 
 CIRCASSU. 
 
 The race known as Abassians, considered the aborigines of the 
 -Caucasus, were described by Strabo as a predatory people — pirates 
 at sea, and robbers on land^ ; These characteristics they preserve 
 to the present- day, but otherwise they are a virtuous nation, 
 strange to the worst vices of -civihzed life, and humble in their de- 
 sires. Their feligion permits polygamy, but as wives are costly, 
 they are usually contented with one, who is the companion rather 
 than the menial of her husband. The women are industrious, are 
 allowed fuU liberty, and are free in their social intercourse, the 
 veil being worn only to screen their c&mplexions, and not for se- 
 clusion. 
 
 Their laws against immorahty are stringent. An act of ilHcit 
 intercourse is punished by fine or banishnient. A dishonest wife 
 is returned to her parents, and by them sold as a slave, as is also 
 a wanton girl. Illegitimate children can not claim any relation- 
 ship, and if sold as slaves or assassinated, no one is expected .to 
 redeem them in the one case, or avenge them in the other. When 
 -a man desires to divorce his wife, he must give his reasons before 
 a council of elders, and if they are not satisfied, he must pay her 
 parents a stated amount to recompense them for the burden thus 
 thrown upon them. Should the wornan marry again within two 
 years, this sum is returned. 
 
 Among the Circassians themselves women are not secluded. A 
 man will often introduise his wife and daughters to a traveler, and 
 unmarried women are frequently seen at public assemblies. They 
 observe one singular custom: a husband never appears abroad 
 with his wife, and scarcely ever sees her during the day. This is 
 in accordance with ancient habits, and is a prolongation of the 
 marriage etiquette, which require^ a man, after he has removed 
 his bride's corset of leather, worn by all virgins, for some time to 
 refrain from openly living with her. 
 
442 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Throughout the Caucasus a high state of morality is found. 
 Open prostitution is unknown, and. any girl leading a i#toriously 
 immoral life would be compelled to fly beyond the bounds of the 
 -teiritory, if she escaped being sold as a slave or put to death by 
 her indignant friends. There is a general opinion that Circassians 
 will sell their daughters to any Turk or Persian who wishes to 
 buy them, but this is not the fact. They are particularly careful 
 as to the position of any one who wishes to intermarry with them. 
 Great precautions are taken to insure the happiness of the girls, 
 and long-continued negotiations frequently lead to no result. The 
 majority of females sold as Circassians are either children stolen 
 from the neighboring Cossacks, er slaves procured from those Cir- 
 cassian traders who own allegiance to Eussia. 
 
 TUEKET. 
 
 Proud, sensual, and depraved in his tastes, the Turk is too in- 
 dolent to acquire even the means of gratifying his most powerful 
 cravings. Satisfying his pride with the memory of former glories, 
 his lust looks forward to the enjoyment of ar paradise crowded 
 with beautiful ministers of pleasure, and he passes his time in an 
 atmosphere of Epicurean speculation, lounging on cushions and 
 sipping coffee with a dreamy indifference to all external objects. 
 Even the poor indulge in this idleness. They measure the amount 
 of labor necessary to keep them from positive want, and spend 
 the rest of their time waiting the sensual heaven promised by their 
 prophet. In such a lethargy the most violent passions are foster- 
 ed, and when these become excited the Turk can not be surpassed 
 in brutal fury. All his fancies are gross ; moral power is an in- 
 comprehensible idea, and he can conceive no authority not en- 
 forced by whip or sword. 
 
 The Turkish character thus exhibited corresponds with their 
 estimate of 'the female sex. The person alone is loved ; intellect 
 in a Turkish woman is rarely developed and never prized. She 
 finds her chief employment in decorating her person, her sole en- 
 joyment in lounging on a pile of cushions, and admiring the ele- 
 gance of her costume. • Turkey is literally the empire of the senses. 
 
 Polygamy is now growing into disrepute there. Eecent laws 
 have conferred many privileges upon women in matters of prop- 
 erty, and their comparative independence has rendered them 
 averse to a position in which they only acquire secondary rank. 
 Men who marry wives of equal rank to themselves frequently en- 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 443 
 
 ige in their marriage contracts not to form a second alliance, and 
 lis stipulation is very seldom violated. 
 
 The customs of the country do not permit a man to see his wife 
 afore marriage. She may gratify her curiosity by a stealthy 
 iance at him, but this privilege is seldom used. In consequence 
 F the separation of the sexes, a race of professional match-makers 
 as arisen, as in China, who realize considerable profits from their 
 ilhng. Children of three or four years old are sometimes be- 
 •othed, marriage taking place about fourteen. When a wedding 
 I contemplated, each family deputes an agent to arrange prelimi- 
 aries, the terms of the contract are embodied in a legal document, 
 nd the woman is then called " a wife by writing." This is con- 
 luded some days before the actual wedding, but the interval is 
 ccupied with rejoicings and hospitality, on which the bridegroom 
 enerally expends a year's income. The union is a mere civil 
 ontract blessed by religious rites. All concubines are slaves^ 
 ven in the harem of the sultan, since no free Turkish woman can 
 ccupy that position. 
 
 The mor^s of Turkish women are generally described as very 
 )Ose. Their veils favor an intrigue, the "most jealous husband 
 assing his wife in the street without knowing her. The places 
 f assignation are usually the Jews' shops, where they meet their 
 jvers, but preserve their incogniio even to them. Lady Mary 
 Vortley Montague imagined " the number of faithful wives to be 
 'ery small in a country where they have nothing to fear from a 
 Dver's indiscretion." 
 
 The dancing girls of Turkey are prostitutes by profession, 
 Pheir performances are much enjoyed by all classes, and they 
 lance as lasciviously in the harem, where they are often invited 
 amuse the wives and concubines, as before a party of conviv- 
 ahsts in the kiosks. Their costume is exceedingly rich, both in 
 lolor and material. During the day they resort to coffee-houses, 
 vhere they attach themselves to companions whom they entertain 
 nth songs, tales, or caresses until night, when their orgies are 
 ransferred to houses belonging to their chiefe. Many of these 
 labitations are furnished with every possible luxury. 
 
 Another form of prostitution is temporary marriage. For in- 
 tance, a man on a journey will arrive in a strange city, where he 
 lesires to remain some time. He immediately bargains for a fe- 
 nale companion, a regular agreement is drawn up, and he sup- 
 jorts her and remunerates her friends while he remains. When 
 
4M HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTIQN. 
 
 lae is tired of her, or wishes to leave the place, she returns to her 
 friends, and patiently waits for another engagement ^jf the same 
 Mild. 
 
 NORTHEEN AFRICA. 
 
 A very brief notice only is required of the semi-barbaroxis, 
 states of Northern Africa, particularly as an account of Algeria 
 under the French has already been given. The mass of the pop- 
 ulation are Mooirs, and therefore our remarks will mainly apply 
 to them. Like the Turks, they are proud, ignorant, sensual, and 
 depraved, and their treatment of women exactly accords with 
 this character. They,regp,rd the female sex but as material in-: 
 struments of man's gratification ; and this idea is becoftie so gen: 
 eraUy received, that the, sole education of a girl is such as. wil[ 
 render her acceptable to some gross sensualist. Intellect and sen- 
 timent are not the possessions which will recommend her : to be 
 attractive, she must be fat. A girl of such bulk as to be a good 
 load for a camel is considered a perfect beauty,' and, accordingly, " 
 the mother does not train her daughter in seductive arts, but 
 feeds her into a seductive appearance, as pigeons ar *fed in some 
 parts of Italy. She is made to swallow every day a certain num- 
 ber of balls of paste saturated withoil, and the rod overcomes any 
 reluctance she may have to the diet, 
 
 The Moors are extremely jealous of their enormous wives. 
 Some have been known to kill their women before proceediag on 
 a journey; others have forbidden them to name an animal of the 
 masculine gender. They are entirely shut up within the walls, of 
 the harem, where they pass their time perfuming and decorating 
 their persons, to attract the favor of their lords. 
 
 The general marriage laws of Mohammedan countries prevail 
 in the Barbary States. Four wives and as many concubines as 
 he pleases are the limi4B within which a man is confined, but few 
 Bien marry more than one woman. 
 
 An extensive system of prostitution prevails in aU the cities. 
 ThelowL-drinking-shops are crowded with women. The public 
 dancers, who all belong to the sisterhood, exist in large numbers, 
 and are very much encouraged. ; Their society is a favorite recre- 
 ation witt Moors of all classes.. A man entertaining a party of 
 friends wiU send for a company of dancers to amuse them. There, 
 amid the fumes of tobacco, and sometimes of liquor (fi)r the pre- 
 cepts of the Koran are disregarded on such occasions), the women 
 
SEMI-CIYILIZED NATIONS. 445 
 
 practice the most degrading obscenities, and the orgies become 
 such as no pen can describe. These prostitutes are of various 
 classes, from the low, vulgar wretches who exist in misery, filth, 
 and disease, to the wealthy courtesans who live in luxury and 
 splendor. 
 
 A late traveler was introduced by a friend to a " Moorish lady." 
 He was ushered into a spacious apartment hung with rich-colored 
 silks. Eeclinirig on a splendid divan, with every appliance of 
 wealth around her, was a woman of extreme loveliness. Elegant 
 in her manners and address, she seemed a model of feminine 
 grace, nor did the visitor discover until after he had left her that 
 he had been conversiag with a Moorish prostitute. 
 
 SIBEBIA. 
 
 The State of manners to which the population of these snowy 
 tracts has arrived is very low. They are rude, ignorant, and 
 . gross. The condition and character oif the female sex correspond 
 •with that of the male. In the perpetual migration of tribes they 
 bear the heaviest burdens, and in their habitations the man re- 
 gards his wife as a mere domestic slave, to whom it is unnecessary 
 even to speak a kind word. There are some exceptions to this 
 rule, especially toward the centre of the district, removed from 
 Russia on the one hand and the sea on the other, where more 
 equality of the sexes is observable. 
 
 A wife is generally obtained by purchase, and if a man is not 
 rich enough to pay the sum demanded by the parents of a girl 
 for the privilege of marrying her, he hires himself to them for a 
 term ranging from three to ten years, according to an agreement, 
 and his services in that time are considered equivalent to the 
 value of his bride. These contracts are faithfully observed, the 
 woman is invariably given up at the specified time, and the man 
 released from his servile condition, and admitted to all the digni^ 
 ties and rights of a son-in-law. Where the bridegroom is in a con- 
 dition to pay for his bride, the preliminary negotiations are man- 
 aged by his friends and her parents; they are very quietly ar- 
 ranged, but the spirit of bargaining is stroiig on both sides. The 
 stipulated amount must be paid before the ma,rriage is completed ; 
 and if a man steals away his bride before he has paid the full cost, 
 the father watches an opportunity and recaptures her, retaining 
 her in pledge until the balance is forthcoming. 
 
 The marriage ceremonies vary in different tribes. With some 
 
;4i6 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 there is no feast or form of any Mnd ; with others every marriage 
 must take place in a newly -built hu,t, where no impure things can 
 have been. The most detailed account of marriage ceremonies we 
 can find is among the Tschuwasses. They offer a sacrifice of 
 bread and honey to the sun on the betrothal, that he may look 
 down with favor on the union. When the wedding-day arrives, 
 the bride hides herself behind a screen while the guests are assem- 
 bling. When the party is complete, she walks tKree times round 
 the room, followed by a train of virgins bearing bread and honey. 
 Then the bridegroom epters, removes her veil, kisses her, and they 
 exchange rings. She is now saluted as the " betrothed girl," and 
 is again led behind the screen, whence she emerges wearing a ma- 
 tron's cap. The concluding rite is for her to pull off her new hus- 
 band's boots, thus promising obedience to him. In this tribe the 
 husband can divorce his wife by merely taking her cap from her 
 head. 
 
 Polygamy is practiced by many, though some prefer to take 
 one wife for another as often as inclination prompts them, rather 
 than take charge of several at the same time. 
 
 Jealousy is little known among any of the races of Siberia. 
 Modesty is not a female characteristic, nor is chastity very highly 
 prized. K a wife .commit adultery, the husband usually exacts a 
 fine from the paramour for invading his rights " without permis- 
 sion." Their barbarous manners would not induce us to expect 
 any refined modesty. A traveler was introduced to the family of 
 a rich man, the head of a tribe, and upon entering his lowroofed 
 but spacious habitation, found himself in company with five or 
 six women, wives and daughters, all entirely naked, who appear- 
 ed excessively diverted at being discovered in such a state. The 
 dancing women are as lewd as can possibly be conceived ; indeed, 
 obscene postures are the principal features of their entertain- 
 ments. 
 
 A licentious intercourse between unmarried persons is almost 
 universal. With some, religious dissensions are extremely bitter ; 
 but profligacy is more powerful, and a woman who would rigidly- 
 refuse to eat or drink with a man of some other creed, will pros- 
 titute herself to him from sheer lust. Abandoned women reside 
 in all the, towns in large numbers, and are scarcely reprobated by 
 other classes. The education of a Siberian girl appears to be sim- 
 ply telling her that marriage is her destiny, and that her husband 
 will require her to be faithful. With this view she forms ac- 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 447 
 
 quaintances, is seduced by one and yields to another, until her 
 profligacy becomes so notorious that no one will purchase her as a 
 ■wife, and she follows, as a means of living, the habits she had re- 
 sorted to for the indulgence of her vicious appetite. It is said that 
 many prostitutes become so from this cause. 
 
 ESQUIMAUX. 
 
 The Esquimaux require but a very short notice. As a race, 
 they are dirty, poor, and immoral. Dishonesty is a prominent 
 characteristic, especially manifested toward any strangers coming 
 within their reach. The lamented Kane, in his "Arctic Explora- 
 tions," mentions the trouble to which he was exposed in guarding 
 his stores from their pilfering propensities ; but, after he had ad- 
 ministered one or two lessons of chastisement, they abandoned 
 this habit, and became of great assistance to him. He says, 
 "There is a frankness<%nd cordiality in their way of receiving 
 their guests, whatever may be the infirmities of their notions of 
 "honesty ;"' and when he parted from them on his perilous journey 
 south, he remarks, " When trouble came to us and them, and we 
 bent ourselves to their habits ; when we looked to them to procure 
 us, fresh meat, and they found at our brig shelter during their wild 
 bear-hunts, never were friends more true. Although numberless 
 articles of inestimable value to them have been scattered upon the 
 ice unwatched, they have not stolen a nail."^ 
 
 The Esquimaux women are not absolute slaves ; their duties 
 are almost entirely domestic, and during the winter especially their 
 life is one of ease and pleasure, so far as their notions can compre- 
 hend such advantages. Crowded inside a low hut, two or three 
 families together, they spend their time in eating and sleeping al- 
 ternately, both sexes being perfectly naked, except a small apron 
 worn by the women as a badge of their sex. This nudity arises 
 -from the excessive heat of their cabins, which are rendered im- 
 ^'pervious to the cold outside. Dr. Kane mentions one occasion on 
 which he was a visitor when the thermometer outside stood at 60° 
 below zero, and inside the temperature mounted to 90°, and says, 
 " Bursting into a profuse perspiration, I stripped like the rest, and 
 thus, an honored guest, and in the place of honor, I fell asleep."^ 
 
 Eespecting the morality of the men or the virtue of the women 
 little is known. Parry says that husbands frequently offer their 
 wives to strangers for a very small sum, and also that it is not un- 
 
 ' Arctic Explorations, voU i. p. 373. ' Ibid. ii. 25Q. ' Ibid. il. 115. 
 
448 HISTORY or PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 common for a change of wives to be made for a sliort time. He 
 adds that in no country is prostitution carried to a grater extent, 
 the departure of the men on an expedition being a signal to their 
 wives to abandon all restraint. Lust rules paramount, and the 
 children -are taught to watch outside the hut, lest the husband 
 should return unexpectedly, and find his habitation occupied by a 
 stranger. Their marriage contract is a mere social arrangement, 
 easily dissolved, but this is rarely done, the general custom being 
 for a man to chastise his wife when she displeases him. The 
 usual form of matrimonial discipline consists in forcing her to lead 
 the reindeer while he rides at ease in the sledge. Their laws per- 
 mit any man to have two wives, and a regal perquisite of the 
 great chief was the privilege of having as many as he could sup- 
 port.' These brides were not uncommonly carried off from their 
 parents by force, the cereinonial rite following at the convenience 
 of the parties. Such attempts are sonRtimes resisted. An as- 
 pirant for, the favors of the daughter of a chief succeeded in con- 
 veying her to his sledge, but the father pursued with such alacri- 
 ty that the adventurous lover had to abandon the fail one, and 
 made his escape with some difficulty, leaving the equipage as 
 spoils to the victor.^ 
 
 Dr. Kane is of opinion that the services of the Lutheran and 
 Moravian missionaries have produced a beneficial influence on the 
 morals of the people. What may be called their normal religious 
 notions extended only to the recognition of supernatural agencies, 
 and to certain usages by which these could be conciliated. Mur- 
 der, incest, burial of the living, and infanticide, were not consider- 
 ed crimes, and these have aided exposure and disease (the small- 
 pox has made fearful ravages among them) to thin their numbers, 
 and impress them with the idea that they are so rapidly dying 
 out as to be able to mark their progress toward extinction within 
 one generation.^ This is more applicable to the northern tribes, 
 removed from the effects of civilization, among whom murder and 
 infanticide still exist, though 'not to so great an extent as former- 
 ly, while in the southern latitudes, where it was formerly unsafe 
 for vessels to touch upon the coast, hospitality is now the univer- 
 sal characteristic ; and truth, self-reliance, and manly honest bear- 
 ing have been inculcated with considerable success, though not 
 enough to render their notions of property accordant with those 
 of civilized nations.* 
 
 ' Aiotio Explorations, ii. 123. = Ibid, ii 125. ' Ibid, ii 109. * Ibid. ii. 121. 
 
SEMI-CIVILIZED NATIONS. 449 
 
 ICELAJSTD. 
 
 This country is inhabited by a serious, humble, and quiet peo- 
 ple. Isolated from the rest of the world, they remain to this day 
 in an almost primitive condition, and nine centuries have pro- 
 duced little change in their manners, language, or costume. The 
 condition of the sexes is somewhat equal ; the men divide their 
 labors with the women, but do not oppress them. Both are alike 
 filthy and coarse in their habits. Their hospitality assumes some 
 singular forms. Women salute a stranger with a cordial embrace, 
 but their dirty habits generally render him anxious to escape 
 from their arms as quickly as possible. A missionary was upon 
 one occasion especially scandalized. He was visiting at the house 
 of a rich man, who treated him liberally, and upon retiring to his 
 room at night was followed by his host's eldest daughter, who in- 
 sisted upon helping him to undress and prepare for bed, declaring 
 that it was the invariable custom of the country. 
 
 Few absolute laws regulate the intercourse of the sexes. Chris- 
 tianity has abolished polygamy, and public opinion holds a strong 
 check upon illicit intercourse. With the exception of their sea- 
 ports, the people may be called a moral race. The proportion of 
 illegitimate to legitimate children is about one in every seven. 
 
 Lord Karnes relates an anecdote which Would stamp the Iceknd- 
 ers of one hundred and fifty years ago as any thing but moral. 
 He says that in 1707 a contagious distemper had cut off nearly all 
 the people, and, in order to repopulate the country, the King of 
 Denmark issued a proclamation authorizing every single woman 
 to bear six illegitimate children without losing her reputation. 
 Eeport says the girls were so zealous in this patriotic work that 
 • it soon became necessary to abrogate the law. -; 
 
 GEEENLAND. ' 
 
 The population of Greenland is partly composed of European 
 colonists and partly of Esquimaux. They are a vain and indolent 
 people, whose virtues consist in the negation of active vice. Their 
 women occupy an inferior position. Marriage is essentially a con- 
 tract for mutual convenience, dissolved when it ceases to be agree- 
 able. It is considered etiquette for a girl, when any man demands 
 her in marriage, to fly to the hills and hide herself, in order to be 
 dragged home with a great show of violence by her suitor. If 
 courted by a man she dislikes, she cuts off her hair, which is a 
 sign of great horror, and usually rids her of her lover. 
 
 F F 
 
450 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The Greenlanders consider themselves the only civilized people 
 in the world, and consequently pride themselves oii> decorum. 
 They do not allow marriages within three degrees of affinity, and 
 consider it disreputable for persons wht) have been educated in 
 the same house to marry, even if no relationship exists between 
 them. Prostitution prevails to a considerable extent, widows and 
 divorced women almost invariably adopting it as a means of liv- 
 ing. There are numerous habitations in the large communities 
 which can only be considered as brothels, i)ut the life of an aban- 
 doned woman is generally reprobated, and those following it in- 
 cur tlie most undisguised odium of the people at large. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXn. 
 
 NEW YORK. — STATISTICS. 
 
 Schedule of Questions. — Age. — Juvenile Depravity.— Premature Old Age.^ — Grad- 
 ual Descent. — Average Duration of a Prostitute's Life.^Nativity. — Proportion 
 of Prostitutes from various States. — New York. — Efifects of Immigration. — ^For- 
 eigners. — Proportion to Population. — Proportion to Emigration. — Dangers of 
 Ports of Departure, Emigrant Ships, and Boarding-houses. — Length of Resi- 
 dence in the United States. — Prostitution a Burden to Tisix-payers. — Length of 
 Residence in New York State. — Length of Residence in New York City. — In- 
 ducements to emigrate. — Labor and Remuneration in Europe. — Assistance to 
 emigrate ; its Amount, and from whom. — Education. — Neglect of Facilities in 
 New York. — Social Condition. — Single Women. — ^Widows. — Early and Injudi- 
 cious Marriages. — Husbands. — Children. — Illegitimate Children. — Mortality of 
 Children. — Infanticide. — Influences to which Children are exposed. 
 
 It is to be hoped the reader has already perused the introduc- • 
 tion to this volume, containing a description of the modus operan- 
 di adopted to obtain the necessary information from the prosti- 
 tutes of New York City. The following schedule of questions 
 was prepared for this purpose, and the ensuing pkges present in 
 tabular form the answers received thereto. 
 
 " How old will you Ido next birth-day ? 
 
 " Were you born in America ? and, if so, in what state 1 
 
 " How long have you resided in New York City ? 
 
 " If born abroad, in what country 1 
 
 " How long have you resided in the United States 1 
 
 "How long have you resided in the State of New York? 
 
 "What induced you to emigrate to thie United States? 
 
 "Did you receive any assistance, and, if so, from whom, and to what 
 amount, to enable you to emigrate to the United States? 
 
NEW YOEK. 4.QI 
 
 " Can you read and write? 
 
 " Are you single, married, or widowed 1 
 
 " If married, is your husband living with you, or what caused the separa- 
 tion 1 \ 
 
 " If widowed^ how long has your husband been dead? 
 
 " Have you had any children ? * 
 
 "How many? — Boys — Girls 
 
 " Were these children bom in wedlock? 
 
 " Are they living or dead ? 
 
 " If living, are they with you now, or where are they.? 
 
 "For what length of time have you been a prostitute? 
 
 " Have you had any disease incident to prostitution ? ' If so, what ? 
 
 " What was the cause of your becoming a prostitute ? 
 
 " Is prostitution your only means of support? 
 
 " If not, what other means have you ? 
 
 " What trade or calling did you foUow before you became a prostitute ? 
 
 " How long is it since you abandoned your trade as a means of living ? 
 
 " What were your average weekly earnings at your trade ? 
 
 " What business did your father follow ? 
 
 " If your mother had any business independent of your father, what was it ? 
 
 " Did you assist either your mother or your father in their business ? H 
 so, which of them ? 
 
 " Is your father living ? or how old were you when he died ? 
 
 " Is your mother living ? or hpw old were you when she died ? 
 
 " Do you drink intoxicating liquors ? If so, to what extent ? 
 
 " Did your father drink intoxicating liquors ? If so, to what extent ? 
 
 " Did your mother drink intoxicating liquors ? If- so, to what extent ? 
 
 " Were your parents " Protestants," " Catholics," or " non-professors ?" 
 
 " Were you trained to any religion ? If so, was it Protestant or Cathohc ? 
 
 "Do you profess the same religion now? 
 
 " How long since you observed any of its requirements ?" 
 
 In addition to tHs comprehensive series, space v^as left for any 
 remarks the examiner might wish to make upon other points, 
 The queries were printed on a large sheet of paper, with suffi- 
 cient blanks for the answers, and the officer was desired, as soon 
 as he had obtained all the infornaation required, to fold the sheet, 
 and sign his name on a line left for that purpose, with the,. date 
 the inquiries were made, the locaHty of the house in which the 
 woman resided, and the poUce district in which it was comprised. 
 It is a matter of much regret that in the burning of the Island 
 Hospital, BlackweU'Ei Island, on February 13th, 1858, all the sched- 
 ules were destroyed. They contained many facts which, from 
 
452 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ■want of space, are but slightly alluded to in the following pages, 
 and would have been of material service in any measuKK hereafter 
 taken to mitigate the sorrows or prevent the excesses of the aban- 
 doned women of New York. 
 
 Farther prelude' is Unnecessary. It only remains to give the 
 answers as received, with such deductions as may arise from them. 
 
 Question. How old will you be next bibth-day? 
 
 Age. Number. 
 
 15 years 2 
 
 16 
 
 (( 
 
 11 
 
 a 
 
 18 
 
 u 
 
 19 
 
 u 
 
 20 
 
 u 
 
 21 
 
 a 
 
 22 
 
 a 
 
 23 
 
 u 
 
 24 
 
 K 
 
 25 
 
 ee 
 
 26 
 
 a 
 
 21 
 
 a 
 
 28 
 
 e< 
 
 29 
 
 u 
 
 80 
 
 u 
 
 31 
 
 u 
 
 S2 
 
 « 
 
 33 
 
 u 
 
 34 
 
 t( 
 
 35 
 
 a 
 
 36 
 
 le 
 
 31 
 
 ec 
 
 38 
 
 (C 
 
 39 
 
 ei 
 
 11 
 
 41 
 
 a 
 
 62 
 
 42 
 
 u 
 
 143 
 
 43 
 
 u 
 
 258 
 
 44 
 
 a 
 
 268 
 
 45 
 
 a 
 
 206 
 
 46 
 
 a 
 
 116 
 
 41 
 
 a 
 
 153 
 
 48 
 
 A 
 
 96 
 
 49 
 
 u 
 
 91 
 
 50 
 
 ee 
 
 15 
 
 51 
 
 ee 
 
 53 
 
 52 
 
 ee 
 
 58 
 
 53 
 
 ee 
 
 49 
 
 55 
 
 ee 
 
 44 
 
 51 
 
 ee 
 
 18 
 
 58 
 
 ee 
 
 16 
 
 59 
 
 ee 
 
 29 
 
 60 
 
 ee 
 
 15 
 
 62 
 
 (e 
 
 19 
 
 63 
 
 ee 
 
 23 
 
 66 
 
 ee 
 
 11 
 
 11 
 
 ee 
 
 9 
 
 11 
 
 ee 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Age. Nnmber. 
 
 40 years 25 
 
 '. '. '. ". . 6 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 5 
 3 
 4 
 1 
 3 
 3 
 5 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 Total . . 2000 
 The facts exhibited by this table are sufficiently palpable to 
 render remarks almost unnecessary, but the existence of juvenile 
 degradation is so clearly proven as to call for a few observa- 
 tions. 
 
 Between the ages of fifteen and twenty years are found about 
 three eighths of the whole number embraced in this return. Be- 
 tween the ages of twenty-one and twenty-five years nearly three 
 eighths more of the whole number are included, giving in the 
 first ten years of the table three quarters of the aggregate prosti- 
 tution, while the next period of five years, or from twenty-six to 
 thirty, contains one eighth more. It is thus upon record that 
 seven out of every eight women who came under this investiga- 
 tion had not yet reached thirty years of age. Beyond this 
 
NEW YORK. 453 
 
 standard each, year sliows but a few, and of these veterans the 
 majority are those who are now keeping houses of ill fame. 
 
 Comparing this with the ages of residents in New York as given 
 in the Census Eeports, it will appear that prostitutes under twenty 
 years of age are in excess about twenty-five per cent. ; as this in- 
 quiry shows thatybr every four abandoned women between the ages 
 of twenty and thirty there are three between fifteen and twenty, but the 
 of&cial classification proves that for every four women in the state 
 between twenty and thirty years old, there are only two between 
 fifteen and twenty. 
 
 While juvenile degradation is an inseparable adjunct of prostitu- 
 tion, premature old age is its invariable result. Take, for exam- 
 ple, the career of a female who enters a house of prostitution at six- 
 teen years of age. Her step is elastic, her eye bright, she is the 
 "observed of aU observers." The habitues of the place flock 
 around her, gloat over her ruin while they praise her beauty, and 
 try to drag her down to their own level of depravity while flatter- 
 ing her vanity. As the last spark of inherent virtue flickers and 
 dies in her bosom, and she becomes sensible that she is indeed lost, 
 that her anticipated happiness proves but splendid misery, she also 
 becomes conscious that the door of reformation is practically closed 
 against her. But this life of gay depravity can not last ; her mind 
 becomes tainted with the moral miasma in which she lives ; her 
 physical powers wane imder the trials imposed upon them, and her 
 career in 2i fashionable house of prostitution comes to an end; she 
 must descend in the ladder of vice. Follow her from one step to 
 another in her downward career. To-day you may find her in 
 our aristocratic promenades ; to-morrow she wiH be forced to walk 
 in more secluded streets. To-night you may see her glittering at 
 one of the fashionable theatres; to-morrow she will be found in 
 some one of the infamous resorts which abound in the lower part 
 of the eity. To-day she may associate with the wealthy of the 
 land ; to-morrow none wiU be too low for her compmy. To-day 
 she has servants to do her bidding ; to-morrow she may be buned 
 in a pauper's cofan and a nameless grave. This is no fancy sketch, 
 but an outline of the course of many women now Imng as prosti- 
 tutes of the lowest class in the city of New York. 
 
 Any one conversant with the subject knows that there is a weH 
 understood gradation in this life, and as soon as a woman ceases 
 to be attractive in the higher walks, as soon as her youth and 
 beauty fade, she must either descend in the scale (yr starve. Nor 
 
454 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ■will any deily that of those who commence a life of shame in thdir 
 youth under the most specious and flattering delusions,%e major- 
 ity are found, in a short time, plunged into the deepest misery and 
 degradation. 
 
 Here is seen, at a glance, a reason for the large number of ju- 
 venile prostitutes. Youth is a m'arketable commodity, and when 
 its charms are lost, they must be replaced. The following cases, 
 from hfe, will substantiate this view.' For obvious reasons, the 
 names are suppressed. 
 
 C. B. is a native of New York, and now resides in the Eighth 
 PoHce District of the city. She is twenty years old, and became a 
 prostitute at the age of sixteen, through the harshness and unkind 
 "treatment of a stepmother, her own mother having died when she 
 was an infant. Take another case from the same neighborhood. 
 L. B. was born in Vermont ; her father died while she was a child. ■ 
 At the age of fifteen she was enticed to the city, and became an in- 
 mate of a house of prostitution. She is described as an intelligent, 
 well-educated girl, of temperate habits. One more instance JErom 
 the same locality. E. W. is a native of New York City; is the 
 child of honest, hard-working parents; has received a medium 
 education ; at seventeen years old was seduced imder a promise of 
 marriage, and deserted. She then embraced a life of prostitution, 
 influenced mainly by shame, and the idea that she had no other 
 means of subsistence. 
 
 These women are residing in that part of the city which contains 
 the majority of the first-class houses of prostitution; they have 
 not yet descended in the scale. The ensuing selection, taken &om 
 the Fourth Police District, the antipodes of the former locaHty, 
 will forcibly exhibit the operation of this gradual deterioration. 
 
 E. S. was seduced in Rochester, N. Y., at the age of sixteen. 
 She accompanied her seducer to this city, and for a season lived 
 here in luxury. She was finally deserted, and now drags out a 
 wretched existence in "Water Street. E. C, residing in the same 
 neighborhood, is now nineteen years of age. She was married 
 when but a chUd, and, 'five years since, or when she was on\jfi}ur- 
 teen years old, was driven on the town through the brutal conduct 
 of her husband. Passing through the various gradations of the 
 scale, she has how become a confirmed drunkard; has endured 
 much physical suffering; and, lost to all sense of shame, will 
 doubtless continue in her wretched career till death puts an end 
 to her misery. 
 
NEW YOEK. 455 
 
 To continue this chain of evidence, the following cases have 
 been selected from the registers of the Penitentiary Hospital (now 
 remodeled, and called the Island Hospital), Blackwell's Island. 
 S. A., of ISTew Jersey, was admitted as a patient when oxHj fifteen 
 years of age, suffering from disease caused by leading a depraved 
 life, and within six months was received and treated therein no 
 less than four times. A.B., bOrn in Scotland, was admitted and 
 treated for venereal disease at fourteen years of^ age. L. A. D., 
 born in England, was admitted at sixteen years of agCj two years 
 since, with similar disease, and, with only short intervals, has been 
 an inmate of the hospitar continuously from that time. M. H. 
 was admitted at seventeen years of age, and endured a long and 
 painfiil illness. M. J. D., after following a course of depravity for 
 a year, was admitted at eighteen years of age, lingered in agony for 
 twenty-five days, and then died, solely from the effects of a life of 
 prostitution. 
 
 It is not necessary to pursue this subject farther, as sufficient 
 facts have been adduced to support the assertion that youth is the 
 grand desideratum in the inmates of houses of ill fame. Young 
 women have been traced from the proudest resorts to the lowest 
 haunts, and have been shown as suffering pain and sickness in a 
 public institution, or dying there in torture. But no attempt has 
 been made to calculate the misery produced in the respective 
 families they had abandoned. The excruciating parental agony 
 caused^ by the departure of a daughter from the paths of virtue 
 seems more a matter for private contemplation by each reader 
 than for any delineation here. We have witnessed the meetings 
 of parents with their lost children ; have stood beside the bed 
 where a frail, suffering woman was yielding her last breath, and 
 have shuddered at the awful mental agony overpowering her 
 physical suffering. No doubt can exist that, were it possible to 
 introduce the reader of these pages to such scenes, or even could 
 they be adequately described in all their accumulated horrors, the 
 cordial co-operation of all the friends of virtue and humanity 
 would be secured in ftirtherance of any plan which would check 
 this mighty torrent of vice and woe. 
 
 From the fact that youth is the grand desideratum, it is evident 
 that a constant succession of young people will be driven into this 
 arena, either by force or treachery. The average duration of life 
 among these women does not exceed four years from the beginning of 
 their career/ There are, as in all cases, exceptions to this rule, 
 
456 
 
 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 but it is a tolerably well established fact that one fourth of the 
 total number of abandoned women in this city die oOery year. 
 Thus, by estimating the prostitutes in New York at six thou- 
 sand (and this is not an exaggerated calculation, as will be 
 proved hereafter), the appalling number of one thousand five 
 hundred erring women are hurried to their last, long homes each 
 year of our existence. Neglected and contemned while liviag, 
 they pass from this world .unnoticed and unwept. But their 
 deaths leave vacancies which must be supplied: the inexorable 
 demands of vice and dissipation must be gratified, and who can 
 teU what innocent and happy family circle may next have to 
 mourn the ruin and disgrace of one of its members ? In a sub- 
 sequent portion of this work it will be necessary to notice the 
 means employed for ensnaring the innocent and unsuspecting, 
 and to show that this is a danger which threatens all classes of 
 the community. 
 
 Question. Were you born in America? 
 
 STATE ? 
 
 If so, in what 
 
 state. Number. 
 
 Alabama 1 
 
 Carolina, North ... 2 
 
 « South ... 4 
 
 Columbia, District of . . 1 
 
 Connecticut 42 
 
 Delaware 1 
 
 Georgia 1 
 
 Illinois 1 
 
 Kentucky 2 
 
 Louisiana 4 
 
 Maine 24 
 
 Maryland 15 
 
 state. 
 
 Massachusetts . 
 Missouri . . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . 
 New York . 
 Ohio . . . 
 Pennsylvania 
 Ehode Island 
 Vermont 
 Virginia . . 
 Total bom in United 
 States . . . 
 
 Number. 
 
 71 
 1 
 
 • 7 
 
 69 
 
 394 
 
 8 
 
 11 
 
 18 
 
 10 
 _9 
 
 762 
 
 The number of prostitutes in New York who were bom within 
 the limits of the United States slightly exceeds three eighths of 
 the aggregate from whom replies to these queries were obtained. 
 They are natives of twenty-one states and one district, and may 
 be subdivided in geographical order as follows : 
 
 1. The Eastern District, containing Maine, New Hampshire, Ver- 
 mont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Ehode Island, contributes 
 one hundred and seventytwo women to the prostitutes of New 
 York City. 
 
 2. The Middle States, New; York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
 District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, contribr 
 ute five hundred and sixty-six women. 
 
NEW YORK. 457 
 
 3. The Southern States, North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- 
 gia, Alabama, and Louisiana, contribute twelve "women. 
 
 4. The "Western States, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky, 
 contribute also twelve women. 
 
 On what hypothesis can these proportions be explained ? Maine, 
 on the extreme northeast, with a rocky, surge-beaten coast front- 
 ing on the wild Atlantic, with a harsh, cold climate, sends twenty- 
 ■ four women from her population of 580,000, while "Virginia, with 
 1,421,000 inhabitants, contributes but nine ! This difference in 
 favor of the southern state can not be explained on the ground 
 of distance, for the boundaries of each state are nearly equidistant 
 from New York ; nor can it be sustained by the idea that Maine 
 has more sea-coast, as the maritime coast of the southern state is 
 at least equal to that of the northern one, and the ordinary tend- 
 encies to immorality in sea-port towns would be equally felt in 
 each. The case is still farther involved by the fact that in all 
 southern cities the majority of prostitutes are from the north ; and 
 it is a well-known circumstance, that at certain periods large num- 
 bers of courtesans from New York, Boston, and other cities emi- 
 grate southward. Were the generally received opinion of the ef- 
 fects of a warm climate upon female organization to be adopted in 
 this connection, not only would there be no necessity for this ex- 
 odus, but the number of prostitutes repeived from Virginia should 
 largely exceed those from Maine. This fact is sufficient to con- 
 firm the idea already expressed, that fraud or force is used to en- 
 trap these females. The natives of a bleak northern state are far 
 more likely to be deceived by the artful misrepresentations of 
 emissaries from New York than the denizens of the southern por- 
 tion of our "Union. The former lead a life of comparative hard- 
 ship, the latter one of comparative ease. In Maine, over six thou- 
 sand women, or one in every forty-six of the female population, 
 are immured for six days in every week in a crowded factory; in 
 Yirginia, over three thousand women, or one in- every one hund- 
 red and thirty-four of the female population, are similarly employ. 
 ed.i This mode of life will form a matter for subsequent consid- 
 eration, so far as its tendencies to immorality are concerned. 
 
 Again : Place in contrast Ehode Island with eighteen women 
 
 living by prostitution in New York, and a population of only 
 
 140,000, and Maryland with fifteen prostitutes in New York, and 
 
 a population of 418,000, and a more palpable difference in favor 
 
 ' U. S. Census, 1850. 
 
458 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 of the southern state is apparent. The former sends one prosti- 
 tute out of every eight thousand of her inhabitants; tlH latter, one 
 out of every twenty-eight thousand. 
 
 Calculatiag on the basis of the respective populations, Vermont 
 and New Hampshire have nearly the same proportion as Maine ; 
 Massachusetts exceeds the average; and Connecticut (jpar exeel- 
 knce, "the land of steady habits") has a still larger excess. New 
 Jersey has the largest proportion of any state in the union, and 
 Pennsylvania shows about the average of Maine. The Southern 
 and "Western States have but few representatives. New York, the 
 home state, will be noticed in due course. The preceding facts 
 will supply materials for reflection, in conjunction with the ques- 
 tion, " On what hypothesis can these proportions be explained?" 
 
 The self-evident answer to this query would seem to be that the 
 excess from the Eastern and Middle States arises from the employ- 
 ment of a much larger proportion of females in manufacturing and 
 sedentary occupations. A young woman of ardent temperament 
 can not but feel the hardship of this position in life as compared 
 with her more favored sisters in other states, and when such an 
 idea has once obtained possession of her miad, it forms a subject 
 for constant thought. Thus, when already predisposed in favor 
 of any change, she falls iato the hands of the tempter a pliant vic- 
 tim. Beyond the hardship attendant on her daily labor, the as- 
 sociations which are formed in factories or workshops where both 
 sexes are employed very frequently result disastrously for the fe- 
 male. Notwithstanding aU the care which may-be taken on the 
 part of employers — and it is a subject for national pride that Amer- 
 ican manufacturers are doiag far more to elevate the moral char- 
 acter of their employ^ than the same class of men in other lands — 
 it is morally impossible that these intimacies can be entirely sup- 
 pressed, nor can their ruinous effects be prevented. Study the 
 moral statistics of any of the manufacturing towns in Great Britain 
 or on the Contin^t of Europe, and the same results are presented, 
 but in a more alanmng degree, because there the supervision is 
 not only weak in itself, but is frequently intrusted to improper 
 persons, whose interest is often in direct opposition to their duty. 
 
 A few words in respect to the State of New York. The num- 
 ber of prostitutes in proportion to the population far exceeds the 
 ratio from any other state except New Jersey. Beyond the effect 
 of manufactures, which operate here to a corresponding extent as 
 in other states, the immense maritime business of New York City, 
 
imw YORK. 459 
 
 and the constant flood of immigrants and strangers passing through, 
 it, must be taken into consideration. This constantly fills some 
 localities with sailors, men proverbial for having "in every port a 
 wife," and many of whom are notorious frequenters of houses of 
 prostitution. This circumstance proves that this infernal traffic 
 is governed by the same rules which regulate commercial transac- 
 tions, namely, that the supply is in proportion to the demand. If, 
 by any miracle, all the seamen and strangers visiting New York 
 could be transformed iato moral men, at least from one half to two 
 thirds of the houses of ill fame would be absolutely bankrupt. 
 
 The constant flood of immigration leaves a mass of debris behind 
 it, consisting, in the first place, of men idle and vicious in their own 
 lands, who transfer their vices to the country of their adoption, 
 and for a time after arrival here devote what means they possess 
 to the pursuit of debauchery, and materially help to swell the tor- 
 rent of immorality. Another class of immigrants are women, 
 many of whom are sent here by charitable (?) associations or pub- 
 lic bodies in foreign lands, as the most economical way to get rid 
 of them. Many of these females become mothers almost as soon as 
 they land on these shores ; in fact, the probability of such an event 
 sometimes hastens their departure. They exist here in the most 
 squalid misery in some tenement house or hovel. Their children 
 receive none of the advantages of education; for, as soon as they 
 can beg, they are compelled to aid in the struggle for bread, and 
 the most frequent result is that the boys are arrested for some pet- 
 ty theft, and the girls become prostitutes, thus contributing to meet 
 the demand caused by the classes already mentioned. 
 
 But, in addition to these foreign children bom by accident in 
 our state, the proportion of prostitutes from New York is increased 
 by the facility offered for transit from the interior to the city. 
 Doubtless there are many courtesans from the eastern and south- 
 em districts who find their way to some of the large cities in their 
 own part of the country, and so, on the same principle, when 
 woman in this state has fallen into vicious habits her natural resort 
 is to this metropolis. In addition to the more extended market it 
 offers for her charms,' its advantages as a great central rendezvous 
 for the nation must not be overlooked. Here a prostitute can Uve 
 until her attractions wane, and hence she can easily reach any 
 southern or other point where abandoned women are m demand. 
 Despite of the large number of prostitutes ascertained to have been 
 bom within the bounds of New York State, it can not be conceded 
 
 a 
 
460 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Uiat we are any less moral than our neighbors in other parts of 
 the confederation. * 
 
 It is a matter for the most serious consideration, to be followed 
 by sound and judicious action, either legislative or personal, that 
 so large a number of American girls fall victims to this fell de- 
 stroyer in a land where a good education is within the reach of 
 every one ; where industry, if properly applied in the right chan- 
 nels, win afford a comfortable maintenance for all ; where the nat- 
 ural resources are sufficient to support nearly half the inhabitants 
 of the world. 
 
 Question. WeEE YOU BORN ABROAD ? If SO, IN WHAT COUN- 
 TRY? 
 
 Countries. ' Numberi 
 
 Austria 2 
 
 Belgium 1 
 
 British North America . 63 
 
 Denmark 1 
 
 England 104 
 
 IVance 13 
 
 Germany 249 
 
 Ireland 106 
 
 Italy ....... 1 
 
 Countries. N umbers. 
 
 Poland 3 
 
 Prussia 6 
 
 Saxony 2 
 
 Scotland 52 
 
 Switzerland 17 
 
 Wales 1 
 
 West Indies .... 4 
 
 At Sea 18 
 
 Total bom abroad . 1238 
 It has been frequently remarked, and as generally believed, in 
 the absence of any satisfactory information on the subject, that a 
 very large majority of the prostitutes in New York are of fore^n 
 birth ; but the facts already developed, with the few remarks which 
 Yirill be made upon the above table of nativities, go far toward 
 falsifying that opinion. The enumeration shows that five eighths 
 only were born abroad, the dominions of Great Britain funishing 
 the largest proportion. The ratio in which the several paTts of 
 that kingdom supply the New World with courtesans may be stated 
 in round numbers as follows : Ireland contributes one prostitute to 
 every four thousand of her population ; British North America, 
 one prostitute to every seven thousand of population ; Scotland, 
 one prostitute to every sixteen thousand of population ; England 
 and "Wales, one prostitute to every fifty thousand of population. 
 Of course, this will be understood as referring to all prostitutes 
 now living in this city, assuming the average nativities of all to be 
 fairly represented in the replies obtained from a portion. 
 
 But these numbers, being based' upon the population of the sev- 
 eral countries, give but a very imperfect idea of the extent of vice 
 among that portion of their people who have settled in America, 
 and a more satisfactory comparison can be drawn from the records 
 
NEW YOEK. 4.QI 
 
 ©f emigration. Upon, an examination of the arrivals in each year 
 from the time the existing Board of Commissioners of Emigration 
 was organized to the end of 1857 (a period of ten years), it is 
 found that the numbers average two hundred and thirty thou- 
 sand per annum, which gives a proportion of one prostitute to ev- 
 ery two hundred and fifty emigrants. This is based upon the 
 theory that one fourth of the abandoned women die or are other- 
 wise removed from the city every year. To repeat this fact in 
 plainer words : of every two hundred and fifty emi^ants — men, 
 women, and children, who land at our docks, at least one woman 
 eventually becomes known as a prostitute. 
 
 This demoralization may be accounted for in several ways. 
 There is frequently a protracted interval between the time when 
 families arrive at the intended port of departure and the day on 
 which they sail; and during this space they are exposed to all 
 the malign influences invariably existing in large sea-port towns, 
 which must impart vicious ideas to young people who have re- 
 cently left some secluded part of the country. Take Liverpool, 
 for instance, the port whence the largest number of emigrants 
 come to us, and which contains one prostitute for every eighty- 
 eight inhabitants, and the wonder will be, not that so many are 
 contaminated, but tjiat so many escape. When the dangers of 
 the town are surmounted, another source of immorality is found 
 in the steerage passage across the Atlantic. This occupies from 
 one to three months, during which time the females are necessari- 
 ly in constant communication with the other sex, and frequently 
 exposed to scenes of indelicacy too glaring to be described here ; 
 and this in addition to the constant machinations of the aban- 
 doned and unprincipled men who are to be found, in greater or 
 less numbers, in every ship's complement of crew and passengers. 
 Under such circumstances, the germ implanted in the sea-port 
 town often develops into its legitimate fruit. But when the ship 
 has reached her haven, and the perils of the sea are passed, 
 there are dangers to be encountered on land. The present ar- 
 rangements for disembarking emigrants at Castle Garden have re- 
 moved many of the most objectionable features formerly incident 
 to their entry into the land of their adoption, yet there are many 
 still remaining. If a family desire to travel to the interior of 
 the country, they can do so at once; but should they remain in 
 the city, they are exposed to the tender mercies of the emigrant 
 boarding-house keepers, generally themselves natives of the "old 
 
462 HISTORY OB' PROSTITUTION. 
 
 country," who, having been swindled on their arrival, are both 
 competent and wiUing to practice the same impositionnon others. 
 It must not;b^ concluded that all who follow the business are 
 worthy of this sweeping condemnation ; many of them are un- 
 doubtedly honest, yet it can not be denied that others do pursue 
 this nefarious course; and when they have drained all the re- 
 sources of their customers, they turn them adrift to beg, or starve, 
 or sin for a subsistence. 
 
 To one or the other of these causes many girls owe their ruin. 
 Indeed, there can be no reasonable doubt that a majority of the 
 prostitutes of foreign birth are more or less influenced thereby. 
 In addition to these, there are other snares constantly set for 
 strangers, to which we shall hereafter allude. 
 
 It is scarcely within the province of this section to notice meas- 
 ures calculated to remove the evils named, With the first, the 
 American people have no possible means of interfering, With 
 regard to the second, many difficulties must be encountered and 
 overcome. The Commissioners of Emigration have taken steps to 
 avert some of the evils, and, in consequence of their application to 
 the present Congress, a bill has been introduced making -it a penal 
 offense for any officer: or sailor on emigrarnt ships to have carnal 
 intercourse with any passenger, whether with or without her 
 consent. 
 
 The third evil named is a local question peculiarly and entirely 
 under our own control, and, at the risk of anticipating the subject, 
 it may be suggested that the most effectual way of obviating it 
 would be the organization of a plan offering inducements and fa- 
 cilities for young women to leave the city, thus removing them 
 &om its baneful influences to a part of the country where their 
 own labor -would give them the means of a comfortable subsist- 
 enpe and a virtuous life. It is but poor policy to retain in New 
 York numbers of persons who can by no possibility procure em- 
 ployment in an already overcrowded field of labor, and who must 
 eventually consent to earn a precarious living by the sacrifice of 
 virtue. It matters not through what agency their ruin is effect- 
 ed, whether by the oppression of a boarding-house keeper, the in- 
 trigues of an inteUigence-offiee, or the wiles of abandoned ones of 
 their own sex.' The degradation is an indisputable fact, and the 
 expenses to every citizen from the extra cost of police supervi- 
 ?iion, courts of justice, hospitals, and penitentiaries, would proba- 
 bly be enouglito remove many 'from the city who are debauched 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 463 
 
 for the want of opportunity to leave. It would be far better to 
 try the system of prevention in the first instance, and this would 
 probably be successful in many cases ; whereas any reformatory 
 plan is almost useless where the Eubicon has been passed. 
 
 Quesiioii. How long have you eesided in the United 
 States? 
 
 Length of Residence. 
 
 Under 2 months 
 
 Numbers 
 
 . 9 
 
 "3 " , . 
 
 . 11 
 
 "6 « . . 
 
 . 21 
 
 " 1 year . . 
 " 2 years . . 
 " 3 « 
 
 . 15 
 . 159 
 . 99 
 
 " 4 " 
 
 . . 83 
 
 Length of Rr Bidence. 
 
 Under 5 years . . 
 " 10 « . , . 
 
 Numbers 
 
 . 106 
 
 . 353 
 
 10 years and upward 
 From Birth . . . 
 
 . 293 
 . 162 
 
 Unascertained . . 
 
 . 31 
 
 Total . , . 
 
 2000 
 
 In intimate connection with the subject of the nativities of pros- 
 titutes now in New York are the answers to the above inquiry. 
 Deducting the number of native-boyn women, it will be found that 
 five hundred and sixty-three, or more than forty-five per cent, of 
 the foreigners, have resided in the United States less than five 
 years ; and of this number, one hundred and fifteen, or nearly 
 ■twenty-one per cent., have resided here less than one year. These 
 averages support, to some extent, the opinion already advanced, 
 that a large proportion of the prostitutes in New York City were 
 either seduced previous to leaving their port of departure, or on 
 their passage, or very soon after their arrival here, when they com- 
 menced forthwith a practice which forces them eventually to be- 
 come a burden upon the tax-paying community. In a majority 
 of cases, this must be the result of their career ; the successive fall 
 from one gradation of their wretched life to a lower finally land- 
 ing them in the prisons or hospitals of a city toward whose ex- 
 penses neither their pecuniary ability nor their labor have ever 
 contributed a farthing. Their support thus falls upon the work- 
 ing population, an argument of dollars and cents which will not 
 be without its influence in a consideration of the numerous evils 
 of prostitution. 
 
 The remaining fifty-five per cent., having been in the United 
 States more than five years, are by law entitled. to receive any as- 
 sistance whiph their necessities may demand from local funds, but 
 of this number there are some who have doubtless been chargea- 
 ble to public institutions before they had completed the required 
 term of residence, as there are unquestionably many "who, in order 
 to procure relief, make false representations as to the time of their 
 
464 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 arrival. Eeasoning from -well-ascertaiiied facts, there can be little 
 exaggeration in the estimate that from eighty to one hruHred thou- 
 sand dollars per annum is the amount which the citizens of New 
 York contribute to the support' of foreigners who have been less 
 than five years in the United States. Nor can this be prevented 
 unless the claims of suffering humanity are entirely ignored. Of 
 course, the idea that a sick or disabled man or woman is to be left 
 to perish can not be entertained for one moment. If they are in 
 want or in pain, every dictate of our common nature demands 
 that they shall be relieved. But it may be suggested to those in- 
 terested in the question of local taxation to give their prompt 
 assistance to any practicable scheme which will diminish the 
 amount of vice, and consequently reduce the expenses resulting 
 therefrom, such as a carefully-devised plan for shielding emi- 
 grants from corrupting influences, and forwarding the destitute 
 to sections where labor may be obtained. Upon the moral ef- 
 fects of such an arrangement it is unnecessary to remark, as they 
 are self-evident ; of its successful working and eventual economy 
 but little doubt can be entertained. 
 
 Question. 
 State? 
 
 How LONG HAVE YOU RESIDED IIT NeW YoEK 
 
 Length of Residence. 
 
 Under 2 months 
 
 « 3 « 
 
 « 6 " 
 
 " 1 year 
 
 " 2 years 
 « 3 « 
 
 ee 4 c£ 
 
 Numbera. 
 
 . 35 
 . 20 
 . 43 
 . 132 
 . 186 
 . 152 
 
 . lio 
 
 Length of Residence. 
 
 Under 5 years 
 
 « 10 " . . 
 10 years and upward 
 From Birth . . 
 Unascertained 
 Total . . 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 . 12t 
 . 374 
 . 433 
 . 353 
 . 35 
 2000 
 
 Question. 
 City? 
 
 How LONG HAVE YOU RESIDED IN NeW YOEK 
 
 Length of Residence. 
 
 Under 2 months 
 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 46 
 
 « 3 ". . 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 « 6 " . 
 
 
 
 56 
 
 " 1 year 
 " 2 years . 
 « 3 " . . 
 
 
 
 140 
 236 
 189 
 
 " 4 " . . 
 
 ml .11 
 
 
 
 128 
 
 Lengtli of Residence. 
 
 Under 5 years 
 
 " 10 « . . 
 10 years and upward 
 From Birth . . 
 Unascertained 
 Total . . 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 . 135 
 
 . 388 
 . 421 
 . 185 
 . 40 
 2000 
 
 These tables require no comment. The attention of the reader 
 may merely be called to the fact that three hundred and ninety- 
 four women have been already reported as born in the State of 
 New York, of which number three hundred and fifty-three have 
 resided within its limits continuously from the time of their birth, 
 
NEW YORK. 4g5 
 
 and that one hundred and eighty-five, or nearly one half, were na- 
 tives of New York City, and have resided therein from the day 
 they were born. This fact alone demonstrates that the influences 
 of metropolitan life are not very favorable to the advance of fe- 
 male morality. 
 
 Question. What induced you to emigrate to the United 
 States? 
 
 Keasons, Numbers. 
 
 Came as stewardesses . . 2 
 Ran away from home . . 18 
 HI usage of parents ... 34 
 Came with their seducers . 39 
 Came to improve their con- 
 dition 411 
 
 Beasons. Numbers. 
 
 Sent out by parents or friends 81 
 
 Came with relatives or to 
 
 join relatives already in 
 
 the United States . . 619 
 
 No special cause assigned 34 
 
 , Total of foreigners 1238 
 
 This table shows that a majority of the prostitutes of foreign 
 birth were induced to emigrate to the United States either by 
 considerations of policy — four hundred and eleven assigning as 
 their reason a desire to improve their condition in life — or from 
 family connections, six hundred and nineteen having arrived with 
 relatives and friends, or with the purpose of joining relatives and 
 friends already in this country. 
 
 It will not be denied by any one familiar with the subject that 
 one main reason for emigration is always found in the compara- 
 tive difficulty of earning a livelihood in the place of the emigrant's 
 nativity, and the expectation of doing better in a strange land ; a 
 conclusion sustained by the fact that a prosperoT:is year in Europe 
 serves to check the arrivals here, and vice versa. "With the diffi- 
 cult problem of labor and remuneration in the Old World it 
 would be out of place to interfere ; but it may be remarked that, 
 badly as many branches of female employment are paid for with 
 us, they are still worse paid for in England. Eeference to a pre- 
 vious chapter, treating of the causes of prostitution in that coun- 
 try, will at once establish this point, and the instances therein 
 quoted of the wages paid in London will remove all surprise that 
 this country should be a receptacle for underpaid operatives, or 
 that the hope of realizing better wages should be sufficiently pow- 
 erful to sever all ties of birth-place and home. But many of these 
 impoverished women were actually dependent upon friends for the 
 .payment of their passage-money, and consequently arrived here 
 almost literally penniless, with very sHght prospects of obtaining 
 work, and frequently with but one alternative, and the only one 
 thev had before coming here, which they must embrace or starve, 
 
 ^ Qq 
 
466 
 
 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Another class assign as a reason for expatriation the ill usage 
 of parents, in itself a proMc cause of prostitution unofer any cir- 
 cumstances, but more especially when its effects have been to drive 
 the girl a distance of four thousand miles from home. 
 
 From an examination of these causes alone, it is apparent that, 
 however weU qualified, physically arid morally, to add their quota 
 to the prosperity of the United States, had their exertions been 
 properly directed, yet the circumstances under which these women 
 emigrated were so embarrassing as to render them easy victims to 
 those whose special business seems to be to ensnare the friendless 
 and unfortunate. 
 
 This branch of inquiry may be continued by a reference to the 
 following table, giving a summary of answers to the 
 
 Question, Did you receive any assistance, and if so, to 
 what amount, to enable you to emigrate to the united 
 States ? 
 
 Amount of Assistance. 
 
 Beoeived as- 
 sistance 
 
 A mount of Assistance. 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Paid their own expenses . 
 
 262 
 
 Eec'd assistance, amount \ 
 
 618 
 
 not 
 
 specmed . . 
 
 -f 
 
 Rec'd assistance, $20 each, 
 
 89 
 
 a 
 
 « 25 
 
 cc 
 
 94 
 
 a 
 
 « 30 
 
 ii 
 
 43 
 
 u 
 
 « 35 
 
 u 
 
 15 
 
 a 
 
 « 40 
 
 K 
 
 24 
 
 U 
 
 « 45 
 
 U 
 
 6 
 
 u 
 
 « 50 
 
 U 
 
 28 
 
 u 
 
 « 55 
 
 cc 
 
 3 
 
 u 
 
 « 60 
 
 le 
 
 12 
 
 a 
 
 65 
 
 ce 
 
 2 
 
 u 
 
 « \(S 
 
 (I 
 
 2 
 
 a 
 
 " 15 
 
 a 
 
 2 
 
 u 
 
 « 100 
 
 a 
 
 ,12 
 
 ®" I $110 each, 
 
 120 
 140 
 150 
 175 
 180 
 200 
 220 
 250 
 300 
 400 
 600 
 
 Numbers. 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 1 
 
 2 
 5 
 1 
 
 4 
 1 
 
 _1 
 
 Totals ... 916 262 
 — 916 
 Total of foreign-bolm prostitutes 1238 
 It appears that only two hundred and sixty-two, or about one 
 fifth of the total number, paid their own passage-money, the re- 
 mainder having received pecuniary assistance toward that object 
 ranging from an unspecified amount, which, in all probability, was 
 not more than the positive expenses of the voyage, to six hundred 
 dollars. It will be observed that the majority did not receive 
 more than forty dollars each, eight hundred and eighty-three of 
 those assisted stating that such help did not exceed that sum. 
 This certainly was but a very inadequate amount to pay the ex- 
 penses of an outfit and a voyage across the Atlantic, and then to 
 jsupport a person in a strange land until employment could be se- 
 
NEW YORK. 457 
 
 cured ; particularly if she was but one of a family each member 
 of which, had the same imperative necessity for work as herself. 
 These remarks may be thought inconsistent with the statements 
 published in 1856 of the amount of money brought to this coun- 
 try by immigrants ; but it may be suggested that, although these 
 reports gave a correct statement of the sum in the possession of 
 all the passengers by a certain vessel, they are altogether silent as 
 to the numbers who were destitute. They merely proved what 
 has been universally conceded within the last three or four years; 
 namely, that among the immigrants arriving are many with con- 
 siderable cash means. But it does not require much reflection to 
 convince any one that when a family bring available fands with 
 them, they will leave New York as quickly as possible in search 
 of some locality where their money may be advantageously em- 
 ployed. This is stiU more likely, as the fact of their being pos- 
 sessed of capital proves them to have practiced habits of industry 
 and economy at home, which would scarcely abandon them when 
 they reached the New World. The aggregated facts as to prop- 
 erty do not touch isolated cases of poverty, the most dangerous to 
 this community, because individuals who are forced to remain in 
 the city from want of means to leave it' not only swell its long list 
 of paupers, but are in circumstances which may materially influ- 
 ence them to become prostitutes, and have the spur of necessity to 
 urge them forward in this or any other course which may offer a 
 respite from starvation. 
 
 The following table corroborates this theory; it consists of re- 
 plies to the other part of the same 
 
 Question. Did you beceivk any assistakce, and if so, from 
 
 WHOM, TO ENABLE YOU TO EMIGEATE TO THE UNITED STATES? 
 By whom assisted. '"""''ofin 
 
 Paid their own expenses onfi 
 
 By relatives or friends . - • •„.••.•,■ W a " ? aa 
 
 By money remitted by relatives or friends m the U. b. . lOU 
 
 Stole money from their friends 34 
 
 By seducers „ 
 
 By public authorities . . • • r 
 
 Totals 9^6 262 
 
 — 976 
 
 Total of foreign-bom prostitutes .... 1238 
 
 As a general rule, the parties by whom assistance was rendered 
 were not likely to advance any amount beyond what was absor 
 lutely required. Even this amount would perhaps be reduced 
 
468 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 before the termination of the voyage, if it should prore a pro- 
 tracted one,' and the provisions of the passengers be SKhausted, as 
 there are on board every ship persons who are willing to sell arti- 
 cles of food at prices ranging from three to six times their value, 
 and who are equally ready to supply demands for brandy or to- 
 bacco also. On a review of the responses given to the three ques- 
 tions which have been under consideration in this section, it ap- 
 pears that the opinions expressed are legitimate deductions from 
 the premises. They may be thus recapitulated : The majority of 
 those immigrants who subsequently become prostitutes in New 
 York were almost destitute in their own country; they arrive here 
 with little or no means of support ; their poverty renders them pe- 
 culiarly liable to yield to" temptation, if, indeed, many of them have 
 not previously fallen. Thus, if we do not receive them as prosti- 
 tutes when they reach our shores, we receive them in a condition 
 inunediately to become such for the sake of subsistence. 
 ■ Question. Can you bead and weite? 
 
 Degree of Education. Numbers. 
 
 Can read and write, well . 714 
 
 Can read and write imperfectly 546 
 
 Can read only . . 219 
 
 Uneducated .' 521 
 
 Total 2000 
 
 Seven hundred, and fourteen of the women who were examined 
 in New York City say that they can read and write, well. This 
 must not be regarded as proof that they have received a superior, 
 or even a medium education, but is a phrase which may be inter- 
 preted to mean that they can read a page of printed matter with- 
 out much trouble, and can sign their names, although truth com- 
 pels the admission that their writing is. very often a species of pen- 
 manship extremely dif&cult to decipher. Beyond such acquire- 
 ments as thesie, very few, scarcely one in each five hundred, have 
 progress,ed. Five hundred and /orty-six can read and write im- 
 perfectly, a grade of education which may be defined as midway 
 between the amount of knowledge already described and a state 
 of total ignorance ; enough; in fact, to relieve them from the sus- 
 picion of being altogether illiterate, which is the sole advantage 
 they can claim over the two hundred and nineteen who can read 
 only, or the five hundred and twenty-one who confess that they 
 can' neither read nor write. As a whole, there is little doubt that 
 the prostitutes in New York believe, " where ignorance is bliss. 
 
NEW YORK. 4Q9 
 
 'tis folly to be wise." These remarks are made from observations 
 upon this class during a long hospital experience. 
 
 But, seriously, such a state of ignorance is most deplorable. 
 To give an idea of the facilities for acquiring education in the va- 
 rious countries from which these prostitutes reach us, the follow- 
 ing statement from the United States Census for 1850^ is submited: 
 
 The ratio of persons receiving education is as follows : 
 United States, 1 to every 5 of total population. 
 
 Denmark, 1 " 
 
 « 5 « « 
 
 cc 
 
 Sweden, 1 " 
 
 u g K le 
 
 cc 
 
 Prussia, 1 " 
 
 cc g ce se 
 
 cc 
 
 Norway, 1 " 
 Great Britain, 1 « 
 
 u ij « <c 
 cc g u cc 
 
 cc 
 cc 
 
 Ranee, 1 " 
 
 « 10 " " 
 
 cc 
 
 Austria, 1 " 
 
 « 13 " " 
 
 cc 
 
 Holland, 1 " 
 
 cc J4. cc cc 
 
 cc 
 
 Ireland, 1 « 
 
 cc ]^^ cc ' cc 
 
 cc 
 
 The following is a fair average estimate of the acquirements of 
 
 native and foreign-born prostitutes : 
 
 
 Degree of Education. Natives. 
 
 Can read and write well ... 25 per cent. 
 
 " « « « imperfectly . 50 " « 
 Uneducated 25 « « 
 
 "Foreigners. 
 
 10 per cent. 
 50 " " 
 40 " « 
 
 
 100 
 
 100 
 
 The average of educational facilities in the United States is as 
 one to five; in European countries it is one to ten. In other 
 words, every one in this country has twice the opportunities for 
 education compared with those bom in the Old World: oppor- 
 tunities which, in the cases of these women at least, have not been 
 improved to their full extent. Of those who claim to be well 
 educated, the United States show more than the average. In the 
 class imperfectly educated, foreigners show one half of their num- 
 ber, and the superior advantages in this country only produce ex- 
 actly the same proportion. The proportion of those uneducated 
 is not much more favorable in natives than in foreigners. Some 
 aUowances must be made, however, in this, calculation, for the fact 
 that many children of, foreign birth arrive here at an early age, 
 and gain such education as they possess in American institutions; 
 but even this will but sUghtly affect the disproportion aUuded to. 
 But no possible modification of the facts can be conceived suffi- 
 cient to excuse the negligence of the parents or friends of one 
 fourth of the native-born prostitutes in this city at the present 
 ■ Compendium of U. S. Ceusus, 1850, p. 148. 
 
470 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 day, wlien education may be obtained literally "withoiit money 
 and without price." • 
 
 , ,'Sectarian bigotry must be Held responsible for mucli of tbis of- 
 fense. "K our obildren can. not be educated as we please, tbey 
 sball not be educated at all. If they must not read the books 
 we wish, they shall never learn the alphabet," is, in effect, if not in 
 words, the language of thousands in this country to-day. What 
 are the results of this cruel policy? The children go forth into 
 the world : the boys, to earn a precarious living by -the sweat of 
 their brow ; the girls, condemned to the most servile work in any 
 family where their stupidity may find , a shelter, until they meet 
 with some man of their own mental calibre, whom they marry, 
 and forthwith bring up their unfortunate children in the same 
 manner in which they themselves were reared. This is the bright- 
 est view of the future of ignorant children ; the darker shades are 
 depicted in the annals of vice and crime — ^may be seen daily in 
 our prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and pauper burying-grounds. 
 
 The picture is not overd.rawn ; nor will the reply so common in 
 this generation, " These are the children of foreigners," serve to 
 exonerate the parent^'; for even if all the uneducated native wom- 
 en who have answered these question's were born of foreign par- 
 entage, a fact which must be proved before it is admitted, but 
 which we are not inclined to concede, yet they were born on our 
 soil, where public schools were open to receive them, and their in- 
 telligence would enhance the credit of the land in the same pro- 
 portion that theiT ignorance diminishes it. A love of their adopt- 
 ed country, its institutions and its fame, is not too much to ask of 
 parents who derive their maintenance from its resources. It is a 
 libel upb« the parental instinct (it can not be called feeling) to al- 
 low any cniid in the United States to arrive at years of maturity 
 without acquixmg a good plain, solid education. Fathers or 
 mothers who pur^ such a course as this would consider them- 
 selves unjustly accTlSfed if told they were training their daughters 
 to become prostitutes, but such is the fact. It is scarcely possible 
 to imagine any thing so likely to lead a woman from the paths 
 of rectitude as ignorance, coupled with the conviction that such 
 ignorance is an insurmountable barrier to her progress in life ; it 
 drives her to intoiication to drown her reflections, and from in- 
 toxication to prostitution the transition is easy and almost certain. 
 
 Here, then, are a number of young women thrown into society 
 every year without the least education ; untrained for good, and 
 
NEW YORK. 471 
 
 only fit for evil. Ignorant of their duties to themselves or to the 
 world; with sensibilities callous because they have never been 
 cultivated ; with faculties on a level with the inferior animals 
 from the same cause, they are expected to succeed in life ! It 
 would be as consistent to take a man who had never seen a steam- 
 engine, and give him the control of a locomotive and a train of 
 cars without anticipating an accident, as it is to presume in this 
 day of knowledge that an uneducated man or woman can ever 
 become a respectable and useful member of society. 
 
 Could our liberal facilities for education be duly improved, 
 much would be done to prevent the vice of prostitution. No 
 classical or extraordinary tuition is required to accomplish this 
 end ; merely common sense rightly cultivated, and conscience en- 
 lightened and developed, so as to appreciate the difference be- 
 tween right and wrong, will do much to aid a woman to pass un- 
 scathed through trials which constantly ruin the ignorant. 
 
 The question has sometimes arisen whether it should not be 
 made compulsory on parents to educate their children. The pres- 
 ent is not the place to discuss that subject, but the following sta- 
 tistics will show to what extent the duty is neglected. 
 
 The United States Census for 1850 reports : 
 
 ■Population of New York City 515,541 
 
 Proportion of population between the ages of five and 
 
 fifteen years 101,006 
 
 Children attending school 76,685 
 
 Percentage of children attending school .... 75^ 
 
 The New York State Census for 1855 reports : 
 
 Population of New York City 629,904 
 
 Proportion of population between the ages of five and fif- 
 teen years 116,627 
 
 No returns are made of the numbers attending schools, and 
 these must be sought from other sources. The report of the Board 
 of Education for 1856 states the average daily attendance at the 
 ward or public schools to be 44,598. The same document gives 
 data from which the attendance at religious, corporate, or other 
 public schools can be calculated, but says nothing of private 
 schools. An approximate estimate of the latter can, however, be 
 made with the help of the United States Census. In 1850, the 
 proportions were about one private to every twelve public schol- 
 ars, and since that period there has probably been but little 
 change in the ratio. 
 
472 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 From these facts the subjoined may be assumed a reasonably 
 correct statement : • 
 
 Average attendance at public schools 44,598 
 
 Allowance of twenty per cent, for absentees, whose names 
 
 are on the school registers, but who attend irregularly . 8,920 
 
 Corporate schools receiving state assistance . . . . '1,511 
 
 ' " ■ « without « " . (estimated) 10,000 
 
 Private schools " 6,00 
 
 Total children attending school . . . . . ."71,035 
 
 This would give a school attendance of sixty-six per cent, of the 
 population between the ages of five and fifteen years, or ten per 
 cent, less than in 1850. ... 
 
 That the proportionate numbers receiving education are dimin- 
 ishiag is susceptible of proof from one fact. In 1856, the pupils 
 in the,public schools were 347 more than in 1855. During the 
 last fifteen years the population of the city has increased more 
 than twenty thousand per annum, and of, this increase about one 
 fifth (or four thousand) are between the ages of five and fifteen. 
 It follows that ia 1856 there were four thousand additional chil- 
 dren in New York as compared with 1855, but there were only 
 847 additional attendants at the public schools. Admitting that 
 other schools received the same increase of pupils: — an admission 
 more liberal than facts would warrant — the education of seven 
 hundred only would be provided for, leaving three thousand three 
 hundred destitute of instruction. . 
 
 In the course of the year 1856, the attention of the Board of 
 Education was directed to the large number of children not at- 
 tending any school, and upon the basis of a partial census of the 
 city they were assumed. to. amount to sixty thousand. This was 
 conceded to be an over-estimate. The figures given above would 
 make the number 39,594, which may very likely be nearer the 
 truth ; but even this may be in excess, and, to allow for all possi- 
 ble contingencies, we will place it at thirty thousand. Even this 
 is an alarming statement : the suggestion that of all the children 
 in our city nearly twenty-seven per cent, are growing up in a 
 state of perfect ignorance, presents so many frightful considera- 
 tions that the mind revolts at the bare possibility. But the facts 
 will not permit any other construction. If this criminal neglect 
 be continued, it must produce. fatal consequences to society, and 
 the view of impending results would almost sanction a compul- 
 sory education.* 
 
 ' Compendium of United States Census, 1850, p. 142, etc. ; Census of the State 
 
NEW YORK. 473 
 
 Question. Are you single, married, or widowed? 
 
 Condition. KlimberB. 
 
