Page:Wrong and Right Methods of Dealing with Social Evil - Elizabeth Blackwell (1883).djvu/35

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SOCIAL EVIL.
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times as a workman, sometimes as a gentleman, and sometimes as a servant—follow the young girl for three or four days before keeping her in. If a girl under age is 'taken by a man in the street,' and the mother refuses to interfere, she is registered at the Prefecture of Police." "At this moment clandestine prostitution is very strong in Paris." "Clandestine prostitutes are registered to the Prefect of the Police." "Every young girl who carries on prostitution must be registered in the Prefecture of the Police, and receive a carte with an indication of the medical visit of her home, of her apartment, age, and family."

M. Treit regrets that all female servants in private houses are no longer under police supervision. He remarks, "The regulations (of Paris) are the best that could be adopted. Berlin and all the large towns of France have adopted the regulations of Paris." (See 531 to 556.)

It is very important to note how the full and complete foreign system, as we see it in Brussels and Paris, grows up gradually as a logical necessity from regulating, instead of checking, vice. This method of regulation always begins with timid tentative efforts directed against women. But it grows bolder as it proceeds, and as public sentiment becomes demoralized, until at length a powerful, independent official organization is created, withdrawn from social