Medical Visitation of Prostitutes, 645
" Paris, 149
Medicis, the, Effects upon French Morality of, 112
Messalina, 72
Mexican Clergy, Morals of, 360
" Society, 361
Mexico, 359
" Foundling Hospitals, 363
Moloch, Worship of, 37
Montpellier, public Brothel at, 100
Moral Chastity, Doctrine of, 88
Mothers of Prostitutes in New York, 538
Mrs. Fry, benevolent Exertions of, 353
Nach Girls, 420
Naples, Court of Prostitutes, 160
" Laws on Prostitution, 159
Nationality of Prostitutes, Algiers, 184
" Hamburg, 200
" Leipzig, 254
" New York, 456
Naucratis, 41
Needle-women, Great Britain, 344
" New York, 527
Nell Gwynne, 302
Nepotism, 155
Nero, 83
Newark, N. J., Prostitution in, 609
New Hampshire, 458
New Haven, Conn., Prostitution in, 609
New Jersey, 458
New York, Abortion, 481
" Age of Prostitutes, 452
" Aggregate Prostitution, 584
" Assignation Houses, 566
" Assistance to emigrate to, 466
" Average Wages of Women, 529
" Brothels, Capital invested in, 599
" " Management of, 554
" " Receipts of, 554
" " Value of, 553
" Brothel-keepers, 553
" Business of Fathers of Prostitutes, 535
" " of Mothers of Prostitutes, 538
" Career of a Prostitute, 453
" Causes of Prostitution, 488
" Census Returns, Reliability of, 674
" Children's Aid Society, 530
" Children of Prostitutes, 477
" civil Condition of Prostitutes, 473
" Continuance of Prostitution, 484
" Cost of Surveillance, 653
" Dangers of a Prostitute's Life, 485
" Dangers of Syphilitic Infection, 632
" Death of Parents of Prostitutes, 539
" Delirium Tremens, 543
" Dispensaries, 590, 602
" Duration of a Prostitute's Life, 455
" Education of Prostitutes, 468
" Effects of Destitution, 489
" " early Marriage, 474
" " female Occupation, 533
" " of Inclination, 488
" Extent, Effects, and Cost of Prostitution, 575
" German Ball-rooms, 523, 561
" " Brothels, 560
" Gradation of Prostitutes, 453
" foreign-born Prostitutes, 460
" Hospitals, 590, 602
" Illegitimacy, 480
" ill Treatment of Parents, Husbands, and Relatives, 498
" Inducements to emigrate, 465
" Infant Mortality, 481
" Influence of Suburbs on Prostitution, 585
" Instances of Destitution, 491
" Intemperance of Prostitutes, 540
" Intemperance of Parents of Prostitutes, 544
" Intelligence Offices, 517
" Intoxication a Cause of Prostitution, 497
" Juvenile Depravity, 453
" License System, 651
" Life of a Seamstress, 490
" Medical Institutions, Theory of, 633
" Metropolitan Police Estimate of Prostitutes, 579
" Nativity of Prostitutes, 456
" Necessity for a Syphilitic Hospital, 644
" Number of Prostitutes, 576
" Obscene Publications, 521
" Origin of Assignation Houses, 568
" Panel Houses, 573
" Parlor Houses, 549
" Police and Judiciary Expenses, 605
" Poverty of Emigrants, 465
" private Prostitutes, 582
" Preponderance of Prostitutes from Northern States, 457
" Proportion of Children attending School, 471
" proposed Surveillance of Prostitution, 643
" proposed medical Visitation of Prostitutes, 645
" Prostitutes and Houses of Prostitution, 549
" " compared with Population, 585
" " exaggerated Estimates of, 577
" " Income of, 600
" " Length of Residence in New York City, 464
" " Length of Residence in New York State, 464
" " Length of Residence in United Sates, 463
" Recapitulation of Facts, 675
" Religion of Prostitutes, 545
" " Parents of Prostitutes, 545
" Remedial Measures, 627
" Sailors' Ball-rooms, 563
" " Brothels, 562
" Schedule of Questions, 450
" Seduction in, 492
" Statistics of, 450
" Syphilis in, 586
" " Number of Prostitutes infected, 487
" Theory of present Medical Institutions, 633
" Widowed Prostitutes, 477
New Zealand, 394
Norfolk, Va., Prostitution in, 610
Norman Rule in England, 288
North American Indians, 372
Northern Africa, 444
Norway, 277
" Illegitimacy in, 280
" Syphilis in, 281
Number of Prostitutes in Berlin, 233
" China, 433
" Copenhagen, 256
" Cork, 342
" Dublin, 341
" Leipzig, 253
Nursery, Randall's Island, New York, 500, 602, 605
Obscene Literature, 102
" France, 117
" London, 334
" New York, 521
Offenses of Prostitutes, 150
Open-air Prostitution, 74
Overcrowded Dwellings, 322
Ovid, 78
Panel Houses, New York, 573
_Parc aux Cerfs_, 128
Parent-Duchatelet, Laws of France, 121
" " for Repression of Prostitution, 153
Paris, Ages of Prostitutes, 140
" _Bon Pasteur_ Asylum, 152
" Brothels, 141
" Causes of Prostitution, 141
" Classes of Prostitutes, 148
" Dispensary, 138
" Education of Prostitutes, 140
" Hospital de Lourcine, 137
" Inscription of Prostitutes, 144
" Medical Visitation, 149
" Number of Prostitutes, 139
" Offenses of Prostitutes, 150
" Operation of remedial Measures, 632
" Prisons for Prostitutes, 151
" Procuresses, 143
" Prostitution in 1858, 661
" Punishment of Prostitutes, 149
" Radiation of Prostitutes, 147
" Statistics of Syphilis, 138
Parlor Houses, New York, 549
Penitentiary, Blackwell's Island, 587, 604
Pennsylvania, 458
Persia, 415
Persian Banquets, 42
Peru, 367
Peter the Great, of Russia, 262
Philadelphia, Pa., Prostitution in, 611
Philanthropic Labors, and Results, 631
Philosophy in France, Tendency of, 130
Philtres, 63
Phoenician Customs, 42
Phryne, 45, 59
Physiological Education, Importance of, 520
Piedmont, Laws of, 162
Pisistratidæ, 44
Pittsburgh, Pa., Prostitution in, 611
Police Regulations, Algiers, 182
" Berlin, 251
" France, 139
" Russia, 227
Police of New York, Captains of, 31
" Inspectors of, 580
Police and Judiciary Expenses, New York, 605
Political Circumstances, their Connection with Prostitution, 326
Polynesia, 397
Portugal, 178
" Laws of, 179
Poverty in England, 327
Preponderance of Prostitutes from Northern States in New York, 457
Preservation of female Honor, 23
Prisons for Prostitutes, 151
Private Interest connected with Prostitution, 23
Private Life in Berlin, Description of, 247
Private Prostitution in Hamburg, 210
" New York, 582
Procuresses in England, 308, 313
" France, 97, 101
" Hamburg, 205
" Paris, 143
Prohibition, Effects of, 627
" " in France, 95
Propriety of Investigation, 20
Prostitutes compared with Population, 585
" Converted by the early Christians, 88
" exaggerated estimates of, 577
" in Algiers, Nationality of, 184
" " Number of, 183
" in New York, Income of, 600
" kindly Feeling toward each other, 547
" Number of in Edinburgh, 341
" " Glasgow, 341
" " Leeds, 341
" " Liverpool, 341
" " London, 340
" " Manchester, 341
" " New York, 575
" " Paris, 139
" " the United States, 615
" recognized in Judæa, 38
Prostitution a State Monopoly, 43
" aggregate Cost of, 606
" augmented by Secrecy, 631
" Biblical Description of, 39
" coeval with Society, 35
" earliest Record of, 35
" Impossibility of Suppressing, 19, 628
" increased by present Regulations, 630
