The History of Prostitution Part 56

and a.s.suming that the practice of the others is of the same extent, we have as the venereal cases treated in the three colleges:

1855 141 1856 159 1857 207

As many of the patrons of New York houses of ill fame reside out of the city, some further information must be sought beyond our own limits.

Without professing to inquire into the public health in all the suburbs previously enumerated, it will be sufficient to take the reports of the superintendents of the poor of King's County to ascertain what amount of syphilitic infection has been treated at the public cost in Brooklyn and its environs. The reports of Doctor Thomas Turner, Resident Physician of the King's County Hospital, show the following cases:

1853 165 1855 362 1857 311

or about ten per cent. on the total number treated.

In the Brooklyn City Hospital the cases of venereal disease received and treated were in

1854 158 1855 173 1856 160 1857 186 1858 (to May 1) 65

It has been already stated that sailors are great patrons of prost.i.tutes, and to obtain any true statement of venereal disease among them, some estimate respecting this cla.s.s must be made. For this purpose the reports of Dr. T. Clarkson Moffatt, Physician-in-chief of the "Seaman's Retreat,"

Staten Island, New York, are available. The number of cases treated in the several years is here given:

1854 657 1855 473 1856 355 1857 365 1858 (to April 1) 82

This is nearly twenty-four per cent. on the gross number treated.

This concludes the published reports of charitable inst.i.tutions, and the question next arises, What amount of syphilis is treated by physicians in private practice? It is impossible to obtain any reliable data upon this head. The Medical Board of Bellevue Hospital, composed of some of the leading members of the profession in the city, state that they "are unable to say what proportion of the practice among regular and qualified physicians in this city is derived from the treatment of venereal diseases, but they know it is large, and that many receive more from this source than from all other sources together."

There are also a very large number of advertising pretenders who offer their services for the treatment of secret diseases; and many drug-stores whose main business is derived from a similar source; together with an infinity of patent medicines announced and sold as specifics for all venereal maladies. Upon the simple commercial principle of supply and demand these are so many proofs of the extent of the evil they profess to relieve. Should the number of cases of venereal disease treated in private practice by qualified physicians and by advertisers, added to the number of patients who supply themselves with patent or other medicines from drug-stores, be regarded as equal to the aggregate of those treated in public inst.i.tutions, the estimate could not be deemed extravagant.

The design is now to ascertain how much venereal disease exists in New York at the present time, and to do this it will be necessary to recapitulate the information already given. The cases below are those treated in 1857:

Inst.i.tutions. Cases.

Penitentiary Hospital, Blackwell's Island 2090 Alms-house, Blackwell's Island 52 Work-house, Blackwell's Island 56 Penitentiary, Blackwell's Island 430 Bellevue Hospital, New York 768 Nursery Hospital, Randall's Island 734 New York State Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island 559 New York Hospital, Broadway 405 New York Dispensary, Centre Street 1580 Northern Dispensary, Waverley Place 327 Eastern Dispensary, Ludlow Street 630 Demilt Dispensary, Second Avenue 803 Northwestern Dispensary, Eighth Avenue 344 Medical Colleges 207 King's County Hospital, Flatbush, Long Island 311 Brooklyn City Hospital, Brooklyn, Long Island 186 Seaman's Retreat, Staten Island 365 ---- Total 9847