 Single 1216 
 
 Married 490 
 
 Widowed _294 
 
 Total 2000 
 
 The civil condition of the prostitutes in New York City fiir- 
 nishes matter of serious consideration in view of the slight re- 
 straints which the ordinarily received rules of society place upon 
 the passions, and the utter inefficiency of such regulations to 
 counteract the influences tending to female degradation; influ- 
 ences, in fact, which they very frequently augment rather than 
 check. In the cases of many females now under notice, marriage 
 was invested not only with the sanctions of a civil contract be- 
 tween the parties, as recognized by our state laws, but, according 
 to the tenets of the Eoman Catholic Church, was regarded as one 
 of the seven holy sacraments which it is deemed an act of sacri- 
 lege to violate. Yet, in the face of these ordinances, the civil con- 
 tract is broken, the sacrament is profaned in one fourth of the 
 total number of cases, or four hundred and ninety out of two 
 thousand which are now under notice. It would be out of place 
 to enter here on any disquisition respecting the duties of the mar- 
 ried state ; regarded in its abuses as provocative of prostitution it 
 is noticed hereafter. Enjoined by the precepts of Holy Writ, 
 supported by the sentiment of the world, and respected by all 
 virtuous men, marriage is an institution which needs no argument 
 to enforce its claims to the most rigid observance. 
 
 That this sacred compact is too frequently violated by one or 
 other of the contracting parties is proved by almost daily experi- 
 ence either in courts of law or by intercourse with the world. 
 Conflicting testimony sometimes renders it doubtful to whom the 
 blame ought to be imputed, but there can be no uncertainty what- 
 ever as to the opinions entertained by society at large in such cases. 
 If the husband has been guilty of a breach of his conjugal duties, 
 he reads the whole of the evidence, graphically reported, with oc- 
 casional embellishments, in the columns of the daily papers, flat- 
 ters himself that he is acquiring notoriety, is congratulated by 
 friends of his own predilections on his success, and in a short 
 time is fully reinstated in his former social position. On the con- 
 
 of New York, 1855, p. 16 ; Report of the Board of Education of New York City, 
 1857, p. 13, 18, 22, etc. 
 
474 HISTOKY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 trary, if the weiglit of evidence is against tHe wife, the whole 
 artillery* of the world's scorn is leveled at her Iftad. She is 
 driven from society, crushed ty the proudly virtuous firowns of 
 her own sex and the contemptuous sneers of the other. Dishon- 
 ored and despised, she is too often left with no means of existence 
 but indiscriminate prostitution, the temptation to such degrada- 
 tion being aggravated by the consciousness of her previous infi- 
 delity and its results. There is no possibility of salvation for her. 
 The moral world has resolved she shall not repent, and the least 
 attempt on h©r part to atone for an error over which she mourns 
 with all the intensity of her nature is sternly resisted by the vir- 
 tuous indignation of society, which erects an impassable barrier 
 between herself and her hopes of reformation. 
 
 Of the prostitutes in New York, one thousand two hundred 
 and sixteen have never been married. Their sin is the less be- 
 cause they have not to answer for broken vows, nor have they 
 any outraged confidence on which to brood, but to endure only 
 the sin and odium attached to their present condition. Two 
 hundred and ninety -five prostitutes are widowed. In their cases 
 death has put an end to the marital contract, and, thus left free 
 to act for themselves, they stand in nearly the same condition as 
 single women. 
 
 An investigation of the nativities of these women shows that 
 about one third each of the single and married prostitutes are na- 
 tives of the Uiiited States, and of widows about one half were 
 born in this country. 
 
 The question may arise as to the causes to be assigned for the 
 depravity of married women, and for the large proportion of wid- 
 ows in the ranks of the abandoned. It would certainly appear 
 that one of the principal, if not the principal cause which can be 
 specified is the very early age at which such marriages are con- 
 tracted. Young people yield to the- impulse of a moment, ac- 
 knowledge the charms of a person they meet in a ball-room or 
 public assembly, and are married with a very imperfect knowl- 
 ledge of each other's character, with but little reflection on the 
 probable result of the alliance, and with but a slight appreciation 
 of the obligations they are contracting. It was a wise regulation, 
 whether regarded physically or morally, which fixed the earliest 
 period of marriage in ancient Germany at twenty-five years, and 
 declared the union invalid if the parties had not reached that 
 time of life ; nor would the morality of New York suffer if a sim- 
 
NEW YOKE. 475 
 
 ilar restriction was the rule instead of the exception here. The 
 annexed cases, selected at random from the replies received, are 
 submitted in support of this opinion. 
 
 B. C, now nineteen years of age, is a married woman, who has 
 been separated from her husband five years, and must therefore 
 have been married when less than fourteen years old. C. "W"., 
 now twenty-one years of age, has been a widow for five years, 
 and was married at fifteen. A. S. was married at sixteen, and 
 B. E. at fifteen. C. C, now twenty-eight years old, has' been a 
 widow more than twelve years. 0. Gr., aged twenty-four, has 
 been a widow seven years. Both these women were under six- 
 teen when married.' The list "might be extended almost indefi- 
 nitely. 
 
 ' The following inquiry, as a continuation of the same branch of 
 the subject, is embodied in this section. 
 
 Question. If mareied, is your husband living with you, 
 
 OR "WHAT CAUSED THE SEPARATION ? 
 
 Causes. Numberg. 
 
 Living together '71 
 
 El-nsage of husbands 103 
 
 Desertion of " 60 
 
 " " " to live with other women ... 43 
 
 Intemperance 45 
 
 Husbands went to sea 39 
 
 " refused to support them 29 
 
 Infidelity 25 
 
 No cause assigned _^ 
 
 Totals ■. ... 419 11 
 
 — 419 
 
 Aggregate of married women 490 
 
 The most striking and painful fact in these answers is revealed 
 in the first line of the table, which contains an announcement so 
 disgraceful to htimanity that, but for the positive evidence ad- 
 duced by the figures, it would be scarcely credited, namely, that 
 of four hundred and ninety married women now living as prosti- 
 tutes, seventy-one (more than one seventh) are cohabiting with 
 their husbands. It can not be controverted that such cohabita- 
 tion necessarily implies a knowledge of the wife's degradation, and 
 a participation in the wages of her shame. Nor will any argu- 
 ment, however plausible, succeed in removing from the pubhc 
 mind the conviction that the man is far the more guilty party of 
 the two, and he can not escape the suspicion that he was the pri- 
 mary agent in leading his wife to prostitution, or, ia legal parlance, 
 
476 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 he was " an accessory before the fact." Whilp such a considera- 
 tion will not exonerate the woman from her offensel^it may be 
 justly pleaded in extenuation ; although it will not prove her 
 guiltless, it will sink him to the lowest depths of disgrace. 
 
 The conduct of husbands is alleged in a majority of the cases 
 as the cause of separation ; two hundred and thirty-five out of 
 four hundred and nineteen women give the following causes : 
 
 Husbands refused to support their wives 29 
 
 " deserted their wives 60 
 
 " " " " to live with other women 43 
 
 Ill-usage of husbands 103 
 
 Total 235 
 
 The cases wherein "intemperance," "infidelity," or "no cause 
 assigned" were repUed, are vague, and may be construed to attach 
 blame to either, or both. 
 
 Sufficient has been proved to show that in many cases prostitu- 
 tion among married women is the result of circumstances which 
 must have exercised a very powerful influence over them. The 
 refusal of a husband to support his wife, his desertion of her, or an 
 act of adultery with another woman, are each occurrences which 
 must operate injuriously upon the mind of any, female, and, by 
 the keen torture such outrages inflict on the sensitiveness of her 
 nature, must drive her into a course of dissipation. Many wom- 
 en thus circumstanced have actually confessed that they made 
 the first false step while smarting from injuries inflicted by their 
 natural protectors, with the idea of being revenged upon their 
 brutal or faithless companions for their unkindness. Morality 
 will argue, and very truly, that this is no excuse for crime ; but 
 much allowance must be made for the extreme nature of the 
 provocation, and the fact that most of these women are .unedu- 
 cated, ;and have not sufficient mental or.moral illumination to rea- 
 son correctly upon the nature and consequences of their; volun- 
 tary debauchery, or even to curb the violence of their passions. 
 
 " Ill-usage of husbands," a crime particularly rife in England, 
 and apparently fast becoming naturalized here, also stands as a 
 prominent cause of vice, and is one which can not be too pointed- 
 ly condemned. Itstrikes at the root of the social.fabric, and must 
 invariably be denounced both on account of its enormity as an of- 
 fense, and of its almost inevitable consequences to the woman, a 
 sense of degradation, too often followed by the sacrifice of recti- 
 tude as the only means to escape such brutal tyranny. Without 
 
NEW YORK. ^>jrr 
 
 advocating capital punishment, it may be allowable to suggest tte 
 query wlietlier our city would not be benefited if all such unman- 
 ly offenders against propriety were to be tried by a jury of mar- 
 ried women, and banged without benefit of clergy. 
 
 The following table will conclude this section : 
 
 Question. If widowed, how long has your husband bken 
 
 DEAD? 
 
 Length of Time. 
 
 Under 6 weeks 
 3 months 
 
 6 « 
 
 7 « 
 
 8 « 
 
 1 year 
 
 2 years 
 
 3 « 
 
 4 « . 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 30 
 38 
 33 
 
 Length of Time. 
 
 Under 5 years . . 
 « 6 " 
 
 Numbers 
 
 . 24 
 . 21 
 
 « t « . . 
 
 . 17 
 
 " 8 « 
 
 . 18 
 
 " 9 " 
 
 . 16 
 
 " 10 « 
 
 . 13 
 
 10 years and upward 
 Time not specified . 
 
 . 32 
 . 11 
 
 Total . . . 
 
 . 294 
 
 It will be perceived that nineteen prostitutes have been widows 
 less than one year, twenty- two for one year, thirty for two years, 
 and so throughout the scale. The table presents but little neces- 
 sity for observation, the principal conclusion to be drawn from it 
 being that the majority of this class are driven to a course of vice 
 from the destitution ensuing on the husband's death. It has been 
 shown that a large number of them are very young, and it can be 
 scarcely necessary to repeat that any young woman in a state of 
 poverty will be surrounded with temptations she can with diffi- 
 culty resist. Much as this state of society may be deplored, its 
 existence" can not be denied. 
 
 Question. HAVE YOU HAD ANY CHILDREN? 
 
 Condition of 
 
 Women, 
 
 .' Beplies. 
 
 ^ Yes. No. 
 
 Single 357 859 
 
 Married ; .... 857 133 
 
 Widowed 233^ 61 
 
 Totals .... 947 1053- 
 
 Total of 
 Women. 
 
 1216 
 , 490 
 , 2U 
 . 2000 
 
 The women who reply to this question in the affirmative are 
 
 Single women 357, or 80 per cent. 
 
 Ma^ed « 357," 73 ' "« 
 
 Widows « 233," 79 « 
 
 In continuation of this subject is the 
 
 Question, If you have 'had children, how many? 
 
478 
 
 "HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Number of „ j.i. /, ,„ Number of 
 
 Women. CoDdition of Women. ChUdren Born. 
 
 351 Single women . . . .' .♦• 490 
 
 351 .... . Married women 791 
 
 2S3 . . . . . Widows ........ 636 
 
 947 .... Women were mothers of ... . 1917 
 
 The replies give tlie total liumber of cliildreii bome by each 
 class : thus the single women have given birth to four hundred- and 
 ninety-one children, the married women to seven hundred and 
 ninety-one children, and the widows to six hundred and thirty- 
 six children. The following tables exhibit the same facts in a 
 more extended form, showing the ntimber. of children which each 
 woman has bome, aild specifying the sex. 
 
 Question. If you have had childeek, how many? 
 
 
 
 REPLIES OP 
 
 SINGLE WOMEN. 
 
 
 
 Number of 
 Women. 
 
 
 Borne by eacb. 
 
 Totals. 1 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 10 
 
 2 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 3 
 
 a 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 12 
 
 2 
 
 cc 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 Mother. 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 tt 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 li 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 <( 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 (t 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 10 
 
 5 
 
 
 15 
 
 6 
 
 (< 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 12 
 
 
 18 
 
 3 
 
 (t 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 (( 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 33 
 
 (( 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 33 
 
 33 
 
 
 66 
 
 4 
 
 (t 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 8 
 
 17 
 
 it 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 
 
 34 
 
 150 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 
 
 150 
 
 99 
 
 (C 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 99 
 
 
 99 
 
 27 
 
 " 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 27 
 
 27 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 357 
 
 
 
 
 
 272 
 
 187 
 
 31 
 
 490 
 
 
 REPLIES OF 
 
 MARRIED WOMEN. 
 
 
 
 Number of 
 Women. 
 
 
 Bome by eacb. 
 
 Totals. 1 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 
 15 
 
 2 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 7 
 
 7 
 
 
 14 
 
 14 
 
 
 28 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 6 
 
 
 13 
 
 1 
 
 <{ 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 ce 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 
 12 
 
 1 
 
 " 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 4 
 
 6 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 (t 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 9 
 
 2 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 8 
 
 8 
 
 
 16 
 
 2 
 
 (t 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 
 14 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 1 
 
 (( 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 24 
 
 12 
 
 
 36 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 479 
 
 Nnmlier of 
 Women. 
 
 
 Borne by each. 
 
 Totals. I 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 3 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 6 
 
 9 
 
 
 15 
 
 7 
 
 (t 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 21 
 
 14 
 
 
 35 
 
 5 
 
 t( 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 20 
 
 5 
 
 
 25 
 
 3 
 
 ti 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 8 
 
 n 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 16 
 
 16 
 
 
 32 
 
 T 
 
 it 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 21 
 
 7 
 
 
 28 
 
 5 
 
 (( 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 15 
 
 11 
 
 (£ 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 
 
 33 
 
 11 
 
 (C 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 46 
 
 23 
 
 
 69 
 
 4 
 
 cc 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 
 8 
 
 28 
 
 li 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 
 56 
 
 28 
 
 u 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 
 
 66 
 
 74 
 
 11 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 74 
 
 
 74 
 
 115 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 115 
 
 
 
 115 
 
 4 
 
 li 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 857 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 459 
 
 325 
 
 7 
 
 791 
 
 
 
 RI 
 
 :PT,TTi:s 
 
 OF WIDOWS. 
 
 
 
 
 Number of 
 Women. 
 
 
 Borne by each. 
 
 Totals. 1 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Boys. 
 
 Girls. 
 
 Abortions. 
 
 Aggregate. 
 
 1 
 
 Mother.' 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 
 6 
 
 4 
 
 
 10 
 
 3 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 5 
 
 4 
 
 
 15 
 
 12 
 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 (( 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 
 12 
 
 6 
 
 
 18 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 
 18 
 
 24 
 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 12 
 
 12 
 
 
 24 
 
 I 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 cc 
 
 ' 2 
 
 4 
 
 
 2 
 
 4 ' 
 
 
 6 
 
 1 
 
 (( 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 
 6 
 
 i 9 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 
 27 
 
 18 
 
 
 45 
 
 "■■ 5 
 
 It 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 10 
 
 15 
 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 cc 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 
 8 
 
 2 
 
 
 10 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 1 
 
 4, 
 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 (t 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 6 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 It 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 18 
 
 18 
 
 
 36 
 
 4 
 
 It 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 12 
 
 
 16 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 
 
 1 
 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 Mothers. 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 
 12 
 
 10 
 
 it 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 14 
 
 It 
 
 2 
 
 1 
 
 
 28 
 
 14 
 
 
 42 
 
 11 
 
 tt 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 
 11 
 
 22 
 
 
 33 
 
 20 
 
 (( 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 47 
 
 It 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 47 
 
 47 
 
 
 94 
 
 30 
 
 It 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 30 
 
 
 30 
 
 40 
 
 (t 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 1 
 
 Mother. 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 233 
 
 
 
 
 
 369 
 
 265 
 
 2 
 
 636 
 
 . Commencing witli the ofEspring of single women, it will be 
 seen that one was the mother often children, eight boya and two 
 girls. Two women gave birth to six children each. Four gave 
 birth to five children each. Three gave birth to four children 
 
480 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 each. Sixteen gave birth to three children each. Fifty-four gave 
 birth to two children each. Two hundred and fof^y-nine gave 
 birth to one child each. Twenty-seven have suffered abortion 
 once, and one has suffered in the same manner four times. The 
 corresponding tables for married women and widows express sim- 
 ilar facts in the same form. It is not necessary to quote them, as 
 the figures give all the required information. The results may be 
 recapitulated thus : 
 
 Boys. Girls. Abortions. Totals. 
 
 357 single women bore .... 212 187 31 490 
 
 357 married « « 459 825 7 791 
 
 238 widows bore _369 265 _2 _636 
 
 947 1100 777 40 1917 
 
 Excess of male over female births, 223. 
 
 Katio of excess upon the total number bom, 11-nr per cent. 
 
 The next point claiming attention is the number of illegitimate 
 children resulting from prostitution, based upon answers to the 
 Question, "Week these children born in wedlock? 
 
 Legitimate children of married women 469 
 
 « « « widows 358 
 
 Total legitimate 827 
 
 Illegitimate children of single women 490 
 
 « « « married « 322 
 
 « « "widows 279 
 
 Total illegitimate 1090 
 
 Aggregate 1917 
 
 The whole of the children borne by single women are, of 
 course, illegitimate. Of the children of married women over 
 forty per cent., and of the children of widows forty-four per cent, 
 are illegitimate. Taking the total number of children of the 
 three classes, and calculating upon this broad basis, it will appear 
 that 1090 illegitimate children were born, giving an average of 
 fifty-seven per cent. ; or, to speak in plain terms, of every hund- 
 red children borne by women who are now prostitutes, forty-three 
 were bom before the mothers (married women or widows) had 
 embraced this course of life, and the remaining fifty-seven were 
 the fruit of promiscuous intercourse, liable physically to inherit 
 the diseases of the mother, morally to endure the disgrace attached 
 to their birth, and very probably to be reared in the midst of 
 blasphemy, obscenity, and vice, to follow in the footsteps of their 
 parents, and perpetuate the sin to which they owe their origin. 
 
 The excessive mortality among this class of children is devel- 
 oped in the following replies to the 
 
NEW YOEK, 
 
 481 
 
 Qiiesiion, Are these CHiLDSEisr living ob dead? 
 
 Lmng children of single women ...,-.•.. 133 
 
 " " " married " .334 
 
 " " "widows 265 
 
 Total living 732 
 
 Dead children of sin^e women 351 
 
 " . " " married " 457 
 
 " « « widows 371 
 
 Total dead 1185 
 
 Aggregate 1917 
 
 The ratio of mortality will be as follows : 
 
 ChUdren of single women 73 per cent. 
 
 " " married " 58 " " 
 
 " " widows 59 « « 
 
 Average on the total number .... 62 " " 
 
 or more than six deaths for every ten children born. The aver- 
 age infantile mortality of New York City for three years is, 
 
 Under 1 year of age 8499 
 
 From 1 " to 2 years 3259 
 
 « 2 « to5 « 2578 
 
 Total 14,336^ 
 
 The population between those ages in 1855 was 77,568.^ This 
 would give a mortality of 18^ per cent., of about If to every ten 
 children under five years of age. It is not exceeding the bounds 
 of probability to assume that the greater part of the children of 
 prostitutes die before they reach the age of five years, which wiU 
 give stpro rata mortality among that class of nearly /owr times the 
 average ratio of New York Oity.\ This calculation must be taken 
 in connection with the cases of abortion produced by extraneous, 
 means, not admitted in the replies to the interrogatories, and 
 which will probably never be known. It is impossible to doubt 
 that these are fa;r more frequent than recorded in the tables. 
 
 Under the heads of "Premature Births" and "Still-born" the 
 following numbers are reported.^ 
 
 Yeara. Premature Births. Still-born. Total. 
 
 1854 . . 435 . . 1615 . . 2050 
 
 1855 . . 374 . . 1564 . . 1938 
 
 1856 . . _387 . . 1556 . . j^ 
 
 1196 4735 5931 
 
 The births during the same period were : 
 
 ' New York City Inspector's Reports, 1854, 1855, 1856. 
 
 ' New York State Census, 1855, p. 38. ■ 
 
 ' New York City Inspector's Eeports, 1854, 1855, 1856. 
 
 Hh 
 
482 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 1854 17,979 
 
 1855 ^14,145 
 
 1856 16,199 
 
 Total 48,323 
 
 This would show a proportion of 12^ per cent., or one to every 
 eight of all the childrfen born in New York City. It is not to be 
 taken for granted that all these are the result of improper conduct, 
 although unquestionably many are so. Applying the same ratio 
 to the children of prostitutes, and calculating the 1917 births in 
 these tables as extending over a period of five years, would give 
 forty-eight cases each year; but multiplying the average by four 
 (the proportion of deaths from natural causes), we shall find the 
 appalling number of one hundred and ninety-two cases each year 
 — an array of infantile mortality presenting features which place 
 it almost on a level with the infanticide of some Eastern nations. 
 Were it possible to form any definite idea of the abortions actu- 
 ally procured, and which are suspected, on reasonable grounds, to 
 amount to a very considerable number, the amount would be 
 startling. The sacrifice of infant life, attribute it to what cause 
 you may, is one of the. most deplorable results of prostitution, and 
 urgently demands active interference. 
 
 The attention of the American Medical Association has been 
 drawn to this subject, and from a "Eeport on Infant Mortality 
 in large Cities, by D. Meredith Eeese, M.D., LIj.D., etc.," published 
 in their Transactions, we extract : " The causes of mortality among 
 • children of tender age are, in a multitude of cases, to be found 
 only by extending our inquiries to their intra-uterine life, and the 
 physiological state of the parents, but especially the sanitary^ con- 
 dition of the mothers, their hy^enic and moral habits and cir- 
 cumstances.' * * * Celibacy should be required of all syphi- 
 litic persons of either sex."" It will at once occur to the mind of 
 the reader that enforced celibacy would not affect the maternity 
 of prostitutes. They are liable to give birth to children, and, as 
 their physiological condition is such as to preclude the possibility 
 of their children being healthy, the only way to check infant 
 mortality in this class is to deal with the toothers, and adopt 
 means; if not toprevent their infection, at least to limit the rav- 
 ages of disease as much as possible. This point is discussed more 
 fully in the chapter on Eemedial Measures. To men tainted with 
 
 • Report on Infant Mortality in large Cities,'by D. Meredith Eeese, M.D.,LL.D., 
 p. 8. ' lb. p. 13. 
 
NEW YORK. 433 
 
 sypMlis the same course of reasoning would apply. If debarred 
 from marriage, the sexual appetite would drive them to commerce 
 with prostitutes, and their illegitimate children swell the total of 
 mortality. The health of parents must be protected before we 
 can hope for healthy children. 
 
 Dr. Reese's very able pamphlet contains some remarks upon 
 abortionism, and its extent, thus : "The ghastly crime of abortion- 
 ism has become a murderous trade in many of our large cities, 
 tolerated, connived at, and even protected by corrupt civil author- 
 ities. These murderers — for such they are — are well known to 
 the police authorities: their names, residence, and even their 
 guilty customers are no secret. "Would that it were only the 
 profligate, or even the unfortunate of their sex, whose guilty fear 
 or shame thus seeks to hide the evidence of illicit amours."^ That 
 prostitution largely contributes to this crime can not be doubted, 
 but to what extent must remain unknown, from the secrecy which 
 surrounds it. The'revolting cases which appear at intervals in 
 the daily papers are but a mere fraction of the total 
 
 Question. Aee these children living with you, or 
 
 WHERE ARE THEY? 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Children living with the mothers T3 
 
 " boarding at the expense of mothers . . 247 
 
 " " with mothers' relatives ... 140 
 
 " supporting themselves 129 
 
 " living with the fathers 59 
 
 " in public or charitable institutions ... 36 
 
 " adopted by families 20 
 
 " unascertained _^ 
 
 Totals 659 ^ 
 
 n 
 
 Aggregate of children . . 732 
 This table shows the social influences to which the survivors 
 of this ill-fated band of children are exposed. There are seventy- 
 three stated to be living with their mothers, and, so far as they 
 are concerned, no reasonable person can entertain any hopes, as 
 to their ftiture morality. Bom in the abodes of vice, their dwell- 
 ing is in an atmosphere of squalid misery or sordid guilt; they 
 never have a glimpse of a better life ; they are marked from their 
 cradles for a career of degradation ; they can fall no lower, for 
 they stand already on the lowest level. Such as these are de- 
 » Report on Infant MortaKty inlarge Cities, byD. Meredith Reese, M.D.,LL.D., 
 p. 9. 
 
484 
 
 HISTORY. OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 nominated "dangerous classes" by the French, authorities, and 
 frjoia their ranks are obtained many of the inmates o%»risons and 
 brothels. The children stated to be with their fathers, fifty-nine 
 in number, it may be ^concluded were born before the mother's 
 fall from virtue, and are decidedly the most fortunate of any com- 
 ing under notice, while those living with the parents or relatives 
 of the mother, amounting to one hundred and forty, or boarding 
 at the mother's expense, of whom there are two hundred and 
 forty-seven, stand less chance of contamination than if actually 
 residing, within the domains of vice. Those living in public or 
 charitable; instiiutions exhibit one cause, of taxationupon the gen- 
 eral body of the citizens, and show that, indirectly, every man Jn 
 New York is compelled to contribute toward the maintenance 
 of vice or its offepring. A visit to the public institutions on 
 Blackwell's and Eandall's Islands . will prove that this is but one 
 item of the expenses which prostitution inflicts upon the commu- 
 nity. • 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXm. 
 
 NEW YORK. — STATISTICS. 
 
 Continuance of Prostitution. — Average in Paris and New York. — Dangers of Pros- 
 titution. — Disease. — Causes of Prostitution. — Inclination. — Destitution. — Seduc- 
 tion. — ^Intemperance. — Ill-treatment, — Duties of Parents, Husbands, and Rela- 
 tives. — Ipfluence of Prostitutes. — Intelligence Offices. — Boarding-schools. — Ob- 
 scene Literature. 
 
 Question. Foe what length of time have you been a pros- 
 titute? 
 
 Time. 
 
 1 month 
 
 2 months 
 
 3 « 
 
 4 « 
 
 5 « 
 
 6 « 
 1 « 
 
 8 « 
 
 9 « 
 10 « 
 
 1 year • 
 
 2 years 
 
 3 « . 
 
 4 « . 
 
 5 « . 
 
 
 Numliera. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Time. 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 . . . 11 
 
 6 years . 
 
 . 81 
 
 20 years ... 4 
 
 
 . 49 
 
 1 « . . 
 
 
 56 
 
 21 « . 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 . 16 
 
 8 « . . 
 
 
 69 
 
 22 « 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 . 62 
 
 9 « . 
 
 
 32 
 
 23 « 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 . 51 
 
 10 « . 
 
 
 26 
 
 24 « 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 
 . 126 
 
 11 « . 
 
 
 8 
 
 25 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 129 
 
 12 <• . 
 
 
 14 
 
 21 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 11 
 
 13 « . 
 
 
 6 
 
 29 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 21 
 
 14 « . 
 
 
 1 
 
 30 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 32 
 
 15 " . 
 
 
 9 
 
 32 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 325 
 
 16 « . 
 
 
 . 13 
 
 34 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . 55 
 
 11 « . 
 
 
 3 
 
 35 « 
 
 
 
 
 
 . . 245 
 
 18 « . 
 
 
 4 
 
 Unascertained 
 
 53 
 
 
 . . 203 
 
 19 « . 
 
 
 . 8 
 
 Total . 2000 
 
 
 . 125 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
NEW YORK. 485 
 
 It has already been stated tliat the average duration of the life 
 of a prostitute does not exceed four years from the commencement 
 of her career. This is one year beyond the estimated duration as 
 given by some Eiiglish writers, but very far below the average, as 
 ascertained in Paris, in which cityj at the time M. Parent-Duchat- 
 elet instituted his elaborate system of investigation, he found in 
 the gross number of 3517 prostitutes, two hundred and forty-two 
 who had led that life for upward of fourteen years, and six hund- 
 red and forty-one who had continued their course upward of ten 
 years. What a contrast to the table given above ! In Paris, 6§ 
 per cent, had survived the horrors of courtesan life for fourteen 
 years ; in New York, only 2f per cent, have reached the sa,me pe- 
 riod. In Paris, 17f per cent, existed ; in New York, 3| per cent, 
 exist after ten years of exposure ; or, in other words, where seven 
 exist in Paris, only three have survived in New York, or where 
 seventeen exist in Paris, only four survive in New York. It can 
 not be asserted that Paris is a more healthy city than New York, 
 and this difference must arise from the fact that, while judicious 
 arrangements are enforced in the former, ^ a similar policy has not 
 been recognized in the latter. If this relative mortality were the 
 only fact known on this matter, ihe economy of human hfe would 
 be an irresistible argument in favor of measures of stipervision ju- 
 diciously conceived and promptly executed. 
 
 In the city of New York, six hundred and thirty-four women, 
 more than thirty-one per cent, have been on the town less than 
 one year, and three hundred and twenty-five, or more than seven- 
 teen per cent., for a space of time ranging fixjm one to two years. 
 Here, then, is one half of the total number, the experience of the 
 remainder extending through, various periods up to thirty-five 
 years. With reference to those who assign such an extent of 
 duration, it may be remarked, as was done in considering the 
 question of age, that they are, with scarcely a solitary Exception, 
 those who, having been prostitutes in their younger days, are 
 now engaged in brothel-keeping, and are thus exempted firom 
 many dangers attending the ordinary life of a harlot. If the same 
 rule had been observed here in their cases as was done in the in- 
 quiries at Paris, namely, to exclude them from the list of prosti- 
 tiites, the relative mortality given above would have shown stiU 
 more unfavorably for New York. 
 
 It may be asked. What pScuHar dangers attend the life of a 
 prostitute in this city? There is a frightful physical malady to 
 
486 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 whicli all are liable, and whicli will be alluded to under its proper 
 head. There are other dangers to which prostitutes, it a greater 
 or less degree, are exposed. It is not necessary to remind the 
 reader that at intervals the public is shocked by accounts in our 
 -daily papers of cowardly and outrageous assaults upon these un- 
 fortunate women, perpetrated by ruffians of the other sex. Solne- 
 times it is an onslaught made by a party of men, for little or no 
 -provocation, on a number of females; or it may be aji attack of a 
 paramour on his victim. To this latter description of ill-treat- 
 ment common women are peculiarly liable ; for, beyond their.habits 
 of promiscuous intercourse, almost every one of them, particularly 
 those in the middle or lower classes, has attached herself to some 
 indolent fellow who acts as her protector ("bully" or "lover" is 
 the common designation) when she becomes involved in any diffi- 
 culty with strangers, but who exercises an arbitrary and brutal 
 control over her at other times. In many cases, singular as it 
 may appear, an actual lote is felt by the woman for "her man." 
 In others it is a mere arrangement for mutual convenience, the 
 man taking her part in all quarrels, and the woman providing 
 fimds to maintain him in idleness. The- intemperate habits of the 
 prostitutes also tend materially to shorten their lives. 
 
 In addition to physical dangers must be considered the mental 
 anguish they undergo, which inevitably preys upon the consti- 
 tution. To this even the most depraved of them are at times sub- 
 ject. In the earlier stages of their career is an agonizing nlemory 
 of the past ; thoughts of home ; regrets for the position they have 
 lost. As they proceed in their course they suffer from an antici- 
 pation of the future ; the grave, a nameless, pauper grave, yawns 
 before them ; thoughts of the inevitable eternity intrude ; and a 
 past of shame, a present of anguish, a future of dread, are the sub- 
 jects of thought indulged by many who would never be suspect- 
 ed by the gay world of entertaining a serious reflection. It may 
 be said, in the words of Byron, 
 
 " But in an instant o'er her soul 
 Winters of memory seem to roU, 
 And gather in that drop of time 
 , A life of pain, an age of crime." 
 
 The period for their nocturnal revelry returns, and, though with 
 a breaking heart, they must deck themselves with tawdry finery, 
 and forcing a smile upon their faces, resume a loathsome trade to 
 earn their dailj food. With such torments, physical and mental, 
 
NEW YORK. ^g^ 
 
 can long life be expected as their lot? Can any human frame 
 withstand these incessant attacks for a lengthened period ? It 
 would not be at all surprising if the ratio of mortality among 
 prostitutes were greater than it is. 
 
 Question. Have you had any disease incident to pkostitu- 
 
 TION? If so, WHAT? 
 
 Disease. Attacks. Numbers. 
 
 tronorrhoea 1 Attack 153 
 
 " 2 Attacks 53 
 
 " 3 « 44 
 
 Gonorrhoea and syphilis 36 
 
 SyphUis 1 Attack 395 
 
 " 2 Attacks 81 
 
 " 3 « 38 
 
 " 4 « 12 
 
 « 5 « 4 
 
 " 6 « 4 
 
 " 8 « _1 
 
 Total attacked 821 
 
 The nature and effects of venereal disease have been already so 
 folly specified in notices of the various systems adopted for its 
 prevention, given in the preceding pages of this work, that it 
 would be a needless repetition to dwell upon them here. It is 
 , sufficient, for the present purpose, to call attention to the fact that 
 more than two fifths of the total number of prostitutes examined 
 during the investigation confess that they have suffered from 
 syphilis or gonorrhoea. The probability is that the real number 
 far exceeds this average; that, alarming, as is the confession,- the 
 actual facts are much worse. This opinion is based upon the re- 
 sults of professional experience, and a knowledge of the difficulty 
 which exists in obtaining any voluntary reliable statement on the 
 subject. 
 
 Even assuming that the answers obtained are correct, they in- 
 dicate ample cause for the perpetuation of the disease, and its in- 
 troduction into almost every branch of society. One half of the 
 total number who confess that they have suffered or are suffering 
 from this disease, state that they have been so afflicted once only. 
 In other forms of sickness which admit of a perfect cure this 
 would be no cause for alarm, but in this instance it is a mooted 
 point among medical writers whether the syphihtic taint can ever 
 be eradicated from the system where it, has been implanted, and 
 the arguments on each side are urged with great abUity. With- 
 out presuming to. pass an opinion on the question, or expressing 
 
488 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 any doubt of the correctness of those learned men who think it 
 possible to remove the taint from the body, it is polil^ to urge, in 
 this case, the views of their opponents that it can not 'be eradi- 
 cated. Upon this ground every citizen is competent to determine 
 for himself the amount of public mischief resulting daily from a 
 mass of prostitutes, two out of every five of whom are confessedly 
 diseased. ^ 
 
 Question. What WAS the cause of tour becoming a pros- 
 titute ? 
 
 Catises. Numbers. 
 
 Inclination 513 
 
 Destitution 525 
 
 Seduced and abandoned 258 
 
 Drink, and the desire to drink 181 
 
 Dl-treatment of parents, relatives, or husbands . . .164 
 
 As an ea^ life 124 
 
 Bad company 84 
 
 Persuaded by prostitutes 11 
 
 Too idle to work 29 
 
 Violated -27 
 
 Seduced on board emigrant ships 16 
 
 " in emigrant boarding houses § 
 
 Total .2000 
 
 This question is probably the most important of the series, as 
 the replies lay, open to a considerable extent those hidden springs 
 of evil which have hitherto been known only from their results. 
 Krst in order stands the reply " Inclination," which can only be 
 understood as meaning a voluntary resort to prostitution in order 
 to gratify the sexual paesions. Five, hundred and thirteen wom- 
 en, more than one fourth of the gross number, give this as their 
 reason. If their representations were borne out by facts, it would 
 make the task of grappling with the vice a most arduous one, and 
 afford very slight grounds to hope for any amelioration ; but it is 
 imagined that the circumstances which induced the ruin of most 
 of those who gave the answer will prove that, if a positive incli- 
 nation to vice was the proximate cause of the fall, it was but the 
 result of other and controlling influences. In itself such an an- 
 swer would imply an innate depravity, q, want of true woman- 
 ly feeling, which is actually incredible. jThe force of desire can 
 neither be denied nor disputed, but still in the bosoms of most fe- 
 males that force exists in a slumbering state until aroused by 
 some outside influences. No woman can understand its power 
 untn some positive cause of excitement exists. .What is sufficient 
 to awaken the dormant passion is a question that admits innu- 
 
NEW YOEK. 
 
 489 
 
 merable answers. Acquaintance witk the opposite sex, particu- 
 larly if extended so far: as to become a reciprocal affection, wiU 
 tend to this ; so -will the companionship of females who have 
 yielded to its power ; and so will the excitement of intoxication. 
 But it must be repeated, and most decidedly, that without these 
 or some other equally stimulating cause, the iuU force of sexual 
 desise is seldom known to a virtuous woman. In the male sex 
 nature' has provided a more susceptible organization than in fe- 
 males, apparently with the beneficent design of repressing those 
 evils which must result from mutual appetite equally felt by both. 
 In other words, man is the aggressive animal, so far as sexual de- 
 sire is involved. "Were it otherwise, and the passions in both sexes 
 equal, illegitimacy and prostitution would be far more rife in our 
 midst than at present. 
 
 Some few of the cases in which the reply " Inclination" was 
 given are herewith submitted, with the explanation which ac- 
 companied each return. C. M. : while virtuous, this girl had vis- 
 ited dance-houses, where she became acquainted with prostitutes, 
 who persuaded her that they led an easy, merry life ; her inclina- 
 tion was the result of female persuasion. E. C. left her husband, 
 and became a prostitute willingly, in order to obtain intoxicating 
 liquors which had been refused her at home. E. E. was deserted 
 by her husband because she drank to excess, and became a pros- 
 titute in order to obtain liquor. In this and the preceding case, 
 inclination was the result solely of intemperance. A. J. willing- 
 ly sacrificed her virtue to a man she loved. C. L. : her inclination 
 was swayed by the advice of women already on the town. J. J. 
 continued this course from inclination after having been seduced 
 by her lover. S. C. : this girl's inclination arose from a love of 
 liquor. Enough has been quoted to prove that, in many of the 
 cases, what is called willing prostitution is the sequel of sopie 
 communication or circumstances which undermine the principles 
 of virtue and arouse the latent passions. 
 
 Destitution is assigned as a reason in five hundred and twenty- 
 five cases. In many of these it is unquestionably true that posi- , 
 tive, actual want, the apparent and dreaded approach of starva-/ 
 tion, was the real cause of degradation. The following instances 
 of this imperative necessity will appeal to the undei'standing and 
 the heart more forcibly than any arguments that could be used. 
 As in all the selections already made, or Hiat may be made here- 
 after, these cases are taken indiscriminately from the replies re- 
 ceived, and might be indefinitely extended. / 
 
 / 
 
490 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 During the progress .of this investigation in one of the lower 
 wards of the city, attention was drawn to a pale buHinterestuig- 
 .looking girl, about seventeen years of age, from, whose replies the 
 . following narrative is condensed, retaining her own words as near- 
 ly as possible. 
 
 " I have been leading this life from about the middle of last 
 January (1856). It was absolute want that drove me to it. My 
 sister, who was about three years older than I am, lived with me. 
 She was deformed and a cripple from a faU she had while a child, 
 and could not do any hard work. She could do a little sewing, 
 and when we both were able to get work we could just make a 
 living. "When the heavy snow-storm came our work stopped, 
 and we were in want of food and coals. One very cold morning, 
 just after I had been to the store, the landlord's agent called for 
 some rent we owed, and told us that, if we could not pay it, we 
 should have to move. The agent was a kind man, and gave us a 
 • little money to buy some coals. We did not know what we were 
 to do, and were both crying about it, when the woman who keep's 
 this house (where she was then living) came in and brought some 
 .sewing for us to do that day. She said that she had been recom- 
 mended to us by a woman who lived in the same house, but I 
 found out since that she had watched me, and only said this for an 
 excuse. When the work was done I brought it home here. I 
 had heard of such places before, but had never been inside one. 
 I was very cold, and she made me sit down by the fire, and began 
 to talk to me, saying how much better off I should be if I would 
 come and live with her. I told her I could not leave my sister, 
 who was the only relation I had, and could not help herself; but 
 she said I should be able to help my sister, and that she would 
 find some light sewing for her to do, so that she should not want. 
 She talked a good deal more, and I felt inclined to do as she 
 wanted me, but then I thought how wicked it would be, and at 
 last I told her I would think about it. When I got home and 
 saw my sister so sick as she was, and wanting many little things 
 that we had no money to buy, and nO' friends to help us to, my 
 heart almost broke. However, I said nothing to her then. I laid 
 awake all night thinking, and in the morning I made up my mind 
 to come here. I told her what I was going to do, and she begged 
 me not, but my mind was made up. She said it would be sin, 
 and I told her that I should have to answer for that, and that I 
 was forced to do it because there was no other way to keep my- 
 self and help her, and I knew she could not work much for her- 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 491 
 
 •self, and I was sure slie wotild not live a daj if we were turned 
 -into the streets. She tried all she could to persuade me not, but 
 I was determined, and so I came here. I hated the thoughts of 
 such a life, and my only reason for coming was that I might help 
 'her. I thought that, if I had been alone, I would sooner have 
 starved, but I could not bear to see her suffering. She only lived 
 a few weeks after I came here. I broke her heart. I do not like 
 the life. I would do almost any thing to get out of it; but, now 
 that I have once done wrong, I can not get any one to give me 
 work, and I must stop here unless I wish to be starved to death." 
 
 This plaia and affecting narrative needs no comment. It re- 
 veals the history of many an unfortunate woman in this city, and 
 while it must appeal to every sensitive heart, it argues most forc- 
 ibly for some intervention in such cases. The following state- 
 ments of other women who have suffered and fallen in a similar 
 manner will show that the preceding is not an isolated case. M. 
 ,M., a widow with one child, earned $1 50 per week as a tailoress. 
 J. y., a servant, was taken sick while in a situation, spent all her 
 money, and could get no employment when she recovered. M. 
 T. (quoting her own words) "had no work, no money, and no 
 home." S. F., a widow with three children, could earn two dollars 
 weekly at cap-making, but could not obtain steady employment 
 even at those prices. M. F. had been out of place for some time, 
 and had no money. E. H. earned from two to three dollars per 
 week as taUoress, but had been out of employment for some time. 
 L. C. Gr. : the examining officer reports in this case, " This girl (a 
 tailoress) is a stranger, without any relations. She received a dol- 
 lar and a half a week, which would not maintain her." M. C, 
 a servant, was receiving five dollars a month. She sent all her 
 earnings to her mother, and soon after lost her situation, when she 
 -had no means to support herself M. S., also a servant, received 
 one dollar a month wages. A. B. landed in Baltimore from Ger- 
 many, and was robbed of all her money the very day she reached 
 the shore. M. F., a shirt-maker, earned one dollar a week. E. 
 M. G. : the captain of police in the district where this woman re- 
 sides says, "This girl struggled hard with the world before she 
 became a prostitute, sleeping in station-houses at night, and living, 
 on bread and water during the day." He adds : " In my experi- 
 ence of three years, I have known over fifty cases whose history 
 would be similar to hers, and who are now prostitutes." 
 
 These details give some insight into the under-current of city 
 life. The most prominent fact is that a large number of females, 
 
492 HISTOET OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 botli operatives and domestics, earn so small wages that a tempo- 
 rary cessation of their business, or being a short timeout of a sit- 
 uation, is sufilcient to reduce them to absolute distress. Provi- 
 dent habits are useless in their cases ; for, much as they may feel 
 the necessity, they hmie nothing to save, and the very day that they 
 encounter a reverse sees them penniless. The struggle a virtu- 
 ous girl will wage against fate in such circumstances may be con- 
 ceived : it is a literal battle for life, and in the result life is too oft- 
 en preseived only by the sacrifice of virtue. 
 
 " Seduced and abandoned." Two hundred and fifty-eight wom- 
 en make this reply. These numbers give but a faint idea of the 
 actual total that should be recorded under the designation, as 
 many who are included in other classes should doubtless have 
 been returned in this. It has already been shown that under the 
 answer " Inclination" are ;COmprised the responses of many who 
 were the victims of seduction before such inclination existed, and 
 there can be no question that among those who assign "Drink, 
 and the desire to drink" as the cause of their becoming prosti- 
 tutes, may be found many whose first departure from the rules 
 of sobriety was actuated by a desire to drive from their mem- 
 ories all recollections of their seducers' falsehoods. Of the num- 
 ber who were persuaded by women, themselves already fallen, to 
 become public courtesans, it is but . reasonable to conclude that 
 many had previously yielded their honor to some lover under 
 false protestations of attachment and fidelity. 
 
 It is needless to resort to argument to prove that seduction is a 
 vast social wrong, involving in its consequences not only the en- 
 tire loss of female character, but also totally destroying the con- 
 sciousness of integrity on the part of the male sex. It matters not 
 under what circumstances the crime may be perpetrated, none can 
 be found that. will exonerate the active offender from the imputa- 
 tion of fraud and treachery. A woman's heart longs for a recip- 
 rocal affection, and, to insure this, she will occasionally yield her 
 honor to her lover's importunities, but only when her attachmeM 
 has become so concentrated upon its object as to invest him with 
 every attribute of perfection, to find in every word he utters and 
 every action he performs but some token of his devotion to her. 
 Love is then literally a passion, an idolatry, and its power is uni- 
 versally acknowledged. 
 
 But this passion can not be the growth of an hour. Its devel- 
 opments are gradual. From the first stage of mere acquaintance, 
 
NEW YORK. 493 
 
 it ripens progressively under tlie influence of tender words and 
 solemn vows, frecLuently sincere, but often simulated, until the 
 woman owns to herself and admits to her lover that she regards 
 him with affection. Such an acknowledgment, virtually placing 
 her future life in his custody, should inspire him with the high 
 resolve to protect her name and fame, to justify the confidence 
 she has reposed. But not unfrequently is it made the medium 
 for dishonorable exactions, and for a momentary gratification,, 
 valueless to him except as a proof of her fervent adoration, and 
 fatal in its consequences to her, he tramples on the priceless jewel 
 of her honor, confidingly surrendered to this love and truth. 
 
 It should be remembered that, in order to accomplish this base 
 end, he must have resorted to base means ; must either have pro- 
 fessed a love he did not feel, or have allowed his affection to cool 
 as he approached its consummation. Pure and sincere attach- 
 ment would effectually prevent the lover from performing any 
 act wbich could possibly compromise the woman he adores. None 
 but an Unmitigated ruffian can calmly and deliberately wrong an 
 unsuspecting female who has acknowledged a tender sentiment 
 toward him, thus placing herself so entirely in his power. The 
 crime of seduction can be viewed only as a mean and atrocious 
 perjury, and strangely callous must he be whose conscience in 
 after life does not pursue him with scorpion stings and fiery tor- 
 tures. 
 
 But how account for the participation of the female in the 
 crime ? Simply by viewing it as an idolatry of devotion which 
 is willing to surrender all to the demands of him she worships ; 
 to the intensity of her affections, which absorbs all other consid- 
 erations ; to a perfect insanity of love, excited and sustained by a 
 supposed equal devotion to herself As soon as this conviction 
 of a mutual love possesses her mind, as soon as her heart responds 
 to its magic touch, she lives in a new atmosphere ; her individu- 
 ality is lost ; her thoughts revert only to her lover. Devoted to 
 the promotion of his happiness, she thinks not of her own ; and 
 only when it is too late does she awake from the spell that lures 
 her to destruction. In such a case as this, a woman does not merit 
 the contempt with which her conduct is visited. She has sinned 
 from weakness, not from vice; she has been made the victim of 
 her own unbounded love, her heart's richest and purest affections. 
 
 Moralists say that all human passions should be held in check 
 by reason and virtue, and none can deny the truthfiilness of the 
 
494 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 assertion. But wHle they apply the sentiment to the weaker 
 party, who is the sufferer, would it not be advisablp to recom- 
 mend the same restraining influences to him who is the inflictor?" 
 No woman possessed of the smallest share of decency or the 
 shghtest appreciation of virtue would voluntarily surrender her- 
 self without some powerful motive, not pre-existent in herself, but 
 imparted by her destroyer. Well aware of the world's opinion, 
 she would not recklessly defy it, and precipitate herself into an 
 abyss of degradation and shame unless some overruling influence 
 had urged her forward. This motive and this influence, it is be- 
 lieved, may be uniformly traced to her weak but truly feminine' 
 dependence upon another's vows. Naturally unsuspicious her- 
 self, she can not believe that the being whom she has almost de- 
 ified can be aught but good, and noble, and trustworthy. Sincere 
 in her own professions, she believes there is equal sincerity in his 
 protestations. Willing to sacrifice all to him, she feels implicitly 
 assured that he will protect her fix)m harm. Thus there can be 
 little doubt that, ia most cases of seduction, female virtue is trust- 
 ingly surrendered to the specious arguments and false promises 
 of dishonorable men.^ 
 
 ' Since these pages were prepared For the press, a work has been reprinted' in 
 New York, called "A Woman's Thoughts upon Women, by the Author of 'John 
 Halifax, Gentleman," which contains many passages pertinent to this inquiry. 
 The high reputation of its author (Miss Mulock), not only for literary ability, but for 
 practical benevolence and womanly charity, will be sufficient apology for submit- 
 ting some of her remarks to the reader in the shape of notes. It is satisfactory to 
 know that many sentiments advanced hetrein are such as Miss Mulock has adro- 
 eated on the other side of the Atlantic. On the subject of seduction, she remarks : 
 
 "I think it can not be doubted that even the loss of personal chastity does not 
 indicate total corruption, or entail permanent degradation ; that after it, and in 
 spite of it, many estimable and womanly qualities may be found existing, not only 
 in our picturesque Nell Gwynnes and Peff Woffingttms, but our poor every-day sin- 
 ners : the servant obliged to be dismissed without a character and with a baby ; 
 the seamstress quitting starvation for elegant infamy ; the illiterate village lass, who 
 thinks it so grand to be made a lady of — so much better to be a rich man's mistress 
 than a working man's ill-used wife, or, rather, slave. 
 
 "Till we allow that no one sin, not even this sin, necessarily cbrrupts the entire 
 character, we shall scarcely be able to judge it with that fairness which gives hopes 
 of our remedying it, or trying to lessen, in ever so minute a. degree, by our indi- 
 vidual dealing with any individual case that comes in our way, the enormous 
 aggregate of misery that it entails. This it behooves us to do, even on selfish 
 grounds, for it touches us closer than many of us are aware — ay, in our own hearths 
 and homes ; in the sons and brothers that we have to send out to struggle in a 
 world of which we at the fireside know absolutely nothing : if we marry, in the fa- 
 thers we give to our innocent children, the servants we trust their infancy to, and 
 the influences to which we are obliged to expose them daily and hourly, unless we 
 
NEW YORK. 495 
 
 The every-day experiences of life are amply sufficient to justify 
 tliis opinion, for it is a fact that these specious arguments and false 
 promises are continually resorted to by many men for the express 
 purposes of seduction ; and, nefarious as these cases confessedly 
 are, still they form common incidents in the hves of some who- 
 claim to be what the world calls respectable I Men who, in the 
 ordinary relations of life, would scruple to defraud their neighbors 
 of a dollar, do not hesitate to rob a confiding woman of her chas- 
 tity. They who, in a business point of view, would regard ob- 
 taining goods under false pretenses as an act to be visited with 
 all the severity of the law, hesitate not to obtain by even viler 
 fraud the surrender of woman's virtue to their fiendish lust. Is 
 there no inconsistency in the social laws which condemn a swin- 
 dler to the state prison for his offenses, and condemn a woman to 
 perpetual infamy /or her wrongs? Undoubtedly there are cases 
 where the woman is the seducer, but these are so rare as to be 
 hardly worth mentioning. 
 
 Seduction is a social wrong. Its entire consequences are not 
 comprised in the injury inflicted on the woman, or the sense of 
 perfidy oppressing the conscience of the man. Beyond the fact 
 that she is, in the ordinary language of the day, ruined, the vic- 
 tim has endured an attack upon her principles which must mate- 1] 
 riaUy affect her future life. The world may not know of her trans- 
 gression, and, in consequence, public obloquy may not be added to 
 her burden ; but she is too painfully conscious of her' fall, and ev- 
 ery thought- of her lacerated and bleeding heart is embittered 
 with a sense of man's wrong and outrage. Memory points to the 
 many bright passages in their acquaintance, and says, these shone 
 but to ensnare you; to the many tokens of endearment received 
 from her betrayer, and says, these were but so many arguments to 
 effect your ruin ; to the many vows he breathed, and says, these 
 were but perjury; to the many smiles with which she was greet- 
 ed, and says, these were but so many hypocritical devices. She 
 remembers the thrOl of joy with which her heart so gayly bound- 
 ed when he first told her she was beloved, and she contrasts her 
 were to bring them up in a sort of domestic Happy Valley, which their first effort 
 would be to get out of as fast as ever they could. And supposing we are saved from 
 all this ; that our position is one peculiarly exempt from evil ; that if pollution m any; 
 form comes nigh us, we sweep it hastily and noiselessly away from our doors, and, 
 think we are right and safe-alas! we forget that a refuse-heap outside her gate- 
 may brLd a plague even in a queen's palace."-^ Wormr,^^ Th^Ms upon Wen- 
 en (New York ed.), p. 261. 
 
496 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ecstasy then with her agonies now. She remembers, with de- 
 IjOStation, the caresses he was wont to bestow. But, ajp)ve a,ll, she 
 remembers, and her blood boils with indignation as the thought is 
 forced upon her, that by these means he has wrought her shame. 
 She has learned in the school of sorrow that man's promises of 
 fidelity are valueless ; and her fature life, whether spent in sor- 
 row and repentance for the past, or in a wild, impetuous career of 
 subsequent vice, will be indelibly marked with the remembrance 
 of his treachery. It can not be a matter of surprise that, with this 
 feeling of injustice and insult burning at her heart, her career 
 should be one in which she becomes the aggressor, and man the 
 victim ; for it is a certain fact that in this desire of revenge upon 
 the sex for the falsehood of one will be found a cause of the in- 
 crease of prostitution.. 
 
 The probabilities of a decrease in the crime of seduction are 
 very slight, so long as the, present public sentiment prevails; 
 while the seducer is allowed to go unpunished, and the full meas- 
 ure of retribution is directed against his victim ; while the offend- 
 er escapes, but the offended is condemned. Unprincipled men, 
 jready to take advantage of woman's trustful nature, abound, and 
 they pursue their diabolical course unmolested. < Legal enactments 
 can scarcely ever reach them, although sometimes a poor man 
 without friends or money is indicted and convicted. The remedy 
 must be left to the world at large. When our domestic relations 
 are such that a man known to be guilty of this crime can obtain 
 no admission into the family circle j when the virtuous and re- 
 spectable members of the community agree that no such man 
 shall be welcomed to their society ; when worth and honor assert 
 their supremacy over wealth' and boldness, there may be hopes of 
 a reformation, but not till then. 
 
 The following cases will exhibit some of the results of seduc- 
 tion : M. C, a native of Pennsylvania, seventeen years of age, was 
 induced to run away from home with her lover, who promised to 
 marry her as soon as they reached Philadelphia. Instead of keep- 
 ing his word, he deserted her. She. was afraid to go home, and had 
 no means of living except by prostitution, which she practiced for 
 eight months in Philadelphia, and then came to New York to re- 
 side. Her father, a physician, died when she was about ten years 
 old, and her mother subsequently married a hotel-keeper, in whose 
 house, the girl was reared, and to the associations of which she 
 probably, to some extent, owes her fall from virtue. 
 
NEWTOEK. 497 
 
 In one of tlie most aristocratic honses of prostitution in. New 
 York was found the daughteir of a merchant, a man of large prop- 
 erty, residing in one of the Southern states. She was a beautiful 
 girl, had received a superior education, spoke several languages 
 fluently, and seemed keenly sensible^ of her degradation. Two 
 years before this time she had been on a visit to some relations in 
 Europe, and on her return voyage in one of her father's vessels, 
 she was seduced by the captain, and became pregnant. He sol- 
 emnly asserted.that he would marry her as soon as they reached 
 their port, but the ship had no sooner arrived than he left her. 
 The poor girl's parents wotild not receive her back into their 
 family, and- she came tO: New York and prostituted herself for 
 support. 
 
 , A. B., the child of respectable parents in Germany, was seduced 
 in her native place by a_ man to > whom she was attached. He 
 promised to marry her if' she. would accompany hito to the United 
 States. She obtained the permission and necessary funds from 
 her parents, and two days after they landed in New York her se- 
 ducer deserted her, carrying off all the money she had brought 
 &om home. H. P., a school-girl, sixteen years of age, was seduced 
 by a married man who now visits her occasionally. 0. A. was se- 
 dticed in New Jersey, brought to New York, and deserted among 
 strangers. M. E. was seduced by her employer, a married niain. 
 A. W. was seduced while at ' school in Troy, N. Y., and was 
 ashamed to return to her parents. E. H. followed a lover from 
 England who had-promised to marry her. When she arrived in 
 New York he seduced and diseased her, and then she discovered 
 that he was a married man. There is no necessity to multiply 
 these cases. 
 
 " Drink and the desire to drink." "We will alter an old saying, 
 and render it, "When a woman drinJcs she is lost." It will be 
 conceded that the habit of intoxication in woman, if not an indi- 
 cation of the existence of actual depravity or vice, is a sure pre- 
 cursor of it, for drunkenness and debauchery are inseparable com- • 
 panions, one almost invariably following the other. In some cases 
 a woman living in service becomes a drunkard; she forms ac- 
 quaintances among the depraved of her own sex, and wilhngly 
 joins their ranks. Married women acquire the habit of drmkmg, 
 and/orsake their husbands and families to gratify n6t so much 
 their sexual appetite as their passion for liquor. Young women 
 are often persuaded to take one or two glasses of liquor, and then 
 
498 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 their ruin may be soon expected. Others are induced to drink 
 spirits in which a narcotic has been infdsed to render Hiem insen- 
 sible to their ruin. In short, it is scarcely possible to enumerate 
 the many temptations which can be employed when intoxicating 
 drinks are used as the agent. 
 
 " Ill-treatment of parents, husbands, or relatives" is a prolific 
 cause of prostitution, one hundred and. sixty-four women assign- 
 ing it as a reason for their fall. . In consideration of their import- 
 ant relations to society, it may be well to inquire. What are the 
 duties of parents, husbands, and relatives ? 
 
 In all countries where the obligations of the marriage contract 
 are recognized; one of its most stringent requirements is found In 
 the necessity to provide for the children of such union. This is 
 acknowledged as a moral duty on account of the relationship be- 
 tween parents and children ; it is recognized as a religious duty 
 because specially enjoined in Holy .Writ, and it is regarded as a 
 civil duty because the future welfare of any community must de- 
 pend upon the training of its future citizens. 
 
 As to the moral duty,' what arguments would be effectual to 
 prove to a hard-hearted parent the' necessity of bestowing a kindly 
 education upon his child? Surely nature itself would supply all 
 the necessary, reasons. The still, small voice of conscience will 
 whisper to him, I have been the instrument of bringing this 
 child into, the world, and I am therefore responsible for its wel- 
 fare. And even plain, old-fashioned common sense (despised as it 
 is since a certain philosophy has come into fashion) would say, I 
 am the father of a child, and it is my interest to do the best I can 
 for it. 
 
 The religious duties are abundantly enforced in the Scriptures. 
 These, while requiring in explicit terms the obedience of children 
 to their parents, and annexing to such. commandment the only 
 promise which the Decalogue contains, are equally plain in speci- 
 fying the duties of parents. These points are acknowledged by 
 • all sects and parties ; and commentators or preachers, however 
 much they, may differ on questions of theology, or articles of faith, 
 or rules of Church government, are unanimous upon the extent 
 of parental obligation. 
 
 The civil duties are important for the -reason already assigned. 
 Children will be our successors in this arena, as we have succeed- 
 ed the patriot fathers who achieved our independence, and made 
 us the people that we are. The principles enunciated by every 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 sliot fired during tlie "Eevolutionary war have descended to us, 
 but we are only trustees for tlieir safe transmission to the next 
 generation, and we shall be recreant to our duty, false to the 
 memory of our ancestors, and traitors to our. country, if we allow 
 our children to assume the responsibilities that will naturally de- 
 volve upon them without due preparation for the sacred trust. 
 
 Having thus briefly alluded to the duties of parents, it remains 
 to give some information as to the manner in which such obliga- 
 tions are performed, selected from the returns received in the 
 progress of this investigation. 
 
 L. M., a very well educated girl: "I was seduced at ei^teen 
 years of age, and forced to leave home to hide my disgrace." Ad- 
 mitting that this girl had been led into an error, the plain duty 
 of her parents, in every point of view, was to endeavor to reform 
 her instead of driving her from home. Human nature, in its most 
 favorable condition, is fallible ; all are liable to error ; but as all 
 hope for forgiveness, so should they forgive. This is the doctrine 
 of the sublime prayer taught by our Savior to his apostles ; this 
 is the duty of humanity. " The bruised reed He will not break," 
 is a Divine promise from which poor finite man might draw a 
 valuable lesson. 
 
 E. B. : " My parents wanted me to marry an old man; and I re- 
 fused. I had a very. unhappy home afterward." This case was 
 directly in conflict with the dictates of nature. She had formed 
 an attachment for a man who would, in all human probability, 
 have made her a good husband, and caused her to remain a vir- 
 tuous member of society ; but her parents wanted her to marry an 
 old man, and, in consequence of refosal, treated her. with unkmd- 
 ness. She has now, poor girl, to answer for her sin of inconti- 
 nence, but who can tell what other offenses would have been laid 
 to her charge had she married as desired by her parents? How 
 many awful deeds recorded in the annals of criminal jurispru- 
 dence have been produced by ill-assorted marriages ! How many 
 outrages, how much bloodshed, owe their origin to such a cause! 
 Parents who, for their own selfish purposes, would drive' a daugh- 
 ter into a mar4age repugnant- to her feelings, deserve the severest 
 condemnation. So far from performing their duty in the matter, 
 , they are acting in diametrical opposition to it. 
 
 C. B. : " My stepmother ill-used me." The stepmother in this 
 case' stands in the place of the natural paxent. In assuming the 
 duties, she assumes all the responsibilities of the relation, and is 
 
500 HISTORY OF PEOSTITDTION. 
 
 equally guilty as if this girl were her own child. Women's feel- 
 ings, in a normal state, are generally kind, gentlsj andflbrgiving ; 
 but when they are perverted, she becomes 'more inveterate than 
 man. Sp it was in this instance. ; : 
 
 E. G. ; "My mother ill-treated me and drove me from home; 
 My. father was very kind, but he died when I was seven years 
 old." A similar case to the preceding in the pierversion of femi- 
 nine feelings, coupled with the melancholy .fact that the girl's fa- 
 ther, who had always used her kindly, died when she was a child. 
 It would be natural to conclude that, all! the affections of a widow 
 would concentrate upon her children, but the reverse of this is too 
 frequently found to be true, and as soon as the husband to whom 
 her vows were pledged is laid in the grave, and the children are 
 deprived of his protecting hand, her love is alienated, from them. 
 A mother'is duties to her offspring are increased by her husband's 
 death, but she negleclis them, and does violence to the maternal 
 instinct. 
 
 M. B. : " I support my nlother." It may possibly be objected 
 that this case does not come withinJ.the scope of this section, as 
 showing no positive neglect of parental duty, but, by implication, 
 it is decidedly entitled to a place in the catalogue. . It is, unfortu- 
 nately for the sake of morality, but one of many similar instances 
 which have been encountered, and some of which will be noticed 
 in due course. The self-evident conclusion is, that if this mother 
 had properly trained her daughter in early life, she would not 
 now have to endure the agony arising from .the knowledge that 
 every morsel of food she eats, every article of clothing' she wears, 
 is purchased with the proceeds of her child's shaniel It is diffi- 
 cult to imagine any position more disgusting than this^ — any cir- 
 cumstance more horrible than, that of a mother quietly depending 
 for existence upon the prostitution of a daughter, with the cer- 
 tainty that the inevitable result of' such a vicious course of life 
 win drive the; child of her affection to a premature grave and a 
 dreadful eternity. 
 
 J. 0. : " My father accused me of being a prostitute wken I was 
 innocent. He would give nie no clothes to wear. My mother 
 was a confirnied drunkard, and used to be away from home most 
 of the time." Here we have' a combination of horrors scarcely 
 equaled in the field of romance. The unjust accusations of the 
 fether, and his conduct in not supplying his child with the a,ctual 
 necessaries of life, joined ' with the drunkenness of the mother, 
 
NEW YORK. 501 
 
 present such, an accumulatioh of cruelty and vice that it would 
 have been a miracle had the girl remained virtuous. It is to be 
 presumed that no one will claim for this couple the performance 
 of any one of the duties enjoined by their position. 
 
 S. S. : "I had no work, and went home. My father was a 
 drunkard, and ill-treated me and the rest of the family." Here 
 is a specimen of a father's cruelty. His daughter is out of em- 
 ployment, and has no home but with her parents, and he, mad- 
 dened with liquor, abuses her for flying to her natural protectors. 
 Where was she to expect aid and comfort but from the authors 
 of her being, and how was such expectation realized? She was 
 forced to resort to prostitution as a means of living. ■- 
 
 C. E. : "My paraits 'are rich. Ihey would not let me live at 
 home, because I had been seduced." In this case there was no ex- 
 cuse for parental unkindness. Blessed with an ample supply of 
 .this world's treasures, they could calmly see their daughter ex- 
 posed to want and penury. Living in the enjoyment of opulence 
 themselves, they could doom her to earn a miserable subsistence 
 by a life of shame. Satisfied with their own lot, and complacent- 
 ly surveying the comforts which surrounded them, they con- 
 idemned her to a course of infamy in which no enjoyment could 
 be found to cheer her path.; where every day must add fresh tor- 
 tures to her lot, every hour sink her yet lower in the social scale. 
 Why? Because an indiscretion or a crime — call it which you 
 please — ^had made her a fitting object for their kindness ; because 
 her own act had placed her in a position where she felt her dis- 
 grace, and asked their sympathy and aid to retrace her steps. 
 Can there be a more pitiable object than a woman who has sacri- 
 ficed her virtue to the importunity, the entreaties, or the vows of 
 her lover, when she reflects upon her conduct? The delirium of 
 love is past, but the overwhelming sense of shame is left ; she 
 feels that a momentary act has blasted her future hfe ; she knows 
 that the world wUl condemn her, and the only resource she has 
 is an appeal to her parents. If they kindly take her by the 
 hand, in aU probability the evil will extend no farther, and she 
 may regain her position in life. If they refuse their sympathy, 
 they practically drive her to a course of vice, for there is no other 
 road open to her. Who, then, is responsible for her after-career 
 but those who have the power to preserve her' from farther guilt 
 
 and shame ? 
 J. A.: "I am the eldest of a, large family. My father is a 
 
.502 HISTOEY.Or PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 drimkard, and would not support Ms children. I have supported 
 my. parents, brothers, and sisters for the last five years^J This is 
 an example of an outrageous social crime which can not be con- 
 templated without horror ; the parents of a family, with their re- 
 maining children, relying for subsistei^ce upon the aid famished 
 from the sinfiil earnings of the first-born ! In this instance the 
 economy of nature is reversed. The filial affection which leads a 
 child to support her aged and infirm parents can be understood 
 and appreciated, but it is impossible to reprobate too severely the 
 conduct of a man whose own actions have reduced him to pov- 
 erty, and who then encourages his daughter to lead a life of pros- 
 titution that he may revel on money produced by a course of 
 debauchery which he was mainly instrumental in producing. 
 
 A. B. : " My lover seduced and diseased me while I was work- 
 ing in a factory. ; I went home, and my parents turned me out." 
 Neither loss of character nor .physical suffering were sufficient 
 punishment for this poor girl, only eighteen years of age ; nor 
 could the probability of a future riioral life induce her parents to 
 pardon' the first offense. They had sent her to work amid associ- 
 ations which were almost certain to cause her ruin. This, of it- 
 self, is a sufficient ground for their condemnation, for they were in 
 comfortable circumstances, and could not plead poverty as an ex- 
 cuse ; and when this riiin was accomplished, they added to their 
 former crime by refusing a shelter to the sufferer. 
 • These cases are taken from actual facts. The words included 
 in inverted commas are, as nearly as possible, those used by the 
 women when being questioned. As to ■ the . truth of the state- 
 ments, we hesitate not to believe them all to be substantially cor- 
 rect. .They are not a fiftieth part of the instances in which simi- 
 lar disclosures have been made, but they are sufficient for the pur- 
 pose of argument, and to prove that the assertions made in other 
 places refet upon a solidfoundation, and are not mere fancies of the 
 brain. It woTild certainly be much more to the credit of society 
 if their authenticity were not so indisputable. 
 
 The foregoing examples strongly suggest and justify a farther 
 consideratioii of the duties of parents. WhUe these include the 
 obligaAon to fiirnish a child with food and clothing, they do not 
 stop at that point. It would be erroneous, indeed, for any father 
 to imagine he had fulfilled all the requirements of his position 
 when he gave a child enough to eat and to wear. He would at- 
 .tend to the wants, of his cattle in the same way, but there is some- 
 
NEW YORK. 5Q3 
 
 thing more to be, done in the case of his children. He must so 
 treat them as to induce, on their part, a sentiment of gratitude. 
 Children are proverbially keen-sighted, and they seem to have a 
 natural faculty for logic, so far as they themselves are concerned. 
 They can very soon discriminate whether a parent is doing bare- 
 ly just as much as the laws of the country and the voice of pub- 
 lic opinion require, or whether he is acting toward them with 
 true paternal affection. In the former case they become selfish, 
 and practice all their little arts to obtain as many advantages that 
 the law allows them as possible, without entertaining any feelings 
 of respect or affection towaird their parents, because they know 
 that such obligations can not be evaded without censure. In the 
 latter case their gratitude and affection forms a return for the 
 kindness bestowed. They immediately perceive that they are 
 loved, and, as a natural consequence, endeavor to manifest love in 
 return, by acting in a manner most pleasing to their parents. By 
 simply encouraging this sentiment, children can be moulded much 
 as the father wishes, whereas,' by destroying it, he loses one of the 
 most effective aids to his government. There are so many differ- 
 ent ways by which this affection for children can be manifested, 
 and they are all so simple and so certainly effective, that it is 
 scarcely possible to conceive how any man or woman of the most 
 ordinary intelligence can overlook them. 
 
 In addition to providing for the personal wants of his family, 
 their education claims a large portion of the parents' care. Not 
 only the mere tuition imparted in schools; but a careful training 
 at home, as prehminary to their conflict with the world, is re- 
 quired. It is the instruction and advice given in the quiet of the 
 domestic circle that exercises the most powerful influence, most 
 effectually shapes the destiny of the fature man or woman. No 
 person is justified in delaying the performance of this duty. So 
 soon as a child can talk and walk, so soon is this guidance neces- 
 sary. It would, be an interesting and important matter of investi- 
 gation to ascertain, if possible, the time of life at which children 
 become influenced by the temptations which surround them. The 
 result would show a much earlier age than is generally supposed. 
 A boy, when playing with his companions, overhears an improper 
 expression from one of them. His mind retains it, and it may 
 prove the germ from which habits of profanity subsequently 
 spring. A girl may notice an improper action, which will rest 
 upon her memory, and produce sad fruit hereafter. Thus the ed- 
 
504 HISTORY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 Tication of cluldreii for tlie ordinary duties of life can not be com- 
 m^nced too soon. If delayed, the probabilities are that^hen you 
 attempt to cultivate the soil in after years, you wijl.fifld it already 
 choked with weeds, which require more time and trouble to erad- 
 icate than would the inculcation of proper principles in early life. 
 A lady remarked, upon one occasion, in presence of an eminent 
 preacher, that she. thought children should not be trained to any 
 religious exercises until they bad. arrived at an age when they 
 could fully understand such subjects. The reply of the aged mia- 
 ister is appropriate to the present subject. He said, " Madam; if 
 you do not implant good doctrines in your children's minds be- 
 fore that time, the devil will fiU them with mischievous ones." 
 
 A somewhat prevalent error in the training of children must 
 not be passed unnoticed, namely, excessive rigidity. This prac- 
 tice is common ia many well-meaning but unthinking families 
 professing Christianity. Every thing is conducted with as much 
 mathematical precision as if they were demonstrating a problem 
 in Euclid. Such a system is open to very grave objections, from 
 the numerous cases in ■ which it has proved prejudicial to the 
 child's best interests. It acts precisely like the spring of a watch, 
 which you can retain in a fixed position by a mechanical contriv- 
 ance, but which resumes its elasticity and power the moment the 
 pressure is removed. Children's minds are elastic also ; you can 
 confine them within any circle you please by the exercise of ipa- 
 rental authority, but in a large proportion of cases the end sought 
 to be attained is surely defeated. Many justly blame this cause 
 for the mishaps of their future lives; It presents virtue and relig- 
 ion in a repulsive aspect, picturing them only as connected with 
 asceticism, not recognizing the beauty and happiness which are 
 their chief attractions. Thus is engendered in the minds of chil- 
 dren an intuitive dislike for what they are taught to consider as a 
 bondage. It is not uncommon to hear men describe the way in 
 which their youthful Sabbaths were spent, and attribute to the 
 irksome monotony of that day's discipline their subsequent dis- 
 taste for even a few hours' confinement in church. This strict- 
 ness, like ambition, " overleaps itself,'' and extinguishes the spirit 
 it is designed to foster. The proper way to educate children for 
 lives of usefulness, honor, and happinessj the most effective plan to 
 reach the desired end, is to cultivate their affections and reason, 
 instead of repressing the one and fettering the other by stringent 
 applications of arbitrary rule. 
 
NEW YORK. 505 
 
 But no man or woman can educate children properly unless 
 their precepts are confirmed by example. Talk to your son as 
 long as you please upon the advantages of temperance, and then 
 let him see you in a state of intoxication the next day, and aE your 
 labor will be fruitless. Enlarge, in thfe presence of your daughter, 
 upon the value of integrity, and then allow her to hear you utter 
 a falsehood, and she will contrast the theory and practice, and 
 conclude that the former is worthless. Parents must educate 
 themselves before they can hope to instruct their children, and 
 must lead a life in conformity with the principles they teach, if 
 they expect any beneficial results from their endeavors. 
 
