August 268
September 249
October (a period of fairs and other assemblages) 258
And the average finally 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 supervision 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 police 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
--- 67
Total 257
About this period, an epoch of general political movement, men of the
highest rank in Prussia began to doubt the propriety of tolerating
prostitution, and orders were given, in opposition to the remonstrances of
the police, to take 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 police intimated that
illicit prostitution would be its inevitable result. In reply, they were
directed that, if their prediction should be verified, they must pursue
the vice more closely. In 1800 the number of registered women had
decreased to 246, _but it was notorious that illicit prostitution had
increased largely_. This fact was not denied by the police. They ascribed
it, very justly, to the restrictions imposed 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 comparative 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, but strictly guarded regular brothels, was not
for the public 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 uncontrolled. The French
military commanders in Berlin made complaints to the police of the lawless
state of the town, particularly specifying some of the brothels, which had
become nests of gamblers, wherein robbery, duels, suicides, and other
offenses were of frequent occurrence. The results of an inspection were as
follows:
50 brothels containing women 230
Private prostitutes 203--433
In addition to this, there were of notorious illicit
prostitutes known to the police (60 of whom were stated
to have disease in its worst forms) 400
And also reasonably suspected of prostitution 67
---
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 abandonment of a tried system of
_surveillance_.
The state of affairs disclosed by this inquiry called forth a ministerial
rescript, dated May 8, 1809, which we copy:
"The brothel-houses are, by reason of the great influence they have on
morality 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 tolerated in public neighborhoods of a city. It
is rather to be desired that, upon every convenient and properly
occurring opportunity, they should be stamped 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, which had doubtless emanated direct from
royalty itself, Herr Von Gruner, the head of the Berlin police,
communicated a report containing his conclusions, as follows:
"1. That closing, or even limiting the brothels, would lead to very
general ill health."
"2. That, in consequence of the exertions of the police, illicit
prostitution 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 " " " " 75
22 third " " " " 117--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 have been experienced 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
certainly 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 _Königsmauer_, etc."
"5. That he did not know in what manner 'the brand of depravity and
infamy' could be impressed on the trade of prostitution, except by
directing a particular costume, differing from the clothing of
respectable 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 narrow 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 registration except
their health, and the general regulation in that and other matters is
much better secured in the brothels."
Among the official correspondence on this matter we find another document
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, together with the prostitutes living on their
own account, are controlled in conformity with the regulations of
February 2d, 1792. 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 natives 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 Charité
demonstrate 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 permitted therein, is advisable, in order to counteract the
seduction of respectable females?' can not be categorically answered
in the affirmative. 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 propositions, touching
private prostitutes and removal of brothels from public streets, will
be carried into effect. Express limitations of the brothels to two or
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 officials on the subject;
the royal rescripts enunciating the oft-repeated 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 experience 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 being stated that there was not a
single brothel or 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 prostitution 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_; _that nothing 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:
Venereal cases in Illegitimate births
Years. Breslau Hospital. in Breslau.
1805 155 ....
1806 202 ....
1807 323 ....
1808 233 ....
1809 150 ....
1810 118 382
1811 98 316
1812 139 282
1813 159 222
The years 1800 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 policy, 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 fully reviewed the question, but refused the
prayer of the petition.
The change of localities, alterations in the law, and other circumstances,
made a re-enactment of the code of 1792 desirable, and this took place in
1829. The alterations are chiefly in minor details of no general interest,
but the law against frequenting 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 frequently, 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 medical officer, 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 Rhine provinces, alluded to the matter of prostitution,
and expressed himself as strongly opposed 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,
inasmuch as the advantages to be gained are, in my opinion, illusory,
and in no degree countervail the inconvenience of the state sanction
thus afforded to discreditable institutions. All attempts by the
police to introduce decency 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 brothels are outlets for
dangerous arts of seduction has never been substantiated. * * * * Had
the police ever realized the suppression of illicit prostitution 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 renew their petitions for the suppression 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 Königsmauer. The relative number of brothels and prostitutes in
the years 1836 and 1844 was as follows:
1836, brothels 33 Prostitutes 200
1844, " 24 " 240
-- ---
_Decrease_ of brothels in 1844 9
_Increase_ of prostitutes in 1844 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 Königsmauer was a spot shunned by decent people
from old times, out of the way, and with few inhabitants but those
interested in the traffic, there was nobody to suffer, and the whole
argument virtually turned upon the moral consequences of the government
regulations 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 excitement were used; that the women
appeared at the windows exposed and bare-necked; in short, the
memorialists said all that is customarily said on such occasions. But they
seem to have forgotten that the police possessed both power and
inclination to suppress such grievances, or else it never occurred to
these "Berlin 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
Berlin complained of, was not more extreme than in other great cities
of Germany, 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 Charité had been in
1838, men 569 Women 634 Total 1209
1839, " 695 " 738 " 1433
1840, " 704 " 757 " 1461
Assuming that one third of the venereal cases in Berlin were treated
privately, 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 1 in every 250."[266]
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 former, 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 complaints against
the same houses in the Königsmauer. This was referred to the police
authorities with the brief injunction, "Make an end of the nuisances about
which there are so many complaints."