Medical men, and those acquainted with the internal arrangements of public inst.i.tutions, need not be reminded that the general system of record in hospitals includes only what may be called the prominent malady. Thus, if a man were admitted with a broken limb, it would be registered as a fracture; and if the same man were suffering indirectly from syphilis at the same time, no entry would be made thereof, although the physician rendered him every professional a.s.sistance toward its cure. It is estimated that in this manner a large number of the cases of venereal disease treated in all public inst.i.tutions, except such as make a specialty of those maladies, is never recorded elsewhere than on the private case-books of the attending physicians. More particularly is this the rule in inst.i.tutions supported wholly or in part by voluntary contributions. Their benevolent directors have not yet outlived the prejudice which formerly held it almost as disgraceful to treat as to contract syphilis. Some of the spirit which drove the unhappy men and women so afflicted from civilized life to perish in the fields or woods, as in London, Edinburgh, and Paris, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and at a later period drew from the Papal government a bull recognizing the affliction as a direct punishment from the Almighty for the sin of incontinence, still survives in the present generation. The trustees of more than one of the dispensaries in New York have directed their medical officers not to prescribe for such complaints, and a hospital in a sister city, which receives a yearly grant from public funds, has in its printed rules and regulations: "No person having 'Gonorrhoea' or 'Syphilis' shall be admitted as a charity patient." Some remarks are made hereafter upon this course, and the facts are mentioned now to explain why many cases of venereal disease never appear upon the reports of inst.i.tutions where patients are treated.

Practically such prohibitions are a dead letter. No physician of a public inst.i.tution, applied to by a poor wretch suffering from syphilis, could pa.s.s him by without attempting to relieve, let the orders of the board of trustees be what they may. His mission is simply to apply the aid of science and skill to the alleviation of any ailment which may be presented to his notice, and his appreciation of the responsibility of his office is too keen to allow him to refuse the prayer of such an applicant. Hence arises the circ.u.mstance that the case is treated under some other name.

If then the cases recorded are but two thirds of the aggregate, the numbers stand thus:

Cases recorded in public inst.i.tutions 9847 Cases not recorded 4923 ----- Total. 14770

cases in the year 1857 in public inst.i.tutions.

The difficulty of forming an opinion as to the extent of venereal disease treated in private practice has been already mentioned. In the absence of all information, collateral circ.u.mstances form the only guide to a conclusion. The amount is unquestionably very large; so large that, if its full magnitude could be discovered and announced, every reader must be astonished. The first consideration to support this view may be found in the army of advertising empirics who make it a source of revenue. Each of these men must have numerous patients; he could not keep up his business without them. Any practical advertiser knows that to insert an announcement of some twenty or thirty lines every day in at least two daily papers, to repeat the same in weekly journals, and, in addition to this, to post handbills on the corner of every street, and employ men or boys to deliver them to pa.s.sengers at steam-boat docks, ferry landings, and rail-road depots, can not be done without a considerable outlay, whatever its prospective advantages may be. No one supposes these charlatans to be actuated by pure disinterested benevolence. They crowd the columns of our journals, and insult us with their printed announcements in the public thoroughfares, simply because "it pays." These means obtain them customers, and whenever this result ceases the announcements will be discontinued. While they appear there is positive proof that their issuers are gathering patronage.

The number of patent medicines always in the market for the cure of secret diseases, and which the vendors announce "can be sent any distance securely packed, and safe from observation," affords a corroboration. They are made and sold as a business speculation. When their reputation diminishes, and the public become doubtful if all the virtues of the _materia medica_ are comprised in a single bottle of "Red Drop," or "Unfortunate's Friend," the manufacture will soon stop, and the inventors will resort to some other employment for their capital. The extent to which advertising empirics and patent medicines are flouris.h.i.+ng is an undeniable proof of the prevalence of the maladies they professedly relieve.

The legitimate business of drug-stores affords another link in the chain of evidence. Beyond the regular nostrums, almost every druggist in the city sells large quant.i.ties of medicine for the cure of venereal disease.

Sometimes a man will candidly tell the storekeeper that he has contracted disease, and ask him to make up something to cure it. At other times a prescription, which has been efficacious in a former attack, will be presented, or the sufferer has taken counsel among his friends and companions, and obtained some infallible recipe from one of them. In short, there are so many different means taken by persons who have contracted disease that it is impossible to enumerate the various methods in which the aid of the drug-store may be invoked.

