ether with the fire company,
finally succeeded in repulsing and scattering the infuriated mob. Two
half-rouble establishments were set on fire, but the fire was soon put
out. However, on the next day the tumult again flared up; this time
already over the whole city and its environs. Altogether unexpectedly
it took on the character of a Jewish pogrom, which lasted for three
days, with all its horrors and miseries.

And a week after followed the order of the governor-general about the
immediate shutting down of houses of prostitution, on the Yamkas as
well as other streets of the city. The proprietresses were given only a
week's time for the settlement of matters in connection with their
property.

Annihilated, crushed, plundered; having lost all the glamour of their
former grandeur; ludicrous and pitiful, the aged, faded proprietresses
and fat-faced, hoarse housekeepers were hastily packing up their
things. And a month after only the name reminded one of merry Yamskaya
Street; of the riotous, scandalous, horrible Yamkas.

However, even the name of the street was soon replaced by another, more
respectable one, in order to efface even the memory of the former
unpardonable times.

And all these Henriettas-Horses, Fat Kitties, Lelkas-Polecats and other
women--always naive and foolish, often touching and amusing, in the
majority of cases deceived and perverted children,--spread through the
big city, were dissolved within it. Out of them was born a new stratum
of society--a stratum of the strolling, street prostitutes--solitaries.
And about their life, just as pitiful and incongruous, but tinged by
other interests and customs, the author of this novel--which he still
dedicates to youths and mothers--will some time tell.

THE END

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