The _Schulkollegium_ of the province of Brandenburg now joined their
influence to swell the public outcry that the few houses of prostitution
on the Königsmauer were hurtful to public morals, and a bad example to
youth, and, on the ground of interest in their students and pupils,
demanded that they be closed. The police, who had previously taken every
precaution against a violation 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
inhabitants, or the internal management of the houses. Thus satisfied as
to the nature of the opposition, the police treated the college officials
somewhat cavalierly, and recommended them to prohibit 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 in 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 Königsmauer. The
clergyman proceeded upon moral and religious 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
agitators 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 influential
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 inscription; the insult to majesty in allowing
brothels to exist in a street called Königsmauer, and many similarly
weighty points. The practical knowledge of the police as to the effect of
registration 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 working was entirely ruled
out; so that, to a person unacquainted with both sides of the question, a
sufficient _ex parte_ case was presented.
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 breach 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 difficulties in the details of these
proceedings, and asked for more explicit instructions, which were
supplied. In the second communication was this remarkable passage:
"Should a diminution in the number of brothels take place, and thereby
the number of common prostitutes be affected, we shall then learn by
experience 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 established 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 287
Registered private prostitutes 18
---
Total 305
The amount received and disbursed on account of the healing fund was also
reported in thalers, thus:
1841. Received 3384 | Disbursed 1027
1842. " 3393 | " 861
1843. " 3365 | " 689
It concludes with the opinion entertained by the police:
"As for the influence which the extinction of brothels may have upon
the morals, safety, and health of society, the police authorities
think themselves 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 would be highly objectionable to close the
brothels before other measures are prepared in reference to
prostitution."
No such measures were prepared. The king would hear no farther argument
upon the matter; and, by positive "royal command," the brothels were
closed and registered prostitution stopped, 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
houseless, 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 received was as follows.
From Halle:
"Since the French 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, however, 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 procurers 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 materially diminished, so that there are now but about
fifteen in the city. The secret prostitution was not, however, under
any control. 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 official communication added his private opinion, 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 acceptable 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 practices. If found out, they were to be punished, and,
after punishment, to be continued under _surveillance_ until good
behavior. During 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 public health. The police 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 licentiousness of habits.
It now remains to trace the effects of the suppression of registered
brothels, and local authorities afford abundant and satisfactory proof
that the fears of the police 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 prostitution houses, which were under a
purifying police control in sanitary and general matters, afforded
safety and protection."
In another local paper we find:
"Prostitution, which had previously kept out of sight in dark and
retired corners, 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 insulting virtuous women and putting them to the
blush, they crowded the fashionable promenades, 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 ball-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
silks or satins, or lounging in the hall, or whirling in the giddy
waltz, it is certainly a scene to intoxicate the youth who frequent 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 folly, 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 possibly in company
with her 'newly-married husband,' seeks to know the names and position
of such evident celebrity and fashion. 'Do not you know her? 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 singular
to the uninitiated. These worthies are the 'husbands' of the
before-mentioned ladies. They play the careless or the strict
cavalier; are Blue-beards on occasion; appear or keep out of sight,
according to the proprieties of the moment."
From the same writer we extract the following sketch of a
DANCING SALOON.
"The price of admission is ten groschen (about twenty cents), which
insures 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 found 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 description, but in a
somewhat less artificial condition. Scenes of bacchant excitement and
of wildest abandonment may be witnessed here. The outward show is all
mirth and happiness; pleasure unrestrained seems the business 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 agreeable partners sit
apart, sullen and discontented; oftentimes they have no money to pay
for their own refreshments. Pair by pair the crowd diminishes, until
toward three or four o'clock, when the place is closed."
The lowest dancing-houses are the _Tanz wirthschaften_, 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
profligacy abound. Servants of both sexes, soldiers and journeymen,
workwomen and prostitutes, make up the public. Here, on the most
frivolous pretenses, 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 simplicity," who, after a
night of tumult and uproar with her lover, will go in the morning to
nurse the child whose mother neglects 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 well-known criminals, who are habituated to smoking,
drinking, and the wildest orgies, 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 Königstadt there is a drinking saloon where, besides the wife
of the host, there are two young girls who exceed all compeers in
shamelessness 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 the girls to the tinkle of a guitar, the
player of which acted her part in one of the abolished brothels;
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 company with one or the other of their guests."
In reading these descriptions, it must be remembered that, under 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 family
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 proprieties 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 his wife and child. 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 ascend to the third floor. On the
right of the stairs is a teacher who has had a child by his wife's
sister; the wife grieves 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
thalers (twelve dollars) a month, but the people seem very
comfortable. Their daughter has a very nice front room, well
furnished, and 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 announces '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 the suppression of brothels, it will be
necessary to take medical testimony. In Dr. Loewe's pamphlet,
"Prostitution with reference to Berlin, 1852," we find:
"In vain the Charité, after the ordinary wards were full of venereal
patients, 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 Charité 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 Charité. This was done, but the new wards were
soon filled with venereal females; the patients 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 influx of venereal patients
must be regarded as the inevitable, natural consequence of the
abolition 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 1847, a year after their suppression,
there were 1250 notorious prostitutes. Those, in the opinion of the
police, constituted but a portion of those who practiced prostitution,
but yet had an apparent means of living. Behind the Königsmauer the
traffic is carried on worse than formerly, 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 punished, 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
informed against as being diseased, but they can do no more. _The
prostitution which was formerly confined within a limited district is
now spread over the whole town._"
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 Charité:
Year 1840 Females, 757 Males, ---
" 1841 " 743 " ---
" 1842 " 676 " ---
" 1843 " 669 " ---
" 1844 " 657 " 741
" 1845 " 514 " 711
" 1846 " 627 " 813
" 1847 " 761 " 894
" 1848 " 835 " 979
He also investigated the average time each patient was under treatment, as
tending to show the malignity of the disease, and reports:
Year 1844, men, 21-5/6 days; women, 31-2/3 days; both sexes, 26-3/4 days.
