Part 57 (2/2)

Weekly Yearly Expenditure. outlay. outlay.

INDIVIDUAL EXPENSES: Paid to prost.i.tutes $60,000 $3,120,000 Spent for wine and liquor by visitors 40,000 2,080,000 Paid by visitors to houses of a.s.signation 12,600 655,200 Spent for wine and liquor by visitors to houses of a.s.signation 5,000 260,000 Spent in dancing-saloons, liquor and lager-beer stores frequented by prost.i.tutes and their friends 4,530 235,560

MEDICAL EXPENSES: Island Hospital, Blackwell's Island 438 22,750 Bellevue ” New York 135 7,000 Nursery ” Randall's Island 163 8,500 Emigrants' Hospital, Ward's Island 136 7,075 New York City Hospital, New York 159 8,260 Dispensaries 728 King's County Hospital, Long Island 145 7,530 Brooklyn City ” ” 89 4,644 Seamen's Retreat, Staten Island 203 10,540 Private medical a.s.sistance 5,928 308,108

VAGRANCY AND PAUPER EXPENSES: Work-house, Blackwell's Island 585 30,400 Penitentiary ” ” 462 24,030 Alms-house ” ” 303 15,750 Nursery, Randall's Island 577 30,000

POLICE AND JUDICIARY EXPENSES: Proportion of aggregate 4,000 200,000 -------- ---------- Totals $135,467 $7,036,075

The footings of the columns show the total expense to be

Weekly $135,467 Yearly $7,036,075

over SEVEN MILLIONS of dollars! or nearly as much as the annual munic.i.p.al expenditure of New York City.

Comment upon these figures would be superfluous. They present the monetary effects of prost.i.tution in a convincing point of view, and will prepare the reader for an attentive perusal of the suggested remedial measures which form the subject of the next chapter. The American mind is said to be proverbially open to argument based upon dollars and cents. Without giving an unqualified a.s.sent to the proposition, we may be permitted to hope that financial considerations, combined with the claims of benevolence and humanity, the appeals of virtue and morality, the demands of public health, and the future physical well-being of the community at large, will exercise that influence on the public mind which is necessary to the accomplishment of any valuable practical result from the present investigation.

Before leaving the subject of the extent of prost.i.tution it may be appropriate to remark that it was considered advisable to ascertain the prevalence of the vice in some of the leading cities of the United States, and, in order to do this effectually, a circular letter was addressed to the Mayors of

Albany, New York, Baltimore, Maryland, Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts, Brooklyn, New York, _Buffalo_, New York, Charleston, South Carolina, Chicago, Illinois, Cincinnati, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, Hartford, Connecticut, _Louisville_, Kentucky, Memphis, Tennessee, Mobile, Alabama, _Newark_, New Jersey, _New Haven_, Connecticut, New Orleans, Louisiana, _Norfolk_, Virginia, _Philadelphia_, Pennsylvania, _Pittsburgh_, Pennsylvania, Portland, Maine, Richmond, Virginia, _Savannah_, Georgia, St. Louis, Missouri, Was.h.i.+ngton, District Columbia.

(The names printed in _italics_ are those of cities from which replies were received.)

The circular forwarded was as follows:

(Copy.)

”Mayor's Office, New York City, Sept. 1, 1856.

”TO HIS HONOR THE MAYOR OF THE CITY OF ------:

”DEAR SIR,--Below you will receive from Dr. Sanger a note containing a few questions concerning Prost.i.tution and Prost.i.tutes in your city, which I shall feel obliged if you will have the kindness to answer.

”Very truly yours, ”FERNANDO WOOD, Mayor New York City.”

”DEAR SIR,--During the past six months, with the aid of His Honor, Mayor Wood, of this city, and the police force at his command, I have been collecting materials for a report on Prost.i.tution, as it exists in New York at the present time. I inclose you a list of questions that have been asked all the women examined here.[401] Of course I do not expect that you will or can give answers to these questions from the prost.i.tutes in your city, but I would wish to have your replies to the following queries:

”1. How many houses of prost.i.tution are there in your city?

”2. How many houses of a.s.signation are there in your city?

”3. How many public prost.i.tutes are there in your city?

”4. How many private prost.i.tutes are there in your city?

”5. How many kept mistresses are there in your city?

”6. What is the present population of your city?

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