Caroline Hodgson - Campaign Against Her and End of Career

Campaign Against Her and End of Career

In the late 19th century Hodgson became the target of increasing vilification from newspapers and public figures. In his 1891 pamphlet The War between Heaven and Hell, religious crusader Henry Varley singled out Madam Brussels for particular scorn, describing her as an "accursed procuress," who was protected by the city’s magistrates. In one famous passage, he claimed she had toured the streets of Melbourne "in charge of a beautiful young girl under twenty, with a white feather in her hat, telling by advertisement (the white feather) that maiden virtue was to be had for a price in her gilded den"

Edward Norton’s Truth newspaper also regularly attacked her, reporting in detail any of her court appearances. For example, in March 1906, the paper ran the headline "Madame Brussels' Notorious Bawdy House: Her Junketing Jezebels," above drawings of her "flash" girls. A wealthy grazier had called the police after his watch and sovereign purse were stolen in the brothel. Later that year, in a major expose, the paper detailed Sir Samuel Gillott's many years of financial dealings with Hodgson. As Leanne Robinson notes, although Gillott "freely acknowledged his role as Caroline’s mortgagee, he claimed ignorance as to the nature of business – despite the fact that, as a parliamentarian, he’d been instrumental in framing legislation against gambling and licensing and had chaired public meetings on the suppression of vice." Within a week, Gillott had resigned and soon after returned to England, and Hodgson had lost a significant ally.

In April 1907, after appearing in court charged under new laws with "owing and operating a disorderly house", the ailing Caroline Hodgson closed her brothels in Lonsdale Street. With failing eyesight, diabetes and chronic pancreatitis, she continued to live at her Lonsdale Street property until her death in July 1908.