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THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF THE UNDERWORLD.




The Wretches of Povertyville
A Sociological Study of the Bowery
BY
I. L. NASCHER, M. D.
Sketches and Illustrations by George Toner
JOS. J. LANZIT, Publisher,
CHICAGO
1909




COPYRIGHTED 1904-1909
BY
I. L. NASCHER.




,  *. 1- -.
INTRODUCTION.
I watched some chips as they floated down the
stream. Here and there one, swerved from the course
by a straw, or a zephyr perhaps, approached an eddy,
touched its edge and went circling round its whirls.
Now approaching, now receding from the channel,
each turn brought it nearer the center; with each movement the fatal attraction toward the vortex became
stronger, fasterandfasterit sped until it reached the vortex, then gave one last spin, one plunge, and disappeared.
I watched the lives of men as they floated down
the stream of life.
A note, a sigh, a glass of wine or a woman's smile
would swerve one from the straight and narrow channel. Slowly, unconsciously perhaps, he would be
drawn toward the whirlpool which has perdition in its
vortex. He reaches the outer whirl, scarcely realizing
that he is off the course and going further and further
away from the straight line.
He travels around the outer circle and is back
again, but now there is a barrier between him and the
true channel, an invisible barrier, a line in width, a wall
in strength.




He is in a pleasant whirl with many companions,
all rushing toward the same goal, all unconscious or
unconcerned about the dark abyss at its end.
Spinning around faster and faster, he scorns the
plodders in the narrow channel without, while the
barrier between him and them becomes wider and
stronger. He reaches the vortex, sees death therein
and with a life's remorse compressed into a moment's
pang, he is drawn below forever.
The stream of life which flows through Povertyville is not a gentle stream flowing between mossy
banks, past pleasant scenes. It is a turbulent river,
with rocky bottom and muddy banks, with few pleasant places along its course. In its channel are snags
whereon the traveler suddenly ends his career; eddies
and whirlpools which, once entered, drag the victim
to destruction.
While many enter the whirlpool, ignorant of what
its vortex holds, and others enter to enjoy its giddy
whirl, careless of the abyss at its end, many seek the
vortex to find oblivion. It does not disappoint them.




CONTENTS.
PART I
POVERTYVILLE.
PAGE
CHAPTER       I.........THE UNDERWORLD OF POVERTYVILLE...      7
"     II..........THE BACKBONE OF POVERTYVILLE...... 10
III.........THE EVOLUTION OF THE BOWERY..... 34
IV.........DIVES AND DENS....................    43
V..........HOMES AND HAUNTS................ 70
PART II
THE WRETCHES.
CHAPTER       I..........PARIAHS...........................98
"<      II..........THEIR TEMPTERS AND PARASITES.....112
III......... FACTORS DEVELOPING WRETCHES......128
"u      IV..........SOME CURIOUS CHARACTERS..........146
it       V.........SLAVES  OF  THE  PIPE.................168
"(      VI..........LIVES OF THE WRETCHES.............184
VII..........CRAFT AS A SCIENCE................198
VIII..........SIDE LIGHTS.......................225
IX..........THE FINAL ACCOUNTING............237
PART III
THE PROBLEM.
CHAPTER       I......... PHILANTHROPY VS. HYPOCRISY.......248
(    I  II..........IMPRACTICAL   IDEALS................259
"       III.......... PRACTICAL MEASURES...............272




I




PART I
POVERTYVILLE




I
I
I




POVERTYVILLE
CHAPTER I
THE UNDERWORLD OF POVERTYVILLE.
9T   IS a wretched world, this underworld of Povertyville, where poverty begets vice, and vice begets
crime, where virtue has its price, and conscience is stilled,
then forgotten.
'Tis a dreary world, this world of sin, where every
man has a companion and no man has a friend, where the
past leaves no comfort, and the future brings no hope,
where the gentle rays of salvation are shut out while the
pall of perdition is ever present enfolding its tenants,
itself invisible in the gloom.
'Tis a curious world, this world of crime, where humanity appears under strange lenses which here throw a
halo and there cast a shadow, now presenting an exaggerated picture and again a diminutive outline, bringing




8


P O VE R T VI LL E


some dull, prosaic life into high relief or dulling the
sharp edges of a strong character until it is merged in the
sombre background. A world where innocence is crime
and virtue is weakness, where craft outweighs reason
and brawn outweighs both, where happiness is found in
another's grief and honor is sought in infamy.
'Tis a morbid world, this underworld of Povertyville,
where Nemesis is ever present and ever threatening,
though with broken bridle and open yoke, with the baton
in place of the sword and the slow wheels of law replacing her chariot and wings. The fear of her vengeance
is a blight upon it and lasts to the grave, but not beyond,
for there is no hereafter in this underworld: it holds its
heaven and its hell.
It holds a heaven where the sirens' songs are forever
echoing, drowning the shrieks of their victims; where
the bacchanalia ends with the last breath, ne'er marred
by thought of cost, nor stopped by fear of a punitive
hereafter.
And a hell such as Dante could never conceive of, a
hell without a river Lethe to bestow hell's only blessing,
forgetfulness. It is not in the fear of Satan and( everlasting fires nor in the pains which afflict the body and
harry the soul, that its tenants find the torments of the
danmned, but in memory, the memory of childhood, of
mother, perhaps of wife and children, the memory of
happier days before they entered the gates of the world
wherein they dwell-that is their hell.




PO VERTY VILLE


9


'Tis then they hear the still, soft voice within calling
in agony to Him for salvation, but"Another drink, boys; take partners for the next
dance."
Such is the underworld of Povertyville.
In the following description of the Bowery and its
purlieu special stress has been laid upon the vicious phases
of life found there. No attempt has been made to describe the homes and home life of the self-respecting
poor families of the East Side. While vast improvements have been made in the social conditions in that district since Riis gave us his wonderful pen pictures of
"How the other half lives" nearly twenty years ago, there
is still the same poverty, and many of the problems
that he pointed out are still problems. If not the greatest, certainly one of the most difficult problems of the
East Side is the handling of the "wretches." The specific purpose of this work is to present these as they
appear to the investigator.




CHAPTER II
THE BACKBONE OF POVERTYVILLE.
HE Bowery is the backbone of Povertyville.
Far back in Governor Stuyvesant's time a
wooden bridge crossed a brook which flowed from the
Kalck Water or Collect Pond, as it was afterwards called,
to the East River. Dutch gallants crossing this bridge
with their sweethearts exacted a toll in the shape of a
kiss while crossing, and, if history records correctly, their
rambles invariably led them to the farther side. This
bridge, which stood at what is now the junction of Baxter Street and Park Row, was the beginning of a lane
which led to the Governor's "Bouwerie," or farm, the
Bouwerie Pathye of the Dutch, the Bowery Road of the
English, the famous Bowery of New York to-day.
The Bowery had a pleasant beginning, and for two
hundred and fifty years it has been a street of pleasure.
Yet it was not pleasure unalloyed, for while no other
street can show in the same length such variety or such
number of places given to man's entertainment and pleasures, no other street hides so much sorrow and shame,
such poverty and depravity, such sights to arouse pity
and sights to excite horror as this same Bowery.




POVERTYVILLE


11


Here Ike and Mike mix jargon and brogue over the
bar of a German saloon; Francois and his ancient enemy,
Fritz, under the firm name of Frank and Fred, sell old
clothes, and the son of sunny Italy, with his partner, a
cueless convert from China or a descendant of a Guinea
slave, runs a pool room or a policy shop.
Here poverty lurks behind lace curtains and wealth
hides behind muslin shades; here smiling faces conceal
broken hearts and merry jests drown mournful sighs;
here rich and poor, the educated and the illiterate, the
man in the dress suit, and the man in rags, find a common level.
The Bowery is a street of contradictions. Open to
the world, yet it is full of the mysterious. As well
known abroad as the Whitechapel of London, and at
home as Wall Street, as full of life at midnight as at
midday, few of the thousands who traverse it by day
know the midnight Bowery; fewer still have been behind
the scenes of the stage upon which its wretches appear.
Even the midnight wanderers, to whom the Bowery is
home, know little, care less, about their neighbors or
companions. To them the street outside of their own
sphere is a terra incognito.
The Bowery has not its counterpart in the world. A
cosmopolis in itself, it forms the boundary of half a
dozen foreign colonies. Near its beginning there is an
Irish colony, and near by is the only Greek colony in
the city. North of the Greeks and stretching eastward




12


PO V ER T YVI LLE


to the river are Jews of five nationalities. There are
Russian, Polish, Roumanian, Galician, and German Jews,
each nationality having its own center, but with overlapping borders. North of these, but mingling with them
at about Houston street, are the Hungarians, and beyond
them is a remnant of Little Germany, which once completely filled the east side north of Houston street.
On the west side of the Bowery there is the famous
Chinatown near the lower end, with Little Italy beyond
and to the northward of the Mongolian quarter.
Near the upper end of the street there are a few of
the American families who, half a century ago, made this
the fashionable part of the city.
\'hile each of these nationalities has added its quota
to the mass who form the wretches of Povertyville, it is
not until they have become Americanized, have adapted
themselves to the environment of the district and adopted its ways and vices, that they become full-fledged
wretches.
In its business aspect, the Bowery is contradictory. It
has seven banks, including the richest savings bank in the
country, and near them are three times as many pawnshops. Uncle Simpson's pawnshop (there are five bearing this name) is as well known as the Bowery Savings
Bank; yet while the population in the vicinity of the
Bowery is decreasing, the number of banks and pawnshops increases.
In its amusements the street once catered to the fash



P VERT Y VILLE


13


ionable and refined, just as that part of Broadway from
28th to 48th streets does today. Now the language of
the country is heard in but two of its nine theaters, and
there it is not the language of the drawing room, but the
patter of the coarse burlesque and low vaudeville stage.
Of the others, one is a Chinese theater and six are
Jewish.
The Italians had a theater on the Bowery in 1902,
but neither drama nor vaudeville seemed to appeal to
those for whom it was intended, and it soon closed its
doors.
The Chinese Opera House in Doyers Street, near the
Bowery, is the queerest theater in New York.
Externally the building resembles the rear of an oldfashioned tenement house, having, however, a row of windows always closed by iron shutters on the ground floor..The upper part is the rear of a Chatham Square lodging
house. The entrance is like the ordinary tenement entrance, but just inside the door a space is partitioned off
for the box office. The theater is a long hall a few feet
below the street level, with a small stage in one corner.
There are no flies, wings, curtains or scenery. Incidental
property such as a table, chair, etc., is brought in when
required in any part of the play and removed when it
has served its purpose. The auditorium  is filled with
benches and as there is little pitch to the floor, late comers sit on the backs of the rear benches. Near the entrance and opposite the stage is the white visitors' private




14


/J () I, I' R  T   1   I      I /


box, an enclosed platform holding a dozen chairs. The
orchestra consists of three pieces-a gong, a drum, and
either a "Njee Yen," or two-stringed fiddle, or a "Kin"
or five-stringed instrument. The musicians sit on the
stage near the door through which the performers appear. There are rarely more than three actors at one
time on the stage, and the performance appears to be a
succession of monologues, interspersed with short dialogues, pounding on the gong or drum and squeaking of
the Njee Yen. MTales take female parts, speaking in a
shrill, piping voice. There are no programs, the stolid
Chinamen never applaud, and the stranger can form no
conception of the character of the play. Without the
music one would as readily imagine it to be a lodge initiation, a prayer meeting or a political discussion as a theatrical performance. The other theaters are like theaters
elsewhere.
The Thalia Theater, the Old Bowery of our youthful
days, typifies the changes which have gone on in its
neighborhood during the last three-quarters of a century.
The New York Theater, opened on this site in 1826,
was in its day the finest theater in America. It was
called Bowery Theater in 1827 and for forty years thereafter it was the home of good drama and good English,
the English of Edwin Forrest, the two Wallacks, Rice,
Quinn, Hamlin, and Charlotte Cushman. Then came the
"blood and thunder" plays, four or five pieces every night,
a villain killed in every act and the heroine saved in




PO IER T IY ILLE


15


every scene. The changes in the character of the plays
were reflections of the changes in the character and tastes
of the Bowery audiences. In 1879 it became a German
theater and received its present name. It is now a Jewish theater, the performances being given in the colloquial
German of the Russian Jew. (This jargon is a philological curiosity; being a German dialect, containing many
Russian, Polish and Hebrew words, and used by the Jews
in Roumania, Hungary, southern and western Russia,
is generally spoken among the Jews in the "Ghettos" of
Europe).
The plays themselves are either dramas founded upon
Jewish historical incidents or adaptations from popular
German or English plays, and. are performed by stock
companies.
Opposite the Thalia Theater is Windsor Theater, another Jewish playhouse formerly giving performances in
English. It stands on the site of Stadt Theater, the most
famous German theater in America from 1859 to 1879.
The People's Theater, erected in 1883 to furnish refined drama, has gone jargonward. In the early sixties
Pastor's Opera House was on this site. In the seventies
it was occupied by the German Volks Garten, and this
was followed by the present theater. As a home of refined drama it was a dismal failure, but it became suc-.
cessful when lurid melodramas were placed upon its
boards. Now as a Jewish theater it is more successful
than ever.




16


P O IVER TY VILLE


The little old National Theater, between Grand and
Hester streets, now the Manhattan Music Hall, has been
converted into a Jewish vaudeville house. Jewish vaudeville is an innovation of doubtful success, two concert
halls, the Casino Music Hall, near Stanton Street, and
the Grand Street MIusic Hall on Grand Street near the
Bowery, having failed soon after introducing this feature.
There are, however, several Jewish music halls in the
district which seem to be successful. The finest theater
on the East Side is the new Grand Theater on Grand
Street, one block east of the Bowery. This is a Jewish
playhouse which, in its appointments, character of plays
and work, compares favorably with Broadway theaters.
The principal actor of the Stock Company, Jacob Adler,
created quite a stir in theatrical circles in 1902 when he
appeared with an English-speaking company at the
American Theater. The play, the Merchant of Venice,
was given in English, except the part of Shylock rendered by MTr. Adler in jargon. (This theater is giving
English melodrama at present.)
In the two English-speaking houses, the London Theater and Miner's Theater, the performances given are
alike-coarse burlesques, low vaudeville, sometimes boxing and wrestling. While individual numbers may be
clean and equal to the work seen in the best vaudeville
houses in the city, the frequenters of these theaters want
what they call a "hot show," one coming as close to the
line of indecency as the law will allow. The delicate




POVERTYVILLE


17


suggestiveness of the modern society play would be lost
upon the audiences found in either of these two houses.
In the after piece, as the closing act of the burlesque
show is called, the actions are often coarsely suggestive,
the talk vile. Yet these two theaters are the only ones
catering to the English-speaking East Sider, and they
are well patronized.
There are two types of concert or music hall on the
Bowery.
The permanent type, of which the Atlantic Garden is
the only one remaining, is run in conformity with the law,
and the ephemeral type, which runs in violation of the
law and depends upon the temper of the police and the
political status of the manager or backer for its existence-not one of these is now found in the district.
The Atlantic Garden is the oldest place of amusement
in the city with the exception of the Thalia Theater,
which it adjoins.  (The Academy of Music was first
opened in 1854, four years before the Atlantic Garden,
but the present Academy of Music was erected in 1866.)
The performances given here are vaudeville of no high
order of merit, but clean and unobjectionable. It is one
of the few music halls in the city to which a man can
take his wife and daughter without being compelled to
listen to vulgar jokes and questionable songs. It is not
popular with those who look for depravity. The Atlantic
Garden was originally an open-air garden at the back of
the New York Hotel. About 1860 the hotel feature was




18


PF OER T0  I YVILL E


given up, and later the garden part was roofed over, a
stage put up and vaudeville numbers introduced.
In the seventies it was popular with the Germans and
then, as now, it was distinguished from similar places in
the vicinity by its clean performances.
There is a type of music hall on the Bowery which
keeps within the letter of the law but approaches the line
of indecency so closely that no man would take his family
into it. This type, of which there are several in the district, will be described in the chapter on "Dives and
Dens."
Among the latest additions to the Bowery amusements
is the "Penny Arcade." This owes its origin to the introduction of the slot machine. A store is filled with
such machines, including phonographs, moving pictures,
weighing machines, X-ray machines, lung testers, automatic banjos and pianos, faradic batteries, moving models of fire engines, locomotives and steamships, cameras,
punching bags, etc. Admission is free, the only charge
being a cent in the slot of any machine the visitor wishes
to use. These places are fruitful fields for the pickpocket. There are also several moving picture shows
on the street.
Among the Bowery amusements may be included the
Museums. The reputable museums of twenty years ago
are gone and in their stead exhibitions professing to be
museums are opened and run for a few weeks, or until
complaint is made to the police.




POVERTYVILLE


19


In one such place the placards announced that the
female form was there on exhibition in all its loveliness.
The visitor paid five cents and was admitted to a room
containing a few panoramic views of towns and photographs of stage beauties. When several visitors were
collected in this room a guide entered and informed them
that upon a further payment of ten cents they would be
admitted to the sanctum sanctorum, where this beautiful
female form could be seen through a slit in the curtain.
The curious visitor saw through this slit a dressmaker's
dummy figure with flesh-colored tights filled with hay.
One museum had placards announcing in the most
extravagant terms that it contained the eighth wonder of
the world; admission ten cents. This wonder was a
stuffed four-legged chicken. The whole hall was covered with theatrical posters and in one corner was a fortune teller's tent.
Another museum opened a short time ago has a few
wax figures in the window. Inside there are a few wax
figures hardly worth the price of admission. A visitor
is accompanied by an attendant who induces him to touch
the handles of an electric battery and then compels him
to pay for electrical treatment.
An anatomical museum has been on the Bowery for
a number of years. This is a bare remnant of a once
famous Broadway museum of the same name and contains a number of anatomical specimens, wax casts, artificial monstrosities and medical plates. The exhibition




20


PO IER T YVILLE


itself is poor and would hardly pay, but credulous visitors are sometimes inveigled into the doctor's office, the
phrenologist's room or the palmist's corner and there
cajoled or frightened into paying a dollar or two for
services rendered.
In every museum on the Bowery some scheme is
worked whereby the visitor is compelled to pay something
for "services rendered."
More noticeable than its places of amusement are its
saloons occupying one-sixth of the entire number of
stores on the two streets (Park Row and the Bowery).
The saloons were a feature of the Bowery ever since
Wolfert Webber opened his tavern near the Kissing
Bridge, and that was long before the English planted
their flag over New Amsterdam. Then came a century
or more of taverns, the Bull's Head, the most famous of
all, standing for seventy years on the site of Thalia Theater. At the beginning of the last century the gardens
appeared on the thoroughfare.
The Vauxhall Garden was the first to be opened; the
Atlantic Garden is the only one remaining today. About
1840 the ale houses made their appearance, and of this
type there is one left. McSorley's Old House at Home
in 7th Street, near the Bowery, is an inconspicuous place
rarely visited by strangers. It has still the massive tables
and chairs, with one long table in the back room, a barelooking bar with a row of pewter mugs hanging on the
wall behind; the sanded floor, dingy ceiling, the walls




POVER T Y VILLE


21


covered with lithographs and engravings of a former
generation. Its old ale, the clay pipes and tobacco,
furnished free to its patrons, and the air of "old times"
which surrounds it make it attractive to a lot of old
boys, young boys when it was opened near its present
site fifty years ago.
It is impossible to classify the Bowery saloons of
today. There is one which makes a specialty of German
wines, the quality and price of which attract connoisseurs
and deter the ordinary Bowery throng. It is a favorite
resort for the German merchants of the neighborhood
and needs no tinsel, music or advertising to retain a good
class of patrons.
Adjoining it is a "Morgue," so called in the parlance
of the street because the stuff dispensed there brings the
consumer in time to its more gruesome namesake. It
attracts by the size of its glasses; the quality would drive
away the least fastidious.  On a side street nearby is
a "barrel house" where casks take the place of bottles
behind the bar. When a customer asks for his favorite
brand, a small tumbler is filled to the brim and handed
to him after he has produced the necessary five cents.
The contents disappear at a gulp. When beer is ordered
in these places the customer orders a "tub" and receives a
glass holding nearly a pint.
Another saloon of the same kind announces the
largest drink on the Bowery for a nickel. It is run by a




22


POVERTY VILLE


former actor, and many who once appeared behind the
footlights now hang about its bar.
Steve Brodie's Saloon near Grand Street defies classification. Its squalid exterior would never tempt the
thirsty stranger, but no slumming guide will pass the
place without entering, unless ladies are in the party.
Its interior is as forbidding as the outside, but the walls
are covered with programs, pictures, gloves and relics,
the delight of the admirer of fistiana and curiosities,
while on the bar and scattered about are objects and
signs indicative of the broad and coarse humor of the
Bowery. It has two classes of patrons-slumming parties and wretches. The rear room is an ordinary dive.
The place changed hands in the summer of 1908, and
some of the vicious features were removed.
One saloon, an ordinary looking place hardly worth a
second glance, is the most attractive place on the street
to the denizens of Povertyville, especially of the underworld. It is the rendezvous of the lieutenants of Povertyville's autocrat, the Hon. Timothy D. Sullivan. "Big
Tim," as they call him, is rarely found here, but when
his advice is sought or a politician's services are required,
the preliminaries are arranged at its bar or in its side
room.
A small place not far from Brodie's was at one time
a model of neatness and became famous through the
skill of the proprietor in mixing drinks. He afterward
published a standard barkeepers' manual. The place was




POV TER T Y VILLE


23


later run by a reformed burglar and was frequented by
many of his former prison associates. It is now an ordinary liquor store.
There is an old corner saloon which was thirty years
ago a famous resort for horsemen. It is now patronized
by gamblers and small sports.
Almost every saloon on the Bowery has its particular
class of patrons. Saloons run by sports or politicians
attract these classes. A corner saloon on the Bowery,
not far from police headquarters, is a rendezvous for
police officials. Some saloons are merely adjuncts to
dives. These will be considered in the chapter on Dives
and Dens.
The stale beer dives which sold stale beer collected
from the nearly empty beer kegs, for a cent or two cents a
glass, have gone out of existence, thanks to the introduction of the beer pump, by which saloonkeepers can drain
the keg dry.
No church edifice was ever erected on the Bowery,
although there are thirty representing half as many denominations within a block or two of it. The only sectarian institutions on the street are two missions, the
headquarters of the Volunteers of America, a branch of
the Salvation Army and a branch of the Young Men's
Christian Association. It is remarkable that this thoroughfare, one of the oldest in the city, where evangelical
work would probably do more good than anywhere else,
has been thus neglected.




24


PO 0V ERTYVILLE


As a residence street the Bowery shows a peculiar
condition. It was once lined with residences throughout
its length. Now there are few families living on the
street, and most of these are the families of the small
Bowery storekeepers. Yet more than twenty-five thousand persons spend their nights in its one hundred or
more lodging houses and hotels, or sleep as soundly on
casks and chairs in the rear of its saloons. The number
is increased shortly before election day, while hundreds
of the winter residents leave the city in the spring when
tramping is good.
To supply this floating population there are about
seventy-five restaurants, but not one grocery store or
butcher shop can be found from Brooklyn Bridge to
Cooper Union.
No other street in the city can show such extremes
in its trading places nor in the variety of goods sold.
For the sale of men's apparel there are one hundred
and fifteen stores; for the sale of woman's wear there is
not one. Among its clothing stores there are some which
in quality and price equal the best on Broadway; some
sell old clothes as new, some sell only second-hand clothing, and even new clothing is sold as second hand on the
Bowery. Neither the size of the store nor the window
display is a safe criterion by which to judge the character
of the place.
Just beyond the official end of the Bowery there is a
large establishment which in the quality and prices of its




POVERTY VILLE


25


wares rivals the fashionable Broadway clothing stores,
and its name is a guarantee of excellence. Not far away
is another establishment which makes the most pretentious display on the street. This is another of the few
reliable Bowery clothing stores; its prices are somewhat
higher than the prices current on the Bowery for similar
goods, though lower than Broadway prices. Near by is
a place where old and new clothing are sold. The
prospective purchaser here is never certain that he is
getting what he wants. Even if he calls for a secondhand suit he may get a cheap new suit, apparently worn,
bearing the name of a fashionable tailor.
Further down the street are several stores making
considerable window display, with alluring prices, but
rarely will a purchaser get the clothing at the prices
marked unless they are misfits, that is, suits made to
order and not fitting the customers who ordered them.
In many stores where clothes are made to order, bargaining is the rule. The experienced purchaser first looks
at the goods, asks the price, then asks to see the lining,
buttons, etc., and having made his- selection he begins to
"beat down" on the price. He will offer half, the dealer
will accept three-fourths and they compromise on twothirds of the price originally asked. Having given a deposit he demands a sample of the. goods, lining and buttons, otherwise he may not get the material selected. The
fit and workmanship will generally be found satisfactory.
In the small clothing stores, especially those in which




26


PO VER T YVILLE


the interior is dark, the best goods are poor and the
cheapest are dear at any price. Bargaining is the invariable rule in stores selling second-hand goods. Some of
these stores are in basements or hallways, and the entire
stock is near the door. They have queer methods by
which they replenish their stock. Some come from the
"fences" or dealers in stolen goods. Some come from
the dealers whose familiar cry "any cast clothes" is heard
in all parts of the city. When a death has occurred in
a family a dealer visits the house of mourning the day
following the funeral and either begs for the clothing of
the deceased or offers to buy them. In some parts of
the city the dealer goes around in a wagon and offers tinware and crockery for old clothes, shoes, hats, etc.
When the stock is low he will buy a lot of auction trash,
either goods spoilt in the making or goods put together
in the cheapest manner possible, to be sold at auction:
such goods are then slightly wrinkled, the name band of
some well-known clothier is attached, and they are sold
as second-hand. Unless the would-be purchaser knows
the tricks and ways of second-hand clothing dealers he
will be deceived. This applies to almost all stores where
both new and second-hand goods are sold.
The extremes found in clothing stores in the Bowery
district are also found in its hat and shoe stores. Some
Bowery hatters are as well and favorably known as hatters in fashionable districts, their prices are lower than
Broadway prices for the same quality and they do not de



P 0V ER T V ILLE


27


ceive customers. At the other extreme are hatters who
do not occupy stores but hire a room on an upper floor.
One of these sells only new hats, but they are not in the
prevailing style and no one knows what becomes of the
old hats brought there every night by dealers in secondhand clothing.
A few places sell only old hats refurbished. They
buy them for a few cents apiece, clean and reblock them,
put in a new sweat band and lining and sell them for
from 20 to 60 cents. In the shoe stores there is little
chance for deception, but bargaining will generally avail.
In some, where standard brands are sold, the salesman
receives a commission on his sales and he will always
share his commission with a purchaser.
There are several dealers in second-hand shoes on
the Bowery and in the "Bay," as the vicinity of Baxter
Street and Park Row is called. They buy the shoes
from rag dealers and dealers in second-hand clothing,
patch them up, put on heels and soles and polish them.
These bring from 50 to 75 cents a pair.
Among the fifty jewelry stores between Brooklyn
Bridge and Cooper Union there are a few which are honestly conducted, where gold is sold as gold and brass as
brass. Many are unreliable and in the pawnbroker's sales
stores even experts are sometimes deceived. The window
displays are fair criterions of the character of these establishments, as most of them display there whatever they
have of value.




28


P0 I' ERTYV I LLE


The largest jewelry store on the Bowery is just below
Broome Street. This is one of the few stores where they
do not permit bargaining and they charge prices according to the value of the article. These prices are high according to Bowery standards, though less than prices on
Broadway.
A small place near Canal Street was opened by a German when that part of the city was frequented by wealthy
Germans forty years ago. He still sticks to the old spot,
although his former patrons have long since left the
neighborhood. Another one of these old-timers is a short
distance below. They conduct their business now as they
did before the era of bargaining began on the Bowery,
and are as reliable now as then. In most stores, however, bargaining is the rule and a purchaser who is not
an adept at this method of doing business will pay more
than the article purchased is worth.
In the pawnbrokers' sales store the purchaser of
jewelry, unless he be an expert, is almost certain to be
imposed upon. The dealers are shrewd judges of the
quality and value of jewelry, and only in estimating the
value of curios are they liable to be misled. The curiohunter will pick up real bargains if he does not show too
great concern about getting what he wants. If he offers
to pay whatever the dealer asks the dealer at once assumes that his price was much too low and he will decline to sell it. If the purchaser will offer a quarter of
the dealer's price he will probably get it at half. No one




PO VER T Y VILLE


29


should ever buy an expensive article in a pawnbroker's
sales store unless he knows the value of the article. It
should be remembered that everything is second-hand and
no manufacturer's or dealer's guarantee holds good on
such articles..
The source of the goods found in pawnbrokers' sales
stores is as varied as in second-hand clothing stores.
Some are purchased at pawnbrokers' sales, some at ordinary auction sales. The fence disposes of his property
to the pawnbrokers' sales stores, after having changed
it so as to be unrecognizable by the real owner. Most
of the "fake" jewelry finds its way into these stores.
Very little is purchased from strangers.
A comparatively new business is the trade in pawn
tickets. Persons pawning articles which they cannot or
do not wish to redeem, sell the ticket to a pawn ticket
dealer. If the article is valuable and is pledged for a
small amount, the dealer redeems it and pawns it again
for the largest amount obtainable.  When a ticket is
placed on sale within a short time after it has been issued,
the pledger has secured the largest amount possible on
the article. When a ticket is offered shortly before its
expiration, the pledger was probably unable to redeem
the pledge and sold the ticket for anything he could get.
If the article is worth redeeming the dealer redeems it,
otherwise he risks a few cents in the purchase of the
ticket, for which he will charge a dollar or two if he can
dispose of it.




30


P O IVER T Y VI LLE


Sometimes a pledger requests the pawnbroker to issue
the ticket for a larger amount than the pledger receives
on the article pawned. The larger the amount loaned
the more valuable the article is supposed to be and the
more the ticket will bring. Of course this is only done
when it is the intention of the pledger to dispose of the
ticket. When one intends to purchase a ticket from the
pawn ticket dealer, the purchaser goes to the pawnshop
accompanied by the dealer's clerk, to see the goods he
intends to purchase. The pownbroker charges 25 cents
for showing the goods. The pawnshops on Park Row
and the Bowery are generally reliable, that is, they do not
issue "raised" pawn tickets nor do they drop tickets.
Dropping tickets is an old trick. The pawnbroker buys a
lot of cheap, plated jewelry and each piece is entered as a
pledge, tickets ranging from one to five dollars being
issued. A ticket is dropped wherever many people pass.
The finder will either redeem what he believes to be an
honest pledge or will pay 25 cents for the privilege of
seeing the pawned article. If the finder does not think
the article is worth redeeming he will try to sell the ticket,
the purchaser again paying the fee for showing the goods.
The first fee of 25 cents is probably more than the original cost of the article.
Besides these business places which any one can see
when passing, there are several peculiar occupations conducted on the Bowery, legitimate in their way, yet secret.
One of these is the manufacture of curiosities and mon



PO VER TY VI LLE


31


strosities for museums. Mermaids, two-headed calves,
four-legged chickens, etc., are made here to order. In
another establishment relics are manufactured. They
turn out ancient coins, old violins, old worm-eaten furniture, flint spear heads, "genuine" old masters' paintings,
crosses and boxes made of wood taken from the Mount
of Olives, armor with certificates to prove that it was
worn by some famous knight, guns, swords, and bullets
picked up on famous battle fields, in fact, everything
which can be produced cheaply, can pass as a historical
or curious relic and the authenticity of which cannot be
disproved.
Within a few doors of the Bowery is a shop where
crooked gambling utensils are made.  They turn out
marked cards, loaded and shaped ice, brace faro boxes
and crooked roulette wheels.
In Elizabeth Street (one block west of the Bowery)
there is a place where weapons for the criminal classes
are made. Besides the revolver which they buy at the
pawnbroker's sale store, the professional criminals occasionally use a black jack, loaded billy, brass knuckles,
stiletto, etc.
The black jack is a leather bag about six inches long.
The upper end is about an inch wide and filled with fine
shot. The lower end is sewed around a piece of rope
and forms an admirable handle. A thong at the lower.
end is intended to pass around the wrist. A blow on
the head from the black jack will knock a man senseless




32


P 0 POER 7 t 'I L LE


without breaking his skull. The loaded billy is a small
club with a piece of lead in a cavity in the lower end.
The brass knuckles is a piece of iron or brass about four
inches long and half an inch wide with four holes in it
for the fingers. The under side is shaped to fit the hand
when the hand is closed, and the upper side is left as a
long bar or shaped like rings. A blow struck with it
generally breaks the bone.
The ordinary Italian stiletto is a crude double-edged
narrow blade about ten inches long, with a plain wooden
handle. The sandbag requires no skill in its manufacture and is generally made by the criminal himself. A
child's stocking, a salt bag or a bag made of any stout
material is taken, the lower part is filled with sand tightly
presse(l in, and a strini: is tied around the part holding
the sand(. The upper part forms the handle. This acts
like the black jack. A piece of lead pipe is sometimes
used instead.
Another extraordinary occupation is that of slumming
guidle. Slumming parties usually get a police official to
show them the sights. Those who do not know how to
reach the officials either get a guide from a hotel or ask
a barkeeper in a saloon on the Bowery to get some one
to show them around. In the Chinatown district there
are several saloons where such guides are found, and
guides offer their services on the street. They show, in
addition to the joss house, theater and restaurants, an
opium joint, and if there are no ladies in the party, some




POVERT YVILLE


33


of the vilest of the dives. Some of these guides show
places which the police either do not know, dare not
show or cannot obtain admission to. The guides who
offer their services on the street are as reliable as the
saloon guides, charge less and, while most are shabbily
dressed and coarse, they are interesting characters and
can make the trip taken under their guidance interesting.
Park Row, north of the bridge, and the Bowery contain 560 houses. Of these, 425 are occupied in whole
or part by saloons, cigar stores, lodging houses, restaurants, places dealing in men's apparel and places which
are patronized almost exclusively by men.
With the exception of the Jewish theaters, the Atlantic Garden and the dives, its places of amusement are
intended for men alone. There are shops on the street
which employ women and these are seen in the morning
and evening hours going to and from their work. At
other times the Bowery is pre-eminently the man's street
in Povertyville.




CHAPTER III
EVOLUTION OF THE BOWERY.
T   HE history of the Bowery is as curious as the
street itself. The history of the Bowery takes in
what was originally known as the Bowery Road, which
includes the present Park Row. It began as an Indian
trail winding about the foot of the hills which extended
along the length of Manhattan Island, skirting the
marshes which bordered the island on the east. This is
the only street in the city which follows an Indian trail
throughout its length, the bend at Chatham Square still
indicating where it swept around the foot of Werpoes,
the Indian name of a hill the summit of which is now
Park and Mott streets.
When the early Dutch settlers established their farms
or "Bouweries" north of the hill, they followed this trail
when going to and from the city, and as early as 1647
it was recognized as a highway. After Governor Stuyvesant pre-empted the land from Corlears Hook to about
30th Street, east of the road, for his Bouwerie and built
his house near the present St. Mark's Church, he ordered
the road widened to his house. This road, completed in
1651, was called the Bouwerie Patje, or Bouwerie Weg,
now the Bowery. In 1689 the road was extended north



POVERTYVILLE


35


ward as a carriage road and ran to the Harlem Settlement
and Kingsbridge. This extension, called Boston Road,
Kingsbridge Road, Harlem Road, etc., is wiped out, except St. Nicholas Avenue and a part of upper Broadway.
The earliest road out of the city was the Breede Weg
or Broadway, which followed its present line to City
Hall Park, then along Park Row to about Baxter Street,
where it ended at a brook which was here crossed by the
Kissing bridge. North of this bridge was the Bouwerie
Weg or Bowery, the only road leading out of the city
until the early part of the last century. The earliest
dwellers on the road were a number of manumitted slaves,
who, in 1644, established their farms on the hill west of
Chatham Square (Werpoes) and had their cattle pasture
east of the road, covering part of the present square. After
Governor Stuyvesant established his farm east of the Bowery, farms were taken up on the west side of the street.
About the middle of the 18th century the Bowery
was a broad country road bordered by large estates. The
Delancey farm extended from Chatham Square to about
Houston Street. What is now Delancey Street, between
Bowery and Chrystie Street, was originally the private
lane to the Delancey mansion. The tract north of Houston Street was divided among the heirs of the Dutch
Governor. Stuyvesant Street, which marks the limit
of the Bowery, was the lane leading to the Governor's
house and is the only street remaining of the original
Bowery village except the main road itself.




36


POVER TY VILLE


West of the Bowery was the Bayard estate north of
Canal Street, with the mansion at about Broadway and
Broome Streets, Broome Street being on the line of the
lane leading from the Bowery to the house. South of
the Bayard estate was the Pell estate and smaller estates,
the land being cut up into building lots. There was a
cattle market south of Canal Street with the famous
Bull's Head Tavern adjoining and a few dwellings south.
In 1770 there were twelve licensed liquor vendors between the cattle market and the Commons (City Hall
Park). and one in Bowery village about where 4th Avenue and 14th Street intersect. Long before the Revolution the lower end of the Bowerv became what the
street has been ever since, a street for pleasure-seekers.
Within a couple of hundred feet of where the first kissing
bridge stood there has been a pleasure garden or a theater from 1661 till 1861.
Near the upper end of the Bowery stood the Bowery
tavern, famous in Colonial history as the meeting place
of the first Colonial Congress in 1690, when the New
England commissioners refused to enter the city on account of the prevailing yellow fever. At this tavern was
celebrated annually, on St. John's day, the feast of St.
John's, those whose given name was John participating.
The tavern keeper, John Clapp, became locally famous,
having introduced the first hackney coach for hire in
1696 and the first almanac the following year.




P O VER T Y VILLE


37


During the Revolution the Bowery, being the only
road leading to the city, became one of the most frequented streets. A line of fortifications crossed the city
from Fort Pitt, about where Pitt and Grand streets meet,
to Richmond Hill Fort, at about Spring and Thompson
streets. A circular fort at the present junction of Forsyth and Broome streets and another on Bayard Hill,
near where Grand and Mott streets cross, commanded
the Bowery Road and troops were encamped from these
forts along both sides of the road to the Commons, now
City Hall Park.
From Grand Street to the Commons, scores of drinking places and dance halls were opened for the accommodation of the troops, and at this early day the lower
end of the Bowery Road, as it was then called, had acquired an unenviable reputation. The structures erected
for the entertainment of the troops were of a temporary
character and disappeared at the end of the war.
It was not until after the Revolution that the Bowery
itself showed any signs of activity. The Delancey and
the Pell estates were confiscated by the state government,
sold and cut up into building lots.
This was the beginning of the Bowery as a residence
street, although dwellings had already appeared at its
lower and upper ends.
A few of these early buildings are still standing. A
house on Pell Street, a few feet from the Bowery, is




38


POVERTYVILLE


pointed out as the last home of the mythical Charlotte
Temple, and a house near it on the Bowery has been occupied as a drug store since 1807.
The career of the Bowery as a street of pleasure resorts began in 1797, when the second Vauxhall Gardens
were opened on the Bayard Farm after the original
Vauxhall Gardens on Greenwich Street were closed.
Five years later the garden was removed to Sperry's
Botanical Garden, which extended from about 4th Street
to Astor Place, west of Bowery to Broadway. The last
part of this famous resort was closed in 1855. Among
the famous resorts of this time were the Crown and
Thistle coffee house at about 96 Bowery, the Pig and
Whistle Inn at 131, and the Duck and Frying Pan Tavern on the east side of the Bowery just above North,
now Houston, Street.
In the early thirties the Bowery was still a residence
street, almost every house having a garden patch behind
it and a hitching post in front. A number of houses of
this period are still standing.
At the same time it had become more fully fixed as
a street of pleasure. There were the American Theater
(later Bowery Theater), the finest theater in the country,
at its lower end, and the Vauxhall Gardens at the upper
end of the street; the Gotham Garden was opened north
of Houston Street, and taverns had made their appearance. On Park Row were Franklin Theater near Oliver




P VER T Y VI LE E


39


Street, Chatham Theater near Roosevelt Street, and
Blanchard's Amphitheater, formerly Chatham Garden,
near Pearl Street.
Before the Civil War the Bowery had become the
most popular thoroughfare in New York. The staid old
American families had left the neighborhood, that exaggerated type of American known as the "Bowery Boy"
had appeared, and the German invasion had begun. The
German Stadt Theater, the Deutcher Volks Garden and
the Atlantic Garden had been opened, there was now a
new Bowery Theater near Hester Street, as well as the
old Bowery Theater near Canal Street, and a number of
new garden resorts.
The character of the street and its frequenters had
entirely changed in a quarter of a century. There were
many small stores on the thoroughfare, but no imputation of doubt or distrust rested upon its merchants.
The broadest and brightest street in the city at that
time, it attracted all who liked crowds and excitement
and drove away the quiet-loving and refined families of
the former generation. It had become a street with a
reputation. With the close of the war there came another change. The boys in blue, flushed with victory
and with the savings of years in their pockets, came to
the Metropolis. The Bowery was the magnet, for there
were now theaters, concert halls, gambling houses and
dives, a blind police force and a worse than blind administration.




