THE EXPLOITERS
The present investigation has established the fact that the business of
prostitution in New York City is exploited and, for the most part,
controlled by men, though women are also involved. The names and addresses
of over 500 men so engaged have been secured, together with personal
descriptions and the records of many of them. Some are owners, others,
procurers, the rest mainly cadets or pimps,--younger men who have a single
girl, at times a "string" of girls, "working" for them on the street or in
houses. The woman exploiter is at times, herself a proprietor; usually,
however, she is employed by men on a salary to operate a resort.
(1) OWNERS
The men proprietors have reached their present vocation by many paths.
They have been wrestlers, prize-fighters, gamblers, "politicians,"
proprietors of "creep houses,"[111] fruit venders, pawnbrokers,
pickpockets, crooks, peddlers, waiters, saloonkeepers, etc. Some of them
pose as "business men," carrying cards and samples, to serve as a
subterfuge when they are arrested as vagrants or for living off the
proceeds of prostitution. Not a few, however, without concealment, devote
their entire time and energy to managing parlor houses and other resorts
of prostitution. Some of the latter own a business outright; others have
partners who share in the profits. One man, for instance, conducts a house
with from fifteen to twenty-five inmates, and, in addition, has an
interest in several other ventures of the same character. In some cases
the firm is a family affair, including brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles,
and cousins.
For several years thirty one-dollar houses of prostitution in the
Tenderloin have been operated as a "combine," under the direct control of
fifteen or more men. The individuals in question have been in business for
many years in New York City, as well as in other cities both in this
country and abroad. They buy and sell shares in these houses among
themselves, and it is seldom that an outsider, unless he be a relative,
can "break" into the circle and share in the profits. The value of the
shares depends upon the ability of the owners to maintain conditions in
which the houses, being unmolested, are permitted to make large profits.
The man who proves himself capable of achieving this through business
sagacity and political pull is called the "king." Upon him falls the
responsibility of "seeing" the "right" individuals.
Owners follow the trend of public sentiment with a keenness and foresight
truly remarkable. If a new official indicates by orders or by sentiments
expressed in public that he is in favor of an "open town," there is great
rejoicing among the promoters. Agitation in the opposite direction reacts
on the value of their properties: prices drop and there is a scramble to
"get under cover." If spasmodic efforts at reform are made, the more
prominent owners meet in council with their lawyers and solemnly discuss
what their policy should be. If their houses are closed, they still keep
on paying rent, ready to open again--when a favorable word comes or when
the moral outbreak subsides. For the owner has no faith in reformers.
"They get tired and quit"; "all this will blow over"; "they are sick of it
already";--such are his reflections as he recalls past experiences.
The majority of men exploiters of prostitution in New York City are
foreigners by birth. Some of them have been seducers of defenseless women
all their lives. In one instance, at least, a whole family is engaged in
the business,--the parents[112] conduct a restaurant, which is a "hangout"
for pimps, procurers, crooks, and prostitutes; the daughters are
prostitutes, the two sons, pimps and procurers. The father and mother are
constantly on the lookout for girls whom their sons may ruin and exploit
on the street or in houses. Another family[113] has already been referred
to as conducting a delicatessen store in Seventh Avenue: they occupy the
upper floors as their dwelling; the shop below is the favorite rendezvous
of owners, madames, procurers, pimps, and prostitutes. The children of
this family, one a girl just reaching womanhood, mingle freely with them.
The father keeps an eye on the handsome procurers who talk with his
children; though he listens daily to their schemes for securing women and
girls he would "cut to pieces" any man among them who attempted to defile
his own daughters.
The owners in question did not all come directly to America. Some of them
drifted to other parts of Europe with young girls whom they had secured in
the small towns or cities of their own countries. South Africa was a
favorite destination--especially Johannesburg. Many, going thither during
the Boer War, are reputed to have made large profits from their business
with soldiers as customers. The authorities, however, beat them with whips
and drove them from the cities. They fled to South America and then to
North America. Their trail of seduction and corruption may be traced
through Argentine, Brazil, Cuba, Canada, Alaska, and the large cities of
our own country--San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, Butte, Denver,
Omaha, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburg, Philadelphia; finally they realize
their hopes in New York City. Here they have made a center, and from this
center they go back over the old trail from time to time.
