Studies in the Psychology of Sex Volume Ii Part 28

One evening, near c.u.mberland, Pennsylvania, I was an unwilling witness of one of the worst scenes that can be imagined. In company with eight hoboes, I was in a freight-car attached to a slowly moving train. A colored boy succeeded in scrambling into the car, and when the train was well under way again he was tripped up and "seduced" (to use the hobo euphemism) by each of the tramps. He made almost no resistance, and joked and laughed about the business as if he had expected it. This, indeed, I find to be the general feeling among the boys when they have been thoroughly initiated. At first they do not submit, and are inclined to run away or fight, but the men fondle and pet them, and after awhile they do not seem to care. Some of them have told me that they get as much pleasure out of the affair as the jocker does. Even little fellows under 10 have told me this, and I have known them to willfully tempt their jockers to intercourse. What the pleasure consists in I cannot say. The youngsters themselves describe it as a delightful tickling sensation in the parts involved, and this is possibly all that it amounts to among the smallest lads. Those who have pa.s.sed the age of p.u.b.erty seem to be satisfied in pretty much the same way that the men are. Among the men the practice is decidedly one of pa.s.sion. The majority of them prefer a prushun to a woman, and nothing is more severely judged than rape. One often reads in the newspapers that a woman has been a.s.saulted by a tramp, but the perverted tramp is never the guilty party.

I believe, however, that there are a few hoboes who have taken to boys because women are so scarce "on the road." For every woman in hoboland there are a hundred men. That this disproportion has something to do with the popularity of boys is made clear by the following case: In a gaol, where I was confined for a month during my life in vagabondage, I got acquainted with a tramp who had the reputation of being a "sod" (sodomist). One day a woman came to the gaol to see her husband, who was awaiting trial. One of the prisoners said he had known her before she was married and had lived with her. The tramp was soon to be discharged, and he inquired where the woman lived. On learning that she was still approachable, he looked her up immediately after his release, and succeeded in staying with her for nearly a month. He told me later that he enjoyed his life with her much more than his intercourse with boys. I asked him why he went with boys at all, and he replied: "'Cause there ain't women enough. If I can't get them I've got to have the other."

It is in gaols that one sees the worst side of this perversion. In the daytime the prisoners are let out into a long hall, and can do much as they please; at night they are shut up, two and even four in a cell. If there are any boys in the crowd, they are made use of by all who care to have them. If they refuse to submit, they are gagged and held down. The sheriff seldom knows what goes on, and for the boys to say anything to him would be suicidal. There is a criminal ignorance all over the States concerning the life of these gaols, and things go on that would be impossible in any well-regulated prison. In one of these places I once witnessed the fiercest fight I have ever seen among hoboes; a boy was the cause of it. Two men said they loved him, and he seemed to return the affection of both with equal desire. A fight with razors was suggested to settle who should have him.[277] The men prepared for action, while the crowd gathered round to watch. They slashed away for over half an hour, cutting each other terribly, and then their backers stopped them for fear of fatal results. The boy was given to the one who was hurt the least.

Jealousy is one of the first things one notices in connection with this pa.s.sion. I have known them to withdraw entirely from the "hang-out" life simply to be sure that their prushuns were not touched by other tramps. Such attachments frequently last for years, and some boys remain with their first jockers until they are "emanc.i.p.ated."

Emanc.i.p.ation means freedom to "snare" some other boy, and make him submit as the other had been obliged to submit when younger. As a rule, the prushun is freed when he is able to protect himself. If he can defend his "honor" from all who come, he is accepted into the cla.s.s of "old stagers," and may do as he likes. This is the one reward held out to prushuns during their apprentices.h.i.+p. They are told that some day they can have a boy and use him as they have been used. Thus hoboland is always sure of recruits.

It is difficult to say how many tramps are s.e.xually inverted. It is not even certainly known how many vagabonds there are in the country. I have stated in one of my papers on tramps that, counting the boys, there are between fifty and sixty thousand genuine hoboes in the United States. A vagabond in Texas who saw this statement wrote me that he considered my estimate too low. The newspapers have criticised it as too high, but they are unable to judge. If my figures are, as I believe, at least approximately correct, the s.e.xually perverted tramps may be estimated at between five and six thousand; this includes men and boys.

