Adelaide - Prostitution
An Anecdotal Essay on Prostitution
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Why should we brand [it] as a sin in woman while we hardly reprove in man?
There are those who turn away in haughty scorn from a woman who has lost
her virtue, who would nevertheless willingly receive her seducer to their
homes and friendship... In the eye of Heaven above us, whatever society may
say, the sin is as great in him as in his frail sister.
(Register, 20 May 1862, page 2f.)
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I have been patiently waiting for some of our city ministers to call public
attention to this deplorable state of things. But, no. These sleek, well-groomed,
well-attired 'Sons of Heaven' are dumb when it is a question of public concern.
[This] cowardly attitude... is intolerable... If our spiritual leaders...
are so severely fenced off from all contact with the poor, unfortunate woman
that seeks her livelihood upon the streets, in lieu of being sweated to death
by, perhaps, some wealthy pillar and proprietor of the church, we are not
all so advantageously situated. Cannot our cultured and spotless divines
exert a little of their holy influence to stem the stream of prostitution
that runs through our favoured city like a mighty river.
(Register, 22 December 1903, page 3.)
Introduction
The year of 1994 saw agitation within and without parliament as to the ways and means of regulating the prostitution "industry" of the State - the following extracts and references from newspapers over a period of all but a hundred years will, no doubt, be of interest to those in the community who have expressed opinions for and against the decriminalisation of the "oldest profession in the world".
Newspaper References
Under the heading "What Are the Police About" the Register of 15 April 1843, page 3c has a complaint from a citizen:
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Can you inform me how long the neighbourhood of Weymouth [sic] Street and Light
Square are to be infested with brothels, and when the inhabitants are to
be rid of the music, dancing, revelry and the mob of drunken blacklegs who
idle about there all day and live on plunder and prostitution at night?
Thanks to the Emigration Commissioners for sending us the scum of the
English and Irish workhouses... These unfortunate and degraded beings parade
the City in groups by day and night using the most disgusting language...
If [convictions] were made here, the nymphs of the pave[ments] would have
a wholesome dread of "Ashton's Hotel" [Adelaide Gaol] and rather than enjoy
free quarters at that gentleman's establishment they would learn to observe
a proper respect towards the public.
(SA Gazette & Mining Journal, 2 August 1849, page 3b.)
[An] intolerable nuisance [is] caused by abandoned women who infest the
streets of Adelaide... [they] prowl about the streets in groups by day
as well as by night and... take a malicious pleasure in insulting the respectable
portion of their own sex...
(Adelaide Times, 2 August 1850, page 3f.)
The following comment is made under the heading of "Irish Orphans and Their Protectors" in the Register, 6 February 1850, page 2e:
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A number of pestiferous dens exist in Light-square and its neighbourhood, which
may be considered the moral cess-pools of the City of Adelaide. No merciful
master would kennel his hounds there. Squalid filth and fetid vice render
the atmosphere rank... Guarded by some black evil genius or shrivelled bawd
of Christian (!) blood, troops of young girls of all ages, from the all but
infant to the full-grown woman, are cooped up or caged together, as so many
goods and chattels of the lawful owner, to hire out, to barter, or to sell...
The dens of infamy kept by these slaughter-souls are swarming with the poor
polluted proteges of the Emigration Board. [Here] rot and die these frail
sisters of sin and sorrow.
It [is] well known that emissaries from these hotbeds of vice are ever
on the alert to entrap newly-arrived females for the most infamous of purposes,
and afterwards using the fallen creatures as means to rob the unwary bushman
who are enticed to the dens of wickedness in the vicinity of Light Square.
(Register, 16 September 1850, page 3e.)
The fate of a digger's gold is recounted in the Register, 15 October 1853, page 3f:
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[He] had [about 40 ounces] of gold in his possession [and] suffered himself
to be entered into a house of ill-fame at the west end of the city... where
he was robbed... There was evidence in the house of recent outlay in several
gaudy and expensive articles...
A report in the Register on 20 July 1854, page 3h says under the heading "Disorderly House":
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The proceedings in this house were to him, as a father of a young family, very
annoying and distressing. The nocturnal rows and tumults there frequently
disturbed the whole neighbourhood... [A doctor] had also been called on...
to dress broken skulls and other wounds received in brawls there.
The residents of West Terrace and the adjacent parts have long been compelled to take a circuitous route on their way to and from various places of public worship in order to avoid the profane offensive language and conduct of Light Square.>BR> (Observer, 17 June 1854, page 9f.)
Under the heading "The Great Social Evil" the Register of 19 July 1858 at page 2d says, inter alia:
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All that we consider either desirable or justifiable is, restrictive and remedial
measures, rendering the vice itself shameful by constricting it within its
own purlieus and affording to the miserable victims of its delusive pleasures
and impure associations every means of escape and refuge.
(Also see Register, 24 July 1858, page 2g.)
The Advertiser of 11 August 1858, page 3c says:
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Does not crime of every sort, including robbery and murder, fructify in these
dens of infamy where indiscriminate sexual intercourse is carried out? And
can the police escape their share of the consequence, in peace disturbed,
property made insecure, and person endangered?
"The Great Social Evil" is discussed in the Register, 3 September 1860, page 3b:
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If the means were at hand, many, I believe might be saved... There are many
very young... many who have only been lately on the streets - many who are
anxious to give up their wicked life, provided that they could obtain a decent
situation.
"Houses of Ill-Fame" is in the Register, 20 May 1864, page 2g:
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The vice itself may be above the reach of human law; but its outward manifestations,
which are full of danger to the social health, are not... [we] do not ask
the authorities to put down the vice, but to remove it from the public eye,
and that we submit is a reasonable request.
(Also see Register 21 May 1864, page 3d.)
There is hardly an emigrant ship that enters our harbour but in the course
of a few days you will observe some of the newcomers from it pursuing evil
ways... You may perambulate the city; no matter in what locality, you will
find the same dread curse rampant... The greatest dens of infamy... are certain
select dancing rooms.
(Advertiser, 7 May 1864, page 2d.)
Parliamentary Paper no. 86 of 1867 says, inter alia:
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Brothel keeping is carried on in every part of Adelaide and when put down in
one locality springs up again at no great distance... The early prostitution
of young girls [is] a most deplorable evil and one very difficult to deal
with, as the law will not reach the seducer, while the punishment falls so
heavily on the seduced... I feel it to be a great injustice to legislate
entirely against the woman...
(Also see Register, 28 March 1867, page 2h, Advertiser, 20 July 1867, page 3g.)
"The Social Evil" is in the Observer, 30 March 1867, page 4f (supp.), Register, 8 July 1867, page 3h:
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It is in our more popular thoroughfares that these most abandoned specimens
of the "social evil" become an unbearable nuisance. Flaunting in full-blown
insolence, these lost creatures take the call and thrust aside the virtuous
and the modesty of their sex, and with reckless audacity openly solicit men
and boys, and when repulsed give utterance to the vilest language... Here
the public come face to face with unblushing vice..
Under the heading "Bushmen in Town" the Advertiser on 29 July 1868, page 2e says:
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A correspondent... accidentally heard one of the fallen sisterhood address
her female companion thus - "I must try to get hold of a bushman and clean
him out"... The great ambition and desire of these men's lives is to "pile
up" a cheque for wages, which they may have the pleasure of "knocking down" in
a few days of drunken dissipation and debauchery... [they] get drunk and
they become the prey of those harpies who prowl about the streets "like roaring
lions seeking whom they may devour".