" 1845, " 26-6/7 " " 42-8/9 " " " 34-2/3 "
" 1846, " 30-1/2 " " 51-1/2 " " " 40-7/8 "
" 1847, " 34-1/9 " " 43-2/3 " " " 38-2/3 "
" 1848, " 33-1/3 " " 53-1/6 " " " 43-1/2 "
These facts are corroborated by the registers of the Military Lazaret.
From returns made to the police department by Herr Lohmeyer, General Staff
Physician, it appears there were in the garrison
In 1844 and 1845, 735 syphilitic cases. Of these,
633 cases of primary syphilis required 17,916 days of attendance;
102 " " secondary " " 4,947 " "
--- ------
735 " " " 22,863 " "
In 1846, and the first six months of 1847, there were 618 cases:
501 cases of primary syphilis required 17,788 days of attendance;
117 " " secondary " " 5,213 " "
--- ------
618 " " " " 23,001 " "
Dr. Behrend states, as the results of conversations and communications
with many of the medical profession, and of his own experience:
"1. That in the last four years there are more cases of syphilis.
"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
operating severely on the constitution and on future generations.
"5. That, since the abolition of the toleration system, unnatural
crimes have been much more frequently met with."
As to the influence on public morals, he contends that the abolition has
produced the most injurious consequences, 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
marriage bond is broken when convenient, and other marriages are
formed: sometimes two couples will mutually exchange, and go through
the ceremony."
He also made inquiries as to illegitimacy, and publishes some voluminous
tables on the subject. From them we condense a
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE LEGITIMATE AND ILLEGITIMATE BIRTHS IN BERLIN
FROM JANUARY 1, 1838, TO MARCH 31, 1849.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Years | Births. | Ratio of |
| |---------------------------------| illegitimate to |
| |Legitimate.|Illegitimate.|Total. |legitimate Births.|
|--------------|-----------|-------------|-------|------------------|
| 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| 1 in 6· |
| 1841 | 9,024 | 1557 | 10,581| 1 in 5·7 |
| 1842 | 10,269 | 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 illicit prostitution, and the
total inability 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 public 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, and entirely repealing the edict of 1845,
which had produced such disastrous results.
The experiment of "crushing out" had been fairly tried. The king 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 will 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 the evils of the interregnum. Their most recent
regulations are embodied in the following
DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPERS PERMITTED TO RECEIVE FEMALES ABANDONED TO
PROSTITUTION INTO THEIR HOUSES.
"1. The duties hereby imposed upon the keeper are not to be 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 be
ready to interfere 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
house, 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
particularly 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 submitted 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.
"7. Each of the females receives a printed list of directions, which
she is strictly to follow. It is the duty of the keeper to make
himself well acquainted 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
pregnant, he must give notice thereof to the visiting medical officer.
Neglect of this involves the punishment of concealing pregnancy.
"11. Every person is to be visited thrice a week by a medical officer,
on appointed days and hours; and, besides, according to the order of
the commission, at hours not appointed. These visits the keeper is to
facilitate in every way.
"12. For these visits, indispensably requisite for 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
apparatus, 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 than is requisite for completing 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 destitute of the same."
15. Provides for change of keepers.
"16. The keeper is expected to give all assistance to the commission
in their efforts 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 XVIII.
LEIPZIG.
Population.--Registered and illicit Prostitutes.--Servants.--
Kept-women.--Brothels.--Nationality of Prostitutes.--Habits.--
Fairs.--Visitors.--Earnings of Prostitutes.
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 town, the
number of inhabitants will amount to about one hundred 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 constant and vigilant _surveillance_ of the police. They
unquestionably exert a considerable influence on the female morality 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
acquaintances.
It need, therefore, occasion no surprise to ascertain that, in addition 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 will be a lucrative 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 courtesans,
mostly composed of domestics. It is estimated there are three thousand
servant-girls in the city, and the habits of a large number of them leave
no doubt as to the propriety of including them in this enumeration;
indeed, those who have had the best opportunities 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 population, 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 majority of
which are registered and closely watched by the police. They are situated
in the lowest and least frequented parts of the city, and many of them
present, in excess, some of the worst features of such places. To escape
their annoyances as far as possible, and retain that outward show of
respectability most acceptable to their visitors, many of the prostitutes
have private lodgings in various parts of the town, resorting to every
conceivable disguise to conceal or modify their real character. Very many
of them are said to be married women, whose husbands 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 have 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 vernacular designation, as is done in
Hamburg or Berlin.
The women inhabiting these houses are principally natives of Altenburg,
Berlin, Dresden, or Brunswick; those from the latter district are noted by
travelers for their personal beauty. Very few Polish 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 distance 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, Bulwer, Walter Scott, Caroline Pichler,
Schiller, 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 inclination for
_belles-lettres_. 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 predicting
good fortunes to their visitors and themselves than for gambling. We have
never heard that any of their liberal prognostications 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
relationship 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.
