William W. Sanger

NEW YORK.—PROSTITUTES AND HOUSES OF PROSTITUTION.

First Class, or “Parlor Houses.”—Luxury.—Semi-refinement.—Rate of Board.—Dress.—Money.—Lavish Extravagance.—Instance of Economy.—Means of Amusement.—House-keepers.—Rents.—Estimated Receipts.—Management of Houses.—Assumed Respectability.—Consequences of Exactions from Prostitutes.—Affection for Lovers.—Second Class Houses.—Street-walkers.—Drunkenness.—Syphilitic Infection.—Third Class Houses.—Germans.—Sailors.—Ball-rooms.—Intoxication.—Fourth Class Houses.—Repulsive Features.—Visitors.—Action of the Police.—First Class Houses of Assignation.—Secrecy and Exclusiveness.—Keepers.—Arrangements.—Visitors.—Origin of some Houses of Assignation.—Prevalence of Intrigue.—Foreign Manners.—Effects of Travel.—Dress.—Second Class Houses.—Visitors.—Prostitutes.—Arrangements.—Wine and Liquor.—Third Class Houses.—Kept Mistresses.—Sewing and Shop Girls.—Disease.—Fourth Class Houses.—“Panel Houses.”

It will not be out of place here to say somewhat concerning the manner of life among prostitutes; how they occupy the time, and what facilities they possess for mental or bodily recreation. The domestic life of a number of women whose every action is contrary to all the rules of virtue, who are living in the constant violation of the law, with a daily subsistence contributed by those whose folly or passions make them visitors to their abode, can not but possess considerable interest to all who have followed thus far in this painful task. In entering upon the subject, the endeavor will be to give such particulars as will enable the reader to form satisfactory conclusions, without recording what would merely minister to a prurient curiosity. The object is to give information as explicitly as possible without offending the most sensitive delicacy, wounding the most refined feelings, or unnecessarily parading these poor women before the public eye. The subject is invested with such an array of real and palpable horrors as to render unnecessary any endeavor to excite undue emotion by penetrating the mysteries of the saturnalia.

There is a wide diversity among the various grades of prostitutes in New York. The first class are those who reside in what are technically called “Parlor Houses.” These very seldom leave their abodes, unless for the purpose of making purchases of dress, jewelry, or articles of toilette, or taking an afternoon promenade on the fashionable side of Broadway, excepting when they accompany their lovers or visitors in a ride, or to some public place of amusement. These utterly repudiate the name of “street-walkers,” and very seldom perform any act in public which would expose them to reprobation, or attract the attention of the police. They assume to be, and are, in fact, the most respectable of their class, if any respectability can be associated with so vicious a course. Being almost invariably young and handsome, and always very well dressed, they pass through the streets without their real character being suspected by the uninitiated.

The houses in which this class of courtesans reside are furnished with a lavish display of luxury, scarcely in accordance with the dictates of good taste however, and mostly exhibiting a quantity of magnificent furniture crowded together without taste or judgment for the sake of ostentation. The most costly cabinet and upholstery work is freely employed in their decoration, particularly in the rooms used as reception parlors. Large mirrors adorn the walls, which are frequently handsomely frescoed and gilt. Paintings and engravings in rich frames, vases and statuettes, add their charms. Carpets of luxurious softness cover the floors, while sofas, ottomans, and easy chairs abound. Music has its representative in a beautiful pianoforte, upon which some professed player is paid a liberal salary to perform. Even the bed-chambers, passages, halls, and stairways are furnished in a similar style. In such an abode as this probably dwell from three to ten prostitutes, each paying weekly for her board from ten to sixteen dollars, exclusive of extras, which will be noticed hereafter. Their active life comprises about twelve or fourteen hours daily, ranging from noon to midnight or early morning. Their visitors are mostly of what may be called the aristocratic class; young, middle aged, and even old men of property, of all callings and professions; any one who can command a liberal supply of money is welcome, but without this indispensable requisite his company is not sought or appreciated.

None of the disgusting practices common in houses of a lower grade are met with here. There is no palpable obscenity, and but little that can outrage propriety. Of course there is a perfect freedom of manner between prostitutes and visitors, but so far as the public eye can penetrate, the requirements of common decency are not openly violated. Profanity, as may naturally be expected, exists to some extent; it is an almost invariable accompaniment of prostitution, but even that is divested of its grossness, and is not of frequent occurrence. There is no bar-room or public drinking place in the house, but it is a general custom for each visitor to invite his pro tempore inamorata and her companions to take champagne with him, which is supplied by the keeper of the place at the charge of three dollars a bottle. As remarked in the preceding chapter, excessive drunkenness is rare, both prostitutes and keepers trying to suppress it, because an intoxicated man would be likely to give them trouble, damage their furniture, and injure the reputation of the house. By means of a small aperture in the front door, covered by a wrought-iron lattice-work, the candidates for admission can be examined before entrance is given, and the door is kept closed against any person who is likely to prove an annoyance.

As a natural consequence of their position, the women exert all their powers of fascination, by adopting the latest and most superb fashions in dress, and by a very tasteful arrangement of their hair, for which purpose a hair dresser visits them every day, charging each woman two or three dollars a week for his assistance. Besides these they practice a thousand other artifices, unknown to mere lookers on, in order to secure the favor of their visitors.

About three fourths of the courtesans of this grade are natives of the United States, and mostly from New England or the Middle States. Some of them are very well educated; accomplished musicians and artists are sometimes found among them, while others aspire to literature. With the greater number much elegance and refinement of manner, or a close observance of what may be called the conventionalities of life, is seen. Their income is large, but so are their expenses. It is no exaggeration to state that their individual receipts very seldom fall short of fifty dollars per week. From this amount deduct the sum charged for their board, an additional fee which they pay the proprietress for every visitor they entertain, the expenses of hair-dressing, perfumery, etc., the cost of their washing, which is all done at their own charge, away from the house, and must be considerable, and the remainder will give their expenditure for dress. All are not equally extravagant. Some seem to consider prostitution a business, and act upon the idea of saving as much money as possible. In one case a woman asserted that she had seven thousand dollars in the bank, which she had accumulated by prostitution in a few years, and her statement was confirmed by the captain of police for the district. The economical ones are generally shrewd, calculating “down-Easters,” who argue that if they can save enough during the zenith of their charms to support them when their attractions fail, or to help them establish a house of this description on their own account, they are only doing their duty. Others have dependent relatives whom they support, or illegitimate children whom they maintain and educate, frequently appropriating considerable sums for these purposes. In nearly all of them, kindness toward the unfortunate of their own sex and grade is a striking trait. Much as they may quarrel among each other when all are alike in health, let one be visited with sickness, or overcome by misfortune, and, as a general rule, their envy or jealousy is forgotten, and they freely contribute to her support.

