The recorded extracts, giving an insight beyond the scene of public view, exhibiting the secret machinery of the family circle, can not be contemplated without a mingled feeling of sorrow and shame. Sorrow, that so many females who might have been useful members of society have been forced into the ranks of sin; and shame, that the instruments in these proceedings were those who should have exerted every power to prevent such a result.
Cases have now been presented to the reader where a sorrowing, heart-broken girl has been denied the opportunity of repentance, and driven from a father’s home; where another has been expelled from the family circle because she would not consent to an ill-assorted marriage; where stepfathers and stepmothers have violated their duties, and despised the obligations they had voluntarily assumed; where a mother’s ill-treatment has driven her daughter to ruin; where parents were living and reveling upon the wages of their children’s dishonor; where false accusations and unkind treatment were resorted to, and, from their natural effects, drove a girl from home and virtue; where drunkenness and debauchery made home a hell upon earth; where parents in affluent circumstances have driven a child from their home; where prostitution was willingly embraced as an escape from parental tyranny.
Again: Instances have been cited where husbands have deserted their wives and children; where the marital vow has been broken in the most glaring manner, and the crime followed by deliberate abandonment; where the wife’s affections have been slighted, and her love relinquished for the purchased caresses of another woman; where a charge of infidelity has been made against a wife without cause; where a husband has deliberately brought his wife to a house of prostitution, and is now leading an idle, worthless life upon her earnings; where another husband brought his wife to a strange city in order to desert her and her children; where the solemn contract of marriage has been perverted; where a drunken husband has raised his hand against the woman he had sworn to protect; where a wife’s sickness and incapacity for labor was made a reason for her husband’s desertion; where a man’s insane thirst for intoxicating liquor has forced a woman to prostitution for a maintenance; where the husband has been committed to prison for theft.
Farther: Cases have been given where an aunt lives upon the proceeds of a niece’s prostitution; where uncles and aunts have systematically ill-used their orphan relatives; where a sister-in-law procured and assisted at the violation of a child; where a brother’s unkindness forced his sister to continue a life of shame; where relatives to whom an orphan child was intrusted abandoned her when she most needed their care; where a brother refused an asylum to a deserted and suffering sister; where an uncle forced a girl to prostitute herself for money to pay him for her lodgings.
As already stated, these cases are all facts, collected in the course of this investigation, and are believed to be substantially correct. With such disclosures as these, can any one be surprised at the continued spread of prostitution? The family circle is one of the sources whence it emanates; so is the matrimonial bond; and so are the different branches of consanguinity. When fathers, husbands, and relatives thus forget their duties, and lend their influence to swell the tide of vice, it is no matter of surprise that strangers should be found ready and eager to contribute their share to the polluted current.
But the evil is not incurable, if public opinion can be enlisted on the side of public morals, and parents are satisfied, by unmistakable demonstrations, that the voice of an indignant people will be raised against them if practices similar to those narrated continue to occur. Husbands, too, must be convinced that any infraction of their marriage vows will expose them to popular odium; and if they have contracted an ill-assorted, hasty alliance, the responsibility must be borne by themselves. The contracts they voluntarily made must be fulfilled. Relatives also must be warned that the performance of their duties will be rigidly required. There is no deficiency of legislation on this subject; all that is wanted is determination to enforce existing laws; and when this is done, some of the main causes of prostitution will be removed.
To resume the analysis of the table of replies: Seventy-one women were persuaded by prostitutes to embrace a life of depravity. One of the most common modes by which this end is accomplished is to inveigle a girl into some house of prostitution as a servant, and this is frequently done through the medium of an intelligence office.
Most of the inhabitants of New York are acquainted with the arrangements and routine of business in those offices, but they may be described as a matter of information to others. Imagine a large room, generally a basement, in some leading thoroughfare. Upon entering from the street you will observe two doors, marked respectively “Entrance for Employers” and “Entrance for Servants.” Passing through the first, you approach a desk, where the proprietor or his clerk is seated with his register books before him. You make known your wish to engage a servant, specifying her duties and the wages you are willing to pay. This is registered with your name and address, the fee is paid, and you are invited to walk into the other department, and ascertain whether any of the throng who are waiting there will suit your purpose. If successful in the search, it is merely necessary to inform the book-keeper that you are suited, and to take your servant home with you; but if you do not succeed, a woman will be sent to the registered address, and the office-keeper will continue to send until you are satisfied.
Servants who wish to obtain situations register their wants and pay a fee. If there are no places likely to suit them on the list of employers, they have permission to remain in the waiting-room until an applicant appears. In these waiting-rooms may be found a crowd of expectants varying from twenty to one hundred, according to the business transacted by the office.
In theory this arrangement is a very good one; in practice it is frequently abused. A respectable housekeeper who wishes to engage a servant will find but little trouble in doing so, and any person wishing to make the office a medium for securing females for improper purposes will seldom be disappointed. It is rarely that the proprietors notice the arrangements made; they merely act as brokers, and make known the wants of each party, and do not interfere with the character of either unless it is so notoriously bad as to force them to notice it for their own sake. So long as the employer and servant agree, the office-keeper is contented.