A police raid is reported in the Observer, 2 July 1870, page 5b:
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The police... have made very strenuous endeavours to lessen the glaring vices
of the street... Rundle Street after dark between the Beehive and the Globe...
has been for months the recognised rendezvous of our young... of both sexes,
and fallen men and fallen women [revel] in conduct and converse which would
make the blood of respectable and reputable citizens boil, and the cheeks
of women worthy of the name crimson with shame.
"The Dancing Saloons and Nighthouses" of Adelaide is in the Register, 28 June 1870, page 6a:
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...Vice must be shown to the public in its true colours before it can be corrected...
Under the shelter of false delicacy it has grown and festered.
The reporter goes on to describe a bar in a place of public entertainment:
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[Young women] bear marks of dissipation in their high colour, which is more
purple than ruddy and in the sensuality which is supplanting which may once
have been innocent beauty. [In the Shamrock Bar] there are more women - bigger
and more brazen, all of them - they have thriven upon [the trade of prostitution],
while hundreds with weaker constitutions or finer sensibilities have sunk
under self-consuming sin... The heavy, callous stolidity of their faces is
almost brutal. Moral consciousness does not betray itself in a single look
or gesture...
Houses of prostitution in Currie Street and their occupants are described on 23 and 28 December 1872, pages 5e and 6b:
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Drunken women, nearly nude - blaspheming, fighting and using gestures which
defy description... [our] ears [are] constantly outraged by language which
even depraved men could not invent...
The Register of 12 and 17 March 1873 at pages 6f and 5a concludes that:
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It is a deplorable fact that the form of vice known as the social evil [had]
attained to huge proportions in the city.
A resident of Hindley Street complains to the Register on 13 June 1874:
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It is about time that some means were adopted to prevent young girls parading
Hindley Street all through the day with the most unblushing effrontery, sometimes
drunk or nearly so, but at all times appearing in such guise that, taken
together with their conduct, there is no mistaking the life they follow...
In an editorial on 30 October 1874, page 2d the Advertiser says:
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Like the foul weed diandragora, which fattened and flourished in unclean spots,
the social evil has grown in Adelaide to dimensions which might almost appal
cities which have grown old in iniquity... The time has come when the rulers
of this flourishing land should open the door behind which the skeleton is
hidden, and explore that mine of sin and disease which is a scandal and a
shame to all.
The prosecution of "six young women... on the charge of keeping a house of ill-fame" is reported in the Advertiser, 29 March 1875, page 2d:
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From the scenes enacted in this brothel, we do not wonder at respectable people
complaining. Drunkenness, filthy talk and fighting were often continued all-night
long... The wretched trade is too profitable for... to retire into private
life, and she will have no difficulty in finding poor girls to take the places
of those whom Mr Beddome has sent to gaol... This prostitution, with all
attendant evils, is supported and paid for by men, and these men go unpunished,
while the victims of their lust are made to suffer.
I have heard it said that to go thoroughly into this matter would necessitate
the exposure of some of the very heads of the people. [How can the law
punish men unless in the pursuit of their pleasures they also offend public
decency? ED.]
(Advertiser, 1 June 1875, page 3c.)
On 4 February 1880 at page 4f the Editor of the Register says:
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It is painful to see scores of these young creatures - children just entering
their teens - decked in the flaunting livery of vice, and by appearance,
gesture and speech boldly proclaiming their trade... Children just ripening
into womanhood are too often allowed an amount of freedom which proves destructive
to any shreds of moral principle which they may possess.
An editorial on "some haunts of the social evil in Franklin, Grote, Russell and Morney Streets" is in the Advertiser, 24 March 1880, page 4d:
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It has been suggested that [they] should be compelled to live in certain quarters
of the city, where as long as they are not riotous or outrageously indecent
they should not be molested... No good purpose can be gained...
On 6 November 1880 at page 7b of the Register a correspondent proclaims:
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Vice stalks abroad in open day, apparently unchecked, while in some of our
streets - notably Hindley Street - it is not fit for a respectable woman
to walk in broad daylight... I have heard it [said it is] the city of meeting-houses,
public-houses and houses of ill-repute.
(Also see Register, 14 January 1881, page 6e.)
The Register of 15 February 1883 (supp.) at page 1f carries a complaint about a:
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Notoriously low public house, the Shamrock Hotel... Why [do] the police and
the Bench allow this foul den, the chief customers of which are thieves and
prostitutes, to exist in the centre of a respectable city...
Letters in respect of "The Social Evil" are in the Advertiser, 5, 11 and 14 July 1884, pages 7a, 6c and 6g:
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We are despised by everyone, even our mothers and brothers, and are looked
upon by the public as no better than beasts of the field... Mention [has
been made] of young girls passing through the dance room to the brothel,
but in my case it was not so... [I] was reared in a Baptist family and always
attended church twice every Sunday... I know for a fact that there are gentlemen
who go with their families to church on Sunday nights, and who come direct
from there to our house...
Several letters concerning "The Social Evil" are in the Advertiser, 8 September 1884, page 7a:
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[In the 1870s] some quarters of the city were rendered almost impassable even
in the day time in consequence of the shameless scenes that might be witnessed...
half-naked women... idled about in Currie Street...
(See Advertiser, 26 and 29 September 1884, pages 4g and 4d.)
"The Protection of Young Women" in the Register, 14 November 1884, page 4f:
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So long as the business is conducted in an orderly manner, so it is implied,
the police have nothing to do with it. Yet let two or three of the inmates
of that same house walk down the street and attempt to practise the arts,
which their employer has taught them, and instantly arrest follows... The
law on the subject is a most glaring instance of legislation directed only
against the poor and unfortunate...
Under the heading "Dissolute Adelaide" the Register of 6 and 15 December 1884, pages 6d and 5g says, inter alia:
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[I] have manoeuvered through all the haunts and dens of the city where the
dissipated loose livers of society gather for the purpose of displaying all
their animal propensities... Men and women are living amongst us who are
thoroughly debauched and are spreading a moral pestilence; children are to
be found in numbers imitating the vicious habits of the most degraded...
Some of the [hotels] I have described should be removed at once... They are spreading their immoral influences as from a centre and the only course open is to bring about good results by wiping them out.
His remarks raised a storm of protest from some quarters and praise from others - see 17, 18, 19 and 23 December 1884, pages 7c, 7c, 6g and 7d. These articles were written by Rev. A. Turnbull - see 8 January 1885, page 7f for a report of a lecture given by him in the Crusaders' Hall.
The Editor of the Register on 15 December 1884 at page 4h pronounces, inter alia:
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To attempt to "regulate" vice by giving it legislative sanction would be to
directly encourage baneful notions which strike at the root of social institutions.
So far from providing a "safety-valve" it would place a virtuous woman at a
disadvantage by discouraging marriage and substituting passion for affection...
The Register of 14 July 1885 at page 6g under the heading "The Waifs of the Street" says, inter alia:
Ostracised by society, abandoned by their destroyers, shunned by all but their wretched companions in vice, their degradation was terrible and complete... Today, legislators, moralists and philanthropists view with horror the march of immorality... Optimists will tell us with a shrug that the selfish passions of "dissolute man" cannot be checked... There is at present a Bill before the Legislative Council for its object the better protection of young females, but laws can only deal with public offences, and these are merely drops in the stream of vice...
The Editor of the Register on 17 November 1885 at page 4h says, inter alia:
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We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that our streets are thronged by mere children,
girls who are living a life of gross immorality... The business of the procuress,
if it is not a flourishing one is yet pursued and the malign influence of
wretches who make it their trade to minister to the worst passions of the
worst men is felt to a most deplorable extent in the ruin of young girls...
"Immorality in Adelaide" is discussed in the Register, 6 June 1892, page 5a while on 12 August 1897, page 6g a concerned citizen says:
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To any one going through the streets after dusk... the sight of large numbers
of girls, from the age of thirteen upwards, showy in dress and loose in conduct,
presents a very grave aspect...
