find this opinion confirmed by a lecture delivered by the owner of a knightly estate in the fall of 1889, which newspapers in Saxony reported in the following manner: “Grimma. Dr. v. Waechter, owner of a knightly estate, at a meeting of the diocese which was held here delivered a lecture on ~sexual immorality in our rural communities~, in which local conditions were depicted in no favorable light. With great frankness the lecturer admitted that the ~employers~ themselves, even the ~married~ ones, frequently maintained intimate relations with their female employees, and that the results of such relations were either atoned for by a payment of money or were hidden from the eyes of the world by a crime. Unfortunately it could not be denied, that immorality was introduced into the rural districts not only by country girls who had been employed in the cities as wet nurses and by boys who had become demoralized while serving in the army, but also by ~educated men~, by managers of the large estates and army officers, who come into the country during manoeuvres. Dr. v. Waechter claims that here in the country there actually are ~few girls who have attained their seventeenth birthday without having fallen~.” The honest lecturer had to pay for his love of truth by being socially ostracised by the offended officers. Reverend Dr. Wagner had a similar experience when he ventured to say some disagreeable truths to the landed proprietors in his book on “Morality in the Country.”[114] The majority of prostitutes are driven into their unfortunate trade at an age at which they cannot be regarded as competent to judge their actions. Among the women who secretly prostituted themselves arrested in Paris from 1878 until 1887, 12,615 equal 46.7 per cent. were minors. Of those arrested from 1888–1898, 14,072 equal 48.8 per cent. were minors. Le Pilleurs gives the following resumé of the prostitutes of Paris, which is as concise as it is pathetic: “Defloured at 16, prostituted at 17, afflicted with syphilis at 18.”[115] Among 846 newly enrolled prostitutes in Berlin in 1898 there were 229 minors. There were: 7 at the age of 15 21 “ “ “ “ 16 33 “ “ “ “ 17 59 “ “ “ “ 18 49 “ “ “ “ 19 66 “ “ “ “ 20[116]