S. S.: "I had no work, and went home. My father was a drunkard, and

ill-treated me and the rest of the family." Here is a specimen of a

father's cruelty. His daughter is out of employment, and has no home but

with her parents, and he, maddened with liquor, abuses her for flying to

her natural protectors. Where was she to expect aid and comfort but from

the authors of her being, and how was such expectation realized? She was

forced to resort to prostitution as a means of living.

C. R.: "My parents are rich. They would not let me live at home, because I

had been seduced." In this case there was no excuse for parental

unkindness. Blessed with an ample supply of this world's treasures, they

could calmly see their daughter exposed to want and penury. Living in the

enjoyment of opulence themselves, they could doom her to earn a miserable

subsistence by a life of shame. Satisfied with their own lot, and

complacently surveying the comforts which surrounded them, they condemned

her to a course of infamy in which no enjoyment could be found to cheer

her path; where every day must add fresh tortures to her lot, every hour

sink her yet lower in the social scale. Why? Because an indiscretion or a

crime--call it which you please--had made her a fitting object for their

kindness; because her own act had placed her in a position where she felt

her disgrace, and asked their sympathy and aid to retrace her steps. Can

there be a more pitiable object than a woman who has sacrificed her virtue

to the importunity, the entreaties, or the vows of her lover, when she

reflects upon her conduct? The delirium of love is past, but the

overwhelming sense of shame is left; she feels that a momentary act has

blasted her future life; she knows that the world will condemn her, and

the only resource she has is an appeal to her parents. If they kindly take

her by the hand, in all probability the evil will extend no farther, and

she may regain her position in life. If they refuse their sympathy, they

practically drive her to a course of vice, for there is no other road open

to her. Who, then, is responsible for her after-career but those who have

the power to preserve her from farther guilt and shame?

J. A.: "I am the eldest of a large family. My father is a drunkard, and

would not support his children. I have supported my parents, brothers, and

sisters for the last five years." This is an example of an outrageous

social crime which can not be contemplated without horror; the parents of

a family, with their remaining children, relying for subsistence upon the

aid furnished from the sinful earnings of the first-born! In this instance

the economy of nature is reversed. The filial affection which leads a

child to support her aged and infirm parents can be understood and

appreciated, but it is impossible to reprobate too severely the conduct of

a man whose own actions have reduced him to poverty, and who then

encourages his daughter to lead a life of prostitution that he may revel

on money produced by a course of debauchery which he was mainly

instrumental in producing.

A. B.: "My lover seduced and diseased me while I was working in a factory.

I went home, and my parents turned me out." Neither loss of character nor

physical suffering were sufficient punishment for this poor girl, only

eighteen years of age; nor could the probability of a future moral life

induce her parents to pardon the first offense. They had sent her to work

amid associations which were almost certain to cause her ruin. This, of

itself, is a sufficient ground for their condemnation, for they were in

comfortable circumstances, and could not plead poverty as an excuse; and

when this ruin was accomplished, they added to their former crime by

refusing a shelter to the sufferer.

These cases are taken from actual facts. The words included in inverted

commas are, as nearly as possible, those used by the women when being

questioned. As to the truth of the statements, we hesitate not to believe

them _all_ to be substantially correct. They are not a fiftieth part of

the instances in which similar disclosures have been made, but they are

sufficient for the purpose of argument, and to prove that the assertions

made in other places rest upon a solid foundation, and are not mere

fancies of the brain. It would certainly be much more to the credit of

society if their authenticity were not so indisputable.

The foregoing examples strongly suggest and justify a farther

consideration of the duties of parents. While these include the obligation

to furnish a child with food and clothing, they do not stop at that point.

It would be erroneous, indeed, for any father to imagine he had fulfilled

all the requirements of his position when he gave a child enough to eat

and to wear. He would attend to the wants of his cattle in the same way,

but there is something more to be done in the case of his children. He

must so treat them as to induce, on their part, a sentiment of gratitude.

Children are proverbially keen-sighted, and they seem to have a natural

faculty for logic, so far as they themselves are concerned. They can very

soon discriminate whether a parent is doing barely just as much as the

laws of the country and the voice of public opinion require, or whether he

is acting toward them with true paternal affection. In the former case

they become selfish, and practice all their little arts to obtain as many

advantages that the law allows them as possible, without entertaining any

feelings of respect or affection toward their parents, because they know

that such obligations can not be evaded without censure. In the latter

case their gratitude and affection forms a return for the kindness

bestowed. They immediately perceive that they are loved, and, as a natural

consequence, endeavor to manifest love in return, by acting in a manner

most pleasing to their parents. By simply encouraging this sentiment,

children can be moulded much as the father wishes, whereas, by destroying

it, he loses one of the most effective aids to his government. There are

so many different ways by which this affection for children can be

manifested, and they are all so simple and so certainly effective, that it

is scarcely possible to conceive how any man or woman of the most ordinary

intelligence can overlook them.

In addition to providing for the personal wants of his family, their

education claims a large portion of the parents' care. Not only the mere

tuition imparted in schools, but a careful training at home, as

preliminary to their conflict with the world, is required. It is the

instruction and advice given in the quiet of the domestic circle that

exercises the most powerful influence, most effectually shapes the destiny

of the future man or woman. No person is justified in delaying the

performance of this duty. So soon as a child can talk and walk, so soon is

this guidance necessary. It would be an interesting and important matter

of investigation to ascertain, if possible, the time of life at which

children become influenced by the temptations which surround them. The

result would show a much earlier age than is generally supposed. A boy,

when playing with his companions, overhears an improper expression from

one of them. His mind retains it, and it may prove the germ from which

habits of profanity subsequently spring. A girl may notice an improper

action, which will rest upon her memory, and produce sad fruit hereafter.

Thus the education of children for the ordinary duties of life can not be

commenced too soon. If delayed, the probabilities are that, when you

attempt to cultivate the soil in after years, you will find it already

choked with weeds, which require more time and trouble to eradicate than

would the inculcation of proper principles in early life. A lady remarked

upon one occasion, in presence of an eminent preacher, that she thought

children should not be trained to any religious exercises until they had

arrived at an age when they could fully understand such subjects. The

reply of the aged minister is appropriate to the present subject. He said,

"Madam, if you do not implant good doctrines in your children's minds

before that time, the devil will fill them with mischievous ones."

A somewhat prevalent error in the training of children must not be passed

unnoticed, namely, excessive rigidity. This practice is common in many

well-meaning but unthinking families professing Christianity. Every thing

is conducted with as much mathematical precision as if they were

demonstrating a problem in Euclid. Such a system is open to very grave

objections, from the numerous cases in which it has proved prejudicial to

the child's best interests. It acts precisely like the spring of a watch,

which you can retain in a fixed position by a mechanical contrivance, but

which resumes its elasticity and power the moment the pressure is removed.

Children's minds are elastic also; you can confine them within any circle

you please by the exercise of parental authority, but in a large

proportion of cases the end sought to be attained is surely defeated. Many

justly blame this cause for the mishaps of their future lives. It presents

virtue and religion in a repulsive aspect, picturing them only as

connected with asceticism, not recognizing the beauty and happiness which

are their chief attractions. Thus is engendered in the minds of children

an intuitive dislike for what they are taught to consider as a bondage. It

is not uncommon to hear men describe the way in which their youthful

Sabbaths were spent, and attribute to the irksome monotony of that day's

discipline their subsequent distaste for even a few hours' confinement in

church. This strictness, like ambition, "overleaps itself," and

extinguishes the spirit it is designed to foster. The proper way to

educate children for lives of usefulness, honor, and happiness, the most

effective plan to reach the desired end, is to cultivate their affections

and reason, instead of repressing the one and fettering the other by

stringent applications of arbitrary rule.

But no man or woman can educate children properly unless their precepts

are confirmed by example. Talk to your son as long as you please upon the

advantages of temperance, and then let him see you in a state of

intoxication the next day, and all your labor will be fruitless. Enlarge,

in the presence of your daughter, upon the value of integrity, and then

allow her to hear you utter a falsehood, and she will contrast the theory

and practice, and conclude that the former is worthless. Parents must

educate themselves before they can hope to instruct their children, and

must lead a life in conformity with the principles they teach, if they

expect any beneficial results from their endeavors.

Before leaving this part of the subject another matter may be mentioned,

namely, the necessity of winning the confidence of children. Their hearts

pine for sympathy. If they are in trouble, encourage them to reveal their

perplexities to you; sigh with them when they are sad, and rejoice with

them when they are happy. A girl who has been in the habit of imparting

all her childish sorrows to her mother, and has there found a heart which

would beat in unison with her own, will not withhold her confidence as she

grows in years. Remember that children, while a blessing to their parents,

are also a responsibility. You have the power to train them for good or

evil; you can win their trust, or inspire them with distrust; you can make

them useful members of society, or render them nuisances to the community;

to you their destiny is confided to a great extent, and from you will be

required an account of the stewardship.

The length to which these observations have been extended can be justified

by the importance of the subject, and the conviction that a more careful

fulfillment of parental duties would go very far toward diminishing

prostitution. Every man must admit it to be his duty to aid in effecting

this desirable consummation; and while it would be Utopian to imagine that

the vice can be eradicated by family influences, it is reasonable to

conclude that its extent may be materially curtailed.

Great as are the duties and responsibilities of a father, they are equaled

by those devolving upon a husband. He has to provide for the welfare of

his wife besides caring for the interests of his children. When he marries

he vows to remain faithful to the woman of his choice, to "love, honor,

and cherish her" so long as they both shall live. This is an implied oath,

if not audibly expressed in all circumstances, and any violation of it is

neither more nor less than perjury. Of course, the obligation is a mutual

one; the wife is bound by the same ties, and in as stringent a form as the

husband. It can not be said that every case of prostitution in a married

woman is the result of her husband's misconduct, but it is notorious that

many women are induced or compelled by such misconduct to abandon a life

of virtue. All married prostitutes can not be exonerated from the charge

of guilt, yet the facts which will be hereafter quoted prove that many

were driven to a life of shame by those who had solemnly sworn to protect

and cherish them.

The violation of any known duty is a positive crime against society, but

it becomes increased in magnitude when it involves more than one person in

the offense. It is then the cause of a second transgression, and sophistry

would vainly attempt to prove that the man who committed the first and

caused the commission of the second offense was not morally responsible

for both. Descending from generalities, it may be truly asserted that the

man whose conduct to his wife is such as to lead her to vicious practices

is guilty in both respects. Here are some few cases in point.

C. C.: "My husband deserted me and four children. I had no means to live."

In this case the husband violated the law of God in forcibly rending the

matrimonial bond, and violated the laws of his country by leaving his wife

and children as burdens on society. For the former of these offenses he

must answer at the bar of Infinite Justice; for the latter he is liable to

punishment in this world. "Then why not punish him?" asks some one. For

the very simple reason that he could not be found. In this day the law

does not assume the latitude claimed by the Spanish Inquisition, and

sentence a man to punishment without giving him an opportunity to plead

his cause. A woman in a state of destitution, with four hungry children

looking to her for bread, has neither time nor means to pursue a

delinquent husband. Her present necessities require her immediate

attention, and so he escapes the penalty the laws have awarded, and can

live (although it may be with an uneasy conscience) in some other place,

and probably repeat there the iniquities he has practiced here. The custom

of deserting wives and children would receive a severe check were it

possible in every instance to enforce the legal provisions respecting

abandonment.

J. S.: "My husband committed adultery. I caught him with another woman,

and then he left me." This individual's turpitude was enhanced by his

boldness. He seems to have recklessly defied all consequences, to have

been entirely callous to any sense of shame, and, when detected in his

adulterous intercourse, he adds desertion to his offense. He regarded not

the feelings of her whom in early life he had won to his side by vows of

affection; he outraged the laws of decency, and trampled upon the statutes

of his country. His wife's agony may be conceived, although words would be

faint to express it, and the mental sufferings she must have endured

before she abandoned herself to indiscriminate prostitution as a means of

living will not aggravate her offense.

A. G.: "My husband eloped with another woman. I support the child." Here

the husband was morally as guilty as in the previous case, but without the

disgusting bravado which characterized that. He had, however, another

claim which should have secured his fidelity, namely, an infant child; but

this tie was powerless to restrain him. Fascinated by the charms of

another, forgetting all the rights of his wife, all the obligations of

paternity, and all the requirements of morality, he basely abandoned those

dependent on him, and forced the wife, whose virtue he was bound to

protect, into a career of vice to support his child.