 Before leaving this part of the subject another matter may be 
 mentioned, namely, the ^ necessity of winning the confidence of 
 children. Their hearts pine for sympathy. If they are in trouble, 
 lencourage them to reveal their pelplexities to you; sigh with 
 them when they are sad, and rejoice with them when they are 
 happy. A girl who has been in the habit of imparting aU her 
 childish sorrows to her mother, and has there found a heart which 
 would beat in unison with her own, will not withhold her confi- 
 dence as she grows in years. Eemember that children, while a 
 blessing to their parents, are also a responsibility. You have the 
 power to. train them for good or evil ; you can win their trust, or 
 inspire them with distrust ; you can make them useful members 
 of society, or render them nuisances to the community; to you 
 their destiny is confided to a great extent, and fi:om you will be 
 ree[uired an account of the stewardship. 
 
 The length to which these observations have been extended 
 can be justified by the importance of the subject, and the convic- 
 tion that a more careful fulfillment of parental duties would go 
 very far toward diminishing prostitution. Every man must ad- 
 mit it to be his duty to aid in effecting this desirable consumma- 
 tion ;■ and while it would be Utopian to imagine that the vice can 
 be eradicated by family influences, it is reasonable to conclude 
 that its extent may be materially curtailed. < 
 
 Great as are the duties and responsibihties of a father, they are 
 equaled by those, devolving upon a husband. He has to provide 
 for the welfare of his wife besides caring for the interests' of his 
 children. When he marries he vows to remain faithful to the 
 woman of his choice, to "love, honor, and cherish her" so long as 
 they both shall live. This is an implied oath,- if not audibly ex- 
 pressed in all circumstances, and any violation of it is neither 
 
506 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 more nor less than perjury. Of course, the obligation is a mutual 
 one; the wife is bound by the same ties, and in as^tringent a 
 form as the husband. . It can not be said that every case of pros- 
 titution in a married woman is the result of her husband's mis- 
 conduct, but it is notorious that many women are induced or com- 
 pelled by such misconduct to abandon a hfe of virtue. AU mar- 
 ried prostitutes can not be exonerated from the charge of guilt, 
 yet the facts which will be hereafter quoted prove that many were 
 driven to a life of shame by those who had solemnly sworn to 
 protect and cherish them. 
 
 The violation of any known duty is a positive crime against so- 
 ciety, but it becomes increased in magnitude when it involves 
 more than one person in the offense. It is then the cause of a 
 second transgression, and sophistry would vainly attempt to prove 
 that the man who committed the first and caused the commission 
 of the second offense was not morally responsible for both. ' De- 
 scending from generalities, it may be truly asserted that the man 
 whose conduct to his wife is such as to lead her to vicious prac- 
 tices is guilty in both respects. Here are some few cases in point. 
 
 C C. : " My husband deserted me and four children. I had no 
 means to live." In this case the husband violated the law of God 
 in, forcibly rending the matrimonial bond, and violated the laws 
 of his country by leaving his wife and children as burdens on so- 
 ciety. . For the former of these offenses he must answer at the bar 
 of Infinite Justice ; for the latter he is liable to punishment in this 
 world. " Then why not punish him ?" asks some one. For the 
 very simple reason that he could not be found. In this day the 
 law does not assume the latitude claimed by the Spanish Inqui- 
 sition, and sentence a man to punishment without giving him an 
 opportunity to plead his cause. A woman in a state of destitu- 
 tion, with four hungry' children looking , to her for bread, has nei- 
 ther time nor means to pursue a delinquent husband. . Her pres- 
 ent necessities require her immediate attention, and so he escapes 
 the penalty the laws have awarded, and can live (although it may 
 be with an uneasy conscience) in some other place, and probably 
 repeat there the iniquities he has practiced here. The custom of 
 deserting wives and children would receive a severe check were 
 it possible in every instance to enforce the legal provisions re- 
 specting abandonment. 
 
 J. S. : "My husband committed adultery. I caught him with 
 another woman, and then he left me." This individual's turpi- 
 
NEW YORK. 507 
 
 tude was enliarLcecl by his boldness. He seems to have recklessly- 
 defied all consequences, to have been entirely callous to any sense 
 of shame, and, when detected in his adulterous intercourse, he 
 adds desertion to his offense. He regarded not the feelings of her 
 whom in early life he had won to his side by vows of affection ; 
 he outraged the laws of decency, and trampled upon the statutes 
 of his country. His wife's agony may be conceived, although 
 words would be faint to express it, and the mental sufferings she. 
 must have endured before she abandoned herself to indiscriminate 
 prostitution as a means of living will not aggravate her offense. 
 
 A. Gr. : " My husband eloped with another woman. I support 
 the child." Here the husband was morally as guilty as in the 
 previous case, but without the disgusting bravado which charac- 
 terized that. He had, however, another claim which should have 
 secured his fidehty, namely, an infant child ; but this tie was pow- 
 erless to restrain him. Fascinated by the charms of another, for- 
 getting all the rights of his wife, all the obligations of paternity, 
 and all the requirements of morality, he basely abandoned those 
 dependent on him, and forced the wife, whose virtue he was bound 
 to protect, into a career of vice to support his child. 
 
 A. B.: "My husband accused me of infidelity, which was not 
 true. I only lived with him five months. I was pregnant by 
 him, and after my child was born I went on the town to support 
 it." The first idea derived from this statement would be that five 
 months of matrimonial life had been sufficient to change this hus- 
 band from a devoted lover to a revengefiil tyrant, who would not 
 scruple to resort to a groundless accusation to effect his purpose. 
 In this short space of time he conveniently forgot the promises he 
 had made, repudiated the bonds in which his own act had placed 
 him, and, to accomplish a separation from his wife, did not hesi- 
 tate to bear false witness against her, placing her in a position 
 from which she could extricate herself only by performing a log- 
 ical impossibility, namely, by proving a negative. Nor could the 
 probable destiny of his unborn child influence his determination. 
 It mattered not to him whether the infant first saw the light in a 
 ,den pf infamy, nor whether his unkindness killed it before it was 
 born, so that he could desert his wife. Neither did it make any 
 difference to him whether she starved to death or maintainedher 
 existence by the most loathsome means. He was satiated with 
 pos^ssion, and neither the voice of nature nor the dictates of con- 
 science could arrest his purpose. The result was precisely what 
 
508 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 might have been expected : she became a prostitute rather than 
 starve and let her child starve. ^ 
 
 E. B. : " My husband brought me here (a house of ill fame). I 
 did not know what kind of a place it was. He lives with me, and 
 I follow prostitution." Another variety of unnatural conduct. 
 The wife in this case was a very good-looking young woman, not 
 exceeding, eighteen years of age; the husband held a respectable 
 •and well-paid employment, and was in possesion of ample means 
 to support her. By false representations he induced her, within 
 three months after marriage, to board in a fashionable house of 
 prostitution. She soon discovered its character, but eventually 
 succumbed to his orders, and became gmlty. He resides with her, 
 and is supported: by her. What language can be used adequately 
 to denounce such a cold-blooded piece of treachery on the part of 
 a wretch claiming to be human? ' 
 
 L. "W. : " I came to this city, from Illinois, with my husband. 
 When we got here he deserted me, I have two children depen- 
 dent on me." This man brought his wife from a distant state to 
 a strange city, where she had no friends nor relatives to advise and 
 assist her, and there abandoned her, with two helpless children, to 
 the mercy of the world. Had he left her where she had. been liv- 
 ing previously, it is possible she might have found sufficient 
 friends to assist her until she was able to support herself; but 
 with a refinement of cruelty he transferred her to a place where 
 she was unknown, and then effected his escape. The entire cir- 
 cumstances favor the supposed existence of a determination to 
 abandon her as soon as they arrived in New York; where he could 
 act thiis with more safety than in her native place. 
 
 C. H. : "I was mairried when I was seventeen years old, and 
 •have had three children. The two boys are living now ; the gid. 
 is dead. My oldest boy is nearly five years old, and the other 
 one is eighteen months. My hus"band is a sailor. We lived very 
 comfortably till my last child was bom, and then he began to 
 drink very hard, and did not support me, and I have not seen him 
 or heard any thing about him for six months. After he left me I 
 tried to keep my children by washing or going out to day's work, 
 but I could not earn enough. I never could earn more than two 
 or three dollars a week when I had work, which was not always. 
 My father and mother died when I was a child. I had nobody to 
 help me, and could not support my children, so I came to this 
 place. My boys are now living in the city, and I support them 
 
NEW YOEK. ' 509 
 
 with, wliat I earn by prostitution. It was only to keep them that 
 I came here." These were the words used by an honest, sorrow- 
 fill lopking woman encountered, in the course of this investiga- 
 tion, in the fourth police district of the city. No reasonable doubt 
 can be entertained of the truth of the story ; the manner in which 
 she told it plainly indicated^ that she was narrating facts. Some 
 inquiries were made respecting her of the keeper of the house, 
 and he (for it was a man) stated that he knew her story to be cor- 
 rect. He had at first employed her as a servant because he wishr 
 ed to help her, but the wages he could pay were insufficient to 
 support her children, and she eventually prostituted herself be- 
 cause she could earn more at this horrible calling, and was thus 
 enabled to discharge her maternal duty. But at what a sacrifice 
 was this obtained! In order to feed her helpless offspring she 
 was forced to yield her honor ; to prevent them suffering from 
 the pains of hunger, she voluntarily chose to endure the pangs of 
 a guilty conscience ; to prolong tlieir lives she periled her own. 
 And at the time when this alternative was forced upon her, the 
 husband was lavishing his money for intoxicating liquor. . If she 
 sinned — and this fact can not be, denied, however charity may 
 view it — ^it was the non-performance of his duty that urged, nay, 
 positively forced her to sin. She must endure the punishment 
 of her offenseSj but, after reading her simple, heart-rending state- 
 ment, let casuists decide what amount of condemnation will rest 
 upon the man whose desertion compelled her to violate the law 
 of chastity in order to support his children. 
 
 E. "W. : " My husband had another wife when I married him: 
 I left him when I found this out. I was pregnant by him, and 
 had no other way to live than by prostitution." In point of law, 
 this is not a married woman, the existence of the former wife 
 rendering the second union invalid ; but this is no excuse for the 
 man's conduct ; in fact, it materially aggravates his guilt. In the 
 first place, he deserts a woman whom he was legally bound, to 
 support, leaving her to battle her way through life, to resist the 
 temptations which would be sure to assail her, careless whether 
 she lived or died, and heedless whether she retained her charac- 
 ter or sank into vice ; and then, with, the greatest nonchalance, 
 goes through the ceremony of marriage with anotber woman,- It 
 is easy to imagine the feelings of the latter when she discovered 
 the fraud which had been practiced to secure her hand, and the 
 mdignation which caused, her to leave him immediately, notwith- 
 
610 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 standing Her condition ; nor will it reqiiire mucli stretcK of fancy 
 to picture the mental suffering she endured, her agony^Luring the 
 hour of nature's trial, before she consented to earn a precarious 
 living as a prostitute. . Such cases are of frequent occurrence, and 
 even the probability of a criminal indictment is insufficient to de- 
 ter some tnen. No punishment could be too severe for such' of- 
 fenses, even considering them without any reference to this par- 
 ticular instance, because they pervert one of our most solemn 
 contracts, and destroy all confidence in the security of the mar- 
 riage tie. 
 
 C. H. : " My husband was a drunkard, and beat me." How 
 much of misery and crime is contained in these few words ! Ei- 
 ther of the vices practiced by this fellow is enough to make a 
 woman wretched ; the combination is sufficient to drive her mad. 
 She. would doubtless sit and ponder during the long and weary 
 night hours when he was carousing with his drunken compan- 
 ions, and would contrast her present wretched state with the 
 happiness of early days. Her thoughts would revert to the time 
 he won her love, to the day on which he brought her to his home 
 a bride, and then she would cast her eyes around the room, now 
 robbed of almost every thing portable to supply his insane appe- 
 tite for liquor, and a heavy sigh would burst from her heart. 
 But still she would continue her sad reminiscences, and think of 
 the kindness he displayed then, and of his brutal ferocity now — ^ 
 would remember his considerate tenderness and compare it with 
 ■^his maniac fury. And then something would whisper to her, 
 "Why do you endure it?" and her woman's nature would be 
 aroused, resistance would take the place of submission, and she 
 would leave her home and him who had desecrated it, and immo- 
 late herself upon the altar of vice, a victim to her husband's 
 drunkenness and cruelty. 
 
 C. N. : "My husband left me because I was sickly and could 
 not do hard' work." This woman's husband may be pictured as 
 a lazy, worthless fellow ; probably one who married not to secure 
 a helpmate and a partner, but to obtain a slave. Her health 
 would not allow her to perform as much drudgery as he expect- 
 ed ; the speculation did not turn out as well as he had anticipated, 
 and he left her destitute, to starve or sin, as she thought fit. 
 
 P. T. : " My husband was intemperate, and turned out to be a 
 thief. He was sent to prison." Still another victim of adrimk- 
 en husband, but he carried his vicious habits to a point where the 
 
NEW YORK. 511 
 
 laws of his country -would reach him. Had he merely deserted 
 his wife, nobody would have thought it his business to arrest him, 
 but he stole some person's property, and all the enginery of the 
 law was forthwith arrayed against him. In the one instance, his 
 conduct condemns his wife to shame in this world and perhaps 
 perdition in the next, and the good-tempered pubhc looks quietly 
 on and says nothing. In the other case, he defrauds his neighbor 
 of some dollars and cents, and the indignant comniunity demands 
 his "condign punishment ! What conclusion can be drawn from 
 these facts ? Honor, character, and life are ruined, and the of- 
 fender escapes : money is stolen, and he is punished I Is money 
 more valuable than the character and life of woman ? 
 
 It requires no argument to prove that when the care of a child 
 is assumed by its relatives, the pareiital obligations also devolve 
 upon them ; nor can there be any difference of opinion as to the 
 duty of relations to assist, to the utmost of their power, any child- 
 ren whom death or other circumstances may have deprived of 
 their natural protectors. Were not these principles generally rec- 
 ognized, all large cities would be crowded with destitute orphans. 
 The beneficial results often arising from such guardianships argue 
 very strongly in their favor ; but still the imperative duty is fre- 
 quently evaded, or acknowledged and made the opportunity for 
 an exhibition of tyranny which naturally tends to the encourage- 
 ment of vice. Take the following cases in illustration : 
 
 J. F. : "I support my aunt." In this case the duties of the 
 aunt were not merely evaded, but she adds to her neglect a posi- 
 tive approval of the girl's abandoned life, by voluntarily receiv- 
 ing a portion of her earnings. What species of education she be- 
 stowed uponher niece may be inferred from its results. Such dis- 
 closures are almost too disgusting to be criticised. 
 
 S. B. : " My parents were dead. I came to this country with an 
 uncle and aunt, who ill-used me from the time Handed till I ran 
 away." The death of her parents should have been a passport to 
 the affection of the relatives to whose charge she was intrusted, 
 but, instead of producing such an effect, they brought her to a 
 strange land, and practiced a succession of cruelties, until she 
 could endure them no longer. , It is more than probable that this 
 was a plan intended to drive her from their home. They neither 
 acknowledged their duty to supply the places of the father and 
 mother she had lost, nor did they recognize' the force of relation- 
 ship, which, at least, should have protected her from positive un- 
 
512 HISTOET 01" PROSTITUTION. 
 
 kindness. Nor did ttey. posses any of those, feelings of sympathy 
 which every ■well-disposed person must , entertain to^prd an or- 
 phan. They could not have been unaware of the probability of 
 her falling into bad company and vicious habile if she left their 
 care, but no regard for her happiaess or character seems to have 
 entered iato their calculations, which may have been somewhat in 
 this form: She is an expense to us, so we will contrive to drive 
 her away ; if she can make her living honestly, so much the bet- 
 ter ; if she turns out a prostitute, that is her own concern. It was 
 not solely " her own concern" but it involved them also in its con- 
 sequences, through their agency in its accomplishment, and, mor- 
 ally speaking, they are as liable for her ruin as if they had actu: 
 ally, and not indirectly, caused it. , 
 
 . The following cases closely, resemble each other, and are pre- 
 sented in conjunction:, 
 ■ A. D. : "My parents were dead.. , I lived with my uncle, who 
 treated me very unkindly." 
 
 L. S. : " My parents died when I wgs young. I lived with an 
 uncle and aunt, who used; me Ul." The deprivation of each of 
 these unfortunate women in the death of their parents, a loss al- 
 most incalculable in its results, placed them under the guardian- 
 ship, of those who, alike, neglected their duties and rendered the 
 trust a medium. for unkindness to the orphans. It seems surpris- 
 ing that the memory of a deceased brother or sister can not secure 
 even ordinary care for their children.; It can not be expected that 
 the surviving relatives would e?;hibit the same amount of affection 
 as would have been shown by the parents, but disappointment must 
 be experienced if they make no pretensions to kindness. The die* 
 tates of nature are violated when harshness takes the place of sym- 
 pathy, and destitution is considered a sufficient warrant for delib- 
 erate and continuous ill-treatment. Such conduct renders a girl 
 reckless and misanthropic, and will drive her to seek, in unhallow- 
 ed love, the affection her guardians have refused. 
 
 L. M..: "I was taken by my sister-in-law to a house of prostitji: 
 tion, and there violated." It is not often such a case of barbarity 
 is found in civilized life, nor indeed, in less polished conununities, 
 as this forcible violation of a young .girl through the aid and con- 
 nivance of her sister-in-law. The mind recoils, with disgust, from 
 the iastances of rape so frequently occurring, but thisi case is so 
 peculiarly aggravated that it can not be contemplated without a 
 feeling of shame for the depravity of human nature. In the one 
 
NEW TOEK. gj^g 
 
 case, tlie brutal passions of a man are displayed in a brutal man- 
 ner ; in tbe other, the same cause exists to a similar extent, coupled 
 with the blackest perfidy of a female relative. To such a shame- 
 less violation of the laws of consanguinity, such an outrageous con- 
 spiracy between a vile man and a monster of a woman, the sister 
 must have been induced to lend her aid by some means best known 
 to herself. It is quite impossible to imagine she possessed a single 
 spark of virtue ; on the contrary, she must have sunk, long before 
 this occurrence, to the lowest -depths of vice, or she never would 
 have been an instrument in such an infernal scheme. The con- 
 sideration she received is, of course, known only to the parties 
 themselves, but it would give a farther insight to her character if 
 the reader could be informed of the estimate set by a sister-in-law 
 upon an orphan's virtue. The result of the outrage is, no doubt, 
 exactly what the criminals anticipated. The victim knew that 
 her character was ruined, that she had no alternative but prostitu- 
 tion, and, while the guilty pair who literally forced her to sin can 
 congratulate each other on the success of their machinations, she 
 must endure the penalty in a life of crime and misery. 
 
 Gr. H. : "I was detected and exposed by my brother." This 
 girl, who had yielded to the entreaties of a man whom " she loved, 
 not wisely, but too well," may assign her subsequent career of vice 
 to the conduct of her brother. He must have been sadly deficient 
 in all kindly feeling thus to parade his sister's dishonor, and also 
 possessed of a very limited knowledge of human nature, or a large 
 amount of malevolence. It can scarcely be imagined that he act- 
 ed from ignorance, as he must have been certain that such an ex- 
 posure would most probably induce his sister to continue an in- 
 tercourse which was publicly known, and therefore could not aug- 
 ment her disgrace ; nor can it be conceived that a malicious desire 
 to blast her character governed his conduct. But, whatever his 
 motive, the result was the same. She was forced to a life of pros- 
 titution from which she might have been rescued had kind and af- 
 fectionate means been employed, instead of the cruel and heedless 
 course which was adopted. 
 
 C. W. : " My parents died when I was young. I was brought 
 up by relatives who went to California when I was sixteen years 
 old, and left me destitute. I had no trade." There is no aUega- 
 tion that this girl's relatives used her unkindly during the time she 
 lived with them, but they deserted her, in a helpless condition, at 
 the very time when she most needed their guardianship. They 
 
514 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 could not have been ignorant of the many temptations to which a 
 young woman, without protectors or means of livelihdBd, is ex- 
 posed in New York, and yet they removed to a distance, and left 
 her to meet these trials alone. A girl whoto they had reared from, 
 infancy, and for whom they must have entertained considerable 
 affection, they tamely abandoned to an almost certain fate far 
 worse than death. To say the least, it was a most inconsiderate 
 step, and has resulted very disastrously. 
 
 E. E. : " My husband deserted me to live with another woman ; 
 my parents were dead; I went to my brother's house, and he 
 turned me out." Fraternal unkiudness farther exemplified ! An 
 orphan sister, deserted by her husband, asked from her brother the 
 shelter of his roof; and he drove her from the house ! Such con- 
 duct would have been barbarous if even a stranger had made the 
 appeal ; in the present instance, it exhibits a cruelty which can 
 not be too severely reprobated. 
 
 C. B. : " My parents were dead. I was out of place. I had no 
 relations but an uncle, who would not give me any shelter unless 
 I paid him for it. I went on the town to get money to pay for 
 my lodgings." This uncle's name ought to be handed down to 
 posterity as a synonym of hard-hearted selfishness, and as indi- 
 cating another manner in which money can be made. His miser- 
 ly propensities must have been very strongly developed when he 
 refiised a shelter to his destitute niece unless she paid for it. It 
 certainly did not matter to him how or where she obtained the 
 means, and doubtless his equanimity was not disturbed when he 
 ascertained that the money she paid him was the price of her 
 shame. The coin was as bright in his hand, as useful to him to 
 hoard or to spend, as if it had been her honest earning. Probably^ 
 he would have been excessively annoyed (it is the characteristic 
 of such men) if any plain-spoken person had told him that he was 
 the means of making this girl a prostitute ; but can it be denied 
 that such was the fact, when he received some portion of the 
 money earned by his niece's prostitution before he would allow 
 her to sleep in his house? 
 
 L. S. : " My sister ill-treated me because I had no work." Here 
 a. sister seems to have regarded money as the chief good. The 
 applicant was out of employment, in itself enough to enlist one's 
 sympathies ; she was in want, which should have been an ad- 
 ditional reason for kindness ; and yet, for these causes, a sister ill- 
 treated her. 
 
NEW YORK. 515 
 
 In thus endeavoring to show the several duties of parents, hus- 
 bands, and relatives to those dependent females who are liable to 
 be exposed at any moment to temptations leading from the path 
 of virtue, cases have been exhibited in which a departure from 
 the universally recognized obligations of these classes has added 
 recruits to the ranks of prostitution. In these remarks, the en- 
 deavor has been to advance nothing resting on a theory; to ad- 
 vocate nothing unless supported by facts or acknowledged by 
 common sense ; to exonerate no one from blame when circum- 
 stances demanded a censure, and to conderon none in favor of 
 whom there could be an existing doubt. 
 
 The recorded extracts, giving an insight beyond the scene of 
 public view, exhibiting the secret machinery of the family circle, 
 can not be contemplated without a mingled feeling of sorrow and 
 shame. Sorrow, that so many females who might have been use- 
 ful members of society have been forced into the ranks of sin; 
 and shame, that the instruments in these proceedings were those 
 who should have exerted every power to prevent such a result. 
 
 Cases have now been presented to the reader where a sorrow- 
 ing, heart-broken girl has been denied the opportunity of repent- 
 ance, and driven from a father's home ; where another has been 
 expelled from the famUy circle because she would not consent to 
 an ill-assorted marriage ; where stepfathers and stepmothers have 
 violated their duties, and despised the obligations they had volun- 
 tarily assumed; where a mother's ill-treatment has driven her 
 daughter to ruin ; where parents were living and reveling upon 
 the wages of their children's dishonor ; where false accusations 
 and uiiind treatment were resorted to, and, from their natural 
 effects, drove a girl from home and virtue; where drunkenness 
 and debauchery made home a hell upon earth; where parents in 
 afSuent circumstances have driven a child from their home ; where 
 prostitution was wilHngly embraced as an escape from parental 
 
 tyranny. 
 
 Again: Instances have been cited where husbands have de- 
 serted their wives and children ; where the marital vow has been 
 broken in the most glaring manner, and the crime followed by 
 dehberate abandonment; where the wife's affections have been 
 slighted, and her love relinquished for the purchased caresses of 
 another 'woman; where a charge of infidelity has been made 
 against a wife without cause; where a husband has deliberately 
 brought his wife to a house of prostitution, and is now leading an 
 
516 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 idle, worttless life upon her eamiags; -wliere anotlier husband 
 brought his -wife to a strange city in order to desert hdl^and her 
 children ; -where the solemn contract of marriage has been per- 
 verted; where a dmiriken husband has raised his hand against 
 the woman he had sworn to protect ; where a wife's sickness and 
 incapacity for labor was made a reason for her husband's deser- 
 tion; where a man's insane thirst for intoxicating liquor has 
 forced a woman to prostitution for a maintenance ; where the 
 husband has been cctomitted to prison for theft. 
 
 Farther :' Cases have been given where an aunt lives upon the 
 proceeds of a niece's prostitution ; where uncles and aunts have 
 systematically' ill-used their orphan relatives; where a sister-in- 
 law procured and assisted at the violation of a child ; where a 
 brother's unkindness forced his sister to cbntiiiue a life of shame; 
 where relatives to whom an orphan child w;aS iatrusted abandoned 
 her when she.most needed their care ; where a brother refused an 
 asylum to a deserted and suffering sister ; where an uncle forced 
 a gif 1 to prostitute herself for money to pay him for her lodgings. 
 
 As already stated, these cases are all facts, collected in the 
 course of this investigation, and are believed to be substantially 
 correct. With such disclosures as these, can any one be sur- 
 prised at the continued spread of prostitution? The family cir- 
 cle is one of the sources whence it emanates ; so is the matrimo- 
 nial bond;' and so are the different branches of consanguinity. 
 When faithers, husbands, and relatives thus forget their duties, 
 and lend their influence to swell the tide of vice, it is no matter 
 of surprise that strangers should be found ready and eager to 
 contribute their share to the polluted current. 
 
 But the evil is not incurable, if public opinion can be enlisted 
 on the sid* of public morals, and parents are satisfied, by unmis- 
 takable demonstrations, that the voice of an indignant people will 
 be raised against them if practices similar to those narrated con- 
 tinue to occur. Husbands, too, must be convinced that any in- 
 fraction of their marriage vows wO^ expose them to popular 
 odium; and if they have" contracted an ill-assorted, hasty alli- 
 ance, the responsibility must be borne by themselves. The con- 
 tracts they voluntarily made must be fulfilled. Eelatives also 
 must be warned that the performance of their duties will be rig- 
 idly required. There is ho deficiency of legislation on this sub- 
 ject ; all that is wanted is determination to enforce existing laws ; 
 and when this is done, some of the main causes of prostitution 
 will be removed. 
 
NEW YORK. 517 
 
 To resume tlie analysis of the table of replies: Seventy-one 
 women were persuaded by prostitutes to embrace a life of de- 
 pravity. One of tlie most common modes by whicli this end is 
 accomplished is to inveigle a girl into some house of prostitution 
 as a servant, and this is frequently done through the medium of 
 an intelligence office. 
 
 Most of the inhabitants of New York are acquainted with the 
 arrangements and routine of business in those offices, but they 
 may be described as a matter of information to others. Imagine 
 a large room, generally a basement, in some leading thoroughfare. 
 Upon entering from the street you will observe tw;o doors, marked 
 respectively " Enteance foe Employees" and " Enteanoe eoe 
 Seevants." Passing through the first, you approach a desk, 
 where the proprietor or his clerk is seated with his register -books 
 before him. You make known your wish to engage a servant, 
 specifying her duties and the wages you are wOling to pay. 
 This is registered with your name and address, the fee is paid, 
 and you are invited to walk into the other department, and ascer- 
 tain whether any of the throng who are waiting there will suit 
 your purpose. K successful in the search, it is merely necessary 
 to inform the book-keeper that you are suited, and to take your 
 servant home with you ; but if you do not succeed, a woman wUl 
 be sent to the registered address, and the office-keeper wUl con- 
 tinue to send until you are satisfied. 
 
 Servants who wish to obtain situations register their wants and 
 pay a fee. If there are no places likely to -suit them on the list 
 of employers, they have permission to remain in the waiting-room 
 until an applicant appears. In these waiting-rooms may be found 
 a crowd of expectants varying from twenty to one hundred,: ac- 
 cording to the business transacted by the office. 
 
 In theory this arrangement is a very good one; in practice it 
 is frequently abused. A respectable housekeeper who wishes to 
 engage a servant will find but little trouble in doing so, and any 
 person wishing to make the office a medium for securing females 
 for improper purposes will seldom be disappointed. It is rarely 
 that the proprietors notice the arrangements made; they merely 
 act as brokers, and make known the wants of. each party, and do 
 not interfere with the character of either unless it is so notorious- 
 ly bad as to force them to notice it for their own sake. So long 
 aa the employer and servant agree, the office-keeper is contented. 
 
 The following facts illustrate the manner in which young wom- 
 
518 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTIOlir. 
 
 en are sometimes entrapped. A respectably-dressed man went 
 into an intelligence office, and represented himself as a st^keeper 
 residing some twenty miles from New York. He wished to hire 
 a girl as seamstress and chambermaid, who must go home with 
 him the same afternoon. Glancing around the waiting-room, he 
 soon saw one of sufficiently attractive appearance, to whom he 
 made the proposition. The wages he offered were liberal, the 
 work was described as light, and the woman made an arrange- 
 ment to accompany him forthwith. He told her that he had a 
 little business to transact before he could leave the city, but that 
 she could wait for him at his sister's until the cars were ready to 
 start. She had but slight knowledge of the temptations of New 
 York, and went with him to a brothel, the keeper of which he 
 stated to be his sister. Here she remained for some hours waiting 
 his return. The " sister" expressed her surprise at his absence, 
 but concluded that his business had detained him, and, with appa- 
 rently a kindly feeling, told the girl that she would be welcome 
 to sleep there that night. Her suspicions were lulled by the seem- 
 ing respectability of the persons, and she remained. In the course 
 of the evening the character of the house became evident, and 
 then the proprietress offered to engage her as a servant, solemnly 
 promising that she should not be exposed to any insult. Almost 
 a total stranger in the city, and destitute of money, she consented. 
 A very few days in such a hot-bed of vice was sufficient to deaden 
 her sense of right and wrong, and within a fortnight she was en- 
 rolled as a prostitute. 
 
 Keepers of houses sometimes visit these offices themselves, but 
 generally some unknown agent is employed, or, at times, one of 
 the prostitutes is plainly dressed, and sent to register her name as 
 wishing a situation, so as to be able to obtain admission to the 
 waiting-room. There she enters into conversation with the other 
 women, whom she uses all the art she possesses to induce to visit 
 her employer, and very frequently with the same result as in the 
 case just narrated. 
 
 There exists among many prostitutes a fiendish desire to reduce 
 the virtuous of their own sex to a similar degradation with them- 
 selves. Since they can not elevate their own characters, they 
 strive to debase those of others. To accomphsh this, they spare 
 neither trouble nor misrepresentation. One system ia which they 
 are commonly employed may be noted, although the mode is sim- 
 ilar to the case of the servant-girl just given. A man had re- 
 
NEW YORK. 519 
 
 solved to ruin a woman who placed implicit confidence in his sin- 
 cerity, and admitted that she loved him. He found that her mod- 
 esty and good sense were proof against his persuasive powers, and 
 he finally resorted to .stratagem, and invited her to walk with 
 him to visit Some relations. He took her to a brothel, introduced 
 its keeper (who had already been instructed in her part) as his 
 aunt, and one or two of the inmates represented her daughters. 
 The deception was maintained for a time ; family matters were 
 discussed, and refreshments introduced. A glass of drugged wine 
 was handed to the victim, and as soon as its effects were visible 
 the villainous deed was effected. Such machinations as this show 
 that not only are many of these prostitutes dangerous to society 
 from their open and avowed life of crime, but also from the in- 
 fluences they exert to deceive the honest of their own sex. 
 
 Allusion has been already made to the numerous dangers which 
 surround young women during their passage to this country on 
 crowded emigrant ships, or after their arrival in the equally crowd- 
 ed emigrant boarding-houses, and it is needless to repeat them in 
 this section ; but an incomplete statement of the causes of prosti- 
 tution would be presented if the injurious effects of some of our 
 fashionable boarding-schools were suffered to pass without notice. 
 Startling as such an assertion may appear, it is no more strange 
 than true. A system of education, the prominent design of which 
 is to impart a knowledge of the (so-called) modem accomplish- 
 ments to the almost total exclusion of moral training ; to make 
 the pupils present the most dazzling appearance in society, regard- 
 less of their real interests and duties, does, in some cases, lead to 
 unhappy results. Filial affection, or early training, or innate vir- 
 tue, enable many to overcome these temptations, but others suc- 
 cumb to them. One case, in particular, it is desirable to record, 
 although several of a similar nature were met with. 
 
 A girl, eighteen years of age, bom in Louisiana, of highly re- 
 spectable parents, was induced to elope from a boarding-school in 
 the vicinity of New Orleans with a man who accorded with her 
 romantic ideal of a lover. No marriage vows ever passed be- 
 tween them; she trusted him as the heroine of a modem novel 
 would have done, and he deceived her, as all modern rakes deceive 
 their victims. She lived with him for a considerable time. When 
 he deserted her, she was left almost destitute. She was afraid to 
 return to her parents, knowing that they were acquainted with the 
 life she had been leading, and she had no other means of support 
 
520 HISTORY OP PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 than open and avowed prostitution. These features of her history 
 should present a warning to both parents and daughtos of the 
 dangers attending a supexficial and improper system ofeducation. 
 
 Of course it must not be inferred that all schools are open to 
 such objections. In the numerous institutions of the kind scat- 
 tered throughout the land, the majority are worthy of every con- 
 fidence. Instances like this are probably exceptions to the rule, 
 but stiU, what has been pemidous in one case may be in another ; 
 and the education of young women, forming, as it does, their char- 
 acter for life, should'be conducted, as far as possible, so as to se- 
 cure their safety, honor, and usefulness. In a subsequent chapter, 
 this superficial education will be farther noticed. . 
 
 One of the real iniprovements of inodem times is the introduc- 
 tion of physiology as a branch of education in our schools. Yet 
 it is to be regretted that the knowledge communicated to youth 
 upon a subject so important is stO extremely hmited. Indeed, 
 such is the present state of public opinion, that any text-book or 
 teacher that should impart thorough instruction in regard to aU 
 the organs and functions of the human body, would be considered 
 entirely unfit for use or duty. Notwithstanding this, the young 
 of both sexes do become informed upon the subjects of marriage, 
 procreation, and maternity. And how ? By force of natural cu- 
 riosity and injurious association. It is the imperative duty of pa- 
 rents to rightly inform their children concerning the things which 
 they must inevitably know. In consequence of their neglect of 
 this duty, both boys and girls are left to find out all they can 
 about the mysteries of their being from ignorant servants or cor- 
 rupt companions. Let fathers teach their sons, and mothers their 
 daughters, at the earliest practicable age, all that their fiiture well- 
 being makes it necessary for them to know. The information 
 thus acquired will be invested with a sacredness and delicacy 
 entirely wanting when obtained from unreliable and pernicious 
 sources. 
 
 Thus would many of the injurious influences incident to the 
 present secrecy upon such subjects be avoided. Of the evil hab- 
 its and practices common among youth, physicians are well cog- 
 nizant, and many a parent has had to mourn their sad results in 
 the premature death or dethroned reason of children who, with 
 proper physical training, might have been their pride and joy. 
 
 Next to the responsibility of parents in tMs matter is that of 
 teachers, who, with aU judiciousness and delicacy, should supply 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 521 
 
 lie deficiencies of ignorant or incapable parents in the physiolog- 
 3al education of all committed to theix care. 
 
 And here a word in regard to the bad effects of, so called, clas- 
 ical studies. Are they not oftentimes acquired at the risk of 
 lutraged delicacy or undermined moral principles ? Mythology, 
 a particular, introduces our youth to courtesans who are described 
 is goddesses, and goddesses who are but courtesans in disguise, 
 'oetry and history as frequently have for their themes the ecsta- 
 lies of illicit love, as the innocent joys of pure affection. Shall 
 hese branches of study be totally ignored? By no means; but 
 et their harmless flowers and wholesome fruit alone be culled for 
 routhful minds, to the utter exclusion of all poisonous ones, how- 
 iver beautiful. 
 
 This lack of information has resulted in another evil in the im- 
 )etus it has given to the sale of obscene books and prints. Ee- 
 !ent legal proceedings have checked this nefarious trade, but it 
 till exists. Boys and young men may be found loitering at all 
 lours round hotels, steam-boat docks, rail-road depots, and other 
 mblic places, ostensibly selling newspapers or pamphlets, but se- 
 jretly offering vile, lecherous publications to those who are likely 
 ;o be customers. They generally select young and inexperienced 
 Dersons for two reasons. In the first place, these are the most 
 jrobable purchasers, and will submit to the most extortion ; and, 
 n the second, they can be more easily imposed upon. The vend- 
 jrs have a trick which they frequently perform, and which can 
 scarcely be regretted. In a small bound volume they insert about 
 tialf a dozen highly-colored obscene plates, which are cut to fit 
 the size of the printed page. Having fixed upon a victim, they 
 cautiously draw his attention to the pictures by rapidly turning 
 3ver the leaves, but do not allow him to take the book into his 
 bands, although they give him a good opportunity to note its 
 binding. He never dreams that the plates are loose, and feels 
 sure that in buying the book he buys the pictures also. When 
 ;he price is a^eed upon, the salesman hints that, as he is watched, 
 ;he customer had better turn his back for a moment while taking 
 he money from his pocket-book, and in this interval he slips the 
 alates from between the leaves and conceals them. The next 
 noment the parties are again face to face, the price is handed 
 )ver, and the book he had seen before is handed to the purchaser 
 mder a renewed caution, and.is carefiilly pocketed. The book- 
 leller leaves, and at the first opportunity the prize is covertly 
 
522 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 drawn forth to be examined more minutely, and the unwary one 
 finds that he has paid several dollars for some few pjjpted pages, 
 without pictures, which would have been dear at as many cents. 
 
 Despite all precautions, there is every reason to believe that the 
 manufacture of these obscene books is largely carried on in this 
 city. It is needless to remind any resident of the large seizures 
 made in New York during the last two years, or to particularize 
 the stock condemned. More caution is observed now, and the 
 post-office is made the vehicle for distribution. Circulars are is- 
 sued which describe the publications and their prices, modes of 
 transmitting money are indicated, and the advertiser plainly says 
 that he will not allow any personal interviews on account of the 
 dangers which surround the traffic. By using an indefinite num- 
 ber of aliases, and often changing the address to which letters are 
 sent, he succeeds in eluding the vigilance of the police, and secures 
 many remittances. 
 
 Not less dangerous than the directly obscene publications is a 
 class of voluptuous novels which is rapidly circulating. Some are 
 translations from the French; but one man, now living in En- 
 gland, has written and published more disgustingly minute works, 
 under the guise of honest fiction, than ever emanated from the 
 Parisian presses. He writes in a strain eminently calculated to 
 excite the passions, but so carefully guarded as to avoid absolute 
 obscenity, and embellishes his works with wood-cuts which ap- 
 proach lasciviousness as nearly as possible without being indict- 
 able. It is to be regretted that publishers have been found, in 
 this and other cities, who are willing to use their imprints on the 
 title-pages of his trash, and sell works which can not but be pro- 
 ductive of the worst consequences. Those who have seen much 
 of the cheap pamphlets, or "yellow-covered" literature oflfered in 
 New York, will have no difficulty in recalling the name of the 
 author alluded to, and those who are ignorant of it would only be 
 injured by its disclosure. There can be but one opinion as to the 
 share obscene and voluptuous books have in ruining the character 
 of the young, and they may justly be considered as causes, indi- 
 rect it may be, of prostitution. 
 
 Some of the sources of prostitution have been thus examined. 
 To expose them aU would require a volume ; but it is hoped that 
 sufficient has been developed to induce observation and inquiry, 
 and prompt action in the premises. 
 
NEW YORE. 523 
 
 OHAPTEE XXXJV. 
 
 NEW YOKE. — STATISTICS. 
 
 ileans of Support. — Occupation. — Treatment of Domestics. — Needlewomen.— 
 Weekly Earnings.— Female Labor in France.— Competition.— Opportunity for 
 Employment in the Country.— Effects of Female Occupations.— Temptations of 
 Seamstresses.— Indiscriminate Employment of both Sexes in Shops.— Factory 
 Life.— Business of the Fathers of Prostitutes.— Mothers' Business.— Assistance 
 to Parents.— Death of Parents.— Intoxication.— Drinking Habits of Prostitutes. 
 —Delirium Tremens.— Liquor Sold in Houses of Prostitution.— Parental Influ- 
 ences.— Religion of Parents and Prostitutes.— Amiable Feelings.— Kindness and 
 Fidelity to each other. 
 
 Question. Is PROSTITUTION your only means of support ? 
 
 Ecaources. Numbers. 
 
 Dependent solely upon prostitution 1698 
 
 Have other means of support 302 
 
 Total 2000 
 
 No surprise will be excited by the fact- indicated above, that 
 leventeen of every twenty women examined in New York reply 
 ;o this question in the affirmative, for it is almost impossible to 
 jonceive that any honest occupation can be associated with vice 
 )f such character. The small minority who have other means 
 jonsists principally of women who work at their trades or occu- 
 )ations at intervals, or who receive some slight payment for as- 
 listing in the ordinary work, or for sewing, in the houses of ill 
 ame where they reside. It is difficult to believe women working 
 LS domestics in brothels are virtuous themselves ; on the contrary, 
 t is a well-known fact that they are, in every sense of the word, 
 ffostitutes ; the only difference being that they work a portion 
 )f the time, while the "boarders" do not work at all. 
 
 Those who follow an employment at intervals are mostly wom- 
 sn whose trades are uncertain, and who are liable at certain sea- 
 ions of the year to be without employment. Then real necessity 
 brces them on the town until a return of business provides them 
 vith work. They are more to be pitied than blamed. 
 
 There is another class not entirely dependent on prostitution. 
 :t consisis mostly of German girls, who receivefrom five to six 
 loUars per month as dancers in the public ball-rooms. In the 
 irst ward of New York there are several of these establishments, 
 nd the Captain of Police in that district has attached some in- 
 
521: HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 teresting memoranda to Ms returns, from ■which is gleaned the 
 followiag information respecting these places ai^ their inhabit- 
 ants. It is submitted to the reader, in order that he may draw 
 his own conclusions as to the virtue of the dancers. 
 
 " These dance-houses are generally kept by Germans, who con- 
 sider dancing a proper and legitimate business. They are ia gen- 
 eral very quiet. The girls employed to dance do not consider 
 themselves prostitutes, because the proprietors wiU not allow them 
 to be known as such. Each girl receives monthly from five to 
 six dollars and her board, and almost every one of them hires a 
 room in ^the neighborhood for the purpose of prostitution. I have 
 classed them all as prostitutes, because, in addition to the previous 
 fact, I know that the majority of theim have lived as such. Very 
 few of these girls are excessive drinkers. Although the regula- 
 tions of the ball-room require them to driak after each dance 
 with their partners, yet the proprietor has always a bottle of water 
 slightly colored, with port wine,- from which they drink, and he 
 charges the partner the same price as for liquor." 
 
 Alluding to the keeper of one of these places, the same officer 
 
 " The proprietress of this house is a Grerman woman over 
 seventy years of age. She established the house over eighteen 
 years since, to my cea^ain knowledge. Her husband had just 
 then arrived from Germany with .their four children. They were 
 not worth one hundred dollars at that time. The man died three 
 years ago, and by his will directed forty thousand dollars to be 
 divided among his children. The widow is possessed of an equal 
 amount in her own name." 
 
 Question. "What tkade or calling did tou follow be- 
 fore YOU BECAME A PROSTITUTE? 
 
 Occupations. . Numbers. 
 
 Artist . .'.''.'. • . ■ 1 
 
 Nurse in Bellevue Hospital, N. Y; 1 
 
 School-teachers. ..... 3 
 
 J'ruit-hawkers 4 
 
 Paper-box-makers 5 
 
 Tobacco-packers 1 
 
 Attended stores or bars ... 8 
 
 Attended school 8 
 
 Embroiderers , 8 
 
 Fur-sewers 8 
 
 Hat-trimmers 8 
 
 Umbrella-makers 8 
 
 Mowe&makers 9 
 
 Occupations. Humbera. 
 
 Shoe-binders 16 
 
 Vest-makers 21 
 
 Cap-makers 24 
 
 Book-folders 21 
 
 Factory girls 37 
 
 Housekeepers 39 
 
 Milliners 41 
 
 Seamstresses 59 
 
 Tailoresses .- 105 
 
 Dress-makers 121 
 
 Servants 933 
 
 Lived with parents or friends 499 
 Total 2000 
 
NEW YOEK. 525 
 
 Wherever the social condition of woman has been considered, 
 one fact has always been painfully apparent, namely, the difacul- 
 ties which surround her in any attempt to procure employment 
 beyond the beaten track of needlework or domestic service. Nu- 
 merous light or sedentary employments now pursued by men 
 inight with much greater propriety be confided to women, but 
 custom seems to have fixed an arbitrary law which can not be 
 altered. If a lady enters a dry goods store, she is waited upon 
 by some stalwart young man, whose energy and muscle would be 
 far more useful in tilling the groimd, or in some other out-door 
 employment. If she wishes to make a purchase of jewelry, she 
 is served by the same class of attendants. Why should not fe- 
 ■ males have this branch of employment at their command? It 
 would in a majority of cases be more consonant with the feelings 
 of the purchasers, and consequently more to the interest of store- 
 keepers. It would open an honorable field of exertion to the 
 women, and improve the condition of the men who now monop- 
 olize such employments, by forcing them to obtain work suita- 
 ble to their sex and strength, and driving from the crowded cities 
 into the open country some whose effeminacy is fast bringing 
 them to positive idleness and ruin. 
 
 Many people are prepared to frown upto any attempt to im- 
 prove the social condition of dependent women. They regard it 
 as a part of that myth which they call opposition to constituted 
 authorities, without any reference to the consideration which 
 should form the basis of all society, namely, ensuring the greatest 
 amount of good to the greatest number. Others who are opposed 
 to any amelioration sustain their views by a libel upon woman, 
 and upon ier Almighty Creator. They assert that she has not 
 sufficient intellect for any thing beyond routine employment, or 
 blame her because she has received only such an imperfect edu- 
 cation as the world has thought proper to award her, and thus has 
 not had an opportunity to cultivate her faculties. It is not nec- 
 essary to point to the productions and achievements of women 
 even in our own days, omitting all mention of what has been done 
 heretofore, to expose the fallacy of this proposition. The facts 
 are patent to the world. With special reference to the subject in 
 hand it may be asserted, unhesitatingly and without fear of con- 
 tradiction, that were there more avenues of employment open to 
 females there would be a corresponding decrease in prostitution, 
 and many of those who are now ranked with the daughters of 
 
526 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTIOK. 
 
 shame would be tappy and virtuous members of the commu- 
 
 In the list of occupations pursued by the women who are now 
 prostitutes in New York, a most lamentable monotony is visible. 
 Domestic service and sewing are the two principal resources. 
 From the gross number of two thousand deduct those who live^ 
 with their parents or friends, children attending school, domestic 
 servants, and housekeepers, amounting in the aggregate to 1322, 
 and there is a balance of 678, nearly six hundred of whom depend 
 upon needles and thread for an existence. In the total number 
 reported there are only^our^ or exacth/ one in every five hundred, 
 who relied for support upon any occupation requiring mental cul- 
 ture, that is, one artist and three school-teachers. This fact in 
 itself sustains the theories that mental cultivation and sufficient 
 employment are restrictions to the spread of prostitution. 
 
 If women are compelled to undergo merely the slavery of life, 
 no moral advancement can ever be expected from them. If every 
 approach to remunerative employment is systematically closed 
 against them, nothing but degradation can ensue, and the moralist 
 who shuddered with horror at the bare possibility of a woman be- 
 ing allowed to earn a competent Hving in a respectable manner 
 will ejaculate, " What^wfiil depravity exists in the female sex !" 
 He and others of his class drive a woman to starvation by refus- 
 ing to give her employment, and then condemn her for maintain- 
 ing a wretched existence at the price of Arirtue. 
 
 But to notice more particularly the employments which the 
 
 ' Miss Mulock remarks on female occupations : "Equality of sexes is not in the 
 nature of things. One only ' right' we have to assert in common with mankind, 
 and that is as much in our hands as theirs — ^the right of having something to do." 
 — A Woman's Thoughts upon Women (New York ed.), p. 13. 
 
 " The Father of all has never put one man or one woman into this world without 
 giving each something to do there." — Ibid., p. 19. 
 
 "This fact remains patent to any person of common sense and experience, that 
 " in the present day one half of our women are obliged to take care of themselves, 
 obliged to look solely to themselves for maintenance, position, occupation, amuse- 
 ment, reputation, life," — Ibid., p. 29. 
 
 " Is society to draw up a code of regtilations as to what is proper for us to do, 
 and what not?"— Ibid., p. 31. 
 
 "The world is slowly discovering that women are capable for far more crafts 
 than was supposed, If only they are properly educated for them; that they are good 
 accountants, shop-keepers, drapers' assistants, telegraph clerks, watch-makers ; and 
 doubtless would be better if the ordinary training which almost every young man 
 has a chance of getting were thought equally indispensable to young women."— 
 Ibid., p. 76. 
 
NEW YORK. 527 
 
 courtesans of New York have followed. The domestic servants 
 amount to 931. No modern fashion has yet been introduced to 
 deprive females of this sphere of labor, but so progressive is the 
 age that even that may be accomplished within a few years, and 
 the advertising columns of the newspapers teem with announce- 
 ments of some newly-invented " scrubbing-machine." The space 
 will not permit any extended remarks on this employment, but, 
 while allowing that' many employers treat their servants as hu- 
 man beings gifted with the same sensibilities and feelings as them- 
 selves, it must be regretted that there are others who use them in 
 a manner which would bring a blush to the cheek of a southern 
 slave-driver. With such mistresses the incapacity of servants is 
 a constant theme, nor do they ever ask themselves if they have 
 learned the science of governing. Assuming that they themselves 
 are right, they conclude that the "help" is, of course, wrong. Is 
 it any wonder that girls are driven to intoxication and disgrace by 
 this conduct ? Another reason which forces servant-girls to pros- 
 titution is the excessive number who are constantly out of em- 
 ployment, estimated at one fourth of those resident in the city, an 
 evil which would be diminished were there more opportunities for 
 female labor. 
 
 What is the position of the needle-woman ? Far worse than 
 that of the servant. The latter has a home and food in addition 
 to her wages ; the former must lodge and keep herself out of 
 earnings which do not much exceed in amount the servant's pay. 
 The labor by. which this miserable pittance is earned, so truthful- 
 ly depicted in the universally known " Song of the Shirt," is dis- 
 tressing and enervating to a degree. Working from early dawn 
 till late at night, with trembling fingers, aching head, and very 
 often an empty stomach, the poor seamstress ruins her health to 
 obtain a spare and insufficient living. There is no variety in her 
 employment; it is the same endless round of stitches, varied only 
 by a wearisome journey once or twice a week to the store whence 
 she receives her work, and where the probabilities are that a por- 
 tion of her scanty wages will be deducted for some alleged de- 
 ficiency in the work. She has no redress, but must submit or be 
 
 discharged. 
 
 Nor is the position of a milliner or dress-maker much superior 
 to this. She has a room provided for her in the employer's estab- 
 lishment, and there she must remain so long as the inexorable de- 
 mands of fashion, or the necessity of preparing bonnets or dresses 
 
528 
 
 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 for some special occasion reqioire. It matters not if slie faint from 
 exhaustion and fatigue; Mrs. wants her ball-^ess to-mor- 
 row, and the poor slave (we use this word advisedly) must labor 
 as if her eternal salvation rested on her nimble fingers. But the 
 gay robe wMch: is to deck the form 'of beauty is completed; the 
 bour of release has come at last ; and, as at night the wearied girl 
 walks feebly through the almost deserted streets, she meets some 
 of the frail of her own sex, bedecked in finery, with countenances 
 beaming from the effects of their potations, and the thought flash- 
 es across her mind, " They are better off than I am." Her human 
 nature can scarcely repress such an exclamation, which is too oft- 
 en but the precursor of her own ruin. 
 
 Paper-box-makers, tobacco-packers, and book-folders are no bet- 
 ter off. They must work in crowded shopSj must inhale each 
 other's breath during the whole day (for such work-shop^ are not 
 the best ventilated buUdings in New York, generally speaking), 
 and receive, as their remuneration, barely sufficient to find them 
 food, clothes, and shelter. 
 
 It is needless to pursue this subject. Enough has surely been 
 advanced to demonstrate the necessity of a more extended field 
 of female labor. 
 
 Question. How lowg is it since tou abandoned your teade 
 
 AS A MEANS OP LIVING ? 
 
 Length of Time. Numbers. 
 
 3 mouths l';4 
 
 6 « 
 
 1 year 
 
 2 years 
 8 « 
 
 4 « 
 
 151 
 213 
 254 
 141 
 104 
 
 Length of Time, 
 
 5 years .... 
 10 « .... 
 
 12 " and upward ■ 
 Not abandoned . . 
 Unascertained . . 
 Total . . 
 
 Xiimbers. 
 
 . Ill 
 
 . 90 
 . 16 
 . 296 
 . 318 
 
 2000 
 
 A very few words will suffice on this table, as the remarks 
 which would arise from it have been already made in reference to 
 other questions. In mdst instances the occupation is abandoned 
 as soon as the first false step is taken, unless in those cases of des- 
 titution where, a previous want of employment renders prostitu- 
 tion necessary as the only means of living. Of couise, aslDefore 
 observed, a life of prostitution must be incompatible with any de- 
 scription of honest employment, and, in those cases where a wom- 
 an has followed any trade or occupation after she had yielded to 
 proinisciious intercourse, it will generally be found that her mo- 
 tive was to deceive the world as to her own pursuits, or else to 
 satisfy her conscience that she was not entirely depraved. 
 
NEW YOBK. 
 
 529 
 
 * Qiiesiwn. What ■were youe aveeagke weekly earnings at 
 
 YOUR TRADE? 
 
 Average Earnings. Kumbera. 
 
 1 doUar ...... 534 
 
 2 dollars 336 
 
 3 « 230 
 
 4 « 127 
 
 5 « 68 
 
 6 « 2T 
 
 Average Earnings, 
 
 1 dollars . 
 
 20 « 
 50 « 
 
 Unascertained 
 Total , 
 
 Numbers, 
 
 8 
 5 
 1 
 1 
 663 
 
 2000 
 
 TMs ques^jon is of equal importance with that referring to the 
 number of employments available for females, and the replies 
 quoted above wUl give as many reasons for prostitution as in the 
 former case. From the work of a French author on this subject 
 the following is condensed as indicative of the hardships and in- 
 sufficient remuneration of women employed in factories in France : 
 
 "Women are employed principally in the manufacture of cotr 
 ton, sOk, and wool. The preparation of cotton presents two dan- 
 gerous features, in the 'beating' and 'dressing,' which are per- 
 formed solely by women. In the manufacture of silk there are also 
 two processes dangerous to life, and these are performed by women. 
 The woolen inanufacture has no real danger but in the 'carding,' 
 and all the carders are women. Of these mortal occupations there 
 is not one that will afford the workwoman a sufficient maintenancej 
 the average wages being from sixteen to twenty-five sous per day, 
 subject to the fluctuations of trade."^ 
 
 Commenting upon these facts, the Westminster Eeview says, 
 
 " We took some pains to ascertain the relative wages of men 
 and women employed in the same trades (in England), and almost 
 in every instance it appeared that for the same work, performed 
 in the same time, they received one third less, sometimes one half 
 less than men, without any inferiority of skOl being alleged. One 
 Epaster gravely said that he "paid women less because they ate less."^ 
 
 In a subsequent chapter of this volume will be found some par- 
 ticulars of the wages paid in manufacturing districts of the United 
 States, and the same disparity between male and female opera- 
 tives wUl be noticed. 
 
 ' M. Parent-Duchatelet assigns insufficient wages as one of the 
 principal causes of prostitution in Paris. He says, 
 - •*' What are the earnings of our laundresses, our seamstresses, 
 our milliners ? Compare the wages of the most skillM witji those 
 
 : 1 Histoire Morale des Femmes. Par M. Ernest Legoure. Paris, 1849. 
 ' Westminster Beview (London), My, 1850. American edition, vol. xxx. No. 2. 
 
 Ll 
 
530 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of the more ordinary and moderately able, and we shall see if it 
 be possible for these latter to procure even the stri^ necessaries 
 of life ; and if we farther compare the price of their work with 
 that of their dishonor, we shall cease to be surprised that so great 
 a number should fall into improprieties thus made almost inevi- 
 table."! , 
 
 This low rate of wages is defended upon the plea of competi- 
 tion. A manufacturer practically says, "If one man or woman 
 will do my work for five per cent, less than anothqpr, I must em- 
 ploy him or her unless I am prepared to carry on my business at 
 a positive loss ; for if I do not give them work, my neighbor will." 
 Valid as this reason may be in the old countries, where the sup- 
 ply of labor far exceeds the demand, it is invalid in America, 
 where there is a constant demand for workers. Our cities are 
 overcrowded ; remove some of their inhabitants to the country. 
 In our cities work can not be obtained; in the country both male 
 and female laborers are urgently required. • In cities an unem- 
 ployed woman is exposed to innumerable temptations; in the 
 country she need never be unemployed, and consequently would 
 escape such dangers. The difference b.etween the New and Old 
 worlds is simply that in the former the cities are overcrowded, 
 but the country is free ; in the latter, both cities and country are 
 . full to repletion. 
 
 In the city of New York one fourth part of the domestic serv- 
 ants are constantly out of employment ; remove them, and, while 
 the wants of the community will be amply supplied, the market 
 value of a faithful servant would increase to a living rate. Send 
 away a number of needle- women, reducing the supply of labor to 
 meet the actual demand; taildrs, shirt-makers, and dress-makers 
 must employ seamstresses, and in such cases they could not ob- 
 tain them without paying remunerative wages. The prices of our 
 wearing apparel would probably be advanced five per cent., with 
 a saving of fifteen per cent, taxation in the reduced expenses of 
 police; judiciary, prisons, hospitals, and charitable institutions. 
 
 The experience of the winter of 1857-8 has proved that but 
 very slight difficulties attend this plan when efficiently carried 
 out, and to the " Children's Aid Sooiety"-and the other benevolent 
 organizations, which have shown not only the possibility, but the 
 success of the system, all praise is due. No man entering upon a 
 farm in the "West requires any argument to convince him that his 
 > De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris, yol. i. p. 96. 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 631 
 
 property will increase in value as it is cultivated, and many -will 
 gladly advance tlie sum necessary to pay the expenses of a serv- 
 ant's journey out. As fast as men are sent to fell the timber or 
 break the prairie, the farmer's necessities force him to engage 
 women for the increasing work of his house and dairy, and to 
 supply the places of those who obtain husbands in their new 
 home. When the tide of emigration to the Australian colonies 
 commenced, nearly the whole of those who left England were sin- 
 gle men, and in a few months the cry was ringing from one end 
 of the island to the other: " Send us female help, send us wives." 
 A benevolent woman, resident in the colony, repeated the de- 
 mand, and subsequently lent the aid of her powerful talents to it. 
 She made a voyage to England, and there influenced public opin- 
 ion to such an extent that the British government yielded to the 
 outside pressure, and many ship -loads of well -recommended, 
 healthy, and virtuous women were sent out at the national ex- 
 pense to supply the want. The subsequent advancement of the 
 colony has proved that the measure was a judicious one, nor can 
 the abuses to which it became subject detract from its merits. 
 
 Similar plans with respect to destitute children have been prac- 
 ticed in New York for several years, and their subsequent exten- 
 sion to meet the wants of adult females has been limited only by 
 the means of the projectors. If the necessity and prospective 
 benefit of this emigration were known and appreciated, the re- 
 quired funds could be raised without any difficulty. The citizens 
 of New York are never dilatory in responding to calls upon their 
 benevolence in aid of any practicable and judicious scheme of phi- 
 lanthropy, and, under the management of an energetic business 
 committee, arrangements could be made which would render the 
 movement self-supporting within a few years. 
 
 The competition which keeps wages at starvation point is ag- 
 gravated by a notion entertained by many native women, and by 
 some foreigners who have been long in the country, that domestic 
 service is ungenteel. This idea drives them to needlework to 
 maintain their respectability, and thus, while service is aban- 
 doned, the ranks of seamstresses are augmented. By decreasing 
 the number to be employed, and consequently advancing their 
 wages and insuring better treatment from their employers, the 
 servant's life would be divested of many of its objections, and old- 
 fashioned house-work would once more be deemed respectable. 
 This consummation rests more with mistresses than servants. 
 
532 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 The former give tone to' the manners of the latter. It can not 
 be denied that many young women date their ruin ^m -unkiad 
 or umwomanly treatment by their mistresses, who have giyen a 
 free rein to their caprices, confident that if a girl left them they 
 could soon supply her place. This confidence would be shaken 
 if a housekeeper knew that servants were less plentiful, and her 
 own interest would induce her to use well those who suited her. 
 Such a conclusion would be an important step toward reducing 
 prostitution, and elevating the character of the masses.' 
 
 It can not be expected that this vice will decrease in New York 
 when five hundred and thirty -four, out of a total of two thousand, 
 earn only one dollar weeMy. No economist, however closely he 
 may calculate, will pretend that fourteen cents a day will supply 
 any woman with lodging, food, and clothes. She who should 
 attempt to exist on such; a sum would starve to death in less than 
 a month, and yet it is a notorious fact that many are expected to 
 support themselves upon it. How such expectations are realized, 
 and the sad manner in which the deficiency is made up, are am- 
 ply shown by the result of this. and similar investigations, here 
 and elsewhere. 
 
 - Thus far manufacturers have been blamed for the depression 
 of wages, but is not the consumer equally open to censure? He 
 purchases an article of dress from A, because it is a trifle cheaper 
 than in B's store. The cost of the raw material is the same to 
 each, and each. uses the same quantity in every article; but if A 
 can find customers for three times the amount of goods which B 
 can sell, on account of the saving he effects through paying lower 
 wages, it is scarcely in human nature, decidedly not in commercial 
 nature, to be expected that he will refase the opportunity. He 
 flatters himself that competition forces him to make the reduction, 
 and as the public do not denounce his action, but flock to his 
 store so long as his price continues lower than his neighbor's, he 
 concludes that his customers should bear the blame. Nor are his 
 conclusions false. The public sanotioh a system which .enforces 
 starvation or crime, and, for the sake of saving a few cents, add 
 their influence to swell the ranks of prostitutes, and condemn 
 many a poor woman to eternal ruin.'' 
 
 ' "The root of all improvement must be the mistress's own conviction, religions 
 a|id sincere, of the truth that she and her servants, share one common womanhood, 
 with aims, hopes, and interests distinctly d^fiijed, and -pursued with equal eager- 
 ness ; with a life here meant as a school for the next life ; with an immortal sonl." 
 ^—A Woman'f Thoughts v,pm Women t!New York ed.), p. 130. 
 
 ' "Neither labor por jnaterial can possibly be got 'cheaply,' that is, below its 
 
NEW yOKK. 533 
 
 Before leaving the question, of employment, the effects of diffef- 
 ent'branches of fenia-le occupation, as iuducing or favoring immo- 
 .rality, must;be noticed. Apart from the low rate of wages paid 
 to women, thus, causing destitution which forc^ them to vice, the 
 associations of most of the few trades they are in the habit of pur- 
 suing are prejudicial to virtue., ; The : trade, of tailoress or seam- 
 stress may be cited as a case in point. .One mode in which this 
 business is condrueted between employer and employed is as fol- 
 lows: The woman leaves either a cash , deposit or the guarantee 
 of some respopsible person at the store, and receives a certain 
 amount of materials to be made up by ar specified' time : when 
 she returns the manufactured goods she is paid^ and has more 
 work given her to make up. This may seem a very simple 
 course, and so it is, but One feature in it gives rather a sinister 
 •aspect. The person who delivers the materials, receives the work, 
 and pronounces on its execution, is almost invariably a man, arid 
 Upon his decision rests the question whether the operative shail 
 ■be paid her foil wages, or whether any, portion of her miserable 
 earnings shall be deducted because the work is not done to his 
 satisfaction. In many cases he wields a power the determinations 
 of which amount to this : " Shall I have any food to-day, or shall 
 .1 starve?" 
 
 It is reasonable to conclude that hardly any thing short of pos- 
 itive want can force a girl to undertake this labor at its present 
 price, and it is reasonable to imagine that her necessities willforpe 
 her to use every means to accomplish her task in a satisfactory 
 manner. If she finds that a smile bestowed upon her employer 
 or his clerk will aid her in the struggle for bread, she will not 
 present herself with a scowhng face ; or if a kmd entreaty will be 
 the means of procuring her a dinner as a favor, she will not ex- 
 pose herself to hunger by demanding it as a right. In this there 
 is no moral or actual^ wrong, but there are instances where lubrie- 
 ,<ity has exacted farther concessions, and the sacrifice. of a woman's 
 virtue been required as an equivalent for the privilege of sewing 
 at almost nominal prices. If this is conceded, the victim may be 
 assured of the best work and the most favors until her seducer 
 becomes satiated with possession, when means will easily be fouiiid 
 to displace her for some new favorite. If the outrageous requq?t 
 
 'average acknowledged cost, without somAody beiiiff cheated: consequently, these 
 devotees to cheapness are, very frequently, little better than genteel swindlers."— 
 A Woman's Thoughts upon Women (SeyrYoiked.), p. 72. 
 
584 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 is denied, she will get no more work from that shop, and ihay 
 seek other employment with almost a certainty o%meeting the 
 same indignity elsewhere. ■ That this is a Sequent occurrence, 
 ■unfortunately, can not be denied : that it exercises much influence 
 on public prostitution can not be doubted. 
 
 The employment of females in various trades in this city, in 
 the pursuit of which they are forced into constant communication 
 with male operatives has a disastrous effect upon their characters. 
 The daily. routine goes very far toward weakening that modesty 
 and reserve which are the best protectives against the seducer, and 
 renders them liable' to temptation in many shapes. A girl fre- 
 quently forms an attachment to a man working in the same shop, 
 believing it to be a mutual one, and only finds out her mistake 
 when she has yielded to his persuasions and is deserted. Or 
 women contract acquaintance for the sake of having an escort on 
 their holiday recreations, or because some other woman has done 
 so, or as the mere gratification of an idle fancy ; but all tend in 
 the same direction, and aid to undermine principles and jeopard- 
 ize character. 
 
 ' In this connection only city employments have been mentioned, 
 but the, same reasoning may be applied with greater force to fac- 
 tory life in any of our manufacturing districts. There the opera- 
 tives of both sexes in one mill may sometimes be counted by 
 hundreds, and their large numbers cause a more frequent and con- 
 stant communication than in smaller workshops. It has been 
 urged in support of the superior morality of such places, that the 
 very nature of the employment requires the most constant atten- 
 tion to be paid to it, and precludes' the possibility of any idle time. 
 "We freely concede to the apologists all the advantages they claim, 
 and admit that during the time — say ten hours daily— when the 
 machinery is running, neither males nor females can abandon their 
 respective positions ; but, unfortunately fopHhe force of the argu- 
 ment, the motion is not a perpetual one. A steam-engine or a 
 water-wheel can run for a week or a month without complaining 
 of fatigue, but human machines become exhausted after a few 
 hours' consecutive labor. Machinery can receive the necessary 
 attention and supplies without arresting its progress, but men and 
 women must sometimes cease work in order to eat and drink. 
 
 Granting, then, that during actual working hours a young wom- 
 ,an can not leave her post, yet the mind is free, and the range of 
 thought, when locomotion is denied her^ will often turn to the 
 
NEW YOEK. 535 
 
 hardships of her position. Busy as may be her hands, her brain 
 is disengaged, and while her mechanical duties are adroitly per- 
 formed, the mental faculties will be in full exercise, and for these 
 she has ample scope. Dissatisfied with her close confinement in 
 the factory, weary of the dreadful inonotony which makes to-day 
 but a repetition of yesterday and a sure' type 'of tormorrow, she is 
 happy, when the bell rings the signal ,to .leave work, to escape 
 from the. building, and renew outside its walls an acquaintance 
 she has formed before ; and too frequently the" persuasions and 
 promises of her lover will induce her to seek, in some less guard- 
 ed position, the independence for which, she longs. It may be 
 taken as a general rule that any confinement or restraint which 
 is irksome to human nature must result injuriously. 
 
 Domestic servants are not exempt from" temptation when em- 
 ployed in large establishments where both sexes are engaged, and 
 many a poor girl ascribes her ruin to the associations formed in 
 places of this description. 
 
 Thus far it has been supposed that man is the chief agent in 
 the propagation of vice, nor is there any, apparent reason to re- 
 cede from that position. The numerous cases of seduction under 
 false promises and subsequent desertioii ; of seduction by, married 
 men ; of violations of helpless and unprotected females, are abun- 
 dantly sufficient to prove, this, much as it may.be regretted for 
 the credit of the stronger sex, and also to vindicate the opinion 
 that employing males and females under' one irodf, in different 
 branches of the same business, has a strong tendency to promote 
 prostitution. Sometimes, however, it is true that woman, lost and 
 abandoned herselJF, lends her aid to drag her fellow: women, down 
 to perdition. In many of the stores and workshops in our city, 
 in every factory throughout the country, such are to be found, 
 and their insidious influence is quickly felt. By false representa- 
 tions and elaborate coloring, they w;ork upon the. minds of .the 
 simple, or inflame the passions of the ambitious,; but in either case 
 their object is the same, and in it they frequently succeed. 
 Question. What business did youk father follow? 
 
 Fathers' business. Numbers. 
 
 Architects 4 
 
 Auctioneer 1 
 
 Agents' 5 
 
 Butchers ^'^\ 
 
 Blacksmiths ..... 63 
 Barbers ,,,,.. 2 
 
 Fathers' business. Numbers. 
 
 Bakers 21 
 
 Builders 11 
 
 Book-keepers . . ... 3 
 
 Bo'atmen''' 1 
 
 Brothel-keeper .... 1 
 
 Bankers 2 
 
536 
 
 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Fathers' business. Numbers. 
 
 Carpenters 139 
 
 Carmen 26 
 
 Coopers 19 
 
 - Clerks 32 
 
 , Coachmen 10 
 
 ■' Clergymen 6 
 
 Coach-makers .... 9 
 
 Cabinet-makers . . . 16 
 
 Diver . , 1 
 
 Drover 1 
 
 Dyers 8 
 
 Engineers 18 
 
 Engraver 1 
 
 Farmers 440 
 
 Fishermen 6 
 
 Grocers ...... 14 
 
 Crilders 2 
 
 Gardeners ...... 10 
 
 Glass-blowers .... 2 
 
 Hotel and Tavern keepers 86 
 
 Hatters 13 
 
 Jewelers 10 
 
 Laborers 259 
 
 Liquor-dealers . . . 22 
 
 Lawyers . . . . . . 13 
 
 Lumber-merchants . . 1 
 
 Livery-stable-keepers . . 5 
 
 Millers 20 
 
 Merchants 31 
 
 Moulders 3 
 
 Manufacturers .... 24 
 
 Musicians 8 
 
 Fathers' business, Nnmbeis. 
 
 Men of Property ... 5 
 
 Naval Officers . .4P. . 31 
 Overseers ...... 5 
 
 . Peddlers 5 
 
 Policemen 15 
 
 Painters 16 
 
 Printers 3 
 
 Planters ..... 5 
 
 Pavers ....... 4 
 
 Physicians and Surgeons 19 , 
 
 Plumbers 2 
 
 Pawnbrokers .... 2 
 
 Ship-carpenters .... 23 
 
 Sailors 35 
 
 Shoe-makers 48 
 
 Stage-drivers . . . . • 4 
 
 Store-keepers . . . . 3T 
 
 Stone-cutters .... 20 
 
 School-teachers . . . . 14 
 Silversmiths .... 3 
 
 Soldiers 88 
 
 Sail-makers 4 
 
 Saddlers 14 
 
 Servants 4 
 
 Surveyor 1 
 
 Tailors 35 
 
 TradCTS 11 
 
 Tanners and Curriers . . 1 
 Tinsmiths ..... 2 
 
 Weavers 20 
 
 Wheelwright 1 
 
 Unascertained . . . . 106 
 
 Total, 
 
 2000 
 
 This table shows that almost all classes of society are exposed 
 to the influences which result in prostitution, from the children 
 of men of property, bankers, merchants, and professional men, 
 down to the families of mechanics and laborers. The numerous 
 and varied occupations of the fathers of those women who an- 
 swered the question renders any classification of them almost 
 impossible. A majority of the parents were either mechanics or 
 laborers, men who earned the daily food for themselves and fam- 
 ilies by manual .labor, and whose resources would be governed 
 by the- ordinary fluctuations of trade. 
 
 in foUowiilg theprbportion of natives and foreigners as exhib- 
 ited in previpiis tables, it must be remembered, that about five 
 eighths of these fathers were residents of other countries than the 
 United States when -those daughters were borin whbse replies 
 
NEW YORK. 537 
 
 form: tlie "bases of tliese statistics, and it is scarcely necessary to 
 say that labor is nowhere so well remunerated as with us. The 
 average wages, for instance, of a first-class mechanic in England 
 or Ireland seldom exceed, and, indeed, .rajely amount to, nine dol- 
 
 • lars per week, and an ordinary laborer is very" well paid if he re- 
 - ceives half that sum. This estimate refers to large cities, where 
 
 • the expenses of maintaining a family are as heavy as in New 
 York, and it indicates poverty, which has already been proved.to 
 
 , be one of the main causes of female depravity. 
 
 If the investigation is pursued into the rural districts of Great 
 Britain, the wages of mechanics and laborers will be found lower 
 
 . than they are in large cities, without any material reduction in 
 the necessary expenditure except in the item of house-rent. The 
 pitiful amounts paid to agricultural laborers , (often only twenty- 
 five cents a day) will surprise any one who is not fully acquaiut- 
 
 ■ ed. with the hardships endured by this unfortunate class, and the 
 
 • state of destitution in which they are compelled to exist (it can 
 not, with any propriety, be called living), and to rear their fain- 
 ilies. 
 