Their means of amusement are limited. When they have no visitors they generally indulge in a luxurious indolence. For any useful employment, such as even sewing or fancy needlework, they have but little inclination, and their general refuge from ennui is found in reading novels. These are not, as would be generally supposed, works of lascivious character; to these they seem to have an objection, most probably because their own experience has proved the fallacies of the highly-colored descriptions of the delights of love which abound in such productions. To one source of recreation they are extremely partial, namely, driving in carriages some few miles out of town, and they frequently persuade their visitors to indulge them in these rural excursions. They are well acquainted with the most pleasant drives, and know exactly where to find quiet and retired hotels where all the delicacies of the season can be served in the most approved style. If they can not induce their friends to gratify them in this manner, they will endeavor to secure an invitation to take luncheon or oysters at some fashionable saloon. Dress, gay life, and excitement seem necessary to their existence.

And amid all this array of luxurious homes, of splendid dresses, of comparative affluence, the question arises, Are they happy? A moment’s consideration will prompt the answer that they can not be. Continued indulgence in their course of life tends to obliterate the sense of degradation, and makes their career almost second nature, but even the most confirmed must at times reflect. The memory of what they have been, the thought of what they are, the dread of what they must be, haunt their minds; conscience will make itself heard. Many a poor girl dressed in silks or satins, gleaming with jewelry, and receiving with a gay smile the lavish compliments of her “friend,” is mentally racked with a keen appreciation of her true position. She knows that the world condemns her, and her own heart admits the justice of the verdict. She knows that he who is so ostentatiously parading his admiration regards her but as a purchased instrument to minister to his gratification. She feels that she is, emphatically, alone in the world, and her merry laugh but ill conceals a breaking heart.

These houses are generally kept by middle-aged women who have themselves passed through the initiatory course of a prostitute’s life. In some cases they own the real estate and furniture. In others they hire or lease the house, paying an exorbitant rent (often to some wealthy man who considers himself a respectable member of society), and provide their own furniture; in other cases they rent both house and furniture. In one house in this city the enormous sum of nine thousand one hundred (9100) dollars is, or was at the time of examination, paid annually for rent and use of furniture, the owner being a woman who formerly kept the place, but who is now living in the enjoyment of a large income in one of the Italian cities.

The following extracts from information obtained on this subject will give a very good idea of the facts:

E. M. pays $1300 per year for rent and use of furniture, which is owned by a woman who formerly kept the house.

M. S. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns the furniture.

M. L. owns the house and furniture, estimated to be worth $15,000.

M. A. T. pays $700 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $5000.

J. G. pays $700 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

E. T. owns the real estate and furniture, valued at $30,000.

C. G. pays $1800 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

M. C. K. pays $3900 per year for rent and use of furniture.

C. E. pays $1400 per annum rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

M. B. owns the house and furniture, valued at $15,000.

J. B. pays $560 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

E. B. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

M. M. owns house and furniture, valued at $15,000.

C. C. pays $850 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $8000.

M. M. pays $750 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

M. G. pays $625 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $1000.

V. N. pays $1300 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

C. E. pays $1400 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $6000.

L. C. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $2000.

A. T. pays $1000 per year rent, and owns furniture valued at $3000.

The financial effects of the system of prostitution will furnish a theme for some remarks hereafter. These facts are quoted now to explain the expenses connected with first-class houses. Of course, where such outlays are incurred the receipts must correspond. The following statement will exhibit the minimum weekly receipts in a house where ten boarders reside:

This estimate does not reach the daily average of visitors, and a more correct statement would be:

Taking the mean of these two calculations will give receipts exceeding twenty-six thousand dollars per year, or five hundred dollars weekly. The cost of maintaining these luxurious establishments, in addition to the rent, is considerable, but still there is a very large excess. This is satisfactorily proved by the fact that the women who own the houses in which they conduct their traffic have, almost without exception, purchased them since they commenced housekeeping, and also that many of them own considerable personal property in addition to the real estate. One woman is positively affirmed to be worth over one hundred thousand dollars, many are reported as worth sums ranging from fifty thousand downward, and many more are reputed to be rich, but no special amount mentioned.

The management of many of the houses is confided to a housekeeper, acting for the principal, who is rarely visible unless specially called for, and under this housekeeper are a number of servants, varying from three to seven, according to the size of the house and the number of boarders it accommodates. These servants are almost invariably colored women, and no difficulty is ever experienced in obtaining a full complement. Their wages are liberal, their perquisites considerable, and their work light. A neat and well-arranged breakfast is prepared for the “lady boarders” about eleven or twelve o’clock, and their dinner is served about five or six o’clock. As a general rule these are the only meals supplied them in the course of the day. If they require any thing more they send out for it, or persuade their visitors to escort them to some saloon.

The proprietors of this class of houses assume to be respectable women when they are away from the scenes of their business. An anecdote, and a true one, has been related of one of them who, on a recent visit to Newport, so effectually carried out her disguise as to receive the escort of a reverend gentleman, a D.D. of this city, to the dinner-table and elsewhere, with his family, he thinking her a most amiable and deeply afflicted widow. Some of them have private residences up town, in the quiet respectable streets, and come to their houses of prostitution every forenoon, returning at night. A portion of them profess to be religious, frequently attending some place of worship the better to preserve their mask. Naturally benevolent, as are all women, they contribute liberally to charitable objects, and freely relieve any indigent persons who may ask their assistance. Even in political matters they have some weight, their resources and connections proving valuable to some aspirant for local distinction who has promised them that he will, if elected, use all his influence to protect them from annoyance.

