Читать книгу The History of Prostitution: Its Extent, Causes, and Effects throughout the World - William W. Sanger - Страница 19

Table of Contents

FRANCE.—PRESENT REGULATIONS.

Number of Prostitutes in Paris.—Their Nativity, Parentage, Education, Age, etc.—Causes of Prostitution.—Rules concerning tolerated Houses.—Maisons de Passe.—Windows.—Keepers.—Formalities upon granting Licenses.—Recruits.—Pimps.—Profits of Prostitution.—Inscription.—Interrogatories.—Nativity, how ascertained.—Obstacles.—Principles of Inscription.—Age at which Inscription is made.—Radiation.—Provisional Radiation.—Statistics of Radiation.—Classes of Prostitutes.—Visit to the Dispensary.—Visiting Physicians.—Punishment.—Offenses.—Prison Discipline.—Saint Denis.—Tax on Prostitutes.—Inspectors.—Bon Pasteur Asylum.—(Note: Duchatelet’s Bill for the Repression of Prostitution.)

It remains to describe the state and system of prostitution at Paris at the present day. The vast importance of the subject will doubtless justify the length at which it must be treated.

It was usual, during the last century, to estimate the number of prostitutes in Paris at twenty-five or thirty thousand. Even as late as 1810, the number was said by good authority to be not less than eighteen thousand.[211] The police rolls show that these calculations were wide of the mark. According to them, the average number of prostitutes inscribed had risen, from about 1900 in 1814, to 3558 in 1832, the last year of which we have any record. Assuming that the number at present is 4500, or thereabouts, which would suppose an increase equal to that noted before 1832, the prostitutes are one to every two hundred and fifty of the total population. Of these the city of Paris furnishes rather more than one third. The remainder come from the departments; those bordering on Paris being the most fruitful of prostitutes, and the north being largely in excess of production over the south.

The vast majority of these prostitutes are the children of operatives and mechanics. Of 828 fathers, there were

Weavers		19
Peddlers		12
Masons and Tilers		28
Water-carriers		11
Stage and Carriage Drivers		35
Shoemakers		50
Farmers and Gardeners		31
Servants		23
Individuals employed in Foundries, etc.		18
Day-laborers		113
Carpenters		31
Liquor-sellers		22
Smiths		23
Grocers and Fruit-sellers		18
Soldiers, on pensions		30
Clock-makers and Jewelers		16
Barbers and Hair-dressers		16
Persons without trade or calling		64
Tailors		22
Plasterers, Pavers, etc.		21
Coopers		11
Painters, Glaziers, and Printers		25

Whereas there were only

Surgeons, Physicians, and Lawyers		4
Teachers		3
Musicians		9

The inference drawn by M. Parent-Duchatelet from this is, that brothels are supplied from the classes of domestics and factory-girls; and that girls not bred to work rarely find their way into them. Rather more than one third of the fathers of these prostitutes were unable to sign their names.

Of the prostitutes born at Paris, about one fourth were illegitimate; of those born in the departments, one eighth were illegitimate.

Rather more than half the Paris prostitutes could not write their names; a degree of ignorance which argues very remarkable neglect on the part of parents, for at Paris every one may learn to write gratuitously, and a person who can not write will always experience difficulty in obtaining employment.

Nearly half the prostitutes were between the ages of twenty and twenty-six inclusive. One declared herself, or was proved to be, only twelve years old; thirty-four were over fifty; two were over sixty. On reference to the rolls of inscription, it appeared that the bulk of the prostitutes registered themselves between the ages of eighteen and twenty-two; but thirty-four were inscribed before the age of fourteen, which may be assumed to be the period of puberty in France, and a few after passing fifty.

