Question. Did you receive any assistance, and if so, to what amount, to enable you to emigrate to the United States?
| Amount of Assistance. | Numbers. | |||||
| Paid their own expenses | 262 | |||||
| Rec’d | assistance, | amount not specified | 618 | |||
| Rec’d | assistance, | $20 | each, | 89 | ||
| " | " | 25 | " | 94 | ||
| " | " | 30 | " | 43 | ||
| " | " | 35 | " | 15 | ||
| " | " | 40 | " | 24 | ||
| " | " | 45 | " | 6 | ||
| " | " | 50 | " | 28 | ||
| " | " | 55 | " | 3 | ||
| " | " | 60 | " | 12 | ||
| " | " | 65 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 70 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 75 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 100 | " | 12 | ||
| " | " | 110 | " | 1 | ||
| " | " | 120 | " | 3 | ||
| " | " | 140 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 150 | " | 3 | ||
| " | " | 175 | " | 1 | ||
| " | " | 180 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 200 | " | 5 | ||
| " | " | 220 | " | 1 | ||
| " | " | 250 | " | 2 | ||
| " | " | 300 | " | 4 | ||
| " | " | 400 | " | 1 | ||
| " | " | 600 | " | 1 | ||
| Totals | 976 | 262 | ||||
| —— | 976 | |||||
| Total of foreign-born prostitutes | 1238 | |||||
It appears that only two hundred and sixty-two, or about one fifth of the total number, paid their own passage-money, the remainder having received pecuniary assistance toward that object ranging from an unspecified amount, which, in all probability, was not more than the positive expenses of the voyage, to six hundred dollars. It will be observed that the majority did not receive more than forty dollars each, eight hundred and eighty-three of those assisted stating that such help did not exceed that sum. This certainly was but a very inadequate amount to pay the expenses of an outfit and a voyage across the Atlantic, and then to support a person in a strange land until employment could be secured; particularly if she was but one of a family each member of which had the same imperative necessity for work as herself. These remarks may be thought inconsistent with the statements published in 1856 of the amount of money brought to this country by immigrants; but it may be suggested that, although these reports gave a correct statement of the sum in the possession of all the passengers by a certain vessel, they are altogether silent as to the numbers who were destitute. They merely proved what has been universally conceded within the last three or four years, namely, that among the immigrants arriving are many with considerable cash means. But it does not require much reflection to convince any one that when a family bring available funds with them, they will leave New York as quickly as possible in search of some locality where their money may be advantageously employed. This is still more likely, as the fact of their being possessed of capital proves them to have practiced habits of industry and economy at home, which would scarcely abandon them when they reached the New World. The aggregated facts as to property do not touch isolated cases of poverty, the most dangerous to this community, because individuals who are forced to remain in the city from want of means to leave it not only swell its long list of paupers, but are in circumstances which may materially influence them to become prostitutes, and have the spur of necessity to urge them forward in this or any other course which may offer a respite from starvation.
The following table corroborates this theory; it consists of replies to the other part of the same
Question. Did you receive any assistance, and if so, from whom, to enable you to emigrate to the United States?
| By whom assisted. | Numbers. | ||
| Paid their own expenses | 262 | ||
| By relatives or friends | 805 | ||
| By money remitted by relatives or friends in the U. S. | 100 | ||
| Stole money from their friends | 34 | ||
| By seducers | 28 | ||
| By public authorities | 9 | ||
| Totals | 976 | 262 | |
| —— | 976 | ||
| Total of foreign-born prostitutes | 1238 | ||
As a general rule, the parties by whom assistance was rendered were not likely to advance any amount beyond what was absolutely required. Even this amount would perhaps be reduced before the termination of the voyage, if it should prove a protracted one, and the provisions of the passengers be exhausted, as there are on board every ship persons who are willing to sell articles of food at prices ranging from three to six times their value, and who are equally ready to supply demands for brandy or tobacco also. On a review of the responses given to the three questions which have been under consideration in this section, it appears that the opinions expressed are legitimate deductions from the premises. They may be thus recapitulated: The majority of those immigrants who subsequently become prostitutes in New York were almost destitute in their own country; they arrive here with little or no means of support; their poverty renders them peculiarly liable to yield to temptation, if, indeed, many of them have not previously fallen. Thus, if we do not receive them as prostitutes when they reach our shores, we receive them in a condition immediately to become such for the sake of subsistence.
Question. Can you read and write?
| Degree of education. | Numbers. | |
| Can read and write well | 714 | |
| Can read and write imperfectly | 546 | |
| Can read only | 219 | |
| Uneducated | 521 | |
| Total | 2000 | |
Seven hundred and fourteen of the women who were examined in New York City say that they can read and write well. This must not be regarded as proof that they have received a superior, or even a medium education, but is a phrase which may be interpreted to mean that they can read a page of printed matter without much trouble, and can sign their names, although truth compels the admission that their writing is very often a species of penmanship extremely difficult to decipher. Beyond such acquirements as these, very few, scarcely one in each five hundred, have progressed. Five hundred and forty-six can read and write imperfectly, a grade of education which may be defined as midway between the amount of knowledge already described and a state of total ignorance; enough, in fact, to relieve them from the suspicion of being altogether illiterate, which is the sole advantage they can claim over the two hundred and nineteen who can read only, or the five hundred and twenty-one who confess that they can neither read nor write. As a whole, there is little doubt that the prostitutes in New York believe, “where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” These remarks are made from observations upon this class during a long hospital experience.