 More than one half of the foreigners are from' Ireland, and no 
 person acquainted with the: social history of that unhappy country 
 need be told of the want and deprivation endured by its peasant- 
 ry, of their useless efforts to benefit themselves, or of the ruin, 
 starvation, and disease with which they are so frequently afflicted. 
 To constitute a farmer in Ireland, a man must hire an acre or two 
 of land, for which he pays a heavy rent, as two of sometimes three 
 " middle-men" have to obtain their profits before the landlord re- 
 ceives his share. In this field he plants as many potatoes as can 
 be crowded into it ; and in his hut or -cabin he keeps a pig or 
 some fowls, regularly domesticated as members of the family, and 
 receiving more attention than the children. From the sale" of the 
 pig the rent has to be obtained, and from the proceeds of the 
 ;Poultry, with the potatoes, all their wants have to be supplied. 
 ^Thus, with the potatoes he raises for almost his sole means of sup- 
 .port, with peat firom some bog in the neighborhood to furnish him 
 ^with fuel, he lives until the impoverished 'Sbil refuses to yield its 
 -annual crop, or yields it in a diseased and poisonous state, wheh 
 -fever and starvation come to fill his cup of misery, and render him 
 dependent upou charity for an existence. And this in a land 
 peculiarly rich in all that is necessary to make its people a ^eat 
 and happy nation. 
 
538 
 
 HISTOBY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 This has been known as the state of Ireland for many years, 
 and in this condition it unquestionably, was when thq^omen who 
 here are now prostitutes were bom. there. Whether the severe 
 lessons taught by the last famine, the more enlightened and hb- 
 eral policy which has governed England, since that terrible calam- 
 ity, in its legislation for the sister island, the introduction of An- 
 glo-Saxon capitaland enterprise, and the lai"ge exodus of the' na- 
 tives of the soil, have been of advantage to the country, it is diffi- 
 cult to determine in the face of the conflicting testimony furnished 
 respectively by English and Irish partisaiis. It seems reasonable 
 to conclude that an improvement must have taken place under 
 these circumstances. But this is not the place to argue the polit- 
 ical questions so often agitated there and elsewhere ; it is enough 
 for the purpose of this work to show the poverty of twenty years 
 ago, and the vice resulting from it now, and to remind the reader 
 that because of the lamentable manner in which the Irish have 
 suffered in their own country, we must be taxed in New York for 
 the support in hospitals, alms-houses, and prisons, of the women 
 whose poverty compelled their crime. 
 
 Question. If your mother had any business independ- 
 ent OF YOUR FATHER, WHAT WAS IT? 
 
 Mothers* business. 
 
 No independent business 
 Dress-makers . . . 
 
 Store-keepers . . . . 
 Boardirig-house-keepeis 
 Servants . . . . . 
 Vest-makers . . . 
 Laundresses . . . . 
 
 Nuraljers. 
 
 1880 
 
 , 35 
 
 26 
 
 12 
 
 9 
 
 n 
 
 6 
 6 
 4 
 
 Mothers* business. 
 
 Bakers ..... 
 Hat-trimmers . . . 
 Milliners .... 
 Artificial Flower-maker 
 Music teacher . . . 
 
 Nurse ' 
 
 Umbrella-maker . . 
 Honse-cleaner , . . , 
 Total . . 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 4 
 3 
 3 
 
 2000 
 
 Only one hundred and twenty of two thousand women answer 
 that their mothers had any business independent of their fathers, 
 and they were mostly of the same ill-paid class as those alluded 
 to in the portion referring to the occupations of the women them- 
 selves. The exceptions were, boarding-house, store, and bakery- 
 keepers, amounting to twenty only, the remaining one hundred 
 being servants or needle-women. The fact that even this number 
 found it necessary to augment the income of their families by 
 their, own exertions is another evidence of poverty. 
 
 Question. Did you assist either your father or mother in 
 
 THEIR BUSINESS ? If SO, WHICH OF IKm ? 
 
, NEW YOEK.. 539 
 
 Assisted. Numbers. 
 
 Assisted neither parent 1515 
 
 " both parents 149 
 
 " mothers 306 
 
 « fathers 30 
 
 Totals 485 15l5 
 
 485 
 
 Aggregate 2000 
 
 To this question, thirty women reply that they were in the 
 habit of assisting their fathers, three hundred and six say they as- 
 sisted their mothers, and one hundred and forty -nine assisted both 
 parents. The two latter answers, embracing four, hundred and 
 fifty-five cases, must be construed to mean such assistance in the 
 .ordihary work of a family as usually falls to the lot of children. 
 The residue say that they never assisted either father or mother, 
 or, in other words, that they were brought up in habits of idleness, 
 which can scarcely have forsaken them in after-life, and proba- 
 bly had some considerable agency in their fall. 
 
 Question. Is YOXJE father living, ob how old was you 
 
 WHEN HE DIED? 
 
 Age at fathers' death. Numbers. 
 
 Fathers living 651 
 
 Under 5 years 289 
 
 Rom 5 " to 10 years 208 
 
 « 10 « to 15 " 252 
 
 « 15 " to 20 " 389 
 
 Unascertained • • 211 
 
 Totals 1349 651 
 
 1349 
 
 Aggregate • • 2000 
 
 ■Question. Is youb mothee living, or how old was yoit 
 
 WHEN SHE DIED ? 
 
 Mothers living • • '^^ 
 
 Under 5 years 268 
 
 From 5 " to 10 years 195 
 
 « 10 « to 15 « 211 
 
 « 15 " to20 « 281 
 
 Unascertained ^13 
 
 Tntala 1234 166 
 
 Aggregate 2000 
 
 From the preceding tables, it appears that more than half of 
 
 ^ these women are orphans, 1349 of them have lost their fathers, 
 
 and 1234 were deprived of their mothers. In both cases, the 
 
 ages of the children at the death of their parents are in nearly the 
 
540 HISTORY. OF PEOSTITUTION., 
 
 same ratio; tlius, two hundred and eighty-nine fathers and two 
 hundred aiid sixty-eight mothers died when their c^dren were 
 under five years of age ; two hundred and eight fathers and one 
 hundred and. ninety-five mothers died when their children were 
 under ten years of age; two hundred and fifty-two fathers and 
 two hundred and seventy -seven mothers died when their children 
 were under 'fifteen years of age. "The average of the deaths of 
 either parent will therefore be, when- the children were 
 
 Under 5 years of age . . . . .' STO 
 
 Prom- 5 " to 10 years .202 
 
 « 10 "Ito 15 « .......... 265 
 
 and the aggregate result that 1479 parents died before their daugh- 
 ters had r^aehed the age at, which a- female- most needs aid and 
 advice. 
 
 At any time and under any circumstances the thoiight of death 
 is dispiriting. The idea of rending all earthly ties; of bursting 
 asunder bonds which have formed for years a part of our very ex- 
 'Sstehce, of leaving the world with its joys and pleasures, its cares 
 and griefs, for the " undiscovered bourne," is appalling in contem- 
 plation ; more appalling still when the family circle is invaded, 
 and a father whom weliaye revered," or a mother whom we have 
 loved, is taken from. us. . . ■ 
 
 The death of a father is a sad calamity for his Children ; the 
 hand that has hrfurlshfcd and protected them, that has toiled for 
 their support, is cold in the grave'; tlieir earthly, support is gone. 
 But a, more grievous affliction still is the death of a mother. It 
 is she "to whom the ^hildrpn look in all their infant sufferings ; it 
 is her ear that is ever open to their sorrows ; it is her bosorri on 
 which they are pillowed in sickness ; her care which guides their 
 steps in infancy ; her love which warns them of the dangers that 
 menace ihein in after Efe.' Berefi; of a'mother's watchful tender- 
 ness, they are comparatively, alone in the world, and, many of their 
 sorrows must be dated- from -that event. 
 
 The answers to these questions "are full of materi&l' for mournful 
 reflection, and strongly indicate fhe increased responsibilities of 
 surviving; relatives toward the orphans. This point has been al- 
 ready ( so strongly insisted upon that it would be a needless reiter- 
 -ation to argue its necessity. . 
 
 Question. Do YOU DEINK INTOXICATrNG L,IQTJOE,? .If SO, TO 
 ,'WHAT EXTENT? 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 541 
 
 Extent: - Kumbem. 
 
 Vo not dnnk liquor 359 
 
 Driuk moderately 647 
 
 " intemperately 154 
 
 Habitual drunkards 240 
 
 Totals . „ 1641 ~359 
 
 1641 
 
 Aggregate ....... 20OO 
 
 It may be assumed as an almost invariable rule, that courtesans 
 in all countries are in the habit of using alcoholic stimulants to a 
 greater or less degree, in order to maintain that artiacial state of 
 excitement which is indispensably necessary to their calling. One 
 of the class in London said to Mr. Mayhew, when he was making 
 the inquiries alluded to in the chapters upon JEnghsh prostitution, 
 "Fb girls COULD lead the life we do without gin;" and drinking is 
 undoubtedly universal among abandoned women. Even accord- 
 ing to the most favorable view of the replies to the query now 
 under consideration, and admitting them to be strictly correct, it 
 will be found that five sixths of the total number confess they are 
 in the habit of using intoxica,ting liquors. But with the knowl- 
 edge of facts already ascertained in other cases, the inquirer will 
 be compelled to believe that this is not the whole truth, for it is 
 almost certain that the three hundred and fifty-nine who claim to 
 be total abstinents indulge themselves in occasional potations. In 
 prosecuting investigations like the present, there are niany diffi- 
 culties to encounter. A woman who is found residing in a house 
 of ill fame will scarcely attempt to deny that she is a prostitute, 
 although even this has been done in some cases, yet "she will 
 equivocate upon other matters. The facts of her birth, family, 
 and hfe will probably be given correctly, because there exists no 
 motive for concealment ; but the answers to any questions which 
 she deems degrading, such as relate, for example, to her habits or 
 the state of her health, must be received with some considerable 
 allowance, and compared with well-ascertained facts.. 
 
 Among the more aristocratic prostitutes it is considered a dis- 
 grace to be absolutely intoxicated, and the keeper of a first-class 
 house would scarcely retain a boarder who was addicted to habitr 
 ual inebriety. Still, the most fastidious are ready and eager to 
 sell champagne, or what passes for it, to any visitor of liberal dis- 
 position, and will generally condescend to assist him to drink it, 
 of course inviting all the ladies to participate. In the lower 
 grades it is not deemed disreputable to be inebriated, but the pro- 
 
^542 HISTORY OF PEOSTITDTION. 
 
 prietors, knowing intoxication would interfere with their business, 
 interdict it until late at night, when " the mirth and fun grows fast 
 and furious," and when visitors, women, proprietors, oar-keepers, 
 and servants frequently all contrive to be drunk, and close the 
 night with a general saturnalia. The following morning, every 
 thing is changed. The proprietor takes his stand behind the 
 bar, and tenders the inmates, as they appear, their "bitters," 
 namely a bumper of raw spirits. The visitors depart about their 
 business, and the women await, with all the patience they can 
 command, the result of another day's campaign, anxiously watch- 
 ing for any contingency which may arise likely to bring them 
 another glass of liquor. Even in this case they are narrowly 
 watched, and as soon as the depression from the previous night's 
 debauch has been overcome, they must either take "temperance 
 drinks," or colored water, when any stray customer invites them 
 to the bar. Our decided impresBion is that iwt one per cent, of the 
 prostitutes in New York practice their calling without partaking of in- 
 toxicating drinks. 
 
 The effects of this habit are well known. In the first instance 
 the woman drinks but little, probably just enough to cause a 
 shght artificial excitement, and bring a color to her cheeks. Af- 
 ter a time the proportion must be increased as the effect upon the 
 system is diminished, imtil the finale is a habit of confirmed aaid 
 constant drinking. As a general rule, the horrible consequences 
 then become apparent. The whole frame is relaxed, and every 
 movement of the Hmbs is a motion of uncertainty ; the brain is 
 impaired ; the reasoning faculties are destroyed ; the powers of the 
 stomach and digestive organs are weakened, and an attack of de- 
 lirium tremens is the ultimatum, usually cured, if cured at all, at 
 the public expense in a hospital or prison. 
 
 A work of fiction, published some ten years ago, gives the fol- 
 lowing truthful account of the effects of drunkenness on prosti- 
 tutes, by one of whom the words are supposed to be used: 
 
 " I must have drink. Such as live like me could not bear life 
 without drink. It's the only thing to keep us from suicide. If 
 we did not drink we could not stand the memory of what we have 
 been, and the thought of what we are, for a day. If I go without 
 food and without shelter, I must have my dram. Oh ! what aw- 
 ful nights I have had in prison for want of it." She glared round 
 with terrified eyes as if dreadingto see some supernatural creature 
 near her, and then continued : "It is dreadful to see them. There 
 
NEW YORK. 543, 
 
 they go round and round my bed tlie wliole night through. My 
 mother carrying my baby, aUd sister Mary, and all looking at me 
 with their sad stony eyes. Oh ! it is terrible. They don't turn 
 back either, but pass behind the head of the bed, and I feel their 
 eyes on me every -where. If I creep under the clothes I stUl see 
 them, and, what is worse, they see me. I must have drink. lean 
 not pass to-night without a dram. I dare not."^ 
 
 Although this is an imaginary picture its counterpart can be seen 
 at almost any time in the hospitals under the charge of the Gov- 
 ernors of the Alms House on Blackwell's Island,\N"ew York City, 
 where large numbers of such cases are constantly treated. In 
 1854, in the Penitentiary Hospital alone, more than fourteen hun-' 
 dred persons received medical assistance for delirium tremens and 
 other maladies arising from excess in drinking. This fact induced 
 the remarks in the report fo» that year, that the " cases actually 
 treated here during the last year were directly caused by the low- 
 est and foulest kinds of dissipation and vice, a fact which speaks 
 trumpet-tongued in favor of shutting up 'grog shops,' and shows 
 the absolute necessity of adopting some plan whereby the enor- 
 mous amount of prostitution now among us shall be decreased."^ 
 Since then an -alteration in the law has sentenced drunken persons 
 to an incarceration in" the City Prison, and the number sent to 
 Blackwell's Island has diminished, but not to the extent which 
 would be supposed, as, during 1857, the hospitals thereon afforded 
 relief to seven hundred and ninety-one inebriates. 
 
 The fearful havoc upon the constitution is produced as well by 
 the quahty as the quantity of the liquors consumed. Let any man 
 not thoroughly informed on these subjects taste a glass of the com- 
 pounds retailed at these places, and he will be imniediately con- 
 -\dnced that it would be quite as judicious an act to s-vyallow the 
 same quantity of camphene or sulphuric acid if diluted, sweetened, 
 and colored. The various liquors, gin, rum, brandy, whisky, or 
 ■wine, having nothing in common -with the genuine articles of com- 
 merce but the name, are so many varieties of the cheapest and 
 most poisonous "raw spirits" that the markets afford, and are 
 manufactured in this city in large quantities to meet the demands 
 arising from such places. Instances have been known where 
 Hquors subsequently sold in houses of ill fame as pure French 
 
 ' Mary Barton, by Mrs. Gaskell, vol. i., p. 258 (London edition.) 
 " Report of the Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, to the Governors of the 
 Alms House, 1854, p. 26. 
 
5M. HISTORY. OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 brandy have "been faniislied bywHolesale dealers at prices rang- 
 ing from thirfy-six to fifty cents a gallon. There may be excep- 
 tions ; some few brothels of the higher rank may sell \mat is call- 
 ed "good liquor," but they are very rare indeed. Is it any 
 matter of surprise that drunkenness, or, more properly speaking,: 
 stupefaction and insensibility are so rife; that so many constitu- 
 tions are ruined and so many characters destroyed when agencies 
 like these are tolerated? 
 
 - Question. Did YOUR FATHER DiBINK INTOXICATING LIQUORS ? 
 If so, TO WHAT EXTENT? 
 
 Fathera' habits. ^ Numbers. 
 
 Did not drink liquor . 548 
 
 Drank mdderately 6^6 
 
 " intemperately 596 
 
 Unascertained 220 
 
 Totals . 1452 "548 
 
 1452 
 
 Aggregate 2000 
 
 Question. ' Did your mother drink intoxicating liquors ? 
 If so, to what extent ? 
 
 Mothers' habits. Numbers. 
 
 Did not drink liquor 8'I5 
 
 Drank moderately 514 
 
 " intemperately . 347 
 
 Unascertained .' 204 
 
 Totals ll25 "875 
 
 1125 
 
 Aggregate 2000 
 
 How much of the intemperate habits of these women must be 
 traced to the influence of the parent's example ? One thousand 
 four hundred and fifty-two fathers ; one thousand one hundred 
 and twenty-five mothers, are represented as ha\dng been addicted 
 to the use of liquors in various degrees, the moderate in both cases 
 exceeding the intemperate drinkers. And yet even moderate 
 drinking, when piirsued by parents in tfie presence of, or to the 
 knowledge of children, is a practice open to the gravest censure. 
 In the mind of a child any action is deemed right if performed by 
 a father or mother.' As the children advance in years parental 
 customs are followed^ and, in such a case as thiSj probably the 
 single glass of beer or wine of the father lays the foundation of 
 intemperance in the children. "Without undertaking to argue Ihe 
 question of the absolute necessity for a total abstinence from all 
 liquors under all circumstances, the proposition maiy be seriously 
 
NEW YOEK. 545 
 
 submitted tliat tke effect of this personal example upon ckildren 
 is satisfactorily ascertained, from many different sources, to be prej- 
 udicial to their best interests, and a natural deduction therefore is 
 that it is the duty of parents to abstain. 
 
 Instances are upon record where both facers and mothers, in 
 the temporary insanity of intoxication, have turned their daugh- 
 ters from home into the streets, and that, tbo, in cases where not 
 even the remotest grounds existed for any suspicion of improper 
 conduct on the part of these cShildren. Occurrences like this are 
 sufficient to enforce the necessity of temperance on the ^art of 
 parents, in view of the fearfdl responsibility which rests upon 
 them. 
 
 Question. Weee YOUR PAEEiirTS Protestants, Catholics, or 
 
 NON-PROFESSOBS ? 
 
 Religion. , Numbers. 
 
 Protestants 960 
 
 Eoman Catholics 9'7'J 
 
 Non-professors . . ; 63 
 
 Total 2000 
 
 Question. Were tou trained to any religion ? If so; was 
 IT Protestant or Catholic ? 
 
 Eeli^on. Numbers. 
 
 Protestant 972 
 
 Eoman Catholic 971 
 
 No religious training . • 51 
 
 Total ............ 2000 
 
 Question. Do YOU profess the same religion now? 
 
 Profession. Numbers. 
 
 ' Profess religion as educated 1909 
 
 Non-professors ^ ^ 
 
 Total 2000 
 
 ' ■ Question. How long is it since you have observed Asrt 
 
 OF ITS requirements? 
 
 1 
 
 From 1 
 « 2 
 
 Time. 
 
 year and under 
 « to 2 years 
 « « 3 « 
 
 « 3 
 
 « a 4 <« 
 
 « 4 
 
 a « 5 « 
 
 « 5 
 
 « u 6 « 
 
 « 6 
 
 « « *l « 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 .861 
 310 
 226 
 135 
 106 
 72 
 42' 
 
 Time. Numbers. 
 
 From 7 years to 8 years . 42 
 « 8 " " 9 « . 20 
 « 9 " " 10 « . 36 
 « 10 " " 12 " . 20 
 
 Unascertained 130 ■ 
 
 Totals 2000 
 
 It certainly seems a very incongruous association to connect 
 religion and prostitution ; to place in juxtaposition the most noble 
 aspirations of which the mind is capable, and the lowest degrada- 
 
 M M 
 
546 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 tion to wMcli the body can descend. But such a contrast is not 
 without its moral. It is not too great a stretch of imagination to 
 suppose that of those unfortunate women who subseqifently lost 
 their position in society, some had the advantages of an early 
 Christian education ; were taught to believe in and reverence the 
 Inspired Writings ; were taught that there is a God who judgeth 
 the world, and that there exists for all a future state. Eeflecting 
 upon this, and considering how deplorably such have fallen from 
 the observance of precepts inculcated in the days of childhood, aU 
 persons will feel the necessity of watchfulness and care that the 
 same fate does not befall themselves or their connections. The 
 facts may teach another lesson. It may be presumed that some 
 of these women were trained in the rigid and austere manner ani- 
 madverted upon in the remarks on the causes of prostitution, and 
 that their present career is but the recoil from that unnatural re- 
 straint. Such conclusion would afford a solemn warning to all 
 ■who have charge of the education of children to choose the happy 
 mean between the extremes of careless laxity and excessive harsh- 
 ness. Either course is alike fatal to the welfare of their trust, and 
 must end in disappointment and sorrow. 
 
 If it were consistent with propriety, it would not be possible to 
 make any comparison between the results ot Protestant and Eo- 
 man Catholic teachings, because of the nearly equal number in each 
 case. In the table exhibiting the religions professed by the par- 
 ents there are seventeen more Eoman Catholics than Protestants ; 
 in the table of the religions professed by the prostitutes them- 
 selves there are five more Eoman Catholics than Protestants. The 
 relative value of the two creeds as rules of life can not therefore 
 be made the subject of argument from such data. So far as our 
 duties to the Almighty, to our fellow-men, and to ourselves — so 
 far as the obligations to virtue and morality are concerned, the 
 adherents of both parties are agreed, and in the investigation of 
 the intricate social problem of female depravity it matters but lit- 
 tle whether a majority of the pitiable subjects of the inquiry were 
 educated in the tenets of the Church of Eome or in the doctrines 
 of the Eeformation. If the articles of faith of either Church are 
 honestly observed by those who professedly believe in them, they 
 will be effective in preventing immorality ; but when this observ- 
 ance is confined to words, and not exemplified by actions, neither 
 the simple rituals of Protestantism nor the more elaborate and ar- 
 tistically arranged ceremonials of Eoman Catholicism can be of 
 
NEW YORK. 54Y 
 
 any avail. Neitlier, if our lives accord not with our profession, 
 will it make an iota of difference in our future destiny whether 
 we have bowed the knee in a temple devoted to Eoman Cathoho 
 service before the image of a crucified Savior, and endeavored to 
 train our thoughts to a contemplation of his mercy and benefi- 
 cence, or have knelt in a Protestant Church, and there joined in 
 the public confession that we are sinners. 
 
 The facts exhibited in the tables show that 1937 women had 
 parents who were professedly members of one or the other of 
 these communions; that 1949 wonien out of 2000 were taught to 
 believe in the necessity of some religion, and that 1909 of these 
 women still assert their confidence in the creed in which they 
 were educated. 
 
 . It can not be expected that, living in the constant practice of 
 that which their consciences must teach them is sinful, these wom- 
 en would have continued to observe the outward form of religion. 
 By comparing the table upon this point with the one framed from 
 the replies to the question, " For what length of time have you 
 been a prostitute ?" it will be observed that 1674 admit they have 
 been prostitutes for six years and upward, and 1710 confess they 
 have neglected to observe the requirements of religion for the 
 same space of time ; a coincidence which leads us charitably to 
 suppose that the crime and the omission are nearly parallel, so far 
 as dates are concerned, and that hypocritical professions of relig- 
 ion do not rank among prostitutes' offenses. 
 
 But even with their neglect of the outward requirements of 
 faith, and while in the actual commission of known and acknowl- 
 edged sin, they still preserve many traits which are much to their 
 credit. They possess one of the chief virtues belonging to the 
 female character, which never seems to become extinct or materi- 
 ally impaired; namely, kindness to each other when sick or des- 
 titute, and indeed to all who are in suffering or distress. This 
 has attracted the attention, and called forth the admiration, of 
 every one who has been thrown into contact with them. A very 
 touching instance of these amiable feelings occurred some years 
 ago, and is narrated in the Westminster Eeview for July, 1850. 
 A poor girl, who was rapidly sinking into a decline, after a short 
 but impetuous course of infamy, had no means of support but 
 &om the continued pxercise of her calling. With a mixture of 
 kindness and conscientiousness which may well surprise us under 
 the circumstances, her companions in degradation resolved among 
 
54:8 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 themselves that, as tliey said, "at least she should not be com- 
 pelled to die in sin," and contributed from their own sad earnings 
 a sufficient sum to enable her to pass her few remaiimg days in 
 comfort and repentance. 
 
 This is far from being an exceptional case. An extended hos- 
 pital experience has brought under our personal observation many 
 acts of real sympathy and kindness toward each other among the 
 prostitute class. If one of their number is discharged, and is un- 
 provided with suitable clothitig, they will club their scanty re- 
 sources to supply her needs, frequently contributing articles they 
 leally want themselves. In any case of serious sickness, where 
 prompt attention is required, they form most reliable nurses, and 
 will cheerfully sacrifice their own rest at any time to minister to 
 the sufferer, performing their duties with the utmost care and 
 tenderness. Their fidelity to each other is strongly marked. It 
 is literally impossible, in any case where a breach of discipline has 
 occurred, to find a woman who will bear witness against any of 
 her companions, and neither threats nor promises are sufficiently 
 potent to extract the desired information. 
 
 These traits are not submitted with any intention of offering 
 them as an equivalent to the morality which has been violated, 
 but merely to prove that hearts which can conceive and execute 
 such kindly purposes can not be entirely lost to the sense of vir- 
 tue or the claims of benevolence. Truly they are but as an atom 
 ia the balance, but, like an oasis in the desert, they show that all 
 is not arid and sterile. 
 
KEW yOKK. 549 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 NEW YORK. — PROSTITUTES AND HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION, 
 
 First Class, or "Parlor Houses." — Luxury. — Serai-refinement.— Rate of Board. — 
 Dress.' — Money. — Lavish Extravagance. — Instance of Economy. — Means of 
 Amusement. — House-keepers. — Rents. — Estimated Receipts. — Management of 
 Houses. — Assumed Respectability. — Consequences of Exactions from prostitutes. 
 — Affection for Lovers. — Second Class Houses. — Street-walkers. — Driinkfehtess. 
 — Syphilitic Infection. — Third Class Houses. — Germans. — Sailors. — Ball-rooms. 
 — Intoxication. — Fourth Class Houses. — Repulsive Features, —: Visitors. — Action 
 of the Police.— rFirst Class Houses of Assignation. — ^^Secrecy and Exclusiveness. 
 — Keepers. — Arrangements. — Visitors. — Origin of some Houses of Assignation. 
 — Prevalence of Intrigue. — Foreign Manners. — Effects oWrftvel.^ — Dress. — Sec- 
 ond Class Houses. — Visitors. — Prostitutes. — Arrangements. — Wine and Liquor. 
 — Thh-d Class Houses. — Kept Mistresses. — Sewing and Shop Gii'ls.^-Disease. — 
 Fourth Class Houses. — "Panel Houses." 
 
 It will not be out of place liere to say somewhat concerniDg the 
 manner of life among prostitutes ; tow they occupy the time, and 
 what facilities they possess for mental or bodily recreation. The 
 domestic life of a number of women whose every action is con- 
 trary to all the rules of virtue, who are living in the constant vio- 
 lation of the law, with a daUy subsistence contributed by thoa6 
 whose folly or passions make them visitors to their abode, can not 
 but possess considerable interest to all who have followed thus far 
 in this painful task. In entering upon the subject, the endeavor 
 will be to give such particulars as will enable the reader to form 
 satisfactory conclusions, without recording what would merely 
 minister to a prurient curiosity. The object is to give informa- 
 tion as explicitly as possible without offending the most sensitive 
 dehcacy, wounding the most refined feelings, or unnecessarily 
 parading these poor women before the public eye. The subject 
 is invested with such an array of real and palpable horrors as to 
 render unnecessary any endeavor to excite undue emotion by 
 penetrating the mysteries of the saturnalia. 
 
 There is a wide diversity among the various grades of prosti- 
 tutes in New York, The first class are those who reside in what 
 are technically called "Parlor Houses.", These very seldom leave 
 their abodes, unless for the purpose of making purchases of dress, 
 jewelry or articles of toilette, or taking aQ afternoon promenade on 
 
550 HISTORY OF PKOSTITUTION. 
 
 the fashionable side of Broadway, excepting when they accompany 
 their lovers or visitors in a ride, or to some public placjaof amuse- 
 ment. These utterly repudiate the name of " street-walkers," and 
 very seldom perform any act in public which would expose them 
 to reprobation, or attract the attention of the police. They assume 
 to be, and are, in fact, the most respectable of their class, if any 
 respectability can be associated with so vicious a course. Being 
 almost invariably young and handsome, and always very well 
 dressed, they pass through the streets without their real character 
 being suspected by the uninitiated. 
 
 The houses in which this class of courtesans reside are furnish- 
 ed with a lavish display of luxury, scarcely in accordance with 
 the dictates of good taste however, and mostly exhibiting a quan- 
 tity of magnificent furniture crowded together without taste or 
 judgment for the»sake of ostentation. The most costly cabinet 
 and upholstery work is freely employed in their decorjttion, par- 
 ticularly in the rooms used as reception parlors. Large mirrors 
 adorn the walls, which are frequently handsomely frescoed and 
 gUt. Paintings and engravings in rich frames, vases and statuettes, 
 add their charms. Carpets of luxurious softness cover the floors, 
 while sofas, ottomans, and easy chairs abound. Music has its rep- 
 resentative in a beautiful pianoforte, upon which some professed 
 player is paid a liberal salary to perform. Even the bed-cham- 
 bers, passages, halls, and stairways are ftimished in a similar style. 
 In such an abode as this probably dwell from three to ten prosti- 
 tutes, each paying weekly for her board from ten to sixteen dol- 
 lars, exclusive of extras, which will be noticed hereafter. Their 
 active life comprises about twelve or fourteen hours daily, ranging 
 from noon to midnight or early morning. Their visitors are 
 mostly of what may be called the aristocratic class ; young, mid- 
 dle aged, and even old men of property, of all callings and pro- 
 fessions ; any one who can command a liberal supply of money is 
 welcome, but without this indispensable requisite his company is 
 not sought or appreciated. 
 
 None of the disgusting practices common in houses of a lower 
 grade are met with here. There is no palpable obscenity, and but 
 little that can outrage propriety. Of course there is 'a perfect 
 freedom of manner between prostitutes and visitors, but so far as 
 the public eye. can penetrate, the requirements of common decently 
 are not openly violated. Profanity, as may naturally be expect- 
 ed, exists to some extent ; it is an almost invariable accompani- 
 
NEW YOBK. 551 
 
 ment of prostitution, but even that is divested of its grossness, and 
 is not of frequent occurrence. There is no bar-room or public 
 drinking place in the house, but it is a general custom for each 
 visitor to invite ids pro tempore inamorata and her companions to 
 take champagne with him, w.hich is supplied by the keeper of the 
 place at the charge of t hree dollars a bottle. As remarked in the 
 preceding chapter, excessive drunkenness is rare, both prostitutes 
 and keepers trying to suppress it, because an intoxicated man 
 would be likely to give them trouble, damage their furniture, and 
 injure the reputation of the house. By means of a small aperture 
 in the front door, covered by a wrought-iron lattice-work, the can- 
 didates for admission can be examined before entrance is given, 
 and the door is kept closed against any person who is likely to 
 prove an annoyance. 
 
 As a natural consequence of their position, the women exert all 
 their powers of fascination, by adopting the latest and most superb 
 fashions in dress, and by a very tastefiil arrangement of their hair, 
 for which purpose a hair dresser visits them every day, charging 
 each woman two or three dollars a week for his assistance. Be- 
 sides these they practice a thousand other artifices, unknown to 
 mere lookers on, in order to secure the favor of their visitors. 
 
 About three fourths of the courtesans of this grade are natives 
 of the United States, and mostly from New England or the Mid- 
 dle States. Some of them are very well educated; accomplish- 
 ed musicians and artists are sometimes found among them, while 
 others aspire to literature. With the greater number much ele- 
 gance and refinement of manner, or a close observance of what 
 may be called the conventionalities of life, is seen. Their income 
 is large, but so are their expenses. It is no exaggeration to. state 
 that their individual receipts very seldom fall short of fifty dol- 
 lars per week. From this amount deduct the sum charged for 
 their board, an additional fee which they pay the proprietress for 
 every visitor they entertain, the expenses of hair-dressing, per- 
 fumery, etc., the cost of their washiag, which is all done at their 
 own charge, away from the house, and must be considerable, and 
 the remainder wiU give their expenditure for dress. AU are not 
 equaUy extravagant. Some seem to consider prostitution a busi- 
 ness and act upon the idea of saving as much money as possible. 
 In one case a woman asserted that she had seven thousand doUars 
 in the bank, which she had accumulated by prostitution m a few 
 years, and her statement was confirmed by the captain of poUce 
 
552 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 for the district. The economical ones are generally slirefwdi cal- 
 culating "down-Basters," who argue that if they can save enough 
 during the zenith of their charms to support them when their at- 
 tractions fe,il, or to help them establish a house of this description 
 on their own account, they are only doing their duty. Others 
 have dependent relatives whom they support, or illegitimate chil- 
 dren whom they maintain and educate, frequently appropriating 
 considerable sums for these purposes. In nearly all of themj 
 kindness toward tha unfortunate of their own sex and grade is a 
 striking, trait. Much as they may quarrel among each other when 
 all are alike in health, let one be visited with sickness, or over- 
 come by misfortune,; and, as a general rule, their envy or jealousy 
 is forgotten, and they freely contribute to her support. 
 
 Their means of amusement are limited. .When they have no 
 visitors they generally iadulge in a luxurious indolence. For 
 any useful employment, such as even sewiag or fancy needle- 
 work; they have but little, inclination, and their general refuge 
 from ennui is found in reading novels. These are not, as would 
 be generally supposed, works of lascivious character; to these 
 they seem to have an objection, most probably because their own 
 experience has proved the fallacies of the highly-colored descrip- 
 tions of the dehghts of love which abound in such productions. 
 To one source of recreation they are extremely partial, namely, 
 driving in carriages some few miles out of town, and they fre- 
 quently persuade their visitors to indulge them in these rural ex- 
 cursions. They are weU- acquainted with the most pleasant drives, 
 and know exactly where to find quiet and retired hotels.,where.all 
 the delicacies of the season can be served in the most approved 
 style. If they can not induce their friends to gratify them in this 
 manner,, they will endeavor to secure an invitation to take lunch- 
 eon or oysters at some fashionable saloon. Dress, gay life, and 
 excitement seem- necessary to their existence. 
 
 And amid all this arraj^ of luxurious homes, of splendid dresses, 
 of comparative affluence, the question arises, Are they happy? 
 A moment's consideration wUl prompt the answer that they can 
 not be. Continued indtdgence in their course ,of life tends, to 
 obliterate -the sense of degradation, and makes their career almost 
 second nature, but even the most confirmed must at times reflect. 
 The memory of what, they have been, the thought of what thej 
 are, the dread '• of what they must be, haunt their minds ; con- 
 science will make itself heard. Many a poor girl dressed in silks 
 
NEW YORK. 555 
 
 3r satins, gleaming with jewelry, and receiving with a gay smile 
 bhe lavish Gomplijnents of her " friend," is mentally racked with a 
 keen appreciation of her true position. She knows that the world 
 condemns her, and her own heart admits the justice of the ver- 
 dict. She Imows that he who is so ostentatiously parading his ad- 
 miration regards her but as a purchased instrument to minister to 
 his gratification. She feels that she is, emphatically, alone in the 
 world, and her merry laugh but ill conceals a breaking heart. 
 
 These houses are generally kept by middle-aged women who 
 have themselves passed through the initiatory course of a prosti- 
 tute's life. In some cases they own the real estate and furniture. 
 In others they hire or lease the house, paying an exorbitant rent 
 (often to some wealthy man who considers himself a respectable 
 member of society), and provide their own furniture; in other 
 cases they rent both house and furniture. In one house in this city 
 the enormous sum, of nine thousand one hundred (9100) dollars is, or 
 was at the time of examinatidn,'paid annually for rent and use of fur- 
 niture, the owner being a woman who formerly kept the place, but 
 who is now living in, the enjoyment of a large income in one of 
 the Italian cities. 
 
 The following extracts from information obtained on this sub- 
 ject will give a very good idea bf the facts : 
 
 E. M. pays $1300 per year for rent and use of furniture, which ia owned by 
 a woman who formerly kept the house. 
 
 M..S. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns the furniture. 
 
 M. L. owns the house and furniture, estimated to be worth $15,000. 
 
 M. A. T. pays $100 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $5000. 
 
 J.G. pays $tOO per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000. 
 
 E. T. owns the real estate and furniture, valued at $30,000. 
 
 C. G. pays $1800 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000. 
 
 M. C. K. pays $3900 per year for rent and use of furniture. 
 
 C. E. pays $1400 per annum rent, and owns fiimiture valued at $6000. 
 
 M. B. owns the house and furniture, valued at $15,000. 
 
 J.B. pays $560 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000. 
 
 E.B. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000. 
 
 M. M. owns house and furniture, valued at $15,000. 
 
 C. C. pays $850 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $8000. 
 
 M. M. pays $750 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000. 
 
 M. G. pays $625 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $1000. 
 
 V. N. pays $1300 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $8000. 
 
 C. E. pays $1400 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000. 
 
 L. G. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000. 
 
 A. T. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000. 
 
554 HISTOKY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The financial effects of the system of prostitution will furnish a 
 theme for some remarks hereafter. These facts ar^quoted now 
 to explain the expenses connected with first-classTiouses. Of 
 course, where such outlays are incurred the receipts must corre- 
 spond. The following statement will exhibit the minimum week- 
 ly receipts in a house where ten boarders reside : 
 
 Board for ten women, at $16 00 per week each $160 00 
 
 Fees for visitors, say one each day to each woman ($1 00 each) 70 00 
 Profit from sale of one basket of Champagne each day (weekly) . 168 00 
 
 Total $398 00 
 
 This estimate does not reach the daily average of visitors, and 
 a more correct statement would be : 
 
 Board for ten women, at $16 00 per week each $160 00 
 
 Fees for -visitors, say two each day to each woman ($1 00 each) 140 00 
 
 Profit from sale of two baskets of Champagne each day (weekly) 336 00 
 
 Total $616 00 
 
 Taking the mean of these two calculations will give receipts 
 exceeding. twenty-six thousand dollars per year, or five hundred 
 dollars weekly. The cost of maintaining these luxurious estab- 
 lishments, in addition to the rent, is considerable, but still there is 
 a very large excess. This is satisfactorily proved by the fact that 
 the women who own the houses in which they conduct their traf- 
 fic have, almost without exception, purchased them since they 
 commenced housekeeping, and also that many of them own con- 
 siderable personal property in addition to the real estate. One 
 woman is positively affirmed to be worth over one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, many are reported as worth sums ranging from fifty 
 thousand downward, and many more are reputed to be rich, but 
 no special amount mentioned. 
 
 The management of many of the houses is confided to a house- 
 keeper, acting for the principal, who is rarely visible unless spe- 
 cially called for, and under this housekeeper are a number of 
 servants, varying from three to seven, according to the size of 
 the house and the number of boarders it accommodates. These 
 servants are almost invariably colored women, and no difficulty 
 is ever experienced in obtaining a full complement. Their wages 
 are liberal, their perquisites considerable, and their work light. 
 A neat and well-arranged breakfast is prepared for the "lady 
 boarders" about eleven or twelve o'clock, and their dinner is 
 served about five or six o'clock. As a general rule these are the 
 only meals suppHed them in the course of the day. If they re- 
 
NEW YORK. 555 
 
 quire any thing more they send out for it, or persuade their vis- 
 itors to escort them to some saloon. 
 
 The proprietors of this class of houses assume to be respectable 
 "women when they are away from the scenes of their business. 
 An anecdote, and a true one, has been related of one of them 
 who, on a recent visit to Newport, so effectually carried out her 
 disguise as to receive the escort of a reverend gentleman, a D.D. 
 of this city, to the dinner-table and elsewhere, with his family, he 
 thinking her a most amiable and deeply afSicted widow. Some 
 of them have private residences up town, in the quiet respectable 
 streets, and come to their houses of prostitution every forenoon, 
 returning at night. A portion of them profess to be religious, 
 frequently attending some place of worship the better to preserve 
 their mask. Naturally benevolent, as are all women, they con- 
 tribute liberally to charitable objects, and freely relieve any indi- 
 gent persons who may ask their assistance. Even in political 
 matters they have some weight, their resources and connections 
 proving valuable to some aspirant for local distinction who has 
 promised them that he wUl, if elected, use all his influence to 
 protect them from annoyance. 
 
 Toward the miserable women whose vice is the source of theii 
 wealth, these proprietors act as interest dictates. A girl who has 
 not the tact or disposition to attract visitors is selddrn treated witt 
 much consideration, while one who is successful receives more 
 favors, but favors, generally speaking, of a nature to render he: 
 subservient to their wishes ; such as the loan of money to pur 
 chase new and fashionable articles of dress, a short credit for he: 
 board, or some equivalent which will place her under an obliga 
 tion, and render it difficult for her to leave the house. They are 
 actuated in this by a desire to retain an attractive girl ; for, in ad 
 dition to the actual cash payments she makes, she also possesses 
 the power of inducing her visitors to be liberal in their orders foi 
 wine, and the profit from its sale, about two hundred per cent., ii 
 an iinportant source of revenue. 
 
 The excessive demands made upon the earnings of prostitute; 
 by these women has been productive of a serious social evil 
 Many unfortunate girls can not appreciate the advantages of lead 
 ing a vicious life for the benefit of a landlady, and in self-defens( 
 have hired apartments in some private house, so as to secure thei 
 earnings for themselves. This is generally arranged so that tw( 
 of them engage a suite of rooms, say a parlor and two bed-rooms 
 
556 HISTORY OP PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 representing themselves as virtuous women, governesses or seam- 
 stresses, and frequently as the wives of sailors or of men who are 
 in California or some other distant larLd. Here they either board 
 themselves or resort to some saloon, and to this lodging, or to the 
 house of assignation, which will be noticed in due course, they 
 introducTe their visitors. It is a fact more than suspected that 
 many prostitutes are living in this manner in our city. > It is 
 needless to: enlarge upon the injurious effects likely to result 
 therefrom. 
 
 Before leaving this branch of the subject, there is another char- 
 acteristic of keepers of these houses which must be noticed, name- 
 ly, an exaggerated affection for some man to whom they are pas- 
 sionately attached. ' Some few of them are professedly living with 
 their husbands, biit this is an exception to the ordinary rule. 
 Grenerally speaking, they are the inistresses of some persons, upon 
 whom they lavish all their tenderness, and for whose gratification 
 they wilHngly incur any amount of expense. . Some of these indi- 
 viduals are men upon town, gamblers, or rowdies of the higher 
 class, whose noblest aspirations are satisfied by a liberal supply of 
 money. They will readily ignore all social virtues for the same 
 consideration. It is related as a fact concerning a celebrated 
 brothel-keeper in the city, that when she was residing in the inte- 
 rior of the State, some years since, she became desperately enam- 
 ored of a young man whose friends discovered the connection. 
 They removed him to the far "West. Undaunted by the dangers 
 and difficulties which surrounded her, she followed him, and dur- 
 ing her journey through the large towns had many offers of pro- 
 tection from men acquainted' with' her antecedents. True to her 
 affection, she refused them all, and traced her lover to the forests. 
 Here she remained with him, living in a log hut, deprived of 
 many of the necessaries and all of the comforts and elegances of 
 life, for three years. At least, infidelity to her love can not be 
 charged against this woman, and is it not a natural conclusion 
 that a heart so sincere and devoted in its .attachment could have 
 been led to a more virtuous course had a different social feeling 
 existed toward her and her former transgressions ? 
 
 As a general rule, the keepers of these first-class houses wiU 
 not permit the boarders to have the men whom they style their 
 •*' lovers" residing with them, although they allow them to visit; 
 a constant residence is considered as likely to engross too much 
 of the girl's time to the neglect of the interest of the proprietress; 
 
KEW YOEK. 557 
 
 We come now to the second grade of prostitutes and houses of 
 prostitution.. Many of, the women of this ranlc are those who 
 made theix' dSbut in first-class houses, but left them when their 
 'charms began to fade. To some extent, they endeavor to carry 
 out the same rules of conduct which governed them while there, 
 and, generally speaking, the management of some portion of the 
 houses of this grade assimilates very much with the former, the 
 same privacy being observed, though in a less expensive manner. 
 Jn others a marked difference is perceptible, and these will now 
 claim attention.. 
 
 : A lofLger continuance in the habits of prostitution, and the asso- 
 ciation with a- less aristocratic class of visitors, has diminished the 
 refinement of the women and imparted to them coarser manners. 
 -There is not the same desire to "assume a virtue, if they have it 
 not," or the same ambition to make vice seem unlike itself. Deg- 
 radation has had. its effect upon them, and now that they are re- 
 duced to a humbler sphere they feel more of the world's pressure, 
 and become more, daring and reckless in their conduct. Many 
 pf the street- walkers and women frequenting theatres are of this 
 class, and any one who has ever come in contact with them would 
 have. found no difficulty in at once assigning their true position. 
 It is right to say here, that many of the managers of our best 
 theatres have abolished the third tier, so called, and if any im- 
 proper woman visits them she must do so under the assumed 
 garb of respectability, and conduct herself accordingly. 
 
 Other women ia this grade, or rather this section of the second 
 grade, commenced their life of vice in it, and as the natural ten- 
 dency of prostitution is to depress instead of elevating its follow- 
 ers, they have very little chance of ever rising beyond their pres-' 
 ent rank, although such instances do occasionally happen, ihe 
 keeper of a first-class house sometimes consenting to receive a 
 boarder from a lower rank, if she has only recently commenced 
 prostitution and is sufficiently prepossessing in manners and ap- 
 pearance for this exaltation. A great number of foreign-bom 
 women are found in this class, victims of emigrant boarding- 
 houses, or of seduction on board ship during their passage to this 
 
 country. 
 
 1 The houses are generally conducted in a similar manner to 
 those of the first class, with this distinction, that what is costly 
 luxury in the one is replaced by tawdry finery in the other, 
 and for expensive mirrors and valuable paintings they substitute 
 
558 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 cheaper ornamentation. Their reception-rooms are of much infe- 
 rior finish. They also furbish wine, and brandy to customers who 
 wish for them. Drunkenness is more general, both wfti the pros- 
 titutes and their visitors, and the most revolting scenes are not 
 uncommon. Profanity is indulged in to a considerable extent, 
 and in some places seems the vernacular language. The attempts 
 at fascination made by the women are more excessive, and fre- 
 quently vulgar to a degree which, while it excites a smile, also 
 inspires disgust. The general charge for board here wUl be from 
 six to ten dollars a week, rarely reaching the latter figure. 
 
 "When evening approaches, if there is little or no company in 
 the house, the girls resort to the streets, dressed in their most at- 
 tractive finery, in the expectation of finding some man whom they 
 can induce to accompany them home. They are seldom unsuc- 
 cessful in this search, and very frequently repeat it several times 
 in the course of the evening. Others of them visit the third tier 
 of such theatres as will admit them, and there exert their charms 
 to secure conquest. Intercourse with these women is attended 
 with considerable, danger, professional experience having shown 
 many of them to be infected with syphilis, while numbers are con- 
 nected with dishonest men who would not scruple to rob a stran- 
 ger, if any opportunity offered for the purpose, such opportunity 
 being not unfrequently afforded by some arrangement of the 
 woman herself. 
 
 In such places vice presents comparatively few attractions, and 
 yet these houses are numerously visited, principally by. travelers, 
 clerks from stores, the higher class of mechanics, etc., some of whom 
 will spend in an evening the earnings of a week. 
 
 The women who preside over these brothels are usually of the 
 strong-minded, and frequently of the strong-handed order, the lat- 
 ter being those who can by their own strength suppress any riot 
 that may occur without calling in aid from the police, and gener- 
 ally calculate to, preserve a moderate decorum in their establish- 
 ments. Their profits are very large, derived not merely from the 
 board money and extras paid by the women, but also from the 
 wines and liquors they sell. They do not endeavor to screen 
 their own character, as do those of the upper class, but openly 
 acknowledge what they are, and do not hesitate to give their 
 personal attention to the business of the place. Anxious to accu- 
 rdulate money as rapidly as possible, they are not very particular 
 
NEW YORK. 559 
 
 atout tlie means they employ, and althongli they would not al- 
 low any positive act of dishonesty to be perfomied toward a visit- 
 or while he was in the house, on account of the trouble to which 
 it might subsequently expose them, yet they would scarcely con- 
 sider it their duty to warn him against the proceedings of the 
 men who live as "lovers" with the prostitutes under their roofs. 
 The virtue of these keepers is certainly not of a very rigid order, 
 and their favored lovers are universally selected from among men 
 of the same character as themselves. 
 
 The meals provided for boarders are served at about the same 
 hours as in the fashionable houses, but they lack that neatness 
 and arrangement which a good cook would give, the domestic 
 matters being mostly confided to inexperienced servants, and fre- 
 quently to some old prostitutes who are retained at nominal wages 
 to do as much work as they can, and in their own style. 
 
 It has been already stated that some of the second-class houses 
 of prostitution are conducted in a similar manner to those of the 
 first, and therefore no attempt has been made to give any detailed 
 account of them, which would be a mere repetition of what has 
 been once described. The lower class have been taken as illus- 
 trating the second grade, and consequently the account must not 
 be taken as a sweeping condemnation of the whole. 
 
 The next, or third grade of prostitutes and houses of prostitu- 
 tion may be found very fully developed in the first police district, 
 among the Germans ; in the fourth district, where sailors mostly 
 resort ; and also in the third, fifth, sixth, and fourteenth districts. 
 A majority of the women in these districts are of foreign birth, the 
 largest proportion being Irish and German. Although rated as 
 third-class houses, some of them are equal in all respects, and 
 sometimes superior in many, to houses of the second class. Most 
 of the women are young, and many of them are very good-look- 
 ing, while the houses, particularly those kept by Germans, are in 
 general conducted very quietly. Even in those places resorted to 
 by sailors, the principal part of any noise which may occur is 
 caused by the boisterous mirth and practical jokes of the visitors 
 themselves. The houses are, in every sense of the word, " pub- 
 lic" places of prostitution, and neither women nor keepers seek 
 to disguise the fact in any manner, the general argument seemmg 
 to be, " "We live by prostitution, no matter who knows it." 
 There are many distinctive features in the several districts, but 
 
560 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTIOX. 
 
 the first and the fourth will be fiiir average types of the -whole, 
 and these -we will notice briefly, commencing with the German 
 houses in the first district 
 
 Here drinking is openly carried on, although seldom to such an 
 extent as to cause absolute intoxication. There is a public bar- 
 room opening directiy from the street, where can be obtained la- 
 ger beer and German wines, as well as the usual liquors sold in 
 porter-houses. This is the reception-room of the estabUshmenl^ 
 and a stranger in the city, who might walk in to get a glass of 
 lager beer, without knowing the character of the place, or being 
 aware of the signification of the crimson and white curtains fes- 
 tooned over the windows, would find himself followed to the bar 
 by some German girl, who would ask him in broken English if 
 he would " treat her." If he feels inclined to gaze around him 
 and study human nature in this phase, he sees that tbe room is 
 very clean ; a conunon sofa, one or two settees, and a number of 
 chairs are ranged roimd the walls; there is a small table with 
 some German newspapers upon it ; a piano, upon which the pro- 
 prietor or his bar-keeper at intervals performs a national melody; 
 and a few prints or engravings complete its furniture. Two or 
 three girls are in different parts of the room engaged in knitting 
 or sewing ; for German girls, whether virtuous or prostitute, seem 
 to have a horror of idleness, and even in such a place as this are 
 seldom seen without their work. Every thing bears an unmis- 
 takable Teutonic appearance ; from the heavily-mustached pro- 
 prietor, or the recentiy-imported bar-keeper, to the mistress, or 
 madame as she is generally called, and the women themselves, all 
 plainly -tell their origin. He is surprised at the entire absence of 
 all those noisy elements generally considered inseparable from a 
 low-class house of prostitution. He can sit there and smoke his 
 cigar in as much peace as at any hotel in the city ; and if he once 
 tells a woman he does not wish to have any conversation with her, 
 he will scarcely be annoyed again, unless he makes the first ad- 
 vances. If he thinks proper to enter into conversation with the 
 proprietor, he will be certain of a courteous reply, and will fre- 
 quently find him an intelligent and commimicative man. Finally, 
 concluding to resist the temptations around him, he leaves the 
 place in the most perfect security, and without the least fear of 
 being insulted. 
 
 The majority of the girls here have recentiy arrived in the 
 United States. Some have embraced this course of life fix>m ab- 
 
NEW YOEK. 
 
 561 
 
 solute poverty and friendlessness ; some have followed it in their 
 own country ; others have been the victims of seduction ; and with 
 some the ruhng motive seems to have been a desire to speak and 
 be spoken to in their native tongue. Their pecimiary arrange- 
 ment with the proprietor, for there is almost invariably a man at 
 the head of each establishment, is that they shall give him one 
 half of all the money they receive, for which he provides them 
 with board and lodging. They are not generally intemperate 
 women, the light German wines being their principal beverage, 
 and although they frequently indulge in profanity, yet, as it is in 
 their national language, it is unintelligible to those who imder- 
 staiid only Enghsh, and the annoyance is consequently restricted. 
 They are generally honest ; in fact, it is the testimony of those 
 best qualified to judge, that there is very seldom much disturb- 
 ance, and very rarely any dishonesty practiced in this class of 
 brothels. It can not be said that literally there is not much noise, 
 for any one who has been in a room where two or three Grermans 
 of each sex were talking and gesticulating with their characteristic 
 earnestness will be of opinion that they talked quite loud enough ; 
 but by disturbance's to be understood quarreling or fighting, 
 which sometimes occurs, but not very frequently. 
 
 As before remarked, a man and his wife are mostly the keepers 
 of such houses. The man, sometimes with a lad for his assistant, 
 attends to the bar-room, and takes charge of the money, the wife 
 does the cooking and general house-work, and the girls attend to 
 their own rooms. By this division of labor the work is generally 
 done to the satisfaction of aU parties, and^ the expenses being light, 
 a considerable profit is made. There are mostly three or four 
 girls in each house, seldom exceeding that number, and the rule 
 among house-keepers is to consider any girl an unprofitable ac- 
 quisition who does not pay them about ten dollars a week. Their 
 rents are low, because they have but httle room. The basement 
 of an ordinary-sized house is generally the extent of their accom- 
 modation ; the front part of this forms the bar-room, and the re- 
 mainder is partitioned iato very small bed-rooms. 
 
 There is another feature connected with German prostitution, 
 and exhibited in the same neighborhood, which has already re- 
 ceived a cursory notice on a former page, namely, their dancing- 
 saloons. Saltatory amusements are carried on, more or less, in aU 
 their houses of prostitution, but in these saloons it is considered 
 a respectable business enterprise, although the moraUty of the es- 
 
562 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 tablishments is, at least, questionable. The ball-room is a large, 
 open apartment devoid of all furniture excepting chaira or bencbes 
 round the walls ; the musical arrangements generally comprise a 
 piano and violin, and the dances are national waltzes and polkas. 
 No charge is made for admission, and the bar is the only source of 
 revenue. The " orchestra" occasionally appeal to the charitable 
 for assistance, and the call is mostly responded to in a liberal man- 
 ner. The business commences in the evening, and is- invariably 
 discontinued at midnight. The places are frequented by very few 
 but Germans, and ;0rder is well maintained. 
 
 Leaving the Germans of the first district, the reader's attention 
 will now be asked to the brothels of the fourth police district. 
 Here the principal part of the women are of Irish parentage ; some 
 few are natives of the United States. The greater part of the visit- 
 ors are sailors. "When a succession of storms which have driven 
 homeward-bound vessels off the coast is followed by a fair wind, so 
 as to allow them to enter the harbor in large nimibers, these houses 
 are crowded, and for a few days, or while the sailors' wages last, 
 a very extensive business is carried on. The bar-room, as in the 
 case of the German houses, is the reception-room, and here may 
 be seen at almost any hour of the day a number of weather-beaten 
 sailors, verifying the truth of the old proverb, which says they 
 resemble two distinct animals in earning and spending their 
 money. It matters not who it may be, but any one who enters 
 the room is almost sure to be asked to take a drink immediately, 
 and if he remains, in less than five minutes somebody else will 
 ask him to take another. A sailor with cash in his pocket has a 
 decided antipathy to drinking alone, and generally invites every 
 one in the room, male and female, to partake with him. By such 
 a course he very soon gets intoxicated, when the girl whom he 
 has honored with his special attention convoys him to bed, and 
 leaves him there to sleep himself sober. 
 
 In these houses less neatness is observable than in those just 
 noticed, but they have entirely a different class of customers. A 
 German, in the midst of his pleasures, likes to see every thing 
 neat and orderly about him ; a sailor is not particular, so that his 
 pleasures are unobstructed. A curious observer, also, does not 
 meet with the same civility : if he comes to spend money he is 
 welcome; if not, the. landlord does not care about his company. 
 Considerable card-playing is practiced ; not what may be termed 
 gambling, but for amusement, the stakes being seldom more than 
 
NEW YORK. 563 
 
 intoxicating drinks for the players. There is less noisy rowdyism 
 than might be expected, since the men who generally cause such 
 disturbances lack the courage to impose upon a crowd of hard- 
 fisted sailors, who are always able and willing to take their own 
 part, and resent any interference. Still, occasional quarrels occur 
 among the yisitors themselves, frequently resulting in a pitched 
 battle. The landlord is then called for, and his knowledge of his 
 customers enables him speedily to discover the aggressor, who al- 
 ways happens to be the man that has the least money, and he is 
 forthwith pushed into the street without any ceremony, as a kind 
 of peace-offering to the rest of the company. 
 
 The landlord is a character in his way. He is a man who has 
 been to sea himself, for no one else would be deemed fit to keep a 
 house where sailors resort, and is usually a large, powerful man. 
 By the freemasonry of the craft, and by freely joining his visitors 
 whenever they ask him to drink, and occasionally treating them in 
 return, he is sure of their custom until their wages are all spent 
 and they are obliged to go to sea again. 
 
 The women in these houses use liquor very freely, but they are 
 not permitted to get drunk in the daytime. If the landlord ob- 
 serves any symptom of intoxication he gives them water, instead 
 of gin, the next time they are asked to drink, as he knows very 
 well his prospects for business would be injured unless the girls 
 were kept sufficiently sober to be on the watch for contingencies, 
 or, as he phrases it, " to look out for chances." 
 
 In some of these houses it is the rule that all the money re- 
 ceived by the girls is to be given to the landlord, who provides 
 them with clothing and necessaries, but in others a fixed rate of 
 board— six or eight dollars a week— is paid, and the women re- 
 tain the surplus. In either case it is a very profitable business, 
 particularly where many girls are kept. In one house that we 
 visited, in the fourth district, the keeper informed us that his ex- 
 penses 'amounted to about one hundred and fifty dollars weekly, 
 and of course some estimate can be made from this as to the 
 amount of business he transacted. 
 
 The dancing-saloons in this neighborhood are not conducted on 
 the Platonic principles of the Gennans. They are, in fact, sa 
 many accessories to prostitution, and many scenes there witnessed 
 will not permit description. The women residing m the house 
 are there, dressed in the most, tawdry finery they can command, 
 many of them assuming the bloomer costume. The band consists 
 
664 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of a violin, a banjo, and a tambourine, and whatever is wanting 
 in musical ability is adequately supplied by vigoroi^ execution. 
 The bar is very liberally patronized, and before midnight drunk- 
 enness is the rule and sobriety the exception. 
 
 Passing now to the fourth grade of this vice, we find prostitu- 
 tion in a most repulsive form; the women themselves diseased 
 and dirty, the houses redolent of bad rum. The prostitutes are 
 the refuse of the other classes who have fallen through the suc- 
 cessive gradations on account of disease and driink&nness, or they 
 are some of those children of iniquity who, bom in scenes of vice 
 and squalid misery, know nothing of a virtuous or happycourse 
 of life. Destiny seems from- their birth to have intended them for 
 vagrants, and has planted them so low in the moral scale that they 
 can scarcely hope to rise. 
 
 It would be useless to attempt a specification of the localities 
 of theSe houses ; any one who has been through the purlieus of 
 New York City must have observed-some of them, and it will be 
 quite sufficient to glance at a few of their peculiarities. They are 
 generally kept by an old -prostitute, who gathers around her some 
 of the most debased of her class, takes a cheap basement wherever 
 she can obtain possession of one suited to her purpose, -erects a 
 small bar furnished with three or four bottles of the commonest 
 liquor she can procure, partitions offione or two small hovels of bed- 
 rooms, and forthwith begins housekeeping. Her arrangements are 
 about as extensive as her preparations. She seldom professes to 
 board the girls, generally making a charge for every visitor they 
 entertain, and- giving them the privilege of cooking any thing they 
 want. , These dens are largely patronizedby the vilest of the male 
 sex ; the petty thieves who hang around the public markets,- steal- 
 ing &om,the wagons, or who haunt the doors of grocery stores and 
 abstract whatever they can reach ; as they find them "convenient 
 places of cbneealment, and can frequently dispose of their booiy 
 by means of the women. Another class of visitors consists of the 
 lowest order of rowdies, who assume a free license to perpetrate 
 any mischief they please, because there is no one to interfere with 
 them. A. fatal case of this nature, which occurred but a few 
 months since, will be fresh in the recollection of all citizens. 
 
 It is dangerous for a stranger to enter a place of this descrip- 
 tion, for if he does not get his pocket, picked by the one, he wifl 
 most probably be assaulted by the either class of visitors. Upon 
 such establishments the police are compelled to keep a watchful 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 565 
 
 eye, and althougli they have no power to enter them except some 
 actual necessity calls for their services, yet they frequently induce 
 a neighbor to make a complaint against the keepers for maintaia- 
 ing a disorderly house, and then, duly armed with a warrant, they 
 enter, and arrest every one found on the premises. The ^inaZe of 
 such an experiment at housekeeping as this is very frequently a 
 commitment for vagrancy to Blackwell's Island. The character 
 of the place will be a sufficient proof that syphilis abounds there, 
 and its dangers must be added to those already enumerated. 
 
 The divisions thus made are presumed to, be accurate as far as 
 the distinctive characters of the various grades 'are concerned, but 
 the lines of demarkation are of course arbitrary. Any attempt to 
 classify so large a social evil must, from its very nature, be incom- 
 plete, and in this case farther experience or a more extended in- 
 quiry would very probably warrant an alteration in the arrange- 
 ment. But there is another class of whom a few words must' be 
 said, namely, those truly wretched beings, the outcasts of the out- 
 casts. In many cases destitute of home or shelter, diseased, starv- 
 ing, and afflicted with an insatiable thirst for ardent spirits, they 
 preseht most ghastly and heart-rending spectacles, retaining scarce- 
 ly any vestiges of humanity. These wretched beings can be found 
 clustered round the bars of liquor-stores in low neighborhoods, 
 begging for the price of a glass of gin. Much of their time is 
 spent in the prisons on Blackwell's Island, from which they are no 
 sooner released than they return to their old haunts and habits. 
 They can scarcely be called prostitutes, for their aspect is so dis- 
 gustingly hideous that all feminine characteristics are blotted out, 
 and thoroughly sensual and animalized must he be who could ac- 
 cept their favors. They are, in every sense of the word, outcasts ; 
 compelled, for the short tirae they may be in the city— and this is 
 seldom more than a few days at once— to eke out a wretched ex- 
 istence by steahng or. begging; frequently so miserable that they 
 -gladly hail the day on which they are returned- to pnson. They 
 -present subjects for moumfol consideration, and the reflection 
 that they are experiencing the degradation to which eyery prosti- 
 tiite in the city is rapidly tending, should be a powerfiil argmnent 
 in favor of any remedial measures which can be devised to amel- 
 iorate the condition of the frail women of New York, and prevent 
 -them from falling so far below humanity. 
 
566 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 HOUSES OF ASSIGNATION. 
 
 iff 
 
 Every resident of New York is aware of the existence of houses 
 used especially as places for the meeting of the sexes with a view 
 to illicit intercourse ; but so carefully have all particulars respect- 
 ing them been concealed from the public gaze, that very little 
 more than this mere fact is generally known, particularly with 
 reference to those of a higher grade. Secrecy is necessary to their 
 continuance, and essential for the maintenance of the social posi- 
 tion of their patrons. 
 
 The most exclusive are generally situated in the quietest and 
 most respectable' portion of the city. They are fitted up neatly, 
 and even luxuriously, but.without any extravagant or gaudy dis- 
 play. Their arrangements, of course, do not require reception or 
 sitting rooms, and the whole care bestowed upoii them is lavished 
 on the bed-chambers, the appointments of which, contain every 
 possible comfort and convenience. 
 
 The keepers of this class of houses are generally very shrewd, 
 quiet, cautious women, who never seek to penetrate into any en- 
 gagements made by their visitors, who never know any person 
 that enters their house, and from whom it is impossible to obtain 
 information by any means. In fact, it has been said that the 
 keepers and servants around these places have neither eyes, ears, 
 nor tongues. Money is confessedly their object, and, as they re- 
 . ceive liberal pay, self-interest dictates quietness, because if they 
 adopted any other course, their houses would inevitably become 
 known to the public, which would be an effectual barrier against 
 visitors, and result in an entire loss of their customers. Conse- 
 quently, if a liberal bribe could ever induce treachery, their 
 shrewdness enables them to discern that such an act would at 
 once and forever close their establishments. 
 
 It wUl be readily understood that, as the intrinsic value of these 
 houses as -places for meeting depends upon the secrecy and select- 
 ness with which they are operated, in order to carry out this prin- 
 ciple fully, arrangements are made with much precision. Two 
 parties are not allowed to meet casually in the halls or staircases. 
 The keeper maintains a strict watch, in order that ingress and 
 egress may be free and uninterrupted, and there can be little 
 doubt that the desire to make money on her side, and the fascina- 
 tion of illicit passion on the part of her visitors, conjointly tend to 
 insure more actual secrecy than could be obtained by any system 
 
NEW YOEK. 567 
 
 of oatlis or discipline. In some of the most exclusive, tlie system 
 is carried to such an extreme that no accommodation will be af- 
 forded to parties unless the gentleman has been previously intro- 
 duced to the proprietress, and his character for secrecy and integ- 
 rity vouched for by some person with whom she is acquainted. 
 This rule is adopted to prevent the possibility of the house be- 
 coming known as a place of assignation to any one who might 
 use his knowledge to the prejudice of the keeper or her visitors. 
 
 No public women reside in these houses, nor would they be ad- 
 mitted under any pretext,, as such a course would attract atten- 
 tion and defeat the purposes contemplated. Many of them are 
 open for months without the knowledge of the neighbors or of the 
 police of the district, as visitors very rarely enter or leave .togeth- 
 er, and to prevent any delay the outer door is generally kept un- 
 locked, so that persons pass immediately into the hall, where a 
 second door, with a bell attached, is generally found. 
 
 The business of these houses is done mainly during the prome- 
 nade hours of Broadway, say from eleven or twelve to four or five 
 o'clock. The visitors are confined to the upper walks of life, the 
 men being of all sorts of business, and the; women exclusively from 
 our fashionable society. If the mysterious "personal" advertise- 
 ments in the daily papers could be understood by the outside world, 
 it would be seen that appointments are not unfrequently made 
 through their agency. Arrangeinents for a meeting are generally 
 made with the keepers in advance, and at the designated time the 
 parties arrive from different directions and proceed direct to the 
 room which has been already selected. If they wish it they can 
 obtain wine or refreshments by ringing a bell in their apartment. 
 ^ A majority of the females who visit these places can scarcely be 
 called prostitutes, notwith^nding their undeniable fall from vir- 
 tue They sin but with one individual, and that, m many cases, 
 from positive affection, and in others from the desire of sexual 
 gratification. Whatever may be the motive, it does not concern 
 the keeper of the house, whose only business is to receive the rent 
 of her room, which ranges from two or three doUars upward to 
 any amount that policy or the desire to insure secrecy may dic- 
 tate. Doubtless very few of the visitors regard money m their 
 negotiations. Females are very frequently closely veiled when 
 they enter the house, so that their features can not be recognized, 
 a. has been illustrated in trials.for divorce m this city, especially 
 if the prior arrangements for the meetmg have been made by the 
 
568 HISTOET OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 gentlemen. If, on the other hand, the lady tak;es the preliminary 
 steps, she can scarcely be Tintnown to the proprietress, in whose 
 keeping she consequently places her character. 
 
 The unsuspecting moral men of New York will scarcely credit 
 these facts, but men of the world know that such meetings and 
 places for meeting are not- uncommon. It may be objected that 
 the exposure of these mysteries imparts information which may 
 lead the uninitiated into similar .practices. It is believed that the 
 informatipn here given is not siifficiehtly definite for this end; and, 
 certainly, nothing could be farther from the design of this work 
 than to aid an immoral purpose. But it is a duty to record the 
 general facts, in order that our citizens may be aware of the dan- 
 gers that abound on every side ; and particularly is it necessary 
 because many of the femiale visitors are married women, who take 
 advantage of the absence of their husbands at business. 
 
 A question will arise: "Who are the women that keep these 
 houses ?" That they can not have lived as common prostitutes, 
 or been the keepers of houses of prostitution, is evident. In the 
 first place, the acquaintances they would have made in either of 
 those avocations would preclude the possibility of their maintain- 
 ing the inviolable secrecy necessary in a house of assignation ; 
 and, again, no female would enter a place of this description, the 
 keeper of which would be likely to betray her. It is apprehend- 
 ed that some of these houses originate in the following manner ; 
 in fact, we know of more than one that did commence so : 
 - A female engaged in an intrigue which she can not carry out 
 at her own residence, and desiring a place of security for her meet- 
 ings, has an acquaintance with some shrewd woman, possibly one 
 who works for her as seamstress, or in some other capacity, whom 
 she makes partially a confidant. Sl]£ tells her that she is desir- 
 ous of seeing a gentleman, whom, for some particular reason, she 
 can npt invite to her house, and asks if she wiU accommodate her 
 with a room in which the interview can take place. It is not 
 likely that a person who felt under any obligation to her employer 
 would refuse such a request, especially for so simple a purpose as 
 a short conversation. The meeting accordingly takes place, and 
 a handsome present is made her. It is frequently repeated, until 
 she becomes suspicious, and finally satisfied that these interviews 
 are for the purpose of sexual iateroourse. By this time it has be- 
 come a question d policy with her. She argues that if she refuses 
 to extend any future accommodation she will lose not only a con- 
 
NEW YORK. 559 
 
 siderable income from the presents, but also all employment from 
 tlie lady. She knows that by allowing such meetings she realizes 
 considerably more than she can procure by her daily labor, and 
 self-interest is generally strong enough to overcome hentscruples. 
 She goes on extending her accommodations, and enlarging the cir- 
 cle of her visitors, until she becomes mistress of a select house of 
 assignation, which will be always liberally patronized so long as 
 her power of maintaining the requisite secrecy remains unim- 
 peached. Some of these women are from distant cities ; entire 
 strangers in New York, except to their immediate customers. If 
 they are widows who have children, these are invariably educated 
 away from home. From the privacy observed it is very difficult 
 to estimate their receipts, which must be large. They sometimes 
 degenerate into keepers of houses of public prostitution, and then 
 become dangerous members of society, on account of the secrets 
 which have been intrusted to them. 
 
 Probably some of our ultra-fashionable citizens might be en- 
 abled to give more particulars of these houses than are here col- 
 lected. What has been stated is gathered from authentic sources, 
 and may command implicit behef Indeed,. so trustworthy is the 
 authority that it maybe confidently asserted that even Fifth Ave- 
 nue and Union Square are not exempt from these resorts. 
 
 Such houses must be regarded as the connecting link between 
 the licentious excesses of the capitals of Europe and this city of 
 the New World. They are dangerous from their secrecy and ex- 
 clusiveness. As yet they are rare; and it speaks well for the 
 morals of our upper classes that they are so. It shows that the 
 majority of people in the higher walks of life are untainted. But 
 the course of deterioration has commenced. Will not American 
 good sense and American morality check this base imitation of 
 
 a foreign custom? . . 
 
 The recently avowed sentiments, or rather the resuscitation o± 
 sentiments which were proclaimed years ago respectmg the obh- 
 gations of marriage and the theory of "free love," have doubtless 
 increased the patrons of houses of assignation among our fashion- 
 able novel-reading people, or weak romantic heads made giddy 
 by the sudden acquisition of wealth. For the last Meen years a 
 loose code of morals has been promulgated among us, the foreign 
 apostles of which-many of them pretending to nobility, but bemg 
 i^ truth mere adventurers-have visited us, and by them and 
 through their influence many intrigues have originated. A spice 
 
570 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of romance in the American character has induced many to join 
 this movement in search of adventure, while a portion of our 
 female society are ardent admirers of every thing foreign, be it a 
 .lord or « lace veU, and these delight in an intrigue because it is 
 an exotic. 
 
 The facilities of communication with Europe are now so great 
 that American travel on that continent is largely on the increase, 
 and perhaps there are at this time in the cities of continental 
 Europe more representatives' of our society than* of any other 
 nation. Many of our people go there with the laudable desire to 
 improve their minds by general culture, or for the study of par- 
 ticular branches of science or art, but it is to be regretted that 
 some come back to our shores with ideas calculated to be any 
 thing but beneficial to their native country in a social or moral 
 point of view. The sons of our staid and " solid men" go to the 
 capital of the French empire to study medicine. Apart from the 
 impropriety of this course when there are the same facilities for 
 study here, where a few seconds of lightning intercourse will place 
 them in immediate communication with their friends, instead of 
 their being separated four thousand nules from parents and guar- 
 dians, does the end justify the means? What course do these 
 young men frequently pursue? .Unable to speak the language 
 intelligibly, they resort to the acquaintance of a grisette, in order 
 to study in her company. The language they acquire by this 
 means is, at best, a vulgar patois ; but they also obtain a knowl- 
 edge of intrigue entirely incompatible with the simplicity and 
 purity of our republican institutions — a species of male and female 
 diplomacy foreign to the character of our people. 
 
