ALL NIGHT SALOONS--CHARACTER OF--THIEVES, THUGS AND PROSTITUTES
IN--VISITORS--COUNTRY BUYERS, TRANSIENTS, DELEGATES, YOUTH AND OLD
AGE--WOMEN IN--CHARACTER OF--BASEMENT SALOONS--SCENES IN--PRIVATE
ROOMS--SCENES IN ALL NIGHT SALOONS--DANCING--MUSIC--MORNING
HOURS--ROBBERIES, ETC., PLANNED--GIRLS ENTRAPPED--YOUNG MEN
RUINED--QUARRELS--RAIDS--DRINKING--SURROUNDINGS OF--HOUSES OF ILL
FAME--ASSIGNATION HOUSES--SLUMMING PARTIES--FADS--SALVATION AND
VOLUNTEER ARMY--INMATES OF--HOW MANAGED--PRACTICES IN--
SUPERSTITIONS--LUCK POWDERS--SOURCES OF SUPPLY--PATRONS OF--
WHOLESALE HOUSE ENTERTAINERS--POLICE PROTECTION--DISEASES--
ATTEMPTS AT REFORM--PEOPLE INDIFFERENT.
The breeding ground of disorder and crime is to be found in the all night
saloons.
Despite the stringent ordinances prohibiting the "open door" after
midnight, in the most dissolute districts throughout the city, along the
streets and avenues of the north, west and south divisions, under ground
and on its surface, these dens invite the depraved of both sexes to enter,
remain, dissipate and carouse through the night. Murders, robberies and
assaults are the necessary outcome of the unlimited drinking, the ribald
language, the senseless jealousies, and the heated passions of the motley
crowds which are at all times the fascinated patrons of these joints. A
more rigid rule has recently been applied to the larger of the down town,
or business district, basement saloons. Music is prohibited, and the
closing midnight hour respected. These are but the depots for the all
night saloons. When they close, the gathered crowds of dissolute women
dissolve and betake themselves to the after midnight haunts, there to
continue their calling--the solicitation of male visitors for drinks,
meals and the ultimate purpose of their solicitation--prostitution. The
male frequenters of these resorts belong to all classes of society. The
"steady" visitors are thieves, thugs, pickpockets, gamblers, variety
actors, "rounders," that large and constantly growing class in great
cities which is ceaselessly observing the shady side of life, "seeing the
elephant," and not infrequently becoming intimately acquainted with the
beast, and pimps, who fatten upon the sinful earnings of abandoned women,
whose fondness for their masters increases in proportion to the violence
the masters visit upon their slaves. The transient custom is comprised of
not only the old rounder, but also of those of younger experience,
bursting, or not far advanced, into manhood; those who with a wide
knowledge of the ways and wickedness of the world, more than their years
warrant, are out for a "good time;" the observer of those ways; the
"chiels" who are among them taking notes; clerks, cabmen and their
"hauls;" the country buyer under the guidance of the entertainer of the
wholesale house with whom the buyer is dealing; the delegates to
conventions, out to view the town; the passer through the burg who has
heard of the lights and shadows of Chicago; the swallow-tailed youth, and
the middle-aged gentleman fresh from escorting to her home the virtuous
female companion of the evening's entertainment, the melodrama, the opera,
or the social function. The women range from the one who has just
"started out" to the most despicable and depraved member of the sex. The
former is the observed of all observers, the object of conspicuous
attention, and a veritable prize to be won by the most dashing attack and
the most liberal offer. She is under the tuition of her female guide, who
instructs her "what she has to do that she may not be raw in her
entertainment."
The basement saloons in the down town district with their brilliant
electric lighting equipment, their reflecting mirrors and hardwood
finishings, combine, in most instances, the facilities of the rum shop and
the restaurant.
