\3 
 
 ''^^lANS 
 
 Bv/.O CIJROA 
 
CHICAGO, 
 
 Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 "I am to speak of stories you will not believe; 
 of beings you cannot love; of foibles for which 
 you have no compassion; of feelings in which you 
 have no share." 
 
 — W. Mc. Praed 
 
 By L. O. CURON. 
 
 C. D. PHILLIPS & CO. 
 
 CHICAGO. 
 
Copyrighted 1899 by 
 I.. O. CURON 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The present Mayor of the City of Chicago was 
 recently re-elected. A large number of independ- 
 ent voters, deeming one issue a dominant one, 
 which, in fact, was no issue at all, assisted in again 
 bestowing on him the most important office in the 
 municipal government. 
 
 The legislature had repealed a law under 
 which evil, through the threatened action of cor- 
 ruptionists in the Council, might have been visited 
 upon the city. That they were powerless to in- 
 flict it had been demonstrated prior to the repeal 
 of that law and prior to the election. His compet- 
 itors entertained, upon the question of the exten- 
 sion of street car privileges, the same views as his 
 own. Both were men of as great ability as he, 
 and each had, and still has, a reputation for per- 
 sonal integrity not surpassed by his. Both were 
 men more mature in years, and possessed wider 
 business experiences than he. Hence, either of 
 them could have been safely entrusted with the 
 
4 Preface. 
 
 powers of the executive. Neither of them, how- 
 ever, could invent, for campaign purposes, so 
 catching, so powerful, and yet so sophistical, a 
 political phrase as "The streets may be dirty, but 
 they still belong to the people." To the inventor 
 of that cry the Mayor owes no small political 
 debt. 
 
 It might be inferred from the large vote he re- 
 ceived that, as a public servant, he had been tested 
 and not found wanting. With respect to his per- 
 sistent opposition to the extension of street car 
 privileges, without adequate compensation to the 
 city, and for a period not in excess of twenty 
 years, it should be said he bravely and manfully 
 did his duty, following, however, not leading pub- 
 lic opinion on that question. All danger from that 
 source had disappeared when the polls opened in 
 April last. His competitors stood, on that morn- 
 ing, as honorably pledged to throttle it, if it again 
 appeared, should either of them be elected, as 
 he did. 
 
 It cannot, however, be said that during his first 
 administration he did his whole duty. It is a pe- 
 
Preface. 5 
 
 culiarity of the American people that they always 
 praise, with exaggeration, an official who partly 
 does his duty, if the part performed is regarded 
 by them as especially serviceable to the public. He 
 had the benefit of so much exaggerated praise from 
 a press that, for nearly two years then last past, 
 had been condemning him, that some people were 
 charmed into a sort of hysterical admiration for 
 him. He had the happy faculty of concealing 
 the shortcomings of his first administration, un- 
 der cover of a supposedly overshadowing danger. 
 Thereby he caused his previous record to appear 
 as if free from blemish, and that he had performed 
 every duty — and performed it well. The very 
 adroit use of this faculty is the only reason why 
 he received a plurality of votes so much larger 
 than that of any other candidate nominated on the 
 same ticket with him for a minor office. 
 
 His best friends did not contend that he did 
 his full duty. They now only hope he will do so. 
 A public official is not entitled to praise, or thanks, 
 for doing his whole duty. He is elected for the 
 purpose of its performance. But full performance 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 is so rare that the people seem to be content if a 
 pubHc servant will do his duty only fairly well. 
 
 The vices which prevail in the city, and which 
 grew to their enormous, threatening, and hideous 
 proportions during the Mayor's first administra- 
 tion, were known to the people to exist, but were 
 forgotten by them at the polls, were known to the 
 police, and are still known to them, and upon no 
 conceivable basis of belief can it be supposed their 
 existence may not have been known to him, 
 and that he does not know of their continued 
 existence. 
 
 It is for him to utter the command "Stop," and 
 they will cease, in so far as they can be kept 
 within bounds by his authority. Their abso- 
 lute suppression, under existing legislation is, per- 
 haps, impossible, but their regulation thereunder 
 is not wholly impracticable. Ordinances demand- 
 ing, for instance, the imposition of a fine of $200 
 per day for keeping a house of ill fame, have, he 
 may say, never been enforced, and have fallen into 
 a condition of "innocuous desuetude." 
 
 The field of observation on matters such as 
 these is too wide to be entered upon here. 
 
Preface. 7 
 
 During the Mayor's first term, one of his best 
 friends, in the columns of his widely circulated news- 
 paper, severely criticised his administration, but sup- 
 ported him for re-election, and explained in its col- 
 umns, in response to an inquiry made by a correspond- 
 ent just prior to the election, his reasons for doing 
 so as follows, viz. : 
 
 "If Mayor Harrison shall receive the support of 
 the independent voters because of the good points 
 of his administration, that will show that his 
 strength consists in doing right, not in doing 
 wrong. It stands to reason that he would rather 
 have the approval of honest and respectable men 
 than of the vicious elements of the community. 
 
 The R believes that Mayor Harrison's present 
 
 administration from first to last has improved 
 and not deteriorated. The mayor himself ought to 
 know what are the weak points in it, and if he has 
 acquired wisdom by experience he should choose 
 his heads of departments for his second term with 
 a view to curing the evils and failures of his first 
 term. The relations of the police department with 
 gambling resorts, all-night saloons and other forms 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 of vice have been indecent, and probably corrupt. 
 
 The R has frequently urged the dismissal of 
 
 Superintendent K and the appointment of some 
 
 better man. It believes that Mayor Harrison is 
 much to blame in permitting the evil conditions 
 to continue." 
 
 The support he received for re-election came 
 from a very large and respectable element of the 
 community, but nobody can doubt that he owes 
 that re-election to the solidarity of the votes of "the 
 vicious elements of the community !" 
 
 The respectable element did note vote with such 
 allies m order that he should continue to conserve 
 the interests of vice and criminality. The sup- 
 porters of the all-night saloons, gambling hells, 
 poker joints, and of all other nests of iniquity ral- 
 lied to his assistance to a man. Without the 
 massed vote of the saloon and its hangers on, he 
 would not have been again chosen Mayor. 
 
 The leading financial paper of this city, non- 
 partisan in its political views, said on the eve of 
 the election : "An emergency exists. The govern- 
 ment of the City of Chicago is held in contempt 
 
Preface. 9 
 
 not only in Chicago but wherever Chicago is known. 
 We are losing good citizens, property, capital, pres- 
 tige. The very streets, with their filth and dust, 
 repel the visitor; the servants of the city, whether 
 in administrative or legislative positions, are objects 
 of suspicion; the scheme of a well ordered civil 
 service is breaking down; vice receives encourage- 
 ment as the price of votes. What wonder that 
 many believe the heart is rotten? But there is 
 virtue and power enough to change all this. The 
 moral sentiment and enlightened self interest of the 
 city once aroused and properly guided would over- 
 whelm all opposition." 
 
 Few, if any, evidences have been given out 
 from the City Hall since the Mayor's re-inauguration 
 tending to show that he proposes voluntarily to 
 destroy this "contempt." His new comptroller is 
 a worthy successor to the departed Waller, while 
 the selection for his corporation counsel is all that 
 could be desired by the most captious citizen. But 
 the vices and crimes which principally brought, 
 through their unchecked prevalence, that con- 
 tempt, find the man, under whom for two years 
 
lo Preface. 
 
 the police force, which in his friend's language has 
 been "indecent and probably corrupt," again in its 
 command. Doubtless the army of the vicious re- 
 joices. Certain it is the community wonders. He 
 will be observed as time passes. May the results 
 of observation redound to his everlasting credit 
 and success, and to the benefit of the great city of 
 which he is the executive head ! 
 
 In the following pages references to the causes 
 of that contempt will be made. The prurient will 
 find nothing in them to their taste. These refer- 
 ences ought to be of some assistance to the Mayor 
 in finding out through a properly organized and 
 well officered police force that these evil causes do 
 exist. Having discovered them, their haunts, and 
 their aids, if he does not already know of them, 
 will he tolerate them any longer in this commu- 
 nity? Will his continuous Superintendent of Police 
 be further allowed to throw his kindly protection 
 over them? 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Chicago — Its Development — Power of Criminal Classes in Its 
 Government — Pretenses of Reform — Official Satisfaction — 
 Public Condemnation — ^Truths as to Power of Criminal 
 Classes. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Police Force — Its Strength — Composition — Power Dom- 
 inating — Duties of Defined — Population of Chicago — Na- 
 tivity of — Police Enemies of Civil Service — Demoralizing 
 Effect — Tariff on Crime — Rates on Gambling Houses, Etc. 
 — Penalty for Refusal to Pay — Instances of Police Rates — 
 Method of Collection — Habits of Policemen — Some Are 
 "Hold Up" Men — Blackmail Levied — Law Department — 
 Arrests in 1897 — Police Fix Boundaries for Crime — Chief's 
 Testimony — Analysis of Arrests in 1897 in Second Police 
 Precinct — In City at Large — Division of Fees and Fines 
 With Magistrates — Police Courts, Corrupt — ^Cost of Police 
 Force. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 All Night Saloons— Character of— Thieves, Thugs and Pros- 
 titutes in — Visitors — Country Buyers, Transients, Dele- 
 gates, Youth and Old Age — Women in — Character of — 
 Basement Saloons — Scenes in — ^Private Rooms — Scenes in 
 All Night Saloons — Dancing — ^Music — ^Morning Hours — 
 Robberies, Etc., Planned — Girls Entrapped — Young Men 
 Ruined — Quarrels — Raids — Drinking — Surroundings of — 
 Houses of 111 Fame — Assignation Houses — Slumming Par- 
 ties — Fads — Salvation and Volunteer Army — ^Houses of 
 
Contents. 
 
 Ill Fame — Inmates of — How Managed — Practices in — 
 Sux)erstitions — Luck Powders — Sources of Supply — Pa- 
 trons of — Wholesale House Entertainer — Police Protection 
 — Diseases — Attempts at Reform — People Indifferent. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Re-election of Mayor — False Issue Upon Which Re-elected — 
 Vices in Chicago — "Blind Pigs" — Protected by Police — 
 Where Situated — How Conducted — Classes — Drug Stores, 
 Bakeries, Barns — Revenue to Police — Located Near Uni- 
 Tersities — Lieutenant of Police Convicted for Protecting — 
 CJock Fighting — Bucket Shops — Women Dealers — Pool 
 Rooms — Police Play — Pulling of, Farcical — Views of Chief 
 of Police — Players in — Landlords — Book Making — Alli- 
 ance Between, and Police and Landlords — New York and 
 Chicago — ^Chicago's Police Force Worst — Hold Up Men — 
 Methods — Victims — Police Sleep — Mayor's Felicitations, 
 April 11, 1899 — Account of Hold Ups, Same Day — Classes 
 of Hold Up Men — Strong Armed Women — Street Car Con- 
 ductors Robbed — Ice Chests and Ovens for Prisons — 'Hair 
 Clippers — Protection to Criminals — "Safe Blowers' Union" 
 — Fakes — Panel Houses — Badger Games — Nude Photo- 
 graphs — Obscene Literature — ^Confidence Men — Diploma 
 Mills — Gambling — Women's Down Town Clubs — Sexual 
 Perverts — Opium Joints. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Common Council — Boodlers — Bribers — Council of 1899 — Pow- 
 ers of — ^Misuse of — Price of Votes — Passage of Boodle 
 Ordinances — Public Works Department and Bureaus — 
 Illegal Contracts — Street Repairing, Etc. — Civil Service 
 Commission — History of — Present Board Tools of Mayor — 
 Examination by — Examples of — Attacks Upon Law — Spe- 
 cial Assessments — Asphalt Ring — Fire Department — 
 County Government — Insane Asylum — Sale of "Cadavers" 
 — ^Contracts — Sheriff's Office — Jury Bribers — Judges — 
 Revenue Law — Tax Dodgers — Town Boards — Coroner's 
 Office — Press Trust — Civic Societies — Berry Committee 
 Report — Baxter Committee — Opening Testimony — iConclu- 
 sion. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Chicago — Its Development — Power of Criminal 
 Classes in Its Government — Pretenses of Re- 
 form — Official Satisfaction — Public Condem- 
 nation — Truths as to Power of Criminal 
 Classes. 
 
 Chicago, with its world-wide fame as the 
 most marvelous product of American enterprise 
 among municipal creations in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, with its wonderful growth, from an Indian 
 trading post in 1837 ^^ ^ modern city of the sec- 
 ond size in point of population in the year 1898, 
 with the record of its stupendous strides in reach- 
 ing its present commercial and financial position 
 among the commanding trade centers in the world, 
 with its strong civic pride, its numerous and ad- 
 mirable religious, educational and charitable insti- 
 tutions both public and private, its cultured devel- 
 opment in literature, music, the arts and sciences, 
 with its memorable disaster in the great fire of 
 1 87 1, its speedy recoupment from that disaster, 
 
14 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 and its brilliant achievement in the organization and 
 management of the magnificent "White City," the wide 
 range of the classified exhibits of which covered the 
 entire and progressive contributions of mankind to 
 all that goes to make up the civilization of the 
 age from the earliest period of the commencement 
 of that civilization, this Chicago, grand, phil- 
 anthropic and patriotic, suffers, as for years it has 
 suffered, from the most extensive and persistent 
 "advances in political power, along the lines of 
 their respective crimes, of the criminal classes, un- 
 til, from the wealthy bribe-giver to the lowest sneak 
 thief and sexual pervert, these classes carry elec- 
 tions, corrupt the corruptible in the Common Coun- 
 cil, sway justice in the forum of the lower courts, 
 and govern tlie police force until it has become a 
 municipal aid to the perpetration of crime. 
 
 From one administration to the other, the grow- 
 ing power of these lowest classes of society mani- 
 fests a stronger hold upon civic administration. 
 Pretenses of reform are all that, so far, have fol- 
 lowed each bi-ennial election of a Mayor. Here and 
 there, and now and then, gambling houses are 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 15 
 
 closed, threats against police officers, who follow 
 the well grounded practice of levying protection 
 rates upon brothels, street walkers, gambling games 
 of all descriptions, saloons, concert halls, and that 
 varied combination of evils forming the working 
 machinery of vice, are given publicity, and while 
 the growth of these monstrous evils cannot but 
 be known to public officials, both from observation, 
 official reports, events as chronicled in the daily press, 
 grand jury reports, civic and State investigations, and 
 verdicts in the courts, a nerveless cowardice seems 
 to seize each succeeding incumbent of the Executive's 
 office, under whatever political party's banner he 
 may be called to the chair, and prevents him from 
 grappling with, and throttling, the ever increasing 
 power of the combined votaries of all forms of 
 vice and crime. 
 
 The Mayor recently congratulated the Common 
 Council in these words, viz : "The report of the 
 General Superintendent of Police contains assur- 
 ance for all classes of citizens that the efficiency, 
 vigilance and zeal that have characterized this de- 
 partment will permit them to pursue their avoca- 
 
i6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 tions without fear of being robbed and assaulted by 
 long and short men. One need not be exceed- 
 ingly observant to note that with the approach 
 of winter comes an annual outbreak of crime. We 
 all noticed evidences of such a visitation at the 
 advent of the winter just ended, but it should not 
 be allowed to pass without comment that criminal- 
 ity rarely showed itself during last fall when it 
 was crushed out with a suddenness and success 
 that ought to be regarded with pride and satisfac- 
 tion by every Chicagoan. There has been no ev- 
 idence of crime through the recent year as in 
 former years; the criminals came in the fall, but 
 they were severely taught that Chicago was an 
 unhealthy clime for them, with the result that they 
 were wise enough not to linger here long." 
 
 This statement, so self-satisfying to the official 
 who made it, so totally false in fact, so dangerous 
 to the welfare of the people, and so flippantly in- 
 terwoven into a public document by one who either 
 knew the contrary to be the truth, or who know- 
 ingly used his official position for the sup- 
 pression of truth, if not of crime, is con- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 17 
 
 tradicted by the disclosures made by every or- 
 ganization devoted to the purification of the pub- 
 lic morals, the betterment of civil administration, 
 and the eradication of the bestial vices so freely 
 and openly flaunted in the faces of a busy and 
 apparently indifferent people. 
 
 Contrast the announcement of the Law En- 
 forcement League with this official declaration. 
 Said this League, composed of the pastors of 
 churches and law-abiding people, "Chicago's influ- 
 ence ought to be on the side of purity and good 
 order, but the fact is that vice and crime are 
 prevalent, lawlessness is defiant, recreancy to sworn 
 duty is all but universal. The disorderly saloon 
 is the nesting place of the terrible debaucheries 
 which disgrace our city. Ordinances and laws 
 which have for their object the suppression of 
 venality and crime are trampled ruthlessly beneath 
 the feet of a disloyal and un-American horde. * * * 
 The public mind is profoundly agitated over the 
 reign of lawlessness and moral disorder. * * * 
 The co-operation of all decent and respectable peo- 
 ple is absolutely imperative if municipal govern- 
 
i8 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 ment is to be transferred from the baser to the bet- 
 ter element. * * * We have a right to demand 
 that lawlessness shall cease; that gang rule shall 
 be broken; that partisan politics shall be made 
 subsidiary to municipal righteousness ; that the 
 all but omnipotent power of the disorderly shall be 
 broken; that the carnival of crime which curses 
 Chicago shall end ; that the law breakers, crime 
 makers and bribe-takers shall be adequately punished 
 and that the fair name of this imperial city shall be 
 redeemed from the reproach of blackmail, wanton 
 immorality and widespread disorder." 
 
 A noted divine said recently, "I believe that 
 this city is to be the greatest city of this continent 
 and of the world. I believe that Chicago is the 
 devil's headquarters, and I think it is not far from 
 the City Hall. If our own eyes could be fully 
 opened we would see there infinite indecencies, 
 bum politicians, ward workers, heel tappers, men 
 who are the devil's own and delivered body and 
 soul to do his bidding." 
 
 Another said, "Saloons and all other haunts of 
 vice are wide open, as they have never been before 
 in the city's history." 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 19 
 
 A distinguished lawyer, speaking before the 
 Christian Convention recently held in this city, 
 said, "Scourge off and out of your temples the 
 political hyenas that prey on the municipal body 
 politic, that fatten on the scarlet woman's wages 
 of sin, that share the gambler's plunder and the 
 blind pig's profits." 
 
 Another eminent divine declared at this meet- 
 ing, "He knew that men have been kept from com- 
 ing to, and investing in, Chicago because our mor- 
 ality is so low." 
 
 Still another divine declared at the same meet- 
 ing, "But when in one night five homes in the 
 block in which I live — and I moved there because 
 it was the safest place in the city — are robbed, and, 
 within the same week, three men are held up with- 
 in two blocks, the conditions are serious." Serious, 
 indeed, they are, despite assurances of protection 
 by the police force emanating from the highest 
 official authority! 
 
 A few plain truths as to the utter prostitution 
 of the civil authorities to the power of the crim- 
 inal classes in Chicago, and as to the filthiness of 
 
20 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 those classes, are attempted to be given in the fol- 
 lowing pages. They may assist in arousing the 
 people to a keen sense of their duty as citizens 
 to demand from a new administration a rigid en- 
 forcement of the law by public officers, and that 
 these officers shall become the servants of the peo- 
 ple rather than remain the slaves, as well as the 
 persecutors for private gain, of the riffraff of the 
 community. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Police Force — Its Strength — Composition — 
 Power Dominating — Duties of Defined — Pop- 
 ulation OF Chicago — Nativity of — Police Ene- 
 mies OF Civil Service — Demoralizing Effect — 
 Tariff on Crime — Rates on Gambling Houses, 
 Etc. — Penalty for Refusal to Pay — Instances 
 OF Police Rates — Method of Collection — Hab- 
 its of Policemen — Some Are "Hold Up" Men — 
 Blackmail Levied — Law Department — Ar- 
 rests in 1897 — Police Fix Boundaries for 
 Crime — Chief's Testimony — Analysis of Ar- 
 rests IN 1897 IN Second Police Precinct — In 
 City at Large — Division of Fees and Fines 
 With Magistrates — Police Courts, Corrupt — 
 — Cost of Police Force. 
 
 The Police Force of the City of Chicago con- 
 sisted on December 31st, 1897, of 3,594 men, of 
 which number 2,298 were first-class patrolmen, the 
 remainder being officers, sergeants, clerks, drivers 
 and patrol-wagon men. The number of square miles 
 of territory embraced within the city limits was, 
 and is, 186.4. 
 
22 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The force is composed largely of men of one 
 nationality or of their descendants. A large ma- 
 jority affiliates with the same church. Prior to 
 the passage of the civil service law in 1895, 
 each bi-ennial administration made the force its 
 own valuable mine in which veins of rich rewards 
 for its friends and political workers were found. 
 To this force the aldermanic supporters of the ad- 
 ministration attached their henchmen and ward 
 heelers, and these, in turn, as public officers, looked 
 after the political welfare of their backers and of 
 the administration these backers supported. Thus, 
 the political complexion of the force was liable 
 to change every two years. Notwithstanding the 
 presence of a civil service law on the statute books 
 under which the force is now supposed to have 
 been re-organized and re-appointed, its political com- 
 plexion remains the same. The organization is 
 dominated by the political party which alone uses 
 the distinctive title of "Tammany." The civil serv- 
 ice law has been attacked, in behalf of this public 
 force, by officials who were sworn to sustain it, 
 until through their repeated assaults upon it, its ad- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 23 
 
 ministration is looked upon as farcical, and its ad- 
 ministrators as its most cunning and relentless foes. 
 
 The duties of the police force are clearly de- 
 fined in the city charter. Generally, that instrument 
 provides, "The police shall devote their time and 
 attention to the discharge of the duties of their 
 stations according to the laws and ordinances of 
 the city and the rules and regulations of the de- 
 partment of police, and it shall be their duty, to 
 the best of their ability, to preserve order, peace 
 and quiet, and enforce the laws and ordinances 
 throughout the city." 
 
 According to the school census of 1898, the 
 population of Chicago was then 1,851,588. This 
 population is one of the most polyglot of any city 
 in the world. Each modern language is spoken 
 by some one class of its people. 
 
 The population born of American born parents 
 exceeds that of any other nativity, being in round 
 numbers 486,000, while the Germans, born of German 
 born parents, and Germans born in Germany, num- 
 ber in round figures 468,000. Of the Irish 131,000 
 are American born of Irish parents; born in Ire- 
 
24 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 land, 104,000, making a total of 235,000. These 
 are the largest classes, by nativity, of its people, and 
 with the proverbial ability of the latter nationality to 
 govern and "get there" it supplies the police force 
 with the largest quota of men, year after year. 
 
 During the years 1897 and 1898 this force, and 
 every man seeking to become a member of it, was 
 taught by city officials, and by none more energet- 
 ically than by the chief law officer of the city ad- 
 ministration, that the civil service law was an es- 
 pecial enemy of theirs, inasmuch as it abridged 
 their privileges and immunities as citizens of the 
 United States, and was, therefore, a menace to their 
 rights, wholly unwarranted by the Constitution of 
 the United States. 
 
 It was accordingly attacked upon that ground 
 by the officers sworn to enforce it, and, since 
 the establishment of its validity by the highest 
 courts in the land, its provisions are constantly 
 sought, by them, to be avoided and defeated. 
 
 The efforts of the commissioners to enforce it 
 were commented on in an official message by the 
 city's Executive, as if such efforts were in fact being 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 25 
 
 made, and were part and parcel of an adminis- 
 trative policy ; while, in practice, no possible legal 
 device or illegal invention was allowed to fail of 
 application by municipal officials to destroy its 
 commands, even by its commissioners, who an- 
 nounced themselves as its greatest devotees. No 
 more demoralizing example could have been set 
 before the police force than the acts of the 
 higher authorities. Such acts have produced the 
 inevitable result, that, as such higher authorities 
 saw fit to openly throttle a law they were sworn to en- 
 force, the rank and file of the police force itself in- 
 ferred that they, too, could seek to evade, and refuse 
 to execute, all laws and ordinances which in their 
 judgment afifected the suppression of crime. 
 
 Consequently, that force has become demoral- 
 ized and corrupt, openly levying a tarifif for reve- 
 nue and official protection upon all classes of 
 wrong-doers, below those who commit felonious 
 crimes of the highest grade, and when the rates 
 are not promptly paid by the protected classes, 
 they are coerced by arrest into the payment of 
 fines and fees for division between the justices and 
 
26 Chicago. Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the officers. It is a well known fact that a sched- 
 ule of prices prevails for police protection, which 
 prices must be paid for that protection. Gam- 
 bling houses pay from $50.00 per month upwards; 
 panel and badger games, $35.00 to $50.00; music 
 halls with saloon and private room attachments, 
 $100.00; houses of ill fame, from $50.00 upwards, 
 according to the number of inmates at so much 
 per capita; cigar store and barber shop gambling 
 games, $10.00; "blind pigs," the unlicensed vendors 
 of liquors, $10.00 to $30.00, and with permission 
 to gamble, $30.00 to $50.00; crap games, $10.00 
 to $25.00; opium and Chinese joints, $10.00 to 
 $25.00; drug store "blind pigs,'' $10.00 to $30.00, 
 and prize fights and cocking mains, a percentage 
 of the gate receipts — usually one-fifth. 
 
 Whenever a gambling house refuses to pay 
 it is immediately pulled. These rates of police 
 blackmail and of protective tariff have been sworn 
 to before public investigations, and inquiry trials, 
 as imposed and collected. The press has repeat- 
 edly commented upon these frightfully cruel per- 
 secutions, reeking with the infamy of the partici- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 27 
 
 pation by public servants in a division of the 
 fetid proceeds of the procuress, of the landlady, 
 of her unfortunate slave, the harlot; of the skin 
 gambler, the clock swindlers and tape gamesters, 
 and of the operators of massage parlors, both male 
 and female. 
 
 In one case, tried before the Criminal Court of 
 Cook County, a lieutenant of the police force was 
 convicted of the crime of exacting money from' 
 the owner of a "blind pig" paid to him by the 
 owner for protection in his unlawful occupation. 
 Going back a few years, during the World's Fair 
 period, as high as $2,000, it is said in public 
 print, was paid for similar protection in a single 
 instance. 
 
 The officer in charge of a given precinct makes 
 the collections, retains his percentage, passes the 
 remainder on to his next superior, who withholds 
 his rake-off, and so on until the net profit reaches 
 the highest police official. A leading city news- 
 paper, in a caustic editorial, declared that "in Chi- 
 cago protection means the privilege to commit 
 crime upon the payment of a sum of money to 
 
28 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the police. It has ceased to mean that the citi- 
 zen will be guarded against the acts of crim- 
 inals." So thoroughly recreant to duty have some 
 of the ranking officers of this force become, that 
 one of the oldest captains when asked why he 
 did not close, in his district, certain notorious sa- 
 loons where depraved women robbed strangers in 
 wine rooms, replied that "some people would steal 
 in the churches, and you might as well close 
 churches as close the saloons for that reason." 
 
 Patrolmen in uniform are found in dives play- 
 ing cards ; and in others sleeping during the hours 
 of their supposed presence on their beats. They 
 know the women of the town, the street walkers 
 in the territory they patrol, the keepers of every 
 vile joint, where the most depraved practices are 
 indulged in, the houses of ill fame, high-priced 
 and low-priced, the "Nigger," Japanese, Chinese 
 and mixed bagnios, the policy shops, fences and 
 schools for thieves. 
 
 All these vice mills and their operators con- 
 tribute to the policemen's demand, and thus ob- 
 tain permission to carry on, in daylight, and at 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 29 
 
 night-time, their nefarious, lecherous and disgust- 
 ing crimes and orgies. 
 
 One officer gambled in a saloon with a citi- 
 zen, lost his money, overpowered the citizen, re- 
 covered his lost money and then robbed his victim. 
 
 In broad daylight an officer held up a citizen 
 and robbed him of his money and valuables. When 
 the Chief of Police had this case called to his at- 
 tention before a legislative investigating commit- 
 tee, he answered, "I tried that man yesterday. 
 He got on the police department ten years ago, 
 and he always had a reputation of being a good 
 officer, and the other morning he had been drink- 
 ing some, and, like everything else, became a 
 little indiscreet and started out to hold up a 
 man and got hold of a few dollars in that way, 
 and under the impression, very likely, that he 
 would never be discovered, and, like everybody 
 else, with his good record in the past, he was 
 discharged and reinstated, because many people 
 vouched for him, and all said he was an ex- 
 cellent officer, but he stepped by the wayside 
 and fell, and we had him arrested and discharged." 
 
3b Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Whether the many people who so generously 
 interceded with the Chief of Police for the reten- 
 tion of a thief as a member of his force were that 
 thief's fellow pals and hold-up men, was not dis- 
 closed ; but it may be said without hazard, that 
 they were not reputable men — if they had any ex- 
 istence at all other than in the imagination, and 
 as part of the bewildering policy of an incapable 
 Chief. 
 
 Methods of levying blackmail upon other than 
 the disreputable classes, but reaching through 
 them, upwards and beyond them, are not only 
 countenanced, but advised by superior officials 
 and approved by the city's highest executive. 
 
