Nor is it unreasonable to hope that prostitution would be diminished. It has flourished of late years in seclusion, but our plan would render privacy impossible. Seclusion has attracted many unfortunate women, whom shame, or a dread of exposure, would have deterred, had they known that houses of ill fame were always open to the visits of the police, or that every few days a physician would make a tour of inspection, and a personal examination, to which they must submit. Generally speaking, these women have a dread of falling into the hands of a doctor, and in present circumstances they know that a medical examination is optional with themselves, until they become so sick as to render it unavoidable. But if their miserable life were burdened with the additional annoyance of a compulsory medical treatment it is probable that a considerable check might be imposed thereon.
Public decency would be advanced by such visitations. To effectually perform their duties the Medical Bureau and the General Police Department would find it necessary to make themselves personally acquainted with these women, and to keep a register of all houses where prostitution was carried on. Now, the prohibition which has driven it into secrecy has also rendered it difficult to determine who are frail. Prostitutes are found in hotels, fashionable restaurants, steam-boat excursions, watering-places, and suburban retreats. They visit balls and other public entertainments; sometimes by sufferance, but more frequently because they are not known. It is needless to say how virtuous women can be annoyed and insulted by such companionship, or to what extent prostitutes can use their influence in miscellaneous society. If the police were personally acquainted with these women, they could act in the same manner as on the Continent of Europe, namely, touch them upon the shoulder and quietly give them a hint to leave. Or another reform could easily be introduced—the confinement of all prostitutes to particular localities in the city, so as to limit their influence. This would be tantamount to the ancient regulations prescribing their dress or some distinctive mark; and to the present arrangements in Europe, where the houses are distinguished by some specified peculiarity. It would also prevent the depreciation of property which takes place in any neighborhood where a brothel is established.
Public decency would be served in another manner. It is a most humiliating admission, that New York is fast approaching to the condition of certain foreign cities, where unnatural practices first led to the contemplation and adoption of these or similar remedial measures. In our case, they are known to the authorities, but are so revolting that they never have been, and never can be, made public. Of course, such an organization would take special cognizance of these detestable abominations.
Objections to the expense of the plan may be raised, and it can not be denied that it will be large, yet it will be a matter of economy to incur it, even at the risk of increasing taxation, which it will not do. Recollect that every year, as the virulence of syphilis was abated, the cause of the expense would diminish, and that in a direct ratio to the energy displayed in the examination would be the progressive reduction of expenditure. It has already been indicated how some of the inmates of a syphilitic hospital, from whom hitherto nothing has been received, could be made to contribute their quota of the cost. Now, the public bear all the expenses, either as assessments or as private payments in individual attacks. The magnitude of the latter item has been already estimated, and were it possible to calculate in addition the value of lost time, the injury to business, and the deterioration of the constitution, the total in one year would be far more than sufficient to carry out the whole of this plan for double the time.
It would also be economy to incur the outlay on account of the benefits to succeeding generations. Syphilis is not confined in its effects to the life-time of the men or women who contract it, but is entailed on their descendants. These, provided they survive its baneful effects during infancy, are mentally and physically unfitted for business or the active pursuits of life, and, consequently, are frequently indebted for the means of sustenance to their friends or to public institutions. If the liability to that disease among parents can be removed, no fears need be entertained about their children.
We are not so sanguine as to imagine that all the good effects above enumerated could be accomplished instanter. It would be a work of time, but the sooner it is commenced the better for all the interests involved. Many persons will say, “Oh! these evils do not concern us; these diseases will never injure us or ours; why should we trouble ourselves, and give our money, time, and attention to such matters?” Stop, reader! While human passion exists, and while the means of gratifying it can be obtained, you and yours can and will, nay, do now suffer from it, directly or indirectly. The first question for any citizen to ask himself is, Can prostitution be abolished; can it be crushed out? If this be answered in the negative, as it must be, then the next question brings him to the point sought to be attained in these pages, namely, the means that shall be taken to circumscribe and diminish its consequent diseases and evils.
This question has latterly been attracting some attention in England, and plans to mitigate the evil have been publicly discussed. The chief grounds of complaint, or at least those brought most prominently forward, were the assembling of prostitutes in the streets, the annoyance they caused to passengers, and the disorderly character of “night-houses.” This term is applied in London to those public houses, supper-rooms, wine and cigar saloons, etc., which are situated near the theatres and places of public entertainment, and, being permitted to remain open all night, become resorts for prostitutes. A public meeting for consultation upon these evils was held in London in January last (1858), and the remarks made by some of the speakers are so much in accordance with the general tenor of this work as to be worth extracting. In justice to the writer it must be premised that the preceding part of this chapter was penned twelve months before the report of this meeting was made public.
The chairman observed “that he was glad to see so general an interest elicited on this subject, and that he hoped it would lead to some practical result. It would, in fact, be impossible to aggravate the evil, for neither in Paris, Berlin, New York, nor even in the cities of Asia, was there such a public exhibition of profligacy.”
The following resolutions were submitted and adopted:
“Resolved, That a deputation do wait as early as possible upon Sir George Grey, for the purpose of most respectfully but earnestly representing to her majesty’s government the necessity of effectual measures being taken to put down the open exhibition of street prostitution, which in various parts of the metropolis, particularly in the important thoroughfares of the Haymarket, Coventry Street, Regent Street, Portland Place, and other adjacent localities, is carried on with a disregard of public decency and to an extent tolerated in no other capital or city of the civilized world.