 Young ladies, too, when they return from a foreign tour, are 
 more fascinated with the charms and successes of the favored mis- 
 tress of some European prince or potentate than benefited by the 
 useful solid lessons of travel. "With them, as with the others, it 
 is all superficiality. Superficial when they started, superficial 
 while traveling, they are still more superficial when they return. 
 There are always weak-minded people in this country who will 
 ape foreign manners, and to this cause must be assigned the 
 gradual approximation of our fashionable society to the vices of 
 the European capitals, their ladylike and gentlemanlike frailties, 
 their genteel peccadilloes and afiectations. The effects of foreign 
 travel upon such persons can not but be injurious. It demands a 
 clear head and a sound heart to decide between the vicious fri- 
 
NEW YOBK. 575^ 
 
 volities and the positive good submitted to their notice, and with 
 the class mentioned it requires but little judgment to know which 
 
 will first attract them. They must see Lord A or Count 
 
 2 , no matter what valuable opportunities for instruction they 
 
 miss. They must become aufait in the observances of courts and 
 the manners of courtiers, no matter what else they leave undone. 
 
 As remedial measures for another evil are elsewhere spoken of, 
 this may be an appropriate place to suggest for profound consid- 
 eration whether it would not be a wise policy to adopt some pre- 
 ventive system for this evU. We might establish a phrenolog- 
 ical and psychological bureau, armed with fall powers to exam- 
 ine all persons desiring to travel, so as to ascertain whether 
 they may safely make the grand tour, and have sufficient strength 
 of intellect and firmness of principle to resist the vitiating iaflu- 
 ences and examples which will surround them there, so that they 
 •may return only with a knowledge of the good and valuable les- 
 sons taught! 
 
 But the evils of foreign manners and customs are not imported 
 solely by the traveling class of our own community. The polit- 
 ical turmoils of Europe, in the last eight or ten years, have thrown 
 among us numerous refugees who have been reared in the hot-beds 
 of intrigue, and who, styling themselves artistes, depend upon our 
 unexampled prosperity, the increase of our wealth, the improve- 
 ment of our country, and our known predilections for foreigners, 
 to enable them to make a living, and also to establish the same 
 state of morals and manners existing in the cities whence they 
 came. The United States are now the great harvest-field for art, 
 which, with science, music, and poetry, aids to improve the mind. 
 At the same time these bring with them an excessive devotion to 
 fashion, both in dress and manners, as the low-necked dress and 
 the lascivious waltz, which are so decidedly positive degenerations 
 from our normal state that none but the most superficial will ever 
 
 copy. 
 
 That we are rapidly introducing many of the most absurd fol- 
 lies and worst vices of Europe is a patent fact. Abnost every one 
 can specify acts now tolerated in respectable famihes which, so 
 far from being permitted fifteen years ago, would have been 
 thought by our plain common-sense parents amply sufficient to 
 \ warrant the exclusion of the offender from the domestic circle; 
 \. and it is an equally conspicuous fact that our social morahty is 
 ^ deteriorating in a direct ratio to the introduction of these habits. 
 
572 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Every day makes tlie system of New York more like that of the 
 ropst deprayed capitals of continental Europe, and itj^emains for 
 the good innate sense of the bulk of the American people to say 
 iow much farther we shall proceed in this frivolous, intriguing, 
 and despicable manner of living ; or whether they will not strive 
 to perpetuate the stern morality of the Puritan fathers, our great 
 moral safeguard so far, and thus put an effectual barrier against 
 the inroads of a torrent which must undermine our whole social 
 fabric, and finally crush us beneath the ruins. 
 
 The second class of assignation-houses are, to a great extent, 
 private,. but not so rigidly exclusive as the others. Their furni- 
 ture is of the same luxurious style, but of a more gaudy character. 
 Generally the same routine is observed. in regard to entrance as 
 in those of the first class. , The principal portion of the females 
 who resort to them are married women, most of whom are from 
 the upper classes, whose sexual passions are not gratified else- 
 where, or who resort to this means to obtain more money to ex- 
 pend in. dress ; kept mistresses, residing with their lovers as hus- 
 band and wife in hotels or boarding-houses, whose attachment is 
 not strong enough to keep them faithful to one man ; occasionally 
 the best class of serving-women, or shop-women, or females whose 
 occupations, such as milliners, artificial florists, etc., lead them into 
 contact with the fashionable classes. It is told on good authority 
 that there are husbands cognizant of the. fact that their wives visit 
 such places, and who live wholly or in part upon money earned 
 in this way. These cases are not supposed to be numerous, but 
 it is to be hoped, for the credit of our national character, that the 
 number will become stiU smaiUer; . A few prostitutes of the upper 
 grades sometimes visit this class of houses ; they are known to the 
 keeper, and she. encourages them for the following reason: An 
 habitu^ of the place will make an appointment to visit it at a spe- 
 cified time, and he tells the keeper he would wish to meet a fe- 
 male there. At the appointed day his wishes are gratified, the 
 keeper having acted as negotiator with one of the girls mentioned. 
 More wine is consumed in these houses than in the strictly select 
 ones, probably from the different class who frequent them. 
 
 The third-class houses of assignation are not situated ia such 
 select parts of the city as are the other two classes. Some, of them 
 are managed with much privacy and .seclusion, while others are 
 simply houses of public prostitution on alarge scale. Thej/princi- 
 pal female patrons are those prostitutes who have rebell,ed against 
 
NEW YORK. 573 
 
 the exorbitant charges made by keepers of fasbionable houses, 
 and shop-girls who resort to prostitution to augment their income. 
 Many of these live some distance up town, and any one who is 
 journeying downward in the after part of the day may see num- 
 bers of them goiug to these places in the cars and stages. This is 
 another imitation of the French and Enghsh systems. Very Httle 
 disguise is attempted about these third-class houses. Each has a 
 parlor or reception-room, where a man can have a bottle of wiae, 
 and one or two of the girls named will join him. Of course many 
 couples visit there, but a large number of men go alone, knowing 
 that there are always women in the house. Fast young men 
 about town are in the habit of keeping their mistresses at these 
 houses, as more economical than boarding with them at hotels. 
 Considerable disease is propagated in such places, a contingency 
 from which the first and second classes are almost entirely exempt. 
 Business is generally over here in three or four hours, commenc- 
 ing in the dusk of the evening ; but it is unquestionably a source 
 of considerable revenue to the keeper, particularly in those cases 
 where she acts as procuress, since, in addition to the rent of the 
 room which the man pays, she always receives a present from the 
 woman. 
 
 There is another or fourth class of assignation-houses to which 
 the commonest portion of street-walkers take their company, and 
 these may be emphatically described by an old saying, " Cheap 
 and nasty." Dirty and insufficient accommodations are the eqtiiv- 
 alents for low prices, and such places are, in the general estima- 
 tion of connoiseurs, very hw and despicable. Notwithstanding 
 this they thrive and multiply, from which it may safely be infer- 
 red that they are profitable in a business point of view, repulsive 
 as they may be in their features and arrangements. Some of 
 them are ingeniously arranged with a view to robbery, and are 
 called "panel-houses." The plan adopted is somewhat as follows : 
 Some man, generally a countryman not very well informed in the 
 tricks of the metropolis, meets with a prostitute, and agrees to ac- 
 company her to an assignation-house. She is in league with the 
 "panel thieves," and therefore introduces her victim to one of 
 their rooms. The apartment seldom contains more furniture 
 than a bed and a chair or lounge, with the floor covered with a 
 thick carpet. To make "assurance doubly sure," the man him- 
 self locks the door by which he enters, and, when undressmg, ilat- 
 uraUy throws his clothes upon the chair or lounge. The bed- 
 
574 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 stead is placed so that the feet come toward the only apparent 
 door in the room, with one side against the wall, and t]^ head and 
 other side hung with curtains, which the woman carefully draws 
 as soon as the man lies down by her side. At the head of the 
 bed, and of course concealed by the drapery from any one occu- 
 pying it, is another door, which forms the secret entrance. It is 
 so adroitly arranged, and so neatly covered with paper the same 
 as the walls, that no one would suspect its existence. The hinges 
 and fastening on the outside are oiled, so that no noise can be per- 
 ceived when it is opened, and the operator steals with cat-like 
 step over the carpet, and quietly examines the clothes without 
 alarming the unsuspecting stranger. The thief completes his in- 
 spection, appropriates as much as he thinks proper, and the tem- 
 porary occupant of the apartment resumes his clothes and pre- 
 pares to leave. If his suspicions are excited by the circumstance 
 that his wallet, looks less plethoric than it did, and an examina- 
 tion reveals that some of its contents are missing, he knows not 
 how to account for it. He is perfectly certain that no one has en- 
 tered that room while he was there, and if he has " visited" much 
 before meeting the girl, he concludes that he must have lost some 
 of his money in his career, and that the only way is to take the 
 loss contentedly, and avoid New York fascinations in fiiture. 
 Sometimes the loser has not enough philosophy for this, and if 
 he can be certain that his money was right when he entered the 
 room, will call in the police, and thus expose the secret arrange- 
 ments of the establishment. This is comparatively a rare case, as 
 most men would rather submit to a pecuniary loss than encounter 
 the trouble and exposure attending a criminal prosecution, and 
 the knowledge of this reluctance enables the " panel thieves" to 
 pursue their operations almost with impunity. 
 
NEW YORK. 575 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVI. 
 
 NEW YOKE. — EXTENT, EFFECTS, AND COST OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Number of Public Prostitutes.— Opinion of Chief of Police in 1856.— Effects on 
 Prostitution of Commercial Panic of 1857. — Extravagant Surmises. — Police In- 
 vestigation of May, 1858. — Private Prostitutes. — Aggregate Prostitution. — Vis- 
 itors from the Suburbs of New York. — Strangers. — Proportion of Prostitutes to 
 Population. — Syphilis. — Danger of Infection. — Increase of Venereal Disease. — 
 Statistics of Cases treated in Islasd Hospital, Blaokwell's Island. — Primary 
 Syphilis and its Indications. — Cases of Venereal Disease in Public Institutions. 
 — Alms-house. — Work-house. — Penitentiary. — Bellevue Hospital. — Nursery 
 Hospital, Randall's Island. — Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island. — New York 
 City Hospital. — Dispensaries. — Medical Colleges. — ^King's County Hospital. — 
 Brooklyn City Hospital. — Seamen's Retreat, Staten Island. — Summary of Cases 
 treated in Public Institutions. — Private Treatment. — Advertisers. — Patent Med- 
 icines. — ^Drug-stores. — Aggregate of Venereal Diseased — Probabilities of Infec- 
 .. tion. — Cost of Prostitution. — Capital invested in Houses of Prostitution and As- 
 signation, Dancing-saloons, etc. — Income of Prostitutes. — Individual Expenses 
 of Visitors. — Medical Expenses.— Vagrancy and Pauper Expenses.— Police and 
 Judiciary Expenses. — Correspondence with leading Cities of the United States. 
 —Estimated Prostitution throughout the Union.— Remarks on "Tait's Prostitu- 
 tion in E(linhurgh."—Vn{oxinded Estimates.— National Statistics of Population, 
 Births, Education, Occupation, Wages, Pauperism, Cringe, Breweries and Distil- 
 leries, and Nativities. 
 
 The preceding chapters have given a statistical and descriptive 
 account of prostitution in New York. Before considering what 
 measures can be best applied for the amelioration of its accom- 
 panying evils, it will be necessary to ascertain the extent of the 
 system, and this inquiry must include the number of abandoned 
 women in the city, and the amount of Venereal infection propa- 
 gated through their agency. 
 
 It has been assumed in these pages that the two thousand wom- 
 en whose replies form the basis of the statistical tables, represent 
 about one third of the aggregate prostitution of New York. This 
 is allowing an increase of twenty per cent, during the winter of 
 1857-8 in consequence of the commercial panic of last autumn, 
 and the' resulting paralysis of trade, and suffering of the laboring 
 
 community. . , i i ■ ■■ i 
 
 In the progress of this investigation it was deemed advisable 
 to consult those whose acquaintance with the details of city life 
 would entitle their opinions to confidence, as to the actual num- 
 ber of prostitutes within our limits; and in addition to much m- 
 
576 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 formation obtained privately, the following correspondence took 
 place with the then Chief of Police : _ 
 
 (Copy.) 
 "Resident Physician's Office, Blackwell's Island, | 
 New York, September 1, 1856. ) 
 
 " George W. Matsell, Esq., Chief of Police : 
 " Peak Sjr, — Puring the last twenty years various estimates have been 
 made by different persons, foreigners and natives, interested and not inter- 
 ested, as to the number of prostitutes in the city of New York. It is gen- 
 erally supposed that they reach the large number of twenty-five or thirty 
 thousand. You, sir, have been at the head of the police department of the 
 city for the past fifteen years, while previous to that time you acted, if I 
 mistake not, as one of the police justices of the city. I presume, therefore, 
 that you have a considerable knowledge of prostitution as it exists here, 
 and consequently can give a very correct opinion as to the munber of pros- 
 titutes in New York City. 
 
 "You will greatly oblige me if, at your earliest leisure, and in any form 
 most convenient to yourself, you will state what you believe to be the total 
 number of prostitutes now in the city. 
 
 " It is proper to add that, with your permission, I intend to publish this 
 letter, with your answer, in the report on Prostitution which I am preparing, 
 and shall soon have the honor to lay before the public. 
 
 " Yours respectfully, William W. Sanger, 
 
 " Kesident Physician, Blackwell's Island." 
 
 (Reply.) 
 " Office of the Chief of Police, New York, Dec. 12, 1856. 
 "PoctorWiLUAM W. Sanger: 
 " Pear Sib, — I received your letter asking me to express in writing my 
 estimate of the whole number of known public prostitutes in the city of 
 New York. In the absence of any law compelling the registering of public 
 prostitutes, it would be very difficult to testify witli accuracy to the exact 
 number of such persons in the city. I have no hesitancy in stating that, in 
 my opinion, they do not number over five thousand persons, if indeed they 
 reach so high a figure. Having been engaged in public life for many years, 
 my opinion is based on the observations made by me from time to time, and 
 from various official reports made to me. 
 
 "You are at liberty to make such use of this answer to your interrogatory 
 as you may deem proper. Very respectfully yours, 
 
 "aEO. W. Matsell, Chief of Police." 
 
 This communication, in addition to the facts gleaned from other 
 sources; was amply sufficient to warrant the conclusion that the 
 known public prostitutes in New York did not exceed five thou- 
 
NEW YORK. 577 
 
 sand in numbear at the close of the year 1856. Then ensued the 
 STimmer, with its artificial inflation— that false prosperity which 
 excites unbounded hopes and stimulates to measureless extrava- 
 gance, followed by the revulsion and panic of the fall and winter. 
 Trade was literally dead: operatives, never too well paid, were 
 threatened with starvation; females, particularly, felt the rigid 
 pressure of the times. In many families the embarrassments of 
 the fathers compelled a reduction of the servants employed, and 
 a large number of domestics were added to the aggregate of that 
 class already out of situations. The occupations of the army of 
 seamstresses, dress-makers, milliaers, and tailoresses were sus- 
 pended, and their struggles for bread were merged in the general 
 cry for labor. It was, in short, a trying time alike for the suffer- 
 ers and the observers. But one resort seemed available; the 
 poor workless, houseless, fdodless woman must have recourse to 
 prostitution as a means of preserving life. 
 
 As usual in any time of great excitement, surmise ran actually 
 wild as to the extent of the consequences, and extravagant theo- 
 ries abounded ; one gentleman actually stating in a pubhc meet- 
 ing that a thousand virtuous girls were becoming prostitutes ev- 
 ery week through sheer starvation! An assertion so appalling 
 as this is its own refutation. It assumes that one woman in every 
 hundred of the female population of New York City, between the 
 ages of fifteen and thirty years, became a prostitute every week ; 
 ' and therefore, during the- six months of fall and winter, twenty- 
 six thousand women, one fourth of the inhabitants of the ages 
 named, one in every four of all the women under middle age, 
 ■would have been forced into vice ! The practice of "jumping at 
 conclusions" upon serious matters like this is much to be repre- 
 hended. An exaggerated statement made in the fervor of enthu- 
 siasm, while advocating a benevolent object, must always recoil 
 to the injury of the cause it is intended to promote. It wUl be 
 necessary only to consider for a moment the financial condition 
 of New York to be convinced that such an increase of prostitu- 
 tion was impossible. It can not be denied that the number of 
 abandoned women is regulated by the demand; or that the only 
 inducement which could lead virtuous girls to the course alleged 
 must have been the necessity to earn money for subsistence. But 
 ihis necessity to earn money was felt- as strongly by men as. by 
 women The revulsion for a time left s. large portion of the com- 
 munitv without resources. Merchante, manufacturers, and store- 
 ^ Oo 
 
578 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 keepers found their receipts inadequate to meet their expendi- 
 tures. Commercial employes, book-keepers, clerks, salesmen, and 
 agents were discharged.' Mechanics in every branch were with- 
 out work, and consequently without wages. Merchants from 
 other parts of the country had no money to meet their liabilities 
 or make fresh purchases, and therefore did not visit the city as 
 usual. These causes combined to reduce the business of houses 
 of prostitution, and instead of large accessions to the ranks of 
 courtesans, many of this very class were forced to seek a refiige 
 in the public charitable institutions. Hence arose the increase in 
 the denizens of Blackwell's Island, where hospital, alms-house, 
 work-house, and penitentiary were alike over-crowded. Some of 
 the places vacated by these recipients of eleemosynary aid were 
 doubtless filled by new recruits ; but the supposition that a thou- 
 sand were added every week would imply a change in the whole 
 corps every six weeks, or a change nearly five times completed 
 during the fall and winter. 
 
 That female virtue was yielded in many instances can not, un- 
 fortunately,' be doubted, but' the sufferers did not become public 
 prostitutes. Poor creatures ! they surrendered themselves unwil- 
 lingly to some temporary acquaintance, probably in gratitude for 
 assistance already rendered, or anticipating aid to be afforded. 
 There is something truly melancholy in the consideration that 
 bread had to be purchased at such a price ; that the only alterna- 
 tive lay between voluntary dishonor and killing indigence. It is 
 but charity to conclude that the woman who thus acted, if her sub- 
 sequent course was not a continuous life of abandonment, was im- 
 pelled by the stern necessity of the times rather than induced by 
 a laxity of moral feeling. Unchaste as she must be admitted, she 
 can scarcely be deemed a prostitute in the ordinary acceptation of 
 the word. ' > 
 
 It would be foolish to deny all increase of prostitution since the 
 date of the correspondence just transcribed. The population of 
 New York is now some thirty or forty thousand more than at that 
 time, and female degradation has extended, as a natural conse- 
 quence. Eelying upon the estimate of five thousand as correct at 
 the time made, the subsequent augmentation of inhabitants would 
 suppose an addition of about three hundred prostitutes, but to take 
 the widest scope, and assume that the debasement required by 
 hunger degenerated into a habit of confirmed vice, it may be ad- 
 mitted that the number of abandoned women in New York has 
 
NEW YORK. 579 
 
 increased ftom five thousand in 1856 to six thousand in 1858. 
 This is a very liberal estimate, and the total assigned is certainly 
 not too small. How much it may be in excess can not be said 
 with precision, but in an argument of this nature it is safer to err 
 in the direction of overstating an evil than to be lulled into false 
 security by too flattering a representation. 
 
 The known public prostitutes of New York are thus presumed 
 to amount to six thousand at the present day. But to this num- 
 ber exceptions might be taken. To secure farther accuracy, ad- 
 ditional evidence was' sought. In the month of May, 1858, the 
 assistance of the Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners was 
 requested, and, under the direction of its president (General James 
 W. Nye), to whom our acknowledgments are respectfully tender- 
 ed for his courtesy and aid, a list of queries was submitted to the 
 Inspector of each Police precinct. Below is a copy of the circu- 
 lar, with a synopsis of the replies. 
 
 (Copy.) 
 " Office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners,) 
 New York, May 1, 1858. ■ ) 
 
 "Inspector : — Police Precinct. 
 
 « gut You will please report to this office as early as possible on the 
 
 questions given below. Let your answers be full and explicit, to the best 
 of your knowledge and belief. Space is left below each query for the in- 
 sertion of your replies, and you will therefore write them on this sheet, and 
 return it without delay. 
 
 « 1. How many houses of prostitution, from the most public to the most 
 private, are there in your police district 1 
 
 « 2 How many houses of assignation are there in your district ? 
 
 "B How many dancing-saloons, liquor and lager.beer stores, are there 
 in your district, where prostitutes are in the habit of assembling, in addi- 
 tion to the known houses of prostitution 1 ■,.,•,,„ 
 
 « 4. How many prostitutoB do yoir suppose reside m your district i. 
 
580 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 SYNOPSIS OF EEPLIES. 
 
 Pre- 
 Giacts. 
 
 Reported by 
 
 Houses of 
 Prostitution. 
 
 Hooses of 
 ABsignation. 
 
 - 
 
 Dancing-sBJ 
 
 loons, Liquor 
 
 or Lager-beer 
 
 Stores, where 
 
 Prostitutes 
 
 assemble. 
 
 Estimated 
 Number of 
 Proatitut£B. 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 12 
 
 13 
 
 14 
 
 15 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 Inspector James Silvey 
 
 " Hart B. "Weed 
 
 J. A. P. Hopkins.. 
 
 " Morris De Camp .. 
 
 ' ' Henry Hutchings. . 
 
 Acting Inspector Lush 
 
 Inspector John Cameron..... 
 
 " C. S. Turnbull 
 
 " Jacob L. Sebring.. 
 
 " T C. Davis 
 
 22 
 
 1 
 
 9 
 
 35 
 
 63 
 
 52 
 
 6 
 
 43 
 
 26 
 
 i's 
 
 39 
 5 
 6 
 
 20 
 1 
 5 
 
 15 
 
 15 
 
 i's 
 
 7 
 6 
 
 15 
 
 "i 
 "4 
 
 6 
 19 
 
 4 
 3 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 10 
 
 3 
 1 
 
 "s 
 
 46 
 12 
 
 ' i 
 
 Yi 
 
 "s . 
 
 "7 
 10 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 5" 
 
 6 
 14 
 
 76 . 
 2 
 
 26 
 750 
 420 
 228 
 100 
 300 
 
 50 
 100 
 
 50 
 
 150 
 125 
 175 
 500 
 150 
 250 
 
 30 
 250 
 
 75 
 
 60 
 
 " Peter Squires...;... 
 " Galen P. Porter ... 
 " Thomas Steers...... 
 
 " J. J. Williamson... 
 G. W. Dilks ........ 
 
 " Samuel Carpenter. 
 " J. W. Hartt 
 
 " Theron R. Bennett 
 
 " James Bryan 
 
 " F. M. Curty 
 
 " Francis Speight.... 
 
 " James E. Coulter.. 
 
 Totals 
 
 378 
 
 89. 
 
 151 
 
 3857 
 
 
 Upon some of the reports are notes, -wMcli may be extracted. 
 Inspector Silvey, 1st ^district, says, in answer to question 4, 
 " There are to my hrwwledge seventy-six common prostitutes living 
 in this precinct." 
 
 Inspector De Camp, 4th district, says, in answer to question 
 4 : " 350 who reside in houses of prostitution, 150 kept mis- 
 tresses, 150 who reside iij. the ward, and. prostitute themselves in 
 this and other wards, and probably 100 occasional prostitutes." 
 
 Inspector Hutchings, 5th district, in answer to question 3, classi- 
 fies the resorts as 
 
 Danoing-rooms . . . . . . . . . ... . . 2 
 
 Saloons and cigar-stores 31 
 
 Lager-beer-stores 13 
 
 46 
 and, in answer to question 4, subdivides the prostitutes into 
 
 Whites 360 
 
 Blacks _60 
 
 • 420 
 Acting Inspector Lush, 6th district, says, in answer to question 
 4 : " One hundred and seventy-eight known prostitutes whose 
 names we have ; supposed to be at least fifty more residing in the 
 district." 
 
NEW YORK. QQi 
 
 Inspector Cameron, 7tli district, in answer to question 3, classi- 
 fies the resorts into 
 
 Lager-beer-stpres 3 
 
 Cigar-store 1 
 
 i 
 and, in answer to question 4, says: "Can give no reliable infor- 
 mation ; probably one hundred." 
 
 Inspector Sebring, 9th district, says, in answer to question 1, 
 " This precinct does not contain any houses of prostitution that 
 I am aware of;" and in reply to question 4: "Scattered through 
 the precinct there are probably fifty.'' 
 
 Inspector Sqmres, 11th district, says, ia answer to question 1 : 
 " None, properly speaking. There are many low drinking places 
 where dissipated persons of both sexes often meet, and where, no 
 doubt, prostitution is sometimes practiced, but no regular houses 
 of that character." To question 3 : " There are about a dozen lager- 
 beer-saloons where Dutch girls of loose character assemble and 
 dance at night. They do not remain long in the same place, but 
 when driven from one place they locate in another." To question 
 4 : "I presume there are fifty young women and married women, 
 some of whom pass for respectable persons, who are in the habit of 
 going across to the eighth, fifteenth, and other disreputable wards 
 for purposes of prostitution, and some of the lowest of these are 
 even said to visit the fifth ward, but I have never been able to as- 
 certain this fact positively." 
 
 Inspector Porter, i2th district says, " This precinct, comprising 
 all that portion of the island north of 86th street, is not infested 
 with any of the evils enumerated in the within questions." 
 
 Inspector Williamson, 14th district, says, in answer to question 
 4, "I should suppose about 125." 
 
 Inspector Carpenter, 16th district, says, in answer to question 
 4, " It is generally conceded by those of us who presume to know 
 that there are in this precinct at least five hundred prostitutes, of 
 all ages, nations, grades, and colors;" 
 
 Inspector Hartt, 17th district, says, in answer to question 4,- 
 " This being a hard question to answer, the answer must be taken 
 as entirely guess-work:^ supposed to be about one hundred and 
 
 Inspector Curry, 20th district, says, in answer to question 4: 
 "Probably two or three hundred, but this is mere guess-work. 
 We know there are a great many ; some of them veiy young. _ 
 
 Those reports from which no extracts have been made consist 
 
582 ■ HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 simply of figures witliout any .remarks, and are given folly in the 
 synopsis. It -will be observed that all the of&cers quoted give the 
 number of prostitutes more as a .conjecture than a certllnty ; and 
 although their avocations would lead them to know most of the 
 disreputable women in their several districts, none of them aSsume 
 to be so thoroughly informed as to be enabled to answer positive- 
 ly. To the numbers they give must be added the 'floating prosti- 
 tute population of station-houses, city and district prisons, hospi- 
 tals, work-house, ahns-house, and:penitentiary, which varies from 
 one thousand to two. thousand, andmay be takeii at an average 
 of one thousand five hundred. This, .with those known to the 
 police; makes a total of 5357, and the balance of six hundred, and 
 forty-three (643), required to raise the number to six thousand 
 (6000), is but a moderate allowance for those who have escaped 
 the eyes ©f the of&cers when taking the census. As before re- 
 marked, it is better to overestiniate than underestimate the aban- 
 doned women of the city. 
 
 But to this number are to be added those whose calling is so 
 effectually. disguised as to prevent its being known — ^those who 
 practice prostitution in addition to some legitimate occupation, and 
 those who resort to' illicit pleasures for the indiilgence of their 
 passions. To obtain information on these points some supple- 
 mentary questions were addressed to the captains of police at the 
 commencement of this investigation in 1856, and their replies are 
 now submitted. 
 
 The first inquiry was, "How many houses of assignation are 
 there in your district?" It was known when this interrogatory 
 was propounded that the secrecy maintained in these places would 
 in some instances baf&e the keenness, not often at, fault, of our 
 shrewdest police of&cers, and no surprise was felt when their re- 
 pUes indicated that only seventy-four (74) of these houses were 
 known to them. ■ Eeliable information from other sources led to 
 the conviction 'that this was understated. The investigation of 
 May, 1858, fixes the number at eighty-nine (89), which is also too 
 low ; and we ^hall be perfectly justified in estimating the number 
 of houses .of assignation in New York at one hundred (100). 
 
 The next question was, "What, to the;,best of your belief, are 
 the average number of visitors to such hduses every twenty-^four 
 hours ?" The replies gave an average of six couples to each house 
 ?very day, or an aggregate of six hundred women every twenty- 
 four, hours. This was followed- by the query, " Are all the fe- 
 males who visit these houses of assignation known public prosti- 
 
NEW YORK. 583 
 
 tutes? If not, of what class do you suppose or know them to 
 be ?" From the replies it was found that about two fifths were 
 known as prostitutes, the remainder being sewing or shop girls, 
 kept mistresses, widows, and some married women. 
 
 Again: "State your; opinion as to how many kept mistresses 
 there are in yoiir district?" In the twenty-two districts two 
 hundred and sixty-eight (268) were ascertained, and the presump- 
 tion was that there were more. The number may be safely taken 
 at four hundred. The next question was, " How many women, 
 to the best of your belief, and that you have not previously ex- 
 amined, are there in your district that obtain a livelihood in whole 
 or in part by prostitution ?" To this the numbers are stated (upon 
 belief, for the nature of the question precludes any positive infor- 
 mation) as about four hundred. " Can you form an opinion as to 
 how many women in your district, who are not impelled by ne- 
 cessity, prostitute themselves to gratify their passions ?" No def- 
 inite answers were obtained to this, the general suppositions rang- 
 ing from one third to one fourth of those who were not recog- 
 nized as public prostitutes. " To what extent, in your opinion, 
 is prostitution carried on in the tenant houses in your district?" 
 It is generally admitted that there is some, but no calculation can 
 be made with any accuracy. Many of what may be called pri- 
 vate prostitutes live in this class of houses, but their visitors 
 would be taken to houses of assignation, where the numbers are 
 included in the estimate given. "It is believed that there are 
 many women who follow prostitution living in nearly all the re- 
 spectable portions of the city. They (singly or in couples) hire a 
 suite of rooms, and under the garb of honest labor, sewing, etc., 
 pass as respectable among those living near them. It is also 
 known that such as these are the great frequenters of houses of 
 assignation. How many such women (to the best of your belief ) 
 are there in your district?',' The officers reply that they have as- 
 certained that there are about two hundred, but they beheve there 
 
 are many more. 
 
 Thus much for the information we have been enabled to col- 
 lect There are six hundred women who visit these houses of 
 assignation every day, of whom two fifths are known as pubhc 
 prostitutes, and the remainder are of other classes. It may be as- 
 sumed that the known prostitutes visit such houses at least once 
 ' every twenty-four hours, which leaves over three hundred visits 
 daily for the others. Kept mistresses or married women who re- 
 sort there for the gratification of their passions probably amount 
 
084 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 to one Jituidred per day. . It can scarcely be supposed tliat sucli 
 visit houses of assignation more than once a week as a general 
 rule, wHle the others, sewing or shop girls, etc., who rflort there 
 to augment their income, would probably take this step two or 
 three times per week, which would bring their number to about 
 four hundred. It thus appears that a very fair estimate of the 
 total number of frail women who are now in New York may be 
 stated,as follows : 
 
 Kjiown public prostitutes 6000 
 
 Women who visit houses of assignation for sexual gratification . . 1260 
 
 Women who visit houses of assignation, to augment their income . 400 
 One half the number of kept mistresses, assuming the other half to 
 
 be included in those who visit houses of assignation 200 
 
 Total 1860 
 
 It will be seen that, to arrive at this conclusion, all are included 
 who are suspected to be lost to virtue, although of the number 
 who visit houses of assignation for sexual gratification many are 
 guiltless of promiscuous intercourse. 
 
 This total number falls very far short of the estimates made at 
 different times by various persons, that there are from twenty to 
 thirty thousand prostitutes in New York City ! Such rash con- 
 clusions, hastily formed in the excitement of the moment — some- 
 times influei;ced by the- fact that " the wish is father to the 
 thought' —must give place to the results of a careful and search- 
 ing investigation made for this ■ special purpose. The Tnodus 
 operandi of examination in the city rendered it incumbent on 
 those having it in charge to approximate to the facts, and is itself 
 a sufficient guarantee of correctness.* 
 
 If it were possible to parade the six thousand known public 
 prostitutes in one procession, they would make a much larger dem- 
 onstration than the mere printed words " six thousand" suggest 
 to the reader. It requires a man who is in the habit of seeing 
 large congregations of persons to comprehend at a glance the ag- 
 gregate implied in this statement. Place this number of women 
 in Hne, side by side, and if each was allowed only twenty-four 
 inches of room, they would extend two miles and four hundred 
 
 ' On a former page the residts of a police investigation of the number of prosti- 
 tutes in London in the year 1857 is given. It^will be remembered that only 8600 
 common women were reported, in a population of nearly 2,500,000. The inquiries 
 in New York and London would alike lead to the opinion that the e2:tent of the 
 vice is generally owerrated. 
 
NEW YORK. 535 
 
 and eigtty yards. Let thein marcli up Broadway in single file, 
 and allow eacli woman thirty-six inclies (and that is as little room 
 as possible, considering the required space for locomotion), and 
 they would reach from the City Hall to Fortieth Street. Or, let 
 them all ride in the ordinary city stages, which carry twelve 'pas- 
 sengers each, and it would be necessary to charter five hundred 
 omnibuses for their conveyance. These simple illustrations will 
 make the extent of the vice plain to many who could form but 
 an inadequate idea from the mere figures. 
 
 Yet the estimate will probably appear low to those residents of 
 the city who have been accustomed to believe New York reeking 
 with prostitution in every hole and corner, while it will seem ex- 
 cessively large to readers residing in the country. For the in- 
 formation of the latter it may be remarked, that vicious as Man- 
 hattan Island unquestionably is, much as there may be in it to 
 need reform, in this matter of prostitution it must not bear all the 
 l^ame of these six thousand women, for although they certainly 
 reside in it, a very large number of their visitors do not dwell 
 there. Brooklyn, the villages on Long Island, Fort Hamilton, 
 New Utrecht, Flushing, and others ; Jersey. City, Hoboken, Hud- 
 son, Staten Island, Morrisania, Fordham, etc., contain numbers 
 of people who transact their daQy business in New York, but re- 
 side in those places. In very few of these localities are any pros- 
 titutes to be found, nor would they be encouraged therein while 
 New York is so close at hand and so easy of access. Again, the 
 strangers flocking into this city from all parts of the world aver- 
 age from five to twenty thousand and upward every day, and 
 they must relieve it of some part of this obloquy. 
 
 The population of New York at the last census (1855) was 
 officially stated to be (in round numbers) 630,000, and the pro- 
 portionate increase for three years to the present time will bring 
 it very near 700,000. If illicit intercourse here were carried on 
 only by permanent residents, its proportion of public prostitutes 
 would be one to every one hundred and seventeen (117) of the 
 inhabitants; but the calculation must include the denizens of the 
 places already enumerated, and, adding 500,000 for them and the 
 number of strangers constantly visiting the city, we have a total 
 of 1 200,000 persons ; making the proportion of prostitutes only 
 one in every two hundred, including men, women, and children. 
 It is desirable, however, to ascertain what proportion courtesans 
 bear to the classes who patronize them, and the census shows 
 
586 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 that males above the age of fifteen form about thirty-two per cent, 
 of the population. A wider range might haye been taken, as it 
 is notorious that many boys under fifteen years old,^specially 
 among the lower." classes, practice the vice; but assuming that to 
 be the standard, there is one prostitute to every sixty-four adult 
 males, certainly not a large proportion in a commercial and mari- 
 time city. It is impossible to form any idea of the proportion of 
 male inhabitants and visitors who encourage houses of prostitu- 
 tion. Marriage is not always a check to indiscriminate inter- 
 course, and professions of religion are often violated for -illicit 
 gratification. Still there are a vast number whom' these obliga- 
 tions bind, and, if they could be, exactly ascertained, this would 
 make a corresponding difference in the proportions. 
 
 As the case now is, New York City stands somewhat in the 
 position of a seduced woman, and has to endure all the odium at- 
 tached to the number of prostitutes residing within her linjits ; 
 while her neighbors and strangers who largely participate in thf 
 offense, are like seducers, and. escape all censure, self-righteojusly 
 saying, " How virtuous is our town (or village) compared with 
 that sink of iniquity, New York." It has been already stated 
 what the effect would.be if all visitors to New York were moral 
 men, and, although the remark need not be repeated, its apposite- 
 ness is apparent. 
 
 From the prostitutes within our borders emanates the plague 
 of syphilis, and when, the number of abandoned women is con- 
 sidered in conjunction with the certainty that each of them is h- 
 able at any moment to contract and extend the malady ; when 
 the probabilities of such extension are viewed in connection with 
 the acknowledged fact that each prostitute ia New York receives 
 from one to ten visitors every day (instances are known where 
 the maximum exceeds and sometimes doubles the highest num- 
 ber here given), there can be no reasonable doubt of the danger 
 of infection, lior any surprise that the average life of prostitutes is 
 only four years. 
 
 The actual extent of venereal disease must be the first point of 
 
 inquiry, and herb the records of public institutions are of great 
 
 service. The hospitals on Blackwell's Island, under the charge 
 
 of the. Governors of: the Alms-house, present the largest array of 
 
 cases, the principal part of which were treated in the Penitentiary 
 
 (now Island) Hospital. The number of these cases was in 
 
 1854 1541 I 1856 1639 
 
 1855 IS'jg 1851 2090 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 587 
 
 Upon these facts the writer of these pages remarked in his an- 
 nual report to the Board of GoTernors for 1856 : 
 
 " The ratio of venereal disease on the gross number of patients treated in 
 
 1854 was S^tA^ per cent. 
 
 The ratio of the same disease in 1855 was 58/^ " 
 
 Showing an increase in the year 1855 of 21-^ " 
 
 The ratio of venereal disease on the gross number of patients 
 
 treated during 1856 was *13^- " 
 
 Showing an increase in 1856, as compared with 1855, of . 14/^ " 
 Or an increase, as compared with 1854, of 353^. « 
 
 This steady increase, 21-jf^ per cent, in one year, and li-^^ V^^ 
 cent, in the next, or 35-i^ per cent, vrithin two years, may be con- 
 sidered an incontrovertible proof of the progress of this malady in 
 the city of New York. . The fact that the people regard the Peni- 
 tentiary Hospital as a dernier resort, an institution to which noth- 
 ing but the direst necessity will compel them to apply, justifies 
 the conclusion that the cases treated are but a fraction of the dis- 
 ease existing, and its increase here may be taken as a sure indica- 
 tion of a corresponding or larger increase among the general pop- 
 ulation."^ 
 
 Again, on the same subject in 1857 : 
 
 " In my last report I took the opportunity to submit to your 
 Honorable Board facts proving the increase of venereal disease, and 
 I then gave the ratio of that malady on the gross number of pa- 
 tients treated as 73-^ per cent. In the year 1857 the ratio was 
 65t% per cent. ; but this reduction of 7^ per cent, must be con- 
 sidered in connection with the fact that other diseases, much be- 
 yond the general average, have been treated in the last year, so 
 that a larger number of venereal cases will yet show a smaller per- 
 centage. The cases of phthisis pulmonalis (consumption), , which 
 have advanced from 58 in 1856 to 159 in 1857, sufaciently ex- 
 plain that the decrease of venereal affections is- apparent and not 
 
 real."2 
 
 An investigation beyond the statistics upon which these re- 
 marks were based, and including the Penitentiary Hospital, Alms- 
 house, Work-house and Penitentiary, had shown that of the total 
 number admitted to these several institutions 59^ per cent, had 
 suffered or were suffering from venereal disease at the time the 
 inquiry was made. Of this proporiiion 45 per cent, of the total 
 were suffering directly at the time of investigation, and 19 per cent. 
 
 ' Report of Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, to the Governors of the Alms- 
 house, New York, for 1856, p. iO. ' Ibid., 1857, p. 26. 
 
688 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 were suffering mdiveotly, or, in kon-professional language, were la- 
 boring under diseases more or less conset[uent on the sypMlitic 
 taint. * 
 
 . The following detailed statistics of venereal disease treated in 
 the Penitentiary Hospital for four years ending December 31, 1857, 
 will be found to embrace many subjects which have been alluded 
 to in these pages. 
 
 1854. 18S5. 1856. 1S5T. 
 
 Total number of patients treated 4058 2657 2083 3158 
 
 Cases of primary syphilis 606 660 650 882 
 
 « of secondary and other forms of syphilis- . 935 919 989 1208 
 
 Total of syphilitic diseases ........ 1541 1579 1639 2090 
 
 Nativities : 
 
 Natives of United States 410 489 531 673 
 
 Foreigners 1131 1090 1108 1417 
 
 l541 1579 1639 2090 
 
 Under 16 years 65 72 77 68 
 
 From 16 « to 20 years. ..... 481 457 472 '593 
 
 « 21 « to 25 « 490 481 494 631 
 
 « 26 « to 30 " 314 804 311 423 
 
 « 31 « to 40 « 128 151 165 190 
 
 « 41 « to 50 « 42 99 101 157 
 
 « 51 « and upward __21 15 19 28 
 
 1541 1579 1639 2090 
 Education : 
 
 Good 175 227 231 175 
 
 Imperfect 787 794 830 1161 
 
 Uneducated _579 _558 _578 _75_4 
 
 1541 1579 1639 2090 
 
 From the total number of venereal patients under 
 
 treatment 1541 1579 1639 2090 
 
 Deduct those discharged each year 1253 1316 1389 1710 
 
 Leaving to add to the next year's a-ccount . . . 288 263 250 380 
 
 Of the numbers discharged the followmg is the 
 
 Result of Treatment: 
 
 Cured 874 1051 1201 1491 
 
 Relieved 370 263 183 213 
 
 Not relieved 7 1 
 
 Died 2 2 5 5 
 
 1253 1316 1389 1710 
 
 Duration op Treatment: 
 
 5 days and under 13 16 17 83 
 
 6 « to 10 days 57 36 68 102 
 
 11 « to 20 « .... J ... . 80 59 81 131 
 2^1 " to 30 « .154 121 137 187 
 
 1 month to 2 months 293 333 453 528 
 
NEW YORK. 5j 
 
 ' , , 1854. 1855. 1856. ISC 
 
 2 months to 3 months 304 443 340 3' 
 
 3 « to4 « 220 245 201 2 
 
 4 « and upward 132 63 86 
 
 l253 1316 1389 lY 
 Some few remarks may be made on the subject of prima: 
 sypMlis. The proportion of the cases of this malady to the grc 
 number of patients treated was in 
 
 1854 . ... 14t% per cent. I 1856 . . . Sl-j^ir per cent, 
 
 1855 . . . 25xV " I 1851 . . . 2T^ « 
 By the term "primary syphilis," non-professional readers w 
 
 vpiderstand the commencement of the disease, or symptoms whi( 
 are the direct consequence of an impure connection, in conti 
 distinction to "secon,dary syphilis," which is the comparative 
 remote result of infection; never appearing until after the p: 
 mary symptoms are well deiveloped, and frequently not until i 
 traces of them are remoyed. He will thus see that every ca 
 of primary syphilis is in itself a proof of recent intercourse wi 
 a diseased person. These cases, then, have increased from 15 p 
 cfent. in 1854 to 31J per cent, in 1856, and 28 per cent., in 18fi 
 The remarks recently quoted explain how 882 cases in 18i 
 make a smaller percentage than 650 in 1856. The fact of tl 
 increase compels us to but one conclusion, and that is a ve 
 important and suggestive one, namely, that commerce with pn 
 titutes in 1857 was attended with nearly twice the risk of infection i 
 curred in 1854 ; and, of course, the health of abandoned women h 
 ddertjorated in the same proportion. This is not said with any wi 
 on the part of the writer to be considered an alarmist. The fa( 
 are' those which have come under his personal observation: t 
 inference is but a plain and natural deduction. 
 
 But the Hospital, although the chief, is not the only institutii 
 on Blackwell's Island where patients are treated for venereal d 
 ease. The Alms-house, Work-house, and Penitentiary have ea 
 a share of sufferers from this malady, to what extent will 
 shown by the annexed table: ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ 
 
 - , Alms-house 33 ItS 85 52 
 
 Work-house ^^ i?a 9.5 JS 
 
 Penitentiaiy. . • 1^6 234 430 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, New York City, also under charge of t 
 
 Governors of the Ahns-house, is not professedly available to a 
 
 . nereal cases. ; By a report from the Medical Board of that msti1 
 
 tion, which wHl be found in the next chapter, it is seen that ^h 
 
590 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 estimate " not far from 10 per dent, of the inmates of Bellevue 
 Hospital are admitted for affections wliicli have their origin re- 
 motely in venereal disease." These data are sufficiem to fix the 
 numbers thus treated as follows : 
 
 Year T^oM numher lO pet cent, for 
 
 of patients. venereal cases. 
 
 1854 . . 1033 703 
 
 1855 . . 6697 670 
 
 „ Total number 10 per cent, for 
 
 of patients. venereal cases. 
 
 1856 . . 6392 639 
 
 1857 . . 7676 768 
 
 In regard to the Nursery Hospital on Eandall's Island, it is 
 stated by Dr; H. N. Whittlesey, the Eesident Physician, that " nine 
 tenths of all diseases treated in this hospital during the past five 
 years have been of constitiitional origin, and for the most part 
 hereditary. The exact proportion which hereditary syphilis bears 
 to this sum of constitutional depravity can not be stated with ac- 
 curacy." It is an estimate far within the bounds of probability to 
 assume that one half of the diseases referred to by Dr. Whittlesey 
 are complicated with or by syphilitic taint, and the numbers in 
 the Nursery Hospital will therefore stand as follows : 
 
 Ygoj. Total number 50 per cent for 
 of patients. . venerpal cases. 
 
 Year Total-number 50 per cent for 
 
 of patients. venereal cases, 
 
 1856 . . 1275 638 
 
 1857 . . 1469 734 
 
 1856 .511 
 
 1857 559 
 
 1854 . .' 2199 1100 
 
 1855 . . 2310 1155 
 
 Following the institutions in charge of the Governors of the 
 Alms-house is the New York State Emigrants' Hospital on Ward's 
 Island, New York City, under the direction of the Commissioners 
 of Emigration, in the reports whereof the following cases of ve- 
 nereal disease are noted : 
 
 1853 657 
 
 1854 732 
 
 1855 856 
 
 The New York Hospital, Broadway, next claims attention. 
 The reports for the under-mentioned years give the number of 
 venereal cases as follows : 
 
 1852 478 I 1856 372 
 
 1853 338 I 1857 405 
 
 These embrace the principal public hospitals of New York. 
 There are other institutions, such as St. Luke's Hospital, St. Vin- 
 cent's Hospital, the Jews' Hospital, etc., but they are of recent 
 origin, and their practice will not form an element in this calcu- 
 lation. 
 
 The dispensaries of the city relieve yearly a large amount of 
 sickness. In the New York Dispensary, Centre Street, the cases 
 of venereal disease are Reported as follows : 
 
NEW YOEK. 591 
 
 1855 • 1154 
 
 1856 1393 
 
 1851 1580 
 
 This gives an average of about three per cent, of all the patients 
 treated. 
 
 The Northern Dispensary, "Waverley Place, does not publish 
 any detailed report of the diseases treated, and to make an esti- 
 mate it will be necessary to assume that the proportion is the 
 same as in the New York Dispensary, namely, three per cent. 
 By this rule the following results are obtained : 
 
 
 Total number 
 
 3 per cent, for 
 
 
 Total number 
 
 3 per cent, for 
 
 
 of patients. 
 
 ven, cases. 
 
 
 of patiftnts. 
 
 ven. cases. 
 
 1850 . 
 
 . 19,615 
 
 588 
 
 1855 . 
 
 . 12,318 
 
 311 
 
 1851 . 
 
 . 20,680 
 
 620 
 
 1856 . 
 
 . 11,191 
 
 354 
 
 1852 . 
 
 . 21,941 
 
 658 
 
 1851 . 
 
 . 10,895 
 
 321 
 
 1854 . 
 
 . 14,015 
 
 422 
 
 
 
 
 The Eastern Dispensary, Ludlow Street, does not give any de- 
 tailed report of the diseases treated, and the same approximation 
 will be made as previously : 
 
 „ . Total number 3 per cent, for , 
 
 ^ ^^^' of patient?. ven. cases. 
 
 1855 25,612 168 
 
 1856 21,011 630 
 
 To the Demilt Dispensary, Second Avenue, the same system of 
 
 approximation will be applied : 
 
 „ Total number 3 per cent, for 
 
 of patients. ven. cases. 
 
 1852-3 . . 2,191 66 
 
 1853-4 . . 9,006 210 
 
 1854^ . 14,034 421 
 
 Ypar Tota. Inumber 3 per cent, for 
 
 of patients. ven. cagea, 
 
 1855-6 . . 20,004 - 600 
 1856-1 . . 20,684 620 
 
 1851-8 . . 26,185 803 
 
 The Northwestern Dispensary, Eighth Avenue, subjected to the 
 
 same rule gives 
 
 Total number 3 per cent, for 
 Year. of patients. ven-. .ca^ea. 
 
 1854 ■ 9»264 '21T 
 
 1855 11,581 341 
 
 1856 1M11 344 
 
 Oases of venereal disease are treated in the Clinical Lectures at 
 the three medical colleges of New York City. From the New 
 York University Medical College the following report of patients 
 has been obtained. It is undoubtedly much too low an estimate. 
 
 1855 
 
 41 
 
 1856 II 
 
 1851 69 
 
 and assuming that, the practice of the others is of the same extent,^ 
 
 we have as the venereal cases treated in the three colleges : 
 
592 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 1855 • 141 
 
 1856 , 159 
 
 1857 j«e0.7 
 
 As many of tTie patrons of liTew York houses of ill fame reside 
 out of the city, some further information must be sought beyond 
 our own limits. Without professing to inquire into the pubhc 
 health in all the suburbs previously enumerated, it will be suffi- 
 cient to take the reports of the superintendents of the poor of 
 King's County to ascertain what amount of syphilitic infection 
 has been treated at the pubhc cost in Brooklyn and its environs. 
 The reports of Doctor Thomas Turner, Eesident Physician of the 
 King's County Hospital, show the following cases : 
 
 1853 165 
 
 1855 362 
 
 1857 311 
 
 or about ten per cent, on the total number treated. 
 
 In the Brooklyn City Hospital the cases of venereal disease re- 
 ceived and treated were in 
 
 1854 . ; 
 
 . . .158 
 
 1857 .... 
 
 . 186 
 
 1855 . . 
 
 . . .173 
 
 1858 (to May 1) . 
 
 . 65 
 
 1856 . . 
 
 . . .160 
 
 
 
 It has been already stated that sailors are great patrons of pros- 
 titutes, and to obtain any true statement pf venereal disease among 
 them, gome estimate respecting this class must be made. For this 
 purpose the reports of Dr. T. Clarkson Moffatt, Physician-in-chief 
 of the " Seaman's Eetreat," Staten Island, New York, are avail- 
 able. . The number of cases treated in the several years is here 
 given I 
 
 1854 657 
 
 1855 473 
 
 1856 355 
 
 1857 365 
 
 1858 (to April 1) . • 82 
 
 This is nearly twenty-four per cent, on the gross number treated. 
 This concludes the published reports of charitable institutions, 
 and the question next arises, What amount of syphilis is treated by 
 physicians in private practice? It is impossible to obtain any re- 
 liable data upon this heaid. The Medical Board of Bellevue Hos- 
 pital, composed of some of the leading members of the profession 
 in the city,, state, that they " are unable to say what proportion of 
 the practice among .regular and qualified physicians in this city is 
 derived from the treatment -of venereal diseases, but they know it 
 is large, and that many receive more from this source than from 
 *all other sources together." 
 
NEW YORK. 593 
 
 There are also a very large mimber of advertising pretenders 
 wto offer their services for the treatment of secret diseases ; and 
 many drug-stores whose main business is derived from a similar 
 source ; together with an iafinity of patent medicines announced 
 and sold as specifics for all venereal maladies. Upon the simple 
 commercial principle of supply and demand these -are so many 
 proofs of the extent of the evil they profess to reheve. Should 
 the number of cases of venereal disease treated in private practice 
 by qualified physicians and by advertisers, added to the number 
 of patients who supply thefliselves with patent or other medicines 
 from drug-stores, be regarded as equal to the aggregate of those 
 treated in public institutions, the estimate could not be deemed 
 extravagant. 
 
 The design is now to ascertain how much venereal disease exists 
 in New York at the present time, and to do this it will be neces- 
 sary to recapitulate the information already given. The cases 
 below are those treated in 1857 : ' 
 
 Institutions. Cases. 
 
 Penitentiary Hospital, Blackwell's Island 2090 
 
 Alms-house, Blackwell's Island 52 
 
 Work-house, Blackwell's Mand 56 
 
 Penitentiary, Blackwell's Island 430 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, New York 168 
 
 Nursery Hospital, Kandall's Island 734 
 
 New York State Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island . . 559 
 
 New York Hospital, Broadway . 405 
 
 New York Dispensary, Centre Street 1580 
 
 Northern Dispensary, Waverley I*lace 327 
 
 Eastern Dispensary, Ludlow Street 630 
 
 Demilt Dispensary, Second Avenue 803 
 
 Northwestern Dispensary, Eighth Avenue 344 
 
 Medical CoUeges ;,•,•••'!?! 
 
 King's County Hospital, Flathush, Long Island . . . dll 
 
 Brooklyn City Hospital, Brooklyn, Long Island .... 186 
 
 Seaman's Ketreat, Staten Island _£^ 
 
 Total ... 9847. 
 
 Medical men, and those acquainted with the internal arrange- 
 ments of public institutions, need not be reminded that the gen- 
 eral system of record in hospitals includes only what may be 
 called the prominent malady. Thus, if a man were admitted with 
 a broken limb, it would be registered as a fracture ; and if the 
 same man were suffering indirectly from syphilis at the same 
 time, no entry would be made thereof, although the physician 
 rendered him every professional assistance toward its cure. It is 
 
 Pp 
 
594 HISTOBY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 estimated that in this manner a large number of the cases of ve- 
 nereal disease treated in all public institutions, except such as 
 make a specialty of those maladies, is never recorded elsewhere 
 than on the private case-books of the attending physicians. More 
 particularly is this the rule in institutions supported wholly or 
 in part by voluntary contributions. Their benevolent directors 
 have not yet outlived the prejudice which formerly held it almost 
 as disgraceful to treat as to contract syphilis. Some of the spirit 
 which drove the unhappy men and women so afflicted from civil- 
 ized life to perish in the fields or woods, as in London, Edinburgh, 
 and Paris, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and at a 
 later period drew from the Papal government a bull recognizing 
 the affliction as a direct punishment from the Almighty for the 
 sin of incontinence, still survives in the present generation. The 
 trustees of more than one of the dispensaries in New York have 
 directed their medical officers not to prescribe for such complaints, 
 and a hospital in a sister city, which receives a yearly grant from 
 public funds, has in its printed rules and regulations : "No per- 
 son having ' Gonorrhoea' or ' SyphUis' shall be admitted as a char- 
 ity patient." Some remarks are made hereafter upon this course, 
 and the facts are mentioned now to explain why many cases of 
 venereal disease never appear upon the reports of institutions 
 where patients are treated. 
 
 Practically such prohibitions are a dead letter. No physician 
 of a public institution, applied to by a poor wretch suffering from 
 syphilis, could pass him by without attempting to reheve, let the 
 orders of the board of trustees be what they may. His mission 
 is sipiply to apply the aid of science and skill to the alleviation of 
 any ailment which may be presented to his notice, and his appre- 
 ciation of the responsibility of his office is too keen to allow him 
 to refuse the prayer of such an applicant. Hence arises the cir- 
 cumstance that the case is treated under some other name. 
 
 If then the cases recorded are but two thirds of the aggregate, 
 the numbers stand thus : 
 
 Cases recorded in public institutions . . . 9847 
 I not recorded 4923 
 
 Total . • 14770 
 
 cases in the year 1857 in public institutions. 
 
 The difficulty of forming an opinion as to the extent of vene- 
 real disease treated in private practice has been already mention- 
 ed. In the absence of all information, collateral circumstances 
 
NEW YOEK. 595 
 
 form the only guide to a conclusion. The amount is unquestion- 
 ably very large ; so large that, if its full magnitude could be dis- 
 covered and announced, every reader must be astonished. The 
 first consideration to support this view may be found in the army 
 of advertising empirics who make it a source of revenue. Each 
 of these men must have numerous patients ; he could not keep up 
 his business without them. Any practical advertiser knows that 
 to insert an announcement of some twenty or thirty Hues every 
 day in at least two daily papers, to repeat the same in weekly 
 journals, and, in addition to this, to post handbills on the comer 
 of every street, and employ men or boys to deliver them to pas- 
 sengers at steam-boat docl^, ferry landings, and rail-road depots, 
 can not be done without a considerable outlay, whatever its pro- 
 spective advantages may be. No one supposes these charlatans 
 to be actuated by pure disinterested benevolence. They crowd 
 the columns of our journals, and insult us with their printed an- 
 nouncements in the public thoroughfares, simply because "it 
 pays." These means obtain them customers, and whenever this 
 result ceases the announcements will be discontinued. WhUe 
 they appear there is positive proof that their issuers are gathering 
 patronage. 
 
 The number of patent medicines always in the market for the 
 cure of secret diseases, and which the vendors announce " can be 
 sent any distance securely packed, and safe from observation," 
 affords a corroboration. They are made and sold as a business 
 speculation. When their reputation diminishes, and the public 
 become doubtful if all the virtues of the materia Tnedica are com- 
 prised in a single bottle of "Eed Drop," or " Unfortunate's Friend," 
 the manufacture will soon stop, and the inventors -v^iU resort to 
 some other employment for their capital. The extent to which 
 advertising empirics and patent medicines are flourishing is an 
 undeniable proof of the prevalence of the maladies they professed- 
 ly relieve. 
 
 The legitimate business of drug-stores affords another hnk in 
 the chain of evidence. Beyond the regular nostrums, almost 
 every druggist in the city sells large quantities of medicine for 
 the cure of venereal disease. Sometimes a man will candidly tell 
 the storekeeper that he has contracted disease, and ask him to 
 make up something to cure it. At other times a prescription, 
 which has been efficacious in a former attack, will be presented, 
 or the sufferer has taken counsel among his friends and compaiu-. 
 
5.96 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 •ions, and obtained some infallible recipe from one of tbem. In 
 short, there are so many different means taken by persons who 
 have contracted disease that it is impossible to IRinmerate the 
 various methods in which the aid of the drug-store may be in- 
 voked. 
 
 There are many traditional recipes which can be used without 
 the necessity of purchasing ingredients of a druggist. One favor- 
 ite remedy among the lower classes is " Pine Knot Bitters." Bot- 
 tles of this preparation are kept for sale in liquor stores, particu- 
 larly in those neighborhoods where prostitutes "most do congre- 
 gate." 
 
 Another reason may be submitted why a large amount of vene- 
 real disease must be treated privately. Many of the victims are 
 men who move in a respectable sphere of society, and have prob- 
 ably been led -to the act which resulted so disastrously in a mo- 
 ment of uncontrollable passion. Their social position would be 
 irreparably damaged should they enter a public hospital, and the 
 desire to retain their status forces them to secrecy, even if the nat- 
 ural repugnance of every man to the former course did not exist. 
 It is vain to deny that, while medical institutions designed for the 
 public good are so managed as to inflict a disgrace upon their in- 
 m^ates, their benefits are circumscribed, and will never be accepted 
 by any but the poor unfortunates who have no other means of 
 obtaining relief. In the case of syphiHs this is particularly to be 
 regretted from the nature of the disease. Every day it is neglect- 
 ed it becomes in a tenfold degree more aggravated, and entails 
 proportionate misery in after life. 
 
 ' , If it be assumed that the private cases of venereal disease equal 
 in number those treated in public institutions, an aggregate is ob- 
 tained of more 1ihan -29(500 cases every year. If the former are 
 double the number of the latter, the sum wUlbe over 44,000 cases 
 per annum. Either of these conjectures is below the truth, and 
 we are satisfied,, from professional experience and inquiry, that 
 there is no exaggeration in estimating the number of patients 
 treated privately :every year for lues venerea as at least quadruple 
 the cases receiving assistance in hospitals and charitable estab- 
 lishments. The result is the enormous sum of seventy-four thmisand 
 cases every year! If each person suffered only one attack each 
 year, this would represent one -sixth of the total population above 
 fifteen years of age. But many persons, especially among aban- 
 doned women and profligate men, are infected several times in the 
 
NEW YOEK. 597 
 
 course of twelve months, and any attempt to say what proportion 
 of individuals are represented in these 74,000 cases would be 
 mere speculation without a particle of conclusive evidence to sup- 
 port it. 
 
 Notwithstanding the magnitude of the result, a very brief con- 
 sideration will show that it is not extravagant. In addition to 
 the arguments already advanced iii this chapter, the reader will 
 recollect that in a previous section it has been shown that two out 
 of every five prostitutes in New York confessed the syphilitic taint. 
 Supposing a girl relinquishes her calling as soon as she becomes 
 aware of being diseased, several days may have elapsed before she 
 discovered her condition, and during that interval she must have 
 infected every man who had intercourse with her. To take the 
 most liberal view, it may be conceded that the portion who ac- 
 Jniowledged infection were not all suffering from the primary or 
 communicable form ; many of them had doubtless recovered from 
 that ; but if only one half were so suffering, and each of these in- 
 fected only one man, the result would be 865,000 men diseased 
 every year. 
 
 This is not an exaggerated estimate. As was said when allud- 
 ing to the prostitutes who admitted their contamination, there can 
 be no possible suspicion that they would acknowledge sickness if 
 they could avoid doing so, and consequently the sick are certainly 
 not overrated. It may be objected that the numbers who owned 
 disease were spread over a considerable space of time, but this can 
 be met with the fact that the inquiry which produced this result 
 was in progress simultaneously in all parts of the city. At the farr 
 thest it did not extend three months from the time of commence- 
 ment to completion, and the natural presumption would be that, as 
 during that time the health of the women was neither better, nor 
 worse than in any other three months of any year, the same pro- 
 portion of diseased women could be found whenever an investiga- 
 tion was made ; in other words, that two out of five prostitutes in 
 New York are diseased. 
 
 The calculation that of these diseased women one half only are 
 . affected in a manner which renders them liable to infect their par^ 
 amours is also a liberal one. Syphilis, when manifested in its sec- 
 ondary stage in the shape of sores, eruptions, and blotches upon 
 the face or person, is so disgusting that no prostitute thus disfig- 
 ured could retain her place in any brothel, unless it was one of 
 the very lowest grade, because her appearance would immediate- 
 
598 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 ly repel all visitors. In its primary or local form it is of course 
 concealed from her customers, and may be so conceded for a con- 
 siderable length' of time. These facts borne in mina, is it not al- 
 most too liberal an estimate to assume that one half who admit 
 syphilis are suffering in the secondary or palpable form? 
 
 This line of argument, supported by the facts given, is perfectly 
 justifiable, view it in what light you may, and proves that the es- 
 timate of 74,000 cases of venereal disease annually is much too 
 small. 
 
 Another course of reasoning may be adopted. The time occu- 
 pied in taking the census is stated at three months. This in- 
 cluded all the needful -preliminary measures, the instructions to 
 examiners, the conferences with police captains, etc ; and the final 
 proceedings, such as arranging and writing out reports. Allow 
 one third of the time for these introductory and concluding ad- 
 juncts, and it will leave about sixty days, including Sundays, or 
 fifty-two working days devoted to the actual inquiry. The in- 
 quiry resulted in the discovery of syphilis in such a proportion of 
 women as would amount to an aggregate of two thousand on the 
 total number of public prostitutes. Suppose the disease of two 
 thousand women equally distributed over the fiitytwo days ; or, 
 in other words, that an average number were infected and con- 
 fessed it every day, and the result is thirty-eight women diseased 
 every twenty-four hours. We wish to make this argument as 
 plain as possible, and the reader will pardon what may appear 
 needless repetition. K this disease existed in each woman for 
 four days before she was conscious of it, or it became so trouble- 
 some as to force her from her calling, and during this interval of 
 four days each woman had intercourse with only one man per 
 day, over fifty thousand men would be exposed to the risk, al- 
 most the certainty of contracting infection in the course of the 
 year. As the Medico- Ghirurg'kal Review said, in the course of a 
 similar argument upon syphilis in London, this estimate is "ridic- 
 ulously small." In the first place, a majority of the women would 
 not abandon their calling in four days after infection^ but would 
 continue it as long as they could possibly submit to the suffering 
 involved. Every resident of New York will remember the ex- 
 citement caused in the spring of the year 1855 by the arrest of a 
 large number of prostitutes in the public streets, their committal 
 to Blackwell's Island, and their subsequent discharge on writs of 
 habeas corpus, on account of informality in the proceedings ; but 
 
NEW YOEK. 599 
 
 It is not generally known that of those arrested at that time a 
 very large proportion, certainly more than one half, were suffer- 
 ing from syphihs in its primary form, aaa many of them in its 
 most inveterate stage. We make this assertion from our own 
 knowledge, the result of a professional examination, and mention 
 the circumstance now to prove that women will not abandon their 
 calling when they know themselves diseased, so long as they can 
 possibly continue it. If the estimate had been made that each 
 woman continued prostitution for eight days instead of four days 
 after she was infected, it would have been a closer approximation 
 to the truth, and it would have shown over one hundred thousand 
 (100,000) men exposed to infection every year. 
 
 ■ Again : The supposition that a prostitute submits to but one 
 act of prostitution every day is " ridiculously small." No woman 
 could pay her board, dress, and live in the expensive manner com- 
 mon among the class upon the money she would receive from one 
 visitor daily ; even two visitors is a very low estimate, and four is 
 very far from an unreasonably large one. 
 
 But suppositions might be multiplied, and the argument ex- 
 tended almost ad infinitum. One more calculation shall be sub- 
 mitted, and then the reader can form his own conclusion upon the 
 question whether the theory of seventy-four thousand cases of 
 venereal disease in New York every year has not been supported 
 by a mass of evidence far more weighty than can ordinarily be 
 adduced to establish a controverted point. 
 
 It shall be assumed that the thirty-eight women infected every 
 day continue their calling for six days after the appearance of 
 venereal disease, and during such six days one half of them shall 
 submit to one, and the other half to two sexual acts daily. Then, 
 in the course of a year, one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 men would be exposed to contamination. To this add the num- 
 ber of women infected, which, at thirty -eight daily, would amount 
 to nearly thirteen thousand in the year, and a total of one hund- 
 red and thirty-eight thousand will be presented, or nearly double 
 the number assumed as a basis for remark. It is needless to ad- 
 vance farther reasons in support of the soundness of that opin- 
 ion. 
 
 Next in order will be the consideration of the amount of money 
 prostitution costs the public. The amount of capital invested in 
 houses of ill fame, and the outlay consequent thereupon presents 
 a total which can not but surprise all who have not deeply re- 
 
600 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 fleeted upon the ramifications of the evil. The police investiga- 
 tion of May, 1858, quoted a few pages back, gives the total num- 
 ber of houses of prostitution as 378, and the wort#of property 
 thus employed can be ascertained with a tolerable degree of accu- 
 racy from information obtained, in many cases, by actual inquiry. 
 The value of real estate where it was owned by the keepers of 
 these houses has been already given in some instances, and in 
 others the rent may be assumed equivalent to ten per cent, per 
 annum upon the cost of the property, which is certainly not an 
 undue valuation. Dividing the total number of houses into four 
 classes the estimate stands as follows: 
 
 80 houses of the first class are estimated, from actual inquiry, 
 to he worth, including real estate and furniture, $13,800 
 
 each, or a total of $1,104,000 
 
 100 houses of the second class are estimated at twenty-five per 
 cent. less than those of the first class, namely, $10,350 for 
 
 each, or a total of 1,035,000 
 
 120 houses of the third class at $5000 each 600,000 
 
 78 houses of the fourth class at $1000 each 78,000 
 
 378 houses of prostitution are estimated worth $2,817,000 
 
 Add for houses of assignation : 
 
 25 houses of the first class at $12,000 each 300,000 
 
 25 « second « 9,000 " 225,000 
 
 35 « third « 5,000 « 175,000 
 
 15 « fourth « 3,000 « 45,000 
 
 loo Total for houses of prostitution and assignation . . .$3,562,000 
 In addition to this are 151 dancing-saloons, liquor and lager- 
 beer stores, mainly dependent upon the custom of prosti- 
 tutes and their companions. Any place in which it is pos- 
 sible to carry on either of these businesses must be worth 
 $200 a year rent, which would give a value of $2000 each, 
 
 or a total of 302,000 
 
 The necessary stock, fixtures, and implements can not be 
 worth less, on an average, than $100 in each place : this 
 
 gives a total of 15,100 
 
 and an aggregate capital of $3,879,100 
 
 invested in the business of prostitution. That this is not an ex- 
 travagant, estimate will be admitted by any real estate owner or 
 person acquaiated with the value of property in the city ; espe- 
 cially if he takes into consideration the location of many of the 
 houses, and calculates how much more the adjacent lands and 
 buildings would be worth if these resorts of vice and infamy were 
 removed. 
 
 On a scale correspondingly large is the. amount of money actu- 
 ally spent upon prostitutes. The weekly income of each woman 
 
NEW YORK. 601 
 
 can not be less than ten dollars. Many pay mucli more than that 
 sum for their board alone, and in first-class houses it is not un- 
 common for a prostitute to realize as much as thirty or fifty dol- 
 lars, or upward, in a week. But if the income is taken at the 
 lowest point, the aggregate receipts of six thousand courtesans 
 amount to $60,000 per week, or $3,120,000 per year. 
 
 Every visitor to a house of prostitution expends more or less 
 money for wineS' and liquors therein. In some cases this outlay 
 will be larger than the cash remuneration given to the women, but 
 other men are not so lavish in their hospitality ; and it is fair to 
 assume that such expenditures amount to two thirds of the pre- 
 vious item— a weekly total of $40,000, or $2,080,000 spent for in- 
 toxicating drinks in houses of prostitution every year. ' 
 
 In describing the custoraers of houses of assignation, it has 
 already been remarked that in the first class many of the female 
 visitors take that step, not for gain, but impelled by affection or 
 sexual desire. They would spurn the idea of being paid for their 
 company; but the houses at which their intrigues are consum- 
 mated being luxuriously furnished, and conducted by women of 
 known discretion and secrecy, have a high tariff of prices as one 
 of their features. Visitors must pay as much there for accommo- 
 dation as the rent of a room and compensation to a female would 
 amount to in places of less pretension. It is assumed that 4200 
 visits are paid to houses of assignation every week, and for the 
 foregoing reason estimating them to cost the men the same in ev 
 ery instance, and fixing that cost at three dollars for each visit, 
 this item will amount to $12,600 per week, or $655,200 per year. 
 
 The consumption of wine and liquor is small in houses of as- 
 signation, as compared with houses of prostitution. It may prob- 
 ably amount to $5000 per week, or $260,000 per year. 
 
 The income of the dancing-saloons, liquor, and lager-beer stores, 
 frequented and mainly supported by prostitutes and their friends, 
 can not be less than $30 per week for each house, and as there are 
 151 establishments of that description, the aggregate of money 
 disbursed in them will be $4530 per week, or $235,560 per year. 
 
 These sums exhibit the outlay for the pleasures of prostitution : 
 the ensuing items give its penalties. Of the inmates of the Island 
 (late the Penitentiary) Hospital, in 1857, over 65 per cent, were 
 afiaicted with venereal disease. The total expense of that institu- 
 tion for the year was $85,000, and the^jro rata amount for sy^hi- 
 Htio patients would be $22,750 during the year, or $438 perweek. 
 
602 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Bellevue Hospital cost to maintain it during 1857, $70,000 in 
 round numbers. The Medical Board say that ten per cent, of its 
 inmates are treated for diseases originating in the sypmlitic taint, 
 and this proportion of the expenses being chargeable to prostitu- 
 tion amounts to $7000 per year, or $135 per week. 
 
 The Nurseii^y Hospital on Eandall's Island cost the city of New- 
 York $17,000 for maintenance during 1857. One half its infant 
 patients are treated for diseases resulting from venereal infection, 
 and $8,500 pej year, or $163 per week, is the quota of expense 
 caused by this vice and its sequel. 
 
 The number of cases of venereal disease treated in the New 
 York State Emigrants' Hospital on "Ward's Island was 6J per cent, 
 of the total relieved on that island. The expenses for 1857 were 
 $109,000, and the share chargeablfe to prostitution will be $7075 
 per year, or $136 per week. 
 
 In the New York City Hospital, Broadway, 14 per cent, of the 
 patients during 1857 were treated for venereal disease. The cost 
 of maintenance for that year was $59,000, and the share caused 
 by prostitution was $8260 per year, or $159 per week. 
 
 The cases treated in dispensary practice have been averaged at 
 three per cent, throughout the city. The yearly expenses of 
 those charities are as follows : 
 
 Demilt Dispensary - . . $5300 
 Northwestern Dispensary . 2630 
 
 Total $24,280 
 
 and the proportion chargeable to syphilis must be $728 per year, 
 or $14 per week. 
 
 Very little expense is incurred by the medical colleges in the 
 cases of syphilis treated at their chnical lectures, as the relief is 
 generally confined to a prescription or a slight operation, and if 
 medicine is supplied in a few cases the amount is so small that in 
 a calculation of this sort it is not worth notice. 
 
 The expenses of the King's County Hospital, Long Island, for 
 1857, amounted to $75,300. About ten per cent, of the patients 
 treated were venereal sufferers, and the cost for them amounts to 
 $7530 per year, or $145 per week. 
 
 In the Brooklyn City Hospital the proportion of venereal pa- 
 tients is twenty-seven per cent, of the aggregate. The total an- 
 nual expenses are $17,200, and the amount incurred on account 
 of this disease is therefore $4644 per year, or $89 per week. 
 
 In the Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island, New York, twenty-four 
 
 New York Dispensary . . $9100 
 Northern Dispensary . . 3550 
 Eastern Dispensary . . . 3700 
 
NEW YOKK. gQ3 
 
 per cent, of the inmates suffer from venereal disease. The ex- 
 penses during the year 1857 were $43,500, of which $10,540 per 
 year, or $203 per week, must be considered the proportion ren- 
 dered necessary by syplailis. 
 
 To ascertain the amount expended for private medical assist- 
 ance it will be necessary to recapitulate the outlay of the public 
 institutions mentioned. 
 
 T 1 J TT ^"^'""'''"i!?- , „ ^ , Yearly Outlay. WceHv Outlay. 
 
 island Hospital, Blaxskwell's Island . . . $22150 $438 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, New York . . 
 Nursery Hospital, Randall's Island . 
 Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island 
 City Hospital, New York .... 
 
