The final charge arises from the police _The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World

of New York, of which it is believed that ten per cent. is caused by

prostitution and its concomitant crimes and sufferings. The aggregate

forms a large amount, and will be rather a surmise than an assertion. The

maintenance of police-officers and station-houses, of police-justices and

their court-rooms, of the city judge and recorder, with their respective

courts, of the city and district prisons, and numerous contingent

expenses, can not be less than two million dollars a year. The percentage

chargeable to prostitution will therefore be $200,000 per year, or $4000

per week.

Thus much for preliminary explanations. It will now be possible to present

the reader with a tabular statement of the weekly and yearly cost of the

system of prostitution existing in the metropolis of the New World. Those

who have followed us through this argument, and noted the facts upon which

every calculation is based, will bear witness that nothing has been

exaggerated, that no dollar is debited to the vice without strong

presumptive evidence to support such charge, and that the endeavor has

been throughout rather to underestimate than exceed the bounds of strict

probability. Upon this ground the attention of the public is earnestly

requested to the first exposition ever attempted of the amount paid by

citizens of and visitors to New York for illicit sexual gratification.

RECAPITULATION.

Weekly Yearly

Expenditure. outlay. outlay.

INDIVIDUAL EXPENSES:

Paid to prostitutes $60,000 $3,120,000

Spent for wine and liquor by visitors 40,000 2,080,000

Paid by visitors to houses of assignation 12,600 655,200

Spent for wine and liquor by visitors to

houses of assignation 5,000 260,000

Spent in dancing-saloons, liquor and lager-beer

stores frequented by prostitutes and

their friends 4,530 235,560

MEDICAL EXPENSES:

Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island 438 22,750

Bellevue " New York 135 7,000

Nursery " Randall's Island 163 8,500

Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island 136 7,075

New York City Hospital, New York 159 8,260

Dispensaries 728

King's County Hospital, Long Island 145 7,530

Brooklyn City " " 89 4,644

Seamen's Retreat, Staten Island 203 10,540

Private medical assistance 5,928 308,108

VAGRANCY AND PAUPER EXPENSES:

Work-house, Blackwell's Island 585 30,400

Penitentiary " " 462 24,030

Alms-house " " 303 15,750

Nursery, Randall's Island 577 30,000

POLICE AND JUDICIARY EXPENSES:

Proportion of aggregate 4,000 200,000

-------- ----------

Totals $135,467 $7,036,075

The footings of the columns show the total expense to be

Weekly $135,467

Yearly $7,036,075

over SEVEN MILLIONS of dollars! or nearly as much as the annual municipal

expenditure of New York City.

Comment upon these figures would be superfluous. They present the monetary

effects of prostitution in a convincing point of view, and will prepare

the reader for an attentive perusal of the suggested remedial measures

which form the subject of the next chapter. The American mind is said to

be proverbially open to argument based upon dollars and cents. Without

giving an unqualified assent to the proposition, we may be permitted to

hope that financial considerations, combined with the claims of

benevolence and humanity, the appeals of virtue and morality, the demands

of public health, and the future physical well-being of the community at

large, will exercise that influence on the public mind which is necessary

to the accomplishment of any valuable practical result from the present

investigation.

Before leaving the subject of the extent of prostitution it may be

appropriate to remark that it was considered advisable to ascertain the

prevalence of the vice in some of the leading cities of the United States,

and, in order to do this effectually, a circular letter was addressed to

the Mayors of

Albany, New York,

Baltimore, Maryland,

Boston, Massachusetts,

Brooklyn, New York,

_Buffalo_, New York,

Charleston, South Carolina,

Chicago, Illinois,

Cincinnati, Ohio,

Detroit, Michigan,

Hartford, Connecticut,

_Louisville_, Kentucky,

Memphis, Tennessee,

Mobile, Alabama,

_Newark_, New Jersey,

_New Haven_, Connecticut,

New Orleans, Louisiana,

_Norfolk_, Virginia,

_Philadelphia_, Pennsylvania,

_Pittsburgh_, Pennsylvania,

Portland, Maine,

Richmond, Virginia,

_Savannah_, Georgia,

St. Louis, Missouri,

Washington, District Columbia.

(The names printed in _italics_ are those of cities from which replies

were received.)

The circular forwarded was as follows:

(Copy.)

"Mayor's Office, New York City, Sept. 1, 1856.

"TO HIS HONOR THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF ------:

"DEAR SIR,--Below you will receive from Dr. Sanger a note containing a

few questions concerning Prostitution and Prostitutes in your city,

which I shall feel obliged if you will have the kindness to answer.

"Very truly yours,

"FERNANDO WOOD, Mayor New York City."

"DEAR SIR,--During the past six months, with the aid of His Honor,

Mayor Wood, of this city, and the police force at his command, I have

been collecting materials for a report on Prostitution, as it exists

in New York at the present time. I inclose you a list of questions

that have been asked all the women examined here.[401] Of course I do

not expect that you will or can give answers to these questions from

the prostitutes in your city, but I would wish to have your replies to

the following queries:

"1. How many houses of prostitution are there in your city?

"2. How many houses of assignation are there in your city?

"3. How many public prostitutes are there in your city?

"4. How many private prostitutes are there in your city?

"5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city?

"6. What is the present population of your city?

"Of course these questions can be answered to you, by your chief of

police and officers, only as to the best of their knowledge; but, as a

general thing, shrewd police-officers will be able to give correct

answers to them. I do _not_ wish names, only the round numbers in each

class.

"I shall do myself the honor to forward you a copy of the report when

completed, and shall be glad to receive your replies to the above

queries by the 30th of this month. You will please direct your answer

"Yours respectfully,

"WILLIAM W. SANGER,

"Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New York City."

The following are the replies received:

BUFFALO, N. Y.

(Copy.)

"Mayor's Office, Buffalo, October 2, 1856.

"DEAR SIR,--I received your circular of the 1st of September, asking

that certain questions concerning houses of prostitution, prostitutes,

etc., might be answered.

"I immediately directed our chief to collect the necessary information

through the police, and I have just received his report: I here

inclose the answers.

"To show how far the report can be relied on for accuracy, I here copy

from his report: 'The captains inform me that they experienced much

difficulty in their endeavors to make a correct report and answer to

the several questions proposed; they, however, believe that the

returns, so far at least as the number of houses and public

prostitutes is concerned, are very near correct.'

"Any farther information you may desire I will cheerfully give, so far

as I am able. I am respectfully yours,

"F. P. STEVENS, Mayor."

(Inclosure.)

"Houses of Prostitution, 87

" of Assignation, 37

Public Prostitutes, 272

Private Prostitutes, 81

Kept Mistresses, 31

Population, 75,000."

LOUISVILLE, KY.

(Copy.)

"Police Office, Louisville, Ky., December 26, 1856.

"HON. JOHN BARBER, MAYOR:

"DEAR SIR,--Below I give a statement of such matters as called for by

Dr. Wm. W. Sanger, Resident Physician of Blackwell's Island, New York

City, which I think you will find correct, or as near as can be

arrived at from the facilities afforded. Hoping that it will prove

satisfactory to the doctor, and that it will _many tales unfold_, I

remain respectfully yours,

"JAS. KIRKPATRICK, Chief of Police.

"Houses of Prostitution 79

" " Assignation 39

Public prostitutes 214

Private " 93

Kept mistresses 60

Population of city (supposed to be) 70,000

"I am now preparing to take the census for 1857."

NEWARK, N. J.

(Copy.)

"Newark, N. J., October 4, 1856.

"WM. W. SANGER, M.D.:

"DEAR SIR,--I can not make any excuse for not answering your letter of

inquiry that will justify me. (Yours of September 1st was

unfortunately mislaid.)

"Our population in 1855 was 55,000 by census.

"We have no houses of ill fame in our city; none of assignation; there

are no public prostitutes.

"It may appear strange to you that the above should be the case, but

there is good reason for it. From the best information that I can get

there are perhaps fifty private prostitutes in this city, composed of

girls living at service or as seamstresses, but who conduct themselves

so as not to be known. Our city is so near to New York that as soon as

a girl turns out she makes her way to it, where associations and

congenial amusements make it more agreeable. It is rather singular,

but so soon as it becomes known that a girl is loose, she is marked

and followed in the streets by half-grown boys hooting at and really

forcing her to leave town. Occasionally it is made known to the police

that a couple of girls staid a night or two at some boarding-house,

when they are arrested as vagrants, or warned off, and they are gone.

"New York being so much greater field for them, they are the least of

our troubles. Truly and respectfully yours,

"H. J. POINIER, Mayor."

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

(Copy.)

"New Haven, September 18, 1856.

"Dr. WM. W. SANGER:

"DEAR SIR,--Herewith I hand you the report of our chief of police in

answer to your inquiries relative to prostitution in this city.

"Your obedient servant,

"P. S. GALPIN, Mayor."

(Inclosure.)

"TO HIS HONOR THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW HAVEN:

"SIR,--I have had the communication addressed to you by Wm. W. Sanger,

Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New York, in regard to

prostitutes and prostitution in the city of New Haven, under

consideration, and beg leave to report:

"That the answers to the questions propounded are given in a general

manner, with near approximation to exactness without pretending to be

minutely accurate.

"And to the first question, namely, 'How many houses of prostitution

are there in the city?' I answer, That the number now known as such to

the police is _ten_, and that these are only such (some of them)

occasionally; and that none of them would be so called in New York,

being inconsiderable, in poor, out-of-the-way houses, and conducted

with great secrecy, and are constantly liable to the penalties of a

law peculiar to Connecticut, which punishes _reputation_, rendering it

impossible for them to gain strength and become permanent.

"And to the second inquiry, 'How many houses of assignation are there

in the city?' I answer, There are known to be _six_, and others

suspected; but these all are not such proper, but are connected with

some business, as eating-houses, hotels, dance-houses, etc.

"And to the third inquiry, 'How many public prostitutes are there in

the city?' There are known by name, ninety-three, all well known.

"And to the fourth inquiry, 'How many private prostitutes are there in

the city?' I answer, That there are thirty, with many married women;

and, indeed, this class is mostly composed of married women.

"And to the fifth question, 'How many kept mistresses are there in the

city?' the answer is, That the number is not known, but is small, and

no one instance is certainly known to us.

"The population of the city is thirty-two thousand.

"All which is respectfully submitted.

"JOHN C. HAYDEN,

"Chief of Police City of New Haven.

"Dated at New Haven, September 16, 1856."

NORFOLK, VA.

(Copy.)

"Mayor's Office, Norfolk, Va., Sept. 15, 1856.

"DEAR SIR,--Yours of 1st instant was duly received, and in reply would

state that I have endeavored to be as accurate as possible in my

replies to your several interrogatories, namely,

"1. How many houses of prostitution in your city?

"Answer. About forty.

"2. How many houses of assignation in your city?

"Answer. None as such; there being no places, so far as I can learn,

used as meeting-places.

"3. How many public prostitutes are there in your city?

"Answer. About one hundred and fifty.

"4. How many private prostitutes are there in your city?

"Answer. About fifty.

"5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city?

"Answer. About six or eight.

"6. What is the present population of your city?

"Answer. About eighteen thousand.

