THE yUKES. 25 



case 6, line 30, who became a reputable wife in spite of her heredity 

 and of her environment by simply being married at 15 years of age, 

 the question presents itself whether early marriage among the class we 

 are studying, is not the spontaneous and, therefore, most efficient 

 means of reducing the crop of criminals and paupers. 



Harlotry^ compared to Pauperism and Crime. — As respects pau- 

 perism : I St. Of males receiving out-door relief there are over 20 

 per cent, of females a little under 13 per cent ; receiving alms-house 

 rehef, males nearly 13 per cent, females 93;^ per cent ; thus there is 

 a preponderance of males helped by charity (see table VI.). 2d. 

 The charts show that in the majority of cases the women receiving 

 out-door relief, being married, merely follow the condition of their 

 husbands. 3d. Where the women are single a large proportion 

 of them get assistance during the child-bearing period, and only 

 then. 4th. A number who have become widows have ceased to 

 get relief and simultaneously taken to prostitution Thus, although 

 the rate of wages of women is much below that of men, the application 

 for charity is much less frequent. On examination it will be seen 

 that, in families where the brothers are receiving relief and the sisters 

 are not married, those sisters are many of them prostitutes. 



As to crime (see table IX.), we find that while there are 34 male 

 offenders, many of them committing very high crimes, there are 

 only 16 females, and they committed misdemeanors in all cases but 

 one. But on the other hand, if you look at the families in which 

 crime is found, there, where the brothers commit crime, the sisters 

 adopt prostitution, the fines and imprisonment of the women being 

 not for violations of the rights of property, but mainly for offenses 

 against public decency. The explanation is, perhaps, that the ten- 

 dency of human beings is to obtain their living in the direction of 

 least resistance according to their own views as to what that direc- 

 tion is, and as that direction for men of this class seems to them to 

 be either in pauperism or in crime, the brothers enter these vocations. 

 The sisters finding in prostitution a more lucrative career than 

 pauperism, and a more safe and easy one than crime, thus avoid 

 both in a measurable degree. Taking the illegitimate branch of 

 Ada where the prostitution is 29 times greater than in the general 

 community, we also find that crime among the men is 30 times 



