The History of Prostitution Part 50

Similar plans with respect to dest.i.tute children have been practiced in New York for several years, and their subsequent extension to meet the wants of adult females has been limited only by the means of the projectors. If the necessity and prospective benefit of this emigration were known and appreciated, the required funds could be raised without any difficulty. The citizens of New York are never dilatory in responding to calls upon their benevolence in aid of any practicable and judicious scheme of philanthropy, and, under the management of an energetic business committee, arrangements could be made which would render the movement self-supporting within a few years.

The compet.i.tion which keeps wages at starvation point is aggravated by a notion entertained by many native women, and by some foreigners who have been long in the country, that domestic service is ungenteel. This idea drives them to needlework to maintain their respectability, and thus, while service is abandoned, the ranks of seamstresses are augmented. By decreasing the number to be employed, and consequently advancing their wages and insuring better treatment from their employers, the servant's life would be divested of many of its objections, and old-fas.h.i.+oned house-work would once more be deemed respectable. This consummation rests more with mistresses than servants. The former give tone to the manners of the latter. It can not be denied that many young women date their ruin from unkind or unwomanly treatment by their mistresses, who have given a free rein to their caprices, confident that if a girl left them they could soon supply her place. This confidence would be shaken if a housekeeper knew that servants were less plentiful, and her own interest would induce her to use well those who suited her. Such a conclusion would be an important step toward reducing prost.i.tution, and elevating the character of the ma.s.ses.[394]

It can not be expected that this vice will decrease in New York when five hundred and thirty-four, out of a total of two thousand, earn only one dollar weekly. No economist, however closely he may calculate, will pretend that fourteen cents a day will supply any woman with lodging, food, and clothes. She who should attempt to exist on such a sum would starve to death in less than a month, and yet it is a notorious fact that many are expected to support themselves upon it. How such expectations are realized, and the sad manner in which the deficiency is made up, are amply shown by the result of this and similar investigations, here and elsewhere.

Thus far manufacturers have been blamed for the depression of wages, but is not the consumer equally open to censure? He purchases an article of dress from A, because it is a trifle cheaper than in B's store. The cost of the raw material is the same to each, and each uses the same quant.i.ty in every article; but if A can find customers for three times the amount of goods which B can sell, on account of the saving he effects through paying lower wages, it is scarcely in human nature, decidedly not in commercial nature, to be expected that he will refuse the opportunity. He flatters himself that compet.i.tion forces him to make the reduction, and as the public do not denounce his action, but flock to his store so long as his price continues lower than his neighbor's, he concludes that his customers should bear the blame. Nor are his conclusions false. The public sanction a system which enforces starvation or crime, and, for the sake of saving a few cents, add their influence to swell the ranks of prost.i.tutes, and condemn many a poor woman to eternal ruin.[395]

Before leaving the question of employment, the effects of different branches of female occupation, as inducing or favoring immorality, must be noticed. Apart from the low rate of wages paid to women, thus causing dest.i.tution which forces them to vice, the a.s.sociations of most of the few trades they are in the habit of pursuing are prejudicial to virtue. The trade of tailoress or seamstress may be cited as a case in point. One mode in which this business is conducted between employer and employed is as follows: The woman leaves either a cash deposit or the guarantee of some responsible person at the store, and receives a certain amount of materials to be made up by a specified time: when she returns the manufactured goods she is paid, and has more work given her to make up.

This may seem a very simple course, and so it is, but one feature in it gives rather a sinister aspect. The person who delivers the materials, receives the work, and p.r.o.nounces on its execution, is almost invariably a man, and upon his decision rests the question whether the operative shall be paid her full wages, or whether any portion of her miserable earnings shall be deducted because the work is not done to his satisfaction. In many cases he wields a power the determinations of which amount to this: "Shall I have any food to-day, or shall I starve?"