"I would, in connection with the above, state that about twenty-five

of the forty houses are used almost exclusively by sailors and

seafaring men, and are sometimes improperly called 'Sailor

Boarding-houses,' especially the most decent of them.

"Any other information I can give you I will most cheerfully do,

should you desire any.

"I am very respectfully yours,

"F. F. FERGUSON,

"Mayor City of Norfolk, Virginia.

"To Dr. WM. W. SANGER, Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, New

York."

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

(Copy.)

"Office of the Mayor of the City of Philadelphia, Sept. 8, 1856.

"DEAR SIR,--As near as we can arrive at the facts (of course no great

reliance can be placed on this general answer) the following are the

figures:

1. Houses of prostitution 130

2. Houses of assignation 50

3. Public Prostitutes 475

4. Private " 105

6. (Say) six hundred thousand population.

"Our city has one hundred and twenty-nine (129) square miles of police

jurisdiction, and six hundred and fifty (650) policemen besides

officers. You will therefore make some allowances for the want of time

to enable me more fully to state answers to your questions.

"The answers given are from estimates made by the lieutenants of

police of their own districts.

"Respectfully,

"RICHARD VAUX, Mayor of Philadelphia.

"To WM. W. SANGER, M.D., Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island."

PITTSBURGH, PA.

(Copy.)

"Mayor's Office, Pittsburgh, Sept. 18, 1856.

"WM. W. SANGER, M.D.:

"DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 1st instant came to hand a few days ago,

requesting answers to the following questions:

"1. How many houses of prostitution are there in our city?

"Answer. Nineteen.

"2. How many houses of assignation?

"Answer. Nine.

"3. How many public prostitutes?

"Answer. Seventy-seven.

"4. How many private prostitutes?

"Answer. Thirty-seven.

"5. How many kept mistresses?

"Answer. Sixteen.

"6. What is your population?

"Answer. Seventy-five thousand seven hundred and fifty (75,750).

"The above is arrived at from the personal knowledge of some of our

police-officers; no doubt the number is much greater.

"At the last census our population of the city proper was over sixty

thousand (60,000). The population at that time of Pittsburgh,

Alleghany, and the suburbs of Pittsburgh, was nearly one hundred

thousand.

"Respectfully, your obedient servant,

"WM. BINGHAM, Mayor."

SAVANNAH, GA.

(Copy.)

"Mayor's Office, City of Savannah, Ga., Sept. 18, 1856.

"WM. W. SANGER, Resident Physician,

"Blackwell's Island, New York City:

"DEAR SIR,--In this city there are fifteen houses of prostitution,

three assignation-houses, ninety-three white, and one hundred and five

colored prostitutes. In the winter season the number is greatly

increased by supplies from New York City.

"I can not answer what number of private prostitutes or kept

mistresses there are here.

"Our present population is about twenty-six thousand.

"Very truly yours,

"EDWARD C. ANDERSON, Mayor."

These replies may be condensed as follows:

+-------------------------------------------------------

| | | Houses. |

| Cities. | Reported by |--------------------------|

| | | | |

|------------|--------------|-------------|------------|

|Buffalo |Mayor Stevens | 87 | 37 |

|Louisville | " Barber | 79 | 39 |

|New Haven | " Galpin | 10 | 6 |

|Philadelphia| " Vaux | 130 | 50 |

|Pittsburgh | " Bingham | 19 | 9 |

|Savannah | " Anderson| 15 | 3 |

+-------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------+

| Prostitutes. | |

|-----------------------------------------------|Population.|

|------------|------------|-----------|---------|-----------|

| 272 | 81 | 31 | 384 | 75,000 |

| 214 | 93 | 60 | 367 | 70,000 |

| | 50 | | 50 | 55,000 |

| 93 | 30 | | 123 | 32,000 |

| 150 | 50 | 8 | 208 | 18,000 |

| 475 | | 105 | 580 | 600,000 |

| 77 | 37 | 16 | 130 | 75,750 |

| 198 | | | 198 | 26,000 |

------------------------------------------------------------+

It has already been stated, on the authority of the state census of 1855,

that the adult male population of New York City form nearly one third of

the total inhabitants, and the same rule may be applied to these cities to

ascertain the comparative number of prostitutes and their customers. The

proportions stand as follows:

New York, on the resident population of the city proper, has

1 prostitute to every 40 men.

but including the suburbs 1 " " " 64 "

Buffalo has 1 " " " 65 "

Louisville has 1 " " " 64 "

Newark has 1 " " " 366 "

New Haven has 1 " " " 87 "

Norfolk has 1 " " " 29 "

Philadelphia has 1 " " " 344 "

Pittsburgh has 1 " " " 192 "

Savannah has 1 " " " 44 "

It can scarcely be doubted that the worthy mayors of Newark, Philadelphia,

and Pittsburg have been misinformed as to the extent of the vice in their

respective cities. Respecting Newark, for instance, the writer was

recently informed that prostitution was not so rare as Mayor Poinier's

letter would imply, but that prostitutes and known houses of prostitution

were to be found scattered over the city, and that the fact was notorious

to nearly every resident. This information was received from a gentleman

himself an inhabitant of Newark. There is no doubt that much of the vice

of Newark finds a home in New York, as the mayor says, but it is equally

certain that it is not all expatriated.

The mayor of Philadelphia is particularly wide of the mark. There may not

be as many public prostitutes there as in New York, but it is proverbial,

and is as widely known as is Philadelphia itself, that its streets abound

in houses of assignation and private houses of prostitution.

Pittsburgh is situated at the head of navigation on the Ohio River, at the

confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, both navigable. She

has canals, rail-roads, and large manufactories, and, if closely examined,

would probably show a larger proportion of prostitutes than above

reported.

Norfolk is the largest naval depôt in this country, and its population can

not be held responsible for all the prostitution within its limits. In

both Norfolk and Savannah we presume that the larger portion of the

abandoned women at the time the census was taken were colored people,

whose virtue is always at a discount under the most favorable

circumstances, and to which a seaport is always fatal.

But another calculation may be made upon the assumption that the males who

have commerce with prostitutes form only one fourth of the population, and

the proportions resulting from that are as follows:

New York, on the resident population of the city proper, has

1 prostitute to every 30 men.

but including the suburbs 1 " " " 50 "

Buffalo has 1 " " " 49 "

Louisville has 1 " " " 48 "

Newark has 1 " " " 275 "

New Haven has 1 " " " 65 "

Norfolk has 1 " " " 23 "

Philadelphia has 1 " " " 258 "

Pittsburgh has 1 " " " 144 "

Savannah has 1 " " " 33 "

To arrive at an average we will omit the calculation of the proportion of

prostitutes to the population of New York City proper, it having been

shown already that the responsibility of much of it must rest upon the

suburbs and upon visitors, and also omit Newark, Philadelphia, and

Pittsburg, because the reports from those cities are palpably underrated.

This done, the mean of the two estimates stands thus:

New York 1 prostitute to every 57 men.

Buffalo 1 " " " 57 "

Louisville 1 " " " 56 "

New Haven 1 " " " 76 "

Norfolk 1 " " " 26 "

Savannah 1 " " " 39 "

and the mean of the whole is 1 " " " 52 "

This mean may be fairly assumed as the proportion existing in all the

large cities of the Union, and the farther assumption that the men who

visit houses of prostitution form one fourth of the total population will

give a basis upon which the total number of the Prostitutes in the United

States may be estimated with some accuracy. The calculation can not, of

course, be claimed as absolutely correct, as that would be an

impossibility, but is submitted as a probability on which the reader can

form his own conclusion.

The population of the United States in 1858 was estimated by Professor De

Bow, when preparing the compendium of the census of 1850, and his

calculation at that time was that by the present year it would amount to

29,242,139 persons, which may be taken in round numbers 29,000,000. From

this must be deducted 3,500,000 slaves, which will leave the free

inhabitants 25,500,000, and the proportion of adult males to this number

is 6,375,000. It may next be assumed that one half of these men live in

country places or small cities where prostitution does not exist, the

other moiety being inhabitants of cities with a population of twenty

thousand or upward; and upon the basis already proved of one prostitute to

every fifty-two men, the result would be a total of 61,298 prostitutes.

The whole area of the United States is 2,936,166 square miles, and if all

the prostitutes therein were equally divided over this surface, there

would be one for every forty-seven square miles, or if they were walking

in continuous line, thirty-six inches from each other, they would make a

column nearly thirty-five miles long. If the inhabitants of large cities

were only one third, the number of prostitutes would be 41,058. These

suggestions are, of course, mere matters for consideration, and are not

given as definite facts.

Allusions have already been made to many exaggerated opinions as to the

extent of prostitution in New York City, and it may be well to notice in

this place some passages in a work entitled "An inquiry into the extent,

causes, and consequences of Prostitution in Edinburgh, by William Tait,

Surgeon: 2d edition, 1842." The author starts with the impression that the

capital of Scotland is the most moral city on the face of the earth, and

after fixing the number of public prostitutes in Edinburgh at eight

hundred, or one to every eighty of the adult male population, remarks:

"In London there is one for every sixty, and in Paris one for every

fifteen. Edinburgh is thus about twenty-five per cent. better than London,

while the latter is about seventy per cent. better than Paris." (Happy

Edinburgh!) "And what is to be said of the chief city of the United States

of America, of the independent, liberal, religious, and enlightened

inhabitants of New York? It will scarcely be credited that that city

furnishes a prostitute for every six or seven of its adult male

population! Alas! for the religion and morality of the country that

affords such a demonstration of its depravity. It was not surpassed even

by the metropolis of France during the heat and fervor of the Revolution,

when libertinism reigned triumphant, and the laws of God and man were

alike set at defiance."--Page 6.

This picture is any thing but flattering to our national pride; but it

loses very much of its effect because it is contrary to the truth. It

will, however, satisfy our readers that Mr. Tait was misinformed, and they

may feel a slight gratification in the conclusion that his pathetic lament

for the religion and morality of their country was unnecessary. On page 8

of the same work we find:

"After stating that there were upward of ten thousand abandoned women in

the city of New York, the Rev. Mr. M'Dowall, chaplain to the New York

Magdalen Asylum, goes on to say: 'Besides these, we have the clearest

evidence that there are hundreds of private harlots and kept mistresses,

many of whom keep up a show of industry as domestics, seamstresses,

nurses, etc., in the most respectable families, and throng the houses of

assignation every night. Although we have no means of ascertaining the

number of these, yet enough has been learned from the facts already

developed to convince us that the aggregate is alarmingly great, perhaps

little behind the proportion of the city of London, whose police report

asserts, on the authority of accurate researches, that the number of

private prostitutes in that city is fully equal to the number of public

harlots.'"

In this passage Mr. Tait shifts the responsibility of his figures to the

shoulders of the Rev. Mr. M'Dowall, who is represented as declaring the

number of public prostitutes in New York sixteen years ago to be ten

thousand, and assuming the private prostitutes to amount to the same

number, making an aggregate nearly three times as large as an actual and

searching inquiry has found at the present time. During the last sixteen

years vice has not decreased in New York, but has steadily increased, and

yet the most diligent search can discover in 1858 only 7860 public and

private prostitutes, instead of the twenty thousand mentioned in the

publication under notice! We imagine it to be an imperative duty to be

tolerably well acquainted with a social evil before attempting to write

upon it, and although Mr. Tait's book can not, by any possibility, injure

our city, on account of the palpable misrepresentations it contains, we

allude to it to show the opinion entertained of New York and its vices on

the other side of the Atlantic. Were an apology necessary for the preset

work, such statements as these would be amply sufficient.

