The next question was, “What, to the best of your belief, are the average number of visitors to such houses every twenty-four hours?” The replies gave an average of six couples to each house every day, or an aggregate of six hundred women every twenty-four hours. This was followed by the query, “Are all the females who visit these houses of assignation known public prostitutes? If not, of what class do you suppose or know them to be?” From the replies it was found that about two fifths were known as prostitutes, the remainder being sewing or shop girls, kept mistresses, widows, and some married women.
Again: “State your opinion as to how many kept mistresses there are in your district?” In the twenty-two districts two hundred and sixty-eight (268) were ascertained, and the presumption was that there were more. The number may be safely taken at four hundred. The next question was, “How many women, to the best of your belief, and that you have not previously examined, are there in your district that obtain a livelihood in whole or in part by prostitution?” To this the numbers are stated (upon belief, for the nature of the question precludes any positive information) as about four hundred. “Can you form an opinion as to how many women in your district, who are not impelled by necessity, prostitute themselves to gratify their passions?” No definite answers were obtained to this, the general suppositions ranging from one third to one fourth of those who were not recognized as public prostitutes. “To what extent, in your opinion, is prostitution carried on in the tenant houses in your district?” It is generally admitted that there is some, but no calculation can be made with any accuracy. Many of what may be called private prostitutes live in this class of houses, but their visitors would be taken to houses of assignation, where the numbers are included in the estimate given. “It is believed that there are many women who follow prostitution living in nearly all the respectable portions of the city. They (singly or in couples) hire a suite of rooms, and under the garb of honest labor, sewing, etc., pass as respectable among those living near them. It is also known that such as these are the great frequenters of houses of assignation. How many such women (to the best of your belief) are there in your district?” The officers reply that they have ascertained that there are about two hundred, but they believe there are many more.
Thus much for the information we have been enabled to collect. There are six hundred women who visit these houses of assignation every day, of whom two fifths are known as public prostitutes, and the remainder are of other classes. It may be assumed that the known prostitutes visit such houses at least once every twenty-four hours, which leaves over three hundred visits daily for the others. Kept mistresses or married women who resort there for the gratification of their passions probably amount to one hundred per day. It can scarcely be supposed that such visit houses of assignation more than once a week as a general rule, while the others, sewing or shop girls, etc., who resort there to augment their income, would probably take this step two or three times per week, which would bring their number to about four hundred. It thus appears that a very fair estimate of the total number of frail women who are now in New York may be stated as follows:
| Known public prostitutes | 6000 | |
| Women who visit houses of assignation for sexual gratification | 1260 | |
| Women who visit houses of assignation to augment their income | 400 | |
| One half the number of kept mistresses, assuming the other half to be included in those who visit houses of assignation | 200 | |
| Total | 7860 |
It will be seen that, to arrive at this conclusion, all are included who are suspected to be lost to virtue, although of the number who visit houses of assignation for sexual gratification many are guiltless of promiscuous intercourse.
This total number falls very far short of the estimates made at different times by various persons, that there are from twenty to thirty thousand prostitutes in New York City! Such rash conclusions, hastily formed in the excitement of the moment—sometimes influenced by the fact that “the wish is father to the thought”—must give place to the results of a careful and searching investigation made for this special purpose. The modus operandi of examination in the city rendered it incumbent on those having it in charge to approximate to the facts, and is itself a sufficient guarantee of correctness.[398]
If it were possible to parade the six thousand known public prostitutes in one procession, they would make a much larger demonstration than the mere printed words “six thousand” suggest to the reader. It requires a man who is in the habit of seeing large congregations of persons to comprehend at a glance the aggregate implied in this statement. Place this number of women in line, side by side, and if each was allowed only twenty-four inches of room, they would extend two miles and four hundred and eighty yards. Let them march up Broadway in single file, and allow each woman thirty-six inches (and that is as little room as possible, considering the required space for locomotion), and they would reach from the City Hall to Fortieth Street. Or, let them all ride in the ordinary city stages, which carry twelve passengers each, and it would be necessary to charter five hundred omnibuses for their conveyance. These simple illustrations will make the extent of the vice plain to many who could form but an inadequate idea from the mere figures.
Yet the estimate will probably appear low to those residents of the city who have been accustomed to believe New York reeking with prostitution in every hole and corner, while it will seem excessively large to readers residing in the country. For the information of the latter it may be remarked, that vicious as Manhattan Island unquestionably is, much as there may be in it to need reform, in this matter of prostitution it must not bear all the blame of these six thousand women, for although they certainly reside in it, a very large number of their visitors do not dwell there. Brooklyn, the villages on Long Island, Fort Hamilton, New Utrecht, Flushing, and others; Jersey City, Hoboken, Hudson, Staten Island, Morrisania, Fordham, etc., contain numbers of people who transact their daily business in New York, but reside in those places. In very few of these localities are any prostitutes to be found, nor would they be encouraged therein while New York is so close at hand and so easy of access. Again, the strangers flocking into this city from all parts of the world average from five to twenty thousand and upward every day, and they must relieve it of some part of this obloquy.
The population of New York at the last census (1855) was officially stated to be (in round numbers) 630,000, and the proportionate increase for three years to the present time will bring it very near 700,000. If illicit intercourse here were carried on only by permanent residents, its proportion of public prostitutes would be one to every one hundred and seventeen (117) of the inhabitants; but the calculation must include the denizens of the places already enumerated, and, adding 500,000 for them and the number of strangers constantly visiting the city, we have a total of 1,200,000 persons; making the proportion of prostitutes only one in every two hundred, including men, women, and children. It is desirable, however, to ascertain what proportion courtesans bear to the classes who patronize them, and the census shows that males above the age of fifteen form about thirty-two per cent. of the population. A wider range might have been taken, as it is notorious that many boys under fifteen years old, especially among the lower classes, practice the vice; but assuming that to be the standard, there is one prostitute to every sixty-four adult males, certainly not a large proportion in a commercial and maritime city. It is impossible to form any idea of the proportion of male inhabitants and visitors who encourage houses of prostitution. Marriage is not always a check to indiscriminate intercourse, and professions of religion are often violated for illicit gratification. Still there are a vast number whom these obligations bind, and, if they could be exactly ascertained, this would make a corresponding difference in the proportions.
As the case now is, New York City stands somewhat in the position of a seduced woman, and has to endure all the odium attached to the number of prostitutes residing within her limits; while her neighbors and strangers who largely participate in the offense are like seducers, and escape all censure, self-righteously saying, “How virtuous is our town (or village) compared with that sink of iniquity, New York.” It has been already stated what the effect would be if all visitors to New York were moral men, and, although the remark need not be repeated, its appositeness is apparent.