Here, from noon hour of the day until midnight, come and go the "sporty"
women, who have not yet reached the lower degree of a brothel, the
"roomers," "the cruisers" of the street, the so-called keepers of manicure
parlors, baths and dressmaking establishments, all bent upon a "mash" in
its broadest sense, or a "pick up" of any male greenhorn, or sport, who
can be ensnared by their wiles. Maintaining a semblance of decorum, they
pass the earlier hours of the evening in drinking with the "guests" and
in flitting about from table to table, with which each place is abundantly
supplied. The conversation is loud, and at times boisterous. Its subject
matter is beyond repetition in polite circles. Lecherous glances,
libidinous gestures, open invitations, characterize the behavior of the
audience. Sometimes personal liberties are attempted, but invariably
suppressed by the management. From the private rooms come sounds of
hilarity, and the intermixture of words of protest, inducement and
vulgarity. The withdrawals of couples are marked, and their early return
and ruffled appearance suggest patronage of not distant "hotels," where no
questions are asked. Generally, as the midnight hour approaches, the crowd
decreases, signs of intoxication increase, and the exodus to the all night
resorts is about completed as that hour is struck.
When the downtown basement resorts close, the profitable work of the all
night joints commences. The attendants in them are joined by squads from
the more pretentious and less favored half-night competitors. These
resorts, as a rule, are all equipped with private rooms, and many of
them, in summer, have a so-called garden attached. Some have vaudeville
performances to attract crowds, which end after the midnight hour. Many
have a "Ladies' Entrance," but most visitors pass through the bar to the
sitting room beyond. The so-called music of the cracked piano and strident
male voices now commences, and the hat is passed around by the artists and
performers, for contributions for payment for their services, the "house"
paying nothing for such services, but permitting the artists to "work" the
crowd. Boys of sixteen, and under, join in the gaieties as buck, wing and
jig dancers, and also pass the hat. As the hours lengthen, as the liquor
begins its effect, freedom of action enlarges, and restraint is removed.
Those attitudes at table indicative of respectability are abandoned for
others hinting at the widest license, or actually, which is not
infrequently the case, illustrating that license, so far as familiarities
of the person are concerned. The dance begins, with all its contortions of
the body derived from the couche-couchee exhibitions of the World's Fair
times, enlarged upon by the grossness of the two-step waltz of the slums.
Strolling bands of negro musicians, scraping the violin and strumming the
guitar and mandolin, or the home orchestra, composed of these dusky
minstrels, add their alleged harmonies to the occasion, and, with nasal
expression, roll of coon songs in the popular rag time, with their
intimations of free love, warmth of passion and disregard of moral
teachings. At times, with assumed pathos and mock dignity they warble a
sentimental song with some allusion to "Mother," "Home," or "Just Tell
Them That You Saw Me." The spree goes on, with fresh additions from the
bagnios. Women with the most repulsive signs of prolonged dissipation, of
advanced disease, with the upper parts of the body exposed, not perhaps
more than is customary at a fashionable charity ball, join in with
salacious abandon. These women, in the phrase of the Bard of Avon, belong
to the class of the "custom shrunk," of one of whom a Roman satirist
wrote:
"* * * but now,
That life is flagging at the goal, and like
An unstrung lute, her limbs are out of tune,
She is become so lavish of her presence,
That being daily swallowed by men's eyes
They surfeit at the sight.
She's grown companion to the common streets--
Want her who will, a stater, a three obolo piece,
Or a mere draught of wine, brings her to hand!
Nay! place a silver stiver in your palm,
And, shocking tameness! She will stoop forthwith
To pick it out."
As the morning hours draw nigh blear-eyed men and women in all stages of
intoxication, creep to their holes to sleep away the day for a renewal of
their orgies when darkness again falls.
In these all night saloons robberies and burglaries are planned, and
hold-ups arranged for. To them young girls are enticed when homeward bound
from summer gardens and midwinter balls. Plans are laid for their ruin
through drink, and the excitement of an experience new to them, which hide
from their view all danger signals. Women are beaten and stabbed in them.
Here young men begin their careers of dissipation, of lechery, and,
perhaps, of crime, amid surroundings so contrary to the examples of home
life, that before they are aware of it, they have become hopelessly
enamored of what is termed a sporting life.
