VICE RESORTS: (b) TENEMENT HOUSES,[35] HOTELS, FURNISHED ROOMS, MASSAGE
PARLORS
The general situation in respect to vice resorts other than parlor houses
does not materially differ from the conditions described in the preceding
chapter. Tenements, hotels, and massage parlors were found to be openly,
flagrantly, and in large numbers utilized for the commercial exploitation
of prostitution in the interest, not of the woman herself, but of a
promoter who drives her to do her utmost and assists in the work by
cunningly angling for victims for her. The resorts to be now described
were in many, perhaps in most instances, well known, accessible, and--for
the period of this inquiry--usually unmolested.
(1) VICE RESORTS IN TENEMENTS
The tenement house law of 1911 defines a tenement house as a "house or
building, or portion thereof, which is rented, leased, let or hired out,
to be occupied, or is occupied as the home or residence of three families
or more living independently of each other, and doing their cooking upon
the premises, or by more than two families upon any floor so living and
cooking, but having a common right in the halls, stairways, yards,
water-closets or privies, or some of them." Any portion of a house of
this description which is habitually used for the business of prostitution
is regarded in this volume as a vice resort in a tenement. During the
period of this investigation 1172 different vice resorts were found in 575
tenement houses at separate addresses in Manhattan.
The majority of the tenement buildings in which professional prostitutes
thus ply their trade are situated between West 59th Street and West 110th
Street, from Central Park west to Broadway or the river. A few of the
cheaper type are conducted on the East Side in the vicinity of East 127th
Street. On the lower East Side these resorts are less numerous than
formerly.
The conditions in many of these tenements are scandalous and demoralizing
to the last degree. Children grow up in them amid unsanitary conditions,
with bad air and light, wearing clothes which do not keep the body warm,
eating food which does not nourish, sleeping in crowded rooms,--brothers
with sisters, daughters with fathers,--dressing and undressing in the
presence of boarders or distant relatives, and witnessing sights never
meant for the eyes of innocence. And, as if this were not enough to
complete the moral breakdown, the prostitute creeps in like an infectious
disease and spreads her degrading influence,--often without the least
effort to conceal her vocation.
Examples are all too common: On February 19, about 7:30 P. M., an
investigator was told of a disorderly place in a basement near by.[36] It
was suggested that he ring the janitor's bell and ask for the woman. When
he did so, a little girl, apparently twelve years of age, came to the
door. The child fully understood; going to the basement door, she called
for the woman, who, opening the door, carefully scrutinized the
investigator and invited him to enter.
A pale little girl, about fourteen years of age, was the companion of the
dirty, rum-soaked janitress of a tenement on West 107th Street. The woman
declared with vehemence that she would never allow any of these "vile
huzzies" to live in her house; but there were plenty of them on the
street, she said, turning to the child for confirmation of her statement.
And the child told of their haunts in the neighborhood, giving
house-number after house-number.
One day on West 108th Street the following scene was enacted: Two small
girls and two boys were standing on the stoop as a man came up and rang a
certain bell. As he did so the children snickered and spoke in whispers to
one another. They knew that the bell rang in the apartment on the second
floor rear; that the woman who came to the door in a loose kimono, with a
mass of yellow hair and painted cheeks, was a prostitute[37] and that many
other men with the same furtive eye, the same hesitating manner, had often
passed through that door on other afternoons and nights.
A census was taken in 27 different tenements where immoral conditions were
found to exist during the month of February, 1912; 18 of them situated on
the East Side, 9 on the West Side. There were 390 families living in the
27 tenements, with 425 children under 16 years of age, 214 boys and 211
girls. In addition, there were 92 unmarried men over 16 and 65 unmarried
women over 16. The investigator also reported 30 widows living in these
houses, with 18 children, the eldest being 12 years of age. In the
different apartments 56 women were found who, on the basis of dress,
conversation, and general bearing, were classed as "suspicious." While
passing through the buildings up flights of stairs, from floor to floor,
he noted the bad air, the dim light, the sagging floors, the dirty rooms
where the walls were cracking through the paper. At times children were
playing in front of doors behind which prostitutes plied their trade.
The prostitute does well for herself to take up her abode among the
families of the poor. Her first move is to "get a stand-in" with the
janitor or his wife. She "slips" them a dollar to see that the moving man
does not injure the furniture. She alone among the tenants gives presents,
fruit and candy to the children and pays them to run errands; slowly, but
surely, she establishes herself securely under the eye that does not see
and the ear that does not hear.