A correspondent to the Register on 22 December 1903 at page 3f created a furore when he said:
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I have been patiently waiting for some of our city ministers to call public
attention to this deplorable state of things. But, no. These sleek, well-groomed,
well-attired "Sons of Heaven" are dumb when it is a question of public concern.
[This] cowardly attitude... is intolerable... If our spiritual leaders...
are so severely fenced off from all contact with the poor, unfortunate woman
that seeks her livelihood upon the streets in lieu of being sweated to death
by perhaps some wealthy pillar and proprietor of the church, we are not all
so advantageously situated. Cannot our cultured and spotless divines exert
a little of their holy influence to stem the stream of prostitution that
runs through our favoured city like a mighty river.
Also see Register, 24, 29 and 31 December 1903, pages 6b, 6g and 7g:
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The poor distrust the Church. Why? For ages past the rich man's gospel has
been preached thus to the less fortunate - "My brethren, remember if your
lot is hard you must strive to bear it patiently. Carry your cross and it
will be exchanged for a crown hereafter." And when the poor man reflects
that the Archbishop of Canterbury gets #13,000 a year for carrying his cross
his bile is stirred... It goes without saying that, if people could afford
to be married, there would be less prostitution, but when great firms pay
only 2 and a half-pence for the making of a man's shirt - the seamstress
to find the cotton - and it is so easy to step aside from the path of virtue,
what is the sequence?
Also see Register, 1 January 1904, page 7g:
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The root... of the social evil... is the evil in human nature that we call
sin; the remedy is the Divine love that saves from sin... In my opinion tens
of thousands are being kept on the paths of virtue and many are being restored
to them by the work of the churches.
Also see Register, 4 January 1904, pages 6d-7g:
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The work of reform... is mainly for the home (which should be made enticing
and attractive to the sons and daughters and not merely a place in which
to sleep and eat), for the churches and for the schools - with the press,
of course, assisting wherever practicable... And, withal, the essential point
is to build character - to strengthen the tree; not to fence it off from
every risk of contact with storms.
Also see Register, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 21 January 1904, pages 5h, 9i, 3i, 8f and 6h, 3 February 1904, page 3h, 25 February 1910, page 8g:
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A writer in the Register in referring to prostitution says "It is, as
every man of sense knows, a necessary evil" and therefore wrong to try to stop
it... The increase in the numbers and the decrease of the inmates of our rescue
homes is due not to the praiseworthy efforts to mitigate the evils of prostitution
by legislative enactments, but to the lack of parental control... The unrestricted
circulation of immoral publications [and] the growing prevalence of French
ideas in regard to social purity, of French inventions and French practices,
by the employment of which the young of both sexes think they can do wrong,
indulge their appetites uncontrolled and yet escape the consequences.
Prostitution was, is, and always will be; it would be far better to have the vice under control than to put a plaster over the sore, roll up your eyes, and say it does not exist... If that were done, there would not be, in the future, be so many bleary-eyed, scrofulous children as we see now...
Letters on the "Social Evil" are in the Advertiser, 21 December 1905, page 11a:
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To cure the evil and eradicate the nuisance it will be necessary to proceed
against those who make it possible for these people to carry on their nefarious
practice; that is, begin with the landlords of these filthy tenements - mere
rookeries in many instances - bringing in more money to their owners than
many costly villas.
Also see Register, 28 February 1910, page 9a, 2, 3 and 8 March 1910, pages 10d, 6g and 9d:
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When a man, parson or judge... tells us that the curfew bell will stop immorality
- that is keep the young people at home and give them a sugar lump - will
settle this eternal question... they make me wonder, do such people really
not know any better? Have they never been young and full of the lust of life?
Also see Register, 11, 12, 15, 16, 19 and 23 March 1910, pages 3c, 7h, 10e, 9d, 11f and 8g, Advertiser, 1 December 1910, page 10e:
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One can walk through the main thoroughfares without being confronted with the
traffic in degradation formerly carried on. But that the traffic should exist
at all is what distresses and perplexes the moralist and the humanitarian.
While it is quite true that the community cannot be made moral by Act of
Parliament, at least we may see that the young of both sexes is not led astray
by Ignorance, which too often goes hand-in-hand with Vice.
"A Social Pestilence" is the subject of lengthy debate in the Register, 25 September 1913, page 9f, 1, 4, 8, 9, 14, 17 and 31 October 1913, pages 15f, 7h, 7f, 9f, 8d, 3g and 3i:
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Through the authorities neglecting to afford innocent means of passing their
Sunday evenings, hundreds of young people of both sexes have no alternative
but to frequent either the streets or the secluded parts of the park lands
and along the Torrens... I may safely describe some of the latter places...
as open air brothels.
Under the heading " A Mother's Sin" a correspondent to the Advertiser, 18 April 1921, page 5f says:
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A mother, deserted by her husband and unable to find work, went "on the streets" and "sold
her soul" for the sake of her three children. A Christian Police Court... rewarded
her with 21 days imprisonment and took her babes from her... Why bother a heart
and torture a mind... Is there no room for mercy?...
(Also see Advertiser, 29 April 1921, page 7e, 10 May 1921, page 9e.)
General Notes
Also see Adelaide - Streets - Miscellany.Under the heading "What Are the Police About" the Register of 15 April 1843, page 3c has a complaint from a citizen:
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Can you inform me how long the neighbourhood of Weymouth [sic] Street and Light
Square are to be infested with brothels, and when the inhabitants are to
be rid of the music, dancing, revelry and the mob of drunken blacklegs who
idle about there all day and live on plunder and prostitution at night?
Thanks to the Emigration Commissioners for sending us the scum of the
English and Irish workhouses... These unfortunate and degraded beings parade
the City in groups by day and night using the most disgusting language...
If [convictions] were made here, the nymphs of the pave[ments] would have
a wholesome dread of "Ashton's Hotel" [Adelaide Gaol] and rather than enjoy
free quarters at that gentleman's establishment they would learn to observe
a proper respect towards the public.
(SA Gazette & Mining Journal, 2 August 1849, page 3b.)
[An] intolerable nuisance [is] caused by abandoned women who infest the
streets of Adelaide... [they] prowl about the streets in groups by day
as well as by night and... take a malicious pleasure in insulting the respectable
portion of their own sex...
(Adelaide Times, 2 August 1850, page 3f.)
An alleged brothel at the "Native Location" is discussed in the Register,
21, 24 and 25 January 1850, pages 3e, 2c and 2d,
6 February 1850, page 2e.
The following comment is made under the heading of "Irish Orphans and Their Protectors" in the Register, 6 February 1850, page 2e:
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A number of pestiferous dens exist in Light-square and its neighbourhood, which
may be considered the moral cess-pools of the City of Adelaide. No merciful
master would kennel his hounds there. Squalid filth and fetid vice render
the atmosphere rank... Guarded by some black evil genius or shrivelled bawd
of Christian (!) blood, troops of young girls of all ages, from the all but
infant to the full-grown woman, are cooped up or caged together, as so many
goods and chattels of the lawful owner, to hire out, to barter, or to sell...
The dens of infamy kept by these slaughter-souls are swarming with the poor
polluted proteges of the Emigration Board. [Here] rot and die these frail
sisters of sin and sorrow.
It [is] well known that emissaries from these hotbeds of vice are ever
on the alert to entrap newly-arrived females for the most infamous of purposes,
and afterwards using the fallen creatures as means to rob the unwary bushman
who are enticed to the dens of wickedness in the vicinity of Light Square.
(Register, 16 September 1850, page 3e.)