I have been told lately by tramps that the boys are less numerous than they were a few years ago. They say that it is now a risky business to be seen with a boy, and that it is more profitable, as far as begging is concerned, to go without them. Whether this means that the pa.s.sion is less fierce than it used to be, or that the men find s.e.xual satisfaction among themselves, I cannot say definitely. But from what I know of their disinclination to adopt the latter alternative, I am inclined to think that the pa.s.sion may be dying out somewhat. I am sure that women are not more numerous "on the road" than formerly, and that the change, if real, has not been caused by them. So much for my finding in the United States.

In England, where I have also lived with tramps for some time, I have found very little contrary s.e.xual feeling. In Germany, also, excepting in prisons and work-houses, it seems very little known among vagabonds. There are a few Jewish wanderers (sometimes peddlers) who are said to have boys in their company, and I am told that they use them as the hoboes in the United States use their boys, but I cannot prove this from personal observation. In England I have met a number of male tramps who had no hesitation in declaring their preference for their own s.e.x, and particularly for boys, but I am bound to say that I have seldom seen them with boys; as a rule, they were quite alone, and they seem to live chiefly by themselves.

It is a noteworthy fact that both in England and Germany there are a great many women "on the road," or, at all events, so near it that intercourse with them is easy and cheap. In Germany almost every town has its quarter of "Stadt-Schieze"[278]: women who sell their bodies for a very small sum. They seldom ask over thirty or forty pfennigs for a night, which is usually spent in the open air. In England it is practically the same thing. In all the large cities there are women who are glad to do business for three or four pence, and those "on the road" for even less.

The general impression made on me by the s.e.xually perverted men I have met in vagabondage is that they are abnormally masculine. In their intercourse with boys they always take the active part. The boys have, in some cases, seemed to me uncommonly feminine, but not as a rule. In the main, they are very much like other lads, and I am unable to say whether their liking for the inverted relations.h.i.+p is inborn or acquired. That it is, however, a genuine liking, in altogether too many instances, I do not, in the least, doubt. As such, and all the more because it is such, it deserves to be more thoroughly investigated and more reasonably treated.

"Josiah Flynt" who wrote the foregoing account of tramp-life for the second edition of this volume, was well known as author, sociologist, and tramp. He was especially, and it would seem by innate temperament, the tramp, which part he looked to perfection (he himself referred to his "weasoned face and diminutive form") and felt completely at home in. He was thus able to throw much light on the psychology of the tramp, and his books (such as Tramping with Tramps) are valuable from this point of view. His real name was F. Willard and he was a nephew of Miss Frances Willard. He died in Chicago, in 1907, at the age of 38, shortly after writing a frank and remarkable Autobiography. I am able to supplement his observations on tramps, so far as England is concerned, by the following pa.s.sages from a detailed record sent to me by an English correspondent:-

"I am a male invert with complete feminine, s.e.xual inclinations. Different meetings with 'tramps' led me to seek intimacy with them and for about twenty years I have gone on the 'tramp' myself so that I might come in the closest contact with them, in England, Scotland, and Wales.

"As in the United States, there are two cla.s.ses of tramps those who would work, such as harvesters, road-makers, etc., and those who will not work, but make tramping a profession. Among both these cla.s.ses my experience is that 90 per cent, or I even would be bold enough to say 100 per cent, indulge in h.o.m.os.e.xuality when the opportunity occurs, and I do not make any distinction between the two cla.s.ses.

"There are numerous reasons for this and I will state a few. A certain number may prefer normal connection with a female, but except for those who tramp in vans and a limited number who have 'donnas' with them, women are not available, as prost.i.tutes very seldom allow intimacy for 'love' except when drunk. Tramps are also afraid of any venereal disease as it means the misery of the Lock Hospital. Most of them are sociable and prefer to tramp with a 'make.' With this mate, with whom he sleeps and rests and 'boozes' when they are in funds, s.e.xual intimacy naturally takes place, as my experience has been that one of the two is male and the other female in their s.e.xual desires, but I have known instances where they have acted both roles. Then male prost.i.tution is to be had for nothing, and even occasionally when a tramp meets a 'toff' it is a means of earning money, either fairly or otherwise. I have never known a male tramp to refuse satisfaction if I offered a drink or two, or a small sum of money. One told me that he envied 'no lords or toffs' as long as he got plenty of 'booze and b.u.g.g.e.ry.'

