The Underworld Sewer: A Prostitute Reflects on Life in the Trade, 1871-1909

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U of Nebraska Press, Jan 1, 1997 - Social Science - 342 pages
For twenty years Josie Washburn lived and worked in houses of prostitution. She spent the last twelve as the madam of a moderately fancy brothel in Lincoln, Nebraska. After retiring in 1907 and moving to Omaha, she turned to "throwing a searchlight on the underworld, " including the "cribs" of Nebraska's largest city. The Underworld Sewer, based on her own experience in the profession, blazes with a kind of honesty unavailable to more conventional moral reformers. Originally published in 1909, The Underworld Sewer asks why "the social evil" is universally considered necessary or inevitable. Washburn minces no words in exposing the conditions that perpetuate prostitution: the greed and graft of landlords, pimps, alcohol vendors, dope dealers, police officers, city administrators, and politicians; the competition for circulation by sensation-seeking newspapers; the indifference or intolerance of law-abiding, church-going citizens; the false modesty that prevents family discussion of venereal disease; the double standard that allows men to indulge their sexuality but punishes women who do so. This knowing social history and commentary on human nature is transfixing. Through her strong words, Josie Washburn, a shrewd businesswoman, was determined to end the social evil by giving a voice to its victims-mainly the women who sold their bodies and who had reason to hate the buyers. Sharon Wood is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago.

From inside the book

Contents

IS IT NECESSARY
14
THE HOLDUP
22
THE MAN LANDLADY
42
HISTORY OF THE ONEYEAR WAR
53
MAN THE AGGRESSOR
97
OUR SOCIETY
105
A CAUSE
115
BETRAYAL
128
ONE NIGHT
188
FAIRY AND VICTIM
204
THE RICH DAUGHTER
216
THE UNWRITTEN LAW
224
PARENTS
235
REFORM SCHOOLS
244
CLUB WOMEN
247
PLAIN TALKS No 1 No 2 No 3 No 4
252

ABANDONED WIFE
136
THE VAMPIRE
142
THE ASSIGNATION HOUSE
151
THE DEPTH
158
THE FIRst Drink and tHE SALOON
165
MADAM
176
NATURE
268
THE CLERGY
271
REFORM AND REFORMER
287
DISEASES
303
THE INSTITUTION 316
Copyright

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About the author (1997)

Sharon Wood is an assistant professor of history at the University of Chicago.

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