September 3, 2025 • 31 mins
This investigation delves into the complex and often overlooked issues surrounding prostitution. While many individuals instinctively seek the causes behind societal vices, a significant portion of the intelligent population in New York has suffered the consequences of this persistent issue without exploring its root causes. Each year, countless lives are impacted, as broken health and tarnished reputations emerge from this vice. Is it too late to awaken your curiosity and compassion for this critical matter? We argue that it is high time to conduct an inquiry that addresses these pressing concerns‚one that is essential for public safety, personal well-being, and the greater good.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section sixty of the History of Prostitution. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Ramon Escimia. The History of Prostitution by William Singer,
(00:22):
Section sixty, Chapter thirty seven, New York Remedial Measures, Part two.
From this sketch, it will be evident that if the
prescribed form were observed in these commitments, frequent discharges would
be avoided, or there would be so many difficulties to
surmount that they would be very rarely attempted. Does no
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responsibility rest upon the public and on our law makers
for negligence in this matter? Without conceding that a vagrancy
commitment is likely to reform a prostitute. In fact, the
weight of the evidence is against the possibility of its
doing so the case stands thus us the legislature has
provided a mode of relief which was deemed effectual at
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the time, But this mode is evaded or cannot be
observed by those upon whom its administration devolves. The public
have long known the existence of these difficulties, but have
never interfered to give us a better act. By their
refusal to interfere, they stand in the position of aiders
and abetters in this neglect, or worse than neglect, the
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actual propagation of a dreadful disease. Had public opinion been
concentrated upon this matter, an inquiry would long ago have
shown the fallacy of our present system and suggested the
required amendments. This has not been done, But public remissness
in no way diminishes public responsibility. This doctrine of public
accountability may be profitably examined for a few moments in
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connection with a general aspect of prostitution. Few will deny
that the mass of the people are answerable for many
of its evils. Cognizant of the existence of vice in
the aggregate, if not in detail, they can understand its effects,
and are not ignorant of the principal causes which lead
to it. Yet they make no effort to remove existing
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causes or to prevent future evils. They practically treat women
as an inferior race of beings, and cannot even give
a poor seamstress employment without saying in fact, if not
in words, you cannot be trusted to make this unless
a man examines every buttonhole and inspects every row of
stitching to see that you are not defrauding us. The
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only way to secure confidence is to bestow confidence. But
if a person is treated in a manner likely to
destroy self respect, the inevitable result will be a recklessness
as to his or her own character, despised without a cause,
treated in mere business matters as imbeciles, or children or thieves.
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It is not surprising that women become careless as to
their future life, and, smarting under the injustice of their position,
too frequently degenerate into the wretched beings who infest our
streets and pollute the atmosphere with their deadly infection. The public, then,
are responsible for this prostitution, because they have never bestowed
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any attention upon it. It is one of the gravest
and most difficult of social problems, involving the interests of
every man in the community, and yet the most stupid
indifference has been shown respecting it. The subject has been
canvassed by medical men on account of its sad effects
upon the physical organization. Its extent has been known to
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judicial and police authorities from its social and civil results.
But the great body of the public have hitherto decided
that they know nothing and want to know nothing about it.
They admit its existence being too evident to be denied,
but so far they have taken no steps to ascertain
its source or stay its progress, because it was a
matter with which they were afraid to interfere, and now
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the deplorable consequences accruing from it must be laid to
their charge. It cannot be denied that there are many
difficulties attending any investigation of this vice, that many well
meaning but timid people entertain the opinion that it is
one of those gangrenous ulcers upon society, which cannot be
alluded to except in whispers, that more harm would result
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from instituting inquiries than if it were allowed to exist
and fester on unnoticed. This apathy, which has heretofore been
the policy, has made prostitution the monster evil which it
now is. And upon those who have advocated, or may
advocate a continuance of the same course of silence and inaction,
the sufferers from the vice may justly charge their destruction.
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The masterly inactivity of the statesman is unquestionably justifiable in
any case where passive resistance will overcome an evil, But
in dealing with prostitution, a diametrically opposite method must be pursued.
It requires an active aggression upon prejudices, an explosion of
still older theories, a vigorous commencement of a new course.
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It has been shown elsewhere that the public are responsible
for prostitution because they persist in excluding women from many
kinds of employment for which they are fitted, while for
work in those occupations which are open to them they
receive an entirely inadequate remuneration. It has also been shown
that the community are equally responsible on account of their
non interference with known and acknowledged evils. Another reason why
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accountability cannot be effaded may be designated, namely, the carelessness,
or more properly heartlessness, with which the character of woman
is treated. Let there be but a breath of suspicion
against her fair fame, no matter from what vile source
it may emanate, and the energies of man seem directed
toward her destruction. She is down, Keep her down, is
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the almost universal cry, and this malignant process has continued
until the victim is positively forced into a life of
undisguised immorality, the sacred decision. Let him that is without
sin among you cast the first stone is entirely forgotten.
And the most violent in their denunciations are frequently those
who are the most blameworthy themselves. The whole force of
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the world's opinion has been directed not to the censure
of actually guilty parties who induce the crime, but to
the poor, wronged sufferer. She who is too infrequently the
victim of falsehood and deceit, or the slave of an
absolute necessity, must expiate her fault by submitting to a
constant succession of indignities and annoyances. He whose conduct has
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made her what she is, escapes all censure. But some
moralist will ask, how would you have us treat such women?
Treat them, sir, as human beings actuated by the same
passions as yourself, as susceptible beings, keenly sensitive of reproach,
as injured beings who have a claim upon your kindness,
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as outraged beings who have a demand upon your justice.