A. B.: "My husband accused me of infidelity, which was not true. I only

lived with him five months. I was pregnant by him, and after my child was

born I went on the town to support it." The first idea derived from this

statement would be that five months of matrimonial life had been

sufficient to change this husband from a devoted lover to a revengeful

tyrant, who would not scruple to resort to a groundless accusation to

effect his purpose. In this short space of time he conveniently forgot the

promises he had made, repudiated the bonds in which his own act had placed

him, and, to accomplish a separation from his wife, did not hesitate to

bear false witness against her, placing her in a position from which she

could extricate herself only by performing a logical impossibility,

namely, by proving a negative. Nor could the probable destiny of his

unborn child influence his determination. It mattered not to him whether

the infant first saw the light in a den of infamy, nor whether his

unkindness killed it before it was born, so that he could desert his wife.

Neither did it make any difference to him whether she starved to death or

maintained her existence by the most loathsome means. He was satiated with

possession, and neither the voice of nature nor the dictates of conscience

could arrest his purpose. The result was precisely what might have been

expected: she became a prostitute rather than starve and let her child

starve.

R. B.: "My husband brought me here (a house of ill fame). I did not know

what kind of a place it was. He lives with me, and I follow prostitution."

Another variety of unnatural conduct. The wife in this case was a very

good-looking young woman, not exceeding eighteen years of age; the husband

held a respectable and well-paid employment, and was in possession of

ample means to support her. By false representations he induced her,

within three months after marriage, to board in a fashionable house of

prostitution. She soon discovered its character, but eventually succumbed

to his orders, and became guilty. He resides with her, and is supported by

her. What language can be used adequately to denounce such a cold-blooded

piece of treachery on the part of a wretch claiming to be human?

L. W.: "I came to this city, from Illinois, with my husband. When we got

here he deserted me. I have two children dependent on me." This man

brought his wife from a distant state to a strange city, where she had no

friends nor relatives to advise and assist her, and there abandoned her,

with two helpless children, to the mercy of the world. Had he left her

where she had been living previously, it is possible she might have found

sufficient friends to assist her until she was able to support herself;

but with a refinement of cruelty he transferred her to a place where she

was unknown, and then effected his escape. The entire circumstances favor

the supposed existence of a determination to abandon her as soon as they

arrived in New York, where he could act thus with more safety than in her

native place.

C. H.: "I was married when I was seventeen years old, and have had three

children. The two boys are living now; the girl is dead. My oldest boy is

nearly five years old, and the other one is eighteen months. My husband is

a sailor. We lived very comfortably till my last child was born, and then

he began to drink very hard, and did not support me, and I have not seen

him or heard any thing about him for six months. After he left me I tried

to keep my children by washing or going out to day's work, but I could not

earn enough. I never could earn more than two or three dollars a week when

I had work, which was not always. My father and mother died when I was a

child. I had nobody to help me, and could not support my children, so I

came to this place. My boys are now living in the city, and I support

them with what I earn by prostitution. It was only to keep them that I

came here." These were the words used by an honest, sorrowful looking

woman encountered, in the course of this investigation, in the fourth

police district of the city. No reasonable doubt can be entertained of the

truth of the story; the manner in which she told it plainly indicated that

she was narrating facts. Some inquiries were made respecting her of the

keeper of the house, and he (for it was a man) stated that he knew her

story to be correct. He had at first employed her as a servant because he

wished to help her, but the wages he could pay were insufficient to

support her children, and she eventually prostituted herself because she

could earn more at this horrible calling, and was thus enabled to

discharge her maternal duty. But at what a sacrifice was this obtained! In

order to feed her helpless offspring she was forced to yield her honor; to

prevent them suffering from the pains of hunger, she voluntarily chose to

endure the pangs of a guilty conscience; to prolong their lives she

periled her own. And at the time when this alternative was forced upon

her, the husband was lavishing his money for intoxicating liquor. If she

sinned--and this fact can not be denied, however charity may view it--it

was the non-performance of his duty that urged, nay, positively forced her

to sin. She must endure the punishment of her offenses, but, after reading

her simple, heart-rending statement, let casuists decide what amount of

condemnation will rest upon the man whose desertion compelled her to

violate the law of chastity in order to support his children.

E. W.: "My husband had another wife when I married him. I left him when I

found this out. I was pregnant by him, and had no other way to live than

by prostitution." In point of law, this is not a married woman, the

existence of the former wife rendering the second union invalid; but this

is no excuse for the man's conduct; in fact, it materially aggravates his

guilt. In the first place, he deserts a woman whom he was legally bound to

support, leaving her to battle her way through life, to resist the

temptations which would be sure to assail her, careless whether she lived

or died, and heedless whether she retained her character or sank into

vice; and then, with the greatest _nonchalance_, goes through the ceremony

of marriage with another woman. It is easy to imagine the feelings of the

latter when she discovered the fraud which had been practiced to secure

her hand, and the indignation which caused her to leave him immediately,

notwithstanding her condition; nor will it require much stretch of fancy

to picture the mental suffering she endured, her agony during the hour of

nature's trial, before she consented to earn a precarious living as a

prostitute. Such cases are of frequent occurrence, and even the

probability of a criminal indictment is insufficient to deter some men. No

punishment could be too severe for such offenses, even considering them

without any reference to this particular instance, because they pervert

one of our most solemn contracts, and destroy all confidence in the

security of the marriage tie.

C. H.: "My husband was a drunkard, and beat me." How much of misery and

crime is contained in these few words! Either of the vices practiced by

this fellow is enough to make a woman wretched; the combination is

sufficient to drive her mad. She would doubtless sit and ponder during the

long and weary night hours when he was carousing with his drunken

companions, and would contrast her present wretched state with the

happiness of early days. Her thoughts would revert to the time he won her

love, to the day on which he brought her to his home a bride, and then she

would cast her eyes around the room, now robbed of almost every thing

portable to supply his insane appetite for liquor, and a heavy sigh would

burst from her heart. But still she would continue her sad reminiscences,

and think of the kindness he displayed then, and of his brutal ferocity

now--would remember his considerate tenderness and compare it with his

maniac fury. And then something would whisper to her, "Why do you endure

it?" and her woman's nature would be aroused, resistance would take the

place of submission, and she would leave her home and him who had

desecrated it, and immolate herself upon the altar of vice, a victim to

her husband's drunkenness and cruelty.

C. N.: "My husband left me because I was sickly and could not do hard

work." This woman's husband may be pictured as a lazy, worthless fellow;

probably one who married not to secure a helpmate and a partner, but to

obtain a slave. Her health would not allow her to perform as much drudgery

as he expected; the speculation did not turn out as well as he had

anticipated, and he left her destitute, to starve or sin, as she thought

fit.

P. T.: "My husband was intemperate, and turned out to be a thief. He was

sent to prison." Still another victim of a drunken husband, but he carried

his vicious habits to a point where the laws of his country would reach

him. Had he merely deserted his wife, nobody would have thought it his

business to arrest him, but he stole some person's property, and all the

enginery of the law was forthwith arrayed against him. In the one

instance, his conduct condemns his wife to shame in this world and perhaps

perdition in the next, and the good-tempered public looks quietly on and

says nothing. In the other case, he defrauds his neighbor of some dollars

and cents, and the indignant community demands his condign punishment!

What conclusion can be drawn from these facts? Honor, character, and life

are ruined, and the offender escapes: money is stolen, and he is punished!

Is money more valuable than the character and life of woman?

It requires no argument to prove that when the care of a child is assumed

by its relatives, the parental obligations also devolve upon them; nor can

there be any difference of opinion as to the duty of relations to assist,

to the utmost of their power, any children whom death or other

circumstances may have deprived of their natural protectors. Were not

these principles generally recognized, all large cities would be crowded

with destitute orphans. The beneficial results often arising from such

guardianships argue very strongly in their favor; but still the imperative

duty is frequently evaded, or acknowledged and made the opportunity for an

exhibition of tyranny which naturally tends to the encouragement of vice.

Take the following cases in illustration:

J. F.: "I support my aunt." In this case the duties of the aunt were not

merely evaded, but she adds to her neglect a positive approval of the

girl's abandoned life, by voluntarily receiving a portion of her earnings.

What species of education she bestowed upon her niece may be inferred from

its results. Such disclosures are almost too disgusting to be criticised.

S. B.: "My parents were dead. I came to this country with an uncle and

aunt, who ill-used me from the time I landed till I ran away." The death

of her parents should have been a passport to the affection of the

relatives to whose charge she was intrusted, but, instead of producing

such an effect, they brought her to a strange land, and practiced a

succession of cruelties, until she could endure them no longer. It is more

than probable that this was a plan intended to drive her from their home.

They neither acknowledged their duty to supply the places of the father

and mother she had lost, nor did they recognize the force of relationship,

which, at least, should have protected her from positive unkindness. Nor

did they possess any of those feelings of sympathy which every

well-disposed person must entertain toward an orphan. They could not have

been unaware of the probability of her falling into bad company and

vicious habits if she left their care, but no regard for her happiness or

character seems to have entered into their calculations, which may have

been somewhat in this form: She is an expense to us, so we will contrive

to drive her away; if she can make her living honestly, so much the

better; if she turns out a prostitute, that is her own concern. It was not

solely "_her own concern_," but it involved them also in its consequences,

through their agency in its accomplishment, and, morally speaking, they

are as liable for her ruin as if they had actually, and not indirectly,

caused it.

The following cases closely resemble each other, and are presented in

conjunction:

A. D.: "My parents were dead. I lived with my uncle, who treated me very

unkindly."

L. S.: "My parents died when I was young. I lived with an uncle and aunt,

who used me ill." The deprivation of each of these unfortunate women in

the death of their parents, a loss almost incalculable in its results,

placed them under the guardianship of those who alike neglected their

duties and rendered the trust a medium for unkindness to the orphans. It

seems surprising that the memory of a deceased brother or sister can not

secure even ordinary care for their children. It can not be expected that

the surviving relatives would exhibit the same amount of affection as

would have been shown by the parents, but disappointment must be

experienced if they make no pretensions to kindness. The dictates of

nature are violated when harshness takes the place of sympathy, and

destitution is considered a sufficient warrant for deliberate and

continuous ill-treatment. Such conduct renders a girl reckless and

misanthropic, and will drive her to seek, in unhallowed love, the

affection her guardians have refused.

L. M.: "I was taken by my sister-in-law to a house of prostitution, and

there violated." It is not often such a case of barbarity is found in

civilized life, nor indeed in less polished communities, as this forcible

violation of a young girl through the aid and connivance of her

sister-in-law. The mind recoils, with disgust, from the instances of rape

so frequently occurring, but this case is so peculiarly aggravated that it

can not be contemplated without a feeling of shame for the depravity of

human nature. In the one case, the brutal passions of a man are displayed

in a brutal manner; in the other, the same cause exists to a similar

extent, coupled with the blackest perfidy of a female relative. To such a

shameless violation of the laws of consanguinity, such an outrageous

conspiracy between a vile man and a monster of a woman, the sister must

have been induced to lend her aid by some means best known to herself. It

is quite impossible to imagine she possessed a single spark of virtue; on

the contrary, she must have sunk, long before this occurrence, to the

lowest depths of vice, or she never would have been an instrument in such

an infernal scheme. The consideration she received is, of course, known

only to the parties themselves, but it would give a farther insight to her

character if the reader could be informed of the estimate set by a

sister-in-law upon an orphan's virtue. The result of the outrage is, no

doubt, exactly what the criminals anticipated. The victim knew that her

character was ruined, that she had no alternative but prostitution, and,

while the guilty pair who literally forced her to sin can congratulate

each other on the success of their machinations, she must endure the

penalty in a life of crime and misery.

G. H.: "I was detected and exposed by my brother." This girl, who had

yielded to the entreaties of a man whom "she loved, not wisely, but too

well," may assign her subsequent career of vice to the conduct of her

brother. He must have been sadly deficient in all kindly feeling thus to

parade his sister's dishonor, and also possessed of a very limited

knowledge of human nature, or a large amount of malevolence. It can

scarcely be imagined that he acted from ignorance, as he must have been

certain that such an exposure would most probably induce his sister to

continue an intercourse which was publicly known, and therefore could not

augment her disgrace; nor can it be conceived that a malicious desire to

blast her character governed his conduct. But, whatever his motive, the

result was the same. She was forced to a life of prostitution, from which

she might have been rescued had kind and affectionate means been employed,

instead of the cruel and heedless course which was adopted.

