: Chicago Satan's Sanctum by Curon L O - Crime Illinois Chicago; Police corruption Illinois Chicago; Political corruption Illinois Chicago

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CHICAGO--Its Development--Power of Criminal Classes in Its Government--Pretenses of Reform--Official Satisfaction--Public Condemnation--Truths as to Power of Criminal Classes.

THE POLICE FORCE--Its Strength--Composition--Power Dominating--Duties of Defined--Population of Chicago--Nativity of--Police Enemies of Civil Service--Demoralizing Effect--Tariff on Crime--Rates on Gambling Houses, Etc.--Penalty for Refusal to Pay--Instances of Police Rates--Method of Collection--Habits of Policemen--Some Are "Hold Up" Men--Blackmail Levied--Law Department--Arrests in 1897--Police Fix Boundaries for Crime--Chief's Testimony--Analysis of Arrests in 1897 in Second Police Precinct--In City at Large--Division of Fees and Fines With Magistrates--Police Courts, Corrupt--Cost of Police Force.

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--Houses of Ill Fame--Inmates of--How Managed--Practices in--Superstitions--Luck Powders--Sources of Supply--Patrons of--Wholesale House Entertainer--Police Protection--Diseases--Attempts at Reform--People Indifferent.

RE-ELECTION OF MAYOR--False Issue Upon Which Re-elected--Vices in Chicago--"Blind Pigs"--Protected by Police--Where Situated--How Conducted--Classes--Drug Stores, Bakeries, Barns--Revenue to Police--Located Near Universities--Lieutenant of Police Convicted for Protecting--Cock Fighting--Bucket Shops--Women Dealers--Pool Rooms--Police Play--Pulling of, Farcical--Views of Chief of Police--Players in--Landlords--Book Making--Alliance Between, and Police and Landlords--New York and Chicago--Chicago's Police Force Worst--Hold Up Men--Methods--Victims--Police Sleep--Mayor's Felicitations, April 11, 1899--Account of Hold Ups, Same Day--Classes of Hold Up Men--Strong Armed Women--Street Car Conductors Robbed--Ice Chests and Ovens for Prisons--Hair Clippers--Protection to Criminals--"Safe Blowers' Union"--Fakes--Panel Houses--Badger Games--Nude Photographs--Obscene Literature--Confidence Men--Diploma Mills--Gambling--Women's Down Town Clubs--Sexual Perverts--Opium Joints.

COMMON COUNCIL--Boodlers--Bribers--Council of 1899--Powers of--Misuse of--Price of Votes--Passage of Boodle Ordinances--Public Works Department and Bureaus--Illegal Contracts--Street Repairing, Etc.--Civil Service Commission--History of--Present Board Tools of Mayor--Examination by--Examples of--Attacks Upon Law--Special Assessments--Asphalt Ring--Fire Department--County Government--Insane Asylum--Sale of "Cadavers"-- Contracts--Sheriff's Office--Jury Bribers--Judges--Revenue Law--Tax Dodgers--Town Boards--Coroner's Office--Press Trust--Civic Societies-- Berry Committee Report--Baxter Committee--Opening Testimony--Conclusion.

CHICAGO--ITS DEVELOPMENT--POWER OF CRIMINAL CLASSES IN ITS GOVERNMENT--PRETENSES OF REFORM--OFFICIAL SATISFACTION--PUBLIC CONDEMNATION--TRUTHS AS TO POWER OF CRIMINAL CLASSES.

Chicago, with its world-wide fame as the most marvelous product of American enterprise among municipal creations in the nineteenth century, with its wonderful growth, from an Indian trading post in 1837 to a modern city of the second size in point of population in the year 1898, with the record of its stupendous strides in reaching its present commercial and financial position among the commanding trade centers in the world, with its strong civic pride, its numerous and admirable religious, educational and charitable institutions both public and private, its cultured development in literature, music, the arts and sciences, with its memorable disaster in the great fire of 1871, its speedy recoupment from that disaster, and its brilliant achievement in the organization and management of the magnificent "White City," the wide range of the classified exhibits of which covered the entire and progressive contributions of mankind to all that goes to make up the civilization of the age from the earliest period of the commencement of that civilization, this Chicago, grand, philanthropic and patriotic, suffers, as for years it has suffered, from the most extensive and persistent advances in political power, along the lines of their respective crimes, of the criminal classes, until, from the wealthy bribe-giver to the lowest sneak thief and sexual pervert, these classes carry elections, corrupt the corruptible in the Common Council, sway justice in the forum of the lower courts, and govern the police force until it has become a municipal aid to the perpetration of crime.

From one administration to the other, the growing power of these lowest classes of society manifests a stronger hold upon civic administration. Pretenses of reform are all that, so far, have followed each bi-ennial election of a Mayor. Here and there, and now and then, gambling houses are closed, threats against police officers, who follow the well grounded practice of levying protection rates upon brothels, street walkers, gambling games of all descriptions, saloons, concert halls, and that varied combination of evils forming the working machinery of vice, are given publicity, and while the growth of these monstrous evils cannot but be known to public officials, both from observation, official reports, events as chronicled in the daily press, grand jury reports, civic and State investigations, and verdicts in the courts, a nerveless cowardice seems to seize each succeeding incumbent of the Executive's office, under whatever political party's banner he may be called to the chair, and prevents him from grappling with, and throttling, the ever increasing power of the combined votaries of all forms of vice and crime.

The Mayor recently congratulated the Common Council in these words, viz: "The report of the General Superintendent of Police contains assurance for all classes of citizens that the efficiency, vigilance and zeal that have characterized this department will permit them to pursue their avocations without fear of being robbed and assaulted by long and short men. One need not be exceedingly observant to note that with the approach of winter comes an annual outbreak of crime. We all noticed evidences of such a visitation at the advent of the winter just ended, but it should not be allowed to pass without comment that criminality rarely showed itself during last fall when it was crushed out with a suddenness and success that ought to be regarded with pride and satisfaction by every Chicagoan. There has been no evidence of crime through the recent year as in former years; the criminals came in the fall, but they were severely taught that Chicago was an unhealthy clime for them, with the result that they were wise enough not to linger here long."

This statement, so self-satisfying to the official who made it, so totally false in fact, so dangerous to the welfare of the people, and so flippantly interwoven into a public document by one who either knew the contrary to be the truth, or who knowingly used his official position for the suppression of truth, if not of crime, is contradicted by the disclosures made by every organization devoted to the purification of the public morals, the betterment of civil administration, and the eradication of the bestial vices so freely and openly flaunted in the faces of a busy and apparently indifferent people.

A noted divine said recently, "I believe that this city is to be the greatest city of this continent and of the world. I believe that Chicago is the devil's headquarters, and I think it is not far from the City Hall. If our own eyes could be fully opened we would see there infinite indecencies, bum politicians, ward workers, heel tappers, men who are the devil's own and delivered body and soul to do his bidding."

Another said, "Saloons and all other haunts of vice are wide open, as they have never been before in the city's history."

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