Mr. Tait loses no opportunity to hurl a sly dart at New York. Thus (on

page 38), after quoting the words of the Rev. Mr. M'Dowall as to the

character of an abandoned woman in New York, he (Mr. Tait) continues:

"He says nothing of the state of religious feeling among the prostitutes

there; and if we are to regard his statement of the number of prostitutes

as strictly correct, it may very well be questioned whether any

considerable number of the inhabitants of that city are under the

influence of sincere religious feeling."

Some of our New York City readers may probably recollect that the

publication of Mr. M'Dowall's "Inquiry" produced very considerable

excitement here at the time, and opinions were freely expressed that he

was either very ignorant on matters of that nature, or intentionally

colored his statements, and was in either case entirely unfitted for the

task he had assumed.

Mr. Tait assumes the population of Edinburgh at about two hundred

thousand, the number of public prostitutes at eight hundred, and of

private prostitutes at nearly twelve hundred, or a total of two thousand

abandoned women. This gives one prostitute to every thirty-two adult

males, if we adopt his system of calculation; or one prostitute to every

twenty-five adult males, if we adopt the system of calculation which has

been applied to the United States in the present work. From his own

figures, then, it can be seen, that although New York City is so awfully

irreligious, it has less prostitution than pious Edinburgh.

Again: on page 189, while speaking of the demoralizing effects of

theatrical representations, Mr. Tait says:

"In the report of the House of Refuge in New York, it is stated that one

hundred and fifty boys and girls, out of six hundred and ninety, are

guilty of theft and impurity to get a seat in the theatre." He does not

mark this as a quotation, nor does he state the report from which it was

extracted. As he has printed it, it must be supposed correct, although we

must confess we can not see very clearly what connection exists between

the New York House of Refuge and prostitution considering the ages of

children generally admitted to that institution; and while we have very

little doubt that many of the inmates thereof have committed theft for the

reason he assigns, we are rather dubious as to the acts of impurity

alluded to, except in a very few exceptional cases.

Farther: on page 194, Mr. Tait quotes "The address of the Rev. Mr.

M'Dowall on prostitution in America" as follows:

"At the very hour in the morning, afternoon, and evening of every Lord's

day when the people of God assemble for religious worship, then, in a

special manner, do the children of the wicked one meet in troops at

harlots' houses. On the Sabbath days the rooms are so filled with visitors

that there is no place for them to sit down, and on that account many are

refused admission at the doors." These palpable exaggerations require no

contradiction. They show, however, the extremes of misrepresentation to

which an enthusiastic and incompetent writer may be led.

Inclined to exaggeration as Mr. Tait has been proved to be, he yet

protests (in page 251) against some opinions upon infanticide by

prostitutes in New York, advanced by his informant, the Rev. Mr. M'Dowall,

and quotes the opinion of Parent-Duchatelet to prove that mothers are

generally very fond of their children. This fact warrants the conclusion

that his other opinions upon social morals in New York are entirely

derived from Mr. M'Dowall, who is shown to be any thing but a credible

witness. His reliance upon such a source is much to be regretted as

materially impairing the value and truthfulness of his otherwise

interesting and useful volume.

* * * * *

The following extracts from the "Compendium of the Seventh Census of the

United States, 1850," will be interesting, from their relation to various

points which have been discussed in the progress of this work. They have

all a more or less direct bearing upon the subject of prostitution, and

the condensation of them here will give readers an opportunity of

verifying many of the previous remarks.

The estimated population of the Union at the present time (1858) has been

already given as 29,242,139 persons (including slaves). The proportion of

females to males at each census from 1790 to 1850 is stated as

follows:[402]

+-------------------------------------------------------+

| |1790. |1800. |1810. |1820. |1830. |1840. |1850.|

|-------|------|------|------|------|------|------|-----|

|Males | 100· | 100· | 100· | 100· | 100· | 100· | 100·|

|Females| 96·4| 95·3| 96·2| 96·8| 96·4| 95·6| 95·|

+-------------------------------------------------------+

This relates only to the free population. In enumerating slaves no

distinction of sex was made earlier than the year 1820. The ratio of male

and female slaves since that date is as follows:[403]

+---------------------------------------+

| |1820. |1830. |1840. |1850. |

|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|

|Males | 100· | 100· | 100· | 100· |

|Females| 95·19| 98·36| 99·55| 99·95|

+---------------------------------------+

From these tables it appears that the males in the free population and the

females in the slave population have been steadily increasing, but with no

determined ratio of progression.

Taking the total of free and slave population since the census of 1820,

the excess of males is stated thus:[404]

+------------------------------------------------------------+

| | 1820.| 1830.| 1840.| 1850.|

|---------------|----------|----------|----------|-----------|

|Males |4,898,127 |6,529,696 |8,688,532 |11,837,661 |

|Females |4,740,004 |6,336,324 |8,380,921 |11,354,215 |

| |----------|----------|----------|-----------|

|Excess of males| 158,123 | 193,372 | 307,611 | 483,446 |

+------------------------------------------------------------+

It will be seen from this that in 1850 the males were in excess at the

rate of 2.08 per cent., and by applying the same rule to the population

of 1858 a fair estimate of the relative number of each sex at the present

time may be made as follows:

Males (1858) 14,925,188

Females 14,316,951

Excess of males 608,237

----------

Total estimated population 29,242,139

In the several geographical divisions of the Union the proportion of white

males to white females is thus shown:[405]

_New England States_ (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode

Island, and Connecticut), 100·87 females to 100 males.

_Middle States_ (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland,

and District of Columbia), 97·70 females to 100 males.

_Southern States_ (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and

Florida), 98·54 females to 100 males.

_Southwestern States_ (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,

and Tennessee), 91·66 females to 100 males.

_Northwestern States_ (Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,

Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa), 92·11 females to 100 males.

_California and Territories_, 36·73 females to 100 males.

Two facts are developed in this statement. In the New England States

females are in excess of males. From this district comes the majority of

all the native-born prostitutes who find their home in New York City. In

the Northwestern States, to which it has been proposed to remove some of

the surplus female labor of New York, the males are in excess, and any

women sent there would aid in restoring the equilibrium of the sexes.

The following table gives the relative percentage of each sex at different

ages, and also the number of females to each hundred males:[406]

+---------------------------------------------------------+

| | of | of | to each |

|------------------------|----------|----------|----------|

|Under 5 years | 14·68 | 14·95 | 96·76 |

|From 5 years to 10 years| 13·69 | 13·98 | 97·03 |

| " 10 " 15 " | 12·23 | 12·35 | 96·00 |

| " 15 " 20 " | 10·39 | 11·42 | 104·46 |

| " 20 " 30 " | 18·64 | 18·46 | 94·08 |

| " 30 " 40 " | 12·85 | 11·84 | 87·55 |

| " 40 " 50 " | 8·38 | 7·86 | 89·09 |

| " 50 " 60 " | 4·97 | 4·83 | 92·15 |

| " 60 " 70 " | 2·64 | 2·69 | 96·88 |

| " 70 " 80 " | 1·11 | 1·18 | 101·01 |

| " 80 " 90 " | ·31 | ·36 | 110·11 |

| " 90 " 100 " |} ·04 | ·05 {| 123·16 |

| " 100 years upward |} | {| 120·45 |

|Ages unknown | ·07 | ·03 | 44·09 |

| |----------|----------|----------|

| | 100· | 100· | 95· |

+---------------------------------------------------------+

Experience has proved that the age at which female virtue is exposed to

the most temptations, or at least the age at which the greater part of the

prostitutes in New York have embraced their wretched calling, is from

fifteen to twenty years, and the table above shows that at those periods

females are in excess over males nearly 4-1/2 per cent. Is it to be

supposed that the numerical predominance is the cause of the temptations;

or may it not rather be concluded that both are co-existent, and equally

contribute to the sad result; or even would not temptation be more

aggravated, because concentrated, if, at that critical period of life,

males and females were in equal numbers?

The following table gives the relative ages of the whole population

without distinction of sex, but compares the white, free colored, and

slave classes:

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

| | [407] | [408] | [409] |

|------------------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|

|Under 5 years of age | 14·81 | 14.00 | 16.87 |

|From 5 years to 10 years| 13·83 | 13·86 | 14·95 |

| " 10 " " 15 " | 12·28 | 12·04 | 13·61 |

| " 15 " " 20 " | 10·89 | 10·08 | 11·15 |

| " 20 " " 30 " | 18·55 | 17·85 | 17·86 |

| " 30 " " 40 " | 12·36 | 12·71 | 11·04 |

| " 40 " " 50 " | 8·13 | 8·73 | 6·86 |

| " 50 " " 60 " | 4·90 | 5·60 | 3·96 |

| " 60 " and upward | 4·20 | 5·56 | 3·68 |

| Ages unknown | ·05 | ·07 | ·02 |

| |-------------|-------------|-------------|

| | 100· | 100· | 100· |

+------------------------------------------------------------------+

BIRTHS.

The ratio of births is in the[410]

United States 1 birth to every 36 persons, or 2·75 per cent.

Great Britain 1 " " 31 " 3·22 "

France 1 " " 35 " 2·86 "

Russia 1 " " 36 " 2·75 "

Prussia and Austria 1 " " 26 " 3·87 "

EDUCATION.

The importance of education and its influence upon the social problem of

prostitution is a sufficient apology for the following extracts, in

addition to what has been said already on the subject.

There are in the United States

239 colleges with an annual income of $1,964,428

80,978 public schools 9,529,542

6,085 academies and private schools 4,644,214

------ -----------

87,302 educational institutions which cost $16,138,184

These institutions are attended by 3,644,928 scholars.[411]

There are in the United States

Natives 858,306

Foreigners 195,114

---------

Total 1,053,420

persons above twenty years of age who can not read or write. This number

is subdivided thus:[412]

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

+--------------|---------------|---------------|---------------|

| Males | 389,664 | 40,722 | 430,386 |

| Females | 573,234 | 49,800 | 623,034 |

| |---------------|---------------|---------------|

| Total | 962,894 | 90,522 | 1,053,420 |

+--------------------------------------------------------------+

This shows a remarkable preponderance of uneducated women. The percentage

of children attending school in the United States, calculated on all

between the ages of five and fifteen years is

Natives 80·81 per cent.[413]

Foreigners 51·73 "

a proof of the fact intimated already that foreign parents do not endeavor

to avail themselves of the facilities provided for the education of their

children.

The illiterate of the population are thus minutely analyzed:[414]

White illiterate to total white 4·92 per cent.