Lead them into a path by which they can escape
from danger. Protect the innocent from the snares which environ
them on every side, And when this is done, pour
the vials of your hottest wrath on those of your
own sex whose machinations have blighted some of God's fairest
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created beings. Public responsibility must be understood in its broadest
and most literal sense, as meaning the individual accountability of
every member of the community. The time has not yet arrived, Unfortunately,
when this matter can be left in the hands of
corporations or legislatures, their constituents must be aroused to consideration
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of its importance before any satisfactory action can or will
be taken by them. And it is to the thinking
men of the age that these pages are addressed in
the full confidence that so soon as their sympathies are enlisted,
public action will follow. To this end, an endeavor has
been made to show the injurious effects of prohibition, disappointing
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expectation as a means of decreasing syphilis or of curtailing
the limits of prostitution, the necessity which exists for effectual
preventive measures, and the inefficient or worse than inefficient nature
of the local arrangements of New York to accomplish this desideratum. Thus,
the way for a consideration of the remedial process has
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been opened, and now, with such evidence as he has
before him, the reader may be asked, in all sincerity
if he does not seriously believe that it would be
a prudence step instead of trying to extirpate the evil
to place prostitutes and prostitution under the surveillance of a
medical bureau in the police department. Extirpation never has been,
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never can be accomplished in any community. Repression and restriction
as proposed have been tried and have proved successful. Assuming
an affirmative answer to this question, and it is difficult
to imagine it otherwise. If the facts are dispassionately considered,
attention is respectfully requested to the manner in which the
change could be effected. To meet the exigencies of the case,
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there are required one a suitable hospital for the treatment
of venereal disease. Two, a legally authorized medical visitation of
all known houses of prostitution, with full power to order
the immediate removal of any woman found to be infected
to the designated hospital. Three the power to detain infected
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persons under treatment until they are cured, a term of
time which none but medical men can decide by a
suitable hospital is meant an institution devoted to the treatment
of such diseases, like the special hospitals of Paris and
other continental cities, and entirely removed from all connection with
any punitive establishment. The rules proposed for the government of
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the Island Hospital when its name was changed from penitentiary
Hospital do not, by any means meet the urgent requirements
of the case. The penitentiary, its officers and inmates must
be entirely shut out from the desired hospital, and no
prison warden or keeper of criminals must have any jurisdiction
within its walls or over its grounds. Inmates of hospitals
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have too long endured the stupid interference of non medical men,
and it is time that medical law exclusively was considered
in the direction and management of buildings devoted to medical purposes.
This is especially necessary in a syphilitic hospital on account
of the character of its patients. No amount of imprisonment
as a punishment ever yet reformed prostitute, and it never will.
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All intercourse with prisoners, be it ever so transient, has
but confirmed women in vice. The tendency of imprisonment is
directly contrary to any reformation confirming previous habits instead of
rooting them out. The instinctive dread of incarceration has prevented
many from availing themselves of the medical advantages offered them,
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particularly among the better and higher grades of frail women.
We want a hospital exclusively for the treatment of syphilis,
with the power to place and keep there all women
so diseased until cured. Matters of detail can be arranged
in such a manner as to admit of a proper
classification based upon the degree of moral turpitude belonging to each.
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Payment could and should be required from all who possess
the means for expenses actually incurred, and this would contribute
a considerable sum to meet the expenditures of the institution.
Among these women as a body, there exists an excessive
amount of pride. Those of the upper class will not
associate with any of a lower rank, and in fact
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look upon them in very much the same manner that
moralists regard the whole body. To be enabled to reach
them at all, a liberal management must be adopted. But
will not this be deferring to vice because it is
dressed in silks or satins. Ask someone most decidedly not
let the arrangements be what they might. Such a hospital
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as described would afford no encouragement to vice, for in
it all must submit to the same course of treatment
varied only in the minor accessories which surround it. Even
if the arrangements were exposed to an objection like the above,
the end would justify the means. The city of New
York contains at this day funereal infections sufficient to contaminate
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all the male population of the United States in a
very short space of time. It has been proved from
official and medical statistics that this malady is rapidly on
the increase, and a paramount question is how to be
relieved of the incubus. Rigorous prohibitory measures will not effect this,
They only make the matter worse. Punitive hospitals will not
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effect this. They have been tried and found wanting. Free
institutions would, in all probability succeed in accomplishing far more
than any other measure our citizens have ever tried. The
question is one, if not absolutely of life, certainly of
healthy existence, and its inestimable importance must override all doubts
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and difficulties in view of the dangers surrounding our rising generation,
even supposing the men and women of the present day
exempt from them. It would be perfectly inexcusable to refuse
any available plan because some one of its features might
not please all tastes. Adopt an arrangement similar to that suggested,
and if any crudities are discovered, they can be readily
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cured as experience points them out. The plan is not
presented as a perfect one, but merely as an outline
sketch of what is necessary. A regular medical visitation of
all prostitutes is an essential part of the scheme, and
its organization should be a matter of serious consideration. The
Parisian Plan already submitted might form a very good basis,
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and an arrangement which throws the whole system of prostitution
open to an effective police supervision and the establishment of
a medical bureau in connection. Therewith for professional purposes is
suggested as most desirable. This medical visitation, conducted by physicians,
to be connected with the police department and sustained by
the power of that body, should be confided to men
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of recognized skill and known integrity to ensure public confidence
so essentially necessary in the inception of any social innovation,
It would be necessary that the agents upon whom its
execution devolved should be men of tried probity and acknowledged reputation,
both professional and personal. The slightest symptom of disease should
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be sufficient evidence to warrant the immediate removal of any
woman to the syphilitic hospital. The residence of any woman,
be it temporary or permanent, in a known house of prostitution,
must subject her to a medical examination, as it would
afford a very strong presumption that she was there for
immoral purposes. The propriety of a medical examination of prostitutes
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at certain intervals couldnot be doubted, and in fact it
is practically admitted at the present time by some few
of the brothel keepers in the city. These pay a
physician a liberal salary to visit their borders every few
days for the express purpose of carrying out the plans
suggested now, resorting to treatment whenever he finds it necessary.