The flippantly spoken word provokes a heated reply, a jealous woman,
surcharged with drink, precipitates a squabble that swells into a free
fight, a free fight brings an indiscriminate firing of revolvers, and the
consequent death--the murder--of some of the rioters follows. Then, and
not until then, do the police raid the place. For a few weeks it is kept
under the ban, but gradually the law's grip is relaxed, signs of the old
life revive, and soon the same scenes made more joyous and boisterous at
the "new opening" are again enacted, to run the same course until another
felony is committed, and another temporary closing of the doors enforced.
That the all night saloon where such depravity is permitted to hold sway
is a menace to the peace, the sobriety, and the safety of the community,
is a self evident proposition.
A minister in one of his sermons said, "The police wink when you call
their attention to the fact that hundreds of saloons are running wide open
all night. It is after midnight that the majority of the crimes are
committed, and yet these places are allowed to run after hours, and have
the protection of the police."
The beardless boy and the habitual drunkard are, alike, supplied with
drink without question. The former is flattered by being called "a dead
game sport," and the latter tickled with the oft-bestowed title of "old
sport."
Many of these notorious dens are located in the midst of a forest of
houses of ill fame. The depraved inmates of these houses, partly clad, are
the most indecent visitors to the all night saloons. Perched upon the bar,
or peering out from the private wine rooms, they shout their infamous
language at the visitors, with invitations to indulgence in the most
bestial of practices.
Slumming parties, composed of respectable men and women whose morbid
curiosity has been aroused by tales of the inconceivable vices forming the
night-life of the demi-monde, are not infrequently found "going down the
line" dropping into the houses of prostitution, viewing the bar, the
private rooms, the dance hall, the crap games and the vicious
surroundings of the all night pest holes. To slum has, in a measure,
become a fashionable fad. Its purpose is, not to carry into these haunts
the example of a better life, but to cater to a dangerous spirit of
inquiry, upon the principle that excitement, even though it be found in
the midst of the garbage boxes of vice, is relished now and then by the
best of mankind. The only indication of a world outside, in which
Christian principles prevail, is occasionally to be found, when some of
the women garbed in the simple uniform of either the Salvation or
Volunteer Army, engaged in rescue work, or in scattering a hopeful word,
through the medium of their publications, pass among the crowd, receiving
in most instances respectful attention, and, at times, but rarely, a jeer
from some drunken sot or wrecked woman.
The houses of ill fame, whose stained glass windows with suggestive female
figures in the nude advertise the abode of the scarlet woman, are as
luxuriously furnished as is the home of the wealthy and respectable
citizen. These "creatures of sale," as Shakespeare puts it, are as
clearly distinguished in public as members of the demi-monde, as if the
Julian laws were in operation in Chicago. In early Rome, under these laws,
the courtesan was compelled to dye her hair blue or yellow. Like the
Grecian courtesan whose distinctive mark of her calling was blonde hair,
the strumpet of today generally favors a fashion coming down from the past
ages. The passer-by of these abodes of sensuality is invited by open
solicitation or unmistakable gesture to enter them, especially by the more
degraded of the women. A studied decorum is maintained in some of the
parlors of the older establishments, presided over by a proprietress
advanced in years, plentiful in wealth, and dictatorial in management.
Harsh rules are prescribed for the maintenance of the condition of slavery
into which the girls have fallen. Debts to the house tie them to it by
bands too strong to be easily broken, in what are termed the aristocratic
branches of this nefarious trade. These women are none the less free from
indulgence in unnatural practices than are those of houses of reputed
lower degrees of depravity. White and colored alike revel in the same
scenes of carnality which, fragments of history state, prevailed in the
declining days of Rome and of Greece. The inmates of the lowest of these
houses, both in dress, or in the absence of it, and in deportment, follow
the habits of the Dicteriades, or low down prostitutes, of Piræus in the
time of Pericles. Their appearance in the reception parlors in a state of
nudity, and their filthiness in practice is a renewal of the habits of the
Lesbian lovers of the fifth century; or of the flute players of the
Athenian banquets, accounts of whose indecent dancing and depraved ways
are found in the most erotic chapters in ancient literature. From them
come the terms applying to the devotees in these days of sodomitic
indulgence, forming part of the slang of the neighborhood where they live
a debauched and beastly existence.
