Prostitution, considered in its moral, social, & sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities with proposals for the mitigation and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton.
- William Acton
- Date:
- 1862
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Prostitution, considered in its moral, social, & sanitary aspects, in London and other large cities with proposals for the mitigation and prevention of its attendant evils / by William Acton. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![about 4s. a .week, but we must work till nine or ten o’clock every night for that. We never make more than 4s., and very often less. If you go of an errand, or want a bit of bread, you lose time ; and sometimes the work comes out harder—it’s more stubborn, and takes more time. I’ve known it like a bit of board. I make, I should say, taking one week with another, about 3s. 4d. a week. The sweater finds us our lodging; but we has to find our candles out of what we make, and they cost us about 1 cl. each evening, or, I should say, 5d. a week. I earn clear just upon 3s.; that’s about it. I find it very hard indeed to live upon that. If we fall ill we’re turned off. The sweater won’t keep us with her not the second day. I have been married. My husband has been dead seven year. I wish he wasn’t. I have no children alive. I have buried three. I had two children alive when my husband died. The youngest was five and the other was seven. My husband was a soap-maker. He got H. a week. I worked at the slop trade while he was alive. Our weekly earnings—his and mine together—was about 26s. The slop trade was better paid then than now, and what’s more, I had the work on my own account. I was very happy and comfortable while he lived.’ [Here the woman burst out crying, and wiped her eyes with the corner of her old rusty shawl.] ‘ I was always true to him while he was alive, so help me God ! After his death I was penniless, with two young children. The only means I had of keeping myself and little ones was by the slop work; and that brought me in about 5 s. 6d. a week first hand. That was to keep me and my two boys. When my eldest boy died—and that was two year after his father—I couldn’t afford to bury him. My sister paid for the funeral. I was very thankful to the Almighty when he took him from me, for I had not sufficient to feed him. He died of scarlatina. My second boy has only been dead five months. He died of the hooping-cough. I loved him as I did my life; but I was glad he was taken from me, for I know lie’s better now than I could have done for him. He could but have been brought up in the worst kind of poverty by me, and God only knows what might have become of him if he had lived. My security died five year ago, and then the house that I had been used to work for refused to give me any more, so I was obligated to work for a sweater, and I have done so ever since. This was a heavy blow to me. I was getting about 5s. Qd. a week before then. The trousers was better paid for at that time besides, and when I was obligated to work second-handed I couldn’t get more than 4s. One of my boys was alive at this time, and we really could not live upon the money. I applied to the parish, and they wanted me to go into the house; but I knew if I did so, they’d take my boy from me, and I’d suffer anything fii-st. At times I was so badly off, me and my boy, that I was forced to i esort to prostitution to keep us from starving. It was not until after my security died that T did this. Before that we could just live by my labour, but afterwards it was impossible for me to et food and clothing for myself and child out of 4s. a week, which was all I could earn, so I was obligated to get a little more money in a way that I blush to mention to you. Up to the time of the death of my security, I can swear, before God, I was an honest woman; and had the price I was paid for my labour been such that I could get a living by it, I would never have resorted to the streets for money. I am sorry to say there is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24764437_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