Free colored illiterate to total free colored 20·83 "

Native white and free colored illiterate to total

native white and free colored 4·85 "

Foreign white and free colored illiterate to total

foreign white and free colored 8·24 "

Native illiterate white and free colored to total

of both (native) over 20 years of age 10·35 "

Foreign illiterate white and free colored to total

of both (foreign) over 20 years of age 14·48 "

Foreign illiterate over twenty years of age 195·114

Foreign illiterate to total foreign over 20 years

of age, supposing the illiterate to be all white 14·51 "

Following the geographical sections we obtain the following results:[415]

+------------------------------------------------------------+

+-------------------|------------|-------------|-------------|

|New England States | 25·90 | 25·71 | 1·88 |

|Middle States | 21·79 | 21·02 | 3·16 |

|Southern States | 14·52 | 13·92 | 9·22 |

|Southwestern States| 16·32 | 16·10 | 8·45 |

|Northwestern States| 21·72 | 21·51 | 5·03 |

+------------------------------------------------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

| | of |illiterate| of |illiterate| of |

| | | age. | | Years of | |

| | | | | age. | |

|---------------|----------|----------|-----------|----------|----------|

| States | ·26 | ·42 | 14·63 | 24·39 | 8·45 |

|Middle States | 1·84 | 3·00 | 9·55 | 15·92 | 22·42 |

|Southern States| 9·30 | 20·30 | 5·28 | 8·80 | 21·20 |

| States | 8·41 | 16·63 | 9·12 | 15·20 | 18·54 |

| States | 4·97 | 9·92 | 4·63 | 7·72 | 21·44 |

| Territories | 17·50 | 21·63 | 14·13 | 23·51 | 12·47 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

OCCUPATIONS.

In the tables of occupations the only class noticed is the white and free

colored male population over fifteen years of age, no returns of female

employment being given. As interesting to the general reader, although not

in immediate connection with the subject, the following is given:[416]

Ratio per cent.

Occupations. to the total

employed.

Commerce, trade, manufactures, mechanic arts, and mining 29·72

Agriculture 44·69

Labor (not agricultural) 18·50

Army ·10

Sea and river navigation 2·17

Law, Medicine, and Divinity 1·76

Other pursuits requiring education 1·78

Government civil service ·46

Domestic service ·41

Other occupations ·41

------

100·00

A similar but more elaborate statement of the occupations of the people of

Great Britain was published in the British census for 1841, and is

reprinted by Professor De Bow in his compendium.[417]

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

|----------------------------------|----------|----------|-----------|

|Commerce, trade, and manufactures | 26·24 | 7·12 | 16·52 |

|Agriculture | 15·33 | ·84 | 7·96 |

|Labor (not agricultural) | 6·99 | 1·21 | 4·05 |

|Army | 1·42 | | ·70 |

| &c. | 2·35 | | 1·17 |

| professions | ·66 | ·02 | ·34 |

|Other pursuits requiring education| 1·17 | ·36 | ·76 |

| service | ·43 | ·02 | ·22 |

|Domestic servants | 2·78 | 9·48 | 6·18 |

|Persons of independent means | 1·47 | 3·88 | 2·69 |

| and prisoners | 1·11 | 1·01 | 1·06 |

| children) | 40·05 | 76·06 | 58·35 |

| |----------|----------|-----------|

| | 100· | 100· | 100· |

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

WAGES.

In introducing this subject, Professor De Bow remarks, "The money price of

wages, unless the price of other articles be known, gives but an

unsatisfactory idea of the condition of the laboring classes at different

periods and in different countries." In the following tables of the rates

of remuneration in 1850 this difficulty will scarcely exist, so far as New

York is concerned at least. The large number of domestic servants who have

been added to our population since that year precludes the possibility of

any considerable advance in the rate of wages, and, as every reader has an

idea of what a woman's necessary expenses must be, each will be enabled to

decide for himself whether the compensation is sufficient, or whether

society at large would not be benefited were some of the surplus domestic

servants removed to other localities, and thus, by increasing the demand,

augment the wages. The following was the average weekly wages (with board)

of a domestic servant in the year 1850:[418]

States. Wages.

Alabama $1 41

Arkansas 1 67

California 13 00

Columbia (District of) 1 31

Connecticut 1 36

Delaware 0 84

Florida 1 83

Georgia 1 52

Illinois 1 14

Indiana 0 90

Iowa 1 07

Kentucky 1 09

Louisiana 2 57

Maine 1 09

Maryland 0 89

Massachusetts 1 48

Michigan 1 10

Mississippi 1 52

Missouri 1 17

New Hampshire 1 27

New Jersey 0 97

New York 1 05

North Carolina 0 87

Ohio 0 96

Pennsylvania 0 80

Rhode Island 1 42

South Carolina 1 42

Tennessee 1 00

Texas 2 00

Vermont 1 19

Virginia 0 96

Wisconsin 1 27

Territories.

Minnesota 2 25

New Mexico 0 78

Oregon 10 00

Utah 1 46

The following is a table of the monthly wages in factories in the

different states. It is, of course, exclusive of board and lodging.

Looking at the amount received by female operatives, will any one feel

surprised that they should abandon the incessant and poorly paid

employment?

WAGES PER MONTH (WITHOUT BOARD).

+------------------------------------------------

| | | | |

| States. |-----------|-----------|-----------|

| | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. |

|-----------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

| |$ c.|$ c.|$ c.|$ c.|$ c.|$. c.|

|Alabama |11 71| 7 98| | |17 60| |

|Arkansas |14 61| 5 88| | | | |

|D. of Col. |14 02| 8 00|30 00| | | |

|Connecticut|19 08|11 80|24 12|12 86|26 80| |

|Delaware |15 31|11 58|18 79|17 33| | |

|Florida |32 14| 5 00| | | | |

|Georgia |14 57| 7 39|27 47|14 10|17 44| 5 00|

|Illinois | | |22 00|12 52|22 06| |

|Indiana |13 02| 6 77|21 81|11 05|26 00| |

|Iowa | | |11 14| | | |

|Kentucky |14 95| 9 36|15 30|11 11|20 23| 4 70|

|Maine |29 35|12 15|22 57|11 77|22 00| |

|Maryland |15 42| 9 48|18 60|11 89|20 14| |

|Massach'sts|22 90|13 60|22 95|14 22|27 50| |

|Michigan | | |21 65|11 47|35 00| |

|Mississippi|14 21| 5 94| | | | |

|Missouri |10 93|10 00|32 00| 6 50|24 28| |

|N. Hamp. |26 00|13 47|22 86|14 53|18 00| |

|New Jersey |17 98| 9 56|25 22| 8 60|21 20| |

|New York |18 32| 9 68|19 97|11 76|25 00| |

|N. Carolina|11 65| 6 13|18 00| 7 00| 8 00| 4 00|

|Ohio |16 59| 9 42|20 14|10 90|24 48| |

|Pennsylv'a |17 85| 9 91|19 23|10 41|21 65| 5 11|

|Rho. Island|18 60|12 95|20 70|15 18| | |

|S. Carolina|13 94| 8 30| | | | |

|Tennessee |10 94| 6 42|17 66| 6 00|12 81| 5 11|

|Texas | | |20 00|20 00| | |

|Vermont |15 53|12 65|24 46|11 81|22 08| |

|Virginia |10 18| 6 98|18 17| 9 91|12 76| 6 86|

|Wisconsin | | |22 48| |30 00| |

+------------------------------------------------

+-----------------------------------------------+

| States. |-----------|-----------|-----------|

| | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. |

|-----------|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|-----|

| |$. c.|$ c.|$ c.|$ c.|$. c.|$. c.|

|Alabama |30 05| |15 29| | | |

|California |23 33| | | | | |

|D. of Col. |27 05| | | | | |

|Connecticut|27 02| 8 00|31 59| |20 81| |

|Delaware |23 36| |25 53| | | |

|Florida | | | | |17 58| 8 40|

|Georgia |27 43| |11 35| 5 00| | |

|Illinois |28 50| | | | | |

|Indiana |25 74| |27 45| 4 00| | |

|Iowa |32 35| | | | | |

|Kentucky |24 89| 4 15|32 06| | | |

|Louisiana |35 60| | | | | |

|Maine |29 00| 5 00| | |19 12| |

|Maryland |27 50| |24 31| | | |

|Massach'sts|30 90| |29 46|12 79|15 70| |

|Michigan |28 68| | | |22 43| |

|Mississippi|37 91| | | | | |

|Missouri |19 63| |30 00| | | |

|N. Hamp. |33 05| |31 34| |10 00| |

|New Jersey |24 00| |27 31|13 34| | |

|New York |27 49| |28 91| |20 35| |

|N. Carolina|23 46| |10 43| 4 78|23 64|11 77|

|Ohio |27 32| |29 58| |19 07| |

|Pennsylv'a |27 55| 6 00|28 31| 6 57| | |

|Rho. Island|29 63| |57 85| |34 00| |

|S. Carolina|13 59| 4 00| | | | |

|Tennessee |17 96| 4 50|15 20| 5 00| | |

|Texas |43 43| | | | | |

|Vermont |28 27| |32 08| | | |

|Virginia |19 91| 9 44|25 41| |21 70| |

|Wisconsin |26 73| | | |21 50| |

+-----------------------------------------------+

The number of hands employed in these manufactures is as follows:[419]

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

|--------------|----------|--------------|----------|-------------|

|Cotton | 33,150 | $16 79 | 59,136 | $9 24 |

|Wool | 22,678 | 21 49 | 16,574 | 11 86 |

|Pig-iron | 20,298 | 21 68 | 150 | 5 13 |

|Iron castings | 23,541 | 27 38 | 48 | 5 87 |

|Wrought iron | 16,110 | 27 02 | 138 | 7 35 |

|Fisheries | 20,704 | 20 49 | 429 | 10 08 |

| |----------| |----------| |

|Total employed| 136,481 | | 76,475 | |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

PAUPERISM.

From tables relating to pauperism in the United States we learn that in

the year ending June 1, 1850, when our population was 23,191,876, there

were supported (in whole or in part) at public expense:[420]

Natives 66,434

Foreigners 68,538

-------

Total 134,972

The cost of such support was $2,954,806. This is much less than the outlay

in England, where, in the year 1848, there was expended £6,180,764

sterling (or over thirty million dollars), the population being

17,521,956.[421]

CRIME.

There were confined in the various state prisons throughout the Union on

June 1, 1850:[422]

White males 4643

" females 115

Total whites ---- 4758

Colored males 801

" females 87

Total colored ---- 888

----

Aggregate 5646

Of these there were

Native whites 3259

" colored 866

Total natives ---- 4125

Foreign whites 1499

" colored 22

Total foreign ---- 1521

----

Aggregate 5646

INTEMPERANCE.

It need not be repeated that habits of intemperance and prostitution are

closely allied. The following figures give the statistics of the breweries

and distilleries in the United States:[423]

The total number of these establishments is 1217

In which is invested a capital of $8,507,574

They employ 6140 hands, and consume during the year,

Barley 3,787,195 bushels.

Corn 11,067,761 "

Rye 2,143,927 "

Oats 56,607 "

Apples 526,840 "

Hops 1,294 tons.

Molasses 61,675 hogsheads.

Their yearly production is,

Ale, 1,179,495 barrels, or 42,471,820 gallons.

Whisky, etc. 41,364,224 "

Rum 6,500,500 "

----------

Total 90,336,544 "

If these stimulants were used in the United States, exclusive of export or

import, the average allowance for each man, woman, and child in the

community would be nearly four gallons per year. The figures show how much

we produce, but will not aid the inquiry as to how much is consumed.