"Another one, who told me that he had been twenty-five years on the road, said that he could not endure to sleep alone. (He was a pedlar, openly of cheap religious books and secretly of the vilest pamphlets and photographs). He had 'done time' and he said the greatest punishment to him was not being able to have a 'make' who would submit to penetration, though he was not particular what form the s.e.xual act took. Another fine young man, whom I chanced to meet the very day he had been released from a long sentence in prison for burglary and with whom I pa.s.sed a night of incessant and almost brutal intimacy, said his punishment was seeing men always about him and being unable to have connection with them. Another and very powerful influence in 'tramps' toward h.o.m.os.e.xuality is that, in the low lodging houses they are obliged to frequent, a single bed is perhaps double to one with a bedmate whom perhaps he has never seen before, and especially in hot weather, when the rule is nakedness.

"My s.e.xual desires being for the male invert I have come most in contact with them and have found that they form much the larger cla.s.s. Among harvesters and seafaring tramps it is seldom you find a 'dandy' such as I was considered, and as such I was eagerly courted, and any suggestion of intimacy on my part quickly responded to. As regards the use of young boys for h.o.m.os.e.xual indulgence, it is not common as it is too dangerous, though I have known boys, especially those belonging to vans or gypsies, to prost.i.tute themselves, always for money.

"On one occasion I saw a boy who created quite an outburst of l.u.s.t of h.o.m.os.e.xual nature. The incident took place in a small seafaring town in Scotland one evening before a Fair was to be held. It occurred in a low public house where a number of very rough and mostly drunken men were a.s.sembled. A blind man came in led by an extremely pretty but effeminate-looking youth of about 17, wearing a ragged kilt and with bare legs and feet. He had long, curling, fair hair which reached to his shoulders and on it an old bonnet was perched. He also wore an old velveteen shooting jacket. All eyes were turned on the pair and they were quickly offered drinks. A remark was made by one man that he believed the youth was a la.s.sie. The boy said, 'I will show you I am a laddie,' and pulled up his kilt, exposing his genitals and then his posterior. Boisterous laughter greeted this indecent exposure and suggestion, and more drinks were provided. The blind man then played his fiddle and the boy danced with frequent recurrences of the same indecencies. He was seized, kissed, and caressed by quite a number of men, some of whom endeavored to m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.e him, which he resisted, but performed it for them. After the closing time came, I and about ten or twelve men all occupied the same room; the old man continued to play, and the youth, stark naked, continued to dance and suggested we others should do so, and an erotic scene took place which was only closed to view by the 'boss' who was present putting out the lamp.

"Two cla.s.ses of tramps I have met openly declare their preference for h.o.m.os.e.xuality. They are men who have been in the army and sailors and seafaring men in general. It is said that 'Jack has a wife in every port,' but I believe from my experience that the wife in many cases is of the male s.e.x, and this among those of all nationalities, as is the case with soldiers. Among these also jealousy is more common than amongst ordinary tramps, and if you are 'dandy' to a soldier, if you make advances or receive them from a senior, trouble is likely to occur between them.

"I could give many instances of my own personal experiences to show that 'tramps' are looked upon by men in the country districts as legitimate, complacent, and purchaseable objects for h.o.m.os.e.xual l.u.s.t."

[276]

This is the home of the fraternity. Practically it is any corner where they can lay their heads; but, as a rule, it is either a lodging-house, a freight-car, or a nest in the gra.s.s near the railway watering-tank.

[277]

All hoboes carry razors, both for shaving and for defense. Strange to say, they succeed in smuggling them into gaols, as they are never searched thoroughly.

[278]

This word is of Hebrew origin, and means girl (Madchen).

APPENDIX B.

THE SCHOOL-FRIENDs.h.i.+PS OF GIRLS.

I.

