Read Ebook: Chicago Satan's Sanctum by Curon L O

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Ebook has 1031 lines and 112467 words, and 21 pages

Decoy to gambling houses ..... ..... ..... .....

Disorderly 49,072 44,450 50,641 45,844

Inmates of assignation houses 53 53 92 14

Inmates of disorderly houses 21 105 205 181

Inmates of gambling houses 879 1,802 2,535 725

Inmates of houses of ill fame 2,516 2,894 5,547 1,531

Inmates of opium dens 943 1,112 528 253

Keeping assignation houses 17 5 15 19

Keeping disorderly houses 39 28 30 139

Keeping gaming houses 238 300 310 155

Keeping houses of ill fame 174 210 241 648

Robbery 1,072 1,099 1,083 1,200

Violation saloon ordinance 717 1,283 1,359 559

In 1897, as compared with 1896, there was a decrease of 78 in the number of arrests of inmates of assignation houses, 24 of the inmates of disorderly houses, 1,810 of the inmates of gambling houses, 4,016 of the inmates of houses of ill fame, 275 of the inmates of opium dens, 155 of the keepers of gaming houses, and 800 for violation of saloon ordinances. That these offenses had not decreased in point of perpetration is a fact, patent to observation and well known to the people. On the other hand, the arrests for keeping disorderly houses increased 109, and for keeping houses of ill fame 407. In the year 1896, when some effort was made to keep the police out of politics, the total arrests were 13,167 more than in 1897, when the police force had passed into the hands of a political machine, which sought to erase the application of the civil law to its government. In 1896 the inmates suffered arrest, but in 1897 the policy of arresting fewer inmates and more keepers, except of gaming houses, seems to have been inaugurated. "The keepers" are more able to pay than the inmates. For every dollar collected from inmates, the keepers are able to pay ten, or fifty dollars if necessary. From these figures it is clear that the practice of assessments for police protection was maintained principally against keepers in 1897, and that few inmates, comparatively, refused to pay in that year, while a large number of keepers of immoral and gambling houses were tardy in their payments, consequently, the former were not arrested, while the latter were.

What the figures for the year 1898 will reveal is as yet unknown.

Not only is crime thus tolerated by the police, but its chief officials assume, also, to define the boundaries of the districts in which it may be freely and safely perpetrated.

The Chief of Police, testifying before a legislative investigating committee, said: "Now, any fellow who wants to bet on the races or anything of that sort cannot be allowed to do so this side of Jackson street, because we don't want this section of the town polluted with this class of things. We want the boys who have an inclination to bet on horse races to go south."

Q. What have you got against the people south of Jackson street?

A. I like them.

Q. Is that the reason you wanted that stuff to go down there?

Q. You mean south of Jackson street?

A. North of Jackson--and things up south of Jackson are virtually dead--there is nothing going on at all, and the stores are all empty. There is nothing doing, and the property, is depreciating in value, and the object was to liven things up a little bit.

That part of the city south of Jackson boulevard to Sixteenth street, and from State street on the east to the river on the west, embraces the tough part of the second precinct of the second police district. In the year 1897 of the total number of arrests of women and girls in the city, 17,624 in number, 8,957, or over 50 per cent, were, as the police term it, "run in" from this police district. How often the same women were arrested and re-arrested it is impossible to say, or whether they were "pinched" oftener than once in the same night. Of this latter number 7,364 were discharged by the magistrates, but the larger number contributed one dollar each to the justice for signing a bail bond for their appearance for trial. In addition, 300 women, known as "women lodgers," were also "run in" in this district in 1897. Of these unfortunates 1,746 were fined; 140 held to the criminal court; 193 released on peace bonds; 209 sent to the house of correction; 10 held as witnesses; 10 were insane; 7 destitute, and 23 were sick and sent to the hospital. Of this total number of arrests of women and women lodgers, 9,257 in number, in this police district in 1897, only 2,288, or about 39 per cent were convicted of offenses by police magistrates, while 61 per cent of them were discharged.

Of the total number of persons arrested throughout the city in 1897, 83,680 in number, 55,020 were discharged by the police courts, 18,017 were fined, 4,138 held on criminal charges, and 2,947 bound over to keep the peace. The remainder were sent to various homes, refuges, asylums and humane societies. Over 50 per cent of those arrested were discharged. The percentage of those who furnished bail for their appearance, it is difficult to ascertain. That the practice exists is too well known to be proven, that a division of these bail bond fees is made between the magistrate and the police; the police furnishing the victims, the straw bailor his signature to, and the justice his approval of, the bond. The latter collects his fee and divides with the officers, while the straw bailor exacts his compensation in proportion to the ability of the victim to pay, then hands over a share to the arresting officers.

That such persecution should exist in a civilized community is a disgrace to its civilization, that public officers should, for one moment, be permitted to engage in such hideous traffic in the liberties of their fellows, is a scandal upon the administration of justice, and that executive officers of the law, sworn to its enforcement, should be ignorant of the infamy of such arrests, or knowingly permit them to be made, is malfeasance in office, and subversion of civil rights.

The portion of the fines assessed upon, and collected from, this class of unfortunates by the justices, is required by the ordinances to be paid to the city at the close of each and every month, and is to be apportioned by the city authorities as the statutes and ordinances require. The salaries of the police magistrates are fixed by agreement with the city. These magistrates are chosen bi-ennially after the election of a Mayor, by that officer, from the appointed justices of the peace, and are generally of the same political faith as is the appointing authority. The system is a blot upon the impartial administration of justice. It has become a byword among the people as a malodorous cesspool.

From the evidence heard before a legislative committee, that committee reported "that the present system of justice, or police courts, as run, is a disgrace to the present civilization. It shows that justice courts will open in the night time, policemen will go out and drag in men and women, 100 and 200, and even more at a time; that they are refused a trial at night, required to give a bond for which the justice charges them one dollar; that professional bondsmen are in attendance who will collect another dollar, and oftentimes much more, from the poor unfortunate to go on his or her bond until morning, thus making several hundred dollars ofttimes in a night to the police justices and other officers connected with the court, and this is done, as your committee believe, from the evidence, for the purpose of making money for the police justice, the professional bondsman, and the police officer in charge of the arrest."

These magistrates are required to report at the "close of each day's business," but their night arrests are construed by them as not following within the definition of "a day's business." The fees arising from them are not, therefore, reported.

Civic bodies have denounced in the bitterest terms the evils of this system, and in a recent mayoralty message to the Common Council, in itself the hotbed of boodleism, it is said, "The justice shop system with all its necessarily attendant scandals is about to be wiped out."

That desirable result awaits legislative action. The general assembly, if it has any respect for human rights, for commendable municipal government, for the performance of its sworn duty, will lay aside the struggle in legislative halls for political ascendancy, and hasten the day when this festering sore shall have applied to it an instrument of eradication which it alone can wield. It is proper to add that since the foregoing lines were written the night fees are better accounted for, under an agreement between the magistrates and the city by which the magistrates' salaries are raised, as an inducement to them to be honest.

The appropriations for the year 1897, for the maintenance of the police force, amounted to ,356,910. Other sources of income amounted to ,635.03.

The salary warrants drawn against this fund amounted to ,290,296.26; for other expenses, 7,369.63, making a total of warrants drawn of ,457,665.89, leaving a deficit of ,392.84.

The total income of the city for the year 1897 from saloon licenses was about ,000,000. The saloons are, therefore, the policemen's great financial friends in more ways than one, and largely defray the expenses of the department.

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:

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 Piraeus 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.

"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.

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