If a composite photograph could be made of typical owners of vice resorts,
it would show a large, well-fed man about forty years of age and five
feet, eight inches, in height. His clothes are the latest cut, loud in
design, and carefully pressed. A heavy watch chain adorns his waistcoat, a
large diamond sparkles in a flashy necktie, and his fat, chubby fingers
are encircled with gold and diamond rings.
On April 6, 1912, a group of owners were parading up and down Seventh
Avenue in front of the above-mentioned delicatessen store, discussing
"business." They were all dressed in their best and looked prosperous.
One, a large man with a black mustache, wore a very fine English suit and
a hat which was said to have cost eight dollars. A large diamond ring
sparkled on his fat hand, a diamond horse shoe pin flashed in his tie, and
a charm set with precious stones hung from a heavy gold watch chain. His
brother-in-law, part owner with him of a house of prostitution in West
25th Street,[114] was also dressed in the height of fashion,--a smart
suit, a black derby hat, and patent leather pumps. A third partner
presented an equally dignified appearance. There were eight other owners
in the group, making a very imposing appearance as they eagerly waited to
talk over matters of "business" with the representative of the "boss,"--a
certain official who, as the men claimed, was on this day to send word
whether or not the owners could proceed with their nefarious business.
The "king"[115] of this set has the reputation of being able to "see" the
right persons; when a member is "in wrong" or wants to open a house, the
"king" must first be consulted. The "king" is interested in eleven houses
of prostitution--of some of which he is the sole owner; each establishment
contains an average of about fifteen inmates. He supports two notorious
women,[116] who serve as madames, each jealous of every attention bestowed
by him on the other. Many years ago he was a soldier in Russia, where he
ruined a young girl whom he afterwards took to South Africa. Since that
time she has earned thousands of dollars for him. He brought her to this
country and traveled with her from city to city until finally he settled
in New York, where he has since built up a prosperous business and gained
an "influential" position.
Among the others are two brothers who combine the business of exploiting
prostitution with that of selling diamonds. They are noted for their
ability to outwit the law, for they openly declare that they can buy their
way out of any trial. Besides their houses, they have conducted pool
parlors and restaurants, and one of them has the reputation of being a
"fence," or receiver of stolen goods. The history of these two men
illustrates the manner in which pimps develop into proprietors. When they
first came to America about twenty years ago, they found employment on a
peddler's wagon. Soon after, one of them ruined a fifteen-year old girl
who was born on Broome Street, New York City. For seven years subsequently
she was his woman, earning money for him on the street and in houses. The
other brother, not to be outdone, also secured a girl and became a pimp.
Later they were both employed as watchboys about houses of prostitution.
Being ambitious, they were soon operating regular houses on Allen Street,
which at that time was part of the old Red Light District in Manhattan.
Here they prospered for a number of years, though in the end they were
driven from the East Side. With four women they then went to Boston, where
they opened a house. Apprehended there, they "jumped their bail" and
returned to their former haunts in New York. Their old enemy had
evidently lost his power; for the brothers were allowed to continue in
business. After the closing of the district, the scene of their business
ventures was transferred to Buffalo during the Exposition of 1901. Driven
thence, they went to St. Louis, where they soon owned houses, saloons, and
gambling places. Ex-Governor Folk was District Attorney in St. Louis at
that time and the brothers were among those who fell into his net. One
brother, known as the "King of White Chapel," that being the Red Light
District, was indicted on several counts for felonies and misdemeanors.
The other brother and one of his women[117] were also indicted. The
enterprising pair secured bail, which they immediately forfeited, and,
leaving all their wealth behind, began to roam from place to place with
their women. One went to Havana, and one to Pittsburg; driven from
Pittsburg, the latter soon joined his brother in Havana. From Havana the
two men and their women went to South Africa and settled in Johannesburg.