Toward the miserable women whose vice is the source of their wealth, these proprietors act as interest dictates. A girl who has not the tact or disposition to attract visitors is seldom treated with much consideration, while one who is successful receives more favors, but favors, generally speaking, of a nature to render her subservient to their wishes; such as the loan of money to purchase new and fashionable articles of dress, a short credit for her board, or some equivalent which will place her under an obligation, and render it difficult for her to leave the house. They are actuated in this by a desire to retain an attractive girl; for, in addition to the actual cash payments she makes, she also possesses the power of inducing her visitors to be liberal in their orders for wine, and the profit from its sale, about two hundred per cent., is an important source of revenue.

The excessive demands made upon the earnings of prostitutes by these women has been productive of a serious social evil. Many unfortunate girls can not appreciate the advantages of leading a vicious life for the benefit of a landlady, and in self-defense have hired apartments in some private house, so as to secure their earnings for themselves. This is generally arranged so that two of them engage a suite of rooms, say a parlor and two bed-rooms, representing themselves as virtuous women, governesses or seamstresses, and frequently as the wives of sailors or of men who are in California or some other distant land. Here they either board themselves or resort to some saloon, and to this lodging, or to the house of assignation, which will be noticed in due course, they introduce their visitors. It is a fact more than suspected that many prostitutes are living in this manner in our city. It is needless to enlarge upon the injurious effects likely to result therefrom.

Before leaving this branch of the subject, there is another characteristic of keepers of these houses which must be noticed, namely, an exaggerated affection for some man to whom they are passionately attached. Some few of them are professedly living with their husbands, but this is an exception to the ordinary rule. Generally speaking, they are the mistresses of some persons upon whom they lavish all their tenderness, and for whose gratification they willingly incur any amount of expense. Some of these individuals are men upon town, gamblers, or rowdies of the higher class, whose noblest aspirations are satisfied by a liberal supply of money. They will readily ignore all social virtues for the same consideration. It is related as a fact concerning a celebrated brothel-keeper in the city, that when she was residing in the interior of the State, some years since, she became desperately enamored of a young man whose friends discovered the connection. They removed him to the far West. Undaunted by the dangers and difficulties which surrounded her, she followed him, and during her journey through the large towns had many offers of protection from men acquainted with her antecedents. True to her affection, she refused them all, and traced her lover to the forests. Here she remained with him, living in a log hut, deprived of many of the necessaries and all of the comforts and elegances of life, for three years. At least, infidelity to her love can not be charged against this woman, and is it not a natural conclusion that a heart so sincere and devoted in its attachment could have been led to a more virtuous course had a different social feeling existed toward her and her former transgressions?

As a general rule, the keepers of these first-class houses will not permit the boarders to have the men whom they style their “lovers” residing with them, although they allow them to visit; a constant residence is considered as likely to engross too much of the girl’s time to the neglect of the interest of the proprietress.We come now to the second grade of prostitutes and houses of prostitution. Many of the women of this rank are those who made their dÉbut in first-class houses, but left them when their charms began to fade. To some extent, they endeavor to carry out the same rules of conduct which governed them while there, and, generally speaking, the management of some portion of the houses of this grade assimilates very much with the former, the same privacy being observed, though in a less expensive manner. In others a marked difference is perceptible, and these will now claim attention.

A longer continuance in the habits of prostitution, and the association with a less aristocratic class of visitors, has diminished the refinement of the women and imparted to them coarser manners. There is not the same desire to “assume a virtue, if they have it not,” or the same ambition to make vice seem unlike itself. Degradation has had its effect upon them, and now that they are reduced to a humbler sphere they feel more of the world’s pressure, and become more daring and reckless in their conduct. Many of the street-walkers and women frequenting theatres are of this class, and any one who has ever come in contact with them would have found no difficulty in at once assigning their true position. It is right to say here, that many of the managers of our best theatres have abolished the third tier, so called, and if any improper woman visits them she must do so under the assumed garb of respectability, and conduct herself accordingly.

Other women in this grade, or rather this section of the second grade, commenced their life of vice in it, and as the natural tendency of prostitution is to depress instead of elevating its followers, they have very little chance of ever rising beyond their present rank, although such instances do occasionally happen, the keeper of a first-class house sometimes consenting to receive a boarder from a lower rank, if she has only recently commenced prostitution and is sufficiently prepossessing in manners and appearance for this exaltation. A great number of foreign-born women are found in this class, victims of emigrant boarding-houses, or of seduction on board ship during their passage to this country.

The houses are generally conducted in a similar manner to those of the first class, with this distinction, that what is costly luxury in the one is replaced by tawdry finery in the other, and for expensive mirrors and valuable paintings they substitute cheaper ornamentation. Their reception-rooms are of much inferior finish. They also furnish wine and brandy to customers who wish for them. Drunkenness is more general, both with the prostitutes and their visitors, and the most revolting scenes are not uncommon. Profanity is indulged in to a considerable extent, and in some places seems the vernacular language. The attempts at fascination made by the women are more excessive, and frequently vulgar to a degree which, while it excites a smile, also inspires disgust. The general charge for board here will be from six to ten dollars a week, rarely reaching the latter figure.

When evening approaches, if there is little or no company in the house, the girls resort to the streets, dressed in their most attractive finery, in the expectation of finding some man whom they can induce to accompany them home. They are seldom unsuccessful in this search, and very frequently repeat it several times in the course of the evening. Others of them visit the third tier of such theatres as will admit them, and there exert their charms to secure conquest. Intercourse with these women is attended with considerable danger, professional experience having shown many of them to be infected with syphilis, while numbers are connected with dishonest men who would not scruple to rob a stranger, if any opportunity offered for the purpose, such opportunity being not unfrequently afforded by some arrangement of the woman herself.

