Part 15 (1/2)
Under this system the gravest inconveniences occurred, and became so troublesome that in November, 1835, the governor promulgated a decree remodeling the regulations in force on the subject. It appears the farm system was then abandoned, and the government agents who were intrusted with the collection of the tax robbed both the prost.i.tutes and the state shamefully.
Hence, in December, 1837, a new decree was issued by the governor, repealing all former laws and regulations, and placing the whole subject under the control of the Commissary of Police. The leading provisions of that decree were as follows:
”Every public woman who desires to prost.i.tute herself must declare her intention beforehand to the Comptroller of Public Women, who shall enter her name in his register, and present her with a pa.s.s-book which he shall sign.”
”Every girl inscribed on the register shall place in the hands of the treasurer of the Dispensary, monthly, a sum of twenty francs if she be a kept woman, and ten francs if she be not kept. The treasurer shall give her a receipt for the same, and record it in his account-book.”
”The mayor shall be authorized to remit this monthly due, as well as any fines that may have been incurred, when the girl owing the same can prove by a certificate from the comptroller, the treasurer, and the physician that she is indigent.”
”Every girl who shall not have paid her monthly due, as well as her fines, within ten days after the visit to the Dispensary, shall undergo an imprisonment of not less than five days and not more than three months, unless she establish her indigence as aforesaid.”
”Girls detained in prison shall, on the first symptoms of syphilis, be transferred to the Dispensary for treatment, after which they shall be remanded to prison to serve the remainder of the time.”
”The physician of the Dispensary shall not only treat patients in that establishment, but shall pay _periodical, accidental, and all necessary visits_ to the prost.i.tutes, who are hereby subjected to such visits. He shall visit the Dispensary twice a day, from 7 to 9 A.M.
and from 3 to 4 P.M. He shall enter upon his memorandum-book, and upon the pa.s.s-book of the girl, the result of all accidental or necessary visits. He shall receive a salary of two thousand francs.”[250]
This law is in force at the present time, and is said to have led to great inconvenience. Police agents are accused of levying black mail on the prost.i.tutes to an enormous extent, in the shape of fines, dues for going to b.a.l.l.s, hush-money for escaping the visit to the Dispensary, presents to the policeman on the birth of his children, etc. The product of the tax is inordinately large, amounting, independently of fines, to one hundred and twenty francs, or twenty-four dollars per annum for each girl. Several administrators have recommended its diminution or total suppression, but it is still retained.[251]
In the year 1838, when the present law was pa.s.sed, the number of women inscribed on the police register was 320, the total population of Algiers being 34,882, of whom two thirds were Africans and one third Europeans; but the mayor of the city gave it as his opinion that this figure (320) was in reality far below the truth. In 1846 measures were taken for enforcing the police regulations more strictly than before, and some care was used to procure correct statistics of population and prost.i.tution.[252] We compile the following table from several given by Dr. d.u.c.h.esne:
+-------------------------------------------------+
Registered
POPULATION.
Year.
Prost.i.tutes
-------------------------------
(average).
African
European.
Total.
(estimated).
-----
-----------
------------
---------
--------
1847
442
25,000
42,113
67,113
1848
387
25,000
37,572
62,572
1849
395
25,000
37,572
63,072
1850
479
26,000
29,392
55,392
1851
342
....
....
55,392
+-------------------------------------------------+
To these figures, some of which are only approximative, must be added the number of French soldiers in the garrison at Algiers. At times the effective force has been as large as twelve or fifteen thousand men.
Another point of interest is the nationality of the prost.i.tutes of Algiers. It is known that the native women are loose in their morals. In many parts of the interior it is common for fathers or brothers to let out their daughters or sisters by the night or the week to strangers, and the young women themselves are only too willing to ratify a bargain which promises to gratify their unbounded sensuality. The following table gives the nationality of the registered prost.i.tutes during the period 1846-1851.[253]
+---------------------------------------------------------------
EUROPEANS.
-------------------------------------------------------
Years.
France.
Mahon.
Italy.
Germany.
Great
Spain.
Holland.
Britain.
------
-------
------
------
--------
--------
------
--------
1847
107
14
6
11
4
58
2
1848
78
10
5
10
3
49
...
1849
82
8
2
17
3
60