There are many traditional recipes which can be used without the necessity of purchasing ingredients of a druggist. One favorite remedy among the lower cla.s.ses is "Pine Knot Bitters." Bottles of this preparation are kept for sale in liquor stores, particularly in those neighborhoods where prost.i.tutes "most do congregate."

Another reason may be submitted why a large amount of venereal disease must be treated privately. Many of the victims are men who move in a respectable sphere of society, and have probably been led to the act which resulted so disastrously in a moment of uncontrollable pa.s.sion. Their social position would be irreparably damaged should they enter a public hospital, and the desire to retain their _status_ forces them to secrecy, even if the natural repugnance of every man to the former course did not exist. It is vain to deny that, while medical inst.i.tutions designed for the public good are so managed as to inflict a disgrace upon their inmates, their benefits are circ.u.mscribed, and will never be accepted by any but the poor unfortunates who have no other means of obtaining relief.

In the case of syphilis this is particularly to be regretted from the nature of the disease. Every day it is neglected it becomes in a tenfold degree more aggravated, and entails proportionate misery in after life.

If it be a.s.sumed that the private cases of venereal disease equal in number those treated in public inst.i.tutions, an aggregate is obtained of more than 29,500 cases every year. If the former are double the number of the latter, the sum will be over 44,000 cases per annum. Either of these conjectures is below the truth, and we are satisfied, from professional experience and inquiry, that there is no exaggeration in estimating the number of patients treated privately every year for _lues venerea_ as at least quadruple the cases receiving a.s.sistance in hospitals and charitable establishments. _The result is the enormous sum of seventy-four thousand cases every year!_ If each person suffered only one attack each year, this would represent one sixth of the total population above fifteen years of age. But many persons, especially among abandoned women and profligate men, are infected several times in the course of twelve months, and any attempt to say what proportion of individuals are represented in these 74,000 cases would be mere speculation without a particle of conclusive evidence to support it.

Notwithstanding the magnitude of the result, a very brief consideration will show that it is not extravagant. In addition to the arguments already advanced in this chapter, the reader will recollect that in a previous section it has been shown that two out of every five prost.i.tutes in New York _confessed the syphilitic taint_. Supposing a girl relinquishes her calling as soon as she becomes aware of being diseased, several days may have elapsed before she discovered her condition, and during that interval she must have infected every man who had intercourse with her. To take the most liberal view, it may be conceded that the portion who acknowledged infection were not all suffering from the primary or communicable form; many of them had doubtless recovered from that; but if only one half were so suffering, and each of these infected only one man, the result would be 365,000 men diseased every year.

This is not an exaggerated estimate. As was said when alluding to the prost.i.tutes who admitted their contamination, there can be no possible suspicion that they would acknowledge sickness if they could avoid doing so, and consequently the sick are certainly not overrated. It may be objected that the numbers who owned disease were spread over a considerable s.p.a.ce of time, but this can be met with the fact that the inquiry which produced this result was in progress simultaneously in all parts of the city. At the farthest it did not extend three months from the time of commencement to completion, and the natural presumption would be that, as during that time the health of the women was neither better nor worse than in any other three months of any year, the same proportion of diseased women could be found whenever an investigation was made; in other words, that two out of five prost.i.tutes in New York are diseased.

The calculation that of these diseased women one half only are affected in a manner which renders them liable to infect their paramours is also a liberal one. Syphilis, when manifested in its secondary stage in the shape of sores, eruptions, and blotches upon the face or person, is so disgusting that no prost.i.tute thus disfigured could retain her place in any brothel, unless it was one of the very lowest grade, because her appearance would immediately repel all visitors. In its primary or local form it is of course concealed from her customers, and may be so concealed for a considerable length of time. These facts borne in mind, is it not almost too liberal an estimate to a.s.sume that one half who admit syphilis are suffering in the secondary or palpable form?

This line of argument, supported by the facts given, is perfectly justifiable, view it in what light you may, and proves that the estimate of 74,000 cases of venereal disease annually is much too small.

