The following facts illustrate the manner in which young women are sometimes entrapped. A respectably-dressed man went into an intelligence office, and represented himself as a storekeeper residing some twenty miles from New York. He wished to hire a girl as seamstress and chambermaid, who must go home with him the same afternoon. Glancing around the waiting-room, he soon saw one of sufficiently attractive appearance, to whom he made the proposition. The wages he offered were liberal, the work was described as light, and the woman made an arrangement to accompany him forthwith. He told her that he had a little business to transact before he could leave the city, but that she could wait for him at his sister’s until the cars were ready to start. She had but slight knowledge of the temptations of New York, and went with him to a brothel, the keeper of which he stated to be his sister. Here she remained for some hours waiting his return. The “sister” expressed her surprise at his absence, but concluded that his business had detained him, and, with apparently a kindly feeling, told the girl that she would be welcome to sleep there that night. Her suspicions were lulled by the seeming respectability of the persons, and she remained. In the course of the evening the character of the house became evident, and then the proprietress offered to engage her as a servant, solemnly promising that she should not be exposed to any insult. Almost a total stranger in the city, and destitute of money, she consented. A very few days in such a hot-bed of vice was sufficient to deaden her sense of right and wrong, and within a fortnight she was enrolled as a prostitute.
Keepers of houses sometimes visit these offices themselves, but generally some unknown agent is employed, or, at times, one of the prostitutes is plainly dressed, and sent to register her name as wishing a situation, so as to be able to obtain admission to the waiting-room. There she enters into conversation with the other women, whom she uses all the art she possesses to induce to visit her employer, and very frequently with the same result as in the case just narrated.
There exists among many prostitutes a fiendish desire to reduce the virtuous of their own sex to a similar degradation with themselves. Since they can not elevate their own characters, they strive to debase those of others. To accomplish this, they spare neither trouble nor misrepresentation. One system in which they are commonly employed may be noted, although the mode is similar to the case of the servant-girl just given. A man had resolved to ruin a woman who placed implicit confidence in his sincerity, and admitted that she loved him. He found that her modesty and good sense were proof against his persuasive powers, and he finally resorted to stratagem, and invited her to walk with him to visit some relations. He took her to a brothel, introduced its keeper (who had already been instructed in her part) as his aunt, and one or two of the inmates represented her daughters. The deception was maintained for a time; family matters were discussed, and refreshments introduced. A glass of drugged wine was handed to the victim, and as soon as its effects were visible the villainous deed was effected. Such machinations as this show that not only are many of these prostitutes dangerous to society from their open and avowed life of crime, but also from the influences they exert to deceive the honest of their own sex.
Allusion has been already made to the numerous dangers which surround young women during their passage to this country on crowded emigrant ships, or after their arrival in the equally crowded emigrant boarding-houses, and it is needless to repeat them in this section; but an incomplete statement of the causes of prostitution would be presented if the injurious effects of some of our fashionable boarding-schools were suffered to pass without notice. Startling as such an assertion may appear, it is no more strange than true. A system of education, the prominent design of which is to impart a knowledge of the (so-called) modern accomplishments to the almost total exclusion of moral training; to make the pupils present the most dazzling appearance in society, regardless of their real interests and duties, does, in some cases, lead to unhappy results. Filial affection, or early training, or innate virtue, enable many to overcome these temptations, but others succumb to them. One case, in particular, it is desirable to record, although several of a similar nature were met with.
A girl, eighteen years of age, born in Louisiana, of highly respectable parents, was induced to elope from a boarding-school in the vicinity of New Orleans with a man who accorded with her romantic ideal of a lover. No marriage vows ever passed between them; she trusted him as the heroine of a modern novel would have done, and he deceived her, as all modern rakes deceive their victims. She lived with him for a considerable time. When he deserted her, she was left almost destitute. She was afraid to return to her parents, knowing that they were acquainted with the life she had been leading, and she had no other means of support than open and avowed prostitution. These features of her history should present a warning to both parents and daughters of the dangers attending a superficial and improper system of education.
Of course it must not be inferred that all schools are open to such objections. In the numerous institutions of the kind scattered throughout the land, the majority are worthy of every confidence. Instances like this are probably exceptions to the rule, but still, what has been pernicious in one case may be in another; and the education of young women, forming, as it does, their character for life, should be conducted, as far as possible, so as to secure their safety, honor, and usefulness. In a subsequent chapter, this superficial education will be farther noticed.
One of the real improvements of modern times is the introduction of physiology as a branch of education in our schools. Yet it is to be regretted that the knowledge communicated to youth upon a subject so important is still extremely limited. Indeed, such is the present state of public opinion, that any text-book or teacher that should impart thorough instruction in regard to all the organs and functions of the human body, would be considered entirely unfit for use or duty. Notwithstanding this, the young of both sexes do become informed upon the subjects of marriage, procreation, and maternity. And how? By force of natural curiosity and injurious association. It is the imperative duty of parents to rightly inform their children concerning the things which they must inevitably know. In consequence of their neglect of this duty, both boys and girls are left to find out all they can about the mysteries of their being from ignorant servants or corrupt companions. Let fathers teach their sons, and mothers their daughters, at the earliest practicable age, all that their future well-being makes it necessary for them to know. The information thus acquired will be invested with a sacredness and delicacy entirely wanting when obtained from unreliable and pernicious sources.
Thus would many of the injurious influences incident to the present secrecy upon such subjects be avoided. Of the evil habits and practices common among youth, physicians are well cognizant, and many a parent has had to mourn their sad results in the premature death or dethroned reason of children who, with proper physical training, might have been their pride and joy.
Next to the responsibility of parents in this matter is that of teachers, who, with all judiciousness and delicacy, should supply the deficiencies of ignorant or incapable parents in the physiological education of all committed to their care.
And here a word in regard to the bad effects of, so called, classical studies. Are they not oftentimes acquired at the risk of outraged delicacy or undermined moral principles? Mythology, in particular, introduces our youth to courtesans who are described as goddesses, and goddesses who are but courtesans in disguise. Poetry and history as frequently have for their themes the ecstasies of illicit love as the innocent joys of pure affection. Shall these branches of study be totally ignored? By no means; but let their harmless flowers and wholesome fruit alone be culled for youthful minds, to the utter exclusion of all poisonous ones, however beautiful.