Pregnancy and illegal motherhood are among the most tragic of all situations and tend to deprive the girl of her sense of worth, to isolate her socially, and to handicap her economically. But when the girl is not already prepared for demoralization the recuperation in these cases is greater than we should expect. It is a disaster like other disasters, such as sickness and loss of fortune, and a reconstruction of life may follow, perhaps on a lower level. The attitude toward an otherwise orderly girl who has had a sexual experience or borne a child is not so severe as formerly. Frequently the girl marries, often she marries the father of the child. In his study of five hundred unmarried mothers Kammerer says:
“It appears that 48, or 9.6 per cent, of the women in this study married the father of their illegitimate child either before or after confinement; 37 or 7.4 per cent married a man not the father of their child. Figures in regard to the unmarried mother are probably considerably lower than they would have been had it been possible to observe the situation longer. According to the German experience over 30 per cent of the mothers of illegitimate children marry before their child reaches the age of three years.”[[85]] And since it has been calculated by Adele Schreiber[[86]] that 50 per cent of all German women are unmarried between the ages of 20 and 30 it appears that the chance to marry on the part of the unmarried mother is very good. (In Germany, however, it is half-customary among peasants and the lower city classes to begin sexual relations before marriage and to marry when pregnancy follows.) At any rate it appears that prostitution is not recruited largely from the victims of love affairs.
The most sensational aspect of the girl’s delinquency is connected with white slavery and the character called “pimp”, “cadet”, or “souteneur.” If a young and simple girl is abducted or captured in the most brutal and audacious way she may nevertheless become broken and submissive, as an animal is broken and trained. She will then be put on the street to “hustle”, or in a house, and her earnings collected. She is held first by fear and then acquires habits and works with the system, like a trained animal. Frequently there is marriage or pretense of marriage and the girl finds that the next step is to go on the street. This is the typical procedure of the white slaver. In addition he purchases girls who are already “broken in” and transfers girls who are already prostitutes from place to place, as notably from Galicia or Hungary to South America.
The other side of the matter, the relation of the girl to the pimp, is connected with her desire for response. When for any reason a girl is “ruined”, on the street, used as a convenience by everybody, she is in a condition of great and unnatural isolation and loneliness and craves a relationship which is personal and intimate. Her attachment to the pimp is simply an underworld love affair. He is her man. She is jealous and he is jealous. She works and brings her earnings as if she were earning in another business. Sometimes her pimp will not allow her to enter the room until she has put $10 under the door. If he abuses her, particularly if he is jealous, she rather welcomes this as a sign of his attachment. That the girl supports a pimp to protect her and keep her out of trouble with the police is not the main element. In European cities where girls are registered by the police and protected as far as possible from this exploitation, they nevertheless support pimps, and in some cities the number doing this is as much as 90 per cent of the registered prostitutes.
It frequently happens also that a girl is drawn or drifts out of her family and community into a bad gang, as in case No. 78, becomes identified with them by assimilation, and cannot free herself. She may then be kept by one of the men or sold into a house. Cases No. 79 and No. 80 are typical of the psychology of the girl in this relation.
78. I am a girl 18 years old and am from a Polish village. Now I am an orphan. I was two years old when my mother died. Several years later my father left for America and left me with my grandfather. After spending several years in America, my father brought me here to New York. I was then 15 years old. I soon went to work and earned $5 a week. My father took the money from me and supported me. And now my troubles begin. After I was here several months, I became acquainted with a boy and through him I became acquainted with several other boys. I was yet young and did not very well understand that the boys accompanied me for their pleasure and not out of friendship. When my father found it out, he began to argue with me in a good way; but as he could not persuade me in a good way, for I did not then understand that it was dear friendship of a father to his child, he began to beat me. After my father gave me a good beating, I became mad; left the house and entered on a wrong path.
My father remained alone and dejected and was forced to marry. I now have a stepmother and I am staying away and I feel that I am falling. I feel that my body is fading along with my soul. When I look at my companions, who shun me, who do not want to know me on account of my immoral life, I envy them. I now realize how bad and wrong my life is; and I see my future in dark colors.
Now when I want to disengage myself from the charlatans and licentious scoundrels in man’s image, I cannot do it. My heart is bound to them. I am attracted to them as to a magnet. When I do not see them for a day, I am almost crazy.
I do not know what to do. The question is; how can I wean myself from the boys, my murderers.... Perhaps it would have been well for me to leave New York altogether and go to some other city?[[87]]
79. Five pimps were playing cards in a restaurant on Seventh Avenue. The day was very hot. During the afternoon the girl who is “hustling” for one of them 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?”[[88]]