Here once more they made a large sum of money. The authorities seized one
of the brothers and sentenced him to jail; on the expiration of his term,
he was whipped and ordered out of the city. The brothers then went to
Vienna, to London, and from London sailed to New York City. When they
returned to the city of their early business success, they opened a house
of prostitution on West 34th Street in company with a man who had just
returned from South Africa. For a year they prospered. When the former
District Attorney of St. Louis, who had since become Governor, learned of
their presence in this country, he secured their extradition. The brothers
took $25,000 to St. Louis with them and not long afterwards returned to
New York entirely penniless. No wonder the elder and more crafty of the
two brothers declares that the law cannot touch them! No wonder, when he
is intoxicated, he strikes his chest and shouts defiance to the law!
During all these vicissitudes one of his women[118] remained loyal. She is
known among the owners of houses all over the country as the "best money
getter" in the world. When her owner was "broke" and in sore distress, she
put him on his feet again. She is his woman to-day.
The instances cited are by no means exceptional. Prostitution has become a
business, the promoters of which continually scan the field for a location
favorable to their operations; and the field is the entire civilized
world. No legitimate enterprise is more shrewdly managed from this point
of view; no variety of trade adjusts itself more promptly to conditions,
transferring its activities from one place to another, as opportunities
contract here and expand there. The keeper of a disorderly saloon[119]
finds himself hampered in Chicago: he migrates to New York to become part
owner of a Sixth Avenue resort.[120] Raided in Philadelphia, another[121]
goes first to Pittsburg, thence to this city, where he purchases an
interest in a West 25th Street[122] establishment. The former owner[123]
of places in St. Louis and Omaha is now part owner in two houses[124] on
this same street. Still another[125] was in the business successively in
Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, and Los Angeles. One of the
partners[126] in a resort in West 36th Street[127] has at different times
had houses in Portland, Seattle, Brazil, Argentine, and London.
Another[128] is simultaneously interested in houses in this city[129] and
in Norfolk, Virginia. The part owner[130] of a notorious place on Sixth
Avenue[131] has conducted houses of prostitution in St. Louis, Buffalo,
and Johannesburg, South Africa, and has traveled all over the world in the
business of exploiting prostitution.[132]
(2) PROCURERS
While keepers of houses are also procurers, there is a group of men who
devote themselves singly to this work. These are the typical "white
slavers," whose trade depends entirely upon the existence of houses of
prostitution. To this point we shall in a moment recur in connection with
women promoters of prostitution. For the present I desire simply to
emphasize the fact that the procurer has practically no chance to ply his
trade unless there are houses of prostitution from which he can accept
orders and to which he can dispose of "goods." The successful procurer as
well as the pimp, to be next described, boasts that, once a girl comes
under his influence, she will do anything for him. No matter how ugly or
repulsive outwardly, he holds his women. One of the most active procurers
in the city is short, heavy, and humpbacked.[133] He has the reputation of
being even more successful than a competitor[134] who is handsome,
athletic, and well-dressed. The former has been apprehended in other
cities on the charge of procuring, once serving two and a half years in
Philadelphia under an assumed name.[135] To-day he walks the streets of
New York City, a free man, unmolested.
Procurers frequent entrances to factories and department stores, or walk
the streets at night striking up acquaintance with girls who are alone and
looking for adventure. They select a girl waiting on a table in a
restaurant, or at the cashier's desk, and gradually make her acquaintance.
They attend steamboat excursions, are found at the sea shore and amusement
parks, in moving picture shows, at the public dance halls,--in fact,
wherever girls congregate for business or for pleasure. They choose with
almost unerring judgment the type of girl who may be pliable to their
will.
At 5 P. M., on March 14, 1912, six procurers[136] stood on the corner of
27th Street and Sixth Avenue waiting for the shop and factory girls to
pass by on their way going home from work. For one hour the investigator
watched these men and saw them endeavoring to attract the attention of
several girls. At last two of them[137] succeeded in interesting two
girls, who accompanied them.
