The Arcades Project - Operi

elsewhere, the investigations of the police turn up many more girls engaged in illicit
prostitution than during all the rest of the year. I have often inquired into the
causes of these periodic surges of dehauchery, hut there isn't anyone-even in the
administration-who (an answer this question. I have to rely on my own ohserva­
tions here, and, after much perseverance, I have finally succeeded in discovering
the true principle of this increase in prostitution ... at ... certain times of the
year . . . . With the approach of New Year's Day, of the Feast of Kings, and the
festivals of the Virgin, ... girls like to give and receive presents or to offer beautiful
bouquets; they also want a new dress for themselves, or a hat in the newest
fashion, and, lacking the necessary pecuniary means, . .. they turn for some days
to prostitution to acquire such means . . . . Here, then, are the motives for the
recrudescence in acts of debauchery at certain intervals and during certain holidays."
F. F. A. Beraud, Les Filles publiques de Paris et la police qui les regit (Paris
and Leipzig, 1839), vol. 1, pp. 252-254. [06,2]
Against the medical examination at police headquarters: "Every woman seen
walking along the Rue de Jerusalem, either to or from the police station there, is
immediately stigmatized with the namefille publique . ... It is a regular scandal.
On the days set aside for visits, one always fmds the approaches to the station
overrun by a large numher of men awaiting the appearance of these unhappy
creatures, knowing, as t.hey do, that thosc who leave hy the dispensary have been
deemed healthy." F. F. A. Beraud, Les Filles publiques de Pm-is, vol. 1, pp. 189-
190. [06,3]
The lorettes preferred the neighborhood around Notre Dame de Lorette because it
was new, and hecause, as the first occupants of the recently constructed huildings ,
they paid lower rents. [06,4]
"If it is a different sort of allure that. you seek, go to the Tuileries, to the Palais­
Royal, or to the Boulevard des Italiens. There you will see more than one urhan
siren seated on a chair, her feet resting on another chair, while beside her a third
chair lies vacant. It is a magnet for the ladies' man . ... The milliners' shops ...
likewise offer a multitude of resources for enthusiasts. There you dicker over
hats-pink, green, yellow, lilac, or plaid. You agree on a price; you give your
address; and next day, at the appointed hour, you see arrive at your place not only
the hat but the girl who was positioned hehind it, and who was crimping, with
delicate fingers, the gauze, the ril)hon, or some other frill so pleasing to the ladies."
F. F. A. Beraud, Les Filles pnbliques de Paris; Precedees d'une notice historique
sur la prostitution chez les divers peuples de la terre, hy M.A.M., vol. 1,
Pl'. cii-civ (Preface). [06a,l]
""That the numher ofjilles publiques at first seems very great is mving to a sort of
phantasmagoria produced by the comings and goings of these women along a routine
cit·cuit l which has the effect of multiplying them to infinity . ... Adding to this
illusion is the fact that, on a single evening, the jille publique very often sports
multiple disguises. \Vit.h an eye just the least hit practiced, it is easy t.o convince