An old proxenet in Paris requested the authorities to transfer the management of her brothel to her daughter, aged nineteen. Her house, she said, was honest and managed in a loyal and religious spirit; her daughter was capable and initiated into the business and would carry it on in the same irreproachable manner as hitherto.
These two examples of ingenuousness are sufficiently characteristic of the morality of the system. In La Maison Tellier Guy de Maupassant has depicted with his masterly pen the psychology of the prostitute, the proxenet, and their clients.
For reasons previously mentioned no real confidence can be placed in periodical medical examination of prostitutes; on the contrary it gives the male public a false security. The object of these medical visits is to eliminate diseased women from circulation and compel them to submit to hospital treatment. But any one acquainted with the facts knows that the treatment is illusory. In a short time every woman in a brothel is infected, with very few exceptions. But, on the one hand, the proxenets and the prostitutes have every interest in shortening the time in hospital; and, on the other hand, the visiting doctor, who often lives partly by their fees, is obliged to treat them with respect. [In Paris, the doctors in charge of the inspection of prostitutes are paid by the State, and do not depend on fees from the women.] The treatment of venereal disease being of long duration and very uncertain in its effects, a vicious circle is formed.
A conscientious Dutch doctor, Chanfleury van Issjelstein, who attempted to eliminate all infected prostitutes from the brothels, succeeded in almost emptying them, by subjecting the infected women to prolonged treatment in hospital. This led to a revolt which endangered his life, and he had to abandon his scheme.
In ordinary hospital practice only visible sores are treated, and gonorrheal discharges as long as they are apparent; the prostitutes are then allowed to return to their brothels. Moreover, inspection is made too rapidly; for, if every woman was examined carefully from head to foot every week, neither the brothels, the prostitutes nor the doctors could exist.
Certain persons have made the proposition, as ridiculous as it is radical, of submitting every man who visits a prostitute to medical inspection! This would indeed be the only means of preventing the infection of prostitutes. But I ask my readers to imagine such a measure put in practice. Is it likely that the habitués of brothels, some of whom visit prostitutes nearly every day or oftener, would make this known to a doctor in their town, and submit, before each coitus, to a medical examination which would cost them more time and money than their pleasure! Can one imagine doctors examining whole queues of clients waiting their turn in brothels when business is brisk!
Whilst an independent prostitute still possesses some human sentiment and a vestige of modesty which cause her to choose as far as possible a limited number of clients, the police certificate of regulation officially places the woman who receives it in the class of the pariahs of society, and this leads to her losing the little that remains of her womanly nature. In brothels, the last vestige of her human nature is trampled under foot.
Degrees of Prostitution. Protectors.—Several degrees can be recognized in private prostitution. A variety of prostitute rather less low than others, looks for clients at public balls, certain cafés and other doubtful localities, and hires herself to a certain number of temporary acquaintances. The lowest and most common form of private prostitution is that of the streets. Generally at night, but sometimes in the daytime, these prostitutes, dressed so as to attract attention, promenade in certain well-known and frequented streets, and solicit passers-by. This is the common method employed in nearly all towns. This solicitation is supervised by the police in countries where prostitution is regulated, and is only permitted to women who possess their certificate of inscription.
Here the "protector" (bully) intervenes, and keeps an eye on the clients at the prostitute's house, or sometimes in the street. If they do not pay up, or pay too little, or if they threaten or ill-treat the woman, the protector administers a drubbing, and sometimes relieves them of their purse or clothes.
At the same time the protector spies on the police for the benefit of the prostitute. Sometimes he assumes the position of legitimate husband, so as to facilitate taking rooms. A "husband" of this kind, with a citizen's rights, is very useful to foreign prostitutes, for without him they would risk expulsion. The protector is generally a scamp of the worst kind, an absolutely depraved and idle vagabond who is entirely maintained by his "wife."