the whole of the time, and some of them are thus able to earn three or four dollars in one night. The night is concluded in company with the girls who are the favourites of the different guests. The brothel will be left at 4 or 5 in the morning, and the fee for passing the night will be one dollar in addition to the dollar for singing. A fast man may have as many as fifteen parties of this kind in the course of a month. A moderate man will be content with once a month. These large entertainments do not include the small affairs in which a man merely visits a brothel in a private manner, taking with him a couple of friends only, spending two or three dollars.
The novices who attend these singing parties are not free to have intercourse with any of the guests, and before she is initiated into the complete discharge of a prostitute's duties, recourse must be had to the purchaser or purchasers' representatives, or in default of them to the mistress of the brothel. The applicant for her favours offers a sum of money, which the purchaser or the mistress refuses or accepts according to whether it is considered sufficient or not. A hundred dollars is the least that is paid for a novice in a first-class establishment, and two hundred or more is the most. In addition to the payment of money, it is also incumbent on the applicant to fit out the room.
Until a girl had commenced her career, she is not entitled to a room of her own. She sleeps with one of the other inmates, and a distinction is made between her and the other inmates by her not being...