In such places vice presents comparatively few attractions, and yet these houses are numerously visited, principally by travelers, clerks from stores, the higher class of mechanics, etc., some of whom will spend in an evening the earnings of a week.

The women who preside over these brothels are usually of the strong-minded, and frequently of the strong-handed order, the latter being those who can by their own strength suppress any riot that may occur without calling in aid from the police, and generally calculate to preserve a moderate decorum in their establishments. Their profits are very large, derived not merely from the board money and extras paid by the women, but also from the wines and liquors they sell. They do not endeavor to screen their own character, as do those of the upper class, but openly acknowledge what they are, and do not hesitate to give their personal attention to the business of the place. Anxious to accumulate money as rapidly as possible, they are not very particular about the means they employ, and although they would not allow any positive act of dishonesty to be performed toward a visitor while he was in the house, on account of the trouble to which it might subsequently expose them, yet they would scarcely consider it their duty to warn him against the proceedings of the men who live as “lovers” with the prostitutes under their roofs. The virtue of these keepers is certainly not of a very rigid order, and their favored lovers are universally selected from among men of the same character as themselves.

The meals provided for boarders are served at about the same hours as in the fashionable houses, but they lack that neatness and arrangement which a good cook would give, the domestic matters being mostly confided to inexperienced servants, and frequently to some old prostitutes who are retained at nominal wages to do as much work as they can, and in their own style.

It has been already stated that some of the second-class houses of prostitution are conducted in a similar manner to those of the first, and therefore no attempt has been made to give any detailed account of them, which would be a mere repetition of what has been once described. The lower class have been taken as illustrating the second grade, and consequently the account must not be taken as a sweeping condemnation of the whole.

The next, or third grade of prostitutes and houses of prostitution may be found very fully developed in the first police district, among the Germans; in the fourth district, where sailors mostly resort; and also in the third, fifth, sixth, and fourteenth districts. A majority of the women in these districts are of foreign birth, the largest proportion being Irish and German. Although rated as third-class houses, some of them are equal in all respects, and sometimes superior in many, to houses of the second class. Most of the women are young, and many of them are very good-looking, while the houses, particularly those kept by Germans, are in general conducted very quietly. Even in those places resorted to by sailors, the principal part of any noise which may occur is caused by the boisterous mirth and practical jokes of the visitors themselves. The houses are, in every sense of the word, “public” places of prostitution, and neither women nor keepers seek to disguise the fact in any manner, the general argument seeming to be, “We live by prostitution, no matter who knows it.”

There are many distinctive features in the several districts, but the first and the fourth will be fair average types of the whole, and these we will notice briefly, commencing with the German houses in the first district.

Here drinking is openly carried on, although seldom to such an extent as to cause absolute intoxication. There is a public bar-room opening directly from the street, where can be obtained lager beer and German wines, as well as the usual liquors sold in porter-houses. This is the reception-room of the establishment, and a stranger in the city, who might walk in to get a glass of lager beer, without knowing the character of the place, or being aware of the signification of the crimson and white curtains festooned over the windows, would find himself followed to the bar by some German girl, who would ask him in broken English if he would “treat her.” If he feels inclined to gaze around him and study human nature in this phase, he sees that the room is very clean; a common sofa, one or two settees, and a number of chairs are ranged round the walls; there is a small table with some German newspapers upon it; a piano, upon which the proprietor or his bar-keeper at intervals performs a national melody; and a few prints or engravings complete its furniture. Two or three girls are in different parts of the room engaged in knitting or sewing; for German girls, whether virtuous or prostitute, seem to have a horror of idleness, and even in such a place as this are seldom seen without their work. Every thing bears an unmistakable Teutonic appearance; from the heavily-mustached proprietor, or the recently-imported bar-keeper, to the mistress, or madame as she is generally called, and the women themselves, all plainly tell their origin. He is surprised at the entire absence of all those noisy elements generally considered inseparable from a low-class house of prostitution. He can sit there and smoke his cigar in as much peace as at any hotel in the city; and if he once tells a woman he does not wish to have any conversation with her, he will scarcely be annoyed again, unless he makes the first advances. If he thinks proper to enter into conversation with the proprietor, he will be certain of a courteous reply, and will frequently find him an intelligent and communicative man. Finally, concluding to resist the temptations around him, he leaves the place in the most perfect security, and without the least fear of being insulted.

The majority of the girls here have recently arrived in the United States. Some have embraced this course of life from absolute poverty and friendlessness; some have followed it in their own country; others have been the victims of seduction; and with some the ruling motive seems to have been a desire to speak and be spoken to in their native tongue. Their pecuniary arrangement with the proprietor, for there is almost invariably a man at the head of each establishment, is that they shall give him one half of all the money they receive, for which he provides them with board and lodging. They are not generally intemperate women, the light German wines being their principal beverage, and although they frequently indulge in profanity, yet, as it is in their national language, it is unintelligible to those who understand only English, and the annoyance is consequently restricted. They are generally honest; in fact, it is the testimony of those best qualified to judge, that there is very seldom much disturbance, and very rarely any dishonesty practiced in this class of brothels. It can not be said that literally there is not much noise, for any one who has been in a room where two or three Germans of each sex were talking and gesticulating with their characteristic earnestness will be of opinion that they talked quite loud enough; but by disturbance is to be understood quarreling or fighting, which sometimes occurs, but not very frequently.

As before remarked, a man and his wife are mostly the keepers of such houses. The man, sometimes with a lad for his assistant, attends to the bar-room, and takes charge of the money, the wife does the cooking and general house-work, and the girls attend to their own rooms. By this division of labor the work is generally done to the satisfaction of all parties, and, the expenses being light, a considerable profit is made. There are mostly three or four girls in each house, seldom exceeding that number, and the rule among house-keepers is to consider any girl an unprofitable acquisition who does not pay them about ten dollars a week. Their rents are low, because they have but little room. The basement of an ordinary-sized house is generally the extent of their accommodation; the front part of this forms the bar-room, and the remainder is partitioned into very small bed-rooms.

