The History of Prostitution Part 44

These tables require no comment. The attention of the reader may merely be called to the fact that three hundred and ninety-four women have been already reported as born in the State of New York, of which number three hundred and fifty-three have resided within its limits continuously from the time of their birth, and that one hundred and eighty-five, or nearly one half, were natives of New York City, and have resided therein from the day they were born. This fact alone demonstrates that the influences of metropolitan life are not very favorable to the advance of female morality.

_Question._ WHAT INDUCED YOU TO EMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES?

Reasons. Numbers.

Came as stewardesses 2 Ran away from home 18 Ill usage of parents 34 Came with their seducers 39 Came to improve their condition 411 Sent out by parents or friends 81 Came with relatives or to join relatives already in the United States 619 No special cause a.s.signed 34 ---- Total of foreigners 1238

This table shows that a majority of the prost.i.tutes of foreign birth were induced to emigrate to the United States either by considerations of policy--four hundred and eleven a.s.signing as their reason a desire to improve their condition in life--or from family connections, six hundred and nineteen having arrived with relatives and friends, or with the purpose of joining relatives and friends already in this country.

It will not be denied by any one familiar with the subject that one main reason for emigration is always found in the comparative difficulty of earning a livelihood in the place of the emigrant's nativity, and the expectation of doing better in a strange land; a conclusion sustained by the fact that a prosperous year in Europe serves to check the arrivals here, and _vice versa_. With the difficult problem of labor and remuneration in the Old World it would be out of place to interfere; but it may be remarked that, badly as many branches of female employment are paid for with us, they are still worse paid for in England. Reference to a previous chapter, treating of the causes of prost.i.tution in that country, will at once establish this point, and the instances therein quoted of the wages paid in London will remove all surprise that this country should be a receptacle for underpaid operatives, or that the hope of realizing better wages should be sufficiently powerful to sever all ties of birth-place and home. But many of these impoverished women were actually dependent upon friends for the payment of their pa.s.sage-money, and consequently arrived here almost literally penniless, with very slight prospects of obtaining work, and frequently with but one alternative, and the only one they had before coming here, which they must embrace or starve.

Another cla.s.s a.s.sign as a reason for expatriation the ill usage of parents, in itself a prolific cause of prost.i.tution under any circ.u.mstances, but more especially when its effects have been to drive the girl a distance of four thousand miles from home.

From an examination of these causes alone, it is apparent that, however well qualified, physically and morally, to add their quota to the prosperity of the United States, had their exertions been properly directed, yet the circ.u.mstances under which these women emigrated were so embarra.s.sing as to render them easy victims to those whose special business seems to be to ensnare the friendless and unfortunate.

This branch of inquiry may be continued by a reference to the following table, giving a summary of answers to the

_Question._ DID YOU RECEIVE ANY a.s.sISTANCE, AND IF SO, TO WHAT AMOUNT, TO ENABLE YOU TO EMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES?

Amount of a.s.sistance. Numbers.

Paid their own expenses 262 Rec'd a.s.sistance, amount not specified 618 Rec'd a.s.sistance, $20 each, 89 " " 25 " 94 " " 30 " 43 " " 35 " 15 " " 40 " 24 " " 45 " 6 " " 50 " 28 " " 55 " 3 " " 60 " 12 " " 65 " 2 " " 70 " 2 " " 75 " 2 " " 100 " 12 " " 110 " 1 " " 120 " 3 " " 140 " 2 " " 150 " 3 " " 175 " 1 " " 180 " 2 " " 200 " 5 " " 220 " 1 " " 250 " 2 " " 300 " 4 " " 400 " 1 " " 600 " 1 --- --- Totals 976 262 --- 976 ---- Total of foreign-born prost.i.tutes 1238

It appears that only two hundred and sixty-two, or about one fifth of the total number, paid their own pa.s.sage-money, the remainder having received pecuniary a.s.sistance toward that object ranging from an unspecified amount, which, in all probability, was not more than the positive expenses of the voyage, to six hundred dollars. It will be observed that the majority did not receive more than forty dollars each, eight hundred and eighty-three of those a.s.sisted stating that such help did not exceed that sum. This certainly was but a very inadequate amount to pay the expenses of an outfit and a voyage across the Atlantic, and then to support a person in a strange land until employment could be secured; particularly if she was but one of a family each member of which had the same imperative necessity for work as herself. These remarks may be thought inconsistent with the statements published in 1856 of the amount of money brought to this country by immigrants; but it may be suggested that, although these reports gave a correct statement of the sum in the possession of all the pa.s.sengers by a certain vessel, they are altogether silent as to the numbers who were dest.i.tute. They merely proved what has been universally conceded within the last three or four years, namely, that among the immigrants arriving are many with considerable cash means.

But it does not require much reflection to convince any one that when a family bring available funds with them, they will leave New York as quickly as possible in search of some locality where their money may be advantageously employed. This is still more likely, as the fact of their being possessed of capital proves them to have practiced habits of industry and economy at home, which would scarcely abandon them when they reached the New World. The aggregated facts as to property do not touch isolated cases of poverty, the most dangerous to this community, because individuals who are forced to remain in the city from want of means to leave it not only swell its long list of paupers, but are in circ.u.mstances which may materially influence them to become prost.i.tutes, and have the spur of necessity to urge them forward in this or any other course which may offer a respite from starvation.