Another course of reasoning may be adopted. The time occupied in taking the census is stated at three months. This included all the needful preliminary measures, the instructions to examiners, the conferences with police captains, etc; and the final proceedings, such as arranging and writing out reports. Allow one third of the time for these introductory and concluding adjuncts, and it will leave about sixty days, including Sundays, or fifty-two working days devoted to the actual inquiry. The inquiry resulted in the discovery of syphilis in such a proportion of women as would amount to an aggregate of two thousand on the total number of public prost.i.tutes. Suppose the disease of two thousand women equally distributed over the fifty-two days; or, in other words, that an average number were infected and confessed it every day, and the result is thirty-eight women diseased every twenty-four hours. We wish to make this argument as plain as possible, and the reader will pardon what may appear needless repet.i.tion. If this disease existed in each woman for four days before she was conscious of it, or it became so troublesome as to force her from her calling, and during this interval of four days each woman had intercourse with only one man per day, over fifty thousand men would be exposed to the risk, almost the certainty of contracting infection in the course of the year. As the _Medico-Chirurgical Review_ said, in the course of a similar argument upon syphilis in London, this estimate is "ridiculously small." In the first place, a majority of the women would not abandon their calling in four days after infection, but would continue it as long as they could possibly submit to the suffering involved. Every resident of New York will remember the excitement caused in the spring of the year 1855 by the arrest of a large number of prost.i.tutes in the public streets, their committal to Blackwell's Island, and their subsequent discharge on writs of _habeas corpus_, on account of informality in the proceedings; but it is not generally known that of those arrested at that time a very large proportion, certainly more than one half, were suffering from syphilis in its primary form, and many of them in its most inveterate stage. We make this a.s.sertion from our own knowledge, the result of a professional examination, and mention the circ.u.mstance now to prove that women will not abandon their calling when they know themselves diseased, so long as they can possibly continue it. If the estimate had been made that each woman continued prost.i.tution for eight days instead of four days after she was infected, it would have been a closer approximation to the truth, and it would have shown over _one hundred thousand_ (100,000) men exposed to infection every year.

Again: The supposition that a prost.i.tute submits to but one act of prost.i.tution every day is "ridiculously small." No woman could pay her board, dress, and live in the expensive manner common among the cla.s.s upon the money she would receive from one visitor daily; even two visitors is a very low estimate, and four is very far from an unreasonably large one.

But suppositions might be multiplied, and the argument extended almost _ad infinitum_. One more calculation shall be submitted, and then the reader can form his own conclusion upon the question whether the theory of seventy-four thousand cases of venereal disease in New York every year has not been supported by a ma.s.s of evidence far more weighty than can ordinarily be adduced to establish a controverted point.

It shall be a.s.sumed that the thirty-eight women infected every day continue their calling for six days after the appearance of venereal disease, and during such six days one half of them shall submit to one, and the other half to two s.e.xual acts daily. Then, in the course of a year, one hundred and twenty-five thousand men would be exposed to contamination. To this add the number of women infected, which, at thirty-eight daily, would amount to nearly thirteen thousand in the year, and a total of one hundred and thirty-eight thousand will be presented, or nearly double the number a.s.sumed as a basis for remark. It is needless to advance farther reasons in support of the soundness of that opinion.

Next in order will be the consideration of the amount of money prost.i.tution costs the public. The amount of capital invested in houses of ill fame, and the outlay consequent thereupon presents a total which can not but surprise all who have not deeply reflected upon the ramifications of the evil. The police investigation of May, 1858, quoted a few pages back, gives the total number of houses of prost.i.tution as 378, and the worth of property thus employed can be ascertained with a tolerable degree of accuracy from information obtained, in many cases, by actual inquiry.