" Notoriety of, 17
" proposed Surveillance of, 643
" Traders in, 69
Prussia, 219
Prussian Laws on Prostitution, 219-225
" Police Regulations, 227
" royal Rescript on Prostitution, 223
Public Amusements, 330
Public Decency advanced by Surveillance, 652
Public Life in Berlin, Description of, 245
Public Morals affected by Police Surveillance, 651
Public Responsibility, 640
Punishment of Prostitutes, 149
Puritan Rule in England, 298
Pythionice, 60
" Tomb of, 61
Radiation of Prostitutes, Paris, 147
Reese (Dr. D. M.) on Infant Mortality, 482
Registration of Prostitutes, 144
Religion of Prostitutes, 545
" Parents of Prostitutes, 545
Religious Prostitution in Chaldea, 41
" Greece, 43
Remedial Measures in Paris, Operation of, 632
" proposed, 627
Report on Infant Mortality, by Dr. Reese, 482
Report of Medical Board, Bellevue Hospital, 665
Report of Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, 29
Report of Resident Physician, Randall's Island, 673
Repression of Prostitution, Parent-Duchatelet's Law for, 153
Republican Legislation in France, 122
Resorts of Criminals, 22
Restoration of Charles II., Effect on Morality of, 298
Rhadopis, 41
Rhode Island, 457
Rio Janeiro, Foundling Hospitals in, 371
_Roi des Ribauds_, 96
Rome, 64
" Banquets, 81
" Baths, 73
" Brothels, 161
" _Commessationes_, 82
" Costume of Prostitutes, 75
" Drug Sellers, 85
" Emperors, 82
" Houses of Prostitution, 70
" Laws governing Prostitution, 64
" Physicians, 85
" Prostitutes, Classes of, 68
" " Habits of, 75
" " Number of, 68
" " Remuneration of, 76
" Republican Legislation, 67
" secret Diseases, 84
" Society, Demoralization of, 79
" Taverns, 74
Ruffiani, 169
Russia, 261
" Brides' Fair, 274
" Foundling Hospitals, 275
" Laws of, 261
" Marriage ceremonies, 274
" Morals of the present Day, 272
" Syphilis, 276
_Sabat des Sorciers_, 104
Sailors' Ball-rooms, New York, 563
" Brothels, New York, 562
Saint Bartholomew's Hospital, London, 357
Saint Petersburg Foundling Hospital, 275
Salpétrière, Hospital of, 134
Sanitary Regulations, Importance of, 632
Savannah, Ga., Prostitution in, 612
Schedule of Questions, New York, 450
Scotland, 460
Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island, 592, 602
Seamstress, the, in New York, 490
Secret Diseases among the Jews, 36
" at Rome, 84
Sectarian Aids to Prostitution, 105
Seduction, 320
" a Cause of Prostitution, 492
" a social Wrong, 495
Semicivilized Nations, 415
Seville, public Brothels at, 172
Sexual Desire, 320
Siberia, 445
Society, Prostitution coeval with, 35
Solomon's Temple, 38
Solon, Laws of, 43
Spain, 168
" Court of, 170
" Immorality of, 169
" public Brothels in, 172
Spanish and Roman Laws, Similarity of, 168
Spanish Laws, 172
" Women, Education of, 177
Sparta, 45
Statistics of New York, 450
Stockholm, Immorality of, 280
" Illegitimacy in, 278
_Succubes_, Belief in, 103
Sumatra, 411
Suttee, 424
Sweden, 277
" Brothels in, 279
" Foundling Hospitals in, 278
" Illegitimacy in, 278
" Syphilis in, 279
Switzerland, 259
Syphilis, Algiers, 186
" Belgium, 188
" Berlin, 248
" British Army, 357
" " Merchant Service, 357
" " Navy, 357
" Copenhagen, 257
" France, 131
" Great Britain, 354
" Hamburg, 214
" India, 424
" Italy, 157
" Japan, 439
" Kashmir, 421
" Leipzig, 255
" New York, 586
" " aggregate Expenses of, 603
" " Number of Prostitutes infected by, 487
" " treated by Drug Sellers, 595
" " treated by Advertisers, 596
" " treated by patent Medicines, 595
" " treated in private Practice, 592
" New Zealand, 395
" Norway, 281
" Paris, 138
" Portugal, 179
" Rome, 164
" Russia, 276
" Sandwich Islands, 404
" Spain, 174
" Sweden, 279
Syphilitic-Hospital in New York, Necessity of, 644
Syphilitic Infection, Danger of, 632
" Patients, Neglect of, 133
Tait (of Edinburgh) on Prostitution in New York, 615
Tartar Races, 440
Tax on Prostitutes, Algiers, 182
Templars, Depravity of, 97
Thargelia, 55
Theatricals, France, 118
" Great Britain, 300
Theodora, Empress of Rome, 92
" Attempts to reclaim Prostitutes by, 92
Toulouse, public Brothel at, 99
Troubadours, Profligacy of, 292
Turkey, 442
Ulm, Laws of, 189
Ultra-Gangetic Nations, 427
Underpaid Labor, 328
United States, Ages of Inhabitants, 619
" Births in, 620
" Crime in, 625
" Education in, 620
" Intemperance in, 625
" Number of Prostitutes in, 615
" Occupations of Inhabitants, 622
" Pauperism in, 624
" Prostitutes in various Cities of, 607
" Statistics of, 618
" Wages in, 623
Unnatural Crimes, 159
Vagrancy Commitments, 633
" moral Effects of, 635
" "on Confession", 634
" pecuniary Effects of, 635
Valencia, public Brothel at, 172
Vectigal, or Tax on Prostitutes, 92
Venice, Brothels in, 161
" Prostitutes in, 162
Venus, Worship of, 53
Vermont, 458
Virginia, 457
Wages influenced by Competition, 530
Wales, 460
West Indies, 406
Widowed Prostitutes, 477
Witches, Persecution of, 105
Women, average Wages of in N. Y., 529
" Capability of, 525
" Social Condition of, 525
Work-house, Blackwell's Island, 587-603
" Great Britain, 332
Yucatan, 365
THE END.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Since this introduction was written (1857) some changes have taken
place in the constitution of the Board of Governors. The election of Mr.
Tiemann to the Mayoralty caused a vacancy which is now filled by P.
McElroy, Esq., and the resignation and subsequent death of Mr. Taylor has
resulted in the election of William T. Pinkney, Esq.
[2] Now (1858) President of the Board.
[3] Now (1858) Secretary of the Board.
[4] To explain the apparent solecism of addressing a letter to President
Townsend, detailing actions in which he had taken so important a part, it
may be necessary to say that a standing order of the Board of Governors
requires all official correspondence with them to be addressed to their
President.
[5] See Chapter XXXII. for these questions.
[6] It is quite probable that the commercial and financial panic which
commenced about the time these pages were nearly ready for the press, and
continued throughout the winter of 1857-8, has added to the number of
prostitutes in New York City, very likely as many as five hundred, or
perhaps a thousand, but certainly not to the extent generally imagined.
Allusions have been made elsewhere to the exaggerated estimates of the
extent of this vice, and the opinions publicly expressed in regard to
accessions to the ranks of prostitutes during the last few months
generally seem to be of a similarly vague nature.
[7] Gen. xxxviii. 11.
[8] Lev. xix. 29; Deut. xxiii. 17.
[9] Ex. xxii. 19; Lev. xviii. 23.
[10] Ex. xxi. 17.
[11] Deut. xxii. 17.
[12] Lev. xv.
[13] Deut. xxiii. 18, etc.
[14] Ibid. xxiii. 18.
[15] Chron. xv. xvii. etc.
[16] Maccabees.
