The fitting allowed mosquito curtains. The ventilation of the room is effected at the cost of about fifty dollars. The money for the first favour is paid to the mistress who hands it to the purchaser, after making a deduction of ten per cent for herself.
The earliest age at which the initiation is allowed is between fourteen and fifteen. Once the girl completes the initiation, she becomes one of the regular prostitutes of the establishment and is available for any visitor who may desire her. Anyone engaging a girl for the first time has to pay her twenty or twenty-five dollars. Any subsequent engagement is two dollars.
It is considered derogatory to the self-esteem of an inmate for a visitor who has engaged a particular inmate to engage any other inmate on a subsequent visit, and the same rule applies to the other side. It is a rule that is frequently broken on either side, and such breach constantly leads to rows in which parties attack each other and general disorder prevails.
The connection thus commenced may last four or five years or more, but should it be sustained for this length of time, it implies genuine affection between the parties, and the girl looks to her lover to redeem her. The redemption is effected for a sum varying between seven hundred and fifteen hundred dollars, and in the case of a very great favourite, the redemption may be as much as three thousand dollars.
The redemption money is paid subject to the consent of the purchaser of the girl, who calculates whether more is to be made by detention in the brothel or by redemption. Every purchaser, if not an inmate of the brothel, is represented in it by a party...