40


P O VERT YII LLE


It was the beginning of the golden era of the Bowery's prosperity (for vice often prospers in spite of a
punitive hereafter and a policeman's night stick).
A decade later the Bowery was a street of glittering
vice, while the "Tenderloin" was still in its infancy.
There were the Sans Souci, the Louvre, the MIoulin
Rouge, the Jardin Mabille and a score of similar places,
with colored glass lamps, flaming posters and red curtains, behind which black-eyed damsels tapped on windows to attract the attention of the uninitiated. The
curious novice who entered one of these places generally
paid the female vampires whatever of value he had about
him and then came off cheaply.
And the peripatetic sisterhood was found all along
the thoroughfare, paying their police pro)tectors liberally
for the privilege of occupying choice dark corners and
even for walking along the street.
The Bowery had become disreputable.
Another decade and we find another change. It was
still a street of pleasure, but vice was disappearing, most
of the dives and foul resorts were gone and a foreign
population had invaded the street. It was in a transition
stage. Business houses were taking the place of its dives
and concert halls, merchants were coming to the Bowery
and it was fast losing its unsavory reputation, wrhen a
peculiar incident occurred to throw it back to the days
of the early seventies. The song "The Bowery," where
"they dot stucll things and they say such things.' appeare(l




P O T' E R T Y VI LL E


41


and its catchy air made it popular. Never did a popular
song have a more pernicious effect. The notoriety of
the Bowery was at once revived, business men would not
*establish themselves on the street, building operations
ceased, real estate values dropped and the improvement
in the street received a sudden check. Reputable merchants who had been in business on the Bowery for years
were obliged to move away to escape the odium cast upon
the street and reflected upon themselves.
Their place was taken by the disreputable class who
had been stigmatized in the song, and in a short time the
Bowery fully deserved all the notoriety which the song
had forced upon it.
There was, however, a marked difference between
the disreputable class of 1887 and that of 1877. The
latter was the class now found in the Tenderloin, the
places were bright, full of light and color, there was an
air of prosperity about them, and as there was no elevated structure to darken the street, tinsel could be used
effectively. Vice was made attractive to the novice and
many of its votaries who later patronized the fashionable
vicious resorts of the Tenderloin were found at that time
on the Bowery. In 1887 the Bowery was dark, dull and
gloomy, a foreign population had invaded it and its resorts were poor in appearance and attracted only a poor
and unresponsive throng. The presence of the unsightly
elevated structure was mainly responsible for the changed
appearance of the Bowery.




42


P 0 R R T V I LE


Since then the foreign element has taken possession
of the street and has monopolized its pleasures.  The
trade of the street, except its saloons, is mainly in the
hands of Americanized Jews.
Today the Bowery is again in a transition stage, and
what promises to be a permanent improvement in its
character is now taking place. Its concert halls are going
and almost gone, and with them the "Barker" and the
"Bouncer," the one strong of voice to lure the wretches
in, the other strong of arm to throw them out.
The colored lamps and curtains are gone, let us hope
forever, and even the midnighlt wanderers who formerly
stood at choice corners, waiting for victims, no longer
ply their trade at their accustomed stands. True, they
can still be found on the street, their painted cheeks, furtive glances and barely audible whispers as they hurry
past a possible patron, revealing their vocation. But law
and order have driven them from the street and into the
rear rooms of the dives, where they are out of sight of
all but those who seek them.
Business houses are now replacing many notorious
resorts, magnificent buildings are in process of erection
along the thoroughfare, vice, its haunts and votaries are
carefully hidden from the public gaze, and the shady
reputation of the Bowery is fast disappearing.
But to those who know the open sesame there are
still its dives and dance halls, its gambling houses, its
opium joints, its sporting houses and all that went to
make up the Bowery of old.




I




i,i!


iI


INTERIOR OF A BOWERY DIVE AND DANCE HALL.




CHAPTER IV
DIVES AND DENS.
THERE is no sharp dividing line between the respectable saloon and the dive, between the clean
music hall and the vicious concert hall, between the reputable bar-room and the disreputable dance hall. There
is a wide difference between the extremes, but there are
many grades between them.
There is the saloon to which women are not admitted,
which has no family entrance or side room, and which
offers no attraction or inducement to the vicious.
There is the saloon  which  has a private office
reached from a side entrance, with a table and a couple
of chairs. There is the saloon with a small back room
having several tables, and reached through the side entrance, where men may take their female companions but
women unaccompanied by men are not admitted. And
thus the grade goes down to the low dive, with its small,
bare-looking bar-room and its large rear room holding a
score or more of tables, twice as many chairs, its piano
and piano professor, its waiters, its bouncer, its satyrs,
and its nymphs. The barroom is used only to supply
the waiters and negatively to announce the presence of
a rear room.




44


P 0 VER T Y' ILLE


This room is reached through a side or "family"
entrance, and here the women assemble after dark, drink,
plan and make appointments with the men who seek them.
The professor thumps the piano, his foot upon the
open pedal to increase the volume of sound so that it may
be heard on the street, but neither melody nor harmony
is expected. Occasionally one of the habitues or a waiter
will sing a popular air, with piano accompaniment, but
delicacy of touch, word or sentiment is not appreciated.
The dive is not patronized by day, but as soon as darkness sets in the women arrive, generally in pairs, followed
by their lovers. A few waiters are on hand, the headwaiter acting in the dual capacity of overseer and
bouncer. The manager sits near the door where he can
overlook the place, observe each newcomer and watch
the waiters as they emerge from the barroom with drinks.
The women in the dives are without exception disreputable, the men are their lovers, those seeking the favors
of the mercenary sybarites, and sightseers.
The last are not popular, receive scant courtesy, and
unless they order drinks frequently they are made to feel
that their presence is undesirable.
If a visitor sits at a table at which a woman is seated
he is expected to treat her. Formal introductions are
unknown. "Say, Sis, what's yours?" combines the introduction, the invitation to drink and the opening of a conversation leading to business.




P O IER T; VI LLE


45


If the visitor is a stranger she will order sherry, for
which he will pay 25 cents, but if he is a frequenter of
such places he will deliberately order two beers and she
will rarely refuse. The knowing ones order seltzer
water or a shell of beer, tile shell being a small, thin
tumbler.
The "professor" is expected to play from   dark to
midnight, and loud enough to drown ordinary conversation, but he can never play so loud as to drown the waiter's "Give your orders, gents!" The sightseer is perfectly
safe in the ordinary dive so long as he remains sober,
sticks to seltzer water or beer, is provided with small
change and does not lose his temper.
If he loses his temper he is liable to be thrown out; if
he gives a large bill to the waiter, the latter may decamp
or practice the flimflam game, a sleight-of-hand trick
whereby he extracts a bill after having counted the
change in the presence of 'the visitor. When a visitor is
partly intoxicated one of the wretches will sit on his lap,
throw one arm around his neck in a fond embrace, and
while he is enjoying her caresses, her other hand is disengaging his watch and emptying his pockets.
The booty is passed to her lover who sits behind her.
If the victim creates a disturbance when discovering his
loss, the bouncer's services are brought into requisition.
The dives of a generation ago were bright, fairly
well furnished, with some attempt at ornamentation.
The Bowery dive of today is a bare, repellant place.




46


P O I ER T tY ILLE


The most notorious in recent vears was McGurk's Sporting House, commonly known as Suicide Hall. It received its gruesome pseudonym after several of its frequenters committed suicide there. The saloon part in
front was bare of furniture except a bar and a back bar.
It was rarely patronized. Behind the saloon, and separated from it by a partition, was a large room holding
thirty tables, over a hundred chairs and a piano. The
xwalls, where not bare, were hidden behind theatrical posters and lithographs. The owner's station was near one
corner, from which he could overlook the place without
being seen from the entrance, while the head-waiter and
bouncer, an ex-pugilist, stood near the door. The entrance to the rear room was through a hall adjoining
the saloon, the entrance from the saloon being used by
the waiters. This place was crowded nightly, every
woman from the street drifting in once or oftener in the
course of the evening. The place was popular with soldiers and sailors, and its cards were found in sailors'
resorts all over the world. Notwithstanding its notorious
character it had a singular record. If a woman robbed
a visitor while in this dive, whether caught in the act or
afterwards identified by the man whose companion she
had been, she was compelled to disgorge her booty and
could not again enter the place. This in part accounted
for its popularity.
Its open violation of the law and the publicity given
to it by the suicides committed there marked it as the first




P 0 VER T YVI LLE


47


to go when a reform administration began its towncleaning crusade in 1901.
The Palm Garden was another notorious resort closed
at the same time. The habitues of this place were a
beastly lot of creatures, with whom even the depraved
wretches of the Bowery would not consort. There are
few public places of this character in this city, for the
penalty is heavy and no mercy is shown, as there is no
excuse for their bestiality.
The Slide, a resort of this kind, was raided a few
years ago and the proprietor spent years in jail, notwithstanding his wealth and political prominence. Afterward
the habitues assembled in a dive on Chrystie Street which
they called the Palm. When too much publicity was
given to this place, the proprietor, "French Lou," moved
to a saloon in Fifth Street near the Bowery, known to
the police for years as the headquarters of the "Reds"
or rabid anarchists. This was then called the "New
Palm." Complaints from the tenants of the house compelled the police to close the saloon and the wretches
scattered. They now congregate in a clubroom.
After McGurk's Sporting House was closed the other
Bowery dives either closed their doors or were conducted
so quietly that only regular frequenters knew of their
existence. The piano players were discharged, singing
and dancing were prohibited, and strangers were not admitted during the prohibited hours (1 to 5 A. M.).




48


P 0 IFE R T I' IL L E


Lynch's White House, near Grand Street, and the
Rosedale. near Fifth Street, had apparently sufficient influence to run openly until 1903, when both closed their
doors. There are still a number of dives on and near
the Bowery, not run under distinctive titles, and all conducted so quietly that they are not known to be dives
except by their regular patrons. A glance through the
side door, however, will disclose the large room at the
end of the hall. One dive just west of the Bowerv was
conducted under a distinctive title and in the old style
until 1906, and in the winter of 1908-1909 several dives
and dance halls were opened near Chatham Square.
A saloon still doing business near Catherine Street
is the refuge of the old, haggard, tattered wretches,
women who have reached the lowest depths of poverty
and depravity, who would not be admitted to any other
resort. The men who frequent this place are fit mates
for the women. The "Flea Bag," on Park Row, is a
similar resort. A dive on MAott Street, near Chatham
Square. is frequented mainly by opium habitues; the
women are younger and more depraved than in the other
resorts of this character. The saloon part in these is like
the ordinary Bowery morgue, the back room is generally
filthy, poorly lighted, and altogether repulsive. Some of
these places are the rendezvous for petty thieves and pickpockets of the district.
Places of this character frequently change hands
(nominally), the actual proprietor securing a new license




POVERTYVILLE


49


under an alias or in the name of the manager or a
dummy, whenever a serious complaint is made against
him or his place by which his license is forfeited.
The Oxford Hotel is a Raines Law hotel, and was
formerly a dive. The saloon part is like the ordinary
Bowery corner liquor store. Behind it is a small room
reached only from the side street. Here, seated at six
tables, was a low type of the Bowery wretch, human
harpies whose specialty was drunken sailors. The women
were old, ugly and vicious, and no artifice could make
them acceptable to a man in his sober senses. Above the
room is the hotel to which they took their victims when
the latter had reached the state of imbecility. The place
was owned by a notorious dive-keeper, but run in the
name of another. This and several similar Bowery resorts have recently given up the dive adjunct and announce that they are conducted under a new management, renting rooms to gentlemen only. This is one of
the results of an honest police administration. Nearby
is one of the few brothel dives left in that vicinity.
Another Oxford on the Bowery is a gaudy saloon
where small politicians congregate. Flynn's saloon, corner Pell Street, the headquarters of "Chuck Connors,"
is a tough liquor store where old rounders are supplied
in the back room. Steve Brodie's is at present the best
known of the low Bowery saloons.
The Rosedale, recently closed, was another Raines
Law hotel and dive. It was frequented by the peripatetic




50


POI ER TY II I L 


sisterlood, their panders, and some of the former Palm
habitues. The reputed manager of this resort has run
similar resorts on and near the Bowery for twenty years,
each place running a few months and then closed (by
the advice of the police?), and a new place under a different name opened nearby. The manager has considerable political weight in the district, and has never been
troubled by the police. He has now a Tenderloin resort.
Many of the female frequenters of the Rosedale and
similar places in the same locality were women who had
just come from the more pretentious Fourteenth Street
resorts. There is a gradual (lownward path for these
women. Starting at the fashionable resorts in the Tenderloin. they pass down Sixth Avenue to Fourteenth
Street. then down Third Avenue to the Bowery, where,
near the upper end, they first reach places like the Rosedale. As they go down they finally reach the tough dives
at the lower end of the Bowery and on Park Row.
On Hester Street, not far from the Bowery, is, perhaps, the dirtiest of the Raines Law hotel dives in the
district.
What the fBowery morgue is for the men, this place
is for the wonien, a foul liquor-store with a small side
room where these depraved creatures can drink whiskey
by the tumblerful.
The women are coarse, vile, ugly and old, and rarely
succeed in capturing a victim, although their favors can
be had for the price of a drink.




P 0 V ER T 1Y V ILLE


51


If the price of a room in a Raines Law hotel is any
criterion of its standing, this one is at the foot, for a
room can be had here for 25 cents a night.
On the same street, west of the Bowery, is a similar
Raines Law hotel and dive, having a somewhat cleaner
saloon.
These two places are not dives as the word is understood on the Bowery, the side or back room being merely
an adjunct to the hotel and saloon. Almost every Raines
Law hotel on the Bowery has such a side or back room
where the preliminaries leading to the engagement of a
room up-stairs are made.
The old time dance halls such as were conducted by
Harry Hill and Billy lMcGlory have disappeared from the
Bowery. In their stead dancing is sometimes indulged
in in the dives. The tables and chairs in the middle of
the room are pushed aside, giving a clear space where
those present can dance to the music of a piano. There
are no square dances, but a waiter calls out, "take partners for a dance," the men ask any of the women to
"step up for a turn," and away they whirl. The dance
may be a waltz, polka, schottische or galop, the time of
the music depending upon the mood of the piano player.
All is called "spieling."
After the dance the tables are pushed back and the
place becomes a dive again.
The Emerald on Chatham Square is the largest and
gaudiest of the dance hall dives.




52


PO 'ER T )' ILLE


There are several ballrooms in Povertyville, in which
dances are held nightly during the winter, sometimes by
respectable parties, sometimes by the vicious, and by fictitious clubs.
When not regularly engaged the proprietor of one
of these halls hangs a sign on the door announcing that
Social Club will hold its annual ball that
evening. No tickets are sold in advance, the admission
fee, usually 25 cents, admitting "gent and ladies," being
paid on entering. \Vhen women come unaccompanied by
men they wait before the door until some man without a
companion is about to enter. They will either ask him to
pass them in or they will follow in his wake as his
"ladies." In this way the women of the street get in
without paying the admission fee.
There is no printed dance program, a floor manager
calling out the dances, the intervals between them being
regulated by the number of people drinking at the tables.
In the course of the evening women will find companions who will accompany them home or to nearby
hotels, and by midnight most of the men are gone. The
ball then comes to an end. The proprietor's returns are
derived from admission fees. hat checks and drinks sold.
Sometimes a hall is engaged by a dive-keeper or a
few sports, who form a temporary club. The tickets
are sold or given away, the returns from the hat box
covering all expenses. At these balls the women are admitted free, and those who ordinarily seek them at the




PO VERTYVILLE


53


dives go on such nights to the ball. It is at these affairs
that the tough dances so grossly caricatured on the vaudeville stage can be seen. The Bowery tough who attends
such balls does not possess a dress suit, high hat, white
shirt, cuffs or patent leather pumps. The dress suit can
be hired and by basting and pinning can be made to fit.
The ordinary colored shirt or a celluloid shirt front takes
the place of a white one. Where the shirt front is used
the cuffs are pinned to the sleeves of the coat. The
tough does not know how to wear a high hat, although
one can be hired for twenty-five cents. As for dancingshoes, his brogans serve him better than pumps. A white
collar, a bow or a four-in-hand tie, white or colored, and
a rhinestone pin complete his ball outfit. This is, however, only used on state occasions.  At the ordinary
dances, such as are conducted by the hall proprietor, his
ordinary suit, generally the only one he has, is worn.
The women have no ball dresses. On special occasions
they hire a silk dress or wear a gauzy summer waist,
black skirt, and imitation jewelry.
The program consists almost wholly of round dances,
these being the most popular with the dancers and most
productive of thirst, hence most profitable to the bar.
While the women are fairly good dancers as a rule, the
men, with few exceptions, know one step, a polka or
schottische, rarely a waltz, timing the step to the time of
the music or breaking into a galop irrespective of the




54


PO V ER T V I I LE


music. This end galop is the mild prototype of the tough
dance of the stage.
While there is less grace there is often more decorum
at these dances than at some so-called fashionable balls
held in Newv York every winter.
The saddest feature of these dances is the opportunity
they offer working girls of the vicinity to dance. The
girls go, are admitted free, and being, as a rule, more
attractive than the brazen women of the street, are
sought after by the men. Mlany of the women of the
street began their downward career at these balls or
soirees, as they are sometimes called.
The Bowvery concert-hall is an institution which depends for its existence upon the temper of the police.
Under a strict interpretation of the theatrical law the ordinary Bo wery concert-hall can not be run profitably,
and with an efficient police force carrying out the spirit of
the law there are but few concert-halls on the Bowery.
One of these, the Atlantic Garden, has been referred
to. In spite of the degeneration of the neighborhood it
has maintained its respectability, and is to-day the only
place of its kind on the street to which a man can take
his wife in safety.
The Casino, a Jewish vaudeville hall, having little to
attract the American, was recently closed. The Oriental
Music Tall, on Grand Street, and several other similar
places are ordinary concert halls, frequented mainly by




P 0 'ER T ' VILLE


55


Jews. They have nothing to recommend them, and
there is little to criticize. They are poor, but not vicious
places like the next described hall.
The Lyceum   Music Hall represents a type which
keeps within the law, but approaches the line of indecency so closely that a man would not take his wife or
daughter into it. This type has its stage, dressing rooms,
paid performers, and runs under a concert license, but it
has also its barker and its bouncer, its persistent waiters,
and disreputable women at the tables. Admission is free,
but the visitor is expected to drink, and not dally too
long over one glass. The orchestra consists of a violin
and a piano, the performers are three or four women,
who sing and dance at irregular intervals. When visitors enter, a performer is called out to sing or dance.
When there are few people in the room the performers
do not appear. Their songs are popular airs with variations coarsely suggestive, even to vileness; their dances,
the ordinary clog and jig. They are not permitted to
appear in costume among the audience, but they convert
the stage dress into a street dress in a minute, and then
appear on the floor drinking with admirers.
Places of this description do not pay, as those looking
for good vaudeville where admission is free and they
can drink and smoke, go to the Atlantic Garden or to
the resorts further uptown, while those looking for depravity find what they want in the dives.




56


P 0 IER7'V I '  I E


The typical low Bowery concert-hall can only exist
when the most liberal construction is put upon the theatrical law, and the police then refuse to see its evasion
and violation. Under the present police administration
not one is running on the Bowery, but as soon as the
word is passed out that there will be no police interference, they spring up over night. A manager who has
the proper kind of influence hires a large store, covers
the windows with flaring theatrical posters, and  announces that a concert hall will be opened the next day.
A few boards placed upon a couple of carpenter's
horses at the further end of the store form the stage. A
screen at the side of the stage is the makeshift for a
dressing room. and a larger screen placed near the door
hides the interior from the gaze of the passerby. A piano,
a score or more of tables and twice as many chairs are
hired and put in during the day. A bar and an ice box
are placed near the entrance or in the cellar. The piano
goes near the stage.  An electric light within, a gas
bracket with colored globes and a billboard covered with
theatrical posters outside, complete the equipment of the
place. The glassware, screens, stage, outside gas bracket
and billboard must be paid for immediately, the other
things are hired.
All these are secured and put in place within a few
hours after the store is rented. When such places are
allowed to exist there is no difficulty in securing an excise and a concert license.




POVERTYVILLE


57


The help necessary are a manager, a "barker," who
stands before the door shouting its attractions, a
"bouncer," whose principal duty is to throw out undesirable visitors, a few waiters, and the professor, a poor
devil who is willing to thump the piano for fifty cents
a night.
The bouncer is usually a pugilist obtained from a
sporting resort, the others are secured from the lodginghouses. The talent consists of some of the women of the
street, and sometimes a waiter, all volunteers. The supply far exceeds the demand, for it gives the women a
chance to appear on the stage, and they thereafter call
themselves actresses, and it brings them prominently before the public in the place, with the greater opportunity
of securing patrons from among the audience. There is
generally a stock costume, furnished by the manager,
which each woman dons before she goes on the stage.
She must go on in costume and, as few of these women
have any other wardrobe but that which they wear on
the street, they must accommodate themselves to the
sleeveless waist and the short skirt furnished by the
house. Whether tall or short, stout or lean, all wear the
same costume. The singer's popularity depends upon
the character of her songs, and the more vulgar they
are the more she is applauded. What is, however, of
more importance to her than applause is to find admirers
who will invite her to drink, as she gets commissions on
the drinks they order.




58


p o    'l (  T'  F '   I/ VI. Lif


If one can le indutced to order champlagne at three
dollars a bottle, her commissioll is a dollar. The stuff
furnished is a special brand of champagne cider costing
thirty cents a bottle. On wines and liquors she receives
twenty per cent; on beer nothing. HTer own (drink is
usually sherry at twenty-five cents a glass. There is
sometimes an understandingg between the -women and the
manager whereby they are not charged for drinks they
order. If a party who appear to be liberal spenders
enter, one of the women will sit at the table and invite
them to drink with her. They accept the invitation and
offer to treat in return. She accepts, orders champagne
and they dare not refuse.
The lovers of the women who frequent the concert
halls are not tolerated there, as they spend nothing, and
occupy seats with the women which m1ight be occupied
by more profitable patrons. Sightseers are always welcome, as they usually spend something and d(o not remain
long.
When such disreputable concert halls are permitted
to exist they are virtually under police protection, and
while the visitor is safe as long as he remains sober and
pays in small change, should he be robbed he has no
redress, for complaint to the police will be unavailing.
Nor is it safe to quarrel with a woman or a waiter, for
both are protected by the bouncer, and the policeman on
post is the latter's friend.




POVERTYVILLE


59


The presence or absence of these mushroom concert
halls on the Bowery is an unfailing gauge of the political
status of the city. Under a reform administration and
with an energetic police commissioner who is independent
of politics, such resorts disappear. This was the condition
of the Bowery in 1887, in 1895 when President Roosevelt
was police commissioner, in 1902 when General Greene
was at the head of the police department, and even at
present with a Tammany administration and an independent, liberal minded, energetic police commissioner
the Bowery is free from these openly vicious resorts.
While these public haunts of vice have disappeared
or are under cover, there are a number of places where
vice flourishes, but only the initiated may enter.
There are gambling-houses, poolrooms, opium joints,
brothels and private clubs where interdicted vices are
practiced so quietly that only regular patrons know of
their existence.
There is also a form of disreputable joint which keeps
within the letter of the law, though violating its spirit;
but being run mainly by Germans and Hungarians,
for these nationalities are little known. These- are the
"cider rooms" and "coffee rooms," found east of the
Bowery. Some of the coffee rooms are simply gambling
houses where "Stuss," a Hungarian gambling game, and
poker are played. Coffee is furnished instead of whiskey.
In most of the coffee rooms having waitresses, and
in the cider rooms, almost without exception, the sale




60


P 0V E R T Y VI L L E


of coffee or cider is a blind. The waitresses are for
hire, the proprietor having a flat behind the store or
nearby, to which patrons are conducted after the preliminaries have been arranged over the cup of coffee or
glass of cider.
These places are run without excise license, and when
liquor is called for tihe proprietor will offer to go to the
corner liquor store and buy some for the patron.  In
this way he circumvents the law, although the liquor
really comes from bottles in his ice box.
These places are rarely interfered with by the police.
We hear occasionally of "knock-out" drops in the
Bowery saloons. Knock-out drops is a solution of chloral
hydrate, the pungent taste of which is immediately noticed by a person in his sober senses. In almost every
case where it was used the victim came into the saloon
partly intoxicated, drank with a stranger at the bar, and
then accompanied the stranger to a private room or office
in the saloon. The victim receives the drug in a drink
furnished by the bartender. In his befuddled condition
he does not notice the taste, and in a few minutes becomes drowsy and falls into a deep sleep. In this condition he is robbed, and as soon as he shows signs of returning consciousness, he is led to the door and pushed
out. He will, as a rule, walk a short distance, then lie
down, still drowsy, and sleep. He is picked up by the
police, and the next morning the story is in the press. A
bartender will never give the drug unless the victim is




POV 'ER T YVILLE


61


in the hands of the accomplice and away from the bar.
Stertorous breathing shows the bartender that he has
given the man an overdose, and no time is lost in getting the victim out through the hall or side entrance and
left on the street.
Knock-out drops are supplied in half dram vials, each
vial containing 20 grains of chloral, a vial full being used
at a time.
Bartenders in saloons frequented by the criminal
classes generally know what the drug is and have no
difficulty in obtaining it. It is, however, rarely used in
the Bowery saloons, as the risk is too great and the
prospects of making a haul too small. Mrost of the reported cases of knock-out drops on the Bowery are simply cases of robbery while drunk.
Gambling is the most persistent pastime indulged in
in Povertyville, and to thousands in the district it is the
only source of livelihood. Poker, policy, and crap shooting are the principal forms of gambling practiced. There
is one place on the Bowery known to every Bowery sport,
having the more elaborate paraphernalia required in faro,
rouge et noir and roulette, although rumor has it that
these games are also played in some of the private clubs
in the district.
There is a gambling house which has been running
for years without police interruption. The window shutters on a level with the elevated railroad structure are
never opened, and no gleam from the gas lights burning




62


POI ERT' I'" ILLE


day and night within ever reaches the outside. The place
is over a liquor store frequented by small sports, and is
reached only through a hall leading from the back room.
There is an emergency exit leading to a store on a side
street. In the large room over the store is a faro layout
and a few poker tables for private parties.
Although the place is probably known by the police,
complaints never reach them, as strangers are not admitted unless vouched for by a frequenter, and the games are
honestly conducted. This is, however, not due to moral
scruples, but because the players are expert gamblers and
know all the tricks of the game. The place is frequented
by small sports, politicians and merchants with sporting
or gambling proclivities. In its favor it may be said that
the proprietor will not allow confidence men to use the
place in carrying out their schemes.
Another game was opened over a saloon run by an
ex-convict. Its frequenters were mainly of the criminal
classes, and no one could enter who was not personally
known to the proprietor. It is said that the police permitted this place to run, as it enabled them to locate suspects through stool-pigeons who played there.  When
complaints came that confidence men were making their
headquarters there the police ordered the place closed.
(The stool-pigeons are ex-convicts who continue their
associations with the criminal classes and sell whatever




POVERTY VILLE


63


information they can pick up to the police. Occasionally
they are engaged by the police to obtain information in
special cases.)
The policy shops are now conducted so quietly that it
is difficult to locate them. Since the crusade began by
Captain Goddard and the Anti-Policy Society these places,
formerly run as openly as dives and gambling houses,
have disappeared, and at present there is not a regular
policy shop on the Bowery. Those who still play the
game go to a cigar store near the Bowery, where they
meet a runner or agent for a policy shop. He receives
their money and gives them a slip for the cap, saddle,
gig or horse, as the various combinations of numbers
played are called. After the afternoon drawing, which
was supposed to take place in Kentucky, but which has
been shown to take place in this city, the runner again
appears in the store to pay the winners.  Poolrooms,
where bets are made on horse races, open and shut as
the police will. The Bowery is practically clear of them
at the present moment, but it is safe to say that this is
only a temporary condition. With a lenient police captain in any one of the five precincts bordering on the
Bowery, poolrooms spring up in that precinct. A large
room is hired, one side is partitioned off, and in the
larger space where the bettors congregate, a number of
blackboards are set up. These blackboards contain the
names of the horses in each race and the betting odds
given at the race track. Behind the partition is a tele



64


PO V ER T ' I'IL LL


graph or telephone receiver, from which one of the employes reads aloud the progress of each race as it is run,
and announces the winner. The bettors place their money
through a wicket in the partition and receive a pool
ticket giving the name of the horse and the amount bet.
The winning tickets are redeemed through this or through
an adjoining wicket. Pool selling, as this form of gambling is called, is a violation of the law, but to convict
the bookmaker or pool seller it is necessary that he be
identified as the person receiving the money. To prevent
such identification a shade or cover is placed over the
wicket in such a way that only the hand of the person
receiving the money and handing out the pool ticket can
be seen.
Most of the betting on the races now done on the Bowery is through handbooks-that is, through bookmakers
who have no poolrooms but accept bets at the poolroom
odds, and pay winnings as the returns come over the
ticker of the saloon where they make their headquarters.
Bets are also made through "turf commissioners" or
agents, who place bets at the track or in poolrooms
further up town. Some of these agents are honest, and
actually go to the track or poolrooms to place the bets
entrusted to them, but most are bookmakers risking their
own money, with the additional advantage over regular
bookmakers of charging for each bet they make and receiving, besides, a commission of the winnings of their
patrons. When the small bookmaker finds that he would




P O ' ER T Y VI LLE


65


lose heavily in the settlement of bets he "welches," or
disappears, with the stakes. When the "turf commissioner," who risks his own money against the patron's
bets, instead of placing the bets at the track, finds he
would lose heavily he returns the patron's wagers, with
the plausible excuse that the poolroom was raided or that
he was sick. He is then considered an honest turf commissioner.
On June 16th, 1903, the only poolroom then running
on the Bowery was raided by the police. It was supposed
to be run by a member of a well-known family of politicians, and had been doing business less than a week.
From a window in the room a heavy rope was stretched
to the extension of a nearby theater, and a ladder led
from the extension to a yard in Chrystie Street. The
manager and his employees escaped this way.
Since the passage of the race-track betting law by
fhe New York State Legislature in 1908, horse racing
has declined in this State, and interest in horse-race betting has virtually ceased in the Boowery district. During
the summer months there is some illicit betting on races
held near the city, but there was no poolroom on the
Bowery in the summer of 1908 or since then.
The club rooms are the only resorts where the vicious
are free from police molestation.
While many of the clubs in Povertyville are places
of recreation for the working men, and as such are commendable, some were organized to evade a badly tinkered




66


P O VER T Y VILLE


excise law, while others were started by the vicious classes
to give them a place where, under cover of the law, they
could drink, gamble, and plan nefarious projects.
One of the most notorious of the last class is a club
in Doyer Street, near the Bowery. The lower part of
the ramshackle club house is occupied by a liquor store
run by one of the club members. The upper part is
used for club purposes, a large room being used as a
club room, sitting room, and dance hall, while smaller
rooms are used by card parties. The membership consists mainly of the vile, vicious and criminal classes, but
there are also enrolled others who have business relations
with the law breakers. The business affairs of the club
are conducted in an orderly manner, but at its social affairs orgies are carried on as far as the police will permit. At the annual balls given by the club there are
collected the largest number of criminals outside of
prison. The women present are almost without exception
the mistresses of the men, criminals like their partners,
or women of the street.
This is an incorporated club. There are several such
incorporated clubs in the district, the sole object of which
seems to be to afford a place to gamble under cover of
the law or a place of refuge when evading its penalty.
There are also many clubs not incorporated, having rooms
in rear houses, in cellars, stables, and other out of the
way places. Such resorts are the "hang-outs" or headquarters of the gangs of toughs who infest the district.




POVERTYVILLE


67


Sometimes they call themselves a club and elect a president, invariably the one who has committed the most
hazardous crime. More often they prefer to call themselves "the gang," prefixing what they consider a euphonious title, and they follow a self-appointed leader, whose
only claim to leadership rests upon his willingness to fight
anyone who disputes his title.  In the tenements and
shanties which covered the area now embraced by Mulberry Bend Park, a little west of the Bowery, there were
scores of such hang outs, until the city authorities wiped
out this, the most vicious block in the city, and perhaps in
the world. In the middle of the block, back of the houses
fronting on Mulberry and Baxter Streets, were a number
of old buildings occupied by rag pickers, beggars and
criminals. These houses were reached from the houses
in front, by alleys which led to the streets, and by crossalleys and back yards. If an escaping criminal succeeded
in reaching one of these alleys he was safe, for it was impossible to determine in which direction he went after
he had reached the first cross-alley, and every house was
a refuge. From the Bandits' Roost, a house near the
center of the block, the name of which well indicated its
character, Mulberry Street in front, two alleys and two
adjoining buildings could be reached, while a cellar communicated with the cellar of a house back of a house on
Baxter Street. The Bandits' Roost and several other
buildings on the block were the dens of criminals. On
the ground floor of one of these rear buildings a gang




68


PO VERT VI'IILLE


had fitted up two rooms as club rooms and headquarters,
with spoils gathered in their raids. Lace curtains covered windows which were never cleaned. A carpet lay
on the floor of the two rooms, the unused portion of the
roll lying in the smaller room, forming a head-rest. The
carpet was littered with cigar stumps and ashes, torn
playing cards, broken clay pipes, etc. A kitchen table
covered with green cloth, probably the cover of a billiard
table, and a number of beer kegs used as chairs, comprised the furniture. On the mantlepiece were a lot of
bric-a-brac, cards, slates, pieces of chalk and beer glasses.
The back room was filled with clothing, bundles and bags,
the proceeds of thefts, while some of the gang lay on
the floor smoking or dozing. One of these was badly
battered in a fight for leadership. This place was a typical thieves' den. Another such den existed in Elizabeth
Street, one block west of the Bowery.
A number of gangs have gained considerable notoriety during the past few years on account of their frequent encounters with the police and the feuds among
themselves. They are really not as formidable as press
accounts would indicate. The personnel of the gang
consists of a leader who gives his name to the gang, a
few vicious friends and some half-grown boys, viciously
inclined, who try to emulate the others in vice. They
have no organization, no headquarters, nothing more
than a favorite "hang-out" where the leader meets his
friends and discusses crimes with them. The leader has




POVERTYVILLE                     69
generally some political influence whereby he attracts
criminals and would-be criminals who will do his bidding
on election day, and who look to him for aid when they
come in conflict with the police. When the leader is sent
to prison the gang disintegrates.
The chief occupations of the members of these gangs
are petty thievery and gambling. Sometimes they fight
among themselves and occasionally a member is killed
in a feud or by members of his own gang, if he is suspected of being a stool pigeon.




CHAPTER V


HAUNTS AND HOMES.
EVEN wretches must live, they must have shelter and
food, and Povertyville supplies them with both.
Those with means, honestly or ill-gotten, are never
at a loss; not so, however, the poor devil who is not a
criminal, who has no home, friends or money. His
waking hours can be spent in the streets, saloons, dives,
missions and reading rooms. But he needs some place
where he can rest, forget andl dream, sheltered from
storm and cold. For the respectable woman, so situated.
private philanthropy has amply provided. The penniless
man, however, who will not steal, must beg enough to
pay for a night's lodging or must beg for a lodging at
one of the Salvation Army hotels or go to the M\unicipal
lodging house. If he has good recommendations he can
remain a few days at the Bowery branch of the Young
AIen's Christian Association, and if he shows a willingness to work the Charity Organization Society will provide for him.  The Industrial Christian Alliance in
Bleecker Street maintains a temporary home for destitute men who are willing to work at brush making, carpentering, shoemaking or tailoring until other work is




C- I- -


I


lf il


SITTING ROOM OF BOWERY LODGING HOUSE.








P O ER T Y V'ILLE


71


provided. If the destitute fellow will not avail himself
of one, of these places, he can rest on the Park benches,
on trucks or in cellars in summer, and in the winter in
the comfort houses for men in the parks.
The saloon offers him shelter if he will do the menial
work about the place, sweeping floors, cleaning windows,
washing cuspidors, etc.
In some saloons the patrons who spend their money
over the bar are permitted to remain at night in the
back room, while one saloon gives each patron a coupon
with each drink, six coupons entitling him to a free bed.
In one saloon the back room is crowded nightly. Its
patrons, mainly longshoremen and dock workers, earn
fair wages, which are spent here for beer and liquor. The
generous proprietor, who has grown wealthy from this
trade, furnishes them with a plentiful supply of bread,
cheese and corned beef, and when their money is gone
he permits them to sleep on the chairs and benches in
the back room.
For those who can pay there is every grade of hotel
and lodging house, from the fairly good Occidental Hotel,
where rooms cost a dollar or more a night, to the Park
Row lodging houses, in some of which a tramp may lie
on the bare floor near the stove for five cents a night.
The term hotel implies a more pretentious establishment
than the lodging house, and should include a dining room,
but many ordinary lodging houses on the Bowery bear
the names of hotels. The law does not clearly define




72


POVERTYVILLE


the difference between hotel and lodging house, and there
is a conflict between the requirements of a hotel under
the Raines law and under the sanitary and building codes.
The Raines law demands ten bedrooms, a kitchen and
dining room. The building code demands fifteen rooms.
The sanitary code demands 400 cubic feet of space for
each guest and a window in each sleeping apartment,
opening upon an air shaft, court, street or open space.
Under this rule a hotel cannot have more bedrooms than
it has windows, while a lodging house may have a dormitory with as many guests as the cubic space will allow
under the 400 cubic foot rule. The "private rooms" in
the cheap lodging houses are not legally bedrooms, but
portions of the main room with the partitions between
the beds. The partitions between the "rooms" do not extend to the ceiling, as that would make them legally bedrooms, violating the sanitary code. Wire network extends over the top of the partitions, instead of a ceiling, to
prevent guests from making surreptitious visits to their
neighbors' rooms when the latter are out.
There is, besides these, that vicious anomaly, the
Raines Law Hotel, which will be described later.
The best and most unique of the lodging houses in
this section are the two Mills Hotels, number one in
Bleecker Street, with 1550 rooms, number two in Rivington Street, with 600 rooms. Both are under the same
management and conducted alike. (A third Mills Hotel
was recently opened.)




POVERTYVILLE


13


The rooms, costing 20 cents a night, are small and
plain but clean and neat.  These hotels contain large
reading rooms, smoking lobbies, barber shops and laundries, and the guests have the usual hotel conveniences,
including elevator, steam heat and electric light. They
are legally hotels, not lodging houses.
Restaurants connected with these hotels supply good,
wholesome food at very low prices, and are patronized
by hundreds who are not hotel guests.
These two hotels are patronized by a class distinct
from the Bowery lodging house patrons. They are mostly
men working for small salaries, self-respecting men who
desire clean and refined surroundings so far as limited
means can secure refinement. They do not come under
the heading of Povertyville's wretches. For a short time
in 1904 and 1905 a number of broken-down sports and
gamblers made their home here, but the manager soon
turned them out. In the better class of Bowery lodging
houses, the rates are from 25 to 50 cents a night. The
highest priced rooms face the street, have carpets and
curtains, and the ordinary hotel room furnishings, bed,
wash-stand, mirror, chair and bureau. The cheapest are
on an upper floor, face the yard or court, are smaller than
the other, have muslin window shades, and oilcloth on
the floor, otherwise they are furnished like the other
rooms. These lodging houses-some are called hotelshave sitting rooms, and most have free baths. In the
lodging houses charging from 15 to 35 cents a night the




74


P O VER T YVILLE


best rooms are furnished like the best rooms in the better
class lodging houses. There is, however, a general air of
povery about them more noticeable than in the cheapest
rooms in the better lodging houses.
The cheapest rooms, or stalls, as the lodgers call
them, are mere closets about 8 feet long and 5 feet
wide, partitioned off the sides of a long hall or room,
with a passage way between the two rows of closets or
"private rooms."  Each room has a bed or cot, a stool,
and sometimes a washstand.
Where there is a washstand there is a tin basin and a
pitcher. If there is no washstand in the room, there is
a common lavatory at the end of the hall, and adjoining
it is a closet where the lodgers may take a shower bath.
There is usually a sitting room, poorly lighted, with
benches instead of chairs, where lodgers often sit through
hot summer nights.
Some of these lodging houses have drying rooms
where lodgers may wash and dry their clothing, and most
have a washstand at the end of the hall, where, to the
faucets, are attached by chains a comb, hair brush, and
whisk broom. -
In the poorest lodging houses where the rates are
from 10 to 25 cents, rooms are closets like the closets of
other lodging houses.  These hold either cots or oldfashioned beds. Where cots are used the bedding consists of a sheet thrown over the bed, a straw pillow and
a blanket. In the old-style beds there is in addition a




PO VERTY VILLE


75


straw mattress, so-thin, however, that an uneasy sleeper
generally arises with the marks of the bed slats on his
body.
For ten or fifteen cents the lodger receives a cot in
a dormitory holding from twenty to a hundred beds. In
a lodging house near Park Row bunks were formerly used
instead of beds; the boards forming the bunk were held
up by short posts or boxes,- one row of bunks being above
the other.
Each bunk accommodated two sleepers.  The bed
consisted of a lot of straw, covered by a piece of canvas,
a canvas bag filled with straw formed a pillow, and a
horse blanket covered all. No objection was made to
dirt or vermin. The lodgers rarely removed their clothing, but shoes were removed out of consideration for the
shins of their bed fellows. Late-comers who could not
obtain a bunk lay on the floor, paying five cents for the
privilege.
In some lodging houses double-decker bunks, having
one row of beds above the other, are still used.
In the ten-cent lodging house there is a common lavatory, and a spray pan is attached to the faucet by a long
rubber tube so that those who wish may take a shower
bath. This is seldom used. The common towel is
changed when the last white spot disappears, and the
comb and brush which are chained to the faucet do service while a few teeth and hair remain.