No material variation from the ordinary routine of sickness caused by
prostitution has been discovered in Leipzig. Syphilis has its average
number of victims, the intensity of the 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
being 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 application a difficult
task. A description of it would be only a repetition of what has already
been said of Paris, Hamburg, 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, and Russia, 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-barbarous habits of some of the visitors
entail a large share of sorrows on the prostitutes; more, in fact, than
are generally experienced 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 refined, 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, "Well, 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 exists (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 inconsiderable. The sum retained by the women is
spent for articles of dress, pleasure, etc. This calculation is for a time
when the town is in the full tide of commercial prosperity; but if we
assume the average receipts at ordinary times to be one half only, we
shall be able to form a tolerably good idea of the financial result of
prostitution in Leipzig.
CHAPTER XIX.
DENMARK.
Prostitution in Copenhagen.--Police Regulations.--Illegitimacy.--
Brothels.--Syphilis.--Laws of Marriage and Divorce.--Infanticide.--
Adultery.--New Marriage Ordinances.
Prostitutes are very numerous in Copenhagen. This might be expected from
the mixed character of the city, at once a capital, military station, and
sea-port. It has been remarked by a traveler of great experience[267] 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 remarkable 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 conduct. A regulation is extant which professes to limit the
number of children they are allowed to bear, without becoming amenable to
the law as criminals. It requires that the mother of more than two
illegitimate 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 prostitutes or those
with whom they lodge; neither are there in Denmark brothels, in the
ordinary sense of the term, as they are found in other countries."[268] So
writes a Danish official. His distinction is too nice to be appreciated.
The Copenhagen police know of the existence of such women, and put them
under strict regulations, 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.
Consequently, there are no recognized brothels. The house in which
courtesans live is a private dwelling, so far as the police are concerned,
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 prostitutes who may live in any house, and from their
official reports, it seems that there were in Copenhagen in
1850 201 prostitutes.
1852 198 "
In the latter year there were sixty-eight persons who were authorized to
lodge from one to four women each, the total of the women permitted 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 guarantee not to propagate disease, or their
personal position requires certain consideration, a thing which can seldom
apply to the generality 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 Copenhagen are very
stringent. All persons under arrest are required to declare if they 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 entering and leaving the service, and also
regularly every month during their stay in it.
To check the propagation of venereal disease, every soldier who is
attacked is obliged to state the source of his infection, whereupon
information of the individual is given to the police. Those who do not
give early intimation of their disease are liable to bread and water diet
for a certain time after their cure. In 1797, all the inhabitants of
several districts were obliged to submit to an examination, ordered by the
chancellor, on account of the frequency of syphilitic cases therein.
The following table, taken from Berhand's minute on Copenhagen, 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:
+----------------------------------
| | Prostitutes registered. |
| |--------------------------|
|Years.| At |During| |
| |commencement| the |Total.|
| |of the year.|year. | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
|------|------------|------|------|
| 1844 | 297 | 34 | 331 |
| 1845 | 284 | 43 | 327 |
| 1846 | 256 | 18 | 274 |
| 1847 | 241 | 22 | 263 |
| 1848 | 116 | 27 | 143 |
| 1849 | 208 | 19 | 227 |
| 1850 | 196 | 23 | 219 |
+----------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------+
Prostitutes abandoned their calling. |
---------------------------------------------------------------------|
Went to |Transferred|Sent to| |Left the| |Committed| |
service.| to the |Prison.|Married.|Country.|Died.|Suicide. |Total.|
|commission | | | | | | |
| for the | | | | | | |
| Poor. | | | | | | |
--------|-----------|-------|--------|--------|-----|---------|------|
20 | 13 | 1 | 16 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 63 |
14 | 27 | - | 24 | 4 | 3 | - | 77 |
15 | 16 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 2 | - | 49 |
20 | 17 | 1 | 17 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 62 |
15 | 16 | 1 | 16 | 2 | 7 | - | 51 |
17 | 10 | 1 | 9 | - | 6 | 1 | 44 |
18 | 7 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | 27 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------+
By a code of 1734, promises of marriage might be either verbal in the
presence of witnesses, or written and certified by two witnesses. 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 plead a promise 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 imprisonment; of
ante-nuptial impotence; of ante-nuptial venereal disease; of insanity; and
of adultery. Divorce by mutual consent might also take place, but three
years' separation from bed and board was requisite as a preliminary. The
king had a prerogative 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 inherit the paternal
property, but might take the mother's. They could be legitimatized by
subsequent marriage or adoption.
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. Practically it is
seldom noticed.
In 1834 a new ordinance was proclaimed fixing all the minutiæ of marriage
contracts, parental obligations, and the general laws of sexual
intercourse. A man is a minor until 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 broken without cause shown, or
without discredit to one or both parties. Whether this custom favors
illegitimacy is still a disputed point in Denmark.
CHAPTER XX.
SWITZERLAND.
Superior Morality of the Swiss.--Customs of Neufchatel.--
"Bundling."--Influence 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 will compare
favorably with that of most nations. The simplicity of patriarchal
relations is maintained both 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
welfare 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 easily satisfied. Their virtues, however, 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 rest of mankind in innate virtue. Hardness of heart
and selfishness of disposition will be found as rife in Switzerland as
elsewhere; it is the manifestation only that differs.