The fate of a digger's gold is recounted in the Register, 15 October 1853, page 3f:
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[He] had [about 40 ounces] of gold in his possession [and] suffered himself
to be entered into a house of ill-fame at the west end of the city... where
he was robbed... There was evidence in the house of recent outlay in several
gaudy and expensive articles...
Information on the female proprietor of a brothel is in the Observer, 1 April 1854, page 6f.
A report in the Register on 20 July 1854, page 3h says under the heading "Disorderly House":
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The proceedings in this house were to him, as a father of a young family, very
annoying and distressing. The nocturnal rows and tumults there frequently
disturbed the whole neighbourhood... [A doctor] had also been called on...
to dress broken skulls and other wounds received in brawls there.
The residents of West Terrace and the adjacent parts have long been compelled
to take a circuitous route on their way to and from various places of public
worship in order to avoid the profane offensive language and conduct of Light
Square.
(Observer, 17 June 1854, page 9f.)
For an example of the conduct of prostitutes during an election riot see Register,
28 September 1855, page 3d.
A proposed reformatory institution for prostitutes is discussed in the Register,
28 July 1855, page 3a.
Under the heading "The Great Social Evil" the Register of 19 July 1858 at page 2d says, inter alia:
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All that we consider either desirable or justifiable is, restrictive and remedial
measures, rendering the vice itself shameful by constricting it within its
own purlieus and affording to the miserable victims of its delusive pleasures
and impure associations every means of escape and refuge.
(Also see Register, 24 July 1858, page 2g.)
The Advertiser of 11 August 1858, page 3c says:
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Does not crime of every sort, including robbery and murder, fructify in these
dens of infamy where indiscriminate sexual intercourse is carried out? And
can the police escape their share of the consequence, in peace disturbed,
property made insecure, and person endangered?
"The Great Social Evil" is discussed in the Register, 3 September 1860, page 3b:
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If the means were at hand, many, I believe might be saved... There are many
very young... many who have only been lately on the streets - many who are
anxious to give up their wicked life, provided that they could obtain a decent
situation.
Why should we brand [it] as a sin in woman while we hardly reprove in
man? There are those who turn away in haughty scorn from a woman who has
lost her virtue, who would nevertheless willingly receive her seducer to
their homes and friendship... In the eye of Heaven above us, whatever society
may say, the sin is as great in him as in his frail sister.
(Register, 20 May 1862, page 2f.)
"The Social Evil" is in the Express,
6 May 1864, page 2e,
"Houses of Ill-Fame" is in the Register,
20 May 1864, page 2g:
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The vice itself may be above the reach of human law; but its outward manifestations,
which are full of danger to the social health, are not... [We] do not ask
the authorities to put down the vice, but to remove it from the public eye,
and that we submit is a reasonable request.
(Also see Register, 21 May 1864, page 3d.)
There is hardly an emigrant ship that enters our harbour but in the course
of a few days you will observe some of the newcomers from it pursuing evil
ways... You may perambulate the city; no matter in what locality, you will
find the same dread curse rampant... The greatest dens of infamy... are certain "select" dancing
rooms.
(Advertiser, 7 May 1864, page 2g.)
Parliamentary Paper no. 86 of 1867 says, inter alia:
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Brothel keeping is carried on in every part of Adelaide and when put down in
one locality springs up again at no great distance... The early prostitution
of young girls [is] a most deplorable evil and one very difficult to deal
with, as the law will not reach the seducer, while the punishment falls so
heavily on the seduced... I feel it to be a great injustice to legislate
entirely against the woman...
(Also see Register,
28 March 1867, page 2h,
Advertiser,
20 July 1867, page 3g.)
"The Social Evil" is in the Observer,
30 March 1867, page 4f (supp.),
Register,
8 July 1867, page 3h:
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It is in our more popular thoroughfares that these most abandoned specimens
of the "social evil" become an unbearable nuisance. Flaunting in full-blown
insolence, these lost creatures take the call and thrust aside the virtuous
and the modesty of their sex, and with reckless audacity openly solicit men
and boys, and when repulsed give utterance to the vilest language... Here
the public come face to face with unblushing vice...
Under the heading "Bushmen in Town" the Advertiser on 29 July 1868, page 2e says:
-
A correspondent... accidentally heard one of the fallen sisterhood address
her female companion thus - "I must try to get hold of a bushman and clean
him out"... The great ambition and desire of these men's lives is to "pile
up" a cheque for wages, which they may have the pleasure of "knocking down" in
a few days of drunken dissipation and debauchery... [they] get drunk and
they become the prey of those harpies who prowl about the streets "like roaring
lions seeking whom they may devour".
A police raid is reported in the Observer,
2 July 1870, page 5b:
-
The police... have made very strenuous endeavours to lessen the glaring vices
of the street... Rundle Street after dark between the Beehive and the Globe...
has been for months the recognised rendezvous of our young... of both sexes,
and fallen men and fallen women [revel] in conduct and converse which would
make the blood of respectable and reputable citizens boil, and the cheeks
of women worthy of the name crimson with shame.
"The Evangelical Alliance and the City Immorality" is in the Chronicle,
28 June 1870, page 11f,
9 and 16 July 1870, pages 12a and 13g.
Letters in respect of the "social evil" are in the Register,
25 and 28 June 1870, pages 3e and 5e-6b.
A police raid in Rundle Street upon "old roués and fat youths' and
their consorts is reported in the Observer,
2 July 1870, page 5b.
A lecture on "The Great Sin of Great Cities" is in the Observer,
9 July 1870, page 4d.
"The Social Evil and Public Houses" is in the Observer,
9 July 1870, page 13g.
"The Dancing Saloons and Nighthouses" of Adelaide is in the Register, 28 June 1870, page 6a:
-
...Vice must be shown to the public in its true colours before it can be corrected...
Under the shelter of false delicacy it has grown and festered.
The reporter goes on to describe a bar in a place of public entertainment:
-
[Young women] bear marks of dissipation in their high colour, which is more
purple than ruddy and in the sensuality which is supplanting which may once
have been innocent beauty. [In the Shamrock Bar] there are more women - bigger
and more brazen, all of them - they have thriven upon [the trade of prostitution],
while hundreds with weaker constitutions or finer sensibilities have sunk
under self-consuming sin... The heavy, callous stolidity of their faces is
almost brutal. Moral consciousness does not betray itself in a single look
or gesture...
"The Evangelical Alliance and the Social Evil" is in the Advertiser,
5, 7, 9, 11 and 12 July 1870, pages 3d, 3e, 2g, 3f and 3g.
"The Suppression or Control of Brothels" is in the Chronicle,
4 May 1872, page 6b,
"The Suppression of Open Immorality" on
6 September 1873, page 12c.
"Disorderly Houses" and the general morality of the city are the subject
of further debate and comment in the Register,
26 and 27 March 1872, pages 5f and 5a; also see
3 April 1872, page 6f
13 May 1872, page 4e.
Houses of prostitution in Currie Street and their occupants are described on
23 and 28 December 1872, pages 5e and 6b:
-
Drunken women, nearly nude - blaspheming, fighting and using gestures which
defy description... [our] ears [are] constantly outraged by language which
even depraved men could not invent...
"Adelaide Street Scenes" is in the Observer,
28 December 1872, page 4d.
The Register of 12 and 17 March 1873 at pages 6f and 5a concludes that:
-
It is a deplorable fact that the form of vice known as the social evil [had]
attained to huge proportions in the city.
"Suppression of Houses of Ill-Fame" is in the Register,
2 and 13 May 1872, pages 3e and 4e.