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Some of the most aristocratic houses of prostitution are thus attended.
But the system is in use especially among the natives
of continental Europe who are now keeping houses of ill
fame in New York, and who in bringing to the
New world. Many of the customs of the old have
thus testified to the benefit of the regulations enforced there.
But although such visiting physician may pronounce a girl infected,
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the world has no security that she will not continue
her avocation, And in order to remove all doubt upon
this question, she should be instantly removed to an institution
where she cannot possibly propagate the malady. This must be
done under conjoint medical and police authority. Among prostitutes of
the lower grades, systematic visitation is more imperatively necessary. They
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will not place themselves under medical treatment unless they are compelled.
But until their disease assumes a character that prevents the
possibility of farther concealment from their visitors, they continue to
ply their loathsome and destructive trade. The summit of ambition
with them is to keep their liberty. So long as
they can earn enough to provide themselves a shelter and
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feed their ravenous appetite for intoxicating liquor. They are content
to submit to the pains and ravages of syphilis alike,
heedless of their own sufferings and the injuries they inflict
on others. We have had cases under our own professional
treatment where women have actually persevered in this course for
many weeks after they had become aware they were diseased,
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solely for the reasons indicated. It may be objected that
such a plan would offer a premium to lewteness by
circumscribing the dangers of infection, but this argument can have
little weight, as it is scarcely possible that promiscuous sexual
inners can be carried on much more extensively than it
is at present. The vice seems to have reached its
culminating point. Experience proves that in all ages of the world,
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there have been many men whose passions were so violent
and ill regulated that they would attain their gratification at
any risk, even though that risk included the probability of
venereal infection. As in games of hazard, every player hopes
to be a winner, so in carnal indulgences, every man
flatters himself that because some gratify their lusts unscathed for
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a long series of years, so may he that, as
hitherto he has escaped disease in his unhallowed demours, he
may continue equally fortunate to the end of his career.
This is confessedly a poor dependence, but it is the
reliance of hundreds and thousands of the followers of her
whose house is the way to hell. Diseases of a
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syphilitic nature are viewed by some persons as special punishments
for special sins, and hence they argue that it would
be in interference with the order of Providence to attempt
to eradicate them. The discussion of a theological question would
be altogether out of place in these pages. But the
supposition may be met by a parallel case. Delirium tremens
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is the result of an excessive use of intoxicating liquors,
and may justly be considered a special punishment for that offense.
But did anybody ever know a case in which those
who object to the treatment of syphilis extended a single
obstacle to the case of a drunkard. If it is
right to adopt curative measures in one case, why exclude
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them in the other. But even supposing that the treatment
of syphilis is open to this objection, so far as
the guilty parties are concerned, shall their descendants be involved
in suffering because the parents sin? If a rigorous medical
examination offers additional inducements to prostitution by reducing the probabilities
of disease. It also guarantees that helpless wives and unborn
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children shall not be included in its list of victims.
Go to the thousands of married women now childless or
suffering from abortion, Ask their opinion. Go to the thousands
of disappointed husbands whose hopes of offspring have been blighted
in consequence of their own youthful dissipation. Ask their opinion,
and see what the answers would be. Go and ask
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the diseased children on Randall's Island, and in their emaciated frames,
read their testimony. The evidence thus obtained would prove unanswerable
arguments in favor of the plan proposed. It cannot be
imagined that forcing diseased women to submit to a specific
routine of treatment in a special hospital involves any undue
interference with their personal liberty. The right to commit a wrong,
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be it social, moral, or physical, never can exist. The
slightest reflection upon such a proposition will at once prove
it untenable. The spread of venereal disease is a positive wrong,
and therefore a woman who is suffering from it, and
is certain or likely to propagate. It is as legitimate
an object for compulsory treatment as would be be a
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maniac whom we should find roaming through the streets of
the city, or a person afflicted with smallpox, yellow fever,
or any other contagious or infectious malady. If either of
these cases were to come before any member of the community,
he would not for one moment regard it an infringement
of personal liberty to place the subject under proper care
and restraint. On the contrary, he would think of the
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danger to which he and his family were exposed, and
flinging theory to the winds would immediately urge prompt and
practical measures. This is all that is asked respecting prostitution.
Let the public be once thoroughly convinced of the extent
and danger of syphilitic infection, and there would be but
few objectors to these suggestions. Among that few, the principal portion, doubtless,
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would be the advertising empirics, whose disgusting announcements occupy so
much space in the columns of our daily journals that
they derive a large income from this sources. Indisputable, and
it is equally certain that if the recommendations now made
where adopted, they would find their occupation gone. Speaking in
all candor, the health, decency, and good morals of the
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city would be better cared for in their absence than
it now is, with all the combinations of their extraordinary success,
unequaled experience, and unparalleled facilities. In a financial view, the
money they extort, we refrain from using a harsher term
from their credulous patients, could be far better applied than
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in contributing to their wealth. Farther such an institution. An
organization as has been described, would be useless. Did it
not possess the absolute power to retain every patient under
treatment until cured. Whatever modification of principle or mode of
action may be ultimately adopted, and sooner or later something
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must be done. This is an indispensable requisite. One half
the danger of venereal infection arises from imperfectly cured cases.