The following table shows the number of years during which the Paris prostitutes had exercised their calling at the time the inquiry was made:

Time.		Number of Prostitutes.
1 year and under		439
From	1	to	2	years		590
"	2	to	3	"		440
"	3	to	4	"		485
"	4	to	5	"		294
"	5	to	6	"		139
"	6	to	7	"		150
"	7	to	8	"		143
"	8	to	9	"		96
"	9	to	10	"		100
"	10	to	11	"		109
"	11	to	12	"		93
"	12	to	13	"		99
"	13	to	14	"		98
"	14	to	15	"		107
"	15	to	16	"		80
"	16	to	17	"		19
"	17	to	18	"		14
"	18	to	19	"		17
"	19	to	20	"		4
"	20	to	21	"		—
"	21	to	22	"		1
"	22	to	23	"		—

M. Duchatelet made careful inquiries into the causes of prostitution. He admits that, the difficulty of obtaining trustworthy information on this head being very great, many errors may have found their way into his calculations. He gives them, however, for what they may be worth.

Want		1441
Expulsion from home, or desertion of parents		1255
Desire to support old and infirm parents		37
""" younger brothers and sisters, or nephews and nieces		29
Widows with families to support		23
Girls from the country, to support themselves		280
"""" brought to Paris by soldiers, clerks, students, etc.		404
Servants seduced by masters and abandoned		289
Concubines abandoned by their lovers		1425
Total		5183

It appears that there were in Paris, in 1832, two hundred and twenty “tolerated houses”—that is to say, brothels. The rules regarding these are numerous. They can not be established in certain localities, such as the Boulevards, or other great thoroughfares. They must not be within one hundred yards of a church, or within fifty or sixty yards of a school, whether for boys or girls; of a palace or other public building, or of a large boarding-house. The proprietor of the house must have given his consent before the house can be used as a brothel. Two houses can not be established side by side, much less can they have the same entry. As a general rule, a preference is given to small, narrow streets, especially culs de sac, and to places where brothels have been established before.

With regard to the interior of these houses, they must contain a room for each girl; on no account are two prostitutes allowed to occupy the same room, much less the same bed. Each room must, moreover, be amply provided with utensils, soap, and water, for ablution. No house of prostitution can have back or side doors, or in any way communicate with the adjoining buildings. No house can contain dark closets, or dark passages, or concealed hiding-places. In none of them can any trade or traffic be carried on.

With regard to the class of houses called maisons de passe (assignation houses), the police authorities require that in every such house two regular prostitutes, inscribed on the police rolls, shall live permanently. The object of this rule is to obtain a control and supervision over these houses. Before it was adopted the police was often embarrassed by denials of its authority to invade them. It is found that the prostitutes, being naturally hostile to the mistresses of the houses, will act as agents of the police in the event of any scandalous proceedings.

The windows of houses of prostitution must be roughed, as also must those of rooms where individual prostitutes live. They can only be partially opened. These regulations were made in consequence of the shocking scenes that were witnessed at the windows of brothels after the Revolution, naked women being the least of the scandals that used to be exposed.

No one can keep a house of prostitution in Paris without an authorization from the police. Men are never permitted to keep establishments of the kind. A woman who desires to open a house must apply in writing to the Prefect of Police. On receipt of her application, reference is made to the Commissary of Police of the ward to ascertain her character. If she has been condemned for crime or misdemeanor, her request is rarely granted. If she stands in the police books as a woman requiring supervision, she can not succeed. Nor can she obtain a license, under ordinary circumstances, unless she has been a prostitute herself. The reason of this regulation is obvious; no one but a prostitute understands the business thoroughly; and as the position of brothel-keeper is found to be the most demoralizing station in the world, it has been the policy of the Paris police to throw impediments in the way of persons not wholly depraved devoting themselves to so dangerous a calling. Furthermore, the applicant must have reached a certain age. She must also be of sober habits, and apparently possessed of sufficient force of character to be able to command a house full of prostitutes. She must possess a sum of money sufficient to guarantee her against immediate failure, and she must own the furniture in the house she wishes to keep.

