Prostitute

“ It is not, however, adequate to define a prostitute simply as a woman who sells her body. That is done every day by women who become wives in order to gain a home and a livelihood, yet, immoral as this conduct may be from any high ethical standpoint, it would be inconvenient and even misleading to call it prostitution. ”

“ How many of these women, devoted indefinitely to the life of a common prostitute, would not have fled all its horrors if a society, careless of the interests of its members, had furnished them with sufficient means of defense up to the age at which they all have succumbed,—under 21 years? When a woman has not prostituted herself before 21, she will not prostitute herself later. ”

“ Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated; 23:29 and they shall deal with you in hatred, and shall take away all your labor, and shall leave you naked and bare; and the nakedness of your prostitution shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. 23:30 These things shall be done to you, because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. ”

“ Just as the immoral possibility of man is something that distinguishes him from the male animal, so the quality of the prostitute distinguishes the human female from the animal female. I shall have something to say as to the general relation of man to this element in woman, towards the end of my investigation, but possibly the ultimate origin of prostitution is a deep mystery into which none can penetrate. ”

“ More subtle in its evil effect, yet somewhat less dangerous physically, perhaps, than the professional prostitute is the lure of the "hidden" prostitute, who carefully conceals her derelictions, and publicly wraps herself in a mantle of virtue. ”

“ But the truth is, the woman who becomes a prostitute does not seem, in their opinion, to have committed a crime of so deep a dye as to exclude her from the esteem and society of the community in general. ”

“ They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to Yahweh. 11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
12 My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. 13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains,
and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery. ”

“ Every three months a man of about forty-five years would visit a certain prostitute, and pay her ten francs for the following act. The puella had to undress him, tie his hands and feet, bandage his eyes, and draw the curtains of the windows. ”

“ For one prostitute that is made by inclination, ten are made by necessity. Reform the laws—equalize the comforts of society, and you need withhold no knowledge from your wives and daughters. It is want, not knowledge, that leads to prostitution. ”

“ The professional prostitute, in the sense in which the term is here used, is the woman or girl who sells herself for money, whether for her own pecuniary benefit, or under the direction or control of owners of vice resorts, of madames, procurers, or pimps. ”

“ The same remarks apply even more forcibly to the question of sharing the earnings of a prostitute. Prostitution per se is not in the eyes of the law a crime or even a misdemeanour. The woman who makes her living as a prostitute is under the protection of the law, and the money she receives from her customer is recognised as her property. ”

“ II. Of the causes which operate first upon the male factor, (1) the double standard of sexual morals is most important. It prompts men to employ the prostitute. They demand her as a masculine right. (2) Deferred marriage is another element. ”

“ Shall live with or accept any earnings of a woman prostitute, or entice or solicit any person to go to a house of prostitution for any immoral purpose, or to have sexual intercourse with a woman prostitute ”

“ Nearly every prostitute is exploited by some man who takes her earnings, and on whom she relies to protect her from the police. If these cadets and procurers could be eliminated it would greatly diminish professional [Pg 155] prostitution, but they are most difficult to reach. The women they exploit will often perjure themselves to save these men from the vengeance of the law. ”

“ I can enjoy her while she's kind;
But when she dances in the wind,
And shakes the wings, and will not stay,
I puff the prostitute away:
The little or the much she gave, is quietly resigned;
Content with poverty my soul I arm,
And virtue, though in rags, will keep me warm. ”

“ Raines Law hotels, excursion steamboats with rooms to rent, massage parlors, and landlords, all offer inducements for the encouragement of prostitution. The prostitute often pays for protection; she pays extra rent to the landlord, fees to the janitor, and a stipend to her protector; she induces men to drink, which gives a profit to the liquor trade; she uses cabs and the telephone much at night; and it is such business interests as these which often connive to share her profits. ”

“ The system of prostitution is run by the Government and the largest income that the Government has, comes from the sale of Sake, the national drink, and its houses of prostitution.
A woman who becomes a Prostitute is looked upon as a heroine. ”

“ The profession of a prostitute is the only career in which the maximum income is paid to the newest apprentice. ”

“ The least intelligent of the prostitute class, or rather, of that class of nymphomaniacs who have not [Pg 141] fully entered upon a prostitute career, are driven into the workhouse or almshouse, where they often remain for years, or depart at intervals, leaving their offspring to be reared at public expense. ”

“ Great men have always preferred women of the prostitute type. ”

“ In that country, where the seclusion of wives necessitates the entertainment of men guests at public places, the so-called prostitute may be called to act as hostess at dinner, to provide music or dancing at regular stipulated prices, according to the class to which she belongs, this not necessarily including the barter of the body. ”

“ Under these dreadful apprehensions I looked back on the life I had led with the utmost contempt and abhorrence. I blushed, and wondered at myself how I could act thus, how I could divest myself of modesty and honour, and prostitute myself for gain; and I thought, if ever it should please God to spare me this one time from death, it would not be possible that I should be the same creature again. ”

“ If, after she has endured this torture, she is found to be healthy and well, she is set free, with a certificate that she is fit to practice prostitution; but observe, she is never more a free woman, for her name is on the register of Government prostitutes, and she is strictly under the eye of the police, and is bound to come up periodically,—it may be weekly or fortnightly,—to be again outraged. ”