NATIVITIES.

The words "Natives" and "Foreigners" have been so frequently used in the

course of this investigation, that the official census returns as to their

relative numbers can not but be interesting.[424]

Of the white population of the United States there were

Born in the state in which they are now living 67·02 per cent.

" " United States, but not in the state in

which they are now living 21·35 "

-----

Total of natives 88·37 "

Born in foreign countries 11·46 "

Unknown nativities ·17 "

------

100 "

Thus of every hundred white inhabitants of the United States, eighty-eight

were natives of the soil.

Of the free colored inhabitants there were[425]

Natives 98·59 per cent.

Foreigners ·94 "

Unknown nativities ·47 "

------

100

The slave population are (for all practical purposes) entirely native.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

NEW YORK.--REMEDIAL MEASURES.

Effects of Prohibition.--Required Change of Policy.--Governmental

Obligations.--Prostitution augmented by Seclusion.--Impossibility of

benevolent Assistance.--Necessity of sanitary Regulations.--Yellow

Fever.--Effect of remedial Measures in Paris.--Syphilitic Infection

not a local Question.--Present Measures to check Syphilis.--ISLAND

HOSPITAL, BLACKWELL'S ISLAND.--Mode of Admission.--Vagrancy Commitment

"on Confession," and its Action on Blackwell's Island.--Pecuniary

Results.--Moral Effects.--Perpetuation of Disease.--Inadequacy of

Present Arrangements.--Discharges.--Writs of _Habeas Corpus_ and

_Certiorari_, how obtained, and their Effects.--Public

Responsibility.--Proposed medical and police Surveillance.--

Requirements.--_Hospital Arrangements to be entirely separated from

punitive Institutions._--Medical Visitation.--Power to place diseased

Women under Treatment and _detain them till cured_.--Refutation of

Objections.--Quack Advertisers.--Constitution of Medical Bureau.--

Duties of Examiners.--License System.--Probable Effects of

Surveillance.--Expenses of the proposed Plan.--Agitation in England.--

The London _Times_ on Prostitution.--Objections considered.--Report

from MEDICAL BOARD OF BELLEVUE HOSPITAL on Prostitution and

Syphilis.--Report from RESIDENT PHYSICIAN, RANDALL'S ISLAND, on

Constitutional Syphilis.--Reliability of Statistics.--Resumé of

substantiated Facts.

Having traced the causes and delineated the extent and effects of the evil

of prostitution as it exists in New York at the present time, an evident

duty is to inquire what measures can be devised to stay the march of this

desolating plague in its ravages on the health and morals of the public.

This is a problem the solution of which has for centuries interested

philanthropists and statesmen in different countries. They commenced with

the theory that vice could be suppressed by statutory enactments, and the

crushing-out process was vigorously tried under various auspices, until

experience demonstrated that it virtually increased and aggravated the

evil it was intended to suppress. At subsequent periods, however,

different measures have been adopted with different results.

It will be necessary, in the first place, to consider the effect of

stringent prohibitory measures. The records given in the previous chapters

of this work show what these have attempted, and they also show at the

same time the uselessness of endeavoring to eradicate prostitution by

compulsory legislation. The lash, the dungeon, the rack, and the stake

have each been tried, and all have proved equally powerless to accomplish

the object. Admitting that, in religion, morals, or politics, it is

impossible to force concurrence in any particular sentiment, while a

kindly persuasive plan may lead to its adoption; admitting that all

attempts to compel prostitutes to be virtuous have notoriously failed; has

not the time arrived for a change of policy? If, in direct ratio to the

stringency of prohibitory measures, the vice sought to be exterminated has

steadily increased, does not reason suggest the expediency of resorting to

other measures for its suppression?

It has been said that "History is philosophy teaching by example," and, if

such instruction is well considered, none can fail to see therein an

unanswerable argument against excessive severity in this matter. The

several statutes proscribing prostitution have been detailed, and their

specific results given, as gathered from the experience of various

countries. At the time these laws were in force, it is hardly probable

that their authors regarded them as unsusceptible of improvement; and the

question now arises for decision, in this age of general progress, is it

not our duty to try the effect of some other line of action in this

country?

In common with other nations, we have passed laws intended to crush out

prostitution; have made vigorous protests (on paper) against its

existence; and there our labors have ended. The experience acquired in

this course of legislation only demonstrates that such laws can not be

enforced so as to produce the desired effect. But why are they still

retained on the statute books? Is it not an opprobrium upon our national

character to allow them to exist, if they are never to be enforced? If

they are powerless for good, effective only to increase the plague they

were designed to check, why not expunge them at once, and substitute

others more practicable and more useful in their stead? A candid

acknowledgment of error, whether by an individual or a community, is

always a creditable and graceful act. It shows that experience has

dictated a wiser course; that reflection and experiment have condemned the

former plan.

It is not to be supposed that any system of laws will entirely eradicate

prostitution; history, social arrangements, and physiology alike forbid

any such utopian idea. But will not a more enlightened policy do much

toward diminishing it? Many of the present generation can recollect the

time when it was considered right and proper to imprison an insolvent

debtor; but this idea is now wisely repudiated by society, and no one will

assert that the effect of the change has been to place any additional

difficulties in the way of collecting legal claims. Capital punishment has

been abolished in many cases, and yet it is a well-known fact that crime

has diminished where this experiment has been tried. This is more

particularly the case in England, where forgery, which was punished with

death, is comparatively rare since the amelioration of the law. A general

conviction is becoming prevalent that the most effectual way to deal with

criminals is to attempt to raise them above what they were, in

contradistinction to the old plan of sinking them lower.[426] It is now

freely acknowledged that the elevating, instead of the depressing process,

is consonant both with the spirit of our republican institutions and with

humanizing policy. Even if American society is not yet prepared to take a

course directly the reverse of its present prohibitory practice, prudence

dictates the adoption of some medium rule by which prostitution can be

kept in check without being encouraged or allowed, as in the Prussian

laws, which expressly declare that the vice is "tolerated but not

permitted."

Government should be patriarchal in its character, and exercise an

effective but parental supervision over all its subjects. This is the

living principle which gives vitality and strength to any organization,

and no satisfactory government can exist if it is absent. Now, in regard

to prostitutes, admitting that they have erred, still, the people, who

constitute the government in this country, are concerned in the matter,

and their mutual obligations, their policy, and their pecuniary interests

require that these wandering members of the body corporate should have a

reasonable opportunity for reformation. Which will give this opportunity

most effectually--to crush them under the weight of their own misdeeds, or

to adopt a liberal course likely to induce them to abandon their depraved

habits? One of the secrets which bound the soldiers of the empire to the

standard of Napoleon through all his battles and vicissitudes was the

knowledge that France regarded them as her children, and would not fail to

protect and support them. The words "I am a Roman citizen" derived their

magic power from the fact that the Roman Empire treated all her citizens

as sons, and watched over their interests with parental care. The recent

outburst of popular enthusiasm in our own country when the commander[427]

of an American national vessel rescued a citizen from threatened outrage

in a foreign land, was an emphatic recognition of the principle. Can we

now consistently refuse to apply the rule to all who need our kindly

care?[428]

It may be considered a bold assertion, that our present mode of dealing

with prostitution is calculated to widely extend its prevalence, yet the

historical facts already given are sufficient to prove its truth without

further argument. The existing rule of treatment, instead of suppressing

the vice, merely drives it into seclusion--a result far different from the

design, and infinitely increasing its power. To those secret haunts of

prostitution resort the lowest and most depraved of the male sex, with the

full knowledge that a fundamental law of our commonwealth considers every

house a castle, into which no officer can enter unless armed with a

special legal authority, or called in to suppress an outrage. The result

of such seclusion is to confirm the vicious habits of the prostitutes, and

frequently to lead them to the commission of other and more heinous

offenses.

Again: Secrecy further augments prostitution by preventing the approach of

those benevolent individuals who would feel a pleasure in advising and

directing the daughters of misery for their real good. Philanthropists

have organized Prison Associations and Magdalen Asylums to bear upon

prostitution, but they can only reach it in its lowest grades, when the

females become inmates of public institutions from destitution and

disease. Reformers can not come near the fountain-head, and they are

consequently now as far from the consummation of their praiseworthy

intentions as when they commenced their labors; because prohibitory

measures force prostitutes to take shelter in seclusion, and it is only

when women are consigned to our hospitals, work-houses, and penitentiaries

that they become accessible. By this time they are so far sunk in

depravity as to afford very slender hope of reformation. This is more

especially true of Magdalen Asylums. There is indeed a "field white unto

the harvest" for benevolent exertions in the most secluded haunts of

prostitution, if they could only be made accessible. Sympathy is worthily

bestowed upon the sick or dying women transferred from public institutions

to charitable organizations. To alleviate the sorrows of their final

sufferings, to soothe the agony of the hour of death, to divest of its

terrors the passage from this world to the dread future, is a work in

which the heart of any Christian must rejoice. But it is only a part of

the duties contemplated by such asylums. While their projectors gladly

administer the consolations of our holy religion to an expiring Magdalen,

they also seek an opportunity to direct erring women to the paths of

virtue during the life that still remains to them; to guide them to a path

in which they can retrace the false steps already taken, and become useful

members of society. This opportunity for exertion is denied under the

system which drives vice into seclusion.

Turning now from considering the operation of repressive laws, we notice

the importance of sanitary and quarantine regulations. One of the first

cares of a good government is to preserve and promote the public health.

An illustration of this position occurred in the summer of 1856, when

fears were entertained that the city would be visited by a frightful

epidemic fever. The public voice declared through the newspapers that the

most rigorous and careful sanitary measures were needed, and the cleaning

of streets, the removal of nuisances, the purification of tenant-houses,

and many other measures of the same kind, were loudly called for, and

adopted as far as possible, while the quarantine regulations of the harbor

were strictly enforced. In view of this danger, so dreadful and apparently

so imminent, the united voice of public opinion sanctioned the very course

advocated here; namely, the adoption of remedial, or, more properly

speaking, preventive measures. Venereal poison is as destructive, although

not so suddenly fatal, as yellow fever, and every motive of philanthropy

and economy urges the necessity of effective means for its counteraction.

Since remedial or preventive measures have been adopted in Paris the

number of cases of disease and the virulence of its form have materially

abated. This fact is asserted not merely on our own personal knowledge,

but also from the corroborative testimony of physicians who have had

recent opportunities of investigating the subject in that capital. The

diminution can be easily explained by a comparison of the laws and

regulations applicable to prostitution. We in New York, by our stringent

prohibition, drive the vice into seclusion, and deprive ourselves of the

means of watching either its progress or results; while our French

contemporaries insist that it shall be at all times open to the

_surveillance_ of properly appointed persons.

The extent of syphilitic infection in New York has been portrayed in the

preceding chapter, but the danger of contamination must not be viewed as a

merely local question. From its commercial importance, its mercantile

marine, its centralization of rail-roads and canals, and its facilities

for river navigation, this city is now the great point of arrival and

departure of travelers and emigrants from and to all parts of the Union.