On Sunday, June 23, 1912, a group of procurers[138] went to a certain
seashore resort. On the beach they were joined by a notorious procurer,
then employed as a life saver.[139] He greeted his comrades with the
words: "Ich hob' frisch' Schore" (I have fresh goods.) The group then put
on their bathing suits and went into the surf. After a while they missed
one of their number,[140] whom they finally found with a young girl
apparently eighteen years of age: she was the "fresh goods,"--the object
of the "line up," as it afterwards developed.
(3) THE PIMP
The pimp or cadet as he is commonly called, has not yet developed into a
professional procurer or keeper of a house of prostitution. While all
procurers and owners of houses are in reality pimps, the converse is not
always true: all pimps are not procurers, though they may hope to be some
day.
The pimp enters the business when he either ruins a young girl for his
future profit or becomes the lover and protector of a prostitute already
in the business. As the future pimp grows up in a crowded neighborhood, he
becomes a member of a gang and, as such, is admired by some reckless girl
in the vicinity. Proud of her acquaintance with him, she shares the spoils
resulting from his petty thieving and other escapades. Very early in
their career the two begin to have immoral relations, not only with each
other, but with different boys and girls of their own kind. They have
never had moral standards in any proper sense of the term. The large
majority of boys who become pimps and seducers of girls and the large
majority of girls who become prostitutes were at the start not immoral,
but unmoral. Later the boy drifts to the pool parlor or gambling room for
his recreation and companionship, the girl to public dance halls and
similar places of amusement. Many of these girls are already clandestine
prostitutes, secretly carrying on the business of prostitution while at
the same time engaged in some legitimate employment "just to keep up a
respectable appearance." Under the pimp's influence and suggestion the
girl finally "breaks" away from her secret immoral life and becomes a
"regular." The pimp shows her the way, provides places for her to solicit
or "hustle" on the street or in the vice resort. He attends to the
business arrangements, even to the collection of her money, though when
she is "well broke," he allows her to collect her own money and give it to
him. Some pimps beat their women, on the principle that that is the only
way to make them fear and love them. This may seem a paradox; but it is
indeed true that many prostitutes do not believe their lovers care for
them unless they "beat them up" occasionally.
The psychology of the relation of prostitute to pimp is a complicated one,
difficult for the normal individual to understand. In the cases above
alluded to, boy and girl have been comrades, the boy lording it over the
girl until she submits to being his property. But there are prostitutes,
apparently quite able to stand alone, who deliberately select a pimp; if
they cease to be satisfied with him, he is discharged and a successor
taken. Why should a prostitute of either kind desire a pimp? There are
many reasons: the pimp is her business agent in dealing with owners, hotel
keepers, etc.; he is her "go-between," if she gets into "trouble" with the
law; her companion, for she is lonely after the night's business;
but--most important of all--her lover--one person who seems to care for
her as a human being, whether he does or not, and for whom she does
herself really care. A spark of affection lives at the heart of this
ghastly relation.
In her relation to the pimp, as well as to the house madame, the
prostitute is not infrequently to all intents and purposes a white slave.
For the pimp, like the madame, subjects her in many cases completely to
his will and command. This does not mean that the girl is necessarily
imprisoned behind locked doors and barred windows. But restraint may be
thoroughly effective, even though not actually or mainly physical.
Uneducated, with little or no comprehension of her legal rights or of the
powers which could be invoked to aid her, often an immigrant or at least a
stranger, she is soon cowed by the brute to whom she has mistakenly
attached herself. Should she make an effort to break away, she is pursued
and hemmed in by the concerted efforts of her cadet and his associates. As
a rule, however, pimps are skilful enough to play for and to obtain the
sentimental loyalty of their women; so that the prostitute herself becomes
the greatest obstacle to her own freedom and rehabilitation.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pimps in New York City. During
this investigation scores of their names and personal descriptions have
been accumulated, as well as those of their women. One of the best
known[141] is a "life-taker" and "strong arm guy," a dangerous fellow,
twenty-two years old, who has been repeatedly arrested as a consequence of
his quarrels. A "pipe fiend" and gambler, his favorite occupation is
"stuss." At elections he has his own "mob" who work at the polls for
corrupt politicians. His girl is a slim, bleached blonde, "good for $100
to $150 a week on the street," it is said.