In no essential respect does the conduct of a tenement vice resort differ
from that of the parlor house previously described. Prices are of the same
range, from fifty cents to ten dollars; occasionally twenty-five dollars
may be demanded. The same pretense of medical examination is made. The
same advertising devices are employed. A madame who conducts a prosperous
business in a tenement in West 58th Street sends a letter to her former
customers announcing the removal of the "library."[38] The use of the
word "library" to indicate the resort and of "books" to indicate inmates
is a popular one. Another madame urges her former patrons to renew their
"membership in the library"; "new books," she asserts, are "on file in our
new quarters." Still another enterprising promoter invites men to her
place of business by saying, "Please call as I have a _new_ member in the
lodge." Similarly, business is procured through the same agents utilized
by the parlor house--runners, bartenders, cabmen and chauffeurs. Where
several establishments are conducted in one apartment building, elevator
boys are given liberal tips by rival madames for "steering" callers to
their flats. Often the madames or selected inmates go to public places or
on the streets to solicit men. Sometimes they visit a large office
building and under some pretext seek an interview with the heads of firms
or with managers, and leave their cards. One day a young lawyer received a
letter asking him to call at a certain address in Harlem on a matter of
business. Though he did not recognize the name, he kept the appointment.
He was dumfounded to find the supposed client a madame who had four
inmates in her resort.
Liquor is more largely sold in tenement resorts than in parlor houses; the
prices are usually the same, five dollars for a small bottle of wine, two
dollars for a round of beer. In many of the resorts in tenements drugs are
used by the inmates and sold to customers. For instance, the investigator
of a resort on West 111th Street found several men smoking opium. In
another flat, on West 37th Street, one of the colored inmates was
snuffing cocaine. In a tenement on West 39th Street there is an opium
"joint" on the second floor where prostitutes "smoke." Some of the girls
spend five and six dollars a day in this place. A girl who solicits on the
street for a vice resort in a tenement on West 38th Street is a "dope
fiend," and the madame of a flat on West 43rd Street, where there are four
inmates, is addicted to the opium habit.
Not infrequently an apartment is utilized as a call-house: girls, not
living on the premises, are summoned by telephone when customers arrive.
Additional recruits are also procured by call, when needed. The "call" is
sometimes a half-way stage for the working girl on the road to complete
prostitution. One day the madame of a call-house on West 58th Street
received a special delivery letter, the number of which was 14.446--9,
reading as follows:
"_Dear Madam_,--
"I tried to get you on the wire, but could not get you. Kindly send
Miss Viola, the pretty little blonde, over at 2.30, not later if
possible, on Monday afternoon (to-morrow) without fail--this is a
good engagement.
"Also send me another pretty young girl and accommodating at 1.30
sharp. Now please do not disappoint me.[39]
"Signed (Mrs.) ----
"Sunday, May 28th."
Call-houses are usually cozy and homelike, presided over by a woman who
dwells upon her efforts to make her customers happy and comfortable. She
declares that there are so many "nice respectable men" who are lonely in a
big city and who want places where they will feel absolutely safe, where
they can meet pretty girls, spend the evening, and get a few drinks. The
stock in trade of such a house is usually a collection of photographs of
the girls who are "on call." In addition, the madame exhibits a
description of them, with measurements to show their physical development;
the prices are appended. Her victims are variously procured: sometimes in
restaurants frequented by girls who are employed in offices and stores:
again, her place of operation may be the ladies' retiring room, where she
enters into conversation with girls, inviting them to a meal or to spend
an evening in her apartment. If she sees a girl alone at a table, she asks
whether she may sit down with her and urges her to have a "little drink."
Thus acquaintance springs up and "dates" are made for the theater, the
madame paying the bill. At other times she goes to a department store and
selects a girl, from whom she makes her purchases. The girl may be
flattered by evidences of interest and friendship, or tempted by the
prospects of fine clothes, leisure, and opportunities for pleasure. The
danger is especially great if she has previously lapsed.