It is reasonable to conclude that hardly any thing short of positive want can force a girl to undertake this labor at its present price, and it is reasonable to imagine that her necessities will force her to use every means to accomplish her task in a satisfactory manner. If she finds that a smile bestowed upon her employer or his clerk will aid her in the struggle for bread, she will not present herself with a scowling face; or if a kind entreaty will be the means of procuring her a dinner as a favor, she will not expose herself to hunger by demanding it as a right. In this there is no moral or actual wrong, but there are instances where lubricity has exacted farther concessions, and the sacrifice of a woman's virtue been required as an equivalent for the privilege of sewing at almost nominal prices. If this is conceded, the victim may be a.s.sured of the best work and the most favors until her seducer becomes satiated with possession, when means will easily be found to displace her for some new favorite. If the outrageous request is denied, she will get no more work from that shop, and may seek other employment with almost a certainty of meeting the same indignity elsewhere. That this is a frequent occurrence, unfortunately, can not be denied: that it exercises much influence on public prost.i.tution can not be doubted.

The employment of females in various trades in this city, in the pursuit of which they are forced into constant communication with male operatives has a disastrous effect upon their characters. The daily routine goes very far toward weakening that modesty and reserve which are the best protectives against the seducer, and renders them liable to temptation in many shapes. A girl frequently forms an attachment to a man working in the same shop, believing it to be a mutual one, and only finds out her mistake when she has yielded to his persuasions and is deserted. Or women contract acquaintance for the sake of having an escort on their holiday recreations, or because some other woman has done so, or as the mere gratification of an idle fancy; but all tend in the same direction, and aid to undermine principles and jeopardize character.

In this connection only city employments have been mentioned, but the same reasoning may be applied with greater force to factory life in any of our manufacturing districts. There the operatives of both s.e.xes in one mill may sometimes be counted by hundreds, and their large numbers cause a more frequent and constant communication than in smaller workshops. It has been urged in support of the superior morality of such places, that the very nature of the employment requires the most constant attention to be paid to it, and precludes the possibility of any idle time. We freely concede to the apologists all the advantages they claim, and admit that during the time--say ten hours daily--when the machinery is running, neither males nor females can abandon their respective positions; but, unfortunately for the force of the argument, the motion is not a perpetual one. A steam-engine or a water-wheel can run for a week or a month without complaining of fatigue, but human machines become exhausted after a few hours' consecutive labor. Machinery can receive the necessary attention and supplies without arresting its progress, but men and women must sometimes cease work in order to eat and drink.

Granting, then, that during actual working hours a young woman can not leave her post, yet the mind is free, and the range of thought, when locomotion is denied her, will often turn to the hards.h.i.+ps of her position. Busy as may be her hands, her brain is disengaged, and while her mechanical duties are adroitly performed, the mental faculties will be in full exercise, and for these she has ample scope. Dissatisfied with her close confinement in the factory, weary of the dreadful monotony which makes to-day but a repet.i.tion of yesterday and a sure type of to-morrow, she is happy, when the bell rings the signal to leave work, to escape from the building, and renew outside its walls an acquaintance she has formed before; and too frequently the persuasions and promises of her lover will induce her to seek, in some less guarded position, the independence for which she longs. It may be taken as a general rule that any confinement or restraint which is irksome to human nature must result injuriously.

Domestic servants are not exempt from temptation when employed in large establishments where both s.e.xes are engaged, and many a poor girl ascribes her ruin to the a.s.sociations formed in places of this description.

Thus far it has been supposed that man is the chief agent in the propagation of vice, nor is there any apparent reason to recede from that position. The numerous cases of seduction under false promises and subsequent desertion; of seduction by married men; of violations of helpless and unprotected females, are abundantly sufficient to prove this, much as it may be regretted for the credit of the stronger s.e.x, and also to vindicate the opinion that employing males and females under one roof, in different branches of the same business, has a strong tendency to promote prost.i.tution. Sometimes, however, it is true that woman, lost and abandoned herself, lends her aid to drag her fellow-women down to perdition. In many of the stores and workshops in our city, in every factory throughout the country, such are to be found, and their insidious influence is quickly felt. By false representations and elaborate coloring, they work upon the minds of the simple, or inflame the pa.s.sions of the ambitious, but in either case their object is the same, and in it they frequently succeed.

_Question._ WHAT BUSINESS DID YOUR FATHER FOLLOW?

Fathers' business. Numbers.