C. W.: "My parents died when I was young. I was brought up by relatives

who went to California when I was sixteen years old, and left me

destitute. I had no trade." There is no allegation that this girl's

relatives used her unkindly during the time she lived with them, but they

deserted her, in a helpless condition, at the very time when she most

needed their guardianship. They could not have been ignorant of the many

temptations to which a young woman, without protectors or means of

livelihood, is exposed in New York, and yet they removed to a distance,

and left her to meet these trials alone. A girl whom they had reared from

infancy, and for whom they must have entertained considerable affection,

they tamely abandoned to an almost certain fate far worse than death. To

say the least, it was a most inconsiderate step, and has resulted very

disastrously.

E. R.: "My husband deserted me to live with another woman; my parents were

dead; I went to my brother's house, and he turned me out." Fraternal

unkindness farther exemplified! An orphan sister, deserted by her husband,

asked from her brother the shelter of his roof, and he drove her from the

house! Such conduct would have been barbarous if even a stranger had made

the appeal; in the present instance, it exhibits a cruelty which can not

be too severely reprobated.

C. B.: "My parents were dead. I was out of place. I had no relations but

an uncle, who would not give me any shelter unless I paid him for it. I

went on the town to get money to pay for my lodgings." This uncle's name

ought to be handed down to posterity as a synonym of hard-hearted

selfishness, and as indicating another manner in which money can be made.

His miserly propensities must have been very strongly developed when he

refused a shelter to his destitute niece unless she paid for it. It

certainly did not matter to him how or where she obtained the means, and

doubtless his equanimity was not disturbed when he ascertained that the

money she paid him was the price of her shame. The coin was as bright in

his hand, as useful to him to hoard or to spend, as if it had been her

honest earning. Probably he would have been excessively annoyed (it is the

characteristic of such men) if any plain-spoken person had told him that

he was the means of making this girl a prostitute; but can it be denied

that such was the fact, when he received some portion of the money earned

by his niece's prostitution before he would allow her to sleep in his

house?

L. S.: "My sister ill-treated me because I had no work." Here a sister

seems to have regarded money as the chief good. The applicant was out of

employment, in itself enough to enlist one's sympathies; she was in want,

which should have been an additional reason for kindness; and yet, for

these causes, a sister ill-treated her.

In thus endeavoring to show the several duties of parents, husbands, and

relatives to those dependent females who are liable to be exposed at any

moment to temptations leading from the path of virtue, cases have been

exhibited in which a departure from the universally recognized obligations

of these classes has added recruits to the ranks of prostitution. In these

remarks, the endeavor has been to advance nothing resting on a theory; to

advocate nothing unless supported by facts or acknowledged by common

sense; to exonerate no one from blame when circumstances demanded a

censure, and to condemn none in favor of whom there could be an existing

doubt.

The recorded extracts, giving an insight beyond the scene of public view,

exhibiting the secret machinery of the family circle, can not be

contemplated without a mingled feeling of sorrow and shame. Sorrow, that

so many females who might have been useful members of society have been

forced into the ranks of sin; and shame, that the instruments in these

proceedings were those who should have exerted every power to prevent such

a result.

Cases have now been presented to the reader where a sorrowing,

heart-broken girl has been denied the opportunity of repentance, and

driven from a father's home; where another has been expelled from the

family circle because she would not consent to an ill-assorted marriage;

where stepfathers and stepmothers have violated their duties, and despised

the obligations they had voluntarily assumed; where a mother's

ill-treatment has driven her daughter to ruin; where parents were living

and reveling upon the wages of their children's dishonor; where false

accusations and unkind treatment were resorted to, and, from their natural

effects, drove a girl from home and virtue; where drunkenness and

debauchery made home a hell upon earth; where parents in affluent

circumstances have driven a child from their home; where prostitution was

willingly embraced as an escape from parental tyranny.

Again: Instances have been cited where husbands have deserted their wives

and children; where the marital vow has been broken in the most glaring

manner, and the crime followed by deliberate abandonment; where the wife's

affections have been slighted, and her love relinquished for the purchased

caresses of another woman; where a charge of infidelity has been made

against a wife without cause; where a husband has deliberately brought his

wife to a house of prostitution, and is now leading an idle, worthless

life upon her earnings; where another husband brought his wife to a

strange city in order to desert her and her children; where the solemn

contract of marriage has been perverted; where a drunken husband has

raised his hand against the woman he had sworn to protect; where a wife's

sickness and incapacity for labor was made a reason for her husband's

desertion; where a man's insane thirst for intoxicating liquor has forced

a woman to prostitution for a maintenance; where the husband has been

committed to prison for theft.

Farther: Cases have been given where an aunt lives upon the proceeds of a

niece's prostitution; where uncles and aunts have systematically ill-used

their orphan relatives; where a sister-in-law procured and assisted at the

violation of a child; where a brother's unkindness forced his sister to

continue a life of shame; where relatives to whom an orphan child was

intrusted abandoned her when she most needed their care; where a brother

refused an asylum to a deserted and suffering sister; where an uncle

forced a girl to prostitute herself for money to pay him for her lodgings.

As already stated, these cases are all facts, collected in the course of

this investigation, and are believed to be substantially correct. With

such disclosures as these, can any one be surprised at the continued

spread of prostitution? The family circle is one of the sources whence it

emanates; so is the matrimonial bond; and so are the different branches of

consanguinity. When fathers, husbands, and relatives thus forget their

duties, and lend their influence to swell the tide of vice, it is no

matter of surprise that strangers should be found ready and eager to

contribute their share to the polluted current.

But the evil is not incurable, if public opinion can be enlisted on the

side of public morals, and parents are satisfied, by unmistakable

demonstrations, that the voice of an indignant people will be raised

against them if practices similar to those narrated continue to occur.

Husbands, too, must be convinced that any infraction of their marriage

vows will expose them to popular odium; and if they have contracted an

ill-assorted, hasty alliance, the responsibility must be borne by

themselves. The contracts they voluntarily made must be fulfilled.

Relatives also must be warned that the performance of their duties will be

rigidly required. There is no deficiency of legislation on this subject;

all that is wanted is determination to enforce existing laws; and when

this is done, some of the main causes of prostitution will be removed.

To resume the analysis of the table of replies: Seventy-one women were

persuaded by prostitutes to embrace a life of depravity. One of the most

common modes by which this end is accomplished is to inveigle a girl into

some house of prostitution as a servant, and this is frequently done

through the medium of an intelligence office.

Most of the inhabitants of New York are acquainted with the arrangements

and routine of business in those offices, but they may be described as a

matter of information to others. Imagine a large room, generally a

basement, in some leading thoroughfare. Upon entering from the street you

will observe two doors, marked respectively "ENTRANCE FOR EMPLOYERS" and

"ENTRANCE FOR SERVANTS." Passing through the first, you approach a desk,

where the proprietor or his clerk is seated with his register books before

him. You make known your wish to engage a servant, specifying her duties

and the wages you are willing to pay. This is registered with your name

and address, the fee is paid, and you are invited to walk into the other

department, and ascertain whether any of the throng who are waiting there

will suit your purpose. If successful in the search, it is merely

necessary to inform the book-keeper that you are suited, and to take your

servant home with you; but if you do not succeed, a woman will be sent to

the registered address, and the office-keeper will continue to send until

you are satisfied.

Servants who wish to obtain situations register their wants and pay a fee.

If there are no places likely to suit them on the list of employers, they

have permission to remain in the waiting-room until an applicant appears.

In these waiting-rooms may be found a crowd of expectants varying from

twenty to one hundred, according to the business transacted by the office.

In theory this arrangement is a very good one; in practice it is

frequently abused. A respectable housekeeper who wishes to engage a

servant will find but little trouble in doing so, and any person wishing

to make the office a medium for securing females for improper purposes

will seldom be disappointed. It is rarely that the proprietors notice the

arrangements made; they merely act as brokers, and make known the wants of

each party, and do not interfere with the character of either unless it is

so notoriously bad as to force them to notice it for their own sake. So

long as the employer and servant agree, the office-keeper is contented.

The following facts illustrate the manner in which young women are

sometimes entrapped. A respectably-dressed man went into an intelligence

office, and represented himself as a storekeeper residing some twenty

miles from New York. He wished to hire a girl as seamstress and

chambermaid, who must go home with him the same afternoon. Glancing around

the waiting-room, he soon saw one of sufficiently attractive appearance,

to whom he made the proposition. The wages he offered were liberal, the

work was described as light, and the woman made an arrangement to

accompany him forthwith. He told her that he had a little business to

transact before he could leave the city, but that she could wait for him

at his sister's until the cars were ready to start. She had but slight

knowledge of the temptations of New York, and went with him to a brothel,

the keeper of which he stated to be his sister. Here she remained for some

hours waiting his return. The "sister" expressed her surprise at his

absence, but concluded that his business had detained him, and, with

apparently a kindly feeling, told the girl that she would be welcome to

sleep there that night. Her suspicions were lulled by the seeming

respectability of the persons, and she remained. In the course of the

evening the character of the house became evident, and then the

proprietress offered to engage her as a servant, solemnly promising that

she should not be exposed to any insult. Almost a total stranger in the

city, and destitute of money, she consented. A very few days in such a

hot-bed of vice was sufficient to deaden her sense of right and wrong, and

within a fortnight she was enrolled as a prostitute.

Keepers of houses sometimes visit these offices themselves, but generally

some unknown agent is employed, or, at times, one of the prostitutes is

plainly dressed, and sent to register her name as wishing a situation, so

as to be able to obtain admission to the waiting-room. There she enters

into conversation with the other women, whom she uses all the art she

possesses to induce to visit her employer, and very frequently with the

same result as in the case just narrated.

There exists among many prostitutes a fiendish desire to reduce the

virtuous of their own sex to a similar degradation with themselves. Since

they can not elevate their own characters, they strive to debase those of

others. To accomplish this, they spare neither trouble nor

misrepresentation. One system in which they are commonly employed may be

noted, although the mode is similar to the case of the servant-girl just

given. A man had resolved to ruin a woman who placed implicit confidence

in his sincerity, and admitted that she loved him. He found that her

modesty and good sense were proof against his persuasive powers, and he

finally resorted to stratagem, and invited her to walk with him to visit

some relations. He took her to a brothel, introduced its keeper (who had

already been instructed in her part) as his aunt, and one or two of the

inmates represented her daughters. The deception was maintained for a

time; family matters were discussed, and refreshments introduced. A glass

of drugged wine was handed to the victim, and as soon as its effects were

visible the villainous deed was effected. Such machinations as this show

that not only are many of these prostitutes dangerous to society from

their open and avowed life of crime, but also from the influences they

exert to deceive the honest of their own sex.

Allusion has been already made to the numerous dangers which surround

young women during their passage to this country on crowded emigrant

ships, or after their arrival in the equally crowded emigrant

boarding-houses, and it is needless to repeat them in this section; but an

incomplete statement of the causes of prostitution would be presented if

the injurious effects of some of our fashionable boarding-schools were

suffered to pass without notice. Startling as such an assertion may

appear, it is no more strange than true. A system of education, the

prominent design of which is to impart a knowledge of the (so-called)

modern accomplishments to the almost total exclusion of moral training; to

make the pupils present the most dazzling appearance in society,

regardless of their real interests and duties, does, in some cases, lead

to unhappy results. Filial affection, or early training, or innate virtue,

enable many to overcome these temptations, but others succumb to them. One

case, in particular, it is desirable to record, although several of a

similar nature were met with.

A girl, eighteen years of age, born in Louisiana, of highly respectable

parents, was induced to elope from a boarding-school in the vicinity of

New Orleans with a man who accorded with her romantic ideal of a lover. No

marriage vows ever passed between them; she trusted him as the heroine of

a modern novel would have done, and he deceived her, as all modern rakes

deceive their victims. She lived with him for a considerable time. When he

deserted her, she was left almost destitute. She was afraid to return to

her parents, knowing that they were acquainted with the life she had been

leading, and she had no other means of support than open and avowed

prostitution. These features of her history should present a warning to

both parents and daughters of the dangers attending a superficial and

improper system of education.

Of course it must not be inferred that all schools are open to such

objections. In the numerous institutions of the kind scattered throughout

the land, the majority are worthy of every confidence. Instances like this

are probably exceptions to the rule, but still, what has been pernicious

in one case may be in another; and the education of young women, forming,

as it does, their character for life, should be conducted, as far as

possible, so as to secure their safety, honor, and usefulness. In a

subsequent chapter, this superficial education will be farther noticed.

