by Elizabeth Blackwell

“ The state of society in Paris has become very immoral. Obscene literature abounds everywhere, and has led to obscene manners. One of the most repulsive forms of this obscenity is the increase of what are politely called the frail sisterhood, who now infest every quarter, high and low, far and near, to such an extent that from morning to night the streets are encumbered with them. The papers have complained, the inhabitants have petitioned, but to no purpose; somehow or another the Government appears powerless to grapple with the growing evil. ”

“ The State is, therefore, compelled at the outset to leave the most important half of the trade unregulated—that half, namely, that injures the innocent, the unfallen—and that half that supplies all the capital of the trade, the money without which it could not be continued for a week. ”

“ It is this corrupting influence of the law on the moral sense of womanhood, through the "acceptance" by law of a life of public lust for any woman, which is the most direful and ominous sign of this our nineteenth century of Christianity. ”

“ The registration of as many females as possible who carry on the trade, is therefore the only possible method practically open to those who, accepting promiscuous intercourse, wish to try and make it healthy. Every result that we have seen in Brussels necessarily follows, from the logical carrying out of this first false step of accepting promiscuous intercourse through registration of women, as a trade recognized by law. ”

“ A striking fact, in comparing the official demoralization which this system produces on the continent, with the British laissez faire, is shown in the untruths, the denials, the almost insuperable obstacles which arose in Brussels, when English public opinion began to awake to the fact that an organized and very profitable trade had long been going on to sell young English girls into an obscene imprisonment which has no parallel as yet in England. ”

“ A chief police functionary of Brussels, who considers these brothels wholesome institutions, says in his report: "It is important that prostitution should, as far as possible, be concentrated in brothels, where superintendence can be easily exercised and scandal hid. They are useful, too, for the discovery of criminals, who frequently resort to them in order to plunge into wild extravagance." ”

“ I vainly seek a remedy for this flood of evil, which will infallibly destroy us, as the Roman Empire was destroyed."
The one true principle of all legal action in reference to sexual vice, with its deadly evils, is now clearly visible to the intelligence of the 19th century; it is this: Male lust must be restrained, in order to check female obscenity. The action and reaction of cause and effect can not be separated. All attempts to do so, result in increasing corruption.
The facts and causes of national demoralization are now plainly before our eyes. ”

“ Yet so blind are our legislators, our public press, and large numbers of benevolent men and women, to the inevitable moral evil arising from false principle introduced into law, that vast effort is now being made to extend the destructive system of the Continent into our own country. ”

“ The evidence in the Blue Book relating to Brussels states that, "Notwithstanding twelve convictions in 1879 and ten convictions in 1880, the brothel-keepers do not hesitate to run the risk of detection and punishment, in view of the material advantage to themselves to be derived from the prostitution of very young girls, who, as inmates of the houses, are more docile, more attractive, more easily deluded, and less exacting than women enrolled for the first time above the age of twenty-one." ”

“ The trade thus carefully ordered and regulated, assumes, in the course of time, all the dimensions of a vast and increasing commerce. Abundant capital is invested in it, talent and ingenuity are exerted to make its resorts attractive and luxurious, and an insatiable demand arises for fresh young articles of commerce. ”

“ As a result of this acceptance, the trade must be made healthy, orderly, and ample. As the indiscriminate intercourse of the sexes necessarily produces disease, this, is the first evil which demands attention as sanitary science advances. The first necessary step in regulating the trade in vice, therefore, is to register those who engage in indiscriminate sexual intercourse. But vicious men carry on promiscuous intercourse, and consequently originate and spread disease. Men, however, will not be registered. ”

“ It is a slavery in which the municipality clutches the young female body, and uses it henceforth as a machine to be kept in order for the vilest purposes. The horrible facts—which are inevitable results of vice organized by the State—are too revolting to dwell upon. ”

“ We see that the Mayor and Magistrates, the Aldermen and Councilmen, even the Cabinet Ministers and ruling classes, become so accustomed to the plan of accepting females for a life of vice, and minutely and carefully arranging their lives, that so far from seeing anything injurious in such a plan, they defend it with energy, and refuse to see the injustice, tyranny, and demoralization which result from it. ”

“ If a girl under age is 'taken by a man in the street,' and the mother refuses to interfere, she is registered at the Prefecture of Police." "At this moment clandestine prostitution is very strong in Paris." "Clandestine prostitutes are registered to the Prefect of the Police." "Every young girl who carries on prostitution must be registered in the Prefecture of the Police, and receive a carte with an indication of the medical visit of her home, of her apartment, age, and family." ”

“ But it grows bolder as it proceeds, and as public sentiment becomes demoralized, until at length a powerful, independent official organization is created, withdrawn from social criticism, and strong enough to resist social reform. Thus we find all officials engaged in administering the system, from the highest Judge, or Minister of State, to the humblest policeman, are henceforth interested in supporting and defending the system against all criticisms or radical change. ”

“ Licentiousness rapidly increases, and whenever that increases, unnatural and hideous forms of vice increase also. The Authorities, alarmed by the rising flood of corruption, make more and more stringent regulations for women. A band of spies, under various disguises, seek to entrap women. Assignation houses for married women, unknown to their husbands, are established (through M. Lenaars) in Brussels, in order that the police may supervise them. Minor girls are registered in direct violation of the common law of the land. ”

