In the ante bellum days slaves were cared for by their masters when they became old, and the relationship between master and servant was often a tender one. How is it with a man's mistress his " white slave"? She becomes of less and less value with length of service and experience, and the man's pseudo love rapidly passes away when she is no longer pleasing; and if conception occur, both she and the child are usually abandoned.
His money will buy younger women in the comparative bloom of innocence; and the worn out mistress, like the prostitute of the bawdy house, becomes a candidate for the jail, the hospital, the poorhouse and the potter's field.
All the burden and disgrace are put on the woman sinner, the attempt being made to make everything safe and attractive for the male; but the idea is false that he can escape an utter moral degradation, if not physical as well.
All Nature, all reason, all pity and all love cry out against the base doctrine that a host of young women must be drawn into the vortex to appease the appetites of men.
"Mr. Crittenton estimates that there are two hundred and thirty two thousand prostitutes in our country to day. Their average life is five years. Every five years, then, two hundred thousand pure girls must be dishonored and spoiled to supply the demand of lust! Ancient and heathen Athens used to go into mourning because, every nine years, seven youths and seven maidens had to be furnished for the devouring Minotaur of Crete.
How ought we, then, as a nation to prostrate ourselves before God in seeking deliverance from this monstrous evil that every year devours forty thousand of our pure maidens and pollutes two hundred thousand of our pure youths!"
Besides those who earn their living solely by prostitution, there are an enormous number who must be habitually unchaste clandestinely in order to support themselves.
A Parisian official, Lecour, in his report upon prostitution, advocated the supervision by the police of large numbers of the single and unprotected working girls who were known to be earning an amount insufficient to live upon.
He claimed that they should be regarded as suspicious characters, and treated to all intents and purposes as harlots.
Much the same condition exists in all our large cities; and many hard-working girls, victims of their employers greed, are thus compelled to practise clandestine prostitution.
The general public does not at all appreciate the number of women who have fallen, because they are submerged and out of the view of respectable society. In New York city, there are estimated to be from 30,000 to 40,000 prostitutes; and the statement is made by conservative authorities that out of every fifty five inhabitants, including men, women and children, one is a prostitute.
In the space at our command we cannot enter into a tatistical analysis of the yearly cost of prostitution, but the reader will hardly be surprised at the statement that it is enormous. In considering the sum of money which is expended on prostitution it is fair to take account of the fees which are paid to the prostitutes, the usual wines and liquors for which exorbitant prices are charged, the revelry in dance halls and saloons which are patronized by prostitutes, the medical expenses at hospitals and dispensaries, the care of those who become pauperized, the cost of police supervision, the rental of the houses, etc., etc.