Architects 4 Auctioneer 1 Agents 5 Butchers 47 Blacksmiths 63 Barbers 2 Bakers 21 Builders 11 Book-keepers 3 Boatmen 7 Brothel-keeper 1 Bankers 2 Carpenters 139 Carmen 26 Coopers 19 Clerks 32 Coachmen 10 Clergymen 6 Coach-makers 9 Cabinet-makers 16 Diver 1 Drover 1 Dyers 3 Engineers 18 Engraver 1 Farmers 440 Fishermen 6 Grocers 14 Gilders 2 Gardeners 10 Gla.s.s-blowers 2 Hotel and Tavern keepers 36 Hatters 13 Jewelers 10 Laborers 259 Liquor-dealers 22 Lawyers 13 Lumber-merchants 7 Livery-stable-keepers 5 Millers 20 Masons 82 Merchants 37 Moulders 3 Manufacturers 24 Musicians 8 Men of Property 5 Naval Officers 31 Overseers 5 Peddlers 5 Policemen 15 Painters 16 Printers 3 Planters 5 Pavers 4 Physicians and Surgeons 19 Plumbers 2 p.a.w.nbrokers 2 s.h.i.+p-carpenters 23 Sailors 35 Shoe-makers 48 Stage-drivers 4 Store-keepers 37 Stone-cutters 20 School-teachers 14 Silversmiths 3 Soldiers 38 Sail-makers 4 Saddlers 14 Servants 4 Surveyor 1 Tailors 35 Traders 11 Tanners and Curriers 7 Tinsmiths 2 Weavers 20 Wheelwright 1 Unascertained 106 ---- Total 2000

This table shows that almost all cla.s.ses of society are exposed to the influences which result in prost.i.tution, from the children of men of property, bankers, merchants, and professional men, down to the families of mechanics and laborers. The numerous and varied occupations of the fathers of those women who answered the question renders any cla.s.sification of them almost impossible. A majority of the parents were either mechanics or laborers, men who earned the daily food for themselves and families by manual labor, and whose resources would be governed by the ordinary fluctuations of trade.

In following the proportion of natives and foreigners as exhibited in previous tables, it must be remembered that about five eighths of these fathers were residents of other countries than the United States when those daughters were born whose replies form the bases of these statistics, and it is scarcely necessary to say that labor is nowhere so well remunerated as with us. The average wages, for instance, of a first-cla.s.s mechanic in England or Ireland seldom exceed, and, indeed, rarely amount to, nine dollars per week, and an ordinary laborer is very well paid if he receives half that sum. This estimate refers to large cities, where the expenses of maintaining a family are as heavy as in New York, and it indicates poverty, which has already been proved to be one of the main causes of female depravity.

If the investigation is pursued into the rural districts of Great Britain, the wages of mechanics and laborers will be found lower than they are in large cities, without any material reduction in the necessary expenditure except in the item of house-rent. The pitiful amounts paid to agricultural laborers (often only twenty-five cents a day) will surprise any one who is not fully acquainted with the hards.h.i.+ps endured by this unfortunate cla.s.s, and the state of dest.i.tution in which they are compelled to _exist_ (it can not, with any propriety, be called _living_), and to rear their families.

More than one half of the foreigners are from Ireland, and no person acquainted with the social history of that unhappy country need be told of the want and deprivation endured by its peasantry, of their useless efforts to benefit themselves, or of the ruin, starvation, and disease with which they are so frequently afflicted. To const.i.tute a farmer in Ireland, a man must hire an acre or two of land, for which he pays a heavy rent, as two or sometimes three "middle-men" have to obtain their profits before the landlord receives his share. In this field he plants as many potatoes as can be crowded into it; and in his hut or cabin he keeps a pig or some fowls, regularly domesticated as members of the family, and receiving more attention than the children. From the sale of the pig the rent has to be obtained, and from the proceeds of the poultry, with the potatoes, all their wants have to be supplied. Thus, with the potatoes he raises for almost his sole means of support, with peat from some bog in the neighborhood to furnish him with fuel, he lives until the impoverished soil refuses to yield its annual crop, or yields it in a diseased and poisonous state, when fever and starvation come to fill his cup of misery, and render him dependent upon charity for an existence. And this in a land peculiarly rich in all that is necessary to make its people a great and happy nation.