On certain streets on the East Side below 14th Street and in Harlem there
are a number of cider "stubes" in the basement of tenement houses. In
these "stubes" foreign girls act as waitresses, serving small glasses of
cider or other soft drinks to customers. While serving, the girls solicit
their customers to enter small rooms in the rear of the basement. The
keepers of these "stubes" are constantly advertising in the foreign
papers published in New York for waitresses, offering to pay five or six
dollars a week for such service. There is no doubt that many ignorant
foreign girls are thus lured into lives of prostitution. One keeper who
had a waitress about 38 years of age told the investigator that she
expected to have two or three young girls in a few days. Another
proprietor tried to secure the custom of the investigator by saying that
he expected to secure two nice young girls for his "stube." Both were
advertising in a German paper for help at the time. Such an advertisement
for a very disreputable "stube" on East 4th Street appeared in a German
newspaper on March 29, April 6, 8, 12, 13, 14, and 19.
Our records abound in material illustrating the foregoing account. For
example, on May 19, 1912, at 7 P. M., and again on May 20, 1912, at 8 P.
M., the investigator visited a vice resort in a tenement in West 43rd
Street.[40] There were four inmates in the receiving parlor, all claiming
to have medical certificates. The madame[41] declared, however, that if
none of them suited she would for a larger price call up a young girl who
was not "a regular sport." Thereupon she summoned the girl by
telephone.[42] The newcomer appeared to be about eighteen years of age.
While talking with the investigator, Irene said she had been in the
"business" since last September but worked in a department store in
Brooklyn.[43] Previously to this she had been employed in a store on Sixth
Avenue. About one and a half years ago--so she says--her sweetheart, a
shipping clerk, who makes $12 a week, seduced her, promising marriage: he
does not know that Irene is making money "on the side" in this manner. Her
aunt, with whom she lives, is very strict with her, requiring her to be
home at ten o'clock every night.
The investigator pretended not to be satisfied with Irene; thereupon
another girl, Margie, spoke up: she knew a "kid" that would suit, but the
price would be ten "bucks" (dollars). From other remarks made, the
investigator believes that the "kid" referred to is her sister. Margie
leaves the flat at 5.30 P. M., for her home in Brooklyn, where she lives
with her parents. They are under the impression that she is employed
through the day in a wholesale millinery store downtown. The madame still
insisted that if the supposed prospective customer really wanted young and
pretty girls she could get them: "but," she added, "these girls come high,
five and ten dollars."
On November 6, 1911, a woman who was afterwards employed in this
investigation received a letter concerning a cider "stube" in a tenement
in East 5th Street.[44] The letter read as follows:
"Reading of your good work in lending your services to assist the
unfortunate creatures, I hope you will give your undivided attention,
for this certain woman[45] is engaged in this business for the last
seven years and is too shrewd to be caught. You will have to watch
carefully her movements. She keeps a cider store on East 5th Street,
New York.... Look up her record and you will see she was arrested a
few times.... She just was sentenced four months over the Island....
Please I beg you to look into this matter. I would give you my name,
but it is impossible for me to do so. I am a citizen of the U. S. A.
I know this place ruins many young girls."
At 12.30 P. M., February 22, 1912, the investigator found two women in
this place, by both of whom he was solicited to go to a rear room for
immoral purposes. When they failed in their efforts, the proprietor said
that she could get him a young girl if he preferred. Two days later the
resort was visited by another investigator, who found two women acting as
waitresses, by one of whom he was similarly solicited.
The various establishments above mentioned were all repeatedly visited in
order to show their relatively permanent character and their freedom from
interference: one[46] on Broadway was visited nine times in five weeks:
another,[47] in West 29th Street, five times between February 8 and August
19; a third,[48] in the same neighborhood, five times in four months.
(2) ASSIGNATION AND DISORDERLY HOTELS
The parlor house and the tenement vice resort are, like shops, fixed
places for the carrying on of prostitution as a trade. There is, besides,
an enormous amount of itinerant prostitution utilizing mainly disorderly
hotels. These places are commonly called "Raines Law" hotels.