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P 0 UI ER T Y' 1 ILL E


There is a sitting room with a few benches and a
desk near the door, where the clerk receives the dimes
and pennies from the guests as they slink in. He enters
their names on the register, and assigns each to his bed.
In a few moments the lodger has kicked off his shoes,
and a moment later his snores join the chorus. Latecomers sit around the stove or lie on the floor. Such
are the poorest of the lodging houses.
The lodging houses from Grand Street northward are
better than those southward. The poorest are on Park
Row and in the side streets. The largest of the poor
lodging houses is a six-story building in Mulberry Street,
near Park Row. It stands in the rear of some old tenement houses, and is reached through a narrow alley between two houses. Some of these poor lodging houses
furnish coffee and rolls, others give tickets good for tobacco or beer.
The new hotel at Chatham Square conducted by the
Salvation Army is the largest lodging house in the city
with the exception of the TMills Hotel number one.
It has dormitories and small rooms, with rates from
fifteen to fifty cents a night. It is equipped with elevators, steam heat, electric lights, spring beds, free baths,
etc., and in its conveniences is far in advance of other
lodging houses charging the same rates.
But while the inmates pay as much as they would in
other lodging houses there is a lack of independence,
or rather, there is a sense of dependence upon a philan



PO VER T YV'ILLE


77


thropy, a sense or sentiment entirely absent in the guests
of the Mills hotels. This may account for the difference
in the class of guests at the two hotels.
The old lodging houses of the Salvation Army do
not differ except in neatness from the ordinary cheap
Bowery lodging houses.
The dormitory of the Bowery branch of the Y. I.
C. A. is the most attractive of the Bowery lodging
houses. The lodgers are mostly young men in search of
work. A charge of fifteen cents is made, but a man
without means, having good references and showing a
willingness to work, can obtain lodging and meals free
until work is secured. As a philanthropic institution this
has done more good than any other institution of a similar character in New York.
The guests are aided to obtain positions, religious instincts are fostered, and self-respect is upheld. They are
not thrown in contact with the lazy, shiftless, often depraved wretches found in other lodging houses, nor are
they obliged to give hypocritical statements about their
willingness to be converted and reform in order to obtain
a free bed.
The homeless and penniless fellow who cannot obtain
a free bed at the Y. M. C. A. or at one of the Salvation
Army hotels, can go to the Charity Organization Society
in East Twenty-Second Street, where he can obtain lodging and meals if he is willing to do a few hours' work
in the wood yard.




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PO VER TYVILLE


As a last resort, he can go to the Municipal lodging
house in First Avenue, near 23rd Street. Here are 317
beds, 270 for men, and 47 for women, about one-half
being occupied nightly, except in winter, when the place
is overcrowded. A new Municipal lodging house holding
1,000 beds was recently opened in 25th Street.
The wretches arrive about 6 P. MI., and their names
and addresses are entered on the register. Each one is
asked how he supports himself, ho-w much money he has
about him, and what references he has. Vagrants and
those who apply more than three nights in succession are
sent to the police station, the others are examined by a
physician who excludes those who are suffering from
contagious diseases. These are sent to Bellevue Hospital; the others assemble in a large rooim, where each
receives a cup of coffee and a piece of bread. After depositing with the Superintendent whatever of value le
may have about him, the applicant receives a numbered
bag, and is conducted to the bath room. Here he puts
his clothing in the bag, hands it to an attendant and receives a check therefor, and a night shirt.  After a
shower bath he is assigned to a bed in one of the dormitories. All are awakened at six in the morning, and
the bags containing their clothing are returned.  The
clothing has been subjected to a disinfecting process during the night, and comes back damp and crumpled. This
is the general complaint of all who spend a night in the
Municipal lodging house.




POVERTYVILLE


79


After dressing, coffee and bread are again served, the
inmates are set to work cleaning up the place and at halfpast six the men are discharged. The women leave half
an hour later. All are easily recognized in the neighborhood by the damp, crumpled appearance of their
clothing.
In cold and stormy weather the hours are not strictly
adhered to and when the number of applicants exceeds
the sleeping accommodations a man's dormitory is turned
over to the women, while the men are sent to the pier
of the Department of Charities, where cots are put up
for them. When the number exceeds the accommodations at the lodging house and pier late comers go on
board the city steamboats which tie up at the pier, or
are sent to the police station, where they find shelter but
little comfort in the unoccupied cells.
Little need be said of the saloons where men are permitted to sleep on chairs or on casks.  The men are
drunkards who have spent their last cent at the bar and,
partly overcome by liquor, they drop into the chairs or on
casks and sleep there until they are thrown out in the
morning.
There is still one place where the homeless wretches
may find shelter, a place to which only the most abject
of wretches resort. The writer saw a number of them
standing asleep in the toilet room for men in Mulberry
Bend Park at 2 A. M. on a February morning in 1908.




so80


P O IER T 'YVILLE


The temperature outside was 16 degrees above zero;
in the room it was 60 degrees. The wretches here dread
the bath in the municipal lodging house, they dare not
go to the police station where they would be held as
vagrants, which means that most horrible combinationwork and wash; they cannot obtain admission to any
other free lodging house, and they prefer to spend their
last dime for a drink rather than for a bed.
The Raines Law hotels are not intended for permanent guests or all-night patrons. The rooms are rarely
occupied for more than an hour or two at a time, the
guests slinking in through the side door with their temporary "wives," the "wife" appearing with several "husbands" in succession the same night. The room for which
a dollar is charged contains a bed, a chair and a washstandl. The bedding is insufficient, the lighting is poor
and there is altogether a lack of conveniences as a standing invitation to vacate the room as soon as possible.
No respectable person stops at a hotel of this character, but the female wretches who bring their patrons
to them are usually permitted to occupy a room  free.
This description fits the ordinary Bowery Raines Law
hotel of the brothel variety. Some hotels established
under this law are in so far respectable that they are conducted as good hotels, furnishing the usual hotel conveeniences, yet some of these, notwithstanding their apparent respectability, are patronized almost exclusively
by disreputable women and their temporary husbandi,




POVERTYVILLE


81


Unfortunately there is no sharp dividing line between
the clean, respectable hotel and the ordinary Raines Law
house. The mere presence of disreputable persons in a
hotel does not necessarily imply that the hotel is disreputable, for such persons can be found even in ultrafashionable houses. When, however, couple after couple
enter a hotel without baggage, not even a hand satchel,
register as coming from some distant place and leave the
hotel in a few hours, especially when the register shows
that none of these couples remain longer than a day, it
is safe to assume that the hotel belongs to the Raines
Law brothel variety.
While it may appease the vanity of the lawmaker to
whose efforts these public brothels owe their existence,
it is a disgrace to the legislature which called them into
life and to the city of New York which must recognize
them as having a legal right to exist.
Not all the so-called hotels operating under the vicious
Raines Law are brothels. This law demands that a hotel
shall have not less than ten rooms, each containing a bed,
for the accommodation of guests. It gives hotel keepers
some privileges not possessed by saloon keepers, principally the right to furnish liquors to guests on Sundays.
As the Sunday trade in many saloons far exceeds the
week-day trade, the saloon keeper hires a floor or two
floors over the saloon, places ten cots or folding beds in
as many rooms and secures a hotel license. If he has
fitted up the rooms merely to comply with the law under




82


POVERTYVILLE


which he has secured the license, and has no intention
of renting them, an applicant for a room is told that all
the rooms are occupied or that the rate for a room is ten
dollars a night. The rooms are occupied by the family
of the proprietor and his employes, each one registering
as a guest. Thus the letter of the law is obeyed and the
saloon keeper may sell liquor on Sunday. (The law says
liquor may be furnished "with meals," and a legal decision makes a cracker a meal.)
Some of the lodging houses have a distinctive class
of patrons. In one of these there are many men of education and refinement who have come down through
drink or who seek to hide their identity in Povertyville.
However great their efforts to appear other than they
really are by mingling with the low and depraved, sooner
or later they drift into this place, where they find congenial company. There is little social intercourse among
the guests, each respecting the reticence of the others,
none seeking to impose or obtain confidence. Sometimes
when several are under the influence of liquor, they become loquacious, and will discuss literature, the arts and
sciences. Perhaps an allusion will bring to one of the
party some bitter memory. He leaves the others and all
understand why. To each is brought back the realization of his own position and they separate, each going
to his room reflectively.
Another lodging house is known for its frequent
brawls. Most of its patrons belong to that class of in



POVERTYVILLE


83


digenous wretches who have no moral compunction about
cracking a stranger's skull or rifling a neighbor's pockets.
Shortly before election day this place is filled with
tramps who lodge here free until they have performed
their duty as citizens on election day. They are thrown
out the next day.
In another lodging house may be found a number of
broken-down theatrical men and sports suffering from
dipsomania. (They have the same right to call their vice
by a euphonious medical term as the drunkards of uppertendom.) There is more social intercourse among the
patrons of this place than in any other lodging house on
the street. Heavy gambling is constantly going on, if
one judges from the conversation, but buttons take the
place of chips, these being sold at ten for a cent, each
button representing a dollar.
In one lodging house there are many newcomers from
rural districts, probably attracted by the name of the
house. It does not differ from the other lodging houses.
It is not until we reach the meanest of the lodging
houses that we find that incongruous company composed
of all manners and conditions of men, men once accustomed to the high hat and dress suit, men accustomed
from infancy to rags, men familiar with the classics and
men who cannot spell their names, the whilom master of
men and his most servile dependent-men once, wretches
now.




84


P80 \ ER T Y1' I LLE


\WVhile the vicious and penniless go to the lonely rooms
and dormitories.of the lodging houses, few professional
criminals are found there. These as a rule occupy furnished rooms with their paramours, or several such couples may occupy a flat and live together as a free-love
community.
The men who are the panders of the women of the
street invariably hire a furnished room on or near the
Bowery, but the criminals and thugs prefer a flat where,
with their mistresses, thieves like themselves, they live
in comfort. Sometimes three such couples take a flat
together, one posing as man and wife. the latter having
a sister and a servant with her. The other two men
show tip later as boarders. They live quietly, pay their
rent promptly, do not interfere with other tenants.
and, although suspicion may be aroused by the irregular
hours at which the members arrive and depart, they
remain until they run afoul of the police.
Private philanthropy has done more for the fallen and
disreputable woman than for the homeless and penniless
w\oman who tries to maintain her honor and her selfrespect.
For the latter class there are four places where they
can obtain free lodgings. At the "Free Home for Young
Girls," in East llth Street, girls between the ages of 13
and 25 are provided with a temporary home, until situations can be secured for them in Christian families.




P 0 T ER T YV ILLE


85


In the Shelter for Respectable Girls, East 46th Street,
Protestant working women can find a temporary home.
In the Bowery district is the St. Barnabas House in Mulberry Street. Here destitute women without regard to
race, creed or color, are kept a few days. Whites and
blacks, Americans, Italians, Russians, the old and the
young, receive equal care and attention, a very laudable
provision from a philanthropic standpoint, although very
distasteful to a high-spirited American girl in adversity.
Such a girl rarely remains more than a day in this home.
She will then go to one of the other homes if she can
obtain admission. As a final resort the destitute woman
can go to the Municipal lodging house. Here she is
thrown in contact with the most wretched of her class.
The Salvation Army has a lodging house for women,
on the Bowery, where the rates are ten to fifteen cents,
but penniless women can sometimes obtain lodgings free.
For respectable women who can pay a little, there
are a number of homes where rates are from 15 cents
upwards a night. On the Bowery itself there is the Salvation Army lodging house, a worthy philanthropy in its
way, lacking, however, the elevating influence of refined
surroundings and company.
In Rivington Street, near the Bowery, is a woman's
lodging house conducted like the better class of men's
lodging houses, with rooms from 15 to 50 cents a night.




86


PO' ER T YT ILLE


There are a number of temporary homes for respectable women where low rates are charged and home comforts are furnished.
These are all semi-philanthropic, the income for board
and lodging being insufficient to cover the running expenses, the deficiency being made up by voluntary contributions.
Those within a short distance of the Bowery are the
Florence Hotel in East 14th Street, the homes con(lucte(l
by the Ladies' Christian Union, one in 9th Street near
Broadway, the other in 2nd Avenue near 18th Street, and
the Margaret Louise Home in East 16th Street. This
last is connected with the Y. WT. Co A.
The ordinary woman of the street generally hires a
furnished room in a side street near the Bowery where
a number of houses are occupied exclusively by women of
this class. The rooms are poorly furnished, muslin
shades, oil cloth, a bed, wash-stand, bureau and chair
comprising the entire contents of the room.
Occasionally one will hire a flat in a respectable
house, furnish it, and live there with her lover as husband and wife; or an old woman will hire a flat and let
out rooms to these women, who pose as her daughters.
The tenement house commissioners are making strenuous efforts to drive such women out of respectable tenements. In one house on 2nd Street a woman who hired




P O I'ER T Y V ILLE


87


a flat for herself and two daughters was dispossessed two
months later when the family of "daughters" had increased to nine.
While a wretch is still attractive she can always earn
enough to hire a furnished room. Later, when she must
depend upon the drunken fellow who cannot see straight,
she falls back upon a Raines Law hotel, to which she
conducts him. Still later, when not even the drunken
sailor will consort with her and she must do washing and
scrubbing, with occasional stealing, her nights are spent
in the back rooms of the lowest dives. Then comes the
Salvation Army, the Municipal lodging house, the police
station and the workhouse. Only as a last resort will
the woman of the street apply at a home for fallen
women. On the rare occasions when a woman of this
class becomes conscience-stricken, she will apply to be
committed to a reformatory institution. Even then she
is likely to change her mind before entering. As a rule
when these women apply at a home for fallen women it
is to obtain shelter for a few days and perhaps soluie
clothing.
The Florence Crittenton Mlission in Bleecker Street
near the Bowery, the Washington Square Home for
Friendless Girls on Washington Square South, and the
Salvation Army Industrial Home in East 15th Street are
the ones to which these women usually apply.
Here they receive board and lodging and such mental,
moral and industrial training as would fit them to be



88


POV ERT 1 ' ILL L


come respected working women. All this training is,
however, wasted on most of them, for they are unaccustomed to mental or manual labor and do not take kindly
to either. In a few days after they leave they are in
their old haunts again, looking for customers.
There are several reformatories and homes for fallen
women to which such women are committed by police
magistrates and which receive fallen women who apply
voluntarily. Fewv, however, go voluntarily to;vhat they
consider a prison. Young women who want to give up
their vicious vocation prefer to go to the \Vashington
Square Home, which does not lay special stress in its
name or methods upon religion or a religious denomination. Older women generally go to one of the Salvation
Army homes. A few are attracted by the street services
of the Florence Crittenton M\ission and go to the Mlission
House, which is a short distance from the Bowery.
Brothels were once as numerous in Povertyville as
the Raines Law hotels are now. Before determined efforts were made to stamp them out, and while men of
means still visited the Bowery district for their pleasures,
there were scores of unobtrusive, small buildings just
east of the Bowery, where "madams" and their girls
were housed. There was nothing to indicate their character to the passer-by, and frequently the dwellers in
adjoining houses knew nothing of their neighbors. In
these houses the basement was used as a dining room and
kitchen, the parlor was the reception room where the




P OV E R T Y V I L L E


89


girls sat awaiting their patrons. The upper rooms were
bedrooms. When it became necessary to attract patrons
a cigar store was opened in the basement or on the
ground floor.
When a stranger entered, madam would sell him a
cigar, if that was his purpose, but would suggest that
he visit the reception room upstairs. As the class of patrons became poorer, the number of disreputable houses
decreased. Instead of these, there are now the cider
rooms and a few cigar stores having rooms in the rear
or over the store.
The brothels of the eighties were the prototypes of
the fashionable houses of ill fame later found in the
Tenderloin district. The few remaining in Povertyville
today are poor in their furnishings, repellant in their
surroundings and in constant danger of being raided by
the police. It is safe to say that the "Ladies Boarding
House," as it was known for forty years, will soon be
extinct in Povertyville.
On a few blocks east of the Bowery, in what was
known as the Red Light district, there are still a few
houses of this character. The Red Light district was
so called because the hall light in disreputable houses
had a red globe or shone through red curtains covering
the transom of the hall door. A red light before a cigar
store, cider room or coffee room indicated its purpose.
The Parisian licensed brothel has a red lantern with the
number of the house over the door. The few remaining




90


PO V ER TY VILLE


houses of this character in the district have no distinguishing marks other than the women who sometimes
stand before the door to attract patrons. The best
known has had its liquor license revoked and now admits
only habitues.
In Chrystie Street is a beggar's colony where a score
or more of these wretches congregate in four small rooms
of a rear house. Here they sleep, eat, gamble and quarrel. One room is the kitchen, dining room and sitting
room, the others are sleeping apartments, The wretches
pay 50 cents a week for the privilege of sleeping on the
floor and 25 cents more for a cup of coffee and a half
loaf of bread in the morning.
The beggar colonies are constantly on the move, as
they are in violation of the sanitary code and house owners turn them out when they find for what purpose the
rooms are used.
A colony of old wretches who hang about street corners on the East Side was recently turned out of a ramshackle house in Oliver Street. They slept upon mattresses laid upon the floor, paying five or ten cents a
night for the privilege.
The question of food is more readily solved by
wretches than that of lodgings.
For those who can pay there is every grade of restaurant from Lorber's restaurant on Grand Street near
the Boowery, and the restaurant of the Occidental Hotel,
which compare favorably with good restaurants on




P O VER TY VILLE


91


Broadway, to the miserable hole on Roosevelt Street,
where one and two cent meals are furnished. The St.
Andrews Coffee Stands, supported by private charity,
furnish one-cent meals-either coffee, soup or beans.
Besides the regular restaurants there are saloons having lunch counters, where a small charge is made for
meals, saloons furnishing meals at the noon hour, the
free-lunch counters, the meals furnished by missions as
an inducement to the wretches to attend the services, and
two charities, private enterprises, which furnish food
free to the hungry without making public appeals, and
without hiring brass bands and reporters.
In Lyon's restaurant, the largest on the Bowery, as
elaborate a meal can be obtained as in good restaurants
elsewhere. The prices are somewhat higher than in other
restaurants on the Bowery, but much lower than the
prices charged for the same quality and quantity of food
in fashionable restaurants. Of course, the service and
surroundings in a Bowery restaurant do not compare
with what we expect to find on the Avenue or Broadway.
In Lorber's restaurant the meals furnished are as
good and plentiful as are furnished in uptown establishments, and the prices are about one-third less.
Of the cheaper restaurants, those connected with the
Mills hotels furnish perhaps the best meals for the price.
They charge ten cents for breakfast consisting of a cup
of coffee, rolls and butter, and either eggs or a dish of
meat, sausage or fish. Their fifteen-cent dinner consists




92


P 0' ERT XIU'ILL LE


of a choice of soups, a meat dish, giving a choice of
four or five varieties, two kinds of vegetables, dessert,
tea. coffee or milk, bread and butter. The same meal
in a Bowery restaurant would cost from thirty to fifty
cents.
The Squirrel Inn, established by a temperance society
to counteract the influence of saloons, was formerly an
ordinary Bowery restaurant having a free reading room
on the upper floor. On the Bowery it was supposed to
be a well-paying restaurant, competing with other restaurants in the neighborhood, apparently a money-making philanthropy. Tile reading room has been moved to
the ground floor and the upper floor is rented out. The
same Society maintains the lunch wagons found in various parts of the city. Thev do nothing towards keeping
men out of saloons; the meals they furnish are insufficient in quantity and the prices are relatively higher than
in other restaurants. In many of the Bowery restaurants quantity and price are alone considered by the patrons. In these there are plain pinewood tables occasionally polished, kitchen chairs occasionally cleaned, the
floors are sanded or covered with sawdust and about the
walls are signs giving the price of various dishes and
the admonition, "Look out for overcoats and hats."  So
carefully is this warning observed that patrons rarely
remove their overcoats and hats.
There are no table cloths or napkins, the patron's
coat sleeve serving the place of the latter; the chinaware




PO V ER T Y VI L L E


93


is the coarsest and thickest obtainable, forks and spoons
are of tin, knives of iron. There are no butter or fish
knives, the knife which the diner has just used for fish
being next used for butter and a moment later for a meat
ball or an apple dumpling.
There are no menus. The bill of fare is posted on a
blackboard at the door, or marked with wet chalk upon
the window panes, so that the diner can make his selection before entering. The diner gives his order to the
waiter, who translates it into the expressive slang of the
Bowery as he shouts into the kitchen, "sinkers" for butter
cakes, "mystery" for hash, "sleeve-buttons" or two "sunny
side up" for two fried eggs, "two shipwrecked" for two
fried eggs turned over, "soaked bums" for beets, etc.
The prices in one of the largest of these cheap restaurants are; Coffee, two cents; coffee, bread and butter, five cents; soup, ten cents, but if ordered with meat,
five cents; most meat dishes, eight to ten cents; porterhouse steak, fifteen cents; fowl, ten to fifteen cents; vegetables, five cents; dessert, pudding, etc., five cents.
In a still cheaper restaurant on the Bowery soup and
meat costs five cents; coffee, bread and butter, and either
two eggs or some cereal, five cents. A whole meal, consisting of soup, meat, vegetables, a piece of pie and a cup
of coffee, costs ten cents.
The cheapest place charges one cent for soup and
bread, two cents for meat and five cents for a meal consisting of soup, meat, a potato, coffee and bread.




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PO' ER7  I' I  LE


Nothing goes to waste in the cheap restaurants.
Eggs which may have been returned half a dozen times
on account of their odor are sent out again when the
next order for eggs comes in, and if finally left over they
are used to increase the stuff which goes into next day's
hash or "mystery." The various kinds of steak differ
only in the size of the portions sent out: veal is used
when lamb is ordered and every bit of food brought back
is made to do service in another form.
In the five-cent restaurants the bill of fare is exceedingly limited, there being but one kind of soup each day.
three meat dishes, steak, hash and stew; one variety of
vegetable, potatoes; one kind of dessert, mince pie; two
cereals, oatmeal and honiny; besides coffee, tea. milk,
bread, butter and eggs. Early comers receive soup, later
ones receive soup diluted with water; when the stock is
nearly exhausted, diners receive water diluted with soup.
The meat is the poorest obtainable and first does service
in the soup. What is left over one day goes into the
next day's hash or stew.
The meals furnished at the saloon lunch counters.
where a small charge is made, are plain and well cooked.
The charge is about the same as in ordinary restaurants.
Sometimes a simple lunch is prepared for the noon hour
and a small charge, five or ten cents, is made for the
same. The dives and Raines Law hotels of the brothel
class serve no lunch.




P O VERT VI I LLE


95


The free lunches differ with the class of saloon.
Elaborate saloons have usually elaborate free lunches.
If a charge is made for lunch during the lunch hour,
everything but bread is removed from the free lunch
counter during that hour. One saloon, well known for
the quantity and variety of its free lunches, supplies the
purchaser of a glass of beer with a full meal, consisting
of soup, stew, hot sausages, steamed clams or clam
chowder, various kinds of meat, sausage and cheese
sandwiches, pickles, onions, olives, radishes, etc.
In one saloon, where the size of the glasses is the
main attraction, there are three firkins, one filled with
pieces of bread, one with beef, cooked meat and sausage,
and one with pieces of cheese.
The receptacles are not replenished until empty. Patrons take what they want by the handful and when the
bartender is not looking they fill their pockets with the
food.
In one saloon each patron receives a roast beef sandwich, the meat being roasted on a spit near the bar.
Of the restaurants supported by philanthropic societies, that attached to the Bowery Branch of the Y. M.
C. A. is the best known. A meal consisting of soup,
meat or chowder, and coffee and bread costs five cents,
but many penniless men receive the meals free. A fair
dinner is furnished for fifteen cents.
The lunch wagons, and the restaurants connected with
Salvation Army hotels, charge full price for their meals




96


P 0 FVER T V I ILLE


and it is not generally known that they are conducted by
philanthropic organizations seeking voluntary contributions. Another restaurant of the same kind, formerly
run by the owner of a great sectarian weekly, is one of
the poorest, yet probably one of the best paying on the
street.
The free meals furnished by missions do more to encourage hypocrisy than evangelical work. MIany of the
"reformed" wretches who give their testimony and experience do so for the promised meal. Afterwards they
go out for more experience. On the night that free lunch
is announced the mission is crowded to the doors.
Thursday is free lunch night at the Bowery Mission and
though the room be half empty on other nights of the
week, there is a full house on lunch night.
The only requisite to obtain a meal is that the recipient remains throughout the service. The meal consists
of hot coffee, bread and sandwiches. A bread line is
formed nightly in front of this mission, where bread is
given to every applicant.
Meals are also occasionally distributed at the services
of the Volunteers of America.
It is probable that more meals are given away daily
by the men who have charge-of the free lunch counters
in the saloons than by philanthropic organizations in a
month.




POVERTYVILLE                      97
There is, however, one unostentatious charity which
has never appealed for contributions, yet has for years
distributed its benefits to all applicants without question.
This is the midnight distribution of bread at Fleischman's bakery, corner Broadway and 11th Street.
At Fleischman's a bread line is formed at midnight
at the side door on 11th Street, and as each applicant
passes the door a loaf of bread is handed to him. A
woman applying for an extra loaf for her family receives
it. No questions are ever asked.
While undoubtedly many persons receive a loaf who
ought to work or could pay for the same, there are some
deserving persons in the line who would rather starve
than submit to a humiliating inquisition. During the
winter months there are sometimes hundreds in the line.




f




PART II
THE WRETCHES




THE WRETCHES
CHAPTER I
PARIAHS.
HO are the wretches of Povertyville?
Not the poor who, however unfortunate their
lot may be, have conscience as a guiding star and hope
as a companion, who have no fear that the morrow may
find them in a prison cell, or that their past will bar the
gates of salvation to them.
The wretches are those in whom hope is crushed, in
whom the still voice of conscience is dumb, in whom
avarice and hunger are the moral mentors and in whom
the will is at the mercy of the passions.
They are not all indigenous to the soil of Povertyville.
Some are exotics dropping suddenly from the heights
of upper-tendom into its whirlpool. Some have drifted
from giddy whirls in high social life, gradually descending through successive stages until they reach the lowest




BOWERy TY    S        CTER   R   LI
OWr ly T   'Yp ' AND CHARACTERSFROM LI.E.




I




THE WRETCHES


99


level. Occasionally one goes to Povertyville as one
would go to London or Paris. Its life has some rare
fascination for him. He goes again and again until he
becomes accustomed to its life.
In the words of Pope:
"Vice is a monster of so hideous a mien,
As to be hated if but to be seen.
But seen too often, familiar with its face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace."
Here and there one is found who has plunged into
the whirlpool of Povertyville to escape some frightful
phantom, the shadow of a lost love or a stricken conscience, or to seek forgetfulness from sorrow for a departed loved one or a misspent fortune.
The exotics are easily recognized, for even when near
the vortex, where they go down forever, some mark of
refinement will present itself.
It may be a mark of neatness such as clean hands, a
brushed hat, fringes removed from frayed trousers, or it
may be a word or two interspersed in the jargon of the
street, better fitted to the drawing room or the lecture
hall, or it may be the call for a fashionable drink-a mint
julep or absinthe. They never refer to their past. Even
those who plunge into the whirlpool to hide their identity
from the world and from themselves cannot completely
hide every trace of their true selves, for no effort of the
will can overcome their repugnance for filth and indecency.




100


THE WRETCHES


They have a saying, "What's bred in the bone won't
come out in the wash," which they apply to themselves.
Sooner or later they drift into places where others of
their class congregate and where they can be found if
wanted. They betray themselves.
The female wretches who show by their manner and
speech that they were accustomed to refined surroundings reach Povertyville through many gradations and
degradations. Rarely does one drop from a high to a
low station in fast life, rarer still is it to find one coming
from upper-tendom to Povertyville and there begin her
downward course.
Unlike the men, the women do not remain in the
places which knew them in their days of innocence.
There are some who are as familiar with Brighton,
Aix la Bains and Cannes as with Bar Harbor and St.
Augustine, and as familiar with these places as with the
New York Tenderloin and the Bowery.
W\hat led these exotics into the currents which end
in the vortex of Povertyville's whirlpool?
It is easy to surmise but difficult to prove that misplaced confidence in a lover's vows first led them from
the path of rectitude. Some come to escape a harsh
father or husband, others began in pique and continued
in remorse.
A harsh word or an unjust suspicion drove some from
their homes. Some, attracted by the glamor of the footlights, found the tempter at the stage door, while others




THE W/RETCHES


101


began by worshipping a stage idol, forgetting that stage
idols have the human passions of other men. A few
were born wretches, wretched beings whose earliest recollections are the walls of a foundling asylum, or a
wretch for a mother.
The exotics from upper-tendom form but a small proportion of the wretches of Povertyville.  Some come
from rural districts, most are indigenous.
Thousands of country lads, tired of the dull monotony of farm life, come to the city to emulate the few who
have had a successful career. When they fail and reach
the end of their resources, they drift into Povertyville.
Here they soon become full-fledged wretches, for they
are apt pupils and the ways of vice are not hard to learn.
Begging is easy and involves little risk, but the spirit of
the young fellow fresh from the country revolts at robbery. Drinking and gambling are later accomplishments.
After one has acquired these vices, if he is still young
and strong, he will "cut out" the lover of a woman of
the street, either in a fight or while the other is in jail.
Then he is in clover. But his fate is like the fate of all
such lovers, either a thief ending his days in prison, or a
sot who finally reaches the morgue.
With but few exceptions the female wretches from
the country belong to one of two classes-stage-struck
lasses finally stranded in New York, or pitiable girls deserted by their false lovers, who come to New York for
relief and to hide their shame.




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THE WRETCHES


The low burlesque companies are responsible for most
of the former class.
The girls are attracted by the glitter and glamor of
the stage and they want to become actresses. They will
work without salary if the manager will give them a
chance.
On such terms they are accepted, and the freckledfaced, red-armed, angular farmhand of yesterday now
dons the padded fleshings, uses grease paint and stands
statuesque in the rear row of the chorus.
The first night away is crucial. The novelty, the glorious prospects, the companions' consolation and the stagedoor masher's wine, or the dull, prosaic home and hoe.
The wine is the deciding factor. If there be no masher
on hand to supply the wine, the manager or some member of the company will supply beer or liquor.
The effect is the same-the morrow brings regrets,
but the prospects overcome repentance.  After a few
seasons, during which she has become world-wise, her
sensibilities and sentiment are destroyed, her charms and
usefulness on the burlesque stage are gone, she is accustomed to the association of men and to the taste of liquor,
and now finds refuge in the Bowery concert halls.
The poor, deluded and deserted victims of man's passions hide their shame and drown their sorrow in the same
whirlpool. But they have the same desire for self



THE WRETCHES


103


preservation as their more fortunate sisters. They sell
their body and soul to men, cursing them who buy their
favors.
Many of them become opium fiends and find in the
fumes of the drug a happy consolation in which perdition
is hidden.
The indigenous wretches form classes distinct from
the exotics. To many, accustomed from childhood to
the all-pervading air of vice, the elevating influence of
law and order is lost, these acting merely as a restraint
to their passions.
A wretch of this kind is a savage, cowed by fear of
the policeman's club, an anarchist in principle, though
rejecting the name, often a degenerate with animal
instincts more highly developed than those intuitive restraints which we call conscience, sentiment, modesty and
honor. A prominent characteristic in this class is aversion to continuous labor and routine. They cannot submit to a superior.
The fear of physical pain and the forcible deprivation
of his pleasures and exercise of his passions are the influences affecting him. The policeman is the embodiment
of law and his mortal enemy. He knows woman from
childhood and her charms and favors from the earliest
possible age.
He will work hard if he must, but it is easier to steal,
still easier to beg. Devoid of sentiment, he has no
friends, but his gregarious nature demands companions,




1( 4


7 T   E   II' R I; TC  I1  S


yet for his own safety he will sacrifice his brother. His
daring, applied to an honorable calling, would be courage,
but there is no chivalry in his nature. Prison conveys no
sense of degradation to him; it means to him only compulsory labor and deprivation of pleasure. He is an
inveterate gambler, finding less pleasure in his winnings
than in the humiliation of a defeated opponent. He will
take every unfair advantage over his adversary, as ready
to cheat a child out of a penny as a man out of his last
dollar. He finds a ferocious delight in the injury he inflicts upon another.
H-e is an excellent lover to his female companion, and
will run any risk to defend her, providing she earns
enough to supply his wants; at the same time he is the
harshest of tyrants over her. There is no sentiment in
such companionship. To him she is a source of income
and a means of gratifying his passions without expense;
to her he is a paid protector and aid. When she becomes
unprofitable he drops her without the slightest scruple
or explanation. If he is arrested or loses in a fight with
a rival she sheds no tears: he is "down and out" as far
as she is concerned.  This type of wretch invariably
lands in jail. He may have begun his criminal career
during childhood, following the example set before him
by vicious parents; or he may have begun as a youth,
joining one of the gangs of corner loafers who have no
visible means of support, yet dress well and spend money,
or he may have begun his vicious career as a young man,




THE WRETCHES


105


visiting the dives and attaching himself to one of the
women he finds there; all follow the same course which
finally lands them in prison. Crime begets crime and
the association with criminals leaves its taint. The fellow without conscience, thrown in contact with the more
desperate criminals in prison, comes out worse than before. He becomes the ally of the robber and burglar who
look for higher game and leaves the Bowery to the petty
thief and pickpocket.
Not all the wretches who spring from Povertyville
begin as such. Some have heart and conscience and fight
like heroes to keep out of its whirlpool. They look beyond their surroundings and make mighty efforts to
reach a higher plane. They fail, lose hope, then plunge
in madly, caring little how soon the end is reached.
Occasionally one is found who had reached a higher
plane. But he had looked back and had seen a woman's
smile or heard a tempter's call; or, unaccustomed to prosperity, he had gone through the pittance which was to
him wealth, and was back again in Povertyville. Many
may be found who until the death of a loving wife or
child led righteous lives. Drink brought forgetfulness
from sorrow, but it also dulled the mind and conscience
and they became sots.
The exotics pass through Povertyville either as homeless, penniless unfortunates, or as drunkards, the former
going from penury to beggary, from beggary to vice and
crime, the latter becoming sots. The indigenous wretches




106


THE   R E TCIHESY


usually start out as criminals, but tlose who try to drnwn
sorrow in drink do not follow a criminal career.
And the women who begin their wretched careers in
Povertyville? Some are pitiful indeed, well worth sympathy and aid; others have not a redeeming virtue.
Here is the young girl who, like her fallen sister from
the country, loved not wisely but too well. Driven to
the street by her parents, she goes to a home for fallen
women.
Whether it be the home of a wretch or a place for
reformation, she receives shelter and learns the ways and
wiles of the women of her class. A few months later
there is another waif in the foundling asylum and another
woman on the street.
There is the young woman whose scanty wages at
the machine or behind the counter barely sufficed to keep
her body and soul together. Then came the "gentleman
friend" who loaned her a few dollars, and then the struggle between gratitude and honor. Gratitude won, her
honor lost, the debt was cancelled. 'Tis but a step from
granting favors in gratitude for money loaned never to
be repaid and granting such favors for the price.
There is the poor wretch who, out of work, out of
resources, without friends, without home, goes deliberately "on the town."  She seeks aid and advice from
some wretch on the street. Wretches though they be,
they take the newcomer into their midst and initiate her
into the tricks of their trade.




THE WRETCHES


107


There are many married women on the street. There
is the one who, forgetful of her wedding vows, is turned
adrift by her husband, then forsaken by her paramour.
In despair she goes.on the street.
Some have taken up this life on finding that their
husbands were unfaithful to them, others are driven to
their calling by worthless husbands who live by the shame
of the women they had sworn to love, honor and protect.
There are apparently respectable women who solicit
on the street while their husbands are at work. They
do this to earn pin money and their husbands, unconscious
of the source of the money, compliment them for their
economy.
Most pitiful is the poor deserted or widowed mother
who must ply this trade to furnish food for her little
ones. She does not drink, will not steal and is economical, but is a wretch withal.
Then there is the pitiful spectacle-the daughter of a
wretch, perhaps a child of dishonor, brought up to follow
her mother's vocation. Mother and daughter at the same
table, each bidding against the other for the patronage
of the same man!
The daughter has seen this life from childhood and
has been prepared for it for years. She has no conception of modesty, morality or honor as virtues, but knows
how far the law will allow her to go. Her ideas of propriety are determined not by conscience but by statute.




108


THE T W RETCHES


We can account for her lack of rectitude, but how explain the mother's moral obliquity?
Some plunge into the whirl, knowing yet disregarding
its dangers. In the giddy whirl they can lead a giddy
life, cost what it may. A short life but a merry one is
their motto. They are not naturally vicious, but they
want pleasure. They lead apparently respectable lives,
work by day, but under cover of darkness they hover
about or cross the portals which lead to the Underworld
of Povertyville.
Once discovered, they throw off all reserve and become the most brazen of wretches. They know right
from wrong and will do right as long as it does not interfere with their pleasures and comfort. They become the
consorts of criminals and many become opium fiends.
This class is recruited from the working girls who
spend their evenings at the dance halls.
There is one class of wretches who, like their male
counterparts, are naturally vicious, devoid of moral instincts and conscience. These wretches are not driven
to their calling through want, nor take it up for pleasure
or in pique; neither do they seek oblivion or death.
Their condition is the result of environment, perhaps
heredity, and lack of moral teachings. They seek the
gratification of their passions, the acquirement of adornments and freedom from physical exertion.
With savage instincts not repressed by any inherent
sense of propriety, their actions are governed by their




THE WRETCHES


109


slender knowledge of what the law demands and prohibits. To them virtue and vice are not even relative
terms, for without the moral sense to distinguish right
from wrong, their conception of these is based upon
their likes and dislikes. Fear of punishment has a deterrent effect upon them, but moral and religious teachings are wasted after they once set out upon their vicious
career. They become in time the vilest of wretches,
vicious and criminal, and are the usual consorts of criminals.
There is still one class of wretches, male and female,
we hardly dare mention lest we tread upon forbidden
ground. This class is composed of those whose propensities, viler than animal since they have no counterpart in the animal kingdom, place them outside of any
human category. They call themselves "fairies." Such
a wretch, born of human parents, in the semblance of
man gives himself a female appelative, imitates woman's
voice and ways, and as far as he dares wears woman's
attire.
He plucks out the hair which might form the mustache or beard, uses rouges, powders and cosmetics and
all the artifices a woman might use to enhance her
charms. Corsets;. high-heeled shoes and bracelets are
generally worn and in his room he dons complete female
attire. This effeminate creature is in love with an equally
despicable wretch of his own sex.




110


THE WRETCHES


There are women of the same class, masculine women
who imitate the opposite sex as far as possible. They
wear their hair short, shave, employ measures to give
their bodies a masculine form and often appear in masculine attire. They assume a gruff voice, and in time lose
their natural tone of voice, associate with the "fairies"
and in their social intercourse with the latter take the
part of a man in his relations to a woman.
They patronize resorts like the Palm, which has been
described, and there give exhibitions of their bestial practices under the name of circus performances. They
never transfer their affections to the opposite sex.
Medical works on sexual perversion deal with this class.
Out of 8,000 professional beggars in this city, not
one-fourth are really poor, not one per cent are really
deserving. Few beggars ply their trade in Povertyville,
and these are, with rare exceptions, lodging-house inmates
trying to raise their "hote" money or room rent. These
fellows are really poor but not deserving. The professional beggars, the begging letter writers, the "fake bandagers," and the regular "pan-handlers" find the Povertyville district a barren field.
The "fake bandagers," who pose as cripples, go to
the shopping district, where they work upon the sympathies of the women, while the regular pan-handlers or
beggars who make a living by street begging go to the
wealthier districts.




THE   WRETCHES                  111
The Bowery beggars ply their trade not to make a
living thereby, but to obtain enough to get a drink or
two and to get a night's lodging. They are really amateurs, but some are remarkably successful in inventing
pleas and raising funds. When they find that they can
earn a fair income by begging they graduate into the
professional class and desert Povertyville.