 On the 5th of November, 1897, a practical 
 stranger in the city was given the following 
 letter, signed by the Chief of Police, viz. : 
 
 *To Whom It May Concern: 
 
 The police department is about to issue a 
 history for the benefit of their relief fund. Kindly 
 make all checks payable to W. V. M., East Chi- 
 cago Avenue Station, and any favors shown the 
 bearer will be appreciated by, 
 
 Yours truly," 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 31 
 
 This stranger had been denounced through the 
 press as a fraud and a schemer, who had been 
 arrested in other cities for obtaining money under 
 false pretenses, which facts were known to the 
 Chief of Pohce when his letter of recommenda- 
 tion was written. The stranger was to receive a 
 commission of twenty-five per cent on all subscrip- 
 tions obtained by him, and the treasurer of the 
 fund, who was selected with the approval of the 
 Chief, the Mayor, and his principal political satel- 
 lite, ten per cent. Some $8,000 were collected 
 under this scheme, one large railroad corporation 
 subscribing $1,000 and a noted Board of Trade op- 
 erator $500. Whence the remainder came rests 
 in conjecture, with a well defined belief that noted 
 gamblers, and keepers of houses of ill fame, were 
 contributors to it. 
 
 A legislative committee's inquiries prevented 
 the consummation of the scheme, but, owing to 
 the speedy departure from the city of the treas- 
 urer, the source of the remaining subscriptions 
 could not be inquired into. 
 
 As a cover to the purposes of this scheme, it 
 
2,2 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 was proposed to place these collections to the credit 
 of the Policemen's Benevolent Association Fund of 
 Chicago, which, by reason of the failure of a bank, 
 whose officials are now under indictment for the 
 misappropriation of public funds other than those 
 of this association, had become badly impaired. 
 This proposal followed the appointment of the 
 legislative committee of investigation, by way of 
 preparation to conceal the real purpose of the 
 swindle. That association repudiated the plan. 
 
 The Chief of Police was asked by the commit- 
 tee of investigation whether he thought it was 
 the proper thing for him, as Chief of Police of 
 Chicago, "to give to a man to go out among busi- 
 ness men, corporations and manufacturing establish- 
 ments of the city a letter telling them that every- 
 thing this man did and said you would be respons- 
 ible for, if you knew he had been indicted and 
 arrested in different cities of the United States 
 for defrauding the people out of money on this 
 same identical scheme?" He answered, "I don't 
 believe it." Immediately he was asked, "Have 
 you heard A. was arrested a number of times?" 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 33 
 
 and in reply said, "I read in the newspapers that 
 he was arrested and had trouble in Detroit." 
 Again he was asked whether A. had given him 
 any information as to the number of times he had 
 been arrested for getting money on false pretenses, 
 and his answer was, "I can give you some infor- 
 mation on that subject." 
 
 These extracts from the sworn testimony of 
 this official, speak in no commendatory manner of 
 his sense of official responsibility. They point to a 
 mind deadened to all sense of the duties of his posi- 
 tion; they elevate him before his force as a con- 
 spicuous example for them to follow, in his 
 disregard of the principles of official decency. 
 In themselves they urge upon that force, by their 
 silent influence, an emulation of such a black- 
 mailing course, even though in its accomplish- 
 ment the assistance of a swindler is required, 
 and deliberately accepted. 
 
 A brother of the Chief, a member of the de- 
 tective force, was frequently found in poolrooms, 
 assisting in their management, and yet the Chief 
 seems to have been unable to acquire the knowl- 
 
34 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 edge that poolrooms were running wide open 
 throughout the city. He probably knew it as 
 an individual. In response to a question as to 
 his information on this subject he answered, that 
 no particular complaints were made — "the news- 
 paper boys often came around and said there 
 was pool selling going on at different places," 
 and he presumed "if ' a desperate effort had been 
 made to look that kind of thing up, we might have 
 possibly been successful." More open admissions 
 of official incompetency it would, perhaps, be 
 difficult to make, and no more flagrant instances 
 could be cited of official degeneracy than are 
 these extracts from the sworn testimony of a 
 definant and dangerous public servant. 
 
 In the attack on the Police Pension Fund, 
 which was established under an act of the leg- 
 islature for the benefit of an officer who shall 
 have reached the age of fifty years, and who 
 shall have served at reaching that age for twenty 
 years on the force, then be retired with a 
 yearly pension equal to one-half of the salary 
 attached to the rank which he may have held 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 35 
 
 for one year next preceding the expiration of 
 his term of twenty years, or who shall have be- 
 come physically disabled in the performance of 
 his duty, there was manifested a degree of moral 
 irresponsibility, if not of criminality, and a blind 
 adherence to partisanship in defiance of the laws, 
 seldom found in the history of any municipal 
 corporation, and unmatched even by the develop- 
 ments of the Lexow committee of New York 
 City, in matters of a kindred character, inquired 
 into by that committee. 
 
 For the sake of creating vacancies in the 
 ranks of the police force, to be filled by appoint- 
 ments to be made by the Chief in defiance of 
 the civil service law, and while that law was 
 running the gauntlet of every conceivable attack, 
 both open and covert, which could be made 
 upon it by every department of the city's ad- 
 ministration, and by none more virulently than 
 by the Law Department, a plan was devised 
 and put into execution whereby officers of all 
 ranks, after years of police service and experience 
 and in strong physical condition willing and anx- 
 
$6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. . 
 
 ious to remain in their positions, were retired 
 from the force against their protest, merely to 
 make way for the substitution of new appointees 
 — the poHtical friends of the Chief and his su- 
 perior. Men with good records and physically 
 able to perform their duties were thus forced 
 upon the rolls as pensioners, to deplete a fund, 
 sacred as a trust, not only for the benefit of the 
 living and necessitous pensioners, but also for the 
 widows of the men who had lost their lives in the 
 service and the wives and children of those who 
 had died after ten years of police duty. One ef- 
 fect, as to the standing of this fund, was to reduce 
 the balance on hand January i, 1897, from $16,837 
 to $4,543 December 31st, 1897. Thus over $10,- 
 000 was raided, seized and forced upon unwilling 
 pensioners, "still able bodied and anxious to retain 
 their positions at their full salaries." A more con- 
 temptible exercise of political power and admin- 
 istrative robbery could not well be imagined. 
 
 The omissions of the police force in the en- 
 forcement of the laws, their acts of commission 
 in evading, attacking and disregarding others, es- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 37 
 
 pecially those relating to all night saloons, the 
 source of most of the arrests for disorderly con- 
 duct, where wantonness is displayed, assignations 
 are arranged, drunkenness aided and brawls en- 
 gendered, are blamable, not so much upon the 
 patrolmen, as upon their superior officers. The 
 patrolmen do as they are told. They report in- 
 fractions of the law, or not, according to their 
 instructions. Their eyes are opened or closed, 
 as the "wink is tipped" to them from above. 
 The men are brave in moments of danger, fear- 
 less in rescuing the inmates of burning buildings, 
 risking their lives in stopping runaway horses, 
 tender in caring for lost children, or destitute 
 persons, both men and w^omen, and faithful in 
 the performance of their duties as members of 
 the ambulance corps. 
 
 During the year 1897 one hundred and eighty 
 were injured while on duty, and of this num- 
 ber forty-seven were on service in the first pre- 
 cinct, embracing the business district, the thor- 
 oughfares of which are the most crowded and 
 in which the heaviest fires happen, while only 
 
38 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 seven were injured in the second precinct along 
 tiie "levee" — the tough precinct. Given proper 
 management, strict disc^line and law abiding ex- 
 ample, it could be made, and ought to be made, 
 one of the "finest" forces in the world. Thugs 
 and thieves, within the past two years, through 
 the manipulation of the civil service law, have 
 been admitted to its ranks, to its everlasting 
 disgrace and that of the usurped appointing power. 
 
 The number of arrests in 1897 for those of- 
 fences from the perpetrators of which the po- 
 lice are charged with receiving protection money, 
 was less than in any of the previous years 
 since 1895, notwithstanding the increase in pop- 
 ulation, according to the school census, from 
 1,616,635 in 1896, to 1,851,588 in 1898, an in- 
 crease in round numbers of 234,000. 
 
 The following is the number of arrests for 
 the years 1894, 1895, 1896 and 1897 for offences 
 as named, viz.: 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 39 
 
 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. 
 Cock fighting 156 69 
 
 Decoy to gambling 
 
 houses 
 
 Disorderly 49,072 44,450 50,641 45,844 
 
 Inmates of assigna- 
 tion houses 53 53 92 14 
 
 Inmates of disorderly 
 
 houses 21 105 205 181 
 
 Inmates of gambling 
 
 houses 879 1,802 2,535 725 
 
 Inmates of houses of 
 
 ill fame 2,516 2,894 5,547 1,531 
 
 Inmates of opium dens 943 1,112 528 253 
 
 Keeping assignation 
 
 houses 17 5 15 19 
 
 Keeping disorderly 
 houses 39 28 30 139 
 
 Keeping gaming 
 
 houses 238 300 310 155 
 
 Keeping houses of ill 
 
 fame 174 210 241 648 
 
 Robbery 1,072 1,099 i'083 1,200 
 
 Violation saloon ordi- 
 nance 717 1,283 1.359 559 
 
40 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 In 1897, as compared with 1896, there was a de- 
 crease of 78 in the number of arrests of inmates 
 of assignation houses, 24 of the inmates of disor- 
 derly houses, 1,810 of the inmates of gambhng 
 houses, 4,016 of the inmates of houses of ill fame, 
 275 of the inmates of opium dens, 155 of the keep- 
 ers of gaming houses, and 800 for violation of 
 saloon ordinances. That these offenses had not 
 decreased in point of perpetration is a fact, pat- 
 ent to observation and well known to the people. 
 On the other hand, the arrests for keeping disorderly 
 houses increased 109, and for keeping houses of ill 
 fame 407. In the year 1896, when some effort 
 was made to keep the police out of politics, the 
 total arrests were 13,167 more than in 1897, when 
 the police force had passed into the hands of a 
 political machine, which sought to' erase the appli- 
 cation of the civil law to its government. In 1896 
 the inmates suffered arrest, but in 1897 the policy 
 of arresting fewer inmates and more keepers, except 
 of gaming houses, seems to have been inaugurated. 
 "The keepers" are more able to pay than the in- 
 mates. For every dollar collected from inmates, the 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 41 
 
 keepers are able to pay ten, or fifty dollars if nec- 
 essary. From these figures it is clear that the 
 practice of assessments for police protection was 
 maintained principally against keepers in 1897, and 
 that few inmates, comparatively, refused to pay in 
 that year, while a large number of keepers of im- 
 moral and gambling houses were tardy in their pay- 
 ments, consequently, the former were not arrested, 
 while the latter were. 
 
 What the figures for the year 1898 will reveal is 
 as yet unknown. 
 
 Not only is crime thus tolerated by the police, 
 but its chief officials assume, also, to define the 
 boundaries of the districts in which it may be freely 
 and safely perpetrated. 
 
 The Chief of Police, testifymg before a legis- 
 lative investigating committee, said : "Now, any 
 fellow who wants to bet on the races or anything 
 of that sort cannot be allowed to do so this side 
 of Jackson street, because we don't want this sec- 
 tion of the town polluted with this class of things. 
 We want the boys who have an inclination to bet 
 on horse races to go south." 
 
42 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Q. What have you got against the people south 
 of Jackson street? 
 
 A. . I Hke them. 
 
 Q. Is that the reason you wanted that stuff to 
 go down there? 
 
 A. Things are very Hvely in the lower part of 
 the town, everything has a thrifty appearance, and 
 everything 
 
 Q. You mean south of Jackson street? 
 
 A. North of Jackson — and things up south of 
 Jackson are virtually dead — there is nothing going 
 on at all, and the stores are all empty. There is 
 nothing doing, and the property, is depreciating in 
 value, and the object was to liven things up a little 
 bit." 
 
 That part of the city south of Jackson boule- 
 vard to Sixteenth street, and from State street on 
 the east to the river on the west, embraces the tough 
 part of the second precinct of the second police dis- 
 trict. In the year 1897 of the total number of ar- 
 rests of women and girls in the city, 17,624 in num- 
 ber, 8,957, or over 50 per cent, were, as the police 
 term it, "run in" from this police district. How 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 43 
 
 often the same women were arrested and re-arrested 
 it is impossible to say, or whether they were 
 "pinched" oftener than once in the same night. Of 
 this latter number 7,364 were discharged by the mag- 
 istrates, but the larger number contributed one dol- 
 lar each to the justice for signing a bail bond for 
 their appearance for trial. In addition, 300 women, 
 known as "women lodgers," were also "run in" in 
 this district in 1897. Of these unfortunates 1,746 
 were fined ; 140 held to the criminal court ; 193 re- 
 leased on peace bonds ; 209 sent to the house of 
 correction; 10 held as witnesses; 10 were insane; 
 7 destitute, and 23 were sick and sent to the hos- 
 pital. Of this total number of arrests of women 
 and women lodgers, 9,257 in number, in this police 
 district in 1897, only 2,288, or about 39 per cent 
 were convicted of ofifenses by police magistrates, 
 while 61 per cent of them were discharged. 
 
 Of the total number of persons arrested through- 
 out the city in 1897, 83,680 in number, 55,020 were 
 discharged by the police courts, 18,017 were fined, 
 4,138 held on criminal charges, and 2,947 bound 
 over to keep the peace. The remainder were sent 
 
44 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 to various homes, refuges, asylums and humane 
 societies. Over 50 per cent of those arrested were 
 discharged. The percentage of those who fur- 
 nished bail for their appearance, it is difficult to 
 ascertain. That the practice exists is too well 
 known to be proven, that a division of these bail 
 bond fees is made between the magistrate and 
 the police ; the police furnishing the victims, the straw 
 bailor his signature to, and the justice his ap- 
 proval of, the bond. The latter collects his fee 
 and divides with the officers, while the straw 
 bailor exacts his compensation in proportion tj 
 the ability of the victim to pay, then hands over 
 a share to the arresting officers. 
 
 That such persecution should exist in a civ- 
 ilized community is a disgrace to its civilization, 
 that public officers should, for one moment, be 
 permitted to engage in such hideous traffic in the 
 liberties of their fellows, is a scandal upon the 
 administration of justice, and that executive offi- 
 cers of the law, sworn to its enforcement, should 
 be ignorant of the infamy of such arrests, or 
 knowingly permit them to be made, is malfeasance 
 in office, and subversion of civil rights. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 45 
 
 The portion of the fines (not by statute 
 appropriated for other purposes) assessed upon, 
 and collected from, this class of unfortunates by 
 the justices, is required by- the ordinances to be 
 paid to the city at the close of each and every 
 month, and is to be apportioned by the city authori- 
 ties as the statutes and ordinances require. The sal- 
 aries of the police magistrates are fixed by agree- 
 ment with the city. These magistrates are chosen 
 bi-ennially after the election of a Mayor, by that 
 officer, from the appointed justices of the peace, 
 and are generally of the same political faith as is 
 the appointing authority. The system is a blot 
 upon the impartial administration of justice. It has 
 become a byword among the people as a malodorous 
 cesspool. 
 
 From the evidence heard before a legislative 
 committee, that committee reported "that the pres- 
 ent system of justice, or police courts, as run, is 
 a disgrace to the present civilization. It shows 
 that justice courts will open in the night time, 
 policemen will go out and drag in men and 
 women, 100 and 200, and even more at a time; that 
 
46 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 they are refused a trial at night, required to give a 
 bond for which the justice charges them one dollar; 
 that professional bondsmen are in attendance who 
 will collect another dollar, and oftentimes much 
 more, from the poor unfortunate to go on his or 
 her bond until morning, thus making several hun- 
 dred dollars ofttimes in a night to the police justices 
 and other officers connected with the court, and this 
 is done, as your committee believe, from the evi- 
 dence, for the purpose of making money for the 
 police justice, the professional bondsman, and the 
 police officer in charge of the arrest." 
 
 These magistrates are required to report at the 
 "close of each day's business," but their night ar- 
 rests are construed by them as not following within 
 the definition of "a. day's business." The fees arising 
 from them are not, therefore, reported. 
 
 Civic bodies have denounced in the bitterest 
 terms the evils of this system, and in a recent may- 
 oralty message to the Common Council, in itself 
 the hotbed of boodleism, it is said, "The justice shop 
 system with all its necessarily attendant scandals is 
 about to be wiped out." 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 47 
 
 That desirable result awaits legislative action. The 
 general assembly, if it has any respect for human 
 rights, for commendable municipal government, for 
 the performance of its sworn duty, will lay aside 
 the struggle in legislative halls for political ascend- 
 ancy, and hasten the day when this festering sore 
 shall have applied to it an instrument of eradica- 
 tion which it alone can waeld. It is proper to add 
 that since the foregoing lines were written the night 
 fees are better accounted for, vmder an agreement 
 between the magistrates and the city by which the 
 magistrates' salaries are raised, as an inducement to 
 them to be honest. 
 
 The appropriations for the year 1897, for the 
 maintenance of the police force, amounted to $3,356,- 
 910. Other sources of income amounted to $17,- 
 
 635-03- 
 
 The salary warrants drawn against this fund 
 amounted to $3,290,296.26; for other expenses, 
 $167,369.63, making a total of warrants drawn of 
 $3,457,665.89, leaving a deficit of $83,392.84. 
 
 The total income of the city for the year 1897 
 from saloon licenses was about $3,000,000. The 
 
48 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 saloons are, therefore,- the poHcemen's great finan- 
 cial friends in more ways than one, and largely 
 defray the expenses of the department. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 All Night Saloons — Character of — Thieves, 
 Thugs and Prostitutes in — Visitors — Country 
 Buyers, Tr^\nsients, Delegates, Youth and 
 Old Age — Women in — Character of — Base- 
 ment Saloons — Scenes in — Private Rooms — 
 Scenes in All Night Saloons — Dancing — 
 Music — Morning Hours — Robberies, Etc., 
 Planned — Girls Entrapped — Young Men 
 Ruined — Quarrels — Raids — Drinking — Sur- 
 roundings OF — Houses of III Fame — Assigna- 
 tion Houses — Slumming Parties — Fads — Sal- 
 vation AND Volunteer Army — Inmates of — 
 How Managed — Practices in — Superstitions — 
 Luck Powders — Sources of Supply — Patrons 
 OF — Wholesale House Entertainers — Police 
 Protection — Diseases — Attempts at Reform 
 — People Indifferent. 
 
 The breeding ground of disorder and crime is 
 to be found in the all night saloons. 
 
 Despite the stringent ordinances prohibiting the 
 "open door" after midnight, in the most dissolute 
 districts throughout the city, along the streets and 
 avenues of the north, west and south divisions, 
 
50 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 under ground and on its surface, these dens invite 
 the depraved of both sexes to enter, remain, dissi- 
 pate and carouse through the night. Murders, rob- 
 beries and assaults are the necessary outcome of 
 the unHmited drinking, the ribald language, the 
 senseless jealousies, and the heated passions of the 
 motley crowds which are at all times the fascinated 
 patrons of these joints. A more rigid rule has re- 
 cently been applied to the larger of the down town, 
 or business district, basement saloons. Music is 
 prohibited, and the closing midnight hour respected. 
 These are but the depots for the all night saloons. 
 When they close, the gathered crowds of dissolute 
 women dissolve and betake themselves to the after 
 midnight haunts, there to continue their calling — the 
 solicitation of male visitors for drinks, meals and 
 the ultimate purpose of their solicitation — prostitu- 
 tion. The male frequenters of these resorts be- 
 long to all classes of society. The "steady" visitors 
 are thieves, thugs, pickpockets, gamblers, variety 
 actors, "rounders," that large and constantly grow- 
 ing class in great cities which is ceaselessly observ- 
 ing the shady side of life, "seeing the elephant," 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 51 
 
 and not infrequently becoming intimately acquainted 
 with the beast, and pimps, who fatten upon the sin- 
 ful earnings of abandoned women, whose fondness 
 for their masters increases in proportion to the vio- 
 lence the masters visit upon their slaves. The tran- 
 sient custom is comprised of not only the old round- 
 er, but also of those of younger experience, burst- 
 ing, or not far advanced, into manhood; those who 
 with a wide knowledge of the ways and wickedness 
 of the world, more than their years warrant, are out 
 for a "good time ;" the observer of those ways ; the 
 "chiels" who are among them taking notes ; clerks, 
 cabmen and their "hauls ;" the country buyer under 
 the guidance of the entertainer of the wholesale 
 house with whom the buyer is dealing; the dele- 
 gates to conventions, out to view the town ; the 
 passer through the burg who has heard of the 
 lights and shadows of Chicago ; the swallow-tailed 
 youth, and the middle-aged gentleman fresh from 
 escorting to her home the virtuous female compan- 
 ion of the evening's entertainment, the melo- 
 drama, the opera, or the social function. The 
 women range from the one who has just "started 
 
52 Chicago, Satan^s Sanctum. 
 
 out" to the most despicable and depraved member 
 of the sex. The former is the observed of all 
 observers, the object of conspicuous attention, and 
 a veritable prize to be won by the most dashing 
 attack and the most liberal offer. She is under 
 the tuition of her female guide, who instructs her 
 "what she has to do that she may not be raw in 
 her entertainment." 
 
 The basement saloons in the down town district 
 with their brilliant electric lighting equipment, 
 their reflecting mirrors and hardwood finishings, 
 combine, in most instances, the facilities of the rum 
 shop and the restaurant. 
 
 Here, from noon hour of the day until midnight, 
 come and go the "sporty" women, who have not 
 yet reached the lower degree of a brothel, the 
 "roomers," "the cruisers" of the street, the so-called 
 keepers of manicure parlors, baths and dressmaking 
 establishments, all bent upon a "mash" in its broad- 
 est sense, or a "pick up" of any male greenhorn, 
 or sport, who can be ensnared by their wiles. 
 Maintaining a semblance of decorum, they pass the 
 earlier hours of the evening in drinking with the 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 53 
 
 "guests" and in flitting about from table to tabic, 
 with which each place is abundantly supplied. 
 The conversation is loud, and at times boisterous. 
 Its subject matter is beyond repetition in polite 
 circles. Lecherous glances, libidinous gestures, open 
 invitations, characterize the behavior of the audi- 
 ence. Sometimes personal liberties are attempted, 
 but invariably suppressed by the management. From 
 the private rooms come sounds of hilarity, and the 
 intermixture of words of protest, inducement and 
 vulgarity. The withdrawals of couples are marked, 
 and their early return and ruffled appearance sug- 
 gest patronage of not distant "hotels," where no 
 questions are asked. Generally, as the midnight 
 hour approaches, the crowd decreases, signs of in- 
 toxication increase, and the exodus to the all night 
 resorts is about completed as that hour is struck. 
 
 When the downtown basement resorts close, the 
 profitable work of the all night joints commences. 
 The attendants in them are joined by squads from 
 the more pretentious and less favored half-night 
 competitors. These resorts, as a rule, are all 
 equipped with private rooms, and many of them, 
 
54 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 in summer, have a so-called garden attached. Some 
 have vaudeville performances to attract crowds, 
 which end after the midnight hour. Many have a 
 "Ladies' Entrance," but most visitors pass through 
 the bar to the sitting room beyond. The so-called 
 music of the cracked piano and strident male voices 
 now commences, and the hat is passed around by 
 the artists and performers, for contributions for 
 payment for their services, the "house" paying noth- 
 ing for such services, but permitting the artists 
 to "work" the crowd. Boys of sixteen, and under, 
 join in the gaieties as buck, wing and jig dancers, 
 and also pass the hat. As the hours lengthen, as 
 the liquor begins its effect, freedom of action en- 
 larges, and restraint is removed. Those attitudes 
 at table indicative of respectability are abandoned 
 for others hinting at the widest license, or actually, 
 which is not infrequently the case, illustrating that 
 license, so far as familiarities of the person are con- 
 cerned. The dance begins, with all its contortions 
 of the body derived from the couche-couchee exhi- 
 bitions of the World's Fair times, enlarged upon by 
 the grossness of the two-step waltz of the slums. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 55 
 
 Strolling bands of negro musicians, scraping the 
 violin and strumming the guitar and mandolin, or 
 the home orchestra, composed of these dusky min- 
 strels, add their alleged harmonies to the occasion, 
 and, with nasal expression, roll of coon songs in 
 the popular rag time, with their intimations of free 
 love, warmth of passion and disregard of moral 
 teachings. At. times, with assumed pathos and 
 mock dignity they warble a sentimental song with 
 some allusion to "Mother," "Home," or "Just Tell 
 Them That You Saw Me." The spree goes on, 
 with fresh additions from the bagnios. Women 
 with the most repulsive signs of prolonged dissi- 
 pation, of advanced disease, with the upper parts 
 of the body exposed, not perhaps more than is cus- 
 tomary at a fashionable charity ball, join in with 
 salacious abandon. These women, in .the phrase of 
 the Bard of Avon, belong to the class of the "cus- 
 tom shrunk," of one of whom a Roman satirist wrote : 
 " * * * but now. 
 That life is flagging at the goal, and like 
 An unstrung lute, her limbs are out of tune, 
 She is become so lavish of her presence, 
 
56 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 That being daily swallowed by men's eyes 
 They surfeit at the sight. 
 
 She's grown companion to the common streets — 
 Want her who will, a stater, a three obolo piece, 
 Or a mere draught of wine, brings her to hand ! 
 Nay ! place a silver stiver in your palm. 
 And, shocking tameness ! She will stoop forthwith 
 To pick it out." 
 As the morning hours draw nigh blear-eyed men 
 and women in all stages of intoxication, creep to 
 their holes to sleep away the day for a renewal of 
 their orgies when darkness again falls. 
 
 In these all night saloons robberies and bur- 
 glaries are planned, and hold-ups arranged for. To 
 them young girls are enticed when homeward bound 
 from summer gardens and midwinter balls. Plans 
 are laid for their ruin through drink, and the ex- 
 citement of an experience new to them, which hide 
 from their view all danger signals. Women are 
 beaten and stabbed in them. Here young men begin 
 their careers of dissipation, of lechery, and, perhaps, 
 of crime, amid surroundings so contrary to the 
 examples of home life, that before they are aware 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 57 
 
 of it, they have become hopelessly enamored of what 
 is termed a sporting life. 
 
 The flippantly spoken word provokes a heated 
 reply, a jealous woman, surcharged with drink, pre- 
 cipitates a squabble that swells into a free fight, a 
 free fight brings an indiscriminate firing of revol- 
 vers, and the consequent death — the murder — of 
 some of the rioters follows. Then, and not until 
 then, do the police raid the place. For a few 
 weeks it is kept under the ban, but gradually the 
 law's grip is relaxed, signs of the old life revive, 
 and soon the same scenes made more joyous and 
 boisterous at the "new opening" are again enacted, 
 to run the same course until another felony is com- 
 mitted, and another temporary closing of the doors 
 enforced. 
 
 That the all night saloon where such depravity 
 is permitted to hold sway is a menace to the 
 peace, the sobriety, and the safety of the commu- 
 nity, is a self evident proposition. 
 
 A minister in one of his sermons said, "The 
 police wank when you call their attention to the fact 
 that hundreds of saloons are running wide open all 
 
58 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 night. It is after midnight that the majority of 
 the crimes are committed, and yet these places are 
 allowed to run after hours, and have the protection 
 of the police." 
 
 The beardless boy and the habitual drunkard are, 
 alike, supplied with drink without question. The 
 former is flattered by being called "a dead game 
 sport," and the latter tickled with the oft-bestowed 
 title of "old sport." 
 
 Many of these notorious dens are located in the 
 midst of a forest of houses of ill fame. The de- 
 praved inmates of these houses, partly clad, are the 
 most indecent visitors to the all night saloons. 
 Perched upon the bar, or peering out from the pri- 
 vate wine rooms, they shout their infamous lan- 
 guage at the visitors, with invitations to indulgence 
 in the most bestial of practices. 
 
 Slumming parties, composed of respectable men 
 and women whose morbid curiosity has been aroused 
 by tales of the inconceivable vices forming the 
 night-life of the demi-monde, are not infrequently 
 foimd "going down the line" dropping into the 
 houses of prostitution, viewing the bar, the private 
 
' Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 59 
 
 rooms, the dance hall, the crap games and the vicious 
 surroundings of the all night pest holes. To slum 
 has, in a measure, become a fashionable fad. Its 
 purpose is, not to carry into these haunts the ex- 
 ample of a better life, but to cater to a dangerous 
 spirit of inquiry, upon the principle that excite- 
 ment, even though it be found in the midst of the 
 garbage boxes of vice, is relished now and then by 
 the best of mankind. The only indication of a 
 world outside, in which Christian principles prevail, 
 is occasionally to be found, when some of the women 
 garbed in the simple uniform of either the Salva- 
 tion or Volunteer Army, engaged in rescue work, 
 or in scattering a hopeful word, through the medium 
 of their publications, pass among the crov/d, receiv- 
 ing in most instances respectful attention, and, at 
 times, but rarely, a jeer from some drunken sot or 
 wrecked woman. 
 