This has been known as the state of Ireland for many years, and in this condition it unquestionably was when the women who here are now prost.i.tutes were born there. Whether the severe lessons taught by the last famine, the more enlightened and liberal policy which has governed England, since that terrible calamity, in its legislation for the sister island, the introduction of Anglo-Saxon capital and enterprise, and the large exodus of the natives of the soil, have been of advantage to the country, it is difficult to determine in the face of the conflicting testimony furnished respectively by English and Irish partisans. It seems reasonable to conclude that an improvement must have taken place under these circ.u.mstances. But this is not the place to argue the political questions so often agitated there and elsewhere; it is enough for the purpose of this work to show the poverty of twenty years ago, and the vice resulting from it now, and to remind the reader that because of the lamentable manner in which the Irish have suffered in their own country, we must be taxed in New York for the support in hospitals, alms-houses, and prisons, of the women whose poverty compelled their crime.

_Question._ IF YOUR MOTHER HAD ANY BUSINESS INDEPENDENT OF YOUR FATHER, WHAT WAS IT?

Mothers' business. Numbers.

No independent business 1880 Dress-makers 35 Tailoresses 26 Seamstresses 12 Store-keepers 9 Boarding-house-keepers 7 Servants 6 Vest-makers 6 Laundresses 4 Bakers 4 Hat-trimmers 3 Milliners 3 Artificial Flower-maker 1 Music teacher 1 Nurse 1 Umbrella-maker 1 House-cleaner 1 ---- Total 2000

Only one hundred and twenty of two thousand women answer that their mothers had any business independent of their fathers, and they were mostly of the same ill-paid cla.s.s as those alluded to in the portion referring to the occupations of the women themselves. The exceptions were, boarding-house, store, and bakery-keepers, amounting to twenty only, the remaining one hundred being servants or needle-women. The fact that even this number found it necessary to augment the income of their families by their own exertions is another evidence of poverty.

_Question._ DID YOU a.s.sIST EITHER YOUR FATHER OR MOTHER IN THEIR BUSINESS? IF SO, WHICH OF THEM?

a.s.sisted. Numbers.

a.s.sisted neither parent 1515 " both parents 149 " mothers 306 " fathers 30 --- ---- Totals 485 1515 --- 485 ---- Aggregate 2000

To this question, thirty women reply that they were in the habit of a.s.sisting their fathers, three hundred and six say they a.s.sisted their mothers, and one hundred and forty-nine a.s.sisted both parents. The two latter answers, embracing four hundred and fifty-five cases, must be construed to mean such a.s.sistance in the ordinary work of a family as usually falls to the lot of children. The residue say that they never a.s.sisted either father or mother, or, in other words, that they were brought up in habits of idleness, which can scarcely have forsaken them in after-life, and probably had some considerable agency in their fall.

_Question._ IS YOUR FATHER LIVING, OR HOW OLD WAS YOU WHEN HE DIED?

Age at fathers' death. Numbers.

Fathers living 651 Under 5 years 289 From 5 " to 10 years 208 " 10 " to 15 " 252 " 15 " to 20 " 389 Unascertained 211 ---- ---- Totals 1349 651 ---- 1349 ---- Aggregate 2000

_Question._ IS YOUR MOTHER LIVING, OR HOW OLD WAS YOU WHEN SHE DIED?

Mothers living 766 Under 5 years 268 From 5 " to 10 years 195 " 10 " to 15 " 277 " 15 " to 20 " 281 Unascertained 213 ---- ---- Totals 1234 766 ---- 1234 ---- Aggregate 2000

From the preceding tables, it appears that more than half of these women are orphans, 1349 of them have lost their fathers, and 1234 were deprived of their mothers. In both cases, the ages of the children at the death of their parents are in nearly the same ratio; thus, two hundred and eighty-nine fathers and two hundred and sixty-eight mothers died when their children were under five years of age; two hundred and eight fathers and one hundred and ninety-five mothers died when their children were under ten years of age; two hundred and fifty-two fathers and two hundred and seventy-seven mothers died when their children were under fifteen years of age. The average of the deaths of either parent will therefore be, when the children were

Under 5 years of age 279 From 5 " to 10 years 202 " 10 " to 15 " 265

and the aggregate result that 1479 parents died before their daughters had reached the age at which a female most needs aid and advice.

