The shop or office girl who makes sexual excursions does not usually become a public prostitute. Her work is more attractive, her income better, she has more class, frequently a home, and she may often find marriage among her acquaintances. There are also girls who do not work, who live in comfortable homes, and are yet found on the street; married women who prostitute themselves in order to have luxuries; women who go on the street when work is slack and return to work; others who limit their relations to a small group of men; mistresses who are promiscuous between periods when they are kept by one man; factory girls and other workers who regularly supplement the work of the day by work on the street. There is thus a general tendency to avoid identification with the prostitute class. Illegal sexual relations are becoming more individualized. Even regular prostitution is not and has never been so fixed a status as we should suppose; it is rather a transitory stage from which the girl seeks to emerge by marriage or otherwise. In his profound work on French prostitution Parent-Duchatelet pointed out that “prostitution is for the majority only a transitory stage; it is abandoned usually during the first year. Very few prostitutes continue until extinction.”[[76]] And this is confirmed by other reports.

Document No. 70 represents a type of organization which has arisen in connection with occasional prostitution, and in No. 71 the girl operates independently.

70. Mrs. X seems to take great pride in the fact that her girls are always fresh, young and attractive. She will not have a prostitute in her place who has ever been in houses of ill-fame.... These girls, she said, will never do in a quiet place. They love excitement, the music, lights and large business at small prices. They also want to have cadets. Once she took such a girl, but she could not keep her as she longed to return to the excitement of her former life and her cadet. The girls who do come to her are in many instances from surrounding towns or from other States. They stay long enough to earn a few clothes and then return home, where they tell other girls of the easy way they earned their clothes. She has a list of 20 or 22 girls who have been with her at different times. They come and go.

One of the girls now in the flat is called Rosie. This girl lives in Iowa, and was so wild at home that her mother could do nothing with her, so she came to Chicago. Sometimes Rosie and the keeper have a quarrel and the girl returns home. After awhile she writes and says she wants to return to the flat, so Mrs. X sends her a ticket. Rosie is one of a family of three or four boys and three girls. One of these sisters, called Violet, has also been an inmate of the flat and comes occasionally. Rosie’s mother says she realizes that Mrs. X can do more with her daughter than she can, so she allows her to come [not knowing what is happening]. The last time Violet was in the flat she stayed 10 days and earned $50.00, then went home again. She is 25 years old. Rosie is younger and a good money maker. During July, Rosie earned $156.00 as her share. During 27 days in August she earned $171.00.

The men who come to this flat are mostly married. Mrs. X says they are “gentlemen” and do not make any trouble. They prefer a place that is quiet and secret. Other customers are buyers from commercial houses, bringing out of town men who are here to purchase goods. In addition to this there are many traveling men who bring friends who gradually become regular customer.... The business depends largely on the telephone service. The girls are summoned to go to similar flats about town if they are needed, and in turn Mrs. X secures girls from other flats when her regular inmates are out when a customer calls. For instance, on September 20th the investigator was in the flat when only one girl was at home. In a few moments a telephone call came for the girl Helen to go to a flat near by. On September 30th a phone call came for three girls to go to a restaurant in Madison Street and report in the back room where they had been the previous night.[[77]]

71. American girl, twenty-one years old, semi-prostitute, typical of a certain class one grows to know. Works as salesgirl in one of the high class shops—a pretty girl, languid manner but businesslike; popular with business associates. Has a very clear skin, grey-blue eyes, perfect features. Father is a contractor, mother a hard-worked woman whose morals, personally, are beyond reproach but who regards her daughter’s affairs as only partly her business, preferring to let surmising take the place of knowledge.

She grew up the eldest of seven children, went through grammar school and through one year at the high school, then to work. She was bright and was soon promoted to position of salesgirl, where she worked in an atmosphere of luxury and, with a cleverness very common in this type, aped the manners and dress of the women she served. She had been a shy child and had never confided in her parents about feelings or her comings and goings, and they left her absolutely untaught, except that she attended church regularly (Roman Catholic) and was expected to do as she was told.

Sex had been a closed book to her and, as she was naturally cold and unawakened, she was not tempted as some girls are. She did not care about being loved, but the wish to be admired was strong within her and love of adornment superseded all else, particularly when she realized she was more beautiful than most girls.

The department store is sometimes a school for scandal. Many rich women are known by sight and are talked over, servants’ gossip sometimes reaching thus far, the intrigues between heads of departments and managers are hinted at and the possibility of being as well dressed as some one else becomes a prime consideration.

Freedom from household cares, independence of home obligations, and parental weakness all began to have their effect.