 The houses of ill fame, whose stained glass win- 
 dows with suggestive female figures in the nude 
 advertise the abode of the scarlet woman, are as 
 luxuriously furnished as is the home of the wealthy 
 and respectable citizen. These "creatures of sale," 
 
6o . Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 as Shakespeare puts it, are as clearly distinguished 
 ill public as members of the demi-monde, as if the 
 Julian laws were in operation in Chicago. In early 
 Rome, under these laws, the courtesan was com- 
 pelled to dye her hair blue or yellow. Like the 
 Grecian courtesan whose distinctive mark of her 
 calling was blonde hair, the strumpet of today gen- 
 erally favors a fashion coming down from the past 
 ages. The passer-by of these abodes of sensuality 
 is invited by open solicitation or unmistakable ges- 
 ture to enter them, especially by the more degraded 
 of the women. A studied decorum is maintained 
 in some of the parlors of the older establishments, 
 presided over by a proprietress advanced in years, 
 plentiful in wealth, and dictatorial in management. 
 Harsh rules are prescribed for the maintenance of 
 the condition of slavery into which the girls have 
 fallen. Debts to the house tie them to it by bands 
 too strong to be easily broken, in what are termed 
 the aristocratic branches of this nefarious trade. 
 These women are none the less free from indul- 
 gence in unnatural practices than are those of 
 houses of reputed lower degrees of depravity. White 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 6i 
 
 and colored alike revel in the same scenes of car- 
 nality which, fragments of history state, prevailed 
 in the declining days of Rome and of Greece. The 
 inmates of the lowest of these houses, both in 
 dress, or in the absence of it, and in deportment, 
 follow the habits of the Dicteriades, or low down 
 prostitues, of Piraeus in the time of Pericles. 
 Their appearance in the reception parlors in a state 
 of nudity, and their filthiness in practice is a re- 
 newal of the habits of the Lesbian lovers of the 
 fifth century ; or of the flute players of the Athe- 
 nian banquets, accounts of whose indecent dancing 
 and depraved ways are found in the most erotic 
 chapters in ancient literature. From them come the 
 terms applying to the devotees in these days of 
 sodomitic indulgence, forming part of the slang of 
 the neighborhood where they live a debauched and 
 beastly existence. 
 
 The superstitions of the Grecian and Roman 
 courtesan are carried into the beliefs of those of 
 modern days. What the philters or love charms 
 were to the former, luck powders are to the latter. 
 They are known along the levee as "Sally White's 
 
62 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Brand" and "Sally White's Mixed Luck." The 
 former is regarded as particularly lucky. It is a 
 compound of "Sally's" own prescription, and is 
 secretly sprinkled on the floor, at stated periods, 
 as luck is sought after, or is burned in a room and 
 the fumes inhaled. The latter is a mixture of per- 
 fumed oils and is used in the bath. The women 
 are the frequent buyers of Sally's prescriptions, 
 avoiding purchasing on a Friday. 
 
 The sources from which come the supply to the 
 ranks of courtesans, whether inmates of the aris- 
 tocratic, the middle, or the lowest grades of their 
 temples of vice, are many, various and damnable. 
 Aside from the mere desire to gratify passion, 
 which medical writers maintain constitutes but a 
 small percentage of those who join the army of 
 prostitutes, attributable to an innate sense of virtue 
 in the modern woman, cabmen, in spite of the mu- 
 nicipal ordinances, have been known to drive women 
 entering the city to these brothels on the pretext 
 they were hotels. The procuress is at work all the 
 while. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 63 
 
 "Thou hold'st a place for which the paind'st fiend 
 Of hell would not in reputation change. 
 Thou art the damned doorkeeper to every 
 Coistril that comes inquiring for his Tib; 
 To the choleric fisting of every rogue 
 Thy ear is liable ; thy food is such 
 As hath been belched on by infected lungs." 
 The department stores, in which starvation wages 
 are paid to girls and women, who are subjected to 
 the attentions of designing men, invited to lunch, 
 induced to drink ; whose love for dress and whose 
 vanity are worked upon ; those whose want of edu- 
 cation in the relations of the sexes brings about 
 their speedy fall ; the servant turned out from her 
 employment ruined by her employer or his son ; the 
 seamstress ; the victims of unhappy marriages and 
 cruel homes ; those compelled by poverty or neces- 
 sity, and who support dependent relatives ; the 
 "chippies" of modern days; the massage parlor grad- 
 uates; all contribute their distressed quotas to this 
 ever increasing tribe of prostitutes. 
 
 It gathers in recruits from the overflow of the 
 assignation houses, which are scattered over this 
 
64 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 city in astonishing profusion. They are found in 
 boulevard castles and in back alley huts. They do 
 not differ in character from those of all cities. 
 Through them come the cast-off women, who, hav- 
 ing satisfied the temporary infatuation of their se- 
 ducers, find themselves victims of false promises, 
 and the graduates from homes wrecked by the dis- 
 covery of their daylight intrigues. So relentless a 
 warfare is waged upon these private, and in some 
 instances most exclusive, resorts, by the lynx-eyed 
 police, that in the year 1897, nineteen keepers of 
 such places were arrested ! Some improvement is 
 noticeable in their suppression from the fact that 
 in 1894 seventeen, in 1895 five, and in 1896 fifteen 
 keepers were arrested ! Interference with this style 
 of accommodation is, therefore, possible in Chicago, 
 at or about the time of the arrival of the millennium ! 
 Singular to say there are moralists who assign 
 the prostitute a position of usefulness in modern 
 civilization. One of the most distinguished of Eng- 
 lish writers, in tracing the effects of Christianity 
 upon mankind and its beneficent influences in social 
 life, says : "Under these circumstances there has 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 65 
 
 arisen in society a figure which is certainly the 
 most mournful, and, in some respects, the most 
 awful upon which the eye of the moralist can dwell. 
 That unhappy being whose very name is a shame 
 to speak, who counterfeits, with a cold heart, the 
 transports of affection, and submits herself as a 
 passive instrument of lust, who is scorned and in- 
 sulted as the vilest of her sex, and doomed for the 
 most part to disease and abject wretchedness, and 
 an early death, appears in every age as the per- 
 petual symbol of the degradation and the sinfulness 
 of man. Herself the supreme type of vice, she is 
 ultimately the most efficient guardian of virtue. 
 But for her the unchallenged purity of countless 
 happy homes would be polluted, and not a few, who 
 in the pride of their untempted chastity think of 
 her with an indignant shudder, would have known 
 the agony of remorse and of despair. On that one 
 degraded and ignoble form are concentrated the pas- 
 sions that might have filled the world with shame. 
 
 She remains, while creeds and civilizations rise 
 and fade, the external priestess of humanity, blasted 
 for the sins of the people." 
 
66 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The entertainer of the wholesale house who con- 
 ducts his country customer to see the sights of the 
 town, whenever and wherever such sights are to be 
 seen, "where everything goes," pays the expenses 
 of the round of debauchery from the fund pro- 
 vided by his firm; while from the floating, passing, 
 male visitors, no less than from the resident male 
 dwellers, young and old, rich and poor, come the 
 thousands of dollars which go to the support of the 
 lewd woman of the town, from the street walker, 
 up through the mistresses and the shady wives, to 
 the best dressed and most brazen wanton in the 
 palaces — the "swell" houses so styled. The unre- 
 vealable indecencies which attend these infamous re- 
 sorts are within the knowledge of the police, under 
 any and every municipal administration. At times 
 their pressure upon these unfortunates is heavier 
 than at others. The necessity of raising campaign 
 funds, the personal wants of the blackmailers of 
 the police force, the revenges to be gratified for 
 some jealousy aroused, or favor refused, all con- 
 tribute to increase the weight of oppression. Mean- 
 while, in the absence of municipal regulations, which 
 
Chicago, Satan^'s Sanctum. 67 
 
 seem abhorrent to the average American mind as a 
 recognition of the legaHzation of vice, diseases are 
 wide spread, until, in the language of a distinguished 
 physician, the most destructive of them have reached 
 the blood of "the best and noblest families of the 
 land." Lecky, in his History of European Morals, 
 speaking of the horrible effects incident to the non- 
 regulation of houses of this character, says: "In 
 the eyes of every physician, and, indeed, in the 
 eyes of most continental writers who have adverted 
 to the subject, no other feature of English life ap- 
 pears so infamous as the fact that an epidemic, 
 which is one of the most dreadful now existing 
 among mankind, which communicates itself from the 
 guilty husband to the innocent wife, and even trans- 
 mits its taint to her offspring, and which the ex- 
 perience of other nations conclusively proves may be 
 vastly eliminated, should be suffered to rage un- 
 checked, because the legislature refuses to take of- 
 ficial cognizance of its existence, or proper sanitary 
 measures for its repression." 
 
 The protests of Christian organizations and of 
 societies for the suppression of vice seem to be in 
 
68 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 vain. The city ordinances prohibiting, for instance, 
 the employment of females in massage parlors pa- 
 tronized by men, and others, intended to keep the 
 conduct of all manufactories of vice within limits, 
 if not to accomplish their suppression, dre not at- 
 tempted to be enforced. 
 
 Some mitigation of the evils of police aggression 
 has been brought about, as has been observed, by 
 placing police magistrates under a salary sufficiently 
 large to induce them to partly abolish the practice 
 of wholesale midnight arrests, with their consequent 
 fees and bailors' exactions. These fees are now 
 accounted for more rigidly and paid over to the 
 city, whether they are the result of daylight or mid- 
 night arrests. These evils are not, however, wholly 
 eradicated, nor will they be, until an aroused public 
 sentiment shall give as much attention, public serv- 
 ice, and personal endeavor, to the attainment of that 
 most desirable end, as is given to the building of 
 an armory, the establishment of lake front parks. 
 Greater Chicago, the passage of revenue bills, and 
 the defeat of the attempt to obtain public franchises 
 without compensation to the granting municipality. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 69 
 
 Whatever will tend to create wealth for the indi- 
 vidual, to increase the volume of trade, or add to 
 the attractiveness of the city in the improvement 
 or adornment of its public parks, the energetic and 
 pushing citizen aids with his personal services, and 
 abundant wealth. Its moral attractions receive, in 
 so far as the repression of villainy and of dis- 
 gusting vice is concerned, but Httle, if any, personal 
 or pecuniary assistance from the people. At a re- 
 cent meeting of the Law Enforcement League, a 
 clergyman, who had freely given his time and serv- 
 ices in behalf of the objects of that association, 
 begged for the paltry sum of $250 with which to 
 carry on the work. It was received by contribu- 
 tion from his audience after repeated appeals. Had 
 it been a meeting for stock subscriptions to some 
 corporation promising large returns, or for the pur- 
 pose of building a monument to some former day 
 hero, or author, the appeal would not have had to 
 fall upon the ears of the people repeatedly. The 
 request would have been granted upon its first pres- 
 entation. "This work," said the preacher, "cannot 
 be carried on by sympathy, or applause, or resolu- 
 
70 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 tions, or expressions of good will. There is noth- 
 ing but hard cash that counts in the practical work 
 of enforcing the law," 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Re-election of Mayor — False Issue Upon Which 
 Re-elected — Vices in Chicago — "Blind Pigs" 
 — Protected by Police — Where Situated — 
 How Conducted — Classes — Drug Stores, Bak- 
 eries, Barns — Revenue to Police — Located 
 Near Univ^ersities — Lieutenant of Police 
 Convicted for Protecting — Cock Fighting — 
 Bucket Shops — Woimen Dealers — Pool Rooms 
 — Police Play — Pulling of. Farcical — Views 
 of Chief of Police — Players — Landlords — 
 Book Making — Alliance Between, and Police 
 and Landlords — New York and Chicago — Chi- 
 cago Police Force Worst — Hold Up Men — 
 Methods — Victims — Police Sleep — Mayor's 
 Felicitations, April ii, 1899 — Accounts of 
 Hold Ups, Same Day — Classes of Hold-Up Men 
 — Strong Armed Women — Street Car Conduct- 
 ors Robbed — Ice Chest and Ovens for Prisons 
 — Hair Clippers — Protection to Criminals — 
 "Safe Blowers' Union" — Fakes — Panel 
 Houses — Badger Games — Nude Photographs — 
 Pbscene Literature — Confidence Men — Di- 
 ploma Mills — Gambling — Women's Down 
 Town Clubs — Sexual Perverts — Opium Joints. 
 
 That public opinion can be aroused on any ques- 
 tion deemed of importance to the municipal wel- 
 fare finds abundant confirmation in the history of 
 
72 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Chicago, and that that opinion can make itself felt 
 at the polls has but recently been most remarkably- 
 demonstrated. Admittedly deficient, both by friend 
 and foe, in public assemblages called in behalf of 
 its retention in power; permitting the violation of 
 the law, in all its departments ; openly consenting 
 to the unrestrainted lechery of the debauched classes, 
 the wide open running of gambling houses, pool 
 rooms and disorderly houses ; aiding by its refusal, 
 or neglect, to stop the levying by the police of pro- 
 tection rates upon poker rooms, crap games, pool 
 rooms and dens of that class, the pitfalls and snares 
 set for the young men of the town ; assessing for 
 political purposes the keepers of disreputable resorts 
 of all kinds, and the employes of the city under civil 
 service rules in defiance of a law sternly prohibit- 
 ing that demoralizing practice ; an administration 
 appealed to, and received, the support of nearly a 
 majority of the whole people, upon one fictitiously 
 dominant issue, under which all others were adroitly 
 sheltered and wholly hidden from view. 
 
 That issue which concerned the people as an in- 
 corporated body, rather more than as individuals, 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 73 
 
 was practically non-existing. The power to invade 
 the rights of the people had been destroyed by State 
 legislation. In the absence of new legislation, the 
 extension of railroad franchises is now an impossi- 
 bility, except under the terms of the existing char- 
 ter. No legislation can be obtained in enlargement 
 of such municipal power, until the next general 
 assembly shall have convened in January, 1901, unless 
 a special session should be called for that particular 
 purpose, the probability of which is too remote to 
 be considered. Meanwhile the new administration 
 which will be carried on for the next two years by 
 practically the same men as for the past two years, 
 can find no refuge behind an issue of supposedly 
 overwhelming importance to hide its neglect of oth- 
 ers, which affect, if not directly, yet indirectly, the 
 financial interests of the city. Those matters, to 
 which the administration of the city must now give 
 its attention, concern the purity of municipal leg- 
 islation ; the proper enforcement of the laws in all 
 departments of the city government; no interfer- 
 ence in matters of education; no attempt at the 
 control of the civil service commission in the strict 
 
74 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 enforcement of the law creating it; the proper let- 
 ting of contracts, and the preservation of pay-rolls 
 from manipulation and fraudulent swelling. The 
 purity of municipal legislation is assured by the 
 election of a number of aldermen whose records as 
 citizens warrant the prediction that they, joining 
 with an already trusty minority, for the ensuing year 
 at least, will conserve public rather than private 
 interests, guided by the promptings of each individ- 
 ual conscience. There will be no opportunity to 
 filch from them for party ends, or for personal ad- 
 vancement, due public acknowledgment of their 
 integrity and ability. But the enforcement of the 
 laws governing municipal administration in its sev- 
 eral departments ; the proper disbursement of its 
 appropriation funds for street improvements, scav- 
 enger service, street and alley cleaning, public 
 buildings and parks, etc. ; the management of the 
 school-board by its own officials, free from po- 
 litical suasion; of the civil service commission 
 along the lines contemplated by the law free from 
 party dictation, and the elevation of the police force 
 to the plane of its non-political duties, for the pre- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 75 
 
 vention of the spread of vice and indecency, the 
 repression of crime, the protection of Hfe and prop- 
 erty, are all matters, the non-attention to which can 
 no longer be excused upon the theory of the ne- 
 cessity of first destroying an attempted private 
 seizure of the public streets, a theory which has 
 gone to its destruction by the repeal of an ob- 
 noxious law, under which seizure might have been 
 accomplished. 
 
 So far as the suppression of vice is concerned, 
 the initial duty of municipal administration is the 
 education of the police in their duties as imposed 
 upon them by law. For years, under every ad- 
 ministration, with infrequent, feeble attempts at 
 reform, that force has been rapidly becoming a 
 fleet of harveyized steel battleships, sailing under 
 the flaunting flag of vice, fully armed, and loy- 
 ally serving the kings of the gamblers, the queens 
 of the demi-monde, and their conjoined forces of 
 thieves, confidence men, cappers, prostitutes, philan- 
 derers, etc., etc. It is not in the least fearful of 
 public opinion. If wealth can snap its fingers and 
 cry aloud "The public be d — d," so can the force 
 
76 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 laugh in its sleeve, and, aping wealth, echo "To 
 hell" with the public. 
 
 It is not different in Chicago from what it is 
 in New York. The temporary disappearance from 
 the "Tenderloin" of many of its flagrant vices, and 
 the supposed purification of the police force follow- 
 ing the astounding revelations of the Lexow com- 
 mittee, have given way under the ceaseless and in- 
 sidious assaults of criminal and vicious influences. 
 A New York journal recently said: "The reports 
 to the Society for the Prevention of Crime show 
 that the city is in worse condition than ever before. 
 No paper would dare print all that is done openly 
 in dens of vice that are tolerated by the police. The 
 reports seem almost incredible ; they show that 
 with few exceptions the police force is corrupt 
 from top to bottom. Gambling houses, disorderly 
 houses and dives of the worst description flourish 
 openly, a regular schedule of rates has been es- 
 tablished which the police force charge for pro- 
 tection. 
 
 The flagrancy of crime which brought about a 
 political revolution five years ago exists today as 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 77 
 
 it did then. In some ways there is even less at- 
 tempt at concealment than there was in the ante- 
 Lexow days ; in others the vice and immorality is 
 more hidden. But it is here, and instead of there 
 being one "Tenderloin" ulcer on the city there are 
 now four, each fully as extended as was that old hot- 
 bed of vice." 
 
 What the police force of New York was before 
 the investigation of the Lexow committee, so the 
 police force of Chicago then was ; and what the 
 New York force is today, so is the Chicago force. 
 A new investigation is about to begin in New York 
 city. Watch its revelations day after day. Change 
 the names, and for every police infamy revealed, 
 every unspeakable vice disclosed, every violation of 
 law recorded, their counterparts can be found in Chi- 
 cago, intensified, not modified. 
 
 The crimes which these "coppers" should, but 
 do not, give their services to repress, are numerous, 
 if minor in character. In flagrant cases of com- 
 mission arrests may follow, and often do. It is 
 the unused means of prevention deadened by the 
 purchased indifiference of the officers, that is the 
 most glaring of police sins. 
 
78 /Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The location of "blind pigs," or those places in 
 which liquor is sold without a license, both 
 within prohibition districts as well as without 
 them, must either be known to ofificers traveling 
 beats whereon they flourish, or such officers are 
 too ignorant to belong to the ranks. It is not ig- 
 norance of the officers that prevents their suppression. 
 Superiors are paid a price for non-interference. 
 The patrolman follows his orders, permits the il- 
 licit traffic to be carried on by those who pay that 
 price, and reports only those who do not pay it, but 
 who seek to conduct the prohibited business with- 
 out contribution to the permissive fund. 
 
 In the most respectable settlements of the city, 
 in the very heart of prohibition districts, in which 
 there would be spasms of protest and whirlwinds 
 of indignation if it were even suggested that the 
 lines separating the prohibitive from the non-pro- 
 hibitive districts should be abolished, are to be 
 found the highest grade of the breed of "blind 
 pigs." They are the brilliantly lighted, well ar- 
 ranged, and aristocratic types of the modern drug- 
 store, where, as the evening shades descend, a band 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 79 
 
 of friendly Indians asscniljles to discuss the events 
 of the day, conduct wars, shape the destinies of na- 
 tions, and draw their inspiration from spiritus fer- 
 menti op., a drug commonly known, however, as 
 whisky, when obtained without a prescription at the 
 bar of the ordinary licensed saloon. These whisky 
 jacks express amazement at the want of proper 
 regulation of the sale of liquor, while aiding in its 
 unlawful traffic. They are typical Archimagos ; 
 high priests of hypocrisy and deceit . They are the 
 open mouthed reformers who shout for a rigorous 
 application of the law for the regulation of saloons 
 outside of their own prohibition districts, for the 
 maintenance of prohibition within those districts, 
 and who wink at their own infractions of the license 
 laws, behind the prescription case — their private bar. 
 This form of attack upon the license law exists 
 all over the city, more so perhaps in prohibition 
 districts than without them, but each drug store, 
 as a rule, has its patrons from whom a yearly reve- 
 nue is derived by the accommodating and equally 
 guilty proprietor who vends his drinks without com- 
 pliance with the law. 
 
8o Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The other class of "blind pigs" owes its exist- 
 ence to a prearranged bargain between a policeman 
 and the members of that class, who, for the enter- 
 tainment of friends, and the turning of a penny, 
 embark in the business without fear of arrest. As 
 the sale of liquor for use upon the premises as a 
 beverage is lawful when licensed, every combina- 
 tion to evade a license is not only an evasion of 
 the penalties of the license law, but it is a conspir- 
 acy to rob the city of a portion of a large revenue, 
 sufficient almost to support the police force. The 
 city is thus plundered by its own servants who 
 take its place in fixing the amount of the license, 
 and who appropriate it when collected to their own 
 use. 
 
 Some of these institutions are to be found in 
 the rear of bakeries, in the costly barns of the 
 wealthy classes with coachmen as bartenders, and 
 at the gates of the silent cities of the dead. 
 
 They are a fruitful source of revenue to the 
 police, and, consequently, difficult of discovery, since 
 their patrons must be well known as non-squealers, 
 and the police are too loyal to turn informers. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. Si 
 
 They exist in surrounding country towns and 
 in classic neighborhoods, in Evanston and Hyde 
 Park particularly. Both of these locahties are the 
 seats of institutions of learning; the Northwestern 
 University at the one, and the University of Chi- 
 cago at the other. 
 
 A Lieutenant of Police was arrested for extort- 
 ing money for protection from the keeper of a blind 
 pig in Hyde Park. It developed, in the course of 
 of his trial, that he was to pay part of the insur- 
 ance premium to a brewery company. To such 
 an extent has this blackmailing scheme gone, that 
 its proceeds are distributed not alone among patrol- 
 men and superior police ofificials, but also to brew- 
 ing companies united in a trust afifecting the price 
 and the quality of the poor man's beverage. 
 
 The national pastime of the Filipinos is of com- 
 mon occurrence in Chicago, and escapes the watch- 
 ful eyes of the police, although its uniformed mem- 
 bers pass the door of the saloon with which the 
 principal pit is connected. The entering crowds, 
 and the crowing of "birds," never fail to announce 
 the on-coming of the main, except to sightless 
 
82 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 eyes and deafened ears. No underground or out 
 of hearing place is selected for these exhibitions 
 of cock fighting. They are held in the rear of 
 saloons, or in barns or stables connected therewith 
 by covered ways of approach. One geographical 
 division of the city is generally pitted against the 
 other. 
 
 Usually the indignant police, even with early 
 information of the time and place where and when 
 this inhuman amusement is to be held, arrive upon 
 the scene when the fight has, ended, the lights ex- 
 tinguished, and the sports scattered. Although the 
 city council possesses the charter power to prevent 
 these disgraceful combats, that power remains un- 
 acted upon, and the offense falls within the defini- 
 tion of disorderly conduct, the penalty prescribed 
 by ordinance, upon conviction for that offense, 
 being a fine of from one to one hundred dollars. 
 
 Bucket shops have nearly disappeared from the 
 public gaze. They are, nevertheless, still carried 
 on in secret, for the purpose of enabling men and 
 women to gratify their natural propensity for gam- 
 bling. The active efforts of one man, having the 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 83 
 
 courage of his convictions and with the support 
 of a commercial organization, which is the only com- 
 petitor of these gambling concerns, have kept them 
 in comparative subjection. Yet, such is the re- 
 sistance made by them, that this man, aiding also 
 in the discovery and punishment of gambling in 
 general, ran the risk of the destruction of his life, 
 his home, and the loss of the lives of his family, 
 by the explosion of a bomb thrown at night into, 
 or against, his house, by some miscreant or mis- 
 creants, with the evident intent of "removing" him 
 as an impediment to the transactions of their mur- 
 derous employers. 
 
 The police, after much effort to discover the 
 perpetrators of the outrage, finally dismissed it 
 from further examination, upon the theory that 
 this man had himself "put up the job," to accom- 
 plish the destruction of his wife and children, 
 and of his own life. Through this heroic man's 
 efforts, together with those of a fearless and out- 
 spoken clergyman, as in New York, and not by 
 reason of police assistance, but in spite of police 
 resistance, the convictions in the criminal court, in 
 
84 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the past year for gambling, are wholly "due. The 
 latest accessible reports show that in the year 1897 
 the number of places closed during the two pre- 
 ceding years was one hundred and forty-six, and 
 that at the end of 1897 there were twenty-nine still 
 in existence, including tape games and fraudulent 
 brokers' haunts. These institutions possess a pe- 
 culiar fascination for women. Three of them, 
 patronized wholly by the female sex, were found 
 under one roof. Of the leading one, a writer 
 in a city daily newspaper, in a vivid description of 
 its general surroundings, said : 
 
 "The atmosphere of the rooms is stifling and 
 poisonous. The odor is rank with the effluvia 
 of bodies, which, in many cases, present the ap- 
 pearance that would justify the belief that they 
 have been strangers to the bath for weeks. To go 
 into these rooms out of the fresh outdoor world is 
 to almost suffocate at first. * * * The effects 
 are plainly visible in the faces of the women. They 
 had, with few exceptions, leathery, sallow skins, 
 drawn and tense features, hard lines about the 
 mouth, and wrinkles between the eyes, while the 
 
Chicago, Satan's SaxXctum. 85 
 
 eyes themselves had acquired a restless, half cun- 
 ning expression, composed of cupidity and uncer- 
 tainty. As for their nervous systems they are 
 wrecks. Take the hand of any woman in those 
 rooms, especially if she has just made an invest- 
 ment, and the nervous vibration is plain — her hand 
 quivers, her whole body is tense, her bulging eyes 
 fix themselves on the board." 
 
 Alluding to the men who hang around, furnish- 
 ing "pointers," and looking for an invitation to a 
 fifteen-cent lunch, one of the speculating women 
 said of them, "These men are the lowest creatures 
 who come up here ; most of the women are re- 
 spectable, but these men are lazy, dirty, ignorant 
 and infinitely low, and all they are after is to get 
 money and a free meal out of women." 
 
 "The ages of the women range from twenty-five 
 to seventy years. The older women peered anx- 
 iously through their spectacles at the board and 
 whispered quietly to a companion ; wisps of ragged 
 gray hair escaped and waved below the little black 
 bonnet. Heavy, thick-soled shoes stuck out from 
 the hem of the modest black gowns; they grasped 
 
86 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 worn silk reticules in their nervous fingers, and 
 got out the small sum which, in most instances, 
 they did not have the nerve to invest." 
 
 Describing the condition in life of these women, 
 the reporter was told that some had been wealthy, 
 and were now poor through speculation; while 
 "more than two-thirds are the mothers of families 
 and are eking out a little income, in many instances 
 supporting an idle, worthless man, who should him- 
 self be out in the world earning a living." 
 
 "If they make 75 cents a day it is a big day 
 for them," said the reporter's informant. "How lit- 
 tle you realize the state to which many of these 
 women are brought! Many of them are almost 
 penniless. Frequently they come here in the morn- 
 ing and borrow money with which to begin the day's 
 operations." 
 
 Pool rooms, as a general rule, run wide open; 
 occasionally they are "closed for repairs" caused 
 by a police raid, forced by some flagrant outrage 
 against the law. They flourish in the most public 
 places, with no restriction upon admission to any 
 visitor. The daily races all over the country are 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 87 
 
 posted on large black boards covering the walls, 
 with a list of the horses entered and a minute of 
 the odds which will be given or demanded by the 
 house, from which the room's judgment of the 
 "favorite" can be ascertained. 
 
 The money is handled openly, bet openly, and 
 paid openly. City detectives assist in their man- 
 agement, and "play the races." Raids contemplated 
 by the police are tipped off to the managers, and 
 when the officers arrive the game has closed. 
 
 The incidents attending an actual pull are in the 
 main more laughable than impressive. The "hurry 
 up" wagon takes its load away, and before many 
 moments have elapsed the same faces are seen 
 again returning to the one attractive spot in their 
 daily lives. These rooms are munificent contribu- 
 tors for protection. They pay from $600 to $1,000 
 per month. They hold back telegraphic messages 
 of the results of races until their confederates have 
 placed bets. They are patronized by women of, 
 apparently, all classes. In one raid eighteen women 
 were captured, fifteen of whom claimed to be mar- 
 ried. All of them, of course, gave fictitious names; 
 
88 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 three had babies in their arms ; three claimed they 
 were wives of pohcemen; a few were well dressed, 
 and all were undoubtedly devotees of gambling, 
 sporting women who fancied they had discovered 
 the way to lead an easy and money-making life. 
 
