194:"I engaged her to be my little maid at the lodgings where I was staying. The very next day I took her off with me to London and her mother never saw her again. What became of her? A gentleman paid me £13 for the first of her, soon after she came to town. She was asleep when he did it–sound asleep. To tell the truth, she was drugged. It is often done. I gave her a drowse. It is a mixture of laudanum and something else. Sometimes chloroform is used, but I always used either snuff or laudanum. We call it drowse or black draught, and they lie almost as if dead, and the girl never knows what has happened till morning. And then? Oh! then she cries a great deal from pain, but she is 'mazed, and hardly knows what has happened except that she can hardly move from pain. Of course we tell her it is all right; all girls have to go through it some time, that she is through it now without knowing it, and that it is no use crying. It will never be undone for all the crying in the world. She must now do as the others do. She can live like a lady, do as she pleases, have the best of all that is going, and enjoy herself all day. If she objects, I scold her and tell her she has lost her character, no one will take her in; I will have to turn her out on the streets as a bad and ungrateful girl. The result is that in nine cases out of ten, or ninety-nine out of a hundred, the child, who is usually under fifteen, frightened and friendless, her head aching with the effect of the drowse and full of pain and horror, gives up all hope, and in a week she is one of the attractions of the house."
202:"Maids, as you call them – fresh girls as we know them in the trade – are constantly in request, and a keeper who knows his business has his eyes open in all directions, his stock of girls is constantly getting used up, and needs replenishing, and he has to be on the alert for likely "marks" to keep up the reputation of his house. I have been in my time a good deal about the country on these errands. The getting of fresh girls takes time, but it is simple and easy enough when, once you are in it. I have gone and courted girls in the country under all kinds of disguises, occasionally assuming the dress of a parson, and made them believe that I intended to marry them, and so got them in my power to please a good customer. How is it done? Why, after courting my girl for a time, I propose to bring her to London to see the sights. I bring her up, take her here and there, giving her plenty to eat and drink–especially drink. I take her to the theatre, and then I contrive it so that she loses her last train. By this time she is very tired, a little dazed with the drink and excitement, and very frightened at being left in town with no friends..."
207:"I offer her nice lodgings for the night: she goes to bed in my house, and then the affair is managed. My client gets his maid, I get my £10 or £20 commission, and in the morning the girl, who has lost her character, and dare not go home, in all probability will do as the others do, and become one of my "marks"–that is, she will make her living in the streets, to the advantage of my house. The brothel keeper's profit is, first, the commission down for the price of a maid, and secondly, the continuous profit of the addition of a newly seduced, attractive girl to his establishment. That is a fair sample case of the way in which we recruit. Another very simple mode of supplying maids is by breeding them. Many women who are on the streets have female children. They are worth keeping. When they get to be twelve or thirteen they become merchantable. For a very likely "mark" of this kind you may get as much as £20 or £40..."
168:"But," I continued, "are these maids willing or unwilling parties to the transaction–that is, are they really maiden, not merely in being each a virgo intacta in the physical sense, but as being chaste girls who are not consenting parties to their seduction?" He looked surprised at my question, and then replied emphatically: "Of course they are rarely willing, and as a rule they do not know what they are coming for." "But," I said in amazement, "then do you mean to tell me that in very truth actual rapes, in the legal sense of the word, are constantly being perpetrated in London on unwilling virgins, purveyed and procured to rich men at so much a head by keepers of brothels?" "Certainly," said he, "there is not a doubt of it." "Why," I exclaimed, "the very thought is enough to raise hell." "It is true," he said; "and although it ought to raise hell, it does not even raise the neighbours."
173:"But do the girls cry out?" "Of course they do. But what avails screaming in a quiet bedroom? Remember, the utmost limit of howling or excessively violent screaming, such as a man or woman would make if actual murder was being attempted, is only two minutes, and the limit of screaming of any kind is only five... But suppose the screams continue and you get uneasy, you begin to think whether you should not do something? Before you have made up your mind and got dressed the screams cease, and you think you were a fool for your pains... Once a girl gets into such a house she is almost helpless, and may be ravished with comparative safety".
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The theme of "Maiden
Tribute" was child prostitution, the abduction, procurement and sale of young English virgins to Continental "pleasure palaces". Stead took his readers to the labyrinthine streets of London (intentionally recalling the Greek myth) to its darker side, exposing the flesh trade
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Stead commented that "Children of twelve and thirteen cannot offer any serious resistance. They only dimly comprehend what it all means. Their mothers sometimes consent to their seduction for the sake of the price paid by their seducer. The child goes to the introducing house as a sheep to the
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Stead was particularly prominent in this, using his imprisonment as a campaigning weapon to have the issues raised by the 'Maiden
Tribute' story aired in public meetings up and down the country and to bring well-known figures to contribute to the debate he had started. The editor in the most
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The first instalment took up six pages. Stead attacked vice with eye-catching subheadings: "The
Violation of Virgins", "The Confessions of a Brothel-Keeper", "How Girls Were Bought and Ruined". He argued that, while
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From its inception, one of the goals of the series was to influence public policy. W. T. Stead wrote that its object was "to pass a new law, and not to pillory individuals, there was no need to mention names."
