The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the WorldSanger, William W.
History
The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World
Sanger, William W.
Prostitution
Of the registered women living by themselves there is little to note. They
are more industrious than those in brothels. Many of them have a fixed
occupation, but resort to prostitution to increase their income. Money
earned in this way is occasionally required for the common necessaries of
life, but is more frequently spent in personal gratification, in the way
of fine dresses, ornaments, etc., or is appropriated to support the
extravagance of some lover, who repays the generosity by a little
flattering attention, or an occasional escort to some dancing saloon in
the suburbs. The visitors to these women are more select than those to the
courtesans hitherto described.
In the lowest ranks of prostitution, the common "street-walkers," to be
met at all times and places, under all circumstances and of all ages, we
find the most prolific sources of infection. A certain, though very small
remnant of decency, seconded by the invaluable watchfulness of the police,
secures the visitor from disease among the inmates of registered houses,
but the street-walker is under no such control. Young girls scarcely more
than children, old women almost grandmothers, ply their frightful trade on
the "walls" around the city, and in other obscure places, where a trifling
present will purchase their caresses. Their principal customers are young
boys and very old men, their practices being continued under the shades of
evening until the arrival of the night-watch drives them to their wretched
dens.
The Hamburg police are perfectly cognizant of these proceedings, and wage
perpetual war against individuals, but find it altogether impossible to
suppress the class, among whom are the habitual tenants of the jail and
the House of Correction. No one can differ in opinion from Dr. Lippert,
who says, "In this class of women the most pernicious results of
prostitution are to be found."
Private or domestic prostitution, so widely extended in every great town,
exists in less proportion in Hamburg than in other capital cities of the
same extent. That disgraceful union in evil occasionally met with on the
Continent, in which husband and wife mutually agree to follow their
inclinations or lusts untrammeled by each other, is scarcely known. The
kept woman is comparatively rare. The expense attendant upon such an
appendage of luxury is a serious consideration, and none but the wealthy
patrician or successful business man venture on the step. It is assumed,
on very good authority, that there are not fifty "mistresses" in Hamburg.
Those residing there are under no police control, as in a public point of
view they commit no breach of law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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