"The Suppression of Open Immorality" is in the Advertiser,
30 August 1873, page 3b; also see
Observer,
30 August 1873, page 7a,
Register,
30 August 1873, page 6f,
25 September 1873, page 7e.
On 13 September 1873 the Register, page 6f comes down with a plea for the establishment of a reformatory for "fallen women".
A resident of Hindley Street complains to the Register on 13 June 1874:
-
It is about time that some means were adopted to prevent young girls parading
Hindley Street all through the day with the most unblushing effrontery, sometimes
drunk or nearly so, but at all times appearing in such guise that, taken
together with their conduct, there is no mistaking the life they follow...
"Death in a Brothel" is in the Chronicle,
13 June 1874, page 11f.
In an editorial on 30 October 1874, page 2d the Advertiser says:
-
Like the foul weed diandragora, which fattened and flourished in unclean spots,
the social evil has grown in Adelaide to dimensions which might almost appal
cities which have grown old in iniquity... The time has come when the rulers
of this flourishing land should open the door behind which the skeleton is
hidden, and explore that mine of sin and disease which is a scandal and a
shame to all.
"Public Houses and Public Morality" is in the Advertiser,
23 January 1875, page 3g,
15 March 1875, page 3f,
"Public Houses and Public Immorality" on
27 March 1875, page 11f,
"The Social Evil" on
10 April 1875, page 11f.
The prosecution of "six young women... on the charge of keeping a house of ill-fame" is reported in the Advertiser, 29 March 1875, page 2d:
-
From the scenes enacted in this brothel, we do not wonder at respectable people
complaining. Drunkenness, filthy talk and fighting were often continued all-night
long... The wretched trade is too profitable for... to retire into private
life, and she will have no difficulty in finding poor girls to take the places
of those whom Mr Beddome has sent to gaol... This prostitution, with all
attendant evils, is supported and paid for by men, and these men go unpunished,
while the victims of their lust are made to suffer.
I have heard it said that to go thoroughly into this matter would necessitate
the exposure of some of the very heads of the people. [How can the law
punish men unless in the pursuit of their pleasures they also offend public
decency? ED.]
(Advertiser, 1 June 1875, page 3c.)
"The Social Evil" is in the Express,
7 April 1875, page 2b.
In 1877 the Editor of the Register sent one of his reporters into the lower end of Hindley Street - see 1 October, pages 4d and 5a:
-
What the drink-debased Helot slaves were to the children of their Spartan masters,
the unfortunate creatures, both female and male, who are found crowding these
haunts of vice should prove to any one who sees them in their wretched lurking-places.
Here are to be found herded together young girls just entering womanhood,
if their life can be called womanhood; vile old harridans worn out in the
service of Satan... Men and women sunk to the level of brutes - or rather
beneath that level, for no members of the animal kingdom would look so utterly
debased...
A self-professed experienced observer of the "social evil" in the United Kingdom makes this observation in the Register, 9 February 1878, page 6f:
-
I have seen more of this class in about four or five nights in Adelaide than
I have seen in proportion in a great many larger towns in England... Some
of the females looked as if they ought to have been at school or at home
with their parents...
"A Rampant Evil" is the subject of diverse comment, including the need for
legislation to control it, in the Register,
31 May 1878, page 7c,
1, 5, 11, 13 and 22 June 1878, pages 7c, 6c, 6g, 6f and 6d. In a report to the
Chief Secretary on page 5b of the Register,
24 December 1878 it is said:
-
Scenes of a demoralising nature are to be witnessed in open daylight and girls
of a tender age are engaged in the infamous traffic.
(Also see Register, 30 December 1878, page 7d.)
There were at least eighty persons assembled, about thirteen of this number
being prostitutes of the very lowest type, the rest young men and boys from
16 years of age and upwards, all more or less under the influence of drink,
and making the night hideous with their din and debauchery.
(Advertiser, 8 January 1879, page 6d.)
One blousy petticoated personage, who appeared as though she had just awakened
from the effects of a severe carousal, was an object of sympathy and enquiry,
as the men gathered about her and put strange queries... She gave her replies
with an absent, half-distracted air... One of her unfortunate companions
had that day died raving mad...
(Advertiser,
20 January 1879, page 5e; also see
21 and 25 January 1879, pages 6g and 4d.)
"A Dark Side of Adelaide Life" is the subject of a special report in the Register,
20 January 1879, page 6a and became the subject of much comment - see
21, 22, 23, 24, 25 (supp.) and 30 January 1879, pages 6e, 6f, 6f, 6f, 1f and
6f,
6 February 1879, page 6d:
-
Still the hydra-headed evil remains apparently unchecked - the Augean stable
being too large and too foul to be readily checked... The women generally
were of the very lowest classes we had seen. Many of them wore black eyes
or other discolourations and brutal ill-usage as well as of utter demoralization...
I shall not speak of the hansom cabmen and the part some of them play in
this repellent drama of real life.
"Immorality in the City" is in the Register on
11 February 1879, page 4d,
"The Social Evil" in the Chronicle,
11 January 1879, page 12a,
"Disorderly Houses" in the Express,
11 January 1879, page 2c,
"The Social Evil and Its Haunts" on
25 January 1879, page 2e; also see
26 April 1879, page 2b.
On 4 February 1880 at page 4f the Editor of the Register says:
-
It is painful to see scores of these young creatures - children just entering
their teens - decked in the flaunting livery of vice, and by appearance,
gesture and speech boldly proclaiming their trade... Children just ripening
into womanhood are too often allowed an amount of freedom which proves destructive
to any shreds of moral principle which they may possess.
An editorial on "some haunts of the social evil in Franklin, Grote, Russell and Morney Streets" is in the Advertiser, 24 March 1880, page 4d:
-
It has been suggested that [they] should be compelled to live in certain quarters
of the city, where as long as they are not riotous or outrageously indecent
they should not be molested... No good purpose can be gained...
On 6 November 1880 at page 7b of the Register a correspondent proclaims:
-
Vice stalks abroad in open day, apparently unchecked, while in some of our
streets - notably Hindley Street - it is not fit for a respectable woman
to walk in broad daylight... I have heard it [said it is] the city of meeting-houses,
public-houses and houses of ill-repute.
(Also see Register, 14 January 1881, page 6e.)
"The City Streets at Night" is in the Advertiser,
21 January 1881, page 7c.
A heart-rending story of a sixteen year old girl plying her trade in a rented house in Hawdon Street is reported in the Register, 25 October 1881, pages 4g-5b.
"Immorality and Its Agents" is in the Register,
25 October 1881, page 4g.
"Houses Of Ill-Fame" is in the Register,
10 March 1882, page 4g,
"Public Morality" on
23 June 1882, page 4d-g; also see
Express,
24 June 1882, page 2b.
"The Dark Side of Adelaide Life" is in the Advertiser,
30 November 1881, page 6a,
"The Dancing Saloons of Adelaide" in the Chronicle,
5 November 1881, page 11a.
"Houses of Ill-Fame" is in the Register,
10 March 1882, page 4g.
"The Debts of Immoral Women" is in the Register,
29 April 1882, page 5a.
"Public Morality" is in the Register,
23 June 1882, pages 4d-5e, 4 July 1882, page 5c.
"State Regulation of Vice" is in the Observer,
22 July 1882, page 33a.
"Promotion of Morality" is in the Register,
1 November 1882, page 6c.
The Register of 15 February 1883 (supp.) at page 1f carries a complaint about a:
-
Notoriously low public house, the Shamrock Hotel... Why [do] the police and
the Bench allow this foul den, the chief customers of which are thieves and
prostitutes, to exist in the centre of a respectable city...