At any time and under any circ.u.mstances the thought of death is dispiriting. The idea of rending all earthly ties; of bursting asunder bonds which have formed for years a part of our very existence, of leaving the world with its joys and pleasures, its cares and griefs, for the "undiscovered bourne," is appalling in contemplation; more appalling still when the family circle is invaded, and a father whom we have revered, or a mother whom we have loved, is taken from us.

The death of a father is a sad calamity for his children; the hand that has nourished and protected them, that has toiled for their support, is cold in the grave; their earthly support is gone. But a more grievous affliction still is the death of a mother. It is she to whom the children look in all their infant sufferings; it is her ear that is ever open to their sorrows; it is her bosom on which they are pillowed in sickness; her care which guides their steps in infancy; her love which warns them of the dangers that menace them in after life. Bereft of a mother's watchful tenderness, they are comparatively alone in the world, and many of their sorrows must be dated from that event.

The answers to these questions are full of material for mournful reflection, and strongly indicate the increased responsibilities of surviving relatives toward the orphans. This point has been already so strongly insisted upon that it would be a needless reiteration to argue its necessity.

_Question._ DO YOU DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUOR? IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT?

Extent. Numbers.

Do not drink liquor 359 Drink moderately 647 " intemperately 754 Habitual drunkards 240 ---- ---- Totals 1641 359 ---- 1641 ---- Aggregate 2000

It may be a.s.sumed as an almost invariable rule, that courtesans in all countries are in the habit of using alcoholic stimulants to a greater or less degree, in order to maintain that artificial state of excitement which is indispensably necessary to their calling. One of the cla.s.s in London said to Mr. Mayhew, when he was making the inquiries alluded to in the chapters upon English prost.i.tution, "_No girls_ COULD _lead the life we do without gin_;" and drinking is undoubtedly universal among abandoned women. Even according to the most favorable view of the replies to the query now under consideration, and admitting them to be strictly correct, it will be found that five sixths of the total number confess they are in the habit of using intoxicating liquors. But with the knowledge of facts already ascertained in other cases, the inquirer will be compelled to believe that this is not the whole truth, for it is almost certain that the three hundred and fifty-nine who claim to be total abstinents indulge themselves in occasional potations. In prosecuting investigations like the present, there are many difficulties to encounter. A woman who is found residing in a house of ill fame will scarcely attempt to deny that she is a prost.i.tute, although even this has been done in some cases, yet she will equivocate upon other matters. The facts of her birth, family, and life will probably be given correctly, because there exists no motive for concealment; but the answers to any questions which she deems degrading, such as relate, for example, to her habits or the state of her health, must be received with some considerable allowance, and compared with well-ascertained facts.

Among the more aristocratic prost.i.tutes it is considered a disgrace to be absolutely intoxicated, and the keeper of a first-cla.s.s house would scarcely retain a boarder who was addicted to habitual inebriety. Still, the most fastidious are ready and eager to sell champagne, or what pa.s.ses for it, to any visitor of liberal disposition, and will generally condescend to a.s.sist him to drink it, of course inviting all the ladies to partic.i.p.ate. In the lower grades it is not deemed disreputable to be inebriated, but the proprietors, knowing intoxication would interfere with their business, interdict it until late at night, when "the mirth and fun grows fast and furious," and when visitors, women, proprietors, bar-keepers, and servants frequently all contrive to be drunk, and close the night with a general saturnalia. The following morning, every thing is changed. The proprietor takes his stand behind the bar, and tenders the inmates, as they appear, their "bitters," namely a b.u.mper of raw spirits.