The following table corroborates this theory; it consists of replies to the other part of the same

_Question._ DID YOU RECEIVE ANY a.s.sISTANCE, AND IF SO, FROM WHOM, TO ENABLE YOU TO EMIGRATE TO THE UNITED STATES?

By whom a.s.sisted. Numbers.

Paid their own expenses 262 By relatives or friends 805 By money remitted by relatives or friends in the U. S. 100 Stole money from their friends 34 By seducers 28 By public authorities 9 --- Totals 976 262 --- 976 ---- Total of foreign-born prost.i.tutes 1238

As a general rule, the parties by whom a.s.sistance was rendered were not likely to advance any amount beyond what was absolutely required. Even this amount would perhaps be reduced before the termination of the voyage, if it should prove a protracted one, and the provisions of the pa.s.sengers be exhausted, as there are on board every ship persons who are willing to sell articles of food at prices ranging from three to six times their value, and who are equally ready to supply demands for brandy or tobacco also. On a review of the responses given to the three questions which have been under consideration in this section, it appears that the opinions expressed are legitimate deductions from the premises. They may be thus recapitulated: The majority of those immigrants who subsequently become prost.i.tutes in New York were almost dest.i.tute in their own country; they arrive here with little or no means of support; their poverty renders them peculiarly liable to yield to temptation, if, indeed, many of them have not previously fallen. Thus, if we do not receive them as prost.i.tutes when they reach our sh.o.r.es, we receive them in a condition immediately to become such for the sake of subsistence.

_Question._ CAN YOU READ AND WRITE?

Degree of education. Numbers.

Can read and write well 714 Can read and write imperfectly 546 Can read only 219 Uneducated 521 ---- Total 2000

Seven hundred and fourteen of the women who were examined in New York City say that they can read and write _well_. This must not be regarded as proof that they have received a superior, or even a medium education, but is a phrase which may be interpreted to mean that they can read a page of printed matter without much trouble, and can sign their names, although truth compels the admission that their writing is very often a species of penmanship extremely difficult to decipher. Beyond such acquirements as these, very few, scarcely one in each five hundred, have progressed. Five hundred and forty-six can read and write _imperfectly_, a grade of education which may be defined as midway between the amount of knowledge already described and a state of total ignorance; enough, in fact, to relieve them from the suspicion of being altogether illiterate, which is the sole advantage they can claim over the two hundred and nineteen who can _read only_, or the five hundred and twenty-one who confess that they _can neither read nor write_. As a whole, there is little doubt that the prost.i.tutes in New York believe, "where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." These remarks are made from observations upon this cla.s.s during a long hospital experience.

But, seriously, such a state of ignorance is most deplorable. To give an idea of the facilities for acquiring education in the various countries from which these prost.i.tutes reach us, the following statement from the United States Census for 1850[381] is submitted:

The ratio of persons receiving education is as follows:

United States, 1 to every 5 of total population.

Denmark, 1 " " 5 " " "

Sweden, 1 " " 6 " " "

Prussia, 1 " " 6 " " "

Norway, 1 " " 7 " " "

Great Britain, 1 " " 8 " " "

France, 1 " " 10 " " "

Austria, 1 " " 13 " " "

Holland, 1 " " 14 " " "

Ireland, 1 " " 14 " " "

The following is a fair average estimate of the acquirements of native and foreign-born prost.i.tutes:

Degree of Education. Natives. Foreigners.

Can read and write well 25 per cent. 10 per cent.

" " " " imperfectly 50 " " 50 " "

Uneducated 25 " " 40 " "

--- --- 100 100

The average of educational facilities in the United States is as one to five; in European countries it is one to ten. In other words, every one in this country has twice the opportunities for education compared with those born in the Old World: opportunities which, in the cases of these women at least, have not been improved to their full extent. Of those who claim to be well educated, the United States show more than the average. In the cla.s.s imperfectly educated, foreigners show one half of their number, and the superior advantages in this country only produce exactly the same proportion. The proportion of those uneducated is not much more favorable in natives than in foreigners. Some allowances must be made, however, in this calculation, for the fact that many children of foreign birth arrive here at an early age, and gain such education as they possess in American inst.i.tutions; but even this will but slightly affect the disproportion alluded to. But no possible modification of the facts can be conceived sufficient to excuse the negligence of the parents or friends of one fourth of the native-born prost.i.tutes in this city at the present day, when education may be obtained literally "without money and without price."

Sectarian bigotry must be held responsible for much of this offense. "If our children can not be educated as we please, they shall not be educated at all. If they must not read the books we wish, they shall never learn the alphabet," is, in effect, if not in words, the language of thousands in this country to-day. What are the results of this cruel policy? The children go forth into the world: the boys, to earn a precarious living by the sweat of their brow; the girls, condemned to the most servile work in any family where their stupidity may find a shelter, until they meet with some man of their own mental calibre, whom they marry, and forthwith bring up their unfortunate children in the same manner in which they themselves were reared. This is the brightest view of the future of ignorant children; the darker shades are depicted in the annals of vice and crime--may be seen daily in our prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and pauper burying-grounds.