On June 26, 1912, five pimps were playing cards in a restaurant on Seventh
Avenue. The day was very hot. During the afternoon the girl[142] who is
"hustling" for one of them[143] came into the restaurant wearing a heavy
velvet suit. The wife of the proprietor asked: "What are you doing,
wearing a suit like that in this kind of weather?" She replied that though
she was bringing home eight, ten, and twelve dollars every night, she
could not afford a new dress. "He needs it for gambling," she said,
pointing to her pimp. Leaving the table in anger he deliberately slapped
her in the face: "Didn't you pay $32 for that suit?" he said. "What more
do you want?"
Another[144] frequents a restaurant in Second Avenue.[145] He is
twenty-nine years of age, smooth shaven, with a scar on his face. Before
he became a pimp he was known as a "pool room shark." He smokes opium,
snuffs cocaine, and plays stud poker. With men of his kind he is not very
popular: they declare that he cannot tell the truth, that for a "shell of
hop" he would kill a dozen Chinamen, and for a nickel would "frame up" his
best friend. "Just an ordinary, every day, common pimp," they say,--"can't
borrow a dollar and lives on nothing but the money his woman earns."
Hearing of places where business is better, owners and pimps ship their
"goods" about in hope of larger profits. The women remit their earnings,
even if separated hundreds of miles. For example, Fanny, a woman belonging
to a notorious pimp,[146] formerly solicited on Third Avenue. A year or
more ago Fanny was brought into court, charged with street walking. She
was sentenced to not less than three months nor more than five; after a
month she was released, according to her pimp, who declared that it had
cost him $500 in lawyers' fees, etc. Thereupon he sent Fanny to Butte,
Montana, whence at the end of one week she sent him $150. On June 21,
1912, the pimp complained that Fanny was then sending him only $150 per
month. He was sure that she was "holding out on him," for he knew that she
made at least $100 a week.
Sophia, belonging to an equally well-known cadet,[147] whose own parents
try to secure women for him, reached New York from New Orleans late in
June, 1912. Her pimp and her brother met her at the station. To the
former's utter surprise she declared that she was "through" with him. A
quarrel ensued; the pimp was worsted and had to abandon his claim to the
girl,--one of the occasional cases, already referred to, in which the girl
throws over her pimp.
(4) MADAMES
The women who run houses have as a rule risen from the ranks. They were
once street walkers or parlor house inmates who possess unusual business
talents. They have learned the secrets of the trade; they know the kind of
inmates to get, and where to get them. They know how to deal with
customers and how to make them spend money.
It takes a woman of tact and force to operate a house with from fifteen to
twenty-five inmates competing with one another on a commission basis. She
must keep them contented, prevent quarrels, and stifle petty jealousies.
She must attach as many of them to the house as she can and keep them
loyal. To do this the madame seeks to become the adviser and friend of the
girls, while at the same time she drives them to the utmost to earn larger
profits for the house. It is not uncommon for the girls as well as the
customers to call her "mother." Strange as it may seem, some men marry
these women and find them devoted wives.
All of the thirty cheap resorts referred to in a previous chapter as
belonging to men are managed by madames and housekeepers who are either
their wives or their women. These women attend to all the details
connected with the business. They receive customers, "show off the girls,"
urge visitors to spend money, collect money, punch checks, sell liquor,
keep the books, and settle up with the boss: when the houses are raided or
an arrest has to be made they are the ones to go to jail. The large
majority of them were born in foreign countries. They have had years of
experience in operating houses in many cities of North and South America,
as well as in foreign lands, especially South Africa. The loyalty
displayed by them toward the men who employ them has become a tradition.