[17] Ch. vii. 6, etc.
[18] Ctesias, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 10.
[19] Herodotus, ii. 60.
[20] Herodotus, ii. 64.
[21] Id. ii. 89.
[22] Id. ii. 89.
[23] Baruch, vi.
[24] Quintus Curtius, v. 1.
[25] Macrobius, Sat. Conv. vii. Athenæus, xii. _passim_; Plutarch, Vit.
Artaxerxes.
[26] Nicander, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 25.
[27] Plutarch, Life of Solon: Lucian, Dialogues.
[28] Philemon, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 25.
[29] Idomeneus, quoted by Athenæus, xii. 44.
[30] _Fainomerides._ See Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus.
[31] Politics, ii. 7.
[32] Athenæus, xiii. 59; Alciphron's Letters.
[33] Athenæus, xiii. 20, _et sed._; Suidas, Lex., Vo. Diagramma; Æschylus
c. Timarch. p. 134; St. Clement of Alexandria, Pædag. ii. 10; Becker,
Charicles i. 126; etc.
[34] Pollux, Onom. ii. 30; x. 170; St. Clement of Alex. _loc. cit._
[35] Philemon, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 25.
[36] Xenarchus and Eubulus, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 25.
[37] Demosthenes against Neæra.
[38] Alexis, quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 23.
[39] Athenæus xiii. 26.
[40] See Lucian. Dialogue of Courtesans, _passim_.
[41] Letters of Alciphron, 46.
[42] Lucian, _loc. cit._
[43] Anthology, ed. Jacobs, ii. 633.
[44] Athenæus, xiii. 86.
[45] Letters of Alciphron, 34.
[46] Athenæus, xiii. 86.
[47] Antiphanes, quoted in Athenæus, xiii. 51.
[48] Theopompus, Dicæarchus, etc. quoted by Athenæus, xiii. 67.
[49] Letters of Alciphron, 44.
[50] Plutarch, Life of Demetrius, 16, 19, 24-27; Athenæus, xiii. 39.
[51] Demosthenes against Neræa, p. 1386; Becker, Charicles, ii. 215.
[52] St. Clement of Alex.; Hortat. Address, 97.
[53] Grote's History of Greece, vi. 100.
[54] Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 24, 32, etc.; Demosthenes against Neræa,
p. 1350; Aristophanes, Acharm. 497, etc.; Athenæus, xiii. 25-56.
[55] Diogenes Laert. vi. 96.
[56] Athenæus, xiii. 56, 66, etc.; Alciphron's Letters, 30.
[57] Athenæus, xiii. 39, etc.
[58] Id. xiii. 43, 47.
[59] Plato, De Rep. iii. p. 404; Aristoph. Plut. 149; Müller, Dor. ii. 10,
7; Strabo, viii. 6, 211.
[60] Diogenes Laert. ii. 84; St. Clement of Alex. Strom, iii. 47;
Pausanias, ii. 2, 4; Ausonius, Epig. 17; Athenæus, xiii. 26, 54, etc.
[61] Ælian, V. H. ix. 32; Alciphron's Letters, i. 31; Jacobs, Alt. Mus.
iii. 18, 36, etc.; Athenæus, xiii. 59, etc.
[62] Pausanias, i. 37, 5; Athenæus, xiii. 45, etc.; Diod. xvii. 108; Arr.
_ap. Phot._ 70.
[63] Diogenes Laert. x. 4; Athenæus, xiii. 29; Cicero, de Nat. Deor. i.
33.
[64] Lactant. i. 20.
[65] Martial, i. 1; Seneca, Epist. 96.
[66] Val. Max. ii. 10, 8.
[67] Annal. lib. ii. 85.
[68] Plautus, Pænulus.
[69] Nov. 5.
[70] See Tabl. Heracl. i. 123.
[71] Plutarch, Vita Catonis.
[72] Livy, xxxiv. 1, et seq.
[73] Livy, xxxix. 8-19. See also St. August. De Civ. Dei, vii. 21.
[74] Cicero, ad Fam. i. 9.
[75] Val. Max. ii. 1, 7; Cicero, de Off. 1, 35.
[76] Plutarch, Vit. Syllæ, 85.
[77] Lex Jul. et Pap. Popp.; Lex Jul. de Adult.; Dig. 35, tit. 1, § 63;
Gaius, ii. 113.
[78] See Dig. 48, tit. 5.
[79] Aulus Gell. quoting Ateius Capito.
[80] Pierrugues, Gloss. Erot. For the duties of the ædiles, see Schubert,
de Rom. Ædilibus, liv. 4.
[81] See Plautus, _passim_.
[82] Suetonius.
[83] Cicero.
[84] Ausonius.
[85] Plaut. Panulus.
[86] Cic. pro Cælio.
[87] Juvenal.
[88] Juvenal.
[89] Suidas.
[90] Plautus, Cistellaria.
[91] Suetonius.
[92] Martial.
[93] Plaut. Panulus. Juvenal says,
"_Ad terram tremulo descendant clune puellæ._"
[94] Horace, Od. iii. 6, 21.
[95] See Schubert, _loc. cit._
[96] Terenco, Adelph. 1; Catullus, etc.
[97] Rom. i. 26, 27, and all Latin poets, _passim_.
[98] See Bunsen, Beschreibung der Stadt Rome, 1830, i. 173.
[99] Plautus, _Asinaria_; Martial, Ep. _passim_.
[100] Petronius, Satyricon, i. 28.
[101] Hor. Sat. i. 2, 30; Juv. Sat. iii. 156; Suet. Jul. 49.
[102] Prudentius, in Agn; Boulenger, Cirque, etc.
[103] _Olenti in fornice_, Hor. _Redolet fuligmura fornicis_, Mart.
[104] Plautus.
[105] Id.
[106] Juvenal, ii. Sat. vi. 116.
[107] Cyprian, Ep. 103; Boulenger, De Circe Rom.; Arnob.; Tertullian.
[108] Seneca, Ep. 86; Val. Max. ii. 1, 7.
[109] Plin. H. N. 33, 54.
[110] "Callidus et cristæ digitos impressit aliptes."--Juvenal, ii. Sat.
vi.
[111] Spartianus, Hadrian, c. 1.
[112] See Ovid, Ars Amat.
[113] Ulpian, liv. xxiii. De rit. nupt.; Jul. Paulus, Dig.; Cicero.
[114] Martial, xvi. 222.
[115]
Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,
Illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam,
Plus quam se atque suas amavit omnes,
Nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
Glubit magnanimos Remi nepotes.
CATULLUS, _Carm._ 58.
[116] Cicero in Cat.
[117] Lampridius, Script. Hist. Aug. _Elagabalus_.
[118] Martial, Ep. i. 36, 8; ii. 39; vi. 64, 4. See Becker's Gallus, i.
321.
[119] See also Seneca.
[120] Seneca, Ep. 80, 110; Suet. Jul. 43; Claud. 28; Domit. 8.
[121] Petron. Satyr. i. 26.
[122] Juvenal, Sat. vi.; Tertullian, De exhort. cast. 45.
[123] Juvenal, Sat. vi.
[124] Petronius, ii. 352.
[125] Plautus, Miles; Apuleius, ii. 27.
[126] Juvenal, Sat. vi.
[127] Propertius, ii. 6; Suet. Tib. 43, and Vit. Hor.; Pliny, xxxv. 37.
[128] See the collection at the Museo Borbonice at Naples, etc.
[129] Mutinus, cujus immanibus pudendis horrentique fascino vestras
inequitare matrones.... Arnobius, v. 132. See also St. Augustine and
Lactantius.
[130] August. De Civ. Dei.
[131] Catullus, Epithalam.; Arnobius, _loc. cit._
[132] Petron. Satyr. ii. 68.
