Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/235

 as has his patron. So he is discretion itself, as a rule; makes himself useful; is paid his few marks or kronen or lire; and goes his way, with a friendly shake of the hand and his smiling—"Till next time!".

The assertion is often met that military prostitution in Europe, is less in the French and British armies than in any others; and more in the German, Austrian, Hungarian, Russian and Italian services than elsewhere. There seems to be fact in the statement that the French soldier in the ranks is less often a prostitute than is his colleague in other territory. This is part of the racial sentiment against homosexualism in France—of the Gaul in general. Perhaps the same is true of some Scandinavian armies, though prostitute-soldiers are plentifully met in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and so on. The Russian armies are full of prostitution. Any open-eyed visitor to Russian posts soon satisfies himself as to this fact. In Germany everwhere [sic] soldier-prostitution is particularly rampant and extended. Here too is the racial instinct. Whole regiments, garrisons, acquire notoriety for it. In some centers, such as Potsdam, the military authorities, after having long winked solemnly at it, have sometimes been unable to ignore its publicity any longer, and have gone so far as to forbid the soldiery certain details of their uniform which have become a sort of smart advertisement that the wearers are to be "had". Any quiet part of a public promenade has its group of young warriors strolling about or sitting in im-modest obscurity, waiting for "business". The shady parks of Potsdam, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Breslau, Wiesbaden, Karlsruhe, offer this suggestive spectacle nightly.