persuasion, fully believing all she told me. She talked about my
father, said she hadn’t the pleasure of knowing him personally, but
she’d often heard of him, and hoped he was quite well, more especially
as it left her at that time. Presently she asked if I wasn’t tired, and
said she’d show me a room up-stairs where I should sleep comfortable no
end. When I was undressed and in bed, she brought me a glass of gin and
water hot, which she called a night-cap, and said would do me good. I
drank this at her solicitation, and soon fell into a sound slumber. The
‘night-cap’ was evidently drugged, and during my state of insensibility
my ruin was accomplished. The next day I was wretchedly ill and weak,
but I need not tell you what followed. My prayers and entreaties were
of no good, and I in a few days became this woman’s slave, and have
remained so ever since; though, as she has more than one house, I am
occasionally shifted from one to the other. The reason of this is very
simple. Suppose the bawd has a house in St. James’s and one in Portland
Place. When I am known to the habitués of St. James’s, I am sent as
something new to Portland Place, and so on.”
If I were to expatiate for pages on bawds, I don’t think I could give
a better idea than this affords. Their characteristics are selfishness
and avariciousness, combined with want of principle and the most
unblushing effrontery.
* * * * *
_Followers of Dress-Lodgers._--I have spoken before of dress-lodgers,
and I now come to those women who are employed by the keepers of the
brothels in which the dress-lodgers live, to follow them when they are
sent into the streets to pick up men. They are not numerous. They are
only seen in the Strand and about the National Gallery. This species
of vice is much magnified by people who have vivid imaginations. It
might have assumed larger dimensions, but at the present time it has
very much decreased. They follow the dress-lodgers for various reasons,
which I have mentioned already. For the sake of perspicuity and
putting things in their proper sequence, I may be excused for briefly
recapitulating them. If they were not closely watched, they might,
imprimis, make their escape with all the finery they have about them,
which of course they would speedily dispose of for its market value
to the highest-bidding Jew, and then take lodgings and set up on their
own account. These unfortunate dress-lodgers are profoundly ignorant of
the English law. If they were better acquainted with its provisions,
they would know very well that the bawds would have no legal claim
against them for money, board, or clothes, for if the bawds could
prove any consideration, it would be an immoral one, and consequently
bad in law. But the poor creatures think they are completely in the
wretch’s power, and dare not move hand or foot, or call their _hair_
their own. Instances have been known of bawds cutting off the hair of
their lodgers when it became long, and selling it if it was fine and
beautiful for thirty shillings and two pounds.
There is a dress-lodger who perambulates the Strand every night, from
nine, or before that even, till twelve or one, who is followed by the
inseparable old hag who keeps guard over her to prevent her going into
public-houses and wasting her time and money, which is the second
reason for her being watched, and to see that she does not give her
custom to some other bawdy-house, which is the third reason.
This follower is a woman of fifty, with grey hair, and all the
peculiarities of old women, among which is included a fondness for gin,
which weakness was mainly instrumental in enabling me to obtain from
her what I know about herself and her class. She wore no crinoline, and
a dirty cotton dress. Her bonnet was made of straw, with a bit of faded
ribbon over it by way of trimming, fully as shabby and discreditable as
the straw itself.
She told me by fits and starts, and by dint of cross questioning, the
subjoined particulars.
“They call me ‘Old Stock;’ why I shan’t tell you, though I might easy,
and make you laugh too, without telling no lies; but it ain’t no matter
of your’n, so we’ll let it be. They do say I’m a bit cracky, but that’s
all my eye. I’m a drunken old b---- if you like, but nothing worser
than that. I was once the swellest woman about town, but I’m come down
awful. And yet it ain’t awful. I sometimes tries to think it is, but I
can’t make it so. If I did think it awful I shouldn’t be here now; I
couldn’t stand it. But the fact is life’s sweet, and I don’t care how
you live. It’s as sweet to the w----, as it is to the hempress, and
mebbe it’s as sweet to me as it is to you. Yes, I was well known about
some years ago, and I ain’t got bad features now, if it wasn’t for the
wrinkles and the skin, which is more parchmenty than anything else, but
that’s all along of the drink. I get nothing in money for following
this girl about, barring a shilling or so when I ask for it to get
some liquor. They give me my grub and a bed, in return for which in
the day-time I looks after the house, when I ain’t drunk, and sweeps,
and does the place up, and all that. Time was when I had a house of my
own, and lots of servants, and heaps of men sighing and dying for me,
but now my good looks are gone, and I am what you see me. Many of the
finest women, if they have strong constitutions, and can survive the
continual racket, and the wear and tear of knocking about town, go on
like fools without making any provision for themselves, and without
marrying, until they come to the bad. They are either servants, or what
I am, or if they get a little money given them by men, they set up as
bawdy-house-keepers. I wish to God I had, but I don’t feel what I am.
I’m past that ever so long, and if you give me half a crown, or five
bob, presently, you’ll make me jolly for a week. Talking of giving a
woman five bob reminds me of having fivers (5_l._ notes) given me.
I can remember the time when I would take nothing but paper; always
tissue, nothing under a flimsy. Ah! gay women see strange changes;
wonderful ups and downs, I can tell you. We, that is me and Lizzie, the
girl I’m watching, came out to night at nine. It’s twelve now, ain’t
it? Well; what do ye think we’ve done? We have taken three men home,
and Lizzie, who is a clever little devil, got two pound five out of
them for herself, which ain’t bad at all. I shall get something when we
get back. We ain’t always so lucky. Some nights we go about and don’t
hook a soul. Lizzie paints a bit too much for decent young fellows
who’ve got lots of money. They aren’t our little game. We go in more
for tradesmen, shop-boys, commercial travellers, and that sort, and men
who are a little screwy, and although we musn’t mention it, we hooks a
white choker now and then, coming from Exeter Hall. Medical students
are sometimes sweet on Lizzie, but we ain’t in much favour with the
Bar. Oh! I know what a man is directly he opens his mouth. Dress too
has a great deal to do with what a man is--tells you his position
in life as it were. ‘Meds’ ain’t good for much; they’re larky young
blokes, but they’ve never much money, and they’re fond of dollymopping.
But talk of dollymopping--lawyers are the fellows for that. Those
chambers in the Inns of Court are the ruin of many a girl. And they
are so convenient for bilking, you’ve no idea. There isn’t a good woman
in London who’d go with a man to the Temple, not one. You go to Kate’s,
and take a woman out, put her in a cab, and say you were going to take
her to either of the Temples, which are respectable and decent places
when compared to the other inns which are not properly Inns of Court,
except Gray’s Inn and Lincoln’s Inn, and she’d cry off directly. I mean
Barnard’s Inn, and Thavies’ Inn, and New Inn, and Clement’s Inn, and
all those. I’ve been at this sort of work for six or seven years, and I
suppose I’ll die at it. I don’t care if I do. It suits me. I’m good for
nothing else.”
I gave her some money in return for her story, and wished her good
night. What she says about women who have once been what is called
“swell,” coming down to the sort of thing I have been describing,
is perfectly true. They have most of them been well-known and much
admired in their time; but every dog has its day. They have had theirs,
and neglected to make hay while the sun was shining. Almost all the
servants of bawds and prostitutes have fallen as it were from their
high estate into the slough of degradation and comparative despair.
As I have before stated, there are very few dress-lodgers now who
solicit in the streets, and naturally few followers of dress-lodgers
whose condition does not afford anything very striking or peculiar,
except as evidencing the vicissitudes of a prostitute’s career, and the
end that very many of them arrive at.
* * * * *
_Keepers of Accommodation Houses._--Those who gain their living by
keeping accommodation houses, or what the French call _maisons de
passé_, are of course to be placed in the category of the people who
are dependant on prostitutes, without whose patronage they would lose
their only means of support.
When you speak of bawds you in a great measure describe this class
also, for their avocations are the same, and the system they exist
upon very similar. The bawds keep women in their houses, and the
others let out their rooms to chance comers, and any one who chooses
to take them. The keepers are generally worn-out prostitutes, who have
survived their good looks and settled down, as a means of gaining a
livelihood; in Oxenden Street and similar places an enormous amount of
money is made by these people. The usual charge for rooms of course
varies according to the height and the size of the room engaged. A
first-floor room is worth seven or ten shillings, then the rooms on the
second-floor are five shillings, and three shillings, and so on. The
average gains of keepers of accommodation houses in Oxenden Street and
James Street, Haymarket, are from two pounds to ten pounds a night;
the amount depending a good deal on the popularity of the house, its
connection with women, its notoriety amongst men, and its situation.
More money is made by bawdy-house keepers, but then the expenses are
greater. A story is told of a celebrated woman who kept a house of
ill-fame in the neighbourhood of May Fair. The several inmates of her
establishment were dilatory on one occasion, and she gave vent to her
anger and disappointment by exclaiming, “Twelve o’clock striking. The
house full of noblemen, and not a ---- girl painted yet.” I introduce
this anecdote merely to exemplify what I have been advancing, namely,
that the best brothels in London, such as Mrs. C--’s in Curzon Street,
and others that I could mention, are frequented by men who have plenty
of money at their command, and spend it freely.
A Mrs. J--, who kept a house in James Street, Haymarket, where
temporary accommodation could be obtained by girls and their paramours,
made a very large sum of money by her house, and some time ago bought a
house somewhere near Camberwell with her five-shilling pieces which she
had the questionable taste to call “Dollar House.” A woman who kept a
house in one of the small streets near the Marylebone Road told me she
could afford to let her rooms to her customers for eighteen pence for a
short time, and three and sixpence for all night, and she declared she
made money by it, as she had a good many of the low New Road women, and
some of those who infest the Edgware Road, as well as several servants
and dress-makers, who came with their associates. She added, she was
saving up money to buy the house from her landlord, who at present
charged her an exorbitant rent, as he well knew she could not now
resist his extortionate demands. If he refused to sell it, she should
go lower down in the same street, for she was determined before long to
be independant.
When we come to touch upon clandestine prostitution we shall have
occasion to condemn these houses in no measured terms, for they
offer very great facilities for the illicit intercourse of the not
yet completely depraved portion of the sexes, such as sempstresses,
milliners, servant girls, etc., etc., who only prostitute themselves
occasionally to men they are well acquainted with, for whom they may
have some sort of a partiality--women who do not lower themselves in
the social scale for money, but for their own gratification. They
become, however, too frequently insensibly depraved, and go on from
bad to worse, till nothing but the _pavé_ is before them. The ruin of
many girls is commenced by reading the low trashy wishy-washy cheap
publications that the news-shops are now gorged with, and by devouring
the hastily-written, immoral, stereotyped tales about the sensualities
of the upper classes, the lust of the aristocracy, and the affection
that men about town--noble lords, illustrious dukes, and even princes
of the blood--are in the habit of imbibing for maidens of low degree
“whose face is their fortune,” shop girls--dressmakers--very often
dressmakers and the rest of the tribe who may perhaps feel flattered by
reading about absurd impossibilities that their untutored and romantic
imaginations suggest may, during the course of a life of adventure,
happen to themselves. Well, they wait day after day, and year after
year for the duke or the prince of the blood, perfectly ready to
surrender their virtue when it is asked for, until they open their
eyes, regard the duke and the prince of the blood as apocryphal or
engaged to somebody else more fortunate than themselves, and begin to
look a little lower, and favourably receive the immodest addresses of a
counter-jumper, or a city clerk, or failing those a ruffianly pot-boy
may realize their dreams of the ideal; at all events, they are already
demoralized by the trash that has corrupted their minds, and perfectly
willing at the first solicitation to put money into the pockets of the
keepers of accommodation houses.
* * * * *
_Procuresses, Pimps, and Panders._--Procuresses are women who in most
cases possess houses of their own, where they procure girls for men
who employ them. These establishments are called “Introducing Houses,”
and are extremely lucrative to the proprietors. There are also men
who go about for these people, finding out girls, and bringing them
to the houses, where they may meet with men. The procuresses who keep
introducing houses often take in women to lodge and board. But they
are quite independant, and must be well-known about town, and kept by
some one, or the procuress, if she is, comparatively speaking, in any
position, will not receive them.
To show how the matter is accomplished let us suppose an introducing
house of notoriety and good report in its way, somewhere in the
neighbourhood of St. George’s Road, Pimlico, a district which, I may
observe, is prolific in loose women. A well-known professional man, a
wealthy merchant, an M.P., or a rich landed proprietor, calls upon the
lady of the house, orders some champagne, and enters into conversation
about indifferent matters, until he is able delicately to broach the
object he has in view. He explains that he wishes to meet with a quiet
lady whose secrecy he can rely upon, and whom he can trust in every
possible way. He would like her, we will imagine, to be vivacious,
witty, and gay.
The lady of the house listens complacently, and replies that she
knows some one who exactly answers the description the amorous M.P.
has given, and says that she will send a message to her at once if he
wishes, but he must take his chance of her being at home; if she is
out, an appointment will be made for the next day. In the mean time a
messenger is despatched to the lady in question, who in all probability
does not reside at any great distance; perhaps in Stanley Street, or
Winchester Street, which streets everybody knows are contiguous to
St. George’s Road, and inhabited by beauty that ridicules decorum
and laughs at the virtuous restrictions that are highly conducive to
a state of single blessedness and a condition of old-maidism. Some
more champagne is ordered and consumed, every bottle of which costs
the consumer fifteen shillings, making a profit to the vendor of at
least seventy per cent. When the lady arrives, the introduction takes
place, and the matter is finally arranged as far as the introducer is
concerned. The woman so introduced generally gives half the money she
obtains from the man to the keeper of the house for the introduction.
Sometimes these women will write to men who occupy a high position in
society, who are well-known at the clubs, and are reputed to be well
off, saying that they have a new importation in their houses from
the country that may be disposed of for a pecuniary consideration of
perhaps fifty or a hundred pounds. This amount of course is readily
paid by men who are in search of artificial excitement, and the
negotiation is concluded without any difficulty. A woman is usually
seduced five or six times. By that I mean she is represented as a
maid, and imposed upon men as a virgin, which fabrication, as it
is difficult to disprove, is believed, more especially if the girl
herself be well instructed, and knows how to carry out the fraud. The
Burlington Arcade is a well-known resort of women on the long winter
afternoons, when all the men in London walk there before dinner.
It is curious to notice how the places of meeting and appointment have
sprung up and increased within the last few years. Not many years
ago Kate Hamilton, if I am not misinformed, was knocking about town.
Lizzie Davis’s has only been open a year or two. Barns’s very recently
established, and the Oxford and Cambridge last season. The Café Riche
three years ago used to be called Bignell’s Café. Sams’s I believe is
the oldest of the night-houses about the Haymarket. The Café Royal,
or Kate’s, is the largest and the most frequented, but is not now so
select as it used formerly to be. Mott’s, or the Portland Rooms, used
to be the most fashionable dancing place in London, and is now in very
good repute. Formerly only men in evening dress were admitted; now this
distinction is abolished, and every one indiscriminately admitted.
This is beginning to have its effect, and in all likelihood Mott’s
will in a short time lose its prestige. It is always so with places of
this description. Some peculiarity about the house, or some clever and
notorious woman, presiding over its destinies, makes it famous; when
these vanish or subside, then the place goes down gradually, and some
other rival establishment takes its place.
Loose women, as I have before asserted, very often marry, and
sometimes, as often as not, marry well. The other day one of the most
well-known women about town, Mrs. S--, was married to a German count;
a few weeks ago Agnes W-- married a member of an old Norfolk family,
who settled three thousand a year upon her. This case will most likely
come before the public, as the family, questioning his sanity, mean
to take out a writ of _de lunatico inquirendo_, when the facts will
be elicited by counsel in a court of law. Indeed, so little was the
gentleman himself satisfied with the match that a week after marriage
he advertised his wife in the newspapers, saying he would not be
held responsible for her further debts. These out of many others. A
frequenter of the night-houses will notice many changes in the course
of the year, although some well-known face will turn up now and then.
The habitué may miss the accustomed laugh and unabashed impudence
of the “nun,” who always appeared so fascinating and piquante in
her little “Jane Clarke” bonnet, and demure black silk dress. The
“nun” may be far away with her regiment in Ireland, or some remote
part of England; for be it known that ladies are attached to the
service as well as men, and the cavalry rejoices more than the line
in the softening influences of feminine society. Amongst the little
scandals of the night, it may be rumoured within the sacred precincts
of the Café Royal by “Suppers” of the Admiralty, who has obtained
that soubriquet by his known unwillingness to stand these midnight
banquets, that the “Baby” was seen at the Holborn with a heightened
colour, rather the production of art than nature; _ergo_, the “Baby”
is falling off, which remark it is fortunate for “Suppers” the Baby
does not overhear. Billy Valentine, of her Majesty’s “horse and saddle”
department of the Home Office, as is his usual custom, may be seen at
Coney’s, exchanging a little quiet chaff with “Poodle,” whose hair is
more crimped than ever, while the “Poodle” is dexterously extracting
a bottle of Moselle out of him for the benefit of the establishment.
There is a woman of very mature age who goes about from one night-house
to another with her betting book in her hand, perhaps “cadging” for
men. Then there is Madame S. S.--, who plays the piano in different
places, and Dirty Dick, who is always in a state of intoxication; but
who, as he spends his money freely, is never objected to.
But the night-houses are carrying me away from my subject.
Pimps are frequently spoken of, and pimping is a word very generally
used, but I doubt very much whether many of them exist, at least of
the male gender. The women do most of the pimping that is requisite
to carry on the amours of London society, and pander is a word that
merges into the other, losing any distinctive significancy that it may
possess for the eyes of a lexicographer. A woman when she introduces a
man to a woman is literally pimping for him, or what I have said about
keepers of introducing houses must apply generally to the panders and
the pimps. I may add a story I heard of a bully attached to a brothel,
who on one occasion acting as a pimp, went into the streets to pick up
a woman who was required for the purposes of the establishment. He went
some way without success, and at last met a “wandering beauty of the
night,” whom he solicited; she yielded to his entreaties, and followed
him to his brothel. When they reached the light in the passage she
raised her veil, when he was as horrified as a man in his position
and with his feelings could be to perceive that he had brought his
own sister to an immoral house: he had not seen her for some years.
His profligacy had killed his father, had brought him to his present
degraded position, and in a great measure occasioned his sister’s fall
and way of living.
Ex uno--the proverb says--a lesson may be taught a great many.
* * * * *
_Fancy-men._--Fancy-men are an extremely peculiar class, and are highly
interesting to those who take an interest in prostitutes and their
associates. They are--that is the best of them--tolerably well-dressed
and well-looking, and sufficiently gentlemanly for women to like to be
seen about with them. I am now speaking of those who cohabit with the
best women about town.