[133] Petron. Satyr, ii. 70, etc.
[134] Juvenal, Sat. vi.
[135] Suetonius, Jul. 51.
[136] Videsne ut cinædus urbano digito temperat? Suet. Aug. 68, etc.
[137] Suetonius, Tiberius, 42.
[138] Suetonius, Caligula, 24.
[139] Id. Claudius, 26; Juvenal, Sat. vi.
[140] Tacitus, Ann. xv. 37-40.
[141] Scaliger.
[142] Horace, Sat. i. 2, I.
[143] Ovid, Remed. Amor.
[144] Dig. 27, 1, 6; Cod. Theodos. xiii. 3. De Medic, et profess.
[145] Ambrosius, De Virg. lib. i. Prudentius in Symmach.; Basil, Inter.
17, resp.
[146] Cyprian, De Pudici. etc.
[147] Clem. Pædag. ii. 10.
[148] Sueton. Vit. Tiber.
[149] Tertul. Apol.
[150] Basil, De vera Virgin. 52.
[151] Ambros. Epist. iv. ep. 34.
[152] Ambrose, Epist. iv. 34.
[153] See Ruinart, Actes ii. 196; also Palladius, Vit. Patr. cap. 148,
etc.
[154] August. contr. Jul. 1. iv.; id. ep. 122, and the other fathers.
[155] Reynaud, Act. Sanct.
[156] Ignat. Ep. ad Trall, et ad Philad.; Clement. Strom. 3; Epiphan. Hær.
27; Theodor. Hæret. i. 5.
[157] Letter to Innocent I.
[158] Calvin, Tr. Relig.
[159] Tr. Ord. lib. ii. c. 12.
[160] Ep. ad Furiam, ad Fabiolam. See also Lactantius, lib. vi. cap. 23.
[161] Can. 61, 77.
[162] Constit. lib. viii. c. 7.
[163] Canons 12, 44.
[164] Lib. de fid. et oper. c. xi.
[165] Const. Milan, tit. 65, de meret. et lenon.
[166] Justin, Apol. pro Christ.
[167] Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. liv. 3, c. 39.
[168] Id. ib.
[169] Cod. Theod. lib. xv. tit. 8, De lenon.
[170] Novel. 14, col. 1. tit. 1. De lenon.
[171] Ordonn. des Rois de France, vii. 327.
[172] Ibid. xiii. 75.
[173] Ann. de la Ville de Toulouse, par Lafaille, ii. 189, 199, 280.
[174] Astruc, _De morb. vener._
[175]
"Sur le pont d'Avignon
Tout le monde y passe."
The bridge was a haunt of prostitutes.
[176]
"Toutes estes, serez, ou fûtes,
De faict ou de volonté, putes."--_Roman de la Rose._
[177] St. August. _per cont._; St. John Chrysost. Hom. 22, sup. Gene.
[178] Bodin, Demonomanie.
[179] Recueil general des questions traictées es Conferences du Bureau
d'Adresse. Paris, 1656.
[180] Hist. Ecclesiast. Henry XVII. 53.
[181] Bodin, Demonomanie.
[182] Nicolas Renny.
[183] Pere Crespet, De la Haine de Satan.
[184] Boileau, Hist. des Flagellants; Pic de la Mirandole, Tr. contre les
Astrolopies, liv. iii. ch. 27.
[185] Bayle's Dictionary, Vo. _Picard_.
[186] Lenglet, Dufresnoy sur Marot, iii. 97; Richelet's Dict.
[187] Brantome, in his Dames Galantes, describing a marriage, says,
"_Chacun estoit a l'escontes, a l'accoustumée_."
[188] Vies des Hommes Illust.: Bonnivet.
[189] Sauval, Amours des rois de France; from which work many of the facts
in the text throughout this chapter are drawn.
[190] Le divorce Satirique.
[191] Bayle's Dictionary, Vo. Henry IV.
[192] De Matrimonio, Le Somme des Peches.
[193] Charles V. 17th Octob. 1367.
[194] A.D. 1365.
[195] Cabinet du Roi de France, Paris, 1581.
[196] Parent-Duchatelet, De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris, ii.
473.
[197] See Taylor's House of Orleans, vol. i. and Memoires de la Duchesse
d'Orleans, _passim_.
[198] Nicolas Leoniceno, De Morbo Gallico, and others.
[199] Ulrich de Hutton, De Morbi Gallici curatione.
[200] Roderic Dias, Contra las Bubas.
[201] W. Beckett, Phil. Trans. vol. xxx.
[202] Registres du Parlement de Paris, 1497.
[203] Jerome Fracastor, De Morb. Contag.
[204] Registres du Parlement de Paris, 1505.
[205] Cullerier: Report of Chirurgien Mareschal; Report of M. de Breteuil
to the Government; Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 180.
[206] Cullerier; Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 184.
[207] Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 186.
[208] Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 124.
[209] Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 130.
[210] Id. ii. 138.
[211] MSS. Reports quoted by Parent-Duchatelet, i. 30; Restif de la
Bretonne; _Pornographe_.
[212] Parent-Duchatelet, ii. 273.
[213] Id. ii. 398.
[214] Id. ii. 403.
[215] Dennistoun's Dukes of Urbino; Ranke's History of the Popes; Gibbon's
Rome.
[216] Ranke, ii. Appendix.
[217] In 1849, when the Roman people opened the palace of the Inquisition,
there was found in the library a department styled "Summary of
Solicitations," being a record of cases in which women had been solicited
to acts of criminality by their confessors in the pontifical state, and
the summary is not brief.--Dwight's "Roman Republic in 1849," p. 115.
[218] Discorsi, i. 12.
[219] Life of Leo X. Appendix.
[220] Fabronius, Leo X. p. 287.
[221] Paris de Grassine, Memoirs of the Court of Julius II. p. 579.
[222] Jovius, lib. iii. p. 56.
[223] De Commines, v. ii. c. 6.
[224] The Roman Pontiffs, New York, 1845.
[225] After the occupation by the French in 1809, a collection of facts
was made by the French authorities, with a view to a census, but this we
have been unable to obtain.
[226] Medical and Chirurgical Review, April, 1854.
[227] Ibid.
[228] Harper's Magazine, February, 1855, p. 326; Italian Life and Morals.
[229] Rome, by a New Yorker, 1845.
[230] Sharpe's Letters from Italy, 1705.
[231] History of Italy: Family Library, vol. iii.
[232] Roman Republic, 1849; Rome, by a New Yorker.
[233] Valery.
[234] Prescott, History of Ferdinand and Isabella, i. 66.
[235] Prescott, i. 66, _et seq._
[236] Id. i. 227.
[237] Id. iii. 171.
[238] Voltaire says that these prurient questions were debated with a
gusto and a minuteness of detail not found elsewhere. He instances a
variety of these absurd theorems.
[239] It may be imagined, as was the case in Berlin, that this behest
flowed from the irregular manner and conduct of the clergy; but some of
the fathers of the Church entertained and avowed this opinion at a time
when the morals of the clergy were not open to impeachment.
[240] Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, ii. 502 (note). The
learned historian argues the subject at some length.
[241] Byron commemorates the beauty of the women of Cadiz, and, in his
description of the shipwreck, saves the mate from being eaten by his
starved companions on account of
"A small present made to him at Cadiz,
By general subscription of the ladies."
[242] Townsend: Travels in Spain in 1786 and 1787.
[243] Townsend.
[244] Attaché in Madrid: Appleton, 1856, p. 64.
[245] Duc de Chatelet's Travels in Portugal.
[246] Kingston, Sketches in Lusitania, 1845.
[247] De la Prostitution dans la Ville d'Alger depuis la conquête, par E.
A. Duchesne. Paris, Bailliere, 1853.
[248] Ib. p. 64, _et seq._
[249] Duchesne, p. 22, 171.
