In reference to public parks, it may be stated that the police force is entirely inadequate to their proper surveillance. Shocking occurrences by the score are reported in Central and other parks by different investigators under the date of July 15, August 5, July 20, July 12, etc. Not infrequently boys and girls of sixteen and seventeen are involved in these affairs,--and cases implicating still younger children are reported. The benches in certain sections of Central Park, between 10 P. M. and 1 A. M., presented a most demoralizing spectacle to the observation of every one who walked through the Park during the months of July and August.[110] CHAPTER IV THE EXPLOITERS The present investigation has established the fact that the business of prostitution in New York City is exploited and, for the most part, controlled by men, though women are also involved. The names and addresses of over 500 men so engaged have been secured, together with personal descriptions and the records of many of them. Some are owners, others, procurers, the rest mainly cadets or pimps,--younger men who have a single girl, at times a "string" of girls, "working" for them on the street or in houses. The woman exploiter is at times, herself a proprietor; usually, however, she is employed by men on a salary to operate a resort. (1) OWNERS The men proprietors have reached their present vocation by many paths. They have been wrestlers, prize-fighters, gamblers, "politicians," proprietors of "creep houses,"[111] fruit venders, pawnbrokers, pickpockets, crooks, peddlers, waiters, saloonkeepers, etc. Some of them pose as "business men," carrying cards and samples, to serve as a subterfuge when they are arrested as vagrants or for living off the proceeds of prostitution. Not a few, however, without concealment, devote their entire time and energy to managing parlor houses and other resorts of prostitution. Some of the latter own a business outright; others have partners who share in the profits. One man, for instance, conducts a house with from fifteen to twenty-five inmates, and, in addition, has an interest in several other ventures of the same character. In some cases the firm is a family affair, including brothers, brothers-in-law, uncles, and cousins.