There is another feature connected with German prostitution, and exhibited in the same neighborhood, which has already received a cursory notice on a former page, namely, their dancing-saloons. Saltatory amusements are carried on, more or less, in all their houses of prostitution, but in these saloons it is considered a respectable business enterprise, although the morality of the establishments is, at least, questionable. The ball-room is a large, open apartment devoid of all furniture excepting chairs or benches round the walls; the musical arrangements generally comprise a piano and violin, and the dances are national waltzes and polkas. No charge is made for admission, and the bar is the only source of revenue. The “orchestra” occasionally appeal to the charitable for assistance, and the call is mostly responded to in a liberal manner. The business commences in the evening, and is invariably discontinued at midnight. The places are frequented by very few but Germans, and order is well maintained.

Leaving the Germans of the first district, the reader’s attention will now be asked to the brothels of the fourth police district. Here the principal part of the women are of Irish parentage; some few are natives of the United States. The greater part of the visitors are sailors. When a succession of storms which have driven homeward-bound vessels off the coast is followed by a fair wind, so as to allow them to enter the harbor in large numbers, these houses are crowded, and for a few days, or while the sailors’ wages last, a very extensive business is carried on. The bar-room, as in the case of the German houses, is the reception-room, and here may be seen at almost any hour of the day a number of weather-beaten sailors, verifying the truth of the old proverb, which says they resemble two distinct animals in earning and spending their money. It matters not who it may be, but any one who enters the room is almost sure to be asked to take a drink immediately, and if he remains, in less than five minutes somebody else will ask him to take another. A sailor with cash in his pocket has a decided antipathy to drinking alone, and generally invites every one in the room, male and female, to partake with him. By such a course he very soon gets intoxicated, when the girl whom he has honored with his special attention convoys him to bed, and leaves him there to sleep himself sober.

In these houses less neatness is observable than in those just noticed, but they have entirely a different class of customers. A German, in the midst of his pleasures, likes to see every thing neat and orderly about him; a sailor is not particular, so that his pleasures are unobstructed. A curious observer, also, does not meet with the same civility: if he comes to spend money he is welcome; if not, the landlord does not care about his company. Considerable card-playing is practiced; not what may be termed gambling, but for amusement, the stakes being seldom more than intoxicating drinks for the players. There is less noisy rowdyism than might be expected, since the men who generally cause such disturbances lack the courage to impose upon a crowd of hard-fisted sailors, who are always able and willing to take their own part, and resent any interference. Still, occasional quarrels occur among the visitors themselves, frequently resulting in a pitched battle. The landlord is then called for, and his knowledge of his customers enables him speedily to discover the aggressor, who always happens to be the man that has the least money, and he is forthwith pushed into the street without any ceremony, as a kind of peace-offering to the rest of the company.

The landlord is a character in his way. He is a man who has been to sea himself, for no one else would be deemed fit to keep a house where sailors resort, and is usually a large, powerful man. By the freemasonry of the craft, and by freely joining his visitors whenever they ask him to drink, and occasionally treating them in return, he is sure of their custom until their wages are all spent and they are obliged to go to sea again.

The women in these houses use liquor very freely, but they are not permitted to get drunk in the daytime. If the landlord observes any symptom of intoxication he gives them water, instead of gin, the next time they are asked to drink, as he knows very well his prospects for business would be injured unless the girls were kept sufficiently sober to be on the watch for contingencies, or, as he phrases it, “to look out for chances.”

In some of these houses it is the rule that all the money received by the girls is to be given to the landlord, who provides them with clothing and necessaries, but in others a fixed rate of board—six or eight dollars a week—is paid, and the women retain the surplus. In either case it is a very profitable business, particularly where many girls are kept. In one house that we visited, in the fourth district, the keeper informed us that his expenses amounted to about one hundred and fifty dollars weekly, and of course some estimate can be made from this as to the amount of business he transacted.

The dancing-saloons in this neighborhood are not conducted on the platonic principles of the Germans. They are, in fact, so many accessories to prostitution, and many scenes there witnessed will not permit description. The women residing in the house are there, dressed in the most tawdry finery they can command, many of them assuming the bloomer costume. The band consists of a violin, a banjo, and a tambourine, and whatever is wanting in musical ability is adequately supplied by vigorous execution. The bar is very liberally patronized, and before midnight drunkenness is the rule and sobriety the exception.

Passing now to the fourth grade of this vice, we find prostitution in a most repulsive form; the women themselves diseased and dirty, the houses redolent of bad rum. The prostitutes are the refuse of the other classes who have fallen through the successive gradations on account of disease and drunkenness, or they are some of those children of iniquity who, born in scenes of vice and squalid misery, know nothing of a virtuous or happy course of life. Destiny seems from their birth to have intended them for vagrants, and has planted them so low in the moral scale that they can scarcely hope to rise.

It would be useless to attempt a specification of the localities of these houses; any one who has been through the purlieus of New York City must have observed some of them, and it will be quite sufficient to glance at a few of their peculiarities. They are generally kept by an old prostitute, who gathers around her some of the most debased of her class, takes a cheap basement wherever she can obtain possession of one suited to her purpose, erects a small bar furnished with three or four bottles of the commonest liquor she can procure, partitions off one or two small hovels of bed-rooms, and forthwith begins housekeeping. Her arrangements are about as extensive as her preparations. She seldom professes to board the girls, generally making a charge for every visitor they entertain, and giving them the privilege of cooking any thing they want. These dens are largely patronized by the vilest of the male sex; the petty thieves who hang around the public markets, stealing from the wagons, or who haunt the doors of grocery stores and abstract whatever they can reach; as they find them convenient places of concealment, and can frequently dispose of their booty by means of the women. Another class of visitors consists of the lowest order of rowdies, who assume a free license to perpetrate any mischief they please, because there is no one to interfere with them. A fatal case of this nature, which occurred but a few months since, will be fresh in the recollection of all citizens.