The superstitions of the Grecian and Roman courtesan are carried into the
beliefs of those of modern days. What the philters or love charms were to
the former, luck powders are to the latter. They are known along the levee
as "Sally White's Brand" and "Sally White's Mixed Luck." The former is
regarded as particularly lucky. It is a compound of "Sally's" own
prescription, and is secretly sprinkled on the floor, at stated periods,
as luck is sought after, or is burned in a room and the fumes inhaled. The
latter is a mixture of perfumed oils and is used in the bath. The women
are the frequent buyers of Sally's prescriptions, avoiding purchasing on a
Friday.
The sources from which come the supply to the ranks of courtesans, whether
inmates of the aristocratic, the middle, or the lowest grades of their
temples of vice, are many, various and damnable. Aside from the mere
desire to gratify passion, which medical writers maintain constitutes but
a small percentage of those who join the army of prostitutes, attributable
to an innate sense of virtue in the modern woman, cabmen, in spite of the
municipal ordinances, have been known to drive women entering the city to
these brothels on the pretext they were hotels. The procuress is at work
all the while.
"Thou hold'st a place for which the paind'st fiend
Of hell would not in reputation change.
Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every
Coistril that comes inquiring for his Tib;
To the choleric fisting of every rogue
Thy ear is liable; thy food is such
As hath been belched on by infected lungs."
The department stores, in which starvation wages are paid to girls and
women, who are subjected to the attentions of designing men, invited to
lunch, induced to drink; whose love for dress and whose vanity are worked
upon; those whose want of education in the relations of the sexes brings
about their speedy fall; the servant turned out from her employment ruined
by her employer or his son; the seamstress; the victims of unhappy
marriages and cruel homes; those compelled by poverty or necessity, and
who support dependent relatives; the "chippies" of modern days; the
massage parlor graduates; all contribute their distressed quotas to this
ever increasing tribe of prostitutes.
It gathers in recruits from the overflow of the assignation houses, which
are scattered over this city in astonishing profusion. They are found in
boulevard castles and in back alley huts. They do not differ in character
from those of all cities. Through them come the cast-off women, who,
having satisfied the temporary infatuation of their seducers, find
themselves victims of false promises, and the graduates from homes wrecked
by the discovery of their daylight intrigues. So relentless a warfare is
waged upon these private, and in some instances most exclusive, resorts,
by the lynx-eyed police, that in the year 1897, nineteen keepers of such
places were arrested! Some improvement is noticeable in their suppression
from the fact that in 1894 seventeen, in 1895 five, and in 1896 fifteen
keepers were arrested! Interference with this style of accommodation is,
therefore, possible in Chicago, at or about the time of the arrival of the
millennium!
Singular to say there are moralists who assign the prostitute a position
of usefulness in modern civilization. One of the most distinguished of
English writers, in tracing the effects of Christianity upon mankind and
its beneficent influences in social life, says: "Under these circumstances
there has arisen in society a figure which is certainly the most
mournful, and, in some respects, the most awful upon which the eye of the
moralist can dwell. That unhappy being whose very name is a shame to
speak, who counterfeits, with a cold heart, the transports of affection,
and submits herself as a passive instrument of lust, who is scorned and
insulted as the vilest of her sex, and doomed for the most part to disease
and abject wretchedness, and an early death, appears in every age as the
perpetual symbol of the degradation and the sinfulness of man. Herself the
supreme type of vice, she is ultimately the most efficient guardian of
virtue. But for her the unchallenged purity of countless happy homes would
be polluted, and not a few, who in the pride of their untempted chastity
think of her with an indignant shudder, would have known the agony of
remorse and of despair. On that one degraded and ignoble form are
concentrated the passions that might have filled the world with shame.