The history of the creation of the "Raines Law" hotels in New York City is
exceedingly interesting. The primary object of the framer of the law was
to minimize the evils connected with saloons. As pointed out in the report
of The Research Committee of The Committee of Fourteen, issued in 1910
under the title of "The Social Evil in New York City, a study of Law
Enforcement,"[49]
"from the passage of this law dates the immediate growth of one of
the most insidious forms of the Social Evil. This growth was due to a
heavy increase in the penalties for a violation and the expected
increased enforcement of the law by state authorities beyond the
reach of local influences. To illustrate, the license tax was raised
from $200. to $800., and the penalty of the forfeiture of a bond was
also added.[50] To escape these drastic penalties for the selling of
liquor on Sunday in saloons, saloon keepers created hotels with the
required 10 bedrooms, kitchen and dining-room. The immediate increase
was over 10,000 bedrooms. There being no actual demand for such an
increase in hotel accommodations, the proprietors in many instances
used them for purposes of assignation or prostitution, to meet the
additional expense incurred. In 1905 there were 1407 certificated
hotels in Manhattan and the Bronx, and of these about 1150 were
probably liquor law hotels. In 1906 an important administrative
provision was added to the law. This amendment, known as the Prentice
Act, provided that hotels must be inspected and passed by the
Building Department as complying with the provisions of the law,
before a certificate could be issued to them. As a result of this new
legislation, 540 alleged hotels were discontinued in Manhattan and
the Bronx. A large number of these places, however, continued under
saloon licenses."
Since that time the fight against these vicious hotels on the part of the
Committee of Fourteen has been constant and effectual. As a result, the
business of prostitution as formerly carried on in them has been well-nigh
suppressed. Very few of the hotels found to be used for "assignation" and
"disorderly" purposes during the present investigation are ten-room
establishments. In 1912, 400 of the 425 ten-room hotels which now exist
were conducted as hotels for men only.[51]
A disorderly hotel, as we use the term, is one which violates Section 1146
of the Penal Law (keeping a disorderly house) by admitting the same woman
twice in one night with two different men, or by renting the same room
twice in one night to two different couples, or by regularly admitting
known and habitual prostitutes. An assignation hotel is one doing business
with transient couples, the women not necessarily being habitual
prostitutes.
According to the official records, there were 558 hotels in Manhattan in
1912 which were certificated under the Liquor Tax Law. This number
includes the legitimate commercial hotels as well as those which were the
outgrowth of the Liquor Law. During the period of this investigation in
1912, 103 hotels were found which are classed as being assignation places,
disorderly, or suspicious. Evidence was discovered which proved that
habitual prostitutes were openly soliciting men on the street and
elsewhere to go to 65 of these hotels for immoral purposes. A woman
investigator discovered 25 additional hotels where prostitutes declared
they could freely take customers or have them openly visit their
apartments or rooms. This gives a total of 90 different hotels in
Manhattan which may be classified as "disorderly." In addition to these,
seven different hotels were discovered which prostitutes claimed to be
able to use for immoral purposes, though admitting that they had to be
careful not to frequent them too often. In some of these places
prostitutes are not allowed to use a room more than twice during every
twenty-four hours, once during the day and again at night. There are six
very high-class hotels which prostitutes asserted to a woman investigator
they had used, or could use, under certain conditions. It is no uncommon
thing for the more prosperous and well-dressed prostitutes to solicit
trade in the lobbies of these hotels.
The hotels above referred to are situated in the following sections of
Manhattan: Sixth Avenue from West 23rd Street to West 46th Street; Eighth
Avenue from West 116th to West 125th Streets; the side streets between
Broadway and Sixth Avenue from West 34th to West 53rd Street; Lexington,
Third, and Fourth Avenues, and Irving Place. The centers where soliciting
for these hotels is most flagrant are as follows: East 14th Street and
Third Avenue, and north on Lexington Avenue; Sixth Avenue and West 28th
Street; Seventh Avenue and West 35th Street; Longacre Square to the east;
Columbus Avenue from West 60th to West 62nd Street; Eighth Avenue from
West 116th to West 125th Streets.
Of these resorts many are weather-beaten buildings, dirty and unsightly
without, unsanitary and filthy within. The small rooms are separated by
thin partitions through which even conversations in low tones can be
heard. The furniture is cheap and worn with constant use. A dilapidated
bureau or dresser occupies one corner; a rickety wash-stand equipped with
dirty wash bowl and pitcher stands in another. Cheap chromos hang on the
wall, dingy with age. A small, soiled rug partly covers the floor which is
seldom, if ever, scrubbed with soap and water. The air is foul and heavy
with unpleasant odors, for the windows are rarely opened. The awnings that
shut out the light are seldom lifted; they are sign-posts to the
initiated, hanging mute and weather-beaten all the year round.
During the fall of 1907 a large number of parlor houses in the Tenderloin
were raided and closed through the combined efforts of the Police
Commissioner and the District Attorney's office. Some of these houses had
been operated by men who subsequently transferred their activities to
"hotels," where they continued to practise their former methods. Others
took their women with them, lodging them in the "hotels," paying them
certain commissions, and treating them in the same manner as in the house.
