The History of Prostitution Part 19

The negro sailor is held in very bad repute by these women, and some keepers will not allow him to enter their houses, believing that infection from a colored man is of the worst kind, and almost incurable.

The medical returns for the year 1846 give the following tables relating to the women in the St. Paul Suburb:

"In January there were 186 women, of whom 15 were sick; the diseases were

Venereal disease 9 Itch 1 Colic 1 Gastric fever 1 Rheumatic fever 1 Catarrh of lungs 1 Calculus 1 -- Total 15

"In May, of 189 women, 21 were sick:

Venereal disease 9 Itch 8 Gastric fever 2 Inflammation of lungs 1 Spitting of blood 1 -- Total 21

"In August, of 181 women, 17 were sick:

Venereal disease 13 Colic 2 Itch 1 Rheumatism 1 -- Total 17

"In December, of 161 women, 18 were sick:

Venereal disease 6 Itch 6 Sprain 1 Colic 1 Gastric fever 2 Disorder of digestive organs 1 Cold on the chest 1 -- Total 18

This would give an average of about ten per cent. of the women of the suburb sick."

From the facts we have quoted, it is evident that the virulence of syphilitic affections among the registered women is unquestionably mitigated. "_Tertiary syphilis is rare_;" secondary syphilis but occasional, while primary forms have lost their malignity. "There is a marked aggravation of the disease during the summer months, when a considerable influx of strangers takes place. This was particularly observable after the great fire in 1842."

_The mildness of the disease, and its easy control, can be ascribed to nothing but the weekly medical supervision. The women are visited at their own houses, and any reluctance or refusal renders them liable to punishment._

Contrasted with this state of affairs, we have the severity of syphilis among unregistered women, who conceal their disease as long as they can.

Of those arrested, many are found to be diseased in an aggravated form. In the year 1845, of 138 unregistered women sent to prison, 43 had syphilis, or nearly one third of the whole. Parent-Duchatelet says this proportion is exceeded by the same cla.s.s in Paris, where the infected amount to one half the illicit prost.i.tutes.

The "_Kurhaus_" is a medical inst.i.tution especially designed for bad characters who are arrested by the police, be they registered or unregistered. The General Infirmary has also a venereal ward. The police authorities contribute annually, from the amount raised by the impost on brothels and prost.i.tutes, 5000 marks ($1500) to the funds of this infirmary. From the following facts this would seem an inadequate amount.

In 1844 there were received and treated 580 females with syphilis; the total residence amounting to 30.387 days, or a _pro rata_ average of 53-1/2 days each, the stipend allowed for which service would be about _four and a half cents per day_.

The number of female cases of syphilis received into the same inst.i.tution in 1843 was,

Registered women 480 Unregistered women 74 --- Total 554

and in 1845,

Registered women 521 Unregistered women 71 --- Total 592

The state of the male venereal patients proves the same general amelioration in the character of the disease. The cases, however, are worse than among the registered women, which must be ascribed to the dislike of men to enter the hospital until such a course becomes unavoidable. The numbers received were, in

1843 355 1844 335 1845 316

Some returns are given by Dr. Lippert of the amount of sickness in the garrison; but he has not stated the number of soldiers, so no comparison can be drawn from his information. The figures are as follows:

1843, Gonorrhoea 90 Chancre 67 Secondary syphilis 13--170 1844, Gonorrhoea 58 Ulcers 63--121 1845, Gonorrhoea 89 Ulcers 79--168

The treatment of syphilis adopted in the Hamburg hospital was introduced by Dr. Fricke, one of the first to apply the non-mercurial system.

Ricord's practice is also followed, and Hydropathy has been tried. It would be out of place to enter into any arguments here as to the relative merits of these systems.

The mortal diseases of the Hamburg prost.i.tutes are incidental to their course of life. Exposure to the weather, alternate extremes of want and luxury, night-watching and constant excitement, induce consumption, inflammation of the lungs, dropsy, internal and abdominal complaints; gastric, rheumatic, or nervous fevers; and these, or chronic diseases resulting from renewed venereal infection, lead to the

"Last scene of all, That ends this strange, eventful history."

Before dismissing this subject, we will give a sketch of the

HAMBURG MAGDALEN HOSPITAL.

This inst.i.tution was founded in 1821 through the exertions of the Burgomaster Abendroth and others, and was constructed on the model of a similar asylum in London. The object is to reclaim women from vice by means that can be applied only in a place expressly dedicated to the purpose.

The number of inmates is small; only twelve can be received. The business of the asylum is conducted by a committee, including two ministers, a physician, three female overseers, and a matron. The overseers are respectable married women or widows, who voluntarily undertake the duties of a sub-committee. They a.s.sume the direction of the household affairs alternately for a month each. They meet frequently at the house, a.s.sist in Divine service, and take care of the girls who are discharged. These are provided with situations or placed in business, and require to be upheld and maintained in their new character.

The chaplain a.s.sists the ladies' committee in their duties, but directs his energies particularly to the religious instruction of the inmates.

Frequent meetings for prayer are held, and every half year the sacrament is administered to such as he deems duly prepared to receive it, and who have a competent knowledge of its importance and efficacy.

To be qualified for admission, the applicant must be young, and must have a desire to amend. The limited room will not allow the reception of old or worn-out women, who would flock there in crowds to obtain a shelter under which they could die in peace. When a woman's application is granted, she must go through a novitiate of four or eight weeks. During this time she works and eats with the other inmates, but sleeps alone, and is closely watched by a member of the committee. When her novitiate expires and she is fully received, she is requested to give an explicit account of her life, every particular of which is recorded. Her name is not disclosed to her companions, but she, as are all the others, is known only by a Christian name.

