The History of Prostitution Part 54

It would be foolish to deny all increase of prost.i.tution since the date of the correspondence just transcribed. The population of New York is now some thirty or forty thousand more than at that time, and female degradation has extended as a natural consequence. Relying upon the estimate of five thousand as correct at the time made, the subsequent augmentation of inhabitants would suppose an addition of about three hundred prost.i.tutes, but to take the widest scope, and a.s.sume that the debas.e.m.e.nt required by hunger degenerated into a habit of confirmed vice, it may be admitted that the number of abandoned women in New York has increased from five thousand in 1856 to six thousand in 1858. This is a very liberal estimate, and the total a.s.signed is certainly not too small.

How much it may be in excess can not be said with precision, but in an argument of this nature it is safer to err in the direction of overstating an evil than to be lulled into false security by too flattering a representation.

The known public prost.i.tutes of New York are thus presumed to amount to six thousand at the present day. But to this number exceptions might be taken. To secure farther accuracy, additional evidence was sought. In the month of May, 1858, the a.s.sistance of the Board of Metropolitan Police Commissioners was requested, and, under the direction of its president (General JAMES W. NYE), to whom our acknowledgments are respectfully tendered for his courtesy and aid, a list of queries was submitted to the Inspector of each Police precinct. Below is a copy of the circular, with a synopsis of the replies.

(Copy.)

"Office of the Metropolitan Police Commissioners, "New York, May 1, 1858.

"Inspector ------ ------: -- Police Precinct.

"SIR, You will please report to this office as early as possible on the questions given below. Let your answers be full and explicit, to the best of your knowledge and belief. s.p.a.ce is left below each query for the insertion of your replies, and you will therefore write them on this sheet, and return it without delay.

"1. How many houses of prost.i.tution, from the most public to the most private, are there in your police district?

"2. How many houses of a.s.signation are there in your district?

"3. How many dancing-saloons, liquor and lager-beer stores, are there in your district, where prost.i.tutes are in the habit of a.s.sembling, in addition to the known houses of prost.i.tution?

"4. How many prost.i.tutes do you suppose reside in your district?"

SYNOPSIS OF REPLIES.

+-------------------------------------------------------------- Houses Houses Precincts. Reported by of of Prost.i.tution. a.s.signation. ---------- ----------------------- ------------- ------------ 1 Inspector James Silvey 22 2 " Hart B. Weed 1 3 " J. A. P. Hopkins 9 4 " Morris De Camp 35 13 5 " Henry Hutchings 63 7 6 Acting Inspector Lush 52 6 7 Inspector John Cameron 6 8 " C. S. Turnbull 43 15 9 " Jacob L. Sebring 10 " T. C. Davis 26 1 11 " Peter Squires 12 " Galen P. Porter 13 " Thomas Steers 15 4 14 " J. J. Williamson 39 5 15 " G. W. Dilks 5 19 16 " Samuel Carpenter 6 4 17 " J. W. Hart 20 3 18 " Theron R. Bennett 1 19 " James Bryan 5 1 20 " F. M. Curry 15 1 21 " Francis Speight 15 10 22 " James E. Coulter ------------- ------------ Totals 378 89 +--------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------+ Dancing-saloons, Estimated Liquor or Number Lager-beer of Stores, where Prost.i.tutes. Prost.i.tutes a.s.semble. ---------------- ------------ 3 76 1 2 26 8 750 46 420 12 228 4 100 300 50 4 100 12 50 8 150 125 7 175 10 500 6 150 3 250 2 30 5 250 6 75 14 50 ---------------- ------------ 151 3857 -----------------------------+

Upon some of the reports are notes, which may be extracted.

Inspector Silvey, 1st district, says, in answer to question 4, "There are _to my knowledge_ seventy-six common prost.i.tutes living in this precinct."

Inspector De Camp, 4th district, says, in answer to question 4: "350 who reside in houses of prost.i.tution, 150 kept mistresses, 150 who reside in the ward, and prost.i.tute themselves in this and other wards, and probably 100 occasional prost.i.tutes."

