A house of ill-fame is a house kept for the convenience of persons desiring unlawful sexual intercourse and in which such intercourse is practiced.69 A bawdy house and house of ill-fame mean substantially the same thing.70 At common law the words house of ill-fame, mean a house resorted to for the purpose of prostitution. The words ill-fame are used in the statute to give name and character to the house and do not refer to its reputation. The gist of the offense is the keeping of the house irrespective of its fame. The statute aims at the fact and not the fame, the substance and not the shadow.71 The reputation of the house need not be bad to make it a house of ill-fame;72 nor is the mere fact that the house had the reputation of being a bawdy house or house of ill-fame sufficient to constitute the offense,73 nor is it necessary that the indecency or disorderly conduct of the frequenters of the house be perceptible from the exterior of the house;74 nor is it essential that the neighborhood should be disturbed by the noise from the house.75

60 Baumer vs. State, 49 Ind., 544.

Knowledge of both parties.

State vs. McGilvery, 20 Wash., 240. 61 State vs. Dana, 59 Vt., 623;

State vd. Ellis, 74 Mo., 385. 62 Kilpatrick vs. State, 39 Tex. Cr., 10; State vs. Winnengham, 124 Mo., 423.

63 Kidwell vs. State, 63 Ind., 384. 64 People vs. Benoit, 97 Cal, 249.

65 People vs. Patterson, 102 Cal., 244; Lefforge vs. State, 129 Ind., 551; People vs. Cease, 80 Mich., 576; Underbill's Cr. Ev., Sec. 396.

66 Taylor vs. State, 110 Ga., 150.

67 State vs. Bullinger, 54 Mo., 142; Bergen vs. People, 17 111., 426.

68 Morgan vs. State, 11 Ala., 289; People vs. Harriden. 1 Park Cr. (N. Y.), 344.