es or
nymphomaniacs, are subjects specially disposed to become seduced.
Lastly, poverty is one of the most powerful auxiliaries of
prostitution. I do not wish to be sentimental, nor to give too much
weight to the well-known statement that a poor woman prostitutes
herself to appease her children's hunger, or her own. No doubt this
happens among the oriental Jews and among the proletariat of large
towns, but it is, on the whole, exceptional.

Poverty acts indirectly in a much more intense and efficacious manner.
First of all it compels the proletariat to live in the most disgusting
promiscuity. Not only do the father, the mother and the children
occupy the same room, but they sleep there, often in the same bed. The
children are witnesses of their parents' coitus and become initiated
in sexual intercourse, often in its most bestial form, under the
influence of alcohol, for example. Neglected and herded together with
other children, most of them as badly brought up as themselves, from
their early youth they become acquainted not only with the most gross
and filthy things, but also with the most pathological and deformed
excrescences of the unhealthy life of towns. In the proletariat of
certain towns there are few girls of fourteen years of age who are
still virgins.

Again, poverty urges parents to exploit their children, for it is easy
to deliver them into the hands of proxenetism. But this is not
confined to the poorest classes; among small tradespeople, poverty is
also an indirect agent of prostitution. Here again the effect of
pitiless exploitation is seen; in certain occupations which leave the
girls free evenings, and also in certain shops, the proprietor only
pays his employes an absurdly small salary, because they can add to it
by prostitution. For this reason, many saleswomen, dressmakers, etc.,
are obliged to content themselves with a minimum wage. When they
complain, and especially when they are good looking, they are often
given to understand that with their attractive appearance it is very
easy for them to increase their income, for many a young man would be
glad to "befriend them," to say nothing of other insinuations of the
same kind. I have already pointed out how waitresses are utilized as
bait in certain taverns, etc. Let us cite a few figures:

About 80 per cent. of the prostitutes in Paris have some occupation
besides prostitution.

In factories, shops, etc., the average wage of men is 4 francs 20.