CHAPTER II
TEMPTERS AND) PARASITES.
HE tempter is worse than the thief.
The opportunity to steal presents itself in innumerable forms and were there none there would still
be the opportunity to take by violence what could not be
obtained otherwise.
But were there no way to dispose of booty there
would be no incentive to steal. Opportunity makes the
thief, but the fence is his tempter.
The fence is the man who knowingly buys stolen
goods. Formerly when the pawnbroker was not hedged
in by restrictions, when the license fee was low and no
bond was required, the pawnbroker was the recognized
fence. Then, as now, the pawnbrokers were notified by
the police of thefts of articles which might be pawne(l
and honest pawnbrokers promptly notified the police
when such articles were offered as pledges. But many
accepted everything that came along, asked no questions,
and if no pawn ticket was asked for, no entry was made.
This involved some risk, but a simple and legitimate
method of disposing of such property was to make the
necessary entrv of the article pledged, then, through an




THE WRETCHES


113


employe, purchase the ticket from the pledger. The employe redeemed the pledge, the proper entry of its redemption was made and all trace of the article was lost.
To-day the pawnbroker is hedged in by many restrictive laws, even a technical evasion of which would involve
the loss of his five hundred dollar license. Yet a dishonest pawnbroker will take the risk of accepting a
doubtful pledge, advising the pledger to sell the ticket
to a dealer in pawn tickets. There are several of these
dealers on and near the Bowery. The purchaser of the
pawn ticket redeems the pledge and it passes out of his
hands at once.
The professional thief, however, does not go to the
pawnbroker. He has business relations with a professional fence, who will give him more for the "stuff" than
the pawnbroker, who will not betray him, and who will
dispose of the goods or make them unrecognizable in a
few hours.
The fence is a man of many attainments. He must
be an expert jeweler and a passable tailor. He must be
able to judge works of art and know how to alter them
without seriously impairing their value. His knowledge
of the value of all kinds of portable goods must be as
extensive as a pawnbroker's. He must have business
relations with reputable houses to whom he can refer in
an emergency. He must have such relations with dealers who ask no questions, with small manufacturers who




114


THE WFRETCHES


swill work up goods quickly, and with out-of-town fences
to whom goods can be sent when it is necessary to dispose of them elsewhere.
In his relations with the "guns" or thieves, they are
strangers to him except at the moment of doing business.
If their stuff consists of jewelry or "sparklers" (gems)
lie is deferential and offers a fair price. If other stuff
is brought he drives a hard bargain, and he will never
give more than a few cents for each dollar of value.
On gold he will give about half of the bullion value. An
elaboratelv-chased watch case has no more value than a
plain wedding ring containing the same amount of gold.
The usual prices for watch works are, twenty-five cents
for American works, fifty cents for Swiss works, and
from one to five dollars for a Jurgensen, Howard or expensive American stop watch. On plain silver he gives
from  twelve to fifteen cents an ounce. There are no
general prices for gems. The fence is a shrewd judge
of them, and, knowing the source from which they come,
he will threaten the novice and try to deceive the experienced. When he can do neither he will offer about as
much as the pawnbroker would, or possibly a little more
-from   one-fourth to one-third of actual value.  ITe
will give very little for oddities or rarities, as there is
greater risk in disposing of them.
After the fence has received a watch or "super," as
the thief calls it, he removes the works from the case and
changes the case number by means of a punch. If there




THE WRETCHES


115


are other distinguishing marks on the case these are removed. If they cannot be entirely removed, or too much
metal is lost thereby, the case goes into a crucible and
in a few minutes it is converted into a lump of gold. If
the works are valuable, the 'number on the train-bridge
is altered by means of a punch, then they are replaced
in another case. If it is an ordinary American watch,
Elgin or Waltham, the train-bridge is unscrewed and
another one of the same make taken from a cheap watch
is substituted. If it is a very cheap watch the fence simply takes out the works, cleans them and places them in
another cheap case. Within a few   hours the watch
works, whether a hundred dollar Howard or a hundred
cent Ingersoll, are ticking away in a new case, probably
in the window of a second-hand jewelry store.
When the fence receives pins, rings, earrings, or lockets containing gems, the latter are removed and replaced
by others. Engraved jewelry always goes into the melting pot, as these marks cannot be cut out without too
much loss. Odd shapes and antiques are hidden a few
days for a reward. If none is offered they are altered,
or they go into the crucible. Oddities of exceptional
value may be hidden for weeks before being altered or
reset. They are generally sent out of the city.
Such works of art as paintings, statuettes, etc., which
cannot be altered without destroying their value, may
be hidden for years, always awaiting a reward. They are
finally disposed of in another city, generally to adorn a




116


THE WIRETCHES


disreputable house. The fence will never decorate his
own house with them. A professional thief will rarely
take such articles, however valuable they may be, if anything which can be more easily disposed of is at hand.
The fence is an expert tailor and knows how to alter
clothing and dresses so as to deceive the rightful owner.
He first removes identification marks, name bands and
pocket tags, dyes men's clothing and such woman's apparel as can stand dyeing, then alters the clothing so
that they will not fit the owner. Identification is then
impossible. The stuff goes to a dealer in second-hand
clothing. The fence will not take underwear unless silk,
and he will not take cheap goods unless new and in quantity. He will give very little for bulky articles which
cannot be readily disposed of or hidden. Rolls of cloth,
bundles of clothing and similar goods are sent to a fence
who can quickly dispose of such goods. One fence receives nothing but goods in rolls or original packages and
he sells them to small shops, where they are worked up
into finished material without delay.
One assayer, who has been in business near the Bowery for years, will buy anything which can be converted
into bullion. He asks no questions, offers about half of
bullion value, and as soon as the deal is concluded the
article goes into the melting pot. If a wnatch is offered
the would-be seller must remove the wvorks before the
assayer will bid on the case.




THE fW'RETCHES


117


So, also, with a diamond-studded locket, or a ring
containing a stone. The gem must be removed first before any deal can be made. Filigree, repousse, chasing
or engraving have no value, as the bullion weight alone
is considered. Thieves realize more here on plain gold
and silver than at the regular fence.
Dealers in second-hand clothing, jewelry and junk
sometimes purchase stolen goods knowingly, vet keep
within the law. They must not buy from a minor, an
apprentice or one whom they know to be a servant.
They must not buy between sunset and 7 A. M. and they
must enter in a book a description of the article, the time
of the purchase and the name and address of the seller.
If anything they purchase answers to the description
of an article advertised as lost or stolen, they must notify
the police.
These are the principal regulations governing their
business. They are permitted to sell an article as soon
as they purchase it, and this always happens when they
purchase doubtful goods. They need make no entry of
the sale and it is impossible to trace an article after it
leaves their hands. Professional thieves do not patronize
second-hand clothing or jewelry dealers, as the dealers
will betray them to save the license on which their business depends.
The only stuff that the thief must dispose of directly
to the dealer is junk. It is safe to assume that half the
lead pipe, door knobs, window weights, copper kettles,




118


THE WRETCHES


etc., received by the small junk dealers, are the proceeds
of thefts too insignificant to be reported to the police.
They are, therefore, comparatively free from interference in their business.
The most serious feature of this is that junk stealing
is too small and unprofitable to be taken up by men, and
boys are easily encouraged to take lead pipe, brass door
knobs, and other metals from vacant houses and their
own homes, to be sold to the junk dealers for a few cents.
AWhile much stolen property sooner or later finds its
way into second-hand jewelry stores and pawnbrokers'
sales stores, the dealers do not purchase such articles
from the thieves. The fence is the go-between. The
receivers of the stolen property are the prime tempters
of the thieves.
The parasites, those who grow rich from the proceeds
of the booty and vice, are the gambling-house keepers,
the dive keepers, Raines Law hotel keepers, the "madams" who run     "ladies' boarding houses," and  the
wretches who sell their favors on their own account.
The criminals spend their money chiefly in gambling
houses and upon their female companions. "Easy come,
easy go."
Some of the gambling houses are run by ex-convicts
who have retired from more hazardous occupations after
having made a rich haul. Those in Povertyville are run
in the name of a club, or by a sporting character.




THE WRETCHES


119


Rumor says they are controlled by a member of a
well-known family of East Side politicians, but it is impossible to prove this connection. Hearsay is not legal
proof.
The managers of the gambling houses are ordinary
small sports who pose as owners in an emergency.
During a reform administration, and when they are
under police surveillance, the gambling house is run as a
club and none are admitted who are not known by the
manager or vouched for by a reliable habitue. At such
a time the game is honestly conducted, as the frequenters
are without exception skilled gamblers. When the town
is run open and there is no police interference, strangers
are admitted and marked cards, loaded dice, crooked faro
boxes and roulettes, sleight-of-hand tricks in shuffling
and dealing-all are used to enrich the gambler and cheat
the novice.
Most dive keepers start out as waiters or bartenders.
A few began in ordinary saloons; most, however, were
first waiters in dives, then head waiters, and afterwards
managers. A few dive keepers began by opening saloons
on or near the Bowery with the firm intention to keep
their places clean and orderly.
It is impossible to conduct a new saloon profitably
on the Bowery on bar patronage alone, unless some special inducement is offered. Even an extra large glass or
a free lunch no longer attracts. When the saloon keeper
finds that he cannot run a respectable saloon profitably




120


THE TWRETCHES


while his neighbors make money through well-patronized
back rooms, he will either follow suit or go out of business.
If he has a reputation to uphold, he may give the place
a fanciful name, secure a new license under an assumed
name, or in the name of his manager, partition off the
rear part of the saloon, put in a number of chairs and
tables, and the place is now a dive.
The owner of one such place, recently closed, opened
it is a clean, orderly saloon. By discouraging toughs and
disreputable characters his place became known as a
respectable saloon with a good class of patrons.  But
there was not enough of this to make the place pay, and
he was on the verge of bankruptcy. The place was closed,
and opened a few days later under a new management.
It received a distinctive title, a new license was secured
under an assumed name, a large back room was formed
by a partition placed at the end of the bar, and a manager was hired. This manager was a well-known dive
keeper and his reputation soon brought all the wretches
of Povertyville to the place. MIany of the latter had
known the manager in his earlier days in the Tenderloin. The place prospered, the real owner opened a good
hotel in a nearby seaside resort, under his own name, and
he is there a respected citizen.  A brewing company
aided him in the conversion of his saloon into a dive.
A few dive keepers are boxers or otherwise connected
with sporting affairs. Their resorts are usually opened




THE WRETCHES


121


and owned by a brewer, who pays the manager a salary
and commission on sales, for the use of his name and
services. These consist in standing before or behind the
bar, drinking with any one who wants to treat, and assuming the responsibility of ownership. He rarely visits
the back room, but turns the management of that part
of the business over to the head waiter. Sporting men
are notorious spendthrifts, and the reputed owners or
keepers of these dives are no exceptions to the rule.
They are discriminating in their charities, however, and
never aid the panders and other wretches who enrich
them. The unfortunate fellow who does not drink, the
broken-down, old-time sport, and the Salvation Army lassie never go away empty-handed.
Far different is the dive keeper who rose from the
ranks of waiters and bartenders.
He is heartless and conscienceless, trusts none and is
trusted by none, his every action being governed by the
question of what will the immediate profit be? He does
not figure upon future returns, as he is well aware that
the police lightning might strike him at any moment.
He is usually found seated near the door of his back
room, where he can overlook the place and from which
he can make a hasty exit when necessary.
Strangers, unless partly intoxicated, are distrusted
and made uncomfortable by waiters and bouncers. A
visitor seen taking notes is unceremoniously thrown out.




122


THE WRETCHES


The stranger who is intoxicated is conducted to a
table where several women are seated. While he spends
his money for drinks he is not molested, but when his
money is gone, he is carried or thrown out. If he appears to have valuables about him, one of the women sits
on his lap, engages him in lewd conversation, at the same
time removing the contents of his pockets, the booty being passed to her lover behind her. The dive keeper receives a share of this later.
One well-known dive keeper to whose place reference
has been made, would permit no robbery in his dive. This
man was the most notorious of his class, yet there was
nothing in his personality, manners, dress or speech
which would lead one to suspect his vocation.
Outside of his resort he could pass as a retired merchant. While he could be as foul as the foulest of his
customers, with gentlemanly strangers he was courteous,
quiet, never coarse or vulgar. They say he has retired
from business, but those who say they know, claim he
still owns two Bowery resorts, one a Raines Law hotel
run by his son, another a sporting resort, run by his
former bouncer, a well-known pugilist.
Among the Raines Law hotel owners there are many
respectable saloon keepers who have been forced to employ the hotel subterfuge in order to sell beer and liquor
on Sunday. At the same time this law furnishes a loophole whereby disreputable resorts are legalized, and as
the New York district attorney stated before the State




THE WRETCHES


123


legislature in February, 1903, out of the 2,500 places
licensed in the city under that law, less than 200 were
honest and respectable hotels. The "Committee of Fourteen," organized to wipe out the vicious resorts opened
under this law, has reduced the number of Raines Law
hotels to 800.
This vicious makeshift of a law has done away with
the furnished room houses where rooms could be hired
by couples by the hour. Such houses were found in a
few localities where the women congregated. There was
nothing to indicate their character to passersby, and
there was no such notoriety attached to them as is now
attached to even the respectable Raines Law hotel.
This law, since amended, has scattered nearly 1,000
such houses all over the city; it has made a saloon a
necessary adjunct to them; it has given the saloon keeper
who could stand the necessary expense a means to violate
the spirit of the excise laws, and it has given the character of the Raines Law hotel a publicity and a notoriety
which is a disgrace to the city.
An unfortunate feature in connection with this law
is, it has produced a moral turpitude or degeneration in
hundreds of saloon-keepers who formerly abhorred the
bare idea of harboring a dissolute person.
After the Raines Law was passed these men found
that they could not conduct their business profitably with



124


THE W RETCHES


out adding the ten rooms necessary to procure a hotel
license. Then, to make the hotel profitable, they were
obliged to admit these wretches.
Those Raines Law hotels which were opened to take
the place of the furnished room houses are conducted by
dive keepers or managed by men accustomed to handle
dive habitues.
Far more profitable than either the furnished room
house or the Raines Law hotel is the ordinary brothel, or
"Ladies' Boarding House," as the cards of one of them
announce.
These are usually conducted by a woman who was
economical while on the street and has an energetic lover,
or "husband."
A description of "Mrs. Schneider," who conducted a
resort of this kind for years near the Bowery, will illustrate the general characteristics of these wretches.
This woman had been on the street for a few years,
was careful of her health, drank little, and was saving.
At first she had a furnished room, and by an arrangement with the housekeeper, her patrons were obliged to
hire the room. whenever they accompanied her to it.
Later she kept a furnishd room house, which she soon
converted into a ladies' boarding house. A burly fellow,
picked up in a dive, posed as MIr. Schneider, her protector, bouncer and man of all work. T\aterial for her
establishment was plentiful. In the beginning she took
city and country girls who were cast adrift by false




THE WRETCHES


125


lovers, helped them out of their difficulties and gave
them a home. When the supply of these no longer met the
demands of her patrons, procuresses sent girls to her from
abroad. She took excellent care of the wretches in her
house, for upon their health and beauty depended her
livelihood. She knew what would make a lean girl
plump and what would reduce the obese, and regulated
their diet accordingly. A physician called weekly and
certified to their freedom from disease. When one became too ill to receive visitors, she could not receive another morsel of food until she had recovered. The girl
was then taken to the door of the hospital and left there.
The girls in the house were forcibly detained, being
deprived of their clothes, except a low-necked, shortskirted Mother Hubbard gown, the usual reception dress.
When a girl became obstreperous she was starved into
submission.
Mrs. Schneider charged the girls for board and medical services, and allowed them a small part of their earnings from visitors, so little, however, that a girl seldom
got out of debt. When a girl became "old stock" she
was turned out of the house, or, if still attractive, she
was traded or sold to another establishment.
The girls rarely gave trouble, as they led an indolent,
quiet life, free from care, thoughtless of the future.
Mrs. Schneider was a shrewd judge of human nature, could be refined or vulgar as would best suit her
patrons, fearless, without conscience or heart, and with



126


THE WRETCHES


out womanly instincts. She paid liberally for protection,
owed nobody (in fact, nobody trusted her), and her
every act was governed by mercenary motives.
She became wealthy and, after her place was raided,
she was arrested, forfeited her bail, and left her girls in
the hands of the police. She was typical of her class.
Women running establishments which are liable to be
closed at any moment rent the house and furniture and
invest their money in jewelry which can be readily converted into cash. They are always ready for flight, and
when such a course is necessary they leave little of value
behind.
Besides the regular source of income from the girls,
a considerable profit is derived from the sale of liquors
without a license, but a more profitable source of income
is the rental of girls for special occasions. A person
known to the madam can hire a girl for a day or a night
as companion at a social affair. The charge for the girl
is generally five dollars a day, and from one to fifty dollars for the clothing and jewelry she is to wear.
The procuress is usually an old "madam" who is
familiar with the girls kept in the different establishments
and in foreign resorts. There was until recently in a
suburb of Hamburg an exchange for girls intended for
brothels. Here the procuress would go annually and
pick out her stock. Just as in the slave trade of antebellum days, so the girls were obliged to pass muster,
the trader in women's flesh and virtue examining the girls




THE    WRETCHES                   127
as the old slavers did the slaves. Face, form, texture,
mentality, all were examined and, if found satisfactory,
the girls came to New York as daughters or servants of
the procuress. The immigration laws are stopping this
traffic, but some girls still come in consigned to "aunts,"
who sell them to brothels.
Male procurers, or "cadets," have taken up this infamous trade during the last five years. They do not
look for dissolute women, but try to induce respectable
girls to take up shameful lives or inveigle them into disreputable houses. They will not hesitate to marry a girl
or use force to carry out their purpose, and one who is
now in prison is said to have married six victims, delivering each one afterwards into a brothel. The severe punishment inflicted upon these wretches has had a deterrent effect upon their trade.




CHAPTER       III
FACTORS DEVELOPING WRETCHES.
N ATIONALITY, race and religion are appreciable factors in directing the trend of the vicious. Vice and
crime are not bound by nationality or creed, but some
forms of vice and crime are more prevalent in some nationalities and races than in others. Thus, one rarely sees
a Jewish beggar, while German beggars are quite common.
When counterfeit coin appears in a neighborhood the government officials look through the nearest Italian quarter
for the counterfeiters. One rarely sees an Italian beggar
or drunkard, and there are few  confirmed  criminals
among them. Their crimes are generally assault in some
form, due to passion or revenge. The Americans and
the Irish are more daring than others, and they will incur greater risks.
Nearly all the more desperate criminals, those who
undertake large jobs, like burglary, belong to one of these
two nationalities. Gambling proclivities are most pronounced in the Americans, and they run the gambling
houses and pool-rooms.  Gambling is also prevalent
among Hungarians, who play in the coffee saloons along
lower Second Avenue and in the side streets, and among




THE WRETCHES


129


the Italians, who play in saloons in "Little Italy," as the
district around and to the north of Mulberry Bend Park
is called.
The Jew will not run any risk whereby his life might
be endangered. He will, therefore, not undertake the
more dangerous work of the house-breaker or thief;
neither will he handle the rough customers found in the
dives. This work is left to the Irish waiters and bouncers
and these become later the dive-keepers. The concert
halls, however, are generally conducted by Jews. The
fence is generally an American Jew, and to this race belong nearly all those in whose business dickering and
trading is possible. There are comparatively few Germans among the wretches, and these have no special
vicious trend. While there are many German prostitutes,
the men lack the daring necessary to become great or
dangerous criminals, neither have they the acumen to become successful competitors in the lines followed by the
Jews. We rarely hear of a German burglar or highwayman, and seldom of a German dive-keeper or gamblinghouse keeper. More often we find German waiters in
vicious concert halls; sometimes they keep brothels, some
live by craft or fraud, many are beggars.
In considering race and religion as factors in relation
to crime and vice we must not forget composite tendencies, hereditary and acquired, in wretches of foreign birth.
As an example we find the Jew with his inherent commercial capacity, and the natural characteristics of the




130


THE WRETCHES


land of his birth. To these are added the new tastes,
desires, methods, etc., acquired here. With the exception
of the commercial instinct which persists, his character
is moulded by environment and association, and, being
naturally of a plastic disposition, he is led into a virtuous
or vicious direction without much difficulty. At the same
time, lacking that physical daring which we term bravado,
he will not follow in ways where such daring is required.
He will not fight and will keep away from occupations in
which brawls may be expected. If he is a Hungarian he
will probably follow the national trend of gambling, and
run a coffee saloon, where gambling is the principal feaure. The Russian Jew will prefer an occupation where
trading is possible, preferably the sale of second-hand
goods. The German Jew has no prominent national characteristics, and more readily adopts the characteristics of
the American. If viciously inclined he will follow any
line where his hereditary business instinct can combine
with a vicious career. He will run a concert hall, or
brothel, or become a fence. In the American Jew the
national characteristics predominate over the racial instinct. He possesses more courage than the foreigner,
loves to gamble, and lacks to a great extent that religious feeling which acts upon the foreign-born Jew as a
restraint to viciousness. If viciously inclined he will become either a crooked sport or a fence. Some who are
taught to become sneak thieves and pickpockets when
young develop into shoplifters and thieves. The Ameri



THE WRETCHES


131


cans possess courage, shrewdness, and a speculative instinct, and they follow lines where these characteristics
are brought into play. If they take up a vicious career
they undertake the more daring crimes, like housebreaking and street robbery, or fraud where craft or finesse
are required, or they are gamblers and sports, taking
greater risks than any other nationality. The Irish possess the same kind of courage as the Americans, are more
tenacious of purpose, are as a rule physically stronger,
but lack the shrewdness, or rather the craft, of the
Americans, nor is the speculative or gambling instinct
greatly developed. They therefore take up those lines
where their qualities are most useful, as waiters, bouncers, dive keepers, saloon keepers, keepers of Raines Law
hotels, and perpetrators of crimes of violence. We can
in the same way trace the influence of race, religion and
nationality upon the form of crime and vice throughout
all the nationalities which make up the wretches of Povertyville.
We find the same factors at work among the female
wretches of Povertyville.
All races and nationalities are found among the
women of the street, but great changes have occurred in
this respect in the last thirty years. In the seventies a
Jewish prostitute was a rarity, now there are many. This
is mainly due to economic conditions and to the fact that
women are now thrown into more intimate contact with
men since they take up occupations which bring this




132


THE TWRETCHES


about. Formerly, when procuresses came from Europe
weekly with scores of German women for brothels, there
were more of this nationality than at present. The number of Irish girls on the street has increased enormously.
In the seventies the brothels held mainly German and
American girls, with some Irish and a few French girls.
Now the Irish and Americans are far in the majority,
there are still many Germans, and some Jewish girls,
while the French have almost disappeared from Povertyville. In the foreign colonies there are brothels having
women of the nationality of the colony, and near the
water front there are some having Scandinavian women
for the sailors of those countries.
The Irish and the American women associate with
the more daring of the men, and many become shoplifters. The German women prefer to keep brothels, while
Jewish women, true to their trading instincts, become, in
time, procuresses.
Little need be said of other nationalities, as there are
few other nationalities except Italians represented among
the wretches of Povertvville. The Italians have vices
as glaring as the others, but, being clannish, their vices
are not on public exhibition. The vicious Italian woman
does not walk the streets, but receives her patron in her
home. Gambling is carried on in homes and in saloons
which are patronized by Italians alone. Other forms of
depravity are confined to the home or the saloon, and are
not exposed to the stranger. There are few criminals




THE IRETCHES'


133


among Italians, the majority of crimes being acts of violence in passion or revenge, and their own country people
are usually the victims.  The only other crimes with which
they are often charged are the manufacture and passing
of counterfeit coin, an occupation that the counterfeiters
bring with them from Italy. The French have almost entirely disappeared from Povertyville, and there are now
no brothels of the kind prevalent in the seventies, when
French madams introduced new forms of vice and bestiality in the district.  The old French quarter in the
neighborhood of Bleecker Street and West Broadway
still harbors a few of the wretches of that nationality,
but these are rarely seen on the Bowery. When a vicious
Frenchman does find his way into the Bowery district
it is to become a waiter in a concert hall.
While there is generally some modesty among the
female wretches of other nationalities this trait seems to
be lacking in the French cocotte. She will give bestial
exhibitions which are repulsive to other lewd women, will
appear nude without the slightest hesitancy if she receives
her price, exhibiting chic and coquetry, but not a trace of
modesty. Her charms and abandon secure for her a
place in fashionable brothels, and she need not go to
Povertyville for admirers. Many work on their own account, and being economical, they save enough in a few
years to return to France and there lead a respectable life.
These are found in the Tenderloin since French brothels
have left Povertyville.




134


THE WRETCHES


There are many lewd women of the Slavonic race:
Hungarians, Bohemians and Russians, among the wretches
of Povertyville. Some of them have been brought over
for brothel purposes, some were sent here by false lovers,
who promised to follow but failed to do so; some were
lured over under promise of good paying positions. While
there is much immorality among the Slavs, few of the
women take up vicious careers after they have been engaged here in honest vocations. Those that do so remain
in their national colony, and are rarely found soliciting on
the street or in public dives. Most of these foreigners go
to brothels and remain there until they have learned the
English language, then they go out to dives or are sent
to other brothels.
The prevailing vices among the Chinamen are opium
smoking and gambling. In sensual vices they do not differ from the whites, but they seem to prefer to consort
with white women, and there are many white women in
Chinatown who have become opium fiends, and will consort with the Mongolians for a thimbleful of the drug.
The vices of the northern Negro are not due to inherent depravity, but to ignorance and a lower standard
of morality. Sensuality and gambling are common vices.
Their crimes are mainly petty thefts, rarely associated
with violence. The so-called "bad nigger," the one who
carries a razor, is simply a bullv among his own people,
just like the bad white man who carries a pistol is a bully
among his class. The southern Negro whose notorious




THE WRETCHES


135


crimes, rape and assault upon white women, are so often
summarily punished, does not come north. The indigenous Negro is a different specimen of humanity, has
different tastes and traits, and prefers to associate with
lewd women of his own race.
Beside race and nationality the factor of occupation
plays a part in the trend toward vice and crime, and the
conversion of respectable men and women into wretches.
The first contact of a person of refinement and decency
with the coarse tough or vile woman of the street excites
disgust.,Thrown constantly in contact with the wretches,
especially if one derives his livelihood from them, a man
takes a more liberal view of their mode of life, extenuates, excuses and finally justifies and upholds their faults.
In some occupations men are constantly exposed to vicious influences, and sooner or later succumb to them.
This is especially true of night bartenders and waiters,
men in the show business, especially in the small traveling companies; men selling plated jewelry, etc. It is safe
to say that nearly every dive keeper in New York was at
one time a waiter or bartender in a respectable saloon.
From the respectable saloon he goes to a tough saloon
or dive, becomes head waiter, manager, and afterwards
owner. Or he may have opened a decent saloon, permitted the vicious to congregate there, and these finally
drove out the better class of patrons. Bartenders are
often asked to take some article of jewelry as a pledge
from a patron who has run short of funds. Sometimes




136


THE TWRETCHES


the pledge is re(leemed; frequently, however, it is the
proceeds of a robbery, and the pledger, if he does return,
will tell the bartender to dispose of it. In this way the
bartender becomes a fence. When the high license and
Raines Law went into effect many good saloon keepers
found their Sunday trade cut off, and secured hotel
licenses. To make the hotel adjunct of ten bedrooms
pay, the rooms were let out to couples, and the saloon
keeper became a keeper of a Raines Law hotel, or virtually a brothel keeper. MAost gambling house managers
and keepers began their sporting careers behind the bar
of a saloon.
Men in the theatrical business are exposed to temptations from within the company and from without. In the
small traveling companies, more particularly in the burlesque companies which carry from six to ten men and
from ten to fifteen women, few are married. Traveling
together for months, stopping at the same hotels and
boarding houses, indiscriminate intercourse is frequent.
This lowers their respect for woman's honor. Everywhere
on the road the actor receives letters from foolish women
who would submit to his desires for the honor of talking
to an actor and perhaps getting a free pass, and this further lowers his respect for all women. His principal
pastimes are gambling and drinking and entertaining jolly
companions. The small fry in the theatrical profession,
if they marry at all, select their partners from the professional ranks. The others break down in time through




THE LIRETCH ES


137


their excesses, many take up opium smoking and some
become sports and gamblers. When they reach Povertyville they are either broken-down sports, sots or pipe
or cocaine fiends.
Men dealing in imitation jewelry find the wretches
of Povertyville good customers. The wretches make
money easily and spend it readily for baubles. One may
steal a watch worth fifty dollars, sell it to a fence for
five dollars and pay the five for a plated watch worth two
dollars and believe he has the best of the bargain. Or
he may trade the stolen watch for a Rhinestone plated
ring worth fifty cents, knowing that the dealer has only
imitation jewelry, yet hoping that the dealer has made a
mistake. The dealer, finding it so easy to dupe these
people, tries the same game with others and later
branches out in other lines of fraud. It has been repeatedly charged that the police are in collusion with the
criminals and protect them. It is impossible to get together in any vocation a body of 7,000 men without
finding some scamps among them; but to charge the
body for the faults of a few is certainly a gross injustice
to the whole. It is true that some men having political
influence follow unlawful occupations without police
interference and that police officers who were supposed
to devote their whole time and attention to the business
of the department have been able to accumulate many
times the amount of their salary. The deplorable conditions existing before the Lexow investigation do not




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THE WRETCHES


prevail to-day, and it is safe to say that the police are not
the associates of the wretches, though they may overlook
the infraction of excise laws and to some extent the laws
against gambling and soliciting.
There are some pursuits in which those who follow
them are constantly exposed to temptation. The junk
dealer is importuned by boys to buy old brass, copper and
lead. After he has made a few such purchases, paying
cents for what he will receive dollars in return, and finds
that there is little risk in detection, he will induce the boys
to bring more stuff and may even tell the boys how to
cut lead and pull out brass door knobs. The dealer in
old clothing is likewise tempted to purchase stolen wearing apparel. The pawnbroker cannot ask a person who
offers a pledge to prove his identity and will take a pledge
which he may have reason to suspect has been stolen.
We can also include among those who are exposed
and sometimes succumb to temptation, the druggists.
They are asked to supply "hop," the opium extract used
by smokers, and other morphine and opium preparations,
knockout drops, cocaine, appliances and drugs used for
immoral purposes. Physicians who make a specialty of
criminal operations are withal criminals, while those who
examine the inmates of brothels are often asked to help
unfortunate girls out of their difficulties and rarely refuse. Some lawyers who make a specialty of criminal
cases associate with the criminals and vicious and advise
them how to circumvent the law. There is a wide span




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139


between the extremes of legal and moral honesty, which
some lawyers attempt to bridge by craft instead of conscience.
Among women occupation is a more important factor
in the development of wretches than among men. In
some lines of work so many fall that a stigma has been
cast upon the occupation affecting the good name of all
following it. There are hundreds of good, honest, virtuous chorus girls, even among the cheap burlesque companies. Yet chorus girls are exposed to so many temptations in the company and from without, and so many succumb to temptation that more than a shade of suspicion
rests upon all. Some withstand every temptation until
they find that there is an imputation of doubt in the respectability of chorus girls as a class. Then, falling back
upon the saying, "If I have the name I'll have the game,"
they submit. Some are initiated by other girls of the
company, who find delight in destroying the virtue of
innocent girls. This is a common trait among vicious
women. While the male wretches will not intentionally
corrupt men or boys who are good, the female wretches
make efforts to drag others down to their level. The
innocent chorus girl receives flattering invitations from
men, sees with envy the finery and jewelry given to the
vicious by admirers, and is taunted by the others for her
weakness and cowardice. Some resist the taunts but
are flattered by the attentions from admirers and fall.
Some in a spirit of bravado, and stung by taunts, accept




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THE IWRETCHES


the first comer; some gradually overcome moral scruples
and the fear of physical consequences, associate with the
vicious, drink with them and while under the influence
of liquor make their first false step.
Waitresses in restaurants are constantly exposed to
temptation and many fall. Girls employed in manicure
establishments are peculiarly exposed, are continually
thrown into immodest contact with men and are obliged
to listen to veiled and often open allusions to immoral
subjects. In no other occupation followed by women is
it so difficult to remain virtuous and modest.
Many chambermaids in hotels, not so much in New
York hotels as in hotels in the smaller cities, earn an occasional dollar beside their wages from the male guests.
If drummers' tales are true some hotels on the road have
pretty chambermaids who can be had by applying to the
clerk. Domestics in homes are often exposed to the
sensual desires of the male members of the family and
often fall. In one home for fallen women 92 out of
162 gave their occupation as domestics.
There are other occupations in which women are exposed to temptation through being thrown into intimate
contact with men. The cloak model must submit to the
scrutiny of buyers of business houses, and these are not
always satisfied with merely looking at the shape and fit
of the garment. Artists' models, as a rule, remain
chaste. The credit therefor is due as much to the artist
as to the model, for while face, form and posture may




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141


arouse sensual desires, the artist must suppress these
desires if he wants to do good work. With the mind
imbued with the spirit of the subject he is working upon,
his model is to him merely a part of the necessary implements of his craft. Her personality affects him as little
as does the form and beauty of the patient when the
physician is making his diagnosis. The models who appear before classes are occasionally sought after by art
students in whom the exposure and posture arouse desires, but when the model falls it is generally due to some
admirer not in artistic life. Nurses in hospitals are likewise exposed to temptations through their more intimate
contact with men, but remain chaste. Devotion to their
work and the thought that the men are patients are the
influences restraining them, aside from the inherent moral
instinct.
When a woman is thrown into constant contact with
a man under conditions where they are alone and are not
subject to outside interference, if there is anything attractive in either they will be attracted to each other.
Such attraction leads to pleasant relations which in time
become social and finally intimate. Many girls employed
as private secretaries, stenographers and typewriters are
placed in such a position that they are alone for hours or
days with their employers. If the girl is viciously inclined and seeks to inveigle her employer she soon finds
an opportunity to carry out her object. It is generally,
however, the man who makes the first advances. A




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rainy day, when dinner for both must be brought in from
a neighboring restaurant, may be followed the next day
by an invitation to take dinner together outside of the
office. If she accepts she will later be invited to go to
the theater. When the girl has gone that far she will show
her gratitude by permitting him to go further. The foolish girl accepts her employer's advances because she imagines that he is in love with her and has perhaps read about
employers who married their typewriters. The giddy girl
wants a good time and is proud to think that her employer will take her out. Some girls submit believing
they will lose their positions if they do not favor the
employer; others expect an increase in salary. Whatever
method the employer may use to make the initial advances, the end is the same-the girl falls, and once
down, she will generally remain down unless she has an
opportunity to marry.
It would be an injustice to cast a slur upon an occupation which thousands of hard-working women and girls
follow. Indeed, as a body, the stenographers and typewriters are in morality above reproach. But we hear too
often of the pretty typewriter who goes to. lunch with her
employer and such intimacy is not conducive to the good
repute of the individual or of the class. Where there are
hundreds placed in the position we have described and so
many fall through the causes stated, we must consider
their occupation as a factor in the development of
wretches.




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143


Most of the wretches who began their vicious career
while employed in shops and factories blame their first
misstep to curiosity or jealousy. The favorite topics of
conversation among shop girls are dresses, amusements,
and "the fellows"-the last principally. The vicious ones
make no secrets of their liaisons, excite the good girl's
imagination with description of the pleasures, quiet her
fears of the physical consequences by telling her tricks
that many married women do not know. The girl's curiosity overcomes her conscientious scruples and fears, and
the vicious girl supplies the accommodating friend.
This also applies to offices and stores. A foreman or
overseer in a factory may have a favorite who will receive
special privileges. If she is tardy, careless or lazy he will
be lenient with her and harsh to another who objects to
the injustice. While some girls will submit to injustice
rather than hazard their position or reputation, others will
endeavor to gain the foreman's good will, even at the cost
of their virtue. Sometimes there is the hope of advancement or fear of discharge, a promise or threat, expressed
or implied, to break down a good girl's resolutions. A
girl may submit to her lover when her devotion overcomes her conscientious scruples, and under such circumstances she will remain faithful to him. But when a
girl submits to an employer it is the beginning of a downward career which usually ends on the streets of Povertyville. Unchastity with a lover often leads to speedy
marriage; with an employer or superior it is often fol



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THE WVRETCHES


lowed by indiscriminate immorality and prostitution.
While in many occupations employes are peculiarly exposed to temptation and fall, similar conditions may induce opposite thoughts, virtuous or vicious, depending
upon accompanying circumstances. The face, form and
posture of the chorus girl may arouse admiration with
sensual thoughts when on the stage, yet when exhibited
before an art class there may be admiration without a
trace of sensuality. The intimate contact of the nurse
and her patient produces a far different effect upon both
from the intimate contact of the manicurist and her male
patron. The waiter in a dive becomes debased by his
contact with the vicious, while the piano player in the
same dive may retain his respectability. A peculiar feature of occupation as a factor in the development of vice,
is the large number of fallen women who give their occupation as seamstress, dressmaker or milliner, occupations
which do not bring them in contact with men.
Most of these ascribe their fall to the desertion of a
lover or husband. Mlany blame drink, especially after a
(lance, when, heated by the exertion of dancing and the
close ballroom, they were induced to take some liquor,
cooling for a moment but intoxicating afterwards. After
they had taken two or three of such drinks they became
unconscious of the further proceedings.
No mention has been made of poverty or social conditions as a factor in the development of wretches. Cases
occur where a hungry man will steal and a hungry woman




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145


will go on the street, but unless there is a vicious trait
the act is done in desperation and is followed by remorse.
These are not wretches. The great mass of the poor are
not vicious, but, accustomed to their simple mode of life,
they abhor vice and crime. When persons accustomed
to luxuries come down in the world quickly, they find
that they cannot readily accommodate themselves to poverty. In their efforts to rise, if there be any vicious trait
in them it will come out at this time, and such a person
is likely to become vicious or criminal. There are black
sheep in the families of the rich and poor and no psychological study can account for them. Occasionally we can
find a hereditary strain. More often there are vicious
environments. Lack of religious teachings has been given
as a factor, yet there are few of the wretches who have
not had such teachings. Under favorable conditions
these act as a restraint to the passions, but, given the
opportunity, or let envy, avarice or jealousy be aroused,
or hunger be felt, and the restraint is instantly dropped
as though it were a cloak. Once dropped, the various
factors will develop the vicious trait and determine its
trend. In considering these factors we must remember
that there are national and racial traits which may be
perfectly proper among such nations and races, while
if exhibited by others they would be considered immodest, immoral and vicious.




CHAPTER IV
CURIOUS CHARACTERS.
THIE underworld of Povertyville hides many curious
characters. Not all are criminals nor even vicious;
indeed, there are some who apparently have none of its
vices, are not criminals, yet associate with criminals, are
exposed to their temptations, discuss nefarious plans
with them, yet never enter into any dishonest scheme,
nor do they betray those whose confidence they have
obtained.
Some of evident refinement are not without means,
but almost all who are educated and refined are drunkards or drug fiends.
There is old Shakespeare, who will quote an extract
from the immortal bard when he asks you for the price
of a drink, and, if plied with liquor, he will repeat whole
scenes from his plays. Some one has been paying his
rent in a Bowery lodging house for the past ten years,
and he makes enough by begging in his peculiar way to
keep himself supplied with liquor and food.
Another educated wretch is Daddy Ward, boon companion of Shakespeare when both are in their cups, but
each avoids the other when he is sober. Daddy is prob



dl,


BOWERY TYPES AND CHARACTERS FROM LIFE.








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147


ably the only one on the street who knows Shakespeare's
history. In his sober moments he refers to his friend
as the bum, but when both are drunk he will sometimes
call him professor. Shakespeare looks like an old ragged
tramp, but Daddy wears a frock coat buttoned to the
neck, a white collar, tie and cuffs. In his lodging house
they say strings take the place of suspenders, his ties
are strips from his last white shirt and his only other
shirt, the red flannel shirt he is wearing, might be mistaken for a crazy quilt. No one knows how Daddy
lives, as he does not beg, yet he has never more than a
few cents in his pocket. He occasionally speaks of Ball,
Black & Company, Fisk and Hatch, Jay Cooke and Sam
Sloan-always execrating the last two.
Parker-"Mr. Parker," if you please, if you should
forget to prefix the "Mr."-was an architect, judging
from his favorite topic of conversation. Evidently an
Englishman, with a broad Yorkshire dialect, he claims to
be an American. He says he knows nothing of English
churches, but will describe minutely famous continental
churches and other architectural features. Some one
pays his room rent and gives him a small weekly allowance, which he spends in a Bowery morgue.
"Dutchy," who has been kicked out of every saloon
where a lunch counter is near the door, shows on his
face the scars inflicted by the German University
Schlager, and has at times the bearing of a military
officer. He is a keen student of human nature and gen



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THE WRETCHES


erallv strikes the right plea to rouse the sympathy of a
possible donor of the price of a drink. H-e is overbearing and has been repeatedly kicked, cuffed and beaten,
yet he has been known to give his only dime to pay for
another unfortunate's bed, then go out and beg for more.
There is Jack, or J. Black, under which name he registers. I-e is evidently well connected, but hides his.
identity under a ragged suit. and comports himself like
one of the unfortunates. Jack is neat, uses good language and does not drink. He is always provided with
funds, but no one knows the source of his income. Occasionally he puts on a good suit and disappears for a
few days, but ordinarily he spends his days in the readinfg room of a library near by. Although he has been
in one lodging house for five or six years, the other
lodgers know no more about him now than they did
when he first arrived.
Scotty is another curious character who seems to
have an unfailing source of income. aWhen his funds
are low he writes to someone in Scotland. cries as he
writes, is morose until hle receives an answer, then cries
again. He will then disappear for a week or more. but he
always turns up in a new suit, (Irunk and hilarious. He
pays his room rent for months in advance.
Tom Curtis, an fEnglishman, who has apparently no
vices, has a habit of disappearing for a month or two,
then returns to his lodging house for a few months.
When stopping at the lodging house he rarely goes out




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149


except for meals, spending his time reading novels and
smoking. He is probably well connected, but he has
no friend or confidant among his fellow lodgers.
Carey is an old rounder who has been on the street
for many years, following a regular cycle. When in
funds he goes to one of the more pretentious lodging
houses and to good restaurants. As his funds decrease
he goes to cheaper places, finally reaching the ten-cent
lodging houses and eating at free lunch counters. When
his funds are entirely exhausted he will do the menial
work in saloons for the privilege of sleeping in a chair
or on a cask, and his meals consist of remnants left on
the lunch counter. Then he disappears, but in a few
days he turns up again at the good lodging house. The
whole cycle lasts three months. When he buys clothing
his money is soon exhausted and he goes to the cheap
lodging house in a few weeks, but this is the only variation in his routine. He has probably a small quarterly
income which, if properly applied, would suffice to secure
him fair accommodations and meals throughout the
quarter.
These wretches or unfortunates carefully conceal
their identity and history, but there are some who will
introduce themselves to every prospective donor.
One of these, now near the end of his career, was in
his day one of the greatest bareback riders in the world.
He thought he understood race horses as well as he did
circus horses, and his princely salary was left at the race




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THE WRETCHES


track. Then he became a heavy drinker, lost his nerve
after a severe fall from a horse while drunk, and his
friends deserted him. Now he begs for the price of a
night's lodging.
This wretch has a friend who, like himself, gained
fame in the circus ring and is now ending his days as a
Bowery sot. While the one roused the admiration of
thousands by his daring, the other gained their applause
by his whimsicalities and acrobatic misadventures. He
was one of the best known circus clowns. Today his
son provides for his lodging and meals and makes a
weekly allowance for drink. There are several who
were once familiar with the applause which is bestowed
upon the popular actor.
Here is one hobbling along, a mental and physical
wreck. He is unknown to the present generation, but in
the days of the blood-and-thunder plays he was one of
the headliners, his name familiar to theater goers all
over the country. A few old-timers help him along.
Another bleary-eyed wretch staggers along forgotten
by his former admirers, although one of his old songs is
still occasionally heard. He was one of a famous variety
team when Koster & Bial's place in 23rd Street was in
its glory.
There is a saloon on the Bowery managed by an exactor where old-time thespians congregate.
Here may be found one who a few years ago was a
clever blackface knockabout acrobat. A fur-lined over



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151


coat, the last remnant of better times, hides his nakedness, for there is no coat or vest under it and he has but
a fragment of a flannel shirt. Whisky gave him the
nerve or courage to do his tricks, but it also brought on
palsy. Now when he takes a drink he throws a towel
around his neck, holds one end in the hand in which he
holds the glass, and pulls the other end down with the
disengaged hand. In this way the hand holding the
glass is sufficiently steadied to be brought to his mouth.
And as he formerly amused audiences, now he amuses
his companions, who treat him for the peculiar pleasure
they find in watching his contortions and antics as he
takes his drink.
Another frequenter at this bar was a soloist in
Thomas' orchestra, later an arranger of music. He
sought the end of a rainbow. The rainbow was a beautiful singer who drank his wine, spent his money and sold
the favors which he thought were reserved for him alone
to others. When his money was gone the rainbow vanished
and he became a misogynist. The deluded wretch found
consolation in the stone fence, whisky and hard cider.
From the Broadway cafes he went by rapid stages to the
tough saloons of the Bowery, and is now a wreck making a bare living as "piano professor" in a dive.
Two other wrecks, once respected men, are often
found in the same saloon. One was an inventor, who,
though married, spent a fortune on other women. One
of these introduced him to a more insidious enchanter



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TIE T  FRE TCHES


absinthe. Under its influence he exchanged patent rights
for women's smiles until he became penniless. Neglected by his family, forsaken by the women who robbed
him, he also became a hater of women and is only faithful to the green demon when he can raise the price.
Another is a physician who is suffering from some
painful affection for which he takes morphine. That is
the reason he gives for taking the drug, but he did not
come to Povertyville until his wife died, then he began
to drink heavily, and when this did not suffice to drown
his sorrow he took morphine. A friendly druggist supplies the drug and his relatives pay for his lodging and
meals.
"Shadder," a sot known in every Park Row low saloon, died a few months ago. He had an unfailing daily
income of half a dollar given him by a friend, which wnent
over the bar. After his death it was found that he was
a Yale graduate and the son of a millionaire. His companions and intimates were mostly college-bred men, but.
like himself, sots.
There may be something fascinating in reading the
lives of great criminals, but there is little of interest in
the lives of the petty criminals of Povertyville. A few
have, however, had curious careers.
One who began as a pickpocket on the Bowery became in time a notorious burglar and spent several terms
in prison.