A group of women thus attached to a "hotel" solicit for it on the street
or in the rear rooms of saloons.
Between the proprietors of these "hotels" there is great business
rivalry. They constantly try to induce prostitutes attached to other
resorts to patronize their place of business and become "regulars." They
even go so far as to hire young men to make friends with the women and to
offer them large commissions and better protection than they can secure
elsewhere. At times, saloon keepers who allow prostitutes to solicit in
their rear rooms do so on condition that the women take customers secured
in their places of business to friendly hotels. For instance, the owner of
a notorious saloon in East 14th Street demands that the women in his rear
room take their customers to a certain hotel on Third Avenue. If one
should break the compact and go to a rival place, she would be thereafter
debarred, as if she had violated a code of honor.
Most of the solicitation for "hotels" is nowadays done on the street. Even
here the proprietor attempts to keep his women in line. He sets spies at
work to see that they take the trade where it belongs. The young men so
employed are often the "pimps" of the street walkers, keen to see that
their women do not "get away with any money" by going to a strange hotel,
from which they cannot collect the commission. A young man of this
character stations himself near the entrance of a certain hotel on the
Bowery and, as his woman enters with a customer, carefully takes a pin
from the right lapel of his coat and puts it on the left lapel. Woe to the
woman if she fails to produce the money represented by the accumulation of
the pins in the left lapel, when the business of the night is over!
When the street walkers of certain hotels are arrested, the proprietor
hastens to court to pay the fines, should such be imposed, or offer bail
so that the girls may return to their "duties." In some cases he insists
on repayment of the money he has advanced; and the girl is grateful
because he has saved her from the Island. If a girl "breaks away" from a
hotel and goes to a rival place of business the proprietor will go so far
as to have her arrested again and again to teach her the lesson of
"loyalty." In some cases she is glad to return to his good graces,
especially if she finds herself on the Island.
There are many street walkers who are "free lances," taking their trade to
the hotel which offers the best inducements. They realize that they are
adrift--with no one but their "pimp" to protect them. And "pimps" are
usually admirable protectors, masters of the art of "saving" their women
from the hand of the law. They are keen, wise young men, well grounded in
the business of exploiting the girls of the street at the least possible
expense. Some of them are known as "gun men," "strong arm guys,"
"guerillas," and do effective work for politicians.
The prostitutes who are attached to certain hotels, as well as those who
go from place to place with their trade are often given "rebates" or
"commissions" on all the business they bring in. The rebate system was
found to exist in 21 of the 65 hotels to which investigators were
solicited to go for immoral purposes. If a customer pays $2.00 for a room,
the prostitute receives $1.00 as a rebate. If, when in the room, he orders
wine or beer, the girl receives another rebate or commission on the amount
of the bill. Sometimes it is ten per cent, sometimes twenty-five per
cent: this, in addition to her own price, which varies from $1.00 to
$5.00, or as much as she is able to persuade the customer to give her.
Many hotels have rebate clerks whose duty it is to keep the accounts of
the girls and pay them the commissions due them. This is a very important
branch of the business; for if the solicitor is satisfied and is making
"good money," she feels like continuing her patronage and "hustling" all
the harder for her hotel.
Some of the disorderly hotels have two registration books, one of which is
used for entering single visits during a period of twenty-four hours, the
other to register the number of times different rooms are used during the
same period. The first book is the one displayed to inquisitive
investigators or inspectors. In some resorts there is a regular office, as
in a legitimate hotel, where couples register at the desk; in others, a
small window is all that can be seen. The clerk pushes the book through
the opening and the man registers, often without seeing the clerk's face.
The woman is not seen by the clerk at all, as she stands in the shadow
away from the window.
Disorderly hotels offer a comparatively safe place in which to commit
crimes of one kind or another. A well-known hotel referred to on another
page has been the scene of murder. But the chief crime is stealing. The
most successful prostitutes who solicit for these hotels are "gun mols,"
that is, pickpockets. They use all manner of subterfuges to "lift" the
"roll" from the pockets of their customers. When their victim is heavy and
sleepy from drink, they usually succeed, getting away before he realizes
his loss.
