206
STEVEN MARCUS
the prostitute. Still worse, he shows that "by far the larger number of
women who have resorted to prostitution for a livelihood, .return sooner
or later to a more or less regular course of life." The major part of
London's army of whores were, in other-words, transients, and Acton
asserts that "prostitution is a transitory state, through which an untold
number of British women are ever on their passage." Their re-entrance
into decency took place in a variety of ways: -from finding work of
some other kind, to opening small shops or lodging-houses, to emigra–
tion, and to marriage. This last route of escape seems to have been
increasingly in use, and Acton calls attention to the frequency with
which "the better inclined class of prostitutes become the wedded
wives of men in every grade of society, from the peerage to the
stable"; in addition, "as they are frequently barren, or have but a
few children, there
is
reason to believe they often live in ease unknown
to many women who have never strayed, and on whose unvitiated
organization matrimony has entailed the burden of families." It
stands to Acton's credit that having said
this
he goes on to assert that
it
is
both the social duty and the social interest of the nation "to see
these women through that state, so as to save harmless as much
as may be of the bodies and souls of them." And all his recommenda–
tions for the treatment of prostitutes are in the direction of humanizing
and rehabilitating them-though he is perfectly aware of how im–
perfect a success such efforts have achieved.
As
for those religious
persons who opposed preventive and sanitary measures on the grounds
that syphilis was "the penalty for sin," and that therefore syphilis
should go unchecked and uncured because the chance of contracting
it "is the strongest means of deterring men from being unchaste,"
he dismisses them with something less than the contempt they
deserved, arguing instead-and characteristically-that like other
deterrents before and since it didn't finally deter, which is true enough.
Acton
is
a rather gifted social observer. He notes, for example,
that the world of prostitution is a "microcosm" of society at large, and
that, chastity aside, it "exhibits, like its archetype .. . all the virtues
and good qualities, as well as all the vices, weaknesses, and follies."
Prostitutes, he remarks, "maintain their notions of caste and quality
with all the pertinacity of their betters. The greatest amount of income
procurable with the least amount of exertion, is with them, as with
society, the grand gauge of position." There is a nice edge to that