One of the _real_ improvements of modern times is the introduction of

physiology as a branch of education in our schools. Yet it is to be

regretted that the knowledge communicated to youth upon a subject so

important is still extremely limited. Indeed, such is the present state of

public opinion, that any text-book or teacher that should impart thorough

instruction in regard to all the organs and functions of the human body,

would be considered entirely unfit for use or duty. Notwithstanding this,

the young of both sexes do become informed upon the subjects of marriage,

procreation, and maternity. And how? By force of natural curiosity and

injurious association. It is the imperative duty of parents to rightly

inform their children concerning the things which they must inevitably

know. In consequence of their neglect of this duty, both boys and girls

are left to find out all they can about the mysteries of their being from

ignorant servants or corrupt companions. Let fathers teach their sons, and

mothers their daughters, at the earliest practicable age, all that their

future well-being makes it necessary for them to know. The information

thus acquired will be invested with a sacredness and delicacy entirely

wanting when obtained from unreliable and pernicious sources.

Thus would many of the injurious influences incident to the present

secrecy upon such subjects be avoided. Of the evil habits and practices

common among youth, physicians are well cognizant, and many a parent has

had to mourn their sad results in the premature death or dethroned reason

of children who, with proper physical training, might have been their

pride and joy.

Next to the responsibility of parents in this matter is that of teachers,

who, with all judiciousness and delicacy, should supply the deficiencies

of ignorant or incapable parents in the physiological education of all

committed to their care.

And here a word in regard to the bad effects of, so called, classical

studies. Are they not oftentimes acquired at the risk of outraged delicacy

or undermined moral principles? Mythology, in particular, introduces our

youth to courtesans who are described as goddesses, and goddesses who are

but courtesans in disguise. Poetry and history as frequently have for

their themes the ecstasies of illicit love as the innocent joys of pure

affection. Shall these branches of study be totally ignored? By no means;

but let their harmless flowers and wholesome fruit alone be culled for

youthful minds, to the utter exclusion of all poisonous ones, however

beautiful.

This lack of information has resulted in another evil in the impetus it

has given to the sale of obscene books and prints. Recent legal

proceedings have checked this nefarious trade, but it still exists. Boys

and young men may be found loitering at all hours round hotels, steam-boat

docks, rail-road depôts, and other public places, ostensibly selling

newspapers or pamphlets, but secretly offering vile, lecherous

publications to those who are likely to be customers. They generally

select young and inexperienced persons for two reasons. In the first

place, these are the most probable purchasers, and will submit to the most

extortion; and, in the second, they can be more easily imposed upon. The

venders have a trick which they frequently perform, and which can scarcely

be regretted. In a small bound volume they insert about half a dozen

highly-colored obscene plates, which are cut to fit the size of the

printed page. Having fixed upon a victim, they cautiously draw his

attention to the pictures by rapidly turning over the leaves, but do not

allow him to take the book into his hands, although they give him a good

opportunity to note its binding. He never dreams that the plates are

loose, and feels sure that in buying the book he buys the pictures also.

When the price is agreed upon, the salesman hints that, as he is watched,

the customer had better turn his back for a moment while taking the money

from his pocket-book, and in this interval he slips the plates from

between the leaves and conceals them. The next moment the parties are

again face to face, the price is handed over, and the book he had seen

before is handed to the purchaser under a renewed caution, and is

carefully pocketed. The book-seller leaves, and at the first opportunity

the prize is covertly drawn forth to be examined more minutely, and the

unwary one finds that he has paid several dollars for some few printed

pages, without pictures, which would have been dear at as many cents.

Despite all precautions, there is every reason to believe that the

manufacture of these obscene books is largely carried on in this city. It

is needless to remind any resident of the large seizures made in New York

during the last two years, or to particularize the stock condemned. More

caution is observed now, and the post-office is made the vehicle for

distribution. Circulars are issued which describe the publications and

their prices, modes of transmitting money are indicated, and the

advertiser plainly says that he will not allow any personal interviews on

account of the dangers which surround the traffic. By using an indefinite

number of _aliases_, and often changing the address to which letters are

sent, he succeeds in eluding the vigilance of the police, and secures many

remittances.

Not less dangerous than the directly obscene publications is a class of

voluptuous novels which is rapidly circulating. Some are translations from

the French; but one man, now living in England, has written and published

more disgustingly minute works, under the guise of honest fiction, than

ever emanated from the Parisian presses. He writes in a strain eminently

calculated to excite the passions, but so carefully guarded as to avoid

absolute obscenity, and embellishes his works with wood-cuts which

approach lasciviousness as nearly as possible without being indictable. It

is to be regretted that publishers have been found, in this and other

cities, who are willing to use their imprints on the title-pages of his

trash, and sell works which can not but be productive of the worst

consequences. Those who have seen much of the cheap pamphlets, or

"yellow-covered" literature offered in New York, will have no difficulty

in recalling the name of the author alluded to, and those who are ignorant

of it would only be injured by its disclosure. There can be but one

opinion as to the share obscene and voluptuous books have in ruining the

character of the young, and they may justly be considered as causes,

indirect it may be, of prostitution.

Some of the sources of prostitution have been thus examined. To expose

them all would require a volume; but it is hoped that sufficient has been

developed to induce observation and inquiry, and prompt action in the

premises.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

NEW YORK.--STATISTICS.

Means of Support.--Occupation.--Treatment of Domestics.--

Needlewomen.--Weekly Earnings.--Female Labor in France.--

Competition.--Opportunity for Employment in the Country.--Effects of

Female Occupations.--Temptations of Seamstresses.--Indiscriminate

Employment of both Sexes in Shops.--Factory Life.--Business of the

Fathers of Prostitutes.--Mothers' Business.--Assistance to Parents.--

Death of Parents.--Intoxication.--Drinking Habits of Prostitutes.--

Delirium Tremens.--Liquor Sold in Houses of Prostitution.--Parental

Influences.--Religion of Parents and Prostitutes.--Amiable Feelings.--

Kindness and Fidelity to each other.

_Question._ IS PROSTITUTION YOUR ONLY MEANS OF SUPPORT?

Resources. Numbers.

Dependent solely upon prostitution 1698

Have other means of support 302

----

Total 2000

No surprise will be excited by the fact indicated above, that seventeen of

every twenty women examined in New York reply to this question in the

affirmative, for it is almost impossible to conceive that any honest

occupation can be associated with vice of such character. The small

minority who have other means consists principally of women who work at

their trades or occupations at intervals, or who receive some slight

payment for assisting in the ordinary work, or for sewing, in the houses

of ill fame where they reside. It is difficult to believe women working as

domestics in brothels are virtuous themselves; on the contrary, it is a

well-known fact that they are, in every sense of the word, prostitutes;

the only difference being that they work a portion of the time, while the

"boarders" do not work at all.

Those who follow an employment at intervals are mostly women whose trades

are uncertain, and who are liable at certain seasons of the year to be

without employment. Then real necessity forces them on the town until a

return of business provides them with work. They are more to be pitied

than blamed.

There is another class not entirely dependent on prostitution. It consists

mostly of German girls, who receive from five to six dollars per month as

dancers in the public ball-rooms. In the first ward of New York there are

several of these establishments, and the Captain of Police in that

district has attached some interesting memoranda to his returns, from

which is gleaned the following information respecting these places and

their inhabitants. It is submitted to the reader, in order that he may

draw his own conclusions as to the virtue of the dancers.

"These dance-houses are generally kept by Germans, who consider dancing a

proper and legitimate business. They are in general very quiet. The girls

employed to dance do not consider themselves prostitutes, because the

proprietors will not allow them to be known as such. Each girl receives

monthly from five to six dollars and her board, and almost every one of

them hires a room in the neighborhood for the purpose of prostitution. I

have classed them all as prostitutes, because, in addition to the previous

fact, I know that the majority of them have lived as such. Very few of

these girls are excessive drinkers. Although the regulations of the

ball-room require them to drink after each dance with their partners, yet

the proprietor has always a bottle of water slightly colored with port

wine, from which they drink, and he charges the partner the same price as

for liquor."

Alluding to the keeper of one of these places, the same officer says:

"The proprietress of this house is a German woman over seventy years of

age. She established the house over eighteen years since, to my certain

knowledge. Her husband had just then arrived from Germany with their four

children. They were not worth one hundred dollars at that time. The man

died three years ago, and by his will directed forty thousand dollars to

be divided among his children. The widow is possessed of an equal amount

in her own name."

_Question._ WHAT TRADE OR CALLING DID YOU FOLLOW BEFORE YOU BECAME A

PROSTITUTE?

Occupations. Numbers.

Artist 1

Nurse in Bellevue Hospital, N. Y. 1

School-teachers 3

Fruit-hawkers 4

Paper-box-makers 5

Tobacco-packers 7

Attended stores or bars 8

Attended school 8

Embroiderers 8

Fur-sewers 8

Hat-trimmers 8

Umbrella-makers 8

Flower-makers 9

Shoe-binders 16

Vest-makers 21

Cap-makers 24

Book-folders 27

Factory girls 37

Housekeepers 39

Milliners 41

Seamstresses 59

Tailoresses 105

Dress-makers 121

Servants 933

Lived with parents or friends 499

----

Total 2000

Wherever the social condition of woman has been considered, one fact has

always been painfully apparent, namely, the difficulties which surround

her in any attempt to procure employment beyond the beaten track of

needlework or domestic service. Numerous light or sedentary employments

now pursued by men might with much greater propriety be confided to women,

but custom seems to have fixed an arbitrary law which can not be altered.

If a lady enters a dry goods store, she is waited upon by some stalwart

young man, whose energy and muscle would be far more useful in tilling the

ground, or in some other out-door employment. If she wishes to make a

purchase of jewelry, she is served by the same class of attendants. Why

should not females have this branch of employment at their command? It

would in a majority of cases be more consonant with the feelings of the

purchasers, and consequently more to the interest of store-keepers. It

would open an honorable field of exertion to the women, and improve the

condition of the men who now monopolize such employments, by forcing them

to obtain work suitable to their sex and strength, and driving from the

crowded cities into the open country some whose effeminacy is fast

bringing them to positive idleness and ruin.

Many people are prepared to frown upon any attempt to improve the social

condition of dependent women. They regard it as a part of that myth which

they call opposition to constituted authorities, without any reference to

the consideration which should form the basis of all society, namely,

ensuring the greatest amount of good to the greatest number. Others who

are opposed to any amelioration sustain their views by a libel upon woman,

and upon her Almighty Creator. They assert that she has not sufficient

intellect for any thing beyond routine employment, or blame her because

she has received only such an imperfect education as the world has thought

proper to award her, and thus has not had an opportunity to cultivate her

faculties. It is not necessary to point to the productions and

achievements of women even in our own days, omitting all mention of what

has been done heretofore, to expose the fallacy of this proposition. The

facts are patent to the world. With special reference to the subject in

hand it may be asserted, unhesitatingly and without fear of contradiction,

that were there more avenues of employment open to females there would be

a corresponding decrease in prostitution, and many of those who are now

ranked with the daughters of shame would be happy and virtuous members of

the community.[390]

In the list of occupations pursued by the women who are now prostitutes in

New York, a most lamentable monotony is visible. Domestic service and

sewing are the two principal resources. From the gross number of two

thousand deduct those who lived with their parents or friends, children

attending school, domestic servants, and housekeepers, amounting in the

aggregate to 1322, and there is a balance of 678, nearly six hundred of

whom depend upon needles and thread for an existence. In the total number

reported there are _only four, or exactly one in every five hundred_, who

relied for support upon any occupation requiring mental culture, that is,

one artist and three school-teachers. This fact in itself sustains the

theories that mental cultivation and sufficient employment are

restrictions to the spread of prostitution.

If women are compelled to undergo merely the slavery of life, no moral

advancement can ever be expected from them. If every approach to

remunerative employment is systematically closed against them, nothing but

degradation can ensue, and the moralist who shuddered with horror at the

bare possibility of a woman being allowed to earn a competent living in a

respectable manner will ejaculate, "What awful depravity exists in the

female sex!" He and others of his class drive a woman to starvation by

refusing to give her employment, and then condemn her for maintaining a

wretched existence at the price of virtue.

But to notice more particularly the employments which the courtesans of

New York have followed. The domestic servants amount to 931. No modern

fashion has yet been introduced to deprive females of this sphere of

labor, but so progressive is the age that even that may be accomplished

within a few years, and the advertising columns of the newspapers teem

with announcements of some newly-invented "scrubbing-machine." The space

will not permit any extended remarks on this employment, but, while

allowing that many employers treat their servants as human beings gifted

with the same sensibilities and feelings as themselves, it must be

regretted that there are others who use them in a manner which would bring

a blush to the cheek of a southern slave-driver. With such mistresses the

incapacity of servants is a constant theme, nor do they ever ask

themselves if they have learned the science of governing. Assuming that

they themselves are right, they conclude that the "help" is, of course,

wrong. Is it any wonder that girls are driven to intoxication and disgrace

by this conduct? Another reason which forces servant-girls to prostitution

is the excessive number who are constantly out of employment, estimated at

one fourth of those resident in the city, an evil which would be

diminished were there more opportunities for female labor.

