# The Girl That Disappears/Chapter 18

XVIII
SUPPORTING CITIES BY LEVYING TRIBUTE ON FALLEN WOMEN
ABOVE all, they have no such criminal system that exists in New York City and in almost every city and town in the country of exacting tribute from these unfortunate women. I refer to that variety of hold-up known as the fining system. Go into the night court in New York City, into the police courts of any other city, and see the system work. The women are arrested on the streets, or in the houses, loaded in patrol wagons and brought to the police station. If it is in New York they are taken to Jefferson Market court, in which the night court holds its session. Brought before the judge the painted travesty of womanhood is put through the farce ​of a trial lasting from two minutes to ten minutes. The policeman swears that he saw her ply her trade. She denies it. No one except the policeman appears in the matter. If the magistrate is one of the "easy" ones he gives perhaps two-thirds of the women the benefit of a doubt and discharges them. It is perfectly plain that they belong to the class, but unless the policeman has a pretty strong story to tell the woman gets off. Others less fortunate walk over to the clerk's desk, pay a fine and walk out.
Thus the farce goes on, and thus does the city share in the wages of women's shame. In some cities the schools are partially supported, the libraries and public parks are kept up on the proceeds of a trade so hideous that the good people who send their children to school and who patronize the libraries and parks will not permit mention of it. In order that the schools may be maintained and the children of the city receive an ​education, it is regarded as necessary that these raids and fines be made with systematic regularity. Can any good and respectable citizen explain the difference between regular and systematic fining and the license system?
It is true that if the fining system were given up a large masculine population would suffer severe financial loss. The fining system is the most prolific source of police graft in existence. Magistrates, be it known, are of two varieties, hard and easy. The police know, and the women know, that a hard magistrate is sitting, and the women are willing to pay a pretty heavy graft in order to avoid arrest. I firmly believe that fully eighty-five per cent. of the police of New York City are honest men, but the honest policeman, like other honest men, are more or less quiescent. The fifteen per cent. who are grafters, are active. They arc always on the alert. The grafters are men powerful in politics and they are able to do a terrific amount ​of hold-up work among the unclassed. It is always easier and cheaper for the woman to pay bribe money than to go to court. So she, or her protector, sound out a new man on a beat or a new captain in a station. They may send him presents at first. If he shows a disposition to treat with them, they pay always in advance.
In point of numbers, much larger than grafting policemen, is another masculine population which flourishes under the fining system. The night court in New York was established for the definite purpose of abolishing these men, and it has been partially successful. In other cities, however, the tribe flourishes. I am speaking of the professional bondsman necessary to a woman to whom arrest means detention over night and a loss of a night's earnings. The system as it used to operate in New York, and still operates in some cities, is for each one to employ a "trailer," an individual who hires himself out ​to follow the unfortunate woman, and in case of her arrest to report by telephone to one of the professional bondsmen, often a saloon keeper, or the owner of property used for immoral purposes. Promptly he appears and gives bail for the woman's appearance the next day in court. For this service he receives $5 or more from the woman, who is then able to go forth and earn the money which she must pay next morning in court.