TABOO AND GENETICS 189 



or sold them out. Many authorities agree on the 

 frigidity of the prostitute. It is her protection 

 from physical and emotional exhaustion. This 

 becomes evident when it is learned that these 

 women will receive thirty men a day, sometimes 

 more. A certain original lack of sensitiveness 

 may be assumed, especially since the investi- 

 gations of prostitutes have shown a large pro- 

 portion, perhaps one-third, who are mentally 

 inferior. It is an interesting fact that those who 

 are sensitive to their social isolation defend 

 themselves by dwelhng on their social necessity. 

 Either intuitively or by a trade tradition, the 

 prostitute feels that *' she remains, while creeds 

 and civilizations rise and fall, blasted for the 

 sins of the people." A beautiful young prosti- 

 tute who had been expelled from a high grade 

 house after the exposures of the Lexow Investi- 

 gation, once said to the writer : " It would never 

 do for good women to know what beasts men 

 are. We girls have got to pay." 



The lady, dwelling on her pedestal of 

 isolation, from which she commands the venera- 

 tion of the chivalrous gentleman and the 

 adoration of the poet, is the product of a leisure 

 assured by property. At the end of the social 

 scale is the girl who wants to be a lady, who 

 doesn't want to work, and who, Uke the lady, 

 has nothing to sell but herself. The life of the 

 prostitute is the nearest approach for the poor 