Year after year, through adversity and prosperity they have followed their
masters and obeyed their will. Beaten, exploited, infected, jailed, they
still remain steadfast. Very rarely can one of them be persuaded to
testify in a court of law against her master. A striking example is
furnished by a woman[148] who came under the influence of her master[149]
when she was a child of fifteen and was living with her parents in a
distant country, where he had seduced her. At 9 P. M., on June 27, 1912,
she came into a restaurant where her man was playing cards and upbraided
him because he had purchased an automobile and placed it at the disposal
of another one of his madames, neglecting her. She called him vile names
and declared that she would go to the police and "squeal" on him. She told
how for fifteen years she had earned money for him, and all she had to
show for it was a furnished room to sleep in and a diamond ring, while he
put his other woman in a "swell" apartment. "I've been cut to pieces for
you," she wailed, "I've been your slave for fifteen years and now you
turn me down for that wench." She had hardly concluded her tirade when her
man rose from his chair and struck her brutally in the face with his fist.
She reeled as though about to fall, then cowering before him left the
place weeping. She did not "squeal" to the police.
When a man owner employs either his wife, woman or a housekeeper to
operate his house, it is understood that she shall be the one to suffer
punishment in case of arrest. In order to avoid punishment, men who rent
houses for these purposes sub-let them to the women, who are then held as
the responsible parties. When arrest or eviction comes, and the madame is
sent to jail or dispossessed, the real proprietor again sub-lets his house
to another woman. This fact explains why the arrests for conducting houses
of prostitution do not result in diminishing to any extent the number of
such resorts. On June 24, 1912, a keeper had a sub-lease drawn up for a
house and inserted the name of Anna,[150] the prospective madame who was
to "stand for" the arrest or eviction notice, should there be one. On
March 31, 1912, "Joe"[151] said that he was paying $85 per month to his
landlord and $25 per month as a bonus to the agent for his house of
prostitution in West 28th Street.[152] The landlord[153] is reputed to be
a wealthy business man,--"a fine fellow," said Joe, "he is now fighting a
dispossession notice for me. It is understood between us that if I can't
beat it, I can sub-let the house to another woman and charge her a bigger
rent. Later, when we get another notice, I can say, 'All right, I will
dispossess this woman.' Then I can get another. It's no joke to run a
house, believe me. The women are sent to jail. My wife got sixty days for
running this house the other day. That arrest will cost me $300 for her
alone. Now the women have started a new game. In case one gets three
months, we have to give her $500 to keep her mouth shut." On March 11,
1912, a partner[154] in a house of prostitution in West 24th Street[155]
was describing his fortunes as a keeper of houses in New York City during
the past fifteen years. Among other things he said, "My housekeeper got
three months last week, and I am paying her $5 a day for every day she is
in jail."
Not a few of these madames have been arrested in different countries and
cities as "gun mols" (pickpockets). That is part of their training, and
the robberies they commit add many dollars to the incomes of the men who
have put them in the business. A customer who enters their houses in an
intoxicated condition is often robbed of everything of value. If he
remonstrates he is told by the police to swear out a warrant for the woman
he suspects and appear as a witness against her. It is not often a man
will do this under the circumstances.
The women who operate houses on their own account belong to a rather
different type: their establishments are almost always pretentious. Born,
as a rule, in this country or in France, they make a show of elegance and
refinement. Their houses are elaborately furnished and they and their
"boarders" appear in stylish gowns, and endeavor to interest their guests
by affecting a knowledge of art or music or literature. Many of them
openly boast of influential and prominent friends, on whose good offices
they can rely in emergencies.
In either case the housekeeper earns money not only from the customers of
the house, but from the inmates. Theoretically the inmates receive
one-half of all the money they take in. This is not actually the case.
They are indeed fortunate if they receive any money at all after weeks of
service. At most, they obtain from fifteen to twenty per cent instead of
fifty per cent. Sometimes, as the first step in the process of
exploitation, the madame tries to induce the girl to give up her pimp, in
order that she may have her more directly under control. Having attached
the girl to herself, she sells her all sorts of things: coats, suits,
dresses, kimonos, chemises, underwear, hosiery, shoes, hats, gloves,
feathers, plumes, combs, hairpins, toilet articles, silver meshbags,
watches and rings. Hundreds of girls are thus preyed upon. Not
infrequently, however, it happens that madames prefer that their girls
keep their pimps, because such girls are made to work harder by the aid of
the latter. As the madames and pimps divide the gains of the unfortunate
creatures, their interests usually agree and they unite to exploit their
common property.
