£*•

MISCELLANEOUS. 221
off than the victim of marriage. She earns her living
by the prostitution of her body, as the other does, but
without legal sanction and respectability. As a com
pensation for the want of these, she has more freedom ;
and though she may be compelled to submit to the em
braces of some man, she has, to a certain extent, the
power to refuse those who are especially repulsive to
her. She is liable to venereal diseases, but these are not
much worse than falling of the womb, whites, and in
voluntary pregnancies and childbirths. Besides, wives
do not always escape gonorrhea and syphilis. Married
women take comfort in their children ; and prostitutes
have lovers, and often children also, of whom they take
the tenderest care.
The prostitutes of New York are of all classes, from
the lowest and coarsest, to the most refined and beauti
ful. They correspond to every rank in society. Besides
the public class, there has come to be a very large class
of private courtesans. They consist of many young
women who make a pretense of following various ele
gant trades, arts, or professions, and of the fashionable
wives of men with small incomes.
I am well satisfied, from long observation, that all
efforts to prevent prostitution are utterly unavailing and
useless. It belongs to the present constitution of so
ciety, and is one of the necessary conditions of our
civilization. It can not be removed until the
present
whole social system is changed. All any philanthropist
can hope to do is to improve, as far as possible, the in
stitution and the condition of its victims. Bad as this
condition is, many
the average of prostitutes.
a married woman is worse off than