Information on the Social Purity Society is in the Register,
2 October 1882, page 5c,
29 and 31 January 1883, pages 4f and 7c,
8, 13 and 15 February 1883, pages 1f (supp.), 6d and 1e (supp.), Express,
30 March 1883, page 2c;
legislation emanating from it is discussed in the Register,
15 and 16 August 1883, pages 4f and 6g,
6 September 1883, page 6c; also see
Observer,
8 September 1883, pages 24d-27b,
13 October 1883, page 24e,
Chronicle,
8 December 1883, page 7d,
26 September 1885, page 5b,
1 November 1884, page 42b,
Register,
4, 5 and 11 December 1883, pages 6f, 4e and 1c (supp.),
8 April 1884, page 4h,
21 and 23 May 1884, pages 4e and 4f,
Chronicle,
8 December 1883, page 7d,
22 and 26 September 1885, pages 4g and 5b-7a,
The Lantern,
3 January 1885, page 23 (poem),
Observer,
12 and 26 September 1885, page 33e and 7e-30d,
Register,
2 April 1889, page 7g, Express,
3 April 1889, page 7b.
The Ladies' Social Purity Society
(Taken from Geoffrey H Manning's A Colonial Experience, Chapter 118)
Following, in a practical way, some of the suggestions made by Reverend J.C. Kirby in his lectures upon the social evil and its remedy, a committee of male members was appointed at a public gathering in October 1882 to the 'Society for the Promotion of Social Purity'. Among its objects was 'to shield the purity of both sexes; raising the standard of morals and abating the moral and physical evils resulting from vicious practices.'
In March 1883 a female branch known as The Ladies' Social Purity Society was formed the office holders being - Vice-presidents, Mesdames W.B. Andrews and J.C. Woods; Treasurer, Mrs J. Colton; Secretary, Mrs Charles Birks; Corresponding Secretary, Mrs Cowper Black; Committee, Mesdames Copland, Mead, J. Robin, F.W. Cox, M. Goode, Marshall, J. Smith, A.W. Webb, J. Hill, Beeby, J. Dunn, S. Glyde, Lambert, Hartley, A Crooks, O'Donnell and Miss Chewings.
Among its first incursions into the vice and corruption of Adelaide were visits 'at midnight to the homes of the fallen in order that they might try to induce them to forsake their lives of sin and aid them to regain positions of respectability and usefulness.' This band of ladies comprised many members of the SA Female Refuge at Norwood and others who devoted both time and money in philanthropic work.
Out on their errand of mercy they started one night and succeeded in inducing a number of girls to accompany them to the Mission Hall, Light Square. Many of the unfortunates expressed a desire to reform and begin a new life, but as the committee had no home or place of abode to offer them they had to allow them to depart to their old haunts of vice. This fact caused a widespread feeling of sympathy in their mission and letters in the local press tended to show that the eyes of the people of the city were on the work of the ladies and that the charitable were ready to aid them in their undertaking:
-
Ostracised by society, abandoned by their destroyers, shunned by all but their
wretched companions in vice, their degradation was terrible and complete...
Today, legislators, moralists and philanthropists view with horror the march
of immorality... Optimists will tell us with a shrug that the selfish passions
of 'dissolute man' cannot be checked... There is at present a Bill before
the Legislative Council for its object the better protection of young females,
but laws can only deal with public offences, and these are merely drops in
the stream of vice...
We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that our streets are thronged by mere children, girls who are living a life of gross immorality... The business of the procuress, if it is not a flourishing one is yet pursued and the malign influence of wretches who make it their trade to minister to the worst passions of the worst men is felt to a most deplorable extent in the ruin of young girls...
It was felt that something in the shape of a home should be provided, so that those poor outcasts, anxious to reform, might be assisted to do so. Contributions were soon forthcoming, including a handsome donation of £100 from Dr Mayo, and a temporary shelter was established where young women were given congenial employment prior to entering the Norwood refuge.
Generally, the ladies of this society followed the example of their sister workers in the old country, amongst whom were Florence Nightingale, Josephine Butler, Harriet Martineau and Ellice Hopkins and many other equally honoured names who have exercised the functions of a board of guardians over the moral interests of their own sex, who were too helpless, either from ignorance, poverty, vice or other adverse causes, to guard their own.
Unostentatiously, sedulously and humanely was this work pursued, 'prevention' being the watchword inscribed on all efforts of the society and it was encouraging that, largely owing to these efforts, The Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed giving to the women of South Australia a larger amount of legal protection than women enjoy in any other colony of Australia.
During the latter months of 1886, when a wave of commercial depression was passing over the colony, the attention of ladies committee was requested through the press to the fact that a number of young girls had taken to selling newspapers in the streets, remaining out at dangerously late hours, soliciting gentlemen purchasers, thus wearing away the natural safeguards of feminine propriety and delicacy and preparing for a sorrowful novitiate in degradation.
All sides of the situation were discussed in order to discover some method by which these poor children might assist their homes by a less perilous industry. It was then found that the current education system not only failed to prepare our girls for feminine domestic handicraft, but up to the age of thirteen actually interfered with their acquiring such domestic training as might render them useful wage-earners.
In this dilemma the committee appealed to the city council to take steps to save the children from moral risk by prohibition. The council, recognising the danger, prepared a Bill for an Act to amend The Municipal Corporations Act with a clause seeking power to deal with girls selling newspapers in the streets. Parliament subsequently 'ruled the Bill out of order'. Further agitation and appeals to public sentiment, with the slow return to more prosperous conditions, triumphed over the danger and the girls were withdrawn from this perilous trade.
In 1888 some action was taken to obtain an amendment to the law relating to the paternity of illegitimate children in accordance with a law then in force in England. In 1887 it was decided to establish a home of domestic instruction to be named in honour of Her Majesty's jubilee year 'The Queen's Home'. Owing to the period of depression that was upon us it was not until October 1888 that this project got under way.
"Juvenile Immorality" is in the Register,
29 and 30 May 1883, pages 4g and 4g,
"Immorality in the City" on
27 August 1883, page 5b.
"The Social Purity Petition" is in the Register,
15 August 1883, page 4f.
Some "houses of sin' were described as of "the filthiest description [and] 50 per cent worse than a black's wurlie". See Register, 27 August 1883, page 5b.
"The House of Assembly and Social Purity" is in the Observer,
13 October 1883, page 24e.
Of a brothel in Hindley Street the Register of 19 December 1883 at page 7b says:
-
[It] is open all night long and is kept by a notorious woman [who] has been
convicted for receiving stolen fowls[!!!]
"Vice in Adelaide and Suburbs" is in the Register,
11 June 1884, page 4e,
"The Darker Shades of City Life" on
14 June 1884, page 6b; also see Chronicle,
14 June 1884, page 5e.
Letters in respect of "The Social Evil" are in the Advertiser,
5, 11 and 14 July 1884, pages 7a, 6c and 6g:
-
We are despised by everyone, even our mothers and brothers, and are looked
upon by the public as no better than beasts of the field... Mention [has
been made] of young girls passing through the dance room to the brothel,
but in my case it was not so... [I] was reared in a Baptist family and always
attended church twice every Sunday... I know for a fact that there are gentlemen
who go with their families to church on Sunday nights, and who come direct
from there to our house...
Several letters concerning "The Social Evil" are in the Advertiser,
8 September 1884, page 7a.
-
[In the 1870s] some quarters of the city were rendered almost impassable even
in the day time in consequence of the shameless scenes that might be witnessed...
half-naked women... idled about in Currie Street...
(See Advertiser, 26 and 29 September 1884, pages 4g and 4d.)
