Commercialized Prostitution in New York City — John Shaqi
Commercialized Prostitution in New York CityKneeland, George J. (George Jackson)
History
Commercialized Prostitution in New York City
Kneeland, George J. (George Jackson)
Prostitution -- New York (State) -- New York
The women who use the furnished room houses are divided into three
classes. The first are the occasional or clandestine prostitutes, to whom
the furnished room offers a more secret place than the hotel for both the
woman and the man. The second are regular prostitutes who use hotel and
room alternately. They prefer to go to the hotel, as they declare it is
safer. "We are protected in the hotel," they say; "the proprietor knows us
and you won't be molested." But customers who object to hotels are taken
to her furnished room if the girl is not suspicious. The third class, who
use the furnished rooms almost exclusively, are women who are nearing the
end of their vogue as professional prostitutes. Rejected by hotels because
they are dirty, diseased, or in the last stages of drug and liquor habits,
these outcasts from the prosperous marts of trade escort their prey to
their own miserable quarters.
A few illustrations of the manner in which the furnished room trade works
will suffice:
A house of this character in West 31st Street[55] is one of the most
notorious in the city. Late at night, August 23rd, 1912, it was entered by
a large number of couples from a dance hall near by; subsequently, one of
the men, about forty-five years of age, complained to the investigator
that he had been robbed there that night. Four evenings later, eight
different prostitutes entered with their customers in the course of less
than five minutes. Shortly after, a colored maid from the house applied to
a saloon near by to change two five-dollar bills. During the conversation
she told the bartender, from whom she frequently bought liquor for the
guests, that the rooms in the house were nearly all taken.
At 11 P. M. on March 19, 1912, several prostitutes were soliciting on
Third and Lexington Avenues for a furnished room house in East 116th
Street.[56] They each pay the landlord $2.00 per night for room and
"privileges." One of these women appeared to be about twenty-one years of
age. "I pay $2.00 per night for my room," she said, "and bring in as many
men as I can grab. Whenever I am ready to quit for the night I meet my
'fellow' and we go there to sleep."
A furnished room house in West 40th Street[57] is surrounded by tenements
in which many white and colored families are living. On February 9, 1912,
two colored women stood in the doorway, soliciting men as they passed by.
As the investigator approached, two white children about ten and twelve
years of age respectively, stood a few feet away listening to what was
said.
(4) MASSAGE PARLORS
The massage parlor, so-called, is the last of the resorts to be dealt
with. It is estimated that there are over 300 so-called massage parlors in
Manhattan, a large part of which are believed to be vice resorts: only 75,
however, were actually investigated in the course of this study and this
is the number used in calculating the number of vice resorts in Manhattan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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