Authors are so universally deficient of remark on the subject of
prostitution, or even of immorality in Switzerland, that, if we may judge
from their silence, nothing of the kind exists there. "The Swiss
population is generally moral and well-behaved. A drunkard is seldom seen,
and illegitimate children are rare," says Bowring.[269]
In Neufchatel, which, except politically, can hardly be considered part of
Switzerland, a custom exists strongly similar to one in Norway, and a
general usage among Lutherans, namely, that of associating before
marriage. This, as Washington Irving says of the "delightful practice of
bundling," is sometimes productive of unfortunate results. A lady writer
says that public opinion upholds the respectability of the females if they
are married time enough to legitimatize their offspring. Instances have
occurred of two couples quarreling, and a mutual interchange of lovers and
sweethearts taking place, the nominal fathers adopting the early-born
children.[270]
The frugal thrift of the great bulk of the Swiss population, their
distribution over the country in small 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 which
every individual cherishes of purchasing with his savings a small patch of
his beloved native soil as a patrimony, seem to discourage prostitution as
a trade. The influence of climate, also, must not be forgotten; and Mr.
Chambers, in accounting for the general good conduct of the Swiss
peasantry, lays much stress on their temperate habits, the use of
intoxicating liquor among them being very rare indeed.
CHAPTER XXI.
RUSSIA.
Ancient Manners.--Peter the Great.--Eudoxia.--Empress Catharine, her
dissolute Conduct and Death.--Peter's Libertinism.--Anne.--
Elizabeth.--Catharine II., infamous Career and Death.--Paul.--
Alexander I.--Countess Narishkin.--Nicholas.--Court Morality.--
Serfage.--Prostitution in St. Petersburg.--Excess of Males over
Females.--Marriage Customs.--Brides' Fair.--Conjugal Relations among
the Russian Nobility.--Foundling Hospital of St. Petersburg.--
Illegitimacy.
The brutality, drunkenness, and debauchery which accompany semi-barbarism,
and of which the old Russian manners had more than a due proportion,
continued to be characteristic of the people of that country until a very
recent period; while their amiability, their plastic disposition, their
highly imitative faculty in the arts, and their capabilities of
improvement, are noted by many writers. Just emerged from savage life as a
nation, they have been moulded and welded as one mass by the steady and
undeviating policy of their sovereigns, among whom we have examples of
vast mental powers and towering ambition, combined with the lowest
depravity and the most shameless profligacy, exemplifying in the same
individual the extremes of human nature.
Previous to Peter the Great, Russia was comparatively unknown, and in the
Elizabethan age of England the Czar of Muscovy was considered only as a
barbarian, whose subjects were far inferior in civilization to the Tartars
of the Crimea. Indeed, it was not till the eighteenth century that the
Russians were admitted within the pale of European politics, or their
power reckoned as an element in the calculations of statesmen.
The most important, we might almost say the only lawgiver previous to
Peter the Great, was Ivan III., who reigned in the early part of the
sixteenth century. Among the laws of that period, which were all
sanguinary, was one fixing the value of a female 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 property of its parent. The women
were more enslaved than among the Asiatics, no law protecting them against
their husband's violence. A wife who killed her husband was to be buried
alive up to the neck, and a guard was set around her to see that no one
supplied her with food or the means of ending her sufferings.[271] Females
lived in the strictest seclusion, and had no weight nor authority in the
household. Their duties were to spin, to sew, and to do menial work.
Peter I. came to the throne, as most Russian sovereigns have done, either
through intrigue or usurpation. Both before and after Peter, the will and
caprice of the ruling power was paramount. He might appoint his successor,
either during life or by will, and such appointment was often set aside by
a more powerful competitor. In Peter's public life, in 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 individual
propensities or delinquencies are unimportant except so far as they
illustrate national character. It has been well observed that a people's
virtue or vice does not consist in the arithmetical increase or decrease
of immoral actions, but in the prevailing 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
manners, especially in a despotism. The Czar of Russia is at once the
religious and political leader of his people, and his personal conduct
becomes the standard of their moral relations, offering encouragement and
support to the good, or sanction and justification 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 husband. She did not escape
the voice of slander. Gleboff, her alleged 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 connection with
Catharine. The romantic history of her origin and elevation is too well
known to repeat here. Her husband, a 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
punishments, 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. Raised, 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 intrigues during
Peter's lifetime, but the case of Moens de la Croix is beyond question,
and the discovery of her infidelity in this instance led to her separation
from Peter and the death of her lover.
In 1724, after the campaign against the Turks, in which Catharine had
accompanied the Czar, and had, by her spirit and example, kept up the
courage of the army amid great difficulties and reverses, Peter determined
on publicly crowning her; a ceremony very unusual in Russia, 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 personal witness to her infidelity. The
first explosion of his resentment 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
determined 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 permitted nobody to approach 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 bracelet, which
he always wore. As he walked to his death, he managed to deliver it,
unperceived, to the Lutheran minister who accompanied 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 effectually, Peter drove her round the head of her
lover. 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 Russia 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 lovers,
Prince Sapicha and Loewenwolden, at the same time. "These two rivals
equally strove to please her, and alternately received proofs of her
tenderness, without suffering their happiness to be marred by jealousy."
The irregularity of the empress's life, 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; while the inferiors often had the
advantage, if not of intellectual cultivation, at least of practical
intelligence, in which Peter took delight. He spent many of his hours
drinking brandy and other liquors with sailors, carpenters, and artisans,
irrespective of his temporary assumption of the working man's pursuits. He
consorted indiscriminately with women of all sorts and 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 Madame Tchnertichoff, wife of the general and
diplomatist of that name. Upon the fact being mentioned to her, whether
casually or with _malice prepense_ does not appear, she is reported to
have replied very naïvely 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.[272]
It was in 1722 that Peter was attacked with this malady, and while
suffering from it he marched into Persia, and shared the fatigues of the
meanest soldier throughout 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 advice 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 recovered; but now, in spite
of all warnings, he resumed his usual habits of life, renewed his long and
severe journeys, his public works, and his general activity of mind and
body, while he in nowise amended other and more injurious pursuits and
practices.