A lecture on the "social evil" is reproduced in the Express,
18 August 1884, page 3d,
Observer,
1 November 1884, page 42b.
"The Protection of Young Females" is in the Observer,
27 September 1884, page 25a,
'Morality in Adelaide" in the Chronicle,
20 September 1884, page 5c,
"The Protection of Young Women" in the Register,
14 November 1884, page 4f:
-
So long as the business is conducted in an orderly manner, so it is implied,
the police have nothing to do with it. Yet let two or three of the inmates
of that same house walk down the street and attempt to practise the arts,
which their employer has taught them, and instantly arrest follows... The
law on the subject is a most glaring instance of legislation directed only
against the poor and unfortunate...
Under the heading "Dissolute Adelaide" the Register of 6 and 15 December 1884, pages 6d and 5g says, inter alia:
-
[I] have manoeuvered through all the haunts and dens of the city where the
dissipated loose livers of society gather for the purpose of displaying all
their animal propensities... Men and women are living amongst us who are
thoroughly debauched and are spreading a moral pestilence; children are to
be found in numbers imitating the vicious habits of the most degraded...
Some of the [hotels] I have described should be removed at once... They are spreading their immoral influences as from a centre and the only course open is to bring about good results by wiping them out.
His remarks raised a storm of protest from some quarters and praise from others
- see
17, 18, 19 and 23 December 1884, pages 7c, 7c, 6g and 7d.
These articles were written by Rev. A. Turnbull - see
8 January 1885, page 7f for a report of a lecture given by him in the Crusaders'
Hall.
The Editor of the Register on 15 December 1884 at page 4h pronounces, inter alia:
-
To attempt to "regulate" vice by giving it legislative sanction would be to
directly encourage baneful notions which strike at the root of social institutions.
So far from providing a "safety-valve" it would place a virtuous woman at a
disadvantage by discouraging marriage and substituting passion for affection...
The Register of 14 July 1885 at page 6g under the heading "The Waifs of the Street" says, inter alia:
-
Ostracised by society, abandoned by their destroyers, shunned by all but their
wretched companions in vice, their degradation was terrible and complete...
Today, legislators, moralists and philanthropists view with horror the march
of immorality... Optimists will tell us with a shrug that the selfish passions
of "dissolute man" cannot be checked... There is at present a Bill before
the Legislative Council for its object the better protection of young females,
but laws can only deal with public offences, and these are merely drops in
the stream of vice..
"Police and Prostitution" is in the Express,
22 April 1885, page 3f.
An editorial on prostitution is in the Advertiser,
27 July 1885, page 4d and
information on the formation of a "Rescue Committee" on
25 September 1885, page 4d,
Express,
15 September 1886, page 5e,
29 November 1892, page 3g; also see
31 October 1893, page 3g,
31 October 1894, page 2c,
30 November 1905, page 2c,
Register,
14 September 1886, page 6e,
14 October 1887, page 6h.
Information on a "Rescue Home" in Hurtle Square is in the Register,
18 June 1887, page 7b,
2 October 1889, page 3h.
"Social Sinners and Money Morality" is in the Express,
28 July 1885, page 2d.
A proposed rescue home for "fallen women" is reported upon in the Register,
4, 5, 11 and 25 September 1885, pages 4h-7a, 4g, 7g and 4h,
Express,
15 and 25 September 1885, pages 3c and 2d-3g,
12 October 1885, page 3c; also see
15 November 1901, page 4b,
Register,
28 December 1885, page 6e; also see
Express,
15 November 1901, page 4b.
The Editor of the Register on 17 November 1885 at page 4h says, inter alia:
-
We cannot shut our eyes to the fact that our streets are thronged by mere children,
girls who are living a life of gross immorality... The business of the procuress,
if it is not a flourishing one is yet pursued and the malign influence of
wretches who make it their trade to minister to the worst passions of the
worst men is felt to a most deplorable extent in the ruin of young girls...
"Vigilance Committee and Immorality" is in the Register,
6 June 1886, page 5f.
"A Charge of Procuring" is in the Register,
17 June 1886, page 3f,
6 August 1886, page 4g,
1 September 1886, page 4g,
Observer,
19 June 1886, page 35b.
"A Plea for the Fallen" is in the Register,
13 January 1887, page 7h.
A plea for funds by the Salvation Army to "rescue" young girls is in the Register,
15 April 1886, page 3e.
Information on a "Rescue Home" in Hurtle Square is in the Register,
18 June 1887, page 6b.
Information on the Adelaide Rescue Society is in the Register,
2 October 1888, page 7g,
28 November 1907, pages 3g-6f,
26 November 1909, page 7c,
30 November 1921, page 3h,
1 December 1922, page 4e,
28 November 1924, page 6d,
27 November 1925, page 11i,
26 November 1926, page 12e.
The Adelaide Rescue Society
(Taken from Geoffrey H Manning's A Colonial Experience< Chapter 118)
At a meeting of the South Australian Female Refuge Society on 20 August 1885 several charitable ladies formed themselves into a committee for the purpose of providing a temporary refuge in the heart of the city for the accommodation of such members of the fallen sisterhood as might be induced to leave their evil life.
In their opinion what was needed was a temporary shelter in which such unfortunates who desired it might obtain refuge and whence they might be conduced, on the day following their arrival, to one or other of the suburban institutions. The committee comprised: President, Mrs Colton; Financial Vice-president, Miss Green; Secretary, Mrs M. Goode; Honorary Secretary, Mrs Lee; Committee, Mesdames Beeby, Barr, Crooks, Fryer, Wenzel, Whiting, Griffiths, Misses Blair, C. Goode, Taylor and Frew, assisted by two or more gentlemen as a board of advice, one to act as Honorary Treasurer.
After earnest prayers for guidance it was arranged that the workers should go out by twos, wearing a badge of recognition comprising a white cross on scarlet background, leaving three ladies to prepare supper. They went into the streets, abodes of the fallen and hotels speaking words of kindness and warning and inviting all to return to return with them to the hall. Many accepted and after supper a Gospel service was held. The girls were much affected and promised reformation.
This procedure was carried out on a regular basis and, in October 1885, I was invited to accompany one of the workers and presently we found ourselves in the vicinity of a large public room filled with men and women, laughing. jesting, swearing and blaspheming. A hush fell upon the company as my companion stepped in and began personal conversation with the girls present, who received her with marked politeness.
After a chat with each one, six were persuaded to return with us to the Gospel service, while other workers wearing a white cross on the left shoulder came in accompanied by a number of girls. A hymn was sung. Then began a touching scene, the workers pleading with each, personally, to leave the wretched life, reminding them of a gentle mother's care and love over them; of their childhood days, when innocence and peace filled their young hearts, when degradation, sin and misery were strangers to them.
A few years roll by and they find themselves outcasts from society, drinking deeply of the intoxicating cup to drown the voice of conscience, and to enable them to go on in the path of vice until sickness and disease carry them to an early grave. I noticed many seemed touched and promised to lead a new life, one consenting to go anywhere with the ladies rather than return to such a dog's life, as she expressed it. She was taken to the home of one of the workers and then conveyed to the refuge. I learned this was the second who had been rescued in the midnight meetings. The refuge home was, at that time, a furnished house on North Terrace and under the management of a kind, sympathetic Christian matron.
During the first year of operations 56 girls passed through the home, 18 of whom went back to their old life, the remainder benefiting by the shelter and the kindness thus offered them. Six of these were sent back to their families; one, for whom money was collected to pay her passage, was sent back to her mother in Cape Town where, upon her arrival the notified her saviours in Adelaide of the gratitude of her mother and friends for saving her from a life of sin and misery.
Today, the society continues its work from its city refuge in Hurtle Square where it endeavours to help those girls who have fallen to regain their self-respect and, where applicable, to become faithful mothers to those children who have been brought into the world without a birthright, as it were.