What is the position of the needle-woman? Far worse than that of the

servant. The latter has a home and food in addition to her wages; the

former must lodge and keep herself out of earnings which do not much

exceed in amount the servant's pay. The labor by which this miserable

pittance is earned, so truthfully depicted in the universally known "Song

of the Shirt," is distressing and enervating to a degree. Working from

early dawn till late at night, with trembling fingers, aching head, and

very often an empty stomach, the poor seamstress ruins her health to

obtain a spare and insufficient living. There is no variety in her

employment; it is the same endless round of stitches, varied only by a

wearisome journey once or twice a week to the store whence she receives

her work, and where the probabilities are that a portion of her scanty

wages will be deducted for some alleged deficiency in the work. She has no

redress, but must submit or be discharged.

Nor is the position of a milliner or dress-maker much superior to this.

She has a room provided for her in the employer's establishment, and there

she must remain so long as the inexorable demands of fashion, or the

necessity of preparing bonnets or dresses for some special occasion

require. It matters not if she faint from exhaustion and fatigue; Mrs.

---- wants her ball-dress to-morrow, and the poor slave (we use this word

advisedly) must labor as if her eternal salvation rested on her nimble

fingers. But the gay robe which is to deck the form of beauty is

completed; the hour of release has come at last; and, as at night the

wearied girl walks feebly through the almost deserted streets, she meets

some of the frail of her own sex, bedecked in finery, with countenances

beaming from the effects of their potations, and the thought flashes

across her mind, "They are better off than I am." Her human nature can

scarcely repress such an exclamation, which is too often but the precursor

of her own ruin.

Paper-box-makers, tobacco-packers, and book-folders are no better off.

They must work in crowded shops, must inhale each other's breath during

the whole day (for such work-shops are not the best ventilated buildings

in New York, generally speaking), and receive, as their remuneration,

barely sufficient to find them food, clothes, and shelter.

It is needless to pursue this subject. Enough has surely been advanced to

demonstrate the necessity of a more extended field of female labor.

_Question._ HOW LONG IS IT SINCE YOU ABANDONED YOUR TRADE AS A MEANS OF

LIVING?

Length of Time. Numbers.

3 months 174

6 " 151

1 year 273

2 years 254

3 " 147

4 " 104

5 " 117

10 " 90

12 " and upward 16

Not abandoned 296

Unascertained 378

----

Total 2000

A very few words will suffice on this table, as the remarks which would

arise from it have been already made in reference to other questions. In

most instances the occupation is abandoned as soon as the first false step

is taken, unless in those cases of destitution where a previous want of

employment renders prostitution necessary as the only means of living. Of

course, as before observed, a life of prostitution must be incompatible

with any description of honest employment, and, in those cases where a

woman has followed any trade or occupation after she had yielded to

promiscuous intercourse, it will generally be found that her motive was to

deceive the world as to her own pursuits, or else to satisfy her

conscience that she was not entirely depraved.

_Question._ WHAT WERE YOUR AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS AT YOUR TRADE?

Average Earnings. Numbers.

1 dollar 534

2 dollars 336

3 " 230

4 " 127

5 " 68

6 " 27

7 " 8

8 " 5

20 " 1

50 " 1

Unascertained 663

----

Total 2000

This question is of equal importance with that referring to the number of

employments available for females, and the replies quoted above will give

as many reasons for prostitution as in the former case. From the work of a

French author on this subject the following is condensed as indicative of

the hardships and insufficient remuneration of women employed in factories

in France:

"Women are employed principally in the manufacture of cotton, silk, and

wool. The preparation of cotton presents two dangerous features, in the

'beating' and 'dressing,' _which are performed solely by women_. In the

manufacture of silk there are also two processes dangerous to life, and

_these are performed by women_. The woolen manufacture has no real danger

but in the 'carding,' and _all the carders are women_. Of these mortal

occupations there is not one that will afford the workwoman a sufficient

maintenance, the average wages being from sixteen to twenty-five sous per

day, subject to the fluctuations of trade."[391]

Commenting upon these facts, the Westminster Review says,

"We took some pains to ascertain the relative wages of men and women

employed in the same trades (in England), and almost in every instance it

appeared that for the same work, performed in the same time, they received

one third less, sometimes one half less than men, without any inferiority

of skill being alleged. One master gravely said that he "_paid women less

because they ate less_."[392]

In a subsequent chapter of this volume will be found some particulars of

the wages paid in manufacturing districts of the United States, and the

same disparity between male and female operatives will be noticed.

M. Parent-Duchatelet assigns insufficient wages as one of the principal

causes of prostitution in Paris. He says,

"What are the earnings of our laundresses, our seamstresses, our

milliners? Compare the wages of the most skillful with those of the more

ordinary and moderately able, and we shall see if it be possible for these

latter to procure even the strict necessaries of life; and if we farther

compare the price of their work with that of their dishonor, we shall

cease to be surprised that so great a number should fall into

improprieties thus made almost inevitable."[393]

This low rate of wages is defended upon the plea of competition. A

manufacturer practically says, "If one man or woman will do my work for

five per cent. less than another, I must employ him or her unless I am

prepared to carry on my business at a positive loss; for if I do not give

them work, my neighbor will." Valid as this reason may be in the old

countries, where the supply of labor far exceeds the demand, it is invalid

in America, where there is a constant demand for workers. Our cities are

overcrowded; remove some of their inhabitants to the country. In our

cities work can not be obtained; in the country both male and female

laborers are urgently required. In cities an unemployed woman is exposed

to innumerable temptations; in the country she need never be unemployed,

and consequently would escape such dangers. The difference between the New

and Old worlds is simply that in the former the cities are overcrowded,

but the country is free; in the latter, both cities and country are full

to repletion.

In the city of New York one fourth part of the domestic servants are

constantly out of employment; remove them, and, while the wants of the

community will be amply supplied, the market value of a faithful servant

would increase to a living rate. Send away a number of needle-women,

reducing the supply of labor to meet the actual demand; tailors,

shirt-makers, and dress-makers must employ seamstresses, and in such cases

they could not obtain them without paying remunerative wages. The prices

of our wearing apparel would probably be advanced five per cent., with a

saving of fifteen per cent. taxation in the reduced expenses of police,

judiciary, prisons, hospitals, and charitable institutions.

The experience of the winter of 1857-8 has proved that but very slight

difficulties attend this plan when efficiently carried out, and to the

"Children's Aid Society" and the other benevolent organizations, which

have shown not only the possibility, but the success of the system, all

praise is due. No man entering upon a farm in the West requires any

argument to convince him that his property will increase in value as it

is cultivated, and many will gladly advance the sum necessary to pay the

expenses of a servant's journey out. As fast as men are sent to fell the

timber or break the prairie, the farmer's necessities force him to engage

women for the increasing work of his house and dairy, and to supply the

places of those who obtain husbands in their new home. When the tide of

emigration to the Australian colonies commenced, nearly the whole of those

who left England were single men, and in a few months the cry was ringing

from one end of the island to the other: "Send us female help, send us

wives." A benevolent woman, resident in the colony, repeated the demand,

and subsequently lent the aid of her powerful talents to it. She made a

voyage to England, and there influenced public opinion to such an extent

that the British government yielded to the outside pressure, and many

ship-loads of well-recommended, healthy, and virtuous women were sent out

at the national expense to supply the want. The subsequent advancement of

the colony has proved that the measure was a judicious one, nor can the

abuses to which it became subject detract from its merits.

Similar plans with respect to destitute children have been practiced in

New York for several years, and their subsequent extension to meet the

wants of adult females has been limited only by the means of the

projectors. If the necessity and prospective benefit of this emigration

were known and appreciated, the required funds could be raised without any

difficulty. The citizens of New York are never dilatory in responding to

calls upon their benevolence in aid of any practicable and judicious

scheme of philanthropy, and, under the management of an energetic business

committee, arrangements could be made which would render the movement

self-supporting within a few years.

The competition which keeps wages at starvation point is aggravated by a

notion entertained by many native women, and by some foreigners who have

been long in the country, that domestic service is ungenteel. This idea

drives them to needlework to maintain their respectability, and thus,

while service is abandoned, the ranks of seamstresses are augmented. By

decreasing the number to be employed, and consequently advancing their

wages and insuring better treatment from their employers, the servant's

life would be divested of many of its objections, and old-fashioned

house-work would once more be deemed respectable. This consummation rests

more with mistresses than servants. The former give tone to the manners

of the latter. It can not be denied that many young women date their ruin

from unkind or unwomanly treatment by their mistresses, who have given a

free rein to their caprices, confident that if a girl left them they could

soon supply her place. This confidence would be shaken if a housekeeper

knew that servants were less plentiful, and her own interest would induce

her to use well those who suited her. Such a conclusion would be an

important step toward reducing prostitution, and elevating the character

of the masses.[394]

It can not be expected that this vice will decrease in New York when five

hundred and thirty-four, out of a total of two thousand, earn only one

dollar weekly. No economist, however closely he may calculate, will

pretend that fourteen cents a day will supply any woman with lodging,

food, and clothes. She who should attempt to exist on such a sum would

starve to death in less than a month, and yet it is a notorious fact that

many are expected to support themselves upon it. How such expectations are

realized, and the sad manner in which the deficiency is made up, are amply

shown by the result of this and similar investigations, here and

elsewhere.

Thus far manufacturers have been blamed for the depression of wages, but

is not the consumer equally open to censure? He purchases an article of

dress from A, because it is a trifle cheaper than in B's store. The cost

of the raw material is the same to each, and each uses the same quantity

in every article; but if A can find customers for three times the amount

of goods which B can sell, on account of the saving he effects through

paying lower wages, it is scarcely in human nature, decidedly not in

commercial nature, to be expected that he will refuse the opportunity. He

flatters himself that competition forces him to make the reduction, and as

the public do not denounce his action, but flock to his store so long as

his price continues lower than his neighbor's, he concludes that his

customers should bear the blame. Nor are his conclusions false. The public

sanction a system which enforces starvation or crime, and, for the sake of

saving a few cents, add their influence to swell the ranks of prostitutes,

and condemn many a poor woman to eternal ruin.[395]

Before leaving the question of employment, the effects of different

branches of female occupation, as inducing or favoring immorality, must be

noticed. Apart from the low rate of wages paid to women, thus causing

destitution which forces them to vice, the associations of most of the few

trades they are in the habit of pursuing are prejudicial to virtue. The

trade of tailoress or seamstress may be cited as a case in point. One mode

in which this business is conducted between employer and employed is as

follows: The woman leaves either a cash deposit or the guarantee of some

responsible person at the store, and receives a certain amount of

materials to be made up by a specified time: when she returns the

manufactured goods she is paid, and has more work given her to make up.

This may seem a very simple course, and so it is, but one feature in it

gives rather a sinister aspect. The person who delivers the materials,

receives the work, and pronounces on its execution, is almost invariably a

man, and upon his decision rests the question whether the operative shall

be paid her full wages, or whether any portion of her miserable earnings

shall be deducted because the work is not done to his satisfaction. In

many cases he wields a power the determinations of which amount to this:

"Shall I have any food to-day, or shall I starve?"

It is reasonable to conclude that hardly any thing short of positive want

can force a girl to undertake this labor at its present price, and it is

reasonable to imagine that her necessities will force her to use every

means to accomplish her task in a satisfactory manner. If she finds that a

smile bestowed upon her employer or his clerk will aid her in the struggle

for bread, she will not present herself with a scowling face; or if a kind

entreaty will be the means of procuring her a dinner as a favor, she will

not expose herself to hunger by demanding it as a right. In this there is

no moral or actual wrong, but there are instances where lubricity has

exacted farther concessions, and the sacrifice of a woman's virtue been

required as an equivalent for the privilege of sewing at almost nominal

prices. If this is conceded, the victim may be assured of the best work

and the most favors until her seducer becomes satiated with possession,

when means will easily be found to displace her for some new favorite. If

the outrageous request is denied, she will get no more work from that

shop, and may seek other employment with almost a certainty of meeting the

same indignity elsewhere. That this is a frequent occurrence,

unfortunately, can not be denied: that it exercises much influence on

public prostitution can not be doubted.