On November 5, 1724, while on a journey to Finland, he stopped at the port
of Lachta. There, from the shore, he saw a small vessel full of soldiers
and sailors 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, pulled out to the shoal, and, having reached the
vessel, jumped into the water, got her off, and landed the passengers all
safe. He neglected 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 sufferings. He
employed one of his intervals of ease in celebrating the great festival of
blessing the waters of the Neva, and by his intemperance 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 libidinous in temperament,
and his coarse promiscuous amours were made the common subject of his
jocularity, even in the presence of Catharine. He was even addicted to
abominable depravities, which are stated by contemporary writers to have
been the common practice of the Russians at that time.[273] Peter at times
gave way to fits of lust, in which, like a furious beast, he regarded
neither age nor sex. Unnatural vices were punished in the Russian army at
this time by an express military regulation, and the crime was a standing
reproach with the people, who were said to have acquired it from the
Greeks of the lower empire.[274]
Anne, the successor of Peter and Catharine, had two publicly avowed
lovers--Dolgorouki and Ernest John Biren. 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 seated by
the side of the princess. He ordered him to withdraw, and, upon his
inattention to the order, took him by the arm to turn him out, when the
empress stopped him. This unknown person was Biren, who became regent of
the empire.[275]
Anne was not sunk in the same abyss of profligacy as her successor
Elizabeth, nor in brutality as her ancestor Peter. She had been brought up
in Courland, and had acquired some little refinement of ideas and manners.
Gluttony and drunkenness were somewhat less in vogue at her court, but
dissipation, ruinous gambling, and boundless extravagance were in full
fashion. The whole court became a body of buffoons 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 Galitzin, in which
there was as much malice as fun, may be remembered.
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 furniture was composed of the same.
The wedding procession, consisting of more than three hundred persons in
their national costumes, who had been collected from all the provinces of
Russia, passed along the streets. The newly-married couple were mounted 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 installed 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. Before she became empress,
Elizabeth had outraged all propriety; had openly carried on an improper
intercourse with the sub-officers and soldiers of the guards who had been
quartered near her dwelling. The lust and drunkenness in which she
wallowed indisposed 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-commissioned 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 regiments on service.
Elizabeth is said to have been privately married to Razamoffsky, as also
to the well-known Chevalier 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 business, 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 II. of Russia was, like Peter, a compound of the noblest
intellectual endowments, with a moral organization of unsurpassed
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 dining-room in the Tauric palace was adorned with
pictures representing the sacking of Ohkzakoff and Ismail, in which the
painter had surpassed the gloomy vision of a Carravaggio, and had depicted
the assault, the carnage, the mutilation, and all the hideous 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 instruments within her hearing; and yet it
is said that, in her outset in life as Princess of Anhalt Zerbst, she had
a womanly heart, delicacy of taste, and refinement of intellect;[276] 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 Woronzoff, that she
committed 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, the able minister 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, and 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 future destiny, disgusted as she was with the indecencies
of the Russian court!
Subsequently, it was considered expedient to remove Soltikoff. Catharine
had given birth to a child, and was not pleased with this dismissal; but
the impassible Bestujeff only sneered at her remonstrances 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 passions, both royal and personal. Besides the vulgar
crowd whom she selected as the recipients of her filthy favors, the world
knew, as the public and recognized paramours, the names of Orloff, by whom
she had a son called Count Bobruski, Wassilitchikoff, Potemkin, Louskoi,
Mornonoff, and Zuboff.
These were appointed in a manner that was reduced to a system, and an
etiquette was established as precise as that of naming a state minister.
When Catharine was tired of her present favorite, one of her intimate
friends was commissioned to look out for another. At other times, her
notice having fallen on some young man who pleased her fancy, she
signified her wishes to some female friend, and thereupon an entertainment
was arranged at the lady's house, which the empress honored with her
presence, and thereby gained an opportunity of closer acquaintanceship
with the chosen individual. He then received orders to attend at the
palace, where he was introduced to the court physician, and examined as to
his general health and physical condition. After this he was placed under
the charge of a certain Mademoiselle Protasoff.[277] The various
examinations having been successfully passed, the favorite was installed
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) for
linen, and an allowance of twelve thousand rubles per month; besides
which, all his household expenses were defrayed. He was required to attend
the empress wherever she went, and was not permitted to leave the palace
without her permission. He might not converse familiarly with other women,
and if he dined with his friends, it was imperative that the mistress of
the house should be absent.
When a favorite had completed his term of service he received orders 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 Orloff, 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 personal claims on her
tenderness were at an end. On terminating the intimacy, the favorite
usually received magnificent gifts. Potemkin, after he had ceased his
functions as favorite, became pander to his royal mistress, thereby
securing the double advantage of the favor of the empress and the
patronage of the favorite, from whom he levied a handsome fee for the
introduction. Potemkin and Orloff were at one period rivals, in which
contest Orloff was at last defeated; but when Potemkin reached his pride
of place, he became so necessary to Catharine in his higher capacity that
he set up and pulled 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 brutal energy of will made him respected
and feared by Catharine long after she had ceased to like him.