[250] Duchesne, p. 31.
[251] Id. p. 172.
[252] Id. p. 54, 56.
[253] Duchesne, p. 58.
[254] Id. p. 70, _et seq._
[255] Duchesne, p. 132.
[256] Id. p. 144.
[257] Id. p. 148.
[258] Duchesne, p. 152, _et seq._
[259] Id. p. 176.
[260] Id. p. 192.
[261] Id. p. 198.
[262] W. Trollope's Belgium. Scarcely a more liberal work toward the
Belgians than Mrs. Trollope's toward ourselves.
[263] Jäger's "Schwabischen Städtwesen des Mittelalters."
[264] Hamburg and Altona Journal, 1805, iii. 50.
[265] _Vorschriften die Bordelle und öffentlichen Madchen betreffend_:
Hamburg, 1834.
[266] This calculation is not very explicitly stated. It is intended to
show that syphilis is not dangerously prevalent among the general
population. The police arrive at this conclusion by deducting the cases
treated in the Charité (which they estimate at two thirds) from the total
population, and then divide the remaining cases among the bulk of the
people, to prove that only a very small proportion are exposed to venereal
influence. We transcribe the statement literally, but do not consider it
of much value.
[267] Laing's Denmark in 1851.
[268] Braestrup, Director of Police at Copenhagen, on Prostitution and
public Health.
[269] Report on Switzerland to the British Parliament, 1836, by Dr. (now
Sir John) Bowring. He was sent on a Continental tour of inquiry into the
condition of the working classes, in reference to the English Poor-laws.
[270] Mrs. Strutt's Switzerland, ii. 231.
[271] Karamsin.
[272] Villebois.
[273] Memoires Secrets de la Cour de Russia. Villebois.
[274] Karamsin.
[275] Karamsin, p. 424.
[276] Duchesse d'Abrantes, p. 34.
[277]
"... Miss Pratasoff then there
Named from her mystic office l'Eprouveuse,
A term inexplicable to the muse,
With her then, as in humble duty bound,
Juan retired."--_Byron._
[278] D'Abrantes, p. 294.
[279] Id. p. 297.
[280] Kohl.
[281] Golovin states that the whip is an article in frequent requisition
in the conjugal state.
[282] Von Tietz, p. 73.
[283] Kohl. There is some difficulty in estimating the ruble from the
difference in the currency of Russian silver coin. We believe this sum
would be upward of a million dollars.
[284] Von Tietz says that, as regards morality, the institution does not
work badly, for there are comparatively less illegitimate births at St.
Petersburgh than in most other cities, but he gives no figures to support
this assertion.
[285] Golovin.
[286] Swedish Registrar-General's Reports, 1838, 1839.
[287] Baron Gall's Reiser durch Schweden, Bremen, 1838; Laing's Tour
through Sweden; Baron Von Strombeck Durstellunger, 1840.
[288] Spelman.
[289] Bede, lib. i. cap. 27.
[290] Padre Paolo.
[291] Wallingford.
[292] Leges Saxonicæ.
[293] A popular ballad which narrates the particulars describes the blow
as having dyed Fair Rosamond's lips
"A coral red:
Hard was the heart that gave the blow,
Soft were the lips that bled."
[294] State Trials, i. 228.
[295] Evelyn. 4th February, 1684-5.
[296] For the prose writers of those days who give lively pictures of
manners and morals, the reader is referred to the pages of Fielding,
Smollett, and especially De Foe, who wrote much upon low life.
[297] "Pure, and above all reproach in her own domestic life, the queen
knew how to enforce at her court the virtues, or, at the very least, the
semblance of the virtues which she practiced. To no other woman, probably,
had the cause of good morals in England ever owed so deep an
obligation."--Lord Mahon's History of England, 1713-1782, vol. iv., p.
221, 222.
[298] It was asserted some years ago, and by many believed, that after his
death a large number of prurient French prints, which were in the
Custom-house of London, and designed for the private amusement of the
king, were burned. The story of the prints and their deflagration may be
true, but it is very questionable if they were for royal use. A number of
low class London papers always attacked George IV. personally, among which
the Weekly Dispatch (the "Sunday Flash" of Warren's novel of "Ten Thousand
a Year") took a prominent position from the coarseness of its language and
the acerbity of its animosity, assumed at a time when party feeling ran
high, as an attractive bait to its readers.
[299] Census of Great Britain, 1851.
[300] Dr. Ryan.
[301] The ineffectual provisions of the law have recently engaged the
attention of the inhabitants of London, and a meeting was held in January
of the present year (1858) to consider the evil, and decide what steps
should be taken in the premises. We shall notice in another part of this
work some of the suggestions made on that occasion.
[302] General secondary questions do not come within the scope of this
work, but the labors of these dwelling improvement associations are
intimately connected with the subject we have now under investigation. In
London, model lodging-houses for single men, single women, and married
couples with their children, have been tried and found eminently
successful, both as a moderate interest-paying investment, and as a very
admirable arrangement for promoting the comfort and health of the working
classes. The details given some two years ago, through the daily papers,
on the lodgings of the poor and the very poor of New York, were frightful
enough to excite the active sympathy of the benevolent capitalists of this
great city. The very best philanthropy is that which teaches and enables
the poor man to benefit his own condition. This principle is practically
in operation all over the United States: but in great cities, the freedom
of action, and the directly beneficial results of frugality and industry,
are not so immediate as in country places. The attempt by the poor to
improve their own dwellings in these large cities is almost hopeless,
because it does not depend upon individual exertions, but on combination
both of money and knowledge. The "how, when, and where" have to be found
out and carried through: very small difficulties these, and easily
overcome, if those who have the requisite means to carry out such a
reform, and thus lend their aid to the solution of an important social
problem, have an inclination commensurate with their resources.
[303] See, in particular, as regards London, Statistical Society's
Reports, vol. xiii.; Reports of Metropolitan Association for improving the
Habitations of the Poor; Board of Health Papers. And for the country
districts, Health of Towns Reports; Report on the Employment of Women and
Children in Agriculture, 1843.
[304] Mayhew's Letters to the (London) Morning Chronicle; Mayhew's London
Labor and the London Poor.
[305] Tait's Prostitution in Edinburgh.
[306] These conclusions are not always reliable. Other causes may operate.
If we recollect rightly, Edinburgh is a garrison town. In factory towns,
moreover, we should always expect to find a very large amount of
immorality, which would somewhat displace open and avowed prostitution for
hire.
[307] Mayhew's Letters to the London _Morning Chronicle_.
[308] When Mrs. Sydney Herbert instituted her Distressed Needlewoman's
Society, a great deal was thought to have been accomplished in one
particular branch of female labor--the millinery and dress-making
business--when the leading employers had been induced to promise that the
working-day should be restricted to twelve hours.--_Needlewoman's Society
Report_, 1848.
[309] It would be interesting to know whether this illicit intercourse is
by way of cohabitation or merely temporary. Instances are not rare of
people cohabiting who allege themselves too poor to pay the marriage fees.
In order to obviate this, it is customary for ministers in poor and
populous parishes in England, where the circumstances of individual
parishioners are not known to them, to invite all parties who are living
in concubinage to come and be married free of expense. Many avail
themselves of this offer.
[310] While this work was passing through the press, we met with a recent
publication by Wm. Acton, Esq., M.R.C.S. of London, entitled "Prostitution
considered in its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspects," which gives later
information on this point. The Metropolitan Police estimated the number of
prostitutes in London in 1841, and again in 1857, with the following
results:
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| | 1841. | 1857. |
|---------------------------------------------|-------|-------|
|Well-dressed prostitutes in brothels | 2071 | 921 |
|Well-dressed prostitutes walking the streets | 199 | 2616 |
|Prostitutes infesting low neighborhoods | 5344 | 5063 |
| |-------|-------|
| Total | 9409 | 8600 |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Mr. Acton says, "The return gives, after all, but a faint idea of the
grand total of prostitution. * * * * Were there any possibility of
reckoning all those in London who would come within the definition of
prostitutes, I am inclined to think that the estimates of the boldest who
have preceded me would be thrown into the shade."--P. 16-18.