The women are employed in all kinds of housework, needlework, or, when practicable, in any manner which will accustom them to continued physical exertion. Their previous life having made indolence almost "second nature," this course is adopted to inculcate the necessity of industry. A strict account of the produce of their labor is kept, and a portion is set apart as a fund for their benefit.

The time of their stay is usually about two years. When they leave they give the chaplain a written promise of good conduct, and receive from him a Bible and a Prayer-book, and the sum of money acc.u.mulated for them. The results of this benevolent attempt are sufficient to encourage the laborers in the good work, and we can not but think that their endeavors must be productive of great good, based as they are upon the sound principle of receiving but a few women, and treating them as members of one family, in opposition to the general theory of such inst.i.tutions, whose managers attempt to crowd in as large a number as a large building will contain, and, in the endeavor to generalize rules for reformation, lose the valuable opportunities for noticing and acting upon individual traits of character.

The particulars of the subsequent life of twenty women are given as follows:

Continued faithful to their promises 6 Removed from where they were placed 10 Relapsed into vice, only 1 Died 1 Unknown 2 -- Total 20

CHAPTER XVII.

PRUSSIA.

Patriarchal Government.--Ecclesiastical Legislation.--Trade Guilds.-- Enactments in 1700.--Inquiry in 1717.--Enactment in 1792.--Police Order, 1795.--Census.--Increase of illicit Prost.i.tution.--Syphilis.-- Census of 1808.--Ministerial Rescript and Police Report, 1809.-- Tolerated Brothels closed.--Re-enactment of the Code of 1792.-- Ministerial Rescript of 1839.--Removal of Brothels.--Pet.i.tions.-- Ministerial Reply.--Police Report, 1844.--Brothels closed by royal Command.--Police Embarra.s.sment, and Correspondence with Halle and Cologne.--Local Opinions.--Public Life in Berlin.--Dancing Saloons.-- Drinking Houses.--Immorality.--Increase of Syphilis.--Statistics.-- Illegitimacy.--Royal Edict of 1851.--Recent Regulations.

Among the warlike Germans in the days of Herminius, s.e.xual intercourse was looked upon as enervating to youth, and discreditable or even disgraceful to men until their valor had been proved by deeds of arms, and their experience authorized them to a.s.sume the duties of husbands and fathers.

In the Middle Ages, when the legislative and executive functions were vested in one individual, and the rights and obligations of the governing power were of a paternal or patriarchal character, we find much of their law-giving directed to the preservation of morality, the repression of extravagance, and the minute regulation of public economy. In their edicts against prost.i.tution this paternal spirit was visible, in conjunction with what may be considered a due regard to the rights and interests of the law-givers, the punishments being professedly directed against a breach of morality or a public scandal, because it was a disgrace to families, and a peril to husbands and fathers, rather than a vice in itself. The provisions tacitly sanctioned its existence; and while they severely punished any invasion of domestic peace or infraction of marital rights, it seems to be conceded that, when no such relations.h.i.+ps were involved, illicit intercourse was regarded as an allowable solace or an actual necessity for the physical requirements of unmarried men.

We learn from the German historian Fiducin ("_Diplomatischen Beitrage zur Geschichte der Stadt Berlin_"), that the German laws rendered it obligatory on every honorable man to espouse a virtuous maiden, and the term "_hurenkind_" (illegitimate child) was the bitterest form of reproach. The early statutes were very severe in the punishment of immodest females, and some carried this principle so far as to require that a woman who led an unchaste life in her father's house should be burned at the stake. The ecclesiastical legislation moderated this severity, and crimes against morality became sins which were expiated by public penance. The citizens of Berlin became convinced that the penances of the Church were not sufficiently potent to counteract the evil, the morals of the clergy themselves being frequently impeached, and secular government was suggested in place of ecclesiastical. This seemed especially necessary, because the canon law, which ordained the celibacy of the priesthood, p.r.o.nounced it to be a work of mercy to marry an erring woman, in opposition to the Berlin sheriff law (_schoffen recht_) declaring the children of such marriages illegitimate; and persons were not wanting who held the opinion that the work of mercy recommended by the Church was at times advocated by the clergy as a means of covering their own frailties.

The same writer records instances as late as the close of the sixteenth century in which adultery was punished by death, the offenders in each case being married persons. He also cites the records of the fourteenth century to show that the same punishment was inflicted on those who acted as procurers or procuresses, wherever family honor was encroached on.

In the sixteenth century the law required that an immodest woman belonging to any reputable family should be publicly shorn of her hair, and condemned to wear a linen veil; nor was any distinction made between unmarried women and widows against whom the offense was proved.

About the same period the trade guilds enacted stringent laws prohibiting the admission of improper characters to their public festivals, and restraining their members from marrying women of that cla.s.s. To attain this end, any master tradesman who designed to marry was compelled to introduce his intended bride at a meeting of the company, that all might be convinced of her discreet character and conduct, and any who married without observing this requirement were expelled the a.s.sociation. The guilds inflicted the same penalties on any of their members who had intercourse with improper characters, or who seduced a virtuous woman and subsequently married her.

A certain recognition of the existence of public women may be traced throughout these regulations, which appear to have admitted the necessity from regard to the rigorously enforced sanct.i.ty of the domestic circle, but, at the same time, endeavored to prevent the increase of immorality by attaching odium to its followers.