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153


During his last term he suddenly announced that he
would reform, and he has apparently carried out his intention. With the proceeds of his last burglary he bought a
saloon on the Bowery and his place became the rendezvous
of his former associates. After several arrests were made
in his place he was accused of being a stool pigeon for
the police, and his patronage decreased. The place was
closed and the reformed burglar disappeared from the
Bowery.
Some of the criminals are the black sheep of respectable families. One young man of this character is now
working as a dishwasher in a Bowery restaurant. This
fellow possesses an innate depravity which neither moral
teachings, chastisement, a mother's pleading nor prison
bars have been able to eradicate. From early youth he
has sought the association of toughs and since his manhood he has made his home among the vicious and criminal classes of Povertyville. On rare occasions he visits
members of his family, expresses deep contrition for his
faults, and will then work for a few days or weeks.
Suddenly he disappears and is next heard of in connection with some crime. A peculiarity in his case is that
he always drinks heavily before committing a crime.
When in a contrite mood he works as a cook, waiter,
piano player, or salesman. He is also a clever acrobat
and actor when not under the influence of drink and as
such he can earn far more than he has ever made as a
criminal. He has the appearance of a criminal, and




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THE WRETCHES


when drunk he is an ordinary sot. He has saved the reputation of his family, among whom are well-known professional men, by passing under an alias.
Another of these black sheep started near the top of
the ladder and is now near the bottom. This fellow, a
college graduate, had luxurious tastes and indulgent,
wealthy parents. They overlooked his first offense,
which was to forge his father's name to a check for a
small amount with which he paid a bet. His next offense
was in connection with another forgery, this time a check
for a hundred dollars, which he gave to his mistress.
She raised it to nine hundred dollars, and the parents
could not prosecute her without involving the son. He
was sent to Europe, where he was imprisoned for some
offense committed there, then returned as a crooked
gambler.
Here he became a drunkard, tried his hand again at
forgery, and went to prison. Since then he has been a
confidence man, a sneak thief and a pickpocket. Now he
steals for his lodgings, meals and drinks. He prides
himself upon the fact that he has never earned a dollar
honestly.
There is a decrepit old fellow who picks up a scanty
living as pool-room or gambling-house attendant and
"tout" or professional tipster, who was for years a notorious dive keeper. He began as a barkeeper in a sporting saloon, took an interest in all forms of sport and
later became a bookmaker. Then he opened a dive in




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155


the Tenderloin, but, the old fellow says, the protection
money paid as the price of peace ate up the profits.
When a high police official raised the price of peace, the
dive keeper could not see the raise. This brought on a
moral spasm in the official, who thereupon closed up the
dive, leaving the keeper penniless. A few years later
he was again at the old business, but his dive was now
run so unobtrusively that only the initiated knew of its
existence. Again the police drove him out and he disappeared until a few years ago, when he appeared as the
manager of a Bowery dive.
This place was closed and the old dive keeper is now
penniless and almost friendless.
Several former Bowery dive keepers have been
equally unfortunate. One who had a dive in Chrystie
Street and afterwards a concert hall on the Bowery paid
all his profits to keep out of the clutches of the police.
He was afterwards a manager for another dive, then a
barker, and is now a tramp.
Especially hard has it gone with tose who gave evidence against the police during the Lexow investigation
which the State Legislature carried on in 1894.
One of these witnesses was afterwards hounded by
the police of this and neighboring cities; place after place
which he opened, or was supposed to have an interest in,
was closed; even in a western city his application for a
license was refused and he returned to New York without money or friends. He became a waiter at a seaside




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THE IRETCHES


resort, finally drifting back to the old quarters near the
Bowerv. I-e is now a waiter or bartender in a Bowerv
saloon.
A similar fate overtook the keeper of a cider room
and goambling house near the Bowery. This man was
not a witness before the Lexow committee but was suspected of having given private information. As a result
the cider room was closed, the gambling house overhead
was raided, although running in the name of a club, and
the man moved to Jersey City. A few summers ago he
opened a small saloon at Coney Island, but closed it
when he found the police determined to drive him out
by compelling him to keep his place closed Sundays.
His reputation as a "squealer" or informer had preceded
him there as elsewhere, and he returned to Newi York,
but could not obtain a license for a saloon nor did he
dare to open a cider room. Hte became a waiter, working on roof gardens in summer and in dives in winter.
Truly, the way of the transgressor is hard, but not
always.
One of the vilest of the Bowery dive keepers. the
nephew of a prominent rabbi now deceased, hides his
Jewish cognomen under an Irish alias. He has conducted vile resorts on and near the Bowery for twenty
years, the police no sooner closing one than another was
opened under the same management. This man has
powerful political backing and a substantial bank account. He has never been arrested; indeed, it was said




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157


that when the police found it necessary to close his place
as a sop to public opinion, they first notified him and
gave him a chance to hire another store near his old
place. His last place on the Bowery was closed by the
police a few months ago, and he has now a place in the
Tenderloin.
Occasionally there are sojourners in Povertyvilletemporary wretches who go on periodical sprees, come
to Povertyville where they are unknown, mingle with
its wretches and plunge into its vices. During their stay
they become vulgar, foul and besotten. They lead Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lives, their latter existence revolting to them in their sober periods, the former unknown
to them in their periods of intoxication.
One of these shows up at regular intervals. He is
not ordinarily a drinker, but he says he occasionally feels
an uncontrollable desire to drink and after the first glass
he continues to drink until insensible. Formerly when
he felt the craving coming on he went to a hotel where
he was known and, with a few bottles of whisky at his
side, remained in his room for several days. The hotel
physician then attended him  until he became sober.
Now, after he has started on a spree he goes to a Bowery lodging house, pays for a room for a week, leaves a
few dollars with the keeper and starts out to drink
heavily. He spends his waking hours in dives and
morgues, associates with drunkards and vile women. If
his money gives out before his craving is fully satisfied




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THE WRETCHES


he will exchange his clothes for drink. During this time
he is apparently ignorant of his normal self, calls himself by a fictitious name, and recalls incidents of former
visits but nothing of his normal periods. At the end of
his spree he goes back to his lodging house and then
falls into a heavy sleep which lasts for a day or more.
He leaves the house before he is fully sensible of his
surroundings, generally at night, and returns home. The
period of intoxication lasts from seven to ten days, his
sober periods about six months. He says he has no recollection of himself after he has taken the first drink.
When he recovers, his experience appears to him like
a jumbled dream.
(Such cases are not rare. Some years ago the writer
saw a New York physician partly intoxicated in the
negro quarter of a southern city. The physician denied
his identity and said he was never in New York, and
the writer supposed he had been mistaken. He afterwards visited the physician in New York and learned
that the latter had left some friends with whom he had
been drinking, to return to his home a few blocks away,
but did not reach his home until two weeks later. He
had no recollection of his actions during that time, and
no clue to his whereabouts except his hat, which bore
the name of a dealer in the city in which the writer had
seen him.)
Among the female characters of Povertyville there
are some who are not vulgar, a few who are not lewd.




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159


The women are more sensitive than the men, drink
little and lie outrageously. They are cynics, despising
the men who buy their favors, yet willing to make a confidant of any liberal patron. They will tell him the pitiful story of their lives, every word of which is a falsehood, and will in return expect the confidence of the
patron, to be afterwards used to blackmail him.
A serious obstacle in retracing the careers of the
women is their many aliases and the many women who
use the same name.
Those who come from higher circles adopt a new
name in each stopping place, and some women may be
known by several names at the same time. Under such
circumstances it is almost impossible to gather anything
of their history.
Among the exotics there are a few peculiar characters. In a Bowery dive there is a young woman whose
face and form might serve as an artist's model, whose
dress, deportment and speech show refinement, but whose
vocation is little better than that of the women of the
street. She gains a livelihood from commissions on
drinks ordered by her admirers. Her own drink, sherry,
costs 25 cents, half of which is her commission.
Although surrounded by depraved, vulgar wretches,
her language is free from obscenity and vulgarity and
she skillfully turns the conversation when proposals for
her favors are made. When admirers become too ardent
she puts them off with promises or turns them over to




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T II E T' RE T C If i TS


other women in the place. She is an adept at inventing
pitiful tales about the wromen, and by arousingc the sympathy and curiosity of the listener she induces him to
select such other woman instead of herself. It is known
that she has refused large sums of money for her favors.
Some say that she is a stool pigeon, others think she
is the wife of the proprietor or of an employe. She says
little about herself and every habitlue will tell a different
tale about her.
Most of the chaste women found in tile disreputable
resorts are the wives of waiters. They sit there un(ler
the watchful eye of their husbands, drinking with strangers for commissions.
Occasionally one of the exotics is recognized by one
of a slumming party, but the woman is discreet and the
man, who may have enjoyed her favors under more congenial surroundings. says nothing. On rare occasions
one is recognized by a father, a brother, or a deceived
husband. Then Povertyville has a sensation.
One wroman, whose history can be traced back, began
her career in Povertvville, rose to a high position in fast
life, and is now back in her old haunts again.
About twenty years ago she was in a police court
charged with assault upon her stepmother, and was sent
to a reformatory, where she was thrown in contact with
depraved women and learned their ways.
After her release she went to a Bowerv dive, then to
a concert hall, and later she was a member of a bur



THE WRETCHES


161


lesque company. About 1890 she was in the chorus of
a Broadway theater and soon afterwards she became the
mistress of a government official. For a few years she
was a familiar figure in Saratoga and Long Branch, and
had at her command all the luxuries money could procure.
A few years ago she was well known in the Tenderloin
district, and now she is back on the Bowery. Dissipation has made her repulsive, but she still has admirers,
attracted, without doubt, by her brilliant conversation.
Two cases were reported in the press a short time
ago of women who once moved in good circles and descended into the whirlpool of Povertyville.
One of these closed her career in the slums within
five years after leaving her home. The daughter of a
military officer, well reared, with a good voice, pretty
face and fine figure, she sought fame before the footlights. Three years ago she was one of the prettiest girls
in the chorus of a Broadway theater, with scores of admirers. One of these induced her to give up her position and live with him. In a year she became a drunkard and an opium fiend, her lover discarded her and she
began her downward career. In less than two years
she had run the gamut from the most luxurious house of
ill fame in the Tenderloin to the Bowery dive and a miserably furnished room  in Povertyville.  There is another wretch of whom interesting scraps of history are
known. She was the wife of a musician in a theater
orchestra. She learned that he visited a dive near the




162


THE WRETCHES


theater after his work was done, and found him there
one night. Without creating a scene she attracted his
attention and the couple left together. A few days later
she found him there again with a female companion, but
this time she took a seat at his table and ordered drinks.
He created a scene and was ordered out by the bouncer,
while she remained, drank with strangers and accompanied one of them to a furnished room house. This
was her introduction to a life of vice. At one time she
was arrested for soliciting and sent for her husband,
who secured her release. She was not heard of for a
few years, then turned up in a Tenderloin dance hall with
the son of a well-to-do merchant, a. fellow hardly out of
his teens. During the World's Fair in Chicago she had
a "ladies' boarding house" there and her cards were
found in every gambling house and in many hotels in
that city. Later she appeared as co-respondent in a
divorce suit in Chicago, then again in the Tenderloin,
where she was frequently arrested for robbing patrons.
Now, old, haggard, a drunken sot, she is either on the
Bowery or in prison. There is one old wretch, though
still young looking under the gas light, who has the scar
of a gash across her cheek, which a thick coating of
chalk and rouge cannot hide. When under the influence of drink she becomes loquacious and speaks of
a wedding trip around the world in 1873 and 1874. She
will describe the Vienna exposition of 1873, her escape
from Madrid in the fall of that year when the Virginius




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163


affair made life disagreeable for Americans in Spain, her
trip through Egypt, India, China and Hawaii. She
knows every part of this country, but will not speak of
California, from which state she probably came. Even
in her most loquacious mood she avoids every reference
to her family and it is impossible to draw her out in
conversation.
One vile wretch who came from Hamburg in charge
of a procuress about ten years ago, can blaspheme in several languages, always introducing foulness and obscenity.
She speaks fluently German, French, Russian and
Hungarian, plays the piano and is well educated. She
has no conception of natural modesty, but speaks of it
as an artificial sentiment which involves personal restrictions. She is attractive in appearance, honest and kind,
but the total lack of that womanly modesty and her persistently foul language make her repellant.
One, a newcomer, although past middle age, is probably driven to her calling through want. She is evidently a cultured woman, neat, far more cleanly than
most of the wretches of the street, speaks German and
French fluently and without vulgarity.
She is shy, as though not accustomed to the life she
is leading, drinks little and has no lover. Those who
have been with her say that she wears a cross suspended




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THE WRETCHES


from her neck, and prays before retiring. She is extremely reticent, has no friends, and no one knows her
history.
There is little romance in the lives of the women of
Povertyville who live by crime rather than by vice. Almost all are mistresses of petty thieves, adding to the
common fund by shoplifting. The careers of most of
these women are alike. They are indigenous wretches
who frequented tough balls and there met their first
lovers. After consorting with them they took up furnished rooms and became acquainted with professional
criminals. In this way they learned the "art" of stealing, especially shoplifting. When they make a big haul
they move out of Povertyville and then look for bigger
game. If shoplifting has not been profitable the woman
will look for patrons in dives. Only one is known to
have a curious criminal history. She was the friend or
mistress of a western sport whom she robbed, and came
to New York. Iere she became the companion of a
criminal, her special business being blackmail.
Through equivocally worded newspaper personals she
obtained a number of compromising letters and lived in
luxury on the weakness of her victims. One of the latter informed a friendly police official and this woman
was arrested and after passing through what she called
"the third degree" she gave up all the incriminating letters and was discharged. She and her partner next tried
the badger game, but he was soon arrested for an old




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165


offense and she took up shoplifting and robbing patrons
who sought her favors. One of these had her arrested
and she was sent to prison. Upon her release she continued upon her criminal career, first in the Tenderloin,
gradually coming down until she reached the Bowery,
where drink and disease are carrying her off. She has
been in prison several times, always on one of two
charges-shoplifting or larceny. Some say she is a minister's daughter.
Before closing this chapter we will follow the career
of one wretch whom the writer knew for several years.
This man studied for the ministry, then he took up the
study of medicine, and after he graduated he married and
settled down in his native town in New Hampshire. On
a visit to New York he formed the acquaintance of a
young woman who gave him an opportunity to do her
some trifling service. She told him a pitiful tale of desertion and of a cousin, a stock broker, who supported
her, aroused the doctor's sympathy and he aided her and
promised to visit her again. A few weeks later he came
to New York again, saw the woman, and this time they
become more intimate. He soon found an excuse for
coming to New York once or twice a week, and finally,
telling his wife he was going to Europe, he made his
home with the woman. She had induced him to invest
money in stocks, her cousin acting as broker, but when
his money was gone he found that the stock was worthless and he could not raise a dollar on what he had paid




166


THE WRETCHES


thousands. To cap his discomfiture the woman told him
the stock broker was her husband. The doctor threatened to kill him, and when the stock broker entered the
room the doctor drew a pistol, fired a shot at the man,
and escaped without waiting to see that the shot was
wasted. Six months later his wife received a letter from
the Brazilian government informing her that her husband, a surgeon in the Brazilian army, was wounded and
lay in the hospital at Rio Janeiro. He had been awarded
a medal for bravery in an action with rebels, but had
received several wounds from which it was thought he
would die. She went to Rio Janeiro, was by his side
until he recovered, then she sickened and died. He had
in the meantime begun to take morphine and after his
wife's death he became a drug fiend. A year later he
had charge of a drug store on the east side in this city,
and there he married again. Through a remarkable
freak of fate his old flame came again in his way. He
had never before gone out of his store without his morphine, but this day he was on the west side and finding
that he had forgotten his drug, went into a drug store
to get some. As he went out his former sweetheart entered, there was a mutual recognition and his infatuation
for her returned. She had never been in that drug store
before, and it seems peculiar that both should be drawn
at the same time to this store, miles away from their
homes. Such is fate.




THE WRETCHES


167


The broker had discarded her and the doctor resumed
his former relations, now leading a double life-a life
of poverty and misery with his wife, a life of luxury and
pleasure with this woman. But neither the income from
his. store nor from an illegal medical practice sufficed to
supply two households and his craving for morphine. He
lost his position, was fined for illegal practice, his wife
secured a divorce and when he had no more money the
other woman had no further use for him. He became
a homeless outcast, gave bestial exhibitions to obtain
money for liquor and morphine and did not hesitate to
steal. One day the woman who was responsible for all
his misfortunes met him on the Bowery. She, too, had
reached the lowest level. She gave him a dollar she had
just earned-all she had-and he bought enough morphine to end his life.
Readers may remember the account of a suicide in a
lodging house, who left a note containing a parody on
the lines, "Goodbye, Proud World, I Am Going Home,"
and some cynical reflections upon the uselessness of living
when life's pleasures cease. Such was the end of this
wretch.




CHAPTER V
SLAVES OF THE PIPE.
O     F ALL the wretches of Povertyville none reach
that height of bliss, nor descend to that depth of
misery, that falls to the lot of the opium smoker. None
are less to be envied in their happiness, less to be pitied
in their wretchedness.
We must pity the unfortunate who has received an
opiate in some medicine and finds that he cannot obtain
relief from physical suffering without it. He may be
taking the drug for years unconscious of the fact that lie
is the victim of the drug habit.
For the slave of the pipe there are no extenuating
circumstances. He knows its dangers when lie takes the
first whiff, he becomes conscious of its seductive properties when he feels like trying it again, and every step
from the time he smokes his first pill until he has become
a confirmed fiend carries with it a warning. aWhen he
has reached that stage where the drug becomes a necessity he is oblivious to warnings, indifferent to its effects,
unwilling to forego its pleasures, unable to withstand its
cravings. Under its effects he is in elysium: without it,
the torments of hell could not surpass his sufferings.




A PELL STREET OPIUM JOINT.








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169


Read "De Quincey's Confessions of an Opium Eater"
if you would know the abject misery of the wretch to
whom the drug is like the air of life when he is without it.
But De Quincey never knew the blissful contentment
which follows a few whiffs from the pipe.
The frightful craving for "hop," as they call the'prepared paste of opium used by smokers, is like the gasping
for air of the poor devil strangling on the gallows. The
sudden transition to happiness when the fiend has had a
few whiffs from the pipe, not even the happiness of
Maxmilian Morell, when he met his Valentine in Monte
Cristo's cave, can compare with it.
Hop smoking is an expensive vice. It drains the
pocket and it drains the mental, moral and physical powers. It drives away care and those human instincts
which create care. When he needs the drug he must
get it. He is no longer restrained by the still, soft voice
within, not even by that instinct which compelled old
Adam to make breeches out of fig leaves, as the Breeches
Bible tells us.
Body and soul for a thimbleful of hop; with it he
leaves the world to you; he has heaven.
Opium dulls the physical and mental sensibilities, and
the fiend apparently becomes inured to hardship, to hunger, eold, exposure and privation. The system, however,
becomes more readily affected by disease, while his dulled
sensibilities and weakened brain do not arouse in him a
realization of his condition. He may be starving, yet




170


THE IVRETCHES


have no desire for food; he may be in the last stage of
consumption, yet he will disregard the most urgent symptoms as though unconscious of them.
His life is a dream, a horrible nightmare when without his hop, a dream of bliss when drawing on the pipe.
It is not, however, except in the novice, a dream of
air castles. It is a Nirvana-like repose, in which there
is no consciousness of self or surroundings.
The confirmed fiend lies on his cot "cooking" or preparing the pellets of hop mechanically, conscious of the
hop jar, lamp, and hook next to him, but otherwise
oblivious to surroundings, to the flight of time, to the
demands of nature. It is a mistaken idea that opium
smoking produces lascivious dreams. When one tries it
for the first time the mind is occupied with observations
upon the impressions produced.
The mind is more active and alert than usual and
concentrated upon expected effects; the mental impressions are, however, invariably agreeable. There is a
feeling of physical ease such as one experiences when
smoking a good cigar after a hearty dinner.
After smoking a few     pills the novice becomes
drowsy, falls into a dreamless sleep and awakes with a
dull headache.
The novice is tempted to try it again, not because
there is any desire for the drug, but because he wishes
to repeat the pleasant experience just before falling
asleep. After the novelty has worn off and before he has




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171


become a habitual smoker he may build air castles while
smoking, but in whatever direction the mind wanders
the pictures are pleasant, and though exaggerated and
elaborated to please the fancy, they present themselves
with the vividness of actualities.
The actor will dream of success on the stage, extended until he sees himself the center of the scene, the
only actor on the stage, with the applause of thousands
ringing in his ears.
The gambler will dream of a game in which he holds
the winning hand, the strongest hand possible, his opponents chipping in until the stakes reach the ceiling. So,
too, the mechanic dreams of wonderful inventions, the
merchant of extraordinary sales, the artist of grand conceptions. Only the roue whose waking thoughts are of
women will dream of them when under the influence of
opium. The dream lasts until the smoker falls asleep.
It is not a true dream but a mental aberration, during
which the victim is indifferent to what is going on around
him, even threatened danger failing to arouse him after
he has smoked a few pills.
At a later stage the victim notes a desire to smoke
and a feeling of malaise when the desire is unsatisfied.
The pipe dreams become less vivid and more complicated and after a time they must be conjured up, the
victim making an effort to concentrate his mind upon
the subject. As the smoker becomes a "fiend," as the
person afflicted with the drug habit is called, the power to




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THE WRETCHES


think while smoking is lost. He gradually increases the
number of pills, smoking thirty or more at a sitting, the
interval between the sittings decreasing until only a few
hours may elapse between them. In these intervals he
sleeps or attends to business, but as his mental and physical powers wane he becomes a complete wreck. After
a few hours from the last smoke the craving begins
again. The mind is centered upon his want, an indescribably intense desire which nothing but the drug or
death can appease.
He will beg, steal, do anything to obtain hop; if he
cannot obtain it the frightful craving increases, and a
series of pathological symptoms begins. He yawns and
sneezes. Pains in every bone, joint and muscle set in
and an agonizing pain is felt in the spinal cord. This
pain is likened to the suffering from an exposed nerve
of a decayed tooth, a thousandfold intensified. The
whole cord feels as if it were exposed and molten lead
poured upon it. At the same time he suffers from prostration and restlessness, constantly moving about in
search of ease. In this condition he will not hesitate to
commit murder or suicide to obtain relief, but he is too
weak to overcome a child. His throat burns and a gnawing pain at the stomach sets in, followed by retching and
vomiting. The frightful agony produced by this combination of symptoms reaches its height on the second
or third day after deprivation. Suddenly his mind gives
way or he falls in a state of collapse in which he dies.




THE WRETCHES


173


Such is the end of the confirmed habitue when his funds
are exhausted. Most die, however, of consumption, the
usual complication following the prolonged use of the
drug.
When one has taken the drug but a short time and is
suddenly deprived of it, the painful symptoms are less
severe, but the sickening retching and vomiting are more
persistent. The constitution has, however, not been so
seriously undermined and there is less danger of collapse.
The mind sometimes gives way; usually, however, after
the combination of symptoms have continued for two or
three days they gradually subside and in a few days more
they disappear. There is no further desire for the drug.
Whether the drug be taken in the form of opium or
morphine, whether taken internally, hypodermically or by
inhalation through the pipe, the agony produced by its
deprivation is the same, but the most pleasurable effects
are produced by smoking. This is the only form in which
more is used than is necessary to satisfy the craving; it
is the most alluring, the most expensive form and the
form in which the mental and physical powers are most
quickly weakened, but the smoker never dies from an
overdose of the drug, as sometimes happens when it is
used in other ways.
The smoker, when he has the means, will fit up a
small den in his home, where he can gratify his passion
in secret or in company with a few congenial companions.




174


THE L RE TCHIES


For a time he can continue the vice \without betraving
himself except to other smokers. BurninTg llop gives off
a heav!, penetrating and persistent odor which is instantlv recognized bv one accustomied to it, and the
smoker has the odor about him for hours after a sitting.
After he has become a confirmed fiend his appearance
betrays lim. The ashy complexion, tensely drawvn skin
over the forehead and the infallible sign-extremely smlall
"pin-hole" pupils, making the colored iris more prominelnt. \ith glassv whites tinged often with yellow-calnnot be concealed. One of the finger tips of the left hand
is colored a deep brown, produced by frequently touching
the pill while "cooking" to see if it is of the proper consistencv. In manner the fiend is listless, becoming restless when the craving comes on.
The recent novitiate into this vice is mentally brighter
anid more alert than formerly, but as the habit g-rows ii
mind becomes weakened and this is usually the first
change noticed by his friends.
Chinatown seems to possess a fascination for opium
smokers. They will visit it at night, feast in its restaurants and fill up their dens witl Chinese ornaments.
Some fit up dens in Chinatown-furnish them with a nledlley of Chinese and American furniture, a couch replacing
the bed, a Chinese lantern instead of a lamp, and Chinese
ornaments strewn about and dangling from the ceiling.
W\hen the smoker is near the end of his resources he
will hire a small room, perhaps a corner of a Chiinaman's




IL


OPIUM JOINT KEEPER.








THE WRETCHES


175


room, and make a bunk out of a table or some boards
placed upon barrels. Some old clothes, rags or a bundle
of straw forms the head rest. This is then his bed, table,
chair and all the furniture he has any use for. At first
he will have a curtain around his bunk to shield him
from inquisitive eyes; later he is indifferent. When hard
pressed for money he will rent out the space over his
head for another bunk and may even rent part of his own
bunk, making his living room but little larger than the
coffin he will soon occupy.
There are many women in Povertyville addicted to
the pipe. They are almost without exception lewd
women, either connected with the stage or with brothels,
or else they are the consorts of criminals. The constant
use of the drug destroys in them the moral sense and
the sexual appetite.
During the early period of their slavery to the drug
they will fit up dens in their homes or in Chinatown.
Later on when they have no means to obtain hop and
their companions will not supply them they will consort
with Chinamen, living with them as their wives. There
are many such white wives of Chinamen in Pell, Mott and
Doyer streets, the heart of Chinatown. Their rooms are
scrupulously clean, cleanliness being, perhaps, the only
virtue the Chinaman insists upon in his wife. Otherwise the rooms are poorly furnished, bunks or long tables
being the most notable furniture. Occasionally there is
a kitchen table, a chair and a stove. Meals are usually




176


THE WRETCHES


taken at one of the restaurants in the neighborhood, not
one of the elaborate show places which slumming parties
visit, but a place patronized mainly by Chinamen.
So these wretched creatures live, two or three with
their yellow-skinned husbands occupying one room, leading an indolent existence, dozing, dreaming, unconcerned
about their fast-ebbing lives.
The smoking outfit consists of the pipe, lamp, needle,
pipe bowl cleaner, sponge, a small bowl to hold water,
hop jar, and ash receiver. The hop is the extract of
opium prepared for smoking by a secret process which
the whites have not fully mastered. A few druggists
have succeeded in making an imitation which will deceive
white smokers but not Chinamen. It looks like a thick,
black, pasty salve. The best quality, number one, is
made from opium. Number two is number one mixed
with opium ash.
The pipe or Heen cheung is a heavy bamboo stem
about two feet long and an inch in diameter without
mouthpiece, except an ivory tip, and a clay bowl inserted
near one end of the stem. The bowl is closed at the top,
having only a pin hole opening in the center of the top,
upon which the pill is placed while smoking. The lamp
is somewhat like an alcohol lamp, burning peanut oil.
The needle or yen hok is merely a short knitting needle,
sometimes with a handle. The jar or hop toy is a little
china or horn box about two inches high, the shape of a
salve box or thimble, in which the hop is kept. The ash




THE WRETCHES


177


receiver is an ordinary shallow dish, sometimes a clam
shell, on which the ashes are collected. The ashes are
sold, being used to make a poorer quality of hop.
When a smoker gets a "yin" or craving he lies down
on his couch with the little lamp burning by his side.
With the yen hok he draws out from the jar a quantity
of the paste about the size of a pea. Then he "cooks"
the hop by twirling it on the end of the needle over the
flame of the lamp. It sputters and boils like boiling tar
or sealing wax, but it does not catch fire and its color
changes from black to dark orange. It gradually acquires
a more solid consistency, losing its stickiness, and this is
frequently tested on the tip of the finger. The mass is
then "chyed" or drawn into strings by being placed upon
the bowl, then drawn out by the needle, twirled around
the needle and again cooked. In this way the whole mass
is subjected to the heat. When it is about as dense as
glazier's putty and does not stick, the pill is considered
cooked. It is then rolled into a pill, placed over the hole
in the bowl, lighted in the flame of the lamp while the
smoker draws on the stem. He does not emit the smoke
as he would when smoking tobacco, but he inhales the
fumes from the smouldering pill until it is entirely consumed. The hlabitue may consume a pill in one draw;
the novice stops after each whiff. The pill at once ceases
to burn and in relighting it the flavor is destroyed, as it
is mixed with the flavor of the peanut oil. The expert




178


THE WRETCHES


takes long whiffs with slight intervals, consuming a pill
in two or three minutes. He will smoke ten to fifteen
pills an hour.
The odor of burning hop is heavy, oppressive, and in
a close room nauseating. In the open air it is not unpleasant. Judging from the statements of druggists the
number of drug habitues is enormous, many taking opium
or one of its preparations or derivatives in the form of
medicine for years. Those who use the drug knowingly
take it in its pure state either as opium pill or powder,
or as laudanum, or take morphine in pill or powder or
through the hypodermic syringe. It is a strange fact
that most of this class of habitues are physicians, druggists and hospital attendants, men who know the disastrous effects of the drug.
Most of the smokers are men with much leisure time
-actors, sports, panders and criminals.
In a narrow street leading to the Bowery there are a
number of dens or "joints" fitted up for smokers, where
they can "hit the pipe," as they call opium smoking, without interference.
In one house, the exterior of which is like a poor, dirty
tenement, there are scores of such dens, most of them
kept by Chinamen, some by negroes, a few by whites.
Some large rooms hold from four to eight bunks. Some
rooms, or rather closets, have one bunk filling the room.
They say that one of these small rooms is rented to
a popular actor who spends his Sundays and holidays




COCAINE AND OPIUM- DEALER AND FIEND.




t




THE WRETCHES


179


here, bringing his layout in a satchel in the early morning
hours and departing in the carriage that brought him the
following morning. He does not mingle with the "regulars," does not patronize the Chinese restaurants, and
when entering and departing from the house will not
acknowledge a greeting, although there seems to be no
question concerning his identity.
It is not unusual to see carriages stop at night before
this and other houses in the neighborhood, deposit their
white occupants, who hurry into the building, and return
for them in a few hours or the next evening. Those who
still possess a sense of shame come in a hired cab and
carry their layout in a satchel. These have private rooms
or dens. Later on, when they cannot hide their vice
from other smokers, they will find companions with
whom they have a room in company, or will go together
to a Chinaman's apartment. Women generally come in
pairs in hired cabs and go to Chinamen's rooms.
In a tenement reeking with filth and vice, crowded
with Chinamen with a sprinkling of blacks and whites,
there lives a woman who has fitted up a fairy palace in
a human cesspool. Carpeted floor, lace curtains over
windows the shutters of which are rarely opened, Chinese
ornaments hanging from the ceiling, oriental bric-a-brac,
and an ornamental Chinese lantern with a colored shade
throwing a pink tinge over all-such are the furnishings




180


THE WRETCHES


of this room. On a couch in a cozy corner, shut in by
China silk screens, this woman lies dozing, perhaps
dreaming, inhaling the fumes of hop.
She is about thirty years old, has beautiful features,
is tall and well built. She is an adept in the use of cosmetics and unguents, for under their use there is no indication of sallowness of the cheeks, her eyes are brilliant,
the pupils being artificially dilated with belladonna. She
is refined and well educated, and evidently accustomed to
cultured, perhaps fashionable, society. They say she
rarely goes out by day, but occasionally goes away in a
carriage at night, taking her layout with her. Her meals
are brought in from a Chinese restaurant.
Some who think they know say she was an actress
before she became a fiend, while others who think they
know say she is the divorced wife of a San Francisco
merchant. She takes far better care of herself than most
female fiends.
Nearby is another den, not so elaborately fitted up,
the inmate of which is more interesting than the other.
This is a young woman, probably a southerner, who
makes a good living by showing visitors how to "hit the
pipe.".Either she has not reached that stage where sallowness, emaciation and pine-hole pupils become marked,
or else she is able to hide these unmistakable signs of the
vice, for she is plump, there is a ruddy glow on her dark
skin not due to the red lantern shade, and her pupils are




I
I




~,;- R 1p


COCAINE FIEND.




THE WRETCHES


181


but slightly contracted. She is jolly, a rare trait in the
confirmed smoker. She is refined in manner and speech,
prefers to speak French and does not fear recognition.
She explains every detail of the process, cooks a pill,
smokes it, and offers the pipe to visitors.
She adds the statement made and probably believed by
every smoker that the habit can be given up at any time.
None have the will power to do so when it has once
become a habit.
Visitors pay whatever they wish for the exhibition,
placing the money on the mantle.
The only redeeming feature in the career of the pipe
fiends, though an uncharitable view it be, is the shortness
of their useless lives. Consumption generally sets in and
carries them off.
Many of the opium fiends are also "coke" fiends or
cocaine habitues. This drug is snuffed up the nose and
produces a mild stimulation, followed by intense depression. Scores of such "coke" fiends live in the poor lodging houses near Chinatown. A basement pool room near
Chatham Square is the hang-out for these wretches.
A word might here be said about Chinese restaurants.
These have increased to a remarkable extent and are now
found in all parts of the city. Most of these outside of
Chinatown are patronized by whites and negroes.
These are poor imitations of real Chinese restaurants,
most are conducted by whites and have white cooks but
have Chinese waiters. The dishes are intended to suit.




1:32


THE IF R E T C II ES


tle taste of the whites, only two, yakomen and chop
stuev, being prepared according to Chinese methods. The
former is a noodle soup containing bits of chicken, pork
and eggs. The latter is a porridge of beans, onions,
mushrooms, sprouts, pork and chicken, highly seasoned.
The pretentious restaurants of Chinatown, those
shown to slumming parties, are elaborately fitted up.
One has tables and chairs of ebony, inlaid with mother
of pearl, silverware, fine chinaware, and for white visitors knives, forks and spoons and a bill of fare printed
in Chinese and English. Cleanliness, neatness and decorum are not surpassed in the fashionable restaurants
of Fifth Avenue.
The rank and file of Chinamen, however, go to small
restaurants which are rarely visited by whites, except
fiends who live in the neighborhood. High stools are
used instead of chairs and the tables are a little higher
and but little larger than the stools.
There are no ornaments, no silverware, there is heavy
crockery, and everybody handles the quitsees or chop
sticks. A plate of chop suey or yakomen costs here ten
cents and is sufficient for a meal. Tea is served instead
of water in all Chinese restaurants. Though irrelevant
to the subject of this chapter, we will mention here the
special features of Chinatown. These are the theater,
restaurants, Joss House or Temple, the opium joints,
gambling houses and business houses. All slumlming
parties visit the theater, which has been described.




THE WRETCHES


183


Guides take visitors to a Chinese restaurant, either the
one at the corner of Pell Street and the Bowery, on Pell
Street opposite Doyer Street, corner Doyer Street and
the Bowery, or on Mott Street in the Joss House. These
differ as much from the ordinary Chinese retaurants as
a Fifth Avenue restaurant differs from a Bowery "hash
house." There is little difference in the Chinese opium
joints, and when whites open joints they imitate the
Chinamen and add a lot of Chinese ornaments, which
they scatter about the room. The Joss House in Mott
Street near Chatham Square is as interesting as any other
feature in Chinatown and is shown to visitors. It has
been so often described, pictured and visited that it ought
to be familiar to all readers. The gambling houses are
run openly but are rarely visited by whites, and sightseers are not welocme. The game stops as soon as a
party of whites enter and the visitors see only a few
round tables, high stools and a number of chattering
Chinamen.
Opposite the theater is the notorious Chatham Club.
Near the Joss House is a notorious dive which has been
frequently raided. Its back room is patronized mainly
by lewd women who have contracted the opium habit
and their lovers.
Near the theater is the Rescue Mission, which is
crowded nightly by the wretches of Povertyville and is
one of the sights of Chinatown.




CHAPTER VI
THE LIVES OF THE WRETCHES.
T   HE wretches of Povertyville keep no diary, for to
them yesterday is but a bitter memory, and could
they command forgetfulness the moment past would be
as veiled to them as the ages to come. To know how
they live we must follow their footsteps.
There is the poor devil who came to this city in search
of work. Without a trade except perhaps farming, unaccustomed to indoor labor, with limited education, he
has been unable to secure steady employment.  Now,
without money or friends, clothes shabby, ambition
almost extinguished, we find him in a cheap lodging
house.
He has learned to beg but he has still some manhood
left and would rather work.
He is awakened at six o'clock, the attendant rapping
at the door of his seven-by-five closet, or shaking him
as he lies on his cot in the dormitory.
He throws off the horse blanket with which he is covered, dresses, washes at the common lavatory, uses the
comb and brush chained to the faucet, brushes his clothes
with a whisk broom and his shoes with his coat sleeve,




THE WRETCHES


185


then goes off in search of work. After scanning the
"help wanted" list clipped from the daily papers and
posted before the Y. M. C. A. Building on the Bowery
and several other places nearby, he begins the heartbreaking chase from place to place where help is wanted.
"Where did you work last?" "On a farm."
"References?" "Have none."
"Where do you live?" "In a Bowery lodging house."
No experience, no references, no home; three unsurmountable obstacles. Scores of times he has been told
they would let him know and he has learned that this is a
virtual rejection. Wherever he applies an hour later he
is told "just too late." He has now another wasted day
before him and another dreary wait for the morrow.
Our poor wretch has become accustomed to get along
without breakfast and he spends the morning hours in
the reading room of the Cooper Union or some other
reading room in the neighborhood. At noon he makes
his way to one of the many saloons on the Bowery and
during the busy hour when the bar and free lunch counter
are crowded he mingles with the crowd and gets a free
meal, breakfast and dinner combined.
Then comes the task of the day to secure his "hote"
money for his night's lodging. This means a begging or
borrowing expedition. Men of this class who have no
assured means of repaying loans do not obtain them
readily and unless there is a newcomer at his lodging
house he will be obliged to depend upon the generosity




186            THE    W IRETCHES
of sympathetic strangers. If he is an adept at reading
faces and knows the tricks of the pan-handlers he will
obtain enough to tide him over a few days. In the evening he will go to a mission where food is furnished after
the services, join in the singing, and after receiving a
cup of coffee and some bread he returns to his lodging
house.
The next day there may be a variation in the routine.
After the usual morning hunt for work if he has a few
cents to spare he will play cards in his lodging house
until noon hour is past. He will then go to the same
saloon he visited the day before, buy a glass of beer and
carry it to the free lunch counter. This is done to show
the lunch man that he is a regular patron of the place,
and he can pursue the course of the previous day for
several days thereafter.
The afternoon is spent in a reading room or at the
lodging house unless his funds are exhausted. Then he
must go on another begging expedition.
These two days comprise the routine of life at an
early stage of the wretch.
Let us now follow the wretch in his last stage.
The public comfort house in Mulberry Bend Park is
one of the places where he spends his nights. In summer
a park bench is his bed, but during the cold winter months
a tender-hearted keeper will permit him to remain in this
warm room, where he sleeps standing or leaning against
his neighbor.