Inspector Hutchings, 5th district, in answer to question 3, cla.s.sifies the resorts as

Dancing-rooms 2 Saloons and cigar-stores 31 Lager-beer-stores 13 -- 46

and, in answer to question 4, subdivides the prost.i.tutes into

Whites 360 Blacks 60 --- 420

Acting Inspector Lush, 6th district, says, in answer to question 4: "One hundred and seventy-eight known prost.i.tutes whose names we have; supposed to be _at least_ fifty more residing in the district."

Inspector Cameron, 7th district, in answer to question 3, cla.s.sifies the resorts into

Lager-beer-stores 3 Cigar-store 1 -- 4

and, in answer to question 4, says: "Can give no reliable information; probably one hundred."

Inspector Sebring, 9th district, says, in answer to question 1, "This precinct does not contain any houses of prost.i.tution that I am aware of;"

and in reply to question 4: "Scattered through the precinct there are _probably_ fifty."

Inspector Squires, 11th district, says, in answer to question 1: "None, properly speaking. There are many low drinking places where dissipated persons of both s.e.xes often meet, and where, no doubt, prost.i.tution is sometimes practiced, but no regular houses of that character." To question 3: "There are about a dozen lager-beer-saloons where Dutch girls of loose character a.s.semble and dance at night. They do not remain long in the same place, but when driven from one place they locate in another." To question 4: "I presume there are fifty young women and married women, some of whom pa.s.s for respectable persons, who are in the habit of going across to the eighth, fifteenth, and other disreputable wards for purposes of prost.i.tution, and some of the lowest of these are even said to visit the fifth ward, but I have never been able to ascertain this fact positively."

Inspector Porter, 12th district says, "This precinct, comprising all that portion of the island north of 86th street, is not infested with any of the evils enumerated in the within questions."

Inspector Williamson, 14th district, says, in answer to question 4, "I should _suppose_ about 125."

Inspector Carpenter, 16th district, says, in answer to question 4, "It is generally conceded by those of us who presume to know that there are in this precinct at least five hundred prost.i.tutes, of all ages, nations, grades, and colors."

Inspector Hartt, 17th district, says, in answer to question 4, "This being a hard question to answer, the answer must be taken as entirely guess-work: supposed to be about one hundred and fifty."

Inspector Curry, 20th district, says, in answer to question 4: "Probably two or three hundred, but this is mere guess-work. We know there are a great many; some of them very young."

Those reports from which no extracts have been made consist simply of figures without any remarks, and are given fully in the synopsis. It will be observed that all the officers quoted give the number of prost.i.tutes more as a conjecture than a certainty; and although their avocations would lead them to know most of the disreputable women in their several districts, none of them a.s.sume to be so thoroughly informed as to be enabled to answer positively. To the numbers they give must be added the floating prost.i.tute population of station-houses, city and district prisons, hospitals, work-house, alms-house, and penitentiary, which varies from one thousand to two thousand, and may be taken at an average of one thousand five hundred. This, with those known to the police, makes a total of 5357, and the balance of six hundred and forty-three (643), required to raise the number to six thousand (6000), is but a moderate allowance for those who have escaped the eyes of the officers when taking the census. As before remarked, it is better to overestimate than underestimate the abandoned women of the city.

But to this number are to be added those whose calling is so effectually disguised as to prevent its being known--those who practice prost.i.tution in addition to some legitimate occupation, and those who resort to illicit pleasures for the indulgence of their pa.s.sions. To obtain information on these points some supplementary questions were addressed to the captains of police at the commencement of this investigation in 1856, and their replies are now submitted.

The first inquiry was, "How many houses of a.s.signation are there in your district?" It was known when this interrogatory was propounded that the secrecy maintained in these places would in some instances baffle the keenness, not often at fault, of our shrewdest police officers, and no surprise was felt when their replies indicated that only seventy-four (74) of these houses were known to them. Reliable information from other sources led to the conviction that this was understated. The investigation of May, 1858, fixes the number at eighty-nine (89), which is also too low; and we shall be perfectly justified in estimating the number of houses of a.s.signation in New York at one hundred (100).