The employment of females in various trades in this city, in the pursuit

of which they are forced into constant communication with male operatives

has a disastrous effect upon their characters. The daily routine goes very

far toward weakening that modesty and reserve which are the best

protectives against the seducer, and renders them liable to temptation in

many shapes. A girl frequently forms an attachment to a man working in the

same shop, believing it to be a mutual one, and only finds out her mistake

when she has yielded to his persuasions and is deserted. Or women contract

acquaintance for the sake of having an escort on their holiday

recreations, or because some other woman has done so, or as the mere

gratification of an idle fancy; but all tend in the same direction, and

aid to undermine principles and jeopardize character.

In this connection only city employments have been mentioned, but the same

reasoning may be applied with greater force to factory life in any of our

manufacturing districts. There the operatives of both sexes in one mill

may sometimes be counted by hundreds, and their large numbers cause a more

frequent and constant communication than in smaller workshops. It has been

urged in support of the superior morality of such places, that the very

nature of the employment requires the most constant attention to be paid

to it, and precludes the possibility of any idle time. We freely concede

to the apologists all the advantages they claim, and admit that during the

time--say ten hours daily--when the machinery is running, neither males

nor females can abandon their respective positions; but, unfortunately for

the force of the argument, the motion is not a perpetual one. A

steam-engine or a water-wheel can run for a week or a month without

complaining of fatigue, but human machines become exhausted after a few

hours' consecutive labor. Machinery can receive the necessary attention

and supplies without arresting its progress, but men and women must

sometimes cease work in order to eat and drink.

Granting, then, that during actual working hours a young woman can not

leave her post, yet the mind is free, and the range of thought, when

locomotion is denied her, will often turn to the hardships of her

position. Busy as may be her hands, her brain is disengaged, and while her

mechanical duties are adroitly performed, the mental faculties will be in

full exercise, and for these she has ample scope. Dissatisfied with her

close confinement in the factory, weary of the dreadful monotony which

makes to-day but a repetition of yesterday and a sure type of to-morrow,

she is happy, when the bell rings the signal to leave work, to escape from

the building, and renew outside its walls an acquaintance she has formed

before; and too frequently the persuasions and promises of her lover will

induce her to seek, in some less guarded position, the independence for

which she longs. It may be taken as a general rule that any confinement or

restraint which is irksome to human nature must result injuriously.

Domestic servants are not exempt from temptation when employed in large

establishments where both sexes are engaged, and many a poor girl ascribes

her ruin to the associations formed in places of this description.

Thus far it has been supposed that man is the chief agent in the

propagation of vice, nor is there any apparent reason to recede from that

position. The numerous cases of seduction under false promises and

subsequent desertion; of seduction by married men; of violations of

helpless and unprotected females, are abundantly sufficient to prove this,

much as it may be regretted for the credit of the stronger sex, and also

to vindicate the opinion that employing males and females under one roof,

in different branches of the same business, has a strong tendency to

promote prostitution. Sometimes, however, it is true that woman, lost and

abandoned herself, lends her aid to drag her fellow-women down to

perdition. In many of the stores and workshops in our city, in every

factory throughout the country, such are to be found, and their insidious

influence is quickly felt. By false representations and elaborate

coloring, they work upon the minds of the simple, or inflame the passions

of the ambitious, but in either case their object is the same, and in it

they frequently succeed.

_Question._ WHAT BUSINESS DID YOUR FATHER FOLLOW?

Fathers' business. Numbers.

Architects 4

Auctioneer 1

Agents 5

Butchers 47

Blacksmiths 63

Barbers 2

Bakers 21

Builders 11

Book-keepers 3

Boatmen 7

Brothel-keeper 1

Bankers 2

Carpenters 139

Carmen 26

Coopers 19

Clerks 32

Coachmen 10

Clergymen 6

Coach-makers 9

Cabinet-makers 16

Diver 1

Drover 1

Dyers 3

Engineers 18

Engraver 1

Farmers 440

Fishermen 6

Grocers 14

Gilders 2

Gardeners 10

Glass-blowers 2

Hotel and Tavern keepers 36

Hatters 13

Jewelers 10

Laborers 259

Liquor-dealers 22

Lawyers 13

Lumber-merchants 7

Livery-stable-keepers 5

Millers 20

Masons 82

Merchants 37

Moulders 3

Manufacturers 24

Musicians 8

Men of Property 5

Naval Officers 31

Overseers 5

Peddlers 5

Policemen 15

Painters 16

Printers 3

Planters 5

Pavers 4

Physicians and Surgeons 19

Plumbers 2

Pawnbrokers 2

Ship-carpenters 23

Sailors 35

Shoe-makers 48

Stage-drivers 4

Store-keepers 37

Stone-cutters 20

School-teachers 14

Silversmiths 3

Soldiers 38

Sail-makers 4

Saddlers 14

Servants 4

Surveyor 1

Tailors 35

Traders 11

Tanners and Curriers 7

Tinsmiths 2

Weavers 20

Wheelwright 1

Unascertained 106

----

Total 2000

This table shows that almost all classes of society are exposed to the

influences which result in prostitution, from the children of men of

property, bankers, merchants, and professional men, down to the families

of mechanics and laborers. The numerous and varied occupations of the

fathers of those women who answered the question renders any

classification of them almost impossible. A majority of the parents were

either mechanics or laborers, men who earned the daily food for themselves

and families by manual labor, and whose resources would be governed by the

ordinary fluctuations of trade.

In following the proportion of natives and foreigners as exhibited in

previous tables, it must be remembered that about five eighths of these

fathers were residents of other countries than the United States when

those daughters were born whose replies form the bases of these

statistics, and it is scarcely necessary to say that labor is nowhere so

well remunerated as with us. The average wages, for instance, of a

first-class mechanic in England or Ireland seldom exceed, and, indeed,

rarely amount to, nine dollars per week, and an ordinary laborer is very

well paid if he receives half that sum. This estimate refers to large

cities, where the expenses of maintaining a family are as heavy as in New

York, and it indicates poverty, which has already been proved to be one of

the main causes of female depravity.

If the investigation is pursued into the rural districts of Great Britain,

the wages of mechanics and laborers will be found lower than they are in

large cities, without any material reduction in the necessary expenditure

except in the item of house-rent. The pitiful amounts paid to agricultural

laborers (often only twenty-five cents a day) will surprise any one who is

not fully acquainted with the hardships endured by this unfortunate class,

and the state of destitution in which they are compelled to _exist_ (it

can not, with any propriety, be called _living_), and to rear their

families.

More than one half of the foreigners are from Ireland, and no person

acquainted with the social history of that unhappy country need be told of

the want and deprivation endured by its peasantry, of their useless

efforts to benefit themselves, or of the ruin, starvation, and disease

with which they are so frequently afflicted. To constitute a farmer in

Ireland, a man must hire an acre or two of land, for which he pays a heavy

rent, as two or sometimes three "middle-men" have to obtain their profits

before the landlord receives his share. In this field he plants as many

potatoes as can be crowded into it; and in his hut or cabin he keeps a pig

or some fowls, regularly domesticated as members of the family, and

receiving more attention than the children. From the sale of the pig the

rent has to be obtained, and from the proceeds of the poultry, with the

potatoes, all their wants have to be supplied. Thus, with the potatoes he

raises for almost his sole means of support, with peat from some bog in

the neighborhood to furnish him with fuel, he lives until the impoverished

soil refuses to yield its annual crop, or yields it in a diseased and

poisonous state, when fever and starvation come to fill his cup of misery,

and render him dependent upon charity for an existence. And this in a land

peculiarly rich in all that is necessary to make its people a great and

happy nation.

This has been known as the state of Ireland for many years, and in this

condition it unquestionably was when the women who here are now

prostitutes were born there. Whether the severe lessons taught by the last

famine, the more enlightened and liberal policy which has governed

England, since that terrible calamity, in its legislation for the sister

island, the introduction of Anglo-Saxon capital and enterprise, and the

large exodus of the natives of the soil, have been of advantage to the

country, it is difficult to determine in the face of the conflicting

testimony furnished respectively by English and Irish partisans. It seems

reasonable to conclude that an improvement must have taken place under

these circumstances. But this is not the place to argue the political

questions so often agitated there and elsewhere; it is enough for the

purpose of this work to show the poverty of twenty years ago, and the vice

resulting from it now, and to remind the reader that because of the

lamentable manner in which the Irish have suffered in their own country,

we must be taxed in New York for the support in hospitals, alms-houses,

and prisons, of the women whose poverty compelled their crime.

_Question._ IF YOUR MOTHER HAD ANY BUSINESS INDEPENDENT OF YOUR FATHER,

WHAT WAS IT?

Mothers' business. Numbers.

No independent business 1880

Dress-makers 35

Tailoresses 26

Seamstresses 12

Store-keepers 9

Boarding-house-keepers 7

Servants 6

Vest-makers 6

Laundresses 4

Bakers 4

Hat-trimmers 3

Milliners 3

Artificial Flower-maker 1

Music teacher 1

Nurse 1

Umbrella-maker 1

House-cleaner 1

----

Total 2000

Only one hundred and twenty of two thousand women answer that their

mothers had any business independent of their fathers, and they were

mostly of the same ill-paid class as those alluded to in the portion

referring to the occupations of the women themselves. The exceptions were,

boarding-house, store, and bakery-keepers, amounting to twenty only, the

remaining one hundred being servants or needle-women. The fact that even

this number found it necessary to augment the income of their families by

their own exertions is another evidence of poverty.

_Question._ DID YOU ASSIST EITHER YOUR FATHER OR MOTHER IN THEIR

BUSINESS? IF SO, WHICH OF THEM?

Assisted. Numbers.

Assisted neither parent 1515

" both parents 149

" mothers 306

" fathers 30

--- ----

Totals 485 1515

--- 485

----

Aggregate 2000

To this question, thirty women reply that they were in the habit of

assisting their fathers, three hundred and six say they assisted their

mothers, and one hundred and forty-nine assisted both parents. The two

latter answers, embracing four hundred and fifty-five cases, must be

construed to mean such assistance in the ordinary work of a family as

usually falls to the lot of children. The residue say that they never

assisted either father or mother, or, in other words, that they were

brought up in habits of idleness, which can scarcely have forsaken them in

after-life, and probably had some considerable agency in their fall.

_Question._ IS YOUR FATHER LIVING, OR HOW OLD WAS YOU WHEN HE DIED?

Age at fathers' death. Numbers.

Fathers living 651

Under 5 years 289

From 5 " to 10 years 208

" 10 " to 15 " 252

" 15 " to 20 " 389

Unascertained 211

---- ----

Totals 1349 651

---- 1349

----

Aggregate 2000

_Question._ IS YOUR MOTHER LIVING, OR HOW OLD WAS YOU WHEN SHE DIED?

Mothers living 766

Under 5 years 268

From 5 " to 10 years 195

" 10 " to 15 " 277

" 15 " to 20 " 281

Unascertained 213

---- ----

Totals 1234 766

---- 1234

----

Aggregate 2000

From the preceding tables, it appears that more than half of these women

are orphans, 1349 of them have lost their fathers, and 1234 were deprived

of their mothers. In both cases, the ages of the children at the death of

their parents are in nearly the same ratio; thus, two hundred and

eighty-nine fathers and two hundred and sixty-eight mothers died when

their children were under five years of age; two hundred and eight fathers

and one hundred and ninety-five mothers died when their children were

under ten years of age; two hundred and fifty-two fathers and two hundred

and seventy-seven mothers died when their children were under fifteen

years of age. The average of the deaths of either parent will therefore

be, when the children were

Under 5 years of age 279

From 5 " to 10 years 202

" 10 " to 15 " 265

and the aggregate result that 1479 parents died before their daughters had

reached the age at which a female most needs aid and advice.

At any time and under any circumstances the thought of death is

dispiriting. The idea of rending all earthly ties; of bursting asunder

bonds which have formed for years a part of our very existence, of leaving

the world with its joys and pleasures, its cares and griefs, for the

"undiscovered bourne," is appalling in contemplation; more appalling still

when the family circle is invaded, and a father whom we have revered, or a

mother whom we have loved, is taken from us.

The death of a father is a sad calamity for his children; the hand that

has nourished and protected them, that has toiled for their support, is

cold in the grave; their earthly support is gone. But a more grievous

affliction still is the death of a mother. It is she to whom the children

look in all their infant sufferings; it is her ear that is ever open to

their sorrows; it is her bosom on which they are pillowed in sickness; her

care which guides their steps in infancy; her love which warns them of the

dangers that menace them in after life. Bereft of a mother's watchful

tenderness, they are comparatively alone in the world, and many of their

sorrows must be dated from that event.