 Dispensaries 
 
 King's County Hospital, Long Island 
 Brooklyn City Hospital, Long Island 
 Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island . . 
 Total 
 
 1000 135 
 
 8600 163 
 
 1075 136 
 
 8260 159 
 
 128 14 
 
 1530 145 
 
 4644 89 
 
 10540 203 
 
 11021 1482 
 
 ■These totals must be multiplied by four, and the product wUl 
 show the amount paid for private medical assistance as $5928 
 weekly, or $308,108 yearly. This is calculated on too liberal a 
 scale, for no one believes that an individual requiring professional 
 aid can obtain it so economically in private life as in a public insti- 
 tution ; nor would even the fact that in the latter case the patients 
 are boarded and supplied with all necessaries more than counter- 
 balance the sums which must be paid for individual medical at- 
 tendance. The desire not needlessly to exaggerate facts which 
 are sufELciently comprehensive without such a procedure is the 
 only reason that induces so low an estimate. 
 
 But there are yet other items of expenditure which must be 
 noticed before the long array is completed. Foremost of these is 
 the cost for support of abandoned women in the Work-house and 
 Penitentiary on Blackwell's Island. The proportion of females 
 committed to the Work-house during 1857 was three fifths of the 
 total commitments. It is not asserted that all these were prosti- 
 tutes, but it is certain that the larger part were unchaste, and for 
 argum.ent's sake we will take the ratio as two abandoned to one 
 virtuous woman, the latter representing the class whom poverty, 
 sickness, or friendlessness may have driven to accept a shelter in 
 the institution. The expenses of the Work-house for the jeajr 
 amounted to $76,000, and the share of cost incurred on behalf of 
 prostitutes would therefore be $30,400 per year, or $585 per 
 week. 
 
604 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 The females sentenced to the Penitentiary from courts of crim- 
 inal jurisdiction during 1857 amount to twenty-seven per cent, 
 of the total number' incarcerated. It will violate no probability 
 to assume that all these women were prostitutes ; there may be 
 exceptions to the rule, but so rare are they as nof to invalidate 
 the principle. The Penitentiary was supported during 1857 at 
 an outlay to the tax-payers of nearly $89,000, and the propor- 
 tion chargeable to prostitutes, at the ratio given above, is $24,030 
 per year, or $462 per week. 
 
 A farther portion of the expenses of the Work-house and Peni- 
 tentiary might very plausibly be included in the list ; namely, the 
 share incurred by the maintenance of those men who owe their 
 imprisonment either to crimes committed at the instigation of 
 common women, or for the sake of supporting them; or to a 
 course of idleness and dissipation resulting from the companion- 
 ship of prostitutes. To pursue this subject in all its minutioR 
 would lead to the conclusion that nearly every male piisoner owes 
 his confinement, less or more remotely, to one or the other of 
 these causes, and hence it could be argued that all the expenses 
 of male imprisonment should be taken into this account. On the 
 other hand, such a course could be opposed with the plea that 
 crimes which send men to Blackwell's Island are only indirect 
 results of the system under discussion, and to recognize them 
 would force the recognition of many other indirect consequences 
 daily occurring elsewhere. Strictly speaking, the position is scarce- 
 ly demonstrable enough, to form an arithmetical calculation, but 
 , its moral certainty is so far acknowledged as to make it a serious 
 matter of reflection in connection with the attendant evils of pros- 
 titution. 
 
 To resume : About fifty -five per cent, of the population of the 
 Alms-houses, Blackwell's Island, are females. Some of these are 
 old decrepit women whom it would be impossible to consider as 
 prostitutes ; others are virtuous women whose poverty has. driven 
 them there ; but many are broken down prostitutes who have lost 
 whatever of attraction they once possessed, and with ruined health 
 and debilitated constitutions it is impossible for them to exist 
 even in the lowest brothels. They make the Alms-house their 
 last resting-place, and there await the final summons which shall 
 close their career of sin and misery. Yet another class in this in- 
 stitution is composed of women with young children. Some claim 
 to be respectable married women, while others are known as dis- 
 
NEW YOteK. 
 
 605 
 
 reputable characters ; but the former have little to support their 
 pretensions except their own assertion, and collateral testimbny 
 sometimes invalidates that. It is not an tmcharitable conclusion, 
 that at least one half of the female inmates of the Alms-house owe 
 their dependence upon charity to their own prostitution. The 
 support of the Alms-house in 1857 cost the city of New York 
 $63,000, and the proportion resulting from prostitution, on the 
 above data, is $15,750 per year, or $303 per week. 
 
 The children on Eandall's Island may be classified according to 
 the rule already adopted in reference to disease in the nursery 
 hospital there; namely, to assume that one half owe, if not their 
 existence, certainly their support from public funds to causes that 
 originated in vice. The nursery, exclusive of the hospital, cost 
 during last year $60,000, one half of which must, in accordance 
 with the previous estimate, be charged to prostitution ; namely, 
 $30,000 per year, or $577 per week. 
 
 The final charge arises from the police and judiciary expenses 
 of the city of New York, of which it is believed that ten per cent, 
 is caused by prostitution and its concomitant crimes and suffer- 
 ings. The aggregate forms a large amount, and will be rather a 
 surmise than an assertion. The maintenance of police-officers and 
 station-houses, of police-justices and their court-rooms, of the city 
 judge and recorder, with their respective courts, of the city and 
 district prisons, and numerous contingent expenses, can not be less 
 than two million dollars- a year. The percentage chargeable to 
 prostitution wiU therefore' be $200,000 per year, or $4000 per 
 week. 
 
 Thus much for preliminary explanations. It will now be pos- 
 sible to present the reader with a tabular statement of the weekly 
 and yearly cost of the system of prostitution existing in the me- 
 tropolis of the New World. Those who have followed us through 
 this a,rgument, and noted the facts upon which every calculation 
 is based, will bear witness that nothing has been exaggerated, that 
 no doUar is debited to the vice without strong presumptive evi- 
 dence to support such charge,. and that the endeavor has been 
 throughout rather to underestimate than exceed the bounds of 
 strict probability. Upon this ground the attention of the pubHo 
 is earnestly requested to the first exposition ever attempted of the 
 amount paid by citizens of and visitors to New York for illicit 
 sexual gratification. 
 
606 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Eecapitulation. 
 
 Expenditurei 
 
 Individuai, Expenses : 
 
 Paid to prostitutes 
 
 Spent for wine and liquor by visitors . . 
 
 Paid by visitors to houses of assignation 
 
 Spent for wine and liquor by visitors to 
 houses of assignation ...... 
 
 Spent in dancing-saloons, liqiuor and lager- 
 beer stores frequented by prostitutes and 
 
 their friends 
 
 Medical Expenses : 
 
 Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island . 
 
 Bellevue " New York . . . 
 
 Nursery " Randall's Island 
 
 Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island 
 
 New York City Hospital, New York 
 
 Dispensaries 
 
 King's County Hospital, Long Island 
 
 Brooklyn City « « 
 
 Seamen's Retreat, Staten Island . 
 
 Private medical assistance . . 
 Vagrancy and Pauper Expenses : 
 
 Work-house, Blackwell's Island . 
 
 Penitentiary " " 
 
 Alms-house " " 
 
 Nursery, Randall's Island . • . 
 Police and Judiclaky Expenses : 
 
 Proportion of aggregate . . . 
 Totals 
 
 Weekly #* 
 outlay. 
 
 Yeafly. 
 outlay. 
 
 $60,000 $3,120,00.0 
 
 40,000 2,080,000 
 
 12,600 655,200 
 
 5,000 260,000 
 
 4,530 235,560 
 
 488 
 
 22,150 
 
 135 
 
 1,000 
 
 163 
 
 8,500 
 
 136 
 
 1,015 
 
 159 
 
 8,260 
 
 
 128 
 
 145 
 
 1,530 
 
 89 
 
 4,644 
 
 203 
 
 10,540 
 
 5,928 
 
 308,108 
 
 585 
 
 30,400 
 
 462 
 
 24,030 
 
 303 
 
 15,150 
 
 511 
 
 30,000 
 
 4,000 
 
 200,000 
 
 $135,461 $1,036,015 
 The footings of the columns show the total expense to be 
 
 Weekly $135,461 
 
 Yearly $1,036,015 
 
 over SEVEN millions of dollars ! or nearly as much as the annual 
 municipal expenditure of New York City. 
 
 Comment upon these figures would be superfluous. They pre- 
 sent the monetary effects of prostitution in a conviflcing point of 
 view, and will prepare the reader for an attentive perusal of the 
 suggested remedial measures which form the subject of the next 
 chapter. The American mind is said to be proverbially open to 
 argument based upon dollars and cents. "Without giving an un- 
 qualified assent to the proposition, we may be permitted to hope 
 that financial considerations, combined with the claims of benevo- 
 lence and humanity, the appeals of virtue and morality, the de- 
 mands of public health, and the future physical well-being of the 
 
NEW YORK. 607 
 
 comnnmity at large, will exercise that influence on the public mind 
 whicli is necessary to the accomplishment of any valuable prac- 
 tical result from the present investigation. 
 
 Before leaving the subject of the extent of prostitution it may 
 be appropriate to remark that it was considered advisable to as- 
 certain the prevalence of the vice in some of the leading cities of 
 the United States, and, in order to do this effectually, a circular 
 letter was addressed to the Mayors of 
 
 Albany, New York, 
 Baltimore, Maryland, 
 Boston, Massachusetts, 
 Brooklyn, New York, 
 Buffalo, New York, 
 Charleston, South Carolina, 
 Chicago, Illinois, 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 Detroit, Michigan, 
 Hartford, Connecticut, 
 Louisville, Kentucky, 
 Memphis, Tennessee, 
 
 Mobile, Alabama, 
 Newark, New Jersey, 
 NeiB Haven, Connecticut, 
 New Orleans, Louisiana, 
 Norfolk, Virginia, 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 
 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 
 Portland, Maine, 
 Eichmond, Virginia, 
 Savannah, Georgia, 
 St. Louis, Missouri, 
 Washington, District Columbia. 
 
 (The names printed in italics are those of cities from which re- 
 plies were received.) 
 
 The circular forwarded was as follows : 
 
 (Copy.) 
 " Mayor's Office, New York City, Sept. 1, 1856. 
 
 " To His Honor the Matoe of the Crrr op : 
 
 " Deab Sir, — Below you will receive from Dr. Sanger a note containing a 
 few questions concerning Prostitution and Prostitutes in your city, which I 
 shall feel obliged if you will have the kindness to answer. 
 
 « Very truly yours, Fernando Wood, Mayor New York City." 
 
 "Dear Sir, — During the past six months, with the aid of His Honor, 
 Mayor Wood, of this city, and the police force at his command, I have been 
 collecting materials for a report on Prostitution, as it exists in New York at 
 the present time. I inclose you a list of questions that have been asked all 
 the women examined here.^ Of course I do not expect that you will or can 
 give answers to these questions from the prostitutes in your city, but I 
 would wish to have your replies to the following queries: 
 
 " 1. How many houses of prostitution are there in your city? 
 
 " 2. How many houses of assignation are there in your city? 
 
 " 3. How many public prostitutes are there in your city? 
 
 " 4. How many private prostitutes are there in your city? 
 
 1 The list of questions inclosed was a printed copy of the interrogatories used in 
 New York, and already given in these pages. 
 
608 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 "5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city? 
 
 " 6. What is the present population of your city 1 
 
 "Of course these questions can be answered to you, by yoB chief of po- 
 lice and officers, only as to the best of their knowledge ; but, as a general 
 thing, shrewd police-officers will be able to give correct answers to them. I 
 do iiot wish names, only the round numbers in each class. 
 
 " I shall do myself the honor to forward you a copy of the report when 
 completed, and shall be glad to receive your replies to the above queries 
 by the 30th of this month. You will please direct your answer to 
 " Yours respectfully, William W. Sanger, 
 
 " Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New York City." 
 
 The following are tlie replies received : 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y. 
 (Copy.) 
 " Mayor's Office, Buffalo, October 2, 1856. 
 
 " Deae Sik, — I received your circular of the 1st of September, asking 
 that certain questions concerning houses of prostitution, prostitutes, etc., 
 might be answered. 
 
 "I immediately directed our chief to collect the necessary information 
 through the police, and I have just received his report : I here inclose the 
 answers. 
 
 " To show how far the report can be relied on for accuracy, I here copy 
 from his report : ' The captains inform me that they experienced much dif- 
 ficulty in their endeavors to make a correct report and answer to the several 
 questions proposed ; 'they, however, believe that the returns, so far at least 
 as the number of houses and public prostitutes is concerned, are very near 
 correct.' 
 
 " Any farther information you may desire I wiU cheerfully give, so far 
 as I am able. I am respectfully yours, P. P. Stevens, Mayor." 
 
 (Inclosure.) 
 
 "Houses of Prostitution .. 87 
 
 " of Assignation . . 37 
 
 Public Prostitutes ..... 272 
 
 Private Prostitutes 81 
 
 Kept Mistresses 31 
 
 Population 75,000." 
 
 LomsviLLE, Kt. 
 (Copy.) 
 "Police Office, Louisville, Ky., December 26, 1856. 
 "Hon. John Baeber, Mayor : 
 "Dear Sir, — Below I give a statement of such matters as called for by 
 Dr. Wm. W. Sanger, Eesident Physician of BlackweU's Island, New York 
 City, which I think you will find correct, or as near as can be arrived at 
 from the facilities afforded. Hoping that it will prove satisfactory to the 
 doctor, and that it will many tales unfold, I remain respectfully yours, 
 
 " Jas. Kikkpatriok, Chief of Police. 
 
NEW YORK. 609 
 
 " Houses of Prostitution ... 79 
 " " Assignation ... 39 
 
 Public prostitutes 214 
 
 Private « 93 
 
 " I am now preparing to take the census«for 1851." 
 
 Kept mistresses 60 
 
 Population of city (sup- 
 posed to be) 70,000 
 
 Nkwakk, N. J. 
 
 (Copy.) 
 
 "Newark, N. J., October 4, 1856. 
 "Wm.W. Sanger, M.D.: 
 
 " Dear Sir, — ^I can not make any excuse for not answering your letter 
 of inquiry that will justify me. (Yours of September 1st was unfortunately 
 mislaid.) 
 
 " Our pojpulation in 1855 was 55,000 by census. 
 
 " We have no houses of ill fame in our city ; none of assignation ; there 
 are no public prostitutes. 
 
 "It may appear strange to you that the above should be the case, but 
 there is good reason for it. From the best' information that I can get 
 there are perhaps fifty private prostitutes in this city, composed of girls liv- 
 ing at service or as seamstresses, but who conduct themselves so as not to 
 be known. Our city is so near to New York that as soon as a girl turns 
 out she makes her way to it, where associations and congenial amusements 
 make it more agreeable. It is rather singular, but so soon as it becomes 
 known that a girl is loose, she is marked and followed in the streets by 
 half-grown boys hooting at and really forcing her to leave town. Occa- 
 sionally it is made known to the police that a couple of girls staid a night 
 or two at some boarding-house, when they are arrested as vagrants, or 
 warned oflj and they are gone. 
 
 " New York being so much greater field for them, they are the least of 
 our troubles. Truly and respectfully yours, H. J. Poinier, Mayor." 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 (Copy,) 
 
 "New Haven, September 18, 1856. 
 "Dr. Wm.W. Sanger: 
 " Dear Sir, — Herewith I hand you the report of our chief of police in 
 answer to your inquiries relative to prostitution in this city. 
 
 « Your obedient servant, P. S. GalpIn,- Mayor." 
 
 (Inclosure.) 
 "To His Honor the Mayor op the Cut op New Haven: 
 " Sir, — ^I have had the communication addressed t» you by Wm. W. San- 
 ger, Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New York, in regard to prosti- 
 tutes and prostitution in the city of New Haven, under consideration, and 
 beg leave to report : 
 
 Qq 
 
610 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 "That the answers to the questions fropQuttded are given in a general 
 manner, -with near approximation to exactness without pretending to be 
 minutely accurate. ' ' *' 
 
 " And to the first question, namely, ''How UiElny houses of prostitution 
 are there in the city?' I ansWei-, That the number now known as such to 
 the police is ten, and that these are only such (some of them) occasionally ; 
 and that none of them would be so called in New York, being inconsider- 
 able, in poor, out-of-the-way houses, and conducted with great secrecy, and 
 are constantly liable to the penalties of a law peculiar to Connecticut, which 
 punishes reputation, rendering it impossible for them to gain strength and 
 become permanent. 
 
 " And to the second inquiry, ' How many houses of assignation are there 
 in the city?' I answer. There are known to be six, and others suspected ; 
 but these all are not such proper, but are connected with some business, as 
 eating-houses, hotels, dance-houses, etc. 
 
 "And to the third inquiry, 'How many public prostitutes are there in 
 ■ the city 1' There are known by name, ninety-three, all well known. 
 
 " And to the foin^h inquiry, ' How many private prostitutes are there in 
 the city V I answer. That there are thirty, with many married women ; and, 
 indeed, this class is mostly composed of married women. 
 
 " And to the fifth question j ' How many kept mistresses are there in the 
 city?' the answer is. That the number is not known, but is small, and no 
 one instance is certainly known to us. 
 
 " The population of the city is thirty-two thousand. 
 
 "All which is respectfully submitted. John C. Hatden, 
 
 " Chief of Police City of New Haven. 
 
 "Dated at New Haven, September 16, 185G." 
 
 Norfolk, Va. 
 
 (Copy.) 
 " Mayor's Office, Norfolk, Va., Sept. 15, 1856. 
 
 " Dbae Sib, — ^Yours of 1st instant was duly received, and in reply would 
 state that I have endeavored to be as accurate as possible in my replies to 
 your several interrogatories, namely, 
 
 " 1. How many houses of prostitution in your city? 
 
 "Answer. About forty. 
 
 " 2. How many houses of assignation in your city ? 
 
 " Answer. None as such ; there being no places, so far as I can learn, 
 used as meeting-places. 
 
 " 3. How many public prostitutes are there in your city? 
 
 "Answer. About one hundred and fifty. 
 
 " 4. How many private prostitutes are there in your city? 
 ;: "Answer. About fifty. , 
 
 " 5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city t 
 
NEW YORK, Qll 
 
 " Answer. About six or eight. 
 
 " 6. What is the present population of your city 1 . 
 
 " Answer. About eighteen thousand. 
 
 " I would, in connection with the above, state that about twenty-five of 
 the forty houses are used almost exolusively by sailors and seafaring men, 
 and are sometimes improperly called ' Sailor Boairding-houges,' especially 
 the most decent of them. , 
 
 "Any other information I can give you I will most cheerfully do, should 
 you desire any. 
 
 " I am very respectfully yours, F. F. Feeguson, , 
 
 " Mayor City of Norfolk, Virginia. 
 
 "To Dr. Wm. W. Sanger, Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New York." 
 
 Philadelphia, Ta. 
 
 , (Copy.) , , : , 
 "Office of theiMayoroftheCity of Philadelphia, Sept, 8, 1856. 
 
 "Dbae Sir,— As near as we can arrive at the facts (of course no great* 
 reliance can be placed on this general answra:) the following are the figures : 
 
 ,1. Houses of prostitjition . 130 1 3. Public Prostitutes ; . . 475 
 
 2. Houses of assigiiation . 50 | 4. Private " . . 105 
 
 6. (Say) six hundred thousand population. 
 
 " Our city has one*hundred and twenty-nine (129) square miles of police 
 jurisdiction, and six hundred and fifty (650) policemen besides oflScers. 
 You will therefore make some allowances for the want of time to enable 
 me more fully to state answers to your questions. 
 
 "The answers given are from estimates made by the lieutenants of poUce 
 of iheir own districts. 
 
 j " Respectfully, Eichaed Vaux, Mayor of Philadelphia. 
 
 ! "To Wm. W. Sangeb, M. D., Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island." 
 
 PrrrsBUKGH, Pa. 
 (Copy.) 
 ' ' Mayor'^ Office, ipittaburgh, Sqpt. 18, 1856. 
 « Wm. W. Sanger, M. D. : , ; 
 
 " Dear Sir, — ^Your favor of the 1st instant came to hand a; few days ago, 
 requesting answers to the following questions : " ; = 
 
 "1. How many houses of prostitution are there in our, city ? 
 "Answer. Nineteen. 
 
 " 2. How many houses of assignation ? ■ ' ' 
 
 "Answer. Nine. , , s. , 
 
 " 3. How many public prostitutes ? • ■ 
 
 "Answer. Seventy-seven. ; ' • 
 
 "4. How many private prostitutes? . .:,:■,.-. 
 
 "Answer. Thirty-seven. 
 
M2 
 
 HISTORr OT PROSTITUTION. 
 
 " 5. How many kept mistresses ? 
 
 "Answer. Sixteen. 
 
 " 6. What is your population 1 * 
 
 "Answer. :Sevehty-five thousand seven hundred and fifty (15,150). 
 
 "The ahove is arrived at from the personal. knowledge of some of our 
 police-officers ; no doubt the number is much greater. 
 
 " At the last census our population of the city proper was over sixty thou- 
 sand (60,000). The population at that time of Pittsburgh, Alleghany, 
 and the suburbs of Pittsburgh, was nearly one hundred thousand. 
 
 "Respectfully, your obedient servant, Wm. Bingham, Mayor." 
 
 Savannah, Ga. 
 
 (Copy.) 
 "Mayor's Office, City' of Savannah, Ga., Sept., 18, 1856. 
 " Wm. W. Sanger, Resident Physician, | 
 : 31ackweU's Island, New York City : ) 
 • " Dear Sir, — In this city there are fifteen houses of prostitution, three 
 assignation-houses, ninety-three white, and one hundred and five colored 
 prostitutes.- In the winter season the number is greatly increased by sup- 
 pUes from "New York City. 
 
 .'/I can not answer what number of private prostitutes or kept mistresses 
 there are here. 
 "Our present population is about twenty-six thousand. 
 
 " Very truly yours, Edwaed C. Anderson, Mayor." 
 
 These replies may be condensed as follows : 
 
 Cities. 
 
 
 
 Houses. ' 
 
 Prostitutes. 
 
 1 
 
 Reported by 
 
 ll 
 
 "Sg 
 
 SS 
 
 r 
 
 1* 
 
 P 
 
 i|! 
 
 Buffalo 
 
 Louisville...'.. 
 
 Newark 
 
 New Haven.. 
 'Norfolk....... 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 Pittsburgh..,. 
 Savannah ...". 
 
 Ma 
 
 yor Stevens 
 
 ' Barber 
 
 ' Poinier 
 
 ' Galpin 
 
 ' Ferguson.. 
 
 ' Vaux 
 
 ' Bingham.. 
 ' Anderson.. 
 
 87 
 79 
 
 io 
 
 40 
 
 130 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 37 
 39 
 
 6 
 
 50 
 9 
 3 
 
 272 
 214 
 
 93 
 150 
 475 
 
 77 
 198 
 
 81 
 93 
 50 
 30 
 60 
 
 37 
 
 31 
 60 
 
 "s 
 
 105 
 16 
 
 384 
 867 
 50 
 123 
 208 
 580 
 130. 
 198' 
 
 75,000 
 70,000 
 
 ,65,000 
 32,000 
 18,000 
 
 600,000 
 75j750 
 26,000 
 
 It lias already been stated, on the authority of the state census 
 of 1855, that the adult male population of New York City form 
 nearly one third of the total inha,bitants, and the same rule may 
 be applied to these cities to ascertain the comparative number of 
 prostitutes and their customers. The proportions stand as fol- 
 lows : 
 
il 
 
 u 
 
 ii 
 
 64 
 
 ,ii 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 65 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 a. 
 
 a 
 
 64 
 
 ii 
 
 ee 
 
 ii 
 
 ii 
 
 366 
 
 ii 
 
 il 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 87 
 
 ii 
 
 iC 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 29 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 344 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 192 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 ii 
 
 a 
 
 44 
 
 ii 
 
 NEW YOEK. 618 
 
 New York, on the resident population of the city proper, has 
 
 1 prostitute to every 40 men. 
 but including the suburbs . . 1 
 
 Buffalo has 1 
 
 Louisville has 1 
 
 Newark has 1 
 
 New Haven has 1 
 
 Norfolk has 1 
 
 Philadelphia has 1 
 
 Pittsburgh has . . ... . .1 
 
 Savannah has L 
 
 It can scarcely be doubted tliat the worthy mayors of Newark, 
 Philadelphia, and Pittsburg have been niisinformed as to the ex- 
 tent of the vice in their respective cities. Eespecting Newarkj for 
 instance, the writer was recently informed that prostitution was 
 not so rare as Mayor Poinier's letter would iinply, but that prostir 
 tutes and known houses of prostitution were to be found scattered 
 over the city, and that the fact was notorious to nearly every res- 
 ident. This information was received from a gentleman himself 
 an inhabitant of Newark. There is no doubt that much of the 
 vice of Newark finds a home in New Y6rk, as the mayor says, 
 but it is equally certain that it is not all expatriated. 
 
 The mayor of Philadelphia is particularly wide of the mark. 
 There may not be as many public . prostitutes there as in New 
 York, but it is proverbial, and is as widely known as is Philadel- 
 phia itself, that its streets abound in houses of assignation and pri- 
 vate houses of prostitution. 
 
 Pittsburgh is situated at the head of navigation on the Ohio 
 Eiver, at the confluence of the AUeghknyand Monongahela Elv- 
 ers, both navigable. She has canals, rail-roads," and large manu- 
 factories, and, if closely examined, would probably show a largei? 
 proportion of prostitutes than, above reported. 
 
 Norfolk is the largest naval depot in this country, audits popu- 
 lation can not be held responsible for aU the prostitution within 
 its limits. In both Norfolk and Savannah we presume that the 
 larger portion of the abandoQed women at the time the census 
 was taken were colored people, whose virtue is always at a dis- 
 count under the most favorable circumstances, and to which - a 
 seaport is always fatal. 
 
 But another calculation may be made upon the assumption that 
 the males who have commerce with prostitutes form only one 
 fourth of the population, and the proportions resulting from thaf 
 are as follows : 
 
614 HISTOEY OF PBOSTITUTION. 
 
 New York, on the resident population of the city proper^ has 
 
 . • ., , 1 prostitute to every 30 men. 
 
 but including the suburbs . ^ -- - 
 
 Buffalo has . . . . .' , 
 Louisville has ...... 
 
 Newark has 
 
 New Haven has . . . ... 
 
 Norfolk has ..,.., 
 
 Philadelphia has 
 
 Pittsburgh has 
 
 Savannah has 
 
 , To arrive at an average we will omit the calculation of the pro- 
 portion of prostitutes to the population of New York City propef, 
 it having been shown already that the responsibility of much of 
 it must rest upon the suburbs and upon visitors, and also omit 
 Newkrk, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg, because the reports from 
 those cities are pdlpably underrated. This dbne, the mean of the 
 two estimates stands thus : - ' 
 
 New York 1 pfestitnte to every 5Y men. 
 
 
 , ,,<£ ' 
 
 i. « ,<||o 
 
 \ii 
 
 
 ii I 
 
 i ii 49 
 
 ii 
 
 
 U i 
 
 i « 48 
 
 ii 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 ' « 2*15 
 
 ii 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 ' " 65 
 
 a 
 
 
 ii t 
 
 ' « 23 
 
 a 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 ' « 258 
 
 it 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 i a 144 
 
 a 
 
 
 ii i 
 
 ' « 33 
 
 ii 
 
 Buffalo ...... 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 51 
 
 Louisville 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 56 
 
 New Haven, '.'... 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 t6 
 
 Norfolk 
 
 
 a 
 
 a 
 
 it 
 
 26 
 
 Savannah 
 
 
 a 
 
 ii 
 
 ii 
 
 39 
 
 and the mean of the whole is . . 
 
 
 ii . 
 
 Si 
 
 ii 
 
 52 
 
 This mean may be fairly assuitied as the proportioh existing in 
 all the large cities of the Union, and the ferther assumption that 
 the men who visit houses of prostitution form one fourth of the 
 total population will givfe a basis upon which the total number 
 of the Prostitutes in the United States may be estimated with 
 some accuracy. The calculation can not, of course, be claimed as 
 absolutely correct, as that would be an impossibility, but is sub- 
 mitted as a probability on which the reader can form his own 
 donclusion. ; ' 
 
 The population of the United States in 1858 was estimated by 
 Professor De Bow, when preparing the compendium of the census 
 of 1850, and his calculation at that time was that by the present 
 year it woiild amount to 29,242,139 persons, which inay be taken 
 in round numbers 29,000,000. Prom this must be deducted 
 3,500,000 slaves, which will leave the free inhabitants 25,600,000, 
 and the proportioii 6f adult males to this number is 6,376,000. 
 It may next be assumed that one half of these men live in coun- 
 try places or small cities where ptostitution does not exist, the 
 other moiety being inhabitants of cities with a populatibd of twen- 
 
HEW YORK. gl5 
 
 ty thotisand or upward; and upon tlie basis already proved of 
 one prostitute to every fifty -two men, tiie result would be a total 
 of 61,298 prostitutes. Tlie whole area of the United States is 
 2,936,166 square miles, and if all the prostitutes therein were 
 equally divided over this surface, there would be one for every 
 forty-seven square miles, or if they were walking in continuous 
 .line, thirty-six inches from each other, they would make a col- 
 umn nearly thirty-five miles long. If the inhabitants of large 
 cities were only one third, the number of prostitutes would be 
 41,058. These suggestions are, of course, mere matters for con- 
 sideration, and are not given as definite facts. 
 
 Allusions have already been made to many exaggerated opin- 
 ions as to the extent of prostitution in New York City, and it may 
 be well to notice in this place some passages in a work entitled 
 " An inquiry into the extent, causes, and consequences of Prosti- 
 tution in Edinburgh, by William Tait, Surgeon : 2d edition, 1842." 
 The author starts with the impression that the capital of Scotland 
 is the most moral city on the face of the earth, and after fixing 
 the number of public prostitutes in Edinburgh at eight hundred, 
 or one to every eighty of the adult male population, remarks : 
 
 "In London there is one for every sixty, and in Paris one for 
 every fifteen. Edinburgh is thus about twenty-five per cent, bet- 
 ter than London, while the latter is about seventy per cent, better 
 than Paris." (Happy Edinburgh !) " And what is to be said of 
 the chief city of the United States of America, of the independent, 
 liberal, religious, and enlightened inhabitants of New York? It 
 will scarcely be credited that that city famishes a prostitute for 
 every six or seven of its adult male population ! Alas ! for the 
 religion and morality of the country that affords such a demon- 
 stration of its depravity. It was not surpassed even by the me- 
 tropolis of France during the heat and fervor of the Eevolution, 
 when libertinism reigned triuinphant, and the laws of God and 
 man were alike set at defiance."— Page 6. 
 
 This picture is any thing but flattering to our national pride; 
 but it loses very much of its effect because it is contrary to the 
 truth. It YJll, however, satisfy our readers that Mr. Tait was mis- 
 informed, and they may feel a slight gratification in the conclu- 
 sion that his pathetic lapient for the i^ehgion and morality of their 
 country was unnecessary. On page 8 of the same work we find : 
 "After stating that there were upward of ten thousand aban- 
 doned women in the city of New York, the Eev. Mr. M'Dowall, 
 
616 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 chaplain to the New York Magdalen Asylum, goes on to say : 
 'Besides these, we have the clearest evidence that there are hund- 
 reds of private harlots and kept mistresses, many of wnom keep 
 up a show of industry as domestics, seamstresses, nurses, etc., in 
 the most respectable families,, and throng the houses of assigna- 
 tion every night. Although we have no means of ascertaining 
 the number of thege, yet enough has been learned from the facts 
 alrefidy developed to convince us that the aggregate is alarmingly 
 great, perhaps little behind the proportion, of the city of London, 
 whose police report asserts, on the authority of accurate research- 
 es, that the number pf private prostitutes in that city is fully equal 
 to the number of public harlots.' " 
 
 In this passage Mr. Tait. shifts the responsibility of his figures 
 to the shoulders of the Eev. Mr. M'DowaU, who is represented as 
 declaring the number of. public prostitutes in New York sixteen 
 years ago to be ten thousand, and assuming the private prostitutes 
 to amount to the same number, making an aggregate nearly three 
 times as large as an actual and sea.rching inquiry has found at the 
 present time. During the last sixteen years vice has not de- 
 creased in Kew York, but has steadily increased, and yet the 
 most diligent search can discover in 1858 only 7860 public and 
 private prostitutes, instead of the twenty thousand mentioned in 
 the publication u,nder notice ! We imagine it to be an imperative 
 duty to be tolerably well acquainted with a social evil before at- 
 tempting to write upon it, and although Mr. Tait's book can not, 
 by any possibility, injure our city, on account of the palpable mis- 
 representations it contains, we allude to it to show the opinion 
 entertained of New York and its vices on the other side of the 
 Atlantic. Were an apology necessary for the present work, such 
 statements as these would be amply sufficient. 
 
 Mr. Tait loses no opportunity to hurl a sly dart at New York. 
 Thus (on page 38), after quoting the words of the Eev. Mr. 
 M'DowaU as to the character of an abandoned woman in New 
 York, he (Mr. Tait) continues : 
 
 "He says nothing of the state of rehgious feeling among the 
 prostitutes there ; and if we are to regard his statenaent of the 
 number of prostitutes ais strictly correct, it may very well be ques- 
 tioned whether any considerable number of the inhabitants of 
 that city are under the influence of sincere religious feeling." 
 
 Some of our New York City readers may probably recollect 
 that the publication of Mr. M'Dowall'a " Inquiry" produced very 
 
NEW YOKK. 617 
 
 onsiderable excitement here at the time, and opinions were free- 
 j expressed that he was either very ignorant on matters of that 
 .ature, or intentionally colored his statements, and was in either 
 ase entirely unfitted for the task he had assumed. 
 
 Mr. Tait assumes the population of Edinburgh at about two 
 lundred thousand, the number of public prostitutes at eight bund- 
 ed, and of private prostitutes at nearly twelve hundred, or a total 
 f two thousand abandoned women. This gives one prostitute to 
 very thirty-two adult males, if we adopt his system of calcula- 
 ion ; .or one prostitute to every twenty-five adult males, if we 
 idopt the system of calculation which has been applied to the 
 Jnited States in the present work. From his own figures, then, 
 t can be seen, that although New York City is so awfully irre- 
 igious, it has less prostitution than pious Edinburgh. 
 
 Again : on page 189, while speaking of the demoralizing effects 
 )f theatrical representations, Mr. Tait says : 
 
 " In the report of the House of Eefiige in New York, it is stated 
 hat one hundred and fifty boys and girls, out of six hundred and 
 linety, are guilty of thefb and impurity to get a seat in the thea- 
 ;re." He does not mark this as a quotation, nor does he state 
 ;he report from which it was extracted. As he has printed it, it 
 nust be supposed correct, although we must confess we can not 
 see very clearly what connection exists between the New York 
 House ofEefuge and prostitution considering the ages of children 
 generally admitted to that institution ; and while we have very 
 little doubt that many of the inmates thereof have committed 
 theft for the reason he assigns, we are rather dubious as to the 
 acts of impurity alluded to, except in a very few exceptional cases. 
 
 Farther: on page 194, Mr. Tait quotes "The address of the 
 Rev. Mr. M'Dowall on prostitution in America" as follows: 
 
 " At the very hour in the morning, afliemoon, and evening of 
 every Lord's day when the people of God assemble for religious 
 worship, then, in a special manner, do the children of the wicked 
 one meet in troops at harlots' houses. On the Sabbath days the 
 rooms are so filled with visitors that there is no place for them to 
 sit down, and on that account many are refused admission at the 
 doors." 'These palpable exaggerations require no contradiction. 
 They show, however, the extremes of misrepresentation to which 
 an enthusiastic and incompetent writer may be led. 
 
 Inclined to exaggeration as Mr. Tait has been proved to be, he 
 yet protests (in page 251) against some opinions upon infanticide 
 
618 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 by prostitutes in New York, adranced by Ms infonnant, the Rev. 
 Mr. M'Dowall, and quotes the -opinion of Parent-Duciiatelet to 
 prove that mothers are generally very fond of thOT children. 
 This fact warrants the cohclixsion that his other opinions upon so- 
 cial morals in New York are entirely derived from Mr. M'Dowall, 
 who is shown to be any thing but a credible witness. His reli- 
 ance upon such a source is much to be regretted as materially im- 
 pairing the value and truthfulness of his otherwise interesting and 
 useful volume. 
 
 The following extracts from the "Compendium of the Seventh 
 Census of the United States, 1850," will be iuteresting, from 'their 
 relation to various points which have been discussed in the prog- 
 ress of this work. They have all a more or less direct bearing 
 upon the subject of prostitution, and the condensation of them 
 here will give readers an opportunity of verifying many of the 
 previous remarks. 
 
 The estimated population of the Union at the present time 
 (1858) has been already given as 29,242,139 persons (including 
 slaves). The proportion of females to males at each census from 
 1790 to 1850 is stated as follows i^ 
 
 
 1790. 
 
 1800. 
 
 ISIO. 
 
 1820. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1840. 
 
 1850. 
 
 Males 
 
 Females ... 
 
 100- 
 96-4 
 
 100- 
 95-3 
 
 100- 
 96-2 
 
 100- 
 96-8 
 
 100- 
 96-4 
 
 100- 
 95-6 
 
 100- 
 95- 
 
 This relates only to the free population. In enumerating slaves 
 no distinction of sex was made earlier than the year 1820. The 
 ratio of male and female slaves since that date is as follows :^ 
 
 
 1S20. 1 1830. 
 
 1840. 
 
 1860. 
 
 Males 
 
 100- 
 95-19 
 
 100- 
 98-36 
 
 100- 
 99-55 
 
 100- 
 99-95 
 
 "Females 
 
 
 From these tables it appears that the males in the free popula- 
 tion and the females in the slave papulation have been steadily 
 increasing, but with no determined ratio of progression. 
 
 Taking the total of free and slave population since the census 
 of 1820, the excess of males is stated thus -.^ * 
 
 
 1820. 
 
 1830. 
 
 1S40. 
 
 issp. 
 
 Males i 
 
 4,898,127 
 4,740,004 
 
 6,529,696 
 6,336,324 
 
 8,688,r..S2 
 8,380,921 
 
 11,837,661 
 li;354,2I5 
 
 
 Excess of males.. 
 
 158,123 
 
 193,372 
 
 307i611 
 
 483,446 
 
 It- will be seen from this that in 1850 the ruales were in excess 
 alj the rate of 2 '08 per cent, and by applying the same rule to the 
 '■ Compenclium of Seventh Census, p. 49. " Ibid. p. 87. ' Ibid. p. 101. 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 619 
 
 population of 1858 a fair estimate of the relative number of each 
 sex at the f)resent time may be made as follows : 
 
 Males (1858) 14,925,188 
 
 Females 14,316,951 
 
 Excess of males 
 
 608,237 
 
 Total estimated population . 29,242,189 
 
 In the several geographical divisions of the Union the propor-i 
 tion of white males to white females is thus shown :* 
 
 New Ungland States (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu- 
 ^tts, Ehode Island, and Connecticut), 100-87 females to 100 males. 
 
 Middle States (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
 Maryland, and District of Columbia), 9770 females to lOO males. 
 
 Southern States (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Geor- 
 gia, and Florida), 98-54 females to 100 males. 
 
 Southwestern States (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, 
 Arkansas, and Tennessee), 91-66 females to 100 males. 
 
 Northwestern States (Kentucky, Missouri, Elinoi^, Indiana, Ohio, 
 Michigan, "Wisconsin, and Iowa), 92-11 females to 100 males, 
 
 California and Territories, 36-73 females to 100 males. 
 
 Two facts are developed in this statement. In the New Eng- 
 land States females are in excess of males. From this district 
 comes the majority of all the native-born prostitutes who i find 
 their home in New York City. In the Northwestern States, to 
 which it has been proposed to remove some of the surplus feinale 
 labor of New York, the males are in excess, and any women sent 
 there would aid in restoring the equilibrium of the sexes. 
 
 The following table gives the relative percentage of each sex 
 at different ages, and also the number of feinales to each hundred 
 males :^ 
 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Perce'ntage of 
 
 Females bo each 
 
 
 
 Males. 
 
 Females. 
 
 100 Males. 
 
 
 14-68 
 
 14-95 
 
 96-76 
 
 From 5 years 
 
 10 years 
 
 13-69 
 
 13-98 
 
 97-03 
 
 " 10 " 
 
 15 " 
 
 12-23 
 
 12-35 
 
 96-00 
 
 " 15 " 
 
 20 " 
 
 10-39 
 
 11-42 
 
 104-46 
 
 " 20 " 
 
 30 " 
 
 18-64 
 
 18-46 
 
 94-08 
 
 " 30 " 
 
 40 " 
 
 , 12-85 
 
 : 11-84 
 
 87-55 
 
 " 40 " 
 
 50 '' 
 
 8-38 
 
 7-86 
 
 89-09 
 
 " 60 " 
 
 60 " 
 
 4-97 
 
 4-83 
 
 92-15 
 
 ." 60 " 
 
 70 " 
 
 2-64 
 
 2-69 
 
 96-88 
 
 ,", 70 " 
 
 80 " 
 
 1-11 
 
 1-18 
 
 101-01 
 
 " 80 " 
 
 90 " 
 
 -31 
 
 -86 
 
 110-11 
 
 " 90 
 
 " 100 years 
 
 100 " 
 upward 
 
 I -04 
 
 -{ 
 
 123-16 
 120-45: 
 
 Ages unknown . . 
 
 
 •07 
 
 -03 
 
 44-09 
 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 95- 
 
 1 Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 49. 
 
 Ibid. p. S.7. 
 
620 
 
 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 Experience has proved that the age at which female virtue is 
 exposed to the most temptations, or at least the age at which the 
 greater part of the prostitutes in New'York have emDraced their 
 wretched calling, is from fifteen to twenty years, and the table 
 above shows that at those periods females are in excess over 
 males nearly i^ per cent. Is it to be supposed that the numer- 
 ical predominance is the cause of the temptations ; or may it not 
 rather be concluded that both are co-existent, and equally con- 
 tribute to the sad result ; or even would not temptation be more 
 aggravated, because concentrated, if, at that critical period of life, 
 males and females were- in equal numbers ? 
 
 The following table gives the relative ages of the whole popu- 
 lation without distinction of sex, but compares the white, free 
 colored, and slave classes : 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 Pcroentage of 
 
 Ages. 
 
 white Popu- 
 
 free colored 
 
 slave Popu- 
 
 
 lation.! 
 
 Population." 
 
 lation.' 
 
 Under 5 years of age 
 
 14-81 
 
 14-00 
 
 16-87 
 
 From 6 years to 10 years 
 
 13 -83 
 
 13-36 
 
 14-95 
 
 " ]0 " " 15 " 
 
 12-28 
 
 12-04 
 
 13-61 
 
 " 15 " "20 " 
 
 10-89 
 
 10-08 
 
 11-15 
 
 " 20 " " 30 " 
 
 18-55 
 
 17-85 
 
 17-86 
 
 " 30 " " 40 " 
 
 12-36 
 
 12-71 
 
 11-04 
 
 " 40 " " 50 " 
 
 8-13 
 
 8-73 
 
 6-86 
 
 " 50 " " 60 " 
 
 4-90 
 
 5-60 
 
 3-96 
 
 " 60 " andupward 
 
 4-20 
 
 5-56 
 
 3-68 
 
 Ages unknown 
 
 •05 
 
 -07 
 
 -03 
 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 BIETHS. 
 
 The ratio of births is in the* 
 
 United States . . 1 birtli to every 36 persons, or 2-75 per cent. 
 Great Britain . . 1 « "31 « 3-22 « 
 
 France .... 1 « "35 « 2-86 « 
 
 Kussia .... 1 « "36 « 2-15 « 
 
 Prussia and Austria 1 « « 26 « 3-87 « 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 The importance of education and its influence upon the social 
 problem of prostitution is a sufficient apology for the following 
 'extracts, in addition to what has been said already on the subject. 
 There are in the United States 
 
 239 colleges with an annual income of . $1,964,428 
 
 80,918 public schools 9,529,542 
 
 6,085 academies and private schools . . . 4,644,214 
 ' 81,302 educational institutions which cost . $16,138,184 
 
 ' Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 94. " Ibid. p. 69. 
 
 = Ibid. p. 91. * Ibid. p. 104. 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 621 
 
 These institutions are attended by 3,644,928 scholars.^ 
 There are in the United States 
 
 ^^tiyes 858,306 
 
 Foreigners ^195,114 
 
 Total 1,053,420 
 
 persons above twenty years of age who can not read or write. 
 This number is subdivided thus -.^ 
 
 
 White. 
 
 Free colored. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Males 
 
 Females 
 
 389,664 
 573,234 
 
 40,722 
 49,800 
 
 430,386 
 623,084 
 
 Total 
 
 962,894 
 
 90,522 
 
 1,053,420 
 
 This shows a remarkable preponderance of uneducated women. 
 The percentage of children attending school in the United States, 
 jalculated on all between the ages of five and fifteen years is 
 
 ^atiyes 80-81 per cent.^ 
 
 ioreigners 51-T3 « 
 
 1 proof of the fact intimated already that foreign parents do not 
 mdeavor to avail themselves of the facilities provided for the edu- 
 3ation of their children. 
 The illiterate of the population are thus minutely analyzed :* 
 
 White illiterate to total white 4" 92 per cent. 
 
 Free colored illiterate to total free colored 20-83 " 
 
 S'ative white and free colored illiterate to total native white 
 and free colored 4-85 « 
 
 Foreign white and free colored illiterate to total foreign 
 white and free colored 8-24 " 
 
 !fative illiterate white and free colored to total of both 
 (native) over 20 years of age 10-35 " 
 
 Foreign illiterate white and free colored to total of both 
 (foreign) over 20 years of age 14-48 " 
 
 Foreign illiterate over twenty years of age . . 195-114 
 
 Foreign illiterate to total foreign over 20 years of age, sup- 
 posing the illiterate to be all white ....... 14-51 " 
 
 Following the geographical sections we obtain the following 
 ■esults :^ 
 
 Sections. 
 
 Percentage of Pu- 
 pils to the white 
 Population. 
 
 Percentage of Pupils 
 to the white and free 
 colored Population. 
 
 Percentage of il- 
 literate to white 
 Population. 
 
 New England States. 
 Middle States 
 
 25-90 
 21-79 
 14-52 
 16-32 
 21-72 
 
 25-71 
 21-02 
 13-92 
 16-10 
 21-51 
 
 1-88 
 3-16 
 9-22 
 8-45 
 6-03 
 
 Southern States....... 
 
 Southwestern States. 
 Northwestern States. 
 
 Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 141, 142. 
 ' Ibid. p. 150. * Ibid. p. 152. 
 
 " Ibid. p. 145. 
 
 " Ibid. p. 152, 153. 
 
622 
 
 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ', ( : , . 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 
 Percentage of 
 
 
 
 !Perceiitage 
 
 illiterate to 
 
 Percentage 
 
 illiterate to 
 
 Percentage 
 
 Sections. 
 
 of illiterate to 
 
 Natives over 
 
 of illiterate to 
 
 Foreigners 
 
 of illiterate to 
 
 
 Natives. 
 
 20 Years of 
 . age- . 
 
 Foreigners: 
 
 over 20 l9>rs 
 of age. 
 
 free Colored. 
 
 New England States 
 
 ■26 
 
 •42 
 
 14-63 
 
 24-39 
 
 > 8-45 
 
 Middle States 
 
 1-84 
 
 3 do 
 
 9-55 
 
 15-92 
 
 22-42 
 
 Southern States^ .'.... 
 
 9-30 
 
 20-30 ' 
 
 • 5-28- 
 
 8-80 
 
 21-20 
 
 Southwestern States 
 
 8-41 
 
 16-63 
 
 ,9-12 
 
 15-20 
 
 18-54,,,,, 
 
 Northwestern States 
 
 4-97 
 
 9-92 
 
 4-63 
 
 7-72 
 
 21-44 ; 
 
 California and Terri- 
 
 1 17-50 
 
 21-63 
 
 14-13 
 
 23-51 
 
 12-47^'-' 
 
 
 OCCUPATIONS, 
 
 In tlie tables of occupa,tions tlie only class noticed is the wMte 
 and free colored male population over fifteen years of age, no re- 
 turns of female employnient being given. As interesting to the 
 general reader, although not in immediate connection with the 
 subject, the following is ^veh :^ , 
 
 Itatio per cent 
 Occupations. to the total 
 
 employed. 
 
 Commerce, trade, manufactures, mechanic aits, and mming . 29"12 . 
 
 Agriculture 44-69 
 
 Labor (not agricultural) 18'50 
 
 Army -10 
 
 Sea and river navigation 2'Vl 
 
 Law, Medicine, and Divinity l-tG 
 
 Other pursuits requiring education 1"18 , 
 
 Government civil- service . . ' "46 
 
 Domestic service ; ". . . •41 
 
 Other occupations "41 
 
 100^ 
 A similar but more elaborate statement of the occupations of 
 the people of Great Britain was published in the British census 
 for 1841, and is reprinted by Professor De Bow in his compen- 
 dium.^ 
 
 Occupations. 
 
 Percentage 
 to total 
 Males. 
 
 Percentage 
 to total 
 Females. 
 
 Percentage 
 
 to total 
 Population. 
 
 Commerce, trade, and manufactures , 
 
 Agricijture ..'. 
 
 Labor (not agricultural) , 
 
 Army 
 
 Navy and merchant seamen, boatmen, &c... 
 
 Clerical, legal, and medical professions 
 
 Other pursuits requiring education .; 
 
 Government and municipal civil seryice...... 
 
 Domestic servants •,■■. 
 
 Persons of independent means 
 
 Pensioners, paupers, lunatics, and prisoners. 
 Un6ccupied (including women and children). 
 
 26-24 
 
 15-33 
 
 6-99 
 
 1-42 
 
 2-35 
 
 •66 
 
 1-17 
 
 •43 
 
 2-78 
 
 1-47 
 
 111 
 
 40-05 
 
 7-12 
 
 •84 
 
 1-21 
 
 -02 
 
 •36 
 
 •02 
 
 9-48 
 
 3-88 
 
 1-01 
 
 76-06 
 
 16-52 
 
 7-96 
 
 4-05 
 
 •70 
 
 1-17 
 
 •34 
 
 •76 
 
 •22 
 
 6^18 
 
 2-69 
 
 1-06 
 
 58-35 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 100- 
 
 Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 128. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 130. 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 623 
 
 ■w;ages. 
 : In introducing this subject, Professor De Bow remarks, "The 
 money price of wages, unless the price of other articles be known, 
 gives but an unsatisfactory idea of the condition of the laboring 
 classes at different periods and in different countries." In the 
 following tables of the rates of remuneration in 1850 this diffi- 
 culty will scarcely exist, so far as New York is concerned at least. 
 The large number of domestic servants who have been added to 
 our population since that year precludes the possibility of any 
 considerable advance in the rate of wages, and, as every reader has 
 an idea of what a woman's necessary expenses must be, each will 
 be enabled to decide for himself whether the compensation is suf- 
 ficient, or whether society at large would not be benefited were 
 some pf the surplus domestic servants removed to, other localities, 
 and thus, by increasing the demand, augment the wages. -The 
 following was the average weekly wages (with board) of a domes- 
 tic servant in the year 1850 :' 
 
 states., 
 
 Alabama . 
 
 Arkansas . 
 
 California 
 
 Columbia (District of) 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Florida 
 
 G-eorgia 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa . 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland . 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Michigan . 
 
 Mississippi. 
 
 $1 41 
 
 1 67 
 
 13 00 
 
 31 
 36 
 
 84 
 
 88 
 52 
 14 
 
 90 
 
 07 
 09 
 57 
 09 
 
 89 
 
 1 48 
 1 10 
 1 52 
 
 states. 
 
 Missouri . , . . 
 New Hampshire 
 New Jersey . 
 New York . 
 North Carolina 
 Ohio . . . 
 Pennsylvania 
 Rhode Island 
 South Carolina 
 Tennessee 
 Texas . . . 
 Vermont . . 
 Virginia . . 
 Wisconsin 
 
 li 
 
 f Minnesota 
 1 : 
 
 New Mexico 
 
 1 Oregon 
 LUtah 
 
 WageH. 
 
 $1 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 27 
 
 
 
 97 
 
 1 
 
 05 
 
 
 
 87 
 
 
 
 96 
 
 
 
 80 
 
 1 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 42 
 
 1 
 
 00 
 
 2 
 
 00 
 
 1 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 96 
 
 1 
 
 27 
 
 2 
 
 25 
 
 
 
 78 
 
 10 
 
 00 
 
 1 
 
 46 
 
 The following is a table of the monthly wages in factories in 
 the different states. It is, of course, exclusive of board and lodg- 
 ing. Looking at the amount received by female operatives, wiU 
 any one feel surprised that they should abandon the incessant and 
 poorly paid employment? 
 
 ' Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 164, 
 
624 
 
 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 
 WAGES 
 
 PER MONTH 
 
 (.WITHOUT board). 
 
 
 
 
 states. 
 
 Cotton. 
 
 Wool. 
 
 Pig Iron. 
 
 Iron Cast- 
 ings. 
 
 Wrough" 
 Iron. 
 
 Fishcriea. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 M. 
 
 K 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 xM. 1 K 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 M. 
 
 F. 
 
 Alabama ... 
 Arkansas... 
 California.. 
 D. of Col.... 
 Connecticut 
 Delaware... 
 
 Florida 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Indiana 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Kentucky... 
 Louisiana .. 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland .. 
 Massach'sts 
 Michigan... 
 Mississippi . 
 Missouri.... 
 N. Hanip... 
 New Jersey 
 New York.. 
 N. Carolina 
 Ohio 
 
 $ c 
 11 71 
 
 14 61 
 
 14'02 
 19 08 
 
 15 31 
 32 14 
 
 14 57 
 
 1302 
 1495 
 
 29 35 
 
 15 42 
 22 90 
 
 14"21 
 10 93 
 26 00 
 
 17 98 
 
 18 32 
 1165 
 
 16 59 
 
 17 85 
 
 18 60 
 13 94 
 10 94 
 
 15 53 
 10 18 
 
 $ c. 
 
 7 98 
 5 88 
 
 s'bo 
 
 1180 
 
 1158 
 
 5 00 
 
 739 
 
 6"77 
 
 9"36 
 
 1215 
 
 9 48 
 
 13 60 
 
 5 94 
 10 00 
 13 47 
 
 9 56 
 9 68 
 
 6 13 
 9 42 
 9 91 
 
 12 95 
 
 8 80 
 6 42 
 
 12'65 
 6 98 
 
 $ c 
 
 86"00 
 
 24 12 
 18 79 
 
 27'47 
 22 00 
 
 21 81 
 11 14 
 15 80 
 
 22:"57 
 
 18 60 
 
 22 95 
 2165 
 
 82'bo 
 22 86 
 
 25 22 
 
 19 97 
 
 18 00 
 2014 
 
 19 23 
 
 20 70 
 
 ifee 
 
 20 00 
 24 46 
 18 '17 
 
 22 48 
 
 if 0. 
 
 li'so 
 
 17 33 
 
 14' 10 
 
 12 52 
 1105 
 
 ll'il 
 
 ll"77 
 1189 
 14 22 
 1147 
 
 650 
 
 14 53 
 
 8 60 
 11 76 
 
 7 00 
 10 90 
 
 10 41 
 
 15 18 
 
 e'bo 
 
 20 00 
 
 11 81 
 
 9 91 
 
 $ c. 
 
 17 60 
 
 26'80 
 
 17*44 
 22 06 
 
 26 00 
 
 2623 
 
 2260 
 20 14 
 
 27 50 
 35 00 
 
 2428 
 
 18 00 
 2120 
 25 00 
 
 8 00 
 24 48 
 2165 
 
 li'h 
 
 2208 
 12 76 
 30 00 
 
 $ c. 
 
 5 00 
 4'70 
 
 400 
 
 5 11 
 
 511 
 
 6 86 
 
 $ c. 
 30 05 
 
 23'33 
 27 05 
 
 27 02 
 
 23 36 
 
 2743 
 
 28 50 
 
 25 74 
 
 32 35 
 2489 
 85 60 
 
 29 00 
 
 27 50 
 
 30 90 
 
 28 68 
 37 91 
 19 68 
 
 33 05 
 
 24 00 
 27 49 
 23 46 
 27 32 
 
 27 55 
 
 29 63 
 13 59 
 17 96 
 43 43 
 
 28 27 
 19 91 
 
 26 73 
 
 $ c 
 
 ... 
 800 
 
 !!! 
 
 415 
 500 
 
 6 00 
 
 4 00 
 4 50 
 
 9 44 
 
 $ c 
 15 29 
 
 3i'59 
 25 53 
 
 li'35 
 
 2745 
 
 3206 
 
 24'31 
 29 46 
 
 8000 
 3184 
 
 27 31 
 
 28 91 
 10 43 
 
 29 58 
 28 31 
 57 85 
 
 15*20 
 
 3208 
 25 41 
 
 $ c. 
 
 500 
 400 
 
 12*79 
 
 1334 
 
 4'78 
 657 
 
 5'00 
 
 $ c 
 
 26'81 
 
 17*58 
 
 19 12 
 
 is'to 
 
 22 43 
 
 lo'oo 
 
 26'35 
 28 64 
 19 07 
 
 3400 
 
 21*70 
 2150 
 
 i 
 11 
 
 c. 
 
 40 
 
 '77 
 
 Pennsylv'a . 
 Rho. Island 
 S. Carolina 
 Tennessee .. 
 
 Texas 
 
 Vermont.... 
 Virginia;... 
 Wisconsin.. 
 
 The number of hands employed in these manufactures is as 
 follows :^ 
 
 Manufactures. 
 
 Men 
 employed. 
 
 Meu^s average 
 Wages per Month. 
 
 Women 
 employed. 
 
 Women's average 
 Wages per Month. 
 
 
 33,150 
 22,678 
 20,298 
 28,541 
 16,110 
 20,704 
 
 116 79 
 2149 
 2168 
 27 38 
 27 02 
 20 49 
 
 59,130 
 
 16,574 
 
 150 
 
 48 
 
 138 
 
 * 429 
 
 19 24 
 
 1186 
 
 5 13 
 
 5 87 
 
 7 35 
 
 10 08 
 
 ■Wool 
 
 Pig-iron 
 
 Iron castin'gs 
 
 Wrought iron 
 
 Total employed 
 
 136,481 
 
 76,475 
 
 PAUPERISM. 
 
 From tables f elating to pauperism in, th^ XJnited States, we 
 learn that in the year ending June 1, 1850; when our population 
 was 23,191,876, there were supported (in whole or in part) at pub- 
 lic expense :^ 
 
 •■ Compendinm of Seventh Census, p. 180-184. ' Ibid. p. 163. 
 
NEW YORK. g25 
 
 ^*%es 66,434 
 
 foreigners 68,538 
 
 Total 134,972 
 
 The cost of such support was $2,954,806. This is much less than 
 the outlay in England, where, in theyear 1848, there was expend- 
 ed £6,180,764 sterling (or over thirty million dollars), the popula- 
 tion being 17,521,956.1 . ^ 
 
 CRIME. 
 
 There were confined in the various state prisons throughout 
 the Union on June 1, 1850 :^ 
 
 White males 4643 
 
 " females 115 
 
 Total whites 41758 
 
 Colored males 801 
 
 " females 87 
 
 Total colored 888 
 
 Aggregate ......... 5646 
 
 Of these there were 
 
 Native whites . . 3259 
 
 " colored 866 
 
 Total natives 4125 
 
 Foreign whites 1499 
 
 " colored 22 
 
 Total foreign . . 1521 
 
 Aggregate 5646 
 
 INTEMPEEAJSrCE. 
 
 It need not be repeated that habits of intemperance and prosti- 
 tution are closely allied. The following figures give the statistics 
 of the breweries and distilleries in the United States :^ 
 
 The total number of these establishments is . . . . . 121'? 
 In which is invested a capital of $8,507,514 
 
 They employ 6140 hands, and consume during the year, 
 
 Apples . . 526,840 bushels. 
 Hops . . . 1,294 tons. 
 Molasses . 61,675 hogsheads. 
 
 Barley . . 8,787,195 bushels. 
 
 Corn. . . 11,067,761 « 
 
 Eye . . . 2,143,927 « 
 
 Oats. . . 56,607 " 
 
 Their yearly production is, 
 
 Ale, 1,179,495 barrels, or 42,471,820 gallons. 
 
 Whisky, etc 41,364,224 « 
 
 Kum . . ., 6,500,5 00 « 
 
 Total ' . . , . 90,336,544 " 
 
 ■ Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 162 (note). = Ibid. p. 166. = Ibid. p. 182. 
 
 Eb 
 
626 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 If these stiitiiilants were used m the- United States," exclusive of 
 export' or import, the average allowance for each man, woman, 
 and chUd in the community would be nearly four gallons per 
 year. The figures show how much we produce, but wUl not aid 
 the inqtiiry as to how much is consumed. 
 
 NATIVITIES. ■ ' 
 
 The words "Natives" and "Foreigners" have been so frequent- 
 ly used in the course of this investigation, that the ofiicial census 
 returns as to their relative numbers can not but be interesting.' 
 
 Of the white population of the United States there were 
 
 Bom in the state in wtich they are now living . . CT'OS per cent. 
 " ■" United States, but not in the state in 
 
 which tliey are riowUving . . . . . . 21"35 " 
 
 Total of natives" ....... 88-37 « 
 
 Bom in foreign countries 11'46 " 
 
 Unknown nativities 'It " 
 
 ioo « 
 
 Thus of every Jiundred white inhabitants of the United States, 
 eighty-eight were natives of the soil. 
 Of the free colored inhabitants there were^ 
 
 Natives 98*59 per cent. 
 
 Foreigners "94 " 
 
 Unknown nativities ....... •41 " 
 
 Too" 
 The slave population are (for all practical purposes) entirely 
 native. 
 
 " Compendinin of Seventh Census, p. 61. ' Ibid. p. 79. 
 
NEW YOBK. 627 
 
 CHAPTEE XXXVII. i 
 
 NEW YORK. — REMEDIAL MEASURES. 
 
 Effects of Prohibition. — Required Change of Policy. — Governmental Obligationa. 
 — Prostitution augmented by Seclusion. — Impossibility of benevolent Assistance. 
 — Necessity of sanitary Regulations. — Yellow Fever. — Effect of remedial Meas- 
 ures in Paris. — Syphilitic Infection not a local Question. — Present Measures to 
 check Syphilis. — Islasd Hospital, Blackwell's Island. — Mode of Admission. 
 — Vagrancy Commitment "on Confession," and its Action on Blackwell's Isl- 
 and. — Pecuniary Results. — Moral Effects. — Perpetuation of Disease. — Inade- 
 quacy of Present Arrangements. — Discharges. — Writs of Habeas Corpus and 
 Certiorari, how obtained, and their Effects. — Public Responsibility. — ^Proposed 
 medical and police Surveillance. — Requirements. — Hospital Arrangements to be 
 entirely separated" from punitive Institutions. — Medical Visitation. — Power to 
 place diseased Women under Treatment and detain them till cured. — Refutation 
 of Objections. — Quack Advertisers. — Constitution of Medical Bureau. — Duties 
 of Examiners. — License System. — Probable Effects of Surveillance. — Expanses 
 of the proposed Plan. — Agitation in England. — The London Times on Prostitu- 
 tion.-r— Objections considered. — Report from Medical Boakd of Bellevce Hos- 
 pital on Prostitution and Syphilis. — Report from Resident Phtsician, Ran- 
 dall's Island, on Constitutional Syphilis. — Reliability of Statistics. — Resume 
 of substantiated Facts. 
 
 Having traced tlie causes and delineated the extent and effects 
 of the evil of prostitution as it exists in New York at the present 
 time, an evident duty is to incjuire what measures can be devised 
 to stay the march of this desolating plague in its ravages on the 
 health and morals of the public. This is a problem the solution 
 of which has for centuries interested philanthropists and states- 
 men in different countries. They commenced with the theory 
 that vice could be suppressed by statutory enactments, and the 
 erushing-out process was vigorously tried under various auspices, 
 until experience demonstrated that it virtually increased and ag- 
 gravated the evil it was intended to suppress. At subsequent pe- 
 riods however, different measures have been adopted with differ- 
 ent results. 
 
 It will be necessary, in the first place, to consider the effect of 
 stringent prohibitory measures. The records given in the previ- 
 ous chapters of this work show what these have attempted, and 
 they also show at the same time the uselessness of endeavoring to 
 eradicate prostitution by compulsory legislation. The lash, the 
 dungeon, the rack, and the stake have each been tried, and all 
 
628 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 have proved equally powerless to accomplisli tlie object. Admit- 
 ting that, in religion, morals, or politics, it is impossij^e to force 
 concurrence in any particular sentiment, whUe a kindly persuasive 
 plan may lead to its adoption ; . admitting that all attempts to com- 
 pel prostitutes to be virtubus have notoriously failed ; has not the 
 time arrived for a change of policy? If, in direct ratio to the 
 stringency of prohibitory measures, the vice sought to be exterm- 
 inated has steadily increased, does hot reason suggest the expedi- 
 ency of resorting to other measures for its suppression ? 
 
 It has been said that "History is philosophy teaching by ex- 
 ample," and, if such instruction is well considered, none can fail 
 to see therein an unanswerable argument against excessive se- 
 verity in this matter. The several statutes proscribing prostitu- 
 tion have been detailed, and their specific results given, as gather- 
 ed from the experience of various countries. At the time these 
 laws were in force, it is hardly probable that their authors regard- 
 ed them as unsusceptible of improvement ; and the' question now 
 arises for decision, in this age of general progress, is it not our 
 duty to try the effect of some other line of action in this country? 
 
 In common with other nations, we have passed laws intended 
 to crush out prostitution ; have made vigorous protests (on paper) 
 against its existence ; and there our labors have ended. The ex- 
 perience acquired in this course of legislation only demonstrates 
 that such laws can not be enforced so as to produce the desired 
 effect. But why are they still retained on the statute books ? Is 
 it not an opprobrium upon our national character to allow them 
 to exist, if they are never to be enforced? If they are powerless 
 for good, effective only to increase the plague they were designed 
 to check, why not expunge them at once, and substitute others 
 more practicable and more useful in their stead? A candid ac- 
 knowledgment of error, whether by an individual or a community, 
 is always a creditable and graceful act. It shows that experience 
 has dictated a wiser course ; that reflection and experiment have 
 condemned the former plan. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that any system of laws wiU entirely 
 eradicate prbstitution ; history, social arrangements, and physiol- 
 ogy alike forbid any such Utopian idea. But willnot a more en- 
 lightened policy do much toward diminishing it? Many of the 
 present generation can recollect the titnei when it was considered 
 right atid proper to imprison an insolvent debtor; but this idea 
 is now wisely repudiated by society, and no one will assert that 
 
NEW YORK. 
 
 629 
 
 the effect of tlie change has been to place any additional diffioiil- 
 . ties ia the way of collecting legal claims. Capital punishment has 
 been abolished in many cases, and yet it is a well-known fact 
 that crime has dimiaished where this experiment has been tried. 
 This is more particularly the case iu England, where forgery, 
 .which was punished with death, is, comparatively rare since the 
 amelioration of the law. A general conviction is becoming prev- 
 alent that the most effectual way to deal with criminals is to at- 
 tempt to raise them above what they were, in contradistinction to 
 the old plan of sinking them lower.^ It is now/reely acknowl- 
 edged that the elevating, instead of the depressing process, is con- 
 sonant both with the spirit of our republican iastitutions and with 
 humaiiizing pohcy. Even if American society is not yet pre- 
 pared to take a course directly the reverse, of its present prohib- 
 itory practice, prudence dictates the adoption of some medium 
 rule by which prostitution can be kept ia check without beiag 
 encouraged or allowed, as in the Prussian laws, which expressly 
 declare that the vice is " tolerated but not permitted." 
 
 Government should be patriarchal in its character, and exercise 
 an effective but parental supervision over all its subjects. This 
 is the living principle which gives vitality and strength to any or- 
 ganization, and no satisfactory government can exist if it is absent. 
 Now, in regard to prostitutes, admitting that they have erred, still, 
 the people, who constitute the government in this country, are 
 
 ' "That for a single offense, however grave, a whole life should be blasted, is a 
 doctrine repugnant even to Nature's own dealings in the visible world. There her 
 voice clearly says, 'Let all these wonderful powers of vital renewal have free play; 
 let the foul flesh slough itself away ; lop off Hie gangrened limb ; enter into life, 
 maimed if it must be,' but never until the last moment of total dissolution does she 
 say, 'Thou shalt not enter into life at all.' 
 
 "Therefore, once let a woman feel that 'while there is life there is hope,' de- 
 pendent on the only one condition that she shall sin no more, and what a, future you 
 open to her ! what a weight you lift off from her poor miserable spirit, which might 
 otherwise be crushed down to the lowest deep, to that which is far worse than any 
 bodily pollution, ineradicable corruption of soul."— 4 Woman's Thoughts upon Wom- 
 en (New Tork ed.), p. 269. 
 
 " It may often be noticed the less virtuous people are, the more they shrink away 
 from the slightest whiff of the odor of unsanctity: The good are ever the most 
 charitable the pure are the most brave. I believe there are hundreds and thou- 
 sands of Englishwomen who would willingly throw the shelter of their stainless re- 
 pute around any poor creatui-e who came ,to them and said honestly, 'I have sin- 
 ned, help me that I may sin no more.'. But the unfortunates will not believe this. 
 They are like the poor Indians, who think it necessary to pacify the evil principle 
 by a greater worship than that which they offer to the Good Spirit, because, they 
 say, the Bad Spirit is the stronger."— Ibid. p. 272. 
 
630 HISTOEY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 concerned in the matter, and their mutual obligations, their policy, 
 and their pecuniary interests require that these wand^dng mem- 
 bers of the body corporate should have a reasonable opportunity 
 for reformation. "Which will give this opportunity most effectu- 
 ally — ^to crush them under the weight of their own misdeeds, or to 
 adopt a liberal course likely to induce them to abandon their de- 
 praved habits? One of the secrets which bound the soldiers of 
 the empire to the standard of Napoleon through all his battles and 
 vicissitudes was the knowledge that France regarded them as her 
 children, and -vjould not fail to protect and support them. The 
 words " I am a Eoman citizen" derived their magic power from 
 the fact that the Eoman Empire treated dil her citizens as sons, ' 
 and watched over their interests with parental care. The recent 
 outburst of popular enthusiasm in our own country when the 
 commander* of an American national vessel rescued a citizen from 
 threatened outrage in a foreign land, was an emphatic recognition 
 of the principle. Can we now consistently refuse to apply the 
 rule to aU who need our kindly care ?^ 
 
 It may be considered a bold assertion, that our present mode of 
 . dealing with prostitution is calculated to widely extend its preva- 
 
 ^ Captain Ingraham. 
 
 " " Surely the consciousness of lost Innocence must be the most awful punish- 
 ment to any woman, and from it no kindness, no sympathy, no concealment of 
 shame, or even restoration to good repute, can entirely free her. She must bear 
 her burden, lighter or heavier as it may seem at different times, and she must bear 
 it to the day of her death. I think this fact alone is enough to make a chaste 
 woman's first feeling toward an unchaste that of unqualified, unmitigated pity. 
 
 "Allowing the pity, what is the next thing to be done? Surely there must be 
 some light beyond that of mere compassion to guide her in her after-conduct tb- 
 waid them. Where shall we find this light ? IB the world and its ordinary code 
 of social morality, suited to social conscience ? I fear not. The general opinion, 
 even among good men, seems to be that this great question is a very sad thing, but 
 a sort of unconquerable necessity; there is no use in talking about it, and, indeed, 
 the less it is talked of the better. Good women are much of the same mind. The 
 laxer-prineipled of both sexes treat the matter with philosophical indifference, or 
 with the kind of laugh that makes the blood boil in any truly virtuous heart. 
 
 " I believe there is no other light on this difScult question than that given by the 
 New Testament. There, clear and plain, and every where repeated, shines the doc- 
 trine that for every crime, being repented of and forsaken, there is forgiveness with 
 Heaven, and if with Heaven there ought to be with men. 
 
 "When you shut the door of hope on any hum&n soul yon may at once give up 
 all chance of its reformatidn. As well bid a man eat without food, see without 
 light, or breathe without air, as bid him mend his ways, while at the same time you 
 tell him that, however he amends, he will be in just the same position, the same 
 hopelessly degraded, unpardoned, miserable sinner." — A Woman's Thonghts upon 
 Women (New York ed.), p. 266. 
 
NEW YORK. Q21 
 
 lence, yettL,© historical faets already given are sufficient to prove 
 its truth, without further argument. The existing rule of treat- 
 ment, instead of suppressing the vice, merely drives it into seclu- 
 sion — a result far different from the design, and infinitely increas- 
 ;ing its power. To those secret haunts of prostitution resort the 
 •lowest and most depraved of the male sex, with the fuU knowl- 
 edge that a fuiidamental law of our commonwealth considers 
 every house a castle, into which no officer can enter unless armed 
 with a special legal authority, or called in to suppress an outrage. 
 The result of such seclusion is to confirm the vicious habits of the 
 prostitutes, and freqiiently to lead them to the commission of other 
 and more heinous offenses. 
 
