“Did your mother drink intoxicating liquors? If so, to what extent?
“Were your parents “Protestants,” “Catholics,” or “non-professors?”
“Were you trained to any religion? If so, was it Protestant or Catholic?
“Do you profess the same religion now?
“How long since you observed any of its requirements?”
In addition to this comprehensive series, space was left for any remarks the examiner might wish, to make upon other points. The queries were printed on a large sheet of paper, with sufficient blanks for the answers, and the officer was desired, as soon as he had obtained all the information required, to fold the sheet, and sign his name on a line left for that purpose, with the date the inquiries were made, the locality of the house in which the woman resided, and the police district in which it was comprised. It is a matter of much regret that in the burning of the Island Hospital, Blackwell’s Island, on February 13th, 1858, all the schedules were destroyed. They contained many facts which, from want of space, are but slightly alluded to in the following pages, and would have been of material service in any measures hereafter taken to mitigate the sorrows or prevent the excesses of the abandoned women of New York.
Farther prelude is unnecessary. It only remains to give the answers as received, with such deductions as may arise from them.
Question. How old will you be next birth-day?
| Age. | Number. | ||
| 15 | years | 2 | |
| 16 | " | 17 | |
| 17 | " | 62 | |
| 18 | " | 143 | |
| 19 | " | 258 | |
| 20 | " | 268 | |
| 21 | " | 206 | |
| 22 | " | 176 | |
| 23 | " | 153 | |
| 24 | " | 96 | |
| 25 | " | 97 | |
| 26 | " | 75 | |
| 27 | " | 53 | |
| 28 | " | 58 | |
| 29 | " | 49 | |
| 30 | " | 44 | |
| 31 | " | 18 | |
| 32 | " | 16 | |
| 33 | " | 29 | |
| 34 | " | 15 | |
| 35 | " | 19 | |
| 36 | " | 23 | |
| 37 | " | 11 | |
| 38 | " | 9 | |
| 39 | " | 7 | |
| 40 | " | 25 | |
| 41 | " | 7 | |
| 42 | " | 6 | |
| 43 | " | 6 | |
| 44 | " | 3 | |
| 45 | " | 6 | |
| 46 | " | 2 | |
| 47 | " | 2 | |
| 48 | " | 5 | |
| 49 | " | 3 | |
| 50 | " | 4 | |
| 51 | " | 1 | |
| 52 | " | 3 | |
| 53 | " | 3 | |
| 55 | " | 5 | |
| 57 | " | 3 | |
| 58 | " | 2 | |
| 59 | " | 2 | |
| 60 | " | 2 | |
| 62 | " | 1 | |
| 63 | " | 1 | |
| 66 | " | 2 | |
| 71 | " | 1 | |
| 77 | " | 1 | |
| Total | 2000 | ||
The facts exhibited by this table are sufficiently palpable to render remarks almost unnecessary, but the existence of juvenile degradation is so clearly proven as to call for a few observations.