[311] An estimate of Cork was made in 1847 for the _Medico-Chirurgical
Review_, which gave two hundred and fifty prostitutes living in eighty
brothels, besides one hundred clandestine prostitutes. Their ages were
stated as between sixteen and twenty years.
[312] This may be deemed a foregone conclusion, but it was based upon
previous inquiries in individual cases.
[313] We do not understand this figure. The sum of the sewing trades of
London is nearly twenty times this number. Perhaps Mr. Mayhew refers only
to slop-work, including the very commonest garments, both woolen and
cotton, or even to that portion of the trade that have their principal
abode in the particular localities visited.
[314] The reader will notice that neither Dr. Ryan, Mr. Tait, nor the
views as to the duration of life expressed in the portion of this work
devoted to New York, agree with those German authors who have asserted the
healthfulness of prostitution. See Chapter XVI., Hamburg.
[315] At the meeting in London to which allusion has been made, Mr. Acton
(late Surgeon to the Islington Dispensary and Fellow of the Royal Medical
Society) said that, "in his opinion, the subject under discussion was one
worth legislating for. As a surgeon, he had investigated the subject not
only in London, but in Paris and other Continental capitals, and he could
speak with some authority as to the statistics of prostitution, and the
manner in which the women became, as it were, absorbed in the population
by whom they were surrounded. _From calculations based upon the census
tables, it had come out that of all the unmarried women of full age in the
country one in every 13 or 14 were immoral._ This might appear a startling
announcement, but the calculation had been made upon returns, the truth of
which had not been questioned. It was a popular error to suppose that
these women died young, and made their exits from life in hospitals and
work-houses. The fact was not so. Women of that class were all picked
lives, and dissipation did not usually kill them. They led a life of
prostitution for two, three, or four years, and then either married or got
into some service or employment, and gradually became amalgamated with
society. It was estimated that in this manner about 25 per cent. of the
whole number amalgamated each year with the population."
From these remarks we may deduce the same continuance of a life of
prostitution as given in the text, namely, an average of four years; but
they advance another theory as to its termination, substituting
reformation for death. We should be slow to give an unqualified
endorsement to this opinion. That cases of reformation do take place, and
probably to a greater extent than is generally imagined, can not be
denied; but that one fourth of the total number of prostitutes abandon
their sinful life every year, and become virtuous members of society, is a
conclusion that American experience will not support. In England and on
the European continent there may be a class of men in the lower ranks of
life who do not regard virtue as a _sine qua non_ in the choice of a wife;
indeed, the notorious facility with which the cast-off mistresses of
noblemen or gentlemen can be married to a dependent sufficiently proves
this; but in this country public opinion sets strongly in the opposite
direction. Here, if a woman once errs, or is even suspected of error, she
is rigorously excluded from virtuous society, and, although her subsequent
life may be irreproachable, the lapse is seldom forgiven. The old Roman
law, "Once a prostitute, always a prostitute," is too sternly enforced on
this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Acton's speech is the first intimation we
have met of so very liberal a benevolence in England.
[316] We have calculated that there are upward of six hundred thousand
women in London between fifteen and forty-five years old. The proportion
of married women among these would be 370,000 and upward; unmarried women
over twenty years, and widows, about 314,000.
[317] A very singular fact in connection with the census is that there is
not a single individual returned as a prostitute. This is not that the
authorities do not take cognizance of crime, for there are 22,451 female
prisoners in Great Britain, all of whom, however, except 1274, are
returned as having some legal occupation. There are 7600 female vagrants,
sleeping in barns, tents, etc., of whom 2600 are under twenty years of
age.
[318] Thomas Fowell Ruxton, on Prison Discipline.
[319] Lord Jeffrey, Edinburgh Review.
[320] _Rosa Anglica_, Pavia, 1492.
[321] A brief treatise touching the cure of the disease now usually called
Lues Venerea. By W. Clovves, one of her Majesty's Chirurgeons. 1569: p.
149.
[322] Madame Calderon de la Barca.
[323] Clavijero.
[324] Waddy Thompson, Mexico in 1846, p. 115.
[325] Madame Calderon de la Barca, p. 259.
[326] Norman, Yucatan.
[327] Stevens, Travels in Central America.
[328] Among the Napuals, a remnant of the ancient Aztec inhabitants,
marriage seems to have been under the direction of the chiefs, and
consisted in first submitting the parties to lustrations, such as washing
them in a river, and afterward tying them together in the bride's house,
whither the relations brought presents to the new couple.
It was customary for only the kindred to lament the death of ordinary
persons, but the decease of a cazique or war-chief was signalized by a
general mourning for four days. Rape was punished with death, adultery by
making the offender the slave of the injured husband, "unless pardoned by
the high-priest on account of past services in war." There were certain
degrees of relationship within which it was unlawful to marry, and sexual
intercourse in such limits was punished with death. Upon matters of this
kind there existed the greatest rigor, for, says Herrera, "he who courted
or made signs to a married woman was banished." Fornication was punished
by whipping.--_Squier's Notes on Central America_, p. 346.
[329] Squier, p. 50.
[330] Peru; Reiseskizzen in den Jahren 1838-1842. (Peru, Sketches of
Travel.) By J. J. Von Tschudi. 2 vols. St. Gallen, 1846.
[331] Horace St. John.
[332] Stewart's Brazil and La Plata: New York, 1856.
[333] Ewbank's Brazil, p. 135.
[334] Ib. p. 141.
[335] Lewis and Clarke's Expedition across the Rocky Mountains, vol. ii.
p. 144.
[336] Thatcher's Indian Traits, vol. i. p. 51.
[337] Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, i. 358.
[338] Ib. i. 166.
[339] Id. ib.
[340] Indian Traits, i. 104.
[341] Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, p. 148.
[342] Beckwourth, p. 201.
[343] Id. p. 401.
[344] Indian Traits, i. p. 114.
[345] Beckwourth, p. 169.
[346] Beckwourth, p. 212.
[347] Murray's British North America, vol. i. p. 115.
[348] Murray's British North America, vol. i. p. 94.
[349] Indian Traits, i. p. 136.
[350] Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, i. p. 135.
[351] Ib. i. p. 151.
[352] Beckwourth, p. 179.
[353] Murray's British America, i. p. 94.
[354] Indian Traits, i. p. 128.
[355] Murray's British America, i. 94.
[356] Beckwourth, p. 157.
[357] Beckwourth, p. 238.
[358] Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, i. 166.
[359] Id. ib.
[360] Murray's British America, i. 125.
[361] The principal facts in this and the following chapter are taken from
Mr. Horace St. John's article on Prostitution, in Mayhew's "London Labor
and the London Poor."
[362] Russell's History of Polynesia, p. 75.
[363] Their institution is ascribed to Oro, the god of war. The
resemblance between Areoi and [Greek: Aeês], the Greek god of war, is a
coincidence.
[364] South Sea Missions, p. 88.
[365] U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 22.
[366] Missionary Voyage of Ship Duff, 1796, p. 336.
[367] U. S. Exploring Expedition, vol. ii. p. 80.
[368] Ib. 148.
[369] Wilkes, vol. iv. p. 77.