The answers to these questions are full of material for mournful

reflection, and strongly indicate the increased responsibilities of

surviving relatives toward the orphans. This point has been already so

strongly insisted upon that it would be a needless reiteration to argue

its necessity.

_Question._ DO YOU DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUOR? IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT?

Extent. Numbers.

Do not drink liquor 359

Drink moderately 647

" intemperately 754

Habitual drunkards 240

---- ----

Totals 1641 359

---- 1641

----

Aggregate 2000

It may be assumed as an almost invariable rule, that courtesans in all

countries are in the habit of using alcoholic stimulants to a greater or

less degree, in order to maintain that artificial state of excitement

which is indispensably necessary to their calling. One of the class in

London said to Mr. Mayhew, when he was making the inquiries alluded to in

the chapters upon English prostitution, "_No girls_ COULD _lead the life

we do without gin_;" and drinking is undoubtedly universal among abandoned

women. Even according to the most favorable view of the replies to the

query now under consideration, and admitting them to be strictly correct,

it will be found that five sixths of the total number confess they are in

the habit of using intoxicating liquors. But with the knowledge of facts

already ascertained in other cases, the inquirer will be compelled to

believe that this is not the whole truth, for it is almost certain that

the three hundred and fifty-nine who claim to be total abstinents indulge

themselves in occasional potations. In prosecuting investigations like the

present, there are many difficulties to encounter. A woman who is found

residing in a house of ill fame will scarcely attempt to deny that she is

a prostitute, although even this has been done in some cases, yet she will

equivocate upon other matters. The facts of her birth, family, and life

will probably be given correctly, because there exists no motive for

concealment; but the answers to any questions which she deems degrading,

such as relate, for example, to her habits or the state of her health,

must be received with some considerable allowance, and compared with

well-ascertained facts.

Among the more aristocratic prostitutes it is considered a disgrace to be

absolutely intoxicated, and the keeper of a first-class house would

scarcely retain a boarder who was addicted to habitual inebriety. Still,

the most fastidious are ready and eager to sell champagne, or what passes

for it, to any visitor of liberal disposition, and will generally

condescend to assist him to drink it, of course inviting all the ladies to

participate. In the lower grades it is not deemed disreputable to be

inebriated, but the proprietors, knowing intoxication would interfere

with their business, interdict it until late at night, when "the mirth and

fun grows fast and furious," and when visitors, women, proprietors,

bar-keepers, and servants frequently all contrive to be drunk, and close

the night with a general saturnalia. The following morning, every thing is

changed. The proprietor takes his stand behind the bar, and tenders the

inmates, as they appear, their "bitters," namely a bumper of raw spirits.

The visitors depart about their business, and the women await, with all

the patience they can command, the result of another day's campaign,

anxiously watching for any contingency which may arise likely to bring

them another glass of liquor. Even in this case they are narrowly watched,

and as soon as the depression from the previous night's debauch has been

overcome, they must either take "temperance drinks," or colored water,

when any stray customer invites them to the bar. _Our decided impression

is that not one per cent. of the prostitutes in New York practice their

calling without partaking of intoxicating drinks._

The effects of this habit are well known. In the first instance the woman

drinks but little, probably just enough to cause a slight artificial

excitement, and bring a color to her cheeks. After a time the proportion

must be increased as the effect upon the system is diminished, until the

finale is a habit of confirmed and constant drinking. As a general rule,

the horrible consequences then become apparent. The whole frame is

relaxed, and every movement of the limbs is a motion of uncertainty; the

brain is impaired; the reasoning faculties are destroyed; the powers of

the stomach and digestive organs are weakened, and an attack of delirium

tremens is the _ultimatum_, usually cured, if cured at all, at the public

expense in a hospital or prison.

A work of fiction, published some ten years ago, gives the following

truthful account of the effects of drunkenness on prostitutes, by one of

whom the words are supposed to be used:

"I must have drink. Such as live like me could not bear life without

drink. It's the only thing to keep us from suicide. If we did not drink we

could not stand the memory of what we have been, and the thought of what

we are, for a day. If I go without food and without shelter, I must have

my dram. Oh! what awful nights I have had in prison for want of it." She

glared round with terrified eyes as if dreading to see some supernatural

creature near her, and then continued: "It is dreadful to see them. There

they go round and round my bed the whole night through. My mother carrying

my baby, and sister Mary, and all looking at me with their sad stony eyes.

Oh! it is terrible. They don't turn back either, but pass behind the head

of the bed, and I feel their eyes on me every where. If I creep under the

clothes I still see them, and, what is worse, they see me. _I must have

drink. I can not pass to-night without a dram. I dare not._"[396]

Although this is an imaginary picture its counterpart can be seen at

almost any time in the hospitals under the charge of the Governors of the

Alms House on Blackwell's Island, New York City, where large numbers of

such cases are constantly treated. In 1854, in the Penitentiary Hospital

alone, more than fourteen hundred persons received medical assistance for

delirium tremens and other maladies arising from excess in drinking. This

fact induced the remarks in the report for that year, that the "cases

actually treated here during the last year were directly caused by the

lowest and foulest kinds of dissipation and vice, a fact which speaks

trumpet-tongued in favor of shutting up 'grog shops,' and shows the

absolute necessity of adopting some plan whereby the enormous amount of

prostitution now among us shall be decreased."[397] Since then an

alteration in the law has sentenced drunken persons to an incarceration in

the City Prison, and the number sent to Blackwell's Island has diminished,

but not to the extent which would be supposed, as, during 1857, the

hospitals thereon afforded relief to seven hundred and ninety-one

inebriates.

The fearful havoc upon the constitution is produced as well by the quality

as the quantity of the liquors consumed. Let any man not thoroughly

informed on these subjects taste a glass of the compounds retailed at

these places, and he will be immediately convinced that it would be quite

as judicious an act to swallow the same quantity of camphene or sulphuric

acid if diluted, sweetened, and colored. The various liquors, gin, rum,

brandy, whisky, or wine, having nothing in common with the genuine

articles of commerce but the name, are so many varieties of the cheapest

and most poisonous "raw spirits" that the markets afford, and are

manufactured in this city in large quantities to meet the demands arising

from such places. Instances have been known where liquors subsequently

sold in houses of ill fame as pure French brandy have been furnished by

wholesale dealers at prices ranging from thirty-six to fifty cents a

gallon. There may be exceptions; some few brothels of the higher rank may

sell what is called "good liquor," but they are very rare indeed. Is it

any matter of surprise that drunkenness, or, more properly speaking,

stupefaction and insensibility are so rife; that so many constitutions are

ruined and so many characters destroyed when agencies like these are

tolerated?

_Question._ DID YOUR FATHER DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUORS? IF SO, TO WHAT

EXTENT?

Fathers' habits. Numbers.

Did not drink liquor 548

Drank moderately 636

" intemperately 596

Unascertained 220

---- ----

Totals 1452 548

---- 1452

----

Aggregate 2000

_Question._ DID YOUR MOTHER DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUORS? IF SO, TO WHAT

EXTENT?

Mothers' habits. Numbers.

Did not drink liquor 875

Drank moderately 574

" intemperately 347

Unascertained 204

---- ----

Totals 1125 875

---- 1125

----

Aggregate 2000

How much of the intemperate habits of these women must be traced to the

influence of the parent's example? One thousand four hundred and fifty-two

fathers; one thousand one hundred and twenty-five mothers, are represented

as having been addicted to the use of liquors in various degrees, the

moderate in both cases exceeding the intemperate drinkers. And yet even

moderate drinking, when pursued by parents in the presence of, or to the

knowledge of children, is a practice open to the gravest censure. In the

mind of a child any action is deemed right if performed by a father or

mother. As the children advance in years parental customs are followed,

and, in such a case as this, probably the single glass of beer or wine of

the father lays the foundation of intemperance in the children. Without

undertaking to argue the question of the absolute necessity for a total

abstinence from all liquors under all circumstances, the proposition may

be seriously submitted that the effect of this personal example upon

children is satisfactorily ascertained, from many different sources, to be

prejudicial to their best interests, and a natural deduction therefore is

that it is the duty of parents to abstain.

Instances are upon record where both fathers and mothers, in the temporary

insanity of intoxication, have turned their daughters from home into the

streets, and that, too, in cases where not even the remotest grounds

existed for any suspicion of improper conduct on the part of these

children. Occurrences like this are sufficient to enforce the necessity of

temperance on the part of parents, in view of the fearful responsibility

which rests upon them.

_Question._ WERE YOUR PARENTS PROTESTANTS, CATHOLICS, OR NON-PROFESSORS?

Religion. Numbers.

Protestants 960

Roman Catholics 977

Non-professors 63

----

Total 2000

_Question._ WERE YOU TRAINED TO ANY RELIGION? IF SO, WAS IT PROTESTANT OR

CATHOLIC?

Religion. Numbers.

Protestant 972

Roman Catholic 977

No religious training 51

----

Total 2000

_Question._ DO YOU PROFESS THE SAME RELIGION NOW?

Profession. Numbers.

Profess religion as educated 1909

Non-professors 91

----

Total 2000

_Question._ HOW LONG IS IT SINCE YOU HAVE OBSERVED ANY OF ITS

REQUIREMENTS?

Time. Numbers.

1 year and under 861

From 1 " to 2 years 310

" 2 " " 3 " 226

" 3 " " 4 " 135

" 4 " " 5 " 106

" 5 " " 6 " 72

" 6 " " 7 " 42

" 7 " " 8 " 42

" 8 " " 9 " 20

" 9 " " 10 " 36

" 10 " " 12 " 20

Unascertained 130

----

Totals 2000

It certainly seems a very incongruous association to connect religion and

prostitution; to place in juxtaposition the most noble aspirations of

which the mind is capable, and the lowest degradation to which, the body

can descend. But such a contrast is not without its moral. It is not too

great a stretch of imagination to suppose that of those unfortunate women

who subsequently lost their position in society, some had the advantages

of an early Christian education; were taught to believe in and reverence

the Inspired Writings; were taught that there is a God who judgeth the

world, and that there exists for all a future state. Reflecting upon this,

and considering how deplorably such have fallen from the observance of

precepts inculcated in the days of childhood, all persons will feel the

necessity of watchfulness and care that the same fate does not befall

themselves or their connections. The facts may teach another lesson. It

may be presumed that some of these women were trained in the rigid and

austere manner animadverted upon in the remarks on the causes of

prostitution, and that their present career is but the recoil from that

unnatural restraint. Such conclusion would afford a solemn warning to all

who have charge of the education of children to choose the happy mean

between the extremes of careless laxity and excessive harshness. Either

course is alike fatal to the welfare of their trust, and must end in

disappointment and sorrow.

If it were consistent with propriety, it would not be possible to make any

comparison between the results of Protestant and Roman Catholic teachings,

because of the nearly equal number in each case. In the table exhibiting

the religions professed by the parents there are seventeen more Roman

Catholics than Protestants; in the table of the religions professed by the

prostitutes themselves there are five more Roman Catholics than

Protestants. The relative value of the two creeds as rules of life can not

therefore be made the subject of argument from such data. So far as our

duties to the Almighty, to our fellow-men, and to ourselves--so far as the

obligations to virtue and morality are concerned, the adherents of both

parties are agreed, and in the investigation of the intricate social

problem of female depravity it matters but little whether a majority of

the pitiable subjects of the inquiry were educated in the tenets of the

Church of Rome or in the doctrines of the Reformation. If the articles of

faith of either Church are honestly observed by those who professedly

believe in them, they will be effective in preventing immorality; but when

this observance is confined to words, and not exemplified by actions,

neither the simple rituals of Protestantism nor the more elaborate and

artistically arranged ceremonials of Roman Catholicism can be of any

avail. Neither, if our lives accord not with our profession, will it make

an iota of difference in our future destiny whether we have bowed the knee

in a temple devoted to Roman Catholic service before the image of a

crucified Savior, and endeavored to train our thoughts to a contemplation

of his mercy and beneficence, or have knelt in a Protestant Church, and

there joined in the public confession that we are sinners.

The facts exhibited in the tables show that 1937 women had parents who

were professedly members of one or the other of these communions; that

1949 women out of 2000 were taught to believe in the necessity of some

religion, and that 1909 of these women still assert their confidence in

the creed in which they were educated.

It can not be expected that, living in the constant practice of that which

their consciences must teach them is sinful, these women would have

continued to observe the outward form of religion. By comparing the table

upon this point with the one framed from the replies to the question, "For

what length of time have you been a prostitute?" it will be observed that

1674 admit they have been prostitutes for six years and upward, and 1710

confess they have neglected to observe the requirements of religion for

the same space of time; a coincidence which leads us charitably to suppose

that the crime and the omission are nearly parallel, so far as dates are

concerned, and that hypocritical professions of religion do not rank among

prostitutes' offenses.