It is dangerous for a stranger to enter a place of this description, for if he does not get his pocket picked by the one, he will most probably be assaulted by the other class of visitors. Upon such establishments the police are compelled to keep a watchful eye, and although they have no power to enter them except some actual necessity calls for their services, yet they frequently induce a neighbor to make a complaint against the keepers for maintaining a disorderly house, and then, duly armed with a warrant, they enter, and arrest every one found on the premises. The finale of such an experiment at housekeeping as this is very frequently a commitment for vagrancy to Blackwell’s Island. The character of the place will be a sufficient proof that syphilis abounds there, and its dangers must be added to those already enumerated.

The divisions thus made are presumed to be accurate as far as the distinctive characters of the various grades are concerned, but the lines of demarkation are of course arbitrary. Any attempt to classify so large a social evil must, from its very nature, be incomplete, and in this case farther experience or a more extended inquiry would very probably warrant an alteration in the arrangement. But there is another class of whom a few words must be said, namely, those truly wretched beings, the outcasts of the outcasts. In many cases destitute of home or shelter, diseased, starving, and afflicted with an insatiable thirst for ardent spirits, they present most ghastly and heart-rending spectacles, retaining scarcely any vestiges of humanity. These wretched beings can be found clustered round the bars of liquor-stores in low neighborhoods, begging for the price of a glass of gin. Much of their time is spent in the prisons on Blackwell’s Island, from which they are no sooner released than they return to their old haunts and habits. They can scarcely be called prostitutes, for their aspect is so disgustingly hideous that all feminine characteristics are blotted out, and thoroughly sensual and animalized must he be who could accept their favors. They are, in every sense of the word, outcasts; compelled, for the short time they may be in the city—and this is seldom more than a few days at once—to eke out a wretched existence by stealing or begging; frequently so miserable that they gladly hail the day on which they are returned to prison. They present subjects for mournful consideration, and the reflection that they are experiencing the degradation to which every prostitute in the city is rapidly tending, should be a powerful argument in favor of any remedial measures which can be devised to ameliorate the condition of the frail women of New York, and prevent them from falling so far below humanity.

HOUSES OF ASSIGNATION.

Every resident of New York is aware of the existence of houses used especially as places for the meeting of the sexes with a view to illicit intercourse; but so carefully have all particulars respecting them been concealed from the public gaze, that very little more than this mere fact is generally known, particularly with reference to those of a higher grade. Secrecy is necessary to their continuance, and essential for the maintenance of the social position of their patrons.

The most exclusive are generally situated in the quietest and most respectable portion of the city. They are fitted up neatly, and even luxuriously, but without any extravagant or gaudy display. Their arrangements, of course, do not require reception or sitting rooms, and the whole care bestowed upon them is lavished on the bed-chambers, the appointments of which contain every possible comfort and convenience.

The keepers of this class of houses are generally very shrewd, quiet, cautious women, who never seek to penetrate into any engagements made by their visitors, who never know any person that enters their house, and from whom it is impossible to obtain information by any means. In fact, it has been said that the keepers and servants around these places have neither eyes, ears, nor tongues. Money is confessedly their object, and, as they receive liberal pay, self-interest dictates quietness, because if they adopted any other course, their houses would inevitably become known to the public, which would be an effectual barrier against visitors, and result in an entire loss of their customers. Consequently, if a liberal bribe could ever induce treachery, their shrewdness enables them to discern that such an act would at once and forever close their establishments.

It will be readily understood that, as the intrinsic value of these houses as places for meeting depends upon the secrecy and selectness with which they are operated, in order to carry out this principle fully, arrangements are made with much precision. Two parties are not allowed to meet casually in the halls or staircases. The keeper maintains a strict watch, in order that ingress and egress may be free and uninterrupted, and there can be little doubt that the desire to make money on her side, and the fascination of illicit passion on the part of her visitors, conjointly tend to insure more actual secrecy than could be obtained by any system of oaths or discipline. In some of the most exclusive, the system is carried to such an extreme that no accommodation will be afforded to parties unless the gentleman has been previously introduced to the proprietress, and his character for secrecy and integrity vouched for by some person with whom she is acquainted. This rule is adopted to prevent the possibility of the house becoming known as a place of assignation to any one who might use his knowledge to the prejudice of the keeper or her visitors.

No public women reside in these houses, nor would they be admitted under any pretext, as such a course would attract attention and defeat the purposes contemplated. Many of them are open for months without the knowledge of the neighbors or of the police of the district, as visitors very rarely enter or leave together, and to prevent any delay the outer door is generally kept unlocked, so that persons pass immediately into the hall, where a second door, with a bell attached, is generally found.

The business of these houses is done mainly during the promenade hours of Broadway, say from eleven or twelve to four or five o’clock. The visitors are confined to the upper walks of life, the men being of all sorts of business, and the women exclusively from our fashionable society. If the mysterious “personal” advertisements in the daily papers could be understood by the outside world, it would be seen that appointments are not unfrequently made through their agency. Arrangements for a meeting are generally made with the keepers in advance, and at the designated time the parties arrive from different directions and proceed direct to the room which has been already selected. If they wish it they can obtain wine or refreshments by ringing a bell in their apartment.

A majority of the females who visit these places can scarcely be called prostitutes, notwithstanding their undeniable fall from virtue. They sin but with one individual, and that, in many cases, from positive affection, and in others from the desire of sexual gratification. Whatever may be the motive, it does not concern the keeper of the house, whose only business is to receive the rent of her room, which ranges from two or three dollars upward to any amount that policy or the desire to insure secrecy may dictate. Doubtless very few of the visitors regard money in their negotiations. Females are very frequently closely veiled when they enter the house, so that their features can not be recognized, as has been illustrated in trials for divorce in this city, especially if the prior arrangements for the meeting have been made by the gentlemen. If, on the other hand, the lady takes the preliminary steps, she can scarcely be unknown to the proprietress, in whose keeping she consequently places her character.

The unsuspecting moral men of New York will scarcely credit these facts, but men of the world know that such meetings and places for meeting are not uncommon. It may be objected that the exposure of these mysteries imparts information which may lead the uninitiated into similar practices. It is believed that the information here given is not sufficiently definite for this end, and, certainly, nothing could be farther from the design of this work than to aid an immoral purpose. But it is a duty to record the general facts, in order that our citizens may be aware of the dangers that abound on every side; and particularly is it necessary because many of the female visitors are married women, who take advantage of the absence of their husbands at business.