A school-friends.h.i.+p is termed by Italian girls a "flame" (flamma). This term, as explained by Obici and Marchesini, indicates, in school-slang, both the beloved person and the friends.h.i.+p in the abstract; but it is a friends.h.i.+p which has the note of pa.s.sion as felt and understood in this environment. In every college the "flame" is regarded as a necessary inst.i.tution. The relations.h.i.+p is usually of a markedly Platonic character, and generally exists between a boarder on one side and a day-pupil on the other. Notwithstanding, however, its apparently non-s.e.xual nature, all the s.e.xual manifestations of college youth circle around it, and in its varying aspects of differing intensity all the gradations of s.e.xual sentiment may be expressed.

Obici and Marchesini carried on their investigation chiefly among the pupils of Normal schools, the age of the girls being between 12 and 19 or 20. There are both boarders and day-pupils at these colleges; the boarders are most inflammable, but it is the day-pupils who furnish the sparks.

Obici and Marchesini received much a.s.sistance in their studies from former pupils who are now themselves teachers. One of these, a day-pupil who had never herself been either the object or the agent in one of these pa.s.sions, but had had ample opportunity of making personal observations, writes as follows: "The 'flame' proceeds exactly like a love-relations.h.i.+p; it often happens that one of the girls shows man-like characteristics, either in physical type or in energy and decision of character; the other lets herself be loved, acting with all the obstinacy-and one might almost say the shyness-of a girl with her lover. The beginning of these relations.h.i.+ps is quite different from the usual beginnings of friends.h.i.+p. It is not by being always together, talking and studying together, that two become 'flames'; no, generally they do not even know each other; one sees the other on the stairs, in the garden, in the corridors, and the emotion that arises is nearly always called forth by beauty and physical grace. Then the one who is first struck begins a regular courts.h.i.+p: frequent walks in the garden when the other is likely to be at the window of her cla.s.s-room, pauses on the stairs to see her pa.s.s; in short, a mute adoration made up of glances and sighs. Later come presents of beautiful flowers, and little messages conveyed by complacent companions. Finally, if the 'flame' shows signs of appreciating all these proofs of affection, comes the letter of declaration. Letters of declaration are long and ardent, to such a degree that they equal or surpa.s.s real love-declarations. The courted one nearly always accepts, sometimes with enthusiasm, oftenest with many objections and doubts as to the affection declared. It is only after many entreaties that she yields and the relations.h.i.+p begins."

Another collaborator who has herself always aroused very numerous "flames" gives a very similar description, together with other particulars. Thus she states: "It may be said that 60 per cent. of the girls in a college have 'flame' relations.h.i.+ps, and that of the remaining 40 only half refuse from deliberate repulsion to such affections; the other 20 are excluded either because they are not sufficiently pleasing in appearance or because their characters do not inspire sympathy." And, regarding the method of beginning the relations.h.i.+p, she writes: "Sometimes 'flames' arise before the two future friends have even seen each other, merely because one of them is considered as beautiful, sympathetic, nice, or elegant. Elegance exerts an immense fascination, especially on the boarders, who are bound down by monotonous and simple habits. As soon as a boarder hears of a day-pupil that she is charming and elegant she begins to feel a lively sympathy toward her, rapidly reaching anxiety to see her. The longed-for morning at length arrives. The beloved, unconscious of the tumult of pa.s.sions she has aroused, goes into school, not knowing that her walk, her movements, her garments are being observed from stairs or dormitory corridor.... For the boarders these events const.i.tute an important part of college-life, and often a.s.sume, for some, the aspect of a tragedy, which, fortunately, may be gradually resolved into a comedy or a farce."

Many letters are written in the course of these relations.h.i.+ps; Obici and Marchesini have been able to read over 300 such letters which had been carefully preserved by the receivers and which, indeed, formed the chief material for their study. These letters clearly show that the "flame" most usually arises from a physical sympathy, an admiration of beauty and elegance. The letters written in this "flame" relations.h.i.+p are full of pa.s.sion; they appear to be often written during periods of physical excitement and psychic erethism, and may be considered, Obici and Marchesini remark, a form of intellectual onanism, of which the writers afterward feel remorse and shame as of a physically dishonorable act. In reference to the underlying connection of these feelings with the s.e.xual impulse, one of the lady collaborators writes: "I can say that a girl who is in love with a man never experiences 'flame' emotions for a companion."