 The following extract, taken from the examina- 
 tion of the head of the police force of the city, 
 will show the view entertained by that official of 
 the nature of his duties, in this regard. 
 
 Before the senatorial committee appointed Jan- 
 uary 6th, 1898, to investigate scandals in connection 
 with the police force, its Chief was interrogated and 
 answered as follows, viz. : 
 
 Q. How many pool rooms have you pulled, how 
 many men have been arrested and convicted for pool 
 selling since you have been chief? 
 
 A. I understand one fellow has been found guilty 
 and fined $2,000.. 
 
 Q. But he was arrested by the Sheriff of Cook 
 County, indicted by the grand jury because the 
 police would not do it? 
 
 A. I don't know whether it was because the po- 
 lice would not do it, or because they could not do it. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 89 
 
 Q. Well, it was because they did not do it. Do 
 you mean to say that you, as Chief of Police, with 
 3,500 sworn men 
 
 A. Don't say 3,500 men. It is 2,500 men; don't 
 make it quite so strong. 
 
 Q. Do you say to this committee, that with 
 2,500 sworn men in this city you are powerless to 
 stop the public running of pool rooms in this city? 
 
 A. I will say that I am powerless to stop a 
 man from making hand books, or selling pools 
 confidentially to his friends. 
 
 Q. Do you know of any pool rooms being con- 
 ducted in this city during the months of October, 
 November and December? 
 
 A. I don't know of my own knowledge; I never 
 was in one. 
 
 Q. Did any of the 2,500 men ever report any- 
 thing of that kind to you? 
 
 A. I never had any definite report on that sub- 
 ject. 
 
 O. They were giving the people a liberal gov- 
 ernment ? 
 
 A. Yes, things were running very easy. 
 
90 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Q. I will get you to state if it is not a fact that 
 a large number of pool rooms were running openly 
 with telegraph operators in the place, pools were 
 being sold, money paid, and everything running at 
 full blast? 
 
 A. I never was present; I don't know anything 
 about it. 
 
 Q. Was there any complaint to you of that kind 
 of thing being done? 
 
 A. No particular complaint at all. The news- 
 paper boys often came around and said there was 
 pool selling going on at different places. 
 
 Q. Could not the police of the city of Chicago 
 as readily have found these people who have been 
 fined for gambling as the Sheriff? 
 
 A. Well, I don't know. I presume if a desperate 
 effort had been made to look that kind of thing up 
 ijoe might, possibly, Jiave been successful." 
 
 Through these resorts, which offer inducements 
 for betting on distant horse races, the confidential 
 clerk, the outside collector for business houses, 
 the employes of banks, young men in all grades 
 of employment involving the handling of the funds 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 91 
 
 of their employers, together with the men of mod- 
 erate salaries, working men, and the large number 
 of sports who live by their wits, are assisted in 
 a downward career, until defalcations, destitution in 
 homes, and a still more acute phase of living on 
 one's wits, are reached, followed by flight, arrest, 
 conviction, imprisonment, the breaking up of homes, 
 and the necessity for the resort of the broken sport 
 to the tactics of the hold-up man. 
 
 Yet they are tolerated, until their shameless 
 management becomes a public scandal. Then fol- 
 lows a pull, a period of purification of very slight 
 duration, and again a slow start. Speedily again 
 they are in as full gallop as are the horses whose 
 names they post, and as around the race track the 
 horses go, so around the vice track the pool rooms 
 go. The losing patrons pass under the wire at 
 the end of their foolish struggle to win, some to 
 the penitentiary, some to despair, and some to 
 suicide. 
 
 The keeper and the landlord who knowingly 
 permits his premises to be used for the selling of 
 pools, are, under the laws of the State of Illinois 
 
92 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 enacted into an ordinance by the Municipal Code, 
 guilty of a misdemeanor, and are liable to pun- 
 ishment by imprisonment in the county jail for a 
 period not longer than one year, or by a fine not 
 exceeding $2,000, or both. 
 
 The police make no complaints to justices for 
 arrests, nor to their Chief, according to his testi- 
 mony. The keeper pays a high rent, while the 
 landlord, perhaps some sanctimonious deacon of a 
 church, who thanks God that he is not as other 
 men are, accepts his monthly returns with unctu- 
 ous satisfaction, shouts his amens louder, con- 
 fesses his sins more meekly, or excuses his vio- 
 lation of the laws of the state with a more em- 
 phatic shrug of his shoulders and a more fervid 
 rubbing of his hands. 
 
 Book making, "in which the betting is with the 
 book maker," and pool selling, in which the bet- 
 ting is among the purchasers of the pool, they 
 paying a commission to the seller, are both de- 
 nounced by the statute, and the court of last resort 
 of the state. 
 
 The unholy alliance between the police, the keeper 
 
CHICAGO; Satan's Sanctum. 93 
 
 of these law breaking and despicable haunts, and 
 the conscienceless landlord, could be summarily 
 dissolved. The police could be made the enemy 
 of both. Their warm friendship for, and silent 
 participation in the profits of, the partnership, can 
 be destroyed by an executive order which needs 
 but to be issued, with no possibility of an early 
 revocation, to be implicitly obeyed by the sellers 
 and ''bookies." If not obeyed, then drastic meas- 
 ures within the power of the police to employ 
 should be applied. As these lines are written, 
 some evidence is visible of action by the police. 
 A raid has been made ! The inspector, under whose 
 order it was conducted, said', "The sooner these 
 men begin to learn that I mean what I say, the 
 better it will be for them. I want my officers to 
 understand, also, that they will have to be more 
 vigilant." Threatening words, such as these, are 
 common utterances by police officials, but hereto- 
 fore as their echo died away their fierceness dis- 
 appeared. No administration could lay claim to 
 higher praise in any city in the land than that 
 its police force is the guardian of the people's 
 
94 .Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 rights, the stern foe of crime, and the relentless 
 suppressor of vice and indecency through the en- 
 forcement of the laws created for that suppression. 
 
 If this is done in Chicago, a few of the devil's 
 aids in the diffusion of wickedness will disappear 
 from sight so completely that Asmodeus would 
 vainly tear off the roofs of the houses in a search 
 after proofs of his demoniacal power. 
 
 While the police force is so closely leagued 
 with pool rooms, and subjected to the power of 
 the money their keepers are willing to pay for per- 
 mission to carry on, their demoralizing business, it 
 is a matter of impossibility to destroy them. Vice 
 works incessantly; the means for its destruction 
 are employed spasmodically. New York City fur- 
 nishes an astonishing instance of the political 
 power exercised by a combination of the law 
 breakers. 
 
 The Lexow committee demonstrated the almost 
 total depravity of an officer, charged with a com- 
 mand over its "Tenderloin." 
 
 The city labored and Greater New York was 
 born. It would seem that greater crime and 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 95 
 
 greater political power in the criminal classes were 
 born at the same birth. That officer became Chief 
 of Police of the expanded metropolis. He had 
 been indicted under the scathing revelations against 
 him made by the Lexow committee, and yet de- 
 spite the evidence of his depravity, and the pro- 
 tests of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, 
 he was, through the power of politics and crime, 
 foisted upon the new municipality as the ranking 
 officer of its police organization. The result was 
 inevitable. New York, the greater, is now de- 
 calred to out-Satan New York, the lesser. A new 
 committee is probing into its police management. 
 At the outset of its proceedings it wrung from 
 this officer replies so self condemning as to stag- 
 ger one's faith in the possibility of such a quality 
 as obedience to official oath in a police officer. 
 
 The Chief was asked : O. Perhaps you can tell 
 how it is and why it is, that even while this com- 
 mittee is sitting in session here, the pool rooms are 
 open all around us, and I have in my pocket money 
 tliat my men won in the pool rooms? 
 
 A. Perhaps some of my men have it, too. They 
 are looking after it just the same as you are. 
 
96 jChicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Q, But the pool rooms are running? 
 
 The Chief did not answer, but complained to 
 his questioner that he had not been informed of 
 the facts "officially." 
 
 The examination then proceeded as follows, viz.: 
 
 Q. Do you mean to say, as Chief of Police, 
 witli the men and money at your command, you 
 can't close the pool rooms? 
 
 "No," replied the Chief, "we do the best we 
 can, as we did when you were a Commissioner." 
 
 "I closed the pool rooms," shouted his ques- 
 tioner. "You did not," retorted the Chief; "they 
 were alleged to be, on reports of commanding offi- 
 cers, then as now." 
 
 "Yes," said the questioner, "but there was 
 some fatality about that business, if you know what 
 I mean," 
 
 "Some forced fatalities," sneered the Chief. 
 "Well, sir," said the questioner, "here are three 
 great evils of importance — gambling houses, pool 
 rooms and policy shops — and you cannot recall 
 from your own recollection — you who are in charge 
 of the enforcement of the laws — a single arrest 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 97 
 
 in any one of these classes of crimes within a 
 month. What do you do for your salary as 
 Chief?" 
 
 A. "I look after the force as a whole ; I look 
 after all reports that come in touching all mat- 
 ters of the kind you refer to and all kinds 
 of crime." 
 
 The questioner called the Chief's attention to a 
 newspaper and some advertisements it carried. In 
 spite of the questioner's declaration that the paper 
 was a Tammany organ, and that all Tammany 
 men were supposed to buy it and read it, the Chief 
 declared that he never had done so. The ques- 
 tioner made the Chief a present of a copy of 
 the paper, and asked him to read over the mas- 
 sage advertisements. The Chief thanked him and 
 said, "I will attend to these places because I do 
 not believe in such disguises for disorderly houses. 
 Such places are usually in tenement houses and 
 flats. I will attend to them and drive them out." 
 
 "Will you make the same pledge about pool 
 rooms," demanded the questioner quickly? 
 
 "That I cannot promise," r:plied the Chief. 
 
98 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 "Why can't you promise it?" asked the ques- 
 tioner. 
 
 "Because they conduct that sort of business in 
 places where we can't get at them, and you know 
 it, but I will try and stamp it out." 
 
 Chicago and New York methods quite agree, 
 with the advantage in favor of New York, In 
 the latter city, the Chief of Police "will try" to 
 stamp pool rooms out. In Chicago, the Chief, 
 in his reply to similar questions, said : "While 
 a man may come to my office and give informa- 
 tion that a certain individual is violating the law 
 somewhere and it is a trivial offense, I do not pay 
 so much attention to it as I do when a report 
 reaches my office that a man has committed a 
 serious crime, such as murder, that a serious crime 
 has been committed on the outside. I should nat- 
 urally abandon that part of it, and take up the 
 more serious offense, and I have been looking up 
 serious crimes, such as burglary, robbery and the 
 hold-up people, and I have made a desperate effort 
 to suppress that." 
 
 It was in this connection reference was made 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 99 
 
 by the committee to the fact that one of Chi- 
 cago's pohcemen had shortly before been arrested 
 for holding up a citizen and robbing him in 
 the daylight hours, which called forth the reply 
 already quoted in these pages to the effect that 
 this particular star had been tried, that he was a 
 member of the police force for ten years, was 
 a good officer, but got drunk and became a "little 
 indiscreet." For this he was dismissed from the 
 force, but reinstated because "many people" vouched 
 for him. It seems almost incredible that that man 
 is today a member of Chicago's police force; yet 
 such is the shameful fact. 
 
 Without the aid of the telegraph, the daily 
 newspaper and the race cards, pool rooms and 
 book making could not survive. They are the 
 means of giving vitality to this form of gam- 
 bling. The telegraph furnishes the press wnth 
 "events" all over the country, upon which pools 
 and books are made up. The news of the result 
 of a particular race is flashed by wire at once from 
 the race track to the pool rooms all over the land. 
 There is scarcely a daily newspaper in any city that 
 
loo Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 does not devote a page of its issue to sporting 
 events. Many of them have their "forms" or 
 "forecasts" of races, which are the guesses of their 
 sporting men as to the probable results of each race 
 to be run on a particular track. The race card 
 is distributed every evening throughout the city; 
 to cigar stores, saloons and billiard halls. It con- 
 tains the "results" of the day, together with in- 
 formation as to the entries for the following day's 
 races. Through these sources the sporting commu- 
 nity keeps in touch with the world. 
 
 A Chicago afternoon newspaper upon the occa- 
 sion of the opening of a race track in an adjoining 
 state presented in its issue its "Form of Today's 
 Races." To those unacquainted with the lingo of 
 the track its guesses are delightfully humorous. 
 
 Predicting the possible result of the first race, 
 the form says : "B. L. looks the best of the lot 
 on paper. If the trip from the east did not take 
 the edge off H. S. he should win easily, as he 
 showed considerable sprinting ability in his last out. 
 L. P. has a burst of speed which may put her in- 
 side of the money and with a good boy up is 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. ioi 
 
 worth a show bet. The others are a poor lot and 
 of uncertain quahty, so that the finish will proba- 
 bly be B. L., etc." Of the second it remarks: "Of 
 these youngsters which have started C. has been 
 the most consistent and is undoubtedly the best, 
 but T. is rounding too rapidly and may run ahead 
 of the mark. F. A. is a sprinter, but if pinched 
 does not like the gaff. M. E. and M. are green 
 ones, and this is the first time they have faced 
 the barrier, so there is no line on them. C. T. 
 and F. A. should be the order of the finish." It 
 says of the third racers "M. is a soft spot, and, if 
 fit, she should win as she pleases. It looks as 
 if the real race should be for the place and the 
 show money, and will likely be between M. and A. 
 H. and T. are also partial to the going, but as 
 the latter has not started recently, T. should be the 
 better if any of the others named are scratched. 
 The result will likely be M. A., etc." Of another, 
 a colt race, its forecast is, "H is such a good colt 
 that he looks like a 2-to-5 shot in this bunch, and 
 that will be about what the books will lay against 
 him. Of course, he has dicky legs, but the soft 
 
I02 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 undergoing will undoubtedly suit his underpinning. 
 The finish should be H. K., etc." The final race 
 is thus placed in the form : "At the best this is 
 a bad lot, and hardly worthy of doping, as so 
 much depends on the jockeys and start that any 
 one of the probable starters has a chance to get 
 the big end of the purse." 
 
 To this necessity has journalism come at last! 
 While it urges the suppression, in thundering 
 tones, of all manner of gambling, it is driven, 
 by the necessity of competition, to aid the most 
 injurious of gambling's many attractive methods. 
 Another Chicago newspaper, the columns of which 
 every morning contain the world's news of sport- 
 ing events, said a short time ago, editorially : 
 
 'Chief K 's assurance that he will do his best 
 
 to suppress gambling will be accepted in good faith. 
 He has made a start in that direction, and the far- 
 ther he goes the more plainly he will see that for 
 the police to suppress gambling is a mere matter 
 of lifting their hands. Gambling of the sort that 
 the police department is expected to suppress does 
 not flourish save by the connivance of police offi- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 103 
 
 cers. It is quite true that to extirpate the vice 
 of gaming is beyond the power of the police. No- 
 body has expected them to do that. While the 
 board of trade and the stock exchanges remain open 
 one form of the vice will be practiced publicly 
 beyond the reach of the police. And so long as 
 cards and dice boxes are to be procured, degen- 
 erate human nature will practice the vice in secret. 
 But the police can stamp out the open and flagrant 
 practice of gambling in forms inhibited by the 
 law as easily as they can wink at it. It is a mat- 
 ter of saying "Yes" or "No." A poolroom or a 
 policy shop may open now and then, but it will 
 quickly shut again if the police are in earnest." 
 
 The assistance derived from the telegraph and 
 newspaper by the gambling fraternity is com- 
 mented upon by a modern writer, his subject 
 being "The Ethics of Gambling." He remarks, 
 "But it is time to emphasize the fact that the real 
 supports of the gambling habit in its present enor- 
 mous extent are the telegraph and the newspaper. 
 Half the race courses in the country would be 
 abandoned almost immediately if newspapers were 
 
I04 Chicago, Satan's -Sanctum. 
 
 forbidden to report on betting, and if telegraph of- 
 fices declined to transmit agreements to bet, or in- 
 formation which is intended to guide would-be bet- 
 tors. How this is to be done it is not for me to 
 say. My present object and duty are exhausted 
 in pointing out the fact that the national life is 
 being deeply injured, the State seriously weakened 
 by the wide spread of the gambling habit, and fur- 
 ther, that this habit in its present extent and in- 
 tensity, is nourished most by the daily press and 
 the telegraph. It must certainly be in the power 
 of the State to deal with this, the most potent 
 instrument by which the gambling fiend fights his 
 way into home after home throughout the length 
 and breadth of the country." 
 
 "Hold up" men find Chicago their least dan- 
 gerous and, perhaps, their most profitable field of 
 operations. In all the various forms of this rob- 
 bery upon the street in day or at night time, or in 
 raiding saloons and stores, it is merciless in its 
 methods. Robbery accomplished, brutality follows. 
 The criminals who resort to it at night, not satis- 
 fied with acquiring their victim's property, usually 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 105 
 
 knock him unconscious with the butt end of a re- 
 volver, with a billy or sand bag, or blind him with 
 cayenne pepper, and in that hapless condition 
 leave him to be found, no matter what may be the 
 state of the weather. This form of criminality 
 is a winter's occupation. It is occasionally, but 
 rarely, followed in the summer months. 
 
 Women are held up in the streets at midday, 
 in the evening when returning home from labor, 
 on the street cars, and at the doors of their own 
 homes, and within them. No class is exempt 
 from the attacks of these marauders. The poor 
 suffer with the rich. They are of such frequent 
 occurrence that it is believed not one-fourth of 
 their number is reported to the police. The ineffi- 
 ciency of the force to prevent them is proverbial, and 
 that inefficiency finds much of its origin in the utter 
 disregard of the rules of the department requiring 
 patrolmen to travel their respective beats. The dis- 
 cipline of the force in this respect is nothing; it is 
 worn away by abrasion. 
 
 The colder the night and the warmer the near- 
 est saloon or kitchen range, there will the patrol- 
 
io6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 man be found. In the former case he is merely 
 dreaming of his duty; and in the latter, he is en- 
 gaged in a terrific struggle between love and duty. 
 Some back door of a house of ill fame is open to 
 him for shelter, for wine, and oftentimes for food. 
 The good-hearted landladies of these abodes know 
 full well that one way to reach the patrolmen sta- 
 tioned in their neighborhood is through their stom- 
 achs, not because they are officers, but because 
 they are men. In localities away from the bag- 
 nios, some servant girl, friendly to the "copper," 
 protects him from the inclemency of the weather. 
 To her he gives his time and his devotions at the 
 city's expense. If on some, or on any winter's 
 night, an observation flight could be taken through 
 the air, and over the city, by the Chief, that official 
 would believe his occupation was gone ; for, ex- 
 cept here and there as some of his subordinates 
 were wending their way at the appointed hour to 
 a patrol box to report, he would fancy he was a 
 general deserted by his army. Closer inspection 
 would, however, reveal to him that never an army 
 had such comfortable winter quarters as has his. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 107 
 
 While the patrolman thus enjoys his siesta, or in- 
 dulges in his love making, the hold up man lies 
 in wait on the unguarded beat, to slug and rob 
 the first belated wayfarer whom he may confront. 
 
 The number of hold ups in Chicago in the 
 year 1898, it is believed, exceeded in number those 
 of any two large cities in the United States com- 
 bined. The press, in fact, claims that their num- 
 ber was greater than in all of the cities of the 
 United States. They were of almost daily occur- 
 rence. They are just as numerous, and just as 
 ingenious and murderous in design, since the 
 continued administration was inaugurated, as before. 
 
 In the morning edition of the daily press of 
 April nth, 1899, the re-elected Mayor's felicita- 
 tions to the council in his annual message de- 
 livered on the previous evening were published in 
 these words : 
 
 "The people of Chicago have reason to congrat- 
 ulate themselves on the successful manner in which 
 the police department has coped with crime. It 
 is acknowledged on all hands that Chicago is a 
 singularly good place for thugs and thieves to 
 
io8 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 avoid, and this notwithstanding the fact that the 
 size of the pohce force is utterly inadequate." 
 
 The evening papers of the same date report 
 the following as examples of how the thieves and 
 thugs avoid Chicago ; 
 
 "L. was arrested early yesterday morning for 
 alleged participation in a daring hold up, which 
 occurred near the corner of Van Buren and State 
 streets about an hour before. A cab containing 
 Mv. and Mrs. L. B., who live on Pine street, and 
 Mrs. C. D., of North Clark street, approached the 
 curb. As the three occupants alighted four or 
 five men rushed at them. One drew a revolver 
 and shouted : "Hands up." The other made a 
 dash at Mrs. D., who displayed some valuable jew- 
 elry, and snatched a watch worth $225 and a dia- 
 mond ring valued at $125. The highwaymen then 
 disappeared around the corner." 
 
 "Attacked by Three Negroes. — Stanton Avenue 
 police are looking for three negroes who held up 
 Albert T., of 37th street, at 33rd and Dearborn 
 sftreets last night and relieved him of $4.00 and 
 a watch. T. was standing under the shadow of 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 109 
 
 a building at tlie corner when three negroes ap- 
 proached him. One of them drew a revolver and 
 threatened T., while the other two searched him. 
 Many people were passing at the time, but the party 
 escaped all notice in the deep shadows." 
 
 "As Thomas L. and Joseph S. left Aid. K.'s sa- 
 loon early today, S. says he was robbed of $2.45 — 
 all the money he had." 
 
 "Robbed in a Saloon. — August J., bound for 
 Minneapolis from Finland, came to Chicago last 
 evening. He met a woman, and the two went 
 to Samuel M.'s saloon on State street, where J. 
 claims the woman held him up at the point of a 
 revolver and took all his money — $25. J. reported 
 the matter to the Harrison street police, and Offi- 
 cers C. and S. arrested Albert B., the bartender. 
 He was arraigned before Justice F. today on a 
 charge of being accessory to robbery. The woman 
 has not been arrested." 
 
 Following this, t\vo rnen boarded an outgoing 
 railroad train at night, and at one of its stopping 
 stations captured a passenger w^ho was standing 
 on the rear platform of a coach, dragged him 
 
no Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 away, robbed him of a small sum of money, a lady's 
 gold watch, took a plain gold ring from his finger, 
 then bound and gagged him and threw him into an 
 empty freight car near by. 
 
 Within three weeks after the publication of 
 this effusive compliment to the police, a citizen sent 
 the following communication to an evening paper, 
 which, together with the comments of that paper 
 upon it, is here inserted, as the best criticism of 
 the Mayor's optimistic view of the efficiency of his 
 police force : 
 
 '■'April 26, 1899. — Editor the J.: Not fewer 
 than 15 flats and residences in the district bounded 
 by West Adams street, Kedzie avenue, Homan 
 avenue and Washington boulevard have been plun- 
 dered recently. The thieves reside at , a fact 
 
 well known to the police, but all the efforts of the 
 suffering tax payers are unavailing in having them 
 arrested. 
 
 "The police authorities will not act. The ras- 
 cals have been at their present abode ( , first 
 
 flat) since early last autumn. Their landlord is 
 (well, I won't mention his name) well known. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. hi 
 
 Our community has become so terrorized that 
 no one dares remain out after dark. Can't you as- 
 sist us in our troubles? The poHce don't act. 
 
 "Resident of the District." 
 The comments of the paper read as follows, 
 viz. : 
 
 "The author of the above is a well-to-do West 
 side manufacturer. He says in a note which came 
 with this communication : 'Do not under any cir- 
 cumstances couple my name with it. We are all 
 afraid of our lives, believing that the thieves are 
 so desperate that they would murder any one dis- 
 closing their method and abode.' 
 
 This is the district in which George B. Fern and 
 Cora Henderson met their deaths under such myste- 
 rious circumstances. 
 
 Here is a partial list of the happenings of recent 
 date in this one neighborhood, the first four named 
 cases being within one business block : 
 
 GEORGE B. FERN, dry goods merchant, 1393 
 West Madison street ; found in his store with bul- 
 let hole in his head, mask and revolver with one 
 chamber empty at his side; police say he com- 
 
112 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 mitted suicide; coroner's jury leturned a murder 
 verdict; the grand jury also declares it was a case 
 of murder. 
 
 CORA HENDERSON, blind woman, 1385 West 
 Madison street; found dead in her house, hole in 
 her skull; murder theory worked upon by police; 
 later theory advanced that she might have met her 
 death by a fall. 
 
 F. W., tailor. West Madison street; robbers 
 drove up to his store in broad daylight while he 
 was eating in a restaurant next door and intimi- 
 dated clerk with revolver, loaded in tailor's cloth, 
 drove away. 
 
 W. H. D., West Madison street, grocer; hole 
 drilled in his safe; burglars scared away when D. 
 came to open store. 
 
 MRS. FRANK W., Washington boulevard, house 
 entered; $200 stolen. 
 
 MRS. MARGARET D., Washington boulevard; 
 house entered ; $200 worth of property taken. 
 
 MRS. WARREN F. H., Warren avenue; house 
 entered ; $500 worth of property taken. 
 
 MRS. CHARLES C, Washington boulevard; 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, 113 
 
 hearing a noise at her front door, went onto the 
 porch ; a burglar who had been trying to force an 
 entrance into the second story dropped at her side, 
 revolver in hand ; he escaped, frightening off pur- 
 suers with his revolver. 
 
 DR. F. F. S., West Monroe street and Homan 
 avenue; two men attempted to hold him up in his 
 office; frightened away by the arrival of a 
 patient. 
 
 PROF. CHARLES E. W., Chicago Piano col- 
 lege ; chased by mounted foot pad. 
 
 MRS. ELIZABETH H. T., M. D., Warren 
 avenue; swindled out of $60 by men who had a 
 'sure thing' on the races. 
 
 JOHN v., West Monroe street; swindled by 
 same game. 
 
 WILLIAM H. P., bookkeeper for C. S. & Co., 
 \Vest Monroe street ; house robbed. 
 
 HERMAN W., West Monroe street; house 
 robbed of diamonds, jewelry and silverware; Mrs. 
 W. coming home, encounters robbers as they were 
 leaving; they politely raised their hats and 
 walked on. 
 
114 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 H. S. B., real estate, West Adams street; can- 
 didate for president of M. club ; house robbed. 
 
 ARTHUR W. C, Illinois Credit Company, West 
 Adams street; house robbed. 
 
 JOHN G., grocer; attempt made to swindle him 
 out of $100 by men with 'tip' on races. 
 
 The above list was obtained by a brief canvass 
 of the neighborhood. 
 
 The house given as the abode of the "thieves" is 
 situated right in this neighborhood, which is one 
 of the best residence districts. It is a gray stone 
 structure and is said to be owned by a well known 
 West side politician. In this place lives at least 
 one of the men who have swindled numerous West 
 side residents of this district by means of the 
 'tips' on the races. These men, it is said, have 
 operated successfully for a year, few of their vic- 
 tims making complaint on account of the unenvi- 
 able publicity the affair would thus attain. This 
 gang, too, has headquarters in a West Madison 
 street block within a few doors of the Fern store. 
 
 This neighborhood is included in the Warren 
 avenue police district. None of the officers at 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 115 
 
 this station, or any of the Central station detect- 
 ives famiHar with the case, beHeves that the 
 'jockeys' have anything to do with the 'holdups' 
 and robberies of flats, and laugh at the idea ad- 
 vanced by the author of the letter to The J — ." 
 
 The names and addresses of these victims are 
 printed in full in the newspaper referred to, but for 
 obvious reasons they are not used in reproducing the 
 article. 
 
 Immediately following the publication of this 
 startling list of crimes, a grand jury submitted to the 
 court the following report. The reader can harmo- 
 nize, as best he may, this official statement, with that 
 of a lighthearted and self satisfied Mayor who controls, 
 or does not control, as one's thought may elect, the 
 Chicago police force. 
 
 "In closing our work the members of the jury de- 
 sire to report to your honor some slight comment on 
 the various matters which have been brought to our 
 attention during our session, and to submit for recom- 
 mendation to the proper authorities suggestions that 
 may check the amount of crime which has been brought 
 to our notice. 
 
ii6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 "Our city seems to be the asylum of habitual crim- 
 inals of all classes, who have terrorized the people to an 
 alarming degree. We would particularly call attention 
 to several instances within our knowledge where per- 
 sons have been found dead, investigation made by the 
 proper authorities, verdicts rendered according to the 
 evidence with recommendations by the coroner's jury 
 that the guilty be brought to justice. These deeds 
 wherein the perpetrators in several instances have 
 not been detected are largely due to the fact that this 
 city is made an asylum for habitual criminals, and we 
 strongly recommend that every measure be taken to 
 close the gates of the city to such people. 
 
 "Were the statute of the state regarding the arrest 
 of vagabonds more strictly enforced by the proper 
 authorities the number of habitual criminals at large 
 could be largely reduced and Chicago made a less at- 
 tractive place of residence for this class. The law it- 
 self is broad and ample in its provisions. Places under 
 the guise of saloons, duly licensed, are merely rendez- 
 vous for thieves, murderers and prostitutes, and not- 
 withstanding the fact that such vile places are well 
 known to the authorities they are permitted to continue 
 
Chicago,, Satan's Sanctum. 117 
 
 without molestation. The defilement of our youths of 
 both sexes should receive the severest penalty of the 
 law. It is our duty to protect and guard the manhood 
 and womanhood of the young. 
 