Foreigners reach here in large numbers every day, intending to travel to

other states. If they remain in the city a few days only, they are

exposed to its temptations, and may contract disease which, by their

agency, will be perpetuated in the district they have selected as their

future home. Returned adventurers from the Pacific shores come here to

find the readiest transit to their several destinations. They are exposed

to the same temptations, with a probability of the same result. Merchants

and store-keepers visit this commercial emporium to obtain supplies of

goods, and they are exposed to the same fascinations and the same

contingencies. The sailors in port are similarly liable. In short, it is

scarcely possible to imagine the extent over which the syphilitic poison

originating in the proud and wealthy city of New York may be spread, nor

would it be an error to describe the Empire City as a hot-bed where, from

the nature of its laws on prostitution, syphilis may be cultivated and

disseminated.

Possessed, then, of indubitable proofs of the existence of syphilis, and

the knowledge that its range is more widely extended every day, gathering

additional malignity in its progress, the next point is to inquire what

measures have been adopted to check its ravages. These have hitherto been

found totally inadequate, because based upon an erroneous theory, namely,

the idea of suppression. The principal public or free hospital where the

venereal disease is _confessedly_ treated is the Penitentiary Hospital on

Blackwell's Island, now known as the Island Hospital. To obtain the

benefit of medical treatment therein, it is necessary that the patient

should have been sentenced from the Court of Sessions to the Penitentiary

for the commission of some crime; or committed to the Work-house by a

police justice for vagrancy, drunkenness, or disorderly conduct. From this

fact it will be seen that there is, strictly speaking, no "free" hospital

for such diseases, as the only one intended for their treatment will or

can receive none but those sentenced for an infraction of the laws.

Still the necessity for professional assistance compels many, both males

and females, to submit to the degradation of a police commitment.

Unfortunate women, or laboring men, find that they are suffering from

infection. Possibly they have no money, or probably they have exhausted

their funds in payments to charlatans, and so resort for aid and advice to

some one of the public dispensaries. Unless the case is a slight one, the

medical officers there advise them to resort to hospital treatment, to

procure which the poor sufferers are furnished with a certificate of their

state, and directed to apply to a police justice. They follow this

advice, and in nine cases out of ten the magistrate's only remark is, "Do

you want me to send you to the Hospital?" The answer, of course, is in the

affirmative, and he forthwith signs a printed commitment to the

Penitentiary or Work-house for a time named therein, and ranging from one

to six months at the discretion of the magistrate. The following is a copy

of one of these documents:

"_City and County of New York, ss._

"_By_ ------ ------, ESQUIRE, one of the Police Justices in and for

the City and County of New York.

"To the Constables and Policemen of the said City, and every of them,

and to the Warden of the Penitentiary of the City and County of New

York:

"THESE ARE IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, to

command you, the said Constables and Policemen, to convey to the said

PENITENTIARY the body of ------ ------, who stands charged before me

with being a VAGRANT, viz., being without the means of supporting

----self, and having contracted an INFECTIOUS DISEASE IN THE PRACTICE

OF DEBAUCHERY, viz., the venereal disease, requiring charitable aid to

restore ---- to health, whereof --he is convicted of record on

confession, the record of which conviction has been made and filed in

the office of the Clerk of the Court of Sessions of the City and

County aforesaid, and it appearing to me that the said ------ ------

is an improper person to be sent to the Alms-house, you, the said

Warden, are hereby commanded to receive into your custody, in the said

PENITENTIARY, the body of the said ------ ------, and ----safely keep

for the space of ------ month--, or until --he shall be thence

delivered by due course of law.

"Given under my hand and seal, this ---- day of ------, in the year of

our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty----.

"------ ------, Police Justice."

This is technically called a commitment "on confession," and its effects

are precisely the same as they would be if the individual had been

convicted of any tangible act of vagrancy. He is in law and in fact a

prisoner for the space of time named in the commitment; he must wear the

prison garb, and submit to the prison discipline, until the expiration of

his sentence. It is well known to the justices that a penal commitment

like the above will immediately secure the sufferer the medical attention

his case requires, but they have no power to send any one direct to the

Hospital.

And here an inquiry will naturally suggest itself, What does, or what

should a magistrate know about committing a sick person, and how can he

decide the time such invalid shall remain under treatment? A self-evident

conclusion will be that the whole process is an absurd one at the best,

and its requirements a hardship on magistrates already overburdened with

legitimate duties.

The reader's attention is requested to the pecuniary effects of this plan.

To illustrate: Suppose the case of a man committed for six months. He is

suffering from some form of venereal disease, and in this state is

received at the Penitentiary or Work-house, where his clothes are taken

from him, the institution costume supplied, and the particulars of his

name, age, nativity, occupation, etc., are registered with an abstract of

the commitment by virtue of which he is detained. He is then subjected to

medical examination and transferred to the Hospital. In this institution

he remains until cured, if that end is attained before the expiration of

his sentence, and is then re-transferred to the Penitentiary or

Work-house. The average time required for the successful treatment of the

disease named, in the Blackwell's Island Hospital, will not probably

exceed _two_ months, and often a much shorter period is sufficient. But

the man has been committed for _six_ months, and for the unexpired _four_

months of his incarceration he has to be fed, clothed, and lodged at the

expense of the Alms-house Department. The labor he can perform will never

amount in value to the actual cost of his support, so that he is

maintained four months _in accordance with law_ at a positive cost to the

tax-payers of the city, because they have already supported him for two

months in the Hospital. In the aggregate of cases during a year these

costs amount to a very large sum. Need any farther argument be adduced to

show the palpable absurdity of the system?

A few words upon the moral effect of this local system upon prostitution

in New York, premising that being a prostitute is acknowledged by all as a

degradation; while a vagrancy commitment to the Work-house or Penitentiary

is a positive disgrace. The system is a portion of the crushing-out plan

already mentioned, and it says, in effect, "We (the people of New York

City) will give you an opportunity to be cured of your loathsome and

destructive malady, but only upon the condition that you become the inmate

of a penal institution. We know that you can not be cured unless you

accept our terms, and we will make those terms as hard and repulsive to

human nature as ingenuity can devise." It has been a medical axiom that no

two poisons can exist in the system at one and the same time; but the

citizens of New York have been experimenting for some years to ascertain

whether two moral poisons can not be coexistent in the same person, by

adding farther and unnecessary disgrace to the vice of prostitution--thus

widening the gulf between the sinner and her possible return to virtue.

The impolicy of making syphilis a reason for imprisonment, except so far

as curative measures actually require it, must be apparent to all, were it

merely from the fact that it deters many who are suffering from embracing

the opportunity of cure until they are absolutely compelled to do so. How

excessively wrong is this principle in a hygienic point of view must be

evident; a directly contrary course, making the hospital attractive

instead of repulsive, would be the true policy, and would be the most

economical in its results. Nor is it justice to the medical departments of

our public institutions to clog their labors with a proviso which prevents

their aid being sought until the last extremity, when it can only exert a

palliative and not a curative agency. If syphilis could be reached in its

primary stages, their task would be much less difficult and their services

much more effectual; whereas little or nothing can be accomplished when

official regulations keep away the patients until the disease becomes

constitutional, and the mischief is done. As in morals, so is it in

medicine. Any evil, to be treated with success, must be encountered in its

first stage, and if our regulations preclude this opportunity, but slight

hopes can be entertained of any good results. Under a more liberal system,

the physician and the philanthropist could combine their efforts. The

former would not have to encounter disease inveterately fixed on a

broken-down constitution; the latter would not find his benevolent designs

frustrated by a lengthened career of depravity now become habitual.

The effect of the provision which offers medical aid to prisoners only is,

that every woman of the town will try all possible means to dispense with

the treatment. It is only when she has actually fallen to the lowest deep

of her class, when one step more will plunge her into a bottomless abyss

of helpless and hopeless woe, that she will voluntarily accept the

proffered aid. She will endure torture from her maladies, or rely upon the

assistance of empirics, and submit to all their extortions, rather than

become a prisoner. But when every resource is exhausted, and her physical

torments plainly tell her that she must obtain medical relief or die, then

she submits. Once in the hospital, she is relieved, after a period of

protracted sickness, and leaves it to return to her old haunts, because

she can go nowhere else, the law having affixed the additional disgrace of

imprisonment upon her former bad character. Sociality is a characteristic

of human nature, and if these women can not gain admission to any company

but that of the vicious and abandoned, they prefer that to solitude.

Returned once more to her former associates, the time soon comes when

farther medical assistance is needed, and thus she alternates for a few

months or years between prison, hospital, and brothel, till death puts an

end to her sufferings, and a nameless grave in Potters' Field receives the

remains of one whom charitable measures, properly applied, might possibly

have made a useful member of society.

The sense of shame which follows a single deviation from the paths of

virtue drives many women to prostitution. Why add to the existing sense of

shame another infamy when she unfortunately contracts disease? Can we

consistently blame her if she becomes callous, when every legal provision

directly tends to indurate her sensibilities? The misconduct of parents

toward children has been shown as one of the causes of prostitution. The

father or mother drives from the paternal roof the child who has committed

but a single error. Then, under the pressure of hunger, she inevitably

sins more deeply, becomes diseased, applies to the public for relief, and

is sentenced to imprisonment! The first mistake, that of the parents,

makes her vicious: the second mistake, incarceration, confirms her in

vice. We denounce such ill-treatment in the parents, while practically we

ourselves, as the natural guardians of all who need assistance, are doing

precisely the same thing. Where, then, is our consistency? If it is right

for us, a body corporate, to practice such cruel oppression, is it not

equally justifiable for each member of the body to act in the same manner

in his individual capacity? Of course, what is right for the multitude

must be right for the individual, and our own conduct convicts us of

inconsistency. We have no warrant to condemn parents for single acts which

we perform collectively; or, if we are right in censuring them, we are

wrong in performing the same acts ourselves: if they are reprehensible, we

also are culpable.

This system, with all its absurdity, its prejudicial effect on public

health, and its obvious tendency to immorality, is not adequate to stay

the destroying scourge; on the contrary, it is likely to extend its

ravages. If a prostitute, arrested and committed to Blackwell's Island for

drunkenness or any disorderly conduct, is found to be diseased, or if she

commits herself knowing that she is infected, she is immediately placed

under medical charge. She will probably remain contentedly in the hospital

until the worst symptoms of the disease are subdued: by this time the

discipline of the institution has become irksome to her. She communicates

with the brothel-keeper with whom she formerly boarded, or with some

"lover" or acquaintance, who sues out a writ of _certiorari_ or _habeas

corpus_, which instantly effects her discharge. She now returns to her

former haunts, half-cured, again to aid in disseminating disease, farther

to undermine her own constitution, and to infect men who will in turn

become a charge upon the tax-payers, or by their agency cause others to

become thus liable. The instance of wholesale release mentioned in the

previous chapter will recur to the mind of the reader.

The experience of almost every day confirms these statements. It is well

known that there are those who hang around the various police courts

expressly to attend to such business, and who make a large income from

this source, exclusive of other matters pertaining to prostitution in

which they occasionally exert their abilities. The vagrancy commitments by

which women are "sent up" are generally insufficient, and there is no

legal power to detain them, and force them to submit to the treatment they

so much require. It has been asserted by legal men of high standing that

nearly the whole of the commitments issued by police justices are

defective, and that there exists in law no impediment to the immediate

discharge of every prostitute now on Blackwell's Island. The public can

readily perceive the necessary inefficiency of these institutions so far

as the prevention of venereal disease is concerned.

