(3) THE PIMP
The pimp or cadet as he is commonly called, has not yet developed into a professional procurer or keeper of a house of prostitution. While all procurers and owners of houses are in reality pimps, the converse is not always true: all pimps are not procurers, though they may hope to be some day.
The pimp enters the business when he either ruins a young girl for his future profit or becomes the lover and protector of a prostitute already in the business. As the future pimp grows up in a crowded neighborhood, he becomes a member of a gang and, as such, is admired by some reckless girl in the vicinity. Proud of her acquaintance with him, she shares the spoils resulting from his petty thieving and other escapades. Very early in their career the two begin to have immoral relations, not only with each other, but with different boys and girls of their own kind. They have never had moral standards in any proper sense of the term. The large majority of boys who become pimps and seducers of girls and the large majority of girls who become prostitutes were at the start not immoral, but unmoral. Later the boy drifts to the pool parlor or gambling room for his recreation and companionship, the girl to public dance halls and similar places of amusement. Many of these girls are already clandestine prostitutes, secretly carrying on the business of prostitution while at the same time engaged in some legitimate employment “just to keep up a respectable appearance.” Under the pimp’s influence and suggestion the girl finally “breaks” away from her secret immoral life and becomes a “regular.” The pimp shows her the way, provides places for her to solicit or “hustle” on the street or in the vice resort. He attends to the business arrangements, even to the collection of her money, though when she is “well broke,” he allows her to collect her own money and give it to him. Some pimps beat their women, on the principle that that is the only way to make them fear and love them. This may seem a paradox; but it is indeed true that many prostitutes do not believe their lovers care for them unless they “beat them up” occasionally.
The psychology of the relation of prostitute to pimp is a complicated one, difficult for the normal individual to understand. In the cases above alluded to, boy and girl have been comrades, the boy lording it over the girl until she submits to being his property. But there are prostitutes, apparently quite able to stand alone, who deliberately select a pimp; if they cease to be satisfied with him, he is discharged and a successor taken. Why should a prostitute of either kind desire a pimp? There are many reasons: the pimp is her business agent in dealing with owners, hotel keepers, etc.; he is her “go-between,” if she gets into “trouble” with the law; her companion, for she is lonely after the night’s business; but—most important of all—her lover—one person who seems to care for her as a human being, whether he does or not, and for whom she does herself really care. A spark of affection lives at the heart of this ghastly relation.
In her relation to the pimp, as well as to the house madame, the prostitute is not infrequently to all intents and purposes a white slave. For the pimp, like the madame, subjects her in many cases completely to his will and command. This does not mean that the girl is necessarily imprisoned behind locked doors and barred windows. But restraint may be thoroughly effective, even though not actually or mainly physical. Uneducated, with little or no comprehension of her legal rights or of the powers which could be invoked to aid her, often an immigrant or at least a stranger, she is soon cowed by the brute to whom she has mistakenly attached herself. Should she make an effort to break away, she is pursued and hemmed in by the concerted efforts of her cadet and his associates. As a rule, however, pimps are skilful enough to play for and to obtain the sentimental loyalty of their women; so that the prostitute herself becomes the greatest obstacle to her own freedom and rehabilitation.
There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of pimps in New York City. During this investigation scores of their names and personal descriptions have been accumulated, as well as those of their women. One of the best known[141] is a “life-taker” and “strong arm guy,” a dangerous fellow, twenty-two years old, who has been repeatedly arrested as a consequence of his quarrels. A “pipe fiend” and gambler, his favorite occupation is “stuss.” At elections he has his own “mob” who work at the polls for corrupt politicians. His girl is a slim, bleached blonde, “good for $100 to $150 a week on the street,” it is said.
On June 26, 1912, five pimps were playing cards in a restaurant on Seventh Avenue. The day was very hot. During the afternoon the girl[142] who is “hustling” for one of them[143] came into the restaurant wearing a heavy velvet suit. The wife of the proprietor asked: “What are you doing, wearing a suit like that in this kind of weather?” She replied that though she was bringing home eight, ten, and twelve dollars every night, she could not afford a new dress. “He needs it for gambling,” she said, pointing to her pimp. Leaving the table in anger he deliberately slapped her in the face: “Didn’t you pay $32 for that suit?” he said. “What more do you want?”
Another[144] frequents a restaurant in Second Avenue.[145] He is twenty-nine years of age, smooth shaven, with a scar on his face. Before he became a pimp he was known as a “pool room shark.” He smokes opium, snuffs cocaine, and plays stud poker. With men of his kind he is not very popular: they declare that he cannot tell the truth, that for a “shell of hop” he would kill a dozen Chinamen, and for a nickel would “frame up” his best friend. “Just an ordinary, every day, common pimp,” they say,—“can’t borrow a dollar and lives on nothing but the money his woman earns.”
Hearing of places where business is better, owners and pimps ship their “goods” about in hope of larger profits. The women remit their earnings, even if separated hundreds of miles. For example, Fanny, a woman belonging to a notorious pimp,[146] formerly solicited on Third Avenue. A year or more ago Fanny was brought into court, charged with street walking. She was sentenced to not less than three months nor more than five; after a month she was released, according to her pimp, who declared that it had cost him $500 in lawyers’ fees, etc. Thereupon he sent Fanny to Butte, Montana, whence at the end of one week she sent him $150. On June 21, 1912, the pimp complained that Fanny was then sending him only $150 per month. He was sure that she was “holding out on him,” for he knew that she made at least $100 a week.
Sophia, belonging to an equally well-known cadet,[147] whose own parents try to secure women for him, reached New York from New Orleans late in June, 1912. Her pimp and her brother met her at the station. To the former’s utter surprise she declared that she was “through” with him. A quarrel ensued; the pimp was worsted and had to abandon his claim to the girl,—one of the occasional cases, already referred to, in which the girl throws over her pimp.