of an inferior quality, and do their dreadful work on
the health and beauty of their victim very quickly. The use of narcotics
is also very common. All the drug stores in the vicinity of these houses
sell large quantities of opium, chloroform, and morphia. Absinthe is a
popular drink. This liquor is a slow but deadly poison, and destroys the
nervous system and brain, and produces insanity. Suicides are frequent,
and many of the poor creatures fall victims to the brutality of the men
who seek their society.

II. HOUSES OF ASSIGNATION.

There are over one hundred houses of assignation of all kinds in the city
known to the police. This estimate includes the bed-houses, of which we
shall speak further on. Besides these, there are places used for
assignations which the officials of the law do not and cannot include in
their returns. These are the smaller hotels, and sometimes the larger
ones. Sometimes women take rooms in some of the cheap hotels, and there
receive the visits of men whose acquaintance they have made on the street
or at some place of amusement. Very often the proprietor of the house is
simply victimized by such people, and several respectable houses have
been so far overrun by them that decent persons have avoided them
altogether. One or two of the smaller hotels of the city bear a most
unenviable reputation of this kind. Even the first-class hotels cannot
keep themselves entirely free from the presence of courtezans of the
better class. Rich men keep their mistresses at them in elegant style,
and the guests, and sometimes the proprietors, are in utter ignorance of
the woman's true character. Again, women will live at the fashionable
hotels, in the strictest propriety, and live by the proceeds of their
meetings with men at houses of assignation.

The best houses are located in respectable, and a few in fashionable
neighborhoods. In various ways they soon acquire a notoriety amongst
persons having use for them. In the majority of them, the proprietress
resides alone. Her visitors are persons of all classes in society.
Married women meet their lovers here, and young girls pass in these
polluted chambers the hours their parents suppose them to be devoting to
healthful and innocent amusements. There are many nominally virtuous
women in the city who visit these places one or more times each week.
They come in the day, if necessary, but generally at night. A visit to
the theatre, the ope