THE WRETCHES


187


Perhaps for days he has not removed his ragged coat
or old shoes. Water is an abomination to him. Gladly
would he request the judge to commit him to prison for
ten days beginning two days before Christmas, but the
dreadful ordeal of an enforced bath deters him. The
ten days include a Christmas dinner, a New Year's dinner
and one or two Sundays of idleness, but it also includes
a wash.
If hydrophobia were merely a dread of water this
wretch would have it in its most pronounced form.
At daybreak the keeper of the comfort house turns
the wretch out. No time is lost in dressing, washing,
or prayers, but off he goes to the Bowery for his breakfast. He may have secured a loaf of bread in the bread
line the night before, or he may depend upon a free lunch
counter in return for sweeping out the saloon.
Next comes the serious work of the day-to find some
luckless individual who, after a night's carousal, has
fallen asleep in a hallway or alleyway. If he finds one
whose pockets are turned inside out he knows that a
waiter has forestalled him. In that case the victim has
probably been drugged and it is safe to remove his coat
and shoes without awakening him. If the victim has not
yet been "touched" or robbed the wretch makes a haul.
He disposes of the proceeds to a bartender, investing
the cash for beer, never for clothing. He drinks so much
that he is overcome, is cleaned out and thrown out, and
is next carried to the police station. If he has not made




188


THE WTRETCHES


a haul he knows several tricks by which he can arouse
sympathy and gain a few nickels and dimes. All go for
beer. \Vhlen he can gain nothing by trickery he will walk
the streets till midnight, then go to the Bowery Mission,
where coffee and bread are distributed, and later to
Fleischman's corner, where he gets a loaf of bread. The
day is spent in a "tub" house or walking the streets.
Occasionally he will go to a mission house, announce
his willingness to reform, give his testimony, pose as the
horrible example, be prayed over, cried over by tenderhearted and tender-minded evangelists, receive useless
religious advice, some food and perhaps a ticket for a
night's lodging. This he sells for the price of a glass of
beer, and when that is consumed he returns to his sleeping place in the park. In wvarm weather he will "carry
the banner," i. e., walk the streets all night.
Let us next follow an unfortunate fellow who retains
his self-respect, who will not beg, borrow or steal, who
is not suffering from hydrophobia, kleptomania, or any
other of these moral perversions which are vices in Povertyville but diseases in Uppertendom.
This fellow wants work and will do any honest work,
however menial, to keep him from starving. When he
has the price he stops at the Mills Hotel, paying 20 cents
for his room and 35 cents a day for his meals. If he
has no money and no work he applies at the Bowery
branch of the Y. M. C. A. Here, if he has references,




THE WRETCHES


189


he will receive bed and food for a few days while the
superintendent aids him to procure work.
Or he will go to the Charity Organization Society on
22nd Street and he will be sent to the Wayfarers' Lodge
on West 28th Street. He will there saw wood for three
or four hours and he will receive therefor bed, bath and
meals.
The society will also aid him to secure work. He
might go to the Industrial Christian Alliance in Bleecker
Street, where he can obtain temporary lodging and meals,
doing work therefor, but that institution is rather a
reformatory, most of its inmates being fallen men. Our
case will find this place uncongenial and he will probably
not remain more than a day.
As a last resort he will go to the Municipal lodging
house.
He has one alternative-to walk the streets all night,
stopping at the Bowery Mission at midnight for supper
and at Fleischman's for the dole of bread which will serve
him for next morning's breakfast. Our wretch does his
own mending and his own laundry work. Instead of a
white shirt he may wear a celluloid shirt front and none
can tell the difference. Rubber collars and cuffs last for
months and require no washing. At a barber school he
obtains a free shave and haircut, the pupils using such
material to practice upon. When not at work he goes
to a reading room, the rendezvous of the homeless and
unemployed.




190


THE WRETCHES


When out of work for a lengthy period, when driven
to the verge of despair, and beggary or theft seem to be
the only resources left, this wretch goes to the police court
and asks to be committed to the workhouse as a vagrant.
Such cases are not rare.
The vicious and criminal classes live far different
lives from the foregoing.
The fellow inbred in vice has no idea of virtue. The
world owes him a living and he will collect the debt, appealingly or forcibly, but he will not work for it.
In many cases a female wretch supplies him   with
funds and he in return protects her. She has a furnished room which is his home. He appears on the street
in the afternoon, goes to a show, a sporting resort or a
club where others of his class congregate. There they
gamble, but they play honestly, for each one suspects the
others and all know the usual tricks. When the lamps
are lit in the evening his work begins. His female companion appears on the street, and he follows her into the
dive, where he sits behind her ready to receive anything
she can steal from an unsuspecting victim. If the latter
finds that he has been robbed nothing can be found on
the woman.
If she takes a victim to her room he is there before
they arrive, secretes himself in a closet or under the bed
and waits for an opportunity to search the victim's
clothes. If he makes a haul the woman is apprised of the
fact and she dresses quickly and hurries away. When




THE WRETCHES


191


the victim finds that he has been robbed he hurries after
her and she may be arrested, but nothing is found upon
her, and the victim will rather stand the loss than the
notoriety attached to publicity.
If the wretch has had no opportunity to rob the victim he waits until the latter leaves, then takes the money
the woman has just earned, and the two get dinner, after
which they go out for new victims. This is the routine
of the pander. Sooner or later he goes to jail and after
his release he becomes a full-fledged criminal.
The life of the criminal is much like the life of the
pander. Nearly every one of the professional criminals
has his "Moll" or female companion with whom he has
a furnished room or flat. There is a social status among
the criminals as strictly drawn as in higher life. Sooner
would a portrait painter admit the sign dauber to his
class or the society woman admit her cook to her four
o'clock tea, than would the burglar or forger associate
with the pickpocket or sneak thief.
This condition prevails even among the small fry of
Povertyville. The pickpocket and the fellow whose
game is hallway and gutter drunks hang about dives and
low saloons while their "Molls" ply their trade on the
street or do a little shoplifting.
When not engaged in criminal pursuits this class
spends it days at the bar of a saloon or in gambling.
The criminal who looks for bigger game than door
mats, handkerchiefs, children and gutter drunks, does




192


THE WRETCHES


not frequent dives and low saloons. His "Moll' is a professional shoplifter, and need not walk the streets or
hang about for victims. The couple lead apparently
respectable lives in a flat or furnished room, unsuspected
until one of them is caught by the police. He spends his
days in the more pretentious saloons, in the clubs, gambling houses or pool rooms, while she is working the
department stores. He gives his occupation as "speculator," and this must satisfy inquisitive ones who want
to know why he is out late at nights. Many of this class
are opium fiends.
Of the female wretches of Povertyville the few virtuous unmarried ones who are not drug fiends find shelter
in the woman's lodging houses or in furnished rooms.
A score or more of philanthropic organizations look after
the welfare of women if they are willing to work. When
homeless and penniless they go to the Free Home for
Girls in Mulberry Street, where there is no restriction
to age, race, or nationality. The Charity Organization
Society also provides for them temporarily if they are
willing to work. As a last resort they go to the Salvation
Army, or to the Municipal lodging house. Such women
have little difficulty in obtaining work through one of
the many employment bureaus in the city.
Most of the women who ply their trade on the street
lead very regular lives. They, with their lovers or panders, live in furnished rooms in houses where no questions are asked. The woman rises in the afternoon, pre



THE WRETCHES


193


pares breakfast in her room, then lounges about until
evening. When darkness sets in she starts out in search
of victims. Two women generally go together, with their
lovers behind them. They go from dive to dive, sitting
a few minutes in each, or saunter along the street, ever
on the lookout to catch the eye of a possible patron.
When one is caught and disposed of, the woman and her
lover have dinner.
In the early morning hours, when the street and dives
are deserted, they return to their rooms. This is the
routine of their lives. Some lead apparently respectable
lives, working as milliners or seamstresses by day. These
have great difficulty in maintaining their double vocations
and either break down from the strain or give up the day
work altogether.
Those who have furnished rooms with respectable
families claim to be waitresses or cashiers in all-night restaurants. These have no lovers. They do not bring their
patrons to their homes but take them to a Raines Law
hotel. Some live at these hotels, doing the chamber work
in the morning, resting in the afternoon and walking the
street at night.
Those in the "Ladies' Boarding Houses" lead dull,
regular lives. Arising at noon, they have breakfast, fix
up their rooms, read or sew till seven o'clock, then comes
dinner. After that they are ready for visitors. They




194


THE TVRE TC H ES


sit in the parlor awaiting admirers until the early morning
hour, when they retire. They rarely leave the house
unless hired for a night.
When the wretch has reached that stage where no
artifice will enable her to secure patronage she joins the
"Bazimer" colony or "fire lighters." These are old
women who congregate at certain corners east of the
Bowery waiting to be engaged to do a day's washing or
scrubbing, and to light lamps and start fires in the homes
of the pious Jews in the neighborhood. The pious Jew
will not light a match on Saturday or on a religious holiday, or on the previous evening. At such times these
women come to the house, light lamps for two cents, and
start fires for five cents. They receive a dollar for a
day's work.
They stand at their corners throughout the day, going
from time to time to a Raines Law hotel or low saloon,
where they drink ale and whiskey in the rear room. \When
one has had a couple of days' washing she must treat
the crowd. Usually, however, when one has had that
good fortune she drinks so much before she gets to her
corner that she lands in the police station. The women
live in garrets or cellars in Cherry Street, Mulberry
Street, Baxter Street and Oliver Street, two or more
occupying one room.   Most of them are rounders or
"revolvers"-that is, wretches who are repeatedly sent
to the workhouse on the charge of drunk and disorderly.




THE WrRETCHES


195


There is comparatively little depravity and few criminals among the young-far less than might be expected
in a city holding thousands of homeless gamins. This is
in part due to the school attendance law, which compels
parents and guardians to send children to school a certain
number of weeks every year, and to the work of the
Children's Aid Society, American Female Guardian Society, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Children. The Newsboys' lodging house has been a most
potent factor in elevating the morals of the homeless
little fellows. It has sheltered thousands who would otherwise have been driven to associate with the shiftless
and vicious and in its way it has done more to prevent
the production of criminals than any other institution or
organization in the city.
There are some fellows who are instinctively vicious,
who will not sell papers, black boots, or do any kind of
work, but will steal, drink, smoke and associate with criminals.
They live under docks, or spend nights in club rooms,
in cellars or in wagons. They are pickpockets or sneak
thieves or aid the big "guns" or thieves in their projects
and learn the tricks of their trade at so early an age that
they become full-fledged crooks before they reach their
teens.
They gamble, cheat, drink and comport themselves
like old criminals, whose example they follow and whose
ways they try to imitate.




196


TI E TVRETCHIES


Many of the young scamps live at home with vicious
parents. In them depravity is inherited and developed by
the example set before them. They are sent out to beg
or steal, are praised when they are successful, and punished when they return empty-handed. These little fellows lead wretched lives, being on the street all day, often
driven to desperation when they have been unsuccessful,
fearing the beating at home yet more fearful of the dire
punishment which, they had been told, would be inflicted
if they fell into the hands of the police. Occasionally
one will pluck up sufficient courage to say Gerry Society
(Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) at
home. He is then beaten, starved and otherwise maltreated and made to swear that he will never repeat that
name or attempt to inform that society. After he has
been repeatedly beaten he will run away and the next
few hours will decide his future career. He will not
dare to tell his troubles to an officer unless hungry, and
his usual recourse is to tell some newsboy, or ask him
how to get some papers to sell. If he goes to the Newsboys' lodging house he is saved; otherwise he will steal
and follow a criminal career.
There are some fellows who are bad in spite of good
surroundings and moral teachings. These run away from
home and join a gang, where they try to emulate the
doings of the older boys. They follow the example of
some tough and live like the homeless, vicious street
gamins.




THE    WRETCHES                   197
We read occasionally of schools where boys are taught
to become pickpockets and sneak thieves. These are simply cases where the leader of the gang, generally the
oldest fellow, shows the newcomer some tricks, and when
the latter makes a haul the leader takes away the prize.
When the novice is arrested he accuses the leader of
having taught him the tricks and taking the proceeds of
the thefts. The press then gives a sensational account
of a "Fagin's" school for criminals.




CHAPTER VII
CRAFT AS A SCIENCE.
A   PPLIED    to nobler purposes it would be called
genius; as used by the beggar and criminal to obtain a livelihood without labor it is craft.
However repellant to the moral sense the methods
may be, we must admire the successful beggar's keen
discernment of character, the thief's daring and the trickster's knowledge of human nature.
The most successful of the beggars are the letter
writers. They neither live nor work in Povertyville and
may be dismissed with the remark, they are all frauds.
Street beggars depend either upon an infirmity to
arouse sympathy, or upon appropriate pleas.
While there are many actual cripples among beggars,
many are artificial cripples-"fake bandagers," they are
called.
The hand strapped firmly to the shoulder with an
artificial forearm, which can be rented by the day, makes
an armless beggar. It is easier and more comfortable to
strap the whole arm to the side, but this infirmity is
looked upon with suspicion and an artificial arm is very
expensive.




ROBBING A DRUNK.








THE WRETCHES


199


It requires some acrobatic work to produce a onelegged beggar. The leg is strapped back upon the back
of the thigh, and the imposter sits upon his foot; or the
leg is stuck into an artificial leg, but such an appliance
is expensive. One beggar was caught by the police after
he had been at one place for months. He had one leg in
a hole in a coal-hole cover, and had an artificial leg extended in its place. Blindness is simulated by folding
the upper lids upwards-a simple trick-and turning the
eyeballs upward. It is a difficult pose to maintain, but
it produces a sympathy-arousing though repulsive appearance. Actual blindness may result from this. If the
beggar wants to produce a woeful appearance without
other infirmity he eats soap for a few days. His face
becomes sallow and dark rings form under the eyes.
These rings can be produced artificially. To these are
added a hollow cough, a sad expression, tattered clothing
which is several sizes too big for him, and the beggar
appears to be in the last stages of consumption. His
appearance arouses sympathy and he gets enough in a
few days to recuperate for a month.
The most profitable form of deformity is the hunchback. This can be produced artificially by strapping a
pad between the shoulder blades, raising the shoulders
and allowing the head to sink into the characteristic position of the hunchback. It is only applicable to a small
man.




200


THE WRETCHES


The hunchback stands at the entrance to pool rooms
and race tracks and allows the sports to rub his back for
a consideration. They think it is lucky to rub the hunch
of a hunchback and pay for the privilege.
The beggar who does not depend upon infirmities,
but relies upon appropriate pleas, is the a:tist of his
calling.
He must understand human nature, must be able to
read faces and must have a plausible excuse for his appeal, whatever form the plea may take. He will not
accost a man in a hurry, for the latter will not stop to
listen to him. Neither will he stop the man who walks
along leisurely with coat buttoned up and hands in his
pocket, looking about him, for that man is a sightseer
who has heard of the wickedness of the Bowery and sees
in any one who attempts to stop him a probable highwayman.
An appeal to a foreigner is wasted unless made in
the foreigner's language.
The flashily-dressed man with a self-contented smile
is probably a sport in luck and an appeal to him for the
price of a drink will succeed, while an appeal for enough
to pay for a night's lodging will fail. The same appeal
works well with a lot of young men out for a good time,
especially if one or two are already in a convivial humor.
The brawny westerner with wide-brimmed hat and
-open coat, who has come to see how bad the Bowery
really is, is also the likely donor of the price of a drink.




THE WRETCHES


201


When a man has had a drink or two he is in good
humor and will listen to an appeal. The best time to
strike him is on a Saturday night when he has his week's
wages in his pocket. When he has had a few drinks he
will be either liberal or combative. In either case the
appeal for a drink will be more likely to succeed than any
other.
The appeal for alms for a sick wife or child, or "just
out of the hospital," or for a night's lodging does not
work well with men on the Bowery. The sick wife story
may work well with a man dressed in mourning and the
"just out of the hospital" is usually given to elderly men.
These or the appeal for enough to get a meal is usually
tried on young couples. If they are not married the plea
is usually successful, as the young man will then try to
impress his companion with his generosity and good nature. If he is married he will show her that he is economical by refusing to give the beggar anything.
Women are more easily handled by beggars than men.
The woman who is on her way to and from work, the
woman with bundles in her arms and the woman in a
hurry are avoided. If the beggar has a sickly appearance the most successful plea with women is for carfare
to go to the hospital. Elderly women are easily impressed by the story of a sick mother, a starving family
or "just out of the hospital," while the younger women
respond m6re readily to a sick wife or children story.
The night's lodging appeal works well in the evening




202


1'HE WRETCHES


when the beggar shows a probable donor that he has
eight cents, and he needs two cents more to secure his
bed. He generally gets a nickel and in the course of the
evening may make half a dollar.
An appeal for food made by a fairly well-dressed individual is a profitable plea with women. The plea is seldom made to men unless it is genuine, as the man would
take the beggar into a restaurant and pay for a meal.
There is one trick that is sure to elicit sympathy and
nickels from women. The beggar rushes to the gutter
or to a garbage pail, picks up a crust of bread and eats
it as though he were starving. It is an old trick, but it
works on passers-by, who are duped into giving the
starving wretch enough to pay for several meals. When
they are gone the crust goes back into the gutter, to be
used a few moments later in the same manner when
more women are approaching.
A plea which sometimes works with young women
who want to be philanthropists but don't know how, is
"just out of prison and no home to. go to." The beggar
making that plea ought to be, but rarely is, a convict or
ex-convict. The real ex-convict who wishes to reform
knows where he can obtain work and shelter and he will
not depend upon begging.
Many tramps come to this city in the spring and fall
and depend upon panhandling or begging on the streets.
They trust to intimidation rather than to skillfullyworded appeals, and frequently fall afoul of the police.




THE WRETCHES


203


They will hold up individuals for the price of a drink or
to "rush the growler," but they keep away from the Bowery district.
Female beggars are rare in Povertyville. A woman
has so many resources from which she can obtain relief
that she has no occasion to beg, and men have no sympathy with her.
Occasionally one will make a tour of the Bowery
stores carrying a child, perhaps leading another, both
hired for the purpose, but these wretches find a more
fruitful field in the shopping district. Their usual plea
is "a poor widow," a "sick husband," or "just out of
the hospital."
There is a law against begging in the street. The
professional beggar usually carries a bundle of pencils,
ostensibly for sale, and thereby circumvents the law.
Those who beg by stopping individuals on the street
and appealing directly to them use no subterfuge to violate the law. They do it openly, knowingly and willfully.
If one of this class wears a soldier's uniform he is apparently free from arrest, unless he becomes drunk and disorderly. Others when caught are charged with vagrancy
and go to Blackwell's Island.
'There is little science employed by the petty criminals
of Povertyville. There is often daring, some skill and
some knowledge of human nature required in their work,
but they are not confronted by the serious problems
which the "big guns" or thieves are compelled to solve.




204


THE WIRETCHES


The meanest and lowest in the criminal social order
is the "vogel grafter" or fellow who entices little children into hallways and robs them of their earnings,
capes, coats, etc. He is but little worse than the thief
who steals door mats and ash cans. Somewhat higher
in the scale is the fellow who stops errand boys in the
street, sends them on fictitious errands while he minds
their parcels. When the errand boy returns the thief
and parcel are gone.
More daring and skill are required by pickpockets.
These generally work in "mobs" or gangs of three-two
"stalls" and a "dip."  One "stalls" in front and one behind the "sucker" or victim, while the "dip" makes the
"touch" or theft. On car platforms the stalls stand at
the side of the victim, the dip in front apparently reading
a paper. Considerable skill is required to gently remove
a man's watch from his pocket and twist it quickly off
the ring. When the "dip' is ready to make the "touch"
he gives a low, hoarse cough, or other signal. The others
then stall-that is, they stand close to the victim and a
little in front of him in such a way that he cannot move
his arms forward; they then accidentally push him back.
This attracts the victim's attention to the stall and away
from the dip who had just jerked the watch from the
chain. The "super" or watch is passed to a stall, who
hurries away, while the "dip" continues on the car. No
sign of recognition passes between the members of the
mob when at work. A third stall is sometimes taken




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205


along to look out for the police, give the alarm and get
in the way should the dip be chased. They call a detective a bull or an elbow and signal their companions that
one is present by swinging an elbow forward or upward.
This is a general sign, but mobs usually work out a system of signals among themselves.
The pickpocket has less difficulty with women, especially in a crowd. One of the stalls attracts a woman's
attention, another stall pushes her from the opposite side
and in the moment her attention is directed to the second
stall, the dip has his hand in her hand satchel, extracting
her pocketbook-"leather," they call it. When women
wore large pockets in the side of their dresses pickpockets worked alone. Now women carry bags or satchels in
front of them suspended from their wrists, and unless
their attention is diverted for a moment by a stall they
would notice the slight tug necessary to open the bag or
satchel.
The pickpockets whose "graft" or dishonest work is
to rob women are called "moll buzzers" or "moll wires."
The dip is generally a youth in his teens. The stalls are
older. When the dip becomes older and more ambitious
he takes up the more hazardous work of lifting "supers"
and pocketbooks from men. The Bowery furnishes most
of the pickpockets, but they work principally in the shopping district, on the cars, at the bridge entrances and
wherever crowds collect.




206


T H E IR E TL C I S


The sneak thief is also a product of Povertyville.
He generally works alone, without a prearranged plan,
and depends upon the opportunity to make a "touch."
When engaged in "housework" (burglary) or "till tapping" (robbing money drawers) a pal or companion is
necessary and plans must be made in advance. Either,
however, can be done alone if the opportunity presents
itself.
It is a poor and desperate criminal indeed who would
attempt burglary in Povertyville. The prospective booty
is slight, the danger of capture greater than if attempted
in wealthier and less populous districts, and the punishment is as severe. (Burglary in criminal law is the
breaking and entering a house with criminal intent at
night. The same offense committed by day is larceny.)
The "house worker" works alone by day. He will
go through a house pretending to be the directory man
or a peddler of gas tips or some other small article that
he can carry in his pocket. If he finds a door open and
no one in the room he will take whatever he can lay his
hands on. If a door is locked he looks through the keyhole to see if the room is occupied. A glance at the
transom or hall window will give him the same information. A curtain over either window shows that it is not
an empty apartment. With a pick lock he opens the
door and can select the "swag" or booty at his leisure.
In a district where each house is occupied by one
family he enters through the parlor window or, if a tene



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207


ment is in the rear, he will go into the yard of the
tenement, climb the fence and get into the yard of the
house he intends to burglarize. On such expeditions he
is usually accompanied by a pal, and has prearranged
plans. By standing on his pal's shoulders he can reach
the window of the back parlor, and from there he makes
his way through the house. The pal at once returns to
the tenement yard and hurries to the front of the house.
The thief collects whatever of value he can find and goes
out through the front door. When a big robbery in a
private house is contemplated an accomplice in the house
is desirable, even necessary.
This requires time, patience and money, and it is generally done by forming the acquaintance of one of the
servants.
The girls are more gullible than the men, will listen
to flattery, accept an invitation to go to a place of amusement followed by a dinner, and though it may take weeks
or months, she will divulge the location of the jewel case,
the precautions taken against burglars, the habits of the
members of the family and the customary hours of dining and retiring. She may even consent to leave the
front door openr on the appointed evening, making the
work of the thief simpler.
The sneak thieves of Povertyville have, however,
neither the time, money, nor "nerve" to work such big
game. More often they will bring a letter to the house
and while the girl or butler carries the letter to the mis



208


THE WRETCHES


tress of the house the thief will decamp with the coats
and umbrellas on the hat rack, or some articles from the
parlor. Another favorite game is to find out at what
hour the master of the house usually returns from business, call at the house about half an hour before, present
a card or letter and request that he be permitted to await
the master's return. The request is usually granted but
before the latter arrives the thief has departed with some
articles of value. This trick is frequently practiced in
physicians' offices, women as well as men working this
easy graft.
Little craft, skill or courage is required in delivering
fictitious telegrams or packages and collecting charges
for the same. Notwithstanding the repeated expos6 of
this game it is one of the most successful of all dishonest
ways of making money. A young man wearing a telegraph messenger's uniform delivers a telegram written
upon the ordinary blank which anyone can obtain in the
telegraph office, enclosed in an envelope similar to the
regular envelopes in which messages are delivered. The
charges written on the envelope are anywhere from
twenty-five cents to a dollar. He collects the charges
before delivering the envelope. The nessage may be
some ironical remark about the recipient's gullibility.
Packages containing sawdust or bricks are delivered in
the same way, the person delivering the package wearing
the uniform of a telegraph messenger or expressman. A
trick which is very successful around the Christmas holi



THE WRETCHES


209


days is worked as follows: A few minutes after the
delivery wagon of a department store has delivered a
parcel at a residence an expressman enters with another
parcel, states that the one just delivered was wrongly
addressed and he had the one which belonged there. He
departs with the parcel first delivered and leaves his own,
which contains sawdust or rags.
Many physicians have been victims of the following
trick: The physician is called to a patient some distance
from his office. Soon after the doctor has left the office
the messenger who had called for him returns and tells
the person at the door that the doctor had sent him back
for his instrument satchel.  The messenger receives it
and hurries away. The doctor returns from a wild goose
chase and learns that his instruments are gone.
Till-tapping has become unprofitable since the introduction of the cash register, still it is occasionally practiced in stores where there is no such safeguard.
In bakeries, groceries and butcher shops where the
principal business is done in the morning, the noon hour
is selected; in other stores, before closing.
A stall engages the proprietor in conversation and
manages to get him out of the store or in a corner. By
pretending to be the building inspector and showing a
badge the stall has an opportunity to go into the cellar,
and call the proprietor out of the store to accompany him.
The tapper, usually a boy, sneaks in, gets behind a
counter, opens the till, takes all the bills he can grasp,




210


THE WIRETCHES


and runs out; if there is an open rear window or side
door he goes out that way. If the proprietor "gets wise"
or finds out that he is being robbed, the stall "slugs" or
hits him on the head and runs away.
Shoplifting is the female criminal's special graft, although many of Povertyville's sneak thieves work it. It
requires little skill or daring and the men who work it are
considered among the "cheap guns" or petty thieves. Some
female shoplifters are skillful in secreting the plunder
and audacious in their work. They invariably wear a
long cloak or coat under which the stuff is hidden. When
one wears a cloak she sews a few hooks on the inside or
has pockets in it into which the things are dropped. One
hook is sewed inside near the edge, and while standing
near the counter she dextrously fastens some article to
the hook and, partly turning, the article is swept inside
the cloak, her hands being exposed. When she leaves
the counter the stolen article goes into a pocket or on
another hook.  Shoplifters who work in the shopping
districts work alone, preferably at the bargain counters.
The high-class shoplifters who work jewelry, silk and
fur stores, and these departments in the department
stores, work in pairs. They dress well, act well and make
a good appearance, frequently come in a carriage and
make a great display of money. They do not live or
work in Povertyville.
Most of the "shovers of the queer," or passers
of counterfeit money, are residents of Povertyville.




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211


Nearly all the counterfeit coin is handled by Italians,
who pass it singly in small trade in which they receive
change. There is little business done in selling counterfeit coin in bulk.  Much is passed upon hucksters and store keepers, but little goes over the saloon
bars. Nor is there any trade in counterfeit bills in Povertyville. What counterfeit bills come into the district
are brought in accidentally by persons ignorant of the
fact until apprised thereof.  Such bills are generally
passed in saloons. Bartenders will sometimes accept a
counterfeit bill at a discount, pocketing the difference.
The bill is placed in the drawer, and is either passed in
the course of business or given to the beer collector.
The more ambitious criminals, burglars, forgers, and
what are known as "big guns" or "number one men," do
not work or live in Povertyville, but there are many
"crooks" or professional rogues in the district.
It is impossible to name all the tricks of the wretches
who live by craft. New tricks are worked and new
games are played every day by men who live by their
wits; many are ingenious, some within the letter of the
law, yet as fraudulent as forgery. Some old games have
been given a world-wide publicity, yet find victims in
credulous farmers and rural merchants, while new variations are often successfully worked upon "wise" city
folks.
The gold brick game, one of the most profitable swindles known, has been worked ever since the California




212


THE WRETCHES


gold miners returned to New York with lumps of gold
in the early fifties. The swindler procures a brick or
cone of brass, it is thinly plated with gold to withstand
the acid test, and then two or three borings made which
are then filled with gold. A "sucker" or victim is found
who is willing to buy a brick of gold "dropped from
the wagon going to the mint." The brick is worth
$2,000, but Mr. Jay can have it for $500. An accomplice has an office with the word "assayer" on the
door. The seller and the victim go to the assayer, who
removes one of the gold plugs and pronounces it pure
gold. Another plug is removed and taken to another
assayer, a reputable one this time, and this is pronounced
genuine. The deal is consummated in the office of the
pretended assayer. Mr. Jay departs, and the swindler
has disposed of a fifteen-dollar brick containing ten dollars gold for five hundred dollars. This game works
better in the west than in New York, where it has been
overdone.
The green goods swindle is still worked successfully,
although it has been repeatedly exposed.  The green
goods men send out a large number of letters equivocally
worded, but leaving no doubt that a deal in counterfeit
money is intended, although neither the word money nor
dollars is mentioned. These letters are sent to farmers
and country merchants. To those who send a favorable
reply, they send a second letter, sometimes enclosing half
of a new one dollar bill, and offer a thousand like sample




THE WRETCHES


213


for three hundred, five thousand for seven hundred, ten
thousand for a thousand. The "Jay," "Rube" or "Yap,"
as the victim is called, has been known to send the cash
without further inquiry. Of course, he never hears from
his correspondents again. As a rule, however, he is invited to come to the city, and meet his friends at some
hotel. He is given explicit directions how to bring the
money, what name to assume, what train to take, and
how he will be able to recognize the one who is to meet
him at the depot. The farmer follows the directions, is
taken to the dealer's room, and is shown a bundle of good
money and many similar bundles in a trunk. He buys a
"1,000 for 300," "5,000 for 700," or "10,000 for 1,000,"
the bundles are placed in the farmer's valise or bag, and
he departs. At home he finds the bottom and top bills
are genuine, the rest is stage money. He has been participating in a criminal transaction, and has no redress. A
variation of the game is to place genuine money in the
satchel in the victim's presence, and while his attention
is diverted for a moment a dummy satchel is put in the
place of the other.
Any game by which a person is swindled is really a
bunco game. Usually the name is applied to a scheme by
which a stranger is lured into a house by a decoy and
there fleeced by the confederate.
Mr. Jay may be accosted on the street by a stranger
who asks him the direction to some street. Mr. Jay
shows by his ignorance that he is a stranger in the city,




214


THE WRETCHES


and Mr. Bunco Steerer finds an excuse for continuing
the conversation, learns where he is from and where he
is stopping. If Mr. Jay is loquacious he will give his
name and the business that has brought him here. If he
has been simple enough to give the steerer this information he may learn that the gentleman he is talking to is
the president of the bank in the next town, or that his
new acquaintance is here on an errand similar to his own.
More often after Mr. Steerer has learned Mr. Jay's
name he will leave him, and a few minutes later Mr.
Jay will be hailed by someone who knows his name and
comes from an adjoining village. A stranger in a great
city is always glad to meet someone from his own neighborhood, and Mr. Jay is no exception. He will accept
his neighbor's invitation to drink, and go to his room or
go to his hotel. There he is interested in a game of
cards or in a dispute in which bets are made. Mr. Jay
bets or lends money to his newly-found friend to bet, or
will cash a check for him, or they may go into the next
room where a party is playing cards and he is induced
to join the game.
The friend will win with ridiculous ease, and Mr.
Jay will try his hand. He will win a little, but the stakes
will suddenly be raised and Mr. Jay loses all he has.
A more successful method to gain the victim's confidence after it is found that he is a stranger in the city,
is to follow him to his hotel and there learn his name
from the hotel register. This requires some diplomacy.




THE WRETCHES


215


The steerer may find it necessary to hire a room in the
hotel to learn what room Mr. Jay occupies, then from
the hotel register learn the name and residence of the
occupant. Mr. Jay receives a letter from the "nephew of
the president of the bank" in Mr. Jay's town, inviting
him to call. The nephew has heard from his uncle that
Mr. Jay was in town, and wants to warn him against
green goods men and bunco steerers. Mr. Jay tells the
nephew what brought him here. Then the confederate
enters, representing himself as a lawyer, stock broker,
ranch owner, or any character the occasion may require.
In whatever line the victim may be interested and most
likely to invest money the confederate is similarly interested. Mr. Jay may take up a mortgage on a farm which
has no existence, or buy cattle to be delivered in a week,
or a threshing machine selected from an agricultural
catalogue at half price, to be shipped from the factory, or
he may buy worthless mining stock. Mr. Jay may even
conspire with the nephew to beat the imaginary uncle.
The nephew buys for his uncle valuable stock much below
market price and Mr. Jay is to deliver the stock to the
uncle and receive from him the full price. Mr. Jay must
leave a deposit and send the nephew half of the profit.
When Mr. Jay returns home he finds that the bank president has no nephew in New York, the stock is worthless,
his purchases do not arrive, and he has been buncoed.
There are many variations of this game. The simplest
form is to inveigle Mr. Jay into'a game of cards with a




216


T HE T7RE TCIIES


stranger, Mr. Nephew promising to make good any loss
Mr. Jay may have. Mr. Nephew makes good with a bad
check.
A novel swindle has recently been tried with success. Mr. Jay is asked to sign a petition to the legislature to reduce railroad fares. The petition is filled with
names and only one space is left in which he signs his
own. The blank space is prepared by cutting out a piece
of the fictitious petition and passing underneath a blank
note or check. Mr. Jay signs his name in the blank space,
believing he has signed the petition. Mr. Jay recently lost
his trunk in a hotel in this city by this trick. He had in
some (to him) unaccountable way signed his name to a
sheet of hotel stationery. The order for his trunk was
filled in over his signature.
Since the Tenderloin has become the sight-seeing district of this city, bunco games are seldom worked on the
Bowery. The son of Mr. Jay's old friend and the nephew
of the president of the bank find their dupes most frequently on Broadway and near the ferries, just as credulous, greedy and gullible as ever.
The real mock auction of the Bowery is a thing of
the past.
Before stringent laws were made defining the auctioneer's duties and liabilities and fixing a high license fee,
a mock auctioneer would hire a store for a day or two,




THE WtRETCHES


217


fill it with all sorts of trash and auction it off. Cappers would bid up the prices and when a few sales were
made at high prices the place would close.
Plated watches, jewelry, tableware and paste gems
were most frequently disposed of.
The cheapest watches, having, however, the name of
a noted maker on the dial plate, in plated cases, were sold
as genuine Howards, Jurgensens, etc., in solid gold cases.
Where a place was rented for a week or a month a
large stock was put in, and after an auctioneer had made
a fraudulent sale, he disappeared and one of the cappers
would take his place. Cigars were sold in the same manner. The auctioneer would tell buyers they were smuggled and must be sold quickly before government officers
could locate them. One would be pushed out of a bundle
and given to a prospective purchaser. The latter would
try it, find it good, and purchase the bundle. The cigars
with the exception of the sample, were the vilest imaginable.
Mock auction sales of cigars and trash are still conducted, but keep within the letter of the law. An accomplice of the auctioneer hires a store, fills it with cheap
cigars or cheap stuff intended for the sale. He does a
legitimate business for'a few days, then the place is sold
at auction. The sale itself is honestly conducted, as the
auctioneer will not jeopardize his $2,000 bond by making misrepresentations. Whatever deception is practiced




218


TH E TI RETCHES


is in what is left unsaid. The presence of cappers who
bid up goods, but never buy, determines the character of
the sale.
The bunco schemes requiring a large amount of
money to begin with, like the green goods game, or requiring specially prepared rooms or apartments, like the
panel game and wire tapping game, are no longer profitable on the Boowery, still "suckers" are occasionally caught
there while sightseeing. The neighborhood of the Bowery was once a fruitful field in which to work the panel
game. The victim would visit a house of ill fame and
place his clothes and satchel on a chair or trunk near the
wall. A hole in the wall was covered by a picture or
lithograph, and through it the victim's clothes and satchel
were drawn, rifled and returned. MAen carrying much
money do not visit such houses in Povertyville now. In
the wire tapping game the victim is told that the telegraph
wire leading to a pool room has been secretly tapped, and
information from the race track is received in time to lay
wagers in the pool room after a race has been run. A
telegraph receiver is placed in the room and a wire leading to it comes in at the window. The receiver is, however, connected with a push button under the edge of the
table and is worked by a confederate, while another confederate is waiting on the street, ostensibly to run to the
pool room as soon as he receives signals previously arranged between him, the wire tapper and the victim.
When all is ready the pseudo-telegraph operator reads




THE WRETCHES


219


the returns from the receiver, the victim is induced to
make a large bet quickly, paying the money to the two
men in the room. The confederate on the street receives
the signal and runs off. The telegraph operator goes out
to fix the wire, and when he fails to return the other one
goes after him. When the victim is tired of waiting, he
realizes that a "sucker is born every minute." The
badger game, though extensively worked, does not pay on
the Bowery. It is simply a form of blackmail. A man
accepts a woman's invitation to visit her in her house,
and when they are in a compromising position the "injured husband" enters. The victim will give all he has
about him to get out of the scrape. A man who has a
reputation to uphold will stand considerable loss rather
than exposure, but if he understands the game and retains
his presence of mind, he will defy them.
If the couple working this game know that the victim is a man of prominence they work it differently. She
gets the victim in such a position that a photograph can
be taken of him in the compromising position. The
photograph is taken over the transom or through a panel,
and the negative becomes a permanent source of income.
Such photographs and compromising letters are the
principal tools of the blackmailers.
Blackmailing is a lost art in Povertyville since the
rich men, those who can stand the constant drain, no




220


THE WRETCHES


longer go there for their pleasures and do not become
involved with its comparatively plain, poorly dressed
wretches.
Of the many small schemes practiced in Povertyville
to fleece the unwary, flim-flam is the most prevalent. This
is a sleight-of-hand trick in making change, by which a
waiter will extract a bill after the change has been counted to the victim, or he may fold a bill in half and count
the two ends. It cannot succeed, if one will count the
bills after receiving them from the waiter, but the latter
has a way of disappearing immediately after he has given
a customer short change.
If the person has given the waiter a large bill, the
waiter counts the change in the patron's presence, then extracts the bottom bill as he hands it over. If the victim finds he is flim-flammed and complains, the waiter
will again take the money, count it, make good the deficiency, and in returning it will again extract the bottom
bill. Having seen the waiter return the bill, the patron
is generally satisfied and puts the change in his pocket
without recounting it. This occurs so often that the flimflammer invariably places a one dollar bill at the bottom
and a larger bill next to it, to be withdrawn when the
change is returned the second time. One should never
give a large bill, but having done so he should not return
the change to his pocket until he has counted it.
The soap game is usually worked on the Blowery corners. A fakir has a satchel containing a number of small




THE WRETCHES


221


boxes, each holding a cake of soap. When he has collected a crowd he places a ten dollar bill in one of the
boxes, throws it conspicuously on the top of the heap,
and allows anyone to pick out three boxes for five dollars. A capper or confederate buys three boxes, including the one containing the bill, shows it to the bystanders
and walks away. The operation is repeated, and a
"sucker" picks out three boxes, including the one he supposes contains the bill. The fakir had, however, palmed
that box and dropped an empty one in its place. Sometimes he will place old green beer barrel revenue stamps
in a few boxes, and leave a small corner of the stamp
exposed when the box is closed. The box containing the
genuine bill never leaves his hand except when the capper buys it. The three card monte men and the shell
men have been driven off 'the street, but they occasionally
find victims in its saloons. Both depend upon sleight-ofhand tricks to beat the unwary bettor. The monte man
shows three cards, one a court card, throws them on a
table face downward, and bets that the victim cannot pick
out the court card. A capper holds the stakes. The bettor rarely succeeds in picking out the right card, but if he
does he finds that the stakeholder has disappeared.
The shell game is similar. The manipulator uses three
walnut shells and a pea which he rolls from one shell to
the other. He then bets a bystander that the latter does
not know under which shell the pea' is. The honest shell
man takes chances, the odds being two to one in his




222


THE IWRETCHES


favor. The dishonest shell man takes no chances. The
pea sticks to his finger when it stops rolling, and is supposed to be under the shell.
A little sympathy might be bestowed upon the credulous simpleton who is taken in by the bunco man's plausible tale, but the fool who plays cards or dice with a
stranger deserves none.
There are innumerable ways by which the professional gambler can cheat at cards. With a novice ie
will depend upon his skill in shuffling and dealing, and
so expert do some gamblers become that they can deal
any hand they wish. When they play with more experienced players who know a trick or two about stacking cards and crooked dealing they depend upon marked
cards. In these there is some peculiarity in the device
on the back by which they can tell the face. The ordinary marked cards sold by dealers have a line thickened
or a dot misplaced, the position indicating the face.
These are well known to professional players, and the
dishonest gambler will use an honest deck to which he
will add the marks himself.
It matters not what game the novice plays with the
professional gambler, he will be fleeced. He has some
chance in a gambling house in games where paraphernalia
is used, and the house is satisfied with the ordinary percentage which falls to it. There are, however, crooked
apparatus by which the percentage in favor of the house
can be enormously increased.