 "The continued violation of the ordinance fixing 
 the closing hours of saloons is a great factor in the 
 number of crimes committed in the city, and we ear- 
 nestly recommend a strict enforcement of the ordi- 
 nance." 
 
 Apparently, a few of these criminal gentry regard 
 Chicago as a safe field for their labors ! 
 
 Boys in their teens, men and women, both black 
 and white, the latter of the strong armed class, com- 
 prise this coterie of criminals. The strong armed 
 women, generally negresses, have the developed mus- 
 cles of the pugilist and the daring of the pirate. They 
 entice the stranger into dark passage ways, that inno- 
 cent stranger, so unfamiliar, but so willing to be made 
 familiar with the wickedness of a great city, who seeks 
 out its most disreputable quarters and scours its dark- 
 est byways, to report to his mates, on his return to 
 his country home, the salacious things that he has 
 heard of, and a few of which he witnessed. In these 
 
ii8 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 dark and dangerous ways the strong armed women 
 garrote and rob their victims, or they entice the inno- 
 cent, but lustful, stranger to their rooms, and there, 
 through the panel game, or by sheer strength or drug- 
 ged potations, appropriate the innocent stranger's val- 
 uables. Mortified and humiliated, the stranger usually 
 has nothing to say to the police of the affair. Then 
 the emboldened strong armed women go upon the 
 street in couples, and rob in the most approved meth- 
 ods of the highwayman. Alone, one of these notorious 
 characters is said to have pilfered to the extent of 
 $60,000. She was, and is, a terror to the police force. 
 Released from the penitentiary not long ago, she is 
 now undergoing trial for a fresh offense. Approach- 
 ing a commercial traveler from behind, she is charged 
 with having nearly strangled him, and then robbed 
 him of his money and jewelry. 
 
 "Only one man ever got the best of E. F.," said 
 detective Sergeant C. R. W., of Harrison street sta- 
 tion, who had arrested E. F. frequently. 
 
 "Once she held up a cowboy and took $150 from 
 him. He came up to the station hotfoot to report the 
 robbery. We were busy and a little slow in sending 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 119 
 
 out after E., whereupon the cowboy allowed he'd start 
 out after her on his own hook. He met her down by 
 the Polk street depot, and the moment he spotted her 
 he walked right up close to her and covered her with 
 two six-shooters. 
 
 "You've got $150 of my money, now shell out nig- 
 ger," he said. 
 
 "Go and get a warrant and have me arrested then," 
 replied the big colored woman, who wanted time to 
 plant the coin. 
 
 "These are good enough warrants for me," re- 
 turned the cowboy significantly, as he poked the re- 
 volvers a trifle closer to her face. "Now, I'm going to 
 count twenty, and if I don't see my money coming 
 back before I reach twenty, I'll go with both guns." 
 
 "When he reached eighteen, E. weakened. She 
 drew out a wad and held it out toward him. But the 
 cowboy was wise and would not touch the roll till she 
 had walked to the nearest lamplight under the escort 
 of his two guns and counted out the $150. Then he 
 let her go and came back to the station and treated." 
 
 Conductors of street cars are often the victims of 
 the hold up men. Here in Chicago they invented the 
 
I20 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 plan of placing the saloonkeeper in the ice chest, while 
 the looting of the place went on. In another instance 
 a baker was imprisoned in a hot oven. Women in 
 their homes are thrust into closets, gagged and bound, 
 while their houses are ransacked and their property 
 stolen. 
 
 The want of an energetic police is the cause of the 
 prevalence of such abominable offenses as hair clip- 
 ping, or the severing from the heads of young girls 
 upon the public streets their braids of hair. One of 
 these perverts was arrested and excused himself upon 
 the ground that it was a mania with him, and that the 
 temptation to cut off the braids of hair from every 
 young girl he met, was almost irresistible. If de- 
 tectives, instead of lounging around their daily haunts 
 for drinking purposes, loafing in cigar stores, and 
 playing the pool rooms, were mingling with the crowds 
 upon the streets, offenses of this character would be 
 nearly impossible, although this particular weakness 
 seems to lead its impulsive perpetrators to less crowd- 
 ed thoroughfares, and selects the hours of going to and 
 returning from school, as the most favorable parts of 
 the day for its gratification. It may be prompted by 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 121 
 
 a morbid desire, but it is none the less a serious of- 
 fense, which, as yet, the criminal law has not defined, 
 and has therefore not provided a proper penalty for its 
 punishment. No evidence, so far as it is known, has 
 yet been adduced to show that the braids of hair are 
 ever sold to dealers in that article, such as wig manu- 
 facturers, etc. If such evidence should be forthcoming, 
 the ingenuity of the average criminal for the discovery 
 of new methods of despoliation will receive additional 
 confirmation. 
 
 One peculiar method of protection to the criminal 
 classes is in vogue. A new thief arrives in the city ; 
 his arrival is noticed by a detective and the fact re- 
 ported to headquarters. The thief is invited to visit 
 the Chief. Upon his appearance, permission is given 
 him to remain, provided he "does not work his game" 
 within the city. He can plunder all the neighboring 
 towns he may select, but the price of his remaining in 
 security in Chicago is, that he shall be good and gentle- 
 manly to its people. The "Safe Blowers' Union" has 
 its home in Chicago, from which it radiates, as the 
 spokes of a wheel, to the circumference of its limit of 
 operations. It is a trust ; a protective association. It 
 
122 ,Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 pays for the privilegfe. It attacks the country bank, 
 blows it, in the silence of the night, to piefces with 
 dynamite if necessary, and murders if interfered with. 
 It returns with its loot to the city, makes its dividends 
 among its membership, police included, and awaits the 
 pressing necessity for a renewal of its suburban raids. 
 It is under the king's mighty shield, the king of the 
 criminals, over whom he reigns with leniency, and 
 whose gifts he accepts with condescension. 
 
 The fakes of a great city are beyond enumeration. 
 There are fake information bureaus, fake advisory 
 brokers, fake safe systems of speculation, fake music 
 teachers, fake medical colleges, fake law schools, fake 
 lawyers, fake "Old Charters for Sale," fake corpora- 
 tions, fake relief and aid societies, fake preachers and 
 fake detective agencies. The latter, and the street 
 fakers, are friendly with the police. So are the fruit 
 vendors, and the all night lunch counters on wheels. 
 The latter stand where the officers say they shall stand, 
 and the location once found, the officers at once be- 
 come landlords. 
 
 As to private detective agencies, without reference 
 to agencies of an established local and national reputa- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 123 
 
 tion, they are principally constituted of thieves, pick- 
 pockets, blackmailers, and porch climbers. 
 
 In the trial of a case before the Criminal Court of 
 Cook County, a few months ago, a witness acquainted 
 with their inside history, swore that there were men 
 connected with these fake organizations who would 
 commit murder for $50. They enter into conspiracies 
 to ruin the private character of men and women in 
 divorce cases, and for blackmailing purposes. Three 
 of these hounds were lately convicted of conspiracy in 
 less than one hour, by a jury in the same court. These 
 three worthies comprised the entire agency. Their 
 punishment was fixed at imprisonment in the peniten- 
 tiary. They were employed in getting revenge on a 
 man, who was supposed, by their employer, to have 
 been the cause of his discharge from his commercial 
 position. In getting this revenge they fell upon their 
 shadow, pummelled him with great severity, and badly 
 injured him. So grievous was the offense, that the 
 State's Attorney demand no less a punishment than 
 the jury awarded. 
 
 They manufacture testimony in divorce proceed- 
 ings, at the suggestion and upon the request of the 
 
124 .Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 parties willing and desirous of cutting the matrimonial 
 tie ; or, upon the instigation of one of the parties, they 
 will endeavor to entrap and compromise the other. 
 They revel in the destruction of the character of a 
 good woman, as the vulture revels in the foulness of 
 a carrion. The man of wealth must be on his guard 
 against their attacks, for they would as lief magnify 
 his peccadillos into felonious crimes and attempt his 
 plunder by blackmail, as they would accept the earn- 
 ings of the Mistresses Overdone, the exhausted bawds, 
 whose pimps they are. 
 
 Theirs is only another but a more vicious form of 
 depravity than that practiced by the panel house 
 keepers, who send their single workers upon the streets 
 to entice men to their abodes, where they are met by 
 the expert workers of the game. While thus entrapped, 
 and indulging in the sensuality which aids so readily 
 in his allurement, the adroit "creeper" enters the room 
 through a movable panel, or by some other prear- 
 ranged method of ingress, and takes the watch, the 
 coin, or "any other old thing" of value, found about 
 the removed and scattered clothing of the greenhorn. 
 The police are as well acquainted with these "single 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 125 
 
 workers" as they are with the street walkers. They 
 know their haunts, and their fields of labor. The 
 hotels, and places where crowds are gathered in the 
 early evening, attract the "single workers" as the most 
 promising ground for a successful capture. 
 
 "Badger games" are not infrequently played in 
 Chicago. Such as are successful are generally kept 
 from the police records, through the preference of the 
 blackmailed subjects to say nothing about them, in 
 dread of their personal exposure. A man, generally 
 one of means and standing, is marked for conquest. 
 The first class hotel is the scene of operations of 
 the female in the case. Fashionably dressed, hand- 
 some, with jewels for adornment, she strikes up a 
 flirtation with the selected person. Fool like, as most 
 men are in the case of handsome and well gowned 
 women, he responds to the invitation, an acquaintance 
 is formed and an assignation made. The place is of 
 the woman's selection and known of course to her 
 paramour, styled her husband. The room is entered, 
 compromising situations reached, when, suddenly, the 
 indignant husband appears, the woman screams in 
 terror, and a storm rages. It is calmed by the payment 
 
126 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 of the price demanded for concealment, and the "suck- 
 er" escapes with a load removed from both his pocket- 
 book and his mind. 
 
 A noted instance of this kind happened to a 
 wealthy and prominent merchant, whose indiscretions 
 in the acceptance of inducements for sexual enjoyment 
 held out to him by a stylish and beautiful woman, and 
 his blindness in not observing his surroundings, en- 
 abled the fake husband to photograph him in flagrante 
 delicto. Under threats to distribute the pictures it is 
 reported he paid $10,000 for them and the negative. 
 This is a fact easily susceptible of proof. One at least 
 of these proofs did not accompany the package he re- 
 ceived, which was supposed to contain all of the pic- 
 tures. 
 
 Photographing from the nude is not the fad 
 of the harlot alone. Women infatuated with their 
 shapes begin with the exposure of a beautiful foot, arm 
 or well rounded bust, then a leg, etc., etc., until they 
 stand before the camera almost in puris naturalibns. 
 These pictures are taken for pure self admiration, the 
 love of self study and comparison with the forms of 
 celebrated actresses, or the paintings of the masters, 
 
Chicago, Satan*s Sanctum. 127 
 
 famous in art for their conceptions of the perfect wo- 
 man. They differ from those obscene pictures de- 
 signed for sale, for which purpose the depraved couple 
 are photographed in situations, attitudes and condi- 
 tions, natural and unnatural, which appeal to the 
 grossest instincts in man, and shock, also, the moral 
 sense of every one not in himself a sexual pervert. 
 
 The latter are eagerly sought after, are quite sal- 
 able, and are carried about the persons of fast young 
 men about town, with intent, upon opportunity, to in- 
 fluence the passions of women. They are the solace 
 of the- aged sport, who, having lost all recollection of 
 the ordinary affairs of his youth, still fondly retains 
 the memory of the amours of his younger days, and of 
 the orgies of his middle age. Then recalling with 
 sadness the first appearance of the lamentable indica- 
 tions of his decline, he contentedly yields the passing 
 of his power — "sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans 
 everything." 
 
 These are the men, who, if they had lived in the 
 early days of the Roman Empire at or about the date 
 of the Floralian games, would have been the principal 
 patrons, or, if at the time of the prevalence of the Bac- 
 
128 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 chanalian mysteries, the prominent members, of soci- 
 eties organized for the purpose of gratifying unnatural 
 desires ; or if they had been Romans in the dedining 
 days of that empire would have figured as the most 
 frantic and most lustful of the worshippers of Priapus. 
 
 The methods of the vendors of obscene literature 
 are innumerable, and all are formed along the lines of 
 extreme caution and cunning. They are keen judges 
 of human nature, quick to detect the inquisitive 
 stranger, or the sporting gent of the town, and adroit 
 in introducing their filthy stock. The purchaser is 
 more than liable to be swindled in the deal, as the fakir 
 requires immediate concealment of the purchase, which, 
 when examined by the vendee in the quiet of his own 
 room often turns out to be a harmless work resembling 
 only in the binding the supposed purchase. 
 
 The confidence men, who invite the incoming vis- 
 itor to view the scene of the great explosion on the 
 lake front, and suggest trips to other places where 
 startling events have not occurred, discover, by skillful 
 questioning, the weaknesses of their dupe. They arouse 
 his innate, but dormant, wish to take a chance at some 
 game that seems to him certain of a rich return. He 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, 129 
 
 is easily induced to play and allowed to win a small 
 stake, merely to excite greater interest and establish 
 the conviction that he can "beat the game." Naturally 
 he plunges ahead, until the moment comes, set by 
 his trappers, when he is cheated, robbed and goes 
 "flat broke." The dupe may, or may not, report his 
 loss to the police. If he does, and it happens to 
 be one of consequence, detectives may be detailed 
 to search for the swindlers ; but if the loss is 
 small in amount, however important to the loser, 
 the dupe is more likely to be laughed at than 
 aided by the officers of the law. 
 
 To this class belong cabmen who rob drunken 
 men, and "divvy" with the police ; commission 
 houses, which secure consignments of goods for 
 sale by false representations ; grocery grafters, who 
 solicit throughout the country orders for groceries, 
 claiming to represent wholesale houses, ship an 
 inferior grade and collect C. O. D. at the prices 
 charged for the superior grade; Board of Trade 
 sharks, who "welch" their clients' money by charg- 
 ing up fictitious losses, when the figures will not 
 appear to He ; the false claimants for personal in- 
 juries alleged to have been caused through the 
 
130 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 negligence of wealthy corporations, such as street 
 car lines, manufacturing companies and rolling 
 mills, or by the city, from defective sidewalks, un- 
 guarded street excavations, etc., etc. ; bakers who 
 sell unlabeled and underweight bread; the gold 
 brick and gold filings sharper; the electric and 
 mining stock swindler, and the advertiser seeking 
 a governess to accompany himself and family 
 abroad. These men have "irresistible tendencies" 
 to work their several games. They cannot help 
 it, they say. Like kleptomaniacs, or "Jack the 
 Hair Clipper," they are impelled by nature to the 
 commission of their crimes. In their own judg- 
 ment they ought not to be punished, because they 
 are the victims of defective brains. But they are 
 just as cunning as the hair clipper, just as con- 
 scious that they are law breakers as he was when 
 he mailed to the Chief of Police in his own words 
 the following note, enclosing some of the braids 
 of hair he had clipped from the head of a young 
 girl, viz: 
 
 "A clue for J. K.'s cheap skates. Will send 
 more when I get cheap stuff like this. 
 
 Jack." 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 131 
 
 Pf this same class are men who conduct "dip- 
 loma mills" and make doctors, especially in one day. 
 They sell their parchments as freely as a saloon- 
 keeper does his beer, and then claim that because 
 a college confers distinctive degrees upon men of 
 prominence, without a course of study and exam- 
 ination, they are justified in launching doctors by 
 the score upon unsuspecting communities, "with- 
 out study and examination," to discredit the med- 
 ical profession, and send men, women and children 
 to premature graves. Like McTeague, who ac- 
 quired his knowledge of dentistry from the seven 
 volumes of "Allen's Practical Dentist," they obtain 
 their knowledge of diseases from quack publica- 
 tions, newspapers and magazine articles. They 
 use nothing but "the purest of the earth's produc- 
 tions in their treatment, and no minerals or pois- 
 onous materials of any kind are ever permitted to 
 enter your system." Their prices range from 
 "one dollar up." "A positive guarantee is given 
 in every case treated, so you have nothing to risk 
 in any way. Your money back on demand if not 
 satisfied." They can wash kidneys so clean, that 
 
132 ^Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 if you are a woman and have not extended your 
 arms in years, after taking the first box of kidney 
 pills you "can raise them, and twist your hair," 
 and after the second, "dress yourself, perform your 
 household duties," and "life will again take on a bright 
 hue" for you. Bald heads respond to the "re- 
 markable effects" of their discoveries, with joyful 
 alacrity. Gray hair goes into hiding, and "thick 
 and lustrous eyebrows and eye lashes" blossom 
 forth on one application, as lilac bushes do in the 
 spring time at the first touch of the warmth of 
 the sun's rays. Their remedies are "no longer 
 experiments, they are medical certainties." They 
 "create solid flesh, muscles and strength, clear the 
 brain, and make the blood pure and rich." For hu- 
 manity's sake, distinguished Mayors, ex-Mayors, city 
 treasurers, scholars, soldiers, ex-state senators and sen- 
 ators, representatives, lawyers and judges, lend their 
 beaming countenances, when fully restored to health, 
 for the uses of these quacks, until the daily press 
 has become a portrait gallery of rebuilt and re- 
 vitalized men, who, if disease had the clutch upon 
 them they so felicitously describe — in the stere- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 133 
 
 otyped words of the quack — ought to have been 
 dead, buried and mourned long ago. These dis- 
 tinguished men in American Hfe, are merely selling 
 their faces for promotion purposes, much as the 
 titled Englishman sells his title. 
 
 Of all the sources of police graft, in addition 
 to pool rooms and policy shops, gambling is the 
 most prolific. There are in Chicago over 7,000 
 saloons and nearly 2,000 cigar stores. The num- 
 ber of gambling houses proper is unknown, but 
 the list swells into the hundreds. The saloon and 
 cigar stores have as a general rule a gambling 
 annex. Gambling houses proper, as known some 
 years ago, have no longer the permanency they 
 then had. Roulette and faro, especially, are sleep- 
 ing, and awaken only at infrequent intervals. The 
 negro game of craps, and the national game of 
 poker, particularly stud poker, have become the 
 substitutes for the wheel and the lay out. In two- 
 thirds of the saloons and cigar stores poker and 
 stud poker are played, and in many of the saloons, 
 especially the all night variety, the crap table is 
 part of the necessary equipment. It is estimated 
 
134 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 that poker games are in progress in over eight 
 thousand of the saloons, cigar stores, barber shops 
 and bakeries, every night, while gambling houses 
 with the roulette and faro barred, add over one 
 thousand to the number. Craps are shot even at 
 the doors of some of the theaters. All this is known 
 to the police, tolerated by the police, and taxed 
 by the police. Take the average cigar store for 
 illustration. In the rear are rooms neatly fitted 
 up and supplied with three or more poker tables. 
 The rake off to the house goes on just as in the 
 regularly equipped gambling house. The games 
 are played by men of all classes in life below the 
 society men and men of wealth, who get their 
 amusement at the club. The clubs all forbid poker, 
 but the tabooing order is "more honored in its 
 breach than its observance." In the cigar stores 
 and saloons, workingmen, artisans, clerks, and the 
 loafing skin gambler, participate in the game. The 
 latter is quickly spotted, and placed under the ban. 
 The proprietor requires the games to be square, 
 in so far as he can control them. The losses of 
 the cigar store players are more severe upon them 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 135 
 
 than are those of the gamblers who play for 
 higher stakes. The wages of the workingman, 
 clerks and artisans are their only gambling capital. 
 They have no bank accounts to draw upon. The 
 home suffers; wife and children are the indirect 
 victims. Theirs is a cash game. When wages 
 are exhausted, the unearned wage is mortgaged to 
 the loan "sharks." These greedy and heartless 
 wretches lure the clerk earning a fair salary to 
 borrow from them at reasonable rates, and upon a 
 "strictly confidential" basis. The employer is not 
 to know of the transaction. The clerk is soon in 
 the shark's strong jaws. He must pay what is de- 
 manded, or the employer, the rules of whose es- 
 tablishment forbid dealings with the "shark," will 
 be made aware of the violation of his rules, and 
 the clerk's embarrassment commences. Rather than 
 risk discharge from his position, and to escape 
 from the "shark" jaws, the frightened clerk pays 
 in monthly installments double the amount of his 
 loan, plus a sum for a fee to an attorney who 
 was never retained. All this is so much blood 
 money, flowing from the wounds made by the 
 "shark's" sharp teeth. 
 
136 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The minor is not prevented in the cigar store 
 joints from gaming any more than he is prevented 
 from drinking at the saloon bar. Nightly, over this 
 vast city, young men are succumbing to the ter- 
 rible fascination of gaming. Nightly, temptations, 
 almost irresistible, are preying upon their minds. 
 The honesty of their intentions is gradually under- 
 mined, and almost before they awaken to a reali- 
 zation of the truth, they have committed some 
 theft and commenced a downward career. Men 
 who filled high positions of trust and earned large 
 salaries are today inmates of the state penitentiary, 
 led away by the fascination and excitement of the 
 gaming table. The evils of gambling, the intensity 
 of the love of the average man for indulgence in 
 its exhilaration, the wide spread use of it in the 
 home, the club, the stag parties, and so on down 
 to the lowest joints in the slums, have been the 
 themes of every writer who attempts to depict the 
 daily life of great cities. 
 
 It exists in the form of prizes in progressive 
 euchre parties, in social gatherings, in the raffles 
 of the church fairs, the voting for the most pop- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 137 
 
 ular man or woman, as city or county stenographer, 
 popular firemen or policemen ; in guessing contests 
 in the solution of puzzles; or wherever the ele- 
 ment of chance enters into the affairs of life, 
 from which amusement is sought to be drawn. 
 Whether it is a wheat deal on the board of trade 
 in which millions are involved, or the cast of the 
 dice by newsboys and boot blacks in the alleys 
 and upon the sidewalks of the city, the controlling 
 passion is there — the passion for gain at the 
 whim of chance. Judgment may prompt the wheat 
 deal, but unless judgment promises large profits 
 the incentive to engage in the manipulation of the 
 markets is absent. The possible toil and mental 
 worry is overlooked in the hope of great gain 
 without correspondingly prolonged labor. Millions fly 
 away in great gambling speculations as easily and 
 as swiftly as the penny of the newsboy takes its 
 flight from one to the other of the inveterate little 
 gamblers, to be found among these sharp witted 
 waifs of the street. It goes on in billiard halls, 
 where "hap hazard" is openly played; at saloon 
 bars where the loser at dice "pays for the drinks." 
 
138 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, 
 
 It is to be seen in beer halls, summer gardens, 
 among well dressed people who carry the dice with 
 them, of the usual size, or smaller, with fancy box- 
 guard, and who "shake" for the drinks and din- 
 ners, not so much as a matter of gambling, as 
 for the zest it gives to their party, or their outing. 
 It controls political picnics in the fakers' attractions 
 that follow them, and in the prizes offered to the 
 winner, of boys' and girls', women and fat men's, 
 races, or for which artistic cake walkers and rag- 
 time dancers compete. Civil and criminal trials are 
 even chosen as events upon which to place a wager. 
 The frequency of elections, the daily horse racing 
 contests throughout the world, base ball games in 
 season, prize fights between professionals, club ath- 
 letic contests, policy shops with their daily draw- 
 ings, and lotteries, all arouse the cupidity of the 
 seeker after quick gains without physical labor. 
 "Bet you five" settles many a mathematical, histori- 
 cal, political or economic proposition, contrary to 
 the truth. 
 
 Races, accompanied by the usual retinue of 
 book makers, are conducted by a wealthy club, many 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 139 
 
 of whose members are leaders in civic bodies formed 
 for the betterment of local government, and conse- 
 quently for the suppression of vice. Grand juries 
 report month after month their inability to obtain 
 the co-operation of the police in gathering evidence 
 against gamblers and landlords whereon to found 
 indictments. Each grand jury when empanelled 
 hears from the bench the monotonous song "Gentle- 
 men, bucket shops exist, investigate them," to- 
 gether with such musical accompaniment, as may 
 be added by the judge, in the way of moralizing 
 upon their wickedness. 
 
 Fashionable women have their down town clubs. 
 There they meet, smoke cigarettes, take their drinks 
 from the sideboard "just like men," gamble for 
 excitement, lose their pin-money and diamonds 
 with the abandon of a virgin, "willing to be rid 
 of her name." 
 
 The vice and fascination of gambhng are so 
 well known and understood by great merchants 
 that they employ a corps of detectives to keep 
 watch over their confidential employes, whose 
 movements are the subject matter of daily reports 
 
I40 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 to their employers. The bond companies, which 
 insure the honesty of clerks and managers entrusted 
 with the handling of money, receive from their 
 spotters the earliest reports of the actions of em- 
 ployes indicative of living beyond the yearly sal- 
 ary paid them by the houses with which they are 
 connected. 
 
 Gambling, although condemned by all moralists 
 as a degrading vice, is recognized by some as aid- 
 ing the development of, certain qualities of im- 
 measurable service in the intensity of the struggle 
 for business existence prevailing in the aggressive 
 commercialism of this age. Lecky asserts : "Even 
 the gambling table fosters among its more skill- 
 ful votaries a kind of moral nerve, a capacity for 
 bearing losses with calmness, and controlling the 
 force of the desires, which is scarcely exhibited in 
 equal perfection in any other sphere." Whatever 
 may be the meaning of the phrase "controlling 
 the force of the desires," it is certain that among 
 the young men of today, in all classes of society, 
 the desires for intoxicants and sensuality are past 
 control when associated with gambling. In its most 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 141 
 
 seductive forms its principal aids are the gilded 
 saloon, and the harlot's enslaving smile. The neces- 
 sity for means with which to gratify aroused 
 passion in both respects, comes through contact 
 with the gaming table; hence, the houses of ill 
 repute, assignation houses and the innocent looking 
 "Hotel" nestling in the middle of the down town 
 business blocks, are the direct allies of the gambling 
 hells in the development of crime — in adding to, 
 rather than in "controlling" the force of the de- 
 sires. "Sensuality," said a distinguished writer, 
 
 "is the vice of young men and of old nations." 
 
 Another, tracing the effects of gaming on human 
 passions, wisely observes, "the habit of gambling 
 is very often allied with, and is even an incentive 
 to, the practice of other vices, whose darkness is 
 beyond dispute. The ordinary aspect of a return 
 from a race meeting will fully confirm this. There 
 we find that drunkenness, licentiousness and gamb- 
 ling go hand in hand, a well assorted trio whose 
 ministry to separate passions is not inconsistent 
 but consistent with mutual incitement and co- 
 operation in the destruction of the honor and pur- 
 ity and strength of men." 
 
142 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 While gambling is not now conducted "openly," 
 a word which has reference only to the mainte- 
 nance of down town establishments in which faro 
 and roulette were formerly played, it is conducted 
 under police protection all over this city in forms 
 more inviting, more disastrous to the embryotic 
 gamblers who patronize it, than if the large estab- 
 lishments were in full operation as of yore. The 
 latter could not invite the younger class of gamb- 
 lers to enter the play, because of their lack of 
 capital; the smaller, widely scattered, and police 
 guarded, cigar store and saloon games, accept 
 smaller sums of money, parts of a dollar, for a 
 stack of poker chips, from the anxious entrant to 
 the game. Prior to the last election a leading 
 evening newspaper accused the city executive with 
 farming out the slum district to two aldermen of 
 unsavory reputation, with leave to them to extort 
 money from gaming houses, high and low, within 
 its limits, for their personal benefit, in consideration 
 of their opposing, in the council, the passage of 
 ordinances relating to the extension of street car 
 privileges. Its condemnation of this bargain was 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 143 
 
 severe, and yet, later on, it was the most persistent 
 of that executive's supporters for re-election. 
 
 The coon gamblers, thieves, thugs and pimps 
 were all on the staffs of these aldermen. They 
 followed these worthies into the campaign, under 
 the leadership of the eminently respectable news- 
 paper referred to. Inspired by such leadership 
 "Spreader," "Sawed Off," "The Cuckoo," "Book 
 Agent," "Deacon," "Grab All," "Duck," "Shoe- 
 string," "Scalper," "Humpty," "Hungry Sid," 
 "Seedy," "Talky," "Whiskers," "Noisy," "Fig," 
 "Old Hoss," "Slick," "Ruby," "Sunday School," 
 and "Mushmouth," captains in the corps of sports 
 felt themselves respectable, led their followers from 
 the barrel and lodging houses with a rush to the 
 polls, and achieved a startling victory. Over all 
 this horrible saturnalia of vice, the colors of the 
 police force float in token of protection. The brave 
 men of that force, morally degraded by the obedi- 
 ence they are compelled to yield to unworthy supe- 
 riors want merely the opportunity to perform their 
 full duty, not only as patrolmen but as patriotic 
 American citizens. The time when they will be 
 
144 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 permitted to do so seems far distant, unless an 
 aroused public opinion shall speedily pronounce 
 against the further continuation of a policy of 
 protection to crime and debauchery supported by 
 the men chosen to war unceasingly with both. 
 
 The dens of the sexual pervert of the male sex, 
 found in the basements of buildings in the 
 most crowded, but least respectable parts of cer- 
 tain streets, with immoral theaters, cheap muse- 
 ums, opium joints and vile concert saloons sur- 
 rounding them, are the blackest holes of iniquity 
 that ever existed in any country since the dawn 
 of history. A phrase was recently coined in New 
 York which conveys — in the absence of the pos- 
 sibility of describing them in decent language — the 
 meaning of the brute practices indulged in these 
 damnable resorts, and the terrible consequences to 
 humanity as a result of unnatural habits — "Paresis 
 Halls." 
 
 No form of this indulgence described by writers 
 on the history of morals, no species of sodomy 
 the debased minds of these devils can devise, is 
 missing from the programme of their diabolical 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 145 
 
 orgies. In divine history we read of the abomina- 
 tions of the strange women of Israel, with their 
 male companions, in their worship of Moloch, Bel- 
 phegor and Baal, and of the death penalties pro- 
 nounced by Aloses against the participants in them. 
 To suppress the brutish immorality, and prevent 
 the spread of disease arising from it, the Jewish 
 law giver put to death all his Midianite female 
 captives except the virgins. Profane history tells 
 of the infamies of the Baylonian banquets, of the 
 incestuous and "promiscuous combats of sensuality" 
 of the Lydians and the Persians ; of the Athenian 
 Auletrides, or female flute players, who danced 
 and furnished music at the banquets of the nobil- 
 ity and wallowed in the filth of every sensual in- 
 decency, and of the polluted condition of Roman 
 life, prior to, and as the Christian era da\Vned, but 
 in all the untranslatable literature of eroticism no 
 description of the debaucheries of the ancients, if 
 freely interpreted into English from the dead lan- 
 guages in which they are preserved, could depict 
 the nastiness these yahoos are reported as having 
 introduced into our midst, and rendered more hate- 
 
146 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 ful and disgusting by the squalor of their under- 
 ground abodes. The young are lured by them, 
 ruined in health and seared in conscience. The very 
 slang of the streets is surcharged with expressions, 
 derived from, and directly traceable to, the names 
 of these unmentionable acts of lechery. 
 
 Not content with the private and crafty pur- 
 suit of their calling, they must flaunt it in the 
 faces of the public and under the very eyes of the 
 police, in a series of annual balls held by the 
 "fruits" and the '"cabmen," advertised by placards 
 extensively all over the city. At these disreputable 
 gatherings the pervert of the male persuasion dis- 
 plays his habits by aping everything feminine. In 
 speech, walk, dress and adornment they are to all 
 appearances women. The modern mysteries of the 
 toilet, used to build up and round out the female 
 figure, are applied in the make-up of the male 
 pervert. Viewed from the galleries, it is impos- 
 sible to distinguish them from the sex they are 
 imitating. Theirs is no maid-marian costume ; it 
 is strictly in the line of the prevailing styles 
 among fashionable women, from female hair to 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 147 
 
 pinched feet. The convenient bar suppHes the 
 liquid excitement, and when the women a'rrivals 
 from the bagnios swarm into the hall, led in many 
 instances by the landlady, white or black, and the 
 streets and saloons have contributed their quotas, 
 the dance begins and holds on until the morning 
 hours approach. The acts are those mainly sug- 
 gestive of indecency. Nothing, except the gross 
 language and easy familiarity in deportment, coupled 
 with the assumed falsetto voice and effeminate 
 manners of the pervert, would reveal to the unin- 
 formed observer what a seething mass of human 
 corruption he is witnessing. As the "encyclopedia 
 of the art of making up" puts it, "the exposed 
 parts of the human anatomy" usually displayed in 
 fashionable society are counterfeited so perfectly, the 
 wigs are selected and arranged with such nicety, 
 the eyebrows and lashes so dexterously treated, and 
 the features so artistically touched with cosmetics, 
 as to make it very difficult, at first glance, to dis- 
 tinguish between the impostor and the real wom- 
 an. The big hands and tawdry dresses, the large 
 though pinched feet and the burly ankle, betray 
 the sex of the imitating pervert. 
 
148 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 No reason, except that the pohce are paid for 
 non-interference with these vice pitted revels, can 
 be given for their toleration. The city's officials 
 are either in collusion with their projectors, they 
 are incompetent, or are the willing tools of these 
 stinking body scavengers. These beasts look with 
 disdain upon the votaries of natural pleasures, 
 and have an insane pride in their hopeless deg- 
 radation. 
 
 The opium joints are closely related sources 
 of iniquity to the pervert's haunts. Under one 
 of the worst of the all night saloons, conducted 
 by a politician of the first ward, who belongs to the 
 party of the Bath House and Hinky Dink, and who 
 "touched" the Hon. Richard Croker of New York 
 for a small loan, the largest of these execrable 
 cellars is protected. It is but a step from the wine 
 rooms of the saloon to the solace of the pipe. The 
 depraved of both sexes in those moments when 
 despair seizes them, when some recollection of 
 childhood, or of home, arouses in them the dor- 
 mant good still remaining in their hearts, when, 
 as they look into the future, they can discern no 
 
 1 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 149 
 
 ray of hope, but are appalled at the frightful end 
 which must be theirs, shut out the horrors of their 
 situation in life by seeking a paradise built upon 
 "the baseless fabric of a vision." In this joint, 
 since reference to it was written, a man died from 
 the effects of smoking the pipe. The woman who 
 accompanied him, the bartender and the keeper of 
 the joint were placed under arrest. The police 
 expressed amazement at the revelation of the ex- 
 istence of the joint, as did the proprietor of the 
 saloon. It was, of course, closed, and a number 
 of other like resorts were then raided. Press com- 
 ments upon this death appeared as follows: 
 
 "In spite of the fact that there are plenty of 
 laws against them, opium dens and objectionable 
 grogshops are among the hardest things in the 
 world to exterminate. The only reasonable ex- 
 planation for this is that their proprietors must 
 have influence with officers who are employed by 
 the people to execute the laws. 'The police close 
 these places,' said an officer despairingly, referring 
 to dens like that in which the man Adams died 
 Sunday night, 'but they spring up again in a day.' 
 
150 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 "The police seem to be downcast over it. Yet 
 the causes of the 'springing up' are as plain as 
 the nose on one's face, and the means of removing 
 them as evident as one's hand. 
 
 "Access to the den in which Adams died was 
 had through the delectable O. saloon, operated by 
 S. V. P., and the den itself was rented by V. P. 
 The levee statesman says he had no idea his base- 
 ment was used for an opium den. He thought the 
 procession of drunken and dazed men and women 
 who tottered through his saloon and went down 
 his basement stairs all night were going for their 
 laundry. 
 
 "V. P.'s statement is entitled to as much consid- 
 eration as the guileless protestations of the gentle- 
 man who is caught with the chicken under his coat. 
 V. P. is responsible for the opium den and as 
 soon as the law lays a hand, in earnest, on the 
 landlord the opium dens will cease 'springing up.' 
 
 "The police knew that an opium den was run- 
 ning in V. P.'s basement. They had been amply 
 warned of it. If they had raided the place a few 
 times and sent the proprietor and inmates to the 
 bridewell it would have stayed closed. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 151 
 
 "There is a little virtue in sticking to one's na- 
 tive vices. Western races come honestly by drunk- 
 enness and gambling. But why tolerate the de- 
 liberate importation and cultivation of this strange 
 oriental bestiality? This ingrafted vice must make 
 its own soil. Why should the police treat it so 
 leniently? A hundred-dollar fine for every per- 
 son found in an opium joint and a modicum of 
 police activity, with the demanding of a strict ac- 
 count from the guilty landlord, will quickly put 
 a damper on the opium dens. Every month that 
 they are tolerated they get a firmer root." 
 
 These resorts are patronized by others than the 
 fallen women and the criminal classes. Like slum- 
 ming, it is a fad ''to hit the pipe just once" by 
 some adventure seeking people in other walks of 
 life. The habit of opium smoking is easily ac- 
 quired, and, when acquired, the smoker becomes 
 a slave to its use. There are between two and 
 three hundred of these smoking rooms in Chi- 
 cago. The number of persons addicted to smok- 
 ing opium cannot be stated with accuracy. Esti- 
 mates vary from ten to twenty thousand, the num- 
 
152 
 
 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 ber probably lies between these two estimates. In 
 the Chinese quarters the penetrating odor of opium 
 smoke is plainly perceptible and is thrown off from 
 the garments of passing Chinamen, or is detected 
 as one enters a restaurant or laundry presided 
 over by the oriental. The "dope" soon affects the 
 complexion, and the features wear a dejected ap- 
 pearance. The movements of the victims are 
 listless, almost lifeless. In the saloon referred to, 
 a constant procession of men and women, old and 
 young, come and go up and down the stairway to 
 the region below. It is not guarded with any 
 degree of care, because it is protected from the 
 law's aggression, except occasionally, when by way 
 of diversion it is pulled. Then its patrons get a 
 quiet tip to keep away, consequently few occu- 
 pants are found. The old pipes and a small quan- 
 tity of the dope are graciously permitted to be 
 borne away in triumph by the officers. New sup- 
 plies are provided, and the baleful business resumes 
 its accustomed routine. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Common Council — Boodlers — Bribers — Council of 
 1899 — Powers of — Misuse of — Price of Votes — 
 Passage of Boodle Ordinances — Public Works 
 Department and Bureaus — Illegal Contracts 
 — Street Repairing, Etc. — Civil Service Com- 
 mission — History of — Present Board Tools of 
 Mayor — Examination by — Examples of — At- 
 tacks Upon Law — Special Assessments — As- 
 phalt Ring — Fire Department — County Gov- 
 ernment — Insane Asylum — Sale of "Cadav- 
 ers'' — Contracts — Sheriff's Office — Jury 
 Bribers — Judges — Revenue Law — Tax Dodgers 
 — Town Boards — Coroner's Office — Press 
 Trust — Civic Societies — Berry Committee's 
 Report — Baxter Committee — Opening Testi- 
 mony — Conclusion. 
 
 For a generation the Common Council of Chi- 
 cago has been governed by a majority of "boodlers." 
 Aldermen have been, in that period, fairly repre- 
 sentative of the wards by which they were elected. 
 The various nationalities, clustered together in such 
 a manner as to give rise to the naming of a ward 
 according to the nativity of its inhabitants,, such 
 
154 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 as Polish, Swedish, Bohemian, German, Irish, etc., 
 have selected as their representatives in the Coun- 
 cil, men who, as a rule, in private life were honest. 
 Their selection was usually upon strictly party 
 grounds. The "independent" voter, in municipal 
 elections, is a growth of quite recent years. The 
 class appears to be increasing with great rapidity 
 and to be finding a means of concentrating its 
 strength at the polls. 
 
 As honest as an alderman may be when he first 
 takes his seat, he soon finds himself surrounded 
 by influences which appear to exert a fascinating 
 power over him. He must elect to be for or 
 against the gang. Prior to the allowance of a 
 yearly salary the temptation to join the gang was 
 heightened by the promising returns, in a pecu- 
 niary way, which the gang could almost guarantee 
 the incoming member. An alderman "once pre- 
 possessed is half seduced" and, since it is almost 
 axiomatic that the total seduction of a prepos- 
 sessed alderman is a mere matter of time and op- 
 portunity, the fall always comes when some high 
 spirited, progressive, and perhaps, God-professing 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 155 
 
 citizen, offers from his purse a goodly compensa- 
 tion to the gang for the grant of some public 
 privilege. Thus the pubHc privilege is seized upon 
 by the aldermanic gang as a private privilege 
 which it disposes of to the broad-clothed briber at 
 a price satisfactory to its members. The bribers 
 are found in that sanctified element of the com- 
 munity which attends church under the pretext of 
 fearing and worshipping God. 
 
 "But yet, O Lord ! confess I must, 
 At times I'm fash'd wi' fleshly lust ; 
 An' sometimes, too, wi' wordly trust 
 
 Vile self gets in ! 
 But thou rememb'rest we are dust, 
 Defil'd in sin," 
 On secular days, its leaders, the accomplished, in 
 thieves' parlance, the "slick" bribers, whisper their 
 temptations into the ears of public servants willing 
 to become their private tools, like the devil in the 
 garden of Eden, "who squat like a toad close to 
 the ear of Eve." 
 
 The "gang" spots its man with remarkable 
 foresight, and year after year its power to man- 
 
156 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 age public affairs to its own private advantage has 
 become more and more felt by the public. 
 
 For the first time in a generation, in this year 
 1899, it is believed an honest majority is in con- 
 trol of the council. The pleasurable fact is that 
 the majority was elected upon a non-partisan basis, 
 the recommendations of a civic body, as to the 
 honesty and capacity of the candidates in the sev- 
 eral wards, having been acted upon by the voters 
 in preference to those of party nominating conven- 
 tions. 
 
 It is, however, too early to predict a new era in 
 the history of the council. "All signs fail in dry 
 weather," and at this moment there are no indi- 
 cations of an approaching shower of "boodle." The 
 street car franchise question is drowsy and will not 
 be awakened until the corporations controlling the 
 lines are ready to do so. That they will not do 
 so until some legislation is enacted in 1901, is too 
 apparent to require an effort to prove. For one 
 year at least there is a majority in the council 
 which will, it is hoped, protect public rights; and 
 it is also hoped that in 1900 this majority will not 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 157 
 
 only be retained, but also greatly augmented. Pro- 
 jects may be hidden which in the near, or not dis- 
 tant, future, will come forth to plague the con- 
 sciences of a number of newly admitted mem- 
 bers and put their integrity to the severest of 
 tests. 
 
 The power of the Common Council, as confided 
 to it by legislation, over the affairs of two millions 
 of people, is too immense to be wielded by a sin- 
 gle ordinance making body. Under our form of 
 municipal government it controls the finances and 
 the property of the city, regulates licenses to sell 
 liquor and to carry on various classes of business, 
 such as auctioneers, distillers, grocers, lumber yards, 
 livery stables, money changers, brokers, junk stores, 
 billiard, bagatelle and pigeon-hole tables, pin alleys, 
 ball alleys, hackmen, draymen, omnibus drivers, 
 carters, cabmen, porters, expressmen, hawkers, ped- 
 dlers, pawnbrokers, theatres, shows and amusements, 
 and many other classes of occupations. 
 
 Its power over the uses to which the streets 
 may be applied is, in one sense, limited; in another 
 almost unlimited. While limited by the charter to 
 
158 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the power to lay them out, open, widen and improve 
 them, prevent encroachments and obstructions there- 
 on, Hghting and cleansing them, its power to reg- 
 ulate them is almost unlimited. "To regulate" the 
 use of the streets is a broad power, and while sev- 
 eral distinct grants of power of regulation are con- 
 tained in the statute, such as preventing the throw- 
 ing of ashes and garbage upon them, their use 
 for signs, sign posts, awnings, etc., the carrying 
 of banners, placards, advertisements, etc., therein, 
 the flying of flags, banners or signs across them 
 from house to house, or traffic and sales upon 
 them, nevertheless, the uses to which they may be 
 applied in the way of business enterprises for ad- 
 vertising purposes, are as numerous and as varied 
 as the minds of the originators of the schemes are 
 original and unique. 
 
 For the right to use, therefore, in a given way 
 in a given ward, the "gang" alderman long ago 
 established and still maintains a schedule of rates. 
 They are graduated from the insignificant charge 
 for permission to "string a banner," or establish 
 a fruit stand, up to the highly respectable "rake 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 159 
 
 off" demanded for the use of them for switch 
 tracks, or street railway purposes. It is not so 
 many years ago that a leading morning newspaper 
 furnished the public with some information on 
 this subject, upon the occasion of the passage of 
 an ordinance granting valuable privileges to a 
 railway corporation. Four members of the coun- 
 cil, not the "Big Four" of olden times, but the 
 modern "Big Four" leaders of "de gang," were 
 said to have received for their manipulation of the 
 ordinance, and the organization of their followers 
 for its support, the quite comfortable sum of $25,000 
 each. Their supporters were to receive $8,000 
 each for their votes, while the "go between" re- 
 ceived $100,000 and a few city lots. The standard 
 price per vote for valuable franchises is $5,000, yet 
 in a pinch of private necessity, a few votes can be 
 commanded at lower figures. The contingency of 
 a possible veto is provided for, so that in that event 
 one-fourth must be added for the second vote to 
 pass the measure over the veto. Thus it has 
 gone on not only with respect to street railway 
 grants, but also for electric lighting, telephone con- 
 
i6o Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 duits, gas pipes, private telephone wires and that 
 long list of uses devised by business men for the 
 advertisement of their personal interests. The pea- 
 nut stand privilege, the fruit stand privilege, the 
 bootblack privilege, the banner privilege, all pay 
 cash to some "gang" alderman, as do the policy 
 rooms, pool rooms and saloons with wine room 
 privileges. 
 
 It is an amusing, as well as an instructive sight, 
 to witness a meeting of the council upon an occa- 
 sion when some well announced "boodle" ordinance 
 is called up for passage. The plan of campaign 
 has all been arranged beforehand, and the floor 
 leader selected to command the movement. Let it 
 be an ordinance for granting the right to a street 
 railway company to lay down its tracks, and oper- 
 ate its line, in a given street. The preliminaries 
 have all been gone through with, the signatures of 
 property owners verified, and the price to be paid 
 for favorable votes agreed upon. When the ordi- 
 nance is taken up its opponents are generally in 
 a disorganized condition. There is among them, 
 as a general rule, no coherence of opposition. The 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. i6i 
 
 main object to be attained, viz., the defeat of the 
 ordinance as it is presented, is lost sight of in the 
 effort "to make records" by the introduction of 
 amendments, reflecting some individual idea of the 
 member who offers it, without having submitted it 
 to his associate opponents for their judgment. Con- 
 sequently they disagree among themselves and fall 
 to fighting each other, thereby weakening their op- 
 position. Meanwhile the "gang" sits smilingly by, 
 under instructions to vote down all amendments. 
 When one is offered, of comparative unimportance, 
 the quick-witted lobbyists of the corporations, Jew 
 and Gentile, convey a tip to the leader of the 
 "gang" that the amendment "is all right," "quite 
 agreeable," "will be accepted," etc., whereupon the 
 gang's leader obligingly informs the chair that it 
 is his profound belief the amendment is a very 
 proper one, and it is graciously accepted. The op- 
 position having some little encouragement, present 
 ■other amendments, which are, of course, defeated. 
 Somtimes debate is permitted. If the speeches 
 could be reported verbatim and the words spelled 
 out as pronounced, it would make Mr. Doolev 
 
1 62 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 reflect on the style of modern oratory, as pre- 
 sented by the "mimber from Archey Road." The 
 question coming to a vote upon the passage of the 
 ordinance, the roll call begins. From the "Bath 
 House" on the right comes, on the first call, the 
 familiar "Aye." That response is repeated by 
 every member of the gang without explanation, 
 and in a stolid way, indicating contempt for public 
 opinion. The measure is now out of the way. 
 Preparations are made for the next. Settlements 
 have to be made and everybody satisfied before new 
 matters involving "boodle" can be presented. Oc- 
 casionally there is a loud "kick" by some slow- 
 witted member who fails to secure his full share 
 of the "swag," but he is usually placated in some 
 manner best known to the combination, and busi-- 
 ness goes on in the old way. The division and 
 distribution of the "boodle" are matters of great 
 secrecy and adroit management. It is forced into 
 the pockets of some, or finds its way into them in 
 mysterious ways. It is discovered under a plate 
 at a restaurant, or under a pillow at bedtime; but 
 it seldom passes into the open hand, held rear- 
 wards, as the caricaturist pictures the "boodler." 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 163 
 
 A newspaper thus spoke of the members of the 
 council belonging to the party it represents. "The 
 
 average representative in the city council 
 
 is a tramp, if not worse. He represents or claims 
 to represent a political party having respectable 
 principles and leaders of known good character and 
 ability. He comes from twenty-five or thirty dif- 
 ferent wards, some of them widely separated, and 
 when he reaches the City Hall, whether from the 
 west, the south or the north division, he is nine 
 cases out of ten a bummer and a disreputable who 
 can be bought and sold as hogs are" bought and 
 sold at the stockyards. Do these vicious vaga- 
 bonds stand for the decency and intelligence of the 
 party in Chicago?" 
 
 ■This is a picture drawn a few years ago, but it 
 correctly sketches a number of the hold over 
 members of the present council, and a few of the 
 old timers re-elected. 
 
 The new members of the council, one-half in 
 number, are committed, by their ante-election 
 pledges, to the policy of refusing the grant of 
 privileges to individuals or corporations without 
 
i64 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 compensation to the public. Whatever of benefit 
 the pubHc may derive from this poHcy, it is not 
 quite clear that it will operate as a preventive of 
 "boodling." The ingenuity of the "boodler" com- 
 bines the cunning of the sneak thief, with the 
 boldness of the highway robber in devising the 
 ways and means to find and secure his "stuff." 
 It is a matter of congratulation that the bood- 
 ling species is dwindling away from the public 
 view. How long it will remain in concealment 
 depends upon how long the independent voter wishes 
 to keep it concealed. 
 
 The department of the city government to 
 which is committed the control of its public im- 
 provements consists of a number of bureaus. The 
 Commissioner of Public Works controls, as part 
 of his executive department, the City Engineer, 
 Superintendent of Streets, of Street and Alley 
 Cleaning, of Water, of Sewerage, of Special As- 
 sessments and of Maps. When it is considered 
 that this means the care and management of i,iii 
 miles of improved and 1,464 miles of unimproved 
 streets, 112 miles of improved and 1,235 miles of 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 165 
 
 unimproved alleys, making a total of 3,924 miles 
 of streets and alleys, the letting of contracts for 
 their repair, improvement and cleaning, and all the 
 details of engineering, sewerage and water pipe 
 extension bureaus, involving the expenditure of 
 millions of dollars, the vastness of the public 
 interests entrusted to the Commissioner may be 
 realized. Under every administration the depart- 
 ment is assailed for frauds, stuffed pay rolls, fa- 
 voritism and boodling. The administration now in 
 power (and which has been in power for two 
 years) has not escaped criticism. Powerful as that 
 criticism was, and founded in truth as it was, 
 it apparently did not affect the minds of a ma- 
 jority of the voters. Contracts were let by this 
 administration, in direct violation of the law which 
 provides for a letting to the lowest bidder, after 
 advertising for bids, where the amount is in 
 excess of $500. Yet a political favorite, who was 
 himself at one time spoken of as a probable ap- 
 pointee to the office of Commissioner, but who 
 stepped aside, as it is charged, as the result of a 
 deal, obtained thereby a contract for street repairs 
 
i66 Chicago, Soman's Sanctum. 
 
 amounting to $230,000, which was never adver- 
 tised for, but let to him privately in such a manner 
 so that the vouchers in payment were drawn in 
 sums less than $500 each. So grossly evasive of 
 the law was this transaction, that it involved the 
 stoppage of payment of the warrants by the Comp- 
 troller of the city. A re-measurement of the work 
 was ordered by him. This developed the astonish- 
 ing fact that, even if the contract had been prop- 
 erly let, there was nevertheless an overcharge, 
 swindling in its nature, to the extent of $60,000. 
 The Comptroller was, therefore, compelled to with- 
 hold his sanction to the payment of the vouchers. 
 In some manner, however, they were paid after 
 some slight reductions were made. This was a 
 blow at the sterling integrity of the Comptroller, 
 whose public services in thoroughly reorganizing 
 his office, and placing it on a business basis, and 
 whose devotion to public interests cost him his life, 
 are the only conspicuous acts, free from shame, 
 egotism, or corruption, of an administration to 
 which he loaned the strength of his good name, and 
 upon which he shed the splendor of his ability 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 167 
 
 and personal honor. He will be long remembered 
 as the one oasis in a desert of maladministration. 
 Both in private and in public walks Robert A. 
 Waller lived an honorable life. He died mourned 
 by all who knew him. 
 
 "His life was gentle, and the elements 
 So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the world : This was a man !" 
 
 The attempt to let the contract for the use of a 
 tug for service to the cribs, or water intakes, in 
 the lake, was another breach of the law so fla- 
 grant, as to attract public attention for a time. Its 
 consummation was prevented by the threat of court 
 proceedings, which, at once, led to the insertion of 
 an advertisement for bids. But here again fraud 
 was attempted. The specifications were so drawn 
 as to call for boats of certain dimensions, exact 
 compliance with which was almost impossible, ex- 
 cept to one towing company to which originally 
 the contract was about to be let without a bid. 
 This company's bid was $13,000; the lowest bid 
 was $3,500. Still the city authorities hesitated 
 to award the contract to the lowest bidder, but 
 
1 68 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 public opinion, and the known ability of the bid- 
 der to fulfill his contract regardless of his boats' 
 dimensions, compelled the letting to him, thereby 
 saving to the city the sum of $9,000. Vouchers 
 about which there was a doubt as to their legality, 
 have been paid to a contractor, who was appointed 
 a brigadier general of volunteers, but who resigned 
 the appointment immediately, it is said, for busi- 
 ness reasons, or because he could not be assigned 
 to a pleasing command. These vouchers amounted 
 to $50,000, and their payment, it is rather unchar- 
 itably said, induced the gallant contractor to be- 
 come an independent voter. There is no differ- 
 ence between the manufacture of an independent 
 voter in this manner, and his manufacture by put- 
 ting him on the pay-roll without work. This method 
 seems to have been adopted by the public works 
 department of the city government, following, per- 
 haps, an old precedent. 
 
 The purchase of water meters, under specifi- 
 cations with which only one company could com- 
 ply, and the laying of water pipes without letting 
 contracts in a lawful manner, are notorious in- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 169 
 
 stances of unblushing frauds committed by this 
 department. It is almost incredible that a dynamo 
 should be bought in parts, so that it could be pur- 
 chased from a friend, and paid for in sums less 
 than $500; yet this was done. Thus a piece of 
 machinery having a fixed price as a whole, was not 
 only purchased illegally, but paid for in such a 
 manner that its price, as a whole, was doubled 
 when bought in pieces. So it was with other elec- 
 trical apparatus; so it was with the protection to 
 fire hydrants. Instead of advertising for bids for 
 the work of shielding the fire hydrants from the 
 severity of the winter's cold, they were divided up 
 into companies like those of a regiment of sol- 
 diers, each having its contract commander, who 
 received his pay on vouchers each calling for less 
 thati $500. The present commissioner is an old 
 politician, who has held several oiificial positions. 
 It is but just to say of him, that, with the general 
 public, he bears a good reputation. His political 
 enemies are not by any means complimentary in 
 their allusions to him, those particularly in the 
 ranks of his own party. He is energetic, self 
 
lyo Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 confident, amiable, and a particularly able bluffer 
 when occasion demands it. Without being pro- 
 found he is efficient, and without being remarkably 
 efficient, he is not at all valueless. 
 
 The Civil Service Commission has reached its 
 present age, nearly five years, after suffering all 
 the diseases incident to poor nursing. It is not by 
 any means a vigorous child as yet, but as it gains 
 in strength it will perhaps grow in wisdom. When it 
 recognizes the fact that the people permitted it to be 
 born, it will also recognize the further fact that its 
 parents require of it obedience to their wishes. 
 They demand the enforcement of the Civil Ser- 
 vice Law as it is written, for the public good 
 and not for partisan advantage. They would im- 
 press upon the commission the conviction of their 
 belief that without a properly administered civil 
 service law, municipal government is a menace to 
 republican institutions; that without it the experi- 
 ment of municipal ownership of "public utilities" is 
 hazardous, and that the increasing intelligence of 
 the people and their wider knowledge of the science 
 of government have taught them that the political 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 171 
 
 maxim, "to the victors belong the spoils," is a 
 relic of the barbaric days of politics, in which 
 wide open primaries, stuffed ballot boxes, captured 
 polling places, and thugs were the governing ele- 
 ments of elections. 
 
 The civil service law was placed upon the 
 statute book at the instance of those who had 
 made the study of municipal government a duty, 
 and who from that study realized that the growth 
 of great cities, in population, material wealth and 
 industrial development, demands commensurate 
 changes in the manner of governing such com- 
 munities. The basic principle of the law is the 
 elimination of the spoils system, and the substi- 
 tution of the merit system. The banishment of 
 the professional politician, that individual who lives 
 upon the spoils of office, is a result certain of 
 accomplishment under the proper administration of 
 this beneficent statujle. Foreseeing this result, the 
 professionals in all parties united against it 
 and have sought, and are still seeking, to 
 undermine its provisions and destroy its utility. 
 