She remains, while creeds and civilizations rise and fade, the external
priestess of humanity, blasted for the sins of the people."
The entertainer of the wholesale house who conducts his country customer
to see the sights of the town, whenever and wherever such sights are to be
seen, "where everything goes," pays the expenses of the round of
debauchery from the fund provided by his firm; while from the floating,
passing, male visitors, no less than from the resident male dwellers,
young and old, rich and poor, come the thousands of dollars which go to
the support of the lewd woman of the town, from the street walker, up
through the mistresses and the shady wives, to the best dressed and most
brazen wanton in the palaces--the "swell" houses so styled. The
unrevealable indecencies which attend these infamous resorts are within
the knowledge of the police, under any and every municipal administration.
At times their pressure upon these unfortunates is heavier than at others.
The necessity of raising campaign funds, the personal wants of the
blackmailers of the police force, the revenges to be gratified for some
jealousy aroused, or favor refused, all contribute to increase the weight
of oppression. Meanwhile, in the absence of municipal regulations, which
seem abhorrent to the average American mind as a recognition of the
legalization of vice, diseases are wide spread, until, in the language of
a distinguished physician, the most destructive of them have reached the
blood of "the best and noblest families of the land." Lecky, in his
History of European Morals, speaking of the horrible effects incident to
the non-regulation of houses of this character, says: "In the eyes of
every physician, and, indeed, in the eyes of most continental writers who
have adverted to the subject, no other feature of English life appears so
infamous as the fact that an epidemic, which is one of the most dreadful
now existing among mankind, which communicates itself from the guilty
husband to the innocent wife, and even transmits its taint to her
offspring, and which the experience of other nations conclusively proves
may be vastly eliminated, should be suffered to rage unchecked, because
the legislature refuses to take official cognizance of its existence, or
proper sanitary measures for its repression."
The protests of Christian organizations and of societies for the
suppression of vice seem to be in vain. The city ordinances prohibiting,
for instance, the employment of females in massage parlors patronized by
men, and others, intended to keep the conduct of all manufactories of vice
within limits, if not to accomplish their suppression, are not attempted
to be enforced.
Some mitigation of the evils of police aggression has been brought about,
as has been observed, by placing police magistrates under a salary
sufficiently large to induce them to partly abolish the practice of
wholesale midnight arrests, with their consequent fees and bailors'
exactions. These fees are now accounted for more rigidly and paid over to
the city, whether they are the result of daylight or midnight arrests.
These evils are not, however, wholly eradicated, nor will they be, until
an aroused public sentiment shall give as much attention, public service,
and personal endeavor, to the attainment of that most desirable end, as is
given to the building of an armory, the establishment of lake front parks,
Greater Chicago, the passage of revenue bills, and the defeat of the
attempt to obtain public franchises without compensation to the granting
municipality.
Whatever will tend to create wealth for the individual, to increase the
volume of trade, or add to the attractiveness of the city in the
improvement or adornment of its public parks, the energetic and pushing
citizen aids with his personal services, and abundant wealth. Its moral
attractions receive, in so far as the repression of villainy and of
disgusting vice is concerned, but little, if any, personal or pecuniary
assistance from the people. At a recent meeting of the Law Enforcement
League, a clergyman, who had freely given his time and services in behalf
of the objects of that association, begged for the paltry sum of $250 with
which to carry on the work. It was received by contribution from his
audience after repeated appeals. Had it been a meeting for stock
subscriptions to some corporation promising large returns, or for the
purpose of building a monument to some former day hero, or author, the
appeal would not have had to fall upon the ears of the people repeatedly.
The request would have been granted upon its first presentation. "This
work," said the preacher, "cannot be carried on by sympathy, or applause,
or resolutions, or expressions of good will. There is nothing but hard
cash that counts in the practical work of enforcing the law."