[370] Since the preceding paragraphs were written, the operations of the
Allied Powers against China, and the capture of Canton, have given some
farther insight into the domestic economy of this people. The special
correspondent of the London _Times_, writing from Hong Kong, February 22,
1858, thus describes Chinese holidays:
"During the _entrée acte_ all China has been exploding crackers, and Hong
Kong has been celebrating its 'Isthmian games.' Toward the close of the
three days of festivity the Chinese holiday became almost exciting. If
they had kept up half as sharp a fire at Canton on the 29th of December as
they did on the 14th of February, we should never have got over the walls
with a less loss than 500 men. The streets both of Canton and Hong Kong
were piled with myriads of exploded cracker carcasses. In Hong Kong, where
I passed the last day of these festivities, grave men and sedate children
were from morning till midnight hanging strings of these noisy things from
their balconies, and perpetually renewing them as they exploded. The
sing-song women, in their rich, handsome dresses, were screeching their
shrill songs, and twanging their two-stringed lutes on every veranda in
the Chinese quarter, while the lords of creation, assembled at a round
table, were cramming the day-long repast. The women--hired singing women
of not doubtful reputation--in the intervals of their music, take their
seats at the table opposite the men. They do not eat, but their business
being to promote the conviviality of the feast, they challenge the men to
the samshu cup, and drink with them. It is astonishing to see what a
quantity of diluted samshu these painted and brocaded she-Celestials can
drink without any apparent effect. Ever and anon one of the company
retires to a couch and takes an opium pipe, and then returns and
recommences his meal. I was invited to one of these feasts; the dishes
were excellent, but it lasted till I loathed the sight of food. I believe
the Chinese spend fabulous sums in these entertainments; the sing-song
women are often brought from distances, and are certainly chosen with some
discrimination. They are an imitation of the Chinese lady, and, as the
Chinese lady has no education and no duties, the difference between the
poor sing-song girl and the poor abject wife is probably not observable in
appearance or manner. The dress is particularly modest and becoming. They
all have great quantities of black hair. If they would let it fall
disheveled down their backs as the Manilla women do, they would be more
picturesque, but not formal and decent, as China is, even in its
wantonness. The Chinawoman's hair is gummed and built up into a structure
rather resembling a huge flat-iron, and the edifice is adorned with combs,
and jewels, and flowers, arranged with a certain taste. An embroidered
blue silk tunic reaches from her chin nearly to her ankles. Below the
tunic appear the gay trowsers, wrought with gold or silver thread; the
instep glancing through the thin, white silk stockings, and a very small
foot (when left to nature the Chinese have beautiful feet and hands) in a
rich slipper, with a tremendous white sole in form of an inverted pyramid.
In these sing-song girls you see the originals of the Chinese
pictures--the painted faces, the high-arched, penciled eyebrows, the
small, round mouth, the rather full and slightly sensual lip, naturally or
artificially of a deep vermilion, the long, slit-shaped, half closed eyes,
suggestive of indolence and slyness. What the voluble and jocose
conversation addressed to them by the men may mean I can not tell, but
their manners are quite decent, their replies are short and reserved, and
every gesture, or song, or cup of samshu seems to be regulated by a known
ceremonial."
[371] Golownin, vol. iii. p. 52.
[372] Perry's Expedition, p. 462.
[373] Arctic Explorations, vol. i. p. 373.
[374] Ibid. ii. 250.
[375] Ibid. ii. 115.
[376] Arctic Explorations, ii. 123.
[377] Ibid. ii. 125.
[378] Ibid. ii 109.
[379] Ibid. ii. 121.
[380] U. S. Census, 1850.
[381] Compendium of U. S. Census, 1850, p. 148.
[382] Compendium of United States Census, 1850, p. 142, etc.; Census of
the State of New York, 1855, p. 16; Report of the Board of Education of
New York City, 1857, p. 13, 18, 22, etc.
[383] New York City Inspector's Reports, 1854, 1855, 1856.
[384] New York State Census, 1855, p. 38.
[385] New York City Inspector's Reports, 1854, 1855, 1856.
[386] Report on Infant Mortality in large Cities, by D. Meredith Reese,
M.D., LL.D., p. 8.
[387] Ib. p. 13.
[388] Report on Infant Mortality in large Cities, by D. Meredith Reese,
M.D., LL.D., p. 9.
[389] Since these pages were prepared for the press, a work has been
reprinted in New York, called "A Woman's Thoughts upon Women, by the
Author of 'John Halifax, Gentleman,'" which contains many passages
pertinent to this inquiry. The high reputation of its author (Miss
Mulock), not only for literary ability, but for practical benevolence and
womanly charity, will be sufficient apology for submitting some of her
remarks to the reader in the shape of notes. It is satisfactory to know
that many sentiments advanced herein are such as Miss Mulock has advocated
on the other side of the Atlantic. On the subject of seduction, she
remarks:
"I think it can not be doubted that even the loss of personal chastity
does not indicate total corruption, or entail permanent degradation; that
after it, and in spite of it, many estimable and womanly qualities may be
found existing, not only in our picturesque _Nell Gwynnes_ and _Peg
Woffingtons_, but our poor every-day sinners: the servant obliged to be
dismissed without a character and with a baby; the seamstress quitting
starvation for elegant infamy; the illiterate village lass, who thinks it
so grand to be made a lady of--so much better to be a rich man's mistress
than a working man's ill-used wife, or, rather, slave.
"Till we allow that no one sin, not even this sin, necessarily corrupts
the entire character, we shall scarcely be able to judge it with that
fairness which gives hopes of our remedying it, or trying to lessen, in
ever so minute a degree, by our individual dealing with any individual
case that comes in our way, the enormous aggregate of misery that it
entails. This it behooves us to do, even on selfish grounds, for it
touches us closer than many of us are aware--ay, in our own hearths and
homes; in the sons and brothers that we have to send out to struggle in a
world of which we at the fireside know absolutely nothing: if we marry, in
the fathers we give to our innocent children, the servants we trust their
infancy to, and the influences to which we are obliged to expose them
daily and hourly, unless we were to bring them up in a sort of domestic
Happy Valley, which their first effort would be to get out of as fast as
ever they could. And supposing we are saved from all this; that our
position is one peculiarly exempt from evil; that if pollution in any form
comes nigh us, we sweep it hastily and noiselessly away from our doors,
and think we are right and safe--alas! we forget that a refuse-heap
outside her gate may breed a plague even in a queen's palace."--_A Woman's
Thoughts upon Women_ (New York ed.), p. 261.
[390] Miss Mulock remarks on female occupations: "Equality of sexes is not
in the nature of things. One only 'right' we have to assert in common with
mankind, and that is as much in our hands as theirs--the right of having
something to do."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New York ed.), p. 13.
"The Father of all has never put one man or one woman into this world
without giving each something to do there."--Ibid., p. 19.
"This fact remains patent to any person of common sense and experience,
that in the present day one half of our women are obliged to take care of
themselves, obliged to look solely to themselves for maintenance,
position, occupation, amusement, reputation, life."--Ibid., p. 29.
"Is society to draw up a code of regulations as to what is proper for us
to do, and what not?"--Ibid., p. 31.
"The world is slowly discovering that women are capable for far more
crafts than was supposed, if only they are properly educated for them;
that they are good accountants, shop-keepers, drapers' assistants,
telegraph clerks, watch-makers; and doubtless would be better if the
ordinary training which almost every young man has a chance of getting
were thought equally indispensable to young women."--Ibid., p. 76.
[391] Histoire Morale des Femmes. Par M. Ernest Legouvé. Paris, 1849.
[392] Westminster Review (London), July, 1850. American edition, vol. xxx.
No. 2.
[393] De la Prostitution dans la Ville de Paris, vol. i. p. 96.
[394] "The root of all improvement must be the mistress's own conviction,
religious and sincere, of the truth that she and her servants share one
common womanhood, with aims, hopes, and interests distinctly defined, and
pursued with equal eagerness; with a life here meant as a school for the
next life; with an immortal soul."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New
York ed.), p. 130.