But even with their neglect of the outward requirements of faith, and

while in the actual commission of known and acknowledged sin, they still

preserve many traits which are much to their credit. They possess one of

the chief virtues belonging to the female character, which never seems to

become extinct or materially impaired; namely, kindness to each other when

sick or destitute, and indeed to all who are in suffering or distress.

This has attracted the attention, and called forth the admiration, of

every one who has been thrown into contact with them. A very touching

instance of these amiable feelings occurred some years ago, and is

narrated in the Westminster Review for July, 1850. A poor girl, who was

rapidly sinking into a decline, after a short but impetuous course of

infamy, had no means of support but from the continued exercise of her

calling. With a mixture of kindness and conscientiousness which may well

surprise us under the circumstances, her companions in degradation

resolved among themselves that, as they said, "at least she should not be

compelled to die in sin," and contributed from their own sad earnings a

sufficient sum to enable her to pass her few remaining days in comfort and

repentance.

This is far from being an exceptional case. An extended hospital

experience has brought under our personal observation many acts of real

sympathy and kindness toward each other among the prostitute class. If one

of their number is discharged, and is unprovided with suitable clothing,

they will club their scanty resources to supply her needs, frequently

contributing articles they really want themselves. In any case of serious

sickness, where prompt attention is required, they form most reliable

nurses, and will cheerfully sacrifice their own rest at any time to

minister to the sufferer, performing their duties with the utmost care and

tenderness. Their fidelity to each other is strongly marked. It is

literally impossible, in any case where a breach of discipline has

occurred, to find a woman who will bear witness against any of her

companions, and neither threats nor promises are sufficiently potent to

extract the desired information.

These traits are not submitted with any intention of offering them as an

equivalent to the morality which has been violated, but merely to prove

that hearts which can conceive and execute such kindly purposes can not be

entirely lost to the sense of virtue or the claims of benevolence. Truly

they are but as an atom in the balance, but, like an oasis in the desert,

they show that all is not arid and sterile.

CHAPTER XXXV.

NEW YORK.--PROSTITUTES AND HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION.

First Class, or "Parlor Houses."--Luxury.--Semi-refinement.--Rate of

Board.--Dress.--Money.--Lavish Extravagance.--Instance of Economy.--

Means of Amusement.--House-keepers.--Rents.--Estimated Receipts.--

Management of Houses.--Assumed Respectability.--Consequences of

Exactions from Prostitutes.--Affection for Lovers.--Second Class

Houses.--Street-walkers.--Drunkenness.--Syphilitic Infection.--Third

Class Houses.--Germans.--Sailors.--Ball-rooms.--Intoxication.--Fourth

Class Houses.--Repulsive Features.--Visitors.--Action of the Police.--

First Class Houses of Assignation.--Secrecy and Exclusiveness.--

Keepers.--Arrangements.--Visitors.--Origin of some Houses of

Assignation.--Prevalence of Intrigue.--Foreign Manners.--Effects of

Travel.--Dress.--Second Class Houses.--Visitors.--Prostitutes.--

Arrangements.--Wine and Liquor.--Third Class Houses.--Kept

Mistresses.--Sewing and Shop Girls.--Disease.--Fourth Class Houses.--

"Panel Houses."

It will not be out of place here to say somewhat concerning the manner of

life among prostitutes; how they occupy the time, and what facilities they

possess for mental or bodily recreation. The domestic life of a number of

women whose every action is contrary to all the rules of virtue, who are

living in the constant violation of the law, with a daily subsistence

contributed by those whose folly or passions make them visitors to their

abode, can not but possess considerable interest to all who have followed

thus far in this painful task. In entering upon the subject, the endeavor

will be to give such particulars as will enable the reader to form

satisfactory conclusions, without recording what would merely minister to

a prurient curiosity. The object is to give information as explicitly as

possible without offending the most sensitive delicacy, wounding the most

refined feelings, or unnecessarily parading these poor women before the

public eye. The subject is invested with such an array of real and

palpable horrors as to render unnecessary any endeavor to excite undue

emotion by penetrating the mysteries of the saturnalia.

There is a wide diversity among the various grades of prostitutes in New

York. The first class are those who reside in what are technically called

"Parlor Houses." These very seldom leave their abodes, unless for the

purpose of making purchases of dress, jewelry, or articles of toilette, or

taking an afternoon promenade on the fashionable side of Broadway,

excepting when they accompany their lovers or visitors in a ride, or to

some public place of amusement. These utterly repudiate the name of

"street-walkers," and very seldom perform any act in public which would

expose them to reprobation, or attract the attention of the police. They

assume to be, and are, in fact, the most respectable of their class, if

any respectability can be associated with so vicious a course. Being

almost invariably young and handsome, and always very well dressed, they

pass through the streets without their real character being suspected by

the uninitiated.

The houses in which this class of courtesans reside are furnished with a

lavish display of luxury, scarcely in accordance with the dictates of good

taste however, and mostly exhibiting a quantity of magnificent furniture

crowded together without taste or judgment for the sake of ostentation.

The most costly cabinet and upholstery work is freely employed in their

decoration, particularly in the rooms used as reception parlors. Large

mirrors adorn the walls, which are frequently handsomely frescoed and

gilt. Paintings and engravings in rich frames, vases and statuettes, add

their charms. Carpets of luxurious softness cover the floors, while sofas,

ottomans, and easy chairs abound. Music has its representative in a

beautiful pianoforte, upon which some professed player is paid a liberal

salary to perform. Even the bed-chambers, passages, halls, and stairways

are furnished in a similar style. In such an abode as this probably dwell

from three to ten prostitutes, each paying weekly for her board from ten

to sixteen dollars, exclusive of extras, which will be noticed hereafter.

Their active life comprises about twelve or fourteen hours daily, ranging

from noon to midnight or early morning. Their visitors are mostly of what

may be called the aristocratic class; young, middle aged, and even old men

of property, of all callings and professions; any one who can command a

liberal supply of money is welcome, but without this indispensable

requisite his company is not sought or appreciated.

None of the disgusting practices common in houses of a lower grade are met

with here. There is no palpable obscenity, and but little that can outrage

propriety. Of course there is a perfect freedom of manner between

prostitutes and visitors, but so far as the public eye can penetrate, the

requirements of common decency are not openly violated. Profanity, as may

naturally be expected, exists to some extent; it is an almost invariable

accompaniment of prostitution, but even that is divested of its

grossness, and is not of frequent occurrence. There is no bar-room or

public drinking place in the house, but it is a general custom for each

visitor to invite his _pro tempore_ inamorata and her companions to take

champagne with him, which is supplied by the keeper of the place at the

charge of three dollars a bottle. As remarked in the preceding chapter,

excessive drunkenness is rare, both prostitutes and keepers trying to

suppress it, because an intoxicated man would be likely to give them

trouble, damage their furniture, and injure the reputation of the house.

By means of a small aperture in the front door, covered by a wrought-iron

lattice-work, the candidates for admission can be examined before entrance

is given, and the door is kept closed against any person who is likely to

prove an annoyance.

As a natural consequence of their position, the women exert all their

powers of fascination, by adopting the latest and most superb fashions in

dress, and by a very tasteful arrangement of their hair, for which purpose

a hair dresser visits them every day, charging each woman two or three

dollars a week for his assistance. Besides these they practice a thousand

other artifices, unknown to mere lookers on, in order to secure the favor

of their visitors.

About three fourths of the courtesans of this grade are natives of the

United States, and mostly from New England or the Middle States. Some of

them are very well educated; accomplished musicians and artists are

sometimes found among them, while others aspire to literature. With the

greater number much elegance and refinement of manner, or a close

observance of what may be called the conventionalities of life, is seen.

Their income is large, but so are their expenses. It is no exaggeration to

state that their individual receipts very seldom fall short of fifty

dollars per week. From this amount deduct the sum charged for their board,

an additional fee which they pay the proprietress for every visitor they

entertain, the expenses of hair-dressing, perfumery, etc., the cost of

their washing, which is all done at their own charge, away from the house,

and must be considerable, and the remainder will give their expenditure

for dress. All are not equally extravagant. Some seem to consider

prostitution a business, and act upon the idea of saving as much money as

possible. In one case a woman asserted that she had seven thousand dollars

in the bank, which she had accumulated by prostitution in a few years, and

her statement was confirmed by the captain of police for the district.

The economical ones are generally shrewd, calculating "down-Easters," who

argue that if they can save enough during the zenith of their charms to

support them when their attractions fail, or to help them establish a

house of this description on their own account, they are only doing their

duty. Others have dependent relatives whom they support, or illegitimate

children whom they maintain and educate, frequently appropriating

considerable sums for these purposes. In nearly all of them, kindness

toward the unfortunate of their own sex and grade is a striking trait.

Much as they may quarrel among each other when all are alike in health,

let one be visited with sickness, or overcome by misfortune, and, as a

general rule, their envy or jealousy is forgotten, and they freely

contribute to her support.

Their means of amusement are limited. When they have no visitors they

generally indulge in a luxurious indolence. For any useful employment,

such as even sewing or fancy needlework, they have but little inclination,

and their general refuge from _ennui_ is found in reading novels. These

are not, as would be generally supposed, works of lascivious character; to

these they seem to have an objection, most probably because their own

experience has proved the fallacies of the highly-colored descriptions of

the delights of love which abound in such productions. To one source of

recreation they are extremely partial, namely, driving in carriages some

few miles out of town, and they frequently persuade their visitors to

indulge them in these rural excursions. They are well acquainted with the

most pleasant drives, and know exactly where to find quiet and retired

hotels where all the delicacies of the season can be served in the most

approved style. If they can not induce their friends to gratify them in

this manner, they will endeavor to secure an invitation to take luncheon

or oysters at some fashionable saloon. Dress, gay life, and excitement

seem necessary to their existence.

And amid all this array of luxurious homes, of splendid dresses, of

comparative affluence, the question arises, Are they happy? A moment's

consideration will prompt the answer that they can not be. Continued

indulgence in their course of life tends to obliterate the sense of

degradation, and makes their career almost second nature, but even the

most confirmed must at times reflect. The memory of what they have been,

the thought of what they are, the dread of what they must be, haunt their

minds; conscience will make itself heard. Many a poor girl dressed in

silks or satins, gleaming with jewelry, and receiving with a gay smile

the lavish compliments of her "friend," is mentally racked with a keen

appreciation of her true position. She knows that the world condemns her,

and her own heart admits the justice of the verdict. She knows that he who

is so ostentatiously parading his admiration regards her but as a

purchased instrument to minister to his gratification. She feels that she

is, emphatically, alone in the world, and her merry laugh but ill conceals

a breaking heart.

These houses are generally kept by middle-aged women who have themselves

passed through the initiatory course of a prostitute's life. In some cases

they own the real estate and furniture. In others they hire or lease the

house, paying an exorbitant rent (often to some wealthy man who considers

himself a respectable member of society), and provide their own furniture;

in other cases they rent both house and furniture. _In one house in this

city the enormous sum of nine thousand one hundred_ (9100) _dollars is, or

was at the time of examination, paid annually for rent and use of

furniture_, the owner being a woman who formerly kept the place, but who

is now living in the enjoyment of a large income in one of the Italian

cities.

The following extracts from information obtained on this subject will give

a very good idea of the facts:

E. M. pays $1300 per year for rent and use of furniture, which is

owned by a woman who formerly kept the house.

M. S. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns the furniture.

M. L. owns the house and furniture, estimated to be worth $15,000.

M. A. T. pays $700 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $5000.

J. G. pays $700 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

E. T. owns the real estate and furniture, valued at $30,000.

C. G. pays $1800 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

M. C. K. pays $3900 per year for rent and use of furniture.

C. E. pays $1400 per annum rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

M. B. owns the house and furniture, valued at $15,000.

J. B. pays $560 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

E. B. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

M. M. owns house and furniture, valued at $15,000.

C. C. pays $850 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $8000.

M. M. pays $750 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

M. G. pays $625 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $1000.

V. N. pays $1300 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

C. E. pays $1400 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

L. C. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

A. T. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

The financial effects of the system of prostitution will furnish a theme

for some remarks hereafter. These facts are quoted now to explain the

expenses connected with first-class houses. Of course, where such outlays

are incurred the receipts must correspond. The following statement will

exhibit the _minimum_ weekly receipts in a house where ten boarders

reside: