The History of Prostitution Part 49

Next to the responsibility of parents in this matter is that of teachers, who, with all judiciousness and delicacy, should supply the deficiencies of ignorant or incapable parents in the physiological education of all committed to their care.

And here a word in regard to the bad effects of, so called, cla.s.sical studies. Are they not oftentimes acquired at the risk of outraged delicacy or undermined moral principles? Mythology, in particular, introduces our youth to courtesans who are described as G.o.ddesses, and G.o.ddesses who are but courtesans in disguise. Poetry and history as frequently have for their themes the ecstasies of illicit love as the innocent joys of pure affection. Shall these branches of study be totally ignored? By no means; but let their harmless flowers and wholesome fruit alone be culled for youthful minds, to the utter exclusion of all poisonous ones, however beautiful.

This lack of information has resulted in another evil in the impetus it has given to the sale of obscene books and prints. Recent legal proceedings have checked this nefarious trade, but it still exists. Boys and young men may be found loitering at all hours round hotels, steam-boat docks, rail-road depots, and other public places, ostensibly selling newspapers or pamphlets, but secretly offering vile, lecherous publications to those who are likely to be customers. They generally select young and inexperienced persons for two reasons. In the first place, these are the most probable purchasers, and will submit to the most extortion; and, in the second, they can be more easily imposed upon. The venders have a trick which they frequently perform, and which can scarcely be regretted. In a small bound volume they insert about half a dozen highly-colored obscene plates, which are cut to fit the size of the printed page. Having fixed upon a victim, they cautiously draw his attention to the pictures by rapidly turning over the leaves, but do not allow him to take the book into his hands, although they give him a good opportunity to note its binding. He never dreams that the plates are loose, and feels sure that in buying the book he buys the pictures also.

When the price is agreed upon, the salesman hints that, as he is watched, the customer had better turn his back for a moment while taking the money from his pocket-book, and in this interval he slips the plates from between the leaves and conceals them. The next moment the parties are again face to face, the price is handed over, and the book he had seen before is handed to the purchaser under a renewed caution, and is carefully pocketed. The book-seller leaves, and at the first opportunity the prize is covertly drawn forth to be examined more minutely, and the unwary one finds that he has paid several dollars for some few printed pages, without pictures, which would have been dear at as many cents.

Despite all precautions, there is every reason to believe that the manufacture of these obscene books is largely carried on in this city. It is needless to remind any resident of the large seizures made in New York during the last two years, or to particularize the stock condemned. More caution is observed now, and the post-office is made the vehicle for distribution. Circulars are issued which describe the publications and their prices, modes of transmitting money are indicated, and the advertiser plainly says that he will not allow any personal interviews on account of the dangers which surround the traffic. By using an indefinite number of _aliases_, and often changing the address to which letters are sent, he succeeds in eluding the vigilance of the police, and secures many remittances.

Not less dangerous than the directly obscene publications is a cla.s.s of voluptuous novels which is rapidly circulating. Some are translations from the French; but one man, now living in England, has written and published more disgustingly minute works, under the guise of honest fiction, than ever emanated from the Parisian presses. He writes in a strain eminently calculated to excite the pa.s.sions, but so carefully guarded as to avoid absolute obscenity, and embellishes his works with wood-cuts which approach lasciviousness as nearly as possible without being indictable. It is to be regretted that publishers have been found, in this and other cities, who are willing to use their imprints on the t.i.tle-pages of his trash, and sell works which can not but be productive of the worst consequences. Those who have seen much of the cheap pamphlets, or "yellow-covered" literature offered in New York, will have no difficulty in recalling the name of the author alluded to, and those who are ignorant of it would only be injured by its disclosure. There can be but one opinion as to the share obscene and voluptuous books have in ruining the character of the young, and they may justly be considered as causes, indirect it may be, of prost.i.tution.

Some of the sources of prost.i.tution have been thus examined. To expose them all would require a volume; but it is hoped that sufficient has been developed to induce observation and inquiry, and prompt action in the premises.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

NEW YORK.--STATISTICS.

Means of Support.--Occupation.--Treatment of Domestics.-- Needlewomen.--Weekly Earnings.--Female Labor in France.-- Compet.i.tion.--Opportunity for Employment in the Country.--Effects of Female Occupations.--Temptations of Seamstresses.--Indiscriminate Employment of both s.e.xes in Shops.--Factory Life.--Business of the Fathers of Prost.i.tutes.--Mothers' Business.--a.s.sistance to Parents.-- Death of Parents.--Intoxication.--Drinking Habits of Prost.i.tutes.-- Delirium Tremens.--Liquor Sold in Houses of Prost.i.tution.--Parental Influences.--Religion of Parents and Prost.i.tutes.--Amiable Feelings.-- Kindness and Fidelity to each other.

_Question._ IS PROSt.i.tUTION YOUR ONLY MEANS OF SUPPORT?

Resources. Numbers.

Dependent solely upon prost.i.tution 1698 Have other means of support 302 ---- Total 2000

No surprise will be excited by the fact indicated above, that seventeen of every twenty women examined in New York reply to this question in the affirmative, for it is almost impossible to conceive that any honest occupation can be a.s.sociated with vice of such character. The small minority who have other means consists princ.i.p.ally of women who work at their trades or occupations at intervals, or who receive some slight payment for a.s.sisting in the ordinary work, or for sewing, in the houses of ill fame where they reside. It is difficult to believe women working as domestics in brothels are virtuous themselves; on the contrary, it is a well-known fact that they are, in every sense of the word, prost.i.tutes; the only difference being that they work a portion of the time, while the "boarders" do not work at all.

Those who follow an employment at intervals are mostly women whose trades are uncertain, and who are liable at certain seasons of the year to be without employment. Then real necessity forces them on the town until a return of business provides them with work. They are more to be pitied than blamed.

There is another cla.s.s not entirely dependent on prost.i.tution. It consists mostly of German girls, who receive from five to six dollars per month as dancers in the public ball-rooms. In the first ward of New York there are several of these establishments, and the Captain of Police in that district has attached some interesting memoranda to his returns, from which is gleaned the following information respecting these places and their inhabitants. It is submitted to the reader, in order that he may draw his own conclusions as to the virtue of the dancers.

"These dance-houses are generally kept by Germans, who consider dancing a proper and legitimate business. They are in general very quiet. The girls employed to dance do not consider themselves prost.i.tutes, because the proprietors will not allow them to be known as such. Each girl receives monthly from five to six dollars and her board, and almost every one of them hires a room in the neighborhood for the purpose of prost.i.tution. I have cla.s.sed them all as prost.i.tutes, because, in addition to the previous fact, I know that the majority of them have lived as such. Very few of these girls are excessive drinkers. Although the regulations of the ball-room require them to drink after each dance with their partners, yet the proprietor has always a bottle of water slightly colored with port wine, from which they drink, and he charges the partner the same price as for liquor."

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

"The proprietress of this house is a German woman over seventy years of age. She established the house over eighteen years since, to my certain knowledge. Her husband had just then arrived from Germany with their four children. They were not worth one hundred dollars at that time. The man died three years ago, and by his will directed forty thousand dollars to be divided among his children. The widow is possessed of an equal amount in her own name."

_Question._ WHAT TRADE OR CALLING DID YOU FOLLOW BEFORE YOU BECAME A PROSt.i.tUTE?

Occupations. Numbers.

Artist 1 Nurse in Bellevue Hospital, N. Y. 1 School-teachers 3 Fruit-hawkers 4 Paper-box-makers 5 Tobacco-packers 7 Attended stores or bars 8 Attended school 8 Embroiderers 8 Fur-sewers 8 Hat-trimmers 8 Umbrella-makers 8 Flower-makers 9 Shoe-binders 16 Vest-makers 21 Cap-makers 24 Book-folders 27 Factory girls 37 Housekeepers 39 Milliners 41 Seamstresses 59 Tailoresses 105 Dress-makers 121 Servants 933 Lived with parents or friends 499 ---- Total 2000

Wherever the social condition of woman has been considered, one fact has always been painfully apparent, namely, the difficulties which surround her in any attempt to procure employment beyond the beaten track of needlework or domestic service. Numerous light or sedentary employments now pursued by men might with much greater propriety be confided to women, but custom seems to have fixed an arbitrary law which can not be altered.

If a lady enters a dry goods store, she is waited upon by some stalwart young man, whose energy and muscle would be far more useful in tilling the ground, or in some other out-door employment. If she wishes to make a purchase of jewelry, she is served by the same cla.s.s of attendants. Why should not females have this branch of employment at their command? It would in a majority of cases be more consonant with the feelings of the purchasers, and consequently more to the interest of store-keepers. It would open an honorable field of exertion to the women, and improve the condition of the men who now monopolize such employments, by forcing them to obtain work suitable to their s.e.x and strength, and driving from the crowded cities into the open country some whose effeminacy is fast bringing them to positive idleness and ruin.

Many people are prepared to frown upon any attempt to improve the social condition of dependent women. They regard it as a part of that myth which they call opposition to const.i.tuted authorities, without any reference to the consideration which should form the basis of all society, namely, ensuring the greatest amount of good to the greatest number. Others who are opposed to any amelioration sustain their views by a libel upon woman, and upon her Almighty Creator. They a.s.sert that she has not sufficient intellect for any thing beyond routine employment, or blame her because she has received only such an imperfect education as the world has thought proper to award her, and thus has not had an opportunity to cultivate her faculties. It is not necessary to point to the productions and achievements of women even in our own days, omitting all mention of what has been done heretofore, to expose the fallacy of this proposition. The facts are patent to the world. With special reference to the subject in hand it may be a.s.serted, unhesitatingly and without fear of contradiction, that were there more avenues of employment open to females there would be a corresponding decrease in prost.i.tution, and many of those who are now ranked with the daughters of shame would be happy and virtuous members of the community.[390]

In the list of occupations pursued by the women who are now prost.i.tutes in New York, a most lamentable monotony is visible. Domestic service and sewing are the two princ.i.p.al resources. From the gross number of two thousand deduct those who lived with their parents or friends, children attending school, domestic servants, and housekeepers, amounting in the aggregate to 1322, and there is a balance of 678, nearly six hundred of whom depend upon needles and thread for an existence. In the total number reported there are _only four, or exactly one in every five hundred_, who relied for support upon any occupation requiring mental culture, that is, one artist and three school-teachers. This fact in itself sustains the theories that mental cultivation and sufficient employment are restrictions to the spread of prost.i.tution.

If women are compelled to undergo merely the slavery of life, no moral advancement can ever be expected from them. If every approach to remunerative employment is systematically closed against them, nothing but degradation can ensue, and the moralist who shuddered with horror at the bare possibility of a woman being allowed to earn a competent living in a respectable manner will e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.e, "What awful depravity exists in the female s.e.x!" He and others of his cla.s.s drive a woman to starvation by refusing to give her employment, and then condemn her for maintaining a wretched existence at the price of virtue.

But to notice more particularly the employments which the courtesans of New York have followed. The domestic servants amount to 931. No modern fas.h.i.+on has yet been introduced to deprive females of this sphere of labor, but so progressive is the age that even that may be accomplished within a few years, and the advertising columns of the newspapers teem with announcements of some newly-invented "scrubbing-machine." The s.p.a.ce will not permit any extended remarks on this employment, but, while allowing that many employers treat their servants as human beings gifted with the same sensibilities and feelings as themselves, it must be regretted that there are others who use them in a manner which would bring a blush to the cheek of a southern slave-driver. With such mistresses the incapacity of servants is a constant theme, nor do they ever ask themselves if they have learned the science of governing. a.s.suming that they themselves are right, they conclude that the "help" is, of course, wrong. Is it any wonder that girls are driven to intoxication and disgrace by this conduct? Another reason which forces servant-girls to prost.i.tution is the excessive number who are constantly out of employment, estimated at one fourth of those resident in the city, an evil which would be diminished were there more opportunities for female labor.

What is the position of the needle-woman? Far worse than that of the servant. The latter has a home and food in addition to her wages; the former must lodge and keep herself out of earnings which do not much exceed in amount the servant's pay. The labor by which this miserable pittance is earned, so truthfully depicted in the universally known "Song of the s.h.i.+rt," is distressing and enervating to a degree. Working from early dawn till late at night, with trembling fingers, aching head, and very often an empty stomach, the poor seamstress ruins her health to obtain a spare and insufficient living. There is no variety in her employment; it is the same endless round of st.i.tches, varied only by a wearisome journey once or twice a week to the store whence she receives her work, and where the probabilities are that a portion of her scanty wages will be deducted for some alleged deficiency in the work. She has no redress, but must submit or be discharged.

Nor is the position of a milliner or dress-maker much superior to this.

She has a room provided for her in the employer's establishment, and there she must remain so long as the inexorable demands of fas.h.i.+on, or the necessity of preparing bonnets or dresses for some special occasion require. It matters not if she faint from exhaustion and fatigue; Mrs.

---- wants her ball-dress to-morrow, and the poor slave (we use this word advisedly) must labor as if her eternal salvation rested on her nimble fingers. But the gay robe which is to deck the form of beauty is completed; the hour of release has come at last; and, as at night the wearied girl walks feebly through the almost deserted streets, she meets some of the frail of her own s.e.x, bedecked in finery, with countenances beaming from the effects of their potations, and the thought flashes across her mind, "They are better off than I am." Her human nature can scarcely repress such an exclamation, which is too often but the precursor of her own ruin.

Paper-box-makers, tobacco-packers, and book-folders are no better off.

They must work in crowded shops, must inhale each other's breath during the whole day (for such work-shops are not the best ventilated buildings in New York, generally speaking), and receive, as their remuneration, barely sufficient to find them food, clothes, and shelter.

It is needless to pursue this subject. Enough has surely been advanced to demonstrate the necessity of a more extended field of female labor.

_Question._ HOW LONG IS IT SINCE YOU ABANDONED YOUR TRADE AS A MEANS OF LIVING?

Length of Time. Numbers.

3 months 174 6 " 151 1 year 273 2 years 254 3 " 147 4 " 104 5 " 117 10 " 90 12 " and upward 16 Not abandoned 296 Unascertained 378 ---- Total 2000

A very few words will suffice on this table, as the remarks which would arise from it have been already made in reference to other questions. In most instances the occupation is abandoned as soon as the first false step is taken, unless in those cases of dest.i.tution where a previous want of employment renders prost.i.tution necessary as the only means of living. Of course, as before observed, a life of prost.i.tution must be incompatible with any description of honest employment, and, in those cases where a woman has followed any trade or occupation after she had yielded to promiscuous intercourse, it will generally be found that her motive was to deceive the world as to her own pursuits, or else to satisfy her conscience that she was not entirely depraved.

_Question._ WHAT WERE YOUR AVERAGE WEEKLY EARNINGS AT YOUR TRADE?

Average Earnings. Numbers.

1 dollar 534 2 dollars 336 3 " 230 4 " 127 5 " 68 6 " 27 7 " 8 8 " 5 20 " 1 50 " 1 Unascertained 663 ---- Total 2000

This question is of equal importance with that referring to the number of employments available for females, and the replies quoted above will give as many reasons for prost.i.tution as in the former case. From the work of a French author on this subject the following is condensed as indicative of the hards.h.i.+ps and insufficient remuneration of women employed in factories in France:

"Women are employed princ.i.p.ally in the manufacture of cotton, silk, and wool. The preparation of cotton presents two dangerous features, in the 'beating' and 'dressing,' _which are performed solely by women_. In the manufacture of silk there are also two processes dangerous to life, and _these are performed by women_. The woolen manufacture has no real danger but in the 'carding,' and _all the carders are women_. Of these mortal occupations there is not one that will afford the workwoman a sufficient maintenance, the average wages being from sixteen to twenty-five sous per day, subject to the fluctuations of trade."[391]

Commenting upon these facts, the Westminster Review says,

"We took some pains to ascertain the relative wages of men and women employed in the same trades (in England), and almost in every instance it appeared that for the same work, performed in the same time, they received one third less, sometimes one half less than men, without any inferiority of skill being alleged. One master gravely said that he "_paid women less because they ate less_."[392]

In a subsequent chapter of this volume will be found some particulars of the wages paid in manufacturing districts of the United States, and the same disparity between male and female operatives will be noticed.

M. Parent-Duchatelet a.s.signs insufficient wages as one of the princ.i.p.al causes of prost.i.tution in Paris. He says,

"What are the earnings of our laundresses, our seamstresses, our milliners? Compare the wages of the most skillful with those of the more ordinary and moderately able, and we shall see if it be possible for these latter to procure even the strict necessaries of life; and if we farther compare the price of their work with that of their dishonor, we shall cease to be surprised that so great a number should fall into improprieties thus made almost inevitable."[393]

This low rate of wages is defended upon the plea of compet.i.tion. A manufacturer practically says, "If one man or woman will do my work for five per cent. less than another, I must employ him or her unless I am prepared to carry on my business at a positive loss; for if I do not give them work, my neighbor will." Valid as this reason may be in the old countries, where the supply of labor far exceeds the demand, it is invalid in America, where there is a constant demand for workers. Our cities are overcrowded; remove some of their inhabitants to the country. In our cities work can not be obtained; in the country both male and female laborers are urgently required. In cities an unemployed woman is exposed to innumerable temptations; in the country she need never be unemployed, and consequently would escape such dangers. The difference between the New and Old worlds is simply that in the former the cities are overcrowded, but the country is free; in the latter, both cities and country are full to repletion.

In the city of New York one fourth part of the domestic servants are constantly out of employment; remove them, and, while the wants of the community will be amply supplied, the market value of a faithful servant would increase to a living rate. Send away a number of needle-women, reducing the supply of labor to meet the actual demand; tailors, s.h.i.+rt-makers, and dress-makers must employ seamstresses, and in such cases they could not obtain them without paying remunerative wages. The prices of our wearing apparel would probably be advanced five per cent., with a saving of fifteen per cent. taxation in the reduced expenses of police, judiciary, prisons, hospitals, and charitable inst.i.tutions.

The experience of the winter of 1857-8 has proved that but very slight difficulties attend this plan when efficiently carried out, and to the "Children's Aid Society" and the other benevolent organizations, which have shown not only the possibility, but the success of the system, all praise is due. No man entering upon a farm in the West requires any argument to convince him that his property will increase in value as it is cultivated, and many will gladly advance the sum necessary to pay the expenses of a servant's journey out. As fast as men are sent to fell the timber or break the prairie, the farmer's necessities force him to engage women for the increasing work of his house and dairy, and to supply the places of those who obtain husbands in their new home. When the tide of emigration to the Australian colonies commenced, nearly the whole of those who left England were single men, and in a few months the cry was ringing from one end of the island to the other: "Send us female help, send us wives." A benevolent woman, resident in the colony, repeated the demand, and subsequently lent the aid of her powerful talents to it. She made a voyage to England, and there influenced public opinion to such an extent that the British government yielded to the outside pressure, and many s.h.i.+p-loads of well-recommended, healthy, and virtuous women were sent out at the national expense to supply the want. The subsequent advancement of the colony has proved that the measure was a judicious one, nor can the abuses to which it became subject detract from its merits.