But the hotel is utilized not only by the criminal prostitute: it is too
often the scene of first seduction. A young, weak, and foolish girl is
induced to dine, then to drink, with a comparative stranger who has first
taken pains to ingratiate himself with her: without recollection of what
has taken place in the interval, she awakens next morning amid the totally
strange surroundings of a hotel of this character.
A brief description of a typical assignation and disorderly hotel will
illustrate some of the general observations above made:
A Third Avenue hotel[52] has had an interesting and varied history. The
ground is owned by citizens who are well known in social and financial
circles. The name of the place has been changed since 1906-7, but the same
proprietor conducts the establishment. Once he ran a house in the old
Eldridge precinct, later another in East 9th Street. When these places
were suppressed, he opened the hotel here in question. He and his
manager[53] were both members of the Independent Benevolent Association in
1909. For some years this hotel has been on the Police List as under
"strict surveillance"; now and then it has been raided. As far back as
1906 one of the agents of an investigation then in progress was told by a
prostitute that detectives had informed the girls that if they resorted to
this hotel they would not be molested; whether this is true or not, the
fact remains that the hotel was still doing business during the period of
this investigation.
On January 26, 1912, an investigator was solicited in the rear room of a
notorious saloon on East 14th Street by "Pearl," who said she would have
to take him to the hotel in question. Knowing the history of the resort,
he accompanied the girl to the sitting-room in order to see if conditions
were still the same; while there he talked with two other girls who are
attached to the place. Thus he ascertained that the proprietor has two
relays of solicitors, one group on the street from early morning until
night, the other group on duty all night. To see that they attend strictly
to business, a young man is employed to watch them at their work. If the
girls enter into a dispute with customers over terms, the assistant
endeavors to straighten out the difficulty. If they are arrested, he
informs his employer, who, in turn, goes to the court and does what he can
to secure their release. Mamie and Mary both stated that the rebate clerk
gives them all amounts over $1.00 which their customers pay for rooms. In
case customers buy wine at $5.00 per bottle, the girls receive $2.00 per
bottle as a commission.[54]
(3) FURNISHED ROOM HOUSES
In addition to the more elaborate establishments already described,
furnished rooms frequently serve their occupants as vice resorts. During
the period of this investigation 112 furnished room assignation houses
were discovered. The majority of these are within the following
boundaries: First Avenue, Houston Street, the Bowery, and Avenue B;
Second Avenue, 27th Street, Seventh Avenue, 31st Street; 33rd Street,
Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street; Third Avenue, 27th Street, Seventh Avenue,
31st Street; Eighth Avenue, 33rd Street; Seventh Avenue, 42nd Street. The
places are particularly dangerous because a stranger, seeking inexpensive
board and lodging, has no way to ascertain their character: an innocent
girl may thus unwittingly find herself in the most demoralizing
surroundings.
Prostitutes do not necessarily live in the furnished room house. They may
simply have an understanding with the madame, who, in reality, conducts an
assignation house run on the same principle as a hotel, but without
register or clerk. The price of the room is determined by the "privileges"
for which the girl stipulates,--usually to the effect that, though not
resident, she may bring "friends" there at any hour of the day or night.
In some houses the prostitute pays $2.00 per night; elsewhere the landlady
demands as much as $3.00 per night, or half of what the prostitute earns.
In this way a large weekly rental is secured for very inferior quarters.
Once possessing such a room with "privileges," the prostitute solicits or
picks up customers on the street, and in public places of all sorts, such
as dance halls, restaurants, and the rear rooms of saloons.
The women who use the furnished room houses are divided into three
classes. The first are the occasional or clandestine prostitutes, to whom
the furnished room offers a more secret place than the hotel for both the
woman and the man. The second are regular prostitutes who use hotel and
room alternately. They prefer to go to the hotel, as they declare it is
safer. "We are protected in the hotel," they say; "the proprietor knows us
and you won't be molested." But customers who object to hotels are taken
to her furnished room if the girl is not suspicious. The third class, who
use the furnished rooms almost exclusively, are women who are nearing the
end of their vogue as professional prostitutes. Rejected by hotels because
they are dirty, diseased, or in the last stages of drug and liquor habits,
these outcasts from the prosperous marts of trade escort their prey to
their own miserable quarters.
