The proprietors of this class of houses assume to be respectable women when they are away from the scenes of their business. An anecdote, and a true one, has been related of one of them who, on a recent visit to Newport, so effectually carried out her disguise as to receive the escort of a reverend gentleman, a D.D. of this city, to the dinner-table and elsewhere, with his family, he thinking her a most amiable and deeply afflicted widow. Some of them have private residences up town, in the quiet respectable streets, and come to their houses of prostitution every forenoon, returning at night. A portion of them profess to be religious, frequently attending some place of worship the better to preserve their mask. Naturally benevolent, as are all women, they contribute liberally to charitable objects, and freely relieve any indigent persons who may ask their assistance. Even in political matters they have some weight, their resources and connections proving valuable to some aspirant for local distinction who has promised them that he will, if elected, use all his influence to protect them from annoyance.
Toward the miserable women whose vice is the source of their wealth, these proprietors act as interest dictates. A girl who has not the tact or disposition to attract visitors is seldom treated with much consideration, while one who is successful receives more favors, but favors, generally speaking, of a nature to render her subservient to their wishes; such as the loan of money to purchase new and fashionable articles of dress, a short credit for her board, or some equivalent which will place her under an obligation, and render it difficult for her to leave the house. They are actuated in this by a desire to retain an attractive girl; for, in addition to the actual cash payments she makes, she also possesses the power of inducing her visitors to be liberal in their orders for wine, and the profit from its sale, about two hundred per cent., is an important source of revenue.
The excessive demands made upon the earnings of prostitutes by these women has been productive of a serious social evil. Many unfortunate girls can not appreciate the advantages of leading a vicious life for the benefit of a landlady, and in self-defense have hired apartments in some private house, so as to secure their earnings for themselves. This is generally arranged so that two of them engage a suite of rooms, say a parlor and two bed-rooms, representing themselves as virtuous women, governesses or seamstresses, and frequently as the wives of sailors or of men who are in California or some other distant land. Here they either board themselves or resort to some saloon, and to this lodging, or to the house of assignation, which will be noticed in due course, they introduce their visitors. It is a fact more than suspected that many prostitutes are living in this manner in our city. It is needless to enlarge upon the injurious effects likely to result therefrom.
Before leaving this branch of the subject, there is another characteristic of keepers of these houses which must be noticed, namely, an exaggerated affection for some man to whom they are passionately attached. Some few of them are professedly living with their husbands, but this is an exception to the ordinary rule. Generally speaking, they are the mistresses of some persons upon whom they lavish all their tenderness, and for whose gratification they willingly incur any amount of expense. Some of these individuals are men upon town, gamblers, or rowdies of the higher class, whose noblest aspirations are satisfied by a liberal supply of money. They will readily ignore all social virtues for the same consideration. It is related as a fact concerning a celebrated brothel-keeper in the city, that when she was residing in the interior of the State, some years since, she became desperately enamored of a young man whose friends discovered the connection. They removed him to the far West. Undaunted by the dangers and difficulties which surrounded her, she followed him, and during her journey through the large towns had many offers of protection from men acquainted with her antecedents. True to her affection, she refused them all, and traced her lover to the forests. Here she remained with him, living in a log hut, deprived of many of the necessaries and all of the comforts and elegances of life, for three years. At least, infidelity to her love can not be charged against this woman, and is it not a natural conclusion that a heart so sincere and devoted in its attachment could have been led to a more virtuous course had a different social feeling existed toward her and her former transgressions?
As a general rule, the keepers of these first-class houses will not permit the boarders to have the men whom they style their “lovers” residing with them, although they allow them to visit; a constant residence is considered as likely to engross too much of the girl’s time to the neglect of the interest of the proprietress.
We come now to the second grade of prostitutes and houses of prostitution. Many of the women of this rank are those who made their début in first-class houses, but left them when their charms began to fade. To some extent, they endeavor to carry out the same rules of conduct which governed them while there, and, generally speaking, the management of some portion of the houses of this grade assimilates very much with the former, the same privacy being observed, though in a less expensive manner. In others a marked difference is perceptible, and these will now claim attention.
A longer continuance in the habits of prostitution, and the association with a less aristocratic class of visitors, has diminished the refinement of the women and imparted to them coarser manners. There is not the same desire to “assume a virtue, if they have it not,” or the same ambition to make vice seem unlike itself. Degradation has had its effect upon them, and now that they are reduced to a humbler sphere they feel more of the world’s pressure, and become more daring and reckless in their conduct. Many of the street-walkers and women frequenting theatres are of this class, and any one who has ever come in contact with them would have found no difficulty in at once assigning their true position. It is right to say here, that many of the managers of our best theatres have abolished the third tier, so called, and if any improper woman visits them she must do so under the assumed garb of respectability, and conduct herself accordingly.
Other women in this grade, or rather this section of the second grade, commenced their life of vice in it, and as the natural tendency of prostitution is to depress instead of elevating its followers, they have very little chance of ever rising beyond their present rank, although such instances do occasionally happen, the keeper of a first-class house sometimes consenting to receive a boarder from a lower rank, if she has only recently commenced prostitution and is sufficiently prepossessing in manners and appearance for this exaltation. A great number of foreign-born women are found in this class, victims of emigrant boarding-houses, or of seduction on board ship during their passage to this country.
The houses are generally conducted in a similar manner to those of the first class, with this distinction, that what is costly luxury in the one is replaced by tawdry finery in the other, and for expensive mirrors and valuable paintings they substitute cheaper ornamentation. Their reception-rooms are of much inferior finish. They also furnish wine and brandy to customers who wish for them. Drunkenness is more general, both with the prostitutes and their visitors, and the most revolting scenes are not uncommon. Profanity is indulged in to a considerable extent, and in some places seems the vernacular language. The attempts at fascination made by the women are more excessive, and frequently vulgar to a degree which, while it excites a smile, also inspires disgust. The general charge for board here will be from six to ten dollars a week, rarely reaching the latter figure.
When evening approaches, if there is little or no company in the house, the girls resort to the streets, dressed in their most attractive finery, in the expectation of finding some man whom they can induce to accompany them home. They are seldom unsuccessful in this search, and very frequently repeat it several times in the course of the evening. Others of them visit the third tier of such theatres as will admit them, and there exert their charms to secure conquest. Intercourse with these women is attended with considerable danger, professional experience having shown many of them to be infected with syphilis, while numbers are connected with dishonest men who would not scruple to rob a stranger, if any opportunity offered for the purpose, such opportunity being not unfrequently afforded by some arrangement of the woman herself.