Under the existing system. As already explained, writs can be
issued at an almost nominal costs to remove any or
all of the prostitutes now under medical treatment on Blackwell's Island,
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and such an abuse of a valuable privilege on account
of mere technical errors must be fatal to the success
of any remedial project. It would be as reasonable for
a lawyer to petition the courts to order a vessel
detained in quarantine by the Board of Health because she
was infected with yellow fever, to be brought to her
wharf from the city, and there to have permission to
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disseminate the disease on board, as it is for the
same individual to apply for a writ of serdiaorrari, the
effect of which is to take an abandoned woman reeking
with disease from an institution where she is under treatment,
and allow her to extend the venereal poison to every
one who may have intercourse with her. This must not
be understood as indicating a wish to curtail the constitutional
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privileges attached to writs of habeas corpus or serdiaorrari, but
merely their applicability to cases like the opposed one. How
can the evil be prevented simply by making any legislative
enactment on the subject so plain that it cannot be
misunderstood or evaded. No lawyer would find any difficulty in
drafting a short act giving the police department the power,
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based upon an affidavit made by a member of their
own medical bureau, to remove any diseased woman to a
proper hospital and retain her there until cured. It may
appear to a casual observer that this detention would be
of the same nature as the imprisonment required by the
existing mode, But a little thought will point out a
wide difference. Now we force a woman to become an
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inmate of a penitentiary and add disgrace to her disease
by assuming her to have been guilty of crime, then
we should require her to become an inmate of the
hospital with no additional disgrace, but that arising from the
fact that she had contracted syphilis by vicious habits. In
the one case, we make her the companion of some
of the vilest wretches on the face of the earth.
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In the other, she would have no associates but those
of her own class. The medical bureau to whom these
reforms should be entrusted, although connected with the police department,
would require to be an independent body so far as
professional duties are concerned. Its connection would be necessary because
there would be many cases requiring the intervention of the
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civil power and its isolation would be equally important, because
much would depend on the discretion of the examiners, and
many contingencies might arise where a strict line of routine
duty would defeat the object in view. They would be
literally a detective corps, and with a known amount of
duty before them, must be left to choose their own
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method of performing it. Any definite arrangements or positive orders
from a non medical board would only embarrass their action.
For medical and non medical executives always clash when they
aim at one common object. Of course, a leading requirement
in their instructions must be that their examinations be rigid
and thorough. No half way measures in this respect could
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meet the absolute demands of the case or satisfy the
expectations of the community. It must be plainly understood by
the world that the Medical Bureau was required to perform
its whole duty uncompromisingly and fearlessly, and that its members
were men who would not evade the responsibility in their investigations.
Many cases would occur where their services would be valuable
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to society beyond the pale of professional duty. It is
not to be expected that they would become evangelists, but
they could be the willing and efficient coadjutors of those
who delight to bear the Gospel to these poor, degraded beings.
And even while listening to a recital of bodily sufferings,
instances would arise where the acts of the good Samaritan
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would be required at their hands. They would be the
depositaries of many a narrative of wrong and outrage, of
sorrow and suffering. And it is not unreasonable to believe
that of the histories poured into their ears, some would
indicate a channel by which the law lost one might
be restored to home and friends and virtue, or point
to some chord in the mind which would give a
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responsive sound when touched by the hand of pity. The
adoption of these suggestions would be at least a step
in the right direction, and lay the foundation of a
system which can be gradually enlarged until it embraces regulations
as to registry, management of houses of ill, fame, et cetera,
to the same extent as is now done in Europe.
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And here a few words relative to the licensing system
may not be inappropriate. The propriety of granting licenses and
thus making vice a sort of revenue is open to
grave objections, but on the other hand, acknowledged social evils
have ere this been made to contribute to the public funds.
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Witness the dealing in ardent spirits. The city does now
and has for years, derived a considerable income from licenses
to sell liquors. A great number of wise and good
men can ten that the sale or use of intoxicating
beverages is not only an unmitigated evil, but even criminal.
They have entertained and publicly declared these sentiments for years,
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but still the licensed system is continued. It may be
a question for decision whether prostitution is not as liable
for taxation as drunkenness, and if both were equally taxed,
whether as a body we should not be more responsible
for the results of one or the other. On passant,
it may be noticed that an annual tax of one
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percent upon the property engaged in the business of prostitution,
and a similar assessment upon the revenue of houses of
ill fame, would amount to over one hundred thousand dollars.
The plan here shadowed forth would not be likely to
extend prostitution, but on the contrary, there is very little doubt,
but it would check it. Even if it did not,
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the community would reap an advantage in the sanitary reform
it would enforce in low neighborhoods. Many of the brothels
are as dangerous to public health on account of their
crowded and excessively filthy state, as are the ciphilised inmates themselves.
Such places would legitimately come within the province of the
medical inspectors, and their reports thereon to the Police executive
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would ensure immediate attention. Public morals would be advanced by
such visitations. These houses, or a great number of them,
are the result of all species of dishonest characters, who
would unquestionably abandon them, at least as places of residence,
if they knew they were at any moment liable to
a domiciliary visit. Again, almost every person has in his
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remembrance some female who left home and could not be
found because securely secreted in some one of these houses
of prostitution. At least, it is not uncommon to read
of such cases in the daily papers, accompanied with an
account of the unsuccessful search of her friends and the police.
Occurrences like this could not take place if all known
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houses of bad repute were under the surveillance of the
Medical Police Department. Nor is it unreasonable to hope that
prostitution would be diminished. It is flourished of late years
and seclusion, but our plan would render privacy impossible. Seclusion
has attracted many unfortunate women, whom shame or a dread
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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
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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
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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,
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fashionable restaurants, steamboat 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
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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
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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. End of Section sixty. Recording by
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Ramon Escamilla Conway, Arkansas. R A M O n E.
S c A M I L l A dot WordPress
dot com.
Section sixty of the History of Prostitution. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
Recording by Ramon Escimia. The History of Prostitution by William Singer,
(00:22):
Section sixty, Chapter thirty seven, New York Remedial Measures, Part two.
