Note 31 — Chapter VI

At the Annual Conference of the Federation held last year (1882) at Neuchâtel, an old and respected citizen of Geneva spoke as follows of the institution of legalised vice in Geneva:—

“Even under the rule of the most honest and estimable of men, M. Cuenod, these evils go on, with all the horrible consequences which are involved in the principles of legalized prostitution. Let me tell you a fact which will show the truth of my assertions. M. Camperio, head of the Department of Justice and Police, promised our Committee to frame a Regulation expressly stipulating that every girl was free to leave a Maison Tolerée at any time. This Regulation was printed, and a copy given to each keeper, with an order to placard it up in his establishment. A fortnight after, a member of our Committee obtained permission from M. Camperio to go into some of the houses with a Police agent, in order to see with his own eyes that the order had been carried out. He went into fourteen of them: not a single one of them had executed the order of the Department of Police. I am wrong! one of the keepers had placarded the new Regulation on the wall behind a picture, by which it was completely hidden!

“During this month a Prussian woman wrote to me begging me to get her daughter out of one of these houses. This was at last contrived. That young girl said that she had frequently attempted to get out, but the door was always fastened by a solid padlock. Another girl had succeeded in escaping, by taking the impression of the lock with orange peel, and thus getting a false key made through the help of a visitor at the house. I have the conviction that a thorough search would discover terrible things in Geneva precisely similar to those discovered in Brussels.

“Let me speak to you now of a thing which has deeply wounded my heart as a Swiss citizen. Recently a fête took place at Geneva on the occasion of a musical contest which attracted a vast number of persons, foreigners, as well as Swiss, to our town. The town was illuminated and decorated with flags. Know you, ladies and gentlemen, what houses were decorated with the greatest taste and expense? which were the most splendidly illuminated, so splendidly as to eclipse all the others? They were two Maisons de Tolérance. Yes, throughout all those days of festival we beheld floating from the windows of these dens of infamy our Federal flag, the flags of our Cantons, the flags of Vaud, Geneva, your flag of Neuchâtel, these emblems of our Fatherland. The grand word Libertas streamed along the front of these houses, attracting the eyes of all passers by. I will suppose you indifferent to the sufferings of the victims of vice; I will even suppose you guilty of vice yourselves, but no citizen should endure such things: You are Swiss citizens: respect the honour of your national flag!”

At the period of which I am writing, M. Héridier fills the post of Minister of Justice and Police, and consequently administers the system of legalised vice in Geneva. M. Cuenod, assisted, perhaps, by M. Camperio had endeavoured to introduce some alleviations (as indicated above) of the sufferings of the girls immured in these houses. M. Héridier, on the contrary, is responsible, for having taken a step backward; and, as Professor Hornung, a well-known jurist of Geneva, has said, has placed the matter in worse position than before. Is it to be wondered at that M. Héridier, with the consciousness of having thereby increased the darkness of the dark lot of these slaves, should have constantly avoided the sight of our girl evangelists, sitting “behind a curtain” when they were questioned. Those eyes directed to his would alone have said, without the aid of words, “Thou art the man.”