The next question was, "What, to the best of your belief, are the average number of visitors to such houses every twenty-four hours?" The replies gave an average of six couples to each house every day, or an aggregate of six hundred women every twenty-four hours. This was followed by the query, "Are all the females who visit these houses of a.s.signation known public prost.i.tutes? If not, of what cla.s.s do you suppose or know them to be?"

From the replies it was found that about two fifths were known as prost.i.tutes, the remainder being sewing or shop girls, kept mistresses, widows, and some married women.

Again: "State your opinion as to how many kept mistresses there are in your district?" In the twenty-two districts two hundred and sixty-eight (268) were ascertained, and the presumption was that there were more. The number may be safely taken at four hundred. The next question was, "How many women, to the best of your belief, and that you have not previously examined, are there in your district that obtain a livelihood in whole or in part by prost.i.tution?" To this the numbers are stated (upon belief, for the nature of the question precludes any positive information) as about four hundred. "Can you form an opinion as to how many women in your district, who are not impelled by necessity, prost.i.tute themselves to gratify their pa.s.sions?" No definite answers were obtained to this, the general suppositions ranging from one third to one fourth of those who were not recognized as public prost.i.tutes. "To what extent, in your opinion, is prost.i.tution carried on in the tenant houses in your district?" It is generally admitted that there is some, but no calculation can be made with any accuracy. Many of what may be called private prost.i.tutes live in this cla.s.s of houses, but their visitors would be taken to houses of a.s.signation, where the numbers are included in the estimate given. "It is believed that there are many women who follow prost.i.tution living in nearly all the respectable portions of the city.

They (singly or in couples) hire a suite of rooms, and under the garb of honest labor, sewing, etc., pa.s.s as respectable among those living near them. It is also known that such as these are the great frequenters of houses of a.s.signation. How many such women (to the best of your belief) are there in your district?" The officers reply that they have ascertained that there are about two hundred, but they believe there are many more.

Thus much for the information we have been enabled to collect. There are six hundred women who visit these houses of a.s.signation every day, of whom two fifths are known as public prost.i.tutes, and the remainder are of other cla.s.ses. It may be a.s.sumed that the known prost.i.tutes visit such houses at least once every twenty-four hours, which leaves over three hundred visits daily for the others. Kept mistresses or married women who resort there for the gratification of their pa.s.sions probably amount to one hundred per day. It can scarcely be supposed that such visit houses of a.s.signation more than once a week as a general rule, while the others, sewing or shop girls, etc., who resort there to augment their income, would probably take this step two or three times per week, which would bring their number to about four hundred. It thus appears that a very fair estimate of the total number of frail women who are now in New York may be stated as follows:

Known public prost.i.tutes 6000 Women who visit houses of a.s.signation for s.e.xual gratification 1260 Women who visit houses of a.s.signation to augment their income 400 One half the number of kept mistresses, a.s.suming the other half to be included in those who visit houses of a.s.signation 200 Total 7860

It will be seen that, to arrive at this conclusion, all are included who are suspected to be lost to virtue, although of the number who visit houses of a.s.signation for s.e.xual gratification many are guiltless of promiscuous intercourse.

This total number falls very far short of the estimates made at different times by various persons, that there are from twenty to thirty thousand prost.i.tutes in New York City! Such rash conclusions, hastily formed in the excitement of the moment--sometimes influenced by the fact that "the wish is father to the thought"--must give place to the results of a careful and searching investigation made for this special purpose. The _modus operandi_ of examination in the city rendered it inc.u.mbent on those having it in charge to approximate to the facts, and is itself a sufficient guarantee of correctness.[398]

If it were possible to parade the six thousand known public prost.i.tutes in one procession, they would make a much larger demonstration than the mere printed words "six thousand" suggest to the reader. It requires a man who is in the habit of seeing large congregations of persons to comprehend at a glance the aggregate implied in this statement. Place this number of women in line, side by side, and if each was allowed only twenty-four inches of room, they would extend two miles and four hundred and eighty yards. Let them march up Broadway in single file, and allow each woman thirty-six inches (and that is as little room as possible, considering the required s.p.a.ce for locomotion), and they would reach from the City Hall to Fortieth Street. Or, let them all ride in the ordinary city stages, which carry twelve pa.s.sengers each, and it would be necessary to charter five hundred omnibuses for their conveyance. These simple ill.u.s.trations will make the extent of the vice plain to many who could form but an inadequate idea from the mere figures.