The pecuniary results to the state, enormous as was the plunder, was
perhaps the least of the evils sustained through this system of iniquity.
The registered gifts to the twelve favorites amounted to upward of one
hundred million dollars.[278] Lanskoi, who had held no political offices,
and the whole of whose fortune was drawn from the flagitious profits of
his post of dishonor, died, after less than four years of office, worth,
in cash only, and exclusive of valuables, seven millions of rubles.
Potemkin's wealth, which was accumulated from all sources of public
robbery and private extortion, was fabulous. At his death he owned two
hundred thousand serfs; he had whole cupboards filled with gold coin,
jewels, and bank-bills; he held thirty-two orders, and his fortune was
estimated at sixty million dollars.[279]
In the closing days of Catharine's reign she found a lower deep into which
to plunge. When upward of sixty, she took into office, as her favorite,
Zuboff, who was not quite twenty-five. She now formed the Society of the
Little Hermitage. This was a picked company of wits and libertines, of
both sexes, over whose scenes of debauchery and revelry the empress
presided. An inner penetralia even of these orgies was established, and
called the Little Society.
The pernicious influence of such an example, set for so long a period of
time by a sovereign distinguished for ability, and whose reign had been
rendered famous by its successful foreign enterprises, was the almost
universal corruption of the Russian court and aristocracy of both sexes.
The women, in imitation of her majesty, kept men, with the title and
office of favorites. This was as customary as any other piece of fashion,
and was recognized by husbands. Tender intrigues were unknown; strong
passion was still more rare; marriage was merely an association. There was
a club, called the club of natural philosophers, which was a society of
men and women of the highest classes, the object of whose meetings was
indiscriminate sexual intercourse. The members met to feast, and after the
banquet they retired in pairs chosen by lot. This club was afterward put
down by the Russian police, in common with all other secret societies. A
hospital was founded by Catharine for fifty ladies affected with venereal
disease. These were all to be taken care of; no question was permitted as
to name or quality, and the linen of the establishment was marked with
the significant word "discretion."
Catharine's end was sudden and frightful. She had grown corpulent, and her
legs and body had swollen 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 Little
Hermitage November 4, 1796, in remarkably high spirits, and even joked her
buffoon, Leof Nauskin, 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 apoplectic fit,
and, after thirty-seven hours of insensibility, died unblessing 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 sobriquet, the mad
Emperor Paul, was too remarkable for his eccentricities 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
addresses, but to whom he nevertheless professed the patient devotion 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 ruled 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 partiality.
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 preferred
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.
After the loss of these illegitimate children, the affections of Alexander
were turned toward the empress, whose true worth he recognized when it was
too late. She was struck with disease, and he was on a journey to Southern
Russia to select a suitable 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 Russian people, as much as any sovereign since Peter the
Great. His example and expressed will have had immense effect, both for
good and evil. It is almost impossible to arrive at the true character of
Nicholas at the present 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 affirm, 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 Russian
court, describe Nicholas as an exemplary 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 Russian society was
very much discouraged, and rendered altogether unfashionable by the
estimable 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 into 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 Russia 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 of the
personal worth of the Emperor Nicholas, says of the morality of the upper
classes among the Russians, "Denied the advantages of rational amusement
and innocent social enjoyments, deprived 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 indulging 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 morality in the
lower classes. The Russians, 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.[280]
Kelly says the women form only two sevenths (2/7) 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 etiquette
among the higher classes of all Continental Europe, and the simple fact,
without the reason, would not be surprising.
The attention to minutiæ which distinguishes a despotism, and which is so
remarkable a feature of Russian state craft, does not allow us to suppose
there are no statistical papers on the subject of prostitution; on the
contrary, it is perfectly well known that such are in existence. The
secrecy which is scrupulously maintained 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 travelers on Russian society are very vague and general, and
unsupported by any of those details which could alone authenticate them.
We have already alluded to the ancient Oriental seclusion of women among
the Russians. This was so strict 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 German embassador who demanded his daughter in
marriage for the Margrave of Baden, that Russians never showed their
daughters to any one before the match was decided. Peter the Great
abolished 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 accidentally to meet in the same walk. Having thus
managed an interview, 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
completed, the dowry determined, and then follows the betrothal. The elect
pair kneel down on a fur mat and exchange rings. The preparations for the
marriage are commenced, 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 commencement of her married
life, so as to indicate supremacy. As to the substantial observance of the
latter practice modern travelers differ, although it would seem that
symbolically it is still maintained.[281]
A curious exhibition takes place on Whitsunday in the Petersburg summer
garden, called "The Bride's Fair." All the marriageable 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 display 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 Russians, a sort of bride-market. Is it
more reprehensible than many customs 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 Emperor 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.[282]
The Foundling Hospital at St. Petersburg, the _Wospitatelnoi Dom_, is the
most magnificent foundation of the kind in Europe, and it pleases the
authorities to give information upon its features. 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 millions
two hundred thousand rubles.[283] The number of children in this
institution is commensurate 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
average of children brought is about twenty. The only question asked is if
the child has been baptized, and by what name. If not 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 mortality which takes place among these
helpless victims of sin and misfortune 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.[284]
The children are given in care of wet nurses for about six weeks, when
they are sent into the country until six years old. They are then brought
back to the institution and educated in a superior manner; the girls being
qualified as governesses in Russian families, and the boys as artisans in
the imperial manufactories. In cases of special capacity, they receive a
scientific or musical education.