A question will arise: “Who are the women that keep these houses?” That they can not have lived as common prostitutes, or been the keepers of houses of prostitution, is evident. In the first place, the acquaintances they would have made in either of those avocations would preclude the possibility of their maintaining the inviolable secrecy necessary in a house of assignation; and, again, no female would enter a place of this description, the keeper of which would be likely to betray her. It is apprehended that some of these houses originate in the following manner; in fact, we know of more than one that did commence so:

A female engaged in an intrigue which she can not carry out at her own residence, and desiring a place of security for her meetings, has an acquaintance with some shrewd woman, possibly one who works for her as seamstress, or in some other capacity, whom she makes partially a confidant. She tells her that she is desirous of seeing a gentleman, whom, for some particular reason, she can not invite to her house, and asks if she will accommodate her with a room in which the interview can take place. It is not likely that a person who felt under any obligation to her employer would refuse such a request, especially for so simple a purpose as a short conversation. The meeting accordingly takes place, and a handsome present is made her. It is frequently repeated, until she becomes suspicious, and finally satisfied that these interviews are for the purpose of sexual intercourse. By this time it has become a question of policy with her. She argues that if she refuses to extend any future accommodation she will lose not only a considerable income from the presents, but also all employment from the lady. She knows that by allowing such meetings she realizes considerably more than she can procure by her daily labor, and self-interest is generally strong enough to overcome her scruples. She goes on extending her accommodations, and enlarging the circle of her visitors, until she becomes mistress of a select house of assignation, which will be always liberally patronized so long as her power of maintaining the requisite secrecy remains unimpeached. Some of these women are from distant cities; entire strangers in New York, except to their immediate customers. If they are widows who have children, these are invariably educated away from home. From the privacy observed it is very difficult to estimate their receipts, which must be large. They sometimes degenerate into keepers of houses of public prostitution, and then become dangerous members of society, on account of the secrets which have been intrusted to them.

Probably some of our ultra-fashionable citizens might be enabled to give more particulars of these houses than are here collected. What has been stated is gathered from authentic sources, and may command implicit belief. Indeed, so trustworthy is the authority that it may be confidently asserted that even Fifth Avenue and Union Square are not exempt from these resorts.

Such houses must be regarded as the connecting link between the licentious excesses of the capitals of Europe and this city of the New World. They are dangerous from their secrecy and exclusiveness. As yet they are rare; and it speaks well for the morals of our upper classes that they are so. It shows that the majority of people in the higher walks of life are untainted. But the course of deterioration has commenced. Will not American good sense and American morality check this base imitation of a foreign custom?

The recently avowed sentiments, or rather the resuscitation of sentiments which were proclaimed years ago respecting the obligations of marriage and the theory of “free love,” have doubtless increased the patrons of houses of assignation among our fashionable novel-reading people, or weak romantic heads made giddy by the sudden acquisition of wealth. For the last fifteen years a loose code of morals has been promulgated among us, the foreign apostles of which—many of them pretending to nobility, but being in truth mere adventurers—have visited us, and by them and through their influence many intrigues have originated. A spice of romance in the American character has induced many to join this movement in search of adventure, while a portion of our female society are ardent admirers of every thing foreign, be it a lord or a lace veil, and these delight in an intrigue because it is an exotic.

The facilities of communication with Europe are now so great that American travel on that continent is largely on the increase, and perhaps there are at this time in the cities of continental Europe more representatives of our society than of any other nation. Many of our people go there with the laudable desire to improve their minds by general culture, or for the study of particular branches of science or art, but it is to be regretted that some come back to our shores with ideas calculated to be any thing but beneficial to their native country in a social or moral point of view. The sons of our staid and “solid men” go to the capital of the French empire to study medicine. Apart from the impropriety of this course when there are the same facilities for study here, where a few seconds of lightning intercourse will place them in immediate communication with their friends, instead of their being separated four thousand miles from parents and guardians, does the end justify the means? What course do these young men frequently pursue? Unable to speak the language intelligibly, they resort to the acquaintance of a grisette, in order to study in her company. The language they acquire by this means is, at best, a vulgar patois; but they also obtain a knowledge of intrigue entirely incompatible with the simplicity and purity of our republican institutions—a species of male and female diplomacy foreign to the character of our people.

Young ladies, too, when they return from a foreign tour, are more fascinated with the charms and successes of the favored mistress of some European prince or potentate than benefited by the useful solid lessons of travel. With them, as with the others, it is all superficiality. Superficial when they started, superficial while traveling, they are still more superficial when they return. There are always weak-minded people in this country who will ape foreign manners, and to this cause must be assigned the gradual approximation of our fashionable society to the vices of the European capitals, their ladylike and gentlemanlike frailties, their genteel peccadilloes and affectations. The effects of foreign travel upon such persons can not but be injurious. It demands a clear head and a sound heart to decide between the vicious frivolities and the positive good submitted to their notice, and with the class mentioned it requires but little judgment to know which will first attract them. They must see Lord A—— or Count B——, no matter what valuable opportunities for instruction they miss. They must become au fait in the observances of courts and the manners of courtiers, no matter what else they leave undone.

As remedial measures for another evil are elsewhere spoken of, this may be an appropriate place to suggest for profound consideration whether it would not be a wise policy to adopt some preventive system for this evil. We might establish a phrenological and psychological bureau, armed with full powers to examine all persons desiring to travel, so as to ascertain whether they may safely make the grand tour, and have sufficient strength of intellect and firmness of principle to resist the vitiating influences and examples which will surround them there, so that they may return only with a knowledge of the good and valuable lessons taught!

