Volume 6

Lord Arthur Cleveland’s Advice for Extreme Tastes

The Immoral Traffic of Girls Abroad – Prostitutes and Their Types – The Dangers of Prostitution – Sappho and her Followers – Sodomites – The Cleveland Street Scandal – Boarding School Boys – A Breach of Promise – Brothels – The English Vice

I am a man of the world and make no apologies for having lived as one. I have never married and have therefore seen fit to indulge my passionate nature free of the fetters of marital duty. This is merely a record of my experiences, to be drawn on by those who seek guidance in such matters.

The Immoral Traffic of Girls Abroad: -

I have for some time past kept company at the house of Madam D’Alma, at 67 Newman Street, Marylebone, London. She was a most competent companion, although she has recently had to return to her native Paris due to certain difficulties created by her occupation. I thought little of her absence until hearing of the immoral traffic in young girls which has so preoccupied those investigative men and police of the city.

Imagine my surprise to find reports in the press that Mr. Albert, an agent of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children – which resides in Duke Street, St James, and of which Lord Rayham is president – had made an application to the Marlborough Street Police Court. The society had gone to great lengths to collect evidence to prove that young girls between the ages of 13 and 15 were regularly brought over from Belgium to London. The details of the particulars of these cases exposed an immoral traffic in young foreign women and stated that some of the girls were detained in the house of ill-fame against their will, then obliged to give themselves up to a life of prostitution!

Imagine my surprise at such shocking revelations! The reporting of young girls being brought over from Belgium, some under the pretence of being provided with situations, others without the knowledge and consent of their parents, and all compelled to enter upon a course of prostitution, is one seen in the pages of those unsuitable novels that young women are so prone to reading and which can lead only to the inducement of a hysterical fit. Clearly outraged, I read on. On arrival, the girls were supplied with clothes, jewellery and board, all at the houses’ expense. Yet no matter how large the profits of their unhappy life, they were always said to be in debt. They were frequently beaten, confined to the house and ill-used in any manner of ways.

I thought of the time I had spent at Madam D’Alma’s, then run by two charming French women – Clarissa Dorval, also known to many as Maria Cusho, and Athalie Vevey. I recalled them facing a somewhat similar investigation in 1870, being charged with keeping a common brothel – of little surprise to those in the locality as it had been operating as such for the previous ten years. They too kept a ready supply of Belgian women in work. Madam D’Alma’s was set over four floors, three rooms on each, which were equipped with a bed alongside which had been fixed some looking glass lit with a gas chandelier. There was one sitting room, which upon entering I had found to hold nine immoral women, all most extravagantly dressed. The sitting room itself had a sofa, a couch and 14 chairs, and on the walls were nine looking glasses, also lit by gas chandeliers. Artificial flowers gave the most delightful dash of colour and were dotted around the room in a tasteful manner.

I believe when not entertaining gentlemen, the girls slept in rooms at the back of the house of a less opulent design, but I never ventured towards that portion. I had paid my gold sovereign on entering the house and would pay a further sovereign for the company of any lady I chose. This was a most agreeable way to spend my time. What came of the investigation I do not recall, but I found instead my interest drawn to another case, much like the first, but this time reporting the distressing news that English girls were also being subjected to similar entrapments. Some girls, having taken positions with seemingly respectable men, were drugged and exported.