Yet the estimate will probably appear low to those residents of the city who have been accustomed to believe New York reeking with prost.i.tution in every hole and corner, while it will seem excessively large to readers residing in the country. For the information of the latter it may be remarked, that vicious as Manhattan Island unquestionably is, much as there may be in it to need reform, in this matter of prost.i.tution it must not bear all the blame of these six thousand women, for although they certainly reside in it, a very large number of their visitors do not dwell there. Brooklyn, the villages on Long Island, Fort Hamilton, New Utrecht, Flus.h.i.+ng, and others; Jersey City, Hoboken, Hudson, Staten Island, Morrisania, Fordham, etc., contain numbers of people who transact their daily business in New York, but reside in those places. In very few of these localities are any prost.i.tutes to be found, nor would they be encouraged therein while New York is so close at hand and so easy of access. Again, the strangers flocking into this city from all parts of the world average from five to twenty thousand and upward every day, and they must relieve it of some part of this obloquy.

The population of New York at the last census (1855) was officially stated to be (in round numbers) 630,000, and the proportionate increase for three years to the present time will bring it very near 700,000. If illicit intercourse here were carried on only by permanent residents, its proportion of public prost.i.tutes would be one to every one hundred and seventeen (117) of the inhabitants; but the calculation must include the denizens of the places already enumerated, and, adding 500,000 for them and the number of strangers constantly visiting the city, we have a total of 1,200,000 persons; making the proportion of prost.i.tutes only one in every two hundred, including men, women, and children. It is desirable, however, to ascertain what proportion courtesans bear to the cla.s.ses who patronize them, and the census shows that males above the age of fifteen form about thirty-two per cent. of the population. A wider range might have been taken, as it is notorious that many boys under fifteen years old, especially among the lower cla.s.ses, practice the vice; but a.s.suming that to be the standard, there is one prost.i.tute to every sixty-four adult males, certainly not a large proportion in a commercial and maritime city.

It is impossible to form any idea of the proportion of male inhabitants and visitors who encourage houses of prost.i.tution. Marriage is not always a check to indiscriminate intercourse, and professions of religion are often violated for illicit gratification. Still there are a vast number whom these obligations bind, and, if they could be exactly ascertained, this would make a corresponding difference in the proportions.

As the case now is, New York City stands somewhat in the position of a seduced woman, and has to endure all the odium attached to the number of prost.i.tutes residing within her limits; while her neighbors and strangers who largely partic.i.p.ate in the offense are like seducers, and escape all censure, self-righteously saying, "How virtuous is our town (or village) compared with that sink of iniquity, New York." It has been already stated what the effect would be if all visitors to New York were moral men, and, although the remark need not be repeated, its appositeness is apparent.

From the prost.i.tutes within our borders emanates the plague of syphilis, and when the number of abandoned women is considered in conjunction with the certainty that each of them is liable at any moment to contract and extend the malady; when the probabilities of such extension are viewed in connection with the acknowledged fact that each prost.i.tute in New York receives from one to ten visitors every day (instances are known where the maximum exceeds and sometimes doubles the highest number here given), there can be no reasonable doubt of the danger of infection, nor any surprise that the average life of prost.i.tutes is only four years.

The actual extent of venereal disease must be the first point of inquiry, and here the records of public inst.i.tutions are of great service. The hospitals on Blackwell's Island, under the charge of the Governors of the Alms-house, present the largest array of cases, the princ.i.p.al part of which were treated in the Penitentiary (now Island) Hospital. The number of these cases was in

1854 1541 1855 1579 1856 1639 1857 2090