Obici and Marchesini thus summarize the differential character of "flames" as distinguished from ordinary friends.h.i.+ps: "(1) the extraordinary frequency with which, even by means of subterfuges, the lovers exchange letters; (2) the anxiety to see and talk to each other, to press each other's hands, to embrace and kiss; (3) the long conversations and the very long reveries; (4) persistent jealousy, with its manifold arts and usual results; (5) exaltation of the beloved's qualities; (6) the habit of writing the beloved's name everywhere; (7) absence of envy for the loved one's qualities; (8) the lover's abnegation in conquering all obstacles to the manifestations of her love; (9) the vanity with which some respond to 'flame' declarations; (10) the consciousness of doing a prohibited thing; (11) the pleasure of conquest, of which the trophies (letters, etc.) are preserved."

The difference between a "flame" and a friends.h.i.+p is very well marked in the absolute exclusiveness of the former, whence arises the possibility of jealousy. At the same time friends.h.i.+p and love are here woven together. The letters are chaste (a few exceptions among so many letters not affecting this general rule), and the purity of the flame relations.h.i.+p is also shown by the fact that it is usually between boarders and day-pupils, girls in different cla.s.ses and different rooms, and seldom between those who are living in close proximity to each other. "Certainly," writes one of the lady collaborators, "the first sensual manifestations develop in girls with physical excitement pure and simple, but (at all events, I would wish to believe it) the majority of college-girls find sufficient satisfaction in being as near as possible to the beloved person (of whichever s.e.x), in mutual admiration and in kissing, or, very frequently, in conversation that is by no means moral, though usually very metaphorical. The object of such conversation is to discover the most important mysteries of human nature, the why and the wherefore; it deals with natural necessities, which the girl feels and has an intuition of, but as yet knows nothing definite about. Such conversations are the order of the day in schools and in colleges and specially revolve around procreation, the most difficult mystery of all. They are a heap of stupidities." This lady had only known of one definitely h.o.m.os.e.xual relations.h.i.+p during the whole of her college-life; the couple in question were little liked and had no other "flames." The chief general s.e.xual manifestations, this lady concludes, which she had noted among her companions was a constant preoccupation with s.e.xual mysteries and the necessity of talking about them perpetually.

Another lady collaborator who had lived in a Normal school had had somewhat wider experiences. She entered at the age of 14 and experienced the usual loneliness and unhappiness of a new pupil. One day as she was standing pensive and alone in a corner of the room, a companion-one who on her arrival had been charged to show her over the college-ran up to her, "embracing me, closing by mouth with a kiss, and softly caressing my hair. I gazed at her in astonishment, but experienced a delicious sensation of supreme comfort. Here began the idyll! I was subjected to a furious tempest of kisses and caresses which quite stunned me and made me ask myself the reason of such a new and unforeseen affection. I ingenuously inquired the reason, and the reply was: 'I love you; you struck me immediately I saw you, because you are so beautiful and so white, and because it makes me happy and soothes me when I can pa.s.s my hands through your hair and kiss your plump, white face. I need a soul and a body.' This seemed to me the language of a superior person, for I could not grasp all its importance. As on the occasion when she first embraced me, I looked at her in astonishment and could not for the moment respond to a new fury of caresses and kisses. I felt that they were not like the kisses of my mamma, my papa, my brother, and other companions; they gave me unknown sensations; the contact of those moist and fleshy lips disturbed me. Then came the exchange of letters and the usual rights and duties of 'flames.' When we met in the presence of others we were only to greet each other simply, for 'flames' were strictly prohibited. I obeyed because I liked her, but also because I was afraid of her Oth.e.l.lo-like jealousy. She would suffocate me, even bite me, when I played, joyously and thoughtlessly, with others, and woe to me if I failed to call her when I was combing my hair. She liked to see me with my hair down and would rest her head on my shoulder, especially if I were partially undressed. I let her do as she liked, and she would scold me severely because I was never first in longing for her, running to meet her, and kissing her. But at the same time the thought of losing her, the thought that perhaps one day she would shower her caresses on others, secretly wounded my heart. But I never told her this! One day, however, when with the head-mistress gazing at a beautiful landscape, I was suddenly overwhelmed with sadness and burst out crying. The head-mistress inquired what was the matter, and throwing myself in her arms I sobbed: 'I love her, and I shall die if she leaves off loving me!' She smiled, and the smile went through my heart. I saw at once how silly I was, and what a wrong road my companion was on. From that day I could no longer endure my 'flame.' The separation was absolute; I courageously bore bites and insults, even scratches on my face, followed by long complaints and complete prostration. I thought it would be mean to accuse her, but I invented a pretext for having the number of my bed changed. This was because she would dress quietly and come to pa.s.s hours by my bed, resting her head on the pillow. She said she wished to smell the perfume of my health and freshness. This continual turbulent desire had now nauseated me, and I wished to avoid it altogether. Later I heard that she had formed a relations.h.i.+p which was not blessed by any sacred rite."

