Calculating on the basis of the respective populations, Vermont and New Hampshire have nearly the same proportion as Maine; Massachusetts exceeds the average; and Connecticut (par excellence, “the land of steady habits”) has a still larger excess. New Jersey has the largest proportion of any state in the union, and Pennsylvania shows about the average of Maine. The Southern and Western States have but few representatives. New York, the home state, will be noticed in due course. The preceding facts will supply materials for reflection, in conjunction with the question, “On what hypothesis can these proportions be explained?”

The self-evident answer to this query would seem to be that the excess from the Eastern and Middle States arises from the employment of a much larger proportion of females in manufacturing and sedentary occupations. A young woman of ardent temperament can not but feel the hardship of this position in life as compared with her more favored sisters in other states, and when such an idea has once obtained possession of her mind, it forms a subject for constant thought. Thus, when already predisposed in favor of any change, she falls into the hands of the tempter a pliant victim. Beyond the hardship attendant on her daily labor, the associations which are formed in factories or workshops where both sexes are employed very frequently result disastrously for the female. Notwithstanding all the care which may be taken on the part of employers—and it is a subject for national pride that American manufacturers are doing far more to elevate the moral character of their employés than the same class of men in other lands—it is morally impossible that these intimacies can be entirely suppressed, nor can their ruinous effects be prevented. Study the moral statistics of any of the manufacturing towns in Great Britain or on the Continent of Europe, and the same results are presented, but in a more alarming degree, because there the supervision is not only weak in itself, but is frequently intrusted to improper persons, whose interest is often in direct opposition to their duty.

A few words in respect to the State of New York. The number of prostitutes in proportion to the population far exceeds the ratio from any other state except New Jersey. Beyond the effect of manufactures, which operate here to a corresponding extent as in other states, the immense maritime business of New York City, and the constant flood of immigrants and strangers passing through it, must be taken into consideration. This constantly fills some localities with sailors, men proverbial for having “in every port a wife,” and many of whom are notorious frequenters of houses of prostitution. This circumstance proves that this infernal traffic is governed by the same rules which regulate commercial transactions, namely, that the supply is in proportion to the demand. If, by any miracle, all the seamen and strangers visiting New York could be transformed into moral men, at least from one half to two thirds of the houses of ill fame would be absolutely bankrupt.

The constant flood of immigration leaves a mass of debris behind it, consisting, in the first place, of men idle and vicious in their own lands, who transfer their vices to the country of their adoption, and for a time after arrival here devote what means they possess to the pursuit of debauchery, and materially help to swell the torrent of immorality. Another class of immigrants are women, many of whom are sent here by charitable (?) associations or public bodies in foreign lands, as the most economical way to get rid of them. Many of these females become mothers almost as soon as they land on these shores; in fact, the probability of such an event sometimes hastens their departure. They exist here in the most squalid misery in some tenement house or hovel. Their children receive none of the advantages of education; for, as soon as they can beg, they are compelled to aid in the struggle for bread, and the most frequent result is that the boys are arrested for some petty theft, and the girls become prostitutes, thus contributing to meet the demand caused by the classes already mentioned.

But, in addition to these foreign children born by accident in our state, the proportion of prostitutes from New York is increased by the facility offered for transit from the interior to the city. Doubtless there are many courtesans from the eastern and southern districts who find their way to some of the large cities in their own part of the country, and so, on the same principle, when a woman in this state has fallen into vicious habits her natural resort is to this metropolis. In addition to the more extended market it offers for her charms, its advantages as a great central rendezvous for the nation must not be overlooked. Here a prostitute can live until her attractions wane, and hence she can easily reach any southern or other point where abandoned women are in demand. Despite of the large number of prostitutes ascertained to have been born within the bounds of New York State, it can not be conceded that we are any less moral than our neighbors in other parts of the confederation.

It is a matter for the most serious consideration, to be followed by sound and judicious action, either legislative or personal, that so large a number of American girls fall victims to this fell destroyer in a land where a good education is within the reach of every one; where industry, if properly applied in the right channels, will afford a comfortable maintenance for all; where the natural resources are sufficient to support nearly half the inhabitants of the world.

Question. Were you born abroad? If so, in what country?

Countries.Numbers.
Austria 2
Belgium 1
British North America 63
Denmark 1
England 104
France 13
Germany 249
Ireland 706
Italy 1
Poland 3
Prussia 6
Saxony 2
Scotland 52
Switzerland 17
Wales 1
West Indies 4
At Sea 13
Total born abroad 1238

It has been frequently remarked, and as generally believed, in the absence of any satisfactory information on the subject, that a very large majority of the prostitutes in New York are of foreign birth; but the facts already developed, with the few remarks which will be made upon the above table of nativities, go far toward falsifying that opinion. The enumeration shows that five eighths only were born abroad, the dominions of Great Britain furnishing the largest proportion. The ratio in which the several parts of that kingdom supply the New World with courtesans may be stated in round numbers as follows: Ireland contributes one prostitute to every four thousand of her population; British North America, one prostitute to every seven thousand of population; Scotland, one prostitute to every sixteen thousand of population; England and Wales, one prostitute to every fifty thousand of population. Of course, this will be understood as referring to all prostitutes now living in this city, assuming the average nativities of all to be fairly represented in the replies obtained from a portion.

But these numbers, being based upon the population of the several countries, give but a very imperfect idea of the extent of vice among that portion of their people who have settled in America, and a more satisfactory comparison can be drawn from the records of emigration. Upon an examination of the arrivals in each year from the time the existing Board of Commissioners of Emigration was organized to the end of 1857 (a period of ten years), it is found that the numbers average two hundred and thirty thousand per annum, which gives a proportion of one prostitute to every two hundred and fifty emigrants. This is based upon the theory that one fourth of the abandoned women die or are otherwise removed from the city every year. To repeat this fact in plainer words: of every two hundred and fifty emigrants—men, women, and children, who land at our docks, at least one woman eventually becomes known as a prostitute.