061 voluntarily left home or situation for "a life of
pleasure;" 3363 assigned poverty as the cause; 3154 were
"seduced" and drifted on to the street; 1636 were betrayed by
promises of marriage and abandoned by lover and relations. On the
whole, Merrick states, 4790, or nearly one-third of the whole
number, may be said to owe the adoption of their career directly
to men, 11,232 to other causes. He adds that of those pleading
poverty a large number were indolent and incapable (G.P. Merrick,
_Work Among the Fallen_, p. 38).

Logan, an English city missionary with an extensive acquaintance
with prostitutes, divided them into the following groups: (1)
One-fourth of the girls are servants, especially in public
houses, beer shops, etc., and thus led into the life; (2)
one-fourth come from factories, etc.; (3) nearly one-fourth are
recruited by procuresses who visit country towns, markets, etc.;
(4) a final group includes, on the one hand, those who are
induced to become prostitutes by destitution, or indolence, or a
bad temper, which unfits them for ordinary avocations, and, on
the other hand, those who have been seduced by a false promise of
marriage (W. Logan, _The Great Social Evil_, 1871, p. 53).

In America Sanger has reported the results of inquiries made of
two thousand New York prostitutes as to the causes which induced
them to take up their avocation:

Destitution 525
Inclination 513
Seduced and abandoned 258
Drink and desire for drink 181
Ill-treatment by parents, relations, or husbands 164
As an easy life 124
Bad company 84
Persuaded by prostitutes 71
Too idle to work 29
Violated 27
Seduced on emigrant ship 16
Seduced in emigrant boarding homes 8
-----
2,000

(Sanger, _History of Prostitution_, p. 488.)

In America, again, more recently, Professor Woods