From this sketch, it will be evident that if the
prescribed form were observed in these commitments, frequent discharges would
be avoided, or there would be so many difficulties to
surmount that they would be very rarely attempted. Does no
(00:44):
responsibility rest upon the public and on our law makers
for negligence in this matter? Without conceding that a vagrancy
commitment is likely to reform a prostitute. In fact, the
weight of the evidence is against the possibility of its
doing so the case stands thus us the legislature has
provided a mode of relief which was deemed effectual at
(01:05):
the time, But this mode is evaded or cannot be
observed by those upon whom its administration devolves. The public
have long known the existence of these difficulties, but have
never interfered to give us a better act. By their
refusal to interfere, they stand in the position of aiders
and abetters in this neglect, or worse than neglect, the
(01:27):
actual propagation of a dreadful disease. Had public opinion been
concentrated upon this matter, an inquiry would long ago have
shown the fallacy of our present system and suggested the
required amendments. This has not been done, But public remissness
in no way diminishes public responsibility. This doctrine of public
accountability may be profitably examined for a few moments in
(01:50):
connection with a general aspect of prostitution. Few will deny
that the mass of the people are answerable for many
of its evils. Cognizant of the existence of vice in
the aggregate, if not in detail, they can understand its effects,
and are not ignorant of the principal causes which lead
to it. Yet they make no effort to remove existing
(02:12):
causes or to prevent future evils. They practically treat women
as an inferior race of beings, and cannot even give
a poor seamstress employment without saying in fact, if not
in words, you cannot be trusted to make this unless
a man examines every buttonhole and inspects every row of
stitching to see that you are not defrauding us. The
(02:34):
only way to secure confidence is to bestow confidence. But
if a person is treated in a manner likely to
destroy self respect, the inevitable result will be a recklessness
as to his or her own character, despised without a cause,
treated in mere business matters as imbeciles, or children or thieves.
(02:55):
It is not surprising that women become careless as to
their future life, and, smarting under the injustice of their position,
too frequently degenerate into the wretched beings who infest our
streets and pollute the atmosphere with their deadly infection. The public, then,
are responsible for this prostitution, because they have never bestowed
(03:15):
any attention upon it. It is one of the gravest
and most difficult of social problems, involving the interests of
every man in the community, and yet the most stupid
indifference has been shown respecting it. The subject has been
canvassed by medical men on account of its sad effects
upon the physical organization. Its extent has been known to
(03:36):
judicial and police authorities from its social and civil results.
But the great body of the public have hitherto decided
that they know nothing and want to know nothing about it.
They admit its existence being too evident to be denied,
but so far they have taken no steps to ascertain
its source or stay its progress, because it was a
matter with which they were afraid to interfere, and now
(03:59):
the deplorable consequences accruing from it must be laid to
their charge. It cannot be denied that there are many
difficulties attending any investigation of this vice, that many well
meaning but timid people entertain the opinion that it is
one of those gangrenous ulcers upon society, which cannot be
alluded to except in whispers, that more harm would result
(04:21):
from instituting inquiries than if it were allowed to exist
and fester on unnoticed. This apathy, which has heretofore been
the policy, has made prostitution the monster evil which it
now is. And upon those who have advocated, or may
advocate a continuance of the same course of silence and inaction,
the sufferers from the vice may justly charge their destruction.
(04:44):
The masterly inactivity of the statesman is unquestionably justifiable in
any case where passive resistance will overcome an evil, But
in dealing with prostitution, a diametrically opposite method must be pursued.
It requires an active aggression upon prejudices, an explosion of
still older theories, a vigorous commencement of a new course.
(05:07):
It has been shown elsewhere that the public are responsible
for prostitution because they persist in excluding women from many
kinds of employment for which they are fitted, while for
work in those occupations which are open to them they
receive an entirely inadequate remuneration. It has also been shown
that the community are equally responsible on account of their
non interference with known and acknowledged evils. Another reason why
(05:31):
accountability cannot be effaded may be designated, namely, the carelessness,
or more properly heartlessness, with which the character of woman
is treated. Let there be but a breath of suspicion
against her fair fame, no matter from what vile source
it may emanate, and the energies of man seem directed
toward her destruction. She is down, Keep her down, is
(05:55):
the almost universal cry, and this malignant process has continued
until the victim is positively forced into a life of
undisguised immorality, the sacred decision. Let him that is without
sin among you cast the first stone is entirely forgotten.
And the most violent in their denunciations are frequently those
who are the most blameworthy themselves. The whole force of
(06:17):
the world's opinion has been directed not to the censure
of actually guilty parties who induce the crime, but to
the poor, wronged sufferer. She who is too infrequently the
victim of falsehood and deceit, or the slave of an
absolute necessity, must expiate her fault by submitting to a
constant succession of indignities and annoyances. He whose conduct has
(06:39):
made her what she is, escapes all censure. But some
moralist will ask, how would you have us treat such women?
Treat them, sir, as human beings actuated by the same
passions as yourself, as susceptible beings, keenly sensitive of reproach,
as injured beings who have a claim upon your kindness,
(07:01):
as outraged beings who have a demand upon your justice.