Comment on a City Council by-law to suppress "houses of ill-fame" is in the Register,
18 May 1891, page 4g,
Observer,
23 May 1891, page 25e.
"Immorality in Adelaide" is discussed in the Register,
6 June 1892, page 5a while on
12 August 1897, page 6g a concerned citizen says:
-
To any one going through the streets after dusk... the sight of large numbers
of girls, from the age of thirteen upwards, showy in dress and loose in conduct,
presents a very grave aspect...
A report on an alleged procuress is in the Advertiser,
24 November 1893, page 7g.
"Clearing Out a Degraded House" is in the Register,
24 November 1893, page 7d,
Observer,
25 November 1893, page 30b.
"The Social Purity Laws" is in the Observer,
2 July 1898, page 28a.
A correspondent to the Register on 22 December 1903 at page 3f created a furore when he said:
-
I have been patiently waiting for some of our city ministers to call public
attention to this deplorable state of things. But, no. These sleek, well-groomed,
well-attired "Sons of Heaven" are dumb when it is a question of public concern.
[This] cowardly attitude... is intolerable... If our spiritual leaders...
are so severely fenced off from all contact with the poor, unfortunate woman
that seeks her livelihood upon the streets in lieu of being sweated to death
by perhaps some wealthy pillar and proprietor of the church, we are not all
so advantageously situated. Cannot our cultured and spotless divines exert
a little of their holy influence to stem the stream of prostitution that
runs through our favoured city like a mighty river.
Also see Register, 24, 29 and 31 December 1903, pages 6b, 6g and 7g:
-
The poor distrust the Church. Why? For ages past the rich man's gospel has
been preached thus to the less fortunate - "My brethren, remember if your
lot is hard you must strive to bear it patiently. Carry your cross and it
will be exchanged for a crown hereafter." And when the poor man reflects
that the Archbishop of Canterbury gets 13,000 pounds a year for carrying
his cross his bile is stirred... It goes without saying that, if people could
afford to be married, there would be less prostitution, but when great firms
pay only 2 and a half-pence for the making of a man's shirt - the seamstress
to find the cotton - and it is so easy to step aside from the path of virtue,
what is the sequence?
Also see Register, 1 January 1904, page 7g:
-
The root... of the social evil... is the evil in human nature that we call
sin; the remedy is the Divine love that saves from sin... In my opinion tens
of thousands are being kept on the paths of virtue and many are being restored
to them by the work of the churches
Also see Register, 4 January 1904, pages 6d-7g:
-
The work of reform... is mainly for the home (which should be made enticing
and attractive to the sons and daughters and not merely a place in which
to sleep and eat), for the churches and for the schools - with the press,
of course, assisting wherever practicable... And, withal, the essential point
is to build character - to strengthen the tree; not to fence it off from
every risk of contact with storms.
Also see Register,
5, 6, 9, 12 and 21 January 1904, pages 5h, 9i, 3i, 8f and 6h,
3 February 1904, page 3h,
25 February 1910, page 8g:
A writer in the Register in referring to prostitution says
-
"It is, as every man of sense knows, a necessary evil" and therefore wrong to
try to stop it... The increase in the numbers and the decrease of the inmates
of our rescue homes is due not to the praiseworthy efforts to mitigate the evils
of prostitution by legislative enactments, but to the lack of parental control...
The unrestricted circulation of immoral publications [and] the growing prevalence
of French ideas in regard to social purity, of French inventions and French practices,
by the employment of which the young of both sexes think they can do wrong, indulge
their appetites uncontrolled and yet escape the consequences.
Prostitution was, is, and always will be; it would be far better to have the vice under control than to put a plaster over the sore, roll up your eyes, and say it does not exist... If that were done, there would not be, in the future, be so many bleary-eyed, scrofulous children as we see now...
"The Regulation of Vice" is in the Advertiser,
22 January 1904, page 7h,
"Immorality in Adelaide" on
22 May 1905, page 9c.
"Social Evils in West Adelaide" is in the Express,
15 and 18 December 1905, pages 1f and 4f.
Letters on the "Social Evil" are in the Advertiser,
21 December 1905, page 11a:
-
To cure the evil and eradicate the nuisance it will be necessary to proceed
against those who make it possible for these people to carry on their nefarious
practice; that is, begin with the landlords of these filthy tenements - mere
rookeries in many instances - bringing in more money to their owners than
many costly villas.
"More Aids to Morality" is in the Register,
27 August 1907, page 4b.
Also see Register,
28 February 1910, page 9a,
2, 3 and 8 March 1910, pages 10d, 6g and 9d:
-
When a man, parson or judge... tells us that the curfew bell will stop immorality
- that is keep the young people at home and give them a sugar lump - will
settle this eternal question... they make me wonder, do such people really
not know any better? Have they never been young and full of the lust of life?
Also see Register,
11, 12, 15, 16, 19 and 23 March 1910, pages 3c, 7h, 10e, 9d, 11f and 8g,
Advertiser,
1 December 1910, page 10e:
-
One can walk through the main thoroughfares without being confronted with the
traffic in degradation formerly carried on. But that the traffic should exist
at all is what distresses and perplexes the moralist and the humanitarian.
While it is quite true that the community cannot be made moral by Act of
Parliament, at least we may see that the young of both sexes is not led astray
by Ignorance, which too often goes hand-in-hand with Vice.
"Immorality in the City" is in the Register
28 June 1913, page 14g,
2 July 1913, page 7g,
"Suppressing Immorality" in the Advertiser,
28 June 1913, page 18e.
An article by a medical practitioner, "The Social Evil - What Can be Done" is
in the Advertiser,
8 September 1913, page 19a; also see
24 September 1913, page 5a,
20 July 1914, page 14e.
"A Social Pestilence" is the subject of lengthy debate in the Register,
25 September 1913, page 9f,
1, 4, 8, 9, 14, 17 and 31 October 1913, pages 15f, 7h, 7f, 9f, 8d, 3g and 3i:
-
Through the authorities neglecting to afford innocent means of passing their
Sunday evenings, hundreds of young people of both sexes have no alternative
but to frequent either the streets or the secluded parts of the park lands
and along the Torrens... I may safely describe some of the latter places...
as open air brothels.
"Social Evils" is in the Express,
11 and 23 September 1913, pages 4i and 4b.
"Certain Social Evils" is in the Register,
15 and 16 February 1915, pages 6b and 6c.
"The Social Evil" is in the Advertiser,
21 July 1915, pages 8d-12h,
"Little Hells - Young Girls Led Astray" on
18, 19, 21, 24 and 26 August 1915, pages 8h, 10d, 15a, 5e and 10h,
"Keepers of Immoral Houses" on
19 February 1917, page 9a; also see
Express,
24 September 1915, page 4i,
14 October 1915, page 5a.
"White Slave Traffic - A Warning" is in the Register,
10 February 1917, page 10g.
"Why Girls Fall" is in the Register,
26 November 1920, page 7c.
Under the heading " A Mother's Sin" a correspondent to the Advertiser,
18 April 1921, page 5f says:
-
A mother, deserted by her husband and unable to find work, went "on the streets" and "sold
her soul" for the sake of her three children. A Christian Police Court... rewarded
her with 21 days imprisonment and took her babes from her... Why bother a heart
and torture a mind... Is there no room for mercy?...
(Also see Advertiser,
29 April 1921, page 7e,
10 May 1921, page 9e.)
"State Regulation of Vice" is in the Advertiser,
1 March 1932, page 12d,
"Cold Shoulder to Fallen Girls" on
25 and 27 June 1932, pages 19b and 15h.