 The law was put into operation by a board 
 
172 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 of commissioners not one of whom had ever been 
 an active party man. No body of men ever met 
 for the performance of a public duty, who were 
 less tainted with partisanship than were these gen- 
 tlemen. They studied the law carefully, and ac- 
 quainted themselves with its text and its spirit. 
 Their selection was satisfactory to the public, and 
 was a guarantee of honest endeavor to place the 
 affairs of the city under the control of the law's 
 terms, in all the departments to which those terms 
 applied, and which could be brought within the 
 classified service. They formulated adequate rules, 
 after consultation with able men familiar with the 
 workings of the federal civil service law. Open 
 to criticism as some of these rules were as being 
 more theoretical than practical, nevertheless they 
 were built upon the basis of selection by merit 
 alone, regardless of politics, and were adapted 
 solely to that end. For two years it adhered to 
 the law, enforcing against the party to which the 
 majority of the commissioners belonged a rule 
 which required that no person holding an office 
 which fell within the classified service could take 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 173 
 
 an examination for that position without resigning 
 the position. The law continued to work during 
 1895 and 1896 as smoothly as new machinery can. 
 In the Spring of 1897 a new city administration 
 came into power of a different political com- 
 plexion from that under which the law was placed 
 in force. It was then found, to the amazement 
 of the public, which, however, in the hurly-burly 
 of life soon subsided, that these commissioners were 
 incompetent. One placed his resignation in the 
 hands of the Mayor and was almost immediately 
 appointed to the office of comptroller by that officer. 
 The efficiency of his service in his new office, and 
 the quality of his character, have already been 
 referred to in these pages. 
 
 Suddenly the same Mayor addressed the late 
 associates of the Comptroller as follows, viz. : "You 
 will please take notice that I have elected to, and 
 I do hereby remove you from the position of 
 Civil Service Commissioner in and for the City 
 of Chicago for the following causes. First : You 
 are and have been in your performance of the 
 duties of said office incompetent. Secondly: In 
 
174 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the performance of said duties you have been 
 guilty of neglect of duty." A new commission 
 was appointed, which proceeded to reverse the 
 rule above referred to, whereupon nearly all the 
 employes of the city were discharged. No ex- 
 aminations having been held for these positions 
 there was no eligible list from which to select 
 their successors. Consequently, in such a case, 
 appointments were made under a section of the 
 statute to fill the vacancies for sixty days, during 
 which time examinations were held to obtain an 
 eligible list. These appointments were, of course, 
 all made from the Mayor's party. He could not 
 do otherwise in view of the public utterances he 
 had made during his campaign, when he said if 
 he retained any employes appointed under a prior 
 administration of a different political belief, "it 
 will only be for menagerie purposes." 
 
 When the examinations were held and a list 
 certified, it was found that in every instance the 
 sixty day men passed at its head. Such a uni- 
 formity of results was in itself evidence of a dis- 
 regard of the law. From the highest position for 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 175 
 
 which examinations were held, down through all 
 grades, to the lowest, such as barn men, the sixty 
 day man was always marked up to the head of the 
 list. 
 
 During the years 1897 and 1898, no less than 
 seven different persons were selected as civil ser- 
 vice commissioners, until a board was found 
 willing to act upon the Mayor's interpretation of 
 the statute. One instance of the abuse of the law 
 will suffice to show the methods resorted to, for 
 the purpose of selecting a party man to fill a 
 vacancy in office. An examination was held 
 of applicants for the position of "foreman of 
 street lamps repairs." The man who passed at 
 the head was a sixty day man. At thirteen 
 years of age he became a sheet metal worker's 
 apprentice, and with the exception of a short 
 period when he was engaged in keeping a saloon 
 and made a failure of it, he continued to follow 
 that occupation. He is a heeler for one of the 
 most notorious of the aldermanic gang. It will 
 be observed in contrasting the questions asked him, 
 and those asked his superior, an applicant for the 
 
176 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 office of Superintendent of Street Lamp Repairs, 
 that a lower degree of educational qualifications 
 is required of the Superintendent, that of his sub- 
 ordinate, the foreman of the gang of repairers. 
 These questions were propounded to the foreman, 
 viz. : 
 
 "If the hypothenuse of a right angle triangle 
 is 35 feet and the base 21 feet, what is the 
 altitude ? 
 
 At 30 cents a square yard what is the cost of 
 lining with metal a cubical room 13 feet long? 
 
 If it takes eight men five and one half days 
 to make 100 lamps, how long will it take six men 
 to make 350 lamps? 
 
 A building is 302 feet high ; the walk and 
 court measure 90 feet ; what is the length of a 
 straight line running from the top of the building 
 to the opposite curb? 
 
 At 25 cents a square yard what is the cost of 
 a sheet of iron sufficient for the construction of a 
 cylinder pipe closed at both ends 28 feet long, 
 the diameter of whose base is 28 inches? 
 
 What is the capacity in gallons of a sphere 15 
 inches in diameter? 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 177 
 
 If 24 gallons of water flow through a 2 inch 
 pipe each minute' how many gallons will flow 
 through a 3 inch pipe under the same conditions? 
 
 What is the length of the diameter of a circle 
 whose area equals 1.386 square yards? 
 
 Name the materials used in the construction of 
 a street lamp? 
 
 Name three essential qualifications requisite for 
 a foreman ?" 
 
 A street lamp could not be repaired, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, by a person unable to answer these 
 questions ! This truth must be apparent to any 
 unbiased mind ! 
 
 All the other applicants could answer the last 
 two questions only, simply because they were hon- 
 est ; but the metal worker answered them all, and 
 was marked 100, although he had not been at 
 school since he was thirteen years of age, and 
 does not appear to have been much of a student 
 since that time. 
 
 The Superintendent's examination ran as fol- 
 lows, viz. : 
 
 "What are the duties of Superintendent of 
 Lamp Repairs? 
 
178 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 What experience have you had to qualify you 
 for this position? 
 
 How many lamps should a tinner complete in 
 a day? 
 
 How many signs should an etcher complete in 
 a day? 
 
 If a special assessment were levied and con- 
 firmed, what would your duty be to secure the 
 erecting and lighting of the lamps? 
 
 On what part of the city property should those 
 posts be set? 
 
 If posts were to be erected how would you 
 determine what class of posts would be required? 
 
 What is the general duty of Superintendent of 
 Lamp Repairs regarding repairs to lamps?" 
 
 The attacks on the civil service law come from 
 all sources. A party convention in 1898, in its 
 platform said, "We pronounce the Civil Service 
 Law inefficient, mischievous and hostile to the 
 regnant principles of popular government. We de- 
 mand its repeal." 
 
 The next convention of the same party re- 
 solved : "We pledge the party to the strict 
 
 enforcement of this, the Civil Service Law." 
 
Chicago, Satx\n's Sanctum. 179 
 
 The Mayor's consistency and that of his party 
 are identical. If the two removed commissioners 
 were incompetent and neglectful, so must the third 
 have been, and yet that equally incompetent and 
 neglectful commissioner was appointed to an office, 
 the very highest in the gift of the Mayor. 
 
 Acting upon the demand of his party for the 
 repeal of this law, the Corporation Counsel began 
 his attacks upon it by a multiplicity of opinions 
 calculated to gradually remove it from the statute 
 book. Ordinances were passed in accordance with 
 these opinions, creating new heads of departments 
 and exempting them from the civil service rules. 
 Positions, filled by civil service appointees, were 
 abolished. The same positions were re-created 
 under a new name, filled by a sixty day man who 
 was then examined, and certified to the head of 
 the list. The police department, the city treasurer, 
 and other branches of the local government which 
 have attempted by judicial proceedings to emas- 
 culate the civil service law, have in every instance 
 been foiled by the decisions of the Supreme Court. 
 
 The Special Assessment Bureau of the board 
 
i8o Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 of public works, has for many years, in conjunc- 
 tion with the alderman, had the origination and 
 passage of ordinances for paving streets, laying 
 sewers, sidewalks, drains, water supply and service 
 pipes, etc. Under a law recently enacted, and now 
 in force, all ordinances originate with a board, 
 named the Board of Local Improvements. The 
 right of petition on behalf of the property owners, 
 is a feature of the new law which smiles at the 
 property owner, while it "winks the other eye." 
 It holds out a hope, as do other provisions of the 
 law, of reduced assessments, but, so far, the prac- 
 tical benefit to the owner of real estate has not 
 been made apparent. Since the year 1861 and in- 
 cluding the year 1897, the enormous sum of 
 $90,402,790.44 has been levied upon real estate for 
 the payment of public improvements. During the 
 year ending December, 1891, the amount levied 
 was over six millions of dollars, and during the 
 following year ending December 31, 1892, just 
 preceding the World's Fair, the assessments 
 reached the sum of over fourteen millions of 
 dollars. Reference has alreadv been made to 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. i8r 
 
 frauds in the letting of contracts for street im- 
 provements. They are spht up and let to favor- 
 ites without advertising, so that each payment will 
 fall under $500, although the improvement may 
 be a mile in length. The asphalt ring is just as 
 potent as ever. It fights every effort of other 
 dealers in asphalt to procure a contract and it 
 generally succeeds in foisting upon the people its 
 quality of asphalt at a higher price than that 
 offered at a lower price, by other bidders, perhaps 
 equally as good in quality and which has been 
 successfully used in other cities. Failing recently 
 to stampede the board, the ring accepted contracts 
 at a figure submitted by its competitors. This, 
 however, is a familiar trick of trusts, and will 
 last for a very short period of time, unless the 
 board manifests a disposition to consider the merits 
 of the material of competing contractors. The 
 ring will not abandon its struggle so easily. It 
 is powerful, uniting in its behalf the combined 
 efforts of politicians of all parties, who are con- 
 nected with the asphalt corporations as stockholders 
 and officers. The Board of Local Improvements 
 
i82 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 not long since made the announcement that it was 
 preparing to levy special assessments during the 
 coming year to the amount of $10,000,000. The 
 people may weep and protest, while the contractor 
 smiles and urges. 
 
 The one department of the city government, 
 unsurpassed by any of its kind in the world, is 
 the Fire Department. The officers and men are of 
 the best material, of the highest courage, and serve 
 under the strictest discipline. They are fire fight- 
 ers, not politicians. Their chief is a man of 
 independence of character, honest, taciturn, a strict 
 disciplinarian — a general in command of a corps 
 of which he is justly proud. He tolerates no 
 political interference with his men. In this respect, 
 particularly, he is, always was, and always will 
 be sustained by the entire community. Any at- 
 tempted management of the department which 
 would tend to lessen its efficiency meets with the 
 chief's stern resistance. Aside from his own moral 
 and physical courage, his admirable sense of duty, 
 and the fact that the public honor him and sup- 
 port him, he has the powerful assistance of the 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 183 
 
 board of underwriters in any case of damaging 
 intermeddling with his command. Knowing his 
 worth and the merits of his department that inter- 
 meddhng would bring, instantly, a threat of the 
 rise in insurance rates from this board, a threat 
 which would touch the pockets of many property 
 owners, and consequently one which would solidify 
 them in support of the chief. He shares with 
 his men the dangers of their calling. The gallant 
 men, who during the past year lost their lives in 
 saving the property and lives of others, testified 
 by their sacrifice to the hazardous nature of that 
 calling. A recital of the heroic deeds of those 
 men would not be surpassed by the stories of 
 gallantry in the field of battle with which the 
 pages of American history are replete. While 
 Dennis J. Swenie's strength holds out he will com- 
 mand his famous batallions to his own honor, and 
 to that of the city of which he is so faithful and 
 loyal a citizen. 
 
 Even the possibility of his being supplanted in 
 his command, which appeared recently in the failure 
 to reappoint him at the first opportunity afforded 
 
i84 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the ]\Iayor, aroused the people to a united protest, 
 which, indications prove, was timely and effective. 
 The omission to send his name to the council with 
 the first of the Mayor's appointees, may have 
 been, as it was claimed- "accidental," but it is 
 nevertheless the belief that that omission was in 
 the nature of a test of public opinion. If so, the 
 power of public opinion retained him in command, 
 despite political purpose to the contrary. 
 
 With the exception of this department all the 
 others of the city are merely run on political lines, 
 as adjuncts of the political party in power, not- 
 withstanding the civil service law. The abuses of 
 that law may become fewer in number, not 
 through any merit of the present board, but be- 
 cause it has about exhausted itself in filling all 
 the offices with men of one political faith by 
 means already explained. 
 
 The departments of the County government 
 under a feeble civil service law, different from that 
 applicable to the city, are conducted in the same 
 manner as those of the city for the benefit of 
 machine politicians and their regiments of ward 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 185 
 
 and township workers. Tlicy arc as corruptly 
 managed as those of the city government. 
 
 The institutions at Dunning for the insane and 
 the poor, are generally managed by ward pol- 
 ticians, whose appointments are in the nature of 
 a reward for party services, or rather, services to 
 some particular boss. Recent reports of grand 
 juries note some improvement in their conduct. 
 On the whole, however, they are regarded in the 
 nature of spoils by the ring of party loafers, 
 whose views of government consist, mainly, in 
 doing the greatest good to the greatest number of 
 the ring. 
 
 The traffic in dead bodies, or "cadavers" goes 
 on, as it did when exposure came about a year 
 ago through detected shipments to the State of 
 Missouri for the use of a medical college in one 
 of the towns of that state. These pauper dead 
 "escape," in the language of the employes, from 
 the "killer" ward in which they are stored, a place 
 selected to lay out a corpse suited for the dissect- 
 ing table. It has been a matter of more than 
 rumor and given currency by the press, that sub- 
 
i86 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, 
 
 jects for the dissecting table are selected before 
 the breath has left their bodies. This statement 
 finds more or less verification in the disclosures 
 of the Missouri case before alluded to. 
 
 Contractors for county supplies pay a percent- 
 age of their prices to a county ring, and, conse- 
 quently, a poorer quality of food, fuel and medi- 
 cines, is furnished to these institutions than the 
 contracts call for, which cost the contractor an 
 additional sum by way of boodle to obtain them. 
 
 The sheriff's ofifice has had a standing shame 
 for many years in the cost of dieting prisoners. 
 The county board allows the sheriff for dieting, 
 twenty-five cents a day for each prisoner confined 
 in the county jail. The cost of a day's dieting is 
 estimated not to exceed ten cents, according to 
 the greed of the sheriff. From this one source 
 alone the sheriff's office is regarded as one of the 
 most lucrative offices in the county. The excess 
 above the actual cost is clear profit to the sheriff. 
 
 Some of the bailiffs of the courts have been 
 discovered within the past year as jury bribers, 
 willing to take any side offering the most lucrative 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 187 
 
 terms. The principal in this disreputable business 
 fled, and now an unseemly quarrel is raging be- 
 tween the city's detective department, and the sher- 
 iff's and state attorney's office as to which was to 
 blame for that escape. 
 
 The judges of the Courts of Cook County are 
 men of integrity. Some are able jurists, but of 
 late years the standard for judicial qualifications 
 has been, through party machine nominations, con- 
 siderably lowered. These judges are charged by 
 the law with some duties the nature of which is 
 purely political. Thus, the selection of justices of 
 the peace for the city, the poor man's court, is 
 confided to them. No scandals, so far, have at- 
 tended the exercise of this duty, but their selec- 
 tions have not, as a general rule, earned the 
 confidence of the people. '"]. P." means nowadays 
 one who will give judgment for the plaintiff. The 
 evil practices, the frauds and swindles, which have 
 their origin in the system now prevailing for the 
 conduct of justice courts, has given rise to strenu- 
 ous efforts to reform them by state legislation. This 
 will ultimately be accomplished. While the mem- 
 
i88 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 bers from the rural districts, in each recurring state 
 legislature, are difficult to manage, in the one ses- 
 sion of their term in the lower house in matters af- 
 fecting a large city, nevertheless, when fully in- 
 formed, they have granted such remedial legislation 
 to Chicago for which its civic bodies have made timely 
 application. 
 
 A new revenue law has just gone into opera- 
 tion, designed to abolish the inequalities of taxation 
 which grew up and were fraudulently fostered un- 
 der the repealed law. What its effect will be it 
 is difficult to predict. The personal property hold- 
 ers, those with long lines of stocks, bonds, valu- 
 able house furnishings, large bank accounts, and 
 concealed wealth, are very likely to feel unkindly 
 towards the stringent provisions of this law. They 
 have been evading their just share of taxation for 
 years. They are today the most ignorant of the 
 many people calling at the assessor's office to make 
 out and verify under oath their respective sched- 
 ules, simply because it is so many years since they 
 were called upon to pay a personal property tax, 
 that they have forgotten all about the form. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. i8q 
 
 The holders of large real estate interests, who, 
 for years, have been paying assessors to exempt 
 them from assessment, or reduce their valuations, 
 are, also, most probably confronted with the im- 
 possibility of escape from paying their proper share 
 of general taxes. This iniquitous system has been 
 denounced in the press for years. A year ago 
 a town assessor was convicted of the offense, and 
 heavily fined by the court. The tax evaders are 
 as vicious a class in a community as are sneak 
 thieves. Their payment to assessors to low^er their 
 valuations is the worst species of corruption. The 
 payrolls of the town assessors present the most 
 consipcuous instances of corruption to be found in 
 any department of the county, or city, govern- 
 ment. Many men are carried on their pay rolls 
 and paid from five to ten dollars per day who 
 never do one moment's work in the making of the 
 assessment. They are simply being nursed for 
 political purposes. In one of the wealthiest towns 
 a payroll fell under the writer's observation, which 
 showed a clear steal of $2,200 for a period of tw^o 
 weeks only. These officials designated a personal 
 
igo Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 friend to whom all money was paid. One-fourth 
 of these payments were handed over to the "solic- 
 itor" who brought in the "business," one-fourth to 
 the "friend," and the remaining one-half ' went to 
 the assessor. Men in high station in national and 
 state councils, state and national committeemen, city 
 and county officers, lawyers, politicians and sport- 
 ing men were engaged in this business of boodling, 
 throwing upon the owners of small real estate in- 
 terests more than their fair share of the burdens 
 of taxation. In an address delivered in this city 
 by an ex-President of the United States, he said 
 that as Lincoln had declared this country could 
 not exist half slave and half free, so he declared 
 "it could not exist half taxed and half free" from 
 taxation, that the sin of tax evasion was a new 
 danger to the integrity of the Republic and that its 
 evil lay in the "evasion of Just taxation by the 
 rich, and the consequent thrusting of an extra 
 burden on the poor." The corporations engaged 
 in the manufacture of gas, in the management 
 of traction companies, of live stock exchanges, of 
 packing companies, railroads, steel companies, sleep- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 191 
 
 ing car builders and merchants owning large 
 landed properties, have had their agents regularly 
 employed in procuring a reduction of their valua- 
 tions for assessment, who were nothing more nor 
 less than bribers. Whether these crimes will be 
 as freely attempted under the new law remains 
 to be developed, but some of the distributors of 
 personal property schedules are again playing their 
 old trick of taking money from the poor under 
 promise of returning them as non-holders of tax- 
 able personal property. An arrest of one of these. 
 robbers, who had accepted one dollar from each 
 of a number of women has been made. The 
 men elected as assessors and as members of the 
 board of review are men of good character and 
 able judgment. The only indication of danger is 
 that a political boss who has lived and thrived at 
 the public crib and whose political methods have 
 always been unscrupulous has been appointed chief 
 clerk of the board of review. His salary is large 
 enough to keep him out of temptation, if he has 
 not forgotten the ways of the righteous. He was 
 an expert "adjuster" in politics. In assessments 
 
192 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the "adjuster's" occupation should now be gone. 
 The difficulty lies in teaching an old adjuster new 
 tricks. The old system of assessment for general 
 taxation was denounced by an official of the county 
 as "nothing more nor less than a gigantic legal- 
 ized swindle, reeking in corruption, a harbor for 
 'grafters,' 'petty thieves,' and' sharks,' and an 
 enormous, unnecessary and galling burden on the 
 tax payers, the expense of which has no justifica- 
 tion in reason and should have none in law." 
 
 The new system abolishes but one of the evils 
 of the old. In place of town assessors, a board 
 of five assessors is established whose work is sub- 
 ject to review by another composed of three mem- 
 bers. Their labors are, in turn, passed upon by the 
 State Board of Equalization, before which for 
 years railroads and other corporations have had 
 their adjusters, agents or brokers, and before which 
 they will continue to appear and accomplish, as 
 they always have accomplished, the placing of the 
 lowest possible valuations upon railroad proper- 
 ties, and a reduction of capital stock valuations. 
 The board of assessors now values all the real estate 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum, 193 
 
 in Cook county in place of the assessors in the sep- 
 arate towns within the county. 
 
 These towns, six of which are wholly within 
 the city limits, are, through their officials, plun- 
 derers of the public, robbing the funds of the 
 towns by increasing their salaries out of all pro- 
 portion to the services they are required to render, 
 and which could well be dispensed with to the 
 greatest advantage of the people. In the year 1898 
 they cost the treasury $395,411.55. Absolutely noth- 
 ing is apparent as the result of this looting of pub- 
 lic funds. They occupy, in the business parts of 
 the city, expensive offices, which are open for pub- 
 lic use not to exceed four months in the year, 
 and afford, for the remaining months, club accom- 
 modations for the hangers on of the political 
 crooks who manage party affairs. Card playing 
 and gambling are their principal occupations. In 
 the division of the proceeds of the robbery, the 
 justices of the peace participate. They are, by vir- 
 tue of their offices, members of the town board. 
 Their services are not worth ten dollars per annum, 
 but they receive compensation ranging from _ $200 
 to $500 per annum. 
 
194 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 As illustrating the tendency of these town boards, 
 from which the assessment of property for tax- 
 ation has now been taken away, the following are 
 the valuations of real estate and personal prop- 
 erty for the past three years as equalized by the 
 state board. The foundation for the assessments 
 was laid by the town assessors. It will be observed 
 that, notwithstanding the increase in population, the 
 value of real estate and personal property has been 
 steadily declining. The decline is a measure of the 
 boodling propensities of the assessors. Their per- 
 centage of award "no fellah can find out." 
 
 VALUATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT.' 
 1896. 1897. 1898. 
 Real estate. ..$195,684,875 $184,632,905 $178,801,172 
 Personal prop- 
 erty 34-959.299 33.594-167 29,601,393 
 
 Population, 
 
 school census 1,616,635 1,851,588 
 
 The value of the taxable real estate in Chicago, 
 according to these figures, decreased in two years 
 $18,883,703, and the value of taxable personal prop- 
 erty $5,357,906. During the same period the pop- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 195 
 
 Illation increased 234,953. As wealth and popula- 
 tion increase in Chicago, values of property de- 
 cline. At ten per cent of its cash value, which is 
 the basis adopted by assessors for years for taxa- 
 tion value, taxable real estate in Chicago is, in 
 round numbers worth $1,788,000,000. 
 
 It is impossible to average the per cent paid for 
 reductions in valuations to the assessors. Of the 
 eighteen millions in reduced valuations in 1898, 
 as compared with 1896, it is safe to say five mil- 
 lions were purchased. As the rate of taxation was 
 between nine and ten dollars on one hundred dol- 
 lars the amount of taxes paid by those who should 
 not have paid them was $500,000. The assessors 
 were "not working for their health," but for about 
 fifty per cent of the taxes saved to their princi- 
 pals, with the aid of the friend and the agent 
 who brought the business, or say about $250,000 of 
 "graft." 
 
 The coroner's ofiice is also one which not in- 
 frequently gives rise to scandals. There are open 
 charges made that some of the juries, called by 
 that official, have found exonerating, instead of 
 
196 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 incriminating, verdicts for a money consideration in 
 the division of which the office participated. An 
 unseemly quarrel between the coroner and the 
 police revealed the fact that both have favorite 
 undertakers to whom the bodies of those meeting 
 sudden death from accident, or otherwise, are 
 taken. In a dispute as to which should control 
 a corpse a most painful truth became public that 
 it was carted about from one undertaking estab- 
 lishment to another, and that even the law was 
 invoked to obtain possession of it by means of a writ 
 of replevin. 
 
 The office of the recorder of deeds is one of the 
 most important in the county aflfairs. Generally 
 speaking it is well conducted, although its records 
 are not as presentable to the eye as are the 
 books of a first-class mercantile firm. Female 
 labor is employed mostly in recording, i. e., spread- 
 ing an instrument at large upon the records, while 
 male labor keeps up the tract books, indices, etc. 
 The employes of both sexes are favorites of po- 
 litical bosses. The abstract branch of the business 
 of this office is a sublime failure For years it 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 197 
 
 has cost the county a large sum of money to make 
 good the deficiency — expenses largely exceeding earn- 
 ings. Its abstracts cannot compete with those of 
 private corporations, which employ experts in that 
 business, and pay them in proportion to their 
 ability, merit alone being their recommendation. 
 The abstract makers employed by the county are 
 shiftless and incompetent. The Torrens system, or 
 the registration of titles, will, in time, but not for 
 many years to come, supersede the abstract system, 
 but not until the public shall have gained more 
 confidence in its merits than it has yet acquired in 
 recorder's abstracts of title. 
 
 It was not the purpose of these pages to pursue 
 inquiry into the corruption existing in both the mu- 
 nicipal and county governments. The primary in- 
 tent was to refer to the vices and crimes which 
 prevail by reason principally of police partnership 
 in their joint proceeds. Both governments are cor- 
 rupt, and appear to be so because the people con- 
 sent they shall be corrupt. The lessons the pub- 
 lic learn from day to day, through the columns 
 of the press, are forgotten. When election day 
 
igS Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 approaches a revival of the facts through the 
 press is then charged to pohtical trickery, and its 
 charges of maladministration are disregarded as 
 being invented for party purposes. The press 
 condemns while the evils are prominent, then it 
 condones, and becomes the subservient and trucu- 
 lent supporter of the men who permitted vice and 
 debauchery to attain its stalwart growth. The 
 people believe there is a trust press, banded to- 
 gether to obtain favors through school leases, bank 
 deposits of public funds and personal appoint- 
 ments in return for services to be rendered their 
 municipal benefactors. The only non-member of 
 the trust is the organ of the street car corpora- 
 tions and such exposes of villainy as it may pre- 
 sent are set down as means to an end — the effort 
 to obtain public privileges without compensation to 
 the city. Newspapers, therefore, in municipal af- 
 fairs no longer lead public opinion. They cannot 
 again become its leaders until they free themselves 
 from the suspicion of conserving their own inter- 
 ests by the sacrifice of those of the public. The 
 greatest of them delivered but feeble blows during 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 199 
 
 the recent mayoralty campaign, while the lighter 
 weights, who were fighting for a candidate for re- 
 newed honors, had been for two years most un- 
 mercifully pounding him for his persistent assist- 
 ance rendered to the vicious classes, in their indul- 
 gence in crime and debauchery. 
 
 The various civic societies formed for the im- 
 provement of municipal government, pay attention 
 solely to matters removed from the insidious and 
 ceaseless advances of crime, close their eyes to evi- 
 dences of disease apparent on the body politic, and 
 merely dream of higher ideals. They leave to one 
 society the task of the suppression of vice. They 
 give to it neither sympathy nor pecuniary assist- 
 ance. It begs its way in meetings of its sympa- 
 thizers, warns the community of the prevalence of 
 crime and indecency, but the community rushes on 
 in the business struggles of the day from year to 
 year, trusting — as it always has trusted — in its pub- 
 lic servants for the full performance of their sworn 
 duties — a trust so constantly violated that munic- 
 ipal government has become merely the synonym 
 pf the rule of the criminal classes. 
 
200 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 A special session of the Illinois Legislature was 
 called by the Governor in 1897. Among the sub- 
 jects included in the call was one suggesting the 
 passage of an act "to establish boards providing 
 for non-partisan police in all cities of the State 
 containing over 100,000 inhabitants." Pursuant to 
 the recommendations of the executive's message, a 
 resolution was passed by the Senate for the ap- 
 pointment of a committee of seven members of that 
 body, which recited the recommendation of the 
 Governor; that a bill had been introduced pro- 
 viding for the establishment of non-partisan police 
 boards in all cities containing the necessary popu- 
 lation ; that charges and scandals had arisen in 
 regard to the management of the police force in 
 Chicago, and that the committee be clothed "with 
 full power to act" and to investigate "fully the sub- 
 ject" and report its findings as early as possible to 
 the Senate at the special session. 
 
 The committee consisted of one people's party, 
 one democratic senator and five republican sena- 
 tors. From the moment of its selection it was 
 branded as a partisan committee, appointed not so 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 201 
 
 much to obtain information which would enable 
 an unbiased judgment to be formed upon the 
 merits of the proposed bill as to accumulate po- 
 liticaJ capital for the use of the republican party. 
 The committee proceeded with its investigation, 
 and on February loth, 1898, submitted its report, 
 which was adopted February 15th, 1898, by a vote 
 of thirty-three republicans and one democrat, eight 
 democrats voting in the negative. The only dem- 
 ocrat voting in the affirmative was a member of the 
 reporting committee. 
 
 On the last day of the special session, no legis- 
 lation having been enacted on the subject of the 
 proposed bill, a resolution was introduced pro- 
 viding for a continuance of the committee, which 
 recited that it had "unearthed a most deplorable 
 state of affairs in the management and control of 
 the police force of Chicago," and that "the most fla- 
 grant violations of the civil service law have been 
 brazenly practiced by those in authority in control 
 of that police force." Nothing resulted from the 
 latter resolution continuing the committee. 
 