Lead them into a path by which they can escape
from danger. Protect the innocent from the snares which environ
them on every side, And when this is done, pour
the vials of your hottest wrath on those of your
own sex whose machinations have blighted some of God's fairest
(07:21):
created beings. Public responsibility must be understood in its broadest
and most literal sense, as meaning the individual accountability of
every member of the community. The time has not yet arrived, Unfortunately,
when this matter can be left in the hands of
corporations or legislatures, their constituents must be aroused to consideration
(07:43):
of its importance before any satisfactory action can or will
be taken by them. And it is to the thinking
men of the age that these pages are addressed in
the full confidence that so soon as their sympathies are enlisted,
public action will follow. To this end, an endeavor has
been made to show the injurious effects of prohibition, disappointing
(08:04):
expectation as a means of decreasing syphilis or of curtailing
the limits of prostitution, the necessity which exists for effectual
preventive measures, and the inefficient or worse than inefficient nature
of the local arrangements of New York to accomplish this desideratum. Thus,
the way for a consideration of the remedial process has
(08:25):
been opened, and now, with such evidence as he has
before him, the reader may be asked, in all sincerity
if he does not seriously believe that it would be
a prudence step instead of trying to extirpate the evil
to place prostitutes and prostitution under the surveillance of a
medical bureau in the police department. Extirpation never has been,
(08:46):
never can be accomplished in any community. Repression and restriction
as proposed have been tried and have proved successful. Assuming
an affirmative answer to this question, and it is difficult
to imagine it otherwise. If the facts are dispassionately considered,
attention is respectfully requested to the manner in which the
change could be effected. To meet the exigencies of the case,
(09:10):
there are required one a suitable hospital for the treatment
of venereal disease. Two, a legally authorized medical visitation of
all known houses of prostitution, with full power to order
the immediate removal of any woman found to be infected
to the designated hospital. Three the power to detain infected
(09:31):
persons under treatment until they are cured, a term of
time which none but medical men can decide by a
suitable hospital is meant an institution devoted to the treatment
of such diseases, like the special hospitals of Paris and
other continental cities, and entirely removed from all connection with
any punitive establishment. The rules proposed for the government of
(09:52):
the Island Hospital when its name was changed from penitentiary
Hospital do not, by any means meet the urgent requirements
of the case. The penitentiary, its officers and inmates must
be entirely shut out from the desired hospital, and no
prison warden or keeper of criminals must have any jurisdiction
within its walls or over its grounds. Inmates of hospitals
(10:15):
have too long endured the stupid interference of non medical men,
and it is time that medical law exclusively was considered
in the direction and management of buildings devoted to medical purposes.
This is especially necessary in a syphilitic hospital on account
of the character of its patients. No amount of imprisonment
as a punishment ever yet reformed prostitute, and it never will.
(10:39):
All intercourse with prisoners, be it ever so transient, has
but confirmed women in vice. The tendency of imprisonment is
directly contrary to any reformation confirming previous habits instead of
rooting them out. The instinctive dread of incarceration has prevented
many from availing themselves of the medical advantages offered them,
(11:00):
particularly among the better and higher grades of frail women.
We want a hospital exclusively for the treatment of syphilis,
with the power to place and keep there all women
so diseased until cured. Matters of detail can be arranged
in such a manner as to admit of a proper
classification based upon the degree of moral turpitude belonging to each.
(11:22):
Payment could and should be required from all who possess
the means for expenses actually incurred, and this would contribute
a considerable sum to meet the expenditures of the institution.
Among these women as a body, there exists an excessive
amount of pride. Those of the upper class will not
associate with any of a lower rank, and in fact
(11:43):
look upon them in very much the same manner that
moralists regard the whole body. To be enabled to reach
them at all, a liberal management must be adopted. But
will not this be deferring to vice because it is
dressed in silks or satins. Ask someone most decidedly not
let the arrangements be what they might. Such a hospital
(12:04):
as described would afford no encouragement to vice, for in
it all must submit to the same course of treatment
varied only in the minor accessories which surround it. Even
if the arrangements were exposed to an objection like the above,
the end would justify the means. The city of New
York contains at this day funereal infections sufficient to contaminate
(12:27):
all the male population of the United States in a
very short space of time. It has been proved from
official and medical statistics that this malady is rapidly on
the increase, and a paramount question is how to be
relieved of the incubus. Rigorous prohibitory measures will not effect this,
They only make the matter worse. Punitive hospitals will not
(12:48):
effect this. They have been tried and found wanting. Free
institutions would, in all probability succeed in accomplishing far more
than any other measure our citizens have ever tried. The
question is one, if not absolutely of life, certainly of
healthy existence, and its inestimable importance must override all doubts
(13:08):
and difficulties in view of the dangers surrounding our rising generation,
even supposing the men and women of the present day
exempt from them. It would be perfectly inexcusable to refuse
any available plan because some one of its features might
not please all tastes. Adopt an arrangement similar to that suggested,
and if any crudities are discovered, they can be readily
(13:30):
cured as experience points them out. The plan is not
presented as a perfect one, but merely as an outline
sketch of what is necessary. A regular medical visitation of
all prostitutes is an essential part of the scheme, and
its organization should be a matter of serious consideration. The
Parisian Plan already submitted might form a very good basis,
(13:52):
and an arrangement which throws the whole system of prostitution
open to an effective police supervision and the establishment of
a medical bureau in connection. Therewith for professional purposes is
suggested as most desirable. This medical visitation, conducted by physicians,
to be connected with the police department and sustained by
the power of that body, should be confided to men
(14:15):
of recognized skill and known integrity to ensure public confidence
so essentially necessary in the inception of any social innovation,
It would be necessary that the agents upon whom its
execution devolved should be men of tried probity and acknowledged reputation,
both professional and personal. The slightest symptom of disease should
(14:36):
be sufficient evidence to warrant the immediate removal of any
woman to the syphilitic hospital. The residence of any woman,
be it temporary or permanent, in a known house of prostitution,
must subject her to a medical examination, as it would
afford a very strong presumption that she was there for
immoral purposes. The propriety of a medical examination of prostitutes
(14:58):
at certain intervals couldnot be doubted, and in fact it
is practically admitted at the present time by some few
of the brothel keepers in the city. These pay a
physician a liberal salary to visit their borders every few
days for the express purpose of carrying out the plans
suggested now, resorting to treatment whenever he finds it necessary.
(15:18):
Some of the most aristocratic houses of prostitution are thus attended.