252:" confirmed European observers' worst imaginings about "Le Sadisme anglais" and inspired erotic writers to write of similar scenes set in London or involving sadistic English gentlemen. Such writers include
245:) and Stead himself served three months in prison. Stead's reports were, according to Roland Pearsall, "using the weapons of pornography to right a wrong; it was the death knell of responsible journalism".
96:
was a matter of private morality and not a law enforcement issue, issues rife in London existed that did require legislative prohibition, listing five main areas where the law should intervene:
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Stead's account was widely translated and the revelation of "padded rooms for the purpose of stifling the cries of the tortured victims of lust and brutality" and the symbolic figure of "
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while exposing the corruption of those officials who not only turned a blind eye but also condoned such abuse. In particular, he drew a distinction between sexual
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Describing himself as an "investigator" rather than an "informer", Stead stated that he would disclose actual names and identifying details only to the two UK
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virgins could be procured, and being told it was so, asked whether such girls were willing and consensual, or aware of the intentions planned for them:
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The Maiden
Tribute of Modern Babylon: The Report of the Secret Commission. Edited, and with Annotations and an Introductory Essay by Antony E. Simpson
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shambles. Once there, she is compelled to go through with it. No matter how brutal the man may be, she cannot escape". A
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375:"W.T. Stead - "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon - I" - Full Text - The Pall Mall Gazette, July 6, 1885"
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The disclosure proper began in the July 6 publication, in which Stead reveals that he had asked if genuine
586:"The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: An incursion into Sexuality, Power and Law. Review of: Stead, W.T."
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confirmed the story for him, stating of one girl that she was rendered unconscious beforehand, and then
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Stead and several of his accomplices were later brought to trial as a result of the unlawful
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The Maiden
Tribute: A Study of the White Slave Traffic of the Nineteenth Century
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Young People and Sexual
Exploitation: 'It's Not Hidden, You Just Aren't Looking'
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active in criminal legislation or child protection, and a past director of the
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Stead quoted a former brothel-keeper who confirmed the nature of the trade:
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Sex
Trafficking, Scandal, and the Transformation of Journalism, 1885-1917
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who were responsible for the Bill's impending "extinction in the
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Inspector
Minahan Makes a Stand: The Missing Girls of England
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achieved, as a consequence, the implementation of the
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in July 1885. Written by the paper's crusading editor
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The Worm in the Bud: The World of
Victorian Sexuality
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Works originally published in The Pall Mall
Gazette
225:, also known as the 'Stead Act' or 'Stead's Act'.
100:"The sale and purchase and violation of children.
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595:. Lambertville, New Jersey: The True Bill Press.
473:Journalism in Britain: A Historical Introduction
27:1885 newspaper articles in the Pall Mall Gazette
221:The 'Tribute' series led to the passage of the
112:Atrocities, brutalities, and unnatural crimes."
766:Works about prostitution in the United Kingdom
608:"'The Minotaur', George Frederic Watts, 1985"
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643:Personal Reminiscences of a Great Crusade
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186:given the choice to continue or be
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584:Simpson, Antony E., ed. (2007).
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425:Some Observations in Europe
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241:methods they used (see the
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94:consensual adult behaviour
676:(Pall Mall Gazette, 1885)
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526:Pearsall, Roland (1969).
83:for girls from 13 to 16.
731:Investigative journalism
683:(Frederick Muller, 1959)
347:White slave trade affair
156:Contents of the articles
645:(Horace Marshall, 1896)
561:Oxford University Press
505:Stead, William (1908).
315:to create the painting
761:Works about hebephilia
250:The Minotaur of London
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736:History of journalism
512:The Review of Reviews
445:. Chicago, Illinois:
422:Bell, Ernest (1912).
394:. Abingdon, England:
313:George Frederic Watts
291:The title evokes the
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563:. pp. 443–451.
555:Praz, Mario (1970).
277:Jardin des Supplices
243:Eliza Armstrong case
37:William Thomas Stead
648:Bridget O'Donnell,
559:. Oxford, England:
530:. London, England:
507:"W. Randolf Hearst"
254:Gabriele D'Annunzio
79:, which raised the
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672:William T. Stead,
667:The Age of Consent
557:The Romantic Agony
286:Monsieur de Phocas
48:child prostitution
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121:and sexual
58:W. T. Stead
710:Categories
353:References
303:about the
293:Greek myth
259:Il Piacere
217:Background
184:coercively
127:Parliament
119:immorality
69:journalism
396:Routledge
321:in 1885.
311:inspired
233:Aftermath
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305:Minotaur
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