THE WRETCHES


223


When the city is run open and gambling houses spring
up all over town, those on the Bowery use these crooked
appliances. At present, when the few gambling houses
in the district are run as clubs, and none but the members
can enter, the games are run straight, and the novice, if
he can get in, stands some chance for his money.
There are tricks in dice-throwing by which the uninitiated can be as readily fleeced as with cards. There are
two forms of crooked dice, loaded and shaped, the former
heavier on one side, the latter slightly rounded on one
or more sides. An expert can manipulate such dice with
sufficient dexterity to overcome the weight and shape.
Where the stakes are big sleight-of-hand tricks are
tried, the victim using dice loaded or shaped to throw
low, his opponent using dice shaped or loaded to throw
high. Even wise city folks are sometimes inveigled into
buying articles which the "con" (confidence man) has
just picked up. As the victim walks along he sees a man
crossing the street, then suddenly stooping, pick up from
the gutter a diamond ring. The man offers to sell the.ring to the victim, telling him that as he must leave the
city he cannot wait for the reward which will certainly
be offered for its return. All the victim pays over five
cents is clear gain for the "con," who had placed the ring
in the gutter. The operator may pick up a well-filled
pocketbook or a wallet, and show that it contains a roll
of bills. On the same plea, that of leaving the city,
he disposes of his find. The outside bill is a genuine




224             THE   WRETCHES
one dollar bill, the rest is green paper. Mr. "Con" may
offer to sell a gold watch which he says he had just
"swiped." The stranger who may pay five dollars for
what appears to be worth ten times that amount, finds
out too late that the watch is plated, and costs sixty cents.
Notwithstanding the repeated exposes of the tricks
and games practiced by bunco men and gamblers, they
find victimes continually, using the same old methods
which caught the fathers and grandfathers of the present
generation. But new games are devised every day, and
it is only by suspecting the motive of every stranger who
wishes to befriend, by refusing to be inveigled into any
scheme or game, by declining to buy anything unless one
knows the actual value of his purchase and receives it
before he shows his money, that one is safe from craft
and fraud.




CHAPTER VIII
SIDE LIGHTS.
THE wretches of Povertyville who were accustomed
to good clothes and clean surroundings retain a
sense of neatness until they part with their last white
shirt. Even then some try to retain an air of respectability, and by begging or borrowing obtain enough money
to buy a rubber or celluloid shirt front, collar and cuffs,
using the strips of their last white shirt for ties.
Some become quite expert with the needle and can
hem edges as neatly as a seamstress. They repair their
clothing, sew up rips and tears, put on patches, let out
seams and make alterations that lie within the province
of the tailor. Shakespeare might have had such as these
in mind when he wrote, "One touch of nature makes the
whole world kin," for here we find the man who could
wield the pen, handle a yacht or build an engine, become
equally expert with the needle and thread. One touch
of poverty makes tailors of them all.
How to obtain clothing is one of the serious problems
which confront the penniless yet fastidious wretch. As
he cannot afford to buy new clothes he must fall back
upon second-hand, refurbished wearing apparel. A new
(second-hand) hat costs from fifteen to fifty cents, but




226


THE WVRETCHES


the hat racks in the restaurants generally furnish a choice
selection. The exchange of hats in the restaurants and
barber shops is a common mode of obtaining better headgear. Strips of muslin or flannel wrapped around the
feet form a substitute for socks, but nothing can take the
place of shoes. These are heeled, soled, patched and
sewed as long as sole and upper will hold together.
When the wretch is in luck he will buy a second-hand
pair in the "Bay" (Baxter Street) for fifty cents. The
dealer charges a dollar, the wretch offers a quarter and
they compromise on fifty cents. That is the usual price
and the usual method of dealing, although poor fits, odd
sizes and other flaws reduce the price.
When he cannot afford to buy a pair he will have a
patch nailed over the hole in the sole for ten cents, or new
heels put on for fifteen cents. When the sole and vamp
threaten to part company the cobbler hammers in a few
nails and harmony is restored at the small cost of five
cents. To mend a tear which needle and thread can
repair costs nothing-the wretch does that himself. The
simplest way to obtain clothing is to beg for cast-off
clothing from a charitable society. There are several
which collect and distribute clothing, but most of them
require references.  The poor devil who has had the
foresight to attend mission meetings frequently will be
known to the conductor of the mission and can then use
him as reference.




THE WRETCHES


227


If he can afford to spend a dollar or two he will go
to the Bay and buy a good suit, one that has been re-dyed
and altered so that the original owner cannot recognize
it. Much cast-off clothing and most of the clothing
which leaves the owner without his knowledge or consent
find their way into the Bay. Overcoats cost from fifty
cents to a dollar; underwear, ten to twenty-five cents.
Laundry work is another serious problem with fastidious fellows. Some reserve their only white shirt for
special occasions. The celluloid or rubber collars, cuffs,
and shirt fronts require only the application of a damp
cloth to restore their gloss and whiteness.
Underwear, however, must be washed occasionally
and many do that work themselves. Some lodging
houses have drying rooms where the lodgers can wash
and dry their clothes. If the poor devil is stopping at a
lodging house which has not these conveniences he does
his laundry work in his wash basin.  He soaks the
underwear in hot water for a few minutes, rubs them with
soap, rinses them a few times in cold water, wrings them
out with his hands and hangs them around the steam pipe,
heater or stove. This is done at night and in the morning they are dry. To straighten out the folds and wrinkles the wash is placed between the sheet and mattress
for an hour, during which he occupies the bed. Necessity is the mother of invention.
The female wretches of Povertyville have little difficulty in replenishing their wardrobes. They depend




228


THE TIRE TCHES


mainly upon the generosity of their lovers, but for expensive finery they go to the department stores and help
themselves when the watchers are not looking. As the
well-dressed women are more successful in their vocation
than the shabbily-dressed ones, outer garments are part
of their trade stock. Their dresses are cast-off or stolen
and altered, and obtained either directly from a fence or
from a second-hand clothing store.
The wretches are charitable among themselves and
help each other in adversity, but they rarely apply to
charities. As a last resort they go to the Salvation Army.
The ordinary women of the street are careless about
their wardrobe except the outer wear. Cloaks, waists
and skirts are mended, but other wearing apparel is
allowed to become rags, pinned together. They are
cleanly about their persons but indifferent about their
surroundings. They will not sweep their rooms, clean
windows, nor make up beds except in a slipshod manner,
nor will they do anything requiring physical exertion
which can be left undone. Their moral and their xesthetic
sense are on a par. When they reach that stage where
they can no longer attract a patron, they become indifferent to their appearance and person, going in rags
until supplied with new clothing in the workhouse.
It may be mentioned incidentally that clothes and shoes
are repaired in the prison shops.
The petty criminals of Povertyville steal what they
need either from stores or from drunks. There is no




THE WRETCHES


229


charity in that class and they will not help out a friend
in need. What they do not require for their own use
goes to a fence. They despise a "sucker," or one who
will allow himself to be robbed or beaten in a game, and
they place themselves in the same category if anyone gets
something for nothing from them.
The wretches of Povertyville have few amusements.
Having little need for mental or physical recreation, they
become apathetic, exercise is irksome and they drift along,
neither needing nor seeking change from their accustomed routine.
They take little interest in the passing events of the
day and only some event of extraordinary interest or
involving their own welfare will arouse them. Their
main pastime is gambling and this applies to all classes
except those far gone as drunks and pipe fiends. These
find recreation, pleasure, excitement and consolation in
the whiskey glass or pipe. The men who can afford it
go to the pool rooms and gambling houses or play poker
in their rooms. The inmates of the poor lodging houses,
the beggars and tramps play cards or throw dice in their
lodging houses or in saloons. Games requiring mental
effort are rarely taken up. Occasionally two men will
play checkers in the sitting room of a lodging house, a
checker board being marked off on a table with chalk,
and black and white buttons serving for pieces.
Backgammon is sometimes played when a board can
be obtained, but dice are always at hand and crap shoot



230


THE TIRETCHES


ing is very common. The possessor of a deck of cards
is never without a companion in a lodging house. The
cards are often so disfigured from  frequent handling
that every card is recognizable from marks on the back,
and missing cards are replaced by pieces of card board
cut the same size as the cards, but these disadvantages are not taken into account. WVhen the players can
get two decks pinochle is the favorite game; with one
deck poker is the prime favorite. The nominal stakes
are high, but the final settlement is so small that the
player who has lost hundreds of dollars pays in fact but
a few cents. Next to poker come euchre, Sancho Pedro
and cribbage.
In the clubs where the wretches who allow dissolute
women to support them congregate, poker is the usual
game and a single "pot" may hold the earnings of several women for days. The professional gamblers, and
sports and criminals when in luck, play in the gambling
houses and stick to faro and roulette. It is strange that
the gambler should prefer to play roulette, which, even
when honestly conducted, gives a decided percentage in
favor of the house, rather than games giving equal
chances. Policy was formerly the game of Povertyville,
and many a too-confident votary of the horse, gig, saddle
and cap in policy has thereby been driven to join the
army of wretches. The active work of the anti-policy
society in New York has almost entirely eradicated this
evil and has prevented untold misery and wretchedness




THE WRETCHES


231


in poor homes. The wretches who formerly played policy now play other games, but the wives and children of
the workingmen in the tenement districts, who formerly
stinted themselves for clothes and food in order to buy
the deceptive slips, now buy instead the necessities of life.
Many in whom the gambling habit has not been entirely squashed by the exposure of the policy fraud now
buy lottery tickets. There is still some policy played in
the city, but policy shops in Povertyville have been closed
and those who still believe they can beat the game get
their slips from a runner or agent who meets his victims
in a cigar store in the morning and reports the winning
numbers in the same place in the afternoon.
Old-time sports occasionally look at the sporting bulletins posted in saloons and discuss the merits of the contestants in coming sporting events, but unless they can
bet they prefer reminiscences to prognostications.
Many spend their days in reading rooms and their
evenings in missions and lecture halls when it is cold or
stormy. In pleasant weather they lounge about on park
benches. A few, and these almost without exception
exotics, go to the reading rooms for mental recreation.
The female wretches have few amusements. They
sometimes play pinochle, casino, euchre or poker with
their lovers, and occasionally take part in a dance at a
dive. When they go to a theater it is to find likely




232


THE WRETCHES


patrons. The only amusement not lessened by the hunt
for customers is the annual ball of the club to which the
lover belongs.
During the progress of a ball given by one of the
clubs in the Bowery district the dives are comparatively
empty and the street is bare of women of this class.
A strange trait in the character of the wretches, even
of the most vicious and callous, is a deep sense of humanity which they occasionally exhibit. The thug who
would not hesitate to assault a police officer or rob a
child will let a priest pass without molestation. A physician carrying a satchel, on his way to a patient, is perfectly safe among a gang of cutthroats as soon as they
know his vocation. The "vogel grafter" or robber of
little children has some standing among his class, but let
him assault or hurt a child and his best friend would
turn against him. They have little respect for women
and show little consideraion for the aged, but they will
shield and protect the young. When they find a boy
with vicious proclivities they will endeavor to develop
them, but they will not attempt to instil viciousness into
a boy who is naturally good.
Most sneak thieves and burglars are superstitious and
have a fear of robbing a church. Not one would rob a
church of his own denomination.   While irreligious,
when they think they are about to die they call for a
priest or minister. At all other times they reject re



THE WRETCHES


233


ligious teachings altogether or receive them with the idea
that it may come in handy in their work.
Some of the women go to church and are there quite
devout, but their idea of the golden rule is, "Do others
lest others do you."
Heroic actions performed by wretches are not rare.
They exhibit that form of heroism which springs up suddenly in an emergency and takes no cognizance of personal danger.
Few of the wretches possess that courage which is
required when the danger to be encountered is known
and appreciated in advance. Some do perform foolhardy acts to gain notoriety, while many of the sports
will not shrink from fist fights with more powerful men
to gain a standing. Desperation nerves the criminal to
attack a police officer in his efforts to escape arrest, but
the young tough will try to "do the cop" in a spirit of
bravado. If he succeeds he is the hero of his class.
Some classes among the wretches seek to attract attention to themselves, others try to avoid it. The sport
wears a loud checked suit of clothes, the bunco man
makes a display of jewelry and money. The pickpocket
wears while at work good clothes but inconspicuous
colors. The sneak thief is generally shabbily dressed,
although he may have a hundred dollars or more with
him to be used as "fall money" or money to be paid to
a lawyer or for bail in case of his arrest.




234


THE WRETCHES


The women of the street wear bright colors, while the
shoplifter is most successful when dressed in mourning
or subdued colors. The poor devil has little choice in
the matter of dress, but prefers such colors as show dust
and wear least.
The wretches, with the exception of tramps and sots,
keep their faces in presentable condition. Those who
cannot afford the price of a shave (five cents in many
shops) go to a barber school where they are shaved free
by pupils. Old professional beggars use a chemical,
aurum pigment, which they mix with water, forming a
paste, and rub this on their faces. In a few moments this
is scraped off with a piece of wood. The chemical burns
off the hair without affecting the skin. The others, when
they can afford the price of a shave, go to one of the
thirty-five barber shops on the street, but haircutting is
generally done by a friend in the lodging house or by a
pupil of the barber school.
Gamblers, sports and the female wretches almost
without exception are superstitious and carry talismans,
usually a "luck penny," a cent of the date of the person's
birth. They will rub the hump of a hunchback for luck,
but if a cross-eyed person enters the room they will leave
it, or if they must remain they will keep their fingers
crossed. Everyone has some secret formula which is
repeated when a cross-eyed person passes them, if they
see a funeral approaching or if they are obliged to pass
between two funeral carriages. They have dream and




THE WRETCHES


235


omen books, which are consulted on every possible occasion, and while they will not go to a fortune teller-as
they fear the latter might make some frightful prophecy
-they have unbounded faith in their printed oracle.
There is little social intercourse among the poor devils in
the lodging houses. Gamblers and sports have many
acquaintances, but few friends and no intimates. Criminals, on the other hand, have many friends and nearly
every one has his pals or intimate co-workers. The
women, as a rule, have intimate female friends to whom
they confide everything except the history of their lives
before their downfall. They are rarely sincere, however,
and not one would make any sacrifice for another.
While charitable, as a rule, they would do nothing for
another which might endanger their own safety or freedom. The relationship between the women and their
lovers is peculiar. There is no love or affection on either
side-nothing but a business interest. She is the earner,
he is her protector. For such protection she gives him
all she earns; having once accepted him as her lover she
submits to his wishes, and the harsher he thereafter treats
her the more slavishly will she follow him. When he is
tired of her he turns her adrift.
The relationship between the criminals and their mistresses is more conjugal. There is generally love and
affection-always jealousy. He may have taken her
from the street, but from the moment he makes her his
"Moll" she must be faithful to him. In adversity he may




236


THE WRETCHES


send her out on the street to help support the household,
but unless they follow the blackmailing or badger game
he expects her to abide by the same code of ethics as if
they were married. If he treats her harshly she leaves
him, while he, on the other hand, turns her adrift if he
suspects that she has been intimate with another unless
with his consent. This peculiar marital or conjugal relationship is not based upon any sense of morality or propriety, but upon selfishness. They do not respect the
honor of woman, for chastity is, in their opinion, not
due to any moral sense, but to the fear of consequences.
The affection between the criminal and his mistress is
more of a Platonic nature, their sexual relations being
of minor consideration. At the same time he will not
permit her to dispense her favors to another unless business is bad, when he will send her on the street to pick up
customers. On rare occasions he will lend her to a
friend or exchange "Molls" with a pal. If he is sent to
prison she will associate with another criminal, and upon
the release of her former companion she will decide with
which one she will remain. Where two or three couple
occupy a flat together they form a free-love community
in their sexual and housekeeping relations. In other respects each couple looks after its own affairs. They
never marry.




CHAPTER IX
THE FINAL ACCOUNTING.
F EW notice their coming, fewer still their passing
away.
The "rounders," "floaters," "revolvers," as they are
called, are not missed, although they may have been patrons at the same bar and in the same lodging house for
years.
Out of sight they are forgotten-their places are taken
up by new recruits who follow in their footsteps.
Most disappear as mysteriously as they came, a few
are last seen in a police patrol wagon or in an ambulance,
a few turn up again a few years later regenerated, visitors to the haunts which sheltered them in darker days.
Few end their career by their own hands-"do the
Dutch act," as they call suicide. It is only in the early
stages when the wretch has still some sense of honor and
shame, some realization of his degradation, and some
regard for his family, that remorse may drive him to
end it all. But he has still hope left-a hope that something will turn up to better his position. When hope
has fled he no longer cares how long or how short may
be his span of life. He has then neither energy nor ambition. So valueless does life appear to him that he




238


THE lRE TCHES


would not stir to save it, or do aught to end it; the fear
of physical pain deters him from the latter course and
rouses him when danger threatens. He would lie upon
the floor awaiting death did not the pangs of hunger
and thirst drive him out.
While life has no attraction and death no horror, yet
he dreads the momentary pang with which he believes
death is associated. This wretch never commits suicide.
Almost all the wretches who go down through drink
end their days in the wards of Bellevue or the Penitentiary Hospital. Either Bright's disease or cirrhosis of
the liver carries them off.
Occasionally one is found dead in his bed or on the
street, or too ill to work, is carried to the police station,
put in a cell, "drunk" marked next to his name on the
blotter and "dead" a few hours later.
A frequent cause of death is the sudden and complete
deprivation of drink after a long debauch. The wretch
then sees things-not snakes, as the popular impression
is, but horrible forms, devils, wolves, headless bodiesa frightful phantasmagoria from   which he tries to
escape. It is delirium tremens, the D. T. of the hospital
record, which ends in a stupor, followed by death. The
D. T. cases go to the alcoholic ward of Bellevue Hospital, the Bright's disease and cirrhosis cases are usually
transferred to the City Hospital. This is the material
which is furnished to the dissecting rooms of the medical
colleges.




THE WRETCHES


239


A patient entering the 'hospital gives the name of a
friend who is to be informed "if anything happens."
The wretches have no friends and when they die there
are none to mourn their loss; living unrespected, they
die unregretted.
Occasionally, however, when a wretch realizes that
the end is near, he will give the name of one who is near
and dear to him, and whose name he has saved from
disgrace. When all is over he is quietly removed to the
family vault.
Some wretches are reclaimed and reform. This can
be done through the power of prayer backed with the
opportunity and means to remain reformed. The prayer
is like the varnish on the post. It improves the appearance, but it is the backing and not the gloss which keeps
the wretch up.
The young man fresh from the country and home
influences, perhaps still carrying the little Bible his
mother gave him, is susceptible to the influence of prayer
until his last nickel is gone. After that, the solid backing will be necessary to sustain him. Prayer no longer
will have any power to keep him in the straight and narrow path.
When the hardened wretch professes conversion he.
does so with some mental reservation and an ulterior motive. He is never sincere.
Sometimes a passing incident in the wretch's life will
swerve him from his course. The sight of the dying




240


THE H  WRETCHES


agony of one who was run over on the Bowery while
drunk, sobered his companion and reformed him. Another was recognized by a former college chum who was
on a slumming expedition. The chum found the wretch
the next night in a groggery and took him in a carriage
to his own home. A compulsory bath, clean clothing, a
good room and meals, and constant watching made a
man of the wretch in a month.
One reformed thief ascribes his reformation to a
dream the nature of which he will not divulge. Another
pickpocket was reformed through the tact of a woman he
had robbed.
She offered a reward for papers which were in a
purse he had picked, and when he came to return the
papers she had a lengthy conversation with him. She
offered him work and a substantial reward if he would
serve faithfully for a year, which offer he accepted.
There was no word about morals at the time, but before
the vear was up he had become a church member and has
since reformed many wretches by methods similar to
those employed by his patroness.
The Salvation Army and the Volunteers of America
have reclaimed many wretches, some by moral persuasion
alone, others by aid when the wretches came to them in
distress.
A few have reformed after a short time in prison,
The deterrent effect of the punishment, the sense of degradation produced, and later the helping hand of the




THE WRETCHES


241


Prison Association placing them in a position where they
could earn a livelihood away from evil influences and
rehabilitate themselves, have restored some to respectability.
Lengthy association with the vicious and criminal
in prison destroys whatever sense of honor and shame a
man may have left when entering jail. Upon his release
he is a hardened and confirmed criminal.
Most wretches reform when they are, or believe they
are, on their deathbed, but if they recover they are backsliders. The widower, drinking himself to death to forget his sorrows, goes down as a sot. So, too, the man
deserted by his wife, while if he is the deserter moral
influence may recall him; force, never.
The male wretches never marry unless they reform.
The criminals live with their female companions without
any regard for marriage ceremonies or their own legal
status. They demand, however, that the woman remain
faithful while the co-partnership lasts. Those who live
on the earnings of the women of the street do not marry
them.
One case, however, is known where such a woman reformed, succeeded in reforming her lover, then marrying him. They are now doing missionary work in Povertyville, following the practical method of handling individual cases only; not hopeless sots or hardened criminals, but newcomers.




242


THE W RETCHES


The old female rounders end their days as the same
class of men, Bright's disease or cirrhosis carrying them
off; they rarely get delirium tremens. They drop off in
alleyways or gutters or in the wards of the Bellevue,
City or Penitentiary hospitals.
Among the younger female wretches a few reform,
many drift along for a few years, become ill and die in
the hospital, some become criminals or keepers of houses
of ill fame, a few become sots. The gay and giddy take
up opium smoking with its fearful end. This class never
reform. Towards the end one may become the "wife"
of a Chinaman, who will look after her welfare, but her
end is the same as the usual end of male smokers-consumption. Or one who has not yet become a confirmed
smoker, and while she can still overcome the "yin," may,
under stress of circumstances, go to a home or reformatory, but the old life is too attractive. She goes back
to the whirl, to the pipe and death.
The vicious woman sometimes reforms if there be
dormant virtues which a tactful master can arouse. She
will not voluntarily go to a home for fallen women, but
when in distress she will steal, go to prison, and thereafter follow a criminal career.  She will become the
companion of a thief, faithful to him while he treats
her well, dropping him if he ill treats her or goes to
prison. Late in life these young sinners become saints
if they have the means, sots if they have not.




THE WRETCHES


243


Those who are instinctively vicious take up a criminal career early, never reform, and generally end their
days in prison.
Many of the peripatetic sisterhood are infected with
disease as the result of the lives they lead, or receive
the germs of such disease as heirlooms. The disease
itself does not cause death, but it is a very unfavorable
complication in any other disease, and tends to shorten
their lives. Many die from criminal operations which
they perform upon themselves or permit to be performed
upon them by their companions or by some physician
who makes a specialty of such work.
Most of them wear wedding rings, some acquired
in the orthodox way, with a certificate to prove it, others
buying the rings for a few cents at a second-hand jewelry store.
The women, however, rarely marry after having
taken up their trade on the street. Cases are known
where a woman has insisted upon marriage before accompanying a partly-intoxicated man to a hotel. In
these cases the men were obliged either to pay heavy
blackmail or to use legal measures to get rid of their encumbrance. There are, however, cases where reputable
men have married women who had led dissolute lives,
knowing their character, with happy results.
One such woman, now highly respected and spending
her days in works of charity and practical philanthropy,
was once the mistress of a murderer. Another whose




244


'THE I VRE iTCHI L


early history is as a sealed book in the circles in which
she now moves, is the wife and mentor of a famous national character.
One case is well known in Povertyville on account of
the standing of the woman's family, the position of the
husband, and the publicity given to the attending circumstances. She forgot that a matinee idol was human until
it was too late, and her parents, learning of her condition, turned her out of the house. Soon after she was
found in "Mrs. Schneider's" house, where, on account
of her beauty and well-known history, she became the
most popular inmate of the place. A former admirer
who frequently visited the place after she was there
made arrangements with Mrs. Schneider to take her to
a ball, paying the madam the highest charge, for which
the girl was permitted to wear the best dress and the
most expensive jewelry the establishment possessed. Instead of going to the ball, however, the couple were
driven to Jersey City, where he had fitted up a suite of
rooms, and they were married. He held a small political office at the time (he has held higher ones since),
and his political leader protected him, while madam quietly pocketed her loss. He and his wife have saved
many girls, situated as she was once, from becoming
wretches on the street.
The wretches of the Tenderloin and other uptown
districts have more opportunities to marry than their
poorer sisters of the lower east side, as they are, as a rule,




THE WRETCHES


245


more attractive, more refined, better educated, dress better and make greater efforts to gain and retain the affections of an admirer. The female wretches of Povertyville realize that no respectable man would marry one
of them, except, perhaps, an old sweetheart who is still
infatuated, or a man who would make the sacrifice in order to reform one. Sometimes a partly intoxicated fellow will make an offer of marriage, or a pander will
make such an offer so as to live upon the proceeds of her
trade. Such offers are naturally rejected. If an offer
comes from the man who first ruined her, she will accept
without hesitation, as he cannot reproach her later for
the life she led, he having made her what she had become.
Fallen women invariably retain a kindly affection for the
man who caused their downfall. Despising men as a
rule, especially those who hire them, they never blame
their first lover, but always charge themselves for their
weakness.
When women are instinctively bad they will reject all
offers, or may accept one for the purpose of blackmail.
Such women will not bind themselves through any desire
for respectability. When a fallen woman is not instinctively bad, and an offer of marriage is made to her
by one who is infatuated with her, she will make the man
understand the seriousness of the step he is taking. The
fear of future reproach may cause such offer to be rejected. If the man is, however, willing to accept the responsibility she will not say no. The offer of a man who




246


THE WRETCHES


will make so great a sacrifice in order to reform the
woman is rejected by the vicious and by the giddy. If
made to a woman who has been driven to the street
through want or to one who had been a good girl until
the time her lover deserted her, such an offer would be
accepted, and she will thank providence for the greatest
fortune that can fall to a woman of her class. When a
man makes a great sacrifice for a woman of this kind
by marrying her or receiving her into his household (a
dangerous experiment, by the way), she shows true affection for him, accommodates herself to her new position,
and becomes the most devout of women and most devoted of wives. Such is not, however, always possible.
A young woman who came from the country, where
she had been deserted by her lover when he found that
she was in trouble, was in a brothel and on the street for
several years. A man connected with a philanthropic organization occasionally visited her, enjoyed her favors,
yet preached morality to her. She told him she would
gladly give up her calling if someone would marry her.
He proposed to her, they were married and settled down
in furnished rooms for a week, until he had furnished a
flat. There was trouble from the start. She knew nothing of housekeeping, could not prepare a meal, and could
not accommodate herself to the change from her former
mode of life. The husband, with admirable patience,
gave up his house and returned with his wife to the fur



THE    WRETCHES                  247
nished room, taking meals at a restaurant. The birth of
a child, and reconciliation with her family, saved this
woman from going back to the street.
A similar case did not turn out so well. A mechanic
on the east side married a woman of the street, who expressed her desire to become a good, respected wife.
Within a few weeks she tired of the monotony of home
life, and one evening her husband found a note on the
table informing him that his wife felt lonely and went out
to see some friends. He found her in a dive, and left
her there.
As a rule, when a fallen woman marries she is sincere in her efforts at reformation, and with her past buried she becomes respected and often honored in circles
where her old life is unknown.








PART III
THE PROBLEM




THE PROBLEM
CHAPTER I
PHILANTHROPY VS. IYPOCRISY.
CHARITY covers a multitude of sins, but what sins
are committed in its name, ask the wretches of
Povertyville.
Sins of omission and sins of commission, frauds upon
the charitable donors and frauds upon the miserable
beneficiaries, hypocrisy under the sign of the cross, and
deceit in the name of salvation; all these are found in
Povertyville, labeled Charity and Philanthropy.
True, it is but a moiety of the immense amount of
charity done in the district; but that little throws a
shadow of doubt and discredit far wider than its own
area.
The philanthropy which enriches itself at the expense
of its beneficiaries, the charity which demands from its recipients more than full value for its charitable gifts, are
frauds pure and simple. They are dishonest to giver and
receiver alike. In the expressive language of the street,




Vj9i    -II  Iy l:   rr
}J?';)]i)]f)  16y 7 Fl  ~ 


T --- EDN
THE BREAD LINM




I




THE PROBLEM 


249


"Someone gets the coin, the others get the laugh."  Far
worse in its effects upon the recipient is that form of philanthropy which fosters hypocrisy by offering material inducements to those who accept its spiritual gifts.
Of the class selling their gifts, the most barefaced
frauds are the free medical institutes on and near the
Bowery. These are generally run in connection with
drug stores. They have signs in the window announcing
"Free Medical Treatment."  The applicant is ushered
into a small room adjoining or behind the store, where a
physician makes a perfunctory examination. Name, address and occupation are entered in a register, and the
doctor inquires how he is fixed financially. If the patient can pay nothing for medicine and can leave nothing
of value as a deposit for medicine, he is told to go to the
hospital. If he can pay for the medicine he receives a
prescription written in a ciper, so that it cannot be prepared anywhere but in that drug store. The charge for
the medicine is one dollar or more, of which the doctor
receives half. Surgical operations are not performed unless the fee is paid in advance, and no one receives a prescription unless he can pay enough for the medicine to
include the doctor's commission. These institutes violate
the dispensary law, but escape through a technicality.
No objection can be made to philanthropic institutions and organizations which ask for contributions from
a charitable public, when they charge their beneficiaries
nominal fees and prices. But when an organization pos



250


TH IE PR OBLIEM

ing as a philanthropy charges its beneficiaries the ordinary prices charged by money-making business men for
the same commodities or services, it can properly be
classed as a "money-making charity."  This charge is
strengthened when in its appeals for contributions it presents its business venture as a philanthropy.
A well known temperance society, a highly respectable organization, has for its object the promotion of
temperance, the reformation of the intemperate, the removal of the causes which lead to intemperance, and the
issue of temperance publications. To further these objects, a woman's auxiliary maintains lunch wagons iil
various parts of the city, and had a restaurant on the
Bowery. It is inconceivable how the objects of the society are furthered by establishing lunch wagons and restaurants to compete with other restaurants nearby.
The restaurant furnished meals differing little in quality, quantity or price from meals furnished in other Bowery restaurants, and if it were managed as the others
are, it should have been a well-paying enterprise. The
lunch wagons furnished over three hundred and seventy
thousand meals in one year, the income from this source
being over thirty-seven thousand dollars.
It is easy to compute the profits from its restaurant
business when it is remembered that the lunch wagons
pay no rent, the society claiming they are used for a
philanthropic purpose, and the ordinary meal consists of




THE PROB-LEM       2


251


a sandwich and a cup of coffee. Yet this organization
asks an indulgent public to contribute towards its support.
There was another restaurant near the one just mentioned which was presented to a charitable public as a
philanthropy, but which on the Bowery was supposed
to be one of the best-paying establishments on the street.
It was maintained by the owner of a sectarian weekly, and
in his appeal for funds he mentioned this restaurant in
which thousands of men receive "good, substantial" meals
for five cents. The meals were worth no more than the
price paid for them. It is now run by a private firm.
Of all the pseudo-philanthropies none have the effrontery of an exchange for woman's work, maintained
by a number of wealthy women, which charges applicants for positions fifty cents registration fee, charges
subscribers two dollars a year for the privilege of admitting one woman's work to its salesrooms, charges ten
per cent commission on all sales made there, yet poses as
a charity asking for donations to carry on its business
venture. As it receives, however, work from "gentlewomen only," the wretches of Povertyville are probably
not eligible to its charity.
There are charitable organizations appealing for contributions to carry on work in Povertyville, fully covered
by other bodies, and charging for services furnished gratuitously by the state and by other societies.




252


THE 'R OBLEM


An employment agency incorporated under a long religious title is one of these. Organized to assist respectable working women to obtain employment, it states in
its appeal that no worthy applicant will be denied the aid
of the society. It also adds that a fee is charged for
every service rendered. The state and many private societies recognize the fact that the gratuitous service of securing work for a person is the least likely to pauperize,
and the payment of a registration fee is a hardship to
an unemployed person. Other employment agencies run
in the name of benevolent societies charge for registration and other services, but they do not ask the public to
support this branch of their work.
The Salvation Army is not free from the charge that
mercenary motives are back of some of its enterprises.
Its old workingman's hotel on the Bowery does not differ from the other lodging houses of the same class, and
pays, or ought to pay, as well as the others. The new
workingman's hotel, at Chatham Square, is brighter,
cleaner, and has more conveniences than the ordinary
cheap lodging house. Still, on account of the large number of rooms, it is probably the best-paying lodging house
in the city.
The Bowery branch of the Y. M. C. A. is not, and is
not intended to be, a money-making philanthropy. It
charges fifteen cents for a bed and five cents for a meal,
but the majority of the applicants receive free lodging
and many receive free meals.




THE PROBLEM2


253


There are many charities in Povertyville which have
no money-making features, yet benefit the wretches as
little as those we have mentioned. One organization,
having an annual income of fifteen hundred dollars,
spends one thousand dollars for salaries, rent, and stationery. The rest goes for charity. Another benevolent
society, which gives balls and entertainments, "the proceeds going to charity," has a sewing class, and beside receiving dues, contributions and donations, collects over five
thousand dollars a year. Yet, after deducting expenses,
less than three hundred dollars are left for the relief of
the destitute.
Among the hypocritical philanthropists are some of
the missions and some organizations making a great display by public distribution of their charitable gifts.
One of the latter class makes several distributions annually, the recipients standing in line to receive their dole,
the members and donors standing about watching the
proceedings as they would the antics of a freak in a
museum. The proverb, "Let not thy right hand know,"
etc., is out of place at these exhibitions, for the donors
apparently look for gratitude from the poor wretches,
and seem to derive pleasure in their humiliation. Certainly nothing can crush the spirit more effectually than
to make public acknowledgment that one is a pauper.
The master throws the dog a bone and kicks him
when he picks it up. This is one form of Christian
Charity.




254


T HE ROBLEM


Equally repellant to the sensitive nature is the distribution of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in public.  While such distributions serve the practical purpose of furnishing a good meal to the needy, and the
ulterior purpose of rousing the sympathies of the benevolent by bringing them face to face with those in want, they
also benefit many shiftless, worthless fellows, but tend
to increase pauperism by leading many self-respecting
poor to accept alms and charity.
On Christmas day, 1904, twelve thousand men were
needed to clean the streets at two dollars a day. Less
than four thousand applied for work, yet forty thousand
received free public Christmas dinners from various organizations.
The missions which offer free meals and lodgings as
an inducement to the wretches to attend services foster
thereby hypocrisy. In 1908 the joint application bureau
of the Charity Organization Society and the Association
for Improving the Condition of the Poor issued 5,300
personal invitations to men in the bread lines to apply at
the bureau for work. Only 136 applied, and most of
these refused work. No more emphatic proof need be
given to show the general worthlessness of these men.
Yet the Bowery Mission maintains its bread line and asks
for contributions for its support.
In winter the missions are comfortably filled every
night by poor devils who seek shelter from the cold, by
homeless men who receive free lodgings through the mis



THE   PROBLEM                  253
sions, by many who find pastime in listening to the testimony of the rounders and joining in the singing, and by
some who come for spiritual consolation.
On food distribution nights early arrivals are almost
without exception tramps and o/hers who come for a free
meal. On such nights the mission hall is crowded to the
doors. On hot summer nights the services are poorly
attended except on distribution nights. Lately (January,
1909) one mission gave breakfasts, evening lunches and
maintains a bread line.
Those who understand the character of these wretched
beings, outcasts, paupers, the vicious and depraved, pity
the credulous, well-intentioned men and women who
spend time and money in the wrong direction to regenerate these hopeless cases. They seem to place implicit
faith in the "horrible examples" who mount the little
mission stage and in apparent meekness give their testimony. These tell hearers that they had led a life of
shame, of vice, of depravity, but the Lord found them
in the gutter and lifted them up and now they will follow in His steps, etc. For free meals and lodgings most
of them will pose as the horrible example or the reformed
drunkard, although they cannot maintain the latter pose
long.
Occasionally song and prayer will recall tender memories and rouse a dormant conscience, but unless these




256


THE PROBLEM


are sustained by something more substantial, neither
memory nor conscience will supply the bed, nor satisfy
the craving for the night-cap.
In rare cases there is a true revival of religious feeling, or even a creation of religious feeling in one who
has never had that sentiment. They leave the services
fully determined to lead good, virtuous lives. But environment and necessity break the firmest resolutions.
Religion may give the strength to withstand the jeers of
companions, it may renew hope in the future and rouse
ambition, but it will not give the physical power to withstand the pangs of hunger nor can it be used as a material cloak to keep off the cold.
From men they become wretches again and follow in
the footsteps of the rounders who make the tour of the
missions, professing conversion whenever such profession promises to be followed by material benefits.
There are, indeed, some who through the missions
have been restored to respectability, some who had resolved to lead better lives and had found an opportunity
to do so before necessity drove them back, some who
were kept from wandering from the right path. But
altogether the actual good done by the missions is out-:weighed by the harm they do in unconsciously fostering
hypocrisy and deceit, and in aiding worthless wretches.
The good intentions of the mission workers, are, however, acknowledged by the wretches and there is no one




THE PROBLEM 1


257


to whom more deference is shown by them than to Mrs.
Bird, the good mother of the Bowery Mission.
One feature of the work of the Salvation Army which
savors of hypocrisy, or worse, is the sale of the "War
Cry," its official organ, in dives, concert halls and saloons.
The women of the Salvation Army enter these places,
not to do Evangelical work by the distribution of War
Crys as tracts, but they come as newspaper vendors to
sell their wares. Their religious garb saves them from
abuse. They are engaged in a purely business enterprise, as much a business as the sale of any other publication would be, their mission is 'mercenary, and the
cloak and cap of religion cannot save them from the
charge that they are carrying on a regular business by
very reprehensible methods.
These are but a few of the many instances in which
the charitable givers are imposed upon and the unfortunate receivers derive little benefit from their beneficiaries.
Some of these mentioned are not intended for the
classes with which we are dealing, but all are open to the
same charge. The good is dissipated in its transmission
and the poor devil receives but a shadow and a smell of
the donor's gift.
It may seem presumptuous to impugn the motives of
men and organizations which have gained worldwide
reputations for their philanthropic work. Unquestionably they do some good and are therefore permitted to
continue in their work.  But motives may always be




258             THE   PROBLEM
questioned when we find men becoming wealthy through
their connection with philanthropies, when they apply for
contributions for business ventures, when almost the
entire amount obtained by a philanthropic organization
from contributions is used to pay big salaries to officials.
It is not within the province of this book to analyze the
reports of philanthropies working in Povertyville. Some
give detailed accounts which are easily verified; when
they give general figures which defy analysis and especially when run by a single individual or a small board,
it is impossible to say how much, if any, is "graft."
Methods and measures may in like manner be questioned when they result in perpetuating vice and pauperism by supporting the vicious, shiftless and lazy, instead
of making them self-supporting.




CHAPTER II
IMPRACTICABLE IDEALS.
HEN the idealists and moral philosophers discover
a means to eliminate from human nature those
passions which beget crime and vice, they will be able
to eradicate crime and vice themselves. Until they can
accomplish this, their efforts must be limited to the control and repression of those passions.
Under the social and economic conditions of the present time when there is no standard of virtue save such
as conscience sets up, and no judgment of vice save such
as public policy decrees, when the conception of right
and wrong differs with every individual and public policy
is forever changing, idealists themselves grope in the
dark to find a plane acceptable to all.
Virtue and vice are but relative terms, even crime
itself being, under some circumstances, in line with public policy, hence a conditional virtue. We have justifiable homicide, the justification being based upon a legal
assumption, as in the killing of a burglar, yet the underlying motive is revenge, as in deliberate and premeditated murder.