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 delinquent not being discovered, the
Emperor Nicholas heard of the occurrence, and made a visit of inspection.
Having summoned the pupils before him, he demanded to know the guilty one,
adding 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 companions, came forward, threw
herself at his feet, and confessed her fault. Nicholas kicked her out of
the way, exclaiming that it was too late.[285]
A Lying-in Hospital is one of the appendages of this establishment.
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 privileges 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 observed, are
mostly the children of such as can not or do not desire to keep their
offspring. Free access, on appointed days, is permitted to the parents of
the children; and, under special circumstances, the empress will 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 efficiency in which the military
infirmaries are maintained might have encouraged a hope for more detailed
information on this subject.
CHAPTER XXII.
SWEDEN AND NORWAY.
Comparative Morality.--Illegitimacy.--Profligacy in Stockholm.--
Infanticide.--Foundling Hospitals.--Stora Barnhordst.--Laws against
Prostitution.--Toleration.--Government Brothels.--Syphilis.--Marriage
in Norway.
The ancient Scandinavian peninsula, land of the Scald and the Rune, with
its Vikings and Beisckers, has sent down to us many a legend of war and
conquest, but few of social manners or moral 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 pleasures 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 institution.
Passing, by a long stride, at once to modern times, we find in the joint
kingdom of Sweden and Norway two territories as distinct 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 from 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
hereditary nobility, and the ambition and ability of some of her monarchs,
especially of the great Gustavus, caused her to play a part in history
wholly disproportionate to her territorial importance. If, however, the
historical significance of Sweden be somewhat greater 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.
The average of illegitimate births, though not infallible, is generally
accepted as a fair test of the immorality of a people. Taken by this
standard, Sweden ranks lower than almost any country of Europe. But if the
character of the general population be indifferent, that of Stockholm
"out-Herods Herod."
In Stockholm, in 1838, there were 1137 illegitimate to 1577 legitimate; 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:[286]
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| | 1835. | 1838. | 1839. |
|-----------------------|------------|------------|------------|
|In Stockholm | 1 in 2·44 | 1 in 2·47 | 1 in 2·38 |
|In other towns | 1 in 6·18 | 1 in 6·18 | 1 in 6·40 |
|In the country | 1 in 20·41 | 1 in 20·01 | 1 in 20·01 |
|Throughout the kingdom | 1 in 15·20 | 1 in 14·69 | 1 in 14·94 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
As regards the average of the whole 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 capital?[287] 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 punishment, it is
generally commuted.
There are numerous foundling hospitals throughout the kingdom of Sweden;
one in particular, the _Stora Barnhorst_ in Stockholm, 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. No questions are asked on
the presentation 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, having adequate means,
choose to release themselves of the care and expense of their offspring,
and who use this 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 recognized occupation were liable
to imprisonment as disorderly characters. The prostitute, of course, came
within the category. It was asserted at the time that there was no common
prostitution, but a counter statement was made by the jurist Angelot, who
affirmed 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 anticipated, 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 officers. Thus a government brothel was established. Nor did this
lewdness by authority 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 inefficient police management never succeeded in repressing
illicit prostitution, even while tolerated brothels were in existence, it
will surprise no one to learn that Stockholm 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 certainly 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. Still, that there is such an excess of immorality can not be
doubted. The official statistics of the country prove it, were 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
(Stockholm'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 perform 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 Hamburg, where it is legalized?"
We have spoken of the difference between Sweden and Norway in their moral
relations. At first this is not apparent, for illegitimacy is as frequent
in one as the other; but there are attendant qualifying circumstances,
which go to constitute a material 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 Church a long
time before the actual marriage. This is considered as nothing more than a
wholesome check upon hasty unions in a general point of view. In Norway,
however, this probationary 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
hospitality should have been accumulated before the parties dare attempt
the public ceremony. The profusion is so great as sometimes to dissipate a
whole year's earnings. The obligation to this expense increases the delay
required by the Church, and it frequently happens that the affianced
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
children 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 acknowledged. 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 illegitimacy, it is easy to understand that a considerable
difference exists between such conduct, however reprehensible, and those
habits which may be fairly 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 physician 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 intended 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
no 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.
CHAPTER XXIII.
GREAT BRITAIN.--HISTORY TO THE TIME OF THE COMMONWEALTH.
Aboriginal Morals and Laws.--Anglo-Saxon Legislation.--Introduction of
Christianity.--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 Rosamond.--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 character. 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 Roman invasion, the morals of the Britons were as low
as might be expected from their nomadic habits. The 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 inclination, 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 prevent 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 trappings of the time; the woman was
entirely naked. A repulsive coarseness marked their licentiousness, and
the rudeness of manners was nowhere more conspicuous than in the
relations existing between the sexes.
It is to be presumed that the Anglo-Saxons imported into England 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 ashes
lay collected. These penalties would appear to be sufficiently severe, 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 stabbed or beaten to death. If one party of her
pursuers became weary of the sport, another took their places until the
victim expired 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 commonly practiced; and it
was even the custom for relations to marry within the closest degrees of
consanguinity.
But they were not long located in England before the more savage 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
commodities 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
small detached communities as they did, they knew nothing of the
stimulating incentives of city life.
Yet that prostitutes existed, and lived by the wages of their profession,
is proved by the fact that women (who 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 remaining single, and not earn money by prostituting their persons.