 Again; Secrecy further augments prostitution by preventing 
 the approach of those benevolent individuals who would feel a 
 pleasure in advi^ng and directing the daughters of misery for 
 ftheir real good. Philanthropists have organized Prison Associa- 
 tions and Magdalen Asylums to bear upon prostitution, but they 
 can only reach it in its lowest grades, when the females become 
 inmates of public institutions from destitution and disease. Ee- 
 formers can not come near the fountain-head, and they are con- 
 sequently now as far from the consummation of their praiseworthy 
 intentions as when they commenced their labors ; because prohib- 
 itory measures force prostitutes to take shelter in seclusion, and it 
 is only when women are consigned to our hospitals, work-housesj 
 and penitentiaries that they become accessible. By this time they 
 are so far sunk in depravity as to afford very slender hope of ref- 
 ormation. This is more especially true of Magdalen Asylums. 
 There is indeed a "field white unto the harvest" for benevolent 
 exertions in the most secluded haunts of prostitution, if they could 
 only be made accessible. Sympathy is worthily bestowed upon the 
 sick or dying women transferred from public institutions to char- 
 itable organisations. To alleviate the sorrows of their final suffer- 
 ings, to soothe the agony of the hour of death, to divest of its ter- 
 rors the passage from this world to the dread future, is a work in 
 which the heart of any Christian must rejoice. But it is only a 
 part of the duties contemplated by such asylums. While their 
 projectors gladly, administer the consolations of our holy religion 
 to an expiring Magdalen, they als6 seek an Opportujaity to direct 
 erring women to the paths of virtue dining the life, that still re- 
 mains to them ; to guide, them to a path in which they can retrace 
 the false steps already taken, and become useful members of soci- 
 
632 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 ety. This opportTmity for exertion is denied under the system 
 which drives vice into seclusion. 
 
 Turning now from considering 1h.e operation of repressive laws, 
 we notice the importance of sanitary and quarantiae regulations. 
 One of the first cares of a good government is jto preserve and 
 promote the public health. An illustration of this position oc- 
 curred in the summer of 1856, when fears were entertained that 
 the city would be visited by a frightful epidemic fever. The 
 .public voice declared through the newspapers that the most rig- 
 orous and carefal sanitary measures were needed, and the clean- 
 ing of streets, the removal of nuisances, the purification of tenant- 
 houses, and many other measures of the same kind, were loudly 
 called for, and adopted as far as possible, while the quarantine 
 regulations of the harbor were strictly enforced. In view of this 
 danger, so dreadful and apparently so imminent, the united voice 
 of public opinion sanctioned the very course advocated here ; 
 namely, the adoption of remedial, or, more properly speaking, 
 preventive measures. Venereal poison is as destructive, although 
 not so suddenly fatal, as yellow fever, and every motive of phi'- 
 lanthropy and economy urges the necessity of efifectivc means for 
 its counteraction. 
 
 Since remedial or preventive measures have been adopted in 
 Paris the number of cases of disease and the virulence of its form 
 have materially abated. This fact is asserted not merely on our 
 own personal knowledge, but also from the corroborative testi- 
 mony of physicians who have had recent opportunities of investi- 
 gating tlie subject in that capital. The diminution can be easily 
 explained by a comparison of the laws and regulations applicable 
 to prostitution. We in New York, by our stringent prohibition, 
 drive the vice into seclusion, and deprive ourselves of the means 
 of watching either its progress or results ; while our French con- 
 temporaries insist that it shall be at all times open to the survdl- 
 fewbeof properly appointed persons. ^ ^ 
 
 The extent of syphilitic infection in New York has been por- 
 trayed in the preceding, chapter, but the danger ^ of contamination 
 must not be viewed as a merely local question. From its com- 
 mercial importance, its mercantile marine, its centralization of rail- 
 roads and canals, and its facilities for river navigation, this city is 
 now the great point of arrival and departure of travelers and emi- 
 grants from and to all parts of the Union. Foreigners reach here 
 in large numbers every day, intending to travel to other states. K 
 
NEW YOEK. g33 
 
 hey remain in the city a few days only, they are exposed to its 
 lemptations, and may contract disease which, by their agency, will 
 36 perpetuated in the district they have selected as their future 
 lome. Eetumed adventurers from the Pacific shores come here 
 10 find the readiest transit to their several destinations. They are 
 jxposed to the same temptations, with a probability of the same 
 •esult. Merchants and store-beepers visit this commercial empo- 
 ium to obtain supplies of goods, and they are exposed to the 
 same fascinations and the same contingencies. The sailors in port 
 ire similarly hable. In short, it is scarcely possible- to imagine 
 he extent over which the syphilitic poison originating in the 
 Droud and wealthy city of New York may be spread, nor would 
 t be an error to describe the Empire City as a hot-bed where, 
 rom the nature of its laws on prostitution, syphilis may be cul- 
 ivated and disseminated. 
 
 Possessed, then, of iadubitable proofs of the existence of syphi- 
 is, and the knowledge that its range is more widely extended ev- 
 sry day, gathering additional malignity in its progress, the next 
 )oint is to inquire what measures have been adopted to check its 
 •avages. These have hitherto been found totally inadequate, be- 
 sause based upon an erroneous theory, namely, the idea of sup- 
 pression. The principal public or free hospital where the vene- 
 •eal disease is .confessedly treated is the Penitentiary Hospital on 
 Blackwell's Island, now known as the Island Hospital. To ob- 
 ain the benefit of medical treatment therein, it is necessary that 
 he patient should have been sentenced from the Court of Sessions 
 o the Penitentiary for the commission of some crime- orcommit- 
 ed to the Work-house by a police justice for vagrancy, drunken- 
 less, or disorderly conduct. From this fact it will be seen that 
 here is, strictly speaking, no "free" hospital for such diseases, as 
 he only one intended for their treatment will or can receive none 
 )ut those sentenced for an infraction of the laws. 
 
 StUl the necessity for professional assistance compels many, both 
 nales and females, to submit to the degradation of a police com- 
 aitment. Unfortunate women, or laboring men, find that they 
 ire suffering from infection. Possibly they have no'mOney, or 
 )robably they have exhausted their fiinds in payments to chaj- 
 atans, and so resort for aid and advice to some one of the pubhc 
 Lispensaries. Unless the case is a slight one, the medical officers 
 here advise them to resort to hospital treatment, to procure which 
 he poor sufferers are furnished with a certificate of their state, 
 
634 HISTOEY OW PROSTITUTION. 
 
 and directed to apply to a police justice. They follow tliis ad- 
 vice, and in nine cases out of ten the magistrate's only^marfc is, 
 "Do you want me to send you to the Hospital?" The answer, 
 of course, is in the affirmative, and he forthwith signs a printed 
 commitment to the Penitentiary or Work-house for a time named 
 therein, and ranging from one to six months at the discretion of 
 the magistrate; The following is a copy of one of these docu- 
 ments:' 
 
 "' City and County of New York, ss. 
 
 " By , EsQTjiEE, one of the Police Justices in and for the 
 
 City and County of New York. 
 
 " To the Constables and Policemen of the said City, and every of themf> 
 
 and to the Warden of the Penitentiary of the City and County of 
 
 New York : 
 "THESE ARE IN THE NAME OP THE PEOPLE OP THE STATE 
 OP NEW YORK, to command you, the said Constables aiid Policemen, to 
 
 convey to the said Penitentiary the body of , whp stands 
 
 charged before me with being a VAGRANT, viz., being without the means 
 
 of supporting self, and having contracted an INPPCTIOUS DISEASE 
 
 IN THE PRACTICE OP DEBAUCHERY, viz., the venereal disease, re'i- 
 
 quiring. charitable aid to restore to health, whereof — he is convict^ 
 
 ed of record on confession, the record of which conviction his been 'mad6 
 and filed in the office of the Clerk of the Court of Sessions of the City and 
 
 County aforesaid, and it appearing to me that the said is 
 
 an improper person to be sent to the Alms-house, you, the said Warden, 
 are hereby commanded to receive into your custody, in the said Peniten- 
 
 TiAEY, the body of the said , and safely feeep for th6 
 
 space of month — , or until — he shall be thence delivered by due 
 
 course of law. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal, this day of — . , in the 
 
 year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty . 
 
 J,, . , " , Police Justice." i 
 
 This is technically called a commitment " on confession," and 
 its effects are precisely the same as they would be if the individu- 
 al 'had been convicted of any tangible act of vagrancy. He is in 
 law and in fact a prisoner for the space of time named in the com- 
 mitment; he must wear the prison garb, and submit to the prison 
 disciplitie,' until the 'expiration of his sentence. It is well known 
 to' the justices that a penal commitment like the above will im- 
 mediately secure the sufferer the medical attention his case re- 
 quires, but they have no power to send any one direct to the 
 Hospital. ' 
 
NEW YORK. 635 
 
 And here an inquiry will naturally suggest itself, WTiat does, 
 r what should a magistrate know about committing a sick per- 
 )n, and how can, he decide the time such invaUd shaU remain 
 nder treatment? A self-evident conclusion wiU be that the 
 ^hole process is an absurd one at the best, and its requirements a 
 ardship on magistrates already overburdened with legitimate 
 uties. 
 
 The reader's attention is requested to the pecuniary effects of 
 ais plan. To illustrate : Suppose the case of a man committed 
 3r six months. He is suffering from some form of venereal dis- 
 ase, and in this state is received at the Penitentiary or Work- 
 ■ouse, where his clothes are taken from him, the institution cos- 
 iime supplied, and the particulars of his name, age, nativity, oc- 
 upation, etc., are registered with an abstract of the commitment 
 y virtue of which he is detained. He is then subjected to medi- 
 al examination and transferred to the Hospital. In this institu- 
 Lon he remains until cured, if that end is attained before the ex- 
 liration of his sentence, and is then re-transferred to the Peniten- 
 iary or Work-house. The average time required for the success- 
 ul treatment of the disease named, in the Blackwell's Island Hos- 
 (ital, will not probably exceed two months, and often a much 
 horter period is sufficient. But the man has been committed 
 or six months, and for the unexpired four months of his incar- 
 eration he has to be fed, clothed, and lodged at the expense 
 if the Alms-house Department. The labor he can perform wiU 
 lever amount in value to the actual cost of his support, so that, 
 le is maintained four months in accordance with law at a positive 
 lost to the tax-payers of the city, because they have already sup- 
 lorted birn for two months in the Hospital. In the aggregate of 
 lases during a year these costs amount to a very large sum. 
 ^Teed any farther argument be adduced to show the palpable ab- 
 lUrdity of the system ? 
 
 A few words upon the moral effect of this local system upon 
 ffostitution in New York, premising that being a prostitute is ac- 
 mowledged by all as a degradation ; while a vagrancy commit- 
 nent to the Work-house or Penitentiary is a positive disgrace; 
 Che system is a portion of the crushiug-out plan already men- 
 ioned, and it says, in effect, "We (the people of New York City) 
 viU. give you an opportunity to ,be cured of your loathsome and 
 lestructive malady, but only upon the condition that you become 
 he inmate of a penal institution. We know that you can not be 
 
636 HISTOEY OT" PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 cured unless.yoii accept our terms, and we will make those terms 
 as hard and repulsive to human nature as ingenuity c^ devise." 
 It has been a medical axiom that no two poisons can exist in the 
 system at one and the same time; but the. citizens of New York 
 have been experimenting for some years to ascertain whether two 
 moral poisons can not be coexistent in the same person, by add- 
 ing farther and unnecessary disgrace to the vice of prostitution-^ 
 thus widening the gulf between the sinner and her possible return 
 to virtue. 
 
 The impolicy of making syphilis a reason for imprisonment, 
 except so far as curative measures actually require it, must be 
 apparent to all, were it merely from the fact that it deters many 
 who are suffering from embracing the opportunity of cure until 
 they are absolutely compelled to do so. How excessively wrong 
 is this principle in a hygienic point of view must be evident ; a 
 diriectly contrary course, making the hospital attractive instead of 
 repulsive, would be the true policy, and would be the most eco- 
 nomical in its results. Nor is it justice to the medical departments 
 of our public institutions to clog their labors with a proviso which 
 prevents their aid being sought imtU the last extremity, when it 
 can only exert a palliative and not a curative agency. If syphilis 
 could be reached in its primary stages, their task would be much 
 less difi6.cult and their services much more effectual ; whereas lit- 
 tle or nothing can be accomplished when of&cial regulations keep 
 away the patients until the disease becomes constitutional, and the 
 .mischief is done. As in morals, so is it in medicine. Any evil, 
 to be treated with success, must be encountered in its first stage, 
 and if our regulations preclude this opportunity, but slight hopes 
 can be entertained of any good results, tinder a more liberal sys- 
 tem, the physician and the philanthropist could combine their ef- 
 forts. The former would not haYe to encounter disease inveter- 
 ately fixed on a broken-down, constitution ; the latter would not 
 find his benevolent designs firastrated by a lengthened career of 
 depravity now become habitual. 
 
 The effect of the provision which offers medical aid to prisoners 
 only is, that every woman of the town will try all possible means 
 to dispense with the treatinent. It is only when she has actually 
 fallen to the lowest deep of her class, when one step more will 
 plunge her into a bottomless abysS of helpless and hopeless woe, 
 that she will voluntarily accept the proffered aid. She will en- 
 dure torture from her maladies, or rely upon the assistance; of em- 
 
NEW YOEE. g37 
 
 irics, and submit to all their extortions, rather tlian become a.pris- 
 aer. But when every resource is exhausted, and her physical tor- 
 lents plainly tell her that she must obtain medical relief or die, then 
 ae submits. Once in the hospital, she is relieved, after a period 
 f protracted sickness, and leaves it to return to her old haunts, 
 ecause she can go nowhere else, the law having affixed the'ad- 
 itional disgrace of imprisonment upon her former bad character, 
 lociality is a characteristic of human nature, and if these women 
 an not gain admission to any company but that of the vicious and 
 bandoned, they prefer that to solitude; Eeturned once more to 
 er former associates, the time soon comes when farther medical 
 ssistance is needed, and thus she alternates for a few months or 
 ears between prison, hospital, and brothel, till death puts an end 
 D her sufferiags, and a nameless grave in Potters' Field receives 
 tie remains of one whom charitable measures, properly applied, 
 light possibly have made a useful member of society. 
 The sense of shame which follows a single deviation from the 
 aths of virtue drives many women to prostitution. Why add to 
 tie existing sense of shame another infamy when she unfortu- 
 ately contracts disease ? Can we consistently blame her if she 
 lecomes callous; when every legal provision directly tends to in- 
 •urate her sensibilities ? The misconduct of parents toward chil- 
 ren has been shown as one of the causes of prostitution. The 
 ither or mother drives from the paternal roof the child who has 
 ommitted but a single error. Then, under the pressure of hun- 
 :er, she inevitably sins more deeply, becoines'diseased, applies to 
 he public for relief, and is sentenced to imprisonment ! The first 
 aistake, that of the parents, makes her vicious: the second mis- 
 ake, incarceration, confirms her in vice. We denounce such ill- 
 reatment in the parents, while practically we ourselves^ as the 
 latural guardians of all who need assistance, are dorag pi'ecisely 
 he same thing. Where, then, is our consistency? If it is right 
 or us . a body corporate, to practice such cruel oppression, is it not 
 qually justifiable for each member of the body to act in the same 
 aanner in his individual capacity? Of course, what is right for 
 he multitude must be right for the individual, and our own con- 
 luct convicts us of inconsistency. We have no warrant to con- 
 lemn parents for single acts which we perform collectively ; or, 
 f we are right m censuring, them, we are wrong in performing the 
 ame acts ourselves: if they are reprehensible, we also are ctil- 
 )able. 
 
638 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Tliis system, witli all its absurdity, its prejudicial effect on pub- 
 lic health, and its obvious tendency to immorality, is not j,dequate 
 to stay the destroying scourge ; on the contrary, it is likely to ex- 
 tend its ravages. If a prostitute, arrested and committed to Blaols- 
 well's Island for drunkenness or any disorderly conduct, is found 
 to be diseased, or if she commits herself knowing that she is in- 
 fected, she is immediately placed under medical charge. She will 
 probably remain contentedly in the hospital until the worst symp- 
 toms of the disease are subdued : by this time the discipline of the 
 institution has become irksome to her. She communicates with 
 the brothel-keeper with whom she formerly boarded, or with some 
 " lover" or acquaintance, who sues out a writ oi certiorari or habeas 
 corpus, which instantly effects her discharge. She now returns to 
 her former haunts, half-cured, again to aid in disseminating dis- 
 ease, farther to undermine her own constitution, and to infect men 
 who will in turn become a charge upon the tax-payers, or by their 
 agency cause others to become thtis-liable. The instance of whole- 
 sale release mentioned iu the previous chapter will recur to the 
 mind of the reader. 
 
 The experience of almost every day confirms these statements. 
 It is well known that there are those who hang around the various 
 police courts expressly to attend to such business, and who make 
 a large income from this source, exclusive of other matters per- 
 taining to prostitution in which they occasionally exert their abil- 
 ities. The vagrancy coirimitments by which women are "sent 
 up" are generally iasuf&cient, and there is no legal power to de- 
 taia them, and force them to submit to the treatment they so much 
 require. It has been asserted by legal men of high standing that 
 nearly the whole of the commitments issued by police justices are 
 defective, and that there exists in law no impediment to the im- 
 mediate discharge of every prostitute now on Blackwell's Island. 
 The public can readily perceive the necessary inef&ciency of these 
 institutions so far as the prevention of venereal disease is con- 
 cerned. 
 
 The facility with which prostitutes committed to Blackwell's 
 Island can obtain their discharge may be attributed to want of 
 care in making out the commitments. A recent statute (1864) 
 prescribes the form in which these should be made, requiring the 
 recital of admitted or substantiated facts, and the filing of a copy 
 of the original in the office of the clerk of the Court of Sessions. 
 These requirements are not observed, and the reason assigned by 
 
J NEW YORK. 639 
 
 agistfates is, tEat their own time, and tile time of their clerks, ia 
 I fully occupied by the press of busiuess before them that they 
 m not proceed as minutely as the act directs. This confirms the 
 .ew already expressed of the impolicy and impropriety of placing 
 Lch onerous and extra-judicial duties upon the justices. But as 
 ley would be liable to be sued for false imprisonment if they 
 jmmitted under this act without observing all its requirements, 
 ley issue their commitments in the old form required by the 
 evised Statutes, and are sheltered thereby from ulterior consc- 
 iences. These commitments direct the persons to be confined 
 L the Penitentiary, but the local arrangements of Blackwell's 
 iland require them to be sent to the Work-house, and unless 
 lis transfer is actually made in each case by the Governors of the 
 Jms-house — for they can not deputize their power — ^it is a waiver 
 ■ the right of custody, and consequently entitles the prisoner so 
 ansferred to a discharge. It has been claimed that the "Work- 
 )use is a part of the Penitentiary, but this point has been over- 
 iled, because the statute establishing the Work-house plainly 
 LOWS a contrary intent. 
 
 A prisoner is entitled to a discharge on another ground, name- 
 ■, because the commitment has not been filed as directed ; or, on 
 lother ground, that the commitment does not recite the evidence 
 f which the fact of vagrancy was proved. A final ground of 
 soharge, which is never pressed till all the jniuor technicahties 
 we failed, is that the whole proceeding is illegal because the 
 atute of 1854 has not been complied with. 
 
 On these grounds a writ of certiorari or habeas corpus is sued out, 
 le preliminary steps being a petition from the prisoner or his 
 iend, setting forth that he is illegally detained, an af&davit of 
 erification, and a certificate of the clerk of the Court of Sessions 
 lat the commitment has not been filed in his office. Upon the 
 resentation of these documents, the judge to whom application 
 
 made issues the required writ, and specifies the time at which 
 
 shall be returnable. The action of the two writs is similar, ex- 
 3pting that a writ of habeas corpus requires the production of the 
 risoner before the judge in addition to a return of the cause of 
 etention, while a writ of certiorari only requires a return. of the 
 rase of detention. The return is made by the person having 
 istody of the prisoner, and consists of a copy of the commitment 
 nder which he is held ; and, from the already-stated informality 
 f these documents, it will be apparent there can be no legal ground 
 
640 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 for his detention. The judge is strictly proTiibited fi:om entertain- 
 ing any question beyond tlie legality of the papers; with the 
 moral aspect of the question he can not interfere, and as the com- 
 mitments are generally informal he has no alternative hut to dis- 
 charge the prisoner. 
 
 Application for these writs must be made in the name of an at- 
 torney, but STlch name is often used by an agent who transacts the 
 business, and divides the fee with his principal. 
 
 From this sketch it will be evident that; if the prescribed form 
 were observed in these commitments, Sequent discharges would 
 be avoided, or there would be so many difficulties to surmount 
 that they would be very rarely attempted. 
 
 Does no responsibility rest upon! the public, and on our law- 
 makers, for negligence in this matter? Without conceding that 
 a vagrancy commitment is likely to reform a prostitute (in fact, 
 the weight of evidence is againstthe possibility of its doing so), 
 the case stands thus : the Legislature has provided a mode of re- 
 lief which was deemed effectual at the time, but this niode is 
 evaded, or can not be observed, by those upon whom its adminis- 
 tration devolves. The public have long, known the existence of 
 these difficulties, but have never interfered to give us a better act. 
 By their refusal to interfere they stand in the position of aiders 
 and abettors in this neglect, or, worse than neglect, the actual 
 propagation of a dreadful disease. Had pubHc opinion been con- 
 centrated upon this matter, an inquiry would long ago have shown 
 the fallacy of our present system, and suggested the required 
 amendments. This has not been done ; but public remissness in 
 no way diminishes public respdnsibility. 
 
 This doctrine of public accountability may be profitably exam- 
 ined for a few laoments in connection with the general aspect of 
 prostitution. Tew will deny that the mass of the people are an- 
 swerable for many of its evUs. They are cognizant of the exist- 
 ence of vice in the aggregate, if not in detail ; they can understand 
 its effects, and are not ignorant of the principal causes which lead 
 to it ; yet they make no effort to remove existing causes or to 
 prevent future evils. They practically treat women as an inferior 
 race of beings, aild can not even give a poor seamstress employ- 
 ment without saying, in fact if not in words, " You can not be 
 trusted to make this unless a man examines every button hole, 
 and inspects every row of stitching, to see that you are not de- 
 fraudiQg us." The only way to secure confidence is to bestow 
 
NEW YORK. 641 
 
 >nfldence ; but if a person is treated in a manner likely to de- 
 roy self-respect, the inevitable result -will be a recklessness as to 
 s or her own cbaracter. Despised without a cause ; treated in 
 ere business matters as imbeciles, or children, or thieves, it is 
 )t siirprising that women become careless as to their future life, 
 id, smarting under the injustice of their position, too frequent- 
 degenerate into the wretched beings who infest our streets 
 id poUute the atmosphere with their deadly infection. 
 The public, then, are responsible' for this prostitution, because 
 ley have never bestowed any attention upon it. It is one of the 
 ravest and most difficult of social problems, involving the in- 
 irests of every man in the community, and yet the most stupid 
 idijfference has been shown respecting it. The subject has been 
 mvassed by medical men on account of its sad effects upon the 
 bysical organization ; its extent has been known to judicial and 
 olice authorities from its social and civil results ; but the great 
 ody of the pubUo have hitherto decided that they know nothing, 
 ad want to know nothing about it. They admit its existence, 
 eing too evident to be denied; but so far they have taken no 
 ;eps to ascertain its source or stay its progress, because it was a 
 latter with which they were afraid to interfere, and now the de- 
 lorable consequences accruing from it must be laid to their charge. 
 It can not be denied that there are many difficulties attending 
 ay investigation of this vice ; that many well-meaning but timid 
 eople. entertain the opinion that it is one of those gangrenous 
 leers upon society which can not be alluded to except in whis- 
 ers ; that more harm would result from instituting inquiries than 
 : it were allowed to exist and fester on unnoticed.^ This apathy, 
 
 ' "We have no right, mercifully constituted -with less temptation to evU than 
 len to shrink with sanctimonioijs ultra-delicacy from the barest mention of things 
 e must know to exist. If we do not know it, our ignorance is at once both help- 
 iss and dangerous; narrows our judgment, exposes us to a thousand .painful mis- 
 ikes, and greatly limits our powers of usefulness."— 4 Woman's Thoughts vpon 
 Vomen (New York edition), p. 255. 
 
 "No single woman who takes any thought of what is going on around her, no 
 listress or mother who requires constantly serrants for her housp and nursemaids 
 )r her children, can or dare blind herself to the fact. Better face truth at o.nce in 
 11 its bareness than be swaddled up forever in the folds of a silken falsehood."— 
 
 b., p. 259. , ., ... 
 
 " Many of us will not investigate this subject because they are afrajd : afr^aid not 
 3 much of being, as being thought to be, especially by the other sex, incorrect, ,in- 
 elicate unfeminine; of being supposed to know more than tjiey ought to know;, or 
 ban the present refinement of society— a good andbeautiful thing when real— con- 
 ludes that they do know. 
 
 S S 
 
642 HISTOBr OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 which has :he!retofojf.e been the policy, has made- prostitution the 
 monster evil which it now is, and upon those who have advo- 
 cated, or may a,dvocate, a, continuance, of the same.%)urse of si- 
 lence and inaction the sufferers from the vice may: justly charge 
 their destruction. The "masterly inactivity "of the statesman is 
 .unquestionably justifiajjle in any case where passive resistance 
 will overcome an evil, but in dealirlg with prostitution a dianiet- 
 rically opposite method must be pursued. It requires an active 
 aggression upon, all old prejudices ; an explosion of still older 
 theories ; . a vigoi-ous commencement of a new course. - 
 
 It has been shown elsewhere that the public are responsible for 
 prostitution, because they persist in excluding women from many 
 kinds of employment for which, they are fitted ; while for work in 
 those occupations which are open to them they receive an entirely 
 inadequate remuneration. It has also been shown that the com- 
 munity are equally responsible on account of their non-interfer- 
 ence with known and acknowledged evils. Another reason why 
 accountability can not be evaded may be designated ; namely,- the 
 carelessness, or, more properly,; heartlessness, with which the char- 
 acter of woman is treated; ; Let there be but a breath of suspicion 
 against her fair fame, no matter from what vile source it may 
 emanate, and the energies of. man seem directed toward her de- 
 struction, " She is down,- keep her down !" is the almost univer- 
 sal cry, and this malignant process is continued until the victini 
 is positively forced into, a life of undisguised immorality. The 
 sacred decision, ■' Let him .that is without sin among you cast the 
 first stone," is entirely forgotten, and the most violent in their de^ 
 nunciations are frequently! those who are the most blameworthy 
 themselves. 
 
 The whole force of the world's opinion has been directed, not 
 to the censure of actually guilty parties who induced the crime, 
 but to the poor wjpnged sufferer. She, who is too. frequently the 
 victim of falsehood and deceit, or the slave of an absolute neces- 
 sity, must expiate her fault by submitting to a constant succession 
 of indignities and annoyances. He, whose conduct- has made her 
 
 " Oh ! women, women ! why have you not more faith in yourselves, in that 
 strong, inner purity, which alone can make a woman brave ! which, if she knows 
 herself to be clean in heart and desire, in body and sou], loving cleanness for its 
 own sake, and not for the credit that it brings, will give her a freedom of action, 
 and a fearlessness of consequences, which are to her a greater safeguard than any 
 external decorum. To be, and not to seem, is the amulet of her innocence." — Ib.^ 
 p. 261. 
 
NEW YORK. 643 
 
 wHat she is, escapes all censure. But some moralist -will ask, 
 "How would you have us treat such women?" Treat them, sir, 
 as human beings, actuated by the same passions as yourself; as 
 susceptible beings, keenly sensitive of reproach ; as injured beings, 
 who have a claim upon your kindness ; as outraged beings, who 
 have a demand upon your justice. Lead them into a path by 
 which they can escape from danger ; protect the innocent from thte 
 snares which environ them on every side. And when this is 
 done, pour the^ vials of y6ur hdttest wrath on those of your owh 
 sex whose machinations have blighted some of God's fairest created 
 beings. 
 
 Public responsibility must be understood in its broadest aCnd 
 most literal sense, as meaning the individual accountability of 
 every member of the communityi The' time haS not yet arrived, 
 ■unfortunately, when thiS' matter can be left in the hands of cor- 
 .porations or legislatures. Their constituents must be aroused to 
 consideration of its importance before any satisfactory Action can 
 ■or will be taken by them ; and if is -to the thinking men of the 
 age that these pages are addressed, in the full confidence that so 
 soon as their sympathies are enlisted public afction will follow. 
 
 To this end an endeavor has been made to show the injurious 
 effects of prohibition, disappointing expectation as a means of de- 
 creasing syphilis, or of curtailing the hmits of prostitution ; the 
 necessity which exists for effectual preventive measures; and the 
 inefficient, or worse than inefficient, nature of the local' arrange- 
 anents of New York to accomplish this -desideratum. Thug the 
 way for a consideration of the remedial process has been opened, 
 and now with such evidence as he has before him the reader may- 
 be asked in all ancerity, if he does not seriously beheve- that it 
 ivould be a prudent step, instead' of trying to extirpate the evil, to place 
 prostitutes and prostitution under the surveillance of<i imdical bureau 
 ■in the Police Department? Extirpation never has been, never can 
 be accomplished in any community ; repression and restriction, as 
 proposed, have been tried and have proved successful. 
 
 Assuming an affirmative answer to this question, arid it is dif- 
 ficult to' imagine it otherwise -if the. facts- are dispassionately con- 
 Bidered, attention is respectfully requested to the manner in which 
 the change cotdd be effected; ' 
 ' To meet the exigencies of the case there are required 
 
 (1) A suitable hospital for the treatment of venereal disease ; 
 
 (2 ") A legally authorized medical visitation of all known houses 
 
644 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 of prostitntioii, with full power to order the immediate removal of 
 any woman found to be infected to the designated ho^ital ; 
 
 (3.) The power to detaia infected persons under trStment until 
 they are cured, a term of time which none but medical men can 
 decide. . 
 
 By a suitable hospital is meant an institution devoted to the 
 treatment of such diseases, like the special hospitals of Paris and 
 other Continental cities, and entirely, removed from all connection 
 with any punitive, establishment. ' The rules proposed for the 
 government of the Island Hospital, when its name was changed 
 from Penitentiary Hospital, do not, by any means, meet.the ur- 
 gent requirements of the case. The Penitentiary, its officers and 
 inmates," must be, entirely shut out from the desired hospital, and 
 no prison- warden or keeper of criminals must have any jurisdic- 
 tion within its walls, or over its. grounds. .' Inmates of hospitals 
 have too long endured the stupid interference of non-medical men, 
 and it is time that medical law exclusively was considered in the 
 direction and management of buildings devoted to medical pur- 
 poses. -This is especially, necessary in a syphUitic hospital, on ac- 
 count of the character, of its patients. :Nb amount of invprisonment 
 as a punishment' ever yet reformbd-^a, prostitute, and it never will; 
 all intercourse with prisoners, he it ever so transient, has but confirmed 
 women in vice. ■ , ■ • . 
 
 The tendency of imprisonmfent is directly contrary to any ref- 
 ormation, confirming previous habits instead of rooting, them but. 
 The instinctive dread of; incarceration has prevented many from 
 availing themselves of the medical advantages offered them, par- 
 ticularly among the better and higher grades of frail women. We 
 want a hospital exclusively, for the treatment of syphilis,' with the 
 .power to place and keep there all women so diseased until cured. 
 .Matters of detail can be arranged. in such a manner as to admit 
 of a proper classification, based upon the degree of moral turpi- 
 tude belonging to each. Payment could and should be required 
 from all who possess the means, for expenses actually incurred, 
 and this would contribute a considerable sum to meet the expend- 
 itures of the institution. Among these women, as a body, there 
 exists an excessive, amount of pride. Those of the upper class 
 will not associate with any of a lower rank, and, in fact, look 
 upon them in very much the same manner that moralists regard 
 the whole body. , To be enabled to reach them at all, a liberal 
 management must be adopted. But will hot this be deferring to 
 
NEW YOEK. 645 
 
 vice bemuse it is dressed in silks or satins? asks some one. Most 
 decidedly not. Let the arrangements be wliat they might, such a 
 hospital as described would afford no encouragement to vice, for 
 in it all must submit to the same course of treatment, varied 'only 
 in the minor accessories which surround it. 
 
 Even if the arrangements were exposed to an objection Kke the 
 above, the end would justify the means. The city of New York 
 contains, at this day, venereal infection sufficient to contaminate 
 all the male population of the United States in a very short space 
 of time. It has been proved from official and medical statistics 
 that this malady is rapidly on the increase, and a paramount ques- 
 tion is, how to be relieved of the incubus. Eigorous prohibitory 
 measures will not effect this; they only make the matter worse. 
 Punitive hpspitals will not effect this ; they have been tried and 
 found wanting. Free institutions would, in all probability; succeed 
 in accomplishing far more than any other measure our citizens 
 have ever tried. The question is one, if not absolutely of life, cer- 
 ,tainly of healthy existence, and its inestimable importance must 
 over-ride all doubts and difficulties. In view of the dangers sur- 
 rounding our rising generation, even supposing the men and wom- 
 en of the present day exempt from them, it would be perfectly 
 inexcusable to refuse any available plan because some one of its 
 features might- not please all tastes. Adopt an arrangement simi- 
 lar to that suggested, and if any crudities are discovered they can 
 be readily cured as experience points them out. The plan is not 
 presented as a perfect one, but merely as an outline sketch of what 
 is necessary. 
 
 A regular medical visitation of all prostitutes is an essential 
 part of the scheme, and its organization should be a matter of 
 serious consideration. The Parisian plan already submitted might 
 form a very good basis ; and an arrangement which throws the 
 whole system of prostitution open to an effective police supervis- 
 ion, and the establishment of a medical bureau in connection there- 
 with for professional purposes, is suggested as most desirable. 
 This medical visitation, conducted by physicians to be connected 
 with the Police Department, and sustained by the power of that 
 body, should be confided to men of recognized skill and known 
 integrity. To insure public confidence, so essentially necessary 
 in the inception of any social innovation, it would be necessary 
 that the agents upon whom its execution devolved should be men 
 of tried probity and acknowledged reputation, both professional 
 
646 HISTORY OF PEOSTJTUTION. 
 
 aoid personal. The lightest symptom of disease should be 'Siif' 
 ficient evidence to- warrant the immediate removal of any woman 
 •to the' syphilitic hospital., The residence of any WOTaan,' be it 
 temporary or permanent, in a known house of prostitution must 
 subject her to a medipiL eoiaminatioii, as it would afford a very 
 strong presumption that she was there for immoral purposes. 
 
 The propriety of a medical examination of prostituteSiat certain 
 intervals can not be doubted^ and, in fact, it is practically admit- 
 ted at the present time by some few of the brothel-keepers in the 
 city. Tljese pay a physician a liberal salary to visit their boarders 
 every few days £ox the express purpose, of carrying out the plan 
 BUgg^ted now ; resorting to treatment whenever he finds it neces- 
 sary. Some of the most aristoeratip houses of prostitution are thus 
 attended; but the system is in use more: especially among those 
 natives of Continental Europe who are now keeping houses of ill 
 fame in New York, and whoj in bringing toAhe New World many 
 of the customs of the old; have thus testified to thfe benefit of the 
 regulations enforced there. i 
 
 . But although such visiting physician may pronounce a girl in- 
 fected, the world has no security that she will, iiot continue her 
 avocation; and in order to remove all doubt upon this question 
 she should be instantly removed to an -institution where she; can 
 not possibly propagate the malady. iThis must be done under 
 conjoint medical and police- authority. Among prostitutes^ of the 
 lower graides systematic visitation is. more imperatively necessary. 
 They will not place themselves under medical treatment unless 
 they are compelled, but until their disease assumes a character that 
 prevents the possibility of farther concealment from their visitors, 
 they continue to ply ,their loathsome and idestruetive trade. The 
 summit of ambition with them is to keep their liberty ; so long 
 as they can earn enough to provide themselves a shelter, and 
 feed their ravenous appetite for intoxicating liquor, they are con- 
 tent to submit to the pains and> ravages of syphilis, alike heedless 
 of their own sufferings and the injuries they inflict on others. "We 
 have, had cases under our own professional treatment where wom- 
 en have actually persevered in this^ course for many weeks after 
 they had, become aware they were diseased, solely for the reasons 
 indicated.- -, 
 
 ■■ It may be objected that such I a plan would offer a premium to 
 lewdness by circumscribing the dangers of infection; but this 
 argument canliave little weight, as it is scarcely possible that 
 
NEW YORK. 647 
 
 promiscuous sexual intercourse can be carried on much more ex- 
 tensively than it is at present. The vice seems to have reached 
 its culminating point. Experience proves that in all ages of the 
 world there have been many men whose passions were so violent 
 and so ill regulated that they would attain their gratification at 
 any risk, even though that risk included the probability of vene- 
 real infection. As in games of hazard every player hopes to be a 
 winner, so in carnal indulgences every man flatters himself that, 
 because some gratify their lusts unscathed for a long series of 
 years, so may he ; that as hitherto he has escaped disease in his 
 unhallowed amours, he may continue equally fortunate to the end 
 of his career. This is confessedly a poor dependence, but it is the 
 reliance of hundreds and thousands of the followers of her whose 
 "house is'the way to hell." 
 
 Diseases'of a syphilitic nature are viewed by some persons as 
 special punishments for special sins, and hence they argue that it 
 would be an interference with the order of Providence to attempt 
 to eradicate them. The discussion of a theological question would 
 be altogether out of place in these pagesj but the supposition may 
 be met by a parallel case. Delirium tremens is the result of an 
 excessive use of intoxicating liquors, and may justly be considered 
 a special publishment for that offense ; but did any body ever know 
 a case in which those who object to the treatment of syphUis ex- 
 tended a single lobstacle to the case of a drunkard ? If it is right 
 to adopt curative measures in one case, why exclude them in the 
 other ? But even supposing that the treatment of syphilis is open 
 to this objection so far as the guilty parties are concerned, shall 
 their descendants be involved in suffering because the parents 
 sinned ? If a rigorous medical examination offers additional in- 
 ducements to prostitution by reducing the probabilities of disease, 
 it also -guarantees that helpless wives and unborn chUdren shall 
 not be included in its list of victims. Go- to the thousands, of mar- 
 ried women now childless or suffering from abortion; ask their 
 opinion Go to the thousand? of disappointed husbands- whose 
 hopes of offspring have been blighted in consequence of their own 
 youthful dissipation ; ask their opinion, and see what the answers 
 would be Go and ask the diseased children on Eandall's Island, 
 and in their emaciated frames read their testimony. The evidence 
 thus obtained would prove unanswerable arguments m favor of 
 the plan proposed. _ 
 
 It can not be imagined that forcing, diseased women to submit 
 
648 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 to a specific routine of treatment in a special hospital involves 
 any undue interference with their personal liberty. The right to 
 commit a wrong, be it social, moral, or physical, never ffiin exist ; 
 the slightest reflection upon such a proposition will at once prove 
 it.untenable. The spread of venereal disease is a positive wrong, 
 and, therefore, a woman who is suffering from it, and is certain or 
 likely to propagate it, is as legitimate an object for compulsory 
 treatment as would be a maniac whom we should find roaming 
 through the streete of the city, or a person afflicted with small-pox, 
 yellow fever, or any other contagious or infectious malady. If 
 either of these cases were to come before any member of the com- 
 munity, he would not for one moment regard it an infringement 
 of personal liberty to place the subject under proper care and re- 
 straint. On the contrary, he would think of the danger to wMch 
 he and his family were exposed, and, flinging theory to the winds, 
 would immediately urge prompt and practical measures. This is 
 all that is asked respecting prostitution. Let the public be once 
 thoroughly convinced of the extent and danger of syphilitic infec- 
 tion, and there would be but few objectors to these suggestions. 
 Among that few, the principal portion doubtless would be the ad- 
 vertising empirics whose disgusting announcements occupy so 
 much space in the columns of our daily journals. That they de- 
 rive a large income from this soiirce is indisputable, and it is 
 equally certain that if the recommendations now made were 
 adopted they would find their " occupation gone." Speaking in 
 all candor, the health, decency, and good morals of the city would 
 be better cared for in their absence than it now is, with all the 
 combinations of their "extraordinary success," "unequaled expe- 
 rience," and " unparalleled facilities." In a financial view, the 
 money they extort (we refrain from using a harsher term) from 
 their credulous patients could be far better applied than in con- 
 tributing to their wealth. 
 
 Farther : Such an institution and organization as has been de- 
 scribed would be useless did it not possess the absolute power to 
 retain every patient under treatment until cured. Whatever 
 modification of principle or mode of action may be ultimately 
 adopted (and, sooner or later, something must he done), this is an 
 indispensable requisite. One half the danger of venereal infec- 
 tion arises from imperfectly cured cases. Under the existing 
 system, as already explained, writs can be issued at an almost 
 nominal cost to remove any, or all of the prostitutes now under 
 
NEW YORK. g^g 
 
 medical treatment on Blaokwell's Island ; and sucli an' abuse of a 
 valuable privilege on account of mere technical errors must be 
 fatal to the success of any remedial project. It would be as rea- 
 sonable for a lawyer to petition the courts to order a vessel de- 
 tamed m Quarantine by the Board of Health because she was in- 
 fected w-ith yellow fever to be brought to her wharf in this city, 
 and there to have permission to disseminate the disease on board, 
 as It IS for the same individual to apply for a writ of certiorari, 
 the effect of which is to take an abandoned woman reeking with 
 disease from an institution where she. is under treatment, and al- 
 low her to extend the venereal poison to every one who may 
 have intercourse with her. This must not be understood as indi- 
 cating a wish to curtail the constitutional privileges attached to 
 writs of haheas corpus or certiorari, but merely their applicability 
 to cases like the supposed one. How can the evil be prevented? 
 Simply by making any legislative enactment on the subject so 
 plain that it can not be misunderstood or evaded. -. No lawyer 
 would find any difSculty in drafting a short act giving the Police 
 Department the power, based upon an affidavit made by a mem- 
 ber of their own medical bureau, to remove any diseased woman 
 to a proper hospital, and retain her there until cured. 
 
 It may appear to a casual observer that this detention would 
 be of the same nature as the imprisonment required by the exist- 
 ing mod^, but a little thought will point out a wide difference. 
 Now, we force a woman to become an inmate of a peniteUtiary,' 
 and add disgrace to her disease by assuming her to have been 
 guilty of crime. Then, we should require her to become an in- 
 ■ mate of the Hospital, with no additional disgrace but that arising 
 from the fact that she had contracted syphilis by vicious habits. 
 In the one case, we make her the companion of some of the vilest 
 wretches on the face of the earth ; in the other, she would have 
 no associates but those of her own class. 
 
 The Medical Bureau to whom these reforms should be intrust- 
 ed, although connected with the Police Department, would re- 
 quire to be an independent body so far as professional duties are 
 concerned. Its connection would be necessary, because there 
 would be many cases requiring the intervention of the civil pow- 
 er ; and its isolation would be equally important, because much 
 would depend on the discretion of the examiners, and many con- 
 tingencies might arise where a strict line of routine duty would 
 defeat the object in view. They would be literally a "detective 
 
550 HISTORY OP PROSTITUTION. 
 
 coips," aiid, -with a known amount of duty before them must be 
 left. to choose. tbeir own method of performing it. Any definite 
 arrangements or positive orders from a non-medicli board would 
 only embarrass their action, for medical and non-medical execu- 
 tives always dash when they aim at one common object. 
 
 Of course a leading requirement in their instructions must be 
 that their examinations be rigid, and thoroughi No half-way 
 measures in this respect could meet the absolute demands of the 
 case, or satisfy the expectations of the community. It must be 
 plainly Understood by the world that ;the Medical Bureau was re- 
 quired to perform its whole duty, uncompromisingly and fearless- 
 ly; and that its members were men who would not evade the 
 responability. In their investigations mafly cases would occur 
 where theirj services would be valuable to society, beyond the pale 
 of professional duty. It is not, to. be expected that they would 
 become evangelists, but they could be the willing and efficient co- 
 adjutors of those who delight to bear the Gospel to these poor de- 
 graded beings ; and even while listening to a recital of bodily suf- 
 ferings^, instances would arise where the acts of the good Samari- 
 tan would be required at their hands. They would be the depos- 
 itaries of many, a narrative of wrong and outrage, of sorrow and 
 suffering, and it is not unreasonable to believe that of the histories 
 poiired into their ears some would indicate a channel by which 
 the lost one might be restored to home and friends and virtue, or 
 point to some chord' in the. mind which would give a responsive 
 sound when touched by the: hand of pity.^ 
 
 ' " Eeforniatories, Magdalene Institutions, and the like, are admirable in their 
 way, but riiere are numberless cases in which individual judgment and help alone 
 are possible; It is this, the tr^in of thought which shall result in act, and which I 
 desire to suggest . to individual minds, in the, hope of arousiDg that imperceptibly 
 small influence pf the many, which formsthe strongest lever of universal opinion. 
 
 "AH I can do — all, I fear, that any one can do by mere speech, is to impress 
 upon every woman, and chiefly upon those <vho, reared innocently in safe homes, 
 view the wicked world without Somewhat like gazers at a show or spectators at a 
 battle,^shoGked;, wondering,, perhaps pitying a, little, but not understanding at all, 
 that repentance is ; possible. Also, that once having returned to a chaste life, a 
 woihan's former life should never be 'cast up' agaipst her; that she should be al- 
 lowed to resume, if not her pristine position, at -least one that is full of usefulness, 
 pleasantness, and respect, a respect the amount of which must be determined by her 
 own daily conduct. Sheshoulc^bejudgedsplely by whatrshe, is now, and not by what 
 she has been. That judgment may be, ought to be stem and fixed as justice itself, 
 with regard to her present, and eypu h,er past so far as concerns the crime commit- 
 ted; but it ought never to take the law into its own hands toward the criminal,' 
 who may long since have become less a criminal than a sufiferer. Virtue degrades' 
 
NEW YORK. - ggj 
 
 The adoption of these suggestions would- be, at leasts a step in 
 the nght direction, and lay the foundation of a system which can 
 be gradually enlarged until it embraces regulations as to Tegistiy 
 management of houses of ill fame, etc., to the same extent as is 
 now done in Europe. 
 
 And here a few words relative to the licensing system may not 
 be inappropriate. The propriety of granting licenses, and thus 
 makmg vice a sort of revenue, is open to grave objections, but on 
 the other hand acknowledged social evils have, ere this, been 
 made to contribute to the public ftinds. Witness the ^dealing in 
 ardent spirits. The city does now, and has for years derived a 
 considerable income from licenses to sell liquors. A great num- 
 ber of wise and good men contend that the sale or use of intoxi- 
 cating beverages is, not only an unmitigated evil, but even crim- 
 inal; they have entertained and publicly declared these senti- 
 ments for years, but still the license system is continued.. It may 
 be a question for decision whether prostitution is not as liable for 
 taxation as drunkenness, and if both were equally taxed whether, 
 as a body, we should be more responsible for the results of one or 
 the other. En passant, it may be noticed that an annual tax of 
 one per cent, upon the property engaged iii the business of prosti- 
 tution, and a similar assessment upon the revenue of houses of ill 
 fame, would amount to over one hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The plan here shadowed forth would not be likely to extend 
 prostitution, but on the contrary there is very littie doubt but it 
 would check it. Even if it did not, the community would reap 
 an advantage, in the sanitary reform itiwould enforce. In. low: 
 neighborhoods many of the brothels are as dangerous to public 
 health on account of their crowded and excessively filthy state, as 
 are the syphilized inmates themselves^' Such places -wotild legiti- 
 mately come within the province of the medical inspectors, and 
 their reports thereon to the police executive would insure imme- 
 diate attention. 
 
 Public morals would be .advanced by such visitations. These 
 hoi^ses, or a great number of them, are the resort. of all species of 
 dishonest characters who would unquestionably abandon them, at 
 
 h&rsel^ arid loses every vestige of her power, when her dealirigs with vice sink into 
 a mere matter of individual opinion, personal dislike, or selfish fear of harm. For 
 ^11 offenses, punishment, retributive and inevitable, must come ; but punishment is- 
 one thing, revenge is 'another. Qne only, who is Omniscient as Well as Qmnipo- 
 fent, can declare, 'Vengeance is Mine.'" — A Woman's Thdugktsupon Women CSev 
 York ed.), p. 275. ' . " ~ 
 
652 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 least as places of residence, if tliey knew they were at any mo- 
 ment liable to a domiciliary visit. Again, almost^very person 
 has in his remembrance some female who left home aiid could not 
 be found, because securely secreted in some one of these houses of 
 prostitution ; at least it is not uncommon to read of such cases in 
 the daily papers, accompanied with an account of the unsuccessful 
 search of her friends and the police. Occurrences like this could 
 not take place if all known houses of bad repute were under the 
 surveillance of the Medical Police Department. 
 
 Nor is it unreasonable to hope that prostitution would be di- 
 minished. "It has flourished of late years in -seclusion, but our 
 plan would render privacy impossible. Seclusion has attracted 
 many unfortunate wonien, whom shame, or a dread of exposure, 
 would have deterred, had they known that houses of ill fame were 
 always open to the visits of the police, or that every few days a 
 physician would make a tour of inspection, and a personal ex- 
 amination, to which they must submit. Generally speaking, these 
 women have a dread of falling into the hands of a doctor, and in 
 present circumstances they know" that a medical examination is 
 optional with themselves, until they become so sick as to render 
 it unavoidable. But if their miserable life were burdened with 
 the additional annoyance of a compulsory medical treatment it is 
 probable that a considerd,ble check might be imposed thereon. 
 
 Public decency would be advanced by such visitations. To ef- 
 fectually perform their duties the Medical Bureau and the Gen- 
 eral Police Department would find it necessary to make them- 
 selves personally acquainted with these women, and to keep a 
 register of all houses where prostitution was carried on. Now, 
 the prohibition which has driven it into secrecy has also rendered 
 it difficult to determine who are frail. Prostitutes are found in 
 hotels, fashionable restaurants, steam-boat excursions, watering- 
 places, and suburban retreats. They visit balls and other public 
 entertainments ; sometimes by sufferance, but more frequently be- 
 cause they are not known. It is needless to say how virtuous 
 women can'be annoyed and insulted by such companionship, or 
 to what extent prostitutes can use their influence in miscellaneous 
 society. If the police were personally acquainted with these wom- 
 en, they could act in the same manner as on the Continent of Eu- 
 rope, namely, touch thein upon the shoulder and quietly give 
 fhem a hint to leave. Or another reform could easily be intro- 
 duced — ^the confinement of all prostitutes to particular localities in 
 
NEW YOEK. 653 
 
 the; city, so as to limit their influence. This would be tantamount 
 to the ancient regulations prescribing their dress or some distinct- 
 ive mark ; and to the present arrangements in Europe, where the 
 houses are distinguished by some specified peculiarity. It would 
 also prevent the depreciation of property which takes place in any 
 neighborhood, where a brothel is established. 
 
 Public decency would be served in another manner. It is a 
 most humiliating admission, that New York is fast approaching to 
 the condition of certain foreign cities, where unnatural practices 
 first led. to the contemplaftion and adoption of these or similar 
 remedial measures. In our case, they are known to the, authorities, 
 but are so revolting that they never have been, and never can be, 
 made public. . Of course, such an organization wolild take special 
 cognizance of these detestable abominations. 
 
 Objections to the expense of the plan may be raised, and it can 
 not be denied that it will be large, yet it will be a matter of econ- 
 omy to' incur it, even at; the risk. of increasing ;taxation, which it 
 luillnotdo. ■ Eecollect that every year, as the virulence of syph- 
 ilis was abated, the cause of the expense would diminish, and that 
 in a direct ratio to the energy displayed in the examination would 
 be the progressive reduction of expenditure. It has already been 
 indicated how some of the inmates of a syphilitic hospital, from 
 whom hitherto nothing has been received, could be made to con- 
 tribute. their quota of the cost.. Now, the public bear all the ex- 
 penses, either as assessments or as private payments in individual 
 attacks. The magnitude of the latter item has been already, esti- 
 mated, and were it possible to calculate in addition the value of 
 lost time, the injury to business, and the deterioration of the con- 
 stitution, the total in one year would be far more than sufBicient to 
 carry out the whole of this plan for double the time. 
 
 It would also be economy to incur the outlay on account of the 
 benefits to succeeding generations. Syphilis is not confined in its 
 effects to the life-time of the men or women who/contract it, but 
 is entailed on their descendants. These, provided they survive 
 its baneful effects during infancy, are mentally and physically un- 
 fitted for business or the active pursuits of life, and, consequently, 
 are frequently indebted for the means of sustenance to their friends 
 or to pubhc institutions. If the liability to that, disease among 
 parents can be removed, no fears need be,- entertained about their 
 
 children. , _ _ ' 
 
 We are not so sanguine as to imagine that all the good effects 
 
654 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 above enumerated could be accomplished instanter. It -would be 
 a woTk of time, but the sooner it is commenced the better for all 
 the interests involved. Many persons will say, " Off! these evils 
 do not concern us; these diseases will never injure us or ours; 
 why should we trouble ourselves, and give our money; time, arid 
 attention to such matters ?"- Stop, reader ! WMk human passion 
 exists, and while the rdeani of graiifying'iicanhe obtained, you and 
 yours can and will, nay, do ridw suffer from it, directly or indirectly. 
 The first question for any citizen to ask himself is, Can prostitu- 
 tion be abolished ; can it be crushed out ? If this be answered in 
 the negative, as it must be, then the next question brings him to 
 the point sought- to be attained in these pages, namely, the means 
 that shall be taken to circumscribe and diminish its consequent 
 diseases and evils. 
 
 This question has latterly been attracting some attention in En- 
 gland, and plans to mitigate the evil have been publicly discussed. 
 The chief grounds of complaint, or at least those brought most 
 prominently forward, were the assembling of prostitutes in the 
 streets, the annoyance they caused to passengers, and the disor- 
 derly character of " night-houses," This term is applied in London 
 to those public houses, supper-roams, wine and cigar saloons, etc., 
 which are situated near the theatres and places of public entertain- 
 ment, and, being permitted to i-emain open all night, become re- 
 sorts for prostitutes. A public meeting for consultation upon 
 these evils was held in London in January last (1858), and the re- 
 marks made by some of the speakers are so much in accordance 
 with the general tenor of this work as to be worth extracting. In 
 justice to the writer it must 'be premised that the' preceding part 
 of this chapter was penned twelve months before the report of 
 this meeting was made public. 
 
 The chairman observed " that he was glad to see so general an interest 
 elicited on this subject, and that he hoped it would lead to some practical 
 result. It would, in fact, be impbssible to aggravate the evil, for neither in 
 Paris, Berlin, New York^ nor even in the cities of Asia, was there such apub- 
 lic exhibition of profligacy." 
 
 The following resolutions were submitted and adopted : 
 
 " Resolved, That a deputation do wait as early as possible upon Sir Greorge 
 Grey, for the purpose of most respectfully but earnestly representing to her 
 majesty's government the necessity of eflFectual measures being taken "to put 
 down the open exhibition of street prostitution, which in various parts of the 
 xdetropoiis, particularly in the important thoroughfares of the Haymarket, 
 
NEW YORK. 655 
 
 Coventry Street, Eegent Street, Portland Place, and other adjacent localities, 
 is carried on with a disregard of public decency and to an extent tolerated 
 in no other capital or city of the civilized world. 
 
 " That such deputation be instructed to urge upon her majesty's govern- 
 ment the following measures, whereby it is believed that the evil complained 
 of may be effectually controlled : ' • 
 
 " Firstly, the enforcement, upon a systematic plan and by means of a de- 
 partment of the police specially appointed' and instructed for that purpose, 
 of the provisions of the 2d and 3d of Victoria, cap. 4T, in reference to street 
 prostitution, which provisions have in certain localities been heretofore car- 
 ried out with the best effect j and in others have been ineffectual only be- 
 cause acted upon partially, and not upon any uniform system. 
 
 " And, secondly^ the passing an act for licensing and placing under prop- 
 er regulations, as to supervision and hours of elosingy all houses of entertain- 
 ment, or for the supply of refreshments, intended to be' opened to the public 
 after a certain fixed hour, it being matter of public notoriety that the houses 
 of this description popularly known as hight^houses have, by becoming the 
 places of resort of crowds of prostitutes aind other idle and disorderly per- 
 sons at all hours of the night, greatly contributed to the present disgraceful 
 exhibition of street prostitution. 
 
 " That the attention of the government be also directed to the number of 
 foreign prostitutes systematically imported into this country, and to the 
 means of controlling this evil." 
 
 The substance of one of tile addresses made on tlie subject was 
 as follows : 
 
 The speaker " begged to remind the meeting that a change had already 
 been effected through the action of the police in the aspect of the Haymar- 
 ket and Regent Street, heretofore so much complained of. The sense that 
 the public eye was upon their class had caused a corresponding amendment 
 in the dress and demeanor of the females frequenting those streets ; and the 
 objects of this association vrere, so far, in good train. Strongly pppressive^ 
 or, as some delicately said, repressive measures could only be carried out by 
 an extent of police interference inconsistent with the prejudices of English 
 people, who were indisposed to deny a large extent of personal freedom to 
 persons of even the most disorderly classes who had not absolutely forfeited 
 their civil rights. If the association went the length of advocating that the 
 act of prostitution should involve such forfeiture, and the entire riddance of 
 London streets from the presence of prostitutes, they would soon 'find their 
 hands over full. Unless they thought it possible to exterminate the vice 
 altogether, they would find that its wholesale clearance from the streets 
 would necessitate registration, licensing, and confinement in certain author- 
 ized quarters or streets, as prevailed abroad; but such restrictions would 
 entail a more ample recognition and legalization than had hitherto obtained. 
 
65,6 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 and so ample, indeed, as to be very distasteful to what was called tte relig- 
 ious public. It would be obviously unjust to exempt from pressure the lady- 
 like prosperous harlot, while a miserable, vulgar, painted (fftcast was con- 
 signable, because she stood out from the picture somewhat broadly, to the 
 police cell and the bridewell. The meeting must be aware that there was 
 already abroad among the lower half million of Londoners an impression 
 that the police was already strict enough — and that this opinion was shared 
 by numbers of intelligent men, neither paupers nor criminals. They must 
 remember that many a gentleman of character had passed a night in a po- 
 lice cell for interfering in the defense of prostitutes against the police. And 
 this sentiment would deepen very dangerously if the police pressure were 
 put on double, or, as some would have it, tenfold. The very policemen, too 
 — men sprung from the same class of society as those female offenders — 
 were as-likely as any one else to be fainthearted in the work of relieving 
 the eyes and ears of gentility from the presence of those whose situation 
 they were not slow to trace to the schemes and desires of the genteel class. 
 He did not think that the power of discrimination could be safely intrusted 
 to the ill-paid constables of the Metropolitan Police, and the association of 
 certain rate-payers with the police as witnesses, as hinted at by one of the 
 delegates, would soon, if established, fall into desuetude. With the view of 
 checking the evil in a satisfactory manner, he would recommend the institu- 
 tion of a special service of street orderlies or regulators in uniform, a well- 
 paid, superior, temperate, and discreet class of men, if possible, whose func- 
 tions should be to observe, not to spy upon all prostitutes, especially those 
 of the street-walking order, and whose circulation, as opposed to loitering 
 and haunting particular spots, they should insist upon. They should work, 
 not by threats, but by entreaty, advice, suggestion ; but in case of contu- 
 macy, should have the right to call in the regular force. He believed that 
 the right of entry and inspection of all places of iU feme should be vested 
 in the Home Secretary and his delegates, and this would be attained least 
 oppressively by a proper system of licensing. Forced concentration would 
 not be tolerated here ; but concentration was valuable, as bringing immo- 
 rality more under control. Parochial crusades, though prima fade a pub- 
 lic blessing, had often the effect of spreading corruption. It was recollected 
 at Cambridge that when a certain proctor made very frequent descents upon 
 the hamlet of Bamwall, where much of the parasitical vices of that Univer- 
 sity had taken root, the people in question, far from cure or conversion, 
 merely extended their radius into more rural villages. These were so sooji 
 corrupted that representations were addressed to the University by the paro- 
 chial clergy, praying that the plague of Bamwall should be confined to its 
 old bounds, and not let loose upon their simpler parishes. It was notorious 
 that the same kind of thing followed on a very large scale the expulsion of 
 prostitutes from Brussels, and it could not be supposed that the attempt to 
 
NEW yoEK. 657 
 
 strangle the growth of immorality by broadcasting its seeds, ■which was 
 found impracticable under the powerful discipline of the English University 
 and the Belgian capital, could answer among this enormous, and when 
 roused, unmanageable population. The evicted of Norton Street, in the 
 pajish of All Souls, had settled quietly down in the next parish. Incom- 
 pressible as water, the vice had but shifted its ground, and from a really 
 moral point of view, more harm than good had accrued from the change." 
 
 These remarks do not call for any amplification. A few days 
 after tlie meeting a leading article appeared in the London Times. 
 It must be remembered that for many years the settled policy of 
 the conductors of that journal has been to make it rather the ex- 
 ponent than the leader of public opinion, and the impqrtance gen- 
 erally attached to it arises from a knowledge of this fact. W-e 
 give the article almost entire. 
 
 " There is a very disagreeable subject which we are compelled to bring, 
 although most reluctantly, before the notice of the public, becanse it has 
 become necessary to bring public opinion to bear upon it. Many clergymen 
 and gentlemen are now associating themselves together for the purpose of 
 dealing in some degree with the notorious evil of street prostitution. It is 
 our earnest desire to give them all the support in our power, so long as they 
 confine themselves to reasonable measures of discouragement and repression. 
 Let us not nourish any visionary expectations ; it would be sinjply idle to 
 suppose that the evil against which we are now directing our efforts, can be 
 put down by the strong hand of power. It is with moral as with physical 
 disease — there is no use in looking for an entirely satisfactory result from 
 the treatment of symptoms ; there may be alleviation, there may be dim- 
 inution of the disorder, but there will be no perfect cure. Whatever tends 
 to raise the standard of pvblic morality will also tend to diminish prostittt- 
 tion. In such a case we are dealing with two parties : the tempter, let us 
 say, and the tempted ; with the man and with the woman. It is probably 
 with the 'first of the two that we should principally concern ourselves if we 
 would bring about any serious result. It is on the sacred action of family 
 life, with the thousand influences it brings to' bear upon the minds and con- 
 duct of men, that we must chiefly depend if we would see any notable dim- 
 inution in the numbers of those unfortunate creatures who now parade our 
 streets. Let it be once understood that even among a man's fellows and 
 associates immorality is a thing to be ashamed of, and at least we should 
 get rid of the contagion of vice. Time was, and the time is not a very re- 
 mote one, when a British gentleman— we speak of all three home divisions 
 of the empire— would nightly stagger or be carried up to his bed fuddled, 
 if not absolutely drunk. A man who should thus expose himself in our 
 own days would be set down as a beast, and his society would be avoiSed by 
 
 T T 
 
658 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTIOK. 
 
 all who set store on their own good name. In this respect there has been 
 a palpable improvement in the manners of the age. Surely public opinion 
 can be brought to bear against one vice as well as anomer. The time 
 may come when a man may shrink from presenting himself in the sa- 
 cred circle of his mother, his sisters, and his other female relatives, reeking 
 from secret immorality. Conscience can turn on a bull's eye as well as a 
 policeman, and the culprit may stand self-convicted, although no one has 
 been there to convict him save himself. 
 
 " The influences, howeypr, of which we speak are of slow growth, and can 
 not be much quickened by the hand of power. It has become necessary 
 to deal at once with certain results. Now we say it with much shame, 
 that in no capital city of Europe is there daily and nightly such a shame- 
 less display of prostitution as in London. At Paris, at Vienna, at Berlin, 
 as every one knows, there is plenty of vice ; but, at least, it is not allowed 
 to parade the streets, to tempt the weak, to offend and disgust all rightly- 
 thinking persons. If any one would see the evil of which we speak in its 
 full development, let him pass along the Haymarket and its neighborhood 
 at night, when the night-houses and the oyster-shops are open. It is not 
 an easy matter to make your way along without molestation. In Regent 
 Street, in the Strand, in Fleet Street, the same nuisance, but in a less de- 
 gree, prevails. Now we are well aware that, if all the unfortunate creatures 
 who parade these localities were swept away to-morrow, if the night-houses 
 and oyster-shops were closed by the police, we should not have really sup- 
 pressed imtnorality. We should, however, have removed the evil from the 
 sight of those who are disgusted and annoyed by its display ; and, still 
 more, we should have removed it from the sight of those who, probably, had 
 they not been tempted by the sight of these opportunities, would not have 
 fallen. 
 
 " Now, as one practical measure for the discouragement of prostitution, all 
 these night-houses and others might be placed under the surveillance of the 
 police. Licenses for opening them and keeping them open might be given 
 only in the cases of persons who offered some guarantees of their respecta- 
 bility. They might be compelled to close at certain hours ; in point of 
 fact, the community could tolerate well-nigh any degree of inconvenience 
 inflicted upon their frequenters. In two other analogous oases similar evils 
 have been dealt with in this way, and with the happiest results : we speak 
 of gaming-houses and bettmg-offices. It is quite certain that persons who 
 are firmly resolved to play and to bet wUl effect their purpose even now, but 
 at least the sum of the evils resulting from these two vices has been greatly 
 diminished since the community has resolved to withdraw from thein its 
 recognition. England should not grant her exeqimhir to prostitution. This 
 is one thing which might be tried ; another would be to give increased 
 force \p clauses which, as we believe, already exist in police acts, by which 
 
NEW YORK. 659 
 
 the police are empowered to stop the solicitation and gatheiing together of 
 prostitutes in the public streets. In such a case we must trample down 
 definitions and exceptional cases with an elephant's foot, and go straight for 
 results. The rule in all such cases is to give the power, and to leave it in 
 the discretion of the authorities only to employ it on proper occasions. We 
 have ample guarantees nowadays that such discretion can not be abused. 
 
 "Here, then, are two things which may be done without opening any 
 visionary trenches. The police may be directed to deal with prostitutes as 
 they do with mendicants, and the centres of pollution may be brought under 
 proper regulation. » 
 
 " We know well enough that in such a capital as London it is hopeless 
 to expect that vice of this "description can be expunged altogether from the 
 catalogue of our national sins, but at least let as many difficulties as possi- 
 ble be thrown in its way. Again : the benevolent persons who have taken it 
 in hand to deal with this monstrous evil assert that the introduction of for- 
 eign prostitutes, or, what is still worse, of gu-ls yet uncontaminated, for the 
 purposes of prostitution, migh't be discouraged much more than it is, perhaps 
 well-nigh totally prevented. Undoubtedly England does not desire free 
 trade in prostitution. Preventive measures upon this subject are surround- 
 ed with difficulties ; but that is no reason for despair, but one for additional 
 exertion. Very numerous and influential meetings have been held upon 
 this subject, and we augur well of their success. There was no display of 
 ultra-Puritanic rigor, no attempt to deal with impossibilities. The speakers 
 in the main contended that the public exhibition of prostitution might be 
 successfully dealt with, even if the vice were beyond their reach. Our 
 streets, at least, can be purged of the public scandal, the disgraceful night- 
 houses may be deprived of their powers of corruption, the keepers of brothels 
 may be brought under the lash of the law, and the importation of foreign 
 prostitutes may be diminished, if not put down altogether, if the public will 
 take the subject up in earnest. Such were the principal points on which 
 the speakers insisted ; at least their views deserve a trial." 
 
 This plan is calculated to restrict prostitution by placing it un- 
 der surveillance. It requires no additional licensing system, as 
 every public house, -wine-shop, or cigar-shop ia London, whether 
 kept open at day or night, whether of a respectable or immoral 
 class, requires a license under the excise laws. The proposals 
 just quoted urge that the permission to keep these places: of en- 
 tertainment should be limited, and " given only in the cases of 
 persons who offered some guarantees of their respefitability." It 
 will be necessary for the reader to bear in mind that "night- 
 houses" are not houses of prostitution, but merely resorts for pros- 
 titutes, as already mentioned, as, in default of this, a natural con- 
 
660 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 struction woiild be that the Times proposed to license brothels. 
 The two are as distinct as possible, and it would ]j| as consistent 
 to style some of the fashionable oyster-saloons and restaiu-ants of 
 New York houses of ill fame because abandoned woinen resort to 
 them, as to class the " night-houses" of London in that catalogue. 
 They are simply places for public refreshment in the neighbor- 
 hoods of theatres, markets, etc., which are permitted to continue 
 open all night in deference to a supposed public requirement, and 
 though, from the character of their visitants, they can not be con- 
 sidered schools of morality or decency, yet no prostitution takes 
 place in them. The interests of the proprietors guard against 
 this, as it would immediately cause the licenses to be revoked, and 
 consequently close the place entirely. 
 
 By placing the resorts of London prostitutes under this restric- 
 tion much would be gained, so far as the public decency of the 
 streets and the transit of passengers are concerned, but no possi- 
 ble check would be imposed on the ravages of disease. The prop- 
 osition at the meeting to license the brothels would do this, but, as 
 was anticipated by the speaker, " it would be very distastefiil to 
 the religious public," and the act of recognition would be imme- 
 diately construed as an act of approval, or at least of sanction. 
 That it would not merit this censure must be evident. The only 
 approval or sanction given to the vice would, in fact, consist in 
 saying to the keepers of houses of ill fame : "We shall not attempt 
 to close your doors, for we know that would be impossible, but 
 we shall claim the right of entry at any moment to watch your 
 proceedings. 
 
 It has ever been an unquestioned policy to choose the least of 
 two evUs when you must take one, and if the British government 
 shouM ever license brothels,, they wUl certainly adopt the theory. 
 To the population of London less danger would inure from this 
 toleration than from the unknowii, unwatched courtesans who 
 haiint' their streets. Many an apparently respectable man will 
 follow a woman into a house of prostitution when it is conducted 
 quietly and furtively, who would hesitate before he accompanied 
 her into a known and licensed brothel, while many a stranger 
 who may date his physical ruin, and possibly the loss of charac- 
 ter and honor, from the hour when he entered a private house 
 of prostitution, would be saved many a bitter memory had an 
 of&cial recognition of its true character met him on its thresh- 
 old, and intimated that it was the resort of the abandoned and 
 
NEW YORK. QQl 
 
 vicious. In London, as in New York, we' do not believe tliat il- 
 licit sexual intercourse can be carried to any greater extent tban 
 it is now ; so no danger of an increase of vice need be apprehend- 
 ed there from any measures calculated to remove some of the ul- 
 terior and fatal effects of dissipation. 
 
 In contrast to the public' display of immorahty in the streets of 
 London, is the following description of prostitution in Paris.. Itds 
 extracted from the foreign correspondence of a New York journal: 
 
 "Paris, Thursday, May 27, 1858. 
 " In a late letter on the subject of the ' turning-boxes' of the Fouii(Jling 
 Hospitals I spoke of the repugnance of Protestant coinmumties to any offi- 
 cial compromise with one sin in order even to destroy a greater ; for, that 
 the secret reception of illegitimate children by the state does contribute 
 enormously to the extinction of the crime of infanticide, while it does not 
 generally increase the number of these unfortunate children, is too well 
 shown by statistics to remain longer a question for discussion. But we 
 have another and a more striking example of this repugnance to a collusion 
 with one evil in order to smother out another and a greater in the want of 
 legislation in Protestant countries on the subject of prostitution. 
 
 " For many months, as you know, the municipality officers, the chtirch- 
 wardens, and the journals of London have been excited over this very ques- 
 tion of prostitution ; and no wonder. One need but to leave Paris and fall 
 suddenly in the streets of London at an advanced hour of the evening to 
 comprehend the excitement of its citizens on this subject. To the French- 
 man, crossing the Channel is like crossing the River Styx ; he falls sudden- 
 ly into a pandemonium of street disorder and drunken licentiousness for 
 which he is not prepared. He recalls Mery's terrible picture in ' Nezim,' 
 and does not find it overdrawn. He sees nothing like this in his own city, 
 and he is surprised beyond measure, for he has been taught to believe in 
 the Puritanism of Protestant countries. ■ 
 
 "When an American or an Englishman, habituated 'to the revolting 
 night-scenes of New York or London, first arrives in Paris, he is astonished 
 at the absolute absence of similar scenes in our streets. He has, perhaps, 
 arrived here with the impression — most foreigners do — that prostitution, 
 and revelry, and drunken debauchery stalk forth in the day and render hid- 
 eous the night. But he forgets that he has arrived in a city where there 
 are laws and a police to execute them — in a city where refinement and the 
 proprieties of life are carried to their extreme perfection, and where such 
 license and debauchery as prevails in English and American cities would be 
 an absolute contradiction to the spirit and habits of the people. The reader 
 will please observe that I do not speak of the morals of the people, but of 
 their ideas of deconmi and of the proprieties of life ; of what is due to de- 
 cency and an ordinary respect for appearances. 
 
662 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 " This extreme attention to appearances is, in fact, one of the principa 
 •attractions of a residence in Paris. The city is not only maintained free o 
 inanimate filth, but of animate filth as well ; at least, yo^l^re not forced t 
 see it if you do not wish to. In London no lady dare walk out unattende 
 after 8 o'clock in the evening, and after 11 o'clock sh^ will have her eye 
 and ears insulted, no matter how well attended, while in Paris she may re 
 , main in the streets to any hour of the night, and neither have her eyes oi 
 fended nor her ears insulted. 
 
 " How is this happy result accomplished? In 1851 the ofiScial register oi 
 
 the police of Paris showed 4300 public girls on its hooks ; the number noT 
 
 may be stated at 5000. These girls and the houses in which they live ar 
 
 subjected to a series of stringent laws which renders them innoxious and in 
 
 offensive to the community, the police adopting the principle that since it ii 
 
 impossible to suppress the evU, it should be rendered as inoffensive to thi 
 
 public eye and to the public salubrity as possible. All these houses an 
 
 obliged to be closed at 11 o'clock precisely. The girls are obliged to remaii 
 
 in the house, and the windows are always covered with blinds, night am 
 
 day. A few girls are permitted, here and there, to walk up and down, ii 
 
 . ^. front of their door, from 7 to 11 x>'clock precisely, but it is against the laT 
 
 '"j'y"*/t o accost the passers-by . , The^houses are visited once a week by a medica 
 
 ■' "XJ ' and an ordinary inspector — real inspectors, appointed by government, anc 
 
 ,5w~-- not humbugging ward politicians. 
 