Notwithstanding the Platonic character of the correspondences, Obici and Marchesini remark, there is really a substratum of emotional s.e.xuality beneath it, and it is this which finds its expression in the indecorous conversations already referred to. The "flame" is a love-fiction, a play of s.e.xual love. This characteristic comes out in the frequently romantic names, of men and women, invented to sign the letters.

Even in the letters themselves, however, the element of s.e.xual impressionability may be traced. "On Friday we went to a service at San B.," writes one who was in an inst.i.tution directed by nuns, "but unfortunately I saw M. L. at a window when I thought she was at A. and I was in a nervous state the whole time. Imagine that that dear woman was at the window with bare arms, and, as it seemed to me, in her chemise." No doubt a similar impression might have been made on a girl living in her own family. But it is certain that the imaginative coloring tends to be more lively in those living in colleges and shut off from that varied and innocent observation which renders those outside colleges freer and more unprejudiced. On a boy who is free to see as many women as he chooses a woman's face cannot make such an impression as on a boy who lives in a college and who is liable to be, as it were, electrified if he sees any object belonging to a woman, especially if he sees it by stealth or during a mood of erotism. Such an object calls out a whole series of wanton imaginations, which it could not do in one who, by his environment, was already armed against any tendencies to erotic fetichism. The attraction exerted by that which we see but seldom, and around which fancy a.s.siduously plays, the attraction of forbidden fruit, produces tendencies and habits which could scarcely develop in freedom. Curiosity is acute, and is augmented by the obstacles which stand in the way of its satisfaction. "Flame" attraction is the beginning of such a morbid fetichism. A sentiment which under other conditions would never have gone beyond ordinary friends.h.i.+p may thus become a "flame," and even a "flame" of markedly s.e.xual character. Under these influences boys and girls feel the purest and simplest sentiments in a hyperesthetic manner. The girls here studied have lost an exact conception of the simple manifestations of friends.h.i.+p, and think they are giving evidence of exquisite sensibility and true friends.h.i.+p by loving a companion to madness; friends.h.i.+p in them has become a pa.s.sion. That this intense desire to love a companion pa.s.sionately is the result of the college environments may be seen by the following extract from a letter: "You know, dear, much better than I do how acutely girls living away from their own homes, and far from all those who are dearest to them on earth, feel the need of loving and being loved. You can understand how hard it is to be obliged to live without anyone to surround you with affection;" and the writer goes on to say how all her love turns to her correspondent.

While there is an unquestionable s.e.xual element in the "flame" relations.h.i.+p, this cannot be regarded as an absolute expression of real congenital perversion of the s.e.x-instinct. The frequency of the phenomena, as well as the fact that, on leaving college to enter social life, the girl usually ceases to feel these emotions, are sufficient to show the absence of congenital abnormality. The estimate of the frequency of "flames" in Normal schools, given to Obici and Marchesini by several lady collaborators, was about 60 per cent., but there is no reason to suppose that women teachers furnish a larger contingent of perverted individuals than other women. The root is organic, but the manifestations are ideal and Platonic, in contrast with some other manifestations found in college-life. No inquiry was made as to the details of solitary s.e.xual manifestations in the colleges, the fact that they exist to more or less extent being sufficiently recognized. The conversations already referred to are a measure of the excitations of s.e.xuality existing in these college inmates and multiplied in energy by communication. Such discourse was, wrote one collaborator, the order of the day, and it took place chiefly at the time when letter-writing also was easiest. It may well be that sensual excitations, transformed into ethereal sentiments, serve to increase the intensity of the "flames."

