“5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city?
“6. What is the present population of your city?
“Answer. About eighteen thousand.
“I would, in connection with the above, state that about twenty-five of the forty houses are used almost exclusively by sailors and seafaring men, and are sometimes improperly called ‘Sailor Boarding-houses,’ especially the most decent of them.
“Any other information I can give you I will most cheerfully do, should you desire any.
“I am very respectfully yours,
“F. F. Ferguson,
“Mayor City of Norfolk, Virginia.
“To Dr. Wm. W. Sanger, Resident Physician, Blackwell’s Island, New York.”
Philadelphia, Pa.