The value of real estate where it was owned by the keepers of these houses has been already given in some instances, and in others the rent may be a.s.sumed equivalent to ten per cent. per annum upon the cost of the property, which is certainly not an undue valuation. Dividing the total number of houses into four cla.s.ses the estimate stands as follows:

80 houses of the first cla.s.s are estimated, from actual inquiry, to be worth, including real estate and furniture, $13,800 each, or a total of $1,104,000 100 houses of the second cla.s.s are estimated at twenty-five per cent. less than those of the first cla.s.s, namely, $10,350 for each, or a total of 1,035,000 120 houses of the third cla.s.s at $5000 each 600,000 78 houses of the fourth cla.s.s at $1000 each 78,000 ---------- 378 houses of prost.i.tution are estimated worth $2,817,000

Add for houses of a.s.signation:

25 houses of the first cla.s.s at $12,000 each 300,000 25 " second " 9,000 " 225,000 35 " third " 5,000 " 175,000 15 " fourth " 3,000 " 45,000 --- ---------- 100 Total for houses of prost.i.tution and a.s.signation $3,562,000

In addition to this are 151 dancing-saloons, liquor and lager-beer stores, mainly dependent upon the custom of prost.i.tutes and their companions. Any place in which it is possible to carry on either of these businesses must be worth $200 a year rent, which would give a value of $2000 each, or a total of 302,000

The necessary stock, fixtures, and implements can not be worth less, on an average, than $100 in each place: this gives a total of 15,100

and an aggregate capital of $3,879,100

invested in the business of prost.i.tution. That this is not an extravagant estimate will be admitted by any real estate owner or person acquainted with the value of property in the city; especially if he takes into consideration the location of many of the houses, and calculates how much more the adjacent lands and buildings would be worth if these resorts of vice and infamy were removed.

On a scale correspondingly large is the amount of money actually spent upon prost.i.tutes. The weekly income of each woman can not be less than ten dollars. Many pay much more than that sum for their board alone, and in first-cla.s.s houses it is not uncommon for a prost.i.tute to realize as much as thirty or fifty dollars, or upward, in a week. But if the income is taken at the lowest point, the aggregate receipts of six thousand courtesans amount to $60,000 per week, or $3,120,000 per year.

Every visitor to a house of prost.i.tution expends more or less money for wines and liquors therein. In some cases this outlay will be larger than the cash remuneration given to the women, but other men are not so lavish in their hospitality; and it is fair to a.s.sume that such expenditures amount to two thirds of the previous item--a weekly total of $40,000, or $2,080,000 spent for intoxicating drinks in houses of prost.i.tution every year.

In describing the customers of houses of a.s.signation, it has already been remarked that in the first cla.s.s many of the female visitors take that step, not for gain, but impelled by affection or s.e.xual desire. They would spurn the idea of being paid for their company; but the houses at which their intrigues are consummated being luxuriously furnished, and conducted by women of known discretion and secrecy, have a high tariff of prices as one of their features. Visitors must pay as much there for accommodation as the rent of a room and compensation to a female would amount to in places of less pretension. It is a.s.sumed that 4200 visits are paid to houses of a.s.signation every week, and for the foregoing reason estimating them to cost the men the same in every instance, and fixing that cost at three dollars for each visit, this item will amount to $12,600 per week, or $655,200 per year.

The consumption of wine and liquor is small in houses of a.s.signation, as compared with houses of prost.i.tution. It may probably amount to $5000 per week, or $260,000 per year.

The income of the dancing-saloons, liquor, and lager-beer stores, frequented and mainly supported by prost.i.tutes and their friends, can not be less than $30 per week for each house, and as there are 151 establishments of that description, the aggregate of money disbursed in them will be $4530 per week, or $235,560 per year.

These sums exhibit the outlay for the pleasures of prost.i.tution: the ensuing items give its penalties. Of the inmates of the Island (late the Penitentiary) Hospital, in 1857, over 65 per cent. were afflicted with venereal disease. The total expense of that inst.i.tution for the year was $35,000, and the _pro rata_ amount for syphilitic patients would be $22,750 during the year, or $438 per week.