The articles mentioned in the preceding paragraph are not infrequently
described as stolen goods, brought to the houses by peddlers who are hired
to dispose of them by crooks and shoplifters. A pimp and procurer[156] was
in a resort[157] on the third floor of a house on West 58th Street[158]
on June 15, 1912, trying to sell the madame several pairs of silk hose, to
be sold in turn to the inmates. The stockings were frankly admitted to be
stolen goods which had been turned over to him by a shoplifter[159] who is
a member of a 14th Street gang and is known as a "strong arm guy." On
March 28, 1912, about 8 P. M., a young crook[160] came into a restaurant
in Seventh Avenue[161] and exhibited a dress which he declared he had
stolen from a prominent store.[162] The dress was marked $18.29. It did
not fit any of the madames who were in the restaurant at the time. Finally
he sold the dress to the madame[163] of a house in West 25th Street[164]
for $10. She in turn disposed of it to one of her inmates for $35. The
notorious madame[165] of a house in West 25th Street[166] had fifty
chemises on March 25, 1912, which she had purchased from a peddler,[167]
giving him $31 for the lot. "I am selling these to the girls for $6, $7,
and $8 apiece," she said. "If I bought them in a store they would cost
$2.75 apiece; but what is the difference whether I get it or the pimp gets
it?"
"I never allow a girl to get down to owing me less than $5," said another
madame. "When she is as nearly out of debt as that, I send for Sam the
peddler and suggest that she buy some clothes and toilet articles. There's
Ruth,--just watch her when she comes in. I dressed her up the way you
will see her; the dress cost me $20. She paid me $70 for it."
The procuress may be dealt with in this same connection. Like the madame
she has, as a rule, become too old to find prostitution itself any longer
a profitable business; but native shrewdness and plausibility enable her
to turn her experience to account as a pandar. I have already spoken of
men procurers; but the woman procurer is even more insidious. She meets
young girls in private rooms, talks to them in public places, invites them
to her home without arousing suspicion. As a woman she knows many avenues
of approach closed to men, and is quick to sympathize with discouraged or
vain girls.
One of the best procuresses in New York City operates as a sort of
employment agent, receiving a commission from immoral girls for finding
profitable houses for them to work in. In this way she supplies the
cheaper grade of houses, the girls paying her from $2 to $5 commission,
according to the character of the house to which she sends them.
Another,[168] also the madame of a house in West 38th Street,[169] goes to
France to secure girls for her exclusive $5 and $10 house. On June 6,
1912, eight inmates were counted in her establishment, several of whom
were young French girls who could speak little or no English. One of them
told a stranger that she had not been in this country very long. On July
17, 1912, at about 7 P. M., a madame was asked[170] whether she could use
three girls just brought from Vancouver, British Columbia. Betsy, the
madame, said she could not, but pointed with her finger to two men
owners[171] of a house in West 28th Street.[172] One of them asked the
woman what the girls looked like. The procuress indicated that they were
well built, young, and pretty. The man cautiously advised the woman to
take the girls somewhere and "green them out."[173]
The close and essential connection between the white slave traffic and
houses of prostitution is clearly exhibited by the foregoing instances.
Houses of prostitution cannot exist except through trafficking in women.
Prostitutes who live scattered through the city may earn money for their
pimps; but traffic in scattered prostitutes is practically impossible. As
soon as houses are set up, an opportunity for trade is created. The
proprietors give specific orders to the procurer--for young girls, for
innocent girls, for blondes, for brunettes, for slender women, for stout
women. And the procurer fills the order, resorting to every possible
device in the effort to do so,--to deceit, misrepresentation,
intoxication, "doping," or what not. The white slave traffic is thus not
only a hideous reality, but a reality almost wholly dependent on the
existence of houses of prostitution.