 " Another class of girls, and much the larger class, are those who fre 
 quent-the public balls, concerts, and theatres — girlswho live alone in pub 
 lie lodgmg-houses, and who, for the most part, are not enrolled on the police, 
 books nor submitted to the ordinary sanitary regulations. But this clasi 
 are no more permitted than the rest, either in the street or at their favoriti 
 evening resorts, to accost people for purposes of commerce. The streets an( 
 the public balls are full of policemen in citizen's dress, whose business it is ii 
 detect such girls as violate the law in regard to addressing people, and ti 
 put their names on the police-books, thus requiring them to take out a Ii 
 cense, and to submit to all the police regulations on the new class to whicl 
 they have entered. As a girl regards herself as fcrever lost when her nami 
 is once placed on the police-book, and as she never knows when an officer'] 
 eye may be upon her, she takes good care to violate as rarely as possibl 
 this law prohibiting solicitations in public. This class are always elegantl; 
 dressed ; it is notorious even that they are the first to initiate and to prop 
 agate those very fashions which make the tour of the world as the lates 
 Paris modes. Many of them are reserved and elegant in their manners 
 and require a punctiliousness of etiquette which would not be out of place ii 
 the most aristocratic saloon. But one of the great aids to the Paris polio 
 in the maintenance of public decency in this class, is the fact that they d( 
 not use strong drinks ; a diimken public woman is never seen. As liquo: 
 
NEW YOEK. 663 
 
 is the greatest debaser of mankind, this one fact strikes out a marked line 
 of distinction between this class here and in England and the United States. 
 The great majority do not lose their self-respect, and they take good care 
 of their health, hoping later on to reform and get married. This is here the 
 rule, whereas in England and the United States they throw themselves away 
 as rapidly as possible. 
 
 " It is thus that the fashionable promenades of Paris, the public balls, and 
 the gardens even, may be frequented by ladies and children at all hours of 
 the evening and night without once seeing any of those offensive movements 
 of public women so common in the streets of English and American cities. 
 Contrast this state of things with that of I<ondon. Let the reader, if he 
 has ever lived there, recall to mind the Strand, the Haymarket, Piccadilly, 
 Leicester Square, and Eegent Street — the fashionable business quarters of 
 the city. One hesitates to enter upon a description of such a scene. It 
 refreshes his historical recollections of the decadence of Rome ; his name 
 should be Plato to look upon such sights. The streets swarm with drunk- 
 en and foul-spoken young girls — often mere children ; and when I say 
 swarm, I mean that you have to push your way to get through them. Is 
 it then strange that the citizens of London should feel scandalized at this 
 state of things, or that its journals or its church-wardens should seek.to find 
 a remedy for the nuisance ? They wHl think of every thing else before they 
 arrive at tlje simple, effective, and beautifully working Paris system, be- 
 cause they are a Protestant people and must not compromise with a sin. 
 It must be left to find its own level. Honorable citizens must consent to 
 allow their sons, often their families, to come in contact with these demor- 
 alizing, stony-hearted horrors of the streets; they must suffer individually 
 and as a community from the vile tendencies of street prostitution, because 
 they hesitate to legalize it and to give it over to the care of the police. To 
 see the finest evening promenades of a Protestant and Christian city given 
 up exclusively to the unutterable shames and horrors of street-jjrostitution 
 is a problem in the catalogue of inconsistencies which Catholic and infidel 
 France can not fathom. In France the law acts on the principle that for a 
 pubho woman to be seen in the street is am insult to public taste, and hence, 
 when it is necessary for these girls to be conveyed to prison, to the Hospital, 
 or to the dispensary of the Prefecture of Police, they are mounted in close 
 carriages constructed for the purpose ; or when by, hazard they are obliged 
 to take a public ficKre they are required to keep, the blinds down. You 
 may say what you please about the surface-morality of the French, but their 
 respect for the public eye does honor to their civilization, and their law on 
 this evil would be well adopted elsewhere. There is no truer principle in 
 civU government than that the moral sores of society should be hidden as 
 much as possible from the public view, for it is now too late in the day to 
 combat the maxim long ago put in print by Pope, that vice is propagated 
 
664 HISTORY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 by a familiarity with it. The Erench law may he culpable in pennitting 
 masked balls and the keeping of concubines, but these are affairs that be- 
 long to the interior, which the public need not see if they^o not wish to ; 
 the important distinction is, that the French law does not compel an honest 
 father of a family, in returning from church or theatre, to push his way 
 through mobs of drunken lewd women, who salute his children's ears with 
 language they ought never to hear. 
 
 "In one of its last articles on the general subject of prostitution, the Lon- 
 don Times makes some judicious remarks which are completely verified in 
 the same class in Paris. Thus the 'Hmes declares that the proper method 
 of diminishing the nimiber of these unfortunates (for to think of eradicating 
 the evil is an illusion) is not by missionary efforts directed to them, but 
 rather to their poor parents ; for these poor girls were raised in sin, and 
 never made a fall. The same thing holds good here. Ninety-five hundredths 
 of all the public women of Paris are born and raised in filthiness of mind 
 and body ; at the age of ten, twelve, and fourteen years they are already 
 prostitutes and thieves, and when they get their first sUk dress, their first 
 fine toilet, earned in their shanleful profession, thfey take a step higher in 
 the scale of morality ; for then they cease to steal, they acquire a certain 
 degree of pride in their conduct, they are more respectful and decently be- 
 haved. So that, paradoxical as it may seem, the immense majority of the 
 public women of Paris, instead of making a fall, have actually been promoted 
 in the scale of morality. But all these women know nothing else than the 
 life in which they have been raised ; ■ they are fit for nothing else, they are 
 incorrigibly averse to aU the moral suasion that can be addressed to them, 
 and the real remedy is an enlightenment of the parents of such children, a 
 general improvement in the moral tone of the lowest classes. In fine, if it 
 is an evil which can not be eradicated, if the children of beggars, and rag- 
 pickers, and concierges will fall into evil-doing, it is right to protect society 
 at least from the public demonstration of their vile occupation by the pas- 
 sage of effective police laws." 
 
 As an indication tliat tlie sentiments advanced in this chapter 
 are entertained by others of the medical profession, and as endors- 
 ing our views to a considerable extent, the reader's attention is 
 requested to the annexed report adopted at a special meeting of 
 the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, New York, in reply to 
 interrogatories addressed to them by Isaac Townsend, Esq., Presi^ 
 dent of the Board of Grovemors of the Alms-house (by whose di- 
 rection they are embodied ia this work) ; and also to a report 
 from H. K "Whittelsey, M. D., Eesident Physician of the Nursery 
 Hospital, Eandall's Island, on the same subject. 
 
Uew toek. 665 
 
 (Copy.) 
 " Report of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital in reply to Interroga- 
 tories of Isaac Towstsend, Esq., President of the Board of Governors 
 of the Alms-house, upon Constitutional Syphilis. 
 
 " Office of the Governors of the Alms-honse, Eotunda, Park, > 
 New York, August 24, 1855. ) 
 
 " To THE Medical Boakd, Bellevue Hospital : 
 
 " Gentlemen, — I am led to believe that a large number of the inmates of 
 Bellevue Hospital are affected with syphilis in some of its many forms, and 
 believing that the Governors of the Alms-house are, called upon to take 
 measures to remove, as far as possible, the cause of this great malady, to 
 dry up the sources of an evil vrhich prevails so extensively, saps the health 
 and taxes the wealth of the city, etc., largely ; and believing farther that, if 
 the vice can not be stayed, humanity as well as policy would suggest that 
 the dangers which surround it can be lessened, I propose a few interroga- 
 tories tending toward the accomplishment of this great object, desiring your 
 views upon them in reply as early as 1st of October. 
 
 " 1. What percentage of the total number of patients, admitted to Belle- 
 vue Hospital suffer directly or indirectly from syphilis ? 
 
 " 2. Are there not patients admitted to Bellevue Hospital whose dis- 
 eases are attributable to the taint of syphilis ; and have not many of the 
 inmates been forced to place themselves under treatment therein, and thus 
 become dependent on the city, from being unfitted in body and mind for the 
 ordinary duties of life in consequence of syphilitic diseases ? 
 
 " 3. Are not the children of parents thus affected unhealthy ? 
 
 " 4. What means, in your opinion, could "be adopted to eradicate or les- 
 sen the disease in the city ? 
 
 " By giving the above queries your earliest attention, you wUl greatly 
 oblige your very obedient servant, Isaac Townsend, President." 
 
 " At a special meeting of the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, held 
 December 18, 1855, the following report, in answer to a letter from Isaac 
 Townsend, Esq., President of the Board of Governors of the Alms-house, 
 dated August 24, 1855, touching the subjects of syphilis and prostitution, 
 was read by Doctor Alonzo Clark, Chairman of the Committee appointed 
 by the Medical Board to consider and reply to said letter. 
 
 "On motion, the report was accepted, and ordered for transmission to 
 the President of the Board of Governors, after having received the signa- 
 tures of the President and Secretary. 
 
 " John T. Metcalfe, M. D., Secretary pro tern, to the 
 Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital. 
 
 "New York, December, 1855." 
 
666 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 "report on peostitution and syphilis. 
 " To Isaac Townsend, Esq., President of the Board )• 
 of Governors of the Ahns-house. ' 
 
 "In answer to your inquiries, the Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital 
 respectfully reply, 
 
 " That they caused a census of the Hospital to be taken on the 24th 
 Octobfer last, for the purpose of ascertaining what proportion of the patients 
 had suffered from venereal diseases. IVom that enumeration they leam 
 that out of 417 persons then under medical and surgical treatment, 142, or 
 about one third, had been so affected. In the several divisions of the house 
 the numbers are as follows, viz. : 
 
 " Of .t2 females on the surgical side^ It, or 1 in 4-24. 
 
 " Of 130 females on the medical side, IT, or 1 in 8 nearly. 
 
 " Of 118 males on the medical side, 45, or 1 in 2-6. 
 
 "Of 121 males on the surgical side, 63, or 1 in 2. 
 So that out of 245 males then under treatment, 108, or 1 in 2'21, had had 
 some form of venereal disease ; and among 202 females, 34, or 1 in 6, had 
 been similarly affected. 
 
 " Of the whole number who confessed that they had had affections of this 
 class, 106 had had syphilis, and 86 had had gonorrhoea. 
 
 " Of the 106 who had had syphilis, 53, or just one half, were still labor- 
 ing under the influence of the poison with which they had been inoculated, 
 in many instances, years before. 
 
 " As almost all these patients were admitted for other diseases, or with 
 affections which the physician alone would recognize as the remote effects 
 of syphilis, it is perhaps fair to assume that they rejpresent, with some ex- 
 aggeration, the class of society from which they come. 
 
 " The Board has been favored with the census of the New York Hospi- 
 tal (Broadway), taken for the purpose of ascertaining the proportion of 
 syphilitic cases among the patients of that institution ; from which it ap- 
 pears that the whole number of patients on the 8th of December was 233, 
 and that 99 of that number had had venereal disease, and 31 were then 
 under treatment for the same affections recently contracted. Counting the 
 old cases alone, most of which were admitted, probably, for other diseases, 
 this proportion considerably exceeds that above recorded for Bellevue Hos- 
 pital, it being as high as 1 in 2*35. It is proper, however, in this con- 
 nection to state that the returns for Bellevue Hospital are believed to be in- 
 complete. They are based in a considerable degree on the confessions of the 
 patients ; and it is known that many, especially ampng the women, have 
 denied any contamination, when facts, subsequently developed, have shown 
 that their statements were not true. 
 
 " Is it to be believed, then, that one in three, or even one in foui-, of that 
 
NEW YORK. 667 
 
 large class of our population whose eiroumstanees compel them to seek the 
 occasional aid of medical charities, are tainted with venereal poison ? This 
 the Medical Board do not think they are authorized to state. But the facts 
 here cited, and others within their reach, justify them in saying that vene- 
 real diseases prevail to an alarming extent among the poor of the city. The 
 large number of women sent by the police courts to be treated for these dis- 
 eases at the Penitentiary Hospital would alone be sufficient evidence of this. 
 Yet such persons constitute but a small proportion of those who, even among 
 the poor, suffer from these disorders. Dispensary physicians, and those in 
 private practice, can show a much longer list of the victims of impure inter- 
 course. 
 
 " But the disease is not confined to this class. The advertisements which 
 crowd the newspapers, introduced by men who ' confine their practice to one 
 class of disease, in whicih' they ' have treated twenty thousand cases,' more 
 or less, demonstrate how large is the company of irregulars who live and 
 grow rich on the harvest of these grapes of Sodom. And yet their long list 
 of ' unfortunates' would disclose but a fraction of the evil among those who 
 are able to pay for medical services. The Medical Board are unable to state 
 what proportion of the income of regular and qualified physicians in this city 
 is derived from the treatment of venereal diseases, but they know it is large, 
 and that many who never advertise their skill receive more from this source 
 than from aU other sources together. They believe that there is no one 
 among the unavoidable diseases, however prevalent, for the treatment of 
 which the well-to-do citizens of New York pay one half so much as they 
 pay to be relieved from the consequences of their Ulicit pleaswes. 
 
 " The city bills of mortality give little information regarding the fre- 
 quency of venereal affections. Lties Venerea keeps its place in the tables, 
 and counts its score or two of deaths annually. Although this class of dis- 
 orders is not frequently fatal, except among children, it is credited with only 
 a fraction of the work it actually performs. The physician does not feel 
 called upon, in his return of the causes of death, to brand his patient's mem- 
 ory with disgrace, or to record an accusation against near relatives. During 
 infancy the real disease is buried under such terms as Marasmus, Atrophia, 
 Infantile Debility, or Inflammation, while in adults. Inflammation of the 
 Throat, Phagedsena, Ulceration, Scrofula, and the like, take the responsibil- 
 ity of the death, 
 
 " These affections are strictly what the advertisers denominate them, 
 'private diseases' — a leprosy which the 'unfortunate' always strives to con- 
 ceal, and, so long as it spares his speech and countenance, usually succeeds 
 in concealing. The physician is his only, confidant, and the physician re- 
 fers all to the class of 'innocent secrets,' which are not to be revealed. The 
 public, therefore, know little of the prevalence of such diseases, and still less 
 of the fearful ravages they are capable of making. 
 
668 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 " Still, as has been just said, syphilis is not often the immediate cause of 
 death in adults. After its first local effects are over — and these, though 
 generally mild, are sometimes frightful — the poison lingers in the system 
 ready to break out on any provocation in some one of its many disgusting 
 manifestations, often deforming and branding its victim, threatening life 
 and making it a burdenj and yet refusing the poor consolation of a grave. 
 Like the vulture which fed on the entrails of the too amorous Tityus, it tor- 
 tures and consumes, but is slow to destroy, and often its visible brand, like 
 the scarlet badge once worn by the adulteress, proclaims a lasting disgrace. 
 The protracted suffering of mind and body produced by this class of distem- 
 pers, the ever-changing and often loathsome form of their secondary acci- 
 dents, and the almost irradicable character of the poison, seem almost to 
 justify an old opinion, sanctioned by a papal bull as late as 1826, that these 
 diseases are an avenging plague, appointed by Heaven as a special punish- 
 ment for a special sin. 
 
 " The relentless character of syphilitic diseases stands out in painful re- 
 lief in its transmission from parent to offspring. Here it is, indeed, that 
 the children's teeth are set on edge, because the fathers have eaten sour 
 grapes. The contaminated husband or wife is left through years of child- 
 lessness or of successive bereavements to mourn over early follies^ and to 
 repent when repentance is fruitless. The syphilitic man or woman can 
 hardly become the parent of a healthy child. 
 
 " A young man has imbibed the contagion ; it has become constitution- 
 al. After a few weeks, or months perhaps, of treatment, the visible signs 
 of the disease no longer torment him. He has contracted a matrimonial 
 alliance, and soon marries a healthy and yirtuous woman. He flatters him- 
 self that he is cured. A few months suffice to give him painful proof of 
 his error, for then his growing hopes of paternity are suddenly bitted. In- 
 stead of the chUd of his hopes he sees a shriveled and leprous corpse. This 
 is but the first in a series of similar misfortunes. He has poisoned the 
 fruit of his loins, and again and again, and still again, it falls withered and 
 dead. At length nature seems to have triumphed over this foe to domestic 
 happiness, and the parents' hearts are gladdened by the sight of a living 
 child. Their joy is short-lived.- The child is feeble and sickly, and in a 
 few days or weeks another death is added to the penance list of the hum- 
 bled and grieving father. 
 
 "This mournful story will need no essential changes in the narration, 
 should the poison of impure intercourse, legitimate or illicit, linger in the 
 veins of the mother. 
 
 " A child of such a connection may be born in apparent health, but be- 
 fore six months have passed, some one of the numerous forms of infantile 
 syphilis will be likely to appear and threaten its life. In the contest which 
 follows between disease and. the treatment, the physician is commonly vie- 
 
NEW YORK. 669 
 
 torious, but the contest is in many cases protracted, and often it is to be re- 
 newed again and again. And after all, it is not believed that children 
 thus tainted at their birth often grow up and acquire that degree of health 
 and vigor which is popularly ascribed to a good constitution. 
 
 " These are facts familiar to physicians practicing in large towns. But 
 the history of inherited syphilis is not complete. If, in the case just recited, 
 the wife escape contamination from her husband and her unborn child, yet 
 the sad consequences of that husband's folly are not yet exhausted. That 
 tainted child, now a sickly nursling at her breast, has a Tcnom in its ulcer- 
 ated lips which can inoculate the mother with its own loathsome poison, 
 ■while it draws its sustenance from the sacred fountain of infantile life. But 
 this is not all. These little innocents sometimes spread their disease through 
 the whole circle of those who bestow on them their care and kindness. The 
 contagion spreads through the use of the same spoon, the same linen, and 
 even by that highest token of affection, a kiss. It has been known that a 
 single diseased child has contaminated its mother, a hired nurse, and, 
 through that nurse, the nurse's chUd, and, in addition to these, the hus- 
 band's mother and the mother's sister. Such are sometimes the weighty 
 consequences of a single error. 
 
 " PREVENTION. 
 
 " That the great' source of the venereal poison is prostitution, requires no 
 argument. The first question, then, to be answered, is. Can prostitution be 
 prevented? In answering this question, it is necessary to remember that 
 the history of the world demonstrates the existence of this vice in all ages, 
 and among all nations, sujce the day its first pages were written. The apr 
 petite which incites it has always been stronger than moral restraints — 
 stronger than the law. No rigor of punishment, no violence of public de- 
 nunciation ; neither exile, nor the dungeon, nor yet the disgusting malady 
 with which nature punishes the practice has ever effected its extermination, 
 even for a single year. Great as this evil has always been, it can not be 
 denied that in our own time some of the accidents of what is called the 
 progress of society tend, at least in large towns, greatly to increase it. The 
 expenses of living are every where the great obstacle to early marriages, 
 whether such expenses be positively necessary or be demanded by the social 
 position of the individual, the fashion of his class, and therefore become 
 relatively necessary. Wherever these expenses increase more rapidly than 
 the rewards of labor, marriage becomes impossible for a constantly increasing 
 number, or can only be purchased at the price of social position. But ab- 
 stinence from marriage does not abohsh or moderate the natural appetites. 
 The oreat law of nature on which the existence of the race depends is not 
 abrogated by any artificial state of society. Moral or religious principles 
 will restrain its operations in some ; human laws in some ; the fear of con- 
 
670 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. , 
 
 sequences in some ; yet there always have been, and probably always wilT 
 be, many of both sexes who are not restrained by any of these considera- 
 tions. These have sustained, and probably will continue W sustain, not 
 only prostitution but houses of prostitution, in the face of every human law. 
 Suppressed in one form, it immediately assumes another. Again pursued, 
 it retreats to hiding-places where darkness and secrecy protect it from the 
 pursuer. . ' ^ 
 
 " Severe penalties have heretofore only increased the evils of prostitution. 
 If a hundred" women are consigned to prison for this vice to-day, before a 
 month has elapsed a hundred more have taken their places, and the hundred, 
 though punished, are not reformed. Impelled by a love of their profession, 
 or some by the passion to emulate the more forttoate of their sex in the 
 finery of dress (a passion which first occasioned their fall)j many by want, 
 and all by a sense that they are outcasts, they are no sooner liberated than 
 they return with new zeal to the life from- which they have been detained 
 only by force. • Severe laws compel secrecy; they can do no more. When 
 prostitution is criminal, disease, if known to others, is a practical convic- 
 tion. Under such circumstances the contaminated will be slow to confess 
 disease, and so subject themselves to punishment. Yet their passions and 
 their necessities alike forbid even temporary abstinence. They spread dis- 
 ease without limit. 
 
 " Under this fact lies an important thought. "Were it no more disgrace- 
 ful to contract syphilis than it is to hav6' fever and aigue, the diseased would 
 seek early relief, which is nearly equivalent to certain relief, and the disor- 
 der would soon be confined to the pitiable few who have lost in drunkeimess 
 and misery the instinctive dread of all that is fdul and disgusting in person- 
 al disease. Prostitution, it is true, would then be restored to its old Roman 
 dignity, yet' venereal disease could then be reached, and all but eradicated. 
 But a respectable syphilis dties not belong to our age and nation. It lost 
 caste in the beginning, and its exploits in modem times have not been of a 
 character to win it friends. The supposition aims only to show, by con- 
 trast, the evils of well-intended, but probably injudicious legislation. Ee- 
 garding pains and penalties : if the whip, confiscation, and banishment, ia 
 the hands of Charlemagne and Sti- Louis, aided by a right good wUl and all 
 the powers of a military despotism, could not suppress prostitution, or even 
 prevent the opening of houses of prostitution ; if penal laws in Europe, fiom 
 the days of these earnest princes until now, have utterly failed of their ob- 
 ject, as they notoriously have, it is fair to ask how much more can prohib- 
 itory laws accomplish in a Country where the right of private judgment and 
 personal liberty in speech and action are the very foundation of the body 
 politic ? They, have hitherto been inefifectual. In spite of such laws, the 
 vice is increasing. In consequence of such laws, its most enormous physical 
 evil is extending its baleful i7ijiuence through every rank and circle of soci- 
 
NEW YOEK. 671 
 
 ety. It is still emphatically the plague of the poor ; it still brings sorrow 
 and misery to the firesides of the affluent and titled. 
 
 " A Utopian view of the perfectibility of man might look for the reme- 
 dy to this evU in universal early marriages, in domestic happiness, and in a 
 universal moral sense which will compel men and women to keep their 
 marriage vows. But, taking man as he is, we find the tides of society set 
 with constantly inorea'sing strength against early marriages ; that domestic 
 happiness is not synonymous with marriage, whether early or late ; and that 
 the moral sense which should teach all men, to observe even their solemn 
 promises would be miraculous. For these things the law has done all that 
 has been thought wise to attempt, probably all that it can do. 
 
 " But it may be asked. If government has the power to relieve society of 
 the vice of drunkenness, why despair of its power regarding prostitution 1 
 In reply it may be asked if the drunkard himself is ever cured of his vi- 
 cious appetite by penalties 1 , The statute despairs of this. It even recog- 
 nizes its inability to prevent the sale of intoxicating drinks while they ex- 
 ist ; it therefore claims the right, to seize and destroy them. Can it seize 
 on and destroy the inborn passion which fills and supports houses of prosti- 
 tution? Then it can not do for the one what it hopes to do for the other. 
 
 " Again : the suppression of slavery and the slave-trade have been cited 
 in this connection as illustrating the power of law. In trespass^ theft, 
 violence, or fraud, some one is wronged ; and those who have been injured 
 seek to b^ing the pfipnder to justice. Here there is no aggrieved person. 
 All who are in interest are so in interest that they deprecate the interfer- 
 ence of all law, except what they claim to believe is the law of Nature. 
 
 " But is there no hope in the societies of moral reform 1 For the sup- 
 pression, or even checking of the general vice, none whatever. The asso- 
 ciation in New York deserves much praise for its zealous benevolence. They 
 have brought back some of these erring women to the paths of virtue, but 
 they have done no more to stop the current of prostitution than he could do 
 to dry up the current of the Hudson who dips water with a bucket. In 
 truth it may be said that the paths of virtue have been found to be; slip- 
 pery places for some that would be thought converts. Wisdom's ways have 
 been found too peaceful for these daughters of excitement. This is said in 
 no spirit of disparagement to the efibrts of the society. They may well be 
 proud of what they have done. But it is said to show how little the kind- 
 est and the best can do to reclaim those who have once fallen from virtue 
 and honor. 
 
 " liot the great fact, then, be well understood, that prohibitory measures 
 have always failed, and, from the nature of the case, must forever fail to 
 suppress prostitution. 
 
 " Let this additional fact, illustrated in the foregoing remark, be well 
 considered, that penalties do not reform the offender, but that they enforce 
 
672 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTION. 
 
 secrecy in the offense, and silence regarding its consequences, whicli is a 
 chief cause of the present wide diffusion of the venereal poison. 
 
 "What, then, is the proper province of legislation in^is important 
 matter t 
 
 " The wise lawgiver does not attempt impossibilities. He knows that 
 laws which experience has demonstrated can not be enforced, teach disre- ' 
 spect and disobedience to all law. He knows that human passions can not 
 be changed by human legislation. He knows that, if he attempt the im- 
 possible greater in the control of vice, he is certain to neglect the possible 
 and important less. He knows that the river will not cease to flow at his 
 command. If it overflows and desolates, he raises its banks and dikes in 
 the flood to prevent a general inundation. For hundreds of years the gov- 
 ernments of Europe have tried in vain to dry up the sources of prostitution ; 
 with the opening of the present century they began to dike in the river and 
 prevent avoidable mischief. For a long time we too have had laws against 
 prostitution, which, with every proper effort on the part of those in authori- 
 ty, have proved as useless as those who live by this illicit traffic could de- 
 sire — as mischievous in spreading disease as the quack advertiser could wish. 
 Is it not time, then, to inquire whether we have not attempted too much 5 
 whether, if we attempt less, we shall not accomplish more 1 May we not be 
 able to limit and conteol what we have not the power to prevent 1 If we 
 can not do all that a large benevolence might wish to accomplish, in the 
 name of humanity is it not our duty to do what is useful and practicable 
 — all that is possible 1. 
 
 " While the Medical Board are persuaded that by a change of policy, such 
 as is suggested by the facts and reasons herewith submitted, much can be 
 done to limit and control prostitution, and much more toward the eradica- 
 tion of venereal diseases, they are not yet prepared to ofier the details of a 
 plan by which they hope these important ends can be attained. With the as- 
 sistance of the Board of Governors, they are now in correspondence witli the 
 medical officers of many of the larger cities of Europe, where restrictive 
 measures have replaced prohibitory. When they have obtained the infor- 
 mation which they hope this correspondence will furnish, they will ask leave 
 to submit a supplementary report. 
 
 '.' John W. Francis, M. D., President. 
 
 " John T. Metcalfe, M. D., Secretary pro tem. 
 
 " Note. — It is believed that not far from ten per cent, of the inmates of Bellevuo 
 Hospital are admitted for affections which have their origin remotely in venereal 
 disease. A certain form of rheumatism, certain inflammations of the throat, eyes, 
 bones, and joints ; stricture and cutaneous eruptions are the most common diseases 
 of this class. What proportion, if any, of those who suffer from scrofula and scrof- 
 ulous inflammations, from consumption and other chronic diseases, owe their pres- 
 ent illness to a constitutional syphilitic vice, inherited or acquired, there are no 
 means of determining satisfactorily." 
 
NEW YORK. 678 
 
 Mediccd Board, £elleviw Hospital, New York: 
 JOHN W. FRANCIS, M. D., President. 
 
 Isaac Wood, M. D. 
 John T. Metcalfe, M. D. 
 Alonzo Clark, M. D. 
 Benjaihn W. M'Ceeady,M. D. 
 Isaac E. Taylor, M. D, 
 George T. Elliott, M. D. 
 B. FoRDYCE Barker, M. D. 
 Valentine Mott, M. D. 
 
 Alexander H. Stevens, M. D. 
 James R. Wood, M. D. 
 Willaed Parker, M. D. 
 Charles D* Smith, M. D. 
 Lewis A. Sayrb, M. D. 
 John J. Crane, M. D. 
 John A. Lidell, M. D. 
 Stephen Smith, M. D. 
 
 (Copy.) 
 ," Report of Doctor H. N. Whittelsey, Resident Physician of Randall's 
 
 Island, in answer to certain queries of Isaac Townsbnd, &q., Oovernor 
 
 of the Alms-house^ upon Constitutional Syphilis : • 
 
 " New York, November 28, 1855. 
 
 " Dear Sir, — From repeated coaversations with you, I am led to believe 
 ttat many diseases incidental to the children on Randall's Island may prop- 
 erly be traced to parents who are affected with constitutional syphilis. 
 Please give me your views as to the following questions as early as 10th 
 December. 
 
 " 1. Among the children under your care, to what extent does inherited 
 syphilis exist? 
 
 " 2. Under what form does constitutional syphilis present itself, and what 
 diseases are attributable to its taint ? 
 
 " 3. Are not the children of parents thus affected rmhealthy, scrofulous, 
 subject to diseases of the eye, joints, etc. 1 
 
 . " Very respectfully, Isaac Townsend, Governor A. H. 
 
 "Doctor H. N. Whittelset, Besident Physician, E. I." 
 
 "Randall's Island, Dec. 24, 1855. 
 
 « Isaac Townsend, Esq., President of the Board ) 
 of Governors of the Abns-house. f 
 
 "Dear Sir, — In regard to the interrogatories contained in your note of 
 a recent date on the subject of hereditary syphilis, I have the honor to 
 reply : 
 
 " 1. Regarding its prevalence. It is a matter of record that nine tenths 
 of all diseases treated in this hospital during the past five years have been 
 of constitutional origin, and for the most part hereditary. These diseases 
 assume a variety of forms, and involve nearly every structure of the body, 
 terminating in cachexia, marasmus, phagedaena, etc., etc. The exact pro- 
 portion which hereditary syphilis bears to this sum of constitutional de- 
 pravity can not be stated with accuracy for the following reasons : 
 
 Uu 
 
674 HISTORY OF PEOSTITUTIOK. 
 
 " Children are admitted to this institution between two and fifteen years 
 of age, thus throwing out of the category infantile syphilis in all its forms ; 
 and except in few cases, showing none of its specific charact#istics, having 
 been modified by appropriate treatment, but manifests itself by general con- 
 stitutional depravity, and determines a great variety of diseases, embrac- 
 ing nearly every form of skin disease, affection of the mucous membranes and 
 their dependencies, diseases of the eye and ear, of the bones, especially of 
 joints, etc., proving the prolific and lamentable source of many of the dis- 
 eases incident to children of the class presented in this institution. Making, 
 then, due allowance for its masked form, in which the consequences of in- 
 herited syphilis appear in this institution, together with the absence of the 
 previous history both of patients and parents, it is believed an approximate 
 estimate may be made of the part which this malady bears to the sum of 
 constitutional disease. From the foregoing facts, and from careful observation 
 during the past few years in this branch of the Alms-house Department, it 
 appears that human degradation is the source of the stream of pollution sup- 
 plying this hospital with disease ; and farther, that of all the vices which 
 make up the sum total of depravity, both moral and physical, prostitution 
 and its consequences furnish the larger proportion. 
 
 " Here we have the sad picture presented of a large number of children 
 doomed to an early grave, or to breathe out their, miserable existence bear- 
 ing a loathsome disease, carrying the penalties of vice of which they them- 
 selves are innocent, being a generation contaminated, and capable only of 
 contaminating in turn. 
 
 " In the above sketch I have confined my statement to syphilis as mani- 
 fested in the Nursery Hospital, where the average number of cases of dis- 
 ease treated is about two thousand. From this field is excluded every 
 variety of the disease except the one, viz., constitutional syphilis afiecting 
 children after having been modified by treatment in the infant. 
 
 « H. N. Whittelsey, M. D." 
 
 It has been stated already that the information obtained in the 
 course of this investigation is, to a very great degree, undoubtedly 
 reliable; but a few words more in reference to the same subject 
 will not be out of place, if we consider the importance such infor- 
 mation assumes when it is made the basis of serious deduction. 
 These women were examined singly and alone, and a person who 
 has been engaged for a number of years in any particular inquiry 
 is able, by his experience, to judge whether his informants are 
 speaking the truth in their replies. For this, among other reasons, 
 we are satisfied that in almost every case there was no deception 
 practiced, but that the answers obtained were true in all essential 
 points. Another evidence of correctness is the degree of congrui- 
 
NEW YORK. 675 
 
 ty that characterized the greater part of the rephes. Farther than 
 this: a reference to the questions themselves (as reprinted in 
 chapter XXXII.) will show that they were so arranged that false- 
 hoods would be easily detected unless very carefully contrived be- 
 fore the time of examination, of which those examined had no 
 notice, and consequently no opportunity for fraud or deception 
 could possibly exist 
 
 It is not denied that there were many difficulties to be encoun- 
 tered, although the mode of operation was simple. It may be 
 briefly described as follows. The captain of each police district 
 (and oftentimes the writer with him) explained his object to the 
 keeper of the house, assuring her that there was no intention to 
 annoy, harass, or expose her; and, particularly, that noprosecur 
 tions should be based upon any information thus collected. This 
 latter promise was supported by a letter from a high legal ftmc- 
 tionary addressed to the Mayor and Police Department, assuring 
 them that the particulars they collected should not be used in any 
 manner prejudicial to the women themselves, as it was believed 
 that a collection of the necessary information required by such 
 a work as the present would be productive of good to the city. 
 When satisfied upon the subject of prosecution, they were told 
 that the real motive was to obtain correct particulars of prostitu- 
 tion without exposing individual cases, so as to enable the public 
 to judge of its extent, and assist them in forming an opinion as to* 
 the necessity of arrangements which would ultimately become 
 protective to our citizens at large, as well as to housekeepers and 
 courtesans, and many of the housekeepers expressed a hope that 
 the. design might be accomplished. . Their interests, therefore, led 
 them to speak the truth. In short, from the precautions taken, 
 and from the result itself, very little doubt can be entertained as 
 to the authenticity of the principal part of the replies on all essen- 
 tial points ; and upon this consideration these replies have been 
 made the basis of the description and' remarks upon Prostitution 
 IN New York. 
 
 The task is completed, and the reader's attention may be invited 
 to the various facts substantiated, as embodied in the following 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 There are six thousand public prostitutes in New York. 
 
 The majority of these are from fifteen to twenty-five years old. 
 
 Three eighths of them were born in the United States. 
 
676 HISTOEY OF PROSTITUTION. 
 
 Many of those born abroad came liere poor, to improve tbeir 
 condition. 
 
 Education is at a very low standard with them. 
 
 One fifth of them are married women. 
 
 One half of them have given birth to children, and more than 
 one half of these children are illegitimate. 
 
 The ratio of mortality among children of prostitutes is four 
 times greater than the ordinary ratio among children in New 
 York. 
 
 Many of these children are living ia the abodes of vice and ob- 
 scenity. 
 
 The majority of these women have been prostitutes for less than 
 four years. 
 
 The average duration of a prostitute's life is only four years. 
 
 Nearly one half of the prostitutes in New York admit that they 
 are or have been sufferers fi-om syphilis. 
 
 Seduction ; destitution ; Ul treatment by parents, husbands, or 
 relatives; intemperance; and bad company, are the main causes of 
 prostitution. 
 
 "Women in this city have not suf&cient means of employment. 
 
 Their employment is inadequately remunerated. 
 
 The associations of many employments are prejudicial to mo- 
 rality. 
 
 Six sevenths of the prostitutes drink intoxicating liquors to a 
 •greater or less extent. 
 
 Parental influences induced habits of intoxication. 
 
 A professed respect for religion is common among them. 
 
 A capital of nearly ^wr millions of dollars is iavested in the bus- 
 iness of prostitution. 
 
 The annual expenditure on account of prostitution is more than 
 seven millions of. dollars. 
 
 Prohibitory measures have signally failed to suppress or check 
 prostitution. 
 
 A necessity exists for some action. 
 
 Motives of policy require a change in the mode of procedure. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Abortion, New York 481 
 
 Abyssinia 389 
 
 JEdiles, Powers of. 67 
 
 Afghanistan 418 
 
 Africa 385 
 
 " Northern 444 
 
 Ages of Prostitutes, Great Britain... 347 
 
 " Hamburg 200 
 
 " New York 452 
 
 " Paris 140 
 
 " Rome 49 
 
 Agnes Sorel 109 
 
 Aid to reformatory Measures 23 
 
 Algeria ; 180 
 
 Alms-house, Blackwell's Island 687-604 
 American Medical Association on 
 
 Infant Mortality 482 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Kule in England 283 
 
 Anne Boleyn 294 
 
 Aime, Empress of Russia 266 
 
 Arcadians and Flute Players 50 
 
 Archiatri 85 
 
 Architecture, obscene .....; 95 
 
 Areoi of the South Sea Islands 398 
 
 Areopagus 45 
 
 Aspasia 55 
 
 Assignation Houses, Hamburg 211 
 
 " New York 566 
 
 " " Ori- 
 gin of 568 
 
 Asylum of Bon Pasteur, Paris 152 
 
 Athens 44 
 
 Attempts to suppress Prostitution.... 19 
 
 Augustan Age, Rome 67 
 
 Auletrides ,— 46, 50 
 
 Australia -.■■• 392 
 
 " Female Emigration to...... 395 
 
 Avignon 162 
 
 " public Brothel at 100 
 
 Baal, Worship of 37 
 
 Babylonian Banquets 42 
 
 Bacchis 56 
 
 Barbarous Nations 385 
 
 Beatrice Cenci 159 
 
 Belgium 187 
 
 " Immorality of. 187 
 
 " Illegitimacy in 187 
 
 Belle Ferronnilre HI 
 
 BeUevne Hospital, New York... S89, 602 
 
 Bellevue Hospital, Report of Medical 
 
 Board 665 
 
 Berlin, Dancing Saloons 246 
 
 " Effects of French Revolution 234 
 " " Suppression of 
 
 Prostitution 244 
 
 Berlin, Illegitimacy 250 
 
 " Increase of Syphilis 248 
 
 " Number of Prostitutes 233 
 
 " Police Regulations 251 
 
 " Popular Feeling against li- 
 censed Brothels 241 
 
 Berlin, Private Life.... 247 
 
 Public Life. 245 
 
 Biblical Description of Prostitution.. 39 
 
 BicetrS, Hospital of. 135 
 
 Blackwell's Island, Commitments to 633 
 " Discharges from 638 
 
 Boarding Schools, Dangers of 519 
 
 Board of Governors, Duties of 27 
 
 '' Interrogatories 
 
 by , 28 
 
 Board of Governors, Members of 27 
 
 " Preliminary Re- 
 port to ,.. 29 
 
 Bon Pasteur Asylum, Paris 152 
 
 Borneo 413 
 
 Brahmins, religious Ceremonies of.. 423 
 Breslau, Effects of Suppression of 
 
 Brothels 237 
 
 Brides' Pair, Russia..... 274 
 
 Britain, Roman Invasion of. 282 
 
 British Army, Syphilis in 357 
 
 " Kings, Lives of the early 285 
 
 " Merchant Service, Syphilis in 357 
 
 " Navy, Syphilis in 357 
 
 " North America 460 
 
 Britons, Marriage Ceremonies of an- 
 cient 282 
 
 Brooklyn City Hospital, Long Isl-I 592 
 
 and j 602 
 
 Brothels in Algiers 184 
 
 " Avignon 100 
 
 Belginm 188 
 
 " Berlin, abolished by Roy- 
 al Order 243 
 
 Brothels in Berlin, public Opposition 
 
 to ] 241 
 
 Brothels in China , 433 
 
 " Denmark. 256 
 
678 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page| Page 
 
 Brothels in England 316,Claudine duTencin.. 127 
 
 " Hamburg 206 Cologne, Effects of Suppression of 
 
 " Japan ~ 
 
 437 
 
 Leipzig 253 
 
 Mantua 161 
 
 " New York, Capital in- 
 vested in 599 
 
 Brothels in New York, Management 
 
 of 554 
 
 Brothels in New York, Receipts of... 554 
 
 " " Value of. 553 
 
 " " German 560 
 
 " " Sailors' 562 
 
 " Paris ; 141 
 
 " Eome 161 
 
 " Spain 171 
 
 " Sweden 279 
 
 " Venice 161 
 
 Bubastis, Festival of 40 
 
 Buffalo, N. Y., Prostitutes in 608 
 
 Byron (Lord) on Italian Morality.... 166 
 
 Callipygian Games 52 
 
 Canute, Laws of. 284 
 
 Capital Punishment, Effects of Abo- 
 lition of 629 
 
 Career of a Prostitute 453 
 
 Carthage 42 
 
 Catharine I., of Russia 263 
 
 " IL, " 267 
 
 Causes of Prostitution, Algiers 184 
 
 " Paris 141 
 
 " New York.... 488 
 
 Cavali&re Servente 165 
 
 Celebes 428 
 
 Celsus on secret Diseases 84 
 
 Central and South America 364 
 
 Ceylon 425 
 
 Charlemagne, Legislation of 94 
 
 Charles II., of England 299, 304 
 
 Charles VIII 109 
 
 Chastity enforced by the early Chris- 
 tians 86 
 
 Children's Aid Society, New York .. 530 
 Children of Prostitutes, New York . . 477 
 
 Chili 367 
 
 China 429 
 
 Chinese Holidays 434 
 
 Chivalry in England, Effects on Mo- 
 rality of..; 290 
 
 Christian Doctrine, Features of. 86 
 
 " Era...... 86 
 
 " Fathers on Prostitution ... 91 
 " Virgins, Persecution of .... 87 
 Chrysarguron, or Tax on Prosti- 
 tutes ,.... 92 
 
 Cicisbeo 165 
 
 Circassia 441 
 
 Civil Condition of Prostitutes, New 
 
 York 473 
 
 Classes of Prostitutes 148 
 
 Classical Studies, Effects of 521 
 
 Brothels in ..M 243 
 
 Commodus 83 
 
 Competition a Plea for insufBcient 
 
 Wages 530 
 
 Connecticut 458 
 
 Consequences of Prostitution 19 
 
 Continuance of Prostitution, New 
 
 York 484 
 
 Conventual Life, immoral Instances 
 
 in 90 
 
 Conventual Life in Portugal 178 
 
 Copenhagen, Number of Prostitutes 
 
 256 
 
 Copenhagen, Syphilis in 257 
 
 Corinth 44 
 
 Corinthian Prostitutes 58 
 
 Cork, Number of Prostitutes in 342 
 
 Cortqjos. 175 
 
 Cost of Prostitution in New York.... 699 
 
 Costume of Prostitutes, Bergamo 162 
 
 Greece 46 
 
 Mantua 162 
 
 Milan 162 
 
 Parma 162 
 
 Council of Trent 156 
 
 Court of Prostitutes, Naples 160 
 
 Dahomey 387 
 
 Dancers, Rome 69 
 
 Dancing Saloons, Berlin 246 
 
 Hamburg 212 
 
 Dangers of a Prostitute's Life . : 485 
 
 Danish Rule in England 287 
 
 De la Vallifere, Mademoiselle 124 
 
 Delirium Tremens ....'. 542,543 
 
 De Maintenon, Madame 124 
 
 Demilt Dispensary, New York.. 591, 602 
 
 Denmark 256 
 
 Brothels in 256 
 
 Illegitimacy ju 256 
 
 Destitution a Cause of Prostitution. . 489 
 Instances of, in New York 491 
 
 Diana de Poictiers Ill 
 
 Dicteria 43 
 
 Inviolability of 48 
 
 Dicteriades 46, 47 
 
 Disease in Children 334 
 
 Dispensary, Algiers 182, 185 
 
 " Belgium 188 
 
 " Pai'is 138 
 
 Distinguishing Costume of Prosti- 
 tutes 44 
 
 Domestic Life of Prostitutes, Ham- 
 burg. 202 
 
 Domestic Life of Prostitutes, Leipzig 255 
 
 Domestic Servants, Belgium 187 
 
 " England 330 
 
 Hamburg... 199,211 
 
 " Leipzig 253 
 
 " New York 526 
 
INDEX. 
 
 679 
 
 Draconian Laws ". 43 
 
 Dress, Indecency of. 117 
 
 " of French Prostitutes 97 
 
 Dubarry, Madame 128 
 
 Dublin, Number of Prostitutes in.... 341 
 
 Duchess of Berri 126 
 
 Duke of Orleans 125 
 
 Duration of a Prostitute's Life 455 
 
 Duties of Husbands 505 
 
 " Parents 498 
 
 " Eelatives 511 
 
 Early Christians, alleged Immorality 
 
 of 89 
 
 Eastern Dispensary, New York 591, 602 
 Edinburgh, Number of Prostitutes in 341 
 
 Education, compulsory 471 
 
 " in Great Britain 335 
 
 " of Prostitfltes, New York 468 
 
 " " i Paris 140 
 
 '' in United States 620 
 
 Educational Facilities in Europe 469 
 
 " in U. States.. 469 
 " Neglect. of.... 469 
 Effects of Indifference upon Prostitu- 
 tion 25 
 
 Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor 40 
 
 Egyptian Courtesans 40 
 
 Elagabalus 83 
 
 Elizabeth, of England 295 
 
 Elizabeth, of Eussia 266 
 
 Emigrant Boarding-house Keepers.. 461 
 Emigrants, Influences at Port of De- 
 parture on 461 
 
 Emigrants, Influences during Voyage 
 
 on 461 
 
 Emigrants, Influences on reaching 
 
 New York on 461 
 
 Emigrants, Poverty of. 465 
 
 " Hospital, Ward's Isl-) 590 
 
 and ]" 602 
 
 Emigrate, Assistance to 
 
 " Inducements to 465 
 
 460 
 
 Brothels 316 
 
 C auses of Prostitution 319 
 
 " Continental Trade in Pros- 
 titution 315 
 
 England, Court Morals 305 
 
 " Discussion on Prostitution. 653 
 
 " Domestic Servants 330 
 
 " Effects of Chivalry on Mo- 
 rality 290 
 
 England, excessive Poverty 327 
 
 " FeudalLords 288 
 
 " Lodging-houses 324 
 
 " overcrowded Dwellings 322 
 
 " Procuresses 308, 313 
 
 " Profligacy of Troubadours. 292 
 " Prostitution at the present 
 
 Time 312 
 
 England, Public Amusements 330 
 
 Page 
 
 England, Puritan Rule 298 
 
 " Restoration of Charles II.. 298 
 
 " Work-house System 326 
 
 Erotic Literature 77 
 
 Esquimaux 447 
 
 Example, its Effects on Prostitution. 325 
 
 Expediency of Investigation 22 
 
 Extent, Effects, and Cost of Prosti- 
 tution 675 
 
 Factories, Great Britain 332 
 
 " United States 534 
 
 Fair Rosamond 292 
 
 Fathers of Prostitutes, Business of... 535 
 
 Female Employment 529 
 
 Female Occupations, Effect of 533 
 
 " Monotonyof... 526 
 
 Female Penitentiary, London 351 
 
 Feudal Lords in England 288 
 
 Financial Panic, Effect of. 577 
 
 Floralian Games 64 
 
 Foreign-born Prostitutes 460 
 
 Foreign Manners, Influence of 570 
 
 Foreign Women, Demoralization of. 461 
 
 Foundling Hospitals, Belgium 187 
 
 " Italy 167 
 
 " Mexico 363 
 
 " Portugal 180 
 
 " Rio Janeiro.... 371 
 
 " Russia 276 
 
 " Spain 176 
 
 " Sweden 278 
 
 Fracastor, Diagnosis of Syphilis by.. 132 
 
 France 93 
 
 " during the Middle Ages 93 
 
 " from the Middle Ages to Lou- 
 is XIII 108 
 
 France from Louis XIII. to present- 
 
 Day 120 
 
 France, Female Employment.... 529 
 
 obscene Literature 102 
 
 present Regulations 1 39 
 
 Provincial Legislation 98 
 
 Syphilis 131 
 
 Francis 1 110 
 
 Franks, Concubinage among the 94 
 
 Free Love 569 
 
 Fi'ench Legislation 119 
 
 " Republican 122 
 
 French Revolution, Effects in Berlin 
 
 of ;.: ; 234 
 
 French Revolution, Effects in Great 
 
 Britain 310 
 
 Frifnoh Revolution, Effects in Ham- 
 burg 191 
 
 French Revolution, Effects in Paris . 122 
 
 Gauls, Morality of the 93 
 
 Roman Description of the 93 
 
 George III 308 
 
 I'V 309 
 
 German Ball-rooms in New York 523, 561 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 German Brothels in New York 560 
 
 Glasgow, Njimber of Prostitutes in .. 341 
 
 Glycera 61 
 
 Gnathena 57 
 
 Gnathenion 57 
 
 Governmental Duty 629 
 
 Governors of Alms-house 27 
 
 " Interroga- 
 tories by 28 
 
 Gradation of Prostitution 453 
 
 Granada, public Brothels at ,.. 172 
 
 Great Britain 282 
 
 " Ages of Prostitutes .... 347 
 
 " Education 335 
 
 " Factories 332 
 
 " Illegitimacy .337 
 
 " Juvenile Prostitution.. 331 
 
 " Needlewomen 344 
 
 " Occupations of Inhab- 
 itants 622 
 
 Great Britain, Syphilis 354 
 
 " Work-houses 332 
 
 Greece 43 
 
 ' ' erotic Literature of 62 
 
 " Flute Players 50 
 
 " Tax on Prostitutes 46 
 
 Greenland 449 
 
 Gretna Green Marriages 311 
 
 Guardian Society, London 351 
 
 Guatemala 366 
 
 Gynecea 94 
 
 Hair of Greek Courtesans 46 
 
 Halle, Effects of Suppression of 
 Brothels in 248 
 
 Hamburg : 189 
 
 " Ages of Prostitutes 200 
 
 " Assignation Houses 211 
 
 " Brothels 198,206 
 
 " Classes of Prostitutes 199 
 
 " Dancing-saloons 212 
 
 " Illegitimacy 199 
 
 " Kept Mistresses 210 
 
 " Kurhaus 216 
 
 " Laws 191 
 
 " Magdalen Hospital 218 
 
 " Nationality of Prostitutes 200 
 " Number of Prostitutes in . 198 
 
 " Police Kegulations 193 
 
 " Prostitutes, domestic Life 
 of 202 
 
 Hamburg, Prostitutes, Physique 201 
 
 " private Prostitution 210 
 
 " Kecognized Procuresses... 205 
 
 " Storeet-walkers 210 
 
 Syphilis 214 
 
 Hamburger Berg 201 
 
 Henry IL, of France 112 
 
 " IIL, " 116 
 
 " VIIL, of England 294 
 
 " ofNavarro 114 
 
 HetairsB 46, 53 
 
 Page 
 Hetairas, Influence of. 62 
 
 social Position of 54 
 
 Hipparchia 4R 56 
 
 Honduras 366 
 
 Hospital du Midi, Paris 136 
 
 in Rome 164 
 
 Hottentots 385 
 
 Houses of Assignation, New York... 566 
 
 Iceland 449 
 
 Idols retained as Christian Symbols. 90 
 
 Illegitimacy in Belgium 187 
 
 Berlin 250 
 
 Denmark 256 
 
 Great Britain 337 
 
 Lima 368 
 
 New York 480 
 
 Norway 280 
 
 Sweden 278 
 
 111 Treatment by Parents, etc., a 
 
 Cause of Prostitution 498 
 
 Immigration, its Effects on Prostitu- 
 tion 459 
 
 Immorality of Belgium 187 
 
 Spain 169 
 
 Inclination a Cause of Prostitution.. 488 
 
 Incubes, Belief in 103 
 
 India..... 421 
 
 Infanticide in China 432 
 
 India 424 
 
 " Lima 368 
 
 Infant Mortality, New York 481 
 
 Inscription of Prostitutes 144 
 
 Intelligence OfBces an Agency for 
 
 Prostitution 517 
 
 Intemperance of Prostitutes 540 
 
 " Parents of Prosti- 
 tutes 544 
 
 Intoxication a Cause of Prostitution 497 
 
 Introduction 17 
 
 Ireland 460 
 
 Irish Farmers 537 
 
 Isabel of Bavaria 108 
 
 Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island, 
 
 586, 601, 633 
 
 Italian Morality 165 
 
 " Lord Byron on 166 
 
 Italian Vices introduced to France.. 112 
 
 Italy 154 
 
 " Decline of public Morals 155 
 
 " Influence of Papal Court 155 
 
 " Syphilis 157 
 
 " unnatural Crimes 159 
 
 James I., of England 296 
 
 " II., " ,304 
 
 Jane Shore 293 
 
 Japan 435 
 
 Java 408 
 
 Jephthah's Daughter 38 
 
 Jerusalem 37 
 
 Jews, the 35 
 
INDEX 
 
 681 
 
 T 1 , ™ I'^se 
 
 Judan ana Tamar 36 
 
 Julian Laws 67 
 
 Jostinian 93 
 
 Juvenal's Description of a House of 
 
 Prostitution 72 
 
 Juvenile Depravity 32, 331, 453 
 
 Kaffirs 386 
 
 Kashmir 419 
 
 Kept Mistresses 172, 210 
 
 Kings County Hospital, Long Isl-) 592 
 
 and I 602 
 
 Kordpfan 390 
 
 Kurhaus of Hamburg 216 
 
 Lamia 53 
 
 Lais 58 
 
 Lateran Council ..., 156 
 
 Latin Authors, Pruriency pf. 80 
 
 Laws on Prostitution by Moses 36 
 
 " France 119 
 
 " Eepub- 
 
 lican ,..., 122 
 
 Laws on Prostitution, Lyeurgusa.. .... 46 
 
 " Naples 159 
 
 *' Portugal 179 
 
 " Prussia ... 219, 225 
 
 " Eussia 261 
 
 League, the Huguenot, its Influence 
 
 in France 116 
 
 Leeds, Number of Prostitutes in 841 
 
 Leipzig 252 
 
 " Brothels 253 
 
 " domestic Life of Prostitutes.. 254 
 " Nationality of Prostitutes .... 254 
 
 " Syphilis ,. 255 
 
 Lesbian Love 52 
 
 Licensed Prostitutes in Persia 417 
 
 License System in New York 651 
 
 Lima 367 
 
 " Illegitimacy and Infanticide .-.. 368 
 
 Literature, France 129 
 
 " Great Britain 299 
 
 Liverpool, Number of Prostitutes in . 341 
 
 Lock Hospital, London 350 
 
 Lodging Houses, England 324 
 
 London Female Penitentiary 351 
 
 " Guardian Society 351 
 
 " Lock Hospital 350 
 
 " Night Houses 653 
 
 " Number of Prostitutes in.... 340 
 
 " obscene Publications 334 
 
 " public Meeting on Prostitu- 
 tion 653 
 
 London, Saint Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital... 357 
 
 London Times, the, on Prostitution... 657 
 
 Louisville, Ky., Prostitution in 608 
 
 Louis IX., of France 95 
 
 " XI., " 109 
 
 " XII., " 110 
 
 « XIIL, " 128 
 
 Fags 
 
 Louis XIV., of France 124 
 
 XV., " 128 
 
 Louise de Querouaille 302 
 
 Lupanaria 70 
 
 Lycurgus, Laws of 45 
 
 Magdalen Asylums 631 
 
 " Hamburg 218 
 
 " Paris 152 
 
 Maine.,., 457 
 
 Male Prostitutes 70 
 
 Manchester, Number of Prostitutes 
 
 in 841 
 
 Mantua, Brothels in 161 
 
 Margaret, Queen of Navarre 1 14 
 
 Marriage Ceremonies of the ancient 
 
 Britons 282 
 
 Marriage Ceremonies in France 107 
 
 Marriage, Belgium 187 
 
 " Norway 280 
 
 ." Eome 81 
 
 " Effects of early 474 
 
 " ill-assorted 331 
 
 " Violation of 473 
 
 Martial 78 
 
 Maryland 457 
 
 Massachusetts 458 
 
 Medical Bureau, proposed, New York 649 
 
 Medical Colleges, New York '. 591 
 
 Medical Institutions, Theory of. New 
 
 York 633 
 
 Medical Visitation of Prostitutes 645 
 
 " Paris 149 
 
 Medicis, the. Effects upon French 
 
 Morality of 112 
 
 Messalina. 72 
 
 Mexican Clergy, Morals of 360 
 
 " Society 361 
 
 Mexico 359 
 
 Foundling Hospitals 363 
 
 Moloch, "Worship of. 37 
 
 Montpellier, public Brothel at 100 
 
 Moral Chastity, Doctrine of 88 
 
 Mothers of Prostitutes in New York. 538 
 Mrs. Fry, benevolent Exertions of.... 353 
 
 Naeh Girls 420 
 
 Naples, Court of Prostitutes 160 
 
 Laws on Prostitution 159 
 
 Nationality of Prostitutes, Algiers ... 184 
 " Hamburg. 200 
 
 " Leipzig.... 254 
 
 " New York. 456 
 
 Naucratis 41 
 
 Needle-women, Great Britain 344 
 
 " New York 527 
 
 Nell Gwynne 302 
 
 Nepotisju 165 
 
 Nero 83 
 
 Newark, N. J., Prostitution in 609 
 
 New Hampshire 458 
 
 New Haven, Conn., Prostitution in.. 609 
 
682 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 New Jersey 458 
 
 NewTork, Abortion 481 
 
 " Age of Prostitutes 452 
 
 " Aggregate Prostitution... 584 
 
 ' ' Assignation Houses 566 
 
 " Assistance to emigrate to 466 
 " Average Wages of Worn- 529 
 
 en 529 
 
 New York Brothels, Capital invest- 
 ed in 599 
 
 New York Brothels, Management of 554 
 
 " " Receipts of 554 
 
 " " Value of 553 
 
 " Brothel-keepers 553 
 
 " Business of Fathers of 
 
 Prostitutes .; 635 
 
 New York, Business of Mothers of 
 
 Prostitutes 538 
 
 New York, Career of a Prostitute.... 453 
 " Causes of Prostitution ... 488 
 " Census Eeturns, Eelia- 
 
 bilitv of 674 
 
 New York Children's Aid Society.... 530 
 " Childrenof Prostitutes.... 477 
 " civil Condition of Prosti- 
 tutes 473 
 
 New York, Continuance of Prostitu- 
 tion 484 
 
 New York, Cost of Surveillance 653 
 
 ' ' Dangers of a Prostitute's 
 
 Life '. 485 
 
 New York, Dangers of Syphilitic In- 
 fection : 632 
 
 New York, Death of Parents of Pros- 
 titutes 539 
 
 New York, Delirium Tremens 543 
 
 " Dispensaries.. 590, 602 
 
 ' ' Duration of a Prostitute's 
 
 Life 455 
 
 New York, Education of Prostitutes. 468 
 
 " Effects of Destitution 489 
 
 " " early Marriage 474 
 " " female Occupa- 
 tion 533 
 
 New York, Effects of Inclination 488 
 
 " Extent, Effects, and Cost 
 
 of Prostitution 575 
 
 New York, German Ball-rooms 623, 561 
 
 " " Brothels 660 
 
 " Gradation of Prostitutes. 458 
 " foreign-born Prostitutes.. 460 
 
 " Hospitals 590,602 
 
 " Illegitimacy 480 
 
 " ill 'Treatment of Parents. 
 
 Husbands, and Eelatives 498 
 
 New York, Inducements to emigrate 465 
 
 " Infant Mortality 481 
 
 Influence of Suburbs on 
 
 Prostitution 585 
 
 New York, Instances of Destitution . 491 
 " Intemperance of Prosti- 
 tutes 540 
 
 Page 
 New York, Intemperance of Parents 
 
 of Prostitutes : 544 
 
 New York Intelligence Oflles 517 
 
 New York, Intoxication a Cause of 
 
 Prostitution 497 
 
 New York, Juvenile Depravity 453 
 
 " License System 651 
 
 " Life of a Seamstress 490 
 
 " Medical Institutions, 
 
 Theory of. 633 
 
 New York, Metropolitan Police Esti- 
 mate of Prostitutes 579 
 
 New York, Nativity of Prostitutes.... 456 
 " Necessity for a Syphilitic 
 
 Hospital : 644 
 
 New York, Number of Prostitutes ... 576 
 
 " Obscene Publications 521 
 
 " Origin pf Assignation 
 
 Houses 668 
 
 New York Panel Houses ^.. 573 
 
 " Parlor Houses 549 
 
 " Police and Judiciary Ex- 
 penses 605 
 
 New York, Poverty of Emigrants .... 465 
 
 " private Prostitutes. 582 
 
 " Preponderance of Prosti- 
 tutes from Northern States 457 
 
 New York, Proportion of Children 
 
 attending School 471 
 
 New York, proposed Surveillance of 
 
 Prostitution 643 
 
 New York, proposed medical Visita- 
 tion of Prostitutes 645 
 
 New York Prostitutes and Houses of 
 
 Prostitution 549 
 
 New York Prostitutes compared with 
 
 Population 585 
 
 New York Prostitutes, exaggerated 
 
 Estimates of 677 
 
 New York Prostitutes, Income of... 600 
 " " Length of 
 
 Residence in New York City 464 
 
 New York Prostitutes, Length of 
 
 Residence in New York State 464 
 
 New York Prostitutes, Length of 
 
 Residence in United Sates 463 
 
 New York, Recapitulation of Facts.. 675 
 " Religion of Prostitutes... 545 
 " " Parents of 
 
 Prostitutes 545 
 
 New York, Remedial Measures 627 
 
 " Sailors' Ball-rooms 563 
 
 " " Brothels 562 
 
 " Schedule of Questions ... 450 
 
 " Seduction in 492 
 
 " Statistics of 450 
 
 " Syphilis in 686 
 
 " " Number of Pros- 
 titutes infected 487 
 
 New York, Theory of present Med- 
 ical Institutions 683 
 
 New York, Widowed Prostitutes 477 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 New Zealand 394 
 
 Norfolk, Va., Prostitution in 610 
 
 Norman Rule in England 
 
 North American Indians 372 
 
 Northern Africa 444 
 
 Norway 277 
 
 " Illegitimacy in 280 
 
 " SyphiUs in 281 
 
 Number ofProstitutes in Berlin 233 
 
 " China ........ 433 
 
 " Copenhagen 256 
 
 " Cork.-. 842 
 
 " Dublin 341 
 
 " Leipzig 253 
 
 Nursery, Randall's Island, New York, 
 
 590, 602, 605 
 
 Obscene Literature 102 
 
 " France 117 
 
 " London 334 
 
 " New York 521 
 
 Offenses ofProstitutes 150 
 
 Open-air Prostitution 74 
 
 Overcrowded Dwellings 322 
 
 Ovid 78 
 
 Panel Houses, New York 573 
 
 J'ai-c aux Cerfs 128 
 
 Parent-Duchatelet, Laws of France . 121 
 " " for Repres- 
 sion of Prostitution 153 
 
 Paris, Ages of Prostitutes 140 
 
 " Bon Pasteur Asjlma 152 
 
 " Brothels 141 
 
 ' ' Causes of Prostitution 141 
 
 ' ' Classes of Prostitutes 148 
 
 " Dispensary 138 
 
 ' ' Education of Prostitutes 140 
 
 " Hospital de Lourcine 137 
 
 " Inscription of Prostitutes 144 
 
 " Medical Visitation 149 
 
 " Number of Prostitutes 139 
 
 " Offenses of Prostitutes 150 
 
 " Operation of remedial Meas- 
 ures 632 
 
 Paris, Prisons for Prostitutes 151 
 
 " Procuresses 143 
 
 " Prostitution in 1858 661 
 
 " Punishment of Prostitutes 149 
 
 " Radiation ofProstitutes 147 
 
 " Statistics of Syphilis 138 
 
 Parlor Houses, New York 549 
 
 Penitentiary, Blackwell's Island 587, 604 
 
 Pennsylvania 458 
 
 Persia *15 
 
 Persian Banquets .■••■ 42 
 
 Peru 367 
 
 Peter the Great, of Russia 262 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa., Prostitution in.... 611 
 Philanthropic Labors, and Results... 631 
 Philosophy in France, Tendency of.. 130 
 Philtres 63 
 
 Page 
 
 Phoenician Customs 42 
 
 Phryne 45, 59 
 
 Physiological Education, Importance 
 
 of.. 520 
 
 Piedmont, Laws of. 162 
 
 Pisistratidse 44 
 
 Pittsburgh, Pa, . Prostitution in 611 
 
 Police Regulations, Algiers 182 
 
 " Berlin 251 
 
 " France 139 
 
 " Russia 227 
 
 Police of New York, Captains of 31 
 
 " Inspectors of.... 580 
 
 Police and Judiciary Expenses, New 
 
 York 605 
 
 Political Circumstances, their Con- 
 nection with Prostitution 326 
 
 Polynesia 397 
 
 Portugal 178 
 
 •' Laws of. 179 
 
 Poverty in England 327 
 
 Preponderance of Prostitutes from 
 
 Northern States in New York 457 
 
 Preservation of female Honor 23 
 
 Prisons for Prostitutes 151 
 
 Private Interest connected with Pros- 
 titution 23 
 
 Private Life in Berlin, Description of 247 
 
 Private Prostitution in Hamburg 210 
 
 New York.... 582 
 
 Procuresses in England 308, 313 
 
 " France 97,101 
 
 " Hamburg 205 
 
 " Paris 143 
 
 Prohibition, Effects of. 627 
 
 " " in France 95, 
 
 Propriety of Investigation 20 
 
 Prostitutes compared with Population 585 
 " Converted by the early 
 
 Christians 88 
 
 Prostitutes, exaggerated estimates of 577 
 " in Algiers, Nationality of 184 
 
 " " Number of.... 183 
 
 " in New York, Income of 600 
 
 " kindly Feeling toward 
 
 each other ,547 
 
 Prostitutes, Number of in Edinburgh 341 
 " " Glasgow... '341 
 
 " " Leeds 341 
 
 > " " Liverpool. 341 
 " " London ... 340 
 " " Manches- 
 ter.^ 341 
 
 Prostitutes, Number of in New York 575 
 
 " " Paris 139 
 
 " " the United 
 
 States 615 
 
 Prostitutes recognized in Judiea 38 
 
 Prostitution a State Monopoly 43 
 
 " aggregate Cost of. 606 
 
 " augmented by Secrecy.. 631 
 " Biblical Description of.. 39 
 
684 
 
 index:. 
 
 Page 
 
 Prostitution coeval with Society 35 
 
 " earliest Eecord of 35 
 
 " Impossibility of Sup-) 19 
 
 pressing ) 628 
 
 Prostitution increased by present 
 
 . Begulations 630 
 
 Prostitution, Notoriety of. 17 
 
 " proposed Surveillance 
 
 of 643 
 
 Prostitution, Traders in 69 
 
 Prussia 219 
 
 Prussian Laws on Prostitution. . 219-225 
 
 " Police Regulations 227 
 
 " royal Rescript on Prostitu- 
 tion 223 
 
 Public Amusements 330 
 
 Public Decency advanced by Surveil 
 
 lance 652 
 
 Public Life in Berlin, Description of. 245 
 Public Morals affected by Police Sur- 
 veillance 651 
 
 Public Responsibility 640 
 
 Punishment of Prostitutes 149 
 
 Puritan Rule in England 298 
 
 Pythionice 60 
 
 " Tomb of. 61 
 
 Radiation of Prostitutes, Paris 147 
 
 Reese (Dr. D. M.) on Infant Mortal- 
 ity 482 
 
 Registration of Prostitutes 144 
 
 Religion of Prostitutes 545 
 
 " Parents of Prostitutes ... 545 
 Religious Prostitution in Chaldea.;.. 41 
 
 " Greece 
 
 Remedial Measures in Paiis, Opera- 
 tion of. '. 
 
 Remedial Measures, proposed 627 
 
 Report on Infant Mortality, by Dr. 
 
 Reese 482 
 
 Report of Medical Board, Bellevue 
 
 Hospital 665 
 
 Report of Resident Physician, Black- 
 well's Island 29 
 
 Report of Resident Physician, Ran- 
 dall's Island 673 
 
 Repression of Prostitution, Parent- 
 
 Duchatelet's Law for 153 
 
 Republican Legislation in France.... 122 
 
 Resorts of Criminals 22 
 
 Restoration of Charles II., Effect on 
 
 Morality of 298 
 
 Rhadopis 41 
 
 Rhode Island 457 
 
 Rio Janeiro, Foundling Hospitals in 371 
 
 -Hoi des Ribands 96 
 
 Borne 64 
 
 " Banquets 81 
 
 " Baths 73 
 
 " Brothels 161 
 
 " Commessationes 82 
 
 " Costume of Prostitutes 75 
 
 Rome, Drug Sellers 85 
 
 Emperors .^ 82 
 
 Houses of ProstitutJRi 70 
 
 Laws governing Prostitution . 64 
 
 Physicians 85 
 
 Prostitutes, Classes of. 68 
 
 " Habits of. 75 
 
 " Number of 68 
 
 " Remuneration of. 76 
 
 ■Republican Legislation 67 
 
 secret Diseases 84 
 
 Society, Demoralization of.... 79 
 
 Taverns 74 
 
 Euffiani 169 
 
 Russia 261 
 
 " Brides' Fair 274 
 
 ' ' Foundling Hospitals 2 75 
 
 " Laws of 261 
 
 ' ' Marriage ceremonies 274 
 
 ' ' Morals of the present Day .... 272 
 " Syphilis 276 
 
 Sahat des Sorders 104 
 
 Sailors' Ball-rooms, New York. 563 
 
 Brothels, New York 562 
 
 Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, Lon- 
 don 357 
 
 Saint Petersburg Foundling Hospital 275 
 
 Salpetrifere, Hospital of 134 
 
 Sanitary Regulations, Importance of 632 
 
 Savannah, Ga., Prostitution in 612 
 
 Schedule of Questions, New York.... 450 
 
 Scotland 460 
 
 Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island 592, 602 
 
 istresB, the, in New York 490 
 
 Secret Diseases among the Jews 36 
 
 " at Rome 84 
 
 Sectarian Aids to Prostitution 105 
 
 Seduction 320 
 
 " a Cause of Prostitution 492 
 
 '" a social Wrong 495 
 
 Semicivilized Nations 415 
 
 Seville, public Brothels at 172 
 
 Sexual Desu-e 320 
 
 Siberia 445 
 
 Society, Prostitution coeval with 35 
 
 Solomon's Temple 38 
 
 Solon, Laws of 43 
 
 Spain 168 
 
 " Court of 170 
 
 " Immorality of 169 
 
 " public Brothels in 172 
 
 Spanish and Roman Laws, Similari- 
 ty of. 168 
 
 Spanish Laws 172 
 
 " Women, Education of 177 
 
 Sparta 45 
 
 Statistics of New York 450 
 
 Stockholm, Immorality of. 280 
 
 " Illegitimacy in 278 
 
 Succubes, Belief in 103 
 
 Sumatra 411 
 
INDEX 
 
 685 
 
 Suttee 424 
 
 Sweden 277 
 
 " Brothels in 279 
 
 " Poandling Hospitals in 278 
 
 " Illegitimacy in 278 
 
 " SyphiUsin 279 
 
 Switzerland 259 
 
 Syphilis, Algiers 186 
 
 " Belgium 188 
 
 " Berlin 248 
 
 " British Army 357 
 
 " " Merchant Service .. 357 
 
 " " Navy 357 
 
 " Copenhagen 257 
 
 " France 131 
 
 " Great Britain 354 
 
 " Hamburg 214 
 
 " India 424 
 
 " Italy 157 
 
 " Japan 439 
 
 " Kashmir 421 
 
 " Leipzig 255 
 
 " New York 586 
 
 " " aggregate Ex- 
 penses of. 603 
 
 Syphilis, New York, Number of Pros- 
 titutes infected by 487 
 
 Syphilis, New York, treated by Drug 
 
 Sellers 595 
 
 Syphilis, New York, treated by Ad- 
 vertisers 596 
 
 Syphilis, New York, treated by pat- 
 ent Medicines 595 
 
 Syphilis, New York, treated in pri- 
 vate Practice 592 
 
 Syphilis, New Zealand 395 
 
 " Norway 281 
 
 " Paris 138 
 
 " Portugal 179 
 
 " Bome 164 
 
 " Russia.... 276 
 
 " Sandwich Islands 404 
 
 " Spain 174 
 
 " Sweden 379 
 
 Syphilitic Hospital in New York, Ne- 
 cessity of. 644 
 
 Syphilitic Infection, Danger of 632 
 
 " Patients, Neglect of 133 
 
 Tait (of Edinburgh) on Prostitution 
 
 in Nbw York 615 
 
 Tartar Races 440 
 
 Tax on Prostitutes, Algiers 182 
 
 Templars, Depravity of 97 
 
 Thargelia 55 
 
 Page 
 
 Theatricals, France 118 
 
 " Great Britain 300 
 
 Theodora, Empress of Rome 92 
 
 " Attempts to reclaim Pros- 
 titutes by 92 
 
 Toulouse, public Brothel at 99 
 
 Troubadours, Profligacy of. 292 
 
 Turkey 442 
 
 Ulm, Laws of. 189 
 
 Ultra-Gangetie Nations 427 
 
 Underpaid Labor 328 
 
 United States, Ages of Inhabitants.. 619 
 
 " Births in 620 
 
 " Crime in 625 
 
 " Educationin 620 
 
 ' ' Intemperance in 625 
 
 ' ' Number of Prostitutes 
 
 in 615 
 
 United States, Occupations of Inhab- 
 itants 622 
 
 United States, Pauperism in 624 
 
 " Prostitutes in various 
 
 Cities of 607 
 
 United States, Statistics of ....; 618 
 
 " Wages in 623 
 
 Unnatural Crimes 159 
 
 Vagrancy Commitments 633 
 
 " moral Ef- 
 fects of 635 
 
 Vagrancy Commitments "on Con- 
 fession" 634 
 
 Vagrancy Commitments, pecuniary 
 
 Effects of 635 
 
 Valencia, public Brothel at 172 
 
 Vectigal, or Tax on Prostitutes., 92 
 
 Venice, Brothels in 161 
 
 " Prostitutes in 162 
 
 Venus, Worship of. 53 
 
 Vermont 458 
 
 Virginia 457 
 
 Wages influenced by Competition ... 530 
 
 Wales 460 
 
 West Indies 406 
 
 Widowed Prostitutes 477 
 
 Witches, Persecution of. 105 
 
 Women, average Wages of in N. Y.. 529 
 
 " Capability of „. 525 
 
 Social Condition of 525 
 
 Work-house, Blackwell's Island 587-603 
 " Great Britain 332 
 
 Yucatan 365 
 
 THE END.