The dance houses differ from the concert saloons in this respect, that
they are one grade lower both as regards the inmates and the visitors,
and that dancing as well as drinking is carried on in them. They are
owned chiefly by men, though there are some which are the property of and
are managed by women. They are located in the worst quarters of the
city, generally in the streets near the East and North rivers, in order
to be easy of access to the sailors.
The buildings are greatly out of repair, and have a rickety, dirty
appearance. The main entrance leads to a long, narrow hall, the floor of
which is well sanded. The walls are ornamented with flashy prints, and
the ceiling with colored tissue paper cut in various fantastic shapes.
There is a bar at the farther end of the room, which is well stocked with
the meanest liquors, and chairs and benches are scattered about.
From five to a dozen women, so bloated and horrible to look upon, that a
decent man shudders with disgust as he beholds them, are lounging about
the room. They have reached the last step in the downward career of
fallen women, and will never leave this place until they are carried from
it to their graves, which are not far distant. They are miserably clad,
and are nearly always half crazy with liquor. They are cursed and kicked
about by the brutal owner of the place, and suffer still greater
violence, at times, in the drunken brawls for which these houses are
famous. Their sleeping rooms are above. They are sought by sailors and
by the lowest and most degraded of the city population. They are the
slaves of their masters. They have no money of their own. He claims a
part of their infamous earnings, and demands the rest for board and
clothes. Few have the courage to fly from these hells, and if they make
the attempt, they are forced back by the proprietor, who is frequently
aided in this unholy act by the law of the land. They cannot go into the
streets naked, and he claims the clothes on their backs as his property.
If they leave the premises with these clothes on, he charges them with
theft.
Let no one suppose that these women entered upon this grade of their
wretched life voluntarily. Many were drugged and forced into it, but the
majority are lost women who have come regularly down the ladder to this
depth. You can find in these hells women who, but a few years ago, were
ornaments of society. No woman who enters upon a life of shame can hope
to avoid coming to these places in the end. As sure as she takes the
first step in sin, she will take this last one also, struggle against it
as she may. This is the last depth. It has but one bright ray in all
its darkness--it does not last over a few months, for death soon ends it.
But, O, the horrors of such a death! No human being who has not looked
on such a death-bed can imagine the horrible form in which the Great
Destroyer comes. There is no hope. The poor wretch passes from untold
misery in this life to the doom which awaits those who die in their sins.
The keepers of these wretched places use every art to entice young and
innocent women into their dens, where they are ruined by force. The
police frequently rescue women from them who have been enticed into them
or carried there by force. Emigrant girls, who have strolled from the
depot at Castle Garden into the lower part of the city, are decoyed into
these places by being promised employment. Men and women are sent into
the country districts to ensnare young girls to these city hells.
Advertisements for employment are answered by these wretches, and every
art is exhausted in the effort to draw pure women within the walls of the
dance house. Let such a woman once cross the threshold, and she will be
drugged or forced to submit to her ruin. This accomplished, she will not
be allowed to leave the place until she has lost all hope of giving up
the life into which she has been driven.
The Missionaries' are constant visitors to these dens. They go with hope
that they may succeed in rescuing some poor creature from her terrible
life. As a rule, they meet with the vilest abuse, and are driven away
with curses, but sometimes they are successful. During the present
winter they have succeeded in effecting a change for the better in one of
the most notorious women in Water street.
[Picture: NOONDAY PRAYER MEETING AT WATER STREET HOME.]