Child Prostitutes

I took a turn through the Parc Monceau to the Etoile and back through the Champs-Elyseé last night between 9.30 and 11 in order to clear off a headache. Honest love-making in the Parc Monceau. In the Champs-Elysée I saw four girls, aged 14 or less – one didn’t seem more than 11 or 12 – being taken about by older women for the excitement of senile appetites. Some day soon there will be a tremendous outcry concerning this procurement of children. The police will become suddenly active in arrests – and then things will settle down again.

   There were many pretty and well-dressed women in the Champs-Elysée sitting patiently on chairs under the trees awaiting some masculine advance. I was astonished how distinguished some of them were. It was a lovely night, warm and star-lit. Paris at its most Parisian, The lights of the al fresco music-halls, and the occasional bursts of music and applause that came from them, produced an extraordinary effect.

                                                                      Arnold Bnnett's Journals - Thursday July 7th, 1904