Taken altogether, Obici and Marchesini conclude, the flame may be regarded as a provisional synthesis. We find here, in solution together, the physiological element of incipient s.e.xuality, the psychical element of the tenderness natural to this age and s.e.x, the element of occasion offered by the environment, and the social element with its nascent altruism.

II.

That the phenomena described in minute detail by Obici and Marchesini closely resemble the phenomena as they exist in English girls' schools is indicated by the following communication, for which I am indebted to a lady who is familiar with an English girls' college of very modern type:-

"From inquiries made in various quarters and through personal observation and experience I have come to the conclusion that the romantic and emotional attachments formed by girls for their female friends and companions, attachments which take a great hold of their minds for the time being, are far commoner than is generally supposed among English girls, more especially at school or college, or wherever a number of girls or young women live together in one inst.i.tution, and are much secluded.

"As far as I have been able to find out, these attachments-which have their own local names, e.g., 'raves,' 'spoons,' etc.-are comparatively rare in the smaller private schools, and totally absent among girls of the poorer cla.s.s attending Board and National schools, perhaps because they mix more freely with the opposite s.e.x.

"I can say from personal experience that in one of the largest and best English colleges, where I spent some years, 'raving' is especially common in spite of arrangements which one would have thought would have abolished most unhealthy feelings. The arrangements there are very similar to a large boys' college. There are numerous boarding-houses, which have, on an average, forty to fifty students. Each house is under the management of a well-educated house-mistress a.s.sisted by house-governesses (quite separate from college-teachers). Each house has a large garden with tennis-courts, etc.; and cricket, hockey, and other games are carried on to a large extent, games being not only much encouraged, but much enjoyed. Each girl has a separate cubicle, or bedroom, and no junior (under 17 years of age) is allowed to enter the cubicle, or bedroom, of another without asking permission, or to go to the bedrooms during the day. In fact, everything is done to discourage any morbid feelings. But all the same, as far as my experience goes, the friends.h.i.+ps there seem more violent and more emotional than in most places, and s.e.x subjects form one of the chief topics of conversation.

"In such large schools and colleges these 'raves' are not only numerous, but seem to be perennial among the girls of all ages, from 13 years upward. Girls under that age may be fond of some other student or teacher, but in quite a different way. These 'raves' are not mere friends.h.i.+ps in the ordinary sense of the word, nor are they incompatible with ordinary friends.h.i.+ps. A girl with a 'rave' often has several intimate friends for whom affection is felt without the emotional feelings and pleasurable excitement which characterize a 'rave.'

"From what I have been told by those who have experienced these 'raves' and have since been in love with men, the emotions called forth in both cases were similar, although in the case of the 'rave' this fact was not recognized at the time. This appears to point to a s.e.xual basis, but, on the other hand, there are many cases where the feeling seems to be more spiritual, a sort of uplifting of the whole soul with an intense desire to lead a very good life-the feeling being one of reverence more than anything else for the loved one, with no desire to become too intimate and no desire for physical contact.

"'Raves,' as a rule, begin quite suddenly. They may be mutual or all on one side. In the case of school-girls the mutual 'rave' is generally found between two companions, or the girls may have a 'rave' for one of their teachers or some grown-up acquaintance, who does not necessarily enter into the school-life. In this case there may or may not be a feeling of affection for the girl by her 'rave,' though minus all the emotional feelings.

"Occasionally a senior student will have a 'rave' on a little girl, but these cases are rare and not very active in their symptoms, girls over 18 having fewer 'raves' and generally condemning them.

"In the large school already referred to, of which I have personal knowledge, 'raving' was very general, hardly anyone being free from it. Any fresh student would soon fall a victim to the fas.h.i.+on, which rather points to the fact that it is infectious. Sometimes there might be a lull in the general raving, only to reappear after an interval in more or less of an epidemic form. Sometimes nearly all the 'raves' were felt by students for their teachers; at other times it was more apparent between the girls themselves.

"Sometimes one teacher was raved on by several girls. In many cases, the girls raving on a teacher would have a very great friends.h.i.+p with one of their companions-talking with each other constantly of their respective 'raves,' describing their feelings and generally letting off steam to one another, indulging sometimes in the active demonstrations of affection which they were debarred from showing the teacher herself, and in some cases having no desire to do so even if they could.