Influence of the Wealthy Classes.—Devices of Procuresses.—Scene at a Railway Station.—Organization for entrapping Women.—Seduction of Children.—Continental Traffic.—Brothel-keepers.—“Fancy Men” and “Spooneys.”—Number of Brothels in London.—Causes of Prostitution.—Sexual Desire.—Seduction.—Over-crowded Dwellings.—Parental Example.—Poverty and Destitution.—Public Amusements.—Ill-assorted Marriages.—Love of Dress.—Juvenile Prostitution.—Factories.—Obscene Publications.—Census of 1851.—Education and Crime.—Number of Prostitutes.—Female Population of London.—Working Classes.—Domestic Servants.—Needlewomen.—Ages of Prostitutes.—Average Life.—Condition of Women in London.—Charitable Institutions.—Mrs. Fry’s benevolent Labors.
The corruption of court morals alone, and without circumstances of national weight and moment, has seldom, we take it, affected the bulk of the population. It is nevertheless undeniable that a lax morality, and, à fortiori, a system of absolute profligacy among the wealthy classes of society, will contribute in a significant degree toward the increase of prostitution in metropolitan cities. It is in the service of her wealthy customers and patrons that the professional procuress is chiefly employed, and, stimulated by high gains, she plies her vile calling, and exerts all her hellish ingenuity to discover new sources of amusement and gratification for them.
In Fletcher’s “Humorous Lieutenant,” written in 1690, a court bawd is introduced reading her minute-book, and calling over the register of the females at her command. “Chloe, well—Chloe should fetch three hundred and fifty crowns; fifteen; good figure; daughter of a country gentleman; her virtue will bring me that sum, and then a riding-horse for her father out of it; well. The merchant’s wife, she don’t want money. I must find a spark of quality for her.” The representation of such character is out of vogue in these days on the English stage; but, while the proprieties are observed, the omission is but a veiling of the subject. The reality exists, though unseen.
In the London Times of July, 1855, an incident is thus related by a correspondent: “I was standing on a railway platform at ——, with a friend waiting for a train, when two ladies came into the station. I was acquainted with one of them, the younger, well. She told me she was going to London, having been fortunate enough to get a liberal engagement as governess in the family of the lady under whose charge she then was, and who had even taken the trouble to come into the country to see her and her friends, to ascertain that she was likely in all respects to suit. The train coming in sight, the fares were paid, the elder lady paying both. I saw them into the carriage, and the door being closed, I bowed to them and rejoined my friend, who happened to be a London man about town. ‘Well, I will say,’ said he, with a laugh, ‘you country gentlemen are pretty independent of public opinion. You are not ashamed of your little transactions being known!’ ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘Why, I mean your talking to that girl and her duenna on an open platform.’ ‘Why, that is Miss ——, an intimate friend of ours.’ ‘Well, then, I can tell you,’ said the Londoner to me, coolly, ‘her friend is Madam ——, one of the most noted procuresses in London, and she has got hold of a new victim, if she is a victim, and no mistake.’ I saw there was not a minute to lose; I rushed to the guard of the train, and got him to wait a moment. I then hurried to the carriage-door where the ladies were. ‘Miss ——, you must get out; that person is an unfit companion for you. Madam ——, we know who you are.’ That was one victim rescued, but how many are lost?”
In another case, the practices of a scoundrel named Phinn were made the subject of a public warning by the Lord Mayor of London from his judicial chair. This fellow’s plan was to advertise from abroad for ladies to go to Cologne, or other places on the Rhine, to become governesses in his family, which was traveling, and whose governess had unexpectedly left them, or been taken ill, or was otherwise got rid of. The candidates were to pay their own passage to the place of rendezvous, when the appointments of the situation were to commence. In some cases in which the practices of this rascal had failed of their full effect, he had succeeded in defrauding poor women of their funds, and they had found the utmost difficulty in making their way home again.
While it is impossible to have any precognizance of the persons and circumstances among which these wretches find their prey, some cases are peculiarly within the scope of their operations. Young females who have lost their natural protectors, and are brought into contact with the world under their own guidance, are easily imposed upon by the pretended friendship of these persons, and being under a pretense of employment inveigled into their houses, are there kept until their fall is accomplished by persuasion or force. It is said that women even attend regularly at churches and Sunday-schools for the purpose of decoying female children. They first accost them, and interest them, without making any direct advances. The next time they proceed a little farther, and soon invite them to accompany them a little distance, when they lead them to a brothel. They have been known to take the children away in the presence of the teacher, who, seeing them act as acquaintances, had no suspicion of the real nature of their associations.[300]
The London Society for the Protection of Young Females have recorded instances of children of eleven years of age being entrapped by procuresses into houses of prostitution. Those who are thus decoyed are not permitted to escape, nor to go into the streets for two or three months. By that time they are supposed to be incapable of retracing their steps, or to have become reconciled to their mode of life, and are permitted to go or remain. Occasionally they are turned adrift to seek new lodgings, their places being supplied by fresh arrivals. Some of these children find their way home again, but the majority of them are of course irretrievably lost, and continue in the course into which they have been thus indoctrinated.
The procuresses have agents in different parts of London, whose business it is to discover young persons, servant-girls and others, who are dissatisfied with their earnings and condition in life, and who may be considered suitable subjects. The number of servants out of place, in London alone, is enormous—many thousands in number; and as “service is no inheritance,” such a body constitutes a very favorable field of operations. The intermediate agents in these cases are small shop-keepers, laundresses, charwomen, and such others as from their avocations have the opportunity of becoming acquainted with young women in service. Common lodging-house-keepers too, residing in the suburbs of London, contribute their quota of assistance. Young women coming fresh from the country, and sleeping in such places for a night, receive recommendations to procuresses and brothel-keepers as servants. Intelligence-offices for hiring servants, which in London are called “Servants’ Bazars,” and are not under any license, are visited by these people in search of new faces.
In some cases procuresses are found to act on behalf of particular individuals only. In one case, such a woman kept a small shop, to which she invited servant-girls in the neighborhood after a little acquaintance. By her assistance, aided by liberal entertainment with wines and spirits, her employers (two men of property) were enabled to corrupt eight servant-girls in a short space of time.
A constant trade in prostitution is carried on between London and Hamburg, London and Paris, and London and the country. Three or four years ago a trial took place at the Central Criminal Court (London) of a man and woman who were engaged in the importation of females for purposes of prostitution. The prisoners were convicted. The details of the trial show that a regular organization existed. In some cases, Parisian prostitutes were hired in Paris for the London market by the ordinary agents in such contracts; in other cases, the parties in both capitals decoyed young women into their service on pretense of reputable engagements, and shipped them over to their consignees. Of course, every care is taken in these matters to keep the transaction confidential; for, although the English laws are practically most defective, still, in cases exciting any degree of notoriety, and in which the offense can be satisfactorily established by legal proof, prosecutions do take place.