“ The increase of this class of vilest criminals—men who live upon women—is inevitable where promiscuous intercourse is regulated, not checked. If rich men buy poor women, leaving them without protection, women will buy poor men to afford them a ruffianly support in the social chaos where they live. We have noted the appearance of this foreign class in London. It has created tumults in Paris, and the unsafe condition of the streets, owing to the increase of ruffians, demands an indefinite increase of the police force. ”

“ The key-note of this whole system is the acceptance through registration of females who, from whatever cause, have begun a life of vice; for registration is the first tentative step taken in the system of female regulation. To this is gradually added the arrangement of minute and stringent regulations respecting residence, dress, behavior, and control of their bodies. As long as they observe the regulations laid down they are unmolested, and are even considered to be fulfilling a necessary and useful function in society. ”

“ The innocent girl, as well as the fallen girl, although brought up under the influence of what we call Christian civilization, may thus, under the sanction of State and Municipal laws, accept, and will then become accustomed to, the conversion of her body into a machine for obscenity ”

“ A Brussels police agent said to an English philanthropist, who urged him to rescue some unfortunate girls: "We can not injure establishments legally authorized, and in which so much capital is invested." Again, "The police, accustomed to consider this traffic as legal, and even licensed and privileged, always encourage and protect it, and especially protect the brothel-keepers." ”

“ M. Reinach, in the Political and Literary Review, lately published, points out that the constant increase in the number of habitual criminals calls for the reestablishment of transportation and the creation of a new penal colony. In Paris alone there are between 20,000 and 25,000 habitual criminals. He dwells with emphasis on the spread of crime amongst the young. In 1879, 18 per cent. of all persons tried in France were minors, being an increase of 3 per cent. in three years. This increase is greatest in Paris, where more than half the persons arrested are minors. ”

“ Whilst the moral sense of womanhood is thus corrupted by laws which protect brothels, and raise female prostitution to the rank of an accepted and regulated trade, the degrading effect upon men becomes no less marked. Men refuse to be registered and inspected: they will be free ”

“ From the point of view of the girls themselves, they are in some, if not in most instances, following a calling in which they have accepted a life of degrading and dangerous servitude in order to secure the certainty of a livelihood; in other instances they are victims caught in the widespread net of the placeur, who has pocketed his fee and decamped, leaving them bewildered and helpless, and abandoned to a fate to which, generally, they become accustomed or inured, but from which, now and then, they are rescued or contrive to escape. ”

“ The idea of wrong-doing is entirely set aside when a prostitute is registered. She becomes by that municipal act an accepted member or trader of the community, and the whole powerful system of accepted and regulated female prostitution follows as a necessary result, as will be seen later. ”

“ The women in these houses are subjected to obligations without number. They are forced to yield themselves to the first comer, no matter what maybe their repugnance; to incur heavy expenses; to submit to the yoke of the proprietors. ”

“ A law to this effect has lately been passed in Brussels, through the instrumentality of M. Bols. These are logical results of the destructive idea that promiscuous intercourse can be rendered healthy by the inspection of every female. Meanwhile, corruption increases to such an appalling extent, that belief in the possibility of purity in men no longer exists in the minds of men or women. ”

“ I find it to be established as a fact beyond all doubt that for many years a trade or traffic has been carried on, whereby a very large number of English girls—many, if not most of them, under the age of 21 years—have been enlisted to become inmates of brothels in Continental cities in consideration of fees or "commissions" paid by the keepers of the houses to the persons procuring the girls. ”

“ To quote his own words, "If a woman is suspected of prostitution, one or two or three inspectors, under a different dress— times as a workman, sometimes as a gentleman, and sometimes as a servant—follow the young girl for three or four days before keeping her in. ”

“ Unchecked indulgence of the lower nature becomes gradually a demoniac possession. It craves more and more unnatural excitement. The hideous traffic revealed in this Blue Book is one of the direct results of the efforts of mercenary panderers to supply fresh excitement for diseased appetite. ”

“ They can not show themselves at the doors or windows of the houses; they go out rarely and always under escort; they are entirely subject to the will of the proprietor, and they seize the first opportunity of quitting an existence that affords them so little enjoyment. ”

“ Thus, brothels are encouraged on account of their greater convenience of management; and vicious women, living in their own apartments (who are registered) , are indulgently treated that they may not hide away. ”

“ The published statistics of suicides in France during the first three quarters of 1881 exhibit once more that increase in the number of cases which has been observable for several years past—a circumstance the more remarkable since the population has during this period remained almost stationary. ”

“ The result is that brothel-keepers find increasing difficulty in obtaining women. To preserve their popularity with their customers they increase the luxury of their houses, and to procure women they must expend much money."
The theory is that the girls are free to leave, but Mr. Snagge, who visited many houses in company with the officials who have absolute power over them, thus describes the regulations which make the theory entirely false in practice: 1st. The door is always fastened on the inside, the key being kept by the matron. ”