The picture is not overdrawn; nor will the reply so common in this generation, "These are the children of foreigners," serve to exonerate the parents; for even if all the uneducated native women who have answered these questions were born of foreign parentage, a fact which must be proved before it is admitted, but which we are not inclined to concede, yet they were born on our soil, where public schools were open to receive them, and their intelligence would enhance the credit of the land in the same proportion that their ignorance diminishes it. A love of their adopted country, its inst.i.tutions and its fame, is not too much to ask of parents who derive their maintenance from its resources. It is a libel upon the parental instinct (it can not be called feeling) to allow any child in the United States to arrive at years of maturity without acquiring a good plain, solid education. Fathers or mothers who pursue such a course as this would consider themselves unjustly accused if told they were training their daughters to become prost.i.tutes, but such is the fact. It is scarcely possible to imagine any thing so likely to lead a woman from the paths of rect.i.tude as ignorance, coupled with the conviction that such ignorance is an insurmountable barrier to her progress in life; it drives her to intoxication to drown her reflections, and from intoxication to prost.i.tution the transition is easy and almost certain.

Here, then, are a number of young women thrown into society every year without the least education; untrained for good, and only fit for evil.

Ignorant of their duties to themselves or to the world; with sensibilities callous because they have never been cultivated; with faculties on a level with the inferior animals from the same cause, they are expected to succeed in life! It would be as consistent to take a man who had never seen a steam-engine, and give him the control of a locomotive and a train of cars without antic.i.p.ating an accident, as it is to presume in this day of knowledge that an uneducated man or woman can ever become a respectable and useful member of society.

Could our liberal facilities for education be duly improved, much would be done to prevent the vice of prost.i.tution. No cla.s.sical or extraordinary tuition is required to accomplish this end; merely common sense rightly cultivated, and conscience enlightened and developed, so as to appreciate the difference between right and wrong, will do much to aid a woman to pa.s.s unscathed through trials which constantly ruin the ignorant.

The question has sometimes arisen whether it should not be made compulsory on parents to educate their children. The present is not the place to discuss that subject, but the following statistics will show to what extent the duty is neglected.

The United States Census for 1850 reports:

Population of New York City 515,547 Proportion of population between the ages of five and fifteen years 101,006 Children attending school 76,685 Percentage of children attending school 75-9/10

The New York State Census for 1855 reports:

Population of New York City 629,904 Proportion of population between the ages of five and fifteen years 116,627

No returns are made of the numbers attending schools, and these must be sought from other sources. The report of the Board of Education for 1856 states the average daily attendance at the ward or public schools to be 44,598. The same doc.u.ment gives data from which the attendance at religious, corporate, or other public schools can be calculated, but says nothing of private schools. An approximate estimate of the latter can, however, be made with the help of the United States Census. In 1850, the proportions were about one private to every twelve public scholars, and since that period there has probably been but little change in the ratio.

From these facts the subjoined may be a.s.sumed a reasonably correct statement:

Average attendance at public schools 44,598 Allowance of twenty per cent. for absentees, whose names are on the school registers, but who attend irregularly 8,920 Corporate schools receiving state a.s.sistance 7,517 " " without " " (estimated) 10,000 Private schools " 6,000 ------ Total children attending school 77,035

This would give a school attendance of sixty-six per cent. of the population between the ages of five and fifteen years, or ten per cent.

less than in 1850.

That the proportionate numbers receiving education are diminishing is susceptible of proof from one fact. In 1856, the pupils in the public schools were 347 more than in 1855. During the last fifteen years the population of the city has increased more than twenty thousand per annum, and of this increase about one fifth (or four thousand) are between the ages of five and fifteen. It follows that in 1856 there were four thousand additional children in New York as compared with 1855, but there were only 347 additional attendants at the public schools. Admitting that other schools received the same increase of pupils--an admission more liberal than facts would warrant--the education of seven hundred only would be provided for, leaving three thousand three hundred dest.i.tute of instruction.

In the course of the year 1856, the attention of the Board of Education was directed to the large number of children not attending any school, and upon the basis of a partial census of the city they were a.s.sumed to amount to sixty thousand. This was conceded to be an over-estimate. The figures given above would make the number 39,594, which may very likely be nearer the truth; but even this may be in excess, and, to allow for all possible contingencies, we will place it at thirty thousand. Even this is an alarming statement: the suggestion that of all the children in our city nearly twenty-seven per cent. are growing up in a state of perfect ignorance, presents so many frightful considerations that the mind revolts at the bare possibility. But the facts will not permit any other construction. If this criminal neglect be continued, it must produce fatal consequences to society, and the view of impending results would almost sanction a compulsory education.[382]

_Question._ ARE YOU SINGLE, MARRIED, OR WIDOWED?