The visitors depart about their business, and the women await, with all the patience they can command, the result of another day's campaign, anxiously watching for any contingency which may arise likely to bring them another gla.s.s of liquor. Even in this case they are narrowly watched, and as soon as the depression from the previous night's debauch has been overcome, they must either take "temperance drinks," or colored water, when any stray customer invites them to the bar. _Our decided impression is that not one per cent. of the prost.i.tutes in New York practice their calling without partaking of intoxicating drinks._

The effects of this habit are well known. In the first instance the woman drinks but little, probably just enough to cause a slight artificial excitement, and bring a color to her cheeks. After a time the proportion must be increased as the effect upon the system is diminished, until the finale is a habit of confirmed and constant drinking. As a general rule, the horrible consequences then become apparent. The whole frame is relaxed, and every movement of the limbs is a motion of uncertainty; the brain is impaired; the reasoning faculties are destroyed; the powers of the stomach and digestive organs are weakened, and an attack of delirium tremens is the _ultimatum_, usually cured, if cured at all, at the public expense in a hospital or prison.

A work of fiction, published some ten years ago, gives the following truthful account of the effects of drunkenness on prost.i.tutes, by one of whom the words are supposed to be used:

"I must have drink. Such as live like me could not bear life without drink. It's the only thing to keep us from suicide. If we did not drink we could not stand the memory of what we have been, and the thought of what we are, for a day. If I go without food and without shelter, I must have my dram. Oh! what awful nights I have had in prison for want of it." She glared round with terrified eyes as if dreading to see some supernatural creature near her, and then continued: "It is dreadful to see them. There they go round and round my bed the whole night through. My mother carrying my baby, and sister Mary, and all looking at me with their sad stony eyes.

Oh! it is terrible. They don't turn back either, but pa.s.s behind the head of the bed, and I feel their eyes on me every where. If I creep under the clothes I still see them, and, what is worse, they see me. _I must have drink. I can not pa.s.s to-night without a dram. I dare not._"[396]

Although this is an imaginary picture its counterpart can be seen at almost any time in the hospitals under the charge of the Governors of the Alms House on Blackwell's Island, New York City, where large numbers of such cases are constantly treated. In 1854, in the Penitentiary Hospital alone, more than fourteen hundred persons received medical a.s.sistance for delirium tremens and other maladies arising from excess in drinking. This fact induced the remarks in the report for that year, that the "cases actually treated here during the last year were directly caused by the lowest and foulest kinds of dissipation and vice, a fact which speaks trumpet-tongued in favor of shutting up 'grog shops,' and shows the absolute necessity of adopting some plan whereby the enormous amount of prost.i.tution now among us shall be decreased."[397] Since then an alteration in the law has sentenced drunken persons to an incarceration in the City Prison, and the number sent to Blackwell's Island has diminished, but not to the extent which would be supposed, as, during 1857, the hospitals thereon afforded relief to seven hundred and ninety-one inebriates.

The fearful havoc upon the const.i.tution is produced as well by the quality as the quant.i.ty of the liquors consumed. Let any man not thoroughly informed on these subjects taste a gla.s.s of the compounds retailed at these places, and he will be immediately convinced that it would be quite as judicious an act to swallow the same quant.i.ty of camphene or sulphuric acid if diluted, sweetened, and colored. The various liquors, gin, rum, brandy, whisky, or wine, having nothing in common with the genuine articles of commerce but the name, are so many varieties of the cheapest and most poisonous "raw spirits" that the markets afford, and are manufactured in this city in large quant.i.ties to meet the demands arising from such places. Instances have been known where liquors subsequently sold in houses of ill fame as pure French brandy have been furnished by wholesale dealers at prices ranging from thirty-six to fifty cents a gallon. There may be exceptions; some few brothels of the higher rank may sell what is called "good liquor," but they are very rare indeed. Is it any matter of surprise that drunkenness, or, more properly speaking, stupefaction and insensibility are so rife; that so many const.i.tutions are ruined and so many characters destroyed when agencies like these are tolerated?

_Question._ DID YOUR FATHER DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUORS? IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT?

Fathers' habits. Numbers.

Did not drink liquor 548 Drank moderately 636 " intemperately 596 Unascertained 220 ---- ---- Totals 1452 548 ---- 1452 ---- Aggregate 2000

_Question._ DID YOUR MOTHER DRINK INTOXICATING LIQUORS? IF SO, TO WHAT EXTENT?