But the system is in use especially among the natives
of continental Europe who are now keeping houses of ill
fame in New York, and who in bringing to the
New world. Many of the customs of the old have
thus testified to the benefit of the regulations enforced there.
But although such visiting physician may pronounce a girl infected,
(15:42):
the world has no security that she will not continue
her avocation, And in order to remove all doubt upon
this question, she should be instantly removed to an institution
where she cannot possibly propagate the malady. This must be
done under conjoint medical and police authority. Among prostitutes of
the lower grades, systematic visitation is more imperatively necessary. They
(16:04):
will not place themselves under medical treatment unless they are compelled.
But until their disease assumes a character that prevents the
possibility of farther concealment from their visitors, they continue to
ply their loathsome and destructive trade. The summit of ambition
with them is to keep their liberty. So long as
they can earn enough to provide themselves a shelter and
(16:25):
feed their ravenous appetite for intoxicating liquor. They are content
to submit to the pains and ravages of syphilis alike,
heedless of their own sufferings and the injuries they inflict
on others. We have had cases under our own professional
treatment where women have actually persevered in this course for
many weeks after they had become aware they were diseased,
(16:46):
solely for the reasons indicated. It may be objected that
such a plan would offer a premium to lewteness by
circumscribing the dangers of infection, but this argument can have
little weight, as it is scarcely possible that promiscuous sexual
inners can be carried on much more extensively than it
is at present. The vice seems to have reached its
culminating point. Experience proves that in all ages of the world,
(17:09):
there have been many men whose passions were so violent
and ill regulated that they would attain their gratification at
any risk, even though that risk included the probability of
venereal infection. As in games of hazard, every player hopes
to be a winner, so in carnal indulgences, every man
flatters himself that because some gratify their lusts unscathed for
(17:31):
a long series of years, so may he that, as
hitherto he has escaped disease in his unhallowed demours, he
may continue equally fortunate to the end of his career.
This is confessedly a poor dependence, but it is the
reliance of hundreds and thousands of the followers of her
whose house is the way to hell. Diseases of a
(17:51):
syphilitic nature are viewed by some persons as special punishments
for special sins, and hence they argue that it would
be in interference with the order of Providence to attempt
to eradicate them. The discussion of a theological question would
be altogether out of place in these pages. But the
supposition may be met by a parallel case. Delirium tremens
(18:12):
is the result of an excessive use of intoxicating liquors,
and may justly be considered a special punishment for that offense.
But did anybody ever know a case in which those
who object to the treatment of syphilis extended a single
obstacle to the case of a drunkard. If it is
right to adopt curative measures in one case, why exclude
(18:32):
them in the other. But even supposing that the treatment
of syphilis is open to this objection, so far as
the guilty parties are concerned, shall their descendants be involved
in suffering because the parents sin? If a rigorous medical
examination offers additional inducements to prostitution by reducing the probabilities
of disease. It also guarantees that helpless wives and unborn
(18:54):
children shall not be included in its list of victims.
Go to the thousands of married women now childless or
suffering from abortion, Ask their opinion. Go to the thousands
of disappointed husbands whose hopes of offspring have been blighted
in consequence of their own youthful dissipation. Ask their opinion,
and see what the answers would be. Go and ask
(19:15):
the diseased children on Randall's Island, and in their emaciated frames,
read their testimony. The evidence thus obtained would prove unanswerable
arguments in favor of the plan proposed. It cannot be
imagined that forcing diseased women to submit to a specific
routine of treatment in a special hospital involves any undue
interference with their personal liberty. The right to commit a wrong,
(19:39):
be it social, moral, or physical, never can exist. The
slightest reflection upon such a proposition will at once prove
it untenable. The spread of venereal disease is a positive wrong,
and therefore a woman who is suffering from it, and
is certain or likely to propagate. It is as legitimate
an object for compulsory treatment as would be be a
(20:00):
maniac whom we should find roaming through the streets of
the city, or a person afflicted with smallpox, yellow fever,
or any other contagious or infectious malady. If either of
these cases were to come before any member of the community,
he would not for one moment regard it an infringement
of personal liberty to place the subject under proper care
and restraint. On the contrary, he would think of the
(20:22):
danger to which he and his family were exposed, and
flinging theory to the winds would immediately urge prompt and
practical measures. This is all that is asked respecting prostitution.
Let the public be once thoroughly convinced of the extent
and danger of syphilitic infection, and there would be but
few objectors to these suggestions. Among that few, the principal portion, doubtless,
(20:46):
would be the advertising empirics, whose disgusting announcements occupy so
much space in the columns of our daily journals that
they derive a large income from this sources. Indisputable, and
it is equally certain that if the recommendations now made
where adopted, they would find their occupation gone. Speaking in
all candor, the health, decency, and good morals of the
(21:07):
city would be better cared for in their absence than
it now is, with all the combinations of their extraordinary success,
unequaled experience, and unparalleled facilities. In a financial view, the
money they extort, we refrain from using a harsher term
from their credulous patients, could be far better applied than
(21:28):
in contributing to their wealth. Farther such an institution. An
organization as has been described, would be useless. Did it
not possess the absolute power to retain every patient under
treatment until cured. Whatever modification of principle or mode of
action may be ultimately adopted, and sooner or later something
(21:49):
must be done. This is an indispensable requisite. One half
the danger of venereal infection arises from imperfectly cured cases.