But the evils of foreign manners and customs are not imported solely by the traveling class of our own community. The political turmoils of Europe, in the last eight or ten years, have thrown among us numerous refugees who have been reared in the hot-beds of intrigue, and who, styling themselves artistes, depend upon our unexampled prosperity, the increase of our wealth, the improvement of our country, and our known predilections for foreigners, to enable them to make a living, and also to establish the same state of morals and manners existing in the cities whence they came. The United States are now the great harvest-field for art, which, with science, music, and poetry, aids to improve the mind. At the same time these bring with them an excessive devotion to fashion, both in dress and manners, as the low-necked dress and the lascivious waltz, which are so decidedly positive degenerations from our normal state that none but the most superficial will ever copy.

That we are rapidly introducing many of the most absurd follies and worst vices of Europe is a patent fact. Almost every one can specify acts now tolerated in respectable families which, so far from being permitted fifteen years ago, would have been thought by our plain common-sense parents amply sufficient to warrant the exclusion of the offender from the domestic circle; and it is an equally conspicuous fact that our social morality is deteriorating in a direct ratio to the introduction of these habits. Every day makes the system of New York more like that of the most depraved capitals of continental Europe, and it remains for the good innate sense of the bulk of the American people to say how much farther we shall proceed in this frivolous, intriguing, and despicable manner of living; or whether they will not strive to perpetuate the stern morality of the Puritan fathers, our great moral safeguard so far, and thus put an effectual barrier against the inroads of a torrent which must undermine our whole social fabric, and finally crush us beneath the ruins.

The second class of assignation-houses are, to a great extent, private, but not so rigidly exclusive as the others. Their furniture is of the same luxurious style, but of a more gaudy character. Generally the same routine is observed in regard to entrance as in those of the first class. The principal portion of the females who resort to them are married women, most of whom are from the upper classes, whose sexual passions are not gratified elsewhere, or who resort to this means to obtain more money to expend in dress; kept mistresses, residing with their lovers as husband and wife in hotels or boarding-houses, whose attachment is not strong enough to keep them faithful to one man; occasionally the best class of serving-women, or shop-women, or females whose occupations, such as milliners, artificial florists, etc., lead them into contact with the fashionable classes. It is told on good authority that there are husbands cognizant of the fact that their wives visit such places, and who live wholly or in part upon money earned in this way. These cases are not supposed to be numerous, but it is to be hoped, for the credit of our national character, that the number will become still smaller. A few prostitutes of the upper grades sometimes visit this class of houses; they are known to the keeper, and she encourages them for the following reason: An habituÉ of the place will make an appointment to visit it at a specified time, and he tells the keeper he would wish to meet a female there. At the appointed day his wishes are gratified, the keeper having acted as negotiator with one of the girls mentioned. More wine is consumed in these houses than in the strictly select ones, probably from the different class who frequent them.

The third-class houses of assignation are not situated in such select parts of the city as are the other two classes. Some of them are managed with much privacy and seclusion, while others are simply houses of public prostitution on a large scale. Their principal female patrons are those prostitutes who have rebelled against the exorbitant charges made by keepers of fashionable houses, and shop-girls who resort to prostitution to augment their income. Many of these live some distance up town, and any one who is journeying downward in the after part of the day may see numbers of them going to these places in the cars and stages. This is another imitation of the French and English systems. Very little disguise is attempted about these third-class houses. Each has a parlor or reception-room, where a man can have a bottle of wine, and one or two of the girls named will join him. Of course many couples visit there, but a large number of men go alone, knowing that there are always women in the house. Fast young men about town are in the habit of keeping their mistresses at these houses, as more economical than boarding with them at hotels. Considerable disease is propagated in such places, a contingency from which the first and second classes are almost entirely exempt. Business is generally over here in three or four hours, commencing in the dusk of the evening; but it is unquestionably a source of considerable revenue to the keeper, particularly in those cases where she acts as procuress, since, in addition to the rent of the room which the man pays, she always receives a present from the woman.

There is another or fourth class of assignation-houses to which the commonest portion of street-walkers take their company, and these may be emphatically described by an old saying, “Cheap and nasty.” Dirty and insufficient accommodations are the equivalents for low prices, and such places are, in the general estimation of connoiseurs, very low and despicable. Notwithstanding this they thrive and multiply, from which it may safely be inferred that they are profitable in a business point of view, repulsive as they may be in their features and arrangements. Some of them are ingeniously arranged with a view to robbery, and are called “panel-houses.” The plan adopted is somewhat as follows: Some man, generally a countryman not very well informed in the tricks of the metropolis, meets with a prostitute, and agrees to ac-company her to an assignation-house. She is in league with the “panel thieves,” and therefore introduces her victim to one of their rooms. The apartment seldom contains more furniture than a bed and a chair or lounge, with the floor covered with a thick carpet. To make “assurance doubly sure,” the man himself locks the door by which he enters, and, when undressing, naturally throws his clothes upon the chair or lounge. The bedstead is placed so that the feet come toward the only apparent door in the room, with one side against the wall, and the head and other side hung with curtains, which the woman carefully draws as soon as the man lies down by her side. At the head of the bed, and of course concealed by the drapery from any one occupying it, is another door, which forms the secret entrance. It is so adroitly arranged, and so neatly covered with paper the same as the walls, that no one would suspect its existence. The hinges and fastening on the outside are oiled, so that no noise can be perceived when it is opened, and the operator steals with cat-like step over the carpet, and quietly examines the clothes without alarming the unsuspecting stranger. The thief completes his inspection, appropriates as much as he thinks proper, and the temporary occupant of the apartment resumes his clothes and prepares to leave. If his suspicions are excited by the circumstance that his wallet looks less plethoric than it did, and an examination reveals that some of its contents are missing, he knows not how to account for it. He is perfectly certain that no one has entered that room while he was there, and if he has “visited” much before meeting the girl, he concludes that he must have lost some of his money in his career, and that the only way is to take the loss contentedly, and avoid New York fascinations in future. Sometimes the loser has not enough philosophy for this, and if he can be certain that his money was right when he entered the room, will call in the police, and thus expose the secret arrangements of the establishment. This is comparatively a rare case, as most men would rather submit to a pecuniary loss than encounter the trouble and exposure attending a criminal prosecution, and the knowledge of this reluctance enables the “panel thieves” to pursue their operations almost with impunity.