LEIPZIG.

But very few remarks are necessary concerning prostitution in Leipzig, where no striking peculiarity marks the common women as a class, and the legislation is based on the ordinary German principle of toleration.

If we reckon its garrison as a part of the population of the town, the number of inhabitants will amount to about one hundred thousand, nearly one third of whom are soldiers or transient residents. It is subject to many fluctuations at various times, but the general average may be assumed at the number stated. Of the permanent residents there are about six hundred well known and professed male rogues and blacklegs; these are under the constant and vigilant surveillance of the police. They unquestionably exert a considerable influence on the female morality of the place, not only from their own amours, for which men of this character are notorious wherever located, but by the agency they frequently assume to arrange the “pleasures” of their victims and acquaintances.

It need, therefore, occasion no surprise to ascertain that, in addition to about three hundred registered prostitutes who are subject to medical and police supervision, there are about twelve hundred women who notoriously frequent the city, from the neighboring towns and villages, for purposes of prostitution, whenever a large influx of visitors makes it probable that Leipzig will be a lucrative market for them. These are not directly under any police control. To this number of fifteen hundred avowed and known prostitutes, who are to be found in the city during busy seasons of the year, must be added the class of irregular or private courtesans, mostly composed of domestics. It is estimated there are three thousand servant-girls in the city, and the habits of a large number of them leave no doubt as to the propriety of including them in this enumeration; indeed, those who have had the best opportunities for observation do not hesitate to assert that at least one third are vicious. Assuming this to be an accurate calculation, we have 2500 prostitutes, or one in every forty of the gross population, exclusive of kept mistresses, or those frail women in the more aristocratic circles of society who should properly be classed with them. In this respect we have no reason to conclude that Leipzig is either better or worse than other large cities of the present day.

There are about sixty-six common brothels in Leipzig, the majority of which are registered and closely watched by the police. They are situated in the lowest and least frequented parts of the city, and many of them present, in excess, some of the worst features of such places. To escape their annoyances as far as possible, and retain that outward show of respectability most acceptable to their visitors, many of the prostitutes have private lodgings in various parts of the town, resorting to every conceivable disguise to conceal or modify their real character. Very many of them are said to be married women, whose husbands not merely connive at, but frequently compel this loathsome trade for the sake of its emoluments.

The proprietors of the tolerated brothels “assume a virtue if they have it not,” and seek to disguise their houses under the names of coffee-houses or restaurants; a course recognized by the authorities, who do not insist upon calling such places by the vernacular designation, as is done in Hamburg or Berlin.

The women inhabiting these houses are principally natives of Altenburg, Berlin, Dresden, or Brunswick; those from the latter district are noted by travelers for their personal beauty. Very few Polish women are found here. The requisite supply of women is kept up through the agency of procuresses, as in Hamburg, who are remunerated by the brothel-keepers in proportion to the distance they have traveled to secure recruits, or according to the attractions of the girl, or her probable success in the establishment.

In regard to dress, manners, conduct, and the other incidents of their calling, there is little distinction between the prostitutes of Leipzig and those of other European cities. A late anonymous writer gives them credit as a class for a studious, literary habit, and names a somewhat intelligent selection of light works as those they prefer to read, such as the writings of Fredrika Bremer, Bulwer, Walter Scott, Caroline Pichler, Schiller, and others. If this statement be correct, it may be accounted for by the great local demand for literature, books and furs being universally known as the great staples of Leipzig, and the fact can scarcely be assumed as indicative of any especial inclination for belles-lettres. Prostitution and studious habits or reflective minds are very seldom associated. The majority of the brothel-keepers are stated to be anti-literary in their tastes. They keep the women plentifully supplied with cards and dominoes, which they use more for the purpose of predicting good fortunes to their visitors and themselves than for gambling. We have never heard that any of their liberal prognostications have been verified. Apparently the same usages and habits of life prevail among the common women of Leipzig as among those of Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, London, or elsewhere. Indolent from the nature of their position, envious from their relationship to their compeers, their life would seem to pass in a routine of doing nothing with considerable zest, or of quarreling among each other with noteworthy animation.No material variation from the ordinary routine of sickness caused by prostitution has been discovered in Leipzig. Syphilis has its average number of victims, the intensity of the malady being diminished or aggravated as a less or greater number of strangers may happen to be in the city.

The medical and police surveillance of prostitutes in European countries being modeled almost literally from one system, as is also the strictness with which it is now enforced, it is unnecessary to say any thing of its workings in Leipzig farther than the fact that the variable and floating nature of the population, at times, makes its application a difficult task. A description of it would be only a repetition of what has already been said of Paris, Hamburg, or Berlin.

The great fairs draw a large concourse of strangers from all parts of the world to Leipzig, and its geographical position beyond the centre of Europe brings it so close to the frontiers of Turkey, Poland, the Danubian provinces, and Russia, that the scene at these meetings is perhaps more motley and curious in race, costume, and characteristics than in any other city in the world. Among so heterogeneous a mass there exist many standards of morality. The semi-barbarous habits of some of the visitors entail a large share of sorrows on the prostitutes; more, in fact, than are generally experienced by any but the very lowest grade of women in other places. When in the tolerated houses, these rude hordes abandon themselves to the grossest licentiousness, use expressions compared with which the ordinary conversation of brothels is chaste and refined, and seek to extinguish every vestige of shame or womanly feeling in their companions. If a woman ventures to remonstrate at such extravagant lewdness, the reply is, “Well, now, be silent. I have paid you, and you are mine as long as I have you.” It may therefore be easily credited that during such periods no shadow of decency can be found in the common houses. Any which exists (and truth compels the admission that it is very rare during the crowded season) can only be traced among those women who have private lodgings.

The only compensation for such depravity is found in the large sums obtained by the women from their lovers, in some cases amounting to forty thalers (about thirty dollars) per week. Of this, one half always goes to the brothel-keeper as his share, and, calculating his expenses to be five thalers per week for the board and lodging of each woman, it will be seen that his profits are not inconsiderable. The sum retained by the women is spent for articles of dress, pleasure, etc. This calculation is for a time when the town is in the full tide of commercial prosperity; but if we assume the average receipts at ordinary times to be one half only, we shall be able to form a tolerably good idea of the financial result of prostitution in Leipzig.