Under the existing system. As already explained, writs can be
issued at an almost nominal costs to remove any or
all of the prostitutes now under medical treatment on Blackwell's Island,
(22:09):
and such an abuse of a valuable privilege on account
of mere technical errors must be fatal to the success
of any remedial project. It would be as reasonable for
a lawyer to petition the courts to order a vessel
detained in quarantine by the Board of Health because she
was infected with yellow fever, to be brought to her
wharf from the city, and there to have permission to
(22:30):
disseminate the disease on board, as it is for the
same individual to apply for a writ of serdiaorrari, the
effect of which is to take an abandoned woman reeking
with disease from an institution where she is under treatment,
and allow her to extend the venereal poison to every
one who may have intercourse with her. This must not
be understood as indicating a wish to curtail the constitutional
(22:52):
privileges attached to writs of habeas corpus or serdiaorrari, but
merely their applicability to cases like the opposed one. How
can the evil be prevented simply by making any legislative
enactment on the subject so plain that it cannot be
misunderstood or evaded. No lawyer would find any difficulty in
drafting a short act giving the police department the power,
(23:14):
based upon an affidavit made by a member of their
own medical bureau, to remove any diseased woman to a
proper hospital and retain her there until cured. It may
appear to a casual observer that this detention would be
of the same nature as the imprisonment required by the
existing mode, But a little thought will point out a
wide difference. Now we force a woman to become an
(23:37):
inmate of a penitentiary and add disgrace to her disease
by assuming her to have been guilty of crime, then
we should require her to become an inmate of the
hospital with no additional disgrace, but that arising from the
fact that she had contracted syphilis by vicious habits. In
the one case, we make her the companion of some
of the vilest wretches on the face of the earth.
(24:00):
In the other, she would have no associates but those
of her own class. The medical bureau to whom these
reforms should be entrusted, although connected with the police department,
would require to be an independent body so far as
professional duties are concerned. Its connection would be necessary because
there would be many cases requiring the intervention of the
(24:20):
civil power and its isolation would be equally important, because
much would depend on the discretion of the examiners, and
many contingencies might arise where a strict line of routine
duty would defeat the object in view. They would be
literally a detective corps, and with a known amount of
duty before them, must be left to choose their own
(24:40):
method of performing it. Any definite arrangements or positive orders
from a non medical board would only embarrass their action.
For medical and non medical executives always clash when they
aim at one common object. Of course, a leading requirement
in their instructions must be that their examinations be rigid
and thorough. No half way measures in this respect could
(25:03):
meet the absolute demands of the case or satisfy the
expectations of the community. It must be plainly understood by
the world that the Medical Bureau was required to perform
its whole duty uncompromisingly and fearlessly, and that its members
were men who would not evade the responsibility in their investigations.
Many cases would occur where their services would be valuable
(25:25):
to society beyond the pale of professional duty. It is
not to be expected that they would become evangelists, but
they could be the willing and efficient coadjutors of those
who delight to bear the Gospel to these poor, degraded beings.
And even while listening to a recital of bodily sufferings,
instances would arise where the acts of the good Samaritan
(25:45):
would be required at their hands. They would be the
depositaries of many a narrative of wrong and outrage, of
sorrow and suffering. And it is not unreasonable to believe
that of the histories poured into their ears, some would
indicate a channel by which the law lost one might
be restored to home and friends and virtue, or point
to some chord in the mind which would give a
(26:06):
responsive sound when touched by the hand of pity. The
adoption of these suggestions would be at least a step
in the right direction, and lay the foundation of a
system which can be gradually enlarged until it embraces regulations
as to registry, management of houses of ill, fame, et cetera,
to the same extent as is now done in Europe.
(26:28):
And here a few words relative to the licensing system
may not be inappropriate. The propriety of granting licenses and
thus making vice a sort of revenue is open to
grave objections, but on the other hand, acknowledged social evils
have ere this been made to contribute to the public funds.
(26:48):
Witness the dealing in ardent spirits. The city does now
and has for years, derived a considerable income from licenses
to sell liquors. A great number of wise and good
men can ten that the sale or use of intoxicating
beverages is not only an unmitigated evil, but even criminal.
They have entertained and publicly declared these sentiments for years,
(27:11):
but still the licensed system is continued. It may be
a question for decision whether prostitution is not as liable
for taxation as drunkenness, and if both were equally taxed,
whether as a body we should not be more responsible
for the results of one or the other. On passant,
it may be noticed that an annual tax of one
(27:32):
percent upon the property engaged in the business of prostitution,
and a similar assessment upon the revenue of houses of
ill fame, would amount to over one hundred thousand dollars.
The plan here shadowed forth would not be likely to
extend prostitution, but on the contrary, there is very little doubt,
but it would check it. Even if it did not,
(27:53):
the community would reap an advantage in the sanitary reform
it would enforce in low neighborhoods. Many of the brothels
are as dangerous to public health on account of their
crowded and excessively filthy state, as are the ciphilised inmates themselves.
Such places would legitimately come within the province of the
medical inspectors, and their reports thereon to the Police executive
(28:15):
would ensure immediate attention. Public morals would be advanced by
such visitations. These houses, or a great number of them,
are the result of all species of dishonest characters, who
would unquestionably abandon them, at least as places of residence,
if they knew they were at any moment liable to
a domiciliary visit. Again, almost every person has in his
(28:39):
remembrance some female who left home and could not be
found because securely secreted in some one of these houses
of prostitution. At least, it is not uncommon to read
of such cases in the daily papers, accompanied with an
account of the unsuccessful search of her friends and the police.
Occurrences like this could not take place if all known
(29:00):
houses of bad repute were under the surveillance of the
Medical Police Department. Nor is it unreasonable to hope that
prostitution would be diminished. It is flourished of late years
and seclusion, but our plan would render privacy impossible. Seclusion
has attracted many unfortunate women, whom shame or a dread
(29:21):
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
(29:43):
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
(30:04):
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,
(30:26):
fashionable restaurants, steamboat 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
(30:48):
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
(31:09):
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. End of Section sixty. Recording by
(31:35):
Ramon Escamilla Conway, Arkansas. R A M O n E.
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