In the city of New York, six hundred and thirty-four women, more than thirty-one per cent., have been on the town less than one year, and three hundred and twenty-five, or more than seventeen per cent., for a space of time ranging from one to two years. Here, then, is one half of the total number, the experience of the remainder extending through various periods up to thirty-five years. With reference to those who assign such an extent of duration, it may be remarked, as was done in considering the question of age, that they are, with scarcely a solitary exception, those who, having been prostitutes in their younger days, are now engaged in brothel-keeping, and are thus exempted from many dangers attending the ordinary life of a harlot. If the same rule had been observed here in their cases as was done in the inquiries at Paris, namely, to exclude them from the list of prostitutes, the relative mortality given above would have shown still more unfavorably for New York.
It may be asked, What peculiar dangers attend the life of a prostitute in this city? There is a frightful physical malady to which all are liable, and which will be alluded to under its proper head. There are other dangers to which prostitutes, in a greater or less degree, are exposed. It is not necessary to remind the reader that at intervals the public is shocked by accounts in our daily papers of cowardly and outrageous assaults upon these unfortunate women, perpetrated by ruffians of the other sex. Sometimes it is an onslaught made by a party of men, for little or no provocation, on a number of females; or it may be an attack of a paramour on his victim. To this latter description of ill-treatment common women are peculiarly liable; for, beyond their habits of promiscuous intercourse, almost every one of them, particularly those in the middle or lower classes, has attached herself to some indolent fellow who acts as her protector (“bully” or “lover” is the common designation) when she becomes involved in any difficulty with strangers, but who exercises an arbitrary and brutal control over her at other times. In many cases, singular as it may appear, an actual love is felt by the woman for “her man.” In others it is a mere arrangement for mutual convenience, the man taking her part in all quarrels, and the woman providing funds to maintain him in idleness. The intemperate habits of the prostitutes also tend materially to shorten their lives.
In addition to physical dangers must be considered the mental anguish they undergo, which inevitably preys upon the constitution. To this even the most depraved of them are at times subject. In the earlier stages of their career is an agonizing memory of the past; thoughts of home; regrets for the position they have lost. As they proceed in their course they suffer from an anticipation of the future; the grave, a nameless, pauper grave, yawns before them; thoughts of the inevitable eternity intrude; and a past of shame, a present of anguish, a future of dread, are the subjects of thought indulged by many who would never be suspected by the gay world of entertaining a serious reflection. It may be said, in the words of Byron,
“But in an instant o’er her soul
Winters of memory seem to roll,
And gather in that drop of time
A life of pain, an age of crime.”
The period for their nocturnal revelry returns, and, though with a breaking heart, they must deck themselves with tawdry finery, and forcing a smile upon their faces, resume a loathsome trade to earn their daily food. With such torments, physical and mental, can long life be expected as their lot? Can any human frame withstand these incessant attacks for a lengthened period? It would not be at all surprising if the ratio of mortality among prostitutes were greater than it is.
Question. Have you had any disease incident to prostitution? If so, what?
| Disease. | Attacks. | Numbers. | ||||
| Gonorrhœa | 1 | Attack | 153 | |||
| " | 2 | Attacks | 53 | |||
| " | 3 | " | 44 | |||
| Gonorrhœa | and syphilis | 36 | ||||
| Syphilis | 1 | Attack | 395 | |||
| " | 2 | Attacks | 81 | |||
| " | 3 | " | 38 | |||
| " | 4 | " | 12 | |||
| " | 5 | " | 4 | |||
| " | 6 | " | 4 | |||
| " | 8 | " | 1 | |||
| Total attacked | 821 | |||||
The nature and effects of venereal disease have been already so fully specified in notices of the various systems adopted for its prevention, given in the preceding pages of this work, that it would be a needless repetition to dwell upon them here. It is sufficient, for the present purpose, to call attention to the fact that more than two fifths of the total number of prostitutes examined during the investigation CONFESS that they have suffered from syphilis or gonorrhœa. The probability is that the real number far exceeds this average; that, alarming as is the confession, the actual facts are much worse. This opinion is based upon the results of professional experience, and a knowledge of the difficulty which exists in obtaining any voluntary reliable statement on the subject.
Even assuming that the answers obtained are correct, they indicate ample cause for the perpetuation of the disease, and its introduction into almost every branch of society. One half of the total number who confess that they have suffered or are suffering from this disease, state that they have been so afflicted once only. In other forms of sickness which admit of a perfect cure this would be no cause for alarm, but in this instance it is a mooted point among medical writers whether the syphilitic taint can ever be eradicated from the system where it has been implanted, and the arguments on each side are urged with great ability. Without presuming to pass an opinion on the question, or expressing any doubt of the correctness of those learned men who think it possible to remove the taint from the body, it is policy to urge, in this case, the views of their opponents that it can not be eradicated. Upon this ground every citizen is competent to determine for himself the amount of public mischief resulting daily from a mass of prostitutes, two out of every five of whom are confessedly diseased.
Question. What was the cause of your becoming a prostitute?