The facility with which prostitutes committed to Blackwell's Island can

obtain their discharge may be attributed to want of care in making out the

commitments. A recent statute (1854) prescribes the form in which these

should be made, requiring the recital of admitted or substantiated facts,

and the filing of a copy of the original in the office of the clerk of the

Court of Sessions. These requirements are not observed, and the reason

assigned by magistrates is, that their own time, and the time of their

clerks, is so fully occupied by the press of business before them that

they can not proceed as minutely as the act directs. This confirms the

view already expressed of the impolicy and impropriety of placing such

onerous and extra-judicial duties upon the justices. But as they would be

liable to be sued for false imprisonment if they committed under this act

without observing all its requirements, they issue their commitments in

the old form required by the Revised Statutes, and are sheltered thereby

from ulterior consequences. These commitments direct the persons to be

confined in the Penitentiary, but the local arrangements of Blackwell's

Island require them to be sent to the Work-house, and unless this transfer

is actually made in each case by the Governors of the Alms-house--for they

can not deputize their power--it is a _waiver_ of the right of custody,

and consequently entitles the prisoner so transferred to a discharge. It

has been claimed that the Work-house is a part of the Penitentiary, but

this point has been overruled, because the statute establishing the

Work-house plainly shows a contrary intent.

A prisoner is entitled to a discharge on another ground, namely, because

the commitment has not been filed as directed; or, on another ground, that

the commitment does not recite the evidence by which the fact of vagrancy

was proved. A final ground of discharge, which is never pressed till all

the minor technicalities have failed, is that the whole proceeding is

illegal because the statute of 1854 has not been complied with.

On these grounds a writ of _certiorari_ or _habeas corpus_ is sued out,

the preliminary steps being a petition from the prisoner or his friend,

setting forth that he is illegally detained, an affidavit of verification,

and a certificate of the clerk of the Court of Sessions that the

commitment has not been filed in his office. Upon the presentation of

these documents, the judge to whom application is made issues the required

writ, and specifies the time at which it shall be returnable. The action

of the two writs is similar, excepting that a writ of _habeas corpus_

requires the production of the prisoner before the judge in addition to a

return of the cause of detention, while a writ of _certiorari_ only

requires a return of the cause of detention. The return is made by the

person having custody of the prisoner, and consists of a copy of the

commitment under which he is held; and, from the already-stated

informality of these documents, it will be apparent there can be no legal

ground for his detention. The judge is strictly prohibited from

entertaining any question beyond the legality of the papers; with the

moral aspect of the question he can not interfere, and as the commitments

are generally informal he has no alternative but to discharge the

prisoner.

Application for these writs must be made in the name of an attorney, but

such name is often used by an agent who transacts the business, and

divides the fee with his principal.

From this sketch it will be evident that, if the prescribed form were

observed in these commitments, frequent discharges would be avoided, or

there would be so many difficulties to surmount that they would be very

rarely attempted.

Does no responsibility rest upon the public, and on our law-makers, for

negligence in this matter? Without conceding that a vagrancy commitment is

likely to reform a prostitute (in fact, the weight of evidence is against

the possibility of its doing so), the case stands thus: the Legislature

has provided a mode of relief which was deemed effectual at the time, but

this mode is evaded, or can not be observed, by those upon whom its

administration devolves. The public have long known the existence of these

difficulties, but have never interfered to give us a better act. By their

refusal to interfere they stand in the position of aiders and abettors in

this neglect, or, worse than neglect, the actual propagation of a dreadful

disease. Had public opinion been concentrated upon this matter, an inquiry

would long ago have shown the fallacy of our present system, and suggested

the required amendments. This has not been done; but public remissness in

no way diminishes public responsibility.

This doctrine of public accountability may be profitably examined for a

few moments in connection with the general aspect of prostitution. Few

will deny that the mass of the people are answerable for many of its

evils. They are cognizant of the existence of vice in the aggregate, if

not in detail; they can understand its effects, and are not ignorant of

the principal causes which lead to it; yet they make no effort to remove

existing causes or to prevent future evils. They practically treat women

as an inferior race of beings, and can not even give a poor seamstress

employment without saying, in fact if not in words, "You can not be

trusted to make this unless a man examines every button hole, and inspects

every row of stitching, to see that you are not defrauding us." The only

way to secure confidence is to bestow confidence; but if a person is

treated in a manner likely to destroy self-respect, the inevitable result

will be a recklessness as to his or her own character. Despised without a

cause; treated in mere business matters as imbeciles, or children, or

thieves, it is not surprising that women become careless as to their

future life, and, smarting under the injustice of their position, too

frequently degenerate into the wretched beings who infest our streets and

pollute the atmosphere with their deadly infection.

The public, then, are responsible for this prostitution, because they have

never bestowed any attention upon it. It is one of the gravest and most

difficult of social problems, involving the interests of every man in the

community, and yet the most stupid indifference has been shown respecting

it. The subject has been canvassed by medical men on account of its sad

effects upon the physical organization; its extent has been known to

judicial and police authorities from its social and civil results; but the

great body of the public have hitherto decided that they know nothing, and

want to know nothing about it. They admit its existence, being too evident

to be denied; but so far they have taken no steps to ascertain its source

or stay its progress, because it was a matter with which they were afraid

to interfere, and now the deplorable consequences accruing from it must be

laid to their charge.

It can not be denied that there are many difficulties attending any

investigation of this vice; that many well-meaning but timid people

entertain the opinion that it is one of those gangrenous ulcers upon

society which can not be alluded to except in whispers; that more harm

would result from instituting inquiries than if it were allowed to exist

and fester on unnoticed.[429] This apathy, which has heretofore been the

policy, has made prostitution the monster evil which it now is, and upon

those who have advocated, or may advocate, a continuance of the same

course of silence and inaction the sufferers from the vice may justly

charge their destruction. The "masterly inactivity" of the statesman is

unquestionably justifiable in any case where passive resistance will

overcome an evil, but in dealing with prostitution a diametrically

opposite method must be pursued. It requires an active aggression upon all

old prejudices; an explosion of still older theories; a vigorous

commencement of a new course.

It has been shown elsewhere that the public are responsible for

prostitution, because they persist in excluding women from many kinds of

employment for which they are fitted; while for work in those occupations

which are open to them they receive an entirely inadequate remuneration.

It has also been shown that the community are equally responsible on

account of their non-interference with known and acknowledged evils.

Another reason why accountability can not be evaded may be designated;

namely, the carelessness, or, more properly, heartlessness, with which the

character of woman is treated. Let there be but a breath of suspicion

against her fair fame, no matter from what vile source it may emanate, and

the energies of man seem directed toward her destruction. "She is down,

keep her down!" is the almost universal cry, and this malignant process is

continued until the victim is positively forced into a life of undisguised

immorality. The sacred decision, "Let him that is without sin among you

cast the first stone," is entirely forgotten, and the most violent in

their denunciations are frequently those who are the most blameworthy

themselves.

The whole force of the world's opinion has been directed, not to the

censure of actually guilty parties who induced the crime, but to the poor

wronged sufferer. She, who is too frequently the victim of falsehood and

deceit, or the slave of an absolute necessity, must expiate her fault by

submitting to a constant succession of indignities and annoyances. He,

whose conduct has made her what she is, escapes all censure. But some

moralist will ask, "How would you have us treat such women?" Treat them,

sir, as human beings, actuated by the same passions as yourself; as

susceptible beings, keenly sensitive of reproach; as injured beings, who

have a claim upon your kindness; as outraged beings, who have a demand

upon your justice. Lead them into a path by which they can escape from

danger; protect the innocent from the snares which environ them on every

side. And when this is done, pour the vials of your hottest wrath on those

of your own sex whose machinations have blighted some of God's fairest

created beings.

Public responsibility must be understood in its broadest and most literal

sense, as meaning the individual accountability of every member of the

community. The time has not yet arrived, unfortunately, when this matter

can be left in the hands of corporations or legislatures. Their

constituents must be aroused to consideration of its importance before any

satisfactory action can or will be taken by them; and it is to the

thinking men of the age that these pages are addressed, in the full

confidence that so soon as their sympathies are enlisted public action

will follow.

To this end an endeavor has been made to show the injurious effects of

prohibition, disappointing expectation as a means of decreasing syphilis,

or of curtailing the limits of prostitution; the necessity which exists

for effectual preventive measures; and the inefficient, or worse than

inefficient, nature of the local arrangements of New York to accomplish

this desideratum. Thus the way for a consideration of the remedial process

has been opened, and now with such evidence as he has before him the

reader may be asked, in all sincerity, if he does not seriously believe

that _it would be a prudent step, instead of trying to extirpate the evil,

to place prostitutes and prostitution under the surveillance of a medical

bureau in the Police Department_? Extirpation never has been, never can be

accomplished in any community; repression and restriction, as proposed,

have been tried and have proved successful.

Assuming an affirmative answer to this question, and it is difficult to

imagine it otherwise if the facts are dispassionately considered,

attention is respectfully requested to the manner in which the change

could be effected.

To meet the exigencies of the case there are required

(1.) A suitable hospital for the treatment of venereal disease;

(2.) A legally authorized medical visitation of all known houses of

prostitution, with full power to order the immediate removal of any woman

found to be infected to the designated hospital;

(3.) The power to detain infected persons under treatment until they are

cured, a term of time which none but medical men can decide.

By a suitable hospital is meant an institution devoted to the treatment of

such diseases, like the special hospitals of Paris and other Continental

cities, and entirely removed from all connection with any punitive

establishment. The rules proposed for the government of the Island

Hospital, when its name was changed from Penitentiary Hospital, do not, by

any means, meet the urgent requirements of the case. The Penitentiary, its

officers and inmates, must be entirely shut out from the desired hospital,

and no prison-warden or keeper of criminals must have any jurisdiction

within its walls or over its grounds. Inmates of hospitals have too long

endured the stupid interference of non-medical men, and it is time that

medical law exclusively was considered in the direction and management of

buildings devoted to medical purposes. This is especially necessary in a

syphilitic hospital, on account of the character of its patients. _No

amount of imprisonment as a punishment ever yet reformed a prostitute, and

it never will; all intercourse with prisoners, be it ever so transient,

has but confirmed women in vice._

The tendency of imprisonment is directly contrary to any reformation,

confirming previous habits instead of rooting them out. The instinctive

dread of incarceration has prevented many from availing themselves of the

medical advantages offered them, particularly among the better and higher

grades of frail women. We want a hospital exclusively for the treatment of

syphilis, with the power to place and keep there all women so diseased

until cured. Matters of detail can be arranged in such a manner as to

admit of a proper classification, based upon the degree of moral turpitude

belonging to each. Payment could and should be required from all who

possess the means, for expenses actually incurred, and this would

contribute a considerable sum to meet the expenditures of the institution.

Among these women, as a body, there exists an excessive amount of pride.

