The
habitues of these places are, generally, inverts of the most
pronounced type, i.e., the completely feminine in voice and
manners, with the characteristic hip motion in their walk; though
I have never seen any approach to feminine dress there, doubtless
the desire for it is not wanting and only police regulations
relegate it to other occasions and places. You will rightly infer
that the police know of these places and endure their existence
for a consideration; it is not unusual for the inquiring stranger
to be directed there by a policeman."
The Oscar Wilde trial (see _ante_, p. 48), with its wide
publicity, and the fundamental nature of the questions it
suggested, appears to have generally contributed to give
definiteness and self-consciousness to the manifestations of
homosexuality, and to have aroused inverts to take up a definite
attitude. I have been assured in several quarters that this is so
and that since that case the manifestations of homosexuality have
become more pronounced. One correspondent writes:--
"Up to the time of the Oscar Wilde trial I had not known what the
condition of the law was.
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