A few illustrations of the manner in which the furnished room trade works
will suffice:
A house of this character in West 31st Street[55] is one of the most
notorious in the city. Late at night, August 23rd, 1912, it was entered by
a large number of couples from a dance hall near by; subsequently, one of
the men, about forty-five years of age, complained to the investigator
that he had been robbed there that night. Four evenings later, eight
different prostitutes entered with their customers in the course of less
than five minutes. Shortly after, a colored maid from the house applied to
a saloon near by to change two five-dollar bills. During the conversation
she told the bartender, from whom she frequently bought liquor for the
guests, that the rooms in the house were nearly all taken.
At 11 P. M. on March 19, 1912, several prostitutes were soliciting on
Third and Lexington Avenues for a furnished room house in East 116th
Street.[56] They each pay the landlord $2.00 per night for room and
"privileges." One of these women appeared to be about twenty-one years of
age. "I pay $2.00 per night for my room," she said, "and bring in as many
men as I can grab. Whenever I am ready to quit for the night I meet my
'fellow' and we go there to sleep."
A furnished room house in West 40th Street[57] is surrounded by tenements
in which many white and colored families are living. On February 9, 1912,
two colored women stood in the doorway, soliciting men as they passed by.
As the investigator approached, two white children about ten and twelve
years of age respectively, stood a few feet away listening to what was
said.
(4) MASSAGE PARLORS
The massage parlor, so-called, is the last of the resorts to be dealt
with. It is estimated that there are over 300 so-called massage parlors in
Manhattan, a large part of which are believed to be vice resorts: only 75,
however, were actually investigated in the course of this study and this
is the number used in calculating the number of vice resorts in Manhattan.
Our investigation was thus restricted because of the peculiar difficulties
involved in ascertaining the real character of many of these
establishments. Some are transparent enough: others can be uncovered only
by a customer. Our workers were instructed that it was not desired to
attempt an extended investigation of every place. They were told to learn
the nature of the massage given, the equipment, prices, the bearing,
attire, and general behavior of the operatives. On the basis of these
data they were to form an estimate as to whether or not conditions were
suspicious. From earlier investigations and reports it was already
believed that in nine cases out of ten the practices in these places are
immoral and degrading to the last degree.
A large number of massage parlors are located on the upper floors of
buildings on Sixth and Columbus Avenues and on the side streets from West
23rd Street to West 80th Street. They are indicated by means of large
signs displayed in the windows or tacked on the doors. These places also
advertise in a weekly paper published on Saturdays and offered for sale at
five cents per copy on news-stands in hotels and other public places.
The rooms are usually equipped with high couches, bureaus displaying comb,
brush, alcohol, and powder, and with wash stands. A manicure table is
often placed by the window,--on it a set of instruments used in caring for
the nails. In these places the operators insist that they give straight
massage and that they do not conduct an immoral business. In other
parlors, the sign on the window or door is the only evidence that such
treatment is given. These are openly disorderly, no apparent effort being
made to conceal the fact. The prices charged range from two dollars to
five dollars, according to the service demanded.
Not a few former madames of houses of prostitution have established vice
resorts under the guise of massage parlors for the purpose of continuing
in business after their houses were closed by action of the law. Into
these resorts they bring their former inmates, who now pose as experts in
the art of scientific massage. In the matter of securing new girls, the
keeper of a massage parlor has a great advantage; for she openly
advertises in the daily papers for girls to learn the "business of
massage," or for those who have had experience in this or that method of
massage as practiced in foreign lands. The advertisements state the age of
the girl wanted and the weekly salary. As a result, many unsuspecting
girls, answering advertisements, come into personal contact with
well-dressed and apparently respectable proprietors. If the girl appears
to be weak and easily led, the keeper begins by asking her how much money
she has been in the habit of making each week; then remarks smilingly that
some of her former operatives have made four or five times as much by not
"being too particular." She describes in a general way what she means by
"too particular." "Her customers," she says, "are often very rich and
generous; if a girl is attentive and jolly, these men will give her
generous prices and tips, and thus she can 'coin' money."
It is only just to say that not all massage parlors are of the type
described above. Some are legitimate and render scientific service to men
and women who are actually ill. If the proprietors of such places would
escape the general condemnation of their business, they should voluntarily
seek the endorsement of respectable physicians and engage operatives who
have _bona fide_ certificates showing that they have spent a certain
period of time in recognized institutions in preparation for their
calling.