[395] "Neither labor nor material can possibly be got 'cheaply,' that is,
below its average acknowledged cost, without _somebody being cheated_:
consequently, these devotees to cheapness are, very frequently, little
better than genteel swindlers."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New York
ed.), p. 72.
[396] Mary Barton, by Mrs. Gaskell, vol. i., p. 258 (London edition.)
[397] Report of the Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, to the
Governors of the Alms House, 1854, p. 26.
[398] On a former page the results of a police investigation of the number
of prostitutes in London in the year 1857 is given. It will be remembered
that only 8600 common women were reported, in a population of nearly
2,500,000. The inquiries in New York and London would alike lead to the
opinion that the extent of the vice is generally overrated.
[399] Report of Resident Physician, Blackwell's Island, to the Governors
of the Alms-house, New York, for 1856, p. 40.
[400] Ibid., 1857, p. 26.
[401] The list of questions inclosed was a printed copy of the
interrogatories used in New York, and already given in these pages.
[402] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 49.
[403] Ibid. p. 87.
[404] Ibid. p. 101.
[405] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 49.
[406] Ibid. p. 57.
[407] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 94.
[408] Ibid. p. 69.
[409] Ibid. p. 91.
[410] Ibid. p 104.
[411] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 141, 142.
[412] Ibid. p. 145.
[413] Ibid. p. 150.
[414] Ibid. p. 152.
[415] Ibid. p. 152, 153.
[416] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 128.
[417] Ibid. p. 130.
[418] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 164.
[419] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 180-184.
[420] Ibid. p. 163.
[421] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 162 (note).
[422] Ibid. p. 166.
[423] Ibid. p. 182.
[424] Compendium of Seventh Census, p. 61.
[425] Ibid. p. 79.
[426] "That for a single offense, however grave, a whole life should be
blasted, is a doctrine repugnant even to Nature's own dealings in the
visible world. There her voice clearly says, 'Let all these wonderful
powers of vital renewal have free play; let the foul flesh slough itself
away; lop off the gangrened limb; enter into life, maimed if it must be,'
but never until the last moment of total dissolution does she say, 'Thou
shalt not enter into life at all.'
"Therefore, once let a woman feel that 'while there is life there is
hope,' dependent on the only one condition that she shall _sin no more_,
and what a future you open to her! what a weight you lift off from her
poor miserable spirit, which might otherwise be crushed down to the lowest
deep, to that which is far worse than any bodily pollution, ineradicable
corruption of soul."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New York ed.), p.
269.
"It may often be noticed the less virtuous people are, the more they
shrink away from the slightest whiff of the odor of unsanctity. The good
are ever the most charitable, the pure are the most brave. I believe there
are hundreds and thousands of Englishwomen who would willingly throw the
shelter of their stainless repute around any poor creature who came to
them and said honestly, 'I have sinned, help me that I may sin no more.'
But the unfortunates will not believe this. They are like the poor
Indians, who think it necessary to pacify the evil principle by a greater
worship than that which they offer to the Good Spirit, because, they say,
the Bad Spirit is the stronger."--Ibid. p. 272.
[427] Captain Ingraham.
[428] "Surely the consciousness of lost innocence must be the most awful
punishment to any woman, and from it no kindness, no sympathy, no
concealment of shame, or even restoration to good repute, can entirely
free her. She must bear her burden, lighter or heavier as it may seem at
different times, and she must bear it to the day of her death. I think
this fact alone is enough to make a chaste woman's first feeling toward an
unchaste that of unqualified, unmitigated pity.
"Allowing the pity, what is the next thing to be done? Surely there must
be some light beyond that of mere compassion to guide her in her
after-conduct toward them. Where shall we find this light? In the world
and its ordinary code of social morality, suited to social conscience? I
fear not. The general opinion, even among good men, seems to be that this
great question is a very sad thing, but a sort of unconquerable necessity;
there is no use in talking about it, and, indeed, the less it is talked of
the better. Good women are much of the same mind. The laxer-principled of
both sexes treat the matter with philosophical indifference, or with the
kind of laugh that makes the blood boil in any truly virtuous heart.
"I believe there is no other light on this difficult question than that
given by the New Testament. There, clear and plain, and every where
repeated, shines the doctrine that for every crime, being repented of and
forsaken, there is forgiveness with Heaven, and if with Heaven there ought
to be with men.
"When you shut the door of hope on any human soul you may at once give up
all chance of its reformation. As well bid a man eat without food, see
without light, or breathe without air, as bid him mend his ways, while at
the same time you tell him that, however he amends, he will be in just the
same position, the same hopelessly degraded, unpardoned, miserable
sinner."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New York ed.), p. 266.
[429] "We have no right, mercifully constituted with less temptation to
evil than men, to shrink with sanctimonious ultra-delicacy from the barest
mention of things we must know to exist. If we do not know it, our
ignorance is at once both helpless and dangerous; narrows our judgment,
exposes us to a thousand painful mistakes, and greatly limits our powers
of usefulness."--_A Woman's Thoughts upon Women_ (New York edition), p.
255.
"No single woman who takes any thought of what is going on around her, no
mistress or mother who requires constantly servants for her house and
nursemaids for her children, can or dare blind herself to the fact. Better
face truth at once in all its bareness than be swaddled up forever in the
folds of a silken falsehood."--Ib., p. 259.
"Many of us will not investigate this subject because they are afraid:
afraid not so much of being, as being thought to be, especially by the
other sex, incorrect, indelicate, unfeminine; of being supposed to know
more than they ought to know, or than the present refinement of society--a
good and beautiful thing when real--concludes that they do know.
"Oh! women, women! why have you not more faith in yourselves, in that
strong, inner purity, which alone can make a woman brave! which, if she
knows herself to be clean in heart and desire, in body and soul, loving
cleanness for its own sake, and not for the credit that it brings, will
give her a freedom of action, and a fearlessness of consequences, which
are to her a greater safeguard than any external decorum. To be, and not
to seem, is the amulet of her innocence."--Ib., p. 261.
[430] "Reformatories, Magdalene Institutions, and the like, are admirable
in their way, but there are numberless cases in which individual judgment
and help alone are possible. It is this, the train of thought which shall
result in act, and which I desire to suggest to individual minds, in the
hope of arousing that imperceptibly small influence of the many, which
forms the strongest lever of universal opinion.
"All I can do--all, I fear, that any one can do by mere speech, is to
impress upon every woman, and chiefly upon those who, reared innocently in
safe homes, view the wicked world without somewhat like gazers at a show
or spectators at a battle, shocked, wondering, perhaps pitying a little,
but not understanding at all, that repentance is possible. Also, that once
having returned to a chaste life, a woman's former life should never be
'cast up' against her; that she should be allowed to resume, if not her
pristine position, at least one that is full of usefulness, pleasantness,
and respect, a respect the amount of which must be determined by her own
daily conduct. She should be judged solely by what she is now, and not by
what she has been. That judgment may be, ought to be stern and fixed as
justice itself with regard to her present, and even her past so far as
concerns the crime committed; but it ought never to take the law into its
own hands toward the criminal, who may long since have become less a
criminal than a sufferer. Virtue degrades herself, and loses every vestige
of her power, when her dealings with vice sink into a mere matter of
individual opinion, personal dislike, or selfish fear of harm. For all
offenses, punishment, retributive and inevitable, must come; but
punishment is one thing, revenge is another. One only, who is Omniscient
as well as Omnipotent, can declare, 'Vengeance is Mine.'"--_A Woman's
Thoughts upon Women_ (New York ed.), p. 275.
Transcriber's Notes:
Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.
The original text includes Greek characters that have been replaced with
transliterations in this text version.
End of Project Gutenberg's The History of Prostitution, by William W. Sanger