This demoralization may be accounted for in several ways. There is frequently a protracted interval between the time when families arrive at the intended port of departure and the day on which they sail; and during this space they are exposed to all the malign influences invariably existing in large sea-port towns, which must impart vicious ideas to young people who have recently left some secluded part of the country. Take Liverpool, for instance, the port whence the largest number of emigrants come to us, and which contains one prostitute for every eighty-eight inhabitants, and the wonder will be, not that so many are contaminated, but that so many escape. When the dangers of the town are surmounted, another source of immorality is found in the steerage passage across the Atlantic. This occupies from one to three months, during which time the females are necessarily in constant communication with the other sex, and frequently exposed to scenes of indelicacy too glaring to be described here; and this in addition to the constant machinations of the abandoned and unprincipled men who are to be found, in greater or less numbers, in every ship’s complement of crew and passengers. Under such circumstances, the germ implanted in the sea-port town often develops into its legitimate fruit. But when the ship has reached her haven, and the perils of the sea are passed, there are dangers to be encountered on land. The present arrangements for disembarking emigrants at Castle Garden have removed many of the most objectionable features formerly incident to their entry into the land of their adoption, yet there are many still remaining. If a family desire to travel to the interior of the country, they can do so at once; but should they remain in the city, they are exposed to the tender mercies of the emigrant boarding-house keepers, generally themselves natives of the “old country,” who, having been swindled on their arrival, are both competent and willing to practice the same impositions on others. It must not be concluded that all who follow the business are worthy of this sweeping condemnation; many of them are undoubtedly honest, yet it can not be denied that others do pursue this nefarious course; and when they have drained all the resources of their customers, they turn them adrift to beg, or starve, or sin for a subsistence.

To one or the other of these causes many girls owe their ruin. Indeed, there can be no reasonable doubt that a majority of the prostitutes of foreign birth are more or less influenced thereby. In addition to these, there are other snares constantly set for strangers, to which we shall hereafter allude.

It is scarcely within the province of this section to notice measures calculated to remove the evils named. With the first, the American people have no possible means of interfering. With regard to the second, many difficulties must be encountered and overcome. The Commissioners of Emigration have taken steps to avert some of the evils, and, in consequence of their application to the present Congress, a bill has been introduced making it a penal offense for any officer or sailor on emigrant ships to have carnal intercourse with any passenger, whether with or without her consent.

The third evil named is a local question peculiarly and entirely under our own control, and, at the risk of anticipating the subject, it may be suggested that the most effectual way of obviating it would be the organization of a plan offering inducements and facilities for young women to leave the city, thus removing them from its baneful influences to a part of the country where their own labor would give them the means of a comfortable subsistence and a virtuous life. It is but poor policy to retain in New York numbers of persons who can by no possibility procure employment in an already overcrowded field of labor, and who must eventually consent to earn a precarious living by the sacrifice of virtue. It matters not through what agency their ruin is effected, whether by the oppression of a boarding-house keeper, the intrigues of an intelligence-office, or the wiles of abandoned ones of their own sex. The degradation is an indisputable fact, and the expenses to every citizen from the extra cost of police supervision, courts of justice, hospitals, and penitentiaries, would probably be enough to remove many from the city who are debauched for the want of opportunity to leave. It would be far better to try the system of prevention in the first instance, and this would probably be successful in many cases; whereas any reformatory plan is almost useless where the Rubicon has been passed.

Question. How long have you resided in the United States?

Length of Residence.Numbers.
Under2months 9
"3" 11
"6" 21
"1year 75
"2years 159
"3" 99
"4" 83
"5" 106
"10" 352
10 years and upward 292
From Birth 762
Unascertained 31
Total 2000

In intimate connection with the subject of the nativities of prostitutes now in New York are the answers to the above inquiry. Deducting the number of native-born women, it will be found that five hundred and sixty-three, or more than forty-five per cent. of the foreigners, have resided in the United States less than five years; and of this number, one hundred and fifteen, or nearly twenty-one per cent., have resided here less than one year. These averages support, to some extent, the opinion already advanced, that a large proportion of the prostitutes in New York City were either seduced previous to leaving their port of departure, or on their passage, or very soon after their arrival here, when they commenced forthwith a practice which forces them eventually to become a burden upon the tax-paying community. In a majority of cases, this must be the result of their career; the successive fall from one gradation of their wretched life to a lower finally landing them in the prisons or hospitals of a city toward whose expenses neither their pecuniary ability nor their labor have ever contributed a farthing. Their support thus falls upon the working population, an argument of dollars and cents which will not be without its influence in a consideration of the numerous evils of prostitution.

The remaining fifty-five per cent., having been in the United States more than five years, are by law entitled to receive any assistance which their necessities may demand from local funds, but of this number there are some who have doubtless been chargeable to public institutions before they had completed the required term of residence, as there are unquestionably many who, in order to procure relief, make false representations as to the time of their arrival. Reasoning from well-ascertained facts, there can be little exaggeration in the estimate that from eighty to one hundred thousand dollars per annum is the amount which the citizens of New York contribute to the support of foreigners who have been less than five years in the United States. Nor can this be prevented unless the claims of suffering humanity are entirely ignored. Of course, the idea that a sick or disabled man or woman is to be left to perish can not be entertained for one moment. If they are in want or in pain, every dictate of our common nature demands that they shall be relieved. But it may be suggested to those interested in the question of local taxation to give their prompt assistance to any practicable scheme which will diminish the amount of vice, and consequently reduce the expenses resulting therefrom, such as a carefully-devised plan for shielding emigrants from corrupting influences, and forwarding the destitute to sections where labor may be obtained. Upon the moral effects of such an arrangement it is unnecessary to remark, as they are self-evident; of its successful working and eventual economy but little doubt can be entertained.

Question. How long have you resided in New York State?

Length of Residence.Numbers.
Under2months 35
"3" 20
"6" 43
"1year 132
"2years 186
"3" 152
"4" 110
"5" 127
"10" 374
10 years and upward 433
From Birth 353
Unascertained 35
Total 2000