A few examples only need be given:
Margaret,[58] proprietress of a massage parlor on Sixth Avenue,[59] spent
the evening of May 10, 1912, at a cafe in West 45th Street.[60] She
admitted that business had latterly not been brisk: it had become
difficult to get suitable operatives. The men who were procuring girls for
her were becoming afraid to go after "young girls" and she did not want
any "old ones." "Some fools," she said, "are writing stories about young
girls being sold into slavery and even country girls are getting wise and
think the men are going to put them into prison instead of giving them a
chance to make a little money for themselves. That sort of thing only
happens in the lower class of places. I have a nice business and nice men
and I give the girl one dollar out of every two and three, and two dollars
out of five, and half of anything over that. I had two girls; but one left
me the other night because I would not let her take 'dope.' There comes a
time with these 'dope fiends' when it interferes with business and they
have to cut it out."
By way of inducement, Margaret invited the investigator, who was a woman,
to work in her massage parlor the following Saturday and Sunday, offering
to allow her to keep all she made: she "had to have an operative to help
take care of her regular Saturday and Sunday customers"; by the following
week she felt sure that her procurer would have a girl for her. The
investigator called at the parlor early the following week to ascertain
what had happened. She found that the house had been sold and that the new
landlord had raised the rent for the "parlor" occupied by Margaret from
$60 to $75 per month. Thereupon Margaret had moved out, going to the
beach to open a temporary house for the summer.
Massage parlors are not uncommonly found in tenements,--there is one, for
instance, in such a building in West 47th Street.[61] Two operatives were
employed there with a madame[62] in April, 1912. Different resorts in this
tenement have been reported to the Tenement House Department several times
by the police, and arrests have been made here as far back as 1909.
A former member of the Chicago Vice Commission was in New York City in
April. His experience in studying conditions in the former city had made
him watchful and suspicious. One day he noticed a number of working girls,
young, and foreign in type, climbing the stairs of a building in West 43rd
Street.[63] As the girls came down some appeared to be disappointed, as
though they had not been successful in their errand, whatever it might be.
His interest was aroused. Observing a massage sign on the second floor, he
concluded that the girls had been answering an advertisement to call at
this place of business. An investigation thus started resulted in securing
the following facts:
On April 3, 1912, a morning newspaper contained the following
advertisement under the classification of "Help Wanted--Female."
"Girl for light housework, not under 18; $7 to $9 a week. Mrs.[64]
----, ---- West 43rd Street, 2 flights up."
Later in the day a young woman investigator was sent to the address
with a copy of the advertisement. She was greeted at the door by the
woman, who soon disclosed the character of the place. In reply to the
inquiries of the investigator, she explained the nature of the
business: her customers paid from two to ten dollars, the girls
receiving approximately one-half. An inmate had earned $48 in a week:
but a girl's usefulness is brief, for frequent changes are necessary
in order to retain the trade.
On the same date a morning paper published in the German language
printed the following advertisement under the classification,
"_Verlangt Weiblich_."[65] "Girl, neat, German, not under 18 years of
age. One who knows how to massage or one who is willing to learn.
Wages paid while learning. Inquire Mrs.[66] ----, ---- West 43rd
Street, two flights up." This is the massage parlor described above.
On April 9, 1912, the same investigator received the following letter
from the proprietor of the parlor:
"_Dear Mrs. ----_:
"If you have not taken any position yet, would you kindly call
on me?
"Respectfully,
(Signed) "----."
A week later the investigator called again, finding the establishment
still in operation, with a new assistant, procured through the
landlord. With a little prodding, the garrulous madame resumed her
confidences, explaining the process of "fixing up" girls so as to
appear young, and other details of her nefarious occupation.
In the foregoing pages we have circumstantially described the more
prominent forms taken by vice in New York City. It is surely no
exaggeration to maintain that the evidence submitted proves that
prostitution in New York City is widely and openly exploited as a business
enterprise.[67] The exploiters, the scenes of their operations, their
methods, their associations, and their victims are all equally notorious.
It is idle to explain away the phenomena on the ground that they are the
results of the inevitable weakness of human nature: human weakness would
demand far fewer and less horrible sacrifices. Most of the wreckage, and
the worst of it, is due to persistent, cunning and unprincipled
exploitation: to the banding together in infamous enterprises of madame,
pimp, procurer, brothel-keeper, and liquor vender to deliberately carry on
a cold-blooded traffic for their joint profit,--a traffic, be it added,
from which the girl involved procures at the most, with few exceptions,
her bare subsistence, and that, only so long as she has a trade value.