Those of the upper class will not associate with any of a lower rank, and,

in fact, look upon them in very much the same manner that moralists regard

the whole body. To be enabled to reach them at all, a liberal management

must be adopted. But will not this be deferring to vice because it is

dressed in silks or satins? asks some one. Most decidedly not. Let the

arrangements be what they might, such a hospital as described would afford

no encouragement to vice, for in it all must submit to the same course of

treatment, varied only in the minor accessories which surround it.

Even if the arrangements were exposed to an objection like the above, the

end would justify the means. The city of New York contains, at this day,

venereal infection sufficient to contaminate all the male population of

the United States in a very short space of time. It has been proved from

official and medical statistics that this malady is rapidly on the

increase, and a paramount question is, how to be relieved of the incubus.

Rigorous prohibitory measures will not effect this; they only make the

matter worse. Punitive hospitals will not effect this; they have been

tried and found wanting. Free institutions would, in all probability,

succeed in accomplishing far more than any other measure our citizens have

ever tried. The question is one, if not absolutely of life, certainly of

healthy existence, and its inestimable importance must over-ride all

doubts and difficulties. In view of the dangers surrounding our rising

generation, even supposing the men and women of the present day exempt

from them, it would be perfectly inexcusable to refuse any available plan

because some one of its features might not please all tastes. Adopt an

arrangement similar to that suggested, and if any crudities are discovered

they can be readily cured as experience points them out. The plan is not

presented as a perfect one, but merely as an outline sketch of what is

necessary.

A regular medical visitation of all prostitutes is an essential part of

the scheme, and its organization should be a matter of serious

consideration. The Parisian plan already submitted might form a very good

basis; and an arrangement which throws the whole system of prostitution

open to an effective police supervision, and the establishment of a

medical bureau in connection therewith for professional purposes, is

suggested as most desirable. This medical visitation, conducted by

physicians to be connected with the Police Department, and sustained by

the power of that body, should be confided to men of recognized skill and

known integrity. To insure public confidence, so essentially necessary in

the inception of any social innovation, it would be necessary that the

agents upon whom its execution devolved should be men of tried probity and

acknowledged reputation, both professional and personal. The slightest

symptom of disease should be sufficient evidence to warrant the immediate

removal of any woman to the syphilitic hospital. The residence of any

woman, be it temporary or permanent, in a known house of prostitution must

subject her to a medical examination, as it would afford a very strong

presumption that she was there for immoral purposes.

The propriety of a medical examination of prostitutes at certain intervals

can not be doubted, and, in fact, it is practically admitted at the

present time by some few of the brothel-keepers in the city. These pay a

physician a liberal salary to visit their boarders every few days for the

express purpose of carrying out the plan suggested now; resorting to

treatment whenever he finds it necessary. Some of the most aristocratic

houses of prostitution are thus attended, but the system is in use more

especially among those natives of Continental Europe who are now keeping

houses of ill fame in New York, and who, in bringing to the New World many

of the customs of the old, have thus testified to the benefit of the

regulations enforced there.

But although such visiting physician may pronounce a girl infected, the

world has no security that she will not continue her avocation; and in

order to remove all doubt upon this question she should be instantly

removed to an institution where she can not possibly propagate the malady.

This must be done under conjoint medical and police authority. Among

prostitutes of the lower grades systematic visitation is more imperatively

necessary. They will not place themselves under medical treatment unless

they are compelled, but until their disease assumes a character that

prevents the possibility of farther concealment from their visitors, they

continue to ply their loathsome and destructive trade. The summit of

ambition with them is to keep their liberty; so long as they can earn

enough to provide themselves a shelter, and feed their ravenous appetite

for intoxicating liquor, they are content to submit to the pains and

ravages of syphilis, alike heedless of their own sufferings and the

injuries they inflict on others. We have had cases under our own

professional treatment where women have actually persevered in this course

for many weeks after they had become aware they were diseased, solely for

the reasons indicated.

It may be objected that such a plan would offer a premium to lewdness by

circumscribing the dangers of infection; but this argument can have little

weight, as it is scarcely possible that promiscuous sexual intercourse

can be carried on much more extensively than it is at present. The vice

seems to have reached its culminating point. Experience proves that in all

ages of the world there have been many men whose passions were so violent

and so ill regulated that they would attain their gratification at any

risk, even though that risk included the probability of venereal

infection. As in games of hazard every player hopes to be a winner, so in

carnal indulgences every man flatters himself that, because some gratify

their lusts unscathed for a long series of years, so may he; that as

hitherto he has escaped disease in his unhallowed amours, he may continue

equally fortunate to the end of his career. This is confessedly a poor

dependence, but it is the reliance of hundreds and thousands of the

followers of her whose "house is the way to hell."

Diseases of a syphilitic nature are viewed by some persons as special

punishments for special sins, and hence they argue that it would be an

interference with the order of Providence to attempt to eradicate them.

The discussion of a theological question would be altogether out of place

in these pages, but the supposition may be met by a parallel case.

Delirium tremens is the result of an excessive use of intoxicating

liquors, and may justly be considered a special punishment for that

offense; but did any body ever know a case in which those who object to

the treatment of syphilis extended a single obstacle to the case of a

drunkard? If it is right to adopt curative measures in one case, why

exclude them in the other? But even supposing that the treatment of

syphilis is open to this objection so far as the guilty parties are

concerned, shall their descendants be involved in suffering because the

parents sinned? If a rigorous medical examination offers additional

inducements to prostitution by reducing the probabilities of disease, it

also guarantees that helpless wives and unborn children shall not be

included in its list of victims. Go to the thousands of married women now

childless or suffering from abortion; ask their opinion. Go to the

thousands of disappointed husbands whose hopes of offspring have been

blighted in consequence of their own youthful dissipation; ask their

opinion, and see what the answers would be. Go and ask the diseased

children on Randall's Island, and in their emaciated frames read their

testimony. The evidence thus obtained would prove unanswerable arguments

in favor of the plan proposed.

It can not be imagined that forcing diseased women to submit to a

specific routine of treatment in a special hospital involves any undue

interference with their personal liberty. The right to commit a wrong, be

it social, moral, or physical, never can exist; the slightest reflection

upon such a proposition will at once prove it untenable. The spread of

venereal disease is a positive wrong, and, therefore, a woman who is

suffering from it, and is certain or likely to propagate it, is as

legitimate an object for compulsory treatment as would be a maniac whom we

should find roaming through the streets of the city, or a person afflicted

with small-pox, yellow fever, or any other contagious or infectious

malady. If either of these cases were to come before any member of the

community, he would not for one moment regard it an infringement of

personal liberty to place the subject under proper care and restraint. On

the contrary, he would think of the danger to which he and his family were

exposed, and, flinging theory to the winds, would immediately urge prompt

and practical measures. This is all that is asked respecting prostitution.

Let the public be once thoroughly convinced of the extent and danger of

syphilitic infection, and there would be but few objectors to these

suggestions. Among that few, the principal portion doubtless would be the

advertising empirics whose disgusting announcements occupy so much space

in the columns of our daily journals. That they derive a large income from

this source is indisputable, and it is equally certain that if the

recommendations now made were adopted they would find their "occupation

gone." Speaking in all candor, the health, decency, and good morals of the

city would be better cared for in their absence than it now is, with all

the combinations of their "extraordinary success," "unequaled experience,"

and "unparalleled facilities." In a financial view, the money they extort

(we refrain from using a harsher term) from their credulous patients could

be far better applied than in contributing to their wealth.

Farther: Such an institution and organization as has been described would

be useless did it not possess the absolute power to retain every patient

under treatment until cured. Whatever modification of principle or mode of

action may be ultimately adopted (and, sooner or later, _something must be

done_), this is an indispensable requisite. One half the danger of

venereal infection arises from imperfectly cured cases. Under the existing

system, as already explained, writs can be issued at an almost nominal

cost to remove any, or all of the prostitutes now under medical treatment

on Blackwell's Island; and such an abuse of a valuable privilege on

account of mere technical errors must be fatal to the success of any

remedial project. It would be as reasonable for a lawyer to petition the

courts to order a vessel detained in Quarantine by the Board of Health

because she was infected with yellow fever to be brought to her wharf in

this city, and there to have permission to disseminate the disease on

board, as it is for the same individual to apply for a writ of

_certiorari_, the effect of which is to take an abandoned woman reeking

with disease from an institution where she is under treatment, and allow

her to extend the venereal poison to every one who may have intercourse

with her. This must not be understood as indicating a wish to curtail the

constitutional privileges attached to writs of _habeas corpus_ or

_certiorari_, but merely their applicability to cases like the supposed

one. How can the evil be prevented? Simply by making any legislative

enactment on the subject so plain that it can not be misunderstood or

evaded. No lawyer would find any difficulty in drafting a short act giving

the Police Department the power, based upon an affidavit made by a member

of their own medical bureau, to remove any diseased woman to a proper

hospital, and _retain her there until cured_.

It may appear to a casual observer that this detention would be of the

same nature as the imprisonment required by the existing mode, but a

little thought will point out a wide difference. Now, we force a woman to

become an inmate of a penitentiary, and add disgrace to her disease by

assuming her to have been guilty of crime. Then, we should require her to

become an inmate of the Hospital, with no additional disgrace but that

arising from the fact that she had contracted syphilis by vicious habits.

In the one case, we make her the companion of some of the vilest wretches

on the face of the earth; in the other, she would have no associates but

those of her own class.

The Medical Bureau to whom these reforms should be intrusted, although

connected with the Police Department, would require to be an independent

body so far as professional duties are concerned. Its connection would be

necessary, because there would be many cases requiring the intervention of

the civil power; and its isolation would be equally important, because

much would depend on the discretion of the examiners, and many

contingencies might arise where a strict line of routine duty would defeat

the object in view. They would be literally a "detective corps," and with

a known amount of duty before them must be left to choose their own method

of performing it. Any definite arrangements or positive orders from a

non-medical board would only embarrass their action, for medical and

non-medical executives always clash when they aim at one common object.

Of course a leading requirement in their instructions must be that their

examinations be rigid and thorough. No half-way measures in this respect

could meet the absolute demands of the case, or satisfy the expectations

of the community. It must be plainly understood by the world that the

Medical Bureau was required to perform its whole duty, uncompromisingly

and fearlessly; and that its members were men who would not evade the

responsibility. In their investigations many cases would occur where their

services would be valuable to society, beyond the pale of professional

duty. It is not to be expected that they would become evangelists, but

they could be the willing and efficient coadjutors of those who delight to

bear the Gospel to these poor degraded beings; and even while listening to

a recital of bodily sufferings, instances would arise where the acts of

the good Samaritan would be required at their hands. They would be the

depositaries of many a narrative of wrong and outrage, of sorrow and

suffering, and it is not unreasonable to believe that of the histories

poured into their ears some would indicate a channel by which the lost one

might be restored to home and friends and virtue, or point to some chord

in the mind which would give a responsive sound when touched by the hand

of pity.[430]

The adoption of these suggestions would be, at least, a step in the right

direction, and lay the foundation of a system which can be gradually

enlarged until it embraces regulations as to registry, management of

houses of ill fame, etc., to the same extent as is now done in Europe.

The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World · 第 48 / 50 章

The final charge arises from the police and judiciary expenses of the city