260


THE PROBLEMI


The church raffle is a virtue because it wears the
cloak of religion, yet it is the outcome of the same vicious
gambling instinct which makes the unlawful turkey raffle
attractive.
The dealer in futures on the stock market is a legalized speculator, while the dealer in futures in the pool
room is a criminal. One speculates upon the outcome
of deals which may be influenced by an act of Providence, but are more often influenced by financial trickery, while 'the bookmaker speculates upon the outcome
of a perhaps honestly conducted horse race.
The stock broker whose skillfully worded circulars
induce thousands to invest money in worthless stocks,
is a respected financier, while the green goods man
whose skillfully worded circulars tempt the honest farmers to buy worthless paper goes to prison. So, too, the
three card monte man is a criminal, although the victim
has one-third of the chances in his favor.
Lottery, forbidden in the United States, was once
sanctioned here and is to-day conducted by several foreign
governments. Thus we see that public policy is the
deciding factor in the estimation of many forms of vice.
Even such vices as are not based upon the animal passions are vices or virtues, are justifiable, excusable, or
intolerable as public policy may from time to time decide.
Equivocal divorce laws make it possible to commit
bigamy legally, a man may have a mistress and a wife,




THE PROBLEM


261


and the female voluptuary may dispense her favors to a
lover or two without losing prestige or violating a statute.
The chorus girl is sought by admirers who pay liberally for her favors; one may even marry her out of selfishness, and she loses neither caste nor respect. Let her
lose her charms so that she is compelled to look for admirers and patrons and she becomes a criminal. It is all
in the point of view, in the position the person holds, in
the individual conception of right and wrong.
It is far from our purpose to extenuate crime and
vice. But to show the utter futility of fixing a rational
standard of virtue applicable to all places and times, and
the folly of endeavoring to eradicate vices and crimes
which spring from natural human passions, it is necessary to view both sides of the question and in all its
lights. It is necessary to recognize those evils which
depend upon the natural appetite and which no human
law can suppress, those evils arising out of economic
conditions, and those evils which public policy or party
politics now class as crimes and again as lawful pastimes
or pursuits.
The idealist apparently does not differentiate between these three distinct classes, but would wipe out
every act, pursuit and pastime which does not meet with
his approval. He sets up his own ideas as the standard
of virtue and poses as the immaculate specimen of what
the world should be. His ideal city is peopled with
beings like himself. There is no vice, no crime, no pov



262


THE PROBLEM


erty, no saloon, no dive, no Raines Law hotel, no gambling house. Neither has it a thief, a confidence man,
a speculator, a woman walking the street, a beggar nor
a tramp. Carrying his conception further, there would
be no police, no repressive laws-in short, his ideal city
would be a Utopia, such as Moore and Bellamy dreamt of.
Alas, our idealist leaves out of his reckoning human
nature. He does not consider the gambling or speculative instinct which underlies the option on next winter's wheat as well as picking the winner in next year's
Suburban, the drawing of the church raffle as well as
the fall of the die.
He does not consider that sense which begets lust, in
his warfare against fallen women. He forgets that that
instinct is irrepressible and those who seek these women
will find them, or more grossly violate nature's laws. He
does not consider economic conditions which produce
hard times when persons are driven to crime in selfpreservation. He does not stop to think that party politics may cause the enactment of laws which public opinion opposes and the masses will violate without conscientious scruples, making themselves virtual law-breakers.
He does not know that some forms of vice are due to
mental perversions, are symptoms of disease requiring
medical treatment and not repressive punishment.
Each of these factors must be considered in its relations to the individual and to the body politic before
rational conclusions can be drawn and measures adopted




THE PROBLEM


263


*  to limit vice and crime and prevent their spread. Natural human instincts must always be reckoned with.
When some years ago the attempt was made to suppress
brothels and drive the women off the street, the wretches
sought shelter in the tenements. Hundreds of working
girls were thrown in direct contact with the wretches,
saw with what ease the latter made a living without
work, and followed their example.  In one tenement
house in East 13th Street in which "Mrs. Gray" found
shelter after she had been driven from a brothel, four
respectable girls were initiated by Mrs. Gray into the secrets of her vocation and two wives were taught how to
earn illicit pin money without danger. In the tenements
husbands and sons who had never visited a brothel became
the patrons of the wretches, while many of the former
patrons were driven to other measures, some even to
force, to satisfy their desires.
The eradication of the social evil, and the suppression
of the sale of liquor, seem to be the special hobbies of
the reformers. Notwithstanding all that has been said
and shown to prove that the social evil is a necessary evil
in a city having a large floating population, especially in
a seaport, reformers still insist upon its total suppression.
Whenever they have been given the power to carry out
their plans in this direction, their worse than futile efforts
have spread the evil, giving it undue publicity, and increased other forms of vice.




264


THE PROBLEM


Equally unsuccessful have been the efforts made to
restrict and suppress drunkenness through suppression of
the liquor traffic. Instead of working upon individual
cases of drunkenness, they attempt to restrict or suppress
the sale of liquor, forgetting that the number of saloons
bears no relation to drunkenness or to the amount of
liquor consumed.
New York City, with 10,821 saloons, had 71,573 arrests for drunkenness in 1902, an average of 6.6 per
saloon. At the same time Philadelphia had an average
of 17.5 and Boston 19.8. Cincinnati and San Francisco
have about the same population, yet the former, with
1,676 saloons, had less than 2,000 arrests for drunkenness in 1902, while the latter, with 3,052 saloons, had
nearly 15,000 arrests in the same time. Toledo, with a
population of 150,000 and 660 saloons, had but 343 arrests for drunkenness.
That neither high license nor total prohibition had
any bearing upon drunkenness can be seen by other comparisons.
The city of Lawrence, with a license fee of $2,500
and 62 saloons, had 1,321 arrests, one out of every 50 of
its population, while Evansville, with a license fee of $75
and 292 saloons, had 345 arrests, or one out of every 219
of its population. Philadelphia, a high license city with
twice the population of St. Louis and about half as many
saloons, had seven and a half times as many drunks.
Cambridge, a temperance town without a saloon, and




THE PROBLEM


265


92,000 population, had 1,620 drunks, or as many as
Newark with a population of a quarter of a million and
1,280 saloons.
Portland, Maine, another temperance town, had more
drunks than Indianapolis, which has more than three
times the population and 525 saloons.
While a high license fee reduces the number of saloons, even the total suppression of the saloons will not
restrict drinking and drunkenness. Notwithstanding the
evident conclusions which one must draw from the comparative statistics, reformers still try to force their pet
hobbies, making a political issue out of the liquor question. In New York State the liquor question has ceased
to be one of morals, but has been converted into a political weapon by the great political parties.
With the exception of the war upon policy playing
by the anti-policy society the reformers make no concentrated efforts to curb the gambling and speculative
instincts. They leave the vices and crimes dependent
thereon t6 be handled by the police according to the
temper of that mercurial body.
Neither do the reformers touch such crimes as theft,
fraud, etc.-crimes dependent upon economic conditionsnor would they handle the drug vices, all of which are
more amenable to treatment than their own hobbies.
Not alone individuals but organizations, some numbering thousands of members, attempt to bring about impracticable ideals.




266


THE PROBLEMl


A national organization, which in its old name declared its purpose to be the Prevention of State Regulation of Vice, is one of these. Beside the object indicated
in its former name, it endeavors to "repress vice, protect
the young, rescue the fallen, extend the White Cross
among men and maintain the law of purity as binding
upon men and women alike." It issues a quarterly magazine and a number of leaflets. Its members are naturally in sympathy with its objects and these are reached
by its publications, but aside from the mischievous meddling in a small way politically, when the question of
the regulation of vice is brought up, it has no effect upon
the class for whose good it claims to labor.
Another National Organization for the Promotion of
Social Purity has a more extended scope than the other,
and works on more rational lines. Instead of distributing publications among its supporters it works directly
upon those it would benefit by the formation of clubs,
furnishing girls with employment and prosecuting men
who deceive them.
The American Sabbath Union is another body endeavoring to carry out an impracticable ideal, although its
work does not bear directly upon our subject. Its object
is to preserve the Sabbath as a day of rest and worship,
and in its efforts to carry out its object it has tried to
enforce measures opposed to public policy, measures to




THE PROBLEM


267


prevent necessary labor on the Sabbath, measures to
deprive the great mass of people who work throughout
the week of recreation.
The liberal views held by the city magistrates and the
common-sense decisions rendered by them on this subject
have nullified the misdirected efforts of this body.
It is the natural result which follows any attempt to
enforce "Blue Laws" or cram religion down the throat
of a complex community.
The New York Sabbath Committee, a local organization, works on similar lines. It is more aggressive than
the other, but recognizes local conditions and has more
liberal views.
Temperance organizations generally work along similar lines. They carry out their object to prevent drunkenness by enlisting the young, impressing them with the
advantages of sobriety and the dangers of drink. The
Woman's Christian Temperance Union starts out W-ith
the impracticable idea that the way to prevent drunkenness is to forbid the liquor traffic entirely.
When, in 1854, the legislature -of the State of New
York passed a prohibition law the governor vetoed it,
and when a similar bill, passed in 1855, was signed by
the governor, the mayor of the City of New York refused
to carry out its provisions on the ground that it infringed
upon personal liberty and was opposed to the sentiment
of the vast majority of the residents of this city.
It was declared unconstitutional in 1856. The present




268


THE PROBLEMI


high-license law  has been especially unfortunate for
New   York City, although it has added large sums
to the city and state treasuries. It has wiped out hundreds of small beer saloons and these were replaced by
liquor stores. In the beer saloons men would sit at the
tables, spending half an hour or more over a single glass.
Now they stand at the bar and will take several glasses
where they formerly took one or two. The first noticeable effect of the law was an increase of drinking in the,house and family, boxes of bottled beer taking the place
of the occasional pint.
It is not within the scope of this work to consider the
numerous impracticable measures brought forward to
relieve poverty and repress chronic pauperism.
In dealing with the floaters of Povertvville, with a
view of uplifting them or ridding the city of them, such
extreme measures have been advocated as forcible communism, and hastening by force the natural result of
over-population.
Of the more rational measures to improve morally the
classes with xwhich we deal may be mentioned the work
of the Salvation Army, the Volunteers of America and
the Missions.
As a religious movement the success of the Salvation
Army and the Volunteers of America is unquestioned.
Both have done valuable evangelical work in the slums,
whereby they have gained recruits who would otherwise
have gone down to the depths of infamy. Whatever




THE PROBLEM 3'


269


may be thought of their methods, they have succeeded in
uplifting individuals, making good men and women out
of wretches. We may scoff at their bass drum and cymbal processions, we may charge them with hypocrisy in
maintaining as philanthropic enterprises well-paying lodging houses, we may denounce the sending of women into
disreputable houses to sell War Crys, we may criticise
their public distribution of meals, tending, as it certainly
does, to foster pauperism and dull the sense of independence in the self-respecting poor, we may even question their honesty of purpose; yet the one great fact
remains that they do good. By personal effort in individual cases they drag from the whirlpool, here a drunkard, there a fallen woman, and again the ex-convict
drifting back into his old life.
To what extent the mission services tend to reclaim
the wretches is problematic. Without some more substantial support than prayer it is doubtful if a single
individual among the wretches could be led to a righteous,
self-supporting life.
The idealist who thinks that moral teachings alone
will suffice to reform the fallen and the depraved cannot
realize that there are minds impervious to ideas of morality, that neither prayers nor sermons will fill an empty
stomach nor will they destroy the desire for drink. Missions may aid in re-establishing self-respect and manhood; but it requires a material impetus to start the
change in the moral character. After a hearty meal we




270


7THE PROBLEM


can listen complaisantly to a sermon and imbibe its import, but let the listener suffer the pangs of hunger or
the horrible gnawing which accompanies the deprivation
of the accustomed drug, or worry about his "hote
money," and the most impressive lesson will fall upon
inattentive ears.
Neither will mission services rouse the dulled conscience of the depraved even if it were possible to induce
these people to attend such services. There is lacking
that personal, concentrated interest and attention which
is necessary to touch the heart and reason of the hardened wretch. Herein lies the secret of the success of
the workers who take individual cases and by heart-toheart talks, behind closed doors, arouse a sense of honor
and laudable ambition in the breast of the listener.
Any work which lessens a vicious phase of city life
is commendable. The Committee of Fourteen, which
was organized to suppress the vicious Raines Law hotels,
has succeeded in securing a modification of the original
law whereby the number of such resorts was reduced
from over 1,400, in existence when the committee was
formed in 1905, to about 860 in May, 1906. Of these
not more than 250 are legitimate hotels.  Since 1906
their efforts have been directed toward securing the enforcement of the law. The aggressive secretary of the
committee has forced the revocation of the licenses of
a number of the most notorious of these brothel hotels,
in spite of powerful political and financial opposition.




THE   PROBLEM                   271
The City Vigilance League has looked after the police
end of such resorts, its secretary being responsible for
many of the police raids on dives and brothels. While
these two organizations have improved the moral aspect
of the city by wiping out many dives and Raines Law
hotels, they have done nothing to lessen the prevalence
of the vice and their work actually benefits the foul resorts, which can carry out the provisions of the vicious
Raines Law.




CHAPTER      III
PRACTICAL MEASURES.
\AN is a gregarious animal, having, in common with
the rest of the animal kingdom, the physical
instincts of self-preservation and propagation. He has,
besides, the human, mental instincts, a self-directing will
and reason to follow his physical instincts, and a spiritual
mentor, conscience, to direct will and reason to move in
proper channels.
Knowing the nature of pain, one of the ends to be
attained by civilization is a happiness which gives no
pain, mental or physical, in its acquisition or possession;
hence force is to be used only as a last resort in the pursuit of happiness.
Reason, will and conscience, inherent in the human
being as a germ, must be developed, and the form of
development depends upon education and environment.
Yet not alone individuals but neighboring communities
having the same advantages of education and environment differ vastly in their ideals, in the dictates of conscience, even in the reasoning faculties. Although they
may be on the same plane of civilization they try to attain
the same end-the acquistion of happiness-by following




THE PROBLEM


273


a different course from that of their neighbors. Reason
invents substitutes for the force employed by the savage
in following his physical instincts, and each one employs
the substitute which he supposes will lead to the end in
view most speedily, with the least labor and the least
inconvenience or pain to others. It is when that substitute does annoy or pain the neighbor that measures must
be taken to interfere with the offender's actions. This
applies as well to nations and communities as to the individuals with whom we are dealing. Public policy decrees that not only must the body as a whole interfere
when one man's actions injure another, such action constituting a crime, but when a man's action be of such a
nature that he is himself injured thereby. When his
morals are involved it is a vice. It is then the duty, not
alone of the individual injured, but of the whole community, to suppress vice and crime, gently if possible,
forcibly if need be. The offender must be led in the
right path, and if he will not remain there he must be
placed under restraint. But instead of considering the
offense only and applying measures based upon the gravity of the crime, the offender's mental and moral condition should be first considered. Is his lapse due to depravity or a perverted conscience and reason, or is it
due to ignorance or a not fully developed conscience and
reason, or is it due to necessity which may temporarily
dull the spiritual instinct? Each cause demands a distinctive method of treatment. Local conditions may




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THE PROBLEM


make a restriction of rational, normal acts necessary, declaring such to be crimes, although no moral law is violated. The fault may even be a recognized disease which
it would be criminal to call a crime.
Once they hung the thief, burnt the witch, branded the
dissolute woman and sold the pauper. Then heavy drinking was an accomplishment, as was blasphemy, while the
honor of womanhood was a bauble, priceless as a new
toy to the maid, valueless as an old toy later.
Now motive and mind are considered as well as the
crime itself. The old legal adage, "Let the punishment
fit the crime," has lost its force. We consider (or should
do so) when we punish, how far it may reform the offender, how it may be an example to others and how society may be safeguarded from a repetition of the act.
These are the underlying principles of punishment.
It also involves another principle or sentiment, revenge,
expressed by one writer as "the indignation of society
which has been outraged by the violation of its laws."
But the form of punishment universally adopted at
present, namely, imprisonment, only stimulates the fear
of physical discomfiture and possible pain, without improving either the mind or conscience. As a deterrent
influence it is often successful, as a reforming influence
it is an absolute failure. It is of service to society only in
cases which withstand efforts to correct moral perversion and then it is a safeguard, but neither an example
nor a lesson. Crime and vice due to ignorance are best




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275


treated by educational measures, religious and social,
while neither education nor imprisonment will avail where
necessity dulls conscience.
In cases in which there is a physical or mental defect,
those moral perversions properly classed as manias, medical treatment is indicated. It is extremely difficult, however, to fix the dividing line between kleptomania, or the
mania for stealing, and criminal theft. Many thieves
steal because they cannot resist the temptation when
placed before them. The kleptomaniac presents the same
plea. The social standing of the offender and the character of the booty are usually the deciding factors when
the question of kleptomania is raised. A wealthy woman
pockets trinkets of little value at the bargain counter and
is caught. Her plea of "kleptomania" is accepted. A
poor girl caught in the same act is a shoplifter, although
the theft may have been committed under the same moral
perversion or uncontrollable impulse.
When a supposedly wealthy woman steals a four thousand dollar diamond necklace she presents a plea of temporary aberration of mind, and there is none to disprove
it. She passes as a kleptomaniac.
The husband of a prominent actress, a man of some
means and very charitable, is a true kleptomaniac, and
is known for this failing in the establishments in which
he deals. While making expensive purchases he will
pocket articles of little value. He has been known to
carry off a weight from the scales, a child's shoe, a news



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THE PROBLEM


paper, and other small articles, paying for them if detected. Where his failing is known, he is carefully
watched, every article he takes is noted, and a bill is sent
to him the same day. Such bills are invariably paid
without question. This is true kleptomania, and no punitive measures will cure the disease. Fear of exposure
when caught has a deterrent effect, but medical treatment
and the knowledge that one is constantly watched may
effect a cure.
A factor which can be overlooked in small towns, but
not in large cities, is the social evil. It has been shown
that this is a necessary evil wherever there is a large
floating population, and some foreign governments, recognizing the necessity for such women, have passed laws
regulating their vocation.  If we consider their calling
criminal, we must consider man's animal passions, which
necessitates this calling, as moral perversions, criminal or
diseased. Yet these passions are due to the procreative
instinct common throughout the animal kingdom.
There is no uniformity in the state laws passed to
restrict this vocation, nor in their enforcement. Nor is
there any uniformity in the interpretation of these laws
by judges, some enforcing them with the utmost rigor,
others, recognizing the necessity of this evil, refusing to
enforce them at all. On the night of August 13th, 1903,
thirty-two women were arrested for soliciting on the
streets of New York City. All were discharged by the
police justice the following morning. Since the institu



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277


tion of the night courts in New York such women are
brought before this court. Those arrested for soliciting
are either fined, imprisoned or placed in charge of a probation officer, while those caught in raided dives are usually discharged.
Another factor which must be considered when taking up measures for the suppression of vice and crime
is the passion for gambling and speculating. There is
no dividing line between the two-the latter is permitted
by law, the former forbidden. Public policy, and not conscience or reason, decides where one begins and the other
ends.
As for the general alleviation of poverty and the eradication of pauperism, these belong properly to the realm
of the social economists.  Measures can, however, be
taken to relieve the particular class with whom we are
dealing, but here, too, measures must be based upon individual cases. The cause in each case must be considered, the person's wants and needs, his intelligence and
adaptability, his willingness and ability, all must be taken
into account. This is the plan followed by the Charity
Organization Society.
Where these factors are disregarded and all are considered as part of a whole, with measures applied to all
alike, all are forced into the same plane, that of the
pauper.
At the great Salvation Army dinners we see tramps,
worthless, shiftless, able-bodied men, enjoying the bounty




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THE PROBLEM


of the charitable, and alongside of them are little children, unconscious of their position, mothers submitting
to the humiliation of appearing in public as paupers in
order to obtain a good meal for themselves and little
ones, and men, self-respecting up to the moment when
first driven to break the bitter bread of charity with
tramps and beggars under the public gaze, as paupers.
We will endeavor to show how individual efforts,
properly directed, with due regard for the mental, moral
and physical capacity of the person, may lead to the
reformation and betterment of the wretches.
The first step should be the elimination of pseudocharities and those fostering pauperism.
The warden of a city prison declared that while some
of his "guests" never return after their first visit, those
who come a second time invariably come again.
The habitual criminal never reforms. He may profess reformation, may even lead a proper life for a time,
but given the opportunity he will not resist the temptation. (While writing this, a woman, aged 69, was sent
to prison for the thirteenth time for shoplifting, ten years
having elapsed since her last offense.)
The safety of society demands that such persons be
kept under constant restraint or watch, and the power
now given to magistrates to make the term of imprisonment indefinite, secures the greatest measure of safety
compatible with justice and humanity. With many the
fear of imprisonment has a less deterrent effect than the




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279


fear of physical pain.  Some places have established
corporal punishment, notably Delaware, for wife beaters.
It is a brutal, yet most effective measure, and no one
who has been thus punished has repeated the offense.
When one naturally vicious is thrown in contact with
criminals he becomes a criminal himself. Imprisonment
with the association of habitual offenders, is a hardening process, during which criminal instincts are developed
and the young offender comes out worse than before.
Solitary confinement, even for a short time, is a very
severe form of punishment, and if inflicted upon the first
offense it will keep the offender from contact with hardened criminals.
The deterrent effect of this form of punishment is
far greater than a much longer period in the prison workshops, surrounded by fellow convicts. If the offender
upon his release from solitary confinement is at once removed from his former surroundings, and placed in such
a position that he can have the association of good men
and women, with the opportunity to earn a livelihood,
such person will lead a righteous life so long as temptation is not placed in his way. He will in time understand
that there is a material benefit in being honest and honorable, and will resist temptation, if not from the dictates
of conscience, certainly from the dictates of policy and
self-interest.
The same line of treatment will avail where the offense arises from  ignorance.  Instead of solitary con



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THE PROBLEM


finement, hox ever, educational measures will be more
successful. Here religious teaching may rouse a dormant
conscience, but the removal of temptation and the stimulation of work among respectable men are necessary to
complete the work of reformation. This is the policy
followed by the Prison Association. It secures work for
the discharged prisoner in places where he is free from
temptation, where he comes in contact with good men,
where his past is unknown, and he has an opportunity to
rehabilitate himself.
There is one fundamental fault with our reformatory
and punitive systems.
With the exception of the death penalty for murder
there is but one method of punishment, imprisonment,
differing only in length of time, for all offenses. There
is, indeed, another, the imposition of a fine, an unjust
provision which gives the rich a decided advantage over
the poor.
Imprisonment may be the proper punishment for the
habitual criminal, but many offenses are punished by imprisonment which require entirely different treatment.
A hod carrier, climbing up a ladder; drops a brick
from his hod upon the head of a passer-by. He goes to
prison for manslaughter. He may be a God-fearing, lawabiding man; he may have been unconscious of the accident until the moment of arrest, yet he must suffer the
same punishment meted out to the thief or burglar who
is prepared to commit murder when caught in a lesser




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281


crime. If the brick had fallen an inch from the passerby, the hod carrier would have been innocent of crime.
Had the brick fallen on the victim's, shoulder it would
have been assault or criminal negligence, but falling on
the skull, crushing it, the crime is homicide. His freedom or his length of punishment depends upon the spot
where the brick fell. And the punishment for what
would be called an act of Providence differs in no wise
from the punishment received by the conscienceless
wretch who robs a child of its cloak for the price of a
drink.
While corporal punishment or a long period of imprisonment will deter the hardened criminal, and solitary confinement will deter the young offender, none of
these will have any effect upon the hod carrier.
The pangs of conscience will punish him more than
prison.
The poor devil forced to crime through want requires other treatment than the ordinary criminal. Imprisonment and the association of criminals will only embitter him against society and squash whatever conscience
remains in him, and he will come out a criminal and
follow a criminal career.
Work at living wages will save him, though such work
be under government control. Let it be a state farm or
workshop, or road-making, or any similar occupation,
where he will receive pay for work done, and paying out
of his wages for his board. Forcible detention until




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THE PROBLEM


he has saved a certain amount, the amount determined by
the gravity of the crime, would be a fitting penalty for
his offense, and would place him in such a position that
he would not be immediately forced into crime upon his
release.
Hard work, with intervals of solitary confinement, is
the only effective method of dealing with that class who
live from the earnings of dissolute women.
Unfortunately, there is no law, except that covering
vagrancy, by which these fellows can be reached unless
they add theft to their vile occupation. The law takes
cognizance of the inciter to crime, but the inciter to vice
goes free, although his work is more dangerous to society
than that of the fagin or fence.
(The term Fagin, after Dickens' notorious character
in Oliver Twist, is now generally applied to one who induces children to become pickpockets and shoplifters.)
The pander is a human parasite, without a redeeming virtue, yet his calling as paid protector of lewd
women is legitimate, as there is no law covering it.
This fellow is on a lower plane, morally, than the
habitual criminal, and only the fear of harsh prison treatment will make him take up honest work and deter him
from forcing women to support him. The fence and the
fagin cannot be restrained by ordinary prison punishment, while moral teachings are wasted upon these unconscionable wretches. Long periods of imprisonment,




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283


with harsh treatment toward the end of their term, would
be the most effective method of repressing their vocations.
A week of hard labor has a more deterrent effect upon
the tramp than six months of ordinary penitentiary or
workhouse labor. The tramp does not mind the abuse,
which seems to be a part of the prison routine, but work
and wash have a powerful influence for good. Tramps
desert localities where they are put to hard work when
caught.
One great advantage of the reformatory over the
prison is that'the inmates learn a trade, by which they can
support themselves after their release. This ought to be
part of the prison routine, and every prisoner should at
his release have some trade.
After a prisoner has worked in a prison quarry for a
year or two he is not fit to take up any occupation upon
his release, and must go back to crime.
The treatment of women leading vicious or criminal
lives is simpler than the treatment of men. Women are,
as a rule, impressionable, amenable to religious teachings,
and easily deterred by fear of punishment.
Each case, however, requires individual treatment,
based upon mental and moral capacity and the consideration of the cause which led her into crime and vice.
Of all the sociological problems none presents greater
difficulties than the disposition of the social evil. What
shall be done for and with the women whose vocation is




284


THE 'R OBLE.L


embraced in this evil? In small towns where such
women are unnecessary, the most stringent measures
should be taken to drive them out. In a great city like
New York, with a large floating population (estimated
here at 60,000), such women are necessary, and acknowledging this necessity, we must recognize the necessity for regulating their vocation. The hypocritical cry
"to regulate vice is to legalize vice" is the main obstacle
in the way of enacting laws restricting the social evil,
and so long as its existence depends upon the temper of
the police, no improvement can be expected in the condition of this evil in New York. While there are numerous
laws and police regulations touching upon the social evil,
the panders and prostitutes and keepers of vicious resorts,
some are conflicting, others are impracticable, most are
indefinite, thereby allowing magistrates discretionary powers in their interpretation and the police force considerable leeway in their enforcement. Other communities, not
suffering from an over-sensitive false modesty, have attacked this problem in a rational manner, restricting the
vocation to certain neighborhoods, to certain ages, to
women free from disease. They have enacted laws inflicting heavy penalties for violation of the regulations of
the social evil. Adding to these enactments summary
punishment for men who drive their wives or mistresses
to the street to support them, for women who bring their
daughters or foundlings up in vice, for men who deceive




THE PROBLEM        2


285


and then desert their sweethearts, and we restrict the evil
to a class of women who will be vile in spite of all that
may be done for them.
There may be some driven to this calling through
want, but the number will be reduced when they find they
must place themselves under police and medical supervision.
The woman driven to the street through want might
have been saved before entering upon her career at the
expense of a kind word and a few dollars.
After a woman has been driven through want to take
up a life of shame, and finds that she can earn more in a
night than at another occupation in a week, she will not
voluntarily go back to the honest work at which she formerly starved.
In the early part of their careers these women are
amenable to religious teachings, backed by material support. Later on, when hardened, they will not reform.
The class recruited from the shops, who receive low
wages and must supplement these by giving favors occasionally to friends in gratitude for loans, can be saved
from a life of shame by increased wages and friendly
supervision.
This involves economic questions beyond the scope
of this work. As a business proposition it seems better
to expend money in increased wages rather than in charitable donations to homes for fallen women, when women
are driven to these homes through insufficient wages.




286


THE PROBLEM 


It is almost impossible to reach that large class of
women who dispense favors to employers, superiors or
lovers. Most of these, when discarded by their admirers,
take up illicit relations with others and when they find
that they can earn more this way than by honest work
they join the ranks of fallen women. The modern idea
in dealing with vicious phases of life is to determine the
causes and apply preventive measures, rather than to
treat the faults and vices and their results. It is believed
that much unchastity can be prevented if young men and
women knew the truth about sexual matters, sexual anatomy and physiology and the dangers of unchastity. The
American Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis,
in its efforts to limit the spread of diseases arising from
the social evil, is endeavoring to spread this knowledge
by issuing pamphlets on these subjects. This reaches,
however, only one, although a very important one, of the
fundamental causes of vice.
The poor girl turned adrift by a false lover, when
she is in trouble, can be easily saved at the expense of a
little money and some personal effort. Her lover should
be compelled to marry her and support her and her offspring. But if he will not, where is the good Samaritan
who will take this pitiable wretch into his or her home
until her trouble is over, then place her in a position
where she can come in contact with good men and
women?




THE PROBLEM


287


Yet men and women have taken pity upon such unfortunates, have shielded them until their day of trial
was over, and, leaving the child in a foundling asylum
until it could be reclaimed, placed their wards in positions of respectability.
And good men have heard the pitiful confession before they led their wives to the alter and have said as
the Master said to the woman which was a sinner, "Thy
sins are forgiven; thy faith hath saved thee."
Unfortunately, such girls, when deserted by false
lovers, hide their disgrace until their condition betrays
them, then they go to a hospital, or a home. Here they
are thrown in contact with other women similarly situated
and most of them afterwards take up a life of shame.
With the gay and giddy and the naturally vicious,
little can be done. The vicious woman may be cowed
by fear, but she will not reform. The giddy woman may
be influenced by religious teaching while she is young,
but she will still seek pleasure and go back to her old
life. Occasionally a dormant conscience will be roused
and under pleasant conditions a fallen woman may learn
that virtue may be materially as well as spiritually profitable. But the lesson must be taught early in her career
by a congenial and tactful teacher.
When women of this class are arrested on the usual
charge of soliciting they are generally fined or sent to
prison for a few days. Neither form of punishment has
a deterrent effect.




288


THE PROBLEM.


In the workhouse they are consoled and cheered by
older rounders and they come out worse and more determined than ever.
The inconsistency and imperfection of the laws at
present in force, bearing upon the social evil, make it
impossible to formulate any method of improving this
condition under such laws. No.one method would avail
with all; indeed, with those hardened to the life and
without moral instincts, neither force, detention nor
teachings would be of any service. Segregation with
police supervision would make them harmless to society,
but such a course would involve state regulation of vice.
As for the others, the individual efforts of good
women who were not ashamed to speak to the wretched
beings of the street, have been more successful in reclaiming the wayward and fallen than repressive laws and
mission prayers.
The women who follow a criminal course are, as a
rule, women hardened by their lives on the street, and
those having inherent vices.
They never reform, although in adversity they will
seek relief in a reformatory or home. A long term of
imprisonment with hard menial labor has a more deterrent effect upon them  than upon men. Efforts at
reformation are wasted.
NOTE.-This subject is more fully discussed in the author's
brochure. "The Social Evil: A Plea."




THE PROBLEM 


289


The old rounders who are drinkers but not criminals
are not influenced by imprisonment or work. The most
effective method of curing them would be to place them
under treatment for the drink habit.
With that class of wretches whose bestial habits have
been referred to there is but one rational method of treatment. Their perverted tastes cannot be altered by lectures, prayers or medicines. Solitary confinement and
hard labor have a deterrent effect, but a self-imposed
companion who would not hesitate to use force whenever
the wretch attempts to practice his vice would do more
good.
Those suffering from the drug habit are really patients, not criminals, and all but the smokers are anxious
to give up the habit. There is no public institution where
such cases are treated; private asylums are expensive,
and most of the so-called cures are frauds. While there
are scores of richly-endowed hospitals in the city there
is none which will undertake the treatment of drug habitues. Neither is there an institution which will treat
drunkards. The Christian Home for Intemperate Men
in Mount Vernon attempts to treat such cases through
religious influence, but it has no power to restrain or hold
inmates, and such restraint is necessary to effect a permanent cure. The cure of the drug habit is effected by
complete deprivation of the drug, treating the dangerous
symptoms of collapse as they appear. This requires
restraint and the laws of this State forbid such restraint




290


THE PROBLEM


except in the case of insane. An institution conducted
by the city or State for the treatment of drug habits and
alcoholism would do incalculable good, for many would
be restored to health and manhood who are now doomed
to go down as sots or fiends.
The opium smoker does not want to be cured and
force is often fatal. The vice can, however, be restricted
and perhaps, in time, entirely suppressed by regulating
the sale of the crude drug, enforcing restrictions now
placed upon its sale, forbidding entirely the sale of the
prepared "hop," and also of the smoking implements.
The more difficult and expensive it becomes to indulge
in this vice the fewer will its converts become.
We now come to that great class standing between
the honest laboring poor and the vicious, and criminal.
These are the poor who will not work, the homeless poor
in search of work and on the verge of crime, the beggar
and the tramp.
Those who want work will not associate with those
who will not work. Until the opening of the two MIills
hotels the former were thrown in contact with the shiftless and vicious in the lodging houses, with the inevitable
result. The latter were not improved, the former were
debased. The Mills hotels have segregated the good
from the bad, but they cannot hold all who would patronize them.  There the law-abiding, self-respecting man
comes in contact with others of his own class and similarly situated. When he has reached the end of his re



THE PROBLEM


291


sources he must leave the hotel and he is then on the point
of becoming a beggar, a thief or a tramp. A few dollars
spent upon the poor devil at this time will save him from
becoming a wretch and may save the State many times
that amount.
Here is a fruitful field yet little touched by the State
or by private philanthropy. Is it not better to save a
man as he is about to go down, than to drag him up when
he is down?
The man who is out of work, without home, friends
or resources, reaches a crisis in his life when his last
dollar is gone and the pangs of hunger assail him.
Within the next few hours he will have become a suicide, a thief or a street beggar, or else he will apply to
some charity for aid.
Some men in desperation will attack a stranger to rob
him, yet have not the hardihood to approach a stranger
and ask him for the price of a meal. Many when they
accept the first meal drop at once in their own estimation
from the self-respecting man to the pauper.
Few retain their self-respect and ambition after having been compelled to associate with beggars and tramps.
Those who apply at the Municipal Lodging House
know that after three days they are considered vagrants,
are sent to the police station, then to the work house.
One might apply to the Charity Organization Society




292


THE PROBLEM


at 22nd Street and Fourth Avenue. This society will
send him to its wood yard, where he will do a few hours'
work and receive supper, breakfast and bed.
The work is hard and when one is unaccustomed to
hard manual labor it is extremely irksome. This work
is, moreover, only temporary.
The Industrial Christian Alliance in Bleecker Street
will give him a temporary home. HIere more than anywhere else does he feel that he is dependent upon charity,
although he is employed at tailoring, carpentering, brushmaking or shoemaking while at the Home. Still it has
saved many men who would otherwise have become
wretches.
The Salvation Army does similar work, but this, as
the other, has religious features which may conflict with
the man's conscience. The Bowery branch of the Y. M.
C. A. most closely approaches the form of philanthropy
required in these cases.
One of the most difficult problems is how to secure
work for those who want but cannot find suitable employment.
During periods of industrial depression thousands of
men come to this city in search of work. Many possess
trades and qualifications for which there is no demand
here; others come without references or refer to employers in other cities.




THE PROBLEM


293


Those coming from farming districts have no trade
available in the city, while many come from other cities
looking for clerical positions.
The latter are soon in trouble, as the supply of clerks'
far exceeds the demand, and those accustomed to clerical
work are unable to stand the strain of prolonged hard
labor, and to outdoor exposure.
In February, 1908, thirty out of eighty guests in a
Bowery lodging house would tell the writer what their
vocations and aims were. Nineteen said they had done
clerical work before and fifteen of these had been less
than a year in the city.
Most of them were supplied with funds, having made
a few dollars shoveling snow during the preceding week.
All said they wanted work of any kind, but when closely
questioned it was found that not one knew any other
trade and could take up nothing but bookkeeping or
clerk's work.
Those from out of town said they would go back to
where they came from if they could raise the fare.
Some undoubtedly started out on foot when spring
set in and are probably still on the tramp. When the
police station lodging rooms were closed in the winter of
1898 nearly 1,000 homeless wretches found shelter- on a
barge furnished by the city. About forty per cent of
these were in New York less than two months. When




294


THE PROBLEM


it was announced that those who would not work would
be sent to prison as vagrants the daily number dropped
from nearly 500 to 120.
It seems to be the most rational and in the end the
most economical method of disposing of such cases to
send them back to the place from which they came, where
they have friends and perhaps relatives who can look
after them until they secure employment.
The farmhand is accustomed to outdoor work, is not
afraid of hard labor and should have little difficulty in
securing employment.
If there were a law compelling contractors to employ
none but citizens on public works it would give work to
thousands of unemployed Americans who now watch the
foreigners imported for the purpose working on public
structures. They say the American won't work with
pick and shovel, that he foments trouble by inciting others
to strike; that even if inclined to do manual labor he
cannot or will not accomplish as much as the foreigner,
who, in his opinion, does not know half as much as himself; finally, the foreigner will do more for less money
than the American.
Some of these charges are undoubtedly true. Many
Americans would starve before doing menial work or
submit to the dictation of a "boss."
Many, on the other hand, are not ashamed to do any




THE PROBLEM l


295


honest work which will keep them from starvation.
These should have an opportunity to work in places now
filled by unskilled foreigners.
There are comparatively few skilled laborers among
the wretches, and these are almost without exception
drunkards.
During a period of business depression, when the
number of unemployed men increases, the skilled trades
suffer with the others. It is at such times that private
philanthropy can do much to prevent the production of
paupers.
Private loans of small amounts to those at the turning
point will foster self-respect and stimulate energy and
ambition, while gifts will have the opposite effect.
At all times a small loan to one who has a trade or
profession will produce better results than the same
amount given as a charitable gift.
Those who enter Povertyville to sink their identity
will oppose every effort to rehabilitate themselves. Family influences may prevail, but neither prayers nor punishment have any effect.
Some of them would even welcome imprisonment,
since they can more effectually hide themselves in prison
than anywhere else.
The lazy, shiftless fellow who won't work but will
beg can be easily suppressed. The same treatment ap



296


THE PROBLEM


plied to him as has been suggested for the tramp will
either convert him into self-supporting citizen or will
drive him out of the city.
The harshest measures are necessary to cure the professional beggar. This is the only case where a heavy
fine has a more deterrent effect than imprisonment, and if
the'fine is increased upon each conviction the beggar will
seek other fields. The law should be so amended that a
few lead pencils in a coat pocket cannot serve as a subterfuge to evade it.
In all cases, except where a fault has been forced upon
an offender, as when in dire need, or when a girl has been
deceived and deserted, a short, harsh punishment, followed by educational and religious influences, should be
tried for a first offense. The removal of temptation,
the substitution of innocent pastimes for vicious pleasures, companionship of good men and women, congenial
employment where the mind and body both are fully
occupied, arousing a sense of personal responsibility, and
hiding the dark spot in their past, should be the groundwork on which efforts for reformation should be conducted.
And while such efforts are made to redeem the individual, the state legislature should take cognizance of
local conditions and needs and enact laws based upon
such conditions and needs. In this respect the city of
New York is in an unfortunate position. Although containing about half of the population of the state and pay



THE. PROBLEM


297


ing two-thirds of the state tax, it has but eighty-four
out of two hundred and one members in the state legislature. At the present time (1908) fifty-six out of the
eighty-four are opposed to the party in power in the state.
New York City is consequently at the mercy of rural
legislators politically opposed to the city, most of whom
are unacquainted with its needs, and who enact laws well
suited to a rural population but inapplicable to the metropolis. The city is oppressed by such legislative blunders as the Raines Law, which has scattered disreputable
houses all over the city, the excise provisions of which
work a hardship upon thousands of citizens, discriminate
against the liquor traffic in the city and in favor of this
traffic in other places in the state in order to enrich the
state treasury; a Sunday law which cannot be enforced,
as it is against public policy, and a host of other laws
which local magistrates decline to uphold and the police
will not enforce. At the present moment we see a police
commissioner who is endeavoring to carry out the laws
as they are on the statute books at loggerheads with
police magistrates who interpret the laws agreeably to
the spirit of the times and the needs of the city. The
worst possible solution of the problems arising out of
these faulty laws is the toleration of their evasion, yet
that seems to be the attitude of the community toward
them at present. This attitude further strengthens the
trend of judicial opinion in questions involving morality
and we see, as a result, dives raided by the police and




298


THE PROBLEM.


the inmates released by the police magistrates, the keepers of Raines Law hotels arrested on circumstantial evidence, and though there be not the shadow of a doubt
that they violate the law, they are discharged for want
of absolute proof; a brothel keeper securing an injunction against the police commissioner restraining him from
posting an officer in front of the house.  There is a
growing feeling of indignation in the city against the
state and those who try to carry out the state laws literally and rigorously. It is, however, only a question of
time when the city's demand for home rule and for laws
suitable to its own needs must be heeded by the state
legislature.
WVith the regulation of those evils which are necessary
to avoid worse ones, and the strict enforcement of such
regulations, with the suppression of those evils which
can be suppressed without endangering society or public
policy; with the segregation of the virtuous and unfortunate from the vicious and lazy, aiding the former to
be self-supporting, repressing the latter by force, if necessary, we may be able to reach a rational ideal in the
sociological aspect of our city.


THE END.




NOTE.-This work was written between 1903 and 1906 with
some additions and corrections made in the winter of 1908-9.
A few of the resorts described have been altered or wiped out
and some of the characters have disappeared. The characteristics
of the Bowery still remain, although there is a vast improvement
in the social conditions in the district. New laws, new tenements,
modern schools and public parks have bettered the environment
and strengthened home influences among the poor dwellers, but
these factors for good do not affect the homeless, vicious, shiftless and criminal classes with whom we are dealing. It is hoped
that the completion of the two new bridges which will extend to
the Bowery will make this a heavy traffic thoroughfare, that
shops, factories and stores will take the place of the resorts of
pleasure; vice and poverty, that scientific philanthropy and rational laws will take the place of the useless and pseudo-charities and inconsistent discretionary statutes now dealing with the
wretches.


(In Preparation. The Wretches of Upper Tendom)




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