 The report covered the investigations of the 
 
202 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 committee into the operations of the civil service 
 law, and the manner of its enforcement, finding 
 that it was a plaything in the hands of the party 
 then in power, and an object of constant and 
 premeditated attack. It also found the grossest 
 abuses in the management of the police pension 
 fund and in the workings of the police force as 
 an organization. That crime was protected and 
 lewdness tolerated by it, and that in fact it was 
 a powerful ally of the criminal classes, and prac- 
 tically made an unofficial livelihood off unfortunate 
 women of the town, thieves and their fences, gam- 
 bling resorts and their keepers, and the patrons 
 and keepers of the all night saloons. It found the 
 Chief of Police was cognizant of the facts, and 
 yet took no steps to correct them. That Chief 
 from whose testimony quotations appear in these 
 pages, was re-appointed to command the police 
 force for the next two years. 
 
 The findings of this committee made but little, 
 if any, impression upon the public mind. There 
 were no revelations as to the condition of crim- 
 inal affairs, and the relations of the police there- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 203 
 
 with, which were new to the people, with the pos- 
 sible exception, perhaps, that it was not known 
 how utterly inefficient and irresponsible the Chief 
 of Police was. From that moment every news- 
 paper has, if not demanded, at least suggested his 
 removal from office. In this respect it but voices 
 the sentiments of the entire community. It is a 
 paradox why, in the face of this public feeling, a 
 majority of the people supported for re-election the 
 staunch friend of the dishonored head of the police 
 force, unless upon the hypothesis that he would 
 not continue to be a part of the new adminis- 
 tration. If so, the hypothesis soon failed. The 
 Mayor thought he would "hold him for a while." 
 
 The lesson to be learned from the failure of 
 this committee's report to attract public attention 
 to the prevalence of criminality and obscenity in 
 Chicago as fostered by the police force is this, 
 that an investigation concerning the methods of 
 government of a city administration controlled by 
 the Democratic party, without a kindred investiga- 
 tion of the methods of a county administration 
 controlled by the Republican party is too partisan 
 
204 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 to suit the sense of fair play and of justice enter- 
 tained by every American citizen. It matters not 
 that the order for the investigation had reference 
 only to the passage of legislation for the regula- 
 tion of the police force in cities of a certain popu- 
 lation, and that, therefore, the scope of the inquiry 
 was limited by the terms of the order. Perhaps 
 it was as broad as it could have been made, un- 
 der the governor's call, which, by the provisions 
 of the constitution fixed the subjects upon which 
 only legislation could be enacted in special session. 
 Either the call should have been broader, or this 
 particular subject matter should have been omitted 
 from it, and left for the regular session's con- 
 sideration. Then all matters pertaining to the man- 
 ner of conducting both city and county affairs 
 could have been investigated free from the delimi- 
 tations of an executive call. Nevertheless, the fact 
 remains that the report of the Berry Committee, 
 as it was called, is a stinging indictment against 
 the police force of Chicago, which sooner or later 
 must be tried at the bar of public opinion. It 
 will, in a measure, have blazed the way for a 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 205 
 
 new committee of inquiry, whose sittings have 
 just commenced, in so far as the poHce depart- 
 ment is concerned. 
 
 The Baxter Committee was formed under a 
 resolution of the Senate. It consists of five re- 
 pubHcan and two democratic senators. The reso- 
 kition refers "to the management and control of 
 the police affairs" of Chicago, and "the conduct of 
 the municipal government thereof, in reference to 
 the expenditure of public money and the enforce- 
 ment of the law in its several departments." This 
 language would limit the scope of the committee's 
 inquiry to city affairs only. The resolution, how- 
 ever, closes with words granting authority to the 
 committee for a "full, complete and perfect inves- 
 tigation of any and all the said subject matters 
 herein named, and such other subjects as they may 
 deem wise and prudent to investigate in the in- 
 terests of good government." 
 
 If this committee is wise it will not confine 
 its efforts to ascertaining how the city govern- 
 ment is managed. It will command public ap- 
 proval if it will extend its inquiries into the affairs 
 
2o6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 of the county government as well. This the com- 
 munity will demand ; with less it will not be sat- 
 isfied. The great mass of both parties is con- 
 cerned with what will be of the most advantage 
 to good government, not with what will be to the 
 greatest advantage of either party. Hence, if this in- 
 quiry has in view a partisan purpose its sessions will 
 merely reproduce tales of the street familiar to the 
 ears of the people, and with which the legislature has 
 been familiar for a decade. To associate these crimes 
 and debaucheries with one administration will in 
 one respect be unfair, because they have progressed 
 under other administrations as well, but it can 
 emphasize the one great and astonishing truth, 
 that never in the history of the city has a police 
 force been permitted to become the bed-fellow of 
 these monstrous evils, to protect them and contrib- 
 ute to their overwhelming power, in such a shame- 
 less, openhanded and defiant manner as it has 
 in the past two years, as it is still permitted to 
 do, and as it will probably be permitted to do, for 
 the next two years. 
 
 That committee will find nothing in these pages 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 207 
 
 unknown to the observing citizen. The great mass 
 of the people read and forget. These evils are 
 hinted at herein, and gathered together. They may 
 impress those who are unaccustomed to taking 
 notes of passing events. That the growth of crime 
 in Chicago, and the prevalence of bestiality is not 
 generally believed by the majority of its people is 
 a self-evident proposition. It would be an insult 
 to their intelligence and virtue to assert they 
 knew the facts. It is not a criticism of their in- 
 telligence to say they do not, know the facts. It is 
 rather to their credit that in the pursuit of their 
 business, the care of their homes, and the cultiva- 
 tion of their morals, they judge the great com- 
 munity in which they live by their own standard, 
 and firmly believe that as they know themselves to 
 be good citizens, they believe their fellow men are 
 likewise good citizens. While they rest in this 
 conviction vice is eternally at work, immorality 
 undermining and crime attacking the power of 
 government, capturing one and then the other 
 of its strongholds, until today the criminal classes 
 constitute the balance of power in every city elec- 
 
2o8 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 tion, and can handle it as they may choose, by the 
 mere concentration of the voting strength of the 
 keepers of eight thousand saloons and their hang- 
 ers on. 
 
 The appointment of a comptroller and corpora- 
 tion counsel acceptable to the public, both being 
 men of sterling integrity, and known ability, is 
 merely a partial promise of reform. The new 
 comptroller is a worthy successor to the deceased 
 Waller, while the new corporation counsel takes 
 his office, with a reputation for probity and legal 
 acumen which are guaranties that neither will be 
 used in an attack upon the people's laws. But 
 the police department and the public works de- 
 partment are still under the same direction. They 
 give no promise of departing from the protection 
 of criminals on the one hand, nor the illegal let- 
 ting of contracts on the other. Both of these are 
 inviting fields for the Baxter committee to explore, 
 and when they shall have thoroughly done so, if 
 they shall turn their attention to county affairs, 
 they will probably find pastures just as prolific of 
 the rankest of weeds. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 209 
 
 The Baxter committee began its hearings on 
 the 1 8th day of May, 1899. I^s opening witness 
 confirmed the truth of many of the facts set forth 
 in these pages. He paid protection money for 
 keeping a gambHng house, until the demands for 
 a contribution to a campaign fund became too ex- 
 acting, when he was "told he had better quit." 
 "As an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of 
 cure," said the witness ; 'T quit." 
 
 He testified that gambling was going on every- 
 where a few days before the committee began its 
 w'ork, named a number of the resorts, and related 
 some of his losses in a few of the games in which, 
 although a professional gambler, he was "skinned." 
 
 Officers were found in them, and protection to 
 the games openly boasted of. The club organiza- 
 tion, it develops, is the gambling idea of evading 
 the laws, the theory being that none can gamble 
 unless they are members. The practice seems, 
 however, to be that every man is a member who 
 will not squeal. Houses of disrepute were visited, 
 and the indecencies alluded to in foregoing pages 
 witnessed by the sergeant-at-arms of the commit- 
 
2i6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 tee. His testimony in this respect was too real- 
 istic for publication. 
 
 A member of a recent grand jury submitted a 
 list of all night saloons he had visited, and found 
 doing business, between the hours of one and five 
 o'clock in the morning. The list contained the 
 names of forty-six saloons, located on eleven dif- 
 ferent streets. His information was not as start- 
 ling as was the fact that his joint feat of pedes- 
 trianism and absorption of drink is, perhaps, un- 
 equalled in sporting or drinking records. He drank 
 in each of the places visited — total drinks, forty- 
 six in four hours. Length of route covered four 
 miles ; width, about one-half mile ; square miles trav- 
 ersed — two! Can any sprinter, carrying the same 
 weights, surpass this achievement? 
 
 The witnesses so far called before the commit- 
 tee are mostly from the detective force, and from 
 among lodging house keepers. Their replies are 
 evasive, and when not so, their memories are 
 clouded. All they had ever known of the subjects 
 upon which they are interrogated had fled from 
 their recollection. "I don't remember," avoided many 
 a pitfall. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 211 
 
 The methods of the committee do not impress 
 an observer as having been the result of much con- 
 sultation or careful preparation for their work. 
 There is an apparent indifference on the part of 
 some of its members to reaching results, or to 
 remaining steadily in the pursuit of the purposes 
 for which it was organized. Political influences 
 are undoubte'dly at work to shorten the lines of 
 its inquiry, and the length of the days it shall 
 devote to their development. This investigation is 
 not wanted by local politicians of either party. It 
 rests with the committee alone to determine whether 
 its work shall be well done or not. To maintain 
 the dignity of the State is their first duty, let their 
 investigation reveal what it may and strike whom 
 it will. 
 
 A people who volurltarily submit to taxation 
 for the construction of such a stupendous im- , 
 provement as the drainage canal costing $28,000,- 
 000 , who apply their surplus water fund to the 
 building of a complete system of intercepting sew- 
 ers, who compel the abolition of the murderous 
 grade crossings, through the elevation of railway 
 
212 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 tracks, all for the improvement of the sanitary 
 condition and safety of their homes and lives, are 
 entitled to the best protection the state can give 
 them against the domination of criminals and de- 
 bauchees, even if the management of its police 
 force should thereby be placed in the hands of 
 state agencies, or under some other supervision 
 which will compel it to dissolve its relations with 
 vice, and prevent it from utilization for f)oliti- 
 cal ends. 
 
 Submission to the exactions of trusts, in the 
 shape of telephone and gas companies, does not 
 require them to submit to a trust of criminals 
 and police officials. The element to which it is 
 estimated $70,000,000 is annually paid in Chi- 
 cago for its drink bill, must be so regulated, as 
 that it shall cease to furnish the balance of power 
 in elections, to exercise a baneful influence over 
 the police, to ruin the young, to encourage de- 
 bauchery, and breed criminals. A municipal gov- 
 ernment that cannot, or will not, control these vi- 
 cious agencies, will ultimately be condemned by a 
 public-spirited people, if they can be, as they sooner 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 213 
 
 or later will be, persuaded to devote a few hours, 
 taken from their business or pleasure, to a vigorous 
 uprooting of a system under which such iniquities 
 can be born and develop to such menacing pro- 
 portions. There must be an awakening to the fact that 
 "They say this town is full of cozenage, 
 As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye. 
 Dark-working sorcerers that change the mind, 
 Soul-killing witches that deform the body, 
 pisguised cheaters, prating mountebanks, 
 And many such like liberties of sin." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 From the daily press a few accounts are culled, 
 and added by way of appendix, as to the perpetra- 
 tion of crime and the habits of the police in connec- 
 tion with it. 
 
 The Baxter Committee unearthed the following 
 account of the degree of protection afforded to 
 citizens by police officers, and the easy-going in- 
 difference with which the Chief of Police regarded 
 the affair when it was first called to his atten- 
 tion. 
 
 On the night of March 3d ult. a woman re- 
 turning from a drug store was stopped by two 
 detectives and charged with soliciting men upon 
 the streets. She denied this offensive charge, told 
 where she had been and where returning, and 
 showed a bottle of medicine she carried as con- 
 firmatory of her statements. This happened about 
 8 45 o'clock. She was then within twenty feet 
 of the entrance to the house in which she lived. 
 
2i6 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 Notwithstanding her denial, the officers went to 
 the house with her. One of them then said, "I'm 
 an officer; open this door!" Another woman with 
 whom the arrested woman was boarding asked, 
 "What is the matter?" One of the officers rephed, 
 "This woman was on the street sohciting," to 
 which the boarding house keeper rephed, "You are 
 mistaken." "Well," said the officer, "if you want 
 to stop her give me $15," and the reply was, "She 
 has no money to give you or to any one." The 
 boarding house keeper, thinking the men were com- 
 mon thieves, then whispered to the accused woman, 
 "Go with them and I will follow you." The offi- 
 cers took their woman to a corner and into a saloon, 
 where they compelled her to give up a pair of 
 diamond earrings for ten dollars which were handed 
 to her by the bartender. The boarding house 
 woman followed, and prevented the detectives from 
 obtaining the ten dollars, but finally they grabbed 
 the bill from the accused woman's hands. The 
 women were then released and returned to their 
 home. Taking a sealskin sack with them they re- 
 turned to the saloon, and were handed the diamond 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 217 
 
 earrings, but not without leaving the sack in their 
 stead. The women saw the detectives return, and 
 drink at the bar, paying for their tipple with the 
 money they had snatched from the hand of the one. 
 
 While the parties were wrangling on the street 
 a police sergeant and two officers in uniform passed. 
 One of the women cried out, "Here are two men 
 robbing this woman !" The sergeant replied, after 
 observation, "I have got nothing to do with this." 
 One of the women asked, "What are you for?" 
 Then the sergeant, having discovered the men were 
 detectives, said to one of them, "They are all right. 
 Get w^hat you can." The sergeant then left. 
 
 The women now demanded that the detect- 
 ives show their badges of authority. They were 
 shown. Demand was then made that a patrol 
 wagon should be called. This w^as denied, but 
 accidentally one came along the street returning 
 to its station. When the accused woman caught 
 sight of it she fainted. The boarding house keeper 
 raised such commotion that one of the detectives 
 said, "For God's sake, shut that woman's mouth 
 up or she will make us trouble!" They then 
 ran away. 
 
2i8 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The next day the boarding house woman called 
 on the Chief of Police and told the whole story. 
 He referred her to the Lieutenant at the station 
 of the precinct in which the indignity occurred. 
 To him the entire facts were given, and written 
 down by the desk sergeant. The men were there 
 identified. 
 
 On the following day one of the detectives 
 went to the women's house, accompanied by a 
 brother-in-law, whose wife was a personal friend 
 of the boarding house woman. The detective had 
 a copy of the woman's statement as she had 
 made it at the police station. He begged for 
 mercy, crying, "he had nothing to say for him- 
 self." He piteously pleaded he had a mother in 
 the hospital, a mother-in-law who was dying, and 
 three small children to support. Suggestions were 
 made, and the woman's feelings worked upon so 
 that she was induced to leave the city. 
 
 Meanwhile the boarding house keeper made a 
 statement at another police station, in which she 
 suppressed the facts as to the diamonds and the 
 money. She was asked to appear before the police 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 219 
 
 trial board, and refused. Thereupon the charges 
 against the detectives were dismissed. 
 
 It -developed before the Baxter Committee that 
 the Chief of Police had been told all the facts. The 
 papers got hold of an account of the affair, and 
 the Chief called upon the boarding house keeper. 
 In the course of his conversation, this woman try- 
 ing to protect the officers through her aroused sym- 
 pathy, was asked by the Chief, "What about those 
 diamond earrings and sealskin sack?" The woman 
 answered, "If you don't know, I don't." He then 
 asked, "Didn't you tell that to me?" She answered, 
 "If you can't remember, I can't." She was then 
 questioned by the Chief whether these officers were 
 begging her to quash the matter, whether they 
 were offering her money for that purpose, etc. 
 
 The Chief stated the reporters were hounding 
 him to death, when the woman asked him "why 
 he did not show her statement?" He replied it 
 was locked up, "if they want any information they 
 can get it from you." 
 
 One of the men is still a member of the de- 
 tective force. The other resigned and went into 
 
220 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 the saloon business, and appeared before the com- 
 mittee entering a partial denial of the woman's 
 story. The knowledge of the Chief of all the 
 facts was fully shown before the committee. Not- 
 withstanding this, he does not appear to have 
 taken any steps to keep the matter before the 
 trial board, or to institute any other proceed- 
 ings to bring these detectives to punishment. 
 
 This is not at all surprising in the face of the 
 fact that this officer is, as is shown in court pro- 
 ceedings, a veritable czar in his own estimation. 
 
 The following account is taken from the Chicago 
 Democrat of May 27th ult. A similar report of 
 the case is contained in the other dailies. 
 
 "Jndge Brentano held, this morning, that Chief 
 of Police K. did not have the power to have a 
 man restrained of his liberty at his (K.'s) request. 
 The decision was brought about on the hearing 
 of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed 
 by Attorney F. A. D. for the release of Edward 
 H., who was arrested last Monday morning at 
 Twenty-ninth and State streets on account of the 
 shooting of Officer James S., which resulted from 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 221 
 
 an attempt of a number of officers to enforce 
 the disarmament-of-colored-people policy of the Chief 
 of PoHce. 
 
 "The man had been confined in the county jail, 
 and the return of the sheriff, when the prisoner 
 was brought into court, read : 'Edward H. has been 
 detained in my custody at the request of J. K., 
 Chief of Police for the city of Chicago.' Judge 
 Brentano evinced great displeasure when he read 
 the return of the illegal detainment of the prisoner. 
 'A man,' said the court, 'cannot be held at the 
 simple request of K. or any other person. K.'s 
 word is not sufficient to keep any man in custody. 
 I won't tolerate any such actions, for if the man 
 was guilty of shooting an officer, or committing any 
 other crime, Mr. K. has had sufficient time and 
 knows how to take the proper steps to punish 
 the prisoner.' 
 
 " 'The court certainly would not allow this man 
 his liberty when he is under arrest and has not 
 been booked or complained against before a jus- 
 tice of the peace owing to the neglect perhaps of 
 such a high official as Mr. K.,' remarked the assist- 
 ant city prosecuting attorney. 
 
222 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 " 'I certainly would, regardless of whose neg- 
 lect it is,' said the court. 'The prisoner is dis- 
 charged.' 
 
 "No witnesses were heard, the prisoner being 
 discharged on the ground that it was shown in 
 the return of the sheriff that H. was simply being 
 detained to please Chief K. 
 
 "Attorney D. had witnesses in court to show 
 that the prisoner had been beaten and injured 
 by the police who arrested him, both before his 
 arrival at the Twenty-second street station and 
 after he was installed in a cell at that place. 
 
 "Prisoners who were in the station at the time 
 H. was taken there were in court to testify that 
 the officers who had charge of the prisoner beat 
 and struck him in such a' manner that they 
 thought H. would be killed. 
 
 "The prisoner's face and condition in court 
 were the best evidences of the treatment he 
 had received. 
 
 "Both of his eyes are closed, swollen and dis- 
 colored to such a degree that they stand out in 
 bold contrast to his own color, which is a dark 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 223 
 
 copper. Two gashes, each six inches long, on 
 the top and front of his head bear testimony to 
 the means said to have been used by the offi- 
 cers in carrying out their chief's new disarmament 
 poHcy. 
 
 "It is also alleged that the prisoner was confined 
 in a dungeon cell while he was in the custody of 
 the Twenty-second street police. 
 
 "After his discharge the injured man had to 
 be helped to the elevator by two of his friends 
 because of his injuries. The names of the officers 
 who assaulted the prisoner were not obtainable, 
 for the reason that the prisoner had not been 
 booked and the officer making the arrest had not 
 signed any complaint." 
 
 Two observations will arrest the attention of 
 the average reader. They must naturally occur 
 to his mind. First, What sort of a Sheriff is 
 he who will keep a man in jail, without a proper 
 commitment? Second, What kind of a lawyer must 
 he be who will suggest to a court the propriety 
 of depriving a man of his liberty, without due 
 process of law, at the mere request of such "a high 
 official" as the Chief of Police? 
 
224 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 The return of the Sheriff in this case to the 
 writ of habeas corpus should have been treated as 
 a contempt of court. 
 
 Pool rooms are operating as of yore. The Daily 
 News of May 27 ult. contains the following, viz. : 
 
 "The saloon of J. H. D. at E. and N. C. streets 
 was converted into a pool room yesterday after- 
 noon at the time the ticker began to record the 
 winning horses in the races at the various tracks 
 throughout the country. A dozen men assembled 
 in the barroom where the ticker was located and 
 placed bets, while a number of women sat in the 
 back rooms and also chanced their money. 
 
 "The women's wants were looked after by a 
 young man who answered to the name of 'Dude.' 
 After each race he carried them the slip printed 
 from the ticker showing the winners and handed 
 their money to those who had been lucky. Dur- 
 ing the interval between the races the schedule of 
 the next race was discussed by all who intended 
 to place money, and 'Dude' would come from the 
 rear room with a handful of bills to place on 
 some race by the women. 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 225 
 
 "On the inside money was passed over the bar 
 indiscriminately and a clerk was busy keeping 
 track of those who placed bets. From the con- 
 versation which passed between those in the bar- 
 room one might judge that he was in a gen- 
 uine poolroom, where the interference of police 
 was not to be feared. 
 
 "All the men present merely gave their initials 
 when they risked their money, and these were 
 carefully preserved on paper until the ticker de- 
 cided whether the money was lost or won. The 
 man who passed as 'Dude' had charge of the pools 
 apparently, and all the money which was placed 
 went through his hands. After taking it he would 
 call the initials of the man placing the bet and then 
 hand the money to the man behind the bar. 
 
 The ticker was presided over by a large, smooth- 
 faced, well-dressed man and anything which came 
 over the machine which was not a report on a 
 horse race was of no interest. The reports of the 
 score at the various ball games were soon shown 
 the waste basket, while the lists of the horses 
 which earned places were preserved and hung 
 
226 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 on hooks after they had been carefully inspected by 
 those present. 
 
 A number of stylishly dressed women were seen 
 to enter the place, and, according to informa- 
 tion furnished the Daily Nezvs, women have been 
 in the habit of visiting the D. saloon for some time 
 for the purpose of placing bets on the races. Two 
 young women came from the direction of L. S. 
 avenue about 4 o'clock and entered the place ap- 
 parently as though it was nothing new to them. 
 
 "The 'ladies' entrance' is on the E. street side. 
 The rooms for women are arranged in the east 
 half of the double-flat building on E. street, while 
 the saloon faces on C. street. 
 
 "]. H. D., who conducts the place, came in yes- 
 terday afternoon while the betting was at its 
 height, and, bedecked in diamonds, walked leis- 
 urely behind the bar and, picking up a Racing 
 Form, turned to the 'boys' and asked how 'things 
 were going.' He was told the winners in the races 
 which had been reported during his absence and 
 seemed pleased with what was told him. 
 
 "The saloon is known as 'D.'s O. P. C.,' and 
 has been conducted at this place for the past five 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 227 
 
 or six years. The license for the place is in the 
 name of Mrs. J. H. D. It is said that D. was 
 formerly in the saloon business here, but sold out 
 and went to New York, where he put on a vaude- 
 ville show and sunk several thousand dollars try- 
 ing to make it pay. He finally failed, it is said, 
 and came back to Chicago and reopened his saloon. 
 
 "At the Chicago avenue police station noth- 
 ing was known apparently of the gambling at 
 the D. saloon on the races. Capt. R. said that he 
 told a couple of his men some time ago to watch 
 the place, but he said they had reported nothing 
 irregular. The captain seemed surprised when he 
 heard of how affairs were, and Inspector H. was 
 apparently very indignant at the thought that any- 
 thing of the sort was going on in his district. He 
 at once gave the captain orders to send a couple 
 of men to the place and if anything was found to 
 be going on there to stop it." 
 
 The result of the visit of the Inspector's officers 
 is thus stated in the Tribune of May 28th ult. 
 Its headline is suggestive, in view of the particu- 
 lars given in the Daily Nezvs of the occurrences by 
 its reporter. 
 
228 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 "REPORT NO GAMBLING." 
 
 "A report that a poolroom was being conducted 
 in the saloon of J. H. D., E. and N. C. Streets, 
 was investigated yesterday by Detectives B. and R., 
 who visited the place at 3 p. m., and reported no 
 gambling existed there. It was said that during 
 Friday afternoon bets on the races were accepted 
 in the saloon and that men as well as women fre- 
 quented the place." 
 
 The newspapers contribute evidences of the ab- 
 sence of crime in Chicago, and of police operations 
 as follows, viz. : 
 
 From the Daily Nezvs May 27th ult. 
 
 "Officers from the Attrill street police station are 
 scouring the west side in an effort to apprehend 
 burglars who created havoc in the vicinity of 
 Humboldt Park boulevard and Western avenue dur- 
 ing the early morning hours of yesterday. Among 
 the residences visited by the night prowlers were 
 those of: (Here follows a list of eleven bur- 
 glaries. ) 
 
 "In addition burglaries at the following places 
 in the immediate neighborhood have been commit- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 229 
 
 ted within the last few days: (Here follows a list 
 of four burglaries.) 
 
 "One of the burglars rode from house to house 
 on a bicycle. Two revolvers dropped by the vis- 
 itors were found in the yard of the E. residence. 
 The territory sufifering the nightly raids is em- 
 braced in the suburb of Maplewood, and citizens 
 have armed themselves in their own defense, 
 asserting that police uniforms have not been seen 
 on the streets concerned for weeks." 
 
 From the Democrat May 27th ult. : 
 
 "Burglars forced an entrance into the store of 
 the Guarantee Clothing Company, State street, last 
 night and stole nearly $1,000 worth of goods. 
 
 "Apparently the thieves took their time, and the 
 police say they must have used a wagon in remov- 
 ing the goods. Persons living in the flats above 
 heard nothing unusual during the night, and the 
 police are unable to comprehend how the thieves 
 could remove the great amount of property v\^ithout 
 attracting attention. 
 
 "This morning a clerk opened the front door of 
 the store. It looked as though a small cyclone had 
 passed through the establishment." 
 
230 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 This burglary took place between two police sta- 
 tions, from neither of which it was far distant. 
 It is probable that if one officer had gone over 
 his beat just once that night, its perpetrators 
 would have been caught in the act. Some neigh- 
 boring saloon was, perhaps, more needful of police 
 protection! 
 
 Some tremendous effort is being made, however, 
 to suppress policy shops and clean out all night sa- 
 loons ! Witness the following, viz. : 
 
 From papers of May 27th ult. : 
 
 "Detectives D. and D. of Chief K.'s office raided 
 a policy shop in the basement of the building at 6 
 Washington street last night and destroyed the fix- 
 tures of the place and confiscated the sheets, records 
 and other paraphernalia. 
 
 "The shop was in a small room under the side- 
 walk and was reached through a barber shop. S. H., 
 the police say, was the agent in charge of the place, 
 and represented the O. R. & G. company of Fort 
 Erie, Canada. No arrests were made, but Chief K. 
 says the place will remain closed." 
 
 "Two hours after midnight Sergt. M. and Offi- 
 
Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 231 
 
 cers M., O'B., H. and F., from the Harrison street 
 police station, raided the C. L. saloon at State 
 street, arresting sixty inmates. The majority of 
 these were boys. There was one man with gray 
 hair and wrinkled face. 
 
 "Shortly before the police court convened at 9 
 o'clock the entire crowd \vas marched into Inspector 
 H.'s office and from there to the courtroom, where 
 the cases were disposed of by Justice M. Every 
 sort of a plea generally used in court was 
 brought into play by the defendants. Some 
 cases were dismissed, while other prisoners were 
 fined $25 and $50. The police claim about half of 
 those arrested were criminals. 
 
 "The arrests were made because of the large 
 number of complaints against the saloon." 
 
 The raid on the policy shop belongs to the 
 spasmodic line of operations of the police. Fifty 
 of them could be made if some mysterious reason 
 did not exist why they are not made. 
 
 The saloon referred to belongs to the all night 
 class, and is one of the most notorious of the kind. 
 It has been protected in the past, and still would 
 
232 Chicago, Satan's Sanctum. 
 
 be if it were not for the fact that "a large number 
 of complaints" have been made against it. These 
 are not new to the police. They have been made 
 before, but something must be done for appear- 
 ance sake Vv^hile the Baxter Committee continues 
 its probing! That this place was a resort for crim- 
 inals is not a recent discovery by the police. They 
 always knew it 
 
 To cull the press for proofs of the truth of the 
 charges made in the foregoing pages, would result, 
 in a few days, in the reproduction of a mass of 
 evidence on the total inefficiency of the police force. 
 Such as are here given are examples of the many 
 the scissors could find. 
 
 The reader can multiply them, in his mind, ten 
 fold in a week's time, and then reach a result far 
 short of the facts. 
 
The whole story of the alliance between the police, the 
 saloons iiiul the justices is told in the following cartoon taken 
 from the Daily News of June 23, lb99. 
 
 CAUGHT COMING AND GOING. 
 
 THE DIVEKEEPER (to Harrison street police officer)— 
 "I've got uiy dollar a head out of them. Now you can drive 
 them into court and give the justice his chance." 
 

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