Instance of fraud is very uncommon. The members will pawn all their goods or borrow at a heavy rate of interest rather than be defaulters. The practice exists equally amongst the rich and poor, and the amounts of monthly subscriptions range from ten, hundred, and forty dollars down to fifty cents. The treatment of the prostitutes in a brothel is very strict. An inmate cannot leave the house when she likes, and all her movements are strictly watched. They are under the absolute control of the purchaser and mistress, the control of the mistress being general over all the inmates alike, and that of the purchaser being confined to her special property. The mistresses are not appointed. They usually commence as servants in some brothels, and through judicious investments in small girls in the course of time, save a little money, with which to purchase other girls and so on until they become the mistresses of regular establishments.
Every mistress is the possessor of some ten or twelve girls purchased with her own money. The earnings of these belong entirely to the mistress. It is currently supposed that the girls themselves, whether belonging to the mistress or to their purchaser, receive half of their earnings. In reality, the entire earnings of the property are paid to the mistress of the girl and half to the mistress and half to the purchaser, if the property of another. There are about thirty inmates in a first-class brothel, and less in a second and third-class brothel. All the particulars that have been given regarding a first-class brothel apply equally, though in a lesser degree, to the second and third-class brothels, and the classification...