In the course of the year 1856, the attention of the Board of Education was directed to the large number of children not attending any school, and upon the basis of a partial census of the city they were assumed to amount to sixty thousand. This was conceded to be an over-estimate. The figures given above would make the number 39,594, which may very likely be nearer the truth; but even this may be in excess, and, to allow for all possible contingencies, we will place it at thirty thousand. Even this is an alarming statement: the suggestion that of all the children in our city nearly twenty-seven per cent. are growing up in a state of perfect ignorance, presents so many frightful considerations that the mind revolts at the bare possibility. But the facts will not permit any other construction. If this criminal neglect be continued, it must produce fatal consequences to society, and the view of impending results would almost sanction a compulsory education.[382]
Question. Are you single, married, or widowed?
| Condition. | Numbers. | |
| Single | 1216 | |
| Married | 490 | |
| Widowed | 294 | |
| Total | 2000 | |
The civil condition of the prostitutes in New York City furnishes matter of serious consideration in view of the slight restraints which the ordinarily received rules of society place upon the passions, and the utter inefficiency of such regulations to counteract the influences tending to female degradation; influences, in fact, which they very frequently augment rather than check. In the cases of many females now under notice, marriage was invested not only with the sanctions of a civil contract between the parties, as recognized by our state laws, but, according to the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, was regarded as one of the seven holy sacraments which it is deemed an act of sacrilege to violate. Yet, in the face of these ordinances, the civil contract is broken, the sacrament is profaned in one fourth of the total number of cases, or four hundred and ninety out of two thousand which are now under notice. It would be out of place to enter here on any disquisition respecting the duties of the married state; regarded in its abuses as provocative of prostitution it is noticed hereafter. Enjoined by the precepts of Holy Writ, supported by the sentiment of the world, and respected by all virtuous men, marriage is an institution which needs no argument to enforce its claims to the most rigid observance.
That this sacred compact is too frequently violated by one or other of the contracting parties is proved by almost daily experience either in courts of law or by intercourse with the world. Conflicting testimony sometimes renders it doubtful to whom the blame ought to be imputed, but there can be no uncertainty whatever as to the opinions entertained by society at large in such cases. If the husband has been guilty of a breach of his conjugal duties, he reads the whole of the evidence, graphically reported, with occasional embellishments, in the columns of the daily papers, flatters himself that he is acquiring notoriety, is congratulated by friends of his own predilections on his success, and in a short time is fully reinstated in his former social position. On the contrary, if the weight of evidence is against the wife, the whole artillery of the world’s scorn is leveled at her head. She is driven from society, crushed by the proudly virtuous frowns of her own sex and the contemptuous sneers of the other. Dishonored and despised, she is too often left with no means of existence but indiscriminate prostitution, the temptation to such degradation being aggravated by the consciousness of her previous infidelity and its results. There is no possibility of salvation for her. The moral world has resolved she shall not repent, and the least attempt on her part to atone for an error over which she mourns with all the intensity of her nature is sternly resisted by the virtuous indignation of society, which erects an impassable barrier between herself and her hopes of reformation.
Of the prostitutes in New York, one thousand two hundred and sixteen have never been married. Their sin is the less because they have not to answer for broken vows, nor have they any outraged confidence on which to brood, but to endure only the sin and odium attached to their present condition. Two hundred and ninety-five prostitutes are widowed. In their cases death has put an end to the marital contract, and, thus left free to act for themselves, they stand in nearly the same condition as single women.
An investigation of the nativities of these women shows that about one third each of the single and married prostitutes are natives of the United States, and of widows about one half were born in this country.
The question may arise as to the causes to be assigned for the depravity of married women, and for the large proportion of widows in the ranks of the abandoned. It would certainly appear that one of the principal, if not the principal cause which can be specified is the very early age at which such marriages are contracted. Young people yield to the impulse of a moment, acknowledge the charms of a person they meet in a ball-room or public assembly, and are married with a very imperfect knowledge of each other’s character, with but little reflection on the probable result of the alliance, and with but a slight appreciation of the obligations they are contracting. It was a wise regulation, whether regarded physically or morally, which fixed the earliest period of marriage in ancient Germany at twenty-five years, and declared the union invalid if the parties had not reached that time of life; nor would the morality of New York suffer if a similar restriction was the rule instead of the exception here. The annexed cases, selected at random from the replies received, are submitted in support of this opinion.
E. C., now nineteen years of age, is a married woman, who has been separated from her husband five years, and must therefore have been married when less than fourteen years old. C. W., now twenty-one years of age, has been a widow for five years, and was married at fifteen. A. S. was married at sixteen, and E. R. at fifteen. C. C., now twenty-eight years old, has been a widow more than twelve years. C. G., aged twenty-four, has been a widow seven years. Both these women were under sixteen when married. The list might be extended almost indefinitely.
The following inquiry, as a continuation of the same branch of the subject, is embodied in this section.