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There were many reports of Penists castrating the male Vacationers for a lark,¹ but it seems, as was always the case in Martian society, that the female of the species suffered the worst of these atrocities. Unanimous testimony permits little doubt that the full severity which men of low intellect, and fierce and capricious passions, inflict on women who come under their power.² If perchance a Vacationer woman was decoyed to a Penist’s camp, no gentleness of usage was employed to win her regard, and secure her stay—threatening language, the lash, and the chain were the harsher expedients of the Penists’ savage love.³

The Penists frequently carried off Vacationer women by force to their lairs, and cruelly abused them.⁴ It was the custom among many of the Penists deployed on foraging operations that every man should have from two to five of the Vacationer women for their own use and benefit.⁵ One man, after acquiring such a woman, kept the poor creature chained up for the base purpose of fornication, and whenever he wanted her to do anything, he applied a firebrand snatched from the fire to her skin.⁶ And we hear of another Penist who, having caught an unhappy girl, sought to relive her terror—to subdue her sulks, as it was termed—by first giving her a morning’s flogging, and then fastening her to a tree when he was not about.⁷ He claimed such actions were an effort to tame her. In another instance, the Penists tied up a Vacationer woman to a tree and then cut the flesh off her thighs, and cut off her ears and made her eat them. The woman that had been so barbarously treated was a hard-working woman, who’s performance had by all accounts been exemplary.

This is not to say the Vacationer women’s performance was never an issue. Indeed, their sour attitude was repeatedly cited as a source of consternation to the Penists. It seems that propriety of demeanor was not uniformly among the virtues of the female Vacationers.⁸ Many have observed that if these women had possessed—even to the slightest degree—any portion of delicacy, or set any real value on decorum, then indeed they should be entitled to the highest compassion, and indignation would be roused at the bare relation of the atrocities committed against them.⁹ But in many cases, the women yielded willingly to the lawless desires of the Penists, indeed their males even encouraged the nefarious traffic. Therefore, if there were quarrels, and if murders were perpetrated, they were caused as much by the depraved tastes of the Vacationers, as by the moral turpitude of the Penists.¹⁰

But grievances of this nature were so numerous and common that any further comment than has already been made would be useless.¹¹

Franklin was again and again required to request that all Penists abstain from acts of violence against the Vacationers.¹² Nevertheless, not one single individual was ever brought to justice for offenses committed against these benighted beings.¹³