When all these conditions are fulfilled, the applicant receives a pass-book, in which the number of girls she is allowed to keep is specified. In this book she is bound to enter the name of every prostitute she receives, whether as a boarder or a transient lodger; her age, the date of her entry into her house, the date of her inspection by a physician, and the date of her departure from the house. A printed form in the beginning of the pass-book reminds the mistress of the house that she is bound, under heavy penalties, to inscribe on the police rolls every girl she receives within twenty-four hours of her arrival.

In the event of the neglect of these rules by the keepers of houses of prostitution, the license is revoked. It is understood that the police enforce this regulation with due rigor.

Much has been said and written about the manner in which the keepers of houses of prostitution obtain recruits. M. Parent-Duchatelet, whose sources of information were the best, gives it as his opinion that most of the prostitutes are obtained from the hospitals, especially the Hospital du Midi, where female venereal diseases are treated. It appears that this hospital and others are haunted by old women who have been prostitutes, and who, in their old age, eke out a livelihood by enticing others into the same calling. They soon discover the antecedents and disposition of every young girl they find in hospitals; and if she be pretty or engaging, she must either have much principle or careful friends to rescue her from the clutches of the old hags. While she lies ill on a bed of pain, the latter are constantly with her, and gain her friendship. They know the devices that are needed to impose on her simplicity, and not unfrequently are enabled to strengthen their promises by small donations in money, or a weekly stipend during her convalescence. For a pretty girl as much as fifty francs will be paid by a brothel-keeper. As the girls in France, with few exceptions, come to Paris to be cured when they have contracted disease from association with lovers, it seems quite likely that, as M. Parent-Duchatelet supposes, these hospitals are a fruitful source of prostitutes.

Other brothel-keepers have female agents in the country towns, who send them girls. One well-known woman, who kept for many years one of the largest establishments in France, employed a traveling clerk with a large salary. Some obtain boarders from their own province or native city; others, who have followed a trade, get recruits from the acquaintances they made at the workshop. Latterly, it would seem, pimps have carried on their trade with unusual boldness and success. Some time since it was noticed that an uncommon number of girls arrived at Paris from Rheims. They all came provided with the name and address of the houses to which they were destined, and drove there from the stage-office. Information was sent to the police authorities of Rheims, and on their arrival the girls were sent back again. The design of the authorities was baffled for a while by the cunning of the pimps, who sent their recruits round by other roads; but the police finally triumphed by refusing, for a year or two, to inscribe any prostitutes from Rheims.

It is notorious, however, that the same traffic is carried on at the present day to an alarming extent between London and Paris, London and Brussels, and other large cities in the neighborhood. Several societies have been formed, and the police have made great exertions to suppress the trade, but without any particular success.

It is understood that the prostitutes of Paris receive nothing for their “labors” but their board, lodging, and dress. The latter is often expensive. In first-class houses it will exceed five hundred francs, which in female attire will go as far at Paris as five hundred dollars will in New York. The whole of the fees exacted from visitors goes to the mistress, and the girls are reluctantly permitted to retain the presents they sometimes receive from their lovers. They are usually in debt to the mistress, who, having no other means of retaining them under her control, hastens to advance them money for jewelry, carriages, fine eating, and expensive wines. No written contract binds them to remain where they are; they may leave when they please, if they can pay their debts; and the obligation they incur for the latter is one of honor only, and can not be enforced in the courts.

Houses of prostitution, when well conducted, are very profitable in Paris. It is estimated that the net profits accruing from each girl ought to be ten francs or more per day. Many keepers of houses have retired with from ten to twenty-five thousand francs a year, and have married their daughters well. The good-will of a popular house has been sold for sixty thousand francs (twelve thousand dollars).

We now come to the great feature of the Paris system: the inscription of prostitutes in a department of the Prefecture of Police, called the Bureau des Mœurs. It seems that some sort of inscription was in use before the Revolution, but no law referring to it, or records of the rolls, can be found. Various systems were employed during the Republic and the Empire. The one now in use was adopted in 1816, and amended by a police regulation of 1828.

Prostitutes are inscribed either