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And
AUSTRALIA. 65
Handsome ones are sought to fascinate young men. It is
the old story of Eve and the apple. Women not only "bet"
at the races, but some are bitten with the mania of gambling.
The most eloquent of the Melbourne clergymen
lectures on '• Christmas carols," wears diamonds, sings comic
songs, and " tips the glass fashionably."
Prosperous sinners
are petted, poor ones pitched into purgatory. The serpents
of the press shake their rattles at all reformers. But to
published facts. The following telling paragraph was clipped
from "The Melbourne Age." The author expresses himself:—
" Gratified that a correspondent has called attention to the state of
immorality existing among the upper class of society, among which I
think we may count a greater number of hoary-headed old libertines, for
•
our population, than any other commimity in the world. what else
can be expected, when.we find that among the legal, the medical, ay,
and the reverend professions, among our legislators, our magistrates, and
our highest civil servants, are to be found the men who foster these nurseries
of vice into which innocent girls are decoyed, and damned body
and soul together? ^Vliat else can we expect, when we know that among
these libertines
are married men who have marriageable daughters of
their own, to their infinite shame and disgrace be it said? "\\Tiat else
can we expect, when we know that numbers of the higher officers of
the police frequent these dens, not to . keep them in check, but to
indulge in the vilest profligacy and vice ? It is well known that there
are what are called ' respectable ' brothels, that the common constables,
and the inferior officers of police, are not allowed to interfere with ;
that, when any ' distinguished ' visitors of an airy turn of mind come
to INIelbourne, they are introduced to one or other of these places and
the occupants by a gentleman in Melbourne holding a very high position
in the government service, and who acts in all such cases as the procuror
(!) for the procuresses."
Over four thousand " outcast women," known to the police
as such, parade the streets after nightfall ; while as many
more amateurs remain in their dens, awaiting the calls of
the carnally-minded. These classes walk in the most prominent
thoroughfares, and lounge upon rustic seats in parks
and gardens in evening-time. The colonial cities of Aus-