“ With a strengthening of passion in the mothers of the race, sex will return to its right and powerful purpose; love of all types, from the merest physical to the highest soul attraction, will be brought back to its true biological end—the service of the future.
I know, of course, as I have said already, that, just as there are many different forms of prostitution, there are many and varied types of prostitutes, and that, therefore, it is foolishness to hold fast in a one-sided manner to a single theory. There are undoubtedly voluptuous women among prostitutes. ”

“ Prostitution and the Police.—The police know very well that in certain brothels prostitution is not only associated with alcoholic excess, but that certain houses become the haunts of criminals. They even regard certain low-class brothels and taverns frequented by prostitutes as very useful for the discovery of criminals. Spies of all kinds are met with in these places, from the secret agent who tracks a criminal and flirts at the same time with the prostitutes, to the counter-spy employed by the proxenets to watch the secret agent. ”

“ It is the quality of the emotion in relation to sexual acts that constitutes a state of purity or impurity.”
Mr. Thomas’s study quite disproves the former theory of psychologists and criminologists that the prostitute is a type and can live no other way. Girls xiiimay come through a measure of prostitution, marry and make successes of their lives. In China a girl will sometimes earn through prostitution the money which makes marriage possible. ”

“ Not only of the girl entering prostitution may it be said that with her the sex instinct is less likely "to be reduced in comparative urgency by the volume and abundance of other satisfactions." [10] The barrenness of country life to the girl growing into womanhood, hungry for amusement, is one large reason [Pg 145] why the country furnishes so large a proportion of prostitutes to the city. ”

“ But this difference is not due to the fact that prostitutes are congenitally degenerate, but simply to the fact that they have become degenerate owing to the conditions of their life. For in women a life of prostitution develops all those qualities—laziness, love of adornment, hypertension of the sexual impulse, &c.—which make it impossible for people to earn their bread by regular work. As soon as the girl is subjected to the supervision of the police des mœurs, she is for ever lost. ”

“ Passing now to the fourth grade of this vice, we find prostitution in a most repulsive form; the women themselves diseased and dirty, the houses redolent of bad rum. The prostitutes are the refuse of the other classes who have fallen through the successive gradations on account of disease and drunkenness, or they are some of those children of iniquity who, born in scenes of vice and squalid misery, know nothing of a virtuous or happy course of life. ”

“ This last is, as I believe, a far more frequent and stronger factor in determining towards prostitution than actual want, and one, moreover, that is very deeply rooted in the feminine character. I do not wish to be cynical, but facts have forced on me the belief that the majority of prostitutes are simply doing for money what they originally did of their own will for excitement and the gain of some small personal gift. ”

“ At present the women arrested for prostitution are treated as criminals, while their male associates in vice are allowed to depart as if they were respectable citizens.
Appeal to men.
Tell young men these facts as to why women become prostitutes. Help them to realize that most of these women are pitiful victims of man's worse than brutal sexual passions. ”

“ Many works on prostitution also touch on our chosen subject. Parent-Duchâtelet, in his great book, refers to girls who had become prostitutes at the ages of twelve or even ten years. I shall show later that in individual instances such early prostitution is directly dependent upon the sexuality of the children concerned. ”

“ How many of these are prostitutes before they start ?"
About one in three, I should think. Two-thirds of them think they are going to situations, and only learn their fate when they are safely within the brothel. Even then the truth is broken to them by degrees. The English girl is placed alone in the midst of foreign women, who are carefully tutored not to excite her suspicions until she is broken in. ”

“ It may be stated with truth that to the woman of deep passions the ephemeral and superficial relationships of prostitution can offer no temptation. And it may be added that the majority of prostitutes begin their career at a very early age, long before the somewhat late period at which in women the tendency for passion to become strong, has yet arrived. ”

“ Look at the city of New York, for instance, which contains twenty thousand female prostitutes, that get their daily living by prostitution, of course encouraged by hundreds of thousands of male prostitutes, who are just as bad or worse than the female prostitutes. ”

“ There still remains a very limited group formed by individuals who give themselves up to prostitution for love of it. These are generally women with a morbid and violent sexual appetite, joined to want of moral sense. Rich women, even countesses and princesses have been known to become prostitutes. ”

“ The private prostitutes, whether registered or unregistered, are mainly seamstresses or others dependent upon daily labor. These women seem to retain some natural sense of the disgrace attached to open and avowed courtesans, and in their secrecy and quiet retain a few feminine characteristics of which the common brothel woman is destitute. ”

“ And, Sir, it is very absurd to argue, as has been often done, that prostitutes are necessary to prevent the violent effects of appetite from violating the decent order of life; nay, should be permitted, in order to preserve the chastity of our wives and daughters. ”

“ Prostitutes are mainly recruited from the ranks of factory girls, domestic servants, shop girls, and waitresses. In some of these occupations it is difficult to obtain employment all the year round. In this way many milliners, dressmakers and tailoresses become prostitutes when business is slack, and return to business when the season begins. Sometimes the regular work of the day is supplemented concurrently by prostitution in the street in the evening. ”

“ Tertullian, De Spectaculis, ch. 17: “Prostitutes, the victims of public incontinence, are brought upon the stage, shamefaced with respect to the women only; to the men they were known; they are exposed to the laughter of all, high and low; their dwellings, their prices, even their recommendations were proclaimed by the crier.” Isidorus, Origines, XVIII., 42: “The theatre is like a brothel; when the games are over, public women are prostituted there.” ”